day 33 - C25K is AWESOME

I have recently started running.

Why? Why on Earth would a person put themselves through this willingly?

Well. I am a very unfit person, determined to get to a healthy weight again. I LOVE food. Food is delicious, food is a hobby, food is life. I have tried many times and many different ways of losing weight through dieting over the years, but none have worked for me in the long term. The best method I found was Slimming World. I actually lost  a couple of stone a few years ago on Slimming World, but then I got a desk job and promptly piled it all back on, and more. The plan is great, but I found I could only really gel with it once for long enough to lose weight without going to group, and I am a penny pincher extraordinaire at the moment so I cannot justify £5 a week (doesn't sound like much, but it adds up). Besides, I love baking and this is very restricted on SW. It can be fun to play around with recipes, creating low syn treats, but there is only so much fun I can have with eggs and sweetener. Sorry. Anyway, my point is, I struggle with restricting my diet. I can eat healthier most of the time, but I wanted to try a different approach: exercise.

I am determined to become one of those people that actually enjoys running. I used to work with people who would make time most days to go running because they loved it, and I have been assured that after a certain point I will too. If I can get fit, lose weight, and not have to restrict my diet (within reason), I am going to be incredibly pleased.

I also want to prove to myself that I can actually do a thing and stick to a thing. Historically I am bad at that.

This is where couch to 5k comes in. It's a 9 week plan which builds  you up week by week, starting with a series of one minute runs, all the way up to being able to run 5k. The plan is specifically designed for people like me; unfit, overweight, self-confessed potato. I have the app from Change4Life, which is a bunch of podcasts which tell you when to start and stop running, and full of helpful tips. I highly recommend it. You can even listen to music at the same time cause it dims the music automatically while the podcast is talking.

I have tried the plan before, but I always managed to make excuses to give up. My main excuse was "I don't have the time". Well, now I have plenty of time so any excuse I'd have to come up with now would be super weak, So weak, even my laziest self would see through it.

I'll be honest, at first it does seem insurmountable. I thought how can someone like me, someone who struggles to run for even a minute, ever expect to be able to run 5k?! Well. I just completed day 1 of week 4. I ran for three minutes, then five minutes, twice, with intervals of walking.

I ran for five minutes. 

I ran for a total of sixteen minutes.

After only three weeks, I have gone from struggling to run for a minute, to being able to run for five straight minutes. More importantly I actually enjoyed it. To people with any real level of fitness this will probably seem silly, but to me it is so significant. I believe that in five more weeks I will be able to run 5k. And I will feel like I have achieved the impossible.

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day15 - being healthy

I have been on a downward spiral for a loooong time now with health and fitness. There was a period of time before I left home that I was super fit (by my standards) because I cycled all the time, ate quite healthy, walked long distances all the time among other things. Then I left home and the unhealthiness began. I moved into the city centre, so I don't walk anywhere near as much as I did 7 years ago. And I've been able to choose my own food for a long time too. I think one of my biggest downfalls was realising that I can order takeaway WHENEVER I WANT. I have pushed that one to its limits. 

So, I have decided to become fit and healthy again. I have made this decision dozens, if not hundreds of times over the last few years, with varying success, but always ended up back where I started. I've just started couch to 5k for maybe the fourth time in my life, the difference being this time I actually have the time to do it. I don't need to squeeze it in before work, or sacrifice sleep. I've just done day two and I feel amazing already. I feel great that I've actually bothered to start it again, and that I've managed two days. Sounds silly, but to me it's significant and that's what matters. 

I'm also eating better. No more takeaways, not that I can afford them anymore anyway seeing as I don't have an income for the next six months. It's easier because it's "salad weather", and spring is a time for renewal anyway. No better time than to try and change bad habits.

Here is what I threw together for lunch:

The veg is just some sweet potato, fine beans, and posh broccoli that I needed to use up. The pepper is the delicious and interesting bit. Here's how I made it:

preheat the oven to like, 220 degrees (I actually forgot to do this, but next time I will). boiled *some* pearl barley (I never measure, and always do too much) with a veggie stock cube. While that was doing its thing in the pan, I chopped up a spring onion, some parsley, some olives, and three cherry tomatoes, and popped in a bowl with a crushed clove of garlic. When the pearl barley was ready I drained it and mixed it in with the chopped up stuff, then stirred in a small handful of grated cheddar.

Then I cut the top off a pepper, pulled out the seeds and the pithy bit, and filled it with the pearl barley mixture. Then popped it in the oven for about 20 mins. I put mine in an empty ramekin to make him stand up, else they tend to topple over and all the guts spill out. 

I actually ended up with double the amount of pearl barley mixture to what I needed, so I stuffed a second pepper I had spare and put it in the fridge for tomorrow.

I made this up out of things that just needed using up, but it was actually very tasty. It was quite strong on the garlic, but I love garlic so that was okay for me. I would say that if anyone else wanted to give it a go, maybe use less garlic if you're not quite the enthusiast I am. 

I love food. 

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