New Workout!

It's been a while since I created a workout!

But I'm not joining the gym and figured I could do with something I can do at home, so this is my plan for the morning.

Today I also signed up for the Race for Life (link to my justgiving page) in aid of Cancer Research UK I'll be running a 5k in June round a local manor house estate.

I'm so excited because I've never done anything like this before, and it feels so good having something to aim towards. I really want to step things up (as much as I can while I'm still revising of course) and try to get myself in shape to make a really good try of this event!

Back at Uni...

And killing it!!

Yes, three days ago I returned to university for my very final year! And let me just say that so far, it's going well.

I've settled well into my house, and while I miss my fiance and my family, things are getting better. I've already been to the gym twice and am eating superbly if I do say so myself! I came home from lectures yesterday and got them typed up that same night - so long as I can keep this up, I think I'll be okay!

It's a horrible day today, but I walked to the gym, and spent about an hour there using the free weights, doing lots of squats and things. I also got to wear some of my new gym gear, the jogging leggings my mum brought me back from Florida. They're SUPER tight, but they make me feel sexy, so I like them :).

This morning for breakfast I've have a quarter of a honeydew melon, and I have a mango, raspberry, pear smoothie to drink once I've had a shower. Then for lunch I'm having my paleo pancakes, cause they're yummy and warm and it looks really cold out! Then I'll be off walking to uni for Fresher's Fair, then to the single lecture I have today, and finally home for my tea (leftover from last night - Spinach and ricotta filled pasta shells with a tomato and aubergine sauce - YUMMY!). And then I'm going bowling with the pharmacy committee!

Busy busy.

I'm really hoping that I can do well this week and manage to keep the weight off so I can win my dietbet. I've got myself some vanilla ice cream and galaxy counters for when I win :D

Are you there?

I'm sitting in my room, listening to the second album of Foo Fighter's In Your Honor, the slow one, and I'm finding it hard to believe that I bought it seven years ago. It doesn't feel that long since I was listening to it in the back of the rental car on Sanibel Island reading The Dark by James Herbert (amazing book by the way, probably shouldn't have read it when I was 15...but oh well :D).

Anyway, I haven't posted anything in a while, because I've been so super busy I simply haven't had the time! First of all, it was Rob's graduation. Oh my god it was amazing. Got to be honest, I choked up a little seeing him going up there and being 'hooded'. Just that university is now over, and we're finally moving on to the next part of our lives. Even though I still have a year of university left, we're almost ready to begin properly living our lives. Like we want to.

Then we went on holiday to Cornwall for a week! However, at the start we first headed to London where I had an interview for a pre-registration scheme, and I was offered the place. Which is amazing! However, since then I've been offered a second one and have an interview with a company I really, really would like to work for. So we'll see. But we spent a week in Cornwall, walking a lot, reading an awful lot of tea, feeding animals and just generally enjoying our time together. It was lovely. Just really, really nice, and I was not looking forward to coming home, because I then started into two weeks of working overtime!

I'll be honest, I didn't mind doing the extra hours, in fact I had fun. The thing is I really, honestly enjoy my job. I work with a lovely bunch of people and every day is something different, and even when we have patients who maybe aren't as polite as I'd like, it's still a generally good day. In the middle of those two weeks, I also went to York with a friend from uni to meet up with some lovely ladies I met through the internet. It was a terribly fun weekend, though I did spend Sunday very hungover lol.

So, as you can imagine, the last three weeks haven't left much room for exercising and/or keeping up with the diet. I've decided that I'd quite like to get to under 10 stone before I go back to uni, but I'm sure that'll change once I'm properly back into the swing of things.

I went to the gym this morning. Had a go on the stair master. I only did 5 minutes, I wasn't sure I'd ever be able to walk again after that! But I did apparently do 15 floors, which I think is pretty impressive for my first go. My thighs though, oh Jesus Christ...let's just say it was difficult.

The next two days I'm going to be going out with my family, who - even though I've been living at home for about 10 weeks - I feel like I've hardly seen. But I'm still going to go to the gym in the morning! Got to get back on the horse as it were and start being good again :).

Sweating Buckets!

Morning!! Well...Afternoon now, but anyway.

I went to our new gym today - I'll get photos when I'm there next. It's lovely. What was once a ground floor windowless room is now a first floor expanse of lots of new machines, walls of windows and it's just lovely. I felt so much better and spent about an hour and a half there today - longer than I think I ever have before!

I did the workout I posted yesterday, after 25 minutes running to Zombies, Run! Season 2 Mission 5, and 20 minutes cycling on the recombinant bike while reading The White Queen. And I was dying!! It wasn't too hard to be honest, but it certainly finished me off.

According the the TechnoGym equipment computer the workout from yesterday burns around 250 calories - which is pretty good! Of course that'll be different depending on your build and what not. But yeah, 250 calorie in about 30 minutes. Not bad :)

Got my suitcase down today :D and started sorting out my wash bag. Going out to find a bolero thingy in a bit to wear on Tuesday for Rob's graduation, but then I think I'll be starting to pack :D

It's another very sunny day here, but I think today I'll actually sit in the sun :)

Exercise and Low Calorie Day

As you may know, I use both Fitocracy and MyFitnessPal. I think they're awesome apps and perfect for keeping a track of your fitness and food. Plus I LOVE gaining levels on fitocracy :).

This is the workout I tracked today:

I hope you can see that. I'm very achy, especially after working out yesterday too. I'm planning on having the weekend off, but I may end up popping to the gym tomorrow - we'll see.

Super Calorific Indian Takeway and Under 200 Calorie 'Fry Up'

The other night, me and Rob had an indian take away and it was soooo good. They weren't nearly as bad as I thought they would be, mine was about 750 calories in total.
That was mine. So yummy.
A dopiaza, half a thing of pilau rice, half a thing of chips and half a HUGE naan. It was just what I needed, and I need to look into a really low calorie curry, because I really do love them.

Then I went to the gym today. I forgot my bottle of water though, so I was bloody knackered at the end. Enjoy the sweaty pic of me.

I only spent 10 minutes on the treadmill, then did:

• 10 reps each leg elevated lunges
• 20 of those ab spike things on the exercise ball
• 10 weighted squats (10kg)
• 10 plie squats
• 10 reverse flies (3kg each hand)
• 20 chest press (10kg)

Today for lunch, I wanted something warm, because when I'm revising in the dining room I get really cold! But it's hard to have warm food without toast or something, and I'm trying not to eat too much bread. So I had a 'fry up', except none of it was fried, there was no oil involved and it came to only 196 calories!

2 slices of ham

1 tomato

hand full of mushrooms - quartered

and a poached egg 

Super yummy, nice and filling, and just what I needed to warm up :)

Yummy Lunches and Exercising in the Sun

It's a delightful day today! Lovely and warm, terribly sunny and I've been awake for hours!

This morning I took my mam and her car to the MOT place, then I went to my nanas, and made the bodice of my dress (post to follow). I then took my mam to pick up her car, then had my lunch. 'Twas super yummy! I was wanting to cut out bread and chips, but my mam bought ciabatta from ASDA so I kind of had to have one. I topped them with avocado, tomato and mozarella, then toasted it :).

Then I went outside and exercised!

Got me sunnies on :). As you can see I used my yoga mat, but even still I'm covered in a rather horrible red rash - I'm quite allergic to grass, but only when touching it.

Tonight I'm going back up to our flat to finish cleaning it, after the pub quiz of course (we won last week!), then I get my level three results on Thursday morning. I'm just about holding on to my sanity...just.

Hopefully we'll actually get our holiday booked soon too :)

Good Morning!

It's been a good morning so far!

I had a weight watchers yogurt and a strawberry smoothie for breakfast, then I went to the gym! For like an hour and a half!

This is the workout I tracked through Fitocracy. However, I did more than this, only it doesn't really let you track everything.

I did these funny exercise ball spike press-up things that I saw Cassey Ho doing:

They were super hard, and I did about 30 of them (which is where my press ups came from). And my form was not nearly as good as Cassey's but I tried really hard!

I'm going to be brave today, and I'm going to get a photo of me in a bikini, as a sort of before photo. The thing is, I'm not really unhappy with the way I look, I'd just rather my curves were muscle rather than fat. I don't really want to be any smaller than I am (I happen to like my big bum and hips).

Anyway, time for a shower! Then I think I'll get some writing done before I go to Whitby with Rob for fish and chips!! :D

Oh I Ache!

Yesterday was a good day. I had cereal for breakfast, tuna and cucumber on crisp breads for lunch, then bacon egg and beans for tea (I skimped on the chips).

I also did quite a lot of exercise!

My house (that is my parent's house) has a huge back garden, so I did quite a few sprints up and down the lawn, before getting into this 'Crossfit Style' work-out I found online.
It's called - The Ladder and can be found here. Now I am a wimp, so there was no way I could do 50 press ups. So this is what I did:

20 press ups
20 lunges (each leg)
15 sit ups
20 squats
5 burpees
30 second plank
Then I repeated it back up the other way!

I'm so sore today. Which hasn't been helped by the fact that I've been clearing my flat today, climbing up and down four flights of stairs with heavy boxes and bin bags is not fun. I'm covered in bruises!

But you know what? I feel firmer already. And I'm going to go to the gym tomorrow and Friday hopefully, might even go swimming on Friday. Tomorrow I'm also going walking around Whitby, up those 199 steps, so that'll be a pretty decent workout too :)

I'll be ready for the beach in no time haha :D

Summer is finally here

which means that it's time for a holiday in the sun, which means I shall be wearing a bikini.

The last couple of months have been pretty hectic, as I've been getting ready and through my exams. I was all set to be so good in May, doing that 2 day diet thingy, but I should have known it never would have lasted. Frankly, I was far too stressed out to think about dieting or going to the gym. I haven't weighed myself, I don't want too, all I know is I no longer fit in to my smaller size jeans. All that hard work just flown out the window.

It's my finace's graduation on the 16th July, and I'm fashioning myself another dress (with the help of my nana again), and then on the 19th (hopefully) we shall be jetting off with 4 of our friends to sunny Menorca for 7 days in the sun. And I want to be fit for it!

Thus, tomorrow begins the start of me getting ready for a bikini. I shall be going to the gym, and swimming, as often as I can. I'm also hopefully going to start going to a Kettlebell class, and hopefully rollerskating - if I can find anywhere that's flat enough for me to do that.

For the next four weeks I'm going to be using Cassey Ho's Pop Pilates for Beginners Calendar

As I haven't done any pilates for a very long time, I think I need to take myself through a sort of refresher to build my strength back up.

Tomorrow morning I shall be going to the gym and doing the first video from the calendar. I might even get the rollerskates out, though probably just out my front, just to get used to them again.

Now that I'm home I'm also hoping to eat a lot better. Any thought of a diet went right out the window, with me basically scranning everything in sight - not good! Seriously, crisps and sweets and cans and bottles of pop, alcohol (so much alcohol). Just bad things, that only made me feel bad for eating (physically - not emotionally, frankly they were glorious until I ate too much and made myself ill). So now I'm going to be back on smoothies and fruit and grains and good things that make me feel good.

I'm hoping to come up with some more little workouts as I go - especially for abs and legs. I'm reckoning that it's going to be all go on here in the next month or so :)

Wish me luck!

Raspberry Smoothie

This was so yummy, but a bit seedy, good for brekkie though :)

Ingredients
1 cup frozen raspberries
1 tinned pear
1/2 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup raspberry/cranberry juice
1 tablespoon wheat bran
1 peach yogurt pot

Nutritional Info
219 calories
2.9g fat
37.4g total carbs
8.0g fibre
8.3g protein



For lunch I found this amazing recipe on the Be Food Smart app and made it for me and Rob.
2 slices of brown toast, 1 onion, green pepper and tomato chopped and grilled. Then top the toast with the grilled veg, add a little cheese and grill again :D. 207 calories per portion.

I also went to the gym today, cycled for 20 minutes, did some interval walking/running on the treadmill then did a ton of weights. Then me and Rob went for a 30 minute walk.

And I weighed myself. I've lost another 4lbs :)

Mid-day Workout

I didn't go to the gym again today, because I have enough work to be doing at home tbh, so instead, when I was sick of watching New Girl and trying to work out my pharmaceutics report I did a little workout in my flat :)

I started with a sort of dance/cardio workout of my own that went to Taylor Swift - 22. I can't remember exactly what I did. There were side lunges and speed skaters, but I kept my arms moving. Basically I just moved for 4 minutes and got my heart rate up. If I manage to I might video it one time...maybe.

Then I did these:

I'm not sure of the source of these images, I found them on Pinterest through Backonpointe, but I'm pretty sure they're not hers. If anyone knows let me know so I can link please :)


I also did this arm thing, which is like 'Tone your arms in 7 days' and I've done it for 3 on the trot now, I haven't noticed a significant difference, but tbh I don't believe in these 'lose this much in this many days' and all that. It comes from hard work and perseverance. If you want a quick fix, then you're doing the wrong thing :)

Morning Exercise

Got a bit of a sleep in this morning as I don't have to be at work till 10, yay :) and I'm only there till 2 - double yay :D.

Really wanted to do some exercise this morning, so I did this routine, using two 1.5kg weights:

The pic will take you back to the original tumblr I found this on. She's got loads of amazing little workouts like these, some harder than others and some shorter, some longer.

My arms definitely ache after this workout! Think I'll do this routine again tonight plus one for my legs maybe, so I get a decent level of movement done today :)

Exercise!

Went to the gym - totally kicking it.
15 minutes speed walking on the treadmill - 5 minutes on a steep incline. Followed by 15 minutes on the bike - level 3 10 minutes, level 5 for 5.

Then I moved onto the mat and did some situps, press ups, other free weights. But I don't know how to record them on my key.

147 calories burned.

When I got home, to this:
Seriously, what is that? There's next to no snow left on the roads or anywhere else between Sunderland and here, but as soon as you turn on to our road, it's a mess.

Anyway, when I got home, I hopped on the Wii, and I now weigh 145lb, that's 2lb over the weekend. Fiance jokes that it's just a successful toilet visit (how crude?) but I'm sure this diet's working. Shall see what I weight on Saturday before work to see if it's truly working.

Lunchtime Exercise

Okay, so I finally got out of bed after completing my Community Placement 2 Task 1 write up, and I'm doing some Blogilates.

For those of you who don't know, Blogilates is this amazing site run by the ever brilliant Cassey Ho. I found her videos on youtube like....a year ago, maybe, and she completely changed my life - that's not an exaggeration.
I've had quite a few injuries over the years, I used to horse ride as a child and do judo. I've dislocated my knee, I don't know how many times, and sprained my ankle twice. As such I find it difficult to do high impact exercises - I still can't run on the treadmill after dislocating my knee 3 months ago. Pilates is perfect for me.
It's low impact, but high reward, which is just what I need.
I try to do some at least once a day, and Cassey Ho helps with that. Her videos are between 5-20 minutes in length, so I can mix it up.

This is what I've done today:







I'll admit, I did have to stop in some of them. But I'm done!! I am sooooo tired. My arms and my abs and my legs are killing me. But I feel good!

Time for lunchtime smoothie I think :)