2011 in photos

Top row (left to right): January - first dinner I cooked for Danny, February - pancakes at Giraffe, March - England v Ghana

Second row (left to right): April - mime fancy dress, May - Championship play-off final, June - cocktails at The Clarence Hotel, Dublin (owned by U2!)

Third row (left to right): July - 30 day shred, August - turtles in Mexico, September - back to work blues and lots and lots of rain!

Bottom row (left to right): October - a nice photo of me and Danny for a change!, November - fireworks, December - Max on Christmas morning

Well, there it is - my 2011 in twelve photos.  I'm sure that years go by faster and faster as you get older and this year has definitely been no exception to that!  I can't believe it's going to be 2012 tomorrow!

As 2011 was the year I started my blog, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all for reading, commenting and following - it really means a lot!  And finally - happy new year!  I hope you all have a great evening welcoming in 2012!

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30 Day Shred is no more......

Firstly, I must apologise for neglecting you all with my severe lack of posts.  I've been really busy this week and while that's no excuse cos I could still blog at lunch when I'm at work, I do have the added difficulty that I can only upload photos when I'm using my brother's laptop (so that I can add the borders and things!)  As soon as I have some money, I will be buying myself a brand new laptop rather than relying on nicking his all the time!

Anyway, on to the point of this post!  Unfortunately, I've had to give up the Shred to save my knee.  It was getting to a point where it was still hurting three days later so I decided that it was best to give it up and hit the gym instead.  Working out on the cross trainer for a bit definitely gets my cardio workout in and following it by weights and then floor work like sit-ups, crunches and leg raises should be doing some good.  I could definitely notice the effect that the Shred has had on me though, so that's encouraging and I'm planning to get back on to it (every other day rather than every day though!) when I'm back from Mexico.

30 Day Shred: Day 12

The knee pain is back again today so I've decided that I'm going to try doing the Shred every other day until it recovers fully.  That and because I'm going out tonight and want to wear heels, I don't want to damage it beforehand!  I figure that doing the Shred every other day is still better than nothing and since I'm in the office next week, I'm planning to hit the gym every morning so I can do the cross trainer and strengthen my knee without jolting it.  Have any of you had any problems with your knees (or at all for that matter!) while you've been doing the Shred?

30 Day Shred: Day 11

I'm back on the Shred!  Woop!  It felt so good to actually be doing it again, although I did have to be a little bit careful when doing the jumping jacks during the warmup.  I attempted Level 2 today and was really apprehensive about doing so since I'd heard that it was horrendous, especially after two days off, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it might be!  I did notice how used to Level 1 I'd got though - I really noticed that I had to stop and pay attention to what Jillian was telling me to do, whereas on Level 1 I'd just be able to go through the workout knowing what was coming next.  I definitely noticed an increase in difficulty compared to Level 1 though and I'm looking forward to tackling this level full on for the next week!

30 Day Shred: Day 10

The day off the Shred hasn't improved my knee :(  I've been wearing the support bandage today since I can't fully straighten my leg without my knee hurting and it's been feeling a bit better towards the evening.  I'm out at a client for the rest of this week and the long drive home (the client is 35 miles away) didn't really help - thankfully most of the journey is on the motorway so I don't have to use the clutch too much.  Another day of rest for me, but I've decided that I'm getting back on it tomorrow, even if it means I go to the gym instead of doing the Shred - at the gym I'll be able to use the cross trainer which doesn't jar my knee, so that should be better I think.  Really want to do the Shred though so will be trying as hard as I can to do it!

30 Day Shred: Day 9

My wishes for my knee to recover haven't worked then!  It really ached this morning when I woke up and by the end of the day at work, it was really tired.  I decided that it would be best to avoid doing the Shred tonight, in case it made my knee even worse, so popped into the supermarket on the way home to get a support bandage and some deep freeze.  Actually quite gutted that I can't do the Shred tonight - here's hoping that a day off will improve it and I'll be back on it tomorrow!

30 Day Shred: Day 8

I'm staying at Danny's for the next couple of days so had to burn the Shred to DVD before I headed over last night, and had to take my weights and gym kit with me!  It was a bit hard to motivate myself when everyone else was chilling out in the living room catching up on Family Guy, especially when it was quite warm and muggy - jumping around like a lunatic was the last thing I felt like doing!  Still, I shut myself in the conservatory, closed the curtains between the conversatory and the living room so no one could see me prancing around, opened the conservatory doors wide and got started.  The first strength session went ok, but I found the cardio really difficult - my left knee was really struggling with the jumping jacks, so I had to miss them out.  Part way through my workout, Danny's dog Max turned up to watch, quitely watching from the sofa.  That was until I lay on the floor to do the ab work anyway, at which point he looked like he was going to jump off the sofa on to my face, haha!  Thankfully he stayed put and I managed to finish the workout, despite my knee getting progressively more sore.  Hopefully it will be better tomorrow.

30 Day Shred: Day 7

Day 7 of the Shred!  I've got to say, when I started on Monday I didn't even think I'd get to day 2, so I'm pretty proud of myself for sticking with it for a week!  I'm able to complete the whole thing without feeling like I'm going to pass out and I'm only struggling with my knee rather than my fitness now so I'm contemplating moving on to Level 2 maybe tomorrow or the day after.  That said, I've heard that Level 2 is pretty savage, so I'm a bit worried about that!  I haven't taken measurements yet to compare to before I started the Shred (I think I'll just take them at the end) but I definitely feel like I'm toning up and I can feel that my fitness has improved.  I do have the odd day where I struggle to motivate myself to do it, but knowing that it's only half an hour definitely makes it much easier and I feel great after I've done it!  Hopefully I feel even better 23 days from now!

30 Day Shred: Day 6

Knees are still sore today, so I'm sticking with the knee support and using deep heat only on my knees rather than my thighs as well (which, I'd like to add, don't even ache today - breakthrough!)  I've also given up trying to do the press-ups - I'm convinced that I'm never going to be able to do them (does anyone else have my struggle with press-ups?) so I've taken to doing the plank for the same amount of time instead.  30 seconds feels like a long time when you're doing the plank, so I'm still going to have to work quite hard at that, but I figure you're still using all your core muscles so it's almost as good!

30 Day Shred: Day 5

As you will see from my Project 365 post, I have had to get out the deep heat today for my knees.  They've never really loved lunges and definitely aren't now that I'm doing them every day.  Using a knee support has helped though, and although I'm still managing to do the lunges themselves, I've tried to reduce the amount of side squats I'm doing since that's when it really seems to hurt.  Other than that, I'm definitely noticing progress as the week goes on - it's quite amazing how quickly your fitness improves even after only doing 30 mins or so a day.

Project 365: #023 Sore knees

My commitment to the Shred is starting to show, if only in the soreness of my knees!  Thankfully my thighs are much better now but my knees, especially my left one, really don't like all the lunges so I had to get out the deep heat before doing the Shred today in an attempt to make it better.  It helped to an extent, but I also got out a knee support just to make sure.

Project 365: #019 30 Day Shred

There are now 30 days left until we go to Mexico, which means that I need to get some serious dieting/exercising in to try and lose as much as possible before I go away.  I've heard lots about the 30 Day Shred (mainly good, but that it's hard going too!) so have decided to give it a go - hopefully this gets me bikini fit!

(PS.  I know I'm late with posting this photo - I've been a bit behind at posting Project 365 this week - sorry!)

30 Day Shred: Day 4

Back on the Shred today and I was a bit worried after how much I'd been aching and struggling to walk after the last time I did it.  I made sure I used some deep heat beforehand though and got stuck in.  Amazing progress - I managed to do nearly the whole DVD (when I say nearly managed to do the whole thing, I mean without any breaks - I have done the full DVD every time!) and I barely ached afterwards!  Good times :)  Definitely back on it until the end now - no more breaks for me!

30 Day Shred: Day 3

I was a little bit naughty yesterday.  Despite only having completed two days of the Shred, I missed a day.  I was planning to get up and do it first thing in the morning before work, but I ached so much from the day before that I couldn't do it - I was waking up every time I needed to turn over in bed during the night I ached so badly!  I'd then thought that I'd do it after I got home but since I went straight to Glee Live at the O2 Arena, I didn't get home till 1am in the end.  I'm definitely getting back into it tonight - my legs still ache a lot but I'm not going to miss another day, so I've used deep heat spray and am hoping that it'll be much better tomorrow morning.  Fingers crossed!

30 Day Shred: Day 2

Despite my thighs aching from day 1 of the Shred, I pushed on through and completed day 2 - surprisingly I found it a lot easier than the day before!  I'm still struggling with the press-ups (I honestly don't think I'm ever going to be able to do proper ones!) but I had a lot more stamina and didn't feel quite like I was going to die at the end!  That said, it was a lot cooler in my room than on day 1 so that probably helped quite a lot.  My thighs really ache again now - I think more than after day 1, so I'm walking round the office like a bit of an idiot!  Hopefully it will improve as I do it more and more.  Those of you that have done it, did you find that your legs ached at the beginning but improved as you got more used to it?

30 Day Shred: Day 1

Wow.  I knew it would be hard going but I was not expecting that!  Who knew that just 20-30 minutes of workout would be so hard going!  I did the Shred last night for the first time and my thighs are really aching this morning!  My shoulders and arms ache a little but nowhere near as much as my thighs - I'm really having trouble not looking like an idiot when I walk, haha!  Aching aside, I do feel pretty pleased with myself that I managed to get through it.  I'd seen a couple of clips of the workout before I attempted, and I was naïve and thought that it looked alright.  After all, how difficult could 3 sets of circuits be, when there's only 3 minutes strength, 2 minutes cardio and 1 minute abs in each circuit?  I take it all back!  It's definitely the most intense workout I've ever done, even though it's also the shortest.  I'm definitely planning to stick with it though so I'm going to have to really force myself to do it today and push through the thigh burn!  Wish me luck :)

30 days till Mexico = time to start the 30 Day Shred

I've been meaning to go on a proper Mexico diet for the last couple of months and now with a month to go, I've got to get to it!  I've heard lots of good things about the 30 Day Shred, although I've also heard that it's incredibly hard going.  I'm planning on starting it tonight after I've downloaded it on iTunes - I know I can get it cheaper from Amazon but if I'm going to start it today then I'll have to download it instead, and I figured it's best to start when I have the motivation!  I'm hoping that blogging about it will make sure I stick to it - are any of you doing it too?  How are you finding it?