A New Look...

If you've visited my blog before, you'll notice things have changed a bit!  I've been trying to design a logo that goes with the title and something that reminds me of walking in the woods.  It's been quite tricky, but the logo that is up now is very nearly there!  I hope everyone likes the new look, and most importantly finds the blog easy to read and to navigate - any comments or criticisms please message me - I would love to hear from you on how to make things better :-)

So, my week of freedom is nearly at an end.  My kids return from camp tomorrow evening (and my washing machine will doubtlessly be employed non-stop for a considerable length of time after!).  I've missed the kids a lot this year and can't wait to give them both a big cuddle!  Plus it's my son's 12th birthday tomorrow, so we will have a bit of a family party tomorrow night.  Though, if the past two days have been anything to go by, partying is not something I need at the moment!

On Thursday, I invited some of the other parents who've had their kids at school camp around for a sort of "free parents" party!  The evening was a great success, but I did far too much food (as usual), though thankfully I didn't eat copious amounts of it (there are, however, copious amounts of leftovers in my fridge!).  Tonight I was invited to a friend's BBQ and had every intention of leaving early, coming home and doing my third 5k training session.  However, it is now 11pm and I've been home for a grand total of about ten minutes - the running will have to wait until tomorrow.

Again, I was relatively well behaved with food tonight - I had a burger, but no cheese and no bun, plus about 1/2 a cup of Boston baked beans (haven't had these in years, and oh, my, goodness they are yummier than I remember!).  I did have a half a glass of wine and might have had a slice of cherry pie.  I seriously must get back into a routine tomorrow though.  This makes three full days without exercise and I'm definitely feeling guilty, not to mention worried!  If I'm taking this Marathon Weight Loss Challenge seriously, then I really need to take the bull by the horns now.

I can imagine this week has been a bit of a struggle for a lot of my American friends too - what with the 4th of July celebrations.  This BBQ I went to tonight was hosted by an American friend of mine - a very strange occurrence to have a 4th of July party in Britain (I wonder why the Brits don't like it? hee hee!), but it was nice to get together and to have some good American home cookin!  Plus, afterwards we all played Apples to Apples - easily one of my favourite games as it's just SO funny!

Well, I better sign off now and just say that tomorrow is another day.  Hopefully if I can squeeze in three days worth of exercise tomorrow all is not lost? :-)

Free as a bird (and bored stiff!)

My hectic week came to an end early this morning as my husband and I dropped off our kids for their week of school camp.  This means that we are now free agents until next Saturday.  It's a rather weird feeling and not one with which I am entirely comfortable.

I'm a control freak.  I'm badly organised at it, but still it is inbuilt.  I'm not coping well with my kids growing up.  My son will be 12 next Saturday and my daughter is 10.  When I was 10 I was already staying home by myself for short periods, I was very mature for my age.  But, I worry that my kids aren't ready for that kind of independence yet (and by law in the UK, they are not allowed to stay home by themselves until the age of 14).  But even small things like going to the shop around the corner (quite literally RIGHT around the corner from our house!), I worry about them!  There comes a time when a mother needs to let go and let the children grow up - and well, this week is sort of my time.

Many parents would be reading this thinking "Are you crazy?!  You've got a week alone without kids to worry about - you should be celebrating!".  And while it is nice to just worry about yourself for a time, after a while you really miss the silly things they do and just them being around!  So, that's my emotional rant out of the way!  As the title suggests, I've spent A LOT of time on the internet today!  No kids around does something strange to a person - suddenly you realise that you can do precisely anything that you would like to do - and you can't think of anything to do except sit and go on the computer!

Still, today was not a total loss.  I took my husband and my father in law out for a carvery lunch today.  It was very indulgent and delicious and wonderful, I must say, to have a roast dinner on a Sunday that was not prepared by me!  I came home and fiddled around on the Mac for a while.  I've been looking for a decent graphics program for general photo editing as well as something that would enable me to design a snazzy logo for the blog.  I downloaded a couple of free applications and proceeded to mess around with those for hours, not really achieving anything in particular.

I did my first training session of the 5k programme week three at 4 o'clock.  I was reallllly nervous about doing that one.  This week's programme consists of:

This was the first time I would be running for three minutes in the programme.  It was SO windy outside and Murphy's Law states that when running, of course it will always be a head wind and it was!  I just took the pace verrrrryyy slow and kept going.  Thankfully it seemed most of my running intervals were either on level ground or downhill, which was useful given the headwind.  Here are my stats:

I won't say that I found it easy, but I'm pleased that I managed to complete it without walking during the runs.

On Thursday night and Friday night I took to running at the field opposite my house.  The local boy's football team (soccer team, we call it football here in England!) train there, but it is quite a large area, so I just run/walk around the perimeter.  I could not believe how much harder it is running on a grassy field!  It is easily 10 times harder than running on asphalt!  I might mix up my training a bit and do a bit of my running on the field and a bit on the road (sidewalk - of course!).

Well, I'm off to Pinterest to find a good chocolate cake recipe for my son's birthday.  I was very proud of him this week - his school was competing in the Independent School Association's Festival of Sport this week and on Friday the boys competed in the basketball tournament.  Basketball is only really getting started over here, which may seem strange to my American friends.  I grew up in Indiana, so basketball is in my blood!  Anyway - his team won the gold medal!  I'm so proud of my boy!  He may have been born in England, but he's a true Hoosier :-) and he's very proud of his achievement (and shiny gold medal!).

PS - I did a sneaky cheeky weigh in this morning and I've lost four pounds this week!  Not quite sure how I pulled that one off, but will just say thank you very much!

Unexpected Perks of Weight Loss

I thought I would take some time today to document those unexpected perks of weight loss.  These are the things that I would not set out to correct or improve as faults on their own, but through changes to my diet and exercise, I've noticed real improvements.  I think it is wonderful to jump on the scales each week and gradually see a loss, to notice that those clothes which were once tight are now so loose they're barely clinging on, and to see tangible improvements to my level of fitness with each new exercise I try.  But, in addition to all of that, there are little, less spoken about bonuses that come with weight loss.

Complexion

The first very noticeable improvement since I started on my healthy eating and exercise regime has been my complexion.  I had beautiful skin when I was a teenager - no acne whatsoever - I was really lucky.  Little did I know that it was waiting for me later in life!  Since my early 20's I've battled with an oily t-zone and lots of spots.  As well as acne, the skin on my face was very red and blotchy.  I made so many changes to the makeup that I wear, the face cleanser and moisturiser that I used, but nothing really made a big difference.

I wish I had a 'before' photo to show you - but this is me now, typing this blog entry, sans makeup.  I've not touched this photo up at all, and please know that it's taken real courage to post this because I NEVER leave the house without makeup - even given the improvements in my skin!  But, you can see I am now spot-free and the redness in my skin has virtually disappeared!

I put this down to general improvements in my diet, yes, but I think the single biggest factor has been the fact that I have given up coca-cola and Dr. Pepper!  I now ONLY drink my allotted amount of coffee in the morning (up to three cups, none after lunch) and the rest of the time I drink water.  Still or sparkling, but only water.

I really dislike diet drinks - this is just a matter of choice for me - I don't like the aftertaste of the sweeteners in them, so from the beginning when I decided to give up coke, it was an all or nothing situation.  I settled on sparkling water - a sort of substitute fizz, if you like, but still very refreshing and a little bit more interesting than still water.  I had a real addiction both to cherry coke and Dr. Pepper, and now that I'm free of it I don't even crave it anymore!  But it does take some iron will to be able to give it up - and stick to it!  I would seriously encourage anyone out there who has a similar addiction, to try giving it up - even for a short period of time, I'm sure you will notice some very good improvements to your health as a result.

Hoarse Voice

I used to be one of those exceedingly annoying people who cleared their voice every couple of minutes because of a persistent 'frog' in my throat!  The strange thing was that I didn't even notice this had gone until about a month ago when my father in law was clearing his throat - and suddenly the penny dropped!  I've not cleared my throat repeatedly in months!  Seems a strange thing to be grateful for, but I am.  I hated being at work, trying to speak with someone on the phone or in meetings and having to keep apologising for clearing my throat.  But now, it's wonderful not to have to worry about that!

Interestingly, I am not sure if this is a result purely of diet, or if it is a general improvement of my adrenal glands.  In an earlier blog post, I wrote about how my adrenal glands were depressed which resulted in me feeling constantly tired, with no energy, and I was suffering from serious bouts of low blood sugar - causing me to binge.  I went to see a naturopath in Harley Street, London, who conducted several tests which proved that my adrenal levels were depressed.  I am now on two daily supplements which support my adrenals and my thyroid.  I should mention that I do not have a thyroid problem, but that the thyroid and adrenal glands are directly related and do affect each other.  You can read that post here.

Cravings

They say a little bit of what you fancy does you good and I would be inclined to agree.  However, a lot of what you fancy definitely does more harm than good!  My waistline prior to January is certainly testimony to that!  I've never been the kind of person to do things by halves, and this includes binging!  I mentioned in earlier blog posts about my daily, gluttonous, Ben & Jerry's ice cream experiences.  And while I was able to break the cycle with our friends from Vermont, sadly this later transferred to other foods - such as Mars Planets, Maltesers, pancakes of any description, waffles of any description, certain breakfast cereals (anything described as chocolate and crunchy!), etc, etc.

In eating these foods there has never been an ounce of me that has been able to say "I'll just have a few" - I would buy a large sharing pack and proceed to eat the whole pack myself, easily.  It was impossible for me to think about eating any of these foods without eating a massive amount.  Now, I can honestly say that the feeling is gone - or should I say the compulsion is gone. Whether it is my sheer determination to lose this weight, or something else, I just do not have cravings for these foods anymore.  I will say that I would still eat them if I wanted to - and I've had the odd pack of Maltesers now and again - however, the difference now is that I buy the single size pack (!) and I work the calories into my daily allowance.  It is slowly teaching me that treats are good - but they are precisely that - treats!  E.g. not to be had on a daily basis and not to be had in bulk!

Healthy Eating - Yummy Eating!

The last thing I would like to mention in this post is how much I am enjoying the food I've been eating! When I was heavier my meals were not that bad.  I've always enjoyed cooking and with two young children in the house, cooking healthy has always been something that I've done.  My weight was caused by portion sizes being too large and all the added extras!  But, since starting this new regime there are some healthier items I'm now incorporating which I absolutely love!

Fish - I've always loved fish, but never realised how low it is in calories!  Prawns (or shrimps) are incredibly low in calories and fat, and as such make an excellent lunchtime food.  We regularly have salmon fillets with mashed potatoes and broccoli, but instead of frying the salmon, I now bake it with a slice of lemon - still tastes just as nice!  Cod is an awesome fish that you can do loads with.  I cook it with a spicy cous cous and tomato sauce (Jamie Oliver recipe), the whole meal is about 450 calories and trust me, there is tons of it!

Cous Cous - I can't get enough of this at the moment!  SOOOO easy to prepare and so versatile!

Lentils - I love green lentils and the simpler the better.  Literally saute a bit of onion, celery, carrot and garlic in a pan, add the lentils and some chicken stock - simmer until the lentils are cooked through.  A splash of basalmic vinegar just before serving really brings out the flavour.

Berries - Strawberries, Raspberries and Blueberries - take your pick, but we eat them on a daily basis!  And the best part - not only are they rich in vitamins but berries are very low in calories so make an ideal snack!

This was a bowl I had at work the other day (we have a fruit seller in the high street who is always shouting "2 pack of strawberries £2" - I can't walk past strawberries and not buy some!).

So I will close for now and ask what are some of the unexpected perks of weight loss that you've all experienced?

Hectic Week

This week has been a bit manic - and it will probably continue well into the weekend.  It's my kid's last week at school and there are all kinds of evening activities, followed by last minute sporting activities, followed by school camp at the very end of the week.  So, in addition to my normal very hectic life, I have to remember a multitude of things - ensuring my kids are where they need to be, when they need to be, wearing what they need to be - to top it all off, I am NOT an organised person, so times like this are a great challenge!

Tonight was the school open evening - my daughter had a ballet performance and my son (and his classmates) acted out the story of Exodus (abridged, thankfully!).  I had planned to do one of my Jillian Michaels DVD's when I got back, but it was late, so having done a quick 20 minute walk at lunchtime, I decided that would suffice and today would act as a rest day.

The Marathon Weight Loss challenge started with a thud as I managed to lose a whole half a pound last week!!!  Ugh!  I hate it when you literally bust your butt with exercise and your body rewards you with such a small loss.  But I suppose it's still a loss, so I should be grateful for that!  The plus side of the challenge is that I've gained loads of friends on My Fitness Pal!  If I haven't mentioned this previously, apologies, because it truly is an invaluable tool on my weight loss journey!  I use the iPhone app - but you can easily just use the web (www.myfitnesspal.com).  I love it because it is one of the most comprehensive collections of calories available - and you can always use their barcode scanner for foods that might not appear on their database.

I have used this app from the very beginning to track my daily calories and exercise.  One of my favourite features is the recipes tab - if you're like me and cook a lot of your food from scratch, then this feature is invaluable!  Basically, you enter all of the ingredients to a particular food, or meal add the number of people it serves and hey presto - it tells you the calories per serving!  If anyone reading this would like to add me as a friend on My Fitness Pal, my username is: pilliepop (appreciate this sounds a wee bit strange!  It was a silly word that my daughter made up when she was about three - we thought it was so cute that it sort of stuck!).

Very apt this week!

The 5K training is going well and I'm definitely feeling that my stamina for running continues to improve.  This week my training consists of a 5 minute warm up walk followed by 7 sets of 1.5 minutes running, 1 minute walking, then a 5 minute cool down walk.  As I finish this programme about half a mile from home, I have started running that last half a mile (slowing to a walk when necessary), but I think this added extra is really helping increase my fitness.  Last night I only stopped running briefly for about 1 minute when I had a really bad stitch in my side - as soon as I got my breath I started running again.  I'm hoping that this cheeky little add-on at the end will magically progress me on the programme!  We shall see!  I have looked ahead in the programme and I must admit the forthcoming weeks are making me feel VERY nervous!  I'm really hoping that my body can cope with this!!

Well, I shall close for now.  I hope everyone has a good rest of the week and please pray that I manage to get the right kid to the right place on time :-)

I'm not running a marathon...

I'm not sure how I stumble across these things, but earlier today I found a running and weight loss website called Run with Jess.  I think I had noticed on one of the other blogs I follow that this Jess is doing a weight loss challenge called "Lose a Marathon" - you basically can join her in her effort to lose 26.2 pounds before 17th September.

I have just over 26 more pounds to go before I'll be at my first goal weight (I say first because my goal weight is actually 160 pounds and that's a little heavy for my height - 5'4").  Because I'm also doing the 5k training programme and my diet is running along side, I figured I would sign up for the challenge because aside from weighing in somewhere else and being part of a whole "Lose a marathon" community, it doesn't really require any extra effort other than what I'm already doing.  Plus, there are hundreds of people taking part and Jess has promised to provide healthy recipes, motivation and there will even be prizes from time to time - so it's a win win!  If you're interested in taking part, I should just point out that you need to sign up before 25th June - so you've only got two days left!

Today my husband was at a men's conference at church all day, so it was just me and the kids at home. The weather was nice and warm, so I decided to pack some sandwiches in a backpack and go to the country park for a good long walk and a picnic!

I love this walk - it's quite secluded and makes me feel like I'm climbing up a mountain in the Lake District, even though I'm in the middle of Essex!

When we got to a hill by the lake, the grass had grown up really high - I took a photo of my daughter because it reminded me of Little House on the Prairie!

All total we walked 3.28 miles - so not bad at all!  But, when we got home I wanted to do my first session of Jillian Michael's Banish Fat & Boost Metabolism DVD.  Sundays are working out to be my first 5k training session of the week, so I needed to get the DVD in this afternoon.  It was quite a shock to the system, because of course the 30 Day Shred DVD is only 20 minutes - this one is 40 minutes!

I'm not going to lie and say I rocked, but I didn't do too badly for my first go.  It's quite hard, as you would expect and some of the moves I just have to try my best because they're a little complicated (and I'm not the most coordinated person in the world!).  But, I'm glad I did it and because of all of my exercise efforts today I can now relax for the rest of the evening!  Shame I don't have any wine in the house because I think I earned a glass today (or two!)!

The Running Bug (and 30 Day Shred results)

Wednesday was my last night of the 30 Day Shred.  I was able to complete the whole of Level 3 without stopping for breath (a first), and as promised, here are my before and after measurements:-

	15th May 2012	20th June 2012
Hips:	46	45
Waist:	36.5	34.5
Bust:	42	40.5
Neck:	14	13.5
Right Thigh:	27.5	26
Left Thigh:	27	26
Right Upper Arm:	14	14
Left Upper Arm:	14	14
Right Calf:	17	17
Left Calf:	17.5	17

I lost a total of 7 pounds and 8 inches!  I think that's a pretty amazing result in just over 30 days.  Granted, I did climb a big mountain in there too and I also did some extra exercise, but for the majority of the days my main form of exercise was the shred.

My next challenge arrived on Wednesday too - Jillian's "Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism" DVD, which, interestingly claims to "burn mega fat and shed unwanted pounds"!  I said to my husband "do I need to burn mega fat?"!  And a friend of mine pointed out the fact that no one has "wanted pounds"!  It's just my weird sense of humour laughing at silly phrases, I guess!  Anyway, I plan to do this DVD on the days that I am not 5k training.

Now that the 30 Day Shred chapter has come to a close, the 5k training programme has opened!  Tonight was my last session and it went very well.  It was quite windy and threatening to rain when I went out, so I had my rain jacket tied around my waist (handy, as I had a zip pocket for my iPhone!).  Thankfully, the rain stayed off but the wind was blowing against me for quite a lot of the run, which was annoying!  I would love to have a tail wind to help me out, not a head wind!  The local loop circuit that I take is just over 2.5 miles and normally takes me 40 minutes - with the 5k training, I'm meant to be doing 30 minute training sessions, so there's a 10 minute walk back to my house where I feel like I should be doing a bit more.

Tonight, when I got about five minutes from home, I decided "Sod it!  I'm running home!" So, I kept to a slow pace, but I ran the whole way home!  It was probably a pathetically minimal distance, but I reckon it must have taken me about four minutes - but that's four minutes of continuous running!  Unfortunately my Walkmeter had stopped when my 5k training session ended, so I have no idea what my pace was, how far I ran or for exactly how long - but I was pleased that I did it!  I even passed my neighbour who gave me a big smile, thumbs up and shouted "go girl!" as I ran past.

The adrenaline is definitely kicking in with running.  Although I've just started training, I find myself wanting to go out and run more!  So my question to all my fellow runners - is this just a "honeymoon" period - or are you all still as much in love with running now as you were when you first started?

Not quite the end of 30 Day Shred...

Today was supposed to be my last day of the 30 Day Shred.  I need to, however, check the football schedule in future with my husband as England are playing the Ukraine!  So, rather than doing the shred, I decided to go out and do my second C25k training session.  I had already been for a three mile walk at lunchtime with my friend Fi, but am determined to keep to this 5k training, so tonight seemed a good night to do it.

I made a Chicken Korma tonight (that is to say, Sharwoods made a Korma sauce that I poured over chicken breasts!), which wasn't too bad on the calorie front. Word of warning - it's best to not eat curry before going out for a run!  Thankfully, I didn't experience anything other than a mild stitch - but it could have been worse!  My GPS on my Walkmeter seems to be malfunctioning at the moment and I'm wondering if, because of lack of anywhere else to put it, I've had to literally slot the iPhone into my bra!  I think I need to invest in one of those armbands or a something with a pocket!  Today on my walk at lunchtime the GPS said we had done nearly five miles when I know the route we did is just under 3.  And tonight the GPS indicated that I had stopped for a few minutes, which I hadn't!  Anyway, it needs sorting out.  I think it's karma getting me after I've just raved about what a wonderful app it was!

This morning was a weigh-in day.  I'm trying to either weigh in only on a Tuesday or Wednesday.  I weighed in on Tuesday last week, so I thought I needed to get it over with this morning.  I actually felt sick before I got on the scales.  This always happens to me - I have a very good weigh in one week and the following week I am terrified that I will have gained.  Thankfully I'm down a pound this week, but I don't think I'll rest easy until I'm well under that 200 pound mark.  Having reached that benchmark - being under 200 pounds - I really feel like I need to push myself even harder to get well under 200!  I'm not sure if this makes sense, because ultimately my goal weight is well under 200 pounds!   But somehow psychologically seeing a big distance between my current weight and 200 pounds makes me feel better!  I'm strange, I know!