No pain no gain!

12 days and 4.5lbs to go (see picture below). Delighted with how my weights coming off. All the pain is most definitely worth all the gain!

I so excited now, to feel good in myself on my wedding day and also have a few pounds to play around with. Actually because we are away for 3 weeks and I dont want to deny myself anything, I gave myself a stone to play around with. Looking forward to all that tasty food stateside, yeh ;-).

Its been a long few weeks and im not quiet there yet. Heres an idea of what its took to get my body prepared and wedding ready......lots of weight training {legs, back, chest, arms, shoulders}, body conditioning {abdominals, obliques and neck}, alternating days of pilates, alternating days of high intensity interval training {working approx 85% of my MHR}, 2-3 moderate 30 minute walks a day and 1 day rest per week. Its a lot I know but I would say that I am in the best strength and physical fitness shape of my life, so far. A LOT OF PAIN AND BIG GAINS.

And the food......high protein and as much clean food (food with only 1-2 ingredients) as possible. I wouldnt be a big water drinker, maybe 1.5litres on a good day. Id average 2-3 cups of green tea a day and always a coffee before a workout (to help with endurance). I always make sure the cupboards are filled with wholgrain pasta, rice, rice cakes and noodles. Jars of mixed nuts, almond butter and 100% natural crunchy peanut butter. There is always fresh fruit at hand. Green apples, bananas (for a post workout snack), pears, lemons and limes. In the fridge we have blueberries, gooseberries, fresh broccolli, peppers, red onion and mushrooms. Always plenty of natural low fat probiotic yogurts too (very important for the reproductive system). I also keep a big glass jug of cold water in the fridge flavoured with either sliced lemon, lime or cucumber. The freezer is filled with lean meats and fish. And if all else fails......the are protein shakes in the press.

So theres and idea of my lifestyle. It takes a hell of a lot of planning, preparation, motivation, endurance, persistance and fear (of getting fat again). You have to keep working for what you want and never give up.

This is one of my fail safe recipes. If I have nothing else ready I throw this stirfry together and all the family enjoy it.

Beef stirfry with blackbean sauce and mixed veg (picture below);

Sliced beef
1/2 Red, green and yellow pepper sliced
Punnet of button mushrooms sliced
1/4 red onion sliced
Chopped broccoli head (as much as you like)
1 small tin of chick peas
Blue dragon blackbean sauce
Rainbow pepper (optional)

I steep the broccoli head for 2 mins to soften it up while I dry stirfry the strips of beef and season with fresh ground rainbow pepper.

On a separate pan I dry fry the mushrooms until they are browned.

Once the beef is done I add the mushroom and the rest of the veg. Stir for 2 mins and then add the sauce. I usually let the stirfry sit for 5 mins on a low heat to let the flavours mix.

Serve in a nice bowl and enjoy. If you like you can add 1/3 cup of quinoa or wholegrain rice. A blue dragon wholegrain noodles nest is yummy too. Plenty of complex carbs, protien, vitamins and iron.

Try it out and let me know what you think. My next post will be all about the wedding etc. So have a nice week and stay clean/classy x