Out of the nightmare

The last three weeks or so, as I've mentioned, were busy even by my standards. Two trips to London with a concert in between meant that anything approaching a routine went out of the window. I managed to fit in a few runs, a couple of long walks, but no gym visits; but the eating slipped. I'm proud of the fact that my weight loss is mostly down to exercise, and my three-good-meals-a-day lifestyle hasn't really changed. However, I had made some important changes: one glass of wine per day, no butter, no cheese, etc.

During this last three weeks, there has been smorgasbord catering for large groups: cheese, pate, quiches, the lot. There has been much more alcohol than usual. There have been long train journeys, and the limitations of what food the rail company can offer. And so on.

So, given all that, a weight gain of just over a pound doesn't sound like much. Yesterday, when I finally paused, got my desk and the fridge back under control, and reviewed matters, I found that my weight - which had been steady at between 144.75 and 145.75 for the last month (no weight loss, but that's fine) was suddenly 146.5. More importantly, though, I felt - even before I got on the scales - more like my old self and less like the new one. The scales just reinforced how I was already feeling.

And, for the last couple of nights, I've slept badly - most unusual for me (I usually go down like a fallen tree, much to the irritation of my more insomniac friends). Woken several times in the night, without knowing what's woken me - but probably a bad dream. Not felt happy. Even the long runs that I managed over the last few days didn't restore my equilibrium.

So yesterday, I monitored the food. No visitors, no events. Back to real food. Snacking limited to fruit. One glass of wine. And a run in the evening.

And this morning, it's 145.25 again. Yes, yes, I know the scales aren't a good guide - but the way I feel is; and before I got on the scales, I knew already that things were back on track.

Life happens - and I just need to remember what to do when it does.

Did it: 5 kilometre training

After Friday's little-bit-further run, this evening I accomplished the next step up: a full 5 km training run. This is the route today:



(Oh, and your eyes aren't deceiving you - that really does say Dinosaur Park towards the top of the image.)

A very, very leisurely pace, but without stops, and it took me exactly 35 minutes; not earth-shattering, but still an improvement on the 39 minutes at the Race for Life in May.

This was, I have to say, in lieu of a visit to the gym - again; it was a glorious evening, and once more I'd run out of day - so much simpler to take less than 45 minutes out of a mad schedule than the two hours that a worthwhile visit to the gym would take.

Amen to this

Thanks to soap box girl for pointing me towards this excellent clip.

A bit further

As promised to myself the last time I went for a run (which feels like ages ago, but was only five days - due to the interruption of another London trip), I pushed the distance a bit further. As I knew I wanted to run for slightly longer, I took the water-holding-belt, which meant I could also take the mobile in order to use the camera.

I did the usual mile down to Morton first; and paused to photograph the cattle who always seem to prance alongside me. Whether they're doing their own exercises, encouraging me, laughing at me, or just think I should be feeding them, is anybody's guess.



I carried on down to the Hall, turned round and came back again - to find that my bovine friends appeared to be waiting for me:



I reached the top of the drive, turned right, but then continued past the turning to the Rectory as I had done last week, down the road to the old barn, and left along the public footpath. As I suspected, this wasn't very good running country - too many bumps, bushes and nettles to avoid - but I jogged what I could, and found some beautiful countryside on my way.



Finally, I came out onto the road which leads from Lenwade into Great Witchingham, turned left and headed back into the village. According to my Mapper software, it was around 2.5 miles (4 km) in all, which took me just under 30 minutes - this included a couple of pauses for photographs, and a bit of walking along the overgrown footpath - so I was quite happy with that. What pleased me more was that when I paused or walked, for photography or un-runnable (is that a word?) paths, I really didn't regard it as an excuse to stop or slow down - I would have been genuinely happy to keep going. Woo-hoo!



When I got back, I completed the set with a photograph of myself. This might be a much fitter lady than she was six months ago - but her face still matches her fuschia-pink t-shirt!!

Inspiration - weight loss and technology

The blogging community, and all the links between us, are a great source of support, inspiration and fun. Today I've come across the supremely impressive Half of Me : Jennette "needed to lose half my body weight. Okay, I actually needed to lose even more than that, but Four Sevenths of Me just didn't have the same ring to it."

She succeeded in halving her body weight (from 372 lb - that's 26 stone 8 lb, to us Brits) to 186 lb, which she did between November 2004 and February 2007 - just over two years. Since then, she's gone on to reach 176 lb (as of yesterday's date), and seems to be presently losing weight at the rate of about 2 lb a month (which is roughly my own rate at the moment). At 5'9" tall, her goal is 160 lb.

Not only that, but the woman's a technical genius. She's managed to create 3D images of herself at various stages on her journey - "you can check out my fat ass from 8 different directions. Just click and drag on the image of me below to spin me right round, like a record, baby." Better still, she generously shares the technique on her site with the rest of us. Whether I'll have a go at creating a 3D of myself remains to be seen!

You go, girl. You're an inspiration to all of us who are trying to be the best we can be.

The treadmill can be fun

I don't know what made me think of it, but I found this fabulous item on YouTube a while back. Would that all workouts were this daft.

Phew

for two reasons...

After another weekend of hedonism (and in a Rectory, too!), feeding a bunch of singers and socialising, I fully expected to have put on a pound or two; but as my weight has been a pretty steady 145 to 146 lb for the last couple of weeks, I was relieved to find it at 145-and-three-quarters this morning.

And after a very unpromising start to the day, weather-wise, and a cold, dull afternoon, it turned into another beautiful evening for my run down to Morton. I decided to extend it a bit by running for just an extra few minutes - I usually manage the two miles, continuously, in about twenty minutes or slightly over, so having run for just under 26 minutes without stopping by overshooting the end of our lane, running for a couple more minutes and then retracing my steps, I reckon I added another half-mile. Will push this up by a couple of minutes a time across the next few runs until I can do 30, then 35 minutes, without too much trouble - by which time (if I clock it correctly) I should be at approximately 5K distance. It's exactly a month today to the Wroxham 5K, so that should be good timing.