Being healthy - #R2BC

It was lovely to have so many folks joining in last week, it's great you are finding things that make you smile at this time. Please carry on making others smile by joining in!
What do you have to do? Simple:

1. Link up a post about something that is making you happy or grateful. It can be a list, photos or any way you fancy

2. Add the #R2BC badge (at the end of this post) onto your post or blog so that people can easily find the linky and join in too if they want to

3. Share the love. This is the really important bit. Please don't just link and run, comment on at least a couple of posts and why not share with #R2BC too?

I'll stop by all linked up posts to comment and I'll share on social media too. Meanwhile here are my reasons to be cheerful for this week:

1) Daily exercise

We are very lucky to be living in Kendal with so many options for our daily allowed exercise. Walking up our nearest hill certainly lifted my mood:

2) Healthy food

We are both hitting our 5 a day targets on fruit and veg. The warmer weather is making it salad time for lunch too:

3) Return to fitness

After a couple of week's housebound I've loved being back outside running. My speed is picking up again too. Not sure when I will be doing my marathon but I am loving local runs and this week's rainbow theme with a colour a day:

4) Making people smile

I have been going out in all sorts of costumes this week. Its funny how some people react when presented with something like this:

The running fairy does seem to be the most popular one though:

Now it is over to you...

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

 

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#FitB4Fifty End of Summer Update

Diet

I have just realised that I haven't done an update on my Fit before 50 campaign since June when I started the Mediterranean diet! Since the school holidays started at the end of July my diet went back to being a lot less healthy and I've been away quite a bit so my weight crept back up so I am trying to get back on the healthier eating again with school starting back tomorrow.

I will be dusting off the Blood Sugar Diet book (affiliate link) again  I've already lost some of the holiday gain so hope that getting more veg and fish in my diet again like this will help:

Manchester Half Training 

Before going to Wales for a fortnight I had managed to increase my long run to 7.5 miles:

#FitB4Fifty A good start

Well I have realised I didn't get a chance to update after the first week of the Mediterranean diet! As with many healthy eating programmes week 1 saw a huge loss in weight of 7 lb - what a great motivation. That sort of loss even shows in my progress photos in just a week:

It made a huge difference to my parkrun time too as I knocked nearly 50 seconds off and I am back to my times from 2017 which was my second best year:

I have to say I have found week 2 a lot harder... Plenty of times when I have been rushing around or unprepared and still eating rubbish. This made for only 1.25 pounds off  (still good) and a new stone number at the front. Going to make a concerted effort for week 3 to stay off the carbs...

#FitB4Fifty Update and Going Mediterranean

So we are nearly half way through the year so its time to evaluate my fit before 50 campaign! I wanted to run more and get into better shape this year. Signing up to the RMR Challenge has given me a lot of focus and I have certainly been running a lot more. 

Cumbrian parkrun

The first part of my challenge was to Run every Cumbrian parkrun. So far I have managed Barrow, Millom, Penrith, Ford Park (Ulverston), Fell Foot, and Keswick. This leaves me with the four from the North and West of the county: Whinlatter, Workington, Cockermouth, Carlisle. My times are definitely improving (Fell Foot winter course is the hilliest one I have done which increased my times briefly). Millom lived up to its muddy reputation and of course came after I'd already run Barrow:

Lakeland Trails

The second tier of my challenge is the Lakeland Trails 10 km series. I am half way there after a muddy Cartmel and a 12.7 km Hawkshead with coffin trail. I've also taken part in the Grasmere Gallop 10 km. My next two races in the series are October as I don't race in the heat of summer (if it ever gets hot this year!). Hopefully I can carry on building on my fitness this year to keep those times falling:

Fit Before 50 #FitB4Fifty

Well I have realised that I have just over 2 years before I hit my next decade and I have still failed to get into a healthy shape! Having battled with my weight for most of my adult life and it feels that for the last 8 years I have lost the same stone repeatedly over and over again... Oops! So now I need to get it right and keep it off so that I am a lot fitter and healthier before I hit my half century. 

Obviously its not going to be a quick fix as I proved in the past that it doesn't work as it doesn't stay off. It needs to be sustained and embedded into my lifestyle to get it off and keep it off for good. This mean that I have to look at both strands of healthy living:

Diet

Exercise

Most of what I have done in the past has concentrated on exercise which works until for whatever reason I stop exercising (this has been through injury, heat, the needs of my children or work pressure). Then I come unstuck as my diet is not up to scratch... Therefore I need to put a lot more effort into that strand...

My son realised yesterday that one reason I don't eat as healthily as I could because of his limited food choices. He struggles to eat things off this list. He has told me that I need to force him once a week to eat one of my more healthy meals! Wish me luck with that one... but it may be that he is mature enough to cope now.

So what do I need to do to improve my diet?

• eat more vegetables and fruit
• eat more whole grains
• reduce fat and sugar intake
• eat more fish and lean meats
• eat less processed foods

Of course I need to carry on exercising and keeping it consistent. This needs to include both cardio and strength exercises. My son is back into cycling now so we can do that together. Running I can do various lengths of run to mix it up a bit. I also need to do core strengthening such as yoga or pilates. At the moment I can't afford classes or gym membership so it will all be done at home or for free.

If anyone has any tips or wants to keep me on track then please shout! I am also up for working with brands as a partnership to get me in shape.

Recipe Monday: Roasted Vegetable Soup

I know full well that I am not eating enough vegetables so I seized the chance today to remedy that as I had a colourful array of vegetables waiting to be eaten:

I chopped up some of each colour carrot, a few parsnips and the red onion and tossed them in olive oil with some of my flavoured salt:

#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...

#HealthyRedMeat Burger and Ratatouille with @BritMums

Sponsored Post: This post is an entry for the BritMums #HealthyRedMeat, sponsored by the Meat Advisory Panel.

Brit Mums challenged a few of us to come up with some tasty recipes involving red meat. Many people are more wary of red meat and it has become less popular due to stories about its unhealthiness and environmental impacts. However there are still good reasons to include red meat in your diet. Red meat provides a range of important nutrients that are often low in toddlers and children – including iron, zinc, and B vitamins, selenium and potassium. Dr Emma Derbyshire, a public health nutritionist and mother, says: 

“Including a small portion of red meat in the diet a few times a week after weaning can help to bridge nutrient gaps and so help to maintain good health through childhood and beyond.”

As a family we have red meat once or twice a week and my son likes his food nice and simple! So when I was looking for something in the red meat section I chose this delicious looking burgers:

They came farm assured with the Red Tractor and the traffic lights were either green or amber. Of course this doesn't make for a recipe but I had been supplied with vegetables from my aunt's garden I set about doing the accompaniments.

#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 Time for Action

Having had 2 weeks away on holiday after a very stressful half term my weight has been heading in the wrong direction! Not only that but I am slipping further and further behind in my 1,000 km running challenge:

So I need a multi pronged approach to getting back first of all to where I was 2 months ago on the weight front and then to keep up the momentum.

1) Diet

On holiday pretty much anything goes and portion sizes seem irrelevant! Now things are back to normal (if there is such a thing) I need to be more careful. I have started to drink herbal teas in the afternoon instead of caffeinated coffee:

I am making sure that my fruit and vegetable intake is increasing and that portions of protein and carbs are decreasing. Yesterday I even whipped up my own cupcakes so that they were a healthier naughty treat (although my son and his friend ate half of them straight off...):

#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 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 Starting off in 2017

I knew that over the second half of 2016 my eating went to pot, my running was almost non existent and I was drinking a little bit too much wine. My parkrun times were all over the place and by New Year's Eve I was in really bad shape (PS my sports bra had come undone at 2k in so I look even worse!!):

Standing on the scales on New Year's Day showed that I had gained a stone in a year and was the heaviest I had been for a very, very long time... So what am I going to do about it?

1) Run more

When I was running regularly I was more toned and my weight went down not up - not exactly rocket science! So I signed myself up for a 1000 km challenge for which I will get a medal if I can complete it... A tough ask when you need to go 20 km a week but I am willing to give it a go. To encourage me I am putting in money into a tin:

• £1 for a minimum of a mile
• £2 for over 5k-9k
• £3 for over 10k-14k etc...

I am mixing up:

• runs around the block for which I have found a 2 km route
• park runs at 5 km - I am 16 away from my 50 so need to go more often
• longer runs such as one along the river Kent
• occasional club runs when I can escape!

By Wednesday I had clocked up 20 km in 4 days! Follow me on Strava.

2) Eat better

With a busy life and fussy children I have been eating junk on the run since September... I am planning on more home cooked food especially with a lot more vegetables! The wine is off the menu until February when I will let myself have the odd glass.

I am going to be joining back with my old diet & fitness instructor next week to get more help with both the diet and a different form of exercise! She is offering the incentive of the biggest loser each month getting a cash prize... 

So watch this space and hopefully there will be a lot less of me as the year progresses!

Kicking off the summer fitness campaign #UKFitnessBloggers

Well over the last few weeks the exercise has been poor, the diet worse and the weight has gone up... So when term finished on Thursday I kick started my summer fitness campaign with a 1 mile run around the block:

It felt good:

Then I walked to collect my son from school and we went into town to the library etc. I inspired him by saying I needed to hatch an egg in Pokemon Go:

#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:

Fitness Friday: Brathay Half Marathon training week 1 #ThisGirlCan

I have joined in with Kate's new weight loss linky to help me with my half marathon training. A combination of ill health and the school holidays meant that I had a couple of weeks of going backwards to I have decided to start again this week! Being a bit behind means that I am paying catch up on the official training plan and I have a few extra pounds to lose... Kate wants us to kick start by answering a few questions:

What are your weight loss and healthy living goals for 2016?
I want to get my weight closer to a healthy range as at the moment I am a long way from there... I know I need to eat more vegetables and fruit whilst encouraging the children to do the same! This is what I am working from:

In an ideal world losing 1 and half stone before the half marathon would get me round a lot faster!

What tools are you going to use to help you succeed?

My hopes for 2016

Please note avoidance of word resolutions as I always fail these!

I am hoping that 2016 will be both a healthy and happy one for all of my family. There are a lots of strands to helping this to happen:

1) All working together

When my children do their bit and help with chores then more gets done, I feel more relaxed and the house looks a lot better:

2) Getting organised

Despite moving in the house in June a lot of our possessions are still at my parents' as we haven't got fully organised yet. Things are starting to change with plans for new shelving etc so that every room in the house can look as neat and tidy as I got my son's floor this week:

3) Healthy and happy children

My children have shot up over the last year and have been pretty lucky health wise (apart from my son breaking his nose!). Here is hoping they continue to thrive physically and mature into the kind and generous young people they show they have the potential to be:

4) Healthier family

I have to admit that as a family our diets in 2015 were far from perfect. So I need to lead by example and encourage a higher consumption of the good stuff and discourage the naughty stuff. To kick us off I have given up booze once again for January (this time in aid of Alcohol Concern) and I am avoiding unnecessary sugar. I will not buy junk food for anyone so the children will just have to earn pocket money if they want sweets! Homemade cakes will be allowed though as I am not a complete meanie... I have even dusted off my multi layer steamer so that we have a wider range of veggies:

5) Shape up for the half marathon

There is no way I will run 13.1 miles in May within the cutoff time if I don't get into a lot better physical shape. So I got my daughter to photograph me in my lycra tonight and I've both weighed (eek!), taken body fat measurements (eek!) and used the tape measure (eek!) to record where I am now. Not posting the measurements in public but here is the embarrassing photo from today showing the starting point:

What are your hopes for 2016?