Hungry

Tags

healthy-living, Jillian Michael, Running

Is it just me or do all the ladies out there get ravenously hungry before Lady Time??

All I wanted today was something salty. I stayed away from junk and made a killer beef and black bean dish with steamed veg and rice for dinner. It totally solved my cravings. I’m planning to have a peppermint tea and some strawberries with yoghurt for dessert. Strawberries are in season here at the moment and they are stupidly cheap. We cannot get enough 🙂

So in my quest to get back into running, I did a quick Jillian Michaels workout this morning with husband. It feels good to have done some strength training as its been ages since I worked out properly. There was enough leg work to feel the burn but not enough to blow out my legs. Good thing as I cannot wait for tomorrow’s run……

 

Here it comes, the 14km…..

Tags

healthy-living, Running

Yikes!

Its a week away. Have I prepared. NO! Am I excited? YES!

The City to South, the big one (for me anyway) has been ramped up now that I am fundraising for this race. I am raising money for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation that helps Indigenous kids access books and learn to read. Its a fantastic cause and already we have raised $2500. If you want to support us the link is http://www.everydayhero.com.au/anita_heiss

So, this race is the longest I will have run EVER! I want to finish it in under two hours. I will need to combine walking and running but no matter what I want to run most of it. This week will be preparation, lots of water, lots of stretching and taking care of myself. Pasta for dinner on Friday night (YUM!) and to bed early on Sat. Its a mind over matter thing. I know I can do this.

Look out for a race report next Sunday (wow that sounds so real…..!)

A 12 Week Body Transformation coming my way

Tags

12WBT, healthy-living, Michelle Bridges, Running

So, last year, when I first started taking better care of myself I relied heavily on the cookbooks and eating programs by Michelle Bridges – star personal trainer from the Australian Biggest Loser program.

Um… no thats not me, its the banging body of my fitness idol – Michelle Bridges  (Source)

Since starting work full time I have been full of excuses about why I have not been sticking to my plan. All of them are bullshit. You know them: the lies we tell ourselves to stay in a rut. To not do the work we need to do to reach our goals. To have another beer. To have another chocolate. To sleep in instead of smashing a run. Yeah, I have a drawer full of them.

I am so sick of carrying around this extra weight and gaining (?WTF?) what I worked so hard to lose last year.

So I joined the phenomenally successful 12WBT aka 12 Week Body Transformation run by none other than Michelle Bridges. Im not going to bang on forever about how good it is, if you want to know about it look here.

It started on Monday.

Like her books, the program consists of a sensible yummy eating and workout plan that is already smashing me and its only day 2! I started this to do two things: 1 Lose the last 15 kg between me and my goal weight of 65 kilos. And 2 to up my running game. I selected the Train for 10KM run program to really focus on building my running back up again. The bonus for me is the strength workouts are tailored for runners, so finally I am doing a strength workout that will actually improve my time and duration.

Kids, Im excited!

So, I’m getting back into tracking here. I got so much inspiration from all of my WP friends last year – your stories kept me so motivated. Im looking forward to sharing this transformation with you all. Maybe at the end, I will be brave enough to reveal my pictures to the world. I gotta tell ya, that before shot is NOT a good look…….

Cant wait to share my first weigh in tomorrow, yeah its only three days in but that is the rules and I am playing by them.

FYI My start weight is  79.8kg.

Life is telling me to slow down.

Tags

health, healthy-living, Running

I hurt my back. AGAIN. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to do this. It was my fault and I am pissed cos I have been in agony for days. I went to see a massage therapist and got some acupuncture which always helps so much. I have been eating Voltaren like lollies. I AM SO OVER HURTING MY BACK.  I feel like my body is telling me to chill out, take some rest and recuperation. So I am bonding with my new heatpack and chilling out.

I make this promise to myself here and now. I will do my strengthening exercises every day to prevent this from happening again. There, its a wordpress promise now – you can’t break a wordpress promise …..

In very excellent news, I got my blood test results back and I am not celiac nor do I have any other issues. I got a clean bill of health and am pretty stoked. Cholesterol, kidney function, liver function, all great. I can thank my cleaner living lifestyle for that. Thanks healthy eating.

No running cos of stupid back pain. I am going to try some deep water running on Saturday to get some exercise in without aggravating it. Then another massage on Tues.

I can’t wait to have a post where I am not complaining. It feels like all my recent musings have been negative. I have to say, its been a weird month for the first part of 2013. I know it is just a phase, but I want to see some “YAY” get back into my life.

Is anybody else having a weird 2013??

RB.

Sick Part 2

Tags

health, healthy-living, ParkRun, Running

You know, I thought I had nailed it. Took the antibiotic bomb, got back to normal then boom. Back to sick and in a theatrical and spectacular way. Gastro is evil. EVIL.

Went to the doctors on Wednesday, got more antibiotics and he asked lots of q’s about how my body responds to different foods. He thought I might have coeliac disease, which I freaking hope not as I love love love my pasta, although it often makes me feel blah.

Waiting for the blood tests to come back. Not overly concerned unless it is true, THEN I WILL FREAK OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!! Till then, its thesis and hopefully a parkrun on Saturday. Its been tooooo looooonnnnnggggg…..

The end is the beginning….

Tags

half marathon, healthy-living, new year resolutions, PhD, Running, weight-loss

I have been off the radar, you might think I have been partying it up, but sadly it’s just because I am in thesis crunch time. I am so close I can smell the ink on those pages (this is an attempt at irony, as these days, to submit a thesis, you make a pdf and push the upload button – a bit of a letdown….)

Crimbo had it’s ups and downs this year. Great food, everything was going well until late in the afternoon, when we had our very first family Christmas argument. I am going to keep the details private but I can say this – WE ARE NOT HOSTING CHRISTMAS AGAIN!!!! Next year, we will visit Husbands family interstate, and the year after that, I want to go overseas and have it just between Husband and I. Maybe a white Christmas. There. I said it.

Moving on. Those who know me outside of my WP friends know that the end of the year is when I get super anxious for the new one to begin. Its like Christmas happens then there is this weird week that seems to go forever, and nothing really happens. I get all itchy and desperate for the year to be over. This year is no different so I am getting in early with my New Years Resolutions. I have to warn you all – most of my inspiration comes from my WP friends. You can blush if you want…..

1 Cory B from http://myroadtothetely10.wordpress.com has been my main inspiration for my first NYR. He is on a pledge to not eat fast food. Its such a simple elegant statement, but the repercussions of this is amazing. Cory B, I can see every time you post a picture of yourself how this is working for you. I have never posted a picture of me, but I promise to do so. MY FIRST NYR IS TO NOT EAT FAST FOOD. This is a total ban on junk. If it comes in a paper bag, wrapped in weird paper and dripping with fat, it can’t be good for you. Why I continue to eat this food is beyond me. ITS OVER!!!

2 Kat from http://runningkattales.wordpress.com, Evelin from http://evelinruns.wordpress.com and Meg from http://megvschub.wordpress.com, plus all the other dedicated runners out there inspire me to run better, run faster, run more often. I can’t even begin to think of all the times when my motivation has been low and reading the amazing stories out there from all of you gets me off my ass and hitting the pavement. MY SECOND NYR IS TO TRAIN FOR A HALF MARATHON. At the moment I have no idea how long it could take me to run that distance. But I am getting faster all the time. Watch this space.

3 Another amazing thing I have observed is how everybody fits so much into their days. My routine at the moment is very confined. Its a run in my local neighbourhood. Then back to the computer and thrashing out words. Once this thesis is handed in, I am going to instigate a much better life work balance. Before I can do that, I need to work like a crazy banshee but after that, it’s going to be rancho relaxo with lots of fun things OUTSIDE the house for Husband and I to do. MY THIRD NYR IS TO SEEK MORE FUN.

That wraps it up for NYR. I think three is manageable, and lets face it, the only one that will be hard is the running, but I have a sneaky suspicion that the other two will more than make up for it 🙂

On to running. I have been hitting the roads and I am getting faster. Today I did my fastest km – 7.07 minutes. If I can keep this up, I might even smash out a 30min 5k soon, which has been a goal for me for ages. I have been stretching a bit more often and it really is making a difference.

I am thinking I will think of a total kms goal for 2013. I have not crunched the numbers yet but maybe 1000km??? It’s do-able especially when I will be piling on the kms for the half training. This is on my to do list before the new year starts so I will let you all know of total number once I work it out.

Weight progress: I have been eating whatever I want, drinking beer and having a great time with food. My weight has gone up by only 300g which is nothing really. I guess running through the silly eating season has helped keep everything in check. I am still fiercely holding on to reaching my goal weight of 65 kg, I have a long road ahead, but I am going to switch my focus from eating to lose weight to eating to run better. It’s really going to be the same kinds of food, but I will listen a bit more to my body as in the past I was a bit hungry sometimes during runs and felt like I ran out of steam.

Other than that, it’s head down bum up for the next few months as I hit frantic mode in thesis land. You might not see me on here that often in the next few months but I promise, come March 3, it will be over. Then I will be free.

I sincerely hope all of you have an amazing New Years, however you will celebrate it. And I wish for everybody to have a kicking 2013. Filled with fun, love, laughter, good food, great wine, yummy beers and tons of running.

Hearts – Runninbear

 

HalfWay….

Tags

health, healthy-living, Running, Weigh In, weight-loss

I got on the scales today. Let’s not forget the epic eating fest of the last few weeks. I wanted it to be good, but it was GREAT!

Original Weight : 88.8kg (195.77 pounds)

Weight this morning : 76.8kg (169.31 Pounds)

Total weight loss : 12kg (26.45 pounds)

Goal Weight : 65kg. (143.30 pounds)

Left to lose 11.8kg (26.01 pounds)

That’s right, half way…….

It seems way easier now that there is less to lose than I have already lost. Happy happy 🙂

Still no running. My poor back just can’t seem to sort itself out. I have been stretching and planking but it still is twingeing and a general pain in the ass. If it keeps acting up, it’s off to the physio….

I’m going to bask in the glory of halfway now, have an awesome day!

The Week that Was

Tags

Doctor of Philosophy, food, healthy-living, P90X, ParkRun, Plank A Day, Running

Lots has happened and not much has happened. Let me explain…..

No running this week. Booo.

After hurting my back I have been taking it easy. Not out of the woods yet but I feel better enough to do planking again and some push ups today. Runningkattales and I are doing #plankaday and we have made up #pushupaday. Join in with us on Twitter if you want to…..

To add injury to injury, I managed to give myself a second degree burn on my elbow on Friday night. Long story short, there was hot soup and a hand held mixer which sent a jet of freaking hot soup onto my arm. You get the idea. I had my arm in water for about 45 mins and still ended up with some pretty ugly and painful blisters. Poooooooo. It hurt like a bitch and made me really sad.

In delicious news, we ate lots of yummy food !!!!YAY!!!!! Our favourite restaurant is just down the road from us, so we went there for Husband’s birthday a week and a half ago. Then my Mum said she really wanted to take us there so we went again with her and my sister on Wed. The punchline to this extravagance is that we were already booked in for dinner last night as it was our 3 year anniversary. So we ate there three times in a week and a half. I think they love us now…….

Last night was a degustation. I know it’s a lot of food in one sitting, but it is so decadent and we really enjoy it. The portion sizes are actually sensible given there were 7 courses. We left, filled with food and wine after spending four hours being spoilt! What an awesome way to celebrate three blissful years of marriage. AAAAAAAAAAW!!

After seriously indulging, we are taking a few weeks of clean eating in preparation for the madness of Christmas. Our shopping basket this week was full of yummy veggies and fruit. Salads are ON! It’s so freaking hot here at the moment that salads are so much nicer to eat than hot veggies. My stalwart, Pear and Walnut salad is a prominent feature of this week’s meal plan and I think it will be a headline act on Christmas Day too. Menu planning for Christmas is another post……..

Week ahead:

So now that both my back and my arm are on the mend, I am planning a run tomorrow.

Plankaday and Pushupaday. Plank 1 min. Add one push up to the number you did yesterday – do this every day.

I have my final PhD interview tomorrow. No prep required, just turn up and talk the talk. Writing is coming along well, the really really boring bits are almost done 🙂

Then a run Wed, Fri and hopefully if things hold together a ParkRun on Sat.  Yoga on the non running days. Sounds like a plan to me…..

I might try to fit in some P90X but to be honest, my back is still tender so I think I might wait another week and see how the running goes….

What’s on your schedule for this week?

Feelin Hot Hot Hot

Tags

10km, healthy-living, Running, Weigh In

And not in a good way. This morning’s run was pure hell. The heat was unbearable, I had to get off the playing field I normally run in and seek shade on the paths around the park. By then it was too late, I was overheated and I stopped after 3.34km. Bum. This does however bring my total up to 10km so far this week, which keeps me on track for my 20km goal. V good.

In desperation, I googled a new track this morning, it’s going to mean a slightly longer drive but it will be worth it not to be overheating and sweating like a bitch. I gotta tell ya, even after all these months I STILL go beetroot red and sweat like crazy. GROSS!

Hey, I wanted to get some of your thoughts about speed. I notice when I run on grass, I run slower. I guess it has something to do with traction or the uneven surface. My pace is off the charts slower. Do any of you guys experience the same thing? Or am I weird??

I’m really looking forward to a rest day tomorrow, I am sore and achey from all this running and boot camp last night. My shins are a tiny bit sore too and my right knee is a bit tender. Ice, Iburpofen and a husband cuddle should sort most of it out.

Oh and I weighed in, my weight this week was 77.8kg. I put on 500g in two weeks. Mainly cos I have been eating way outside the square this week. You name it, I ate it. I tried to tell myself it’s all muscle but who am I kidding?? Clean eating for me for a while till this gets moving again……

Hope all your running dreams are coming true this week!

ParkRun

Tags

healthy-living, ParkRun, Running

A few weeks ago, I registered for ParkRun and then did not go. This morning, I was ready. I got Husband to come with me although he did not run. I just wanted him there at the finish line. I set my alarm for 5.45, was out the door at 6.30 and ready to run by 7am.

parkrun logo (Source Wikipedia)

ParkRun is rad! It is really well organised, the path was lovely, the people were friendly and the pace was FAST!! I have not gotten my official results yet but I think it was about 39 mins, which if it is right, means I shaved some serious time off my run from Thursday – 42.48mins. I will post my result when it becomes available. I had looked at last weeks results and the slowest time was 38 mins. I really did not want to come last so I pushed as hard as I could…..And I didn’t come last! There were at least half a dozen people after me! So freaking happy!

Today is really humid and hot, there is a huge storm coming our way now, so the run this morning was a bit tough. I felt like I was sucking air though a wet towel most of the time. I did have to walk a tiny bit, but I was still faster than I ever have been. Most of the run, I was chasing a lady who was walking a bit, but her run sections were quite fast. She came in ahead of me, but only just! It was super motivating to be in a non competitive race. I think I will include it into my weekly run schedule.

So this week, I clocked 13km. One strength workout and I need need need to do yoga tomorrow to stretch out my hip flexor which feels like a tight rubber band. My goal for next week is 20km. I’M BACK!