Tinder

Dates, diets & dumbbells

~ lorz83 ~ 2 Comments

Perhaps you thought Phil had killed me off on the 1st of April given I’ve not written a post since the end of March – Well he hasn’t and I am very much here, alive and shuffling.

So what have I been up to in the 2 weeks since I wrote my last post. As you may remember a month or so ago I told you that I’d been asked to write some posts starting in April, the first of which you may have read yesterday. For the next 11 weeks I along with 9 others will be attending Newbury Nuffields Summer Healthy Weight Programme and I will be blogging about it so people can follow my progress and get some insight into what the course is all about. Unlike Weight Watchers where you count points or Slimming World where you have different coloured days and syns the HWP looks more at eating clean (makes me think of The Body Coach Joe Wicks and him saying “Midget Trees”) and making the right choices for each individual. We’re all different, we all break food down in different ways, this may be due to conditions or illnesses, lifestyle, age, intolerances any number of factors and so this course will educate us and help us find what works for us (and what doesn’t) and make the right choices. So Kim the Kiwi (I think I may start calling her Kimwi – What do you think Kim?) is going to help us with the foodie side of things. We all have to complete a food diary, whereby honesty is the best policy, which Kim will look at and advise if she believes changes can be made. She will also be providing us with recipes, she made some delicious protein bars for Thursdays introduction session (she was coming across a little like a feeder though so we may need watch out for that). Then there’s Helen who looks after the fitness side of the programme, so while Kim looks at what we put in our bodies, Helen looks at the output we can achieve from the food we’ve eaten to fuel our bodies and puts us through our paces to burn as much energy as possible. And she certainly had me burnt out Thursday evening – I was knackered! I believe there are still spaces on this current course if any of you are interested or perhaps after you’ve read my weekly posts you’d like to join the next round; contact Nuffield on 01635 899255 for more info.

My dates with Gym have been a little lacking lately, but the visits I have made I’ve tried to really work my Kim K off. In my last post I said how I was having my PT session on the Friday due to the Easter break, well I did go to the gym and I did see Phil however neither of us were really in the ‘zone’ so I spent the hour on the exercise bike and Phil sat with me and we just had a good old gossip – The perfect work out for me. Monday it was back to normal and PT straight after work. After Fridays skive, Phil had told me I needed to bring my ‘A Game’ to the gym for PT, well I think I went to the session at more of a B, possibly a B+ Game; Phil wasn’t standing for this and pushed me hard on the Wattbike and by the end of the workout I was at an A-, perhaps an A and he was relatively pleased with my efforts. On the Friday as part of the HWP I had a session with Steve (yes, I’m becoming a bit of a Personal Trainer hussy it would seem) who again put me through my paces on the Wattbike and then the Lateral Trainer. Its good to mix things up a little and work with other people as we all do things our own way. Phil did keep a beady eye on me whilst I was working out with Steve; this went against me on Monday when he really cranked my programme up a gear as apparently he’d seen how hard I was working for Steve so thought he could push me harder. Ouch! That’s all I can say. My legs have never felt so heavy and stiff in all my life, walking was the hardest task EVER! They still felt like lead Thursday evening when Helen had us doing circuits!

I told you last time that I’d been ‘playing’ Tinder and you may also recall that I went on a date at the end of February and I hadn’t ruled out seeing him again. Well I have seen him again, I saw him Wednesday before last and again yesterday evening. I’m not 100% certain there’s a spark there but we do get on well so who knows where it will go. I also went on a date last Sunday evening with a cute Italian (gorgeous accent and a designer wardrobe to make any girl jealous) and had a really nice time, so hopefully I’ll be seeing him again soon; watch this space.

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Well that should have you all caught up with what’s going on in the world of Me. PT tomorrow and week 2 of HWP on Thursday, with a gym and sister visit in between and perhaps a date who knows. Oh and its now only 9 weeks until I’ll be saying Ciao Firenze – So excited!

L x

Gym, Gin & The Game of Life

~ lorz83 ~ Leave a comment

Welcome to my blog!

Hi! I’m Laura, 32 and single.  At the end of last year I decided that 2016 is going to be the year I learn to love myself, one step towards achieving this was going to the gym so I thought I’d journal the highs and lows of ‘Mission Love Me’
I’ve never really written in a diary, I think the last time I did Bridget Jones was on at the cinema, so I would have been around 18 (jeez that was a long time ago!) Unlike Miss Jones my tipple is Gin (and of course wine) so it only seemed fitting that it features in my blogs title “Gym, Gin & Game of Life”

Like most girls I have continuous battles with my weight and size, which is emotionally exhausting – hence why the gym often feels like such an effort and chore.  I rejoined the gym back in 2014 and I religiously went 4 or 5 times a week for a good few months; then of course something pops up, a holiday or a cold and before I knew it I wasn’t going, I’d fallen off the wagon.  My membership continued and I would go through phases of being a gym bunny to not even knowing where my trainers were collecting dust!  In September I decided things had to change and in order to become a ‘Bad Ass with a Good Ass’ I got myself a Personal Trainer – Eek!!

I had my 14th PT session on Monday and I swear each week he is trying to kill me!  My personal trainer is Phil – I used to work with him (obviously not in a gym) before he became a trainer.  I’m not sure if Phil being a friend is a good thing or a bad thing; does he push me harder or is he a little softer on me?!?  With an array of different coloured kettlebells at various weights, TRX ropes, step boxes our sessions go something like this:

Phil: Are you warmed up? Right I’m going to push you really hard tonight.  Me: Eugh!! Phil: Right you’re going to do 10 x deadlifts then 10 x squats followed by 10 x blah blah blah (that’s what I hear at least) Me: Oh I hate these. Me: These are the worst. Me: Hideous! Me: Seriously this is the worst week!

It’s no wonder I feel like he’s killing me – I’d want to kill me after all my moaning, wincing and whinging.  I think Phil might actually be a Saint and I’m really thankful to him for putting up with me.  At the end of each session we head over to the mats (best part of the hour workout) and he always tells me I’ve done really well.  I always think he’s lying, but as friends and family have begun telling me the gym is paying off, perhaps I should start believing them all.

So that’s the ‘gym’ covered in brief.  ‘Gin’ is gin and doesn’t really need much of an explanation.  It’s my tipple of choice these days, an acquired taste that my palate only became accustomed to at the age of 28/29.  Which just leaves ‘Game of Life’ which again doesn’t really need explaining – My view is that life, especially ones love life is somewhat a game.  Take dating as an example, or should I say the search for a date.  Shamefully I have Tinder and POF installed on my phone, classed as dating apps but really should be listed as games.  Swipe left, swipe right….Snap! Oh I mean ‘It’s a match’  Often that’s as far as the game gets and its ‘Game Over’ before any things happened, sometimes however things progress and the game commences and you work your way through the levels; this will for sure be a topic I cover frequently on this blog…..so until I type again, thank you for reading my first ever post.

L x