ps...

... got my fringe cut!! Feel like a new woman!

Running Photos...

Click here, then click on Olympic Dream- then enter bib number 169 to see some pics of me running.... none are good enough for me to buy so you wont get any on here!! Haha!

Have had a couple of non-working out days as I have been very busy! It seems that life is a bit all over the place at the moment and I'm a little stressed out. But I am not going to let that get in the way of my goals! Tomorrow morning I will be getting up early and going to do some weights at the gym before mum's group at 9:30. I don't wanna lift too heavy as I need to avoid being too sore on Sunday for my 2nd 10k run!

Found an old fat photo tonight which has spurred my on- never going there again!!!

I might scan it and put it on here..

Need to go to bed now!!

Very tirrrrrrred!

Something yummy out of nothing!!

Last night I stood at the open pantry and sighed...

It's often nights when there seems to be no food in the cupboard that we end up eating something different and yummy.

I had some frozen chicken breast, some nearly too old garlic, a jar of passata sauce, and pantry staples...

So, I browned the chicken and some garlic and then let it simmer in the pasta sauce. I then mixed 4 cups of flour with a generous pinch of salt and enough water to make a dough. I then separated the dough into 6 balls, rolled them out with a rolling pin and cooked in the frying pan with a little oil to make chapattis! I rubbed them with garlic, filled them with the chicken mix, folded them over and popped them in the sandwich press.

YUM!!!!!

Talk about making something out of nothing!

On a very important note, I am considering cutting a heavy fringe... what do you think?? I love them- I think they look tre-groovy!

Results...

Feeling a bit sore today but fully stoked!!

I came 1497th overall yesterday! I didn't come last!! Yay!! 143rd in my division and 536th of all the women.

My official time was 1:18:46. My split times were 39:01 for the 1st 5 kms and 39:45 for the 2nd 5kms.

I am still waiting for photos to come up on sportingimages.com.au but will have to screen them before I post them as I don't look my best after running 10k!! But I may have to go by the motto a multinational sportswear company is promoting at the moment..... "run yourself ugly" as I certainly did that yesterday!

I did it!!

I completed this morning's 10km run in just under 1 hour and 20 minutes. That means I was travelling at an everage speed of 8kms an hour! That's usually the faster end of my intervals!!

I still ran most and walked some but that is a definate PB for me!!

I have no more energy at the moment but will do a more in depth race report once the results and photos are ready!!

:)

Go me!

I said I'd do it so.....

... I didn't do it!

Doh! Really did not have time to run... this is not a lame excuse!

It seems there were less hours in the day yesterday than I thought as I forgot there was Nutrition group last night and I had to plan it. Then I had to run the group at 5:45 and then get Molly home for dinner, bath and bed before 7:30 when I had to leave to go to Mezz's gig. So it looks like I am not the superwoman that I thought I was....

Although I have made up for it today by riding an hour to work (a lot less stressful than public transport from where I come from!) and I'll be riding the hour back too. According calorie king that burns 1088 calories! The ride was good but I need to find an alan key (sp?) to fix my handlebars before I ride home as they nearly slipped right off and I had to walk the last part of my journey! (Symbolic of my life maybe!?)

Anywhoo- I think that makes up for my lack of running yesterday.

Feeling a little nervous...

... about Sunday's run!

I have all of a sudden realised what I have gotten myself into and am having a slight freak out. There is no turning back for me though. There is no easy quick fix way to get this lard off my arse (arms, face, legs, tummy etc etc) so I may as well just feel the burn and try to enjoy the process...

Although, I am going to have to burn a little (okay, maybe a lot) harder today as my day started with a fully fledged fat-girl breakfast. A bacon and egg sandwich on white bread and a skim latte... mmmm! The skim counteracts the fat in the sandwich doncha know!?

Oh well... the rest of my day of food looks like this:

Lunch: 1/2 can of Campbell's creamy chicken soup and 1/2 a wholegrain roll
Snack: fruit yoghurt and an orange
Dinner: sushi

So I should be okay.

I need to fit in a run today- it's another one of those days where it is hard to squeeze one in however as I reported the other day... I said I'd do it, so I'm gonna do it! It might have to be the first time I strap Molly in the pram and try to run.... she hates the pram, but I hate my wobbly bits even more so I'm afraid that if she cries I'll be replying with a loving "suck it up princess!"

Gotta go do some work now- busy day ahead!

May post some more sneakily through the day.... does anyone else blog at work in Word and then paste it in quickly when no one's watching??! Not me!! *lol*

..and a few more for good measure...

and more again!

more pics...

Olympic dream...

Less than 7 days till the Olympic dream run!!

No weights in the 3 days leading up to the run as I am so sore still from Thursday!

Anyone running in this race or in the Queen of the Lake next weekend? I'd love to meet up with more super-keen wannabees like me! *lol*

It will be interesting to see if my time improves from one week to the next. We'll have to wait and see!!

Bike seat!!

Just won a new child seat for my bike on ebay for $45!

Yay! Another healthy activity we can do together!!

Some pics...

Just one cute one for now as I need to resize them so it doesn't take forever to upload!!

Week 3 Cto5K

This evening I took 30mins out from a family gathering at Hubbie's ma and pa's place to do my 3rd run this week. It was a lot harder as my muscles are still so sore from Thursday (yes, I did stretch- but then we did 7kms of walking yesterday).

When I got back all red faced and sweaty I sat down and said to Molly "Mummy just went running!" and people in the room turned around and said "really?! you seemed to just leave the room a minute ago!".... that's how easy it is to squeeze exercise into your life. I am discovering more and more that it is consistency that matters more than HOURS and hours on end, slogging it out. Of course, it is good to exercise longer when you can, but the moral of the story is to fit it into your life when you can and where you can but make it a priority. It would have been very easy to rule out exercise today because of the family do, but I said I'd do it so I did. That is how I got to goal last time. Quit making excuses- make a plan and stick to it!!

So my food plan for tomorrow is;
B. avocado and light cheese on 1 slice of soy/lin toast (LOVE IT!)
S. a tub of low fat yoghurt and an orange
L. salmon, broccoli and cauliflower with melted cream cheese (YUM!)
S1. banana
S2. (need 2 snacks) small handful almonds

Tomorrow night we are out for dinner so I will have a sensible portion of whatever is served and will be passing on dessert.

Am going to upload some pics but will do it in a different post as it always stuffs up the formatting...

Onward!

Bit the bullet....

... and entered the 10km Queen of the Lake course instead of the 5km I was going to do.

Go me!!

Albert Park Royalty...

I am now registered for the 10km race on Sunday August 3rd. Feeling pumped! My race kit arrived today for Sunday's Olympic Dream run. Running in the morning as the DOMS is already feeling better.

Staying at mum's tonight and heading to "Nick's Farm" in Clarinda in the morning to stock up on some bulk dried beans and other cheap healthy staples to keep in the pantry.

Just finished watching Jaimie's "Eat to Live" show- what a motivation to keep this healthy lifestyle up!

Fun Friday

Hi again!

I was right. I have a baad case of DOMS! (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) I am hobbling around like an old lady. Decided to wait till tomorrow to do my 3rd run for the week so John can mind Molly and I don't have to push her pram. She doesn't really like being in the pram long enough for me to take her anyway.

The lemon cordial is delicious! I am such a brag!

We had a lovely morning at Women's group today. We met at our ethiopian friend's house. She is an amazing mum of 4 and is so hospitable! The kids had a great time playing outside. We all caught the bus to her plae together. It's the simple things that I always enjoy the most.

Gotta dash!

Will post tomorrow and let you know how my run goes.

Good day!

Hi there!

Today has been a really great day. I am in a very positive fame of mind and I have a sneaking suspicion that it may have something to do with all the extra exercise I am doing at the moment!!

Last night I did session2/week3 of C25k and it was challenging but very good. Then this morning I had personal training. I worked SO hard!! I am going to be sore tomorrow- I may not be so positive about tomorrow's run!!

My friend Linda is a personal trainer and has started up a 12 week fitness program thingy for our whole community to do. She has made each of us a passport and you have to accumulate "Kilometres" by doing exercise and make it around the world in 12 weeks. So for example, a 30 min walk is 500kms, nutrition group is 600kms, personal training is 800kms etc etc. And for the 12 weeks she has made 30 min PT sessions $5!! It's a great motivator. I'm already at Darwin and will be at Bangkok by Sunday! Woohoo!!

Nutrition group went really well. Lots of people showed up and we discussed food groups and balance and how to create a healthy meal easily. We will be focusing on food diaries and connecting emotions with food along with low budget meal planning and cooking sessions. It should be good! The community we're part of has a lot of low-income earners and many of the people who we hang out with are or have been homeless so we have to plan the sessions with that in mind. It's no good me saying "go and buy some lean meat and flaxseed oil" as people will quickly lose interest and stop coming as it is unachievable for them. I will be saying "here's how to soak dry beans for some protein and here's yummy things to do with them. Here's how many healthy veggies we can get from the Footscray Market for under $5 and here's what we can do with it"... We will also be focusing on growing our own veg as it is a cheap, healthy, community thing to do.

I have spent this afternoon cleaning out our fridge, shopping for the next week (yay! we have food in the house- and a nice clean fridge to put it in!!), washing clothes and nappies, and squeezing lemons (A LOT!!) for the lemon cordial I have just made. I feel very domesticated!!

I also made a delish chicken and veggie stirfry with buckwheat noodles and hoisin sauce. It was divine!

Molly is now in bed and I have the house to myself with not much to do except to put the left over squished out lemons in the compost.

Ahhh.. feeling great- now for a cup of tea!

PS. If you're feeling environmentally friendly go Google "Living the Good Life" by Linda Cockburn. This is the book I have devoured over the last month. It is about a family in Qld who decided to try to live "domestically sustainably"- ie. not spend a dollar, for six months.... it's a great read!

Template...

I just LOVE it!!

Netball, weights and nutrition group

We won netball last night. The other team was a really fun Islander family who didn't take it too seriously. Most of the boys obviously were better at basketball as they kept getting "OBSTRUCTION!!".. I think the umpires were getting frustrated having to pull them up so often. But we had a fantastic time and I did a good lot of sweating which is great!!

Have been reading Kek's blog a bit more recently and she's looking absolutely fantastic. In training for a women's bodybuilding competition. What an inspiration she is. She's inspired me to try to incorporate a bit more weight training into my running schedule. I don't want to sacrifice running time as I am committed to this thing. So here's my plan.

This week:
Monday: running
Tuesday: Netball
Wednesday:running
Thursday: Weights
Friday: running
Saturday: Weights

Ideally I would like to do running and weights on Mondays. Or netball and weights on tuesday. Will try this next week but don't want to burn out.

I am running a community nutrition group tonight and really need to get prepard! I have loads of ideas but need to get them into some kind of order. Any ideas would be welcome.

Week 1 will be looking at basic carb, protein, fat balance and looking at what a balanced meal looks like. I might also make a "match that nutrient" game where you match the name of the nutrient with what it does in your body and what foods you find it in.

Well, better get some work done!

Ash
xox

My kick-ass running event schedule

Please see left navigation bar!!

I'm a runner! Well a wannabe runner anyway!

I accidently did week 3 podrunner today. My MP3 started playing and off I went. By the time I realised I just thought "stuff it, let's get on with it!".. It was more challenging.. In a good way.

Woohoo!

Headphones, body changes and sore toes!

I got some new “wrap around your ears” style headphones- a sure sign that I am taking this running caper seriously! My old ones were falling out of my ears as soon as I got sweaty.

I am finishing week 2 (albeit a little late) this afternoon after work and hope to have week 3 (3 sessions) done by Sunday. I think I will go do some weights at the gym this evening too.

I have not hopped on the scales in a few weeks and am feeling a lot better emotionally. I will jump on this coming weekend but until then I am going to enjoy my blissful ignorance! Over the last few days I have noticed a definite change in my body though! Looking in the mirror I can see my waist thinning out a bit and my PJ pants are looking and feeling looser. It’s a great feeling.

I am about to go and have a look at what other runs are on in the next few months because Mum has offered to pay the rego for the next one. Thanks Ma!! In fact, my whole family has put up their hand to help financially- so I have no excuse!

I need some new runners soon as my toes hurt every time I play netball!! So maybe I’ll start a shoe fund and put in 20 bucks a week or something. We are also saving for a bike seat for Molly so we can go for family bike rides. We are, like, so active!

Molly!

Hi there!





I took Molly to the health nurse last night for her 18 month check-up thingy. We have changed nurses and I was a little nervous about it but it turned out to be really great. The nurse totally focussed on the whole picture and was very careful but natural in observing everything she needed to. Molly trusted her immediately. Molly now weighs 10.3kg which, for the 1st time has brought her UP a line on the growth curve! I knew her ferocious little appetite would show up eventually!





She's now between the 25th and 50th percentile for weight, right on average for height and above average for head circ.





It was a great relief to find someone who looks at the whole picture (including commenting that she had exceptional vocab and communication skills) and was happy to support me in my decision not to vaccinate her against chickenpox.





Yay for the city of Maribyrnong!

My 1st run!

I did it- I have registered for he first of (hopefully) many runs before the end of the year. I am competing in the Olympic Dream 10k run/walk on July 27th, giving me a few weeks to prepare.

Having completed the 1st week of Cto5k I feel confident that I will be able to run at least 5 of the 10km.

Had a bit of a lazy food-filled holiday in Daylesford (a mini-break with the mini-family... Just Me, John and Molly) and ate too many yummy sweet things but managed to get in a decent veggie packed meal for dinner every night. We were in Daylesford because John had a gig in Bendigo on Saturday and we wanted to make the most of it!!

I am not going to weigh this week as I think it will depress me but am going to just concentrate on having a great healthy week this week. I made a delicious pasta throw-together meal tonight and am having it for lunch tomorrow. It was wholegrain pasta with steamed and chopped cauli and broccoli mixed with light cream cheese and salsa. It went together really well!!

I had a quick bite of lunch in Bendigo with Beckie, Scott and new baby Morrison (who slept the whole time and Scott, being the good dad he is, wouldn't let us pick him up for a cuddle in case we woke him...). Beckie looks great and bub is so cute!! Thanks for coming out to see me Beck!

Molly did something really funny today. John was walking with her and she stopped and said "Molly Fart!" and squatted down and let one rip! Then she walked a few paces and did it again... and then again! How funny!! Then later on I asked her if she could fart and she strained for a minute before saying "fart stuck mummy!"