Friday 30 May 2014

Comfort food

This post may surprise you. 

No I'm not writing about chocolate, crisps, pizza, pasta and ice cream or drinking wine. 

I'm taking comfort from food and exercise. 

Things are going a bit off track with the house purchase (don't ask!) and I've realised I can't control any of it.

So what have I done? Returned to my trusty old friend food and exercise.

I can control what I eat and how often I try and work out.

And as I said I'd blog my progress with the 30 Day Shred here I am writing about it.

I've been completely stressed out all week, tired out and had a banging headache.

As is always the case when you get yourself into exercise you always feel better for it. 

Exercising this week has helped me de-stress and switch off temporarily. 

Tomorrow I am weighing myself to see what progress I've made this week.

I'm really hoping to see something positive.

This week I've stuck to eating healthily, within my recommended calorie allowance to lose weight, for all seven days of the week.

In terms of exercise I've done my workout DVD (30 Day Shred) for five of the seven days. 

Fingers crossed as well as benefiting me to help relax, this week's food and exercise efforts have helped me lose weight and get fitter too. 

Until tomorrow's weigh-in...

Sunday 25 May 2014

Two weeks on: bringing back the balance

I met up with a close friend a few days back and she reminded me of my plans to blog about my diet and exercise.

Of course those of you who read my posts regularly will know that I haven't actually done this.

The reason being? I didn't get off to a great start if I'm honest.

On Sunday 11th May I started off my 30 Day Shred workout DVD and in the main stuck to my calorie limit.

And then? I ate healthily but I didn't do any exercise again during the week.

I'm pleased to say that things are now looking up again (of course they are that's why I'm blogging!) 

I've now completed 9 days of level one of the 30 Day Shred and I've eaten healthily.

The balance is still there as I pigged out last Sunday at a family BBQ and I've been out for meals. When I'm eating out at restaurants I'm staying within my recommended calorie intake this time and logging my diet and exercise on MyFitnessPal.

I finally seem to be getting back on the fitness 'wavelength' again. 

It's paying off.

Since starting 'The Shred' I've lost 5lbs in weight and lowered my body fat and BMI as a result. 

I've still made plans and kept a social life.

Yesterday I went on a bit of a shopping spree and was pleased to see I'm still fitting in size 12 clothes in the main too. 

Let's hope I manage to keep it up and keep blogging about it! 

Saturday 17 May 2014

Selfish? Me?

A thought for the day.

I'm always having a whinge about other people nowadays. How rude people are with their manners and mainly how selfish they are.

Common courtesy and helping others tends to go out the window a lot now.

Everyone seems to be worried about what's in it for me. 

At work we often get annoyed how someone couldn't take time out just to reply to emails or update us.

Me and my fiancé get frustrated at the selfish people who never let us drive out of our turning where I live.

Today I was due to meet my old closest university friend at Stratford Westfield for a long awaited catch up.

A few hours before we were due to meet I checked the National Rail app and found the trains had delays. The extent of those delays kept changing.

I noticed the reason for the delays - a person had been hit by a train at Ilford.

I let my friend know and we tried to see if we could still meet.

In the end we postponed our catch up.

We were both fuming.

I took to Twitter to complain - of course! - and the rail company Tweeted me back with the reason. 

All day I've been moaning about my plans being cancelled.

The fact is someone got hit by a train today and can only imagine they sadly lost their life. A family lost a loved one.

Did I stop to consider that? 

All I've been worried about is moaning about my plans.

Who's the selfish one now? 

Wednesday 14 May 2014

Putting things in perspective

I've been feeling pretty fed up the last few weeks. Whether it's through work, or stressing in my personal life, regarding the property fun and games. 

I finished work nearly 90 minutes late today and got home exhausted. 

I've been finding it really hard to exercise and eat healthily lately and have been getting down about that too as I can see where I've put on weight.

Tomorrow's set to be pretty horrendous at work again too. 

And don't get me started on panicking about the future and finances. 

Now, I'm sat on my sofa in my PJs and relaxing, deciding to put aside exercise and insurance quote hunting/conveyancing checklisting for tonight.

Then I look on social media and take time to read properly some key items from today. One jumps out. 

Stephen Sutton, an incredibly brave young man who was battling cancer and raising awareness, has sadly passed away.

I've also switched on 24 Hours in A&E on the TV and only a few minutes in I'm faced with heartbroken families and tales of people suddenly struck down with life threatening conditions.

You know what suddenly things don't seem quite so bad after all, do they? 

Monday 12 May 2014

Day 2 of bringing back the balance

In order to attempt to restore balance in more ways than one (or perhaps to get the excuses in early!) I'm thinking I may not be doing my workout DVD when I get home this evening.

Yesterday, as you'll know from my blog, I did my workout DVD (30 Day Shred, my trusty favourite) for the first time in a long time - in fact the first exercise I've done in about 3 weeks!

Today I had a course on Investor Relations and Financial Markets at work (contrary to what you'd think it was actually rather interesting). As a result I'd be on the course and unavailable 9-430, therefore I did some work on the train in and got into the office half hour early. 

As is typical with most of us these days in the working world any lunch or tea 'breaks' were spent back at my desk doing work. 

Knowing I had to be in early must have been playing on my mind as I just could not sleep last night. You know those situations where you wake up every half hour and on the hour? So much fun!

This morning as a result I awoke shattered and in turn super achey from my exercise attempt on Sunday.

Throughout the day my muscles, in particular my quads (thighs) have got tighter and more sore, to the extent as I walk it feels like my legs might burst!

I'm cranky, tired, have had no fresh air all day and am super sore. 

Add to that brain melt from all-day training and I'm not in the best of places for this evening.

Nope I'm not already talking about doing my workout.

Oh no I'm talking about the long phonecall I have this evening with my fiancé and our mortgage broker. We're going to be talking losing your job, getting injured and dying. Well, moreso critical illness cover, lifetime protection and the like.

I did thankfully leave work 15-20 mins 'early' today so am now on the commute home.

Right now I'm really not keen on doing any form of exercise when I arrive home.

Of course, as a result, I am now starting to feel guilty and to be honest a bit of a failure, for on the second day only thinking of not doing the workout.

Am I being lazy and a failure? Or am I being sensible letting my muscle repair and recognising I am exhausted?

Help! Please answer!

I either need reassurance I'm okay and doing what's best, or if not a virtual kick up the a*se to get myself in gear.

Please do tell me what one... You've got about 30 minutes before I crash on the sofa and eat my dinner (healthy of course !)

Oh and not wanting to sway your judgement or anything but I thought you should know:

At breakfast at the course there were freshly baked croissants and biscuits.
I had my light yoghurt and a low fat cereal bar

I drank over 1.5 litres of water.
Not tons of the coffee and tea in the training.

At lunch they'd ordered in Pret sandwiches, crisps, juice and biscuits/cakes/sweet treats. 
I went to my desk to check work emails and ate my homemade salad.

In the afternoon the temptations remained.
I snacked on my mango chunks and then some low fat crisps when downstairs.

So? What should I do? 

Sunday 11 May 2014

Busy Bookworm

I last blogged about my reading antics in January. I'd read 4 books.

Now we're in May and I'm onto my 17th read.

Surely I don't need to say it, but I love reading. I find it's truly one of the things that can really relax me.

Whether reading before I go to sleep to unwind and make me sleepy, on a break from work or on the commute to make me switch off. 

I've read a mixture of books over the last few months - some I downloaded on my Kindle, those I'd been recommended by others and also books leant to me. 

I may start blogging after each read again, we shall see. 

For now here's a very quick summary:

The Hidden Cottage by Erica James

Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

The White Witch of Rosehall by Herbert G. De Lisser

Vivien's Heacenly Ice Cream Shop by Abby Clements 

And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

My James: The Heartrending Story of James Bulger by His Father by Ralph Bulger, Rosie Dunn

Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge by Lindy Woodhead

12 Years A Slave by Solomon Northup

The Never List by Koethi Zan

The One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Longbourn by Jo Baker 

Cold Killing by Luke Delaney

Don't Let Me Go by Susan Lewis

14 were fiction 
2 were non fiction

I'm now on to book number 17 The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, which I've heard very mixed reviews about. 

Any recommendations of new reads I should try let me know! 


Bringing back the balance

It has been a long long time since I've blogged. I feel I spend more time writing posts apologising for not having written anything than any other subject! 

I have had good reason. Promise! 

Myself and my fiancé have literally been living and breathing property. We've been focussed on me trying to sell my flat and buying our first home together a house (more on that another time). 

However, things seem - touch wood - to be a bit more on track and I've been trying to focus on having fun and doing things rather than just making the selling and buying my whole life! 

I seem to be managing to get on a more even keel finally between that area of my life and my social life again now.

One area where I've really been suffering is diet and exercise. It's been over three weeks since I've done any exercise and food and drink seems to have become a huge focus of late.

I'm not one of these people who gets stressed and stops eating. If only! No, I'm a comfort eater, meaning the last few weeks as well as no exercise, most days I've been eating non stop junk and drinking alcohol. 

My fiancé is the same. We've been getting takeaways, eating meals out and generally consuming far more volumes of food and drink than is needed. 

I've always said when I see programs or articles on obese people who have numerous health problems caused by their weight that surely they must reach a point and realise they're going too far? 

Myself I felt I reached that a few years back where I suddenly identified I'd got pretty big in size and was pretty unfit. 

Now I've never let myself get to that point again, but over the last few days on talking to my fiancé and others it's clear I've got a bit off track.

Ironically it's whilst eating out the last two nights saying to friends how I always find it hard to be healthy and still sociable, that something has clicked. 

So enough is enough.

It's time to bring back the balance.

I've done a little plan as you can see and decided to give good old Jillian a go again.

So today I've tried to eat healthily so far, drank loads of water and have done my workout DVD.

Day one, level one of Thirty Day Shred done.

I'm going to the cinema tonight and we're going for a carvery first but I'm going to stick to my calorie limit. 

Hopefully by focusing on my weight and fitness again (which is horrendous judging by how hard I found the DVD!) I will also keep a bit calmer on the house buying and flat selling process. 

I also plan to keep blogging about it so I hold myself accountable.

Measurements have been taken and the first step is starting it so here's to getting shredded!