Cris Ramis - The Baron's Blog

A truly great dessert....

Sunday lunch is almost always followed by Sunday dessert for me, which allows me my treat of the week. It usually takes the form of a huge dessert, and last Sunday was no exception.

Following my fantastic run at Hadleigh castle, I treated myself to the organic, gluten & wheat-free brownies I bought from the Cinnamon Tree Bakery stand at the Real Food Festival a few weeks back.

They were glorious. I bought 4 and had them in 2 helpings (separated by a few hours). They were the most filling brownies I've tasted to date. Very chocolaty (obviously) and the Mackie's organic ice-cream really helped them go down even better.

Below you can see the various stages of the dessert i.e. before, during and after.

 

 

 

Stay well and happy, and check out http://www.thecinnamontreebakery.co.uk/ for top-notch sweet stuff!

Cris (El Baron)

 

The first run of the year....

Last Sunday I decided to begin my 'get leaner' routine that I've followed for the last couple of years.

The goal being to drop bodyfat whilst keeping hold of as much muscle mass as possible, and end up in the best shape possible around the time of my birthday.

I managed 7% (great) and then 6.3% (after I added an extra months training. This was too lean as I lost too much muscle along the way) in 2008, and 9.5% in 2009 (not quite as lean as I wanted).

There's a castle around 15 minutes drive from where I live. I've walked there and back from my home a few times (17 miles or so). It's a annual summer pilgrimage for Mum and I.

Info on it can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadleigh_Castle

There's a nice, steep hill leading up to the castle, and Mum and I have often talked of running up it. Last weekend the talking stopped and became doing.

We drove to Leigh-on-Sea station, strolled to the beginning of the path that located in a field below the castle and set off.

As it was my first run since October 2009 (I'd stopped all cardio and focused purely on getting the most out of the Max Strength routine I'd been following), my goal was to run most of the distance at a steady, comfortable pace and then use the tougher parts of it the route for sprinting i.e. the hill that leads to the castle.

The plan worked well and when I reached the hill I felt quite 'fresh' as I sprinted up it.

I stole a glance at my stop-watch as I started the hill run. It read 10min and 30s.

By the time I got halfway up the hill, a minute had passed and my legs were feeling rather heavy. I just kept telling myself to 'keep going'. I didn't care how long it took me to get up the hill as long as I did it without stopping.

The fact that there were quite a few people strolling around was extra motivation as I didn't want to stop and look exhausted in front of them. The ego comes in handy sometimes.

I reached the castle itself and checked my watch again 12min, 30s. It had taken me 2 minutes to make it up the hill.

Those 2 minutes weren't the toughest of my life (I think that doing 20-rep breathing squats with as much weight as I can handle takes that honour), though it was certainly in the top 5.

It took me 17 minutes to run from the start of the path to the Salvation Army land at the back of the castle, and I was well pleased with that.

Once Mum had caught me up, she bought some tomato plants from the Salvation Army shop and we strolled back.

I took some pics of the scenery on the way down. Taking them on the way up wasn't an option.

Pic 1 shows the start of the path leading to Hadleigh Castle.

 

Pic 2 shows the start of the hill leading to the castle.
 

Pic 3 shows the castle summit:
 

Pic 4,5 and 6 show the view from the summit.
 

 

 

Pic 7 shows the view from the Salvation Army Cafe and Shop. You can see the castle in the foreground.

 
 
It was a lovely start to my running for 2010.

Stay well and happy.

Cris (El Baron)
 
 
 
  

Gratitude - a reminder....

Occasionally I forget how fortunate I am.

When that happens I'm very good at spotting it early and reminding myself of everything I have to be grateful for.

On other occasions I get timely reminders from elsewhere (God/the Universe working in it's usual loving, supportive way).

This week I received such a reminder. A friend of mine, who usually sends filthy emails in general, sent me one entitled "Voted best email of the year 2008".

I'd seen it at least once before, though I was happy to watch it again. I felt I needed to.

If you need a reminder, go to YouTube and search using the title I've given above.

There'll be a selection of videos of varying length in the results.

The video is self-explanatory.

Stay well, happy and grateful.

Cris (El Baron)

Fluoride poisoning.....

Excellent article on flouride and why it's a sound idea to avoid it:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/05/11/toxic-fluoride-contaminates-iceland-volcanic-ash-and-is-killing-animals.aspx

Stay well, happy and flouride-free.

Cris (El Baron)

Useful advice....

Trust yourself.

It must be sound advice....The Universe gave it to me. For more advice see www.tut.com

Stay well and happy.

Cris (El Baron)

 

Lovely quote....

A colleague of mine, Nyali Muir (contact details nyalifm@btinternet.com, 01206-822205), sent me a quote from Mark Twain: " Forgiveness is the fragrance that a violet serves on the heel that stood on it".

Love it.

Nyali is an established International Coach, Health & Wellbeing Consultant, Healer, Writer and Public Speaker.  She is a qualified Tutor, Fitness Instructor, Clinical Aromatherapist & Massage Specialist with over 25 years of professional experience.

You can find out more about her here: http://www.embodyforyou.com/EB/?k=161510

I'm glad to know her.  

Stay well and happy.

Cris (El Baron)

 

Mum's Birthday...

Mum's birthday yesterday.

Visited Paradise Wildlife Park in Herts.

A good day out, especially seeing Jake and Basil the fox cubs.

Happy Birthday Mum.

With eternal love and gratitude.

Cris (El Baron) x

The Real Food Festival.....part 2

Being a computer genius, I've managed to partly retrieve the aforementioned photos and put them on a word doc: Download Real Food Festival 2010

In order of appearance you have:

Petal the Buffalo (raw buffalo cheese and milk and very good for you as is )
Daisy the Cow
Daisy's calf (didn't inquire as to the name)
Assorted lambs
Piglets in action!
Piglets in not quite so much action
Dessert Frenzy

Trust the file opens up ok.

Stay well and happy.

Cris (El Baron)

The Real Food Festival.....

Last Saturday my Mum and I attended the Real Food Festival at Earl's Court.

We attended last year and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

I came back with many goodies, and fully intended to do the same this year.

As over the past year I've chosen to follow a wheat-free, gluten-free diet I was more choosy about what I bought this year, and stuck to organic chocolate, cookies from Doves Farm (www.dovesfarm.co.uk), linseed and quinoa 'Flaxjacks' from the Flaw Farm (www.flaxfarm.co.uk), brownies from the Cinnamon Tree Bakery (www.thecinnamontreebakery.co.uk) and some slices of cake from Sugargrain (www.sugargrain.com).

All of the above is wheat-free, dairy-free, organic and tastes great (I can personally vouch for that).

This year's festival was full of individuals or small companies selling chocolate, chutney, cheese, chillies, jams, meat, wine, spirits (toffee vodka anyone?), cakes, bread etc etc.

My only gripe was that the stalls could have been spread out more to allow easier movement for everyone. Too many bottle-necks in places, and there was a lot of spare room on either side of the festival.

There were animals there too; a buffalo, a cow and her calf, sheep and lambs, chickens and piglets (see below).

 

I did manage to take pictures of all of the above and also of my enormous dessert selection.

I then managed to delete all of them except the one above; having had a hard day of snuffling about, the piglets took a nap - bless.

Of course, being the enlightened individual I am, I have forgiven myself for doing this.

You'll just have to go next year and see it all for yourself.

Stay well and happy.

Cris (El Baron)

Training update....

I'm into week 4 of the upgraded Muscle Gaining Secrets routine by Jason Ferrugia.

I'm still enjoying it. As I mentioned before, I'm enjoying the relative brevity of the sessions; following my warm-up I'm usually done in 45 minutes maximum.

I change exercises next week for another 4 week block and then take a week off to recover.

If my brother pops over this Sunday I'll get him to take my bodyfat and muscle circumferences.

Going by my appearance in the mirror, I think I'm leaner, though until I'm measured I can't be sure.

I think the leanness (if it's there) may have come about as a result of the reduction in training volume.

Whilst on the Max Strength routine, I lifted weights x 4 days per week and pushed myself to my limit and was probably in a slightly over-trained state i.e. border-line catabolic.

After a week off I'm lifting x 3 days per week and at reduced volume and intensity.

I think this has allowed my body to return to a more anabolic state, let my hormones re-balance and positive changes to occur in my body composition.

Here's a link to Jason's latest newsletter:

http://jasonferruggia.com/why-some-skinny-guys-will-always-stay-skinny/

I liked it mainly due to it's message of 'keeping it simple' - a philosophy I share with regards to my whole life, not just training.

Stay well and happy.

Cris (El Baron)