Week 14 – Journals and Photos

After the awful time I’d had over the last two weeks (Week 12 and Week 13) it was about time that the tide turned in my favour.

Week 13 had been strange – raging pmt and the heat had affected my appetite and Lovely Girl #1’s 18th birthday had strewn my path with temptation.

I had a chat with Luke about what I was eating and we agreed that I should probably increase the quantity of vegetables.

Day 92 was spent doing some research. I read as much as I could about the amount of fruit and vegetables that was recommended by various governments around the world.

I’m in the process of writing a separate post about my findings. However, for the purposes of my week 14 review, it’s sufficient to say that I’ve tried to increase my veg intake to 10 portions a day. No fruit; just veg.

Day 92:

I didn’t eat enough today, it was so hot, but I did a great workout.

Day 93:

Today was a much better day. I was sore from yesterday’s workout but I was more organised with food.

I also managed 10 x 80g portions of vegetables.

Day 94:

Apparently what we did today was German Volume Training. It was amazing.

Day 95:

I felt absolutely fantastic when I woke up. The only word I can find to describe it is ‘effervescent’.

I felt like a happy puppy who just wanted to run around and lick everyone.

But, despite being completely organised and having prepped my food I buggered up my eating. I had a lovely huge salad lunch with me in the office but I was so busy I forgot to eat it.

Because I didn’t eat properly I was in a bad mood and tired by the end of the day.

I wasn’t planning on taking a rest day but I couldn’t have done cardio today even if I wanted to.

Day 96:

Today was a good day. I trained with Luke at lunchtime and couldn’t eat afterwards. I had a veg packed protein smoothie mid-afternoon. I”m not crazy about having 2 protein shakes a day but sometimes it’s necessary.

I had 3 pieces of my mum’s home-made vegan Baileys fudge. Oh My God – she made the recipe up and it was, without doubt, the food equivalent of crack cocaine. I could have eaten it all but apparently I “had to share” 🙁

By dinner I was hungry. I probably ate too much – certainly the steak was too big. But it was lovely.

Day 97:

Lunchtime training with Luke was utterly brilliant. I was completely exhausted by the end of it.

As usual after lunchtime training wiped out my appetite.

By mid-afternoon I was starving. I was working in my parents’ dining room and my mum asked what I would like to eat. I said that if I could have anything I’d have a full English and, bless her, 10 minutes later she appeared with sausages, bacon and grilled tomatoes.

It was bloody lovely. There are few things in this world better than an unexpected afternoon breakfast.

After my cheeky afternoon sausages, I thought that I”d better keep on the straight and narrow for the rest of the day.

Day 98:

The end of week 14. An early morning walk was followed by training with Luke and then I headed into work.

A crazy day in the office unfolded and, again, despite having an excellent lunch with me I only managed to eat the chicken off my salad.

I didn’t eat enough veg today. Clearly I need to be more disciplined about making time to stop to eat when I’m physically in the office.

Week 14 Progress Photos:

According to my scales I ended week 14 a whole 3 lbs “lighter” than the previous week.

“Weight loss” is complete bollocks of course (see my post about weight loss) and actually I didn’t think that the photos looked very much different between week 13 and week 14.

I also realised that I was getting a bit bored of the weekly photos. Clearly my progress photo sportswear has actually started to fit.

My boredom with the weekly photos led me to a Side Quest…

SIDE QUEST AT THE END OF WEEK 14:

Following my recent birthday I am now the proud owner of a pair of small Sweaty Betty power leggings. They are a bit too small but my mediums are a bit too big.

As if it’s not enough that I have shared my before photos, I thought that I would use the new small leggings as a gauge for my next phase of fat loss.

Along with the normal progress photos each week, I will change (like Mr Benn) into my smaller kit to take a second photo each week.

I am aware that I look like a string of badly tied sausages.