Fuel for life

I lead an incredibly busy life which quite often sees me working 10 - 12 hour days. I don't often have time for a lunch break so I eat on the go - not great if you are trying to keep the body and mind active for such long days. One of my first steps from Mark has been to make sure I eat regular, healthy meals supplemented by sensible snacks. I started the day with porridge, blueberries and cinnamon which has a good balance of vitamins to keep me healthy and carbs to keep me going through the day. Lunch was falafel, houmous and salad then a little snack pot of dried fruit and seeds. However my favourite has got to be dinner of fish, eggs and salad. Mark insists I must have protein to keep me full and carbs to keep me fueled - I am not going to complain! Whilst I did miss going with colleagues for mid afternoon maltesers I don't feel any worse for not having them. Maybe the next month won't be so bad after all???

Fit for Royalty

by Vicki @momentumyoga1

MomentumYoga has hijacked this blog temporarily! I promise not to bring too much yogic theory to my posts - I am here as Mark's latest enthusiastic recruit for the next month.

Last week I came home to find possibly the most exiting invitation I will ever receive sat on my doormat – an invitation to attend a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace with Her Majesty! Over the last year I have worked really hard with a wide range of voluntary organisations and some kind person had successfully nominated me for a Garden Party invitation as a wonderful thank you. My first thought was to call my mum (despite it being after midnight) to tell her I was going to meet the Queen. My second thought  – WHAT AM I GOING TO WEAR??? 

Like all of us, I have practically hibernated through the cold, wet winter and enjoyed comforting foods such as potatoes, pasta and cake. I must admit that my over indulgence has had a bit of an impact and I have a few more curves to show off than I would really like. It is not every day that a girl gets to party with the Queen so I want to make sure I look my best. I have got one month – just 28 days – to get myself back into a shape fit to meet royalty. I practice yoga every day so am quite flexible but don’t always include enough cardiovascular activities to burn off the calories I so enjoy. I also am an offender of grabbing the easiest food whilst on the go rather than what is best for my body. 

This will be a great opportunity for me to focus on getting back into health, sustainable choices. Now is also the perfect time of year to get out of an exercise rut – the sun is out, the days are long and summer is on the horizon. Mark has put together a personal food and exercise plan for me which will work with my busy life. If you want to follow my journey I will be blogging about the highs and lows of my 28 day challenge. Feel free to join me in this challenge, let me know in the comments section.

Hands free?

Image by Kmeron

Unfortunately as a runner I am not always as carefree and unburdened as I would love to be.  The dream is just throw on shorts, t-shirt & trainers and head out into the great outdoors with not a care in the world (until I find myself in an exciting new place, but realise I no longer know where I live… but that has yet to prove fatally disastrous).

Sadly that minimalist kit is rarely all I, or most of us, head out with.  Drinks, phone, keys and ipods are amongst the more common clutter we find ourselves with.  I am not a big fan of carrying all this stuff as I love just being out, unencumbered in the big wide world, but I get why people want to listen to music; and phone, keys and drink are practical essentials for most.

This is where the trouble starts – what do you do with this stuff?

Some of my shorts have pockets, but not everything fits in, and this means they them uncomfortably swing about.  Most girls kit has even less pocket options as well, so the option isn’t available in the first place.  So, if you only have a couple of bits, why not just carry them?

I see so many people carrying phones, especially running through cities, and usually I can see that they are carrying something long before I can see the item they are holding.  It seems such a small thing, but has a very telling impact on running form.

So, how can something so small and light change how you run?

To make a fist, you only need to engage the muscles in your forearm which don’t play any part in running, so on first sight it appears that it should be fine.  However, try and make a fist now, while you are sitting down… not only will you notice the muscles in your forearm engage, but to support this muscles in the upper arm and shoulder will also tense, and these are what cause the tell tale signs.

As the shoulder tightens, your arm can no longer swing to act as a counter weight to your legs, and so your torso will twist, and typically your tensed arms will punch across the midline of your body (like an irate t-rex).   A twisting torso will then compress your lungs reducing capacity.

The real problem comes with developing the muscle memory though.  If you regularly run like this, tensing through your shoulders and torso become the natural running state and letting your arms swing in a free and relaxed way starts to feel unnatural and uncomfortable… habit becomes a characteristic.

So load your clutter into a bag, or strap a phone onto your arms to free your hands and keep your shoulders loose, and run free and easy!

Plant Powered

Picture by Rick Ligthelm

My life can be slightly chaotic and very busy, and as things get more hectic my diet deteriorates.  I don’t think I am alone in this struggle. So, I feel it is time my diet got a bit more focus than it has had recently.

I am an omnivore, and have been all my life, and love meat, and food in general.  However, my main dietary recommendation to everyone I train is to eat more fruit and vegetables – raw when possible.  The 5 a day recommendation is a minimum, and I always felt should be exceeded most days, which great to see being highlighted in recent studies.

So following my own advice I am giving my diet a bit of a makeover.  Here are my rules:

    100% Vegetarian

    50%+ raw food

    No processed sugar

    No trans fats

This isn’t just about being vegetarian.  There are plenty of rubbish vegetarian and vegan foods available, my aim is eating for optimum health.  As Hippocrates said:

Let thy food by thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food.

My diet will be based on raw fruit, vegetable nuts and seeds.  Diet changes don’t have to be all or nothing and for the rest of your life.  I am aiming for 1 full month sticking strictly to this, see how I feel and how easily I can adapt parts of the diet to my life after that.

My decision isn’t because I feel that meat is inherently unhealthy, but there is large push for meat heavy diets with the Paleo and LCHF trends, which I not only feel is unnecessary but also I don’t believe the quality of meat generally available is of a high enough standard.  All nutritional requirements can be met with a plant based diet and the abundance of vitamins and minerals available in these foods are fantastic for health. 

So as of today, I will implement my new dietary regime and will be fully powered by plants.  Any amazing Veggie recipes, gratefully accepted!