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. ;)

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!

Yesterday was one of those days when I wanted to post, but was too lazy to do it. So here goes, two days worth of rambling.

I had to go to the hospital again yesterday. When I booked the appointment I was under the assumption that it'd be all kinds of medical tests, such as blood tests and so on. I got there, waited around for 15 minutes and got called in. And all I had to do is sit there for a minute while the nurse poked me with swab sticks. Felt like a waste of time as it could've been done after my previous appointment with the surgeon instead of making me travel all the way there for such a small thing.

I mean I understand they need to do it because of possible bacteria and infection risks as I will become an inpatient next week. Having my injection test done next Wednesday, getting a bit nervous about it. I asked my other half to take the day off work if he possibly can, I'd love to have his support before and after the op.

While I was waiting at the hospital I couldn't help noticing my calves again. Just look at how huge they are getting!! Sure, the perspective is a bit off there but that's just incredible. I haven't really done proper workouts for probably a month now because of all the ankle and knee issues I've had but the muscle mass thankfully hasn't gone anywhere. It's the same with my arms really, the definition is still there despite the lack of exercise. Yay!


 And time for today's stuff. :) I haven't been feeling my best today so lunch was just a simple tuna salad with beetroot and a bit of ranch dressing. It was really lovely but didn't really make me feel any better. Just been sitting here like a lemon since lunch, waiting for this odd feeling to go away. I have been doing little bits and pieces to take my mind off it, though. For example, there was a cool offer for a 30 day free trial for Jillianmichaels.com on Facebook so decided to try it out. The exercise database is incredible, I've been copypasting the exercises on Word since last night so I can print them out and use them even when my free time runs out. A bit naughty but oh well.




And off to see another doctor tomorrow about my disability benefit claim. This is the second time I've been booked in to see someone at this place as last time it got cancelled (and nobody told me until I got there). Just hoping that the paperwork I have will be enough to convince them that I've actually got something wrong with me instead of trying to leech money off them...

Body Revolution arrived today! Wasn't expecting it until next week so very happy about getting it today. :) Means I can start it a week early, hooray! Just need to work that extra bit hard with my other Jillian dvd's this week to make sure I'm prepped for it at least a bit.

It's quite a massive kit. Three sets of dvd's (15 in total!), four different guides and resistance cables. I've even taken a picture of it for your enjoyment. I need to start taking horizontal pictures haha.


I'm so so excited! I'm going to start with a bang and do the kickstart first thing, meaning I'll be training for an hour a day and follow a strict diet for the first week. The goal of this is to detox the body and get rid of all the junk and toxins, making the metabolism work better. Some people have lost up to a jean size during the first week so I'm really looking forward to it. ;)

And to talk about my day a bit, the other half has promised to go swimming with me today! Probably heading off in about an hour and get a good hour's swim in.

It sucks very hard when you can't do everything in a workout. I mean I'm still a beginner on Jillian's level and I've accepted that, but still sucks! I did a "new" workout I haven't touched before, "Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism". It's a circuit workout with 6 minute circuits and my god it's so hard.

I had to modify pretty much all of the moves, that's how tough this is. You get no rest between circuits and moves so it really makes your heartbeat go up. I even had to pretty much skip one circuit because the moves were so stressing on my back. You know when you start feeling aware of a body part, fort example when you've eaten something a bit dodgy your tummy sort of feels weird but you're not hurting or anything. That's the kind of feeling I had in my back so I decided it's better if I don't do the moves.

I did manage to get through the whole thing though which I'm pretty proud of. One thing really made me cringe though. The dvd has a little extra by Jillian, she talks about healthy lifestyle and so on. I thought that yeah go on then, I'll watch that while I stretch and catch my breath. And it pretty much turned out to be an Oral-B advert! It was all like "Take care of your oral health - swap your manual brush to a power one, like Oral-B!". Didn't take me long to turn the thing off. That little extra was clearly just made to advertise and it made me feel a bit dirty just for watching it.

Looking for an up to date review of Noom? Please have a look at my updated version! - 15th Jan 2014


So remember me being all happy about Noom a few days ago? Well, it started annoying me. The forums were constantly down and even when they were up, I could only open one thread at a time and after that it would freeze. Also being able to only track 50, 100, 150 and 200 calories for most of my meals was very irritating, I'm too OCD to just have rough estimates!

So I downloaded MyFitnessPal. So far it looks so much better in every way. Doesn't seem to have a forum but I think I'll live without one. :) And instead of just saying 'coffee' or 'low fat milk' I actually get a proper database of food sold in the UK supermarkets. Very happy with this! And instead of Noom's rough estimate of 50kcal my morning coffee is only 20kcal. Makes me feel a bit less guilty about inhaling all this coffee.

Today is also my last workout before WI and rest day. Still trying to decide what to do. It's raining outside so it'll definitely be a Jillian workout, just don't know if I want to do 6 Week Six-Pack just to keep going with it or pick another dvd to get some change.

I want to bounce up and down right now. :D I finally ordered Jillian Michaels Body Revolution! It's only been available in the UK for a few months so very excited to actually order this and start working out for real.

I bumped into Body Revolution last year so I've known about this program for a long long time. At the time it was only available in the US which made me a very sad panda, but they've finally released over here! It's basically a 90-day exercise and diet plan which seems to give absolutely amazing results. I've googled this to the death and everyone reviewing Body Revolution are so ecstatic about it.

It is quite an expensive kit though, the kit itself was £110 + delivery costs, but I do really think it'll be so worth it. I've dreamt of having this one for such a long time. I'm not gonna go too much into it, I'll just link the BR website at the bottom of this post for people interested. And here's the BR trailer for your enjoyment.


http://www.jillianmichaelsbodyrevolution.com/

I don't quite know what's happened in my tiny brain, but this time round this weight loss business has really clicked. I plan my exercises ahead, I cook everything from scratch instead of just sticking a pizza in the oven, I don't even want to eat those crisps anymore.. I am so proud of myself.

I've noticed that it really helps to decide your next day's plans before you go to bed. That way you sort of enforce your conciousness to push yourself the next day to actually get it all done. Last night I was thinking of another Jillian workout and I can't wait to dig into it a bit later (once I finish my coffee that is!). Haven't quite decided which one yet, I might do the six-pack one again. I am slightly sore after yesterday but thankfully not too bad so I can do the workout. Should've stretched my calfs and shoulders a bit more but can't help that now really can I?

I'm a bit anxious about this weekend coming up. My in laws are having a bit family gathering and I'm a bit worried that I'll slip and stuff my face will all sorts of party food. Maybe I'll just cook my own dinner and lock myself upstairs so I'm not tempted. We'll see what happens.

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!