No holiday weight-gain - shocking! :-)

Well, despite shoveling as much yummy French cheese, croissants, wine etc down my pie-hole... followed by a weekend of sheer excess (we got through boxes of wine!), I haven't really gained any weight! In fact, when I left for warmer climes, my weight had crept back over 11 stone - bahh.

Today I thought I'd bite the bullet and hop on the scary scales and was pleasantly surprised to see myself back under (albeit just ever so slightly ;-) ) 154lbs!

however, that being said, I'm not going to celebrate too much as

a) I've found in the past that holiday weight has a habit of sneaking on the week after the week after a holiday! Kinda like DOMS (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness) which is basically that bizarre thing that happens when you feel great the next day after running/weight training, but later on, or the next day you find you hurt like hell! I've done road races where I've felt superb the day after... but then hobbling around like an invalid the next - it's most odd!

and b) it's a little depressing to think that if I'd not over-indulged, I might be a hell of a lot lighter than I am today, boo

Whatever. With b) being unchangeable and a) unknown, I think I'll embark on some damage limitation/future fat loss exercises and get back into the swing of things :-)

I have actually started already, hurrah!

Wednesday

On Wednesday, my first day back at work, I did my Upper Body Workout #2 which produced a plethora of different emotions! I felt mostly elated throughout, and thrilled to have done it afterwards... however, towards the end I was so tired I felt a bit weepy from the exertion! It wasn't that it was unbearably tough, it was just that it was bloody hard work and I've not worked my muscles like that for ages! I also added a couple of other exercises to it to see how they felt:

Instead of my usual standing Biceps Curls I have swapped to Dumbbell Concentration Curls which are a lot harder because they isolate the biceps - which makes them more effective :-) I found that I was using too much of my body to help with the standing normal biceps curls so I think I'm going to stick to these! I can still do them with 9kg dumbbells but only 3 sets of 8 reps instead of 10

I also tried out another shoulder move, the Dumbbell Shoulder Front Raise - though not exactly like this clip as I don't feel comfortable raising my arms higher than shoulder height - it causes my back to arch and means I'm swinging with the motion a bit - don't want to risk hurting my back.

This may be incorrect, and I'm fully aware that my knowledge of all things weight-training related is sparse at best... but I'm muddling through I reckon, and learning every step of the way :-)


Thursday

Yesterday my shoulders ached, as did my biceps - job done! :-D

I did my Lower Body Workout #2 at lunch time and was really chuffed by the fact that I was able to do it! I started off feeling quite tired and worried that I'd only be able to do 2 sets (I do all the exercises as a superset) but was pleasantly surprised at my surplus energy. Also at the fact that I didn't drop the weights! I'm still using 12.5kg dumbbells and have no desire to move up right now tbh. When I first started using them they would literally drop out of my hands by half way through the 2nd set, and during the 3rd. Any exercises that required me to hold them for any time - like forward and rear lunges where I do 10 reps per leg instead of in total - i.e. 20 reps really - my grip would start failing and they'd slide from my grasp. Yesterday I was fine right up until the last set of rear lunges where at about 8/9 they were starting to slide.

I'm sure this'll help my climbing too as good grip is vital!

I didn't really feel much yesterday until I was legging it up the escalator at Oxford St (went to meet Joe at my company's store - going to buy some rather lush brown leather sofas, can't wait!!) and realised that my bum was quite sore!!

Today I am very achy, and I love it, that familiar feeling is back again - huzzah!

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I've decided that I need to split out my workout further. I'm going to start concentrating on just one area, or a smaller groups of muscles as I just don't have the time to do all my exercises in one or two hits!!

I haven't worked out what I want to do just yet so will continue as I have been doing until I work it out properly.

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a couple of brief updates:

France - Joe

I haven't got a pic of Joe finishing the etape as it's on his camera which he left in his crossbar bag and got sticky from race gels - smart!

Here's a pic of him, complete with medal, at 3am (that same night!!) with our 'token girl' (i.e. an actual rider - not just one of us WAGs!! ;-) ). This woman is a legend, look at her, there's nothing to her! But she took on the mountain and won, beating *so* many other men in the process.

To put it into perspective - out of the 8500 riders who started the race, 7162 finished and out of that, the women numbered a mere 234!!

She's ace, made of steel, and a thoroughly lovely lady to boot :-)


France - Training

As promised, here's a picture of my 'gym', haha. The first night our room was amazing, all stone with the huuuuge bed raised up in the middle of the room and a walk-in floor-level shower... though I swear the hallway was haunted as the light kept turning itself on and off!!

We only had that room for one night though, boo, so ended up in a smaller one which was nevertheless quite adequate for everything but skipping!! I managed to get some training in though, it's amazing how much you can do with very little.

Resistance bands are great as they're super lightweight but can provide some real, well, resistance!

This is the door tube I bought. The strength was pretty weak so I threaded a medium strength band twice through the loops to give some more to tug on - it was really very effective! The door tube idea is very simple, and probably not very good for the other side of the door, but it does mean you can position it where you like on the door which is very handy :-)

The ball and light-grey band I got as part of this Everlast Pilates Starter Kit. The ball was a little small for me, I'm sure it was only 55cm which isn't great as I'm 5'8"! Still, it was okay to travel with as was very light and the kit was quite good value for money. The grey band that came with it that is described as a 'heavy duty band' is quite weak on the resistance but that was okay as it meant I could do my more subtle shoulder internal and external rotations :-)

Not featured in this picture is a grey band by Manuka - nice company, I like their stuff, can't seem to find the band on the John Lewis website but here's the rest of the range. The band is super strong, was very impressed, did some biceps curls just stood on the end of it, was really taxing! I also bought the Manuka Eco Yoga Grip Towel which feels great to lie on :-)


Secret Garden Party

Finally, well, SGP was messy, what can I say ;-) I enjoyed the festival loads, but the company more! We were pitched round a huge gazebo that was a perfect place to do make-up, hair, coffee and wine :-)

One criticism I would have is the number of people this year! There were *so* many more than last year, the vibe was different, not as intimate

And Jarvis Cocker was shit! What a let-down >:-(

Other than that, the rest was fab, will have to post some more pics at some point but here's me in my full Babylonian get-up :-D

I would like to point out that my waist is actually smaller than this, no, really, haha. The corset thing is something Joe's Mum picked up for me from a charity shop and is a size 12-14... although that's perfect for my lower half, the thing wasn't intended for that so I had to keep hoisting it up as I couldn't tighten it enough at the back!

Other than that, I loved it, and the weekend :-)

One last thing - Liquid Egg Whites

I discovered yesterday that Sainsburys Market in Victoria have started selling Two Chicks liquid egg whites - hurrah! I knew they sold them in Waitrose and other sainsburys but hadn't found any nearby to me. Very chuffed with my discovery, bought 2 cartons, one's gone in the freezer, the other straight in the fridge.

I've been wanting to use liquid egg whites for ages but my conscience prevented me from buying the normal kind as I can't stand the thought of those poor birds being locked up in a caged hell like that. I'm more than happy to spend a little more for happier egg whites :-)

besides, I wouldn't dream of buying anything other than free range eggs for normal everyday use, so why would I drop my standards for the sake of my weight-loss plan.

I'm going to experiment over the weekend, shall be pinching some ideas off people - watch out!! ;-)