Hello February

Well it is the last day of January today and the last day of my "healthy eating", I can't say I have stuck to it particularly well especially as I had a glass of wine something like 9 days into it!

I haven't managed to stay off the caffeine, sugar or alcohol but quite surprisingly I have managed to stay off the meat. I slipped up a few times and had fish but I am quite proud that I have stayed away from chicken, sausages and steaks. I have decided to carry it on through February and I would like to do a bit more research into where meat that I eat comes from even if it means spending a little more.

I am also going to try the cutting out caffeine and added sugar again, the caffeine for financial reason as much as anything.

Am I feeling any better for it? No not really! The good thing is I have had no hangovers but I think the hot weather is currently making me very lethargic, thats my excuse anyway. Tomorrow I will get up and go for a swim but I think it will be my last proper one before the big day.

I don't really have so I think I will go and get an early night.
night night.x

Coles Sandy Loser

Well only seven days now till the Cole Classic 1km ocean swim, despite what my little countdown thing says! I am a little nervous but gotta say mainly excited. The only swim race I have done since I was about 12 is the start of the mini triathlon I did back last year. I had barely trained for that and ended up doing mainly breast stroke.
Its all a bit new, the run into the water, the mad fight for space at the beginning, the navigating and the finish. Then there is the added challenge of figuring out how to get back to the car at the end.

Yesterday I went to the ocean pool and did a 1km swim. Normally I have a fair few breaks between laps but I decided to just have three short breaks and  found that once I had done more than about 3 laps I settled into a rhythm and could just knock them out quite easily. This is going to be my aim for next Sunday, just to relax, stay away from the big group and try to do it calmly. I managed the ocean pool 1km in 24mins so my aim for the Cole is about 30mins but we will see, just completing it will be a big achievement.

Today I wanted to do a big run. Unfortunately today turned into a pretty hot one and as I didn't get up till 8:30am it was already pretty warm. I did manage a 45min run which isn't bad. However the way I ran meant that I ended up right by the Cronulla sand dunes.

There were loads of people training on them and I suspect that if I had been there a little earlier there would have been even more. I have decided I should give it a go and now we have a car I can drive down in the mornings. I doubt I will last very long but it sure will be good practice.

I'm pretty excited that Biggest Loser has just started, gotta say I find quite inspirational and love watching the exercises and nutrition. Unfortunately the cricket and tennis mens final is on so I need to do a bit of flipping!

I think I will get up tomorrow and do some swimming, I need to do some good swims at the beginning of the week and them knock it back a little nearer to Sunday I think.

Chubby Katie.x

Race Report

Today I ran my first race of the year. I found it a bit tough but am very happy to have started my 2011 race challenge. As I have already mentioned I am taking part in the run for the bling of it, which requires me to take part in 12 races in 12 months (i'm trying for at least one in every month).

So today. I got up at 6:30 am and put on my running clothes. In the end I didn't have an amazing outfit, just my new nike shorts that I got for Christmas and a More Miles vest top that I have had for a while. I decided that my sporty sunglasses weren't really necessary. I have a little sipp race belt that I put my phone and keys in. 

Usually before a race my "breakfast of champions" is porridge, honey and banana. As it was already about 22C I decided just to have some muesli with milk, nectarine and chopped dates. 

I drove to the race by myself, bearing in mind I am quite new to the area and am in a new car I was pretty proud of the fact that I made it in time without getting majorly lost! 

I had about 20mins till the run, I was pleased that I wouldn't have to wait around too long as I was by myself. I collected my number, went to the toilet (where there was hardly any queue!), drank some gatorade and then went to line up. There seemed to be no separate starts for 8.2km and 3.2km so I just went and stood midway in the crowd. The gun went off and we all got going. 

The first 3km was pretty easy, a few ups and downs but i kept going. After a while I began to wonder whether there had been to separate groups and I had accidentally got into the 3.2km group, then I saw a sign that said 500metres. I have definitely got into the group I though! I resigned myself to the fact that I was running the shorter race. Then as I was about to reach the finish line it split into two directions for 3.2km and 8.2km, I had gone correctly!

The rest of the race was pretty tough. It was getting hot and there were a fair few hills. The pack had thinned out and so there was less to motivate me. One great thing was that a few of the local residence were out with hose pipes spraying us as we passed. 

I finally finished in 48:47 which I worked out as 5.91min kilometres. I was aiming for under 6min kilometres so thats good but really I wanted to finish around the 40mins mark. I have just realised that I cam 38th out 106 in my age group so  I am pretty pleased with! And 182 overall out of 314.

As we crossed the line we were handed a certificate and drinks bottle. I was pretty pleased with drinks bottle, I was thinking about getting a new one and have been using it all today! I left pretty quickly after.

All in all I am happy with the race, it was tough due to the hills and the heat but it was a good challenge.

Had to take this pic myself when I  got home

Chubby Katie.x

A day of number ones

Here are the things I have done for the first time today:

Booked my first race of the year
Filled in my first food diary entry
My first race entry pack has arrived
Had my first glass of wine

Ok so I have already entered a race this year but today I entered the race that is going to be my first event of the year. I have been talking about doing the Revesby Workers Club Australia Day Fun Run for ages but today on the last day possible before the price doubles I did it. I signed up for the 8.2km. Now I just have to worry about getting up on my day off work (the race starts at 8am), finding my way there as I am doing it by myself and actually completing it (rumour has it there is a big hill at the end and it looks like being a 33C day (oh my god I only just found that out!!!) with a minimum of 23C). Although I do get to do the exciting part of races which is planning the outfit! Its obviously going to be a shorts day, maybe my new running sunnies but if it takes me 1hr30 to finish i'm going to look silly in my super sporty shades. I have the dream of running in a crop top, not just because you look super fit in them but also for the hot weather at the moment. Unfortunately I don't really have the stomach for it at the moment so but this kind of thing from Lorna Jane is what I am aiming for. Maybe when I have her stomach!

I attempted to fill in my food diary entry today. Boy its tough! You need to try and find every little thing you ate. If you ate a big mac, then that would be easy to find, it would be listed, calorie content, fats, everything. But you have a green tea and you have to go and find all the nutritional information on from the box. I guess its the sort of thing that you need to put a bit of time into at first but it will become quicker. The good thing is it seems I have eaten a little less than my daily maximum if all my calculations are correct. The bad news is I seem to have eaten 92% of my RDA of Iron. 

My Cole Classic race pack arrived! Super exciting. It included a swimming cap, there are about 8 groups and I am third from the back so I get a blue cap. An ankle strap and a timing chip. Think I might have to go swimming tomorrow, the arrival of my pack is a tad scary.

I had a glass of wine at work today, its not good! I think I am going to try and jump back on the detox wagon. I also had a cup of coffee and some fish today, eep. 

Thats it for today I think, I am off to bed with the intention of getting up early.

Chubby Katie.x

Hectic - characterized by extreme activity or excitement

Gosh, what a busy week I have been having. I am sorry my bloggy friends you have been a bit neglected recently!

To be honest I have been letting myself go a tad. Didn't get up early this morning, had a coffee on the way in to work, looking forward to wine  o'clock! My eating hasn't been to bad though, I still haven't had any meat in January and I enjoyed a bean salad and mango for lunch.

Wednesday morning (with a little coaxing from Michael-clease) I got up early and went for a swim. I also coaxed Michael-clease a little and he got up! We looked outside and it looked a little nasty so we decided to use the pool in our unit block. I haven't been in it before, its pretty small, about 10 metres I think. I had already planned to do 1km so I forced myself to do 100 laps of it. It was actually easier than I thought although I think the pushing off each time is a bit cheating in a pool that size.

It was a hectic day so when I got home I thought a run would be just the thing to release the stress. Neil and I did a 30 minute run. I also included 4 pull ups and 6 push ups, not much I know but decent for me. Needless to say Neil managed a few more.

I have a bit of a busy weekend, its nice and doing fun things but I think my training will no doubt suffer. I will try and fit in a run and maybe a swim. On Sunday we are going to the cricket, funny how watching sport seems to be a very unhealthy activity, lots of beer and pies. Maybe the spectators know something I don't - the act of watching sport is enough to burn off the unhealthy food?!

Anyone keep a food diary? I probably should and have before. I guess the idea is you can work out how much your eating and how you feel and after time you can look back and see that on particular days you were feeling full of energy and try see if that corresponds to certain foods. The way it has helped me in the past is that I began to feel guilty if I put things like ice cream/chocolate bar/big mac down and so I was less tempted to eat them. Ok it's decided! Definitely starting a food diary. Some suggested Spark people so I'll give that a go.

Chubby Katie.x

I did it!

Are you ready to be proud of me? Cos I did it! I got up at 6am! I did all the things I listed yesterday (apart from putting a picture up of something to inspire me) and woke up a 6am busting for the toilet. I had a couple of things to do before work so I only did a 30 minute run but thats ok. Tomorrow I plan to get up at the same time and do a big old swim, at least 1 km probably more.

Even more exciting news, we are getting a car today! Nothing special but we don't have one at the moment, it was fine in Bondi when there were loads of buses and nowhere to park anyway but now we need one. We get it tonight, i'm pretty excited! This means I can definitely do the Menai run which is exciting, good job I ran this morning. They have a 3.2k and 8.2k, I guess I really should do the 8.2k its meant to be a challenge after all. I'm a bit concerned that they won't be giving out medals at the end of the race, I wanted one for the Run for the bling of it challenge.

Epp just realised I have no idea what to do for dinner. The danger of getting home from work and not having a dinner idea is that we will get take away. It seems quite easy to get a vegetarian take away but chances are they are still not going to be so healthy.....We had stir fried vegetable, not sure how much Michael-Clease enjoyed it.

Well that is all I have to say for now, i'm off to read my new triathlon book.
Ciao
Chubby Katie.x

I've found my race

Exciting news! I have found my ironman race! It is the Challenge Wanaka in New Zealand. Who knows what year I will be ready to do it and whether I will be anywhere near New Zealand and whether I will be able to afford to travel to there but it just seems like a really nice race and the scenery is just amazing. 

You will be pleased to know that my gazpacho was pretty tasty. Its kind of weird if you are not used to cold soup but luckily its a pretty hot day so something so cold was very welcome. I had some tinned beans left so I added them to bulk it up a little and had some whole grain bread. 

Gosh I am bad at getting out of bed, this morning I was intending on going for a run but didn't make it. I need to put a few things in place to help me. Heres what I am going to do tonight:

1. Go to bed early - if i'm not tired in the morning I should be able to get up early
2. Have a glass of water before bed - the old native american trick (that was on the Simpsons) so you are busting for the toilet when you wake up
3. Put a glass of water next to your bed - apparently being dehydrated makes you sleepier, so if you drink as soon as you wake you should be less tired
4. Get all your clothes ready the night before - its easier to convince yourself that by the time you've found all your running gear it will be to late to exercise anyway
5. Move the alarm clock away from the bed - that way you have to get up to turn it off
6. I might try putting a picture of something inspirational by my alarm clock, like an athlete or one of those views of the Wanaka challenge that way I will see it when I first wake up and know what I am working towards

Thats all the ideas I have for now so I will tell you how it goes tomorrow.

Chubby Katie.x

A tale of two recipes

I love most things about Australia but one thing that irritates me, and it may well be in other countries, is the advertising and sponsorship. Don't get me wrong I understand how important sponsorship is especially in small local sporting events which might otherwise have to charge huge amounts entry but i guess it is more inappropriate advertising that I am talking about. As is often the case this blog entry was thought up by an article I spotted in the SMH http://tiny.cc/6zbzu. Its about have fast food places are selling us the food that makes us ill and fat and then selling us the solution. Take for example KFC, they advertise during the cricket, which in itself is bad enough, a fast food company advertising at a sporting event. But then they claim to give $1 to breast cancer charity for every bucket of chicken sold. As the article states "certain types of breast cancer, particularly in post-menopausal women, are very strongly related to a high intake of fat, and obesity". 
I have also just learnt (a little off the mark maybe) that chocolate company Nestle have recently bought weight loss company Jenny Craig. How can that work??!! It baffles me!  I like to think that if I was a Jenny Craig member it would make me serious rethink giving them my business. 


Did a run and a swim yesterday, nothing particular to report but neither were really as long as I should have gone. Today Neil and I did a swim to shark island with our snorkels and flippers. We were going to go round it but the waves were quite big and the visibility was not that great so it was a little scary. I think we will leave it for a calmer day. I might run tonight but being a British girl I struggle a bit in the midday 28C weather. 


I made gazpacho soup today. I really enjoy soup especially if I make it myself and know whats in it. The weather is a bit to hot at the moment for hot soup so this is perfect, plus those Spaniards obviously knew what was good for them as gazpacho is pretty much just raw vegetables blended together, amazing!


Now I looked at a few recipes and they are all quite similar so I won't credit anything, as usual I adjusted depending on what I had in fridge:


5 tomatoes
1/2 a cucumber (a small one)
1/4 red pepper
1/4 green pepper
1/2 red onion
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 sprig of oregano

All I did was blend them all together, I did it a bit at a time so not to overload the blender. Easy. I've made it for my lunch tomorrow so I will tell you how it tasted.


The other recipe i've made is lentil burgers. We had a bbq tonight so rather than buy the shop bought veggie burgers I thought it would be nicer to make them myself. I got the recipe from this website http://tiny.cc/y24e5  I used tinned lentils rather than soaking my own. I also decided to use Worcestershire sauce rather than soy and I guessed the amount of oats and bread crumbs. I grated the carrot rather than dicing as I think it holds together a little better and I put the oats and bread in the blender to make them smaller. They were pretty tasty and held together better than other burgers I have made. To go with the bbq'ed food I made a coleslaw and some veggie kebabs. All in all a pretty tasty meal.

Random ramblings

Some days I just don't have any inspiration for posts and today is one of those days. I got up at 6am to chat to my parents (who are in England) and so did have time to do any exercise. I think when I exercise in the morning not only does it give me interesting stuff to write about but it is good time for me to think of ideas.

A few things have popped into my mind so you will just have to put up with my ramblings (whats new I hear you say!)......

Inspired by Racing It Off I thought I would mention a couple of exercise related books, I have only read two I think but I quite enjoyed them. The first is Just a little run around the world by Rosie Swale Pope. Its about a woman whos husband dies of cancer and so she decides to run around the world. Made me want to do a really long run although that urge has worn off pretty quickly!
The second book I have read is How triathlon ruined my life by Darren Roberts. His book is similar to this blog in that he goes from no triathlon experience to eventually doing an Ironman, although I think he did have a head start fitness wise. Its an interesting little book that you will no doubt relate to in parts, i'm almost tempted to reread it now!

Is anyone else a self about exercising? I always worry about what people think of me and I am actually pretty shy. I don't wear my Vibram Five Fingers as much as I should as I am worried people are going to stop me and ask what the hell I have got on my feet. As I mentioned my new glasses scare me, I think its because I am going to a fast cyclist overtake me and wonder what the hell I am doing wearing those glasses and going so slowly! I'm scared of doing badly in race, drowning or falling off my bike and everyone staring at me.

I was thinking about brick training today (where you do one thing followed by another i.e a bike ride then straight to a run) and decided at the weekend I might try some. There is a bit of a loop near my house I can cycle then run, then cycle then run. Its about 3.8km so not to far but should be a bit of a challenge if I do a few laps.

Thats about all for today, I am going to get off the train two stops early again I think and run home, this time I have my ipod loaded with Zen and the Art of Triathlon podcasts. All being well (and me not being lazy) I will swim tomorrow morning.

Chubby Katie.x

Sugar, Iron, Protein and Naughtyness

I was just browsing some websites and spotted this article http://tiny.cc/nsnp7 It is basically saying that all those flavoured water drinks that claim they have added vitamins, nutrients, calcium, antioxidants and who knows what else just have tons of sugar in them. And they aren't much better for you than eating an ice lolly. This isn't all that surprising when you think that Vitamin water is actually made by the Coca Cola Company! I a noticed a similar thing yesterday when I had got my free ice lolly and coconut water, I am not really sure what to look for on the nutritional chart but I usually check to see where sugar comes in the ingridients list and for those two products sugar was listed either second or third, meaning there is a fair bit in there (I think).
It is tempting when you are in the market to buy a drink from a shop and see one of these drinks to choose it as a "healthy option" and they are no doubt better than fizzy drinks but as is always the case there is no quick fix, water would be the best drink to choose and fruit and vegetables are the best way to get your vitamins and nutritents.

I was telling the girls at work the other day about my healthy eating for January and when my boss heard that I wasn't eating meat she said I should be careful and think about where I get my protein and iron from. I told her I would do some research...
I think protein should be pretty easily covered without meat, if I was on a vegan diet that might be a little different. I found this one the Vegitarian Network of Victoria website (I realise they might be a little biased, i'm sure the Meat eating Network of Victoria would say otherwise but it all seems to make sense)

Plant sources of protein alone can provide adequate amounts of the essential and non-essential amino acids, assuming that dietary protein sources from plants are varied and that total calorie intake is sufficient to meet energy needs. Whole grains, legumes (beans), vegetables, seeds, and nuts, as well as commercial meat alternatives, all contain essential and non-essential amino acids.

My diet at the moment contains loads of beans (I am mainly eating them as a meat substitute), seeds and vegetables so I think I will be fine. 

The VNV say this about Iron

Although the iron stores of vegetarians are sometimes reduced, the incidence of iron-deficiency anaemia in vegetarians is not significantly different from that in the general population.

And

Vitamin C, which is abundant in vegetarian diets, significantly enhances the absorption of non-haem iron. To enhance absorption, the vitamin C source and iron must be consumed at the same meal. In addition to vitamin C, fruits and vegetables contain small amounts of other organic acids (e.g. citric acid and malic acid) that can also enhance non-haem iron absorption.

Tannic acid (e.g. in tea) can reduce non-haem iron absorption by as much as half; calcium can also inhibit iron absorption considerably. In addition, phytates (found in whole grains and legumes) also reduce iron absorption.

Studies have shown that when iron intake from plant foods is relatively high and a variety of foods is consumed, inhibitors and enhancers of iron absorption can offset each other and iron balance is not adversely affected.

So it seems I need to make sure I eat plenty of vitamin C and try not to drink tea and coffee straight before or after a meal. Although I am not to sure what to make of the part about the phytates.  The website Bloodindex suggest women aged 19-30 should have 18mg of Iron per day, a little more if you are very active.

Heres a interesting little charts that show the iron content of some foods: 

Taken from thewomens.org.au - looks like I need to drink lots of Milo!

Now I must confess something, after just 7 days into January I failed my healthy eating! I had a small glass of red wine! I know its not really that bad and probably actually good for me but I am little disappointed at my lack off will power.


Finally here is the picture I promised you, me looking my most serious in my new glasses that scare me.

Grrrrrrr

Chubby Katie.x

The highs and lows of triathlon training

One thing you should know about me is that I love free stuff, I think maybe that's one of the reasons I think doing races - goodie bag at the end, sports drinks given away, maybe a t-shirt. Even if they are crappy cotton t-shirts that I will probably never wear I still love getting them! Well today Michael-clease and I were out on a run and we went past people giving away ice lollys, I was pretty hot and thirsty so it was very welcome. Then as we got a little further there where people giving away cartons of coconut water! Boy that made my day.

The low this weekend was my jelly fish sting. The boys had gone for a surf and decided to go for an ocean swim, as I got down to the beach I could see there were a few dead blue bottles. I figured that as there weren't any dead ones to the left then I should probably be ok there. I swam away carefully looking round me to make sure there weren't any nearby and suddenly I saw this big white jelly fish, it freaked me out, I quickly turned round and swam to the shore but in doing so I got caught in the tentacles of a blue bottle! It got me across the shoulder, likely I had been got before on the hand and I knew you were meant to remove the tentacles with your hand and then put either ice or hot water on the sting. So I rushed home and put my shoulder under a hot shower. When Michael-clease and Neil returned home I found out Neil had been stung too, apparently there were a lot of blue bottles in the water that day!

My sting ( doesn't look to bad but stung like hell)

Neil sting

Today Michael-clease and I decided to do our own triathlon. We decided to do the swim at the end to cool us down. We cycled 18.6km to Kurnell and back, ran for around 5km although I stuggled and walked a little and then swam 300 meters. When I finished I was a little disappointed that I found it so tough but now I see it written down I don't think we did so badly. It is nearly a sprint triathlon and we didn't start till 9:30am so it was a little warm.

Chubby Katie.x

Finding a challenge

Well since I have signed up for this Run for the Bling of it I have been trying to find some races to do. I mentioned already that I thinking of doing the little fun run in Menai but its not the easiest place to get to. So I was having a little browse and realised there is the Trishave Sydney Triathlon series in Kurnell in two weeks time. For about 2 minutes I thought am I ready for it? It is a 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run, what does that make it? A sprint maybe? Yep just googled it, a sprint triathlon. Now I haven't really been training, sure I have been doing some exercise but not full on training to prepare myself.
I checked out their Facebook site to see what the competitors looked like, lots of tri suits, wetsuits and fast looking bikes, pretty scary. But still I was considering it, Kurnell is just round the corner from me which makes a pleasant change as far as races go plus means extra support from friends and family. 
I clicked on the enter button just to see what the deal was and realised it cost $99!! That seems pretty pricey to me. I realise these things cost a fair bit to put on and probably cost a lot in insurance. Maybe if it was something that I had been working towards for 3 months and was hoping to get a decent time then I could justify that money but I think I might just go down and check out.

I am thinking of buying a pull buoy as the lovely Jess That's just how I roll! has suggested. Anything to improve my swimming technique is necessary with only 32 days to go to the big race. I think the idea of them is that you put it between your legs and it makes you more buoyant and so allows you to concentrate on your arm strokes more. Don't tell Michael-clease!

Looking at the Trishave photos also made me think about wetsuits. I have a wetsuit that I bought during my very short surfing attempt. It was only $50 though. I think its a spearfishing suit now correct me if I am wrong but I think a spearfishing suit is closer to a triathlon suit than a dive or surf suit. Spearfishers need to do more swimming and arm movement than divers although maybe their suits need to be less buoyant as so that they can dive down? I'm going to wait till the water cools down a little and then try mine out in the ocean pool and see how it goes.

Stolen from the trishave facebook (I mean borrowed)

I'm going to run part of the way home today. I will get changed into my running stuff at work then get off the train three stops earlier. As I haven't lived in the area that long there is a small chance that I will get lost but i'll have my phone on me. I intend to make it a bit longer each time and hopefully I will have a good route sorted by then. Maybe one day I can run all the way home although that's kind of marathon distance so it might be a while.

Oh lastly I had some sad news the other day. My miso soup has fish in it! I was very sad when I looked at the ingredients list.

Chubby Katie.x

Chrissie

As you have read in previous posts I am a huge fan of Chrissie Wellington, not only is she an amazing athlete but she seems like a really lovely person and a great role model. I found this interview with her on the Guardian website http://tiny.cc/uxcjs I am really hoping she does the NSW triathlon in May as I would love to go up and see her.
x

A fishy dilemma

I went to Sushi the other night. I am a big fan of sushi. It seems to be quite healthy from what I can tell, I like to challenge myself with using chopsticks, its a good excuse to down a Singha and its not too expensive. Turns out my it is tricky with my healthy eating January. Sushi seems to have very limited vegetarian options. About the only things I could eat were vegetable tempura which, although tasting very nice, were fried and therefore not particularly healthy! And we had a nice healthy glass of water to wash it down!
So it looks like sushi might be off the cards for January, I think Michael-cleases might start getting a little annoyed with my veggie month, hes already suggested it might end but costing us more when I mentioned getting some of those vegetable crisps!

Most days I haven't completely given up caffeine, I have just been having a green tea and maybe a regular tea, but for someone who could easily drink 3 coffees and a coke in day I think its pretty good. However I am writing this at 4pm and so far I have only had a decaf coffee and a lemon and ginger herbal tea and I am beginning to get a headache. It could be the fact that I am just back to work after the break and have been sat at my computer all day but it could also be the caffeine withdrawals. I might make a cup of tea so I can find out.


I had a break from training today, first day back at work was enough of a challenge. Plus I have been running and swimming a fair bit recently so I am sure a break was needed. Yesterday both the boys (Michael-clease & housemate Neil) were back at work so I was home alone. I managed to get up early and went for a 1hour cycle to Kurnell and back. I would like to say I enjoy it but it was more of a "lets get this over with" kind of thing.


Is anyone else a little freaked out by some of their equipment? I got some sporty sunglasses for Christmas and I was looking at myself in the mirror and I looked a little scary! Maybe I just look a little too professional, despite their cheap price, than I actually am. I shall endeavour to upload a photo shortly.


Chubby Katie.x

Chilli success

Well I must say I think the vegetarian chilli was a big success. Even Michael-clease who is not a vegetarian just a veggie sympathiser thought it was tasty!
I added a few mushrooms and slightly altered a few of the quantities mainly because I didn't always have enough of everything. I also added a small amount of gravy as it was not looking as running as I wanted. Oh also the recipe called for dried thyme, I didn't have any and was keen to use our home grown herbs so I put in some fresh oregano.

There is some rice at the bottom and home grown parsley on top

Today I went for a run along the beach in my five fingers again, then I went for a swim in the ocean pool. It was pretty hard work, the waves where a bit choppy which made me realise I should be breathing on both sides. At the moment I only breath on my right hand side, the trouble is if the waves are coming from that side its probably best to breath on the left hand. So I think I really need to practice breathing on both sides ready for the Cole Classic in February.

Chubby Katie.x

Veggie Dinner

I'm going to try this recipe for dinner tonight http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/5923/vegetarian+chilli sounds pretty tasty and I have all the ingredients. I might even take some photos for you lovely readers. I reckon it must be much easier to be a vegetarian since the invention of the internet, so much more inspiration. I will let you know how it goes. 


Sorry the font size is switching, i'm not sure whats going on.
Chubby Katie

My first temptation

Happy New Year!

I don't know about everyone else but I am really looking forward to this year maybe even a little too much. 

As I mentioned in my last post I am trying to be really healthy in January, no alcohol, no caffeine, limited sugar (except from fruit) and, partly for other reasons, no meat. 

My first temptation came 10 hours into the new year! I was sitting in the car and in hopped my friend and said I bought you a coke and handed me a can. I was a tad hungover and it was a hot day so a nice cold coke would have gone down really well. I am pleased to say I over came the temptation and Michael-clease off loaded the cokes onto some grateful teenagers. It made me realise though that one of the toughest parts of eating healthily is the temptation by others and the not wanting to seem rude. 

To make up for the lack of protein from the meat I am going to try and substitute any meat ingredient with beans. And we had some veggie burgers in the fridge from visiting family so I have managed pretty well so far today.

I haven't been doing too much exercise over the holidays, a little bit of swimming but that is about all. It really should have started on the 1st, the improved fitness I mean, but what with the late night, the slight hangover and the scorcher of a day all I could manage was to jump into the ocean. Today however I woke up nice and early and did a 20min run followed by a 500m swim, it was again scorching hot but as I sit and write this the clouds have come over and its cooling a little. I guess there is no best time to exercise as you can never be sure what is going to happen later but for me getting up early and running seems to put me in a healthier mind frame for the rest of the day. Now I am off for a drive to a beach in the national park, complete with cooler bag full carrot sticks!