Week Nine

Diary Entry
The photos we took at the end of week eight really inspired me, but on the other hand I did start to panic a bit.  I was definitely making progress, but like I mentioned before I had a picture in my mind of what I wanted to achieve and at this point (with only 4 weeks left), I realised that I’ll have to put in 110% effort to achieve it.

Workouts
I had to increase my weights a bit and work harder at gym.  Werner is keeping me focused (Eye of the Tiger) and I must say I’m psyched up and motivated. My asthma has also improved drastically since I have become fitter and I can now feel power when doing cardio.  I’m still trying to monitor my optimal fat burning heart rate of 65% and burning 240 calories in twenty minutes.

Diet
I tried to incorporate more fish into my diet, chicken was becoming a bit boring at this stage, but I just couldn’t get myself to eat so much fish, so it’s back to chicken.  I did however treat myself to red meat once a week which gave me something to look forward to.  Note: Stack up on broccoli, I find it really helps with staying regular – the amount of protein I’m putting into my body needs the fibre and I can feel when I haven’t had broccoli for a day.

Statistics and Measurements
I’ve lost another 1.7kg in weight (the scale is now plummeting) and also 0.5% body fat.  Circumferences are staying more or less the same – so I’m definitely loosing fat and retaining muscle at this stage.

Week Ten

Diary Entry
It is getting so close now that I almost can’t believe that there’s only three weeks left.  I started tanning sessions a couple of weeks ago to get myself ready for the photo shoot (winter is here and I’m as white as a lily).  I also started practising my poses for the photo shoot, which is very important (and much more work than you will ever imagine).  Here you have to start knowing your own body and looking in the mirror to see which pose shows the best definition.  You have to practice this because when you take your photos there probably won’t be a mirror in front of you and it is vitally important to know what you want out of your photo shoot.

Workouts
Training sessions were still as intense as ever, continually pushing forward to achieve the goals I have set. Cardio intensity level slightly higher, pushing hard but my heart rate slightly up from 65% to about 70%. (240 Calories in twenty minutes)

Diet
Started looking at incorporating cleaner foods into my diet as the paranoia started kreeping in as soon as I saw the slightest little bit of fat on anything I was eating.

Statistics and Measurements
Dropped another 1kg and I did not loose as much body fat percentage as I would have liked to – 0.3% loss, this could be due to the fact that the less body fat you carry the harder it gets to burn just fat. Circumference measurements slightly down from the previous week but I think it’s because I’ve increased my intensity level slightly when doing my cardio session.

Week Eleven

Diary Entry

Ok, this is where self-doubt and panic really started to kick in.  I realised I’m too far into the challenge to really make dramatic changes to my body and I started doubting whether what I had achieved up to now will be good enough for what I believed I will look like at the end of the 12 weeks.  When you see yourself every day, you do not really see the changes in your body and this is where you have to mentally cope through it to keep you motivated.  Well, I had two choices, I could believe the voice that said it was not good enough and just give up here, or I could push through and give it all I had for the next (last) two weeks.  Guess what I chose?

Workouts
We started planning our final strategy for the last stretch of the USN Body & Lifestyle challenge. Werner and I were communicating via email, looking and re-looking at the best possible workout solutions in order for me to achieve my maximum.  Training at maximum output for 60 minutes per day and I must say if it was not for my pre- and post supplementation I think I would have fallen over a long time ago. Cardio level still high as per the previous week, still pushing at about 70%. (240 Calories in twenty minutes)

Diet
I am now starting to eat slightly more selected foods and cutting down on as much fat as I possibly can.  I am now not just reading labels on food but studying them intensively.

Statistics and Measurements
I lost 2kg for the week in weight, still keeping my intensity level slightly higher but obviously at a price.  This week I’ve lost good fat percentage - 0.8% body fat, but my circumferences are starting to suffer slightly under the strain of my intense cardio sessions.

Week Twelve

Diary Entry
Week twelve has arrived and time has gone by so quickly, my measurements are looking good but I still had 0.6% body fat to burn to reach my goal. There were so many things I needed to do, arrange final measurements, write my report, see the doctor, tan three times a day, making final arrangements with the photographer and keep focused on my end result. To tell you the truth I think I drove Helene up the banana tree. I was so paranoid about not achieving my goal and called in all my team members at that final stage. Double checked everything to see if the stats where right. Here I made one of the biggest mistakes of my challenge, I will explain below.

Workouts
Remember the less fat there is the harder it gets to burn the right stuff and calculations need to be precise. At this stage I was working as hard as I possibly could at gym and Werner and I where pushing for the final goal, the weight I was pushing at that stage was phenomenal and I was even starting to tier him out a little.  Things were going well and I was enjoying my last week of my challenge at gym but my mistake was soon to be realised. “Cardio”, here was the mistake; I focused so hard on burning the calories that I was overdoing it completely. I was now doing cardio twice a day and training in the morning. I was burning up an average of 280 calories per cardio session which was way too much for the amount of food I was putting in. You will see the result clearly in the stats below.

Diet
I was eating as clean as I possibly could, my chicken was being fried in a wok with nothing but lemon juice, and fresh thyme (herbs), carbohydrates consisted of sweet potato and my vegetables where raw broccoli. My supplements gave me some relief from the monotony but that was as far as I would go. I stuck to it for the whole week.

Statistics and Measurements
My final stats are as follows, I will be pointing out the effect the cardio sessions had. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see the result. I had lost only 0.3% body fat but my weight and circumferences plummeted!!! What did I loose, MUSCLE!!!! Not exactly what I wanted to do but I was satisfied with my final result and knew then what I had done wrong. Total final stats for the 12 week period: Body Weight down 15.5Kg, Body Fat Down 8.8%. But interestingly most of my circuferences stayed the same as when I started the challenge, the only thing that had dropped significantly was my abdominal region. A fantastic result in anyones book.

Click here to see all my measurements for week nine to twelve.