Monthly Archives: January 2013

Jan 31 2013

Review January 2013

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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.

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 27 2013

Sunday January 27, 2013: Back on planet earth

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I have been sick all week last week. I can’t even remember the last time I have been sick this long. I did go to work everyday, except for Friday when I took a vacation day, but that left me without energy every night. I didn’t workout, I didn’t take long walks with Bella (that made me feel guilty). On top of that it has been freaking cold the past 2 weeks. I can’t say how happy I was that today the cold weather is gone and warmer weather is on the way.

I felt like a real human again on Saturday and that’s when I picked up my daily routines again.

I did have enough time to think about my running schedule for this year and I worked out a plan till October. I have planned a few 5K and 10K races and planned my half marathon in October (either in a race or on my own). I made a training plan till October with some escape weeks if necessary.

I am also back at a different schedule to complete a 5K without stopping, the one I was using didn’t feel right. It felt like I wasn’t making any progress.

My running will come first, if I need an extra rest day I skip a cross training workout. I have 3 runs a week planned which can be done easily.

It’s all about flexibility: you have to use a plan that works for you.

I have to say that doing nothing for a week refreshed me and gave me enthousiasm and motivation to move on. That’s why I also planned a couple of rest weeks in my plan where I do a few easy runs but no cross training.

I’m leaving you with a photo of Bella who’s playing with R. trying to catch her toy (she did get it of course, you can’t fool her).

Workouts:

Saturday morning I felt good enough to try a run. My legs and body felt fine and it went great. But it was so cold, temperature wasn’t even that low but there was a very cold wind. I was, however, very pleased afterwards that it went so well.

Stats:

Run-walk ratio: 4 x 5 minutes, 3 minutes walking inbetween (20 minutes running, 12 minutes walking)

Weather: dry, windy, -2C (28 degrees)

Distance: 4.4 K / 2.7 miles

Time: 00:32:06
Last song on Ipod before finish: Joni Mitchell – Both sides now

Weekly workout review:

Since I’ve been sick, I didn’t do much last week. That’s life, it happens.

Jan 22 2013

Tuesday January 22, 2013: 10 years at the company

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As you might remember I had a jubilee day back in September for all the people that had their jubilee last year. Today was all about me because we celebrated my 10 years at the company today with the people I work with daily. My official jubilee date was December 16th but my manager was extremely busy the last month of last year and asked me to postpone because he wanted to give me the jubilee I deserved so we postponed till today.

When I arrived at work there were posters everywhere on my way to the first floor where my office is. My manager had a colleague who is very good with photoshop made it. The subtitle says “in top shape to the next 10 years”.

At 10 am all my colleagues came to my managers office to congratulate me and after that my manager prepared a speech for me. Boy, he does know me well. I can’t remember everything (he did everything with only some words on a piece of paper) but I do remember some.

High standards: he told the others that I hardly ever make mistakes but when I do, he’s having fun for a week, mostly because I hate it so much to make mistakes. He said that happened twice since we work together.

Guardian angel versus pitbull: he says I’m very protective of the managers I work for and I do anything for them to help them do their job -> guardian angel. If I have to do something for them I go through walls if I have to to get it done -> pitbull. He also said he never has to write down what he asks me to do because he knows that once it’s asked, it’s done.

Discrete: he told everyone there that he could trust me a 100%, that I know everything what’s going on in the company but never tell anyone and how important that is for him.

Caring: he said I care for the managers I work for and I care for the ones at home: R., my family and friends and Bella of course. He said that I sometimes come to him and say that we need to have a talk and I usually have an idea how to do things better or how I can help one of the other managers of the company. He likes my initiative and that I’m always looking how I can help others. I can have a big mouth but deep down I’m a very sensitive and sweet girl who wants to take care of others.

Perfectionist: he used my running for this. He was already my manager when I started running and he knows how much time and effort I put into it. He said I should be more proud of what I’ve accomplished. He mentioned my DNF at the half marathon because of the heat. He knew how much I’ve trained for it and that I was ready. I was too hard on myself for not finishing that day, I should have looked back at how I got there and what I had accomplished with running. Bottom line: I should be more proud of my runs instead of looking at what went wrong. Hmmmm he could be right.

He ended by saying how glad he was that I am his assistant and hoped we have many more years of working together to come.

By that time I was blushing, I don’t like being in the spotlights, that’s why I chose this job: let me take care of things in the background and I’m happy. I had a little thank you prepared myself and it felt like I was shaking and blushing but my colleagues said later that I did great and it was a sweet speech. My last words were for my manager and the one I had worked for for 7 years because they are special for me.

Then I got a present, everyone had given some money to buy me a present and I got a couple of dinner cheques so R. and I can go out for dinner. We ended with cake and a group photo. The photos below one of my colleagues took with my camera but there was a professional photographer too and when I get his photos I’ll show them here.

With one of my favorite colleagues:

 On my right the manager I worked with for 7 years, he’s retiring this July. Next to him the manager I work for now.

So many came, this is not even half of the people that came for me.

Cake!

Well enough self-clarification for one day back to keeping both foot on the ground. But it does feel pretty damn good to be this appreciated.

Workouts:

After doing nothing for 2 days I did a short The Firm Express workout, cardio to see how I would feel and how it would go and it went okay. Still not 100% fit but much, much better.
Total time: 20 minutes.

This morning when I woke up I felt I had a setback and felt worse than yesterday. The decision to take an extra rest day was made quickly and I didn’t do anything today.

Weight Watchers review:

 

Three weeks down and many more to go. I had a totally off day on Thursday. I had a meeting including lunch and I ate too much. I find it hard to estimate what I eat when I don’t make it myself and I ended up not counting on Thursday. Friday I didn’t eat much good food because I was sick. But the other days of the week were good. The good news is that I just continued counting and eat healthy after an off day. And I was rewarded by another loss on the scale. Next week I’ll give an update on that.

Jan 20 2013

Sunday January 20, 2013: Recovery mode

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And here I thought the cold I had a week and a half ago was all I got, how wrong was I.

It has been so cold last week, normally I can handle it fine but last week I’ve been cold the entire day. Now I know that was because I wasn’t fit. Friday morning I did some cleaning, got my run in, did grocery shopping, took Bella for a walk but when I got home after that I completely collapsed and felt very sick, think I had a fever but since we don’t have a temperature I’m not sure. My head was exploding, my body was tired and all I could do was sit on the couch and do nothing.

I went to bed early and had 10 hours of sleep. When I woke up Saturday morning my throat was still hurting, my nose still running but the headache was gone and I felt better.

By now (Sunday evening) I’m not a 100% fit but it’s getting better every day. I took Saturday and Sunday off from working out. I’m picking up my workouts tomorrow and go to work and we’ll see how it goes. Because I was sick I’m behind on reading blogs but I’ll catch up with you next week.

We had snow last Tuesday and because it’s so cold it doesn’t melt. Today we had some more snow and more expected tonight. It’s cold and it looks like it’s going to stay cold the next week.

Workouts:

Wednesday morning I was glad that I didn’t have a run planned because it was so cold and the roads weren’t clean yet with all the snow. Instead I did a Chalean Extreme workout but I wasn’t really in the mood and I skipped two exercises. Excercises were all for legs and shoulders.
Total time: 29 minutes.

Friday I did training 2 of week of the 5K program. I had to do 2-6-2-6-2-6 and it went fine till the last 6 minutes where I had to take an extra walk break. My physical condition considered it was an okay run.

Stats:
Run-walk ratio: 2-6-2-6-2-6 minutes, 1 minute walking inbetween (24 minutes running, 6 minutes walking)
Weather: dry, windy, 0C (33 degrees)
Distance: 4.4 K / 2.7 miles
Time: 00:31:08
Last song on Ipod before finish: Bruce Springsteen – Cadillac Ranch

Weekly workout review:

My workout week was fine till Friday, then I got sick on Friday and took extra rest days on Saturday and Sunday.

Meals:

Wednesday

Breakfast (4 points): Oatmeal with a half banana, 1 tablespoon brown sugar and 1 tablespoon peanut butter. Never had this combination before and it tasted very good.

Lunch (13 points) Couscous salad, it was delicious, an orange, milk and a bowl of tomato soup because I wanted something warm. Turned out to be way too much for lunch and I wasn’t hungry the rest of the afternoon and didn’t eat my fruits.

 

Dinner (10 points): Spaghetti with meatballs and tomato sauce.

 

Snacks: Zoen (during a meeting) (2 Points).

 Thursday and Friday and Saturday

Thursday was a complete off day and I didn’t count points. I had a meeting all day, including lunch and I had too much too eat. Still need to work on that. Friday was okay but I ate not enough during the day because I was sick. Saturday was a good day but I forgot to take pictures.

Sunday

Breakfast (7 Points): Vanilla yogurt with blueberries and granola.

Lunch (7 Points): 2 Slices of whole wheat bread with salad, brie cheese, honey and walnuts.

Dinner (12 Points): Pasta with Bolognese sauce.

 

Outfits:

Wednesday:

 Thursday:

Jan 15 2013

Tuesday January 15, 2013: Today I’m hardcore!

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Remember I told you I am in a work group to improve the vitality of our employees at my work? Well this week we are having a “FIT” week. Every day we have something to do. Yesterday you could test your eyes, blood pressure, measure your fat etcetera. Tomorrow the insurance company is coming to tell some things and Thursday is about mental health. Today was about moving.

The company has a contract with the gym across the street where we can get a membership with a discount. I don’t have it because I don’t live in the same village as where I work and I don’t want to drive there at night or in weekends. The gym came over to the company today and before lunch two instructors went to different floors in the building and we (I accompanied them because I’m in the work group) got people out of their office to do some exercises. Not many were that good a sports to do it but a few did and it was fun. During lunch they gave some demonstrations of parts of group classes.

The photo below is something I noticed yesterday: someone let the water from the statue freeze and this is how it looks now.

 

The weather turned bad during the day. In the morning we had a little snow but by the time I had to drive home there was more and the roads were very bad to drive. I took it easy and slow and was glad I made it home safe.

Workouts:

Monday morning I did a short The Firm workout: Club Dance. This was fun.
Total time: 20 minutes.

As said above we have snow. The forecast was that it would start here during the night and I put two sets of clothes ready: 1 for running and 1 for a home workout and decided I would see how it would be this morning. It was snowing when I got up but not much and I decided to go out and do my run. Boy I did feel like one hard core bad ass when I was finished: I ran in the dark, in the cold and in the snow.

Right now I’m glad I went because this morning the bike path was pretty good to run at, right now it’s a mess and it’s much colder tomorrow morning. So tomorrow morning I stay inside and do a workout DVD.

Stats:
Run-walk ratio: 7 x 3 minutes, 1 minute walking inbetween (21 minutes running, 7 minutes walking)
Weather: snow, little wind, -3C (26 degrees)
Distance: 3.8 K / 2.4 miles
Time: 00:27:36
Last song on Ipod before finish: Madonna – Like a prayer.

Meals:

Monday

Breakfast (7 points): Two slices of whole wheat bread with a boiled egg.

Lunch (6 points) Three slices of whole wheat bread with filet american and pickles, an orange.

 

Dinner (8 points): Pork tenderloin, potatoes, chicory with béchamel sauce.

 

Snacks: ½ Mango, 3 Clementines, 2 cookies (2 Points).

Tuesday

Breakfast (5 points): Two slices of whole wheat bread with strawberry jelly.

Lunch (12 points): Turkish bread caprese (with pesto, tomato, rocket salad and mozzarella). I bought a container of low fat yogurt with some honey and milk at work.

 

Dinner (8 points): (no picture, forgot it) Chicken breast, baked potatoes and carrots with green peas.

Snacks: ½ Mango, 3 Clementines.

Weight Watchers review:

 

Two weeks done and I’ve lost more weight than I expected because I normally lose weight slow. I will mention my weight here but only once a month at the beginning of a new month. It still goes very well, I’m not hungry and I eat very tasty meals. Remarks:

  • With the breakfast and lunch that I eat now, I realized how boring these meals have been the past two years or so. I often ate the same. I have a lot more variation now.
  • I need to work on eating fruits at the weekend. Usually I’m not hungry between meals in the weekend and I eat nothing but I also don’t eat fruits at lunch or dinner. Need to work on that.
  • Because I lost weight 2 weeks in a row I gave myself a “reward” and ordered another WW cook book.

Outfits:

Monday: dress in white/black/blue with a blue jacket and blue suede high boots.

Tuesday: blue pants, white top, emerald green jacket, blue suede high boots.

Jan 13 2013

Sunday January 13, 2013: Mishmash

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Easy weekend, didn’t do much as watch some TV, read, cross-stitch, make puzzles and walk with Bella. Temperatures have dropped here since Thursday night and although it’s colder than the past couple of weeks, it’s gorgeous during the day: cold, not much wind, sunshine and blue skies.

 

Workouts:

I had 9 hours of sleep Friday night and felt a lot better on Saturday morning. I had already decided I would take a step back in my running schedule (I have built in some flexibility in my training schedule) and do the “long run” of week 3 again. This means I will redo week 4 next week because I have done just 1 training out of the 3 of that week.

It was cold but sunny, not much wind and I saw my first sunrise of 2013: perfect running weather. And except for a running nose it went very well and I was very happy I went afterwards.

Stats:
Run-walk ratio: 7 – 7 – 14 , 2 minutes walking inbetween (28 minutes running, 6 minutes walking)
Weather: dry, sunny, no wind, 0C (32 degrees)
Distance: 4.8 K / 3 miles
Time: 00:33:35
Last song on Ipod before finish: The Little River Band – Home on a Monday.

Today I decided that I would have an extra rest day. My cold is as good as gone and with an extra day of rest I’ll be refreshed for next week’s workouts.

Weekly workout review:

The first 2 weeks of this year didn’t go as I had planned. A cold got in the way which made me skip some workouts. But looking back has no use, this year has 50 more weeks and that’s a lot of weeks to have great workouts.

Meals:

Saturday

Breakfast (5 points): A croissant with strawberry jelly.

Lunch (6 points) two slices of whole wheat bread with an omelette of 1 egg with mushrooms.

Dinner (8 points): Beef tenderloin stir fried with green beans and some Asian sauces and honey, I had some brown rice with it.

 

Snacks: Apple-berry cake (3 points), no picture totally forgot but it was a WW recipe without adding sugar and not much butter. I wondered if it would taste well and surprisingly it did. I used half of the ingredients and have 5 pieces. I put 3 of them in the freezer. I also had 2 glassed of red wine (7 Points).

Sunday

Breakfast (9 points): toasted bread with bacon, an egg and a tablespoon Hollandaise sauce.

Lunch (5 points): A pita bread filled with chicken, red pepper, salad and a tablespoon of yogurt dressing.

 

Dinner (9 points): used up some leftovers and made whole wheat pasta with zucchini, half a can of tomatoes, garlic, Italian herbs, ham and some Parmesan cheese.

 

Snacks: a piece of the apple-berry cake and a glass of red wine.

Jan 11 2013

Friday January 11, 2013: Mishmash

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I got some questions from some of you at my last post. I collected them and answer them here:

  • Lori asked if I eat anything between lunch and dinner.
    I do, also between breakfast and lunch. Usually fruits that is 0 Points. I can’t make it from
    meal to meal on workdays. At the weekend I often skip the snacks because breakfast is later
    and I can make it till lunch.
  • Shelley asked about nap time :)
    I don’t often take naps.  Sometimes on a Saturday afternoon I take a power nap on the couch
    for 30 minutes. That happened more often when I was training for a half and did my long run
    on Saturday.
  • Biz asked me if I don’t eat the flex points because I should because of all my workouts.
    So far I haven’t used them much but I thought about your comment and you are making a
    point here. I’m going to make sure I use more Points on days where I do “heavy” workouts.
    I did some yoga for 30 minutes on Wednesday which is more for my flexibility than that I
    break a sweat. I don’t find it necessary to eat more on days like that.
    Thanks for reminding me Biz.

How do you like my new jackets girls? I needed color in my wardrobe so I bought a yellow and green jacket. I can wear them with black or blue in Winter and wear them through Spring and Summer. I’m bringing back my outfits as of next Monday on the blog.

 

Workouts:

Wednesday morning I did a yogalates workout for the lower body. I like these workouts because they aren’t too long (I get bored easily with yoga) and it has Pilates exercises in it.
Total time 30 minutes.

I got up for my run Thursday morning but I wasn’t feeling well. I had a terrible headache because I’ve catched a cold that started bothering me Wednesday. But with the reminder of Tuesday in the back of my head where I didn’t run and regretted it all day, I did go and see how far I would come.
Well, not very far. It was a terrible run, I had trouble breathing and my head almost exploded. I ended up doing 1 minute intervals and was glad I was back home after 20 minutes. But … during the day I was glad I did try it, no regrets.

Today is a rest day and I’m glad I feel much better already and going to try another run tomorrow.

Meals:

Wednesday

Breakfast (8 points): Oatmeal with milk and 1 tablespoon of raisins and I added some brown sugar.

Lunch (9 points) a pita bread filled with tomato, feta cheese, olive oil and parsil. This was surprisingly tasty.

 

Dinner (9 points): Pork meat, cooked potatoes, Brussels sprouts.

 

Snacks: 3 clementines, 1 apple, 2 cookies (2 points)

Thursday

Breakfast (6 points): low fat yogurt, 1 banana and muesli.

 

Lunch (14 points): I had nothing left in the fridge and was supposed to buy a bread, ham and cheese and some salad at work. But the temptation was too big and I bought some soup, a panini with ham and cheese and milk. This came at 14 points.

But I did learn something and that’s that I better bring my lunch to work so I won’t give in to bad food temptations.

Dinner (10 points): mashed potatoes, carrots and onions with a beef sausage.

 

Snacks: 1 mueslibar (2 points) 3 clementines, 1 glass of red wine (4 points)

Friday

Breakfast (4 points): 2 slices of bread with hüttenkäse and cucumber.

Lunch (11 points): 3 slices of bread with cheese, cucumber and tomato. I bought a bowl tomato soup and a glass of milk at work.

Dinner (12 points) was a WW recipe. Tagliatelle with ham, leek and mushrooms in a sauce of bouillon and herb soft cheese. Delicious.

 

Snacks: 3 clementines, not hungry in the afternoon and skipped my apple.

Movies I’ve seen lately

The Intouchables.

Last weekend of 2012 we watched this movie and it is the best movie I’ve seen all year. I highly recommend that you see this movie. I had a smile on my face the entire movie and if I didn’t I was crying. What a fantastic and feel good movie.

The movie is French and is based on a true story: a rich man gets paralyzed by paragliding and needs 24 hour care. A poor young man with a criminal past comes to the job interview but only to get an autograph so he can get his social money. The young men ends up working for the rich men and they develop a friendship that lasts till today. They learn things about each others world and interests. That’s all I’m going to tell you about it, you really should see it for yourself. I promise you: it’s worth it.

Jan 8 2013

Tuesday January 8, 2013: WW update

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Daily stuff:

A day in my life: Monday

5.15 am: Get up
5.30 am: Insanity workout
6.15 am: Shower, get dressed, make lunch, eat breakfast.
7.15 am: Leave for work
7.45 am: Arrive at work
4.15 pm: Leave work
4.30 pm: Home, change and clean bathroom and dust and vacuum 3 bedrooms.
6.00 pm: Cook
6.30 pm: Dinner
7.00 pm: Walk with Bella
7.45 pm: Finally …. me time
10.15 pm: Bed time

Monday is my busiest day. How was your day today?

Workouts:

I did my first full Insanity workout yesterday morning and boy that’s a tough one. I couldn’t keep up but luckily for me, it was said often enough: go at your own pace. I did the best I could and had a good workout. Although it was hard, I did like the workout.
Total time: 39 minutes.

This morning I was supposed to run and I did go out but ende up doing a walk around the block. I just didn’t want to run. But … I felt bad about it all day and it influenced my mood which always happens when I skip a workout. Need to remember that next time I don’t want to workout. On top of that when I got home I pulled off my hat without realizing my head was still on it. Result: head lamp on the floor and broken. I already ordered a new one online that’s coming tomorrow because I need it Thursday. It wasn’t a very good day today.

Meals:

Monday

Breakfast (6 points): low fat yoghurt with a banana and muesli.

 

Lunch (9 points) was 3 slices of whole wheat bread with lean pork, salad and a little bit of mustard with mayonnaise. I bought a glass of milk at work.

 

Dinner (7 points): Cod fish with a tablespoon olive oil and cherry tomatoes out of the oven, potatoes and salad with honey-mustard dressing.

Tuesday

Breakfast (6 points): 2 slices of whole wheat bread with ham, an orange.

 

Lunch (10 points): 3 slices of whole wheat bread with cheese, cucumber and tomato. I bought a class of milk at work.

Dinner (9 points): chicken breast, baked potatoes, grilled zucchini.

Weight Watchers review:

First week WW done. I started tracking on Wednesday 2nd. The first 3 days were hard. I was hungry all the time, not because I didn’t eat enough but because I ate what I could eat instead of eating more than I should which I had done the past months.

Friday night I was feeling terrible and instead of cooking I gave in to some fast food that I did track. Usually that’s a point where I say “okay all is lost now, why bother” but I did continue. Saturday morning I felt so much better and since then I’m doing fine.

The next 4 weeks I will eat mostly WW recipes to hopefully get some weight loss (I’m a slow weight loser). In February I will add recipes from my cook books again that I will enter in the food database at the WW website to calculate the points.

I bought 2 books. The first one is a book for “starters” and has 4 weeks of meal plans in it. I will use most of the suggestions the next 4 weeks. If I don’t like something I replace it with a different WW recipe. The other one is a book with 365 meal plans. I will use that book as much as possible too after the first 4 weeks.

Jan 6 2013

Sunday January 6, 2013: Mishmash

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Daily stuff:

Back to work Thursday and it wasn’t easy to get back into routine. I didn’t really wanted to go back to work already but bills have to be paid and food has to be on the table. At least the advantage of 2 workdays is that it was weekend after just 2 days.

We had a quiet weekend which was lovely after all the holidays. Most people don’t like January but I love it because everything is back to normal and a whole new year is lying ahead of us.

We didn’t do much, had movie night yesterday and watched Horrible Bosses, it was an okay movie. We didn’t want a “heavy” movie just one you could watch mindlessly.

This afternoon we went to my friend T. who is having her birthday today. She never celebrates big but we always go to congratulate her. As usual my gift to her was an invitation for dinner at my house, it’s a tradition we have for years now.

Workouts:

Back to working out before work means running in the dark again. We’re lucky that the weather is so mild so far this winter, it hasn’t been really cold yet. Only a few more months and daylight will be return. The run itself went good. I had to do 7 x 3 minutes running and the last 3 minutes was at a 6:00 pace (per km). That was hard and I had to step out of my comfort zone to do it but I did.

Stats:
Run-walk ratio: 7 x 3, 1 minute walking inbetween (21 minutes running, 7 minutes walking)
Weather: dry, bit windy, 9C (48 degrees)
Distance: 4 K / 2.5 miles
Time: 00:28:12
Last song on Ipod before finish: Chicago – Saturday in the park.

I did a fun run this morning, just running for fun, take a walk break when I need it, don’t look at my pace and it turned out to be a very good run. I took 2 walk breaks and just enjoyed running.

Stats:
Weather: dry, little  wind, 7C (44 degrees)
Distance: 3.5 K / 2.1 miles
Time: 00:23:49
Last song on Ipod before finish: Fun! – We are young.

Meals:

Thursday:

Lunch (8 points): brought my own lunch which I plan to do more often. I made a salad from a WW cook book: couscous with cucumber and tomatoes. This was for 1 person but it was too much to eat it all. I ate about ¾ of it. I also had to kiwi (Zespri) fruits.

Friday:

Lunch (9 points): Another salad with pasta yellow pepper, rocket salad and cherry tomatoes with a dressing of low fat yogurt with a little bit of pesto. I like the salad but the yogurt in it not so much. Think I will replace that with a little extra virgin olive oil. Think I will like it better that way.

Saturday:

Breakfast (6 points) was a whole wheat bread with a boiled egg.

Lunch (10 points) was 2 slices of bread with bacon, spinach, tomato and cheese that I put under the grill for a few minutes till the cheese was melted. It was delicious, I had the same for lunch today.

 

Dinner (6 points): Tomato-lentil soup with Turkish bread that I put under the grill with some garlic and olive oil as a topping. Delicious! I made two portions and put one in the freezer for a day I don’t have much time to cook.

 

I forgot to take pictures of my breakfast this morning that was a croissant with jelly. I didn’t make dinner because I was full from the snacks I had in the afternoon and just ate 2 slices of bread with peanut butter.

Weekly workout review:

I have been taking it easier the past 2 weeks with my exercises and running and I don’t mind. Sometimes you have to take it a bit easier. As of tomorrow I will pick up my regular exercise schedule again.