We are nearly halfway through this year already. It's mad how quick time has gone.

Finally back to working out today. I paired up a 40 minute walk with 30 Day Shred's level 1. It was so noticable that I haven't been working out properly for the past 1,5 weeks. My muscles just felt so incredibly tight through the workout and I honestly wanted to die after five minutes. I also had to use the lighter weights I have, using the 3kg ones was too tough. :( It was like my body begging for mercy for half an hour. Not fun at all. Hopefully tomorrow will go slightly better, I feel very pathetic for having to use the light weights.



Dinner tonight was absolutely amazing. I read about filled peppers in one of these fitness blogs I read (link, only in Finnish), it's nothing flashy but oh my goodness it's such a good idea. I filled ours with couscous, ground beef and peas, also used a bit of BBQ sauce to give it a nice smokey flavour. Then a bit of grated cheddar on top and in the oven for 25 minutes. To make dinner a bit more filling I also roasted potatoes and carrots. Yum.

The rest of the week is going to be very odd for me. I am going up to London tomorrow to meet up with a bunch of friends. This means alcohol, lots of eating out, no working out.. On the other hand we will most likely be walking a lot, shopping and sight seeing being something we've planned. I'm quite confident that I'll be able to stick to IF and eating healthy, just need to figure out what drinks I can have without feeling insanely guilty. Maybe vodka and diet lemonade. Or sugar free mojitos (one of my friends makes incredible mojitos, would be a crime to say no to him!). Oh we'll see.

As I'm only coming back home on Monday afternoon, I'm also skipping this week's weigh in. Even if I had a scale at the place I'm staying at, it'd give me an unreliable reading. I learned it such a long time ago that sticking to one scale is one of the most important things during weight loss. Using the same scale will give you the most reliable results, as the configuration and placement is the same week after week. We actually have two scales in the house and the readings can be incredibly different. I'll most likely have a look when I get home on Monday to see how much damage I've done, but the official weigh in will have to wait til next Sunday. :)


I also made a nice schedule for 30DS the other night but various things have just screwed it up completely. I haven't actually started the program this week, I've just gone for long walks (again). So yeah, going to start 30DS on Monday when I'm back home. I think a break from these programs will do my back good in all fairness.

Oh and I've gone pink! It's not a permanent colour, it says that it'll wash off in 6-8 washes. Just about perfect for this weekend haha! There's also a possibility of landing a job in the near future so I'll most likely have to cover it up anyways. Sad times.

Have a wonderful rest of the week everyone!

I was so right yesterday when I said it was just sodium build up that caused the 300g gain. Made sure to stay away from salty food yesterday and drank a lot of water, which resulted in the scales giving me the magical number 78,6kg this morning. 800g loss from yesterday. :)

I'm also changing workout programs today. As much as I love Body Revolution and it's given me fantastic results, I need some change or I'm going to get bored. I think I'm going to go through 30 Day Shred, it is far more low impact than BR and it'll probably be a lot more suitable for my back as well. I might complete 30DS and then go back to BR to finish off Phase 3.

And the pictures! What I'm most happy about is that the stretchmarks on my sides and next to my bellybutton are starting to fade. Other than that I don't see that much change to a month ago, which annoys me slightly.

Half way through phase one! Thought that I'd write a little something about the past two weeks in one handy post.

The only thing that really hit me during the first workouts was the cardio - even after two weeks my calfs are screaming me to stop bouncing around like a bunny rabbit. It is so intense for calfs alone, other body parts are pretty much left in peace during this.

So, the first crosstraining workouts aren't quite as tough as you'd think. The moves you are doing are stuff that most of us probably learns during P.E. classes in school. And having done some of 30 Day Shred made it easier for me, as a lot of the moves were really familiar to me when doing BR. I really recommend doing 30DS first (or at least some of it, I did two weeks of Jillian's workouts before starting) if you are thinking of ordering BR, it'll make the first two weeks so much easier and more enjoyable.

For me the biggest failure was the kickstart. Like I've said so so many times before, the cardio killed me after the first workout. I just couldn't do the cardio workout every day on top of my crosstraining. I barely got out of bed after two days. And the diet itself didn't last for the entire week, I just craved carbs so bad and I was really hungry despite still eating about 1200 calories.

Looking forward to the next two weeks! Gonna watch the workouts either tonight or tomorrow to get familiar with the moves beforehand. I find that really handy because then I won't have to spend half of my workout staring at Jillian doing all these moves and then trying to catch up.

So the appointment I've booked is today. Finally. It only took NHS seven months to get me one. From hurting my back in July and going back to the doctors every two weeks to renew my sicknote and get more painkillers to getting to this point hasn't been the most enjoyable thing in the world. I've felt more limited than I ever have. For years the condition was sort of under control so I could do most things I wanted to. Now it's been all about being careful and listening to my body every step of the way. Doing house work is painful, I can't bend over without feeling a sting in my back. I'm really hoping they actually do something about this.

I decided to do 30 Day Shred yesterday and oh my god my arms hurt! The other dvds I've been doing don't have a lot of arm exercises and I knew 30DS would so thought that I'd prep my arms before Monday. Really feeling it now! Going to do 30DS again today and probably do abs tomorrow, not sure about Saturday yet.

Oh, and my kickstart week's food arrives today! Gotta love Tesco for delivering groceries.

I'm a self confessed Jillian Michaels fanatic. I just think the way she motivates you during the workout is amazing. She's got both the reassuring 'you can do it' attitude and the ability to push everyone to make the most of their workout. I think if they made shrines for her, I'd be over there worshipping her every day.

I've got her box set in the lounge and last year I got to lvl 2 of 30 Day Shred. Unfortunately I started getting little aches in my back during the workout so I stopped it for a while to be safe + I think I got ill as well so I never really got back into it. The rest of my week exercise wise is going to be full of Jillian, one dvd for each day.

Today I did the 6 Week Six-Pack workout. Even though the name of the dvd suggests that it's all about the abs, it's really not. That's what I love about Jillian, she still manages to combine every single muscle group into her training while focusing on the main target at the same time. This workout is a very fast paced circuit, which means that there's very little rest between the different exercises. I managed to do everything but side planks - I just simply don't have the muscle strength to hold my body up while one of my legs is off the ground. I know it's not meant to rely on my arms but you know, your arm is kinda one of your support pillars during this one!


I just need to remember to stretch properly tonight or I won't get out of bed tomorrow. I made that mistake with 30DS last time, the intensity of the workout paired up with the cooldown stretches on the dvd just aren't enough!