Running Update

My posts are rather sporadic! Perhaps if I wrote less and more often I'd be more successful with this blogging malarky. Possibly the same could be applied to my diet.


An update on my running efforts then. You'll no doubt be totally gobsmacked to hear that I've managed to keep it up, and not just that but I'm able to report a marked improvement! Looking back at my posts on 7th January I wrote about my jog around the Swan Pond. At that point I was just able to run 4 minutes without stopping. Well, I'm over the moon to report that I can now run for 40 minutes (at my snail-pace that's about 3.6miles) without stopping. The first time I passed the 5k mark I had to stop on the seafront and have a little cry out of sheer pride in myself.


My next step is to enter a 5k race. Our half marathon effort still feels like a world away for me but two months ago being able to run for half an hour seemed nigh on impossible. I'm going to give it all I've got though.


Sadly I'm not really any thinner, having consumed approximately 100 Easter eggs already. Must do something about my diet too.


Laters!

Skinny Jeans

So...this weekend I went to the shops to buy some new pants (how do you stop the lace edges on pants from fraying after 2 washes?) and as usual I got distracted trying on clothes. Now, most shops don't lie to you - flattering lighting may be used but generally what you see in the mirror is what you get. There is, however, one notable exception. 

Dorothy Perkins, I'm talking to you.

I usually will at some point during the day pick up some skinny jeans (just in case my thighs don't miraculously overlap to their normal level). In Dotty P's petite section I grabbed a pair of super soft ones, and along with an armful of boho-style tops made for the changing rooms. Popped the skinny jeans on, looked in the mirror and...OMG, am I suddenly a size 12??? See below photo (taken in teenage mirror-photo style):

Ok, so I'm under no illusions that I look like Miranda Kerr, but in that photo (and the mirror) I look almost acceptable. Sadly, that is not what I look like in real life, and although I know that Dorothy Perkins have super-skinny mirrors installed I totally ignored reason and bought them. Now I'm sat at home wearing them and looking in my mirror and I look like two whales have been stuffed down there. However, they are mega comfy, so they can be my 'pretending I look ok in them but never actually leaving the house' jeans. Or else they'd be ok tucked in wellies roaming the countryside (like I ever do that).

It is quite motivating though, and I'm back on the healthy wagon. Here are some of my healthy meals of late:

All bad food is yellow...

Hmmm, so I've already fallen back into my old, junk food scoffing ways. I disgust myself. I've had a really stressful week - mainly money issues and work being a bit of a nightmare, coupled with me beating myself up for buying and eating shed-loads of unhealthy, useless junk food. I've not been sleeping well either, which leads me to not having the motivation to organise myself, which then leads to having no lunches made. Cue many trips to the shops to buy lunch and ending up with crisps, chocolate and general yellow food.


Let me explain the whole 'yellow food' thing while we're here. This stems from an observation my Mum made while watching 'You Are What You Eat' (the programme with Gillian McKeith). Basically, they'd fill up two tables with food - one with all the healthy new foods they should be eating, and one with all the unhealthy old foods they were going to ditch. Needless to state the new table was always beautifully presented with a myriad of colours and textures, but the old table was just yellow and greasy and processed - it always looked hideous. And so the rule of yellow was born in our family:


"All bad food is yellow, but not all yellow food is bad".


Think about it - it's true. When we say yellow we mean various shades of, including brown and orange and everything in between, but you know the general shade I mean. Unless it's artificially coloured it's basically yellow. 


Pizza = yellow
Chips = yellow
Pie = yellow
Crisps = yellow
Ice cream = yellow
Butter = yellow
Chocolate = brown
Cheese = yellow
Bread = yellow


I don't really need to continue. To illustrate the point I've managed to grab a couple of pictures of the bad vs good tables from 'You Are What You Eat':

I rest my case. Anyway, I had managed to get myself eating stuff that resembled the good table, but here I've been for the last few days cramming yellow, processed rubbish into my face just like old times. And sure enough the pounds are creeping back on. Tsk.


So, enough whining. Time to get back to eating fruit and veg and decent, unprocessed stuff. Got to get some good sleep, get organised and take care of myself!!

Running. Like the wind.

So. Running.

I'm a runner now. Today I ran. Kind of...

Blue Crush and I are in training for a half marathon later this year. I'm not telling anyone about it because they would never believe I could do it. I just want to present them with the photos of me having completed it. I'm not even going to talk about any running I do...in the words of the great Elvis "a little less conversation a little more action".

According to one of the marathon training websites I've read I need to be able to run for half an hour without stopping before I start to train properly for the actual half marathon. After that they estimate that anyone could run a half marathon with about 3 or 4 months training. As the race we're thinking of is in October this should be achievable. Easy peasy (hahaha).

I can't currently run for half an hour though. Not even close. So my plan is to make sure I train for at least half an hour, even if it's not all running. In theory the ratio of running to walking should become more running-heavy over time. Today I did 5 laps of the Swan Pond in Ryde:

I ran 1, walked 1, ran 1, walked 1, ran 0.5, walked 0.5. A lap of running was about 4 minutes. I dare say I could have run a bit longer if pushed, but in total it filled my half hour and was nicely measurable. I also had to concentrate on weaving in between swans and swan poo, and people feeding the swans, which took my mind off the running a bit.

As it's dark in the evenings (not to mention cold and miserable) I'm going to spend week nights at my local posh gym on the treadmill and in the pool, generally building my strength. Next Saturday I'm going to attempt the laps of the Swan Pond again and see how much further I can run. I'm hoping to be able to run 5 laps by the middle of March. I don't know if that's ambitious or not, but I look forward to seeing some improvement no matter how long it takes.

I have some really comfortable running trainers which I bought a couple of years ago, with Nike+ which tracks my time, distance, pace etc. Today I burnt 270ish calories too. Bonus. This is them:

I'm still feeling motivated, and it feels good. And I don't want to undo the hard work of this afternoon, so I'm going to make myself a nice, healthy dinner!!

Fresh start...with emphasis on the FRESH!

Happy new year!

I love making new starts...resolutions make me feel empowered (at least until I fail). What better time to make a fresh start than the new year. I'm a traditionalist.

I return to work tomorrow and have prepared myself in advance a tasty salad and some fruit and nuts to snack in. I've identified that one of my main causes of failure is not having healthy food ready (resulting in a last minute dash to McDonalds). This year I'm going to try and kick my laziness out the door and make sure I always have healthy lunches prepared. I'm also going to make healthy food choices - I don't care if people label me 'the boring one' when I turn down alcohol, or tut when I say no to chips and takeaways. Being skinny and healthy far outweighs (fnar fnar) the contempt of my peers.

I'm actually looking forward to ditching the processed food. I love to cook, and I imagine that I'll feel a difference in myself by eating fresh produce, both physically and mentally (love that 'goody-good' feeling and general smugness when pushing a trolley load of fresh food around Tesco).

I'll let you know how it goes. I'm going to assume success until failure is proved though.

So now the fun part - a bit of motivation (I believe the hardcore skinnies call it 'thinspiration' for me to reflect on:

1) My very good friend/fellow ghost-hunter is getting married in September, and moi (tres chuffed to be chief bridesmaid) doesn't want to be the fatty in the pictures. Plus the idea of sleeveless dresses currently terrifies me, although I love the potential look overall. I will happily wear whatever I'm instructed to wear (it's not my big day), but I don't want to cause an incident by knocking out the mother of the groom with my unruly arm fat whilst dancing to YMCA. And I don't want to have to cover up with some frumpy old cardigan all day. Resultant sweat-patches ahoy.

2) Gaaaaah I'm 30 this year!! So, planning a beach party throughout which I will be splashing in the surf in a string-like bikini whilst others marvel at my toned physique (as opposed to sweating it out on the beach in jeans and a jumper, marvelling at other people's toned physiques). Realistically a nice summer dress or some shorts would do!

Is it really tacky that I like this bikini? Currently I'd looked like a trussed-up sausage, with fat poking out all sides, however as I will be super-toned by August I imagine I'd look exactly like the heavily-photoshopped babe in the photo:

And my idol, Miranda Kerr:

Dream on!!! Anyway, whilst browsing the sales I noticed a look I really love (I want the dresses and the hair and the thighs that don't touch). I'm almost tempted to buy the glitzy dress in a size 10 as my target incentive:

I think that's enough for now. Going to try and keep up with this whole blog thing this year, even though I'm confident only one person will ever read it! It'll be something nice for me to look back on. 

Salads-Hoooooo!!!

From large beginnings...

I'll try and keep this fairly brief (I have a tendency to ramble on). I thought I'd begin by setting out some goals:

1. Get skinny - obviously. Skinny jeans require skinniness.
2. Get healthy. This is a new lifestyle, not a diet! Healthy eating, exercise and generally taking care of and time for myself. My body is a temple. Like a large Mayan ruin at the moment.

Well, turns out my goals are relatively few, but fairly significant. More generally I want to be able to achieve the following:

Look good naked.
Not wobble so much when I run.
Wear shorts in public without hideous cellulite elephant legs which rub together.
Wear a sodding BIKINI in public, and resemble a hot surfer chick rather than a beached whale.
Be able to cross my legs in a ladylike fashion (damn you thighs).
Wear sleeveless tops/dresses and not have to always wear cardigans to cover up bingo wings which, left untamed, could potentially knock out innocent passers if caught by a badly-timed gust of wind.
Not get out of breath walking up a slight incline.
Run an actual race.

I sound really vain, but I can't help but feel all my life's problems will end if I'm thin. And I might even get a nice boyfriend who wants to show me off and indulge me with generous presents. I'm 30 next year. I don't want to be 30 and fat.

This evening I'm going to go and make an appointment at my local gym for an induction and see if they can set me a personal programme to follow. And then I'll go healthy food shopping, walk around Tesco looking with disgust at people piling their trollies full of junk food, and make my lunches for the week (no more snacking on rubbish).

A significant mention to 'Blue Crush' (http://hippotoblue.blogspot.com/) - we're doing this together, and will be bloody surfer chicks next year if it kills us!! Raaah!