Friday 23 August 2013

Renewed motivation.

So as you may or may not have noticed I have not blogged in over a week. I haven't really dieted or exercised in the past week either. I have put on weight and it's a bit crap. But... I turned 23!


22 wasn't the greatest year of my life, and I'm sure there's lots of things about it I could have done better. But overall I feel it was pretty much a success. I started running and ran a 5k which is pretty impressive. I think I did pretty well at spending a lot of time with the people that are important. Overall though I think I did grow up quite a lot over the past year. I think I've become more confident and a more easily social person, I think I've achieved a lot, and I feel like I'm finding my feet. 

I am feeling so good about being 23. I am going to achieve a lot and it's going to be a great year.

I have decided, I am going to lose a stone and a half before I turn 24. Note the "I am going to" not the "I want to". 

I could lose more weight than that, I could lose less weight than that. But I think that will be my happy weight. It's about the weight I was when I met my boyfriend, and it's about half a stone less than my lowest weight since I started my blog. 

It's an achievable goal in a year. I could lose half a pound a week and stay the same for a few of those and still do it, even have a few gains over e.g. Christmas. It's not a speedy weight loss, it's not a rush, it's not a race.

And I am going to stick with my blog title and do this "the lazy way". There's no point trying to work out every day for 3 weeks consecutively, there's no point going four days eating nothing but apples and chia seeds, as I swear every time I do something like this I just end up weighing more two weeks later than when I started.

I am going crawling back to Weight Watchers. I have a long and complex relationship with Weight Watchers as we know - I actually haven't stopped paying for it THIS WHOLE TIME but I haven't followed it for more than a week at once since at least February, probably longer to be honest. Weight Watchers is a good choice for me because the weekly points give me that flexibility; essentially it gives me the following options:
  • Have a totally saintly week and then be allowed to basically LITERALLY EAT WHATEVER I WANT on one day
  • Be saintly all week... and then have a weekend where I pretty much can have what I fancy, as long as I track it and don't go too insane
  • Be saintly some days and be a bit crap on others but don't have any major blowouts
  • Just be average all week
etc. 

Over the course of a year I will of course come off plan at certain points - life's too short to be on a diet at Christmas or when you've spent a huge chunk of money to go on holiday, but equally, life's too short to spend your life tunnelling fat into your arteries as well isn't it?

Across September I firmly have NO reason to go off plan whatsoever as this is going to be a very typical and 'routine' month for me with no special occasions or time off (again, except for the fact I'm casually moving house - but I can't see why this would affect what I eat.) So throughout the whole of September I am going to track everything and follow Weight Watchers. That doesn't mean I can't have fun on the weekend or go to Nando's - I just need to use my weekly points! Last year I went through pretty much all of the autumn religiously on Weight Watchers and had no problems, so I don't see why this year should be any different. We are talking FASCIST approach to Weight Watchers hear - weigh everything, if you can't track it don't eat it, etc. I feel like Weight Watchers is good for me as it helps me develop a positive relationship with food - the only time I have ever got anywhere near approaching 5 a day is when I have followed Weight Watchers. 

So on Sunday I'm going on holiday for a week, and I'm not going to track when I'm on holiday. But I return on a Sunday afternoon with just enough time to plan obsessively for a full week on Weight Watchers starting Monday 2nd September. No excuses. Let's do this.

And as for exercise - I am going to carry on with my love of running. I want to run a 10k at some point when I am 23 - I am eyeing up the BUPA 10,000 (and not just because it's in May so is ages away, honest). However, I am not going to track activity points on Weight Watchers. In fact, I am going to try my best to think of running as an entirely separate thing, and not even related to losing weight, as I am a bit guilty of "I've been for a run so can eat WHATEVER I WANT" syndrome. Running isn't about weight loss for me, it's about achievement of goals and about freedom, so I'm going to think of it separately. However no worries, I will continue to blog about running! 

It sounds mental but I am really feeling good about this as I feel like I am finding myself, knowing who I am and knowing where I am going. And now I KNOW this is what I want. I feel like this time I could work. I feel like I am doing this for new reasons and with a new approach.


So thanks for reading and I will be back in touch in September. And hopefully this time in a year I'll be writing a success story. x 




Wednesday 14 August 2013

WIAW #2

Well I am on holiday from work this week and I am loving it. I love being a bit more chilled and having more time to get on with things. However, today is a far from exemplary day for food but I said I would be honest so I am going to.

I didn't exercise today but I don't feel guilty about it. I have worked out the past five consecutive days and my calves were beginning to scream for a break, and I don't want to do myself an injury after all. But it's back on that wagon tomorrow!

8.45am - breakfast

Special K red berries with semi skimmed milk

I actually had a super healthy breakfast planned to share with you guys today - all week I've been having yogurt with fruit and nuts. But the strawberries had gone all mouldy so I improvised with the contents of my parents' kitchen...

9.30am - cup of caramel coffee with semi skimmed milk


I stole the coffee from my sister (if you're reading this - apols). Had quite a productive morning, helped my mum with lots of bits on the computer and then tuned up my grandad's laptop for him (can you tell who the IT wizard is in the family?) Amazingly though I didn't get dressed until right before lunch, which is of course compulsory during annual leave.


1.15 - Lunch
2/3 of a portion of Weight Watchers one-pot carbonara
French bread

The other day I made this carbonara from a recipe in Weight Watchers magazine. It was amazing at the time. We had 2 portions left over and mum, me and sister split it between the 3 of us with some nice French bread.


Olives (some in spicy sauce, some with garlic and mushroom, some with feta)

Mum and I LOVE olives so I picked these up yesterday when I went to visit stalls at our local folk festival, Folk Week. These were delicious, we shared about half of the punnet and are saving the rest for now. I could eat nothing but olives for a week and be so happy (the olive detox?!)

Coconut ice

This is a tiny piece, seriously! Badly scaled photo! Also picked up some of this from the fudge stall in Folk Week. I seriously love coconut.

Viennese whirl 

And to top off that veritable feast of a lunch, another sugary baked good.

During the afternoon Mum and I went out to run some errands around town. We saw a dress and shoes I fell in love with for my holiday and Mum treated me to them as it's my birthday next week so already lovely. I also bought two more Barry M Gelly nail varnishes for my ever expanding collection and some sea salt spray to at least vaguely attempt to get some kind of nice beach hair on holiday. I am not a beauty blogger but regardless check out Barry M Gelly in 'Lychee'. I love it!

Barry M Gelly nail varnish in 'Lychee' - £3.99 (NOTE- did not consume)

8.45pm - Dinner

BBQ chicken and bacon pizza 

I know, I know, this doesn't really scream FITBLOG but oh well. I ate with my sister when she got home from work. We each had 3 slices of this and the other 2 are earmarked for yet another leftover lunch.

Then...

Sugar ring donut

I know, I know - could I be any more of an unhealthyness cliche? My sister brought them home from work. In her own words "My colleagues were surprised I chose the ring donuts as they are not filled with anything, but all I could say was that they are filled with happiness". Fair enough.

I can't really say anything good about today's eats, but one day you will read a WIAW from me and it will be full of chia seeds and quinoa, and that day is unlikely to be during August as let's face it my birthday month containing 2 separate holidays was always a bit of a write off. I have NOTHING going on in September - no birthdays, no time off, no special events, nothing (apart from the fact I'm casually moving house and all but...) so during September I will be on the wagon big time, just in time for the new academic year!

See you on Friday for weekly summary goodness....

X







Friday 9 August 2013

Weekly Summary #1

As I weigh in on Fridays I thought it might be a good day to do a summary of the last week and my progress on this day.

Well the past week has been a bad week for food - two takeaways and two meals out, none of which were particularly health conscious. I've found myself reaching for unhealthy snacks right left and centre and have pretty much eaten my weight in cheese. 

On the contrary, I have had a GREAT week for exercise, as Ellie Goulding likes to cheerfully remind me on the Nike app. I have literally stuck to running every other day and have MADE the time to do so, even when things have spontaneously come up:


As you can see, I have not ran far, or fast. But I don't mind, as I feel I am finally getting somewhere again, and next time I am ready to move on to 2.5 miles.

So the good week of exercise has been quite good damage control for the horrific week of food and when all was said and done I only gained 0.3lb.  I wouldn't say I'm happy with that figure but I'm certainly not disappointed given the burgers, ice cream, pizza, roast dinners, etc - I've been lucky.

This week is my holiday from work. I am spending the whole week at my parents' house but I am going to be out a LOT - there is a local folk festival which is a HUGE thing down here. So my challenge will be to try and eat healthily and keep up the running amongst all of the upheaval and shaking of routine. Not easy.

Next week I'd really love to see a loss as the week after is my birthday week! I don't want August to be a TOTAL write off.

To end this summary here is my favourite Pinterest pin of the week:


I don't know if that quote is at all genuine but it is so true. When I ran a 5k race I was doing something I previously thought impossible. And that is what will happen to me again when one day I run a 10k.

Much love and hope everyone has a great week!

Wednesday 7 August 2013

WIAW #1

Well all I've posted about recently is exercise so I thought I'd jump in and join in on What I Ate Wednesday so I could comment a little on food.
I've known subconsciously for a while my diet has not been great and has been a bit unbalanced. Writing this post has helped me to realise how bad this has gotten and how badly I need a shake-up... But anyhow here we go.

7.45am - breakfast
Golden Syrup Oat So Simple sachet, quarter pint of skimmed milk, topped up with boiling water

Cup of coffee with skimmed milk 

I am doing shorter hours at work at the moment so don't have to get up quite so early. Even so I don't think I've been getting enough sleep as I'm so tired in the mornings. 
This is the first day I've had porridge in ages as usually I've had yogurts for a few weeks.

9am

Small skinny latte with sugar free caramel 

I was still so tired so grabbed more caffeine and sugar to fuel me as I started work.

12pm

Warburton sandwich thin
Brie
Pepperoni

Weight Watchers Jaffa cake bar

I was STARVING by this point which was great as I'd made myself the world's smallest sandwich. After I ate this I was already hungry an hour later.

4.15pm - pre run snack 

130g Natural yogurt
30g Trail mix
Teaspoon of honey

I wanted a decent snack before my run as I was starving and it's not a good idea for me to run on an empty stomach (as I have learnt time and time again). This was nice (and actually healthy!). I might start having it for breakfast.

4.30pm- run
2.25 miles today. It didn't go terribly but I'd be lying if I said it was easy so I'm going to repeat this distance next time.

6.30pm - dinner
Olives

1/4 chicken
Chips with peri peri salt
Side salad
Halloumi cheese

Toffee ice cream


As you can see dinner was a veritable feast at Nando's. My second Nando's in as many days. God.


....

So what have I learnt from today?

1. I don't eat anywhere NEAR as much fruit and veg as I should be. Back when I was on Weight Watchers I'd always get my 5 a day but now I've barely had 1.
2. I am not managing my food well enough and am hungry at all the wrong times leading to over-eating at other times.
3. Running makes me hungry.
4. Ridiculously small sandwiches with unhealthy fillings do not a good lunch make.

Food for thought eh? Let's hope for a better WIAW next week!








 

Monday 5 August 2013

5 new things about today's run

1. Dinosaur socks


I'm not a big 'socks' person due to my lifelong fear of wearing trousers (I really hate the way I look in trousers and nearly always wear a dress. Fact). (In my day to day life that is. Obviously I don't run in dresses). But I saw loads of cute socks £1.99 for 3 in Primark and I thought it might cheer me up when getting ready to exercise. It did!


2. Water bottle
Ever since my Grandad had to pick me up from running last week when I thought I was going to faint my family have been insistent that I always take water when running. I thought I would buy a bottle just for the purpose. Hot pink and easy to carry, it does the job it says on the tin.

3. Running in the pouring rain
To say my run today was during a heavy shower is an understatement; this rain was truly BIBLICAL, I was totally drenched, people with umbrellas were looking at me like I was mad. But you know, it wasn't all bad, it kept me cool and incentivised me to run a bit faster... I think I do need to get myself some wet weather running gear ready for autumn though!

4. Using an armband
I have an iPhone 4 and I use it for both GPS and music when I run (and emergency phone calls to grandparent to save me but there you go). Today as it was extremely heavy rain I didn't want to break my phone so whipped out a running armband to keep it dry. This worked fine but the only problem was it messed with my speed stats a bit as I couldn't easily pause the run when at traffic lights, but we live and learn.

5. Color run!


I've not been using the Nike app for that long so was thrilled to get to the 'orange' level today! I only ran 2 miles as I'm only taking it slow but now I'm at a higher level I feel more like a proper runner! I love the Nike app and will write about it at length soon.


After my worries that the pox had destroyed my running forever, I'm feeling back on track again and I'm within the routine of running every other day. I'm still going crazy short distances but my new philosophy is that every time it feels easy, the next run I increase 0.25 miles. It's going well so far. I just want to get back up to being easily able to knock out a 5k before my holiday so in September I can really get started on training for a 10k. 

The best thing is I'm loving it again, look forward to my runs and feel great about them afterwards. I never knew exercise could be something I enjoyed until I started running.

I know it feels like all I chat is running recently but I'm planning on starting joining in on #WIAW (What I Ate Wednesday) so keep your eyes peeled for some food-type posts!

Thursday 1 August 2013

August goals

I want to start setting myself monthly goals in various categories in an attempt to try to a) blog more and b) gain focus. So here we go for August.

General weight loss
Josh and I are off on an all inclusive holiday to Tunisia in the final week of August. All inclusive sounds pretty dangerous and I certainly don't intend to exercise when I am there. August also happens to be both mine and Josh's birthday month AND I have another week holiday from work too (which will be a seaside staycation). So I think any weight loss this month is a little overrambitous. However, I don't want to put on heaps of weight either - so my goal is to start September weighing no more than 3lbs more than I started August. So basically, be good most of the time before I go on holiday, and when I'm there try not to go TOO crazy.

Food
For the entirety of August I am going to give up morning snacking. Afternoon snacking is a bit different as the gap between lunch and dinner is wider and sometimes involves a workout but there is no point really to morning snacking and I can definitely go between breakfast and lunch without any sugary treats.

General fitness
Apart from when I'm abroad, I want to get in at least 3 workouts every week for the duration of August. These will probably all be running... Let's face it, I'm a running addict and not a huge fan of most other exercise... But they do not HAVE to be running.

Running
Complete a full 5k with no walk breaks. Sounds easy as I've done it loads of times now but as I referred to in my last post 'the pox' has really knocked my fitness but I want to get it back up to scratch ready for some 10k training.

General health/well being 
Drink two litres of water every day. I don't drink anywhere near enough water - I'm a diet fizzy drink addict and also love my coffee.

Blogging
Write at least one blog every week, apart from when on holiday.



Wish me luck! I'll review and set some more in September.