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Weigh-in #7 - 2014

I gained 2lbs this week.

In the last 2 weeks I've gained 4lbs.

That means I've only lost 1.75lbs since the start of the year.

Awful.

I did eat a lot last week, so I think I deserve the weight gain.

I definitely stress ate before my operation so there's that...

Now it's done I can focus more. Bring back the healthy food.

From Facebook.

Couldn't be bothered to type this out again. Merlin was with the dog sitter while I had my surgery.

Thanks, doctor

So pretty

Ow

My arm and hand are still mostly numb from the nerve block.

Starting to feel pain already.

Kinda feels like really bad period pains but in my wrist. Not really looking forward to the pain when it completely wears off.

I've taken painkillers already too.

I also have an itch under all the bandages. Great.

I've eaten so much the last few days. Need to just not.

Because I have no shame

Paper pants. Oooh yeah.

Sexy look

So this was me this morning

I love him.

Weigh-in #6 - 2014

Gain this week: 2lbs

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Blah.

Bad times, I suck.

Gotta keep on going, though.

Weight lost 2014: 3.75 lbs
Loss from HW: 28.75 lbs

Things are better

I feel much better than a few days ago.

Venting helped. A lot.

I have one regular reader (that I know of, hi Nikki!) and I think a lot of people that stumble across my blog read a bit and then never return.

I'm boring, I know. Sorreeeeeee.

Side note: if you do read, please comment once in a while. I'd love to talk to random faceless internet people. Not that I'm a creeper or anything. Or am I?

Anyway, just venting to practically no-one on the internet let me get it out of my system and I started feeling a bit better within a few hours.

My job is running a bit more smoothly, I'm not stressing as much and the time is starting to pass quicker. That's always good.

I still haven't run yet (it's been nearly 2 weeks... JEEZ) but I'm hoping to squeeze one in before my impending surgery (of doom?).

I'm getting some more blood taken tomorrow before surgery. It's on Tuesday. That's come around so quickly!

I'm not scared right now but I'm sure I will be when I'm actually there. Cue fabulous pictures from a hospital bed. You bet I'm gonna take some selfies.

Here's one from the Almighty Leg Fiasco of 2008:

Maybe I'll write about that injury one day. I still regret not being super weird and asking someone to take a picture of my backwards-hanging foot.

Imagine it.

Horrendous.

My dog is so adorable

Seriously.

Bonus. So much lol.

The last few days have sucked

My sleep is screwed. I’ve had a few nights of not sleeping until the early hours and one of not sleeping at all.

Now I’m tired and just want to sleep all the time.

Every day I regret not going to university and hate that I didn’t have the strength of character to disregard my parents opinions and go anyway. There’s not a chance that I’ll ever go now, considering it would have cost £9k for a degree at the time I was going and it costs £27k now. Even the Open University costs £15k for a degree course.

I feel like my life has no direction and I don’t even know what I want to do for a career long term.

I literally have this same crisis about 4 times a year.

Still eating healthy, just not in the mood for blogging right now.

Haven't run in over a week. 

Yeah, life is great.

OH MY GOD

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Meets_World

SERIOUSLY?!

OMG

I'M SO EXCITED

WHAT THE HELL

MY CHILDHOOD!

Goals Revisited - February 2014

Nothing achieved in January.. lame!

Many goals still outstanding.

Health & Fitness

• Run 5k without stopping
• Run 5k in less than 30 minutes
• Run 10k without stopping
• Run 10k in less than 60 minutes
• Run a 7 minute mile
• Run and finish a half marathon, no time goal
• Finish a sprint or standard distance triathlon, no time goal
• Gain more upper body and core strength
• Have optimal blood pressure instead of normal
• Lose some a lot of fat
• Cut down on smoking   DONE (switched to e-cig Dec 2013)

Diet

• Eat less carbs, eat more protein & (good) fat
• Stop partaking in office 'fat Fridays' EVERY week
• Remember that lattes (either skinny or normal) are not for every day
• Remember that diets don't stop just because it's the weekend
• Remember that eating well still counts even when I'm drunk, hungover, sick etc
• Alcohol in moderation / less frequently :'(

Knowledge & Learning

• Read more nutrition books
• Read more about running, weight training and general fitness
• Learn a language to a good conversational standard
• Dedicate a few hours each week to learning how to play the bass once my wrist is sorted out
• Keep up with current affairs
• Read more novels

Finances

• Save at least £1,000

Travel/Activities

• Thorpe Park!
• Travel somewhere new inside the UK
• Travel somewhere new outside the UK

Personality

• Think before speaking
• Be kind
• Listen
• Be helpful

Miscellaneous

• Stop biting my nails (again)   DONE (Nov/Dec 2013, hopefully I can keep it up!)
• Sing, laugh and dance more

Outlook

• Appreciate everything, even when things are hard
• Learn to view myself in a positive manner

Life

• Be happy

Woke up to my dad yelling "YOU'VE MISSED THE HALF MARATHON"

And thought I'd entered into some parallel universe. 

But no, he just meant that the Watford half is today (we were wondering why there were so many portaloos in the park yesterday).

I sort of knew it was soon but I didn't put two and two together. Smart girl I am. 

I think it started about an hour ago, so I might get dressed quickly so I can cheer on some people.

Maybe I'll be doing it next year since its on my doorstep.

Forgot to mention

We met a lady in the park with a gorgeous dog (who looked like a lion!) called ALBUS DUMBLEDOG! 

1. This is epic

2. Why the hell didn't I think of that name?

3. Merlin made friends with Albus. Perfect. Wizard dog friends. 

Things like this make me love life.

Weigh-in #5 - 2014

Loss this week: 2lbs

Pretty happy with this, although I'm convinced it's muscle that I've lost from being in bed for most of the week.

Weight lost 2014: 5.75 lbs
Loss from HW: 30.75 lbs
Inches lost 2014: 3.5

Not bad, not bad. It's progress in the right direction at least.

Need to step up the diet in February and step up the exercise once my wrist is semi-recovered. Spinning is gonna become my friend again, I think.

Leisurely 3 mile walk

I took some photos along the way.

My two favourite men <3

We saw this tree and it looks like it's been planted recently. I think I'll take pictures in the same spot to see how it grows over the years. Cute idea, yes?

The river in the park has flooded a lot. It's a surprising amount of water. Makes me feel so bad for the people in Somerset, I can't imagine being properly flooded.

Flooding...

A lot of the trees in the park have fallen recently from some tree disease which is rotting the bark. We have a pretty iconic tree in the park, most people call it the Lion King tree. There's a fence around it at the moment to stop people hanging out near it to protect it (I think it's got the same problem). Hopefully it will recover! 

Random fallen tree

I saw this and thought it was so adorable. SO CUTE OMG. I wonder if J and K are still together?

That's pretty much it. 

I do love living so close to the park. It has some really nice walking spots.

The weather is lovely today

I didn't go to sleep until 7.30am and I just woke up. 

Might take a walk in the park. 

Blah. 

Hopefully I'll be able to start running again next week. 

Next race is in April. 

I wonder how I'm going to negotiate running while my wrist is healing. I guess it depends how much my arm hurts! I might just have to go super slow and long. I dunno...

I can't do anything for the first 2 weeks so I'll probably take a few long walks to attempt to compensate.

1 week and a few days till surgery. Eep. It's come around really quick. 

 

It's also a bummer that I've been ill because my friends are having a party tonight and I haven't seen them since before Christmas. 

Rubbish, rubbish. 

Oh well, I'll see them next weekend so it's not too bad. 

Gonna weigh myself, put everyone's stuff in the spreadsheet and have a shower. 

I lead such an exciting life. 

Posts will get more interesting commencing... (?)

Grrrrrrr

I'm so upset and disappointed that I'm not running tomorrow.

Seriously.

This is one of the worst feelings ever.

My stomach is screwed

I'll spare the details.

Still feeling shitty.

Running a race on Saturday is looking really unlikely.

Balls balls balls

FML

Etc

My dog is a little legend

He somehow opened my bedroom door early this morning and has been cuddling with me ever since. 

I can't really ask for anything more when I'm not feeling well. 

I love you, little Mer. 

Urgh

I feel terrible today.

I have a headache and I feel sick and hot.

Slept most of yesterday so I didn't run.

Today I've eaten half a sandwich and a medium mocha (that I nursed for the whole morning).

Great times.

5k on Saturday. I really wanted to cut 5 mins from my time but I feel like that's impossible right now :(

Fastest run ever

But also the shortest. Lol. 

No energy in the tank. 

Might take Merlin out later for a proper walk. 

Weigh-in #4 - 2014

This week I stayed the same. 

Cool. 

Not terrible, but not excellent. Obviously I need to up my game and pay more attention to Le diet. 

Life learning is haaaaard. 

Weight lost 2014: 3.75 lbs
Loss from HW: 28.75 lbs

Went to sleep at 5

That was awesome. Not. 

Been cleaning since 10. About to go for a short run. 

Planning on going tomorrow too so I don't wanna kill myself too much today. Also, tired. 

I ate a treacle and oat biscuit about an hour ago to give me some energy. 

Last night we had chicken breast with a red pepper and cream sauce, crushed carrots with coriander and potatoes cooked in stock and onions (I forget the French name for it). 

I'm probably gonna eat Chinese takeaway for dinner. Not even ashamed. Well, kinda. Haters gon' hate

Just watched Legally Blonde

I have such a cool life.

I watched The Beach before that. I'd never seen it before and I thought it was pretty good.

It's 4am.

This not sleeping is really trying to screw up my running plans.

Not impressed.

Can't sleep

Recurring theme, isn't it?

That, not running as much as I should, and being exhausted.

Welcome to my life.

Cheeseburger for lunch

Not too bad, right? Meat, cheese and bread?

No?

Okay.

#fatty

Treated myself

To a mocha for breakfast. 

Omg, so yum. Haven't had one in a while. 

I reckon it has about a days worth of sugar in it. Oh well. 

Yesterday I had a latte, 3 boiled eggs, 2 crispbreads with peanut butter, an apple with a cube of cheese and chicken breast with salad and mint yogurt sauce. 

Family ordered fish and chips, I had the chicken and salad. Weird. I love fish and chips but I wasn't feeling anything greasy. 

My dinner was lush though. 

Anyway, off to enjoy my coffee and do some work. 

Happy Friday!

I ran, finally

A ridiculously slow 2.68 miles. 

Seriously. 

My pace was at 14:54/mile. Nearly 2 min/mile slower than my pace on Sunday and only 0.68 mile further. 

Whaaaaaat is going on?! 

Glad I hauled my ass out, though. 

Not glad that after approximately 1.5 miles I started to need the toilet. By the time 2 miles came around I was doing the butt clench jog. 

I was going to try 4 miles today, but that happened, so yeah. 

STOP EVADING ME, 4. I WILL COME FOR YOU. 

Now to bath and de-sweatify myself.

Food yesterday

Things wot I ate.

Breakfast - Latte, not pictured.

Lunch - Sushi, edamame, soup. Epic yum. 

Snack - Apple & cheese

 

Dinner - Gammon with orange & veg

Didn't run. Haven't run since Sunday.

This is bad.

I've been so tired the last few days, sleeping like crazy and feel like I'm getting a cold. No energy. Blah.

Must try harder.

Forgetting things

Forgot to blog, forgot to log my runs on Jantastic.

Good job, me.

Still eating healthy food. Just haven't been bothered to take pics or write about it the last 2 days.

Will resume shortly, never fear.

The one time I was really geared up for body pump

And I leave work too late to go. 

Bahhhhhhh. So annoyed.

I really didn't feel like running today

I managed to haul my ass out with some words of encouragement from friends in WhatsApp. So much love for those guys.

I thought I'd just do a mile and see how I felt. Ended up doing two miles. Got a new PB on time for it. Slowly getting fasterrrrrrrrr..

It was hard for me, not gonna lie. I still haven't run for 3 miles straight since the first time. 4 miles is even more elusive. Oh well, I'll get there eventually. 

Now I'm going to relax in my bubble bath. 

Shiiiiiit dude

I just realised that my next 5k is 2 weeks away and I've not really improved in speed for that distance at all. I've only improved in that I can actually jog it all (on a good day), but it's slow.

Damnit, February was so far away in December!

Must get a decent run in tomorrow.  I've wanted to do get a 4 mile in since the day I did 3 without stopping. Today is definitely not that day, but tomorrow might be.

Crapcrapcrap.

2 weeks.

Maybe the race adrenaline will make me faster.

Need to get all my runs in next week for sure. This week has been terrible, I only ran once.

Blah.

Weigh-in #3 - 2014

Loss this week: 2.5lbs

Yay!

Very happy with this, although I'm concerned that I might be slightly dehydrated from last night and that is skewing the results.

Oh well.

Weight lost 2014: 3.75 lbs
Loss from HW: 28.75 lbs
Inches lost 2014: 2.5


Seeing the word 'lost' so much looks funny. As in, weight 'lost' makes me think of something you want to find.

It should definitely be something like "weight disposed of" instead.

Tired ramblings...

Friday

Friday started with a coffee. Croissants and cakes were had in the office, but I didn't have any.

Win.

For lunch, we had Italian. It was excellent. I had veal in breadcrumbs with zucchini and it was DELICIOUS.

But then I felt sick for the rest of the afternoon. And tired. Always tired.

Friday night, I went out for my friends' birthday. I was so not in the mood (tired, menstruating, nauseous...) but I went anyway. I had about 3 drinks the whole evening (didn't wanna drink because I wanted to run today), so that was good.

Didn't get home till 4.20am though, so I've pretty much been asleep the whole day. I haven't run today and it's likely that I won't, unless I get a random burst of energy in an hour.

Today I've eaten a cheese sandwich, a packet of pom bears and 3 quality street. I also had a cheese sandwich when I got home this morning. Clearly, I like cheese sandwiches...

I'm going to have steak and chips for dinner tonight. Wooooo. Love steak.

And maybe some ice cream.

So tired (again)

Yesterday was very uneventful. Didn't run (boooooo, fail).

Can't go today because I'm going out tonight.

Hopefully I'll get at least a mile done on both Saturday and Sunday.

Yesterday breakfast was a latte, lunch was leftover thai curry and dinner was a chicken shish kebab with a naan bread & a small handful of chips.

Not too bad, not great.

Breakfast today is a latte again.

Too many lattes...

So tired!

Blah. 

Nothing too exciting happened yesterday.

Food was pretty good. 

Breakfast - 1/2 of a 4 egg omelette with onion, chorizo and ham & a vitamin water (only because I really wanted some kind of juice and this had the least sugar) 

Lunch - bbq pork and sweet potato mash, it was pretty yummy and filling (though the sweet potato mash was only 33% sweet potato and 67% normal potato...) 

Dinner -  Thai curry and rice. You can't really see, but I had the tiniest amount of rice! Also, this rice had more fibre than the brown rice I was going to buy. Awesome. 

Snacks (no pic) - 2 satsumas 

The end. Must go to work now.

**PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT**

Do not attempt to approach the menstrual Ani. If you do so, it is at your own risk. We advise that if approaching the menstrual Ani is necessary, you offer one or more of the following to mitigate the risk of a rampage:

*A warm, soft blanket
*Chocolate
*Cuddles
*A hot water bottle
*A mug of green tea with mango & lychee
*Painkillers

Food (again)

I think I need to stop posting pics of my food for a while. It's kind of boring, no?

Anyway, since I have them, here are the pics from today.

Breakfast - leftover chicken/pork made into a patty with 2 scrambled eggs (please ignore the dirty cooker, thanks)

Lunch - Ham with tomatoes and lettuce, small slice of wholemeal bread and dairylea (not pictured)

Dinner - balsamic fig stuffed pork with buttered spring greens

Snack -  a banana (not pictured)


Dinner was especially yummy. Lunch was pretty boring.

Oh well.

I have the blogger app on my new phone and it works finally, hooray! Points for letting me write posts on the go and upload pics from my phone instead of having to email them to myself EVERY TIME, minus points for not being able to arrange the photos within the text.

Here's a picture of my adorable phone case:

The only downside is that when I take pictures with flash, the white of the case near the camera reflects so the photos aren't clear. Hm.

Anyway, goodnight!

Very slow 3.3 miles done

Urghhh. So slow! 

My ankles started acting up about 10 minutes in. I really wanted to get 4 miles done tonight. 

Oh well, at least I got out. That's the main thing, right? 

I'm currently in the bath. Gonna cook dinner when I'm done. My life is so exciting!

Owwww

Sometimes I suck at life

Definitely didn't make it to the gym tonight.

I gave myself a headache because I was stressing over my phone (which was fixed in the end) and I was pissed and grumpy and I think I needed a snack because I felt a liiiiittle nauseous. I'm also ridic tired from not sleeping till past 2am last night, so there's that.

Fun Monday.

Set my alarm early in an attempt to run in the morning. If I don't make it then I'll get out in the evening.

Wish there were showers at work, I'd totally do my run on lunch.

So today I ate...

Breakfast - large latte (coffee cup not pictured)

Lunch - salmon with watercress, spinach and rocket (no dressing)

Dinner - courgette 'pasta' (just thinly sliced courgette, but it was a pretty good substitute) and turkey/pork meatballs (I lost the other pack of turkey, dunno how, so I used the pork mince instead)

I also had a biscuit.

So there we go. Food, done.

Things that are not cool

When you're eating salmon and there's a bone.

Gag.

Sunday foodings & Monday musings

Late post, couldn't be bothered last night. Sorryyyyyyy.

Here's what I ate.

Brunch - halloumi, bacon, avocado, tomato & basil on durum wheat toast.

Dinner - short rib & ox cheek stew with cabbage & mashed potato

Dessert - strawberry & lychee gateau, mince pie.

 Snacks - an orange & 5 quality street.

Didn't get up early enough to make breakfast since I didn't go to sleep till after 2am (surprise). Merlin also decided to start whining at 6am. Cool.

Got a latte for breakfast. Not winning.

Need to run today since I missed yesterday. This week is a bit annoying because I'm going out Friday for a friend's birthday so I need to fit all my runs in a shorter space of time. I'm gonna try not to drink. Hm.

The gym is booked up for the classes I want. Body Pump has space for tonight (but I need to run tonight) and it's fully booked for Thursday. Annoying. Come March they'll probably have space again.

Maybe I should do Pump tonight and run Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and Friday so I'll at least get 3 runs in (my exercise week runs Sunday - Saturday, bizarre I know). Definitely not gonna make a Saturday run if I go out on Friday night, regardless of alcohol consumption.  Although me getting up on Friday morning to run is questionable so I might have to suck it up and go on Saturday anyway if I miss Friday.

Scheduling is funnnnnn.

Can't wait till I can actually haul my ass out of bed and run in the mornings again. I miss that.

No run today

Blah, lazy.

I was so tired that I napped away the afternoon.

I think I might be fighting off a cold because this morning I had a random craving for orange juice (I pretty much never drink orange juice) and when I woke up from my nap I inhaled an orange.

Weird.

Oh well, maybe tomorrow. Got 10 miles done this week, which is more than I've done in a while so I'm pretty happy.

Saturdays are my favourite

Apart from the fact that I didn't get to sleep till 4.30am. That's definitely not my favourite.

This morning I weighed in, then cleaned the house with mum before dropping Merlin off (late, eep!) at the groomer. Then we went to get groceries. Eating healthier is definitely cheaper, the shopping bill was about £50 than Mum's usual. Cool times.

I didn't eat until 2pm. I had 2 bridge rolls with ham and cheese (pictured next to my Dad's rolls for size comparison haha) and an almond croissant.

Then, even though I was hella tired, I hauled my ass out to run. With my sweatband. I look like a dick (pictured below for your viewing pleasure). So much pink.

It was shorter than my last, but a lot faster (just over 1min/mile!). I did 2.5 miles total but walked the rest of the way home with a couple of mega short (i.e. 5 - 10 second) sprints.

My overall pace adjusted to the same as my last run so I'm quite pleased (stopped my Garmin after the running part but carried on GPS tracking with the ZR app). I'm sure this means that I'm getting faster.

Even though I'm still slow.

Whateverrrrrrr.

My sweatband was awesome and my face remained nice and dry! Lets see how it holds up for a longer run.

I picked up some steaks for me and my grandma to have for dinner. They were beautiful.

Sexy, sexy steaks

I made a steak sandwich with caramelised onions, ketchup (obv) and homemade oven chips. It was pretty phenomenal.

And now, I'm going to munch on this before I sleep.

Yep, I drink my milk with ice. What?

I sort of feel like I've eaten the worlds supply of sugar today...

And carbs.

But believe it or not, this is much less than I have on the weekends usually. Normally lunch on Saturday is lots of bread and some cake and dinner is usually a takeaway.

Doing better, but there is definitely room for improvement.

Baby steps, baby steps.

Good night, internet.