#FitnessFriday with the FourFit Health Band #ad #review

I was sent a FourFit Health Band to test out. All opinions in this review are my own:

I have got a couple of running watches but neither of them could monitor my heart rate and blood pressure. The instructions with the Band are pretty basic but I used the FAQ online to work out how to turn it on (you hold the button on the front down!).

The band links up to your smart phone with the Wear Fit app. So not only can you monitor various health related measures (heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen, fatigue, sleep and steps) but also have ongoing tracking and analysis:

I have to say that at times I have been freaked out by readings of high blood pressure! As I didn't check against a more traditional measurement device I don't know whether they are accurate are not... Good to be aware of the possibility that mine us too high though.

#FitnessFriday a wet and muddy week

The one problem with walking everywhere to get fitter is that it reduces the amount of time you have for every thing else! So this post is late as I couldn't fit it all in yesterday... This week I have been experimenting with live videos whilst exercising as part of practising my video skills! So apologies for lots of heavy breathing and sweatiness...

I have had no weight change this week - although at my Well Woman check I weighed 3 lbs less than I do at home! So what has gone well or badly this week?

1) Diet

It has been a bonkers week and my diet always does wrong when I am busy! I had very short notice for a day's supply work and ended up with Peperami and crisps for my lunch as that is what my son likes to eat... I really need to improve on this part of being healthy!

2) Fitness

My foot still is not right so I have been a bit cautious. On Wednesday I had a chance to try it out on the Helm as I wasn't needed to help. It wasn't ideal conditions:

#FitnessFriday A Mixed Bag

My weekly parkrun photo has reached the point where I have been brave and ordered the next size down shirt for my 50th milestone! It will be appearing soon but not for tomorrow's run as not being delivered in time... It has been a mixed bag this week as this morning I had put back on the weight I had lost last week... Not sure how much of that is due to a tummy bug that appeared yesterday... So what did I do right or wrong this week:

1) Diet

Not sure I have done too fabulously this week for various reasons - although I ate none of my home baking on Wednesday! I definitely didn't get anywhere near my 5 day on fruit and vegetables most days. That must be something to work on next week.

2) Fitness

I am not sure what I have done to my leg but I have only managed 2 proper runs since my last post. One was a decent parkrun:

#FitnessFriday Running Further

It has been a good week all round and it has culminated in a 2 and half pound weight loss this week! So I must have done a lot of things right:

1) Diet

I have eaten some healthier things this week and reduced the rubbish to an extent. This week this has included a chicken and avocado salad with damson ketchup for a dressing:

2) Fitness

I am sticking to the quality not quantity of runs to help my body to recover! First up was parkrun on Saturday which was just sub 33:

On Monday I had a chance to have a go at the 5k route to the north of town again whilst my son was at athletics. I was really pleased with being nearly a minute faster and again at around 33 minutes:

#FitnessFriday a day late!

I am running a day late thanks to Torchlight! Which is a shame as its been a good week and I am feeling good:

I am feeling fitter and stronger and I have managed to lose another pound which is a great bonus! So how have I managed it?

1) Diet

Well we ate and drank far too much whilst celebrating my parents' golden wedding anniversary! There must have been something healthier the rest of the week to make up for it...

2) Exercise 

I have managed a variety of runs this week to get myself to only 82 km behind the target which another 9 km improvement. My biggest achievements were my longest run this year of 7 miles and my fastest 10 km since October 2015. 

Today I did my 3rd fastest parkrun of the year without feeling like I was dying so I must have more in the tank if I really tried!

3) September Challenge

I have been managing to keep up with the 30 day abs challenge and I have to say planking for over a minute is ever so hard... However I can see that it is working and my son reckons my boobs are now out further than my tummy! Note to self take photo wearing same bottom half so the waistline stays the same...

#FitnessFriday Abs and Back to Routine

How does Friday come around so quickly? It doesn't help that we are back to school and things get a lot busier. However it does mean that, for the moment, I have more me time as I haven't had any supply work yet! This was my parkrun update photograph this Saturday when I was pleased with a sub 34 time without busting a gut:

I thought I had tried pretty hard this week to it is quite frustrating to have lost less than a pound in weight! So what did I do right or wrong this week?

1) Diet

I had some really good moments like this vegtastic meal thanks to produce from my aunt's garden:

Obviously not done brilliantly with such a small loss but it was an improvement.

2) Exercise

This is one area I am pleased with the results of! I have run every day this week except Thursday (combination of a late night with my son at casualty and a hair cut!). I have mixed up my distances and elevations, also the weather! There have been trail runs and road runs. As you can tell by these photos some runs were better than others:

#FitnessFriday September Goals

Well its the start of a new month and nearly a new school year so its time I assessed where I have got to in 2017 and what my goals are for this month. This was my progress photo on Saturday and I do look so much better:

The scales are not my friend as I have actually gained a pound this week for a change so far of - 1 stone and 1.5 lbs! So I decided to get the magic tape measure out for the first time since May and see my progress in inches as well as in a photograph:

• Bust -3 inches
• Waist -4 inches
• Hips -2 inches
• Widest part of hips (over tummy!) -3 inches
• Left bicep no change
• Right bicep -1.5 inches (can you tell I am right handed!)
• Left knee -2.5 inches
• Right knee -1.5 inches
• Left thigh -2 inches
• Right thigh -1 inch

A total of 20.5 inches so no wonder I look like I have lost a lot more weight. So let's look at what went right and wrong this week...

1) Diet

Its been an eating out or entertaining friends week so the calorie count has gone up... Meals like the 10 oz burger I ate aren't exactly going to help me with my calorie intake (although I didn't need tea that night!). I have been given some vegetables from my aunt's garden so I will be making a conscious effort to do better this week... There were some good meals like my prawn salad lunch:

2) Exercise

I have been chipping away at my running deficit and I am now only 112 km behind, I now need just under 3.6 km a day of running to make my target:

I am still trying to mix up my runs a bit (check out the links to the right) and even braved one of the tougher routes through town:

#FitnessFriday A Step in the Right Direction

So its time to see how I have done since last Friday when I committed to losing the weight  had put back on and running more! First up how is the 1000 km challenge going:

So that's another 25 km achieved and I am now only 119 km behind instead 122. I can still do this as I had worked out I needed to run 3.67 km a day for the rest of the year so with a few longer runs to make up for missed days I will earn that medal...

What about the rest of my fitness plan?

1) Diet

I have been increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables in my diet as I wasn't hitting the 5 day. Have to admit its probably more fruit than veg though... This week I also ate oily fish a few times at lunch with both tuna and smoked salmon as I know I have been missing out on this type of food. A good lunch looked like this:

#FitnessFriday Speeding Up and Running Miles #FitBitchesMOVEment

Having a Virtual Race with a minimum distance in a set time period is a real incentive to get out and run! The challenge this time was to run or walk the distance of the London Marathon in a week.. I had already walked the distance before Friday but I wanted to run the majority but had only clocked up 14 km. So I laced up the trainers again and went out for a gentle 5 km and made myself go slow by playing Pokemon Go as I went:

Then it was Parkrun day and I didn't want a repeat of tripping myself up so I took it steady but still notched up a 34 minute time:

I am definitely looking so much trimmer even if the scales are still stuck!

#FitnessFriday Who cares about the scales!

The school holidays have a mixed effect on my fitness. I have more time to exercise but I also have more time to eat and drink rubbish! So the scales were not my friend this week but I am another 3 inches down on a month ago:

What I am pleased about is the amount of walking and running I am clocking up a lot of which is with my 10 year old! After a big family lunch on Good Friday  I went for a nip around our 2 km block at home with him:

#FitnessFriday on Good Friday

No picture of me at Fell Foot this week as we were away last weekend but I will be back there in the morning! With it being the school holidays everything is out of sync but I am trying to fit in as much fitness as possible even if its just walking to the train station for my weekend away... Speaking of which after over indulging with friends I headed out on Monday night for a gentle 5 km run around my favourite route:

So it wasn't the fastest run ever but I really didn't push myself. It just felt good to be out running in Kendal again:

On Tuesday we had our 18 holes of Foot Golf which was a nice gentle walk with some kicking of footballs on the way round! 

#FitnessFriday Season's Best

I am really starting to get folks comment on the changes in my body shape with 11 1/2 pounds off:

It will be harder to keep it up now I've done the easy bit. Keeping up the running - now at 108 km - will help but I will need to be more careful about what I eat. I have been careful about wine now that it is back on the allowed list but will need to be organised about my diet. However the running is going from strength to strength.

On Saturday we were on the alternate hillier, loopy Fell Foot parkrun course. I lined up at the new approximate time sign I thought I would achieve:

My official finish time was just under 35 minutes although Strava was later as I forgot to stop it!

#FitnessFriday Inch Loss and Weight Loss

I am so glad I am doing the weekly photo as this week there was a really noticeable difference from my start photo until Saturday. They say it takes about 4 weeks to really see a change and this was definitely it:

I have since got out the tape measure and I have lost 6 inches from legs, bust and waist which is an awesome incentive to continue! The re-shape didn't do too much for my time last weekend as it was so muddy and slippy but it wasn't too much slower:

As I have said before I am not following any particular programme with my diet but trying to be much more sensible and maybe only having boiled eggs for tea if I am not very hungry:

On Sunday I roped in Gramps to babysit so I could attempt my first 10k since June 2016! As you can see by my face I was very pleased to manage it:

#FitnessFriday Speeding Up

I am keeping up the momentum for the moment and after running 7 km on last Friday night I hit my 20 km target once again. For the longer run I employed a run/walk strategy of 60/30 seconds and it kept my pace pretty even - except for the serious up or down hill bits:

It was lovely to see another 4 lbs gone when I stood on the scales on Saturday. I am sure this will slow down now I have gone through the 10 lb barrier. Here is my weekly comparison pic (taken by an adult this week):

The smile is partly because I had knocked a whopping 2 and half minutes off my previous parkrun time and I was feeling great:

#FitnessFriday Keeping it up

The reality of juggling being a busy teacher and a mum whilst trying to get fit and be healthy hit home on this third week. We all needed a lie on Saturday so I missed parkrun and had to have my comparison photo taken indoors. A total of around 6 lbs gone is already making a big difference:

As I had missed my 5 k run I decided to multi task and run into town as the bank was closing in half an hour's time. Its useful to be fit enough to get there more quickly:

I really didn't feel like I'd done enough towards my necessary mileage so headed out again and managed a 5 km route too with my fastest time since November :

On Sunday we went for a 4 mile hike and after I'd dried off and warmed up I went back out and did my first non stop 5 k for a long while:

#FitnessFriday A good start to 2017

The end of my first full week of getting fit in 2017 and how did I do? Well here is the one week on post parkrun picture next to last week's:

I had to tighten up the waist band on the running belt as I had lost 3 1/2 pounds! So that is a great start to giving up booze and exercising more. My daughter is now running with me and on this Saturday completed her unicorn medal event. I also received my first bling of the year:

Having her wanting to come out with my when I do my 2k block on a weeknight is a great motivator. She was so proud of herself when she ran the whole way without any walk breaks at all (and had energy left to sprint off and leave me at the end!):

#FitnessFriday Virtual Racing

After my long run last Friday I wanted to see how much stamina my legs had by heading to park run at Fell Foot:

It was a perfect day for running and even though my legs were tired I was slightly faster than the previous week (still 4 minutes off my PB though!).

One of our regulars was celebrating her 50th parkrun and her friend made this fabulous video of his run (can you spot me…):

#FitnessFriday Last minute training

Well with a 10 k race tomorrow (Great Langdale Road Race) I have been panicking a bit about my lack of training! So I upped my game this week as the holidays came to an end. We started with a very muddy parkrun at Fell Foot on Saturday:

Still well off my course PB with a fairly pathetic run but better than nothing:

Once home again I walked into Kendal with my children to do some shopping and we clocked up 8km of walking in the sunshine:

#FitnessFriday Back out running

A combination of working full time and an everlasting cold means that I have't been running much - not panicking about the half marathon!! So I was very pleased to get back to Fell Foot Parkrun last Saturday which was on the original meadow route. With a still snotty nose I was well off my PB but glad to be under 34 minutes:

Let's hope I am a bit faster tomorrow all though the course is going to be a bit boggy after rain tonight! Following the parkrun I took my son on 3 trails with National Trust and clocked up a lot of walking:

Fitness Friday: Brathay Half Marathon training week 3 #ThisGirlCan

Well my cold did prevent me from running the new course at Fell Foot Parkrun last week but I did manage to complete my first ever fell race on the Sunday! First of all I supported my 9 year old in the under 12s race:

Then it was my turn to head out in the snow and mud: