Try something new

I stumbled upon something I haven't tried before, but I have always thought about trying.  Samphire.  I am having it tomorrow with beef tomatoes (my favourite tomatoes) courgette, asparagus, grilled salmon and possibly an avocado.  I wouldn't normally add the avocado when I have a lot of other things, but I have 3 that are about to go past it. I had one on toast as my breakfast and it was perfect!

Whilst having a mooch around Tesco, I found some different types of Rye bread too. The first one I am going to try has Quinoa and Amaranth.  In fact, it actually states is as Amaranth/Quinoa, so maybe they are one and the same!! Google...

It isnt the same thing, but is a grain.  I was trying to paste in the wiki description but this app would only post it randomly on the page!! 

Whilst queuing at Tesco I wondered about the people who operate the tills; do they gain some kind of insight into people from what they buy.  Are they able to easily work things out about the people they serve and their state of mind, their background etc? I think I would spend my time trying to work it out, but then I'm incredibly nosey!!

This was my trolley today, ignore the crappy bread; that's Sammy's! 

Ah, and the unhealthy crispbreads that I grabbed as I was running out of time in my lunch break and had nothing to put my salmon on.  I wonder how I would be judged?!

And finally

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Have you missed me?

I have been somewhat remiss with my posts this week! Sorry about that.  I haven't been feeling great and I have also been really busy getting prepared for my London trip yesterday.  That is now done and want half as scary as I thought it would be. I hated wearing the suit I bought in a hurry on Tuesday night, just want me at all. I need to get online and find one that I feel more myself in! Its amazing how something as stupid as what you're wearing can impact your mood and how you carry yourself.

I have really been struggling with the left wing of my pelvis over the last week or so. I have only been working the horses from the ground and I have had to keep medicating it, which isn't ideal, but I haven't been able to put up with it unfortunately.  This happens very occasionally after I have had my back done, I need to get in touch with David and go back, is just been chaos this week.

This is a milestone month for me, it is the last payment I have on my credit cards that I have had hanging around my neck at differing amounts for nearly 15 years. Many silly decisions made when I was a silly little kid. I made up my mind to finally blitz them this year and it is something else I have achieved in just over 10 months, such a weight off. I couldn't have done it alone, I am lucky to have had the support of Tom and my parents whilst I have done it and I am lucky to have had 2 considerable pay rises in the last 6 months, I say lucky, that has nothing to do with it, I have worked my ass of for those.  Now we can get on with paying for the wedding and saving for a house, who knew we would get to the point that we were excited about saving! The difference a year makes!

I am currently blogging this whilst walking on the treadmill, I have loads to do at lunch so won't get chance and time is always tight at night.  The good news is that the pelvis feels pretty good and walking is nice low impact cardio too. I'm up to 30 mins now and plan on doing an hour.

I'm pleased to say that Kath who I used to work with and who goes to the same gym as me has found the motivation to really kick her diet into touch, I get really excited when someone starts out on this quest as I know how much better it makes you feel. I have every faith that she will soon enough become a massive health junkie too and reap the rewards.  Hats off to get too as this time of year doesn't lend itself to being good! I have managed to shift 4 of the 6 pounds I gained, we were meant to be going to the Xmas markets with work in a few weeks time, but I just can't bear how much it sets me back, as much as I love drinking there, I have such different priorities now and I have 3 weekends on the trot in December so just need another break.  I think my ultimate goal is to stop drinking completely, I'm just not at that place in my journey just yet, and one thing I have learnt is that it's all about timing and want, I don't want that enough yet... Something to put on my long term radar for sure!

I have been looking online for things to wear to Xmas parties and it is so nice to look at things and know I'm gonna look good in them. Arrogance or vanity? I don't think so, I am proud of what I have achieved and a party dress is putting it right out there, especially as I'm not a dress wearer, which in itself is a massive challenge! I have got to find one that sits who I am now, I feel how I dress is so personal to me now, as I have developed a style that fits me now and I have no intention of betraying that.  It's my individual expression and I love it, something else new to me too!

40 mins in and I'm starting to sweat and lose grip of my phone, love you and leave you

6 pounder!

Yep, I have put on 6lbs since Friday morning. That is some achievement! And for all the days for the gym to not be open yet!! Come on you lazy beggars!! I need to burn some serious fat here.

It's interesting, where on earth does it go? I do feel like I have gained, but that is probably around 3 litres of fat, if it is just fat.. Which is an insane amount.  At least I will see weight loss on the scales this week!

Its just not worth it, I felt crap yesterday from eating and drinking so much rubbish.  I just don't get enough enjoyment out of it, I know that things can be done in moderation, I just struggle with moderation when alcohol is involved!!

Feeling pretty rubbish now, my pelvis and lower back is so painful.  They haven't been right for the last week, but now they are pretty horrific.  I thought it would fix itself over the weekend with not doing anything, bit it hasn't.  I do feel like I am getting poorly though, terrible timing if I am; I have a London trip on Wednesday to go and see a really important client and I need go be on top form.  I have even gone and bought a suit, not my style at all, but they are solicitors so will all be really smart.  I tried some suit dresses on, but they just aren't me, I feel really uncomfortable in them.  Plus aide though was that 10 was too big! I didn't try an 8 on though as I was just uncomfortable!!

This weekends indulgences included this little (huge) beauty

Its no wonder I managed to gain so much really! That and the beautiful black stuff! 

Early night tonight and I wont be at the gym either, or I will definitely end up being ill!! Not great timing doe skipping a gym session either really.  Oh well, there are worse things in the world and I need to be well

What this journey means

I was chatting to someone at the gym this morning about how I have achieved what I have.  I do get asked it by quite a few people now and anyone who reads this blog will see just how I have, but it inspired me to write a little bit about the journey I have been on and how it has affected me and my life so drastically. 

It started for me on the 1st January, so a while before I started this blog.  It wasn't initially inspired by me getting engaged, it was at that point I felt inspired to start blogging.  What set it off was me feeling utterly disgusting after binging my life away for many, many years. 

What I didn't ever foresee, was the scale of the impact that it would have on my life in general.  I have been a work in progress for myself for many years from an emotional point of view, and embarking on this mission has made all of my hard work in that respect, finally fall into place. 

The health and fitness way of life has become an obsession to me. I get so much enjoyment out of trying to understand myself physically, as I have done for many years emotionally (that wasn't quite so enjoyable, by that's for another blog, another day) I also love my life revolving around this constant thirst for self improvement and the results just keep on coming.  I have always had a desire to better myself, but on an intellectual level this doesn't come naturally and it isn't sustained. I never thought for one second I could achieve what I have and I am so immensely proud of myself for how far I have come.  For me to be able to whole heartily say that is an achievement in itself. I am never proud of myself, being a perfectionist makes sure of that; yet with this, I can say that I have put in all my effort to all of my ability, I have achieved amazing things and I am genuinely good at it!

I didn't realise that I could look how I do, and what started as wanting to lose a bit of podge has morphed into me wanting to sculpt my ultimate body. It may not be a body that everyone wants to aspire to, but that is why this journey is just so brilliant, because it doesn't matter one jot what anyone else thinks.  This is Project Me from start until the day I die and I am loving it and loving how I now look and feel.

Talking totally from an aesthetics point of view doesn't give this situation justice. Exercising regularly and eating well has had an enormous impact on me emotionally.  I am much more laid back and level headed, I can think more clearly and there are times now where I actually feel intelligent and take a moment to appreciate myself. This is something that has never happened to me before and I love it.  Having people say that I  have inspired them to change their ways is also incredibly rewarding to me and just compounds everything I think.  I am good at something, something that a lot of people around me aren't good at, and that is a new experience for me.

All I can say, if you are in a position where you feel a bit rubbish and messed up; get out there and get on it, understand your body and how much of an incredible thing it is. Appreciate every function that it carries out behind the scenes and respect what is going on without you consciously doing anything!! If you take a step back, you will be so blown away by your own being that you will never want to make it suffer again.  And when you start to do the best you can, the rewards are endless.

I have had an immense amount of support from Tom throughout this and he has embarked on a journey of his own and come a long, long way.  I don't know if he feels that it has impacted him emotionally in the same way, but what I do know is that he is constantly learning from the improvements that I have reaped from this. My changed outlook on life inspires him all the time and he constantly tells me this, what more could I wish for? Just to touch one person in such a huge way is a privilege and I can only hope that I carry on bringing positivity into others lives for years to come.

I am still a work in progress and I have my low moments along with everyone else, but they are different, they aren't tinged with darkness or uncertainty now.  I can't recommend health and fitness enough to anyone.  Good luck to you all in everything you chose and I can only hope that you get to experience what I have, everyone deserves to.

Body fat

To pacify myself over the plateau that I have hit, I have done an early body fat reading.  It has come out at 23.2%, which is down from 24.9% on the 1st.  If that is genuine then I am happy!! I have shifted 1.1kg of fat! Oh yeah

What to do on a sore day?

I chose to do a half hour yoga workout followed by 100 abs workout with press ups between each move.  I shall include the 100 abs workout as a picture at the end, I can't face it messing with my format straight away! Note to self, contact the app developers about this!!

The yoga routine was a new one that I haven't done before, I downloaded it last night.  It was really tough. It is listed as yoga for toning on my Daily Yoga app, its a great little app, you can pay for the pro version but the free one has enough routines for me at the minute. There was a lot of holding moves in there, these are the ones that exhaust me! I have actually just remembered that I posted the picture of the 100 abs workout before, but I will post it again to save people having to trawl back through previous messages.

I can suddenly feel certain areas loosening up,  it strange that it just creeps up on you. I'm sure if I actually measured it properly, there would be no actual sudden change.  There is a move called Half King of the Fishes, it is great for stretching the lower back and shoulders.  I saw a variation online which I now can't find an image of, so maybe I made it up! And it is the variation I was struggling with, on one side especially.  However, I haven't done it for a couple of weeks as I have been doing other ones, and today I could just do it! So obviously, something else I have been doing has loosened up the offending area that was stopping me before! Bonus.

Tom is coming with me to the gym in the morning as he is having the car, we are going to Lincolnshire straight from work so it is easier to do it this way and him pick me up when he had finished work. He has more flexible hours than I do. Tomorrow's workout is up to him, we shall see what he has in store. As we have moved, he doesn't get chance to go to the gym now so is really missing it. His aim is to get some weights for home and workout there, they aren't the cheapest though so he is just holding off at the minute.

I'm still at 140! I was going to go and do my body fat at lunch and realised I have totally forgotten. I wanted to do it before the weekend as we will be drinking and that generally means everything goes horribly wrong!!

I can't publish the post with the pic, must be too big.  Google 100 abs workout and it appears.

I am soooore today

My calves have totally tied up, I didn't mention yesterday that I decided to try out a different running style.  You basically run on your toes and your heel never impacts the surface.  This is less impact and you keep the energy in your ham strings, so in theory, it is much more efficient.  It is also totally different to anything you normally do, so should be introduced slowly.... I now find out! I didn't do much, 5 mins on 10.5 and I felt great, I don't feel so great now!!

I managed an hour walking on the treadmill this morning, but I did have a stitch for around half of it! Not sure why, pretty standard for me though really.  I used the foam roller on my calves after, not overly pleasant and now, my calves are really quite uncomfortable.  It didn't help that I went and did some canter work with Breeze when I got to the horses, I stand in my stirrups for this so my calves always tighten at the best of times, stupid really!!

Tom has just made a blinder of a tea. Grilled Turkey breast steaks marinaded in pesto and parsnip puree with thyme and almond milk. So tasty and the flavours complemented each other so incredibly well, all for around 326 calories.

I am also particularly excited about my lunch tomorrow, salmon with garlic wild mushrooms and quinoa.  This comes in at about 340 calories as my salmon fillet isn't particularly big. 

Here is some random proof that even sitting in traffic in Manchester can be pretty! There is something amazing everywhere you go, you just have to open your eyes and appreciate it

F#*$ing plateau

Yep, that is defo how I feel today!! I simply can not break 140lbs and it's doing my head in! I really wanted to get lower before all the Xmas parties etc start. I do however, really need to get my head out of this mindset, it's not a healthy way to be thinking as weight loss, fitness and toning can take many different turns.  I have noticed how much more toned my arms are from, I haven't measured them, but just at rest they are more defined. I can only assume this is the yoga, it is pedalled as being exceptionally good for toning the body. 

I think I can see my glutes shaping up some more, my bum is definitely looking a little perkier.  I am getting stronger with my yoga holds too, I can also now stand face on to the window and raise my leg up and forward, placing my heel on there for a stretch, without lifting it with my hand.  So, I am making progress, it is just a different kind of progress.  It's difficult when the focus has been on the scales for almost a year.  I guess another positive is that I know I can maintain a weight and eat well.  

Speaking of eating well, this was yesterday's lunch.  The avocado's are amaaazing at the min, with organic king prawns and rye and sunflower toast. So simple yet so incredibly good.  One of the guys at work commented on how different my food is everyday and that I never seem to eat anything boring.  This is very true, I really enjoy taking the time to think of something different each day and I also enjoy taking the time to do it.  It generally takes around an hour to prep mine and Toms lunch everyday, this lunch doesn't take that long of course, but when we have to cook beans etc then it does take quite some time.

A while ago we started eating food from all over the world and marking it off on the world map, we had gotten off the cause, but decided yesterday to get back on it. We basically pick a flag out of a container of them and cook a recipe from wherever comes out.  Tonight was Bhutan, Tom rustled up some Momo's with spicy tomato salsa.  They were very, very yummy, not particularly diet friendly I wouldn't have thought.  

This is our map, you cant really tell from this pic but there are a load of little flags in place already. It turns out, it is quite a popular past time and there are loads of people blogging about it.  Right, bed time!!

Never a dull moment

As always, we have our weekend planned with military precision.  None stop yesterday from 5.30 am.  Horses done, then into Manchester to get some new work jumpers, all of mine are now way too big to not look scruffy, and the office is starting to get really quite cold. 

I also bought some new gym stuff from Asda. So cheap and does what I need it to do. Fully breathable 3/4 running pants for £8 and full length ones for £9.  Also a long sleeved breathable, zip up jacket for £12.  Bargain. Especially when you consider that I was looking at pants alone for £30 upwards. 

Also, an extra bonus!  I know have size 8 clothing in my wardrobe! Granted, the pants are Lycra and the other items are my jumpers.  But still, size frickin 8!! That's amazing!!

Whilst we were out and about yesterday, we stopped at a specialist running shop for Tom to be properly fitted for running trainers.  He always used to run and has just got out of the habit, not surprising when we have a million other activities to keep us busy. He has decided he wants to aim to do a duathlon next year.  That is run, bike and run again. He is going to accompany mum out running, she has got back into it again and is doing quite a few 10k runs at the min, in fact, she is in Lincolnshire now doing one with her sister and brother in law.

In this shop they do gait analysis.  They look at your legs, the way you stand and the way you feet and ankles behave under load, they then put you and a treadmill and record you running.  They then slow it down and watch how your balance shifts around.  Tom has quite a lot of over pronation that needs supporting, more so in one ankle than the other and he also runs with his toes in which is unusual, most people run with their toes out.  So, as a result he has to have trainers with medium arch support. His right foot would actually benefit from harder support but his left foot gets pushed to the outside too much, which is worse than his right one pronating a little too much, as he can work on making himself more supple and stronger, which may help.

So, being the little jealous that I am, I had to have a go!!! My pronation is only mild but my ankles are so weak and I am really hard on my left leg. My strike is really flat and totally on the outer side.  Funnily enough I have been working on my ankle strength recently, as doing yoga has made me realise how weak my feet and ankles are.

We have just had a really tasty lunch, quorn sausages (70 cals each) and stir fried veg with a dollop of low fat philly on. I also added a little drizzle of maple syrup and it was amazing!!! I have just made another batch of cashew butter, I know I decided it didn't save much money, but it actually tastes so much better!! I love the taste of the really well roasted cashews, this is what you don't get with the shop bought butter. I also found some better value cashews in Tesco.  A big bag for £5, they make about 4 jars so better value than the last batch and didn't seem to take as long as I knew what to expect. 

We have also put a chicken curry on to slow cook, it looks and smells amazing.  Its a recipe that Tom got from his team leaders wife.  She is Indian and it is a family recipe that has been made for years, it has never actually been written down until she did it for us at Christmas.  It isn't actually a slow cook recipe, but we just fancied it cooked slowly!!

We managed a nap this morning!! It was so nice, went and did the horses and then came back for a kip! (I have been writing this over two days if it seems a little confusing!) I'm feeling really shattered at the minute, this morning was just breaking point. I was in such a bad mood! I still feel tired now, so will try and get an early night tonight.  I'm not sure the sleep hacking is working too well for me, but the extra time its been affording me is too useful so I will probably just keep mixing it up, if I'm ready to go to bed, I will just go to bed rather than forcing myself to stay up until 10.30.  I don't want to get I'll and that's normally what happens if I get too tires

I almost forgot, we stopped for lunch at an american diner sort of place called Byron's in Manchester. Tom had an amazing looking burger cooked nice and pink, like good meat should be.  I was incredibly well behaved and had grilled chicken salad, it was meant to have blue cheese and dressing on it, but I resisted! It did have avocado on it, but thats good fat and cheese isnt!! 

The beef tomatoes were beautiful and those onion rings... I've never tasted anything like them before, they were the full rings of onion which is obviously the only way they should be; but the batter had rosemary in it and it was incredible!! I am fully aware of how insanely bad they are as they are deep fried but it was only that and the bacon at fault!! 

I will break that 140!

I've been hovering here for a couple of weeks now, going up a couple of pounds here and there, but never actually managing to break it. It seems to work like that with me, every time I hit an end of 10, I get stuck. So 160 I got stuck, 150 I got stuck and now, here we are again!!

I know that our bodies get used to whatever form of exercise we throw at them so it's good to shake it up, I just need to come up with different things to do.  What I may do is alternate HIIT and LISS for my cardio. 

High-intensity interval training (HIIT), also called High-Intensity Intermittent Exercise (HIIE) or sprint interval training (SIT), is an enhanced form of interval training, an exercise strategy alternating periods of short intense anaerobic exercise with less-intense recovery periods. HIIT is a form of cardiovascular exercise. Usual HIIT sessions may vary from 4–30 minutes. These short, intense workouts provide improved athletic capacity and condition, improved glucose metabolism, and improved fat burning.
(Pinched from wikipedia)

LISS - Low intensity steady state cardio

LISS can be performed in many, many different ways. The key is that you are performing exercise at low intensity. Here are just a few examples:

Walking/Jogging on treadmill or outside
Cross trainer/ Elliptical machine
Stair stepper/stair master
Rowing machine
Swimming (Must be a good swimmer to ensure it stays low intensity)
Water running/walking

Note: Always ensure your body is in a low intensity state. Don't get caught in the moment and convince yourself to go hard - always remember - you are doing LISS as part of a calculated training regime.

I'm sure there is a zone for what your heart rate should stay in, but I haven't found it yet.  There is debate for both of these forms of exercise and the only reason I stopped doing anything high intensity is because of the physical impact on me, in the form of injuries.  I just need to change it up a bit though.  We'll see, I tend to injure myself no matter what I do.

I felt shattered in the gym today, this week in general has been quite a struggle and I just wonder if its because of this sleep hacking I have been doing.  I'm loving getting up early at weekends that isn't going to stop, what I may have to do is have a couple of early nights out of the 7. I'll get there, we have another hectic weekend in the pipeline, so no rest again.  We were meant to be going to Lincolnshire, but my mum is going instead, which means that we need to be here for the horses. Lara is having issues with her leg that she broke as a baby unfortunately, which means I can't compete at the minute. I'm hoping that I can give her a month off and it will pass, everything crossed!! I could do some dressage with Millie, but she is still over weight and not going as well as I would like! So this weekend is to finish sorting the house out.

No real point to this picture other than I had to run out the gym in my bare feet yesterday to get it and I love it.  I could see the glow of the sunrise reflecting in the gym window and went out to this

Cardio is back

Back on it this morning, I did 30 mins on the bike and it was hard.  My quads are really quite tight from yesterdays PT as it is. My weight had stuck at 141.6 over the weekend, whilst that isn't where I want it to be, its better than I thought.

Bit out of sync with the food this week from moving house, and I seem to have got bored of smoothies.  I really like having my Rye bread for breakfast and then have my stir fried veggies as second breakfast.  I have been using 30g of low fat Philadelphia mixed in at the end and a load of mustard seeds.  I'm pretty sure the philly isn't great for me but there you go!!

I couldn't be bothered thinking about my lunch last night, so I ended up chucking some quinoa and peppers in and then I went and bought some brown shrimp to go with it. Was unexpectedly yummy!!

My latest fad is the Nakd bars, as a bonus, I have found a range of them that are even lower in calories than the others.  I also tried some of the other flavours, Pecan Pie and Berry something or other are really quite gross.  The Ginger Bread one is absolutely amazing!!

This one is quite high in calories, but then I found Cocoa Loco, this little beauty is only 100 calories and again, no refined sugar.

We're all settled into The West Wing pretty much now, its even actually quite warm.... At the minute! 

Dad has wall mounted the shoes that Tom had powder coated for me.  They are from my beautiful Glen Woody, who I lost last year and one of his shoes was used to make my engagement ring.  I'm pretty sure I would have mentioned this already, but you can never be too sure with me!!

And here is the big man they belonged to

That's my back gone again!!

Finished moving house this weekend and I managed to tweak my back again.  Nothing sinister though, I still managed my PT session this morning!

Dad decided that we should be testing wine out for the wedding, so I had a couple of glasses over the weekend.  I don't know if it is just that or a combination of moving, being tired, change of routine and no cardio; but I'm mentally all over the place.  I love how focused and clear my head has been since I've started fitness and I have been tired since then, so I am pretty much convinced its the alcohol!  I really don't like it at all.

I have also eaten way too much crap over the weekend.  Its just been a case of grabbing whatever we could, whenever.  We had a Thai takeaway on Sat night and last night, Dad had made a chilli for a million people, so we had some.  My father isn't best known for moderation or healthy cooking (seriously tasty, unsurprisingly) and he had made rice AND jacket potatoes to go with it.  I passed on the rice and had part of my potato, the rest I am currently working through for lunch.

Im loving asparagus at the minute, its perfect when you get the baby stems and low in calories, which of course is a bonus!

PT today was hardcore!! I didnt dare tell Martin I was injured as I am always flipping injured!! Its also not too horrific.  But of course, the session was nails!!  He had me doing back squats with the olympic bar and 20 k, so 40k in total. I had to do two deep squats, right down to my heels and then immediately to a pull up with a 4 second drop down twice.  From that, onto the treadmill to get my heart rate under 120 and then back onto squats. Times 10!

Then, onto upper body.  2 x lateral pull downs with the upward stroke takjng 4 seconds. I had this on 40k. Then straight onto seated row, 30k and 4 second release stroke x 2.  Then onto pull ups and 4 second drop x 2 then a move for my triceps that I dont know the name of but you hold a barbell and drop your arms back behind your head. Times 10! 

Thats was me done then, my arms were totally screwed!!

That's Agave syrup off the list

As promised, I found a little more time and looked properly into how good Agave actually is and whether it meets up to the claims that it is an excellent alternative to refined sugar...

It's not, whilst you don't experience the sugar crash the same from it, as it has a low GI, it also contains a high amount of fructose. Fructose in small quantities isn't bad, but excessive quantities are not good.  This is a quickly sourced excerpt from www.drweil.com and I haven't looked into his background and researched him admittedly, but this isn't the only place I found this opinion and I am just mentioning the one reference for ease

" Fructose is a major culprit in the rising incidence of type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.  It may also increase risks of heart disease and cancer”

I know there are claims like this everywhere and some you have to take with a pinch of salt and use your brain.  My view on this is that I don't have to have Agave in my diet, so I won't.

Most these sources quote Maple Syrup as a good alternative sweetener, but as with everything, the key if most definitely moderation.

I forgot the other day, I have a progress pic for you all.  Slightly different yo my normal ones and you have to look really closely to see the progress!!!

The top photo is my improved view believe it or not!! I can see the improvement on my back leg, I'm no further down but the back leg is much straighter. Unfortunately, I can't find the originals, but I think they are about a month apart.  

Take it easy

My none cardio week is going pretty well, not added any pounds and I even jumped off the waggon last night without any detriment.  I had a triple choc muffin at cafe Nero on the way to a comedy night in town.  It was UNBELIEVABLY good.  The muffin that is, the comedy night was also good, but I haven't given up comedy nights in a quest to get healthy.

I appreciate it looks like a great big pile of shit on a piece of paper in this pic, but it was so worth the moment!

Back to behaving myself today, sort of.  As my hormones are in a certain place right now, my cravings are insane, so I decided to pander to them a little.  I am letting myself eat what I now class as comfort foods and not getting too stressed about calories. So I had a Nakd Cashew Cookie first thing this morning.  I tried the pecan pie but really didn't like that.  I know that doesnt sound like your standard comfort food and I have it a lot under normal circumstances, but it is when that is combined with no cardio!

Today's lunch and breakfast was cobbled together as we got in pretty late.  I had a perfectly ripe avocado to hand, so I took that along with a tub of the chickpeas Tom cooked the day before and a piece of German Rye. FYI, fresh cooked chickpeas are soooo much better than tinned! So breakfast was half the avocado on toasted rye bread. Amazing, the two flavours are incredible together. Lunch is nairns gluten free oat cakes, fairly calorific, but filling, nutritious and damn yummy.  I have got 100g of hand carved, golden roast salmon (what a posho) and the other half of the avocado.  Seriously tasty again!! Chickpeas are going to be my afternoon snack! 

Quite artistic for me!  Wasnt very elegant to eat but who cares!! Im sure I should, but I dont!

I've been doing yoga in gym mostly this week.  I've been using an android app called Daily Yoga.  Shows you how the moves should be done etc,  I'm pretty rubbish, but got to start somewhere.  One of the girls I know from the classes I used to do in a morning even complimented me on how good I look doing it.  Im either not as shit as I think and I'm being hypercritical as always, or she needs glasses!! I wonder which it is. 

That's my neck gone again

I felt it go whilst I was in the gym, luckily because I recognised it, I went and found one of the PT's and got him to crack it. And wow, did it crack!!  I think that has stopped it working its way up from between my shoulder blades, up to the back of my skull like last time. 

I decided I would take a week off cardio and just do weights and yoga, as I feel like I have hit a plateau. Its been a while since that has happened, but percentage body weight wise
now, every pound is so much more!

I can feel the muscle under my scapula knotting up now, I rode Millie quite hard tonight and she isn't the kindest to my shoulder blades at the best of times!!!

A pound for my sins, whatever they may be this time!

Yep, I still gained a pound at the weekend.  How I am ever going to sustain a weight is beyond me! I can consume around 1800calories whilst being active (not gym) and still gain?? I think I must be missing something.  As a guesstimate, my maintenance calories should be around 1890, no idea where I am going wrong, but I do know that my maintenance diet woes should keep this blog going well beyond getting married! 

I have no idea where I am aiming for weight wise, I like the idea of 133lbs (9.5 stone) but if I get ere and I'm still not happy then we will see, and on the flip side, if I am happy before I get there then I will stop. I think I am more interested in body fat than weight though, as this is a more defined measure of health in a way. 

Not got much to share today really, I'm so busy sorting stuff for the move and working that I don't have much time to think! I am in the process of ordering a load of Nakd bars online so that I can try the different flavours!

Do you need a hand with that?

Samuel decided that he was the logistics supervisor today,in charge of operation house move, cheshire style.

The casualty in todays little adventure is my back.  Expectedly of course, and Idont think its anything horrific.

We moved a load of our stuff today and it has given us an idea of how much room we will have, or how little is probably closer to the truth.  Thats fine though, cozy is a good thing!  And think of all the beautiful money weare saving!! 

I stuck really well to the diet this weekend, will be interested to see if that is reflected on the scales tomorrow!  We are also onto day 7 of our sleep hacking mission and its going really well.  I'm not sure I am even going to push it to 11, as I feel like I am getting so much done with just the extra half an hour! 

Time to watch Troll Hunter with Tom. I shall leave with a beautiful little shot from this afternoon 

The move is on

We have started to pack our stuff up to move to the 'west wing', as Tom has started affectionately calling it, next Saturday.  We have packed up a load already and we are shifting the brunt of the big items today.  Should burn a few calories!!

I've been a busy little, make stuff from scratch bee.  I tried out making my own cashew butter. You start by roasting them, and then blend away!! For AGES! You have to keep stopping the blender so the motor doesn't overheat and you also have to keep pushing the nuts back down from the sides and scrape the bottom to loosen the mix up. 

This is how they started, post roasting.  I may have toasted them a touch too long. 

After quite some time, its starts to turn into a thick, dry consistency, but this is quite a way off the finished thing.  When its like this, it constantly rolls itself up into one ball so you have to keep breaking it up.

At one point I actaully thought that that was it.  And then all of a sudden, it did this: 

I stopped at this point, but it is still quite thick, so I am guessing that I could've carried on a bit but I wasn't sure if maybe it was because I toasted them for a little too long. 

Whilst we were sorting our stuff out, I found an old dress of mine that I wore to a couple of weddings.  I thought I would try it on before deciding what to do with it. Bearing in mind, this dress was incredibly fitted the last time I wore it, I was really quite surprised.  I thought I would've had a picture but I couldn't find one. I have actually cropped my head off because I look like I've been dragged through a hedge backwards!! 

Not the best look, but wow, its unbelievable how big I was without realising!

We went to the rugby super league final yesterday evening.  Was a really good night and I resisted a pie and a chocolate bar.  Quite proud of myself!

First move day today, lets see what I manage to injure!! 

It's official

Weighed in at 140.8lbs once again, which I then translate into it being a genuine weight rather than a fluke!!  I get the feeling that the next stage in my weight loss is going to be tough! I don't know how much truth their is behind the shared 'knowledge' of well established weight being harder to shift! If it is true, then the next few pounds have been on for 50 of my life, so that's gonna hurt! I suspect it is in fact a load of rubbish, it's just the well established fat is there when you aren't a massive buffer so the weight loss is slower anyway as it takes more than just stopping eating crap to shift it.

Finally, the car has arrived.  What a palaver; it took the delivery guy an hour and a half to do a 20 min journey and all the phones were down at the dealership, so I had no idea what was going on.  Consequence of this being me tearing a strip of the delivery guy! I haven't been that fuming for such a long time, I forget how much I hate it!

Lunch today was amazing and came in at 154 calories!! This wasn't my intention and I made sure my breakfasts took up the difference! It was Ecuadorian organic king prawns with roasted veg.  I had a double dip banana smoothie and my normal toast etc before the gym.  I put plenty of oats in the smoothie to increase the calories

There we go, all stages! Look at those lovely prawns, fresh out the pan!! I had some cabbage too, forgot about that.  It was something with a fancy name, cabenero negra or something like that. I can't recommend these organic king prawns enough, they are taste amazing!

I also had my obligatory nakd cocoa bar to keep me going and then ended up buying another one in the supermarket on the way home because I found a diff flavour.  Cashew cookie, just cashew and dates. Mmmmmm

The gym today was a little fragmented, I didn't feel like killing the bike and then I just couldn't get comfy on anything.  Tried a couple of different types of cross trainers and I absolutely hate them!  Managed half an hour cardio in dribs and drabs though.  Finished off with some upper body and stretching. I can do 5 pull ups with a 10k assistance now, so near yet so far!!!

I am currently having a painful spell again, was alright all day and it has kicked in again tonight. All up my forearms and my knees, oh the infinite joy.  I have had a bath yl relax myself whilst Tom play on GTA 5, his latest obsession!  We all have them!

Lunch tomorrow looks utterly yummy yet again, more calorific than today though as there is a piece of salmon along with the veg.

Asparagus makes the cut yet again.  As this is fairly high calorie and I don't know what I will manage in the morning at the gym, depends on my pains, I need to watch my second breakfast so I am going to have egg whites and cottage cheese.  Seems like ages since I last had that!! 

Sleep hacking is still going well, I do keep getting a low level dull headache, but I think that is more to do with my hormones! 

Well, that didn't quite go to plan

Went to pick up my new car tonight, did all the handover etc and came to drive away in it and its engine wasn't idling properly. I have had to leave it behind to be looked at tomorrow, little bit gutted but it looks amazing!!

I weighed in at a mere 140.8 lbs this morning, almost the lightest I have been in my adult life! So chuffed, as much as I bitch and moan, I have to agree that every so often you have to have some time off! I just did some walking on the treadmill this morning and some stretching as I had really bad stomach pains, these have grumbled on throughout the day on and off.  Could be anything with me, it doesn't take a lot to set me off!

Have done my weight loss pics, going to put them on here as well as stats page so they don't get missed

These are all 1st pic Jan (apart from back which is August) 2nd pic Sept and 3rd pic this time. 

I have lost this month:

Hips - 1 inch

Waist - 1 inch

Thigh - 1/2 inch

Bicep - 1/4 inch 

Pretty chuffed with that. I can see a huge difference on my sub scapula fat just from last month and I'm sure its all the stretching that Martin has had me doing, freeing up my shoulder blades and working them properly! 

Another one of my mates told me that Tom and I are what has motivated him to get fitter and slimmer! That's my 3rd fitsporation achievement, I'm made up! I feel really proud of what we have both achieved!! 

Sleep hacking is still going well, feel alert and switched on most of the day too, feeling positive about this! 

Day 2 in the sleep hacker household

We are onto day 2 of the sleep hacking mission.  I am currently asleep for 10.30 and getting up at 5am everyday and so far so good.I feel a little bit shattered on and off throughout the day, but nothing major and it does pass. Plus, the extra stuff I can get done with the extra half an hour is only driving me to carry on with it!

PT session was good yesterday, I was a bit stiff but not too bad and martin gave me a load of new exercises to do.  My forearms are quite sore today though, it keeps feeling like someone is forcing their fingers in between the muscle fibres!  I think that is from the front squats as there is quite a bit of strain when holding the Olympic bar in front and forcing my elbows upwards.  I will be interested to look back through my blog posts too, to see if this pain coincides with the last time I got pain all over due to hormones.

I braved weigh in today, wasn't too bad, body fat was up by .2% but my weight was down by 3lbs.  My height wasn't the same as last time so that puts the percentages out.  Better than I thought though. Photos and measurements in the morning!

I've been looking for alternatives to my piece of toast that I have pre gym, I wanted something other than the bread that would keep me going.  I found some alternatives, but technically its still bread! I do like to mess though!

Sainsbury's FreeFrom bread and some other random rye bread that looked yummy.  The free from is only 85 calories per slice, but that's because they are tiny!!

There we go, toasted and ready to go! You can see my Nakd cocoa delight bat in the background too.  This is my snack for the day, I made some of my own but they just don't save enough money to make it worth while, they take quite a while too and everything is really hard to clean afterwards! 

Smashed the bike at the gun today, only did 30 mins, but 10 mins of that was standing and it killed me!! Spent 45 mins stretching off afterwards and felt great.  It is now 8pm and I have got to add the finishing touches to the soup that tom has just made and I need to empty out my car, I pick up my new one tomorrow !! Woooo. 

Let's see if I have managed to get my weight back down to it's lowest again tomorrow!