1st June!!
This can mean only one thing – JONATHAN!!! No No NO Stupid Autocorrect – JUNEATHON!!!
Typing this on the return flight of our trip to Spain, I am smug in the knowledge that this year I am CERTAIN to do Juneathon properly for the first time, because of the Fatbusting!!
As following the Julia Buckley 12 week fatbusting programme causes me to exercise 6 days out of 7, this means that I only have to force myself to do one extra day a week to meet the demands of Juneathon, i.e. Exercise every day of June, log it and blog about it.
(For the sake of everyone’s sanity, I’m not going to post my blogs on Facebook every day as they can get a little tedious during the ‘athons, but I will Tweet and #Juneathon them so my fellow Juneathoners know I’m doing it).
So, how is the fatbusting going? Well – hmm. We’ve been out to eat every day this week, and at home I’ve eaten a lot of fruit. For the first time ever, I have been in Spain for 9 days and have not once had an alcoholic drink at home. Not one bottle of wine was opened in the house, but I did share a bottle with Mike each evening when we were having dinner. It was his holiday too and it’s not so fun having a meal out with someone who isn’t drinking if you are. I did however stick to fizzy water or diet coke for aperitifs while he had Spanish Sized G&Ts. He liked this because it meant that I had to drive everywhere!
However, due to the meals out, even though I stuck to the basic principles of lowish-carb, highish-protein and no processed foods, I have actually put on a few pounds.
I’m not particularly worried though, because my clothes are still looser. (Don’t ask me how this happens but it’s happening).
It’s quite easy to stick to the healthy eating in Spanish restaurants so long as you leave the patatas fritas (chips/french fries). I’ve had steak, fish, chicken, prawns, Jamón, cheese, melon, assorted tapas, salads galore, grilled vegetables, and barely any desserts.
Lying in the sun without a drink and some crisps has been a little bothersome, but fizzy water helped, together with that most baffling of Spanish snacks beloved of ageing Spanish men, and children– Pipas.
Pipas are salted Sunflower seeds in their shells.
You do not eat the shells. You have to crack them with your teeth and spit out the splintered remains then eat the miniscule seed inside, which creates a disproportionate amount of work for a very tiny reward and hardly any calories.
Wherever you see groups of Spanish men deep in discussion about their pigeons or the general state of Spain in ‘El Crisis’ or the shortcomings of their wives, which they would never dare to mention at home, you will find a carpet of broken sunflower shells.
I’ve done all my workouts except for yesterday when I for some bizarre reason just completely forgot. How did I forget? I’ve been doing this for 4 weeks now, I work out 6 days a week, and yesterday I just forgot! I worry about my brain sometimes. It doesn’t matter, yesterday will have to be my day off for this week which I suppose has turned out well as I can’t take a day off after today due to the abovementioned Juneathon.
Luckily we arrive home today at lunchtime, so I’ll have plenty of time to get yesterday’s workout fitted in this afternoon.
9 days ago when I left the UK, I was pleased with myself because I had upped my dumbbell weights to 2.5kg. Now I’m at 6 kg!!! This is such a significant difference I’m astonished. Even though there are other people on the course lifting far higher weights, for me this is a massive amount and clearly it’s only going to keep on getting heavier. I don’t want arms like Madonna, but Jennifer Aniston has the loveliest arms and I’d like them to be as shapely as hers.
Jennifer Aniston – soon you will not be able to tell us apart!
We move on to Phase II of the fatbusting on Monday. The new exercises have yet to be revealed to us but I’m intrigued to discover what we have to do next.
Some of you may remember my Running Pants Crisis of a few months ago. Well I have sorted it out. I’ve bought a pair of RunBreeze Runderwear Running Pants. I like them! They are substantial enough to be worn on their own with a decent sports bra if you’re working out at home, and they also work well under running tights or capris, not riding-up or chafing anywhere I’ve noticed so far.
If you are not familiar with RunBreeze gear then I strongly recommend it. Their anti blister socks are the best I’ve found so far, thick, double skinned and reasonably priced. I find them far better than 1000 mile socks which I used before.
Their tops and tights are also very good and excellent value for money.
Between today and 10th June, RunBreeze.com are doing a 50% off sale on their Tees, Vests and Shorts so now’s a good time to try them out. Enter the word ‘SUNSHINE’ in your basket at checkout.
On the subject of Sports Bras, HelsBels wrote an informative piece on the subject recently specifically relating to the larger bosomed lady.
One more thing that I am going to mention today is Matcha Tea Sugar Destroyer Bend.
When I started the fatbusting, I resolved that I was not going to buy into any crazy food fads, just do healthy eating. So I bought the Quinoa and we all know how that turned out. Resolve hardened, I then received an email relating to Matcha Tea, which is supposed to be extra high in antioxidants and particularly effective at aiding weight loss. The company that emailed me is quite fashionable and their product was very expensive, but my interest piqued I Googled ‘Matcha Tea’ and found this blend.
I still don’t particularly believe that drinking any type of tea will help you to get slim, but what this does is something special. It takes away your sense of taste of ‘sweet’.
The tea comes in a green powder form, and you mix half a teaspoonful with a small amount of hot water in a bowl and then drink it down in one like a shot.
After I did this the first time, I then sceptically took a grape, bit into it, and actually spat it out into my hand, it was disgusting. Unable to believe it, I dug around in the back of the cupboard and found a bag of Haribo, popped one into my mouth and……… yup, spat it right back out. I could sense the sourness, but no sweet and so no fruity flavour. It was fascinating. I spent an amusing 15 mins spitting things out.
I tried it again an hour later, and I could begin to taste the grape but it still wasn’t nice and the Haribo had started to taste fruity but still no sweetness.
It’s not actually the Matcha that creates this effect, it’s the herb that it’s blended with, ‘Gymemna Sylvestre’ which is also known as The Sugar Destroyer.
The genius of this is, that if like me, you really do get sugar cravings, especially after a meal when you haven’t had a dessert, then take a shot of this stuff, and fill your bowl with ice cream or whatever you fancy. I guarantee you won’t eat it because it won’t have any taste at all. Psychogically if you try to eat something sweet but it has no taste, or a horribly altered taste, then sooner or later you’re just going to stop wanting to try it.
I’ll have to finish this later to add in what I did today for Juneathon in order to fulfil the requirements.
LATER
Today for Juneathon, and for my fatbusting, I did HIIT in the swimming pool for reasons I will reveal in tomorrow’s blog as this one is going on a bit.
Laters!
High-Fiving Palm Trees 