I think I’m only going to post on days that I work out from now on - which should be about 3 times a week.

I’ve been eating fairly healthily recently and rehearsals for West Side Story are keeping my cardio up twice a week. There’s this one dance that’s 12 minutes long and I’ll be damned if every single person doesn’t have pit stains by the end of it.

I did my new programme for the second time today, and actually printed off the sheet to tick off each date I do it. I want to do it at least 3 times a week for the next 5 weeks before seeing my personal trainer again.

Overall, things are looking up for me.

How’re you, followers?

Whoever said you’re just a workout away from a bad mood was really, truly, bang on the mark.

After doing my new programme (sent to me by my personal trainer) for the first time, after being pretty self-loathing and non-exercise-y for 2 weeks or so, I feel bloody great. This regime is a lot more demanding than my old one, and it’s also a lot longer, but bloody hell will it whip me into shape.

I realized about half way through that if I put all the energy into complaining about my health into making conscious, healthy decisions and working out, I’d probably have the body I envy on other people. 

Today marks a turning point. Today is the day I get back on the right track, and stick it out for as long as possible. 

Hey guys. Haven’t exercised at all this week because I’ve had this really bad cold that’s affected my mood etc, and I’ve actually been fairly busy all the same. I hosted my school talent show on tuesday (for the last time, sniff) and attended a different school’s concert on Thursday, I had job interviews Monday (rejected) and today (pending), so I haven’t really had time to do anything. 

HOWEVER, I HAVE GOOD NEWS.

Today I saw my personal trainer for the first time in roughly 8 weeks, and we measured my progress.

I’ve lost a kilo, and am down to 14.6% body fat. I’ve gained 1cm of muscle on my arms, and I’ve lost 5cm of fat on my waist. 

I’ve been thinking for ages that I haven’t made any progress, but now I feel really good. My Personal Trainer is going to give me a new programe which will finally make use of all the fitness stuff I got for my birthday, meaning hopefully I can keep this level of progress up.

I’m so happy :D

Will definitely be working out this weekend!

Today was bloody immense.

So I ate fairly healthily, and drank fairly healthily - and sure, I had a little bit of Diet Coke, but I also had a load of orange juice and green tea and water, so I figure overall it balances out. I had a load of wholegrain bread and only a little bit of a peanut butter and, yeah, overall, it was pretty good.

But it got to like 11pm and I decided I was going to skip my workout - I was feeling pretty down about lack of progress and the fact I’ve not managed to do the full 400 skips required for the 2Hard Challenge at any point, yet. Around 3pm I’d tried to do it, got to 100 and was knackered (in hindsight, probably cause I’d just eaten.)

Then I came on tumblr to post about my day, and I saw two images that completely changed my mind. The first one was the last one I reblogged, and the second was an image that said ‘the voice in the back of your head that says you can’t IS A LIAR’ (which I’ve put in my queue) and just like that I was really motivated to work out.

I added an extra set of everything I normally do into the workout, so instead of doing 2 x 20 sit-ups, I did 3 x 20 sit-ups, etc. I got to the end of my workout and was knackered but still ok, so I decided to try and do as many skips as possible for the 2Hard Challenge, in reps of 100. I managed the first one OK and noticed that I’ve made vast improvements in hand-eye co-ordination since I started skipping a few weeks ago. I felt good enough for a second rep, and managed 50 skips without stumbling in a row: a personal best. This inspired me to do a third rep, after which I was determined to do the fourth.

But get this, right.

I took a short minute’s break between the third and fourth rep, and then went for it. And did all 100 of those skips without stumbling. 100. In a row. Without pause. In, like, a minute and a bit.

I used to stumble every sixth skip. Now I can do 100. How’s that for progress?

Chuffed to hell, I stretched and had a shower, and chilled out with some video games. I may not have loads of visible progress, but I’m making progress all the same. Today was epic, and it’s all due to the motivation the fitblr community provides.

iamfitnyou:

Music helps you go further…

Holy crap.

I am knackered. I got my programme from my PT late last night and decided to try it out for the first time today. Took a little over half an hour and was the hardest I’ve worked out in my life, I’m pretty sure. Maybe I could’ve pushed harder, but I was trying pretty damn hard. Half way through or so I felt like I was dying but that feeling when I’d finished it was bloody amazing. 

If I showed some of the muscular tanks that followed me what this workout was they would most probably laugh, but this is where I remember that I am competing against yesterday’s me, not against my followers, and I feel better about how I’m doing. Genuinely so happy though - I was getting in a bit of a slump with exercise and this was exactly what I needed to get back into the grove.

My diet today was meh at best. I had a take-away for lunch and even though in terms of takeaway it was relatively healthy, it’s still takeaway. I’m gonna see how long I can go eating genuinely healthy, I think. I’ll make a post about how I’ll be tracking it later as I have an idea. But I mean, today wasn’t awful for diet - it was still much better than it would’ve been last year, so I’m happy.

I’m just happy to be happy about exercising again. Rock on!

How was everyone else’s day?

I’m actually quite impressed with myself that it’s been 25 days already. It feels like I only started last week. As 25 is a fairly round number, and I’ve been having concerns about the lack of progress my fitness program will be making soon, I decided to take some action about it today, and spoke to two of my friends, Jack and Caitlin.

Caitlin, my PT friend, and I spoke about the benefits of having a PT and my fear of the gym. My argument is that I’m uncomfortable with the thought of the gym and I’m doing this whole thing to make myself more comfortable with myself, so going to the gym is, in this way, counter-productive. Caitlin’s argument was ‘don’t knock it till you try it’, which is a fairly strong counter-argument, to be honest. I think the result of this conversation is I’m going to try going to the gym with a friend and, if I don’t like it, stick to exercising at home.

Jack, on the other hand, who isn’t fitness qualified but is ripped as fuck (pretty much has an 8-pack) spoke about more practical things. We discussed how to improve my regime and he introduced me (as embarassing as this is to say) to the concept of reps. Earlier, when I’d been trying to up my sit-up numbers, I’d try and go from doing 20 in a row to doing 40 in a row, which is why it was so difficult. We talked about this and the fact that muscle gets used to singularly repeated workout, and together came up with a better regime to stick with for the next 2-3 weeks, after which he said we’d talk about it again. In honesty, having Jack to talk to about this without having to pay him makes me doubt the need for a PT, but consultation isn’t the same as hands-on advice, I guess.

Anyway, my regime is now a 3 day rotating thing of:

Day 1

3 reps of sit-ups, push-ups and squats, in decreasing numbers of 20 the first rep, 15 the second rep and 10 the third rep, with a minute or two’s break in between.

2 reps of squats and bicep dips, of 15 the first rep and 10 the second, with a minute or twos break in-between.

Day 2

15-20 minutes jogging/running - perhaps considering a post I found about from couch to 5k. More on this another time.

Day 3

5 minutes skipping rope.

2 reps of 45 seconds of holding the plank - maybe trying to do treadmill. 

20-15-10 lunges.

20-15-10 jumping jacks.

20-15-10 chin-ups. I’m aware that I currently cannot do these properly, but will be doing my best to do them, hoping to improve over the weeks. 

Anyway, back to Day #25

In terms of food, I actually did really well today. I chopped up a lot of carrots and cucumber and took them to school with hummus, and it filled me up fairly well at lunch. I had an apple for breakfast. I had a snack of some leftover cottage pie from last night and a steak-salad-fries combination for dinner, with more emphasis on the salad than on the fries. Even though that’s not perfect, it’s a lot better than it might have been four weeks ago, or even last week, so I’m pleased with my progress. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to drink 3 glasses of water.

I did however, complete my new Day 1 work-out for the first time, so that’s good. Today was definitely my best day so far.