Tuesday, June 28, 2011

A long way to go

Image: Pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
After a plodding run last night I now know for sure that I have an up hill struggle to go to get ready for the Cardiff Half Marathon this autumn. Just over 5 miles at ten and a half minutes/mile were very very hard. I wasn't helped by an actual summers day with relatively high humidity, and perhaps the beginnings of a cold (the jury is out on that at the moment!). My legs felt like jelly, my lungs like they'd never been used, and my body felt extremely heavy.

I found the first three quarters of the run especially mentally extremely tough, at one point I almost convinced myself to give up and walk home via a shortcut. Happily I stuck with it and by the last mile my body felt like it was remembering what it should be doing. I haven't run 'properly' for around two months I suppose - so I shouldn't be too hard on myself. The half marathon  seems a long way off now, let alone a long way round. Best foot forward, a training plan, and a long way to go...

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Holidays not lazy days

Our holiday was great, we had grandparents come with us for a week of the holiday which helped looking after the kids. It was not the busiest of holidays, but we got on average a decent walk a day and in the main eat well (if in a little excess here and there). I was happy to get home and find that I hadn't completely ruined my start-over from just before our trip. In the spirit of the last few posts after the holiday I refresh / renew my approach and get on with the task of losing my excess weight. Buoyed by the fact that we have two very active children that I want to be able to keep up with for as long as I am able. I am keen to get them into a good relationship with sport/s and so I hope to lead by the best example I can.

Whilst away I even managed to get through two holiday books, and started into a third. This will fuel my occasional book ramblings for a little while longer. Here's hoping I've rebooted my book appetite too, haha!

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Taken my own advice

Having ruminated upon my last blog post somewhat I decided to have a start again moment. I suppose I inspired myself with my own ramblings. I have gone back to basics with food, eating sensibly, and above all avoiding random snacking. There is no rocket science behind the renewed scheme, it is just keeping it simple and doing my best not to trip myself up.

Saying 'no' to these snacks might make all the difference?
Image: Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Often I will decide that I 'need' a bar of chocolate or packet of pastilles 'just because'. It had become all to easy sometimes to sit at the PC consuming heaps of extra calories. This change alone is a significant one purely in terms of the daily balance of calories in and calories burnt. I suppose I re-identified the the worst habit in my diet and decided that if I shifted that one habit then a victory might lead on to better things. Time will tell... so far in two weeks I've dropped 7lbs at least - just showing how much those 'extra snacks' may have been controlling things!