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.

Recovery

I'm feeling a bit more in control today, and the weekend looked a bit more normal. I was still a bit over on points, which I expected to be realistically, but I don't feel like I went completely nuts.

I feel like I'm a bit more settled back into my routines today. Something Lizzie said last week on one of my posts really struck home - I'm struggling because I've been eating more convenience foods recently, and less home-cooked and basics, and it's not as filling - no wonder I end up raiding the cupboards again and again!

So how did the weekend go, after Friday's epic session of food lunacy? Better. Saturday, after I'd posted about my disappointment in myself I went and made myself pasta with tomato and chilli sauce, lean chicken and veg. That kept me nicely filled up til I made it to the boys' flat in Clapham, and upon arrival I got fed tea, which actually turned out to be more pasta! Bolognaise sauce second time round, but a nice size portion and a healthy sauce again. I had a glass of wine with dinner, and then stuck my evening drinking to vodka and diet mixers ... I think there were quite a few of those but it was damage limitation. I did have 2 slices of toast when I got back at 3.30am, but considering the boys had kebabs on the way home, I'd say that was ok.

Yesterday, I got woken up to be handed a toasted bacon and egg sandwich, but all grilled and no butter - not too bad. I stopped on the way out of London to grab a sandwich for lunch - M & S Count on Us range, a small chocolate bar, and then on to home. I got cooked for in the evening - roast lamb (oh my god - absolutely heavenly!!!), but it worked out really well because it was lean leg, and LOTS of veg - celeriac, parsnip, carrots, 2 small roast potatoes, broccoli, onions and a little bit of bacon in with joint, and a bit of gravy and redcurrant and port sauce. I got given a small piece of cheesecake for dessert without being asked - nice but luxurious.

Today, I'm fully back on plan with a vengance. In accordance with Lizzie's thoughts, I've bought my lunch with me and had a jacket potato with plain tuna and a yoghurt for lunch. Tonight I'm going to have pasta with tomato sauce, chicken and veg, and I'm going to spin.

Going forward, I'm going to make much more of an effort to bring my lunches from home, and make them filling foods. Partly because I need to control my hunger during the day, but also for another reason.

I need to start saving money. Major saving over a short space of time, because I have plans. Yep - this is related to the mysterious life changing stuff I was talking about last week. My plans have changed slightly over the weekend, as things move along. One option has been taken away from me, but it ended up leading me down a slightly different path that I'm pretty damn excited about. I'm still exploring the options, but I need to start thinking about funding now, and get started on that. I'll say this for the options though - they're all things that sit very nicely in my ideal of healthier, fitter lifestyle and will give me plenty of ways to challenge myself over the next year in getting to that place.

On a completely separate note - I've just crazily entered myself for my first ever race!! No tame 5km on the road for me - nope!! Instead I've entered myself for the 2nd of the Scott Aztec Trail Runs in the Forest of Dean. So on 10th January, I shall be collecting my timing chip (gulp - this seems quite serious!) and setting out for 5.4km round the forest trails. There's 3 races running that day, so I'll be running with people doing the 10.4km and 15.4km races too - they go on to do extra laps of the course. I would allow myself to get scared as this is a race rather than a charity run, but it says it's open for people of all abilities, from complete novices upwards, so I'm going to concentrate on enjoying my experience and see what time I get. I've cautiously put myself down as an estimated 40 mins to complete, as I'm not the fastest runner on the planet, so we'll see how it goes! I'm going to see if any of my friends want to come do it (or one of the longer races) with me, but thought I'd better enter now, before I allow me to talk myself out of it!

That's everything for today!

Ta-rah!!

Nose back to the grindstone

Hey guys, I'm back after my little sojourn to warmer waters (literally), and more or less in one piece. It was a most excellent holiday, and you can read about more about it -----> HERE!

Food-wise, the trip had it's ups and downs. Before I left, I set myself 2 goals for the week:

• to leave something on my plate at the Indian meal I went to with my Body Balance class the night before I left,
• and to write my journal whilst I was away.

Not so difficult, but I only managed a 50% pass rate! D'oh!! The meal was fine, but for various reasons the journal never made it past the first paragraph on the first day.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!

I went a lot like this -

Manic day rushing round on Sat, packing, running errands, tidying the flat, visiting my Dad, getting myself plus luggage to Jo's, then both of us to the hotel at Gatwick. Collapse in front of Strictly Come Dancing, eat dinner, sleep. No journal.

Up super-early, check out, car to airport parking, coach to airport, check in, 6 hour flight (?? Should have been 5, but they screwed up the take-off times a bit), 2 hours ahead in Egypt, transfer to hotel, eat exhausted dinner, sleep. No journal.

Hoof it to the beach, first morning sort out of teaching groups for the week, much windsurfing, exhausted dinner, welcome drinks in the evening, sleep, no journal.

Repeat on day 2, minus the first morning stuff, but plus one very messy night out in town. Throw up due to going completely bonkers on alcohol after time away from drinking. Pass out. No journal.

Wake up to find have developed bad stomach bug (locally known as Dahab Dash, since everyone gets it to some degree or another, spend next 36 hours throwing up, stomach cramps, "Dashing" and generally curled up in a small miserable ball on the bed, and gulping down the broad-spectrum anti-biotics I'd been prescribed by nice local pharmacist. Crawl out to the beach on the afternoon of the 4th day, lie in the sun (still no energy to windsurf), early night, no journal (and not a lot of food).

Days 5 and 6 - repeats of days 1 and 2, including very messy closing party, but minus the throwing up due to virtual alcohol poisoning this time. Still no journalling.

Final day - up early, hangover, lie on beach and chill for the morning, loooooooong trip home. No journal.

Whoops.

Food was generally up and down - breakfast and dinner were massive buffets, but eating a lot of good stuff in the evening like pitta, mezze and fish and rice. Breakfast was pancakes, lunch varied depending on what we got down on the beach - sometimes healthy like rice (and only half portions because appetite shot) and sometimes not so healthy like burgers. On 4 of the days, you can then add in at least several hours of windsurfing, falling in, manhandling kit and hauling myself out the water.

I did step on the scales yesterday morning when I got back, and they were ever so slightly up, but then I've been gulping down pills to try and settle my stomach for the last half of the week, so god knows what the true impact is. I'll weigh in properly on Friday and we'll see. Kind of hoping I'll have properly kicked this bug by then as it's still lurking!!

Anyway - I was straight back on plan yesterday morning, and did a shopping trip last night, with a list of meals for the week in mind. Had lucious venison burgers with roasted butternut squash with rosemary and broccoli and green beans last night - god, I missed veg while I was away!!!