Monday 26 March 2012

Day ???????

No amount of good intentions can steel you against the temptations that a holiday bring your way.  Saturday didn't start too well as I had to go to a bridesmaid dress fitting and I couldn't face breakfast as I was so worried the dress wouldn't fit. I'm happy to say that it did so when I got back home I had 2 slices of bacon which I'd earlier passed up and Sat down to watch the rugby.  Mid way through a game that I really didn't carea bout I decided to do Ripped in 30, now I didn't have the dvd but I was armed with a list of all the circuits and got Mr D to shout out when I had to change to the next move - it was quite fun like that actually.

Food wasn't the best whilst I was there, everything had mash or chips attached to it and refusing food in my family instantly leads them to jump to conclusions that you must have an eating disorder or similar.  sunday was mothers day so we went out for lunch, I had tomato bruschetta to start and then a chicken caeser salad for main but was pretty naffed off at the amount of dressing that they'd slathered it with.  Then the Mr and I hot-footed it off to Cornwall where everything went a bit wrong.

If you've never been to Cornwall or Devon then you are missing out, its so beautiful there and the coast it gorgeous.  On our first day the weather was good so we went to St Ives, visited the Tate, walked along the beach, through the town and down to the harbour for fish and chips on a bench overlooking a little bit of beach.  On the way back to the car we stopped off at a cute bakery and bought saffron buns, clotted cream and jam so that we could have a cream tea later on. No exercise done that day.

Tuesday was miserable so we went to Plymouth to look for a bikini and a dress for the Hen weekend, no luck on that front but I did get a couple of dresses for summer, had lunch in a nice pub, and a good mooch about.  Resisted a yummy looking cupcake shop (same can't be said for Mr D) and when we got back we headed over to the gym where I did level 3 Ripped In 30 and had a 2 mile run afterwards.

Wednesday the sun had come back out so we took a trip to Padstow, which is one of my favourite places, its just beautiful there.  We had a walk about, visited Rick Stein's patisserie, bought a silly amount of his jams and things as pressies, then popped into a bakery for you guessed it.... more scones and clotted cream!  llunch was at a restaurant above the bakery overlooking the harbour, I had a chicken salad and water.  No real exercise got done on Wednesday either, some lunges, squats, push ups, bicycles and planks but no Ri30.

Thursday it p****d it down but we went to Looe anyway because Mr D loves it.  I got cold and wet wandering around so we had fish and chips in a little pub (yes I know, neither clean nor lean) then bought some paintings and canvases for the house before heading to a bakery for yet more scones (fruit ones this time - very uncornish for a cream tea)  same routine as the night before was done but no RI30

Friday saw a mammouth road trip from St Mellion all the way to my parents house in Mansfield.  I think you'll let me off for not rushing to put my trainers on after a 5 hour drive and a seriously numb bum.

Saturday I got up early to got for a run, only a little one around the village they live in, about 2k in 11 minutes.  I'll not be breaking any records with a time like that but I had to be back to get ready to go out for a Birthday lunch and I also don't know the area at all so didn't want to go much further incase I got lost.

Yesterday we had to go really early from Nottingham to our house in Watford, empty our bags, and then re-pack to go to South London for Mr D's sisters Birthday, we got in really late last night and had to get up super early this morning to get to work and so I could go to Tesco beforehand to get something healthy for braekfast and lunch and get me back on track for a super clean week!

So please if anyone is reading this feel free to kick my bum if I go off track, I feel rubbish for having eaten so badly and I want my energy back!!!

Friday 16 March 2012

Day 16 (15.03.12)

I found my camera charger - so you know what that means.....



The flash on the mirror has made that picture look a bit weird I think, like I'm breathing in but its where the flash is brighter on my side, so I promise I'm not sucking in, hopefully I'll be able to get my pictures in daylight today which are always much better.

I won't lie I'm quite proud of this picture, this is probably the only one that is better taken with a flash and not in daylight. It's really exciting to see the definition coming, my upper stomach has always been smaller (does that even make sense?) but now I can see the muscle it makes me hopeful that i'll get that nice cut look around my stomach too.  Its days like this that I love Jillian Michaels a bit.

For breakfast yesterday I had oatbran with a little water, 50g coconut greek style yoghurt, 50g blueberries and 8g of tesco four seed mix, and an actimel when I woke up and a jasmine green tea.  I totally forgot my morning snack so had that after lunch but it was my usual grapes and almonds.  Lunch was a wholemeal pitta again, spread with hummus and topped with 2 slices of chicken breast, a 2inch piece of cucumber sliced and a bowl full of rocket mmmm.  When I got home I had a 1/3 of a punnet of graze flapjack before I did Ripped in 30, a protein shake afterwards and the rest of the stew from yesterday for dinner but without the couscous.

Calories: 1526/1687
5 A Day? Blueberries, grapes, cucubmer, rocket, veg in stew - at least 5 and more from veggies today, must better.

Thursday 15 March 2012

Day 15 - Level 3

Yesterday was the first day of level 3, I forgot how much it sucks.  By the end of circuit one my thighs were burning, my balance was rubbish on the stork flies in circuit two and OH MY GOD my arms after circuit 3 of strength! At the end of the circuit I had the worst cramp I had to pause the dvd and just shake my arms out for a second or two.  In a way I quite like it when it hurts because it feels like its doing something - yeh I know that sounds really weird.

Yesterday the weather here was great so I was glad I'd got a lift into work and I could walk home.  I decided to go the long way, then when I got in I whacked this in the oven: Jamie Oliver "Andy the Gasman Stew" and cracked on with the DVD.

Breakfast yesterday was a bit weird.  Was still feeling a bit iffy about greek yoghurt so I went for an actimel as normal then had a creamy activia with some mixed seeds, 6 almonds and 2 clementines (told you it was random).

For lunch I had one wholemeal pitta spread with hummus, two slices of chicken breast, a topped with a two inch piece of cucumber.  It was lush.

Dinner was the stew, whilst it was cooking it smelt a bit sweet but it tasted delicious.  I made it with less potatoes about 450g instead of 700g and I think next time I'd switch to new potatoes with their skins on instead of cubed peeled potatoes but now I'm just nit picking.

Snacks wre 75g black grapes with a few pecan halves, an apple in the afternoon before I left work and a protein shake (45g powder 150ml milk) after RI30.

All in all I'd say quite a successful day.  Oh and I nearly forgot.  I weighed in today, I know Thursday isn't my normal day but I've been so busy lately with the new office that I keep forgetting to weigh on a Friday.  Anyway at my last weigh in I was 8 stone and a few ounces ( I don't pay attention to those so don't know what I was exactly) and this morning I was 7 stone 12 (and a half) so becuase I wasn't under the half I've taken that as a 1lb loss.  At the moment I'm not actually trying to lose so I was pretty happy with that.  Hopefully it will help me to look the best I can for this hen party at the end of the month!

Calories:  1590/1687
5 a Day? clementines, cucumber, apple, black grapes, and veg in the stew (at least one) - done, but too many from fruit maybe?

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Day 14

So yesterday was day 14, and that means the end of level 2.  I'm feeling pretty indifferent about it - when I could do the dvd I worked my hardest and my nutrition has been pretty good lately but I'm also pretty disappointed that I haven't managed to work out at least once every day this time around because of this problem with my knee. 

Anyway, I'm pretty glad to see the back of level 2, if you read my Ripped in 30 blog the first time around you'll know I found it tough!  Some things are better now, like the push ups and I can take at least the first minute of cardio in full plank before the pain in my wrist is too much and I have to drop to my elbows, I also managed all the advanced squat thrusts without ever having to do the beginner which last time would have been just about impossible.

Something else pretty good happened yesterday too, I made Bodyism Clean and Lean Lettuce Wraps for the first time for my lunch, and they were delicious:
Okay so mine didn't look exactly like the picture but they were still really good.  I'm so glad I've found something I can make for lunch that I can whack in the fridge and not worry about heating (still no microwave at the office)  I also think these will be really great when the weather gets better for light lunches on the weekend or to make for BBQ's intead of having huge burgers and hot dogs.

Something I also found out yesterday is that I can see how many people view this blog every day and where from.  Now mostly its views from the UK and I imagine those will be girls I know from a Wedding Forum but for the last few weeks I've had a couple every day from America and also France.  I never actually thought anyone at all was reading this so that's quite nice to know I'm not totally on my own!  I'm sure most of you end up on this blog by accident from trying to google other things but if not and you are reading this, no matter where you're reading it from its nice to have you along.

Now onto the serious bit... FOOD.  Yesterday was good, swapped back to coconut greek yoghurt and had that with my usual oat bran, mixed seeds and blueberries, morning snack was 75g black grapes with 12 almonds, lunch was the wrap above which I made as per the link with turkey, hummus, iceberg and added in a tomato, cucumber and spring onion.  Afternoon snack was an apple, 1/3 of a graze flapjack before Ripped in 30, a protein shake after (45g protein poweder 150ml milk) and then leftover beef with broccoli from monday night.

Calories: 1441/1687
5 A Day? : blueberries, black grapes, salad in the wrap, apple, broccoli - woo 5!

Tuesday 13 March 2012

Day 13 - Back in the game

Finally got back on the RI30 wagon and did level 2 last night.  My knee felt alright so that's progress, I can do almost all of the knee raise push ups in full military style when last time round I struggled to do them all the way through in "beginner" mode, my right wrist still doesn't cope well with the amount of plank work but its only one more day - I'll survive.

No pictures at the moment for two reasons: the first is because I forgot yesterday, the second is that my camera is out of battery and I've got no idea where the charger is, but as soon as I find it the photos will be back.

As promised I was focused back to food yesterday.  I had an actimel as soon as I got up, a white caffeine free Clipper tea when I got to work, breakfast was 100g greek yoghurt, 50g blueberries, 1/4 of a punnet of graze omega seeds and 40g oat bran... not that took me almost 2 hours to eat, I really didn't like the plain greek yoghurt at all!  Lunch was a pomodorino salad from Sainsbury's with no dressing and a slice of roasted chicken, snacks of 12 almonds and 2 clementines, a protein shake made up of 45g powder 150ml milk and for dinner we had chinese style beef with broccoli and 50g (uncooked) wild rice.

I recently bought "Clean and Lean" by James Duigan, I'm giving the book another read tonight but i'm going to try and stick as hard as I can to his principles for the next couple of weeks.  As always i'll let you know how that goes.

Calories: 1322/1687
5 a Day? Blueberries (1), clementines (1), tomato salad (2?) broccoli (1) ... if the salad counts as 2 then ONLY JUST better work required today.

Monday 12 March 2012

Day 12 (11.03.12)

No RI 30 done on Friday although I did do some push ups, tricep dips and planks in the evening, my knee was still too sore for any sort of impact to get the dvd out.  Same issue on Saturday, so no exercise was done but I did get ou tin the fresh air to watch Mr D lose at rugby!  Still it was a nice day for wandering up and down the touch line and taking them cookies - seemed a welcome pick me up after losing.

Saturday night we went out with Mr D's parents for his dad's birthday, we walked to the restaurant, about 2/3 of a mile and I had to wear flats because of my knee (heels were in my bag for when we got to the restaurant though!).  The meal was delicious, I had crisp pork belly with crayfish, white bean puree and a pancetta foam, followed by pan roasted cod served with risotto nero and roasted red peppers and for pud I had a pear tart fine.  All of it was LUSH.  Walked home, and then te in laws stayed up for a night cap but we went to bed before I turned into a pumpkin!

So yesterday was day 12, my knee was feeling better but as I was away from home I didn't have my dvd and its still not 100% I don't want to rush and damage it even more so no run for me either in the morning.  For lunch we went off to my best friends house, she cooked lamb shanks a la Jamie Oliver and they were yummy - I never cook lamb.  And we had bakewell tart and cream for puds.  Yes I know thats not exactly diet friendly but the weekend is about relaxing and just enjoying food, being good 5 days out of 7 is just the way I do it.

When we eventually got home we put the rugby on and I had so much nervous energy that I decided to break out some minimal impact circuits.  So I did:

10 push ups (full military style)
1 minute bicycle crunches
10 squats (getting right down thighs parallel - with weights)
10 Lunges (with weights for extra resisitence)
1 minute of plank
1 minute of full sit ups
30 seconds v into hollowman (with weights)

Repeated 3 times.

I know its not the same as doing the dvd and that there is no cardio in that so its not going to be as good a work out and it didn't last as long but after a few days of not being able to do much I felt much better for it.

I don't tend to log on MyFitnessPal on the weekends so I can't give you calories but it was probably loads!  And i'm pretty sure m 5 a day was out of the window too.  I'm right back on it today though so tomorrow's blog will be laods better.

Friday 9 March 2012

Day 9 - Agony.

Thursday was a bad day, my knee felt a little better but not enough to risk doing RI30 and making it worse so after work I decided to do a little shopping for some more work clothes.  I was when I was trying on some dresses that I felt a strong pain in my armpit  when I was lifting my arms over my head... I've got a little lump which I think is a blocked sweat gland.  Wow it hurts!  So no dvd last night but I'm going to try and push through it tonight and hope it doesn't hurt too much or get any worse.

Food yesterday was alright, not the cleanest but I'm struggling with no microwave to heat up my homecooked meals.  Breakfast was the same as the last few days, greek yoghurt, oat bran, blueberries, graze omega booster seeds.  Morning snack, some black grapes and almonds, afternoon snack was the rest of the grapes, 3 pecans 2 walnuts and a brazil nut.  Lunch was rubbish, one wholmeal roll, 25g of cheese a 2 inch chunk of cucumber (so it was basically a cucumber roll with some cheese!) and 2 clementines.

Dinner was the ruined stew from the day before with 80 g of shredded runner beans.  Protein was really low yesterday so I had 1.5 servings of protein shake.  Would say I'll try harder today but I'll tell you all about that tomorrow......

Calories: 1374/1520
5 A Day? blueberries, black grapes, cucumber, veg in stew (at least 2) runner beans = 6

Thursday 8 March 2012

Day 8

Shocking blogging lately - I'm being totally rubbish but I've not slacked off on the dvd you'll be pleased to hear!  Pictures have been a problem like yesterday for example I got changed at work for my run so I wasn't about to take my pictures in the ladies toilets, everyone will think I'm mental, and then when I got in I realised the camera was in my laptop bag which I'd given to Mr D so that I didn't have to run home with it!

Will try much harder from now on, although might have to have a rest day today due to some bad pain in my knee.  I'm off into town after work to buy some more of that strapping though so hopefully that will help with things, aswell as laying off the running for a couple of days!

Food yesterday was a disaster.  Breakfast was my new favourite: 40g oat bran, 80g organic greek yoghurt with coconut, 1/4 of a punnet of graze omega seeds, 50g of blueberries, lunch was 2 slices of turkey about 50g of rocket and a 2inch chunk of cucumber chopped up with a teaspoon of olive oil over the top.  Dinner was supposed to be stew which I'd put in the slow cooker in the morning but by the time I'd gotten home it wasn't thick at all so I turned it up to high but it still wasn't ready by the time I needed dinner so I've got some of that for tea tonight instead.  Ended up having fish fingers beans and some oven chips.

Snacks were 75g black grapes, 12 almonds, 3 pecans, 3 walnuts, a rice cake with Pb and nutella after the run but before RI30 (level 2 - still hate it), and a protein shake after.

Calories:1617/1846
5 a Day? Blueberries, black grapes, rocket, cucubmer, baked beans - just.

Monday 5 March 2012

Day 5

Oh this blogging is taking some getting used to again!  Annoyingly I left my camera at the office on Friday so when I went to take the pictures last night I had to use my phone but without the flash they are totally rubbish and not worth posting!

Did Ripped in 30 quite late last night, had a really busy day getting birthday cards and presents, cleaning and doing a Tesco shop so the first real opportunity I had was around 7pm.  Mr D was there so he was quite helpful in encouraging me along and pushing me to get the lowest I possibly could in all the squats and lunges and confirmed that my form was good so that motivated me a bit more.  By the end I was covered in sweat and really out of breath, I don't think I normally slack off when I do it but I just think yesterday I really really went for it, I felt a bit dizzy at the end actually!

Food was good, no breakfast, up a bit too late and too busy!  I had a malteser bunny when we were out shopping - not sure why but it did taste delicious.  Lunch was a chicken breast with steamed veg (chantennay carrots, baby corn, green beans and mange tout) to be honest it was a bit boring with no gravy or anything but good for me anyway.  No protein shake after the dvd as it was getting to late and I'd not have eaten my tea if I'd had that too.  Dinner was a ciabatta with egg and rocket and a handfull of corn chips and a little bowl of tomato salsa (got to get 5 a day on the weekend somehow!)

Calories: Not sure I didn't log yesterday but I'd say based on the above I wasn't over.
5 a Day? Carrots, mange tout, baby corn, green beans, tomato salsa - YES!

Sunday 4 March 2012

Days 3 and 4

Slack blogging from me I'm afraid!  Friday no RI30, I got a lift to work with Mr D and because I finish at 3:30 and he doesn't finish until 6 I packed my running things and decided to run home.  I was going to just run the 1.5 miles home directly I decided to go for a more random route through the park instead.  Here's what I ran instead:


When I pressed "end run" when I got in I had a message from Paula Radcliffe to tell me that I did a PB for the mile which I was pretty pleased with.  I'm going to do a run or two a week probably back from work most days because I've registered my interest to run Nike's "Run to the Beat" half marathon in October, I'm hopefully going to do it with a friend who wants to run one before she hits the big 3-0.

So no RI30 on Friday after the run, I had no time because I had to jump in the shower and get ready to go to a friends engagement party.  I had 4 vodka and soda's with fresh lime so I think in 5 hours of being at a party that wasn't bad going - oh and I ate 3 mini pizza bites.

Saturday (day 4) was really busy, as we were at the in laws - they took me and Mr D out for lunch to celebrate passing my exams, then we went off to Feltham to watch Watford play rugby (Ian is injured so couldn't play), back up to Watford, for about 7pm and we decided we'd grab some dinner out.  No dvd done but I couldn't have done it yesterday due to some pain in my ankle from Friday's run.  It was a little sore this morning but I think it will be ok to do later.

Food has been pretty good this weekend despite all the eating out.  Friday I had my oatbran with some sunflower seeds and an apple afterwards.  Lunch was new potatoes, turkey, rocket and cucumber and I didn't have any dinner as I was full from my protein shake after the run but I did have those pizza bites at the party.

Yesterday I had an apple for breakfast, beef stroganoff for lunch, a slice of treacle tart (very bad - but delicious!) and for dinner I had a gourmet steak burger, no relish, and about half of a tiny pot of chips. 

Clearly 5 a day has gone out of the window, but its the weekend and if you can't enjoy yourself on the weekend then when can you???

Friday 2 March 2012

Day 2

Yesterday I moved into a new office, this was pretty good news, lots of trips up stairs with my printer, laptop and all my files and folders - although not sure that is quite the same as a session of RI30 but getting a sweat on unexpectedly was a bonus!

I did the dvd when I got home at about 5, here are the pictures:



The dvd was fine yesterday, the only bit I'm finding hard at the moment is the last circuit chair squat chest flies, followed by side squat front raises, I'm really feeling the extra weight on those!

So as I said I moved into the new office yesterday which was exciting but also a bit of a fail on the diet front!  I brought my lunch, char sui with brown rice, but quickly realised there was no microwave.  Luckily Mr D came to the rescue and brought me a Chicken caeser artisan baguette which was delicious, and I had the char sui for dinner instead.  For snacks I had black grapes and almonds like normal, I brought pecan nuts for an afternoon snack but didn't get around to eating those.

Breakfast was the usual, and I had a protein shake after doing the dvd too.

Calories: 1668/1695
5 A Day? blueberries, black grapes, beansprouts -fail!

Thursday 1 March 2012

Day One (again!!)

Ok so enthusiasm got the better of me yesterday and I restarted Ripped in 30 a day early.

This time to try and improve the results I saw before I'm going up in weight to 2.5kg from 1.5kg.  I know that doesn't sound like alot but I felt it yesterday whilst I was doing the last circuit!  In circuit 2 I'm quite comfortable with the moves now so I did the stiff leg deadlifts, squat swings and good mornings with 3.5kg instead.

Here are the day 1 pictures, which I'm pleased to say are much better than the pictures I started with last time:



I don't think they look as good as when I finished the last time but that might be to do with lighting - or that I've not managed to keep up the same level of work by using her other dvds?

Food was good- same breakfast as usual: Oatbran, protein powder, blueberries and graze seeds, an acitmel (as soon as I'd gotten up) and a green tea brought to me in bed.  Morning snack were the same as yesterday, 100g black grapes and 10 almonds.  Lunch was this:

Two hard boiled eggs, 2 slices of cooked turkey breast, 150g of new potatoes with 15ml mayonnaise and chives, half a plate fo rocket babyleaf salad and a 2 inch chunk of cucumber diced up.  It was lush.

Afternoon snack was pecans again, and dinner was a disaster.  I'd made up my own fajita spice mix and put some brown rice on, cooked up some peppers and onion and just when I put those to one side and put the chicken in the pan with the spice I realised it smelled awful.  The use by date was 2 March so I cooked the chicken anyway and got Mr D to taste it but he said it tasted odd too so we ditched that and I used some sliced sirloin from the fridge put it with the peppers and onions some soy and black beans to make something to go with the rice and actually it tasted pretty good!

Calories: 1556/1701
5 A day? Blueberries, black grapes, cucumber, rocket salad, peppers, onion = 6