I have at least two more bites that look like that. And they're still swelling :( (sympathy sympathy :p)

My nemesis. The horsefly.

I learnt an important lesson on yesterdays walk...TAKE INSECT REPELLANT!!

Anyway, enough fishing for sympathy....for now ;)

The day started with a picture of some of my favourite food....flapjacks :D Love these things - Kenny makes great flapjacks. It's part of the Support Team specification ;P

I don't blame Simon for dancing around that one. Amber did *try* to march through it, but stopped when she started taking water on board ;)

I would have filmed said encounter, but there had been some mutiny regarding the camera already. Apparently I can "stuff it". Hmmppph. Luckily for everyone (or maybe for me), my phone died shortly after horse-fly lake. Before that though, I managed to get some gorgeous shots....

Spending 10 hours with people under continuously exerting conditions shows their character well. Aside from the occasional mumbled death threats regarding rather steep hills and one occasion where there was talk of exsanguination via horse-fly just to make the walking stop (apparently if the team leader stops, they get to stop.....according to Simon it would be a bit like in Minecraft when you have the sheep and you're leading them along with seeds. If you drop the seeds the sheep just sort of wander off).

Speaking of....does anyone know how much blood is in those things!!? One landed on Tash, which Amber managed to take a good hit at and the thing literally popped. There was blood everywhere (most of which I assume was mine). It was like some sort of gory vampire movie. There was blood all over Tasha's leg and it even spurted on to her other leg.....gross.

I don't usually like to kill insects, I always feel a bit guilty when a spider dies on account of me (Dave the cat is very adept at catching insects), or the poor ladybird that Simon put out of the car-window.....insect murder is NOT ok people. But horseflies. I was eventually out for blood. I even managed to get one that was trying to bite my stomach. Yeah. Got her good.

By the time we reached "Kill You Hill" the horseflies had gone to bed and we were left with just getting up the thing. I have to say, near the top I was tempted to just drop to my knees and lay on my face for a while but Tash got me though with a rousing rendition of "Careless Whisper". We rocked that tune.

Shortly after that Amber volunteered to be used as a sled. At that point it was well time for home...

Anyway, 9.5 hours after we left Hartness Down we arrived in Storrington. Or, well. A field near Storrington. Kenny picked us up and we were home, to watch the footie by 10:00pm.

I went to the doctor today.

Just a usual appointment. I put my leathers on, grabbed my lid and left the house, with only my wallet, phone and motorbike keys.

It was an early appointment, so I left hubs in bed. Little did I remember I'd removed my house key to put into my running arm-band. Little did I realise that hubs would be gone by the time I got back. Oooops.

When did I realise my folly? When I got to the front door and tried to get into the flat. Crap.

I call Simon and he laughs and tells me I can collect the keys - an hour away at his school. Great.

So, I drove into work and presented myself to my boss. I can either teach in my leathers or I can teach naked.

Apparently the leathers were preferable. Which is fortunate, given that 15 minutes later the fire alarm went off and we had to evacuate the school. I'm sure standing naked in the middle of the field with the entire school cohort and teachers would have got a little more attention. As it was I just repeatedly got mistaken for a student. Great.

So I'm stood in the middle of the playing field, in black kevlar sweating my ass off. What a weight loss cure :p I'm also pretty sure the vest top I had on went see-through in the sunlight (it's old and only meant to be worn underneath other things!). It was like it was some kind of massive karmatic payback ;)

After standing in the sun for about 40 minutes we were let back in, so I immediately went to the canteen and scrounged food and water. Win xD

The rest of the day passed fairly well. I hid in the office all day, only going out for lessons. One of my students volunteered me a black dress that was far more respectable than what I was wearing - God send :D

When it came to slipping out quietly from work a few minutes early to finally get home and change into my own clothes and eat, I managed to attract the attention of a year 9 class being taught by one of the assistant-headteachers. /sigh. Still. Apparently Beena the pink VFR400 is a crowd pleaser xD As I got ready to start her up I could hear the pleas of the boys in the class "please miss let us hear the sound of it starting". LOL. As the class was shepherded back into the classroom I did get a look and a "it is a very nice bike" from the teacher, so Beena, the wonder bike wins her audience it would seem!

Back home, finally, after maneuvering the bike - which I might add is a work out of its own! (Try moving a 186kg deadweight into a small parking space :p)

Rosanna and I have decided to start running together - since I'm not the best runner in the world and she's recovering from a broken ankle it seems to work!

A lovely run/walk around our local park/woods finished the excitement for the evening off nicely. Of course encountering students on the way had to be expected with the rest of the days events - but they're the lovely sort of students ;) So Rosanna, if you're reading this - good hustle xD

So - enjoy your Friday evening (happy 4th July to my American readers!!). Have an awesome time and if you're watching the football it's always good to note the Brazillians DO wear tight shirts. Always enhances a game I think :p Lets hope they stay in.....for their talent. Naturally.

I'll leave you with a fairly accurate representation of my running skills...

Excuse my radio silence yesterday.

As you all know, my uncle passed away a couple of weeks ago and we attended his funeral yesterday.

As I sat listening to the things people said about him now that he's passed on I thought of all the things that I've done in my life. What would people say about me when my time comes?

Well. The alcohol later in the afternoon helped me think further on that. Apparently I'm quite an entertaining drunk.

The hangover was not entertaining. I so rarely drink that it takes about a pint before I'm dancing round the parasols. Unlike my little sister, who can knock back 8 Tia Marias *gag* and still be breathing.....

So, when the buzzer went off at 8:30am this morning I can't say I was awfully impressed. The dude delivering my parcel (protein nomnoms!) was as awake as you'd like - telling me he'd rather have woken me up at 6:30am. He almost got shown a little more than he was counting on.

When I finally decided it was safe to get out of bed (i.e. the liquid in my stomach had stopped moving around and the world was not lurching alarmingly) I decided it was time to get a few things done!

Firstly, I have had a sample of some waterless shampoo delivered for me to do a review on. Given that I was around smokers yesterday evening my long hair smelled of that "after-smoke" smell you get when you've been in pubs (well, the smell you would have got inside pubs about 10 years ago). I decided the first test for the shampoo was to see if it could handle the smell.

I'm really fussy with how products make my hair and skin smell and feel, so I was a little apprehensive about opening the package, given that I'm always as honest as possible. Having opened it and squeezed some foam onto my hand (which felt less dense than I thought it would) I went with it and put it on my hair. Smells nice. Didn't leave a residue. Hmm. Could work - I'll keep giving it a go and taking photos to give you guys the full low-down at the end of the week!

Secondly, it was time to get a gait analysis done - I've always picked my running shoes by colour (don't judge me) but I knew it's time to actually find out how my feet move.

I also needed new hiking boots (yes, I DID go a size bigger...a size and a half actually!)

And I also had to somehow persuade my hubs to buy a new pair of running shoes. This was going to be my challenge for the day.

The thing with getting the hubs to go shoe shopping is to break it to him gently, in logical terms with a clear "get-out" plan. And never, ever before morning coffee.

As my plan kicked in to play, starting to discuss his (hideous) old running shoes in relation to our planned training walk tomorrow. They have bits of rubber falling off of them. He's had them as long as I've known him. They're practically rotten (sadly I think they're also going to be framed).

He was surprisingly easy to convince into buying shoes....suspicious....still, I decided to play the advantage (I learnt what that meant today xD).

1 hour into shopping trip and we'd visited all of the sports stores in Crawley. They're too bright, they're too expensive, they're not good enough quality....

2 hours in we'd visited two jewelry stores and done a round in 'Next'. If a man ever says women wander when we're shopping to me again.... :p

2.5 hours in and we were back in the store we started in. I perved over the minimalist running shoes, knowing full well that with the ligament damage in my foot they're probably not the best choice, but still, they felt nice...

Everything was apparently "too bright" for hubs. Can't wear the yellow, or the blue, or the red, or the pink, or the orange and yellow and he didn't like "that shade of purple". I never want to hear "oh, you're fussy" from him again.

As he was about to leave the store I lucked out on some blue and black New Balance....on offer! Gently...Gently...."look dear". Aaaaand they took! Mission 1 achieved.

I then proceeded to spend 1.5 hours speaking to a REALLY knowledgable assistant called Natalie, who analysed my gait, listened to the story of the broken foot (and gave me the same look the doctor in A&E did) and also found some nice, lightweight Salomon hiking boots. I may also have left the store with some supportive, Brookes running shoes. They're pretty....and the video of the gait analysis DID show they supported my ankles more....honest! (apparently I land on the outside of my heel and then over-pronate, bending my ankle over. Surprised I've not strained it yet actually watching the footage).

So, hiking boots = check, hubs hiking/running shoes = check, running shoes (not on original list) = check, gait analysis = check, protein noms = check.

Today was a success :)

I also got an email from Holly at PoleFreaks telling me my blog has been published!! Whoo!! You can read "Don't Let Fear Bridle You, Let Passion Release You - Pole Dance" at PoleFreaks.

I've talked about the progression from 0 weeks to 20 weeks in dancing.....lots of photos :D

Anyway, time to go and test my new running shoes and get my THIRD extra 5k into my training this week ;) Laters peeps!

Oh, I'll even leave you with some pictures!!

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.

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!:)

#gym #workout #physical exercise #fitness #you #challenge #fernwood fitness #humour #blog #fitness blog # fitfam #news #bbc news #free weights #resistance training #training #trailwalker #Oxfam #fundraising #money #free #you #donate #charity #charity shop #jewelry #bitch #boobies #girls #funny #weights #bro do you even lift #lift #physical #personal trainer #porn #bum #weighttrain #lift heavy #weight loss plateau

Oh it's Friday it's Friday gonna get legs day on Friday....

Evening all, I thought we'd go for a picture book format tonight! :)

But first, I need to say a few things!

• Thanks again to one of my year 13s for donating another 20p - Hi Colette :P You're now famous - officially!
• Thanks for all of the advert clicks, keep investigating peeps - it's all for fundraising!
• If you want to talk about sex roles and babies, check out today's health and fitness article ;)
• And finally, the whole team will be at Horsham Boot Sale tomorrow - check out the details on our events page (here) and come buy some stuff and contribute to our fundraising whilst getting cool stuff!! We'll have all of our arts and crafts on display - all hand made, excellent cheap gifts and free sweeties!
  

So...today was legs day :D Whoop.

When I got home I looked at Simon and said...

And he said "aren't we supposed to do some cardio today?"
So I responded...

He even suggested we skip legs day...

So I explained the rules of legs day

And as I left the gym...

But it had started after the deadlifts and was recognisable now as I walked across the car park....

Climbing up the stairs to the flat....

And this is what I'll be like tomorrow at our boot sale event!

But always remember people...

Afternoon all.

Apologies for being absent yesterday - we had a rather jam packed day with a trip out to London and some perfectly bad news to complement the way the rest of this week has been going so far.

There was even a moment I feared for my work laptop's life today. You've all known that moment. It's the one where you've been working on a document for ages, go to print something else and word closes. Ooops. Didn't save it. Crap. Then the printers don't work and chew the paper up, so what you're left with is actually only a ball of inky paper that you've crumpled up and jumped on in frustration and a half a document. Saving work saves lives people!!

But you know how it is, chin up and stay chipper.

I have been looking at our Google Ad-Sense account and then I made a Google Webmaster account. And THEN I made a Google Analytics account and they all have really pretty graphs on them BUT I DON'T HAVE A CLUE WHAT ANY OF IT MEANS!

The graphs are in blue and red. And that's about it. So yeah, any ideas about what it all means are welcomely directed to our comments box below. Remember also to keep clicking and checking out the links around the site! All pennies go into our pot and there are some great offers :)

Anyway, so. Today we're going to talk about pole dancing and utter bliss. If you want to try pole but don't know what to expect check out my resource page by clicking here!

Pole. Ah, my love.

Pole this week was an amazing awakening. I felt strong, I felt sure, I felt reassured that all was right with the world. For those of you who are into a routine with exercise you'll know the feeling - that yearning, the gnawing restlessness in your body before you work out and then that amazing, ecstatic feeling of release when you get the feeling of being completely centered, concentrating not on who said what or what's going to happen tomorrow or when will the funeral be but just on BEING.

There's nothing like it. Even as I write this I'm itching to be there, zoned and completely blissful.

I know that people who don't workout, or who are very new to working out or even those people who are doing something they truely despise won't understand what I'm talking about. I remember people saying that exercise was addictive and that it gave you peace, but I always dismissed it with a wave of my hand and a can of coke.

This week was a perfect example of this phenomena. It could be blowing a gale, or even raining horses and I wouldn't notice so long as I'm in that zone. Perfect. It's like being asleep but you're in control of what's going on. Bliss.

So this week we started as usual and something different happened. I went to invert and my legs just shot up without me even really thinking about what I was doing. All of a sudden, in one smooth movement I was hanging upside down. It surprised me so much I slipped off the pole.

It was the only time that happened - the rest of the evening went as usual, a bit like a monkey gaining purchase - the utter stubbornness to make sure I get upside down (you'll see what I mean when I post the video!).

Then even MORE strange things started happening. All of a sudden my butterfly seemed easy and the gemini didn't seem impossible any more!

Impossible? Try I'm possible.

I have the bruises to show it ;)

Then Karen suggested doing "Geneva". Ah, I looked at her like she'd gone perfectly mad - I'm not ACTUALLY going to let go of the pole with my legs and swing it round so that I'm sitting up.....how on earth am I going to do that?

Then the best thing of all evening occured. I nodded confidently, got up onto the pole and did it. I just did it.

Excuse the monkey imitation at the start. And the cleavage - not much to do about that when you're hanging upside down on a pole by one leg. Jus' sayin'.

The bruises may look like I've been run over by my amazingly fat cat (he really is - but don't worry, he's on a diet....) but they're worth it. I FEEL strong. I feel confident and there is NO-ONE that can take that away from me.

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weights #resistance training #training #trailwalker #Oxfam #fundraising #money
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