Category Archives: Bella

May 11 2013

Saturday May 11, 2013: Beautiful day for a walk

Posted on by

We are having a 4-day weekend that started on Thursday. Thursday the weather was lovely and I decided, instead of a walk in my village, to take the car and drive to a park at Castle Groeneveld with Bella. I wasn’t the only one with that idea because it was very busy. Lots of people walking with their dogs or lying in the grass to soak up the sun. Bella was having a great time. Lots of dogs jumped in the water but not Bella, she’s not to fond of water, but she came close.

I bought a new outfit yesterday. I have my birthday coming up and we are going for dinner in a fancy restaurant and next month I have a reception of my formal manager who is retiring. I’m part of the organization together with a colleague of mine and I want to look nice then. I bought a powder pink dress and a blazer with lace. The shoes aren’t exactly the right color and I ordered powder pink pumps online that should arrive today.

Workouts:

Easy Wednesday

I grabbed myself together on Wednesday and went for a run before work. I still had trouble leaving and decided to do just a short run to get back at the running and 15 minutes is always better than doing nothing. I was a bit surprised by the humidity, that wasn’t too nice to run in. But other than that it was an okay run.

Stats:
Distance: 2.3 K / 1.4 miles
Time: 00:16:07

Speed per km: 8.56 km/hour (5.3 miles/hour)

Time per km: 07:00
Weather: dry, not much wind, humid, 11C (52 degrees)

Last song on Ipod before finish: Philip Philips – Home

Long Friday

I had a 7K planned and it has been 2 weeks since I did the 6K. I was a bit concerned if I could do it and came up with a new strategy the day before. I decided to run 1K and then take a walk break of 1 minute. Mentally I only had to run 1K and then have a break which sounded better to me than 7K. When I got outside it was raining and pretty much wind and I almost decided to go inside again. But I said to myself that there would be more rainy runs in the future and if I could do this run it would be good for my confidence. So I went and luckily it stopped raining after 5 minutes but still there was a lot of wind. Again I had luck on my side because I had the wind in my back for about ¾ of the run. I took my walk breaks after a minute and tried not to run too fast and I did it. I came home feeling great.

Stats:
Distance: 7 K / 4.3 miles
Time: 00:50:44

Speed per km: 8.28 km/hour (5.1 miles/hour)

Time per km: 07:15
Weather: dry, windy, 11C (51 degrees)

Last song on Ipod before finish: Blondie – The tide is high.

Jan 31 2013

Review January 2013

Posted on by

Notes January:

  • This month didn’t go exactly as planned due to being sick for a week and 2 weeks of extreme cold (that is for our country). These things happen and you just move on.
  • I have to admit that because this month wasn’t all that great, I took it easy the last couple of days too but have every intention to make February a great month.
  • I lost weight which is a very positive thing.
  • All things considered I didn’t do all that bad compared to December, my mileage was higher than last month too. I’m making progress and that’s what is important.
  • Total time I did something (including walking): 17 hours and 16 minutes.

Workouts January:

Running. Done: 9

Strength training. Done: 1

Cardio. Done: 4

Yogalates/Stretching. Done: 1

 

Number and time of workouts in December: 16 workouts, total time 7 hours and 9 minutes.

 

Number and time of workouts in January: 15 workouts, total time 7 hours and 21 minutes.

Yearly mileage

Total January: 36.8 K / 20.7 miles

Total running time: 4 hours and 22 minutes

Book I’m reading

George R.R. Martin

A Song of Fire and Ice – Book 4 A Feast for Crows

 

I haven’t read in my book for at least 3 weeks now. Sometimes I have these periods where I don’t read that much.

Highlight(s) of the month

My jubilee party at work.

 

Low this month

Sick for a week and very cold weather with snow.

Random

Tonight we went to the vet with Bella for her yearly vaccination. He did a short check up and she’s a very healthy dog. Her weight is exactly the same as last year, at least one of us is maintaining her weight LOL. Does this look like a relaxed dog or not?

 

Tomorrow we are going away for the weekend. I booked a hotel at the beach for 2 nights. Bella is coming too. I booked it at a website that has daily special travel offers and it was a very cheap deal. I’m also checking Groupon daily for dinner offers, so far I’ve scored 3 coupons for dinner at restaurants, all with a 50% discount. It’s been June last year since we last went away and we both are looking forward to it.

Nov 19 2012

Monday November 19, 2012: Mishmash

Posted on by

Daily stuff:
It’s been quiet on this side of the world but I had a lot of thinking and reading to do regarding my health. I like to say I’m healthy but the truth is I’m not: I have overweight, I drink too much wine and I don’t sleep enough. I do exercise and I don’t smoke, at least that’s something I’m doing right.

Lately I have a lack of energy which is (in my opinion) a combination of eating too much carbs, not enough sleep and a glass of wine almost every night. Rereading my low carb book made me realize I have a lot of symptoms that can be reduced by eating low carb.

As of today I’m going to:

  • Eat low carb. I’m not eliminating all carbs. The book says you can only have fruits once a day in your “carb hour” but I’m still going to eat my fruits. I’m going to eat carbs at dinner and eat low carb at breakfast, lunch and snacks (except for the fruit that I eat as a snack).

    I’m going to have 1 carb moment for 6 weeks and see where I am then (that is also the end of the year). If I haven’t reached my target weight I’m going to continue with only 1 carb moment. If I do reach target weight I’m going to add a few carbs moments a week extra (this is also what the book advices).

    I hope that this gives me more energy, helps me lose weight and less IBS problems.

  • Sleep. I need 7 hours of sleep. Lately I slept around 6 tot 6.5 hours a night. I’m going to make sure I’m in bed at 10:15 pm on weekdays because I get up at 5:15 am.
  • Wine. No wine during weekdays except for special occasions.
  • Keep on exercising. I always plan 6 workouts a week of which I have to do at least 5 every week.

This is not a challenge or something I’m doing for a certain period. It’s my intention to make this my lifestyle. Unless the IBS problems continue, in that case I will let me test on other allergies.

Today I had a health check at work. We used to have them every 2 years but with the new Vitality program we introduced we get it every year. And I got an “A” for having such a good health. Yes, I do have a little bit of overweight but everything else is perfect. We talked about my low carb plans and she (the doctor) thought it was a good idea and she adviced me too to keep eating my fruits.

Something else, Saturday I went to the weekly market in my village. I used to go there every week for years but the past few years I bought my fruits and vegetables in the grocery store. However, there’s a crisis here inHollandand we have to spend our money carefully. Things like fruits and veggies, potatoes, chicken and cheese are cheaper at the market than at the grocery store. And more important, it tastes better and stays fresh longer. So, I’m going to make it a habit to go to the market every week now.

And Bella enjoyed the sunshine yesterday.

Outfits:
Today’s outfit

 

Workouts:

I got up yesterday and it was raining and I didn’t want to run in the rain. Instead I cleaned my house and did my run this morning (Monday is usually my cleaning day and rest day). I had to do 2 x 10 minutes and I can’t even remember the last time I ran 10 minutes straight, but I did it both times and felt great afterwards.

Stats:
Run-walk ratio: 2 x 10 minutes, 2 minutes walking inbetween (20 minutes running, 4 minutes walking)
Weather: dry, not much wind,0C(32 degrees)
Distance: 3.3 K / 2 miles
Time: 00:24:10
Last song on Ipod before finish: The Jam – A town called Malice.

Weekly workout review:

Not a very good week, mostly due to a low energy level.

Bella and Fran’s Autumn challenge: walk at least 30 minutes every day:

Days till the end of Autumn (Thursday December 20): 90 days
Success: 51 days
Fail: 8 days

Sunday dinner

First recipe from this cookbook: Mexican tomato soup with a pistou of yogurt, mint and Jalapeno peppers, sprinkles of avocado, feta cheese, spring onions with tortilla chips with cheese and red peppers. Delicious!

 

I made a batch of nut muesli (nuts, coconut oil, flaxseed and spices) to eat with Greek yogurt for breakfast.

 

Monday dinner

Another recipe from the Jamie in 15 minutes cook book: Greek chicken with couscous with red pepper, spring onions and feta cheese with tzatiki. Another delicious meal.

Nov 11 2012

Sunday November 11, 2012: Mishmash

Posted on by

Daily stuff:
We have had a quiet weekend. R. still isn’t better yet and I haven’t been feeling well on Friday and Saturday either. I visited my Mom yesterday morning but for the rest it was quiet.

We did go for a short walk in the forest this afternoon because R. could use some fresh air.

Health:
Last Monday at lunchtime we had the kick off of the vitality program at work. You might remember I’m in the project group for this program. We had a healthy lunch ready for everyone and there were two speakers. One of them does nothing more everyday than study overweight and he had a really interesting presentation. It is clear that overweight in The Netherlands is becoming a huge problem and something has to be done. Therefore it’s great that our employer thinks it’s important to have healthy employees. In 2 weeks I have a health check up and we now are working on a health week in January. It’s really fun to be part of this and it’s made me think about my own health.

I still have overweight, about7 kg(15 lbs). This past year I haven’t gained but I haven’t lost any weight either. I think my exercise routine prevented me from gaining because I often eat too much. Mostly at lunch and dinner, I don’t eat that much in between meals at all.

I want to get rid of those last kg’s for once and for all. Not by following a diet but by eating healthy and making sensible, healthy choices. I’m going to count calories for a few days to be focused again on what’s enough for my body. A couple of months ago I started weighing only once a month and I will continue that. Other than stay active, I will eat as less processed foods as possible and drink less wine. I’ll see if this helps or that I need to take other steps to get to goal weight.

Workouts:

World Run Day today and of course I ran. I was supposed to run yesterday but heard about World Run Day and decided to do the run today. According to my Running Coach plan I had to do 3 x 8 minutes. It’s been a while I ran 8 minutes or more and I wasn’t sure if I could do it. But … I could and I did. I kept to the recommended pace (6:45-7:00 per km) and it went very well.

Stats:
Run-walk ratio: 3 x 8 minutes, 2 minutes walking inbetween (24 minutes running, 6  minutes walking)
Weather: dry, not much wind,8C(46 degrees)
Distance: 4.2 K / 2.6 miles
Time: 00:29:51
Last song on Ipod before finish: Journey – Don’t stop believing.

Weekly workout review:

Friday I didn’t feel well and was afraid that I catched the cold that R. is having. I decided to take it easy and see day by day how I would feel. Saturday I felt a bit better but took another rest day. It seems it was false alarm because I didn’t catch that cold after all.

 

Bella and Fran’s Autumn challenge: walk at least 30 minutes every day:

Days till the end of Autumn (Thursday December 20): 90 days
Success: 44 days
Fail: 7 days

It’s official: Bella hates it when it rains hard. Last Tuesday we went for our walk and it rained pretty hard. I had plans to do a 30 minute walk but she didn’t want to leave the carport where she was dry. When she finally came she tried to turn around everytime but I kept on going. After a while I gave up, she just doesn’t want to take a long walk in the rain and we turned around. Suddenly the diva walked in front of me, knowing she was heading home.