DAY 25: CARDIO RECOVERY & MEAL PLAN

 Last time i'm doing Cardio Recovery for this round of Insanity. Sad times, actually it's dawning on me this is the last time i'm doing any of the Month 1 workouts! Jeeebus, time flies when your doing Insanity. It really does, it certainly doesn't feel like i've been doing this for a month now. 

Anyways, Cardio Recovery as you all know is one of my fav..yeah you still work up a little bit of a sweat but it's more about focusing on your core and stretching. With the recovery workout i think the best tip i can give is really focus on your breathing, not so much to get your breath back, but to train your breathing to exhale when your exerting energy and inhale on a recovery move. This gets oxygen to the muscles that need it the most depending on what exercise your doing. 

I think with Month 2's version of this since it's called 'MAX RECOVERY' i think they'll vamp up the cardio side of it, so you will be sweating a lot! And incorporate some harder more taxing stretches, by this point i presume if you've never been into fitness or didn't really workout, the Month prior will have you in good enough shape to cope with Month 2's exercises. Well that's my theory anyway!

MEAL PLAN

 A day off work means my meals are always timed well and i can prepare them as i go, yeah..meal prep saves time if you do it the night before. But there's just something so much nicer about a freshly prepared meal that you can eat right away!

Breakfast was a menagerie of fruit today! Some of my fruit was about to spoil so i took advantage and made a big fruit salad with apples, bananas, kiwi, melon and grapes.  A big bowl of fruit with some natural yogurt spread on the top get's me going for the day i can assure you.

Lunch was a fairly small affair of tuna steak, broccolii and side salad of lettuce with chopped cherry tomatoes. I was in a bit of a hurry with lunch as i wanted to get into town before it closed!

My evening meal had a bit more thought, diced chicken breast with soy noodles, onions, garlic, chilli and peppers all tossed together with some sweet potato fries (home-made...with low-cal spray might i add) finished me off for the day and i slept a happy bunny!

A.

DAY 24: PLYOMETRIC CARDIO CIRCUIT & MEAL PLAN

Now we all know how much i don't like Plyo. But today was really like 10x harder, my energy levels were so low, i don't think i had half as much to eat as i should have. Or i spaced out my eating far too much. Not to mention a 6 hour late shift at work. A combo of all of those things = unhappy A. 

But none-the less i had to push through, i always think if i miss one workout, at the end if my body isn't how i want it, i'll think back and be like 'that one day i couldn't be bothered, that's why i don't have a perfect body' So i am not willing to take the risk, come rain or shine, come tiredness or illness i will complete Insanity!

With the majority of this workout i closed my eyes, honestly..it helped, kinda. I mean i bumped into my wall a few times but...meh no harm done. The reason it helped is it just made me push through, i just kept thinking to myself 'NO PAIN NO GAIN, NO PAIN NO GAIN'...literally over and over and over again. 

Now because of my knee pain i've been experiencing lately the footall sprints i kinda had to take down a knotch, the pain was like a burning sensation which i totally understand is fairly normal, but i mean like 5000 degrees burning, so to avoid injury i just slowed it down. Definitely didn't stop, just slowed. And it helped!

My breathing is also becoming much better, i exhale at all the crucial points which gets oxygen into my body to help push my muscles to where they need to be!

MEAL PLAN

Two slices of wholemeal bread and marmite, i love it, i love it, i love it. With a cup of green tea :)

For lunch i finished off the stir-fry i made the previous night, i really don't understand what people don't like about re-heated food. It's stopping all that unneccesary waste, and yeah it doesn't taste like fresh cooked food, but it's still food! SO EAT! 

Again i had to take some food to eat at work, so itook a few rice cakes and my tub of peanut butter to munch on, along with a little bit of the tuna pasta i had left alsooo. A bit of a re-heat day today! 

Once home i had some chicken legs with a few new potatoes and a small side salad. YUM!

A. 

DAY 4: MEAL PLAN

I've slacked a little today guys. Not in the eating department, in the uploading photos department. Haha, not too much of a let down...but my phone decided to mess up big time and not want to drop anything into dropbox after my breakfast photo! So i only have one photo for this post, boo..i feel like i've let myself down.

Instead, i'm going to thoroughly describe my other two meals!
But for breakfast, i made myself three medium poached eggs, with wholemeal seed bread and a little low fat butter spread. I enjoyed this hugely as it was a change from my normal porridge routine.

Once at work, i noshed on brown rice again i know, but it's so yummy..a tin of tuna in sunflower oil which i drained off, and a salad made up of crunchy iceburg lettuce, tangy cherry tomatoes and some crisp cucumber. Sounds a little boring, but i promise you i enjoyed it a helluva lot.
Once home, i put myself a chicken breast seasoned with a homemade mixture of spices (secret secret) and a few bunches of steamed broccolli. Eating this after the Cardio Recovery seemed like heaven, i felt so re-juvanated, yet not tired or down on energy.

I honestly think this clean eating and Insanity could be something i go on to do for longer than the 60 days. Definitley the clean eating, it's a lifestyle change. But even Insanity, incorperating that into my normal days once i've done the challenge doesn't half seem like a bad idea. I'll be suuuuuuper fit too!

So i apologise for the lack of photo's, i'll be back on the ball tomorrow with the uploading. Providing my iPhone stops having a mind of it's own and listens to it's Master......ME!

Night!

A.

DAY 3 MEAL PLAN!

Today was a good day for my intake of food and consumption of healthyness. I also thoroughly enjoyed my meals. Must admit i kept it quite simple as i had quite a busy day. Driving to Manchester this morning made me miss an actual solid breakfast, but as soon as i got home i filled up on another smoothie. This time i added a lot more fresh fruit as my stomach grumbled quite a bit, and 3 bananas got sacrificed to the blender.

For my lunch, unfortunatley being at work meant i had to eat on the go...a nice low fat, protein rich Tom Yum Soup did the trick, prawns, string noodles, peppers, water, coconut milk, herbs and spinach gave me loads of energy to power on through work and get me ready for the workout i had to endure once i'd gotten home.

Post-workout, i was at this point STARVING, i needed a hearty meal to satiate my cravings. But i didn't reach for the crisps or chocolate..nope. I made chicken seasoned with cajun spices, brown rice with a dab of soy sauce (it gives it such a nice flavour), spinach and mashed sweet potato. Beauuuutiful. Now i'm sat back resting my sore legs with another glass of fruit smoothie and then i shall go to the land of nod, a happy, full, fatigued girl.......until tomorrow.

Fare thee well.

A.

DAY 2 MEAL PLAN!

Once again i started my day with porridge, raspberries but added some banana for a bit of protein this morning. I'm seriously loving porridge lately, going to have to switch it up a little bit soon i think. This breakfast gave me lots of energy when i combined it with some green tea and vanilla. Tasted gooood.

After my workout, i had my smoothie, same ingredients as yesterday, i just added some natural greek yogurt which gave it a slightly more tart taste, still delicious.

I was good and did my meal prep for the evening as i had work at 4, so needed to make sure i would still be eating every 3-4 hours in order to keep my metabolism where i want it to be. HIGH please! I made myself some brown rice with onions, garlic and chilli again (soft spot for brown rice, MMMM) and a can of tuna. HOWEVER meeting my friend Anya she announced 'let's go to BarBurrito' my stomach insantly growled...loudly but my mind thought 'NOOOO' however, once i got in there i decided to have some tacos instead of a burrito, leaving out the floury tortilla. Now..it may look awfully unhealthy, however after googling the ingredients, not so much! YES YES, maybe i should have skipped the sour cream and grated cheese, but it still had loads of healthy fats (avocado/kidney beans) protein (chicken) and salad. So not too bad.

I've come home to another smoothie, left over of what i made earlier. So all in all, not a bad day i don't think!

Tomorrow, i will be sticking to my meal plans. Promise :)

Night all.

A.

DAY 1 MEAL PLAN!

After picking up my Insanity package, my mind began to wander to the contents of my fridge and i realised it seriously lacked on my usual healthy products (admitedly i've slacked the past few days knowing i'm going to start Insanity). So i stopped at the supermarket on the way home to get the necessary items for the week!

Now my fridge and cupboards include:

Lettuce                  Raspberries                   Chicken Breasts           Almonds
Tomatoes              Bananas                         Tuna                           Low fat peanut butter
Mushrooms           Apples                           Mince                          Rice Cakes
Avocado               Mixed frozen fruit           Broccolli    
Asparagus            Low fat natural yogurt
Onions                 Cottage Cheese

So now i'm all set to eat and train my way to ultimate fitness, at least thats the plan?!

Since i was so eager to start the Fit Test i thought i'd better have a substantial breakfast to get me going, an hour before i ploughed through the test i made myself some oatmeal made with water, added raspberries and almonds which gave it a little more taste and texture.

After my Fit Test, (RESULTS IN PREVIOUS POST) i made myself an all natural protein smoothie, i basically dropped 2 bananas, a handful of frozen mixed berries, soya milk and some coconut water in my blender, whizzed it around for 30 seconds and gulped it down. Tasty!

For lunch, i made some brown rice seasoned it with a little soy sauce, added some chillis, mushrooms, onion and garlic. Opened a can of tuna and made a small side salad, wolfed this down in possibly 5 minutes i was so hungry.

Another smoothie, same ingredients as the previous, added a little more coconut water as it was a little thick.

And finally, chicken breast baked with asparagus, cherry tomatoes and small spoonful of cottage cheese.

I love eating clean, especially after eating crappy for a few days, the energy release you get is so unexpected but so refreshing. After 60 days of eating like this, i'll be in tip-top shape..i'd like to think so anyway.

Now for a night of pre-recorded Sky shows that i haven't had time to catch up on.
Sleep easy guys!


A.