Can you believe we are on week 9 already? 9 weeks of 12 and what I like to call ‘Round 1’ because I am set and ready to go for another twelve weeks at the start of April… after a few days of giving myself a rest, of course. Really, I should just call this the twenty-four week challenge, but it doesn’t have so much as a ring to it. So, we shall now name it…
The 12 Week Challenge: Round 1 – The 12 Week Challenge: Round 2
And, so on, until I lose the weight I need to. When Week 9 kicked off, after being a pig for a week, I was ready and raring to go with so much energy. On Monday, I decided to do a weights workout for chest and triceps, followed by the mini HIIT and stretching. My energy was at 100% and I wanted to work off the week before. This was also the first day my other half had said he was going to “start eating healthy” with me, so we had each other to motivate as he also started his fitness journey.
Actually, at the start of this, I probably would have loved to have him be this person to motivate me, but I realised this far down that really it is up to me to motivate myself.
So, Tuesday rolled around where HIIT was cancelled and I went straight downstairs and completed a Burn, which does as it says on the tin – burn. Wednesday followed with a PT session with Chris for a leg sesh and then Thursday rolled around and… I couldn’t walk. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but when you set new PBs on leg day you know that you’re going to burn for the next few days. However, I told myself to go out for a walk to get my steps in, then get back and do Tabata.
Yeah, Tabata did not happen.
Not because I didn’t want it to happen, or maybe it was because I didn’t want it to happen, but by the time I had completed a 5 mile walk and burnt 700+ calories with over 10,000 steps, I sat down and felt my body temperature drop and I knew I needed energy. My legs had also almost seized up, so I wasn’t entirely sure whether doing a Tabata, which involved a box and your legs, was a good idea, so I bunked out and decided to have a chill night. It was okay though because I burnt a ton of calories and had already done three out of my usual four days workout routine.
On Friday, I woke up with a bounce in my step, my legs were much better by this day, and headed downstairs to workout with Chris for my first morning session in ages and I felt my energy drop. I knew it was because for us women there’s always one time of the month where your energy levels drop so much that you feel cranky, sweaty (oh, the hot sweats suck!) and your body aches.
I don’t know if this is the correct term, but my auntie did tell me that apparently it’s called ‘Bulletproof Week’. Bulletproof week is the week prior to a ladies TOTM, where energy is 150% and you feel amazing and then one day you get from that 150% to 5% energy and you slump. I like that term because I LOVE bulletproof week, I just hate what comes at the end of it. Once things start to happen, it only takes a few days before the energy jumps back and it wouldn’t be long before I knew Week 10 was going to be a powerful week!
Final note: It came to the end of this week when I decided that as of Week 10, I was going to start weighing myself once a week on a Monday as I’ve been so bothered about the scales everyday that it was weighing up on my own mental health.
Chris is always there for these discussion and thats the best part of having a personal trainer. He is there to rationalise, review and adapt the programme with me and if I feel low or demotivated he picks me up or even better he makes sure I pick myself up. Everything over the last 9 weeks has been about being consistent and using the 7 points of progress. if one area doesn’t seem to be changing Chris reminds me of the other 6 points. This is because we are not perfect and training for a goal is about adapting, review and being consistent.
Here is to Week 10 I am coming for you… Nicole