I haven't been on line for a while, but have been exercising and have been progressing with the C25K programme and am currently on week 5, with the 2 mile run to come next!
The running has been going well, and although hills (or even slight inclines) do completely take it out of me, I have managed to achieve the training programme to date. I did a couple of weeks on the treadmill instead of outside due to getting scared/being lazy/trying to fit the gym and running in, but I have got a good schedule now (more below :) ) so have got right back into running outside. When I went back to running outside after running on the treadmill, I realised how different it is and how much harder I find running outside! But now that I'm running outside constantly and staying away from the treadmill in the gym, I have been improving!
I must say, I LOVE the running! Maybe not quite mid run, but as soon as I'm finished, I feel amazing! And I decided to start running in the mornings so there would be less chance of me bailing out which has been working well.
So my schedule has changed as a couple of weeks ago: I was feeling really tired, unmotivated and a bit grumpy and I really think that it is because now that I'm a student, it's really hard to get out of bed on the days when I don't have uni and then I was staying in bed till 9.30ish, having set the alarm for 8 and snoozing it till the snooze function ran out, then setting another alarm and setting that. But it wasn't as though I was staying up later, my sister works and goes to bed about 10 and I used to go about 10.30ish, still feeling knackered but then not being able to sleep (probably because I was having too much sleep!), but then I would wake up feeling groggy and would always be feeling like I had loads of stuff to do and not enough time to do it in (being 29, I'm not your typical student!). So generally felt pretty crap and even though my exercise is far more regular now than 6 months ago, it didn't seem to help with my mood.
I've always wanted to be one of those early morning exercisers and worked out that since I don't tend to do any work after 9pm, if I got up at 6, then I would gain 3 hours on my day and even if I go to bed at 9, this is non productive time for me anyway, so I wouldn't be losing anything. So I made the decision that I would get up at 6am.
I decided that the first day I would just get up, not exercise, but have a shower and get ready and do some work before college at 9. And it worked!!! And I felt great! Tired, but really pleased about how much I achieved! So the next day I got up at 6 and went for a run!! And I felt great! More tired as my body was not used to getting up early yet so hadn't managed to get to sleep much earlier. Then on Wednesday, I was in the gym at 7am - and guess what... I felt great! BOOM!!!! And so unbelievably smug lol! Especially when I was sat in college with my fellow students who probably hadn't actually got to bed till 6am lol!
I don't have college on Wednesdays and Fridays and on Friday I didn't get up early :( I had a doctors appointment at 9.30 and failed to get up... Saturday I also didn't get up early :( I also ate really badly on these 2 days. I had had a rubbish day at uni on Thursday, which may have accounted for my bad mood, so next time this happens, I must NOT allow this to take over and must try to stay in control, and stick to my plan: Because when I stick to my eating plan, I lose weight, when I eat healthily, I feel healthy and have energy, when I get up early, I achieve loads and so have time to relax and when I exercise, I feel great.
So, after a strict talking to from my sister, we got up early on Sunday (7am) and went surfing. It was lovely and sunny and even though it was cold, it was great to get out for the day and have lots of fun and have a day off from working.
So this morning, I was back to getting up at 6 and went for a run, and I felt great :)
I have decided Mon-Fri 6am start, Sat/Sun 7am start.
Over the years I have often started things, but they have fizzled out quickly or I haven't finished them, however, since Aug 2010, I have been fairly consistent with exercise and eating well. I am now on week 5 of C25K. I think this shows that I CAN stick to things and basically need to not think and talk myself out of things, but just do it. Exercising in the morning means I am less likely to cancel because I'm too tired and exercising first thing, sets me up for the day feeling positive, healthy and therefore not wanting to ruin it by overeating.
So my schedule is now:
Monday - Run
Tuesday - Gym (weights + rowing sprints)
Wednesday - Run
Thursday - Rest
Friday - Gym (weights + rowing sprints)
Saturday - Run (Go somewhere scenic to run)
Sunday - Walk/Surf/Rest
All completed in the morning, so no chance of bailing :)
Are you an early bird or a night owl? How do you manage to fit everything in and balance the gym (weights) and running?
This morning, there was a beautiful sunrise :)
Have a good one!
Monday, 14 March 2011
Wednesday, 26 January 2011
Sweat dripping off your face, Eye of the Tiger blaring in your ears: Goodtimes!
What a workout!!! It was really tough to begin with though, I think perhaps it was something to do with the fact that I ate a small bit of chicken with thai sauce, stir fry veg and a tablespoon of noodles about 1 hour before which I know was bad, but unfortunately it happened... It was literally only a few mouthfuls, but I think I'm going to try and work out what I have eaten before the workout when I have a really good one (by which I mean I feel energised!).
I started off on the cross trainer, a low level for 20 minutes. I thought I was actually going to die. There was no way I could increase the level at all like I usually do, I just had to get through it.
Then I moved on to the weight machines and I felt like I had no energy at all! Now if there had been a reason for it, overly tired/maybe getting ill etc, I would have only done a short work out, but there was no reason for it at all, so I didn't want to do a short work out else I'd get home and feel like I should have done more. I decided to just do the compound muscles so that I got the most for my money :) and then did some abs work.
Then I went back on the treadmill and suddenly the energy was back!!! I did some walking up hills, increments of 3% (from 6%-15%) for 30 seconds and back to 6% for 1 minute. I did that for 10 minutes and then 2 x 5 minute runs and then cooled down with some gentle walking. I was sweating buckets, but felt GREAT!!!! Then I did loads of stretching which felt really good.
There's been a few people saying recently how they don't seem to be pushing themselves to the max and walking to my car, I did feel like I could have done more, but sitting here now, I feel knackered! I don't tend to push myself 100% as I want to last more than 1 minute, but hopefully this is something that I can work towards.
So what do you all eat before exercise? And how do you get through a tough workout?
I started off on the cross trainer, a low level for 20 minutes. I thought I was actually going to die. There was no way I could increase the level at all like I usually do, I just had to get through it.
Then I moved on to the weight machines and I felt like I had no energy at all! Now if there had been a reason for it, overly tired/maybe getting ill etc, I would have only done a short work out, but there was no reason for it at all, so I didn't want to do a short work out else I'd get home and feel like I should have done more. I decided to just do the compound muscles so that I got the most for my money :) and then did some abs work.
Then I went back on the treadmill and suddenly the energy was back!!! I did some walking up hills, increments of 3% (from 6%-15%) for 30 seconds and back to 6% for 1 minute. I did that for 10 minutes and then 2 x 5 minute runs and then cooled down with some gentle walking. I was sweating buckets, but felt GREAT!!!! Then I did loads of stretching which felt really good.
There's been a few people saying recently how they don't seem to be pushing themselves to the max and walking to my car, I did feel like I could have done more, but sitting here now, I feel knackered! I don't tend to push myself 100% as I want to last more than 1 minute, but hopefully this is something that I can work towards.
So what do you all eat before exercise? And how do you get through a tough workout?
Sunday, 23 January 2011
Drinking
So this weekend involved quite a lot of drinking as I was out both Friday and Saturday night. To be honest, I don't actually like drinking too much, 3-4 is fine for me as means I can get a bit tipsy and still function the next day, however Friday night involved a few more drinks than that and I was definitely worse for wear on Saturday.
And hangovers are the reason why I don't like drinking (plus the fact that sometimes I'm a bit of an idiot when drunk...). Our friends were down still on Saturday so we took them to see the sights and they are a lot of fun, so it made me forget my hangover, but often when I have a hangover, it means that I don't do anything productive, don't do any exercise and often spend the day feeling sorry for myself.
Then because I was out again Saturday night, even though I only had a couple of drinks, I was soooo tired today that I just couldn't do anything. And I had planned a session in the gym, but that went out of the window and often when I'm hungover, I tend to feel quite low so it's been a pretty rubbish day today.
It also meant that foodwise, it's been a pretty bad couple of days. Even though I had earned a lot of exercise calories during the week, it has still taken me about 500 calories over for the week (I'm on 1300 cals per day). Whilst 500 calories shouldn't do too much damage, this did include eating all my exercise calories and I sometimes worry that the exercise calories are not that accurate even with my HRM as it gives me a lot of calories!
Friday: 2480 cals (only 54 over for the day due to exercise).
Saturday: 2273 cals (900 over for the day as no exercise undertaken!).
Sunday: 1316 cals.
The calories add up so easily and unfortunately I like to drink cider which is very calorific! I do tend to move onto spirits and lemonade later, but they are still pretty bad! Although I don't drink too often, so shouldn't worry I suppose, life has to go on! I don’t like to drink spirits all night though because I find I am less affected when drinking cider.
We then went to Wetherspoons on Saturday and they now have leaflets in the restaurants with all the nutritional information so you can use this to make your decision at the time! It was great! Another blogger was discussing eating out and nutritional info recently and I think it is so helpful that more companies are now providing this information. I had a delicious flatbread with houmous and roasted veg which was yummy! I did also get a mocha, but it was disgusting! So sweet! So I didn't drink it (I did take it back and they gave me a new one which was better, but I think they use a syrup there and I just didn't like it). I have found that I seem to have naturally stopped eating so much sugar and so when I do have something sweet, it can be quite overpowering!
So this week’s exercise plan is as follows:
Monday – am: C25k wk 2 session.
Pm: Gym
Tuesday – Rest day (starting a new bar job!), but will try to go for a walk
Wednesday – am: C25k wk 2 session.
Pm: Gym
Thursday – Rest day
Friday – am: C25k wk 2 session.
Pm: Gym
Saturday – Walk or surf
Sunday – Gym
Am looking forward to that! What are your plans for the week? Hope you all have fun!
And hangovers are the reason why I don't like drinking (plus the fact that sometimes I'm a bit of an idiot when drunk...). Our friends were down still on Saturday so we took them to see the sights and they are a lot of fun, so it made me forget my hangover, but often when I have a hangover, it means that I don't do anything productive, don't do any exercise and often spend the day feeling sorry for myself.
Then because I was out again Saturday night, even though I only had a couple of drinks, I was soooo tired today that I just couldn't do anything. And I had planned a session in the gym, but that went out of the window and often when I'm hungover, I tend to feel quite low so it's been a pretty rubbish day today.
It also meant that foodwise, it's been a pretty bad couple of days. Even though I had earned a lot of exercise calories during the week, it has still taken me about 500 calories over for the week (I'm on 1300 cals per day). Whilst 500 calories shouldn't do too much damage, this did include eating all my exercise calories and I sometimes worry that the exercise calories are not that accurate even with my HRM as it gives me a lot of calories!
Friday: 2480 cals (only 54 over for the day due to exercise).
Saturday: 2273 cals (900 over for the day as no exercise undertaken!).
Sunday: 1316 cals.
The calories add up so easily and unfortunately I like to drink cider which is very calorific! I do tend to move onto spirits and lemonade later, but they are still pretty bad! Although I don't drink too often, so shouldn't worry I suppose, life has to go on! I don’t like to drink spirits all night though because I find I am less affected when drinking cider.
We then went to Wetherspoons on Saturday and they now have leaflets in the restaurants with all the nutritional information so you can use this to make your decision at the time! It was great! Another blogger was discussing eating out and nutritional info recently and I think it is so helpful that more companies are now providing this information. I had a delicious flatbread with houmous and roasted veg which was yummy! I did also get a mocha, but it was disgusting! So sweet! So I didn't drink it (I did take it back and they gave me a new one which was better, but I think they use a syrup there and I just didn't like it). I have found that I seem to have naturally stopped eating so much sugar and so when I do have something sweet, it can be quite overpowering!
So this week’s exercise plan is as follows:
Monday – am: C25k wk 2 session.
Pm: Gym
Tuesday – Rest day (starting a new bar job!), but will try to go for a walk
Wednesday – am: C25k wk 2 session.
Pm: Gym
Thursday – Rest day
Friday – am: C25k wk 2 session.
Pm: Gym
Saturday – Walk or surf
Sunday – Gym
Am looking forward to that! What are your plans for the week? Hope you all have fun!
Friday, 21 January 2011
Sunny Friday
I feel so much better since setting my targets and seem to have definitely found my motivation again :)
I went for the Wk1 WO2 C25K run today and it was beautiful. It was so sunny and crisp, it made me go past where I was due to turn back just to be able to keep looking at the view. In my limited experience of running, this is always the part which I think makes running or walking outside far exceed the gym. I still love the gym as it is convenient etc, but it can't compete when it comes to the location :)
What is your favourite part about the exercise you do?
But I am off to the gym this afternoon. This is an unscheduled gym session, but because the C25K programme only requires 20 mins at the moment, and I don't want to exceed it and push it too far to fast, I am going to go to the gym to burn more calories and do some weights (plus I love the buzz you get from a good workout).
I have found this amazing gym in Plymouth, although am just a pay as you go member at the moment. It's fairly new so the equipment is all great, but what I love most is that the weight machines are really well laid out and grouped in which parts of the body they work (e.g. all the arm stuff together, all back and chest together, legs together etc). It just makes the workout so much easier, because you can just work around the pods and you know that you are getting a full body workout. Also, as there are so many machines, you never have to wait.
So I am thinking about joining this gym and leaving my Uni gym which is small and which I rarely go to as it's always packed and I hate the weights area. However I wouldn't be able to afford £30 per month for this new gym, but they have an offer on at the moment, £250 for the year which works out at £20 per month which is much more affordable and I do have the cash at the moment to pay for it.
However, I am scared that I won't use it for the whole year as I've signed up to gyms in the past and then not gone very quickly. Although that was when I was in a very different stage in my life, binging, not eating healthily, not very happy etc. Plus my sister has signed up to this gym and she is very motivated. The offer is on till the end of Jan, so I've got a few more days to mull it over.
Have many of you signed up to a years membership?
Yesterday was my rest day, but still had some spare calories from exercise from the days before, so treated myself to a flapjack. My nutrition profile wasn't very good yesterday as I try to limit my carbs to 40%, eat more protein and each as many good fats as possible as opposed to bad ones but yesterday's profile was 53/9/38. However since Jan first, my average profile has been 36/19/42 and I think averages are much more important than the odd blip.
Hope you all have a good day!
Food cals yesterday: 1825
Exercise: 0
I went for the Wk1 WO2 C25K run today and it was beautiful. It was so sunny and crisp, it made me go past where I was due to turn back just to be able to keep looking at the view. In my limited experience of running, this is always the part which I think makes running or walking outside far exceed the gym. I still love the gym as it is convenient etc, but it can't compete when it comes to the location :)
What is your favourite part about the exercise you do?
But I am off to the gym this afternoon. This is an unscheduled gym session, but because the C25K programme only requires 20 mins at the moment, and I don't want to exceed it and push it too far to fast, I am going to go to the gym to burn more calories and do some weights (plus I love the buzz you get from a good workout).
I have found this amazing gym in Plymouth, although am just a pay as you go member at the moment. It's fairly new so the equipment is all great, but what I love most is that the weight machines are really well laid out and grouped in which parts of the body they work (e.g. all the arm stuff together, all back and chest together, legs together etc). It just makes the workout so much easier, because you can just work around the pods and you know that you are getting a full body workout. Also, as there are so many machines, you never have to wait.
So I am thinking about joining this gym and leaving my Uni gym which is small and which I rarely go to as it's always packed and I hate the weights area. However I wouldn't be able to afford £30 per month for this new gym, but they have an offer on at the moment, £250 for the year which works out at £20 per month which is much more affordable and I do have the cash at the moment to pay for it.
However, I am scared that I won't use it for the whole year as I've signed up to gyms in the past and then not gone very quickly. Although that was when I was in a very different stage in my life, binging, not eating healthily, not very happy etc. Plus my sister has signed up to this gym and she is very motivated. The offer is on till the end of Jan, so I've got a few more days to mull it over.
Have many of you signed up to a years membership?
Yesterday was my rest day, but still had some spare calories from exercise from the days before, so treated myself to a flapjack. My nutrition profile wasn't very good yesterday as I try to limit my carbs to 40%, eat more protein and each as many good fats as possible as opposed to bad ones but yesterday's profile was 53/9/38. However since Jan first, my average profile has been 36/19/42 and I think averages are much more important than the odd blip.
Hope you all have a good day!
Food cals yesterday: 1825
Exercise: 0
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Targets
I had a mini fitness breakdown yesterday, I was feeling quite despondent as I couldn't see my fitness improving and seemed to be losing motivation very quickly!
I posted on Weight Loss Resources and the lovely people there gave me some really good advice and one thing which I think I definitely need to do is to set some targets and create a training plan.
So.... I have entered the Great West 5k run in May and so will be starting the C25k training programme tomorrow in preparation. I will stick to this training plan regardless of whether it's raining or not!
In addition, I will be going to the gym 2x per week and either do just weights, or other cardio such as the rower or cross trainer and weights.
I think that having this target will be very beneficial for me.
Today food wise I've been within calorie allowance, although the type of food has not been great as it included a toastie and a chelsea bun! Tomorrow I have a day off Uni, so will be able to eat nice healthy food tomorrow :)
Calories: 1572
Exercise: 30 mins exercise DVD: 239 cals
I posted on Weight Loss Resources and the lovely people there gave me some really good advice and one thing which I think I definitely need to do is to set some targets and create a training plan.
So.... I have entered the Great West 5k run in May and so will be starting the C25k training programme tomorrow in preparation. I will stick to this training plan regardless of whether it's raining or not!
In addition, I will be going to the gym 2x per week and either do just weights, or other cardio such as the rower or cross trainer and weights.
I think that having this target will be very beneficial for me.
Today food wise I've been within calorie allowance, although the type of food has not been great as it included a toastie and a chelsea bun! Tomorrow I have a day off Uni, so will be able to eat nice healthy food tomorrow :)
Calories: 1572
Exercise: 30 mins exercise DVD: 239 cals
Monday, 17 January 2011
Mondays
Why is it Mondays always seem such bad days? I think partly it's because I don't get as much sleep as I go to bed later on a Sunday than Mon-Thurs, but that's not surprising. Then it didn't help when I went to my car and discovered that my wing mirror had been snapped off (and not in a way that it can just be slotted back on, it will need a mechanic), however food wise, I seem to have been alright today.
The good thing about Monday (for balance) is that I have a pretty full day of lectures and so don't get bored which I find can sometimes be a trigger for overeating. But I do get tired on Mondays and so my motivation to do exercise is pretty much zilch. And this is where I really struggle, finding the energy to do exercise when I have a full day. It was the same when I was working, it was so hard to find the energy to do exercise after working all day and I just cannot seem to get up earlier to do it in the morning. However, I'm hoping to get a part time job soon which will mean less free time and once I finish my degree, no doubt I will have the same issues then. So I need to get into the habit of making the time to do exercise even if I'm a bit tired.
I have just posted on Weight Loss Resources, (which I use to log all my food and exercise), that my only exercise this evening will be to get my duvet from upstairs and watch telly, but I think I might do my 30 Day Shred DVD first as this is only 20 minutes long and anyone can find 20 minutes!!! Sometimes it is mind over matter with me, but excuses is what got me overweight in the first place, so even though I am much better than I used to be, there is still room for improvement and not listening to my excuses will be a good improvement I think!
Hmm, I feel much better now after writing this!
Food cals: 1300
Exercise: To do 20 mins of 30 day Shred!
The good thing about Monday (for balance) is that I have a pretty full day of lectures and so don't get bored which I find can sometimes be a trigger for overeating. But I do get tired on Mondays and so my motivation to do exercise is pretty much zilch. And this is where I really struggle, finding the energy to do exercise when I have a full day. It was the same when I was working, it was so hard to find the energy to do exercise after working all day and I just cannot seem to get up earlier to do it in the morning. However, I'm hoping to get a part time job soon which will mean less free time and once I finish my degree, no doubt I will have the same issues then. So I need to get into the habit of making the time to do exercise even if I'm a bit tired.
I have just posted on Weight Loss Resources, (which I use to log all my food and exercise), that my only exercise this evening will be to get my duvet from upstairs and watch telly, but I think I might do my 30 Day Shred DVD first as this is only 20 minutes long and anyone can find 20 minutes!!! Sometimes it is mind over matter with me, but excuses is what got me overweight in the first place, so even though I am much better than I used to be, there is still room for improvement and not listening to my excuses will be a good improvement I think!
Hmm, I feel much better now after writing this!
Food cals: 1300
Exercise: To do 20 mins of 30 day Shred!
Sunday, 16 January 2011
Hello
So today was actually quite a hard day diet and fitness wise. Last night I went out for an amazing dinner with my family to celebrate my mum's birthday (I saved my exercise calories last week in preparation and used some from today) and had a goats cheese soufle for starters, duck with dauphinoise potatoes and some lovely green veg for main and an amazing pavlova for dessert (plus a couple of glasses of bubbly) - it was delicious!!! But I think the heavy meal did play havoc with me today.
Firstly, my exercise this morning was hard (harder than normal)! I did 20 mins of Nell McAndrew's Ultimate challenge DVD (great DVD!), 20 mins of weights and 20 more minutes of Nell. Plus at the end, I did 4 x 30 second on the spot sprints with 30 seconds rest in between as I was reminded about HIIT again recently when my sister saw it on the One Show. The exercise nearly killed me and I've felt pretty shattered for the rest of the day.
The rest of the day has been pretty dull as I've been doing some Uni work and the weather has been lousy, and I think the combination of all that has just made me want to eat!! I even ate ice cream today which I rarely do anymore (I stopped eating sugar unintentionally a few months ago), then I had some toast and cheese as a snack....
Dinner tonight is salmon with some potatoes and veg and as long as I don't eat anything else, I should still be within my calorie allowance for the day. Hopefully tomorrow will be easier as I'm at Uni all day and so find it much easier when I'm busy.
Exercise cals: 700
Food cals: 1384 (as long as I don't eat anything extra!)
Firstly, my exercise this morning was hard (harder than normal)! I did 20 mins of Nell McAndrew's Ultimate challenge DVD (great DVD!), 20 mins of weights and 20 more minutes of Nell. Plus at the end, I did 4 x 30 second on the spot sprints with 30 seconds rest in between as I was reminded about HIIT again recently when my sister saw it on the One Show. The exercise nearly killed me and I've felt pretty shattered for the rest of the day.
The rest of the day has been pretty dull as I've been doing some Uni work and the weather has been lousy, and I think the combination of all that has just made me want to eat!! I even ate ice cream today which I rarely do anymore (I stopped eating sugar unintentionally a few months ago), then I had some toast and cheese as a snack....
Dinner tonight is salmon with some potatoes and veg and as long as I don't eat anything else, I should still be within my calorie allowance for the day. Hopefully tomorrow will be easier as I'm at Uni all day and so find it much easier when I'm busy.
Exercise cals: 700
Food cals: 1384 (as long as I don't eat anything extra!)
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