Showing posts with label progress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label progress. Show all posts

Wednesday, 12 March 2014

Workout Wednesday... Where did February go?

Time is disappearing before me lately. It feels like no time has passed since Christmas. On Tuesday next week, I start my new job; quickest months' notice ever! So here's a little update on what I've been up to.

Firstly, I went spinning! At 7am. On a Monday morning. Three times. I'm so proud of myself. I never thought I would even go spinning three times in my life, let alone before work! Somehow, it gets me super pumped and awake and ready to face my working week.

I'm finding that this whole fitness business is spreading across my life. Like on Sunday, the beautiful sunshine came out to play. Instead of going to the river & sitting by a pub consuming endless calories, I decided to take to Richmond Park with a friend and stomp around for a couple of hours. We saw stampeding deer, pretty flowers and generally skipped about while loving life. I always feel so refreshed after a nice afternoon burning off some energy in the park!

 
I also realised in the last week that I am most definitely a gym addict. Not a bad thing to realise. Positively brilliant, actually. I may not quite have the body yet but it's definitely in progress. I no longer have any hesitance in heading into the weights area. I know what I'm doing, what I need and go at it like there's no tomorrow. I claim my space, shred my muscles, tidy up and go. I feel safe and strong there and I love that.

 
One of my happiest moments in my journey so far is this picture below. Yes, lots of filters are added on but that's to emphasise the shadowing; I took the pictures in awful changing room lights. I have never had muscle definition anywhere except my calves before. I've always been really weak in my upper body and never loved my arms. But now they're shredding fat, growing muscle and looking swole. Obviously they don't look like that all the time but the shoulder / arm workout I did that day gave me a super pump. I was so impressed that I just had to document it.

 
If any of you have progress pictures, I'd love to see them. I spot a few on twitter and it gives me another bout of determination to keep up my hard work and watch my own progress develop!

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Workout Wednesdays... Progress, Recipes & Fitspo

So last week I was moaning about having hit a plateau (sorry).
 
This week I'm feeling much more positive. Despite being at my mum's for the weekend (which means missing workouts & not eating clean), I've had a good week. I've managed to compensate for missed workouts by combining two into one on a couple of occasions. I've been really good with food prep & only had one little slip up - an emotional day + a bag of mini eggs = a binge. But I've forgiven myself for it and moved on. I am only human, after all.
 
I don't want to boast but I'm proud of myself today. Last night, I did my first set of measurements since Christmas. So...
 
Left bicep: 0.5 inch loss
Right bicep: 0.5 inch loss
Chest - 1 inch loss
Waist - 2 inch loss
Hips - 1 inch loss
 
I'm seriously impressed with this! My thighs have each gained half an inch but, judging by the feel and the slight definition in my quads, this is muscle and not fat so I'm happy with that!
 
Most weeks, I feel like there's no change on the scales and my jeans aren't getting any looser so monthly progress checks like this are really good for me. I shall be taking another set of progress pictures soon too but these are for my personal gallery; I'm nowhere near confident enough to reveal them to the world just yet!
 
Part of why I feel successful this week has been down to being prepared. I'm finding it easier and less time consuming each week, now that I know what I'm doing and how much to prep of what for when. Being a lot more confident in all of this has led me to deviate from my original basic diet and experiment & research new recipes.

Yesterday I found this recipe for Omelette Cupcakes from a lovely lady that I follow on twitter (https://twitter.com/HHH_Dannii).

Mine didn't come out quite as perfectly as hers but that's natural for a first bake! They came out huge & fluffy and subsequently sank quite a bit. Shallowness aside, they were super yummy! I made 10 to have for breakfasts over a few days and chopped up some mushrooms and peppers into the mix to give it a bit of a boost. Very impressed with these, especially as they don't taste too egg-like!

 
For the final part of this blog post, I wanted to give you a list of some of the accounts that I follow on Twitter that keep me motivated. Whether it be by posting their workouts, recipes, pictures, or just telling me to get in the gym when I'm feeling lazy, these people really make a difference. This list is neither definitive nor exhaustive but they are people who have inspired me in the last week or so!
 
 
and, of course, my favourite FitLads of all time...

Get following and get inspired!