This is pretty much what's been dominating my spare time this week. Got a big deadline on Tuesday and this week has just been packed with all sorts of things in general!
We went on a trip to London on Monday to go through museums (V&A, Saatchi Gallery and Tate Modern) and we were tasked to create a magazine based on it. Just a small one, I'm only doing eight pages on mine.
The trip itself was absolutely wonderful, I got to spend the entire day with my lovely friends and of course got my exercise in (21k steps!!). Was so nice to get out of the usual uni studio environment and just suck in some inspiration from all the artwork we saw.
I actually only have one picture of myself from the trip. We were asked to take a lot of selfies with all sorts of cool stuff in the background, but I just get very self conscious about doing that in public.. :D Should pester my friends for pictures, I know at least one of em took loads.. :p
And it's not a good trip without a bit of chilling out before going home, is it? ;) We ended up killing time at the Victoria station Wetherspoons before our train left, was a really awesome way to end the day. Unfortunately had to sit on the floor on the train back (yay for commuters going home at 6pm..) but oh well. Wasn't too bad as the company was great. ♥
I pretty much spent all of Tuesday building the magazine. We only had four hours to do the entire thing and mine ended up being really rushed and I HATED IT. It also reflected on the feedback I got on it, didn't mind it at all as it was things I noticed as well. And well, I printed it all out this morning and started ripping it to shreds! Quite therapeutic to just trash your own work and improve it afterwards. Rather happy with the second version of it, now all I need is to print it out so I can have a better look at it. It just doesn't quite look the same on the computer.
Exercise wise it's been quiet so far. Our schedules are just clashing so much at the moment so gymming has been pushed aside a bit unfortunately, so trying to compensate for it by going for walks whenever I can. Right now it's mainly just Thursday and Friday mornings before I go to uni, as I've really got so little spare time in the evenings. Also gets dark really quickly now, such a shame as I'd like to use up some of my evenings by walking. Maybe I just need to fire up Body Revolution again. Hmm.
Well ok maybe not. I just got bored tonight and started messing around with my hair, mainly with my birthday party in mind. Me and my friend decided that we want to have another theme party this year and she suggested rock chick - well that's more than fine by me!
I've already sorted out the clothes, may need a few accessories for it all to make it a bit more colourful, but that can wait for a bit. I'm not a very skilled hair stylist and I barely do my hair at all during the week so I wanted something very simple and that doesn't require hours of hard work and tons of different equipment.
Well, this is what I managed! Also new hair colour, yay. They've finally started selling the exact colour I've been after for aaaaages, a very dark natural red hair colour. I know the pics are a bit dark, but this gives a better idea of what the colour should look like. Not quite as red, but hopefully in a few colours it'll be. :)
And just for comparison, here's a picture I took in April (the pic on the right, the one on the left is from last year). My face has shaped up very nicely since then, I don't look quite as swollen as I did and those weird bumps on my neck have disappeared too. Yay for visible progress! :)
I've already sorted out the clothes, may need a few accessories for it all to make it a bit more colourful, but that can wait for a bit. I'm not a very skilled hair stylist and I barely do my hair at all during the week so I wanted something very simple and that doesn't require hours of hard work and tons of different equipment.
Well, this is what I managed! Also new hair colour, yay. They've finally started selling the exact colour I've been after for aaaaages, a very dark natural red hair colour. I know the pics are a bit dark, but this gives a better idea of what the colour should look like. Not quite as red, but hopefully in a few colours it'll be. :)
And just for comparison, here's a picture I took in April (the pic on the right, the one on the left is from last year). My face has shaped up very nicely since then, I don't look quite as swollen as I did and those weird bumps on my neck have disappeared too. Yay for visible progress! :)
Seriously, 100g away from my benchmark?! Screw you fat, just screw you! :D Really happy with this though, I'm glad I've broken the loss - gain - loss - gain cycle (at least for now). This week has been very odd, only went to the gym once and haven't really done much exercise on top of that. Also been feeling really ill again, sore throat and just generally feeling a bit light headed. That hasn't really encouraged me to go outside in the chilly autumn air.
It's a known fact that we waste a lot of our resources on this planet. While one person might not make a huge impact on it all, it will definitely add up. If nobody thinks that they can make a change, where would we be today?
With this in mind, I actually ordered myself a stainless steel water bottle. I think I was mainly attracted to the fantastic colour of it, but oh well! Adding water also makes the surface of the bottle feel nice and cool, which will definitely be a plus during workouts.
And as always, there's the health related side to this purchase. Normal plastic bottles can contain a chemical called BPA (Bisphenol A), a possibly very harmful chemical to the human body. It can cause negative changes in the brain, behaviour and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children. It can also affect fertility of women and block normal hormone function.
BPA can transfer from the plastic onto food and drink, especially when heated. It is quite worrying to think that it could have a huge negative effect on my life in the long run. I'm still not quite plastic bottle free (I still buy way too much Diet Coke..), but I'm definitely working on it. Now that I've got my new shiny bottle, I don't have to worry about it leaking and making my bag soaking wet when I'm out and about. That's right, I'm planning on taking this baby everywhere. It's so pretty.
Anyways, enough about all this seriousness. ;)
This week has been quite a busy one in all fairness. I've also had a few days when I've just felt upset for no good reason, I don't know if it's just my body's way of telling me that it's still in shock with all these changes to my daily schedule or something. Like for example, I don't have any days off this week and my next week looks exactly the same. And I should carry on with my uni work at home on top of that. Very shattered lately.
But thankfully we are getting a "day off" on Monday - our course tutor wants to take us to London! A bit torn about it to be fair, in a way it'll be very nice to do something completely different (and I love London) but then again I also can't really afford it right now. Getting there will cost a fair bit and whatever extra we do on top of our scheduled stuff won't be free either. :p Oh well, payday soon! :D
I do really enjoy uni thought, I feel like the course is exactly what I want and have made some lovely friends over these few weeks. :) Will just have to wait and see how these friendships evolve, though. Learned to be a bit cautious with new people. Maybe it's a bad thing, maybe it's not.
Oh and I coloured my hair (again). Right now not looking too presentable so a picture will have to wait.
With this in mind, I actually ordered myself a stainless steel water bottle. I think I was mainly attracted to the fantastic colour of it, but oh well! Adding water also makes the surface of the bottle feel nice and cool, which will definitely be a plus during workouts.
And as always, there's the health related side to this purchase. Normal plastic bottles can contain a chemical called BPA (Bisphenol A), a possibly very harmful chemical to the human body. It can cause negative changes in the brain, behaviour and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children. It can also affect fertility of women and block normal hormone function.
BPA can transfer from the plastic onto food and drink, especially when heated. It is quite worrying to think that it could have a huge negative effect on my life in the long run. I'm still not quite plastic bottle free (I still buy way too much Diet Coke..), but I'm definitely working on it. Now that I've got my new shiny bottle, I don't have to worry about it leaking and making my bag soaking wet when I'm out and about. That's right, I'm planning on taking this baby everywhere. It's so pretty.
Anyways, enough about all this seriousness. ;)
This week has been quite a busy one in all fairness. I've also had a few days when I've just felt upset for no good reason, I don't know if it's just my body's way of telling me that it's still in shock with all these changes to my daily schedule or something. Like for example, I don't have any days off this week and my next week looks exactly the same. And I should carry on with my uni work at home on top of that. Very shattered lately.
Thursday.
But thankfully we are getting a "day off" on Monday - our course tutor wants to take us to London! A bit torn about it to be fair, in a way it'll be very nice to do something completely different (and I love London) but then again I also can't really afford it right now. Getting there will cost a fair bit and whatever extra we do on top of our scheduled stuff won't be free either. :p Oh well, payday soon! :D
I do really enjoy uni thought, I feel like the course is exactly what I want and have made some lovely friends over these few weeks. :) Will just have to wait and see how these friendships evolve, though. Learned to be a bit cautious with new people. Maybe it's a bad thing, maybe it's not.
Oh and I coloured my hair (again). Right now not looking too presentable so a picture will have to wait.
Another back in time style post, yay! The pictures in the post are just some random old ones I've kept in my folders, don't really know when they were taken (just to pinpoint how old I was in them).
Ever since they started advertising the Teenage Dirtbags- album on TV, I've been getting flashbacks about my childhood / teenage years. It's like the people who put this album together snuck inside my head one night when I was asleep and just pulled all these songs out. I've never related so strongly to any piece of music before, just seeing the advert on TV just makes me all excited every single time because all these things just keep coming back to me.
Out of 44 songs, I know about half. The other half I was able to recognise after a few beats, but I was never able to match the artist with the song before. Had quite a few "Oooooooh it's THIS!" moments when I was listening through the songs. :D
Some of the songs or artists go back to as far as 1999 (Goldfinger - Superman through Tony Hawk's Pro Skater) and 2001 (The Rasmus in general, especially after their album Into came out). That's a long long time. I started getting into all this kind of music when I was 8 years old, making me feel like a dinosaur now..!! I mean obviously I wasn't like a full on rock chick at that age, but that type of music has definitely always been a part of my life.
And the rest of the songs I pretty much found through MTV. I mean, the good old MTV that actually played music all day instead of showing all this reality show crap they push out nowadays. For example Marilyn Manson isn't exactly something I listen to on a daily basis, but back then I just fell in love with Tainted Love and ever since it's just been so tied into those childhood memories. Same with The Bad Touch by The Bloodhound Gang, I'm not exactly impressed with their music in general (and I think the singer can't really even sing), but it's just the nostalgia of the song.
I think Evanescence was the band that actually gave me the final push towards rock and metal. Fallen was the first metal album I bought and it's been downhill ever since! :D I'm really surprised that Green Day's American Idiot isn't on this album though, for me that was a very big song and they've been around for such a long time that they really should've recieved that kind of recognition. Oh well!
This is the music I grew up with and in my honest opinion it's about a million times better than the god awful shite we get on the radio nowadays. I mean I've even avoided all the Miley Cyrus drama like the plague, just to maintain my sanity. Nowadays it seems like that you don't really get famous by having talent, it just comes down to doing something completely spasticated or getting involved with drugs and hitting the headlines that way.
It's sad that people like that act as role models to teenagers. I mean sure, we still had people like Britney and Christina Aguilera when I was growing up, but it just seems to be the norm nowadays to compete over who's got the most revealing outfit or who can pull the most tabloid space with some idiotic PR stunt. Despite a lot of people working on giving people healthier rolemodels, I think we will see celebrities like that for a very long time.
Ever since they started advertising the Teenage Dirtbags- album on TV, I've been getting flashbacks about my childhood / teenage years. It's like the people who put this album together snuck inside my head one night when I was asleep and just pulled all these songs out. I've never related so strongly to any piece of music before, just seeing the advert on TV just makes me all excited every single time because all these things just keep coming back to me.
Out of 44 songs, I know about half. The other half I was able to recognise after a few beats, but I was never able to match the artist with the song before. Had quite a few "Oooooooh it's THIS!" moments when I was listening through the songs. :D
Some of the songs or artists go back to as far as 1999 (Goldfinger - Superman through Tony Hawk's Pro Skater) and 2001 (The Rasmus in general, especially after their album Into came out). That's a long long time. I started getting into all this kind of music when I was 8 years old, making me feel like a dinosaur now..!! I mean obviously I wasn't like a full on rock chick at that age, but that type of music has definitely always been a part of my life.
And the rest of the songs I pretty much found through MTV. I mean, the good old MTV that actually played music all day instead of showing all this reality show crap they push out nowadays. For example Marilyn Manson isn't exactly something I listen to on a daily basis, but back then I just fell in love with Tainted Love and ever since it's just been so tied into those childhood memories. Same with The Bad Touch by The Bloodhound Gang, I'm not exactly impressed with their music in general (and I think the singer can't really even sing), but it's just the nostalgia of the song.
I think Evanescence was the band that actually gave me the final push towards rock and metal. Fallen was the first metal album I bought and it's been downhill ever since! :D I'm really surprised that Green Day's American Idiot isn't on this album though, for me that was a very big song and they've been around for such a long time that they really should've recieved that kind of recognition. Oh well!
This is the music I grew up with and in my honest opinion it's about a million times better than the god awful shite we get on the radio nowadays. I mean I've even avoided all the Miley Cyrus drama like the plague, just to maintain my sanity. Nowadays it seems like that you don't really get famous by having talent, it just comes down to doing something completely spasticated or getting involved with drugs and hitting the headlines that way.
It's sad that people like that act as role models to teenagers. I mean sure, we still had people like Britney and Christina Aguilera when I was growing up, but it just seems to be the norm nowadays to compete over who's got the most revealing outfit or who can pull the most tabloid space with some idiotic PR stunt. Despite a lot of people working on giving people healthier rolemodels, I think we will see celebrities like that for a very long time.
13,484 steps & active burn 645 kcal. Seeing those numbers pop up on my UP were definitely a very welcome sight after a somewhat slacky week last week. No gym at all last week because of tight schedules and me being ill over the weekend, I definitely gave my body hell tonight! Upper body as usual on a Tuesday, lots of shoulder & arm work paired up with a few core exercises and stepper to get my heart racing for 15 minutes (192 bpm to be exact). And another personal record beaten, hit speed 10.5 on the treadmill today. :)
And yeah, our dresser is quite cluttered. Limited space, apologies.. :p
And just because I'm proud of my guns, a bit of flexing once we got home. ;) Just need to get rid of that fat under my arms and I'll be perfectly happy. Shouldn't take me too long in all fairness.
Uni (and work) really has limited my blogging time for the past few weeks. In a way I'm really happy that I've got plenty of things to do again, but it's also taking time away from a very dear hobby I've kept going since January. I love having my little space to talk about things that matter to me and to track my progress through pictures and stories.
Anyways, yesterday's uni outfit on the left and a very tired me from earlier tonight on the right. Still managed to draw enough energy to go gymming, though!
Oh and did I mention, my other half actually cooked us dinner tonight! In the actual cooking sense, usually him saying "Oh I'll cook tonight" means that he will ring up an Indian and order us dinner. But he went through a lot of effort to cook us a delicious steak dinner, he actually cooked it all a lot better than I do! Was very nice to just sit down for once and relax while he did the cooking. :) Unfortunately didn't have the patience to take a picture of this wonderful meal, I just wanted to tuck in!
And time for some post workout food now. :)
And yeah, our dresser is quite cluttered. Limited space, apologies.. :p
And just because I'm proud of my guns, a bit of flexing once we got home. ;) Just need to get rid of that fat under my arms and I'll be perfectly happy. Shouldn't take me too long in all fairness.
Uni (and work) really has limited my blogging time for the past few weeks. In a way I'm really happy that I've got plenty of things to do again, but it's also taking time away from a very dear hobby I've kept going since January. I love having my little space to talk about things that matter to me and to track my progress through pictures and stories.
Anyways, yesterday's uni outfit on the left and a very tired me from earlier tonight on the right. Still managed to draw enough energy to go gymming, though!
Oh and did I mention, my other half actually cooked us dinner tonight! In the actual cooking sense, usually him saying "Oh I'll cook tonight" means that he will ring up an Indian and order us dinner. But he went through a lot of effort to cook us a delicious steak dinner, he actually cooked it all a lot better than I do! Was very nice to just sit down for once and relax while he did the cooking. :) Unfortunately didn't have the patience to take a picture of this wonderful meal, I just wanted to tuck in!
And time for some post workout food now. :)
I've been meaning to go shopping all week now, but with me working two days a week and being at uni four days, I just don't seem to find the time to do it. So pinched an hour of my Sunday to finally get it done.
I do handle the cold weather pretty well, I mean most winters I'd just wear a top and a coat and be absolutely fine (and get very odd looks from everyone when I take my coat off :D), but our uni studio has this air circulation system (instead of air con) that just sucks the outside air in and takes the stale inside air out. And believe me, it gets quite chilly in there because of it.. So I have now had to accept the fact that my thick Scandinavian skin can't handle it and buy some jumpers!
I do most my clothes shopping in New Look. Even though the usual high street shops stock similar looking clothing, I've just found the New Look selection most varied and most pleasing to my eye. I do have quite a grungy / rocky taste in clothes and this shop caters to my needs nine times out of ten.
But yeah. Three long sleeved jumpers and a top I just liked the look of. I love the black one, it kinda looks like chainmail. :D I also got myself two pairs of shoes! In general I absolutely hate buying shoes (and clothes to be fair), I never like anything and the selection is just so small despite having probably hundreds of different types of shoes in the shop. I found the All-Star knock offs (and they're leather instead of fabric, yay!) pretty easily, but I also wanted new ankle boots to replace my old ones. It took me absolutely forever to find ones I liked. But I did it! *happy dance* Hopefully these will last a bit longer than my previous ones, I'd rather not go shopping more than once every six months..
I really seem to be between sizes at the moment as well. 12 is far too big for me, 10 seems OK unless it's a tight fit (in that case it really won't go over my chest..) and 8 is too small. Anyone want some boob fat, giving it out for free. :D
And progress pics to finish this post. :) Getting there slowly but surely. The difference to January is quite incredible, proud of myself for getting this far.
I do handle the cold weather pretty well, I mean most winters I'd just wear a top and a coat and be absolutely fine (and get very odd looks from everyone when I take my coat off :D), but our uni studio has this air circulation system (instead of air con) that just sucks the outside air in and takes the stale inside air out. And believe me, it gets quite chilly in there because of it.. So I have now had to accept the fact that my thick Scandinavian skin can't handle it and buy some jumpers!
I do most my clothes shopping in New Look. Even though the usual high street shops stock similar looking clothing, I've just found the New Look selection most varied and most pleasing to my eye. I do have quite a grungy / rocky taste in clothes and this shop caters to my needs nine times out of ten.
But yeah. Three long sleeved jumpers and a top I just liked the look of. I love the black one, it kinda looks like chainmail. :D I also got myself two pairs of shoes! In general I absolutely hate buying shoes (and clothes to be fair), I never like anything and the selection is just so small despite having probably hundreds of different types of shoes in the shop. I found the All-Star knock offs (and they're leather instead of fabric, yay!) pretty easily, but I also wanted new ankle boots to replace my old ones. It took me absolutely forever to find ones I liked. But I did it! *happy dance* Hopefully these will last a bit longer than my previous ones, I'd rather not go shopping more than once every six months..
I really seem to be between sizes at the moment as well. 12 is far too big for me, 10 seems OK unless it's a tight fit (in that case it really won't go over my chest..) and 8 is too small. Anyone want some boob fat, giving it out for free. :D
And progress pics to finish this post. :) Getting there slowly but surely. The difference to January is quite incredible, proud of myself for getting this far.
In a way I was hoping for a bigger number after last week. But what's done is done, it's still a loss and I'm happy about it. :) Gotta keep it positive. Will definitely push myself harder to reach that 73.2kg benchmark next week.
And as it's progress week, here you go! Will try and get the progress pics up later today (or tomorrow). Quite happy with how they turned out, makes this morning a bit more positive.
Arms: 31cm (31cm)
Bust: 101m (99cm)
Waist: 74cm (74cm)
Belly: 92cm (95cm) !!
Thighs: 57,5cm (59cm) !!
Weight: 73,8kg (74,5kg)
And as it's progress week, here you go! Will try and get the progress pics up later today (or tomorrow). Quite happy with how they turned out, makes this morning a bit more positive.
Arms: 31cm (31cm)
Bust: 101m (99cm)
Waist: 74cm (74cm)
Belly: 92cm (95cm) !!
Thighs: 57,5cm (59cm) !!
Weight: 73,8kg (74,5kg)
I've started being really religious about tracking everything I eat and drink again. I just realised that I simply wasn't eating enough, some days I wouldn't even hit the 1200 kcal mark with the food I was consuming. I thought that I really need to start tracking it again, just to make sure that I'm eating enough in comparison to the amount of exercise I'm getting in.
And I've synced my UP app with MyFitnessPal now, as MFP takes the activity data from UP and moves it into it's own database. It then recalculates how many calories I still need to hit my budget (you can of course add your exercise to MFP manually but I just let my UP deal with that). As I only sync my UP band with the app roughly twice a day, I might think that "oh I haven't exercised enough today for MFP to take it into account, I can stick to my 1380 calories today" and then later on in the day after syncing MFP just throws a new number at me. I seriously feel like I'm eating like a horse at the moment. I just don't feel hungry after having lunch and dinner, so eating some snacks just to hit my calories is such a task for me. I mean sure, I could go for more calorie dense options at lunch and dinner, but I'm far too concious about the fat, sugar and salt in everything to do that on a regular basis.
Just look at this! I tracked my dinner like usual and was all happy about myself, just thinking that I only need about 300 calories to hit my budget. Then I synced my UP with the app and MFP fetched that data instantly. Well, my calorie budget has gone up by 300 calories. Now I need to figure out what to eat to consume another 637 calories tonight. I honestly feel like I'm eating way too much right now, but I'm really trying to git the budget this week to see, if that changes anything for my weekly weigh in. I've been under my budget for a very long time and my body is probably preparing to plateau because of it, so I feel like it's really important to mix things up and see how it goes. Fingers crossed.
Other than that, it's been another productive day for me. Despite only needing to be at uni 13:15 today, I got up before 8am (without an alarm clock!), did some housework, watched Biggest Loser and went for a lovely, chilled walk. It's been quite a gray day today, but there was just something so stunning about it. In a way it just made the sea look like it wasn't even there and made everything look nearly black and white. I swear I have not retouched this pic at all, that's just how gray it really was today! You can really tell that it's finally the end of summer over here, which in all honesty I'm happy about. :) We had a wonderful, long and warm summer so it's about time for autumn to make it's way in.
And I've synced my UP app with MyFitnessPal now, as MFP takes the activity data from UP and moves it into it's own database. It then recalculates how many calories I still need to hit my budget (you can of course add your exercise to MFP manually but I just let my UP deal with that). As I only sync my UP band with the app roughly twice a day, I might think that "oh I haven't exercised enough today for MFP to take it into account, I can stick to my 1380 calories today" and then later on in the day after syncing MFP just throws a new number at me. I seriously feel like I'm eating like a horse at the moment. I just don't feel hungry after having lunch and dinner, so eating some snacks just to hit my calories is such a task for me. I mean sure, I could go for more calorie dense options at lunch and dinner, but I'm far too concious about the fat, sugar and salt in everything to do that on a regular basis.
Just look at this! I tracked my dinner like usual and was all happy about myself, just thinking that I only need about 300 calories to hit my budget. Then I synced my UP with the app and MFP fetched that data instantly. Well, my calorie budget has gone up by 300 calories. Now I need to figure out what to eat to consume another 637 calories tonight. I honestly feel like I'm eating way too much right now, but I'm really trying to git the budget this week to see, if that changes anything for my weekly weigh in. I've been under my budget for a very long time and my body is probably preparing to plateau because of it, so I feel like it's really important to mix things up and see how it goes. Fingers crossed.
Other than that, it's been another productive day for me. Despite only needing to be at uni 13:15 today, I got up before 8am (without an alarm clock!), did some housework, watched Biggest Loser and went for a lovely, chilled walk. It's been quite a gray day today, but there was just something so stunning about it. In a way it just made the sea look like it wasn't even there and made everything look nearly black and white. I swear I have not retouched this pic at all, that's just how gray it really was today! You can really tell that it's finally the end of summer over here, which in all honesty I'm happy about. :) We had a wonderful, long and warm summer so it's about time for autumn to make it's way in.
Today has definitely been a productive one! Woke up really early despite thinking that I'd have a nice lie in this morning so I figured that I might as well get my exercise out of the way first thing in the morning. Our initial plan was to go to the gym before I had to go to work but unfortunately my other half got delayed at work so had to come up with stuff to do on my own.
It was so nice and sunny in the morning so I decided that I'll go for a walk. I was really tempted to give jogging a go as I've been doing so well with it at the gym lately. I was a bit nervous about doing long distances on the hard roads (had no idea how big of an impact it'd have on my back) so I did my jog interval style. I basically just jogged a small distance (like from one crossing to another), walk to get my heart rate down and rinse n repeat. It really worked well, my back didn't mind it one bit and I felt like I had accomplished something huge by the time I got back home. It was only about a 3,4km route but that's ok, it's a good starting point for longer jogs. :)
And just because the jog wasn't enough, I also tortured myself a bit with Jillian Michaels' 6 Week Six-Pack. I've got a set of four DVDs from her (and Body Revolution), but I figured that I didn't want a long workout and I also tend to ignore my core a bit too much at the gym. Well yeah, half an hour later I definitely felt it! Clothes soaking wet, out of breath and muscles aching. Love it. If you're not sweating by the end of your workout, you're doing it wrong in my opinion!
It left me with just about enough time to make myself look presentable for work haha! Just imagine the look on the customers' faces if I just marched into work looking like I've just been in a sauna for 15 minutes! I really could feel all the exercise at work, standing up at the tills for 4,5 hours was a workout on it's own after this morning!
But at least now I can just relax for the rest of the night without feeling guilty. ;)
It was so nice and sunny in the morning so I decided that I'll go for a walk. I was really tempted to give jogging a go as I've been doing so well with it at the gym lately. I was a bit nervous about doing long distances on the hard roads (had no idea how big of an impact it'd have on my back) so I did my jog interval style. I basically just jogged a small distance (like from one crossing to another), walk to get my heart rate down and rinse n repeat. It really worked well, my back didn't mind it one bit and I felt like I had accomplished something huge by the time I got back home. It was only about a 3,4km route but that's ok, it's a good starting point for longer jogs. :)
And just because the jog wasn't enough, I also tortured myself a bit with Jillian Michaels' 6 Week Six-Pack. I've got a set of four DVDs from her (and Body Revolution), but I figured that I didn't want a long workout and I also tend to ignore my core a bit too much at the gym. Well yeah, half an hour later I definitely felt it! Clothes soaking wet, out of breath and muscles aching. Love it. If you're not sweating by the end of your workout, you're doing it wrong in my opinion!
It left me with just about enough time to make myself look presentable for work haha! Just imagine the look on the customers' faces if I just marched into work looking like I've just been in a sauna for 15 minutes! I really could feel all the exercise at work, standing up at the tills for 4,5 hours was a workout on it's own after this morning!
But at least now I can just relax for the rest of the night without feeling guilty. ;)
I've wanted to lose weight since I was 13-14 years old. I had always been very concious of the fact that I wasn't thin, and a big part of the boys in my class sure did remind me about it on a regular basis. That kind of comments really hit you hard at that age and it did destroy me mentally.
Anyways. I've always wondered that why I didn't actually do it back then. Why didn't I just go up to my mum and tell her that I wan't to lose some weight and ask for her help. Instead I put up with the nasty comments from people at school for all those years.
I had done so much research about it all, I had such a good base for losing weight. But I just never got started. And it really kept bugging me because I just couldn't place it - why didn't I just start?! Then it hit me last night when I was watching Biggest Loser. One of their nutritionists said this:
"This is what you will eat for the rest of your life."
I realised how scary that sounds to someone who's only starting to drop weight and trying to live a bit healthier. I realised how that thought held me back all those years. Then I started thinking back to all those internet articles I read through as a kid and that same phrase keeps popping up. You must do this for the rest of your life, you must live like this for the rest of your life, this and that for the rest of your life. For a teenager that really sounds very frightening - and it still does now. You can't really grasp the concept of something that long term. You feel like you don't want to plan that far ahead because it restricts you in so many ways.
When I help people with all this, I just ask them to change their lifestyle. It doesn't sound quite as permanent but it does give the feeling of stability. No point trying to scare people really.
And just to finish off my post, some progress pics, yay! Quite a short comparison time though, the pics on the left are from July and pics on the right from yesterday. I am quite happy though, my arms are way more toned and you can tell that my legs are getting rid of more fat as well (not that there was much of it left down there..).
Anyways. I've always wondered that why I didn't actually do it back then. Why didn't I just go up to my mum and tell her that I wan't to lose some weight and ask for her help. Instead I put up with the nasty comments from people at school for all those years.
I had done so much research about it all, I had such a good base for losing weight. But I just never got started. And it really kept bugging me because I just couldn't place it - why didn't I just start?! Then it hit me last night when I was watching Biggest Loser. One of their nutritionists said this:
"This is what you will eat for the rest of your life."
I realised how scary that sounds to someone who's only starting to drop weight and trying to live a bit healthier. I realised how that thought held me back all those years. Then I started thinking back to all those internet articles I read through as a kid and that same phrase keeps popping up. You must do this for the rest of your life, you must live like this for the rest of your life, this and that for the rest of your life. For a teenager that really sounds very frightening - and it still does now. You can't really grasp the concept of something that long term. You feel like you don't want to plan that far ahead because it restricts you in so many ways.
When I help people with all this, I just ask them to change their lifestyle. It doesn't sound quite as permanent but it does give the feeling of stability. No point trying to scare people really.
And just to finish off my post, some progress pics, yay! Quite a short comparison time though, the pics on the left are from July and pics on the right from yesterday. I am quite happy though, my arms are way more toned and you can tell that my legs are getting rid of more fat as well (not that there was much of it left down there..).
I just can't seem to have two good weeks in a row and it's really starting to piss me off. I've started being very religious about calories again and have stuck to my budget. The only day I've gone above my budget was Thursday when we had a takeaway dinner (and I only went over by about 200 calories). Maybe I should start hitting the exact amount of calories instead of being slightly under. I don't know. Guess it's just about trying and finding out if it works.
And of course the female body being awful hasn't helped with retaining water this week.
And of course the female body being awful hasn't helped with retaining water this week.
I had a conversation about being happy with my friend the other night. He's going through a lot of stuff in his life and despite all the amazing things happening to him lately, he still thinks his life is a bit meh. I told him that he should be happy about the things that are good in his life, and then this phrase came out of him.
"You've got more things to be happy about than me."
And I've thought about that ever since. To me happiness isn't a measurable unit. Just because someone has a bit more going on in their life than you do, it doesn't mean that you can't be happy. Even the smallest things make me smile - just seeing a baby duck might make me incredibly happy for the rest of the day. I mean, who doesn't like a fluffy baby duck plodding on?
There's several things in my life that I dislike and that make me unhappy, but I refuse to let all those things drag me down. Instead I really cherish the good things in my life and let that give me the strength to do all the things I do. :) Just knowing that I've got my other half and a very wonderful friend in my life is enough for me.
And even when you feel like the world is falling apart because you get a setback after another (because that's always the way things seem to go), just keep thinking back to the positive things! Maybe sit down with a pen and paper and think - what is good in your life, what makes you happy on a daily basis?
Smile people, life is wonderful!
"You've got more things to be happy about than me."
And I've thought about that ever since. To me happiness isn't a measurable unit. Just because someone has a bit more going on in their life than you do, it doesn't mean that you can't be happy. Even the smallest things make me smile - just seeing a baby duck might make me incredibly happy for the rest of the day. I mean, who doesn't like a fluffy baby duck plodding on?
There's several things in my life that I dislike and that make me unhappy, but I refuse to let all those things drag me down. Instead I really cherish the good things in my life and let that give me the strength to do all the things I do. :) Just knowing that I've got my other half and a very wonderful friend in my life is enough for me.
And even when you feel like the world is falling apart because you get a setback after another (because that's always the way things seem to go), just keep thinking back to the positive things! Maybe sit down with a pen and paper and think - what is good in your life, what makes you happy on a daily basis?
Smile people, life is wonderful!
This is going to be a long one. I've had a few days where I've had something happen I want to talk about but on it's own it's been a bit too lame so I've just delayed posting it.
I've spent a lot of time watching Biggest Loser for the past week. Some of the seasons are up on Youtube so it's been a very convenient way of watching it all. While I don't necessarily agree with the insanely quick pace of weight loss the contestants have to pull out, the show itself is highly motivating. Especially with this season, one of the contestants said "Pain is temporary, quitting is forever.". And you know, it's so true.
I keep seeing articles about old Biggest Loser contestants, who have gained the weight back after the show. They are made to sound like the scum of the earth because they have "failed", but this show doesn't really address the mental issues people might have in relation to food and exercise. The show itself is filmed in three months, that's not a very long time to actually adjust to the new lifestyle and stick to it. And you are away from all the temptations you face in the real world, you don't have Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper staring you down and screaming at you when you feel like quitting and you are back with the people who allow you to eat the way you used to.
I mean, some people might just simply be addicted to food, eat because of boredom, comfort eat... The mental cycle is very hard to break sometimes. I think it's just so easy for everyone to judge these people when they do gain the weight back.
My knee hasn't been brilliant either. I go through little moments where I just twist my knee slightly and the pain shoots right back, but after a while it feels perfectly fine and I can use it like normal. I even jogged a bit the other night, it was so very satisfying to be able to jog half the way of my usual beach route and not feel like I'm going to die. And it's the best feeling in the world to realise that your back can handle the jogging! Only a few months ago I would stop after a few minutes because the impact would just shatter my back, but not this time. My head was in charge of the speed, not my back.
You really can tell we are coming to the end of the summer. It gets fairly dark by 8pm now so I need to reschedule my walks so I don't get caught by the darkness every night. I just like to be a bit careful if I'm out on my own, especially since Bognor isn't exactly a crime free place to live in. The area I live in is really quiet and nice, but I do walk through the more dodgy areas and I'd rather not go there when it's dark.
It was the first day of uni yesterday! Very excited to get started with everything. My course is very tiny, it's only eight people in total - and I'm the only girl! That doesn't really bother me in all fairness, I've always preferred the company of guys and even in college I just spent my time with the guys (+ one girl out of probably ten).
I quite like it that there's not that many of us, you get a lot more personal with your tutors and you get more face to face time with them, which in my eyes will only improve your work. It'll also feel a lot more relaxed in general. Our first day was very far from productive and mature, though! :D One of our big themes is going to be homelessness, and our tutor got us to build houses out of cardboard. While the other two groups went for the more modest options, my group went all out with it! It was so much fun and we got to destroy our houses at the end of it all. I decided to hold back a bit because I didn't think jumping on the house with my back would be the best idea in the world, but the guys went all out with it haha!
I'm going to spend most of today finishing up all my summer tasks, our tutor was kind enough to give us an extra day for it all. I'm going to redo all my filming as I hated what I filmed last week and hopefully get it all edited and ready to go by Thursday. Also going to sort out my work hours today, yay!
I've spent a lot of time watching Biggest Loser for the past week. Some of the seasons are up on Youtube so it's been a very convenient way of watching it all. While I don't necessarily agree with the insanely quick pace of weight loss the contestants have to pull out, the show itself is highly motivating. Especially with this season, one of the contestants said "Pain is temporary, quitting is forever.". And you know, it's so true.
I keep seeing articles about old Biggest Loser contestants, who have gained the weight back after the show. They are made to sound like the scum of the earth because they have "failed", but this show doesn't really address the mental issues people might have in relation to food and exercise. The show itself is filmed in three months, that's not a very long time to actually adjust to the new lifestyle and stick to it. And you are away from all the temptations you face in the real world, you don't have Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper staring you down and screaming at you when you feel like quitting and you are back with the people who allow you to eat the way you used to.
I mean, some people might just simply be addicted to food, eat because of boredom, comfort eat... The mental cycle is very hard to break sometimes. I think it's just so easy for everyone to judge these people when they do gain the weight back.
My knee hasn't been brilliant either. I go through little moments where I just twist my knee slightly and the pain shoots right back, but after a while it feels perfectly fine and I can use it like normal. I even jogged a bit the other night, it was so very satisfying to be able to jog half the way of my usual beach route and not feel like I'm going to die. And it's the best feeling in the world to realise that your back can handle the jogging! Only a few months ago I would stop after a few minutes because the impact would just shatter my back, but not this time. My head was in charge of the speed, not my back.
You really can tell we are coming to the end of the summer. It gets fairly dark by 8pm now so I need to reschedule my walks so I don't get caught by the darkness every night. I just like to be a bit careful if I'm out on my own, especially since Bognor isn't exactly a crime free place to live in. The area I live in is really quiet and nice, but I do walk through the more dodgy areas and I'd rather not go there when it's dark.
It was the first day of uni yesterday! Very excited to get started with everything. My course is very tiny, it's only eight people in total - and I'm the only girl! That doesn't really bother me in all fairness, I've always preferred the company of guys and even in college I just spent my time with the guys (+ one girl out of probably ten).
I quite like it that there's not that many of us, you get a lot more personal with your tutors and you get more face to face time with them, which in my eyes will only improve your work. It'll also feel a lot more relaxed in general. Our first day was very far from productive and mature, though! :D One of our big themes is going to be homelessness, and our tutor got us to build houses out of cardboard. While the other two groups went for the more modest options, my group went all out with it! It was so much fun and we got to destroy our houses at the end of it all. I decided to hold back a bit because I didn't think jumping on the house with my back would be the best idea in the world, but the guys went all out with it haha!
I'm going to spend most of today finishing up all my summer tasks, our tutor was kind enough to give us an extra day for it all. I'm going to redo all my filming as I hated what I filmed last week and hopefully get it all edited and ready to go by Thursday. Also going to sort out my work hours today, yay!
