The beginning

Monday:

Day one of the CSIRO diet is going well. Of course it has only been about 5 1/2 hours, but I am feeling strong.

I forgot to mention that I weighed myself at the gym yesterday -- 80.4 kg. Up half a kilo (about 1 pound) since last week. Up and down and up and down. But with the diet starting today I am hoping it is all down from here.

Woke with a bit of a headache this morning and had the usual hassle getting the kids ready for the day. They were playing some game at breakfast that involved lots of giggling and lots of Cheerios on the floor. The cereal I had planned to have was down to the last bowlful of the packet which meant it had a lot of crumb dust. Luckily we had another box, so I threw the old stuff away. Had my cereal with milk and a little piece of cheese to bring it up to a full serve of dairy.

Dropped the kids off, no spare time before BodyPump so straight into it. I increased the weight on my bar to 1.25 each side and went up to a 5 kg plate for the squat track. It seemed just right for me at the moment. I left before abs.

Stats: 47 mins, 82% zone 0, 18% zone 1, 98 calories, average HR 96, peak HR 123.

Then I jumped on the cross-trainer (otherwise known as elliptical machine). As I was doing it after Pump today instead of before, my sprints were not the sprints of yesterday. Still pretty good effort.

Stats: 20 mins, 17% zone 0, 44% zone 1, 29% zone 2, 10% zone 3, 78 calories, average HR 121, peak HR 148.

Finally I got on the treadmill for a 10 min cooldown, 20 calories.

I had my banana in the Pink tea room then had a shower and went to the shops. I talked to the shoe saleslady about my revised shoe needs. She thought the cross-trainers I owned were great for Step, Attack and Zumba; but not so good for walking or elliptical or future jogging. So I bought a new pair. I have two pairs of exercise shoes! A new pair before the old pair have fallen apart. This really is a new me. The saleslady said it didn't matter which ones I wear for BodyPump, so if I was going straight from class to the elliptical I should wear the new ones.

The shoes were expensive but came with a free heart rate monitor, which I will save for when mine breaks.

I went to Target for some depressing sportsclothes trying-on. My existing 2 pairs of shorts and 3 t-shirts that have a nice low neck to release the body heat were just not enough. I got a new pair of shorts in size 14 but had to go up to 16 for a t-shirt which was weird as I am not at all top heavy. I hate having to buy size 16. I only got one, I couldn't be bothered changing all the 14s I tried on for 16s.

So I am all geared up for as long as I am this size. I'll buy new stuff when I get to size 12!

I had my high-protein moderate-carb lunch of leftover roast beef and potato with lots of salad. I am drinking water with a slice of lemon instead of cordial to cut down on sugar, but I will still be having sugar in my tea, which is apparently fine. I have ordered the CSIRO book and recipe book from the library.

This diet doesn't count calories, but I plan to at least for the first couple of weeks. I am also going to put in my exersize; but CalorieKing registers about 3 times as many calories used for exercise than my heart rate monitor does. So I am going to make up my own exercise categories rather than rely on their calculations.

My long term goal is to get down to 58 kg, which is the top of "normal" for my height; and to be fit and healthy, which is a bit harder to quantify. A steady half a kilo weightloss would get me there in the 10 months before my next birthday, so that is my plan. 16 weeks to Christmas, an 8 kilo loss would get me down to 72 kg which would be awesome. But in the slightly shorter term, I plan to stick to this diet for 12 weeks, basically the whole of the Australian spring, then review.

If I can't lose half a kilo a week on a healthy, balanced diet while exercising five or six days a week... well... I don't know what I will do. But there is no reason why I shouldn't.

Later: I have finished my eating for the day; eating everything I should and nothing I shouldn't. I didn't quite manage to eat 200g of meat for dinner, only because that wouldn't have left enough taco mince for my husband. I had two taco shells, then wrapped the rest of my meat/tomato in lettuce leaves. I think the main challenges are going to be to eat 5 serves of vegetables every day, and the 3 serves of dairy. Oh, and not eating any junk food. I was at shopping centres twice today; with the smells of the food court and the visual lure of donut shops and chocolate bars and everything else I like.

But day one went very well.