Wednesday 3 October 2012

Week 1, Day 1 | The Birth of Something Beautiful

.....I am hoping that 'beautiful' will be abs and other such chiselled features!

Today is the day. I did not plan any of this – it just happened. Last night, my personal trainer friend, Shauna, was telling me all about this challenge she was doing with her clients. I must have looked half-interested, as she offered to take me through it this morning. In bed last night I came up with the bright idea of creating this blog (see About Me).

So what happened?

My alarm rang at 6.55am. I had gone to bed in my sports bra and work out top so all I had to do was pull on my tracksuit bottoms and trainers. Shauna appeared at my door and I very graciously showed her my two fingers. But off I toddled down the stairs in her wake.

Before we started, she said ‘are you sure you are ready for this?’, and accompanied this ridiculous statement with a questioning look which shouted ‘YOU’RE GONNA DIE!’ ‘HELL YA…give it to me biatch!’, I replied. 

Deep down I was excited. I had a personal trainer in Australia a couple of years ago, and she instilled a love of exercise within me. I love being pushed and the feeling of accomplishment you get after it. My only problem is, I hate exercising on my own. I need someone to train with, someone to compete with and compare myself to. It  is quite sad!

‘We’ll see if you are half as enthusiastic afterwards!,’ Shauna said. ‘I’ll show her!’ I thought, and shrugged my shoulders. I was going to blow this out of the water and show her what I was made of. As bright as an annoying button, Shauna switched on the music and cranked up some Black Eyed Peas. We did a warm-up using an exercise step before starting into this eleven week challenge she was telling me about the night previously.

The idea is that you have a fixed number of exercises and over the eleven weeks you compete against yourself to better your time. The client who has improved the most wins.

I went hell for leather: 50 squats, dips, get ups, crunches, mountain climbers, back lunges, and a bit of TRX chest presses thrown in for good measure.

I moved swiftly through the first couple of exercises, and tried to remain composed in doing so. By the time I got to 25 of the back lunges my legs were burning. I decided to do 25 chest presses, 25 back lunges, and a final 25 chest presses to finish off.

Result?

I felt like puking. My whole body was confused with a mixture of trembling, burning and general aching – as well as the shock of being pushed to its limits at crazy o’clock. My face was puce and beads of sweat were appearing from all over my body.

Then Shauna looked at me and said ’15 minutes, 37 seconds, wow you crazy bitch. You’re not half competitive, are you?’ She informed me I had the best time of her clients so far. I got such a buzz from hearing that. I’m good, but I know I can be exceptional. Shauna is going to do that challenge herself and I am going to better her time before the 11 weeks is out.

I am going to report back to her each week on my time. Coupled with this, I am going to continue with my normal fitness regime of dancing and jogging. My biggest problem at the moment is my eating. I am living at home and the availability of food is just dericulous. I eat and I don’t even realise I am doing it. I love food. I am very aware about what foods are good, and which ones should be avoided (thanks to WeightWatchers and TonyFerguson). But following these guidelines is another ball game.

I have a feeling this is going to be a great journey….and MAN am I going to have a smokin’ body by Christmas – and I don’t mean the tobacco kind!

So to summarise my goal(s)....yes, plural:

  •     Beat Shauna’s time (me? Competitive? Never!)
  •     Get my BMI into a healthy range (I need to lose just under one stone – very achievable in 11 weeks (FYI here is a really handy BMI calculator if you lovely readers want to calculate your own BMI)
  •     Motivate as many people as possible to do something similar

As well as everything else, I am going to post a food diary at the end of each week. This means I have to think about everything that goes into my mouth.

Phew, wish me luck!

A very achey but extremely satisfied…


x

3 comments:

  1. Congratulations on such an entertaining, witty and informative blog Siobhán. I know only too well what it's like to loose and gain the same stone over & over again. I'm pretty sure that I've lost my total body weight over the last 7 or 8 years. I love my food way too much, great motivation to go jogging in the rain and snow but hell, I love my food too much. I always end up going back to WW as there's nothing like getting up on the scales in front of someone to get you to step away from the treats in Friars ;) I have to commend you on your brevity at getting up on the scales for the next 11 weeks in front of the whole of the virtual world (",). One of my friends recently put me onto this website/app - MyFittnessPal - it's a website that lets you set goals re. your calorie intake plus your fat, carb & protein intake. It's a great place to track your food consumption - has all of the brands of food you can think of. Since I've started I've actually found out that my fat intake is ridiculously low - which is counteractive as you actually need fat in your diet to get rid of fat (or something along those lines - I'm no nutritionist so if someone can explain that, feel free to). Anyway, it's worth a look (I think). Can't wait for your next blog. Hope you smash last weeks time. Best of Luck.
    Sinéad xx

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  2. Sinead,

    Thank you soooo much for your lovely comment! I didn't think anyone would take ANY notice of any of this! The pressure is on now!

    My Fitness Pal is so great! I am the same with low fat intake would you believe. I think my problem at the moment is not my eating or my the amount of exercise I am doing, but rather the fact that my body has got used of what I'm doing. I have to start shaking things up and shocking my body. The last bit of weight is always the worst!

    Glad you enjoyed reading it - I love writing so much and it's great that people thing it's entertaining! Shauna wants to take before and after pictures of me tomorrow, but that sounds as if it will involve showing a bit of skin! Not to sure how I feel about that but I guess it would be another motivation!

    Hope you are keeping well - and keep reading! xxx

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  3. REASON TO WHY NOT HAVING ENOUGH "GOOD" FAT IN YOUR BODY IS COUNTERPRODUCTIVE: I like to simplify what I find others take a considerable amount of time to complicate at times, so hopefully ill be able to do this so it makes sense!....... Muscle is easier to break down than the present fat in your body so when your body is not getting enough good fat it will burn muscle to get it's energy. Your body needs muscle to keep your metabolism going at a high pace so if your body is burning your muscle instead of the present fat in your body it is slowing your metabolism and therefore letting your body store more fat!!!....... And that my dear people is why you need GOOD fat in your diet :).....P.s - Siobhan your gonna do great and you'll be glad of the photos when you see the beginning result right beside the end result :) Chat soon all,
    Sincerely,
    Shauna (SMC Fitness)

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Feel free to keep me motivated :)