Distance Goal

One of my goals for 2017 was to run/walk 1000km. It might not sound much to some, but last year I only managed 500km so it's double what I've done in the past.

I know that around winter I normally lose total motivation to exercise, so this was an attempt to keep exercising during the colder months.

As of today, I'm just over half way to my goal (547km) with more than 6 months to go.

As far as motivation goes, it has been a total winner. I use a free app called Endomondo to track my walking and running and every time I think up excuses not to exercise, I check my app to see how my kilometres are going and it drives me on to complete my goal. I also have friends set up on the app to compete against. Another win!

And you know what.... it makes me feel so good about myself to be striving for this goal and smashing it. And we all need to feel good about ourselves often. It's not something I thought about much in the past but it's so important to me now. There are so many things in life that pull us down and weigh us down, that anything that helps pull us back up is something we need to hold onto!

Sometime I'll post about my battle with anxiety over the past few years and how that changed me.

Til next time :-)
Zealous Girl

Running on a treadmill

Well running on the treadmill was WAY better than I expected. It actually felt quite easy, probably because I didn't put the incline up at all (baby steps). But this weekend I haven't hit the pavement yet... it's raining and I have a nasty headache. This is the first time I've used excuses in 4 weeks, I must be feeling unwell.

Busy busy week coming up, then hubby is on school holidays so hopefully will be around a bit more and I can have a wee bit more time to myself with two of us to be with the kids.

Scales still not dropping :-( makes it really hard to stay motivated some days. I am one kilogram from my true weight (have been for over a month) but just can't seem to reach it. Very frustrating. Might have to do a week of attack or being super strict. But not this week. Too busy.

Hope all is well. Pop over and check out Dani's blog if you remember our old blogger friend. She's just had her baby!!!!!

ZG

Shortest day tomorrow

Tomorrow is the shortest day in the Southern Hemisphere (least amount of daylight hours) then it's uphill (downhill?) to summer baby... I'm excited!! A few more weeks and I can probably run outside again. CAN'T WAIT.

Early in the morning I'm going to attempt to do my c25k on the treadmill. Hopefully I don't sound like an elephant and wake up the whole house.

Haven't been so good with food today. Can I blame that TOTM?
ZG

Muscles are the new fit

Run this arvo, brought the stitch back again and I had been really careful to eat at least 4 hours before my run. So, after pushing through that nasty pain and not enjoying my run at all, I've had to change my plan again. Back to getting up early 2 mornings a week to run on the treadmill and the other morning I'll run after sunrise in the weekend.

Another batch of my protein bars and I've almost nailed the recipe! Coming soon!

Hamstrings feeling nice and sore tonight. Tried to push my triceps hard but they aren't sore so will have to push harder tomorrow.

ZG
PS picture is one of my motivating pics... isn't she gorgeous!

No stitch today!

I'm up to week 4 of my c25k now! Very exciting. Running in the afternoons is different to mornings*, probably because I've eaten lunch just a few hours before my run (rather than running on an empty stomach). My children have passed onto me a lovely (not) cold. Breathing is quite hard and although usually I wouldn't have exercised feeling this sick, I am not letting excuses rule me anymore. Amazingly when I was running, breathing was great, no stuffiness at all.
*(Did a morning run again this morning - after sunrise - and absolutely no stitch or even a hint of it. Makes me think food definitely has something to do with it).

My weight lifting is going well and a nice side effect is it stops me feeling hungry. So if after dinner I want to snack, a quick weights session and the feelings gone. Strange, but I'm not complaining. I do my abs on my swiss ball. Was watching Biggest Loser while doing them. Man they are looking good (final next week - don't tell me who wins, we are probably a season or more behind America).

My second attempt at my homemade protein bars didn't hold together very well, so back to the drawing board with that recipe.

I feel like a new woman. I've NEVER been able to stick to a diet plan this long. I've never stuck to exercise consistently either. It's amazing what a positive attitude, feeling good being slim again AND determination will do. You know you're looking good when your husband can't keep his hands off (heh heh).

It's the weekend and the sun is shining. Enjoy.
ZG

(Photo by me, view of sunrise from our house in 2009)

Running in the dark

This morning I had a bit of a scare... I was running along my normal route (from my house down a path and along the beach path and back), and although the moon was out (lovely) it was very cloudy and quite dark. I passed a man standing by his car and he made some sort of noise as I ran past... It FREAKED me out. I'm always very aware of being safe and this morning I didn't feel safe. My heart raced for ages after that and I kept looking behind me.

I live in what I consider a very safe place but now I'm worried it's going to stop me going out again in the mornings. I can't run with my husband as someone has to be in the house with the kids. I don't really have any time without kids the rest of the day, except for after dinner which is also dark. Not quite sure what to do. And it's only going to get darker until the shortest day before getting lighter again.

Protein bars: I've managed to not eat any protein bars for a while (just stopped buying them) but I'm missing having something that is slightly 'treat' worthy to eat. So I've been looking into making my own. I found a cool recipe using coconut butter, so I tried to find some and it's CRAZY expensive. So I tried to make it and was pleasantly surprised how easy it was.

Plain cheap coconut in food processor 

After a few minutes on highest setting

10-15 mins later (and scrapping sides a bit) 

My homemade coconut butter :-) 

I put it all together with my other ingredients and it was pretty yum actually. I'll post the recipe when I've tinkered with it a bit more, but it included ground almonds, protein powder, splenda, cocoa powder and a bit of butter. Not good for crusing Dukaners but great for low-carbers and those on consolidation who need a 'protein bar'. And I've been reading lots about how good coconut is for you. Bonus!!! 

Muscles are feeling very sore tonight from last nights weights session. Good sore though :-)

ZG