Draw a line under it and move on

Hey, hey, hey! How’s things going?

It’s funny, I feel so much more rested when I get up pre-6am than when I do post-7am. How weird is that? Even when I don’t set an alarm my body naturally wakes up around 5am and so I try to fall back asleep and then wake up feeling so groggy. Don’t get my wrong, I don’t leap out of bed with a smile on my face when the alarm goes at *whispers* 5.15am but once I’m up I feel pretty good.

After my run on Sunday I felt my lower back was slightly tight and my outer knee (IT band territory) was feeling slightly niggly. I started to panic: oh my God I’m broken again!!

I saw my physio on Tuesday morning and explained everything to him. I also mentioned about my hard leg workout the day before. He said I’d been a bit stupid. My legs were probably exhausted from the tough workout which had then put more pressure on my back and IT band when I ran… whoops. But he did his thang and said things felt less tight than before and my right leg was a lot stronger again now. He said I wasn’t to worry and that things were heading in the right direction and I could continue to run.

PANIC OVER.

I still need to leave a day between runs and I’m not running over 4 miles. Progress though! So my next run is Thursday 😀 and I can do Parkrun Saturday. Finally!

On to matters of food… I’ve been back in the salad groove as of late (maybe to offset my current cake overload…dear lord, it’s gotten out of control this week!)

Salmon salad Rubbish photo I know

This beast of salad contained pretty much all my favourite foods (except cake…). Tinned salmon, broad beans, two kinds of lettuce, broccoli, roasted butternut squash, beetroot, onion, garlic roasted courgette…oh my life this was so good. I love beastie salads because they take so long to eat and you can really enjoy them. And tinned salmon in my books is so much more superior to fresh or smoke salmon – am I alone in that opinion??

We also tried hummus baked chicken.

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I basically just topped chicken breasts with roasted pepper hummus and then baked it in tin foil. It was easier to serve it in the foil as it was a bit messy. Quite a rustic look I like to think… Served with roasted veggies. Ben loved this.

So…let’s talk about the amount of cake I’ve eaten recently. Tuesday, as well as my physio, was also ‘bring a cake to work day’. Well, can you get a better day than that at work?? My lovely work friend was concerned I wouldn’t get any cake because I was in a bit later due to my physio appointment. So she got me a ‘mixed grill’ style selection platter…

IMG_5832OK, so what have we got there? Giant slice of Victoria sponge, underneath that a rather generous slice of baked cheese cake, some rocky road and a Mars bar crispie cake. At first I was flabbergasted by how much she’d gotten me.

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Yeah… well it took me two sessions during the day to finish the plate off but it happened. I don’t even want to think how much sugar or how many calories I consumed. And then…later on…I had another cheeky slice of Victoria sponge.

I don’t often feel guilty about the treats I have, but I really felt quite bad for what I’ve eaten. I mean let’s be honest, it was a lot. I also woke up this morning feeling quite bloated and not great. Spin was a joy I can tell you. Ha!

But I drew a line under it and today and for the rest of the week it’s all about sensible choices and healthy nutritious meals. I don’t eat rubbish and cake every day and I exercise regularly. I eat healthy meals and I only have a crazy blow-out once in a while. I’m not going to starve myself or ramp up my workouts. Life is not about punishing yourself.

Then Saturday it’s afternoon tea…shhh.

What do you do when you’ve had a bit of a ‘bad food’ blow-out?

What foods are your naughty go-to foods?

What would be on your ‘mixed grill’ selection platter of cakes?

World’s Best Sundae and heart rate monitoring

Breathe, it’s almost Friday!! I still feel so behind with everything – it’s crazy how a holiday can do that to you. I’ve been bugging Ben to write his race recap of his marathon so I’m hoping to have that coming up soon, apologies for the delay. Boys, eh!

Anyway, last weekend Ben and me enjoyed two very nice meals. On the Friday night we went to Ben’s mum’s house and had a second turkey dinner. I do love them. And some fruit salad with ice cream to finish. Yum! No photos as I completely forgot, but all the trimmings as standard 😉

On the Saturday we didn’t do a huge amount. I tested out one of my gadgets at the gym for Spin in the morning. My Polar FT7 heart rate monitor watch. I’m obsessed. I love numbers. What with no running and having weekly mileages, pace per mile, distance etc. I don’t have much to get me excited in terms of numbers. But I’ve seen these Polar watches on different blogs (Laura did a great review) and so I was quite keen to get one.

I’ve never tracked my heart rate when exercising. And now suddenly having this number on my wrist, well I was quite excited about it! So I tested it out on Spin.

Spin HR

While I was spinning it was telling me my HR (and it connected to the LiveStrong spin bike as well so I didn’t need to look at my watch at all, just the mini screen on the bike). Then afterwards it told me calories burnt and average HR, max HR and how long I’d spent in ‘Fat Burning’ zone and the ‘Fitness’ zone. I am aiming to stay in the fitness zone as much as possible because this is my goal, not fat or weight loss. The HR strap around my chest was very comfy as well.

It’s also great because I can see when I’m really not trying that hard – there’s no escaping your heart rate!

[**I wasn’t sponsored for this review – I just love it!**]

So the second meal we had was Sunday. We went out for lunch with my parents last minute. We chose a local pub we always go to, The Osborne View.

Family meal Osborne View

The sign behind my parent’s say “Impeccable: having immunity to woodpeckers” and “Heroes: what a guy in a boat does” Hehe

 I was like a bottomless pit!! We shared a mezze board between the four of us and had starters as well. I got Asian chicken wings. Oh my life these were good. Crispy and sticky. For main I went for a chicken, bacon and avocado salad (I love me some chicken).

Osborne View meal

But the piece de resistance…the pudding of 2014 (seriously, this has set some high expectations for the rest of the year)…salted caramel popcorn pretzel sundae. You heard me right.

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Toffee ice cream, salted caramel sauce, popcorn and pretzels

Ben got it too. It’s funny because he usually struggles with three course so I was a little hopeful I might get some of his sundae as well as my own (hi my name’s Anna, I’m the food MACHINE). But there was no way in hell he wasn’t going to finish. Damn. We both looked at each other afterwards like “that was amazing”. Needless to say I was ready to be rolled home.

Good start to 2014 😀

What’s the best dessert you’ve ever had?

What’s your favourite restaurant? I love a good traditional British pub.

Have you ever tracked your heart rate while exercising before?