Cathio

YEEEEEESSSSS!!!!!! cheers pal

Hi El Exorcisto Thanks for the ideas Goals - get strong, build some muscle...look a bit more even (I'm at risk of looking like Mr Tumnus here...massive thighs and skinny little arms) ...chinups/pullups I'm stuggling with, as the pull up bar in the gym is rather high and I am short....perhaps I need a partner to do some assisted pull ups

Hi y'all I have what could be described as a 'leg heavy routine' - I play sport, walk everywhere and go to a bootcamp style class once or twice a week which involves a lot of squatting (body weight and weighted), lunges and more squatting. I've been also doing barbell/goblet squats in the gym once a week, but I think this is too much (it feels too much), so I want to start using my gym visits (which are generally Thursday/Saturday OR Sunday) to concentrate on upper body.....does this sound like a good idea or do I just sound clueless? Which leads me to my next question...what would be a good upper body workout? I'm not a complete beginner at strength workouts, but I do tend to go to the gym and faff (lack of focus) My upper body routine would normally look something like this 1k run warm up 400m row 5x5 strict press 5x5 lat pull down 5 x 10 bent over row 5 x max pressups After that I run out of ideas and generally do some KB swings....not really upper body Any thoughts/ideas? Cath x

This is stupid question but are ground almonds any cheaper? its the same thing, but I found ground almonds from a discount food store much cheaper than they stuff that is marketed as almond flour

If I go to a new gym for the first time, I try to go at some time during the day when it's super quiet (perhaps the morning if mainly students are exercising ) , and have a look around, try out some new machines and so forth.Don't worry about looking like a knob though - i would say about 75% you see have no clue what they are doing? I like Kettlebells in the gym, as I don't always feel confident performing heavy lifts without a spotter. Look up 'kettle bell workouts' on Youtube. Or what about a class like circuits? I am assuming you're British? if you are, get signed to parkrun as well - weekly free, timed 5k runs, in most towns/cities - lovely atmosphere.

LeafyWhites: Perhaps take the free trial session and report back? I feel your pain on the gym placement front though - I sometimes go to a hotel gym near me and to get there I pass 1) a Krispy Kreme 2) a muffin place 3) a Millie's Cookie's 4) a Burrito place. One day this will not tempt me...one day

I've had a couple of meals out this weekend, and while personally I haven't been 100% good this weekend (Pinot Grigio and a latte anyone..), its got me thinking that actually it's quite easy to make good choices when eating out. This weekend I had Meal out number 1 http://www.vivabrazilrestaurants.com/ Viva Brasil is a brazilian type BBQ place and is great..their salad bar does sweet potato, cold meats and lots of nice salad. The meat they do is actually amazing. Although since its all you can eat, even though its paleo friendly there is so much scope to overeat :: meat sweats :: Meal out number 2 http://www.wagamama.com/ I didn't think this would be a great option, but my mother loves it there. I had Prawns on a stick to start (yummy, but i think there was sugar in the marinade) and chicken and mandarin salad which was nice, and deffo something to replicate at home. Does anyone else have any go to meals and restaurants? apart from Nandos....

Wasn't there a worldwide shortage of Sriracha? it's amazing though...I could probably swig it out of the bottle x

Yeah totally fine I think

Yes Frank's hot sauce! it's not widely available here, but I get from Costco in like 1l bottles.....the salt content of it concerns me though? is it too much bad for you? I probably would use light mayo in lieu of Frank's. So far I've managed to stay away from the sweet chilli and the BBQ sauce

+1 to most of the posts here, especially with regards to Weightwatchers. I know someone who last lost a lot of weight on it, but its mainly via sensible meals and some of those shitty snacks (the brownies are actually quite nice...but you may as well have an equivalent sized chocolate bar..)...when I lived at home I did it with my mother, but most days looked like this: Breakfast - Cereal Lunch - Sandwich with cheese triangles and ham Tea - Chicken stir fry with rice Snacks - Weightwatchers Brownies I mean...its hardly optimal eating is it? but I do think it's a decent diet. I lost 1.5 stone with slimfast in 2011 and mostly have kept it off - is it a good diet? no, its expensive and full of sugar and encourages unhealthy snacks....but it was easy to follow and I was ready to loose weight....Of course I would have had better results with Paleo/clean eating but I knew no better.... In short....there are a million weighs to loose weight....are all of them healthy? naaaahhhh...

I'm quite lucky here, Crossfit is around £55 per month, which is about the same as a gym membership in a high end type facility (pool/tennis courts/rich ladies walking on the Treadmill etc)...there has been a big rise in the 'budget gym' concept here so you can bag memberships for £20 a month...pretty good really.. I find sometimes it can be hard to improve in crossfit as there is so much stuff to master...like, I've just about mastered a power clean, but then there a snatches, c&j, handstand push up, ring dip, muscle ups, etc etc ...sometimes its nice just to go to the gym and SQUAT

Where do you live? just curious.... I am big fan of any group training, and to me Crossfit falls into this category - but for example I have friends who would rather train on their own, in which case don't do Crossfit, as the group dynamic is a big part of it. The only way to know is go along and see if you enjoy it,I wouldn't worry too much about the credentials of the trainers - but I would look at how the workouts are programmed. For example, the box I go to, they generally have a strength excercise (5x5 backsquats), then a WOD that is never longer than 30 minutes. I think this is good...whereas I've heard other places utilise the 'chipper' WODs where you have to do 300 of each excercise for time....thats not fun. I am also against doing reps for time of things of Olympic Lifts or heavy deadlifts - stuff like that gives Crossfit a bad name. So in short - go along, try a class, talk to the trainer, and ask how they programme their classes. Cath

Thanks all, very helpful! My initial goal has been to clean up my diet and just exercise for fun- but I enjoy exercise so much more when I have a goal....although at the moment my goal is...to get a goal - so a frequency type goal is a good place to start jfreaksho a 405llbs squat is a commendable goal...I'd be happy to squat 80kg (176) - so maybe there's a goal right there... Lots of food for thought guys, love it ps I just realised how often I've used the word goal...goal goal goal

Simple question really...... I am bit of a jack of all trades, I run a bit, walk a lot, throw some weights around, play netball, and sometimes do bootcamp/crossfit - the difficulty with this means, although i never bored I never get good at anything! So how do you set your goals...I know all about SMART objectives (I work in HR ), but as for thinking of a goal....no chance......

Hahahah Garth we definitely have the same taste in internet forums! Hope you're well dude! Cath(io) x

Thanks all for your replies - you have all been much more helpful than google and Mark's Daily Apple In particular the points about Dairy are good, I need to cut it out before I can make the judgement on whether or not I can live with out my morning cuppa. I do actually enjoy black coffee (especially with cinnamon mmmm) but black tea is pure uncivilised , and I think I am going to add rice in on my heavy training/sport playing days I think my general malaise was a combination of 'carb flu' and badly timed lady problems, and think I probably need to push through it. Finally thanks nutterintheshed for the steer on the Paleo-UK group - most of the resources for Paleo are American which is fine (Metric is for wimps) - but I only last week found out what Cilantro was!!!! though it was this exotic ingredient and it was in my cupboard all along.........

Holla team Nerd Fitness Been a long time reader of the forums and blog, and I have just started the Paleo diet after a year of solid excercise, but pretty terrible eating. I have been good for the last 5 days or so, the only concession I have made is milk in my tea (I am British after all) - but yesterday I had a real struggle day - I was tired and moody, but when I went to bed I could fall asleep for nearly four hours. So today I am tired and moody all over again. I also had a bowl of cereal at 2am which i hope hasnt knocked me off the wagon too much. Has anyone else experienced similar side effects when going Paleo? On the excercise front I haven't been doing a huge amount, some walking and badminton and one one fairly hardcore gym session on Saturday Loving your work guys Cath

Thanks all, yup still doing Crossfit - 3/4 times per week - really enjoying it...hopefully I'll be able to do an unassisted pull-up one day!

Hi all, I've been lurking for a while a reading the articles, so taking the plunge and joining the convo About me, I'm 26 and live in Cardiff, UK. I work in Human Resources for a software company. That's not really relevant, apart from to outline the fact that I sit on my ass all day. First things first - I work in old-skool stones and lbs here - so fyi (1 stone = 14lbs). And in my gym all weights are in KGs Anyway I digress, I left university and then traveled the world, and came back weighing 11stone (the high was 11 and half after university - my diet and drinking habits were shocking) -not massive but too heavy for my 5'4 frame- especially when you consider it was pure wobble. I got my first job, and after a couple of false starts, I lost about 1.5 stone with (don't shout at me) - Slimfast. Now I know slimfast is full of crap, but it did teach me a valuable lesson, that I could I needed less food to survive than I was eating at the time. I also had to drink a shitload of water to curb the headaches - silver linings. Anyway I settled at a comfortable 9.5 stone (with a few lbs variation either way - I'm about 9st10 at the moment) - and never managed to get to my target of 9st. Fast forward to January this year, and I joined a Crossfit gym - www.kfcrossfit.com - great place. I cleaned up my diet in January to loose the Christmas lbs, and felt great, but my diet has since fallen by the wayside. Fast forward to today, and I am challenging myself to eat properly (I call it Paleo + tinned tomatoes + a bit of milk in my tea - I am British after all...), and get stronger. Now I now these aren't SMART goals (I work in HR so I heart a good SMART goal) - but I'll get back to you on those once I've done my 1RMs for next month. In the meantime, I look forward to hanging out with y'all Cath x