TourdeForce

sounds like you're in such a great mental space, and that can only help you achieve your goals! Glad you had a fantastic weekend, and enjoyed yourself and didn't overanalyse or feel guilty, but just got back to gym and good eating! Such awesomeness

argh sorry to hear the doctor troubles. Hopefully you can find a new one. In the meantime keep up with the swimming and the cardio and easting well! Hope the end of the challenge went ok!?

I didn't fall off the Earth I promise!! Things have been really busy finishing up at work, so so much going on. I also finished up my last month at the gym, so haven't been doing any BW workouts. BUt, I did go hiking the Ngong Hills, which were insanely hard! 6 hillls, VERY VERy steep, I would say we did maybe 10kms in total. It was great practice, and very beautiful. Also been keeping up with weekend walks in the forest, so not too bad. I did give up on the running though as it was hurting my knees. Maybe when I've lost more weight I can try again. Luckily Cape Town has beautiful hikes all over the place so when I get home I will continue with all the walking! We leave for Mt Kenya on Saturday morning....eeeeeek! But hopefully will be ok. Mostly packed, my folks arrive today- yippee! Tomorrow is my last day at work, and then that's it. Will post pictures when we get back. Thanks to everyone for coming along on this slightly wobbly journey! As I will be doing a lot of travelling/holidaying/moving I will be skipping the next challenge, but back in the new year and getting settled into new Nerdfitness life at home. Whoop!

Thank you all!!! The food poisoning has abated, leaving only large bruises on my hands where the nurse poked me with many injections...more war wounds. The party was pretty fun, not too much drinking and lots of dancing, which was pretty brave of me. It was a very late night early morning, so I slept in til almost noon on Sunday! But then I got up, and it was hot and sunny, and before I even thought about it I put my swimsuit on and dived into the pool to clear my head. Divine! Then called the taxi and went for my walk in the forest! Whoop! I made sure I had plenty of water to rehydrate myself. Think I shaved about 3 minutes off my previous hike, did the 10k in 1:54. Also finished the first series of the Hitchhiker's Guide radio program, really does make the walking enjoyable when you're laughing out loud at Douglas Adams' brilliance. I wore braces on both my knees and they seem to be ok this week, so that's good. I haven't been back to gym, but will go tomorrow and do a bodyweight workout. I also made a new friend and we're hopefully going to go for a hike in the Ngong Hills this weekend, which will be different from the forest, plus company. Then just 2 weeks to go....eeeeeek!

Do it Leothil! For the vegetables! It is hard though, when one person can eat whatever and one person is trying to eat more healthily. Good work choosing the veggies for yourself! Sorry about your hip, I hope you can try do some stretches to try ease the pain. And definitely give yourself some leeway on exercising, don't want to injure yourself too badly! Have a good weekend!!

*sigh* such a pity. But agreed, it's hard to keep up a relationship when only one of you is a bibliophile. Still, new friends are good! Hope things are getting a bit better with the stress and exhaustion. And your cake-baking friend sounds like the most amazingly good human on Earth, so glad you got to have cake! Hope you have a good weekend!

WHOOP!!! 3 fist pushups!!!! That's awesome! Sorry, also been away for a bit so catching up, but sounds like things are going well - at least what is noticeable is the change in attitude about food. My shopping list looks exactly like yours every week, I make chicken thighs, beef patties and boiled eggs (well I did, but I've somewhat gone off eggs ) and then green veg and fruit. It helps me to not have to make decisions beyond should I have chicken or beef today? And when I'm already having internal battles about going to gym or not drinking too much wine it does simplify things. It does also help in a way that your body reacts so strongly to a slice of bread, now it's just the process of reminding your brain that instant gratification (that delicious glass of wine in my case) equals delayed pain later (the throbbing headache and dull nausea of a mild hangover now that I'm no longer as young and strong of body as I once was). Anyway, glad you had a good weekend in Santa Monica and got out in lots of fresh air and sunshine! Keep up the awesomeness!

Caught up! (well not really, but I mean you're halfway to Moat Cailin, that's hardly my fault! ) Anyway squueeeeeeeee cos Aussie holidays and I'm sure it will be so much fun! Sorry about the stupid bikinis, I don't understand how hard it is for all the people that make clothes make them according to actual measurements, but there you go. However I do think you'll be able to find amazing stuff in Oz, so take what you have and then you get to do a quick shop there, with the added bonus that one day in the future someone will compliment your awesome swimsuit and you can casually say 'why thank you, I bought it in Australia this one time I went halfway around the world cos I'am awesome....' WIN!

omg ALL of the yumness! I will definitely be investing in some sort of device to make zoodles when I get back home, those look amazing, and my weakness is most definitely pasta. You look like things are getting back on track with Mr Kailer in the house and as long as you keep trying to make better choices you are awesome! Also, great idea to do weightloss/maintenance together to keep each other both motivated and sane. yay!

yeah, looks like things are going well! Plus all the reading!

Glad to hear things are on the mend! How's the running going?

Just caught up, so glad you're getting into the swim classes (altho the getting up early is HARD!) but if it's something you enjoy then that's awesome! Plus also less strenuous on the knee, which I for one am very supportive of!! Hope you have a good weekend, and watch the knee!

ooh just caught up and that was an awe-inspiring post. tingles in my toes! I think you would be brilliant at an inspirational/motivational blog thing...also yes with the volunteering, I also rage at the injustice but do nothing about it because excuse excuse excuse. I also want to get into doing something helpful, although I'm not sure how my excellent knowledge of wine and food pairing can help people. But I do have other talents, and most importantly time! Would be great to see how you manage all that. I'm also glad you took some time to readjust your goals and fit everything into life. It's tough to keep things up, but that will help! Finally, good job on the interview, hope everything turns out just the way you hope!! ps, I'm totally there like The Flash to NF Oktoberfest! Hell's yes! pps If you guys ever find yourselves in Southern Africa I have a couch and know all the best secret wine farms in the Cape...

aaaargh, so right when I was back on track I managed to give myself food poisoning. This is not something I would wish on my worst enemy...I think it was probably a lack of keeping track of how long the eggs had been in the fridge, and also how they were soft-boiled. Anyway, I spent part of the day at the local clinic in a freezing room with an IV drip after the nurse kept poking holes into my hands as she couldn't find a vein, and then thankfully they let me go home to sleep off the rest of it in my warm bed. That was Wednesday, and today I am mostly back to normal, although I have avoided eating too much besides fruit and yoghurt. I swear the amount of things I have experienced in this one year, both good and bad, is extraordinary. And this is before I've even got to climbing the mountain or going to the Maasai Mara! Anyway, so another thing to tick off the "life-lived" list in my head. I will try for a quick forest walk/run tomorrow, but will definitely go for a long one on Sunday. I'm having a small farewell party tomorrow, so I'll likely be a little hungover, but I desperately need to walk so will go anyway. Probably do me the world of good. This challenge is threatening to be derailed again but I will not let it! On the plus side I have drunk gallons of water since Wednesday...

gah, ok week 3 update: nope, nada, zero knees were not cooperative AT ALL, but I did get some braces and have been wearing them at work and I think the worst is over. I did have to laugh when I went to the pharmacy to get the knee braces and found them on the bottom shelf, requiring me to bend my creaky knees to get some. not smart people! Also made a crapton of bone broth so will have lots this week, and maybe that will help get some collagen into the knee caps. Anyway, so had to take a bit of a week off, BUT I'm feeling much better today. I will go to gym in the morning and do BWW and try do some knee-strengthening exercises as well. And try catch up with everyone on here -

WHOOP! Nerdfitness Gunners Unite!

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmbeer! What an awesome awesome trip! Yay! But also yay for dogsnuggles and rest

meeeeeh week 3 has not been so good My knee is still a bit sore - not muscle-sore but hinge-sore, so I haven't been doing anything except the walking to and from work and at work itself. Tomorrow I will try go to gym and do BWW, but maybe skip the lunges and see if the trainers can recommend some other exercises that strengthen knee muscles without putting pressure on knee joints... It's also made me realise that my knees are pretty dodgy and I probably shouldn't be trying to run 10k a week before Mt Kenya, the mountain is WAY more important (and especially as I'm still quite a bit overweight).. So will see how things go, will probably still do the 5k though, it's a family fun-run so nobody will mind if I walk it. Otherwise I had some incredible stressful news on Monday night, as well as a couple of VERY annoying days at work, so I haven't really been good about my eating. I'm also hormonal and therefore Hulk-like all of the time. It's good to notice how these things affect my decisions when it comes to food, even if I don't necessarily do anything about it. Yesterday I was desperate to go get a huge portion of fries, but I managed to convince myself not to. So small wins....

that is a terrifying story!! I'm so glad everyone is alright, and that you're taking a week off to recover. I'm sorry about the car though, that is really really crappy.

Yesterday I did the BIG walk - my knee was feeling a bit iffy so I decided to skip the 5k training and just walk the 10k. I was all set; water, apple, Hitchhiker's Guide original radio broadcasts on the iPad. But I didn't think to take a larger photo of the trail map, and there were quite a few places where the path was a little unclear...for the most part I trusted my instincts and would soon be rewarded with another blue flag on the path, but it was touch-and-go at times. It was a great hike, twisting up and down across the river in a little valley, so lots of hill-practice. I bumped into a guy and his son on bikes a couple of times, although we were both supposedly following the same route, one of us was going in circles, so at one point was starting to worry if I'd ever get out of there alive! But I did. I have to say I think the route was longer than 10 kms, but will track it on my gps next week and maybe get a closer understanding. I finished in 2 hours, and included cutting a little chunk off as it was starting to get late and I had a lunch do to attend! Great practice for Mt Kenya, and my boots didn't give me too much of a problem, only a small blister on my toes, but I put that down to 2 pairs of socks rather than the shoes. Lunch was AWESOME, so great to chat to like-minded people and enjoy REALLY good wine and food, and then I think I drank about 2 litres of water before going to bed! Had to get up a few times in the night but at least I woke up feeling ok. My knee is feeling extra tender today tho, I'm not sure if its from all the running, or whether it just took a knock when I fell on it last week. Decided to have a rest day as I definitely don't want to push it right now. Will see how I feel tomorrow... Week 2 Wrap-UP: BWW: 2/3 Run/Walk: 6/6 Water: 80% All in all an excellent week, got to try keep in up 2 weeks in a row!

Sorry, wisdoms are the worst! Hope you feeling better soon, definitely try some good soup for yummy vitamins and minerals to help you recover!!

That's so much amazing!! Both finishing your goal not even halfway though but also the bodyfat improvement!! Much high-fives!!!

yay for joyful reunions!! And I think it's wonderful that you can see how the changes you've started making are paying off, and how it's easier in your new location. I know I will find everything a lot harder when I go home, but now that I've been slowly making these healthier habits part of my life, it's a good start to help me change my habits back in 'normal life'. Hope you have a good week at the new gym!

I'm sorry you had to go through that, but I think it's amazing you had a first-aid kit and were able to help out where you could. Hope you're feeling better today! Enjoy the ren faire!

Yesterday was a total NOPE day. It started out well enough, I woke up before my alarm, got my food and gym bag packed, had a delicious breakfast of eggs and spinach and onions. But then work was just a nightmare of niggly little annoying things, including unwanted attentions that had to be shut down and the powers-that-be deciding to change a whole bunch of things that resulted in me having to redo the winelist I had just finished! So by mid-afternoon I was totally drained of the willpower to go to gym, or refuse a slice of cake in the office. I didn't keep track of water and moped around feeling very sorry for myself. However when I finally went home I did have enough reserves to avoid ordering pizza and red wine, and instead had some tea and read my book. But, never 2 days in a row, so this morning I got up early and went straight to gym. I think I only really woke up when I was on the treadmill, gotta love tricking sleepy brains! So I did my Zombies 5k training and did 5k in 44 mins again. I'm just really impressed that I now run 5kms on a Saturday morning. That.Is.Awesome. After gym I went to the shops and then did some cooking for next week, tomorrow I've been invited for lunch with some people, so planning to do forest run/walk in the morning, which means I doubt I'll have much time left for cooking tomorrow evening. Tomorrow's food will likely involve bad choices and lots of wine, but since it is an actual social occasion with actual people I like, I'm not even thinking about it. Week 2 Run: 5/6 BWW: 2/3 Water: better today, 6 so far, but also lots of Chinese lychee red tea. yum.