I have had such a great day so far…

Today is exactly 1 week since I started the USN 12 week Body and Lifestyle challenge. I was asked to be a part of the celebrity challenge by Expresso TV show … read here.

I have been eating right, exercising and taking the right supplements and today was my first measurement taking/weigh-in.

I was excited to get there and then I suddenly felt nervous with these thoughts. What if I hadn’t lost any weight or body fat?

What if I am one of those “weird” people and this doesn’t work for me?

I had to get into my bikini and stand there vulnerably, while Trevor from USN took the “pincher”, otherwise known as my torture device to my tummy, my arms, my legs and so on to measure my body fat.

From there I had to stand on the scale and then had to wait for my results.

I had gained weight – 1kg, much to my horror BUT I was assured it’s muscle gain and muscle weighs more than anything. The true result is in the body fat measurement.

Drum roll please… I am down 3.8% body fat in ONE week!

Suddenly I didn’t feel so shy in my bikini as I began to do the Happy Dance… Sorry about that Trevor.

Great start!

From there it was off to Melrose Arch. My mom sent me an email about the New York Times Best Selling Mystery Suspense author, Karen Rose coming to South Africa. Exclusive Books was having a competition where you could win a luncheon with her.

I never enter competitions, but Karen Rose is one of my favourite authors and a big reason why I have started writing my novel.

I jumped at the chance and the following day I received an email back to say I was one of 10 to have been selected to have a lunch with her.

*Happy WINNER Dance*

What a remarkable woman. I was captivated from the moment she arrived. She writes because she loves it, not because it’s become her career. She gets engrossed in her characters and talks about them like they are genuine people she knows. The way she researches, plots and comes up with her story lines… the places she gets to travel to … I couldn’t get enough. She also had a copy of her latest book for each of us and signed them too.

She has inspired me even more and I can’t wait to get cracking on my novel.

Besides Karen, it really was the other winners who made the lunch extra special. I got to meet some wonderful people!

A huge thank you to Exclusive Books for picking me…

What a cool day!

Karen Rose and I