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Well hello peeps, been a while aint it?

I’ve been on my wedding/entertaining house guests sabbatical for the last few weeks and so this is the first week, where I return to normal, back into the routine of getting fit and slim. Here are some photos of the wedding.

From left, the best man, the groom, my dad and the bride’s dad

McTofu and the Bride, Laura

Mama McTofu and I

My little brother Kris and his new wife Laura

It was a lovely day, much love and fun all around.

Now that it is done, I am on to PHASE 2. The first part of the year I was working toward the goal of getting down to a good slim size for the wedding and I more or less achieved my goal.

I got down from a size 16-18 to a size 14. I went from 13st7 [191lbs or 86kg]  to 12st3 [172lbs or 78KG]

I have done really well overall, considering 18months ago I was 15st [210lbs or 95kg] so:

TOTAL WEIGHT LOSS SO FAR = 2st 10lbs OR 38LBS OR 17.2kg

Pretty impressive I think but the task/journey is not over yet. I feel like I have finally got to a place where eating well and exercising consistantly is now a habit, a way of life and that I can build on this.

The next goal is to drop about 2 and a half stone by my birthday on 21 august 2010. My ultimate goal is 9st 7lbs / 133lbs / 60.5kg which means I need to lose 2st 10lbs / 38lbs / 17.2kg. So really, I just need to replicate the success of the first four months of this year and I’ll be there, I’ll have manged it. Does not seem that difficult at all.

I got back into my bedroom workouts this morning, doing the following workout:

I set my gymboss interval timer to 15 sec rest and 30 sec work. I did 4 exercises per round and did 5 rounds:

body weight squats

lunges on each leg [did 6 on each per 30sec interval]

press ups

sit ups / turkish get ups

I have set myself a press up challenge this week, I aim to do 50 press ups every day. I’m doing them 5 at a time with breaks. So this morning I did 25 in total, with maybe 1.5mins break between sets. I aim to do another 25 throughout the day. Cue strange looks from people at work!

How are you all? Still working out? Planning on getting fit for the summer? Let me know in comments, would be great to hear from you.

I’m on holiday. Yay! No more sitting at a desk all day, whoop whoop!

I find myself in the Homeland [Scotland] at my folks and aside from the opium cloud of cigarette smoke [bad mummy and daddy!!!] I’m thrilled to see my folks and even more thrilled that soon my little brother will be getting married.

So will McTofu be working out on holiday? You bet your sweet ass she will!! Holiday no longer = sitting about and eating my own body weight in chips. That was then. This is now.

So in light of this I managed to convince my mum to join me in the garden for a wee workout. My dad could not be torn from the sofa and the fishing channel. Go figure.

I was keen to keep it nice and gentle for my mum, so we started with stretches.

We did a few more stretches and then decided on 5 exercises and 4 rounds. I told my mum to go gentle and do only a few reps of each just for starters. I did about 10-15 reps of each.

Exercises were:

Jumping jacks

Squats

Lunges

Single leg dips

Press ups

We started with jumping jacks. Mum doing few and taking it easy on her knees, I went for at least 50-100 fast ones.

Then we did squats

My mum said this photo reminds her of the scene in Dirty Dancing when Patrick Swayze was trying to teach Baby to dance. He he. Never fear, my mum got the hang of it.

We then did lunges and single leg balancing dips [stand on one leg and bend forward to touch your does]

Then on to press ups. My mum did them on her knees, me, being newly hardcore did full, proper press ups. I can manage 5 at a time. Not mind blowing but progress none the less. I did 20 overall.

So we did four rounds of these exercises and I was really proud of my 60yr old mum, who did really well!! Go mama McTofu!!!

Although she may have protested a little at the end

My brother and soon to be sister in law arrive today, so I’ll have them all out in the back garden tomorrow. Then the South African contingent arrive Wednesday, so I’ll be in full on drill sergeant mode with them all out for early morning workouts!!

No rest for anyone!

This morning was met with…

“My belly is sore…”

“Dont want to workout…”

“I’ll workout tomorrow…”

All excuses.

Fortunately, the looming wedding and my bridesmaid dress was motivation enough to get my lazy ass outta bed and get my workout on.

I opted for quick and intense, so this is what I did:

Set my gymboss to 15mins

Did as many rounds of the following as I could in the 15 minutes:

5 burpees [without press up]

5 squats with 8kg kettlebell

10 deep lunges [5 on each leg]

5 press ups [I can do full press ups now, no knees YAY YAY YAY!!]

5 full sit ups [not crunches]

I did 6 rounds in the 15 minutes.

It was a good little intense workout and I’m glad I pushed myself to do something, anything, rather than give in to the lazy.

Are you going to give in to the lazy today? I urge you to do something, anything at all. Even if you just choose to walk to work rather than get the bus, or go for a good 15-20min walk at lunchtime. You’ll feel better for having done it and we will both have been able to give the two fingers to Lazy!!

Yee ha!

Another weekend of glorious sunshine in London [I wonder if the ash cloud has caused some kind of instantaneous greenhouse effect?] meant outdoor workouts. So my flatmate Helen and I [Kerry may or may not have been sleeping off her Friday night escapades ] decided to pool our workout equipment and create a little back yard gym to do circuits. We set up 5 ‘areas’ and concentrated on doing five rounds, spending 1 minute at each area, with 30 seconds rest in between. I used my funky little gymboss interval timer to keep track for us.

The first area was the skipping rope

That is Helen doing her best boxer skipping routine

Next was the mat, where we just did a range of floor exercises, like hip extensions, sit ups, plank and leg raises.

The next was with Katya the Kettlebell

That is the McTofu serious squat face. Arf.

We did a variation of squat with kettlebell type exercises here, which included a wood chop move [start in a squat, with kettlebell in hand as the picture above and to the side. Come out of the squat and move the kettlebell in a diagonal in front of you] as well as regular squats and clean and press movements.

The next was the trampette. This reminded me of Cathy Bates in the film ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’. This is deceptively tough and really gets the heart rate up. A really good cardio exercise to go with the skipping.

That is me mid jumping jack on the trampette. You can do a range of things on the trampette. Helen and I stuck to the basics though in an effort to not fall off the bloody thing!!

I then moved on to  the pull up bar, which I had to use indoors as the back door to the garden didn’t have a ledge to support it. Helen chose to do another floor exercise here due to a shoulder complaint.

Check the concentration. This is serious business.

Now I do not wish to deceive you dear McTofu gets Fit readers. Just out of frame of the picture is the chair that I have to use to assist me in my pull ups. One day I will be able to pull up my own body weight without the help of the trusty chair. That day is not today. But it will come. Oh yes. And then I’ll be deserving of the moniker ‘fit’.

So that was our little circuit. I enjoy a good solitary workout for focus and speed but working out with a pal really helps to motivate you both and it’s fun. I highly recommend it!

We did that workout yesterday morning and this morning Kerry[fully recovered you'll be pleased to know] Helen and I did an early morning run. It was 5km there and back. We did walk a good 1.5-2km of it but as we are just getting started with our running training again for the Race for Life, we did quite well. In no time at all we will be race fit and may even attempt to do it in a specific time.

The sunshine really does help to make workouts more enjoyable. Hope it lasts! Viva la summer!

Was the sun shining for you today? What workout did you do?

PS go check out my post on setting and achieving goals over at Choose it. Be it. Do it.

The sun has started to creep into our weekly existence more and more, now that spring has sprung [I'll try not to jinx it too much] and I’ve noticed a lot more people out and about running in the sunshine.

When I started on my journey to get fitter about 15 months ago, I was quite resistant to running. Mostly because, well it hurt, I got bored, out of breath real quick and just convinced myself that I didn’t like it.

Then, as I do every year, the opportunity to sign up for the Race for Life occurred and I thought to myself, maybe this year I’ll run it rather than walk it.

Cancer is a disease that has claimed a few of my loved ones over the years and it is one of the charities I like to contribute to regularly. So I thought, I’ll raise money as I always do but will tell folks I’m going to run it, the whole 5km! That may not sound like very far [I can now run it with some ease] but if you are overweight, unfit or just plain outta shape as I was, it seemed like an incredibly difficult task.

The only way I knew how to approach it was with a plan. I am a gal that just LOVES a plan. So I went online and searched for a few training schedules, made sure I had a good [but inexpensive] pair of trainers, a few running outfits and I just got started. And this is the trick, work out a plan, don’t spend weeks worrying about not being able to do it, just figure out a simple training schedule and just get started. It would be even better if you could get someone to train with you, as the extra encouragement and buddy system goes a long way but you can do it on your own too.

Keep this in mind: Everything starts with a first step.

If you start easy, building up as you go, you will be amazed at how your body adapts, at how you get fitter and more able to accomplish that which you thought was impossible.

This was the plan I followed and it really stood me in good stead for my ‘race’. I will be honest and tell you that on the day, my bloody arthritic left hip scuppered my wish to run the full 5km but I did run a good 4km and took a 1km walk rest in the middle. I was still incredibly proud of my achievement and went on to enter and complete a 10k run a few months later!!! My flatmates, Kerry & Helen will be joining me this year for the Race for Life in Hyde Park [Helen did it with me last year but instead of a dodgy hip like me, her asthma scuppered her race]. So we are already talking of a training schedule, to get us race ready. Kerry and I were out for our first 6am run on Wed and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I would allow 6 weeks prep time at least before attempting a 5km run, particularly if you want to run the full distance. If not, then following this plan will not do you any harm either. Hell, even if you don’t want to enter one of the many 5km fun runs taking place throughout the summer months, this little plan may even help to get you in shape for your summer wardrobe and/or bathing suit!

Week 1

Mon: start with a good 5min brisk walk to warm up. Then do a 1 minute run and 2min rest. Repeat the run/rest 5 times. Warm down with a 5 min brisk walk. Stretch for 10mins.

Tue: Rest or do some resistance/weight training

Wed: start with a good 5min brisk walk to warm up. Then do a 1 minute run and 2min rest. Repeat the run/rest 5 times. Warm down with a 5 min brisk walk. Stretch for 10mins.

Thu: Rest or do some resistance/weight training

Fri: start with a good 5min brisk walk to warm up. Then do a 2 minute run and 1min rest. Repeat the run/rest 5 times. Warm down with a 5 min brisk walk. Stretch for 10mins.

Sat/Sun: rest

Week 2

Mon: start with a good 5min brisk walk to warm up. Then do a 5 minute run and 2min rest. Repeat the run/rest 5 times. Warm down with a 5 min brisk walk. Stretch for 10mins.

Tue: Rest or do some resistance/weight training

Wed: Brisk walk for 20mins

Thu: Rest or do some resistance/weight training

Fri: start with a good 5min brisk walk to warm up. Then do a 5 minute run and 2min rest. Repeat the run/rest 5 times. Warm down with a 5 min brisk walk. Stretch for 10mins.

Sat/Sun: rest

Week 3

Mon: start with a good 5min brisk walk to warm up. Then do a 5 minute run and 2min rest. Repeat the run/rest 6 times. Warm down with a 5 min brisk walk. Stretch for 10mins.

Tue: Rest or do some resistance/weight training

Wed: start with a good 5min brisk walk to warm up. Then do a 5 minute run and 2min rest. Repeat the run/rest 7 times. Warm down with a 5 min brisk walk. Stretch for 10mins.

Thu: Rest or do some resistance/weight training

Fri: start with a good 5min brisk walk to warm up.  Run for 15mins. Warm down with a 5 min brisk walk. Stretch for 10mins.

Sat/Sun: rest

Week 4

Mon: start with a good 5min brisk walk to warm up. Then do a 8 minute run and 2min rest. Repeat the run/rest 4 times. Warm down with a 5 min brisk walk. Stretch for 10mins.

Tue: Rest or do some resistance/weight training

Wed: start with a 10min brisk walk to warm up. Then do a 10 minute run. Walk for 10mins.  Run for 10mins.Warm down with a 5 min brisk walk. Stretch for 10mins.

Thu: Rest or do some resistance/weight training

Fri: start with a good 5min brisk walk to warm up.  Try some interval sprints [these do not have to be Olympic worthy just quite a bit faster than your normal jogging pace]. Intervals would be: sprint for 10 seconds [If you don't have a stop watch or a gymboss interval timer, then just set a marker in the distance and sprint to that marker]Rest for 2mins. Repeat that interval 5 times. Warm down with a 5 min brisk walk. Stretch for 10mins.

Sat/Sun: rest

Week 5

Mon: start with a good 5min brisk walk to warm up. Then do a 10 minute run and 2min rest. Repeat the run/rest 4 times. Warm down with a 5 min brisk walk. Stretch for 10mins.

Tue: Rest or do some resistance/weight training

Wed: start with a good 5min brisk walk to warm up.  Try some interval sprints. Sprint for 10 seconds Rest for 2mins. Repeat that interval 5 times. Warm down with a 5 min brisk walk. Stretch for 10mins.

Thu: Rest or do some resistance/weight training

Fri: start with a good 5min brisk walk to warm up.  Run for 30mins. Warm down with a 10 min brisk walk. Stretch for 10mins.

Sat/Sun: rest

Week 6

Mon: start with a good 5min brisk walk to warm up. Then do a gentle 30 min jog. Warm down with a 10 min brisk walk. Stretch for 10mins.

Tue: Rest or do some resistance/weight training

Wed: start with a good 5min brisk walk to warm up. Then do a gentle 30 min jog. Warm down with a 10 min brisk walk. Stretch for 10mins.

Thu: Rest or do some resistance/weight training

Fri: 40min brisk walk. This is gentle prep for your race day.

Sat: 5km RACE DAY!!!

Sun: REST!

Obviously, please consult your doctor before starting any exercise plan, I’m not a fitness expert and don’t claim to be, this is simply the training plan I followed and it worked for me, so it may for you too.

Let me know how you get on, all comments or questions welcome. Last but not least, McPants, this is a shout out for you my dear, as I know you wanted a plan. Now go and get those trainers on and go for a run!!!

[Before you read this post, do go here. It is my new web space where I discuss setting goals, achieving them and how to get a rockin life!!]

Ma belly, it used to be hanging. Now not so much anymore. I’ll spare you the before and after pictures, I’m sure you can evoke an image all by yourself]. In fact, now I have the scene from Austin Powers, with fat bastard singing, ‘I want you in ma belly’ in my head. Nice. Here is a reminder of the large Scottish man himself.

I used to think that if I could just sort out my belly then I’d probably be fairly happy with my figure, the big boobs, BIG ass and thunder thighs I could have lived with. The overhanging belly? Man alive but that just always annoyed me. I give you exibit A:

Thats a lotta belly and a whole lotta ASS. You could balance a tray on it. [I may have tried this once... Ahem]

Kinda funny that I hated the belly quite so much, as I spent quite a lot of time cultivating it [perhaps with a little help of my favourite chip shop in all the word, the Swallow cafe, Alexandra Parade, Glasgow. Swallow cafe, ha ha, how ironic.]

It is kinda slowly departing, as the photo below suggests

I have been working hard at making the little bloaty bastard dissapear altogether but something that was created over several years aint gonna just up and hit the road overnight.The photo below shows my progress better than anything I think.

So on I press, hitting the workouts hard, all the while focusing on the rock hard abs of my dreams. I’m told that NO man will EVER find rock hard abs attractive,  but I find that hard to believe.  Surely rock hard is better than hanging belly?

Come on you dudes that read this blog [I know you are out there, Enge, please feel free to comment my dear, your opinion is welcome here] tell me honestly, a flat belly or a hanging one?

A week or so ago I chatted about giving up the gym for the summer and just working out at home.

This has gone well so far, with me getting up early, huffing and puffing on my yoga mat each morning, much to the curiosity of my flatmates I’m sure. I have been doing a variety of body weight exercises, which have included tabata style, interval and time trial workouts.

However, I’m excited that my bits of ‘home gym’ kit have arrived. I could have carried on just doing the workouts I had been doing and will no doubt continue to do just body weight workouts but  I wanted to add some weight and resistance as well, so I purchased a kettlebell, a pull up bar and an interval timer.

Meet Katya the 8kg kettlebell

She is a heavy little blighter and just what I need to start with. It is crazy that 2 x ‘Katya’s’ represents the amount of weight I have lost so far!!!! I can hardly believe I used to carry that amount of weight on me. For serious, no wonder my knees and hips were knackered!!!

I also got a pull up bar for doing chin ups and pull ups [this currently will be used with the help of my foot on a chair as my arms are no where near strong enough to lift my body weight yet! I still feel kinda hard core using it though ]

And last but not least, this funky little bit of equipment, my Gymboss interval trainer. This allows me to set intervals of work/rest and it beeps/vibrates when I am to start and stop. It really helps you to just concentrate on your workout, rather than constantly checking a stopwatch [as I had been doing]. The mac does’nt really help me with my workouts, she just sits there, looking pretty and being awesome.

So with all my new stuff, I did the following workout this morning:

50 x jumping jacks for warm up

Then using my Gymboss timer, I set it up for intervals of 30secs work, 10 seconds rest. These are the five exercises I did in the 30secs work interval

deep squats with kettlebell
kettlebell clean and press right hand
kettlebell clean and press left hand
press ups
pull ups

I did this round of exercises 4 times. The aim is to work up to 8 rounds. The amount of each exercise I did, in each 30sec set is as follows. The aim is to keep a record now and then see in a few weeks time, if I have managed to increase the reps.

deep squats with kettlebell 10 8 9 11
kettlebell clean and press right hand 7 6 7 7
kettlebell clean and press left hand 6 7 7 7
press ups 17 17 18 14
pull ups 7 5 5 4

It was a good workout, I certainly worked up a sweat!!

Do any of you have any home gym equipment that you use and love?

Hey there my lovelies. Hope the Easter bunny was good to you? I got my chocolate fix by way of a Green and Blacks Dark choc and Ginger bar. It was nomtastic.

So back to work today and I felt like really challenging myself this morning with my workout, so did the following set.

This was a bit of a time trial, so tried to do it with as few breaks as possible and as quick as I could:

1 x 15 tabata style squats
1 x 50 jumping jacks
1 x 15 deep lunges
1 x 15 kneeling press ups
1 x 30 sec plank
1 x 15 jumps [start from standing jump up with knees as high as you can]

repeat that set 3 times

I did it in 15mins 45secs and will come back to this one in a few weeks to try and better my time.

This was on the radio as I worked out, great song, love Prince [tis a pity he is so strict about use of his videos, be nice Mr Prince, share with the world!!]

As you may or may not know, my little brother Kris gets married on the 1st May this year. I was asked by his very lovely fiancee Laura, to be her maid of honour. Now I know that McTofu and honour are not two words that one would normally put together but hey, I felt the need to aquiesce.

So that of course meant the joy of the bridesmaid dress. I thank a million stars in the sky that Laura was not fussed about what style I chose just so long as it was a deep violet purple. Free rein, whoot whoot.

I had a bit of a look around, well, in fact I half heartedly had a look on the same day Laura had a wedding dress fitting, saw one dress and decided right away that IT MUST BE MINE. It was in Coast, a strapless, deep violet, fitted satin number, that dropped below the knees. Perfect. I tried on the size 16, which was waaay too tight, I could hardly get it zipped up but decided to look again in a few weeks. That was the end of February.

Mid March I decided I needed to bite the bullet and buy it otherwise I risked not getting a dress at all. I went to about 4 or 5 different Coast stores and realised that it was last season’s dress and no store had any left in a 16. Damn. My last ditch attempt was the Debenhams in Westfield, where alas, my dress awaited. It was a 14 but I felt I had slimmed enough and hoped and prayed I was not relying on wishful thinking too much.

Well, I got it on. Just. It was super tight and only just zipped up. As you can see here [apologies for bad iphone snap and all the crap on the floor around me AND my very shexy bra straps - I was in a hurry to send a photo to my mum, ok?]]

As you can see, hugging just a little too tight around the belly area.

Well I tried it on again this morning, used a better camera this time and it is almost a perfect fit!!

I’m hoping come the 1st May, the belly will be smaller again and if not I reckon a bit of shapewear will do the trick!! Oh and I’m not planning on wearing my slutty red heels to the wedding, I just needed some heels to wear for the photo

What do ya think?