Day Three

Today is a rest day from excercise ... mainly cos I am getting up at 4.50am tomorrow to go for a run and then I also have yoga tomorrow night.

As for today, I am excited cos I have just started to sprout some goodies for the first time. So, in a few short days, I should have a bounty of mung bean sprouts! Good for you in so many ways.



Project mega healthiness is going strong!

Day Two

Today consisted of hours of sitting through a professional development session. During the session, it would be accurate to say that for a good 80 percent of the time, I dreamed of my after school swim. (The other 20 was spent dreaming of what I would cook for dinner... I settled on yummy salmon pasta). As for the course, yeah not so much thinking done about that.

It was pure relief, therefore, to finally break the cool, clear water with my first splash and begin my 40 laps. What a great way to finish the day! Swimming still remains my fave form of excercise.



In other health news, I am now having withdrawals from putting the kybosh on my decaf latte consumption. I gave up caffeine about 4 months ago and slowly started bringing decaf lattes into my life. I've decided that since I was at the point of craving one every day that they can't be too good for me. So, I'm now going to have just one decaf latte a week. But my question is this: How can I be so addicted to decaffeinated coffee? Hmm, maybe those baristas have been playing funny buggers on me...

Love the coffees from Limetree ... a wholesome, fresh and delicious cafe that we frequent each Friday after our long run!

Day One!

Day one of the 100 Day Challenge is here!

I woke up at 5am and bounded out of bed with as much excitement as one can muster at that time of the morning. After a 4 day hiatus from excercise, due to my bad back, I was looking forward to a run. I also felt the very intense need to burn off some of those calories from the weekend ...

Apparently, however, my body was not quite so happy to be excercising. It went into some kind of protest within about 2 minutes of my run. Everything ached and my breathing was so labored it was as though last night's oily pizza had clogged my lungs! I was not a pretty site as I dragged myself around my Mirdif 'loop' - a distance of approx 5 ks.

But ... I did not give up. I did not stop. I did not even slow my pace. There is work to be done on this body, my friends... and work it is that I will do.

And of course, when I got home I marvelled about what a great run it was and how fabulous I felt. Isn't it amazing how once the said torture is over, the mind forgets and your body thanks you??

When I got home, I did a mega foam roller stretch and had a warm shower ... all was well with my world.

Then, to give my body some energy at the end of the day(after a gargantuan day of sitting during a training session), I headed off to the gym and did 30 mins of weights / stretching.

So yup, proud of my achievements for day one!

100 day challenge

This weekend we headed away to what's called 'The Empty Quarter'. This is an amazingly isolated place just on the Saudi / UAE border ... err... hence the name. Honestly, it is one of the most stunning places on earth I have ever been to!

Along with much dune-viewing and relaxing, there was much eating and drinking. So in the spirit of doing things properly, I am doing two things evening. 1. Having pizza and wine for tea to round off a weekend for over indulgence 2. Setting some new health related goals! Hands up if you think there's something wrong with this logic?

So, there are approx 110 days until we depart for our summer vacation ... so I am going to do my 100 day challenge!

Each day I am going to set a goal ... be it food / excercise / mind / balance related. I am also going to record on my blog my daily food intake and excercise! Some may find this boring but I think it will really keep myself accountable.

Main goals
1. To have NO MORE back or knee pain ... I will up the ante on my yoga / foam rolling / stretching
2. To be able to run 20 kms by the end of the 100 days!
3. To do a lot of crosstraining to condition my body so that I can run 20kms! ... swimming / yoga etc
4. To maintain my normal pattern of eating unprocessed, natural and healthy foods.

I also plan to reward myself! Things such as shopping, foot spas, fine dining etc should fit the bill quite nicely! All this will help me to be a tank top and short wearing running machine come June :)

I love being healthy and am looking forward to getting started on the above!

Done!

V happy with myself! After fighting off the bugs that had me way-laid for two days, I managed to run the 10k at the Western Mina Seyahi Hotel today! It was a great route, out along the marina, then through the stunning gardens of the hotel. I didn't feel great running - it was one of those days where I just didn't seem to loosen up ... BUT I still ran the whole thing in a time of 65 minutes! Proud of myself. A group of about 7 of us did it - good times!

I am now laid up on the couch, where I plan to stay for the rest of the afternoon! I will keep ploughing through my new favourite blog losingweightinthecity.com I have 70 more pages to read before I am up to date! I have so far read about 170 pages ... now that is some dedicated blog reading! Ummm, I'm thinking my run will counteract the extreme couch session that I am planning :)

In other fitness news, I decided I would purchase a foam roller. I went with the mini edition, so 'only' parted with 40 bucks instead of 80 bucks for the full size one. I just put it to use and loved it! I am sure my knees, hamstrings and other suspect parts of my body will love it too. My wallet, not so much but oh well, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do!

Hmm...

Oh my goodness I take my health for granted. I say this after a night of being violently ill with vomiting and stomach pain so bad that it brought tears to my eyes.

After contemplating a trip to the hospital at 4am, I managed to fall asleep... only to wake up and endure 6 more hours of pain and vomiting :(

Anyway, I must now be starting to feel a little better cos all I can think about is the fact I have to be better by our 10k race on Friday! ... That and wondering if spending 80 bucks on a foam roller to help me with my stretching is a ludicrous amount of money to spend on a bit of foam.

Please stomach, continue to behave, I have exercise to do...

January

January has been wonderful!
I set myself some very clear goals at the start of the month and for the most part I have achieved them.
Achievements:
- Being a very dedicated gym go-er. Body Balance, Body Pump, Yoga... oh how I love these classes! Having lovely friends to attend with makes the workout even more fun!
- My running has improved big time! On a Friday morning, we are now regularly running 10kms. To think that in early November, just after recovering from back troubles, I could barely run 3.5 ks! This Friday we have a 10k run and I can't wait! 10 years ago, who would have thought that such things would excite me so much! Oh, who am I kidding, 2 years ago who would have thought such things would excite me!
- I have been mega healthy ... natural, unprocessed foods. Lots of fruit, veg, legumes and wholegrains. I have had wine on 2 occasions during the month!
- I have discovered some awesome fitness blogs. My fave by a million miles (other than my sister's!) is losingweightinthecity.com. It is simply awesome. Check it out!
- I have 'found' some great new music and have made the most awesome 'Relax' playlist on my I-Pod.

Still to work on / goals for Feb
- Bring reading back into my life! I feel that I feel too much time checking out blogs! Need to find some balance here...
- Work on my sore knee. With all the running we have been doing, my right knee has taken a bit of a beating. To solve this problem, I am pretty sure I need to stretch out my hamstrings and quads a whole lot more than I currently do.
- I am still on the search for some sort of craft that will fit into my lifestyle. I have thought of knitting and crochet - but let's face it, when I live in a climate as hot as this, do I really need woolen products? I then considered embroidery, but I am not sure I have the patience... any tips on a possible craft for me would be much appreciated!
- Sadly, I have let my breathing and meditation slide. My excuse is that we had visitors for so long and our spare room used to be where I did these things each morning. Now that they have all left, I am hoping to get back into it ... at least the meditation part ... I love it!
Hope your January was also awesome!! What were your special achievements for the month?
xx