Wedding fun - a London engagement shoot

A few weeks ago, our wedding photographer - the fantastically talented Neil Jarvie - was going to be in London, so we took advantage of the opportunity to meet up, get to know each other a bit, and mess around and take some shots.

I met Neil YEARS ago, but only a couple of times and though we'd been Facebook friends ever since, it wasn't until I spotted his lovely wedding photography on his website at the start of this year that I got back in touch. He very quickly emerged as our front runner and it didn't take us long to make the decision to book him.

Your wedding photographer is the only person that's with you from the start to the end of the day, so it's really important that you get on. As such, we were really keen to take him up on his offer of an engagement shoot. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't looking great for the day we were meeting up, so we decided to head for Leake Street, a really cool tunnel near our flat in London where graffiti artists get to go nuts with all the wallspace, venturing out onto the south bank once the weather had picked up a tad. It actually turned out to be perfect for us - the usual soppy pics in romantic locations wouldn't have suited us, and the area is very much "our" London, as we've lived around here for years, both separately and together. And as the wedding will be in my homeland, it was really lovely to have something to represent our London life.

Hope you like them!

Ax

Insanity diary days 103-105

IT'S OVER!!!

Ok, I didn't do it in the timescale I was meant to, but I did every last ruddy session, in the right order, and I threw a few extras (additional sessions when my body couldn't take what was prescribed, or going for runs before jumping back into it) for good measure.

The last few days went down something like this:

Day 103: Max Interval Plyo - everything's easier once you know it's the last time...

Day 104: Max Cardio Conditioning - I made this harder for myself by getting up really early (on a SUNDAY) because we were meeting friends for lunch at 12, but it was a whole lot easier because I knew we had this to look forward to, and it's probably my favourite session anyway.

Day 105: My final Fit Test. I'd love to say I beasted it because I'd been working so hard, but reality is this will never get easier because you're always pushing yourself to the max, whatever your "max" is. I had one slightly disappointing result in that my Globe Jumps went down by 1, but the results really do speak for themselves. See below for my results from each of the Fit Tests, with my starting and ending results in bold.

Switch kicks  90/45 -110/55 - 112/56 - 122/61 - 130/65

Power jacks   50 - 56 - 60 - 60 - 61

Power knees  85 - 104 - 118 - 120 - 126

Power jumps  0 (ankle injury) - 26 - 30 - 36 - 38

Globe jumps   5 - 8 - 10 - 11 - 10

Suicide jumps 8 - 12 - 14 - 15 - 16

Push up jacks  0 - 12 - 16 - 22 - 24

Low plank oblique  33 - 42 - 50 - 56 - 62

I was so desperate to have amazing final results that I finished the test feeling absolutely terrible. I blame the switch kicks for me not improving on my globe jumps - I could feel my form starting to suffer slightly and it took me a long time to recover afterwards. It would be impossible to work at that capacity for a full workout, but it shows you just how far you really can push yourself! If ever I think that I "don't have time" for something, I think of Insanity, how long 60 seconds really is, and just how many switch kicks you can fit into those seconds. It's more than you think!

As for the result on my body shape and weight, this has probably been less pronounced than I perhaps expected, but I really don't care. I never really saw Insanity as an option for drastic weight loss - it's about building strength and fitness levels, which I've definitely done. When you start working out so much, you need to eat more calories to function. You can't do this programme without the proper fuel in your body. That said, I've still lost roughly 7lbs and my torso has definitely toned up a bit. 

Day 1

Day 105. Excuse the toilet pic - it's the only large mirror in our tiny flat!

All in all, I'm chuffed with the results. Every time it comes up in conversation, people seem to know someone that's started it but didn't manage to complete it (or get through the first week), which makes me really proud for persevering and getting all the way to the end. I wouldn't recommend it if you don't already have a good base level of fitness, and definitely DON'T try it if you're harbouring an injury. But if you're fit and healthy and fancy a challenge, what are you waiting for?

Ax