Bridal Bootcamp June 29, 2009

OK, yet again I’ve been slack on the blogging front but I have a very valid excuse. Exercise has taken over my LIFE!

It’s now under 4 weeks until the big day and in preparation I’d been doing a moderate exercise regime for 6 weeks, produced by my rugby physio who’s also a personal trainer.  This finished a few weeks ago, at which time I asked for another programme from physio queen, stating that I wanted to be more hardcore and go for it in the run up to the big day.
She literally took me literally! My new programme looks as though I’m an athlete preparing for a competition. If my wedding day was sporting superstars, I reckon I would totally win!  It’s intense, it’s full on and it’s time consuming.  But, it’s also working – I’m now nearly a stone lighter than I was this time a few months ago and I even let people take pics of me in a bikini on my hen weekend (Um, but I’ve asked them not to post on facebook!).

So what’s the magic recipe? Basically, hard work, and lots of it.  Week one was 35mins cardio interval sprints three times a week with toning and core, plus extra toning another two days a week. Now on week three, I’m onto exercise six days of the week. Yesterday morning I was doing 45mins of 2mins on, 2mins off sprinting round my local park.  I think the kid on the swings was a bit perplexed the third time I struggled by – by the end, my sprints were more like feeble limps.  This morning in the gym for 0730, it was core and toning, involving gym-ball pressups (inelegant, and difficult!), tricep hell and another 45 mins cardio intervals, this time on the cross trainer.

Bridal Bootcamp

The Bridal Bootcamp regime means early mornings, motivating myself when I really really really don’t want to do another set of bilateral tricep exercises, and fitting in increasing amounts of exercise at the expense of some other things (no food shop this week, and minimal piano practice).

Alongside this, top physio lady has given me lots of nutrition information. I was a bit scared by her recommendation of six small meals a day, protein before and after gym and a list of supplements.  I admit, I’m not following this to the letter preferring real food! But the mantra is the same – I’m having rice cake and tahini before the 0730 gym, followed by a yoghurt or in some instances a protein bar (ICK!!). Then I’m having half my lunch around 12 and the rest later in the afternoon. I’m off bread for now and trying to avoid caffeine and added salt and sugar (although I had salt on my potatoes yesterday).  I’m also taking a joint supplement as I’m doing so much exercise and recently a friend got osteo-arthritis so it can’t do any harm.

It’s hard work. But the end is in sight and once I am a Mrs, I am going to have a lay in, chillax on the exercise front and eat a whole loaf of lovely crusty bread!

A memorable night at Never Forget June 10, 2009

OK I’m a bit late posting this but I’ve been a busy bee!

 

Last Thursday I got a last minute ticket for the Take That tribute band musical, Never Forget, at MK theatre, thanks to lil’ sis’ friend who fell ill (bad for her; good for me).

I wasn’t expecting that much, but actually it turned into a superb night.

The actor Phil Olivier, better known for his role in Brookside, was brave to be involved in this all-singing all-dancing affair.  At times, his dancing was almost robotic, which in itself was completely mesmerising!  His efforts at singing weren’t the best either but the producers had obviously accounted for this, giving him minimal exposure.  Yeah, ok, it was ropey – but his performance was still hugely endearing.  Never Forget is probably the best platform for him in musical theatre – it’s cheesy, camp and poppy – I can’t see him doing anything like Les Mis anytime soon.

 

Moving on, the cast was in fact incredible with Mark Willshire as Ash (the Gary of the tribute band) absolutely storming on the stage. His singing was amazing, flawless and his dancing looked exhausting.

A highlight had to be the top cheesy moment of ‘back for good’ set to the backdrop of rain absolutely chucking over the two main characters. Brilliant.

The encore for me was the best bit. The whole theatre was on their feet straight off as the cast ran through an exhausting medley of songs (6?7?) – as I said to my sis – this is actually like seeing Take That! (not that I ever have…but this must be close!)

So, an unexpectedly top night filled with brilliant TT songs. I recommend!

Severe lack of kerb appeal June 1, 2009

The wedding is fast approaching – it’s less than 8 weeks away now and yesterday on return from a mate’s hen do, I was perturbed by our front garden.  I realised that on The Big Day I actually will want some pics of me leaving home as a singleton, hence images of the front garden and front door are required. Let me tell you why this is bad news.

Our front garden, although low maintenance, currently looks like Steptoe’s yard with bits of car and van strewn around, some scrap metal for welding, a trailer and a wheelie bin parked up outside the bay window.

The front door is a peeling mess of once-vivid blue paint.  It’s been sticking for ages so we’ve been using the back door and I only really noticed how tired it’s looking yesterday avo. The porch paint is pretty grubby too. It’s not got the kerb appeal that Kirsty and Phil would be looking for!

So what does our yard say about us?

- The Boy is a DIY-er who hoardes potentially useful stuff from the scrapyard, in the hope that one day, it will be useful

- We neglect what we think are small things (painting front door) with the aim of completing big things (getting van working)

- We aren’t front door people. Back door people are less formal and less tidy aren’t they?  It means when mates visit they wave to us through the kitchen window before letting themselves in.

- The Boy is not a methodical worker, but a ‘get stuck in’ type who strews stuff around him in the urgency of getting things done.

However, there’s another side to this and that is that actually although we neglect our frontage a bit, no-one really knows what’s behind our peely front door and scrapyard-esque yard.  Far from being neglected, I think we have a very happy home and although bits of it are sometimes ramshackle (just as we are from time to time), we still love it.

Having said that and romanticising it,  it still looks pants so am still adding tidy front garden and paint front door to the ‘wedding must do’ critical path list.