Salad isn’t food…it’s what food eats!

So the walk is over… now I need a new challenge. I am in serious danger of slipping back to my old ways. Y’see I haven’t actually been to the gym since a week on Friday (that was August still!!) and ok I have been swimming and have done some toning work and the 14 mile walk (can’t forget that!!) but I haven’t actually done any serious cardio.

So the next challenge will be the couch to 5km 9 week challenge (as inspired by Katy!!) So tomorrow I will go down the gym and do the first session of the C25km. I will post my progress for this in a seperate page on my blog.

Hmmm, guess i’m gonna have to blog my food diary again as well. Where oh where has my will power gone?!

Well, I did it! I walked about 14 miles for the British Heart Foundation and raised £185 (about $370) If I said that I wasn’t hurting today I would be lying…but it was worth it! And I got a medal for doing it!

Picture1. Me at the start
Picture 2. The first distance marker- how  far?!! I wasn’t going all the way to Liverpool! There were mile markers most of the way along the canal and it was amazing how long a mile started to feel like..
Pictures 3, 4 and 5. Some of the nice scenery along the way
Picture 6. The 13 mile marker- that’s exactly 13miles from the first marker in picture 1. And accordng to the walk info it should have finished here, but it didn’t! It was about another mile to the last checkpoint! How cheeky-sneaking in an extra mile!
Picture 7. Ant and I afterwards.

Target: 2.5hours exercise. 3x cardio sessions (gym/swimming). To do all four 15 minute sessions from ‘15 minute workouts for dummies’ Also do ‘Pilates Weight loss workout for dummies’  DVD.

Monday swimming: 1km 35mins
               pilates dvd: 38mins

Tuesday walking: 1.5km 17mins
                walking: 1.44km 20 mins (uphill!)
                15 min dvd- arms.

Wedsnesday 15mins abs execises from dvd, 15 mins legs exercises from dvd

Thursday rest day

Friday rest day. Shouldn’t have though. Should have gone to the gym but it was rainy and cold and i just wanted to hibernate.

Monday
Breakfast: 1/2 tin of tinned pineapple
Lunch: cheese on toast (3x low fat cheese slices on 2 small slices w.meal toast)
Dinner: vegetable chilli
Snacks: 250ml fruit smoothie, double bacardi and diet coke. 2x babybel cheese. 1 bag ryvita minis

Tuesday
Breakfast: low fat yoghurt and 20g cereal
Lunch: small tin veg soup. small bag crisps. (50kcal)
Dinner: bolognese, spaghetti, garlic bread. small glass red wine
Snacks: 250ml fruit smoothie. handful of dried fruit, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.

Thursday
Breakfast: 2 small pots fromage frais. 150ml fruit smoothie
Lunch: jacket potato with cheese and salad
Dinner: 1/2 cheese and tomato pizza with parmesan, 2 slices garlic bread
Snacks: 1 options hot choc. 2 double bacardis and diet coke. 660ml bottle lager. 1 babybeel cheese
Oh dear

Friday
Breakfast: melon
Lunch: low fat yoghurt, 250ml smoothie
Dinner: jacket potato with tuna mayonnaise (v low fat mayonnaise)
Snacks: Chocolate Eclair (someone’s birthday at work) Tin chunky fruit salad. 2 glasses of red wine.

Sunday
Breakfast: 1/2 tin canned peaches
Lunch:1xtin of vegetable soup
Dinner: roast beef, carrots, broccolli, cauliflower, 1x small yorks pud. Gravy.
Snacks: 2x choc digestives. 4x bottles of lager. Whoops. Hardly the best start to the week. Will do better!

Monday:
Breakfast: 1/2 tin canned peaches
Lunch: 5oz steak with chips
Dinner: steak (again!) Potatoes. Vegetables. 2x large yorkshire puddings. Chocolate fudge pudding with cream
Snacks: 2x bottles lager. 250ml red wine. 2 large vodkas with diet coke. A bag of sweets.
OK-where has my will power gone? I remember what it looks like, I just can’t seem to find it right now

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Medium sized bowl of porridge +1 tbsp sugar (bf taken sweetener to work!!)
Lunch: 1 small tin vegetable soup
Dinner: bolognese (lean mince,onion,tinned tomatoes, worchestershire sauce) spaghetti. A little cheese on top
Snacks: alpen light cereal bar.
Now thats a more sensible day. Keep it up for rest of week. Gym and swim tommorrow!

Wednesday:
Breakfast: fat free yoghurt with 20g cereal
Lunch: prawn salad(prawns, low fat marie rose dressing, lettuce, sweetcorn, carrot, pasta. Alpen light cereal bar
Dinner: small jacket potato with baked beans and cheese
Snacks: handful of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and dried fruit. A few squares of chocolate. 1 double bacardi and diet coke
Much better day! Went to the gym-didn’t go swimming as forgot hairbrush! (silly reason i know but my hair gets really tangled, and i have to walk home!!)

Thursday:
Breakfast: fat free yoghurt, 20g cereal
Lunch: tin of chunky beef and vegetable soup. 250ml fruit smoothie
Dinner: chilli- minced beef,tinned tomatoes,kidney beans,onion,chilli
Snacks: handful of sunflower seeds,pumpkin seeds, dried fruit. 1 square of chocolate. 2 double bacardi’s and diet coke
Did 15 abs workout from DVD. Ouch.

Friday:
Breakfast: 1/2 tin fruit slad
Lunch: prawn sandwich. 250ml fruit smoothie
Dinner: chicken +bacon, stuffed with cheese. Lettuce. cucumber. celery. 6xpotato wedges (small ones)
Snacks: 1/2 tin fruit salad. 4x chocs ( i wish people at work would stop buying chocolate!) Fat free yoghurt. 1xdouble bacardi and diet coke
Still hurting from abs exercises. Went to gym too for some cardio..

..for the first time in a while i looked in the mirror and felt good. I had just come out of the gym and my face was all pink, and my hair was still wet from swimming but i looked healthier, and i was wearing some trousers that a few weeks ago i couldn’t even get over my hips. So even though the scales didn’t say what i wanted them to say on saturday i know that i have made progress and i am getting fitter!

I know allyou american’s will have seen this but i found a clip on youtube of a little speech tyra banks made on her show after some magazine had accused her of getting fat…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ5unYaNd3c&NR=1

at the risk of sounding cheesy (and apologies to all you american’s ‘cos i’m sure a british girl can’t pull this phrase off with the required attitude!!)

‘You go, girl!’

…up to £55 now, so only another £45 to target with 3 weeks to go!

…only signed myself up for a 12.5mile sponsored walk for the British Heart Foundation in 1 months time! AAAArgh! Better get down the gym a bit more and concentrate on stamina! Or something.  I’ll get a better plan together tomorrow as it’s a bit late!

…the root of all evil.

It came to my attention today that I constantly choose instant gratification, over long term satisfaction. This applies to lot of areas in my life from finances to food to fitness.

1. I exercise, I expect immediate results, I don’t get them, I loose interest.
2. I see something I want, I want it NOW not next month when i can afford it so it goes on the credit card.
3. I can choose between chocolate or fruit, one is empty calories with little or no nutritional value, one will help me towards to my weight loss goals….guess which one I choose.

These are just simple examples but it really is a theme which runs through my life. So I guess what I’m realising is that I need to start thinking more long term, about a lot of things.

Where i want to be… me at 8.5st (119Ib)

I can’t beleive I thought I was fat then…