I decided to take a progress picture. I looked at my most recent progress pictures and wasn’t sure how much I’d made, but then I compared them to my initial pictures (from Day 1) and was so happy that I wanted to post them in a photoset.

This is the amount of progress I have made in my upper body in 131 days, or since March 26th 2012. :)

I think I’m only going to post on days that I work out from now on - which should be about 3 times a week.

I’ve been eating fairly healthily recently and rehearsals for West Side Story are keeping my cardio up twice a week. There’s this one dance that’s 12 minutes long and I’ll be damned if every single person doesn’t have pit stains by the end of it.

I did my new programme for the second time today, and actually printed off the sheet to tick off each date I do it. I want to do it at least 3 times a week for the next 5 weeks before seeing my personal trainer again.

Overall, things are looking up for me.

How’re you, followers?

Whoever said you’re just a workout away from a bad mood was really, truly, bang on the mark.

After doing my new programme (sent to me by my personal trainer) for the first time, after being pretty self-loathing and non-exercise-y for 2 weeks or so, I feel bloody great. This regime is a lot more demanding than my old one, and it’s also a lot longer, but bloody hell will it whip me into shape.

I realized about half way through that if I put all the energy into complaining about my health into making conscious, healthy decisions and working out, I’d probably have the body I envy on other people. 

Today marks a turning point. Today is the day I get back on the right track, and stick it out for as long as possible. 

Hey guys. Haven’t exercised at all this week because I’ve had this really bad cold that’s affected my mood etc, and I’ve actually been fairly busy all the same. I hosted my school talent show on tuesday (for the last time, sniff) and attended a different school’s concert on Thursday, I had job interviews Monday (rejected) and today (pending), so I haven’t really had time to do anything. 

HOWEVER, I HAVE GOOD NEWS.

Today I saw my personal trainer for the first time in roughly 8 weeks, and we measured my progress.

I’ve lost a kilo, and am down to 14.6% body fat. I’ve gained 1cm of muscle on my arms, and I’ve lost 5cm of fat on my waist. 

I’ve been thinking for ages that I haven’t made any progress, but now I feel really good. My Personal Trainer is going to give me a new programe which will finally make use of all the fitness stuff I got for my birthday, meaning hopefully I can keep this level of progress up.

I’m so happy :D

Will definitely be working out this weekend!

Today was bloody immense.

So I ate fairly healthily, and drank fairly healthily - and sure, I had a little bit of Diet Coke, but I also had a load of orange juice and green tea and water, so I figure overall it balances out. I had a load of wholegrain bread and only a little bit of a peanut butter and, yeah, overall, it was pretty good.

But it got to like 11pm and I decided I was going to skip my workout - I was feeling pretty down about lack of progress and the fact I’ve not managed to do the full 400 skips required for the 2Hard Challenge at any point, yet. Around 3pm I’d tried to do it, got to 100 and was knackered (in hindsight, probably cause I’d just eaten.)

Then I came on tumblr to post about my day, and I saw two images that completely changed my mind. The first one was the last one I reblogged, and the second was an image that said ‘the voice in the back of your head that says you can’t IS A LIAR’ (which I’ve put in my queue) and just like that I was really motivated to work out.

I added an extra set of everything I normally do into the workout, so instead of doing 2 x 20 sit-ups, I did 3 x 20 sit-ups, etc. I got to the end of my workout and was knackered but still ok, so I decided to try and do as many skips as possible for the 2Hard Challenge, in reps of 100. I managed the first one OK and noticed that I’ve made vast improvements in hand-eye co-ordination since I started skipping a few weeks ago. I felt good enough for a second rep, and managed 50 skips without stumbling in a row: a personal best. This inspired me to do a third rep, after which I was determined to do the fourth.

But get this, right.

I took a short minute’s break between the third and fourth rep, and then went for it. And did all 100 of those skips without stumbling. 100. In a row. Without pause. In, like, a minute and a bit.

I used to stumble every sixth skip. Now I can do 100. How’s that for progress?

Chuffed to hell, I stretched and had a shower, and chilled out with some video games. I may not have loads of visible progress, but I’m making progress all the same. Today was epic, and it’s all due to the motivation the fitblr community provides.

I think I might’ve actually made the reverse of progress in the last 40 days. It’s really depressing me that my progress is so slow - and I’m aware that particularly in the last 2 weeks my eating hasn’t been great and I haven’t exercised as much as normal, but I still wanted to tone up faster than this.

I know things don’t happen over night but I just feel like the last 40 days have been wasted. But obviously the right thing to do is just recommit and redouble my effort, and stop thinking ‘its my cheat day’ everyday. In the last 2 days I’ve drunk more water than anything else, but have eaten a fair amount of sweets, and I need to cut those out as much as possible.

I’m going to work out before I go to bed and start again as it were tomorrow. (The one on the right is more recent)

Day 34

I hadn’t actually weighed myself since the first week, and so I was quite surprised to see that I’d lost roughly 3 pounds in the month or so that I’ve been exercising. I don’t have a digital scale and my eyesight isn’t great so I think it’s 3 pounds but it could be slightly more, but either way I’m fairly happy with my progress. This comparison isn’t particularly amazing as I think I’m sucking in my breath a tiny bit in the later picture, but it’s still a fairly accurate representation. There’s still some belly to lose before I can start muscle building on my abs. I’m happy with this. Though I’d admit to a twinge of envy to those before-after pictures I see where they’ve gone from where I started to toned as hell in 4 weeks, but I guess they worked a lot harder than I did. 

I didn’t do any active exercise today per se, but I had a full-on rehearsal for West Side Story in which we were running and jumping about for roughly 3 hours so that pretty much counts. I still did my 25 second plank, though. I’m amazed by how fastly I’m able to up my planking time, to be honest. It feels really good to make progress with something quickly. 

My diet today was fairly good. I’ve got to stop waking up so late that I skip breakfast. In honesty, I need to start getting to bed earlier in general. I might add that to my list of goals. I had some bananas and some pitta bread for breakfast. Got home from rehearsal and had an apple with some peanut butter, and am having this really nice lamb dish for dinner that possibly in’t healthy. I had a lot of orange juice today as well as some lemon water. I need to drink more just-water to be honest.

How’s everyone else’s day been? Is it time for you to make some more measurements/recordings of progress? :)