Ha ha happy Monday!
How has the start of your week been? Mine has been great. I’ve still been buzzing after the weekend! After a great day today, I’ve crushed 5k on the treadmill, done some cleaning and I’m ready for dinner. Pasta and meatballs: yum yum! 😀
Here’s my thought for the coming week: 
What’s your goal this week? Bring on the awesome! 😉
You’ll probably know that I have kinda fallen in love with my weekly Clubbercise class. It’s a great workout and loads of fun! Because Jacqui changes up the routines, it keeps my muscles guessing and I definitely feel the DOMS the day after.
Last night, I tried another new class, as there was a taster session of Pound in the village hall. And, after the taster session, I’d love to give it a go!
Pound is a great workout: you use bright green weighted drumsticks- called Ripstix- to strengthen and sculpt. It’s not as aerobic as Clubbercise, but I definitely worked up a sweat, and I can feel today that I worked muscles not usually worked!
It was also a great stress buster- thumping those sticks off the mat was pretty relieving!
If you’ve never heard or it, or want to know more, check it out here:
Poundfit
Tomorrow, we’re helping out at the Kintyre Way Ultra. We have an early start at the first checkpoint, and then we’re supporting Julia from Girl Runs Wild who is taking part. Good luck Julia!
I’m really looking forward to it! 🙂
I’ll let you know how it goes! 😀
Hello, have you had a good bank holiday? If you’ve been working, I hope it has been ok. I’ve been off today, and so I’ve caught up on the housework I skipped this weekend. It always feels good when it’s done, doesn’t it?
I’ve just been to Clubbercise, had dinner, and I’m going to round the long weekend off with another dip in the hot tub.
I feel like I have made progress this week- I stayed on track with my fitness and wellbeing goals. I’m hoping that this week will be equally as successful. 
I hope yours is too 🙂
Today, @ TheWelshWookie and I tried something completely different: we went paddle boarding!
Dave, who runs the fantastic water sports business Kayak Majik in Tarbert has some fantastic new paddle boards, and we couldn’t resist giving them a try.
So, at 9 o’clock this morning (usually known as PJ time for me on a Saturday), we were at the West Loch with some fellow intrepid adventurers: Dave, his wife Alison, Mark, Janet from Pure West Media, her hubby Gordon and son Struan.
Dave got us kitted out with wetsuits and buoyancy aids, and then took us through a briefing about basic balance and techniques while we were still on dry land. That turned out to be really important! We then carried the boards to the waters edge, and climbed on.
I’ll be totally honest: I did not think for one minute that I’d be able to stand, but the boards were great, and I went for it….. And stood up! Woop Woop!
Next, Dave took us through some basic techniques while we were in shallow water, and before I knew it, I was moving: miracles do happen! I kept trying to work on my slice, and by the end of the lesson it was beginning to get there. We had a wonderful paddle around the side of the loch.
I’ll admit that, when trying to push my balance on one leg during one of the exercises, I took a dunk 😮 . But TheWookie took a few dunks (one was pretty spectacular) – he said that it was because he was really going for it. Yeah, well…. 😉
Towards the end of the lesson I found myself at a standstill, battling against the wind (and my weak arms) so I had an extra leg workout wading through the water, pulling my board towards everyone else. But I loved it! Some of the others moved onto some more technique work like the hybrid stance. Me? I was happy with mastering standing up!
Thanks to Janet for this pic, which sums up my experience today 😀
We’re busy with the Kintyre Way Ultra next Saturday, with Julia from Girl Runs Wild but will be back out on the boards the following week if we can!
When we got home, we kicked off Hot Tub Season 2015 😀
What’s your favourite water sport? Ever been stand up paddle boarding?
You probably know that I love my fitness trackers. I jumped straight in there years ago, when Nike lit up the market with their FuelBand. I LOVED mine!
Or I did, until it corroded and burned my arm 😦
But Nike replaced it, this time for the newly released white one. Until that stopped working. So they replaced that one too. 
Then, the third one conked out. But Nike had brought out the FuelBand SE so there were no more swaps (even though I reckon three bands in a short space of time, given the cost, is not a good record, Nike) 😦
So I’ve been eyeing up options for the past few months. And while I’m *hinting* for an Apple Watch, I know there will be times I’m not with my phone, or it runs out of charge, or I won’t risk wearing it. I still *need* a tracker 😉
I’ve opted for the Jawbone UP 24. I’ve been wearing it for a few weeks now, and I love it! It’s a lil’ snug (thank you weight gain) but that will be temporary. It links to lots of apps that I use a lot, most importantly it links to MyFitnessPal and do it logs all of my food automatically!
I’ve also been using UP Coffee, Bounts and a few other apps too. It tracks my calorie intake, my sleep, steps and exercise. The app is so easy to use, and I can tell at a glance where I am with progress at any point in my day 🙂 
The battery life is around 7 days, it’s easy to charge and it charges quickly too.
Does anyone else have an UP band, what do you think about it? Which is your favourite fitness tracker?
Hello, everyone, and welcome back, winter! 😮
It’s freeeeeeezing out there! Brrr! The hailstones have been fairly battering down today. Mustn’t complain, though. We’ve had a great few weeks of mild, sunny weather.
Well, here we are – four days’ blogging in a row 🙂
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my recent posts, and those who have offered positive comments and support following my wee admission yesterday. It’s good to know that I’m doing the right thing. Last night, I organised my ‘return to running’ plan for the next few weeks. I’ve bolted together a 5K, 10K and half marathon training plan to coincide with the Color Run, the inaugural Carradale 10K, culminating in the GNR. And, I’m actually a little excited to get back to it in a more structured and sensible way.
I’ve started tonight, with a return to Clubbercise after the Easter break, then missing last week’s class. It was GREAT! There were new routines, including one to ‘Uptown Funk’ and another to Scooter’s ‘Logical’:
It was brilliant! 😀
Here’s my soft, fluffy-pink approach to this week. It matches my mood………
Have a GREAT week, all!
Hello, my lovelies! Have you had a good weekend? I have.
After my comments yesterday about every day being an event for someone, today is Commonwealth Day. And thinking about it has brought back floods of happy memories from last year’s Commonwealth Games.
Happy, happy days! You can read more about the fun I had here, in the post Gallus Glasgow. Actually, I wrote a few posts about it, but this is the main one 😉
It’s now week two of HM training, and so far, so good- my running is on track! I’m off to Clubbercise tonight, and it’s a much-needed rest day in the daily plank challenge. How on earth am I going to manage 45 seconds tomorrow? 😮
Well, I’ll be giving it a good go!
I have a pretty busy week ahead so I’ll try to check in when I can- I’ve enjoyed returning to more frequent posts last week 😀
Is everyone as excited as I am about the eclipse on Friday? What can I say- I’m easily pleased! We also have visitors this weekend so I guess I’d better fit in some cleaning this week too!
Here’s a little glimpse into my fluffy brain this morning:
Catch y’all soon! :D
It’s Monday! And I am MOTIVATED! 😀
This weekend, @TheWelshWookie and I have been busy. We’ve decorated the hall, and it is looking fantastic. We have also -at last – replaced our cooker. The last one blew up 😮 and we just hadn’t gotten round to getting a new one. But, now we have: and can you guess the first thing made in it?
Yup. Chocolate Cake 😀
But it will make healthy eating a little easier again. After I treat myself to a pizza this week, of course. Pizza, I have missed you!
Anyhow, I have kickstarted this week in a fun filled and energetic way – with a Clubbercising class! It was totally AWESOME!
The class is aerobic, dance style, which you can do to suit your own abilities, either high or low intensity. Everyone has glowsticks, and the music is upbeat: dance, clubbing style. I LOVED it! 🙂
And what was even better was the lights are dimmed, there are disco lights, and no one is watching what you’re doing 😉
Some of my favourite running tracks were used, which was great: Titanium and Pump up the Jam, amongst others. But the track of the evening was one I remember very fondly from clubbing in Glasgow when I was in my late teens, early twenties:
Gotta love me some N-Trance on a Monday night, reminding me of Destiny nightclub, and The Boulevard at the weekends. Brilliant!
If you get the chance, take a Clubbercise class!
Bring on February!
How are your New Year health resolutions going? Do you make any?
I don’t make specific resolutions, but I do enjoy refocusing and re establishing routines after the festive season.
And my first workout of Jantastic is under my belt- Woo Hoo!
Saturday was my first run in a while and, boy, did I struggle- I felt like an old lady, huffing and puffing (and a little walking) my way through a short two mile run. Tonight I mixed it up a little, with some exercise bike and strength work.
Now I’m basking in post-exercise endorphins, and plotting my runs for the year. I’ve signed up for two so far: the Mull of Kintyre half marathon which, as ever, sold out within a couple of hours! It’s been voted the best run in the UK by Runner’s World many times. And I’ve also scheduled in my postponed GNR which I’m definitely planning to do in 2015.
Here’s something that suits my mood today:
Go for it! 😀
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