I'm on FIRE!

Good news everybody - I'm still walking the path of good eating!! Hurrah, I hear you shout!

Put it this way - the more weight I can lose before my run, the easier it will be!

In case you missed it yesterday, I've entered myself for my first ever race in the second of the Scott Aztec Trail Series runs in the Forest of Dean on 10 Jan. I'm running the short course, which is 5.4km, and the race is all over trails in the woods, no roads. I'm slightly scared that this is an actual race, rather than a charity fun run, and they have a whole points scheme for places (mostly for people running the whole series of races), and the timings are done via fancy-Dan ankle chips that each runner wears, but it does say it's for everyone from complete novices to elite, so what the heck - in the words that I heard all windsurfing holiday - "go big or go home".

After yesterday's realisation that I've back-tracked to eating crappy food which isn't keeping me satisfied, I've been keeping an eye on what I've been eating, as well as how much. I was reading an article in Zest magazine about the energy density of foods (which is basically what the Weight Watchers filling foods principle is based on), and it just reminded me what I already knew - that foods with lots of water in are much lower in points, but sure keep you filled up for longer. Plus they tend to be much less full of artificial rubbish. So it's back to basics again! Poached eggs for breakfast, soup and a yoghurt for lunch, stir-frys and pasta for dinners, and I feel a lot better for it already.

I need to get my head into a healthier place in the long-run as I don't want to struggle when I hit maintenance, and when I can't be close to a computer to monitor my calories all day. I also want to fuel my body for maximum efficiency - I've got lots of stuff I want to do next year, which will need my fitness to be higher than it is now (as much as now is a vast improvement on a year ago).

You want a sneak peak of stuff I want to do next year?

1. Obviously skiing in Jan - I'm looking forward to this as I'll be lighter and fitter than I've ever been when I've hit the slopes before.
2. My 5km first race, and I'd like to work up to a 10km or so during the year.
3. Kite-surfing weekend - I'd love to give this a go, as we see the kite-surfers when we go to Egypt and it does look like fun, and Jo's up for heading somewhere like Cornwall and giving it a bash.
4. Hit the lake and make some proper improvements to my windsurfing. This went a bit under the radar this year, with hitting the gym and a 1000 holidays, plus back problems, but I want and need to get it moving again this year.
5. Career Break.

Yep - point 5 is the big change that I've been talking about. It's been a long time coming, but I'm at a point where I'm ready to take the bull by the horns and do stuff. I'm booting around a couple of ideas at the moment, so I can't really say exactly what I'm going to do yet, but at some point from the summer onwards next year I'm planning on jumping on a jet plane and disappearing for a bit to go and do something completely different. Without going in to too many details at the moment, general fitness and point 4 above potentially come into my plans.

I've been dreaming my dreams for ages now of a better lifestyle, but I totally lacked the confidence and self-belief to get up and make the moves I needed to. Now it's a different story, and whilst the uncertainty and enormity still scares me silly, I'm ready to face it head on and get stuck in.