In an earlier post I mentioned my new found love/hate for running… in the past year I’ve gone from doing the odd aerobics class to running a 30km race, (Around the Bay), and two half marathons – not bad right? I have to say, I’m proud of myself because I would have never thought it possible, for a variety of reasons… and so to cross those finish lines was very satisfying.

However, as my first year as a ‘runner’ comes to a close, and I reflect (while standing on my scale) over my successes, I have to say I’m also disappointed, really disappointed.  Disappointed, because the steadfast committment to running 3 or 4 times a week, endless kilometres, and through a few pairs of shoes – has that gotten me a smaller, lighter and svelte runner’s body?? Umm, no, and in fact – I’ve gained weight.  Yup.  So, that pretty much sucks.  To be fair – I’m short and curvy at the best of times, so long and lean was not to be, no matter how many kms I logged… but weight gain?  UGH.

So – I  am gonna get serious… I know I’ve been loudly blogging about eating like my grandmother and blah blah blah… but I’m guessing my grandmother also had a wonderful metabolism, and perhaps didn’t use food to reward herself after an awesome run!

In the past year, my husband and I have also taken my kids along for the running adventures – and they’ve done three 5km races this year – and they are learning to love it as well… so together we are finding our running legs, and together we will learn to eat properly for this activity… but I’m the one who wants/needs to lose a bit of weight – so join me over the next 2 months, and we’ll see what we can do. I’m combing the web to try and find some advice and I’ll pass it along, with some challenges each week, which hopefully will help.

This Week’s Challenges:

1. Write it all down… all the experts say, logging your eating, as well as your exercise, keeps you accountable… and I know you can nibble your way through the day without really appreciating how much you’ve eaten…

2. No baking any decadant cakes, cookies or muffins for a while… just a short break… instead I’m going to work on making heartier fare… like these quinoa cookies – which were awesome power cookies, and everyone loved them, and no detected the quinoa, but the protein that the quinoa delivers really helps to fill you up!!!  I’m going to find other ways to sneak this awesome secret weapon into my baking.

3. Make sure there is lots of fruit (prepped and ready to go, I get lazy if I have to wash it), yogurt and granola ready to go – and no buying ice cream this week.

4. Log my 4 training runs.

5. I planned this week’s menu to be as healthy as I can without things getting silly!

Ok, let’s go.