Looking forward to lunch already!

I love it when I make a lunch that has me looking forward to it from the moment I make it. Tbh, I am always pretty excited about the stuff that I make but, sometimes definitely more so! I thought I would try water frying the prawns, I combined them with garlic and ginger and water frying them meant that they stayed beautifully tender.  It didn't smell great so I was quite concerned it was going to be ruined, far from it.  Water frying is just what it says on the tin, you put a small amount of water in and away you go. I then finely sliced some chestnut mushrooms and dry fried these in the remnants of the prawns until they were browned. I then cooked my latest obsession of courgette ribbons and leeks, all added together with tomatoes and peppers.  I love veg, you get so much back for so few calories! 

Everything but the courgette and leek, you wouldn't have been able to see a thing otherwise! Below is the pan full of courgette and leek, this by itself is about 80 calories! Bargain

Tea tonight was amazeballs ;-) another Thomas triumph, he wasn't convinced though as it had dried fruit in it, which he really doesn't like.  It was a Nigel 'girly hands' slater recipe, green lentils and Cous Cous with dates, lemon juice, roasted cashews and raisins. I could definitely have that for lunch as will still taste amazing cold.

 In fact, it would go perfectly with those prawns! 

Today's pains!

Going crazy with the bold type again ;-) I'm basically in a considerable amount of pain today, my knees are bloomin killing me and they are sore to any pressure at all, crouching is not pleasant, nor is walking down the stairs. All around the tops of my legs is sore and my back is occasionally complaining.  So, what I thought I would do is wreck my upper body in this mornings session; tomorrow should be fun! I have been fighting off a cold all week, everyone in work is sick at the minute so I wouldn't be surprised if I do get something. This may not be helping my joints etc, all my limbs feel so heavy! Oh well, can't afford to be sick a I don't get paid, so off to bed! Night night

Green loveliness

Whilst not strictly in keeping with my normal diet, I always have and always will love, love, love green pasta.  I know it's not whole grain and is simply spinach dyed white pasta but I just fancied it.  I made it with courgette ribbons, wild mushrooms, leeks and garlic, win a drizzle of olive oil. YUMMY

 

I could merrily eat this all day long. I love the red pasta too but have never found that on its own.

I have actually made it for lunch again tomorrow! I do like to have my faddy moments.  I have made some more overnight quinoa too but it's a batch I bought from Waitrose, it just doesn't seem to cook the same, and I have run out of almond milk to cook it in so had to use normal milk, which is so much harder to heat up as it boils much more viciously.

I am still feeling the knee from the weekend and to add insult to injury, my leg session from yesterday has seized everything up, which doesn't help! I had to do the first 10 mins at 3.5 as my left hip flexors were so sore, it took me half an hour and a rant at Daybreak on the TV before I loosened up! I felt good after that, I didn't have chance to do any stretching though as I couldn't be bothered to pack my bags last night, which made me late this morning. 

I was looking at the fridge tonight and wondering at how different the food in it is from this time last year, i find a great deal of satisfaction in a good looking, full fridge.  There is one item I can see in there that is really naughty and pointless and that is cordial. I am yet to find a decent replacement for this! 

                       

I have also just noticed the Lurpack, I cant actually remember the last time this was used! I would find it really quite interesting to have a nosey in people's fridges; I need to get out more! 

Not a great deal to report back on today, outside of the usual pain update! I will leave you with one last thing that amused me no end whilst I was in Tesco earlier, I don't even think it needs explanation! 

Overnight everything!

I see the Americans blogging about overnight oats all the time, so decided to see what all the hype was about yesterday and I loved it.  I had oats, cinnamon, cocoa and vanilla soaked in almond milk.  I then stumbled across the idea of overnight quinoa, perfect! 

Firstly I cooked some quinoa in almond milk and then I soaked the cooked quinoa, a few rolled oats, a spoon of organic cocoa, cinnamon, maple syrup and a few dried cranberries in almond milk overnight. Everything had absorbed this morning, so I added some milk and then microwaved it. It was really, really tasty.  It is fairly calorific but is a great post workout breakfast, I just need to reduce the pre workout calories.

I apologise for the rubbish picture once again, if I had more time I would make it pretty, but I'm sure you can all appreciate that spare time is not something in abundance to me!

Tasty but not pretty: overnight quinoa.

Legs were the order of the day today. I felt pretty good, although I am always quite fearful on leg days as I always feel I am teetering on the edge of an injury.  I just make sure I am careful, which means progress is slow, but it is progress none the less; which is preferable to injury!

I started to feel really quite poorly coming up to lunch, I simply don't have the time to be ill right now so I took evasive action in the form of vitamin C loading and carbohydrates.  I think the latter is a mental thing, but I always crave them when I'm feeling poorly. I feel like its a treat, which is a pickmeup in itself! So I bought an olive panini and had it with my prawns that I had cooked last night. it was some good tasting stuff! Bread is one of my weaknesses, I love the speciality ones and absolutely love making awesome sandwiches with chorizo and mushroom antipasti, Emmental cheese, pâté, salami etc, etc... Not all in together though! I used to easily whip up an 800ish calorie lunch every weekend by making these little masterpieces and I really do miss them! Everything in moderation though and I find that giving these things up, makes them a 1000 times tastier when you do have them! 

Amazing discovery alert 

No, Not the bold text, although I have to admit I have only just paid attention to that! No, a simple, yet beautiful thing:  heat a Nakd bar up in the microwave, sooo tasty.  Someone mentioned it some time ago and I had totally forgotten until yesterday; so not entirely my discovery but something everyone should try! 

Speaking of which, we tried that Stevia that I got from tesco and I think it is absolutely rank! There is no sweetness as far as I am concerned, just a weird, bitter taste.  Tom thought it was really sweet, but this is just another example of us both interpreting sweet and bitter differently.  I do think it is my brain that has it a little wrong! I got a different brand today (cant remember the name) and to me, that's much better. 

I skipped tea tonight, I know, tuts all round... However, I decided that whilst I was purchasing my feel better lunch, that I would buy a tub of apricots and some Rachel's dairy love vanilla yoghurt. I've annihilated the apricots and half of the yoghurt. I think there were about 350grams of apricots in the container; there is exactly 0grams in there now! So, not only am I full, my tummy is going mental! So on that note, I was going to write more but I just nodded off and the iPad smashed into my face.. So I think that may be a sign!! 

A little party in your mouth!

My birthday treat was at Northcote Manor up near Osbaldeston, it's chef is Nigel Hawarth, who carries a Michelin star. 

I don't know how well you can read this, there are a couple of things on there that were different. The liver was actually sweetbreads, a new experience for both of us and one we aren't entirely convinced by! The Roedeer course was actually lamb, and it was insanely tasty! We also didn't have the wine, something we would do another time but we felt we have enough of that coming up. The service and surroundings were beautiful and it was an amazing meal and experience, one we plan on repeating at other highly rated/Michelin starred establishments! 

Thank you Mr Burgin, I love you! Xxx

In the blink of an eye

Another amazing weekend is done and dusted!! Yesterday, I spent the day being a supporter instead of being the supported for a change.  Tom took part in the 10k mousdashe run, a charity event in aid of prostate cancer and mental health awareness.  The name comes from the fact that it's Movember and everyone had stink on moustaches, even the women; great fun.

                                

The run was held in Platt Fields park in Manchester, this was a fun little mural on the wall of one of the buildings. I always like it when there is an area of green and touch of countryside in the middle of a town, it's like a little bit of escape. 

And then there's me! Removing it also removed most of my skin, right sticky little beggar!

Here he is, digging deep onto his last 5k.  He did a great time of 53mins 21, he was aiming for a hour as he has only been training for 3 weeks and he was sick all last week so didn't do anything! 

Today we went out for a walk with Nic, we left the location and planning up to her and she informed me it was a fairly straight forward walk so I assumed Tom would be ok with his legs being sore from the run, unfortunately, it wasn't as straight forward as we had all assumed! It took us around 3hrs 15 and was pretty flipping hard! Sammy was flagging about half way, but he did pick up.  We managed to stumble upon a pub for some sustenance, unfortunately, they didn't take cards! So we soldiered on and made it through! 

Worth it for the bleak beauty of the moors

It was a great walk out, I love it when you get a touch of weather when your out and about. It was a bit drizzly and cold but was totally still; exhilarating to an extent.  My cheeks were on fire for a good hour or so after. We finished the day off with a late lunch at The Dun Cow, up the road from our house.  I had a small chicken salad like a good girl... then finished it off with a fairly sizeable sticky toffee pudding with custard!! Mmmmm this weekend won't have done my waistline any favours and from next weekend, we have something on every weekend up until new year!! The thought is actually bothering me quite a bit, I want to let my hair down and enjoy myself but I desperately don't want to pile the pounds back on! I wish I could cope with being around pissed people when I'm sober; I can't!! 

And last night, well, that deserves a post all of it own. Tom took me put for an early birthday meal, it was incredible... 

Yoga is on!

Great session this morning with Danny. It was fantastic to see how much he has been inspired to look at a totally different way of training and has taken to it so much. He said it has had such an amazing affect on him mentally and physically.  Again, I come across someone starting a new journey in their life and I find myself getting excited for them, to have a realisation and find something that enriches you in every way is bigger and better than anything money can buy. And as ever, I feel privileged to be able to be even a tiny part of it, in this case a yoga PT guinea pig part!

Tom has pulled another blinding tea out of the bag, homemade fish fingers using Basa.  I think I have mentioned this fish before, its a type of catfish and of course, it doesn't effect the hard hit common fish stocks.  Its a very gentle tasting meat and is softer than the white fish most are used to, probably a great starter fish for the non fish lovers. These fish fingers were AMAAAAZING!!

I nipped to tesco at lunch time apartndy were collecting for the food banks.  They supply you with a list foods that they need and you buy whatever you want and as much as you want.  Such a great way to give and sooo easy, unfortunately, in the time I was walking in and out, not one person took them up on it.  I bought 4 bags of rice for £1.60; hardly a bank breaker!! I find it gives me a boost at the same time as helping others, more people should really give it a try! 

After making my insanely calorific brownie, I saught out an alternative for the sugar part and this is currently all the rage as well as being pedalled as the least offensive of all sweeteners.  Unfortunately, I didnt read the label properly and this has maltodextrose in it too. I need to understand what that is before I make a judgement on it. I tasted it and its quite strange, will have to see how it goes. There was one that was defo just Stevia but considerably more expensive. 

Lunch for tomorrow is prawns and roasted veg with crushed puffed quinoa sprinkled on it.  Should be amazing and comes in at about 300 calories! I am a little stuck for breakfast tomorrow, I need to keep my calories down as we are having chickpea Dahl for tea and that's pretty calorie dense. I dont want veg as I am having veg for lunch so I'm not sure what I want. So far I have 20grams of bran flakes and that's it! I will just have to grab some yoghurt to go with it! 

Sack my sacroiliac joint!

Finally I went and had my back done and its my SI joint on the left side that's the issue, somehow I had totally mashed it up. Clearly that's a non-technical term there, David found it really quite strange as I still felt really strong in all the proprioception tests, which is unusual and the pain radiating into my groin is quite an advanced sign of SI pain too! All my symptoms fit and he could feel how displaced it was, it had also caused my right SI joint to drop down and inwards which was restricting my right leg movement somewhat.  Not like me to make a mess of myself without trying!!

Danny, one of the PT's that recently left the gym to go on the cruise ships has just come back as he really didn't like it. Whilst he was away he learnt how to teach basic yoga. Perfect, I have asked him to give me some PT session of yoga to begin with and then introduce some strength work too.  I have my first session tomorrow.

Tom has been experimenting with his cooking this week, he has gone through what we have in stock already and mastered the menu around it. We had spicy beef burgers on Monday, which were amazing. Last night was an absolutely incredible butternut squash and pearly barley recipe, it can be found on the BBC website.  And tonight we had a naughty calorie night which was a yummy Gruyere and leek soufflé and a mug brownie. The latter was because I have wanted to make one for ages and someone posted a link on Facebook!! It is the easiest and most amazing creation on the planet and all I can advise is for you to never, ever make one! Its just asking for trouble.  Normally, bone idleness stops me making a cake; now I can make a mini cake it 3 mins, start to finish!! I'm still well in my calories though as I made sure I saved a big hunk of them for tonights tea and I was quite under on Monday and Tuesday. Next challenge is to work out a lower, healthier alternative!

I have also stumbled across a new tasty treat that isn't so unhealthy, I spotted it whilst mooching about on instagram, which is a great place for meal ideas. Popped quinoa! You literally just heat up a pan and quickly heat the grains whilst shaking it around and away they go. Super tasty, nutty treat that could be used on just about anything. I have used it in tomorrows lunch of chickpeas and tuna and it really adds a great amount to a very simple dish.

Here is the pearl barley and butternut squash dish. Tom added some turkey to it too.

Its such a creamy dish, so addictive too! We will definitely be having that again. Pearl barley is one of my favourites anyway, which helps. I think Tom is now a convert too; job done!

A little bowl of popped quinoa. The dish I saw on instagram was a chocolate bark type thing, it just prompted me to investigate the popped quinoa.

Super duper soufflé! Excuse the mats, I really need to work on the composition of my food shots. People make their plates and layouts look so pretty and appealing on instagram, mine look far from that! I know it has no bearing on the taste, but reading this, you can't taste it anyway!

 

Pretty impressive for any attempt, let alone a first attempt!

And now, the beauty that is a cup full of unhealthy naughtiness

YES!!

A quiet one today

Due to my back/pelvis still giving me hell, I had to take it easy in the gym today. Normally I would've been doing my cardio, but the impact of just walking is a little too painful so I spent the whole time stretching and manipulating and foam rollering!! It felt pretty good actually, doesn't feel brilliant now but it's not horrific. As much as I hate to admit it, I don't think riding when it's sore does me any favours, so I will have to work them from the ground for the next few days. Tom tried massaging it last night, but where it hurts the most is all bone, so not sure what's going on there at all, maybe it's the ligaments.  I have my appointment on Wednesday anyway so we will see.

Really tasty lunch today. Organic king prawns, black eyed beans and sweet corn with garlic, ginger and lemon. Super tasty and under 400 calories, just about managed to get a shot of it before I scoffed the lot! I am having a push to really rain my eating back in and stick to 1200 through the week whilst I'm hurt, see if I can stop being so starving through the day again! Really helps when I'm preaching to everyone else as it makes me reassess what I'm eating too!

Damned pelvis

The pain I had a couple of weeks back has come back in anger, I think it was from the running I did on the treadmill on Friday. It is exceptionally painful when I stand up straight or try and carry anything with a bit of weight behind it.  I have a chiropractor appointment on Wednesday anyway so I am sure he will sort it.  Its a horrible pain, it shoots all round my left side and into my groin, not nice at all and wears me down by the end of the day. Anti-inflammatories don't really touch it and the only thing that eases it is to go to bed!

The good thing is that it doesn't hurt too much when riding. Whether it makes it worse is debatable! Its going to have quite and impact on what I can do next week that's for sure. Oh well, it's not like I haven't been here a million times before and come out the other side.

The thought of Christmas and all the calories I will be consuming has been playing on my mind a lot and Tom and I have decided that we will only drink when we are actually out rather than when we are eating meals at home, it'll help anyway.

I've been thinking about how to start with the guys from work and I am going to get them to do a food diary for the week.  I want them to eat as they normally do and make a note of all of it.  This is for a number of reason, I want to get to know what they like and what sort of foods they rely on, and I also want to know what sort of calorie intake they are currently on.  I also want them to go and buy some food scales, go and get their weight and body fat done on one of the boots machines and take measurements and photos.  This gives me some time to work out the sort of meal suggestions I want to give to them. 

I drove over to Urmston this afternoon with Millie, I went out hacking (riding), with Helen from work.  Had a great afternoon and Mills was a really good girl, I am struggling quite a lot with my back now though!! Damn it.  I also nearly bought us home another little puppy dog, it decided to adopt me and the horsebox

The challenge is on!!!

There are 2 guys in the new office I work at and they both struggle terrible with indigestion. So much that they are on proton pump inhibitors every day and Mark went for a gastroscopy the other day and he choked so much that he burst blood vessels in his eyes! So today, I laid down the challenge that I could rid them of their issues but they would have to restrict their calorie intake, stop drinking and I will in turn give them meal ideas and plans.  Amazingly, they are both really up for it! No pressure there for me, should be a nice little challenge if they will keep it up. What's an even bigger challenge is that they are both mobile engineers, so it will ask take quite a bit of planning!

Went to see one of my mates tonight, she's a PT and loves her hardcore fitness, the type I love but can't do as it just breaks me!  She completed tough mudder in October and is now into her next challenge of crossfit.  She had hired herself a nutritionist which I am extremely interested in noseying in on! Obviously, her regime will be super intensive so high energy and protein, I am just really interested in everything like that. She wants to be totally ripped and I know her well enough to know she will achieve it!

Totally wrecked my back in the gym this morning! I felt great when I was there and I can really see the difference with my ankle strength now. I was on the treadmill for an hour and decided that I would do 10 mins of running, on my toes and only on 8.5. My calves were more than happy with themselves, but my back isn't in the last bit amused! Bloody thing.

Upper abdominal cramp

Is not a pleasant experience! My abs are still sore from the workout I did,  I was doing upper body today so thought I would be ok, but I wasn't! I went to do some drop downs ( not sure what they are actually called, reverse pull ups basically) and my upper and cramped up. It felt like a Chinese burn!

Other than that though, had a great upper body workout and I haven't done one for ages, so that was good.

Yesterday was legs day, I'm always fairly wary of pushing those days as I am so scared of knackering my knees all the time. I still had a good workout, I just need to build up the strength more and stabilise the legs in general.

I am still working on getting my mind set out of weight loss.  As much as I do still want to lose fat, I need to take a fresh outlook on myself. Tom said this a while ago, he needed to stop viewing himself as a fat man who had lost loads of weight and start viewing himself as a slim man who wants to work on certain areas. I definitely need to take a leaf out of his book and dencasext! I am now a slim woman who wants to tone certain areas of her body!! I just love seeing that weight go off the scales!! At least what it proves is that I am finding it easy to maintain my weight, which I was fairly concerned about.

Everything is starting to become incredibly painful, DOMS is kicking in in super style!! I have had a dreadful afternoon, the cravings for unhealthy food have been almost unbearable!! I haven't had cravings like that for such a long time, just goes to show it really doesn't take long to get back into bad habits and I hate it!!!

Tom made an amazing tea tonight, mum has dug out an old recipe book she has for vegetarian meals and this was one of them, with some of the usual Tom tweaking. It's inspired by a Russian dish, the none vegetarian option has fish in it. It's called Kulbyaka and is basically rice, mushrooms and egg encased in filo pastry.

I don't think I need to worry...

..about being sore tomorrow, its kicking in already! My upper abdominals are really quite tender and I can feel tightness building up in my intercostal's too!! I am going to guess that my lower abs will be sore in the morning and I could really do with feeling it in my love handles, as this seems to be the hardest place for me to engage and tone but I could feel it when I was executing some of the moves on the cable machine, so here's hoping! Getting out of bed is going to be fun at the very least.

I have been struggling with a low level headache for the last couple of days, not sure if it is hormones or my neck causing it.  I do get it sometimes but I'm never quite sure what causes it, not sore enough to stop me doing things but enough to annoy!!

It was lovely riding tonight, the moon was really bright and the air was really still.  Its one of my favourite times to ride in the colder, darker months of the year, there is something really quite relaxing about it.  Lara's leg seems to have coped with her work on Sunday, so worked her again tonight and hopefully she is good to get back into it, I'm missing having a horse to jump, especially after getting so into it again!

I've found a new toy!

Well, its not really a new toy, its the cable machine and I have found a new routine on it. I decided to actually look at the routines printed on the machine itself and there is one for the trunk. I did this and a few other abdominal exercises as my workout this morning and if I'm not in agony tomorrow, then I am going to be a little disappointed!!

I have a sort of bruising pain on my knees today, I do get it sometimes and its definitely tension higher up in my legs and that causes something to pull on the inside of my knee cap.  This is the only pain related to my knees that I can feel when I actually touch it, it doesn't happen very often and it isn't horribly painful, its more annoying than anything else!

Yummy lunch today, I had salmon with garlic wild mushrooms, leeks with philly and pepper and avocado. I haven't got a picture though as the kitchen is FULL, everyone thinks I'm obsessed enough already so that wouldn't have helped!!

We went to a concert on Sunday, my friend Nic plays in a band (http://www.wernethconcertband.org.uk) and she is also a composer.  Her latest piece was being played as part of the concert, it was a great afternoon and her piece was fantastic. Its incredible what talent people posses and you never really appreciate it until it is possessed by someone you know.

I need to have a word with myself!

I am letting myself get into bad habits at work and I need to stop it.  It's so difficult though, there is literally crap food there every single day! Tbf, Friday was my own fault as I bought all the goodies in to help raise money for children in need, it isn't until next week, but the BearFaced campaign was on the Friday.

I took another comparisson pic from my stretching, I think you can definitely see an improvement now.  The top one is the latest

We went shopping this morning and I have purchased another size 8 item, this time it isn't sports kit either, its a pair of shorts from River Island! I never thought for one second I would get down to comfortably fit in a size 8 when I started this quest!!  

Tom and I went to the gym this morning before we went shopping, it was good for him to get the opportunity for a change rather than just the daily cardio he gets from his ride to and from work.

A couple of nice little shots from my afternoon at the horses

Whats going on?!

I've clearly been neglecting my upper body workouts recently, today I decided that was what I was going to concentrate on and I was pretty feeble!! My arms were shaking like mad by the end of it and I can feel them starting to stiffen up now, tomorrow should be interesting.  Feeble or not, I still felt pretty good. I also had another really good day at work, I am learning so much and I love it!! The move was definitely worth all the fear of the unknown aspect, and to actually be somewhere where they support you is great; so refreshing.

I think tomorrow will be an all over yoga routine after about 30 mins on the treadmill to warm me up, it shouldn't be long before I get my hormonal all over body ache and joint pain now so I need to make the most of it! The scales were teasing me again this morning, hovering between 139.8 and 140 but stopping on 140!

We are doing the bearfaced thing at work tomorrow for children in need. Basically, you don't wear any makeup and just stick a little paw tattoo on your face. I think it's a great ideas but have only managed to persuade 4 of the girls to do it, the others would rather be seen dead than go out without makeup on! Faire enough, makes me feel blessed that I can happily go out all over the place without makeup, my skin would feel horrible otherwise! Anyway, in preparation I have exfoliated with sugar and extra virgin olive oil. If you haven't tried it, you really need to. I looked into it when I was going through a stage of having terrible skin, this was a few months after having the copper foil fitted and I think my body was just rebelling! It doesn't make your skin in the least bit greasy as you would expect, it just softens and regulates the natural oil levels and, at the same time, extra virgin has brilliant anti inflammatory priorities.  All the chemicals in shop bought products can dry your skin out too much and this can result in an over production of natural grease and breakouts.  Tom also uses it on his patches of psoriasis when he is having a flare up and it is brilliant. He gets them on his cheeks, eyelids and eyebrows and the next day they will almost have disappeared. I say it's psoriasis, we just assume it is but he doesn't get it anywhere else.

Now, can you tell what it is?

Today is a good day!

It started with the scales teasing me, they hovered between 138.9 and 140 but stopped on 140. Progress though!!

I then did a great hour of cardio on the treadmill, I have blistered the under side of my heels though as I had that much of a stomp on.  And my stretching was bloomin brilliant. I am only a hairs breath away from straightening my legs with my palms flat on the floor just in front of my feet. 

It only takes a day like this every so often to make it all worth while!  Its not often I am that pain free either, it just makes me more determined to push on with my stretching too.

I have been making an effort when I am on the treadmill to watch the way I walk. I can see my reflection in the windows now its dark so I can see how close my legs move to each other.  I have been making an effort to bring them out a bit so that I don't almost kick myself on every stride, its amazing the difference it makes to the pain in my legs, its immediately almost totally gone from the start.  I am wondering if that's why I have blisters actually, my strike point of my foot will be different so it will be an area of skin that isn't used to being battered.  My feet are also really pathetic and blister with the slightest change of anything!

Lunch today is super yummy! I have a cauliflower and parsnip soup base (which comes in at a whopping 80 calories, or there about!) I have added some quinoa and the Dal and curried chickpeas I still had left.  Really tasty!! I don't have a pic as it really doesn't look appetising, you will have to take my word on it!

Gungo Peas!

My latest discovery at the local Tesco! They're really tasty and cook incredibly well in the pressure cooker, the best results of all so far.  The Tesco near where I work is brilliant, there are a lot of different cultures living in the area, so they stock items that are popular all over the world and you generally wouldn't see in other Tesco's.  Ignorantly, I'm not sure what area of the world these are popular in I'm afraid, but they are very tasty so I can see why!

This mornings gym session was incredibly frustrating, I really wanted to do an abs focused yoga routine but only remembered that I needed to download that specific routine, when I got to the gym. Well, after 30mins downloading, the install failed.  It turns out that it needs WiFi to install rather than plain old 3g.  So I had to improvise, felt pretty good though, much more free through my lower back, but I still need to contact David and keep forgetting!!

I was in an horrific mood yesterday afternoon and it didn't improve when I got to the horses as Lara's leg has swollen back up following me starting to being her back into work after her month rest that I decided on, due to the leg swelling and not improving. Quite gutted, it has been stable for the last 2 weeks and she felt fantastic when I worked her on Sunday, totally sound (not limping) and really keen.  Fingers crossed its coincidental and she is OK today. I did so little with her on Sunday, so if it is a direct result of that then this does not look promising.  I won't get any chance between now and the new year to compete anyway, but I wanted to get her back fit so she was ready in Jan.

I do also think it is the lovely, lovely curse of female hormones.  Drives me mad that I can't control this aspect of my life, I wish it was as easy as identifying it and dealing with it.  I feel somewhat better today, but it is still brewing away in the background!!

Its also not helping that I feel like I am still stuck, I have a right little pot belly that I just can't shift and the inside of my thighs seem to have ground to a halt as far as sculpted improvement goes.  I don't want to get hung up on things, but these are the area that I really need to get a grip of and everything just seems to have stopped, right before December too which is a killer month.  My birthday is the first weekend and then it all goes down hill from then on! 

The quest to not cross my legs all the time is still under way and proving to be incredibly difficult!! I am determined to crack it though. 

Lunch today; the aforementioned Gungo Peas, leek, asparagus, curly kale and salmon. Pretty tasty if I do say so myself, missing my normal garlic overload though.

Brrrr

-2 degrees centigrade.. And so it begins! I even had a little bit of ice on the windscreen, today I will be stocking up on winter car kit.  I just don't have time to be waiting for my car to defrost in a morning, and whilst we do live in the middle of nowhere, I just hate leaving my car unattended whilst it defrosts.  I know it only takes a few minutes, but every second counts in a morning for me.

I feel utterly shattered today, not a good sign for a Monday by any stretch!! May have to be an early night tonight, which is a shame as one of my favourite series has started again, Ripper Street, that is on at 9! But the joys of on demand will help me out! We aren't big into series as they feel like a burden when you have to watch every week, not a commitment we like to have!

I have been getting a very strange sensation in my left foot, I have had it once before but can't remember which foot it was. I am attributing it to a trapped nerve somewhere, it feels like there is a really cold draft blowing on one isolated area, the fact that it's the underside of my foot that has shoes and socks on, makes me positive it isn't simply a draft! Must call David today!

Currently on the treadmill, feel pretty good. The pelvis isn't particularly sore, I just feel tight all around that area. I was thinking of doing an hour on here then some stretching, I think I will just do half an hour and then get onto the stretching instead.

Weight hasn't really been affected by my bad night on Saturday, just goes to show how much worse it is when you add drink into the equation! But I know that anyway!!! I weigh 141.2 today and this is what my weight fluctuates around at the moment, as you all know, I would love to break 140 before Xmas, just don't see it happening, so not going to obsess over it, just going to focus on my stretching.

All get good intentions

Totally went to pot last night, I think I may have eaten my own weight in mini bruschetta, swiftly followed by a decent helping of chilli.  As if that wasn't enough, I had a slice of pavlova, a load of spiced fruits with Greek yogurt and chocolate mousse!! Shocking!!

We went out riding this morning and it was freezing, we are just over half way into autumn and I'm struggling to stay warm, we got soaked which didn't help.  I have noticed a distinct difference in my ability to stay warm don't losing weight, it's never been on the top of my list of skills, but it is markedly changed this year.

We are of to meet Holly and Keith (Tom's sister and brother in law) in a few mins for lunch, we are going to the local pub that has just been refurbished, I have pre checked the menu and there are plenty of diet friendly options that I can go for.

I have also spent the majority of the morning since getting back, making the Tarka Dal and curried chickpeas.  The chickpeas are incredible, I'm not convinced about the Dal, I think it may be one that improves when it had been cooked for a while.  I think it might be a little to hot for me too, but I think I just need to man up!

Back onboard

I thought I would see how the pelvis felt whilst riding today. It felt great actually which is good news! It feels a little tender now but hopefully that won't last.  I am still going to book an appointment with David though, as just because it isn't hurting, it doesn't mean it is right.

I got distracted by shopping for wedding stuff for a few hours, have got lots of goodies for table and garden decorations.  My back has been feeling fine but I just clipped Mills and it is hurting a little bit now!

I have been making a concerted effort to not cross my legs this week, it's a really destructive habit and one that I do constantly when I am sat down.  It is a tough one to crack but I am determined to crack it!!

My weight is finally back down to around the 140 mark, it always takes around a full week to shift! We were pretty good last night, I made roasted quorn pieces in pesto with pureed leek and parsnip.  I thought I had overdone the thyme when I first tarred it but it worked brilliantly with the quorn.  We are on an cupboard emptying mission all of next week, we have manage to build up so much food in our allocated drawer that we can't find anything!!  I have some chickpeas soaking at the minute so that I can make a curry out of them and I am also soaking some yellow split peas to make some slow cooked Dahl..  Is going to be yummy and they are such filling meals too. I think we should do a mixed bean casserole and that can be slow cooked from a timer, maybe some cauliflower and bean soup again.  We have buckwheat, quinoa, millions of beans, lentils, squash, risotto rice... Basically plenty of cold weather food!!

Tonight is not going to be a great night, mum and dad are having friends round for a chilli night and we are joining in.  I won't have a jacket potato or rice, not hugely fussed about them so it isn't too difficult to not have those, the difficulty comes with the nachos, bread sticks, crisps, dips, peanuts.. And the list goes on.  I did however read something that sat well with me in regards to situations like this; don't think of it as saying no to the unhealthy food, think of it as saying yes to your fitness, health and goals. 

This was the beautiful sunrise we were priveledged enough to witness this morning.  I wonder how many people were snoozing away oblivious