Another good effort this week! Using MapMyWalk has been really helpful throughout the last week… I’ve now found that I’ve actually been under-estimating some of the distances! For example, each time I walk to our local swimming pool and back I am doing nearly 2 miles, not the one mile I had estimated! Never mind… the purpose behind all of this is to make a conscious effort to walk more, drive less and generally increase my fitness levels. Underestimating the odd mile here and there doesn’t really matter 🙂
In addition, one of the best forms of exercise is stair climbing! When I am in work, my office is on the 9th Floor. I have made a conscious effort to use the stairs rather than the lift and also to ensure I get away from my desk and go out each lunchtime. Climbing 9 flights of stairs on average 3 times a day is hard work, but getting easier the more I do it.
A couple of decent weeks of walking progress… the most exciting 16 of these miles were racked up in Switzerland on a last weeks’ hiking weekend! It was fantastic to hike in soft powdery pure white snow.
Little did I know that I would come back to snow in the UK… and have just completed a 9 mile hike in local snow this morning! It was melting so was muddy and slushy and I managed to fall over twice…
I’ve now actually started to use Map My Walk too rather than estimating my mileage using Google Maps… I downloaded this app to my phone a couple of years ago but have never bothered to use it… until now…
In addition, a quick check on annual progress towards target:
Monthly average for January and February 2018 (240 / 2) = 120 miles per month
Daily average for January and February (240 / 60) = 4 miles a day
Monthly average left for the next 10 months (810 / 10) = 81
Daily average left for the next 10 months (81 / 30) = 2.7
So if I keep up this rate of mileage (around 120 miles per month) I should reach my target to walk 1050 miles in 2018 some time in September! It will be interesting to see what happens and if I achieve this…
Tasty grilled shrimp salad from Jamies restaurant in Chur, Switzerland
As my February weigh-in was late, there has been a gap of just under 3 weeks rather than a month between these two weight check points… but never mind… here goes for my weight on 1st March 2018:
Weight on 4th December 2017 (when I began my fitness campaign): 10 st 7 lb
Weight on 9th February (last weigh in): 9 st 0 lb
Weight today: 8 st 12 lb (56 kg or 122 lbs)
Total weight loss in almost 3 months = 23 lbs (hurrah!)
Small milestones are keeping me motivated… I had to buy a new belt last week and it was fab to buy a ‘small’ size rather than the usual medium which was too big! Yay!
I’m still keeping to around 1200 calories a day, together with a lot of exercise. I am either going to the gym, swimming or hiking several miles at a time which is burning up a lot of calories.
Having just spent 4 days in Switzerland, my calorie intake did jump a bit to perhaps 2000 calories each day… I allowed myself a few treats such as some gorgeous Swiss chocolate and *lovely meals out each night but did so without going over-the-top. While enjoying the meals I stuck to one glass of wine and no dessert 🙂
*The healthy salad in the top picture was the first night… the following evening meal was a calorie busting home made pasta with oodles of Swiss cheese…
Thankfully I had the motivation to cut down as soon as we got home and I’m now back on 1200 daily calories…
The next dilemma now that I’ve reached my goal weight is how to stay there… I don’t want my life to be ruled by calorie counting (although I do only estimate this each day) but I really don’t want to regain any of this lost weight…
With February being a short month, this had kind of crept up on me! I realised earlier today that 1st March is actually tomorrow and this is the month I made a pledge to myself to eat only vegetarian food.
With my husband Chris being a pescatarian, i.e. he is a vegetarian who eats fish, I didn’t need to do too much food planning. We never eat red meat, as I have more or less adopted his diet in recent years.
I did however realise that if I am to be a vegetarian for a month, I wouldn’t be eating any fish either…
My first small challenge arose when my mum invited us for dinner next Saturday… she proudly told me she had organised a vegetarian option for Chris and a vegan option for Zoe (my daughter)… I had to tell her that I too will be a vegetarian throughout March. Thankfully on this occasion it was fairly easy given she had already planned veggie/vegan meals and said brightly “That’s fine, I’ll do a vegetarian option for you too”.
I do feel conscious that if people are kind enough to invite me for dinner, I don’t want to put them to any trouble… it will be interesting to see what happens throughout the rest of the month…
Another 50@50 activity for my half century celebration year was to have a snowy weekend away!
My husband Chris and I returned yesterday from a weekend of snow hiking in Switzerland… and little did we know that we would arrive home to a week of snow and freezing temperatures in the UK thanks to a weather system known as ‘the beast from the east‘ which has seen temperatures plummet across Europe. Even the Mediterranean islands of Corsica and Capri have seen snow!
So, another two books completed before the end of February! Both are travel books again, documenting the adventures of two very different styles of traveller. Chris Pountney who cycled from Paris to Sydney and George Mahood who backpacked with his wife from Quito to Lima.
Book read: No Wrong Turns: Cycling the World, Part One: Paris to Sydney by Chris Pountney
Book number 3…
Wow! An awesome book! What a guy! I enjoyed every sentence of this book and was gripped right from the beginning… How could anyone even consider cycling from Paris to Sydney? This seemed such an impossible task and is only the first leg of his World cycle tour! And he didn’t even take the most direct route! Chris set himself a number of conditions one of which was to cycle through 100 countries.
Having begun in Paris, he headed off up through Germany to Scandinavia before dropping back down via Estonia and Poland and back through Germany towards Ukraine.
Not only was the adventure side incredible to read, the author has a brilliant style of writing which, together with his descriptions and humour make this one amazing package.
I was quite sorry when the book finished in Sydney so I’m now a regular reader of his website, eager to catch up with Chris and his now wife, Dea.
I love Chris’s approach and way of thinking… How to travel for next to nothing… Get a bike of course!
Awesome quote:
“But I also hoped that if I could circumnavigate the entire planet without ever once getting in a motor vehicle, it might just inspire one or two people that they could perhaps do their shopping without one.” Page 132
This is the best of the four books I’ve read so far this year.
And note to self: I have huge admiration for Chris and while I have been inspired to lead a more adventurous life, I don’t think (extraordinarily) long distance cycling is for me…
A book documenting the author and his wife’s 6 week adventure through Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.
I enjoyed this book as I was able to closely relate to their travel style which was similar to the way Chris and I travelled in 2016. Yes, we are middle aged and did manage to spend a day doing the short version of the Inca trail to Machu Picchu and climb up and down the steep paths of the Sacred Valley without just about making it to the gift shops (as George seemed to imply this was the case for anyone over 30…)
I loved reading about the places we didn’t get to such as Ecuador and the Amazon rainforest trip (both of which I would love to do in the future) as well as those places we did visit.
As well as plenty of reminiscing and developing an even stronger desire to travel to South America again, the main thing I took from his book was the inspiration to turn our 2016 adventures into a book! We were away for 11 months in total, exploring the Pacific, Asia, Central and South America… We captured much of our adventures in our blog so surely it can’t be too difficult to turn this into a book???
A massive effort this week where I managed to walk an extra 50 miles… As always, these miles are in addition to the normal day-to-day steps one takes by walking around the house or office.
Significantly this week, yesterday I did a 17 mile walk through the scenic Goyt Valley in the Peak District. The link shows several short walks… a group of friends and I combined some of them into a big circular trek and spent 7 hours walking to and past some of these features.
Today I completed a 12 mile walk with a local walking group. Tonight I have aching muscles but a sense of achievement!
I haven’t made so much progress during weeks 5 and 6 and just as well I gave myself a head start the previous weeks! I’ve just been to the Maldives to celebrate my 50th birthday and, while I did have an active week of yoga, gym, swimming and cycling, there wasn’t too much walking involved!
I didn’t do any extra walking at all during the weekend of my birthday and basically spent the time getting ready for my party (Saturday) and recovering on the Sunday! I’m keen to get back to more walking next week…
Yoga became popular in the UK in the 80’s as a form of exercise although it has been around as a spiritual practice in India for hundreds of years.
I didn’t know much about yoga or what it entailed until last week. And, other than a few months or maybe even a year of weekly aerobic classes when I was 15 I haven’t taken ANY form of exercise class since then… Not a single one… I don’t know what Pilates is… I think Zumba is some kind of modern day aerobics and I had never been to yoga…
Well, this has now changed! A combination of a desire to try new things this year together with my attempts towards a fitter and healthier start to my new decade stirred an interest in trying yoga. Of course this is old news to many people… When discussing this at work just before Christmas it turned out that most of the people I work with have tried or still practice yoga. This conversation happened to take place after work in one of the outdoor bars along London’s South Bank which led to an impromptu and somewhat drunken display of yoga moves by one of my 6 ft male colleagues!
So with one of my 50@50’s being to try yoga, I took the opportunity while on holiday in the Maldives where our hotel offered a free 50 minute yoga session each morning! What a place to start doing yoga… I felt immediately relaxed in the serene environment as I sat on my yoga mat on the soft powdery sand with the sounds of the gently lapping sea in the background.
Each morning the instructor took the small group of 10 or so through the initial relaxation and breathing exercises before the more complex series of stretches. Stretching muscles that have possibly never been stretched before! Literally tying my upper body in knots with him giving my arms an extra pull just to make sure!
I can certainly say I felt incredibly relaxed at the end of each session and I’m keen to do more. Being strong, fit and supple throughout life and particularly as you get older is important.
Compared with others even though I am almost 50 I was pleased I am still fairly bendy and supple as, for example, I could diagonally interlock my hands behind back where many others couldn’t reach.
However my stomach muscles need toning big time! I was one of the worst of the group with the stomach moves. For example, laying on my back and lifting and holding my feet at 6 inches above the ground then at 75 degrees was tough! This is something I am keen to improve.
And also I found my balance is rubbish… I toppled over the most when we did standing up stretches… I’ve noticed problems with my balance when trekking along narrow ridges so I wonder if I practice each day if this would help my trekking too?
Trip number 2 of 2018 is now complete! Yesterday Chris and I returned from a week in the Maldives, a relaxing break taken just before my 50th birthday tomorrow.
I’ve produced a full Maldives trip post which is available on our joint travel blog. This was quite a different kind of holiday from our usual active and at times intense holidays.
The trip was more of a healthy retreat rather then a typical holiday as the entire week was spent doing yoga, swimming, snorkelling, kayaking, cycling and going to the gym. And eating lots of different organic fresh fruit and vegetables and virtually zero alcohol!
All of this has fitted well with my objective of a fit and healthy start to my new decade!
Fifty at Fifty 