That was so much easier than I thought!

So I'm just back from the gym after being away from it for a full week, my nerves were probably at their peak, however, I got through it and went in, this time I got a couple of looks as I walked in and peoples heads turned, this again may have just been an innocent look, sometimes we can't help ourselves to look when someone walks into a room, there were no obvious signs that this was anything malicious, but me being me automatically assumes the worst. I sheepishly go and put my bag into the locker and crack on, what came next really, really surprised me.

This is the first time I've noticed a real difference in my ability at the gym, in previous days, I very much felt that awful burning  and aching sensation in pretty much a few minutes, but as time went on, I was absolutely fine and could manage so much more than I did in previous times, my legs just didn't ache at all for maybe the first 10-15 minutes, then it started, this was a weird sensation, not one I've ever really felt before, albeit made me very proud of my achievements. I also noticed that my heart rate was taking slightly longer to reach Moderate-Peak, not sure if I'm just imagining it, but if I'm not, then this change has come about pretty quickly, and I've surprised myself, if this is what happens after just 3 days, then imagine what would happen after 2 weeks.

I definitely managed to do more than I ever have done today, with the exception of not being able to do much on the Elliptical at the end (LOL), but not only did I manage to do more in general but I managed to do it for longer at a slightly quicker pace, something I'm going to slowly build on. One thing that I haven't changed in all of the days, is the level of the incline I set on the treadmill, I use a 4% incline, which I will slowly start to increase, this makes it a tougher workout, sometimes it feels like I'm clambering up this really steep hill and believe me you can feel the pinch after you've walked at an incline for a while.

As stated previously, I use an Apple Watch S3 to track my workouts and calorie burn, etc. Whilst I know that the Calorie burn maybe slightly overestimated, I've calibrated my watch to make sure it's as accurate as possible, I believe the margin of error is around 5% so not too bad, you may think that the calorie burn is ridiculously high, but I have a lot of weight behind me and it's easier for me to burn more calories because of my size and the amount of effort required would naturally be greater because it's a tough job being the fat kid.

So, I plan on sharing my exercise activity report from my phone for future workouts, the distances and speeds seem relatively low, but I also do have a bad hip and suffer from a couple of other ailments that I'll share with you later on in the journey. Please cast judgment aside, in the grand scheme of things, I know this may not seem like a huge workout to you, but to me it's huge, and I sweat from ear to ear.

Flabs Away!

Today's Workout

Day 3 - Food Diary

Another day completed, under my calorie goal again for today, I'm getting quite used to this now. Something we struggle with is trying to find the right things to eat after the gym, I don't want to be eating back those calories, so tonight and because of how late we got back, it was a ready meal, I know not the best, but we will endeavor to find something better moving forward, I've heard high protein stuff is best, so watch this space!

Flabs Away!

Big Mac & Fries Fakeaway

So our evening meal tonight was a Big Mac & Fries Fakeaway, don't get me wrong it isn't really that close to a Big Mac, or the fries, but it's a tasty treat that tasted as equally as good, the burger sauce, is pretty much spot on if you get it right, you may find that you need to tweak the spices to get it to your taste, it's a little bit of trial and error, but so so worth it!

We couldn't find any wholemeal rolls (part of healthy extra), so we used some Brioche Buns that were in the freezer, this is not how you are supposed to do it and it did make this meal slightly unhealthy, but in future, we'll make sure we have the right stuff in. Nevertheless, the burger was meaty, juicy, well seasoned and was a bit of alright!

Ingredients

For the burgers:

450g (1lb) of extra lean ground beef (less than 5% fat is best)
1/2 tsp of fine sea salt
4 Whole Wheat rolls

For the burger sauce:

2 tbs of half fat mayonnaise
6 tbs/90ml of fat-free plain yoghurt
½ tsp of paprika
¼ tsp of mustard powder
¼ tsp of onion powder
2 slices of pickle, diced
½ tbs of sweetener

Tip: We found that by using 6 tablespoons of fat-free yoghurt, there was an overpowering Yoghurty taste, we reduced this to 2 tablespoons and doubled quantities of the spices, this gave it a rich and intense flavour (more like burger sauce than Yoghurt with a bit of spice)

For the topping:

1 cup (240ml) of shredded iceburg or romaine lettuce
1 small white onion, finely diced
4x30g (1oz) of cheddar, sliced - (Healthy Extra)
2 slices of pickles

For the Fries:

We just used the Slimming World Friendly Chip recipe from earlier on, click HERE to view the recipe and the instructions, let me assure you they taste amazing!

The Method:

This is not my recipe, so to comply with Slimming Eats' Terms of Service, I can't post the full recipe, it's really easy to follow, click HERE to view instructions on how to make this deliciousness!

The Verdict: