Category Archives: Health

Apr 22 2013

Monday April 22, 2013: Time to do something

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We went to the concert last Friday: Boudewijn de Groot. He’s doing his last tour because he’s 68 right now and he don’t want to tour anymore. We hadn’t seen him live before and I have to say: it was very good. We had a great evening, his band was very enthousiastic and so was he. We didn’t know what to expect but it turned out to be great.

It’s time to do something. When I stepped on the scale this morning after not weighing for 2 weeks it scared the you know what out of me. I had gained and am at a weight I haven’t been at since September 2009 (advantage of keeping lists of everything, you can look it up). I knew I gained, I feel it at my clothes, I see it when I look at the mirror. Maybe that’s why I stayed away from the scale longer than usual. The reason is simple: I eat too much, not at my meals but everything between meals.

I decided yesterday that I would take action as of today, no matter what the scale would say this morning. I’m not changing anything in my normal meals but I’m going to watch carefully what I eat between meals. I’m also tracking my calories and want to stick to that for at least 1 week to see how much I eat at the moment. If I don’t do something I’ll be back at my highest weight in no time and I haven’t worked that hard to get it all off for nothing.

Workouts:

Easy Thursday

Easy run of 20 minutes. When I do easy runs I never watch my Garmin, I know 2 songs on my Ipod is about 1 K and I count the numbers and know when I’m about at the end of my run, then I start watching my Garmin. I never look at the pace during these runs, they are about recovering and running at a pace that feels good that day. And this was a good run, no walking breaks.

Stats:

Distance: 3 K / 1.9 miles
Time: 00:20:33

Speed per km: 8.76 km/hour (5.5 miles/hour)

Time per km: 06:51
Weather: dry, windy, 9C (48 degrees)

Last song on Ipod before finish: Europe – The final countdown

Long Sunday

Long run, this is the longest run I’ve done since August last year, pretty pathetic. The weather was perfect for running. I ran 3K without walking (trying to make this a bit longer every run) and took 2 walk breaks the last 3K. It was a bit tough but glad to know I can still do it.

Stats:

Distance: 6 K / 3.7 miles
Time: 00:42:23

Speed per km: 8.49 km/hour (5.3 miles/hour)

Time per km: 07:04
Weather: dry, sunny, not much wind, 3C (37 degrees)

Last song on Ipod before finish: Ilse de Lange – Sister Golden Hair.

Cardio Monday

P90X Cardio X. I have done this DVD before and I really like it because of it’s variety. I started with some yoga, after that Kenpo followed by Plyometrics and finished it with core exercises. Total time: 43 minutes.

Weekly workout review:

Runs: 3. Mileage: 11.5 K (7.1 miles).

Cross training: 1 (Insanity).

Walks with Bella: 5 days (2 hours 20 minutes).

Meals:

Thursday

 

Mac ham and cheese by Annabel Langbein.

 

Sunday

 A Tana Ramsey recipe: steak with sugar snaps, spring onions and cashew nuts with basmati rice -> delicious!

 

 Dessert: a strawberry crumble -> delicious!

 

Monday

New recipe from a cooking magazine: codfish marinated in spices and yogurt, brown rice with cashew nuts, spinach. This was a disappointing meal, it was quite tasteless and I’m not going to make this again.

Jan 29 2013

Tuesday January 29, 2013: Hooray for the King

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Monday afternoon it was all over the news: our queen would give a TV speech at 7 pm. This could mean only one thing and that she would step down as our queen. Of course we were in front of the TV and indeed she announced that she is going to retire. This means we will get a king: Willem Alexander and a queen: Maxima. The ceremony will take place on April 30 which already is a National holiday. On the same date 32 years ago Beatrix became our queen. I expect that this will be celebrated big in our country.

I was supposed to go out to dinner tonight with our management team. One of the managers has got a new function in our company and we had a “goodbye” dinner planned. But he was sick yesterday and today and my own manager was sick yesterday and not completely fit today. So we cancelled it and will do it another time.

Workouts:

Yesterday morning I did a run. Some parts of the bike path were a bit slippery because it was frozen but it didn’t really slow me down. This was a good run, nothing to complain about, everything went well.

Stats:
Run-walk ratio: 5-7-7-5 minutes, 2 minutes walking inbetween (24 minutes running, 8 minutes walking)

Weather: dry, windy, 3C (37 degrees)

Distance: 4.4 K / 2.7 miles

Time: 00:31:29

Last song on Ipod before finish: James Taylor – You’ve got a friend

This morning I did a Turbofire workout. Turbofire is a kind of body combat workout and I like it a lot although it’s sometimes hard to keep up with all the moves. But I’m doing the best I can.

Total time: 44 minutes.

Outfits:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Weight Watchers review:

The program doesn’t feel like a diet. I eat much better than I have the past 2 years. I always said I already ate healthy but now it turns out I ate too much at meals, had too many snacks and alcohol and didn’t have much variation with my breakfast and lunches. Since I started WW and apparently eat more healthy my IBS problems are completely gone. I’m eating WW recipes for 2 more weeks, after that I’m going to add recipes from my cook books again but still most of the meals will be WW recipes, especially breakfast and lunch.

Weight progress:

Weight January 1: 82 kg / 180.7 lbs

Weight January 31: 79.2 kg / 174.6 lbs

Weight loss this month: -2.8 kg / 6.1 lbs

As a slow loser when it comes to weight, this is huge for me and I’m very happy with the result.

Jan 2 2013

Wednesday January 2, 2013: Happy New Year!

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Daily stuff:

First: I wish you all a happy New Year and hope it will be a fantastic year for you.

The last days of 2012 were very relaxing for us. Last Friday we had our friends over for our first evening to end the year together. We had lots of fun and it was a great success.

The food:

 

The guys giving R. Ipad lessons (they both already had one):

 

The girls:

We spend New Year’s Eve at home as we have been doing the last couple of years. Especially I don’t care about New Year’s Eve and I don’t want to go anywhere that night. I’m always in anticipation for the new year to start. New Year’s Day we did the traditional visits to both our Moms. R. had to go back to work today but I had another day of vacation. For me normal life starts again tomorrow.

2013

It’s time to reveal my plans: a new year has started and this year is special to me. In May I’m hoping to reach the age of 45 and in March it’s 20 years ago R. and I met. Because it’s a special year to me, I started thinking about what I want to accomplish this year a couple of weeks ago. I thought and thought about it over and over again till I was convinced I can do this and I want to do this.

I have 2 big goals this year:

1. Reach my goal weight
2. Run a half marathon

Goal weight:

For years and years I’ve been struggling with my weight. I lose some, I gain some which kept me at the same weight for a couple of years (except last year where I gained weight). Nothing wrong with that, except that it isn’t a healthy weight. I have thought about how I was going to reach it and after lots of thinking and testing I have decided to go back to Weight Watchers. WW has been the only program in the past that has really worked for me and helped me reach my goal weight 13 years ago. Since then I’ve been struggling with my highest weight 10 years ago in 2003. A decade!

This time I’m not going to give up, I won’t stop till I reached a weight that’s healthy for me and that I can be happy with. I don’t have a specific date in mind but December 31 will be great (if not I keep on going in 2014). I have to lose 9 kg (19.8 lbs).

Half marathon

After two attempts at running a half, I still can’t get it out of my head. Not finishing has been one of the biggest failures to me and I can’t stand that, neither can I let it go. So I’m trying again this year. I have a race in mind in October and I have made a training schedule that will prepare me for that.

But, one of my biggest “problems” is race day nerves. I have messed up a few races because I was nervous.  I have planned a few races the next months to see how it goes, if I’m still that nervous I might not run that half in a race but on my own.

I don’t care if I run it in a race or on my own or that I run in October or maybe even on December 31: I shall run this distance in 2013!

I don’t have to prove to myself that I can run a half in a race but I have to prove to myself that I can run  it. That’s what matters most to me.

Workouts:

What better way to start a new year and my plans for 2013 with a run on the first day of the year. When I got up it was raining cats and dogs but I had my mind set on a run and after about 30 minutes I went. It wasn’t that bad at all although I had to take more walk breaks towards the end of run (probably because of the wine on New Year’s Eve). Because it was early there was hardly any traffic and no one outside for a walk or run except for this one girl that I saw. Just like me she was running: girl power!

Stats:
Run-walk ratio: 7-7-14, 2 minutes walking inbetween (28 minutes running, 6 minutes walking)
Weather: rain, bit windy, 5C (41 degrees)
Distance: 4.8 K / 3 miles
Time: 00:33:46
Last song on Ipod before finish: Spandau Ballet – Lifeline.

Meals:

Now that I have started Weight Watchers I will make pics of my meals for as far as that’s possible (not going to take photos when I have a work lunch for example).

Wednesday:

Breakfast (7 points): 2 slices of bread with cheese and marmalade and an orange.

Lunch (8 points): 2 slices of bread with egg/tomato/cottage cheese.

 

Dinner (7 points): Pork meat, potatoes, green beans.

Nov 19 2012

Monday November 19, 2012: Mishmash

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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

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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.