New Routine!

Sunday was another rest day after being a tiny bit tired out on Saturday.  Lots of sport on the telly and I napped through at least some of it; just crashed out on the sofa after my yummy ham, lettuce and Philadelphia wrap (looks so clean and simple and it is!).  Then it was lots of cooking... a big batch of chilli to last a couple of weeks of quick dinners when it's too much like faff to cook something long; a roast chicken for Sunday dinner; and a batch of fruit, nut and seed bars.  This was iteration number 4 of the fruity ones and the latest recipe has cherries and cranberries in it.  It's less proteiney and fibrey than the last iteration and I think that's because there's less peanut butter in this one.  And they certainly turned out a lot thinner and darker than the last lot but that's probably because I have a new baking tin that's actually metal this time instead of the ceramic dish I was using before.  So, I may need to drop the temperature and keep the cooking time the same.

Ingredients

• 50g Oats
• 100g Pure Clear Honey
• 80g Crunchy Peanut Butter
• 30g Soft Dried Pitted Dates
• 40g Wholegrain Brown Puffed Rice
• 40g Raisins
• 40g Natural Cashew Butter
• 40g Walnut Pieces
• 40g Pecan Nuts
• 15g Pumpkin Seeds
• 25g Hulled Sunflower Seeds
• 25g Dried Cherries, Dried
• 25g Dried Cranberries

Method

Pre-heat oven to 140-150C and line a baking tin with greaseproof paper.

Weigh oats and rice into a bowl. Weigh and chop fruit and nuts into the bowl and add in the seeds.

Weigh nut butters and honey into a separate bowl. Microwave for 30s, stir and microwave for a further 15s.

Mix all of it together thoroughly and dollop into the baking tin. Press down very firmly (use the back of a spoon or a bit of greaseproof paper and your hands which I find easier).

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden. Leave to cool until hard - press it down again as soon as it come out of the oven if the dried fruit has swollen up and pushed the mix apart a bit. Then turn out and chop with a sharp knife into portions.

Nutrition Data Per Serving
Calories (kcal)	209.4
Carbohydrate (g)	21.9
Protein (g)	4.9
Fat (g)	11.5
Fibre (g)	2.3
Fruit & Veg	0.1

So, today I can has new routine!  And it's a leg-thrasher :oD

• Warm up on the cross-trainer or rower for 4-5 minutes
• One leg squats (pretty much ATG) - 10x2 at 20kg
• Hamstring curl on the Swiss Ball - 15x2 with bodyweight
• Leg extensions with slow negative motion - 10x2 at 35kg
• Superset - Leg raise with press using Vipr - 15x2 at 10kg
• Superset - Walking lunges with side-swipe with Vipr - 10x2x2 at 10kg
• Reverse lunges with row using Kinesis α - 20x2 at L4
• Crunches with leg cycles using Kinesis δ - 10x2x2 at L2
• Intervals on the rower - 4x30s with 60s recovery at L5
• Cool down and stretch

I'm not sure what to substitute in for the Kinesis δ jobbie in my local gym to home, but I'm sure I'll think of something for that one.  It's only a 3 week routine and today counted even though I did only one set of everything.  Obviously I'll try to up the sets to 3 across the board as my first progression before thinking of upping the weights (apart from the Vipr which felt really rather light).

Low kcal burn at the gym today so slightly lightish foods...

B - greek yogurt with Yeo Valley fruit compote, 1 scoop MP Max and flaked almonds
S - cottage cheese spread on a Dr Karg crisp bread
*gym*
S - 1 scoop MP Max in skimmed milk
L - salad; leftover roast chicken, sweet pepper, cherry tomatoes, celery, beetroot and lettuce
S - greek yogurt with strawberries
S - carrots and houmous
D - stir-fried roast chicken, chorizo, wholegrain rice, baby corn and peas

Actual leftovers dinner tonight with the roast chicken pan fried up with chorizo, wholegrain rice and some veggies... looks quite pretty I think :o)

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maintain weight (inc. exercise)	1565 2077]
Protein (g)	128.8 (32.7%)
Carbohydrate (g)	148.9 (37.3%)
Fat (g)	52.3 (30%)
Fibre (g)	21.4
Fruit & Veg	10.6

New routine!

370kcals burned going through a 1 set run-through of it in 47 minutes today with lots of stopping and talking in between and no real cardio-based cool down (but including a warm up of 1km rowing at the start). So I'm quite impressed by that. Mike(?) is very enthusiastic, really encouraging (slightly OTT on that front) and very attentive to form. He's put together a really nice full body routine full of complex (as in multiple-muscle group) exercises and showed me some new toys in the gym that I previously pooh poohed (mostly the Powerplates and Kinesis jobbies). As we went through the routine he modified them to fit me better (most notably when I mentioned that my left arm and shoulder is significantly weaker and I end up compensating for it, so he broke out clean and press barbell into squat and press dumbbells on each side to help build up the left side a bit more to even things out a bit). I have to wait for him to write up the routine with the extra notes from today's session (mmm, new plank variation and its tricky!) and he'll email them to me in time for my Monday work out. I'll post the routine once I get it.

Today's real highlight is dinner. 250g Bison rump steaks. They look incredibly lean, if a little on the thin side, but if they're anything like that buffalo I pot roasted, then we're in for a real treat tonight! And I get to have my weekly wine treat which takes me to 5 units of alcohol this week.


Only 1 cheat so far this week (the wine), but then there's the weekend which is a bit on the unplanned side at the moment, so plenty of scope for more cheating there!

Exercise - 47 minutes run through at the gym (HRmax 180, HRavg 142)

B - greek yogurt with 1 scoop vanilla, frozen blueberries and flaked almonds
S - banana
*gym*
S - 1 scoop chocolate in skimmed milk
L - salad: spinach, sweet pepper, celery, walnuts, chicken fillet and lemon juice
(sneaky chocolate from the box I was handing 'round the office)
S - tangerines
S - carrot and houmous
D - bison rump steak; sweet potato, potato and carrot mash, cauliflower and wine

Calories (kcal) [kcals to maitain weight (inc. exercise)	1860 2105
Protein (g)	166.1 (36.3%)
Carbohydrate (g)	150.7 (30.9%)
Fat (g)	34.2 (16.8%)
Alcohol (g)	41.6 (15.9%)
Fruit & Veg	9.1