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I seem to be one of those people who is either super dedicated to getting fit or becoming a full on couch potato. I wish I could commit more firmly to the first but somehow I seem to have doomed myself to continually rejoining the gym after a sabbatical of sorts and then suffering the consequences. The trouble with muscles is when they don't get enough use they forget their function and returning to exercise after a few weeks, months of years of not weight training can be a bit of a shock to the system. I am sure anyone who has returned to the gym after a break can identify with the feeling of having legs so tender you walk like John Wayne, have to descend stairs sideways and wish there were handrails beside your loo to assist you back up again. Then there's the overly sore arms that you can't raise above your head (good luck washing your hair ) and struggle to change gears when driving or the abs in crisis when you can't sneeze or go from lying to sitting wi...

You know you're not really a night person when you find yourself preparing for a night shift as though you're going into battle. In a way I am because I usually get restless legs and an inability to focus around 11pm and I have to give up the good fight and put myself to bed. Except of course when working a night shift as that sort of practice is frowned upon in work. I agreed two nights for a colleague as a favour. Those nights being tonight and tomorrow night and she in turn will cover two of my days but this unfortunately meant I only had today as a break from working all weekend before launching in to them. I haven't worked a night since the month I did over Christmas and I think I have just about recovered from that. I have spent most of the day mentally readying myself. I tried to have a lie in but my body clock was having none of it. I bought extra food so my poor sleep deprived brain wouldn't have to face the outdoors tomorrow day time. I have downloaded g...

Winter bodies are hairy, soft beings whereas summer bodies are taut and tanned and scantily clad. At least that's the theory. As someone who yoyo's between getting fit and eating my body weight in sugar, I am often striving for one but falling more into the other category. Here's the thing I have been meaning to sort out my diet, my lifestyle, my excess flab but I just haven't really gotten around to it. I start to work out, clean up my diet and then boom I meet one tiny hurdle and I am back to my old bad habits. I did manage to call a halt to my gluttony earlier this week and kissed my latest sugar binge goodbye without any regrets and then I made my way back to the gym and while it was hard, it wasn't horrible. It's only as the sun emerged I have realised that I forgot to get my summer body. Clearly I was having a nap on the couch when everyone was getting theirs. Yes I am eating better and I have exercised recently but unfortunately the climb of out of ch...

Right now my brain is like mush and I am stress eating to beat the band. If you are wondering what exactly has me in this state then sit yourself down and I will try and give you the short version. A few months ago I was offered a position on the social care panel at work. Not totally out of the blue given that I had applied for it and interviewed for it and the whole shebang. At the same time I was asked to a short course on management and I thought why not, future planner that I am. When I turned up at the course I realised it came with a QQI 6( the new fetac ) award and I thought great, that will look lovely on my CV. We got details of the assignments we would complete at the end but I decided not to worry about those because really it was ages away. After two days of the course we had 6 weeks of online learning and that was fine. I completed my learner record as I went along like a good little student. Then we had the last day (Mid April) and we went through the assignments in...