If you’re looking to make some healthy changes to your life but are not sure where to start, take a look at my Weekly Plans for some inspiration.
The permanent changes suggested in the plans will help you become slimmer, healthier and fitter. The 4 week plan introduces healthy habits by changing small things in your life that you can stick to and which will become part of your healthy lifestyle. Goodbye bingo wings – Hello to skinny jeans.
A nutritionist talks about food, sport and lifestyle
Archives for category: Lifestyle
With 2011 almost over and my last race of the year finished, I’ve been reflecting on my love of running. Just why do I love it so much? Enough to make me buy a headtorch and run on cold winter’s nights. Enough to get myself back up again after falling flat on my face and finish that run. Enough to get up early, drive to a race and run til I’ve got nothing left to give and then some. Coping with bad weather, sore toes and cold noses is just part of the runners winter skill set. I’ve pulled muscles, am about to lose a toe nail and grazed myself in places you can’t even imagine with a fall. Yet I still love it – why?
This year started off with a promise. I promised myself that I would see a running coach to try to work out why I was so slow. In February I drove up the motorway and met up with Ian for the first time. I was nervous and excited. What would I do if he thought I was rubbish? What if I couldn’t change? Running with him was a revelation. A revelation in what I could achieve. With him I ran 8 minute something miles (I was more of an 11/12 minute miler at this point) off road in the beautiful Peak District.
Bag, a photo by Julia Revitt on Flickr.
This gorgeous girls back comes in black with blue trim, with a handy fleece lined goggle pocket & insulated water bottle holder.
I’ve read some inspiring running books lately so I thought I’d share my favourite 3.
- ‘Born to Run’ by Christoper McDougall. A little obvious this one but it is truly inspiring whether you subscribe to the barefoot running school of thought or not. It’s a lovely mix of travel, adventure and running. Well written and the only book I’ve finished and then read again immediately from cover to cover.
- ‘Ultra Marathon Man’ by Dean Karnazes. Regardless of what you think of Dean you’ve got to applaud the man’s achievements. This book covers his humble beginnings right through to the Badwater and Western States races. An easy to read and quickly devoured book.
- ‘How to Run’ by Paula Radcliffe. I’m cheating here a little as I only got this book yesterday and haven’t finished it. It’s a coffee table book with loads of illustrations and beautiful looking rather than the word heavy paperbacks of the other 2 books in my list. It covers everything from goal setting, choosing the right shoes to how to become a successful marathoner.
So, if you’ve lost your running mojo, pop along to your local bookstore and get inspired!
I joined twitter a couple of years ago but I didn’t really ‘get it’. I couldn’t understand why people would be interested in my day to day life – I mean I wasn’t even interested in it at the time! But now, 200+ followers later, I have found a lovely group of people who encourage me, motivate me and cry with me through good times and bad and isn’t that the real definition of a friend?
I started off by using search sites like tweepsearch(sadly now no longer running) to find people on twitter who liked the same things as I did. I searched for runners and followed a few, read their conversations with other runners and followed them too. I tentatively joined in the conversations and gradually became more relaxed and now tweet like I would talk to a group of friends. You have to be careful though as a quick search on your name in google will bring up some random tweets and your twitter feed is open to anyone to look at unless you make it private. Twitter have caught up now and have their own ‘Who to follow’ tab to enable to find like minded tweeps. Then came iPhone/iPad apps and other websites that link to your twitter feed. If I post the details of a run on Daily Mile it will automatically post to my twitter account because I have linked the accounts.
Then I moved to France and kept in contact with my new friends, posting great runs and pictures to make them green with envy, finding out whether to pop blisters or leave them and getting help identifying trees. I met my running coach through twitter and am doing a half marathon in November with a lovely lady from ‘up north’ – both of these people would be strangers to me before twitter came along. I chat with people from India, USA, Canada, France, Japan!
So I say to people who ask ‘what’s the point’ or ‘I don’t have time’ that it’s another way of meeting new people from all over the world and chatting about anything and everything. That surely is worth my time.
