My Top 5 Pieces of Advice

As soon as Callum wakes up I am dragging myself up off the sofa and going for a run in the damp and cold. This made me think of a couple of things to put on here:

1. It's not going to happen over night and it's not easy. Some of you won't enjoy it (though you will learn to love it!) But with cardio and strength training you WILL see results.
2. The idea of "doing" something is often worse than the actual doing. It's best to get it over and done with early in the day so you don't dwell. Start by doing something you enjoy.
3. It's 40 minutes....in a 24 hour day are 40 minutes really that many?
4. Anything is better than nothing. 
5. DON'T BE SCARED OF WEIGHTS!

For those of you out there, whoever you are, who are reading and following The Belly Blitz please feel free to comment or email me. If there is a specific area of your body you want to tone or slim down, or if you have a winning combination you want to share let me know! I couldn't get my jeans up my thighs about 10 weeks ago and i focused a lot on my legs, bum and thighs. Now my jeans slide on easy! But you can tell where my focus was so now I am trying to even things out. 

Happy Blitzing!

The scales don't lie.

Well, the good news is I haven't put on any weight over christmas, but I haven't lost any either! I put the belly blitz to the side for a couple of weeks so I could enjoy mince pies and mulled wine and ham and turkey and puddings and wine......yummmmmmmmmmmmmm! It was all worth it and I didn't have to close my eyes on the scales!

I began my week with a run and then I started the magazine's "Lose 10/15/20 pounds in the new year" work out. Well, today I am aching a lot more than I have in the past 3 months so something is working. It is good to mix up your workouts and not do too much of the same thing to keep your body in an active fat burning state.

And ladies....DON'T be scared of weights! Weights are our friend, they give us that long, lean sculpted look on our upper body. The key is in the SIZE of the weight and the amount of reps we do. You should be able to pick up the weight (not too easily) and do your reps without really straining. You should feel it for sure but its not the neck bulging vein popping weight lifting. I use 10lb weights and do 2 sets of 10 to 12 reps. For us anything from 5lb to 10lbs are good. At the end of your set you should feel the last couple of reps and have to sort of push through, otherwise the weight is too light.

It is a damp day in Vancouver today but I am going to try and push myself to go for a jog, or at least a long walk.

Sabotage

My beloved is trying to sabotage me by bringing home cinnamon buns after taking the dog for a walk, and I am so easily knocked off track! Needless to say I just scoffed down a warm sticky cinnamon bun.

I am hoping my workout and the hour I spent with the horses today is enough to break even LOL!

I MUST STAY STRONG and resist all attempts at sabotage........................but they are just so GOOOOOD!

An email I wanted to share

This is an email I got today that i wanted to share with you all (with K's permission of course)

Katherine Fotheringham 30 December at 13:29

Hi Amy, 

Hope you and the family are well and had a lovely Christmas. I'm just after a wee bit of advice please! I am very impressed with your blog, and just wondered whats the best exercise to lose the weight? I've been plugging away at the gym since October and haven't lost a single pound, although I have lost inches. 
I'm mainly doing running at the gym, about 2 miles at a time and try to keep my heart rate up in the 150s. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I am desperate to get into nicer clothes!
Katherine xxx

Amy Shiel 30 December at 13:47

Happy to help! That was part of the reason for the blog, to share my secrets and success and show what works for a normal person, its not easy and it doesn't happen over night but with patience and perseverance you will see results.

Running in the gym is great, but if you can mix up your week with both cardio (running) and strength training you will see results. Your body gets used to doing the same thing all the time and we need to mix it up. I try and do 4 hours of cardio a week and 2 hours of strength training, but with the cardio only 2 sessions are running and the other 2 are interval training (circuits, jogs and sprints etc) but all done with what I have at home and outside.

You also want to try and keep track of what you eat. A tool I use that is BRILLIANT is a website called calorie count where it says how many cals you should eat and takes into account your lifestyle. http://caloriecount.about.com/

The key is mixing it up and not doing the same everyday. Also doing exercises that incorporate the whole body and not just one area. One thing us females don't do enough of is weights as we are scared to bulk up but active muscle helps burn calories and weights help strengthen and tone. In the gym use the free weights, I would say anything from 5lbs to 12lbs (I use 10lbs) You can do arm curls, presses all sorts. A really good one is holding the weights on your shoulders, one in each hand. Legs shoulder width apart and squat down slowly. As you come up press the weights upwards and then return to start position. Does that make sense? Do 2 x 10reps and you will feel it in your legs and arms and it will increase your heart rate.

Another good one is lunges, but incorporate a weight into them so you are using your arms, core and legs. Hold a weight (10lbs) in both hands out in front of you and lunge your left leg forward. As you lunge swing the weight to your right. If you have enough room do this as you step across the room alternating legs or just from a standing point - Lunge with left leg and swing weight right...lunge with right leg and swing weights left. You will feel it in your arms, shoulders, legs and core, a great all over body exercise.

Hope this helps! Just mix it up and for 2 sessions do total strength training like the exercises above.

Do you mind if I post your email and my reply to my blog?

Amy
xxx

PS hope you had a great christmas!!!

Katherine Fotheringham 30 December at 15:33

Hi, thanks so much for your advice. I'd been scared to touch the weights and hadn't realised that they would help. The calorie counter looks handy too, I'd probably be shocked to see what I eat in a day! I will definitely follow your advice here and hopefully will start getting rid of this weight! 
I don't mind at all if you post my e-mail to your blog.
Thanks again and congrats with your weight loss, you've done fantastically well to manage that with a wee tot to look after at the same time!
xxx

Ouch my arms hurt

OK, so the time is 1149 and I have just completed a 40min workout. In the same magazine there was a page promising to burn 130cal in 15 mins (based on a 140lb female) So, I donned my workout gear (baggy T-Shirt and leggings, bare feet) and followed the model. I did my own boxercise warm up then the magazine workout. In 15mins I had only burnt 106cals and I am 151lbs so should technically burn more than a 140pounder. I wear a heart rate monitor that  logs my max/min heart rate, cals, fat burn etc, its AWESOME! It took another 5 minutes of alternating skipping (ouch!) and sit ups to burn the 130 cals promised.

VERDICT - This one didn't really do as it promised...a sign of things to come?

I proceeded to finish off my 40mins with my own made up work out that has got me this far. I am a dedicated follower of Tommy Europe and his last 10 pounds and I jot down exercises etc that I then do at home. Today, in addition to the magazine, I did:

1. power lunges (lunge out to the side and back, 12 reps each leg and repeat)
2. sumo squats and kicks (12 each leg and repeat)
3. weighted squat with weights thenlift weights over head (2 sets of 12)
4. power plank and raise (lie in a plank position, lift one arm up over head slowly and lower, then lift alternate arm. 2 x 10 reps) THIS BURNS!!! Great for your obliques though
5. skaters
6. burpies
7. full push ups (I use one dumbell in one hand for a deeper press then roll the weight across to other hand and press) I do 2 x 10 reps
8. bicycle sit ups

This took me to 40mins, 226cals burnt @ 45% fat burn.

I also forgot to add that my new years resolution is to TRY and do at least 30 mins of yoga every day, probably in the evening when I have put Callum to bed to try and limber up. Since giving birth my hips are very stiff and I need to loosen everything up again.

I am working today with a horse which is a mini workout so I am happy with today's progress! Tomorrow....Running with the chariot and a mad squirrel hunting husky.

The photos

The before picture...This is about 2 weeks after I had given birth and me at my biggest I would say. Sorry for the poor quality but this is the ONLY pic of me this big!

This is a current pic taken on Christmas day! Excuse the wet hair and no makeup.....

And this is what I aspire to be again! This was taken in Hong Kong October 2008:

Day 1 - No time like the present

The idea with this blog is to follow a normal person on the quest to tighten, tone, shrink and squeeze without the tools available to Hollywood A-Listers, not even a gym membership. If anyone out there has secrets they would like to share then I am MORE then receptive to comments and handy hints. To date I have been following the principle of anything is better than nothing, and if I get it done in the morning I don't dwell on it all day! People say if you do something regularly for 30 days it becomes routine.

I try and do 6 sessions a week, varying cardio and strength training. It all sounds very professional but a session consists of me dragging myself off the sofa into the spare room where I have a set of dumbells, a pilates ball and a yoga matt.

Instead of waiting till the new year, TODAY is the day I continue with The Belly Blitz.

Have you ever bought a fitness magazine, lured by the promise of dropping a jeans size in 2 weeks or losing 10 pounds by the end of the month? But all the models they use could do with increasing a jeans size and have perfectly sculpted and airbrushed bods.

Well, yesterday I was snared by the promise to lose 10, 15, 20 pounds in the new year by one such magazine and I gave in, succumbed to temptation and spent the evening flicking through the pages and losing motivation by the second at the sight of gorgeous toned tanned lean bodies.

So...as added motivation to my current fitness plan I am going to follow the magazine TO THE LETTER and see if it really does do as it claims. By my reckoning I have another 10lbs to lose at least, inches to erase from the child bearing hips and the jelly belly left by the apple of my eye.

If I follow their routine 3 times a week, along with 2 cardio sessions and a healthy eating plan (bare in mind I am breast feeding so I have to stick to at least 1,800 cals a day) they promise me I will lose AT LEAST 10 pounds in a month, and 20 pounds in 3 months, with NO gym, NO fitness trainer and for the most part not even wearing a pair of trainers.

Today I popped Callum in his jolly jumper, gooing drooling and giggling away, while I sweated and sweated through 30mins of pain. My heart rate rarely got above 160bpm and I burnt less calories than I would normally in a workout (I wear a heart rate monitor) but now, 9 hours later, my arms and legs are burning. Perhaps so far so good?

I will dig out some pre pregnancy pics, some before pics and some now pics to mark the progress.

The beginning...or rather half way through

Welcome to the Belly Blitz! An on going blog of a REAL person with a REAL life battling the post pregnancy bulge.

I gave birth 4 months ago and since then I have lost 14kg (31lbs) with still more to go. I don't have a gym membership, I don't have a personal trainer and I am by far not some skinny lean fit person. All I have is a baby and some motivation. I have been asked recently by friends what is my secret so I thought I would share and post my progress in a blog.

I'm 5ft6 (167cm), currently 151lbs (68.5kg) and trying to fit in exercise into a hectic new baby juggling routine.

A wee bit of background:

For the last 2 years we have lived in China. After some scary hospital experiences we decided to leave Wuhan and move to Vancouver...no job, no visa but it seemed like a great place to live and halfway between both families. (I'm Scottish, other half is a Kiwi)

Summer 2008 I embarked on a mission to get fit. After a mix of running, weights and yoga I was at my fittest and lightest at 61kg. Then after a tequila fueled fun filled evening we discovered I was pregnant. Fast forward to 29 weeks pregnant and preterm labour. I was put on bed rest, or as I prefer to call it "House Arrest". A combination of not allowed to be on my feet for more than 20 minutes, benny's bagels, cinnamon buns, cheesecake, cheesecake and cheesecake, I put on 22kg (nearly 50lbs) by the time I gave birth at 35 weeks. With a baby of only 5lbs the other 45lbs were ALL mine.

THE DILEMMA

I don't have time to go to the gym and with a new born it is hard to fit it in. I am breast feeding so I can't cut too many calories so how to lose the jelly belly?

THE SOLUTION

Purchase essential, and cheap, workout equipment - 10lb weights, pilates ball, yoga matt, tension chord thingy and a willing baby, preferably with a clean nappy!

THE METHOD

For the first few weeks I would squeeze in 30min strength training workouts while Callum was sleeping and going for walks with the peanut shell or the stroller. When he was old enough running with the chariot and the dog and using Callum in my workouts. He is a GREAT weight to hold while lunging and squatting and he loves it. I lie him on the floor and do pushups over him and try and incorporate him into a workout and recently he jumps around in his Jolly Jumper while I stretch, tone, sweat and swear.

STATS

Today I am calling the midway point, I will update and blog my blood sweat and tears.

Bust: 37 inches

Waist: 31 and a half inches

Hips: 41 inches

Weight: 151 lbs