Great week and a milestone

Sorry for the lack of blogging recently. I have just had a busy week. even my evenings have been busy. It all started on Friday the 13th... Known to many as

A day that means bad news. However my day was pretty awesome. Firstly had the last part of my training for a health care assistant job and afterwards i was able to go to an interview that i didnt think I could go too as my training overlaped. However my training finished earlier so I called the other job up and asked if I could attend the interview. I was unprepared, but I managed to nail the interview. I even had to speak to a group of teenagers about a social action project... However I got the job, and proud and happy I was.

 I never thought it possible that even a few months ago I would be working as a youth worker, let alone attending an interview at the whim.

In other news my injury is loads better and am pretty much back to all my usual activities. Went on a 50 mile cycle ride yesterday and felt so so strong, best I have ever ridden. Although I am sick of people commenting on my small size and asking how much I weigh- no joke!!! I mean you would never ask someone who was obese what their weight was. I find it strange as I am at the highest weight I have been at for nearly 8 years!!!! I myself still feel "big", but to others I am not so maybe it is all in my head . I also decided to weigh myself this morning, and my BMI for the first time in goodness knows how many years is in the healthy range. I didn't feel awful as I thought I would do BUT I felt proud, proud that I have done this on my own.

I never thought it would be possible that I would be able to eat what I am eating, be the weight I am now, be happy, have an amazing boyfriend, have things in common with people that isn't having an eating disorder in common, to have friends that love me for who I am and to be able to converse with them with everyday conversations. I have put on around 10 kg since January time, many of my clothes no longer fit me. Alhough difficult I know its a good thing and I can now get new clothes:p  I may not like my legs, I may still look in the mirror and feel big but they are strong, I can cycle, run, and swim and most importanly I feel happy. On my last ride someone commented on how much  I have improved, my speeds are the best they have ever been.  I want to be able to share with people that recovery is possible that you can go from the lowest, deepest dark hole, to that of a functional person who has a whole life ahead of them. After about 5 hospital admissions I am happy to say that I have made it through. I know I still have some way to go, gaining weight is almost the easy part its dealing with my head that takes the work. However I didn't get ill overnight so it isn't going to disappear overnight so I just have to be patient.

After all that.... This weekend has been pretty awesome too. I spent it at Andys we made pizzas on Saturday night from scratch-yep that included the dough!!!

 Pizza ingredients-yep that is mango:p 

Andy was such a good dough kneader!!

We even made cheesy dough sticks. 

My toppings included goats cheese, peppers, mushrooms, mango and emmental cheese. Oh and a bbq sauce base so so nice. 

We are making them again next Sunday for the rest of the family and letting them pre order them:p think I we may do some garlic bread too.  I have never made my own pizza dough before but they were so so nice, and the only ingredients in the dough was whole-wheat and white flour, pinch of salt, two tablespoons of olive oil, and water. It was so much fun too, can have whatever toppings you fancy. 

Have you ever made pizza? 

for those that have gained weight how did you feel when you got their? Also how long did it take to get your periods back? 

WIAW- the random one

Sorry to have gone all MIA on my blog, I had a really busy week last week. Which involved eating at my favourite sushi place

Spending the weekend with my boyfriend, and his family at a little place called Kenilworth and dressing up as Alice in Wonderland with my other half as the mad hatter: 

Don't we look cute;)

I also got very broody ( Don't worry Andy not for a few years yet;) ) 

Under 1 month old, I wanted to take her home!!! 

From holding this baby, also gave me motivation with the ed to gain more weight so I can get my periods back. I am starting to find my body image difficult especially when I look at some pictures of me. But I am reminding myself of all the things that come with being at a higher weight. 

My WIAW today is a bit random, well my dinner is anyway. 

Protein Oats 50g oats, 25g banoffee protein powder and 1 tsp of peanut butter. 

Food Doctor pitta with cottage cheese, and side of kale and carrots

Random Dinner: Squash, broccoli, yorkshire pudding, veggie burger and cream cheese, falafel and pasta with cream cheese

It was sort of like a pic and mix dinner:p 

Snacks consisted of dried fruit mixes, home made banana bread bar, and a bowl of cereal before bed

I have also been able to have more runs outside, and my swimming is improving. My swim instructor said I no longer need lessons its just a case of practising. I think I may go along to a group lesson once a week though as am still finding my breathing hard. 

Do you like lots of little things? I love mini sizing everything so I can have a little bit of what I fancy

Have you ever dressed up? 

Running shoes

I hope everyone in the UK is enjoying the wonderful weather today, is so nice to not wear multiple layers to leave the house in, and be able to get some vitamin D I always feel so much happier in the summer!!

This is the 3^rd pair of running shoes I have bought in around 6 months!!! And its not because they have been overused. The first pair I got was bought at the end of last summer when I was first starting to take up running, I went to a sports shop. They put me on this machine and told me I over pronanted so needed a stability shoe. After having a brief relapse and stopping running I started again around November time, started to get ITB problem. Few months later  I visited a specialist running shop they didn’t do a proper gait analayis just looked at the way I walked said no way I was an over pronator so got a neutral shoe. Then had a stress fracture. I don’t know if it was the shoe that caused it, more like an overuse injury, or perhaps a mixture  of the both. But I didn’t want to start running properly until I had a proper gait analysis done. 

So I visited this specialist running shop after doing some googling, they did a gait analysis. And OMG the guy who I spoke to was seriously amazing, even if I went away I would come back to the same shop to see him. He firstly “chatted” to me asking me about the injuries, past history. I told him that I used to dance, and about my issues with osteoporosis and anorexia. He said that the shoe I had was too heavy for  me, he made reference to my frame size and said I needed a shoe that gave me flexibility in my feet. 

We did a few squat tests and he did pick up that I have fairly weak hips, I do have osteoporosis in my hips so this may be the reason. Then was running on the treadmill barefoot, it felt strange at first, this was also videoed so he could see my running style. I am apparently a forefoot striker. When I was running on the treadmill it showed that I didn’t over pronate, however when I ran on the treadmill with shoes on I did. After trying pair of pair of trainers on where the guy could tell straight away if the shoe wasn’t right. We settled for a neutral shoe, as many of the stability shoes were too heavy for me and I didn’t have any flexibility when running in them. Because I am a fore foot striker I need a shoe that have excellent forefoot cushioning, flexibility, and stability.  I knew when I was running in these

Adidas Supernova glide 4

That they felt right, I could move my feet freely and just felt so light in them. I must have spent nearly two hours chatting to the guy and finding the right shoes!!! And I am so glad I did. I feel more confident when I am running too. It also didn't cost me anything to have the gait analysis done, they charge £10 but if you buy a pair of shoes it costs you nothing. 

On Wednesday was my first little run in them. As I’m training for a triathlon I did a 20 mile bike ride followed by a 1 mile run. It was also the first time running straight of the bike, it felt strange for the first minute or two. But once I was running it felt so good, I can’t describe how wonderful it felt to run. I came back downed some strawberry soya milk followed by one of my paellas.

This week has been a pretty good week, had a nice catch up with a friend in nandos,  had a good swim lesson, managed a rest day yesterday, had a trip to waitrose with my boyfriend and treated myself to some food doctor granola its so good!!!, especially over porridge and banana:

I am actually quite relieved their isn’t a Waitrose too close by as I would seriously spend far too much money!!! I've also been doing some baking,  these 

Peanut butter protein bombs. 

And these

Taste just like the banana bread nakd bars

I’m looking forward to the weekend too as have my Boyfriend over and tonight we are making bellini cocktails. These are my favourite kind, I have expensive taste:p  although not too many as we are going on a ride together tomorrow morning. I've just come back from a 57 mile cycle ride over many hills, my laps were around 16mph, it just shows how strong my body is getting, and will hopefully continue to get strong. I am trying to use this as motivation, as my body image is starting to get difficult again, I'm looking in the mirror an not liking what I see. Determined to plod on though, despite what the ed tells me. 

Have you ever had a gait analysis? 

any plans for the weekend?

Are you  a cocktail drinker? 

WIAW-Mothers day

This WIAW is based on mothers day. For those of us in the UK last Sunday was mothers day; where we celebrate our love for our mummies:) I love my Mum so much and don't know what I would do without her. I will really miss her when I go away to Bournemouth. I treated her to a michael Jackson top, a photo with a picture of me and her in it:

I also got her this journal, called from you to me. My mum has quite bad memory problems, it has gotten worse over the past year to the point where she has sent money to people and not even realised what she was doing. She's still having tests to get a proper diagnosis its not dementia, but is most likely caused by previous overdoses, as a recent scan showed a decrease in her brain matter. So I am always trying to find things that can help with her memory and this seemed ideal; its basically something for her to fill in to tell me all about her life,and what I was like as a child. Their is more info here if anyone wanted to check it out. gifts. 

After I had exchanged gifts. I had my breakfast; I tried the Philadelphia cream cheese and cadburys chocolate and it was so so nice!!!, the other side was honey

Then had a pressing date with my lovely boyfriend. This involved a cycle ride with a tea stop. We usually stop halfway through the ride, the place we planned to go to was actually closed!!! But knowing the area fairly well we cycled to the Cranks Resturant in Totnes. Its a quite famous vegetarian resturant.  Andy had his usual cream tea  which I had a piece off, and I had some wholemeal toast and jam. after the stop we did a loop, overall I think we did 25 miles. Was a fairly easy ride for me, as I seem to climb like a goat in my new bike:p 

Came home showered, and turned from a sweaty cyclist to a less sweaty cyclist. I love wearing red. Think it looks quite nice with blonde hair. 

I had booked us in a local resturant, that is always so hard to get booked in too. At xmas they get fully booked by AUGUST!!!!! They do a really great carvery, and it also pleases me as they do my favourite veggie nut roast:

I had it with a huge side of vegetables:

 Okay this is where I felt the ed was starting to annoy me. I do love the nut roast, but I kind of wanted something different, but wasn't sure how it would turn up, what would be in it etc.  Sometimes the internal battle can be so tormenting,  I just wish I could go out for a meal and choose what I wanted not what the ed wanted. Although it was a really nice meal, and the nut roast is one of the most nicest things that I have tried. It was also really nice to spend some time with my Mum as we don't often get to do, as she never goes out.

Dinner was a butternut squash rissoto that I had made previously, I accidently forgot to take it out the lid, well I did think it would be oven proof clearnly not haha

It was edible though once I had transfered it to a plate, had it with  some goats cheese on top, a veggie sausage and a load of vegetables. 

Before bed I had one of my favourite breakfasts:

Dorset cereals gingerbread oats with peanut butter

I have finally been able to run again!!! I went to a running shop on Monday, and got some amazing advice. I have been in the wrong trainers I am going to do a post about this soon, but I spent nearly two hours trying to find the right shoe. 

Do you have a snack before bed? Whats your favourite? I think mine is usually some form of cereal. 

Did you do anything nice for mothers day? 

Past workouts, and loving the breakfasts

Thankyou all for the encouraging words from my last post, lets hope its a supertastic month again. Exercise has really been helping me with my negative thoughts about by body, and just general crapness that I have been having about my current job. I really can't wait to start my new one, a t he people I work with mainly the girls are so bitchy, and its so clicky where I work. everyone knows each other etc, and I don't seem to fit their mould aka I don't drink, go out partying. And I've been dreading going to work and feeling quite depressed when I come home.  So getting some endorphins has been wonderful!!! 

My workouts this past week, have been really great.
Monday- Gym session (5k treadmill run, with some walking, 10 min rower, 15 minute bike and my weight programme
Tuesday-45 mile cycle Ride
Wednesday- 1k swim
Thursday- 2hr cycle ride, practising race skills (average 17mph)
Friday-Swim and Gym session, same as Monday with more streching
Saturday-Rest day-did some yoga and foam rolling OUCH
Sunday-Relaxing 30 mile cycle with my boyfriend which included a cake stop, scones for him crumpets and jam for me.

I've really been loving the cycling, my legs feel so strong at the moment. Really think doing the weights in the gym, gaining weight, and eating more has really helped with my power and endurance levels. I passed some men yesterday which felt good, hehe girl power!!!

 I have decided I am going to enter a sprint triathlon in July too, I need to work on my swimming though as am strong on the bike, and run will be okay as its only a 5k. I just find the breathing side of swimming hard, but today I had a bit of a move forward, and am starting to master breathing underwater!!! It took me a while to even be brave enough to put my head under the water, I thought you actually exhaled when you came out the water, but it turns out you have to exhale whilst in the water. It was scary at first but towards the end of my swim I was mastering it okay, and am now swimming in the middle lane as found the slow lane well, too slow!!!

Yesterday evening, my boyfriend came around and I cooked a beetroot risotto, topped with Feta Cheese:

I griddled some asparagus on my george foreman grill, first time cooking it this way I usually just steam it.

The risotto was fairly straight forward to make. The most difficult part was actually cooking and peeling the beetroot, I have made this before but used precooked beetroot. Anyway here is the recipe

Ingredients:


fresh beetroot
200g rissoto rice
500 ml vegetable stock
100g feta cheese
1 onion
1 fennel bulb
garlic
cinammon stick
carawat seeds
100g spinach

The first thing I did was boil the beetroot until tender this took about 30 minutes, whilst this was doing I 

chopped the onion, and fennel, and put on the rice with the cinammon stick and 1 clove of garlic. I gradually added the stock and kept stirring. 

The caraway seeds were lightly toasted for 1 minute, then removed from the pain. I then wilted the spinach, removed then cooked the onion and fennel until lightly browned,and added 2 tsp of tamarind paste. Finally added everything togeather, placed in bowls and topped with feta and cooked in the oven for about ten minutes. 

My eats for this past week, have also been good. My favourite meal is by far breakfast

Oats cooked with chopped apple, and cinammon. Taste like apple pie;)

 Bran cereal with cottage cheese, apples, granola, and cashew butter

Pre gym light breakkie of soda bagel with almond butter and cottage cheese

Wensydale and cranberry cheese with cottage cheese on toast

Have you ever cooked with Beetroot?

Favourite meal of the day? 

I have been feeling so strong whilst out on my bike, and the feeling I get when I come back from a ride in imense.

What I've learnt

Well this week has gone fairly quickly, and am looking forward to the week ahead. I've had some good news about my new job, my reference has a gone through okay which means I can start working as a healthcare assistant, I was very worried about it because I had took a of of sickness time off before Christmas. But had a phone call to say the reference has been received and is all okay. Also I have my jabs on thursday which I am odly excited about!!

I've spoken and seen my GP and she says its okay for me to start running on the treadmill:D this makes me one very happy sarah

With my adorable cat Marie

This time I am going to build up slowly and listen to my body, you could say I've learnt to listen to my body!! Maybe the hard way, but I guess it has made me more determined to beat this illness. I am going to run on the treadmill 3 times a week, im just doing 3 mile distances at the moment and will gradually build up from their.

These are a few other things I've learnt, along with some of my eats!!

• Its sometimes nice to have food cooked for you

Boyfriend cooked me baked eggs with spinach and mushrooms and a side of sweet potato mash was so so nice and ate guilt free

• A clean bike makes a faster bike!! My bike was so filthy, and the chain was creaking all over but me and my boyfriend cleaned our bikes together and made me ride up the hills today so much better!!
• Doing weights at the gym won't turn me in to the incredible hulk but will make me stronger in my cycling and running!!

Nope I didn't turn into a big giant Gorilla!!! (me at the zoo on friday with my boyfriend)

• Swimming can be fun, I am actually starting to like swimming, and can now even put my head under haha. 
• Pancakes can be savoury as well as sweet:

Goats cheese and mushrooms in homemade buckwheat pancakes

Ever had a savoury pancake? Have you leant anything this week? 

Blogger Tag/ Survey and February Goals

I've seen this Survey floating around the blogs, and glad I was tagged by the lovely Brittany@gotheextramile.

But firstly just want to speak over some goals that I have for February:

• Gain some weight, I think last month I gained about 1kg, I have to do it slowly. My goal is to try and gain at least 2kg this month. 
• Work with the reasons behind my anorexia. 
• Listen to my body( I'm injured from running:( from doing too much too soon and running through pain).
• Have some fun, have cocktails and not feel bad. 
• Do some baking. 
• Have more fats. Need to have more omega 3 and 6's to help with my inflammation.  

Blogger Tag

1. Post these rules.
2. You must post 5 random things about yourself.
3. Answer the questions set for you in their post.
4. Create 11 new questions for the people you tag to answer.
5. Go to their blog and tell them you’ve tagged them.
6. No stuff in the tagging section about you are tagged if you are reading this. You legitimately have to tag 11 people.

5 Random things about me

1. I used to play chess for my county. When I was in primary school I was quite good at chess and have a few medals to my name:D

2. I love sushi, if it wasn't so expensive I could really live of sushi

3. I love animals, and especially cats. We have 3 cats, two siamese, and 1 rag doll. Their adorable so human like.

4. I love the colour pink, practically everything I own is pink. My laptop, camera, even my bike!! People know me for my pink wherever I go.

(yep that is a pink monopoly) 

5. I'm 25 and my current boyfriend is actually my first relationship.

Brittany's Questions

1. How tall are you?

I'm 165.5cm

2. What is a goal you are working towards?

Trying to gain some weight, and recover from anorexia.

3. Where do you see yourself in five years?

Working as an occupational therapist, in a nice house with my boyfriend hopefully by husband haha. 

4. What is something that a lot of people don’t know about you?

oooh this is a hard one, I'm quite flexible I used to dance when I was younger and the flexibility has sort of stayed with me. 

5. What is your favorite animal?

Cats!!!

6. Is your current job the same thing you majored in in college?

No

7. What is something you have always wanted to do?

Visit Disneyland Florida. 

8. If you could go anywhere in the world for a week free, where would you go?

Probably a Caribbean Island. 

9. What is the craziest thing you have ever done?

Urm I have done far too many crazy things in my life haha, probably more recently building my running mileage up too rapidly. 

10. What is your favorite food?

Sushi!!

11. What is your biggest fear?

It used to be gaining weight, but right now its the anorexia taking over again. 

Now my questions: 

1. Whats your favourite drink? 

2. Would you rather go on holiday to somewhere hot or somewhere cold? 

3. Whats your favourite boardgame? 

4. Favourite source of protein? 

5. What would be your favourite race to run? 

6. Whats your favourite coffee drink? (latte, cappuccino?)

7. Do you prefer to exercise indoors or outside? 

8. Are you a sweet or savoury person? 

9. If you could support one charity which one and why? 

10. What's been your favourite holiday to date? 

11. Do you like reading? If so what's your favourite genre? 

I think some of these have already been tagged, but hey ho:

http://www.skinnylattestrikesback.com/

http://kthadani.com/

http://adaisychaindream.blogspot.com/

http://www.saladandsequins.com/

http://fromskinnytohealthy.blogspot.com/

http://www.almostovernow.com/

http://alifesobright.blogspot.com/

http://thisfitchick.wordpress.com/

http://pureglowsixteen.blogspot.com/

13.1 mile run, sickness, and new shoes!

Sunday was my long run, and I wanted to try the distance that was a half marathon to see if I can actually do it, well yes I can.

Summary

Distance:	13.10 mi
Time:	2:01:10
Avg Pace:	9:14 min/mi
Elevation Gain:	284 ft
Calories:	933 C

I fuelled up propery before with some oats and a large banana, and for during the race I took some of these:

I was proud that I was able to complete the run, however my legs felt really exhausted after mile 8 and by mile 10 I didn't think I could do it as my knee's were starting to ache and was getting some thigh pain so I stretched for a bit and this gave me the get up and go again.

HOWEVER, after I came back from the run. I had SIS re-go recovery shake, showered stretched. Then I started to feel incredible sick, queasy, dizzy. Then 10 minutes later I was sick. I wasn't sure what was going on was it the gels, the drinks? I posted on a running forum that I am a member of and they said it sounds like dehydration.  I thought I was drinking enough, so now am making sure I drink at least 2 litres a day. I had some dry crackers and sips of water and did feel much better. The next day I called my dietician up, had to ring her as I have made a menu plan increase but my weight has dropped. Spoke to her and she said it may be my glycogen levels and low blood sugar. But I was properly fueled before I set up, I don't think the cliff shot blocks agreed with me as I did feel my stomach getting quite queasy. I think I may try a carb drink to have after an hour next time.

Shoes

Because of the pain I was getting in my knees, I went to a reputable run shop and asked their advice also took my old shoes incase it was something with the shoes. They said to me that I don't over-pronate but am a neutral runner!!! So now have a new pair of shoes,expensive day cost me £100 but shoes are the post important thing in running:

I had a rest day yesterday and boy did I need it could barely walk after running yesterday!! I did plenty of stretches and strengthening exercises. My legs are feeling so much stronger and can really see the improvement in doing stretches everyday.  Found this good video on youtube:

runners knee stretches

Also if you get chance check out this girlies blog has a great giveaway and great blog on fitness.

Has anyone else experienced sickness after a long run? 
Do you stretch after running?