Two Left Feet

After coming to the realisation I liked dance-type exercise I decided to purchase a couple of really cheap dancey dvd's.  To my complete delight, Mr Postman delivered them yesterday morning. I bought:


Amazon


Amazon

In my excitement I popped in the 10 Minute solution dvd straight away and did the first routine - Hip Hop Basics. I absoulutely LOVED it! It was really fun but fairly easy to follow (i'm sure it will get harder!) but it kept building and adding on moves so by the end of the ten mins you have two full dance routines completed. Love it. Love the format as well. You can pick and choose which of the five routines to do, and also in which order. I haven't tried any of the other routines yet but they will soon delved into!

Feeling pretty energetic I attempted the first of the double Strictly DVD package - the one with Karen and Erin. The warm up was fine and then it moved onto Erin explaining the Cha Cha Cha. OMG. The bit before the routine where she explains all the moves took about 10 minutes and I couldn't even get the steps right then. By the time she was ready for the routine I'd forgotten what a "New York" was, or any of the other millions of dance steps! I got slightly disheartened as it seemed pretty impossible but I continued on with Karen's Salsa, and even though I messed up quite a bit, the steps were much easier and it was a much more fun routine. It then moved onto Erin with the Quickstep - which looked so AMAZING! I sat and watched the routine in full before I attempted it. After going wrong in the first 20 seconds I went right back to the start of the routine to try and improve! I managed a little better but it still looked a mess! Karen's jive was too much for me so I just went straight to the Samba, which is a nice routine.

This dvd is quite a challenge as the dance steps are PROPER dance steps, not some aerobic cop-out, so in a way i'm glad about that as at least I will be learning a new skill (sort of...) So i'm going to persevere with the routines - it is my new challenge! There are a lot of reviews on Amazon complaing about the complexity of the routines, but my thoughts are if it was easy to pick up in the first go you would get really bored with it in no time.

I haven't tried the other one with Kelly Brook and Flavia, but I watched a few of the routines and they look quite fun, so I may have a try of them later today.

In other news...I am now back in the 14s! Wohoo! I'm really pleased to have lost 1lb this week and feel really motivated to push on.

As it is less than 12 weeks to my Birthday I have set myself a new (almost) 12-week Challenge, whereby I want to lost 1 stone, which in turn would mean I have cracked the next stone barrier and would be in the 13s. It will be hard with Christmas in between but I've already started plannin WW-type food for the Christmas period and am determined not to put weight on, as I can remember how crap I felt at nearly 18stone on my birthday last year.

As always, I shall report back on my 12 week, and also my two-left feet progress!

Seasons Change Yet I Remain the Same

The change in seasons always affects me and I hate having to get up for work when it is still dark outside, then by the time you are finished and ready to go home it is dark again! Booooo. I'm not even going to mention how cold it is and the various cold germs flying around the office...

Because of all of the above I have failed to go to the gym for quite a few weeks. Getting up at 6am to toddle off to the gym just ain't gonna happen if I have to de-frost my car, all bleary-eyed, beforehand. However, I have maintained my Zumba classes twice a week. Now, if I can get up off my arse at 8pm (when I have already worked all day, had my tea and started to settle down) brave the dark and cold, drive 30mins and go sweat it out for an hour - why can I not do this for the gym? Answer: gym is boring, Zumba is fun!

I know I need to exercise more than twice a week and I should probably do more toning, BUT I just cannot be bothered. My distaste for the colder seasons may seem like a weak excuse, and I would forgive you for thinking that, but it is a reality. I. Just. Cannot. Be. Arsed. My motivation for something I don't particularly find enjoyable has completley waned.

I've been going to a gym for a couple of years now and always have this problem in the lead up to Christmas - it's just hibernation time and it seems so alien to be getting into a t-shirt to go for a run. The only way to get myself out of my gym rut is to just go. Go and don't even think about it.

Anyways, onto the fun things, I LOVE zumba, would do it every night if it wasn't so pricey (£3.50-£5.00 for an hours session - JEEZO!) I actually decided that I would order the Zumba dvd pack that you can find on the official Zumba website. I've been thinking about it for a while and got a bonus from work last week so though, what the heck! Unfortunately the sodding website has that extra credit card protection thing, of which i'm locked out of mine (because I forgot one of the million passwords you have to remember in today's modern life) so I couldn't order it. Not that I was annoyed you understand (DBSKFBEWDBFSebfasklnkJBvbsufbvasofibasd fkldsnfSWLKM!!!!!!!!) Ahem. I should really ring the credit card up to get it unlocked but to be honest it can wait. So no Zumba dvds for me...yet.

Reaaaaally trying to give myself a pep talk into doing one of my exercise dvds but.....ugh....how do other people manage to do this schiz?!

Mmm Chicken Tonight!

After being inspired one lazy Sunday evening from watching Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meal programme. His Piri-Piri chicken and chilli mash looked bloody lovely! I got the recipe off his website and toddled off to the shops in my lunch hour to aquire the goods.

I made it as soon as I got in from work this evening - I was quite excited to make a new meal, is this sad?! Anyhoo, it took me a bit more than 30 mins - mainly because I don't have Jamie's mad knife skillz, so chopping up the corriander et al took a wee while longer.

I had a quick taste of the piri-piri sauce after I had whizzed all the ingredients together and it was HOT! I was really worried it was going to blow mine and my fam's heads off! Luckily it was a major success and everything complemented everything else, so the lemon rocket salad balanced the hot chicken sauce, so therefore it didn't blow my head off, it was just really flavoursome. Everyone else really liked it too, yayeee! My only gripe was the mash, the sweet potato gave me a funny after taste so think I may make some homemade potato wedges to go with the chicken.

All in all i'm pleased and will deffo make it again. Plus I added it as a recipe on my Weight Watchers site and it has a points value of around 6.5 (I say around as I ended up substituting fry light for olive oil, but then used a bit of olive oil in the salad. So without olive oil it's 5.5, and with it around 6.5 - both amazing for a main meal).

Please don't judge it's tasty gorgeousness from my pic...as I had already tucked into it before realising I needed to take a pic to show one of my friends...and for my blog of course!

Mmmmmmmmmm!! Nom Nom Nom.

Ch-Ch-Changes

I've been deliberating at what to post on here for a week now...and i'm writing this whilst watching XFactor so i'm obviusly giving this my full attention! Currently being distracted by One Direction...

So i've been having the same thought needling away at me all week - the feeling like I need change. Work is boring me - I need change. Life is boring me - I need change. At least I made a change in one, albeit small area of my life - my hair! Gone are the long flowing locks in place of a long bob (a 'lob'). I did initally want to go shorter but I chickened out - sums up my attitude to real change!

My mindset needs to change. My body needs to change.

I feel slightly lost at the moment. I don't know what to do with myself. I don't even think I know myself well enough to know what I really want to do - I don't have any particular life goals (other that currently, lose weight!) Wow...didn't realise this post was going to go so deep.

Right, lets list out some blimmin' goals (I must have some!):

• Well lets get the most obvious one out of the way - LOSE WEIGHT!
• I want to travel, especially Europe and America.
• Re-start and continue my writing, build up a portfolio.
• Take up a hobby (non exercise related) - learn an instrument, language...
• Err, go to Wimbledon tournament (i'm struggling for ideas here!)

Right that's all I can think of at the mo, weak, I know!

...Will post a pic of my new hair when i'm looking 36% better looking :)

I have returned

I'll get it out of the way - I put on 3lbs. There, said it. I am now back in the 15s (slight sigh!) but on the flip side, and more importantly, I had an AMAZING holiday. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute sightseeing in Belgium and Holland - and particularly enjoyed the Belgium beer and chocolate it is so famous for!

I have a little bit of post-holiday blues and the prospect of going back to work tomorrow isn't filling me with joy but I am re-focused on tracking my points (have already started that this morning) and I can't wait to get back to my two Zumba classes this week - actually missed them while I was away! I also need to get down the gym a couple of times this week, may go this afternoon, will see how it goes.

Anyways, I not concerned at all about the weight gain as I know that with the tracking and exercise those 3lbs will be burnt off over the next few weeks.

Sooo just to re-iterate, here is a list of my next short-term goals/focuses:

• Lose the 3lbs holiday gain over the next two weeks
• Achieve the above to get back into the 14s
• Zumba class twice a week
• Go to the gym at least once before work
• Exercise at the weekend (even if it is just on the wii or a walk)

In the words of the Fresh Prince...Drumroll please!

Well I only went and bloody did it! Lost the 1lb needed to finally crack the 15st barrier and I am now in the 14s. Yay!

I thought I would be more (cue word I never use) cock-a-hoop but I actually quite calm about it, mainly for two reasons:

1. I would like to be a few more lbs down, where I am well and truly in the 14s, rather than just on the border, before I can really celebrate being in that bracket.
2. I'm going on holiday tomorrow for a week and I intend on enjoying myself so even with the increased activity (there will be a lot of walking around) with eating out for most meals and having some drinks I anticipate that the 1lb will be coming back on next weigh in.

I'm not concerned about point two in the slightest (maybe this is wrong of me?!) I work hard and I am not going to deny myself anything on my holiday - obviously i'm not going to go mad but I will not be trying to figure out the points values in anything!

So for now I am going to go around with a big smile on my face for cracking a stone barrier, oh and earning my third 7lb star (so have lost a total of 21lbs since joining WW in June), pack my case for my hols and get an early night - have to be up at 4am (GROAN!)

Will post some piccies when I come back :)