Cybex Arc

I'm back from a well deserved holiday and straight back into my training programme. I'm not going to lie to you, I've been a fat lazy bastard for the last 2 weeks, and a borderline alcoholic but hey ho sometimes a girl needs to let loose.

Time to up my cardio game I thought to myself this morning. I've been sticking to the weights sessions of my bombshell programme and ignoring the cardio element. But after a scolding email from my trainer I got a much needed kick up the arse.

Ladies and gentlemen.... the cybex arc!

The most amazing piece of cardio equipment I have ever encountered.  My regular gym don't have one, and told me to bugger off when I emailed requesting they buy one, so I went in search and eventually found it in the Scotman gym and signed up on the spot.  It's lush! 

I did 6 x 10 minute intervals - 5 minutes on the arc, 5 minutes on the treadmill.  Instead of having a rest interval, the intensity increased each minute in the block until peaking at a 2 minute insane interval.  An hour on this bad boy left me wobbly and cursing.  I actually mouthed "fight for it, fight for it" as I held in the vomit that was creeping up on me.  Sore sore sore....the burn in my booty was awesome!

My trainer kept telling me over and over again that the elliptical was not an adequate substitute for this machine and I was kinda thinking yeah yeah - I'm converted!

Refuel, potter around the shops, then onto Virgin Active for the first this week's legs session.

Murder on the dancefloor but no pain no gain.  Tomorrow is going to be interesting....

Love

x

Saintly Fish Choices & Recipes

I only came across Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's Big Fish Fight Campaign on Monday night.  I'm probably the last to pick up on this (darn you self involvement) but

1.  Love the cause - absolutely shocking EU Fisheries Policy!!
2.  Fantastic resource

I've come across a few "discard" fish species in Waitrose recently and put them in my trolley, well, just because they were cheap. *squeak squeak*  Eating healthy is far from kind on the purse strings, so when I saw fresh white fish for literally a 1/4 of the price of my usual cod I was delighted.  Genuinely, it tasted just the same....

I eat fish a lot, just because its so good for you and I'm excited to try some of the recipes on the site.  Here is a link to them - awesome recipes.  The site is cool there is a guide to sustainable fish species and where to buy them. There is even an app you can download with all the information for your smartphone.

Personally I'm not a fussy eater - bit of lemon, pepper, chili or lime (or both) and I'm a happy gal.  But I will definitely be trying some of these.

Healthy, affordable and good for the environment.  Three gold stars!

Love

x

Are You Present?

Are you present during your workouts?

Does your mind turn up as well as your body?

Nope, I'm not losing it, stay with me on this one....

So I've not had a training partner in months now.  Its kinda lonely, and have definitely missed it.  However the one thing that occurred to me today is I felt more "present" during my workout.  What I mean by that is mentally I was focused on each set, during each rep.  Tuning my mind into each contraction...

where am I feeling it?
how fatigued is the muscle?
am I maintaining form?

I hold my hands up and say rarely do I train with such consciousness and focus.  I take my workout sheet into the gym- thank you team bombshell, have a scan of the exercises, sets and reps and get going. 

Generally my mind is focused on just making it through and any mental pain avoidance/distraction techniques I can come up with, and I got loads of them :-)

Today I switched on, stayed focused, and really felt each contraction.  Judging by my wobbly legs and the hoarseness in my throat from the pain grunts (sexy!), I definitely worked extremely hard.

Rattling on about working hard and making the most of your workout is one thing.  But once the workout is designed, your up off your butt and in the gym, staying mentally tuned in and making the most out of EVERY SINGLE REP, is quite another.

Pleased as punch with my hard work - gold star me.

Love

x

Healthy Protein(ish) Banana Bread

Sugar cravings are the worst! So what better way to beat them than with banana bread!

Its taken me a few attempts to get right, the previous turning out complete shockers to say the least.  A guy in my office actually threw one of my banana and hazelnut muffins at the wall the other week to see if it would dent the plasterboard.  They were awful....

But success at last, and here is my version of banana bread - its YUMMY!!!!

 

80 calories a slice, 13g of carbs, 5g protein, 4g sugar, 1g fat.  Perfect for pre workout snack with a cup of tea.

Those nutrients are based on 12 slices a loaf (because no one likes a tight bastard when it comes to cake) !! But you could easily make this a 16 slice loaf.

You'll need

• A bread tin and I bought some bread tin liners so it wouldn't stick to the pan.
• 4 ripe bananas
• 1 jar apple baby food
• 1 cup xialitol (or spenda - I've switched to xialitol to avoid the aspartame)
• 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence (preferably fresh vanilla but this will do)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 cups of oat flour
• 2 scoops of vanilla protein

Steps

1. Smoosh up the bananas with your hands
2. Then add the baby food, xialitol, egg whites and vanilla to the bananas, mix it all together with a wooden spoon 
3. Add in the baking soda and salt, give it a good stir
4. Lastly add the oat flour and protein, mix well
5. Pour into a loaf tin and bake at 170 for an hour

Stand on a wire rack to cool, then slice.  Store in the fridge, it should freeze ok as well.

Enjoy

x

Favourite Day

Hey gang

Oi oi oi, so busy busy busy!  Lots to tell, no time to explain.  Rushing off from work to go train my back and butt.  Yep, heard correct.  I have a new programme courtesy of Team Bombshell my new trainer and can't wait to get stuck in. 

After a wobbly start - literally, but another story for another day.  I look forward to my upper body days as not only can I actually complete the workout, as opposed to only 50% of my leg workout - of which I have three a week!!!  I leave the gym feeling strong and motivated.

The fun side of exercise, the awesome feeling you get afterwards. 

I haven't tried the recipes I posted last time yet, my new nutrition programme doesn't allow them but do let me know if you've given them a go.  Speaking of which I only managed 1 day of my new diet before sending a pleading email to my trainer begging for some changes.  To which I received a very kind and politely put "MAN UP!!!"

Playing with the big kids now and feeling out of my depth to say the least.  Walking like a chicken, dreading my sports massage on Friday - its going to be a killer.

Laters petals.

Love

x

Healthy Eating Heaven

I just stumbled across askgeorgie.com this lunchtime whilst searching for a lemon protein bar recipe.  OMG how good do these look, I hope they taste just as nice!! 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Protein Brownies

Lemon Poppy Protein Bars



Yum yum yum! 

Click here for the chocolate peanut butter recipe or here for the lemon poppyseed one.

I love making my own protein bars, not only are they way cleaner than shop bought bars they're also pretty yum (for a protein bar)!!  I'll let you know how I get on. 

Most recipes I've seen, and used, call for oat flour which is difficult to get in the UK, even in London.  I order mine online from here. 

Love

x

Buns Burning Leg Workout

Me again!  I'm killing time between my tea and Geordie Shore (loves it), so here is tonight's glute focused leg session.  My buns are burning!!  I hate training legs, its my least favourite day, but needs must....

Warm Up:  8 minute incline walk at 7%, 6.5 speed

• 1 drop set of leg extensions to burn my quads out
• 3 x 24 BB walking lunges (so 12 each leg effectively)
• 3 x 15 DB squats ss 30 second wall squat
• 3 x 20 TRX squat jumps
• 3 x 12 cable kick backs (each leg)
• 3  x 15 hip abductors

And a good old stretch at the end.  Took me 60 minutes including my warm up and stretch; and was properly exhausted at the end.  14 hours my arse Heidi Montag (I really need to let that go).

I've not much time to plan workouts these days so again basic moves.  I quickly googled glute workouts at lunch and after reading over this Amanda Latona article, I incorporated hip abductors into my routine tonight.  I genuinely think its been about 5 years since I did this exercise having dismissed it as easy.  According to the article, the trick to take some focus off your hamstrings and all into your booty is to sit forward, core in tight and chest high.  It worked for me - yowsers!

Eating homemade chili & salad - no carbs and saturated fat remember kids ;-) and spying a passion fruit that I'm going to fire into during my car crash MTV viewing later.  Its the simple pleasures in life I reckon....

Love

x