Dutch girl is healthy

As mentioned in my post on Monday, I was inspired by the movie Julie & Julia to make my own cooking project. Well here it is:

Fran’s cook book project:

365 days
69 cook books
212 recipes

32 cooking magazines (12 x koken & genieten, 8 x Jamie, 12 x Light koken)
64 recipes

Total number of recipes to cook: 276

I have written before that I have about 80 cook books. Some of them I haven’t used although I have them for years. My project is to use 69 of my cook books in the next year and cook 2 to 3 recipes from every book. I also have a subscription to three cooking magazines and I want to cook at least 2 recipes from every new issue before the next one comes out.

I love to cook and I’ve said more than once I want to use my cook books more but I still don’t do that enough. The project starts Tuesday May 22. This is my birthday and I thought that is a perfect date to start with the project.

It may seem a lot of recipes, after all a year has 365 days, but the recipe can be anything: breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, pie or cake, snacks. It will happen I use more than 1 recipe a day.

I’m not going to post the recipes on my blog because all my cook books are in Dutch and we use different measures. It’s too much work to translate them and recalculate the ingredients. But I will look up on the internet if a recipe I made is online and if so, I will post the link.

My Friday post will be called “The Food Edition” as of today. I have made a new page where I will update the progress weekly.

Hope you will enjoy this cook journey with me.

Have a great weekend!

Thursday

Yogalates Energizer, lower body. After not feeling too well on Wednesday this was just the workout I need.
Total time: 32 minutes.

Friday

Rest.

Saturday

It’s becoming more a normal thing than an exception: a bad run. I had a wedding the night before, I took it easy on the alcohol but we went to bed late and I was on my feet (high heels) all night. I woke up tired but did go out for a run because the weather was gorgeous. But it didn’t go well, I was tired and my calf was hurting again.

But enough with the excuses. I’m going to take better care of myself and my calf and plan my runs better. If I have a party or something I will plan my run before the party instead of the day after.

Stats:
Weather:dry, sunny, windy, 10C (50 degrees)
Distance: 3.8 K / 2.3 miles
Time: 00:28:49
Average time: 07:35 /km
Average speed: 7.91 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: Michael Jackson – Off the wall

Sunday

Rest

Monday

Chalean time. I did 2 workouts. The first was Burn it off and is a HITT workout. Great workout although I said no to the burpees she offered. Those are so hard (right Shelley?). I still can’t do them. After that I did a workout called Recharge that is a stretch workout for about 20 minutes. So good, I love a good stretch every now and then.
Total time: 47 minutes.

Tuesday

This was taken at 6 am, I love it how light it is during my morning runs now.

Tempo run. Total running time went to 35 minutes this week (last week 30 minutes) and the tempo intervals from 3 to 4 minutes. Today I had to do 1 tempo interval of 4 minutes (next week 2 and so on).
This was a good run! I felt good (except from soreness in my but from Monday’s workout) and my calf didn’t hurt at all. Came home happy!

Stats:
Weather:dry, bit of wind, 8C (46 degrees)
Distance: 5.1 K / 3.1 miles
Time: 00:35:16
Average time: 06:55 /km
Average speed: 8.68 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: Melissa Etheridge – I run for life.

Wednesday

 X-TrainFit Cardio. I did some other workouts from this program, that were weight workouts for a particular body part. Today it was just Cardio and I found this workout pretty boring. A lot of the same and all cardio (like jumping jacks, speed skaters, and so on). Since I’m a believer that you have to do something you like otherwise you probably stop doing it, I won’t do this workout again.
Total time: 46 minutes.

Weekly review

I switched my runs this week. Normally I run on Monday and Wednesday but this week on Tuesday and Thursday. This is because tomorrow it’s Ascension Day which is a Christian holiday here in Holland, which means my weekend has already started today. My company is closed on Friday (so is R’s) and we have a 4-day weekend.

Poor Bella, I haven’t walked with her that much. We did short walks everyday but I only “count” the longer walk in a day. I just didn’t feel much like walking, especially not at the weekend. I’ll make it up to her next week.

I want to thank you all for your positive and lovely comments on my Monday post. I still think I made the right decision. Come back on Friday when I reveal my new project that is all about cooking.

Tags: Chalean Extreme, Running, X-Trainfit, Yogalates

Daily stuff:
As you can see I’ve got a new blog lay-out. Time for a change as this blog is changing because of a new project I’m starting but mostly because of a new attitude.

The biggest change is the title of my blog. I’ve changed it in “Dutch girl is healthy”.

I’m turning 44 next week and in the past decade I’ve tried so many diets and nothing really worked. I did manage to lose 10 kg (22 lbs) in those 10 years. I’m done with dieting but even more done with the whole weight loss thing.

All I want to do as of today is to live a happy, healthy life. I am healthy, I run and exercise 5 times a week and I love my life. Most of the times I’m very happy with the way I look. My body is stronger than it has ever been in my life. Why waist 10 more years focusing on a number on the scale, it’s all about how I feel. I haven’t reached my goal weight yet and maybe I never will but for now I’m perfectly fine with that. I will eat as healthy as possible and keep running and do my workout DVD’s.

I don’t want to get healthy anymore, I already am.

I saw Julie & Julia Thursday night and I loved this movie. Those of you who have seen it will know that Julie cooks all recipes from a cookbook from Julia within a year and blogs about it. It inspired me and made me think about a cooking project for myself. I’m still working on the details but all will revealed in my Friday’s post.

Friday night we had a wedding to go to. A friend of R. whom he knows for over 30 years got married. He’s over 50 and this is his second partner but his first marriage. The party was a traditional Dutch wedding party: music and dancing. His wife sang a Dutch song for him, translated title: I love you. It made him cry but it made me cry too. It was so sweet to see and she’s a good singer too.
But, as you know me, it wasn’t an early night. This time I was in bed at 1 am but it was worth it, it was a beautiful wedding.

Yesterday it was Mother’s Day (which, of course, you all know) and I bought chocolate at a chocolate store for both our Mom’s. It look like a bouquet but it was made of paper with chocolates in it. You can’t see it very well because of the plastic wrapping paper but it looked very pretty.

I bought 10 chocolates for us too because this shop is really expensive. But the chocolate is sooooooo good, it was worth the money. It has been in my village for almost a year and I had never been there before.

Movies I’ve seen last week

Julie & Julia

What a great feel good movie, I loved it!

TV shows I watched last week
Grey’s Anatomy, Revenge, The Mentalist, Once upon a time, Mad Men.

Knitting update
Almost done with the back of the sweater. I hope to finish it this week.

Tags: Knit, Movies, Things that make life fun, TV, Weight loss

Thursday

Did a workout from The Firm: Total Body Toner. A complete body workout with weights. Nice workout.
Total time: 40 minutes.

Friday

Rest.

Saturday

I had 11K planned but the past couple of days I didn’t feel well. I decided to go out and try it anyway but it wasn’t working. My right calf was bothering me a lot too. Some days it just isn’t happening and you have to take your “loss” which I did. At least I did something.

Stats:
Weather:dry, clouds, windy, 10C (50 degrees)
Distance: 3.2 K / 2 miles
Time: 00:23:11
Average time: 07:15 /km
Average speed: 8.28 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: The Village People – YMCA.

Sunday

Rest.

Monday

Great run! I saw my first sunrise of this year, weather was perfect for running and I made some new friends: sheep and lambs. They were on a closed bike/walking path where they sometimes let them walk free. You can still walk/bike/run if that’s the case.

I had to do a climax run of 100-100-200-200-300-400-600 intervals. Today went better than last week. I only had two walking breaks and stopped briefly to take a pic of the lambs. I love interval training, it is the hardest run of the week but because of the intervals the run goes by very fast. Pace for intervals: 5:57-6:12

100 time: 5:56
100 time: 5:47
200 time: 5:59
200 time: 6:00
300 time: 6:09
400 time: 6:08
600 time: 6:03

Stats:
Weather:dry, not much wind, 5C (41 degrees)
Distance: 6.3 K / 3.9 miles
Time: 00:43:29
Average time: 06:54 /km
Average speed: 8.69 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: James Blunt – Stay the night.

Tuesday

P90X Shoulders & Arms. I love this program. Sure I can’t do all the reps yet, I don’t use heavy weights but I’m noticing I’m getting stronger and can do more reps. Not only with this program but with all my other weights workouts too.
Total time: 60 minutes.

Wednesday

My second worse run of this year. When I got up this morning I wasn’t feeling well but decided to go out for a run and see how it would go. Well it didn’t. Immediately after I started I felt terrible but I kept trying, I had a tempo run of 30 minutes to do. But after 10 minutes or so the cold sweat was on my back and I had splitting headache. Because I didn’t want to walk all the way back I kept running at a very slow pace and took a shorter route home. When I got home I was ready to call in sick at work but both R. and I aren’t people who do that easily. I decided to take a shower first and strangely enough after that I felt a lot better. Still not a 100% but much better now.

Stats:
Weather:some rain, bit windy, 5C (41 degrees)
Distance: 3.2 K / 2 miles
Time: 00:24:19
Average time: 07:36 /km
Average speed: 7.9 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: I have no idea.

Weekly review

Except for Saturday and today when I wasn’t feeling well, I’m very happy with my other workouts this week.

Tags: P90X, Running, The Firm

Daily stuff:
Saturday evening we had a birthday party for our friend B. (he’s one of R’s best friends and the husband of my friend T.). B. turned 50. In Holland that’s a milestone. The tradition is that we say that the person who turns 50 becomes Abraham (a women becomes a Sarah, related to Abraham and Sarah from the bible). This includes putting a doll in the front yard representing that person’s life and interests:

The doll in front of the house

In my country we honor someone who turns 50 because they have gained wisdom and experience and the 50^th birthday is for most of us a major birthday. At B.’s birthday his brothers and sisters had made a little poem and by the end of the poem he was dressed up like an old man:

The birthday boy before they dressed him up

And after

Then we splitted up in 2 groups: the people who weren’t 50 yet and the ones who already were 50 and sang a song about leaving your fourties and entering your fifties.

We had a great party and I laughed a lot. Again we were home late and in bed by 3.30 am but this time I took it very easy on the wine and was just a bit tired on Sunday.

My 2 friends and me

TV shows I watched last week
Grey’s Anatomy, Once upon a time, Revenge, Touch, King, The Good Wife, Mad Men.

Dinner

Sunday

I stapled the food for dinner: cooked potato slices, spinach, mushrooms, tomato, pork tenderloin and some pepper sauce on top.

For dessert I made French toast which I served with some raspberry/vanilla icecream and fresh strawberries and blueberries.

Tags: Dinner, Friends, Things that make life fun, TV

We had some unvited guests in our pond Tuesday:

Since they didn’t have an invitation, Bella kindly asked them to go away. Which of course didn’t impress them much. So I had to help her to get them out of the pond. They did but just moved to the neighbours pond. A few minutes later they were back but this time Bella didn’t take no for an answer and did get them out of the pond by herself.

Wednesday was my Mom’s birthday. She turned 70. We went to celebrate it on Wednesday evening. Most of the people already had visited her because most of them are retired. It was just us, my sister and her husband and my mother’s brother and his wife.

Today it’s Memorial Day. We remember the casualties of the Second World War and of those who died while being on peace missions. Our flag is flying at half-mast. At 8 pm we are quiet for 2 minutes to remember those who fought for our freedom.

And tomorrow we celebrate our freedom. Then the flag is full in top, there are freedom concerts all over the country and some cities have fireworks.

We are not going to the celebrations because R. is away all day. He has his first motor race of the season. And tomorrow night we celebrate his best friend’s birthday who turns 50 on Sunday. It’s a garden party and unfortunately it’s going to be chilly tomorrow. But that doesn’t mean we won’t have fun.

Knitting update

I made some progress on the sweater. I’m going to finish the back of this sweater first before I continue at the vest. Although I’m not quite sure yet if I am going to finish that one. It looks really small and I think it’s a waiste of time if I finish it and it won’t fit. And I’m too lazy to start over again in a bigger size. I only bought the yarn I needed to start with and have no leftovers of the yellow color. I am going to think about it, haven’t made my mind up yet about the vest.

Have a great weekend!

Tags: Knitting, Things that make life fun

Thursday & Friday

Rest.

Saturday

I posted on FB Saturday morning: Murphy’s law for runners: The rain will start to fall about 5 minutes into your run, and stop about 5 minutes before you finish.

Well that totally describes the run, not only did it rain (not too hard) but there was a lot of wind. Wind I had to run against the last 3K of the run. Besides the weather it was a great run though. I think I will always prefer rainy runs above runs in warm weather. I took a walk break after 40 minutes and again after 50 minutes. The last break was because I needed a break from running against the wind.

My half marathon plan suggests running the long runs at a pace between 7:12 and 7:27 per km. This is even for me, a slow pace and it’s hard to stick to it. I have decided to try to keep my pace on long runs between 7:00 and 7:10 per km which worked out fine this run.

Stats:
Weather:rain, lots of wind, 10C (50 degrees)
Distance: 9 K / 5.6 miles
Time: 01:04:20
Average time: 07:09 /km
Average speed: 8.4 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: Madonna – Like a prayer.

Sunday

Rest

Monday

It was gorgeous weather for a run: sunny, not much wind and not cold. I even had to take my jacket off halfway through the run because I was hot. My first interval training and it was a tough one. My average pace isn’t fast because I had to take some walk breaks after the interval part and even stopped twice to catch my breath. I did 1K for warming up and 1K for cooling down, in between the intervals I ran 400 metres at a slow pace. This one was a pyramid run of 100-200-300-600-300-200-100 metres. My goal was to run the intervals without stopping and at a pace of 5:57-6:12 per km. I reached that goal, I even ran too fast most of the intervals, think that’s why I had to walk that much.

100 time: 5:31
200 time: 5:30
300 time: 5:39
600 time: 5:56
300 time: 5:57
200 time: 5:55
100 time: 5:12

Funny fact: I have a Garmin for about 3 years now and I didn’t figure out till last week how to add an interval workout to it. I used it on this run and it works perfectly.

Stats:
Weather:sunny, not much wind, 14C (57 degrees)
Distance: 6.2 K / 3.8 miles
Time: 00:43:38
Average time: 07:02 /km
Average speed: 8.5 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: Queen – These are the days of my life.

Tuesday

Did 2 Turbofire workouts. I started with a short HITT workout of 16 minutes followed by a Tone workout of 30 minutes. All exercises were done with a resistance band which can be a very tough workout I found out.
Total time: 46 minutes.

Wednesday

Tempo run today. The tempo runs in the schedule I use are running at a normal pace (6:57-7:12 /km) for a certain time and during that run you have to run 1 or more parts at a faster pace (6:27-6:42 /km). Over the weeks the total time of the run will get longer and so will the tempo parts. Today I had to run 30 minutes and do 3 tempo parts of 3 minutes in that run. It went great. I don’t have to walk anymore on 30 to 35 minutes runs.

Stats:
Weather:fog, not much wind, 10C (50 degrees)
Distance: 4.5 K / 2.8 miles
Time: 00:30:31
Average time: 06:48 /km
Average speed: 8.8 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bad moon rising.

Weekly review

I feel great. Running 3 times a week and do 2 DVD workouts works perfectly for me. It feels I finally find my workout balance: 5 times a week and early in the morning.

Monday my training plan for the half marathon started. I already signed up for the one I want to do: it’s the half marathon of Amsterdam in October. This is the biggest half marathon (and marathon) in the country with lots of participants from all over the world.

In my plan I built in recovery weeks and planned around our vacation in June.

The actual plan exists of 4 runs a week but 1 run is a kind of recovery run of 20 to 30 minutes which I replace with a DVD workout. This means I will do an interval, tempo and long run every week.

I like the building up of the long runs the most, you take a step back every week or 2 weeks. For example my first weeks looks like this: 11K, 9K, 10K, 11K, 13K, 11K and so on. I don’t have to run a new distance every week but can take my time to get to the 21.1K.

Tags: Half marathon, Running, Turbofire

Daily stuff:

Poor Bella. Friday I was playing with her with the ball and she seemed to step on something and walked with a limp for a few seconds. But this kept happening Friday and Saturday morning, everytime just for a few seconds. We couldn’t find anything and R. called the vet Saturday morning. Luckily he could come the same morning. I just came home from my run all wet and sweaty and had to shower first so I didn’t go with them.

The vet examined her and said she had a broken toenail and he had to rip it off. He could do it with a local anaesthesia but that would mean she would be sick all day. He said it would only take a minute and R. decided to do it without anaesthesia. He said she screamed and he didn’t like it at all but it was done quickly and after that Bella was fine again. The vet gave her a cool blue bandage and said the toe nail would grow again. I’m glad I wasn’t there because I’m a chicken and am sure it would have broken my heart to see her in pain.

She’s fine now, it doesn’t hurt anymore, it’s still a bit red but it’s not open. She’s back to her old self.

After weeks with temperatures colder than normal for this time of year and lots of rain, suddenly today was a gorgeous day with sunshine and temperatures of 24C (74 degrees). Finally no socks or panties and no coat when going out. I love it, especially since it is a national holiday and we didn’t have to work. We spent the day mostly at home, we did go out to a garden centre to buy some plants for our garden. Unfortunately it’s just 1 day because forecast tomorrow is again colder weather with rain.

TV shows I watched last week
Grey’s Anatomy, The Big Bang Theory, Once upon a time, Revenge, King, The Good Wife, 2 Broke Girls, Mad Men, The Mentalist.

I totally missed the start of Mad Men a few years ago on Dutch television and regretted it because it’s got such good critics. The movie channel that we have started airing this show from Season 1 and I watched the first episode and I like it a lot. Going to keep watching this one.

Cross Stitching

This is what I worked on this weekend.

Workout results April 2012

Results April:

• I’m happy with how I did this month.
• I reached one of my goals which is 30 minutes running without walking.
• I ran a 5K race and it went fine.
• I decided to train for a half marathon again.
• Total time I did something (including walking): 20 hours and 43 minutes.

Workouts April:

Running. Done: 10
Strength training. Done: 4
Yogalates/Stretching. Done: 1
Cardio. Done: 3

Workouts:

Number and time of workouts in March: 20 workouts, total time 11 hours and 32 minutes.
Number and time of workouts in April: 18 workouts, total time 10 hours and 38 minutes.

Running goals:

Yearly mileage
Total April: 55.4 K / 34.2 miles

Total till 04/30: 177.3 K / 110 miles
Total running time: 20 hours and 39 minutes

Races:
April 22: Sherpa Ladies Run, 5K, time 00:33:32.

Personal records I want to achieve:
Run a   5K < 32 minutes
Run a 10K < 1.08
Run 30 minutes without walking -> did it!

Tags: Bella, Cross stitch, TV, Workout review

First I want to thank you all for the lovely words and positive comments on my half marathon plan. Official training starts Monday and I look forward to it. I always love training for a certain goal.

I have a 4 day weekend. Today was my usual day off and on Monday it’s a national holiday because it’s Queen’s Day. There are festivities everywhere on Monday but we have no plans to go anywhere. R. is finishing his motor bike because his race season starts next weekend. But it’s nice to have 4 days off.

Today 2 years ago we drove 1.5 hours after dinner to watch a puppy Cairn Terrier. When we came home a few hours later we brought home Bella. I can’t believe she’s with us for 2 years already, time flies. She’s such a happy dog, she makes us smile every day. I’m glad we found her. She was the last one left, all the other puppies were gone 2 weeks earlier and I like to think that Bella has been waiting for us.

27-04-2010

27-04-2012

Knitting update

I finished the back of the vest. It looks a bit small but I have to iron and press it when everything is ready before I put it to one piece. Now two fronts and two sleeves left to go.

Have a great weekend!

Tags: Bella, Daily life, Knitting

WARNING: LONG POST!

Thursday

The Firm Express Sculpt. Short weights workout that targeted a little bit of every bodypart.
Total time: 20 minutes.

Friday and Saturday

Rest.

Sunday

Sherpa Ladies Run, for a short recap see my post on Monday.

Garmin time: 00:33:32
Official time: 00:33:42
Place: 510 out of 715.

Photo’s still not online.

Stats:
Weather:dry but also rain, sunny, windy, 10C (50 degrees)
Distance: 5 K / 3.1 miles
Time: 00:33:32
Average time: 06:42 /km
Average speed: 8.9 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: Bonnie Tyler – Holding out for a hero.

Monday

X-TrainFit Arms. Workout completely focussed on triceps, biceps and shoulders. Two sets of exercises. This is really a good program. I like the instructor and there are always 3 people doing various modifications of the exercise. I usually do the most difficult one but if it’s too hard, it’s nice that you can do a modification and still finish the exercise.
Total time: 48 minutes.

Tuesday

First tempo run of my new schedule. I’ll explain next week what a tempo run means for me. Today was the first day I could run outside the village and how I missed that. No traffic, just the early birds and other animals and ¾ of the run daylight. Enjoyed my run very much.

Stats:
Weather:dry, not much wind, 8C (46 degrees)
Distance: 4.4 K / 2.7 miles
Time: 00:30:04
Average time: 06:50 /km
Average speed: 8.8 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: Boys Town Gang – Can’t take my eyes of you.

Wednesday

Jillian Michaels Banish Fat Boost Metabolism. This is a cardio workout, it’s split up in 7 circuits of 6 minutes. I didn’t do them all, just 4 out of 7 and the warming-up and cooling down. This is not her best DVD but still okay enough to do it again.
Total time: 37 minutes.

Weekly review

What’s next?

After 2 DNF’s last year (due to the weather) and not starting at the half marathon I signed up in October, I had a kind of mental running breakdown as you know. It has taken me about 6 months to get my running mojo back and after last Sunday I am convinced it’s back.

It’s amazing how fast you can lose your running base if you don’t run enough and it took me a while before I could run 30 minutes straight again (most of that was mental) and last Sunday I ran the 5K without walking.

But most of my runs in the past months have been about the same distance over and over again and the risk of doing that, is that I get bored. And getting bored means skipping workouts in my case. I need a new goal and different kind of runs. Running without looking at the pace helped me a lot in getting my running base back and listen to my body. In that way it has been good I did it.

Till this morning it wasn’t the plan I was going to tell you but my blogger friend Shelley who ran a 5K without breaks in the same week as I did (which we didn’t know from each other), who ran a 5K without walking breaks last weekend too (again we didn’t know), came with an announcement in her post today with her plan which is exactly my plan (yes you’re right: we didn’t know it from each other).

I’m going to train for a half marathon again.

The original plan was to start training for it and mention it a week before it or something like that. R. thinks I shouldn’t do it and work on getting faster on 5K and 10K but running a half marathon is always in the back of my mind. I just want to finish at least one in my life. Right now, I’m injury free, I’m healthy and I did love the training part for the half marathon. But like Shelley, I’ll start with it and see how it goes.

I’ve chosen a very safe plan this time. It’s a 28 week plan but I start at week 4. The reason the program is so long is that you build up the long runs slowly and do most distances 2 or more times which is good for my confidence. I worked it all out considering my vacation in June, recovery weeks and a 10K I do want to do in September. The plan is to run the half in October. I have 6 months to get ready, that may seem long but I like it. I might do some local races during those 6 months but I decided about those a week before the event takes place.

The plan comes with paces you should use at the different kind of runs. I’m going to use the paces that go with a 31 minute time on a 5K. I have never run that time but the paces that go with that I have run a lot during training. The hardest part will be that I have to run slower on my longer runs than I do now. I’ve compared the paces of my program with the McMillan calculator and they correspond a lot.

Of course I’ll keep you posted how it goes in my workout edition posts.

And I’m closing this last post for my running fashionista’s: one of my running sets needed to be replaced and this is the new set I bought. A very light windjacket, a Capri and two sleeveless tops.

Tags: Half marathon, Jillian Michaels, Running, Runs, The Firm, X-Trainfit