Juneathon – Day 1

Well not a great start but at least it was a start.

It’s half term so the day was filled with taking the girls out for a lovely long walk through …. No, no,  the weather is grim.  We managed to go into town,  go to two cafés and a bookshop and that was it.   So much food.   And so tasty.  Hmmmm.

By the time I’d gotten the girls to bed, made second dinner for the grown ups and had a glass of wine (this may not sound strictly necessary but did I mention that it’s half term and the weather is grim?) I had only the energy to do five minutes random body weight exercises.

Hopefully I’ll actually get out for a run tomorrow.   Fingers crossed and Garmin charged.

Every Post Is Just The Same

Start, stop, start, stop, start, stop.

This is a blog of a million starts. 

Here we go again.

(See what I did there)

Every Post Is Just The Same

Start, stop, start, stop, start, stop.

This is a blog of a million starts.  

Here we go again.

Still here.

Granted I haven’t actually posted anything but I have been doing lots of exercise.   No really I have.   I’m using some money from my Mum (feels oddly wrong, how old am I?) to pay for a trainer once a week at the gym and running a couple of times a week.

Best thing recently?  Doing the Race For Life with my nine year old daughter.   She is very active so I knew she would get round but I assumed we’d have to stop a lot.  Ha, shows what I know.  We got round in 41 minutes which is a fine time for her first 5k specially when there was such a crowd to dodge through.  Cartwheeling over the finish line was a nice touch (her not me).

Last day of school today.  It’ll be interesting to see how we can fit my exercise in with having the girls at home all day. 

Here? Again?

Oh look, it’s the eighteenth “I really must do something about my weight” post in a row.

Seriously though, it’s getting a bit silly.

This time everything will be different.   No, don’t laugh, it will.  Oh, go on then, laugh away.

So, this time I am going to track what I eat and do some exercise.   Doesn’t sound too complicated.  I am going to run and I have joined a gym.   At the gym I have a trainer.  She seems lovely and very down to earth.  I’ve had one session with her and haven’t been able to move freely for two days.   I can’t tell yet if that is a good thing or not.

See you soon (no, really, I’m sure there’ll be more than one post this year).

January Progress

Lets not get too excited here but I’m actually making an effort not to stuff my face all day every day.  This can only be good, can’t it?

Part of me wants to sign up to some sort of weight loss plan.  Weight Watchers, the 5:2 Fasting diet or some other thing.  But I just can’t settle on anything.  And I don’t want to pay for anything either.  Which means that I’m going to wing it on my own.  For a while at least.  Until I change my mind – again.

I’m using My Fitness Pal (I’m womanoflesssubstance there if you want to friend me) to log my food at the minute but I’m not calculating the calories or fat content etc. in advance.  And I’m using The Walk app to encourage me to move a bit more in a casual, everyday way.  Any day now I’m going to start running again.  I’ve found a new map and I’m going to try to run the length of every street in this town!  That might take a while.

The Annual January Cliché

Goodness, is that the time.

Now, I know you will all (yes, I am aware I am talking to my own multiple personalities) be surprised to hear this but since I stopped blogging, stopped keeping track of my diet and stopped making any effort what so ever I have put on weight.  I know, I know, it is so very shocking.

And in keeping with the shock and awe of this post I am going to follow up with random clichés regarding January, a new year, a new start.  Yada, yada, yada.

I need to lose some weight.  I have put some on since the last time I seriously tried to get rid of it.  Not all of it has come back which is cheery but too much.

I need to do some exercise.  The wee ones are getting bigger, stronger, faster and I would like to be able to keep up with them.  At least now while they are still much smaller than I am.

So, here goes.  Again, again, again, again, again.

 

The Weight Just Fell Off

Hi.  I haven’t been blogging about weight loss recently because I have reached my goal.  All I had to do was exercise daily, eat sensibly when I was hungry and cut out all junk food and booze.  So simple and really not tricky at all.

Ha, ha, ha.  No.  No, that hasn’t happened.  I have put on some weight.  I have no idea how much but it is not negligible.  I’m going to do something about that.  Soon.  Honest.  Really soon.  Perhaps.  

Bye again.

Is Comfort Food Worth It?

Well, I went back to my Weight Watchers meeting for the first time since November.  Apparently I weight exactly the same as I did then.  Which is good really as I haven’t been paying much attention to my food (regardless of my intentions) and haven’t done an awful lot of exercise.  And for hours after I got home I was all enthusiastic.

Then we had some more bad news about the building work being done to our house.  Or more precisely the work that is no longer being done to our house.  And I got a bit stressed.  No, no, that’s not it.  I got very, very stressed.  Stressed enough to sit in a darkened room and drink a very big glass of brandy.  Or that’s what I imagined I would do.  Having small children has removed a huge element of choice from my life.  And I think we can see that that is a good, good thing.  So I drank a lot of coffee and most of the chocolate from the second last Christmas selection box.

Anyway, ha to Weight Watchers.  I still fail on the comfort food notion.  I’m sorry, I know that a big bar of Fruit and Nut is not going to put a roof on my house but it does make me feel better.  Yes, it only makes me feel better for a while.  Why would I not want to feel better for a short time instead of no time at all.  I suppose because I will feel worse next weigh in day? Honestly?  I think the pay off was worth it this time.

And running.  I’ve been doing a bit of that.  Isn’t it chilly.  Oh dear god but it’s cold.  When I get in from the run my entire body is red and blotchy.  Very attractive.  Once again I am reminded that some of my favourite things are hot water bottles, central heating and fleece blankets.

I have decided to train for the half marathon at the beginning of March.  I have a plan that might just work.  It is very, very cunning.  It also has no margin for error.  Good thing we aren’t expected much bad weather. Ha! Still, no reason not to give it a go.  If it goes well then hurrah.  If it doesn’t then boo.  Life goes on.

10k with Hills and a Ford

Not a Ford Focus!  A real live ford with water and a big, big ruler thing to tell you if you are mad to try drive across.  Thankfully the wonderful people of Essex were wise and considerate enough to put a foot bridge next to it so I didn’t have to get my feet wet.  I was very glad.

Focus on the Ford

Isn’t running in the countryside interesting.  You can’t really nosy in through peoples front windows like you can in the town and there is far too little footpath but there are fords, animals, big farm machinery harvesting some sort of turnip/sugar beet type thing, houses with names that relate to what work you do, houses with names that relate to which bit of the Empire you retired from and lots more hills.

I quite like hills.  They have a big novelty factor.  But the next time I plan a route along roads I don’t know I’m going to check the gradients and make sure that the last two kilometres doesn’t include the steepest hill of the entire run.

And now I’m thinking I might train for that half marathon in March after all.  Well, start to train and see what happens.  I promised myself that if I could manage 10k today and not feel like death I’d have a go.  7StoneItch suggested the Asics app.  I haven’t looked at the app but I have tried their on line training plan generator and it claims that I have just enough time and no more.  I’m going to study it a bit more closely and if it seems even remotely reasonable I’ll give it a try.

Distance:	10.65 km
Time:	1:24:51
Avg Pace:	7:58 min/km
Elevation Gain:	61 m
Calories:	791 C