Let's Crack ON!!

Hey There :)

Wow, that was a long blogging hiatus! So much has been going on since Xmas I’ve not known whether I’m coming or going, and to be honest the past few weeks I was in a major funk.

 

I try and stay positive all the time but sometimes we all need a bit of a break…I’ve had that break and will now be back blogging on a more regular basis to document my journey through 2013.
Since I’ve not updated on here for ages there is so much that’s been going on I’m not sure where to start. There’s so much I want to communicate so I think I’ll have to break it down over a few posts, but I’ll see how much I ramble one here.

 

So…after completing the USN challenge I continued to lean out until Xmas time. At that stage I was going to enjoy Xmas and get back to building lean mass and strength from January. That didn’t really go as planned and I ended up in a whirlwind of extremely excessive training and a low carb and (for me) a low calorie diet. This for me was still around 2300 but with the amount of circuit and HIIT training I was doing it ruined me.

A few weeks ago I started a strength program to try and put a stop to the leaning out and start on the path I initially aimed for, then got hit with a virus and was seriously suffering from fatigue and was expressing all the signs of over training. (no motivation, lack of confidence, weak, emotional) Just everything I am usually not.

 

After taking a complete rest for a week, nourishing myself well whilst resting and getting away to spend some quality time with my friends I am back on track. Fighting fit and ready to smash my goals!! I am excited to see where I can get this year.

 

My current training is going to be based on a strength program to work on Power and Oly lifts, supplementing that with hypertrophy to help build the size I want. I have a program designed by USN athlete Emma Storey-Gordon for the strength aspect and will be following a 6 week cycle. The really fun stuff starts after this!! I will be joining a CrossFit box in Teesside (quite a journey from where I live but I’m committed to reaching my goals)

 

When I first started out on my fitness journey, probably around 6 months ago, my main focus was fitness modelling and bodybuilding. This got me to a great place and really helped me battle my demons but, it really isn’t me and I believe it now actually hinders my progress, as I was always so focused on training for aesthetics which was driving and fuelling the disordered side of my mentality. This is what I want to break away from, and this is where the sport of CrossFit comes in.

When I was younger I was always the sporty, outdoors type who thrived when training for athletic purposes. I was strong and lean, well fuelled and represented the North of England in Hockey, and competed at various levels at Horse Riding, Athletics and much more.

I am eager for that drive again…Training for life, athleticism, power, speed, endurance. That is what excites me. So my main goal this year is to get to a place where I can compete in CrossFit. I am under no illusion that this is going to take a lot of hard work, but I am ready for it. I have fought like hell to beat an illness that takes many people’s lives and I am now ready to fight like hell to achieve my goals, inspire others to take action and to live my dreams. That is the ultimate goal!

 

Along the way I will be undertaking events such as, Tough Mudder, Spartan Sprint and a ½ Marathon, to help raise money for charities such as York Mind and BEAT Eating Disorders, then I will take on the biggest challenge of all next year…The 8hr CrossFit Endurance Challenge!

 

I want to encourage others to feel empowered and train for something more than just how you look on the outside. CrossFit is all about community and physical preparedness, allowing people to feel strong and be ready to take on whatever life throws at them. To me this is what it’s all about, continuing to develop, get better, fitter, stronger and happier, having a balance and enjoying life. And do you know what? If you train for athleticism, fuel yourself well and relax occasionally, you will look god damn awesome in the process and have energy and confidence. Have you seen Andrea Ager, Christmas Abbott, Rich Froning (Pizza and Peanut Butter man)?

 

A lot is changing around here and it’s changing for the better for ME. I am no longer going to be a sheep, conforming to what I feel like I ‘should’ be doing. There will be experiments along the way, some may work, some may not, but it’s a learning process and one day I will find what works for me. We are all individual and if you trust yourself, you know what your body wants, needs or requires. Have the confidence to listen to it and you will be rewarded.

 

Right I’ve gone on quite a bit as usual haha.

 

That’s essentially where I’m at currently. You will be seeing some surprising little additions to my post w/o meals, which I will discuss more in the next blog post.

 

Hope you all had a great Xmas and slightly better start to 2013 than I did, and congrats if you managed to read the whole post!!

Adios!! :)

Remember “Never a failure, always a lesson”

Sorry about the absence!

Happy New Year!!!

Sorry it's late. I have been meaning to write a post for ages now but have been sooo busy.

There's a lot going on at the moment for me in terms of work, starting new projects at KDFitPro and I suppose life in general. It's certainly a rocky time at the moment and I have some decisions to make about which way to take my training. Don't worry, it's not stopping and never will - in fact I want to take it up a notch.

I'm loving being busy and making loads of new connections in the world of fitness - I'm thriving on it and it's made my motivation to succeed soar! Once I have got a solid schedule sorted again I will return to more frequent blogging and document my next stages.

Until then, just catch up with me on twitter - I try my best to get back to everyone.

Hope your all off to a great start in 2013!

Train like Spartans, eat well and rest when you need to. More importantly, ENJOY IT!!

MIA

Hi guys!

Sorry for being MIA on here recently, since the USN challenge I have been crazy busy!

Work has been hectic and I have been settling into a new training routine – I don’t know about you, but the first week of a new programme is a killer!! Talk about DOMS in muscles I forgot I had, it’s like an anatomy lesson every time I train.

I’m also doing a lot of research into a different nutritional approach which I feel will be more suited to me and my goals. Once I have everything totally sorted I’ll update on here. At the moment it’s just about experimenting a bit and seeing what fits and what doesn’t.

So… the day after the USN challenge finished I felt totally lost! I had goals in mind for 2013 but no definitive plan written down. I was booked in with my Trainer as usual on the Monday so we took some time before the session to get a focus sorted out. I like to have goals and direction, to strive for something seems to engage my mental attitude as well, I don’t like to ‘drift’ and planning is one of the keys to success!

I set 3, 6 and 12 month goals and have been cracking on with them ever since. I will be doing a separate post about the goals as I feel they need their own feature :)

In the meantime (running up to Xmas) I am focusing on getting settled into the new routine, building a decent base on lifts such as squats, deadlifts, pull ups and bench etc; and honing in on my diet.

What I will say is that my focus is based much more around Athleticism and things are going to be getting gritty and hard-core – I am very excited and can’t wait to see the physical, mental and fitness changes over the next year.

I have lots of things lined up and will be making 2013 one hell of a year!!

 

I also want to thank every last one of you who has supported me over the past 3 months, it has made the process much smoother – my life has changed completely and the whole journey has been even more fulfilling and rewarding knowing that I have encouraged others to change too.

I may not be where I want to be. I may not be where I should to be, but thankfully I’m not where I used to be. My past has made me who I am today, it has been a long hard journey but I have become stronger, and learnt more about myself and what I want to achieve through every experience I have encountered. Now I am confident that nothing can stand in my way of fulfilling my dreams – all it takes is courage, dedication, a little bit of fight and anything can be accomplished.

Chocolate Hazelnut Butter

Happy Monday Peeps :)

It felt so strange this morning waking up and not having the USN challenge to crack on with - I felt a little bit lost.

I haven't really had much spare time to reflect back on the challenge yet, but want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has supported me over the last 12 weeks. It has made the whole process even more enjoyable, and I have grown so much as a person from it - thanks guys :)

So...
I am going to share with you today a new recipe!! I hope you give it a try, it actually tastes like Nutella. I will warn you that you will need willpower to not eat the whole batch straight away- I had to take my dogs out for a walk to take my mind off the little jar in the cupboard.

Chocolate Hazelnut Butter

200g Hazelnuts

3 Tbl spn Cocoa Powder (Green & Blacks Organic dark)

1 Tsp Vanilla Essence

1 Tsp 100% Pure Maple Syrup

1/2 - 1 Tsp Coconut Oil (melted)

• Preheat oven (200c)
• Lay Hazelnuts on a baking sheet on a tray and toast in oven for approx 10 mins
• Once cooled remove most of the skins (I left some on because I got impatient)
• Place Hazelnuts in Magimix or food processor and blitz until smooth (this took about 7 minutes. Have faith that it will eventually turn creamy)

• Once the Hazelnut butter is made, add the cocoa powder, vanilla essence and maple syrup and blend again (keep scraping the mixture from the side of the bowl, don't worry if it turns into a ball just keep mixing)

• After about 1 minute add the melted coconut oil, blitz again and wait for your Nutella to turn creamy and glossy.

At this point you may want to taste it to check for sweetness. I prefer it to be more of a bitter chocolate taste so you may want to add more vanilla, maple syrup or even a sweetener such as Xylitol if you have a really sweet tooth.

And there you have healthy Nutella!! If you have any willpower it should last for about 2 weeks in the fridge.

I would say you could get around 15 reasonable servings out of this with each serving containing:
101 cals, 1g sugar, 9g healthy fats and 2g protein

 

Let me know what you think if you decide to give it a try - I am currently planning a few other flavour variations so keep an eye out!

Dropping In To Say Hello

Happy Hump Day!!

I just wanted to drop by and let you all know that there won't be any big posts now until next week.

Hopefully I will get chance on Monday to sit down and write a bit of an overview about this week, but as you probably know I am in the last few days of the FINAL week of the challenge and seem to have soooo much to plan and organise before I submit my 'after' picture and report.

I will say that training is going well; even though I wake up aching a little bit more each day, and a little bit more tired, I am still ploughing on all the way to the finish line!

I'm super excited to see the 'after' picture which I'll take on Sunday morning, but I am also treating myself to a photo shoot on Friday!!

Although this is all really fun it's also nerve wracking so I'm trying to keep chilled on a night, get plenty of sleep as usual and just keep focused on what needs to be done. However the pictures turn out I am extremely proud of how far I have come in the last 12 weeks and how I have developed and grown (not only in muscle, but as a person too).

Haha, I sure know how to ramble on!! I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week and thank you for your support and encouragement - it means the world to me.

Learning Curve

Happy Sunday

What a week this has been - talk about getting stressed (not good - cortisol - bad news)

So what happened?

I took some time to reflect on Thursday about what had made this week so different to the others. Things had been going great until Monday then everyday seemed to get a little bit harder until I finally broke on Thursday.

It wasn't exactly bad - although training on Wednesday was one of the hardest sessions I have ever had to get through (I was drained and my head was all over the place trying to figure out what was wrong) I still managed to increase the weights and was lifting more than when I was gaining! But something wasn't right and I felt rough.

After getting great results from Carb Cycling - getting leaner, maintaining muscle mass and seeing my abs come through; I got a bit over excited and decided to drop my carbs lower and was just going to have one carb re-feed at the end of the week - Never again!!!

This did not work for me at all - my training frequency and intensity needs to be fuelled with adequate carbs, as does my body, and i dropped to a silly level. It had the opposite effect to what I was getting with Carb Cycling, I was totally fried physically, lost the filled muscles and looked 'puffy'. This sent my mind into overdrive, worrying what was happening - I'd just ruined everything I had worked hard to get from one daft idea. As each day went by the worrying got worse, the fuel reduced and I was in a vicious little cycle - by Thursday everything was fried, physically and mentally I was drained.

So much so I was crazy emotional on Thursday so took the afternoon to relax and switch off from everything - I knew my body was shouting out for a break and some fuel, so I increased my carbs again and came up with a plan of action; to train once on Friday at a lower intensity, get to bed extra early and carb up on Saturday and train my circuit as usual.

It worked a treat :)

By Saturday afternoon I was back to normal - not stressed out, well fuelled and much happier in the gym again. I woke up today lean again with full muscles!!! Happy Days!!

So...this week has really been a massive learning curve for me - it's reiterated how important it is to:

1. Listen to my body
2. Stick to what is working
3. Remember that because something works for one person doesn't mean it will work for me
4. To eat according to my goals and training etc
5. To never again cut most carbs out of my diet again!! The body doesn't like extremes
6. Don't try and fix what isn't broken

Lucky for me I analyse everything, and if something isn't right I'll change it and this has saved me this week. After taking my measurements on Thursday I am sooo pleased I got back on track with the plan that was working because this morning my measurements are right where they should be.
Body fat down, and girth measurements showing that I've maintained muscle!!!

Hope you've all had a great weekend - I am now off work for a whole week - the longest break I've had all year, so I can focus everything on the FINAL week of the challenge!!

"Never a failure - Always a lesson"

What's Next?

So… the other day my mum was asked a question that made me realise she may not fully understand why I train like I do, and that I am not only training and eating like I am for this 12 weeks.

She asked

“Will you slow down and take time off after the challenge is done?"

I replied (with a smile)

“Well Sunday is my rest day, but I’ll be in with Jord (my PT) again on Monday to start the plan for the next goal”

Training hard and clean eating is part of my life now; I missed out on it for so long that now I am only just starting out on my true fitness journey and I’m pretty excited about the future!!

There is sooo much that I still want to try, area’s that I want to develop, and lets not be naïve here – once I have achieved one thing there will be something else I want to work on – that’s how you grow, learn and keep evolving.

What does 2013 have in store? Some BIG plans!!!

Once I have completed this challenge I will be putting plans into motion for an 8 hour CrossFit Endurance Challenge for charity, and will be joined by my fellow Spartan Warrior Terri :)

For a long time I’ve wanted to do an event for charity but haven’t been in the right place to do something so challenging and I really wanted to do something different to the usual marathons etc.

If things go to plan it will be happening in June; giving us 6 months to train, raise awareness and money and hopefully get support from organisations to really make it a big event.

 

I’ve chosen to do the challenge for BEAT (an eating disorder charity), mainly to raise awareness of eating disorders, to show people that you can overcome the illness, and to highlight how it was fitness that really helped me(and Terri)  fully recover from Anorexia. 

I also want to try and reduce some of the negative viewpoints of sports supplements, as I feel they have received a lot of bad press recently. These sports supplements have helped me massively in building my body up – there was a lot of damage done from the past 5 years, and without USN supplements helping me hit my nutrient goals, recover from intense training, and helping me build my body back up, the whole process would have been MUCH harder!

 

So that’s goal 1 – Goal 2 will be…..competing in Miss Galaxy Universe in Autumn.

After following Carly Thornton’s preparation for the stage recently, I was inspired to get on the stage myself.  The hard work and dedication that she put in each day to achieve the physique needed was amazing!

So after the CrossFit challenge I will be gunning for that stage. What is great about the Galaxy Universe show is that there’s a great support network of girls, and even better – A fitness element too!! I think after training to complete 8 hours of CrossFit, I might be in with a chance of beasting that section ;)

And yes, there are a few more goals too…

 

From a physical point of view I obviously want to keep building on all aspects, increasing lean muscle mass, but with particular focus on my rear delts, legs and of course my abs.

I want to continue improving my Athleticism, which I hope to do whilst training for CrossFit.

I want to continue building up a career in Fitness – helping others achieve their goals, work on developing recipes to produce a clean eats e-book and keep learning about different supplements and how they can benefit people with different goals to maximise their performance.

 

And the biggie – I want to continue working hard to be able to work for USN one day. Be it for the company internally or as an Ambassador/Hero. They are a company that I admire not only for their top class supplements, but their Body and Lifestyle Challenge has not only helped me change my life for the better, but countless others too and I would love to be a part of supporting others on their journey - Who wouldn’t want to be part of that?!

 

So there you have it, the plan for 2013. I guess to answer my mum’s question – No, I won’t be slowing down :)
(I will have a de-load week to get my body back in balance)

“A person can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm”

“Don’t limit your challenges – Challenge you limits – It’s all about results”

 

Have a great weekend – I’ll be back on Sunday with an update and overview of this week.

It’s been a big learning curve!!