Half-marathon: 1 down, 11 to go

Posted on April 7, 2013 by lindaharley

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to complete a half-marathon. I’ve done a few 10ks in the past, so this seemed like the next step, and I’ve signed up for the Lisburn Half-Marathon in June. That’s 12 weeks away, so the “beginners” training programme that I’m following kicked in this week. Prior to this, I’d been running 1 or 2 times a week, but that’s now upped to 4 times.

I have several routes that I run from my house, which is on the edge of the city. Heading North, I can run on the tow-path and cycle paths by the river, which is a very pleasant environment for running, is dead flat (once you’re there, although there’s a hill back home), and I love seeing the signs of spring.  One day maybe I’ll get to see a kingfisher!  Most of this is within the Lagan Valley Regional Park http://www.laganvalley.co.uk

Heading east is the Hillhall Road.  This is a fairly busy route, but at least there’s a footpath to keep out of the way of the traffic.

If I head south, there’s some quiet country roads to run on.  If I take the short 4 mile circuit anti-clockwise, there’s a steep hill early on, but after that I have gravity on my side for the most part.  Doing this in the other direction means a long slow slog uphill, and a very fast descent at the end.

Heading west I cut through the back of Dobbies car-park, to some more quiet roads, some of which are on the actual half-marathon route.  Each of these can be done in a circuit, can have little bits extra added on, and will link together when I get to the stage of seriously long runs.

On Tuesday I took the river route, for a “30 minute easy” run.  I took 38.37 minutes at a pace of 7.34 mins/km.

On Thursday, I did the west short route, managing 34.03 minutes at 7.40 mins/km.

I was aiming to do the Wallace Parkrun on Saturday morning, a timed weekly 5k.  But in the middle of the night, I got up to tell Max off, tripped on the stairs in the dark, and badly stubbed my toe.  Max himself has been in the wars recently, and had just had a bandage removed from a badly gashed paw, so we were sore-paw-pals together.

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I did wonder about the wisdom of running on it, but was keen to try incorporating some sprint intervals.  The parkrun is 3 circuits, and I had picked out a flat 100m section which I wanted to try really increasing my speed over.  Bruised or broken toe notwithstanding, I just got in the zone for the run, and smashed my personal best time with a 32.21 – an astounding 70 seconds off last week’s time!

On Sunday, since Max is still out of action as my running mate, I decided to try Mini.  However, this was her first time jogging with me, she’s inclined to get excited every time she sees a bird, and her long hair gets very mucky and matted.  But we managed to get round the south route and do 6.49 km at a pace of 7.32 mins/km.  Sundays will be my distance run each week, increasing by about a mile each time.

My favourite running tunes this week have been:

Kasabian – Club Foot

Led Zeppelin – Moby Dick

Annie Lennox – Little Bird

Oh, and I’m not just doing this for the good of my health, you know!  I’m raising money for Clic Sargent, who do wonderful work for children with cancer.  You can sponsor me at

http://www.justgiving.com/Linda-HarleyGillespie

 

Or you can give me a pound/ a euro and have a guess at my finishing time – closest to the actual time gets a bottle of wine (supplied by me).

Rest day tomorrow – thank goodness!

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Chicky Leeky Soup

Posted on April 3, 2013 by lindaharley

Over indulged a bit at Easter – I loooooove marzipan, so I treated myself to a pack of mini Simnel cake bites, which I’m spreading out over the days. Thursday was out this week as a fast day, since I’m going to my Scottish Dance Class’s end of term dinner. Wednesday was a good choice as husband would be away all day. I don’t know that I’m strong enough to do either 2 days back-to-back or a weekend day just yet, so Monday became the other fast day.

I started Monday with one of my favourite all time breakfasts – soft boiled egg with steamed asparagus to dip in.

For dinner, I stir-fried a load of veg – mushrooms, onion, red pepper – using some Big Tom spiced tomato juice as the liquid.  It was quite filling, but my digestive system complained about that amount of veg in one go.

One Wednesday, I had breakfast of smoked salmon.  I was at work, and had a meeting in the afternoon, so I didn’t want any tummy rumbles  and so spread my calories throughout the day.  I spread a Laughing Cow Light on 2 Ryvita Black pepper crackers (this flavour is really good with cheese) mid-morning, and had a Tesco Chicken Noodle Cupasoup for lunch, followed by a satsuma.  Had a 10 cal jelly mid afternoon, and a string cheese immediately before my meeting.

For dinner, I made what I’m calling Chicky Leeky Soup.  I cant call it Cock-a-leekie as it uses breast, but it made 3 decent portions, so I’ve got plenty of options now in my freezer.

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One large chicken breast, in bite sized pieces

100g leeks

100g mushrooms

2 stalks celery

200g turnip or swede

a chicken stock cube.

Add all the diced veg and the chicken to about a litre of stock, and simmer until the chicken is cooked and the vegetables tender.  Season with black pepper.  Divided in 3, each portion was about 120 cals.

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Eats Shoots And Crab…..

Posted on March 30, 2013 by lindaharley

My Tuesday fast this week was tough. I was stuck at home with a poorly dog who needed constant supervision, and my usual evening distraction had been cancelled due to the snow and ice. So I did succumb to a bit of nibbling throughout the day, and finally the last 5 Haribos in the packet sent me over the 500 calorie limit. But not by much.

Thursday’s fast went brilliantly!  I decided to skip breakfast, which was scary, but actually once I got into it it was fine.  My tummy only started rumbling after I had my miso soup with celery sticks at lunchtime, and I had a satsuma mid afternoon.  I’d made a salad with my favourite low-cal ingredients, but I should have made it the night before – I didn’t want to taste it as I was making it at breakfast time, as I was trying to do without breakfast!  Anyway, I took a tin of crab meat (92 cals) with a tin of bamboo shoots (13 cals), and mixed them with a chopped spring onion, half a chilli, some fish sauce, lime juice  and a squeeze of ginger (around 50 cals for the dressing).  Topped with some fresh coriander leaves.

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I ate half before going to the leisure centre and doing 30 minutes on the treadmill.  Which reminded me how much I prefer running outdoors!  And how I’ll miss Max as my running companion – his poor foot means he won’t be running any time soon.

I’d been avoiding any strenuous exercise on a fast day, but I was able to keep going for the full 30 minutes at a good pace.  I finished the day with some soda water and a slice of lemon served in a wine glass, and even my husband remarked on what a good mood I was in.

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5:2 Squash-tomatoes-n-stew

Posted on March 21, 2013 by lindaharley

‘Appy birfday to you
Squashed tomatoes an’ stew
Bread’n’bu’er, innna gu’er
Appy Birfday to you!!!

I was reminded of this jingle that used to be heard on Ed Stewpot Stewart’s Radio show way back in the 1960s.  I was doing my usual “what needs used up from the veg drawer” concoction, and had half a punnet of cherry tomatoes and a half a butternut squash to play with.  I peeled and diced the squash, added a thinly sliced leek, and 2 celery sticks finely chopped.  I simmered all these in some vegetable stock until almost tender, and then added my tomatoes.  They mush down in about 5-10 minutes, and I added a good handful of spinach to wilt down just before serving.  This made 2 portions, each around 90 calories.  If I was doing it again, I’d add some chilli and garlic, and lots of black pepper.

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I only managed one fasting day this week, as Thursday was the last evening of my Scottish dance class, and hence party time!  I did manage to have a rather hearty fast breakfast though, of scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and some red pretend caviar form IKEA.  150 cals the lot.

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I’ve been feeling strangely down this week, and a bit headachey, which is not like me at all.  I’m not sure if that’s to do with fasting or not, but we shall see.

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5:2 Three Courses for Under 200 Calories!

Posted on March 16, 2013 by lindaharley

I had a really disappointing non-fast day this week. As usual, I was looking forward to some of my favourite things, but it didn’t end up as good as it had been in my imagination.

  • For breakfast I’d defrosted what I thought was some fabulous cheese and bacon potato bread from a bakery in Comber, but it turned out to be just ordinary potato bread. Oh well, it was still quite nice with some mushrooms, one slice of bacon, and a fried egg (and I broke the yolk as I was cracking it into the pan).
  • For lunch, I’d taken a tub from the freezer labelled “spicy pasta”, which had been there for quite a while and which needed using up. It was VERY spicy, and I hate the way chilli seeds get stuck in my teeth. But really, it was just too much food, and I ended up throwing half of it away.
  • I had a meeting in the evening, and was looking forward to having a fish from the award winning chip shop near by. I ordered a haddock in gluten-free batter. This I find is extra crispy, and doesn’t have the sogginess of regular batter. But the shop then didn’t add vinegar, or the customary handful of chips, as neither of these could be guaranteed gluten-free. Well done to the chippie for being so thorough, but it wasn’t what I was hoping for. I drove down to Victoria park to enjoy my solitary fish, and it started to hail. I went to my meeting where there was a plate of biscuits on the table – oooh, a Jaffa cake! Haven’t had one in ages! It was stale, and as hard as a rock.
  • I came home, and treated myself to 2 squares of salted caramel chocolate. Husband demanded to know what I was eating, and when I offered him some, he finished off the whole block!

So I was looking forward to a good couple of fast days, where I knew what to expect.

On Tuesday, I started with my half-banana and egg white pancake, with a few raspberries (80 cals)

I had a cupasoup for 60 cals at lunchtime, a laughing cow extra light with 2 rice thins as a snack (55 cals), and then for dinner I’d made some rataouille (100 cals), which I was trying with the slim noodle fettuccine. (8 cals).  I rinsed the noodles and then dry fried them – they are pretty chewy, and I don’t think I could eat a whole packet in one go, so I saved half for my next fast day.

Thursday’s breakfast was the banana pancake again, using the other half of the ‘nana, served with blueberries for a change.

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At lunchtime I stuck to an 18 cal miso soup, and spent the rest of my lunch hour being very frustrated by the terrible pricing information in my local sports store.

For dinner, I set myself the challenge of creating a 3 course meal for around 200 calories.

From this.....

From this…..

...to this!

…to this!

Starter was a finn crisp cracker (20) with a smear of light creme fraische (10) and 3 blobs of caviar (12), served with a handful of samphire (6).  Main course was my ratatouille again (70), puttanesca-ed up with some anchovies (13), 5 black olives (25) and a tablespoon of capers (10), on the pasta (8). Dessert was a wedge of cantaloupe melon (19) with a teaspoon of ground ginger (6).  Washed down with a Tesco diet shandy (10).

To be honest, it was all just too much food!  I couldn’t finish the samphire, couldn’t eat all the main course, and had to leave the dessert until I got in from dancing later on!

Anyway, just goes to show how creative you can get with a small calorie budget, without resorting to ready meals.

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5:2 Caviare and samphire

Posted on March 8, 2013 by lindaharley

I had 2 good fasting days this week. On Tuesday, I had a rather decadent breakfast of egg white and spinach omelette, with a small bit of smoked salmon, and a teaspoon of caviare, which comes in at only 4 calories a teaspoon.  Total breakfast – 100 cals.

fastfood 001

Lunch was an 18 cal miso soup.  For dinner, I reheated the Tom Yum soup I made last week.  Sadly, those miracle noodles, though they’d been fine when freshly cooked, didn’t react well to being frozen, and were rather wrinkled and rubbery.  178 cals.

I’ve found myself drinking things I wouldn’t normally – at a meeting on the Tuesday morning I found myself enjoying black coffee, though I’m not normally a coffee drinker.  I bought some Millicano instant coffee, and a jar of  rather enticing smelling maple and walnut flavour coffee.

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On Thursday, I blew my daily sugar allowance on a 90 calorie fruit salad – a pot of grapefruit segments in juice, with cantaloupe, blueberries and raspberries.  Lunch was another miso soup, which I’m finding enough in the middle of the day, though I did cave mid afternoon and have an extra light laughing cow cheese on 2 weight watchers wheat and oat crackers.

For dinner, I was aiming to make a sort of faux mash, using turnip and parsnips.  I boiled the chopped up veg in water with a dash of stock, and when they were soft  drained them and added in 2 handfuls of spinach, stirring that round to wilt.  Then I mashed it all together with a potato masher.  I piled the resulting mash on a plate, topped with a pile of blanched samphire (10 calories for a handful) and added a tomato and some thin pastrami slices.  This was a LOT of food – I couldn’t finish the mash – for under 200 cals.

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5:2 Super noodles!

Posted on March 1, 2013 by lindaharley

Into my 6th week of this – managed to stay at the same weight after last week’s single fast. Was the same weight this week, but my body fat % was down, which I’m happy about.

Tuesday’s fast started with a fruit salad – grapefruit, blueberries, blackberries and canteloupe. With careful measuring of quantities, this came in at 70 calories.

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I’d started 5and2ing by keeping fairly close to my normal intake of breakfast, snack, lunch of soup and salad, snack, and dinner. I’ve managed to cut out the snacks on fast days, and then stopped the salad at lunch, and am now working on shaving that soup down to a minimum. Today it was Tesco Light Choices Chinese chicken noodle, which was lovely and only 43 cals.

For dinner, I wanted to use some scallops (90g only 80 cals).  I also had some leftover fennel to use up, and about 1/3 can of sliced mushrooms.  I finely chopped the fennel, and simmered it with the sliced mushrooms in a cup (100ml) of Big Tom spiced tomato juice.  When those were cooked, I added in the scallops and simmered for about 5 minutes.  I served this on Aunt Bessies carrot/ swede mash, to which added the leaves off 2 sprigs thyme to give a bit of oomph.  The whole very satisfying plateful was about 200 cals.

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My Thursday fast started with a souffle omelette of one egg, 2 egg whites, and a few mushrooms.  I even added a little parmesan for an extra 20 cals.  Lunch was a miso soup for 40 cals, and for dinner I was excited to try the new miracle/ zero calorie noodles.   Reviews had made me worry about the smell (it was fine) the faff about preparing (rinse, then simmer in boiling water for 3 minutes) and the texture (they were a bit like rice noodles but totally edible, and I’d have them again.)  I made them into a Thai soup with Tom Yum paste, chestnut mushrooms  spring onion, and prawns.  Served with coriander and lime juice.

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The resulting soup was a huge plateful – the 200g pack of noodles was 2 portions, so I saved half the soup for next week – hope those noodles freeze OK!  A big bowl of soup came to about 175 cals.

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5:2 Just One Day

Posted on February 23, 2013 by lindaharley

I only had one fast day this week: a work conference on Thursday and Friday ruled those days out, and while I COULD have gone for Monday and Wednesday that would have meant sharing no meals with my husband all week. So I did just Tuesday. And thought, I’d better make it a good one!

Up till now, I’ve eased myself in gradually by eating in a very similar way to my normal days.  So that was breakfast, a mid morning snack of cheese on rice cakes, soup and a salad for lunch, something like fruit mid afternoon, and then dinner at 6, with possibly an evening snack.  This week I cut out all the snacks, I’ve dropped the salad from the lunch so it’s now down to an under-50 calorie soup.  I might try to get to the stage where I can do just breakfast and dinner, with a longer fasting period in between.  But making the change gradually has certainly helped.

For dinner I brought together some of my low-cal heroes: portabello mushrooms, a tin of shrimp, spinach, and a tub of salsa.

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The mushrooms are about 25 cals each, half a tin of shrimp is 50 cals, the spinach is negligible, and the salsa – well, I discovered that shop bought salsa varies quite a bit from brand to brand, so the lesson learned is to read the nutrition labels carefully.  This Sainsburys one worked out at about 60 cals for half the tub, but was quite high in sugar.  I cut out the stalks of the mushrooms  and chopped them with the shrimp, spinach and salsa.  I then stuffed the mushrooms with this mixture.

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I baked them in the oven for about 20 minutes.  They were really good, and it’s a versatile dish that would lend itself to different stuffings.  I used the rest of the salsa and shrimp next day in a salad, with the addition of a chopped avocado.

shrimp 005Other progress – down to 139 pounds, and able to fit into my skinny dark green trousers.

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5:2 one month in

Posted on February 16, 2013 by lindaharley

I said I would try this eating plan for 4 weeks, and I’ve done it!

My weight this morning was just under 10 stone, which I’m delighted about. It’s been fairly easy sticking to the 500 calorie limit, in fact I’ve enjoyed finding meals that fit within that budget. I feel fantastic, my mood is really up-beat, and friends tell me I’m looking well.  It’s also easy to shift fast days about in order to meet work or social commitments.  So I’m in for another 4 weeks, I reckon!

grapefruit pot with berries

grapefruit pot with berries

Here’s my list of favourite low-cal snacks:

5 calories – 5 radishes, for crunch.  Blueberries and raspberries are about 1 calorie each too.

10 calories – a sugar-free jelly pot.  These come in all sorts of exotic flavours, and make a very satisfying squelch when you eat them. shoes and food 006

15 calories – a mug of oxo or bovril.  Really satisfying!

20 calories – 60g canteloupe melon

25 calories – one Finn crisp cracker with a smear of Marmite

30 calories – 2 stalks of celery with an extra light Laughing Cow squidged down their middles. Blue cheese flavour works really well with celery.  The “extra light”  is 20 cals, compared to just the “light” at 25 cals – I find the taste is better and worth those extra 5 cals.

My favourite evening meal this week was Chick’n’Pickle. Total 140 calories

30g cooked chicken (50 cals)

30g pickled onions (8 cals)

30g gherkins (6 cals)

Pickled egg (70 cals)

Bed of lettuce (5 cals)

It was a bit too pickly – if I was making it again I’d just have an ordinary boiled egg, or maybe even a poached one.

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5:2 Tom Yum Yum!

Posted on February 7, 2013 by lindaharley

Just finished week 3 (in fact today is the first fast day of week 4 for me)

I’ve easily lost a pound a week, my mood is really bright and chipper, I enjoy the menu planning that’s required for 2 days, and then love having fewer restricitions the rest of the time.

I had my cholesterol checked this week – 5.2, spookily enough, but the pharmacist said that while ideally you’d want it under 5, the ratio of my good cholesterol to the bad stuff is spot on.

My fast day heroes this week have been:

1. Tom Yum paste. A tablespoonful is 15 calories, made up into a soup with loads of veg (sliced mushrooms, shredded cabbage, spring onion etc) takes it up to about 40-50 cals.

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 I added in some cold slivers of beef, which made it 123 per portion. Served with some finely chopped red chilli, coriander leaves and a squeeze of lime. I’m going to try variations with chicken or shrimp. You could leave out the meat for a vegetarian 50-cal soup, or bulk it up with a nest of egg noodles (mind you, 170 cals for one nest!) for a more substantial bowl.

2. Anchovies. These pack a taste punch way above their weight. 2 anchovies are about 13 calories, and are plenty when snipped into a salad, or to nicoise up some steamed veg with a few black olives as well. Also good for your oily fish omega oils, but really high on the salt/ sodium scale, so dont eat the whole tin.

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3. Microwavable saucepan. I use these to prepare my evening meals. A chopped leek, some baby courgette rounds, a few mushrooms, half a pepper, diced. Add a splash of water and a few herbs, and blast in this baby in the micro for a few minutes.

4. Aunt Bessies frozen carrot and swede mash. 45 cals for 100g, great substitute for mashed potato.

5. Grapefruit.  Half a grapefruit is about 50 calories.  I found little ready made pot of grapefruit in juice at Tesco, which are much less fiddly than a real fruit, so I shall keep some of those on standby.

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6. Smoked salmon.  Really decadent, but a 30g serving is about 50 cals.  Add a few capers and a wedge of lemon.

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I’ve found that it helps to have something similar to what I usually eat – soup and salad is my normal lunch anyway, so keeping that pattern means I don’t feel deprived.

Summary menus this week:

Tuesday – Half grapefruit (54) and boiled egg (70), crackerbread and laughing cow light (65), tom yum soup and salad (150), sauteed veg with anchovies and olives (90). I was really headachy in the afternoon and so added a Babybel Light (50)

Thursday – Half grapefruit (54) and smoked salmon (50), rice thins and laughing cow light (60), tom yum soup and rocket-berry salad (170), souffle omelette with spinach and mushroom (110).  Sadly, my Graze box arrived today rather than yesterday, and I was unable to resist the cute little afternoon tea for 84 cals – a lovely assam blend with a gorgeous lemon and poppy seed cake.

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Rocket-berry salad

A handful of rocket leaves (5 cals)

A splash of fruity balsamic (5 cals)

Berries – raspberries and blueberries are about 1 cal each, so 20 of each is generous (40 cals)

I don’t usually like fruit in salads, but the syrupy balsamic goes really well with this.

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