Tag: Cardio

FITNESS UPDATE: MY POSTPARTUM WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY MARCH 2018

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This month has been an amazing month of testing my boundaries with eating chocolate (because Easter), starting a new fitness class, making friends (which might or might not have resulted in a day of cocktail drinking and a disgustingly delicious Italian pasta meal), and of course, a month of yet again wearing my lycra gym pants 5/7 days of the week because of the much-loved spandex benefits.

If you remember my brave decision as of last month to finally ditch the bloody scale because we weren’t really seeing eye to eye, then you’d have probably guessed that YES, I was of course close to a little pants piddle when tallying up my results from the last 30 days with my monthly weigh in and measurements. The main thoughts running through my mind were “Have you managed to pull this off?” and “Heavens above, please don’t let the scale defeat me”. Having not checked in on my results weekly as I normally would have kind of left me off track, not really knowing what to expect.

4th March vs 4th April

Although my results aren’t happening as fast as they once did before, I am reaping the rewards in other ways. I started this journey as a size 18 and have bought my first pair of size 16 jeans during the month of March. I also have a few items of clothing that I set as short term “goals” to fit into. These were mainly tops/coats that were too tight around my arms, but now fit. Yay!

One size down in my new jeans named after Harper! Yay!

MARCH’S WEIGHT LOSS TOTAL

Although, the scale says I have only lost 1.6kg this month, my measuring tape says otherwise, with a MUCH more positive attitude. I am 9.5cm down in total around my body for March.

TOTAL CM LOST AS OF 4 JANUARY TO 4 MARCH:

March has been a great month of movement as I have started an aerobics fitness class twice a week, followed by a bums and tums class straight afterwards. These classes burn an average of 850 calories twice a week, which KILLS me, being 1hr and 15min total, but it is so worth it and is a fun way to do cardio.

My daily goal at the moment is to burn 500 calories worth of exercise a day. Monday, Wednesday and Friday are weight training focused exercise days and Tuesday and Thursday are aerobics classes cardio.

I am going to start encouraging myself to be a little less lenient when it comes to weekend wine, as it is Robbie’s birthday next month and I’d like to wear something feminine and flowy and hopefully in a size smaller.

4th January (left) vs 4th April (right)

I’m looking forward to the next month of this journey, and hopefully a smaller Mycaila will be writing to you from behind the computer screen next month!

Keep those bottoms moving, heart rates up and calories down!

Until next time,

Mycaila – Jade

 

FITNESS UPDATE: MY POSTPARTUM WEIGHT LOSS JOURNEY FEBRUARY 2018

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This month’s journey has been an interesting few weeks of trial and error, making space for room to grow (well not literally – we’re trying to shrink in size LOL).

I’ve been on this journey for EIGHT short WEEKS!  When I realised how long I have been on this journey, I couldn’t help but feel a little sad, thinking that I should have lost at least a minimum of 8kg this far. I had a pity party moment, sulked, might’ve eaten a Cadbury’s crème Egg (or I might not have), and read back over my progress chart to try and figure out where I have gone wrong.

And besides for the Cadbury’s Crème Egg, I realised that I hadn’t really gone wrong anywhere! I’m not going to pretend as though I’m a Positive Percy 25/7 (25 (not 24/7) because wannabe over achiever).

Thank heavens for the progress chart, because that ended my pity party very quickly. Although I have had a month of crazy toy – toying with my weight on the scale, my measurements have really fly kicked through what I thought were feelings of disappointment of thinking that I could do better. Only losing 1.6kg this month can send one into a state of such thought, especially after losing almost 5kg the month before.

January 4th 2018 to the left and March 4th 2018 to the right.

So, what’s going on? Why is the scale playing with my feelings like this?

First things first, anyone who is on a weight loss journey should know that the scale is NOT a true reflection of how your body has changed for MANY reasons – especially if you’re a lady, but more of that for another day.

I have always used the scale to measure my “success”, but have also let the number that reflects back at me control how I feel when it’s not what I want to see. For this reason, I have made a big decision going forward, which is to DITCH THE SCALE and my weekly weigh in and only go by measurements.

I’m doing this because for the last month of hopping on and off the scale every week, with minimal results and fluctuations more disastrous than the stock market, I have been second guessing my progress, feeling somewhat demotivated. I will be doing a casual weigh in once a month to keep myself in check and relying mostly on the progress of my monthly measurements results.

THIS MONTHS UPDATE

Although I have only lost 1.6kg, I have also lost a total of 13cm – which backs my decision even more to ditch the scale.

This brings my total weight loss over the last 8 weeks to 5.8kg with a total of 29.5cm lost all over. My measurements have gone done the most around my “mum pouch”. I have lost 11cm around that area so far, which makes my little heart very happy as this is a VERY difficult area to lose from and a total of 6.5cm around my waist.

January 4th 2018 to the left and March 4th 2018 to the right.

Throughout this month, I have also tried to put my fear aside of exercising my abdominals after my C section – and I have managed to do an abs session at least twice a week now. I can feel that this area is getting stronger, slowly but surely. Abs have always been one of my favourite exercises to do, which is now becoming more of a reality again since having Harps – and I AM SO FRIKKEN EXCITED!

January 4th 2018 to the left and March 4th 2018 to the right – Not the best look, but small victories count!

So, if you are on this journey too, and you feel like you are taking one step forward, and … you guessed it – 2 steps back, then try and find the denominator as to why this is. Mine was the scale which was tugging at my heart strings ever so viciously, but I’m hoping that this new strategy going forward will help change the mind-set to get where I (you) want to be.

Until next time,

Mycaila – Jade

xxx

 

CARDIO CARLA

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And we are back, my arse and I that is!

Last week, my main focus was to put myself through the torturous life experience of attempting to nail cardio, and oh my but was this a challenge and a half! In my efforts to attempt such drastic events, I had the fabulous idea of starting my mornings off with a fierce power walk on the beach but that didn’t work out entirely well. The sky decided to put us through the misfortune of those glorious water sprinkles – how dandy. One cannot simply frolick about in such conditions, never mind a potential attempt to engage in a serious morning beach walk.

Maybe I was being too much of an Ambitious Annabel for our Winter mornings here in Cape Town, and for that, I had to move my idea into the gym and onto the treadmill, which didn’t quite have the same effect – strangely. It wasn’t so scenic and fresh – who would’ve guessed?

3 week before and after front view. SMALL progress!

3 week before and after front view. SMALL progress!

In attempts to unleash my inner Cardio Carla, my workout routine consisted of the following:

  • Monday -20 minute incline walk (incline 15, speed 5.5/6) & 20 minute rowing (level 8)
  • Tuesday- 20 min sprints (start at speed 12 for 1 min then walk for 1 min and increase speed by 1 for every new sprint) & 15 min cross trainer (work your way from level 8 to 15)
  • Wednesday – 20 minute incline walk same as Monday & 20 minute rowing (level 8)
  • Thursday – 20 minute Bicycle cycling (level 10) & 15 cross trainer (work your way from level 6 – 15)
  • Friday- 20 minute jog between level 10 and 11.

This weeks cardio was quite a challenge after the first 3 minutes of each exercise, I yet again questioned life and swore to be well behaved in the kitchen from now on, which seems to have magically happened.

In combination with my cardio this week, I also included some light sets of weights:

  • Monday, Friday – Legs and a teeny bit of abs

Squats (20 reps of 25kg total x 2, then 15 reps of 35kg total x2)

Deadlifts (super light 15kg dumbbell – 20 reps x 3 standing on two benches, which allows you to dip lower)

Abs –25 reverse crunches x2 sets, 25 crunches x 2 sets, bicycle x 25 a side, 15 toe taps x 3 sets)

  • Tuesday, Thursday – Arms and abs

Overhead dumbbell press 10kg , 3 sets of 15

Plain old bicep curls 8kg, 3 sets of 15

Tricep extention, 15kg, 2 sets of 12 reps

Tricep dips, 2 sets of 15 reps

Weighted sit ups (5kg – 3 sets of 15 reps)

Russian twists (5kg – 3 sets of 20 reps)

Leg raises (3 sets of 20 reps)

Wednesday was my retirement day from exercising, apart from my cardio. One does need a day off during the week to gather their life and thoughts. I am happy to say that I am 4.5 kg down so far in my efforts to donate a few kg to the land of unwanted fat.

3 week before and after side view

3 week before and after side view

This weeks main focus is a combination of lighter cardio and heavier weights. So far, my bottom is being a bit more well behaved and I am excited for the upcoming week of my next torturous workout routine and genuine struggle for air during cardio.

I hope all of you Sweaty Nettys are having a monstrous week and killing it in the gym. Summer is just around the corner! Almost time for suns out, bums out, Ladies!

Mycaila-Jade

xxx

INITIATION STATION

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Oh hello there,

Right so after last week’s trauma of having to all locate our arses while recognising its current scary size, I decided to get myself into gear and test my bottoms’ boundaries with none other than my own exercise and meal plan. Both my arse and I are happy to report some success and have this issue under control! How fabulous!

In the process of teaching my bottom some manners (as stated in my last post), I must say that the firmness of my rear ends personality turned out to be somewhat astounding in terms of fitness levels. Not only did I nearly die but I seemed to have somehow survived my gym routine! What are the chances? At this point, my faith in miracles had been restored.

My routine this week was to ignite my inner gym Jeanie and burn some serious calories; 500 of them per day to be exact! To make it easier for myself and to avoid chances of boredom and distraction, I came up with a plan.

This plan was to break up my cardio goal into sets of 10 minutes on different machines and to burn 100 calories per 10 minutes with a 2 minute break between making another machine my next victim, or other way around. I started off on level 8 on the cardio equipment and increased as beast mode took over.

To be honest, this worked out well, but I did start hating life after the first 3 minutes of cardio on most days, and made mental notes to never touch anything potentially fattening or unhealthy again, as one does when struggling for air on the treadmill!

For the most part I survived the torture and was nothing short of a proud Percy this week for pushing through what seemed to be the impossible.

I made friends with the squat rack every second day and did an alternation of different squats, stiff-leg deadlifts and calf raises. It’s all about trying to get to the Town of the Tight Tush now, isn’t it?

On days that were not leg days, I tried out a combination of my own ab exercises and pulled the most unattractive facial expressions while doing so as my core seemed nonexistent. A Sweaty Netty displaying such ghastly gestures is really something you don’t want to lay your eyes on in the gym. New rule: make as little eye contact as possible to avoid own personal trauma!

After the survival of my daily exercise routine, I found it best to fill up on something nutritious. After all, I did make life altering decisions on the bloody treadmill! I made meals (YES, I COOKED) that were high in protein and veggies (lots of green veggies) and super low in carbs and made sure to down at least 2-4 litres of water a day.

Another important decision which I have made is to cut out alcohol from my diet, apart from the odd glass of wine every now and then to keep the levels of sanity intact.

A walk/hike in Newlands Forrest did my friend and I well one morning on the weekend. This was obviously a less visible way to attract attention to ourselves when short of breath and gasping for air. After all, it is a less populated area with minimal eyes watching the struggle. Definitely appropriate to say that the struggle was real!

I think it’s safe to say that my first week of discipline has been a success while arse manners have been taught appropriately. So far, I have more of a well behaved arse and I am excited to take on the upcoming week.

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Mycaila – Jade

xxx