Insanity workout review- Week three

Today's workout marked the end of my third week of insanity.

I've found this week pretty tough, and there have been a couple of days where I've really had to push myself to do the workouts. But I've managed to do all of them and I'm pleased that I've stuck to the plan so far!

I've also found that my muscles have been quite achey this week, much more than the previous two weeks. My legs especially have felt the strain. I'm definitely looking forward to tomorrow being my rest day!!

I've been using my heart rate monitor for all the workouts this week and I've been a bit disheartened as I've only been burning between 350 and 450 calories, even though I felt I've been working much harder than the previous two weeks. I've compared the calories I was burning last week and a couple of days, including today I burnt slightly less.

Results wise, I am starting to feel stronger and fitter, but I'm not sure I can see that much of a physical change. I think this is mainly because of the rubbish job I've been doing at healthy eating- I've definitely been making some bad choices, including the Indian I just devoured with Sam! (It's hard to care when it tastes so good!) I have taken a couple of pictures at the beginning of each new week so I can look back at them, and see if I can see some progress. 

The next week I'm going to make more of a conscious effort to eat better, I've stocked up on fruit and veg and the fridge is looking full and healthy...I just need to find that motivation again!

If you're thinking of starting insanity I would suggest you buy a good pair of trainers that will support you through the workouts and a heart rate monitor will be useful but not essential. Apart from that you'll just need a good deal of personal motivation, and someone to help you along when you're not feeling up to it is a definite advantage!

Afternoon Tea Recipes

In my opinion there is nothing better than afternoon tea, weather that consists of going to a cafe or hotel and being served tea, cakes, sandwiches and other delights on a pretty stand, or inviting friends and family over and devouring a plate of freshly baked scones or flapjacks while setting the world to right.

Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to try to post my favourite recipes that I think are afternoon tea worthy, and will be right at home presented next to a cup of tea while you catch up with friends and family on a summers afternoon.

I'm thinking scones, flapjacks, tarts, cupcakes, biscuits, and any other bakes I think of along the way...I'll start these recipes with the title "Afternoon Tea- ??????" so keep an eye out and let me know if there is anything you would like included.

Until then, promise me you won't reach for Mr Kipling, buy local instead!

Things that make me grumpy/annoyed/sad/perplexed

At the risk of sounding like a complete middle aged grump here's my list...Please bare in mind I'm only 21, and actually I'm a hoot!

1) Fruit packed in trays and sealed so tightly in plastic the poor apples look at risk of being strangled- You know the ones I mean, you can usually buy them at corner shops...Why would you do that to a poor apple?!

2) People on public transport who aren't content with telling the person on the other end of the phone all the dirty details of their one night stand last night, but instead they also feel the need to share it with the rest of the train/bus

3) When you order an egg mayonnaise sandwich, and instead of egg mayonnaise you get sliced boiled eggs, and half a bottle of mayonnaise spread over your bread...Yuk!

4) People that write blogs so they can just moan about things- Seriously who would do that!?!?!

5) Chipping your nail varnish about 10 seconds after it'd dried

6) Buying popcorn at the cinema and managing to spill half of it before you reach your seat

7) Tripping over in public, trying to style it out and tripping again

8) When you order a cup of tea and it comes with milk in...It's never enough, just give me a jug please

9) When people use instagram as a way of trying to make posting slutty pictures acceptable by calling it a "selfie" fyi if your tits/ass/vajay is out it's slutty!

10) Hearing a song on the radio, missing who it's by and spending the rest of eternity wondering who sang it

That's probably enough for tonight, I don't want you thinking all I do it moan! :)

Happy Baking- Beetroot Brownies

Someone mentioned beetroot brownies to me ages ago and I scrunched up my nose and vowed never to make them, but today that all changed. Even after the horror that was the courgette muffins I decided to give baking with vegetables another go. But let me just make one thing clear, I certainly didn't choose to bake these for a want to have beetroot, in fact the only reason I baked them was because we got some in our veg box last week and had nothing else to do with the yucky purple stuff!

However I'm now ashamed to admit that I'm actually rather found of these little purple beauties, in fact apart from a very subtle hint of beetroot (Which is actually nice) and the colour you wouldn't know what the key ingredient was! 

So this week I dare you all to make these brownies, and hopefully become converted to the purple stuff. (I added all the ingredients to myfitnesspal and they're actually pretty low in calories too- less than 200 per brownie!) Go on...You know you want to!...Everyone loves a brownie!

 I searched the internet and found a few possible recipes I could use but ended up putting together what I thought looked and sounded right...Here's the end result!

This recipe makes 20 brownies- Perfect for surprising your friends with their key ingredient.

Ingredients-
450g Raw beetroot (This went down to about 370g once cooked and peeled)
150g Butter (I used baking stork)
3 Eggs
1tsp Vanilla Extract
50g Cocoa Powder
75g Self Raising Flour
75g Ground Almonds
1tsp Baking Powder
200g Dark Chocolate (I used Bournville)
200g Light Brown Soft Sugar

Method-
1) Preheat your oven to 180C and line a 13 inch by 9 inch baking tin with greaseproof paper. (You can use a couple of smaller tins if you don't have one this size)
2) Chop off the leaves of the beetroot and boil the "Bulb" on the hob until it is cooked through and tender. This time will vary depending on the size of your beetroot's- Mine took about 15 minutes, and were medium sized.
3) Peel and chop the beetroot and purée it in a food processor, or a smoothie maker if you don't have one (Which I don't!)
4) Add the eggs one by one into the food processor, blitzing and scraping down the sides after each addition, then add the vanilla and the butter and blitz again once more.
5) Sift the cocoa powder, self raising flour and baking powder into a bowl, then add the ground almonds and mix through.
6) In a separate bowl melt all of the dark chocolate- I used a microwave for convenience. Then add the sugar to the melted chocolate and mix through. The mixture will become quite stiff, but it will all mix in!
7) Next add the beetroot mixture to the chocolate and sugar and stir until its all combined.
8) Tip the dry ingredients on top of the beetroot and chocolate mixture and fold through carefully.
9) Put the mixture into the lined baking tin and smooth the top out.
10) Bake in the oven for approximately 30 minutes- Or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle.
11) Let cool, cut, and become and total beetroot convert!

                     

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Healthy Baking- Protein Cookies

So today I embarked on my first healthy bake. I'm not really too sure I can call them cookies, they're more of a flapjack wanna be!

They don't look pretty, but they taste good, make a nice post workout or afternoon snack, and can be thrown together in no time...No excuses to reach for the chocolate now! 

Makes 6 flapjack wanna be's 

Ingredients- 

100g Porridge oats

45g Smooth Peanut butter (Or your favourite nut butter) 

1 Banana

1 Scoop Protein Powder (I used Skinni Minni- Choco loco)

1 Egg

Milk- Splash, enough to make the mixture stir-able) 

Method- 

1) Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

2) Mash up the banana until there are no big lumps.

3) Add the banana and the rest of the ingredients to a bowl and mix together.

4) Spoon the mixture onto the baking tray and bake in the oven for approximately 10 minutes, or until cooked through.

5) Munch! 

Insanity workout review- Week two

MUST. KEEP. GOING.

I had to talk myself into this quite a lot during my second week of insanity. Half way through the week I came down with a cold and felt completely rubbish. I missed Thursday's workout and instead practised lying in bed feeling sorry for myself, and moaning to my better half. 

On Friday I decided I should probably stop with the moaning, and because I started to feel a little bit better I gave the workout a go and just didn't push myself as much as I would of normally. Because of missing Thursday's workout my schedule was out of sync so I decided to do Thursday's workout on Friday, Friday's on Saturday, and Saturday's on Sunday instead of the normal Sunday rest day. 

Week two had the added addition of cardio abs, and I have to say I wish they didn't bother adding it in...It was agony! I think it's fair to say my stomach muscles are non existent...Either that or they're hiding under layers and layers of cupcakes! Oops :/ 

In the first week I was doing the workouts in the evening- Any time between 6 and 9. But because of a change in my hours at work for a few days I decided to try and do it in the morning before work. Getting up was definitely tough, as it meant setting my alarm for 6:30 so that I would have time to do it. I don't think I could do it before work every day, but it is nice knowing that when you finish work you don't have anything else to do and you can fully relax.

Overall week two was probably more difficult motivation wise than the first week due to feeling ill...It's definitely worth having someone around who can motivate you and get you moving...Thanks Sam! 

Today marked the start of week 3, and todays workout was the "fit test" this was completed on the first day of the programme too, and I was able to see how my fitness has improved already- I've posted my results below in case you're interested :) 

Switch Kicks- Week 1-50     Week 2-57

Power Jacks- Week 1-46     Week 2-56

Power Knees- Week 1-82     Week 2-116

Power Jumps- Week 1-22     Week 2-29

Globe Jumps- Week 1-9     Week 2-13

Suicide Jumps- Week 1-7     Week 2-10

Push-up Jacks- Week 1-12     Week 2-17

Low Plank Oblique- Week 1-46     Week 2-50

I'm really pleased that my scores have improved because I've been feeling pretty fat and yuk the last couple of days! 

Healthy Baking

I've been thinking that it's about time I tried out some more healthy bakes. Although I will always be permanently scarred by the courgette muffins I lovely failed to create, I think I'm in a good enough place to try again, and maybe I'll even reach for the courgette again!...

I recently came across a recipe for beetroot brownies, and although the other ingredients don't put them in the healthy category I still want to give them a go- Especially as we've been given beetroot in our veg box this week, and as we both hate the stuff it seems like a good way to try and use it.

I've also been going some googling on recipes that include protein powder, as an extra way to get more protein into my diet, I came across a few that I like the sound of, but I think I'll try and create some of my own...Watch this space!

For those lucky people who aren't on that dreaded pre summer/holiday diet I've also got a few other recipes up my sleeve so keep checking back.

Lastly, if anyone has a particular recipe they want and can't find anywhere let me know and I'll do my best to get one together for you :) 

Insanity workout review- Week one

I've just finished my 6th Insanity workout, which marks the end of week one...Only 8 weeks left!!!

The week started with a fit test, which composes of 8 exercises that you do for a minute each and then you write down how many you manage to do in the minute- The obvious idea being that you're able to do more as you progress through the programme...I was kind of hoping this would be a nice little taster of what was to come, something a bit easy, but I'm come to realise that easy and Insanity are two words that are not found in the same sentence, unless you're saying "Insanity is not easy" I managed to get through the exercises and after doing some googling of other peoples results I realised that I actually didn't do that bad- Maybe I've got a fit person inside me after all!

The rest of the week has gone pretty well, I like the principle of interval training, as it's so nice to have a rest between circuits- Trust me they're needed! I'm not going to lie, I have found them quite tough, but I've managed to get through them, and if I can complete them you certainly can! 

I haven't been following the nutrition plan that come with the workout, but I have followed a couple of the principles- I worked out how many calories I should be eating, according to them, and I've been eating smaller meals, with a couple of snacks. I've also been having a Skinni Minni shake after each workout and I've been taking the Skinni Minni capsules daily. Even though I haven't followed the plan properly I weighed myself this morning and I've lost 3lbs!...YAY...Although most of the reviews I read before starting said that weight loss isn't a major part of the programme and its mostly a change in dress size and shape that you'll notice so before I started I took some horrible photos of myself and hopefully I'll start to see some results soon...

I'll try update you again at the end of the second week. 

Sunny days, fish, regents park and afternoon tea

This last week has been pretty dam lovely if I'm honest!

The weather has been lovely, especially towards the beginning of the week. In fact it was so nice that it forced me to the pub after work. I finished at about 2:00 on Monday and Tuesday which gave me the whole afternoon to sit in the beer garden and soak up the sun. The good weather also gave an opportunity for the guys to assert their manlyness and make fire in the form of a BBQ...there's nothing like a burn sausage to welcome the summer!

The end of the week has been just as good, on Friday Sam and I went to pick up our fish for our tank :) . This wasn't welcomed with open arms by my whole family, whenever I mentioned a fish to my parents they clammed up and tried to change the subject, muttering about cleaning and feeding it as they did so...it's okay mum and dad, it's only a fish, I'm pretty sure we can handle it! And no it isn't practice for a baby...not that it would be very good practice- we've been told to clean them out every two weeks and feed them once a day! 

As for names we've been pretty creative I have to say! My lovely yellow canary is called Bob and Sams shubunkin is called Yuu...okay so maybe they aren't the best names...

Yesterday was spent in central London, we got the train in around lunch time and went to St James Wood where the hotel was that was had booked afternoon tea. Once we had spotted the hotel we went to explore a bit and found a fair that was on in some gardens near by, we had a wonder, a munch of some free samples and ended up buying the set of Roald Dahl books after reminiscing about our favourites. We still had lots of time to spare so we walked to Regents Park to enjoy the sun and do some reading. 

After we read for a while we made our way back through the park and to the hotel ready for our afternoon tea :) you can't beat a good bit of cake!! We were filled with sandwiches, scones, truffles and other lovely nibbles. Once we had done our best on devouring everything we got offered more...o prevent popping we decided it probably wasn't a good idea! 

About 10 minutes after we sat down three people appeared and started playing some music, there was someone on the double bass and violin and some other instrument that we didn't know was it was, it all all feeling very sophisticated until the voilinist started moving around the tables, taking requests and seronading the women on the tables...how completely awkward! I don't think we've ever had such an in depth conversation about sandwiches before- heads down, hushed voices and not even a glimpse towards the musician incase he spotted us...in the end he probably decided we looked far too uncultured to possibly know any classical songs and so skipped right past our table...phew...here's to being an uncultured youth! 

Hissy fits and ball games

My inner domestic goddess has been having a hissy fit this week and won't play ball!

Last week I was busy making croissants from scratch...This week I've made an egg mayonnaise sandwich with a tub of bought egg mayonnaise (It was from sainsburys though!)

Last week I was washing, drying, folding and putting clothes away...This week I straightened my skirt because I didn't have time, or the motivation to wait for the iron to heat up and then use it.

Last week I rearranged our room to make space for our fish tank, while giving it a little dust...This week I've shoved my shopping in a pile on the floor to deal with later.

Last week I baked a homemade quiche for tea...This week I had pizza. (It was in a restaurant, and it was really tasty...So maybe it's not so bad?!)

Last week I was writing and then baking a banana muffin recipe for you lovely people to enjoy...This week I'm just boring you with how rubbish I've been this week!...Sorry about that :/

But it can be salvaged...I can still be the domestic goddess that I want to be...So far today in my attempt to pull back some goddess points I've been to lakeland to buy some pretty cupcake cases to make some summery cupcakes, and I've done more washing (Someone please tell me that at some point the washing will end!?! Either that or I'll be rich enough to pay someone to do it for me!) Then this afternoon I sat in a beer garden all afternoon, laughing and smiling with my lovely other half (Not very domestic goddess like, but bloody lovely anyway!)

Better luck tomorrow hey?

Bring on June

Well we're into June already, and I'm hoping it's going to be a good month. I'm hoping to be much more productive, starting with seeing more of London and getting back to healthy eating and exercise. 

So far Sam and I have been pretty rubbish at making the most of living so close to London, so on our days off we're hoping to go and do some typical tourist stuff around London. We're starting with going out for afternoon tea next Saturday at the Danubius Hotel in Regents Park. 

Sandwiches + Tea + Cake = One happy Gail! (Healthy eating being ignored on this day...Oops!)

This evening I ordered the insanity workout DVDs, so when they arrive I'm hoping to start the 60 day plan. I've been pretty slack with healthy eating and exercise recently, and I'm feeling more whale than wonderful. So time to step it up and loose the winter fat in time for our holiday in August- We're going to Belgium!! EEEP!!! So I'll try any blog throughout my insanity journey!...Wish me luck, I hear it hurts! 

Hopefully June will be a good blogging month- I'm hoping to try out lots more recipes, and blog my success stories for you to try at home. If there are any recipes you particulary want but can't seem to find one then let me know and I'll do my best to come up with something :).  I'm also planning on doing some tutorials on piping techniques, but maybe that's a little too productive of me! One step at a time hey, a girls got to sleep! 

My final June plan is to win the lottery- This is the one I'm most excited about! a couple of million will be more than enough because I'll be buying a bakery with the money, so it will be an investment. I won't let you know the date I'll be winning, I don't want to ruin the surprise for you...Ohhh I wish it worked like that! I'm sure I'm not the only one who could do with a lottery win right now.

Until next time...