And we’re off!

Monday, May 23, 2011 Permalink

It’s finally upon us. After weeks of preparations and discussions; and after binging on thousands upon thousands of calories of ‘foods-I-won’t-be-able-to-eat-once-I-start-dieting’ (or that could just be me), participants – such as myself – kicked off Michelle Bridges’ 12 Week Body Transformation challenge today.

100528 Prime Minister Julia Gillard fires the starter's gun at the Yirara College athletics carnivalI had planned to exercise before work. But once in bed last night I lay there and lay there and lay there and lay there. I contemplated getting up and doing something but stuck it out and sometime, after 1.30am but before 2am, I drifted off to sleep. When my alarm went off I was most disturbed because, I was not only tired, but in the midst of some lovely dream which involved some gorgeous man who was besotted with me.  Naturally, committed as I was to 12WBT(!!), I reset my alarm to give myself an additional 45minutes of sleep, promising that I would (obviously) exercise after work instead and hoping that the man of my dreams would reappear once I closed my eyes.

It didn’t work. Guilt set in so I got up anyway. Although it was about 15mins later than planned, I got on my exercise bike. I recall laughing when my mother used to struggle to ride an exercise bike for even short periods of time. And I thought that my 20mins of interval training this morning would be a breeze. It wasn’t. I was panting and puffing. By the time I did 23mins (including warm up and warm down) I was red-faced and drenched with sweat (and remained hot and sweaty, despite my shower, for several hours).

But, it’s true… I felt great afterwards. Virtuous. Healthy. Relieved. I still had music blaring in my ears as I prepared my breakfast (to eat while in the bath) and was energetically dancing away as I prepared for work. Of course I live alone so no living soul was forced to witness this spectacle.

And, although it is only day 1, so far so good in terms of my calorie intake. I breakfasted on 281 calories; lunched on 246 calories and consumed 326 calories at dinner. I’ve never been a very good snacker. For me a snack comprises chocolate or chips, rather than nuts or fruit. But I do intend to make an effort. I had intended to eat a mid-morning snack today but my morning at work was thrown into a tailspin by something so before I knew it, lunchtime was upon me.  My lunch was a two-parter, so I had half of it early and the rest mid afternoon.

Finally I have some yoghurt and intend on eating some of that before bed. Nevertheless, it should only take my calorie consumption up to about 1000 calories, and I’m happy with that. I wonder if it’s like Weight Watchers and I can ‘bank’ some calories in case I go over another day. I hope not to need them but I don’t want to be unrealistic.

There have been a few lessons for me already. Because I am not faithfully following Michelle’s program I struggled a bit with dinner. I had gotten some fillet steak out, but was then loath to cut it up into slices for a stir-fry. I usually eat it grilled lightly (medium rare) with an enormous mound of potatoes. And perhaps some nice red wine. But not tonight. There are a few recipes from the program that interest me, but I also have a pile of Weight Watchers recipe books that I must trawl through because I was most successful on that program when I kept varying my meals and trying new things.

Tomorrow morning I am returning to pilates after 8+ weeks away. It requires an early start and I hope I do better than today. It’s a small group reformer class (8 people) and at 45mins is quite time-efficient. I just need to remember – when I am about to hit the snooze button and blow off my $25 paid in advance – how good I will feel afterwards. I may not dance about to Usher’s ‘More’ as I’m making my breakfast but it will give me another day of a slightly-smug glow, knowing I am on the right track.

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