:0)

Awaaaay for so long! I know.

In all honesty. Friday night ( LAST WEEK) we went to the cinema to watch Date Night which was Hilarious. HILARIOUS!  I mean it's just my kind of humour, I was laughing so much I was crying. Sometimes alone.. not important but hey. If somethings funny I'll laugh. Loud ....

Sat morning I woke up, weak, sore throat, sniffly. The weather was amazing but I couldn't move. Everything I was planning to do had to wait and I stayed in bed aaaalll day, then all night and then all day Sunday again. Got worse but still went to work Monday, Tuesday.
Couldn't go gym either day - devastating. However I found a book TWILIGHT which I read and finished in 2 days! AMAZING! Love it. Gonna read all of them. Waiting for Ms Izla Jacobs to finish her one before we start o the 2nd one together - it's a girl thing lol! (Izla.. HUURRYYYY)

Yesterday I was at --------- doing a -------- and it went great!! Not gonna say what it was until I find out something. But If it is good, I will share the joy for sure! :D

Today Im back at work, still bonged up but I will be going to the gym for an intense hardbody thursday routine double pass with my fave Brian ! Doing Body Combat and then Nike training!
Im not gonna write so detailed about my training until I'm done with this weekend which is going to be strictly 'move stuff'!! AFter that. I will be GAME!

Yea that's all for now , oh yea and one other things. I just got a ticket from a friend to go see TREY SONGZ 1st of JUNE! AMAZING!!!
I love his latest album ! YAY!

I'm off til Next wednesday. Will be superbusy so I might NOT write anything until then...Before that I just wanna send some love out to my girls back home -
LOVE AND MISS YOU LOADS!

Oooh ooh ooh I absolutely LOVE THIS SONG! It's DELICIOUS! :)

So many exciting new things are happening in my life right now. I feel blessed. A little over 3 years ago I came into this hectic city. It was so big , so different, so strange.
It's all changed now. Life is funny, challenging and in the end, rewarding.
Aah I'm off now before I get too sentimental lol...

I love this quote.

“Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.”


xxxXxxx

FRIDAY BABY!!

That would best describe how relaxed I feel inside when the weekend is approaching. I have quite a busy weekend planned but still. JOY!
Now I have to let you know about my friday morning. I woke up feeling very energetic at 5.57.. So I decided to go up and make us breakfast, some eggs on toast, tea, etc...
10 min later the FIRE ALARM in the damn house goes off, omg. I still hadnt woken up properly and I thought my ears was gonna explode, Simba came to me mjauing, looking for comfort and I all I could hear was this damn sound penetrating my BRAIN!! At 6 am!!
After a couple of minutes Hubby came down and saved the situation,with a 'maybe you wanna put on the extractor fan' .. weelll excuuuuuse me! That damn alarm went off because off the lovely SMELL from the eggs in the pan. There was no SMOKE, no FIRE, no nada.

The result was delicious. Perfect start to my Friday morning, despite the ringing in the ears lol....

Bring on the weekend! :D

Hardbody Thursday! Day 4

Yestrday was a good day. I usually have an intense workout day on Thursdays seeing as I have a rest day on Fridays. AND My fave instructor ever BRIAN is so great I just L.O.V.E his classes, so challenging and energetic!

However, because I had almost 2 weeks off before this week, and I was sick, and I did a leg weight session on Wednesday. - It was such a killer.  I was meant to fit in a 4k run but my legs couldn't cope, well they could, but since I was doing Nike training straight after I thought I'd save some energy,
PLUS the fact that we did a move in the Body Combat class from MMA called SHOOT which had already taken a lot of energy from my legs lol...
It's like a little bootcamp Thursday, to set me off into the weekend.

I am a bit worried though ,  I feel a slight soreness in the throat. Hope it goes away sooon!

Gargled some salt this morning, and I'm taking some medicine. So fingers crossed.

My legs are sore.

But I feel great! Looking forward to my run on Saturday :)


Exercise Thursday ;
30 min Bodycombat
3k run in 20 min
Nike training club 1h ( Nike Training Club uses the latest dynamic training drills to focus on the five fundamental areas of athleticism – cardio, core, strength, balanced and flexibility )


Food:
Breakfast -2 Weetabix, skimmed milk. half pita
Lunch- 1 kofte, salad half pita
Afternoon- 1 small kofte, salad
After Gym - Protein bar + Apple

Drinks - Water + Green tea, 1 Powerade

Day 4 DONE!

I'm about to...

Finish off now and go to the gym... Feeling kinda peckish after talking to Ms Luwalira bout Swedish Treats....

Thank Goodness for my proteinbar, It does the trick after the gym!

Aaaand im off!!

My fantastic....

BOOK!...  I know.. I had to lure you in somehow muhahaha...

This book is just so good. On every level.
Read it! If you any fascination or interest in the complexities of the human mind/ brain you will enjoy it.

Anywho, I'm having quite an interesting  workday.
We had a full fire evac drill this morning which went very well, there are also some other major issues going on which I'm not allowed to talk about so I won't.
AND I'm having a slight holiday request MADNESS. One day I will be working for myself so I won't have to go through all of this ' approving my holiday' BS. No fun.

However, positive thoughts, always a solution, nothing's impossible and I know I will be going on that particular holiday. Done.

I compromised to get closer to a solution, so now I'm waiting for the answer. 'Attracting a holiday' sounds easy in theory lol.. let's see!

But all will go well -me and Ms Fatty will reach the destination and HAVE SO MUCH AMAZINGLY FANTASTICAL FUN! You wanna know why?

BECAUSE IM WORTH IT BABY!!!

Day 3.

Morniing :0)
Another gorgeous day, I am really loving to wake up to the sunshine. I will mention it everyday and I will never take it for granted. Thank you sun for brightening up my day :)

Could have been warmer but I'm  not that fussy - yet.

About my exercise 'journal' Im writing this to keep track on my progress. Doing a daily log helps me see where I could improve or do something different should it be needed.
I'm writing it one day late because I prefer writing what I have done as opposed to what I will do.
I should really have had a rest day yesterday but seeing as I had almost full 2 weeks rest, then.. naaa...! Rest on Friday. yay!

On to the journal

Exercise Wednesday ;
Strength and weights focusing on waist down.
Squats, calves, thighs ( back - front ) hamstring, glutes.

Super tough, super efficient. Went through them all, challenged myself in the weights to see what would be an ideal rep weight. Done well for my first time , can definitely feel how it would be beneficial and my muscles are a bit sore today. Despite a long stretch and a sauna.

Food:
Breakfast - 3 weetabix skimmed milk
Lunch - Pilchards with a bit of onion and peppers, 1 potato & peas + protein bar.
Afternoon - Small can of tuna with cottage cheese, half wholemeal pitta.
After Gym - Protein Bar

Drinks - 2 l water and 1 cup of green tea.

Day 3 Done!

Once you start a regime, every day is important. Even though it's only a 3rd day - it's a 3rd consistent day.
Yes... Keeping the motivation up.... :)

Over & Over!

Day 2!

It's a bit chilly this morning, the sun was shining but brrrrr..... ! At least it's sunny& bright - makes the worlds difference!

Had another good day yesterday, work passed by rather quick.
I received all my books from amazon - 3 - I looove Amazon they just do the J.O.B! Started reading one on the way back home from the gym last night, however I was pretty tired so I fell asleep after 3 pages. I then tried to read it again this morning but I feel asleep on the train to work lol... Oh well. Come lunch time I'll give it another go...

Exercise Tuesday ;
45 min Spin
4k Run with 1% incline
3 rounds of situps with weights . 1 minute intervalls
10 pressups on medicine ball
Stretching

Food :
Breakfast :2 weetabix with skimmed milk. 1 egg.
Lunch: Minced meat with handful of brown rice small portion ,Salad.
Afternoon: Cottage Cheese wholemeal pitta
Snack: Banana
After gym:Protein Bar.
Treat: 1 square of Marabou..  En ruta ja. Det ar faktiskt ok :)

Day 2 done!

Morning efficiency!

I slipped out on my morning break to get these, supercute everyday flats. Just what I needed. :)

Do or do not. There is no TRY!

Yesterday was my first day back at the gym after 2 weeks off. Might not seem much, but it felt like ages and I could  feel it on me.. phew...

So I've come back full on. My half marathon is in September and til then I need to work on covering that distance, as well as strength and stamina.
I am also planning to tone and shed a few pounds along the way, so supermode auto focus is on!
I do love my treats but they will all have to wait..!

My aim is to find a good balance in my diet.
We all know it's not healthy to be on a very low calorie diet as it won't teach you anything about finding the balance and making it a habit. It's not about losing it quick - the longer it takes someone to lose weight, the better chance they have of keeping this weight off. Why? Because the longer you do something, the more it becomes a habit and over a period of 12 months, it’s a habit that is likely to stick.

If / when we eat  a small amount of calories, our body starts to realise it’s starving. In order to survive this famine, it slows down the metabolism. Your metabolism is your body’s natural fat burner, so a slower metabolism means less fat burned. Less fat burned means more fat stored.

What it will do then, is cling onto what food you are feeding it, store it as fat as it has no idea how long this starvation is going to carry on for. Instead, it will start to look to itself and see what it can do without. The first thing to be burned off is your muscle tissue. Muscle is a metabolically active tissue which needs calories to survive. As your body is storing all of the calories you consume as fat, it decides to burn up your lean mass instead. Muscle mass is what regulates your metabolism. So, the more you have, the faster the metabolism and the more food you can eat. The less muscle mass you have the slower the metabolism and the fewer calories your body needs to survive. This is how someone can exist on 1000 calories a day and still not manage to lose weight.

This is the result of such a diet

A skinny fat body.
Skinny Yes. Toned? Not at all....

So it's important to keep a healthy balance, do the strength training and eat nutritionally sound food. Ban those empty calories!!
We all know what's bad... it's just about doing it.

I will!!


I could have eaten better yesterday, but first day back felt kind of hard. 
So today I am feeling even more motivated on the dietside, I know what needs to be done. I just have to give it my all.

Now on to some fun stuff!  Gym was brilliant! I spent about 2 hours on my weight session, it took that long because I was being shown every machine, technique etc etc... If you're gonna do it you gotta do it right.. right?
We worked on all the muscle groups from the waist up. Felt great, will do a weight session every monday from now on. Strength exercises are SUPER ESSENTIAL!!

I finished off with a 4k run.
10k/h with a 1% incline. 23 min and 300 kcal off.

1st day done.

I admire athletes, they're motivation to keep getting better. I have always stop/started. I'm fit but not as fit as I know I can become.
Everytime I start I seem to get comments like : 'You're overdoing it', 'don't become obsessed', 'You can't be too thin ' or something demotivating.

I know exactly what my goal is, to be fit, healthy and strong.
It will take some time to get there , months even a whole year. It won't be easy either. Damn it, I'm challenging myself to do a half marathon, can't even believe I did a 10k but hey. If you don't challenge yourself you won't know how much your body can surprise you!
Once I manage to stick to a routine It will become a habit, a part of my life - more than now. I'm sure it won't be as intense as now,( disregard the fact that I just had a 2 week break) but to build myself up I want to push myself as hard as I can. In the healthiest way.

On That Note ;)

xxXxx

Mmmmmmmm!

Yes, that's exactly how I'd sum up my weekend!

After work on Friday I met up with a VERY LATE Tima, usually I obide by my 'hellnoifyoukeepmewaitingmorethan10miniamsoouttahere' HOWEVER seeing as I don't see her that often I waited.
Had a good little browse in the shops, especially Selfridges..  I eventually settled for a little caf at the end of Bondstreet with a Latte and my book. Until she came.

We then made our way down to Edgware Road and went in to eat at Shishawa, food was delish and we had such a great time!
Thank you Tima for magnificent company... :)
This is what we ate...

Starter!.. So nice mmmmmm! In true Moroccan spirit we shared it all... lol x

After that we chilled for a while and then headed back home.
Saturday was busy, well it was meant to be lol!
Woke up quite early as we had to go sort out some house bits. After that I was meant to go to a football game however I decided to forefit my ticket for someone who wanted it more than me..!

So I ended up having a nice sunny saturday for myself doing 'Me' things. Had a great time :)
A bit of shopping, nice lunch, reading in my book, walkin in the sunshine etc etc..

The evening was spent at D&G's , we had a cheese tray evening.. and it looked a little something like this :

Mmmm it was so tasty! I would post up a pic of our own tray, hoever the damn Gorgonzola was very tricky and ruined the artistic feel we were going for! LOL..!
Anywho, it was still delicious....! We enjoyed that accompanied with a lovely glass of red and a hilarious movie which I completely forgot the title of! ... hmmmm... naa, can't remember... Will get back to that later.

Sunday was another early morning too! Had to do some more house stuff and once we were done we enjoyed the beutiful day. In the afternoon we went to see Kick-Ass.. - I liked it! Very cool movie :0)
I also saw Twiligt when I came home.. B R I L L I A N T! I mean, I've been trying to NOT get into the vampire hype but hey. I tried to NOT get into facebook aswell. And we all know how that went... lol...

I'll probably get the books aswell.. just to cover that area....
Anywho. That was my weekend.

NOW IT'S TIME FOR TRAINING MODE!
I am super motivated, super focused and super hyped.
My 12 week programme starts today! Yes today, not tomorrow or next week. TO DAY.

On the agenda for this evening is a 4k run and a weight introduction. Should be good....!

Other than that I'm feeling energetic and focused.
Might have a few breaks due to 'moving in' commitments of course. But as long as I keep the diet on check during those days I should be fine.

There's no day like today.

xxXxx


 

HAPPY FRIDAAY!

I mean I just la looo oo ooooove Fridays! I try to love every day, most of the time I do. Kinda tricky with Mondays at times, but once I wake up and get out of bed I'm usually fine lol!

The sun is shining and as soon as I finish I'll be heading off to meet Tima yay! So many things to talk about and I'm super excited cause I know she got me some treats from home! omg BALLERINA KLADDKAKA ge mig! :)

I've had a great day so far, action packed morning since all the lifts had a powercut and we had to make sure all the tenants got in alright.. hectic but hey, made the first hour just SWOSH by!
Lunchtime was effectively spent at Zara, grabbed about 10 items of clothing and the rest was history, ended up getting a pair of lovely jeans and a nice summery skirt :)

Looking to be a good weekend aswell ; Pedi/Mani tomorrow morning and then off with SB to do some arrends ( or do you say errands? hmm let me google it) ok so it's errands, after that Football game and if everything goes well we'll spend the rest of the night at our good friends D&G. Yes Dolce & Gabbana. LOL.. ok lame.. anywho. Should be a good weekend, will probably write all about it on Monday....
Til then My friends, have a FABULOUS FRIDAY and a FANTASTIC WEEKEND!

p.s I AM SO READY FOR MONDAY!!
Just had a chat with a friend from the gym, I will finally be properly introduced to weights. Will be doing a session each Monday fit it in to my 12 week programme... aah excited.. BRING IT!!

MWAH!

Charity!

I am currently setting up a sponsorship page through justgiving.co.uk. Sitting here 'working' and browsing through the different organisations that I would like to donate money to. How it works is that I set up a page and then ask for 'sponsors', all the money given to us - me and Richard - will be transferred the chosen organisation.

I did my first run in march , a 10k run which I ran for CLIC  :0)

Felt great! Such an accomplishment, it was my first run EVER in history of running ever... and I loved it. Well loved it in a way that I set out do something and I did it despite finding it very challenging. *proud*
Yes, so now that I've established how cool I obviously think I am for doing a 10k race. It's time for the real deal. A HALF-MARATHON! Phew!
That is why I need to be strict with my gym regime and diet, getting in shape for a run is sooooo serious and I really need to be focused. It's a test of physical as well as mental strength.
This will be a challenge and a half x 5. But we will finish it. Richard has decided to join me as we're both intent on challenging our fitness this year. Can we do it? YES WE CAN!

Anyways, now my main thing is to chose what Charity to donate the money to. I definitely want to donate and support a cause that will contribute to helping an organisation in Africa, that's where I have my roots. North Africa - Morocco to be precise. So the search begins :)

p.s the sun has been hiding all morning but it decided to show it's pretty face now..... ! YAY! :D

xxxxXxxxx

Butterflies!

Yes, butterflies and loads of em'! Floating around in my tummy due to huge thrill of excitement! So many things happening and I'm just so so so excited! :)

One I could say is that tomorrow I'm meeting up with a very close friend of mine Tima , she's here to check out some business and we thought we'd fit in a night of good food, excellent convo and of course som Shisha!
I'm really looking forward to seeing her, been friends for years and even though we don't spend alot of time together we have a deep friendship that I truly appreciate.
We can have the silliest most non-logical conversation on the planet and at the same time have the deepest, intellectual chats just 10 minutes after. . You know what I mean Umak lol....

This is her and me on my Birthday last year , bousaaaa....

Now, what else is happening... I'm getting reeallly nice visit in June aswell but i'll be writing about that closer to the time. Yesterday was a good day, I haven't recovered fully from my cold yet as my throat is still hurting, so gym is still not an option. Might have to leave it til coming Monday, however, I had a spontaneous visit yesterday at work from my friend Zozo, and we ended up going to Nandos and staying there for about 3 hours just chatting away. Which was really nice, Nandos was soooo tasty - they should open one in Sweden.

That's all from me right now, at work, thinking about what I want for breakfast. Probably a Multigrain bagel with butter & honey and a nice latte to accompany my book. Perfect morning break.. mmmmmmmm lol..xx

I know, bagels aren't that good. But hey..I'm sick, might aswell use this time for treats... next week it's ON!!

MWAH!

Wednesday...starting to feel restless!

Super cute!!

Aah Finally got the pics out the way yay :) I'm starting to feel so high tech now.. If I could only get my hyp up on Skype I'd be on a roll... hahaha aanywhoo!
Ehm, so I've had a cold since Sunday, and it came at such a perfect time as I had decided to start full on again after having a 'Birthday week treat rest' or something like that..

Now I'm really starting to feel restless! Started reading this great book that I had kept in my bag for like 4 weeks, its starting to become very intriguing - Rich Girl Poor Girl by Lesley Lokko.
So I've been spending my time reading, resting up, OH and I got a desperate request from my sis Noumi about a dress she wanted from Zara. She had been looking for it everywhere so she figured they must have it here, and guess what? She was right! YAY!
So happy for you Noumi, and yes you can say it. I know. I made your day, in fact WEEK! I'm so cool ... lol

Blibbedy blabla.. just babbling on now, need to do some work... see you soon!


p.s this is my jaaaam right now check it out!!  Raheem Devaughn

ok. FYI I never say this is my jaaam I always say this is my sooong but this is my jaaaam sounded more 'bloggish' lol oh, and I say that to about 100 songs/day. So you know. lol CIAO!

Birthday part II :)

My actual Birthday was on Tuesday the 6th, I hadn't planned to do anything but the evening was beautiful :)
A lovely 5 course meal on the river, the view was stunning, the meals were delicious and the I was all smiles! Here are a few shots from that eve...

On The Thames, Westminster in the background... beautiful :)

*Note, certain people have been taken out. LOL!! Adios!

Go Shawty It's yo Birthday!

Here are some nice Bday Pics From My Birthday Celebrations!
I know there are a few missing, never got a proper group pic but hopefully somone else did.... send em to me if you did! xx

Yay!!

Birthday Cake! Loved it!
Didn't even wanna touch it... oh well.. lol

I got the cake without a knife, so I had to improvise to begin with ;)

Poser pics!! LOL..!

Ala , Me and Daniella... Gorgeous ladies! Mwah! xx

Lovely Amal  & Myself .. xx

Me & The one and only Ms Fauvrelle...

Sooo my kinda dancefloor whoop whoop!

Good times!

Aurore & Moi ;) x

A bunny popped up & tried to steal my shine!! boooohoooo... lol !!

You know I had to be the last one left... What a great night!! Thank you to those who came and made it a night to remember! xx

So bad!

Hey hey heeey! :)

I know I've been such a bad bad girl. Not blogging for a whole week is unacceptable and it won't happen again :)

To make a long story short, had a fantastic bday weekend! Started off with the Sunday celebration at Loop Bar on the 4th and then part 2 with the Mister on my actual Bday the 6th!
Had an amazing time on both nights!

I have to send a special shout out to my amazing stylist friend Ms Ala Hj for doing my Hair & Make up , she made me feel really pretty, really DAMN pretty lol :)  Much love mwah mwah mwah!

I will put up some more pics soon, just so amazingly slow at these things, plus I was so thrown off my rythm last week, sleep deprivation has that effect on me!
I was planning to start a fresh this week however I've been knocked out by a cold! Boohoo! Still at work though but I will have to rest from the gym until it's gone....
Oooh oooh oooh I got called in for an interview for something on the 28th! Wish me luck. Can't say for what yet lol so bare with me, let's just say I'm hoping that I'll be able to take my step into the academic world in the near future!!
Last but not least we are finally moving into our new house! END OF THIS MONTH! CAN'T wait!

 I wish I could bring all my friends with me and we'd all live in a little village that would look like this ! Who wants to join me? :)

So, a lot of things happening right now. So many things to be grateful for. I was intending to start my half marathon training this week so I can get in as many weeks as possible before the holiday! It consists of a 12 week programme so I need to get running!

Damn cold. I CURSE YOU! lol.. ok that's all for now.. I'll be back soooon...

xxxXxxx

Easter weekend!

The weekend is here any second now..

So many things planned...
Have to do hair, mani, pedi and so forth :)
Last preparations for the Bday party. Cake to be collected on Sat!

Going gym Sat morning and then hairdressers at 14.30. I have to fit in nails sometime on Sat ! aaaarrgghh!

Ok obviously alot going on in my mind right now lol...

Hopefully I'll have time to write during the weekend!

If not, wishing my gorgeous people a fantastic Easter! xxx

Hardbody Thursday!

Or something like that! LOL!

Sooo to make up for my incredibly lenient ways and NOT active weekend PLUS Monday & Tuesday off ( omg so many days) I decided that I need a bootcamp thursday to make up for it! I've also started an EDP ( if you wanna know - ask) lol..

Bootcamp Thursday includes ;
12.30 Circuit training  ( Which I did today, Speedy gonzales!! Didn't even have time for lunch ! A protein bar was sufficient. I devoured It.

18.00 Body Combat with Brian

19.00 Nike Training with Brian.
Now for you who don't know what that is, It is an absolutely brilliant class. ( not how I wrote 'you; referring to all the masses of people reading my blog ) Hej Alicia, Ala, Amal, Fatima... ni laser val oftast? Eller kanske bara Alicia? hahahaha
p.s Lici, hittade en asbra protein bar. Maximuscle Promax Diet bar. SUPER! :) xx )

The class focuses on the 5 fundamental components of sport and fitness:
Strength - Drills designed to help you build muscle tone as well as give you the conditioning you need to excel at sports, get more out of recreational activities, and maintain stamina during your daily life.
Cardio - Drills designed to help you build cardiovascular endurance and burn calories at a high rate. Cardiovascular fitness is a special form of muscular endurance. It is the efficiency of the heart, lungs, and vascular system in delivering oxygen to the working muscle tissues so that prolonged physical work can be maintained.
Core - Drills designed to strengthen the abs and back. These muscles help control movements, transfer energy, shift body weight and move in any direction which is critical not only in any sporting activity but also in the activates of daily life.

Balance - Drills designed to increase ones agility which is the basic skill needed in practically every sport. Changing your center of gravity to match your moves is the key to efficiency in sport. Agility is what allows us to move through the full range of motion smoothly and confidently.

Flexibility - Drills designed to help you decrease your risk of injury as well as increase joint range of motion and enhance sport performance.

So that is the plan for tonight.. Superhyped!

Alot of things goin on this easter weekend! Excited!! :D :D

Will come back later for an update!

Oooh la laaa!