Week 12 Review

Here we are at the end of the 12wbt. Wow! It went so quickly! I have been reflected back on the last 12 weeks as well as planning what is ahead. In the next few months I have to look forward to a camping trip to Cania on the June long weekend. We are going to freeze our tits off but we are itching to use the camper. I have my niece's 21st at the Gold Coast a couple of weeks after that. My niece wanted to celebrate at Dracula's so Mal and I are leaving the little toads at home and having a weekend away. I would love to get down to Brissy for a bit of me time but that will most probably be a pipe dream and then we are going to Maroochydore in September for a week. Somewhere in there, I would like to start to focus on building some muscle with the plan of competing next year. I had hoped to compete in October but realistically it's soccer season in winter so I struggle to get adequate gym time and October is cricket season for Mal and he would like to come along for support.

Back to the 12wbt. I think I'll start with some of the negatives - apologies if I am repeating myself:

• The focus is purely weightloss. I understand that was most people's goals but there was little support for those who didn't have to lose a lot of weight.
• There were a few people who were following the plan and beyond and weren't getting the results. Again there was very little support or advice apart from the stock standard 'work harder' or 'tighten up your diet'. Maybe the plan didn't work for everyone, there was no advice to tweak it a little. I guess at the end of the day, while it was split into Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced it was a one size fits all program.
• Again, there were people who had done marathons (or just flogged themselves at a training session) and followed the diet and gained weight. There was no reasons given for this. At one point I started to doubt her knowledge but perhaps she didn't want us to get bogged down in too much information. You could tell a few people were getting disheartened so a simple explanation would set their minds at ease. I would try to reply to their messages but I'm not an expert so was often ignored. Of course, you would get other transformers saying that maybe they are putting on muscle - I wish I gained muscle that easily.
• The amount of seafood in the diet. I challenged myself to try the seafood meals but I have come to the conclusion that I hate it.
• The 'triathlon' - I just don't have the time

The positives

• I enjoyed the workouts. I have found my love for cardio again.
• Some great recipes. My faves were the Pad Thai (with chicken instead of prawns), Mushroom risotto, Roast Chicken, Baked Pears and Apple Tarts.
• Learning to listen to my body. I don't think the 12wbt did this but I have learnt it along the way. I don't need to eat 6 x a day if I don't feel like it. I can just have fruit for a snack - I don't have to have protein with each meal if I don't feel like it.
• Reaching some goals and milestones. I did unassisted chin-ups and I ran 10 km - 2 things that seemed out of my reach.
• The support from other transformers. It is nice to be around like-minded people even if it is virtual.
• The 'triathlon' - the sense of achievement.

Overall, it is a great program if you need to lose some kilo's. Everything is laid out with the exercise program and diet plan which makes it easy to follow. At the end of the day, it is not personal training and you only get out what you put in. Unless you also pay a personal trainer for your workouts, you have to push yourself. As someone said on the forums, the training and diet is very similar to her book Crunch Time but, for me, I have never actually completed a program that I have found in a book or the net. I think that because there is a team feel to this program I saw it through - it feels nice to be part of something.