Fake Bake....Never Again!

I've had a bit of a disaster involving Fake Bake.... I'm ORANGE!

Not like "oh, don't you have a healthy glow about you" tan - bright orange, Jersey Shore style, ridiculous! 

I treated myself to a spray tan on Friday night as a treat because I thought it would make me feel more sparkly.  Also I have this whole concept about non food related "treats" that I'm trying to change my thinking towards.  What a flipping disaster!  £40 to look like a total twat, its Monday night and I am still glowing.... its ridiculous!

My PT Craig walked past me tonight and took my earphone out my ear mid set to ask about the aforementioned tan and the look of absolutely joy on his face was priceless.... Worst of all my legs are four shades darker than the rest of me, they look like wotsits not legs!!

Speaking of Craig, on his advice I bought some wrist wraps to use when training my back.  I was finding as soon as I moved onto my biceps (I train back and biceps on the same day) my forearms were locking and I was up and down to the power plate to try and relax them.  For those peeps that don't do this kind of exercise, forearm lock is just like cramp - its very odd your muscles go rock solid and dull ache and no stretch seems to loosen it off - shame I've never experienced glute lock, wouldn't that be nice hey - rock hard butt.  Sorry off on a tangent... so anyways, forearm lock is the demise of my workouts. 

So, tonight Matt very helpfully showed me how to use them (I had one on back to front) and basically take the load of my grip and the weight would hang as such from my wrist.  Awesome!!  No forearm lock when I went onto biceps and even better I lifted 2kgs heavier in both my up right rows and bicep curls.  Now up to 14kgs and 10kgs respectfully.  Think I even flexed my gun in the mirror in a celebratory dance, woop woop.

Food is all prepared for tomorrow and got some awesome news that my cousin and his girlfriend, who's just had a baby, have been following my diet.  She's lost 1/2 a stone without exercise! Amazing results, and proof that ANYONE can do it.  I was nervous about posting it this week after I had said I would but definitely going to do it now - well as soon as I can think of a succinct way to present it. And on that note I have to confess I strayed tonight - jam donut from Tesco...... feel so guilty for it now, wasn't even worth it :-(  Bet there will be no blooming 1/2 a stone loss for me on the cards filling my face with jam donuts but only got myself to blame.  Actually I'm going to blame the tan disaster, I'm traumatised!!

Night guys x

Sunday Night Blues

A weekend without a hint of alcohol or over stuffing ones face with over priced food is SHIT, full stop! 

Usually I would have been out for a meal, consumed a bottle of wine or two, had a yummy brunch in a fancy pants cafe and be currently nursing a full belly and a sore head.  Not so this weekend and the smell of roast beef coming from my mums oven is killing me.  Would it be soooo terrible to have a wee roast beef sandwich.......?!?!?  Where's the voting buttons on this thing??

I've been very disciplined this weekend but it hasn't been easy.  Saturday at 8am my alarm went off so I could get up and eat before training.  I struggled down porridge and egg whites, eating so much is not getting any easier but I managed it.  I had arranged to meet a friend and train legs & shoulders which we did via a variety of functional movement exercises such as squat to over head press & walking lunges with lateral raises.  I was a little bit worried about my shoulder but took it easy on the weights and was fine.

Legs is always a difficult day and this wasn't any different.  But I soon learnt that I can't train such a large muscle group with one meal in me feeling pretty weak towards the end of the workout.  Wobbling I made my way out of the gym and over to Powerhouse to pick up some protein bars for the week ahead at work so I have enough "meals" in me before training, even if it does come in a little bar.  (Note my sarcastic use of " " when referring to a "meal").

My mum just asked me if I want potatoes with my beef.....why lord, why test me like this??? NO PISS OFF!

I faffed around all day running errands and ate protein bars instead of actual food thinking nothing of it.  Come 6pm the mother of all irritated tantrums was being thrown waiting for my bulgar wheat and chicken breast to cook.  Yes I repeat BULGAR WHEAT........BULGAR.........WHEAT! 

It wasn't that bad actually, it tasted like something between rice and cous cous but certainly didn't hold a torch to my usual shredded chili beef, egg fried rice, curry sauce and chips.  Anyways, lesson learnt - protein bars should not replace more than one meal a day unless I want to unleash my inner psycho. 

"Hello Mildred"

We'll call her Mildred....

"Who invited you and what have you done with Kelly??"

No wine, no alcohol of any sort, I spent my Saturday night sipping diet bitter lemon and ice - without the gin! Don't get me wrong I'm not an alkie, I just really do take pleasure out of eating and drinking.

Up early doors this morning to eat - 8am on a Sunday is just RUDE! Today was supposed to be a rest day but decided to go loosen off my legs and went off to the gym for a walk on the treadmill and some abs.  I ended up bumping into my mum and dad, who both turned 50 this year and still take care of themselves.  I looked over at my mum at one point on the treadmill, determination in her eyes powering through a run and thought to myself "GAWN YERSELF HEN!".  My dad kept me company during my abs circuit and has offered to train with me during the week so we will see how that goes.

More temptation came my way this afternoon, even if they were weight watchers cakes on offer while having a cup of tea at my friend Janice's.  I was considering being bad but decided against it and upped the anti on the blethering so I wouldn't think about the lemon slice being consumed right in front of me.  Snatching distance - dangerous territory....

In case you're simple and haven't picked up on it yet, I have really really reeeeeeeally struggled food & drink wise this weekend.  In fact I'm a little bit worried I've come across a wee bit mental in this post. 

The difference in lifestyle its just horrid!  I didn't realise just how much eating and drinking was a fundamental part of my social life - Friday night dinner date, meeting friends for a boozy lunch, staying in with a take away & bottle of wine.  Psychologically its got to me and my absence in Waitrose desert aisle - aka paradise - will not have gone unnoticed.  A good 15 minutes spent trying to decide between all the amazing offerings and usually narrowing it down to three and buying them all.  And I wonder why I put on weight?

I do however have a treat meal coming up on Wednesday - out for dinner with 6 of my friends so at least there is a decent meal in sight and I have something to look forward too.

Oh shit my sister and her boyfriend have just walked in and I swear his legs are hollow he eats that much.  DAM IT!  Looks like I have an evening of food envy ahead of me :-(

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend x

My Rocking Friday Night

Today was supposed to be a legs day but I've arranged to train legs with a friend tomorrow so had a cardio session tonight instead. Legs is my least favourite training day because it hurts the most so doing it with a buddy helps massively!

A typical cardio sessions would be on the stepper on level 10-12 for about 45 minutes. Its tough, but manageable, and once a week myself and my friend Trev Dog will do a 60 minute session at this level whilst catching up on the weeks scandal. To be honest its never a chore because he's the funniest person I have ever met and always full of stories that leave me blushing and hysterically laughing! I digress.....

But from the reading I've done and advice I've been given, I gave up the steady state cardio for the far more beneficial high intensity interval training (HIIT). Even though the facts are there in black and white, and the experts are raving about the fat burning benefits of HIIT over steady state cardio, psychologically its a battle to to give up my long stepper sessions.

My idiot guide to HIIT: Working at high intensity stresses your muscles more. More energy is used up in recovery increasing your resting metabolic rate therefore more calories burned. Happy days.

The result: Good lord! It hurt, it was hard, very very hard! I'm used to doing a 20 minute blast at the end of my weights session but increasing this to 30 minutes and knocking it up a level took it to an entirely different place. I did 20 minutes on the treadmill doing 30 second sprints and 30 second rests, by jumping onto the side of the treadmill, at 14.5 km an hour and 1% incline. To be honest I probably could have made this harder by reducing the rest period but it was the stepper after that killed me - 10 minutes of 30 second blasts at level 18 then 30 second rests at level 8.

I was counting down the number of blasts I had to do and frantically searching my iPod for something that was going to zone me out and get me to the finish line. Tonight Britney's new one Hold It Against Me did the trick....it will soon become clear I have an unhealthy obsession with Britney. I got off the stepper and was informed very eloquently by my friend Matt that I looked like I was dying - I was!! Puffing, panting and hoping that I wasn't going to be sick.

I'm forever telling people who ask for advice that you need to push yourself each and every session and boy tonight I ate my own words. I've genuinely believed that I've been making the most of my cardio workouts but given the exertion level I worked at tonight vs double the amount of time I usually spend doing cardio - just another league. Highly recommended!!

Diet has been exceptional today and I plan on posting this next week. Gold star for me :-)

A typical Friday night for me would be out for dinner and drinks and I have to admit I'm feeling particularly hard done by tonight staying in as its my work Christmas Party (cancelled in December because of the snow) - passing up a free bar, I must be mental!!!! But I suppose I won't manage this without sacrifice. My lary antics and horrific alcohol induced chat will have to wait for a "special occasion".

Have a lovely evening everyone x

Salt & Sauce Love?

Last night I granted myself a last supper, literally - jumbo sausage supper (2, I get so cross when they try and fob you off with 1), salt and sauce, oh and a pickled egg. I'd like to say I felt guilty and wished I hadn't ate it, but I didn't, it was AMAZING!

So this morning I felt kinda cheeky being pissed off at what flashed in front of me when I jumped on the scales. Stripped to my birthday suit (because flannel pj's weigh so much) the full extent of the task at hand flashed before me. I would publish the figure however given that I started this blog with the message that this wasn't all about weight loss I'm going to hide behind that mantra. In all seriousness I meant it when I said that, but I am focused on body fat and according to my fancy pants scales my body fat is 23.7% which isn't terrible, but there is room for improvement! So that's what I'm going to work on, reducing that figure and the weight from body fat which if my calculations are correct is 14.2 kgs (smart arses can work out the total weight) and report back fortnightly.

So full of determination, and a bit of horror, I headed off to a friends for brunch carrying with me porridge and eggs to make sure I stuck to my diet. All was going so well until mid way through cooking my scrambled egg whites the microwave caught fire! Black smoke billowing out at you is surely a sign from god to give it a rest and head off into town for eggs benedict & a latte! But I motored on and truthfully found it so hard to eat so much food in the morning. It got me thinking about how unbalanced my meals have been, even at what I would consider my physical best - diet coke for breakfast and maybe a cereal bar on the odd occasion. Trying to eat a bowl of porridge and 6 egg whites was such a task but I did it.

On the diet front I've not started day one very well, I didn't prepare my meals - 5 small ones a day, and I didn't plan my meals into my schedule. As a result didn't eat enough, and I felt lethargic and dragged my heels all the way to the gym. But tonight I prepared my meals for tomorrow to take to work so I have no excuses!
It was actually the thought of writing this blog that got me to the gym, and the thought of having to blog either a poor effort, or no effort at all, motivated me to train properly and push myself. I left the gym after training my chest and triceps struggling to put my seat belt on and my body shaking - the desired effect.

As well as facing the scales I did take some "before" pictures with the intent to post them here. I had this great notion that I could document my changes but that ain't going to happen. My reaction to the pictures......

"ooooohhhhhmyyyfuuuuuckingGODthoseareNOTgoingontheinternet!!"

In a high pitched squeal only dogs heard. Annnnnnnd DELETE!

Those pictures serve no purpose than to embarrass myself!

Ok so its late and this blog is somewhat rushed but just wanted to say thank you for the lovely comments I've received, I've been genuinely touched by the support x

Hello Jessica....are you in there???

Mmmm...... so given its the 26th and I am yet to post it brings into question the credibility of this blog. Truth be told I bottled it..... Pictures were not taken, scales were not stood on....blogs were not published....

However the gym has been hit hard and Miss Biel is stuck above my cooker in a bid to motivate me to put down the kitkat and pick up the green beans in a "Do you think Jessica would eat that?!?!?" kinda way....

I suddenly got this fear that by putting it out to the world I was setting myself up for a massive fail so I abandoned the blog and said no more of it to anyone. But sod it, I'm going to give this blogging malarkey a try, even if to just tick one thing off the bucket list and make me feel cool and down with the kids. And if someone enjoys reading my attempts then all the better.

My workouts have been dominated by weight training and I have considerably cut down on my cardio which previously was around 70% of my time spent in the gym. Gaining weight didn't bother me as much as losing tone, that was the real killer! I'm proud of my guns and would rather be the owner of a large tight ass you can bounce a pound coin off than a skinny minnie :-)
So, enough of the emotional blabble...

I have split my workouts over three days
Day 1 - back and biceps
Day 2 - chest & triceps
Day 3 - legs making sure to hit all areas glut, quads, hammys & calves

Day 4 - rest

10 minute light cardio to get the heart pumping before lifting and 20 minutes HIIT (high intensity interval training for my mum) on the treadmill after my weights session, except on legs days. I've also been training with a personal trainer friend once a week to try and shock my workouts and learn something new. I'm prone to staying in a routine, but I know and read over and over again that the body needs a shock to develop.

Shoulders have been purposefully missed out as I have an old niggle that I really need to get seen too.

My diet has been bad! When I'm good I'm very good, but when I'm bad I take the piss! So I'll leave that for another day.

All in all I'm generally happy with the results so far but can do much better. Most importantly its got me back into the gym and back in "the zone" so to speak. If this was a school report I'd give myself a C+ ..... "Kelly has shown great improvement and a willingness to change, if Kelly can concentrate and not become distracted she will do well"

Pictures and weigh in tomorrow..... aaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhhhh!!!!!

And so it begins.....

Welcome guys.

On the eve of my first weigh in and pictures I decided to start this blog. Bringing sexy back is my tongue and cheek way of summing up my goal, like many, this new year - to get back into shape and feel sparky both on the inside and out!

For those who don't know me too well - in the last 8 months, my overall health and well being, both physically and mental, has taken a battering. I accepted a new role in April which has left me living out of a suitcase, drinking far too many glasses of wine and enjoying room service without so much as a sniff of a gym! This has opened so many doors in my professional life and my career has some what exploded, but the change in lifestyle and stress which accompanies this has taken its toll. The devastating loss of my papa and battling through that cloud of grief every day, along with not taking care of myself has left me feeling exhausted as 2010 came to a close.

Time off over Christmas gave me the head space and energy to re evaluate my direction of travel and the motivation to make necessary changes. This however isn't all about weight loss or the cover model picture perfect body. My aim is to feel strong, healthy and balanced - both on the inside and out. I without doubt tackle the demands of my professional life with more drive and energy when my physical self is taken care of and I'm feeling happy.

With a propensity to over train and not eat well (I'm an obese girl trying to get out) this blog is my way of not only making myself accountable but also putting into practice what I know to be right. I am lucky enough that many of my friends are fitness professionals and have learned so much from them over the years as well as putting in my own hours of research and practice. Good nutrition, good workouts and most importantly for me REST to re energise and repair.

So on that note, off to bed for me for some much needed sleep x