Moving to Wordpress.

Blogger is driving me nuts... for many reasons, but also I thought I needed to get away from a domain called tryingfood.blogspot.com, because it doesn't match my name! ;P

Easier to find me and all that nonsense.

Now I can be found at:

http://turtlespdrunner.wordpress.com

I haven't done anything with it yet except import my posts. The stupid intensedebate comments haven't imported, of course. I hate intensedebate.

Random Things

Bit of a cliche post... but it's Friday and I feel like throwing some random things out there. What I've been doing, eating, whatever!

1. Kicking butt at Words with Friends with a 71 point word... yep, triple word, triple letter, using all my letters.... ok so I'm a nerd.. who cares ;)

2. Making amazing overnight oats... this was oats, vanilla soy milk, and half the banana cooked in the microwave for three minutes, heaps of cinnamon added... then extra banana added on top after. Pretty simple, but I think the vanilla soy milk really took it over the edge because it was AMAZING....

3. Taking gross pictures of my broken toe... this is after one month of injury... looking kinda angry, and still super fat :( I won't show you the pics I took closer to the injury... eww!

4. Getting up at 5 am to volunteer to take photos at the running club's weekend race - going again this weekend. I figure while I'm out of action, might as well help out! First actual "volunteer" work I've done. Felt good! I think a lot of people didn't like me taking multiple photos of them though... there was like 100 people in the race and I took 1000 photos (it was an out and back multiple times race) :S

This pic is just the view I had before the first runners got to me... that's my tiny little city across the other side of the river :)

One of the better shots I got... blurred the dude out coz I don't know him!

5. Uni starts back on the 27th of Feb! After sitting around on my butt for four months (well, not totally - I did work for a month of it) I'm wondering how I'm going to take being extremely busy again. I do love being busy, and routine, but I have (slowly!) gotten used to not having much to do.

6. Totally random, but I'm in a job which requires me to travel (sort of by choice, though), and have been debating whether to go away for six months at the end of this year. It means delaying the half-marathon I was going to run, as well as deferring uni in second semester, missing some of uni this semester, moving my exams around, quitting the gym & kickboxing, putting my stuff in storage, sorting out finances and bills, living in a foreign country, and STRESS STRESS STRESS... I'm so gonna do it though! Face the fear and do it anyway...

7. One other thing... I've installed intensedebate and I so don't get it. None of the comments that have been sent to me by email are showing up on the blog. I've checked on the moderation and all that and "accepted" all the comments, but none of them show up except my "testing" comment??! Anyone got any idea, or should I just can the stupid thing and return to blogger comments? Grrr arrrgh...

Rum & Raisin Frozen Yoghurt

I normally don't post that many recipes, because most of what I make is pretty simple, or is somebody else's recipe with a few changes. This was one of the simple ones, but it tasted so great I had to share!!!

If you're a fan of rum & raisin flavours, which I am... this will hit the spot :)

In a recycled Skinny Cow container ;)

I was trying to think of more ways to get more calcium in my diet, and brainstorming ideas for mix-ins to make frozen yoghurt. Especially as it's so hot here right now. Then I remembered I had rum essence...

Yum! Forgot to take pictures till I had almost finished ;)

Anyway, this is a pretty loose recipe since it depends how much you want, and I kinda threw it all together last minute last night, but:

Ingredients:
100-200g of your favourite greek yoghurt (I used half and half - one was full fat greek and one a lower fat)
Tablespoon of raisins (or more / less...)
Drop of vanilla essence
Drop of rum essence
2T Cocoa powder
2T Sweetener of choice (or however much you want!)
Splash of almond milk

I also added half teaspoon of vodka because I thought that might help keep it softer, but that didn't work... so maybe don't bother.

I pretty much smooshed it all together in the Skinny Cow cup, and left it to freeze overnight, then microwaved it for 15 seconds to get it to froyo consistency. I suppose you could also just put it in the freezer for an hour and it would be at the consistency.

One modification you could make would be to soak the raisins in actual rum for a while first to infuse them with the flavour, or leave the chocolate out... I like my rum & raisin with chocolate :)

Not counting calories.

So I went and saw a dietician a couple of weeks ago, to try and get some answers on how much I should really be eating with the activity I do. At the time obviously I was running, whereas now I am mainly swimming and cycling thanks to zee toe... She gave me a few pointers on some of the areas my nutrition was lacking (mainly calcium, need more vegetables at lunch, and cut down on my PB intake *gasp*) She also gave me a great plan to follow which should both help fuel my workouts / help recover as well as help me to lose some weight.

To be honest, I've been struggling to follow it! I follow it almost completely, except I have generally been eating one extra snack each day than she has put in the plan, and as a result my weight has been staying stable instead of me losing... which isn't too bad, I guess. I think also the reason I haven't lost anything is because I have been going out for dinner more often than usual, and indulging in a few of these:

Affogato - espresso shot poured over icecream. They are so freaking amazing. When I get obsessed with something food related, having it once does not cure the craving. I usually have to have it, like, once or twice a week probably five times before the craving goes! So I've been kinda going with it and indulging the craving. Just looking at that picture makes my mouth water...

One other thing which has been fantastic and the biggest relief ever, was following the dietician's plan means I am not counting calories. I feel so free! I have wanted to stop counting since forever, but having a plan in front of me means I feel like I finally have permission and can finally do it without feeling like I'm under or over-eating accidentally. It's so great!!!

On the workout front.... I am so bored of swimming. I guess it's because I don't know what to do. I kinda just jump in the pool and swim laps for 30 mins or an hour. Intervals doesn't make it more fun, and neither does changing style every 10 or so laps. I used to love swimming, but that was when I did it once a week. Doing it four times a week now, it's getting pretty old. I'm enjoying the weights I am doing though, and at least on the exercise bike I can pull out a magazine if it gets dull.

Oh well, one week of recovery down... five to seven to go??!

New exercise plan

Ha! Stupid no-running depression, I am totally kicking you to the curb with my new little exercise plan...

Instead of my usual:
4 x runs per week
2 x kickboxing (which I haven't been doing due to work + injury + christmas hols since NOVEMBER ugh)
1 x easy cross-train (swim/elliptical)
3 x weights (usually only manage one per week anyway)

I now have planned:
4 x swims per week (1 long, 1 fast, 2 easy)
2 x indoor bike (1 HIIT, 1 hills)
1 x easy cross-train (probably some game on Wii or modified yoga to only use upper body)
3 x weights sessions (mostly arms, though I think squats would be OK?)

It will be different, and hell yes I will still miss running, but this is a way to keep myself sane....

Oh, and I finally got the results for the cross-country I ran on the weekend... yes with my broken toe (I was clearly in some serious denial). I came 56 out of 86, lol... 20th out of the females and 6th in my age group. The girl who came first in my age group ran at a 5:13 pace. Totally doable, if I had actually run at race pace.... gets me motivated for next time!!

Here's some pics from the locations where the race was:

Yep that's my tiny little city in the background :) 

So purdy!