I hit the 1/3 mark today

Today is Easter Sunday and this morning I had a wee, got naked, and weighed myself. Even though on the 12WBT we are supposed to weigh ourselves only once a week, I did it because I had been crunching some numbers and knew I would be close to the 1/3 mark. And today I hit it. I have lost 19.5 kilos since I started eating healthily and exercising last September. That is 19.5 kilos that don't have residence on my body anymore! That is also one third of what I am supposed to lose if I am to get to my recommended weight. I am not sure if that is the final weight I really should be but at this stage I am not worrying about that. For the first time I am relying on my body to tell me what is my best athletic weight.

This adventure (I can't stand the word 'journey') started slowly on 17 September 2012, just over 6 months ago, with me starting to exercise. The only dietary concession I made was to cut out sugar and much of the junk food on which I had been existing. This meant not touching chocolate (one of the great loves of my life), chips, biscuits, cakes and ice cream - pretty much anything that can be classified as 'dessert' or snack foods. It has been relatively painless. Somehow I seem to have switched off the chocolate-obsessive button in my head. I am not sure how but even with Easter it hasn't really tempted me to try chocolate. The hardest thing has been getting it into my head that it is a lifestyle, not a short-term diet. My focus has always been on getting fit, though, not on losing weight.

Today I went for a lovely swim. I only did 1 and a half kilometres. (Notice how I said 'only'. Still that negative talk slips in.) So to rephrase, today I swan 1 and a half kilometres. I did it on a Sunday and without any chocolate (including any Easter eggs, bunnies or bilbies) or any other food reward afterwards. I must admit though that the thought of a big piece (or three) of KFC entered my head on the way home. I even changed lane to go home via the KFC drive-through. But I quickly moved the car into the other lane that would take me straight home. And instead of thinking I was depriving myself by not succumbing to the craving, however strong it was, I thought about my 8-week 12WBT fitness trial that I will do this week and how much better I will perform without that gunk in my body. Thanks Mish - my body and my head are much happier.

Something clicked yesterday

I am not sure what happened, but yesterday something just clicked in my head. I think it was Mish's statement about trying something new.

Even though I have tried lots of new things since starting on 12WBT, I decided yesterday that I would do a stretch class. I had thought about it before but because it is scheduled straight after my BodyPump class I had talked myself out of it because I would be too tired, too hot, too sweaty. But I decided to JFDI. I didn't over-think it (in other words, find excuses why I shouldn't do it). And it meant I had a real rush on my hands afterwards to get to my next commitment but I gave up the hour and went with the flow.

It was hard work and it got my heart-beat up which was surprising to me. But it didn't stop there. In the late afternoon a friend rang and suggested we walk our dogs together. I didn't think about it, I just said 'yes'. So, three lots of exercise in one day. And you know what? It wasn't difficult :)

So far ...

It is now 6 months since I started to live more healthily. Here is what I have done so far:

At the start on 17 September 2012

• BMI 45 (which means I am nearly 50% fat)
• Weight: My secret
• Exercise: Nil, zero, nuffin!!!

3 December 2012

• 37 minutes 12 seconds for 1500 metres freestyle (74.4 seconds/50m freestyle)

1 January 2013

• Joined Masters swim club

10  January 2013

• Started Masters squad on Thursday mornings

10 February 2013

• Volunteered for swimming coaching session with trainee coaches

At start of Round 1 of 12WBT

• BMI: 42
• Weight: Still my secret :)
• Exercise: Swimming regularly and the occasional gym session

7 February 2013

• 300 metre swim: 7 minutes 37 seconds (Intermediate)

10 February 2013

• Pushups:              31 knees in 1 minute (Advanced)
• Planks:                 35 seconds on knees (Intermediate)
• Wall sit:               18 seconds (Beginner)
• Sit & Reach:        -9cms (Beginner)

12 February 2013

• Started BodyPump class

13 February 2013

• Started Senior Gym class

Mini Milestone Week: 4-10 March 2013

• 24 minutes for 1 kilometre freestyle (72 seconds per 50 metres)

3 March 2013

• 150 metres in 3 minutes 30 seconds (70 seconds per 50 metres). Buggered up the time-trial - forgot that I needed to do 12x25metres, not 6x25metres, so had to re-do. Decided to start Endurance swimming session with Masters club on Saturday 9 March 2013

6 March 2013

• -6.3kgs
• BMI: 39.2 (below 40!)
• BMR: 1757
• Total change for my body: 13.5cm smaller:
• Chest      -4cm
• Waist      -2cm
• Hips        -2.5cm
• L.Thigh  -2.5cm
• R.Thigh  -1cm
• L.Arm    -2cm
• R.Arm    -1.5cm

9 March 2013

• Did a 400 metre timed freestyle swim in my first Masters Endurance swim session and used it to measure my 300 metre swimming fitness test. I improved my 300 metre fitness swim time by 14% (did the swim in 6 minutes 33 seconds, taking 1 minute 4 seconds off my previous time of 7 minutes 37 seconds done on 7 February 2013)

10 March 2013

• 300 metre swim: -64 seconds
• From 7 minutes 37 seconds (Intermediate) to 6 minutes 33 seconds (Intermediate).
• Improvement from 76 seconds per 50 metres to 
• Pushups:             +17 reps
• From 31 knees in 1 minute (Advanced) to 48 (Advanced)
• Planks:                + 50 seconds
• From 35 seconds on knees (Intermediate) to 1 minute 25 seconds on  knees (Advanced)
• Wall sit:              + 20 seconds
• From 18 seconds (Beginner) to 38 Seconds (Beginner) 
•  Sit & Reach:      +3cms
• From -9cms (Beginner) to -6cms (Beginner)

14 March 2013

• Did a 200 metre IM (Individual Medley comprising 50metres butterfly, backstroke, breastroke and freestyle) in the Masters squad training session

20 March 2014

• Lost a total of 40 pounds (18.1 kilos) since 17 September 2012 - an average of 3 kilos a month
• Lost 7.6 kilos (17 pounds) since started on 12WBT (6.5%) - an average of 1.5 kilos a week
• BMI 38.8
• BMR 1744

21 March 2014

• Did Masters swim squad with the competition swimmers - kept up with their pace in butterfly and kicking

It won't happen overnight

I started off trying to live a healthier and more active lifestyle last September. With such a lot of weight to lose it seemed a LONG way to go but I decided that I might as well enjoy it and get my head out of that space of needing instant results.

By the time I joined Round 1 of the 12WBT I had lost nearly 10 kilos. And I had done it relatively easily. The only real changes I made were cutting out sugar (cakes, biscuits, chocolate) and other junk food such as potato chips, and upping my exercise (which wasn't hard to do given that before I pretty much I did nothing!). Instead of torturing myself with ridiculous quick-fix diets that promise everything but deliver nothing, I told my head that it was about getting fit and healthy and that losing weight was not the main goal. That mind shift for the most part seems to have worked. I don't get as mad with myself when I slip up (and reward/punish myself with food for being useless) and if I do slip up I do it knowingly. rather than mindless snacking.

This morning I did my weekly 12WBT weigh-in. All up I have lost 18.1 kilos. My BMI is now in the 30s. Slow and steady, I am getting there. As the advert says, it won't happen overnight, but it will happen!

Week 5 already?

Time is supposed to slow down when you are on a diet - er, a healthy living program. Why then does it feel like the last couple of weeks have become turbo-charged? The days are positively whipping by. I have been down the coast these past few days which has added to the feeling of "where has my week gone and what have I got to show for it?" It's so hard to stay on track when your routine is disturbed. That's not something I thought I would say. It's certainly not something I could say in the past few years when everything seemed so out of control.

So what have I done this past week? Things that I am proud of? Three things:

• I signed up for the MS Mega Swim on 2-3 May. It's a 24-hour continuous swim relay done in teams of 15 people. What a way to finish Round 1 2013 of 12WBT!
• On Saturday I went to my Masters swimming club and put my name down for an 'Endurance' swim. It is a timed swim. I had to do my 300 metre fitness test swim but had buggered up the timing doing it myself so I signed up for a 400 metre swim and did it then and there! I asked that they record my 300 metres time on the way through to 400 metres so I knew the time I would report in my stats would be true. I had been too shy to try it before. But I thought what better for a 12WBT Mini Milestone Challenge that to JFDI.
• Today I did a 200 metre Individual Medley. The last time I did that I was a teenager.

My progress

I am in a bit of a schmozzle. Despite planning, diarising and organising I haven't quite managed what I had planned for Week 4 of the 12WBT. Noone to blame but myself. I knew it was going to end up like this but I have buried my head in the sand a bit. Nothing really that bad - I have just proven once again that I cannot be trusted with numbers.

I set three goals to achieve by the end of Week 4 (10 March). These are to:

• Goal: Lose 5kg
• Goal: Swim 1km freestyle non-stop in under 35 minutes
• Goal: Swim 200 metres butterfly non-stop.

So have I been a woman of my word and achieved them? Well, sort of but not really.

Goal: Lose 5kg
At this Wednesday's weigh-in my total loss after nearly a month on the 12WBT was 6.3kgs (7.3kg if you count the 1kg lost in pre-season). I have also lost 14cm in total from various parts of my body, including, joy of joys, my bust (-4cm) and upper arms (-2cm). So, yes, I think I can say: GOAL ACHIEVED.

Since starting on my fitness and healthy living program last September I have been recording my food and exercise. According to MyFitnessPal I have lost a total of 17.2kgs. My BMI has gone from 45 to 39.2. So things are going pretty well.

Now that all sounds pretty good. But the focus of all this has been on improving my fitness. Last year I ended up in hospital after an asthma attack. I hadn't had a bad asthma attack in many years. When I saw my GP after coming out of hospital she told me I could have died. I replied that I thought I was going to die. She thought I was being flippant, but I wasn't - when you can't breathe you know things are serious. And I realised I needed to start taking better care of myself. I don't 'do' diets. As soon as I feel like I am being deprived I start craving, I get frustrated and angry and I end up eating more than if I hadn't started on the diet in the first place.

So, rather than go down that old bumpy road I realised that what I wanted (and needed) to do was get healthy. And getting healthy is about more than just losing weight. That shift in my thinking seems to have helped a lot. My crazy thoughts no longer fight with my rational thoughts all the time. I don't feel deprived and some days are better than others. Socialising is hard and I do cook more than I used to. One thing I have cut out is sugar. I have not had any chocolate, cakes or biscuits since 17 September last year. Before that they were my raison d'être. Now, I am finding other reasons for my existence.

Goal: Swim 1km freestyle non-stop in under 35 minutes
Because I can't run, I did the alternative time trial in the 12WBT fitness test of swimming 300 metres. When I first did this test on Sunday 5 February I did it in less than 8 minutes which meant I was assessed as 'Intermediate' fitness for that part of the fitness test. That didn't surprise me as I had done a lot of work on my stamina since starting back in the swimming pool last September.

Last Sunday, 3 March 2013, I did the first Mini Milestone swimming time trial since that first 300 metre swimming time trial. My speed was absolutely amazing - going from 7min 37secs to 3min 30secs. I felt good in the water but I didn't think I was going that fast. But sometimes the fastest swims are actually the easiest. Yay, the old me is back, I thought. How good is that! Hang on, thinks me, something is wrong there. That really can't be right. So I do the time trial again. And I swim a few seconds faster. Maybe there is something wrong with the stop watch? So I do it again. A few seconds even faster. And I do it all with such ease. That's when the next warning bell tinkles. That is just too much of an improvement in less than 4 weeks. Those times are around what I was doing in my teenage years.

So I come home and mull it over. Then the penny drops - oops, I didn't swim the correct distance - I only swam half of it. A 300-metre swim in a 25-metre pool is 12 laps. I did 6. Bugger. (I need to explain here that sometimes the 50 metre pool I swim in is divided in half with a bulkhead, as it was last Sunday morning. And the problem starts with that, as I often get mixed up with my distances when swimming in a 25 metre pool. I can only think in 50 metre lengths, not 25-metre laps and when I try to think differently I inevitably get myself into problems, which I have done with both of my one-month swimming goals.)

What to do? I get out my calculator and some paper and do some figures. I double my time and work out that I have still had an improvement, and I have dropped around 7 secs on my per-lap speed, so that is good, but it is still only half the distance so I am not really comparing apples with apples. So I decide that just doubling the time is not good enough as it is not really an honest measurement. So I reschedule to redo it this Saturday. Bugger, bugger.

But it all gets even more complicated. It starts me thinking about my goal of swimming 1km freestyle in 35 minutes. I had based that on a previous timed swim I did  - 1500 metres in 37min 12secs (done 3 December 2012).

Then the penny drops. I have got my goal time and distance wrong too! Instead of having a goal of 1km it should have been 1.5km. Bugger, bugger, bugger! 

I need to digress here for a moment to explain something - and, no, I am not using an excuse - I have, to put it bluntly, stuffed up my swim distances, and this is why. Everyone who knows me knows that maths is not my strong suit. Add to that the fact that having been born in the 1950s I have never quite let go of the Imperial system. I can think in kilos but I still measure length in inches, yards and miles). So when I am swimming I think in yards, not metres. What this means is that when I set my 1km goal I was actually thinking of 1 mile, not 1 kilometre. And there is a big difference. A mile was the equivalent of 32 laps of a 55-yard pool. One kilometre is 20 laps of a 50-metre pool.

I did a 1km time trial on 25 February (and, yes, I am absolutely sure I did 40 laps of a 25 metre pool so I definitely did 1km). I did that 1km in 24 minutes. At the time I wondered why I did it so fast given that my goal was to do it in under 35 minutes. And then it dawned on me, I had set the wrong distance in my goal. I had chosen a 35 minute time on the basis of my 3 December 2012 time-trial - but that had been 1.5km not 1km. So, my 24 minutes for 1km wasn't as fast as I thought it was either! My basic maths was fine - the per 50-metre time I used to estimate my goal was fine. I just got the actual distance involved wrong.

What I should have written in my goal was either:

•  1.5km in 35 minutes (30 laps of a 50 metre pool; or 60 laps of a 25 metre pool = 1500 metres); or
• 1 km in 23min 3 secs (20 laps of a 50 metre pool; or 40 laps of a 25 metre pool = 1000 metres).

 So, what to do? Well, I am re-doing my 300-metre time trial and my 1km time trial again. Tomorrow, Saturday. In the morning. Before I can think too much about it. JFDI. And I will get someone else to time me (and to count my laps!)

Which leaves me to the last of my three 4-week goals. Which is the most challenging of the three goals and one I have been kicking myself for setting so early in the 12WBT.



Goal: Swim 200 metres butterfly non-stop
I have been totally frozen in trying to swim the 200 metre butterfly. Utter fear. Total anxiety about it. I have scheduled the swim and put it off and scheduled it and put it off. I didn't actually mean 200 metres when I set that goal - I meant 4 laps of a 25-metre pool (100 metres). But it was my mistake so I am going to live with it.

I have talked to my coach who says I can do it. I know I can do it. I have put it off and now, because I have stuffed up my freestyle goal and am re-doing that, I am going to have to do this the day after my other swim. Not ideal but I have had the opportunity to try for it all week and I haven't. So now the pressure is on. It is now in my diary for this Sunday 10 March. And it is going to happen. JFDI.

Let me tell how I came to be called Truffle

I am called 'Truffle' because in the late 1990s a girlfriend and I teamed up to get fit. We called ourselves 'Two Really UnFit Forties Ladies Exercising SometimeS' (TRUFFLES). I am Truffle 56 as I was born in 1956 (my friend is Truffle 55).

It was a bit of a joke to start with but we found out we motivated each other wonderfully and we worked out together at Fernwood in Brisbane for a couple of years.

Then, in late 2000, I had to move to Canberra for work and family reasons. Both Truffle 55 and I thought that we would be able to do it alone. But we couldn't. Old habits resurfaced.

My long work hours and my family commitments gave me ample excuses for not exercising. My chronic knee injury, sustained playing netball in my early 20s (which just goes to show that not all exercise is healthy) added to my misery. I have been in constant pain for longer than I can remember. My knee injury in 1980 had led to a reconstruction in 1981 (one of the first ever done) that led to severe arthritis, that led to a limp (1980s and 90s), that led to a total knee replacement in 2006 which has all resulted in spondylolisthesis and muulti-level facet joint arthropathy. In short, a painful lower back and sciatic pain that radiates down my right leg.

It hurts to walk. It hurts to stand. It hurts all the damn time. It is ever-present. It never goes away. Some days the hurt isn't too bad. Other days are just plain shitty. Unfortunately I never know what day it will be. Sometimes anti-inflamatories work, sometimes they don't. I have regular physio which usually gives me some short-term comfort. On bad days I just want to stay in bed but for some reason, lying down aggravates it. Which means that nights are always nasty. Never being able to find a comfortable position, I contort myself into different positions, wriggle and toss and turn, always seeking but never quite managing to find relief. On really bad nights even the dog chooses to sleep on the floor!


In September last year I decided I was going to be in pain whether or not I exercised. And as I did not want to go into my 60s in the same shape as I was in my 50s, I decided I might as well start exercising. So I got back up, dusted myself off, and put my creaky old body on a mission to get fit and healthy - and stay that way! (There is more about this in my post titled Be kind to yourself.)

And now I am on my first round of the 12WBT. It turns out to have been one of my better ideas. I finally feel like I am growing up and taking responsibility for myself. And I am trying to live my favourite sayng:

Just because you are in pain doesn't mean you have to be one!

Organising frenzy

I have felt that all my commitments have been getting a little out of hand. My socialising in particular is presenting some challenges in trying to keep to the 12WBT nutrition plan. I have been keeping within the calorie requirements but that has meant skipping a few meals in the last week. Not good! But I can't stay at home for ever for all my meals so I decided I needed to get a bit (a lot, really) organised.

I have always been a bit of a diary keeper, not to record my thoughts, but to keep track of appointments. (And I keep those calendars and diaries for years, but confessions about my hoarding will keep for another day.)

My immediate problem has been that in some ways I have been over-organised. The problem is that I use a Filofax, my iPad, my phone and my computer calendar to keep track of stuff. I also have a couple of hanging calendars but thankfully I don't put anything on them and I just look at the pictures or check a date if I am in the kitchen - yes, I have two in the one room.

I have tried syncing the electronic calendars but that doesn't seem to work properly. As I don't just use one product they don't all recognise each other so I get a mishmash on each device. I know the answer to that would be to use one type of electronic calendar so they would happily sync but I have only just thought of that solution as I have been writing!

Anyway, I decided to use my home computer's calendar (Outlook) as my main recording device. Yesterday I updated all the entries for the next two weeks from my Filofax to Outlook. And because I often have to show my Mum what she has scheduled, I printed out the diary to keep with me.

In theory this should make life a bit easier for me. I will just update the one electronic calendar. Since I got my iPad I have been using my phone less and less for scheduling stuff anyway. Of course, all this might change as I am doing an iPad course later this week and scheduling and sharing between devices is top of my list of questions to ask the instructor.

Any and all ideas on how to keep track of schedules will be gratefully received.

My little herb garden

But after buying lots of herbs over the last few weeks and throwing out rather a lot of them when they had wilted, I decided to try and grow a few myself. Now, I am not a gardener. I enjoy it on the rare occasions I do it but I would much prefer to do other things. The main problem with that is that after a rush of activity I then forget about things and have to do a major weeding and tidying job that turns me off gardening for a few more months. I was going to buy one of those above-ground metal garden thingos but they were so expensive. And, given my poor track record with gardening I thought it better to maybe start small and build up to bigger things. (The similarity between this and the 12WBT has not been lost on me - another good lesson learned and put into action!)

My 3-pot herb garden.
Maybe the kumquat (in the largest pot)
will get regular watering too.

So, last Friday I went to Bunnings and bought a selection of herbs - plus, snow peas and a strawberry plant. I also got some veggie and herb potting mixture.

Yesterday I cleaned out a couple of old pots I had lying around with dead plants in them and planted out the herbs. I have put the pots close to my front door where they have a good chance of catching my attention so that I will remember to water them.

It is all about setting yourself up for success. Those 2 'P's of Planning, Preparation and Persistance! And in this case, Purchasing, Pot Preparation and Planting!

Comparison with others serves no purpose, but ...

I was watching Michelle Bridges' 12WBT Weekly Mindset video the other night and she was saying that comparison with others serves no purpose if it is going to have a negative impact on you. I have not really been one to compare myself with others. I often admire, but I am lucky in that I rarely envy. But I often compare what I was like with what I am now and I am not happy with that. And yes, it can be negative. It can be immobilising. I know I can't swim like I used to look like I was when I was younger, or be the same person I was all those years ago. But I really don't want to either.

No, I have to backstep on that - I would absolutely love to be able to swim as fast as I used to because that ability was wasted on the younger me. I was so fearful and nervous and terrified of failure that I never enjoyed racing. I think that now I would, maybe just maybe, have better perspective and not be crippled by the anxiety of the past. But that is not something that I can really test as my 56-year-old body is not going to swim as fast as my 16-year-old body.
But I can be the best version of me. The me of now who has a gorgeous son, still has a mother alive, great friends who take me with all my foibles, and two dogs who think I am just perfect (such perceptive and intelligent canines).

Michelle Bridges

Anyway, back to the story. I was watching Michelle's video broadcast and I was agreeing with everything she was saying. Then realised I had wasn't actually listening. I had totally zoned out and was, instead, fixated on her lovely toned arms, thinking to myself "I want arms that look like hers!" It wasn't envy, it was admiration. It wasn't me thinking "How dare she have arms that are toned without any batwings." It was me thinking, "She has worked hard for those arms and all that hard work has paid off for her."


The Future Me!

Then she started talking about how, as we are nearly a third of the way through the program, it would be a good idea to revisit our goals. And I thought to myself that I need to devise a goal that relates to my biceps. Because I already know what the reward will be - wearing a sleeveless top for the first time in over 30 years.

So, sometimes comparisons are useful, especially when they are used for inspiration.

My next blog will be how I may be becoming a 12WBT zealot :)