What do I really eat?

I hear a lot of  people on social media claim that folk like me who post pics of what they eat and pics of their exercise and bodies are not being too truthful. For example, that you can’t get a strong and healthy body just from eating the foods posted. So by default those posters must be lying.

Well I can honestly say that what I post and what I do are the same thing. I take the view, initially and happily supplied by my mum, that as long as I prioritise eating a nutrient dense diet I can eat anything else I feel like – or have room for.

I don’t count calories because I don’t need to. That hasn’t always been the case. I went through a period of being very conscious of calories but now with a combination of a highly nutrient food intake combined with regular and very enjoyable exercise I am free of, what I consider to be,the very negative calorie focused mindset. It didn’t work for me.

There is no doubt that I am helped in making good food choices because I am entirely plant based and I am very mindful of the amount of sugar I consume. But if you look carefully you will occasionally see white bread and a range of snacks in the background. I also post pics of wine and beer!

The fact is that I am about 80% super healthy and 20% pretty loose on the food front. I don’t eat anything I don’t like and I really do eat the foods that I post, occasionally I post something mum is eating or has made for me. Bottom line is that I have a healthy attitude and balance to food… and I’ll let my increasingly strong and fit body speak for itself!

Why not give my healthy balance a try and see how it works out for you?

Use #faldaeats to show me your health recipes and ideas!

 

 

The Road to the Isles,magnificent…and hilly

 

We loved the t-shirts too 🙂

 

The Road to the Isles half marathon on Saturday was definitely the most difficult of our runs so far.  Described as “challenging” it was, to my mind and absolutely as far as mum was concerned much more challenging that the Balmoral 15 mile run last week.  But maybe we were not in the right humour.  Anyway I was still pleased with my time and if I hadn’t stopped in a public toilet to pee I might even have achieved a medal (I came 4^th woman overall and might have made into the top three if I hadn’t taken a comfort stop) but nature always comes first.

 

One thing for sure was the amazing scenery and the weather was good despite that we started the run at Beasdale station in a torrential downpour.  Was it worth the journey from the east coast to the west coast for a couple of hours running – without a doubt and the unseasonably bad weather just made the journey more dramatic and beautiful – go Scotland!  

 

In the last two weeks we have completed two half marathons, one fifteen mile run and climbed three Munro’s – I think we are doing pretty well.

 

I’m off to Geneva at the weekend to run in the Geneva relay marathon with a team. I’ll let you know how I get on.  Either way I’m looking forward to the hot spas afterwards.  Hopefully this weekend will give mum a chance to rest up before our next half marathon.

 

The following week is the last of our four half marathons to raise funds for the Vine Trust and you can still sponsor us here…onwards and forwards.

Hills, hills and more hills

That’s the second of our challenges done to raise funds for the Vine Trust and we anticipate that it will have been the most challenging of the four. The Balmoral 15 mile Glacier Run was hard but I really enjoyed it. I ran with a guy who was an ultra runner and it really helped me to keep up a decent pace. The hills were not quite as bad as I had anticipated. Mum and I had practised on quite steep inclines thinking it would be more Munro steep than land rover tracks so that was a nice surprise.

However mum was a wee bit disappointed by her time – she said faffing around with her Ipod trying to listen to A podcast  was a distraction and some of the stoney ground was pretty sore underfoot. However she only fell once and not as badly as last week! The weather was great compared to the snow runners experienced on Saturday for the 5k and 10K runs and the views spectacular.

This week we are off to Mallaig on the west coast for our third challenge. It will be about a five hour drive so we are staying overnight. Mum is not too happy about the mixed sex hostel dorm we are staying in but hey you have to do what you have to do.

My Nutribullet broke at the weekend, I hope the company are happy to replace it – I haven’t really used it much but I have loved my smoothies in the morning over the past few weeks and it’s really easy to use. Let me know how you are getting on with smoothies and what your favourite recipes are.

How did we train for the Rome marathon?

Mum and I have been asked quite often recently how we trained for our first marathon last year and if we had any tips.  Well we don’t feel that we can really give out tips because we are not in any way ‘seasoned’ runners.  However we did follow advice from online sources and from friends who had a lot more experience than us.

 

This is some of the key things we did do…

 

First of all we drew up a 16 week running plan and we made the decision to stick to it, we think in retrospect that was the ultimate decision – sticking to what we decided to do. 

 

As we were already running three or four times a week for 3 – 5 miles we produced a schedule that built up our long runs.  We read enough to realise that it was very sensible to stick to the rule of not increasing our weekly mileage by more than 10% – although that can be difficult in the countryside when you are stuck for finding decent long runs.  Here is more on the 10% rule and lots more advice on all aspects of running.  

 

Each week we also made sure we did a long run so that our bodies got used to progressively  longer distance and longer time on our feet – so that the hours on our feet for the marathon didn’t come as too much of a surprise! Some runners prefer a long run every two weeks and some just one long run per month.  You can read more about the pro’s and cons of your long runs here.

 

Here are some of the things we didn’t do…

 

We didn’t stretch enough (or at all really) a very silly omission – we were lucky we didn’t pick up any serious injuries.  Here is some info on stretching and marathon training.

 

We also didn’t do any core strengthening exercises which was a real missed opportunity.  Here is some advice on core strength training. 

 

We ate too much – mum even put on weight despite the mileage we were doing.

 And … we didn’t learn how to hydrate properly but luckily the Rome marathon organisers knew what they were doing and we were ok on the day.  This is my post on what we do now to keep us going on long runs.

 

Overall as we progressed we realised a one fit plan doesn’t suit everyone for example we had different aches and pains, availability for training and different needs for hydration and food on long runs.  And don’t forget there is a 28 year age gap between us!

 

So what we needed was a whole system that we could adapt to our specific needs to help develop our speed, strength and endurance.