I ran 4.5km!!!!!!

I can't believe it, I am so amazed at myself. As I have been writing, I have been trying to slowly build up my jogging endurance. I have been doing a gradual 10% increase of time running every week. This morning I had planned on running for 30 minutes. The big one!! This was the time I had been building up to.

I chose an 8.6km track that I had done a few times before. It has a good mix of flat and hills. The first half has the most hills. I set off running, and was feeling pretty good. I got to 20 minutes the easiest yet, so felt confident that I could get to 30 minutes. I was watching my watch and when it reached 30 minutes, I did a yippee and did a bit of a celebration lift of my arms. (Thankfully being 7.30am on a Sunday there wasn't anyone else on the track!!) But I decided I had just made it up the hill so I wanted to enjoy the downward run, so I kept on running. Now I am writing running, but I am talking a slow jog here. I won't be winning any speed races, but I am more interested in my endurance. As the minutes ticked over, I was hoping to get to 40 minutes without stopping. But my knee started to hurt a bit, so I thought that I had better be sensible and I stopped at 38 minutes!!!

I was so proud of myself and I wasn't feeling puffed and thankfully while walking, my knee didn't hurt. So for the rest of the 8.6km I did 7 minute intervals of walking and then running. I fitted 2 more running stints in. I finished the 8.6km in about 75 minutes. My knee hurt for a short while after I got home, but it is fine now.

Later, when I was out in the car, I drove on the track I ran the 38 minutes for and clocked my distance as 4.5km. The 7 minute running distances were around 1km each time. I feel so much more confident that I may be able to do the 5.5km in October for the Melbourne Marathon.

I am so amazed that I can do this. I encourage everyone who has a goal to keep working at it because the feeling of accomplishment when you reach the goal is amazing. I have been on a high all day. When I think 2 1/2 years ago I got puffed drying myself after a shower, I just shake my head at the major changes I have made in my life.

What foods do I eat?

Someone suggested I list the foods I eat now that I am on the Core program.

Firstly I am happy to report that I have enjoyed my first week on Core and have had a better loss according to the scales!!

What I have been eating is fruit, fruit and more fruit!! I have about 4 pieces of fruit, mostly apples and mandarines, and usually a serve of my stewed apples or tin pears for dessert.

For breakfasts I have been following a 5 day plan I had ripped out of the WW magazine. They have been a nice variety. I had weetbix and fruit twice during the week, a morning of cooked tomatoes, mushrooms and WW bacon (was a bit late to work that morning!), a smoothie one morning, and yoghurt and stewed fruit other mornings. I like to save my bread for lunch time usually.

Lunches I have had tuna and tomatoes, smoked salmon in a sandwich with tomato. (l love tomatoes!!), I had soup another day I think. This weekend I have made tomato soup and potato and leek soup for my lunches this week. I usually do my own recipe for soups, but I followed a WW core recipe this time.

Dinners I have had stir frys, plain old meat and 3 veg, pasta dish from a WW core recipe and steamed fish and veges. I did make roast pork last night, but made sure I only had a small amount of meat that didn't look too fatty. I only had 1/2 a roast potato also and then heaps of steamed veges. Dessert has been WW jelly and tinned pears.

Snacks have mostly been fruit and yoghurt. I have had popcorn made in the microwave also. I also have hot chocolates for snacks.

I have used the 21 weekly points for things like WW crispbreads, extra ingredients in my cooking and WW choc chip biscuits. I have tried to limit my sweet snacks so as to really have a good week of healthy foods. I am sure I will have more as the weeks go on though as I do love something sweet.

I'm glad I have had the prompts of the 5 day plan to work from as I wasn't quite sure the first few days and didn't want to stray so early in the week! I have printed off the 4 weeks that the WW site have for their 8 week challenge, so I will use these as my guide over the coming weeks. I don't follow it exactly but pick from different days to suit what I feel like. I didn't like the amount of pasta in the meals as I have really cut back on my pasta and didn't want to eat it as often as the plan said to.

I am going to stick at Core for a while longer I think. I have been keeping my portions as I usually do, maybe even a little smaller, just to give my body a good kick start! I haven't had any major hunger times either.

Its worth having a going with Core.

GP visit and someone didn't recognise me!

I saw my GP this weekend for a few things, and during the visit he took my blood pressure. I was so happy when he told me it was perfect!! He is so pleased with what I have achieved. When I first started my journey, I saw him monthly. He has always accepted me not getting on the scales for him and always happy for me to just tell him how much I had lost. He used to then compare it to something. When I said I had lost about 15kg, he said I had lost a child! Then one day, the amount I said he said I had lost a small gymnast!! An interesting way of looking at it!! I am very fortunate to have a GP who is easy to talk to and that I can trust.

On the way home from the GP, I stopped at the local Farmers Market. Someone who hasn't seen me for about 2 years, but we have had a few phone conversations was there selling her pies. I went up to her and said hello to her using her name. She looked at me vaguely saying "hello, do I know you!!!". I said my name and she almost fell over. She couldn't stop looking up and down at me! She was flabbergasted and said she knew my voice was familiar but she just didn't recognise me! She was quick though to make sure I hadn't been sick but I assured her I had worked hard to achieve this new me!! This is now the 3rd person who hasn't recognised me! It is an amazing feeling and I often wondered if that would ever happen to me. It really gives you a good buzz!

Changing to WW Core

Well counting WW points had finally got to me!!!

I had a week away which I think I coped pretty well without my online membership. I was able to make good choices and felt ok about a couple of treats as I was exercising a lot while away.

I came home and just couldn't get back into counting everything. I was still making good choices with food, but was really resenting having to count everything. I love eating fruit as a snack and didn't like feeling limited on the points system. It is when I am in this frame of mind that I tend to go for the fish and chips or biscuits.

I was really starting to get depressed about the whole thing. I wasn't going off track or wanting to give up, I just wanted a change. I sometimes have a day or two of being really sick of watching everything I eat. I suppose in these times I get jealous of people who just reach for the tim tams or big white bread roll and don't seem to worry about it.

So in my usual manner of stubborness, I wasn't going to lose sight of my goal, but make some changes!! I decided to switch to the Core Program. I had thought about it and was curious to how it worked but I suppose I was afraid I couldn't stick to it properly.

Well, I made the switch and today is day 2!! So far I am feeling really good about the change. I have a renewed motivation about using WW and I am loving having more fruit without having to skimp on other foods. Plus I have found in these two days I haven't wanted to have a sweet treat. I know that will wear off, as I like the odd WW lamington or 1 point milky way!!!

Anyway, I am hoping this change will get things moving again. I know I have been losing weight because my clothes keep getting loser, but the scales haven't reflected it at all. I try not to focus on the scales as they aren't a very good friend at the moment.

So at the moment, Core is my new focus, and in regards to exercise, I am trying to increase the jogging! I jogged for 22 minutes without stopping on the weekend, which I was so pleased with.

I also want to thank everyone who reads my blog and for all the lovely encouraging comments people make on the blog and in the WW boards. I feel honored to be considered an inspiration. Everyone has the ability to make changes!

Thanks so much again.................

Christchurch Marathon - 10km

I have been to New Zealand and joined in the Christchurch Marathon. I was entered into the 10km walk but I was keen to do some jogging also. I have been trying to increase my jogging within walks and hoped to improve my time for a 10km walk / jog.

I didn't manage to jog as much as I would have liked due to feeling a bit self conscious and having the marathon runners overtaking us walkers almost the whole time, so my confidence to jog was hindered .

But I was still so pleased with my time of 1 hour 28 minutes. I would have only jogged a few minutes overall, so I thought I would have been lucking to do the 10km in 1 hour 40 minutes. It was such a great feeling to go over the finish line, have a medal put over my head and then later read my official time of 1 hour 28 minutes.

This was my 5th official event I had entered, but the first event at 10km. The Melbourne Marathon walk was only 7.6km. I completed the Arthur's Seat Challenge which was 6.7km and lots of big hills. I have also done an 8km and 8.6km fun run/walk. So I feel my next challenge may be to build up my jogging to be able to do the 5km run in this years Melbourne Marathon. A big goal, so I am still contemplating it! But to run around the G at the end would be great! At the moment I can only jog for about 2km before needing to stop. I try to do a 10km walk / jog every weekend. I hope the aerobics I do during the week is also making me stronger and increasing my endurance.

I had such a great time in New Zealand and caught up with a couple of people who hadn't seen me for 12 months. The shock on their face and their lovely encouragement was a real boost. One person didn't recognise me at first and was so astounded by my changes. I am getting more used to these compliments and comments. I don't know why I get so embarrassed by the comments???