Joys of (almost) Spring

Hello from a decidedly perkier Eimear! My winter blues seem to be lifting somewhat, and with that has come a renewed appetite for running/working out. I ran and aquajogged a few times last week and continued with that this week, throwing in session of Fitnessista's circuit training. I am so inept at any sort of strength training that I felt that half hour workout for two days! I ran and aquajogged through it, and two days later, even though I was still a little sore, I did some hamstring curls, stability ball press ups, planks and dumbell squats while watching a film and felt great. I was surprised at being able to do the stability ball press ups. I usually can't even do one! I managed 10 and could have done more but I didn't want to push it. I have been bitten by the strength training bug and I hope to incorporate two workouts a week into my schedule, at least to start with. I don't think I can fit in more than that for now. I decided to find out what on earth all the fuss over bodyrock is and I was very impressed with what I saw. I subscribed to the RSS feed and hope to try out a few of Zuzanna's workouts. I also really like the look of the Fitnessista's workouts and scribbled down her HTP Intro to Iron Pumping. At the moment I am running x3/pw and aquajogging x2/pw and if I'm strength training both the other days especially if one of those is core or upper body and therefore not tiring my legs I don't mind having no 'rest day'. At the moment I prefer to do something every day and think I've got a sufficiently good mix to avoid injury.

I haven't really done much forward planning with breakfasts this week as I went to work a bit earlier. I had a smoothie on monday (first in aaages) because I found frozen strawberries in the supermarket (mixed with blueberries). I froze a banana overnight and blended with the fruit, a handful of oats, a few tablespoons of yogurt and water to get the right consistency and carried it into work.

The rest of the week was mostly Ready Brek (kind of fortified creamed oat cereal made of oat flour and very fine oat flakes) made with hot soya milk and berries; although there was the occasional frozen berry/yogurt/sprinkle of crunch mess (this time with Quaker Oats Oat Granola, a bit less sugary-10g per serving and I usually have a half serving- than other granolas out there, although it's different from the US version, as there's no almonds in the UK one).

I have been snacking mostly on plain yogurt, bananas, plain oatcakes and peanut butter this week. I was eating very little bananas towards the end of last year but now I am eating one almost every day.

I had salads mostly for lunch this week with lots of veggies and leftover rice or pasta and cottage cheese or crab for a bit of satiety.

One evening I still had lunch salad left over so I had it in a wrap with a breaded Quorn fillet after an intense aquajogging session (I was soo hungry). I had another of the wraps for lunch one day with the egg salad I posted about last week.

Apart from a crab salad I hadn't had any fish this week, so fried off some trout in oatmeal and ate it with brown rice and loads of lemon juice.

After last night's aquajogging, and just because it was friday, we got pizza and beer (one bottle of Rekordelig cider for me). We eat takeout pizza so rarely (few time a year at most) that it's such a treat. We really enjoyed our lazy friday evening (especially because there were no pots and pans to wash up!).

After our pizza feast, we knew we'd be ready for a longer run today, so after a fruit yogurt breakfast mess and walk into town to do messages, we headed for the towpath. Last night was really wet and stormy, but it was lovely and sunny when we were out. We ran over 6.5 miles and had some veggies, Quorn and pasta for lunch and a generous scoop each of ice-cream a bit later on, then got all the cleaning done.

We are chilling out now before the Tudors and a wee beer/cider.

My tummy got a bit urgh mid-week, I think it might have been just a bit too much protein and not enough fibre, hence the brown rice on thursday evening and friday lunchtime and then carbs galore in pizza and pasta form. While I usually find eggs and fish etc make me less bloated, too little fibre can be a bit grim. I'm fine now though, and will just keep a better eye on my fibre intake. Unfortunately I can't get too much fibre from lots of veggies or beans as it makes me really bloated so it has to be brown rice or whole oats, or even wholemeal pasta. While I have been watching my carb intake I should really just make sure I eat little sugar and not worry too much about a plateful of brown rice once or twice a week.

Happy rest-of weekend!