So, where does it hurt?

It may well be easier to point out where it doesn't hurt tbh.  Had my PT session with Martin this morning, in true Martin style, he made me work muscles I didn't know existed.  We were concentrating on core and glutes with some flexor stretching chucked in for good measure.  It was all body weight stuff and I had to concentrate on keeping my core engaged throughout all movements.. So, so difficult to do. 

He explained that for me to be able to hit the heavier weights to build up shape (flat bottom attack) I have got to spend time strengthening and stretching as my body just will not take it.  I have biased strengths which don't help either.  Was a brilliant workout as his always are, but sooo tough, not tough in a "wow, I'm going to be sick" way, it's in a coordination and concentration and control kinda way.

I took the afternoon off to go around Somerford Park Farm Ride with Amy and her new horse she is trailing, that has basically finished me off and Lara ripped her shoe off, fingers crossed she hasn't hurt herself in time for her weekend competing at the end of the month! 

I've just needed to cough, it's like torture!!! 

My latest little find in Lidl is octopus.  In the entire glory, de-beaked thankfully, but still an entire beast. I love octopus and eat it when I am abroad all the time and here when I see it, but I have never prepared it myself.  The instructions just say to shallow fry it, so that's what I did with the first one.  I decided then though that the tentacles over cooked whilst waiting for the body to cook, so I chopped the second one up and did the bits separately and in garlic.. Much better.  I have then concocted a potentially yummy salad with Quinoa and fruit....  

Enforced rest day tomorrow, i really wanted to go on the treadmill for an hour but I could feel a twinge in my knee this morning and if I go with an hour in mind and it hurts, I can't do anything else as I am so sore.  I have a hectic weekend this weekend anyway as we are climbing Friday and then going to meet Reubs and Mandy in the peak district for a camping and biking weekend.. I'm still not very happy about the rest day though, typically me! 

Exciiiiting!

Managed to spend a good chunk of today bouncing ideas around with my mate Nic about the wedding. Her imagination is awesome so we've speeding along quit nicely.  Knock on effect of this is that I'm really excited now and that normally results in me not sleeping! 

Had a good workout at the gym this morning, spent about an hour on upper body and stretching followed by Martin's abs blast class for half an hour. I can feel my abs getting sore already and I've slightly tweaked my back; Tom is massaging it whilst I type this! So, what I thought would be a great idea is to book in for a PT session with Martin in the morning. I want to focus on my bum and my hip flexors and he's brilliant for that. 

Lunch is made for tomorrow, a lovely piece of poached salmon and an amazing avocado. I get them from Lidl and they are the best of any supermarket and I do believe I'm addicted. Its funny how that happens, all through my childhood mum used to try and get my sister and me to eat avocado, yet we both hated it! Now, I for one, can't get enough of them! 

Blueberries and raspberries too for good measure.  

My iPad app clearly hates putting pics on and then going back to normal left hand formatting, quite irritating! I am also quite excited about my new shoes that have just arrived.  They are pretty quirky and I absolutely love them, I should imagine the lads at work will take th piss, but they work really well with the skinny trousers I now always wear. I will post a pic when I have a decent one.

Anyway, as always I don't have a great deal of time to spend writing this as I need to get to sleep.  There really just aren't enough hours in the day for me.  All these kids that suffer from depression and angst need to get themselves too busy to have ny time to do any thinking and then they are also so exhausted that any time they do have a moments downtime, they just fall fast asleep! 

4 lbs!! Cookie monster came back to haunt me!

Post weekend weigh in didn't impress me very much. I've put on 4lbs, I don't think my diet over the weekend was any different to the weekend before, so I am guessing it is the cumulative effect of me being a massive greedy pig in the week that hasn't helped.

The legs weren't too sore over the weekend and they didn't hurt at all whilst I was riding.  Had another successful outing, Millie came second in her leisure horse class, so I'm really pleased as she hasn't been out for ages.  Lara's class clashed with Moo's, so she just did a clear round as she has a big comp coming up in a couple of weeks anyway and Mills doesn't.

Woke up today with my left knee giving me shit, obviously the aftermath of last weeks over work.  I have put some Pernaton gel on it and I hit the foam roller again this morning.  I did an hours low intensity cardio too, or as I like to call it 'fatty fat fat burn' Knee is still bothering me tonight, damned thing. I need to just accept that it's screwed and work round it, very annoying though.  I really. It's hardcore workouts and it makes me really jealous of other people when they get to do it and I am now officially sulking!

Oops, published it before I had finished there! This was what greeted me when I got to the gym this morning, it's always really pretty s it shines through the motorway bridge and you get the vehicle silhouettes too.  If its misty it looks even more amazing.

For some reason my cursor now won't position itself to the left, crappy iPad app! I'm not sure if I mentioned I have a new job or not; but it is a little further into the traffic bell than where I am at the min so I will lose time out of my day whilst sitting in traffic.  So, one of my options if it is really horrific, is to park my car at the gym and then cycle the rest of the way in after my workout.  It's only a half hour bike ride and I would rather spend that half an hour cycling than sitting in traffic! it also means that my cardio is done in that time so I can do strength at the gym and save time in that respect! 

Nicely formatted paragraphs there for you, breaks it up a bit anyway! 

Ouch in every single way!

So the DOMS are pretty bad today, if I get it in my thighs it is always horrific!  At least my inner thigh pain from earlier in the week has gone now.  I went for upper body and low intensity cardio today. Didn't feel wildly strong but didn't feel pathetic either.  I can still feel the shoulder injury giving me gyp and it does hinder me as far as putting on heavier weights goes, but I am just grateful that it isn't stopping me completely and it is definitely improving.

I beat my personal best on the bench press, got to 32.5 kilos and 6 reps x 2, so pretty pleased with that.  I cant go any heavier on the cable cross overs due to the shoulder injury unfortunately, so I just have to keep on 5 with the power mode button on for the high ones, 5 without power mode at shoulder height cross overs and then the low ones I have to drop to 3, without power mode.

I finished my workout with some stretching as usual and then the foam roller on my ITB and glutes. Wow, wow and wooowwww!! So insanely painful it almost brought tears to my eyes!!

I have decided to alternate my days for the smoothies, having one every day does mean I am consuming a huge amount of fructose on a daily basis, and as much as I  pulled a face when Liam said about it as I think that there are so many benefits to eating fruit, I have decided to rein it in a bit!

This month is going to be quite exciting from a vanity point of view at least.  As I am starting a new job, I thought it would be the ideal opportunity to refresh my wardrobe.. Whilst I have had to buy loads of new trousers as I have dropped in size so much, I haven't really bought many more tops.  One of the best outcomes from this weight loss kick, is that I can put on clothes and look good without having to dress to hide the bits I like.  I see something that looks good and I can just wear it, it still looks good.  I don't suffer from the problem I have had for so long that it looks amazing on the model and crap on me! So now, I actually enjoy fashion.  I enjoy looking at fashions and planning outfits, knowing that they will work.  I have what I class as quite a quirky taste in clothes, I don't like to be main stream and I do find that now, this is where it takes some hard work! Far preferable to having to search around to find something that doesn't look rubbish!

The downside being, I'm broke!

Cookie Monster!

I decided to give my legs and bottom a good hard workout at they gym yesterday, I have noticed that what small amount of bum muscle I had managed to sculpt has gone! My glutes are really poor, it seems to be a family thing from my mums side.  All the women have really flat bottoms, its like our backs just become our legs!!  I really want a nice peachy bum!

As my knee has had a good rest, I thought this would be ok.  I did loads of body weight squats, bum raises and leg press drop sets.  I also did my theraband workout to strengthen my flexors up, I haven't done them for ages and I really need to! I finished off with 40 mins on the treadmill. This was so tough, never done it post strength training on my legs, what a killer!!

My knee didn't take too kindly to the heavy start of the drop sets, I started at 120 which I can press, the problem is that when I am doing drop sets I rush.  I think I need to just accept that I cant do anything too heavy, it really inst worth it.  Especially when I can tone up by starting at a lower weight and doing more reps.

One of the guys in the office bought in a load of cookies as it's his birthday. I contemplated being good for a split second and then gave in. I thought I would stop at 2 but unfortunately, the lunch I had made was nasty.  the beetroot has fermented and tainted the entire lunch.  So I ate 6 cookies in total! Self control is NOT my strong point..

I didn't behave much better for my tea either, I had half a Chorizo sausage, dry fired with a few mushrooms and 5 fish fingers! Tom wasn't in so it was up to me to be week day chef for a change and I couldn't be bothered making an effort just for me.  Chorizo is possibly my worse weakness! It is so bad, so full of saturated fat and crap that I don't think there is anything of any value in it at all! I just absolutely love it and choose to blatantly ignore all of that and keep having it as a treat! The upside of all this, I got on the scales this morning and I haven't gained at all! Bonus

Mid month weigh in

As my weight has been on free fall since I have come back into exercise and healthy eating since being I'll, I wanted to see if the weigh loss is muscle or fat. I have lost 3lbs in a week and I haven't done anything different particularly, I even had curry and beer at the weekend!

Thankfully, the body fat percentage has indeed gone down.  At the beginning of the month I was 26.1% and now I am 25.3% so really pleased with that.  I can only assume that the break and rest from exercise has done me good and the introduction of the low intensity cardio has clearly done some good too!

Whilst I was getting my body fat done, I had a quick mooch in Boots and found some of those disclosure tablets you used to use as a kid, the ones that show you where you have missed brushing your teeth.  They have come on somewhat since the last time I used them, now they differentiate between old and new plaque.  All in all, I don't do a bad job but there were some problem areas that need concentrating on.. Unsurprisingly, I love things like that. 

On another plus note, I have a new job! Handed my notice in today, I can't wait to get my teeth into the new challenge. 5 yrs in one place is a huge amount of time. I will still be able to go to the gym as it is in a similar location to where I am now.. Relief! 

Anyway, must get myself to sleep.. Took the morning off the gym today as was feeling a little ropey at the end of the day yesterday and really don't need to be ill again, I've had my quota for a few months thanks. 

Back to it

Finally feel well enough to do some low intensity cardio.  Felt pretty good again, joints were quite stiff to start but eased after about 20mins. Did 40 mins total on 6.5 and incline of 2, no strength work today either.

Stretched off and used then foam roller again, ITB nowhere near as sore as the other day but my inner thighs are still really tight.

Was feeling it horribly this afternoon, felt shattered and I got an earlyish night last night. Just goes to show how much being I'll has wiped me out, getting back into a routine again is like starting from scratch. It always amazes me how much I forget, after no more than a week of not doing it! I forgot my laptop yesterday, I forgot to put seasoning and garlic on Tom's lunch, I forgot to take my laptop into the office out of my car today; my head's up in the clouds! I've been I'm the same routine for over 6 months! Its the same with muscle loss, work on it for months and within a week you've lost so much form.

Whilst I am on the subject of loss of form, my gleuts (peachy ass) I've been working on has lost some of the shape I had managed to build up on it. I haven't squatted for a good few weeks or leg pressed as my knee was bothering me, really need to get back on it. I also need to work out a plan of action for each week! I keep saying that and not doing it!! Must try harder

Another plus today, I have dropped another pound, grand total of 20 lbs this year. I think I am the lightest I have been since o was 23 and I certainly look better than I ever have, or at least better than I ever remember!

It's funny, I've been routing around on instagram as I saw an article a woman wrote about why the proanna forums and presence on instagram shouldn't be banned. I won't go into the details of it but she was basically saying it is a good place for people to seek support in an otherwise hostile society and that for a lot of 'sufferers' it is a lifestyle choice rather than a killer illness, just like we want to follow a crazy fitness regime.

For me, the jury is still out, I don't know anywhere near enough about the subject to be of any influence in a debate about it. I got what she was saying, totally, just don't know where I stand on the subject... Anyway, as usual, of I rant! My point is, I've looked on instagram and been reading these peoples posts and on the whole I am shocked, but the biggest thing I have noticed is that these people starve themselves everyday, a lot of them consuming no more than 200 calories and going for walks etc to ensure they are in a deficit. They also do prolonged fasting and anything else that is bad for your health I would say, but, they aren't shifting their weight any quicker than I am!

OK, they are going for the boney look, rather than the built look that I want, but even so, these deluded and, what I class most the time as self indulgent, products of modern 1st world society, could achieve what they are after and not endanger their lives.. So maybe I do have an opinion, I don't think it is a well rounded or educated one, but there are key players online that seem to me to just be seeking to shock and then you see poor starving kids in 3rd world countries who have no choice. These kids are throwing soup down the drain. Pretty clichéd opinion I have and pretty sure not a well rounded one, but its my current opinion all the same.

On that note, I think I may have a read around modern day eating disorders and  see if the fact that I think a lot of them don't fall onto the anorexia brand, just the lifestyle choice brand, albeit a stupid and dangerous one, is out of order.