Tag Archives: Friends

Mar 15 2013

Friday March 15, 2013: Mishmash

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I’m glad to say I am all better, except from the bruises on my left butt but that just needs time to heal, also my lower back needs a bit more time to heal.

Wednesday night I had a date with my friend K. We had sushi for dinner. I took photos of the food but totally forgot to let someone take a photo of us. The thing with K. is that the minute we see each other we start talking and don’t stop till we say goodbye, it’s always like we had seen each other yesterday even if it has been 3 months. Being around her is so comfortable.

 

My company sponsors the Dutch Moto GP team. The official team presentation for the press was held at our office yesterday. I am not particularly interested in Moto GP but R. is. I went down to see the presentation and it was fun to see.

 

I can’t believe the weather. For crying out loud, Spring starts in a week and it’s still Winter. It’s cold and we had some snow this week. We are breaking weather records but not the ones that make you happy. Last Saturday we broke the rain record: it rained nonstop for 24 hours, the old record was almost 100 years old when it rained 23.5 hours. Last Monday we had the coldest March 11 in a century. It’s way to cold here for this time of year and I’m so done with it. Last year around this time I was already running in my capri’s. Now I still have to wear thermo clothes under my winter running clothes. The cold effects my running and my walks with Bella because I’m so done with it, I can’t get motivated anymore to run or walk in the cold, I’ve had enough. Let’s hope warmer weather will be here soon. I know I can’t wait.

And finally: how stupid is it that Google Reader stops at July 1? I’ve already looked into other readers and am testing feedly at the moment. So far it’s working good but I have to test some more. Do you have any suggestions for good readers?

Workouts:

Plank challenge March

I have to restart this challenge but won’t start till my butt and lower back are completely painfree, probably next week.

Monday morning I did a short easy run, just to see how it would go. And it went very well, better than expected. I didn’t take walk breaks. It was freaking cold though, the temperature wasn’t that cold but there was a very cold hard wind.

Stats:

Distance: 3.2 K / 2 miles
Time: 00:22:52

Speed per km: 8.40 km/hour (5.2 miles/hour)

Time per km: 07:09
Weather: dry, hard wind, -1C (30 degrees)

Last song on Ipod before finish: P!nk – Who knew

 

I had one more workout program on my wish list: Jillian Michaels Body Revolution. It was hard to find a seller in Europe but after a couple of months I finally found a seller on Ebay Germany and I could buy the program. This makes my workout collection complete, I have a great variation of all kinds of programs: strength, cardio and yogalates. I did the first workout of the program last Tuesday and it was a great workout, I like it a lot. I had 4 circuits, every circuit was done twice and existed of 3 exercises. Between the circuits was a 1 minute cardio interval. All the workouts are about 30 minutes.

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.

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.