Diet / Fitness & Meal planning

Meal Planning:

HI I got this idea from one of blogger friends.

I am starting on 23.03.15 starting my new exercise schedule including running and cardio along with toning. I am definitely running at least 5k this summer in the race for life. Depending how the training goes between now and entering this may be me signing up for the 10k.

I am doing this to get back into fitness as this did help me physically, but also metal it helped to get on a running machine and put my headphones on for a few hours. Well the difference this time is I cannot afford the Gym membership. Therefore I have found a running buddy who will help enforce me going 3 nights a week. And I won’t be out on my own. Then there will be home workouts between for more toning and strengthening.

My aim is to get fully into my size 8 clothes. I am in some 8s comfortably, however I still have work to do on my stomach. Therefore I would love to go to a clothes shop and not have the am I an 8 or 10 debate. (I bet that sounds really vain)

Also I want to help my overall eating style. I am quite good in general due to the Coeliac nature of my diet, But I am a sucker for cake and biscuits. (gluten free of course). Therefore today with a little help from other people made a health meal plan for the next week.

This will involve batch cooking to give me easy meals for when you just cant be bothered to cook, and meals for lunch at work. Both of these factors should combine to give me healthy meals at a cheaper cost.

I have recently done a Costco Meal shop, therefore my freezer is stocked up on chicken thighs, pork loins, beef mince and stewing beef.

All I didn't buy today was fish as the Aldi selection was not great and I shall go to a larger superstore or a local fishmonger in the week to get this closer to the night of the meal.

I was surprised at how little the shop cost £36.27. But this will be of course subsidized by the meat from the Costco meals.

My fridge is now well and truly stocked up.

All with healthy meals.

The meals I chose are:

Roast Chicken salad / tuna salad

Beef vegetable stir-fry

Beef stew

Pasta with pesto, cherry tomatoes and leftover chicken

Chilli and rice

Fish with new potatoes and peas

There should be some food left at the end of the week which will no doubt be come some kind of concoction to use up. (I hate waste)

I will be very conscious about the level of water I am drinking – I even have an app on my phone. I don’t know how ill manage but I want to drop to 2 cups of tea a day. And yes that includes at work. This will be hard for me as I am a tea monster and I have at least 10 now. I have bought some berry tea for at work and hopefully this will help if others don’t just make me a regular tea.

I am looking at some health supplements to help with metabolism and fat burning. However I shall be careful with this as I know you can get some dodgy ones.

What do you think?

What meals could I add in? They need to be easy, filling and cheap.

Nic

Days out: Donington Race Track - Formula-E Testing day.

Days out: Donington Race Track - Formula-E Testing day.

I was lucky to get tickets to see one of the last testing days of the Formula E at their UK base before the start of the season in Beijing in a few months.

I have been a fan for traditional Formula One racing about 10 years ago. I never got to go and I wasn't too bothered either as I had heard a few bad things. 

Such as sitting around waiting for hours and only see something happen once every 3 minutes when they come across in-front of you. Also the noise, I am not the

best person when it comes to loud noises. I jump a mile at thunder and a balloon bursting.

As you are aware I am very proud to be an EV owner and driver and taking a sport I am interested in, advancing the technologies and making it more environmentally friendly was interesting to me. Therefore when I got the chance to go and find out more I was very excited. I was really excited to see another Renault Zoe actually registered and on the road. (up to now all we had seen were dealer demo cars) and then later in the day another one in the car park. We have gone 7 months not seeing another Zoe and then 2 in one day. Then much to my husbands delight he saw a right hand drive Tesla Model S parked right next to it. 

There are lots of statistics and information I could go on about but my highlights in a nutshell. The cars are engineered the same, same tires body etc. Therefore it is down to the computer tuning and the driver skill. I like this as no one team that can afford better gadgets have an unfair advantage. The cars are still very fast, A ‘normal’ formula one car would still have the speed advantage. But they have been racing years, and this is year one for formula-E. The noise, this was a strange one between our group I think we decided between, a loud remote controlled car and a a small jet engine. It was quite a whiney noise. 

One the day we all picked out favourite cars, I of course went for the shiny silver car of Virgin racing. The boys liked the matt black car that looked a cross between kit from Knight Rider and the Bat-mobile of team Trulli. I also liked having a few drivers that I knew who they were in the mix. 

After a coupe of hours watching from the grandstand everyone went on lunch and we got to go for a Pit Walk, this was a chance to get close to the cars and see the technology in the bays. This is also where I go some nice closer images.

After this we had our lunch and a walk up the hill to another vantage point. Through the day there were a few cars spin off and the safety car and crane were out. I guess this is part of the plan with the testing to get the drivers used to the cars.

After we had finished we had a look around the museum, (with our tickets we got 50% off entry making this £5) I think this was a good way to pass the time, but you wouldn't miss much if you decided not to go. There was a random war section at the beginning with tanks and old bikes, then it went on to race cars. There were lots of old cars and then through to modern cars. It was good to see how the aerodynamics have changed and the styling over the years. I then got to see a number of cars from back when I was watching Formula One in about 2000. Spotting the names of my favourite drivers and feeling like a child in a sweet shop.

I know there are only a few UK testing days left, but I would recommend going if you can. from going to this I am planning on following the Formula-E races. Now I just have to pick a team. With 2 UK teams to choose from I will see. I have a sneaky feeling it will be the Shiny Cars of Virgin Racing.

http://www.fiaformulae.com/en.aspx

http://www.donington-park.co.uk/

What do you think.

Nicola

I am going to get muddy for charity!

Get Muddy for Charity:

Well I never thought I would be saying this but I am running a 5k race and then to top it all off it ends with a muddy assault course.

Well anyone that knows me I am not the messiest of people. I don't mind hard work and exercise but mud is not my cup of tea.

However it is for a vey good cause and I have now registered and shall not be going back.

One the 14th of September I shall be running round a local country park (Clumber park) for Cancer Research. 

I am going to start my training on the 14th of July. As I do want to run the race.

I am going to be doing this as part of a team of 10 with others from my work and some people will be walking, but a few of us are competitive and shall be running.

To say I am not very fit at present would be true, I am aiming currently to complete this within 20-30 minutes.

Last weekend I went and bought my clothing, as due to the nature of the run and the muddiness I wanted some good off road running shoes that I would not be too precious about getting ruined. I also wanted to get them now so I have them ready to break in and train in. Also due to now losing quite a lot of weight my old gym clothes were falling off me. I didn't think it would be the best look me on a treadmill and my trousers around my knees.Therefore I now feel I have the equipment to complete the job.

Mentally I am ready, This is a charity very close to my heart and I am proud to be taking part to raise money and awareness. I just hope now I can get some sponsorship in as this will be well outside of my comfort zone. 

An actual challenge!

I shall post a few updates along the way of how the training is going and how the fundraising is too.

incase you did want to sponsor me the details are below:

Online Donations: 

https://www.justgiving.com/melody-maison-girls

Text Donations
Text the word melo94  £(amount) to 70070 

Speak soon

Nicola x