Fit Friday: Cassius Edition

And it's been a while! Since I could, something something blah....

Well, this week has been the complete opposite of fit, but for once through NO FAULT OF MY OWN. It was actually ALL Hannah's fault. She gave me a delightful cold and I've spent the entire week just trying to breathe. So, as you can imagine there hasn't been a whole lot of gym action this week, as in zero. I mostly haven't left bed. I have been going crazy.

Eating wise, it's been a bit shameful. I've not really tracked and I've not really cared. Illness is no time for restriction. I did have an orange though, yay VIT C.

So this week, I'd really like to work on getting back to it. The night before I fell ill with Hannah's devil flu, I printed all these geeky cool charts and tracking sheets off to stick on my wall. I was all raring to be motivated and awesome. Now, the first four days of each thing have horrible red zeroes and crosses on, so that's a little disheartening. However, it shouldn't be too difficult to rediscover my awesome.

I think the gym part will be the hardest. I normally only have 1 or 2 consecutive rest days, so 7 or 8 is going to be a bit of a challenge. Let's just hope I still remember how to do a squat...

How fit has your week been?

Fit Friday: Scotch edition

Workout schedule:

Friday: Circuits
Saturday: Rest day
Sunday: Circuits
Monday: GRIT cardio
Tuesday: Rest day
Wednesday: Bootcamp
Thursday: GRIT strength

Happy?
This week is definitely an improvement on last week! I usually do a class on Tuesday but was so tired and just knew it would be pointless going. Sometimes you have to listen to what your body is telling tou even if you really want to work out. I like to have at least 2 rest days a week or I'll just burn myself out.

What's your eating been like?

Again, better. Saturday was a complete write off because we just ate lots and lots of rubbish all day and had a few drinkies over the weekend but all in all, not too bad. Now it's coming into summer, the weekends are always going to be a bit naughty so I just have to make sure I'm extra good in the week, which I have been!

Weight loss?

My weight fluctuates so much it's hard to keep track. Weighing myself every day doesn't help either so I'm going to try and cut it down a bit, and only really take notice of Friday morning weigh ins. I am currently about 2.5 lbs heavier than my lowest weight, so my current aim is to get back down to that.

Fitness challenge
I finally managed to do my press ups, sit ups and triceps dips challenge! I must admit to missing a couple of days, only because I actually forgot! I managed most of them though and this morning was a killer! 60 sets of each: ouch! I feel slightly stronger though and I do think my press ups are getting better!

I didn't manage my other workout challenge unfortunately just because I didn't want to miss out on any of my usual classes and I haven't had chance to squeeze it in anywhere else. I'm planning to go tomorrow though so I will set myself the same this week.

1 mile sprint
10x kettlebell squat and press
10x kettlebell swing
10x some other exercise I haven't decided on yet
(repeat 10 times)
1 mile sprint

Has anyone tried any new workouts this week?

Fit Friday, more like FAIL Friday

Too much food and too little exercise makes for an unhappy Hannah.

Workout schedule:
Friday: Nothing
Saturday: Rest Day
Sunday: Circuits
Monday: Fail
Tuesday: Rest Day
Wednesday: Boxercise
Thursday: GRIT

Happy?
The weekend was terrible. Monday was even worse. Tuesday was pretty awful. Wednesday was a slight improvement. Thursday, back on track. Not good. I was meant to have a PT on Monday, my first one in ages so I was quite excited, but I was just so tired and run down that I decided not to go. WHYYYY?! I also ate the whole world on Monday. Cakes, coffees, chocolate. WHYYYYYY?! I usually go to HIIT on Tuesdays but it was my dad's birthday so you can let me off for that one! I feel like I weigh 50 stone at the moment. I've managed to turn it round in the last couple of days and I'm writing this before heading off to circuits this morning but it's still not right. It's also now the weekend where it's even harder to stay on track!

How has your eating been?
Like I said: cakes, coffees, chocolate. Oh, and the wine. So much wine. At least eating with Mark in the evenings guarantees that my dinner will be healthy. Its the rest of the day I need to work on. Well, needed to work on. It's over! I'm moving on. I had a bad few days and now I can just forget about it. Onwards and upwards! Hopefully the scale will go downwards.

Fitness Challenge
Surprise, surprise. Another fail.

Last week I set myself the challenge of doing sets of press ups, sit ups and tricep dips. I was going to start with 10 and increase the reps each day. I managed the first set, and that was that. Most of the time it was due to me actually forgetting about it rather than not doing it on purpose, but I could have made more of an effort.

So I am setting myself the same challenge this week along with another. My boyfriend had a CrossFit obsession phase and would trawl the internet reading about it, much to my disdain! Some of the workouts do look pretty good though and he found this huge list of example WODs. I've chosen one that I want to try:

You start with a mile on the treadmill as fast as you go. Then you pick three exercise and do 100 reps of each, ie 10 of exercise one, 10 of exercise two, 10 of exercise three and repeat ten times. Finish with another mile on the treadmill and you're about dead! I was thinking of using a kettlebell and doing weighted squats, bicep curl and press and tricep extensions as my three exercises but that may change.

I'll let you know how I get on! Hopefully next Fit Friday will be more positive and I will have had a better week. Must resist cake, must resist cake...

Fit Friday: Cassius Edition

 

If you saw my instagram post earlier this week, this is the post you've been looking for...

 

How fit was my week on a scale of 1-10? 1 being a cronut, 10 being Gerard Butler circa 300.

A good 7. As of Monday a strong 9 but the few days before bring down the average.

What exercise have I done?

Saturday- 5.4K outdoor run
Sunday- A 'fast' 3K
Monday - Body pump class
Tuesday - Kettlebells class
Wednesday - Step class
Thursday- Spin, pump abs class
Friday- Planning a 5K run later

What has my eating been like?

Up until Monday, not brilliant. As of Monday, ON POINT. I've got back into my tracking, I've calculated a 40/40/20 ratio for my macros. I am eating much more protein and so much less carbs. I am eating regularly, in small portions. I am snacking on veg, fruit or nakd bars. I am drinking in excess of 3 litres of water a day.

How have I felt?

Good. I've been feeling positive, but achey. I feel less bloated and I'm never hungry.

Have I lost any weight?

SO. I finally remembered to go to Boots and weigh myself. I almost wish that I hadn't. Without even realising I have reached my heaviest ever weight. About 16 pounds heavier than when I last weighed myself at the end of January. I don't feel that much fatter. It's all the more disappointing because of how 'on it' I have been this week. But now I know, and since I'm already 'on it' I know that next week will be better.
I guess I just hadn't been eating well at all until this week, because I have definitely been working out more than I ever did in Manchester. I was obviously just eating back all the calories and more. Well, no more. This week before I even weighed myself I switched up my eating plan as detailed above. I'm eating lots of protein and averaging about 1200 net cals. This should definitely lead to weight loss next week.
I'm sticking to it 100% because cheating would only be cheating myself! etc. Thinking back over the last few weeks there has been a lot of ice cream, and there was a lot of chocolate before I started my 100 day challenge. I could well have been a few pounds heavier last week, I just didn't know!
And I think that is why scales are important to me right now. I know there are stories of people becoming obsessed with the numbers but I think at this point it is important for me to hold myself accountable for my eating each week, and to see results so that I know all my hard work is paying off.

The thing is, when you start out as FAT and then lose a stone, you still look fat. So it is nice to know the numbers so that you know for sure you are heading in the right direction.
This could easily be a very depressing moment for me. I am the heaviest I've ever been, ever. However, I can turn it around. This is a new motivation, this isn't failure, I'm not dead yet.

What would I like to work on next week?

I want to keep going at 100%, I need to see a loss on the scales next week just so I know I am not going crazy, or have some sort of medical condition. I need to focus on extra stretching this week, I am very stiff at the moment, and it is making efficient workouts harder.

Are you feeling FIT?

Protein is your friend.

I loooove protein! I've been trying to up my intake recently as I've increased my exercise and I get very sore very easily! You can get protein from lots of different foods: meat, fish, eggs, beans, nuts and seeds. So, I get to eat more chicken? Cool! My protein obsession of the month is hard boiled eggs. I make a batch at the beginning of the week and they make great snacks throughout the day or after a workout. Also extremely tasty with a salad or a few slices of toast. Yay for eggs!

I would also get nowhere without my protein powder! Although I love chicken, I don't actually eat a lot of meat so this acts as a great substitute and has so many different uses. At the moment, I have Holland and Barrett's banana flavoured whey protein. It has 83 calories per scoop and 16.6g of protein. I think it's great because it tastes really good and Holland and Barrett always have offers on. Perfect if you're on a budget like me!

There are so many great ways to incorporate protein powder into your diet. My favourite so far is protein 'pancakes'. I've always had a very unhealthy obsession with pancakes and although these aren't quite the same as the classic pancake, they are a great substitute and are very filling! The recipe I use is here (thanks for the referral Cassius!) I usually have the rest of the banana, some blueberries and maple syrup over the top.  I'd be interested to try them with different flavoured protein powders, like chocolate or cookies and cream!

Another great protein fix is, of course, the smoothie!! I cannot get enough of smoothies. They are so delicious and there are so many flavour options! My favourite would have to be banana and peanut butter, even better when you add some protein powder. You can pretty much mix anything in a blender with milk and it tastes delicious! Great for breakfast or pre/post workout too.

Another protein recipe that I recently discovered is mixing the powder with fat free greek yogurt, bananas and berries. You've probably noticed that I have a slight penchant for bananas... I'm trying to keep it to no more than one a day! With the greek yogurt, I add a bit of honey or maple syrup just to make it slightly sweeter and I find the ingredients gel together better. You can buy greek yogurt with honey already added too. I wouldn't use a whole scoop of powder unless you're using A LOT of greek yogurt because it starts to go really powdery and not very nice if you do. I love having this for breakfast because it's low calorie but it fills me up all morning.

I'm always on the look out for new recipes to make use of my powder and my next step is to buy more flavour options to mix things up a little. If you haven't tried it yet, I would highly recommend buying some!