To cheer you up!

Don't know about the rest of the world but here in the Scottish Highlands it certainly feels as though we skipped Autumn and went straight to Winter - not that we had much of a show from Summer either mind!
So I figured I would cheer y'all up with a photo I took of cut flowers I have been growing in the polytunnel this year :)
How can you not smile when you see these

I got bored with growing veggies this year cos they take too much time so I decided to cut down on veggies and increase the cut flowers. Don't know about you but I absolutely love fresh flowers around the home but my favourites are always so expensive and don't last very long when bought from the shops.
Just a few sweet pea seeds have meant I have been collecting fresh flowers since June and amstill doing so now  :)
I've also increased the Lillies (one of my favourites) and Carnations. They look so lovely freshly cut and mixed with Roses, Montbretia and Hydrangea and best of all they're free.


Not to worry though I haven't spent all my time with my nose in the sweet Peas and Lillies, I have been exercising too - honestly!
Insanity has obviously taken over my mornings for the past 5 weeks and yes I still love it! Amazing really how such an intense, mad workout could motivate me to press play everyday.
I'm really excited about starting the second month next week and a whole load of new even harder workouts :)
I must admit I do swap the Cardio Abs for Ab Ripper X (P90X) though because I prefer ARX - I'm not sure why though.

The Black Dog is happily sleeping in his kennel - yay! And I've even been really enjoying walking the 'real' dogs! It used to be a case of take one, walk as fast as possible, don't look left or right in case we see another dog and get home asap before repeating with the other dog - sooooooo not a nice way to walk the dogs.
Well, my daughter and I have taken them in hand. We're experienced with big dogs but had gotten lazy with their training - it was case of getting the job done asap. Not any longer! We have been taking long, slow, leisurely walks, training them throughout and we now have a Great Dane that doesn't drag us along or jump in the air like Tigger througout the walk and a GSD that no longer sniper walks along attacking anything that looks like it may move. Ahhhhhhh, good times!

So I shall leave you all with happy thoughts xx

Blah.........

That's how I've been feeling for ages now.............. Blah!
Winter is just around the corner and yet we've had no real summer to stock up those vitamin levels to see us through those cold winter days ahead!
Lucky for me we're off to jamaica in January with friends for our first holiday in about 4 years - the house building had to take priority. Have to say I am really looking forward to some sun and a different change of scenery, plus seeing our friends who we've not really seen since our last holiday with them.

There's always a 'but' though isn't there!
Guess who doesn't want to feel like a fat pleb basking on Jamaicas beaches. I certainly don't fancy being mistaken for a beached whale neither!
I've kinda got stuck in a diner on my road to weightloss and tbh I'm sick of telling myself and everyone else that tomorrow will be different - denial or what! All it does is make me feel better while I'm tucking into that bar of chocolate - yes, the stuff I managed to give up for o so long!
Problem is the doors appear to be locked on the diner and I can't find the blasted key to get out and walk in the sun again - it's all so bloody sad!
And yet The Black Dog isn't snapping or even growling at the moment - I'm a tad confuddled!

Insanity is still my daily workout. I'm repeating last week because I am not happy that I had to miss 4 workouts, even though this week should be recovery week before starting month 2. Problem is though I have this 10k run next week and I need to do Insanity to get me through so I don't want to take a recovery next week either.
You would think it wouldn't matter wouldn't you? BUT I have to admit that we have done next to no training for this 10k whatsoever - I hate running! However we want to complete it none the less - besides we want our goody bag and medal lol. So I'm hoping Insanity will see me through (both the workout and my state of mind) and my daughter is fit anyways.
Hmmmmmmm, could be an ugly run me thinks. 

Proof that exercise is good for the soul.

OK so I've been absent for a while - sorry bout that!
I could spin you a whole sorry tale of woes and life getting in the way of my blogging but to be honest it wouldn't be the complete truth.
The truth is I needed the break - it's as simple as that!
Don't get me wrong, I love interacting with other bloggers that are on a fitness or weight loss life change  and I've missed it heaps over the last few weeks - but I still needed that break.
You see, I think I overdid the goals I previously set myself, in fact they got seriously unrealistic. I put so much emphasis on 'I'm going to lose this much weight' or 'I'm going to train this many times' that I simply stopped enjoying it and once I'd stopped enjoying the working out I stopped enjoying the blogging. I found myself constantly picking at my faults, slaughtering myself at missing those unrealistic goals and making promise after promise to do better next time - and we all know how that goes huh!  I've spent the last 20 years going round in that particular circle and I did not want my blog to turn into a diary of such behaviour - this blog was supposed to help me change that bad habit.

So what has happened?  Well I continued with the Insanity workout but missed the last 2 weeks of the programme. My results to that point had been great in terms of strength, stamina, flexibility etc but weightloss was non existant because I didn't control the crap I ate.
After a weeks break I half heartedly started insanity from the beginning again. Insanity is not a workout that you can do with less than 100% commitment, it really isn't. So my half hearted attempt was doomed from the start - I felt a complete failure when I gave up after just a week.
For 2 weeks I despaired - literally! I couldn't understand why I wasn't motivated for Insanity when I still loved the programme. In the end I decided to set another start date and really psyche myself up for it, so that's what I did.

A little over 2 weeks ago I restarted Insanity and I love it! My mojo is back, probably even more so than first time round! I am able to complete the moves better this time round, I can keep up more and I am working harder.
The diet is still not perfect but Insanity is making me want to make those changes because the more I work with Shaun T the better I want to get and to do that I need to lose belly fat!
Believe me though getting myself this motivated was hard! I was in a serious pit clawing at the walls to get out but dirt just kept falling right back in on top of me and all the while that Black Dog was seriously defending the entrance to the pit and my only way out! . That first day was horrendously hard, just getting dressed was a major achievement never mind the knowledge that I then had to go and press play to an insane workout!

This is what I looked like that first morning:- I could have quite willingly gone back to bed and pulled those covers over my head! Every ounce of my mind and body was screaming at me in protest of pressing play!

But I forced myself to press play with the promise that if I still felt like crap after doing the workout then I could go back to bed.
I pressed play and this is what I looked like after, despite pushing my hardest and being more knackered than I care to remember:-

I didn't go back to bed!
I couldn't believe the difference I felt after that first workout. The Black Dog that had had me cowering for cover an hour earlier was nowhere to be seen or heard afterwards.
Proof positive of the power of exercise!