So Far It's a Happy Lark

Into the third week of my new regime of rebelfit and I seem to be flying.  I think I always had the mindset, but not the necessary push to get me started - this is by far the best £30 I've spent, better then any gym membership or juice menu for a week.  Although it has taken me a fortnight or so to get used to the 'amount' of food I'm eating now and to fight with extreme tiredness.  My body is still changing but I find once I start exercising, I suddenly come alive!  Take this mornings workout - a 30 minute strength training session with lovely Jessica - it's a cardio strength for 30 mins, so the weights must never be too heavy - she recommends 8 pounds, that's roughly 3 and half kg - I used 3kg and found it - although difficult - 'doable'!

Anyway - I'm hardly ever hungry and when I am, I eat fruit and nuts - it works!  Plus I have one day off each week, for some wine and chocolate, although last week I didn't enjoy any of it!  My mindset is definitely changing and I'm not really striving to become 'lean' - just a healthy weight and for someone like myself to finally start wearing girly dresses in the Summer and not trying to hide my figure with oversized t shirts and trousers!  Plus I'm running further - perhaps not quicker - but I ran 7 miles last week and want to build up to 10!

Louie Robin as ever has been my true friend through everything, every day I see him maybe twice and get my 'Louie fix'... He poses so beautifully for me!

And the daffodils in my garden - now sadly looking forlorn after a heavy frost yesterday morning (nicely raining today of course, just for a change)  Oh for WARMTH! xx

DOWN WITH THE LARK

Yes, I have a very good idea what happened.

Life got in the way.  Life is so hard.  I used to be quite a good multi-tasker - as in - visit every single site I'm joined to under the sun and keep it ALL UP TO DATE.  Sadly now running my own business and still on the mission to get fit and thin, rather takes over my life!

Anyhow - after a month of juicing and having zero energy!  And having yet another month of endless rain and wind and cold and not being able to get out running that much, I've signed up to this:

diet rehab with rebelfit

Because I'm fed up of having zero energy and feeling hungry...  It's time to sort myself out once and for all!

And I figured - I need somewhere to talk about it - even if it's just going to be me reading it, like a very public 'Dear Diary' - so it's here for anyone to read and anyone who like me is literally struggling with the healthy eating/exercise 'thing'!

Plus, to keep this blog in tune with my 'other' part of my life - I will end every day with a new photograph - please bare in mind, it might sometimes (a lot of the time) be a robin and always the same one (Louie!) but today, it's a yellow crocus and a rather vivid green young stinging nettle - it has rained for the last 3 months and apart from the odd very cold day - it has been mild - although it hasn't felt mild with all the wind and the rain - it has been downright miserable!

So let's end on something bright...  And Spring like!

Go Steady

I'm not sure what happened - I was so 'in' to this blog - I guess the time to do it disappeared...

I've been reading so much about the best exercises to do to lose weight - or just to keep a healthy lean body, whatever you want to do...

But do it slowly - keep it steady and if you want to go 'all out', only do it for 20 seconds at a time, perhaps 30, with a 20 second break and no longer then 7-9 minutes - this is called HIIT or 'High Intensity Interval Training' and it's all the 'rage' right now - but then, who cares?  As long as it works for you - you can find scores of HIIT workouts on youtube - and it works well if you're fasting on some days and eating normally on others...

So yeah, I've been reading up on the 5:2 diet - this huge massive diet 'rage' that has overtaken the world - my only quibble is the eating 'normally' on the days you don't fast... That basically gives people a green light to eat whatever the hell they want, which is a big no no, still keep healthy, still pile yourself high in natural foods - nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruit...  Sadly I still need to lose more weight, so I think I'm going to fast every other day, which I can easily do, as I need 500 calories (although I hate counting calories!) and I can do that easily with a smoothie for breakfast, miss out lunch (never hungry then anyway) and a small meal in the evening, I've got plenty of 5:2 recipe books to help me.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this post today - I think my head is just swimming with masses of information about everything and how most of it contradicts the others - I've been looking at the 'age defying diet' the one that speeds up your metabolism with weight training and a smoothie/healthy meal diet each day (a bit like the 5:2), but it has failed on me by citing 'low fat products' in the recipes - please please please DO NOT buy low fat products - what do you think replaces the fat?  SUGAR!  And loads of it too and if (RUNS TO THE HILLS SCREAMING), it's low fat, non sugar - then it's stuffed full of manmade yuck yuck yuck SWEETENERS - do not touch anything like that with a barge poll!  I'm probably going to use these recipes in this book as they sound good, but use FULL FAT!  I also stumbled over a book of healthy smoothies dictating/preaching you to buy low fat yogurt, skimmed milk... These people are insane, but then, these people are not from around these parts! ;)

Go steady?  I contradicted myself with high intensity run yourself ragged 20 seconds bursts of exercise - sorry - I guess it's to do with the aerobic and anaerobic state - aerobic burns fat, anaerobic burns sugar, it's best to be always in an aerobic state and only power up to the anaerobic in the 20 seconds of hardest work - thing is, I also keep reading of the 'slow burn', the 'endurance' of cardio training - this is why I love running so much - I can control my speed, my tempo and where I run - I tend to take the same route, but I mix and match with interval training - so 20 second sprint burst, followed by 30 second recovery slow jog and then 20 second sprint burst followed by another 30 second recovery slow jog - 3 times in one set, 3 sets over my 1 hour and 20 minute usual 6 mile run...

I still think the best piece of advise I can give to anyone wanting to eat right and get fit is that you've got to be patient, not every diet or fitness is going to work for you - I've spent 3 years using myself as a guinea pig and for me juicing and blending works, running works, walking works, protein powders work (I hardly eat any meat) soups work for dinner - my problem is just keeping it going - I eat healthily all through the week and exercise too, come weekend, I want a glass of wine!  The annoyance of being human I guess!  I'll get there... But the next fortnight I shall try fasting and see if that helps.  Stress is also another big part of weight gain, I seem to experience a lot of it in one form or another... Perhaps Yoga will be the answer?  Watch this space!

Sorry for the waffle...   Have a common blue butterfly photo from my garden to make it all better! ;)

xxx

I'm still here!

But not finding the time to 'make' anything delicious!   Or have much to say right now - apart from I have been running every morning, apart from this morning as I would have needed a boat!

But I am still throwing myself across the living room in a sweaty mess with kettle bells and dumb bells and grimacing through planks, side planks, squats, lunges...and wondering why I'm not losing any more weight - diet is good, occasionally it's bad, but 85% it's good - I think I want it perfect overnight, that's the problem and that's why so many people decide on fad diets as they're convinced they'll lose it all in the 5 days it tells them they will, not realising that they'll stop it or get bored or, let's say 'HUNGRY' and pile it all on again and more - this is why I'm all for longevity - I don't CARE how long it takes me to lose all the weight I want to lose - if it takes 5 years, let it take 5 years... I want to lose slowly and yeah, I have a wedding to go to and I'm terrified of looking fat and need to find something to wear in Exeter on Monday and am exercising like a demon and eating clean, but I know things won't be different, it's only a few days LOL

Today I had a WHOLE day to play with my new lens and on this day it has RAINED all day - so these are the shots I got through a very dirty window, with a massive ISO because the light was so bad...

 House sparrow and great tit sheltering from the rain

 A pair of bullfinches and a young goldfinch in the foreground 

A young great tit

I'll be back!  SOON!!! xxxx

Linky Thursday

There used to be a 'Linky' day, every week, on the original blogs of yesteryear... And it used to be just once a week, but I don't do once a week ;)

Anyhoooo

I'm rather liking the articles on Born Fitness recently, I found it on the 'top 60 health blogs' of 2015 - I must admit, most of them were drivel... but this one makes a bit of sense from fitness to motivation to nutrition.    So a good blog to explore when you have a bit of time!

Then what's not to like about Deliciously Ella?  She's a bit of a 'sloane' but that's no bad thing and she's certainly got her head screwed on...!  I like her ideals, I like some of her recipes, although I find some are not to my taste and the fact this girl must have a dinner party each night because the ingredients are HUGE and she does use lots of internet only purchases - fine if you live in London with all those trendy shops, but like me if you live in the heart of North Devon, chickpea flour and coconut sugar is not something you can find here!

And that brings me onto The Green Goddess - I'm not too big on the 'self love' part, I'm not that kind of person and it creeps me out, I find self love selfish, I've always been for my family and for my friends, my needs do not come first, well, not much!  But I love her recipes, although the clean blueberry muffins I made the other day were not nice - it's all trial and error, but her peanut butter chocolate cups are simply DREAMY!

Although very American - these websites usually are - I do enjoy the advice and the words written on Greatist - Health and Fitness News - lots to read and look at... another website for when you have more time to, er, burn? ;)

And finally - well, you knew she wouldn't be too far behind - I utterly LOVE all the workouts and the question and answer advice she gives on a whole range of things from weightloss to exercise - it's the Jessica Smith YouTube Channel - over 200 fitness vids to pick from and believe me, they WILL get you very hot and sweaty!

:) xxx

Yummy Healthy Food

Well, as long as you don't go overboard, you can eat these...

Last night's meal - Green Goddess Mini Pizzas - apart from one small change I'd make, cook the initial pizza shaped dough a little longer then said 5 minutes to begin with (maybe 10?), it was pretty delicious and there ARE leftovers!  So that's 'nibbles' for tonight sorted!

 First up, some simple sweet potato wedges - just cut and roast in the oven on high (200 degrees C, we have a fan oven) for 35 minutes turning them over once half way - coat in fresh rosemary, drizzle olive oil and season with black pepper and salt before roasting naturally!

 2 with different cheeses - goats cheese and mozzarella with mushrooms on now and green and yellow peppers with spinach on the other - drizzled again with olive oil - major yumminess!

 Am I making you hungry yet?

Then this afternoon - as it's raining so no chance for a walk - I've made:

Clean Blueberry Muffins - they're cooling so not sure yet, but when I tasted the mixture it was nice and the smells in the house is gorgeous right now, I'm getting impatient!  I guess the only downside is the face you need coconut flour and almond flour, unless you're 'into' all this healthy cooking like me, it's not the sort of thing you're going to have in the house unless you make a special trip out to a health food store or take time to shop online as it's not something you can buy in a general supermarket!

 A muffin 'selfie' - but then it had to be done! ;-)

Two muffin trays filled - not sure what these people think when they come to write their recipes, I'm really not running a bakery you know - I'm just glad my mum decided to buy two of everything!

And finally - I have to admit, I am suffering grave disappointment with Jessica Smith right now - my workout girl on youtube - I bought her book - The Thin in 10 Weight-Loss Plan - and apart from the good exercises with a good dvd of said exercises, quite frankly the recipes are APPALLING - even advertising to look at 'weight-watchers' recipes and they're all the same - low fat this, reduced fat that, ALL THE THINGS WHICH IN MY MIND ARE TOTALLY AND UTTERLY WRONG - I mean, FFS, how can you have 1% milk???  There's no point having ANY milk if you go for that?  What have they bulking up the other 99% with?  I dread to think!  The recipe 'ideas' are good, so I shall adapt them - but I'm very, VERY disappointed!  Light butter spread?  Poison!  Microwavable brown rice?  You're off your rocker!  Panko bread crumbs?  Foul!  I realise 'The thin in 10' title is for 10 minute ONLY preparation - but why skimp when you can eat so much better then that?  It makes me mad in fact, why did I buy it?  I hate people who can only find '10 minutes' of their day to do some exercise or to eat better food... Surely if you want and need to lose weight, or just want to live healthy, you have to dedicate more time then that?  I realise people have busy lives from jobs to family, but that's just ridiculous!  Anyhow, rant over....

So saying that I STILL love her exercises, her walking dvds, her youtube channel..... :) xx

The Perfect Lunch

I saw this on a website I know and love:

Avo Baked Eggs

And today I had it for lunch and it's utterly delectable!  Just right, not too much and not too little, we had a slice of sourdough bread with it, just to mop up the yolk of the egg and it's using the WHOLE egg - hooray!

 Slight downside - a bit of washing up and very difficult to balance the cracked egg in the hole of the avocado without it swimming out at speed - but I guess will all these kind of things, it takes practice!

 Fresh chives from the garden!

It was eaten and the plates licked clean - definitely be making this again!

I haven't been feeling up to scratch of late, very low energy and even though I've been exercising like a demon, I just feel bushed now!  But this morning I successfully held a side plank on either side with no wobble nor strenuous effort - it was easy!!!  How did that happen?  You see, practice and in my case daily practice for a month - makes perfect!

Now I'm off to relax and watch the Men's Wimbledon Final - I like both players, but I have a soft spot for Roger! :) xxx