Day 20 (30.01.12)

Yesterday was a bit of a challenge, I woke up with a tickle in my throat and the start of a cold, took a long chilly drive to Wales for work and to be honest by the end of the day I wasn't feel very motivated to do RI30. 

The best part of yesterday was the news that the mould that's in our bedroom and the condesnsation in the loft should be an "easy fix" and its only happened becuase the house was built too well.  (The builder would say that though woudln't he???)  Waiting on news of how this will be fixed, hope its fast, the way I feel right now I could do without sleeping in a mouldy bedroom on top of a cold!

As I'm in Wales, I'm at my parents house so the background for the pictures has changed again.... don't say I never take you anywhere.

Some of those pictures don't look as good as they have over the last few days I don't think but I'm hoping that's becuase the light is different? 

Food yesterday was ok, I didn't want to open my pack of blueberries before I set off as they'd have ended up all over the car so I had graze vanilla seeds and 5g of white chocolate chips on my oat bran (naughty but yum), morning snack of 50g of grapes, lunch was let over chicken roast with a slice of soda bread and salad.  Afternoon snacks were salted popcorn and a protein shake after the dvd and dinner was a prawn stir fry although the cold had well and truly started to take over by then so I didn't manage to eat it all.  Instead I went to bed feeling very sorry for myself at 8:45!

Calories: 1414/1479
5 A day? black grapes, salad, brocolli, mange tout, baby corn, beansprouts (all in stif fry) so I'd say that just about does it!

Day 19 - The day of rest

This was my first rest day in 19 days,  I'm glad I'd planned it because I woke up feeling terrible, sinus pain, stomach cramp and a bit vomity.  I wish it would have been a hangover because at least you know in a few hours it will be gone and normal service resumes but given that the migraine lingers on and an earache seems to be starting its no doubt something more sinister.

Despite feeling like poop I still remembered to take my pictures, here they are:

As I was feeling yucky yesterday food was distcintly average.  No breakfast (feeling too sick) lunch was a bagel with half a banana on one half and nutella on the other, dinner was slightly better, we had a Bill Grainger chicken roast which was yummy, with a ciabatta each to mop up the sauce.

Calories: 1070/1310
5 a Day? Not even close, I promise today is better!

Day 18 and a Non Scale Victory!!!

Getting out of your warm cosy bed early on a Saturday to do RI30 isn't exactly up there on my list of favourite things to do, but it was day 18 so I had no choice.  Mr D watched me do it (he didn't join in!) and helped me with my form so at least that was a bonus.
As it was our dating anniversary and as we were off into London I made us a big breakfast each, I had a toasted piece of soda bread, 2 rashers of smoked bacon, a few fried mushrooms and a poached egg on top.  Mr D had a seeded bagel with cream cheese, scrambled egg and salmon, he also had a fried tomato and 2 rashers of bacon the big greedy guts!

Here are the pictures from Saturday:

I think my hips still look pretty wide in the first and last picture but it's getting better, so I'm staying positive.

Like I said, yesterday we went into London, Mr D wanted to stop off at the rugby shop at Covent Garden so we made our way there first, not before we foolishly decided to take the stairs at the tube station, all  193 of them!!  Half way up my quads were on fire (thanks Jillian!) but it was ace when we got the top - we may have done a little jump and big tens in celebration.

Now blog friends I'm about to admit something a bit embarassing, all week I thought Mr D wanted to go to a shop that sold rugby clothes and accessories, thought it was a bit weird to have a shop like that in Covent Garden but hey.  It wasn't until we were stood outside I realised he meant the new Ralph Lauren rugby store... he's told me about it about a million times I don't know why I didn't realise before.  I was quite glad actually because I love a bit of shopping.

This shop was the scene of my NSV.  I'd found a pair of boyfriend style coloured chinos I fancied for summer, the sizes are American and I sometimes find their sizes come up small so I asked the assistant who suggested I take in an 8 and a 10.  Both were too big so Mr D went and got me a smaller size.  Here are the trousers:

And here is the size I ended up buying.....

Your eyes aren't deceiving you that's a ZERO!!!

I can't actually believe they fit, I never would have picked up that size in a million years, getting those made a brilliant day even better.

Food yesterday was a bit mixed, breakfast was a mini fry up like I said, we shared a Pret baguette and a bag of popcorn for lunch and then dinner was a disaster!  I had french onion soup to start and chocolate fondant for dessert but my main was pants.  I'd ordered venison cooked medium, it came and was rare, honestly a skilled vet could have got that Deer going again, I sent it back, I got another one, equally as rare as the first, sent that back and then the third attempt was still bleeding all over my plate - my mash was pink.  I gave up at that point!

Calories: THOUSANDS

5 a Day? - Mushrooms at breakfast and rocket in my baguette.  Total failure again.



Day 17 (27.01.12)

As it was Friday and I finish work early, I did RI30, it was tough, my quads were burning, and I thought I might die (despite Jillian informing me otherwise).  I'm not sure what it is but always on Friday's whilst i'm making up my protein shake afterwards I start thinking that actually I'd quite like to go to the gym.... so I did.

Twenty minute run on 1% incline, made it to 18 minutes before the pain in my knee meant I had to walk for about 30 seconds, then I finished off as quick as I could for the last minute.  Then onto weights, I did all the things I really hate from week one and two: renegade rows, plank jacks etc and to finish holding a plank for as long as I could... 1 minute.  I know really that's a bit crap but its progress and next week I'll see how long I can hold it for and I'm hoping it will be a few seconds longer.

Right now I'm trying to be positive about how much stronger I'm getting, it's good to go to the gym and know exacly what it is I'm going to do there that day and actually get it done, and maybe even with a heavier weight.  Last night I noticed they had a TRX frame which must be new so I'll be calling my brother for a plan that includes that when I'm done with RI 30.

Here are the pictures for yesterday:

After a comment on the blog yesterday (thanks Amanda) I went and had a look back at the first pictures and yes I do still have some overhang, but its nto as bad as it was so I'm going out today feeling pretty good about myself.

Food -had a new breakfast yesterday, oat bran made with lacto free milk with graze vanilla seeds and blackberries, it was lush apart from the berries which were SO BITTER!!  Lunch was an egg mayo pitta, and dinner was skinless boneless cod with mushy peas and homemade paprika wedges  .....mmmmm.

Calories: 1472/1807 Now I know I should have eaten back my exercise calories but today I'm off out into London for our anniversary and although I've done RI30 I think I'll need all the extra calories I can get!
5 A day?  Blackberries, mushy peas.... epic fail!

Day 16... Progress?

Ok so day 16 was Thursday and as today is weigh in day I thought I'd talk about that too. RI 30 was hard work yesterday and I have noticed that Jillian makes a mistake! In the first circuit the moves are bear crawl 30 seconds, duck walk 30 seconds and then squat with opposite rows for 30 seconds, then we repeat but only do the first 2 moves before she goes on to cardio??? That is starting to get annoying as I have to make sure I've got the remote nearby so that I can pause and do the rest of the squats before moving on. Some of the circuits in this level are also prety advanced, I'm worried I'm not geting the pike pushups (push up in down dog) right so looking forward to Mr D being around tomorrow so that he can check my form.


I got changed into my workout stuff at around 4 yesterday so that I could take pictures in the natural light so here you go:

 I'm starting to think maybe I should take all of my pictures at this angle??

Still too much flub but what can you do?

So I weighed in this morning, I saw a 7 at the start of my weight but the ounces weren't low enough for me to count it as a pound lost but at 7st13and 3/4 I'm starting to feel happier and like this might actually work?  I remembered to use the extra weigh in features this time too and here are the stats:

Body fat: 2st3 and 1/8 so only 1/8th of a pound and that will be a pound of fat lost since day 9, even if the total weight isn't moving i'm keeping and eye on this figure becuase it means PROGRESS is being made!
Body fat % 27.7, (down from 28.5)
Body water: 52.8
BMI: 21..9 (down from 22.1)

That makes me feel a tiny bit better.

Food yesterday, positively saintly... porridge for breakfast with strawberries and some vanilla graze seeds, lunch was left over stew with broccoli and sweetcorn, after RI 30 I had a proein shake like normal, then dinner was a turkey, cheese, salad pitta. 

Last night I made some Gluten Free peanut butter choc chip cookies for Mr D to take to work.  Its a bit tough there at the moment, big meetings happening next week so I thought some Friday treats were in order.  Pleased to report that I didn't have any cookies last night although I did taste the tip of a teaspoon of the mix to make sure that it wasn't too salty.  I made a small cookie on purpose so that I could have one today with a cuppa... roll on 11!!

Calories: 1372/1478
5 a Day? Strawberries, apple snack, veg in stew (2?) broccoli, sweetcorn, salad in pitta  - so yes!

Half Way

Day 15 is done, on one  hand I'm pretty happy because that's half way but I'm also a bit disheartened because not alot has changed in the last 2 weeks.

I will weigh tomorrow as Friday is my usual weigh in day and report back with the damage - have a feeling it will be another week without a loss, it's starting to get me down a bit now.

Pictures for day 15:

I did take my measurements yesterday:

Bust: 33" (no change)
Under Bust: 27" (no change)
Waist (Narrowest): 25.5" (-0.5")
Waist (Belly Button): 29" (no change)
Hips: 35" (-0.5")
Thigh: 20.5 (-0.5")
Calf: 12" (no change)
Arm: 9" (no change)

Not sure what I think about all that.

For breakfast yesterday I had an actimel, porridge with strawberries (I've run out of blueberries) and some savoury graze seeds, lunch was soup again and dinner was stew made up of all this:

And its was yummy!

Calories: 1328/1478
5 a Day? Strawberries, an apple (morning snack) vegetable soup (2 servings?) broccoli and sweetcorn with stew as well as all the veggies in the stew above, so yeh I'd say that's at least 5!

Level 2 Complete

YES!! You have no idea how glad I am to see the back of level 2, I don't care right now how hard level 3 is, I'll deal with that tonight.  When I finished yesterdays RI30 at the end of the last minute of abs I just lay on the mat and had the biggest smile on my face, no doubt that will be gone when I attempt L3 later!

I know I've complained about this part of the dvd alot over the last week but I have found it really tough, so I thought I'd let you all know just which bits really are the worst!

Strength: Renegade Rows/Pro Push Ups - ouch is all I can say, the pro push ups are from circuit 2, no weights obviously just a push up whilst raising the knee to your elbow, after doing 2 minutes of cardio in plank (i'll get on to that in a minute!) its really tough on your shoulders.  Its the same problem with the renegade rows, she makes you do those in 30DS level 3 I think where you also have to raise your legs alternately.  There is no leg raise just plank on the weights and a row to the chest but yikes they hurt and it's really hard not to turn your hips and keep really square when all you want to do is drop to your knees!

There are some strength moves I really loved though, my favourite was probably side lunges with leg raises.  No weights for this one just a deep low lunge, lean to the side you are lunging, put your fingertips on the floor and lift the straightened leg as high as you can. 

Cardio:  Probably the worst cardio move for me was the mountain climbers in plank.  They come right after the plank jacks and they just kill you!  I really didnt like the squat thrusts either.  I didn't manage to do the "badass" of either of those moves for the full minute on any day this week, I had to modify to plank on my elbows or follow Natalie doing the beginner moves, which made me feel like a bit of a failure.

My favourite cardio was probably the punching combos in circuit 3, although I did not enjoy my dad trying to give me punching advice last night, NOTE TO ALL DADS when your daughter is almost at the end of RI30 do not interrupt, you will not be thanked.

Abs:  At the risk of sounding like a total loser, there wasn't an ab move I didnt like, the most difficult is probably the last 30 seconds of the whole dvd, its a cruch whilst raising your legs up straight so that you are at a 90 degree angle - does that make sense?  Trust me, its really tough.  There are loads of great moves though, like going from an ab hold down into a hollowman (yeh I know, didn't I hate those a week ago?)  I'm doing those with weights now to add extra resistence, so my muscles are getting stronger, shame they are covered in a layer of fat hey?

So here are the pictures from day 14 (taken at mum and dads in case you thought we'd done a bit of redecoration)

 This one looks worse I think than it has the past few days, hoping its just a bit of bloat

The red marks are where my tights were digging in.... how embarassing.

Food yesterday was also pretty good, I'm surprised how organised I was seeing as I had to nip back to Wales on Monday night at short notice.  I took my porridge sachets and the last of the blueberries and had that for breakfast as usual.  Lunch was left over prawn curry - no I didn't get a picture, I was too hungry and totally forgot!  Dinner was a turkey, emmental and rocket pitta bread which I had with 10g of popcorn before I left to come home, I also had a protein shake for the journey.

Calories: 1457/1478
5 A Day? Blueberries, baby corn, brocolli, mange tout, rocket - just!!

Day 13 - Lucky for some?

Today was hard, my laptop is on its way out and because of that I'm writing this in Wales waiting for an engineer to turn up and either fix it, or give me a replacement until my laptop can be fixed or until I buy a new one.  To be honest, that put me in a pretty bad mood yesterday and messed up my timings after work for RI30 as I was waiting for phone calls so I knew if I'd have to drive back here.

I eventually got down to it at 6pm I had eaten lunch at 1 and it was only soup, and the 3 brazil nuts I had as a snack at 3 weren't really sustaining me.  I'd say it was probably the worst effort I've put in over these 13 days but I'm glad that I did it, it would have been really easy yesterday to talk myself out of exercise.

Pictures for day 13:

No Change.

Food:  Pretty similar to most days actually, had my new favourite breakfast:

Lunch was one of everything soup, here is it before the stock got added - so many veggies

For dinner Mr D made red thai prawn curry, which we had with cous cous and some tenderstem brocolli, baby corn, and mange tout, I've got leftovers for lunch today so I'll get a picture then (if I remember and don't gobble it all up first!).

Calories: 1337/1478
5 A Day? Blueberries, apple (morning snack), veggie soup (carrots, celery, leeks, onion) brocolli, baby corn, and mange tout - YEY!

Day 12

I've just realised that I totally forgot to take measurements on day 10, so I'll do them at the halfway point on day 15.  No RI30 yesterday, well not the DVD anyway, instead Mr D and I popped to the gym (he's been a member since it opened in November and has never been!) so I had a run on a 2% incline for 20 minutes followed by 30 minutes of non stop weights/resistence work, all from RI30 levels 1 and 2, some moves that I like, but alot of the ones I really hate.  I was so hot and tired by the end my face was purple - it wasn't a good look!

Pictures from Day 12:

 Every time I upload these pictures I always wonder how my hips manage to look so big in black - I thought that was meant to be slimming????

 Hideous posture again, need to sort that out.

Hello Abs.... Where are you?????  Oh and I've just realised you can see all my laundry piles all over the floor.  Must tidy up before today's pictures!

Yesterday was another day practically void of any vegetables!  Breakfast was an acitmel before the gym, and a protein shake afterwards, Lunch was quite healthy, homemade beef stew that I'd defrosted, and Dinner is where it all went wrong!  I was going to make some soup but I was so tired and we had vouchers for the pub at the end of the road so seeing as I had alot of calories left we went there and I had a beef lasagne meal which I have to admit was really yummy!

Today I am going back to weekday food so hitting 5 a day should be much easier.

Calories: 1549/1665
5 a day?  Carrot, celery, red onion in the stew but I think that was about it!

Day 11

I'm actually quite glad I'm doing this blog otherwise I'd have no idea what day I'm on!  Yesterday was day 11, and becuase it was a Saturday Mr D was at home so he watched and made noises of encouragement in all the places where I thought I might die, and said how difficult it looked so that made me feel better (but only a bit!)

Here are piccies from day 11:

 I think this picture looks better than at the start although I'm not sure if that is becuase these ones are taken in the daylight and normally when I do RI30 its after work and the pictures are taken at night?

Same issue with this one, it looks like i've got some definition, but I tihnk that's just the sun catching light on something that may (or may not!) be there!

Apologies for the rather putrid all pink ensemble, I need to do some washing!

Food was DELICIOUS today!  No breakfast because I was ripping and had an actimel before and a protein shake after, Lunch was a whole pack of chicken satay and a bowl of popcorn... not the healthiest but I had it whilst watching the rugby so I reckon that makes it alright.  Dinner was stuffed pasta shells, they are the most awesome meal in the world, giant pasta shells stuffed with a mix made from reduced fat soft cheese,  streaky bacon, breadcrumbs and some chopped fresh parsely, then topped with buffalo mozarella.
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

Calories: 1731/1479 Whoops!
5 A day: Not even close.  Will try harder today.

Day 10

Phew... A third of the way through!!!  Right now 30 days feels like forever, I'm really not enjoying level 2 at all and now that I've done it a few times and I know what's coming it really is starting to drag.

Anyway, here are the pictures for yesterday:

I was on the phone to my mum at the time, she's impossible to stop once she gets going so I thought I'd do the pictures at the same time.

I think my stomach in the last one doesnt look as bad as it has done but maybe that's becuase those tights aren't as snug as my blue pair? 

Food yesterday was pretty good, I had my new favourite porridge for breakfast (blue berries and graze omega seeds), an egg mayonnaise ciabatta for lunch, then skinless boneless cod loin, homemade chips (one baking potato each), and I was going to make pea puree but I was so tired after RI 30 that we had baked beans and it was yummy!

Also time to be a bit smug, after I did the dvd last night I felt like I wasnted to do a bit more so I went for a 20 minutes run on the treadmill at the gym and did another 15 minutes or so of weights, all my favourites from level 1 RI30.... I was totally pooped after that!

Calories: 1443/1736
5 A day:  Blueberries, baked beans... total fail!!!