Thursday 8 November 2012

A Machine in the Making...

Hello!

Thanks to everyone you emailed/text (some of you who I don't even know) over the last 2/3 days wondering where my blog posts were!! Sorry I have been busy working, exercising and making life choices!

Overall, I have probably had the best week since I started this challenge - eating and exercise-wise! Here is the lowdown....

Weekend

To be honest the weekend was a bit of a non-event. Apart from a really short jog (it was cold and wet) on Saturday, I stayed in my PJs all weekend and watched an about five hundred episodes of Come Dine With Me, as well as The XFactor (both nights), The Xtra Factor (both nights) and The Xtra Factor - Best Bits. Promise, I don't have a problem!

Eating-wise, I did OK. I always try to get some red meat into me at the weekend, so I had my grilled steak and filled up on my salad. However, because both my siblings were home at the weekend, the fridge was full of grapes and orange juice - two weaknesses of mine. You may be thinking 'Big Wow Drama Queen - it's fruit.' However, I did over-consume. One must remember that both grapes and oranges are full of sugar. So while they are fine on moderation, a binge can be quite destructive. Grapes in particular have been tooted has being one fruit which is particularly high in sugar. 


I did have an extreme high at the weekend, however!!! I fitted into a dress which has not fitted me since I came back from Australia. I must say, there is plenty of room in it too!!!! SCORE!

Monday

Monday, as always, meant starting afresh. I am very in control of my eating habits during the week, thankfully, so my focus was on staying active.

I had Metafit on Monday night with Roisin and Gerry. Again, we did the circuits first, and then the metafit workout. I was sweating afterwards, which is a good sign. I was paired with my good friend Katrina this week, so it was great to have someone to motivate me and to have someone to motivate also!! Over the past few weeks, I have learned that about myself - I engage in far more productive exercise when I have someone along side me that I can compare myself to. So I guess I pushed myself more this week and made sure to do that 'hard versions' of every exercise. 

I still wasn't 'absolutely fecked' afterwards, but it was a great start to the week nonetheless! I was pacing myself for a strenuous week! 

Tuesday

On Tuesday, I went to Galway. I accompanied Shauna to her training session with Gareth at Body Dynamics. We started off with some warm up squats before starting into a five-point circuit  all involving weights. Again, I did my 60kg squat lift, step-ups using a weight in each hand, reverse ab crunches, and a dumbbell exercise on a bench where we had to lift the dumbbells over our head. Oh, as well as another exercise where we lay on the ground with a bar over us, and we had to lift our bodies up with the bar - basically lifting our own weight of about, in my case, 63kg. We did that circuit three times!

For some reason, this week I could not bring myself to do the step ups. My body just seemed to have a block to them!!! I have not been sleeping very well lately, and only got two hours sleep on Monday night. So perhaps that was the reason my muscles felt so exhausted. I did as many as step ups as I could, and beat myself up over the ones I could not do. 

We also did some boxing - which I ADORE, and we finished with some sprinting. I have not sprinted in ages, so it was a good variation to the work out. 

After the work out, I went to visit a few friends at the university. I had a few cups of green tea, which has loads of benefits for weightloss including: 
* It is a metabolic stimulant
* It suppresses the appetite
* It is low in calories


I went back to Shauna's house for dinner. She made a yummy healthy Shepherd's Pie made with turkey mince and turnip (yes, I thought EWWWW at first, but it was really tasty!). 

Wednesday

After a really energising slumber, I got up at 9am to do my challenge. As always I got very nervous before hand. Shauna got me to warm up by doing some Sean Nós dancing (secretly I think she just wanted to laugh at me). Once warm, I started into the challenge. 

I guess the main reason for my nervousness was the fact that I did the challenge on my own last week and I was afraid that I would not do as well and then it would look as if I did not do the challenge at all (paranoid much?). That made me even more hungry to do well at the challenge this week. As with the previous few weeks, followed my 10-10-10-10-10 strategy. The first three rounds were easy peasy. I am really starting to notice how much fitter and stronger I am getting. I got a bit frustrated doing my get-ups as Shauna wouldn't count my first five as I was doing them wrong. I did not realise I was doing them wrong as I had forgotten the technique, so I got really frustrated. I couldn't stop to ask her what I was doing wrong as talking would just eat into my time! Eventually I copped on and got them right. Knowing I had wasted about ten seconds there  made me even more motivated to push myself right to the end. 

By the last set of ten back lunges, I had tears in my eyes. My legs ached and my tummy felt as if I had been vomiting constantly for a week (that is the only way I can describe the pain!). Usually when I finish, I lie on the exercise mat and tell Shauna to hurry up and tell me what I got. However, I could not even speak this week. I had to get up and go outside for some fresh air. I was in pieces. 

When I got my wits about me, I went back inside. Shauna's pokerface gave absolutely nothing away. I genuinely did not know whether I had beat my last time of 11.06 or not. All I knew was that I gave it everything and had absolutely pushed myself as far as I could go. 

9.20. 

That was my time. Nine minutes and twenty seconds!!!! I nearly collapsed in sheer shock. So did Shauna, I think. 





And do you know what the awful thing is? All I thought about was....HA, I BEAT SHAUNA!!! I thought I had overcome my competitive streak.

In the space of one minute, Shauna's competitive streak revealed itself. For the record, she is JUST as competitive as me - and she makes me out to be bad!!! She threw the timer at me and set off to beat my time. I could tell she was nervous. As she set off to into the circuit, I sat in awe of her technique. She moved from station to station so fluidly. She is in such fantastic shape as well. I promise Shauna, I was not perving on you but I would kill for your arms and tummy! See what I mean....

Shauna from SMC Fitness


I could see Shauna gave it everything and by the end of it she wanted to puke. However, she definitely put me back in my box with her time of 8 minutes and 8 seconds. Biatch. 

O well....something else to aim for!

I returned home to Achill on Wednesday afternoon and went straight to bed. I was just really tired again. I really don't know what is up with me these days. I signed up for a Kettlebells class last week and the first night of it was last night. I was not in any humour to go. However, I knew at the back of my mind that I would feel so much better if I did go. I text Katrina again (the one from metafit - she also signed up for kettlebells) and asked her for some motivation; this is what she replied:

'I am aching as well. No pain no gain. We won't get fit sitting on our bums. Xmas is coming up and we need to look hot in our dresses so stop being lazy and come to kettlebells. You will feel great after as well.'

With that, I got out of bed, got changed, and hopped in the car. I am so glad I did now. The class was not too fast-paced. I have not done a kettlebells class in quite a while, so it was a nice way to ease myself back into it. We had a 4kg or an 8kg kettlebell to chose from. I had the 8kg for most of it (see Shauna, I can chose the hard road sometimes!). And again, I used Katrina as motivation (thanks Kat!).

Me pre-kettlebells all cosy and stuff....



Thursday 

I was half expecting to wake up unable to move this morning. But I feel fine! I was awake at 7am and buzzing off the walls! I can tell I was exercising obviously, but I can walk! That is not to say DOMS won't invade my body tomorrow....

I feel a little bit nauseous today, and have not been able to eat anything yet (and it's lunchtime). I hope I can stomach something soon as I want to go to dancercize this evening. However, I won't be silly about it; if I am still not right, I will stay at home! 

So that is my week in a nutshell. I am definitely fitter, stronger and skinnier. I feel great (apart from the tiredness). I have surprised myself so far, and am excited to see how far more I can push myself...I may be machine-like yet! My legs are developing more of a shape, my waist is becoming more defined, I think I may have possibly dropped a bra size, and you can see my biceps becoming more pronounced. WHOOP!

Sorry about the long, wordy post - but it makes up for me being slack all week!

Now to face the weekend.... 


1 comment:

  1. :D..... You make me laugh Ms Mc Ginty :) But well done, im so proud of all your efforts and even more proud that you can tell it as it is to all us onlookers and on-readers ;)As always I have enjoyed this post as I have for every other post I have read of yours... Keep up the great work and ill see you next week!!
    P.s - I never said I wasn't competitive, just that I noticed that you yourself were ;)

    ReplyDelete

Feel free to keep me motivated :)