Hi friends,
Want to read more on how my Nike We Own The Night training is going? You can read a bit of Q&A action over here on Leah’s blog.
Meanwhile, I’m heading off here for the long weekend:
Venice
Buona Pasqua!
I’ve signed up for 10km with Team Naturally, Run
I’ve signed up partly for health reasons. I wanted to give myself an exercise goal; something to work towards. I also signed up for vanity reasons. I’m going to Ibiza in August, Croatia in September, and my sister is getting married in October so I need to look gooood. It appears that 2013 has become the year of the bikini and bridesmaid dress.
Miraculously I am ahead of the training program that lovely Leah sent out to us all, and I went on my first run (in 5 weeks!!) yesterday. I came out of my room in my running gear to find all my flatties in the kitchen and as one asked “are you going for a run?” the next responded with “Kiwi’s are insane” followed by the third stating it was raining and snowing outside. THANKS TEAM. After politely telling them to shut up I told them I was only off for a 3km run, it would be piss-easy.
As soon as I stepped out the front door and breathed in my heart stopped. I tapped start on my Nike iPhone app and my music started pumping. I knew the only way I wouldn’t die of pneumonia was to start running. So I did, and due to the freezing cold temperature (3*!) I ran the first 1.5km without stopping. After the first few minutes my nose was running, my ears hurt, my chest felt like it was going to explode, my hands were numb (even in gloves) and my throat felt raw. But I knew that if I kept running it would be over much sooner and I’d be back in the warmth of my house after a hot shower with a steaming cup of black coffee in my hand. I kept running, and by the second kilometre I was warm. My throat and chest still hurt like hell, my nose was still running but my body temperature was warming up. I felt like the female Bear Grylls. Probably a slight exaggeration, but to me, getting out and running and pushing through that cold temperature and RUNNING made me overcome an obstacle I would normally have avoided. If I hadn’t signed up for the 10km run I would have stayed on the couch watching Suits all day, which is what I did in the afternoon, but I TOTALLY EARNED IT.
Now that I’ve done it once, and survived, I know I can do it again. I’m a little weary about running at night as it’s still quite dark out but I plan to stick to main roads, and bully coerce one of my flatmates into running with me.
If you’re keen to sign up for the London run, or just keen to join in and train for a 10km run wherever in the world you are – you can read up more over here.
Bring on May 18th!
One week down
I had all these ideals in place that I was going to blog my Whole30 experience daily; how I felt, what I’d learnt, what I was looking forward to - but come on, Bron, that stuff never sticks. (Sidenote: New Years resolution: actually stick to shit. I’ve learnt in my 20*cough*something years that I’m hopeless at that and get bored so quickly.)
I may not have blogged all my feelings, but I have stuck to the program. Seven days down and not a glass of wine or complex carbohydrate in sight. High five!
My insides feel amazing, I go to bed not feeling bloated or uncomfortable, I won’t fib and say I spring from bed in the morning eager for the day (it is winter in London after all), but I don’t have that awful sluggish feeling that I’ve experienced in the past. I wouldn’t know if I’ve lost any weight as you’re not allowed to weigh yourself. I can see in the mirror that my face is slimmer (always the face, why not the hips?!) so to me that is a start and surely with three weeks to go the hips will finally catch up.
I’ve not found it too difficult to be honest, there’s been no major cravings (except on day two when I had to stop and buy pineapple on my way to work) nor hunger pains (except on day six when I scoffed down a slice of roast beef before work) and I honestly do feel all the better for it. At this point I can see myself carrying on this way of eating post the 30 day program, except for of course adding in the odd glass of wine and slice of birthday cake (birthday cake is a Greek God given right!).
Finally admitting to my Heathrow Injection
I’m definitely feeling chunkier than when I first arrived in London. It’s the pub life, takeaways, nights out, lunches out, Christmas, and of course my own laziness that has me noticing my clothes are feeling tighter. I also feel awful inside, lethargic, grumpy, unexcited, it’s emotionally depressing! Sure, I enjoy the glass of wine and the gorgeous, creamy pasta at the time, but then I’m annoyed at myself all week because all my clothes don’t look as good as they used to.
So starting January 1st I am joining Leah and a crowd of thousands for the Whole30 to reset my body and my mind. I’ve been dying to start all week, but decided with New Years Eve looming there was no point and I would just be setting myself up to fail.
However this weekend I have headed in the right direction; my supermarket shop contained only lean protein, eggs, fruit, vegetables, herbal teas and a few nuts (that they allow) to keep me going. I also went through my pantry and fridge and threw out anything not allowed, as they suggested, because looking at that food all month would just drive me mental! It wasn’t too much, and one of my flatmates took a few bits too – we’re not wasting.
I’m not going to measure my progress through weighing myself or taking body measurements – I’m simply going to take before and after photos and base it on my clothing fitting better (like they used to!).
This morning I also went for a 5km run (+jog +walk – because I can’t just run 5kms with no training) around Greenwich. It was beautiful, and now sitting here on my couch drinking water, eating a nectarine and watching my favourite man (JamieO) on TV I feel very chuffed with myself and the aching in my legs is actually a welcomed sensation.
Officially an official bridesmaid
As I touched on in my previous post, one of my beautiful younger sisters is getting married! They’re still deciding on the official date, but it is more than likely going to fall in November next year. I received an email from her a couple of days ago asking if I would officially be her number one bridesmaid. Of course I said yes. I nearly replied saying I’d already decided I was one, and told people how excited I was to be a bridesmaid for the first time but thought it better not to steal her moment.
She’s told me the theme is a teal, country wedding. Which will be beautiful as it will be going into summer in November in New Zealand and it’s a very good excuse for a visit home. I’ve been asked to find bridesmaids dresses here for my youngest sister and I as there is far more choice so I will be all over that come summer in June. I’ve even started a Pinterest board of teal, country wedding inspiration to help with any bridesmaid duties I may have. Unfortunately I wont be able to plan or organise too much from here, but I can bombard her Facebook wall with pretty wedding centre pieces and cakes.
Being in the wedding party also means I need to give the body a complete overhaul. So starting January (because seriously, there is way too much mulled wine around asking to be drunk pre-Christmas) it’s all on!
The toughest task though will be finding a date to take. I have less than 12 months to find a man, keep him entertained and madly into me, then convince him he’d absolutely love to fly to New Zealand and meet all my family together at once at my sister’s wedding. How could he resist?!
