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!

12/28 Thank crunchie it's Friday!

On Monday morning, John promised us "something special for Friday".... Friday morning came, I woke about 5mins before my 5am alarm and got up and out and on the road.  The motorway signage made me smile this morning - 'don't drive tired' it said, No sh*t sherlock I thought :-) I wasn't really tired, just not fully awake...
However by the time I got to Cumbernauld and met my fellow Guinea Pigs we were all Bright and Breezy (John's catchphrase from week1!) and off we went. 
John started the session with the usual warmup routine, then said "you know the phrase Thank crunchie it's Friday?  Well we're not going to do crunchies, we're doing burpees" - I could hear Iain's heart sinking to his boots - I'm sure he won't mind me telling you he hates burpees :-)  I don't hate them I just can't do them, it's the one exercise I can't do with my poor old knee, it doesn't bend enough to allow me to either bend down or spring up, but I have modified exercises which I can do instead and I don't think I work any less than the others I just don't jump up and down as much as they do.  We had various variations of burpees, plain ones, narrow to wide ones, corkscrew ones, I'm sure there were more.... we interspersed them with  straighthrough lunges.  We then did 4 sets of tabatas, did I tell you before I love tabatas?  I was really pleased as I was able to do all the pressups without going onto my knees, 40 of them! The other tabata was a backwards lunge which was sometimes a bit wobbly after the pressups but still good fun :-)
Our pup from Wednesday came back to say hello today, he came a wee bit closer to us who knows he might be joining in by end of next week lol!

I've done well with my water intake today - just about to get another glass when I've finished this :-)
today I've eaten

Breakfast:  scrambled eggs
snack:  small banana with cherry and cinnamon tea
lunch:  veggie soup
dinner:  beef stew with carrots, green peas, parsnips

I'm not sure whether we'll be up in the morning for parkrun or not, I'd like to go but my knee has been sore today - although it's feeling better at the moment so it will be a case of setting the alarm and seeing what the morning brings.

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 :-)