Only The Brave or in my case Only The Stupid

I work in a finance team who quite unusually are highly active in their personal lives, with a high proportion doing some form of regular running, football, squash or workout.
In December there was a bit of banter about doing an event a bit like Tough Mudder but more local and created to support the very worthwhile East Anglian Children's Hospices (EACH) - there was two options - 5miles and 15 obstacles or 10miles and 30 obstacles - and with lots of bravado, comments of "Blakey has 100km so 10miles is a walk in a park", and "I wouldn't get out of bed for less than 10miles" and so on, so we chose 10miles......

Well as you might gather from the limited number of posts in the last few months, I didn't do a great deal of training, running or strength related, so today I found myself using every bit of mental fortitude to keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep clambering over obstacles, through very muddy tunnels, knee water and mud etc whereas my eight colleagues managed it with more ease having trained properly for it.....


Above is the pre-race photo - nice and clean with our Aviva t-shirts.


And here is the post-race photos.

It was very tough for me, some of which was of my own making, and some due to the nature of the course - the second half had few obstacles which meant you were running for longer.

I have decided that I whilst I should have trained for this, I am going to use to train from i.e. as a launchpad to regular running through spring and summer, especially as I have signed up to do the Thetford Marathon, which is off-road along an old 110 mile Roman route.

If you are interested about EACH, there website is  https://www.each.org.uk/.

We raised about £500 (it shows £350 but we have some cash donations to add) but if you wish to contribute, the link is https://www.justgiving.com/ClaimsFinance?utm_source=facebook

Three Million Steps - Achievement Unlocked

So two days ago, I clocked up my three millionth step since getting a Garmin at the beginning of April 2015.
Garmin hasn't awarded me an achievement badge for it like it did in September for reaching two million steps but it still an achievement.

Obviously if you are aiming for 10k steps a day then you should hit 3.65 (or 3.66 in a leap year) million steps.

For this week I have hit an average of 9.6k steps but I have the weekend which is generally a lot lower for me, so that average may drop sharply.
I only did three lunchtime mindless walks this week at work otherwise the pre-weekend average would have been nearer 11 to 12k.

As for my calorie management - this week has been a disaster with too much last minute meal purchasing (pizzas one night, curry meal box another night) and it has not been helped by family issues that have hit my generally positive approach.
However I do not give up, so I pick myself up again and I carry on accepting it was just a blip and today is a fresh day.

Wanna Go Large? Moussaka, and January 10k steps a day challenge look back

So the first day of February has been a bit of a disaster - I've done at least 11,500 steps which is great but every meal has been portion+.
This morning I had the end pieces of bread for toast which are thicker than standard slices.
Lunchtime I had some leftover homemade Moussaka which was a portion plus some leftover mince mixture - the recipe I followed serves a family, or more precisely a Greek family with six people, so I had surplus moussaka mince mixture and cheese sauce and no space in the freezer - there was no way I was going to let it go to waste so it went to my waist instead.....
Dinner was lots of pizza and dough balls.
Throw in some snacks and a cappuccino and despite my steps I am almost 500 calories over for the day.......

I should add that that Moussaka took two hours to make from scratch so whilst I was not moving stepwise, I was active beating the living daylights out of the cheese bechamel sauce.
Below serves five with a green salad and a standard portion clocked in at a nice 600 calories.

Recipe by Akis Petretzikis who's website is akispetretzikis.com - note a lot is in Greek language but there is plenty in English as well and search for Moussaka, or alternatively go to Jamie's FoodTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_GcsR7Q99s.

Recipe has enough for a sixth portion.

January total steps was 25k short of the 310k steps needed to achieve an average of 10k steps a day with the first and last week being the best clocking close to 11k but the middle of the month was nearer an average of 8.5k.
I enjoyed the challenge and what it has revealed is that 10k a day without running is only really achievable during a working day, so weekends and school/bank holidays are more likely to be a lot less than 10k.

The Mindless Walker

Monday to Friday this week I managed to go out every lunchtime and go for a brisk half hour walk, and this certainly helped me get a minimum of 10k steps done for each day.
There is a element of mindless walking but this is a good thing as it allows you to switch for a short while before heading back to work - I also find that you are more productive than had you stayed at your desk.

I plan on taking "my" (but seems to be used permanently by my daughter) Ipad with me for one of the lunchtimes next week, maybe go for a slightly longer walk to use it as an opportunity to showcase some of the nooks and crannies of the Norwich city centre away from the identikit main high streets that are full of the usual national and international commercial shops.

My recording of my food consumption does highlight how calorific some foods are - the biggest shocker was the Sainsburys Taste The Difference Salted Caramel Cookie that I was given by a colleague which I though was probably about 250 calories - it was 50% higher at 386 calories!
I still managed to come in under my MyFitnessPal allowance for that day by 100 calories.

Winter time I like to make soups, like the apple and kale soup I mentioned previously, and another is Minestrone Soup (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4807/chunky-minestrone-soup) that my wife made today - please note makes for 8 servings not 4 as it states and so the calories per serving are about 220.
A couple of slices of wholemeal bread and some grated parmesan cheese takes it up to about 500 calories but you've had something very hearty and healthy that will keep you going for a good while.

Saving the best week for last in the January 10k steps Challenge

Three days into the final week and my average steps is 12k - I have been going for a walk each lunchtime, deliberately picking routes that take a long-way to reach a destination and involve some elements of elevation as well.
Unless I do 16k a day for the next four days I will not hit 10k per day for January but that is less important as the key thing is instilling a habit of using my lunchtime for some form of physical activity, and not waste it working at my desk.

Now normally for a Thursday lunchtime I would have been meeting some friends for my a weekly coffee and catchup so the steps would have been lower tomorrow but its going to be coffee for one due to them having other one-off commitments, so the plan is go for another walk.
The last two days potentially have the biggest challenge as so far the two-day weekend totals have been barely more than a mid-week single day - I will need to get out and do some walking and/or running on both days to break that habit.

Recording my food intake is going well and whilst it is early days, this was a key factor when I trained last year for the Race To The Stones 100km run.

I have been reading a book I got from the Library on one of my walks this week called Fat Dad, Fat Kid  (with Fit written in green over the two Fat words) - It is a very light but decent read, especially as I am about 160 pages done already with 20 or so to go.
The authors are from the Shaytards YouTube - I've heard of them but my daughter actively watches all their YouTube videos, and wants to read it after me.
The main premise of the book is their determination to jointly go 30 days without Sodas/Fizzy Pop, Ice Cream, sweet deserts etc, drink the recommended amount of water a day, eat healthy and get out and enjoy an active life.
At the weekend I will review it in more detail.

Home Truths

This post will not be an easy one but its part of what I need to do to re-install the right habits in my life.

I do not do this often these days but I weighed myself last night - 14st 1lb (197lbs or 89kgs depending your weight currency).
Not only is this a stone and a half more than my 100km race weight from just six months ago but more shockingly, its half a stone more than my weight from this time a year ago.

Whilst the lack of exercise is a big factor, if I am honest the bigger factor was the excess snacking, and even more so in December and early January.
This was a reason I did not want to start recording food consumption until now, as there was a surplus of snacks from the Xmas period.

Whilst my January 10k a day plan has not been anywhere perfect, it is still on the best post 100km month to date, so if nothing else I am more active this month - it will have helped to stem the damage a little but without some control on what I eat, it is too small of a difference to turn the weight tide.

In terms of Garmin, my calories burned are 1900+ 265 per 10k steps.
Today I have done to date 14,500 steps so is worth about 400 calories but interestingly MyFitnessPal has reduced that 400 to 300.
Food today has been 2 slices of medium white toast with jam on one and peanut butter on the other,
Kale and Apple soup with 2 slices of medium white toast, Chicken Mangalore Herb Curry with white rice, and for snacks during the day, one large apple, one tangerine, one blood orange  and a costa cappuccino - I am 250 calories under what I am allowed by MyFitnessPal, so if I feel the urge for a snack then I've scope for some extra fruit (banana) and/or veg (carrots).

Dreadful night's sleep last night - was too warm in the house and during the night, the neighboring pond was invaded by ducks who were very noisy, plus I was playing minecraft before I went to bed and all my mind kept drifting into was minecraft -  looking at the sleep data on my Garmin, I had three instances of deep sleep, all lasting no more than about 40 minutes each with the rest being very light sleep.

One week early - Tomorrow, I go to phase two

Whilst it has not been a perfect three weeks in January with this week being a lowest step count week of January so far, it is time to move things on.
Originally I planned on this to be from the beginning of February, I am going to restart recording my food and drink consumption on MyFitnessPal from tomorrow.

It is clear that broadly speaking, on a non-running day I burn approximately 1900 calories a day, so that is my February target to keep my calorie consumption to 1850, with an allowable increase on a running day in proportion to the level of activity.

So as it stands with one week to go until the end of January I am at an average of 8700 steps a day, which is 1300 lower than I wanted but will still be clock in the best post-100km month over the last six months (currently 7800 steps a day in December 2015).