Yeah so I wanted to incorporate this into my post but it's just under my blog title instead. Way too technical for me and the html wouldn't work. See above ^ ^ ^
I WILL make sure that I have lost 62.5lb in total by Christmas Eve weigh-in!!
#Determined
Also, wish me luck for weigh in tomorrow. Not really sure how it might pan out, I'm currently peeled away from my weighing scales. I will update you on how I get on tomorrow - I've been quite poorly this week and so it's been a very difficult time. Finally have a day off from the madness/catching up on sleep starting tomorrow evening, so I will have time to write a semi-detailed (not really) review on my progress Lots of love xxxxx
*New post in the next few days when I get a chance. Seville tomorrow, woot! But for now.....*
Have been requested to do this for a few weeks I think now, so I felt it was apt to publish the "jump around" playlist.
I got the idea from finding it difficult to work out while at home, but also from not being able to jump like a woman possessed to songs such as 'Niggas in Paris' or, embarrassingly, the chorus of One Thing (by the abomination that is One Direction - a song which is not in the playlist, as the rest of the song is absolute BALLS and it is beyond me how they even made it to the hearts of many American kids. The mind boggles. Somehow another of their songs has made its way onto there. I hear they make their way into the lives of adult women, in one way or another) (edit I took that song out, you can thank me with chocolate or sexual favours later.)
I digress. Here's it is...
I had toyed with splitting up some of the shitty bits into things such as 'Pop Concerto' and "The Chav Suite" but I figure you can just pick and choose for yourselves. Would apologise for a lot of it being annoying but yknow, if I have too much time on my hands to make my own, you do too! There are some quite ancient slash embarrassing things on here, but they'll bring back fond memories I'm sure.
Oh also, clearly the jumping technique varies. Obviously it depends on the music. It's much more fun if you do it with a friend, however stupid you both look.
Gets the people goin': The Jump Around Playlist
Red Alert - Basement Jaxx
Levels - Avicii
When The Sun Goes Down - Arctic Monkeys
Monkey Man - Amy Winehouse
Goody Two Shoes - Adam and the Ants
Take On Me - A1
Supermassive Black Hole - Muse 99 Red Balloons/99 Problems - Nena/Jay Z Mashup
Mama Do The Hump - Rizzle Kicks
Barber's Adagio For Strings - William Orbit
Land of 1000 Dances - Wilson Pickett
Stand And Deliver - No Doubt
You Stole The Sun From My Heart - Manic Street Preachers
Dakota - Stereophonics
Tongue Tied - Group Love
Basket Case - Greenday
Magic Position - Patrick Wolf
Alarm Clock - Rumble Strips
Three Lions 98 - Lightning Seeds (ft. Baddiel and Skinner) United State of Pop 2011 (World Go Boom) - DJ Earworm
Niggas In Paris - Jay-Z and Kanye West
Gangnam Style - Psy
Baggy Trousers - Madness
The Edge of Glory - Lady Gaga
I Decided - Solange Knowles
Love At First Sight - Kylie Minogue
Praise You - Fatboy Slim
Parklife - Blur
Telephone - Lady Gaga ft Beyonce
Sunchyme - Dario G
Golden Skans - Klaxons
The Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani
Twist And Shout - The Beatles
A Little Less Conversation - Elvis & JXL
Let There Be Light - Justice
Spectrum (Say My Name) - Florence and the Machine & Calvin Harris
Warriors Dance - Prodigy
Brimful of Asha (Norman Cook Remix) - Cornershop
Raindrops - Basement Jaxx
We R Who We R - Kesha
D.A.N.C.E. - Justice
I Gotta Feeling - Black Eyed Peas
United State of Pop 2009 - DJ Earworm
Giddy Stratospheres - The Long Blondes
A Town Called Malice - The Jam
Feel So Close - Calvin Harris
Beautiful Stranger - Madonna
I'm Not Alone - Calvin Harris
Spice Up Your Life - Spice Girls
Buck Rogers - Feeder
Baba O'Riley - The Who
Apply Some Pressure - Mark Ronson/Paul Smith
Animal - Neon Trees
Firestarter - Prodigy
Charlie Brown - Coldplay
Starships - Nicki Minaj
Bass Cannon - Flux Pavilion
Louder - DJ Fresh/Sian Evans
God Put A Smile Upon Your Face - Mark Ronson/The Daptone Horns
Jump In The Pool - Friendly Fires
This Charming Man - The Smiths
Earthquake - Labrinth/Tinie Tempah
Five Colours In Her Hair - McFly
Our Velocity - Maximo Park
Lithium - Polyphonic Spree
Harder Better Faster Stronger - Daft Punk
We Found Love - Rihanna/Calvin Harris
Close To Me - The Cure
Flux - Bloc Party
Cinema - Benny Benassi ft Gary Go
Little Bitty Pretty One - Bobby Darin
Nobody Don't Dance No More (Remix ft KT Pearl) - Kano
Just a Day - Feeder
Omen - The Prodigy
A Thousand Trees - Stereophonics
Bonkers - Dizzee Rascal
That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings
Feel It - The Tamperer ft Maya
Get Up Offa That Thing - James Brown
Keep On Movin' - 5ive
Lust For Life - Iggy Pop
Move On Up - Curtis Mayfield
Mr Blue Sky - ELO
Low - Flo Rida
Goodbye Mr A - The Hoosiers
Wings Of A Dove - Madness
Raise Your Glass - Pink
Smile Like You Mean It - The Killers
Reet Petite - Jackie Wilson
R.I.P. - Rita Ora/ Tinie Tempah
Born Slippy - Underworld
Smile (Digital Soundboy Remix) - Lily Allen
Pinball Wizard - The Who
In For The Kill - La Roux
Going Out Of My Head - Fatboy Slim
All Day and All of the Night - The Kinks
Wearing My Rolex - Wiley
Workout Plan (Chaise Marcel Remix) - Kanye West
Gravel Pit - WuTang Clan
End Credits - Chase & Status ft Plan B
Uninvited - Freemasons
Hello - Martin Solveig/Dragonette Fit But You Know It (Remix) Ft. Kano, Donaeo, Lady Sovereign & Tinchy Stryder Ca Plane Pour Moi - Plastic Bertrand
Come Dancing - The Kinks All For You - Janet Jackson
Uptown Girl - Westlife
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) - Beyonce
Jump Around - House Of Pain
Can't Stop Moving (Mirwais Mix) - Sonny J
About You Now - Sugababes
Are You Gonna Be My Girl? - Jet
Super Freak - Rick James Seven Seas Of Rhye - Queen
Toxic - Britney Spears
A-Punk - Vampire Weekend
Mambo #5 - Lou Bega
My Favourite Game - The Cardigans Pow! (Forward) - Lethal Bizzle
SOS (Rescue Me) - Rihanna
Rockafeller Skank - Fatboy Slim
Move Your Feet - Junior Senior Mister Mental - The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO
Jai Ho! - Pussycat Dolls
Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones
Rehab (Glee Version) - Glee
Go West - Village People
Don't Stop Til You Get Enough - Michael Jackson
Boom Boom Pow - Black Eyed Peas
Let's Get Retarded - Black Eyed Peas
Song 2 - Blur
Reach - S Club 7
Womanizer - Britney Spears
Promise This - Cheryl Cole
Candyman - Christina Aguilera
Just Lose It - Eminem
Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand Flathead - The Fratellis Creepin' Up The Backstairs - The Fratellis
Something Kinda Ooooh - Girls Aloud
Mmmbop - Hanson
Rhythm Bandits - Junior Senior
Hot N Cold - Katy Perry
Bulletproof - La Roux
The Sun and the Rain - Madness
Feels So Good - Mel B
Breathe - Prodigy
Soul Bossa Nova - Quincy Jones
It's Like That - Run DMC/Jason Nevins
Bring it all Back - S Club 7
Number 1 - Tinchy Stryder Ft N-Dubz
Mickey - Toni Basil
Vertigo - U2 You Can't Stop The Beat - Various Artists
We Like To Party (The Vengabus Is Coming) - Vengaboys
Don't Trust Me - 3OH!3
And just because you can't jump around to this but it doesn't mean it's not true...And because it's a beautiful song. And because you all deserve to feel sexy
Just to remind you: New post in the next few days when I get a chance. Seville tomorrow, woot!
Guess which one of these was Neil Buchanan-inspired...
Where I'm at I am 36.5lb down which is 2st 8.5. Got my 2.5st award this week, wish it was more. Been really good this week, touchwood. I'm at 2.4lb ish a week, which I'd like to increase to 2.5lb a week and I'm 1lb under target (which can be amended)
2.5st Reward:As you know from my goals set a while back, I'm due a reward, which I'm going to save up, partly because I have no money, partly because I don't really want/need the listed items. An angry bird? Seriously? Get a grip, woman. The bag..well my bag still has a hole in the bottom of it, and the lining means I find lipsticks and pens sporadically which I won't have seen for 6 months, but otherwise, it's usable so I can hold off for a bit. Plus my shoes are breaking, maybe it'd be better to pick up some new ones instead of a bag..
Generally this week has been difficult. I've come down with some kind of lurgy. Exercise has taken a dive, I haven't indulged in the slightest, instead I've barely had an appetite which concerns me when I don't eat (not because I'm some happy fatty, but because it normally means my weight goes down and back up again when I eat - no change in weight...but that's the thing, there's no change in weight there. Either way, being ill has been a real problem this week, just hope it doesn't affect weigh-in badly come Monday. Planning to try something more cardio on Monday, not sure what yet..
In the meantime, I've been reading up a lot on weight loss etc and drawing graphs and targets etc to remind myself why I'm doing this, of which will be pictured at the end of this post.. I've also written up a kind of "I WILL..." mantra to keep me going, which might seem pretty sad when read. Not sure if I'll upload it just yet, if at all, due to the fact that some are just personal or just laughable to outsiders...watch this space anyway, it might appear here. If I can condone any other writing I publish online, I should be able to condone that. If you're trying to lose weight yourself, make an "I will" mantra, with the results you want to get from your body and how it works!!
Boring Corner, My room, Posadas, Cordoba, Earth, The Universe
I also, to my disgust, wasted an entire evening the other night drawing a christmas tree to record my progress til Christmas on. I want to lose 26lb between now and Christmas. I don't know yet if I'm going home for christmas so I'm obviously SCARED by the eat-til-you-puke marathon, but if I'm, in total, 62.5lb down, I'll have less to fear. But how it works if you colour in the baubles for each pound you lose. At the moment it has 25 but I'm looking for a picture of some thinspiration to put on the top and then to add wings onto the person and a big 26. It'll live on my wall and perhaps a copy will be made for my planner
N-Bukes would be fucking pleased about this.
If it had been actually created by someone of the audience age.
Well, RIP Weetabix, it was fun while it lasted. You will always be in our hearts, if not our metabolism. I've found some all bran fruit and fibre in the supermarket near to me to keep me going for now. Found weetabix minis with chocolate as well today but the c-word (not THAT c-word) is making me hold back a bit.
That';s it. I'll just have to make some manifesto that declares that no one crosses this spanish threshold unless they are carrying weetabix. Options hot chocolate too, which I'm nervous about running out of.
WANTED
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS WEETABIX?
What else?
I tried artichokes for the first time ever this week, they tasted like bum.
Found some as-healthy-as-can-be spanish recipes - one for salmorejo which is like gazpacho, but it has eggs and serrano ham in/on it. Thankfully I don't like the latter so I can skimp on that, since I'm still off ham. The other is salpicón, which is a fresh fish/seafood salad, which is gorgeous. The one I tried had crab and prawns in it, and I just adore crabmeat. Now that I've found fresh fish stores (just today, actually!) and once I have enough money, I will throw myself at the fishmongers of the town. Boxed octopus with "kraken" written on the back of it just seems incredibly unappealing.
Bought treat food for the first time since mid-August, due to reading about giving yourself a 100kcal treat at the end of each day if you've stuck to your plan. I've eaten carefully but they've remained untouched. For fear that when they're opened, I'll launch myself at them. Speaking of fear, I'm now incorporating carbs into my diet which is...thus far, not working, I still wish they weren't there and I still feel like I'm not getting enough fibre from them. Fibre's been so rubbish this week despite the fact I've incorporated wholewheat carbs and am keeping with the regular fruit and veg, so I know something must change next week, *I am open to suggestions. I will send the required deets if requested*
I get about 1.5-2.5l water into the system in a day. All ice cold because, as predicted, all spanish fridges are set to being AS COLD AS POSS without being a freezer. I picked an egg out of the fridge earlier and the bottom of it had frozen to the box. Yay for my metabolism, anyway! (the eggs shouldn't be in the fridge, but pretty much everything is til my appetite's back to normal, can't afford to waste food. Have had to freeze various foodstuffs because of my appetite becoming weird so that it'll keep fresh. Had bought a ton of fresh fruit and vegetables but the appetite just wasn't there)
Probably the first productive goal I've set eye on yet.
I'd be lying to say it's all been easy recently, I think you can tell from the way this post is far more boring than usual. Can't go into the ins and outs because people will get the wrong idea, I will when I feel less ill.
Oh also it seems that cake in the staffroom is basically a regular thing. Whenever anyone has a birthday, they bring in cakes. And biscuits. And all sorts. I will try a tiny (AND I MEAN TINY) bit just because the whole point of the year abroad is you don't turn down new stuff, and because I'm generally rude. People are still trying to feed me despite the fact I am a carload bigger than all of them!
Trying my best not to eat out (...) but I'm going to Cordoba tomorrow evening/night/morning for dinner and drinks. My main issue is I am tempted by alcohol. Not for the sake of alcohol itself but because I'm nervous about this first night out in Spain, for a couple of years, and not being smashed for it, not even slightly inebriated. I don't quite know how I'm going to get around that - the easiest thing may be to limit myself to two drinks, the easiest thing may be to keep going with the no alcohol stuff. If I were to maintain at this point, it'd devastate me. Especially now that I have that 26pounds to be thinking of in the meantime!
Speaking of goals, and Cordoba actually as well - as some of you might remember, my 2st goal was to get a charm, and then buy charms for each 5lbs I lost. At the time of purchase, my last proper weigh-in was 34lbs, so I limited myself to 6. These were all 3euros each, which is extremely good. Unfortunately the bracelet I'd already bought wasn't cheap enough, but I quite like them being on display in my living room instead as a reminder. I'll get the next charms at the end of each 6 weeks or something, month even perhaps - I think it's better that way. It seems quite apt that they're actually Spanish because my last weigh-in in Britain was my 2st goal, which was the bracelet itself. For me, it feels like a new chapter in the journey and that this has commemorated my move, and the 2st loss.
Here they are - I didn't really pick all of them out myself, but they're quite pretty and delicate close up (not in this photo because I've forgotten my camera wire and my blackberry has a SHITE camera, if you've not already clocked that):
All traditionally Spanish from a little Spanish shop (didn't catch the name),
located near the Mosque-Cathedral in Cordoba
First Row L to R: Bull head, Gitano, Spanish Hat, Horseshoe with 13
Bottom Row L to R: Flamenco Dancer, Castanets, Bracelet
On a lighter note, I think I'm now the weight I was before I went to uni. Goodbye margarita-formal-wine-jagerbomb-dirty-janes-falafel-bullshit-chowing weight. What a disgusting amount of weight to have put on over 4 years!!!!!!!!!!
Please wish me luck, I feel like I might need it to see the next ten days out! And I hope you all have wonderful weekends
Sorry this has been delayed, but as many of you know, I've been relocating and I'm now typing this from the school I'm working as a language assistant in, in Andalucia. Needless to say, the regime is still at the front of my mind and is still pretty much taking over my life. Which might sound sad (scratch that, DOES sound sad) but it's imperative. I officially started with lessons only this week, but have known the school for a little over a week now. Arrived on Saturday 28th after no sleep, sky-high ryanair fees (no pun intended) and was picked up by one of the teachers to go back to their's for lunch - thank god that they were an english native because I believe my cerebral juices may have been leaking out of my head by then. So that inspired instant panic - other person cooking for me. But as far as I am concerned, I'm there to embrace the culture, it'd be rude otherwise. I tried my best, what can I say? It seems to have still gone in the right way anyway. There has been so much cake in school, due to various teachers' birthdays and fiestas, that my nerves are shot. Also, my landlady - who is lovely, which is just brilliant compared to past experiences if you know of my experience in St Petersburg or Alcalá de Henares two years ago - is the most excellent cook. She cooked for me the day I moved in (1/10) and although it was all healthy food, it was drenched in oil. I panicked so much. After weeks, I felt my efforts were going to be useless! Effectively lived off mugshots and Slimming world bars for about 5 days - which was so awful and unbalanced but I knew I was going to have to compromise with my diet in the first few days. Regardless, I lost 1.5lb last week. Not too shabby. Not good and still was a few pounds off my target for that week, but it's not bad. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I realised that as long as my weight is going down in a downward trend, there's no need to worry - and apart from one slip-up in the second week (maintained), it keeps going down. All the same, there is so much to lose that I'd prefer it to go off quicker, particularly as I'd lost 1,5 the week before, so I had lost 3lb that week instead of the projected 5. This week, however, I lost 3.5lb. Admittedly, I had upped my game this week - basically snacking on only superfree food (fruit/veg). I'm pretty sure that out of pure boredom alone, I must've eaten about half of a huge lettuce in one sitting. That is massively sad, I should be doing better things with my life. I began YOGA. Thanks to my friend Teresa, I'd discovered these videos of intensive workouts, one of them being yoga, so I might as well start on the things I don't have equipment for. Soooo, I might well have hugely underestimated it. I only did two sessions last week, want to bring that up to at least 3 this week. I've also been chugging the water like there's no tomorrow - one of the many advantages to being in this climate. And my fridge is freezing which further helps my metabolism, let's hope. I'm also still massively on the tea. No way was I going to come out here without a kettle, my dependence on it will last 'forever and a day'... Also, one benefit to not having had internet in the flat is that I've been leafing through any health article or book I've brought with me. Still got the one book left. But I've written down probably half a notebook full, or so, of things that they advise, and messages of support from online communities - if I've favourited a tweet of yours recently pertaining to this, then it's because it's in/going to be in the book. The book includes a big variety of stuff - book plans, advice, articles, pictures of celebrities (inspiration - bit sad, but I basically live on the crappy magazines that you're told not to read, #guiltypleasure), ideas. Cruel and blunt tips, but then advice about body confidence. There are graphs of my progress in there, most details are in there except how much I weigh myself. Lists of the foods I can eat, and so on.... So this week, I'm at 34lb weight loss (wanted 35lb by this week). Which is starting to seem less and less remarkable. It's still good, and I can't believe I've done it, but I'm getting impatient now! Time to up my game a lot I think. Whether that will happen this week....well, I don't know - I don't feel the fire in my belly. It's very true about the downward trend being the only necessary sign - but I am so competitive! And I'm worried I'll get bored. I'm boring myself just talking about it constantly!! More yoga this week! And still drinking loads of water. And tea, where I can. And need to keep more active. Still haven't found a gym which I really need to, if there is one.... I'm also out of the "60's" in my weight loss - 59lb weight loss, here we come!! I am due 2.5st next week (35lb) at least!!!
Because it'll have a new blog post in its place tomorrow.
Sorry I've been slack, I've now moved into Spain and as living plans go, I'm settled. Tomorrow I will have a spare moment to update you on my progress...
