Week 11...the end is in sight :(

Only one more week before my time with 12 WBT is over.  Only one more week before I stretch my little muscles and fly by myself.  I look forward to the challenge.

Menu plans.

Again, good food, good preparation and happy family.  We even had a BBQ and used the char grilled steak with avocado and corn salsa to serve to our guests, with great success.  Fantastic to be able to physically show others how good the food is!

Love the chicken rice paper rolls for lunches....a little fiddly to make but once you get the rhythm it's all good.  Kids love them too and makes their lunch boxes just a little more posh HA!  The spaghetti and meatballs was a good dinner as well.

We ended up having visitors stay for a while with us and ate out.  I was able to put into place what I had learned about choosing foods, sauce on the side, portion sizing etc and stay on track.  It DID mean I wasn't able to try the kangaroo with quinoa and capsicum salad but I'm planning on doing that next week.  I never thought I would LOVE eating kangaroo so much!

  Sorry Skip...

Exercise Plans.

Due to different things that overwhelmed this week, I've missed my running training time this week :(  and really missed it.  Running has become something I enjoy so much, for all I struggle to breathe with it!  I was able to smash my personal best for 5 km in the Lara funrun last week....from 30 mins down to 26 minutes!!!!!  I was flying!!! Not as much as my kids....who ran 1.6 km in the kid dash.  Mr 11 yr old came 4th with a time just over 3 minutes (Cue shocked face here) and Miss 8 managed a very respectable 6 minute run. I met up with other 12WBTers and fellow gym ladies and the morning passed with sweat, puffing and endorphins.

In terms of weights I'm still chugging along.  I'm struggling with one thing though...the newbies in the gym who use equipment then leave it lying around so you don't know if it's still in use or not!  So had to compromise on some of my weights, not being able to use what I would have liked.
  Mentally I struggled this week too.  I feel like a failure, very down and slipping back into the " look at the ground I'm worthless" mentality. I know this is a problem for me and something I need to strengthen but I'm lost how to go about it. Very wary of counsellors/psychologists after 2 very bad experiences plus, I feel I am the problem, I should get myself out.....I just need to know how.  But until then I will soldier on, it's no excuse to give up.  Feelings are transient and who knows?  I feel like this now, but in a week or two I could be back to chirpy after a rest or a stern self talking to. My new mantra is NEVER GIVE UP, taking over from JFDI.

Personal bests for this week....
Reverse flys  10kg
Incline dumbbell bicep curls  8 kgs

The final DEXA scan

This week was the due date for my comparison dexa scan.  I was a little nervous and then the results came in. Little to no change.  To say I was crushed is an understatement.  Rarely have I ever felt so low, it was all I could do not to burst into tears at the thought of so much hard work, until I had nothing left in the tank, all the DOMS, all the healthy eating, all the work and mental work I had done to stay on track....all for nothing.  I sat on the train on the way home and thought it would be easier if I was in front of the train rather than on it.

Some excellent advice and brilliant support from the Lean and Strong Facebook forum helped set me fairly straight on what I can do in the future. And that the results are not as bad as I see, just not to my expectations. To be honest, I am still devastated. But I won't give up....how can it improve if I do? The results of the scan are as follows....
After 77 days
Bone 2.168    now 2.172  up 0.004 ( so yay no osteoporosis)

Lean  36.923  now 37.549 up 0.626

Fat     10.654 down 10.578  down 0.076

Body fat percentage  21.42%  now 21.03%

This places my fat free mass in the acceptable range  and my fat mass in the lean range.  Technically I need to lose 300 gms of fat to be in the athlete range which will be my goal.  As it turns out I increased my calories on advice, adding protein rich snacks but what that did was even out what I burned and what I ate.  As close to a balance as I could get it apparently, considering I wasn't quite sure what I should be doing! So onward and upward.  I may not be in the next round but every 12 weeks I'll be measuring and making sure things stay on track. So my last words to you this week are a timely reminder to myself.