Belly Talk

Big Laughing Buddha in Dalat

Back in April, I mentioned that I wanted to lose some weight. At the time, I was 16 stone, 12.5 pounds. That’s  236.5lbs, or about 107 kilos.

I procrastinated for a bit, I had a couple of false starts, but then I got on, and stuck to, a restriction in my calories for a good few weeks. I kept myself mostly on the straight and narrow for about five weeks. My plan was to last out for eight weeks, but the cold/flu/whatever that I caught in a while back — and that I’m only just getting over — sapped some of my willpower, and I’ve gone back to mostly “normal” eating for the last couple of weeks.

Because I’m feeling better, I was thinking about re-starting the diet. Because it was on my mind today, I figured I’d actually get on the scales for the first time since April. I decided not to be a slave to the number on the scale, so I’ve not been weighing myself, just trying to eat more sensibly and not go overboard on treats.

And it seems to be paying off. As of a few hours ago, I was 16 stone, 5 pounds. That’s 7.5 pounds down, more than half a stone — about 3.5 kilos — gone.

So, assuming I can keep that off until September, that’s half a stone of fat I won’t be having to drag thirteen miles around the half-marathon course, which can only be a good thing.

My plan was to lose 20 pounds by September, which is now looking a little ambitious, but I’m a third of the way there and there’s still a couple of months to go, so I reckon I’ve done pretty well.

Also, this is just the most recent bit of weight I’ve dropped since I took up jogging. Since the beginning, when I started keeping track of my weight loss on Skinnyr back in August, I’ve lost a total of 15lbs, just over a stone (nearly 8kg.) That’s pretty good.

I think I’ll re-start the diet next week, making sure I’m properly well and I’ve had some decent sleep — that always seems to help keep me on the straight and narrow — and go another few weeks before having a week or two off, then try another burst in the run-up to the half-marathon, finishing a week or two before the race.

On the whole, excellent news on the fat-fighting front, I think!


Buddha image by amasc on Flickr.

Pants in the Park

20100627-P1000991.jpgAh, yes, the hottest day of the year. Just the time to get out into the sunshine at nearly noon and run 5 kilometres wearing y‑fronts. Oh yes. Although I do have a sneaking suspicion that the three laps of the bloody great field we ran around wasn’t quite 5K, but I don’t suppose it was far off.

Anyway, yes a different kind of Sunday run for me today, probably less far than I would normally run of a weekend, but also in much more blazing sunshine than I’d ever voluntarily venture out in. Despite the harshness, we got a fairly good turnout, and everyone managed it, even the intrepid older gent who came in last to a big cheer.

With the donations from my JustGiving page (thanks all!) and the money my company will pony up for me entering, I reckon I raised more than £100 for Prostate UK, which can’t be bad 🙂 I probably won’t be pestering anyone for donations until at least August now, when I’ll be starting fundraising for the half marathon. Which I very much hope is on a nice, cool, September day, preferably with a very light drizzle…

Back Out There

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I’m still not feeling 100%. This morning, though, I was struck by a blinding flash of the obvious: if I’m not feeling 100%, I don’t have to run 100%!

So, figuring that building back up momentum is more important than sticking to my usual 5K minimum, I went out for a nice little 3K jog in the evening sunshine.

And it was nice to be out, and I feel far less guilty now.

On Sunday at the latest I’ll be out for a full 5K, as I’m signed up for Pants in the Park, a fun run for Prostate UK.

If you’d like to sponsor me for that, all proceeds will go straight to Prostate UK, plus extra from the taxman if you’re in the UK. You can donate on my Just Giving page right here.

My company is donating £50 just because I’ve agreed to run, which is lovely of them, and a very good start 🙂

 

Poorly Sick

You may have noticed that I’ve not posted in more than a week, which is a bit unusual for me. Nothing to worry about, but I’ve been laid low with some coldy/fluey thing that’s been going around at work.

I seem to be recovering now. Hopefully I’ll be back out and running soon, probably on Wednesday. Catch you then!

8K and No Pink Tutu

Got out early this morning — well, before 9am, anyway, which I thought was pretty good for a Sunday — and trogged up and around the Downs for 8K.

Getting out early was a good idea for two reasons. The main reason was to avoid the midday sun that nearly fried me the last time I went for a long run on a sunny day. But, as it turned out, another good reason was because today is day two of the Race for Life on the Downs. And I managed to time things just right, getting out early enough so that some of the roads were already closed to traffic, but not so late that I had to put on a number, a wig and a pink tutu in order to be allowed on the paths.

Looks like a marvellous day for it. I wandered up to take some pictures of yesterday’s 5K, and it certainly looked like everyone was enjoying it, so hopefully today will be just as good.

Anyway. I have a Boston Tea Party chocolate crunch to eat as a reward for getting around 8K on a Sunday morning, when any sensible person is obviously still in bed, so I’ll leave you to a hopefully sunny Sunday, wherever you are…

Busy busy busy

I’m crazy busy this week, so this is going to be a quick post in between me coming home from my run and stretching 🙂

I just got out for 5K, for the first time since last week, and it was okay. I wasn’t really feeling like running — I think I might be coming down with something, I’ve been feeling a bit off the last couple of days. But: I’d had crisps at lunchtime along with my sandwich, in anticipation of burning off some calories this evening. So, the guilt kicked in and I got out of the door.

I tried my new Iron Man hydration pack thingy that I bought. It took lots of fiddling with the straps as I was running to get it comfy and stable, but I got there in the end. I’m finding that I have to suck pretty damn hard to get water out of the thing, which is annoying, and feels a lot more restrictive than the water bottle. Maybe I’m doing it wrong, or the couple of crimps in the tubing are slowing things down. I’ll have to experiment.

Anyway. Yes, the momentum might be building back up a bit now, I’ll definitely head out for a longer run this weekend, and I’ll catch you after that. Time to stretch!

Sometimes, Life Gets In the Way

20100607-20100607-IMG_8432.jpgIn a fairly rare move for me, I didn’t get out for a run this weekend. Or this evening.

I’m trying to give myself a break about this. This weekend I was out of town visiting friends, and I’m still playing catchup on the thousand things I should have done at the weekend if I’d been home. So I think I should probably cut myself some slack. Sometimes, you just have to accept that you have to skip some things in order to do others, and you can’t always play catchup.

One thing I can think about at moments like this is how far I’ve already run. Last time I looked at my RunKeeper profile I had a bit of a surprise: since I started using RunKeeper, back in September, I’ve run 506.72 kilometres. That’s more than 300 miles. And, apparently, more than 56,000 calories. Pretty cool.

Plus, I’ve got one guaranteed weekend run coming up in the shape of Pants in the Park, a 5K run for Prostate UK, on 27th June. I’ve been to a couple before, but only as official photographer, not actually to run. This time I’m running it instead 🙂 My race number should be nice and easy to remember, too, as you can see from the pic 🙂 As my friend Kavey said, “Aww! Three little ducks…”

So, I think I’m just going to accept the fact that I can’t do everything at once, and resolve to get out for my normal midweek run tomorrow or Thursday — probably depending on when there’s a gap in this week’s rain!

Then, though, I must start deliberately setting aside some time for some longer weekend runs, because I want to head up towards half-marathon distances again. I’ve only got until September 5th…