Last week was crazy busy but mostly because a lot of it was spent in the gym or doing fitness related projects. The usual Monday night Body Pump class was another killer. The class is super effective but each week I realise that my core strength needs some definite work (more on this later!). I realised that there is not much point in going to the gym to purely work on cardio. It is not as effective a fat burner as a lot of other things I can do whilst I am there.
I have spoken before about an old shoulder injury which does hold me back from time to time. This is something I am really focusing on to strengthen in the coming weeks. I have put together a basic shoulder workout which I did on Saturday morning as well as a basic leg workout which was my hour session on Friday. I think the structure of that really helps.
PT was a lot of HIIT training again this week. This time shifting the focus to strengthen my shoulder and to build my general core strength. I managed 7 whole minutes on the cross trainer - a new achievement for me seeing as I hate the thing. I also have lost another 3lbs this week which takes me to a whopping 18lbs in total. I am really pleased with that result and know it is what is motivating me to keep working hard.
So core strength. Or the lack thereof. We have put together a nightly 5 minute challenge which involves just core workouts. It starts off with planking for as long as you can (timed), a 30 second rest, plank again for as long as you can, 30 second rest, heel taps for 30 seconds, rest, heel taps for 30 seconds, rest and then a final 30 seconds of heel taps.
Plank record (from last night's first attempt) - 30 seconds.
Hopefully I can beat that for next week.
A new recipe I have tried this week (to try and add excitement to my chicken and rice) is to turn it into a tomato based chicken curry. Just cook the chicken as normal, chop it into small chunks and let it simmer in curry paste with a 1/4 tin of chopped tomatoes. It went down a treat!
From this week I am going to be carefully planning out my workouts on a Sunday for the week ahead.
Next post:
Shoulder Workout - basic breakdown
Leg Workout - basic breakdown
Plank challenge update!
Monday, 30 January 2017
Sunday, 22 January 2017
Personal Training, What I ate Friday + Extra arms day Saturday
Friday was a tough one for me in terms of food. With colleagues going out for lunch to my favourite restaurant it took all my will power not to go! My food was much less exciting. So here is what I actually ate on Friday:
Breakfast: Bran flakes with almond milk - this was my first try of almond milk and it will be my last! Horrible stuff!
Morning Snack: A small banana
Lunch: Brown pita pocket with 2oz of chicken cooked in lemon juice with oregano and mushrooms (so tasty!)
I always miss my afternoon snack for some reason and skip straight to dinner! I know I shouldn't but I always just forget.
Dinner: Friday dinner is one of my favourites of the week. I get 2oz of steak with a cup of rice and some asparagus. I cook the steak with some chinese 5 spice and soy sauce for taste.
It was a good week for testing my resolve - Wednesday is sausage roll and doughnut day at work - I didn't have any, Thursday was a colleague's birthday so there was a huge chocolate cake and we already meantioned Friday.
So PT was 6-7pm on Friday which is a good time in the gym. There is rarely a lot of people in on a Friday which means we get to use any equipment we need. We always try to go a bit earlier so that we get a bit of a warm up on the treadmills just to start us off for the session. On Friday I wish we hadn't given ourself that extra work!
We started with some HIIT training. It is accumulative training which means we do 30 seconds of one exercise, rest for 30 seconds then do the first exercise again but add 30 seconds of a different exercise until we build up to 5 exercises each lasting 30 seconds then a 2 minute break. Our 5 exercises were:
1. Floor to sky jumps with kettlebells.
2. Weighted star jumps (free weights)
3. Weighted squats (bar - but for me kettlebell due to injury)
4. Stepped burpees
5. Planking (again, due to injury, altered to heel touches)
Once we did a continuous block of 30 seconds of each exercise and had our 2 minute break we had to start from the last exercise and do the whole block of 5 backwards, 30 second rest, then do 4 - so drop the floor to sky jumps off this time, then rest for 30, do 3 then drop one etc.
It was hard. There were times - going from the plank to the stepped burpees - on our way back I was just commando rolling myself to get off the mat. We were sweating like crazy and felt like there was no way we could keep going. But we did.
After our HIIT session was the stepper machine. One that (until now) I have not managed to work out before - I always just sink to the floor! I managed 5 minutes on that - boy were they tricky! Especially having done a fair lot of leg work during HIIT. The final step was 2000m on the rowing machine. By this time I must say I was clock watching - I just wanted to lie on the floor and recover.
Since Friday was weigh in day we decided to revisit our measurements for the first time since we started. This was a daunting prospect. I knew I had lost a fair bit of weight but I wasn't sure how that would look in centimeters. For me, a total of 9cms overall - 7 of those off my waist! That is a great result and one I am really chuffed with.
On Saturday morning I was feeling a bit sore and could really feel the workout that I had done the previous night. My legs were a bit tight and my back was really sore but it is all worth it. I'm not sure who had the idea (me or my OH) but we decided to get up early(ish) and head to the gym for a morning arms session. Something I am not great at due to my shoulder injury. We did a 10 minute treadmill warm up, I did some weighted squat jumps with free weights, we did some upper body resistance training on the resistance machine thingy (not sure of the actual words) and then ended with some tricep work with weighted pull downs on the same machine. It felt so good that we rewarded ourselves with a trip to the Nike shop for some new trainers!!
Next post: I will work out how to add photos! Cheat meal - what we ate, body pump - the after effects!
Breakfast: Bran flakes with almond milk - this was my first try of almond milk and it will be my last! Horrible stuff!
Morning Snack: A small banana
Lunch: Brown pita pocket with 2oz of chicken cooked in lemon juice with oregano and mushrooms (so tasty!)
I always miss my afternoon snack for some reason and skip straight to dinner! I know I shouldn't but I always just forget.
Dinner: Friday dinner is one of my favourites of the week. I get 2oz of steak with a cup of rice and some asparagus. I cook the steak with some chinese 5 spice and soy sauce for taste.
It was a good week for testing my resolve - Wednesday is sausage roll and doughnut day at work - I didn't have any, Thursday was a colleague's birthday so there was a huge chocolate cake and we already meantioned Friday.
So PT was 6-7pm on Friday which is a good time in the gym. There is rarely a lot of people in on a Friday which means we get to use any equipment we need. We always try to go a bit earlier so that we get a bit of a warm up on the treadmills just to start us off for the session. On Friday I wish we hadn't given ourself that extra work!
We started with some HIIT training. It is accumulative training which means we do 30 seconds of one exercise, rest for 30 seconds then do the first exercise again but add 30 seconds of a different exercise until we build up to 5 exercises each lasting 30 seconds then a 2 minute break. Our 5 exercises were:
1. Floor to sky jumps with kettlebells.
2. Weighted star jumps (free weights)
3. Weighted squats (bar - but for me kettlebell due to injury)
4. Stepped burpees
5. Planking (again, due to injury, altered to heel touches)
Once we did a continuous block of 30 seconds of each exercise and had our 2 minute break we had to start from the last exercise and do the whole block of 5 backwards, 30 second rest, then do 4 - so drop the floor to sky jumps off this time, then rest for 30, do 3 then drop one etc.
It was hard. There were times - going from the plank to the stepped burpees - on our way back I was just commando rolling myself to get off the mat. We were sweating like crazy and felt like there was no way we could keep going. But we did.
After our HIIT session was the stepper machine. One that (until now) I have not managed to work out before - I always just sink to the floor! I managed 5 minutes on that - boy were they tricky! Especially having done a fair lot of leg work during HIIT. The final step was 2000m on the rowing machine. By this time I must say I was clock watching - I just wanted to lie on the floor and recover.
Since Friday was weigh in day we decided to revisit our measurements for the first time since we started. This was a daunting prospect. I knew I had lost a fair bit of weight but I wasn't sure how that would look in centimeters. For me, a total of 9cms overall - 7 of those off my waist! That is a great result and one I am really chuffed with.
On Saturday morning I was feeling a bit sore and could really feel the workout that I had done the previous night. My legs were a bit tight and my back was really sore but it is all worth it. I'm not sure who had the idea (me or my OH) but we decided to get up early(ish) and head to the gym for a morning arms session. Something I am not great at due to my shoulder injury. We did a 10 minute treadmill warm up, I did some weighted squat jumps with free weights, we did some upper body resistance training on the resistance machine thingy (not sure of the actual words) and then ended with some tricep work with weighted pull downs on the same machine. It felt so good that we rewarded ourselves with a trip to the Nike shop for some new trainers!!
Next post: I will work out how to add photos! Cheat meal - what we ate, body pump - the after effects!
Thursday, 19 January 2017
Me, myself and 15 stones
For the best part of 10 years I have struggled with my weight. I have fluctuated between the 13st mark to my heaviest: 14st 12lb. An unhealthy emotional connection to food, a lack of slef-restraint, a particular fondness for Chinese takeaway/pizza and most importantly my hatred for anything to do with exercise is what I blame. As a result of my weight I have had low self-esteem and even lower self-confidence. I definitely feel that this had an impact on my life through school and university because I just felt like I didn't really fit in.
I can't remember when the first fad diet started but I do know a few things for sure:
1. I was under the impression that going to one Slimming World class and the weight would just come off a week later.
2. There was no way I knew what I was getting myself into - or the dedication that it would take for the diet to succeed.
3. No matter how I tried to twist it there was no way I was getting away with the sneaky takeout I was ordering each week.
The hardest part was certain acquaintences and family members who would constantly make comments about my weight. I kept resolving to start a new diet but it would never last long. My inspiration to really take this seriously came from a few moments (good and bad) in 2016. The first was getting engaged and setting my wedding date for July 2017. The second was my dad taking seriously ill at Easter - it gave us all a boost to get healthier, stop smoking and get fit. Finally my little brother. A fitness fanatic who has worked every day for the past 5-6 years to gain muscle and get super fit. We sat down one day and I (smoking a cigarette and eating leftover Chinese) was telling him all of the reasons why I couldn't or didn't want to exercise, go near a gym or get fit. It wasn't until a few days later when I re-hashed the conversation in my head that I realised how ridiculous this must sound. It was all bull**** excuses.
In November 2016 I joined my local branch of PureGym with one of my bridesmaids. We hired ourselves a personal trainer who works with us together each week, put together a diet plan for us and is there for constant support and guidance. It was the best thing I could ever have done.
In 8 weeks I have lost over a stone in weight and converted a lot more fat to muscle tissue. I won't say it is easy but it definitely is making a huge difference to my relationship with food.
This is just a background to my journey. It's taken me this long to prove to myself that I will keep this diet and fitness routine up long enough to blog it!
Next blog: a rundown of my PT session, what I ate Friday and a progress picture comparison.
I can't remember when the first fad diet started but I do know a few things for sure:
1. I was under the impression that going to one Slimming World class and the weight would just come off a week later.
2. There was no way I knew what I was getting myself into - or the dedication that it would take for the diet to succeed.
3. No matter how I tried to twist it there was no way I was getting away with the sneaky takeout I was ordering each week.
The hardest part was certain acquaintences and family members who would constantly make comments about my weight. I kept resolving to start a new diet but it would never last long. My inspiration to really take this seriously came from a few moments (good and bad) in 2016. The first was getting engaged and setting my wedding date for July 2017. The second was my dad taking seriously ill at Easter - it gave us all a boost to get healthier, stop smoking and get fit. Finally my little brother. A fitness fanatic who has worked every day for the past 5-6 years to gain muscle and get super fit. We sat down one day and I (smoking a cigarette and eating leftover Chinese) was telling him all of the reasons why I couldn't or didn't want to exercise, go near a gym or get fit. It wasn't until a few days later when I re-hashed the conversation in my head that I realised how ridiculous this must sound. It was all bull**** excuses.
In November 2016 I joined my local branch of PureGym with one of my bridesmaids. We hired ourselves a personal trainer who works with us together each week, put together a diet plan for us and is there for constant support and guidance. It was the best thing I could ever have done.
In 8 weeks I have lost over a stone in weight and converted a lot more fat to muscle tissue. I won't say it is easy but it definitely is making a huge difference to my relationship with food.
This is just a background to my journey. It's taken me this long to prove to myself that I will keep this diet and fitness routine up long enough to blog it!
Next blog: a rundown of my PT session, what I ate Friday and a progress picture comparison.
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