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[shrinkingvegan]

4th June 2015

Greetings blogosphere,

   Well, its been an up-and-down-ish couple of months. I’ve attemped several fitness tries and managed to come back from America bigger and more unfit than when I went. What can I say? When at every meal-time I”m presented with an all you can eat style buffet, it appears I just can’t help myself. The #makeMuricaCount didn’t quite have the affect I’d hoped it would. But I now know more about my pitfalls and am now moving on. I won’t dwell and this will be the last I will say on the matter of not doing too well. I will strive to do better now I’m back at home with my kitchen and fitness equipment.

   It’s yet another start of a new month, I can’t quite believe that we are half way through the year already. It’s Summer, and once agan I’m presented with a time that consists of short skirts and sleeveless tops. All I want to do is cover up and wear my hoodie, but I can’t. I need to keep up with the exercise because I know that after just a week of doing it ‘ll feel alright, not brilliant, but good enough to go about my day to day life a little more stress-free.

   It’s been an alright start to the month, already my eating habits are starting to improve, theyre not quite how I want them to be, but soon I’ll be going for a big shop and stocking up my cupboard and fridge with goodness.

   It’s gonna be a funny couple of long days of work, but I do plan on cracking on with the exercise, even if it is limited to the abre minimum each day. ON the days that I just can’t fit it in because I’ll be heading out at 6am and not getting back until 11pm, I’ll just have to make sure I’m eating right to make up for the lack of cardio.

   Today was an o.k day. I didn’t get out of bed until 10am which I”m not happy with but I will work on this. I went off to work and ate relitavely well - minus the pasty, though it was wheatmeal... whih has to count for something. I came home, did a little interval running in Richmond Park, though I’m not used to it yet so it mainly served as a warm up for my level 1 Shred and then cooled down with some Yoga. 

   I’m gonna jot down my food intake and exercise for today in my little book now, sup down my green tea and get me some sleep, as it’s up as 4am tomorrow and a big day of working in a VIP box at Epsom.

Night all :) It’s good to be back xx

[shrinkingvegan]

"FOOD" AND "GUILT" ARE TWO WORDS THAT SHOULD NOT BE IN THE SAME THOUGHT

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Raspberries and dark chocolate.

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DIY Dried Fruit and Chocolate Lollipops (paleo, GF)…RECIPE

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Nadia Aboulhosn | www.nadiaaboulhosn.com

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i need this.

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Friendly reminder that carbs are good for you 2k15!

[shrinkingvegan]

I miss Jillian

Dear Jillian & Casey,

   It's been some time since you're faces graced my computer screen. Since it all went tits up at Christmas and I shortly flew to the U.S of A you're video's have not been present in my life. For some time, exercise full stop wasn't either, those were dark times. Actually they weren't completely un-enjoyable, but now I face dark times of living with the extra weight I allowed to pile on during those times! 

   It wasn't feasible to fly my yoga mat and various hand weights over to America with me and unfortunately I don't have the room I once had in my London maisonette to bash out a workout that you lead. I didn't think that I would miss them too much as I have a giant rec center and swimming pool at my disposal for no extra cost and unlimited group fitness classes... but I miss coming home from the gym to an hour of you shouting at me, I can't deny it. There's just something about you're workouts that these classes can't replace.

   For one, it's hard to get into a proper routine with me doing something different every night. Back home in 2 hours it was gym - shred - blogilates, yoga... boom! Morning or night, didn't matter, it was two hours out of my day and then I was done. Tonight I spent 3 hours at the gym to get the same workout, in fact I doubt it was even as effective, with all the stopping and starting and waiting for people to arrive in class. 

 Another... the pause button!!! If I was struggling one day, I didn't miss out on a move, I could just pause until my tiny rest rejuvenated me and I could continue, no instructor would carry on without me and I wouldn't feel like I had less of a work out than everybody else is class. Natalie and Anita would be there waiting until I pressed play. Which brings me to... 

...Different intensities! I feel like such a massive failure in class when I can't keep up with the higher intensity variations... and EVERYBODY ELSE seems to manage no problem! How long have these people been working out for?? Since birth?? And how do they manage to look to hot when there's ALL THAT FOOD CONSTANTLY AVAILABLE?! Seriously, in Wilmington, everyone is a babe, and I honestly don't understand how.

I thought I was relatively fit before I came here, I know I'd had my pit falls but I eat relatively sensibly usually and work out more than ANYBODY at Roehampton, minus the extremists who are at the gym every day, yet I am bigger and apparently, not that in shape compared to these beautiful Wilmington people.

But I will solder on, and Casey and Jillian, when I return home, you're June calendars and your 30 Day challenges will be my daily essential, because after just a week of following your videos in the comfort of my own home... I felt like a goddess!

And the sexual tension between you an Natalie, Jillian, is enough to keep me tuning in every day as it is :P

[shrinkingvegan]

[shrinkingvegan]

Hello March!

It's the start of a new month, and though I have intended to do this several times in the past, I'm taking this opportunity to make a fresh start where food and fitness are concerned. I have a good feeling about March, I have a lot to look forwards to, like the weather getting warmer meaning lots of trips to the beach, an acapella competition in Washington D.C... visiting D.C, and just generally being in America!! However, I need to make sure that doing all of these things doesn't make me slip into unhealthy eating patterns and keep at the exercise no matter where I am or what I'm doing. 

Today I set out to get a lot of stuff done, i was going to catch up on work, have a mega gym sesh and swim, and cook a healthy feast. However, I managed to sleep in until midday, lose my card that gets me into the gym and alas, there is not enough food in my apartment to make a viable healthy meal let alone a whole days worth of food with. However, this has not stopped me from having a good day. When I woke up, I made myself some toast and Orange juice, good start to the day, even if it is pushing 1'o clock. I was nursing a slight headache for the first part, and though I intended to go to the gym at 2, it didn't seem likely that this could happen, I had a coffee to wake me up and decided to go to Wagoner Dining Hall and eat some greens before attempting exercise. Now Wagoner Hall is a bitch, I love it and hate it all at the same time. It's the main dining hall on campus, and the salad bar excites me in ways that shouldn't excite a human being (I have a wierd obsession with salad bars), the call of fries and pasta is strong whenever I take two steps into the place. However, today I managed to resist, I made myself a healthy salad bowl with kidney beans and had some coke zero on the side. My eventual goal is to give up fizzy drinks, but I figured one coke zero wouldn't do me much harm today. It's not like it was a full fat coke. I know that they're still bad, but there wasn't any desert on offer for me today so I needed one treat. One of the things that brings me down in Wag, and in fact, wherever there is a salad bowl present, is the croutons. This seems trivial to my eating companions who go straight for the pizza and fried chicken without batting an eyelid without fail every single day, however I know that these are my downfall, my salad turns into a bowl of cereal... or croutons and fried onion crispies. Today I managed to resist making them the main part of my salad, however I know that there were still a few too many. This is why today is a blue day, as opposed to a green one, on my trusty chart. I had two helping from the salad bar, I felt I needed all the energy I could get for my mega gym sesh.

Upon arrival at the gym a bit later, I was turned away due to my lack of memory card, because heaven forbid they could just look up my student I.D number and match my face to the photo they had on file for me, so it was either pay $5 or not go in. I decided against the $5 charge and decided that now would be a perfect time to give running outside a go, seeing as it's been my goal to get into this since... oh I don't know, the dawn of my adolescence?! I was with my friend who knew there was a trail that goes around the entire university, so we set onto it... and it felt amazing!! I did it in intervals, and due to a lack of a light jacket or jumper I ended up wearing a long sleeved pyjama top but I ran round that university like nobodies business, and now I've done it once, I want to do it again! 

So this has been a very long winded post explaining how I managed to eat quite well in spite of crutons and that I went for my first outside run, but hey ho. I'm going to make some healthy brown rice and fake chicken strips now, shower and head to my acapella rehearsal feeling very good about myself. I won't have my gym card back until tomorrow afternoon therefore it's my intention to run in the morning and maybe catch the sunrise. Cheesy and ambitious, but I'm gonna give it a go! Today felt good. 

So welcome to March! It's gonna be a good 'un. 

[shrinkingvegan]

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[shrinkingvegan]

So this is what my failure of a week looks like, but rather than dwell - I’m going to use this as an example of what a typical week looks like for me. Although, since being in America, there have been a lot more red days! My little chart works like this:

Red = a really bad, fatty food day. I’m talking chip overload, carb central, sugary sweets, etc. Just general badness, there will be red days, but I’m trying to cut them out altogether.

Orange = not quite a red day but still relatively bad, so it could start out o.k but then I’ll have some chips or a pizza or a few too many treats to constitute a good day. It could even include a night out, as drinking = calories.

Blue = good but not amazing, maybe a bigger portion of something bad that I shouldn’t have had, like too many biscuits as dessert or an extra slice of bread that wasn’t necessary, or a sugary mocha, even a beer or alcoholic beverage or 2, these are the things that can tip me into the blue side of things.

GREEN is what I’m aiming to have coloured in for most days. Lean, barely any processed foods, a good amount of veggies and balanced meals throughout the day.

So as you can see, there have been no green days this week, I’ve made bad choices, and I’ve written days off exercising because I’ve made these bad choices. My goal is to have text in these boxes every day for exercising, maybe one day off of a little bit every single day shouldn’t be too much so really no day should be blank. Next week my aim is this, at least 2 green days, and 3 blue. I’m am going to try my best to have no oranges or reds in there, but this is a process and sometimes when you’re invited to a pizza and movie night, you just wanna have fun :) it’s not my intention to deprive myself totally, everybody should have a treat day. However my main aim for these next ten weeks is to eliminate red days for good! One bad meal doesn’t mean I have to write off a whole day, and this is what I’m trying to train myself to get down.

So here we go, 10 weeks left in this awesome country (I’ve been here 6, and they have not been healthy! I’ve even having so much fun but it’s time that fun didn’t equal food!) it’s time to really start making them count. And to also have fun! The campus dining halls will miss me, and when they do get me come through, I’ll be making healthy choices and bypassing the chip section!

Tomorrow is a new day, and I can’t wait to get into it and feel awesome!

Also we’ve just planned a trip to Miami for Easter weekend! I NEED to see and feel a difference by then! I know I can do it, I’ve done it before and it felt amazing!

Let’s do this!!!

[shrinkingvegan]