It’s coming folks, but taking longer than anticipated. I have part written it and will complete it tomorrow :)

©2012 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

so today will be mostly spent…

and…

and…

But thanks to my new style of eating, there will definitely be no…

Have an awesome weekend everyone!

©2012 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Holy hump day blogettes, what a day it’s been! Work was crazy stressful today and I just couldn’t wait to get the hell out of there!

Despite being stressed out to the max, I’ve felt absolutely incredible all day.  My energy really seems to know no bounds right now!  I woke before my alarm which seems to be turning into a regular occurrence, despite having a late night last night.  I woke feeling invigorated and energised and ready to face whatever life threw at me – and boy did it throw some shit today!  But despite being stressed and crazy busy, I’ve kept my inner calm.  I’m not sure if this is diet related or because I’ve really been focussing on positive thinking but stuff that would normally wind me up and induce an angry rant hasn’t phased me at all. Events at work that would normally have me pulling my hair out have been met with patience rather than anger.  Whatever this change is, I hope it’s here to stay because I like it. A lot.  Life is so much better when you face it with a smile…

So we’re onto day 4 of my Paleo eating regime and I’m not gonna lie, I’m really loving this way of eating.  It’s so simple! I expected to be struggling with what to eat, finding grain replacements or craving my oats and dairy. I’ve had none of that. Not a single carb craving, even walking down the bread aisle at the supermarket yesterday which has always been torture for me – bread and bread products have always been like crack to me lol.  I know it’ still early days but apparently, the cravings and the symptoms of transition are worse in the first few days and then they get easier and finally pass completely.

Well, today there has been no nausea and the only headache I had was a stress induced headache at work which passed when I got home, cranked up my music and got stuck into blitzing my house.

And did I mention the energy? Oh my god, I have never felt so energised ever. I’m not laying this on for your benefit folks, I wish I could put into words how amazing my body is feeling right now.  The only way I can describe it right now is buzzing.  When I first started drinking green tea, I remember that buzz I would get after drinking it.  That’s how it feels now, but ALL THE TIME!

I’m not normally one to cheat and weigh in mid week but I was feeling so slim and light this morning that I decided to hop on the scales and was pleasantly surprised to see them showing 4lb down. I know it’s water weight so I’m not getting too excited but it’s still a nice boost!

The other positive I have found with this diet is that when I get hungry, it’s not an insatiable, shake-inducing hunger.  I remember in the past when I would get hungry, I would get light headed, trembly and food would be the only thing on my mind.  I’ve had none of that in the last 4 days.  Today is the perfect example.  I made breakfast at 7.30am – a lovely frittata using 3 eggs, ham, mushrooms, red pepper & spinach…

As a result of my stressful day and then blitzing my house, I didn’t eat again until 7pm this evening.  Worry not, this is not a habit I’m going to get into, it’s just been a mental day.  However, though my body was telling me it was hungry at about 4pm, it was completely bearable and didn’t have me racing for the kitchen to inhale obscene amounts of carbs like I normally would.

Instead, I prepared the most amazing stir fry I have EVER made. I gently fried some garlic, cumin, cinnamon & paprika in a tablespoon of coconut oil, then added in 2 diced chicken breasts and 200g jumbo king prawns.  While that was cooking I turned these veggies…

Into some fabulous noodles…

and added them to the pan along with a bunch of bean spouts and a mahoosive handful of spinach and created this amazing stir fry…

I really cannot wait to make this again, it totally rocked my face off!

My calorie intake has been very skewed today. It’s well below what I should be eating, by half in fact.  I have no excuses except to say that stress does weird things to my body and I often can’t face eating.

Calories: 895
Protein: 98g (44.1%)
Fat: 50g (50.4%)
Carbs: 13.1g (5.5%)
F&V: 5

Tomorrow, I will be back on it! I have lower body training to do and I have to be fuelled to do that so I will be sure to eat more! I’m looking forward to seeing how my body copes with my workout – it’s very brutal (my friend Jess has only just got over the DOMS from Saturday!) and takes a lot of energy. Bring it on!

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your evening :)

©2012 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Comforting food…

3 egg omelette with ham, mushroom & a teeny bit of cheddar – delish!

Cycling to and from work – what should have been a gentle cycle was brutally hard thanks to DOMS and riding into a headwind…

Delicious Earl Grey…

Using my favourite Starbucks teabags…

and a candlelit bath…

Hope you are all relaxing this evening too!

©2012 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

It’s something I suffer with terribly.  Someone once told me it goes hand in hand with perfectionist tendencies which I think is just cruel! To suffer either or is bad enough but to suffer both? Sheesh!

Procrastination is something I did a lot of all afternoon. I’ve been waiting to train for so long whilst I’ve been ill yet I spent all afternoon putting it off – go figure!  In the end, I dragged my arse out of my arm chair, got changed and headed out to the garage to just get on with it.

Photographic proof…

As I only did one session of starting strength two weeks ago, I repeated that workout so that I can progress this week as I should.  Surprisingly, the weights actually felt pretty light so I’ll have no problem increasing them on Wednesday.  As I didn’t have to determine the weights for my working sets, I didn’t do as many warm up sets…

Squats – 25kg

Warm up sets:

10kg x5
15kg x5
20kg x5

Working sets:

25kg x5
25kg x5
25kg x5

Bench – 20kg

Warm up sets:

10kg x5
15kg x5

Working sets:

20kg x5
20kg x5
20kg x5

Deadlift – 35kg

Warm up sets:

15kg x5
25kg x5

Working set:

35kg x5

My deadlifts are feeling tres uncomfortable.  My legs are so long, it’s difficult to get into the correct position.  I’m having to lean so far forward to get the bar over my knees and it feels all wrong.  I’ve only ever done stiff legged or sumo deads in the past so am not sure whether I should persevere (and bruise the fuck out of my knees) or change to an alternative. Can anyone give me some advice pretty please?

I re-jigged my weight lifting play list a little to include one of my favourite pieces of music…

I normally only listen to metal when I lift weights as I find the music fires me up and helps me to lift more.  However, this piece of music makes me feel invincible, like I can really kick ass!

What single piece of music really gets you going?

My food has been a bit hit and miss today.  I pre-planned my meals but wasn’t hungry at lunch time so I didn’t eat.  As you know, I’m still eating intuitively so am not going to force myself to eat when I’m not hungry.  Though I’m not photographing my meals any more, I’m going to list my food so that I can keep track.

B: Porridge – 50g oats, 250ml coconut milk, chopped apple & cinnamon
L: Nothing
S: Protein smoothie (post workout)
D: Omelette with salad

Low on calories, protein and carbs – eek! Tomorrow will hopefully be better.

Things making me happy today:

My beloved Peter has announced dates for his solo tour – hurrah! I’ll be going with my friend Lisa, who I go to all my Peter/Babyshambles gigs with.  Gratuitous Peter pic…

PHWOAR!

I also love that I’ve taken 3 pictures of myself today and loved every single one without having to delete them. Two are above, this is the third…

And finally, something that has made me laugh and shocked the hell out of me in equal measures…

So many women don’t realise that if you angle yourself, you can pee silently! This is common sense no?

If you haven’t already, don’t forget to enter my competition to win an X-Box Kinect and a copy of Your Shape: Fitness Evolved.

©2012 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Don’t forget to enter my competition to win an awesome X-Box Kinect and a copy of Your Shape: Fitness Evolved!

After what feels like a lifetime of being ill, I’m finally feeling better! Granted, I’m still not 100% healthy but I’m feeling around 85-90% which is good enough for me!

And I think I’m looking healthier again…

Tomorrow morning, I’m braving the scales for the first time in a couple of months and I will admit, I’m not looking forward to it!  I know I’ve gained weight whilst I’ve been ill – I’ve resorted to eating crap too many times because I couldn’t be arsed to cook and as I’ve not been well enough to hit my training like I normally would, it’s all got stored as fat!

But, I’m not going to let it get me down.  I’m feeling very positive and am looking forward to getting my eating back on track.  I’ve pre-planned my food for tomorrow to ensure I’m hitting my protein requirements and when I get in from work, I’ll be doing my second round of Starting Strength.  As I’ve only done one session and not done any weights in two weeks, I’m going to re-start from the beginning (using the same weights as last time) so I can do a full week of training and progress as I should.

I’ve been doing plenty of reading whilst I’ve not been well enough to exercise…

I’m really enjoying reading Starting Strength – reading, in-depth, how to correctly perform the exercises is great and I’ve been making brief notes in my weight lifting book to remind me of the correct technique so that I always have it to hand.

I’m meeting up with my BFF Jess next Sunday and we are hitting the gym for some iron action and then we’re going for a delicious carvery – I can’t wait!  The following weekend I am meeting up with my lovely friend (and distant relative) Jules and we are going to do some shopping and have some lunch.  I decided to get pro-active after writing my Friends post – I got so much amazing support from everyone and I felt so blessed and it made me realise that I wasn’t the only person that felt like I did.

I also have two fabulous events to look forward to – meeting up with my gorgeous friend Laura after my birthday in March and the Body Power Expo in May.  If you recall, I booked a ticket to go last year with my fabulous friends Tara & Gym Ninja but I lost my ticket and couldn’t go :-( I’ve still never found it either!

If any bloggers or readers would like to go to Body Power and meet up, drop me an email at jagsfitnessblog@gmail.com and we can arrange something. I already have a couple of friends and fellow bloggers interested – it would be awesome to have one big meet up!

Before I sign off, I have to share with you all how much I’m progressing on my bike!  My balance is so much better and I’m really learning how to use the gears now.  I tackled a step hill the other day and didn’t have to get off – hurrah!  I even managed to ride one handed and take a photograph of me riding home from work the other day…

I’m loving my cheekbones in that picture!

©2012 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

And whilst I’m not able to train due to ill health, I’ve been doing a LOT more pampering…

About 6 or 7 years ago, I was at the end of my tether with my skin. It was a mess.  So congested, with huge lumps under the surface of my skin that never actually broke out but hurt like hell, blackheads, pimples – you name it, I had it. At the age of 26, it was kind of embarrassing having skin like a teenager.

I tried everything. All different kinds of face washes, facial scrubs, cleansers, moisturisers – you name it I tried it. Having oily skin, I thought I needed something to take away the excess oil which I believed to be causing the skin problems.  However, all they seemed to do was make it so much worse.

Back then I was an avid poster on the handbag forums where there was a very active beauty advice board. I searched through the hundreds of posts looking for some advice that would help me.  Then I came across a post about cleansing the skin with olive oil. There were literally hundreds of posts from people saying how this had done wonders for their skin, how their congestion had cleared, how their blackheads had disappeared and how their skin was glowing.  Surely not?  How could applying oil to ones face actually help? Surely, the problem was the oil in the first place no?

How wrong I was!

I did some research about the oil cleansing method and contrary to popular belief, our skin *needs* the oils it produces, and these harsh chemicals we apply in the form of face washes, scrubs and cleansers for oily skin actually strip these oils away which makes the skin work harder to produce more.  The products strip away the oils, leaving our skin feeling tight and dry and our skin then overcompensates for the lack of moisture by producing more oil.

I decided to give it a go. What did I have to lose? My skin was a mess anyway, it couldn’t really get any worse!  That night, I followed the instructions to the letter and was so surprised afterwards at how silky smooth my skin felt. Not only that, it instantly looked better! I was a little worried as I had read that when you first start cleansing with oil, it can cause you to break out a little.  It’s not the oil that causes this breakout, it’s because the crap is already there, in your pores waiting to come out – the oil cleansing just brings it out. So many people blame this breakout of spots on the oil cleansing itself when it really isn’t the case. Without the oil cleansing, the spots would still have come out.

So how do you do it?  If you search the internet, you will find lots of different ways using different oils.  I have always used Extra Virgin Olive Oil – just the stuff from the supermarket – and it’s always taken care of my skin. Some people recommend using a blend of oils, with castor oil as a base (as it’s a natural cleanser) and mixed with another cold pressed oil, such as sunflower seed oil.

What you will need:

(*) Extra virgin olive oil or a blend of castor oil & another cold pressed oil
(*) A soft wash cloth
(*) 5-10 minutes of peace and quite
(*) Hot running water

Pour a generous amount of oil into the palm of your hand and rub the palms together to warm up the oil.

I wasn’t plastered in make up – tinted moisturiser, liquid blusher, eye liner & mascara…

But the oil will remove it all, no problem.

Smooth the oil over your face and begin to massage.  This will help to remove make up and dirt, it even removes my waterproof mascara, so you don’t need to remove it prior to cleansing.

Slowly but firmly, massage the oil into your pores. Take your time – there is no need to rush.

Massage for a few minutes to give the oil time to work on dissolving the dirt and impurities in your pores. Once you are happy that the oil has been massaged sufficiently into your pores, run the hot water and take your face cloth.

The water will need to be hot but not scalding. The aim is to use the face cloth to steam cleanse the pores. If the water is too hot, you will burn your face but make sure that the water is hot enough as cool water will not remove the oil.

Saturate the face cloth under the hot tap, squeeze out most of the excess water and place the face cloth over your face.  Once it has cooled, use it to wipe away some of the oil.  Rinse under the tap and repeat three or four times until the face is cleansed and the oil has all gone. Be sure to wipe the skin gently – you don’t want to scrub. The oil will lift out the dirt from your pores so you don’t need to apply too much pressure – the aim is to cleanse, not exfoliate.

Once you’ve finished, your skin should be looking healthy and glowing. If your skin feels tight, you can take a tiny bit of oil, rub between your hands until warm and massage onto your skin as a moisturiser.

Yes, I really am sans make up – eek!

When I first started cleansing with oil, I would do it every evening before bed. I found if I did it in the morning, my face would become oily and it would break through my make up by midday.  However, now I only cleanse with oil once or twice a week as I find my skin has balanced itself now and doesn’t need it doing as often.

You won’t get perfect skin overnight but you should notice a big difference in your skin even after your first oil cleanse. Give your skin chance to adapt – remember break outs would have happened anyway, whether you oil cleansed or not. Once they have cleared up, you will find your skin much clearer, blemishes will occur less and less and you will glow.

I only ever get the occasional spot nowadays, usually when I’m hormonal and my period is here. Apart from that, my skin glows and is probably the thing I get complimented most on.

©2012 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

When just about everyone else is stuffing their faces with a whole host of festive grub, my motivation to eat well and do some kick ass training seems to have hit a high!  Sadly, I’m still in no fit state to be doing any real kind of exercising as my chest is still extremely wheezy and just walking has me gasping for breath :-(

I’m using the motivation to plan plan plan for after Christmas, when I am back to full fitness and ready to kick arse in the gym again.  I’ve notified my gym about terminating my contract so as of January, I will be training at my new gym – yay!

Routine: Starting Strength

Diet: REAL food! I won’t be restricting myself as drastically as I did last year – I don’t think I could face living on plain chicken and broccoli now!  Protein will be higher than average to aid muscle repair, carbs will be cycled according to my training, fats will NOT be shied away from and I will be getting lots of fresh veggies and some fruit, mainly berries.  When I was consistently training and eating well last year, alcohol was banished from my diet.  However, I’m not going to do that this time.  Since we moved house we have taken to going to the pub once or twice a week and I indulge in a couple of glasses of red wine.  It’s not a habit I’m about to stop though I will save the alcohol for the weekend and not drink during the week.

Cardio: Whatever takes my fancy.  I want to do at least one HIIT/metabolic session per week but I’m also not ready to completely ditch my running.  However, runs will be kept relatively short (no more than 10k) and that is only when my knee is healed completely.  I’m getting my gorgeous purple crusier for Christmas so I will be cycling to and from work and wherever else I go that I would either walk or catch a bus (weather permitting of course!)

Goals: This is a tricky one.  I’m such a perfectionist and have a terrible habit of setting my aims too high and then feeling utterly demoralised if I don’t manage to meet them.  However, I also thrive well with a little pressure on myself and can be very determined when I want to be.  With this in mind, my only goals are: To stick to my training consistently, to log my food to ensure I am hitting my protein intake and eating the required amount of calories, to weigh and measure once per month, aiming for at least 4lb loss per month and any inch reduction will be welcome.  I plan to take progress pictures every 4 weeks  so that I can track my progress though I won’t be sharing them until I have something to compare them to ;-)

And that’s that.  A simple, uncomplicated plan with no “rules” as such – merely guidelines.  The only thing I am going to be strict about is my consistency where training is concerned.  If I had been consistent all this year with my lifting my body would be totally fucking smokin’ right now.  Alas, it is not as I’ve never really recovered from my stint at endurance cardio.  Lesson learned there!

Do you have a diet/training plan for the coming year? What does it entail?

©2012 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

The silver lining around the dark cloud hanging over me whilst I can’t do any exercise, is that I’m so looking forward to getting back into it.  It’s giving me lots of time to seriously think about what I am wanting to achieve in the coming months and what my goals really are.

If I am completely honest with myself, I’ve not taken my training seriously since my half marathon and I’ve not taken my weight training seriously since way before that!  That means the last 8 months or so have been spent dicking around in the gym, not really getting anywhere, not making any progress – just plodding along inconsistently and doing just enough to stop myself blowing up to the size of a house.

The results of such inconsistent training is obvious – my body is squishy and my lovely firm, defined muscles are soft and covered in a little too much padding.  The hard earned muscle that I worked so hard for last year is still there – if I flex it hard enough ;)

Being glued to the sofa hasn’t left me with much else to do other than read. Day time television is enough to make me want to slit my wrists so I decided to put my free time to good use and do some reading about fitness.  I read a lot anyway, but most of my online reading is taken up with blogs. Whilst I love blog reading, I’m finding my knowledge about a lot of fitness stuff is getting quite rusty and I’m not as up to date as I was this time last year.

The result of all this reading?

I want to train – seriously!  I want to be STRONG – stronger than I have ever been.  I want to push myself harder than I have ever pushed in my life.

And I’m not going to achieve that with the half arsed effort I’ve been giving for most of this year.  I’m kind of annoyed at myself really – a year of potential progress – gone! I’ve wasted so much time and it’s time to change that.  I’ve also realised that I’m not going to achieve anything that I want whilst I remain at my current gym.

Really, calling it a gym is false advertising.  It’s a leisure club.  It’s for people who don’t take their training seriously but want to be able to say they go to the gym.  The weights range is laughable. No olympic barbells – or ANY barbells for that matter! No squat rack. The bulk of the floor taken up with swanky cardio machines and resistance machines whilst people wanting to train with free weights are given the tiniest space with a handful of benches. A real freakin’ nightmare during peak times!

Last year I came very close to quitting and joining this gym and then fear made me decide to stick where I was.  Fear of doing something new. Fear of training in a 95% male populated gym. Fear of looking like a noob among experts.  I know though, that I have to do it if I want to get serious and achieve what I want.

It’s time to look fear in the face and flick two fingers at it!

I’m thinking one way of getting around it is booking a couple of sessions with one of their personal trainers. Get him to devise me a strength routine, show me the ropes and check my form.  As I work out alone, I have no idea how good or bad my form is and as I train at a leisure club, the staff probably wouldn’t have much of a clue either.  If there was ever anyone on the gym floor to ask!

I’m also going to re-vamp my cardio.  No more long, steady state cardio. It’s time to ramp up the HIIT. Maybe re-introduce some Tababa, add in some sprints, hill sprints and body weight circuits.  I have a park at the bottom of my street which is perfect for some alternative exercise. Sprints using trees as markers, benches for plyo jumps, monkey bars for pull ups.

If I want the physique I’m looking to achieve, it’s time to bust my arse to get it!

I’m not planning on changing my diet, apart from increasing my protein.  My relationship with food is slowly getting fixed and I am still eating intuitively. It’s going well and I’m even managing to stop myself from continuing to eat when I’m full.  I actually left porridge in my bowl this morning – progress!

And speaking of porridge, I finally tried the amazing, wonderful, delicious…

Pumpkin porridge!

Using this bad boy…

I got this can from the fabulous parcel that I received from Sophie’s competition – thank you Sophie!  I’m hitting up Waitrose at the weekend to bulk buy some more!

Has fear ever stopped you from achieving what you want? Or have you looked fear in the face and told it to eff off? How do you overcome your fear?

©2012 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I’m so behind on all of your blogs as I’ve barely been online in the last few days, except for updating facebook or twitter via my mobile.  I promise I will be catching up with you all soon.

First of all, a huge thank you to everyone that wished me luck for my operation earlier in the week, I appreciate it so much.  I feel so blessed at being part of this wonderful community – I have made some really fantastic friends thank to blogging and I can’t wait to meet you all!

The operation went well.  Wednesday morning I arrived at the hospital for 8am and had to get changed into my surgical gown straight away.  I was checked in, had blood pressure and pulse checked, had my medical history checked a zillion times by several different people, was told I was not pregnant – I should hope not, I was sterilised 3 years ago! – and then sat and read for an hour whilst I waited to go to theatre.  Before the consultant came round, the nurse told me I was second on the list to go to theatre which I was happy with as the earlier I went down, the sooner I could get home.

However, after the consultant had done her round, I heard the nurse say the list had been changed around and I was now 4th – bummer!  As I waited, I started to get really hungry.  I normally eat breakfast by 8am but had not eaten since 8pm the night before in preparation for my surgery.  I wasn’t allowed to drink anything from midnight except for sips of plain water up until 6am. I awoke at 5.45 and contemplated getting up for a drink but chose to have the extra time in bed instead.

I was taken down to theatre at 10.25 and wasn’t nervous at all.  I’ve had general anaesthetic several times in the last few years so know what to expect.  I kinda like that drifting off feeling as the injection goes into the back of my hand :-)  I had a student anaesthetist fit the canula into the back of my hand and she did a fabulous job – no pain at all and she was quick too.  She was really sweet.  I was then given something to “relax me” even though I already felt pretty relaxed.  Not sure what it was but after a minute I remember telling the student that I felt a bit drunk lol!

Then the anaesthetic went in and the next thing I remember was being woken up before going back to the ward.  I dozed for about 15 minutes before I woke up properly and gulped down 2 glasses of water and asked the nurse for a black coffee.  She brought a selection of biscuits and I wolfed down a couple of gingernuts – yum! I told her I couldn’t wait to get home and eat some porridge lol!

I knew they don’t let you home until you use the toilet so I got up and walked to the loo.  I actually felt ok at the time, no doubt because I was high on painkillers ;)  As I came out of the toilet a nurse spotted me and asked had I gone ok, to which I said yes.  She said I could get dressed if I wanted to and she would come take the canula out of my hand.  By this time it was about 12.15 and as the nurse came around, she said she had told the husband not to collect me until 2pm but because I was up, walking, had been to the toilet, had eaten and drank, she would phone him and tell him to pick me up now.  Yay!

So, even though I was the 4th on the list, I was actually the 1st person allowed home – the other ladies were all still sleeping off their anaesthetic.

When we got home, I got on the sofa and slept for the rest of the day.  My porridge went uneaten. I didn’t have the energy to even think about eating.

I’m feeling a lot better now but am still feeling very weak.  My energy levels are really low and I’m still having a bit of pain in my abdomen, which is of course to be expected.  I can’t exercise for 2 weeks which will give my knee chance to rest though I haven’t stretched my leg at all since I came out of hospital – I can barely stand properly so will wait until I feel up to it.

I’m hoping to be back at work on Monday though if I don’t feel any better than I do at present, I will have to take a few more days off. Whenever I have time off work, it always makes me wonder how people stay home all day every day – it is driving me mental already!  There is only so much day time television one can tolerate!

Before I sign off, I want to say a huge well done to my gorgeous, beautiful, sexy, strong friend Tara, who competed in the UKBFF Stars of Tomorrow 2010 contest last weekend.  I’m so proud of her and everything she has achieved and I’m sure you will all agree, she looks absolutely incredible…

She has asked me to consider taking part in FAME 2011 and though I know it’s mental, I am considering it.  I can’t deny that getting up on stage is still a HUGE ambition of mine and though I know it will be a lot of hard work, it’s still something I really want to do.  I just have to decide if I am strong enough – mentally more than physically.

I’m thinking of using it as a goal anyway – its not until May 2011 which will give me time to prepare SLOWLY rather than the 8 week mad dash I had earlier this year that caused my binge eating to spin out of control.

Not committing myself to anything at the moment, all I will say is watch this space…

©2012 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.