Reasons to be Cheerful: School, Views, Sofa and more! #R2BC

It's December so that means I am back to hosting the linky to give Michelle a well earned rest! Please join in to share your happy moments from the last week. Then visit the other linkers and comment on their blogs. Let us all share the love!

1) Forest Fun

I had a great first day teaching forest school and its a real mood boost to be out in the great outdoors with enthusiastic children:

2) Filming on the Helm

We had a fabulous afternoon up on this hill to create our first Fell Running film. How could this view not make you smile:

3) Free Sofa

We were very lucky to be given a free preloved sofa that fits in our limited space. I have had to rearrange a lot of furniture but its worth it to have a place that we can be cosy whilst watching TV:

Reasons to be Cheerful: Challenges, Wins and Guinea Pigs #R2BC

Hard to believe its the last day of November as its gone in a flash! The last time of Michelle hosting then its over to me for December. Here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:
1) Challenge Complete
When I injured my foot in October I thought that I would fail to earn my 1000 km medal as its either run or walk and not a mix! I had reached 706 km of running and it was tantalising close so frustrating... Luckily thanks to Pokemon Go I have walked over a million steps to 1001 km since May, so my medal is on its way:

2) Guinea Pigs

As the temperatures have started to plummet the guinea pigs can't stay in their outdoor hutch. I have sacrificed a corner of my kitchen to keep them cosy for the winter. I love seeing their little faces and hearing their week whenever I go into the kitchen:

3) Rediscovering Hidden Treasures

#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 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!):