Blast! review

Hi peoples! This week I am reviewing Blast,which is just a step class with a different name. 

What are my thoughts on this class...........well personally I hated it, it wasn't the intensity of the class I didn't like I think that its because of the way its delivered. I think I might go and do the same class at another gym with a different instructor and see if that makes a difference.

Overall its quiet high intensity and I was sweating profusely(always a good sign) within a pretty short amount of time. I think this class might be pretty daunting for beginners because theres a lot of fancy foot work and hands, and if you are anything like me feet and hands and trying to learn something new doesn't always work out well.

I ended up getting in an argument with the instructor after this class because for the 12 week challenge I have a little passport that I have to get signed off by the instructor after every class I attend, my trainer and I made a deal that I could count cross fit as one of mine even though technically its not group fitness ,well this lady went off her tits at me telling me no I couldn't count it and I was disqualified from the challenge and blah blah and I would have to make it up with another class, jeez she made me so angry normally I would of told her where to stick it, but I was feeling zen that day so just walked away.

Next Class Review.

This week I did CROSS FIT!!!! ,ended up getting in to an argument with the group fitness instructor about whether or not I can count it as one of my classes but more about that later. Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of years you will probably know what Cross fit is, but if you don't basic run down is functional movements at high intensity doing AMRAP(as many reps as possible).

Not the video I wanted but general gist is there.

What did I think of it? I can definitely understand where all the hype for it comes from, I LOVED IT!!!!!!!!

I think because its functional movements that everyone can do and you can adjust it to your level of fitness.I attended an intro class with my cousin,Mel, and in an intro class you do a basic warm up and then you do a WOD(workout of the day) the one we did was thrusters,box jumps,push ups,pull ups and 100 meter sprints we had to see how many sets we could do in 10 minutes, I did 4 and a bit!

Would I do it again? Hard to say from the point of view of needing to add something extra to my fitness regime,yeas I would go again...from the point of view of a baby personal trainer probably not,the chance of injury is just to high because the focus is on AMRAP and not necessarily on proper form.

Another thing that might put people of is the cost of it $50.50 a week, given you can attend as many times as you want in that week but for some people they would only be able to go once which makes it a total rip.

And heres a after photo, may not look it but my cheeks were so red and hot and I was really sweaty.Also being unsafe and taking pics while I was driving!

OK next review is Group Blast and more details about the argument I had.

Group Power Review.

You may remember that previously I had said that I was doing a challenge and I had to attend 1 group fitness class a week. The first class I attended was Power. Basically it is weights at medium/high intensity.

What did I think of it?

 Mmmmmm, I enjoyed it and would do it again, but I found it quiet easy. That was probably because I was using low weights, another thing was because it involves a lot of squats it was aggravating my knee injury which caused me to use poor form  to preserve my range of movement.

Some people I have meet absolutely RAVE about it, but honestly I thought it was pretty mediocre, fun way to pass an hour but there are better things out there.

Probably should of done my research first

So I am in day 1 of my challenge at the gym, so that means day one of my detox and I am so so so so hungry. I couldnt stomach the soup so I have only had toast and hummus and a couple of spoonfuls of the soup.

I knew that I was going to feel like shit for the first couple of days and that it was going to be hard, but throughout my journey I have never deprived myself of anything and the fact that I have to has really been rubbing me the wrong way today. I have learnt that depriving myself leads to me having an almighty binge where I eat EVERYTHING I can get my hands on,even if its something that I dont like.

I have been at work today and then when I got home I just googled "are detoxes good for you?" and  not suprisingly the answer has been a resounding NO, not only do you deprive your body of nutrients, any weight that you might lose you will gain back the minute you start eating again, it doesnt even have to be normally, because detoxes are normally so low in calories that eating even slightly more than this will make you gain weight.

I dont want to give up on this detox but sensibility says that I cant maintain day to day function on just bread and hummus. I think that I can create my own sustainable detox that wont deprive me of anything,off I go in to the depths of the internet to find something, or maybe I can skip forward and have normal food for one meal and follow the detox for other meals,I think that this would work as long as I ate cleanly for the rest of the day and focused on plant foos and lean protien.

The next 2 weeks

So I have entered a 12 week challenge at my gym, and what I didn't realize was that for the first 2 weeks I would have to do a detox! And a scary one at that!!!

For the next couple of weeks I  have to live on soup. And toast. And water. AGH!!! This is gonna be a test on the old willpower especially since it has been lacking of late.

it looks so............ugh...................healthful.

The ingredient list is:

2 Tbsp cold pressed olive oil

1 large onion chopped

30mm knob of fresh ginger,grated

Fresh parsley chopped

1 tsp Tumeric

2 small tomatoes chopped

1/2 turnip and 1/2 a parsnip

1carrot grated

1 cup pumpkin cubes

1 zucchini cubed

1 large potato chopped.

-so heat oil cook onion till it goes glassy then chuck everything else in.

then add:

2cups water

2Tbsp tamari

2 brussel sprouts chopped

2 cups cauliflower chopped

1 chopped head of broccoli

1 leaf of silverbeet chopped including stalk

500gm frozen peas

garlic cruched

green beans

1 tin of lentils drained.

- hiff this in and stir and then add

1cup spinach

3 Tbsp Miso paste

5 strips wakame

1tsp ground nutmeg

4 cups water and return to the boil stirring.Reduce to simmer until vegetables are cooked. Keep lid on turn heat off and let cool.

So I have this for a everything I want to eat apart from breakfast when I can have gluten-free bread or rice cakes with: banana&nut butter,avocado,hummus,tahini or gluten free baked beans. I think with the soup I might leave some chunky so its like a stew and have it at dinner time so that I feel like I am having a semi decent meal.

I am not going in to the forbidden list because that will just make me depressed, at least I dont have to give up my sparkling water and if I get the urge I can force myself to choke down a green juice..................but I highly doubt that will happen.I went and warned my bosses that I am going to get hangry, and they laughed but they will soon learn its no laughing matter.

The other part of the challenge is that I have to attend 1 group fitness class a week at either of the 2 gyms, now normally I avoid group fitness because normally I find one that I like and they bloody well cancel it. I figure that to make it fun I will do the classes and then rate them on my blog, you know just coz I can. I think the first one I do will be cross fit, because I have been itching to do it for a while and since I am on holiday from my school at the moment I finally have the time to do it.

Funny way to start a juice fast.

Well I did actually start my juice fast this morning, and I actually don't feel like my throat has been cut or that I am missing out...................yet.

Anyways I have been baking this morning for my friend that has just had a baby and is going to be in hospital a bit and I just know that she is going to be less than impressed with the hospital food, so super paleo baking lady to the rescue.

I found this recipe by mistake on NomNomPaleo while I was lurking around there looking for something for dinner, the actual recipe is on the Primal Palate site.

These cookies are amazing!They taste just like a traditional choc chip cookie, they are very soft though so you can fix this by leaving them in the oven a bit longer to let them dry out more, DON'T FORGET THEM they will burn and they are not nice when they are burnt, or if you don't trust your memory reduce the amount of maple syrup you use by 1-2 tablespoons.

Another thing to remember is if you make BIG cookies, watch the serving size. I generally make them teaspoon sized so that I CAN have a couple because it is a bit hard to stop at just one.

I don't think a visit will get turned down if I turn up offering these cookies and a tray of paleo brownies do you?

Starting Again...............

Hi everyone out there in Internet land!

So this blog is going to be dedicated to my crazy adventures in losing the last few kilo's that have stubbornly been holding on for the past year. I previously had a blog that was about the main part of my weight loss mission and my time with weight watchers, as I started moving away from the weight watchers principles and looking in to clean eating a paleo the blog died a slow horrible death until I finally deleted it at the start of this year.

So where to begin 3 years ago this was me

 I was 144 kilos probably more being honest, I couldn't walk far , I was a horrible horrible person to be around and ended up pushing people away leaving me with very few friends.

I joined weight watchers and slowly muddled my way through

And did some cool stuff along the way like a 5km fun run/walk entered my first 1/2 marathon(and finished) did a 20 km ocean race in the waka. And the biggest thing is I lost 50 kilograms and ended up looking pretty damned good. 

I am also now studying Diploma in Applied Fitness with my end goal of that being that I become a personal trainer and can help people that are like what I used to be like.

So as a follow on from what I am studying and interested in I use myself as a test subject quiet a bit and this week I have decided to try doing a juice fast over the weekend 2 days maybe 3 max and see how it goes.

I found this website www.juicerecipes.com and have decide that this is what I am having for breakfast tomorrow http://juicerecipes.com/recipes/fruity-punch-twist-60 

And hopefully now that I have a blog again it might work as another form of motivation for me.

Right I'm out for now, hope this has been okay reading.