February in Pictures

1. Girls' Night at the Full Monty

The Full Monty show is a doing a UK tour at the moment, and arrived at our local theatre last week. The girls from work and I have had tickets for ages, and we've been all been looking forward to it. I was a bit unsure about what to expect from the night. I've seen the film, but wasn't quite sure how the show would come across. It was far better than I'd ever imagined. Definitely a good show for a girls' night out.

2. Broadchurch

The first series of Broadchurch was amazing, I was addicted to every episode. I wasn't quite sure how the second series would follow on from such a dramatic ending, but it was brilliant. I'm now excited for series 3.

3. Post Exam Haul

I passed my exam! Therefore I needed a celebratory shopping trip. Read about my haul here.

4. Starbucks

This month was a time for treats. Starbucks to celebrate my last day of college and to calm pre-exam nerves.

5. I ran 3k!

This may not seem impressive to some people, but I don't know if I've ever ran 3k before. I'm building up to 5k and should hopefully manage it within a few weeks.

Sarah x

Weigh in - 28th April

I am very pleased to announce, another 1.2 lbs loss this week. I'm now pretty much back where I started at the beginning of the month, but I'm not going to complain because that extra weight I ate from feeling sorry for myself is now gone and I'm looking to the future and not backwards.

I was back at dancing last week, training hard for our performance. It's amazing how much progress the ab challenge has helped me make at class. Our core ab exercises are a lot easier now than they were in January and it's definitely helping with my technique. I've still got a long way to go though, but thankfully I'm feeling quite motivated.

After coming up with 101 reasons why not to go to the gym on Thursday, I talked myself into going and managed a 20 min cardio workout and some leg presses. My head wasn't in it so I didn't fully achieve what I should have done but an 8 min run non-stop was good. I'm getting closer to that 10 min run, it's just taking longer than I'd hoped for. (I'm still not falling in love with running).

I'm now in the 4 week lead up to my exam which means there's going to be less working out for the next few weeks and more studying. I'm still going to aim to dance once a week, and one gym session but work has to take priority for a while. My weakness is going to be snacking. I like to eat whilst I study and I normally just grab chocolate/biscuits/cakes etc, but I'm going to keep my goal in my mind throughout and opt for the fruit option as best I can. I'm determined this study session wont put weight on my, if I have to I'll maintain but I'm still going for a loss.

I now have only 2 more days to go on my 30 day challenges. I'll take the last progress pictures on Thursday morning and when I do my monthly round up we'll all be able to judge if there's a difference in the photographs.

Happy Monday everyone!

100 Happy Days...Day 63

Having a lightbulb moment. In preparation for my exam I've been studying today and finally had that 'ding' moment when calculating NPVs on projects, including tax & interest rates. The concept behind it is all finally making sense, and I'm actually kind of excited to do some more. Yes I know it's not the most exciting topic but as an accountant, I'm allowed to get excited over such things.

Weigh in - 14th April

Unsurprisingly, the scales went up 1.4lbs this morning. To be honest, I'm surprised it wasn't more after my lack of cardio and over eating for the past two weeks. Anyway, today is the start of a new week, and back to being good.

I'm making the effort to cut back on the amount of diet coke I'm drinking, trying to stick to water instead to get my 8 glasses a day and if I feel the need to drink diet coke then it'll be only 1 can a day maximum. So far so good, I've managed 6 glasses today and no diet coke. My weakness will be when the weekend, but I'll worry about that when I get there.

Back to the gym tonight and I was pleased to see it was relatively quiet again. I got back into my little routine and did 10 mins on the bike, not as high resistance as I had been doing previously but a good steady pace, followed by 12 mins on the bike (8 of which I ran), and 10 minutes rowing. My pace was much quicker on the rowing today, I averaged 36 strokes per minute rather than 33.

I'm quite impressed I've managed to improve on my routine from the last time I was there. The week or so off has obviously done me good, and I'm assuming the 30 day challenges have helped me a bit.

Day 14 of the challenge got completed today. Cannot believe at the start of it I could barely manage 10 proper situps and I've just done 65. The challenge is proving to be difficult, I really do push myself through it all, but I just keep thinking it's going to be worth it at the end of day 30. Only 16 more days to go.

100 Happy Days - Day 49

Blue skies. Getting up to blue skies, going to work in blue skies, leaving work in blue skies and arriving home in blue skies definitely makes the day feel better. I'm a tad jealous that one of my friends is enjoying the blue skies of Marbella right now whilst I'm stuck in the UK working, but at least I have my own skies to cheer me up. Fingers crossed we keep this weather for the weekend.

Weigh in - 24th March 2014

So after a rubbish few weeks the scales finally went down again this morning. Total loss so far of 5.4lbs. I'm getting there...slowly.

Last week went pretty well, two hard gym sessions, dancing and nightly stretching meant by Thursday I was struggling to walk. But it's all going to be worth it. Having my dance show to aim for is definitely keeping me motivated, I've never wanted to look good or be good at it as much as I do now.

Having today off work as I was at college yesterday has ruined my Monday workout but I'm sure tomorrow's day at work will definitely put me in the mood for a hard work out. Gonna try and run for 7 mins this week, see if I can control my breathing enough to manage it.

I reassessed my calorie intake earlier using IIFYM to work out my TDEE. Even with my weight loss I'm still working towards a limit that will let me loose weight slowly so for now, I'm going to continue as I am. Just going to push myself a bit harder each time I go to the gym and get back into doing some weights, I've been skipping those too much recently.

100 Happy Days...Day 28 - Doing my bit for charity

Over the past week or so a lot of people having being doing their bit for charity by posting their No Makeup Selfies on facebook/Instagram/twitter, raising awareness for Cancer research and donating to a very good cause. In the past 2 years I've watched my Uncle, my Grandad, my boyfriend's Mum and my Auntie all be diagnosed with cancer and fight with the illness. We were lucky as they all managed to fight & win, others aren't so lucky. So here it is, my no makeup selfie and donation to a good cause.

 

Weigh in - 17th March

After my weekend of celebrating and drinking I'm not surprised the scales didn't drop again this morning...but at least they aren't going up!

Last week was good up until I started the birthday celebrations. I did my little gym routine on Monday and Tuesday, and then dancing again on Wednesday. I'd planned on a third gym session on Thursday but that never came about.

Dancing on Wednesday was great fun, as always. I much prefer being in the studio to being in the gym but unfortunately that isn't an option. As I said the other day, I found out I was going to be in a dance show at the end of June which has motivated me more to work a bit harder and stretch more.

I've been good today and declined an offer to go out for food tonight and went to the gym instead. And before bed I will be doing some stretches with my theraband. I'm determined this week is going to be a very good week. Gym again tomorrow night, dancing on Wednesday, gym Thursday and then on Friday I will resist ordering takeaway with my boyfriend and will make us something nice and healthy instead. I might even be very dedicated and go to the gym on Sunday after college...let's see how I get on.

On my run today I managed to get up to 6 mins non-stop, another little step forward towards my 10 min target. I still don't particularly enjoy running but it was nice to know that is probably the longest I've run in one period for a very long time. If only I could control my breathing better and then maybe I'd find the run a bit easier.

I don't quite know why but I really struggle with breathing when I'm running. I do my best to try and control how I breath and when but that seems to make it worse...the more I think about it the worse it gets. I also struggle with breathing when I'm stretching...to the point my boyfriend and dance teacher have both had to shout at me and remind me to breath because I just seem to forget. Strange, I know, but it happens. So if anyone has any tips on breathing whilst exercising please let me know, I'd really appreciate it.

Anyway, theraband time!

100 Happy Days - Day 21 - My doggy

My little doggy is almost 17 years old and may be really struggling at times, but she can still have her half hours of madness and make me smile. After a mad little dash around the house tonight she cuddled up next to my seat wanting an ear scratch and a belly rub...such a therapeutic thing for both me and her. Love you Gemma.