This blog has moved.

For a variety of reasons I have taken the step to move to another blog site. I have copied all my posts from here across.

The new blog can be found at:
http://andthatsjustthewarmup.wordpress.com/

H x

This time last year...

So today we've FINALLY broken up for the Christmas hols, for a teacher this is as good as saying that the year is over.

So I've been reflecting a little (for a change) and after a few months of saying I didn't know why, it has suddenly dawned on my what kickstarted this journey.

 My wedding & engagement rings.

Around this time last year, I went to a jewellers to investigate getting my wedding ring and engagement ring resized. I'd taken them off when I was about 6 months pregnant and due to my subsequent horrendous weight gain after Imogen was born, I never put them back on. It wasn't a case of they were tight, I physically could not get them on my fingers. For 2 & 1/2 years I'd vowed that I would lose the weight and get them back on but it wasn't happening. So I relented and went to see about resizing.

The jeweller informed me that because they were platinum and the price is through the roof at the moment and they'd need such a huge expansion it would cost me £800 to have them both resized and even then they wouldn't fit properly because they couldn't take them up to the size I would need without the rings becoming too thin. So I decided against it.

Now I think about it, I think that is what triggered me wanting to shift the weight and really shift it for once and for all. So in January I started my journey, but I didn't make progress until April when I started with Jason. And the rest as they say is history.

In the summer I finally managed to get both my wedding ring and my engagement ring (which is smaller) back on. In fact, now they are actually too big! I'm so glad I didn't fork out £800. If I'd have had them resized I wouldn't have "needed" to lose the weight. I'd have probably carried on as I was.

I have easily forked out way more than £800 in gym fees, personal training sessions and sports bras! BUT not only do my rings now fit, I am fitter, healthier, my overall body shape is better (not perfect by any stretch, but a billion times better and heading the right way), my confidence has improved and I have a way of switching off from work (which I REALLY need right now!) 

Good decision not to get those rings resized!

H x

It's the most wonderful time, of the year...

I am 1/2 a day (2 lessons and a department standardisation meeting) away from the Christmas holidays. YEEHAH!

I am very very very excited (apart from all the marking I have got to catch up on)

 But I have one little niggle. Christmas is synonymous with over-indulgence, how on earth am I going to not totally destroy my nutrition and fitness??


The problem is 2 fold.

1) I will be away over Christmas, so less control over food. Plus Christmas is full of lots of naughty foods.
2) Because I am away I won't be able to get in to the gym until the New Year.

 Now I know what you're all thinking, "it is Christmas, surely you can relax a bit" and I know what Jason's thoughts on this will be BUT I am still concerned.

So here is the plan.

1) Enjoy Christmas food but without going totally crazy. Christmas dinner is meat, veg etc anyway! Maybe make some of my favourite paleo type snacks so I feel like I'm having a treat but without resorting to single handedly eating a family size box of just Brazils in one go.

2) Running and Tabata. I did some tabata over the summer when I went to Cyprus. Pretty sure I can just reuse that a few times. Also, my parents live opposite a huge park. I've done 1 outside run before, maybe I could have a bash round the park. I "think" I'm being realistic. It is one week. I'm not going to go back to what I was this time last year. But equally I want to do some damage limitation.

Me Christmas 2012

Me December 2013

I want to start January 2014 in a position to make progress, not in a position of shifting half a stone that I've already lost once before.

H x

Do you know what really narks me off???

There you are having busted your ass in the gym, you've done your kettlebell burpees, you've done your kettlebell swings, sit ups, press ups etc etc You're sweating like a glamorous pig, beetroot faced and boiling, your muscles are aching and you go for a shower. A nice, boiling hot shower to sooth those aches and pains away, a little bit of relaxation.

But no. The showers are not boiling hot and steamy. Oh no. They swing from scalding to freezing in a kind of 30 second cycle. Meaning you are hopping in and out of the water, whimpering and yelping.

FFS. I REALLY wish they would get the showers sorted. They've not been right since I joined back in March.

When I have worked hard at the gym, my body temperature plummets! I need a hot shower to warm me back up. I do not need a cold shower. Cold showers are never right.

This is obviously EXACTLY what I look like in the shower at the gym! 

H x

Back on it

It is well documented in this blog that I have experienced a massive blip since about mid September.

But I am back on it now. I know I am. You can just tell when you are on it and focussed.

• I've had a couple of good sessions in a row and they're making me smile again. I'm enjoying the soreness in my muscles rather than seeing it as a negative. Positive sessions = motivation. It is like a self perpetuating cycle, the better a session goes the more you believe you can do it and in turn the more you want to do it.
• I'm focussed with the food. During the blip a long day at work would = chippy tea. But not tonight, tonight we're making (I say we, I mean Christopher!) Paleo meatloaf. Yum yum!
• I didn't go to the gym tonight, 1) I am doing alternate days at the gym 2) I have got SHED LOADS of work to do. The fact I haven't been tonight has really narked me off. I'm totally shattered and ready for my bed but I wanted to be in the gym having a bash at some kettlebell burpees. This is definitely a sign I'm back on it. 

I look hot when I workout, in the literal sense, not the biblical sense -_-

So tonights plan is getting my lesson planning done for tomorrow, early night and get back in the gym tomorrow evening. Bring it on!

H x

It's all in my head...

I spend a lot of my time looking at motivational fitness quotes on Pinterest. I do this for 3 reasons. 1) Sometimes you stumble upon a quote that really resonates with how you feel and gives you a little buzz. 2) It gives me a lovely distraction from marking, planning, analysing data etc 3) Occasionally you find a belter of a quote that will work for GCSE exams that you can use in form period to motivate your little band of happy campers.

One thing that comes up time and time again is that fitness and pushing yourself beyond your limits isn't so much limited by your physically capabilities but more your mental attitude.

This is something I am encountering time and time again. Whenever Jason gives me something new to try my first reaction is "Is he for real? He's got to be joking! No f*cking way!" My natural reaction is "can't".

The first time I tried burpees I was convinced I couldn't do them! I managed 3. I can do them (in a fashion). I remember the first time I managed 10 in a row. That feeling was unbelievable, you'd have thought I'd hit the jackpot on the lottery, then the time I managed 45 burpees in 1 session I had a smile on my face for hours after. But if you'd have told me that first time I could do 45 in one session I'd have said "no way!". Sometimes when I am doing something like burpees I mentally have to tell myself I can. Outwardly I will vocalise "I can't do this" but in my head I am trying to tell myself I can. It is a real mental battle sometimes. But it is good for me to reflect back and remember what I thought I couldn't do and where I am now to see that pretty much anything is possible.

So today we've tried kettlebell burpees. This involves dead lifting everyones favourite kettlebells, the big fat purple ones but then as you put the kettlebells to the floor you go down in to a burpee, then back up again, deadlifting them back up. The biggest issue I have with this move is not the deadlift, it isn't the idea of the burpee particularly. No the biggest mental hurdle I have with this is the idea that the kettlebells are a tiny bit wobbly and therefore I might deck it and face plant it.

Now I remember this "concern". It is the same concern I had about doing regular burpees right at the start all those months ago. I got past that mental hurdle and I don't really think about it now. So I just need to convince my mind that I CAN do kettlebell burpees and that I WON'T deck it.

H x

You know when you've pushed yourself...

"You'll never work as hard on your own as you do in a training session with me" Jason has been saying this to me from day 1. Initially I thought he was just saying that to try and get me to buy more sessions with him haha and much as I would love 2 or 3 training sessions a week my bank manager says no! (Once Immie leaves nursery and I'm saving £800 a month in childcare Im on it!)

But he's right. There is a huge difference between me trying to motivate myself and push myself to having someone next to me pushing me on. Things which anyone (not just me) might slack off on are speed, rests, form, reps etc.

But sometimes, just sometimes you get a workout where it all comes together and you are pushing yourself as hard as you can. You're doing the reps, not cheating on rests, your form is good, you're adjusting things to make things harder not easier, you're smashing your times and YOU JUST KNOW you're putting in 100%. These are THE BEST kind of workouts.

Today was one of those days.

I've worked so hard this morning. I knew it was going to be a good one. Some of the signs that I know I've done a good session

- I am literally dripping in sweat. It is running of my hair, down my face, my top has ridiculous tide marks. (attractive huh!)
- my face is bright beetroot red and my skin is boiling
- I feel like I may vomit
- I giggle at the end of the last circuit. For some odd reason when I've put in a good session it makes me giggle, endorphins maybe?
- Taking my sports bra off becomes the trickiest task ever because my arms feel like spaghetti
- The shower in the gym turns off before I've even run my hands through my hair because I need a few mins to just calm down
- I sing loudly in the car on the way home, I don't know why! If i've had a rubbish session I tend to sit in silence.
- I want to go and do it again! Nothing like a good workout to motivate you and spur you on.

Knackered but happy!

Not all independent workouts are like this, not even all training sessions are like this. But they make you feel bloody awesome when you do pull one out the bag like it. I suppose the trick is to always aim for this, you might not always get there but at least aim for it.

H x