Getting back on the blogging wagon

Yup, I am back! Well, almost – I ordered a new camera cable and my dad will be bringing it over next weekend, so in the meantime I’m afraid there will be no photos.

So what has been happening? I must warn you there will be pregnancy talk from now on, so my apologies if this bores you to tears. I still intend for this to be a healthy living blog. More about that in a mo’.

Sunday November 1st I took the first PG test. My boobs were sore and I was eating incredible amounts of food. If this wasn’t pregnancy, I would seriously have to think about calorie counting again, haha. Boooooh: negative! Hormones raged, tears flew, I moped.

Monday I got up and went to the bathroom, aggressively taking a test with me, muttering to myself “I’m jolly well going to test again, I can’t believe it’s not a positive” rarara. I peed. I waited. I thought I saw a line. “No, it can’t be, it will disappear.” Line got a little darker. OMG!!! Once again tears were flying, but now for joy! DH of course did not understand the concept of a line is a line. It as a Little Skinny Positive (LSP) and not a Big Fat Positive (BFP).

The rest of the week the morning were spent peeing on more sticks. (Told ya there’d be preggo talk!) Also lots of worrying because maybe it’s a chemical pregnancy and I tested too soon. Finally I took the digital (the photo from yesterday). No more lines, just the word telling me, yes, you’re pregnant! 

Today I’m 4 weeks & 3 days along, so still very early. But I can’t come back and blog and not talk about it. Plus, I figure the more positive vibes and thoughts from around the world, the better. 

How I’m feeling? Pretty good! The bathroom has become my best friend, as I have to pee every minute it would seem. My boobs are still sore & swollen (hello overfilled bras), but otherwise no real symptoms. Hmm, the odd hormonal outburst, but we’ll ignore them, haha.

How hubby is feeling? Very excited and also very protective. Which is very sweet. We’re going to tell our parents around the 6 week mark. 

I still need to do homework, go to work… everything is the same, but it’s all different! So awesome… I can’t wait for the first ultrasound, which I hope will be before Christmas, or else I will scream.

As for the healthy living blog: I signed up with Babyfit.com, because I want to at least for a couple of weeks get my food in order: I keep craving carbs but I know I need more protein, and I don’t really want to gain 70 lbs if possible. I’m not being very strict, but I want to prevent this becoming a no holds barred, everything goes, free for all food fest. I also need to figure out working out in this new condition: run/walking, swimming and yoga me thinks. So the blog should help with all that as well! 

Have a great Sunday everyone and thanks for the support & congrats! Means a lot to me (and the bean )

Update :-D

And in case you don’t know what “Zwanger” means…

… anyone know what kind of test this is?

I promise I’ll get the blog up and running again. I just need to order a new cable for my camera AND feel safe posting about this AWESOME news when my parents don’t know yet.

EDD: July 15th, 2010

OMG!!!

Skimming & Being Nice & Chia Eggs?

I’ve lost my camera cable! So I am afraid this will be a photoless post!

I just got a call from my bank that they’ve blocked my card, as they found that that there had been some skimming practices going on at Ikea when I was there a couple of weeks ago! Luckily no money was taken, but it’s been blocked. What a scare! I am usually very good at blocking the view of my PIN, but I do know there are certain places I’m not as vigilant – especially when the terminal is in an awkward position (like too high up). No more and I can recommend to anyone to really shield their PIN! 

Being Nice

I was reading an article on the way we (often women) feel we should always be nice and always be thought of as nice by other people. This will often mean we’ll say ‘yes’ when we really want to say ‘no’ and will have a hard time setting our boundaries. I still do this sometimes, but I have learned to not be nice 100% of the time. Especially to people you don’t need to be nice to. For example, it  quite often happens that if I’ve been out on the town at night and I’m cycling back home, some drunk guy(s) will come and cycle next to me. In their drunken state they feel that they still have one last chance to get some ass. Cue the “so did you have a good time tonight” cliches. I used to feel like I had to be nice to these people, even though they were making me feel uncomfortable and I wished they’d go away. 

Nowadays, I turn to them and tell them to just leave NOW. If they don’t (which they usually don’t) I’ll probably just stop my bike and tell them to piss off. This usually gets the point across and they’ll drunkenly cycle off, swearing. Haha. They are often surprised a girl wasn’t nice to them, at least that’s the sense I get. 

I’ve also come to understand that you can be nice AND keep your boundaries. If you say ‘no’ to someone asking you to do something (like maybe running an errand you really don’t have time for or doing a job) it doesn’t mean you’re being un-nice. Think about it: do you think less of someone if they tell you politely they can’t do something for you? Of course there are situations where you might do, but generally you’ll hardy think about it. Unless you’ve very often said ‘yes’ to that person, even when you couldn’t really afford to do so and you feel like they ‘owe’ you this. In that case, it is still your own responsibility: you said yes when you really meant no and the other person generally has no real way of determining this yes from a ‘not really’. 

So tell me, are YOU overly nice? What have learned about being polite and being nice? Do you have trouble saying no?

Chia Eggs 

And now on to something completely different! My crap free week went so-so: I got my exercise in and watched my consumption of junk after dinner. I still found myself eating out of boredom or eating more than I needed, leading me to feel overly full. I realized it would have been a good idea to also add things to my meals instead of just taking stuff away. By which I mean, bringing more creative and entertaining lunches and snacks and cooking some more dinners from scratch. The first because it helps with the boredom and the second because I find that when I cook from scratch, as I am around the food for a longer time, I get more satisfaction from the meal. 

My plan was to anyway come up with some better lunches (like noodle salad, veggie curries, etc.) and some more varying snacks. Just when I needed it, SusanV from FatFree Vegan Kitchen posted a recipe in which she described how to make chia eggs! I don’t have a grinder here and they don’t sell ground flax, and I’ve always felt sacrilegious adding a real egg to vegan recipes, so I’ve often skipped lots of wonderful vegan baked stuff from my cook books. But now I DO have chia so I can use them in some new vegan baking adventures! The basic recipe is:

1 tbsp Chia seeds
9 tbsp water

Mix together and allow to stand for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. 4 tbsp of the mixture = 1 egg and the rest will keep for 2 weeks in the fridge. How awesome is that??

So this week’s theme will be cooking vegan! Not all the time, but I always love challenging myself to aim for a vegan week, because I always learn new snacks, meals and tricks. It also gets me away from my cheese dependancy, *lol*.

How did your crap free week go? What did you learn?

House hunting, running, Zumba, crap-free week, oh my!

My goodness I am so sorry about my absence! I just can’t get motivated to write anything! I was going to, but then suddenly DH dropped the bombshell of thinking it’s a good idea to start looking for a place to buy. I was like *what??*. This is a guy who would happily rent for the rest of his life, except that he (both of us) would like to move to the country one day. But he was in no rush to buy. I handle the finances generally, but I was not willing to make the decision to buy unless we both supported the idea, as it’s such a responsibility.

In any case, he is right in that in current times the house prices have fallen quite drastically here and there really are a ton of houses for sale in our budget price. Yesterday it was an “open house” day, so we had a look at a couple of places. It’s all so exciting! We’ll probably make an appointment to meet with the bank this week, so we can here more exactly what we’d be able get as a mortgage. 

Hey, give me a project and I’m happy! But it does mean other things suffer, and the things that have been suffering are running/exercising and healthy eating. The half marathon was still too far away and with the dark weather it was really hard to get motivated to run! But, I’ve written my own plan now, which basically goes from a long run of 10 km to a long run of 20 km and then one taper week before the race. I’ll also be running one semi-long run from 7 km to 13 km on Tuesdays and a short run on Thursdays building slowly from 5 km to 7 km. 

A friend and I also want to join a Zumba class, so I’m going to research that and hopefully get moving!

As for eats, I think I’m just going to have to do a crap-free week. I at least need to stop eating junk after dinner, haha. 

In any case, here are some food pics from the past week. Hope you’re having a great weekend and forgive me for my absence, also in replying to your blogs – I promise I’ll do a monster comment effort on Tuesday at least!

Bread with hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles) and butter. Very nutritious.

Autumn fruit! Pears, kiwis, apples.

Favorite take-away sammie: goat cheese!

Favorite take out dinner: roti!

For dessert: lots of chocolate, potato chips, the odd glass of wine. I think my body is getting ready for hibernation, *lol*. I am still free of coffee though! Yay me, going on a month now!

Who’s going to join in the crap free week? What will your parameters be?

Pink, Orange and Yellow are Neutrals, Right?

When I asked for decorating tips for the bedroom, I should have maybe mentioned the wallpaper… We like bright colors! This was the “before” state, unmade bed & mess on the floor included! I have no shame…

Nice!

The first step was to write a plan of action!

Including my drawn-to-scale sketches *lol*.

First buy: new bedside lights, and I cleared up as well.

What a difference additional lighting makes! I can really recommend changing or adding lighting to a room as a quick and cheap way to brighten things up (these lights were 5 euros a piece, including bulbs!).

Up next: shop number 1! I bought new curtains and curtain rails here, as well some material to adorn the bed.

Next on the list: Ikea!! Here’s Vera posing in one of the showroom bathrooms, taking a shower. Haha.

Half-way through the gigantic store we got hungry! So we downed some lovely Ikea food. Veeeeeery healthy indeed. I did have salad with my fries though!

After collecting all our items, we had to wait in line to pay.

When we got back we set to work on assembling the new chests of drawers, which took us until 10:30 pm! I assembled a light as well. So that was Friday!

Saturday I collected the items I needed to drill some holes in the wall & hung up my first ever shelf! It’s completely level!!! I was so impressed with myself. I also hung up the decorative material and put all the accessories in place.

Today I finished up by hanging up the curtains & mirror and putting the new sheets on the bed. 

Tada!

Can you believe the difference? I don’t think the pictures even do it justice! I am so proud of myself, I felt so cool handling the super sonic drill, haha. 

Sorry for the lack of posts, as you can see I was kind of busy!

What was your last home/room deco/makeover project?

Monday Blues

I was sooooo not ready for the week to start today! I think I’m getting cranky with not having run for more than a week. Tomorrow morning that should change! I’m starting day 1 week 1 of Hal Higdon’s Novice 1 Marathon Plan, 3 miles.

Saturday we went into town, but it was way to busy to buy any clothes for DH, so I made him buy my ice cream

Australian Raspberry Sorbet. Delicious! Nice and tangy and not irritating to my tum-tum, which tends to dislike cream ice-ream (much to the annoyance of my taste buds, who dearly love creamy ice cream…). When we got home I decided to make a huge batch of hummus. Like, a liter of the stuff!

Mmm garlicky-chickpea goodness! I took some with me to work today and my co-worker and I nibbled our way through two whole peppers with it!

Saturday’s dinner was Greek style salad…

and pan fried salmon & fried potatoes. The salmon was so good! Melt in your mouth tenderness. The key is not to bother the fillet too much while it’s in the pan: just cook on one side until more or less half way done (you can see the color changing) and then flip once. 

The pic doesn’t do it justice though, as daylight is becoming so much shorter!

Sunday I did my homework (which is going well! I’m really enjoying my studies!) and Dh had to work. Afterwards we went out to dinner to a fondue restaurant. I, of course, could not turn down a warm, bubbling pan full of melted cheese! No pics I’m afraid, but the place was very nice and fondueing is really nice to do together, as it takes more time and you can share things and stuff. I wish i had had some room left for the chocolate fondue afterwards! But alas, I had to skip it. Maybe I’ll make some myself soon.

Today was back to work for me, and like I said, I got the Monday Blues! I made myself a yummy dinner though:

Tomato & feta salad, veggie nuggets, pita bread and cauliflower and potato curry. Mmmm in mah belly! This brightened me up and I also thought of something fun to do this weekend, as DH is away and I’ll have the car. Our bedroom is still not quite finished and it looks a little hodge-podgy, with no proper lighting and curtains that don’t fit or match, and side dressers that are grey and plastic (boooooh). So I plan to sneakily turn it into a more romantic & calm setting whilst the man is away, and surprise him when he comes back!

Does anyone have any top tips for doing up the bedroom? Furnishings, ideas, lighting, romantic stuff? 

Have a great week everyone, and good luck if you’re feeling the blues as well – we’ll get through it!

ETA: oh my gosh, new addiction AND it’s good for something! Free Rice!

Autumnal changes in food & training

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a great week! I’ve been “recovering” from my race.

Recovering meaning many such things as….

Nibbits! And I also tried…

This wasn’t as good as the Tiramisu one.

So I have been experiencing a sort of post-race let down. I’m still incredibly proud of what I did, but it’s time to get moving forward. Changes in the weather have also got me turning towards comfort food & lots of TV. Also, the change of seasons in the produce aisle has thrown me a little: certain fruit I’ve bought have turned out to be duds – not ripe at first, but just turning to mush in a couple of days; no more fresh spinach; start of apple & pear season, but of course supermarkets then go and use up stock from last year, instead of the latest harvest. 

Still, I’ve had one week to recuperate and get my thoughts together, so now I am ready for the ramp up to Christmas! I love Christmas, in case you were wondering.

Autumnal Foods 

First change is that I am switching my breakfast from green smoothie + 1 Weetabix to Oatmeal + Oat bran. Check it out:

2/3 of a half cup rolled oats + 1/3 of a half cup oat bran

Place into pan and add 1,5 cups of water (or blend of water & some type of milk). Bring to boil and allow to simmer for about 5-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Chop half a banana into your bowl.

Pour oatmeal/bran mix into bowl and place a heaped teaspoon of almond butter and a heaped teaspoon of flax onto the mix. Allow the AB to melt a little, then start mixing the flax & AB into the porridge, finally getting to the bottom and mixing the banana slices in.

Add about 1/4-1/2 cup of whatever milk your using and mix in, sprinkle a little cinnamon on top. Tadaa! Yumminess.

Bon appetit!

I’ve also got some seasonal fruit in.

The pears were super cheap! I love Conference pears, they’re just so good! I never thought you could eat the skin of a pear, as my mum always pealed them for us. I’ve started eating the skin since about 2 years or so, when I saw everyone just biting into them as if it were an apple!

We went grocery shopping with a shorter list than normal, as we wanted to save a little and use up what we had.

Can you read Dutch, haha? Although it’s a mix, you can see my meal plan at the bottom has some English. This is how I always write the list: write down the days of the week, figure out who’ll be home when (basically when DH has evening shifts and I’ll be alone) and then plan the meals. We can always switch them around, but we do tend to stick to the plan. With the meals planned, I write down the shopping list. 

I also plan on replacing my after dinner snacks (chocolatepotatochipsfrenchtoastohmy!) with Green Monsters, made with kale. So a healthy start to the day and a healthy ending as well! Plus it’s also sweet, so should dim the cravings.

Hmm, not an attractive pic! Baked salmon and some buttered bread. The salmon sucked, as I think there was too much water in it, so it basically just boiled in the oven and turned out rock hard! I still ate it though.

I made North African Chickpea and Kale Soup from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, it was delish! I halved the quantity and kept the spices the same (but didn’t have any saffron). It was very yum indeed! Gotta love veggies in a bowl. Autumn is the start of soup season and I have a thermos which I can fill in the morning so I have a warm soup for lunch at work! Very yum indeed.

I’ve been reading this book The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. It is soooo wonderful! I can awsomely recommend this, it is heart-warmng and also brings everything along the way so vividly to life. It’s not a fast story with lots and lots of happenings, but it’s not extremely slow either. It just gets your racing mind out of the busy-ness of everyday life and makes you smile, makes you sniffle a little. Read it! Plus it’s more than 500 pages, which I can always appreciate, to make it last longer!

Autumn Training 

So after I decided to register for the half marathon in January I looked up a half marathon training plan and figured that’s what I’d be doing. But I didn’t want to go out and run. Yesterday I finally figured out that it was because it wasn’t challenging enough. It started at a far lower mileage than I had gotten up to. So, I decided I am going to sort-of follow a marathon training plan, to help keep me on my toes. I also like the fact that it should make me even more prepared for the half marathon distance, as I’ll get up to a longer long run.

I plan on following the FIRST marathon training plan, with 3 runs a week. I’ll also be swimming every Friday afternoon, as a fun and healthy activity for DH and I to do together I also want to incorporate 1 yoga session per week and one strength training session as well. I’ll be setting up a plan each week again, because writing it down makes me do it!

I’m ready to get out there & prevent/delay the effects of less sunlight on my emotional well-being! 

Other goals for the next three months:

1. Spend less than 50 euros a month on meals/drinks outside the home (not counting a dinner date, but more the everyday stuff: a sandwich here, a tea there…)
2. Buy NOTHING. Haha. Um, I sort of mean I won’t be buying anything like clothes, books, magazines, shoes, etc. I will of course be purchasing Christmas gifts. I just need to quit over-spending.
3. Continue being coffee-free. If craving becomes bad, I’ll be choosing decaf instead!
4. Keep alcohol to maximum of 1 drink throughout the week, and maximum 1 weekend a month with more drinks.

So yeah, that’s it!

What are your Autumn Goals? Have a great weekend everyone!

Oh and I forgot to mention: Michelle from A Shade of Gray (who is sadly discontinuing here blog, due to time issues) and I (and I believe Lara from Thinspired as well) were thinking of setting up some sort of guest blog site. Different people could post different things and especially for those who are having to call it quits on blogging due to time concerns or other stress, they could post whenever THEY felt like it. That way we wouldn’t lose as many wonderful bloggers and they could also continue enjoying blogging, without the extreme sense of responsibility we often place on ourselves.

What do you think of this idea? Do you have any suggestions? Who to ask, how to set it up, etc.?

I did it! The Race Report

^ Little did I know then that I would be finishing my 10 mile race in 1:43:51!!!!

I naturally awoke waaaay too early on Sunday morning. I went about getting my stuff together, cafuffling around and basically waiting until we were going to leave. We got the train at 12:42 pm, as I wanted to make sure there weren’t any delays.

When we got to Amsterdam, the weather was gorgeous! We chilled – ahem, DH & lil sis chilled, I just stressed!

Of course there was time for a little photo opportunity! I portioned out the things I needed to do before the race started into 15 minute intervals. Switch shoes and socks. Fill hydration belt. Drink 1/2 cup coffee. Eat 1/2 banana. Strap on HRM. CONTINUE WORRYING ABOUT CUT-OFF CAR. Continue reassuring myself that I will make it in under 2 hours. 

About 2:40 pm I went to the starting area. Cue even more nerous looks, haha.

Vera filmed me setting off to the starting line.

When I headed out I saw the dreaded cut-off car and I said ‘F you cut-off car! I shall run like the wind if you come close to me! I will not get on!’

Vera filmed the start, I was waaaay at the back, but her commentary is funny in between.

And then the race was underway! I knew I had to keep my pace steady and calm, but my heart-rate was already 173 and it didn’t go down the entire race. 

The first kilometer went through a long tunnel and it sucked! I’m glad they had it at the beginning, because then at least it was done. The shortage of oxygen was very noticeable. I guess the IJ-tunnel is as close as the Dutch will come in a road race to a hill!

After a couple of kilometers I saw my brother and two of his friends running, so I hung out with them for a while. They just kept going faster and faster and I knew it would burn me out if I tried to keep up. So I hung back and reminded myself to run my own race. I wanted to finish strong.

The first 10-12 kilometers went well. I felt my heart-rate being too high and I took the odd short walk break at the aid stations. But I just kept going. After the 12 kilometer marker it started to get tough. I could feel my legs getting heavy, especially on the short declines. But I also felt that this was my favourite part. I love the final part of races, when it’s all the mind game and you just have to keep going!

There was loads of crowd support along the roads, people hanging out in bars and cheering everyone on. The atmosphere was amazing.

The final 2 kilometer I picked up the pace. I knew my feet would start to drag and I didn’t want to end in “the shuffle” mode. So I sped up! Then there was the 15 kilometer marker! Only 1.1 kilometer to go! My friends were all supporting at this point and one of them filmed me coming in, whilst Vera took some pics.

Note how I am smiling my ass off! That’s how I wanted to finish! Oh man, the final 600 meters killed me. I saw the signs and one part of me was thinking ‘well, we could walk right now. That would be good’ and another part of me was just yelling ‘sprint sprint sprint!!!‘ So naturally I sprinted the final 400 meters and finished strong!

I checked my watch and started to cry. I not only did it in under 2 hours, I did it in under 1:45:00!! I caught up with my bro & one of his friends, and the final friend came in as well. After hugs and congrats we collected our medals & stuff and went to meet up with our supporters.

I did it! I’m tearing up right now thinking of this. Oh man, it was just such an overwhelming accomplishment. I never thought it would feel SO good. I felt so, so SO proud and happy. I still do!

Afterwards we (me, sis, DH and my friends) went for a couple of beers (the thought of having a nice cold one after the race got me through some rough moments during the race!) After two beers I was so unsteady on my legs, *lol*. We walked back to the train and headed home. 

In the evening some of the supporters came by for some wine and a recap of the race. My friends had brought a phone with internet connection and so had been able to keep track of my splits, live! So it had been very exciting for them – gotta love modern technology!

Today I have on little toe that’s a bit sore and a bit of stiffness, but overall I feel great! I wore my medal all day

Thank you to everyone for their support!! It meant the world to me.

Prep Weekend

Only two more nights to go! I am starting to get excited, as well as nervous. 

Yesterday I bought some new fall/winter running supplies:

Safety first people! DH is laughed at me, but hey – I don’t care what I look like, I like to feel safe & visible. So I also bought…

Teehee, a reflective LED arm band. I totally rock this thing out.

In prep for the race, I needed a quick solution to not having any pockets for my cell phone – so I got this as well:

A new hydration belt (and in the bottom left you can see I am still in my comfy PJ pants this morning *lol*). I need to test this out today, to see if it comfortable. It was cheap, so the bottles smell VERY chemically – I don’t think I’ll be using it after the race. I need to find a belt with non stinky bottles! I think Nike does one…

Boooooh at the taper week! I have to go out for a 30-40 min run today and don’t feel like it. I want to get back into training – the week before a race sucks! 

I have been good with the no alcohol thing: almost 2 weeks down! No coffee yet either! I’ve been eating whatever I like, keeping a focus on plenty of fruit and veg but still munching on such delicacies as:

This is SO good! It’s dessert in chocolate bar form! Deeeeelicious.

Oh and this week apparently the super markets decided that spinach season was over! I wanted to throw a hissy fit right then and there, because I hadn’t thought about what else to add to my green monsters, which I’ve been consuming 1-2 a day of. I did a little reading and came up with:

Kale! Yes, this is the form kale comes in in Holland, as they only use it in their stamppot. Telling my co-worker I was going to put kale in a smoothie almost made her fall over, haha. 

The other ingredients: banana, lemon, strawberries, bloobs, mint, rice milk, PB and chia seeds. 

The result! Points to consider:

1. When I cleaned my blender I found a cluster of gelled chia seeds attached to the bottom. I think I should add them last. Anyone got any tips?
2. The kale makes the smoothie much more dense, so I add more rice milk to the glass.
3. The combination of mint and lemon REALLY made a difference – very refreshing.
4. Next bag of kale will be organic – it’s more expensive, but I only use about 1 cup, so I don’t need as much.

I have a lovely long weekend ahead of me. I think I might go and get my hair “did” on Saturday – it’s time for a little pampering!

Midweek Food Post + only 4 nights before my 10 Mile race!

Mmm… Aloo Gobi from The Vegan Table. Basically a cauliflower & potato curry. It was divine! I didn’t quite realize the recipe was for 8-10 people (!!!), but no worries: I ate quite a bit for dinner, froze half, had some warmed up for lunch the next day…

Boiled eggs, hot-buttered toast & Aloo Gobi. A very tasty Sunday lunch, and much needed! I was feeling ill-ish, so decided to realllly rest & take it easy. And I had the rest of the Aloo Gobi at room temp for lunch on Monday! Veggie curries @ room temp are quite tasty indeed.

On Sunday I also tried a new food: fresh fig with Agave nectar! I ate the whole thing, skin and all. It was very good! A great dessert choice, as it wasn’t very big, but sweet enough & blood-sugar levelling enough to keep me happy the rest of the evening.

Yeserday’s dessert was something I hadn’t actually tried yet (shock!): apple with peanut butter. It was yum. I found a new type of apple I REALLY love, Pink Ladies. Tart, but sweeter than Granny Smith. A bit on the expensive side, but I tend to buy cheap apples and through them away, so it’s technically cheaper this way, *lol*.

Yesterday’s dinner was so large it needed two plates. Here you see the most of it: salad with romain, tomato, yellow pepper, cuke, toasted pine nuts, small amount of aged cheese, vinaigrette and veggie balls.

Fried potatoes & mayo. The other plate was actually plenty, so I ate about 1/2 of the potatoes and a little mayo.

I was reminded by Michelle from A Shade of Gray about good old black tea with milk! This has replaced my morning coffee, and I use rice milk instead of dairy. It’s milder, but very soothing & comforting as it reminds me of blustery English Autumns & Winters. So thanks Michelle!

I’ve also upped my vitamins, you can see flax-seed oil & multis and herbal supplements there

All to keep me going through the Autumn and Winter and of course ready for my… 10 mile race! It’s almost here! Sunday the 20th of September I’ll be running it, starting from Amsterdam. It has about 30.000 runners, so is a huge event. I’m nervous and worried and excited, all at the same time.

And to keep me on my toes this last stretch of 2009, I registered for… 

the Egmond Half Marathon! It’s on January 10th 2010 and 7 km of the route is across the beach, so it is one of the toughest 1/2 marathons in Holland. A co-worker of mine has run it five times, so I can get tips from her. it’s quite near my town and it just seems so cool! It’ll be 16 weeks after this 10 miler, so plenty of time to train and have some lee-way (what with the holiday season and all…). I’ll be using the Hal Higdon novice programme, with a few adjustments here and there.

Have a great week!