A PCP journey

First of all, thank you Patrick and Chen for taking me on this journey and guiding me through these 90 days.

I can confidently say that I finished my 90-days of PCP and have achieved what I never expected to achieve. Whilst I still don’t have a body like Christie Brinkley or Claudia Schiffer, I am much closer to it than I ever expected. I didn’t think that I would be able to do what I have. And I am proud of myself for doing it.

My PCP journey has been very arduous at times. The exercises were hard for me.  Especially the fact that you may have finished for the day, but the next day you had to start all over again. Today, my last day of exercises showed me, however, just how much I have attained over the last 90 days.  Not just in body but also in mind. I still don’t like the act of skipping, and am probably worse than I was at the beginning, but I see the results and therefore it is something I will continue to do as it is a lot more palatable than jogging or running for me.

If I had to sum up my PCP experience it would be what I feel I have achieved along the way (not in order of importance):

* Commitment

* A frame of mind of JFD. In the past I would have given up.

* A stricter eating regime, specifically eating enough. I now realize that I never ate enough. I also gained a better understanding of what I have been told for a long time about portion control. In terms of content, I’ve been working on that for a while, so that was just a continuation.

* Admiration for fellow PCPers.

* The knowledge that PCP is 90 days out of my life. PC is the rest of my life and something that will be there every single day. If I do something everyday I will do it. If I do it only a few times a week it is too easy to put off for another day. Also as Patrick says, exercises are not fun, but it is something that you have to do.

* I now know and believe that if I keep at it I can achieve my ultimate goal. I don’t think I actually believed that it was attainable.

* I am happier, more emotionally grounded, fitter, look a lot healthier and slimmer.

* I am shocked that I have actually inspired people around me with my PCP results. Much of this from recent comments from friends who haven't seen me for a while

* My husband and children are proud of me and that is what is most important to me. I am proud to say that I will be 50 next year and I feel that I have done what I can to make sure that I am healthy and strong to be there for my family in the years to come.

I would not have been able to carry on many days without the blogs. I set myself a goal at the beginning, to make sure that I blogged every day otherwise I would lose momentum. If I could sustain that commitment then I could also sustain the exercises and the skipping. The only days I did not blog were either due to travel or technical issues with getting onto my blog. But there were many days when I wasn’t sure I could keep going. I was very, very tired a lot of the time. Without the blogs and the support I may have given in. Apologies for so much whinging on my part. A huge thank you goes to my teammates, specifically Tracey, Kevin and Inés. I have no idea what our team name is. Also a huge thank you to Kim, Richard,  Bruce, Georgie, Pete, Amanda, Noel, and Mini for helping keeping me going. Tony and Peter thank you for inspiring Fraser to tell me about PCP.

My journey has not just been the last 90 days. I did not think I would achieve as much as I have so I didn’t bother to take measurements before I started. But I do have a reference point, which was exactly a year ago. Most of these gains in measurements are due to PCP. My journey continues, mainly in my stomach area (striving for those flat abs with muscle definition) as I am happy with most of the rest of my body. 

But I have achieved a lot to be proud of:

                                        1-Sept-2010                        1-Jun-2011            30-Aug-2011

Weight                                 75.6kg                                   72kg                        67.9kg

Chest                                   104cm                                                                    99cm

Under boobs                        86cm                                                                     84cm

Waist                                   99cm                                                                     79cm

Hips                                    104cm                                                                    94cm

Thighs                                 57cm                                                                     56cm

Arms                                   30cm                                                                     28cm

The pictures put it all in perspective

I have come from this on Day 1

To this on Day 90

And from here

To here

Although I have lost 4kg from the start of PCP I have lost a lot more in other ways:
* I used to wear XL, I can now fit into M.
* I have gone down 2 dress sizes.

I have a new mantra..... BELIEVE AND YOU WILL ACHIEVE

Day 90: Postponed

Did my skipping and also swimming yesterday but we were at the pool so I had to leave super set bonanza until I got home. Only problem was I got home close to 10pm, and was feeling dreadful. Knew that my knee couldn't stand floor jumps and could barely move my shoulder. Felt ill yada yada yada. So went to bed very upset at feeling ill and because I was going to go out on a whimper in my mind. Slept badly and woke up grumpy. So decided to postpone my last PCP day and do everything all over again today. Then Day 91 will be my Day 90 tomorrow.

Today All exercises done, skipping done, off for a swim later today. Feel SO much better. Will write my final blog after tomorrow.

Day 88: Yakult lady made my day

I am so glad that Patrick said get lots of sleep as I have been doing that almost every day in anticipation of the start of school for the kids when I get into action very early, go all day and get a lot less sleep than I have this summer. So, as it is Saturday I was lying in bed reading, putting off skipping as long as I could, but not before I fell over from hunger. Anticipation of my cup of coffee got me out of bed. So off down the road I go.......

About 3/4 of the way through, after having met and greeted no end of neighbours, who all seem to be outside, our local Yakult lady comes up behind me on her snazzy Yakult 3-wheeler scooter. Her first words were " Wow, you have lost a tonne of weight". She even said that whilst she was driving up she thought to herself "moshikashite......." ("is it?"). I checked through my blogs and the last time I had met the Yakult lady was on the 19th of June. Apparently my body shape has changed so much that she didn't recognise me. Since there are not that many blonde non-Japanese women wearing bright pink T-shirts skipping along the road in an area where there are not an overwhelming amount of foreigners, it wasn't a facetious "is it?". I am so very, very pleased. This lovely lady whom I see once in a while and always chat to (I told her I couldn't stop for long as I had to keep skipping), in just a few words managed to light a fire under me that had already been simmering. The ignition to the fire had been before I got on my skipping gear when I tried on my old jeans which I hadn't done since June. Another BIG surprise.

Am putting together some photo ideas. Only just realised that Day 90 is Monday not Tuesday as I had mentally been calculating. This means that the kids can take some photos on Day 90 as they only have a short orientation at school on Monday before the near academic year starts with a vengeance on Tuesday as does the next phase of my life post-PCP.

This is the kind of scooter my Yakult lady drives.....

Day 87: My teammate

I really like my teammates who blog. I do not like my teammate pain. I also don't like pain's little friends, one of whom resides in my previously dislocated shoulder and the other in my calf.

20 floor jumps seemed like a breeze today after 40 creeps. I never thought that I would say that. The shoulder exercises however felled me, due mainly to my teammates friend who now resides constantly in my left shoulder. My shoulder has been troubling me most of the day now for a while, and feels very weak strangely. I couldn't hold open a door in the supermarket today. I was unable to get even one full set out of any of the exercises for the shoulder today. It was accompanied by not only pain, but also nausea and dizziness as well as the total absence of any of the previous panache with which I might have done any of these exercises. Abs not great either. Abject failure was quick to the draw but that was also due to residing dizziness.

I will need to have a special bonding session with my friend pain. Wish I could have a nice chat over a glass of wine and hope that pain got so drunk it fell over and was past resuscitation. Chance would be a fine thing.

Day 86: Benny Hill-esque

Suffice it to say that my skipping remains supremely frustrating. But I amused myself immensely with the super sets. As Pete said, they whizzed by so by the end I felt like this........

Day 85: Aquatic fun

Skipping and exercises (minus abs) all done for the day. All before breakfast, so by the time I got to the abs got one set into V-sits and then I couldn't get my body to move for the 2nd set. Decided I would benefit more from doing abs together with 8MA later today

Off to Tokyo Summerland for some aquatic fun. Hope that I can find some obstacle courses to do my cardio. All before

School starts next Tuesday. None of us are ready to go back.

Day 84: Stuck between two hard chairs and a void

Failure defined today was doing elevated tricep dips, reaching failure and getting stuck on the two chairs, unable to move up or down, left or right, and absolutely no way of getting off the chairs. Only possible ways of getting out of this situation = falling off the chair or digging very deep and finding a muscle somewhere that was working to get me off the chairs. Found a muscle. A very small one. Was a particularly funny moment when I thought "that's it, I am stuck here" and no one else in the house was up yet. Silly woman.

Despite getting stuck on the chairs, all exercises done and dusted early. I had to do yesterday's exercises today as I didn't get home until too late and had left them for the afternoon. Serves me right.