Jogging With A Pram September 29, 2006
As promised a few days ago, I’ve now given the jogging pram a couple of runs. It’s actually not too bad!
On Tuesday I ran 3km in 17:45, which is about two minutes slower than when I run without it. It was definitely harder work than a normal jog, especially since my town is quite hilly. The main reason I was slower was because I had to stop running and walk up two of the worst hills.
I just walked with the pram on Wednesday morning, as I was a little sore still. I’ve only started the jogging again this week!
This morning, though, I ran with the pram again. This time I chose a route that cut out one of the hills, and it was a lot better. I took 16:24 to run 3km this time, which is only a little slower than when I run normally.
I think I’ll keep jogging every second morning, as it’s working well. G loves it, too! I’m going to try building up the distance to 4km over the next couple of weeks, and then 5km (3 miles) over the following couple of weeks.
Early Morning Walks September 25, 2006
For the past week, I’ve been taking my daughter G (4.5 years old) out for a walk first thing in the morning. She wakes up early (around 5:00 to 5:30 am!), and won’t go back to sleep. So I usually end up getting her up and changed, then playing with her until everyone else gets up (around 6:00 on weekdays, 6:30 or 7:00 on weekends).
For the past week, I’ve be putting G in a pram and going out for a walk. I figure I’m up early anyway, I may as well be getting some benefit out of it. She loves the walks, too.
Oh, and in case you think it’s weird that a 4.5-year-old needs supervision in the mornings and rides in a pram - G has Down syndrome. She can walk fine, but not for long distances and certainly not at a speed where I’m getting good exercise. She really enjoys riding in the pram and waving at other early-morning walkers and joggers.
Here are some recent photos:
When you live in a small coastal town with views like that, why wouldn’t you be up for sunrise?!
I Threw Out Leftover Chinese Food! July 17, 2006
This is probably a first for me. We had Chinese takeaway for dinner a few nights ago, and I didn’t gorge myself. I had one nice-sized plateful, and didn’t go back for seconds. It turns out, you don’t actually starve to death during the night if you do this.
The leftover food, as always, was put in the fridge. Leftover Chinese is one of the greatest breakfasts there is!
The next morning, though, the food just didn’t look that appetising to me. The thought of all those calories, the greasy sauce and the stringy meat just sapped the joy out of it. I actually preferred to eat plain old rolled oats!
I kept the containers in the fridge for a few days, you know, just in case. I considered eating it for lunch a couple of times, but chose not to.
In the end, the food got thrown out. I don’t think leftover Chinese has ever lasted more than a day in my fridge before, let alone been kept long enough to require throwing out!
Illness Helps Weight Loss April 27, 2006
I’ve just spent the last two days out of action with vomiting and diarrhoea. While not a nice experience at all, I did lose 3 kg (6.6 lbs) - more than making up for my Easter weight gain!
I’ve missed a few more days of exercising, but going off past experience that won’t affect my fitness much at all. I’m planning to go for a run tomorrow morning, as long as the threatening rain holds off.
Oh well, I’m better now and happy that this little adventure is behind me.
Technorati Tags: weight loss, illness
Easter Weight Gain! April 19, 2006
So, how did everyone go with their diets over Easter?
I put on nearly 2 kg (4.4 lbs)! Although my weighted average is only showing about 0.1 kg (0.22 lbs) gain. I hate seeing that red on the graph, and will be working extra hard to try to get the weight back down before the end of the week.
Easter turned out to be a perfect storm of calories this year. Last weekend was my daughter’s first birthday party, and that involved a lot of junk food and leftovers for the following week. We were also going away for 5 days over Easter, so we had to eat down the food in the fridge and cupboards.
We stayed with friends for 5 days over Easter. They own a restaurant out in the country, and are fantastic chefs, so we ate a lot of cooked breakfasts, roast lunches and dinners, huge BBQ steaks, delicious desserts, etc. We also visited an open day at a local winery, attended the town’s annual festival, drank a lot, ate tons of chocolate, and enjoyed their daughter’s seventh birthday party.
I took my running gear with me, thinking it’d be really nice to jog on the flat country roads (my coastal town is very hilly). Between looking after the kids, the late nights, the alcohol consumption, and the chilly autumn mornings, I didn’t get out for a run even once!
I decided early on to just ditch the diet for this past week. I knew I’d probably gain a couple of kilos, but it would be worth it to spend quality time with friends we see only a couple of times a year, and to enjoy Easter, the parties and the festivals with our kids. It’ll take me a couple of weeks to burn those kilos back down, but that’s OK. Sometimes you just have to enjoy life!
Technorati Tags: weight loss, dieting, chocolate, Easter, weight gain
Surviving A 1st Birthday Party… April 12, 2006
…with your waistline intact!
Having just survived my third daughter’s first birthday party, I thought it a good time to give some tips on making it through a party without ditching your diet and bursting your belt.
- Give yourself permission to eat junk food, drink a little, and have some fun. It’s only for one day.
- Only eat during the hours of the party (e.g. 3pm to 6pm). No snacking while preparing food, and no eating stuff while cleaning up afterwards!
- Serve some healthy food and eat smart (at least a little bit!). We prepared several plates of healthy stuff like raw vegetables and dip, dried fruits, water crackers and salsa, and fruit salad with dessert. If you’re just nibbling while you talk, try to go mostly for this stuff. Other parents will also appreciate the gesture, and one of the kids might surprise you by eating celery instead of chips!
- Sit or stand at the far side of the party from where the food is being served. If you stand right next to the food table, you’ll unconsciously keep reaching for more and you’ll eat way more than you need to. Make your laziness work for you!
- When eating junk food, go for the sugary stuff (lollies, jelly, meringues, etc) more than the high-carbohydrate/high-fat stuff (cake, donuts, fairy bread, chips, sausage rolls, mousse, cream, chocolate, etc). You can still enjoy a bit of both, but try not to overindulge on the fatty stuff.
- Enjoy the junk food that you do eat. Eat it slowly, and really savour the sweetness and flavour. You probably haven’t eaten much for a while, so don’t waste this opportunity for indulgence by just gulping it down!
- Don’t drink too much. It’s a kids’ party, don’t go overboard and get drunk. Besides, there are more calories in alcohol than you’d think. Jogging the next morning won’t be fun with a hangover, either :-).
- Get involved in the games. It’ll take you away from the food table, and you’ll burn a lot of that sugar off running around, playing musical chairs, dancing, etc. And the kids will love you for it! At the end of the day, the kids are a big reason you’ve been working so hard on getting fitter.
- Give away as much of the leftover junk food as you can after the party. Send cake home with the kids, give away all those half-packets of lollies, give parents leftover/unused food, soft drinks and desserts to take home as a thankyou for helping. The less of this stuff that stays in the house, the less you’ll have to eat over the next few days!
- If you do end up with a lot of leftovers, freeze what you can. There’s no point pigging out on leftover sausages all week when you could freeze them in small batches and use them in moderation over the coming weeks.
- Make sure you get up in the morning and go for a walk or jog. You’ve got to burn off those extra calories!
Technorati Tags: weight loss, dieting, parenting, diet, calories
Weekly Weigh-In 2006-02-05 February 5, 2006
Current Weight: 104.7 (230.8 lbs)- Lost this week: 0.8 kg (1.7 lbs)
- Total lost to date: 5.3 kg (11.7 lbs)
- Number of days exercised: 4
I’m still making good progress, but I’m finding it hard to reach my target of 1kg (2.2 lbs) of weight loss per week. It’s always the weekends that beat me!
This weekend we spent three days away with friends in a quiet little village down the coast. We had all the usual derailing factors - beer and wine, peanuts, chips, cooked breakfasts, crackers and dips, ice cream, etc - plus I wasn’t able to take a decent stroller to take G for walks with me. We also stayed up late both nights, so I probably wouldn’t have gotten up early to go walking anyway :-). So that was three days of no exercise this week.
I really need to get my weekends under control. My weight loss graph always kicks up slightly every weekend, slowing my progress. If I could maintain my discipline through the weekend, I’d lose an extra 0.2 - 0.4 kg (0.4 - 0.9 lbs) per week! That’s got to be worth trying for!
That said, I was actually a little surprised that my weekend blowout didn’t derail me more than it did. My daily weight measurement today only jumped 1 kg (2.2 lbs) compared to Friday’s measurement. Given the amount of junk I ate, I think I got off lightly!
Technorati Tags: weight loss, diet, exercise, fat
Weekly Weigh-In 2006-01-29 January 29, 2006
Current Weight: 105.5 (232.5 lbs)- Lost this week: 0.7 kg (1.5 lbs)
- Total lost to date: 4.5 kg (9.9 lbs)
- Number of days exercised: 5
My weekly weight loss figure is creeping up, getting closer to my target of 1 kg per week. Again, I had a few events this week that didn’t help - a big dinner out at the Hog’s Breath Cafe with some friends, a big cooked breakfast for my wedding anniversary, and a visit with my parents.
I missed two days of exercise this week - one due to weather, and one due to being up half the night with a sick child. Although I try to get out for a walk every day, it seems like 5 sessions a week is a pretty good target to aim for. If everything goes right for a week and I fit in more than that, great!
I managed to touch 104 kg one day this week in my daily weigh-ins. That’s a bit of a milestone for me - I haven’t been under 105 kg in about 5 years. Even when I’ve gone on diets, I get to about 105 kg and then seem to lose interest or get derailed. I think it’s because I’d watch my daily weight measurements, see them jump from 105 to 107 in a single day (seemingly wiping out a couple of weeks of disciplined dieting!), and get discouraged. Every time that happens, it’s another opportunity for your negative thoughts to take over and for your resolve to waver.
Using the Hacker’s Diet weight tracking spreadsheet is a much better way to monitor your progress. If you go off-track for a day or two, it doesn’t hurt your running average figure very badly, so you’re still motivated to keep going and try to get some more daily measurements below the line and start dragging it down again.
It just goes to show that losing weight is about a lot more than just going on a diet.
Technorati Tags: weight loss, diet, exercise, fat
Never Trust 4-Year-Olds January 8, 2006
I finally got back into the morning walking routine. I took G with me this morning, and decided to walk a little further than usual (about 45 minutes instead of 30). Partly it was because I had just gotten a new heart rate monitor and wanted to see how it worked, and partly it was to make up for all the missed exercise sessions this week.
About 3/4 of the way around my chosen walking route, I noticed that G was missing a shoe. Damn, she must have kicked it off somewhere along the walk! Nothing for it but to back-track (my route is a loop, so I was coming home via different streets to where the shoe was dropped).
So, I backtracked. I walked and walked, and there was no sign of the shoe. I was beginning to think it must have been picked up by someone, or that maybe I’d missed it again. I got all the way back home and found it in front of my neighbour’s house! Oh well, at least I had a good long walk!
According to the heart monitor, I burned 562 calories with 55% of that being classified as fat-burning. That means I burned around 309 calories of fat. Not bad!
No Walk, But An Active Day January 7, 2006
I slept through the alarm clock again this morning, but it was wet outside when I woke up anyway. This is getting frustrating!
I spent about 2 hours doing yard and garden work, carrying stuff around, wheelbarrowing, pulling weeds, etc, and we took the girls to the beach this afternoon (we walked down instead of driving), so hopefully I at least got the exercise equivalent of a walk out of the day. I guess that counts.
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