Lisa - Fat Girl Fit

Victoria Park 10k

Happy Monday all! Yes I know what Mondays are ever happy?! None if like me you also use Monday as your weigh-in day. So last week I was so good and lost nothing and had a tantrum similar to that of a three year old who wants chocolate – and I also wanted chocolate! But this morning was ok as I lost 3 pounds so can finally change my weight loss plaque and am back in the 30’s – a total of 32lbs lost so far!!

So I intend to carry on this way!

Yesterday I ran the Victoria Park 10k – finished in 1 hour 5 minutes 22 seconds – got a pb for my 5k and 10k – again only by 20 seconds or so but I will have that! I still find it hard, breathe like darth vader as I go, bitch and moan, but I know I can complete it. It is also nice to know that I am not the only person who doesn’t find it easy – a friend of mine did the run and when she finished she said to me “this is what a heart attack feels like right?!”. You can see from the photos at the finish I am a sweaty red mess, clothes disheveled and pretty much ready to crumble. I am obviously the one on the right – my friend Helen (the slim one on the left) ran with me the whole way bless her! I do crack a smile when exercising – once I cross the finish line!

So this was not made better by the fact that they ran out of medals and goody bags – if I am going to get up early on a Sunday in the cold and run I at least want a medal and some free sh*t – thats the deal! But another run under my belt, medal will be posted and feeling ok today. Here are our before and after shots – we all actually look better in the after shot once we have woken up!

I must admit I did have a bit of a wobble when I saw what I looked like in the running pics but then a friend pointed out I wouldn’t have believed it a year ago if someone said I would be doing this, which is true. So I say:

Category: Fitness, Running

My furry running partner

Tonight I swam – headed to the gym after work to get it done (before I changed my mind). Did my usual of getting changed, scoping out how many people are in the pool and getting in with as few people as possible seeing me in my costume! Do you remember as a kid ever running to get into bed as quick as you can before the monster underneath the bed gets you? That’s a similar scenario to me getting into the swimming pool.

I swam 1km in my gym pool, which is 40 lengths. I must admit I spent most of the time thinking about getting home to eat dinner!

Probably a good thing I didn’t run tonight as my furry running partner wasn’t up to much – this was her for most of the evening:

I’m sure if I got her lead out she would go crazy as she usually does. She’s a funny little thing our April pup – with many strange ways! Spins around a few times before she goes on the wooden floor which I think in her world is clearly made of molten lava.

I do love taking her with me on a run and it kills two birds with one stone – she gets her exercise at the same time as me.

However, running with a dog does have its draw backs:

I almost fall over because of the dog on pretty much every run
she once got scared by a bird and ran in front of me so suddenly I ended up in a heap on the floor
she runs by the side of me mostly but if she needs to stop she generally does so right in front of me mid run – she’s kind like that
she has to run around every lamp post, which is helpful
she has to jump into every puddle, run through every patch of mud and on our park route will always run ahead at the lake and jump in as I catch up – the swans are not keen on her and I know she’s in the water as i get nearer and hear the hissing
I spend most of the run watching her every time she stops – pee or poo? Of course I pick up after her (sorry for the subject of poo but it’s a thing that happens as a dog owner) but she always manages to do it no where near a bin! So I am the crazy fat girl, bright red face, puffing and panting and running with a bag of dog poo until I get to the next bin!

Good job she’s cute!

Category: Fitness

Chicken soup for the soul!

What to do with a leftover chicken carcass? Don’t throw it away!! Make soup!

We had chicken for dinner yesterday and as it is so cold and I am out a lot running hot meals are a favourite at the moment and so I figured it was an excuse to make more soup and it’s healthy and good for you! I have to plan ahead otherwise when I get hungry I will either a) go into full on meltdown mode or b) destroy my sons left over Christmas chocolate (and I mean the entire family sized bar of Toblerone – easy)! Here’s how:

1 x chicken carcass
2 stocks or celery chopped
2 carrots chopped
1 onion diced
Chicken gravy granules or sachet
Leftover chicken shredded
Rosemary or basil to season (optional)
Salt and pepper to season

Literally put everything (except the chicken meat) in a large enough saucepan and add enough boiling water to cover the ingredients. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 30 mins. Using a large colander or sieve you can remove the bones and carcass. Then add the shredded chicken to the stock – can be as much or as little or have none and keep as stock!

Will keep in the fridge for 4 days or can be frozen.

Healthy! Cheap! Yum!

Enjoy x

Category: Fitness

Soup anyone?

It’s not just about the exercise it’s the food as well. I love food. I love making it and more than that I love to eat it! Eating healthy is not all boring as I am finding out so will share some recipes if I think they might be of interest to people.

In a bid to get organised with some lunches this week I made a huge batch of soup today – butternut squash and chilli – its really tasty!

Ingredients:

2 large butternut squashes diced (seeds removed)
1 large onion diced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 sweet potato diced
900ml vegetable stock
300ml low fat creme fraiche
1 tbsp dried chilli flakes
salt and pepper to season

You can either roast or boil the butternut squash and sweet potato. Brown the onion and garlic. Add all ingredients together (will need a large saucepan for this) and simmer for five minutes. Blitz in a blender for 10 seconds (might need to do this in a couple of batches depending on the size of the blender).

This freezes really well too and is a filling, healthy and tasty soup. Especially with this vile UK weather at the moment a nice hot soup is more than welcome – it defrosts me after a run in the cold, wet and wind, when I usually return and feel like I could eat everything in sight!

Enjoy!

Category: Events, Running

First event of 2015

So today was my first event of 2015. Having that New Year feeling where you are all positive and geared up for exercise and weight loss I signed up for a 10k run at the Olympic park in Stratford. I woke up this morning and it is peeing down outside and quite frankly I would much rather enjoy a big fat bacon sandwich and getting back in bed rather than leaving the house, let alone running and a 10k at that! But I did it anyway.

I have said before I am a grumpy runner and I am. I am not a grumpy person at all but when it comes to exercise being a true gemini I transform into my alter ego which is a whiny little bitch. Everything about it seems to irritate me. When people cheer it bugs me rather than inspire me as I think yeah great you cheer whilst you stand there and I will carry on running. I don’t smile. I generally feel like I will probably die at any minute and check my Garmin watch quite regularly which kills a little piece of my soul every time as I will it to magically say 1k left and it generally does the opposite and shows I have only actually run 1k – this happened today but at about 3k. It was cold and wet and windy and not nice but me being me went bright red pretty quickly and still managed to sweat though I could have just pretended it was rain.

So the 10k run consisted of 3 laps – I hate laps it just makes me think after 1 oh no 2 more of those and then after 2 I think there is no way I can do another – exactly this happened today.

At about 2k in the majority of the pack had gone off ahead of me and there were some behind me, but not that many. I spent most of this run looking behind me thinking I just need to finish and please god not let me be last. There were 8 other people I knew doing this race all super fit and all quicker than me, including my husband. At about 2k I felt a pat on my bum and realised it was my husband and dread filled me thinking seriously I know I run like a disabled tortoise but he’s lapped me already?! I found out at the end he hadn’t and instead he had decided that he would run this with me so had waited. I honestly don’t think I would have finished without him running with me today I wanted to walk several times but he was very patient and encouraging, as always, and kept telling me I could do it. Sometimes I think he is a liar ;-p

I finished and on the final straight the marshall with the megaphone said ‘cor look at that pink face’ yeah thanks mate! Then a friend tried to cheer me on saying come on give me a smile – he got a stern no. Then another friend started running next to me cheering me on and I told her to f*ck off! I did warn you I was a grumpy runner. I have since apologised of course.

So I have my medal and found everyone else who of course finished before me. Had a little cry in the car on the way home as I was embarrassed – I am not good at running but I do give it a go.

Anyway it’s done now and although I am now home I am still cold and need a hot bath to warm up.

That’s my exercise done for the day and I have just got out some beef for a stir fry – I will of course be pretending with every mouthful that it is a big fat Krispy Kreme donut instead (a girl can dream right)!

Category: Events, Fitness

2014 Events

Looking back and writing this blog I am actually surprised at the events I did if I am honest. I used to laugh at my husband for his ever growing medal collection and yet I find myself right at this moment looking at my little collection that I will be adding to this year!

I cycled a total of 1,740km, 12,860 metres of elevation, 49 bike rides and 37 runs totalling 95 hours and 52 minutes and gained 21 QOM’s (queen of the mountains are basically awards where you get the best time for a certain segment of a route). My longest ride was 133km, and got 533 medals on Strava (an app to record all of this information from a gadget I also don’t really know how to use but does technical stuff to record the rides and runs and my husband swears blind that I need them).

In 2014 I took part and completed the following events:

Sport Relief 25 mile bike ride
Tour de Tendring 60 mile bike ride
Hertfordshire 50 mile bike ride
Essex Explorer 60 mile bike ride
Little Havens 60 mile bike ride
London to Southend 54 mile bike ride
Essex castle 76 mile bike ride
Prudential Ride 100 mile bike (that was only 86 miles) – yes i did it! In torrential weather hence they cut short part of it but I did it!
Essex Season Ender 42 mile bike ride
Electric Run 5k running event
Two Race for Life 5k running events
Race for Life Pretty Muddy 5k running event
Colour Run 5k running event
Nike Run to the Beat 10k running event
Even took my running gear with me to New York when on a weeks holiday and did a 7.5k run

Now to plan the events for 2015! What have i become?!

Category: Cycling, Fitness

Clippy shoes!

I had been dreading the moment for a long time and put it off for as long as I could but I had given in and purchased some cleats for cycling otherwise known as clippy shoes. As I have said before my husband is part of a cycle club, all of whom have helped me massively, but all of whom use cleats and had told me endlessly it was the way forward if I wanted to carry on cycling on the road.

The concept baffled me – you have different pedals and you wear special shoes that clip into the pedals? Is that not hugely dangerous or just a stupid thing to do? I was told it would give more power and all cyclists wear them and I needed them. So the hubby changed the pedals – I get his hand me downs so it works out great for me as cycling is not a cheap sport and as a new cyclist I couldn’t justify the cost of some of the expensive items so I get his pedals etc and he gets to buy new ones. I think I missed a trick here somewhere! Or am just a great wife – I will go with that one 😉

So beginning of April we head off for our first ride with my new shiny white clippy shoes. At the first road we had to stop at there was no traffic so we paused, signalled and continued without unclipping and then got to some traffic lights with my husband on his bike to the right of me. Apparently you should always unclip with your left foot so that if you do fall you fall into the pavement rather than the road and potentially a car (short bike ride that would be)! Up until now I had been wearing trainers and so I stopped at junctions and must admit this was my biggest fear – stopping on the bike. I couldn’t get the simple concept of getting out of my seat when stopping so would break and lean and hope for the best! Like I said sporty I am not! Also in the trainers I always put my right foot down. So we stop at the lights and I unclip with my left foot and lean to the right. With the foot that is still clipped in. Luckily my husband was there and sort of pushed me over to the other side and all was ok, lights changed and off we went.

Shortly after we reached a second set of lights and I did the same thing. Idiot. Thank god I fell on my husband both times otherwise I think I would have just curled up in the foetal position until the world just passed me by out of sheer embarrassment!

Anyway we finished our 20 mile ride testing out the new shoes and although I was really really nervous I got home in one piece although i very quickly put the clippy shoes back in their box! Out of sight out of mind!

Category: Events, Fitness

My first event EVER!

I will start at the beginning. So I was ready for my first event. Well I was not ready but I had signed up for it with a number of people and it was for charity so there was no backing out of it now!

In February 2014 I took part in my first cycling event – a 25 mile cycle ride for Sport Relief. Having a husband who is part of a cycle club helps as we are surrounded by so many lovely people from the club and everyone is more than happy to help newbies like me! I wasn’t sure if I would be able to finish the distance and was grateful to be riding with some lovely people as the ride was actually fun, though I am sure I was probably a grumpy old cow on the route if the members of my group were being totally honest with me.

We set off from the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. My husband had set off with a friend earlier for the longer 50 mile route and we would meet at the finish line so I would have someone cheer me on rather than me cheering someone else, which would be new for me!

As we cycled one lady with our group, Lisa, sang a lot of Prodigy so that made it fun! Another lady with our group, Sophie, is a whippet and would speed off up hills as I huffed and puffed my way up them trying not to die from an asthma attack (I don’t have asthma but that is how I feel when cycling up a hill or in fact any sort of incline). At the top of one hill I wanted to take my jacket off as I was getting hot and so our group stopped by the side of the road and one of the guys in our group, Nate, made me laugh as I had taken off the jacket and was oblivious to the fact that my cycle jersey was unzipped so I was completely flashing him my chest! Little things like this with lovely people make any event fun ( not that I plan on regularly flashing people on events!) and so we set off for the finish line – me more red than usual from just exercise as I was also blushing.

Nearing the finish we got stuck at some traffic lights and a lady cycled up next to me and started making friendly chat asking me how the ride was and what distance I had done – 25 miles of course as 50 miles to me then seemed an impossible thing to attempt! Midway through talking to her I realised she was Victoria Pendleton and so in my true stupid form pointed at her and said ‘Oh my god you’re Victoria Pendleton’ because of course she needed to be reminded of who she was! I should point out I can be dim but when people are in full cycle gear including helmets and glasses you don’t often recognise them instantly. At this point my husband had caught up with us and started cycling with us – us being me and Victoria Pendleton! He has a crush on her so that was hilarious pointing out to him who she was and his voice getting progressively higher as he more or less squeaked hello.

We finished and I got my medal and then to top it off I got a photo with Victoria Pendleton!

Ride complete and medal earned!

One happy lady on a bike!