For my kids

Autumn is just around the corner - the days are still warm, but there's definitely a chill in the air.  The blackberries and elderberries have started ripening and some of the leaves have started to turn.  I love this time of year.  I'm looking forward to my autumnal weekend runs where I can take in the beautiful scenery.

Today, I took my daughter out for a walk.  We walked just over three miles and though I had to bribe her with a new magazine, she didn't complain and kept pace the whole time.  We even broke into a jog three times.  It didn't burn as many calories as my Jillian Michaels DVD, but it was totally worth it.  I've mentioned before that my kids are like chalk and cheese.  Josh is crazy about sports, always active and he loves it.  Verity generally doesn't like sports, she would happily sit and watch TV all day and not be active at all - plus she loves food.  All of this put together means that I have an overweight child.

Verity has always had a bit of a tummy since she was quite young, but in the last couple of years the "little tummy" has expanded.  In addition to not being very active, she does overeat and this is something that I really struggle with trying to control.  She's 10 years old now and much more independent.  She will regularly go into the kitchen and help herself to food.  It's got to the point now where I don't buy anything that she can snack on.  However, she will still find something - a piece of bread, a piece of fruit, yogurt, etc.

I guess because I feel like now I've got control over my own overeating and my own lack of doing any physical activity that my next priority should be to make sure my kids are as healthy as possible. I know how it feels to be overweight and to just have no energy.  Verity is 10 years old and should have bags of energy - yet today when we went on our walk she was struggling to keep pace.  She should be running circles around me, but instead I was holding her hand in order for her to keep up with me (and I wasn't going particularly fast).

Although I was never overweight, I was teased and bullied as a child (and a teenager!).  We moved to a small town when I was 9 years old and I just never fit in - I guess everyone's way of dealing with me was to tease me.  My nickname in high school was "the freak".  It hurts a lot being different and there were times when I was in high school when I thought about taking my own life.  I don't want my kids to go through anything even remotely similar.  We are blessed in that our kids go to a private Christian school with small class sizes and thankfully Verity hasn't yet been teased about her weight.  But I'm very aware that as the kids get older and start to go through puberty that things could change.  Not only that, but Verity will be more aware of how she looks and I want her to be a confident young lady!

So - this is my mission.  Having discovered for myself how to lose weight and get fit, I'm now focusing my attention on my daughter.  This explains one of my autumn goals - making breakfast for my kids everyday.  I want to teach her healthy habits - breakfast is not a time to have a big bowl of cereal, then a piece of bread, then a pot of yogurt - it's about having a wholesome, healthy start to the day in a right portion size.  In addition to a healthy breakfast, I'm stopping the needless snacking.  This one is going to take some discipline (and hearing like a bat! sometimes she will sneak into the kitchen and eat something while she's in there - I can hear rattling of packaging, so I know she's eating something!).  

I also want her to find an activity that she enjoys.  At her age, she needs to have fun - heck we all need to have fun with whatever exercise we do!  I don't want to force her to do an activity that she doesn't enjoy - but she must get some regular exercise.  And this is where some good family time can come into it - if we find an exercise that we can all do as a family.

This is going to be a learning curve.  It's one thing getting yourself motivated to lose weight - but it's a whole different story motivating a child.  I haven't shared this before because I've been working through in my own mind about how I can tackle it.  I would be really grateful if anyone reading this has any constructive suggestions on how to help.  I love my kids so much and want them to be happy, healthy people.  

Healthy Living Freed Me From My Life of Lethargy

I have not lost the plot (well…), whilst I know it’s not Tuesday, today I’m joining Healthy Living Blogs’ Healthy Living Tuesdays where the subject is “Healthy Living Freed Me From…”.  I wish there were one single word I could insert at the end of that sentence that could encompass how much healthy living has changed me, both physically and mentally.

Many of you know that when I started my weight loss journey in January this year, I weighed 240 pounds.  It was nearly my all time heaviest weight.  I was sluggish, exhausted and yawning constantly, had zero energy, my skin suffered greatly and I fought constant acne breakouts on my face (while other areas of my skin, such as my legs, were so dry and itchy).  I also had horrible bouts of low blood sugar, which caused me to binge uncontrollably.  I knew that I not only wanted to lose weight and improve my appearance, I also wanted to get healthy.

Me at nearly 240 pounds

Part of my problem came from an undiagnosed adrenal fatigue condition (you can read more about that here).  I went to see a naturopath in London who prescribed natural supplements that would correct this imbalance.  This helped greatly with improving my energy levels and I now also no longer suffer with low blood sugar. 

Regarding my diet - I had previously followed the principles of the GI & GL Diets and knew that the science behind them was just good common sense – eat healthy, whole, nutrient rich foods – feel fuller for longer.  Whilst I haven’t followed either the GI or the GL to the letter, I do employ a lot of the principles in choosing what foods I eat on a daily basis.

I also started looking at the ingredients of what I was eating in much more detail.  A lot of so called “low fat” or “low sugar” foods are actually stuffed with artificial sweeteners or E numbers – thankfully I’ve never been one to rely on artificial sweeteners, but the thought of eating foods (or serving these types of foods to my children) really made me feel sick. 

I switched from sugar to Xylitol – this is a natural alternative to sugar that is not only lower in calories than sugar, but it also doesn’t create the spike in blood sugar and is even suitable for diabetics (most importantly to me, it has no aftertaste)!  I also changed my normal breakfast cereal to a low GL granola (Lizi’s) with all natural ingredients.  My standard lunchtime sandwich has been replaced with lentils, couscous, pasta, salads and low fat fish.  I’ve also kicked my soda habit (having switched to sparkling water instead).

The results have not just been confined to weight loss!  I’ve enjoyed a massive improvement in my complexion (no more acne – woohoo!), an annoying hoarse voice that plagued me previously is now gone, my energy levels have come on leaps and bounds, I no longer struggle with sluggishness and feeling tired – all this combined means that I can enjoy life to the full now!  Even more importantly – by improving my energy levels, it also means that I can enjoy my new found passion of running!

So, to finish that sentence: Healthy Living Free Me From my life of lethargy.  My life has not only changed for the better because I feel better about how I look and have more energy, but I can also be a better mother to my children, and crucially, set a healthy example for them to follow.

Decisions

First off be sure to check out my guest post today over at Half Size Me.  Thanks to Heather for giving me the opportunity to share my story ;).

I was trying to decide whether it would be better to run today and have a rest day tomorrow (the day before my race), or have a rest day today and run tomorrow - but I think my evening meal has made that decision for me!  I made one of my favourite low cal main courses - Goan Prawn Curry.  I've added the recipe to my recipes tab and really recommend it - it's quite spicy but can be calmed down for little ones, if needed.  Trouble is - a belly full of curry and rice doesn't sit well with an evening run :(.  I actually think it would be better to run tomorrow anyway - a sort of "warm up" before the race on Friday.

My kids go back to school on Monday, so tomorrow I have a day off tomorrow and plan to try to get everything organised then.  My son needs new trainers and I'm sure they both need various bits of stationery - so I will doubtlessly be traipsing around all those shops!  I'm determined this year to not be the disorganised mother!  We shall see how long that lasts and I'm sure I'll be complaining on here about something I've forgotten or something that has been misplaced!

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After my post yesterday, I've been doing a little research about the gym near where I live and have found that it's £37 per month for all activities (or £33 for one activity - which would mean that I could ONLY go to the gym, I couldn't do any of the fitness classes, or swim).  In the whole scheme of things, £37 per month for the gym, here in England anyway, it darn right cheap.  Most gyms charge £50 upwards per month and many of them don't have pools or fitness studios.  So, I suppose it is good value for money.

Source

By comparison, your average treadmill costs in the region of £400-600 and some of those don't even have an incline!  Plus, I started thinking that my track record with personal gym equipment has not been the best.  First - there was the rickety old exercise bike (and the freezing cold garage in winter), then there was the mediocre cross-trainer.  I'm sure there was a rower in there somewhere too...  All of them were either consigned to the scrapheap, or sold on eBay for a small percentage of what I paid for them. Paying monthly for a gym membership, that I can literally cancel during the summer months when I love exercising outside, definitely seems to be the way to go.

I appreciate this is quite a stark contrast to my previous post, No Gym Membership Required, and I don't mean to be a hypocrite here.  My main reasons for hating the gym have been motivated by saving money and not feeling that I have to compare myself with others.  Somehow I'm going to have to overcome that last one!  As mentioned in yesterday's post, I really don't want to give myself any excuses for stopping running simply because there's not enough daylight!

Guest post from Fighting the Fat - Finding the Right Mix...self talk

This guest post comes from my very good friend Mandie, who blogs over at Fighting the Fat.  Mandie and I grew up together - we were best friends in high school and she is the only friend who I've managed to consistently keep in touch with all these years since leaving the USA.  

Me and Mandie on graduation day, 1994

Mandie has lost an amazing 75+ pounds and is such an inspiration to me!  Her post proves that it takes a lot of hard work and determination every single day not only to lose weight - but to keep it off for good...

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After losing 75+lbs and still not being at goal you would think one would have the determination and motivation to bust butt and finish the race.  Yeah, me too.  Unfortunately that has not been the case for me and my weightloss journey with 30’ish more pounds to go.  

At my heaviest weight - 233 lbs

Honestly, I still struggle every day, even after losing the weight 7 years ago.  It becomes an everyday battle of making the right/healthy choice.  To make myself workout, when all your workout buddies have fizzled out and you go alone.  It’s depressing when you regain weight you thought was gone forever…and you don’t even know how it happened.  A few missed workouts leads to a week.  A few bad meals or drinks turn into more and more every day.  Then before you know it you’re struggling to eat right and make yourself workout.

Yes my friends, I struggle EVERY DAY.  I wish I could say that it was easy.  And, at times it IS easy.  But once you let yourself slide back, it’s brutal to get back into the groove with the right habits..  This is me right now.  Since the start of 2012 I have regained about 14lbs.  I’m at an unhappy place/weight.  I miss workouts, when I used to go EVERY day.  I let the weekends get the best of me with my eating, and most times they flow over to the next week.  But then when I get on the scale every Thursday, I hate it.  I remember a time when I consistently went to the gym and eating the right things was easy.  I wrack my brain trying to figure how did I get here, and how do I get back? 

Well, for starters, I have to accept that I am not perfect, and cannot be.  That’s the first thing with everything.  I have to let go of the past, of the history associated with my ups and downs.  I have to just tackle it.  Take a deep breath and KNOW I can do it.  Believe in it….believe in me!!!!

And this…this is my reminder I must look at every day, it will help me remember....

I SEE PROGRESS WHEN….

I have a weekly menu and abundance of healthy foods in the fridge

Workout at lunch

Run and other cardio (running makes my legs shapely!)

Do Strength Training 3 times/week

Log my food intake

CHUG WATER

OTHERWISE I WILL…..

Eat crap, sometimes even waste money on eating out

Eat in the lounge at lunch (work “break room) with co-workers and never feel satisfied/full with what I bring to eat

Stop running for months and skip workouts

Have to go back to square one to tone my flabby gut, butt and arms

Think in my mind I’m doing okay…when in fact I snack here and there and am not honest with myself (fail!)

Don’t drink anything…get dehydrated and feel hungry!

This all leads to me not seeing any progress and feel discouraged, unhappy and depressed with myself.  Physically feel cruddy too!

But I must remember, I’m human.  I’m going to slip up.  The inner cupcake loving fat girl will try to resurface.  And she may even do it for a little while, maybe even for 6 months.  But deep down I know I’m happier the other way and that I will do everything in my power to get back to the right place.  I will find that right mix and move forward….again.  The main goal is to never go back to that unhappy 233lb woman.  Yeah, I never will be her again.     

Guest Post from Back at Square Zero

When I started thinking about incorporating some guest posts onto my blog, literally the first person who came to mind was Abby!  I've been following Abby's blog for a month or so now and was inspired by her determination with running and adopting a new, healthier lifestyle.  I'm sure you'll be inspired by her story too...

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Hi guys, I'm Abby and I normally blog over at BackatSquare0, but am extremely excited to be here with you all today.  My blog focuses on my story of learning to live healthy.  One of the biggest steps along this journey has been getting active and learning to be consistent with my exercise.  I discovered I actually enjoy running (most days) and set a goal - to turn myself from the girl who couldn't even run to her own mailbox into a marathon runner.  I'm currently training for my second, the Marine Corp Marathon, this October in DC. 

One thing I have noticed happening  a lot lately is the discussion on what makes someone a runner.  I have reflected on this on many runs and wanted to share with you what makes me feel like a runner and let you see if these apply to you too.

Top 5 Reasons to Feel Like a Runner:

5. You Skip Activities to Run - Friends are shocked when they call and ask you to a movie, brunch, etc. and you say "Sorry, I've got a run."  They wonder why you don't just skip it and think you're a bit crazy.  However, sticking to your running plans makes you feel good about yourself as a runner. 

4. You Have Run in Pouring Ran, Freezing Cold, or Blazing Hot - Miserable isn't it?  It you have pushed through any of this you're a runner for sure.

3. You Desperately Want to Stop, but Don't - Every fiber of your body is exhausted, or bored, or just over it, and all you want to do is stop and walk, but you don't you keep running.  Now that's a runner!

2. You Set Running Goals - Whether it is your first 5K or marathon, a new race PR, or new running workouts you find that you suddenly have running related goals.  Only runners set running goals, looks like you're a runner. (To PR MCM is my next big goal.)

1. You Run! - This is the biggest and most important one.  Do you run?  Then guess what… You're a runner!  It doesn't matter if you run a sub six minute mile or a fifteen minute mile.  If you’re an Olympic runner or tackling your very first 5K.  I've got great news for you - We are all runners!  So rejoice in the fact that you are a runner and do your best to encourage and praise all the other runners you know. 

I'd love to hear about your journey.  If you ever have any questions, need motivation, or just want someone to brag to about how you stuck to your goals please let me know.

Abby

Please feel free to connect with me:

Twitter/Instagram: @BackAtSquare0 

Follow my blog at: http://backatsquarezero.com

Facebook it: http://www.facebook.com/BackAtSquare0

Follow me on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/BackAtSquare0

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/BackAtSquare0

Email me: BackAtSquareZero@gmail.com

I'm such a loser!

I wanted to just do a very quick post today because I had a sneaky midweek weigh in this morning and discovered that I'm firmly OFF the plateau and back onto a losing streak - WOOOHOOO!  I'm down another 2.3 pounds and I'm SO excited because this means I'm finally out of the 190's!

There are three factors that I can attribute this loss to:-

1. I haven't had any Pimm's this week
2. I have upped my calories to 1632 allowed per day.  I'm still struggling to reach this most days, however I'm averaging between 1450-1600.
3. I've been having a Click Protein shake every day at about 3pm

About Click... It really is not 'clicking' with me, but I'm drinking it more out of necessity than anything.  I struggle with mid-afternoon energy dips and also felt it would be a good way of getting a few more calories and a lot more protein into my diet.  I'm now on the lookout for a good plain chocolate flavoured protein shake because I'm not loving the Mocha flavoured Click.  It's a shame because I did think that a mid afternoon iced Mocha would be lovely, but I just can't get used to the flavour!

Today has been a fab day with that weigh in this morning, but I'm very worried for my virtual 5k race tomorrow because my throat is seriously feeling itchy and scratchy, so I hope I'm not coming down with something!  I'm due to run again this evening and will see how I feel afterwards before I decide whether or not to go through with the 5k race tomorrow.

So, I have been thinking about goals recently.  I think I mentioned previously that I had a goal to walk 500 miles so my sister in law could sing that song by The Proclaimers to me!  Well, I'm going to do it!  I'm up to 178 miles for the year already, which leaves 322 left.  There are 21 full weeks left in the year which works out at 15.33 miles per week - or just over 2.5 miles per day with a day's rest.  Between my regular walking and running I think this is wholly achievable - so this is my goal for the end of 2012!

I know Melinda at Does This Scale Make Me Look Fat has set some goals for August - you can read about them here.  What are your goals for the remainder of the year?

The Flitch Way

I went a little bit fitness mad today!  I did a 4.8 mile walk with the kids, followed by a 2.7 mile run when I got home!  More on the run later, but first - the walk!  I took the day off work to entertain the kids, so we drove about 40 minutes north to a town called Takeley to walk part of a path called "The Flitch Way".  This path has fascinated me from the moment I stumbled across it in one of my daughter's homework books.  Basically, it is named after something called "The Flitch Trials", an ancient tradition taking place in a nearby village every leap year where married couples - who can prove that they've been happily married for a year and a day - compete to win the trial and a "flitch" (or a side of bacon)!  I so loved the thought of this kind of tradition, that I've desperately been wanting to visit the path ever since!

The path itself is a disused railway line and goes from Takeley 15 miles east ending in Braintree.  As much as I would have loved to have attempted the full 15 miles, there's the small matter of getting back to your car, etc, - not to mention the fact that walking 15 miles in one day is a pretty big ask, even for a mega-fit person!  It actually took some patience to find the start of the path anyway because the "station" in Takeley is tucked behind houses, not sign posted from the road, so I had to do a wee bit of digging and take quite a few wrong turns before we eventually found it!  When we arrived, we noticed that the old train station is now council offices and there was a meeting taking place as we walked past the front door!  A very nice man came out and said we looked a bit lost, could he help us.  I told him we were looking for the Flitch Way and he directed us to an opening in the fence behind the station where you can access the trail.  He asked which direction we were heading, I told him we were going east towards Great Dunmow, but he recommended heading west which would bring us to Hatfield Forest - he said it was a much more interesting walk, so we decided to take his advice!

The start of our walk, Takeley old station is on the right

Me and Verity at one of the "stations"

This was sweet - a swing on a rope at the end of someone's garden

The fabulous thing about the trail is that it's very well maintained, mostly flat and very quiet.  A beautiful canopy of trees covers most of the path, so when it started raining about 30 minutes into our walk, it provided much needed cover!  We walked for about two miles before dropping down into the forest briefly.  There was no distinguishable path in the forest and I was worried about finding our way back to the main path, so I decided we should just re-trace our steps.

When we got back to the car, I decided to drive a few minutes to a pretty little village called Hatfield Broad Oak that we had driven through on the way.  It was a typical old English village with a beautiful stone church and crooked old buildings.  We wanted to find a tea shop to have a nice cup of tea (or coffee for me!) and a slice of cake, but apparently the only thing people in Hatfield Broad Oak like to drink is alcohol because there were two pubs and not a single tea shop!

Crooked old archway in Hatfield Broad Oak

Crooked old house

Frustrated, we started walking back to the car and Josh said "this village stinks", just very matter of fact!  It was SO funny!  An ice cream from the only shop in the village made up for it, though!  All in all it was a good day - I'm glad I finally got to see the Flitch Way and hopefully one day we will go back and do much more of it.

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So, the reason I went a little bit mental today with my exercise is because I'm in a hurry to bring my running up to speed for Saturday.  A bit slow on the uptake, I noticed that Adam at The Boring Runner is hosting a virtual 5k race on Saturday called Sweat your Thorns Off 5k! Basically, anyone can join in and you just run 5k where ever you want!  He's got some wicked prizes up for grabs too!  I thought I would join in because I'm running a 5k race at the end of August and if I run the whole 5k on Saturday, it will be a good benchmark for me.

I repeated session 2 of my 5k training today so walked 5 minutes, ran 3, walked 3 and then proceeded to run the whole way home.  Walkmeter stopped counting after 25 minutes - but I reckon it was more like 27-28 minutes in total.  The run was fine - it was a bit hard going, but I figured that was due to my long walk earlier in the day, and the heat (it was HOT today!).  Now the only thing standing in my way is finding a 3.1 mile route!  I added a bit extra to my usual loop, but it only seemed to add about 0.20 of a mile - making the total about 2.7 miles.  My Walkmeter has a programme where you can set distance - so basically you tell it you want to run 3.1 miles and it will tell you when to stop.  I think I'll just have to do this on Saturday and hope I can find a bit more distance somewhere!

Well, that was my very busy, very active day!  Wish me luck for the race on Saturday!

Conquering the plateau

I'm not loving my scales at the moment.  I'm on a plateau.  From previous posts you'll all know that I'm not a plateau girl - I like the challenge of climbing a mountain, not standing around on the flat!  My weight actually went up by 0.7 pounds since last week and I'm struggling to understand how this could happen.  I mentioned in a previous post that I really struggle drinking enough water, so understand this could play a part in the weight not coming off.  I have now been making a conscious effort to drink more water each day and hope I can stick to it.

Another possible factor recently is my serious addiction to Pimm's and Lemonade.  This is my summer drink of choice and I would go so far as to say that I'm a Pimmsaholic.  It's about 85 calories for a glass - ish and lately I've been having one a day.  The biggest problem with this, aside from the alcohol content, is the sugar in the lemonade.

In England 'lemonade' is like Sprite or 7UP - it's a carbonated drink and is quite often used as a mixer.  Our summer had thus far been such a wash out with loads and loads of rain that I hadn't been craving Pimms until a couple of weeks ago when I had a party and bought two big bottles of the stuff.  Of course I used a smidgen at the party and am now left with the remainder in my house, calling my name every night!

So, here are two obvious factors for my weight not shifting.  The other possible problem could be that I'm not consuming enough calories.  I seriously struggle with this because my brain automatically flips out when I even think of eating more than 1500 calories a day "Are you crazy?  You'll gain weight!"  Even though my actual caloric needs for weight loss are 1623 per day!  Somehow I just can't get my head around eating more to weigh less!  Having said that, I struggled with a plateau in May and when I increased my calorie consumption, sure enough the weight started to drop again.

I suppose it's even more difficult because when I started losing weight back in January, I put myself on a very strict 1200 calorie per day limit.  So now, of course, anything higher than 1200, seems like I'm overeating!  In retrospect, I would definitely not recommend starting off with such a low calorie intake because moving forward from that - as I'm discovering - is exceedingly hard!

The final factor which may be playing a part in the scales not budging is my exercise.  Aside from my 5k training programme, which consists of 3 sessions per week, I've not truly been pushing myself as I should with exercise.  I've been for a few lunchtime walks and done a few sessions of 30 minute aerobic DVD's at home - but nothing that is pushing me to the limit.  Ultimately, if I want to see drastic results, I need to make drastic changes!

On Sunday night I decided to try another Jillian Michael's DVD called Shred it with Weights.  I bought this because I was intrigued by kettlebells and I wanted a workout that incorporated some weight training.  When I did the workout on Sunday, all I had was a dumbbell (which Jillian says is fine), however at the end I didn't feel as if I'd had a really good workout.  So, on Monday night I borrowed a friend's 5kg kettlebell and tried it again - flip what a difference!  By the end of the 30 minutes I was seriously sweating like a pig and felt as if I had really pushed myself, so I would definitely say that this workout definitely needs a proper kettlebell to be effective.

I suppose that workout has taught me that it's very easy to fall into a pattern.  If I want to prompt my body to change, I'm going to have to keep it guessing about what is coming next - so I think the key to this is to make sure I'm doing a variety of activities.  I need to mix-up my workouts.  A bit of kettlebells, a bit of running, maybe a bit of swimming if I can summon the courage to put on a swimsuit!  I need to increase and vary my calories to keep my metabolism guessing.  And I need to watch that I'm not consuming too many 'dead' calories in things like alcoholic drinks!

I found this on Pinterest, and need to keep reminding myself that it's true!  Let's hope that changing things up a bit will give a better weigh in next Monday :-)