Sugar Detox – Day 2 (again)

Hello everyone! How are you this dry Tuesday! I woke up this morning with a heavy nose and feeling a bit belurgh. There’s been a lot of germs going round the office and sadly I don’t think I’ve been strong enough to avoid them!

I started off as with any morning and had a lemon and ginger tea whilst getting ready. Porridge was eating for breakfast, my current usual of 1/2 cup of oats, 1 cup rice milk, 10 frozen raspberries and 4 fresh strawberries. Yum! This made me feel a bit better about myself.

No snacks this morning, just plenty of fluids in the form of green tea and water. For lunch I was so tempted to get a baguette from the local deli to cheer myself up but I’d already bought a packed lunch so I decided to ‘be good’ and save the baguette for another time.

Lunch was couscous, leaves, tuna, pepper, sweetcorn and some munchy seeds. This was very filling and combined with some fresh strawberries I felt stuffed!

As the afternoon progressed I started to feel worse and worse. My eyes and nose felt really heavy and I just felt all belurgh. I was really craving something chocolate so instead of having full on chocolate I broke the detox and had a Highlights hot chocolate. Only 40 calories but full of sweetners etc I’m sure it did the trick and made me not feel so bad for not having chocolate!

Straight from work I headed for another sports massage. After 2 weeks off my shoulders were feeling sore again, but the therapist said it’s probably combined with me feeling under the weather that my shoulders didn’t feel great. The massage today was pretty painful, but I feel so much better for it now. Love the pain so good it hurts!

I got home, did my 30 day shred and 10 minute Spark people video, showered and made myself dinner. The shred was really tough today because I was feeling so awful but I managed it, that’s the main thing!

Dinner was plain pasta with a little oil and lots of chilli. One of my favourite comfort food recipes. No veggies, all carbs but so so tasty!

After dinner I’ve had some lemsip and I’m still feeling pretty sorry for myself. I’ve stocked up on orange juice, berocca, lemsip and echinacea so hopefully tomorrow I’ll be fighting fit!

 

Any tips on staying healthy when you’re feeling under the weather?

My first sports massage

So this week I had my first ever sports massage. I’ve been wanting to get one for a while, and looked around for ages in my local area and on Groupon etc. It was only when I was chatting to the staff at the gym that they said a lady comes there twice a week to see clients and gave me her number. It took me even longer to ring her (I’m not even sure why), but two weeks ago I finally booked in for a session this week!

The reason I wanted to get a sports massage is not because I have an injury, and to be honest it’s not even really sports related, but because I suffer from very, very stiff shoulders that lead to me getting tension headaches. I think it’s a combination of poor posture sitting at my desk at work all day, combined with carrying all my heavy shopping a mile up a steep hill every week, a heavy handbag, and maybe a bit to do with how my arms move when I run.

It’s been getting progressively worse over the past few months, but it got really bad after I did the Sport Relief 6 miles. I carried a water bottle for 2 miles, and after the race I got really painful shoulders.

First of all my therapist took an overview of my medical history etc, and then did an assessment. This involved sitting straight up on the bed, and her bascially prodding different areas of my neck, shoulders and back. She noticed that I am super tight and tense from my neck, across my shoulders and all down my back. She linked this to my Trapezius muscle which runs in a big triangle shape from your neck, across your shoulders and down into your back.

(source)

My therapist then massaged me, which I have to say, was pretty painful at times, but it was a good pain, if that makes sense?

The reason I get the pain is apparently because I hunch over at my desk which has caused the muscles to over stretch and get tighter and tighter. She said it’s good I am trying to correct it now before it gets even worse with years to come. I explained I’ve only really been in a ‘desk job’ since August and so I’m still fairly new to sitting behind a computer for hours and hours on end!

I’ve been given some exercises to do at home, and advised not to do any arm exercises at the gym for a few weeks.

To be honest I didn’t really know what to expect, or if it would help, and I suppose time will tell, but I do already feel a bit looser. I’ve booked in for another massage next week and the week after, to get the benefit and then I’ll probably go to once a month or so for maintenance. Whilst it’s not your traditional type of massage for relaxing, it was lovely to indulge in a bit of ‘me time’ and do something to look after my body.

Have you ever had a sports massage? If you sit at a desk all day how do you prevent your shoulders getting stiff?