not a low calorie week!

So I participated in the 5am 5k run this morning for the suicide prevention charity, Pieta House, in the Phoenix Park. It was great! I only managed to run about half a kilometre though - it was my first experience of running on ground rather than on a treadmill, and it's much harder! My goal is to run the entire 5k next year.

The sun rose as we walked and jogged and chatted. The Husband Unit ran the whole thing without breaking a sweat. :) Five of my friends participated too. When I crossed the finish line, Husband Unit was there to cheer me on. What a great feeling!

The BBQ was lit when we finished and everyone enjoyed delicious sausages and was given soft drinks and muffins. Our goodie bags contained a tshirt, a keyring, pens and various snacks and bite-size treats. Any calories burned while walking were quickly recovered, and then some!

I came home and napped very sweetly. I'm now eating a very late lunch of oats. Very strange food day!

Breakfast at 3.30am!: Half a bagel, buttered.

Post 5k: 1 large pork sausage in a bun with ketchup. 1 chocolate muffin, 1 lollipop, 1 bottle iced tea.

Lunch: Banana oats with peanut butter and raisins.

Dinner: Chilli con carne with all the trimmings, and a small portion of home-made chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream (it's my friend's birthday).

chewsday

Planned food for today:

Breakfast: Toasted bagel with cheese, raspberry tea.
Lunch: Raw prawns marinated in lime juice, garlic and coriander, and charred on the griddle pan, with a mixed tomato salad on a slice of garlicky ciabatta.
Dinner: Chicken and vegetable jalfrezi with brown rice.

I'm really looking forward to our lunch-time salad. I went to an organic market yesterday and picked up five beautiful tomatoes of all different colours, shapes and sizes. The most beautiful one is the tiger tomato which has vivid green stripes! I plan to chop the tomatoes in a gloriously colourful haze, and toss them with olive oil and good qulaity balsamic vinegar, and pile them on top of a slice of lightly toasted, garlic-rubbed ciabatta. I'll take a picture (more for my own pleasure than anyone else's).

The Husband Unit is making dinner with an organic sauce we picked up in the same place. He's a nervous cook but I think he's got all his plans in order for this one. :)

I'm going to the gym this morning. I plan to give it 100% today. Some days I feel like only a little stroll on the treadmill, and then working hard at lifting. Today however marks 5 days until I run the 5k I've signed up for and I want to up the ante a little. I've walked 5k and more many times, but I would love to be able to run at least part of this race. It is my first official race and I would like, also, not to come completely last. Please Lord provide an old lady or somebody in a wheelchair for that particular honour. :D Although having just typed that, I realised that there are probably thousands of old ladies and wheelchair-users out there with better cardio health than me. :) Ack. I am nervous about being horribly humiliated.

Group therapy tonight.

history will be kind to me, for I intend to write it

We just ate the moussaka, and I've added an image below if you want a nosey. It was really delicious. Delighted!

We both worked hard at the gym and I was suitably purple-faced and sweaty when we headed for home. The heaviest weight I lifted was again on the leg-press, at 141kg (310.2lbs)! I need to have a shower but I have the post-workout chills and don't much like the thought of diving under jets of water right now. Until I do, Husband Unit will have to tolerate the stink.

Food today:

Breakfast: Banana oats with cinnamon, raisins and peanut butter.

Snack: 2 mandarins.

Lunch: Half a wholewheat pitta bread stuffed with egg salad (2 hard boiled eggs, mashed and mixed with light mayo) with about 50g of wafer-thin ham, and some crudités.

Dinner: Moussakka with a salad of butterhead lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and green peppers.

Snack: Cup of tea with 1 digestive biscuit (for the Americans reading, that's similar to a Graham cracker, only round, and nicer :p).

My friend brought round his digital 8-track machine to lend to me so that I can record some songs. I have also decided (five minutes ago) that I am now a writer, and am going to have a go at devoting a few hours every day to my new job: writing. :)

shoes blues

Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs, 2 small slices toast, tea.

Dinner: Pasta bolognese. 40g wholewheat penne with bolognese made from lean beef, onions, garlic, grated carrot, green and red peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes and fresh herbs.

Snack: 1 tangerine, 1 Cox's apple.

Evening meal: Banana oats with 1 tsp peanut butter.

Emotions: Fairly stable, but the urge to binge has been present all day.

I had a stroll in the Phoenix Park for an hour or so in today's lovely sunshine. Despite our leisurely pace, my dogs are really barking now (for any of the non-English speakers reading...that means my feet are sore :p). The problem is my shoes. I, being a fancy rich westerner, have three pairs of runners - my Sketchers, which I wear day to day with jeans, my pair of Clarkes women's sporties and then my actual running shoes, which are made by Asics. They're all fine for about ten minutes, and then become terribly uncomfortable in various ways. I purchased them over the course of a year one after another in the hope of finding a really comfy pair. The husband unit swears by New Balance, so he ordered me a pair in my size from Ebay for a knock-down price tonight, wahoo! Hopefully that will be the end of my shoe-misery.

I'm renewing my membership to the gym tomorrow. Soon I will have the joy of enthusiastically wobbling, red-faced and panting, next to partially naked lycra-clad Adonis-style athletes, completing half as much as they do in three times the time! Ah to be honest I don't really care about that. I do enjoy the gym, when I can drag myself off the couch to get there. I'm a bit of a grumbling old bag at the gym though: I like to listen to my own very specific playlist and hate when the gym radio is playing too loudly. I also hate bad gym manners: wipe your sweat off the machines you stinky gits!