To Lift or Not To Lift...!

My arms a burnin'...... Almost a ya' sammity Sam moment lol

Today I woke up and I felt as though my switch has finally clicked. It's my choices, my choices define me and they will help me achieve my small goals.

Anyway lol today is a great day.... I got up, downed my shakeology shake and got into my warrior gear - my uniform if you will! and the hubby put me through my weights workout.

Sadly I hurt my lower spine on the lower set of declining bench presses ; as I went to get up I jarred my lower back and so modified with the picture you see below, with my legs raised on a step.

Aaron agrees that we can incorporate more moves in the future for my triceps and delts :) yay lol

I don't want create a stale workout programme and not enjoy the journey - I can understand that some MUST follow a strick routine in order to appear in a body competition but at the moment I am just trying to increase my threshold BUT I am open to advice and tweaks if necessary.

I feel fantastic and I wanted to share that with you. Now it is time for a lovely quick stir fry and ALOT of water, this is a difficult for me as I can be quite absent minded with my water but I will be trying ;)

Much love
Em x

Workout is - as workout does!

Why yes she did get off her arse and get a workout done :)

Not much but it's done. Had a few snaffoo's whilst trying to get it done though, whilst sorting myself out I managed to cut my thumb tip open with my index finger nail! My hand slipped and it caught it - me not realising then made matters worse by getting blood on the sofa. When all sorted I thought 'screw this' and decided that the workout WILL continue only to find halfway through that I would in fact roll my dodgy ankle......the ankle I mention in my 'about'. Utter panic ensued, I heard it click - is it broken again??? It 'seems' ok so far so I will keep an eye on it today and as I must head off to my family's home soon I will test it with a walk.

Needless to say the workout got finished - all 45 minutes of it and now I must shower or that's just not fair on the hubby lol :)

It felt good to sweat and I had that wonderful happy feeling after that I knew I had made the right decision to workout and stop being a pity party!

Although it seems that the universe is against me with all my hic-ups it still got done ;)

That's 485 calories gone bye bye and I will enjoy the rest of my day off.
My poor hubby is sadly injured at the moment which is what brought a quick holt to our running schedule .... He bent down after running and the back of his knee popped!!! Doctors appointment ASAP I hope as he can't run and he wants to.

On the whole there are not enough words in my vocab to say how thankful I am for all your kind words these past few days - it has literally blown me away and gave me such motivation to continue - and for that I thank you all

Em x

Time to reboot...!!!

Sometimes as a person we make mistakes, and sometimes that mistake is falling back into old habits!!!

Often you find yourself in a situation you have been in the past and without a second thought you are shoving your hand into a giant bag of pretzels, or 2 bagels, junk, junk and more junk!

I have been feeling so ill the last few days......just bloated, nauseous, uncomfortable and down right awful :-(

I will be honest I have tried to reach out to some friends that I hoped I could confide in but sadly I was unable to reach anyone and so here I am being accountable.

Due to the original reasons for my weight gains and yo-yo's it has become a reality that I will always need to have a grip on my health and the realisation that I am worth the bloody effort!

The idea that I will always battle my weight is terrifying to me. The idea that I could really f*$k up and gain it all back and more has me stopping as I type. Yes I realise that this was/is me hitting the proverbial wall and yes it sounds 'woe is me' but sometimes you need to focus on yourself - especially when you feel isolated and alone. By this I mean being able to identify to anyone or a situation similar to my own.

I am however my own person, my own story and I now realise my own inspiration. It is going through these moments, days, weeks and food f*$k up's that will make me ultimately stronger and able to rely upon my judgement.

I am no advocate to 'perfection', hell i don't think that even exists, and I do sometimes f*$k up BUT I am learning as I go. Nutrition is and always be my Achilles heel!

I have been soul searching, if that is indeed possible, for a while and I have found that I don't crave an ideal body, or perfect abs or delts... WHAT I WANT IS CONFIDENCE! The ability to stand in front of or walk past a mirror and not grimace!

The final point is; what am I willing to do to achieve inner confidence???

Well honestly I want to smile when I see my reflection or put on a dress. I have NEVER been one to do the whole 'I'll start on Monday' thing but as my husband pointed out tonight, the week starts over on a Monday - why not refocus!

And so I am - my focus is me, as selfish as it may appear. I am the only one who can better my health - my choices and behaviour define me (that is my belief) and I am choosing to continue with my journey.

I am making a dedication - hell even a promise - to myself, my husband and to all of you in the Internet void that I WILL SUCEED and tomorrow is just a good a day as any.

I hope you will all join me in this journey and PLEASE understand that I am only human and I make mistakes.

I am going to go to bed and 'reboot' my drive, mojo and motivation. I will awake in the morning with a feeling of self-worth and accomplishment.

I hope you are all ready to see posts from me everyday :-) you are not rid of me yet lol

Sending love and most of all a smile :-D

Em x

Once Upon a Pumpkin Soup!!!

Well it is official I am all better now :-)

Worst cold/man flu/bird flu/what ever it was!!! I am happy it has left my system.

So I am back to preparing meals in advance and today was an autumn pumpkin soup but as you can see from the picture it had so much more than pumpkin lol

All diced and chucked into a HUGE saucepan with 1 litre of boiling water in it and then I added cumin, chilli flakes, parsley, basil, turmeric and 2 vegetable stock cubes and a broth cube!

I boiled it before I left for work - after 35 mins I turned off the heat and left the lid on. When I came back on my break I blended it and portioned it up! And all done..... I did have a rather special moment though lol (when don't I lol)

After portioning I decided to lick the spoon.... Now is a good time for me to mention that I can't handle hot food!!! A polo mint is often too much for me.... That's right you guessed it, I was coughing and wheezing and my eyes were pouring! Stupid ginger moments of mine lol

If my hubby had been home he would have been laughing his head off! I wasn't silly enough to rub my eye or anything..... Think I will save that for next time lol

I am not sleeping very well at the moment so I have some Horlicks 'light' at the ready for tonight and I WILL sleep....I hope lol

Em x

Food Glorious Food!

So today I cooked - and I cooked to be better prepared for when those 'cravings' attack my nervous system and my sanity lol

I make these mostly for the hubby but my aim is to make them healthy enough that I can enjoy them too.

First was a lasagne - sadly yes it was made with white pasta sheets HOWEVER, no jars were used in the making at all! I made the tomato base using a carton of passata, a tin of chopped tomatoes, seasoning including oregano and then I added the extra lean mince beef along with many vegetables. As for the 'cheese sauce' I took a tub of low low spreadable cheese, used half (50g), added parsley and then boiling water and I melted the cheese!
Once layered up and before putting in the oven I poured the cheese-ish layer on top and let it cook away for roughly 20 mins. I then when cooled portioned it up in a small box with a dollop of mashed potato made with nothing more than almond milk.

Next was a turkey curry - I seasoned the diced extra lean turkey and then added a box of passata along with shredded cabbage, leek, mushroom, sweet corn, bell pepper, carrot and when cooked I remove from the heat and pour on top a container of fat free natural yogurt - season with turmeric before stirring and do not re heat as it will curdle!

I boxed up the curry with 2 table spoons of chickpea dahl for texture

These are now boxed up and in the freezer ..... Tomorrow I tackle the vegetable jungle that is 'soup' !!!!
Wish me luck lol

Out of curiosity what is your favourite health conscious comfort meal??? Xxx

Upper Body ...... OWW!

So my nutrition went to pot over the weekend. A stressful situation at work led to me becoming ill and falling onto food for comfort, when in fact it made me feel worse. No shock there really!

So essentially the hubby put his foot down and insisted on an upper body weights and resistance workout to give my legs a break and I have to say.......it ruddy hurt lol

I am doing a combination of low weights and high reps in order to achieve what I want for my body in the future. Don't get me wrong I would love to wake up tomorrow a toned and lean athlete but that is not going to happen, and even if it could I would miss out on the journey. The sweat and the years and of course the smiles too :-D

I worked a circuit of 4 moves repeated 3 times in succession with minimal breaks but enough to allow me to continue.

I am now feeling great but the arms a little shakey which I was expecting........weights are fun but now it is almost 1am here and it is time for bed.

Night peeps in the great Internet void lol
Xxx

Day 7 - So Sore and So Tired!

The second day of running and I can honestly say I was in agony! We are trying to do more morning runs as our first race together is in the morning (10am) so we know we need to get used to it.

The last couple of days I have been in agony with an extremely tender and sore stomach (I would say Abs but I don't have any lol), I was stopping constantly on Monday just through fear of being sick while running and today my stomach area especially at the bottom of the rib cage feels bruised and too sensitive to touch ..... I coughed earlier - I swear I thought my midriff had imploded pmsl

Alarm went off at 7:15am and we were out the door and warmed up by 7:45am from the start my legs felt like lead, almost as if they were too tight to move but I know we stretched well as I am prone to injuries when I do not..

The head wind today was punishing and although hand on heart I did not want to give up, I sure felt as though I was letting Aaron down by not being better than Monday!

Just to put it out there though - the rudeness of some runners, pedestrians and cars is unreal, atleast when running at night there is a calmness that flows but in the morning holy crap people are in a fowl mood! Half the runners who passed us looked at us in a passing glance but made no effort to smile, nod or even wave a hand, pedestrians seemed to go out of there way to actually get in the way lol and cars would continue to drive across the zebra crossing despite us being on it!!!!

Overall not a great run lol it was only 1 minute longer than our first run so all in all I can't be too disappointed but I think we may need to get up 30 mins earlier to avoid the hustle and bustle. When I am able to hold form and continue running then the busyness will not bother me but in these early stages I just want to trip people up lol

Time to throw myself onto the foam roller and then it is shower time and then off to work.

As I send this blog into the great void that is the Internet - I wonder which time of running you prefer or train too...... Morning or evening/night?

Have a great Wednesday everyone xxx

Day 5 - Run Ginger Run!

Holy crap! I am pretty sure my lungs have exploded....if you happen to be walking along the seafront at any point and find pieces of them please hand them back lol

Today was the start of mine and my hubby's half marathon training and it hurt lol After scouring the Internet and many of our running magazines we have decided to use the Runners World Half Marathon Training guide which has us running at 3 and 5 mile intervals for the next 4 weeks!

The most I have ever managed is 5k in 39 minutes and 4 seconds and that hurt so I am aware that I am mentally not quite ready for the strain this will cause HOWEVER I am excited about it.
New experiences, better strength and endurance and achieving that 'runners high'!

The scenery on our 3 mile jog tonight was GORGEOUS......it was dark, raining (quite gently), all the lights were on and the waves were crashing - it really was lovely - it's a shame I was weasing so much I could barely take it all in lol

We managed the 3 miles - sadly it took over 45 minutes BUT I can only hope it will improve with time, sheer guts and plenty of steam in my shoes hehe!

I may have made a small and very cheap impulse buy a couple of days ago and it arrived this morning ...... A foam roller and it came with a free skipping rope - it hurts soooo good lol I was laughing it was so painful but good gosh it worked.
My legs feel as though they have shrunk lol if anyone knows of any moves I can use on the foam roller please clue me in - I only know the basic four (quads, glutes, lats and IT bands)!!!

I will be downing a lot of water and then heading to bed - if I can walk in a straight line that is lol

GOOD NIGHT EVERYONE xxx the training has begun x

Day 4 - Rest Day! Who Rests!

Sunday is usually rest day! ......and by rest day I mean going to work until 10 tonight and before I leave for work I clean until my arms ache!

I find housework so calming! Just putting everything back in its rightful place seems to put everything back straight in my head lol!

I reached the final straw at my work yesterday - the unnecessary stress and anger is now too much and not helping ! I have a degree and I want to utilise it and achieve .... Already applied for 2 positions last night lol

I will when I get a chance today be trying to find some new music to run too when running alone as my playlist has become a little stale..... I may be some time lol

Tomorrow I will be out pounding the pavement and hopefully not hitting it face first......pavement face is sooo not attractive lol

What does everyone like to do on there rest days? Xx

Day 3 - One Nasty Comment and My Day Went Splat!

I went into work yesterday morning with a spring in my step and a smile on my face. I had that morning signed up to take part in my first 10k and I could not have been more excited.

When a customer (who claims to be an avid runner) asked me how my running was going and when I mentioned I had signed up for my first 10k he looked surprised and made a 'comment' regarding my weight an how if I were lighter my time would improve!

WHAT AN ARSE!

I came home on my break in a foul mood and feeling incredibly low - I didn't want to go on my planned run, I wanted to curl up in the foetal position and let him win. I guess it's fair to say he did win!

I felt utterly deflated in one sentence, he managed to make my goal of running the Inca marathon seem impossible. No his opinion should not matter and no it should not bother me but it did. Everyone has a 'soft spot' and he put a knife into mine!

I went back to work (I work split shifts) and ended up coming home at around midnight completely drained of all hope. Until I spoke with my husband who sat with me and reminded me of a few things. I should never let the comments of a supposed 'runner' harm me when he was probably forcing his own demons onto me! If that makes sense!

Sadly this morning I slept trough my alarm (I think the few years I shed took it out of me lol)........however I got straight up and went through my runners world mags to find a half marathon training plan whilst making a healthy breakfast!

Today's breakfast was an egg white omelette with cherry tomatoes and 1oz of goats cheese, with a cut up apple and pear. It was refreshing.

I will not let a nasty comment define me! In the words of confusious - fall down 7 times, get up 8!

Good Morning Everyone have a fantastic day xxx

Day 2

Day 2 - The Most Spontaneous I Have Ever Been Happened Last Night!

First of all let me start by thanking each and everyone of you for your support. When I logged on last night and saw the comments and motivation it literally took my breath away and I can't thank you all enough. 

I discovered yesterday that in March next year there is a half marathon on the Silverstone Race Track and as someone who enjoys her fair share of F1 I immediately invited a friend to join me (it will be her first half too I think) and before I knew it I had made a commitment (as in I told my husband and he will hold accountable until I pay for them). I, with the help and support from FB group Running The World (https://www.facebook.com/groups/runningtw/) 

will be taking part in a 10k in Dec/Jan THEN my first half marathon on February 17th - the Portsmouth Half AND THEN the Silverstone Half on March 3rd.

My hands are literally shaking with excitement as I type this. I have never been this spontaneous and the idea that I can AND WILL accomplish all this for the first time has lit a fire under me.

I am aware this will be hard and there will be tears and tantrums (mostly all at once I think lol) I want to experience all of that. I may not have been able to do this at size 24 and 18 stone but I will do this NOW hehe!

I am now on the hunt via the lovely WWW, to find a training plan that works and I am doing my research on injury prevention....figure it may help lol!

That being said I did sleep through my 6:30am alarm this morning and work up and gone 9am so no time to workout this morning BUT I will be going for a jog on my break this afternoon. I will be posting a 'mugshot' as accountability.

Again Thank You all xxx

Em x

p.s. if any of you know of, or have used a training programme, that worked for you please do pass it on to me. I would like to use a plan knowing that it worked x ty x

Day 1 - We All Need to Start Somewhere!

Good Morning :-)

Such pressure! With my first post :-P lol

My aim here is to be myself and to 'keep it real'.
Today (11/10/12) my alarm went off at 6:30am.... My leg popped out from under the covers at 7am and I dragged my ass out of bed by 7:15 :-P it has been a while since I got up to workout before the sun was even up. It was so incredibly dark BUT the workout has been done :-)
Today's workout was 35 minutes of Beachbody's Brazil Butt Lift 'Bum Bum' and my legs are jelly!
I strongly believe in changing things up to keep the muscles guessing ;-)

I cannot stand plateau's, I have struggled with so many of them. And I heard so many excuses such as 'maybe your body is just used to be bigger', 'your body doesn't want to change', 'you aren't meant to be smaller'.
Each time it has taken pure grit but I push through and prove the 'haters' wrong! It is just taking time lol

Before hitting the shower I am downing a shake made with banana, almond milk and natural whole earth peanut butter :-)

If you would like to keep up with me please feel free to add me on myfitnesspal ..... Can you guess the username :-P that's right it GingerNinja UK
Lol xxx

How do you all manage or cope with plateau's? Xxx
Have a fantastic day