Thoughts:
This is going to be a happy post simply because I am happy.

• As you could have read in my yesterday’s post I’ve lost 2.3 kg / 5 lbs. last month and I feel great. I feel thin and healthy.
• Yesterday and today there were three co-workers who said to me I look great and asked if I lost weight.
• I feel very comfortable with my body right now.
• I get a little more confident every day that this time I actually might reach goal weight.
• My recovery week and going back to Pilates were the best decisions I’ve made in the workout part this year.
• I look forward to Syl’s challenge because it is going to be a challenge: no more excuses when I don’t feel like working out for the next two months.
• I’m happy with Marcelle as my friend even though we haven’t met yet (still hope we will in September). Since I’ve got a Blackberry I can chat with Marcelle for free because she has one too. Since last week we start our day daily by chatting our plans for the day and the weight of the day so  that we stay accountable to each during. During the day we chat about how it’s going. This is very helpful for me and I want to thank you for your support Marcelle.
• I’m happy with K. who’s always supportive and I’m glad she’s one of my best friends.
• I’m happy with R., my love, for many things.
• And I’m happy we found Bella, she makes me smile everyday.

Today I’ve bought online 4 gifts, as soon as I got it in the mail I’m going to send/give it to:

• Marcelle for being my BB help and support day in, day out.
• Syl for hosting the challenge for September and October.
• K. one of my best friends and biggest supporter and who’s so sweet to take my outfit picture every day at work.
• And to myself because I’m worth it too.

Ladies, the three of you all read my blog and I’m not going to tell you what it is, you just have to be patient.

Today it’s September 1st, let the challenge begin!

Exercise:
Last night I went to the Pilates class and loved it. I noticed that my legs are very strong from all the running but also that my muscles have shortened because of the running. Pilates will help me lengthen them again. Also I noticed that my flexibility isn’t it what it used to be. Therefore I will go to this class every week from now on. Man today I feel muscles I forgot I had

Today after work I went for an easy run since it is recovery week. I decided to run at least 20 minutes for the challenge, after I went for 4K, then 30 minutes and ended up doing 5K. Didn’t watch pace just ran at a comfortable pace. I was tired when I finished but not exhausted and was surprised to see it was a fast run (at least for me).

Stats:
Weather: sunny, light wind, 21C/69 degrees
Distance: 5 K / 3.1 miles
Time: 00:33:26
Average time: 6:41 /km
Average speed: 9.0 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: Enrique Iglesias – Bailamos

The final countdown:

Monday
A piece of beef meat, potatoes and broccoli.

Calories: 1453 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: 157 (daily exercise not counted)
Note: First day of the new plan and a good one too.

Tuesday
Again beef, potatoes and red cabbage.

Calories: 1420 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: 125 (daily exercise not counted)
Note: Good day.

Fran’s daily outfit:

Tuesday

Wednesday

Book review:
Sarah’s Key – Tatiana de Rosnay

De Rosnay’s U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d’Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél’ d’Hiv’ roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand’s family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand’s family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay’s 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia’s conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah’s trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down.

When I was reading this book Shelley mentioned in a comment she has read it too and had no idea what happened in France in 1942, she was never told about it in school. I answered her that I too didn’t have an idea that this had happened. We were at war with Germany in the second World War and of course we were teached a lot about the war in school but it was mostly focussed on Holland, I think you all know Anne Frank.

That being said back to the book. It started promising, I could hardly put it away as I wanted to know what happened to Sarah and her brother but when I found out about that I lost my interest in the book a bit. I had expected that the book would be more about Sarah but it was more about Julia. But overall conclusion is that it’s a good book and worth reading.

Weight Challenge August  2010

Starting weight: 89.2 kg (196.6 lbs).
Target weight: 70 kg (154 lbs).

Weight on August 1^st: 80.9 kg (178.3 lbs)
Weight on September 1^st: 78.6 (173.2 lbs) lowest weight in 10 years, woohoo!

This months result: -2.3 kg (- 5 lbs)
Total loss: – 10.6 kg (23.3 lbs)

Fat percentage: 39.8 (last month 40.2)
Muscles percentage: 30.4 (last month 30.4)
BMI: 26.3 (last month 27.0)

Woohoo …………. need I say more?

The plan has worked, I’m very, very happy with this months result. I finished the 4 week plan I followed on Sunday and moved on to another plan from a different book for the month September. I have tracked 31 days in a row (except for the day we had a BBQ party) in August and will continue this in September. It’s to early to say I’m going to reach goal weight this time, first I have to see for myself how September will be going. But so far, so good.

Workout goals 2010, update August

I did reach the goal of 15 workouts this month. The kilometres/miles I didn’t reach probably because most runs in August were a struggle. Hopefully do better in September on this.

Workouts:

Number and time of workouts in July:  16 workouts, total time 10 hours and 2 minutes.
Number and time of workouts in August: 15 workouts, total time 9  hours and  27 minutes.
Goal August: 15 workouts

Goals for  September:

• Watch my pace on every run.
• Run at least 75K / 46.6 miles
• At least 20 minutes of activity every day.

Syl’s September/October challenge:

Waist 88 cm / 34.6 inch
Hips 108 cm / 42.5 inch
Chest 105 cm / 41.3 inch
Upper arm 33 cm / 13 inch

Running goals:

• Goal kilometres/miles in 2010: 900 K / 560 miles.
  Goal August: 75 K / 46.6 miles
  Total August: 57 K / 35.4 miles

  Total July: 76.9 K / 47.8 miles

  Total till 08/31: 376.4 K / 233.8 miles
  Total running time: 44 hours 22 minutes

• Run a 5K < 35 minutes -> 34:06 on 12/13/2009
  Run a 5K < 32 minutes
  Run a 5K in about 30 minutes

• Run a 10K < 1.15 -> 01:11:17 on 03/13/2010
  Run a 10K < 1.10
  Run a 10K < 1.05
  Run a 10K in about 1.00

• Start training for a half marathon -> started on April 19^th

12 months, 12 runs:
In 2010 I want to participate in a run every month.

Runs:
1. March 7, Trappenbergloop Huizen, 4K -> 00:26:51, 8.9 km/hour, 6:43/km.
2. March 28, Zandvoort Circuit Run, 5K -> 00:32:36, 9.2 km/hour, 6:31/km, new PR 5K.
3. April 18, Nike Ladies Run Hilversum, 10K ->01:13:49, 8.1 km/hour, 7:23/km, new PR 10K.
4. August 25, Emiclaerloop Amersfoort, 5K (actual 4.95K) -> 00:32:45, 9.1 km /hour, 6:37/km.
5. September 3, Vathorst Run Amersfoort, 6.6K
6. September 19, Dam tot Damloop Amsterdam, Ladies Run, 4 EM/6.4K
7. October 10, Hoge Veluweloop, 10K
8. November 5, Bergrace by night, 5.6K
9. November 21, Zevenheuvelenloop, 15K
10. December 4, St. Nicolaasloop, 10K
11. December 11, Koude Polderloop, 5K
12. December 31, Sylvestercross, 9K.

Thoughts:

Hooray! I’m in the Pilates class, starting tomorrow night at 7 pm I will go to Pilates every Tuesday night. I’m on the list so always secured that I can follow the class.
In normal workout weeks I will run 4 times, do 1 Pilates class and 1 strength/cardio session from now on.
This week is recovery week which means adding one extra cardio session and only 2 runs and 2 rest days. But as I committed myself to Syl’s challenge starting Wednesday I will do some activity of at least 20 minutes on my rest days, probable will be a long walk with Bella or yoga at the Wii.

Vacations here in Holland are over, this means work is getting busy as always starting this week. I’m so behind on lots of housekeeping tasks at home, need to spend some time on that too in the next weeks. Do I forget something? Oh yes: I need to run and workout too.

Saturday I found a nice surprise in the mailbox. It was the bracelet I won at a giveaway on Syl’s blog: one decision at a time, one bite at a time. Thanks again Syl for this and I definitely will wear it with pride.

Fran’s Summer Challenge:
My Summer Challenge is over. I started it on Monday June 7^th and it ended yesterday Sunday August 29^th. Here are the results:

Goals:

1. Lose some weight every week.
5 out of 12 weeks
The first 7 weeks I gained. When I started my new eating plan and started tracking my food I lost weight 5 weeks in a row.

2. Exercise at least 60 out of 84 days.
42 out of 60 days.
Not a 100% success but not a failure either in my opinion. Could definitely have done better, it’s an average of 3.5 days a week.

3. Do something active every day (this can be working out, running, housekeeping, walking with Bella, going for a ride on my bike and so on) for at least 30 minutes.
70 out of 84 days.
Missed 14 days but overall I’m not disappointed.

4. Run at least two times while we’re on vacation.
Result:done! 100% success.

5. Follow the half marathon plan and don’t skip any runs.
10 out of 12 weeks.
Due to my vacation I did one week in two weeks and I didn’t finish one week which I had to do again.

6. Eat more fruit and vegetables.
10 out of 12 weeks.
The two weeks where I didn’t eat enough fruit and vegetables where my vacation weeks.

7. Try a new recipe at least once a week.
12 out of 12 weeks
I didn’t make a new recipe every week but over the 12 weeks I’ve tried 12 new recipes. 100% success.

8. Take Bella to the beach for the first time in her life.
We did that on July 7^th. 100% success

9. See “Eclipse” (Twilight Saga).
Went to the movies Monday July 5^th. 100% success.

10. Read at least 6 books before August 29^th.
1. Tess Gerritsen – Life support
2. Stephenie Meyer – The short second life of Bree Tanner. 3. Stieg Larsson – The girl with the dragon tattoo
4. Karin Slaughter – Broken
5. Stieg Larsson – The girl who played with fire.
6. Stieg Larsson – The girl who kicked the hornets’ nest
7. Dianne Emley – Cut to the quick
8. Tatiana de Rosnay – Sarah’s key

I’ve read 8 books so far, this part of the challenge has brought my love for reading back. The first half year I didn’t had the patience to make time and read a book but that’s changed again. 100% success.

Overall conclusion: Of the 9 challenges I’ve completed 5 of them and they all happened to be the fun part of the challenge. As for the other 4 I’m not disappointed in myself even though I didn’t met the goals, except for the weight loss, I’ve managed to complete over 50% of this challenges.
The challenge was fun to do and now I’m moving on to the next: Syl’s September Active Challenge.

Exercise:
I was supposed to go to the gym tonight but Bella had been alone all day and R. had to repair my car and I didn’t want to leave her again, she’s still a puppy. So I decided to dust of the Wii and do some Wii fit exercises. It was fun to do again and I am definitely going to use it for the yoga exercises in the future. Did some aerobic, muscle and yoga exercises.
After that I did 89 sit ups. Let me tell you that sit ups are more difficult if you have puppy who’s pulling your hair all the time.

Weekly review week 34:
Monday: Running, 4K/ 2.4 miles, 28 minutes, burned 339 calories.
Tuesday: Lunchwalk of 30 minutes and 67 sit ups, didn’t count this.
Wednesday: Running Emiclaerloop, 4.95K/3 miles, 32 minutes, burned 434 calories.
Friday: Strength training (triceps, shoulders, core), 31 minutes, burned 71 calories.
Saturday: Running, 5K/3.1 miles, 34 minutes, burned 445 calories

Weekly totals:
Time: 2 hours and 5 minutes.
Distance:  13.9 K /  8.5 miles
Burned calories: 1289

The final countdown:

Saturday

Calories: 1955 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: 445 (daily exercise not counted)
Notes: Fell back in old habits: bread for dinner and chips in the evening. Luckily for me it didn’t effect the scale too much this morning but have to be careful from now on with the weekend.

Sunday

A vegetable burger and veggies

Calories: 1703 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: none (daily exercise not counted)
Note: Okay for a Sunday.

Fran’s daily outfit:

Monday

Thoughts:

Syl is hosting a challenge for September. She’s got two challenges:

1. Do the 30 day Shred for 30 days in a row.
2. 20 minutes of activity (walking, running, yoga, fitness you name it) 30 days in a row.

Because I’m training for a half marathon, doing the Shred will case soreness because it did when I did it last time. That’s why I decided to go for challenge number 2. On my rest days I will for at least 20 minutes walk with Bella or do some yoga on the Wii.

If you want to participate, go to her site at Live Smile Run and join us. You can accept the challenge till Monday August 30^th midnight and it starts Wednesday September 1^st.

This challenge connects perfectly to my Summer Challenge which ends tomorrow. More on the final results of that in my next post.

Exercise:

Friday when I got home from work I did a strength training at home. Didn’t want to go to the gym as R. wasn’t home yet and Bella had been alone all day and I felt sorry for her if I would leave her again immediately. I worked on the triceps and shoulders and did sit ups. It’s difficult to workout if your dog is around because she was constantly trying to steal my dumbbells. It was a short but nice workout.

This morning I had scheduled a long run of 9K but when I got up my right leg hurt a bit and I didn’t know if my leg would make it for 9K. I decided to split my 9K run and do half of it today and the other half tomorrow. I watched my pace which was around 7 minutes per km. This was a wise decision because the run felt good all the way, I had some energy left to speed up for the last K. While I was running and it felt so good I decided that I’m going to focus on endurance and not on speed. I have the habit to race my Garmin and try to run as fast as I can which means I collapse halfway or at the end of each run, that’s why my runs have been such a struggle lately. My leg felt good during the run, I could have done that 9K but the rain was pouring down by the beginning and the end of my run and I had enough of that.

Stats:
Weather: rain at the beginning, dry halfway the run, hard rain at the end, little bit of wind, 13C/55 degrees.
Distance: 5 K / 3.1 miles
Time: 00:34:27
Average time: 6:53 /km
Average speed: 8.7 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: Black Eyed Peas – Let’s get it started.

The final countdown:

Thursday

A piece of pork, green beans, rösti

Calories: 1556 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: none (daily exercise not counted)
Notes: Good day.

Friday

A vegetable burger, tagliatelle with a little bit of pesto and low-fat cheese, Italian vegetable stir fried.

Calories: 1842 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: 71 (daily exercise not counted)
Note: I had a birthday party to go to and I ate some peanuts while I was there which is the reason I didn’t stay within my daily goal.

Fran’s daily outfit:

Friday

365 days photo challenge:

Day 30 – Sunday August 22
Mushrooms growing and it’s only August, looks like Autumn has already started.

Day 31 – Monday August 23
My addiction: shoes!

Day 32 – Tuesday August 24
This little Shetland pony lives on this small piece of land in the street where I live.
Every time I see it, it breaks my heart. Not only because she has such little space but the people who own her do nothing with her, she’s just standing there all the time.

Day 33 – Wednesday August 25
My race number and gift afterwards (a wrist band where you can put your key in)

Day 34 – Thursday August 26
It has been raining all day and a lot of water has fallen. Streets were filled with water. In the photo you see by the car that’s driving by how much water there was on the road. It seemed like Autumn even though it’s still August.

Day 35 – Friday August 27
Working out at home (of course Bella wants to “help”)

Finally:
Meet the newest Dutch soccer star:

Thoughts:
Let’s talk about good intentions today, shall we?
So here I was with my new workout plan. I decided to follow a Pilates class once every two weeks.
I called my gym to set the dates I wanted to go and what did they say? “Class is full”

My gym is not that big which I like. They don’t have many classes either which I don’t mind because I don’t follow classes. They have 3 Pilates classes on Tuesday morning, afternoon and evening at 8 pm. As I work my only possibility was Tuesday evening and that’s full. I was disappointed when I heard that because I loved Pilates and was looking forward to getting back to it.

I told her I was disappointed and she asked me if I could join a class at 7 pm which I prefer even more.
Of course I told her yes! They are still looking and planning if they are going to have an extra class at 7 and then put me on the regular list. I can then go every week if I want to and if I don’t go, I call them a few days before so my spot is free for someone else.

Fingers crossed that this class will start and I can get back to Pilates.

Exercise:

Emiclaerloop Amersfoort 08-25-2010
Yesterday my first “race” since April. I did this one last year and it was so hot that day. Yesterday was a lot better, it was cloudy, no wind and because of that a bit humid and 18C (64 degrees). The track was a 2.5K round and you could run 1 to 4 rounds. I choose to do 5K at this run. The first 2.5K went very well, my legs felt good and I had a fast pace. The second 2.5K I was slower. Some parts of the route were very small and the slower runners had to keep right so the faster runners that were doing the 10K could pass. Because of that I had to stay behind some slower ladies a few times which influenced my time. But all things considered I’m happy with my time, it wasn’t a PR but it wasn’t a complete 5K according to Edward and Edward is always leading for me. After all the struggles I’ve had the last weeks with running it felt great that I felt good during this run.

Stats:
Weather: cloudy, no wind, 18C/64 degrees.
Distance: 4.95 K / 3 miles
Time: 00:32:45
Average time: 6:37 /km
Average speed: 9.1 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: John Fogerty with Bruce Springsteen – When will I be loved.

The final countdown:

Tuesday
Little meatballs, couscous, salad of tomatoes, cucumber and red onion.

Calories: 1846 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: (daily exercise not counted)
Notes: Had a dessert of 138 calories which caused that I got over my goal of max. 1700 calories.

Wednesday
Pita breads with chicken, salad and corn.

Calories: 1704 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: 434 (daily exercise not counted)
Note: Good day!

Fran’s daily outfit:
I love who Wednesday’s outfit looks on me, it made me feel thin and happy with my look.

Wednesday

Wednesday shoes

Thursday

Thursday's shoes

Movie review:
Millennium 2: The girl who played with fire

After spending a year abroad, Lisbeth Salander returns to Sweden. She calls on her court-appointed guardian to remind him, in her own way, of his promise to submit satisfactory reports on her behavior. Mikael Blomkvist continues as a editor of Millenium magazine and they are onto a major story about prostitution and trafficking in women from Eastern Europe. When the investigative journalist working on that story is killed, the police announce that Lisbeth is their prime suspect. Lisbeth and Mikael work independently trying to find who is behind the murders. They not only learn the identity of the culprits but also some of Lisbeth’s family secrets.

What can I say, it’s a good movie, as good as the first one. Again the girl who plays Lisbeth is casted perfectly for this part. There were some parts left out of the book but it was not annoying. Can’t wait to see the last film which we will watch next Sunday.

Thoughts:
First things first: my “race season” starts tomorrow. I’m doing a 5K which starts at 7.35 pm in a town which is a 10 minute drive. I’ve done this race last year when it was very hot. I’m glad it won’t be that hot tomorrow. See here for last year’s recap

Lately running is a struggle for me. I can’t remember when I had a good run for the last time. My legs and hips feel tired all the time, even after a rest day.

After reading  Heidi’s plan for increasing her mileage in which she also added recovery weeks it made me think that maybe I need to do that too.
Since I started running in March last year I (never) have hadrecovery weeks. After searching the internet on this topic and an email from Heidi (thanks) I found out that it’s good to take a week recovery after 3 weeks of training.

I’m going to do this so that I won’t lose my pleasure in running and my body can heal. I can feel it needs to heal. Especially for the last 3 weeks, it seems my body is always tired, even after a rest day.

I’ve rescheduled my half marathon plan. Three weeks of the half marathon plan and 1 week recovery. This means I will be finished with the plan on April 10^th. When I finished my new schedule I decided that I will run my first half marathon on April 24^th, Eastern Monday, 2011.

A recovery week doesn’t mean I won’t workout at all because I will. The workouts will be shorter and less intense. Basically a recovery week is:
- 2 rest days
- a Pilates class or WII yoga
- a short cardio and a short strength session
- 2 easy runs, mileage will be approx. 60% of the mileage I’ve run the week prior to recovery.

One other thing I’m going to work on is run my trainings at the pace that goes with it. I’m running to fast now on almost every run which also can explain why I’m so tired all the time. I’m going to take the time I run tomorrow on the 5K as a starting point. Running at the right pace will be one of my September goals.

I hope this will help me to become a better runner and that not every run will be a struggle. My first recovery week will be next week.

I love to hear your opinion on this. Do you add recovery weeks to your schedule and what do you do in these weeks?

Exercise:
Monday morning at 5.30 am I went out for my run and it was dark, darker than I expected. I ran my usual route but 60% of this route has no lights at all. I know the route but I didn’t like it that much. I wasn’t scared, I live in a safe village but the fact that I didn’t see much was annoying. So have to map a new route through the village where there are more lights. I don’t prefer that but I’ll have to accept it during Autumn/Winter. The run itself was terrible, I didn’t enjoy it either. It seems I don’t have any good runs anymore lately and hope that will come back soon.

Stats:
Weather: a bit of rain, a light wind, 15C/59 degrees.
Distance: 4 K / 2.4 miles
Time: 00:28:33
Average time: 7:08 /km
Average speed: 8.4 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: Pink! – Please don’t leave me.

The final countdown:

Sunday

Chicken breast from the grill, stir-fried spinach with onion and garlic, couscous.

Calories: 1664 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: (daily exercise not counted)
Notes: I’ve noticed that I fell back in old habits this weekend. This is what always happens after about 3 weeks. Usually I let go of my healthy way of living but not this time. I’ve picked it up immediately on Monday.

Monday
Beef with red pepper, onion and tomatoes with little baked potatoes.

Calories: 1429 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: 339 (daily exercise not counted)
Note: Good day!

Fran’s daily outfit:

Monday

Shoes Monday

Tuesday

Shoes Tuesday

Thoughts:
Thanks for the comments about wheather or not let co-workers about your blog. I’m going to stay with my point and don’t share it with co-workers. It’s something for me. Sure it’s a public blog and anyone can read it if they want to but they have to do some research before they found me. I didn’t link my blog on my Twitter and Facebook (which I hardly use) account for that reason.

Amy said this in her comment “Plus I guess most people probably are a lot less interested in us than we would like to admit!” and I think that’s true. I know only about 3 people in my daily life that they read my blog for sure. More people know about it but I think they don’t take the time to read it. That’s fine by me. The thing I like about blogging is “getting to know” people from different countries and it’s a way to talk about your running/weight loss with people who are running or in a weight loss journey too.

I just keep going writing my blog and reading yours and appreciate your comments. And keep work and private still private as I always have done.

Exercise:
Woehoe … I DID IT! I ran my first 11K ever! But it was a tough one. The first 7K I was doing great but between 7 and 8K it became a struggle till the end. I still start off on my long runs too fast. My pace should be around 7:12 / 7:29 per K but this run it was 7:08 per K. Considered the fact that my first K’s were below 7 minutes, overall I ran too fast. I need to slow down at the beginning so I won’t collapse at the end. Something to work on. That being said: I’m damn proud of myself I did it!

Stats:
Weather: sunny, hardly any wind, 19C/66 degrees.
Distance: 11 K / 6.8 miles
Time: 01:18:29
Average time: 7:08 /km
Average speed: 8.4 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: Madonna – Like a prayer.

Review week 33:
Monday: Running, 4.3K/2.6 miles, 30 minutes, burned 362 calories.
Tuesday: Cardio workout, 43 minutes, burned 263 calories.
Thursday: Running, 3K/1.8 miles, 20 minutes, burned 264 calories.
Saturday: Running, 11K/6.8 miles, 1 hour and 18 minutes, burned 943 calories.

Weekly totals:
Time: 02:51:00
Distance:  18.3 K / 11.3 miles
Burned calories: 1832

The final countdown:

Friday
A salad with smoked chicken breast, cucumber and cherry tomatoes with a dressing of olive oil, vinegar and mustard. I had an Italian bread with it which I didn’t finish completely.

439 calories

Calories: 1695 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: none (daily exercise not counted)
Notes: Stayed below 1700 calories even though I gave myself a treat. It was a cookie with lots of butter which I bought at the bakery, total of 422 calories. But I had normal meals during the day so it didn’t do much “damage” to my daily total.

Saturday
A salad with fricandeau, pickles, croutons, pasta and a bit balsamico dressing. 379 cal.

379 calories

Calories: 1566 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: 943  (daily exercise not counted)
Notes: I fell back at an old habit in the evening. I had some chips, not as much as I used to eat on a Saturday night but still. I’m not happy with that because it’s got a lot of calories and I don’t want to go back to that habit. So got to leave the chips alone. Lucky that my dinner had not that much calories so overall I stayed within my goal.

365 days photo challenge (day 22-29):

Day 22 – Saturday August 14
Been so tired all day, all I wanted to do was going into this …

Day 23 – Sunday August 15
Walk in the forest

Day 24 – Monday August 16
Sweaty face after a hot run. You can see I’m not that happy after a hot run.

Day 25 – Tuesday August 17
My Blackberry is finally here.

Day 26 – Wednesday August 18
Returns almost every day: cooking.

Day 27 – Thursday August 19
Bella wants to help cleaning but it’s more molesting the feather duster.

Day 28 – Friday August 20
Fresh cherries, they were so big and tasty.

Day 29 – Saturday August 21
Watching R. at a motor race, he’s number 11.

Thoughts:
I’ve been wanting to eat something sweet for two days now. Up till now I haven’t give in to that thought but tonight I’m going too. I’ve bought something at the bakery this afternoon which I’m going to eat with my coffee tonight. It’s high on calories but it’s my first real treat since I started this plan 3 weeks ago and I’ve lost 1.8 kg / 4 lbs so far. I deserve it!

A few friends of mine and R. and 1 co-worker (not K. she’s a friend) know about my blog. I choose myself who I want to know about it. F.e. I don’t want some family members to read it. That’s why you can’t find my blog under my real name.

Today 2 co-workers of mine saw my new Blackberry and asked if I was going on Twitter now too. I told them I’ve been on Twitter for a while now and that I also got my own website which I use for blogging.

They’ve asked me if I would give them the link but I refused that. I don’t want people at work to know about and read my blog. It’s not that I have secrets, everybody knows I’m trying to lose weight and am a runner. It’s more that I show you photos of my personal life and tell stories of my personal life which I don’t share with co-workers. I don’t tell that much about myself at work, only to a few people.

So that comes to my question: do you have a problem with it if everybody in your personal life could read your blog? Maybe they do already. Or do you have restrictions like I do.

Exercise:
Yesterday morning I went out at 5.45 am for my morning run. According to schedule the short run. Didn’t watch pace just ran and it was a great run.

I also decided to try the 200 sit ups challenge and I took the initial test yesterday and did 40 sit ups.

Stats:
Weather: cloudy, dry, hardly any wind, 15C/59 degrees.
Distance: 3 K / 1.8 miles
Time: 00:20:15
Average time: 6:45 /km
Average speed: 8.9 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: Amy McDonald – This is the life.

The final countdown:

Wednesday
Dinner: chicken breast out of the oven, mashed potatoes, green peas.

Calories: 1497 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: none (daily exercise not counted)

Thursday
Pasta with meat out of the oven and a salad.

Calories: 1709 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: 264 (daily exercise not counted)
Notes: This meal was very tasteless, not a keeper in my cooking library.

Fran’s daily outfit:

Thursday my day off so casual, no one around to take my photo so had to do it myself.

Thursday

Friday

Friday's shoes

Thoughts:
I’m like a child in a candy store! Yesterday I got my Blackberry and I’m totally addicted after 1 day. I love it. I’ve been playing with it a lot today, luckily it’s not too busy at the office right now. It’s really a great toy.

Exercise:
Yesterday I started cardio training again. The plan is to do it once every two weeks.

I’ve got some schedules from the internet and they are build on heart rate. At running my heart rate is very high so I can use some training to keep it under control. Schedule:

10 minutes stationary bike 70 RPM, max. HR 120
15 minutes speed walking 6.1 km/hour, max. HR 125
15 minutes stationary bike 80 RPM, max. HR 125
3 minutes stationary bike 60 RPM, max. HR 89

It was a great workout. Time: 43 minutes.

The final countdown:
I’ve taken pictures of almost every meal for the last two weeks to give you an idea what I’m eating. As from yesterday I go back to only dinner pics and an overall review of the calorie intake of the day. I’m still tracking and will keep tracking because I’m on the right way and that way is downhill!

Monday
Dinner: minced meat from the grill, baked little potatoes and a salad.

Calories: 1546 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: 362 (daily exercise not counted)

Tuesday
Dinner: steak tartare, potatoes, mixed vegetables.

Calories: 1282 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: 263 (daily exercise not counted)
Notes: Didn’t eat enough but I wasn’t really hungry either. For one day I’m okay with this but I have to stick around 1500 calories otherwise there will be a moment when I start binging.

Fran’s daily outfit:

Tuesday

Wednesday

Movie review:
Millennium 1: Men who hate woman (The girl with the dragon tattoo)

Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet’s disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vanger’s are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

After reading the books I wanted to see the movies too. The movie is in Swedish which is funny because it has similar words with Dutch. I liked the movie very much, a few parts from the book were left out but that’s not really a problem. The girl who played Lisbeth Salander was very good casted, she acted great. Mikael Blomkvist was okay too but I liked him more in the book. We’re going to watch part 2 and 3 soon. I’m also curious how the US version of the movie will be with Daniel Craig as Mikael Blomkvist.

Thoughts:
Yesterday afternoon we took Bella for a walk in the forest. We let her run without her leash and she did great. She kept close to us and listened very well to us. Here are some pics:

Today was definitely not my day:

• We woke up at 5 am of an infernal noise. We both sat straight up in bed. I went out to check what happened and the mirror I recently bought and put on the wall came down and broke in many many pieces.
• I was supposed to run early in the morning but the weather forecast was that there would be heavy rain and strong wind during the night and early in the morning so I planned my run for the afternoon. I was kind of pissed when I woke up and saw that it was dry without wind but by then it was too late to do my morning run because I had to work.
• I’ve been waiting for months till my mobile phone subscription would expire so I could finally get a Blackberry. This afternoon I went to store to get it and heard I had the day wrong: it’s tomorrow. Now I have to wait one more day before I get.
• I finally decided to go back to Pilates every other week. I called my gym this morning to put me on the list for tomorrow evening: it’s full and now I’m on the waiting list.
• When I did my afternoon run it was so humid that it was a struggle from start to finish and again I put a spell on the weather forecast.

Well enough about my joyful day, how was yours?

Exercise:
Today I ran at the end of the afternoon. Big mistake! It was hot and humid so I struggled and struggled and struggled. I had to do 30 minutes with 4 tempo runs in it. I let go of the tempo runs and just did my best to run 30 minutes, didn’t watch pace, just ran. And I made it and that’s what’s important to me.

Stats:
Weather: hot, humid, no wind at all, 25C/77 degrees.
Distance: 4.3 K / 2.6 miles
Time: 00:30:03
Average time: 6:59 /km
Average speed: 8.6 km/hour
Last song on Ipod before finish: Dire Straits – Sultans of swing.

Weekly review week 32:
Monday: Running, 4.4K/2.7 miles, 30 minutes, burned 379 calories.
Wednesday: Running interval, 4.5K/2.8 miles, 30 minutes, burned 341 calories.
Friday: Running, 9K/5.6 miles, 1 hour and 4 minutes, burned 781 calories.

Weekly totals:
Time: 02:04:00
Distance: 17.9 K / 11.1 miles
Burned calories: 1501

The final countdown:

Saturday
Breakfast: 2 whole wheat crackers with chicken and Philadelphia light spread, a slice raisin bread.

197 calories

Morning snack: nothing

Lunch: 1 corn bread with ham, a salad with chicory (bought this at the greengrocer’s) and a glas of yoghurt drink in strawberry/cherry flavour.

271 calories

Afternoon snack: a small glass Chardonnay before dinner.

Dinner: A salad with cucumber, tomato, feta cheese, olives and thousand islands dressing, 2 slices of bread with chicken.

373 calories

Evening snack: a piece of chocolate (70%) at my coffee and some cashew nuts at the party we went to later.

Calories: 1685 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: none (daily exercise not counted)
Notes: Although there was lots of food (bad food) at the party I only had some cashew nuts thanks to eating a good dinner and not to forget a piece of chocolate before I left.

Sunday
Breakfast: 2 toast with scrambled eggs.

361 calories

Morning snack: nothing.

Lunch: skipped it, we weren’t home at lunchtime. Instead I’ve made the brilliant (not) decision to eat some chocolate and biscuits when we were having tea later in the afternoon.

Dinner: steak with pepper sauce, potatoes with garlic and herbs out of the oven, tomato/cucumber salad.

490 calories

Evening snack: Chocolate 70% cacao, a small glass of white wine.

Calories: 1494 (goal 1500-1700).
Calories burned: none, didn’t count the walk in the forest with Bella. (daily exercise not counted)
Notes: I felt bloated all weekend as if I ate too much constantly. When I finally dared to step on the scale this morning I was surprised to see I didn’t gain or lose over weekend. This keeps my motivation to continue high.

Fran’s daily outfit:

Saturday night party outfit

Shoes Saturday night

Monday

Shoes Monday