Run girl run

I went for my first run in just over a month this morning. I’m not a fan of running and after running my first half marathon last year I had intended to continue running at least once a week but before I knew I was running once a month!
Finding little motivators is huge for me and my running. I have to run outdoors, I can’t handle the dreadmill! I look for pretty scenery and cute wildlife. This morning I was rewarded with seeing pelicans and 2 dolphins in the river! 

Walk the walk

A friend has recently purchased the new Fitbit Charge HR and his excitement and eagerness to walk everywhere just to track steps has inspired me to finally write my Fitbit review.

What is a Fitbit? A Fitbit is an activity tracker. It tracks your step and your sleep. Using the app you can also track your daily water intake and if you link to your myfitnesspal account you can also track your calories in and out. The new models have a built in heart rate monitor and some can even display your incoming calls or emails!

I have the Fitbit One which is nice and small and clips onto my bra. The Fitbit One was the second Fitbit to be released. The next release was the first wristband – Fitbit Flex and the new ones are the Fitbit Charge. To compare all the models click here https://www.fitbit.com/au/compare

Just keep swimming

I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to reference a Disney movie but Dory had the best advice for any of life’s challenges. Just keep swimming. Three simple words. They can mean so little or they can mean so very much. Just keep swimming.

Today they meant exactly that. I just had to keep on swimming. I don’t know why exactly but swimming is a huge weakness for me. I’m not scared of water but I always hated putting my head under water. I never had a traumatic water experience but there was always some fear in me. I trained hard last year and developed some basic skills and swam in my first triathlon. Well more like survived. And that’s why I’m pushing myself to do the triathlon next month. I want to do more than survive but I’m not committed to training.

Fish outta water…in water

My 8 week training for the corporate triathlon starts on Monday. I haven’t done any swimming since I completed the corporate triathlon in 2014. Which is a real shame because I had worked really hard to ‘learn’ to swim. It wasn’t that I couldn’t swim, I was just a weak swimmer. I had been that kid that was too scared to put their face in the water. And after 10 weeks of swimming lessons last year I had made it to the point where I would be able to survive the 400m swim in the river. And survive it I did!

Even if it was the most traumatic experience of my life! I was hyperventilating and the water was gross and I had to swim most of it survival backstroke because I couldn’t get my breathing right! So this year, as much as I don’t want to swim in the river again, I am up for the challenge to do more than just survive the swim. This year I am challenging myself to swim the whole 400m, no more survival backstroke. And I want to swim freestyle and breathe on both sides.

It was 38 degrees yesterday (thats 100 Fahrenheit for any Americans reading) so it was the perfect day to head down to the pools and get started with my swimming.

Post Christmas Blowout

The festive season is a hard time to stay in control of your eating habits and exercise regime. There are so many social gatherings that involve food and alcohol that it becomes hard not to loosen the reigns a bit. And really why wouldn’t you? It’s a fun time of year which should be enjoyed without constantly worrying about diet and exercise. Well that’s what I thought. I knew I was going to enjoy myself but I thought I was still going to be in control.

In the lead up to Christmas I had signed up for a mini Christmas challenge on Facebook with a few of my fellow Maxine’s Challengers. We just had to post our goals and a picture of our current weight. At the time I had only put on 2kg post challenge and thought a 4kg weight loss goal was easily within reach. I didn’t think the silly season would affect me that much, but it did. Because instead of losing 4kg I ended up gaining 4kg
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c25k

I first started running in April 2013. I had a few running buddies at work that kept trying to get me to run but I had never been big on cardio. But my attempts at weightloss weren’t working so I knew I needed to change things up. I knew my cardiovascular fitness was bad and I couldn’t even jog for a minute but I had no idea how to start. I know it sounds silly. It can’t be that hard to run. It’s just one foot in front of the other right? Well for me, I knew I wasn’t fit enough and needed to find something to guide me. So I hopped on Google and searched learn to run and that’s how I found this website http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/ and learnt how to go from couch to 5km in 2 months. Their program c25k is available as a paid app or there is a lite version as well. There are also other versions in the App Store.

The challenge of the 12 week challenge

I have just realised that I am addicted to 12 week challenges. It is 5 weeks since I completed the Maxine’s Challenge and in those 5 weeks I have struggled to eat clean and stay motivated to workout. And I don’t think I am the only challenger to go through this. Today is a Monday and it also seemed to be the day that a lot of challengers posted on Instagram that they were starting a new program or making changes to get back on track. Today I started a new 12 week program I signed up for on bodybuilding.com (there are so many programs to choose from and they’re free!) I felt excited and energized about starting a new program :)

I had enjoyed a week off when the challenge finished but knew I needed a program to follow. There was a maintenance program on the Maxine’s website so I decided to use that, in addition to the very popular Kayla Itsine’s Bikini Body Guide (BBG) which is another 12 week program. I have been following the BBG for 4 weeks now (I will review when I finish it) but I haven’t much progress yet which is mainly due to my eating habits but I also felt myself starting to lack in motivation. Which is why I started a new program today and because it is new and shiny I feel I feel like it is the best thing ever. And that’s what made me realise that I am addicted to 12 week challenges.

Go gadget go

Maybe it all started with watching inspector gadget when I was little but I can say that I am gadget girl. I’d like to think a gadget girl is different to a fad girl who follows the next hottest diet or workout but I’m sure it’s the same thing. I have this thought process at the back of my mind where I must think that if I get that gadget then I will be fitter or healthier or hotter. I know it’s not true but I do know that I tend to postpone things until I get ‘that’ gadget. For example years ago when my hubby was working at Rebel (an Australian sports store) I didn’t start exercising until I had a new pair of shoes and a polar heart rate monitor. Of course neither of these items meant I wouldn’t succeed if I didn’t have them.

In search of sleeping beauty

I have always been a girl who needs her beauty sleep. 8 hours was my absolute minimum but my average was usually 7.5hrs. When I was training for my half marathon I started doing early morning runs but it was only a couple of months ago during the Maxine’s Challenge that I finally made the switch to early morning training. They say it takes 21 days to form a new habit and I truly believe that. Every morning when my alarm went off I struggled to wake up but eventually I got used to it and stopped hitting snooze and started jumping out of bed when my alarm went off.

The things that helped me make the change and wake up early were:

• Motivational posts on Instagram and Pinterest
• Laying out my workout gear the night before
• Setting up custom alarms to make me get up
• Making it my routine; starting with twice a week and building from there
• Reminding myself that by the time I fell asleep again it would be time to wake up so it would be better to use that time training and have the night free to myself

Change begins at the end of your comfort zone

When my alarm went off this morning all I wanted to do was go back to sleep. But I know I prefer to get my exercise out of the way in the morning so I have more time after work to relax or fit in another workout if I want. I never used to train in the morning but halfway through Maxine’s’ Challenge I made the shift and loved how much time it gave me after work. They say it takes 21 days to make a new habit. I really struggled at first but I found that the more it became my new routine. It was hard work to make the change but I now believe it’s better to wake up and workout than to go back to sleep because really what is another hour of sleep really worth?

It still took quite a few minutes to convince myself to get out of my comfy bed and hit the gym but I just had to remind myself that by the time I would fall asleep again my alarm would probably go off so it was better to just it out of the way. And once I was at the gym I hit beast mode and had a great strength training session which got the endorphins pumping and put me in a great mood for the rest of the day!