22/28 Ascension

"As you have moved into ascension you have moved more fully into your body."

Today's workout was called ascension, and when I was looking for an appropriate image I found this one which shows the chakras of the body, I don't know a huge amount about them, but I have had a couple of Reiki sessions and know that they are significant and they are important in yoga I believe...
I also liked the picture :-)
But I do think that it's appropriate as in the last 3 weeks us Guinea Pigs have come to know our bodies better.  I certainly know that mine is much stronger than I ever thought before and that I can now trust it not to let me down, I have also come to accept how it looks in the mirror and that's been a really important change in attitude for me.

I wasn't sure how I'd manage this morning as I was stiff and tired from Saturday's run, I woke a couple of times in the night, just because I was stiff, and when I woke at 04.41 I was afraid if I dozed off I'd sleep through the alarm, so I got up then, ok it was a bit early, alarm was set for 5am but on the plus side it meant I was able to enter myself and John for next year's London marathon - when I say entered I mean we are successfully in the ballot for a place, that doesn't mean we'll get one but if you're not in it you've no chance!

So to our Ascenscion workout - I honestly don't remember that much about it, I just remember doing it and being really pleased because I managed to do it - including some burpees which I don't usually do because the getting up and down is too hard with my non-bendy knee but I managed 5 this morning!  We did lots of exercises in combinations of 1 or 2 then more then a rest then more of them together before a rest... it was a really good tough workout but it was one of those where you just respond to the next command - sometimes that's good to do, you only concentrate on the moment not on what you need to do next...

We finished off with a 10 to 4 routine which is a different exercise for each number of reps, so 10 of first then 9 of second down to 4 of last exercise.

It as a fast day today and this morning I was so so sleepy!  I think it was residual tiredness from the weekend, not just the run, but the early start/late night, the comedown from the adrenaline and also the stress of worrying about John and then about the rest of the guys in my relay team - responsibility is a heavy burden sometimes :-)
still felt quite jet-lagged today although by mid-afternoon was starting to feel less spaced out just tired.
Had a lovely big sirloin steak with spinach and cauliflower for dinner so will finish this and tidy up a wee bit then it will be early bed for me.
I did manage 5minutes rolling my calves on the foam roller before dinner time and although it was a bit ouchy I feel the benefit of it, I need to try and fit in a wee run tomorrow...

21/28

The fruit of my labours :-)  This is the medal we got yesterday for the Hoka Highland Fling race and even though I only did the relay it was a well earned medal!

I did the 2nd leg of the relay which is from Drymen to Rowardennan, just over 14 miles and with 555m of climbing, my superhero husband did the whole 53 miles!

We got home about 10.30pm last night and having been up since 5am it was a long day!  Never mind the adrenaline that was coursing through us all :-)  By the time we'd had a cup of Tulsi tea and unwound and caught up with life online, it was almost midnight when we got to bed.  4am I was awake, twitchy legs and overheating - normal reaction to a hard run :-) John wasn't any better so we got up and had a cup of tea and a slice of toasted nutty bread - hit the spot, back into bed by 4.30 and slept really soundly until 8am.  Both woke with the same thought, "let's go out for breakfast" :-) I had a load of manky  running gear to wash first though and as it was another gorgeous sunny day and windy, I was keen to get it out on the line first.
So after washing was on line we headed out to Bridge of Allan, there's a nice wee bistro there which does a good breakfast - and it is a nice treat once in a while to have someone else do the cooking and washing up!
Eggs, Bacon, tomatoes all allowed on a high carb day - lovely!
A wee quick trip to the local supermarket then home for a sleep - both of us were still very tired - it's felt like having jet lag today :-)  Neither of us have any injuries from yesterday, just the usual DOMS!  John has a wee blister on one foot but that's all.

That's us now starting our 4th and final week on the Destination Fat Loss program, it's gone in quickly, been hard work, made some new friends and had really good fun.  I've had good results so far and today was another pleasant surprise - I had been a bit worried about the results this week as I've struggled with work commitments and race prep towards the end of the week so haven't eaten as well as I should have, but I still managed to record another 2lb weight loss and another 4cm of fat burned off!

Today's menu
Breakfast:  Bacon Eggs tomato
Lunch:  just a banana as breakfast was really brunch :-)
Dinner:  Delicious chicken curry with savoy vabbage and kale medley

I've drunk about 2litres of water today - I'm still a wee bit dehydrated from yesterday but one of the side effects of that is that it is sometimes quite hard to drink - you just don't want to..

All in all a pretty good day, and tomorrow is my second fast day so that's me until tomorrow dinner time.

What a Fling :-)

What a day!
No photo again today, but just a really quick update to let you all know that we finished the Highland Fling, uninjured (a bit achey) but in good physical condition and good spirits :-)
I won't bother posting what I ate today because apart from porridge, a banana and a jaffa cake it wasn't very much!  I don't eat much when I'm running I don't like running with food in my stomach, but I do take a carb and mineral drink with me and that works for me.
I ran almsot 15miles with 555m of climbing - lots of hills! Then more hills!  Then a couple more climbs for good measure lol! But my amazing superhero husband ran 53miles in a few minutes over 12 hours - I am so proud of him - oh and he does eat when he's running, he's much much better at that than me as well :-)
OK folks off to try and sleep now,
more tomorrow...

Thanks for all the encouragement and supportive comments throughout today it really does make a difference x

M.I.A...

I'm writing this on my phone from pre-race hotel, so please excuse any typos. Also reason there's no picture, it's technologically too taxing! It's the night before the Highland Fling and I think we're all set, if we're not, it's too late now! We had the day off work today which gave us time and space to chill out, rest and get organised so I didn't get up at 5 5 this morning for my usual dose of Friday madness :-) I'm sorry I didn't make it along to meet Dave, but the lie-in til 6.30 and the rest will hopefully pay dividends on the hills tomorrow. Today was a high carb day today which meant fruit was allowed again hooray!! After breakfast it was a quick visit to nurse for annual asthma review, passed with flying colours, then off to Physio to get my leg taped. The tape keeps things in place and whilst a lot of the effect may be psychological on this occasion I feel more confident having had it done :-) he got a bit carried away do I have a multicoloured left leg! Today's menu Breakfast: berries and yoghurt Lunch: chicken stir fry Dinner: chicken breast with bacon & broccoli Snack: carrot & banana muffin So that's it - tomorrow will be a long and hopefully enjoyable day so probably no updates til Sunday x

it's my Friday :-)

I hope John and Pamela from PinPoint-Fitness don't mind me using their logo tonight.  I like to put a picture on the page, it helps me to think about what I'm going to write and I've sat for about half an hour trying to think about what I might write tonight and what I could use as a picture...
if you're looking for PinPoint-Fitness online then you'll recognise the logo.

I've had another day out of the office, I was presenting at a conference on transformational learning, it was quite an interesting day with input from a number of people - I had to speak about a project we are doing which has given every p7 pupil in one of our schools an Intel classmate notebook which they can use whenever they like in the classroom and can also take home with them.  It's really interesting watching how the kids use the devices and how they have developed as learners.

However, the downside of this is that I don't think my nutrition has been as good as it should have been over the past 2 days, I'm usually reasonably well organised and can prepare food so that I have the correct things to eat and drink, I managed ok yesterday but today wasn't as well planned.  The conference was in a hotel and lunch was provided, the last time I was at a similar event with this company, it was a restaurant lunch so I was pretty sure I'd get something that would be suitable for lunch.  Unfortunately today it was a buffet lunch so I managed to get a couple of chicken and salmon skewers and some salad - there was couscous, pasta, potato salad, mini steak pie - which I wouldn't even have eaten in my past life.  I feel quite tired and a bit woosy this evening so I guess I probably should have eaten more but I have the day off tomorrow so will get sorted out and back on track in the morning.

Today I've eaten
Breakfast:  Scrambled eggs
Lunch: chicken and salmon skewers with salad
Dinner:  Quorn chilli (rice for John)  I should have cooked some greens with it but I was a bit disorganised and didn't have any...

I have drunk 3L of water today - plus side of conferences there's always water on the table
OH and I ignored the bacon rolls which were provided for breakfast at the start of the morning!

I have decided not to go to tomorrow's early morning session - I am racing on Saturday and I think that my legs will benefit more from the rest as they're still quite tired from yesterday's workout - I will also hopefully benefit from a wee while longer in bed :-)
I'll miss the rest of the gang though!

Tomorrow night we are staying overnight in Milngavie so that we're there for John's early start and I can register the team for the relay so there might not be an update from me tomorrow.
It might be Sunday til I'm back online...

17/28 - Ladders 2

And what worries us most is that there might be a 3rd set of ladders to climb!
In week 1 we did a session entitled ladders where we repeated a number of  exercises once, twice, three times up to 9 times, it was hard enough!  Today we did ladders 2 - I honestly can't remember how many exercises we did today but the ladder was a tough one to climb!  We did LOTS of high knees, LOTS of split squats and a new bad boy called a switch lunge - it incorporates a jump to switch legs and it's hard!  There were a fair few plank to pressups and mountain climbers thrown in for good measure so I think it would be fair to say we were all pretty "done" by time we'd climbed this particular ladder... We were however all still smiling :-)

I had back to back meetings in Glasgow today which meant I didn't have time to drive back from Cumbernauld to Alloa and get organised in time to get the 7.30 train to Glasgow so after having a clean up and getting changed in the salubrious surroundings of the ladies loos in Tesco I drove the half mile to Croy station where I ate my boiled eggs and drank my water before getting the train into town.
I was in the city before 8 which is a bit earlier than I needed to be, but that meant I had time to enjoy a leisurely peppermint tea in Starbucks and watch the "early morning crowd" - the people who are around in the morning are much more interesting to watch than the ones you get later in the day, or even in the evening...
I walked down to the Scottish Government building on Argyle/James Watt Streets, it's a 15-20min walk and it was a freezing cold wind that was blowing around the city so I walked smartly and hopefully continued the fat burning process kicked off on the ladders. After spending the morning and then afternoon in 2 different meetings it was an even brisker walk back up to the station as by this time the rain had arrived!
Driving home to Alloa I realised it was 12 hours since I'd driven in the other direction, it had been a long day :-) The weather has turned really nasty and it was wild and windy driving back - I hope it's passed before Saturday!!
I baked a nutty loaf this evening while the dinner was in the oven, looking forward to that on the high carb day :-)
Today is a low carb day which means I can't have any fruit or yoghurt - and have to have protein at every meal so breakfast was 2 boiled eggs - not desperately exciting but it was easy to prepare last night and take with me...

Breakfast:  boiled eggs
Lunch:  mackerel and salad leaves
Dinner:  Broccoli and watercress soup followed by
chicken rubbed with garlic and smoked paprika with the rest of the dark green salad

I took water with me today and so have managed to get to my 3L target, have had a blackcurrant tea, peppermint tea and tulsi tea.

My quads are this evening officially dead - R.I.P :-)

16/18 That was Fast...

My breakfast :-)
Today was my first Fast day and it wasn't too bad...
I had my last meal last night at dinner time until lunch today and it wasn't so difficult - I guess it's the thought of fasting that makes us shudder but given that I slept for 8 of them it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd imagined it might be.

When I got up this morning I was busy preparing the lunches so didn't miss sitting down to breakfast.  I'd made a chicken stir fry to have for lunch so that I had a protein and low carb meal to break the fast - it was yummy and I thought I'd be ravenous once I started to eat again but I wasn't... I've actually noticed over the last few days that I'm not eating as much as I used to I am rarely finishing a meal, I just feel full before it's finished, Pamela reckons this is because my body is getting all the nutrients it needs - it asks for more by making you feel hungry, so that's a good thing I guess.

I was back in the office today for work (only day this week!) but I had to visit a school which was within walking distance so I had a nice 20minute walk first thing today - better than sitting at desk all day...

Tomorrow I'm away to Glasgow again all day so there will be a bit of walking involved again which is good, and will carry on the fat-burning effects of tomorrow's workout - wonder what we'll get tomorrow?

Have boiled eggs for tomorrow's breakfast as I am going to have to take it with me tomorrow as I don't have time to come home after fitcamp - I will have to have a "babywipe shower" and get changed then head straight into town.  John from PinPoint Fitness suggested I shouldn't bother and should go straight to meeting and tell them that this was what real work smells like LOL!  (it's Scottish Government people I'm going to meet with!)

So a shorter menu today as there was no breakfast and no snacks
Lunch:  Chicken Stir fry with lots of leafy greens
Dinner:  Sirloin steak, spinach, red onion and cauliflower

Drunk my 3L of water and a few cups of tea - cherry and cinnamon, peppermint and tulsa teas today

Time to go get food and clothes organised for morning.