Week 9 and I don't want it to end

I can see the ending is near.  Finale tickets are booked, the weeks are dwindling away.  This is my last round for a bit at my husband's request (who wants me to face the new challenge of doing this 'myself' by putting what I have been learning into action.  He has such great belief in me and I would be lost without his encouragement.) I am a little heartsick at thinking I am losing this little, or not-so little community, this feeling of belonging. As one door coses though, another opens.  And I don't think the 12WBT door will ever be shut tight, all it needs is another knock at the door.

Meal Plans

Another delicious week and easy making and preparing. I think, for me, this why the program worked.  My grocery lists are planned, ALL my meals are planned and everything takes little time to cook. The steps are simple to follow and I've grown in my skills as a home cook, using these recipes and new ingredients.

 The megahit this week for the family was the 12WBT Bimbap meal.  QUICK!  EASY!  DELICIOUS! and gone in 30 seconds :)  Easy enough for the junior masterchefs to prepare next time!

 The other perennial family favourite are the cacao fudge bites.  Next time I make these, which will be.... oooo, about 20 minutes from now, I'm going to roll them into balls, much like rumballs.  I like to add a little water to help press the mixture into shapes, and thought I may try to experiment with using a tablespoon of juice, perhaps orange and factoring that into the calorie count.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Lunches this week were great and easily made.  Lots of asian salads which I love, and the roast vegetable salad was good too.  Note to me: next time, cut the veges smaller before roasting. The menu plan for next week is looking YUM and I already have a request from Mr 11 for the 12wbt lasagne as a treat meal.

Exercise Plans.

I overdid the legs this week and paid the price. On Monday I did a CX class and Attack class and there's lots of lunges and squats/jumps in those.  Then Tuesday I had PT which was all legs and Wednesday which was a leg weight day.  Come Wednesday night and I had DOMS to rival that of when I ran the halfmarathon.  If I could have cut my legs off to get some sleep I would have, it was painful, with no way of getting comfortable. So lesson learned there, big time.

My motivation to get to gym is lacking but once I'm there I'm all ready. Tiredness is creeping in and I think it is just a case of doing too much in my life, as opposed to diet or exercise.  Need to find that balance again.

Personal Bests for this week are few.

Bent over row with barbell  32.5 kgs
Dumbbell pullover on fitball  12.5 kg
Walking lunges with Kettlebells  12 kg
Standing upright row with barbell 25 kg
High cable overhead extensions with the rope  28 kgs
Pec Dec machine  32.3 kgs
Bicep curls with dumbbells  8 kgs

Have a little whinge to make....my gym has recently held a recruitment drive, highly successful by the looks of it.  Way more people in the gym which is good.  What is not so good is there are also way more people loading up machines with weights, then standing around having a chat, or wandering off, or worse, finishing their sets and just leaving them there.  I get frustrated because you don't know if the machine is still in use, and if it's not, then unloading 60-80kgs of weights before I can do my sets is an extra workout I can do without. So, I am just mentioning it to the front desk when I'm in tomorrow, maybe the trainers on the floor might be able to just remind people of some of the gym etiquette....or help me get the weights off! There, whinge over....let's move on.

SSS and Weekly Challenge.

Well....lets start with the challenge...it was a Vlog again BUT this time had a time limit of 1 minute. 1 MINUTE! to try and explain how much my life has changed doing 12WBT.  I had so many ideas on how to do it but couldn't put any into fruition because I am just not a technological genius....so I wrote a poem and filmed it badly.

Now...my SSS......was a BLAST!  I convinced some friends to do it with me....we all entered the Valley Stampede.
It was so much fun!  An obstacle course over the paddocks in Wandin on a freezing cold 11 degree day.  We waded, rolled, fell and crawled through mud, under barbed wire, waded through chest high ice water, up and over a bus on a cargo net, over 8ft and 9ft sheer walls, logs, tyres, tunnels, down a giant 50 m slip and slide, ran up hills and through trip wires, leaped over fire pits, hurdled over barrels in a dam while being hosed by the CFA fire hoses, climbed up ropes and over car bodies.  We even braved the electric shocks....10 000 volts of electric shock is like a sledgehammer to the body!  But we did it.

BEFORE:

and 1 hour after:

see?  WAAAAAY FUN!

I want to share another pic....this one is of my daughter Miss 8.  I missed her sports day through work, and it was a beaming little girl who greeted me with her chest fluttering in the breeze...

A first for hurdles, a second for sprints and the teachers star award ...for behaviour and achievements on the day. Well DONE MISS 8!!!

Finally for all of us...........I hereby bestow upon you the.....