wellbeing – Page 2 – Project Healthy Fit Me

Winter Run Series – Race Recap

02/02/201630/10/2019 by ProjectHealthyFitMe, posted in Races & Race Reviews

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I so wanted to be writing a happier race recap of this years London Winter Run & I will, but before I start I wanted to share my experience of the start line

As we headed to the start line I went to do my usual pre race selfie & Facebook check in, when something caught my eye, my news feed was full of the words RIP Terry, the sad news broken that Terry Wogan had passed away, another life taken by cancer, we are only one month into 2016 and we have already lost so many British icons, David Bowie, Alan Rickman & now Terry Wogan to this awful disease

wogan

While everyone was excited to run, the start line definitely had a more sombre feel, there was even more of a poignance as to why over 15,000 runners were standing in the rain waiting to run 6 miles on a dreary Sunday morning & when the going got tough during the race it certainly made you think, yes this run is tough, but fighting cancers tougher & my struggle is nothing compared to what many others are going through

Those of you that have been following my journey for a while will remember me being so excited about polar bear hugs & snowflake bling at last years London Winter Run and instead I got a free ride to the first aid tent, lots of sugary tea, a plaster cast for my leg and my London Marathon dreams shattered (click here to read more)

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I must admit as excited as I have been for the last 18 months about this run it has definitely been hanging over me like a dark cloud, I know its stupid, this race had nothing to do with last years accident, but pschologically it has been a barrier I had to pass through, maybe its because the 1st February marks a year since the accident but I have felt for months that if I can get through this race then I will be ok

LWR-route

In 2015 the race route ran along the Thames, unfortunately this years race was more inland (possibly due to road works down the embankment) & a little boring, I love running through London but today’s race was a lot of side streets and doubling back on ourselves, the only sights I spotted were Trafalgar Square at the start, St Pauls Cathederal & the Houses of Parliment at the finish line

Poor route aside the support along the route was great, snowmen, polar bears and penguins cheering us on, snow falling (thankfully only the fake stuff) & a fab bling waiting for us at the finish line

CaDeLkaWAAAuOUS

I ran the race with my friend Jemma, we are both running the London Marathon this year and our training runs have been around 12 minute miles, so baring in mind today was a fun run we were hoping for a finish time of around 1hr 15, so you can imagine our faces when we crossed the finish line in 1hr 8mins, its given us both a much needed confidence boost, I have a few niggles in my leg (I actually typed niggles in my head & I am wondering if that is nearer the truth & that the niggles are in my head) but I am hoping some stretching and a few days rest they will pass as the marathon training is starting to get serious over the next few weeks

If the London Winter Run sounds like a race you would like to take part in, why not click on the link below to register your interest in next years event.

Marathon Watch – 84 Days to go

31/01/201630/10/2019 by ProjectHealthyFitMe, posted in General, Weight Loss

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Only two runs this week but thats only because I have runs planned for Saturday & Sunday, Tuesday & Friday this week, the miles have been increased and last Saturdays run was 5 miles & the miles will steadily progress from hereon.. eek, its getting serious

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Meals have been ok ish, I ate out a few times and had friends over one night & we ordered a pizza, something I realised on my 5 mile run last Saturday is it takes me much longer to feel energised when I run these days, I feel sluggish & its problem because I am 2st heavier than when I ran my first half marathon 2 years ago and because where I am working long hours at the moment I am not eating as well and that has to change.

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So for the next few days I am making a conscience effort to fuel my body better in the run up to this weekends London Winter Run, I am hoping it will help me feel a lot more energised and shock me to make some changes that can stay in place for the marathon

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One of the plus sides of the longer runs is taking in some different routes and last weekend saw me running laps of Fairlop Waters Country Park, there is something so peaceful & calm about being near water

& the scales, well the scales went down 1lb, I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t have liked more but if I can average a lb a week until the marathon I’ll be happy

Does Sugar Make Us Fat

13/11/201530/10/2019 by ProjectHealthyFitMe, posted in General

Every where you look at the moment someone is talking about how sugar is bad for us

So you can imagine my distress when me the worlds biggest chocoholic started studying nutrition and even my text books were pointing the finger at my sweet best friend

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/30/jamie-oliver-fizzy-drinks-sugar-rush-campaign-welcome

The article above talks about Jamie Olivers #SugarRush campaign & as with all the other articles I have read makes a good argument as to why even at my 9st 7 & running half marathons slimmest self I was still able to pinch a lot more than an inch around my waistline

A few weeks ago my Sky+ was tuned to record Jaime on C4, & I wondered if the cute cockney could convince me to tackle my sugar addiction & dramatically reduce my often 2 bar a day chocolate habit

Unfortunately for me, the program didn’t quite hit the mark, there was no new news, I already knew about the risks of diabetes and the effect sugar can have on your teeth (can you believe at 42yrs old I have never even had a filing) & while I do not proclaim to be an expert in the ‘sugar’ field, I am an expert in my own weight over the years, my body & my chocolate addiction

So here are my insights into the ‘does sugar make us fat’ debate

Ultimately I do not think any food is bad for you, nor do I think any food or food group for should be banned from our diets, but I have always believed that moderation is the key for certain foods, I now accept that my beloved chocolate falls into this bracket, I found out many years ago that I have a wheat intollerance & for around a year I was made to eat wheat and gluten free (this was years before wheat & gluten free substitutes where readily available in the shops) thankfully I do not really like bread which is the biggest hurdle for many when being told to go wheat &/or gluten free but I do love pasta, I think my problem arose because I was often eating pasta for lunch and dinner so could end up eating pasta at least 8x a week now I limit it to once a week and touch wood I do not have the same issues I had in the past.

If I could just adopt the same approach to sugar, as I did to pasta, then maybe my pinch around my waist will reduce.

I am not prepared to give up chocolate, I personally do not believe it is necessary nor realistic but I do understand it would be better for me if I could reduce my sugar consumption, and something that has surprised me over the past few months is the hidden sugars in foods, even some foods that are considered healthy come very close to being labelled High Sugar, so this is an area I know definitely focus on to try and make savings in my daily sugar intake

I have slowly been trying to reduce my sugar intake for the last 2 months and have managed to reduce my body fat by 2% not a lot I know but its the first time I have seen my body fat go below 40% in around 10yrs, so I am going to continue trying to make small changes and continue to monitor my body fat %, I would love to see it below 37% before Christmas which would require a reduction of around 1% a month

If you missed Jamie’s SugarRush you can catch it HERE

Shine Half Marathon

30/10/201530/10/2019 by ProjectHealthyFitMe, posted in Races & Race Reviews

Sometimes I wonder why I sign up to events, who wants to walk 13 miles around London on a Saturday night?

You’d have to be crazy right? Plus all the weeks of training, getting up early on a Saturday morning to walk 6+ miles, and signing up when you are recovering from a serious injury and struggling to walk a couple of miles or when you have never even attempted a 5k before, well you wouldn’t would you?..

Well actually that exactly what my friend Mandy & I did a few weeks ago

I think it was May time Mandy & I decided to sign up to the walk, I was recovering from a calf rupture and it was suggested I find a challenge to help with my rehabilitation & Mandy was soon to be returning to work after having a baby and thought committing to a challenge like Shine would help her weight loss

When we signed the walk seemed months away but quickly those 3 training walks a week brought us around to 26th September and SHINE night, our walk was due to stat at 7.30pm so we decided to meet up a little early and head to Zizzi for a spot of carb loading, before we knew it we were in Southwark Park and heading for the start line

The first mile felt very familar to me, we were in Bermondsey and walking along the route of the London Marathon, the next two miles were a little dull, passing industrial units around London Bridge until we reached Tower Bridge, there is something about Tower Bridge and the Tower of London that I find magical, they were both lit up beautifully, add to that the thousands of Shine Walkers & their flashing accessories & signs on their back saying why they were walking it was impossible to not have a tear in your eye, the pride at being part of something so amazing

Soon after Tower Bridge we were at St Pauls & the 4 mile point, water and yogurt coated fruit snacks were being handed out, I had a quick look at my watch at this point and was shocked to discover we had been walking 2 minutes a mile quicker than we had trained at, it had felt quick but not that quick & we made a conscience effort to slow a little not wanting to burn ourselves out

Before we had set off we had agreed we would love to finish in around 4hrs that being said ultimately we just wanted to finish and had agreed any finish time would be something to be proud of

Next we were walking through Holborn, Theatreland & along Whitehall before reaching the half way point

The next few miles were a little boring, around Victoria and onto the Embankment passing Battersea and Albert Bridges & I was so grateful to the volunteers along this part of the route, they had already been standing around for 2+ hours and quite possibly had another 10+ hours ahead of them while waiting for the Full Marathon walkers who were setting off in two waves between 9.30 & 10.30pm, the volunteers were full of smiles, encouraging words and most importantly chocolates

Next up was Westminster and the 10 mile point, for Mandy this was a huge mile stone as the furthest we had walked in training had been 9 miles.

I had done events like this a few years ago but even I was starting to feel the effects of those fast early miles and almost 3hrs on my feet, but knowing we were on the final straight gave me the energy to carry on, without having to indulge in any of the treats on offer at the pitstops

Next was Big Ben & the London Eye, I am not sure what was going on in London that night but as we passed over Westminster Bridge fireworks were lighting up the sky, the next few miles were again very familiar to me, when I worked in the city I would often go for a walk at lunchtime and a circular route from Tower Bridge to Westminster was a regular walk, although even at night its an area heavily populated with tourists its a walk I find very peaceful

Finally we were at London Bridge & the finish line at Billingsgate Market was in sight

We had done it!! 13.1 miles in under 4hrs!!

As well as feeling proud of myself, there were times this year when I would never have dreamt that completing a half marathon would be possible but more so I was proud of Mandy, to sign up to something like this is a huge commitment especially when you have to juggle training with work and a young baby & did I mention Mandy had never even taken part in a Race for Life before, as I said at the start, totally crazy & incredibly inspiring

So whats next, well I think its safe to say we both have the bug & Mandy uttered those words that I know are addictive ‘I love the medal’ I predict at least the Half again next year maybe with a few of our members or possibly even the Full Marathon, who knows you will have to watch this space

If you would like to know more about the Shine Walk or are interested in taking part next year please click HERE for further details

What did you do for National Fitness Day?

12/09/201512/09/2015 by ProjectHealthyFitMe, posted in General, Races & Race Reviews

Did you know Wednesday 9th September was National Fitness Day?

It was fairly well advertised on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook, if you follow Health & Fitness style accounts otherwise the day could easily have passed you by.

My local council run gym was tweeting about free to attend events but if you tried to contact them to book into anything you were met with deafly silence and claims that they knew nothing about National Fitness Day (shame on you London Borough of Redbridge)

Luckily 2 fitness bloggers I follow PT Mollie and The Fat Girls Guide to Running had organised a 5k run around the Olympic Park in Stratford, East London, so I decided to sign up.

I was a little bit worried about running a whole 5k and running with other people as I haven’t done anything like that since my accident in February, but I needn’t have worried both Mollie & Julie are CiRF qualified and chatted to us as we ran around their pre planned 5k route, they even stayed cool when the route they had carefully planned suddenly became unavailable to us due to an event taking place in the park later that week, instead we made up a new route as we went along I was secretly hoping we would avoid many of the sneaky hills in the park but ended up running up the biggest of them all around the back of the Olympic Stadium.

The run showed me that while I still have to be careful & aware of any niggles, probably my biggest niggle is in my head & things are very much mind over matter for me at the moment & I that need to get over the fear of injury, the boredom of running and walking the same routes and start enjoying running again, losing myself in a run like I did the day of the tube strikes when I got to run along the Embankment (Not letting the tube strikes beat me) so I can enjoy the post run highs.

Thanks again to Julie and Mollie for giving up your time to organise the run & for giving me the confidence to enter races again, I know my return to running will be slow and that I may have to do a bit of ‘jeffing’ (run/walking, click HERE to find out more about Jeff Galloway’s Run Walk Run approach) when I race but there is no shame in that & if it helps me stay injury free as Jeff claims it’s definitely something I will be looking into more