i don’t know why but surveying an area is so exhausting!! went down near Chorlton water park today and had to walk ages to get to this meadow where they’re building a tram over an area of scientific interest- we spent about 3-4 hours walking about. it was effort to walk around this place because the ground was super uneven, very inviting to rolling ankles but i managed to stay upright :P that HIIT i did last night didnt help- quads and bum were dying.
we found some pretty cool spiders and even saw a hawk type bird :)

in any case here’s some boring pictures of plants :P

and honestly, i’m kinda excited to get back. I’ve been doing studying and such but this week is the week for cracking down and blitzing through things and remembering it all. 
Mostly i’m excited to be back  buying my own food, having gym access, and doing all my cooking :)  i want a trip to unicorn shortly after i return so i can stock up on fresh local veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds (whilst other exam takers will be piling up on the junk food :L) to keep me happily fueled and healthy throughout studying! i tend to do pretty well during exams exercise and food wise because i go into self discipline mode with studying and it carries over to everything else.

i’m just gonna ramble about my plans now so i’ll stick it under a read more :P

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Hey guys, thought i’d kick out a quick update before heading to bed tonight. i feel so bad i’ve neglected you all for so very long!!! and it’s certainly had an impact on my motivation fit-wise because i have very little :P doesnt help that it’s shark week and that i just received more news of possible delay on gym opening =/ sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

on the bright side when i got back from dublin i was still standing strong at 129.4  so the few treats i had whilst away didnt affect me much :P that said it certainly DID affect my mindset…cause i’m totally out of my healthy-daily-exercise zone that i was rocking :( gr. gotta push to get back on it!

Tomorrow i’m going shopping at unicorn to get lots of lovely fresh fruit and veg and nuts and seeds :) so this is encouraging.  i can set myself up for success if i buckle down and cook myself some proper meals! bad choices of weeks past: buying muesli type cereal (i would go to it as a snack/meal if i was too lazy to cook. not acceptable!) and buying pittas (same sorta deal. feeling lazy =eat a pitta with peanut butter. mehhh) Not only is this affecting my weight, but more importantly my health!! i havent been getting the veggies i should thus been feeling sluggish- plus i havent been sleeping like i ought to either which is just as much to blame. time to restructure and get serious!

so i shall finish off the pittas swiftly. The ride to unicorn will be adequate exercise for tomorrow, but if i’m feeling energetic i’ll stick something else in. Though i realise now it’s unlikely i’ll have the time/energy for such a thing because i’ve got loads more work to do tomorrow evening…ah well.

Riding went decently today, though it could have gone better. the horse i was riding was just a bit challenging so it took me a while to adapt but i came through in the end (i think). I have a simulator lesson on saturday morning which should be interesting :P i’ll let you know how it is.

anywayyy i’m off cause am sleepy. until tomorrow peoples

peace xx

Found out there are free circuit classes offered at my hall’s bar at 1 every saturday. I emailed the guy to see what it was all about, and after a moments deliberation i decided i will go ahead and give it a try this coming week! Might as well i suppose, always nice to embrace free things :)
He said it’s a lot of bodyweight type stuff which sounds up my ally, so it should be fun!

in other news i think my body is taking a firm stand against me eating unhealthily :L i seemed to have flicked a switch that has made it so i simply cannot tolerate larger quantities of un-“clean” food  :P Today i had a bit of a saturday breakfast feast with Luke dearest, consisting of facon, delicious veg sausages, roast tomatoes, baked beans on toast and cheezly on toast o.o it was pretty much my only meal of the day so i wasnt too worried, but it has left me feeling pretty sickly this evening :P
it’s not a bad thing, in fact one could argue that it’s a great thing xD  slowly conditioning me away from all these delightful but super processed foods….wah.
and yes, what a fabulous way to end my challenge week *sarcasm* with a plate full of convenience foods :L

i’ll make a post about weekly challenge and stuff tomorrow.
in other news, i got a text from bike lady and she’s asked if i can come pick it up this week :D :D so excited!!! means i ought to get my hands on a bike lock to keep it safe in the mean time. i also have to get a helmet. but nah it should be great, means i can cycle down to the big supermarket and even all the way to unicorn (organic food market) if i feel like it :D yay

i’ll let you know how that goes!

anyway i’m off to sleep. see you guys lataaaaaaa
also i bought a ramekin…so i can make baked oatmeal…yep

peace x 

had to buy. there was no other option.

So! yesterday didnt quiteeee go as planned…because i fell of twice :P that’s okay though, it was my fault. besides that though me and leaf did quite well considering what we were up against! We got a few fourths and a fifth or two so i was pretty pleased :) Had to say goodbye to everyone cause i wont be seeing them till december so that was kinda sad! :(
To recharge after a long day of horses i had a massiveeeeee salad (romaine lettuce, spinach, kale & some onion!) with some Chick n’ thrown in for a little extra protein/deliciousness. i forgot how much i loooooooveeeee leaves and green things :) makes me excited to get back to Manchester and veg out my kitchen. which in turn makes me excited to really jazz up my blog with all the stuff i’m gonna cook! I’m on the committee for the veg and vegan society this year which is so awesome :D it’s the first year our uni is having one and i can’t wait to be a part of it and really contribute to the kinda stuff we get to plan. My role is somewhat undefined for now but hopefully it’ll become more clear where my niche is as time goes on. I’ve already been recommended some new veg cafe’s to try out, and have a big book of recipes begging to be tried (veganomicon, anyone?) 
on the fit front, as i’ve been cheering about all along i cant wait to get back and start running again, and also get registered for the gym that’s in my halls :) my goal for now is 5 days a week of at least 30 minutes of exercise.
Mini goals : hold a 5 second handstand (kick up, away from wall), continue progress with my tucked planche (eventually handstand raise) , and when possible start cranking out some pullups. That goal is to be able to do more than one first of all :L 
all of these are very upper body oriented, but that’s where i’ve always been weakest so may as well get to work. Will probably adopt my 20 pushups a day once again! I’m also gonna look into maybe making a schedule of pop pilates workouts to incorporate each day to work on my core, cause sore abs are always a plus!

i got sooo many cute new clothes that i really wanna show you guys, it may have to wait until i move in to school though. but srsly they are so motivating to workout and eat perfect, they already look great on me [/conceited] so i cant wait to see how much better they will look once i start getting into a healthy routine :D 

anywayyyy i’ll quite rambling and get to packing! 

i’m back in the good old US of a once more, with about 2 weeks before i’m due to set off for manchester yettttt again :P The test went quite well in the end, i answered 46/50 questions which was a good amount more than the first time :P i passed in my summer coursework and got 80% which is an A woooo :D so i’m quite pleased with that!

Whilst in manchester i had some vegan food adventures with my dear friend Molly
 

here’s an awkwardly resized picture of us in Scotland with an orange and some tea :P you can see why we get along…..

But yes, we made lots of delicious vegan foodsies (not all squeaky clean or healthy but we were revising so cut us some slack :P) and i shall be happy to link you to her fantastic blogpost about the very delicious but not fantastically healthy (though not THAT unhealthy thinking back on it…) Pancakes that we made! her pictures are a lot nicer than the crappy quality phone ones i offered up.

so you can see our pancake adventure here: http://veganconvert.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/american-style-pancakes-blueberry-and-choc-chip-pancake-recipe/

as for fitness, i havent been doing much cardio for the last couple weeks mostly due to revising and whatnot and not being able to ride being in england. i have been working a lot on  upper body, as i mentioned a few posts back my current focus is being able to hold a tucked planche and then raise into a handstand. progress is slow but the frog-stand to tucked planche poses have helped me get a little better at balancing my handstands and holding them for longer which is a great thing! 
today i rode 2 horses so that was pretty good and i’ll be continuing riding all week :) hoping to maybe get some biking in at some point maybe, possibly a run but i havent been in so long so i’m probably quite out of shape. Eating hasnt been stellar but again revision doesnt help, being sat around the house all day studying molecular genetics makes one prone to treating oneself with chocolate and quick easy meals…

i AM feeling a bit blech and tubby and out of shape but i know it wont take long for me to get back to being all good and active now that i’m free of stress :) a week of good eating and riding/exercising daily will whip me right back into shape!

anyway i may be baking tonight (portion control of course, but i owe my friend a decent batch of vegan cupcakes :P bad experience, dont ask) so if i do i’ll send a post out your way. i doubt i’ll make anything interesting for dinner i’m afraid as laziness prevails, but oh well. i’ll try to bring ya something interesting this week!

incoming possibly a video of me but we’ll see how i’m feeling :P

peace

so Luke left today, and i had to snap out of dreamland where everything is happy and perfect :P tomorrow is august 1st and i found out today that my resit exam is scheduled…for august 20th. fuck. click read more if you care to know about THAT…

in other news i’m thinking of getting the fitbit as a late birthday present, unless i come across something else of a similar nature that’s better :P i’m off to read reviews on it now.

finally, (yes sorry this is short!) i will be posting pictures from lukes visit soon :) it was amazing in every way and i’m so much happier for it. sighhhhhhhhhhh young love :P

peace!

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Hello! so yes, today was my first official weigh in since starting my healthy eating and exercise regime. I will say the scale wasn’t extraordinarily kind to me today, but i am not discouraged, and i will tell you why after!

SW: 145.8 / 66.1 kg
CW: 146 lbs / 66.2 kg

edit: post workout weight- 144.8 ;)

i wouldnt exactly call it a “gain” by any means :L as it’s only .2 lbs/.1kg which can easily be put down to weight fluctuation. Anyway i had a non-scale victory (my shorts fitting :) ) and a scale victory last evening so i dont mind there not being any change ^_^ last night i weighed in at my lowest weight i’ve seen in a while! and that was 144.6 lbs /  65.5 kg :D  so yay to that!
i feel really good and healthy, so i think that’s all that really counts in the end. 

In any case, i’m thinking about taking measurements as everyone says it’s the best way to keep track.

anyway best get back to revising. Got 4 tests this week ;_; and lots of work to do as you can imagine!!

peace

Au Revoir, Danvers!
Back to manchester this evening :)
icky hair. shower on the to do list before i depart :L + super tired cause i got up at like 8 this morning to go have coffee with my best frienddsss