Another Week Goes By And What Have I Done

Posted on 31 January, 2012 by Renée

I realize it’s Tuesday (evening for me) and I’m very late with my update, but this is my life and the way the lowfat cookie crumbles.

Again a week has gone by and my intentions to blog during the week went right out of the window. You guys are used to that right?

So what have I done?

Monday evening I had my second appointment at the gym with the trainer to get a program set up for me. I have to say I’m not really impressed but my expectations were not that high. The thing is, I already had a program at my other gym, I’m not new and I don’t really need the machines totally explained to me – new ones, yes, thank you, but not ones I’ve been working with for years. So again I arrive on time – and I cycled there so I would already be warmed-up – and again the trainer is nowhere to be found and there are two others waiting for him as well. The woman who did my fitness test came over and told us the trainer would be with us shortly and we should go and do a warm up on one of the machines. :( I realize not everyone has the same dilemma as I have, but my time is precious and I already warmed up so I could start immediately! A few minutes into the elliptical the trainer came over and we could start. The two other ladies were complete beginners so for me this trip to the gym was slightly a waste of time. After setting up a program I did a little bit more cardio and then cycled home. So much for that.

Tuesday I was up early to prep my lunch and snacks (because if I go to the gym in the evening I won’t have time to do food prep if I want to go to bed on time). Work was “normal” (if you can use that term for it!) and at 5pm I left to go and meet some old friends in Utrecht – my friend Beth and her husband used to live here but moved back to Texas (where Beth is from – her hubs is Dutch) 7 or 8 years ago and this was the first chance to see them since they moved back. Another friend of ours, Gwenn, also came and it had probably been even longer since I had seen her last! It was great, just like old times, but again slightly bittersweet – it brings back not so nice memories and thoughts around that time and reminds me of my “previous life” in Den Haag. I love them though, and it was really wonderful to catch up. Luckily we were not out too late and I was home around 10pm, then pretty much straight to bed.

Wednesday I already had plans to see another friend Sarah – we’d planned weeks in advance because I’m trying to have only one social engagement a week – Beth being in the country kind of threw a spanner in the works, but I also want to be more flexible with my schedule. So Sarah works at this expat shop in Leiden and I had asked her to bring me some Vegemite and then we could catch up, have a drink, dinner, etc. I hadn’t seen her since this summer and that was brief and not really one to one. Sarah met me at Leiden train station and we ended up having dinner at a place called De La Soul; apparently it’s “soul food” in the Netherlands… and the menu looked good but we ended up having burgers which were delicious (you guys have no idea how hard it is to find a decent hamburger in this country!). Time went by too, too quickly and I had to go home as Leiden is pretty far from where I live. Luckily hubs again picked me up at the train station when I arrived around 10:30pm.

Thursday I worked from home – I actually had a doctor’s appointment in the morning because I wanted to discuss my TOM issues with her. Nothing major, just that I have a lot more pain than I used to have, not only cramps but my back as well. Not much they can do; I got a prescription for painkillers and am supposed to try that for a couple months before we look at other options. I was going to go to the gym after I finished working – but all of my gym clothes were in the wash. I didn’t want to NOT exercise at all, because the old me may have just said “oh well, my clothes are in the wash”, but the new me wants to keep moving! So I walked 3.5 KM into town to use up my nearly expired coupon from my running shop to buy new socks and I also ended up checking out another sports shop that was having a mega sale, buying a pair of fitness/gym shoes (the ones I was using were over 10 years old!!!) and yes a new pair of gym pants. I was explaining to the lovely Karen that yes, I have running pants, but I don’t like to wear them in the gym. I don’t have a lot of insecurities about my body and I’m ok with my ample backside most of the time, but I feel very exposed in tight running pants and feel like my arse is on display. So, now I have 3 pairs of gym pants I can wear and no excuses why I couldn’t go and work out!

Friday after work I went directly to the gym since I didn’t make it on Thursday. I was busy working out and had to ask one of the trainers where the weights bar cushion thingee was (you know what I mean?), and he started talking to me, asking me if I was new, what my goals were, etc. Anyway, we chatted for a while, he told me he was a personal trainer and asked me if I wanted a try-out session. He said he could definitely help me reach my goals of being fitter and stronger but he could also help me lose weight. I explained to him that I didn’t want to focus on weight loss, that I’ve been on this plateau forever yadda yadda yadda (you guys know the drill) and focusing on weight loss drives me mental. He said we didn’t have to focus on it, it would just be a bonus side effect. So I said, sure, why not, I would try it, nothing to lose really, right? I gave him my number, he gave me the name of his website and I carried on with my work out. I arrived home around 8pm or so, had a wonderful dinner with my hubs and a glass of wine and just hung out. Nice :)

Saturday morning slept in a wee bit, did some errands, had a failed shopping trip and then headed off to the kids’ house to celebrate my step-son’s birthday (he turned 11 on Monday :) ). Arrived back home, quick rush to get ready, then out for a quick bite to eat and straight afterwards to a MeetUp my friend M and I had organized for the expats in Arnhem. Was actually really nice, tons of people showed up, lots of newbies! It’s cool to meet so many expats in the city I live in, especially considering it’s not the biggest city in the Netherlands (but the 2nd largest in my province). Sadly my back was killing me after several hours standing so we went home around 12:30am.

Sunday more sleeping in, lots of pottering around and then finally I got my bum in gear for a RUN! It was cold, but I layered up and headed out to Westervoort. I love running over the bridge, along the dyke and through the farmland! It’s so amazing that it’s so close to the city yet so removed from it all. I can clearly still see the couple of people I saw also running along the dyke and smiling from ear to ear. I know it sounds cheesy but I just love to see others running, acknowledging each other and knowing the other one is loving it too! It was a fantastic run, I honestly could have kept going! When my loop was done I was almost at 10KM so I just kept going until I hit that mark. I stopped off at the supermarket (weird, I know, in all my sweaty, stinky, running clothes glory) to get something the hubs needed for dinner, went home, had an amazingly delicious meal, prepped all my food for the next day, showered and then settled in to watch a movie with hubs until it was time for bed.

Phew!! Now THAT’S an update!!

This week:

Monday – Gym
Tuesday – break
Wednesday – Gym (aerobics class with my friend G)
Thursday – don’t know yet
Friday – PT appointment!!
Saturday – too much going on probably nothing
Sunday – Going for a run :)

I was thinking of doing the aerobics class with G only every other week and then maybe if my friend M is up for it I could see her in town on the off weeks. I’m trying not only to be good to myself this year but also be good to my friends. That means making time when I can and spending even one or two hours with them as opposed to having weeks go by and not seeing each other. This year is all about the balance. Food, sleep, work, fitness, friends, hubs. Not in that order :)

The Quick Update Update

Posted on 22 January, 2012 by Renée

Sorry to have to be so quick, but it’s either cleverly think of things to blog about for this week or just update and go into the kitchen and sort out my food for tomorrow. We all know how I like to plan and be prepared so the quick update wins.

Monday I went to the gym for my first appointment which happened to be my fit test. We know what happened with that :)

Tuesday I worked too late, had too much stress, went home and wanted to go for a quick 5K around the park. Unfortunately some a$$hole decided to run next to me in the park and mock me skipping (I was skipping as part of the exercises the physio gave me). It was dark, I didn’t have my phone/gps with me and quite frankly he freaked me out ruining my run. Nice. So, 3.5K it was.

Wednesday more stress at work, but after work I went out to the airport to meet an old but very dear friend of mine. We hadn’t seen each other in YEARS. I contemplated not going because I was exhausted and very stressed out but I just didn’t want to cancel on her after we finally made a date. I broke my no alcohol during the week rule and split a bottle with her (we chose the airport because it’s 10 min from my work and 15 from her house) and had dinner. Turns out she goes to my new gym so we are going to go to a class together on Wednesdays (starting NEXT week). I can stay at her house and get to work very easily in the morning. Of course I will miss Hubs though.

Thursday late again and stressed again. Work has been such a nightmare lately. Home late, meant to cook, had pizza instead. FAIL.

Friday I felt like absolute crap on a cracker. I went to work, did what I needed to do, came home and made sure I was in bed by 10pm. I slept until 11am Saturday and did absolutely NOTHING all day.

And here we are at Sunday. I slept again for 12 hours, feel better, did a little walk/run to the gym, worked out, came home and had a delicious dinner. I actually tracked all my calories for today and have 1 calorie left over.

Things coming up this week:
Clearly not a lot of sleep!!
Monday – gym
Tuesday – meeting old friend who lived here, moved back to Texas and is here this week visiting
Wednesday – meeting friend in Leiden
Thursday – work from home, gym
Friday – pass out as soon as I’m back from work

So you can kind of see why I need to sign off now and prep my food for tomorrow at least?!

How was your week? Was it how you planned?

Fatter and Fitter

Posted on 17 January, 2012 by Renée

Can you believe it? It’s possible to gain weight and fat percentage, over the holidays, but become FITTER???

Yesterday I had my Fitness Test at my “new” gym – HealthCity.

HealthCity is all over the country and I have a membership that allows me to go anywhere I like – my company is paying for the majority of this membership, I pay around €20 a month, unlimited, anywhere I want to go. Not shabby at all; my gym I just quit cost me €34 for only 1 time per week.

I have been a member of HealthCity before, back in the day where I was clearly not able to balance work and life (and commute) so I paid a lot of money for nothing. Since I’ve been more reguilarly going to the gym and running over the last two years, I have no doubt that I will actually take advantage of the membership this time around. I know I’ve had periods where I didn’t go to my old gym; the hours weren’t the greatest and in the summer particularly the hours were absolute crap and didn’t work with my schedule. Back in September I tried to quit but they talked me into trying it one more time and offered a Fitness Test and a new program to support me where I really needed it. I did have that fitness test and I did get a new program, but I didn’t really feel like they were that interested in me. In fact one of the appointments I had with Nico was moved to another trainer who was late/made me wait and I was pretty pissed about it since I consider my time very precious and didn’t feel like that was respected. You may remember my fitness test from this post.

So that’s the background. I did the test back in October – my blood pressure was normal, my BMI too high, my fat percentage too high but my fitness level was outstanding.

Amazingly enough with my Fitness Test yesterday – everything had gone up. And I mean everything. My blood pressure was up – I was a little upset that somehow my appointment was nowhere to be found in the schedule – once again with these bloody appointments! I was ready to just go and work out and forget about the whole damn thing, but the manager said she would just simultaneously work with me and her other appointment. In October, my BP was 83/124. Last night 93/139. She asked me if I was stressed out and I said “No, I was just pissed about my appointment!” We ended up laughing it off and she’s going to check it again next week. My BP is only higher when I’m really under pressure at work or angry and then I actually feel it (and I have valerian with me to calm down).

My BMI in October was 30.5. Last night 31.1.

My Body Fat Percentage in October was 36.9%. Last night 37.5%

But here’s the thing – my fitness level went up as well. In October my condition level on the stationary bike test was scored at 43.5. Last night I scored 47.7. These tests were all essentially the same, same Body Composition Analyzer, same fit test on the bike, same blood pressure machine.

So FAT and FIT! Guess I can’t complain too much.

My next appointment is next Monday to determine other levels of fitness. When we talked about goals and what I wanted to achieve I basically just said I want to keep moving and become stronger. Of course I want to lose weight, but as we all know I can’t focus on that because it’s not something that is happening right now.

I do want to step up more and at least try to reduce my body fat percentage a wee bit. I could also try a bit harder with food as what I’m doing now just basically maintains me where I am at the moment. I know for sure the extra weight and fat is from the holidays – that’s over now and what I really want to focus on is being as fit as possible for Milan! If I’m still overweight, that’s fine, I just want to be sure my condition is good and I’m eating as healthy as possible!

In March I’ll re-test. Since I’m going to be working on the food thing, maybe we’ll see a few changes.

Crazy Week

Posted on 16 January, 2012 by Renée

It was a crazy, crazy week last week.

Basically, on Monday morning, my husband was in a car accident. He’s fine. The other person is fine, but the car is just trashed. In fact that car no longer belongs to us.

Any accident is bound to ruin someone’s day/week/month/year/life, right? No one wants to be in one and no one wants that call… the one where they say “there’s been an accident” because you generally don’t hear the “but I’m fine” which is said afterwards, if you are lucky.

So we started the week with that stress. I went home immediately to be home when he arrived home. We went to the doctor and he was really, truly fine. We got up even earlier than normal on Tuesday and Wednesday because we had no car with which to commute. We got the call Wednesday that we would get “nothing” for the car; it was “his” fault because he hit the other lady from behind – even though she admitted she slammed on her brakes. To the insurance, it was his fault.

Poor fella’s birthday was on Thursday and he was not feeling much like celebrating. Luckily he was open to having a birthday present and a chocolate muffin from work ;) It was only Friday when we were feeling a bit more optimistic – and we went to celebrate with M in town, so there was wine, good food and laughs.

Saturday morning and no rest for the weary. Up and out the door to look at a “new” car about an hour’s drive away – it was basically the same car, newer and a wee bit of an update (a Peugeot 207 instead of a 206 and only 3 years old).

We had a really lovely day out, bought the car, had a lovely late lunch and headed back home eventually, in separate cars – I had a loan car from the Garage and he had the loan car from the insurance that had to be turned in on Monday. Then we got ready and drove again 120 KM to Haarlem where we celebrated our friends’ marriage that happened in December (my Running Hero and his partner). It was a late, late night, we were absolutely exhausted when we finally arrived home at 2:30am…

Sunday my main requirement was to sleep in – and that I did. 12 Noon and I finally woke up… no alarms, no cats, no light streaming in the bedroom window. Pure, unadulterated sleep.

I did not have a lot of exercise last week, though I did go to my new gym on Wednesday – and tonight I have my Fit Test! I’m planning on running this week – had no chance last week and on Sunday when I wanted to run I realised all my clothes were in the wash! So I went for a 16KM bike ride instead. Just needed the fresh air and it was so beautiful outside I couldn’t resist!

Operation “Get Enough Sleep” wasn’t a full success yet so I’ll be continuing with this experiment. This week I’ve also pledged to myself to lay off the candy jar once and for all. It’s enough. I’m feeling the holiday and after-holiday pudge now. Time to get back in the groove for real!

Egmond aan Zee: 2012 Edition

Posted on 10 January, 2012 by Renée

What a great race! I really was so happy to run again after being “off” for five months. Looking back I’m kind of glad now that I was forced to take a break because I am really appreciating the ability to run so much more now. Last year it was becoming such a chore. I HAD to train. I HAD to make up the missed sessions. I HAD to complete the damn Half Marathon I signed up for which I clearly wasn’t prepared. Running should be a WANT not a MUST. It should be fun. It certainly wasn’t fun for a period of time, not with the pain or the pressure. I feel like a new girl, like I’m starting fresh :)

Last Sunday was the Egmond aan Zee Quarter and Half Marathon. Last year I ran this race and really enjoyed it! It was cold, but lovely out. I felt really pleased finishing it. This time was no different :)

But to go back a bit; I don’t normally drink much alcohol a few days before a race. I guess I just want to really focus on being healthy and not having a lot of extra toxins floating around so I really keep it to a minimum. For example, the night before a race I will have pasta for dinner (I know it’s silly – especially if I’m “only” doing a 10K, it’s not truly necessary to carb load, but whatever) and usually 2 glasses of red wine. I don’t usually drink alcohol during the week at all, so that means also not the Friday, So literally I’ll have had 2 units of alcohol the whole week before a race (in general I have around 6 or 7 units of alcohol a week. It may seem like a lot, but actually it was probably anywhere from 12-20 a couple of years ago. The “recommendation” for ladies is around 7 units a week or one glass a day. No I’m not justifying, I swear and I don’t need AA so please don’t do an intervention on me!). It’s just one of those rituals I have, like we all have, before a race – I like it and I don’t see the harm in it.

The Friday before the race I decided to go out with several colleagues for a New Year’s Drink for “just the one” and then I would be off home being responsible and preparing my body for the race. Well. That didn’t happen. I had the one. Then another. Then another. Then another. Then, I went home. Oh and I had some yummy Dutch fried snacks as well because no proper night out is complete without fried food *sigh*. I arrived home and I had another. Then I had another. Then I thought I was being completely ridiculous and I went to bed.

I suppose I don’t really need to tell you that I regretted it afterwards. I definitely did. I didn’t feel well, I was tired and very thirsty the next day. But I sucked it up, drank loads and loads of water, took some ibuprofen and eventually I felt better. I prepped my clothes and my bag for Sunday. Hubs made pasta and I had one glass of wine (drinking it very slowly) and then went to bed at 10pm. I needed to be sure to get enough sleep.

I woke up Sunday morning and started my race day routine. Get dressed. Get hair tamed and in a ponytail. Make and eat oatmeal. One cup of coffee. Last minute checks. iPod. Phone. Safety pins. Yep, everything. We got in the car and took off.

But I didn’t feel that well. My stomach was quite rumbly and I felt a little bit burpy. I wondered if this was going to be the race day that I would be ill and not able to run. Or I’d be like those marathon runners who finish will all kinds of stuff running down their leg. At some point we HAD to take a potty break. I won’t give you details, but I will say I felt better afterwards. In fact, quite normal. Phew, that was close!

I had already made arrangements to meet with Alinda and hopefully Donna and quite possibly Natasha; Alinda was at that point the only one of which I had a solid plan. We arrived in Heiloo probably 2 minutes before her train arrived! How exciting to meet the Sugar Runner in person!!

We recognized each other right away, both in pink skirts :) and chatted all the way on the bus until we arrived by bus at Egmond. Then we chatted all the way (with the Hubs chatting as well) up to the start – I was late, it was overcrowded and I was nervous!! Eventually we just said goodbye and they wished me luck. We were off!!!

It was an absolutely gorgeous morning! The sun was shining (I had to borrow Alinda’s sunglasses!), it was cold but not so bad once we started. Running through town was going really well, though I felt a bit too fast. After 1K I literally ran into Donna! We run-hugged but we were both at a different pace so I hoped to catch her at the end. After another 1K I literally ran into Natasha! Again a little run-hug and quick chat but soon I was picking it up again. I knew I’d be slower on the beach so I wanted to be sure to make good time.

And there we were. At the beach. The tricky part is going down, the sand is soft and there are lots of imprints in the sand from the other runners. Once we were by the sea though it was fine – the sand was hard and it was just 3KM of running straight through up until we hit the dunes. Going up again, soft sand – that was a killer on the thighs. I found it slightly hysterical if not annoying that people were trying to run up the dune, flinging sand in other runners faces. Sand-which anyone??

Running up and down the hills in the dunes again was tough on the thighs, but I kept going – a lot of people were walking around 7 – 8 KM but honestly I didn’t want to stop, I knew I could keep going and that any “message” to stop was coming from my head and not my body. I had a very tiny “break” when I picked up a warm sports drink, but it was *maybe* all of 45 seconds that I walked.

At KM marker 9 I tried to pick up the pace again a little bit, got through the dunes and we started to go through the town again. The awesome part of this race? The last 500 metres is going ever so slightly downhill so I just completely cruised towards the finish line. My time: 1:15:35. Pretty much the same as last year, only 57 seconds faster. That’s WITH 5 MONTHS OFF!!

The worst part of the race? They ran out of medals!! Apparently many Halfers switched to the quarter marathon, something I find a little bit unfair if you ask me – all of those people still performed “better” (ugh for lack of a better word) than the ones who truly knew they could only do a 10.5K, so they got our medals. We should receive our medal by mail sometime in February.

So great day all in all, in fact a total success. Running, sunshine, beach, and having friends with you who support you. What more do you want from a race? Oh, yeah, the Bling!! Ha! Still was worth it :)

Things happen when you run

Posted on 8 January, 2012 by Renée

Running is usually just a “thing” we do, to prove something to ourselves, or to feel good about ourselves, or even to burn off the indulgence of a holiday, or a birthday, or a heavy weekend out. Running is so much more than just a physical thing for most of us who do run though… it’s a mix between physical and mental. I know for me, running is a sort of therapy. I feel much more grounded and peaceful within myself when I’m able to just get out in the fresh air (or even rain) and go for a good run to rid myself of negative feelings or thoughts. Running is brilliant, don’t let anyone tell you it’s not (and if you don’t like running, I respect that, it’s also not necessarily for everyone).

It’s become that kind of habit or hobby if you will, that I actually like to run if possible whenever and wherever I travel not only because, well, who doesn’t want to run in London’s Hyde Park, Berlin’s Tiergarten or around the Colosseum in Rome??? Seriously, I’m from a town of 40,000 people – I dreamt of living in another country but couldn’t have known I actually would. I dreamt of traveling and seeing the places and things that I’d only heard about on television or read about it books, but couldn’t have known those things would actually happen.

I always tell people, there are a few things that are “me” – running, traveling, coffee, music. An Ultimate Trip would include all four of these things, but generally speaking I have at least three of them combined.

Back in April or so, I met another expat (expat wife, trailing spouse or whatever you want to call it… but mostly just a cool chick from California who lived in the Netherlands like I do)this time on DailyMile, and in May I was struggling to get out for a run, as was she (she actually had a race to do) and basically she helped me get out and do something rather than sitting on my butt feeling sorry for myself. (Remember that sad little Half Marathon that happened in April, yeah it was after that). Since then I’ve had the opportunity to meet Monique in person and read her travel and running blog often (and feel envious about where she gets to run!!).

Imagine my surprise when she asked me if I wanted to be on a relay team for a Marathon? Uh, let me think about that for a milli-second – OF COURSE I WANT TO BE A PART OF A RELAY TEAM FOR A MARATHON! What better opportunity to take part in a marathon and not have to run the whole thing? She went on to explain to me that we would be a team of similar ladies… travelers, runners, bloggers, expats! GREAT! Where do I sign up!?

Ladies and Gents – On April 15th 2012 I will be running the 7KM leg of the MILANO CITY MARATHON!

That’s not all… yesterday I was reading more about the relay, it seems the 7KM is the LAST LEG of the relay. I’m going to be the one crossing the finish line *gulp* !!

My team consists of:
Monique, who is no stranger to traveling and running; I highly recommend you check out her blog here at Mo Travels:: Mo Runs

Hanna, who lives in Milan and blogs at Run Like Noone is Watching and can be found on twitter here

and Maya Marie who blogs here at Livin Life Daily who currently lives in Spain.

So I think it will be a challenge, no I KNOW it will be a challenge, especially the team being apart from each other, but I’m really confident that it’s going to be an amazing event. I am more than honoured to be part of the team and giddy with excitement!

So, MILAN anyone?

Foodie Friday Turns into Saturday

Posted on 7 January, 2012 by Renée

I had every intention of getting my Foodie Friday post up yesterday, then I ended up going out for “a quick drink” with colleagues and it turned into me getting home (station) at 9pm. Well, you only live once right? :)

So Food went a tad better this week – definitely had WAY less sweets and crap, but at some point we were celebrating 3 birthdays on my floor at work and they all brought AMAZING food. One colleague brought some asian snacks – vegetarian loempias, some fried veggie and meat thing and sticky rice rolls with coconutty-chicken. Oh. Em. Gee. Another colleague brought homemade lemon bread (cake) and another picked up some amazing cakes at a dutch bakery. Yes, I’m weak. And I’m totally ok with it!

I had in fact packed my lunch and snacks for that day, but I just kept them for the next day. Less prep and more sleeping for me the next morning!

Was hungrier than normal this week too – and it’s nowt to do with eating less because I’m not eating the holiday crap, it’s ALL about lack of sleep. What would this journey (ugh, I still hate that word) be without having learned something along the way? I know by now that when I’m REALLY tired, I also seem to have a hunger that nothing can truly satiate. So in the coming week, I’m going to do a little experiment. I’m going to get 7-8 (that will be tough but minimum 7) hours of sleep each night, or at least attempt it by being in bed by 10pm each evening. I will know probably immediately if this is what is causing my hunger because when I don’t get enough sleep it’s an immediate effect (meaning more hunger).

I’m trying to eat plenty of protein these days as well, and complex carbs. I feel like I still am eating too much, so next week I want to supplement my protein/carb snacks with some veg. This week I did manage to snack on some delicious cherry tomatoes and yesterday I chopped up 150g of cucumber slices. Some people call it rabbit food, I just happen to like that stuff!!

Been trying to get all my fruits in as well – normally I have a yoghurt with fruit, but I’ve switched to kwark (or quark or fromage frais) as it has more protein. I only have half a banana and measure out 50g of mixed berries (from the frozen section) and throw in a mandarin or two. I’ve been adding seeds and nuts as well (Lucky me, Lynda sent me Chia Seeds). What I find the most difficult is the balance of what I eat, the amount, and the actual calories. For example, I bought these Wasa Spelt/Dinkel crackers but they are 100cals each cracker!! I find them healthier than a Wasa “light” or a matze cracker AND more filling. So what’s the best decision there, you know? Hmmmmm.

I wasn’t feeling so hot on Monday morning when I woke up – had a scratchy throat so I thought this would help

Veggies and Eggs (for breakfast) – this is a good bulky breakfast and actually I had steamed the broccoli AND cut up the veg the night before so it’s not a difficult thing to do in the morning.

End Result, eaten in the train of course :)

Leftover Lasagne (yeah, not uber healthy but not horrible either)

I made salmon, string beans and rice one evening – salmon I love and is SO good for you!! This is just with sea salt, black pepper, fresh rosemary and 1TBSP sesame oil mixed with lemon juice. DELICIOUS (when cooked,obviously)

Bob’s 7 Grain Hot Cereal – included chia seeds, Neal’s Yard Omega 3 Nut mix, 1 TBSP peanut butter and banana chips)

Had a couple of amazing lunches as well, but keep forgetting to take my phone with me when I go for lunch. Funnily enough, yesterday I was sitting next to a new colleague (who brings her lunch AND also happens to be a runner) and I noticed her lunch looked incredibly similar to what I was having a few weeks back… kamut, roasted veggies and chicken and I said to her as much. The look on her face was priceless – she was so surprised I even knew what kamut was! Another foodie doing her best to eat healthy!

So, there it is. Not 100% in the groove yet. Will probably not do a week in review simply because…

TOMORROW IS EGMOND AAN ZEE (10.5K)!!!

Yes, hubs will be driving me to Egmond aan Zee where I will participate for the 2nd time in the Quarter Marathon part of the race. I’m excited to say the least!! This is my first race since June when I had to stop for 5 months for my knee to heal. Things are different now – I’m running with no pressure at all in my head about being faster or better or does my butt look bigger than that person’s, etc. I’m running because THANK YOU UNIVERSE, I CAN!!!! It’s a massive relief to be able to do this again.

If I’m lucky I will also get to run with or see Donna who’s flying over from London and Alinda who lives here in the Netherlands as well (and is an expat like Me!!). Donna and I met last year prior to Egmond (along with Scott over at Your Inner Skinny) and then caught up with each other after the race!

I have done one run this week, just over 6KM – it was a rough week for commuting and weather. Usually weather doesn’t stop me at all since, well, I live in the Netherlands and it is what it is! But gale force winds are not something I want to run in. Plus I nearly got blown over just walking from the bus to home one evening (heard from a friend that her DOG actually blew over on his side!!!). Tomorrow is 10.5KM – since there’s no pressure then it doesn’t really matter what my time is – I’ll be sure to update though if the situation is any different than last year.

I have some other news I want to share with you, and that WILL happen tomorrow – I’ve already slightly let the cat out of the bag on Twitter, but not fully here yet. It’s VERY EXCITING though, it involves TRAVEL and RUNNING (hopefully some beer in there too and then my life is complete!) and I’m really honoured to have been chosen to be a part of an AMAZING team…

Finish and Start

Posted on 1 January, 2012 by Renée

How do you finish up one year and start another in a simple way that represents you?

For me, it’s running. I didn’t get to do half as much running as I wanted, and then there was that whole huge disappointment of a Half Marathon in April, but nonetheless it would seem now that it really is just what I do.

New Year’s Eve Run

and even though there was too much consumption (mainly food, but also some alcohol; way less than previous years), and the desire not 100% there, I got out and did it again today:

I hope everyone got off to a great start to the New Year. Don’t make excuses, just get out and do something. Anything. You’ll feel better for it.

{run} {laugh} {eat pie}

amazing what changes when you start to run

Monthly Archives: January 2012