Tuesday 23 March 2010

Human, all too human...

So...Day 1 of the Exhibition and let Gym Ninja just point out that:

1.  Sometimes rage can be used to fuel a good workout
2.  If it wasn't for the crowds, Gym Ninja would be up on Manslaughter charges.

The Day 1 of the Exhibition loomed large, and Gym Ninja fuelled up at breakfast with a wheat free pitta stuffed with cottage cheese & a choc mint Promax shake.  In her bag were bottles of water, oragnic apples, some BCAAs and a couple of Promax Meal Bars. Well, one can never be too careful turning up at things like this without food supplies!

Dutchie, the MD from Holland was due to arrive today, a was GN's colleague who is studying the same fitness course (but 8 months behind). Thank GOD for the colleague! She kept Gym Ninja relatively sane, as she had to fight back the comments upon seeing her new Line Manager 'Adolf' rock up in a new tie he'd purposely colour-matched to the new company colours to impress Dutchie . Gym Ninja also had to show restraint as she watched Adolf pootle over to the Danone stand and blag a freebie yoghurt at 9.45am, and again, as 10.15am came round and out came the biscuits!!!!!  Wow, he'd only just had his fried breakfast at 8.30am!

At lunch, as expected, the catering was 'suspect' and the best option Gym Ninja and her fitness pal could find were Nicoise Salad at the salad bar.

"What's your healthiest salad here?" Enquired GN to the guy serving everyone.

"The Nicoise" He answered. "Do you want some?"


Gym Ninja nodded and watched as the guy scooped a load of lettuce plus one half of a hardboiled egg into a tiny container. £4 this was priced at!

"Er, any chance I can have a second half egg please?" Begged Gym Ninja, desperate to flesh out her lunch.
The guy looked apprehensive. Obviously he was under strict instructions to only dispense one half egg into every over-priced salad.

"PLEASE? I weight train! I can't survive on that!" Implored Gym Ninja, her cute face at the ready..

"Ahhh, I weight train too!" Announced the guy, popping a biceps pose at her, winking and scooping in an extra egg. Yippee! A fellow fitness fan!

At the counter, Gym Ninja watched as another guy rang through both salads and drinks. for her and her colleague. Gym Ninja grabbed a couple of apples too.

"Oh no! I forgot to ring through the apples!" Scowled the cashier man.

"OMG, do you think they grow on trees or something?" Said Gym Ninja.
At that, Cashier Man laughed and told her to take the apples for free.

Awww, how nice is everyone sometimes? But sadly that wasn't to last....

Mid afternoon, out of nowhere, in the middle of the exhibition stand, Gym Ninja's other MD raged at her! A deal had been delayed thanks to our office staff delaying CAD plans that the client had only just received and the MD was convinced the deal was lost.


"Why has this happened?" He raged, in front of Dutchie, the team and the passers by.

Gym Ninja explained about the delay in the office. But no, this wasn't good enough!

"WHY didn't you get a director involved then?" He screamed (Gym Ninja's place of work is somewhat management heavy!)

OK, so THAT was enough!

"I DID get a director involved. I spoke to Mark last Monday and he said 'Oh, is this going to cause a problem?' I said 'Yeh HUGE problem' and yet STILL nothing happened until Friday!"

The MD dismissed Gym Ninja's comment with a 'I find THAT hard to believe! Get in to the client tomorrow and take Adolf with you!"

Grrrr!

So Gym Ninja was in a baaaaaad mood as firstly the delay had NOT been her fault, secondly she HAD gotten a Director involved and thirdly, why rage in front of clients and staff?

By the end of the exhibition, GN was ready to release her annoyance at the gym, and drove straight there with BIG plans on running it out of her!

However, within 10 minutes Gym Ninja's body told her that running was a no-go. It wanted to do weights. SO that's what Gym Ninja did. Flung a few weights around, working her lower body with compound movements until the anger subsided. Admittedly maybe her body hadn't so much as told her it didn't want to run, but more kind of 'you ate that last apple a bit too late and now it's hanging in your stomach like a lead weight". Ooops!

On route home, GN stopped off at a Tesco Express, home off the oddball shopper. There she picked up a small box of sushi (supplies for tomorrow), some king prawns, an onion and....oh no. NO NO NO NO NO!

Emotion got the better of Gym Ninja. In the basket went a jar of Nutella.....!

*cue dramatic music*

Once home, out came the jar and in went the spoon.
4 hefty spoons of Nutella later and Gym Ninja remembered why she never eats/buys Nutella.

It. Does. Not. Cure. Bad. Moods.

FACT!

Also, as you start to eat clean, you will find that the very things you wean yourself off, make you feel like a bag 'o' sh*te the moment you eat it. As if your body is raising the alarm and saying 'Whoa whoa whoa! Invader!'

Now Nutella can be good, a scraping on a slice of wholemeal toast. But straight from the jar? NOT recommended!

So, with the jar banished to the cupboard, Gym Ninja sliced and diced until she'd made a huge vat of butternut squash, red bell pepper, soft cheese and chives soup...you know, to wash out the Nutella, ahem!

It's all very odd, as earlier Gym Ninja had been having discussions via email with Tara regarding clean eating.  Yet here, thanks to a huge humiliating b*llocking from her boss (and probably a fair bit of pressure that had built up over the past few months in terms of workload and stress), GN reached for Nutella.  Even more ironic, it made her feel WORSE!

So you see, everyone falls 'off the wagon'. Maybe weekly, monthly, quarterly even? But it happens. So if it happens to you, address what triggered it. See if you can find a way of avoiding such a response next time and LEARN from it. Then, put it right behind you and get right back on track. Gym Ninja did with a gorgeously healthy bowl of home made soup. Do not use a lapse as an excuse to throw in the towel and continue to binge. One slip up your body will forgive you for, more than one at a time and it will start to make it's voice heard!!!!

Okey dokey, GN needs to go and wash up the soup pan/blender/bowl.

You all now breathe a sigh of relief as you realise that, despite being 98% machine, Gym Ninja is in fact also 1% human...and 1% Nutella....

;-)

Nutella Ninja x