Boot-iful!!

Yaaaay - bit of a victory to report!!!

About 2 years ago I bought the most beautiful pair of long boots. I verge on having an obsession with long boots, I have to admit - I wear them a lot of the time - flat, heeled, casual, smart, with skirts or with tucked in jeans - I love 'em. However long boots are not kind to those blessed with anything less or more than the "average" calf size.

So anyway - I saw these boots online and had to have them (plus they were in the sale), so I bought them and crossed my fingers that they would fit.

They didn't.

Don't ask me why, but I was far to stubborn to send them back. Since they were good quality leather I thought that I'd prob get them stretched to fit, and I was prepared to pay to get it done properly. Story of my life though and I never got round to it. They've sat quietly in the back of my wardrobe for 2 years - occasionally pulled out and wistfully tried on, in the hope that they might have miraculously stretched to fit all on their own, which unsurprisingly, never happened.

When I started losing weight this year, I'd try them on every so often, to see if they might be any closer to fitting. Lo and behold - in a complete clothing crisis this morning (one of those days when nothing looked right) I grabbed them out the wardrobe in a fit of desperation - not only did they fit, but they slid right on over the skinny jeans I had on (shame the skinny jeans are looking a bit baggy, but that's another story).

I love days like today. I've had several people tell me how gorgeous they are already this morning :O)

Other than that, I'm on plan. I made a last minute decision last night to go and see Julie and Julia at the cinema last night with Bec. It was a really sweet film and I'd saved my afternoon chocolate bar to take to the cinema for a little treat. We wandered round to the boy's flat afterwards to say hi, and stayed to play some Worms on the PS3 (oh yes, we are mature). I fully resisted the bag of giant cookies on the coffee table, and all offers of a G & T. Feeling strong!

On the other hand, my hip's grumbling a bit after the run on Wednesday night, and I was sneezing so violently last night that it was pulling on all my leg muscles quite painfully. Baaaah - I hate colds!!

Feeling a bit more human today, although still feeling rather unattractively phlegmy / snotty - not great timing, as I've just found out that there's a guy I rather like who I'll be seeing this evening - aaaaaaaarghh!!! Not that he's particularly interested in me (at least I don't think so), but you know, it's still nice to be able to make a good impression lol.

Ok - girly moment over with - you didn't see it, it didn't happen, and if you tell anyone, I'll have to hunt you down!!

Just saying :O)

Return to Running

Morning troops,

How's it going? Are you being good? I do hope so!

Pounding the pavements ...

As you may have guessed from the title, I'm glad to be able to report that I finally made a welcome return to running last night. I hadn't originally intended to actually run properly when I set out, but it felt fairly comfortable so I just went where it took me. I didn't push myself, so I took short walking breaks far more often than I normally would, but my intended 20 min route turned into a 30 min route and I felt fine. In fact, even with the frequent breaks, I was barely slower than I usually am (which prob says more about my usual running pace than anything else lol).

I have to say though - sometime between my last run (sometime back in early September) and last night, it got bloody freezing out there!!! I remember running in a vest last time and being quite hot, but last night was chilly, even with my Technicals fleece chucked over the top. Time to start thinking about a few key pieces of winter clothing I think!! Mind you, I don't think it helped that my beloved fleece is now too big - turns out they're not nearly as warm when the wind can just whistle straight up the hem! I've spent a bit of time this morning looking at tights and soft-shells / winter jackets for running / biking.

Anyway, it was really nice to be out - I was lucky that I caught it while it was still light, although my whole route is lit anyway. Everything looked really different from last time, as my route is mostly on tree-lined streets and all the colours have changed, plus having to skirt round (or kick through!) huge piles of leaves! Oh, and Tricia was right - for the length of my run, my cold seemed to disappear - my nose miraculously unblocked, and I stopped coughing and sneezing. It came back later but at least it was a bit of a respite.

Still snotty ...

Otherwise, the cold continues full force. I can't smell anything, and my sense of taste has pretty much abandoned me, and my hearing feels a bit muffled - basically I'm feeling a bit like somebody hit the mute button on my world! Still really hungry and sleepy, but still on plan (go me!!). Mind you - eating stuff when you can't taste it isn't really that satisfying - I had porridge with cinnamon in this morning - a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon, and I couldn't taste (or smell) it at all!!!

Measurements update ....

I talked sometime earlier this week about weighing in at the midpoint of the challenge but not having lost anything as yet. As we all know though, the scales telleth not the whole story - Syl more than proved that point with her 30 Day Shred Challenge in September (bloody amazing results they were too!). So this morning, out of curiosity, I whipped out the tape measure as I was getting ready. I decided at the start of the challenge, that I should chart my progress in more than just one way, so I took my measurements, even though I didn't publish them on here. The plan is to do a full round-up at the end (another 3 weeks yet). But I felt like I needed a little extra encouragement, and I have it. I'll not put the results up til the end, but suffice to say that in the first 3 weeks, I have lost some inches - yay!

I'm planning on having a nice quiet evening in tonight - no exercise, just a bit of pampering for me. I've worked out hard the last 4 nights in a row, so I think a rest would be good. Hopefully, by this time next week, I might be able to think about going back to Body Combat class - can't wait!!!

I'll leave you with this perfect example of my complete inability to plan my own social life - I realised last night that I have managed to book gig tickets to go and see Paramore in Birmingham with Bridget for the same night as my office Christmas party in Cheltenham. What a total idiot!! No idea what to do as I really want to do both things! Genius, I tell you!

Just call me Snotty McSnotterson!

Oh yes indeedy - the cold has arrived. Yesterday's sore and raw throat has vanished miraculously overnight, and in it's place is about 3 tonnes of snot and a rather attractive tickly cough with occasional added chesty rattle.

Niiiiiiiiiiice!


My appetite has returned with a vengeance, with the appearance of all the snot, and I can't quite get enough to eat at the moment. This meant another day yesterday of eating all my activity points in addition to my daily points, especially as I inexplicably got starving hungry after the gym last night. I haven't gone over my points though, which I'm pleased about.

Since the cold hasn't completely incapacitated me (yet), I'm just concentrating on staying healthy. I went to my usual gym training session last night, where we did intervals on the spin bikes for about an hour (including warm ups and cool downs). Quite fun, and burned another 400 calories. I also had a weigh in for the half-way point of the gym challenge. Bizarrely all my measurements were exactly the same as my initial ones - including my hydration levels, which is a bit freaky.

Ok, so this also means that my weight isn't showing as having dropped at all, but I'm not too worried as the initial weigh in was mid-afternoon when I'd only had one meal for the day, a good 3 hours before the session, and this one was a late evening, when I'd just demolished a huge bowl of (homemade) soup about an hour before. I'm confident that there will be movement by the end of the challenge, and I'm quite tempted to ask Mark to re-weigh me before Sunday's session for something more comparable.

My plan this evening is to stay away from the gym, and the intense exercise, and to go out for just a 30 min walk when I get home from work. Two reasons for this: 1) I need the fresh air - I've pretty much moved from flat, to car, to gym the past couple of days and I feel like I need to blow out the cobwebs. 2) The muscles I use for walking need to get back in use - it's all very well going to the gym, but it's not using my everyday muscles which are still a bit tight. I'm going to put my usual running gear on to go out - partly because my trainers have my custom insoles which will help keep my sore ankle correctly aligned and help my posture, and partly because if I feel ready I might incorporate some very short jogging sections into my walk. We'll see how it goes.

After that, Bridget's coming round for the evening for dinner and girly tv - yay!!! :o)

I am determined to behave this week and see a decent loss at the scales - I've had two hard days with me feeling a bit off, but I'm still sticking to my points, and Tricia made a very good point on her post yesterday talking about how exercise can have a positive effect in counteracting feeling ill, so there's no need for me to give up and go and sit in a snotty sulk. I want this loss.

p.s. if you not seen Tricia's blog, she's pretty new to the scene, but she's also pretty awesome - she's lost a ton of weight already and has come to the blogging scene with that under her belt and a whole lot of tales to tell and advice to give. Great stuff.