This Girl Can

Did you know approximately 2 million less women regularly work out compared to men?  Sport England have a campaign running at the minute to get more women involved in a sport.

I like this. I enjoyed sports when I was younger.  I got older, started smoking, partying & generally being lazy.  When I first attempted some sort of fitness regime, I went to an all ladies gym; I’m not entirely sure why.  Maybe I was more comfortable around women, less intimated. I don’t know.  I do know I thought I’d feel silly in a mixed gym.

Why?

My thought process changed, obviously.  However, if I felt like that, then how many other women do?  That’s partly the point of the campaign; there is no need to feel silly. Yeah, you may look it from time, to time. Everyone’s gotta learn, right??

You can find out more at: http://www.thisgirlcan.co.uk/

Support Is Necessary

No,  I’m not talking support bras or compression gear – although they’re both necessary, not so much the bra if you’re a man! No, I’m talking support from family, support from friends would be nice but I was one of those “urgh, goddamned gym go-ers food, post work-out, fitspo” posts *delete* kinda friends, so don’t hold out too much hope that your friends will understand your new found love of the gym.

Impressive, no?

I’m not saying you should train together – a quick blast through the “couples training” or “couples in the gym” tag over on Pinterest showed me some impressive looking people, but also a lot of staged, model style images as well – I’d like to think most people, who are couples that train do so in a non-poseur type way, but whatevs. They may be real & fair play to them if they are & that’s what makes them happy.

Ummm, I’m not overly sure what is going on in this image.

What I am saying is without someone in your corner, backing you.  You may find training a little harder – what if there’s usually tempting chocolate & snacks in the house? What if they “like you as you are”? What do you do then?

I’ll be forever grateful to my trainer for showing me the things he has, but I wouldn’t be where I am without my husband. He was the one who told me to weight train years ago, he was the one who said it’d strengthen my back, he was the one who carried me to bed more than once when my spine decided to give way on me.  He believed in me before I even knew this was what I wanted.

We’re in it together now, he trains harder than I do – he has his own injuries to deal with.  We discuss meal prep & talk about what weight we can lift, we can sympathise with each others DOMS & also be each others “do not eat that! It is not cheat day” voices.  I’ve been to the gym a few times with him, we don’t “train together” but it’s fun to randomly walk past him & squeeze his glutes on my way to another machine 😉

Frustration Much?

ARGH!!!!

My left arm has been the source of my frustration for months, despite my Trainer telling me it’s stronger than it was, it still pisses me off that I can lift with my right arm easier than I can with my right.  However, progress was made the other day as we, through a few different exercises figured out which muscle it is in my arm that is causing the issue!  That’s something right? Oh, it’s the Medial Head part of my tricep as far as I know, that is the constant source of my frustration.

Why am I telling you this? Well, because training IS frustrating & it’s a constant battle of the mind about not progressing – I have progressed!  I’m a lot stronger than I was (I’m doing an in-depth progression post later) however, despite going to the gym quite regularly I am no where near where I want to be, and if you let it…it will eat you alive and you could lose the drive to progress due to not seeing results overnight.

So, frustration.  I actually laugh or giggle when I’m doing something that is frustrating me due to the limitations of the current state of my muscles; if I didn’t laugh I’d probably scream or swear a lot more than I do.

I had minute rests between sets, because if I didn’t I probably wouldn’t have got as much done- but it gave my PT & I some chatting time.  We discussed frustration, goals, reality and then it went back to bickering.  However, thinking about all we had spoke about something clicked – it was all the “mind over matter”, “you can do anything you set your mind to” and so on…..these motivational mumbo jumbo things are REAL! I know right!?  I couldn’t quite believe it, but alas, my loathing for fitspo posts might be misconstrued after all.

I’ve not given up because my left arm is weaker – I’m annoyed that my left arm is weaker, it’s stopping me from progressing at the minute & I’m not gonna let it beat me. I could’ve given up months ago; when my all was telling me there was no point because I couldn’t see a difference, I didn’t feel different – I carried on.  I’m gonna carry on, I have an image in my head that I’m aiming for & I’ll be damned if a little muscle in my arm is gonna hold me back!

cc

Energy Berry Bites

I made these the other day after seeing them on the Neila Ray Website; they call them “Energy Ballz” but I have an aversion to calling anything that I eat a ball, for innuendo reasons.

They’re egg free & dairy free too!

These are my interpretation:

1.

2.

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5.

6.

1: Ingredients

• 1.5 cups of Oats (I used Gluten Free)
• 2/3 cup of Peanut Butter (I used crunchy, cos f**k smooth)
• 1/2 cup of dried fruit – I used a Berry mix.
• 1 banana

2: Add the Oats to a bowl, then mash your banana – I used a potato ricer, its the business!

3: See? ZERO lumps 😀

4: Add your berries and peanut butter and stir til it’s thoroughly mixed together

5. Roll in to little balls

6: Keep going til you run out of mix, then refrigerate.

My mix made me 20 bites – According the the NR site it should make about 15, so mine must’ve been smaller.  They also say you could use different binding ingredients, as well as different fruits. So experimentation a go-go!!

Making Banana Pancakes….

“Take a Banana & put it in a pancake.  Maaaaaking pancaaaaaaakes!”

OK, so now you have Jake singing Bacon Pancaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaakes in your head I’ll show you how I made banana pancakes:

I found the recipe on-line, and after being on Dukan (The hubby & I did The Dukan Diet for about 6 months, er two years ago) I wasn’t overly enamoured with trying panfakes again, however I read a little more about them & decided they couldn’t be as vile as the Dukan versions.

Ingredients:

• Ripe Banana
• 2 Medium Eggs
• Protein Powder (I used Vanilla – I’d like to tell you how much I used, but I just chucked some in)

You’ll need something to mash your banana up – fork, potato ricer or a blender.

Eggs, Banana & Protein in the Blender

I used a blender – but a fork would work too, more of a workout with a fork I guess!

Once it’s all mixed it’s just a case of cooking them.  What I will say about cooking them, is they’re an absolute ball-ache to turn/flip over.  I ended up using a spatula as well as a maurice, however the internet tells me there is such a thing as an egg flipper; that’d probably work best.  I tend to make mini pancakes because, well, I’m just generally bad at flipping things in pans & smaller ones are easy.  If I’d have made these bigger I’d have ended up with banana flavoured scrambled egg!

Flip that bad boy over! Yes, that is oil in the pan…DON’T JUDGE ME!

Anyway, my single banana, two egg mix gave me 5 decent sized pancakes.

Drizzled with a little Agave. They look like pancakes don’t they?

They don’t taste like pancakes, but they’re quite palatable.  I’m thinking peanut butter would work excellently with them too!

Either You Do It, Or You Don’t.

Well, today has been a rest day BUT a rest day like no other!  Today, despite my thighs screaming at me every time I move (can I get a “Hell Yeah!” for walking lunges??) I decided to do a few standard squats at home. I took pictures.  Wanna see?

So, first thing about this, image on the left is the first squat I did, image on the right is how I corrected it.  I also noticed today I do this little foot wiggle before I squat; I should film it & show you on day.

I don’t normally notice stuff like this as my PT corrects me, so had I not have taken the picture I’d have not noticed and continued with my little set in the incorrect form. There’s some conflicting info on-line; some say “Do It & Do It Properly” and others say “Doing it badly, is better than not at all” So, which is it?  Or could it be both?

Begin, but it might be wrong.  That’s okay because as you get fitter, you get better & you do it properly?

I’d have to choose do it right, or don’t do it, especially seeing as how I’m still in the process of strengthening my core; they have to be correct or I could quite probably hurt myself.

So!  FORM CHECK! Make sure your move is correct before you continue.  If you’re in the gym, go with a buddy if you’re without a trainer, or use the mirrors – be a narcissist! Watch yourself in the mirror (Be careful of joins in the glass though, one of those can be off-putting if they’re not flush to the wall) if you’re unsure, Google the correct posture for whatever move it may be. Photograph or film it & adjust as necessary.

Doing it right all the time also stops you from picking up bad habits, like as we grow we forget about squats but toddlers can do them so well!

My youngest making it look easy in Spring 2011

It’d probably be hard to remember it for your entire life though.  Clearly something happens to children for them to forget this.  It is school? Is it?  I don’t know & I’m not up for debating that!

Fooooood, Glorious Food!

Mmmmmmmmmmmm, nom nom nom.  Food.  The art of taking raw produce, whacking some voodoo mumbo jumbo on that shit & making it taste like it was crafted for God himself!

I’ve never been a great cook, sometimes a good one, but never a master.  My other half thoroughly enjoys cooking; he can make things taste positively exciting.  Your taste-buds sing after eating his food. My skill level when I met him was pierce film lid, microwave for 5 minutes. He’s helped me see the error of my ways, but I’ll never be able to treat food the way he does.

What I have found though, since being given a food plan from my PT I’m more aware of what I’m eating.  I had/have terrible eating habits that I’m not willing to discuss, just know it makes eating a struggle sometimes. Now though I am thinking about what to eat, even eating my lunch I now start to think about what to have for dinner.

I’m not a great food expert now, I still struggle.  I’ve got My Fitness Pal installed on my phone so I can keep a rough idea of how much I’m eating – it pairs with my smartband too, so that also knows how many calories I’ve been through & adjusts my TDEE for the day. (Did I mention I worked with Smart Tech all day, every day?)

So, my average day for those of you interested:

Breakfast: Porridge with protein or Greek Yoghurt with dried fruit

Lunch: Eggs, in some shape: scrambled, omelette, boiled. Ham, or Bacon. Cashews or jacket potato or wrap eggs, meat, salad inside.

Dinner: chicken, soba noodles, oriental veggies or beef & broccoli, or quinoa, cous-cous and pork/chicken or steak & eggs.

Teriyake chicken with chilli & onions and cauliflour “rice”

Frittata with courgette, spring onion & pancetta

During the day I may have a banana, some cashews/peanuts or there’s usually some left over veg so I’ll eat that. On training/cardio days a protein shake or two is added – usually with a generous serving of peanut butter in it too.

It still concerns me about not eating enough, hunger pangs, sudden bouts of tiredness make me jump for something to eat; anything – but it’s usually some peanuts, a boiled egg or leftovers from dinner.  Cycling boosts how much I need to eat by a scary amount of calories; that’s probably my biggest concern.

I do cheat, there are days where I’ll eat something dirty & full of sugar.  I live for those days! Hahahaaa.  They don’t come around all too often any more though, this training thing gets stuck under your skin & you start to question EVERYTHING.

Have I had enough water today?

If I eat that how will I feel afterwards?

Do you really wanna eat that?

But the point is, one cheat isn’t going to ruin progress – I know not everyone works that way & have to be a lot more restrictive.

When I first started training I was missing my occasional sugary nom, so Google & I took a trip down nommy-but-packed-with-protein-and-ok-to-eat lane & happen upon a few delicious treats – I made one the other day, oats, honey/agave and peanut butter.  Smoosh it all together & let it set in the fridge, then cut bits off 🙂  NOM!

I think I’m rambling now though.  So, yeah. Food!  S’Gooooooooooood!

OMG! You’re So Inspirational!!

**Just a quick note, this has taken me the better part of three days to write**

Mmmmmmmmmm.  Inspirational.

When I hear that word I think of Marie Curie, Florence Nightingale, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Pope Francis.  You know? The greats that have influenced change in the world.

Not me.

I don’t see it.  Am I humble? Perhaps. Some may think I’m wrong.  That’s ok too.  I’ve searched the web, asked some friends & gained a little insight about inspiration; who knows.  I might convince myself by the time I reach the end of this post!

Inspiration; in its most layman sense is seeing something that drives you to want to do it yourself.  I’ve been told I’m inspiring, that I’ve made others want to change their lifestyle because of what I do, that because of me they want to lift and that’s great!

I know my trainer uses my transformation to help motivate others; which is still surreal to me.  Maybe I’m modest? I don’t wanna push my love of training on to others, so maybe I’m not wanting to accept that some people really are inspired by what I’m doing. Maybe it’s a mind thing? (before I started going to the gym regularly, the “fitspo” posts drove me mental. A lot of motivation/inspiration quotes still rub me the wrong way….that’s for another post!)

So, a perfect example of fitness inspiration:

“My brother-in-law has a spinal injury caused over in Afghanistan after an explosion he was left with 2 crushed disks and 3 slipped disks, Physio didn’t work for him and they wouldn’t operate as the risk and damage was too much, he’s now in training for mid July to complete a 30 mile bike ride and his spine and nerve damage seems to be improving with his training. We are talking gone from not being able to walk without aid down the hall way to being able to ride 10-12 miles a day.. The change is amazing…. Made me want to challenge myself.”

Is that like me?  No.  Am I an inspiration? Well, I didn’t think so.  I visited a friend this morning & she reminded me where I was last year, pain & level of activity wise I am now a different person.  I am that way because I chose to change, so if people know my history & that prompts them to want to better themselves, the so be it.  I’m no where near the level of inspirational greatness, but if one person decides to strive for a better way of life because of me, then I guess I’ll accept the fact I can be inspirational.

It’s still odd though!!

I’ll leave you with an image that is inspirational to me:

Progress. Detailing The Last Six Months:

I promised to detail what I do & how I’ve achieved my progress.  So, here we go.  Feel free to TL;DR if the history is boring…..

History

OK, so I won’t go too far back.  Er, about 2 years ago I was told I had a crushed L4 & a crumbling L5 disc in my spine – they’re the two bones right above your sacrum.  It was also causing nerve issues at my SI joint, I was asked if I wanted surgery (I said yes) to be told, No. Surgery might not be the best option, lets try Cortisone injections.  Fast forward to February 2014 & I got my injection.

MRI of my spine. Blue line shows where the damage is.

Prior to this I’d had SPD during pregnancy, two lots of physio as well as Diclofenic, Ibruprofen, Naproxen, Codeine, Tramadol, Gabapentin & Amitriptyline. Mmmmm!! That was over the course of around 5 – 8 years. 

Everything was fine, until July.  I went to move from a seated position at work to standing & I have no idea how I did it, but I caused myself a pretty intense injury; which resulted in me being immobile for the better part of a week. I was miserable, I relied heavily on my Husband to do everything & I promised to do something about it.  I’d gotten nowhere with Physio, so decided I needed a trainer, someone who was versed in strength as opposed to micro movements that may, or may not help.  I already had a gym membership (OK, it was *quite* dusty from non-use, but it was there)

TL;DR: Back hurt a lot, needed to do something.

Going back to the gym. Happy Face.

So, I went back to the gym.  Met Andy, a Trainer at the gym.  I told him what had happened, gave him a brief history about my back & that I wanted to improve my core.

If I’m completely honest, I’m not really able to detail how we’ve done it (I say we, because without Andy, I wouldn’t have progressed to this level) most sessions I’ve had with him have varied AND we’ve moved to a new gym (He got a new job, my membership was up so I went with him) what I can tell you is we’ve gone from resistance machines to more free weights.

Left – August. Right – September.

Spending time with Andy helped me to learn that my left hand side was weaker than the right – we’re still in the process of attempting to get them to a similar, if not same level but I have progressed with it.  Some things are now easier with my left than they are with my right.

A lot of our sessions have focused on different muscle groups.  I’ll *never* forget our first leg day.  Never known pain like it! I hated warm up & cool down as well though because cardio.  Cardio can do one, I hate cardio.  When I first met Andy, I smoked – around 10-15 a day, I knew there’d become a time when I knew I’d have to stop, as I’d lose out on a lot of the benefits of exercise due to my smoking. It took me 6 months to stop, but I did.  Finally.

I now do my cardio outside of the gym, it maximises my time with Andy, but it also helps me boost my fitness.  I cycle to the gym, I cycle to work – from home to work is 9KM, from home to the gym is 8KM. I hated that too, but I pine for my bike when I’m not on it.  Even if I’ve smashed my face up, I *do* still miss it.

Left- August. Right – November

**Important Information**

When I started, I mostly hated it.  There was always something new, a stronger weight, a longer run time, circuits, spinning, squats, lunges, back extensions, kettlebells, assisted pull ups.  EVERYTHING was hard. Everything has been a struggle.  I’ve wondered if it was worth it, why I was doing it, how long it was gonna take to enjoy it/feel better/get stronger.  Then I had a week off as I was healing from getting tattooed.  I went back and had lost so much progress.  I’d gone from 35KG on the pull-down to 20KG, 5 minutes on the Vario machine instead of 8-10.  I was angry.  Angry at myself, I’d come so far & lost so much really quickly.  It did make me see how far I’d come though, which spurred me on to get back to where I was.

I still hate parts, but I do them as I know there is a method in the madness.  One of the best things though?  There are things that I LOVE doing.  I’m not overly bothered with PB’s but there are things that I’d happily do over, and over, and over again.

December

“I Wish I Were As Motivated As You”

I hear & read this all the time.  Motivation.  It’s a fickle word, I don’t like it.  Allow me to explain; the dictionary meaning of motivation is:

The act or an instance of motivating, or providing with a reason to act in a certain way.

It can be too easy to say “Oh, I’m not feeling motivated today. So I won’t do X” Motivation BREEDS excuses.  Motivation (or lack of) gives you a reason to stop.  You can justify your stopping because, well….let’s face it. You’re just not motivated, so why bother?

I’ve used the same reasoning to not go to the gym.  I was too tired, or it was too late, or there was always tomorrow.

I found a quote on-line about being determined instead of motivated & it drastically changed my outlook.  I saved it, but whoever originally posted it has since taken it down.  However, I’ll try & explain.

Motivation is good to begin with, if it gets you off the sofa.  However, let’s imagine that motivation is like a countdown clock….you’ve got LOADS to begin with, but it will gradually begin to decrease.  Oh. Woe.  No more motivation…..*crawl back to the sofa* Or at least that’s how it was for me.

I forget about motivation now.  Motivation gets me out of bed, motivation to get a coffee down me, etc.  Now I live for determination.  Make a goal (yeah, I know.  I don’t have one, per se) write that shit down & STICK. TO. IT! Your motivation will dry up & fade, being determined to see something through?  That does not go away!  Determination trumps motivation. Every. Time.

The act of coming to a decision or of fixing or settling a purpose.

Determination is why I get up at 5:45am, determination is why I force food in to my face, determination is why I cycle 6 miles to the gym, determination is why I do things I never thought possible a few months ago.  If I have to cycle through snow to work out, I will.  If I have to stop every 10 minutes to blow my nose I will.  I will never give up.  I will never quit.

Yeah, there will be times when it hurts. There will be times when you fail, and times where you simply do not want to go and train. It happens, it’s how you deal with it that matters.  Will that set-back stop you? Is there even *any* point to continue? Only you can answer those.  You’re not alone, even the fitness greats will have experienced set-backs, no one ever achieved anything by failing.

I’ve accomplished too much in a relatively short space of time to blow it all. I don’t need meds, I don’t need to worry about when the last time I took one was because I have to “keep my levels topped up” I don’t think I can’t do that, because of my back.

Then there’s the whole inspiration thing, which I’ll leave for another post……