So pleased with my breakfast this morning. Last night I made an omelette with mushrooms and spinach, put in the fridge overnight and re-heated this morning. It was just as if I made it, was perfect!! Also very filling and delicious - good start to the day.

Of course, BEFORE that I'd already done Skim's Garage Workout - Full Body A. Was good. Hamstrings are STILL sore from Saturday but I warmed up properly and was still able to do today's deadlifts and they actually feel fine now. Will have to see what happens during the day - I'll do some more stretches tonight.

Hope you all have a good day!!

PJ that sounds exciting!! Keep us up to date with the news.

Hi Lou, a break is good and really it's 70% about nutrition, so if you are on track with that you are more than half way there.

I've had a fabulous day today. Found a sports warehouse online and I emailed them during the week and went and picked up some new weights etc today. I think the garage is my favourite place to hang out now

I took a progress shot this morning and can notice a difference from registration so I'm happy about that, sometimes it's easier to take a photo and compare them than the mirror, as looking at yourself every day gets hard to tell the difference. From now on I think I"ll take a photo every Saturday and print it out and glue into my training journal.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Lil I am not a fan of the treadmill or cardio in general for that matter. Watching TV is a good solution, I have a TV in my garage for when I do the Spin Bike, but I rarely put it on... I prefer to blast out some really good music and I time myself - one minute hard, one minute easy or variations of intervals to keep it interesting. OR PODCASTS are great - listen and learn things at the same time! Health podcasts have been a big part in keeping me on track, particularly last year.

I do walk a lot, and I think that's more interesting than the treadmill because at least I'm outdoors and have things to look at. But that's my method of getting to work and back so I can't really avoid it either.

I'm doing well. Have had a couple of re-feed days in the last 3 weeks and then yesterday was the day from hell so I had a day of not eating. Had dinner and a hot chocolate 500 calories, so lets call that an Intermittent Fasting day. I'm up early this morning to cook breakfast and I AM DEFINITELY going to eat my lunch today although it will probably be standing up in the work kitchen shovelling it into my mouth between meetings. Wouldn't be the first time.

Workouts are going well, still doing the 3 x full body workouts as they are fitting better into my work schedule at the moment and doing cardio 2 x per week (like this morning) and walking 10,000+ steps per day.

Have started taking a photo every Saturday for my training journal. Can see a difference between rego and now - but weighed myself and have not lose a single gram. Exactly the same weight. If I was hung up on that sort of thing it would really be p*ssing me off by now, but I've learnt to not worry so much about the scale and more about how clothes fit and what I look like. Still...

What I've learnt so far - every day is a new day!!! Clean slate. If something doesn't go so well the day before, acknowledge it and move on.

Keep moving forward challengers!

HI Lou and Candi

There are always a lot of external things that can affect our performances, partners are one and illness is another - and you have both had them this week! Lou I'm sure you'll find it easier to be in a routine when your hubby comes home and Candi, you have to rest to get over this flu - it's a really bad one. I was the same in bed for 3-4 days when I had it and I am not the type to lie around unless I'm at death's door!! Please get over it before you start training or you'll exhaust yourself.

I've had a rough few days with one thing and another, still on track with training although my diet has been less than perfect. I'm quite tired and I thought I needed some more carbs, but really I think it's just stress getting the better of me this week. I did my 4 week update photo yesterday and although there is a change, it's not as good as I initially wanted but I have been eating more than the allowance and I honestly don't think I'd be able to survive on the strict diet without going off on a huge binge so I think I'm better off eating a bit more. I've had a look at the new diet plan, less fruit on it for this next 4 weeks but basically the same as the first 4 weeks. I wasn't following it strictly anyway but it is a good guideline, especially on days when I don't want to think.

Training is now a 2 day split, 4 times a week, so I'm going to have to change things up a bit. I had switched to 3 x full body sessions just because it fits in better with work and life and was really enjoying them too. I'll go back to 4 days training but I'll have to do my back to back days on Saturday and Sunday as I find it too hard with work to be getting up super early 5 days a week. Then I'll do Tuesday and Thursday weights and might have Monday as a rest day, Wednesday and Friday cardio days.

I have friends coming over tomorrow for a get-together. There will be wine and food... I'm doing some healthy options but haven't had a wine since I started the challenge - will have to see how I go and with any luck will stick to my plan.

Hope you have a good week! We are a third of the way there!!

Sunday update - end week 5

This week just gone was a fabulous failure in most respects. My diet was atrocious and I missed a training session, which isn't that bad but I also didn't get in my 10,000 steps a day, so exercise was nowhere near my goal.

Why? Well - lots of things just happened and I didn't cope with them very well. I gave in to sugar, and when I do that there's no stopping, I had a few big binges on chocolate and icecream - which I purchased specifically to eat it all myself!!

oops.

Anyway, woke up yesterday feeling sick and tired. So I sat myself down and had a good talking to myself and got back on the wagon. I had a social function yesterday, I did have 4 glasses of wine but didn't eat badly. Today have had a good day, been out walking and also made up my missed workout. Been eating well and have no more junk to eat in the house, that is half the battle. Also cooked up some Cauliflower Fried Rice for this week's lunches, so I'm half way to success.

One thing that I have learnt in the challenge, is that I don't like eating small frequent meals. I can do it for a week or 2 but long term, it just doesn't work for me. I start to want to eat earlier in the day and after I've been doing it for a while, I start to feel hungry a lot.

I find that if I fast in the morning I feel much better with a big lunch around 1pm, 4pm protein snack, 6:30pm dinner and dessert (usually yoghurt, PP and berries) before bed. So this week I think I might go back to eating like this (because it really works for me) and see if it makes a difference keeping the sugar cravings at bay.