Just Dance!

There is a new love in my life and it's called Zumba!

With two weeks between jobs and a holiday in the sun coming up, I decided it was time to step up my fitness regime. The Wii Active is still a big part of that but I needed something new to add to the mix. With this in mind I headed to my local gym and grabbed a list of their exercise classes.

I have a very short attention span and so the gym on it's own will never work for me. I need a variety of classes with different styles, tempos and levels of difficulty to keep me interested and keep me going back week after week.

I tried salsacise, kick boxing, thai chi and yoga and enjoyed them all in their own ways - particularly the salsacise. Thai chi was something that I didn't really expect to engage with but I found it really calming and a great way to get my thoughts together.

The biggest success of the week however was the Zumba class. I had NO idea what it was or what it would involve but it was at a time I could make and it was something new so I went for it!

Zumba is a fusion of all dance styles all slammed together and topped with LOADS of attitude. We did some salsa, some hip hop, some pop, some meringue, some street dance and even some belly dancing! It was hard work but I didn't even notice how hot and sweaty (mmm, tasty!) I was until the end of the class.

It was brilliant fun and I'd highly recommend to everyone to find a class near them, I'll be going back every week!

Stay happy,

WG x

P.S. Check out this video for an idea of what a class is like!

Days Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen and Nineteen!

I have firmly hit my stride now, both with work and with my diet.

Yesterday (Day Eighteen) was Saturday and so an 'off' day which meant that I relaxed my rules and even enjoyed a (small) slice of chocolate pie for dessert in the evening. It was deeeeelicious!

Aside from that, I've been really good and not cheated at all. Day Sixteen was more salad for lunch, beans on toast for dinner - not very exciting but high in protein and the brown bread is good for fibre - as well as loads of fruit and veggies to snack on.

Day Seventeen was a bit shaky, I had loads of cravings all day but managed to stay busy at work and they eventually went away. Lunch was a risotto that the chef at work made and then Drummer Boy came over in the evening and we had chicken Caesar wraps for dinner - mmmmmmm!

Today has been the best so far. I started with a run this morning (Drummer Boy had to leave early to record with his band), followed by half a grapefruit with pinenuts for breakfast. After cleaning my kitchen and livingroom (cleaning burns major calories if you're energetic about it!) I had hummus (home made) with veggies for a snack, followed a bit later by some home made soup for lunch. This evening I had some fruit salad as a snack (mango, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, apples, oranges - delicious!) and then made the sausage casserole again to use up some leftover ingredients from last week. In a little while I'll have some apple and cheese and then it's time to hit the hay!

Back to work tomorrow, going to try and fit a workout in afterwards, if I'm not too exhausted!

Stay happy,

WG x

P.S. How cute is this kitten?! I know it has nothing at all to do with this post but it's just so lovely I couldn't not post it! X

Day Two

Today has been a bit of a weird one.

It started well - another Snow Day! - with a thirty minute workout and a bowl of porridge with banana for breakfast. I'd woken up feeling woozy but ignored it.

Then I went for a walk through the snow with two of my lovely neighbours for about an hour and a half. Talk about burning calories!

When we got back I was offered a hot chocolate and, considering that I'd just been for SUCH a long walk, I said yes. It was naughty but TOTALLY worth it!

That was were my day went a bit downhill! I've got a temperature of 39.5 and I'm pretty sure it's flu. Rubbish.

Going to try and sleep it off, hope I feel better tomorrow! x

Day One

I started my diet about five days ago but let's count this as Day One!

Today was a Snow Day - I actually did a little jig around my living room when I realised that I didn't have to go to work! And then promptly went back to sleep. Blissful.

However, after a couple of lovely snoozing hours, I did pull my backside out of bed and into my gym kit for a workout. Today should have been a running day but I really didn't fancy running through six inches of snow and stacking it onto the ice! Instead I did a thirty minute session on the Wii Active, which is the best fitness programme that I've come across so far. And I have a fair collection!

Today was all about upper body strength (the Active rotates each day between upper body, lower body, cardio and all round fitness) so I was working my arms with crunches and lifts until they were burning with the effort!

Food wise, I started the day with porridge (made with water), blueberries and a glass of grapefruit juice. Then I had an orange with a handful of pine nuts as a snack before a bowl of home-made vegetable soup with brown bread for lunch.

After a yoga session (soooooo good for stretching everything out and relaxing!) I munched on some vegetable slices with houmous and two glasses of water.

This evening I had sweet chilli garlic salmon with new potatoes and grilled veggies - I'll post the recipe in a minute! It was soooo tasty and my final mini-meal will be in about an hour and will be a small portion of a salad that I made yesterday containing lettuce, peppers, carrots, celery, cucumber and feta cheese with a balsamic vinegar dressing. Yum!

I hope that everyone has had a chance to enjoy the snow today, I went outside for a while to have a snowball fight - good fun and it burns the calories as well - bonus!

See you all tomorrow...x

Thems is the rules...

So, here is my diet and exercise plan and the rules that I'm going to do my best to follow over the coming months...

Food

Well, it goes without saying really! Lots of fresh fruit and veg, as much colourful food as I can manage and trying to cut down on as much sugar as possible.

Also, loads of water (it helps to flush all the rubbish out of the system) and there are certain foods that I'm going to work extra hard at working into my diet:

- Grapefruits - great for boosting the metabolism and cleaning out the system.

- Pine nuts - a little bit fatty but full of good oils.

- Fish - only when they're on offer as I'm broker than broke! Salmon is a great one though and I've got a very tasty recipe that I'll be putting on here.

They are the main three but I'll generally be aiming to eat good things all day and also eat six small meals instead of three bigger ones. This is good for balancing out the blood sugar and stops you from snacking randomly throughout the day.

Alcohol is something that I'll be cutting out - with the exception of Saturday evenings. No-one can diet 24/7 and so Saturday will be my 'off' day.

Exercise

I work full time (apart from when it's snowing!) as a Nursery Assistant taking care of babies aged three months to two years so that is a pretty good workout on it's own!

However, I also aim to workout for thirty minutes three times a week using the Wii Active as well as running twice a week for thirty minutes and doing yoga everyday for at least fifteen minutes. I find that if I break it down it doesn't seem too much and the Wii Active is great because it never gives you the same workout twice. I don't know about you, but I have the attention span of a small child - particularly when I'm supposed to be exercising!

I think that's it! It can't be that hard...right...? x

P.S I love deviantart.com - how amazing is this picture?!