Strava is the app I use religiously to track my activities. I know a lot of people who do this too. So let me tell you about it:

You can upload runs and rides from GPS devices (in my case my Garmin gadgets) and it lets you keep track of personal records.  Some other features are:

• Segments – these are user-created, user-edited portions of routes where you can compete for time, and compare segment times against those of other users.
• KOM/QOM (king/queen of the mountains) – awards where you are at the top of the leader board for those segments.
• Trophies – awards for 2nd to 10th place on a leader board.
• Medals – awards for your best performances on segments.
• Challenges – you can sign up to join a run or cycling challenge, earn new achievements and see how you rate on the leader board.

You can download the app on your phone and follow people to see their activities.  You can give kudos to other people to say well done on their activities. You can manually add in activities like swimming or classes to record those also. 

It can become addictive – something I never thought I would hear myself say! There is a lady in our cycle club, Sophie, who is nicknamed Queenie as she has so many QOM’s!  For her birthday it was not hard to decide what cake to make for her: 

You will learn to dread the day where you get the email from Strava which very nicely says ‘Uh oh you just lost your QOM to……’.  I am not competitive and yet if I get one of those emails I want to hop straight on my bike and get back out there and win it back! 

I have been signing up for challenges such as running a 10k or recording how many miles are either run or cycled in a month.  It makes you push yourself a bit.  I find I can do a run and it be 9.5k and I run up and down the road to make it to 10k to get the challenge (sad I know and I have also had some builders down the road look at me like a crazy weirdo going yo and down the same road to get to a specific distance). Recently I had to decide whether to or not to run in a loop around my road to make it to 10k or nip home to use the loo – I finished the distance and I’m going to say I didn’t wet myself a little bit in the process. 

So if you are looking for an app to record your activities look no further and download Strava.  Look for me on there – lisa thake RCC FatGirlFit

I am so excited I have to share that I am now an official partner with the campaign This Girl Can.

This Girl Can is here to inspire women to wiggle, jiggle, move and prove that judgement is a barrier that can be overcome.

I personally didn’t want to go outside in public and do any form of exercise as I thought everyone would be looking at me and laughing.  Gyms scared me – they are full of slim fit people who do not turn into a sweaty tomato like me.  In the end I thought just do it and so I did and so can you.

If this girl can then you all can!

Him is my husband.  So I thought I would write a post about him as it is pretty much him that got me here today.

A few years back he ended up in hospital with a very bad leg.  When I say very bad I mean very very bad.  It was bright red, boiling hot, extremely painful and they didn’t know what had caused it or why.  It was similar to one of those doner chunks of meat you see rotating on a spit in a kebab shop – I would try and lighten the mood by asking him if he wanted chilli sauce and salad with that?  It was also similar to the leg of a lady in a town near us who hands out lucky heather – we avoid eye contact with her and the leg I am referring to has elephantiasis – again I would joke and ask lucky heather?

Anyway my point is whilst they did not know what was wrong they said that exercise would help to regulate the blood flow – I won’t go into details but basically the blood was going down to the foot (or hoof) and not back up again – hence the kebab leg or lucky heather leg jokes.  So he started to exercise.  And pretty much became addicted – my husband without being able to train is one moody little madam!

The help he is giving me he also had when he began from one of his best friends Darren who really helped him getting started with the running!  This shows them at a couple of events and you can see his progress made and he is still going strong.

His passion is cycling but it has developed into duathlons and triathlons and he has lost over a whopping four stone!  His start weight was 17 stone 4 pounds and he is now at 13 stone.  I will share his before and after picture – it is like that episode of Friends where “someone ate Monica”!  I have never met someone with his will power it makes me sick!

He has inspired me to get into it with the running and cycling!  He started out just like me – overweight and not that good at any of it and with hard work has completely changed and taken to it!  I’m so proud of him (and not one bit jealous – ok maybe a little bit)! He is training to be a cycle coach and I know he will be great at it!

He is the one when I say I feel like everyone is looking at me that says so what, let that spur you on and prove them wrong!  When we first ran together I wouldn’t run past a pub we pass on our park loop as I felt like everyone was probably laughing at me and he would, very poetically, say f*ck them you are doing more than they are!  This was totally me and now I run past that pub (I still avoid eye contact – I am not quite there yet)!

I am always at the finish line for his events and he mine and it makes a huge difference having the support!  We’ve done quite a few events together now as well!  Between us we have quite a medal collection.  Anyone that knows him knows he loves a medal!  They are hanging on our dining room chairs and every time his get knocked they make a noise and he says what’s that noise?  One day I will wrap them in bubble wrap, cut the medals off or just hide them maybe!  He’s never vain when it comes to the medals though – always subtle ha ha!

Don’t get me wrong he was never a cheap date and it is now more expensive as it is twice the cost for kit, equipment and event fees – I have everything pink and don’t need all the best stuff and he is a pampered princess and a spoiled brat – he will happily admit it too!

I don’t want to go on too much about him as he will get a huge head and I won’t hear the bloody end of it!

I will say though that a lot of people say it is not the best idea to train with your partner but I haven’t found that – he has helped me hugely though he does push me and I swear a lot at him.  But during cycle events I have never once visioned wrapping my bike around his head as he pushes me to go faster or tackle a horrible hill – no never once!  Nor have I ever wanted to trip him up and run away during a running event when he tells me to keep going and that I am doing great when I feel like I might puke – nope not at all!

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

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!