Shoes, shoes, shoes! Day 1 of 56.

I was excited and nervous in equal measure leading up to todays workout so I did what I normally do when I am nervous and bought a new out fit! Woo hoo! So let me introduce my first outfit!

I have just retired an absolutely great pair of Nike Zoom trainers. I need additional instep support so they were really good, and despite constant use, lasted just over 12 months although, that might have been more to do with the fact that I was really attached to them. The added benefit of the Nike+ chip and my iphone made these trainers some of the best training shoes I have used in a while.

On the clothes front I have been wearing Nike Dri Fit. The fit is good, the support is great and the clothes last. One of my Nike Dri Fit sets has been going strong for 3 years with very regular use and washing. I will be using these until my new Under Armour, Nike and Adidas sets arrive.

But all good things come to an end, so I have moved to an Asics shoes. After breaking them in on a Christmas shopping trip and jaunt around Universal Studios Islands of Adventure, I decided that today was the day to put them to proper use. The only two things about these shoes that stick out at the moment is that they don't have a place for my Nike+ chip and I will need to buy a different insole for them as the existing one is pretty basic.

Todays workout was pretty hard going, even the warm up was hard going and I am already having to vary the exercises to protect my shoulder from getting worse, but its important to train smart and protect yourself, so I am starting out easy. By the second round I was well on the way to being tired out and by  round 5 I was glad to get down to the floor to rest my weary legs. But Georges and Eriks constant motivational comments and encouragement really really helped. So day 1, done!

The last time I did Rush Fit, I did not pay enough attention to the dietary elements of the programme and therefore didn't get the results I was hoping for, although today was a little hit or miss... there were some Oreo cookies and some Terry's Chocolate Orange on my diet sheet today that shouldn't have been but remarkably I stayed under my 1500 calorie limit.

On the eating side of things, I will be aiming to take in between 1200 and 1500 calories a day, without getting to caught up in limiting myself.

If you start like a lion....

It's been a crazy and long few months for me. If you read my last post in July, you will probably have realised that I wasn't doing too good.

I was diagnosed with calcification of the tendons in my shoulders as well as being very tired, run down, emotional and generally out of control. After seeing a large number of doctors, I was diagnosed with some fairly large non cancerous tumours which turned out to be the cause of most of the issues. Now I have had an operation and put on a course of medication to sort things out, I think it's about time I got after it again and started on the Rush Fit Intermediate programme.

In addition I will be training using different fitness equipment and clothes to see if what you wear makes a difference to how effective your work out is. The brands that I will be focusing on are Nike, Under Armour, Adidas and Asics.

So where am I...

I have maintained a reasonable level of fitness through occasional jogging and yoga classes, but I have not really done any resistance training so I have lost some muscle tone and definition. I have probably gained about 10 pounds and honestly, it feels awful! I have not gone up a dress size or anything, but things are definitely a little tighter than they were a few months ago, so it is the perfect time to start on Rush Fit once again!

Today an official Rush Fit blog post talked about the importance of setting goals. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely and with this is mind I have decided that my goal is to loose between 16 and 20 pounds within the next 8 weeks. I will do this, with a combination of diet and exercise and while my main method will be Rush Fit, I will be paying more attention to my body and probably substituting the occasional Rush Fit session with a swim or a yoga class.

With this in mind, maybe you are reading along and thinking you want to undertake a fitness programme or start trying to loose some extra holiday so why not come on the journey with me? Let's get after it!