5 Km Running Program

Since I’ve been taking advantage of my treadmill a lot more lately, walking seems to be getting slow. Though the way that I have been using the treadmill lately you wouldn’t quite think that it was only for walking or running. It has been my dance floor while I exercise. I have been shaking my booty to some very exciting tunes.

I am not bored it yet but I have always wanted to be able to run 5 Km and since I’m in a motivated state at the moment, I thought that I should incorporate training to be able to run 5 Km.

Since joining the Daily Mile website and seeing everyone post their km and achievements onto the site it has amped me into wanting to be able to get back into running. When I downloaded a compatible app to record my workouts, I noticed it came with several running training plans.

So I decided to start the 5 Km beginner running training program which I started this week. I will provide my progress on this training plan within my weekly summaries.

I would love to hear your experiences with starting a running program.

Raspberry Clafouti recipe

I know don’t quite remember how I came across this recipe but I think it was while I was searching for a low carb dessert. Though this recipe is not low in carbohydrates but the photos looked so delish and it seemed simple to make that I thought I would try it out.

The recipe was found on this website.

This is a French recipe for a cake that is similar to a soft custardy tart. The linked recipe used mixed berries but since I had a bag of opened frozen raspberries so that’s what I used instead. I was somewhat pressed for time as we were going to lunch as relatives within 30 minutes of me getting this recipe together and that’s how long it took to prepare and cook.

I think this will be a go to recipe for dessert if I need to make something quickly.

Here is how my version turned out.

Let me know if you decide to try this recipe out.

Lent

The time of year where I really practice self control.

In the past, I have found that I always start off a little rocky and tend to accidentally cheat on the thing that I’ve given up for 40 days. Then I regroup and everything is done to the letter. Previously things I’ve given up throughout lent have mainly been food related, such as meat, rice, bread, etc.

This year seems to be quite challenging.

For the first time I actually knew when lent was coming up so I had no excuse to start late. I wanted to do something with more meaning than just give a food item in the hope that it will help me lose weight. So I thought I would give up three things this year.

The first is to reduce my swearing. The fact is curse words are just coming out of my mouth like water comes out of a tap. For example, I tried to make a table booking for dinner and after waiting forever to be transferred to correct section of the restaurant, the lady that answered the phone sounded as though she pretended not to hear me and hung up on me. First thing out of my mouth was “MOTHER F…..!!!”. I’m sure you can fill in the blank space. A go to word that seems to be used quite a lot when frustrated or while experiencing some mild frustration with people that don’t know how to drive is ‘Geez!!” but most of the time it comes out as “JESUS!!!!”. I am sure he has far better things to do other than listen to me say his name in vain lol.

I thought I would give up refined carbohydrates again as my second item of penance. This is a big challenge but it does have some personal gain.

Hence why I thought that for my third item I should really give up or reduce something that I absolutely love and that it to cut down on my TV viewing. Watching movies and these silly reality shows are my entertainment and my wind down time. So I thought I would try and sacrifice that for the next 40 days.

So far it’s been two weeks into the process and I have broken all of the things I have set out not to do. The curses words are still flowing, this week I’ve gone back to eating rice and bread as it was much simpler to just eat what my mum had prepared instead of worrying about what to while we are going through this time of grief and I’ve even prepared a cake/tart today that I will share the recipe with you all in another post as it is the simplest thing ever and quite delish. I have also been eyeing new shows that are starting and still following the ones I love.

So come this Monday 5 March I will be making a recommitment to the three things I originally decided to give up, swearing, refined carbohydrates and less TV watching.

What have you given up for lent?

A great loss

After a great day of working out and finding a song that I had been searching for on YouTube for some time, I came across the saddest news on my answering machine.

I found out that my uncle who lives overseas had passed away over the weekend. This literally made me stand still. I hadn’t eaten at all the entire day and my starvation went away automatically. I felt frozen in time and after alerting my family I broke down in tears. That’s all I’ve been doing since the call.

I get waves of sadness where I think of growing up with him. Shared birthdays, laughs and how alike we were. It saddens me greatly that I will not see him again or hear his voice.

I feel a little more alone in this world as my close blood relatives has now been reduced to two people, my mum and my grandmother. I know that we will all leave this world at some point but I am feeling a little bit more alone in life.

Week 8 Summary

The weather seems to be going through puberty in Sydney. One minute sweltering heat and the next I find myself looking through my closet for warm clothes and getting the heater out.

This is affecting my body tremendously as it means “The return of the headaches and migraines”. Two consecutive days of pain and me popping my strong painkillers like they were Skittles.

Diet & Exercise

Luckily the headaches didn’t occur until the end of the week, which meant a healthier diet than the weeks before and a lot more exercise.

Here are some photos of the foods I ate this week.

This was my first attempt at preparing Japanese foods. I was really hoping that I wouldn't end up with food poisoning. Luckily I didn't and it was a lovely dish that I had it twice for dinner.

This was delish. I bought it pre-seasoned so all I did was to cook it. So nice that I had it twice for lunch.

This meal was a meal on the run while shopping and being completely hungry. Tried to stay away from carbs but little did I know that the chicken tenderloin was thickly battered, the devilled chicken was also crumbed, the chicken ribs had some really sweet sticky coating on them and the marinated chicken was cooked with it's skin on.

Overall, it was a great disappointment as the only thing that tasted nice was the marinated chicken and devilled chicken.

Late night snack

I had a chilli craving and it's quite hard to ignore a chilli craving when you are a chilli addict.

Ended the week with a bad drink and food

While browsing some blogs and sites, I came across this amazing site, Daily Mile. I have been on there for a week and have found it quite helpful in terms of motivation to get my ass off the couch and workout.

The members on there are motivating and supportive. There’s a great functionality to send someone a motivation icon to help them continue with their goal. The forums are great for finding friends with similar interests. There is a section that allows you to join the currently active challenges and also to create your own challenge. I ended up creating my own challenge instead of joining. A while ago, I had mentioned that I had wanted to walk the distance between Sydney and Melbourne. I had started that challenge but hadn’t kept up with it much as it got to be a pain to continually calculate the total amount that I had walked and also the remaining amount. Well now I don’t have to do that because the site automatically records that for me.

Click here if you would like to join me in this challenge too.

Work

Just when I was starting to despair and think that I was only second best in the employment area as I always seem to miss being employed as the employer had found someone who’s has a slight edge over me because they know the system or have slightly more experience in a particular area, I get phone call from an agency regarding a job I had applied for.

On the way to the interview, I receive another call and it just happened to be someone from the same agency. My one interview with the agent turned into two interviews with two agents. I got along well with both agents and felt confident as I was now in line for two positions.

This week has also been a week of reflection about the future for me. Being turned down because you are only slightly less good than someone else had made me think about furthering my studies and getting a degree that would give me an edge above other candidates.

I originally wanted to enroll in a Bachelor of Adult Education as I coordinate and manage courses and seminars but the course was only available during the daytime, which would interfere with work.

Further investigating led me to a Bachelor of Training and Development, a one year course which had quite a few prerequisites. I called and I found out that I had to have at least 196 credit points of prerequisites in the form of previous courses undertaken and work experience which I have both. I have some issues though one of my courses may not be recognised as it does not have a national recognised logo on it and I also require a letter from my employer stating that I have the length of experience I mentioned (very difficult since I am in a legal dispute with them). So possible solution could that I ask my previous employer for a statement of some sort which could be quite tricky.

Love

As I was in the city for my interview, I had arranged to meet with one of the guys I had been talking to online. We met at a bar in the city and had a lovely conversation and it seemed like we had quite a few things in common. The only downside would be that as the night progressed and I was looking at him, he kept reminding me of a cousin that I have. Once I made that connection, the attraction bug flew out of the door and he was slotted into the friend basket. I actually mentioned that he reminded me of my cousin in an attempt to subtly hint that I’m this quite odd but I don’t think he made the connection and now he is trying to setup other dates. I am not as keen to catch up now because I am not attracted to him and also because he lives quite far away (about 40 Km from where I reside) and he does not drive.

How do I tell him gently that I just want to be friends?