Zaggora Challenge - Day 11

Just over halfway with the Zaggora Challenge and I gave into temptation and measured myself at the (just over) halfway stage and happily found that I've lost a few inches! I'm rather pleased with the statistics even if I don't see the physical results myself. My partner tells me that he can see a difference but I'm never sure if he's just trying to keep me sweet :-) My weight has stayed pretty much the same since I started taking notice of it, but I don't expect to see a big difference if the running is creating muscle. I'm extra pleased with the consistent weight & lost inches because I had a day full of steak, cakes and booze in Harrogate yesterday too! Very naughty, I also haven't worn the pants since Sunday...whoops. Anyway, back to it tomorrow with a run around Newbiggin which hopefully will mean a nice beach run. Fingers crossed after an indulgent weekend it's not too punishing!

Zaggora Challenge - Day 6

C25K - W6D2

Oh dear, that was not a good run! I've been taking water with me lately due to the hot weather but mistakenly thought I'd be ok this morning - wrong! I haven't felt this bad since week 1 when I couldn't even run for 60 seconds! Ouch....a big 22 minute run is coming on Saturday, hopefully today was just a bad day at the office.

As the hotpants, they are still seemingly working their magic. I'm not sure whether to do a 'half-way' measurement tomorrow to mark the first week, but I doubt I'll see much difference. One thing for sure if that they make me work HARD. I've been wearing them everyday, ensuring I am as active as possible. For a couple of days it was just a case of sorting the washing or going to band, but most of the days I have been doing something more strenuous in them (running, mowing the lawn, Zumba etc.) I definitely sweat more from running, today was certainly no exception, which probably increases the need to take water when I'm out.

After every use I rinse them through in the shower, but still stick them in the washing machine once a week. I was quite worried about washing them everyday, but so far there are no ill effects, but that's only after a week. They dry very quickly and this is without rinsing or wringing, they are often ready to wear the next day.

Anyway, I'm still overheating from that run, I might go and sit in the freezer to cool down.

Zaggora Challenge - Day 2

Zaggora Challenge
Waist = 84cm
Hips = 105cm
Thigh = 55cm

C25K - W5D3

Another milestone reached today! I did a 20 minute run non-stop, which meant I kept going for a full 2 miles! Get in! I'm really pleased, especially considering how much I struggled in week 4 (a struggle which I blame on the ridiculous heat). This was my first run with the Zaggora hotpants too. I was worried they would make things more difficult due to the sweating but they didn't at all, I was obviously working harder as that's what they're designed to do, but I didn't feel any ill effects.

Overall the run went well, still experiencing pain in my legs, but not quite as bad as before, I find that slowing the pace helps. It gets worse when I'm going up hill, but I suppose that's to be expected. The weather was much more bearable today as well, at 9:30am it was quite cloudy but a lot cooler. I didn't have the benefit of a day's worth of walking to warm me up either.

Feeling really happy with my self today :-)

Zaggora challenge

I'm so excited, my Zaggora hot pants arrived today, they look fabulous and I can't wait to try them! I'll be taking the 2 week challenge to see how many lbs I shed with them and posting a review later :-)

Salad in a Jar

As well as the running I've been making an effort to improve my diet as well. I've been wanting to lose a bit of weight for a while, and while I'm by no means overweight (just right for my age & height actually) I've not been happy when stepping on the scales. I get a lot of inspiration and ideas from the fantastic Pinterest, and one of my favourite new finds was Salad in a Jar. It's basically salad. In a jar. Crazy, I know. The idea is that the air-tight jar keeps the salad fresher for longer and it's easier to layer up. You place the salad dressing on the bottom, then vegetables, pasta, feta cheese and lettuce leaves on top. When you're ready to eat it, you shake the jar and you're away.

This is my salad for the past couple of weeks, I'll put the recipe below in the order that they were placed in the jar. Almost anything can be put into these salads as well. Many Pinterest bloggers recommend staying away from 'smelly' vegetables & food (fish, onions for example). I'm going to try adding some chicken next week just to up the protein intake.

French dressing (1% fat, from Sainsburys. I also used vinaigrette and Caesar dressing for other salads.
4 Tomatoes, cut into quarters.
1 Green & 1 orange pepper.
Half a cucumber, cut into quarters.
5 radishes, into into quarters.
Pasta
Feta cheese
Lettuce leaves.

W4D3

This week has been the hardest since I started, the runs are now up to 5 minutes and although they have been a struggle, I finally managed to complete yesterday's session without a stop, hurrah! I plan to redo a couple of sessions though, just to make sure I am definitely ready to move on. The problem has been that I've only been doing 2 runs a week for the past couple of weeks, this is solely to blame on the fact that I suddenly have a social life! I've been out on the Saturday, then too hungover to move in the Sunday (or at a gig with the brass band I play in). Ok, alcohol obviously isn't the best way to ensure a healthy 'runners' diet, but I'm allowed to relax, right? Anyway, it's Durham Gala this Saturday which I'm very much looking forward to, so that'll be another weekend lost. On the plus side, it's nearly the summer holidays! Yippeee!

I was quite disappointed on the first day of week 4, I just couldn't manage it and dropped about 4 minutes. My calves were very tight and I had a vicious stitch. Ouch. Day 2 got better and I only dropped 1 minute, still with the calf pain. But then day 3, in the blistering heat I got through it, not quite pain free, but after doing much needed warm up stretches I survived to the end. Very happy.

In other news, Ofsted are finally in, cue STRESS. Actually no,....weirdly enough the school has had a really relaxed atmosphere. I felt cool, calm and even ready for an inspector, which for me isn't normal, surely I'd missed something? Apparently not. I had my 'visitor' with a lower set Year 8 class and they were perfect, I'm really proud of them and can't wait to tell their TA how good the feedback was! Overall I came out with a 'Good' which I'm delighted with. One more day with Ofsted and fingers crossed we'll come through alright and then we're on the home straight to the summer holidays. I can't wait!