Week 5- Results and Reflection

Well, after the Bank Holiday indulgences I do believe the new muscles I'm cultivating in my legs are actually eating my fat! Monday mornings weigh-in showed another loss of 1.5 lbs! On Friday morning (before said weekend indulgences) it was 2.5lbs loss, but I have decided to stick to my Mondays otherwise I am in danger of overdoing it at weekends.

Regardless of the weekend, the rest of the weeks food intake was based around the 1500 calorie mark and I did average that. So, with the reduced calorie intake and the increase in running I suppose there is only one way for the weight to go. This week I will continue with the 1500 calories. We have a friend staying on Friday night so that will inevitably involve going out for an Indian (tradition English Friday night fayre) and then friends over for dinner on Saturday night. But as I will do the cooking I can at least keep track of the ingredients.

My running programme will have me running for 25 minutes by Saturday, which I'm not too worried about. Hey, if I can run for 20 then 25 should be no problem?! And, of course, I have my morning station walks which in the last week have turned into part runs. I hope to lose another lb or two this week, so fingers crossed! x

Oh, and my jeans are getting looser! :-D

Wk5, D7+ Wk6, D1 -The Bank Holiday weekend.

This weekend has been a bit of a disaster on the wine a food front to be honest. It is a Bank Holiday in the UK  and we have had visitors. I have had no exercise to speak of apart from walking slowly with a 2 year old in tow for 2 1/2 miles to a pub for lunch today. I have drunk too much wine and had dessert 3 days in a row. Delicious as it has been, from now I have to get back on the straight and narrow.

On Sunday we went to a foodies food fair at Hampton Court. Apart from a sausage bap I ate all sorts of nibbles, fudge being the particular favourite and tasted several different sorts of liqueurs. I have no idea how to add that to mynetdiary! The festival was OK but we went a couple of years ago and it was better then. Back then, it was smaller and had more interesting stalls, now it has gotten bigger and so, unfortunately, more generic.

It being Monday I weighed myself this morning and despite my reservations about Monday morning weigh-ins I have still lost weight :-). I weighed myself last Friday morning too but had lost more weight. So my conundrum comes to ahead today. That is, whether to change my weigh-in day. I think, for the moment at least, to keep it as it is. I expect if I hadn't lost weight this morning I would have changed it though.

Sunday
Exercise
None
Breakfast
2x slices toast with Flora light
Tea
Lunch
Sausage in a bap
Various nibbles
Lager
Cappuccino
Afternoon
Half a pot of Churros
Dinner
Roast Lamb, all the trimmings
Eton Mess
Wine
Monday
Exercise
2 1/2 mile walk
Breakfast
1 x slice toast with Flora light
Banana
Tea
Lunch
Spring veg risotto
pannacotta
wine
Cappuccino
Dinner
none - too full from lunch

Wk5 D6, One of my proudest moments

I DID IT!

I actually ran for 20 minutes without stopping this morning! I kept a slow but steady pace, kept my breathing steady too, listened to Black eyed peas and a bit of Euphoria and it got me through 20 whole minutes of running. Hubby came with me (in case I fell in the river). When I got to the last minute I picked my pace up a bit and it felt brilliant! I have never ever in my life ran that far. I am sooo pleased I found the Get Running app. By then end of next week I will do a run for 25 minutes and at the moment I feel like, "yeah OK that'll be fine".
 I have had proud moments in my life like when I passed my driving test (5th time), when I got two books published (hairdressing text books), when I got married, when I got a 1st class honours degree and now this! My first 20 minute run. I can now call myself a runner! So lets

BRING ON THE WEEKEND!

Excerise

wk5 D3 of get running plus the walk back tracked with runkeeper burning 525 calories!

Breakfast

Porridge made with 40goats, 200ml 1% milk and 10g Linwoods seeds

Tea

Lunch 

Broccoli Quiche

Salad

Cappuccino

Afternoon

Tea x 2

Handful of mini pretzels

Dinner

Home made Weight Watchers recipe Chicken Curry

White rice

Plum tart

1/2  fat Creme Fraiche

Rose wine

Wk5 D5, Change of weigh-in day?

Today was a quiet day. I didn't do the station run this morning because of my clicky knees yesterday. So I decided to completely rest them for tomorrows 20 minute "marathon" run. I have however, been up and down the stairs many times sorting out the spare room for our visitors tomorrow, so I expect that burnt a few calories.

I weighed myself this morning and am considering making Friday my weigh in day as opposed to Monday. Weekends are usually fraught with eating out and drinking alcohol so by Monday morning I have the weekends' debauchery weighing heavily around my hips and stomach. If I weigh in on Friday I have a week to undo the damage done on the weekend and then I don't have to deprive myself much. Then again of course, I might decide to overdo it knowing I don't weigh in for another week. I'm not sure what to do. I know its my diet so my rules but I somehow feel like I'm cheating if I change the weigh in day. Now I'm writing this that just sounds weird. I think I will weigh in on Monday as usual, see what the scales say and then make the decision.


Oh and, just for my friends in the USA, scroll to the bottom of the page and check out the American state flags. I put this on yesterday afternoon but unfortunately they don't use my already existing flags from the world flag counter (of which I have 12 states) so there aren't many there yet. It would be great to get at least one flag from every state! Pass the word on :-)

Exercise
None apart from housework and going to the shops


Breakfast
Porridge made with 40g oats, 200ml 1% fat milk and 10g Linwoods seeds
Tea x2
Lunch
Reduced fat houmous
Carrot
Nectarine
Tea
Afternoon
Tea
Cheese sandwich
Dinner
Home-made Chicken fajitas (chicken, onion, bell peppers, fajitas seasoning, veg oil, wraps, natural yoghurt)
wine

Wk5 D4, I can run for 8 minutes! TWICE!

Today was dark and gloomy with thick, dark, grey clouds covering the sky. The weather man on the radio was telling me of "patchy rain, at times heavy and possibly thunderstorms later". Great, hmmph, Just my luck! I have two 8 minute runs to do today with the getrunning programme and I'm going to get soaked, frozen and possibly hit by a bolt of lightening! I think part of the reason for my utter dismay at the weather today was because we have had fantastic summery weather since the middle of March - quite unusual for the south East of England. And part, because I am dreading the 20 minute run due on Saturday.

I did my usual station walk this morning and decided to run part of it. My right knee hurt half way. I sat at the computer too much yesterday and when I sit for long periods I need to "click" my knees otherwise they ache. I don't know if that's age, standing most of my adult life, lack of exercise, sitting a lot in the last few years (I was at University for three years) or what, but it is a pain and I hope I am not aggravating it by running. Anyway, after my porridge I decided it's now or never, the sky looked a bit brighter, white, rather than dark grey but still no blue. I  took myself off down to the river. Today's run was for 8 minutes, then walk for 5, then run for 8 again. The first 8 minutes flew by, so much so that when the lady voice said "you have 10 seconds left" I felt I could have gone further. After the 5 minute walk the second 8 minutes was a bit harder but I still made it without too much concern. So, now I can officially run for 8 minutes straight! Pat on the back for me!!

I met my friends for lunch today and we went to a Morrocan cafe. I had the most delicious lunch of a chicken Bastilla and salad. The chicken Bastilla is a kind of chicken pie in filo pastry - very nice but impossible to guess the calories. I googled it, but every site offering the calories where different, in some cases by over 100 calories! I picked the middle one of about 250 cals as it wasn't huge or greasy. I cant wait until restaurants in the UK have calories on their menus. I hope they all do soon.

Exercise
Week 5 day 2 get running
Station walk/run at  175 cals

Breakfast
Porridge made with 40g oats, 200ml 1% milk and 10g linwoods seeds
Tea x2
Lunch
Chicken Bastilla and salad
Tea
Afternoon
49g bar of dairy milk
Tea
Dinner (not a good one as I worked until 8.45pm - too late to start cooking!)
2 x slices of bread
2 x Glass of wine

Wk5 D3, Yummy things to eat

Well today was a rest day from Get running. I still did the station walk this morning which is just part of my daily routine now. I had no clients today so cleaned the house from top to bottom. I can now walk round to my side of the bed without navigating my way through "stuff" that seems to accumulate there -shoes, clothes, washing basket, cushions, pillows, cats etc.The rest of the house is clean and tidy too, ready for our visitors at the weekend. So, I guess I have nothing much else to say about my fitness today

My diet however took a slight turn today. My sister recommended me some Linwoods ground seeds to add to my oats in the morning. Mynetdiary tells me each day I don't have enough fibre for breakfast so I thought I would give it a go. She used to live in Australia and apparently this stuff is all the rage over there. Anyway, I got some from the health food shop yesterday and added it to my oats this morning. It gave it a nutty flavour which was nice but I need to use more of it still to get my fibre up. Trouble is it's a bit high in calories too.Now, because I was cleaning and tidying today I discovered a crumpled wrapper on my food shelves and was about to bin it when I looked inside and there were two fantastic smelling, gleaming, chocolatey squares of dark chocolate. Suddenly they were in my mouth! Delicious, but I am glad they are gone. I wont be buying any chocolate for a while. Hubby is also pleased because he is partial too but is worried about his cholesterol.

Then, this afternoon, I found a Soreen Banana loaf in the bread bin that I bought for hubby when he was in recovery mode. We both forgot it was there. I was feeling quite peckish and decided to have a "little" bit. Oh, it's the most delicious thing and I normally hate banana flavoured things but this has actual banana in it so it's not chemical/plastic tasting. Unfortunately, I had 90g of it which really isn't much with a cup of tea but it came to 279 calories! I wish I worked that out before I ate it! Never mind. I'll run it off tomorrow.

Exercise
Station walk with runkeeper at 147 cals

Food
Breakfast
Porridge - made with 40g oats, 200g milk 1% fat and 10g Linwoods milled flaxseed, pumpkin seed and sunflower seed
Banana
Tea
Lunch
Sandwich made with 2 slices small wholemeal bread, reduced fat houmous and grated carrot
2 squares dark chocolate
Nectarine
Tea
Afternoon
Tea
Banana loaf
Dinner
Tuna salad & small baked potato

Wk5 D2, Bouncy feet

I had the shock of my life today. I was looking at another get running runners blog - who is on the same week as me -  to find that week 5 of the programme is quite different from any other week up to now. Weeks 1-4 repeat the run/walk times three times a week whereas in week 5 day1 is 3 lots of 5 minute runs - no problem, then day 2 is  2 x 5 minutes and 2 x 8 minutes which may be a bit hard but on day 3 I have to do a
FULL 20 MINUTE RUN WITHOUT STOPPING!!!!!! 

Now, I am aware this may sound no problem to some of you and I may be being a little dramatic, but I must remind you that 4 weeks ago I was clutching my chest, tomato faced, wheezing back to my house after a few 1 minute runs. The thought of running (ahem, slow jogging, ahem) solidly for 20 minutes actually fills me with horror. Luckily, it's due on Saturday when hubby can come out with me as I am in danger of giving up if I go on my own.

Anyway back to today's run. It was good, I ran the other way down the tow path today, the sun was shining, it was warm and no-one else was about. My first run started along with Lady Ga Ga 's eh eh at full blast through my headphones. I felt such a rush of energy I wanted to dance! I didn't though, not on the tow path, even if no-one was watching. I ran with bouncy feet and I LOVED it! In fact the whole 3 runs where good. It took me 2 3/4 miles along the river and at the end I turned round and quick march walked back with a little sprint for the last 5 minutes. I don't know where the energy came from but I sure as hell hope it returns on Saturday morning!

My river run taken on the iPhone. It looks a bit dark but I assure you it was a very bright day!








Exercise
Week 5 day 1 run on Get Running programme (poss burning 277 cals but I have a rubbish iphone 3)
Runkeeper tracked 3.75 miles burning 434 cals

Food
Breakfast
Porridge - 40 g 0ats 200ml 1% milk
Tea
Lunch
150g Heinz baked Beans
2 slices toast from small loaf
Apple
Tea
Afternoon
Tea
1 biscuit
Dinner
Pasta
Sausage, onion, basil & tomato soup to make a quick pasta sauce

Wk 5 D1, Monday

This is my rest day from getrunning. I start a new week tomorrow doing 3 lots of 5 minute runs. I'm not too concerned about that because I feel I can do it. I never would have thought I would say that! It's amazing how far I have come with my running and fitness in just a few short weeks. Using the get running app is really working for me because it gets you to take it slowly and pace yourself. When I attempted running with hubby in the years gone by I always ran to far or too fast, or both, until near collapse and that put me off the whole thing for another year! It also helps that I have a tow path to run along. Meaning I don't have to keep stopping at roads and traffic lights etc. I can just get the music on and go.

Anyway, today I did my station walk and then had a busy day with clients so was on my feet for most of the day. I reduced my calorie allowance from 1622 calories a day to 1500. I know its not a lot of difference but when the wine bottle comes out at the weekend it will be! I kept under it today by about 140 cals. I had my breakfast earlier than usual and that got me hungry for lunch and dinner earlier too. I know breakfast is the most important meal and I almost always have it, but sometimes it might be at 10am or even 11am  - mainly because I'm not hungry at 8am. I have observed that when I eat breakfast later I don't eat as much throughout the day. If anyone has any comments about breakfast please post them below :-)

Exercise
station walk burning 144 cals

Food
Breakfast
Porridge 40g oats 200ml 1% milk
Tea
Lunch
Houmous- low fat
Carrot
2 slices bread with flora
Tea
Afternoon
Banana
Tea
Dinner
Salad
Griddled Turkey breast
Couscous

Week 4- Results and Reflection

Well, this week was good on the running and walking front. The food front was OK too. I only say OK because although mynetdiary calories were under on average, throughout the week I had 2 dinners and 3 lunches out. I am very pedantic about my food diary but it is difficult when you eat out because you have to guess the weight and the ingredients used in the meal. I do try to stick to basic meals like jacket potato and baked beans or grilled chicken and fries but its not that easy in Vietnamese or Japanese restaurants or when you have cake!. So I have to guess the best I can. The wine front fell by the way side when I met up with my sister mid-week and on Friday with my nephew and girlfriend. I also had wine on Tuesday lunchtime with a friend after the all clear from the docs, Saturday evening - because its Saturday and some cider on Sunday - because I fancied it. This week however, I have no such social commitments, apart from lunch on Thursday but I will drive to that one and I have visitors over the weekend.

Now, I stepped on my scales on Thursday morning and was very excited to see I had lost another 2lbs. Unfortunately, that doesn't count because it wasn't on the right day, which is today.

Today I have PUT ON 4oz!!!! :-((

After all the exercise I have done this week too!! I must say I was a little dismayed but, and there is a big but, the thing about my Withings scales is that they measure your fat and lean mass.

My fat mass has gone down by 5oz!! :-)))


Which means I am losing fat and putting on muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat - hence the 4oz gain and it uses more energy than fat just to stay as muscle. Muscle uses fat to burn energy. So the more muscle I create the better fat furnace my body becomes -hence the 5oz fat loss. See?

I still need to address my diet though, so this week I am going to change mynetdiary settings to losing 2lbs a week and that will reduce my calorie allowance. So we will see how that goes.

Wk4 D7, Just a quickie

Just a quickie for today. I wanted to pace out a 5k route in my local park today so I could see how far it is. I do everything in miles. British roads are mapped out in miles so I don't really understand why runs are in Kilometres? Anyway so I went out with hubby in tow - someone had to carry the water - and started out on a brisk pace through the park. The sky darkened, the clouds grew heavy and suddenly we were walking into a downpour, a proper soaking downpour with big fat raindrops! Then the wind got up and we were being blustered all over the place. This venture was becoming a bit of a nightmare so we headed back to the car park at 2.45 miles just short of the 5k. I still managed to burn calories doing it, so no harm done.

Exercise
2.45 miles tracked with runkeeper burning 267 calories

Food
Breakfast
Porridge (oatmeal) 40g oats & 200ml milk
2 x Tea
Lunch
Summer rolls chicken and veg at Wagamamas
A few edamame beans
Glass of rose wine
Tea
Apple polenta cake (shared with hubby)
Dinner
Chicken salad
2 x slice bread

Wk4 D6, Today I burned off 708 Calories!!!!!

Station walk this morning    = 150 calories
Get running run wk 4 run3  = 286 calories                       =708 CALORIES !!!!!
Walk back from the run      = 272 calories

708 CALORIES! That's how much I burned today. Well, I know its not an exact science but still, good going eh?  The weather was beautiful today. We took my mum-in-law to the shops at lunchtime, we came home and went out before the midges clouded the river banks.

I had my last run of week 4 on get running to do. The back of my right knee ached a bit when I started out and I thought I should have stretched after the station walk this morning. After a minute or so it eased up. The run was good, hard, but not too much of a problem. I am still finding that my lungs give up before my legs do. I also get to a stage where I don't know whether to swallow or spit my saliva as swallowing interferes with my breathing pattern. Hubby came with me so I did the whole run without turning back for home half way. We stopped at the pub for a spritzer, stretched and did a brisk walk back home. I also remembered to take some photos on the way back to show you my river route and a little bridge I have to run over too. The bridge is little but when you are running up it it seems huge although has got easier over the weeks.

Hmmm, still learning about uploading pics from the iphone to the macbook then emailing them to me on my pc!


Exercise
I think I said enough about that now :-)

Food
Breakfast
Banana
Slice of bread
Lunch
Baked potato
Baked beans
Cappuccino
Tea
Afternoon
Handful of almonds
White wine spritzer
Dinner
Tilapei
Quinoa
Asparagus
Strawberries
prosecco

Wk4 D5, Vietnam for dinner, Italy for dessert

I was due today to do my Getrunning week 4 day 3 run but was so busy at work then straight into London for dinner and drinks again that I will have to postpone the run until tomorrow. Still, I did the station run this morning. For those of you who are new, my husband takes the car to the station, which is about 1.3 miles away, each morning to get the train to work. I then do a fast walk or run/walk to get the car before 8am when the ticket machines wurr into action. It’s good because I used to get up at 6am and take him to the station myself but that made me a little grumpy and gave me bags under my eyes. Now I’m easier to live with and have reduced eye bags, although at 42 ½ they will never truly go away without surgery! Anyway, I digress. So the run was out and the station walk was done.

This evening, we went for a Vietnamese meal in London with our nephew and girlfriend at a place called Pho cafe. I’ve never eaten Vietnamese food but they have been to Vietnam before so roughly new what they were looking for on the menu. I had Goi cuon ga for my starter which is a fantastic chicken summer roll. Having had a noodle soup at Wagamamas before and really disliked it I though I would go for the bun noodles. I chose Bun Cha Gio Ga, which is with lemon grass chicken and was absolutely delicious and very healthy. I will definitely go there again. Having had a very healthy dinner we then decided to go to Carluccios for dessert! I had a glass of Prosecco and a delicious gooseberry tart! Well, I have been good all week!

Exercise

Station walk tracked by Runkeeper of 1.32 miles burning 148 calories

Food

Breakfast

2x slices toast with a thin spread of flora light

Banana

Tea

Lunch

Houmous – reduced fat

Carrot

Breadsticks

Alpro soya chocolate dessert

Tea

Dinner

Vietnamese meal

Gooseberry tart

Wine

 

Wk4 D4, A nice day out in London

I didn't have to do the station run this morning because hubby was away last night, in fact, I slept through until 9am! Bliss!

I went to London to meet one of my sisters for lunch and a catch up. After a bit of a walk around Hays Galleria we walked across Tower Bridge to the Tower of London, not in it though, not at £19.80 per adult!!!! We stopped by a place called Yum in Leadenhall market, This was good for me because they had the nutritional info for their products. We both picked a colourful looking lentil and pomegranate seed salad, unfortunately, I got very bored halfway through mine, I think they needed to add a bit of vinaigrette or something similar as it was similar to (I would imagine) eating cardboard.

After lunch we crossed back over the river via London Bridge, you can get a great view of Tower Bridge from there, and we walked a bit further to Borough market and had a snoop around, I highly recommend this as it's a  lovely, vibrant place. We had coffee and then, as the sun was out, a couple of glasses of Rose. Later we met hubby for dinner in a pub by the river.

Exercise
Bit of wandering around


Food
Breakfast
None - I got up late
Lunch
Cardboard salad
Coffee
Afternoon
Coffee
Wine
Half a bag of mini cheddars
Dinner
Baked sweet potato
Veg chilli
Wine

Wk4 D3, Lady Ga Ga makes you go fastaaa

Now I have finally got some music on my phone the morning walks go by without too much effort. This mornings walk ended in a run and was the fastest so far. I can see myself running the whole 1.4 miles in the not too distant future!
For the first day in a couple of months it looked and felt like it was going to rain today. I didn't fancy doing my getrunning run in that so pottered in the house a bit this morning waiting to see what the sky was up to. Eventually around 11am I decided to go for it. I had clients later and needed to be washed and ready for them.I set off on my run with a bit of Lady Ga Ga blaring in my ears. The first three runs were good, they went by in a breeze. Music definitely helps because it takes your mind off the running. However,  the last 5 minute run made my thighs feel like lead. I had toast for breakfast this morning instead of the usual porridge so I don't know if that made a difference to my energy levels or maybe because of the run to the station or maybe I didn't stretch enough? Anyway, I stretched well afterwards. Hubby has energy gel sweets and suggested I have one of those but I wouldn't know how to add that to my calorie counter. Besides, they look like jelly beans and I may decide I like them too much, so no, best steer clear of those...

Exercise
Walk tracked by runkeeper for 1.33 miles burning 167 calories
Wk 4 Day 2 getrunning 16 minutes of running and 15 minutes walking fast

Food
Breakfast
2 x toast thin spread of flora light
Banana
Tea
Midmorning
Alpro soya chocolate dessert
Tea
Lunch
Houmous
Carrot
1 slice bread
Apple
Dinner
Tea
Porridge -Hubby was out tonight so I didn't have to cook!

Wk4 D2, all safe and sound

Hubby had the all clear for his lumpectomy today! That was a couple of weeks of worry. But all is well now :-)

We met a friend for lunch after our news and unfortunately it involved chips, prosecco and apple crumble! Once I added this to MyNetDiary I could see dinner tonight was going to be very limited. I didn't have the chance to add a lot of exercise as we we're out for most of the day so dinner was a cup of tea. Not a problem though because my lunch lasted for the rest of the day. A few months ago I would have had dinner too, so now I suppose the big difference is thinking about what and how much I am eating and if I really need it or if I just want it.

Exercise
Walk to the station tracked by Runkeeper  - 1.31 miles burning 154 calories

Food
Breakfast
Porridge (oatmeal)
Tea
Midmorning
Cappuccino x2
Lunch
Grilled chicken
French fries
Apple crumble
Ice cream
Prosecco
cappuccino
Dinner
Tea

Wk 4 D1,- just getting into this running lark!

I did my new get running run today which was 2 x 3 minutes then 2 x 5 minutes. I wasn't worried about the 3 minute runs having run 6 lots of them last week, but to run for 5 minutes was a bit daunting. The first 3 minutes went by without too much thought then the 5 minute run started which was OK but I found myself waiting for the voice to tell me I was half way through, which seemed to take ages. I managed it though. The second 5 minute run was hard and I had to slow to a very slow jog. There was a part about half way through where I thought I should stop and try again on Wednesday, my legs were fine to carry on but my lungs were fit to burst! But then I knew I would be dissapointed in myself so out of shear determination I battled on and did it!!! I was really really pleased with myself. I also didn't turn back for home at the half way point because I wanted to see how far the run would take me. I walked back using runkeeper to measure the distance. I also got more calories burned!
My sister lent me a runners world book which has loads of info about running and nutrition. They say that the 9th run is usually the turning point for energy and fitness and I can assure you I think thats true. I feel really ready for my runs now. I almost look forward to doing them! The weather helps of course. It's dry and sunny most days at the moment. I don't know how I will feel when it's raining.

Exercise
Fast walk with runkeeper for 3.51 miles burning 411 calories!
Get running week 4 day 1 - 16 mins running and 15 mins fast walk.

Food
Breakfast
Porridge (oatmeal) 40g oats & 200ml skimmed milk
Tea
Lunch
3 eggs scrambled
Bananaa
Tea
Afternoon
Couple of pretzels from the Italian Deli
Tea
Dinner
Homemade chilli

Week 3 - Results and Reflection

Well looking back over the week I am getting fitter and better at my running programme. In Runners World it says that usually the 9th run is the turning point in fitness and energy and I definately agree with that. My 9th run was last Friday and I feel ready to take it up a notch this week.

My eating plan with mynetdiary has been easy. Most days I am under the allocated calories. It all goes to pot when I go out for dinner, although Wagamamas on Wednesday was fine, or when wine is involved. I need to address that really.

So, having said that, my Withings scales say this week I have lost 2.4 lbs!!!!!!! Yay get me!! So, altogether thats 4.4 lbs in 3 weeks. Its a good steady amount and I am very pleased. I now have  37.4 lbs to lose.
.
Action for this week
reduce my drinking on Friday and Saturday to no more than 2 glasses of wine each evening and drink them slowly.

W3 D6&7, family visits = too much wine!

I was away for the weekend so a lot of wine was involved (as usual). Having analysed my drinking habits I realise I drink far too fast. So from now on I need to slow right down. Even though I drank gallons of calories I was good at the eating part. However, the calories from the wine topped my consumption up to and slightly over my allocated calorie amount in mynetdiary. I am not too worried about that though because during the rest of the week I was mosly under.

Weekends are generally exercise free as I don't have to do the station run and its two rest days on the getrunning programme. As I was away without hubby I didn't do any long walks either so I have no exercise to calculate.

If any of you would like a lovely weekend away in the heart of Kent then you wont go too far wrong than to visit the Spa town (my home town) of Royal Tunbridge Wells

Saturday
Breakfast
1slice wholemeal toast with Flora
Tea

Lunch
Egg mayo sandwich
2 tea

Dinner
Indian takeaway - chicken tikka, plain boiled rice, one potato from the saag aloo, one caulifower floret, salad
Wine

Sunday
Breakfast
Porridge (oatmeal)
Tea x2

Lunch
Fish cakes and salad in the pub
Lime and soda
Coffee

Evening
Houmous
Carrot
Tea x2

W3,D5, - running getting easier

The morning walk is getting very spritely I wanted to break into a run. I think I did the fastest walk this morning too! I didn’t run because I had my third getrunning run to do today. My run along the river was good today. I definately feel like I am getting into the stride of running. My legs feel tighter and my breathing is getting better. I even feel ready to run the 5 minute runs planned for next week!!

Exercise

1.36 mile walk tracked with RunKeeper at 153 calories

W3 D3 Getrunning programme

Food

Breakfast

2x Tea

2x bananas

Lunch

Weight watchers Chicken and lemon risotto

Apple

Tea

Dinner

Bread and flora
Bananas
Wine
Tea

W3, D4 – Flags!!

I am really pleased to see more flags in my flag counter. Blogger tells me I have a repeat visitor or some visitors from Germany but my flag is not recognising you for some reason, maybe you’re a spy? J I would love a German flag!

The morning march to the station was a breeze today. I am really getting into this exercise lark. I do think I need a different route though. Or at least get some music on my iPhone. I also need to upgrade my phone to a 4 so I can use more than one app at a time.

I love my withings scales too. I weigh myself at least twice a day just so I can see my graph! I’ve even tried weighing my cats on it but they won’t stay on it long enough. I’m sure the novelty will wear off soon and I will get to weighing myself once a week. I am able to put my graph right here, on my blog but until I’m happier about my weight I’m not quite ready to reveal that info just yet. As for before and after pictures, well we will have to wait until the “after” has happened.

MyNetDiary is great too. We went to Wagamamas for dinner last night and I was able to tot up my calories on my phone. It’s a shame Wagamamas don’t provide nutritional information. I wrote to them but they said they have no plans to do this. I may have to start seeking out restaurants that do. Hubby won’t mind. He wants to get his cholesterol down anyway. Its only 5.7 but he’s not happy. Really I should get mine checked. Mine was 4.3 about 4 years ago but it may have changed.

Exercise

1.33 mile walk tracked with RunKeeper  at 142 calories

Food

Breakfast

Porridge

Tea

Lunch

2 eggs, scrambled without butter, 2 toasts spread thinly with flora light

Apple

Tea

Afternoon

Tea

Banana

Quorn mini eggs x 5 munched while at the computer. There goes the mindless eating again!

Dinner

Grilled chicken breast

Salad

175 ml glass of wine

Wk3, D3. Looks like rain...

So, I did my usual morning march to the station which was good. I ran for the last bit. I felt awake this morning. After having such lovely sunny mornings though, this morning was a bit cloudy and it looked like rain. I had clients till about 2pm so wasnt going to be able to do week 3 day 2 of getrunning till later in the day. I hoped it wasn't going to rain because that would give me an excuse not to do it. Not that I am looking for excuses...

Anyway I must say I procrastinated, finding allsorts of other things to do until about 4.30pm, then the sun came out. At that point I told myself I AM going to do this today!! So I got into my running shoes and went out. I've deliberately got myself deep into this fitness and weight loss by blogging, tweeting and telling everyone on facebook each day how I am doing. I know people are following and I really dont want to embarrass myself by not achieving my goal. So, of course, I enjoyed it and by the time I finished and got back home I was really really pleased with myself, not only because I finished it but because it was actually EASIER  than the same run I did last Sunday.

Getting fitter and losing weight ALWAYS takes more effort than sitting anad eating. Its a good thing to do because it gets chemicals whizzing around in your brain with an effect thats waayyy better than chocolate or cake and has a MILLION times better side effect too!

Exercise
Walk tracked by runkeeper for 1.39 miles burning 186 calories
Week 3 Day 2 Getrunning programme
Food
Breakfast
2 x bananas
slice of bread
2 x Tea
Lunch
4x Quorn mini savoury eggs
Apple
Tea
55g smoked mackerel
Dinner
Teriaki chicken at wagamama
300ml white wine

W3 D2, back to work after lots of bank holidays, hospital dramas and the wedding of the year

I did my station walk again this morning which is almost 1.4 miles in 20 minutes. When I think back to how it was when I started this walk about 8 weeks ago I have definately improved. Its not a struggle any more, in fact, I am quite the spritley girl! Having said that my getrunning app tells me today is the 2nd run of week 3 and I dont feel like it. Partly because I did the first one a day early anyway (you're supposed to have two days rest between the weeks) and partly because, as I am now back to work, it means I would have to shower and do my hair and makeup again - doing it all once in a day is bad enough! And I did do almost 5 miles walking yesterday so I have decided that today my legs need a rest. The run will have to wait till tomorrow.

My eating today was a bit erraic and picky rather than having food on plates mainly beccause of work. I had clients dotted about the day up to 8.30 this evening.
I am really getting into mynetdiary .Its really easy to use. I am finding it a struggle to eat all the calories they allow me - which is a shock! But I think thats because its all been food at home so far. As soon as I go to a restaurant or wine is taken into account then thats where I can see my problems lie. It is a very good program to highlight all these things. I might have to insist we don't go out to eat as much as usual or I will have to choose very carefully from the menu, but that kind of takes the fun out of it though, right?

Exercise
1.36 mile walk tracked with runkeeper burning 163 calories

Food
Breakfast
Porridge made with oats 40g and 200ml 1% milk
2 tea
Banana

Lunch
2x venison pork sausages -low in fat and yumm
slice bread
Apple

Afternoon
Carrot
Low fat houmous
Tea

Dinner
2x bread with flora light
3 x quorn mini eggs
Bnana

Wk 3 D 1 - I'm all apps and gadgets these days.

I did my walk to the station this morning as usual but am finding it harder to get out of bed, because I am naturally extremely lazy and I dooo love my bed! But I had to get the car. I had no clients today so used it as my day off and got all the housework done. I'm sure that used a few calories. Hubby asked me to go for a walk with him this evening too. The weather is lovely at the moment. He usually goes for a run after work but at a little over a week after his cytoscopy he preferred to walk. So I went for a walk with him not realising he meant the route he normally runs, which is almost 4 miles! Thankfully I tracked it with my runkeeper. I got a little star for doing the farthest distance so far, awwww. :-)

I downloaded mynetdiary a few days ago to see what it was all about. It is an American site so many of the foods in their site are American brands. It would be better if they had a UK arm to the site but you can put in your own foods and recipes too. Although a bit time consuming it's worth it in the end. I reckon most people roughly eat the same stuff week in, week out so once you have added your own foods for a week it should be easier. Once you have entered your hieght, weight and target it works out how many calories you need each day. As you eat enter it into the diary and it works out the rest for you. I find it very user friendly but I am a list person. I like to enter my foods precisely and write down everything. Having done that on and off from one diet to another for most of my adult life, it's second nature to me really.

So thats one new thing this week, to start counting my calories. Another new thing was the delivery of my Withings body scale. I ordered it over a week ago so was very excited to see it arrive on my doorstep. Its a WiFi weighing scales which shows graphs of your weight, BMI, fat ratio and lean mass on your computer screen. Once I got it connected and up and running I must have stepped on it 10 times! All in different rooms to test the connection. before the loo, after the loo, before a cup of tea after a cup of tea. Its a great peice of kit! It tells me my fat ratio is 40% which is "weigh" too much (see what I did there?). It tells me I need to lose about 15% of that so its another thing to aim for. With the exercise I'm doing I hope to see that change over the coming months.

So I know use, runkeeper, getrunning, mynetdiary and my withings scales. I am also thinking about a heart monitor, but not yet... Still cheaper than a years subscription at the gym and weekly weigh-ins at slimming club. All entries on Facebook, Twitter and this blog keep me motivated too so I'm not done yet!

Exercise

RunKeeper  walks totalling 4.48 miles burning 553 calories

Food

Breakfast

Porridge

Tea x2

Lunch

Feta cheese salad

Banana

Tea x2

Dinner

Turkey breast

Couscous

Peas

Apple

Week 2. Results and Reflection

Well, I have lost another lb! Yes, only 1lb but never the less it is still going in the right direction. I now have 40lbs to lose. Yay!!

I must say I am a little disappointed what with ALL that running and walking I have been doing. I have even been very good with the afternoon snacks and the wine too. I have had a thought though, that maybe with all the walking and running I am doing I am converting the fat cells to muscle cells. We all know muscle weighs more than fat so perhaps, even though I am not losing loads I am definitely getting fitter. I can feel my legs getting stronger in the calves and thighs. To help me work this out my Withings body scale finally arrived this morning so I will be measuring my fat to lean mass ratio. I think I might have to start doing something with my arms and tummy as well.

I have sussed out that I can run both  RunKeeper and Get Running at the same time – so I can track the speed, distance and calories for my Get Running days but, unfortunately, NOT on my iPhone! I need to upgrade so will be onto Orange later about that. Yesterday I ran with two iPhones tracking me. Yes! One in each hand!!!

I have also signed up to MyNetDiary so I can track the calories I consume properly. I have spent the weekend working out how to use it so I am ready for the start this morning.

Well, with all the gadgetry I have I can’t go too far wrong and it’s still cheaper than the gym and slimming club.

Wk 2, D 7 – There’s not enough room for my lungs and this stomach. One of them has to go.

So it’s Sunday and the big thing for today is for me to start week 3 of my Get Running Couch to 5k plan. I was supposed to start it tomorrow but I didn’t want to do it on my own. There are two reasons really 1) because I didn’t want to give up half way through, which I probably would have done 2) because I was actually scared I would be sick or collapse or die or something similar. Now that would be embarrassing. Its bad enough I think everyone is pointing and laughing at me as I waddle along the tow path huffing and puffing away but if I actually collapsed as well! I expect they would have thought I deserved it for eating too much cake.

So anyway, the reason for the concern over this run is because it requires you to run TWICE for 3 minutes! I know to a lot of you that’s nothing but I assure you if you are new to running and find yourself puffing a lot after a 1 ½ minute run then it is. I know I could have redone the second week until I felt more confident but I wanted to give it a go. So I dragged hubby along with me. Not that he needed a lot of encouragement to be honest. After the 5 minute warm up I stared with the usual 1 ½ minute run which was fine. Then came the 3 minutes.  I started the run at my slow pace and found myself willing for the voice in me headphones to tell me I’ve reached the half way mark which seemed to take forever. So, I then started to focus on my wobbling bottom, thighs and tummy as I ran. Having something to focus on, other than the time, does actually make it go faster, because before I knew it I had 10 seconds left of the run! I DID IT! I was grinning from ear to ear. But I still had more to do. I then had a 3 minute walk another 1 ½ minute run and a 1 ½ minute walk again before the next 3 minute run. Plenty of time to catch my breath. The next run started and I continued to focus on the wobbly bits telling myself this is all to get rid of them. The first 1 ½ minutes was fine but then I found myself unable, it seemed, to breath deeply enough. It was as though my lungs weren’t big enough or deep enough to take in the oxygen I needed. Although, while I was thinking about this the last 10 seconds mark came up so I didn’t actually die or panic or be sick. However, at the point my lungs weren’t big enough I did start to get a sick feeling. If anyone knows the mechanics of that I would be glad to hear it. I am sure it’s to do with blood-oxygen though. Anyway, I managed the whole thing! I was really, really pleased with myself. I am now actually looking forward to the next one on Tuesday.

Exercise

Wk 3, d1 of Get Running tracked with RunKeeper including the walk back home. Used 328 calories!!!!

Food

Breakfast

2 toasts with flora pro-active light

Tea

Tea

Lunch

Glass of Rose wine

Roast Chicken pub lunch, quite big but I left some of it.

Dinner

Pasta with tuna, red peppers and a spoon of natural yogurt

Lots of water

Wk 2, D 6 –Would you mind moving a bit, I can’t see the lady with the nipple tassels.

We went to a Burlesque dinner and show in Central London last night. I bought vouchers for it through Groupon.  I didn’t really know what Proud Cabaret was. I’d never heard of it but the deal was good at £20 ($33) for a 3 course meal and a show in Central London on a Friday night. After I bought the vouchers I then looked it up. We are, to all intents and purposes, burlesque virgins, not normally something I would be that interested in, but we like new things so we gave it a go. Well! It was really, really good! The tables were waited on by knickers and corset clad young ladies and a few effeminate young men. The room was dimly lit, swathed in red velvet and chandeliers. Looking around the room there more women than men about 70/30. Some dressed in 30’s/40’s outfits but mainly just dressed up. The food was lovely although it took a while for our eyes to adjust to the light so we could see what we were eating (for the menu look at the last post). Then the show started with ladies with lots of feathers and nipple tassels, one act was very good at the hoopla spinning 6 at once on different parts of her body. Many of the acts stripped down to thin knickers and nipple tassels. The whole thing was tastefully done. The crowd were well behaved, mainly because I would say the average age was 40 something and well, we are British! Oh yes, apart from the couple at the next table, right in my eye line of the stage, who were literally all over each other from the get go. I constantly had to adjust my seat (that probably used up a few calories) so I could get a better view of the stage. The only respite was the 3 times they both left the table for about 10 minutes each time. I am assuming for the loo (bathroom) or a fag (cigarette) outside. Anyway apart from them, I highly recommend it.

So today was spent walking to the station to get the car and walking to the Italian Deli and back. We had lunch out at Giraffe I only ate half my flat bread pizza, mainly because it was too big, but well done me for paying attention to when I have had enough and putting down my knife and fork! Dinner was at home in front of the telly.

I signed up to  MyNetDiary today as well. I am still trying to find my way around it but will start with it in earnest on Monday. I am still waiting for my Withings body scale to arrive too – very excited about that one.

Exercise

2.37 miles walk to around 50 minutes tracked with  RunKeeper

Food

Breakfast

Tea

Tea

Lunch

½ Giraffe Mother Earth Flat Bread Pizza

Giddy Giraffe smoothie

Cappuccino

Afternoon

2 1/2 pretzels from the Deli. Good job the third hand in the bag brought out 1/2 a one. I thought that should be my sign to stop there!

Dinner

Meatballs

Pasta

Strawberries

2 squares of dark chocolate

2 glasses Prosecco

2 glasses white wine

Wk 2, D 5 – Howdy there Folks!

Welcome America! Nice to see my day to day life is of some interest across the pond. Leave a comment or two if you would like me to translate the food diary – I speak American too. Actually I must say I LOVE AMERICA! If I could live there I would. I did Camp America in Connecticut when I was 18, have been to New York many, many times, Florida, Baltimore, New Orleans, Boston, Cape Cod, Schenectady and recently spent Christmas in Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, San Diego, Palm Springs and Las Vegas! Phew I loved it. I just want to know one thing though. How on earth can you afford all that tipping?? Do you guys really tip as much as the tourist books tell you to?

Tipping never happens in a bar in the UK and most restaurants include a tip in the bill. As a hairdresser the best tippers are always Americans, I would say about half UK clients tip. We found ourselves tipping everyone on our travels, even the guy who just opened the door of the cab for us!!

Before I got my flag widgety thing my blogger stats show people from Australia, Canada, Ireland, Germany, Jordan and India so welcome to you guys too.

So this morning I completed week 2 of Get Running. Six 1 ½ minute runs with 2 minutes walk between. I took hubby to the station this morning so I did my run by the river which was lovely. The sun was out it was warm and not to many people about. I started off fine but the last two runs were hard. I started to get a little sick feeling in my stomach. I just had a glass of water before I went out so don’t know if I should have eaten a banana or something or not had anything at all. Anyway next week runs are two lots of 3 minutes each which, to be honest is scaring me. I might have to get hubby to come with me in case I collapse and fall in the river!

We are going out tonight and the food is a 3 course fixed menu so I didn’t eat much during the day as I knew wine would be on the agenda also.

Exercise

Day 3 week 2 of getrunning

Food

Breakfast

2 slices wholemeal toast (from a small loaf) thinly spread with butter

Banana

Tea

Lunch

Tea

Half a pot of coronation rice from Waitrose

2 biscuits

Dinner

Tomato and garlic soup

Bread

Butternut squash and goat cheese tart

Eton mess

Bottle of Prosecco

Wk 2, D 4 – Diets, I’ve tried a few….

Finding it a struggle to get out of bed in the mornings now that I have to get up by 7.15am at the latest! I love sleeping and if left to my own devices would sleep until 8.30 most mornings. Anyway its Runkeeper day today so on went the jogging gear and off I went up the road. This walk is also getting a bit boring so I am going to have to use another route to the station or put some music on. There are other ways to get to the station. I could go past all the shops – safe enough coz they are closed at that time! Or past the £2-3 million houses in a private road – safe enough coz I won’t get run over!

I also have to seriously take my eating into consideration. I may be doing more exercise than I’ve done in a very long time and can feel my legs getting stronger but I only lost 1lb last week and I really would have liked it to have been 2 or even 3lbs. We are out for dinner tomorrow night and it’s a set 3 course meal. Now I know some people might say you don’t have to have all three courses or even eat all of it but then what’s the point? I’m sure skinny people have a blow out meal once in a while. That’s the trouble with dieting really. You don’t want to ban foods coz all you do is think about them all day and don’t want to sit there with a lettuce leaf while your slimmer friends are all tucking into their death by chocolate cake!

I’ve been to Weight Watchers (many times) and Slimming World (a couple of times), I’ve calorie counted, fat counted, done the cabbage diet with somewhat violent and unsociable side effects, blood group, low carb, vegetarian the list goes on really. The only one that worked the longest was pure determination back in my late 20’s. I had a man in my sights – he was a fireman, handsome and very fit and barely noticed me so I went to the gym everyday and counted every calorie for several months until I could easily slip on size 10 – 12 clothes. He still wasn’t interested – he preferred blondes. But I felt great and I need to remind myself of that. I am happily married and have been for 9 years so obviously setting my sites on another man is a no no. I need to find my motivation. Writing this blog is good. Blogger gives you stats for page views and the numbers are going up – that keeps me motivated. Comments would be good too. I had some great comments from friends on facebook. I also need to remember that it’s a slow process, watch this space – those size 12 jeans are going to fit before the year is out.

Exercise

1.36 mile walk tracked by  RunKeeper

Food

Breakfast

Porridge – 40g oats, 200ml 1% milk

Tea

Lunch

Baked beans

2 slice toast no butter

Tea

Pear

Afternoon

Carrot

Hummus

Apple

Tea

Bits of dried fruit and nuts – I was making homemade muesli for hubby and picked at it, who wouldn’t?

Dinner

Chicken breast

Slice of bread

2 glasses wine

Wk 2, D 3 – I can run for 1 ½ minutes without collapsing in a heap!

This mornings run was hard going. I didn’t want to get out of bed. This was the first time I used the Get Running app for the station run and wasn’t sure how it was going to pan out. The run is definitely further than the station, but I did it anyway. I had to pause the run at the traffic lights and by the time I reached the car I still had 3 minutes of running and 6 ½ minutes of walking to go. I did the 5^th 1 ½ min run round the car park – dodging idiots in suits driving erratically into spaces and ignoring anyone else. It was also nearly 8am so I had to get the car out of the car park. Once I got home I finished the run down my road. I was actually sweating when I got home, this is a good sign, summer is almost here! My next Get Running run is on Friday so I am not sure what I will do for that yet. If I feel spritely I’ll get up a bit earlier and just have to take a longer route to the station. It does feel good to get it done before the day starts though. I need to work how to use two apps at once because, unfortunately Get Running doesn’t track how far, or fast I ran or how many calories I used like RunKeeper does.

Exercise

Week 2 day 2 of Get Running

Food

Breakfast

Porridge – 40g oats, 200ml 1% milk

Tea

Lunch

Chicken Sandwich

Banana

Apple

Tea

Afternoon

Hummus

Carrot

Slice of bread and butter

Dinner

Chicken

Salad

Wk 2, D 2 - Back to the station run

This morning things were back to normal. The alarm clock broke the silence at 6am. While hubby got ready for work I rolled over and went back to sleep until 7.15am.Time for me to get up, put on my running shoes and get the car from the train station where hubby had left it some 45 minutes before. The train station is about 1.3 miles from my house. We started this ritual about 6 weeks ago. I used to get up at 6am and take him but I was suffering from grumpy tiredness, so as the weather brightened in the mornings we decided this would be a good thing to do. I have to get the car before 8am as that is when the ticket machines wake up. Before I got my RunKeeper and Get Running apps I just timed myself and managed to do fast walking to walk/run/walk and got the time down from 25 minutes to just over 18minutes, but my shins really hurt. So, I got myself new trainers which are MUCH better. Now I use RunKeeper I can track the time, pace and map out the route. I find this very motivating. Getting up this morning after 10 days of lie-ins wasn’t too bad either.

Today was my food shopping day so I went with my afternoon snacks in mind, having spent last week eating mainly cake and biscuits each afternoon. So I came back with fruit, hummus and carrots. Incidentally while I was looking through the cupboards and fridge to see what we needed I came across some chocolate, a single square of which found it’s way into my mouth and a packet of prunes that hubby opened the day before, two of which popped into my mouth! I wonder if that happens to anyone else. Dinner was far too big tonight I probably had two portions because I made too much and it was yum. We bought giant pasta shells from the Italian Deli up the road so I wanted to make pasta. I thought I would look at meatballs but discovered they are very high in fat. My supermarket does very nice Venison and Pork sausages and although they were a bit more expensive they were less than half the fat and sat fat of the meatballs. So I used them instead and a pasta sauce. The packaging is all in the bin now and I am tempted to work out the calories, but that was yesterday and I think I might start calorie counting next week.

Exercise

1.25 mile fast walk with  RunKeeper  (apparently used 145 calories)

Food

Breakfast

Porridge – 40g oats & 200ml 1% milk

Tea x 2

2 dried prunes and one square dark chocolate

Lunch

2 eggs scrambled on 1 slice toast, no butter

Apple and a banana

Afternoon

Carrot

Low fat Hummus

Bread

apple

Dinner

Sausage pasta

tea