New regime has started - yippee

A Rutt No More

I had got myself in a bit of a rutt. I had a dose of the typical holiday blues when I got back from Mallorca and needed to shake things up a bit, diet wise, exercise wise and work wise. I had devised my new split routine for my weights, I had started my new 5k-8k training and I just had my diet left to sort out. I decided to go for the 5 meals a day - I know I'm a bit late doing this 'common sense' approach to eating but I was just LAZY in having to think about 5 different meals/snacks as I'm not a big fan of meal replacements/shakes. So this weekend I've done a lot of reading, shopping and planning and I think I have the bare bones of my new diet sorted. Today's diet (yesterday's was a variation on this) is as follows:

Supplements
1 codliver oil capsule, 1 wellwoman multi-vit & min.
Breakfast
'All Bran Porridge' - made with 50g All Bran. 25g Impact Whey Protein (choc this morning) and 160ml water. 1 Starchy Carb 1 Protein
Mid-morning snack
Tuna, peas and sweetcorn. 1 Fibrous Carb 1 Protein
Lunch
'Risotto' - made with Brown Rice, River Cobbler and Red Peppers. 1 Starchy Carb, 1 Fibrous Carb, 1 Protein.
Mid-afternoon snack
Sweet potato chunks & cottage cheese. 1 Starchy Carb, 1 Protein
Dinner
Turkey breast, Courgettes and Broccoli. 2 Fibrous Carbs, 1 Protein
Drinks
2L Water
1 de-caf tea
5 de-caf coffee (I know but I can't give it up!)
200ml skimmed milk (for tea & coffee)

Now this is all very plain at the moment (though I love this sort of food) and my plan is to use this as a frame work and start adding different foods and being a bit more creative with my presentation and mixing. The big step - getting it all nutritionally balanced and calorie counted to as close to perfect for me as I can make it, is now done - yippee! My big challenge to cut out sugar completely. I'm a real 'sweet sucker'. Only a couple a day and often in the car but I can't claim to be eating 'clean' if I'm still sneaking the odd sugar fix so I'm going to stop doing it. I have a pot of travel sweets in the car and a bag of gums at home and I'm going to throw them out tonight.

5k to 8k

I'm on my second week of my 'Gateway to 8k' training (Podrunner Intervals). The music this week is supposed to be 'house' and I definitely didn't enjoy it as much as last week. Here is a printable version of the training program. It was my first run at my new gym and I LOVE their treadmills. They have a leaver on each side of the machine that you can just tap up or down to increase/decrease the speed and incline. So much better than having to try and tap a touch sensitive screen when your running full pelt. Week 2 sees you running for 8 minutes and walking for 1 x 4 with a 5 minute warmup/cooldown. The idea is to keep your pace in time with the beat of the music so that you are covering the correct amount of distance, though I think, I have such short legs surely I don't cover as much as someone who is 6ft odd with long legs. Still, I continue to enjoy.....