From Mother to Tough Mudder!

So my past couple of months have been eventful.  A friend of mine decided to do the Tough Mudder in October and I said I would do it too.  I said this before I looked it up and holy crap, I looked it up!! 12 mile course of ice, fire, electrocution, running, jumping, climbing, crawling and of course mud, lots of mud.  Time to start training!  My wonderful instructor said he would help me train and that quick recovery is the key so hill running up Bradgate Park it is.  First time out, 7am on a Saturday morning, wow it’s fresh! :)  We start our run, I’m keeping up and all is going well.  "Come on Wolfie up the warm up hill" says Mike.  I figure the warm up hill is the first hill so the easiest one right? WRONG!  For crying out loud, made it less than half way LOL!  The run continues and off goes Mike around the outside of the park, sending me back to the entrance and once more up the hill.  I drag my arse back at what can only be described as a shuffle but I made it, just :)  Run is done, I catch my breath and feel awesome.  What a rush feeling super fit, until 3pm rolls round and cue me, fast asleep on the sofa while my 3 year old tries to put Mini Cheddars up my nose!

I try so hard to figure out why I have this need to get fit and challenge myself and all I can think of is I’m insane, though insane with a kick-ass, muscly back :)  Being all vain I get hubby to take a pic because after he tells me my back is toned as hell I wanna see, I will share this with you because I’m pretty proud…

I hope one day I will be this proud of my legs but slowly, slowly, catchy monkey and all that. My little boy has now started part time so I’m working out 5 days a week and as I get ready to do a 10k Race for Life I start to worry have I done enough?  If I can't do a 10k I’ll die in a SAS designed assault course!  To think I only found fitness 3 years ago dawns on me big time and, as women do, I doubt myself.  Am I taking on too much?  Am I kidding myself?  I still think of myself as a 12stone, 30+ mum of 3 with a serious fudge addiction, it’s hard to see the reality which is I’m a 9st 11lb fitness and life loving woman :) Sucks how hard I find it to praise myself sometimes (Pfft! – Hubby), it’s easy to dwell and not pause and see how far I’ve come.  I worry too much as Race for Life comes round as me and my amazing friend do it in well under an hour.  Time to stop moaning and pull myself together!

The training over the next few months pays off I’m feeling very fit but fit enough to do the Tough Mudder?  Hmmmm!   I get a lot of help from my trainer and KSFL coach and I’m as ready as I’ll ever be so here goes!

These are my team mates; my brother, my good friend and his mate.

We lose the lanky ones of the team at mile 2 and re-dub ourselves Team No Legs!!  Luckily my awesome brother and I stick together and I cannot believe the things we do!  At mile 4 as I jump in to 70,000lbs of ice and water I bang my head >_<  Grrr, so annoyed, and not with the fact that I almost drowned but that I had to be pulled out.....Bum!

As the trooper I am I soldier on and we had great fun, laughing so much in the mud we cannot walk!  It turns out a 15ft jump into a 4m deep pool of water is bloody terrifying :) The 10,000 volts in the two electric obstacles are the easiest of all, how mad does that sound?  Me and my brother manage the hu-f*%&ing-mungous skate ramp first time because we're just that awesome :)  Making it all the way up shouting “FIRST TIME BITCHES!”, whilst 3 lads are dragging my over the top by both arms and a leg.

It was more of a mental challenge for me.  Fears of confined spaces come flooding back as we crawl through tunnels and some twat shouts "Don't use tunnel 7, it's collapsed!”  While I crawl through, talking to myself, all I can think is "The one who gave me this fear by rolling me up in a quilt and sitting on it when we were kids is the one waiting for me on the other side!”  If not for the fact he could easily kick my arse I would have soooo dead armed him at this point, but being in such a crazy situation it’s best keep him on side hahaha.  I'll beat him up at Mam's next week when I’m no longer covered in a rainbow of bruises.  My fear of heights has always been under control as I don't want to pass my fears on to my kids, but all those fears came back with an almighty punch.  Still I overcame them all and for that I’m so proud of myself, and shamefully wear my Tough Mudder head band everywhere :)

Proud Tough Mudder - Hoo-Rah!

I own boxing gloves, I must be cool... bugger!!!!

Now first things first; The Photos.  When my before shot was taken I intended for NO-ONE to see it, ever! I felt brave and asked hubby to take it to help motivate me and boy did it!  Sharing it now has taken quite a lot of guts.  I still look at it through my fingers covering my face.  As for the after pic, when I started Kickstart Fatloss the trainer made a joke about bikini after shots.  Being the complete dipstick that I am I didn't get it was a joke, so there it is, me in my 99p Primark bikini.  Bought because I was going to go in a hot tub for a holiday, not convinced I would have the guts to wear a bikini so I picked up the first cheap one that fit! Now there it is on the internet for all to see me showing off my belly button.


Hmmmmm, so I'm putting thought in to training but where to start? I guess improving my cooking skills with the help of KSFL and getting in plenty of exercise if I want to be a trainer.  I guess fitness is important!  Wouldn’t motivate many if I’m sat in an arm chair, eating chocolate, shouting "Squat! Squat! Squat!", and I must make sure I don't suffer the same stutter as my trainer does.  He gets extra 4 sit ups out of us that way!  I’m pretty sure he puts it on as he only seems to repeat the number 14 so instead of a row of 16 he gets 20 out of us, how rude!  Well off I go with my new boxing gloves feeling all professional to Mike's Boxing Boot Camp, after all I’m pretty fit these days.  Bugger!!  In walks Mike's boxing club (as the intro to Eye of the Tiger plays through my head) and I look like a dumpy house wife next to this lot.   I decide I should hide in the back with the newbies :)

Wow!  Great workout!  Loved using the bags.  One of them is a round response ball, brilliant though felt like fighting drunk hahaha (not that I ever did of course, I’m a mum so was always on my best behaviour so as to never be a giant hypocrite for my kids).  I must have missed it 45% of the time but it was great fun and that’s the point I think, fitness needs to be fun or what is the point?  As I "hit" the response ball I may have been hit back by it but no-one saw so clearly that never happened!  One hour of non-stop running, kettle bells, punches, basket balls that weigh a bloomin' ton and sit-ups.  Its classes like this that make me wonder if I am cut out for it!!

The more classes I do and the more people I get to know the better it is, feels a bit like I’ve swapped the pub for the gym. Oh god, that’s just sad isn't it!  I’m becoming one of them.  You know who I mean, the loons who prefer to go the gym than the pub, the ones who complain when the gym dare to close over Christmas!!  I’m all for fitness but please shoot me if complain about having Christmas week off!  I’ve gone from taking a month off over Christmas to two weeks!!  Does this mean I’m on my way? AAARGHHHHHHHH!  Quick, think about something else...FOOD!  Christmas left me with a giant snacking habit.  I seemed to do quite well over December but January is proving hard!  Yes, I’ve worked out enough to get the Christmas weight off but snacking does have a way of making me feel blah, so I need to get the snacking under control again.  Let’s start with cooking them lovely clean meals - great recipe ideas from my friends and KSFL coach Mike.  So here goes... now I really am getting cocky there.  My cooking is starting to taste good, I made my own carbonara.  It was so nice I just wanted to rub it all over my face (bit extreme?).  I’m shocked at how easy cooking is becoming, and how tasty healthy food can be!  Down side is that I’ve had garlic breath for two days but take a peek at a few Kickstart friendly dishes I made all by myself.  They're edible and nobody got sick or died from eating them, woop!  I know you’re as proud of me as I am.

I found myself home from a busy day last week feeling a bit tense and in the need of some relaxing and I start dicing veg and onions.  It's relaxing, that’s just wrong!  The tea was great but at what cost?  My hubby thinks it’s great.  He pats me on the bum and says "Now you’re a real woman, who enjoys cooking and takes pride in her kitchen".  Cheeky bas$#*% ~SLAP~

In the beginning, there was largeness

So this is me in June 2010.  I weigh 12 stone, I'm going to turn 30 and I have 3 kids, the youngest being 3 months.  I HATE my body, I try to focus on the good over the bad but the only part of my body I do like is my nose! I have decided I want to feel good and change the way I look, but just for a change of pace I'm going to do it properly. I WILL get fit and eat well!!!

First trip to the gym and I manage a whole 3 minutes on the cross trainer.  After trying out all the machines I am dying, really dying, but I chip away at it and I've slowly changed the way I eat, but after two gym buddies decide it’s not for them I struggle to keep it up. October rolls around and I’m getting to the gym all of once a week :( So my neighbour and new friend has said she want to get to the gym too.  Woohoo, someone to shame me into getting off my fatty bum and challenge me!  It helps that she has done running and swimming in the past so I need to work hard to catch up!  I get back into it and we aim for 3 times a week.  All is going well, we’re having fun, getting out of the house and getting fit.
Now were in to January 2011, after a large Christmas break (hehe) we’re back on it but now I’m taking it one step further once again, now I will weigh and measure myself to really get focused.  I now weigh 11st 3lb, granted not a large weight loss but it’s coming off and staying off.  Over the next 6 months I get my weight down to 10st 4lb.  I’m feeling good and having fun, yes there are plenty of bumps in the road (I am human after all), lots of naughty meals and snacks, but slowly I’m learning to eat better and my cooking is improving(ish).

By the time January 2012 rolls around I am 10st 6lb.  I know I’ve put two lb. on but I’ve lost another 3 inches.  Progress is veeeery slow at this point I’m bored!!! I worked my arse off, even ran 5k for cancer research, so I know I’m a LOT fitter than when I started but blahhhhhhhhhhh, I want to lose more and have a sexy body like them b%*"#es in the mags, (yer yer I’m shallow aren’t we all a little?).  Anywho, my wonderful gym buddy says “let’s do the classes this year, try them all and see what we like”! Well I’ll try anything once!  The first few we try are good and get us sweating so we get brave and try a pump class, then in walks this instructor, all toned and muscles, boxing gloves tattooed on his arm.  Yes, I am terrified.  This man looks like he's about to make mincemeat of us!  He did the hardest class I’ve ever done, every part of my body was screaming but wow did I feel great!  So we continued with this guy’s classes and learnt his name was Mike.  He was funny and so nice, not the evil military trainer I first thought he would be (hehe sorry Mike but it’s true :))

2012 is my year, I'm feeling great and so proud of myself I end up doing anything from 2 to 6 classes a week.  The work outs are always hard but to have that push a trainer gives is invaluable.  I can't just walk out when I’m tired, I have to stick it out or look like a right plum leaving half way through.  Again, the weight loss is so slow but the inches are falling off me.  I’m getting toned and people can't stop telling me how great I look, bonus! :)  As we move into November I quite like how I look and want to just shift that last bit that’s clinging on.  I now weigh 9st 12lb, yay! I’m in the 9's!  I don't think I’ve been this weight for years, not since I was 17!  I have a great friendship with our trainer, Mike, and have met some great people at the gym, so I feel confident enough to ask "How can I shift half a stone?  My weight has stayed the same for a long time now.  Will I get any slimmer or is this just how I’m meant to be, a healthy and (mostly) happy size 12?”

So Mike tells me about his Kickstart Fatloss club. Oh go on then let’s give it a try. DETOX?!!  Are you having a laugh?  I can't detox I need to eat!  I think he wanted to kill me, that’s the only explanation for asking me to bloody detox!!!

Meeting one, oh thank god I’ve seen the list of food I can eat on the 14 day "detox" and it looks good.  So detox isn't just lemon water and cabbage, its lean meat, fish veg, eggs and much more.  I guess it’s time to learn to cook for real then! With lots of help and encouragement from Mike and my amazing gym buddy I get through week one.  I lose 6lb; I’m at goal weight after one week and a size 10 to boot! Nice :)
Week two is much easier.  My husband is keeping his snacking at work (good man) and he's loving the meals as much as I am.  I feel very proud that there are not only spices in my kitchen but I use them.  Get me, cooking like a grown up!  I don't lose any weight in week two but my god the inches have again fallen off, I lost 9inches in two weeks! As a woman I don't know if I will ever be completely happy with my body but the changes are amazing, well see for yourself…

Now we’re here in January 2013.  I put 3lb on over Christmas but that’s now gone.  I’m back on the fitness and even thinking about training to be a trainer myself! Hmmmm, maybe I’m not sure really because as I write this I’m munching on Malteasers.  Can you be a trainer and be naughty or do you have to be strict and perfect?  As it stands I’m a busy mum, my youngest will start 4 mornings a week at playschool after Easter so I guess that’s the time for me to decide.  Got lots of thinking to do, am I brave enough? Have I got what it takes? Do people want fitness advice from a 32 year old mum who eats far too much chocolate?