Race Day

First sorry for not posting in a while its been a busy few week.

So tomorrow is race day. I have been walking like crazy and trying to stay on track with my healthy eating. A few little treats have snuck in there now and then but on the whole all has been good and i have lost a total on 1 stone and half a pound since signing up for the race for life (Dad you owe £29 plus the £50 for doing all 5k in sponsorship).

I have had lots of support while getting ready for the race from family and friends, they have encouraged me, sponsored me and checked up on me. I know it’s only 5k and for some that is nothing but for me that is a marathon. I have never done anything like this before and yes I am going to walk a lot of it but I am also going to run some of the way which will be a huge accomplishment for me as I don’t anywhere and am fairly sure i haven’t since I left school which was nearly 20 years ago.

I will make sure I get some photos tomorrow and when I post them I will also share the total raised as I have not had a chance to calculate the amount on the sponsorship form and add it to the just giving total.

There is still plenty of time to donate so please take a look at my just giving page if you would like to make a donation. Just Giving Page

So wish me luck for tomorrow, thanks for reading and thanks for your support.

Metabolism!

Right then I’m going to get a little scientific (with the help of my good friend Google and the Healthy Food Guide).

We all know that metabolism plays a big part in our ability to loose weight well I’ve read that as you loose weight your metabolism actually starts to slow down a little. I already knew that it slowed down as you age but slowing down when you loose weight is new information to me. Apparently as you loose weight through diet your metabolism learns that it doesn’t need to work as hard because it’s not receiving the amount of calories it’s used to. This is why so many dieters hit a brick wall and often struggle to get passed it. I also read that when you gain weight back (which lets face it happens to most of us that are dieting, certainly has to me) your metabolism doesn’t speed back up so it’s even harder to loose the regained weight.

So to continue loosing weight we need to keep our metabolism working hard so we need to find ways to keep our body burning those nasty calories. Here are some helpful tips for you.

Water!

German researchers found that drinking 6 cups of cold water a day (that’s 48 ounces) can raise resting metabolism by about 50 calories daily enough to shed 5 pounds in a year. The increase may come from the work it takes to heat the water to body temperature. It’s also suggested that a large glass of water or cup of fruit tea first thing in the morning can get your metabolism of to a good start.

Breakfast

Make sure you eat breakfast. Eating a nutrient rich morning meal (like porridge with almonds and berries, or a spinach and feta omelet with a slice of wholewheat toast) shortly after getting out of bed literally wakes up your metabolism. “Eating breakfast gets the engine going and keeps it going,” Dr Hyman explains.

Grazing

Grazing throughout the day is a proven strategy to help you curb hunger and eat fewer calories overall. Now, experts are promoting nibbling versus gorging as a way to keep metabolism running by holding blood sugar levels steady and preventing weight gain promoting insulin spikes. Enjoying six small meals a day should help to keep your metabolism ticking over.

You need to cut calories to lose weight. But going too low delivers a double whammy to your metabolism. When you eat less than you need for basic biological function (about 1,200 calories for most women), your body throws the brakes on your metabolism. It also begins to break down precious, calorie burning muscle tissue for energy, if you eat just enough so you’re not hungry, have 3 healthy meals, a 150 calorie snack mid morning and mid afternoon this will keep your metabolism humming.

More Protein

Your body digests protein more slowly than fat or carbs, so you feel full longer (this is especially true when you have it for breakfast). Plus, it may also give your metabolism a bump. In a process called thermogenesis, your body uses about 10% of its calorie intake for digestion. So, because it takes longer to burn protein than carbs or fat, your body expends more energy absorbing the nutrients in a high-protein diet. Another bonus: One recent study from Purdue University found that diets higher in protein may help preserve lean body mass, which is the best fat-burner of all.

Replace your Iron

This is one for the ladies in particular. Iron is essential for carrying the oxygen your muscles need to burn fat. Until menopause, women lose iron each month through menstruation. Unless you restock your stores, you run the risk of low energy and a sagging metabolism. Shellfish, lean meats, beans, fortified cereals, and spinach are excellent sources.

Build Muscle

The average woman in her 30’s who strength trains 30 to 40 minutes twice a week for four months will increase her resting metabolism by 100 calories a day. That means you’re resetting your thermostat to keep running at that rate even on the days when you don’t work out.

Info Source 1

Info Source 2

Other information from Healthy Food Guide Magazine

 

Progress, Stepping and Birthday Challenge

Its 10pm on the 19th April and I thought it was about time I gave you a progress report.

Weigh in at Slimming World is on a Thursday so last week the 14th April I weighed in and had lost another 2.5lb which means since signing up for Race for Life i have lost half a stone but even more excitingly I have lost an inch from each of the following areas; bust (yes this is a good thing, they need to be smaller), waist, bum and thighs! I am so pleased about this and it has spurred me on to work even harder.

April is a tough month in our house if you are trying to loose weight as there is a significant birthday almost every week; Hubby and Dad in week 1, my youngest in week 2, then me in week 3 (today), there are also several other birthdays we celebrate in April particularly children so lots of kids parties to attend which as you can imagine means there is plenty of cake and eating out so for me to have lost weight and inches throughout April utterly amazes me. I know I have worked hard at the walking and when not celebrating I have stuck to the Slimming World plan but I’ve never had this much success with the weight loss before. I think it has to be largely due to all the walking firstly and then being mostly sensible with my food.

I have walked more than ever before. Today I decided that I would aim to do 38,000 steps in honor of turning 38. I did it by 10pm no last minute panic, I did it comfortably and have time for a few more once this is written. 38,000 steps is roughly the equivilant to doing the 5k race for life 5 times, no I did not do all of that in one go, I did it in big chunks throughout the day but I’m fairly sure I did at least one full continuous 5K today.  I’m doing a team stepping challenge with lots of other Fitbit users this week and cannot let my team down which means I have to “step up” and do much much more moving than i normally do. 2 weeks ago my average step count was just over 14,000 now that average is just over 20,000 that’s a massive jump.

Walking is amazing and when you do it for fitness it really works! I encourage anyone to try it. If you are watching TV every time the adverts are on stand up and march at a nice steady pace. If your watching an hour long program with four 3 minute ad breaks that’s 12 minutes of exercise you would otherwise have not done. Depending on how quickly your able to walk that’s about a mile. Think how much more you could do if you where watching a film! You do that for a week and you will start to feel the benefit and you will want to do more, eventually you’ll find yourself walking during the program. Its addictive especially if you have some kind of fitness tracker so you can see how much you’ve done, you keep saying another 100 which turns into 200 and then before you know it, it’s 1000 then 2000.

Anyway I’m rambling now, time to step some more. Will update again next time i measure myself in a couple of weeks. Thanks for taking to time to read this long winded update! Good night x

Chocolate Cravings & Walking

I did it, I made it through Easter without pigging out on chocolate. I had a tiny portion of chocolate mousse after lunch and a bite of my sons chocolate cereal nest and that’s it. I even turned down chocolate offered to me, that’s unheard of for me!

I’ve not walked as much as I’d have liked to this weekend, I did just over 25,000 steps over Saturday and Sunday. I did a little experiment this morning. I walked laps of the ground floor of my house. I wanted to see how quickly I could do 1,000 steps, answer 9:01 minutes. So if 5k is 6-7,000 steps at my current speed I should complete the course in around 63 minutes. My mission over the next few weeks is to bring down how long it takes me to do 1,000 steps then I’ll start working on upping how many steps I do in one go. Hopefully by the end of April I will be able to do a full 5k in one go without killing myself.

Here are my stats from the Fitbit this weekend.

My Plan

Diet – I am going to put more focus on what I am eating by keep a daily food diary and weigh in every week at slimming world. I need to reduce my portion sizes (I know in theory slimming world lets you eat as much of the healthy stuff as you want but I’m eating to much and that has to change) and I am going to try new foods.

 

Fitness – I think I could manage to walk the Race for Life or should I say crawl but I would probably be one of the last over the finish line. I need to do something about that. I have a Fitbit and have been using it and in the course of the day can manage about 12,000 steps without to much hardship but this is spread across the entire day, I can get on the Wii Fit and do half an hour of stepping without my chest burning but this is very low impact. I intend to walk most of the 5k in the Race for Life however I would love to be able to run the last little bit without killing myself. I am part of some fitbit groups on facebook and will be using them to challenge myself as much as possible.

 

I have worked out that 5k is between 6-7,000 steps depending on stride so at least once a week I am going to try and get that many steps done in one go (kids might struggle with this so may have to be at home once they are in bed as they only have little legs). I may also have to build up to this so watch this space.