Apart from an embarrassing moment, I feel pretty proud

Today I decided to go for my walk again.  My knee was feeling better so I thought I'd give it a go.  I walked earlier in the week and it was okay.  So Bianca and I set off for her friends' home a bit further up the street.  They invited her for a sleep over (second night in a row - isn't she lucky?).  And so Bianca set off on her scooter and scooted off a bit ahead of me while I was walking with her bag and listened to Basshunter on my ipod.  I like Basshunter because his music is a bit faster and so it encourages me to up my pace a little bit.  A bit ahead of me Bianca suddenly stopped and said "Mum, I can hear you!"  So embarrassed!!!!  Turned out I was singing along and let me tell you - my singing is best kept for the shower or if I'm on the way somewhere in the car.  By myself.  Where others don't have to hear me.  Or when the kids want me to sing the sleepy time song I made up for Bianca when she was about 4 weeks old (yes, after 8 years I'm still asked to sing it every night). 

But anyway, got there and I had a cup of tea and a chat with Bianca's friends' parents and finally I left and set off on my walk.  I decided I would try and jog just to see how it goes and I kept coping and kept feeling comfortable enough and wow!  I managed to jog quite a bit further than I ever thought would be possible.  But there I was.  Not feeling like I was about to die.  Sure my legs felt like jelly when I stopped and walked the rest of the way home, but I wasn't significantly out of breath and my legs coped okay.  Wow! I'm pretty impressed with myself.  I might actually be able to put a 5km run on my list.

So apart from embarrassing myself, I feel incredibly proud of what I achieved today.  I think there is hope for me yet!

Need to re-focus

Next week I need to re-focus my fitness efforts.  I have lost a bit of focus on the eating / exercise front.  Not that I've been eating too much and I certainly have not given in to any temptation, but I don't think I'm eating enough during the day at the moment.  So need to get back to those healthy snacks in between the breakfast / lunch / suppers.

Bianca's teacher told me today that he enjoys running hills.  He updated one of his entries with a photo of him participating in one of his runs and look - he doesn't even look tired!  A friend who is also busy learning to run a 5km race and is doing so incredibly well were saying to me just recently how much she hates running uphill and I think at this stage I very much agree :-)

At least I managed a walk

Managed a walk today along with Basshunter on the ipod.  I wasn't able to even jog really slowly, but at least I went for a walk and that is something. 

I didn't go for a walk yesterday partly because Bianca and I were quite focused on her special project and partly because I was just not in the right frame of mind.  But yes, new day today. 

The sun is out shining today so it is a really nice day for walking (even if it is a bit on the chilly side).

On track

Today is just a tiny little bit over a month ago that I started working towards getting fitter and healthier.  The first time (on this journey) I weighed myself was the 4th of August and today is the 6th of September.  In total I have lost 2.3kg.  It is really comforting to see this!

Last night I started adding weights into the mix.  So now on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I  plan to do weights.  One day upper body and the next lower body.  They say resistance training is really good for burning fat and it will add variety to the exercise workout.  On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays I will continue with my couch to 5km run / walk programme.  I started last week and did 2 days of Week 1 of the programme.  This week I am doing week 1 again. 

I was looking at the weather this morning and it looked like it was going to rain.  I'm not really keen to run in the rain to be honest, but thankfully it just stayed overcast and didn't actually rain.  Phew!

And so it all begins

The arrival of Spring!  Spring is one of my favourite seasons!  And so along with the arrival of new beginnings and new life I have taken one more step in the direction of getting fitter and healthier. 

Yesterday my new shoes arrived.  I was sooo excited.  So along with that I went and got a few other things to get ready for the couch to 5km programme I am interested in doing.  I bought a new tracksuit (not quite ready for shorts yet) and a good sports bra and a money belt so I have somewhere to put my ipod and keys and cell phone. 

And today I started.  I did week 1 day 1.  I will do week 1 this week and next week and from there move on.  You are supposed to have a rest day in between and fit in 3 days of training each week.  And I did it.  The last minute running was pretty hard and I run really slow still, but hopefully in a few weeks from now I'll actually be a bit faster.

I think perhaps because for the past 2 weeks in my mind I have committed to this programme, just as I have in my mind committed to my eating and I would say that the mindset is definitely one that is pushing me through. 

I did another thing recently and last night and that was to get rid of a very toxic friendship as well as a few blogs that are just plain draining to read - always wanting approval.  Always writing about how unsure they feeling and they just want constant reassurance.  But then when they make decisions and things don't go as they hoped, then the whole world knows how they have been wronged.  So yes, I just don't want to spend all my energy and all my focus on these kind of situations.  The toxic friendship is somebody who is extremely needy and extremely self-centered and when it is not about her she takes complete offence.  She is often quite negative also likes to play mind games and last night I have just had enough and removed her from my Facebook profile.

Life is far too short to be dragged down by toxic situations.  I'd rather focus on the good and supportive friends.  The ones you can simply just be yourself.  The ones who are low maintenance.

So here is to spring, new beginnings, a positive mindset and on my way to getting fit and healthy!

Taking the first step

I have taken the first step in getting fitter. 

A friend has been doing the Couch to 5k programme and it seems a good way to get into running (note I didn't say easy, I said good).  It is good because it is a slow and gradual process to go from nothing to being able to manage a 5k run.  And I love that it has podcasts you can download to your ipod so I'll have a little voice guiding me when I should walk and when I should run and so on. 

One of my biggest problems with starting this is my shoes.  I have 2 pairs of running type shoes.  A pair I've had for a while and a newer pair.  Usually I wear the older pair when I go for my walks and they are okay.  I didn't choose the shoes for any particular purpose and gave no real thought to what should go into choosing shoes.  The other day I went for my walk and I wore the newer pair and they are okay for around the house or strolling around the mall, but halfway with my walk (the one where I try and walk a bit faster) my toes became numb.  So not good!  No way that I'm able to even attempt a run with this.

So today (upon a friend's suggestion) I went to a place where they looked at my feet.  They look at your arch, they look at your stride and whether your ankles roll inwards or outwards or are straight.  I never knew choosing shoes were so technical.  But there you go.  They also look at where I put most of my weight when I walk and they use this sensor mat and then they fit you into shoes based on that and make you walk on a treadmill and then they do this video thing that shoes them whether your feet are straight or not and so they keep going until they find a pair of shoes that fit as well as they can. 

I didn't end up buying my shoes from them because the cost was a bit above my price range and since I'm a beginner I can't justify spending the amount they were charging. 

My friend then pointed me to a great site.  She's ordered from them before and they are reliable and they were significantly cheaper than the store. 

So now I've made the first step.  Soon my shoes will be here.  And that means I will be all set.  And to justify the cost, I simply must work hard at my goal. 

All set for tomorrow

Tonight I cooked cottage pie.  I don't cook with oil and it was pretty much just mince with some mixed vegetables added in and then of course potato.  Oh and of course I found a Continental flavour mix that I added just to give it a nicer flavour.  Typically we don't cook with loads of salt, and over time we actually got used to the taste of food containing less salt.  One thing I noticed though is that there was around 125ml of fat that I poured off the mince before I added the vegetables and the flavour mix.

I still have to get into the habit of actually pre-planning meals, but at least I gave some thought to meals tomorrow.  I want and need to get back on track. Now if somebody can help me understand these food labels that would be great - what quantity protein and carb in each meal?  Do I look at the per serving numbers or the per 100g numbers?  It's like a whole foreign world to me.

And of course I definitely need to go walking again tomorrow.  Currently my route is 3.7km and I'm trying to see a different route so that I could work on increasing it to 5km. 

This past weekend a friend was doing a 5km family fun run.  And I thought that maybe I need to look around for another 5km fun run later this year and work towards that.  This way I'll actually work towards something.  And then maybe I'll get Terence to buy me some running shoes for my birthday.  Nothing too fancy, but something that is better than I currently have.

A not so efficient day...

I didn't do any exercise yesterday.  I had Caitlyn with me the whole day and so that makes it hard to actually go walking.  But I was going to haul out the Wii Fit and do some of the things on there.  Unfortunately my day started dealing with an unwell sheep and it ended up taking a large portion of my day.  That and house cleaning.  Yes, the never ending house cleaning.  Sigh!  I did stay on track with eating as well as I could (even though I haven't yet had a chance to sit down and do meal plans).  I went to bed at 10pm after being up and busy the whole day for 15 hours straight with dropping Bianca off at school, cleaning the house, doing some ironing, help with the sheep, looking after Caitlyn and... and... and...  Life sure gets busy sometimes...

This morning my legs are sore.  And it must be from walking to and from the sheep a large portion of yesterday.  And at times carrying around 4L of water.  And trying to roll a sheep onto her tummy.  So I guess if that counts as some exercise then I've done some exercise :-).