Couch to 5k

After my moan the other day about exercise, three of my friends suggested Couch to 5k- I had heard of this before but was sceptical. Each of these friends sang its praises and told me it was doable.

About 8pm I decided the house was quiet enough, and it was dark enough outside to have a go. I had downloaded the C25K app for my iPhone which would time each segment, had put my sports gear on and was ready. Then, the heavens opened, rain such as this had not been seen since the time of Noah- I exaggerate somewhat, but here was the excuse I needed. However, I decided to proceed- oh my goodness we got soaked- I was fortunate that I had a friend to keep me company in the rain. Did you know that when you have hair gel in and it rains a lot that the gel runs into our eyes and stings ever so slightly? It’s just one of life’s little truths that I’d avoided until today. The programme wasn’t unpleasant, with a brisk 5 minute walk, followed by 60 seconds of jogging, followed by 90 seconds of walking repeated 6 times, we were able to complete a 2 mile circuit. My limbs ached, but I wasn’t as shattered as the other night when I ran and walked a mile. I have to do this twice more this week to keep up with the programme, but I really think it might work (famous last words?).

Today also saw a return of the Hairy Dieters- they have a section in their book called “Fakeaways”- essentially providing recipes that provide low fat alternatives to takeaways. One of the things that we are very conscious of as we diet is that our children are not on diets, and so they shouldn’t really notice a difference or deterioration of the quality and taste of the things they eat. Curry is something we have regularly and I am very fortunate to have a wife who makes most things from scratch, and has taught me and the kids to do the same. So the transition to cooking a Korma from scratch isn’t a change to the way we do things, it is just the recipe that is different. The recipe suggested that it feed 4, but with six in the family we added half again of every ingredient (including the glorious array of spices) and still had lots lefts over to freeze. We all thoroughly enjoyed the meal- it was warm, but not uncomfortably so- it was a lovely meal (I really need to develop a wider vocabulary of adjectives). I’m really surprised that everything we’ve tried from the Hairy Dieters we’ve all really liked, needless to say I did not have the ice cream that my children had for pudding.