The last few weeks,

The last few weeks.

I have had a bit of an emotional roller-coaster over the last few weeks, And as some things I think are best keeping private I have not posted much on here.

I have previously battled with depression, and I am aware of lots of my triggers. Recently a few of these have been apparent to me.

I have been trying to force myself into doing the things that help pull me around.

·        A bath

·        A walk

·        A run

·        Watching YouTube videos

·        Listening to music

Do you have any other suggestions?

The only other issue I am having is I cannot sleep well at night. I get to sleep easily, however then around 4am I awake and have broken sleep until I have to get up. I have tried no electronics, a bath, lavender spray and the odd glass of wine. Again all suggestions are welcomed.

Speak Soon

Nicola

1 month Diet & Exercise update

Diet and Exercise update:

Well here I am 1 month on.

To summaries.

·        I bought all the gear to go running

·        I went running 3 times a week for 2 weeks

·        I went MEGA healthy eating for 1 week

·        I limited to 1 cup of tea a day and the rest honey and lemon

·        Consciously drank lots of water

·        I dropped a dress size (in trousers)

·        I felt amazing! Alert, not hungry, happy,

·        I then was ill

·        I stopped exercise

·        Now I cannot get back on the healthy eating band wagon

·        I have a sore throat, feel really tired and run down

·        My get up and go has gone.

Plan:

·        Get back into exercise (however I shall mix it up with a run and a xbox game like Zumba)

·        Next food shop – go healthy again – however I do need to give myself treats and think more about lunches at work. I have found I need a mid morning or mid afternoon boost.

·        Drink more water again (my skin was clearer)

I cannot believe how quickly I started to see results and feel better in myself. I need to find a balance between TOO healthy and fit and making it work with my lifestyle and goals.

What can you suggest?

Speak soon

Nicola

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

Race for life: Pretty Muddy - Complete

Race for life: Pretty Muddy - Complete 

Today I have completed my 5K run. I do have to say I am proud to have completed this and it was a challenge for me.

After arriving this morning in time for the race which included me getting up and out of the house before 8am on a sunday. I arrived at the venue and met up with my work colleagues who I was running with. We all wore matching T-shirts.

Before:

Then we went into a holding area where an army style fitness guy got us warmed up. A lady then read out a very touching story about a recent cancer survivor to inspire everyone on their run. Then off we went, my group was split up as some of us wanted to run, some ran a bit and walked a bit and some walked. The first obstacle we all met together and this was where you realised your trainers were going to be full of wet muddy water. Then off we go again. The next obstacle was my downfall.

One of my colleagues decided it would be a good idea for me to take an early bath. All I can say was at less than 1k in I was drenched. Meaning I was not worried what other obstacles could have been thrown at me. 

The other kilometers passed, with running, walking and chatting along with the obstacles. Including a large netted A frame, muddy tunnels, bungee wires and lots of cargo nets to crawl under. 

A few stations were marshalled by mean people throwing more liquid mud over you to make sure you were well and truly drenched.

After:

At the end I was shattered, and the last part was uphill. This was where you climbed up the netting on an inflatable slide, and slid down into a final mud bath. Well I noticed the guys who were again throwing buckets of mud on you. I didn't notice that I was headed straight for it. The guy threw a bucket of muddy water straight into my face. He looked at me and said sorry as I don't think that was his aim. But by this point I was drenched and he could have been helping clean me down a little. 

We waited and cheered on the rest of our group as they crossed the finish line. Some of us were worse off than others.

So here I am a few hours later, after a 30 minute shower, 2 changes of clothes, ruined trainers and an achy body.

I am proud to have gone outside of my comfort zone. As I don't do running, don't do mud, and don't do early morning starts.

I wonder what my next challenge will be.

Speak Soon

Nic 

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