Little steps ...

I have many different projects going on this week. One of them is finding a good strength training plan. I was doing a great 30 day strength challenge, but stopped after day 21. I was having some pain in my back, I think mostly because of the plank exercise. When you are supposed to do 3 minute plank and can barely do 1 minute, you end up doing it incorrectly and your back suffers. And I no longer saw the point of doing over 200 squats. Sorry, that is just silly. So, I’ve been reading through all my sport magazines and my running books and googling and youtubing. Finally, a friend introduced me to the 7 minute workout. Fantastic idea. I will give it a try, it can even be found as an app. Here is a link to it on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECxYJcnvyMw. I will keep track of my progress and revise if necessary, but I really like the way it is set up as it’s easy to follow.

So, now my weekly training plan is ready.

Monday: Walk + strength

Tuesday: Run (intervals/hills)

Wednesday: Rest (short walk + strength)

Thursday: Run (intervals/pyramid)

Friday: Walk + strength

Saturday: Run (long run)

Sunday: Rest (short/slow walk)

Looks good, right?

And yeah, I almost forgot. I’ve now officially signed up for the Reykjavik marathon, half marathon distance, on the 23th August 2014. Paid for it and all, so now there is no backing out but just full speed ahead with training. It will be so much fun, I’m sure.

I’ve also been focusing a lot this last week on food. Doing research on the internet, googling and youtubing everything and more and have found that a plant-based diet, like the one I’m working on, is very interesting and probably the best decision I could have made. It doesn’t mean that I think it is for everybody, but it looks like it will work for me. Not only for health reasons, but also for ethical and environmental reasons. This last couple of weeks I’ve been having some meat cravings, but my data collection on the benefits of plant-based diet and casting out processed food for good has kept me on the right track. In case any of you are interested to look into plant-based diet, here is a link to a video with the author of the book The China Study. Basically, it states that we are what we eat. There are, of course, some critics of the book and I’m not here making any claims that it is 100% correct, but it seems to make sense to me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzrWGOKK3E8

I’ve also been watching some video from this ultra fitness guy, and a vegan. All the claims that you don’t get enough protein from plant-based diet sure don’t seem to fit him. His name is Rich Roll, you can check him out if you want, on YouTube. So far though, I’m far away from veganism but excited about the journey and the experience. I’ve started to fair a little better with my chocolate habit, it is on the right track. And now I also really have to face my coke light habit, again! I have found out that those two habits go hand in hand. They complement each other, the pleasure of eating chocolate without the coke, and drinking the coke without the chocolate, is not the same as consuming the two together. I think I’m almost there, something is stirring in my brain and I’m confident that before long there will be no more chocolate and coke light for me :)

Have a great week everybody, and remember: Be the change you want to see in the world!

Summing up January

I started February off with a great (although slow) 5,5 km run around my neighbourhood, following it with day 19 of my 30 day strength training challenge. That one included 160 squats and 70 sit-ups, among other things. I have to admit that it is getting more and more difficult, although it is also great to feel that I’m getting stronger and stronger every day. I can also feel the improvements in my runs, very tiny improvements but they are there. What I feel mostly is that I’m not as tired afterwards as I was in the beginning. I’m still very slow but I’m sure speed will come with persistence.

In January, I had three challenges to overcome, or goals to reach. The strength challenge is ongoing. Number two was getting into a routine of running/walking no less than 3 days a week. I’ve gone way over that goal and seem to be running/walking 5-6 days a week now. Which is making me feel fantastic. The last goal was to document all my kilometres on Endomondo and share it on Facebook. This I have also succeeded to do. And I think I will simply just keep it up. I walked/ran 85 kilometers in February, can you imagine that. So fantastic, I'm over the moon with pride of myself. Good job, Bryndis!

After the 30 day strength challenge, I’m looking into a strength training program specially designed for runners, and plan to put that into action immediately after the challenge is over. I also had other goals in January, that are not directly connected to my half marathon training, and I’ve reached all of them. I’m working hard on creating the future I want for myself, and on the kind of person I want to be. That includes becoming more confident and not being afraid to follow my own path even if that may be difficult or not what other people might do. And I’m definitely on my way with that goal. My vegetarianism goal is also going strong, and I simply don’t miss meat at all. There are so many good vegetarian recipes out there, and of course as I’m still eating fish I suppose I’m not feeling the true effects of vegetarianism yet. These are, however, things I look forward to dealing with and I think I am more than ready. At least I fell wonderful knowing that I’m not contributing to the horrible conditions factory chickens have to live in!

Obviously, as now we are in February, I need to find more goals and challenges for myself. In spite of all my exercise in January, my weight and measurements have not changed one bit since January 1^st. I suppose that has something to do with my sweet tooth! Because, as much as I’m concentrating on eating well, I also eat bad. And not just sometimes. I am completely and totally addicted to chocolate. So! One of my goals and challenges for February is to only eat chocolate (and any other sweets) on Saturdays. Putting my self-discipline into overdrive and seriously challenging myself. One has to think big to achieve big! I’m sure this will be successful and I look forward to logging in my success at the end of this month! Another goal I will be working towards is writing down my goals everyday as well as planning my day in advance. This advice I got from Brian Tracy, who I’m now hooked on. I got myself a spiral notebook and started off this morning by writing down 10 goals for this year, as well as writing down what I will be doing today. Fantastic.

I hope you are all having a good day and are striving towards something meaningful in your lives. Remember, the number one enemy to achieving anything is the comfort zone so I challenge all of you to step outside of it and reach for the stars. That is what I’m doing!

Now, I've gotta run ;) Gonna have a great day with some great ladies.

Day 12: My pescetarien lifestyle is going very well and I’m not missing meat at all. Had a little hiccup on Friday, when I accidentally had a small piece of sausage at work. Had just made sausage pasta for the children and before I knew I had gotten myself a plate. Suddenly I remembered that I don’t eat meat, so I was quick to leave it alone. Quite funny, actually, and a lesson in how big of a role habit plays in our life. 

Other habits I’m trying to brake now are the snacking in the evenings. When I finally throw myself on the sofa after a long day, planning to watch a TV show or two before bed, I just seem to have to have something to snack on. Even when I’m not hungry. Habits are the road to failure; I think I remember reading somewhere. One trick I’m using is always drinking a large glass of water when I feel I want to eat something. It works, kind of.

My kilometres keep ticking in, getting closer to 2014km every day almost. The plan is to run three times a week and walk 1-2 times a week. Depending on the time I have to spend on this. The runs are the most important, and I will keep those days no matter what. Yesterday I went for a 5K run around my neighbourhood, and it was lovely. It was -5 degrees but no wind and very nice to run. 

The weather for the next weeks seems to be cold like that, and even colder. But I like to run in the cold. I have very good wool underwear and socks so I’m not cold at all. The air is so fresh and lovely in the frost and I just love it. As long as it is not too slippery it will be great to keep up the runs in this cold. I have two weeks to go before I start a 10K training plan I got from Runners World. I will use that plan for the run in Oslo on 26.april. I would really like to be able to go under 60 minutes on that run, but the plan is just to keep to the training program and work on endurance and strength. And hopefully some weight loss as well. So for the next two weeks, there are walks and slow/short runs 3-5 times a week. And I can’t wait :)

Day 3.

This fantastic year has started on a low for me. I’m down with the flu. Old school influenza. Fever, aches, sweat, headaches, sore throat and everything that comes with it. Not very cool. But my project is in full speed. By the end of this year, I will be a vegan. Even if only for a short time. This is a 12 month project, step by step project. So now I’ve started step one. From now on I am a Pescetarian. According to Buzzle.com, a Pescetarian is one who consumes anything that they wish to, but abstains from meat of all kinds except fish and in some cases, shellfish. They do consume dairy products, eggs and other food ingredients but they stay clear from animal meat. Some may not call this a vegetarian diet since fish is in fact considered a form of 'white meat', but definitions vary and thus the ideas behind each diet.
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/different-types-of-vegetarians.html.

This first step will last for 3 months. I’m very excited about this project and feel more than ready to challenge myself. I’m not doing this as a diet, although I want to lose weight and have the goal of losing 14 kg this year. Hopefully that will be a by-product of my healthy living and conscious eating habits.

I and my running buddies have decided to run a half marathon in the Reykjavik marathon in August. So I’ve been working on running plans and exercise regimes for the next several months. Haven’t been able to start yet, the flu remember, but hopefully I will be back in full health after this coming weekend. I’ve registered myself for two interesting challenges, a 30 day strength training challenge and a 2014km in 2014 on Endomondo. So far I have 6 different runs I will be joining this year. The Sentrumsløbet here in Oslo in April (10km), iForm løbet (10km) also here in Oslo in May/June, Kvennahlaupið here in Oslo also in May/June (5-10km), Reykjavik marathon (21,1 km) in August, KK mila (10km) in Oslo in beginning of September and Oslo marathon (21,1 km) in late September. So I will be busy running, apparantely! Love it J

Plenty to do and not enough time to do it, I’m afraid. But I’m not stressing, I have adopted the 80/20 rule! There is no need to be perfect (then you don’t have anything to work towards!) so even if I only accomplish 80% of my goals and dreams, that is still fantastic. It is also fine to miss 20% of my exercises, or to eat 20% badly, but that is still a great improvement from doing nothing. Not that I’ve been doing nothing. But now I’m prioritising, and will use my time doing things I must do in order to get to where I want to go. It means I have to give up a couple of things I also love to do, but one cannot do everything so ...

Dream a little ...

Well, this is a little embarrassing, I’m obviously not the busiest of bloggers ;)

My running is going OK. I've been reading this book (The Ultimate Runner’s Guide) and discovered that I've been stuck in The Black Hole of running. When you keep running but there is no progress, you're not getting faster or fitter, not really. So, now there is serious changing going on in my training routine. Variation is key. And keeping the hard days HARD and the easy days EASY. This is what the specialists say will work so I will give it a try. The only thing is that I need new stuff. 

It would be good to have a pulse clock. My Garmin is very good, with a GPS and different gismos but it doesn’t measure pulse. So I wonder if I should get one of those. It would also be good to have a bicycle for alternative training. I’m planning to use the local swimming pool, swimming is a very good cardio training. One day of swimming, one day of bicycling, two days of running plus strength training sounds like a good plan to me. 

I have also been thinking about getting a treadmill. I can get one without braking the bank, so even if I don't really have a lot of space, it could be a way for me to do away with excuses and go for a run while watching my favourite show. It would also be an asset during the cold Norwegian winter, and looking at the cost of buying one against the cost of a gym membership, I have a feeling the treadmill would be cheaper, at least in the long run. I've been planning to get myself a new TV, but maybe using my money on a bike and treadmill would be a smarter move. Right?

This summer I've been improving my diet again, no extremes or craziness, just smart choices. I have a few good recipe books that have been given me some delicious meals. My mini-kitchen is FULL of ingredients and equipment to cook with, and I've been going around the immigrant shops in downtown Oslo, buying all kinds of spices and sauces and other ingredients to cook with. And the prices there are ridiculously cheap given the general food prices here, so I'm happy as a clown :) I'm actually loving the fact that I'm planning my meals, reading about what to eat before training and what to eat after training. I'm not looking at weight loss recipes at all, so my weight loss is slow as I'm probably eating too much carbs and fats plus all that protein, for faster weight loss. But I need those things too build muscles and keep up enough energy for serious training on my hard days. The weight will get lost eventually; I'm not worried about that. 

At the moment, I'm enjoying my little summer holiday in fantastic weather. Temperature in the mid-twenties, sun and warm breeze. Fantastic! Will start a new job next week and I'm looking forward to the autumn with many great runs and fun times to be had. I'm thinking that after my 10K at Oslo marathon, I will take a few weeks rest and then start to train for a half-marathon. Dreaming and planning to run a full marathon in 2015, a great way to celebrate my fortieth birthday. Right? Many plans and dreams and opportunities for my future. I love it :) :)