Sunday 18 January 2015

The Ring - 2002 American Psychological Horror

I love a good horror. There aren't many that'll have me hiding behind my hands but The Ring was one of the very few that did.  The story is based around a cursed video tape. After the 'cursed tape' has been watched a phone call is received by the unlucky recipient, upon answering hear a child's voice rasping 'Seven Days'. They then have an untimely demise seven days later.

I'm Still Alive
Seven day into 90DaySSS and I'd done it, a whole week, four High Intensity Interval Training sessions, following all recipes provided in my personalised plan.

It wasn't a breeze and required some effort in a number of areas.

Cooking
I do love cooking but usually cook after I've been enticed by alluring food images from Pinterest, or my fav vegetarian magazine. This way of cooking was entirely different, no images, just a burning desire for a healthier stronger future and putting my trust in a stranger with a wealth of testimonials and photos showing excellent results. The first weekend I'd cooked loads, ate loads and prepared loads. The first full week back at the office, still lots of work to finish in the house and a whole lot of cooking to do! Then away at the weekend assisting on the Hypnotherapy Diploma training course, still managed to prepare and stick to all meals (smug face) and that was with guests staying over, and friends who brought some Champers. I stuck to tonic, no vodka or gin.

What I Loved
Stuffed Peppers - really easy and straightforward to prepare, tasty and the ingredients are easy to get hold of. Easy to make two lots, so lunch is ready for the next day too. This will be a firm favourite in the weeks to come.

Go Go Green Smoothie - great, easy to take to work for breakfast, tasty (must get a proper blender though), green. Great until I added the powdered Wheatgrass. I'm not entirely sure whether powdered is the way to go, or fresh. The powdered stuff I ordered from the internet, god only knows where you'd get the fresh stuff? Anyway my lovely smoothie turned to pond, and tasted like pond and it was relegated to the bin, insert unsmiley face. Wheatgrass won't be featuring again in any of my food. Sorry Wheatgrass lovers. Please note: I do not know what 'Pond' tastes like but if I were to hazard a guess it would taste like Wheatgrass.

Salmon Fish Cakes - great and super easy to make, although mine sometimes turned into a kinda Salmon hash, fab with avocadoes and cottage cheese and another one easy to whip up for lunch the next day.

Struggles
Mostly with the quantity of food I was eating, and believe me this isn't usually an area I have a problem with. There was just sooo much. One day I skipped a whole meal as I thought I might be sick but that was the only one and re-thought my food plan to swap things around a bit. Quorn is easy and quick to cook, but really filling. So have started to have one fish, one Quorn in a day rather than two Quorn meals.

Drinking
Not the alcoholic variety, only two Vodka and slimline tonics since New Year's Day and I haven't missed it at all. But the sheer volume of water to drink. It's an area that requires more concerted effort. But habits are changing slowly, no coffee until I reach the office (I usually would have consumed two large buckets of coffee) and an Earl Grey in the afternoon, oops. But that's way, way better from my previous caffeine habit.

HIIT Sessions
When I first watched the YouTube video of the HIIT sessions I could see Joe was getting puffed out and thought, 'how hard can it be'? Well it appears quite hard indeed. I swear each 30 second stint is at least 30 minutes....but I continue with the self talk, 'that it's only 30 seconds', 'would I prefer to sit on the sofa and stay the same size and fitness level', 'would I feel good about myself if I avoided the HIIT session. The answer is always a resounding NO. NO I wouldn't, not for all the tea in China.

Not just seven days later, but 16 days later and I've survived, no expiration date after seven days. In fact feeling more alive, happy and energised than I have in a long time.

Starting 90DaySSS when I have 12 working days without a break, decorating to finish in the house, and getting back to work after the Christmas break might have been crazy. But succeeding in spite of the other challenges my belief that I can achieve the results that have alluded me for the majority of my adult life appear to be within my grasp.

I love seeing how well everyone else is doing, you are all such an inspiration to keep on working at this new lifestyle.

Here's to the next 'seven days'!















Sunday 4 January 2015

Resurrection

Post Christmas Rush for Fitness
The post Christmas rush of exercise programmes and diet plans has been embarked upon in earnest by a huge percentage of the population and I have become one of them. In my defence I've been on a quest to find an alternative exercise to running and healthy way of eating for a good few months.

Since my knee informed me it wasn't happy with running I figured it was best to quit before I buggered it up beyond repair. A long wait to see physios, lots of exercises and my knee didn't seem to be improving, in fact it seemed to be getting worse. So plan B would have to happen, but what?

Buoyancy and that Sinking Feeling
I wasn't running, had moved to a vegetarian diet (have since moved to pescartarian). A combination of more pastry, no running and my clothes were getting tighter. This inactivity also affected my mood. I was surprisingly low and it had crept up slowly. I'm pretty busy most of the time, with a full time day job, and a hypnotherapy practice which I love, fabulous friends and family and yet this black feeling kept spreading. Running had been a much bigger influence in my life than I'd really given it credit for and had not only built up my fitness, it'd provided a wide social network of friends, and the endorphins from running had kept me fabulously buoyant.

Searching for the Holy Grail
In my quest for alternative fitness routes weight training appeared to coming out pretty high. Hopefully I could build up the other muscle groups that would get me running again making my knee stable with a bonus of getting leaner. I've never been one for fad diets as I'm very well aware they are nonsense and that the majority of people will just increase in weight and size when they stop so didn't want to do that. I know nuts are good for you, but they are full of fat, same goes for avocados. Fruit is good for you but full of sugar. I know to cut out the processed stuff all that stuff that has me reaching for just one more, and then perhaps another and....but even so can be confusing.

The Body Coach
A friend of mine lost a lot of weight recently pointed me in the direction of The Body Coach on Facebook and Twitter, so I decided to follow him and check out his website. It made sense to me and his Lean in 15 meals looked great and seemed to be in line with the kinda stuff I was reading about and made sense. So I took the plunge and signed up for the 90DaySSS plan. Eek.

Spreadsheet heaven took over as careful meal planning filled the boxes for each day, taking plenty of time to plan the meals, around my job, around the other commitments I had. To ensure that I could achieve following the plan with minimal aggravation, the meal spreadsheet was born! I'd already watched the beginners HIIT on Beginners High Intensity Interval Training and thought 'I could do that'.

D-Day was Saturday 3rd January. Supplements were ready, food was ready, my gym kit (yes I even put out a gym kit to do the HIIT at home) was ready... I was ready to rock n roll.

Twenty minutes later and my first HIIT was done. Puffed out and red in the face with the vague feeling that I might, just might hurt a little bit later.

My first meal was the Protein Refuel pancake which was the equivalent of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. It was enormous! And oh so filling, I couldn't eat it all but tasted good. Easy to prepare and quick to cook but I think these are probably better cooked as smaller pancakes rather than one giant one!

Lunch was the Feta Omelet, again massive and I couldn't eat it all but again tasted good. I was out for the afternoon and took my portion of nuts for my mid afternoon snack, I figured eating a boiled egg in the cinema might be frowned upon. And when home I cooked the Cashew curry which was also yummy, takes a bit more prep but worth it and I now have three more portions in the freezer.

Today was another HIIT session  and even though I was walking like Bambi on Ice and the lure of bed was distinctly more appealing I thought about the end result. Which would be running again and perhaps going somewhere exotic on holiday at the end of the year and feeling confident and fabulous in swimwear. Thailand here I come.

Breakfast was a Refuel bagel, easy to put together, lunch I've just made Cajun Quorn which was really, really easy to make, and tastes great. Again loads of it. Also made enough for four so another three portions in the freezer.

Tonight I'm going to make the Salmon Fishcakes and make enough for tomorrow evening too.

There is so much food I can't help but think the portion sizes must be wrong but I have to trust Joe.

This weekend has been relatively easy. But I have habits of a lifetime to change and when the stress is on is when my motivation and drive to succeed on this plan is going to be tested the most. Planning in advance and cooking plenty of the easy meals that can be frozen is going to key. Along with support from friends and family and the dream of a confident holiday in the sun, and hitting the open road.