Reasons to be Cheerful: Proud Mum #R2BC

It was lovely reading all the happy posts last week. Thank you to Michelle for hosting again this week. My reasons are virtually all proud mum ones this week!

1) Super cook

My daughter is doing catering again this term and rustled up a swiss roll for her first lesson. Shame my kids left it all for me:

2) Parkrun girl

My daughter volunteered to come running at parkrun again with me this week. She did so much better and was a lot faster knocking 20 seconds off her time. Hopefully once her play is over she will be doing more runs with me:

3) Chest Push PB

At his latest competition my son beat his previous PB by 50 cm for the joint longest throw:

My other reason to be cheerful will be appearing in my Fitness Friday post tomorrow ;-)

#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!

Reasons to be Cheerful: Happy New Year #R2BC

Our hostess with the mostest for January is the lovely Michelle and I will be back in charge in February! Hopefully more folks will come on board again now Christmas is over.. Here are my first reasons to be cheerful of 2017:

1) Welcoming the New Year in

We have a tradition of staying up and watching the fireworks from London and this year's display was definitely one to put a smile on all our faces:

2) A New Year walk

Another family tradition guaranteed to put smiles on faces is a New Year's Day walk up the Helm. Fresh air, great company and stunning views what more could you ask for?

#CountryKids at South Lakes Safari Zoo

My poor son was dragged to Barrow with me far too early on a holiday as I had to go into school to prepare for the children coming back tomorrow. He did enjoy investigating my classroom but I decided to treat him to a free trip to the South Lakes Safari Zoo on the way home! We hadn't been for over a year since September 2015 so it was good to go back - an extra bonus for it being free...

The first new thing we found was the baby giraffe who was born on Christmas Day:

Then I persuaded my son to go through the walk through safari (the emus are quite intimidating!). Luckily they stayed away from us this time and it was only the Rheas who got up close:

The adorable prairie dogs were right up to the edge of the path making the most of the feed that people had put out:

#CountryKids A walk on the Helm

In order to kick off our search for MORE we asked my parents to join us on a walk this afternoon. My daughter snapped us all as we set off:

It was a glorious afternoon although it was very muddy as we ascended at our nearest end of the Helm:

After the rain on New Year's Eve it was wonderful to be out in the sunshine even if it was cold. You also get wonderful view across Kendal to the Howgills from the top: