Project Snow

Count me in! Where do I sign up? Those were my first thoughts when I read Angela’s post today. She has started Project Snow, which basically means that we -people who are familiar with snow in their backyard- are going to support eachother to keep being active all fall/winter outside. How crazy/cool is that? And how crazy is it, that I am all excited about it?

I already committed myself about six weeks ago to try and find away to keep exercvising outside the entire winter, so Project Snow came exactly at the right moment!

So after reading about it I felt totally motivated to go outside, even though it was already dark outside and after dinner. I usually run before dinner- afterwards I just collapse on the couch unless I go to the gym. But I put on my running gear and loaded my mp3-player with lesson 20 of my couch-potato program and went for it!

I ran 4 x 8 min with 1 min walking intervals in between. And I walked a few min before and after to warm up/cool down. I think I should have warmed up better because my calves were hurting again. I am doing ok now though. Aside of that I felt great the whole run!! I was not tired at all and could just run and run and run! Maybe it was the cold, about 7C, that kept me from feeling hot and tired or maybe I am just in fantastic shape all of a sudden, or maybe I just run better after dinner because I have more fuel. I don’t know, but it was amazing!

I ran a total of 5.3k (according to mapmyrun), so I am happy with that! I did take some precautions because of the darkness: I did not go into the park, you never know what you encounter there. Instead I chose to run around the neighbourhood staying on the sidewalks and on illuminated roads with enough traffic. This girl prefers to run for fun and not for her life.
When I came back my throat was kind of irritated. It made me cough and it itched. Probably from the cold. Does anyone know what to do against that?

Anyway, this run made me realize three things:

- I will run that 5k at some point!
- I can be a runner, who would have thought!
- I can stay committed to exercising outside all winter!

Closet Makeover

Yesterday I went through my closet to see what the heck was in there, to clean it up and find out if I have enough stuff to get me through wintertime. Here is the almost before shot:

I was so eager to start that I already pulled out half of my clothes before I remembered that i was going to take a before-picture, lol!  But the lower two shelves give a good impression of what it looked like before. Oh, and of course there is Chinta again. She loves fabric so she is always trying to get into my closet. Generally, I can’t do anything around the house without having a cat or two ‘helping me out’. Except for vacuuming though…

Our closet consists of 3 parts with sliding doors, as you can probably see. the left part, where the mirror is, is the Boyfriends and also holds the extra set of bed sheets. The middle part is mine and the right part is for hanging clothes and shoes of the two of us.

Here is Chinta again, playing with my little clothes-refresher baggie, it has lavender leaves in it.

I purged some stuff, including several pairs of shoes. Maybe I will give away more clothes later, because most of what I have is old older oldest. But some of them I still love and for others I don’t have a replacement yet. I usually wear things untill they fall apart or don’t fit anymore. I have had the same size for quite some time, but somehow things shrink in the laundry and also my style has changed. I really hate it now, when shirts don’t cover my back when I sit or bend over. I am also going to give away a pair of boots and some other cute sandals. I still really like them, but I can’t walk in them, they hurt my feet and give me blisters, so out they go. I prefer making someone else happy instead of making myself miserable :)
By the way, I wrote am going to, because I always keep the stuff in a bag for a while and if I don’t miss it within a couple of weeks it can really go.

I ended up taking extra bar for hanging clothes that we were not using and put it in my part to hold my shorter clothes like vests and folded pants. I left dresses etc in the right part. I also got rid of half of the boxes (too many organizing boxed really do not help in the organizing part. I also rearranged the shelves, here is the end result:

That looks a lot better, huh? It certainly is more practical for me the way it is now. I am planning to hang more stuff too, it is so much easier finding your clothes that way! On the bottom in the center I put my stack of work out clothes, so I can just grab them and go!

So now I can happily go shopping (probably next weekend). I don’t need a lot: I do need new black boots and some accessories and a few tops for cold days would be nice. That is a good thing because it will save me money that I can use to buy my first pair of real running shoes!

Budget Groceries

This morning I went grocery shopping. I do that every saturday, I go to a place called Lidl which is a budget grocery store. They don’t have everything, but what they do offer is cheap! They often only have veggies in season and they have only one kind of PB instead of the zillion you find at the regular stores. You have to be a bit careful though, because even though most things taste surprisingly good, some don’t or are of not such good quality. I send the Boyfriend to a regular grocery store on Wednesdays so he can get the rest. Today I needed a lot of veggies and for some reason I ended up with this HUGE amount of groceries for only 37 euros. Look what I got:

 

The picture shows:
bananas (for green monsters and banana oatmeals, yummie!)
grapes
tomatoes
broccoli
cauliflower
peppers
sweet and sour sauce
eggs
cod filet
pizza (there are really 2 in that box, very convenient! they are for the Boyfriend. I am on a no-wheat diet for now, so I can’t :( eat pizza)
chicken schnitzel with a crunchy crust
mushrooms
sour cream
endive
liquid margarine for baking
red wine
leek
deodorant (the other two are in the 2nd picture, they were on sale. happy to have them though. I was using up deo from the Boyfriend, he did not like the smell and I did. but I am glad to be smelling all girly again, lol)

This picture also shows: our stained kitchentable (can’t remove the stain); the dryer, oven and microwavce, the wall I am going to refinish tomorrow; part of a shopping cart the boyfriend still did not return (yes, since Wednesday and yes we live very close to the supermarket so we just take the cart home); a crate I used to carry the groceries in; a cat who wanted to see if there was anything for her; and my teapot.

Chickie was too tired to come check it out. I found her on the couch:

But I got more groceries! This was my second trip back to the car to get the rest of it

I also bought:
potatoes
white bread for the Boyfriend
peanut butter!
pears
apples
look, more deodorant!
carrot
dishwasher tablets
instant vanilla cappucino mix. This is one of the most chemical tasting things I have ever had, but me likes it a lot!
more broccoli (they were on sale…and i miscalculated. but that’s ok.)
waffles
some sort of cake thing, typical dutch. It is a healthy snack.
7-up
bottled water
tortilla chips.

Wow, that was a lot of food…and a lot of carrying!

Chickie is checking the bag too see if I did not forget anything

I was all Mrs Housewife today! I did groceries, washed my car..okay that is more of a male things but whatever, I cleaned the house, cooked dinner and baked a speltbread so I get to eat some bread too every now and then (no picture yet, because it is still baking.

Old news

Let’s start off with some old news. Last weekend I went for a bike ride with a friend. We had a great time and I wrote a post about it. However, I still don’t have the picture that was taken from me that afternoon. So, I decided that I will do it without the picture. I really should start taking more pictures!

Here is the thing I wrote last week…

Yesterday was a great sunday! We slept late (10 am is late for me!) and spent the rest of the morning relaxing a bit. Then I headed for my friend’s house. She lives about 4k away from me, which isn’t so bad, except that from here it is all uphill, and some pretty nasty ones. The good thing is that I got to fly down all those hills on my way home!

I was a sweaty mess by the time I got to her place! I had some water to cool down, while I admired the place. She hasn’t been living there for very long yet. I helped her painting etc a couple of times, but I had not see it finished yet, it turned out really nice! Also, it is a lovely neighbourhood (except for the hills), quiet and with a lot of trees.

Then we left for a little bike ride together. We did over 40k in total, so I ended up doing 50k! I used to cycle a lot, but for the last couple of years not anymore. Even though I plan to, something always comes up. And I also love a lot of other activities. It was a perfect day to cycle, warm autumn wheather, sunny, not too much wind. It was so lovely outside!

When I came home I was extremely hungy! We had home made big macs for dinner, lol! They taste so good!

After dinner I settled on the couch to watch my favorite program at the moment: So you think you can dance. It was good! I love dancing and I really enjoy seeing skilled people do their thing.

So there you go. Now, we can continue with some more up to date info.

Yesterday I went for what turned out to be a great run! I did 32 min and made it almost 3 miles! Now that is not really amazing, but I felt great afterwards! I am still in the ‘from couchpotato to whatever’ program. I don’t remember the name very well, and I find it quite insulting. I am no couch potato! I just can’t run! Therefore I am happy that here in Holland we call it Start to Run, lol. I think the lessons are really amusing. First of all because the program was made in Belgium and therefore the coach cheers on me in this really funny/cute Flemish voice. And second because the course really seems to be working. I have made it until lesson 17 without too many problems now. Sometimes I even think that they are going reallly slow. I has me convinced that I can be a runner! My ultimate goal is to run a 5k race at some point.

Okay, I really have to now. I have a large to do list today, which includes a cruise through my closet to make it winter-ready. Hmm..I might even blog about it! Stay tuned.