& that is exactly why I will never give up trying to lose weight.
I am not worried about how I look, it’s the fact that I feel sluggish, that I get puffed out much quicker than used to, that I have lost a lot of strength and confidence in my legs since my accident that bothers & motivates me.
We only have one body and I have finally realised if I want the best performance from it its time I started treating it a little better
Wow, I knew it had been a while since I last posted but I hadn’t realised it had been almost 6 months.
So what have I been up to, not much if the truth be told
Unfortunately between Christmas & New Year we lost our beautiful furbaby, at 18.5yrs old he had had an amazing life, in recent years there had been times when we had feared we would lose him but at Christmas it came as a total surprise, the day before had been my husbands birthday and we had all had a lovely day, but the following morning he woke in the early hours disorientated, refusing to settle, eat or drink, walking into walls and furniture, crying, all totally out of character, it was like he was telling us it was time, saying goodbye was one of the most heartbreaking things I have ever had to do, even now 3 months later we still miss home every day
Life without Ernie is very different, he was one big of the reasons I gave up work last year, at his age we didn’t like leaving him alone for more than 2-3hrs at a time, if we were home he wouldn’t sit still unless we were sat with him so I spent much of my time with him on the sofa all cuddled up, now I have my whole day to myself.
At the start of the year my husband and I stepped on the scales, neither of us were happy with what we saw, I was over a stone heavier than my previous heaviest weight, of course I was disappointed but I also knew I had enjoyed the eating and drinking that had lead to the gain.
My husband has always found it fairly easy to lose weight, me on the other hand not so much, we booked a holiday to Mexico at the end of March to keep us focused, he set himself a goal of 2st (12.8kg), I set myself a goal of 1st (6.4kg) he hit his goal I was a few lbs short of mine but was still happy, as it was the most consistent weight loss I had achieved in a long while.
One of the things we done to help us with the weight loss was to start running again and we also joined up to a weekly boxing class called Fightklub (I’ll share more about Fightklub another time)
We are now back from Mexico, we are facing the scales tomorrow, I know it wont be pretty
I am hoping to start posting more regularly & hope you enjoy what I write.
Do you ever enter a race and instantly regret it, that’s definitely what happened to me with this one, I took part in 2014 & swore never again (you can read about everything that went wrong in my 2014 race here) & then a friend asked me to take part with her and FOMO took over and before I knew it I was signed up again.
I am not sure what I really have against this race, possibly the length of time we spend running around parks but the clue to that is in the name of the race so I can’t really complain, but I will 7 miles of running around the outskirts and zigzagging across Hyde Park is to much!!
So after talking me into signing up again, 3 days before the race my friend unfortunately had to pull out of the race, add to that I haven’t really been running in recent months I was really not looking forward to this, I considered pulling out but I figured I had nothing else to do on a Sunday morning so even if I were to walk the whole event I will have still done more than I would on a usual Sunday.
So I got up as planned and had a few couple of slices of seeded toast with some Jim Jams Hazlenut Spread topped with Strawberries and took a banana with me for the train, as often happens in race day things didn’t go to plan, my train was cancelled with no reason given meaning I only got to the park 15 minutes before the race started.
The loo queues in the race village were crazy long and when the gun went off for the start of the race there were still 10 people ahead of me (they seriously do not put on enough toilets for the thousands of runners & spectators they have descending on the park, at a guess I’d say they have approx 70 toilets for the 20,000 – 25,000 attendees).
After the loo queue you then have another long queue for the baggage drop, but credit where credit is due, this took less than 5 minutes, they were so organised & I whizzed through the long crowd so I could get to the start line.
Despite arriving in my pen 12 minutes late, I still waited almost 20 minutes to cross the start line.
The first 5 miles of this race are run on the roads, the first time I ran this race we got to run a few miles along the Embankment, unfortunately they have since changed the route so you do an out and back along the Strand (yawnsville, seriously if you have run any other race in London this year, London Winter Run, London 10,000 you will have run up and down the Strand, don’t get me wrong, there are still some impressive sights to be seen, but once you have seen them twice, you do not need to see them a third time, only the British 10k, still goes along the Thames, & suddenly maybe their £50 entrance fee doesn’t feel so bad.
So the first few miles see you run through Green Park, past Buckingham Palace through Admiralty Arch, along Whitehall, turning before you hit Westminster, then you do a u-turn back towards Trafalgar Square before hitting the Strand another u-turn sees you head back to Trafalgar Square, back through Admiralty Arch, along the Mall back past Buckingham Palace before heading back into Hyde Park for 7 looonnng miles.
I hear so many people compare this race to the London Marathon in terms of support and I don’t get it, you have whole stretches of the parks where all you see is marshalls or dog walkers (I love dogs, I really do but having them running around off a lead as thousands of people are running along narrow paths is dangerous, don’t get me wrong, the dog walkers probably use the park every day, we are there once a year, but on mile 11 tired legs my legs will not necessarily stop abruptly when your dog runs out of a bush and in front of me & I don’t want to injure myself or your dog).
All of the above said I did enjoy this race the first 5 miles actually helped me to start enjoying running again, for the first time in a long while my legs felt strong & confident, & while I went into the race untrained and fully expecting a personal worst, at mile 5 I started to believe I might not be far off my Half Marathon average time of 2hrs 36, unfortunately things then started to go wrong, during the London Marathon I suffered with glute pain & at mile 5 I was starting to feel a twinge & by mile 7.5 I was in agony every few steps felt like I was being stabbed, so I had to stop, apply some BioFreeze, I had already taken pain killers at mile 5 & continued with a limp/walk, around 11 miles I was finally able to start running again, I have yet to see the official race photos but I channelled my inner Becca & Laura (2 friends that I have run with that always manage strong sprint finishes) I felt like I finished the last 200m strong.(My time was a personal worst, but I am ok with that, it was all I deserved, training to run a Half Marathon & walk a full Marathon 2 weeks apart do not really go hand in hand as my legs were always tired, I am taking away that I still took part when I could have stayed in bed and that I enjoyed running for the first time in a long while so it has given me a much needed confidence boost)
My final grumble is in relation to the goody bags at the end of the race, this race hands out the BEST goody bags in respect of content (seriously look at that haul) but the WORST in respect of the actual bag and the organisation of collecting the bag, firstly you queue for around 20 minutes then you are handed 3, yes 3 A4 size bags and you walk along a line while people fill the bags for you, I understand it takes time to prefill the bags and then there is the issue of storage but they could at least get bags that are an appropriate size (in 2014 we had cloth bags that were kind of half the size of a usual cloth bag so once your bag was full you were just randomly given items the extra items to hold that wouldn’t fit into the cotton bags?! Seriously how hard is it to order appropriately sized bags)
This is definitely my last time running the Royal Parks Half but I would be interested in volunteering next year, as the volunteers really were great both on the course, at the finish line, the baggage tent guys were amazing as were the goody bag people (I think they are probably the two worst jobs) but they were happy, friendly and efficient)
Did you run on Sunday, or have you run Royal Parks before, how did you find it?
I can’t remember how or when we signed up for the Shine Walk, it feels like forever ago, I think possibly my friend Mandy may have suggested it after she successfully completed the Shine Half-Marathon last year, this was her first time doing anything like this, before last September she hadn’t even taken part in a Race for Life so tackling a half marathon was a huge accomplishment for her which I think even up until the night she didn’t believe she could do it, but we did, we even smashed her 4hr target. (you can read about last years half marathon walk here)
When we signed up to the marathon we decided to really knuckle down, we were going to train every week, we were both going to lose weight, while I can’t speak for Mandy, I am around a stone heavier than when we signed up, & while I do walk 3-5 miles at least once a week we never managed to commit to the long walks each week like we planned, that’s not to say we didn’t walk, we built up from around 3 miles to 9 miles at a mile a week, but unfortunately that’s where it started to go wrong, work commitments, family commitments, the weather, we have had a crazily hot summer this year and Wednesdays the day we usually walk seem to either be scorching hot 28+ degrees or pouring rain, neither ideal conditions, we done our longest walk (just under 21 miles) on 24th August the hottest day of 2016 – the cold cider in the above pic was calling me for the last 6 miles.
So onto the night itself, we planned to leave home just before 6 & head to a local Zizzi’s for some last minute carb loading, before we jumped on the tube and headed to Southwark Park, we were lucky in that we had been invited as part of #teamsole (more about that later) into the VIP/media tent, which meant we had somewhere to relax before we started.
Whenever I take on challenges like this I have an awful habit of clock watching, not necessarily for speed it’s because I break the races into chunks ie 2.5 miles we have done almost a 10th, 6.5 miles we have done over a quarter, 10 miles is just 10 miles but is always a high, 13 miles is halfway. etc & I always have a rough idea of how long I think the walk will take me ie for Saturday night we were on track for finishing well below 8hrs, so I new at 2hrs we should be a 1/4 way around by 4hrs we should have been through the half way point
Unfortunately, the evening didn’t go to plan, Mandy picked up some niggles during our 21-mile walk last month, that flared up quite early on in the marathon (mile 6) meaning almost every step after that was extremely painful for her.
This was my 6th walking marathon & by far my toughest, probably in some part because I am almost 3st heavier than when I have done these walks in the past, but I also carried the extra weight with me when we walked the 21 miles, I think I struggled because of the extra time on my legs, I have always said I don’t think I had more than 8hrs in my legs 8.5hrs at a push (I have finished previous walking marathons between 6hrs 42 to 7hrs 43) as I mentioned above I clock watch during these walks, so for me the night became as much of a mental battle as it did a physical battle, my problem was time wise I had no idea where that finish line was so I had no idea how much longer I needed to carry on walking & I found that really tough & demotivating, I felt like someone was constantly moving the finish line further & further away.
Several times Mandy told me to go ahead and leave her but that was never an option, there were times when I genuinely didn’t think we would make it & I am not talking about Mandy and her injuries although I am sure she had those thoughts too, I am talking about me mentally at 15 miles I could have happily quit, I knew there was no way we would be finished within 8.5hrs, I was shattered, I had started to trip up a lot where I was walking slower than my usual pace so not picking up my feet properly, which was making my whole body jar from fatigue, at every rest stop Mandy needed to sit down and rest her legs, but I couldn’t as I knew I would never get up, my body seems to know the distance/time I am out for and as soon as I stop everything just seems to seize up (this even happens after running a 10k)
To say we were both happy to cross London Bridge & see that finish line in an understatement.
(Mandy got her medal engraved)
I am so proud of Mandy she walked over three-quarters of the marathon in pain, not that I told her on the night but at mile 4 saw the remains of blisters she still had from our 21 mile walk a month earlier and they looked painful (I didn’t think me saying ouch would help), add to that a tight IT Band meaning she had pain right the way down her leg I think she is a total trooper, all along she was determined to finish no matter how much pain she was in herself or how long it took, she had in her head was why we were walking, to raise money for Cancer Research UK & for her personally in memory of her Nan, Grandad & Uncle.
My only regret from Saturday was not taking in the sights more, but I think we were both to exhausted.(totally gutted I didn’t get a snap of me & Bumblebee the yellow car from the Transformers movies as they were preparing to film along The Mall)
Sunday was spent catching up on some sleep, having a long relaxing bath with some Epsom Salts & giving my feet some TLC, thankfully I had my It’s Your Sole Sports Flips to wear as I am not sure my feet were ready for shoes just year.
(believe me those feet look better than they were feeling)
Did you take advantage of the massages & free socks on offer from the lovely people from Your Sole at mile 13, Mandy did, she had a massage along her IT band which helped loosen up her leg for a few miles.
I had already entered the Shine Walk Marathon when I was invited to be part of #teamsole & was lucky enough to have been sent some socks, Footbeds and the Sports Flips to support me with my training. I was actually already a familiar with their products as my husband started using their footbeds during last year’s London Marathon and they really helped with his Plantar Fascitis pain, so if you haven’t already checked out their website do so now, I believe they have a sale at the moment as my husband was stocking up on the footbeds at the weekend.
I couldn’t finish without sharing this beautiful photo of the sun rising over the Thames just before 7am on Sunday morning, I am still not sure if it was this colourful sight or knowing that the finish line was just around the corner that made all those miles suddenly seem less painful than they had earlier in the evening.
I have been raising money for Cancer Research in memory of my nan & her sister & brother in law, if you would like to make a donation please text NIKM73 £2 to 70070 or follow the link below – Thank you in advance for your support
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Nikki-Martin1973
Weight loss is a really big deal to me at the moment, I know there are lots of people out there that will say you shouldn’t diet, you should be happy in your own skin, but I don’t find the word ‘diet’ offensive, in fact the dictionary definition of the word diet is ‘the food eaten by a particular group or person’ it doesn’t even mention weight loss, but the fact of the matter is that I do need to lose weight so it that means that I have to make some changes to what I eat (ie my current diet) so be it.
During my time as a Leader for Weight Watchers I often heard people talking about rewarding themselves for their weight loss, I have to be honest it’s not something I had ever considered as I had always been fortunate enough to be able to buy what I wanted when I wanted and patience has never been one of my best qualities, but times change, I have given up my job and while I am still able to make those purchases, I am now thinking twice about them, so suddenly rewarding myself for my weight loss seems appealing, plus in the past I have often made food a reward and that is a habit I want to stop
So I have decided I will reward myself for every 7lbs I lose & when I reach 5, 10, 15, 20 & 25% weight loss etc, these may change but at the moment here are what I think my rewards may look like
7lbs – new gym top – loving my new top ‘Don’t wait for it – Work for it’ top that I treated myself to for reaching my 7lbs
5% (9lbs) – new Fitbit charge 2
14lbs – new colouring pencils
10% (18lbs) – perfume
21lbs – new colouring pens
15% (27lbs) – new gym leggings
28lbs – new gym top
35lbs – new Fitbit Strap
20% (36lbs) new make up
42lbs – new trainers
25% (45lbs) – tikiboo gym capri’s
49lbs – new haircut/colour
50lbs – new clothes
Do you reward yourself for reaching your goals, what kind of rewards would motivate you?
Ever since my accident last year I haven’t really enjoyed running, it’s something I do because I have to, I could of and probably should have walked away from the London Marathon but I know I would have regretted that forever and I am glad that I took part and I am proud of how I ran on the day, but since then not so much.
I think what I need to do is go back to basics again, at the moment I am struggling to run a mile let alone 5k & the thought of a Half Marathon petrifies me even though I have one less than a month away.
A few years ago I was able to run a 5k in just under 30mins now I am struggling to do them in under 35mins, I got my 10k time down to just under 1hr 5, my most recent 10k was nearer 1hr 16, my first Half Marathon was my fastest 2.26 (if you ignore the 12 minute delay mid way through, thanks Run to the Beat) I think I will struggle to complete Royal Parks in under 2hrs 45
I come up with every excuse not to run, so after Royal Parks I am not booking anymore races until I have re completed C25k and hopefully refound my love of running.
But in the meantime I do have to face up to the fact that I have Royal Parks Half in 2.5 weeks, in an ideal world I would try and come up with a plan for even just a few runs between now and then but with the Shine walking Marathon this weekend (a sore throat, achy body and a bit of a temperature that I am desperately trying to ignore, in the hope that it will be gone by Saturday) its really not looking likely, so the plan is to get Shine out of the way, hopefully then I will be able to get a run in towards next week & a one or two again the week after and then the plan for Royal Parks race day will very much be to go out and enjoy myself, I will be the queen of selfies & take in the atmosphere and the sights.
Have you ever fallen out of love with an activity you had previously enjoyed, what did you do to reignite that flame?
I have been talking about this on Instagram for weeks but have yet to put my words into practice
While my eating has definitely been better there is still room for improvement, I am finding myself caught off guard where dinners haven’t been planned and there is nothing in the house.
Doing all the gym classes on offer aren’t going to help me if I am still eating rubbish.
So this week I am going to plan my meals in advance to ensure I stay within my allowances and to ensure I am eating to fuel my body, I have a 26.2 mile walk to do Saturday night, so my nutrition needs to be spot on.
So this week I hit the ground running.. literally, I talked 2 friends into running the Run Through 10k at Victoria Park with me the day after I returned from holiday, what I had forgotten was I had no food in the house to have before my run, so much for my healthy start I ended having Belvita for breakfast not the best start to my fresh start.
The run wasn’t fun, well running with Lisa was good but man I am out of shape but that was kind of the point of entering to use this run as a benchmark, ie see how bad the run felt and how I could improve.
I am determined to get my 10k time no matter how long it takes!
I know I know another name change, what does this one mean, will it magically make me fitter and healthier.. I wish lol
The reason for the name change is my health was suffering.
Over the last few years my weight has steadily gone up (3st in 4yrs) and my fitness levels have dramatically dipped, I haven’t really spoken about it on here but I suffer from anxiety & depression not helped by my B12 deficiency which seems to be getting worse & a few years ago was told by my GP I was borderline Bi Polar & while the anxiety & depression are mostly under control, I realised enough was enough, so I am being a little bit selfish, I am putting myself first for a change, with the support of my wonderful husband I have quit my job to focus on me, to continue my Nutrition studies, to cook myself some healthy meals and actually make use of the gym membership I took out in February.
Project Healthy Fit Me started on the 3rd September when I returned from holiday where I gained 5.5lbs, I have always said the dream was to achieve my Weight Watchers 50lb certificate, I am not sure how achievable that is, it will take me to a weight I haven’t been since 2001 & as I am no longer following Weight Watchers I guess that certificate will remain forever out of my reach, but I am going to keep the same 50lb goal, will I get there? who knows but I will give it my best shot, I do not want a number on the scales to define me, so as I get closer to where I want to be my clothes and how I feel in my own skin will be the bigger decider for me, but that’s still along way off so to start with 50lbs can remain as the goal & I will continue to document my journey here
Stats
Start Weight 12st 8.6lbs – Goal Weight 9st .6lbs – Lost This Week 0 – lbs to Goal 50lbs
Body Fat 38.6 – BMI 29.4 – Water 39.9
Waist 99 – Upper Arms 30 – Thigh 59.5 – Bust 107.5 – Hips 113 – Stomach 110
(all measurements are in cm)
I will report my weight loss each weekend, but will only check my measurements, body fat, water & bmi on a monthly basis (I am not even sure how accurate those figures are on these type of scales but I figured as long as the number goes down it is worth recording)
Do you have any weight loss or fitness goals that you are working towards?
Me & Taffy helping Mo on one of his London 2012 training runs
When I queued at the start line of the London 10,000 race back in 2012, I never realised what an impact the other athletes taking part would have on me.
Mo Farah producing a sub 30 10k time at the London 10,000 in 2012
I am not sure I had even heard of Mo Farah before that day, all I can remember is just as I was turning onto the Embankment and around the 1.5km the runners in front of me seemed to slow a little and everyone’s head was turning to the right, a ripple of applause was going through the runners and the crowds and that was when I saw a group of male runners approaching the 9km mark (yes I am that slow but in my defence there were over 10,000 runners and a staggered start) and I later heard that the guy who had won the race was Olympic Gold Medal hopeful Mo Farah, see so me lining up on that crowded start line was actually me going out and supporting Mo on an Olympic training run.
From that moment on I seemed to hear his name everywhere, to be honest, I had zero interest in the Olympics, London 2012 was an inconvenience for me not a cause for excitement, being an East Londoner and having the Olympic Stadium only 4 miles from my front door meant a summer of extra crowded commutes, probably train delays, tightened security, I honestly couldn’t name you a positive. That was until I heard that the Olympic Torch was coming to our local Country Park and along our High Street, suddenly this was getting hard to ignore, I mean the Olympic Torch is famous, and while I know it wasn’t the original Olympic torch coming to Barkingside, the idea behind people carrying the flame to the stadium is a piece of history and even though it meant getting up at 6am on a Sunday morning, a piece of history happening so close was becoming hard to resist.
Shiny Gold Torch
So on that sunny July Sunday morning I dragged a grumpy husband and equally grumpy dog to Fairlop Waters Country Park to watch the Olympic torch be carried across the lake, from that second on, I was a little bit hooked on the Olympics, who was I kidding I WAS hooked, Swimming, Athletics, Diving, Gymnastics, I was watching it all, totally gutted that I hadn’t even attempted to get tickets, seeing empty seats in the stadium yet on the website being told there were no tickets available for sale
Running with 2016 10,000m finalist Jo Pavey
While I had already dedicated 2012 to getting fit, Olympic fever definitely inspired me further, don’t get me wrong I never expected to get to an Olympic level but I have been fortunate to do some pretty amazing things including running into & on the tracks of the Olympic Stadiums in both London & Amsterdam, as well as running with British 10,000m European Gold Medalist Jo Pavey and more recently chatting London Marathon nerves with Dame Kelly Holmes.
Me, Taffy, Jemma & Alice inside the Olympic Stadium before the 2013 Anniversary Run
I will never forget the goosebumps and emotions I felt running into the Olympic Stadium in 2013 as part of the National Lottery Anniversary Run a 5-mile race that took place in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and finished inside the Olympic Stadium. the last kilometer of the race saw us enter a tunnel which took us a whole lap underneath the stadium as we run underneath the stadium the theme tune to Chariots of Fire played, you could see the emotion on people’s faces and then you turn and come out and complete a 3/4 lap of the Olympic track, as you come out into the stadium the cheers were deafening, if there was ever any doubt that you could finish this race the crowds were not going to let you give up, those cheers were going to get you around, no matter how fast or slow. everyone got the same applause.
Me carrying an Olympic Torch during the 2014 Anniversary Run
Olympic Stadium in the background
I wish I still had the same passion for exercise that I had in 2012 & 2013, I really did get a buzz out of every event I took part in. I had kind of hoped that Rio would reignite that flame inside of me but unfortunately I think the time difference has meant that I have found it difficult to really follow the events I wanted to, although Ernie (my 18yr old Jack Russell) very kindly got me up just in time to watch Jessica Ennis compete in the 800ms last night and also watch Micheal Phelps compete n the 4x100m relay and win his 28th (OMG) Olympic Medal & Team GB win their 6th Olympic Swimming Medal our best swimming haul ever, so as I sit here writing this while watching the Olympic Women’s marathon, again knowing that me going for a little 26.2 mile run with Jemima Sumgong through the streets of London back in April may help her win the Olympic Marathon just as she did in London this year, I am determined to make 2016 count, I am determined to finish 2016 fitter and hopefully slimmer than I entered it.
Does watching sport motivate you, have you ever taken up an activity after watching it, or has the Olympics inspired you to start getting fit?
I would love to hear your stories & will be sure to keep you updated as to how I am getting on.
NB Between me typing this post & it going live Jemima Sungong won Olympic Gold in the marathon, hard work & coincidence or am I really a lucky charm to Olympians worldwide?
Project Healthy Fit Me 