First sessions at Fitness First

I feel amazing. I'm so glad I signed up.

I kinda wanted to make a post last night after our first trip to the gym, but I didn't really do much. The initial signing up process took about 15 minutes, getting the membership cards active and so on. Small tour around the gym and after that I met up with my lovely PT, Elaine. We only had 30 minutes yesterday so we just basically spoke about what my goals are, what my diet is like and how my back affects me.

After our quick meetup I met up with my other half who was getting right into it. He's been a member of FF before so he knew how everything works and so on so I just ended up shadowing him for another 20 minutes. I joined him on the treadmills for his cooldown, I just messed about for 10 minutes while he jogged.

Right, today! I have a feeling I won't be able to move tomorrow after everything I've done today! :D I'm also trying to get into the habit of eating breakfast, the fuel from it was very needed today at least.. (no, I'm not a Southampton fan before someone asks... :p) Had zero idea of the sugar content of the yoghurt this morning but I'm sure it won't kill me if it had a bit more than I wanted.

As the gym isn't too far away from where we live, I decided to be proactive and cycle to the gym. In hindsight, I probably should've taken the bus. Sure, it's the lazy way but the traffic was an absolute nightmare and it ended up taking me nearly just as long cycling there as it would if I took the bus. Curses.

Anyways! My routine today looked like this:
Cycling to gym, 25 minutes
Pilates, one hour
PT session, 30 minutes
Jog, 10 minutes
Cycling home, 20 minutes

Pilates in one word: amazing. A lot of people seem to think that it's just stretching and listening to soothing music for an hour, but it's so much more. Even if you're not using weights, you constantly use your own body weight as resistance and you suck in your bellybutton to keep your core engaged the entire time. Definitely something I'll keep doing every week, such a fantastic form of exercise for my back.

The PT session was mainly filled with going through all the equipment to get me comfortable with it, all with a few reps just to see what kind of weight and resistance I'm OK with to start. Booked a full workout session with her for tomorrow evening to get started properly.

Oh my god the jogging! I have always wanted to jog / run to keep myself fit but it's way too high impact for my back so it really starts to hurt after a few minutes. But having a low impact machine for it.. I'm in heaven. Ten minutes straight with no pain whatsoever. I didn't want to stop!!

I was absolutely soaking wet by the time I stopped. I don't understand how some girls can come to the gym in full makeup and not smudge it! I'd definitely have it all over my cheeks..

Anyways, time to enjoy this well deserved cup of coffee. ;)

"Yeah I'll have a rest day!"

Well I definitely am god awful with plans and promises. I was so determined to have a rest day today, but have a guess if I did. Of course I didn't. It was a slow paced and short walk, though. Didn't do the full hour, just went to the beach and back. I guess I can blame my friend a bit here, he wanted to meet up! Yeah, I definitely blame him. All his fault. Ehm.

It did give me a chance to try out my new clothes, though. :D

And to show off my new, awesome mug a bit! My brother got this for me as a present, I absolutely love Grumpy Cat so this mug is so brilliant. In case it's not clear, it says "I had fun once. It was awful.". Tardar. <3

New exercise clothes!

I'm so glad all this stuff arrived today! I will go through all the stuff I've bought and then hopefully over the next few weeks I'll have pictures where I'm wearing the stuff so you get a better idea of everything.

It's gonna be a very USA Pro heavy post, please do remember that this is just my own preference in exercise clothing and I am not gaining anything from the company. :)

USA Pro Ladies Across Body Bag

I wasn't expecting this to be quite as big as it is! It can easily fit a big towel, trainers, a water bottle and clean clothes in it. Both logos are reflectors, the fabric feels waterproof and there's two small pockets (one outside, one inside) for personal items. The "backside" of the bag is padded to give extra comfort while carrying it.

Longsdale Crop Top

I've actually got three of these already in pink, navy and black. Very comfortable, proper support and unlike the Longsdale Sports Bras, these aren't low cut (so everything stays in place properly..). I love it that they come in such a wide variety of colours, not that I'm gonna match my clothes that carefully but the colours just make it all a bit more fun. :D

USA Pro Yoga Shorts

I've really struggled when it's been hot outside and I've had to wear long trousers. To remedy that I ordered these and the shorts below. Quite a snug fit, fabric feels very nice and they are incredibly comfortable to wear. Unlike all my other exercise trousers, these are a mix of nylon and polyester (the usual exercise trousers are polyester).

  

LA Gear Cycle Shorts

Same as above, bought these to make walking in the hot weather a bit more comfortable. Not much to say, the elastic band around the waist did crackle loads when I stretched it, though. Don't know if it was just because the elastic band hasn't been touched for a while or if I was a bit too rough with them.

USA Pro Tight Pants

They really are tight!!  And maybe an inch too long for me, being a midget. They do wonders to your legs and bum, though. Like with the other USA Pro trousers, there's a small pouch on the waistband for a key. I find this incredibly useful as you don't have actual pockets in the trousers. Both the USA Pro logo and the flowers on the legs are reflectors. Only time will tell how well they actually reflect light.

USA Pro Three Quarter Leggings

I've already got these in gray so I know these are wonderful, they are very comfortable to wear and I just love these bright colours! They have changed the waistband, though. The little mesh looking bit doesn't really stretch, which makes it quite challenging to pull these all the way up. They're not actually tight when they're properly on, you just need to wiggle a bit to pull them over the... curvier bits. :p And just like with the full length ones, these have that small pouch for a key on the waistband.

 All this is available from Sports Direct.

Target jeans - check

A lot of women seem to have those "target jeans" in their wardrobe. Those amazing jeans that used to fit perfectly, you looked amazing in them and so on. I did actually grab a pair of jeans with me from Finland when I was going through some of our outside storage buildings. Last time I wore these jeans was 2009, they were by far my favourite jeans but as it happens, I got too big for them! :D I'm quite glad my mum is such a magpie at times, they were still there, just sitting in a plastic bag.

I tried them on the other day, they actually go all the way up but are just a bit too tight and I can't button them. I'm gonna set myself a goal with them - by mid November I want to be able to fit them.

I'm also losing track of my rest days lately! And in a way I do also feel very lazy if I do have a rest day, I know I should have them but I just feel incredibly guilty if I do. Determined to have tomorrow off from exercise, though. I want to give my muscles a break before getting tortured by a PT on Tuesday. :D

Food wise it's been the usual really. Fishfingers with some pasta and peas & sweetcorn for lunch and just waiting for a lovely chicken roast to cook. :) We haven't actually had roast dinners in ages, I don't really even miss them as it never was a part of the Finnish food culture. I do love them, though. All the veg and delicious roast chicken, a bit of mint sauce (yes, mint with chicken!) and yorkshires. Lovely.

WI 30: -0.4kg

Not much to say about this really. :) A bit off from my target but oh well, there's no rush. Getting started with the gym next week will surely start boosting my numbers every week, can't wait.

Happy happy happy!

It's getting very real now! Oh my gosh I'm so excited I don't know what to do with myself. I've been talking to my course tutor and he said he will get in touch with the exam board to find out if we can work something out because of my operation. He suggested that I'd skip the units that clash with my operation and I could just do them during the second year. If it means that I will be able to go on this course in September, I will be more than happy to have that extra workload during the second year. 

I've got quite an extensive shopping and reading list for the course. I'm gonna need to upgrade my PC, get a new camera (which I've been wanting to do for years already) and a tablet, buy a bigger external hard drive, get all the software... And on top of this get started with my summer tasks that need to be finished by the start of the course.

Can you tell I'm slightly happy about this?

Shopping day!

Yay girly stuff today! I do shopping very rarely so a bit of retail therapy was very needed. I ordered a gym bag, some sports bras and workout trousers & shorts. I'll show them off once they arrive, hopefully I'll get them before Tuesday. More about that in a bit. ;)

I also ordered myself a Jawbone UP today. I've wanted something like this for a very long time and was reading into all these kinds of fitness bracelets when I was in Finland. The Jawbone one seemed to be most suited for my own needs, as the sleep tracker on it seemed to be the most detailed and advanced. I struggle with my sleep quite often, so it'll be so handy to know how much I actually sleep during the night. I will do a nice, extensive review of this bracelet once I've been using for a while. ^^

I spent my lunch with my friend today. We marched into Boots to get some food (two meal deals for £5, amazing offer in my opinion!) and walked across town to the beach. It was incredibly busy for a Friday afternoon, wasn't quite expecting that in all fairness! Was a lovely day so didn't mind it as much, was just nice to sit down and relax for a bit with some good food and good company. :)

I also decided to spoil myself a bit and buy hair colour. Funny thing, two months ago I bought the same colour as I got today (so a cold, dark brown colour) and over the past two months it has faded to this gingerish shade. I don't really mind ginger hair, but right now it's not the look I'm going for so wanted to cover it up.

Anyways, about Tuesday! We finally got around to signing up to Fitness First earlier today and we are going there for our first workout on Tuesday evening. Or well, it'll most likely be just induction (going through equipment etc) and me talking with a personal trainer about my back, but you've got to start somewhere right? :) I will definitely start taking advantage of the free classes right from the beginning.

I was a bit unsure about dinner tonight. We've had this pack of diced beef in our freezer for quite a while now and every now and then I pick it up, stare at it for a while and put it back because I just can't figure out what to cook with it. I ended up making this beef "stew" (by no means a real stew, but the consistency was close enough :D) with potatoes, beef, tinned tomatoes, baked beans and garlic. Seasoned it with salt, pepper, paprika and rosemary and let it simmer in a pan for a good half an hour. It turned out very nice, was a very hearty meal that would fit autumn / winter a bit more than a boiling hot summer's day. Oh well, it was delicious either way.

And the rest of the night will be spent just chilling. I might go for a walk after the sun goes down, but for now I'll be perfectly happy with just sitting here with a full belly.

Surgery date in the books

Most exciting news in a while! Went to see my surgeon this morning (yay for 6.30am start) to pick a date for my fusion. 13th November it is. He went through the operation with me, explaining what goes where and what kind of a scar I will have. It'll be quite a big one, about 15cm or so. Thankfully it'll run along my spine instead of being on my stomach or on the side, so I'm sure I won't even notice the scar at all.

The most amusing thing about today was when the surgeon was explaining the op was him saying ".. and we will place these plastic cages where your discs USED TO be..". So what he's saying is that I have very little or no discs left around the slip. No wonder I'm sore. :D

Anyways, since there's still quite a way to the operation, I've decided to sign up for a gym membership at the local Fitness First with my other half. He's been talking about going to the gym for ages but I've kinda been umming and arring about it because of my back. Thankfully Fitness First offers some PT sessions when you sign up, so hopefully I will be able to talk with a PT and come up with a fitness plan so I don't hurt myself.

My lunch and dinner on Monday.

 

The workout front has been very quiet otherwise, mainly because of the weather. It's just so hot during the day that I don't want to go out for more than half an hour and four nights out of seven I can't go out when it's reasonably cool (in the evenings). Even today was just a quick spin around a field around the corner, took me 20 minutes or so. It's just not pleasant having to walk under the searing heat of the sun, especially when I don't really have proper exercise clothes for this kind of weather. I'm actually down to one pair of decent exercise trousers, need to do some retail therapy and buy more.. :D

But yeah, the blog will start turning into a workout blog soon! I'm so very excited about the gym, I can start working out properly and attend all kinds of classes they offer. Mainly looking at pilates and yoga, everyone keeps telling me how good they are if you've got any back problems. Can't wait!

WI 29: STS + progress check

I'm so happy about the weigh in... :D I was expecting a huge gain, various things just made it so difficult to eat right and exercise last week. In fact, my activity was next to none for several reasons. The weather turned god awful on Tuesday, it was rainy and windy and miserable pretty much for the rest of the week. I also had plenty of issues with my back because of the bed I was sleeping in, I woke up feeling sore and very delicate every morning.

But anyways, no gain or no loss. Would've liked to drop a bit but not too upset seeing I was more than well fed all last week. :p

And progress! Very slow month, only dropped 400g during the month and I barely lost anything all around. I can't really say I've hit a plateau, since my recent WI's have been quite awful. I just need that little bit more self control from now on.

Arms: 32,5cm (32,5cm)
Bust: 99m (99,5cm)
Waist: 74,5cm (75cm)
Belly: 95,5cm (95,5cm)
Thighs: 58cm (59,5cm)
Weight: 75,8kg (76,2kg)

Finland, part II

Hello again from the slightly less sunny Finland! The weather has just changed completely, it's gone from sunny +25 to rainy, cloudy and miserable +15. It was so chilly today I didn't even fancy going swimming after sauna, the wind has really mixed up the water.

Anyways, here's two pictures from my walk the other day. I've started being very paranoid about walking around in the sticks, I just keep thinking that what if an angry mummy bear with her cubs appears from the woods just to say hi to me.

This farm must be about two hundred years old (if not older). Back in the day you had to be self sufficient with food and that has resulted in my mum being a very keen gardener as the way of life has passed on from generation to generation. I do absolutely love it, my mum grows all kinds of veg and berries / fruit every year. It's one of the main things that makes me want to come back here.

Eventually I will want to build my own veggie patch in our garden. It's so simple in the end, all you need is a few bags of dirt, a nice box or two and seeds. I actually saw a very cool way of doing it earlier today, you just get these bags of dirt, cut one side of it open, pierce some holes into the other side (so the excess water runs out from the bags instead of drowning the plants) and plant whatever you want. Very little effort for something very rewarding.

I do really think that healthy living has been made easy for everyone. You can just buy some big garden pots and grow your own food, with none of the nasty preservatives and pesticides you get in everything they sell in supermarkets nowadays. The growing itself must have such a positive effect on you as well, you get to grow something, make sure it's watered on a regular basis and in the end you get to harvest your own produce and eat it.

And as you can see in this picture, the weather really was miserable today when I went for a walk. Really windy and cold, I felt like I was going to fall over when the wind really started blowing. I've also noticed that walking on the dirt road is very difficult! The sand obviously does give way a bit when you walk on it, making your muscles work a bit harder to stay in motion. This really wore me out quickly, I think I was out for half an hour and I really didn't want to do anything else afterwards. My plans for one hour walks all week really has gone out of the window, I just really don't have the energy to walk when the road isn't solid. They say that walking on a softer surface is a lot better for your knees and joints, but screw that if I'm so knackered after 30 minutes.

These pics are from my aunt's summer cottage, she lives in Helsinki but comes down to Sulkava every summer to enjoy the peace and quiet. Luka was so disappointed that I didn't go for a swim, she was crying for a good 15 minutes outside the sauna. That dog just loves water...

And as I haven't posted any food pics this week, here's a little something! An oven pan full of homemade pizza. :D Obviously not all for me, my mum absolutely loves my pizza and even knew to stock up on all the ingredients before I came over! That's enough pizza for four people, will happily share the recipe if people are interested. :) I have modified the original recipe so it's a bit healthier than your regular white flour based pizza.

Finland, part I

Well hello there! Finally recovered from all the traveling on Friday so I have some energy left to write. :) I pretty much spent the entire Friday traveling, I got up at 5.30 in the morning and arrived to where my parents live around 9.30 in the evening. An hour by train, 2,5 hours by plane, 5 hours by bus and 30 minutes by car. It's always very exhausting coming over to see my family and friends.

Right! Plenty of pictures incoming. :) I actually only took one picture during traveling, I just had no energy for anything really. My back was being awful for most of the way and I was just plain shattered so I pretty much snoozed most of the travel. Anyways, this picture is from Lahti I think. I found it quite funny how there's this huge motorway right next to this huge bit of countryside.

My parents have two pets nowadays, a cat called Enni and a German Sheperd Luka. We used to have another cat and a Caucasian mountain dog, but they've both been put down recently due to age / illness. Luka went absolutely mad when she saw me Friday night, just running between my legs and making all kinds of spastic noises.

There's one amazing thing about being in the sticks. Nobody cares when you wear ridiculous shoes like Crocs. They are incredibly comfy but would never agree to wear them in town, they're strictly countryside shoes. :D I actually bought these shoes for work a few years ago when I needed some comfy shoes to wear all day when walking around, best work shoes I've ever worn.

This picture of the red outside buildings brings up so many memories. It's a little pathway that leads from the front garden to our cow barn. The rocks under the building was always a cool spot to play at, I used to climb on the rocks pretending that the rock slabs on the ground were lava or something. There's a lot of holes and nails on the wall to hold on to, it was like rock climbing to me. :D

I've also been spotted by mosquitos and horse flies. Didn't take them long unfortunately. I was bitten by a tiny horse fly and the bite swell up to be the size of a 10p coin. And it itches like mad.

I've decided to take it easy this week and just relax when I can. There's not really that much to do around here anyways so I've gone back to a hobby that I've neglected for quite a while now - reading. Currently I'm reading Robert Fabbri's False God of Rome, a third book from his Vespasian series. I've always been very into the history or Rome so this is a book series that I've fallen in love with.

And in case I finish this book before going back to England, I've also got Lord of the Rings on my Kindle as a backup. Definitely won't finish that anytime soon.

Sauna is a very essential part of the Finnish culture. Many households actually have two separate saunas, one at their home and a separate one by a lake somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Ours is about a ten minute walk away from home though.

It's a very peaceful place, the lake is very quiet most of the time so you can just forget about the world for a little while. The water is incredibly warm and going for a swim after sitting in the hot sauna for a while is so refreshing. I've always been very into swimming, I was like married with our lake when I was a kid. 

And Luka is absolutely mad about water as well, she chases the air bubbles and splashes of water you get when you move your hand or foot in the water. Swimming can get quite dangerous with her if she's not told off, though. Her protective insincts just kick in and she swims after you, trying to get you to go to shore. This unfortunately means that she will claw you to absolute ribbons if you're not careful with her. 

The typical temperature of sauna is between 80-100 degrees. That's the comfortable range for me to sit in, some "hardcore" sauna fans can put up with the 120 degree heat. I just end up getting dizzy in that heat.

Oh and this picture was taken last night at 1am. I promise. The sun just doesn't really set during the summer, you could just go out in the middle of the night and still be able to see perfectly fine.

There's this big flour mill about 15 minute drive away from where I am. As far as I'm aware it's mostly (or completely) powered by water power, which is incredibly cool. They do also sell some handmade stuff, like jams and marmelades, sweets, honey.. I did end up getting some souvenirs for my other half and his family, but that shall remain a secret for now. ;)

I'm probably going to post every few days all week, just pile up a ton of pictures and post them like this, I'm just too lazy to write long essays about every picture I take. :D