12WBT Blogger Challenge Week 1: Introduction

So Whirlsie at Nutritionally Yours has put a call out for people to participate in the 12wbt Blogger Challenge. I'm really excited to participate and just what I need to stay on track with my blogging during this round.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.  What makes you, you? My name is Tracey and I am a busy mum of 5. I landed my dream job almost a year ago and loving it, I also study as well (cert 4 in HR with plans to complete my Diploma later this year and then onto my Associate Degree in Business next year).

I am super disorganised. I laugh...a lot! I tend to have a million projects going at the same time. I love love love going to pole dancing classes. I love to meet new people. My house is always messy(hello, I have 5 kids). My kids are the best thing that ever happened to me. I've been used and abused in the past and I came out on top a stronger and more independent woman. I am addicted to facebook. My code name at work is Cupcake Queen (because I make the yummiest cupcakes apparently, not because I eat lots of them!!). My burlesque name is Tracey Lovely'n'Lacey. Haha, is that enough? I could go on all night!

Why did you decide to do the 12WBT? This is my second round and I didn't achieve what I wanted to achieve, so I am doing it again this round to finish what I have started! I need the guidance and support that Michelle Bridges gives me along with the support from the Perth crew (the Perth Ghetto crew in particular!).

What are you hoping to achieve through the program? I want to get fitter and smaller! Obviously! I hope to get down to 75kg this round and be able to run the whole 1km time trial by week 12.

Why have you decided to blog about the 12WBT? What will be the main focus (eg, food, exercise, a bit of everything?) I wanted to get back into blogging again and this just seemed like a good starting point! I'll be blogging about everything I suppose, and not just about 12wbt (all 12wbt posts will be tagged if you don't want to read the other stuff!)

How will you be exercising this round? Gym, home, outdoors or a mixture? A bit of everything! Whatever will fit into my crazy busy schedule. I have been doing things that are a bit outside of the box though, such as pole dancing, burlesque amongst other things (ice skating tomorrow!)

What is your greatest strength that will help you? Wow...tough one, this round it would be my determination, I am determined to get through this and reach my goal!

What are you afraid of? I think this answer will be the same for most people. I am afraid of failing. If this doesn't work for me then I don't think anything else will. I'm trying to to think about this though. I will not let my fears get me down!

What are you looking forward to the most over the next 12 weeks? Working out with the Ghetto Crew! They are AMAZING! So supportive and the seasoned girls are so knowledgeable and heaaaaps of fun!

What is your downfall? Food? Exercise? How will you overcome this? Exercise is my downfall as I find it hard to schedule it in. The hubby works night shift so quite often he is leaving as I get home and then I have 5 kids to tend to. It makes it very difficult to get out and to the gym. I start work at 7am which doesn't help either and he works weekend(finishing at 6am most of the time!). 

I'm not 100% sure how I will overcome this because I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I think I will just have to push myself to get on the treadmill at home and not laze around and say that I am too tired. I plan to get a crosstrainer for at home too.

If you had to pick one word to motivate you over the next 12 weeks, what would you choose? Twelve. This is what size I plan to be at the end of round! lol

Gooooals!

Lookie at who is blogging so soon after the last post! Haha.

I need to make some changes somehow. I am finding it really hard to train at home and I'd rather be with my Ghetto Crew training, they keep me motivated and keep me going. I'm in a hard place because I haven't got the support to get out of the house whenever I need to train and I am forced to do it at home. I suppose the main thing is this time I AM doing it at home, I'm not just sitting on my butt watching tv and thinking that I should be training right now.

I did a C25K run tonight and I had to push myself, my right shin was burning though and I did have to stop and stretch a few times. But I did notice that I can run a bit easier that it has been. All I was thinking about was what Lucia said at out Ghetto Crew info night. Yes, it's fucking hard to start running, it sucks and it hurts but if you stick at it, it will get easier and you will start to love it. Reminding myself of that helped. I ran a bit easier (besides the pain).

So anyway, the reason I'm posting today is to make public my goals for this 12wbt round. I'm taking just little steps this time. Last time my goals were too big and I gave up because they just weren't realistic.

This time:

I want to be able to run the entire 1km at the week 12 fitness test. I don't care how long it takes me to do it but I don't want to stop and start like I did on week 1.

I want to be able to wear a size 12. I set this goal at New Years, I currently wear a size 14 top and 16 bottom, I'll be happy to be in a 12 top and 14 bottom by the end of round. The work shirt I wore to work today was a size 12, but it does seem to be a big make. It was kinda cool though.

Blog my way through this round! No slacking off.

I would like to get to 75kg. My ultimate goal is to get down to 65kg.

Build up my strength. I'm not one to go and do weights, mostly because I have no idea what I'm meant to be doing or even if I am doing them right. This must change. When I did the beginners poledancing class I realised how little strength I had. I loved every minute of that course and I want to work my way through to the advanced stages. This is an area I need to improve on.

Step out of my comfort zone and try new things. I have started doing this - burlesque classes and running in front of people. I have this one in the bag.

And finally, as a visual I want to fit into this dress:

It doesn't look like I have far to go before it zips up huh? It's getting there but I also want to be able to put it on by pulling it over my hips, not over my head like I do now. This dress is a small 14/large 12.

So there you have it. There are my goals for Round 1 2012. I'll have to revisit this post at the end of round and see how I went.

Day One...here we gooooo!!!

I should be at work, but I'm not. Shhh! Instead of vegging at home I thought I'd better use my time wisely, so after the kids were dropped off at school I went to the gym. A couple of the Ghetto Crew girls had mentioned they were doing kimax and I decided to join them. If you don't know what kimax is, it is hard work! We weren't even 3 minutes into it before I felt like I was going to vomit. Lots of running and kicking my own butt and the likes. There were maybe 7 free standing punching bags around the room and then there was lots of punching and kicking going on. So much fun. The instructor reminded me of Sue Sylvester from Glee - she scared the bejeezus out of me!!!

666 calories smashed in 1 hours. Had to have a giggle to myself about the number because boy did I work like a demon today! My legs are super sore but this is not going to stop me. Tomorrow is a 5km walk after work and a 1 hour burlesque class. Awesome. :)

The food was good today, breakfast was a bit meh. I think I will substitute that one with something else as it's also on the menu for Wednesday morning. Lunch was small but delish (turkey and swiss cheese wrap) and dinner was divine!! Chargrilled steak with a corn salsa thing. I could eat that every night of the week!

Going great guns right now, the motivation is high and I feel much better about this round than last round already.

12wbt Round 1 2012

My blogging during round 3 last year never really happened. Oops, my bad. I will try my best to blog more this round as I'm now on the home stretch of my cert 4 and won't start the diploma until mid year.

I didn't get to achieve as much as I wanted to last round, for instance I never made it to any Perth Crew events. They were always on at the wrong times for me and majority of the events were too far for me to travel.

So not too long ago, I noticed a smaller group pop up on the Perth Crew page for 12wbters who are local to me. We ended up calling ourselves the Ghetto Crew and so far it's been a godsend! The round doesn't start until tomorrow and I've already been to a handful of events.

This morning saw an early (7am) gathering for the 12wbt fitness test. Quite a few turned up and I would have to say that I was a little nervous. I can't remember the last time I actually ran in front of people, I even send my hubby away if I'm running on the treadmill at home. So it was quite nerve racking, but a lovely lady got me going and I jogged on and off most of the way. I think I managed 250 metres off the bat without having to walk and it wasn't my legs that made me stop, it was trying to catch my breath!!

My stats for the beginning of this round are:

Weight: 84.2kg
Chest: 100cm
Waist: 94cm
Hips: 114cm

1km run: 7 minutes 27 seconds
Push ups (on knees): 34
Sit up: Level 3
Sit and reach: -4cm
Wall sit: 1 minute 14 seconds

There has been some huge improvements there considering the last fitness test I did it took me 11 minutes to run 1km.

With these results today it means....I've graduated to the intermediate group! Say what?! I wasn't expecting that but I guess the pole dancing classes have helped bring my fitness up since last round.

Tomorrow we get stuck into it, I've looked at the exercise plans for the intermediates and it looks fine (shame I printed off 130 odd pages of beginners before I found out I've moved up one!). My food is organised and I am ready to smash the next 12 weeks!!