Food and Exercise Round-up (weeks 35 and 36)

The Stats (Wednesday 9th October)

Weight:  8st 10lbs

BMI:  20.9

BFP:  27.6%

The Stats (Wednesday 16th October)

Weight:  8st 9lbs

BMI:  21.0

BFP:  25.8%

You will note that, although I was a pound lighter on Wednesday 16th, my BMI was higher than the previous week.  That's 'cos I shrank - I was 5 foot 4.1 on Wednesday 9th and 5 foot 3.7 pm Wednesday 16th.  Who'd have thought it?!

The Exercise

Shrinking aside, I've had a couple of brilliant weeks exercise-wise.  As well as cycling to work and back every day, last Tuesday, the 8th, I did a gorgeous run.  I've started running in the middle of the day which is a great way to fit a run in now that the nights are getting darker and also a fantastic way of breaking up the day at work.  I find that I spend the morning looking forward to my run and the afternoon feeling brilliant because I've done a run and it makes the working day much more cheerful and less stressy (thanks are due here to my bosses who don't mind late starts/long lunches as long as we work our hours).  This run was a good one - only two threshold sessions, and I'm already seeing a difference in my splits.

Mile 1 must have been a glitch though, I can't run a mile in less than 7 minutes without even feeling it, and that's a fact!  Even taking that blip out though, I came in at an average pace of about 9:40 which is fast for me, and I was well chuffed by that.

Wednesday was Pilates, which I started to do to increase my flexibility and to try and prevent the niggles that I inevitably seem to get when running, but which I'm actually starting to enjoy in its own right, Thursday was a particularly evil threshold session (which I'm pretty sure I did slower than Tuesday's long run!) and then on Friday my training buddy Jules came to visit!

Jules is awesomely fit.and I was worried about keeping up with her, but I just about managed.  We made the most of our weekend exercise-wise - Friday was a particularly brutal Cross Fit which took me way out of my comfort zone with forward rolls, which made me feel sick and dizzy and running backwards which I absolutely hated.  Saturday was rest day - a trip to Kendal and a night in the very pleasant Stonecross Manor Hotel.  We snuck a little swim in in the hotel pool but spent most of our time in the leisure complex in the sauna and the hot tub!  On Sunday we zipped up The Calf, down the other side and back round to Sedbergh on the Roman Road, and were very lucky to be just ahead of some pretty grotty weather all day - we missed the rain beautifully!  We made some new friends.

On Monday we did a lovely little recovery run.

The Food

And what is exercise without food...?!  We feasted on tortilla chips, home-made guacamole and tomato salsa on Friday night, followed by Chicken and Bean Enchiladas and so-called "Guilt-free Sticky Toffee Pudding".  Personally I don't feel guilty when I eat sticky toffee pudding anyway, but this was made with fresh dates, maple syrup and wholewheat flour and so was not only very tasty but much healthier than it could have been.

Saturday was notable for a visit to a lovely wholefood cafe in Kendal, where as well as a very nice quesadilla (still feeling Mexican) I had an amazing wholemeal scone with jam and cream.  The cafe is called The Waterside Cafe, it's by the river and I would heartily recommend it.

On Sunday we had a fantastic post-walk meal at the excellent Black Swan in Ravenstonedale.  I had a delicious pork stir-fry and a wonderful coffee/sweet treat combination - it was basically clotted cream topped with dried apricots stewed in rum and spices.  It tasted of Christmas!

I often find that just a taste of sweetness is enough at the end of a meal and this was perfect (and, to be fair, rather more than just a taste of sweetness!).  All in all, a fantastic weekend of good exercise and and good food with one of my very favourite people in the whole world.