More hobbling and bring plans forward

Monday was a good day for my #MarchForMarch.  I toddled off for a lunchtime walk, and actually walked faster than I thought.  It was a gorgeous day, and it would have been a shame not to get out into the sunshine for a few minutes.

Tuesday started off pretty well too.  I didn’t get the chance to go out at lunch, but I did get a couple of walks around the factory running some errands.  In my last walk around, I managed to roll my ankle in a tiny (and I do mean tiny) gap between a drain cover and the concrete floor.  In slow-mo, I felt my ankle roll, my bulk come crashing down, landing on my opposite elbow, and taking a deep breath in and feeling the bruise on my pride start to swell.

Anyway, the floor won.  I am rather renowned for being accident prone at work, and I was long overdue a tumble.  My ankle swelled up quite quickly, and hurt like a [insert various swear words].

On Wednesday morning, it felt worse, so Matt made me go to A&E.  One x-ray and 45 minutes later, it turns out it is just a nasty sprain.  Usual RICE advice given.  The swelling is now beginning to go down, but this whole event has made me realise how much I sit on my feet or cross my legs, and how annoying it is that I cannot sit like I usually do.

Needless to say, that has kind of limited my walking for March for March, though I am still trying to get a few steps in each day to stop my ankle from stiffening up.  What I am trying to say is, I’m down, but not out!

Matt and I have also had some news.  It’s a bit good and a bit bad.  We live in a rather odd set up, above some offices in a flat with no real front door (we have to come in through the offices).  We’d always assumed that the main business of the offices owned the building, but it seems the building is leased, and the lease is up this summer.  Bad news for us is that the premises they’re moving to doesn’t have a flat above, so we’ve been given notice and will need to find a new place to live during the summer.  The good news is that we had been planning to buy a house this year, around November time anyway.  We’ve been saving for the deposit for our own house since we paid off the wedding, but it hadn’t had too much of a focus until January.  So while it is bad news that we have to move out, and a little quicker than we had intended to, it has been the kick up the bum we’ve needed to really get stuff in order and on the move.

Right now, I feel massively overwhelmed by the task of buying a house, and it is pushing me out of my comfort zone.  In addition to that, we’re having to look at properties outside of our home town (which we have both lived in for over 20 years).  We’ll be looking to move a little further up the road where it is a little more “first time buyer friendly”.

Oh blimey… it seems I have now hit adulthood!

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Joining in on #MarchForMarch

I’ve recently started watching YouTube vlogs.  I think I stumbled across Blue Eyed Betty (aka Lose It Like Lauren) via Laura at Laura:Fat 2 Fit.  She has documented her absolutely amazing weight loss and subsequent surgery on her YouTube, and she’s fab!  I find her a real inspiration, and was chuffed when she vlogged that she was starting a challenge for March (yes – #MarchForMarch).

It’s beautifully simple (and actually, I don’t know why I didn’t think to do this for #Janathon).  It’s just about getting out and walking every single day.

I work in an office, and have a very sedentary lifestyle.  I am horrendous at getting off my bum and going for a walk, yet when I feel a bit down or stressed, it is one of the best things I can do for myself.  I always get the Sunday Blues, but going for a walk, even a short one, helps ease it off.

This challenge has come at the right time for me.  I’m out of my Whole 30, past the strange month of January, but I’m feeling a little lost and unsure where to restart.  A daily walk will hopefully just ease me back into exercising.

Yesterday I pootled out for a 20 minute walk on my lunch break, and today I will be going for a wander when I get home.

I’m playing along via Instagram, and there is a Facebook group you can join too.

Are you focusing on anything for March?

More yoga and the best tea

Janathon is fast turning in to a yogathon for me.  I feel better for doing it though.  Today’s effort:

It’s definitely helping to stretch my back out – going back to being stuck at a desk is making me quite stiff.

My Whole 30 day 3 got off to a much better start.  I am sure it took me a couple more days to really get fed up of eggs when I did this back in the summer, and I was so glad that I found a recipe for sweet potato quiche for breakfast.  I made it up last night, microwaved it this morning and it was amazing!  Again, not great to look at, but very tasty.

 

I had more meat for lunch too, which I think helped stave off the hunger a little bit longer.  Tea was the best!  It was a Jamie Oliver recipe from Ministry of Food with all the non-Whole 30 bits taken out.  It was very tasty.

In terms of how I am feeling?  Tired.  I am still tired.  Another early night for me!

What’s the best tea you’ve had recently?

 

Whole 30 Day 2 – The Hangover

I feel like the “hangover” part of Whole 30 has just floored me.  I am grumpier today, with a pounding headache to boot.  Plus, despite sleeping reasonably well, I am shattered, mentally and physically.

You know it is quite bad when you struggle to eat breakfast (egg and juice – I wasn’t early enough for an omelette or anything), and you’re counting down the minutes to lunch (same as yesterday).  Tea was pretty good though.  It was pina colada chicken from Well Fed 2.  Matt was less keen on the amount of pineapple in it.

 

I have found a few recipes for some different breakfast ideas, which I’ve started cooking this evening.

Janathon was a lunchtime walk around the car park (which is significantly more than I usually do) and a wrist strengthening yoga session:

 

One day I’ll be able to hold downward dog for more than 20 seconds.

How was your day?

 

Whole 30 Eve and Janathon Day 4

It’s T-1 for my second Whole 30 now.  That meant it was time to get the measurements – circumferences and weight.  It’s pretty miserable reading to be honest.  No good wallowing and throwing myself a pity party, things needed doing and Janathon needed completing.

For Janathon today, it was house clearing, including walking up and down three flights of stairs with heavy loads several times, and dashing, fully laden, into charity shops to declutter.  I think clutter breeds in our house.  Another sweat broke out, and that was before we went to Sainsbury’s in a mad dash to get something for lunch and top up with veggies for the week ahead.  I feel that my sitting down to blog has been well earned!

As my Whole 30 looms tomorrow, I thought I’d take a few minutes to explain why I want to go through 30 days of strict paleo style eating.  For those who aren’t sure what Whole 30 is, essentially it is stripping out all refined sugars, processed foods, legumes, grains and dairy for 30 days.  You’d think that wouldn’t leave you with much to eat, but actually it isn’t as hard as it sounds.

My reasons for doing another Whole 30 aren’t massively dissimilar to my first go at it – the control over my sugar cravings features high, and weight loss would be nice.  I just feel like my diet and spending on my food has got completely out of control and I have lost the off switch.

Anyway, my “before” photo has been taken, so let’s see what 30 days later looks like!

Does clutter breed in your house too, or are you good at keeping on top of it all?  I am not good at putting things away, which I don’t think helps.

New yoga leggings see the light of day!

It has been a relatively quiet day in the Tub household today.  I slept better and woke feeling a bit more rested which is good.  Otherwise it’s been a day of general pottering.

I cracked out my new yoga leggings for an hour of yoga this evening.  They’re so comfortable, and more importantly, don’t fall down!

As with most things lately, I haven’t been good at keeping up any kind of regular yoga practice, so I decided to complete video #1 of the Ekhart Yoga beginner programme.  I really like Andrew Wrenn’s style of teaching/instruction – I don’t find it pushy or patronising as I think some other well know yogis can be.  The first video of the programme is free.  I’m debating whether to pay for the downloads for the other videos, but I think I’ll be doing this particular video a few more times until my wrists stop screaming at me and my hamstrings decide that flexibility is the way to go.

I’ll also be dusting off this video to help with my wrists:

Now it is tea time.

What are you having for tea?  I have a Thai green curry.

Getting set for next week

I go back to work next week.  I have to admit, it has been really great to have the time away from work knowing that nothing else is going on at all while I am not there (the factory is on Christmas shutdown).  Today has been largely about getting myself all sorted for our Whole 30, which starts on Monday.  I am also attempting to catch up on the laundry, though that seems like a never ending task.

But first… a bed update!  Sadly I didn’t sleep brilliantly.  I don’t think my body could quite understand the whole lying flat thing instead of having a dip where my bum lived.  Despite that, I managed to oversleep and ended up running late for my Janathon activity.  Getting up on Monday in the dark is going to be a struggle I think!

Janathon Day 2 was brought to you by a beautiful winter morning by the seaside.

Mum, my sister and I went for a walk down the beach.  My sister has been keen to get me back on the Couch to 5k plan.  Unfortunately as a result of eating whatever I want, in the quantity that I want and doing virtually no exercise, I am physically beginning to pay the price.  We compromised with following the Couch to 5k and walking faster in the running bits.  Mum’s pedometer said we had done 3,500 steps.  I’m quite pleased with that, despite coming home a bit sore in my back, hips and ankles.  My sister goes home today, so I’ll be facing Janathon Day 3 on my own.

The rest of the day has involved filling the house with amazing smells as I have batch cooked away like a trooper.  We will have 16 evening meals when everything is done.

On that thought, I should probably go and rescue the meatloaf!

Are you back at work now, or are you back on Monday?