New Water Bottle

This morning I did a slow 55-minute jog around our neighbourhood.

I normally use a 1 litre Sigg water bottle when doing workouts at the gym, but I’ve been using this drink bottle recently while running outside as it’s much easier to hold.

I’m interested in what other people use for hydration while running outside. Has anyone used a camelbak?

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For breakfast I felt like eating something rather than having a smoothie.

First I whizzed up a date with a glass of milk and downed that before having some crushed oat brits, yoghurt and a sliced white peach.

 

Lunch was a salad with greens (mixed lettuce, baby spinach, shredded kale), corn kernels, cherry tomatoes, avocado, red onion, cucumber, cannellini beans and salsa, plus a bread roll with sterol spread.

 

Dinner was carrot and ginger soup

plus a curry salmon cake with rice

See you tomorrow!

Fruit and Veg Delivery

Training this morning was day one of program one.

I used the last banana yesterday so had to think of something else to have in my smoothie this morning. We are still getting plums off one of our trees but I find the skins a bit sour so I threw them in the smoothie with some dates to sweeten them up. Much better!

Lunch was carrot and ginger soup, plus a bread roll with sterol spread, roast beef and tomato

In the late afternoon our fruit and veg arrived. Here’s a snapshot of what we received

And look, figs!

Yum!

I had some silverbeet leftover from last week, and we received mushrooms today, so for dinner I made one of my favourite recipes combining these two ingredients: Swiss Chard and Mushroom Squares, on a piece of gluten-free toast.

Off to watch My Kitchen Rules (I recorded it so I could watch it with Rob when he got home). See you tomorrow!

Pushing a Bit Harder

I managed to run comfortably at a slightly higher heart rate this morning: 40 minutes at around 75% of maximum heart rate (instead of 70%).

Breakfast this morning was another banana blueberry smoothie

Lunch was a salad with mixed greens, baby spinach, kale, tomato, cucumber, red onion and canned salmon, dressed with olive oil and lemon juice, plus a bread roll (not pictured)

I had a headache come on mid-afternoon so kept dinner very simple: steak, baked potato and steamed corn, plus some sterol spread (not pictured)

Off to watch My Kitchen Rules. See you tomorrow!

Cafe Breakfast

When TJ was younger he was restless the whole time we were at a cafe for breakfast (even if he’d had a decent walk beforehand). He is much better at sitting quietly at a cafe now. He’s happy to rest and watch the world go by.

Today I had bircher muesli and Rob had an omelette (with ham, tomato and mushrooms, no cheese)

My muesli was huge and very sweet

I probably only got through about half of it.

We walked to and from the cafe via the wetlands, and TJ had a great time stopping at waterholes to have a drink and a wade. One of the waterholes he stopped in on the way home was quite muddy…

Glad he went in there on the way home instead of on the way to the cafe!

Lunch was a roll with sterol spread, smoked salmon, salad mix, capers, red onion and cucumber

Dinner was harissa chicken, rice and kale chips (cooked with olive oil, minced garlic and salt)

Off to watch Little Fockers. See you tomorrow!

February Goal

Following on from my January goal (to foam roll every day), my February goal is to do my mobility and corrective exercises every day too. I’ll try to do them all together, after I get up and before I exercise.

Speaking of exercise, this morning I did day two of program one. Afterwards I had the same smoothie as yesterday, banana blueberry

Lunch was a salad with baby spinach, tomato, cucumber, red onion and beetroot, topped with dhal, plus a quartered gluten-free wrap with sterol spread

For dinner I wanted to do something with some of the silverbeet we received in this week’s fruit and veg delivery. I made Wilted Silverbeet Salad with Avocado Dressing (without the pumpkin seeds) and served it with some rice and prawns.

Do you like silverbeet, or is it one of those vegetables you hated as a child and haven’t eaten since?

Banana Blueberry Smoothie

This morning Rob, TJ and I jogged around the park together for 40 minutes.

When I got home, I made a banana blueberry smoothie. It was delicious!

Banana Blueberry Smoothie

Ingredients

1 cup skim milk (I used lactose free)

200g low-fat yoghurt (I used Black Swan Greek style breakfast yoghurt, which is lactose free)

1 banana (the one I used was 125g)

25g blueberries

40g rolled oats (optional)

Method

Blend all ingredients together and enjoy.

I had mine with oats, Rob had his without (he followed his up with eggs on gluten-free toast).

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Lunch today was a salad with mixed salad leaves, red onion, tomato, cucumber and sliced roast beef, tossed with a horseradish dressing (1/8 cup plain yoghurt and 1 teaspoon horseradish), plus a roll with sterol spread

We received some zucchini in our mixed box on Tuesday. I much prefer zucchini if it’s ‘disguised’ in something (usually in grated form), so tonight I used it to make zucchini and dill hummus (except I replaced the dill with mint) and had it on a gluten-free wrap with lamb, tomato and parsley

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Quick change of subject: I received an email yesterday offering me a three-month contract for a publisher I do a lot of work for, but it would have meant up to three hours of travel each day to get to and from work. I’ve done this in the past and have found it a struggle to fit in exercise, and my ‘diet’ often suffers as well. After discussing it with Rob and sleeping on it, I decided to decline the offer, and I will now only be doing ‘remote’ work for them (ie, from home). I really want to have a better work-life balance this year, rather than getting sucked into the work ‘whirlpool’ and getting spat out the other side feeling the worse for wear.

See you tomorrow!

Curry Dressing

This morning was lovely and sunny but not too hot. I jogged around the streets in our neighbourhood for about an hour, looking at everyone’s gardens.

When I got home I had the same smoothie as yesterday (lactose-free milk and yoghurt, dates, ground ginger and cinnamon, and rolled oats and barley), except this time I used a stab mixer instead of a blender. It did a much better job of mincing up the dates, so the smoothie was sweeter and I got the taste I was after – gingerbread!

Lunch was an egg salad with an easy and tasty dressing – 1/8th of a cup of plain yoghurt mixed with 1 teaspoon of curry powder

plus some rice with leftover spicy tomato dressing and avocado

Dinner was gluten-free spaghetti with crab, lime and coriander, and some salad leaves.

See you tomorrow!

Fruit and Veg Delivery

Training today was day one of program one, followed by a smoothie with lactose-free milk, lactose-free yoghurt, dates, ground ginger, and rolled oats and barley

Lunch was a ham salad

plus some leftover gluten-free spaghetti reheated and tossed with herbed goat cheese

Lately I’ve been quite uninspired by the selection of fruit and veg at our local supermarket, so today I had a mixed box delivered. Here’s what we received:

I’m quite happy with the selection we got, particularly the veg, as my brain started ticking over with all the salad possibilities…

Before starting on the new veg though, I wanted to use up the last of the veg I bought on Saturday to keep us going until the delivery arrived. A chicken curry did the trick nicely.

Looking forward to starting on the new stuff tomorrow!

January Goal summary

At the end of December I had a lot of trouble with my plantar fascia (connective tissue in my feet) after jogging. I decided that my goal for January would be to use the foam roller and tennis ball on my legs and feet every day. I didn’t announce my goal, or blog about it, as it wasn’t terribly exciting, but I’m glad to say that I managed every day except one (a Sunday morning, as we stayed the previous night at a friend’s place).  My legs and feet are feeling so much better for the work with the foam roller and tennis ball, and it’s become a habit now to get up in the morning and start rolling.

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This morning Rob, TJ and I jogged roughly 5km around the park. When we got home I whipped up a smoothie with lactose-free milk, lactose-free yoghurt, frozen berries, and rolled oats and barley

Lunch was a salad with rocket, tomato, corn, green beans, goat cheese and canned salmon, plus some bread with sterol spread (not pictured)

Dinner was lamb cutlets with chickpea and squash salad, dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Am looking forward to watching My Kitchen Rules this evening. See you tomorrow!

Cafe Sunday

Today we decided to walk up to the cafe by the lake for our brunch.

It was late morning by the time we left home (and quite hot), so we went the long way so TJ could have some off-lead time and a dip in the creek on the way there. Unfortunately by the time we arrived they were no longer serving breakfast. I ended up having a salmon roll out of the cabinet

It was more bread than anything else, so I put all the filling from one half into the other half, and TJ got the leftover bread.

We walked back the same way we came and TJ had another ‘swim’ in the creek

By the time we got home I was super hot and sweaty. I whipped up a smoothie with lactose-free milk and yoghurt and some berry smoothie cubes. It was so good I forgot to take a photo!

After showering I realised that walking in the heat had created a blister on my big toe. Hopefully it won’t bother me while jogging tomorrow.

For dinner I tried to make up for the lack of vegetables over the last few days with a minted pumpkin salad and some lamb steak

My chocolate cravings have been better this week, so I think my post workout snack of coconut water and dates has been helping, but I really enjoyed the smoothie I had today so might try that as a breakfast next week (and not have the coconut water and dates) and see how that goes. 

See you tomorrow!

Mind-Body Connection

I started reading Lance Armstrong’s It’s Not About the Bike over Christmas 2010, when I found it on the bookshelf of a relative we were visiting, but I didn’t quite finish it before leaving. I was reminded of it again when Magda mentioned it a comment recently. I ordered it from the library and finally got to finish it, over a year later!

Here is one of the passages I liked in the bit I just finished reading (near the end)

‘the mind and body almost never work cooperatively. Mostly, we are at odds with ourselves, and for a road cyclist, this is especially true: when your body gets tired it’s the job of your mind to override the impulse to stop. Or, when your mind wants more than can rightly be accomplished, it’s the job of the body to tell you it needs food and water before it does anything else. Occasionally, the two work in concert, and what happens then is, you fly up the Hautacam. When they’re in direct opposition, what happens is, you bonk on the way to Morzine.’

For some reason, I seem to really enjoy reading books about athletic struggle. One of my favourites is Ultra Marathon Man by Dean Karnazes. I also liked Running Hot by Lisa Tamati, although the writing in that isn’t as accomplished.

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This morning I did day two of program one. I put my weights up a bit and my glutes were shaking afterwards!

Breakfast was a mixture of rolled oats and barley, yoghurt and grated apple. Usually I’d put some cinnamon in too, but we’ve run out, so I used some ground cardamom instead.

Lunch was a salad topped with dhal, plus a slice of bread with sterol spread (not pictured) to mop up the bowl

By the time dinnertime came around I was feeling a bit dehydrated (tired and headachy) and all I wanted was a liquid dinner. Rob suggested margaritas (LOL) but I managed to find a sachet of protein powder in the back of the pantry and mixed it up in a blender with a litre of water and a couple of smoothie cubes. Once I finished that off I had some rice cakes. Neither were particularly photo-worthy.

Hopefully I’ll be feeling better in the morning. See you tomorrow!

Gluten-free Fish & Chips

Sometimes I want a particular type of food (savoury or sweet) or a particular style of food (Thai or Italian, for example). Tonight for dinner I wanted a particular texture: crunchy. I decided to make polenta-crumbed fish and some oven baked chips. This is a super-easy way to make gluten-free crumbed fish – just coat the fish in some plain yoghurt, then in polenta before cooking (I used a regular frying pan with a little bit of canola oil).  The chips are just baking potatoes, cut into ‘chips’, sprayed with a little oil and baked in a 200 C oven for about 40 minutes.

Rewinding back to this morning, I did a 5K run (outside). It was nice weather out this morning, and my legs held up well after doing a longer run yesterday.

Breakfast was quinoa with yoghurt and mango.

Lunch was egg and salad, plus a gluten-free wrap with sterol spread (not pictured)

Off to watch some more tennis. See you tomorrow!

Patience is a Virtue

“In the area of training, I have learned that more is not always better. That patience is a virtue. That one must listen to their body and not to the goals that their ego has set forth. That it takes your connective tissues (tendons, ligaments, fascia) much longer than muscle to adapt to training increases. I have learned that it takes more discipline to hold myself back from training too much than it does to get out and train.” (Tim van Orden at Running Raw)

I can really identify with this statement. My mind has always issued orders that my body can’t necessarily carry out. I’ve slowly learnt that it’s better to listen to my body and ‘fight another day’ rather than blindly follow a program that drives my body into the ground.

I’m slowly increasing the intensity of my training, but when last week’s jump proved too much, I took a step back and now I’m feeling better for it.

This morning I did a 7km treadmill jog. It felt good, but it’s  frustrating that the treadmills at the gym time out after 20 minutes (even when it’s not busy), so I have to restart and keep going. Might have run outside tomorrow for a change.

Breakfast this morning was quinoa, cherries and yoghurt

Lunch was a Greek salad with roast beef, plus a gluten-free wrap with sterol spread (not pictured)

Dinner was a prawn, cucumber and mango salad

It was nice but I have a feeling I’m going to be hungry again pretty quickly.

See you tomorrow!