Good Friday

Its my birthday. Woohoo. All on my own, forlon ownsome. Just me and a small stuffed sheep called Noel. Still, lots of cards to open, money (both Euros and Sterling) to spend and thanks to my darling hubsand oodles of presents to open. Its the first time he’s been away on my birthday, I get the impression he feels somewhat guilty. Poor lamb. I also got some marzipan flavoured chocolates from my mother, which are somewhat vexing because a) I should only be eating chocolate on a Sunday and b) I don’t like marzipan but I know I’m going to eat them anyway. Ho hum.

I have now played so much Guitar Hero 3 that I think I may have broken my wrist.

 

Twenty Second Day of Lent

Power of 3 yet again. No aches after yesterday, hurrah!

 

Twenty First Day of Lent

New DVD day! Hurrah! This one is Davina McCall’s My Three 30 Minute Workouts. Strangely enough, its split into 3 30 minute workouts. Uncanny how you knew I was going to say that isn’t it?
The first 30 minute section is called “the Pump” and its much the same sort of stuff as in Power of 3, but there are more compound movements – going straight from a forward lunge to a side lunge then a rear lunge all with the same leg. It can go a little quickly, especially the first time and you’re often lagging behind the DVD a little. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as Power of 3, I can’t bring myself to think of 30 mins as being a proper workout either – despite the amount I was sweating. Er, I mean glowing.

 

Twentieth Day of Lent

Having a Davina week this week – Decided to do Power of 3 alternated with My 30 Minute Workouts, so we’ll see how it goes!

Power of 3 today, felt good! Time always goes fast with this one, and an hour seems to fly by without me really noticing. I’m even starting to quite like Davina, something I wasn’t entirely convinced was possible.

In my eternal quest to find an online diet I actually like, I’ve decided to give Now Diets a whirl. It seems to be quite expensive for what it is, but the useful thing for me is that it gives an approximate calorie burnt for all the exercise DVDs I’ve been using lately. They’re all quite different (Davina Power of 3 unsurprisingly ranks the highest, followed by Vicky’s Weight Off Workout.) I can imagine that if I still lived in the UK the food tracker would be much more convenient as they have both brand name and supermarket’s own foods already loaded into the database. However, as I’m in Germany, I have to put the nutritional information in by hand and its dullity dull dull.

 

Eighteenth Day of Lent

Still have achy thighs, though not as bad as they were on Thursday though! So I did the Jordan DVD again just for a bit of a change. I’m starting to worry about doing too much resistance training and not enough aerobic stuff, but at my current level of fitness, anything is an improvement!

I’m also working up the courage to start posting weekly pictures. Still not sure about that one!

I’m noticing a definite elevation in my mood whenever I do exercise, so that’s great news, and its providing adequate distraction from the lonelies. A hug a day might keep the lonelies away, but that’s no help when all you have is a collection of small stuffed sheep and an evil llama for company. Oh, and Mr Flibble, but he might be too cool for hugs.

 

Seventeeth Day of Lent

Wow, are my thighs achy after Wednesday’s efforts! That’s a new pain on me, I’ve always had quite good thighs and weak calves. Just for novelty value, I decided to do the same DVD again today, and see if I can actually still walk tomorrow. This DVD requires free weights, but I’ve been using 2 bottles of water, which brings me neatly onto my next subject: water.

I’ve been trying to up my water intake, by always keeping a water bottle to hand (possibly the poshest water bottle known to man), which is a beautiful pink colour and holds approx 750mls. On average, I’m drinking about 4 of these per day. Its really helping me pay attention to how thirsty I am, I’m such a chronic under drinker it took a real effort to keep a bottle with me and keep drinking but once I started, I thought about it and I realised I spend a lot of my life thirsty and just ignoring it. I know that I never used to drink anything as a child (and then there was that time when I stopped eating too and had to live off Complan for a while. I seem to remember just not being very interested in food, not not wanting to eat if you’re following me!)

 

Fourteenth Day of Lent

New DVD again! I rather like the trainer from Jordan’s Workout. His name is Richard Callendar and I figured I might as well check out one of his other DVDs. I eventually found Vicky Entwistle’s WOW! – Weight Off Workout! and thought I’d give it a whirl today.

I don’t really watch soaps, so I didn’t have a clue who Vicky actually was (apparently she played Janice Battersby in Coronation Street) and this didn’t detract from the workout in any way as she really doesn’t say a lot and the little she does say is all quite sweet, motivating stuff. She mostly stands around and lets Richard get on with explaining the moves and doing most of the talking other than a short introduction at the beginning then again for each of the sections. There’s a warm up, cardio, legs and abs/cooldown section.

Like Jordan’s workout, its pretty much all boxercise, but this one has different moves and feels harder throughout. It also felt like there were less squats to do, but that could well be just that I was a lot more tired and sat more of them out.

My weight watcher’s free trial ended on Sunday and I decided not to carry on with it into the paying realms. Counting points was just making me obsess over food and think about it much more than I ordinarily do. I’ve never dieted before and like to think I don’t really have any food hang ups, and I wouldn’t like to start getting them now! So at the moment I’m just eating smaller portions of things I’d usually eat and cutting out snacking. Still can’t face giving up the sugar in my tea though.

Ideally, as I’m useless at cooking for one, I’d like some sort of weekly meal plan (plus shopping list) of recipes for one. If anyone knows of such a thing, let me know! Yes, I’m the laziest woman on the planet, I know.

 

Twelfth Day of Lent

Sore and tight calves today! Still, feeling good and not fancying a day off, so giving Natalie Cassidy a try again. Did 10 minutes of the 15 minute cardio section, plus the first 5 minutes of the boxercise bit, so probably a good 30 mins overall. Still, glad I got something done! I think I need to look at something low impact for my days off, something like Yoga or Pilates, or just something that gives me a bit of a stretch and a general workout without making me feel like my shins are trying to force their way out through the soles of my feet.

 

Eleventh Day of Lent

Jordan’s DVD again. Still enjoying it, even if it is a bit pink. Few slight calf twinges after last time, but feeling pretty good still!

Went food shopping for the first time since the husband left today, and have realised I actually don’t have a clue how to shop for one. So, bought fruit and salad stuff, some lean chicken breasts and 1.5% fat milk (which is somewhere between skimmed and semi skimmed I think, correct me if I’m wrong!) Also, the smallest loaf of bread I’ve ever seen. I deliberately didn’t buy and cheese, ham or yoghurt which had previously been staples of the TooRubenesque family larder, as otherwise I’ll snack and eat cheese toasties as a meal. I find that if I don’t buy snacks I tend not to miss them, so grabbed a bag of satsumas and left it at that.

 

Ninth Day of Lent

New random DVD – The Jordan Workout. I kid ye not. I actually really liked it. Very Boxercise/Tae Bo in spirit, with a million squats. Jordan looks bored, her boobs bounce alarmingly, her outfits are frankly odd and she keeps on flashing her knickers (why is she doing this workout in a skirt in any case?). However, if you ignore Jordan and just focus on her trainer its a very good workout! He’s quite funny, not too annoying, keeps asking Jordan how she is and telling you to smile, which actually does make you feel a bit better! There’s also a diet section, all about the wonders of juicing, with Jordan trying to be helpful and putting the poor nutritionist guy off his script.

I’m having problems with my ankles at the moment (I always have done, I’d just forgotten how bad they are!) so for some of the skipping/bouncing on the spot, I just marched, other than that I got all the way through it and felt great. I’m starting to rediscover how much I enjoy working out. My husband might come home to find a pretty wife again after all! (DISCLAIMER: I don’t mean that in a sexist, living to please your man type of way either, just that people who’ve been away a long time can see changes better than myself who sees me in the mirror every day. I could’ve said the same about my parents or friends I don’t see as much. Okay? If I started paying attention to what my husband actually thinks, we’d mostly live off ice cream and wouldn’t have any furniture.)