I'm hoping you're all enjoying the new layout I installed (and sorry for anyone who got caught in the middle of it, when I was still tweaking things around)! I felt like I needed a complete change to the feel of the blog after the name change, and this is definitely a breath of fresh air! All the different follow- buttons are in one handy place now. And did you notice, you can also find me on Twitter now!


Thursday, upper body day! I actually really loved the set I planned last week, so apart from one change I ended up going for the same workout. I was going to plan a new one, but when I actually realised I didn't plan one it was already late and I just couldn't be bothered.

While my muscle mass hasn't grown that much since the start of this month, I just wanted to have a look at how I'm doing. You can actually see the player of fat slowly making it's way out of my body! My arms are starting to slim down quite nicely, and that makes me so happy! Still got a little remain of a bingo wing right by my armpit but I'll make sure it won't hang around for too long.



I'm feeling really confident about being beach ready by end of May! I might not actually hit the magical 64kg if I carry on the way I have been at the gym, but that really doesn't bother me at this point. :) I can see my body change for the better on a daily basis, and as long as those inches melt away I'll be more than pleased.

Do you guys ever have days, when you just feel so euphoric and happy? My incredible mood was fully down to to going to the gym in the morning, but oh my god how good I felt afterwards! More on that in a bit. ;)

I found a nice recipe for non-bake brownies (Finnish only) a while back, and I've been dying to try them ever since! I finally got most of the ingredients last night, so decided to give it a go! I forgot to get some honey and because I didn't look properly, bought two lots of chocolate instead of chocolate and cocoa powder (because you know, I figured that the stuff in the tube would've been cocoa powder but guess I was wrong). Also forgot to get honey so used a tablespoon of sugar, plus didn't get any Kalahari salt because I have no clue where to get any. The chocolate used in the original recipe is "raw" chocolate as well, I just used roughly 50g of normal chocolate meant for baking and a tablespoon of sugar.

Anyways! Here's the original recipe shown in the blog (1dl equals roughly half a cup):
2dl walnuts
1dl cashews
1dl almonds (pre soaked)
10 dates
1dl coconut flakes
1tsp Kalahari salt
30g cocoa butter, 30g cocoa mass and 1tsp honey melted together

These amounts are rough estimates, but it seemed to work for my trial batch. 

 
You really don't need to be a genius to figure this one out. You get a food processor, grind up all the nuts and then throw in the dates (I left the nuts a bit chunky, but you could literally just grind the entire thing to a paste). After you've melted the chocolate, you simply mix the nuts and chocolate together and spread the mix onto a baking tray. Stick it in the freezer to set for a while and you're done!

I was definitely missing the sweetness you'd get from honey and the coconut flakes. Now it's pretty much just nut mix with some chocolate. :D They were really good, though! A great little post-workout snack. My first lot really looked nothing like the stuff I saw on the blog, but nevermind! It'll go down the same way. And I've got enough nuts and dates for at least one more go, maybe I'll fine tune the recipe a bit and see what happens.


But yeah, back to feeling amazing! I had a bit of a lay in today, and once I managed to drag myself out of bed I headed straight for the gym to get the workout out of the way I had planned for last Friday. It's really odd how addicted to working out I'm getting now, maybe it's my Body By Vi shakes providing an incredible side effect or something!

Speaking of Body By Vi, I'm really seeing results already! Maybe it's just the decrease in carbs I'm eating over the day, but my tummy has gone down slightly! Even if it's just water and general bloating leaving my system, I'm not complaining! I'm quite looking forward to my weigh in next Sunday, see how well I've done so far! :)


As I was feeling so great, I figured that I'll slip into my fabulously pink jeans before heading out for a family dinner. These jeans are by far my favourites, but they really need a day when I'm feeling super positive and confident or I'll feel really awkward. I mean, they're not the most discreet pair of jeans around, are they? :D

Being able to wear these jeans is such an achievement for me both physically and mentally. I'm the lightest I have been since I was 17, and that is giving me such a confidence boost. And I look far better than I did back then, I'm actually in the process of toning up instead of slowly gaining weight.


It's the last day of my half term today. In a way I'm glad I'm heading back to uni, as I've really felt isolated this week. Apart from my other half and people at work I've barely spent any time with people or even spoken to anyone properly. Felt a bit like an outsider this week.

I'm so in love with the fact, that it only takes me 5ish minutes to get to the gym now. Just the thought of getting out of bed in the morning, finding my gym kit and walking to the gym is pure gold! ♥ I love going to the gym enough as it is, and actually having it so close is making me go a bit nuts!

As it's Wednesday, it was my cardio day. 25 minutes on the treadmill followed by a few core exercises and 15 minutes on the elliptical. I really should try rowing and cycling as well, but I'm just a bit worried that they'll put too much pressure on my back and I'll end up getting injured again. Better to play it safe for now and see how things evolve in the next few months.


My stomach really didn't react well to half a litre of milk yesterday, so popped into the shop on my way home from the gym and got some soya milk. I did mention my potential lactose intolerance not so long ago, but never got around to getting myself tested and all the symptoms vanished for a while so I forgot about it. But now that I'm actively drinking milk again, all the symptoms came back and I figured that it's better to give soya milk a go and see how my stomach handles it.

I've gotta say, the soya has really helped! On top of making my stomach calm down, the shake mix doesn't taste quite as sickly sweet as it did with milk. Think this is my choice of milk from now on! I can't really even taste the difference between normal milk and the soya version, so in the long run it doesn't even matter that much. The soya milk is obviously more expensive, but I think I'd rather pay a bit extra for it than suffer with stomach pains every day for the next three months.


My lunch today was literally a chocolate explosion! I decided to try the chocolate flavouring with my shake and also grabbed one of the chocolate chip cookies haha! The chocolate flavouring isn't as strong as the strawberry one, and my shake didn't really taste that different to the normal version.


I've actually got a massive craving for brownies right now, and I'd have the perfect healthy recipe for them. Just not quite sure if Tesco Express stocks the ingredients I need to make them. Hmm. Worth walking down the road to check? My cravings are saying hell yes, but my legs are sore from earlier!

Some of you guys might have noticed it already, but the blog has changed it's name! I've wanted to rename my blog for such a long time now, and originally I was going to wait until I'm done with losing weight. I just got rather impatient and went ahead with it already, so welcome to RiaFit! :) You can access the blog through riafit.co.uk now, but the original Blogger address will work just fine as well.

I know it's the first day of my challenge, but I'm feeling great! My energy levels have been stable throughout the day and I'm really enjoying the shakes as well. The basic shake mix tastes exactly like Fox's Golden Crunch biscuits, which is absolutely amazing to say the least! The shake is quite sweet, and for someone who really doesn't have that much sugar, it's going to take some getting used to. I don't really mind it, it'll settle my sweet tooth for sure.


On top of my two shakes, I've had one of the cookies that came with the kit, a vanilla crown, a few cups of coffee, dinner and a 10kcal pot of jelly. I did feel a bit hungry in the morning between the shakes, but having the two snacks settled my tummy enough to last til the next meal.

Gotta say, the peanut butter cookies didn't quite convince me. To me a cookie has to be sweet, so the salty taste of peanuts did ruin it a bit for me. Don't get me wrong, it was still really nice and the crunchy & chewy texture was scrummy, but don't think that I'll be stocking my shelves with peanut butter cookies anytime soon! ;)

On top of the two supplements I'm still taking my biotin every day - that makes it three pills to take in the morning (+ another fish oil after dinner)! The fish oil is absolutely enormous - I'm really not a big fan of taking any pills, so it does kinda make me feel a bit nervous. I'm just scared of the fact that it might get stuck in my throat, hah!


And just to track my progress during the challenge, some pics! My weight this morning was 71,5kg, I'm really hoping to get as close to the 64kg mark as possible during the next three months. Fingers crossed! I'm looking to stick to my three gym days a week and chilled walks when I feel like it. I do quite a bit of walking around and heavy lifting at work, so all of this combined should give me a nice balance.


We've been quite busy cleaning up at the flat today. We had a massive pile of cardboard boxes and general rubbish in the lounge, and I was pretty desperate to get rid of it. The entire flat just looks more homely without it all in the way, you know? And now I won't feel bad about inviting friends over, I won't feel like we are living in the boxes!

Outfit of the day.

Last night's dinner: sweet potato, chickpeaas, ground beef, tomatoes and salad.

Spicy chicken pizza and lots of salad on the side - yum!

Ready for the challenge? You can join me by heading over to the Body By Vi website!

Oh my, what a weekend it's been! Friday at uni and Saturday + today at work.

I was going to go to the gym on Friday morning, but I figured that it's not the best idea to go and do a leg workout when I've got a really tough weekend at work. We are doing a stock take and I was put down for 8-18 today, so I thought that it's really not a good idea to do a long day at work with incredibly sore legs.. :D Thankfully we ended up finishing two hours early today, as we had some help from other shops. Most likely going to do my leg workout either tonight or tomorrow at home, depending on how tired I feel later tonight.

I've noticed how disciplined I actually am at gym compared to working out at home. I really push myself a lot harder, when I'm actually surrounded by people working out! It's probably mainly just me feeling far more motivated to push for the last reps when I think that people are looking. In reality 99% of the people going to my gym probably really don't care! :D

Friday.

I've been ordering a lot of things for our flat as well. We don't have a lot of cupboard space, so I really wanted to buy a spice rack that I can just leave on the counter. And the best thing about this one is that it spins! It also came with 16 glass jars I can put all my spices in, so they're all nicely visible and in matching jars. I got some white labels from work today to stick on the lids, so I can spot my spices instantly. I just can't wait to see all the jars full up, the colours will be absolutely amazing! Knowing me I will even arrange the jars based on colour, hah! Dried herbs in one, browns and yellows in one... :D


And as I was browsing Amazon for things I need, it really hit me that I'm missing a digital food scale. I had a look at John Lewis, Tesco and a few other places, and they're really asking ridiculous amounts of money for something so simple! I don't care how posh their scales are, I'm not paying £50 for one! This scale cost me roughly £12 and does exactly what I want it to, no extra features to complicate things. It's small, matches everything else in our kitchen and looks really nice. What more could you ask for?

I know it might sound very odd that I'm getting so excited over a food scale, but I haven't actually had a digital one until now. It'll be nice to get exact measures of ingredients when I'm baking and cooking.


It's really not a secret, that I'm not exactly a girly person. I'm more into all sorts of nerdy stuff and games, and I've had this amazing Big Bang Theory poster on top of our wardrobe for a few weeks now. I was going to buy a frame for it in Ikea, but either Ikea has very odd frame sizes or the poster size is weird. There was just no way I could make the poster look nice in the frames available, so I bought these cheap plastic holders you slide to the ends of the poster to straighten it up. Now all I need is a bit of fishing line and I can hang it in our new nerd cave at the flat. It's funny how the smallest things make me happy.. :D The poster will look glorious, though!

*knock knock knock* Penny!

And just because this post isn't full of materialism already, one more thing! I remember my mum having a little magnetic shopping list on our fridge door when I was little, and now that I finally have my very own fridge, I wanted one of my own! I really like the look fo chalk boards and when I saw this board I just knew I needed to have it. I got a bit bored last night and started scribbling on it, sketching one of our dogs in her element, haha! She is really protective of her bones and I feel like I captured her essence in that little sketch spot on! My father-in-law even said that I'm going to have to buy another one now, as I'm not allowed to wipe that off! And apparently I need to draw one of our other dog as well. Maybe this will be my calling, making silly sketches of dogs! :D


It's quite amazing how much time blogging actually takes up. I think I started writing this roughly 45 minutes ago and I'm only just finished! I can see why popular bloggers actually have it as a full time job, it took me so long to just write about my weekend, not to mention all the special posts I do every now and then.

There's no better feeling than the post-workout feeling! I feel so full of energy despite killing myself at the gym for an hour, I just feel like going for a run now! Still feeling a bit rough with this bug I managed to catch over the weekend, but I didn't want to let it get in the way of a good workout.

I decided to wear this incredibly adorable Pacman shirt today. My other half got it from his brother as a present, but it turned out to be a bit too small for him. I thought that it would be a shame to waste such a cool nerd shirt, so it has got a place in my workout clothing. My other half always laughs when I wear this and says that Pacman is nomming on my boob.. :D


Even though I went to the gym rather early (was about 9.20 when I got there), it was quite packed! It's not a big gym, so I think it's the best option to keep going in the mornings, when it's less crowded. Anyways! I did a light cardio workout, 20 minutes on treadmill with varying speeds and incline, followed by a bit of core work and 20 minutes on the elliptical.

I've been reunited with my UP band as well. I've been meaning to carry on using it, but at some point I just started getting fed up with it getting caught on my pillow when I was sleeping. I've decided to only use this during the day now, it was an expensive little band so I want to get the most out of it. It'll mainly be my workout buddy, just to see how much I burn and to keep better track of my overall calorie burn over the day. Determined to be in bikini shape by this summer! ;)

I've been so preoccupied talking about bigger things on my blog that my actual day to day stuff has been pushed aside a bit. But now, time for a bit of rambling again.

Another injury, yay. Just because my ankles playing up in May wasn't enough to screw up my progress, now my knee has done itself in! It actually happened on Tuesday, I just simply knelt down on the floor to wrestle with out dogs and I just felt something pop in my left knee. Ever since it's been a real task to straighten my leg, I keep getting nasty little stings when I walk and I've just ended up chair bound most of the time. Really not what I want to be doing right now!! I feel like I'm slacking and like I'm just using a small injury as an excuse to not exercise. I know that's not the case, I need to rest my knee or I'll just damage it even further, but it's really annoying me. I'm so into my workouts right now that having to skip gym is just awful.

I will probably end up doing a small arm workout to compensate, though. I want to do SOMETHING! Just sitting down, doing some simple stuff like bicep curls and shoulder presses, just to get the calorie burn going.


With my potentially low calorie in mind I kept lunch pretty light. I cubed some baby potatoes and green peppers, sliced carrots and threw it all on the pan to fry in a little olive oil. Once that was done I threw in two salmon fillets, seasoned and added some sweet chilli sauce. I called it a very posh pytt i panna (a Swedish potato & sausage dish) as it did quite look like it but with a more fancy meat on the side.


And being all proud and happy about a light lunch, we then ended up having a bad dinner. Naughty us! We had to pop out for something and on the way back we started talking about what to have for dinner, I had a "bright" idea of going for KFC as it was on the way. I originally just wanted a Krushem but we thought that might as well have dinner so I don't need to stand in the kitchen and cook with my knee being what it is. While the sodium load was quite massive (just with that meal I've eaten nearly 90% of my sodium intake for the day), I've still kept my calories on target - currently I'm at 1100 (with my total calorie burn for today being at 1280 right now). I'm still going to eat something small during the evening just to get over 1200.


Time to start thinking what kind of a workout to do then!

Apologies for the long gap between posts. Real life has it's ways of interfering with things. :)

I've really been able to find some kind of serenity by the sea in the middle of everything that's been going on. I've just automatically gone to the beach instead of somewhere else when I've gone for a walk. It's just so beautiful and quiet over there.


I've had a bit of a hair crisis for a while now. The colour just didn't turn out to be as even as I wanted it when I coloured last time (a month ago?), my fringe ended up being two shades darker than the rest and I had this layer of red mixed in with the brunette. So I had a master plan of buying hair colour stripper and a hair colour a few shades lighter than what I have currently. The stripper worked wonders like it always has before, but unfortunately I didn't have time to add the new colour (and I also ran out of hot water...) before going to the gym. So I went to the gym looking like a carrot!! Was a bit embarrassed, but had no other option than to suck it up and focus on my workout instead of worrying about my hair. :p

Yup, despite having a terrible weigh in this morning, I didn't let that stop me at the gym. On the contrary, I pushed myself even more. Spent about an hour at the gym today, had a leg day today! Quick warmup on the treadmill (3min walk - 5min job - 2min walk) followed by two different leg machines, a quick ab set, squats, backwards lunges and stepper to finish it all off. My heart rate absolutely sky rocketed on the stepper, I hit 190 at some point.


It was wonderfully quiet at the gym as well! Barely anyone there, was very nice to be able to do your sets without thinking that somebody is waiting to get on the machines and so on. Also managed to snap this picture during my cooldown, my (very blurry) other half in the background. :) I find it so incredibly important to stretch properly after doing a workout, I just end up being stupidly sore the next day if I don't.

It's been such a pleasant day in other ways, too. :) We had some family around and I got a chance to take pictures of all five dogs of the family again. I can't say it enough, photographing animals is such a rewarding thing to do. You can't tell a dog to pose or sit still, you're forced to think very quick and be ready with the camera or the moment is gone.