Any length you can swim, I can swim faster

The good:

Well hello number 6, haven't seen you in a while!

Whole Foods Market - my pay day treat - it's like the Narnia of supermarkets.

The bad:

Dried figs you are so delicious but why must you have so many calories? You make me sad :(

The ugly:

A goat in a swimming costume!

Haha, but at least I went for a swim, and it does seemed to have eased my knee a bit. Also there was no sign of this 'SwimFit' business I expected, I thought there would be an instructor or something? Anyhoo I just got on and did 36 lengths - that's 1188 metres in "one of the largest pools in London" FYI.

Tomorrow - a dreaded morning run (as I'm going out after work). Will I make it? Will I die trying? Will the world end if I get out of bed earlier than 7? Who knows....

Post-thanksgiving trot

Good to my word I've been out for a run tonight. Couch to 5k week 3 continues (two weeks down the line!) Really good run, and this will be the week I finish week 3!

I weighed in today at 208.4lbs, so if I want to reach my Christmas goal I'm aiming for about 2lbs a week until then.

So this week's exercise plan is:

• Monday - Couch to 5k , week 3.
• Tuesday - swimming, I'll be trying out the new "swimfit" plan I happened upon today.
• Wednesday - Couch to 5k, week 3.
• Thursday - swimming, I'll see how this swimfit malarkey goes and then do lengths if it's not great.
• Friday - Couch to 5k, week 3.
• Saturday - Pilates (hopefully I can book in to the class at the local leisure centre).
• Sunday - Swim and/or bike ride.

My current thin-spiration is Bendoeslife with his "A weigh a day". I'm toying with the idea of doing a four week count down to Christmas.....we'll see.

A very British Thanksgiving

For the past three years, I've hosted Thanksgiving for my not-in-anyway-American friends.

Why? Well, it started with an operation and a friend obsessed with all things USA culminating in "let's do something fun in November that involves our friend not moving too much".  Combine this with my (parents') large kitchen/dining room and "Thanksgiving" was born.

This year there was no way I was letting a small London flat with a tiny kitchen/oven get in the way of our slightly odd tradition. So enter my Thanksgiving spreadsheet of organisational dreams!

Google docs FTW!

The perfect roast potatoes were housemate 1's contribution.

Stuffing - everyone's favourite. I save the amazing home made kind for Christmas though.

Apple and blackberry crumble - housemate 2's contribution - YUM.

 I am thankful for:

Spreadsheets (weirdly obsessed and proud!)

The happy glow from cooking for friends

My little London flat

My housemates for being great assistant cooks and hosts

The electrician who  fixed our shower 2 hours before people arrived (after 10 days of showering at work!)

Friends

Friends

Friends

Can you tell I've got that soppy post-Thanksgiving "I love my friends so much and even though I'm a bit tired and hungover it still counts" feeling ;)

Tomorrow will bring a post-Thanksgiving weigh in and run but for now I'm just enjoying the fact that today Christmas came early....

Don't sleep, eat, repeat (or not).

Illness and staying healthy - I was going to say they're a bad combination but obviously they are in fact opposites.

But there are more ways to be ill/unhealthy than having a bad cold. For example, unhealthy sleeping patterns, leading to unhealthy sugar cravings, leading to eating everything in sight.

So it's time to go to bed and try and sleep for a sensible amount of time so tomorrow I can build towards a new pattern...

Sleep well, eat well, run well, feel well.

p.s. Our shower is kaputt!! Might do a sweaty run to work and use the work shower though...maybe. 

Healthy eats

It's definitely winter. All but one person in my office has got a cold.

So today I was colding it up....

Soup and lempsip, the beloved friends of the cold ridden patient.

The soup looks unappetizing but it was actually a very yum winter veg mix, om noms.

Blueberries are my friend.

Being ill, I got home and was desperate for some comfort food, I was thinking "PIZZA!" I was thinking, "GARLIC BREAD!!!" So I loaded up on tomato, cheese, toppings, garlic, bread and made...

Bruschetta!

And if that doesn't make your mouth water you can get out and stay out :P

Now back to Children in Need to put everything in perspective!

Decisions decisions

Life is full of many decisions. Today I stood in my room for 10 minutes straight thinking "pizza or baked potato?" After I had argued myself round to the healthy potato option my housemate proceeded to come home and eat a pepperoni pizza right in front of me, damn her! But still I felt good because I had made the right decision - if I'd eaten a pizza my calorie deficit for today would be a surplus and I would feel like I'd let myself down.

Other decisions that have turned out great for me recently are the decision to look for a new job, deciding to go to the work party last Friday even though I was tired (there was some kissin' ) and deciding to go for a run last night (firstly because running is always a good decision, secondly because our shower actually worked when I got home which it didn't this morning)!

So on the back of these positive decisions I must now make a much harder one.....

10k or Half-marathon??? 

Yep, I've discovered the Bupa London 10k that I've run for the last two years is on the same day as the Sheffield Half-marathon next year.

I know right now you're thinking "dude, you're building back up to 5k, why the poo are you even considering a half-marathon at the moment?!" Well the answer to that is I like a challenge. And Sheffield wouldn't just be a challenge it would be going back to my Uni town (where I weighed my heaviest at 231lbs) and saying "How do you like me now suckers?!"

On the other hand I've run the London 10k for two years now and with one of my best friends, so it's kind of become "our thing". Also the feeling of finally running for an entire 10k and improving my time there next year would be amazing and I'd be running on part of the 2012 Olympics marathon course, which I can't lie gives me a kind of buzz.

But will I be letting my friend down? Would she even care? I think I'd care if she didn't run it next year :(

But can I wait a whole other year to show off my mad/average-ish running skillz to Sheffield? Or maybe I should move on from trying to "prove myself" to Sheffield , I feel like I failed to do this during my degree so maybe I should just get over it.


Both? (Yep, I'll just build a time machine!)

Burn baby burn

Argh the cold and my lungs do NOT agree. Although possibly pushing my first interval really hard contributed to the burn too.

I wanted to try out my new armband holder for my phone with the adidas mi coach app but my phone's battery had other ideas! Luckily my beloved shuffle was there for me with couch 2 5k week 3 all ready and loaded.

Although I've progressed from couch 2 5k before, I'm hoping that by steadily building back up through the programme I can strengthen my legs, improve my race times and eventually build to a magical half marathon. A good plan I think?

Christmas goals

Let's talk goals for Christmas (to avoid the fact I didn't go for a run today, ssshhhh)

Christmas is quite a good motivator for me as I usually spend it with my healthy farming relatives who are all obviously fit and slim thanks to their physical jobs but also because a number of them are neurotic about their weights.

Either way, I've always felt a certain disappointment or just "unimpressedness" from this side of the family about my weight. But this also means that when they comment positively on my weight loss they really mean it - these are people that don't hand out compliments freely!

So today I've decided to set myself a two tier goal:
Main goal  - by Christmas I will be in the 100s.
Bonus prize - by Christmas have lost 10lbs from today (this would make me 197.8lbs as of today).

So thems the goals. I know it's not a massive challenge but it does really feel like that to me. Especially as I worked out today I've only lost a stone (14lbs) in the passed year so I kind of feel like if I can push it to lose that much by Christmas I'll really have got the ball rolling for a great new year.

Anyhow, tomorrow there will be a running update, promise!

The master of all the chefs

Today I made my way to Kensington Olympia to check out the MasterChef Live exhibition. An interesting experience as I never really watch the show, but as my sisters were working there I wasn't going to turn down a complimentary pass! And so I went along in search of free tasters and healthy-food inspiration.

So let's start with the tasters! I ate a small lunch in order to leave room (and calories) for free nibbles, because, as everyone knows, free food is delicious food.

The foodstuff I was most expecting to deliver in the tasters area (and WOW it did) was cheese:

Medium cheddar infused with Whisky? Hello!

Fortunately I managed to restrict my cheese sample eating and didn't buy any,  this was very hard for me. The other most notable sample was a glorious crazy beverage:

Nectar of the gods

I actually witnessed someone buying 10 bottle of this!

So as I munched my way around (lots of chilli sauces, om nom nom) there were also some bizarre sights to be seen...

Giant lollipop made of sweets - I think I got a sugar rush just from looking at this!

'Flora Tea' because who doesn't want a weird flower to grow in their glass of tea?!

And finally there was that inspiration I'd been looking for....

 

I saw a light on the road to Damas(cus)

Mezze! Aubergines! I'd forgotten how much I love middle east-style mezze food, but particularly aubergine dishes. I also ate a lot of aubergine based foods in Egypt last week so I rushed home and bought the most aubergine-tastic cookbook I could find! Stay tuned for future aubergine based meal plans.

Move out the way kid or I will EAT. YOUR. HEAD.

Other inspiration arrived in the form of some dried-apple crisps that were reasonably priced (unlike a lot of things at the show!), really yummy and low calorie, so an inspired replacement for my dried mango addiction. I also happened across some of the best marmalade ever (made from quinces - oh so exotic) so I bought some for porridge flavouring purposes (see how I made that sound a bit healthier by mentioning porridge ;) ).

Om nom nom

And that was it for mastering some chefs at Master Chef! 

What's the best/weirdest/yummiest thing you've ever seen at an exhibition/food market/village fete?

In other news, this weekend I got a armband holder for my phone so I'm quite looking forward to testing some running apps (android darlings, none of that iphone rubbish :P ). So there should will also be some more running-based posts next week, hurrah!

This is a running blog about running

A post about running (finally)!!

So today I went for a run, it wasn't the world's greatest run but it wasn't the worst either. I've gone back to Week 3 of Couch to 5k because of knee worries (and laziness, let's be honest), but it felt gooooooooooooood. And I did a major streching session beforehand which, I can't lie, was almost orgasmically good.

Trust me, stretching is extra good when there's a whole 6 foot of you to stretch. My back clicks a lot (lack of core/back strength maybe?) and so always feels incredible to stretch, but glute stretches are a close second (possibly because I sit on my bum too much). Touching my toes also makes me feel superior as I have two friends (much fitter than me) who can't touch theirs - small victories ;)

So as I was running I realised I have no light/reflective running clothes, dangerous now that it's winter, so maybe some sexy new running clothes can be purchased with the pay rise from my NEW JOB! :D

Yep, this time next month I will be starting in a wonderfully science-geeky job at a breast cancer charity (hence the pink writing yesterday). As well as being the exact role I want to be doing right now it's also quite a big pay rise so I'm thinking of a few treats I can buy myself (although mostly I'm thinking "woo I can pay off my student overdraft!"). Running-wise I think I might get 1 x running tights, 1 x bright/reflective long sleeve top, and new trainers! My old asics are feeling a bit less comfy after four 10ks and all the training between so I'm looking forward to having a proper gait analysis at a running shop (I bought the last pair off ebay coz I'm a massive cheapskate).

In other news my weight today was 209 lbs so I only put on 1 pound on holiday! Good news all round!

So what part of you do you like to stretch most? ;) ;) (ok innuendo yes, but serious question)

Oh and any suggestions for running clothes and shoes are more than welcome :)

Return of the Goat

Where is the sunshine people?! This weather is just not acceptable after a week in 28 degree heat and sun! Having said that the Thames did pull off some wonderfully enigmatic mist as I walked home tonight that made me want to be Sherlock Holmes hurrying through the streets of victorian London or such like. 

So I have definitely not maintained on holiday due to lounging, chilling, eating and drinking on repeat. I did fit in some water aerobics and volleyball (with scarily hardcore Germans) but still don't think the scales are going to be happy with me tomorrow. I'm just telling myself if it's 214 or under I'll be happy. Also I have a funny holiday stomach ache thing going on which may affect things.

Additionally I'm not sure I can handle the pressure of weighing-in tomorrow on top of my EXCITING NEWS which I can't reveal until tomorrow (or maybe Thursday) , but it is exciting and happy-making and also kind of motivating for the weight loss/running side of things (although literally every future plan is currently a motivation for weight loss in my eyes). For now let's just say I've used pink writing above for a reason (yes I know it clashes horribly with the blog's whole red-link theme :P) . 

So this week I'm going to try and be good and blog some cool things including...

• Weigh in
• EXCITING (pink related) NEWS
• Vegan-inspired week's food plan
• Running! (You know, because this blog's supposed to be about running or something ;) . Also I'm actually quite excited to get off my bum thanks to inspiration from New York Marathon runners and others)
• MasterChef Live exhibition (if my sister gets me free tickets - delicious healthy food freebies and cooking inspiration FTW!)

Finally, as the goat has returned, I'll leave you with this 90's gem...



P.S. Those who clicked on the first link above - how cute is Labrinth?! Not in a hot way but definitely in a "who's a cute ickle pop star?" way. Bless his little cotton socks.