My current fitness

It's been a while since I last posted, life has got in the way, I'm currently doing my level 4 in fitness so I'll be qualified in every area when I finally finish, currently focusing on the nutrition side before moving in to the classes! Also I'm working between 16 and 35 hours a week have the two munchkins and trying to fit in going to the gym as well..

At work we're in the process of a change over from virgin active to David Lloyd, I'm hoping this is a good change and means I can get back on track to working my way to being fitness manager again and hopefully means more classes for me to get trained in.

My fitness plan was Jamie Eason live fit but yet again I get to a certain point and then struggle to do it because my gyms not really built for it so I spend my entire time running around the gym to use all the equipment so I have gone back to just doing different workouts and that works for me at this present moment.

Yesterday I did glutes and left the gym a sweating meas, it was a killer of a workout yet written down looks so simple.. today I am doing a Dana linn Bailey shoulder workout so I'm sure I won't be moving after today, I am doing some cardio not much, I need to build the muscles that I do have before I can strip them of the fat or there really isn't much point.

My goal is just to be as strong as I can possibly push myself, I do wonder if I could train my body up to bikini level on my own but I get bored and I do like to eat the foods that I like without restriction, my diet is 80/20 and that prob means Ill never be as lean as I possibly can be but I am happy with that because it's only me I'm in competition with.

Here I am not the leanest but the strongest I've ever been, can do monkey bars and loads of unassisted pull ups- winner

Jamie Eason pumpkin protein bars

i have been looking to make some clean healthy protein bars and found on good old Pinterest Jamie Eason pumpkin protein bars so this morning I decided to make them

The ingredients which i adapteded slightly:
2 cups of oat flour which I made by grounding oats up in the food processor
1/2 cup of coconut sugar the original recipe is birch sugar
1 can of pumpkin
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup almond milk
4oz of apple sauce
1tsp baking powder
1tsp of baking soda
2 scoops of protein powder
4 egg whites however I have used 2 whole eggs

Pre heat oven to 350 or 170 degrees
Spray a baking dish
Mix all the ingredients together
Pour into baking dish
Bake for 25-30 minutes
Cut into 24 slices

Spanish stew

Spanish stew

Peppers

Onions

Spinach

Tim tomatoes x2

Red lentils

Chick peas

Morocan spice

Apricots

Quinoa

Fish fillets

Cook onions and peppers and spinach

Meanwhile cook chickpeas till they are soft

Add in tin tomatoes and morocan spice and red lentils and quinoa to the onions and peppers

Once the chick peas are cooked add them to the pan, along with apricots and the fish, cook till fish is cooked which takes a few minutes

Chicken fajitas

Oven baked fajitas

-peppers

-onions

-diced chicken breast

-fajita spice

Pre heat oven to 180

Put peppers and onions in the pan

Put diced chicken on top

Sprinkle with fajita spice and give it a mix

Bake in oven for 25 mins till chicken has cooked

Meal prep Sunday's

If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail, if you set one day or one afternoon to prepping your food for the week you will find you stay on plan!

If you can get a slow cooker and a big pan then all you have to do is pop it all in the pan and make big batches of meals.

My favourite meals to batch cook is:

Bolognese 

Curry

Lasagne

Chilli

Fajitas

Risotto 

Spanish stew

You can buy slow cooker books and as long as you have basic ingredients in the cupboard then you are all set for prepping clean healthy foods for you and your family 

Almond butter blondies

Almond butter blondies

 

Ingredients

80 ml coconut oil 1/3 cup

195 almond butter 3/4 cups

2 eggs

185 ml maple syrup 3/4 cups

240g ground almonds 2 cups

1tsp baking powder

75g chocolate chips

Method

Preheat oven to 180

Cream the coconut oil and almond butter together

Combine the baking powder and ground almonds together 

Mix with the wet ingredients

Fold in the chocolate chips

Place on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes

Leave to cool for 10 minutes then cut in to slices 

Lemon and coconut bliss balls

Lemon and coconut bliss balls

 

Here is a healthy snack that takes no time at all to make, filled with healthy fats which is essential for hormones, skin and hair

Ingredients

2 cups shredded coconut

1/2 cup almonds

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

2tbs coconut oil

2-3 tbs honey or maple syrup

Method

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend together for 1 minute

Then roll the mixture into little balls

Roll in extra coconut

Place in fridge until firm

Optimum nutrition

I will do a review in the proteins that I try, the one I am trying at the moment is optimum nutrition cookies and cream

I did a lot of research before hand to see how much carbs protein and fat was in the protein, read reviews on the product and decided to go and buy it

There was a few deals on this type of product which helped sway me as protein can be very expensive and sometimes not worth the money you spend

The smell: this protein smells nice you can smell the chocolate when you open the lid off the tub, some of the proteins have a weird smell which can be off putting

The mix: I normally just mix mine with water or have it in my porridge in the mornings, this protein mixed so well it didn't clump, it mixed really easily, prob the best mixing protein shake I have tried

The taste: it taste of cookies and it even leaves some chocolate chips, in the no rings it transforms my porridge and gives me that chocolate kick that I need as I have such a sweet tooth first thing in the morning, it taste nice with water and mix it with milk and you have a milkshake!

Nutritional value: 113kcal, 1.1g of fat, 1.8g of carbs 1.2 of that is sugars, 24g of protein which is one of the highest ones

Rating: 9 out of 10 and I look forward to trying the other flavours to see which one I prefer

I fully recommend this to everyone.. 

Tips, tricks magic pills for loosing weight

You have probably clicked this and thought she's going to give us tips on how to loose weight tricks and lists of magic potions

However you would be very much mistaken there is no magic pills, no tricks and no easy way to loose weight

The way to loose weight is to burn off more than you eat, I don't mean eat 1000 calories and run for miles because that is just stupid, no I mean eat properly, healthy whole foods, do a mixture of strength and cardio and to make sure you are in calorie deficit but not much as you only want to be loosing 1-2lb per week depending how much you have to loose..

Drink plenty of water to help clean your system, speed metabolism up and to make sure you are actually hungry when you think you are

There is no quick fix, it will take you a while to get where you want to be but never give up, keep on going, take your measurements, take pictures and that way if the scale starts to fail you hopefully your over measurements will help you..

Trust the process, things don't happen over night and of course things will go stale, but that's when you need to kick start your body, change your eating habits, change your exercises.. Take a day off and eat what you want and then get back on it, as long as you don't stop because it hasn't happened as quickly as you think it will

  This saying is very true, there are no shortcuts to anything in life, no magic shake, no magic pill, it will be tough, you will have set backs, but the reward of a healthy you is priceless, and more rewarding than anything. 

Go on Amazon and Pinterest and look up clean eating, healthy foods, go shopping and buy fruit, veg, and lean meats and fish or lentils and pulses if a non meat eater, cook from scratch, take it one step at a time, make it a lifestyle change rather than see it as a diet, get the whole family involved, walk places.. 

Small changes will make the biggest difference, find your weekends and turne it into your strength, rather than sit on the sofa and snack on crisps or chocolate whilst watching tv, go for a run, get an exercise bike and cycle at home, or get some new cook books and read them and start meal planning.

Acceptance

After seeing a post from someone I follow on social media, who is a PT and down to earth person, she posted about accepting her body, to you and me her body looks bloody amazing but she has flaws like the rest of us, and it has made me do this post..

I am short only 5'2, I am slim, I have stretch marks, I have small boobs, I have no figure I am straight up and down, it has taken me two hard years to slowly start building a bum as I am blessed with a pancake bum.. I hate my stretch marks, they are in my thighs, bum and hips, luckily my stoa,ch never stretched much during pregnancy so I missed out on them, however I have a scar on my stomach from an op as a baby that is still very visible and makes my stomach uneven. 

Once upon a time I would of covered up, scared very one was looking at me and judging me for having stretch marks, but over time I have slowly accepted they are part of me, and on holiday everyone is doing exactly the same as me and worrying the next person is looking at them.. 

I feel more confident in my skin now I have children then I have ever done, my body has carried two babies, grown them nourished them and gave birth to them, now you can't beat that.. Will I ever see those people on holiday again? No will they see me? No so why worry..

We live in a world where social media means we need to be tall slim with big boobs and nice figure, but that's not reality, reality is stretch marks, loose skin etc... 

You really need to accept who you are, everyone's genetic makeup is different so not everyone will have a rippling 6 pack, perfect bum etc, once we start to accept us as we are, that is when we can really start to appreciate things we like about our bodies or about us.

Health is not a six pack, health is eating healthy whole foods, being able to get up every day and do every day things, go to the gym lift heavy weights, play at the park with your children/grand children, health is not how we look aesthetically but inside and having balanced hormones.

So we all need to look in the mirror and look at ourselves, stop looking at the person on social media who may have photoshopped the pic, or who is flexing or may not even be happy with themselves, and start concentrating on ourselves, for all we know those people on social media are looking at you and wishing they had what you have, be it your family, your lust for life, your legs etc.. We will always compare our selves, because we are human but once you accept you for you you will find happiness in your self.