Dough! :o)

I forgot to take photos of the pancakes I made last night! Silly me! In my defence I was cooking myself a healthy protein-rich dinner, baking coconut macaroons AND flipping pancakes, all at once! How's that for multi-tasking?!

I am seriously loving this baking buzz, I'm finding it really cathartic. I might just need to be careful with how much of the results I consume.... they do taste good though... dang I'm talented! Haha :o)

I'm still here....

Apologies for my recent absence, I'm still around though, I promise! :o)

I've been training regularly enough, and eating fairly healthily, thanks to the tips from ABS. But I'm trying not to take it too seriously, because I have re-discovered my love of baking! In the last few weeks I've made heart-shaped Cupcakes (iced with buttercream & sugar paste icing!), a 2 tiered Carrot Cake, and loaf of Banana Bread! I know these aren't exactly appropriate topics for a Fitness Blog, but I never said I would stick to entirely healthy topics... :o)

Today is Pancake Tuesday, I made my batter last night, can't wait to get home and cook up a stack of pretty crepes! I might even post a photo tomorrow if there's no objections! :o)

Belated Happy Valentine's Day....

I'm not an expert but I knows what I likes....

And protein shakes & bars do not make my list of Likes! Dry, powdery, familiarly gag-inducing chocolate-esque flavours... Yuck!

Is it wrong that I am thinking longingly of my tinned salmon snack stored in my work refrigerator, while I am choking down a Chocolate Peanut Butter Protein Bar... It can't be the chocolate, or the peanut butter, because those are some of my favourite foods. By process of elimination I am clearly not a fan of fake protein.

Admittedly I have not tried an exhaustive list of products. Merely 3 brands in total I think. It just worried me that they all tasted so similarly disgusting. I tried the shake with water. I tried stirring some powder into my porridge, and I've tried a couple of different bars. All scarily similar in flavour. All gross.

Odd as it may be, I'd rather reach for a tin of John West than suffer through another Maxi-Proto-Concoction...

Thank Crunches It's Friday!

I hurt all over! My body aches in places I didn't even know I had! After a week of tough TKD classes and a competitive Pilates Class, I'm stiff and sore, and not keen on moving! It's good pain though, so I'm not complaining. Much. :o) I'm just trying to hydrate lots and ease my poor muscles out of fatigue. I'm also looking into a Yoga Class for tomorrow afternoon, just the thought of it is helping me to relax! I just have one more training session to get through this evening, and then I know I can rest well, having earned the right to 8 (maybe even 9!) hours sleep... Mmmm.... Can't wait!

Two For the Price of one!

It's rare that I post more than once in a day, in fact I think this could be a first!

Well I've just signed up with ABS, the "product" behind the new Social Network I joined recently. I admit I am sceptical. I'm not normally a fan of prescribed Plans, they reek too much of fads or diets to be honest but this is something that's been put together by a friend of mine in Taekwon-Do, and a lot of it fits in with what I already know about my own sense of nutrition and training. And from flicking through the ebooks, it looks like a lot of hard work, which hopefully is a sign that it's not a faddy gimmick. My Coach has already signed up to it thus giving it a silent yet powerful thumbs up. So I'm going to give it a go.

I downloaded the eBooks today and from what I can make of it so far, it all ties in with the general Fitosphere principles - eat fewer starchy carbs, eat more fresh produce, drink lots of water, do strength training regularly (3-5 sessions per week), interval cardio sessions instead of endurance. All makes good sense.

I'm not considering myself to be officially started, seeing as I haven't read the eBooks, nor have I done necessary grocery shopping, but I have started implementing a few ideas already. Like having Baked Chicken Fillet & Roasted Root Vegetables for lunch, and sprinkling ground flaxseeds in my yoghurt. There's a lot of material provided though, so I just need to find a way to print a couple of 100 pages at work, then I'll get back to you with a proper review!

Art Imitating Life

Today's Dilbert was quite poignant:

Though I didn't go so far as to lose my head, yesterday was very tough and I definitely felt frustration that would have induced self-harming. In my case that means excessive sugar/calories and thankfully I kept my 'explosion' to a minimal dose of one Cappuccino with a sachet of white sugar, which just left me a little bit wired for the afternoon.

It saddens me that my response to feeling trapped in a frustrating situation is to lash out at myself. I had no real need for caffeine or sugar, I was simply acting out and the only recipient of that anger was myself. This is such a familiar theme, whether it's choosing to skip training or eat excessively calorific foods, sometimes I can feel the self-harming rage underlying it.

In line with Charlotte's February Experiment I tried to meditate last night, to help settle all these feelings of tension and frustration. To try and just be still. It's far more difficult than I'd remembered from my last attempts. Either that or I still had residual caffeine traces sending my imagination into overdrive! I just couldn't relax, my mind was racing, from recounting my day to planning holidays, from thoughts of ex-boyfriends to potential future ex-boyfriends! More than anything I just felt frustrated with myself.

More meditation is definitely needed. I think it can only benefit me, if even just to allow myself some Me Time.

Waiting to Explode!

AAAAarrrrghhhh!!!!

I'm feeling a hell of a lot of pent-up frustration at the moment. So much so that I feel like I'm going to spontaneously combust! I'm just too impatient for my own good! I've made these choices about leaving my job and going back to school, and about eating healthily and training hard. It all sounds good. It's all helping to make me feel good. So why do I feel so frustrated??!?!

This is typical me: I make decisions, then I expect to see and feel the results straight away.

This is exactly why I think I need to join in with Charlotte's experiment this month. I need to learn how to just 'Be'.

I can't live my life wishing I could fast forward it. Regardless of how trapped I feel in my current state of existence. I have to experience every minute/hour/day, if even for the morbid reason that hypothetically it could be my last! (I said hypothetically, I'm not terminally ill or anything!)

Yes I think meditation, and yoga, could be the answer here...

More Social Networks...

With a hectic timetable including work, training and teaching it's easy to let weeks go by without meeting up with some of my close friends. Which is why all these social networks seemed like a great idea - Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, you're only ever a click away from 100s of 'Friends'. I have an FB account, recently found Twitter through Chris Illuminati and of course I already have this blog, yet I've just joined another one of these networks - My Athletic Body System - and I'm starting to wonder if I might have gone too far.

Am I becoming Anti-Social through my overuse of Social Networks?!