Introducing...Little Cat!

So, this is my Little Cat!

I adopted her from Bath Cats and Dogs Home in August last year and she has very quickly become a major part of my life. I can't actually remember what life was like before her! She can be very naughty (scratching the sofa and bringing in small animals at random times of the day/night!) but she is also such a little cutie that I'm very rarely angry for long! As I write, she's curled up on my feet making little snoring sounds and occasionally chasing mice in her sleep! Love her!

In other news, I started my Half Marathon training this week. It confirmed what I already knew - I'm NOT a natural runner! I marked out a one mile route in my car and have then run/walked it every day. I'm now able to run most of it - well, more than I did on day one! I'm not sure how I'm going to fit it around work this week but I'll give it a go and see what happens!

I'm pretty sure that I'll need a knee support, it's been very achy this week. I have an old dance injury that makes it weaker than it should be so I'll be off to the sports shop at the weekend to find out how best to strap it up. I also got a swanky armband for my iPod so I can listen to some tunage as I suffer! So far I've found that Alexandra Burke's and Cheryl Cole's albums are best, they have a good steady beat to them!

Anyway, I just wanted to check in and introduce my Little Cat!

Stay happy,

WG x

Week Eight!

Well, what a week.

Things have been rather difficult the last couple of weeks and dieting and exercise have been the furthest things from my mind to be honest!

However, I'm a great believer in moving and looking forwards as much as possible and I always try to follow my dad's motto of 'nothing wasted'.

So, now it's time for a new challenge!

I've decided to sign myself up for the Bath Half Marathon in 2011! Trust me when I say that this is a huge challenge, I HATE running! But I want to give it a shot and I have a year to get ready for it so hopefully I'll be able to handle it...plus my brother is planning on doing the Reading Half Marathon so there is a little sibling rivalry going on as well!

I have a week off work booked in mid March and I plan to get training then, will the help of my dad's training regime. He runs full marathons a few times a year and has completed the Iron Man Competition so he knows what he's talking about!

This week is going to be all about detoxing my system, sorting my skin out (it's been somewhat neglected of late) and getting back into an exercise routine.

I'll let you know how it all goes...

WG x

Days Sixteen, Seventeen, Eighteen and Nineteen!

I have firmly hit my stride now, both with work and with my diet.

Yesterday (Day Eighteen) was Saturday and so an 'off' day which meant that I relaxed my rules and even enjoyed a (small) slice of chocolate pie for dessert in the evening. It was deeeeelicious!

Aside from that, I've been really good and not cheated at all. Day Sixteen was more salad for lunch, beans on toast for dinner - not very exciting but high in protein and the brown bread is good for fibre - as well as loads of fruit and veggies to snack on.

Day Seventeen was a bit shaky, I had loads of cravings all day but managed to stay busy at work and they eventually went away. Lunch was a risotto that the chef at work made and then Drummer Boy came over in the evening and we had chicken Caesar wraps for dinner - mmmmmmm!

Today has been the best so far. I started with a run this morning (Drummer Boy had to leave early to record with his band), followed by half a grapefruit with pinenuts for breakfast. After cleaning my kitchen and livingroom (cleaning burns major calories if you're energetic about it!) I had hummus (home made) with veggies for a snack, followed a bit later by some home made soup for lunch. This evening I had some fruit salad as a snack (mango, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, apples, oranges - delicious!) and then made the sausage casserole again to use up some leftover ingredients from last week. In a little while I'll have some apple and cheese and then it's time to hit the hay!

Back to work tomorrow, going to try and fit a workout in afterwards, if I'm not too exhausted!

Stay happy,

WG x

P.S. How cute is this kitten?! I know it has nothing at all to do with this post but it's just so lovely I couldn't not post it! X

Day One

I started my diet about five days ago but let's count this as Day One!

Today was a Snow Day - I actually did a little jig around my living room when I realised that I didn't have to go to work! And then promptly went back to sleep. Blissful.

However, after a couple of lovely snoozing hours, I did pull my backside out of bed and into my gym kit for a workout. Today should have been a running day but I really didn't fancy running through six inches of snow and stacking it onto the ice! Instead I did a thirty minute session on the Wii Active, which is the best fitness programme that I've come across so far. And I have a fair collection!

Today was all about upper body strength (the Active rotates each day between upper body, lower body, cardio and all round fitness) so I was working my arms with crunches and lifts until they were burning with the effort!

Food wise, I started the day with porridge (made with water), blueberries and a glass of grapefruit juice. Then I had an orange with a handful of pine nuts as a snack before a bowl of home-made vegetable soup with brown bread for lunch.

After a yoga session (soooooo good for stretching everything out and relaxing!) I munched on some vegetable slices with houmous and two glasses of water.

This evening I had sweet chilli garlic salmon with new potatoes and grilled veggies - I'll post the recipe in a minute! It was soooo tasty and my final mini-meal will be in about an hour and will be a small portion of a salad that I made yesterday containing lettuce, peppers, carrots, celery, cucumber and feta cheese with a balsamic vinegar dressing. Yum!

I hope that everyone has had a chance to enjoy the snow today, I went outside for a while to have a snowball fight - good fun and it burns the calories as well - bonus!

See you all tomorrow...x

Thems is the rules...

So, here is my diet and exercise plan and the rules that I'm going to do my best to follow over the coming months...

Food

Well, it goes without saying really! Lots of fresh fruit and veg, as much colourful food as I can manage and trying to cut down on as much sugar as possible.

Also, loads of water (it helps to flush all the rubbish out of the system) and there are certain foods that I'm going to work extra hard at working into my diet:

- Grapefruits - great for boosting the metabolism and cleaning out the system.

- Pine nuts - a little bit fatty but full of good oils.

- Fish - only when they're on offer as I'm broker than broke! Salmon is a great one though and I've got a very tasty recipe that I'll be putting on here.

They are the main three but I'll generally be aiming to eat good things all day and also eat six small meals instead of three bigger ones. This is good for balancing out the blood sugar and stops you from snacking randomly throughout the day.

Alcohol is something that I'll be cutting out - with the exception of Saturday evenings. No-one can diet 24/7 and so Saturday will be my 'off' day.

Exercise

I work full time (apart from when it's snowing!) as a Nursery Assistant taking care of babies aged three months to two years so that is a pretty good workout on it's own!

However, I also aim to workout for thirty minutes three times a week using the Wii Active as well as running twice a week for thirty minutes and doing yoga everyday for at least fifteen minutes. I find that if I break it down it doesn't seem too much and the Wii Active is great because it never gives you the same workout twice. I don't know about you, but I have the attention span of a small child - particularly when I'm supposed to be exercising!

I think that's it! It can't be that hard...right...? x

P.S I love deviantart.com - how amazing is this picture?!