Walk Before You Can Run

... Well for me at any rate! I've been thinking about it on and off for a while and have now finally taken the plunge. I have purchased my own domain so that I can create my own website as well as maintaining a blog.

I have had a few blogs and I started this one because I thought that it would be a good idea to separate out my blog for getting fit after giving birth, from my other blog where I try to reduce my impact on the environment, save money, do crafty things and similar things along those lines. However to separate it out seems odd since it is all part of the "big picture" for me - I want to live a simpler life (for want of a better phase) but I still want to keep fit and look after myself, therefore the new website will hopefully be a place where I can combine all these interest whilst still able to keep them separate....

For the last week or so I have been sorting out the back bones of my new (and as yet un-published) website so that at least there is something to look at when it goes live. I also wanted to sort out some form of structure and play around with it so I know whether it will work or not in the future... hopefully it will.

At the moment I am just waiting on confirmation from my hosting service that everything is ready to go, and once that happened I will be able to publish the site.... the address is www.todaysgoodidea.co.uk since this is the name under which my other blog is written. As I said above, there isn't anything there yet, but I'll post again to say when it is live

I haven't made a meal plan for the week for the last few weeks and it definitely shows on my bank balance; I have ended up spending much more money that I do when I have made a plan and I have also had no idea what to make for dinner in the evenings either so I have been completely dis-organised. This needs to change so here is the first plan the I have done for a while:

• Saturday: Chilli con carne - great because I made a big batch last time and so this is direct from the freezer for a nice and simple but tasty meal
• Sunday: Roast chicken dinner with all the veg
• Monday: Chicken curry and naan bread - made from any leftover chicken from Sunday. Jim is at home all this week so he wont want leftovers for his sandwiches!
• Tuesday: Tuna and tomato pasta - hopefully we should be picking Max up today and this meal takes little prep and no time to cook, thus meaning we can spend more time with the new dog
• Wednesday: Fish pie - homemade but I'm going to buy one of those frozen packets of mixed seafood to make this with
• Thursday: Bangers and mash
• Friday: Homemade pizza - a good Friday night meal

I found this article on heartbeats and lifespan, Conserve Your Heartbeats, makes for an interesting theory on prolonging lifespan (or alternatively decreasing it!)

We've had a little bit of a set back with Max (the new dog), we were due to pick him up tomorrow however when Joanne, the breeder, took him to the vets with all his brothers and sisters for his first set of injections, the vet told her that he had a hernia! Now this apparently isn't serious as it is only an umbilical hernia which means that it was probably caused by his mum being a bit heavy-handed when detaching the umbilical cord.

However, little Max is going back to the vets on Monday to have a operation to sort it out, and then hopefully we can pick him up on Tuesday all being well. The poor little mite will have to wear one of those satellite dish collars for a week or so whilst his stitches heal though so he will probably be very confused

Today was my third 2 mile run, it went much better than the first one and better than the second! During the first two runs I had to slow to walking pace during the run, however on this third run I ran all the way through which makes me feel much more confident about running on Sunday in the great outdoors. Seriously though, it makes me feel like my body is happily getting back to it's pre-pregnancy state and that the exercise is paying off in that I don't need to rest as frequently.

Currently I'm not sure whether I should continue running 2 miles for a further week, or whether I should increase the run to 2.5 miles. At the moment I think I will increase the run on Sunday and then see how the treadmill runs go. Yesterday whilst walking with Ash and Bella (Bella was in the pappouse) I went further along the canal than I did on Sunday (when the route I did was 2 miles), we walked up to what I discovered was the Biddulph Way and then back again - a total of 2.6 miles so I guess this would be acceptable for a 2.5 mile route, I'll just turn around slightly earlier.

• Distance - 2 miles
• Time - 20:20
• Pace - 10:10
• Route - Treadmill

It's all paying off - I weighed myself this morning and I have lost a pound. So I thought that I may as well measure myself as well to see if there were any other changes, and I have lost 1/2 inch off my waist and my thighs and a whole inch off my hips! I am very impressed. This also means that my body fat % has come down by 1% to 25% which is right at the beginning of the acceptable range, a loss of one more percent will take me into the in shape range, which is my immediate aim.