Ups and downs

...we all have them.

Ups:

• I have finished all academic work for my nursing degree and came out with a good result, just placements to finish and I will be a REAL mental health nurse!
• I am continuing with bootcamp and it is making my runs faster and my body stronger.
• I am doing the Wainwright Coast to Coast walk in a week today! 
• I have two very cute chinchilla who never fail to make me giggle.

Downs:

• I am well aware that I have put on over a stone since my lowest weight of 9st 7lb. I got lazy and thought I could eat anything. I began saying that I will lose a stone in 'x' amount of time and it never happened, and I get disheartened.
• It's freakin HOT here atm. My poor chinnies. They don't do well in over 23c heat and in our flat its getting over 25c! We are doing out best to keep them cool, such as putting frozen bottles of water in a sweet tin in there cage to act as a cooling seat, keeping the window open during the night and not letting them out for play if it is over 23c as they will run around like crazy things and get too warm! Here in the UK we don't have this kinda weather that often so it wouldn't be worth the £250 on an air con unit, at the mo anyway...
• Plus I don't do well in the heat either. I'm much more of a Spring person!
• Not sticking completely to my marathon training plan. Just missing some mid-week runs.
• Eating too much. Simple.

Well over the past few days I have solved my weight loss problem. Well, sort of. I have decided that setting a goal time is not a good thing for me. If there is a deadline, I will not make an effort until the last min and try everything possible often with a bad result. This applies to everything from assignments to weight loss.

My final placement is almost over (no more 1.5 hours of travelling!) then after my 3 weeks off I'm back for my elective placement in York. Phew. This will allow for more time for training.

Eating wise, I am going to try and add more fruit and veggies back into my diet again, avoid dairy where possible and try and cook for myself and Nick as much as I can. At the mo with all the heat, I can't be doing with cooking!

I have refocused my goals which do not have a time scale.

cw: 150lb BMI: 26.6
lw: 133lb
gw: 118-124lb BMI: 21.1

I'm not a fan of BMI, I am only using it as a guide.




Arg. Its just too warm in our little flat atm! I feel sick with the heat, either that or all the water I'm consuming! Boooo!  :(

Blergh..

Just a quick post. More of a reminder to myself really, that I DO want to lose more weight and it is NOT okay to have these regular bad eating days that make me feel awful inside.

Since my last post I tried Sainsburys diets, they put me on 1400kcal each day and I felt awful, really tired and grumpy. I was still burning calories, around 500 some days, bringing my net intake below 1000kcal. Something far from healthy.

So, I left that and thought I'd try again by calorie counting to 1800kcal and continuing with the regular workouts. However, this is not the case I have just eaten everything in sight for the last 2 days and I feel awful. Clothes feel tighter and I don't feel right.

I need to re-focus and not think that I must eat all my Christmas goodies in one go to make them go away, that is not the way it works, nor is it at all healthy.

I need to be in good form. I have 2 half marathons in Feb and April and a MARATHON in October. On top of that I have a degree to get and a nursing job to find. I MUST be healthy for these so I can focus and function well.

Must stay happy and healthy. From now till always. Everyone can have treat days, as long as they are TREAT days...not treateveryday!


:)

Commitment issues with food and weight loss

First of all I have stopped the vegan pledge, after just under 2 weeks of being vegan. I found myself stepping into old habits with food, such as eating crisps and biscuits that were vegan, mainly for the sake that they were vegan..I very rarely eat crisps or biscuits!
So yeah, stopped that and now I am back to plain old veggi. I say plain old but I have been veggie for so long that I am comfortable with what food I can cook that is healthy and yummy. I usually like planning my meals and looking for new interesting thing but with degree work and the lark my motivation has suffered with just about most things.

I have been thinking over the last few days about my stuggle to get under the 9st 7lb/8lb mark (133/134lb). I have come to the conclusion that 9st 7lb has been my dream weight since I can remember. I remember being 13st and dreaming about that weight, how I'd look and what clothes size I would be. Now I am here I am still getting used to the smaller me, the smaller tummy the thinner but muscley thighs. One thing I never dreamed about was the ability to be able to run for a whole 13.1 miles (current best of 2 hours 23 mins ;] ). So yeah I am currently needing that little extra motivation to get things back into gear and start losing again. Another 10lb until my BMI is slap bang in the middle of healthy. Now I know BMI is something that I shouldn't really worry about but I feel that I need to lose a little exta, I am not quite where I want to be yet. I know to get there I will need to alter my current eating habits a little.

I have some amazing converse waiting for me when I reach 9st 4lb (130lb), they should be motivation enough but I still have some work to do with my realtionship with food such as reaslising when I am bored rather than actually hungry etc. Drinking water is another thing, I just don't have enough!

In terms of the commitment side of things realtes to me getting past that 9st 7lb. Currently I seem to be able to keep goals up for a short while and then I either get bored of it or just eat too much and think 'Oh well..I will just start again tomorrow..' which I know isn't a good thing.

Running.
What is that again?
I kid. I did do a 5k run in just over 33mins the other day on the tredmil. I am aiming for faster but I did come off that tredmil a little woozy so I think that if I worked any harder I would have fainted. Never a good thing in the middle of the gym. I am doing night shifts next week so that will throw my routine up in the air but you gotta keep on going and manage issues along the way.

I'll update soon on progress and the lark. Hopefully I will get those converse soon! :)

Woman with a plan (run..quick!)

I was on the vegetarian society website the other night and they are currently doing a 7 day meal plan for healthy eating. Find it HERE. I looks really nice! I am adapting a few bit otherwise my shopping this week would have been a little too expensive (currently waiting for tesco delivery. I love getting them..is that sad?).
I have even planned out my breakfast and lunch to attempt to keep me on track, hopefully it will all go well!
Here is what I have planned for tomorrow(and I will let you know if I stick to it!)
Breakfast: Carrot cake porridge - porridge with grated carrot and apple plus sprinkled cinnamon
Snack: Pepper cut into sticks
Lunch: Wholemeal bagel with extra light laughing cow (and possibly spinach)
Snack (Pre gym) : Banana
Dinner: Vegetable Quinoa
Evening snack if needed: Yogurt or some nuts

Sounds pretty good if I'm honest :) I have never tried quinoa, but I have seen some recipes using it, so I think I'll give it a go. If you have used it, and have recipe ideas then please let me know!

I have also got myself some coconut milk to try as a milk alternative. Not because I want to give it milk, but because when I tried becoming vegan in my teens I tried soya, sweetened soya and rice milk and to be honest I was never really fond of any of them, and I like my cereal in the morning! Toast can be too dry at times!

(Shopping arrived)

I love it when the cupboards are full of nice things again!

Right.. so... running....
I need to get back into the habit of going during the week as one long run on a Sunday probably isn't the best thing for my training.

Fitness:
Gym tomorrow :)
I have bought Jillian's 30 day shred, so this will be my next challenge to do it for 30days on the trot. Hopefully with good results since I have put on a pound or two (a weekend of apple crumble followed by a Monday of chocolate fudge cake. Ooops)

Slimming world:
I have decided that it may be time for me to leave, as I feel I may work better with allowing myself small amounts of the good stuff (peanut butter..good for protein) and learning to limit my portion size, something that slimming world doesn't teach you about. So I have gone back to what I was doing before, calorie counting. Not obsessively, just so I am aware of how much is going in and what I am using during the day from exercise.

Overall I am feeling good, much more relaxed with having no job (besides having no money =/) and more confident during my nursing placement. I will post tomorrow to let you know how the plan went.

Planning on making some healthy brownies this week, will try and include pics and recipe when I'm done so watch this space!