Weekly Summary

Sleep average: 7.35 hours

Weight average: 63.1

Lifestyle cardio: walk 7 days

Training: 4 x weights, 4 x 10min incline treadmill walking, 1 x 15min intervals

Recovery: three hot/cold showers

Water: 18/21 = 86%

Food: 3 extra on-plan meals (hungry), 1 off-plan meal, plus food at wedding reception

Thoughts: less training and more food this week. Scale weight up as a result. Will keep going as I am for one more week, then make a few changes.

Weekly Summary

Sleep average: 8 hours

Weight average: 62

Lifestyle cardio: walk 7 days

Training: 4 x weights, 2 x 15min intervals

Recovery: four hot/cold showers, three 30-minute yoga sessions

Water: 16/21 = 76%

Food: 38/43 = 88%

Thoughts:

• have been a bit slack with water intake this week. Am good at drinking it early, but not so good later in the day. So will try and drink more of my water in the mornings when it's easier for me to do so.
• not so motivated with eating this week. I didn't save an off-plan meal for Sunday night as planned but ended up having one anyway, meaning my compliance was slightly lower than 90% (and average weight for the week slightly higher). So now I know I need to leave one off-plan meal for Sunday night. I also enjoy having one off-plan breakfast on the weekend. That leaves me up to two other off-plan meals for the week, and I need to work with that.

Weekly Summary

Sleep: average 7.7 hours

Weight: average 61.6kg (same as last week)

Lifestyle cardio: walked daily

Training: weights x 4, 15min intervals x 2

Recovery: four hot/cold showers, three 30-min yoga sessions, one myotherapy treatment

Water: 19/21 = 90%

Food: 38/42 = 90%

Thoughts
- Sleep getting better but still need to keep working on it.
- Will be interested to see what measurements say next weekend. My average weight this week is the same as last week. I've exercised more (and therefore eaten more) - am I just maintaining?
- Need to make sure my only rest day (Sunday) involves as little exercise as possible (including walking) so I feel refreshed for Monday.
- I should save one off my off-plan meals for Sunday night as cooking is the last thing I feel like doing then.

Phase 3: days 22 to 28

Am feeling a bit stressed about the amount of work I have to do at the moment (have two jobs on the go) but want to keep posting as it's great for keeping me accountable and helping me to see where I'm going. So for the time being I'm going to do one post for the week and update it each day, rather than doing one post per day.

Date: Mon 26 Jan
Sleep: 11pm-7.30am (8.5 hours) Bathroom at 1.00am (1L water before bed)
Weight: 61.6
Lifestyle cardio: walk TJ to park
Training: Workout B (hang snatch, military press, Russian twist, prone row)
Recovery: 30-min yoga DVD after walk; hot/cold shower after training
Water (not including workout drinks): 3/3
Food: 6/6

***

Date: Tue 27 Jan
Sleep: 12.30am-8.30am (8 hours) Worked till 10pm, then couldn't sleep.
Weight: 61.5
Lifestyle cardio: none
Training: Intervals (swimming, 1 lap fast, 1 lap slow for about 15 mins) Forgot how much I enjoy swimming. Will have to do it more often.
Recovery: none
Water: 3/3
Food: 6/6

***

Date: Wed 28 Jan
Sleep: 1am-7am (6 hours) Couldn't get to sleep - hot!
Weight: 61.7
Lifestyle cardio: walk TJ to park
Training: rest
Recovery: 30-min yoga DVD after walk
Water: 3/3
Food: 6/6 Hungry today. Favourite meal = dory with cashew pesto, and sauteed eggplant and red pepper

***

Date: Thu 29 Jan
Sleep: 11.30pm-8am (8.5 hours) Great sleep. Feel asleep on couch with air-con on.
Weight: 61.5
Lifestyle cardio: walk TJ to park
Training: Workout C (box squats, pullups, hanging leg raises, cable rows to neck) Trained in 43-degree heat and managed pretty well - squats seemed much easier than last week.
Recovery: hot/cold shower after workout - good!
Water: 3/3 (not including workout drinks)
Food: 6/6 Hungry until afternoon then had workout (lots of carbs)
Favourite meals:
Omelette with fetta, red capsicum and eggplant
Grilled dory with a salad of sweet potato, red capsicum, eggplant and spinach, plus grapes

***

Date: Fri 30 Jan
Sleep: 11.30pm-6.30am (7 hours) Didn't sleep that well. Woke up with sore shoulder from doing cable rows to neck. Not helped by taking dog for walk this morning.
Weight: 61.6
Lifestyle cardio: walk TJ to park
Training: HIIT (sprints, 45s on, 135s off x5)
Recovery: 30min yoga DVD; accupuncture for shoulder
Water: 3/3 (not including workout drinks)
Food: 6/6 Hungry

***

Date: Sat 31 Jan
Sleep: 11.30pm-7am (7.5 hours) Woke with a bit of a headache.
Weight: 61.4
Lifestyle cardio: walk to coffee shop and back with Rob and TJ
Training: off
Recovery: none
Water: 3/3
Food: 4/6
Off-plan meals:
skinny latte, protein shake, nuts
super vege supreme pizza on cauliflower base, glass of chardonnay

Favourite meal: omelette with mushrooms, olives, red capscicum, eggplant and fetta cheese

***

Date: Sun 1 Feb
Sleep: 11.30pm-6am (6.5 hours)
Weight: 61.7 (not so hungry yesterday since no training. Didn't go to bed a bit hungry like I have done lately)
Lifestyle cardio: walk to cafe in Brunswick and back with Rob and TJ
Training: off
Recovery: none
Water: 2.5/3
Food: 5/7 (Had a repeat of meal 2. Not starving but was an alternative to the chocolate and chips being eaten around me)

Off-plan meals:
small juice, bircher muesli (made me hungry!)
homemade beef schnitzel, broccoli, glass of pinot noir

Favourite meals:
chicken salad with spinach, tomato, cucumber, fetta cheese, pumpkin seeds, and olive oil, flax oil and balsamic dressing
beef schnitzel

***
Weekly Summary
Sleep: average 7.4 hours.
Weight: average 61.6kg
Lifestyle cardio: walked 6 days
Training: 15min intervals 2/2, weights 2/3 (planned to do a session on Sunday but ditched it in favour of starting Phase 4 on Monday)
Recovery: three 30min yoga sessions, two hot/cold showers, one accupuncture treatment
Water: 20.5/21 = 98%
Food: 39/43 = 90%

Pretty happy with most things this week. Just need to keep working on sleep. Want a minimum of eight hours, preferably 8.5.

Phase 3: day 21 of 35

Date: Sun 25 Jan

Sleep: 1am-9.30am (8.5 hours)

Weight: 62.1, down 0.1

Lifestyle cardio: walk TJ to shops

Training: HIIT (sprints: 45s on, 135s off x5)

Water: 3/3 (plus workout drink)

Meal compliance: 6/6

***

Weekly Summary
Sleep: average about 6 hours. Trying to be asleep by 10pm isn't really working since Rob doesn't usually get home until 9.30pm. So have rearranged my schedule so I go to sleep later (11pm) and get up later (7am).

Weight: average 62 (TTOM)

Lifestyle cardio: walked 6 days

Recovery: 1 hot/cold shower. Not enough time spent on recovery this week. Trying to do yoga in the afternoon isn't really working so am going to try going back to doing it in the mornings.

Exercise: weights 2/2, 15 min intervals 2/2 = 100%

Water intake: 20/21 = 95%

Food: 40/43 = 93%
Happy with off-plan meals as they were all healthy:
-Organic beef burger (no bun), mashed coconut cauliflower, glass of pinot noir
-Yoghurt, protein powder, cocoa, walnuts, cherries, frozen into 'icecream'
-Greek chicken salad, glass of chardonnay

Thoughts: Happy with consistency of exercise, food and water intake. Need to clean up my act with sleep and recovery. New schedule to tackle this:
7.00-7.30 up, eat M1
7.30-8.15 walk
8.15-8.45 yoga
8.45-9.00 turn computer on, make tea, check and respond to work emails
9.00-4.30 work (eat M2, M3, M4)
4.30-7.00 get ready for gym, walk to gym, train, walk home, shower, cook
7.00-7.30 eat M5, do household chores
7.30-8.30 work
8.30-9.30 personal internet time
9.30-10.00 eat M6, catch up with Rob
10.00-10.30 read in bed
10.30 lights out
11.00 sleep

Yes, I am a control freak!

Phase 3: day 14 of 35

Date: Sun 18 Jan

Sleep: another 10 hours (interrupted at 2.30am by Oscar)

Weight: 61.3, up 0.1. Interesting. Guess my body needed the carbs after two lower-carb days. Expected weight to be a bit higher than that this morning. Sometimes it can take two days for carbs to show up on scales, so will 'weight' and see what tomorrow brings.
Total down 1.4

Relaxation: walk TJ to park.

Training: HIIT (sprints: 45s on, 135s off x5). I was aiming for RPEs of 8.5/10 and 5/10 for each phase. Out of interest I checked my heat rate about halfway through my workout, at the end of a sprint phase, and the end of a walk phase. I used the hand sensors on the treadmill, so don't know how accurate they are, but I got 155 after the sprint and 120 after the walk, so I'm working at 65% to 85% of maximum heart rate when I do these. Might try and measure heart rate for the shorter interval sprints next week.

Water: 3/3 (plus workout drinks)

Meal compliance: 6/6

***

Weekly Summary
Sleep: average 7 hours - need to go to bed earlier!

Weight: down 1.1kg since Monday.
Possible reasons:
- three days off training this week, and I chose to have low-carb meals for dinner on those three days
- added some supplements on Wed (fibre drink with flax seeds, fenugreek seeds and chlorophyll; banaba extract; R-ALA)
- had lots of tuna this week because it was too hot to cook
- not much coffee or sweetener
- more water

Relaxation & recovery: walk daily, 1 x 30-min yoga session

Exercise: weights 2/2, intervals (15 mins) 2/2 = 100%

Water intake: 19/21 = 90%

Food: 39/42 = 93%
Happy with off-plan meals as they were all healthy: two salmon meals, and yoghurt, protein powder and nuts

Thoughts:
- Should have waited until the end of the week before adding in supplements, as it makes it harder to assess what is responsible for the weight loss.
- Morning yoga has slipped a bit this week as I've been busy with work. Think I might try and do it on rest days at the same I'd normally do weights or HIIT, since that time is already scheduled for exercise, and then I can do longer sessions too.
- Skin is improving - don't know if it's from taking out wheat and sugar (always helps but not sure which is the culprit) or increasing water, or both. My workout drink lately has been Vitargo (barley starch) so no sugar there either. It's nearly finished so will be interested to see if replacing it with something sugary like Surge makes any difference to how I feel.

***

Decision Day
Have been following this plan for two weeks now, so time to assess and see if I want to make any changes. Rob isn't here to do my measurements but I've lost body fat (mostly from upper body) and I'm guessing lean mass has stayed the same or decreased slightly. Scale weight has decreased 1.4kg.

Training is going to stay the same for now (weights every third day, two HIIT sessions a week on non-weight-training days). I'm going to keep food on weight-training days and HIIT days 'as is' as that seems to be working well. On rest days I don't feel like I need much in the way of starchy carbs, so I'm going to try cutting out the sweet potato at dinner. So now my menus will look like this:

Weights day (every third day)
M1: egg whites, whole egg, beans, veggies, cheese, fruit, fish oil
M2: yoghurt, nuts, protein powder, Vital Greens
M3: lean protein, salad, nuts, oil dressing, fish oil
M4: lean protein, salad, nuts, oil dressing
Weights (protein and carb drink)
M5: lean protein, veggies, fruit, rice & sweet potato, fish oil
M6: egg whites/protein powder, fruit, oats/quinoa

HIIT days (2 x per week)
M1-M4 as above
HIIT (drink with BCAAs, glutamine and Vital Greens)
M5: lean protein, veges, fruit, few nuts, sweet potato, fish oil
M6: egg whites, whole egg, fruit, cheese

Rest days
M1-M4 as above
M5: lean protein, veges, fruit, few nuts, fish oil
M6: egg whites, whole egg, fruit, cheese

Will reassess in two weeks.

End of mega-post, LOL.

Phase 3: day 7 of 35

Date: Sun 11 Jan

Weight: 62.5kg
up 0.1
total down 0.2

Relaxation: walk TJ around lake. He was a bit growly with another big lab, so I had to try and wrestle his lead onto him before anything happened. That got the heart rate up!

Exercise: workout C (box squats, pullups, cable rows, hanging leg raise)

Meal compliance: 6/6

Weekly summary
Weight: hasn't changed much (down 0.2kg since Mon) but legs and stomach are looking better so number doesn't phase me
Relaxation and recovery: walked daily, yoga 3x
Exercise: weights 3/3, intervals (15 mins) 2/2 = 100%
Meal Compliance: one extra meal on Mon (weights day), 1050-cal 'treat' instead of meal 6 on Wed (rest day)
Thoughts: Once the first two weeks of this phase is up, I might replace the evening starchy carbs on rest days with an equivalent amount of nonstarchy veges (eg instead of 75g of cooked sweet potato I can have 300g of cooked cauli). That should keep me nice and full and get my metabolism going a bit more. In the meantime, my goal for next week is to increase my water intake. I'm going to aim for 3L plus workout drinks.

OK, it's 8.30 and I'm off to bed. Feeling a bit worn out after only five hours sleep last night (up late then woken early by the cat), plus trying to find 1RM for box squat today. Managed 70kg OK but got a bit cocky and bumped it up to 80 and got stuck. Oops.