Back On Track

We did it! Flo and I went on a short run today. Felt so good! :)

I'm looking forward to resuming my running now that winter is finally (hopefully?) over. 

(Almost) Back To Normal

This is the last flu-photograph of Flo & me, I promise.

After two weeks spent sick on the couch, it's time to get back to normal. I'll be back to work tomorrow. I'm glad routine will be back to my life because I didn't like spending so much time doing nothing but sleeping, coughing, and feeling miserable.

I didn't care about eating healthily during the last two weeks. But now it's about time to resume eating with more thought. The one thing I did very well these past days was drinking lots of water and tea. But I asked D twice to get a bottle of coke for me, one for each week, for me to drink whenever I had the impression I needed sugar and caffeine to boost my blood pressure. I'm sure these two minor sins can be forgiven. :)

I think I won't be working out for another day or two because I still have coughing and breathing issues. I'll resume doing the Fab Abs challenge on Wednesday. It's supposed to get warmer, too, so I'm looking forward to re-start running as soon as all the snow and ice have melted away.

Runnin' Flo

Flo surprised me with a short sprint tonight. She started running the moment we left the house. Wow! I think the 45-minute-walk we did earlier revived her spirits. What fun!

I have been feeling headache-y and tired since yesterday morning. I'm wondering if I'm developing a migraine or if I've caught a head cold.

Fab Abs: Days 7 & 8

I did it! I did 12 push-ups yesterday, all in a row. Will have to repeat that today.

Last Day Of 2012

Flo's paw as seen when sitting on the floor while she resides on the couch.

Last day of 2012. Only one more hour till 2013...

Resolutions/goals for 2013? Yes, some:

• Become a runner & run, run, run!
• Lose weight.
• Beat depression.
• Read more (e)books.
• Eat healthier. 
• Drink more water.
• Travel a lot.
• Enjoy Flo-time.
• Take more photographs.
• Clean the car more often.

Do you have any goals for 2013?

Happy new year to all of you & 
thank you for all your lovely feedback in the past weeks. :)

It's over!

The holiday madness is over and I'm glad. The last couple of Christmas cards arrived in the mail today and I'll leave them on the mantle till New Year's Eve.

I haven't dared to step on the scales and check my weight. Although I tried to eat moderately, tracking my calory intake on My Fitness Pal (add me as a friend, I love extra motivation) told me that I still ate too much. Grrrr.

I'm still not quite myself. Yesterday, I started crying in front of the tv and today I still don't have my act together, or so it seems. I'm teary-eyed all the time and try to keep my distance to all things that could touch me emotionally. I can't even watch the news.

I haven't been running today, but I took Flo for a longer walk than usual. I ordered some new running shirts, too, not only for me, but for D as well! He even asked me to! Wow.

Post written by Sal of "A Quest For Health & Fitness".

Sunday Run

It has been raining for days now while temperatures rose to about 10°C. When it stopped raining for a little while, I quickly donned my running gear and got outside to run.

I didn't really want to run and it was sooo uncomfortable being outside. The air was warm and moist and I broke into a sweat after the first 500 meters. I had planned to run 2 to 2.5 kilometers, but then I didn't pay attention and stepped into a puddle. My left shoe and sock were soaked completely within seconds.

No more excuses needed: I went right home.

I feel bad for giving up so easily, but at least I made the effort to get outside. :)

Sunday Run:

Distance: 1.5 km

Time: 11:06

This is a post of "A Quest For Health & Fitness".

Night Run

Finally! I was able to run tonight.Temperatures rose to 8°C and the snow stood no chance against that. So when we returned from visiting the Christmas market in a nearby city, I changed into my running clothes and coaxed D into joining me. 

D didn't want to run, so he had to take the dog for a walk and follow me within earshot while I was running. The route I usually take is not very well lit and somewhat lonely, that's why I liked having hom around. I ran 1.42 kilometres in 11 minutes. That's not very fast, I know, but I'm just glad that I went outside to run at all. I would never have thought that I would ever do that. I even missed running during the past two weeks.

My (first) goal is being able to run a distance of 2 km in 12 minutes or less. Is that goal realistic? Can anybody tell me? 

My next goal will probably be running 5 km without a pause, but that really is a long-term goal. I don't want to force myself because I usually quit if under too much pressure.

This post was written by Sal of "A Quest For Health & Fitness".

Back To Normal?

Hey guys, no more smartphone-blogging! We're reconnected to the internet and I'm so happy: Christmas shopping, here I come!

I had a bad week with my depression getting a stronger hold on me, but I feel much better today. 

I ate almost two cups of raspberries this morning and feel healthier already. ;)

And I have news: D got running shoes!!! We haven't been running yet thanks to the awful weather conditions (frozen snow on the ground, much better for ice-skating than running). It's getting a little warmer, though, and maybe we'll be able to run tomorrow.

This post was written by Sal of "A Quest For Health & Fitness".

Still Not Available

The internet seems to have "left the buildung" for good... Still no connection. The ever-helpful provider offered to send somebody to try and fix it today. Took them one and a half weeks to come up with that brilliant idea. Still, I do not believe they will be able to do anything about the whole mess. I do not trust them anymore.

So I am still blogging via smartphone, something I truly dislike doing.

What else have I been up to? Not much, really. It has been snowing for a couple of days now and traffic is awful thanks to that. Temperatures have dropped below zero which causes the snow to freeze. In a bad way. I have not been running since the last time I told you about it.

And, to my horror, I have gained one kilogram back. :(

How is everybody else doing?

No Connection

The internet at my house has been down for three days now. The providing company has absolutely no help to offer. All they keep saying is "hm, it should work...". But it doesn't.

So I am blogging via smartphone once again. :( I really dislike doing that because it is hard to properly add photos and typing is awfully annoying, too.

I wanted to write a longer post, telling you about my new coffee machine and how I don't know what kind of running shoes are appropriate for running in snow. Any suggestions?

Sunday Run

It's really cold and unpleasant outside. Running was uncomfartable and no fun at all. I had originally planned to run a longer distance but I couldn't bring myself to do it once I had completed the first three rounds.

Mr. K. and I had (not so healthy) buns for breakfast and a blue-, straw-, and raspberry low-fat yoghurt shake each. 

Later today, we'll head downtown to enjoy hot drinks on our local Christmas market and watch the people skating on the ice-skating rink.

What are your plans for today?

Today's Running Details:

Distance: 1.82 km
Time: 15:37
Average pace: 7.0 km/h
Average pulse: 154
kcal burned: 155

This post was written by Sal of "A Quest For Health & Fitness".

Support, please!

by Sal
("A Quest For Health & Fitness")

The guy is Mr. K. (a.k.a. "D"). The shorter one is me, weighing 10 lb less. The picture was taken in Clearwater, Florida, Feb. 2012.

I've been trying to convince him to join me running for ages. He usually agress to do so and that's it. A spoken agreement, than nothing. He won't run, he won't join the gym. He will criticize me for skipping a meal or dessert or for leaving stuff on my plate, though. *sigh*

How do you guys convince your other half to show a little support and join you in your efforts?

Heart Rate Monitor

by Sal of "A Quest For Health & Fitness"

I just returned from my first run using my new Sigma PC 9 heart rate monitor watch (thank you, Cyber Monday!). 

Today's running details:

2.3 km (= 1.5 miles) / 19:45 mins / 203 kcal / average pulse: 159

I'm hungry now!

More Running

by Sal

I didn't sleep well last night... and overslept this morning. I woke up feeling groggy and disoriented. I couldn't bring myself to hurry, I was only able to move around like a sloth. 

On my way to work, I started craving an energy drink so hard I almost stopped at a supermarket to get one. At the office, the first thing I did was get a cup of instant cappucino. And then another.

At lunch, I gave in to my craving and bought that stupid energy drink. I finished half of it before my bad conscience kicked it.

At that point, while I was wondering if I was slowly developing into a caffeine addict, I remembered that I had read an interesting article about caffeine and energy drinks at Nerd Fitness - The Ultimate Guide To Caffeine.  I finished my energy drink and have stayed away from caffeine since then (but I have been thinking about cappucino the whole time).

However, when I arrived home, I took Flo for a walk and decided to run afterwards. I ran approx. one mile without stopping. Yippieh! 

Unfortunately, I seem to have laced my shoes too tight and now have a hurting spot right on top of my left foot. Grrr. Go away, pain! You keep me from feeling good about my achievements!

I didn't check my weight this morning and won't do so before tomorrow morning in hopes of me having dropped another 200 to 500 grams...

Cyber Monday

by Sal 

I indulged in Amazon's Cyber Monday yesterday and ordered a heart rate monitor (this one) which was 30% off. Can't wait for it to arrive at my doorstep! I hope it will be easy to use.

Do you use a heart rate monitor when working out? What are your experiences? Anything I have to keep in mind when using mine?

It has been raining most of the day and I can't get rid of that stupid migraine. I don't feel like doing anything, really. My doc advised me not to work out during migraine attacks because the pain, sickness, and dizzyness will most likely get worse when exercising (it's true, I found out the hard way).

I feel bad about having eaten crap for lunch (cheeseburger & chicken nuggets). I made better choices for dinner: pita bread filled with tzaziki sauce and cucumber slices (less than 300 kcals). Will have raspberries and low-fat yoghurt for dessert in a minute (less than 200 kcals).

Still, today's carb intake was way too much. My goal is staying below 175 g of carbs but I had 224 g today. Where did most of that come from? They hid in the 5 wholegrain cookies I had early in the morning (43 g) and in both the cheeseburger sandwich and the pita bread (33 g each). I consumed more carbs when drinking a glass of banana-cherry juice... 30 g. Argh. Will only drink water and tea tomorrow (and cappucino because I can't live without it).

Writing, Eating, Exercising

by Sal 

Weekend is here! This will be a lovely, relaxing weekend. I have absolutely no plans of doing anything except for:

Writing

I'm participating in this year's NaNoWriMo. I've been failing so far. I won't meet the goal of writing 50,000 words. Okay, I've probably written more than 50,000 words this month, but most of them don't count for my WriMo-project. Read more about me failing at NaNoWriMo in my writing blog.

I hope to get a little more writing done this weekend.

Eating Healthy

Eating healthy and keeping my calory intake below 1,400 is really hard. I usually manage to stay below the 1,600 calory mark. Small success!

Today, I made exactly two bad choices: 

The first one was picking that lovely garlic dressing for my salad at lunch. Unfortunately, I didn't read the label before I bought it. If I had, I would have picked a low-fat dressing. 

The sevond bad choice was eating that caramel yoghurt. I love caramel and the yoghurt was delicious, but it had lots of calories and left me craving for more.

What else did I have today? One slice of whole-wheat bread with curd cheese, four oat cookies (in other words: boring cookies), a mixed salad, lots of oatmeal gruel with cinnamon, two cups of tea, cappucino, water...

I plan on doing another soup day on Saturday or Sunday. My first soup day ion Monday wnt really well and made me lose 700 g (approx. 1 pound).

Exercising

I went jogging twice this week. Hopefully I'll be able to motivate myself to go running a third time on Saturday or Sunday. I'm also thinking about maybe going to the local health club... Undecided about that.

I will have to force myself to do some sets of push-ups this weekend. Remember: I only manage three in a row.

Reading

So many books and magazines I haven't found the time to read yet. What's better than sipping hot tea and reading a good book?

Knitting

I started knitting a scarf yesterday. I might be able to finish it this weekend.

What are your plans for the weekend?

P.S.: Add me on Facebook. I'd love to connect.

Running Slowly & Eating Healthy

by Sal

My new running shirt (by Tchibo).

Running Slowly

It's getting chilly and I can hardly motivate myself to go outside for long. It starts getting dark earlier and earlier, too. Sundown is at ~5 p.m.

Fortunately, I'm a dog-owner, so I had yet another chance to go out and jog. I run very slowly so that both  Flo and I can manage without starting to feel uncomfortable and our (my) sides starting to hurt.

Flo takes it very well, and so, surprisingly, do I. At first, I wasn't sure about taking her running because she's already 10 years old. But after finding the Pooch To 5k website, I decided to take her with me and just see if she'd start running on her own or not. I'm glad she did. If she hadn't, I would just have walked. Naturally, she pauses more often than I do, but that's no problem. I just wait for her, running in place. We've jogged for 10 minutes on Monday and another 10 minutes today (Thursday). 

I have no idea if this kind of slow jogging helps me build endurance. It's probably better than not moving at all.

Any advice on how to run/walk/exercise with an older dog? 

Eating Healthy

Another day of making healthier food choices. I had whole wheat bread with low-fat edam cheese and 4 oat cookies for breakfast. For lunch, I committed another sin and had a warm brownie topped with ice cream. For dinner, I'll have another slice of whole wheat bread & cheese and a soup. Desser will be strawberries and low-fat yoghurt. I was drinking water or tea throughout the day, but I couldn't resist a small mug of cappucino for lunch.

Today's calory intake will probably be around 1,600 after I've had dinner.

Does that sound healthy enough? Do you think it's okay to commit small eating sins every other day?

My First Run In Ages

by Sal ("A Quest For Health & Fitness") 

I did it! I put my new running gear on and went running! I jogged for exactly 13 minutes. My pace was slow at best, but still: I managed to get out into the cold and move.

I took the dog for company. She seemed to sense that something different was going on. She started running as soon as I said, "Let's go, Flo!".

Both of us took it slowly. No need to exhaust ourselves and feel miserable about it. 

Whenever Flo stopped to sniff or do her business, I tried to jog in place. After a while, my outer calves started hurting a little but the pain ceased as soon as I stretched my legs after running.

Not only did I run today, I also made better food choices than usual. I had noodle soup for lunch and mushroom soup for dinner. I drank lots of tea ( with a little sugar, I admit it). 

And then I made myself some kind of "wellness drink": put 1 cup of frozen strawberries, 1 cup of low-fat yoghurt, 1/2 cup skim milk, and 1 tbs sugar in a blender, then mix until you get something that looks like a shake & enjoy. There're probably similar recipes out there, just ask Uncle Google. ;)

Did you exercise today? Do you hate exercising in cold weather, too?

Getting Started: Running Gear & Little Helpers

by Sal of “A Quest For Health & Fitness“

Last week, I decided to buy running gear. I have found lots of excuses for not doing it earlier but this time I actually got up and went downtown to get the stuff I wanted.

Since fall in Germany is mostly cold and rainy, it had to be long running pants, long-sleeved shirts, and a hat to keep my ears warm. I own an old pair of running shoes which I never found quite comfortable (I think they might be half a size too big). At first, I thought I’d just keep these for starters but I guess I already knew I was not looking forward to wearing them. Yesterday, I found a brand new pair of Puma running shoes on sale for 30 €. They’re a full size smaller than my old shoes. Hopefully, the size is right this time. I really can’t tell just yet. I’m so used to wearing shoes a size larger than needed that I can’t tell at all.

Right now, I’m waiting for it to stop raining. I want to try out my new running gear and see how I’m doing. How long will I be able to run? A minute? Two?

Before I even started thinking about running months ago, I knew I had to change many, many things about my lifestyle. The first thing I did in late June was downloading the Noomfitness app which I used (and still use) to track the few times I exercise. I walk about 20-30 minutes daily and do push-ups, squats, and jumping jacks every other day week.

I used the Noom app to keep track of what I ate, too, but discovered in the meantime that food-tracking is much simpler using the My Fitness Pal app. Being a lazy person, I find using apps quite helpful.

Are you using any health and fitness apps? Which ones do you recommend?

Unfortunately, I’m not easily motivated. That’s why I read lots of health, fitness, and weight loss blogs for extra motivation (see blogroll in the sidebar).

Are you a health & fitness blogger, too? Leave the link to your blog in the comments. 

Starting Point & Goals

by Sal of "A Quest For Health & Fitness"

A Quest For Health & Fitness is about losing weight, getting fit(ter), and making better, healthier choices. It’s about being happy, about self-respect, and about taking care of oneself.

 ~     ~     ~

My name is Sal, 31 years old and living in Germany. I’m a tax auditor by trade, I also work a couple of hours in my local health & fitness club – I’m the girl doing all the “computer stuff”. I’m not yet overweight but getting close, which is the reason for me wanting to bring about serious change in my life.

In the past 3 years, I’ve gained lots of weight. I ate (and still eat) lots of crap, ceased to exercise regularly, and was put on medication. But I gained weight mostly because of unhealthy eating habits and lack of exercise. The meds only cause a little extra food-craving.

Once upon a time, I used to be thin and athletic, my body was flexible and I had great endurance and strength.

In late 2009, I changed jobs and moved to a different city. Suddenly, I didn’t have friends and family around. I turned to chocolate and chips for comfort. I tried to find a fitness club in my new “home” but didn’t want to go on my own – and didn’t go at all. In 2011 I had already gained quite a few kilograms.

In the summer of 2011, I asked to be transferred to a different department and to yet another different city. I moved in with my boyfriend, D., and all seemed to be going well. Until my new job slowly started burning me out. On top of this, a friend of mine committed suicide in September 2011, which I couldn’t handle at all: depression, panic attacks, medication, over-eating, self-destructive behavior… you name it.

Nowadays, taking the stairs to the third floor leaves me breathless and feeling awful. My favorite jeans don’t fit any more and I’ve gone two sizes up. I can’t run for longer than a minute or two. I used to do 30 push-ups daily – now I can hardly do three before collapsing.

I absolutely hate being that way! And that’s why I want to change. I want to eat differently, I want to find the courage to go to a fitness club and actually work out again(and not only help the manager doing the computer stuff). I want to be a runner. I want to be able to do 20+ push-ups. I want! I want! I want!

I want to make better choices. Because, in a nutshell, it’s all about choices.

~     ~     ~

Starting point:

• not yet overweight, but close
• no endurance
• low strength
• bad, bad eating habits (high carb)
• back hurts
• climbing stairs is exhausting
• food allergies are excuse for not eating healthy

Goals:

• lose 7-8 kgs
• be able to run for 30 mintes
• be able to do 20+ push-ups
• eat healthy (low carb)
• reduce sugar intake
• drink more water
• build muscles & gain strength

What are your goals and what’s your starting point?