Introduction to the series

Welcome to my 12 week challenge series! I will be doing a check-in post every week to share my journey as I do my own health and fitness program ‘Lean & Well’. In each blog post I will very briefly share:

  • A diary entry (my thoughts and experiences over the past week and about the coming week).
  • My progress measurements and photos.
  • My My Fitness Pal Food Diary for the next day.

Over the last 9 months I have had my second baby, gone overseas for a 2 week holiday, sold our house, moved into a rental, bought our dream block by the beach and gone back to work part time. It has been an intense season of life and health and fitness have not been able to be a top priority. I’m now at a point where I’m able to dedicate a little more time and energy to ‘me’ and am so looking forward to putting in the work to look and feel like the best version of me!

The two times I have been in my best ever shape have been when I have been following the exercise program, nutrition advice and healthy lifestyle tips all contained in Lean & Well.

Competing in the INBA in 2015

13 months post-partum in 2017

Naturally I am feeling very motivated to re-do L & W and feel incredible again. I love that feeling of being in great shape. I remember how I felt in both photos above: super confident, oozing energy and very proud. I can’t wait to get there again! Best of all I know from experience it is relatively easy to maintain those results once you have put in the hard work and made the sacrifices to achieve them.

It is my desire to help as many women feel happy, confident and energetic which is why I put a tonne of work into L & W. To celebrate it having been released over a year ago now I have reduced the price by 50%! Click here to purchase a copy or read more about it.

Start Diary Entry

Today is Sunday, my preparation day before I start my program officially tomorrow.

Here is what I have done today to prepare for my 12 week challenge:

  1. Read the ‘Introduction’ document. I definitely recommend you do this to give yourself the big picture of how the program works. I have filled in my long term goals and put them up on my bathroom mirror so I will be reminded of them daily.
  2. Taken my start measurements and start photos. I also set a reminder on my phone to go off every Sunday morning so I don’t forget to take them each week.
  3. Read ‘Eat Well’, calculated my macro targets and filled them into the weekly planner and ordered the supplements I wanted to take based off the information on page 27.
  4. Read the first chapter of Live Well.
  5. Filled in my goals and meals for the week into my weekly planner.
  6. Filled in all my food in to My Fitness Pal for tomorrow.
  7. Set my alarm and layed out my workout clothes ready for my first workout tomorrow morning.

Progress Measurements & Photos

I have already posted my start measurements above but here are my start photos:

My Fitness Pal Food Diary for Next Week

Here is what I intend to eat tomorrow. I find it very useful having all my meals planned out in advance to save me from making bad decisions when tired or emotional.

Thanks for reading, it helps to keep me accountable! I hope in being so open in this series it gives you motivation and inspiration to put a plan in place to pursue your own goals.

Holly x