Product Review: Maxitone Sculptress Bar (plus some thoughts on long-term health and happiness)

I was both excited and apprehensive about trying these bars as I'm totally still in love with the Maximuscle Promax Diet Bars after munching on them for the best part of a year...

...which is very unusual for me as I'm so fickle and tend to go off things quite quickly - hence why I can never just stick to one sport and am an avid and enthusiastic collector of experiences (as well as sporty gear and gadgets!!) ;-)

I guess the main thing I was worried about was that they had modified the recipe to the point where the ingredients and taste were dramatically (and possibly detrimentally) dissimilar to the original.

I needn't have worried. Maxitone Sculptress bars appear to me to be Promax Diet bars in a pretty wrapper - which is fab news for all who already enjoy Promax bars, and also for those who have never tried them before and have been missing out thus far - everyone’s a winner! :-)

If they've altered the ingredients then the difference is too subtle for me to detect, which is GOOD!! I thoroughly subscribe to the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" way of thinking :-D

However one clear distinction that I'm guessing is now apparent is that, whereas before Promax Diet was for both men and women, and that was it, now it would seem that, while we still have Maximuscle Promax Diet Bars for the guys (and the girls if they so wish), Maxitone Sculptress is specifically aimed at the girls and is there to complement the rest of the range. Which, as I mentioned in my post the other day which detailed my initial thoughts on Maxitone, is as far as I’m concerned - a good thing! We deserve our own female-specific nutrition brand!

In case you hadn’t noticed(!) I’m a very big fan of the Maximuscle/Maxitone protein shake range. From research and my own experiences I would consider drinking a protein shake as soon as possible after strenuous activity to be the very best means by which to get your protein - as the absorption rate is far superior to any other method. That being said I do consider the bars to be a superior in some respects due to, amongst other things, their portability - they travel so well!

So, if I were forced to choose between shakes and bars, bars would win hands down. You can take them anywhere, in fact I've taken them abroad with me a number of times! They don't melt like normal fatty chocolate bars and, even if they do get lost and squashed in your bag, they still taste just as lovely. Plus, if you start a bar and decide to eat the rest later it still tastes as good - it's *not* a good idea to do the same with a whey protein drink!! ;-)

So, like the original Promax Diet Bars, Maxitone Sculptress Bars are incredibly tasty, dense and filling considering how few calories there are - 205 per bar!! They provide more than 20g of protein and also over 5g of fibre which is fantastic as that, along with the protein, helps to fill you up and keep you feeling fuller for longer. Plus, considering it is a 'chocolate' bar, it only contains 2.3g of saturated fat - that's pretty good huh?!

Also, because they have over 18g of carbohydrates too they make a pretty decent pre-workout meal/snack (best 2 - 2 1/2 hours beforehand to ensure digestion and processing is complete)

These bars are a perfect complement to a healthy diet. But be under no illusion, they will NOT make you lose weight just by eating them alone. They, like the shakes, are designed to work in unison with your weight-loss programme and support your goals by providing you with optimum nutrition to both fuel your workouts and ensure adequate muscle recovery and rebuild afterwards.

You cannot think "Oh, I'll just sit on my bum, watch TV and take a few Maxitone products twice a day and that'll be enough to drop the pounds". If you want to lose weight you have to effect change and that includes removing the obstacles to your weight loss - the biggest being overeating, and/or eating the wrong types of food, and inactivity.

You will not see skinny, hungry looking hollow-eyed celebs endorsing these products, instead you will see slim, strong, healthy, sporty-looking real women who take their exercise and nutrition seriously.

These women are the ones we, and our daughters, should aspire to look like. Not the bony dull-eyed ‘celebrities’ whose gaunt shapeless frames we’re forced to stare at in the media and believe to be the look we’re meant to strive to achieve!

I don't think that Maxitone products are intended for those people looking for a quick fix, you have to put in the effort to see results - however, you will see them a lot faster if you have the right systems in place to support your goals. Get the exercise right, and the nutrition spot on and you will transform your body, trust me.

Of course, Maxitone recognises that it's not always easy to eat 100% healthily and that it's important to treat yourself from time to time and not feel like you're missing out. After all, if something is unpleasant then it's not going to be sustainable. That's why it's so good that Maxitone products are so flippin tasty! The Sculptress bars are delicious and filling and the Definity Crisp bars are enough to satisfy any sweet toothed snacker without causing the ensuing guilt that often follows! I'll review Definitey Crisp another time though, they're so yummy they deserve their own post :-)

Unlike basically all the other weight-loss products you find on the 'diet shelf', Maxitone doesn't make false promises like you'll "drop lbs within days", or claim to be able to remove fat from the food you consume, or, like a popular breakfast cereal, instruct you to replace your morning and lunch time meal with their products in order to "drop a dress size". Maxitone wants you to get up and get active whilst also eating sensibly - Maxitone wants you to set in place good and healthy long-term habits. After all, what happens when you stop eating that cereal for breakfast and lunch, or stop taking those diet pills and return to whatever pattern of eating and inactivity that encouraged the weight gain in the first place? I tell you what happens, you gain the weight back, and then some more for good measure!!

So isn't it refreshing to have a brand that actually encourages you to adopt and maintain healthy lifestyle? As someone who spent over half her life in a negative relationship with both food and her body, I get very excited by companies and products that promote positive body change through a combination of healthy sensible eating and exercise. A company that endorses a strong, healthy and, above all: achievable look is one that wins my vote any day.

In short, if you don't want to put in any work but want an easy quick fix which may assist you in losing a few pounds but will pretty much guarantee that as soon as you stop whatever 'programme' you're following you will put the weight back on - with interest - then stick to the Slim-Fast, or the Lighter Life, or the Lipobind, the Adios, the Special K.... the quick-fix list goes on and on, so much to choose from but nothing there to enact long-term change

If however you want a strong, but sleek, lean, healthy, firm shapely and toned body - one that you can be proud of - and you’re interested in seeing if and how Maxitone can help you achieve this then visit the Maxitone site for yourself. Check out the nutrition information and meal plans, take note of the exercise advice and examples and then choose the products which you think will best support your goals. If in doubt, ask the experts, or you can even ask me about my own experiences if you like, but all I would ask that you not expect it to be easy.

If it's quick and easy then it's probably not worth doing, nothing that important is. As the saying goes “a road without obstacles probably doesn’t lead anywhere”.

If you really and truly want to want to lose weight, keep it off and achieve the body of your dreams, then you need to put the work in. Ultimately it will be so worth it and the sense of achievement you get at the end is better than you could every imagine. But you need to be prepared to work for it.

Us humans aren’t designed to sit at desks, on computers or sofas all day, we’re built to move and keep on moving, it’s what we’re good at, we’re capable of amazing feats of endurance. Before our weapons were advanced enough to catch our prey from afar we had to rely on our legs and our ability to run our prey down, however long it took. Some of us humans still enjoy that, like my nutty endurance running friend Dave, the Subversive Runner - he runs ultra marathons for FUN!! Now, I don’t have a burning desire to run a marathon but I fully intend to walk a few in my lifetime, all in aid of keeping on moving.

We’re also not designed to eat junk food. A fellow blogger, Chocolate Button, posted this YouTube clip about a McDonald’s cheeseburger which, despite being left in the air for four years, without any form of preservation, hadn’t aged a bit - it’s quite scary really, it can’t be real food, real food decomposes! So if something is that far removed from being a real food, how is our body supposed to know what to do with it when we consume it?

So, why not commit to starting to take yourself, your health and your nutrition, seriously - today! It will be the best decision you ever make. If you put the effort in, you will get the results you want, not immediately, but give yourself time, because time is what you’ll get back. The healthy changes you make now ensure that you live longer and feel fitter, stronger and happier for years to come.

If you stick at it I promise you that you succeed - in fact, you can't fail! I guarantee you that very positive change you make, no matter how small, will pay you back tenfold in years to come.

Stay strong, live long, feel happy and look great.

TJx

Mmm new protein bar

I recently restocked my supplement supply from my #1 favourite online bargain vitamin store ZipVit.co.uk.

They've got some great deals on at the moment, including a year's supply of Omega 3, 6 & 9 for just £8.99!!

Plus, if you spend over £25 you qualify for one or more of their fab free gifts. One which is a Yoghurt Covered Banana & Blueberry flavour protein bar from their great new sports range.

I'm always a bit reluctant to try new protein bars, mostly because I get on so well with the Maximuscle Promax Diet bar range and I don't feel that I need anything else, but also because my experience with 'fruit' protein bars hasn't exactly been a favourable one... quite a few are revolting - like the gross Boots chocolate and strawberry protein bar that I was unlucky enough to purchase recently and be unable to finish!

This is why I only ordered one of these bars instead of a whole box!

I needn't have worried though. After all, I really enjoyed their chocolate and orange protein bar which I got free earlier this year when ZipVit were giving away their 'Formulated For Success' free sample boxes packed full of superb energy and recovery products to celebrate their affiliation with the Cevelo cycle team (in fact I think you can *still* get these boxes for free if you visit the success site: http://www.zipvit.com/success/!!).

This bar is really nice and I had nearly wolfed down the lot before I thought I remembered that I should probably a) tell you all about it and b) take a picture before I forget!!:

.

Very tasty and as you can see it has real blueberries in it! :-)

Be warned though, if you *don't* have a sweet tooth you won't like this very much but I'm quite impressed, especially as it reminds me of my favourite sweet low cal (although low protein too!) snack which is a Boots Shapers Blueberry and Yoghurt Nougat Bar. It's just under 90 cals so a great sweet-tooth-placater. This bar however is banana flavour (perhaps not to everyone's liking but I've grown to love it thanks to Maximuscle Promax Diet in Banana flavour!!), has more cals (246) but also has 20.2g of protein! Obviously there's more in the way of carbohydrates for any of you low-carbers out there but then it's a bar, so it has to have bulk! But great in the way of PWO protein if you don't have a shaker or RTD like Maxi-milk handy!!

TJx

I don't think...

..I'm going to run out of Promax Crisp or Diet bars any time soon!

I'm stocking up while there's such great offers on so, in addition to the two boxes (one chocolate, one chocolate and orange) of Promax Diet bars I received last week, I also had myself a nice delivery today ;-) I only ordered it on Monday so v chuffed with how quickly it arrived!

Got to take advantage of the buy-one-get-one-free offers whilst they're still around, when else are you going to get a yummy chocolate bar which only contains 84 Calories but has a whopping 6g of Protein for less than 50p?!

I also got another two boxes of Promax Diet bars (both in choccy orange flavour Mmmm drooool) for when I need something a little more substantial.

Speaking of bars, has anyone ever tried one of those Atkins advantage ones? I bought a 'meal bar' version a little while back which was revolting so I've not done that since... but the other day I was in Boots and my attention was caught by this 'Endulge Crispy Milk Chocolate Bar' which looked quite tasty so I thought I'd try it out.

The first bite was okay but after it had 'gone down' I felt like I had this oily film in my mouth, it was like I'd taken a bite out of a chocolate bar and then a spoonful of caster oil straight after! Won't be buying that again... I can bypass the dubious spelling... I *know* it's not *meant* to say 'indulge' but I think it looks lame... and the grammar:

"The Atkins Endulge Crispy Milk Chocolate Bar offer nutricious and delicious options to be eaten as a snack for when your feeling peckish or an healthy treat."

can also be overlooked, as irritating as it is (this is a multi-global company, Boots is the biggest pharmaceutical and beauty shop in the UK - WHY don't they proof-read their ads?!!) - and it's not just on that page either, check out the spelling for 'nutritious' on the page for Chocolate Decadance Bar...!

I'm not going to investigate the other Atkins products on the site as the poor spelling and grammar will just cause me to have a huge hissy fit and start twitching slightly, in the eyelid!! ;-)

Instead I will tell you of bars that I *do* like:

My local Sainsbury's Market which has a small but comprehensive range of more 'interesting' foods like Trek bars and Nakd bars too has recently started stocking Nakd bars in Banana Bread flavour! It's hilarious because it does *actually* taste like banana bread, raisins, flour, bananas and all - it's pretty accurate!



They're nice but I'm not sure I'll buy another packet again as they're a bit too sweet for my liking... I adore the Berry Cheeky ones as they've got a certain savoury nutty element to them which is really nice... but don't like the Cocoa Loco ones because I think they're *too* savoury - gosh I'm so hard to please!! Good job I have the Promax bars to stop any choccy cravings :-D

I also quite like these bars by 'The Food Doctor', Ian Marber, whose blog I follow:



He's got a new book coming out (see this recent entry on his blog for more details).

This bar is great if you've got nothing fresh and you fancy something fruity with a little more bite. It only has 113 calories but has 3.4g of Protein, which is pretty good for a fruit bar! I guess because it also has other stuff like quinoa (which I had for lunch today with quorn and spinach), hemp, rice protein, linseeds etc, only drawback is it's a little on the pricey side... as most healthy things tend to be - boo!!

Yesterday was good, I did a 5k run at 10 m/m pace and barely broke a sweat! My fitness is coming on leaps and bounds :-)

In the evening I took my son our local recreational centre to do a bit of climbing. The wall there is pretty basic, and there's only one, so it's not a place I'd consider climbing at but it's great for him to gain and improve on his technical skills. There's an automatic belay device too so he can practice climbing on that on his own. He let go of the end of it after unclipping - wally! - so had to climb back up using a top rope to retrieve it!

I took a pic but it was indoors on my crappy BlackBerry, lol! You can 'just' about make him out in his Liverpool FC football shirt ;-)



It's great there though and the instructor is really really lovely, but seems quite firm too which you need as climbing is a dangerous sport!

It'll be great for him to improve his skills and he'll be able to show me how well he's doing when we go to The Castle - as I've bought a load of sessions in bulk I get to take him along for free! :-)

I've just discovered today that I'm going to be losing my boyfriend at the weekends again next year *sigh*

check out the thread:


Tara ###### wrote on 14/10/2009 15:36:15:

you've just made yourself *very* unpopular to a lot of WAGs - your
own included!! ;-)

Tara #######
Pension Systems

-----------------------------------------------------------------

joe #######
14/10/2009 15:33

To

#######

Subject

Who's in?

Steve's just let me know the 2010 Etape route has been announced...
http://www.letapedutour.com/2010/ETDT/presentation/us/parcours.htm

;)



------------------------------------------


russen fussen russen fussen mutter mutter grumble >:-(

ahh well, at least it means I get another holiday in France out of it. Actually, I'll be having at least 2 holidays there next year as a couple of my friends are getting married there and we plan to make a holiday of it... stay for Bastille Day :-)

Right, I'm off now to meet my beloved for our third week of Alpha, hope you all have fabulous evenings/days!

TJx

Bad blogger!!

Good morning (though by the time I post this it'll no doubt me the afternoon!)

I'm going to be averaging one post a week at this rate, rubbish!!

In my defence it has been stupid busy at work with lots of deadlines that were meant to have been met last week... but weren't entirely resulting in my getting into work silly early yesterday (okay, so it was only 07:50 but given that my usual start time is 10am that's eye-wateringly early for me!!) and working til nearly 7pm.

I also had rather a busy weekend and wasn't at home much. We've had new sofas delivered - Joe took a pic and sent - lush eh?!



As well as a nice space saving computer desk, a drinks cabinet which is just beautiful and a chinese-style red cupboard/drinks cabinet type thing too. Will have to take pics and post them soon.

We're a bit worried about the cats destroying the sofas as they were quite keen on picking at the fabric ones we had before - have considered de-clawing them... haha kidding, they're outdoors cats, that would be cruel! I guess we're just going to have to yell at them if/when they scratch them or buy them a zillion scratching posts and dotting them around the house to detract their attention.

It's nearly winter though anyway which'll mean that Bella will take up her usual spot on the radiator and hopefully leave our nice leather sofas alone!



... can always hope anyway...

So because of the sofas/cupboards/cabinets our living and dining room are full of boxes and furniture that needs sorting and I think that if I were to abandon the sorting out so I could blog I'd probably get lynched!!

So, onto the last few days of radio silence...

Friday 2nd Oct

At lunch time I did my Lower Body Strength Workout (Free Weights) (see side-bar on right for more info) which was really hard work. Not because my legs were particularly weak, but because my arms are! You see, a couple of weeks ago I did quite a good heavy upper body weights session in my local gym and, afterwards, thought it would be a good idea to hop on the concept 2 rower. I only did 10 minutes but at quite a decent pace, think I covered 2100m in that time.

The thing is that it felt fine, but that was because my muscles were all warmed up. Because of this I didn't recognise the strain I was putting my right shoulder/upper biceps under and the result of this has been pain, dull but stingy pain in my right shoulder :-(

a few years ago, when I first got into triathlon, I launched myself into the swimming side of things without realising that I was hypermobile and ended up straining my rotator cuff muscles on my right side. It's not been the same since, which is why I do a lot of shoulder strength exercises with light weights to try and build up the supporting muscles in the area. I had a cortizone injection a few years back into the top of the biceps where it joins my shoulder joint - which helped for a little while but didn't provide any long-term solution.

What I'm going to do I think it try and split my upper body weight training out over more days and for less time/intensity. I've not been experienced enough to attempt this until now but I think I'm doing rather well now so will do some research, ask a few peeps for advice and give my training routines a bit of a re-jig.

Anyway, so where I was going with all the above is that I've not been able to train my upper half so my grip on the 12.5kg dumbbells was rubbish!!! I nearly dropped one a couple of times and my forearms felt very tight and sore by the end of the session.

Saturday was interesting... it's good/strange/masochistic to feel some pleasure at the knowledge that your hamstrings ache like they've been beaten with a knobbly baseball bat, DOM(S) has always been a friend of mine :-D

Friday night I worked quite late and rushed off just before 8pm to meet up with others for a friend's birthday meal and drinkies.

I managed to resist the (absolutely delicious-looking OMG I have such food envy) battered fish (Pollock) and chips - I did have a sneaky taste of a friend's later as a) she'd finished and b) my own food was rather insubstantial in terms of stomach-lining potential. When I ask for Sausages and Mash I expect a decent amount of both... what I got was this:



which would be more than adequate for a 'normal' dinner and, to be honest, I probably wouldn't even dream of eating that much potato in the evening unless I had a race/ride the next day, but I was OUT, drinking cocktails, then prosecco, then spirits, then cocktails, the champagne...

then more champagne when I managed to haggle the barman in a late night bar we ended up in down from £39 to £30 (he tried to settle at £35 but we did a coin flip and I picked heads - hurrah!). Net result, drunken TJ - look, I can't even keep my eyes open!!

I don't know *why* that extra bottle of champagne seemed like such a good idea at the time - it certainly didn't the next day!

I was certainly a lot more drunk than most people but I think that's more to do with the fact that I don't drink during the week anymore - this is my 'drink of choice' at home (annoyingly my son keeps trying to nab bottles of this... he thinks because it's zero alcohol that means it's okay for him to have all of mine - err no, I don't think so mate!)

I really like the taste though and it's very handy when I come home from a stressy day at work and fancy a beer as this has a fraction of the calories and doesn't make me groggy!

Saturday 3rd Oct

...was spent feeling like shit. I felt utterly destroyed, why do I do it to myself?! I don't seem to have a 'okay-now-stop-you've-had-enough' mechanism, I can just drink and drink - not good!

I felt poisoned, belly all bloated, feeling sick, dizzy and just generally sorry for myself - bit of a waste of space really!

After I pulled myself together with the help of a protein pancake, this one was made up of:



and was definitely worth it - I'm still pleased that despite my horrid-hangover-from-hell I was able to resist the bacon and egg sarnies that have become a staple of my boys' weekend diet... mutter mutter

We went out with some friends on Saturday night, one of whom is just over from Thailand where he's been living for the past 2 years or so, in his own house, which he built himself from mud bricks and is on a plot of land owned by a farmer. He also built an oven to bake bread to sell to local businesses and grows his own vegetables - which form the bulk of his diet. That and a little bit of meat at times and lots sticky rice... the cooking water of which can be turned into wine, how cool is that?

ahh, sounds like such a simple, peaceful existence. Fascinating but terrifying at the same time! I'm not sure if I could survive without all my non-essential gadgets, which is a bit of a sad thought really! But I console myself with the thought that we as humans have 'evolved' so that we don't *have* to - well, not in the developed world anyway. It's probably all a big con and I'd be happier in a cave with an open fire, but then if that were the case then why aren't we all doing that?!

Sunday 4th Oct

I still can't believe how quickly October has crept up on us... not used to not typing '0...' when entering the month, I think that time is speeding up.

We'd stayed at Joe's parent's place (aka my second home) on Saturday night so Sunday, when I finally surfaced (no, I didn't get drunk the night before, I didn't drink anything actually! I was just feeling a bit peaky and like I needed to catch up on sleep) we had a lazy Sunday morning, lounging in Joe's parents' new conservatory (doesn't sound particularly interesting but it's fabulous, really impressive, just a nice space to be in really :-) ) and then a nice pheasant casserole for lunch followed by cheese, yum... managed to not drink still despite the particularly nice looking red that was floating about the dining table!

That evening when we got back to London I took Joe to the gym to give him a run for his money on the free weights (see "My current strength and core training routines" again in the sidebar on the right).

I thought I'd play it safe as haven't done much upper body stuff (as I mentioned earlier) for weeks! I used 8kg dumbbells for my shoulder press, upright rows and concentration curls and I could really feel the difference from not having trained for a while... felt soooo weak! :-(

thankfully I didn't feel sore-in-the-wrong-way (i.e. pain, not muscle ache!) afterwards so am just keeping an eye on how it all feels in the shoulder area.

I finished off my workout with half an hour on the Cardio Wave... love that machine, especially as it has a built in TV so you can laugh at a wildlife expert getting 'shagged by a rare parrot' on Stephen Fry's 'Last Chance To See' program. I was laughing so hard at this part that I nearly fell off the damn machine. As it was late in the evening and the moody staff had switched off the main TVs, nobody had a clue why some girl was hysterically giggling away to herself (when I say 'giggling' it was less girly than that, more like guffawing to be perfectly honest!) and they now think I'm (more) mad (than they thought before)!

Monday 5th Oct

I bet you know someone with this birthday, or the 6th Oct? I know loads, it's a popular time!

I got into work pretty early like I said before and worked for nearly 11 hours before dashing to get my train, cooking a lovely beef and black bean sauce stir-fry (with thick noodles for the boys) and then just generally lounged on the sofa for the rest of the evening... pretty mundane stuff really but sometimes it's good to do bugger all for a change!

So, onto today...

Tuesday 6th Oct

Today I was a little sneaky and had some of my delicious bread for breakfast - look at this though, how could you resist?!!



I received my delivery from Maximuscle today of 2 boxes for Promax Diet bars (their 'Buy two boxes for £35' deal is still going, it works out to less than £1.50 a bar - snap it up while you still can!)

The lovely people at Maximuscle also sent me 2 free pouches of Cyclone, which is great as a) that's what Joe uses and b) it's handy for if we go away for a weekend as will be easier than taking tubs - why don't they do that with Promax Diet eh?! Then lazy people like me can keep them handy and not have to measure out scoops ;-)

I was sooo glad to get some more chocolate and orange Promax Diet bars as had run out of that flavour and only had the plain dark chocolate ones so I had half of one as soon as they arrived for my mid-morning snack. Then for lunch I had a huuuuge Tuna steak, small amount of cous cous, salad, tabasco sauce and balsamic glaze:



that pic doesn't do the tuna steak justice, it was *much* larger, I'd just buried the end under salad!

I'm feeling very nervous about this Friday's photoshoot for the Maximuscle Body of 2009 comp, I'm still to get some sort of matching sporty outfits (all mine are just, well, odds and sods!) but I'm going to prepare by getting a spray tan done later.

I'm probably more nervous about this to be honest! I've used fake tan in the past to disasterous effect - i.e. putting that 'slow developing' stuff on before going on a night out... then dancing and therefore sweating, and coming home with huge orange streaks... NOT a good look!

I asked the lovely lady at Maximuscle who rang me up to let me know I'd made the finalists and also sent me the info if she knew of any good brands (I've only heard of St Tropez but I guess they're a bit 'old hat' now?) and she said she'd used Fake Bake in the past but that the company was under new management and the quality wasn't as high. But she did mention Xen Tan which is an American product but is over here now and used in salons.

I put my postcode in the 'salon locator' doodar thingy and found a place near my work, where I actually get a 10% discount at - superb!

I'm off there later, bit apprehensive, especially thinking back to P!nk's video for her song 'Stupid Girl' where it goes a little wrong and she ends up looking like a Wotsit:



...or... worse still I could look like this!!


I'm sure I won't, doesn't stop me feeling nervy... will report back later!

TJx

Huzzah! Maximuscle Maxi-milk BOGOF

heh, that has to be one of my favourite acronyms... my son used to love walking round the supermarket when he was younger yelling "look mummy, there's another bogof" :-D

anyway, my fave RTD (ready-to-drink... I am the acronym queen today!) protein shake, Maxi-milk, is available now on a buy-one-get-one-free basis for a limited time from the actual Maximuscle site, click here for deal.

I'm quite chuffed by this to say the least as a) I'm a big fan of this drink, especially the strawberry flavour which you don't even really need to chill as it tastes fine even if it's at room temperature! and b) I was whinging on my blog the other day about how I wish Maximuscle would offer some better deals on their products and, hey presto! It's a good move by them :-)

It's a great post-workout drink... here's the blurb on the email I got from the nice people at Maxiwomen:

One of the best things about Maxi-Milk is the fact it can be used to support the goals of all sports players, gym users and endurance athletes. It's easy to see why as Maxi-Milk:

- Contains the exclusive Maxipro protein blend for sustained protein support.

- Is enriched with whey protein for rapid muscle recovery after exercise.

- Holds 33g protein & 38g carbs per serving for rapid recovery.

Simply put, if you play sport, go to the gym or are involved in endurance exercise, a carton of Maxi-Milk after performing will aid muscle recovery, help maintain strength and support performance.

needless to say, several cartons of the stuff, as well as Promax Diet protein bars, my shaker and a few portions of measured out scoops of Promax Diet (including the vanilla flavour, it's very nice, especially when mixed with the chocolate flavour, yummm) will be accompanying me to France tomorrow! If I don't have my healthy snacks, the prospect of copious quantities of lovely french cheese will seem even more appealing...

1st weightloss goal met - wooot!!

I've got to get off home very soon but I thought I'd just share this with you...
<<< see that
that's me *finally* below 11 stone, hurrah!!

So, the play is now over... it was a roaring success and we've all had loads of compliments. I'm chuffed to pieces about how well it went, but not about the bloody p*ssing rain on saturday, grrr... such a shame as that was the night that Joe, his parents, and my son all came to see me perform!

Ahh well, in true British fashion, we all braved it out... the audience sat with their macs and brollies and we performed most of the second half with umbrellas ourselves... that being said, it was one of the best performances of the five! The audience were super, what troopers :-)

I had a lot of fun and, although slightly relieved that it's over and really ready for my bed tonight, I feel somewhat bereft. I thoroughly enjoyed working with all the cast and crew... we were like a little family in the end, it's so sad it's all over!

anyway, now I can spend the week training and preparing for our trip to France.

to be honest I've been somewhat dreading the time away as Joe has expressly forbidden me to take any dumbbells with me (I think he'd probably cotton on if I did sneakily as they would somewhat add to the weight of my bag!!), and there's no gym at the hotel we're staying at... I've been panicking!


So, instead of getting in a total tizzy I decided to use all the time spent not on stage (basically the entire 2nd half of the show!) going through all my strength training books and copies of Muscle & Fitness and Ultra Fit.

This exercise was caught on camera, ha! Here's me in our changing tent with said magazines/books and with a Mr Wickham standing on behind.

So... I haven't yet finalised all the activities I can do... I'm going to take my running shoes and skipping rope with me and there are the obvious strength exercises I can do like press-ups, bench dips, back extensions, crunches etc - I have decided that I'm going to concentrate on my stomach big style as I've been neglecting it of late. I also wondered if I could sneak a stability ball into my bag. Joe's got one already, but it's pretty heavy duty so I might buy this one from argos.

I *really* want to get this Nike Resistance Band Kit, but none of the Argos' in London seem to sell it, arghh! I'll keep my fingers crossed that it comes back in stock between now and Thursday. A lot of the exercises I saw that I could do without weights involved resistance bands, and these look perfect!

I'm also going to stretch a lot as my legs are feeling a bit achy and tight :-/

In terms of training last week... despite the huge number of rehearsals and then the actual performances from Thursday onwards - I actually did quite well :-) I managed to almost entirely stick to my plan, the only deviance being on Friday when I ran out of time and had to just do my lower leg workout. Was quite pleased though to be able to whizz through it, with 80kg on the leg press (I would try more but I don't think I could push myself out to begin with!!), 55kg on adductor and abductor and up to 40kg on the leg curl and extension (I didn't have time for single leg presses :-( ).

So yeah, I didn't get the chance to go for my run... I optimistically took my running shoes with me to my company's country club (where I was staying and the performance was taking place) but the run didn't happen.

Not going to beat myself up about it though as managed really well with everything else considering how much I had on!

food-wise it wasn't great. I didn't eat a hot meal until Saturday! And that was steak and chips followed by apple crumble and custard, OMG it was awesome, and so needed!

I'd had a week of eating the bare minimum snacks that were provided for me... and only managing to not overindulge on the crisps, chocolates and sandwiches because I took my maximuscle promax diet bars and maxi-milks with me (maxi milk is great because you don't need to fridge it, but the chocolate doesn't taste as nice if it's not very cold, probably because it's thicker in consistency to other protein drinks, so it's only the strawberry that you can leave out at room temp and not worry about it tasting a bit odd!), the promax bars are fab because they don't melt like normal chocolate bars do!!

anyway, I'm off home now to cook some food... I'm going to make my tomato, mince and quinoa dish which keeps me going at work. I haven't cooked it for yonks and I've been relying on our canteen for too long. It's great because I just spoon it into tubs, bung it in the freezer, and then take it out when I need it and heat it up in our microwave

I need to start preparing my food in advance, like the night before at least, but I just don't have the time at the mo so will realistically not start till after we get back from the secret garden party at the end of July... and then, with the Maximuslce Body of 2009 competition deadline looming, I will be able to seriously focus on my nutrition over the following weeks.

I'm just so glad I'm on the right track and that the results are visible both on me and the scales :-)

Here's the recipe for both the beef and quorn version of my yummy lunch (I say 'yummy', because it tastes and smells great... it doesn't look it though, haha!), haven't decided which I'm making tonight, probably the quorn one if I can get the mince...

Ingredients
* 1000g frozen leaf spinach
* 500g lean minced beef
* 2 Cans/800g chopped tomatoes
* ½ Tube/100g Tomato Puree, Double Concentrate
* 4 Cloves/12g Garlic, Raw
* 1 Tsp/1g Basil, Dried, Ground
* 1 Tsp/1g Oregano, Dried, Ground
* 1 Tsp/1g Thyme, Dried, Ground,
* 1 Tbsp/15ml Oil, Olive, Extra Virgin
* 1 Cube/9.5g Stock Cubes, Beef, Knorr
* 1 Tsp/4g Chilli Powder
* 1 Med/180g Onions, Raw
* 180g Quinoa, Dry Weight

Method
Chop the onion into small cubes, fry up with garlic and herbs with the olive oil.

Once softened, add the stock cube and mince and stir until cooked, then add the tomato puree, tomato chunks, and then the leaf spinach

Keep stirring until the spinach has thawed and the mixture is boiling away nicely, then turn down the heat and allow to simmer for as long as poss for richness.

Leave to cool and spoon into 6 tubs

Nutrition Data Per Serving
Calories (kcal) 322.2
Carbohydrate (g) 28.0
Protein (g) 29.4
Fat (g) 10.2
Fibre (g) 7.1


------------------------------------------

For the vegetarian version I use 300g frozen quorn and add 3 scoops of whey protein

Nutrition Data Per Serving
Calories (kcal) 326.3
Carbohydrate (g) 31.2
Protein (g) 31.7
Fat (g) 8.4
Fibre (g) 9.8

the calories are slightly more with this but there's less fat and more protein! :-)



TJ x

new maximuscle goodies on order

just placed an order with a fab cheap site called Dolphin Fitness for some Maximuscle goodies :-D

I've bought some more Promax Diet Bars in chocolate orange flavour, can't get enough of those and they're so good to just chuck in my bag when I'm out for the day, like at rehearsals etc, as they don't melt like other chocolate bars I can keep them out in the sun - unlike me, which did melt on Sunday!!

also ordered some Promax Diet shake powder as just discovered that you can buy it in vanilla flavour, hurrah! You can only get that flavour if you buy the big tubs but I figure that I get through enough of this powder it's probably more economical to buy it in bulk! Just hope the flavour's not minging, as I'll be stuck with a lot if so! ha! mind you, if it's not as tasty as I hope then I can always mix and match. My favourite flavour is "BananaBerry", aka 1 scoop of Promax Diet in Banana and 1 scoop Strawberry, it's a max yum combination!

lastly I've ordered two lots of their new Maxi-Milk... have ordered the chocolate as well as the strawberry which I've already tried and used up! it's seriously tasty and, again, can just throw it in my bag and it's ready to drink when I need it :-D

so yeah, Dolphin Fitness, super site, all the above actually cost over £6 less than from the Maximuscle site, even with their 4-for-the-price-of-3 offer, word to the wise - quality products at more affordable prices!

It's a pity Maximuscle goods are just that much more expensive than just about everything else out there! Yes they are fantastic, tasty and good quality, which is why I keep re-ordering my faves... but I seriously think they'd win more customers if they just re-thought their pricing structure a little, perhaps offered more incentives, like 3-for-2 instead of 4-for-3 etc... I think that once they've got fans and customers that they'll keep them because they realise how good the products are... but it's the initial attraction where they probably fall short as there are a lot of price-savvy people out there who'll shop around extensively for a bargain. I've read loads of reviews on the various Maximuscle protein powders and supplements and none of them have questioned their efficacy... the No.1 criticism is always the price!

oh and I also wish Maximuscle would rethink their free gift with orders over a certain price - I have SO many unused shakers now it's unbelievable, haha!! anyone want one?!

Back to normality!

Well, I was rubbish at updating while away, but I was busy/hungover most of the time so can be forgiven (I hope!).

We flew out to Dublin on Wednesday and I managed to squeeze 45 mins of cycling (work round trip) and 20 mins running (one loop of our local lovely lush park) before the other half put his foot down and I had to get serious and help with packing and leaving of country...

we arrived in Kilmessan for our friend's wedding on Wednesday night, had a few bevvies that evening and then the next day was the wedding itself. It was mercifully rain-free - hurrah! the whole event was superb, a really lovely day which I'm afraid to say went on until 5am! much alcohol and food consumed (in addition to the wedding supper we had fish and chips served later that night - I had the discipline to remove the batter from the fish but not to remove the chips from my mouth!). Friday was a bit of a write-off - well, the morning didn't exist as far as I was concerned, OH and I spent most the day in bed feeling decidedly sorry for ourselves, we made it into Trim later and just about forced down half a Guinness... pathetic!

I stayed up til past midnight on Friday as Saturday was my 30th birthday! I have been feeling quite perturbed at the thought of hitting my third decade and I guess it still hasn't sunk in. I got the prezzies that I wanted though, the Garmin 405cx and tickets to see Waiting for Godot which I am disproportionately excited about seeing! Patrick Stewart (he with the beautiful shaped head) and (sir) Ian McKellen are two of my fave actors, they have such a rapport...

I also got a gorgeous silver and onyx necklace and earring set, really chunky, absolutely beautiful... guess the hints finally paid off heh ;-)


so, Saturday we got back to Dublin and the hotel I'd booked us into... the criteria being that it had to have a gym (for me) and a pool (for son)... fortunately the Regency ticked all the boxes. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to do everything, baaahhh.

I'm pleased to report that on my 30th Birthday I did over an hour's strength training (the weights area was round the corner to the left) and also 45 mins on the treadie... what a good start to my 30's :-) The gym was actually not badly equipped, the machines were all TechnoGym like the ones at my gym... although not entirely the same as the ones at mine, for example, instead of the low row, they had some 'upper back' machine which I couldn't use as my arms weren't long enough - poor design >:-( also, the smith machine was completely static... you could only go up and down, and the bar was on hydrolic arms with a cables... hard to explain but it kinda felt like it was helping you, but then it was just annoying - the one at my gym sort of floats backwards and forwards, as well as up and down so you can move about for squats etc - basically, ours has a 3D movement to it - I'll take a picture one day!

that was it, mind, as fitness training went! Although boyf and I did actually have good intentions as bought our running gear with us thinking we'd be able to run in Kilmessan... hmmm, no chance! Not only were the roads teeny and windy with scary blind corners, they were devoid of pavements and the people in cars drove like lunatics! We abandoned a 'let's walk to the hill of my namesake' trip, favouring survival instead. Most disappointing, but Saturday's session made up for it :-)

As for overeating, well, I didn't think I did too badly... Promax Diet Bars are fabulously portable and I also took my Appesat with me which I found invaluable during breakfast - complimentary cooked - as, although I was loading up my plate (tsk) to the brim, I couldn't physically finish what was there and had to abandon the task... hurrah!

of course I drank too much, but I'll forgive myself for that I think, especially given the fact that I often made more diet-friendly (although not liver-friendly) choices like JD & diet coke over pints of beer and glasses of wine.

Anyway, I'm back now. I had the day off yesterday but was due in for play rehearsals so ran in from home... just under 4 miles at just over 35 mins, it felt 'challenging' but not too taxing. I plugged it into Fetcheveryone and discovered to my joy that I'd been running 9 minute miles! Now, I *know* that's not particularly anything much above snail's pace to 'normal' runners, but to me that's excellent! I've been running at 10 1/2 minute miles... just about getting down to 9 1/2 minute miles, but only over 5k distance. I'm totally stoked! Just think how fast I could run if I could shift a couple of stone, I'd fly along! Plus I was wearing a backpack as had jeans and top to change into once I got in

SMUG MODE :-D

I can only attribute it to the strength training I've been doing on my legs... it's been

double leg presse - 80kg - 3 x 10 reps
single leg press - 40kg - 3 x 10 reps (each leg)
leg extension 35kg - 3 x 10 reps
leg curl - 35kg - 3 x 10 reps
adductor - 45kg - 3 x 10 reps
abductor - 45kg - 3 x 10 reps (have been using these two for a while, struggling to think why I continue though!)
squat with bar - 35kg - 3 x 10 reps (could probably do a lot heavier but worried about taking so much weight on my traps!

I've noticed that my cycle to work is quicker than it used to be and I'm on a higher gear.

speaking of strength training... I've found that I'm doing so many different exercises that I'm having to split them up as I don't have time! I used to just use the machines, now I use free weights, I'm running out of room on my workout wallet to write them all down!!

speaking of workout wallets, have used one up now so must go order some more :-)

more updates soon, and I promise to document my two yummy protein-rich lunches (one with mince, the other with quorn and maximuscle promax natural) and my yummy peanut butter, banana, strawberry and promax diet milkshake... Joe's off to cycle up Mont Ventoux in preparation for his Etape so I'll have the house, and computer, to myself for a few days ;-)

anyway, must get on!

Worn out!

about to go to bed as pretty cream crackered after a great weight session with the boyf... aside from the usual suspects (shoulder press, lat pull down, low row, vertical traction, triceps extension and bicep curl and lift - as well as the adductor, abductor and single and double leg presses)we did a bit of pyramiding on the bench which was fun... I'm feeling great now but think I might ache like hell tomorrow... top of chest is very firm to the touch (ooer!)!!

So, I ran for 30 mins on the treadmill afterwards, was surprised at how challenging it was, nearly fell off the thing afterwards!

I'm due at spin class at 06:45 tomorrow but not sure if my legs will take it, annoying when things don't go your way!

we'll see...

b/f left me running and came home to prepare dinner, we had salmon, brown rice, steamed veg and some left over rump steak from yesterday, delish!



I'll be posting tomorrow about the food I've decided that I'm going to be making a big part of my diet as have decided to re jig my nutrition, really give it some decent thought, care and attention... after all, this strength and fitness training is all well and good, but what's the use in having lovely muscles if you're hiding them under a few inches of fat!

In the meantime I've put in a couple of orders from Maximuscle for me and the other half

For me I have ordered some more Promax Diet powder, in banana flavour, the nicest! Some Promax Diet Bars, this time in choc and orange flavour and a couple of boxes of Promax Crisp Bars, which are just damn tasty really and great just sling into your gym bag to take if you're feeling low on fuel! One of the boxes of crisp bars was free, which is just as well as, although fabulously tasty, Maximuscle is definitely not a cheap option!

For OH he's got a tub of Viper to help with his rehydration and muscle recovery after and during his long hellish hilly cycle training, and a tub of Cyclone which is full of good stuff but not packed with calories as he's not interested in gaining any weight in the run up to his exhausting cycle race in July, indeed, his lean frame will definitely prove advantages on a route which is basically just one big bloody mountain climb! Actually, that's not true... it's several mountain climbs leading to the foot of one bloody huge mountain climb! I'm scared for him, but I know he'll do well :-)

oh and I bought a kettlebell today! only 10lbs (just under 5kg), but it's a start I reckon!

night everyone :-)

Appesat - pharmaceutical-free seaweed diet pill

Just read this article on a product called Appesat. I'm quite tempted to try it out!

Simply because, I don't actually have a problem with the type of food I eat, simply the quantity! I'm sure I have Portion Distortion... possibly because my Mum always made sure I finished everything on the plate! and also perhaps because my last boyfriend was 6'3" and very broad... he needed a lot more to eat than I did but I'm pretty sure I kept up with him!

The problem isn't about what I eat, I hardly ever eat chocolate, biscuits, cakes, sweets etc... I gave up alcohol before Christmas to see if it would have any effect on my weight and it didn't, so that's obviously not an issue either!

I know that in order to lose weight I need to exercise more, I have a very sedentary job stuck in front of a computer all day, and I have a very slow metabolism, so it's important for me to get some movement in! I ran on Saturday... a full 1 minute per mile slower than previous runs and enjoyed it *so* much more! I used the Cardio Wave machine at my local gym (this machine rocks!!) for 45 mins on Sunday (apparently burning 510 cals but for how little I was out of breath and how low my heart rate felt, I'd say closer to 350/400 cals), I climbed yesterday for over an hour and I'm cycling today to and from work.

I also went for an hour's walk at lunch today, down by the Thames. The rather excellent FetchEveryone running site (which is definitely worth a look at, as it has the most excellent tools to help you train, and is free!) tells me that my route was exactly 4 miles, which is nice to know :-)

anyway, going off topic there a bit, so yeah, my problem is not that I eat unhealthily or that I drink excessively (I have developed a penchant for low alcohol and zero alcohol lager, tastes nearly as good and has barely any, if any, alcohol and much fewer calories!!), I think I just eat too much over the course of the day, and particularly around dinner time!

Although the Thermobol definitely helped me in the way I now look a lot more toned, they did nothing to prevent my feeling peckish! If I could fool my stomach into thinking it's full it would definitely help me with my weight loss goals. I think I just need to use another tool at the moment to assist with controlling my food intake. I'm doing well with my exercise, and also with my maximuscle meal replacement shakes and bars (although I find I can't eat a whole Promax Diet bar in the morning as they're so dense and filling!!) - I've stocked up with enough to keep me going for a couple of months! - so I reckon I'll give these a go and see if they can help with my feelings of gastric emptiness!!

wish me luck!

Mmmm

Promax Diet Bars dark chocolate flavour... bloody gorgeous!  

Really tasty, quite heavy and dense so fill you up very effectively!  It's great to be actually able to chew something!

more carbohydrates though, although that's to be expected as it's a bulky bar!  Less protein as well though, only 20.4g compared to the whopping 37.8g in the shake!

my maximuscle consignment arrived, very exciting, have started taking the Thermobol so will update my blog on how I take to that.

I have to admit, the bag is pretty damn good!  I was recently given a very similar one as a freebie from an accounting firm, and it's rubbish, the zip broke almost immediately.  But the maximuscle bag is great, it's actually quite thick material, quite robust looking too.  There are quite a few pockets too so it means I'll be able to keep my phone separate from my gym membership card as the magnetic strip in my blackberry case seems to wipe it!!  Also does that to paper train tickets, most annoying!!  It's got a small, but reasonably sized pocket at the front for important things like lip balm and earphone, then a larger pocket for my weight gloves, energy gels/tabs/bars and Workout Wallet and then a separate phone pocket on the front and a window for a pass/card (although mine looked like it'd fall out so I've put it in the zip-up one instead.

can't wait to take it to the gym

what a poser eh?! hehe ;-)