Do you ever have those days where you just don't want to? I had one of them today. I woke from my post night duty sleep early to let in my cleaner and she never came. This put me in a grumpy mood to start with. I waited for her for over an hour and no show and while I was waiting i went through the stages of exercise bargaining. First it was I don't think i'll train today, then it was maybe i'll just go for a walk. I was looking at Facebook as I was doing this and came across a post from my trainer about how well all of us in the fitness challenge were doing and so i thought "well damn now I have to go to the gym I can't let her down!" Got my butt in gear and went down. Warmed up ok then started my functional training. Was so not into it and kept thinking i'm just going to do a short session today. Then something happened. I got into my routine and before I knew it i was smashing out PB's all over the place and had done my 25mins. I felt so good afterwards and was really happy with myself that i overcame the head talk to do a really good session.

I am also fighting the head hunger demons. Normally I can squash them down pretty good but the last couple of weeks I am craving junk food really bad. It is taking a lot of work to resist and a couple of times I have caved because it got so strong. This week has been a good week I have managed to resist for most of the week. I am having Chinese tomorrow night (with a lot of water to counteract the salt) and hoping that with satisfy my cravings. I really want to show a good loss at the scan on Wednesday.

Tomorrow is arms day. I'm planning to go as hard on the arms as I did on the legs. It's going to hurt but it will be good hurt.

After a pretty hideous weekend last weekend, I have had a pretty awesome week. Granted i didn't get to train until Thursday but I also had some other pretty interesting things going on.

On Wednesday I had my third body comp scan. I won't bore you with all the details but I have lost 3% body fat and gained 1.5kg (3.3lb) of muscle since 11th April. I was totally stoked with these results and so was my trainer and nutritionist. It really puts things into perspective given on the scales I have only lost 1kg (2lb). I'll take it as a massive NSV.

After last weeks epsiode with my knees, it really started (as you may have noticed) bugging me that the Drs feel this issue is cause by me being fat. It's amazing what entering the phrase "my knees swell every 10 days" into google can do. I had an epiphany. The first thing that happened is I found a forum of other people who had the same issue as me. OMG its not in my head and there are others!!!!!! Most of them were having trouble finding out what was happening too. Someone posted on the forum about the possibility of it being something called Intermittent Hydrarthrosis. So i researched this. Again OMG it was like reading a chronical of what is happening with my body every 10 days. The only thing I found was the articles i was reading were all written in the 50's - 70's. However another term kept cropping up so i researched that. Palindromic Rheumatism. After looking up more articles that were very recent i realised it is the same thing. I can't explain how awesome it was to find validation of what I have been going through every 10 days for the last 2 years.

Basically Palindromic Rheumatism is an Auto immune condition where the body flares in different places (in my case knees). For some people it can happen every few days, others every few months or years. It is characterised by swelling, heat , (sometimes) redness and pain in the affected joint(s). It starts slowly and builds up then fades away exactly the same as it starts. In between flares the joints are quite normal. There is no destruction of the joints. It is sometimes a precursor to Rheumatoid arthritis with about 50% of PR sufferers going on to develop RA.

To me this all makes sense. It's exactly what happens to me every 10 days. I already have an Auto immune history as well as a family history of Rheumatoid Arthritis on both my maternal and Paternal sides. I have made an appointment with a Rheumatologist and am keeping a diary of all my symptoms so the Dr can see what happens. I mean it may not be this but it seems very much like it and for now I will be treating it as though it is.

The plan is to train as much as I can in between flares and when I have a flare I will completely rest so as to minimise pain and potential damage. In the meantime the ice pack is my friend and we will be having quite a close relationship

My Fitness challenge is going pretty well considering injuries and flares. I did a half way mark fitness test yesterday and was able to shave 47 seconds off my time. I'm really stoked. I'm hoping to shave a further 15secs off by the end fitness test.

So a pretty productive week all in all.

I was very despondent after the second one but after I worked out the reason or my nutritionist did I kept going. If this one had of been the same yeah the towel possibly would have been tossed. But I've pretty much been sticking to my nutrition plan and working my kitten off and it's paying dividends.
As for the watch and HRM I love them. When I'm training I'm constantly looking at my watch to see what my heart rate is. Depending on the numbers I know if I'm going hard enough and try and keep at that level or if I need to push more. For me it's a great motivator. As I have a fairl sedentary job it tells me when I've been sitting to long and need to move. It also tells me how long I've spent in the day either sleeping sitting standing moving or raining and again it's a great kick in the kitten to do more. It's all very individual and you need to find what works for you

So June is definitely starting off well. My nutritionist set me a task of being perfect with my nutrition for 2 weeks. Well sadly I haven't been perfect but close to. Only 1 really day where i fell off. And the challenge seems to be working. Since 30th May i have lost 5.4kg (12lb). Most of it is junk bloat but hey a loss is a loss.

I have my Last fitness test today to see how i have improved in the fitness challenge. I really hope I do well. I plan to give it absolutely everything I have. I will post tonight to let you know How I go.

GUESS WHAT??????????????

I WON THE FITNESS COMPETITION!!!!!!!
I made a 1 minute 3 sec improvement on my time and the person nearest to me made a 56 sec improvement on their time. I was the slowest person to complete the fitness test but i made the biggest improvement. I'm so pleased with myself tonight. I have put in a lot of work over the last few weeks and it has really paid off. I now get 1 month free gym membership and 3 further PT sessions.