Just to put this into perspective for you.... my FitBit Surge battery ran out on Wednesday. I was tempted to stay exactly where I was, whilst sending my partner to get the charger and then I wanted to wait for it to charge (please tell me I'm not alone on this one!).

Now, you'll be glad to know that I put my big girl face on and went to charge the watch, much like I would have charged anything else that needed charging. I even LIVED without my Surge for an entire hour.....(ikr!). Don't judge me. If you don't have a FitBit you CAN'T UNDERSTAND and if you do have one then you must be telling porkies!

Everyone I've spoken to seems to go through the similar phases:

• New FitBit, wear it religiously.
• One unspoken day, FitBit gets forgotten for the first time. You feel  betrayed. Like the moving wasn't worth it. It's not the same after that.
• A day or two later, FitBit is forgiven and you're back together. Happily observing the steps you take. Every step you take, every move you make, the FitBit is watching you....

The FitBit fever has well and truely taken me. I set a goal to get 10k steps every day at the start of the year (you can find that post here!).I've been an avid FitBit supporter for a long while. As a company I've always loved the way they treat their customers, which just made me even MORE in awe of them and I've progressed from owning a "one" to being the proud jiggler of a "Surge". During this time, I've caught myself doing rather odd things, so I decided to compile a list of the five ODDEST places I've found myself getting steps...

1. In the shower

It was late, I was low on steps. I found myself jogging on the spot in the shower. I had originally wanted to paint a less desperate picture, one with music and accidental bobbing, but there was no music and nothing was accidental.

Still. I met my step goal....

2. Brushing my teeth

Given I don't really have the "best" co-ordination in the world, this was more of an experiment. I survived jabbing myself in the gums with my toothbrush, and swallowing what was probably too much toothpaste (so minty fresh....).

3. Cooking

When I say cooking, I think anyone who has ever browsed my blog will know that's a very fancy word for what I do with food, but makingslopthatlookslikedogpukeandthenusingthemicrowavetomakeitbetter is really too long a word to keep in common usage.....

Anyway, I KNOW I'm not alone on this one...!

4. Waiting at the car

This one is slightly more likely to draw a few glances....but you know, you're waiting, you could be getting steps.....amiright!?

​5. In a lift

When I'm forced to take a lift, this is what happens. It's usually less irritating for any company I have with me to just take the stairs. Or ride the lift alone. Jus' sayin' ;)

Reading this list makes me appreciate what the people in my life have to put up with, but hey, it's only until I get to 10, 000 steps every day......

Tell me I'm not alone, where do you like to get your extra steps from during the day?

Well well well. What have I been up to this week you might ask yourself?

Firstly and rather excitingly my Facebook page reached 500 likes! In fact, thanks to some of my awesome Facebook buddies it reached 500 likes and just kept going :D I'm now pushing for my first 1, 000 likes! If you've not swung by and given me some love, feel free to ;) I try and post something....um, inspirational....every day (yaha).

Diary of a Pole Addict on Facebook

Secondly, and rather excitingly: I've been working on a new line for my craft shop. Slogan t-shirts :D I'm super excited about them and have lots of slogans in the making but at the moment it's all about #liftlikeagirl. Because I do. And I'm damn proud of that!

I'm working on t-shirt suppliers but they're almost ready to go! When they're ready they'll be available for sale in my Etsy shop here!

So it's been a pretty exciting week here at Squidgey-land. I didn't pole last week though. This has put all things out of whack (blame Tom, he had to go off and have a holiday....sheesh, some people!).

And how have I been progressing with my body fat cut? I hear you ask.....here goes!

Physical

Lets see.....

Slower loss this week with a total loss (overall) of 3.7cm but it's still moving in the right direction! Feeling a little bloated on the ol' tummy there but the tape measure does say it's smaller....can't see it tbh!

Physically I'm feeling FIT. Fitter than I have in a long while. The HIIT that is incorporated into every workout is giving my heart a run for its money and to finish off with the low-intensity steady state cardio just helps with that bit of endurance. I'm not much for steady state cardio, but I'm enjoying it to let the sweat keep flowing  after the heavy lifting and the heavy-going HIIT.

Scales

Yeah, the scales and I....we're not really.....

Saying that, whatever water weight I had on seems to have come off, so the scales are sitting at a handy 155.6Ibs - down from 157Ibs.

Still, as I've said many times - the scales don't *really* represent much and becoming too reliant on that scale weight....well it can drive ya crazy (believe me).

The bigger victory came this week when someone told me my "shoulders were looking more defined" and said they look like "swimmers shoulders". Not going to sniff at that :D He was a little taken aback when I replied "yeah, it's more likely the pole dancing" - but he recovered well :D (lol).

TOP SCALEY TIP: Keep a log of all of the lovely NSV's (non-scale victories) you have! e.g. those trousers you couldn't get into a month ago suddenly fit!

Food

Ah food. So the cut I'm following has me moving down to 1545 calories this week. It's a MUCH lower number than I'd usually consider, but it's for a week and to move some of this stubborn fat....lets see how it goes!

The food thing drove me to experimentation....which ended up looking like this.....

I'm afraid they didn't taste much better than they looked :( back to the drawing board!!


A sweet recipe for you this week?

170g Greek Yoghurt
15g Honey
15g Peanut Butter
5g fudge

Mix it about and YUM. You're eating and suddenly you come across a reserve of PB, or fudge xD It even elicited a "oooh, what have you got? Is that ice-cream? Can I have some?" from DH ;)

Macros: 
304Kcal
30g Carbs
17g Fat
29g Protein


What are your favourite low calorie/carb recipes? Leave them in the comments below! :)

You know it's been a good workout when you leave the gym and you're shaking. Today was uppers and Tom kicked my arse. I pushed harder than I have in weeks and it felt SO good :D

I even managed a rather shaky set with a PB on the dumbbell flyes and a full 3 sets of bench with a PB for a full 3 sets! Awesome :D

Monday behaved itself fairly well today. I have decided that I am going to only going to speak inside my head from now on however; it'll save time, lower co2 emissions, reduce noise pollution and it's about as effective as speaking out loud.... :P

This week's challenge:

Starting today: Do 10 minutes of stretching or yoga every day and incorporate at least one stretch/pose that is new to you every day.


The rules:

• It can be done in one go, it can be done in little bits - but it has to be done
  
• You need to take a photo or a video of yourself doing whatever it is!
• If you miss a day YOU FORFEIT

This week's forfeit:
You will be asked to go into a busy town centre and whilst you're walking along, suddenly stop and start dancing. Remember, you need to video your forfeit too for it to count. *grin*


If you need a recap on how it works, check out my blog from 23rd May!

If you've been playing along and would like to renew a previous challenge remember for every ADDITIONAL week that we complete a set challenge we will donate £1 to our charity!

There have so far been NO forfeits.

Previous challenges:
Week 1: No fizzy drinks for the duration of the challenge.
Week 2: Complete (at least) 10 minutes of running every day of the challenge.
Week 3: Try at least one new thing every day.
Week 4: Say "yes" to anything you're offered to do for one week.
Week 5: Try at least three new things in the week.
Week 6: Add 10k into your existing routine
Week 7: Do at least 10 minutes of stretching or yoga every day
Week 8: Do at least 10 minutes of stretching/yoga every day and incorporate one stretch/pose every day that is new to you!

Remember: You can either renew a challenge or pick this weeks challenge up. Members of the challenge can choose to take the ultimate challenge and run challenges together....!
(For every renewed week we will donate £1 to our fundraising - for a maximum of 5 weeks per challenge).

As my dear sister agreed with this morning "Monday can suck me."

Still, at least I got trusted with some free stuff!! (I know....FREE stuff! Check it out in my last blog post).

And I get to reset the SS challenge....as I said yesterday, there's always plenty of time to think about things when you're out hiking.

And running. Today I subjected myself to 5k in my shiny new running shoes. I'd like to say they made running more bearable, but they only really made my feet ache less. Still. Small things I guess :P

I can however attest that doing legs day on top of a run which included some quick hill work wasn't the best idea.

I looked a bit like this on the squat rack

So, without further ado...

This week's challenge:

Starting today: Do 10 minutes of stretching or yoga every day. (it's a nice one this week!)


The rules:

• It can be done in one go, it can be done in little bits - but it has to be done
  
• You need to take a photo or a video of yourself doing whatever it is!
• If you miss a day YOU FORFEIT

This week's forfeit:
You will be asked to go into a busy town centre and whilst you're walking along, suddenly stop and start dancing. Remember, you need to video your forfeit too for it to count. *grin*


If you need a recap on how it works, check out my blog from 23rd May!

If you've been playing along and would like to renew a previous challenge remember for every ADDITIONAL week that we complete a set challenge we will donate £1 to our charity!

There have so far been NO forfeits.

Previous challenges:
Week 1: No fizzy drinks for the duration of the challenge.
Week 2: Complete (at least) 10 minutes of running every day of the challenge.
Week 3: Try at least one new thing every day.
Week 4: Say "yes" to anything you're offered to do for one week.
Week 5: Try at least three new things in the week.
Week 6: Add 10k into your existing routine

Remember: You can either renew a challenge or pick this weeks challenge up. Members of the challenge can choose to take the ultimate challenge and run challenges together....!
(For every renewed week we will donate £1 to our fundraising - for a maximum of 5 weeks per challenge).

Additional challenges (personal challenges)

• Tash: won't be eating anything from the kebab shop she works at for another week!
• Michelle: will only have fizzy drinks on the weekend and I will be trying to make sure I try at least 3 new exercise things this week!! :D (renewed!)
  

Want to take part? Want to accept our challenges? For everyone who takes a challenge and completes a RENEWED week (so two weeks of a challenge) Snailstalkers will donate 50p to our charity (for a maximum of 5 weeks renewal). Maybe you could make it about your own donations to charity and match our donation?

You'll also get mentioned in the blog (of course!!).

Want to think of the forfeits we do? For suitable forfeits submitted (and approved) we will film ourselves doing them and put them on the website. Please though, nothing that will endanger health or anything that is outrageously inappropriate!


Anyway peeps, I have to go stretch....have fun and keep clicking!!

I did three sit-ups first thing this morning.

I know it doesn't sound like much, but there is only a certain number of times you can switch your alarm on to snooze...

Ah Monday. My nemesis.

This morning my alarm didn't go off. Well. It might have. I might have rolled over and turned it off. Several times.

Either way, I woke up when I'd normally start walking to work. Oooops. Queue a quick protein shake, putting my knickers on backwards and grabbing a pair of decidedly questionable socks.

I spent the rest of the day feeling like my eyes were on fire. Seared shut in fact ;) How is it that you feel that way until the final bell goes and you're ready to go home? I was raring to go at home time!

After yesterdays 30k I expected to feel a bit worse for wear, but actually, I feel fine. It's so tempting to take myself off for a run whilst the house is quiet, but I *know* it's important to rest (starts chanting). I think I may also eat everything in sight. Including the cat. I'd probably eat my keyboard too given the amount of food in it....TMI? I am RAVENOUS!

Anyway, that's enough of that. Who wants to hear the ramblings of a madwoman....(aw c'mon, someone could have spoken up *sob*).

This week's challenge:

Starting today: Add 10km to your training this week.


The rules:

• It can be done in one go, it can be done in little bits - but it has to be done
  
• It can be walking or running
  
• You need to take a photo or a video of yourself doing whatever it is!
• If you miss a day YOU FORFEIT

This week's forfeit:
You will be asked to go into a busy town centre and whilst you're walking along, suddenly stop and start dancing. Remember, you need to video your forfeit too for it to count. *grin*


If you need a recap on how it works, check out my blog from 23rd May!

If you've been playing along and would like to renew a previous challenge remember for every ADDITIONAL week that we complete a set challenge we will donate £1 to our charity!

There have so far been NO forfeits.

Previous challenges:
Week 1: No fizzy drinks for the duration of the challenge.
Week 2: Complete (at least) 10 minutes of running every day of the challenge.
Week 3: Try at least one new thing every day.
Week 4: Say "yes" to anything you're offered to do for one week.
Week 5: Try at least three new things in the week.

Remember: You can either renew a challenge or pick this weeks challenge up. Members of the challenge can choose to take the ultimate challenge and run challenges together....!
(For every renewed week we will donate £1 to our fundraising - for a maximum of 5 weeks per challenge).

*excuse the typo in the title. It is actually week 6 of our challenge!

Want to take part? Want to accept our challenges? For everyone who takes a challenge and completes a RENEWED week (so two weeks of a challenge) Snailstalkers will donate 50p to our charity (for a maximum of 5 weeks renewal). Maybe you could make it about your own donations to charity and match our donation?

You'll also get mentioned in the blog (of course!!).

Want to think of the forfeits we do? For suitable forfeits submitted (and approved) we will film ourselves doing them and put them on the website. Please though, nothing that will endanger health or anything that is outrageously inappropriate!

And some photos to show you the progress of our challenges so far!! :D

I ran today.

I ran 5km.

I ran at 10kph.

All of these things seem incidental don't they. You're probably wondering what I'm on about. Maybe you think I've finally had too much sun to the head? (and that really is quite possible).

Ok, well.

What if I told you that 2 years ago I couldn't run for 60 seconds?

What if I told you that up until 6 months ago I "couldn't" push past 6kph?

What if I told you that 3 years ago I had holed myself up in my house and didn't leave it for 6 months? That I despised my 200Ib (14st3Ib.) 5'5" body and wished that I'd never been given the privilege of life.

What's my point? Sometimes it's easy to look at what you have an forget what you had.

Yeah, I know, I'm a laugh a minute tonight right. But I've promised you a story and I'll give you it.

I realised today that very few people know the journey that this body has been through. My pals at MFP met me when I was a *reasonable* 172Ib (12st2Ibs) and in recovery from a very serious bout of depressive disorder. You can see some of it in previous blog posts (specifically the c25K series) but I've never really told it all.

Why am I telling you this? Why would I want to admit it?

Firstly, I don't see the shame in discussing these things. A colleague a little while ago looked shocked that I discussed my period of deep depression with my students and inferred that it was unprofessional. Being that I teach Psychology I feel that it's extremely professional. We're all quick to make judgements. When I talk to my students of my past they're always shocked. You were fat? You were depressed? No. You're not that now though!

No, I'm not. I'm also proof that you can recover. I'm proof that you can't judge a book by its cover and I'm proof that what doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.

I see so many people who are truely inspirational - people who have overcome huge physical barriers to get to an elite level of physical fitness. People who are working hard to get there.

I saw a lady at the gym the other day, she was very overweight. She was sweating and puffing on the treadmill one up from me. She looked uncomfortable and refused to look up. Like she was ashamed of herself.

What she doesn't realise is that if she keeps going, if she keeps trying eventually she'll be looking at the overweight person next to her and silently egging them on wondering why they look ashamed of themselves.

Don't get me wrong, I do NOT look like a runner. I go purple for a start. I wheeze. I often trip over my own feet and I definitely am NOT graceful (I think you all know that :p). But I keep at it. And slowly, but surely I've improved.

10kph! Who'd have thunk it ;)

What made me think of this?

My sister. She told me a little while ago that she couldn't lose weight, that she didn't believe that she would be successful when we started training. She told me that I'm an inspiration to her.

The transformation is like watching a butterfly unfolding its wings for that first time. Little by little she is gaining confidence, she's losing that weight and she is getting stronger and she has started believing in HERSELF.

Two weeks ago she thought that she couldn't walk 30k. She got to 20k and thought that it was over; by pure strength of will she pushed forwards. It bought it all flooding back. The feeling of my thighs chaffing when I started running (and those god-awful basketball shorts that would ride up!). The feeling of an imminent panic attack. The feeling of shame when someone looked at my HUGE body trying to make the lap around the local playing field.

The feeling of pride when someone stopped me and told me that they thought I was amazing. The feeling of self-worth when I realised my body was becoming stronger and it was me who was making those changes. The feeling of invincibility when I realised I could train my body to do what I WANTED it to do.

The point of what I'm saying here? Never NEVER give up. Success is so much closer than you could ever imagine it to be! Don't ever say you "can't". You just mean that you won't and there IS a difference.

Who am I to be an inspiration? I'm just a girl who did.

I love pole.

I realised what I had become earlier today when after about an hour of me talking non-stop about pole my sister looked about ready to throw herself under a car.

Before that, this afternoon in the office I showed everyone my photos of Marley, Gemini and Gold Rush, explaining in intricate detail what these moves required and how exciting the thrill of doing them was to anyone who would listen (thanks Nicky and Tafrina ;)). Luckily I share an office with a dancer and a runner. They understand.

This morning at the swimming pool (I actually mistyped that as pole....seriously) Tom and I discussed in-depth about how well we thought we'd done, the things we needed to work on and the bruises that were coming up.

Tom thought he'd broken his toe. I think I've pulled a muscle in my forearm. Both of our partners look at us with a sort of dismay - you know, the type where they know there's no use actually trying to dissuade you from your course. Although the broken toe almost got Tom in trouble ;)

The other day my dear hubs decided I needed to go to the doctor since I have tingling in my hands. After calmly explaining that it was simply nerve damage from slipping off of the pole a couple of weeks ago I got the raised eye-brows. Thankfully he's stopped commenting otherwise.

I'm a pole addict. And there's no help for it!

There are other things though, like this morning I realised that walking with your head up and looking at people as they pass you often gets a smile. Sometimes you get a hello. After years of looking at the pavement it's nice to finally look the world in the eyes.

It's not just in the amazing progress you see from week to week (you won't know what I mean until you try it), or in the burst of confidence you get from knowing you are strong. And not just strong for a girl. You're strong. It's not even about the rush of excitement you get from thinking or talking about pole, or re-watching your videos to work out how you can improve. The feeling of getting a "well done, you look awesome". The feeling of KNOWING you rocked it before anyone even says anything. You also get to build a community, new friends, you discover things you never knew about yourself.

For instance, I never knew I could hold my own body weight off of the floor. I never knew that bruising your inner arm hurts like the devil is pinching you (;P). I never knew that my body could (sometimes) move gracefully (admit it Karen, it happens sometimes!!).

Last night, for my "something new" this week (see challenge week 5 for more info!) I did a gold-rush. I'm not going to post the video - yes my confidence has come along in leaps and bounds but there is NO WAY I'm publishing my stomach on that pole :p A gold rush looks a bit like this:

Of course I don't look like THAT, but one day. One day ;)

I also managed to get "Gemini" down - got some work to do on it, like putting my legs back, but both hands off the pole....eeek and SQUEEEEEE . It's a rush xD

There was an incident where I managed to get myself stuck half-way between a Gemini and a Gold-Rush. It was an interesting experience. Like being caught in limbo. Eventually I squeaked enough that Tom helped me down <3

The pink shorts of power REALLY helped. It's amazing what clothes can do to your pysche, but I felt invincible! I even took on the inverted fly-hold and held it. Twice :D

Now, the pink shorts are NEON pink, I really am the day-glo girl again in them. I'm afraid though that they'll get washed out when I wash them so I'm not washing them till they're crusty. I mean it....Tom may have to move poles.

In the tradition of the new-things video I got a video of my Marley. This is something that a few weeks ago I was too nervous to do. Amazing what a few weeks can do. I'm not nervous, I'm raring to go. Instead of Karen looking at me and trying to reassure me that everything will be ok, I'm now seeing that all too familiar glint in her eyes as she decides what she's going to get me doing this week.

Release the shackles and find out what you can do! You'll never know until you give yourself permission!!

Now, in other news:
(see, it's so easy to talk forever about pole xD)....ooops, almost got sidetracked again.

Happy Birthday to Amber!! She's 20 today :D she's spent the day being pampered, which is just about right - I hope she's had a great day :D

Tasha is doing well with her kebab challenge - no kebab meals, great job :D

Well, that's all I really have for today. I'm done ;)

Remember guys, every legitimate ad-click round the site gets us money for fundraising - so don't be shy, check them out :D we're up to £5 already so HUGE thanks to everyone clicking those ads - wub you!!

I also have to say I am humbled by the amount of people who come and read what I have to say. Some people even think what I have to say is worth retweeting, or putting into their daily/weekly story summaries....it's amazing. Thank you. I hope I'll be seeing you again :D Maybe you'll introduce yourself one day xD

It was Monday today.

Do you know how I know that?

It was nothing to do with the calendar, or the start of the working week. Oh no. Today was Monday in every sense of the word.

As I reached into my fridge today the hinge broke. No big deal right? Except that the fridge door has to weigh a good 20kg and I was now holding the door in my left hand and my breakfast (blueberries, a yoghurt and the milk for my protein shake) in my right hand.

It's daily I thank weight training for making my life easier ;) (yes, things like this happen on a daily occurance, you get used to it). After juggling the fridge door (which I might add had a further 4 pints of milk, several packets of cheese, some chillis and a litre of apple juice in it) I managed to wiggle it back onto the hinge, all the while desperately trying not to drop my breakfast.

It was a hard decision.....do I drop the breakfast or the door? The counter is too far away for me to put the food down, but oh, the door is balanced just so against my shoulder...I chose to drop neither and did a trick worthy of a master magician.

After I left the fridge alone, very carefully replacing what I hadn't eaten I walked to work. Naturally I was late.

I got an email titled "Your Mother-in-law" which is always cause for concern and was informed by someone else that I'm on a trip next week. Ooops. Had forgotten that.

Of course the wind drove everyone crazy and there were kids running around like feral cats on a full moon, zig-zagging and practically climbing the walls. Just another day.

To top it all off it was "uppers" day. I have to admit at this point I have a varied relationship with uppers. As you're trying to bench those last two reps it's like your head is going to explode. Once you've re-racked you could take on the world!

There were some (what I can only describe as) children doing some sort of bizarre initiation ceremony involving the barbells in several weights and bopping up and down in time with each other. I can only assume they were doing calf raises. What I couldn't work out is how the 15kg barbell came into it.

The gym was packed. There was an amazing looking woman there, who is one of my gym-idols! She just looks great and lifts like a beast. Always motivating :D

We lift like beasts to look like foxes, oooh yea.

Tom also decided that I needed to man up. So I got a honorary penis for the session. I walked with a swagger and made good use of the 17.5kg dumbells. I was happy.

That is, I was happy until we decided to do some HIIT. I thought it would be "fun" to subject Tom to Sophie's HIIT pyramid....

I still ache. And my lungs hurt. Thanks Sophie :p


Anyway, in the shower after the gym I discovered that I've swapped the Zombie shuffle for the Zombie grab. You know the one, where your arms won't come above chest level.

Given I'm still bending like an old lady the zombie grab should be fun instilling "fear" into my class tomorrow. Ha. As if. Apparently the thought of me being scary is funny to them. I'll have to do my Yoda impression. That will get them.

Anyway, short and sweet today. I'm starving. I'll leave you with this though.

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6 months ago I started weight training. I mean, "properly", weight training.

When I started this endeavour I wondered about the possible consequences of what taking a load of cardio out of my routine would do to me.

I've always watched the debates on the forums on MFP where the newbie female weight lifter/possible weight lifter is having the benefits of weight training explained to her whilst also having the concepts of muscle VS fat density and why "muscle doesn't weigh more than fat" and trying to explain why she won't get "bulky" there is always someone who throws their toys out of the pram and exits the conversation.

The effect is always somewhat diminished by the plethora of silly gifs and memes that follow the declaration that everyone in the world is stupid and that they are going to lock themselves away forever.

I enjoy watching these debates but I try not to get involved in them. I've identified myself as a "lifter" for over a year now, but today marks my 6th month "properly" weight training. Properly weight training. Whoa, loaded phrase huh. What I mean by this is being consistent and working my ass off lifting weights that always look far to heavy to bother lifting up in the first place.

This year I discovered the benefits of having a gym buddy. We train hard. Six months ago I believed that my arms were too weak to do a bench press. Now I'm sitting on a PB of 50kg. Maybe that's not so much compared to what you lift, maybe it's loads - that's not my point. My point is that until you put the effort in you never know what you're capable of.

I don't see the reason in leaving the gym until I'm covered in sweat, you all know this - I like to be "positively amphibious" before leaving the gym and this time, working with a partner I've made real gains.

I actually upped my caloric intake for a while, putting on in total 10Ibs mass. 10Ibs. You should have seen my face when I got on the scale after bulking. I would like to say that I took it in my stride and accepted some of that would be muscle. I would be lying.

I then panicked a little bit (and by panic I mean sobbing wildly that I'm "too fat to fit anything" and by little bit I mean "give me an Oscar people, it was a performance worth watching") when it didn't start coming back off with a caloric deficit but with Kenny's challenge (thanks Kenny!) the increased protein diet appears to be shaving that excess fat off nicely.

I have to confess, I had been plateued for over a year when I started weight training (weight loss plateaus SUCK). And then I gained 10Ibs. Not selling the weight training so well am I - but when the water weight had settled it was a mild (MILD....MILD?!)
8Ib gain but the most important discovery for me was in that balanced macros are more than essential in weight loss!! My 60% carb diet was just leading to increased fat stores. No matter how much I worked out it wasn't working. Play with your macros till you hit something that works!


Anyway, I've been dying to have "guns" to show off and finally some of the largest gains can be seen in my arms. According to my darling hubs I could pass for a 15 year old boy now. Thanks hun.

Anyway, thought I'd show some progress pictures - the first picture (top left) was taken on 15th January this year and the last picture (bottom right) was taken today....

Go for those boy arms :P

Today I said "yes" to a 10k run :D

After finishing the 10k run (ok, when I say run I'm REALLY using that term loosely - what I mean by run is more "run for about 5 minutes and then disintegrate into a puffing heap of sweat dragging my feet behind me") and an uppers session at the gym I have to confess that my bum is totally dead.

It's the same muscle you need for handstands....I swear....if I could just find that muscle I'd train it but I've no idea where it is in my body ;) It's like a magic muscle - I only know it's there when I try to do handstands or do legs day followed by a run. Otherwise it just doesn't exist!

Anyway, that's me done for today. I'm going to take my bottle of frozen milk that I'm currently sat on (apparently it needed defrosting and my pain is helpful for that....) and nurse my bum muscles with another protein shake and some football. Hopefully it'll rain again. I like it when it rains in the football....

Before I go lets do all of the important announcements:

HUGE thanks to Lewis - I'm amazed that you'd sponsored us again and you're one of our largest benefactors. Your support means so much <3 £40 is a massive chunk of fundraising done and the whole team sends massive virtual hugs. We're also waiting for that video of you doing a handstand...(and Kel has assured us that this would be good entertainment ;) ).

Also, we're £2.50 into Google Ad-sense funds so keep checking out those links, it's all for a good cause!

We're also adding stock to our handmade gifts/jewelry so please keep checking out our shop here or on the Etsy site here!

We also have some great #Fitspo, funny memes, current health news and lovely quotes - not just a pretty blog peeps check em all out!:)

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