Wednesday 27 June 2012

Milestone Week - For More Than 1 Reason

Today marks the 4th Wednesday of our 12 week journey and it has been one of many surprises for me.  As part of this journey we need to revisit our fitness test and measurements every 4 weeks to see how we have progressed.  For some this can be a scary period as people may be apprehensive to see if they have lost many centimetres or if they have improved in their fitness test results.  For me this week is one that I have been interested in experiencing and also looking forward to.  This may be due to the fact that I can see tangible results and feel the changes to my body and fitness levels. Sadly this is not the case for everyone.

I was also fortunate enough to find out today that due to me starting this Blog and divulging my deepest darkest thoughts about my journey I was one of the weekly winners for the challenge set last week.  That is fantastic and a huge thank you to all those that nominated me and may even read this drivel.  I hope you continue to read it and get some interest out of my ramblings.

Now back to the Milestone week and the results.  I started this journey deciding, after listening to one of Michelle’s videos,  that I wanted to teach myself to run again.  For anyone that knows me or has seen me, they will know that this looks like an impossible task.   A man weighing in excess of 140kgs DOESN”T run.  Well I decided that following Michelle’s advice, which was that running is the best way to burn calories and lose weight, I was going to do it.  I never said I was going to be very quick or very good, but I was going to run.  My first effort at the 1km time trial was interesting to say the least.  I ran for the first 500 metres and then had to walk the next 250m and finished off with a shuffle to record a time of 7 minutes and 19 seconds.  Surprisingly this put me in the intermediate category  on Mich’s scale.  Finding out that I was less than 2 minutes away from the advance time of 5 ½ minutes was a definite carrot for me and now my goal at the end of the 12 weeks. 


As this week was the first time to revisit the Fitness Test, I ran this again on Monday night and did the entire thing at a much quicker pace, without stopping and managed to take over a minute of my time.  WOW!!!! That is unbelievable.  I now have a time of 6minutes and 17 seconds and only 47 seconds to shave off to get to the advanced section.  Add to this I managed to run 3 kilometres last night without stopping which I would have thought impossible after only 3 ½ weeks.  This journey is proving to me on a daily basis that I am more capable than I had imagined of so many things.
Following on the more mundane and less exciting tasks in the Fitness Test, which I managed some improvements on most, we came to the measurements section.  I won’t run through all the individual results, but the important part is that I have lost a total of 45.5cms off my body that is NEVER coming back.  I have managed to lose 9cms of my waist, which means those unworn jeans I have in the cupboard are very close to coming out and a total of 26.5cms combined off my thighs.  All this in only 3 ½ weeks,  how does this happen?
As you can tell I am very proud of myself at the moment, especially with the fact that I set myself some goals for 1 month, 3 months and 6 months as part of this program.  I have managed to hit all of them.  First goal was to train 5 times per week no excuses, which I have managed to train 6 days as stipulated. I wanted to also run 1km non-stop, which was smashed out of the ball park on Tuesday night.  Tuesday the 27th June is a milestone day for me as I proved that I can run a decent distance at my own pace and not worry about falling over, vomiting or more importantly giving up.  Finally I wanted to lose 10kgs in the first month.  This was a revised target after the initial stages as I was only looking to lose 15 kilos all up, but a I found my feet I decided that in order to do myself justice I needed to go as hard as I could.  This morning I weighed in and the scales told me I was exactly 10 kgs lighter than the day I started this.  This means I have now managed to reach all goals I set out for myself and I look forward to reach my next goals.
Bring it on I say, this fat man has a lot to look forward to and I can actually say that I now feel like a thin, fit and healthy man trapped inside a fat man’s body.  Once again the light bulb has been switched on and these little wins will only help me get to where I want to be and that is a lot thinner and healthier before I go to Bali in October for my 40th birthday.  Those Speedos are looking good for the Bali Hyatt pool deck.  You just never know!!!!!

2 comments:

  1. Well done!!!! Not sure about the Speedos though!!!

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  2. Leitchy, your 1 k time trial is great! Mine was 6 min 30 sec and I was really tired after. But after reading yours I am wondering if perhaps I am not pushing myself hard enough!

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