I read in some “health” magazine that a good breakfast for those who were in training (as I find myself for most of the time now) is a bagel with a shmear of light cream cheese topped with salmon slices and tomato.  I have been eating this most days for the last month and am not entirely convinced that it isn’t too fatty.  Can I get some thoughts on this, nutritionally-inclined people?  

I just had a sneaky small piece of chocolate.  Is that OK?

Last weekend we moved, and this has had a profound (in my head, at least) effect on my self-image.  We moved across the harbour, which means that instead of taking the bus in the morning and only having to walk about 5 minutes to work, we now train in and I have a 15 minute walk uphill.  Since we’re coming from the train station, along with half of working-age Lower Hutt humanity, there are a lot of people to look at in the 15 minutes of walking.  A lot of people - lots of slim and good-looking people, girls who are dressed all cute like I wish I could be, with hair neatly in place like I wish mine was….  

Of course all this people-watching has lead to body-shape-obsessing, both mine and others, which means lots of self-loathing and self-torture-by-mirror.  What doesn’t help all this is that for the past two weeks we’ve either been moving or I’ve been sick (toxic black mould invaded my lungs and tried to kill me sick), so it’s been a while on the exercise front.  Lots of compounding things make for feeling like a whale.

But last night, we ran.  Twasn’t much, coz Jonno was dying from the hunger, but we ran.  Had to stop a few times to wheeze out some phlegm, but hey, 20 minutes is better than nothin.  

Trying to design a unisex running shirt for a charity with strict branding and color rules is harrrrrd.  

All I want to do is raise money for the kids while I cycle ridiculous distances!!!!

Further validation that instant dramatic changes and rapid weight loss are not the key to living healthier - small changes and a pound a week will do it in a much more effective and sustainable manner.

Recent small changes in the right direction:

• Got Jonno to eat salads.  That means I also eat salads.  And I have medication to take care of all that extra acid in my stomach that the salads generates.
• Walking 3km home from work with Jonno.  Gives us a headstart on what happened in each other’s days, and more time to discuss the heavy stuff, like how we could train the cats to wave at us.
• Knee brace for the bung knee, helps even when I’m sleeping!
• Getting out of bed before noon on Sunday to go to the Farmer’s Market means all the fruit and veggies we could possibly eat for a week for under $20.  As opposed to at least $50 at the normal supermarket.
• Cinnamon in my porridge, makes it a little bit more comforting on cold mornings.

thatsminethankyou:

And the wait has been worth it. Seriously. Here’s a photo retrospective of the last two years, to the best of my knowledge, in chronological order. Then I’ll tell you what worked for me.

                                     

Starting weight: 275lbs

Current weight: 162lbs

For good measure, here’s the side by side:

                     

Other stats:

• Starting pant size: 26
• Current pant size: 10
• Starting shirt size: XXL
• Current shirt size: S
• Starting mile time (approximate): 18 minutes walking
• Current mile time (approximate): 10 minutes running
• Number of 5ks to date: 8 (that I can remember right now while counting on my fingers - I think the barista thinks I’m weird…)
• Number of non-scale victories? Uh, infinity, I think.

Click on to read about how I did it. 

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The cold came to NZ yesterday.  Straight up from Antarctica cold.  And we were scheduled to run 3+ miles in it. 

We watched Thor the night before, the one where they battle the Frost Giants from Jotenheim.  I’m wondering if that’s what brought this cold spell on, and if so, well I don’t apologize because at least it’s stopped the rain!

(We were watching Thor to get the backstory on him from The Avengers.  However, the director of Thor does not have one tenth of the awesomeness that Joss Whedon has in his pinky finger (director of Avengers) and so we thought Thor was a bit cheesy and trite.  Glad Thor, Loki, and Dr. Erik Selvag got a better go of it in Avengers.  Ok, Geek Time over!)

Usually on nights when the weather is anything less than perfect, it’s me who is begging to be let off the hook for exercising outside.  Last night the roles were reversed, shockingly.  Here’s how the negotiation went, after at least an hour of screwing around at home after work and putting it off:

J: Should we go for a run?

Me: Ummmmmmmm, it’s cold outside.

J: Ok, we won’t go, I don’t really want to.

C thinking: But we had a “day off from everything” last night, if we take tonight off then it devalues that.  But I don’t reeeeeally want to go either.

C: Ok well we don’t have to go.

J: Nah, we’ll go, let’s go.

C: But you’ve let me off the hook before when I didn’t want to go, so I will honor your request this time.  We really don’t have to go!!

J: But you want to go, don’t you?

C: Kinda.  But we don’t have to! 

J: Nope, we’ll go. 

C: Ok fine.  *huffs off to get dressed*

And holy crap I put on so many clothes for that run.  Running capris and dri-fit pants (thanks Mom!) over that.  Thick black running socks pulled up to keep my calves warm.  A tech running shirt, long-sleeved tech running jersey, and a fleece jacket.  A toboggan hat.  If I had gloves, I would have put those on.  (BTW – it seems like every other day I figure out some new piece of gear that I need.  Today gloves, tomorrow the world!) 

I was prepared.  I was not going to be cold.  What can I say, I was a Girl Scout.

I was damn glad of all my layers once we got out there and the breeze was blowing.  You can’t really call it a wind, because it’s Windy Wellington where a wind is something that blows all your clothes off the line and the hat off your head and your umbrella inside out.  Nah, it was just a breeze, but enough of one to chill any exposed bits to numbness.  Artic blast, I think they call it.

We did encounter a real wind once we got out towards the point of the peninsula; it was a nice wind pushing us along on the way out and on the return, it was a nasty nose-freezing headwind.  Someone needs to invent the nose-warmer, for serious.

Details: 6.74km; 5 min hill warm-up, then 10 min running and 1 min walking, repeat 3 more times, cool-down walk home.  Time: 45:23.  

Shrimp Fried Rice like a champ for dinner after.  We are winners.