Day 31 - Boat trip with temptations...

Can feel my muscles today, the new workout is definitely kicking in.

Managed to avoid complete disaster yesterday on our boat trip with friends. Turned down the pink champagne offer without hesitation, picked through what used to look like a healthy lunch, prawns (covered in seafood sauce), quiche (left the pastry), chicken (nuggets had two), salad (oil, dressing, picked mainly the cherry tomato) and then for the grand finale... pavlova, had one small spoonful and covered it with fresh berries that we had brought with us in an attempt to stay on track. So not perfect but ok. Clive and I both felt a little squeamish after the sugar hit of the pav.

The weather was awesome and we had a great swim into the beach and back to the boat. Body is slimming down so felt good in my bikinis which was great. A little sun, sand and salt always makes me smile. :)

Day 28 - Skipping Day Off

Ha Ha Sarah, funny thing is, I did the creep in my garden too as there was someone in our gym and I thought I should test it out in private. Sweated up a treat too as it was about 32 degrees and humid that morning in HK. Think I'll just do it in the gym next time now I think I know what I am doing.

I was the same yesterday, so hungry, I did miss my carbs at lunch, forgot to pack them (yes I'm still forgetting things, nearly forgot my lunch today, again!) so had an extra serve of fruit instead and that soothed the hunger.

Going to be a testing weekend as Saturday we are off to Shenzhen for a day trip, no idea where we will be eating and Sunday on a boat with great friends of ours who like a little indulgence so will have to stay strong right? :)

Day 26 - feeling good

I feel good today, a bit of a pause in weight loss has kicked in but I've lost a couple of kgs so far and feel different and excited about getting fitter and slimmer. A bit worried about bulking up to much, I like a lean body and my arms and legs can muscle up pretty easily, don't want to look like a body builder or a bloke.

Recovery when skipping is improving and like Sarah said it is so different to the first week or two. I did the new crawl this morning and couldn't believe how much it raised my heart rate and breathing.

A long way to go to get to my goal weight but will get there over time.

Day 22 - Did I forget something?

6.30am, workout - check, cool down - check, milk, gulp - check, plate with yummy toast/avo/tomato/egg - check, relax read my book and eat breakfast, feeling good, feeling relaxed....feeling like I've forgotten something....Bugger! Forgot my squats...

Ate my last mouthful of breaky and trudged off to do my squats and get all hot again before my shower.

Must be my week for forgetfulness, forgot my lunch (nearly) 2 times this week, whilst walking through the door with the sticky note "have you got your lunch?" put there by my husband Clive, who drove me home the week before last because I forgot my lunch. Lucky we had friends staying, who obviously were more switched on than me at that hour and saved me by yelling from the shower, "Have you got your lunch?"  I'll be in trouble next week when they go home. My poor husband, must tattoo my forehead, or tie some string, or something.

Day 19

Had our first night out last night and guess what...had a ball, and stayed on track whilst watching our wonderful friends (here on holidays) down what looked like a days worth of PCP food in one sitting and many pints of beer. Clive and I kept it on track by ordering a small steak and a small fish and a shared plate of vegies washed down with some bubbles (not champagne, mineral water). We then went and saw a group from the Melbourne Comedy Festival perform (in HK) and it was hilarious, was nearly ab crunching with laughter the whole way through. We caught a cab home at 10pm to prepare breakys and lunches and crawled into bed exhausted. The other two stayed out drinking till all hours. Gosh I sound like their Mum or something.

Anyway the moral of the story is today we feel great, I got up and did my workout at 6.30am Clive is doing his at lunch time and the other two are just getting up now with sore heads.  Don't worry those two party animals are tough and will power through by the pool this afternoon or shopping up a storm, but I couldn't help but feel a little lucky that we'd woken up clear headed and filled with a real feeling of health and achievement.

Give me strength on the weekend.

Day 13

Felt a bit tired yesterday when it came to the workout. Started skipping and thought, "this feels a little different than usual". Normally I feel good at the skipping point. I forgot my afternoon fruit and munched it down just before the workout but I don't think this is the issue. Just my body tired. Clive said he felt the same. Must be day 12 peak in our house, but we pushed through, thank goodness it was squats day and not lunges.

Definitely not hungry and have lost a bit over 2kgs so pretty happy, it's a start. looking forward to the end of week two and a skipping day with new food/workout plans. I hope everyone is going well.

Day 9 - Stuffed Peppers YUM

Just thought I'd post a little recipe that Clive and I made this week and it was really yummy.

Clive and Tracey’s Chicken Stuffed Capsicums

This recipe is great for using up any leftovers you may have e.g. rice or vegies previously cooked. Rice can be replaced for cannellini beans and spices and herbs changed depending on taste. You can pretty much stuff them with anything but this time we picked the following (adjust in quantities to equal your meal allowance of Carb, Veg & Protein). We made four so we could take two to work for lunch.

1 T x Olive oil

4 x Capsicums (any colour)

1 x Onion diced

4-5 x Garlic cloves crushed

20 x Pitted Olives chopped in half

1 cup x Tomato passata salt free

4 x Slow Roasted Tomatoes (Gwyn’s secret recipe see below)

Parsley chopped (a handful)

2 x Chicken breasts steamed and shredded with forks

Paprika to taste

Cayenne pepper to taste

Rice – cooked one tablespoon per pepper

100g Fetta

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Cook Chicken breasts and shred with forks. Cook rice and chop ingredients. Cut the top off each capsicum (like a lid) and drop into boiling water for 2 minutes, then drop into cold water to cool, turn them upside down onto kitchen paper to drain.

Heat olive oil in pan and add onion to sauté, when soft add garlic paprika and cayenne pepper stirring through. Add chicken, olives, passata, tomatoes, parsley and rice, stir to warm through and combine but don’t overcook.

Stuff peppers with mixture, layering a tablespoon at a time and topping each one with a feta slice.When they are full put the lids on and bake for 40 mins.

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Slow Roasted Tomatoes

• Vine-ripened tomatoes
• Olive oil

Preheat the oven to 150°C.

Cut the tomatoes in half horizontally, rub with a tiny bit of olive oil and a pinch of salt, and bake, seed side up, in a 150°C oven for 3–5 hours, or until they look nearly sun dried (the edges will be caramelized and the moisture will be almost entirely evaporated). These keep, well refrigerated in an airtight container with a bit of olive oil, for at least a week, so make a whole bunch at once.

Enjoy, and please share some recipes with us, Trace.

Day 8

Woke up early today, can't believe it's Friday and day 8 already. As I couldn't sleep I decided to hit the gym early and give my new workout a run. Thinking I would need an hour I surprised myself when I was done in 30'ish minutes. Hope I'm doing it right?
I had nothing to do the incline pull up on so I ventured out into the heat (it's hot in HK at the moment) and found a handrail outside the gym to do the job. Probably no quite the right angle but it worked, and my arms are sleepy now so it did something. I hope the neighbors weren't watching.
Im feeling good, Clive and I are noticing changes in our shape already, even if they are small something is happening.

Day 4

Sunday was really tough but we got there.

After a midnight Saturday night departure from the Maldives we landed in Hong Kong around 1pm a little weary. Two 4'ish hour flights and little sleep was a bit of a shock to the mind and body after our 8-10 hour snooze sessions on holidays. But we had a plan.

After unpacking the suitcase we headed out to stock up on fruit and veg and returned home to fill the fridge with healthy options. The footy was on, I was a little sore from the previous lunge and squat sessions, and we didn't have a skipping rope yet (we had been using the rope at the Maldives gym), it was very tempting to say "it's just one day off". 

But I read Michael's blog (thanks Michael) about skipping without a rope and the image of him jumping without a  rope as his wife giggled at him made me realise we really had no excuse. So we did our workout jumping imaginary ropes together trying not to laugh and I suffered my way through the squats (Clive was fine) then headed for the pool for a little dip before dinner.

Breaky was yum today, avocado and egg on a piece of toast and I feel good today. I think pushing through the muscle aches has sent them packing, we are going to buy a rope at lunch time and I'm looking forward to a workout tonight. Just a pity I'm back at work today with shoes on again, I'd rather be snorkeling with Clive.