I am planning to do some moderate to hard walks this week, in the Grampians, Reg and I will need to do them together for safety reasons, you do not do those walks alone  Reg and I will do a steep walk to a waterfall today. I am going to wear my heart rate monitor to count calories and I will repeat the walk if necessary  and also do some bench press ups and reverse bench presses as I intend to burn 500 calories minimum today.

Tuesday and Wednesday I plan to burn 1000 calories, both days in planned exercise. I will tackle two huge mini milestone type walks while Indigo is in day care on Tuesday and Wednesday, then I will do my week four weigh in and measure on Thursday morning.  

We head for northern Victoria, across country, on Saturday. On long drives, I try to remembering to stop the car every hour, walk, stretch do some jumps and press ups on the car to keep the circulation moving, on the trip northeast.

The weekend of 27 and 28 is the official dates for the mini milestone challenge.
 
I plan to have had some lifetime memory achievement Grampians walks and a good four-week weight loss to be proud of by then.

 

I am adding one more, milestone, to begin and maintain on that official mini milestone date. I am having some trial runs at it already.

I plan to rise early and get my main planned exercise for the day, completed, before I do anything else, next Saturday and to try to do that most days until the next mini milestone at the 8-week mark, when I can reassess. 

I think that this, action will be harder than a 1000 calorie burning uphill rock scramble, for me.  I have never been a morning person.   I also have never, been a person to lose weight or maintain weight without an effort.

I joined, the Michele Bridges 12 week body transformation trainer guided program and I am hearing her say, morning exercise is best and I came ‘here’, to the program to learn and move forward, so I am ready to take on board, this last hardest for me to do, bit of advice. 

My Mini Milestone is to become a lark instead of an owl and do 'early bird, exercise' next Saturday morning before the 400-kilometre drive to our next destination. 

Thank You the genuine Michelle Bridges 12 Week Body Transformation

My 12WBT friends,will understand the significance of my achieving a super, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week.

Not easy when you are a senior with my past medical health issues and have a maximum heart rate in the 130's, it took a lot of working out, to reach te 1000 calorie plus burn in one workout.
Your program 'Rocks', Michelle. Loving every aspect of it.

Yes I took myself from my initial size 22/24 size and serious declining health, where i needed a walking frame and a heart lung transplant and I swam and then walked away from that degree of ill health to my current good health and lost half of my excess body weight in my work to regain my health.  I needed help to go the extra distance.  I have as you know, if you have been following my artslim bog, known i have tried for almost 2 years to lose the last of my excess weight and while my health and stamina has improves, I was not achieving more weight loss.  

With Michelle Bridges as my trainer and following the 12WBT as best I can while traveling, I am achieving  more success than I had been doing on my own or with the help of any other trainers I have used in the past two years.  When something works, I want to share it. THANK YOU, Michele Bridges, you have a fan for life in me :-).

Today was my week three, weigh in for my Michelle Bridges 12 week body transformation course.

I can already feel the difference, I have lost 2.5 % of my body weight over the two weeks, building on the weight loss I had prior to beginning the program. I am also so much stronger, I am building more muscle cell mass, and I am very happy, with the results, of two week following the 12WBT. I know that at this rate, I will get far greater benefits, following a trainer’s advice, than I was achieving on my own.

The last weekend, of March, we are supposed to do a physical event that will be something ‘special and challenging’ .

This Saturday, is the big, burn 1000 calories day in the 12WBT, program. It is also the day, I pack up the caravan and move on, and need to drive for many hours, and have my creative work waiting for me, when I arrive, meals to prepare, you all know the pressure, of some days, just not being long enough, to seemingly, find time for ourselves.

I do hear, Mich (Michele Bridges), saying ‘no excuses, just do it’, and I am striving to work out how I can comply with my training schedule and not ‘cop out’, because it is too hard to fit in.

It has been all those ‘just too hard to find the time to fit it in’, excuses, in the past, that have held me at a weight stall, mid way to my slimming goal and I am breaking out of that bad habit of accepting excuses not to look after myself well.

So very belatedly, considering the amount of warning, Michelle, gave us who are doing the 12WBT, program, I am thinking of ways I can have my big physical goal Saturday.

I have come up with a solution.

This option is, almost scary; to me could I get out of bed, early, before my breakfast, and run. 

I have tried to change from an owl to a lark before, last time I exercised in the morning I injured myself. I can make heaps of excuses to ‘cop out’, of this one, I am older; I need time for my body to warm up so I do not hurt myself. My computer is faster in the morning, it is a great time to publish creative writing I love doing. I love coffee in bed and leisurely waking up   OK that is the excuses out of the wayJ.  Now remembering  I am a grown up, accountable for my actions and responsible for setting the path to the goals I want and looking at the many advantages of rising early to exercise, here is what I can see.-

If I rise at dawn (when is that anyway), I could do my 1000 calorie big Saturday work and be back at the caravan by 9 to 9.30 am in time to be out of the caravan park by the check out time of 10am. I would have all of the 4 hour or so drive to the next destination  rest and rest and recover (with leg stretch walk breaks every hour), and I can still do my creative work and make simple healthy meals at the other end of the day’s drive, fall into bed, feeling proud that I fitted it all in.

By giving up a slow wake up had found me an extra hour perhaps in a busy day. It all does sound fine in theory, and I know it is going to be one of the hardest things I could ever possibly do.

To change a lifetime habit and exercise early, will be the most difficult thing for me to achieve, I have made a couple of attempts in the past.  If it were easy for me to do, it would not be the ‘big physical challenge’; I am supposed to set myself to do, this weekend. There are no ‘real’, obstacles that would, prevent me, achieving, a breakthrough. The only thing that holds me back is my own, ‘mind set’. .    Too much analyzing, I think. My trainer, Mich, calls this, ‘Analysis Paralysis’, lol J, and say’s ‘No excuses, Just DO IT’.

 

I have had a lovely active afternoon on the Grampians again.  Reg chose the walk, that showed a huge inprovement in his health, people with frontal lobe brain degeneration do not like planning or making decisions, they usually want others to make them.  I am always thrilled when Reg begins to make decisions that go beyond acting out of habit. 

The walk he chose was moderately difficult, though only 1.6 kilometers return bush walk and rock scramble through the Grand Canyon Loop, classed as suitable for fit, energetic walkers.   It was a beautiful walk and these walks are thrilling Reg, bringing back happy past memories of times before when we did these walks.  The bring back memories to, for me, memories of 30 years ago, two years after I had had a stroke, when many of these walks were no possible for me, including today’s.  I recognized the stream I had sat beside and painted while Reg had completed the walk alone. I remembered everything about that painting :-)

After each of us had completed this walk, I drove to the Alice Springs Oval and I made a commitment to myself that although it looked large, I was capable of jogging all the way around it once without stopping and I would do exactly that.  I set off and pep talked myself all the way around. J, I made it in 3.1 minutes only marginally faster than the other day when I walk jogged it. 

 

I had a short rest break and a drink, then I walk/jogged around the course, another 400 meters, this time I took photos of my companions on the oval.

Reg is browning the onion and lean chicken mince in the pan while I blog, I’ll publish this then pretend I know what I am doing and turn it into a concoction called dinner J.

Dinner was delicious,  I added two sticks of celery, half a head of fancy long cabbage, a big handful of snow peas, some low fat and salt, natural chicken stock, simmered for a while and served in large bowls seasoning with a little low fat, MSG free,  oyster sauce and a dash of low salt soy sauce.  Reg had some buttered mountain bread with his serving; he does not need to lose any weight.  He is having an orange for desert.

Another beautiful day in the Grampians J 

 I had never heard of Ratatouille, until a month ago when I bought my Michelle Bridges cook book.  It took me three weeks to get around to making the dish as I never liked cooked tomatoes but I now try to serve them regularly as they are recommended as men's health food and I am keen to do the best I can give Reg the best of health through his food.

Being an eclectic cook, I would be prepared to use any vegetables I think would suit, and not follow directions strictly.  I used two onions and two garlic cloves, sautéed in one teaspoon extra virgin olive oil, in  non stick pan. Then I sautéed the diced eggplant, for 5 minutes. I added the remaining chopped vegetables, celery, red capsicum, parsley, zucchini and a 400 gram tin of low salt, no added sugar or fat, chopped tomatoes  and I rinsed the can out with 1/4 cup of water and added that to the mixture.  I brought it to the simmer, turned it down low and left it for an hour, stirred and served a quarter of the stewed vegetable mixture with it's juices, in bowls and served with garlic rubbed toast.

It was unbelievably filling and tasty.  I would prefer it as a side dish as I found the after taste strong.  It would have been perfect with a glass of red wine to wash it down but I am not drinking alcohol now.    It was an easy, one pan dish to cook.

Reg appeared to enjoy it.

From Wikipedia:-
Ratatouille (pronounced /ˌrætəˈtuːiː, ˌrætəˈtwiː/, (rat-a-too-ee); French: [ʁatatuj]) is a traditional French Provençal stewed vegetable dish, originating in Nice. The full name of the dish is ratatouille niçoise.

The word ratatouille comes from Occitan ratatolha and the recipe comes from Occitan cuisine. It is also used in French (touiller, also means to toss food). Ratatouille originated in the area around present day Occitan Provença (French: Provence) & Niça (French: Nice, Occitan: Niça); the Catalan "xamfaina" and the Majorcan "tombet" are versions of the same dish

This is my idea of 'Fast food'. :-).

An egg, a mushroom, some greens a 1 second sprey of EVOL and one slice of Lin Soy, Burgen bread, toast.  All my favorites. 

Sometimes I microwave the greens.

Until I joined the Michelle Bridges 12WBT, I used to use 1 teaspoon full of carefully measured out olive oil per person in a pan cook up.  Until I have lost my excess body fat, I will use the spray and save myself a few calories, that way.

A few calories trimmed off my already healthy eating habits in ways I do not even notice in the final taste and satisfaction of the meal, are helping me move out from my weight stall. :-) . 

This isn't in the meal plan of the 12WBT but it is in the spirit of it, being close to the 300 to 350 calories per meal range.   I had a peach  for my morning tea, a little while before I made this lunch.

Yesterday's lunch was even faster. Almonds, walnuts, strawberries and a pear, eaten as 'trail food', during rest breaks between bush walks :-).  All I have to do there, is count and account in calories, for the nuts, not just graze unaware of how much I am eating.  In this respect, it's no different than being aware of how many drinks you have at a party and knowing when you have had enough to satisfy and fulfill my needs, but not enough to do myself any harm as in over consume. As I have always been able to count to two drinks, I surely can, now learn to never exceed a standard meal size of calories, even when it is in a source of easy to graze on easy to over consume, as I have done in the past ` nuts. :-). 

I  know I have gained a lot of self understanding of where I can do a lot better in my weight management, without any loss of enjoyment of my eating pleasure, through my participation in the Michelle Bridges 12WBT.  You could say I am a HUGE FAN :-) as I am of anything I am learning from and knowing I am benefiting from participating in.

I took two Asprins and said 'suck it up princess', to myself when I felt the pain, and I headed out to have a wonderful afternoon of exercise.

I will begin with the last short walk Reg and I did, the only one we were able to do together as we left Indigo in the car where we could see her and strolled down the well made paths to Boroka Lookout.
 
Baroka Lookout commands a fantastic view over Wonderland and the Mount William Ranges. The pretty village of Halls Gap can also be seen below. The track to Boroka Lookout from the car park is sealed and is 100 metres return, there is a constant gradient but accessibility is good. This track is detailed in the 'Wheelchair Accessible Tracks' booklet available at the Grampians National Park Visitor Centre.

Well that was the easy exercise we ended the day with.

Reed Lookout From this lookout there are panoramic views over the Victoria Valley and to Lake Wartook. The 2km easy return walk to The Balconies starts from Reed Lookout Carpark.

By the time I did our middle walk to the Balconies, also called, 'the Jaws of Death', the Asprin and the exercise was having effect and I was not hurting as much and I was exhillarated by the beauty of the landscape so the exercise was easy.

The Balconies are one of the most famous spots in the Grampians and consist of a particularly distinctive rock formation jutting out from a sheer cliff face. There are fantastic panoramic views of the Victoria Valley. The easy walk to the lookout takes you through beautiful gum tree forests; I saw many wildflowers on this walk.
 
Reg did the walk first and I walked around within the carpark and I did my stretching exercises before heading off on my on, when Reg returned and completed the two kilometer gradual up and down hill grade easy, bush walk, with ease.

 This is the walk I started with. It had an easy first section which is what Reg completed and a moderate final stage, which I did and would rate as a cardio exercise, I sure peaked my heart rate and worked up a sweat.  I am not sure of the distance, as I did the round side trip to Broken Falls, I would think it would have been about two and a haf kilometers with some of this a very steep climb.
MacKenzie Falls The track to the base of MacKenzie Falls is relatively inaccessible due to steep sections, but MacKenzie Falls Loop Walk is a wheelchair accessible track beginning at the car park and winding through the bush to a viewing platform overlooking the Falls.

I remember the walk up from the base of MacKenzies Falls as being an effort, from back when I was much younger, so I was very proud of myself to have begun my Grampians walks with this one. :-).   Overall, about 5 kilometers of bush walking completed today.