Let's hit the Road!

So as some of you know today was to be the start of my 12 week program with "Fit Man Fran" but alas it is not to be it seems!
I received my Diet Plan for Week 1 yesterday morning and I've yet to receive a plan for the exercises! I followed up both yesterday and today but unfortunately I dont have the information needed to start the plan as I'd hoped.  
I'm quite disappointed to be honest as I was really looking forward to it. After completing the "Drop a Dress Size" challenge in October / November on the RTE Today Show with Fran I was thrilled with the results, so when I was asked to be an Ambassador for his "12 Week Transformation Program" along with my "Training Buddy" (on the Today Show), Denise, I was thrilled! 

The Start of a Great Journey

Alas tho, it seems it is not to be for whatever reason and while I'm disappointed I'm not going to be discouraged from achieving my goals!

My Goals

I think from the start its always important to set goals both short and long term. With short term goals in place you feel encouraged along your journey and if you've little "slips" you can always reset your goals and still achieve what it is you want! 

Goals too should be realistic for yourself so you can maintain a momentum and help keep yourself on track for the main prize! 

Short Term Goals

• Loose the additional pounds I gained over the festive season by Sunday 18th January
• To loose another stone (14 lb) by Sunday 8th March 2015

Long Term Goals

• To be able to run comfortably the Womens Mini Marathon on 1st June 2015
• To comfortably wear size 10 - 12 from any shop by 1st June 2015   

While above are not lists of goals they are I feel realistic ones for me to set and I know along my journey I will add more. 

How will I achieve this? 

Operation Transformation!

Well, thankfully I've kept in touch with my "Training Buddy" Denise and while we may not be starting Fran's 12 week plan as thought we are going to begin another together which will be Operation Transformation. 

Many of you may already be aware of the program but for those who are not, it a transformation program on RTE 1. This is it's 8th Season and is starting back this Wednesday at 8.30pm. 

How it works is they pick a number of leaders and you can follow their diet and training plan online. 

While the program starts on Wednesday, myself and Denise will begin on Monday 12th January, giving us a chance to make sure we've all we need and we're ready to give it our all! 

Denise will be beginning a blog this week to share her journey also and when she's up and running I will share her details with you to give you another view of our time following Operation Transformation. 

Personal Run App

With today being the start of my training for the Womens Mini Marathon I wanted an app to help me train to be able to run a 10km. In the past I've used RunKeeper and while I found it great giving me 5 minute interval updates, tracking my journey, monitoring when I broke records etc It had its downfalls too that it would freeze of miscalculate timings etc. 

So this evening I tried Personal Run App for a change. My initial thoughts would be quite positive.

You have a number of choices to choose from and on selecting for example the "10K" options it explains what level you should currently be at which I thought very good. 

This evening I used the "1 MILE" option to ease me back into things after the Festive season! 

While its early days I will continue to use it and let you know what Pro's / Con's I meet along the way. 

Recommendations! 

• For those of you who are looking to make a change but not sure how I found "Diet SOS" by Lisa Fitzpatrick a great read and one I found very easy to connect with. 

• Check Slí ne Sláinte for walks in your area. Its a great way to start our and track your distance along the way 

So, even though today did not start out as planned, I'm looking forward to what's in store for me in the coming weeks!