Wednesday 25 July 2012

Struggle Street

Its now week EIGHT of the 12wbt. Week EIGHT.
                                                                                                                                                                                          
It has seriously flown passed and didn’t even stop in to say hello! As I look back and reflect on the last two months I can honestly say that I’m disappointed in myself. I have lost weight (slowly but surely) and will hopefully continue to do so but I feel like I have failed at being honest and sticking to the program. I can blame my living situation, my red flag days, work, and even other people but when it comes down to it, I am the only person that can be held responsible for my decisions. I think I will have to do some soul searching and find out why I am doing this to myself and how to fix whatever internal demons I’m fighting with. I’m not giving up and won’t give in. I have to want this for me, I have to be in the driver seat, I have to learn to control my life and I have to win this battle!

So far I’ve lost 4.4 kilos, so around 500g a week. I’m hoping to pick up my game and lose 4 more by the end of this round!

See you all in week 9 to kick some serious ass!

Cheese out xx

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Its my birthday and I'll dine if I want to

I'd like to apologise for taking such a huge break from blogging but I have a good reason, it was my birthday! 21 years old! Let me tell you I celebrated in the only way I knew how - by eating! It was great but now its time to set aside the banana cake and get back on this journey! I haven't disappeared so keep your eyes peeled because there are more posts coming! Thanks for sticking around!

Cheese out xx

Wednesday 27 June 2012

SSS, my first proper 1000 calories

My post on my exercise drought made me realise I NEED to do the SSS and I need to do it right. So bright (well dark) and early I climbed in to the driver’s seat of my hatchback piece of junk and drove my ass my work in the city ON A SATURDAY. I parked my car, walked to the gym and thought there had been a zombie apocalypse! There was no one around! Not a sole. My gym looked like a desert.. no not a dessert. 

Not a sole in sight

I started off by doing 500 calories on the xtrainer, then rowing, then running, then some arm thing that made me want to die, finished by the bike - 1000 calories gone forever! After an hour and a half it was hard to keep going but I pushed through until I hit 2 hours and 10 minutes.  It was a good feeling and I hope I remember that feeling when I do the same thing next week! What wasn't a good feeling was my knee condition playing up and not being able to walk all weekend - will have to keep trying until I find an excercise routine that works!

Cheese out xx



Friday 22 June 2012

Excercise drought!

When Michelle told us to plan and map out our red flag days, to be honest, I didn't really see the point. Why would I have to work out how to get around these days, I'd just do it when the time came around. Now having experinced a complete red flag week - I know what she was on about! I'd describe week 3 as excercise drought - Monday I went to the gym, Tuesday was a day full of disasters and arguments which resulted in zero excercise, Wednesday I had my bowel prep for my colonoscopy, Thursday my colonoscopy and Friday (today) I'm sitting in bed trying my best to go into auto pilot and get some excercise in but after the drought I'm just so goddam lazy! I really should have planned all this better and I should really stop finding excuses not to get back in to it. 


Drinking this should be classified as a workout, YUK!

I'm happy to announce that my results came back and nothing is wrong with me - apart from my gluten, lactose and sorbitol intolerances. I'm also happy to annouce that I was weighed at the hospital and my weight was down to 86.1! However for our sakes I'll stick to my scales which indicated I'm 86.9. This week has taught me to be more prepared, to listen to Michelle and to not under-estimate the power of bowel prep (when they say to stay close to a toilet - they mean it!). 

A quick shout out to my biggest supporters (who are prepared to tackle me if I even look at a biscuit) Vanessa and Amy who nominated my blog in this weeks 'weekly suprise'! With any luck we might be sipping on some new tea soon :)

Cheese out xx  

Monday 18 June 2012

Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change

And change I have. It’s been only 2 weeks and I can already see the change in myself (and others can too!). I am way more determined than I have ever been, I find myself going into auto pilot and showing up to the gym when before I would have needed a crane to lift me up and drag me there! My will power is growing – just yesterday I went to the pancake parlour (YES A PARLOUR OF PANCAKES!) and ordered a water. My self-talk has become really strong and positive, I find my head yelling at me saying “you can work harder than that, yes you can, do it, go go go, the weight can’t work itself off”. This is crazy, I don’t know who this new Alanna is but I like her, she kicks ass, she doesn’t care what people think of her, she is proving she can succeed and she’s here to stay! Week 2 was awesome  - I gave my exercise and nutrition 110.25% - and can I just mention THE FOOD IS DELICIOUS.  I saw a weight loss and my boyfriend said he could notice my tummy wasn’t so enlarged! I’m pumped and excited for week 3 – This week I have my colonoscopy which means 2 days of not eating fruit/veg/grains and 1 day of eating nothing and most likely limited exercise – yes it’s a red flag – yes I will work through it and I will ‘shake what my mumma gave me”. Wish me luck!

Cheese out xx  

Friday 15 June 2012

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssseeeeeeeeeeee

It took 2 weeks but the cheese cravings have begun. I’d be willing to starve for 6 days if I could use my 1200 x 7 calories on a cheese platter today. Im day dreaming of crumbling blue cheese rolling down into my mouth! It’s getting serious. I know I’m allowed to have cheese as a snack but I seriously don’t think I’d be able to stop once I start. Is anyone else struggling with cravings?

Side note: Weigh in this week – down 1.8kg!

At least that’s a fighting victory against cheese!

As always.... cheese out (of my stomach, fridge and hopefully soon – mind!) xx

Tuesday 12 June 2012

One week down, Eleven to go

Ok here comes the wrap up (no I’m not using mountain bread!) from week one of the 12wbt. Week one was surprising, there was highs, lows and everything in between.

The good – I stuck to the diet (almost) 100% and liked the food, I went to the gym for 5 days out of 7, I was and still am dead set organised – signs everywhere and endless amounts of pre packaged snacks.

The bad – My cheat meal became a cheat long weekend, I gave up too easily when exercising, I didn’t see a weight loss on weigh in day, I had plenty of negative self talk.

The ugly - My before photo, me after the SSS, me working out in general, me stuffing mouthfuls of pizza, cheese and custard down my throat and the sight of my kitchen after a cook up!

So there it is, week one in three simple categories. All over I don’t feel like I did horrible, but I didn’t do great either. I did weigh myself on Saturday and had a loss of 1.2kg (although I think I would have put that back on after the weekend)   

This week I want to improve on my willpower and I really want to see a loss!  I can’t lose track of my goals and I have to keep pushing on even if I’m not motivated or not in an ideal situation. It’s probably not a good sign that I’m cheating the diet after one week but I plan to rectify myself this week! Stay tuned

Cheese out xx  


Thursday 7 June 2012

Gym antics

Ok when I started this blog I promised you full disclosure to the good, the bad and the ugly, so today I'm going to talk about things that grind my gears about the gym! Here we go:
Loud people

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not the quietest person at the gym but one thing I cannot stand is overly loud people! Half the time I'm wondering around in the morning and stop suddenly in my tracks "hang on, did I accidentally walk in to a brothel." Some people really sound like they are making love with the machines "ohhh ahhh, ohh yeahhhh like thatttt..." SERIOUSLY.. no. I should not have to blush while waiting for a machine just because you've decided to get intimate. 

Boobs in my face

After a long work out I look disgusting - my hair is a fizz ball, my face could be passed off as a large tomato and my clothes are dampingly hanging off my body, I simply can't wait to fix myself up. After looking around I finally find a spot on a bench in front of the mirror, look up and what do I see... BOOBS (not mine). Full frontal girls standing in front of the mirror doing their makeup. I'm sorry love but put some god damn clothes on! Once again its a gym not a brothel. There's one girl who I see nearly every morning, she does her hair in the nude, makeup in the nude and then goes into the toilets to put her clothes on - why? I've already seen everything there is to see!

The awkward break up

Does anyone else go to the gym with their old personal trainer? Well I do. Personal training just got to expensive and I really didn't see the worth, so I simply dumped my trainer. It now feels like I'm trying to dodge an ex boyfriend! From the change rooms to the gym I run like a little girl trying to avoid him. I keep my eyes pinned on the floor and avoid the danger zones at all cost - its horrible! When we do happen to bang into each other, I'm ridden with guilt and I can see him looking at me like a traitor! I feel like breaking out the old line "its not you, its me!"

Anyway that's a few things that get on my nerves about the gym! Let me know what pisses you off! :)   

Cheese out xx

Tuesday 5 June 2012

Fit me in and measure me up

Let me begin this post by saying - so far so good! Yum Yum Yum - the food is so good and I haven't even been hungry!! I've excercised once this week already and considering I'm sick HOORAH TO ME :D Here are my starting stats:

Measurements:

WEIGHT: 89.7
BOOBS: 111
WAIST OF SPACE: 100
CHEESE LOVING CHILD BEARING HIPS: 126
BA-DONK-A-DONG THIGHS: 74
GUNS: 32

At least both sides of my body are the same (small victory!)

Im beginner on all the fitness tests (suprise suprise) - I can not run.


I'm choosing not to post my pictures on the basis of my reaction if I have to see them again so sorry about that, but maybe once I'm sexy - I'll let you see ;) !

Cheese out xx

Monday 4 June 2012

I'm in shock

And I think I may just cry (I completely take back my judgements of the biggest loser contestants - this journey is emotional!). As you may have guessed, I just gave in and shot my before photo and it only took a one second look at the image of myself for me to completely tear up. I'm seriously hideous and I can't believe I've been in denial for so long. For some reason what I see in the mirror isn't the same as what popped up on that camera and I'm in shock at how bad my body has gotten. I'm not even 21 and I've destroyed my body to the point I don't know if I can fix it - stretch marks, cellulite and most of all FAT. I feel like I never want to leave the house again. Unfortunately gym is scheduled for tomorrow bright and early so I better suck it up and go to sleep.

Cheese out xx

Saturday 2 June 2012

Cooking up a storm

Or at least - making my house look like a storm has hit it!! First let me start off by saying that I am no chef, I always say I got all the bad genes of being Italian (big nose, short, huge hips) and all the good ones,such as being a good cook, flew passed me and hit some other egg! Today I attacked the markets with my mum (THANKS MUM!) to buy some food for this week. Seriously - I could write a whole blog about how bad the drivers in the Northern suburbs are but I'd hate to get off topic! I amazingly only spent $32 including some snacks but chose to leave the proteins such as fish to later in the week to buy. Looking at the menu I think there was only one freezable dish so I decided to cook double the recipe and freeze 4 tubs of the beef soup. My whole house now smells like Christmas - cinnamon, star anise and ginger mmmm and the soup doesn't taste half bad! I decided to freeze it all with the meat etc just so I can grab and go - here's how they looked..


I've lined my kitchen pantry with this weeks menus and dinner recipes. I've made little freezer bags with exactly 50g of muesli. I've written how many calories are in each of my snacks on the packaging and I'm raring to go - hear me ROARRRR.



I am yet to measure myself and do the fitness test. Unfortunately that chest infection now might be whopping cough and subsequently I have bruised ribs and a pulled muscle in my back and when I try to exercises I end up in a fit of coughs - external excuse outside my control! I did try do everything except the running this morning and let me tell you, I'm defiantly a beginner (I'm going to blame my injuries ;) ). Weigh in and x rated photos will come tomorrow - I might just post a PG version here.

Make sure you all get your cooking mitts on!

Cheese out xx

Wednesday 30 May 2012

"insert clever quote about getting organised"

ORGANISATION IS KEY... or so Michelle says and so I'm taking that key and opening up doors! My first step was to mark all my red flagged days - these include my birthday, my boyfriends birthday, my snow trip, my colonoscopy (ew I know) and my mid year work function. I decided to create a folder with tabs for each pre season task and each week of the 12wbt to store the emails/ recipes/ menus/ exercise plans etc. I also marked out exactly when I will be working out which is mornings Monday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday at the gym, Tuesday night at gym and Saturdays at home/park. I decided to give myself an extra advantage by putting up motivational signs all around my house, here's an example of my bedroom door :)




It feels great to get organised, I'm so nervous/excited about getting started but I feel in control and that feels fantastic.

Cheese out xx

Saturday 26 May 2012

I'm obese

That's right, obese - according to my BMI on the 12wbt website. I must say that I totally didn't see that one coming! Overweight -yes, obese - REALLY? When I picture obese, I see someone getting crane lifted out of their bedroom, not me. I've tried not to let that word play too much on my mind but for some reason it's killed my spirit a little bit - like suddenly its become to hard; I didn't even let my boyfriend see me in a singlet top because I didn't want to burn his eyes with my obese goodness! I will need to lose the 25 kilos before I'm considered to be (on the top end) of a healthy weight range for my height (yes I'm a total short ass, maybe if I wore some heals I could cheat the system..mmmm). Im not going to give up and I'm going to try be good this weekend, despite having already had a binge on cheesy pizza and Nerds... although it is that T.O.M and I have raging hormones so I might change my mind in a second! BRING ON THE CHOCOLATE.

That's all for now, or is it... yeah it is.. AND WHERE'S MY CHOCOLATE.

Cheese out xx

Thursday 24 May 2012

Gym clothes for the big hipped woman pt -2

Determined not to let my 'situation' get me down I decided to scourer through the clothes I already had at home to some how piece together an outfit to inspire us big hipped beauties to work out and I think I may have just found something that looks half decent (not to mention on a budget)! Below is a picture of what I wore to the gym this morning (yes I did wear shoes to the gym).

Ok so its not full-proof but I did find that by adding the extra singlet and over jacket thing that it sort of disguises the full extent of my hips! I hope this works for some of you as well, for now its thumbs up and big smiles from me.

Cheese out xx 

Wednesday 23 May 2012

Gym clothes for the big hipped woman

Or rather, lack of the above! Yesterday I took it upon myself to start to gear up for the next 12 weeks! I will be mainly working out at the gym (or ‘health club’ as us fancy people like to call it) and I thought that buying some cute gym clothes would put me in the right frame of mind.

Now firstly, to fully understand my situation – let me tell you about my gym, the gym of death (death to my self esteem). For whatever reason everyone who goes to my gym is a sign of perfection – they are fit, toned and sexy, I am by far the most unfit person there and I stand out like grapes on a cheese platter. 

Secondly, my hips. Commonly known as ‘child baring hips’ I have the body shape of a true woman on steroids. During puberty my body didn’t know when or how to stop and I ended up with two massive boulders on either side of my body. 

Combine both of the above and you’ll soon realise that the gym for me is where I not only feel completely of place but I look it too. My solution to my problem was to completely gear up in these gorgeous bright coloured clothes that everyone else was wearing, then I would fit in and might look half decent too. So off I set to Rebel Sport, Lorna Jane, Target, Kmart, Adidas and eBay only to find that all the gym clothes completely cut in to my hips! Hours of shopping and I walked away with not a thing except hurt pride and laughing cow cheese. Where are the gym clothes for us big hipped girls, huh!? Until someone invents some I guess I’ll be working out in tights and a bonds hoodie – oh the horrible horrible sight of me in tights – I’ll spare you all and not include a picture!

Cheese out xx

Monday 21 May 2012

Im sorry mama, I never meant to hurt you, I never meant to make you cry but tonight...

I'M CLEANING OUT MY CLOSET. Sorry for the Eminem reference but task 5 is all about the kitchen makeover and cleaning out your kitchen closet! Now as fun as it sounds to bin a whole bunch of food, this task is a no go for me. My living situation makes this task impossible, I live in 2 houses and neither are mine.

Here's the situation - Half the week I'm situated in the Northern suburbs of Melbourne living with my parents. My parents are fantastic and so supportive but there is no way that two traditional Italians are going to rid their pantry of staples like pasta and biscuits - it'd be like Charlie Sheen ridding his house of prostitutes and drugs.. not.gonna.happen. The other half of the week I live with my boyfriend and his two housemates in the South East - his house is a man cave! There is junk food everywhere and very limited space which means I can't keep much of my own food there, it also means I can't just go around like a junk food Nazi and throw out all their food. 

So I have legit reasons but being a optimist - here's what I plan to do. GROW SOME SELF CONTROL. Ok let's be honest here.. if the food is not at your house, it could be at work, in the supermarket, in your car, at your friends place, down your bra...ok that one might just be me but you catch my drift. Food is everywhere you go and at some stage its important to grow resistant to temptation, which is what I have to will do. I will also allow anyone to tackle me to the ground if they see me drooling over the junk food! 

Did anyone else have any problems with this task? I could see myself wanting to jump in Michelle's bin after those tim tams!

Cheese out xx   

Friday 18 May 2012

I Alanna, take you, 12wbt, to be my lawful diet bible


To exercise and to eat, from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, while we both shall live.

That’s right. I am committing to the 12wbt and saying “I DO”. I’m committing to eating healthy, to exercising 6 days a week, to being determined to lose 25kg, to changing my life and my attitude. This diet is no one night stand, its forever. It will be there to see me look like a zombie at 5.30 in the morning and to see me shrink in size and it will work for me. In return I will be the perfect wife, I will be honest and faithful, I will push through the hard times to see the good and I will not cheat.  I commit to all you reading that I will do this, I will inspire you all, as you inspire me. You have my word – and that word is “cheese”. Mmmm cheese.

In all seriousness though, I plan to be a girl of my word and I plan to do this for myself and for you. Tonight I will commit to my family and my boyfriend – luckily I’m no commitment-phobe! It does feel good to tell people you are in this all the way and that there is no turning back – I’m jumping on the bandwagon and pushing forward – actually who pushes bandwagons these days? Let’s make that a helicopter.... I am flying my helicopter all the way to success. I may lose concentration and hit a tree, but in the end you have to keep on chopping!

So who’s with me?!  

(you better have all just jumped in my imaginary helicopter, it has guns and I know where you live)

Cheese out xx

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Where oh where has the cheese lover gone?!?

Don't worry guys I'm still alive and kicking - but thus far have been unable to kick this infection, three rounds of antibiotics and nada, I still sound like a dog. However one thing cheese has taught me is that although something might look horrible from the outside if you ponder inside its almost always positive. So what's the delicious side of a chest infection you ask? Food timing and self control. You see with antibiotics you have to take a pill half an hour BEFORE meals and 2 hours AFTER meals. You know what this means - NO BOREDOM PICKING. Four times a day I'm limited to when I can eat and what I can drink, so far it has really worked. I figure if I can execute self control while I'm drugged up, there is no excuse for me not to do it otherwise, right? *cue light bulb moment*. Lets add "cut out all boredom picking" to my little list of goals!  So you might be sitting there thinking "wow - this girl is an angel" ( highly unlikely that's what you're actually thinking) but alas I am no angel. Im channelling my inner Usher and giving you my confessions - I did in fact buy the huge block of Gorgonzola from Costco last weekend and did spice up my chicken soup with some Parmesan - guess not all habits are easy to break. Until next time...

Cheese out xx

Thursday 10 May 2012

Does coughing up a lung count towards weight loss?

I really hope so because the rate I'm going I might cough up what I ate for lunch too! That's right - I'm sick, respiratory tract infection to be exact.. or in my words THE WORST COUGH EVER. My body is dying for some loving in the form of a cheese toastie and a hot chocolate and I must say that I'm starting to regret my decision to start this in winter (excuse?). Today is pre-season task 2 time and after convincing myself to stop watching repeats of The Bachelor I pushed through and started the task. After 3 goes of watching the video, I am now lying in bed pondering what my goals are and how I'll achieve them. I know I want to lose weight (duh) but I have no idea what kind of time frame I should put on losing 25kg and I can't exactly write "do 12wbt" in all the execution boxes. HELP!? Maybe my mind is just not functioning properly but this is hard. I have decided to just list a few of my little goals below. Here it goes:
  1. Fit into snow gear - 29 June
  2. Be able to buy a cute dress for my 21st - July 7
  3. Weigh less than my boyfriend by end of 12wbt
  4. Lose 25kg
  5. Not feel the need to include cheese in all meals
  6. Get over this bloody cough ASAP
Ok so that's all I could muster up but I will revisit this task when I'm feeling a bit more vivacious!

Hope you are all doing better than me on this task - comment below and let me know what your goals are and how you plan to achieve them!

Cheese out xx

Monday 7 May 2012

If excuses made you thin - I'd be invisible!

Well as some of you may have found out from your emails this morning - Pre-season as begun! mmmmm-seasoning *drool*. The first challenge is to basically - CUT THE CHEESE - I mean erm CUT THE BULLSHIT! and loose the excuses. As a self professed excuse-aholic I knew today's video would hit home and it did. It was like Michelle was talking directly to me and not only because she has a killer eye stare through the camera lense. I did my homework and had no problem filling up all the excuse boxes with the 500 maximum characters (surprise surprise!). I thought since I'm being all open like a good Swiss cheese, I'd share some of my excuses with you - there are some beauties.
  • I'm too busy
  • I deserve to eat unhealthy if I've exercised
  • Its too cold/hot/rainy/dark outside
  • I'm too tired
  • I'll be grumpy at work if I'm exhausted
  • I have nothing to wear
  • People will stare at me at the gym because I run like a horse (or so my grade 9 P.E teacher said)
  • Cheese food makes me happy
  • Even if I lose weight my hips will still be huge
  • In fact, if I lose weight they might be even MORE out of proportion
  • ..and my boobs will shrink - I can't do that to my boyfriend ..
And the list when on and on and on... BLAH. So yes, I'm an excuse expert but I can't won't let my excuses deter my good intentions any more. My plan - I will continuously sing *call me maybe* and then I won't be able to think about anything else - "here's my runners, this is crazzyyy but get your ass to a gym - and lose weight maybe" - you like?

Feel free to comment below and let me know what's holding you back.

Cheese out xx

Friday 4 May 2012

Introductions: Hi I'm Alanna and I'm a cheese addict.

Why stop there? Im also an all round food addict, an excuse-aholic and a quitter. It’s for those reasons that I’m here ready to start the Michelle Bridge’s 12 Week Body Transformation. From what I gather I go into a time machine and in 12 weeks I’m transformed into a sexy goddess. Right? Wrong!

For the next 12 weeks I’m going to be working my double kardasian butt off and giving up my precious cheese and through the entire process I’ll be blogging here about the good, the bad and the ugly vision of me running down the street in lycra!

So here’s my introduction - my names Alanna, I’m 20 years old and I’m fat. Yep the dreaded F word. You see I didn’t really, REALLY notice I was fat until recently when I didn’t recognise myself in photos, I always thought I hid my weight well under my clothes and hourglass body shape, then all of a sudden - it hit me like a bus, a big “ALANNA YOU ARE FAT” bus. My weight has been creeping up for some time and I remember being young and my mum saying “it’s okay being a size 14 now but what happens when one day your an 18 and can’t fit into clothes.” I’m now a size 18 but not for much longer, my goal is to lose 25 Kilos.

I will work at this and for the next 12 weeks I vow to push myself harder, stop making excuses and just fucking doing it. As one of my personal trainers once commented “you didn’t get fat over night so you’re not going to get skinny over night either”..harsh but true. So please join me on my journey, follow my blog and see my progress! I swear to sweet Cheeses I won’t let you or myself down.

Cheese out xx