Are you crazy?

So this week has been the start of the cutting stage, and to be honest cutting isn't really what I want to do. Basically I am only 2% body fat, no weight but gain muscle and strength. Basically I am a real mixed bag! So, why only 2% bf? Well, lets be honest when I dropped under 10% it wasn't great! I felt the cold all the time, and lost the balance in my life as most of you know.

However, I loved my abs and I miss them!! SO clean eating for ever, (ok so maybe 80:20) and no booze for January (by the way I so want a glass of wine whilst I am typing this!) is the plan! Hopefully that will help me reach my physical goals. However, my activity goals are more important to me! My spartan races, my desire to hit 60kg deadlift, and most importantly a balanced life (yes yes I mean to meet the man of my dreams, but mostly to make the most of life and my friends.)

So 5 days in how am I going: Well here is this mornings pic, by the way it was straight after a workout so its a bit of a cheat!

However these pics are not all I have done for today! This afternoon I went for Colonic Hydrotherapy, now this isn't the first time, but oh my did it work better than before!!! So why did I have it done? Well I suffer from IBS and with December being "Claire has lost her mind and willpower" month I was suffering badly! Bloated, in pain and generally horrible. So on the phone to the lovely Kelly and 50 mins later, and a lot of warm water, I was done. How do I feel? Well right now tired, and a bit not with it! ( Well the amount of toxins I must of got out my body!!) The thing is I know tomorrow I will feel rocking! And what is tomorrow "REST DAY"!

I know some people think it sounds grose but you know me! Don't knock it till you tried it!!  Has anyone else given it ago?

Love ya

Claire x

2012!!

Hiya All

Well yet again I am back! Well lets start at the end, 2011 on the whole sucked! Sorry I stopped blogging but as you know Dad was ill and he had to be my focus, therefore our chats stopped and training decreased. Basically I spent November and December bulking! Oh and haven't I dont well!!

Gone is my beloved abs and now I have a pog!! Well not for long I tell you! Today is the first day back on the diet and detox. You might ask why the 3rd January and not the 1st and I will tell you. Basically, I have spent the last few weeks drinking a lot, I hate NYE but this year I went out and had fun and drank and ate too much. Then on 1st I discovered my wonderful friend was working so hard he didnt even realise it was New Year, so I went down to help him and then we celebrated New Year again. The 2nd, was a friends annual, "I dont want to go back to work party!". There is another reason for the diet not starting earlier and well thats cause I have a cold and when I am poorly I have a tendancy to eat!

But now we are back and we are going to make 2012 the best year yet. We will be strong and healthy! I have my goals, which include Spartan Races, Nettle Warrior, and most importantly to have a life which is balanced!

HAPPY NEW YEAR DARLINGS!! x

LIFE!!

So firstly I have to apologise for being so quiet. Unfortunately after I returned from Essex my dad who has MS was still suffering for his fall and had got worse so the last few weeks my life has been even more about my folks, and the gym has again become a place to destress not beast myself.

I hope you don't mind but I thought before I write and tell you everything which has happened I would take this oportunity to explain about MS as it is one of those illnesses that unless it affects you or someone you know, you might not have even heard about it.

Please note all the following is on www.mssociety.org.uk

About MS

 

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a condition of the central nervous system.
In MS, the coating around nerve fibres (called myelin) is damaged, causing a range of symptoms.
Around 100,000 people in the UK have MS. It's normally diagnosed in people between the ages of 20 and 40, and affects almost twice as many women as men.
Once diagnosed, MS stays with you for life, but treatments and specialists can help you to manage the symptoms.
We don't know the cause and we haven't yet found a cure, but research is progressing fast.

What happens in MS?

To understand what happens in MS, it's useful to understand how the central nervous system works.
A substance called myelin protects the nerve fibres in the central nervous system, which helps messages travel quickly and smoothly between the brain and the rest of the body.

In MS, your immune system, which normally helps to fight off infections, mistakes myelin for a foreign body and attacks it. This damages the myelin and strips it off the nerve fibres, either partially or completely, leaving scars known as lesions or plaques.
This damage disrupts messages travelling along nerve fibres – they can slow down, become distorted, or not get through at all.
As well as myelin loss, there can also sometimes be damage to the actual nerve fibres. It is this nerve damage that causes the accumulation of disability that can occur over time.


ME AGAIN! The horrible thing about MS is that is effects nearly every patient differently! Right, tomorrow I will try and explain more and if its ok with PapaBear I might ask him if I can interview so we can learn abit more!

On the fitness and training side of the things, my schedule is a bit messed up not just cause of PapaBear but mainly cause of the rugby world cup but hey ho, fingers crossed my boys are in it for a while. Diet wise I am reading, and learning about Intermittant fasting, (IF) although I am not following it strictly as I am taking protein shakes I am giving aspects of it a go, and when dad is better and doesnt need me as much we will give it a serious attempt.

Have any of you ever tried IF??

Much love my darlings x x

Essay handed in!!

Hi Sweeties.

So its just before 5am on a Friday morning and I thought it was time to say hi to you all.

Sorry I have been quiet recently, for once its not cause I have nothing to say or nothing has happened but its been a busy time and most importantly everytime I have sat down at the computer it was to do my essay! But, my essay is handed in!! YEAH!!! It sucks and doesn't really answer the question but it is in.

Therefore, this afternoon I will write you a nice entry with pretty pics telling you what else has happened in my life; this will include, training, diet (and lack of it), I will let you in on the 10 week cycle; Vikki's 30th (well some of it, you kow what they say, "What happens in Essex, stays in Essex!")  and I will if possible let you in on other things which are going on in my life as well. These major events are difficult as they do not solely involve me and therefore not sure how much I can say, willing to saying or will manage without making myself and everyone else cry!

So what have you guys been up to?

What have I been missing?

Love you x x x

"I am going on a diet!" - My article for www.foodforfitness.co.uk

Hi All this is the article I wrote for http://www.foodforfitness.co.uk/ incase you missed!! Tomorrows blog is all about cooking and my experiences!

Let’s be honest, how many times a year do you say that one sentence, “I’m going on a diet!”, and you mean it, you really really mean it, but as soon as the words are out of your mouth unfortunately you are kind of setting yourself up to fail! Why? Well, to go on a diet means at some stage you are planning on coming off it. The word “diet” now seems to be always associated with losing weight, fad-diets, and often, not always, dramatically changing your eating patterns and habits.




Now don’t get me wrong I have tried many “diets” and going on and off them, but now “I have a diet!” And the best thing about it is that it is simple! I eat clean 80% of the time. I am not a saint, I have human needs for chocolate, and wine and all those things we know we shouldn’t have, but most of the time, I eat clean food.



So what do I mean by clean? As I said for me it is simple, and I don’t like giving my food choice a title but i guess if you want to its, “Semi-paleo”. Feel free to Google, and you will probably find that I eat some things which are strict and miss out something that others think are part of the regime. By “clean”, I mean foods which I can look at and name all the ingredients, and as I am not the smartest bear out there, that has to be one ingredient or I get stuck. Its classic “Meat (fish) and two veg!” I don’t eat bread or pasta, not that I hate carbs, they have their place, and there place is in vegetables, for me!



My body does not like bread and pasta, I do! But my body doesn’t! By the way it took me 28 years to find this out, but once I did it made sense to me! For thousands of years man has walked on this earth, eating what he caught, and what he could pick and find, it worked for them, and we know they were stronger than modern man. They didn’t have delicious smelling warm French stick or al-dente pasta which tastes like heaven (I warned you I love these foods) so why do I need them. Simple answer, I don’t.



So I stopped eating these foods which I loved, and yes it did take will power, and yes I had the advantage of having stomach ache when I ate them , but I tell you what, when I cut them out, I lost weight! I had more energy! I felt soooo much better. And the great thing about eating clean and being “semi-paleo” is that I can still go out and have dinner with my friends, and if they decide they want a curry well then that is my naughty 20%! And even then I can say no to the rice, no to the breads!



You don’t have to GO ON a diet to lose weight, you don’t need to stop going out and having fun with your friends and family. Make small changes, see what works for you, have a salad for lunch instead of a sandwich, have strips of carrots and courgettes and runner beans instead of spaghetti with your bolognaise. Small changes are stepping stones, you take them one at a time and you reach the other side, jump and the chances are you will land in the river!

I've been thinking- its long!!

Sorry I have been a bit quiet recently but i have been busy attempting my masters essay, training, baking, missing my folks and dogs but most importantly I have been thinking a far bit. So I thought maybe I would share some of my weird and random thoughts with you!

My first one that has been on my mind a lot recently which i guess started my other thoughts off, is why are strangers sometimes the best friends? Why are they more supportive than the people you speak to and classify as friends? To my darling friends who are reading this I am not talking about you, neither am I talking about my family!

Do you find every so often, especially if you are losing weight, trying something new, just generally altering something even if its just your curtains, that friends ask "Why? You are fine the way you are." "But that looks alright!" You know the phrases!! But stranger friends (and yes I know not all strangers are polite and nice, we have had that experience a far bit recently!!) if they ask why? its usually cause they are interested. They seem to accept your decisions and opinions more easily! They might not agree but they hear you out more. But why?

So these questions then led to me thinking about Life Choices (not minority media as I should be thinking about for my essay!) Now, I don't believe you can control your life completely, and I have no idea if I believe in fate or that life is preplanned or anything but I do know when you get to a cross road you get given a chose! Left or Right? You make that choice! I mean you can go left, find it too hard, or that it doesn't suit you and then turn round and try the righthand side of the road, which might suit you better! So this is where I am right now!

My life is on a path with multiple paths! Actually no I prefer the analogy of a flow chart or a spider diagram - everything is interlinked, every aspect has choices and no one answer is right and no decision is wrong. I mean it might not be right for me but it might be perfect for other people.

The obvious one for me is health, diet and fitness, I guess - I knew I wanted to get fit, to lose weight, to be healthy. So I lost weight, (not healthily I will admit and I promise at some stage we will discuss the "heartbreak" diet) so I had achieved one thing - but oh my!! I was so unhappy! I cried constantly, my mum was worried sick, I had no energy, I was drinking sooooooo much! Therefore something else had to change - fitness! So I started at the gym, cardio galore! Oh I could manage that but the idea of a press up?? Not a chance!! So another thing had to change! Well into my life weights, kettlebells and TWITTER!! Mark and Stu!! #gymfree !! This worked for ME! The natural progression for me was then diet, so I cleaned that up - I listened to Mark on healthy eating, vitamins and I loved it, I found a passion, so I started doing my own research and tried different forms of diet, carb cycle, Keto, fruit overload, you name it I read about it, thought about it, and most of the time tried it! At the moment I am trying high protein, low carb, no fruit, and currently 7 weeks off the booze! At this moment in time it appears to be working for me! The first time since losing weight, my skin is looking better and cleaner - who wants to be 30 and have spots!

But fitness, diet and health does a lifestyle alone not make!! So I know I need to explore the other themes in my life - I used to hate reading as a child, dyslexia can do that to a person, but then I went through a stage of loving it! I found a genre I adored and related to, now I am bored of that so need to find another one that suits me! I need to expand my reading again! Try new things! Religion!! now I know this is a difficult theme, and here I think sums up my ideas on Life Choices! There are so many religions out there, how can I chose just one without looking, learning, discussing, as many possibilities as I can. And you know what I might find religion in any form is not for me! But I have the choice, do I look, learn, explore and decide, or do I just accept life as I am handed it?

I did warn you all that I had been thinking too much and to be honest writing this now has started me off again, so I am going to leave it here for tonight and think my thoughts threw a bit more so I stop rambling!!!

But I also guess it is time to be brave and do a progress pic! Please not this pic is me working very hard and relaxed I look nothing like this. Oh and apologises for the serious face and no make up, as I say it was a very hard strength session!

Love you all! Embrace and love the choices before you as we don't always get given options or the chance to learn!

I dare you!!!

How many of you make excuses regularly? “Oh but I am tired!”, “I would but I don’t have time!”, “My dog ate my homework!” “Oh but I live alone so it’s easier!” “I always wanted to try but I am worried someone will laugh at me!” All of us do it! I know I do, I am probably the words biggest excuse maker out there! That’s why I hope you won’t mind me writing this.


I guess we should look at why we make excuses – well I know my reason, its cause it’s easy! It’s easy to say why not to do some thinking than just to do it! Ok so we can’t all succeed at everything but surely it is better to try something and fail than to never try and then never know if we could of! Maybe its cause it’s easier to fight with someone than to tell them how you really feel, easier to walk away than apologise for being wrong or even if you aren’t wrong to apologise for walking away and to say now you want another go! It’s easy to blame the dog than admit you need help. Easier to lift less weight than to try a bit heavier, easier to stop at a mile than to try for 2! But honestly, who wants the easy life? If you do then that is your choice and I refuse to judge. But if you don’t, please read on.

Sometimes, things happen in our lives and in the lives of others that take the easy life option away from them. They have reasons not excuses to take the easy option sometimes, but over the last few months I have been volunteering for two organisations, MS Society, http://www.mssociety.co.uk/ and Help for Heroes, http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/ and I have discovered it’s usually the people who have a “right” or in a way could see using excuses that don’t! Last night, this was brought crashing back into my thought!

“Harry’s Arctic Heroes!” – for those of you who didn’t see it here is the link http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b013y230/Harrys_Arctic_Heroes_Episode_1 (I hope it works abroad, if it doesn’t please go to this website and read their story http://walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/ .) These amazing guys don’t know the meaning of excuses or the easy life! They are inspirations! They are HEROES!!

So I have had an idea to honour these guys – if you want to give money and support them then please go to their website http://walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/donate/ or http://www.helpforheroes.org.uk/ but that’s not my idea! I dare you, for one hour, for one day, for one month, for one year (I will leave the details to you) to not make an excuse, or to pick up the phone and call the person you “haven’t had time to” or say sorry to the person “that it was too long ago” to make a situation better, or even just to try something new that you have been putting off for whatever reason. As I said I will leave the details to you but I dare you to honour “the trying”, honour “the slightly less easy route”, and honour those who don’t give up.



HONOUR OUR HEROES!!