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I finished work this afternoon and the sky was utterly black – rain was imminent.  I rushed home, changed into my gym kit and had a lovely walk to the gym.  It didn’t pour but it rained steadily all the way there and on and off on the way back and I really liked it.  The air has been so humid and stuffy that it was really refreshing and I walked most of the way without even using my umbrella – I just walked with a strange smile on my face and enjoyed the cool.

Once in the gym, I got straight to it.  It was unusually quiet when I walked in with most of the guys training actually using the weight machines leaving the free weights area empty – hurrah!  My routine was as follows:

Squats (ATG) 24kg – 12, 10, 8

Good Mornings – 35kg – 10, 10, 10

Calf Raises – 70kg – 10, 10,10

Close Grip Pulldown - 30kg – 12, 10, 10

Incline Bench - 10kg DB – 12, 12, 10

Lying Rear Row – 8kg DB – 12, 12, 12

I couldn’t be arsed doing isolation exercises for my biceps and triceps – they were already feeling tired from attack last night and my compound exercises so I left them out.  Considering I’ve not trained seriously in some time, I was kinda pleased with my weights and reps – my good mornings actually went up from last time.  I’m feeling sore now though so no doubt I’ll be suffering with some mega DOMS tomorrow – woohoo!  I’m planning some basic yoga and foam rolling for tomorrow to try and work out those aches and pains.

Food today has been awesome!  I’ve been a lot hungrier today mostly because of the calories I earned from body attack yesterday – I was left with just over 1000 that I didn’t consume so have gone over a little today to compensate.

I started off with my usual bowl of heaven – mocha porridge topped with Greek yoghurt, raspberries, strawberries & pecans…

I’ve used all my chocolate MP Max Elle True Diet *sobs*  Though nutritionally, I prefer the True Whey, I much prefer the flavour of the True Diet.  I just wish it wasn’t so expensive!

Mid morning I had a skimmed latte with carrots & hummus…

Lunch was a boring but delicious wholemeal pitta with tuna…

After the gym I snacked on two satsumas which I didn’t photograph as I was munching them as I walked home.  When I got in I caught up with some blogs and Heather’s post had me craving some of my Artisana coconut butter.  I had the unusual combination of dates dipped in coconut butter – one of those combinations that shouldn’t work but just do!

Dinner was the best – 2 home made lean lamb burgers served in mixed olive ciabatta rolls with carrot & parnsip fries…

Earlier today, I tweeted…

I’ve tried olives so many times and I just can’t bring myself to like them.  As you’ll notice, my ciabatta rolls tonight contained mixed olives and they were absolutely delicious.  However, when it comes to just eating them as they come, I can’t enjoy them.  A fellow tweeter said they felt like they weren’t a proper grown up because they don’t like them and that is exactly how I feel – crazy huh?  I’m not going to give up though – I’m hoping they are an acquired taste and if I try enough, I’ll surely come across some that I like.

I’m gonna take my tired ass off to bed now and read for a while – enjoy your evening bloggies!

©2010 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

The husband and I have a plan – can you guess what it is?

It involves this…

Source

These…

Cheryl Cole sang about it…

Yes, you guessed correctly – we are going to do parachute training!  I was thinking about goals I had as a youngster and something I always wanted to do when I was in my teens was a parachute jump.  Sadly, I’ve never got around to looking into it properly.  So I started reading up online and told the husband I was going to do a tandem sky dive.  I asked if he would like to join me but he said the only parachute jump he would do was alone – he didn’t want to do a tandem as he would rather train to go solo.  We’ve been reading up and have found a place close by where we can do the training to qualify and afterwards, we can jump for just £40 – how cool is that?  ”What are your plans for the weekend Jo?”  ”Oh, the husband and I are going sky diving!”  I’ve always been a massive thrill seeker and am a total adrenaline junkie – this is my perfect hobby!  Mini JAG is naturally devastated as he is too young to train – the lower limit is age 16 so he has a couple of years to wait yet.

Today has been a really good day.  I started off the day with a bowl of heaven – apple and cinnamon porridge, made with coconut milk and topped with Greek yoghurt, strawberries & pecans…

Mid morning I had a skimmed latte but didn’t snap it.

Lunch was left over lamb chilli, which had everyone at work dribbling…

Dinner was prawn jambalaya…

As you can see, my meals and snacks are not as frequent as they normally are.  I’m not restricting myself drastically or anything – I’m still trying to eat only when hungry and I’ve not been starving in between meals hence I’ve not eaten.  I dare say as I get back into my weight routine properly, this will change.  I’ve still managed to eat just under 1600 calories with those meals.

I was really happy tonight to get back to body attack.  My instructor had a few weeks off and then it was the bank holiday which means there were no classes.  As a result, I’ve not attacked in some weeks and I really felt the difference tonight – it nearly killed me!  I still stuck with the high impact options for the majority of the class so I got an awesome workout.

I took a picture of myself before the class with the intention of taking an after ala Ms Bitch Cakes.  However, class ran over by a few minutes and I knew the husband would be waiting outside.  After the gym we had to hit the supermarket and we went to visit my folks as my dad went for his pre-assessment today – he has his operation next week!  By the time I had got home, my sweat had mostly dried and my face was no longer beet red.

Maybe next time ;)

I’m hitting the gym again tomorrow to pump some iron – I can’t wait! I’ve been slacking for far too long due to various different reasons and one or two excuses.  However, as I pulled on my skirt for work this morning and noted the waistband was getting tighter, I kicked my arse into touch and gave myself a good talking to!

Hope you all had a good day guys, enjoy your evening!

©2010 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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Mini JAG returned to school On Thursday which is both good and bad.  Bad because I will miss him being home in the afternoon when I get in from work but also good because it means I can now get back into a routine at the gym.  Having him home alone all morning whilst I’m at work made me feel guilty about going to the gym in the afternoon so the only time I went to the gym during the holiday was when he was at a friend’s house or at my mum & dad’s which wasn’t as often as I would have liked.

Luckily, I’ve still been able to exercise at home using my 30 day shred DVD (though this is an Amazon link it’s not an affiliated link) and my Air Climber.  The Air Climber challenge is still going well though I’ve not used it EVERY day but I’ve used it on average 3-4 times per week for 10+ minutes at a time.  I’m moved up to level 4 now and almost ready to move up to level 5 – go me!

On Thursday I got home and hit the kitchen for a session.

Fudge balls…

Falafel bites…

And hummus…

My pictures are looking really pants lately and I have GOT to buy a new camera – my phone just isn’t cutting it any more.  I apologise to you guys reading having to look at the poor quality of them.

Fudge balls were delicious, falafel was too garlicky and not spicy enough and the hummus was just pants – too thick and stodgy.  I’m thinking I’ll just use it as a sandwich spread rather than for dipping.

I know I’ve not been doing a daily food post lately – there’s no particular reason for this but I don’t want my blog to be just about that.  So, on the days I’ve had nothing else to say, I’ve not bothered posting just to say “this is what I ate”.  Here are a couple of pictures from the last few days…

Mocha Porridge with Greek yoghurt, berries & crumbled fudge ball…

Wrap with ham, cheese, mixed salad, mixed beans, red onion & cucumber…

Salmon fillet with pesto,  baked potato and stir fried veggies with feta cheese…

Delicious porridge with fresh berries & pecans…

Lamb chilli and brown basmati rice…

Prawn jambalaya…

I had an exciting email earlier in the week which you may have seen me tweeting about.  After writing my review of Funky Raw magazine recently, the editor Rob dropped me an email asking if I would like to write for them.  I actually squealed out loudly – me, write for a magazine?!  I’ve always loved writing, ever since I was about 7 years old and got my first every typewriter, which I would spend hours sitting at writing short stories.  I wrote a full length novel when I was about 14 which I had dreams of getting published – despite the fact that it was a blatant rip off of the Sweet Valley High idea *blush*  I’ve not written anything in a long time (except for this blog obviously) so I was very excited to get the email.  I’ve never classed myself as a “good writer” – I just do it because it’s something I love doing so much and I’m not gonna stop doing something because I suck at it – hence why I still sing at the top of my voice along to my music when I’m cleaning the house!

Before I head off, I just want to say a big hello to any new readers/followers.  Thanks to my mate Jack and his Same Old Sh*t Saturday post, the Before & After post that he asked me to participate in was re-posted on Saturday last week.  As I was away for the weekend, I wasn’t online and was surprised when I got back to some new followers. I had a look at my blog stats to find out Jack had directed lots of his readers my way :-)

A quick bit about me for those new readers.  I lost 50lb last year after finally reaching a point in my life where I could no longer go on the way I was. I was over weight, miserable and struggling with my food demons.

I have a long history with food which started off as starvation in my teens and turned in to binge eating during my twenties.

I didn’t want my thirties to be ruled by food so I set out to change once and for all.  I lost the weight and have kept most of it off ( I have re-gained a little recently but am working hard to shift it again)…

and am working really hard to overcome my turbulent relationship with food.  I still suffer with binges occasionally and am trying to understand why I do it, what triggers it and how I can beat it.  It’s a long road but I’m hopeful of reaching the end of it.

All I want out of life is to be happy and healthy – that’s it :-)

Enjoy your weekend folks!

©2010 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Or for any American readers, fall.  It’s my favourite season, along with Winter.  I love everything about Autumn.  The changing of the leaves, the crisp air, the first frost – it’s such a beautiful season.  Until I started training for my half marathon, I would only ever run from Autumn to Spring because I loathe running in the heat, simply because it affects my performance so much.  I used to look forward to those leaves changing colour and for the air to start feeling a little fresher in the mornings so that I could get my running shoes out of hibernation.  It’s so much prettier to run through the woods when you are running on a blanket of crunchy leaves with a clear blue sky, sun shining but a lovely chill in the air.  Damn, now I have the urge to get out and run!

Not only do I love the Autumn for running, I love Autumn fashion!  Hats, scarves, boots, trench coats – Autumn and Winter fashion is just so damn stylish!

What is your favourite season?  Mine are in the following order:

Joint first – Autumn & Winter…

Spring…

And finally Summer…

©2010 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

I had the most amazing weekend.  I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful husband, son and family – I’ve been left with the most fantastic feeling of utter happiness and contentment.

My beautiful sister in law was getting married on Sunday in the stunning Pavilion Hotel in York. As my sister lives in Rotherham, she and her lovely boyfriend Mat invited us to stay at their house the day before so that we wouldn’t have so far to drive on the Sunday.  The plan was to have a walk down to their local and have a few drinks and a meal but as soon as we walked into the house, we broke open the wine and the fellas cracked the beers and as a result, we didn’t get to the pub until almost 9pm by which time they had packed up the kitchen.  As mini JAG was ravenous they were kind enough to cook him steak and chips, which he devoured and we decided we would order a takeaway when we got home.  We also arranged to meet with the husband’s wonderful Aunt, who is actually only 6 months older than him, for a glass of wine.  We had a wonderful evening full of laughter.  We didn’t get home until 1am and were lucky enough to find somewhere open that would deliver us some Indian food.  With a belly full of delicious food, I was soon dozing so we all went off to bed.

The next morning, we awoke early and had a stroll to the shop for newspapers and sausages to make butties.  I love sausages though I don’t eat them very often because they’re basically made up of crap – they just taste soooooo good!

As we couldn’t check into our room at the hotel until 2pm, we decided to get ready before we went so we weren’t stressing and rushing around before the ceremony started.  I have a photo of the 3 of us but it’s on my phone and my cable is at home so I will edit this post later and add it in.

The drive was over quicker than I expected and we arrived at the stunning hotel which is in Fulford, York.

We checked in but had to wait a short while for our room so we waited in the bar and had a glass of wine.  The wait was most definitely worth it though!  Our room was HUGE!  I didn’t take my camera for the wedding as I wanted to enjoy the event without having to watch it through a camera lens.  Therefore, all the pictures you see here are taken from the website.  Luckily, I managed to get a picture of the exact room that we stayed in…

After dropping off our bags, we went back down to the bar for canapes whilst we waited for the ceremony.  The room where the ceremony took place was beautiful – so wonderfully decorated without being over the top.  The flower girl and bridesmaids looked absolutely gorgeous but nobody looked as exquisite as the bride – she actually took my breath away.  I’m biased anyway, she’s my little sister in law, but she really is a truly stunning young lady and her wedding photos are going to be amazing.

I never get tearful at weddings but I actually felt very emotional when they were saying their vows and exchanging the rings, especially when I saw the husband was emotional too. 

Afterwards, the pictures were taken in the gorgeous garden…

Whilst the pictures were taken we were sipping complimentary bubbly.  Afterwards, we were seated for our meal…

After the meal had all wrapped up, it was almost 7pm so we went to our room for an hour’s nap.  We were all pretty shattered and I’d had a couple of glasses of wine throughout the day.  I didn’t want to get drunk and I didn’t want to be falling asleep before midnight so we retired for an hour.  We were back downstairs for 8.30pm and were just in time for the speeches.  The room looked so lovely by candlelight and there was the BIGGEST chocolate fountain in the corner with marshmallow, mini donuts and fresh fruit for dipping.  It looked amazing but the smell of the melted chocolate was very overpowering and I could smell it from quite a distance away so I didn’t indulge.  There was a disco until midnight and the music was absolutely wicked – a great range of all different kinds and at some point, I think EVERYONE in the room was up on the dance floor, including the husband’s elderly grandad who kept saying how he wished he could spin me around the dance floor.  Me and my mum in law got him up for a dance and he was in his element – he loved every last minute of it!

We didn’t get back to our room until after 1am where we all promptly zonked out until 9am the next morning.  We were up and showered and went down for a full Englsih breakfast which was delicious!  After that, we had a drive and took mini JAG to Blackpool for the day.  He’s been desperate to go for such a long time as he has wanted to ride The Big One for as long as I can remember.

It was an awesome day, though long and tiring and we didn’t get home until 9pm.

It was one of the best weekends of my life, spent with my lovely family and friends and I am feeling so happy and content.  Long may it continue!

©2010 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

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I’ve spent so long eating every 2-3 hours in order to stop myself from getting hungry and all I have done is make myself so paranoid about hunger that I actually feel panicky about the prospect of it.

However, I’m making progress. I’ve stopped eating according to the clock and am relying more on what my body is telling me. I didn’t eat dinner until 8pm last night as I purposely waited until I actually felt hungry.  I ate breakfast much later than normal today so rather than 7am, I ate at 8am. I didn’t bother with the mid morning fruit snack I took to work as I didn’t feel hungry and just enjoyed a coffee instead. I didn’t eat lunch until 10 minutes ago as I purposely waited until I felt hungry.

It’s actually quite liberating – I’m not constantly thinking about food and what I’m going to eat. I also find that allowing myself to get hungry is helping me learn about those feelings before I eat, when I am most prone to bingeing and just sitting and appreciating the feeling for a while and knowing that I will eat shortly takes away that panicky feeling.

I’m not saying this will be the end of my bingeing (though I wish with all my heart that would come true) but it’s a step in the right direction and as long as I keep taking those steps, I’m going to get somewhere :-)

©2010 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with Funky Raw, they are a UK based company that supports people eating a raw diet.  The website has a great shop that includes a really big range of raw products, superfoods, books, magazines, eco friendly products and natural skin care products.

Whilst I don’t follow an all raw food diet (and don’t think I would want to), I do include lots of raw foods in my every day diet.

The magazine was a really great read and I read it from cover to cover.  There is an amazing raw recipe section including a raw recipe for Millionaire’s Shortbread – oh my!  I really have to try that one!  When I get chance, I’ll type it up for you guys.

The magazine also includes a list of workshops, talks and events that may interest raw enthusiasts based all over the UK.  Though this magazine is out of date now (it’s from April) the events included a Raw Food Dinner Party in London, Raw Magic – an overview of the Raw Magic philosphy – in Brighton, An Introduction to Living Foods in Bristol and Food for Consciousness Workshop in Devon.

There is a lot of reader input to the magazine which I really liked and the stories by readers included Rebecca the Raw Runner, Theresa’s Journey to Raw Foods and a fantastic piece by Jessica Fenton about weaning her baby the raw vegan way!

Even though I don’t eat a raw or vegan diet, the magazine was a totally brilliant read- so much so, I ordered the current issue which includes how to make raw bagels!

You can download a free copy of issue 10 by clicking here.

©2010 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

I only realised this recently when I read a post by my inspiration, Sheryl aka Ms Bitch Cakes, who wrote a blog post that really struck a chord with me.

As a result of eating every couple of hours, I have actually forgotten what real, true, physical hunger feels like.  I rarely feel those gnawing feelings in my stomach telling me I need to eat and as a result of this, I do not know how to eat intuitively – to give my body what it needs, when it needs it.

I’m not sure if this is related to my binge eating, I’m still struggling to understand why I do it.  I know I feel a certain comfort when I give in and let go and eat whatever I want so obviously food is being used to comfort me but the puzzling thing is that when I eat like that, I’m not feeling sad or depressed or in need of comfort.  I’ve never really been an emotional eater – if I get sad or angry, I don’t automatically reach for the junk food, I’m probably more likely to indulge in a glass of wine so I am still in the dark about what the connection is.

I bought several books about binge eating, comfort eating and breaking the cycle and I’m really annoyed at myself as I’ve not really started to read any of them so I’m starting to work my way through one today.

And for the first time, I have not eaten lunch because it is lunch time.  It’s 2.24pm as I write this and I’ve not yet eaten lunch because I have only just started to feel hungry.  I’m going to sign off now and make myself something healthy, filling and satisfying for lunch without grabbing at the first thing I can put my hands on, which 99% of the time happens to be something crap.

This is my first step to eating intuitively – wish me luck blog friends!

©2010 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Happy hump day!

By 8.30pm the pain was crippling and I was feeling very nauseous so I went to bed to lay in the dark.

I woke at 11.30pm and it still hadn’t cleared much but I had a raging thirst so went downstairs for a drink.  The husband was out in the back garden getting some fresh air so I went to kiss hmi goodnight and went back to bed.  A few minutes later he came into the bedroom and said “You’re not going to believe this – I think I just saw a UFO”.  I actually laughed out loud.  Not because I find the idea ridiculous but because my husband is one of the most logical people I know.  If there is something strange, he will be adamant that there is a scientific reason for it.  He then called mini JAG in who confirmed it.

As soon as I had gone back into the house, he had seen it.  He came indoors to call me but I had already gone back to bed so he called mini JAG to witness it just so that he knew he wasn’t seeing things.

He said he saw a red and orange light – not flashing or flickering, just a light – descent from the sky in a vertical motion.  It then moved across horizontally before going up at a 45 degree angle.  He said it then descended again, vertically, moved horizontally, stopped dead and then disappeared before his eyes. 

He said he could think of no other cause for the light.  My husband is a bit of a geek (which I love about him) and can name any aeroplane by sight alone.  He said there is no plane that he knows of that moves the way this light did.  He also said aeroplanes have flashing lights, not static and that they are not red and orange.

Now I’m very open minded and am willing to believe that there is other intelligent life out there.  I’ve seen many a debate on various internet forums where some people almost make fun of people that believe this.  To say with absolute conviction that there is no other intelligent beings living in our universe is, in my honest opinion, ignorant and a bit arrogant.  Our universe is made up of billions of galaxies and our sun is just one of around 200 billion stars in our galaxy. Scientists have already found around 70 other solar systems so who knows if there are other people out there, like us, thinking they are the only intelligent life forms in the universe?

I say keep an open mind.  What do you think?  Do you believe we are alone in this universe or do you believe there is other life out there?

©2010 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.

As I’ve been walking to work the last few weeks, I’ve promised several times that I will return outside of work and pick some of the delicious blackberries growing wild…

I really ought to before they disappear!

I noticed some berries that look just like blueberries but I can’ be 100% certain.  I know blueberry bushes can grow tall, 1.5m according to a site I found on the internet, so it stands a good chance that they are and the leaves of the bush look the same as all the pictures I’ve found on the net.  I’m so paranoid about trying them though incase they turn out to be poisonous or something – eek!

What do you guys think?  Blueberries or not?

This is a picture of a blueberry bush that I found online:

Can anyone help me before I kill myself with wild berries?

©2010 JAG's Fitness Blog. All Rights Reserved.