Wintry Richmond and Alexander McQueen

Today was a wondrous winter's day in Richmond and another occasion where I felt like I had walked into a Dickension novel.  We were up and out early for a walk around Richmond Park after I completed my morning workout tabata training (11 minutes of mountain climbers, 20 seconds on 40 seconds off).  Below is the view of Richmond Gardens opposite my flat. It looked beautiful and was so nice to see families sledging down the hill, it always makes me feel so lucky that I live here.

After the walk, I was starving but it was only 10.00 am and I had to wait until half 11 for my first feed so I threw on a Pashmina and headed down the hill to see if I could try on the Alexander McQueen coat that I had been eyeing up in the window of Vintage Rose for the past two weeks...

I am wearing: Tesco headband / HnM Snood / Pasmina from John Lewis / Lusso London Cashmere gloves / Armani exchange leather and cotton trousers / Ash biker boots / Topshop jumper and Longchamp handbag.

       

Alas it fitted and what's more they knocked a further £25 off for me, making it a steal compared to what it should have been full price! The pictures of it are above, I cannot wait to wear it out!!

I then headed over to Hampton Wick near Kingston to get my nails done and immediately felt a lot better for it.  There is nothing worse than having chipped nail varnish, especially when it's gel and you just want to peel it off (something my manicurist told me off for, oops!)

OPI GEL, You don't know Jacques

I have really struggled to avoid caffeine today.  It's so cold, exactly the sort of afternoon for coffee and a cake! I've had to really push through and stick with the peppermint tea when all I really want to do is head to a coffee shop and have a big mug of coffee and a piece of chocolate cake!!  I did weigh myself this morning though (which is apparently not allowed, so my scales have now had the battery taken out of them by my husband) and I am 3lbs down in 5 days which is a great incentive to push through! Just another half a stone to go until I'm back at my wedding weight!!

I am going to have a power nap now to stave off the hunger pains before doing the second workout and having dinner followed by a movie off sky box office...detoxing is so not rock 'n' roll!

Bracing myself for the weekend!

Woohoo! I have made it through 5 (pretty stressful) days at work on the detox plan and this weekend is the first big test.  After the week I've had the first thing I would normally do is crack open a bottle of red or some of the fizzy stuff and go out for dinner but not tonight!!

I'm tired, achy and in a bit of a grump at the moment (having to abstain from alcohol when I know everyone else is in the pub!) but I am also proud that I have completed 5 days and I am digging my heels in to push through.  Not even the fact that I had psyched myself up to buy the Alexander McQueen coat in the window of the vintage shop on my street and it was shut due to snow can tempt me to fall off the wagon.  Besides, there's always tomorrow!

If this coat is in my size I am treating myself to it tomorrow morning (The McQueen on the right, not the Chanel!)

So tonight, I'm going to have a nice bath and relax and enjoy the fact that tomorrow I don't have to set my alarm for 5.30! In fact, I am going to set it for 8,30 and then head to the gym before going to get my nails done with a friend. I cannot wait!

The view from the School Terrace at 11.00 am 

After a full eight hours of snow, I donned my hunter wellies and trekked home along the river.  I could really feel my calves as I walked up Richmond Hill for the last stretch home but school to my house is exactly 40 minutes which fitted in nicely with the 40 minute of low intensity exercise as instructed on the plan.

Here's to a weekend of self-discipline and strong resolve!!

Day Three...First Wobble!

I am now 3 days into the detox and today I've had my first test of resilience.  The first two days I have breezed through it, the food has not left me hungry and I have not been too tempted by coffee and 'naughty' foods because I have locked myself away in my classroom and avoided the canteen and coffee shop.  This morning I awoke with some muscle aches but nothing on the scale of when I've had PT sessions and it's taken me three days to be able to sit down.

This afternoon however, I had a particularly stressful time at work and this is where I really could have been persuaded to join some of my colleagues in the pub for a couple of jars.  Instead, I got the husband to pick me up and take me to Waitrose to stock up...although having to follow him around the bread/bagel/cheese aisles whilst he got himself some food in was torture and by the time I got home I felt quite faint.  I pushed through though and the protein shake helped me through the particularly arduous tabata training.  Doing 20 secs on 10 seconds off of burpees/tricep dips and low raised planks/jumping squats for eight minutes does not sound like a long, hard workout but believe me by the end of it my thighs were sore!

For dinner I had a load of stirfry veg (pak choi/broccoli/green beans/chilli) with prawns and smoked mackeral.  I cooked it in coconut oil with garlic and ginger and it was not only really tasty but filling as well.  So now I feel satisfied and ready to sleep in preparation for the 17 hour fast I am about to encounter.  By midday tomorrow I will probably be pretty hungry, I just hope I have enough energy to push me through seeing 40 sets of parents in 3.5 hours at parents evening tomorrow night!

I have a feeling that over the next few days the intensity of the programme is about to ramp up and things will go from erring on the side of pleasant to hardly bearable.  I hope I have the mental strength to handle it on top of the stress I have at work, but as I've said before this is as much a mental challenge for me as it is about losing weight and I need to prove to myself I can do it! 

Day 1

I have made it through my first day of the detox.

Despite being woken up twice during the night by a resident of Richmond Hill's car alarm going off (it sounded like someone was blowing a horn in my ear, my whole room was shaking!), I was up at 05.45 to start the detox routine.

I started the day with some Glutamine in water followed by some more water with some Bicarbonate of Soda in water.  I packed up my bag with everything I needed and headed to the gym to do the heavier of the two daily workouts.  Then it was off to work for a long 12 hour day.

For breakfast I had 2 boiled eggs, smoked salmon, a bit of avocado, watercress rocket and spinach salad and some quinoa.  A strange concoction I know but I had to have the palm full of carbs after the weights workout and this is what I had prepared.

As caffeine is banned on the plan I had a liquorice tea at breaktime.  I'm hoping it is a grower as I was not overly keen but I was more than happy replacing my afternoon coffee fix with a peppermint tea.  For lunch I had trout fillet salad which was tasty and I did not feel hungry at any point in the day which was a bonus.

The hardest part of the day was between 16:00 - 19:00 where I was struggling to sit through a long winded CPD session (my attention span is like a gnat at the best of times) and to top it all I had a banging headache. It also did not help that everyone around me were scoffing home-made brownies the school chef had made to ease the pain of a three hour training session after a long day!

I headed home at 19:30 and got straight into the other workout of the day which involved 7 rounds of burpee intervals.  I pushed myself to not fall under 10 burpees in 30 seconds and felt pretty tired by the end!

For dinner I had salmon with broccoli and kale.  

I've actually found the food quite tasty and I had a handful of almonds during the training session which I think I really ate more as a psychological need than a physical one.  The thing I struggled most with was not having a coffee and a brownie during the meeting but I took out my 'thinspiration' photo on my phone and used it to stem off any temptation!

I am now absolutely shattered and I am just waiting for the dishwasher to finish so that I can repack up all my lunch boxes and have clean protein shakers ready for Day 2.

I'm hoping the headaches will subside in the couple of days once the caffeine and sugar have left my body and I am sure that my muscles will ache a little in the morning!!

The Night Before!

Tomorrow is Day 1 of my long anticipated 19 Day Detox.  I have taken my measurements and my 'before' photos and weighed myself (something which has reminded me as to why it is I am doing this!) and I have enjoyed my last weekend with friends up in Liverpool before locking myself away and becoming a social recluse for 3 weeks.  By coincidence, I am back up in Liverpool in 3 weeks time and so will be able to celebrate my sobriety and dedication to the cause whilst hopefully looking and feeling a lot healthier than I do at this present moment in time.

A lot of people fail to understand why I am doing this 19 detox and have brushed it off as silly, stupid and pointless but, having followed Mark Raynsford both on his blog and on Twitter for the past 2 years, I am confident in my choice at participating and don't feel that it will be a waste of my money.

I have eagerly devoured the reading Mark has sent in preparation of the 19 days and I am aware that it is not going to be a walk in the park.  As well as twice daily workouts, the programme cuts out sugar, wheat, pasta, glucose, dairy and processed foods.  It also involves periods of fasting, which some people have raised eyebrow at but, having read some of the science behind it and, because I am following it within a programme devised by a professional, I feel that that there is justification and sense behind it.

A bag of cooked quinoa ready to serve with my food on 'feeds' when I am allowed some carbohydrates.

The reason this 19 Day Body has appealed to me is not just because I want to lose some weight.  It is true that I am currently weighing 10lbs heavier than when I moved to London 5 months ago and I would like to get this off quickly so that I can pick up where I left off with my health and fitness regime before the upheaval of the last few months.  I am settled into my new job and lifestyle now and have found a routine which will allow me to maintain my weight once I have lost those extra pounds. 

There is another reason that I have been attracted to the 19 Day Body Programme though and that is to change my attitiude and views towards eating.  I am capable of eating healthy and I am quite educated when it comes to food and nutrition as I was bought up by a health obsessive who controls their diet strictly (my Mother) but I have always used food as a psychological dependency.  I do not smoke or take drugs but I am addicted to food.  I spend way too much time thinking about eating and use it to control my moods and feelings.  I eat when I am not hungry and I eat whatever is infront of me.  It is this which I am hoping to address by participating in this detox.  I am hoping to reprogramme my mind to have a more sensible approach to what and when I eat.  I am hoping that by doing this I can maybe drop a few extra pounds once the programme has finished. 

Trout and Salmon with garlic and chilli ready for the next couple of days.

I am not going to lie, I am quite nervous about what lies ahead.  The exercise is not a problem, I workout regularly in the same way that the workouts are focused in this programme (interval training and circuits, kettlebells, hand weights, squats, lunges etc. are all already incorporated into my workout routines).  I am nervous about trying to find the time to fit in the two daily workouts, especially as I have to be in work by 8.00 am and I have an INSET and Parents Evening this week which both go on until 7.30 so it is going to be a long week in that sense.  I am nervous about my willpower, I really don't want to fail this and I put a lot of pressure on myself with things like this which can often have a negative psychological effect on me.



Nuts to snack on


 

I am also a little nervous about being able to resist the alcohol.  I am not someone who needs a drink but I do enjoy it and, although I don't always drink on every social occasion (and I have cleared my diary of those for the next 19 days anyway), I think 19 days is probably the longest I will have gone without a drink since I was 15 (I don't know what that says about me)!!!

I cannot promise I will have the time to update everyday but I hope that you will follow me on this journey, I am interested to see where it will lead but I am confident I have some exciting (and probably horrific) times ahead!