Early Morning Gym Bliss

I woke up early this morning to get in the gym for my first workout of three for the week. It was a struggle as I didn’t go to bed until 2am, so my eyes were shut while I was getting dressed. I always have to be so quiet as to not wake my boyfriend up, but I always manage to drop something and he opens his eyes and says “well done”. He knows how much I want to lose weight and how much of a struggle it is to get up early and go to the gym before work, so it’s sweet to hear his encouragement.

I walked fast to the gym as it was quite chilly. Once I got there I did a fast 5 minutes on the rowing machine and then headed downstairs to the weights section. I mainly worked on the thighs and calves and then finished the 40 minute session with 15 minutes on th treadmill. It was hard work but I felt so good for doing it.

I weighed myself today and I am the same. I obviously need to start focussing more on what i’m eating and trying to think less about food. I am still snacking here and there and I had some alcohol on the weekend, which I could cut down on, as well as the chocolates/sweets. I haven’t had much but I kind of gave in to eating sugary things and desserts on Friday and Saturday night.

I will focus this week and let you know how it goes. I ate pasta tonight, home cooked with no extra sugar or excessive oil. I feel really full and I’m not looking at eating anything else before bed.

Good night, FFF

I’ve been gyming it like mad

Since the start of my new fitness regime two weeks ago, I have been back at the gym. I manage to get roughly 40 minutes in before work in the mornings. As i felt slightly unfit, due to the lack of gym activity for a few months, I started on week 1 with just 2 days and then on the second week I managed to get a 3rd day in. It’s my aim now to stay at this rate and try and get three 40 minute sessions in a week.

I do however feel that I need some advice. I would love to have a session with a trainer to see what I should be doing and trying to make the most out of my 40 minute sessions. I try and do 15 minutes of cardio and then the rest weights. I focus the weight activity on the legs one morning, arms another and then on the third morning all body. Not very accurate, but that’s what I’m hoping to sort out soon

I really enjoyed my extra long session today as I had the day off work and so spent an hour working out. I ran for 15 minutes on the treadmill and also did 10 minutes on the cross trainer. I then went downstairs and did some weights, focussing on my legs and stomach and then made my way home for a nice long, warm shower.

There was this really weird and annoying guy in the gym today though, he stood at the treadmill and turned the speed right up so that it was scarily fast and then jumped on and ran for a couple of minutes at a time, with stops in between. He looked in real pain and was totally out of breath. It can’t be good, can it?

I was running at approx 8km/h and managed 2km…now I’m not sure how good that is, I suspect it isn’t very good, but it felt the right speed and I was sweating loads.

Any tips/ideas on what I should do in the gym to maximise weight loss and increase body toning, welcome!

I’m back and so is the weight

I’m back again, it has been almost 9 months since my last blog entry and since then I have managed to put all my weight back on again. Two weeks ago, I was back at 100kg. It took a long while to put the weight back on, I managed to keep it off right up until Christmas and then it was a downward spiral from there. One excuse from another. I’m not totally sure why, apart from the eating and not going to the gym enough, I don’t really understand why I let myself get back to my old weight?

Here are some of the reasons:

- Lack of motivation due to long work hours: I now have to go to the gym three times a week before work, so that means early mornings and getting ready quickly in the morning to get to work on time. I could go after work, but I just wouldn’t have the energy.

- Cold weather: throughout the winter months, having to wake up early while it was still dark was a big struggle. I also go to bed quite late, so sleeping is important to me.

- Losing sight of my main aim: I let others things get to me, I started to get back into old habits and eating comfort foods to supposedly ‘help’ me after a hard day’s work. I also didn’t set myself an actual weight loss target, I think that was also a problem.

- Getting too many weight loss compliments from everyone: My boyfriends parents, my family and friends were all noticing my weight loss. Losing 10kg did make a significant difference to the way I looked, but it also gave me more confidence, so I started wearing jeans again and buying more fitted clothes. But deep down, I knew it wasn’t enough and I couldn’t see the person I wanted to be yet in the mirror. I should have just been happy with what I had managed to do already and how far I had come along, but I started to get down about it and gradually lost interest and lost the will to succeed…what was the point?

There were other reasons, which I will touch on when in my future entries, but there were also lots of positives that came with the weight loss.

I started back on my fitness and weight loss regime two weeks ago, Mon 7 April. I will now start planning my comeback and will document all.

Wish me luck!

FFF

New job, new gym and new fitness programme.

Yes…finally, I have managed to start losing weight again. It has been a good few weeks now that my weight has stayed the same and I had been sporadically going to the gym. I had a really busy week last week and only managed to get to the gym twice. I am on track to go three times this week but we’ll see what happens I suppose.

I had a great workout at the gym today. My day started well with me getting lots of chores out of the way and event though I set off late, I decided to walk to the gym. It is a good 30 minutes walk but as the London weather is so lovely today and I wasn’t in a mad rush, I though I might as well enjoy the walk and it always doubles up as a warm up. I was like the cartoon character ‘Road Runner’ and was speeding my way towards the gym listening to some amazing music (The Cure, The Raconteurs, LCD Soundsystem and many others). I was weaving my way round slow moving people and over taking like a power walking champion! I had worked up quite a good sweat by the time I arrived at the gym.

It was quite busy today with the same guys that usually hang around there during the day. They love watching themselves in the mirror and watching all the girls. It’s quite funny when I catch them looking at me or other girls while we are on various weight machines, they can’t resist!

I did 10 mins on the bike, 5 minutes (really fast) on the rowing machine then went over to the weight machines where I did more or less 3 rounds of 20-30 reps on most machines. I then finished the session with a 15 minutes on the treadmill, 10 minutes of that I was running. I felt really pleased with myself and am looking forward to the rest of the week’s workouts….in my NEW gym!

Yes! I joined my new gym today as well, it is just down the road so it’s better for me to go to the gym before/after work. I went in and sorted out all the payments and had my picture taken for my card and booked in for my induction, which is on Wednesday. After that, I can then meet my personal trainer for my 6 week workout plan. It’s all very exciting, I can’t wait to have a plan to work to and hopefully see better results. I will let you all know how it goes.

I also bought my first pair of jeans in 5 years! Yes, I feel absolutely amazing these days and my confidence has increased and my body has started to change with he weight I have started to lose. As a result, I thought I’d try a pair on today and I loved them. So I am going to see what my boyfriend thinks and if he gives them the thumbs up too I’ll keep them.

I also forgot to mention, I got a new job! I underwent a whole series of interviews and tests last week and I got the call saying they want me for the job. I start in two weeks, hence why I decided to swap gyms. I am going to have to start buying some new clothes for my new job – I need to look the part I am also aiming to lose more weight before I start, just to give me that little bit more confidence for my first day, wish me luck!

Changing Gyms

I have been waiting to change my gym until I moved house so that I could see what the new local gym is like. Well the new gym is great and for just £5 more a month compared to my current one, I get a session with the personal trainer evey month. Now, all of you who have been reading my blog over the last few months will know that this is just what I need. I have been in real need of some direction and help with my gym sessions. I always have a really good workout when I’m in the gym and U have started to see results but I still think I could benefit from having some proper advice and someone helping me with  more specific exercises to target different parts of my body.

Once I have my session, I’ll write it all up here to share with you all.

But before that, I actually have to try to leave my current gym, Fitness First. They are being really annoying about my 1 month notice. I have been with them for well over a year and a half now and they said that they need a month’s notice, which is fair enough. But the month has to be at the beginning of the month! So, even though I had handed in my notice on 18th April, I still have to pay for the whole of May. Therefore my gym membership won’t finish until beginning of June. I am quite annoyed but there isn’t much I can do. I just hate the way companies always make things so hard to cancel direct debits. If they say one month’s notice then it should be just that, not one month and several more weeks.

Shame as I was really looking forward to going to a gym 5 mins walk away from my house instead of 30 mins and a bus ride back. Can’t wait for June!

I’ll keep you updated on the progress.

I have been gyming it…I promise!

I know, I know, I have been awful lately in updating my blog. I must admit though, some of that has got to do with the fact that I have been really busy and haven’t made it to the gym as often as I usually do. So you could say I’ve been slightly ashamed and also not so motivated to write because of it. I have also stayed the same weight over the last 3 weeks, which isn’t brilliant as I was hoping to keep losing weight but at least I didn’t put any on.

It was back to normal last week though, I managed to get to the gym 3 times and as I hadn’t been going too regularly for two weeks before that, I decided to take it easy and did a full hour but reduced the weights slightly and the reps.

I did however have a great session at the gym today, I walked there, which took 30 mins fast walking, and then I did a full hours workout with a mixture of cardio and weight training. It felt great and was really motivated on the treadmill too and managed 15 mins fast running. So I am very pleased with myself for that.

Watching the London Marathon on Sunday made me think about whether I could possibly start training and actually run a marathon…I’m not sure if I want to though, it does look really hard! I do know that when I really want to do something, I always do it…so I need to think this one over first! I know two people that have run the marathon before and I know my dad was going to do it a good few years ago but we moved to Iran so he missed the chance. It would be fun and I would really feel like I would be achieving something. I’ll keep mulling this one over I think before I make any commitments, I still need to get a lot fitter first, maybe that should be my initial goal.

I want to start swimming toom I used to love swimming all the time and I am really good at it. There are just three issues I have with swimming: 1) the water, it is always filthy with thing floating about in it 2) i don’t like wearing a swimming costume in front of other people. I mean, we don’t normally dress down to a thin slither of a cloth on an everyday basis in front of other people and so I find it hard to do that when at a swimming pool too. 3) waxing! I would have to have my legs waxed all the time! Now, all those girls out there that have Mediterranean skin and are blessed with lovely dark leg hairs!!! Yes, you know exactly what I’m saying!

International Food Party

Sorry, I have been really busy and haven’t been updating my blog. This post is from Thurs 5 April…I know, I know, there is no decent excuse for this…I am going to try and catch up on everything in different posts.

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As a leaving do for one of the girls at work we arranged an international food party where everyone had to bring food from their country or origin (or a country that they decided to adopt). Well, my boyfriend and I naturally represented Iran and brought a whole host of Iranian delicacies and Shiraz wine (Wikipedia: Its name stems from Shiraz—the city of flowers, wine and poetry in Iran—in the heart of an ancient winemaking region). I cooked KooKoo Sabzi and Loobya Polow (recipes to follow in next posts) and we were treated to Portuguese (Padrón peppers with olive oil and lots of salt as well as pork sausage and Portuguese Verde wine), Israeli (Matza, horseradish, Jewish wine, sweet chutneys), Swiss (cheese fondue and wine), German (potato cakes with apple sauce, red cabbage and German bread) as well as homemade Australian desserts! See images below:

(Anzac biscuits, strawberry and passion fruit Pavlova and Lamingtons). We also had an Australian sing-a-long to Slim Dusty’s The Pub With No Beer. All topped off with some Bundy and coke!

The food was amazing and I must say, as it was staggered, I didn’t eat loads! Very pleased with myself.

A great night was had by all and we danced all night as everyone brought music from their own countries ranging from Kraftwerk and Keltzmer and yoddling music to traditional Iranian dancing songs (especially Baba Karam).

I did also manage to go to the gym yesterday and feel very happy with myself as too much food was consumed at the party! But I couldn’t resist eating food from around the world!

Hayfever, salads and personal trainers

Since moving house and getting over my cold, I haven’t been too brilliant at keeping up with my fitness regime over the last few weeks. I weighed myself this morning and I am the same as last week – which is good considering I only went to the gym once last week and we had a friend round so I drank more alcohol than I usually do and a few meals out.

I went to the gym this morning after a morning of feeling very itchy – my nose just wouldn’t stop itching and the skin on my hands, neck and face has come up in an itchy rash. I get this every summer, as soon as the sun comes out and I start taking antihistamines. So I think it has started now!

I had a great workout which lasted about 1 hour and 15 mins and I then had a lovely walk round town and did some food shopping for the week. I also checked out the gym near my new flat and found out it costs £35/month! That is £5 more than my current gym but I think I will save not having to use the bus there and back 3 times a week. One good thing about the new gym is that a personal trainer is included in the package – I get to have 1 hour with them every month and they set me a training programme – now that sounds great! I have wanted some proper instruction now for quite a while as I feel I might need to work other parts of my body.

Lunch was lovely today, I had one of my gorgeous salads with chicken, giant olives and crackers (see picture below):

I was so full and I am still now, so I will probably be able to hold out until my boyfriend gets home and we can eat dinner together – we have the choice of stir-fry salmon or soup…mmmmm….we’ll see what one he goes for!?

I am hoping to get to the gym 3 times this week, I really need to get back into my routine and lose some more weight in the next weigh-in, so fingers crossed!

It’s still all on track!

I am back online! Yes, the broadband has been connected and I am back on my laptop on the couch writing this! It’s bliss.

I couldn’t weigh myself this Monday, I was staying at my parents’ house and would you believe it…they don’t own a working weighing machine! I also forgot to weight myself on Tuesday morning before I went to work, so a few days late, the results are in, I have lost about 1lbs/0.5kg which I am ecstatic about! I really thought with all my eating halva, biscuits, icecream and drinking beer last week I would have put weight on, but luckily I managed to keep moving and behaving myself with food portions. I also only went to the gym once as I was extremely busy, so it is a relief to know that I can still lose weight even if I’m not on top form.

Managed to get to the gym this morning, I had an excellent workout. I started on the bike and did 10 minutes warm up on the aerobics trainer workout and then did 5 minutes of fast rowing on the machine. Moved over to the weights section and worked my way through all the muscle groups doing reps of 20-30 x 3. It was excellent because I was really working my muscles throughout the weight training section and I had worked up quite a sweat throughout. I then moved over to the step machine and trained on the ‘fat burn’ workout for 15 minutes whilst watching a Poker tournament on tv and listening to some brilliant music on my ipod. The time just flew by as I was totally engrossed in the poker tournament because my brothers taught me how to play over the weekend. I love it!

The weekend went well…I went to a Tapas bar with my family and we ate loads of gorgeous spanish food and I had a scrumptious desert which I shared with my brothers and my parents. This is new for me as desert was only ever mine! I can’t believe I did it really but the thought process in my head was that I was still a bit peckish after the tapas and one of the chocolate and fudge ice cream deserts was screaming out at me so I ordered it and then I asked for extra spoons for everyone! Not bad aye!?

I am hoping to get to the gym on friday although my boyfriend has the day off and one of our friends is down from Norwich so I may be distracted.

I am going to cook a gorgeous roast chicken tonight with oven roasted carrots and  potatoes.

New Flat – New Fitness Regime!

Catch-up from last week and weekend:

Well, since I blogged last week, we managed to successfully move house (not without the help of our two families consisting of two big/strong brothers, two mums and a very organised dad/driver). I didn’t manage to go the gym all last week as I had a terrible cold and had difficulty just breathing on a day to day basis let alone whilst running on the treadmill. I did however manage to make up for all that with all the packing, cleaning and lifting for the move and on the day, I really worked up a sweat running up and down 3 flights of stairs with heavy boxes and bags.

We are now very settled in the new flat and enjoying the cosiness of it. Although, I must say, when we went back to the old flat to give the keys back I realised how lucky we really were to have a flat so big! Anyways, this way we can hopefully save money on heating bills as the old flat had terrible insulation problems. There is a gym just a few minutes walk away from our new flat that I am thinking about joining. The old gym is just too far away to walk there and back and I would be spending time and money getting there and back every week. I think I’ll pop in tomorrow and see what the new gym has to offer and how much it costs. One advantage of swapping gyms is that I can hopefully get away from a few men at my current gym that seem to have taken a shine to me, P in particular, who even asked me to go Salsa dancing with him!

As you can see in my weekly stats section, I lost another kilo last week! I am over the moon! I have finally moved into the 14 Stone category now and will enjoy working off more lbs to the next stone! I was quite surprised actually because I hadn’t been to the gym at all last week and I also had a few days of bad eating surrounding the move and the few days off we had whilst unpacking. We had an indian takeaway one night and I had about 4 small bottles of larger throughout the weekend to celebrate the successful move. Oh and a glass of bubbly! I also gave into temptation twice this week as it was Iranian New Year (Aide Norouz) and I had our parents round for a meal and we had lots of cutely decorated eggs and some gorgeous Iranian sweeties and some mini easter chocolate eggs and I just couldn’t resist. We did do alot of Iranian dancing though and we worked up quite a sweat. I also had a few truffle seashells last night (mmm…yummy) as I was feeling particularly peckish and fancied something sweet with my cuppa. So I am fully focused again now…I promise!

Here is a picture of our ‘Haft Sin’ table for Iranian New Year (Aide Norouz). Haft = seven and Sin = the letter ‘S’, we always have dress the table with at least 7 ‘S’ objects for good luck in the new year. Can you guess what things on the table begin with the Iranian ‘S’?

See Wikipedia for more information on Iranian New Year: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_new_year

In terms of weight loss and exercise, let’s see how this week goes!? I went to the gym this morning and did about an hours work out and then went to Sainsburys and did a bit of food shopping. Stocked up on lots of olives and lettuce for my lunchtime salads. My broadband still hasn’t been installed so I am on dial-up this week. We really missed having the internet over the weekend, it felt so strange not being able to just check things out when we needed to and I also really missed blogging and reading everyone elses blogs.

I have started to get a great response from readers on my blog and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has contacted me. I am so glad that I am motivating people to exercise and live healthily. I really appreciate all comments and encouragement. I even got my first blog review this week! http://www.blogcatalog.com/blogs/fit-firm-and-fly.html