Day 22

I know, shocking....the last time I posted a blog was a number of days ago...
Well.  It has been rather busy and hence the slacking in the blogging.  I've been preoccupied with two assignments that I needed to work on which have to be handed in on Friday (Monday today). On that note, I have stuck by Tracy's diet as best I can.  Again, have substituted certain elements, but nothing seriously. For example, if she had a wilted spinach stew, and I had Kale to finish up, I'd use the Kale...so nothing too serious there.  However I have had 2 evenings where I had a work function on and didn't follow the menu for the dinner which was accompanied by some alcoholic beverage.  I can safely say that I never went overboard on the alcohol consumption, though it wasn't part of the TAM master plan and hence would have hindered my ultimate success.

As for the exercising, there were a few nights that I sacrificed all my spare time to working on my assignments and the exercising took a back seat again not major though would have hindered my ultimate weight-loss success.

Okay, having said that, I have also come to the conclusion, that after I have completed boot-camp.  I will have to ultimately follow boot-camp again or as a guide line in order to continue with my weight-loss goal.  I think the menu plan has given me a good indication as what can be eaten and the ingredients for a full days meal plan.

Now, the results so far: dun dun daaaaaa:

Bust: 95 cm - now 94 cm - 1cm loss
Waist: 74.6cm - now 73 cm - 0.4cm loss
Hips and Tummy: 85.5 cm - now 88 cm (that's an odd one?)
Thigh: 54cm - now 55cm (again, another odd one?)
Calf: 36.3 - now 37.1 (I'm seeing a pattern here)
Bum: 94 cm - now 94 cm (no change)
Arm: 30 cm - now 29 cm - 1cm loss
Weight: 60.2 - now 59.8 kg's (yaaaaay!)


I know my measurements haven't been exactly adding up.  I'm loosing weight but putting cm's back on and no, it's not muscle.  Hmmm, me thinks hubby needs a lesson in using the tape measurer... Well besides that, i'm not at my ultimate goal and I know there is still quite a bit of work to go.  My ideal goal weight is 52kg.  When I reach 55kg, I will be ecstatic and know to push through for the remaining 3 kg. However, I am just super super super pleased to have past my 60kg plateau and finally on the 59kg level...  Although I am hindered in not being able to exercise thoroughly with all the work that I on at the moment (just one week left of it) and progress is slow, at least there is progress.


I have to mention this.  I stumbled onto a Victoria Secret fashion show.  Boy, those girls are absolutely blessed in the figure department.  The Bible speaks of angels impregnating humans and creating beautiful heroes and giants (Old Testament).  I reckon those leggy girls certainly have that perfect gene in their bloodline.  Now they did motivate me to become super slink and sexy (for me and my hubby) however I realised that I will never be able to look like them because I am a mere 1.58 cm (5.2 or 5.4 ft) in height and they are all above 5.9 ft tall! Okay and obviously they are all super beautiful and I started to get really depro :(  Then, I immediately remembered the Youtube clip with Tracy doing her photo shoot for the Meta dvd's.  Given that she is a petite lady who is probably the same height as me, she still looks so amazingly, toned, healthy and super sexy.  And as I watched that clip I just thanked the heavens for Tracy, as that clip so motivates me that although i'll never be tall like the VS models, I someday can have the super amazing body Tracy promises (if you follow her way) vertically challenged or not!

Day 7 - Part 2

Lunch, snack and dinner were good.  I'm really struggling without milk in my coffee and tea and have tried Lactose Free milk.  I'm weaning myself off of milk and having a treat with the lactose free milk is keeping me going.  Naturally if my weightloss is not up to scratch, i'll be more strict but as it's such a hard diet and very restricting (yet tasty), before I binge on something terrible...  I was so hungry today and have a handful of raisins...better then some sugary treat but not good overall...  As it's the weekend, it's easier to focus on food, when i'm work, it's all good (as long as no one brings cake, more temptation).  Even though there were so many birthdays in February - 4 in total in the beginning, Friday was my only stumble.

Well, a week has passed and for the first 2-3 days, I was super amped and motivated.  As the hunger kicks in and the exercising seems relentless, I think i'm going up a steep hill.  I gather I'll gain momentum again, it's just crossing the 1st week barrier.  I keep on checking on Tracy's facebook page for motivation.

I managed to do a pumped up session of the 40min workout and 40 reps for all the exercises. I also kept the radiators on so that it was nice and toasty which made me sweat it out.

Although I've just eaten so feeling full and drinking lots of water, I had my measurements taken, dun dun da daaaa...:

Bust: 95 cm - loss 2 cm
Waist: 74.6cm - loss 1.4 cm
Hips and Tummy: 85.5 cm - Loss 7 cm
Thigh: 54cm - Loss 1 cm
Calf: 36.3 - Loss 1.2 cm
Bum: 94 cm - Loss 1 cm


Good weightloss - especially surprising was my hips and tummy results! Crikey!  I can't help wonder how much more it would have been if I exercised on Friday and Saturday and I had not had the wine... :(  Oh well... just picking myself up and I'm back on the trim pony!

Weigh-in Day tomorrow...another dun dun da daaaa moment.  Also, my colleagues and I are monitoring each other's weigh loss so it will be interesting.

Day 7

I had work to do and dedicated the whole evening to finishing up so I didn't end up exercising. The good news is that my cold is much better so I have more energy.

For breakfast, I had Day 6's meal, so it was kale juice and a boiled egg.  Now surprisingly, the kale juice was really refreshing.  I did it the night before and then chilled it, so it was rather tasty!  I have a blender and blended the kale and apple to a pulp with some water.  I then had to manually strain the pulp from the juice or eat the pulp as well, though I wasn't up for that this.  Well the juice is rather delicious.  My blessed hubby managed to locate kale from Planet Organic when he did the grocery shopping.  I've read up that kale is extremely healthy for one with lots of nutrients.  

I weighed myself this am...i know, naughty naughty, not meant to be weighing in everyday.  And i've gone up to 61 kgs :(  Darn you Friday night and lack of 2 days exercising.  I will have to work my booty off tonight to make up for the loss.  I want 60.4 again!

Day 6

I woke up a little hungover and really hungry.  I have decided to do Day 8 for Day 6, and i'll do vice versa when i reach Day 8 because I didn't have the energy to pop to the shops and I had the ingredients for Day 8 in the fridge.  For breakfast I had the mixed berries though as mine were frozen, I blended them to make a refreshing smoothie - good medicine for my head!

I was super hungry because of my blood sugar levels being shot because of the alocohol, and had 2 slices of toast with peanut butter.  This helped but again...not good for the Method!  I made the broccoli soup and even Paul liked it, it was really tasty!

My snack was the beetroot and orange, but as I have some kiwis and no orange, I had 125g of kiwi, beetroot and apple.  I know Tracy says not to substitute though I had no choice.  It was still refreshing.  

I really hope I can pull the energy to exercise this evening...I have to!

Day 5

Well, breakfast was rather refreshing with the grapefruit though by lunch time I was really hungry and ready for the tomato, endive, broccoli and chicken (quorn chicken or me).  As it's so cold I heated mine instead of having it as a salad...but tasted just as good.  Hmmm, as it was my colleague's birthday, I allowed myself a little bit of chocolate cake and boy did it taste good.

I had a work event in the evening and ate the most healthiest dishes for starter and main.  Starter was a salad with parsnips, apple and macadamian nuts.  Dinner was grilled seabass with roasted onion.  Desert, I could have opted out, but I had a little slice of flour-less orange cake and yoghurt.  Though, I did have red wine..not good...too much of it.  I was hopeful to get home and exercise, but the evening went on quite late so that didn't happen, especially after a big meal and alcohol.  I'll have to exercise extra hard or something on the weekend to beat the scales for weigh-in day on Monday!!!

Day 4 - Part 2

The soup for lunch was scrumptious - really enjoyed that although I swapped the chicken for quorn chicken. The kiwi snack was okay, my kiwis were a bit sour and sharp so it was quite tangy and tart for my liking.   I also had dinner before exercising, I was hungry needed to eat!
Because of my cold I only did 30min of cardio, it was hard jumping up and down bunged up.
I did however manage to push and do 40 reps for each exercise, boy was I sweating.  I also had some tea with milk to combat the hunger later that night.

Day 4 - Part 1

Arrggghhh!  My cold is still with me.  I am taking my multi vitamin and luckily the diet requires oranges for certain meals, more vitamin C to combat this cold.  I weighed myself this morning, which I have been doing everyday and I know it's not recommended and to only way yourself once a week but I couldn't resist!  I have dropped to 60.4kg (yesterday 60.8kg) so that's over 1kg of weight loss so far!  Faaantaaastic!

The breakfast berry compote was refreshing though it's only 10:25 and I'm ready for lunch!  Have to push through!

Day 3

I was pretty exhausted after the late workout session early that morning for Day 2.  Again the meals were good though the hunger was starting to kick in in the evening and I had a cup of tea with a little milk to help combat the hunger pangs.  My hubby Paul snacked on some cereal in the evening as he is sort of following the meals with me though not as strictly and he is allowed to eat carbs, and I pinched 2 bites of his Special K cereal but that was it!

It's really testing me about diet and just goes to show how easy it has been for me in the past to fall into the reward trap, which Tracy mentions in her book and have a 'nicey' which is what Paul and I like to call sweet treats...  I love to bake and cook and baking can be a good excuse to whip up a little treat for us...not good for healthy eating regime.

I also woke up in the morning with a cold...not great but this is not going to stop me.  In the past yes, very easily, but i'm pushing through!  I pulled off the 40min cardio which was so hard when you're a bit bunged up and I generally don't recommend or do exercise if i'm sick but as the cold isn't very serious, I felt I wasn't putting too much strain on myself.  I also pushed through and did the 40 reps of toning.  I was sweating and felt the burn but it all felt so good.  My stomach muscles are really sore when I cough or laugh but its a good pain.  Paul joined me in doing the stomach exercises.  It was really hard doing it with him because I kept on chuckling to myself as he groaned away.  I think I need to video record him and post in on you tube, though, I'm not planning on getting divorced so that might not be happening :)! He is so funny though.

Day 1 and 2

Day 1

I was super amped for Day 1.
For breakfast the strawberries and mint was rather refreshing and my colleagues were intrigued with my TAM menu and I'm sure were wondering whether it was another fad of mine [a flashback of me preparing for my wedding and the strict detox Goop diets I followed religiously and the colon detox, all in aid for my wedding, and bless my poor hubby, then finance, followed the Goop detox too).
Lunch's soup was tasty, I quite liked the sweet potato.  It wasn't easy though as work decided get pizza for lunch and while everyone was stuffing themselves on the array of pizza's available, wafting the aroma of freshly baked pizza in the air, I slowly sipped and chewed my soup.  I find that when it's my first day of a new fad / eating regime I'm usually super motivated so it didn't really phase me.
The snack was just delightful!  It was heaven in a pot, seriously!  Again this threw my colleagues that I was eating chocolate when I'm meant to be 'dieting'.  So yum!

CardioI had to work late, so by the time I got home, it was a little late but this didn't dampen my mood and I was soon changed in my gym gear.  My lovely hubby laid out the floor mats for me and off I started on the cardio first.  I pushed myself for 40min but seriously wanted to quit at 30min.  I recognised some of her moves from her other dvd's which was good.  I also notice that there is chopping and changing between certain moves that will be impossible to do like for like though I gather these are to give you an idea of what to do and how you can use the movements and routines to design your own routine which incorporates all her moves.


Toning: I really pushed myself to do 40 reps for each sequence.  As I said previously, I am very motivated during the first day so I had a lot of dedication.  However, I must stress, it wasn't a walk in the park (which is a good thing don't get me wrong and I liked the fact you could feel the burn which to me, means something is working).  Halfway through the legs, I felt as though I was one of those body builders at the gym who likes to groan out in agony every time he lifts a heave weight.  Now the heave weight was my heavy legs, but boy did it burn and I really pushed for the 40 reps.  I had the end goal of how I would look in my vision.  My husband once asked me if I would moan and scream during birth, if we were everyto well, I think I've answered his question the way I was groaning as I pushed through the last reps.  Heaven only knows if our neighbours heard us, what they thought we were up to!
By the end of it all, I was exhausted but happy with the good effort made!

Day 2

The food for Day 2 was good and I was really hungry in the morning.  I worked late again so by the time I arrived home it was super late.  I only started exercising at 12pm.  This is pure dedication, you would never have caught me exercising so late - especially till 2am in the morning!!!  Though I was not going to miss a day of exercising!  It was SO hard, the cardio was fun though and I found I had a bit more energy.  The toning was so hard.  I could only manage 30 reps for some and others I could push for 40.  By 2:30 I was exhausted but happy with my efforts..

T-minus 8 hours

I decided to start a blog to document my journey over the next month while I attempt Tracy Anderson's 30-day method.  In doing so, hopefully this will also motivate me to stick to this regime and finally achieve the results I have always desired.  To be the best that I can be.  I appreciate that I may not fully achieve my ultimate weight-loss and toned appearance following the 30 days however I am hopeful that this will finally kick-start my behind into gear, once and for all. I'm not getting younger and I would hate to look back in life and regret that I never made the most of what I have and be the best that I can be.

Rumour has it, as well as Tracy admits it that its going to be a tough 30 days and requires 100% dedication to achieve the ultimate results...so I better prepare myself mentally for this.

I have taken before photos and made note of my measurements so as they say, 'watch this space!'