Week Four ... Better late than NEVER!

I had some company while out walking the other day ... slightly different
experience from exercising in Singapore!

Week four of the running app and its ok, I managed to run it today and not spend the next hour recovering ... whoohoo!  Actually I was talking on the phone for the whole session and it passed by relatively painlessly.  Maybe that's the answer, occupy yourself chatting to someone else and the pain doesn't stand a chance ... Tracy we may need to chat again on Sunday!  While the running progress is slow at least its still going and on the days I am not running I am still walking for ~40 mins.

The change in diet has definitely altered my energy levels the last two weeks and its only now I am starting to feel like they are making a comeback to something comparable to normal.  There is no doubt that the Paleo change is taking a lot of learning and some things I still haven't got quite right.  It might be that i need to redo it or keep it going for longer than the suggested 30 days.  For example, I was sent some free Frooze Balls with my organic groceries this week and oh my gosh they were divine.  It wasn't until I had eaten all five I realised they contained carob and that's on the banned Paleo list ... ooops, if you haven't tried these babies DO!  There are several rookie mistakes I have made like this over the last ten days and it has definitely made me realise how very limiting ... and extremely expensive ... eating this way is.

Having said that eating whole foods is very satisfying and I am really enjoying the flavours of the meals I have made and adapted over the last almost two weeks.  The fact I have spent almost $1000 on food for four since I began isn't a fabulous statistic and something I definitely can't continue to do.  I read a web conversation recently about how its cheaper to eat whole foods than it is to eat takeaways so what's the problem with us all .... yes, probably true but it's not cheaper than eating processed foods and that's where I think we as a nation struggle when trying to make the right health choices.  I spent $8 on organic honey as the sweetener for our salad dressings yesterday ... I could have purchased 3kgs of completely processed, bleached sugar for the same amount :o)  And when feeding two peeps and the adorable husband and there are no grains or starches to fill the stomach, that makes for a lot more protein each and every meal and that extra expense has really added up ... not to mention the bacon bill!

At some stage on this journey I am going to have to find the middle road as this is currently not sustainable.  It does make me wonder though, how do middle New Zealand afford to feed themselves a wholesome, beneficial diet without reverting to spaghetti on toast or two minute noodles that are so cheap and easy to serve to an entire family?  For now I will grow more veggies than I currently do, especially lettuces and tomatoes and hope that helps us through the summer!  

I've entered another race ... this one I will be walking :o)  Not running but
still lapping all those on the couch!

It Started with a Pair of Sneakers ...

... and a trip to Singapore to see my lovely sister.  Some things just seem to happen at the right time and for me all the i's were dotted and t's were crossed and I was given a challenge I couldn't refuse.

I have been lucky enough to spend some quality time with Caryn, one of my sisters dear friends while I have been in Singapore.  She is amazing, she is 50, regularly runs, has done marathons, triathlons, and last year did her first ever half iron man! I kid you not, if you wanted to be inspired she is perfect and has decided to run the Singapore Marathon on the first of December.  You can follow her latest sporting adventure on her new blog A Year in Tiong Bahru, Singapore - Marathon Season.  Our relationship went slightly downhill when she challenged me to find a 5km race to do on the same day ... hmmm.  It IS the right time for me to start thinking about myself and, in particular, my health and fitness so I said yes!!

I like setting goals.  Most of my goals have involved others, especially my children.  One I did complete for myself was to blog a year of pinterest creations ... the first person to achieve it and I loved doing it, so did Pinterest which was lucky :o)  This time round the goal is more personal.  I have often given myself private health and fitness goals but have never completed them, always some of the way but never to the end of the goal!  My solution to this is to make my goals public and blog about them for the next year ... Making myself completely accountable to me, Caryn, and anyone else watching this amusing adventure!

 So the Goals for the coming 365 days:

On the first of December I am going to participate in a 5km race (this race is in Auckland, New Zealand), then at the six month mark compete in a 10 km race, ending this years goals will be a half marathon (she says hopefully!).  I am not a natural runner and am not really fit ... I love playing sports but haven't joined any teams since moving to the Hawkes Bay earlier this year and my sweet walking partner now lives 6 hours away so not that convenient!  I can happily run up four flights of stairs but I would pass out if you made it ten!    Hopefully that gives you some idea of my fitness levels or lack of fitness more appropriately.  I am going to get Caryn to help me with what I should be doing and seek her advice OFTEN so I don't mess this up.  Caryn's first piece of advice was to use a couch to 5Kms program to get off to a good start. I went to the app store and found plenty of apps that have a couch to 5kms program, there are also plenty freely available online.  I went with the 10K Runner: 0 to 5K to 10K run training app as it had great reviews.

The second part of this journey is to also drop a substantial amount of weight.  There is no goal attached to this part except that it HAS to be double digit kilos :o)  I am going to mess around with my diet and also blog about it as a way of tracking the experimentation and, once again, keeping myself accountable.  I don't believe in there being one diet that will work for everybody as we all function differently internally.  Hopefully by blogging about it, I might encourage others to give something new a go or hopefully there is lots of feedback and I can get plenty of new ideas from you guys as well.  Failing any feedback, there is always my go-to bible of knowledge Pinterest for plenty of inspiring ideas to try!

Caryn and I are both hoping we will inspire more people to come join our journey, get involved, even find a running race that suits your fitness ability, blog about it, and we can create a supportive group of like minded people ... if we can all inspire one another I am certain the journey to health and fitness will be far more prosperous and definitely a lot more FUN! 

Anyone interested leave a comment so I can follow you and add a link at the side of this blog so others can follow along too!