OMG! I Reached the Target!!! -24.5kgs!!

I've been so busy and it has been hard to follow the diet since my new job begin but still at least my brain has burned some energy so much while I've been sitting front of the computer that this morning when I stepped on the scale, for the last time of this project, it showed me 62.5kgs, meaning that I managed to reach my target weight that I set a year ago! 

I haven't yet checked the wedding dress but it should fit. I try it this evening when the kids fall asleep! And I promise to come back with photos and final fitness test results but don't wait me too early. I have to travel to Norway next week so the updates may last...

Sportterfly

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Happy New Year 2015!

I got a new laptop or tablet PC as a new year's gift to myself. I was thinking to buy it if I manage to lose 20 kilogrammes with this project. And what would be better way to leave successful weight-losing year behind than write a first blog post with my new laptop. 

Happy New Year 2015! 

Sportterfly

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About Ten Weeks Left

It's only about ten weeks still and this project is over. And seven weeks before Christmas. I'm not sure if I can reach the target I set in January to lose 24.5kgs but I'm much more leaner than earlier with the same weight that it might be possible to still fit into my own old wedding dress. I think that's more important than the actual number of kilos I've been able to lose. And most important thing is that exercising, running and proper eating is nowadays something that I don't have to think actively, so the probability that all the fat is gone forever is high.

But the project is not yet over. Work is continuing every day and I'm again a kilo lighter than last Friday, so everything is still possible. Now, I just should remember to pick the wedding dress from my parents house to try it on..

Sportterfly

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Registration to HCR and Training Program Update and New Diet

Today, I registered me and my husband to the next HCR 2015 half marathon which is next May. So now I have again target which I need to run forward. Then I updated my training program and diet again here.

I have successfully finished my GoJuttaGo meals in two days now. My diet didn't change a lot because I have already get used to vegetables and protein. Now there is only berries in the diet among the vegetables I eat next to a lunch and a dinner, so I may start to miss fruits soon. And because I've preferred morning eating my whole life and the big breakfast is not weird thing, I feel hungry before lunch. On the other hand in the evening it feels that I'm eating all the time and my stomach is full before the next food. And my head is so full of ideas at the moment how to variate the meals that I could cook all the time. And thus, I'm not very worried yet, that will I succeed with the new diet..

Sportterfly

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99 High Knees and 13.5 Kilos Weight Loss

Fitness Test

Damn, I realised too late that I could have reached 100 steps in high knee running during the fitness test today. 99 steps in high knee running in 30 seconds is not a bad result and I'm so proud of it, even if affected to other drills of it, and I got worse result in endurance than four weeks ago. And it is my new record of the high knee running. The old record was 96, but still, 100 was so close.

This time and after 32 weeks I did already my ninth fitness test. It was easy to do with well rested muscles and in the end the result was surprisingly good, even if the exercising haven't been possible due the flu. My Fitness Score was 58 this time, which was 4 units better than previously but my Athleticism Score was 48, which was 5 units better. Again my athleticism score increased greatly. The more detailed results look like this now:

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Endurance 72 (earlier 79, 68, 77, 68, 53, 52, 42, 01)

Flexibility 55 (earlier 55, 55, 55, 36, 55, 55, 55, 27)

Strength 65 (earlier 49, 60, 38, 51, 51, 34, 21, 09)

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Speed/Reaction/Agility 78 (earlier 76, 50, 69, 59, 50, 45, 36, 58)

Balance 66 (earlier 75, 53, 63, 51, 54, 53, 24, 01)

Power 46 (earlier 12, 11, 05, 10, 9, 10, 37, 12)

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Weigh-in

This morning it was turn to weigh-in. This was 16. weigh-in after the initial one. Now my weight is going smoothly down and again the pace of 1 kilogramme in two weeks is found. After today's weigh-in my BMI is 25.4 and I have 1.5kgs left to my normal weight.

Gifts

I have totally forgotten to reward myself after all the goals I have reached. I feel I haven't done that good because I haven't been able to keep my schedule even if I have burn 13.5 kilogrammes fat in about half year! But today I finally found new swimming suite (which looks like this) which I thought to buy as a birthday present to myself in July.

Sportterfly

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Aha Effects

Nike+ Kinect Training

I could continue my program with Nike+ Kinect Training without doing any extra fitness test. Maybe I'm finally learning to use the program properly. And I got so many new movements now that I'm again very excited to face the next training session on Thursday. I have new love-hate relationship with the drill where I have to go from blanks position to the pushup position and back..

Running

I did my first interval exercise this morning and I was able to run my half marathon pace without exceeding the heart rate limit of 160. This might mean that I could except better performance in my next half marathon in autumn. It's so enjoyable to run with higher pace after this snail style period I have had.

Next Event

Today I realized that there is only 60 days left before the next event, that quarter marathon I'm going to run in July. Maybe I should be more in panic already..

Sportterfly

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Fifth Weigh-in

No! I didn't reach the 6kgs milestone yet so I should wait two more weeks to get new outdoor clothes for the spring. But I haven't had time to use my -4kgs gift either, which I decided to be leg care, so I need to make an appointment to have it soon.

Now my weight is 81.5kgs so I have lost 5.5kgs all together. This wasn't the easiest two weeks period I have had. There was that birthday party and I ate all kind of junk food on my way and otherwise I have also tried to eat more proper food not to lose weight too fast. Anyway I'm still half a kilos ahead of my schedule so I'm not very worried. Now I just need more time to think this project and the next two weeks I don't have anything else going on so I can think about myself more.

Sportterfly

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Tears in Eyes

Yesterday, I tried another time the pram running and it was so much easier than the first time. I don't have to think anymore that I have the pram with me and I can concentrate better and better on running. I ran a bit faster than with the first pram running and my heart rate was easier to keep down. My husband ran against me when I was just taking the first steps of running after warming up. He already started the cool down and proposed that he can take the baby with him home that I can run in peace but I decided to continue with the pram that I really get used running with it. And afterwards I didn't regret because it was so much easier this time.

While running I also thought what really what keeps me running. What forces me to go jogging again and again. Running slowly is a bit boring, I admit, but I love to dream about my running events while I exercise. On the other hand dreaming of running doesn't help to keep the pace slow and I always end up running too fast and wake up of dreaming when have to concentrate to slow down again. But today I realised that the reason for this crazy hobby is the best feeling you can ever get, the feeling when you are crossing the finish line of the main running event of the season and you have almost tears in the eyes because you are so moved that you did your best and all of the tens of exercises you have done matters. That's the moment I could run for thousands of times and that's the reason why I keep running time after time.

What about you? What is your best running or training motivator?

BTW. Today it was so warm to walk from the daycare with the winter coat on that I hope I have reached 6kgs milestone tomorrow to have new outerwear for the spring.

Sportterfly

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For My Own Joy

Why do I write in English? Hopefully some day I will read the first postings and be ashamed of bad English I wrote at first and I hope I can see a lot of development in my writing skills. I'm working in the IT sector. English is my working language but I don't need it very often during the long leaves. Earlier I have noticed that it is hard to return to office after maternity leaves when the language that you need daily is totally forgotten. Now when the idea of this blog came, I planned the postings to be short going straight to the point. Then I thought that the short postings I could do in English as well. So I'm sorry for all the clumsy postings. I'm not very good in sport vocabulary and of course it is hard to express how I feel in foreign language. But even if I wouldn't get any readers, I do it for my own joy and to keep up my language skills. At least after two months blogging I already notice that I have proceed. If I have seen something interesting in a blog or in an article I don't remember anymore did I read it in English or in Finnish. That's a progress I guess. I could recommend to everyone of you trying the same, writing in English. If you have ever think can you do it, I know you can!

Why do I write about exercising and losing weight? For my own joy! When I started, I didn't actually know that the web is so full of the blogs about losing weight. I didn't have read them much. Anyway, I have always been interested in watching all the TV programs about weight loss and it is interesting to see the huge changes that people can do in a short periods of time. Now it was nice to have the same kind of project of my own where I have realistic but hard goals. And during all my projects I have had some kind of training diary. So even if no one reads about my project this is my diary where I can return and think back hardness of the first training, difficulties to eat right things, and all other things I faced on my journey. And yes, I am reading nowadays a lot of my 'colleagues' blogs about their projects to get back to shape and they are very interesting to follow! Now in the evenings I prefer of reading blogs instead of watching TV. And hopefully my progress and milestones I reach on the way inspires someone who pops in here a visit to start own kind of project too. 

Sportterfly

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Five Handfuls a Day

I haven't yet started to worry about my diet to lose weight, but now on I will. As I wrote already earlier, I don't believe in any miracle diets or training that would help in couple of weeks. People who try to have miracle in few weeks usually end up eating as before after the diet and get back all the lost weight. Instead, I believe in projects that target to change the whole lifestyle little by little. And my project is one of those. As a first step I have now learned to do hard trainings again. I miss the training if I spend couple of days without and I have started to feel that exercising is now part of my everyday life. I think that now I have strength to take the second step and this step is called Five Handfuls a Day.

I will tell you history of this step first. I believe that when healthy foods and water full the stomach you don't as easily snip unhealthy snacks. I have also always been poor of eating fruits. For these reasons, as a new years promise of 2012, I decided to learn eating vegetables and fruits five handfuls a day. That I did also with small steps, starting with the one handful. Basically this meant that I tried to remember to eat a fruit which I had brought to office. Then little by little I brought more fruits to work, ate vegetables or salad during the lunch, and at some point of the year I realized, I had learned to eat healthy snacks, and it helped me to keep away from chocolate bars or other bad choices. This was actually easy part.

The rest of the handfuls, I needed to eat at home, were difficult. At home there is also the other old choices to make. It is hard to choose to eat bread at work if you have taken carrots or apples with you in the morning. But it is so much easier to eat for example bread or yogurt at home if you have eaten it throughout the life as a snack and it is offered next to you all the time. I really needed to focus on this home part but little by little fruits and vegetables however became part of my every day life in 2011 and New year 2012 I made a promise to keep up my healthy five handfuls a day habit. I still had difficulties to remember the healthy choices during the weekends and holidays and I wanted to concentrate on those problematic periods. Somehow during the holidays I easily got back to old habits, ate delicacies, and forgot totally the green things. That year, 2012, was better and healthier than ever.

In the beginning of 2013, I get pregnant. During the pregnancy, five handfuls a day worked well, but then my maternity leave started and I stayed home, and slowly I ended up eating as before. So obviously, this five handfuls a day project still needs active thinking and now when I have lack of sleep and time, due to our baby, I haven't got resources to think it and keep it up. But during the coming weeks this will change and I promise to open the vegetable and fruit locker of our fridge more often.

The next four weeks as a second step of the project, I will focus on learning the habit of Five Handfuls a Day again!

Dream Dream Dream

I was talking with my husband about the gift I'm going to get or buy when I take this project to the end successfully. I have been thinking that I have to fit into my wedding dress at the end so it would be very nice to have new photos of me on that dress as a memory of this trip. And to take good photos I need to have make up and hairdo so at least those could be nice to have. And not to waste the good look it would be nice to go out and have dinner in nice dress. My husband agreed my ideas and proposed that maybe we should have some hotel weekend also to spend really good time. Can't disagree. Good ideas. I have dreamed to go to the same hotel suite where we spent wedding night since we left there after the wedding day. Maybe we could this time really go there if we don't get more exotic ideas.

At least the dreaming is now kicked off. It is almost as exiting as after we decided the wedding day about 10 years ago. Well actually not even close, but same way I can now start to think what kind of hairdo and make up I want this time. Dress I have already. And because I have been too lazy to sold it further, I can still use it at the end of this project before selling. And I should also start to dream what I wear after the wedding dress photos, where to go overnight and so on. Dream dream dream. Soon I will have lot of motivators to keep up the training program.

While waiting the successful end I need a new sport bra. Also my legs are in bad shape because I have had at most over 30 extra kilos on them so I want to the proper leg care. At least I don't want any sores or other leg problems come to my way during the project. Also some massage could be nice gift to my muscles at some point of this journey, and so on. Lot of ideas come and go when I think what would keep me motivated also during this trip. And because I should create a list of these ideas before forgetting so here it comes right away:

• New bra, after 2kgs Weight loss
• Leg care, after 4kgs
• New outdoor wear for the spring, after 6kgs
• Full body massage, after 8kgs
• ...
• Something nice for my birthday in July, after 12kgs
• ...
• Hairdo, make up,  new dress, photos in wedding dress, hotel night, good time with husband, and so on, after -24,5kgs

Working out in Pyjamas

Bananas in Pyjamas would be jealous if they see me jumping here in my pyjamas and doing the third training session of the week. My pyjamas fit very well with my old sneakers I have on when training. I admit, this is something I have wanted to try since the program started, head straight from the bed to exercise, and now I did it. Wide legs of the pyjama trousers seems to be the only problem because the kinect sensor has difficulties to recognise the body if not fitting clothes are on. So maybe I prefer my running tights or a tight long underwear now on.

The best thing of training at home is actually just the thing that you don't have to think how you look. In gym I always feel like I should be wearing some trendy fitness clothes from the season. But at home it doesn't matter even if I wear underwear that have seen the best days. At this point of the project it doesn't make sense to spend euros in the expensive work out clothes because the body gets smaller all the time and new clothes would be big anyway after few weeks.

Well , there is one thing you never can spend enough money for, the proper sport underwear. Especially good bra is important when running and jumping, even if training at home. Now I have only one proper well tailored bra so as a first motivation gift to myself, I'm going to shop new sport underwear, if and WHEN 2kgs weight loss is done in time.

I have also dreamed about other motivating presents but more about that later. Now I head for stretching and other duties.