25/28 Mixed Emotions...

Tomorrow morning is the last Pinpoint Fitness fitcamp session of my 4 week term as a Guinea Pig.  I am happy that I have burned more fat and lost more weight and inches, but I am sad that I won't be turning up "Bright & Breezy" on Monday to workout with my new "pioneer" friends :-)  We've worked hard together and we've had plenty laughs along the way, so hopefully I'll be able to keep in touch with them - the wonders of social networking lol!

I will however endeavour to keep up the workouts and will also be back to the gym to start the weightlifting routines again as of next week.

I have entered a race in August and I have a goal to lose more weight and get stronger before then so I fully intend to stick to the healthy eating and fatburning principles that I've learned over the past few weeks.

Who knows, I might even convince my long-suffering husband to thole me getting up at 5am once in a while to head to Cumbernauld to join in a session with the next batch of fatburners :-)

When I was looking for pictures tonight I found one which I am going to include tonight in honour of fellow Guinea Pig Iain.  Iain makes no secret of his love (or not) of vegetables, although he claims he is now eating "Tonnes" of them and certainly looking at how successful he's been shifting the weight he has been :-)

So Iain this is for you...

 was a fast day today so just about to sit down to dinner of chicken with broccoli and cauliflower, have drunk peppermint tea, tulsa tea, and at least 3litres of water today :-)

I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning's session and will continue to blog until the 28 days so that I can tell you the final results, however as I'm racing tomorrow evening it might be late before I get back.

15/28

This morning's workout was entitled "The Dirty Dozen" a repertoire of 12 exercises.  We started with the usual warm up routine, then straight into the exercises - the duration was increased as well as the number, we did 50secs exercise with 10 secs rest today - phew!!  What did we do today?  We had pressups, side planks, plank to press up, mountain climbers, split lunges, walking lunges, jumping jacks, drop downs, glute bridges - one legged this time, squat jumps, and another couple which have all blurred into one...  After going through all 12 we got a couple of minutes rest then we repeated them 40secs this time with 20secs rest :-)
It was definitely the toughest workout we've done yet - it was down to T shirts for Amanda and I!
A quick drive home, a quick shower, grab breakfast and then get the 0836 train to Glasgow for a meeting, a brisk 15minute walk from the station to Atlantic Quay, and a brisk walk back to the station after the meeting added to the day's calorie/fat burn.
Another walk when I got back to Alloa, to the office for the last hour of the day, then home.  Tomorrow is my first fast day so I have nothing to eat from tonight's dinner until mid morning tomorrow.  Haven't quite decided what I'm going to eat tomorrow for my "breakfast" although I have got lunch organised and cooked :-)

Today's menu
Breakfast:  Fried eggs with nutty bread
Lunch:  Home made broccoli and watercress soup
Dinner:  Chicken fillet baked with garlic and green chilli, with cauliflower and savoy cabbage

I've managed about 2 litres of water today - it's more difficult when you're on the move... but still drinking so might make 3 before the end of the day!

Half Way!!

Or in other words you have to be willing to move outside your comfort zone... we all have them, even those of us who run or take regular exercise and whom some others may think of as "fit", we still all have our comfort zones.
It's easy to stay safe inside it, you can dot along at a steady pace, feeling good about the world and pretty righteous that you're doing your bit to stay fit and healthy - and you are, you're just not pushing yourself.  I can write that last bit quite confidently because I have been there, it's only in the past 3 months that I have started to step outside my comfort zone and do things that make me uncomfortable, but I like the results, so I'm no longer afraid to keep on pushing the boundaries.  Starting the PT sessions with PinPoint Fitness was a big step outside the comfort zone for both of us yet we have both seen some great results - we've lost weight, we've lost inches and our race times have got faster, there are lots of reasons you could attribute this too, but it's about doing something different, something you've never done before, it wakes your body up and it starts to respond.  Then you get the payback for the hard work :-)
Guess that's a bit sermon-ish cos it's Sunday - sorry folks!  That's the thing though about a blog it's about putting your thoughts and feelings down on virtual paper.

Today is the halfway mark in the destination fat loss program and I'm pleased to report that I have lost another 2.5lbs so that's 4.5lbs and another 6cm which is 16cm in 2 weeks :-)
The next 2 weeks are going to be interesting as they include 2 Fast days - I'll update you on these when I do them...

I had a "long lie" this morning, despite wakening at 5.30 I managed to dose until 6.30 and didn't actually get up until almost 7!  At 5.30 I did seriously contemplate getting up and going for a run, but by the time I got up at 7 the notion had gone!  Instead, we watched the start of the VLM and then I did a mega ironing - still watching the marathon :-)
Back to watch the finish screens to look for friends who were running today and I did manage to see one, James come across the line.  He looked strong which was good to see as he heads off to USA in a day or two to run the Big Sur marathon next Sunday!
Shopping and lunch were next on the agenda, then it was time to put a roast in for dinner, make a batch of muffins and a pot of soup.
In between times I took 5minutes out to ice my knee as it's been pretty sore past few days, but seems to be on the mend...
Sunday night we have an hour of pilates and have just changed to the Summer timetable so it's 8-9pm, it's a bit of a late start, but it does stop us slothing in front of telly or on the computer and it gives us a good stretch.  The only thing I don't like about the time is that we need to eat before we go and in order to digest it, dinner is earlier than usual which is ok but not my choice.  However it's too late when we come home.

Today's menu:
Breakfast:  scrambled eggs with a thin slice of nutty bread
Lunch:  Roast turkey with a salad of mixed leaves and tomatoes.
snack:  Apple and half a muffin when they came out the oven :-)
Dinner:  Roast beef, celeriac mash, broccoli and carrots (only a few)

I made Broccoli and watercress soup so that will be tomorrow's lunch.

Well done to everyone who ran the VLM today, especially our friends, James, Pete, Graeme, Lindsy & Owen, and a special Congratulations to Lindsy & Owen as next weekend they get married!

11/28

Why is it when you just get used to something they go and change it!!! Doesn't matter if it's whereabouts in the supermarket your favourite goodies are, or in this case, the user interface for the blog!! Arrggghhh!! So that's why I'm back with my wee mouse - it won't kill us and learning something new is always good... even if it means that your shopping takes longer!

OK that's todays moan over with :-)  Been an interesting day today, I had to go back to see the orthopaedic consultant and get the results of my MRI scan, when I'd seen him in March we'd had a wee bit of a spat as he told me I'd to stop running and I told him I wasn't going to, so I wasn't sure what to expect today...
He came out to call me in for my appointment and as we walked back down the corridor, he said "ah, my marathon runner"... Lying waiting on his desk for me was a model of a knee, I thought oh here we go, but in fairness to him he was much nicer than last time and went through the xrays and the MRI results in great detail.  The short version is that the cartilage I have left in my knee is in good nick, the bad news is that there's lots of other stuff going on, but as there was no acute trauma in need of immediate surgery he agreed to let me and my physio continue to manage the issue until such times as I can't carry on and then we'll reassess the options... He says I'll need a new knee but I'm too young but I hope to prove him wrong :-)

Had a reasonably good day food wise today, and have managed to drink most of my 3 litres of water and enjoyed a nice cup of tulsa tea this afternoon.

Breakfast was a deconstructed omelette - sounds interesting huh?  Bacon dry fried in a large pan, some rocket sprinkled on top then 4 eggs broken on top of that, we had half each and it was nice - easy way to get more greens into the meals :-)

Lunch:   tuna salad with some chickpeas, pepper, red onion and mixed salad leaves, spinach, watercress, lambs lettuce and a dark red one I can't remember name of.

Dinner:  Chicken fajita salad - I had lots of peppers to use up so peppers, onions, chicken, some paprika and chilli, served hot over the rest of the salad leaves above :-)

Snack:  a banana while waiting an extra half hour for my appointment...

no exercise today other than the walk through the hospital and the usual walking of a normal work day, it's an early start tomorrow for our Friday workout which promises to be "something special..."

Tomorrow's session means we're half way there!

I'll fill you in tomorrow evening!

Day 5/28

Friday 13th, luckily I don't suffer from triskadekaphobia so this was just another day for me - except it was another 5am rise! I don't actually mind getting up early, I'm definitely a morning person, I don't do late nights very well, probably haven't since I was a teenager and even in those days I didn't lie abed until lunchtime, so 0450 and I was awake and up out of bed to get ready for session no. 3!

It was another nice morning and it's quite a noticeable difference as the week has gone on, just how much lighter it is every morning. It's about 15mins from Monday in terms of when it gets light, and ok Monday morning was heavy rain and cloud whereas Wednesday and this morning were much brighter and frostier! Both mornings when I have been driving home, there has been ice on the Forth at Stirling...
We'd a great session this morning it was called Ladders - you do 1 rep then 2 reps then 3 reps up to 9 reps so that you've reached the top of the ladder, unlike a pyramid, you don't come back down again you move onto another exercise :-) Really tough strength and conditioning exercises too. We worked in pairs and I was working with the lovely Lauren and we should get an extra gold star because we did 51 reps of each exercise, but the 'T pushups' we assumed you had to twist to both sides as 1 rep, but turned out that that should have counted as 2, so we did 102 of them! Bet we pay for that tomorrow :-(
Most of Scotland has experienced some pretty heavy and sudden hail and rain showers over the past few days and the park we use for our sessions is no exception, the mossy grass is therefore slightly squidgier than normal so trying to keep a grip with your feet while doing planks and pressups adds that extra dimension to the exercise experience lol! The worms seemed to quite like the company too and were popping out to join in. They should have been out on Wednesday morning when we were doing inchworms...
I felt good after the workout, strong and invigorated, I even ran back to the car! However the early start is taking it's toll this evening as I'm really sleepy now... but as John is preparing for his marathon on Sunday and we have a potentially early rise tomorrow I can go to bed soon ;-)

Today is the first day that I've felt hungry at all, I forgot to take a banana or muffin to work with me for my snack so I didn't have anything from my breakfast at home til lunchtime and from about 1130 until I had my soup at 1245ish I was ravenous! However I'm pleased that I resisted the temptation of the choccy biscuits and things that were available at coffee time - that's the time of day I didn't drink a coffee!

Today's menu:
pre workout I had 1/3 of a small banana and half cup of decaf green tea
post workout I ate the rest of the banana and drank rest of tea(cold)

Breakfast: berries, pumpkin seeds and yoghurt, half of a wheat free apple&cinnamon cookie very kindly produced by Pamela after our workout :-)
Lunch: vegetable soup
Snack when I got home: 2 slices nutty bread
Dinner: Roasted sweet pepper soup with rocket leaves & goats cheese

Now I know I should have had more but I don't feel hungry so I haven't had anything else - we had planned to have steak and veggies, but John who's fuelling for his race on Sunday had been eating extra so he wasn't hungry either so the steaks and veggies will be tomorrow night's dinner.

Hopefully I will get up in the morning Bright and Breezy and ready for parkrun, but if I sleep longer then it will be the long lie which wins. Sunday morning will be another very early start as we have to be up in Fort William for John's race start and I will go for my longish run on the Caledonian Canal - which isn't nearly as scenic at that point as the Forth & Clyde but it's still an ok place to run so I am looking forward to it - Neptune's staircase is an interesting challenge, I would hope that I can climb it even better than I managed it last year!
I will then meet up with Susan & Courtney whose husband/dad George is running his first marathon and we'll be there to cheer the runners home.
I'll need to plan carefully tomorrow to make sure I take food with me etc but I'm sure I will manage :-) However you might not get a Sunday night update as we will be fairly late home and very tired...
Have a good weekend folks, let's hope the weather is on the up and may the marathon gods smile on the boys and all our friends who're racing at Lochaber or in Edinburgh at the Rock'n'Roll Half!
As well as our friend Sylvie (from Toronto) who is running the Paris marathon.

Session 1 - done :-)

Day 1 done!
I went to bed early last night - by 2130 and was asleep within minutes, I'd set the alarm(s) for 5am but woke at 0200, 0300 and 0445 so I got up then :-) I'd been organised and laid out my stuff in preparation and in the hope of keeping the noise to a minimum so that I didn't disturb John too much.
A glass of water, half a cup of cherry and cinammon tea and I was good to go. I took a banana and some water with me and nibbled half the banana on the journey.
I think I was the first to arrive in the car park where we were all meeting, but it was only a matter of minutes until others started driving in. Those who had paperwork to complete did so and after introductions off we headed to the park. John and Pamela took us through the warmup routine and then demonstrated the exercises we were going to do, we all duly got down on the wet moss and did as we were bid :-)
I thoroughly enjoyed the workout, I'm sure that he wasn't kidding when John said it would get harder, but it was a good workout never the less, and there is something extra that you get from exercising outside, the birds were singing and the rabbits were hopping around...
Funny thing struck me, it rained on the drive through and it rained on the drive back, but I am not aware of it raining while we were working out :-)
Home to a breakfast of fresh fruit and yoghurt, a race to enter and then I'm off to meet a friend to take her out for a wee gentle jog. The rest of the day will be spent baking nutty bread and preparing food for the week.

Update: Had a gentle 5km jog/walk with Susan it stretched my legs out and she did really well. I then went for a Mega healthy shopping - I think you should get extra clubcard points for having a healthy shopping trolley! Had a nice soak in the bath to ease my legs and heat up as it was a bit damp and chilly when we were out running, then after some home made soup it was time to hit the kitchen for an afternoon of domestic goddess icity!
I baked 2 nutty breads and prepped the ingredients for another 2, this is a really nice loaf which contains no wheat or yeast, but does have a lot of nuts in it which require chopping and this is time consuming so I decided to weigh out and zipbag the dry ingredients and nuts so that if I am making more later in the week or at weekend it will save time. I also made a nice Balti which we had for dinner and some home made soup, oh and roasted a turkey which I couldn't resist as it was less than half price :-)

Today's menu:
pre 6am session - cup of cherry and cinnamon tea and half a banana. Other half banana on journey home.
Breakfast: Fresh fruit and yoghurt
Lunch: Home made veggie soup
Dinner: Chicken Balti with cauliflower
Snack: Carrot and Banana muffin - again no wheat, sugar or animal fat.

At least 2.5litres of water!
Think it will be another early bed tonight :-)