A week of workouts!

Ahh the weekend is over and the daily grind begins. Even for me, being unemployed. Cooking, cleaning, washing, ironing... thats a full time job in itself! And so is job hunting.

Last weeks workouts were pretty good, but i need to do more abs! I feel this week will be even better and i'm going to focus on doing abs as much as possible!

March 5th – March 11th, 2012.

Mon – Off.

Tues – Week 3 session 2 of 10k training plan!  

tone it up's slim arms workout! 

Lindsay's all star abs workout x2!

Wed - Off.

Thurs - Jillians Michaels 30 day shred level 1, 

Davina Fit DVD; aerobic fit section.

Fri - 2.5 mile jog (34 mins)

Sat - Off

Sun - 2.32 mile run in 24:39!

Tuesday was good and i felt strong, the 6 minutes jogging was 'easy' for me but i needed the 3 minutes rest. The arm workout was also hard! I felt it the next day but it means its doing good!

On Thursday, i had been super lazy and knew i had to do some kind of workout. I wanted a bit of everything so i decided on Jillian's 30 day shred! Cardio, strength and abs, perfect! I did level 1, but then my energy appeared and i wanted something more. 

I followed it with Davina FIT, the aerobic section. THAT WAS HARD! I was sweating like a b!tch, it wasn't attractive but it did feel good!  

Friday was an easy jog, i felt that was pretty 'easy' so was excited for yesterdays run!

Yesterday i really wanted to push myself. I ran all 2.32 miles without stopping at an average pace of 10:39 min/mile. I was so happy that i did it and nearly gave up so many times! It was definitely mental yesterday, i kept telling myself i couldn't do it! But i did do it, as hard as it was! I wanted to do 2.5 miles but didn't manage that. I don't feel too disappointed though because i know i did all that i could and really pushed myself!

Tonight, i might try and do some kind of circuit workout! I've found a few on some blogs that i've bookmarked!  

What workouts have you done this week?

Sport relief mile & Kony 2012!!

Tuesday night we signed up to do the Sport relief mile! We chose to do the 3 miles/5k in preparation for our 10k and i'm super excited! It's the 25th March at 11:30am, so we best keep on training ;)

Speaking of training, on Tuesday night we did Week 3 session 2 of our training plan! I had been sleepy alll day and even had a nap on the sofa, i really wasn't in the mood to go running but Warren was adamant we were going! I got ready and started running and amazingly, it felt so good! I felt i had loads of energy and went faster than i normally do. I left Warren behind! It felt amazing to feel strong and full of energy, when we got back we did 3 sets of tone it up's slim arms workout and then i did 2 sets of Lindsays all star abs workout! Phew! What a workout!

  Yesterday, i got up and had the urge to bake. I wasn't particularly hungry when i got up, so thought i would bake for breakfast, giving my appetite a chance to come back.

Baked banana bread.

3/4 cup of oats,

1/2 cup of soya milk,

3/4 cup of water,

2 egg whites,

pinch of cinnamon,

1 chopped banana,

1/8 tsp baking powder,

Sprinkling of wholemeal flour.

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius.

2. Mix all ingredients except the sprinkling of flour into a tin. I used a 20cm square tin.

3. When all ingredients are mixed together, sprinkle the oats on top.

4. Place in oven for 20-25 minutes or until slightly golden brown.

Serve warm.

I served mine with my go-to peanut butter sauce; 1 tbsp peanut butter, 1 tbsp maple syrup and 1 tbsp water, put in microwave for 15/20 secs and mix.

After my breakfast, i headed down to my mums for the day to spend some time with her, it was a nice change to being bored at home! Not having a job is REALLY getting me down, but i'm trying to stay positive. 

I got home about an hour before Warren was home from work, as soon as he got in he was straight on his phone watching the Kony 2012 video. Please watch this now if you haven't already.

I had seen it all over facebook but not bothered to watch it for some reason, excuse my ignorance! After he had watched it, he immediately made me watch it and then we jumped online to order the action kit.

We plan to wear our t-shirts and bracelets when we do our first 10k to try and raise more awareness and  get Kony arrested. Order yours NOW!

Creamy chicken and bacon pasta!!

I don't usually crave or order anything with a creamy sauce, mainly because i know they're mostly always loaded with calories and fat and way too creamy for my taste buds, i'm really not a fan of cream. However, cheese? I love cheese. and bacon.

Creamy Chicken & Bacon Pasta.

Serves 2.

Low cal/fat cooking spray,

1 onion, chopped,

2 cloves of garlic, crushed & chopped,

2 chicken breasts, chopped,

4-6 medallions of smoked bacon, chopped,

4tbsp lemon juice,

freshly ground black pepper,

3 heaped tablespoons of quark/low fat soft cheese,

30g wholewheat pasta.

1. Soften the onions and garlic with a few sprays of low cal cooking spray.

2. Fill a pan with water for the pasta and start it on a high heat to get it boiling.

3. Add your chopped chicken breasts and bacon to the onions and garlic to cook through.

4. While the chicken is cooking, add the pasta to the boiling water to start cooking.

5. Once the chicken & bacon is cooked through, add the lemon juice, black pepper and cheese to make a sauce and let it simmer until the pasta is done. 

6. TASTE! Add more cheese, lemon juice or black pepper if you think it needs it.

7. When the pasta is done, drain and mix with the delicious chicken.

8. E.A.T!

You can experiment with this recipe in terms of vegetables. I served mine with some slices of avocado on top, but next time i might try adding 1/2 of one to the sauce and maybe add some diced red pepper!

This recipe is healthy and not too creamy, the perfect dinner time dish!!

Chocolate covered strawberries and red velvet cupcakes!!

This weekend we took a road trip to London to stay with Warren's sister, Staci. She is currently at Uni up there so we go to visit every couple of months.  This time, Karen came with us (Warren & Staci's mum) so it was more of a sight seeing experience rather than drinking and dancing like normal. 

We traveled up Saturday morning after a nice early workout at 6am, don't laugh, but we did another training session for the 10k and managed to jog a whole mile! The drive up seemed longer to me than normal and i was restless after our run, i amused myself with taking some photos as we got into London city centre.

 Love this!!

As you can tell the weather wasn't that great! When we arrived we quickly met with everyone then made our way to the pub, Liverpool were playing Arsenal so we couldn't miss it! After a disappointing match, we ordered some food in the pub after finding a table, i was unaware we would be waiting 16 hours  50 minutes for our lunch, and so i just ordered a hunters chicken bloomer with a side salad, while everyone else ordered big proper pub grub! When it arrived i was starving and it didn't even touch the sides! I did nab some of Staci's chips but i was a little upset! Me & Hungry = hormonal mess! 

After lunch, Staci wanted to show us some of Greenwich so we went for a marathon walk! On the way we satisfied our sweet tooths with a visit to the ice cream van! I got a lemonade ice lolly and it was so refreshing after walking, delicious!  The early morning run, 5 blisters and major DOMS did not call for a very happy couple walking around Greenwich park! We tried our best not to moan but we were both in a lot of pain, the walk was worth it though, look at the view! 

After our exercise, we needed to refuel in the shape of some drinks! We visited the micro brewery for some drinks. 

Me and Staci both got the raspberry beer and i loved it! I've never drank alcohol so fast ;)

Warren got the London lager which he also really enjoyed! 

For dinner, we decided to go to 'Fistik' which Staci described as a posh kebab shop! It was lovely in there and the food was so good too! For starter i had king prawns in a garlic and chilli sauce.

That sauce was soo good, with warm bread to dip, the perfect starter!

For my main, i had what i had been craving since lunch, good old burger and chips! I got a side of sauteed spinach with chilli too which was very nice! After the meal, we headed to another pub just for a few drinks before heading home to bed after an exhausting day! 

Yesterday, we all had a lie in to recover and then after bacon and eggs, we got ready to head to Greenwich market!  I love markets and we certainly don't go enough! We also don't take enough photos when we're out but i'll try more i promise! The market was amazing and everything there was so unique. They had everything from food to clothes to baked goodies! 

We did pick up a few things, i got some coasters which i absolutely fell in love with, aren't they beautiful?!

Aswell as keep calm and carry on, Live, Love, Laugh is kind of my 'life motto' so i had to get these! They're made with 6 layers of wax so even if you spill coffee or red wine on them, it just wipes off!

We also got a few presents, one for Warren's Dad's Birthday which is soon and one for my mum, for mothers day.

After the market, we headed to another (!!!) pub to get some lunch. We all had roast dinners which is nothing to exciting, but me and Warren decided to get starters. We ordered the whitebait, we both thought the fish would be in batter/breadcrumbs and it came with paprika mayonnaise and salad, it sounds lovely right? 

To my suprise, i turned around and saw these staring at me..!

I jumped a litte bit and my heart was in my mouth. I do like fish but i was not expecting their eyes to be staring at me! I ate about half of them, they were nice but very fishy and i just had enough of a pile of fish heads on the side of my plate! (i refused to eat their brain & eyes!)

I immediately wanted a sweet ending to my roast dinner, so we headed back to the market because i had spied some chocolate covered strawberries i wanted to get! 

Dark, Milk and White belgian chocolate drizzled over juicy sweet strawberries.. need i say more? I was in HEAVEN!! 

We also picked up a red velvet cupcake for the journey home.

We had a great weekend, but so glad to be back! The london pace of life is definitely not for us country bumpkins! But lovely for a weekend away :)

Bikini body!!

It's getting to that point where the weather is getting warmer, (i didnt even need to wear a cardigan today) and everyone starts to stress out about their bodies! We all want to look good and be comfortable in summer to be able to enjoy it, so this is where we step.it.up!!

My boyfriend has also agreed he wants to start losing weight since we decided to run the 10k. We did our first session of training on Tuesday and it felt so good! I actually didn't hate jogging as much as i usually do! Maybe its because we have a goal?

We're going to record all our measurements and stick to our workout plan which will look something like this;

Mondays; Cardio - 10k training/jog & abs.

Tuesdays; Upper body.

Wednesdays; Cardio - 10k training/jog & abs.

Thursdays; Lower body. 

Fridays; 10k training/jog & abs.

Saturdays; Easy walk (2-3 miles) or Rest day.

Sundays; Rest day.

Of course, it may well change but we're going to try and stick it out. This week has been hard because of our run tuesday, neither of us are used to it so our muscles hurt aloooot! We were meant to run today but did a 3 mile walk and upper body instead. We are hoping to run tomorrow and sunday to make up for it!

At the moment i'm super excited, especially as Warren is on board too i feel like i can coach him and he'll be a good case study for me!

No cardigan on our walk, summer is near!