My experience of the introductory session at the gym & a yummy summer salad recipe

After pretending to know what I'm doing when it comes to free weights for a while now, I finally decided to do an Intro session at my gym! This was offered free of charge when I first joined but I felt like I didn't need it / couldn't be bothered to book it. The trainer I spoke to was really nice and I didn't feel nearly as embarrassed as I thought I would! Plus I really needed to go to the gym after creating what we thought was a healthy smoothie for breakfast but ended up being over 800 CALORIES!!!!!!!

Goals
The first thing he asked was what were my goals and I said 'to tone up my arms and stomach' (classic girls response). Of course he said I have to have a good diet and do cardio for the second of those areas and never to do a crunch again! YAY to the crunch ban! 

Arms

• Tricep extensions - 3 sets of 10 reps
• Bicel curl - 3 sets of 10 reps
• Arm press - 3 sets of 10 reps
• Kickbacks - 3 sets of 10 reps
• Hammer curls - 3 sets of 10 reps

Resting for about 45 seconds between sets

Abs

• Leg raises - 3 sets of 12 reps - I HATE these!! They burn so bad and you look a bit of a nutter doing them.
• Spidermans - 4 sest of 10 on each leg - imagine climbing up a wall like spiderman.. but on the floor... with less grace
• Russian twists - 4 sets of 45 seconds - I did like these before doing them for 45 seconds non-stop. Now they are not my friend.

Again resting for about 45 seconds between sets

Cardio
Since I am so lazy when it comes to the gym (I'm talking 15mins on a bike and that's it), he suggested classes which suits me! I like to go to classes because once you are in there, it's hard to sneak out without looking like a quitter or a lazy fart!!

• Tuesday - Body Attack
• Thursday - Spin

I also play stoolball every Monday and Wednesday AND he knew what it was. No one knows what stoolball is!!

Diet
He was impressed with the use of almond milk but said I should stop eating so much M&S Guilt Free Sweet and Salt Popcorn. That stuff is so flipping good I usually have more than one bag a day and then end up defeating the object of them being in low calorie bags! He said that I need fat in my diet to lose weight (what?!) and suggested snacking on almonds instead. 

Overall I'm really glad I went to the session and now feel like I know what I should be doing when I go to the gym rather than wondering round aimlessly half the time!

To reward myself I had one of my favourite dinners:

Italian Mozerella Salad
Be Good To Yourself Mozerella
Baby leaf spinach
Organic tomato
Cucumber
Green pesto

For pudding we had home grown strawberries from our garden with a cheeky bit of sugar (my boyfriend put this on before I could stop him)!

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CP x