Day 60: Jelly legs & arms, nausea, near vomit, tears

Day 60 and two thirds of the way through, today was the first day that truly nearly defeated me. Squats were OK, but then after the pistol squats and creep my legs became pure jelly. By the time I got through the shoulder exercises the arms were jelly. Midway through came the nausea and then the desire to throw up. Nearly gave in but decided to listen to that voice which is Patrick sitting on my shoulder and kept on going (with great difficulty). Interesting that someone whom I have never met can have a strong influence on me and can sit there on my shoulder or hover in midair, all by virtue of sending me a daily e-mail. By comparison the ab work was easy.

Remain exhausted, but proud of myself that I have made it to Day 60. Am determined to power through not only the next 30 days, but hope that this is an indication of what I will continue to be doing even after I have finished the 90 days.

It is a time of facing myself, pushing myself and also of discovering myself.

Day 59: Exhausted

Everywhere in my body hurts. I am exhausted. Didn't think the exercises had stepped up that much, but am dragging myself through the day.

Skipping today sucked. Leaden lags. Exhaustion cut number of jumps by 20%. Man oh man oh man is it frustrating to not even be able to do 10 jumps consecutively. And that was good. I stumbled on average every 2 jumps. But I did feel proud of myself that whilst it was all a pile of doodoo I kept on going. Not jumping also makes you sweat.

I would like to think that it was nothing to do with my giving in to temptation and having a millefeuile yesterday. Believe it or not I do not have a sweet tooth, but above chocolate mousse I love millefeuile and you can't get them in Japan the way I love... only Holland (and now Bali!). So for the first time in 3 years of seeing one, I lost all discretion.

This afternoon is another afternoon of exercises. Tomorrow is another day of skipping. Since it is Saturday I think I will dispense with first thing in the morning tomorrow to see if a) that is any better, b) I think I need a break from getting up before everyone else.

Day 58: It is what it is

Still on the skipping band wagon. Have been playing around with best way to skip for me. Am ultra impressed by all the rotations everyone is doing and feeling lacking. But I tried this morning to do an imitation of Rocky. And stumbled at every single jump. For a lot of jumps. So I went back to what I find works for me. OK, so I only managed 62-63 skips a minute. But I grit my teeth and I keep going. Also if I managed to do 1,000, then I hop 2,000 due to my weird manner of hopping twice for each loop. Tried to do it once and fell over. Plus, if I stop I lose my groove. I can keep on going, pretty hard (for me), as long as I don't stop. Had a drink after 11 minutes which was a mistake. But I reckon that it is what it is, and it is the best I can do.

Am liking the changes to my body. My new cotton trousers from Scotland fell off me today. Bit embarrassing as I was walking down the rod at the time. Think I might be down a size since then. Will update photos in the next few days.

Not liking the extra sets. Think my teeth may have cracked in the process. My arms fell off last night.

Maybe if I paint a sixpack onto my stomach that will inspire me.

Day 57: Skipping was GREAT today

OK, not without any hiccups but much, much better than up to now and the very first time that I have actually enjoyed skipping. Straight through for 16 minutes... on a daily loop of:

Reach Out (Take That)
Hot & Cold (Katy Perry)
I Kissed a Girl (Katy Perry)
I Got a Feeling (Blackeyed Peas)
and then a bit of Walking on Sunshine (Katrina and the Waves)

Not yet done my exercises but will do them after dinner.

Bit technically challenged here so not been able to post any comments on other blogs. May have to move my laptop around the garden to get a better connection. Plan for tomorrow as another with that as my challenge.

Day 56: Paradise

Arrived in Paradise last night and woke up in the wee hours of the morning to the most torrential rain. Thought to myself, this is Bali, it will stop soon. At 8am got soaked when I had to run to the breakfast pavilion, but manna from heaven at 9.30am despite our conviction that it was never going to stop the sky lightened up and there was some indication the sun would actually be seen today. Kids went off to horse camp, and my friend and I did a huge shop at the local supermarket for water, veggies and fruit. And coffee. Beer for the boys. Some treats for the kids. And an electric zapper tennis racket to fry the mozzies (apologies to any mozzie lovers).

I was over the moon yesterday when I realised that if worst came to the worst I could have gado gado and chicken satay at every meal that I eat out if I can't find anything else on the menu. In fact, I may take advantage of that bonus and not bother to cook for myself other than the veggies for breakfast.... not a lot of veggies on the menu other than fried tomato and mushrooms to go with the sausage and diced potato which I will not be having.

Had a millisecond of a waver last night when my friend asked was I really not drinking at all, but my last foray into alcohol land was really not good, so desisted and happily will continue to sip my water. I tried a Perrier with lime the other day and didn't really like it strangely. Part of a metabolic type testing diet that I have been on since the start of this year means that I can't have any citrus. Perhaps there is a reason that I didn't like the lime because my body doesn't like it. Maybe I am imagining things, but I feel dreadful when I have things on the list that I am not supposed to have (they are all PCP compliant and therefore have been adding in a few things for variety), so in many weird and wonderful ways am (finally) beginning to listen to my body. One of the things my body does not seem to like though is flying. Felt ill again on this flight (only 7 hours) which is weird as I felt sick both to and from Scotland.

I was very, very, very happy to discover it was Tuesday and I didn't have to do any exercises, just skip. Am still very tired from yesterday's workout.  Both legs and arms. Ready to go tomorrow (I think) after discovering that the improvement in the view (lovely Balinese garden view) whilst I skip and the tunes on my iPod are great to groove to. Finally realised why I don't do as many skips as some of you.. I seem to hop about a lot between skips, ie hop twice for each rotation, a bit a la 1980's aerobics. But I work up a good sweat, am working hard and am tired at the end so figure that a high stepping kick with a flick of the heel may not be so bad after all as I cannot just hop up and down on 2 feet.

Day 55: Beautiful Bali here we come

Am writing Day 55 blog only slightly ahead of midnight. Why am I up so late? Because I have spent a lot of time making my breakfast, lunch, dinner, 3 fruit snacks and egg whites for the journey tomorrow as there is no way that the airplane will be able to cater to my egg white requirements etc. So I am armed and ready to go.

Not sure if I will be able to do Kung Fu sit-ups tomorrow morning as won't have time to run to the park as well as do all my exercises and not panic about getting kids, suitcases etc in the car to Narita. Luckily I drive and drop off. Best deal in the world. Door to door in about an hour which makes the whole Narita saga very bearable.

Watched Soul Surfer this afternoon and as a result, despite having felt so leaden all day I just sailed through the exercises. Not a single thought of JFD on my mind. Was just happy that I could do my pushups (all of them) on my toes. The plank though remains another matter entirely. I am ashamed to say that I am only up to 20 seconds full plank, then 20 seconds leaning on right knee and 20 seconds leaning on left knee. But I will get there. It just takes me a lot longer than most people. Had planned to compensate for dweeb-like plank performance with 8MA, but as I have to get up at 5.30am (I am NOT an early riser by nature) I think I would benefit more from going to bed. If I don't do my exercises before I leave tomorrow I know I won't do them once I get to Bali.

So am signing off here an now.......

Day 54: Sluggish, langorous & leaden

Very, very, very sluggish today. Haven't slept well for 3 days from jet lag. Only 2-4 hours a night. Made up for it last night with a 12+ hour stint. However as a result I feel very slow and weak. Was about to leave all exercise until this afternoon but decided to watch Patrick's videos. And read his e-mail. That was enough to send me outside to skip. But was so sluggish that for the first time forgot to stretch before I skipped. Resulted in pain in my calf, but I finished. Skipping not that good. Lots of trips. Put it down to general lead-like feeling of all body parts.

Was thinking before the skipping that maybe it was better to go straight through and also do the exercises. However since I woke up at 11.20am, diddled while I read e-mails, watched videos, and then finally skipped,  I was really, really hungry. So just had my breakfast, and having a cup of coffee in the vain hope that will wake me up a bit and will then do the rest.

Shoulders are in pain, so a massage later today if I can get my act together.

Flying to Bali tomorrow morning with the kids, leaving my better half behind. May not be able to blog as I run around like a lunatic trying to get to the airport as my main commitment will be to get up super early to get the skipping and exercises done. I know myself well enough since starting PCP to know that I will NOT be exercising when I get to my destination.

Onwards and upwards and keep the groove.