Happy New Year!

I wish you all the best for 2011! May this be a very successfull year in all areas of life for all of us.

I was successfull already in avoiding the NYE stress, I stayed at home and enjoyed the fireworks from my window. It was amazing, as if the whole city of Leipzig was making this firework just for me. ;-) I live on the ninth floor and the sight was perfect yesterday, so I could enjoy 6 hours of fireworks. After midnight it was naturally the most and went on for about 45 minutes. I was bored after 15 minutes and went back to bed! Yes, "back to"! I was tired even before midnight, but since I couldn't sleep in right away, I got up for the "main show" and had a look at what my three fortune cookies said about the next year. I had bought 2 of them and got one for free. The cashier in the asia market was giggling, because every customer bought fortune cookies yesterday and they gave one for free to every customer too.

So here is what the fortune cookies said:

1. You will meet an old friend on Friday.
   
2. You will always be surrounded by true friends.
3. Good news will be yours at your next medical.

Sounding good, huh? Well, I can guess already what the good news at my next medical will be. Probably that my ferritin level has gotten significantly higher or that my liver is happy, now that I eat low carb and therefore it doesn't have to produce triglycerides anymore or that my bodyfat percentage is significantly less then last year (my scale showed 60,7 kg this morning!). By the way, Januarys weight goal are a stable 59 kg showing on the scale. Less is fine though. Going by the daily movement of the last days I will accomplish this goal without any struggles. Wohoo.

Other goals for this year in no apparent order: getting a fantastic job (alright this is one of utmost importance), getting my bodyfat down to 15% (it hovers currently around 30%, I really have to reprogram my scale!), gaining lean muscle and strength, leaning out my closet even more, running a 10k race (preferably in one hour, but for that I need more strength first), finishing tasks and projects, learn japanese, buy an iPod Touch with 32GB within the first half of the year (I need it for the japanese learning), eat Paleo for 90% of the time, surprising the hell out of my docs.

(San Francisco December 2008)

To achieve all this, I already did some week planning for the next two weeks, including swimming and pampering myself on Saturdays and cleaning on Sundays (not that there is much to do, somehow I have become pretty organized since I moved into my own space). Should be interesting if I adhere to my own schedule or not.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!!

Readjusting the second

Since I have another interview next week and I want to look gorgeous, I've decided to make today and maybe tomorrow (depending on how I feel after today) detox days. I use Mireille Guilianos "Magical Leek Soup", which consists of nothing more than leeks and water. Now, I really like leeks so this should turn out well. (At least I hope so, there were some horror stories on the frenchwomendontgetfat.com forum.)

Except for the detoxing, it's also said to clean up the taste, free it from the processed food cravings. Since I have adopted some eating habits that are really bothering me and my food snob self, I think it's high time to do this cleaning. No more eating a quarter chocolate streusel cake for lunch! (Yep, did that one or two weeks ago! So sad.)

And since a clean body enjoys a clean room, I will also do another room cleaning including getting rid of some unnecessary stuff. There are still some boxes with clothes I want to look through. And then there is the huge heap of stuff on my wardrobe that needs sorting. I would've thought, that after one year of sorting out I would finally be done with it, but no, still way too much stuff clogging up my energy flow and my room. (No wonder I don't own a car, I sank all my money in "unnecessary" stuff. ouwww.)

But the getting rid of old stuff seems to help with getting rid of my bodyfat too. I had a nice surprise when I stepped on my scale this morning (to see if the claims of Mireille hold true for this too and not only for chocolate ;-). Since my worst times in January or February this year, when I weighed 66,6 kg I got rid of 4,9 kg, my scale showed 61,7 kg (roughly 10 pounds are gone). I wasn't this "light" in years.
My 33 birthday is in 12 days. It would be a fantastic birthday present to myself when I'd be under 60 kg by then, 59,9 kg is perfectly fine with me! But no pressure. ;-P

I'll keep you posted how the detox goes. And I have two new Taste Bud Adventures in the pipeline, which I'll post as soon as I get to it. (Hahah, no more promises for blogposts on a certain time, I've learned my lesson.)

This is a pic I took on one of Chris and mine Sunday bike tours.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

Superheavy?!

I forgot to weigh myself on Monday and yesterday so I did today. And wouldn't you know it, the easter sweets took it's toll.

65,5 kg Damn it!

On the up side, my skin is muuuuuuch better since I skip cereals. Now all I have to do is getting rid of the sweets and move my butt and I'll get rid of the body fat. Mmh, easier sat than done. But I'll succeed. Just you wait and see... Haha. I've watched Jamie Olivers Food Revolution on Monday. This was sooo eye opening.


Guess what, american and russian physicists collaborated and finally found the missing and superheavy element 117. You'll find the news at physorg.com. No, this isn't triathlon-related in general, but since I am interested in both it is now linked. Hahaha.


(http://chemistryandphysics.astate.edu/teaney/S07_Nuclear/First_Gold_Beam-Beam_Collision_Events_at_RHIC_at_100_100_GeV_c_per_beam_recorded_by_STAR.jpg)

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

April Fool's Day - even my scale

plays a joke on me. Meaning, when I stepped this morning on it, 64,6 kg were shown. 2 kg less then on Monday. Hahahaha. Really funny scale that I have. I don't think that I have lost that much weight in 72 hours. Well at least not fat. :-(

Mampf Diary March 31st
Breakfast (7:30 AM): 1 chocolate protein shake, 1 black tea

Lunch (10 AM to 12 AM): 1 Berry-chocolate -almond - shake, 1 red bell pepper, 1 pear,
Snack (1 PM): Para nuts ´
Dinner (8 PM): green fresh peas and scallops, 3 bites of harzer cheese, 1 cherry yogurt, 1 magnesium drink
10 PM: 1 glass of berry-chocolate-shake (rest of the smoothie I prepared for today)

As you can see I was a bit off the tracks due to the 1st day of Red Week and maybe the lack of sleep, otherwise I would have stuck to my 4hr routine and hadn't eaten that yogurt (too much sugar). I have trouble accomodating to summer time. In the evening I can't conk out and in the morning I have trouble getting up. I hope this normalizes during the next 4 days.

Happy Eastern everyone or whatever you celebrate.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

No good news - edit

SCAR(L)E Day
66,6 kg - I didn't have any need to check the other stats after seeing this.
And look what I found here: http://www.physorg.com/news188995945.html


My knee is acting up since yesterday noon. All due to some walking to the big supermarket on Saturday. The distance combined was just 4 (four!!) k for chrissakes. This is nowhere near my normal walking distances. Looking as it is, even the 10k is in jeopardy. Since it rains today, no cycling either. In any case I'll do my new favourite Monday thing today again, going to my doc to see if my MRI results are there. Wanna bet if they are finally there?

Other than that I had a nice weekend. Fashion drawing workshop. Which was fun and I learned a lot, as soon as I get my designs scanned I'll post them in my style blog. It was also the right time, because the coach had worked in the fashion industry and could give me a few ideas for my current applications. The first one I send out this morning, the next one I'll finish tonight. Saturday evening Chris and I indulged in a french cheese dinner. Pure bliss. And yesterday I archived my films properly and finished the first application and prepared two others.

edit: Just out of frustration of this weight disaster, yes disaster, I've decided to get back on the eating habits that work best for me: Paleo and raw food combined.
My mom will probably go ballistic over this, but I can't help it.
In the last few months I got into a totally unhealthy rut mostly due to my mom (oh San, I've bought Germknödel, now eat it. Germknödel is made of flour, water, yeast and sugar, any questions?!), when it comes to eating. Leading to weight gain instead of loss. (And my Mom stands there telling me I got fat and in the next moment she offers me food!)

I hereby declare the battle against my excess body fat and starchy foods = fast carbs as opened. New food rule, I'll eat as raw and as healthy as possible. This includes my proteinshakes but excludes: sweets, bread, pasta, rice and potatoes and chewing gum.

After the trip to my doc I'll get some sprouts at the asia shop and at home I'll get my lovely blender out. Berry/banana/nut shake and sprout/lettuce salad for Dinner here I come. Lunch was 2 cooked eggs, 2 red bell peppers, radish.

That's it, have a good start in this week.

Welcome to Ken L as a new reader. Glad you're here.

Keep moving forward!

No MRI results

yep, I've been to my doc this afternoon and they still didn't have the results. So I'm still off from running. >:-(

But on the up side, my knee seems to be healing. It hasn't been hurting since Friday. So I guess I'll test it with a bit of walking in my Converse tomorrow to see, if it's really mended or if I have to stay away from training a little bit longer.

Today is SCAL(R)E Day.
Here are the results:
weight: 65 kg
fat: 29,8 %
muscles: 34 %
h2o: 51,2 %

Not bad, considering that I haven't trained a bit last week. Seems as if my secret plan is working in that field. It took a bit of will, but I made it.

There was perfect spring weather today and I enjoyed quite a bit of it outside. Now it's cloudy again, I just hope that we've got good weather tomorrow so I can ride my bike to school.

That's it.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

A weekend without training ( Post111 ;-)

Good morning honeypuffs!

I enjoyed a nice weekend.

Stressful and appaling Saturday!
Saturday was a bit stressing, since I had to make birthday gifts (find them here), go into town to get pictures and a missing part of the presents, bake some muffins for the birthday party and get to the birthday party in time.

It worked out pretty fine considering that my Lomo camera broke. Suddenly the release suddenly didn't work anymore. So while my blueberry muffins were baking, I searched for the receipt and prepared the whole package to switch the camera at the store where I had bought it. As you can imagine I was slightly miffed at Lomography. A camera that brakes after 3 weeks... Well, I went to the store on my way to my friend and they switched it without any hassle. Then I only had to endure 10 kids in the age range 1 to 7 for about 5 hours, stayed for 6 1/2 hours. It was kind of hell to me. Don't get me wrong kids are fine! As long as I don't have to endure them. Well I coped. And stayed until 10:45 PM because K begged me, I would have left 3 hours earlier if she hadn't asked me to stay. I payed for my lack of self-preservation with cold feet and freezing on my way home, since I had to wait for the streetcar. Luckily I wore long trousers, there was a girl waiting with me who wore shorts (with tights, but still).

Oh yeah, remember that I wanted to talk to K's hubby D, about my ideas? Well we did and I know now that I can't count on him! Mind you he always complains at how stupid mankind is to destroy its own environment and that our leaders don't do anything about it. But guess what when I proposed a way to actually do something, to solve some of the problems he declined. He actually told me that it's nice that I worry but I don't have to because the universe/divine/umpalumpa/jesus will take care of it!!!!

I was so appaled!

How dare he talking to me like that, as if I'm a small child who cares about stuff it isn't supposed to care about! In any case I will follow my idea and make it work. He can stay in his little dream world.

Perfect Sunday afternoon!
Yesterday was close to a perfect Sunday. I slept in and in the early afternoon I went on Photosafiri. I shot 3 films with my new Lomo Fisheye. After this experience I think that my other Lomo never worked properly. When I got tired of shooting and the sun stood in the wrong place for more beautiful pictures, I got myself a Double Chocolate Muffin at Starbucks and went home by streetcar. There I cooked myself a hot chocolate and enjoyed it with the muffin in my ultracomfortable armchair in the late afternoon sunshine while listening to Sting's "Fields of Gold". *happy sigh* It was absolutely wonderful. A bit later I downloaded Shawn Colvins "Live" longplayer. This is just the best ever live longplayer. If you like her: GET IT!!! I snuggled deeper into my armchair, feet on the heating and headphones on. PURE BLISS!

And if that wasn't enough joy, I met with Chris at the cinema and we watched Tim Burtons "Alice in Wonderland" in 3D. Ah, the imagination and picture language of this man is unrivaled. I just LOVE his movies. Gawd, if you haven't so far, go and watch Alice, it's simply perfect. The colors, the story, the music! LOVE IT. It's my new favourite movie.

So yeah, perfect Sunday. *very happy sigh*

Today is SCAL(R)E DAY, weight stats:
weight: 64,8 kg = 142,86 lbs
fat: 29,5 %
muscles: 34,1 %
H2O: 51,5 %

This week I'll go swimming, no biking because we've got fresh snow again. Yep, it's back to icewalks instead of sidewalks. Bugger.

Have a good start in the new week and head over to KK's Views from the Mountain blog. She has a really interesting story to tell.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

I'm doomed

I just realized this morning that I have build not one snowman this winter!!! What the hell happened to my inner child?

Monday=SCAR(L)E DAY
Todays weight stats:
weight: 66,1 kg = 145,7 lbs (grrrrrr!)
fat: 30,4%
muscle: 33,9%
water: 50,9%

Well, it's no wonder the amounts of chocolate I ate this weekend....

In any case I have a plan for this month, only this time I won't tell anybody what it is. The reason is, everytime I talk about my ambitious plans, I don't follow them through. In my case you can be sure that if I promise something I will do the exact opposite. Normally shrinks tell you to tell everybody what you plan to do to give you some kind of push that you have to go through with it because you told everyone. It works just the other way around with me. Guess what, I haven't written one application this weekend! This makes me so mad.

So yeah, I've got a plan, but I won't tell ya what it is. I'll you at the end of this month what it was and if I pulled it through.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD.

Training with crows and nearly raw food

Good Morning.

I hope that you all have enjoyed your weekend. I certainly did. Well, what I did on Saturday, you could read in my previous post, except that I stepped on my scale in the morning. I wasn't exactly happy to see the number (66,5 kg), but it didn't down my mood anyway.

Yesterday I slept in, I got up exactly at noon and I wasn't really amused to see it was snowing (growl), but I didn't let it bother me and made my breakfast and put on my running gear. When I finally went out for my training session it was 1 o'clock and had stopped snowing. I walked fast to the track as warm up. Unfortunately the track wasn't completely free of snow, so I was shuffling/walking down the first straight around the curve and to the end of the second straight turned around and walked a bit to get my heartrate down. While doing this I also gave the crows a workout, since they always flew up when I ran in their direction. So we trained together. *grin*

I did some drills too and made an interesting experience. You know this drill where you run sideways switching your feet from front to back? Well, running to the right wasn't a problem. But when I did it to the left my legs and the mobility part of my brain were totally surprised and didn't know what to do. hahaha.

I really had the feeling that the electric impulses were frantically looking for ways to get where they should be, but oh no there were no paths... (Imagine the looks of pure horror on their faces, ahahahaha.) I nearly fell, because my body wasn't ready for these moves. Well after another normal shuffling "lap" I did this leftsided drill again but this time really slow, to get my body and brain to remember the movements and build the necessary neuro paths.

Yesterdays stats (beware: my watch didn't measure right in the first 15 min)
time: 54:36 min
in Zone: 21:36 min
heartrate: 143 bpm

This morning I walked to school, so I already got 5k for this week. Wohoo. And since this is Monday it's SCAL(R)E DAY:
weight: 64,6 kg (wohoo, much better than Saturday, though I probably only lost water)
fat: 29,4%
muscles: 34,1%
water: 51,3%

This is was

yesterdays raw meal.

Salad made of Pastileien salad (the green stuff, I don't know the english name), tomatoes, mushrooms, hemp seed, grinded flax seed, spices, olive oil, pumpkin seed oil, aceto balsamico cremoso and grilled salmon (yeah, I know grilled isn't raw, but have you ever tried deep frozen salmon? Not that good.). Yummy.

KEEP MOVING FORWARD!

SCAL(R)E Day & Weird knee & Mampf Diary

Good Morning.

Monday morning weird knee update: my left leg is okay again. After having been to the cinema with heels (2"), it was nearly gone. I still feel it, but I can move without looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Major advantage!

Today is SCAL(R)E Day. Here are my weight stats:
Weight: 64,9 kg = 143,08 lbs
H2O: 51,3 %
Fat: 29,7 %
Muscles: 34,1 %
Bones: 7,7 kg

Mampf Diary
Friday: chocolate protein shake, assorted nuts, 1 honey melon, 2 bagels (chocolate, cinnamon-raisin), 1 ciabatta roll with goats cheese, 1 ciabatta roll with curd, 2 servings of chocolate pudding (75% of chocolate, yummy), 2 Lion bars, tea and water all through the day

Saturday: chocolate protein shake, 1 ciabatta roll with goats cheese, 1 ciabatta roll with curd, 2 servings of chocolate pudding (75% of chocolate, yummy), 2 Lion bars, tea and water all through the day

Sunday: chocolate protein shake, veal steak with string beans and carrots, 2 servings of chocolate pudding (75% of chocolate, yummy), 1 Lion bar, 1 apple, 1 Curly wurly, tea and water all through the day


I'm all set for a much better week than last week. (For those of you who might have wondered why I didn't go swimming, I've had my cycle during last week and still on Saturday and since Saturday is my swim day...) So this week I will walk much more, go swimming and watch out what I eat and when. I also made some changes in my clothing: more adult, less student. And I will envision my goals daily to get my Über-Ich working on my new and aspired life. Olympia 2012 beware Super-San is on her way to the Olympic Triathlon. Muahahahahah.

By the way: Chris and I watched "Percy Jackson" last night. This movie was sooooooooooooooo poorly written. Seriously, I can't imagine how bad this moviewriter must be to put out a movie this boring and bad, when the original series is extremely funny, hugely imaginative and perfectly paced. It makes me want to send him a book on how to write a good movie script. If you like books with a nice twist on reality get the real Percy Jackson books, they are worth every penny. Stay away from the movie!

Keep moving forward!

The horror of SCALE DAY

Good ev'nin'.

Now, now, monday mornings how I hate ya. For one thing, it's a new week of work/class for which I have to get up (getting up is definitely overrated, when beds are warm and snuggly) and for the other thing,sigh, it's SCAL(R)E DAY. Again. As I've already told ya, I felt like I had gained weight and I was right.

Here are todays weight stats:
weight: 65,3 kg = 143.96 lbs = 10.28 stones
H2O: 51,2 %
Fat: 29,9 %
Muscles: 34,0 %

So, I've decided to have a better watch on what I put in my mouth.

Todays Mampf Diary (in that order, tea and water all the while):
Chocolate Protein Shake, Green tea, 3 tangerines, 1 apple, a handful of nuts (hazel, almonds, cashews), peppermint tea, 1 chocolate bagel, 1 chocolate donut (doughnut - what's the right spelling?), water, 2 slices of french bacon (ca. 0,1 ounce), 1 wiener sausage, 1 left over portion of wild boar stew and brussels sprouts (Dad cooked, yummy), 1 serving of wild berries as soon as they are defrosted.

Yep, I've had a bagel and a donut. Not exactly healthy but I needed this chocolate fix desperately. Class was.... mmh, how to describe it. Well I'm speechless.

As promised, I was out and about yesterday. I walked to the city to my bank and went back home via streetcar, since it was dark and I started to get cold. Nothing to be proud of, except for getting out in the freezing cold for an hour. Temperatures dropped considerably from Saturday. I side with TriDiesel, I'm getting bored of this cold and the winter, especially since I can't afford to go snowboarding at the moment. I want it to get warm and the spring to get here, even though this winter is good for nature. To get out running without having to think of slipping every second step or so.

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/ucumari/4244068527/-- "Just 5 more minutes, PLEASE!")

There is something about Sundays that I only want to snuggle deeply into my bed, drink lots of hot chocolate, read some nice and imaginative fantasy/magic novel, snooze or get up late to meet with friends and play a nice board game with them. Instead I vacuum cleaned my room yesterday and got out in the cold. Brrr.

I hope you all enjoyed the Super Bowl, though I could have watched, I've decided against it. It was just starting too late for me, midnight and then ca 2-3 hours of game, when I had to get up at 6:30 AM. Not for a game that means nothing to me. Still I have to say, I'm really pleased with the win of the Saints, it's a really good story. I'm pretty sure there will be a movie about it, though maybe not on the silver screen.

Mind you, for the race of Thomas vs. CJ I would have stayed up. Get over to Georgia Snail, the race report is fabulous. Oh, Jenna and Molly did also really well this weekend. Hurray for all of you.

Hello to Reader No. 9, Bury. Welcome aboard.

What do you think of my wonderful new ticker?! I found it through http://yourunnoreallyyourun.blogspot.com/, poor girl is in the same boat as me at the moment, looking for a new job.

Keep running or walking, depending on your sidewalks. (Or skiing if you live in Washingtons winter fairy tale!)

The 'Freddy Krüger' Eggplant

Good morning, before we get to the eggplant recipe (19! pics, I think I enjoy photography way too much these days ;-) some stats.

Monday is SCAL(R)E Day.
weight: 64,3 kg (=141,75 lbs)
body fat: 29,4 %
muscles: 34,2 %

Yesterday Chris and I were actually running at our local track again, one track has been freed of snow and ice. It was freezing cold - 10° C = 14 ° F but it felt more like - 25° C = -13° F
Stats:
time: 1:17 hrs
in zone: 42 min (wahoo)
HR: 145 bpm

The Freddy Krüger Eggplant recipe
based on Babaganoush

Ingredients (for one hungry girl):
100 g = 3.5 oz feta cheese,
1 lemon,
1 eggplant,
1 large bell pepper,
Baharat spice mix (oriental spice),
pumpkinseed oil,
spices you like

prep time needed: ca. 45 minutes depending on the eggplant size

Manual:

1. Switch on your oven, choose the highest temperature.

2. Wash your eggplant and take a knife and call upon your inner Freddy Krüger! Grrrrr!!

3. Stab the eggplant several times. (Cuff your Freddy and put him back into his Azkaban cell! [I know I mix them up.] ;-)

4. Take some aluminium foil and put the eggplant on it in the oven. Carefull don't burn yourself.

5. Let the eggplant bake for 35 to 45 minutes!

6. Take a small lemon and juice it, if it's a big one use only half of the juice. (If you like it sweeter you could also use orange juice (never did it, though, just thinking).)

7. Break the feta cheese into small pieces or dice it and give it to your lemon juice.

8. Add the baharat and other spices, take as much as you like. Cheese will take some of the taste, so you'll have to season to taste before you serve it.

Now for the chocolate sauce...

9. Ahahaha, got ya. It's the pumpkinseed oil. To me absolutely delicious but not exactly inexpensive. Add some of it.

10. Blend it all carefully. If you haven't got a standing blender and want to buy one of these, make sure that you can separate the motor part from the blender like this.

Otherwise cleaning it is quite tricky.

When finished leave the mass in the blender. (Another reason for a separable blender, you can leave it standing in the food for a few minutes without it becoming unbalanced. [depending on the swell ;-P])

11. There should be several minutes left of baking time, take the time to prepare your bell pepper (wash, slice, display) and your table.

Option: If you are really hungry or if you prepare for two, you can fry some tenderloin, while the eggplant is still baking. And slice them.

12. When the eggplant is ready it should look like this or darker. Take it carefully out of the oven and put it on a plate.

13. Cut it in half and leave it for a few minutes to cool down.

14. Take a spoon and scrape out the pulp to add it to your cheese mixture.

15. Blend it again and season to taste for the last time. Et voila.

Enjoy your meal!

KEEP RUNNING and EAT WELL!

Stats

Yesterday it snowed again.

Chris and I met at 10 AM. She texted me to meet an hour later, unfortunately I got the message after I got up at 8 AM. And you know what, she overslept! When I turned up at hers 10:10 AM she hadn't even gotten up! BTW, it was her idea to meet at 9 AM, I didn't want to get up this early, but she insisted... Well thanks my friend.

Anyway, it was really hard to even walk in this fresh snow. We saw some runners, I don't have a clue how they managed to run and remain upright. A lot of nordic skiers were out, too.

Yesterdays stats:
distance: ca. 8 k
time: 2:10 hrs
in zone: 12:48 min
HR: 113 bpm

When I got home I was deep frosted. ;-) I cooked my french leek soup, emphasis on my, it isn't really french. After that I got into the hot bath tub to defrost and dozed the whole afternoon, I didn't have any energy left to even read.

Today is SCAR(L)E DAY:
weight: 64,4 kg + 500g
H2O: 51,3 %
Fat: 29,7 %
Muscles: 34,2 %
Bones: 7,6 kg

It's no wonder, I didn't work out and I ate wrong, that's my receipt.

Except for the swimming on Saturday, last week was off. BTW, I NEVER was a good swimmer. There was a gradesystem for it in GDR, grade 3 was highest for normal (non-competition) swimmers, I only made it to grade 2 because I was too slow. Again. And again, it never occured to me, that I could train to become better and faster! Okay, I was eleven back then, but still...

Anyway, that's the past. I'm starting out new now.

Keep Running.

Two steps forward, one step back

Morning everyone. Thank you all for the comments. Now I finally know what you mean with PR! xD

I didn't run/march yesterday. My "official" reason was that I wanted to detox (when I do that I always feel a bit weird) and that I needed to apply for a job at BASF. The truth is more along the lines that I fell back in my old habits and that quite massively. I ate Monday and yesterday a quarter chocolate streusel cake, everyday! The application? I'm still not through with it, though the process is really good organized (Hurray for BASFs HR department) but it uses SAP and this program SUCKS. I did clean my room too, but more to procrastinate than to actually clean it. :-P

Why now 2 steps forward?
Well, on Monday I went to my osteopath to get my muscles sorted out. After a year it was high time for it. And my osteopath always gives me other advice too. Sometimes this advice a bit on the esoteric side, but it's fun nonetheless. So last year we let my "inner woman" out of the box. ;-D Which led to a lot of new clothes and cremes and jewelry and make up over the last year. Good excuse, huh?
Now this time she asked my tummy how it feels and my tummy meant that I should stop holding back and take the leads of my life in my own hands. In other words "KEEP MOVING FORWARD" (I love "meet the robinsons!"). My intestines want me to detox. Oh, and we found out that my inner throne stands in Scotland. xP Did I mention that I love Scotland, but didn't feel up to apply for jobs there in the past time!?

What should I do with these esoteric insights?

As you can tell after reading the top paragraph, I hid and went back instead of forward. I really think it's time to stop with this weird rebellious thing, because this way I won't get where I want to be.

Tri Diesel has this wonderful post about what is your real motivation to do triathlons. Well, I gave it some thought. Like everyone else I have some of these irrational reasons to train for marathons and triathlons.
- In school I was the last one to be picked for a team, because I was so unsporty. I wasn't fat or so, just not sporty. Well, now I'm off to proof I am a lot more sporty than the rest. :-)
- I never won some of these sport medals in school. In fact one of my closest friends had and probably still has tons of them. I know it's ridiculous, but I want to have more sport medals than she has! (By the way she laughed at me, when I told her my longterm goal is the Ironman.)
- Everyone (except Chris and Anne) tells me that I won't be abled to run a marathon, let alone do an Ironman. I want to proof them wrong!!!!
- I want to wear boots and clothes that I like, and I want my jeans to last for more than just a few months. (This jeans thing is getting annoying and expensive!)
- And last but not least, I have the feeling, that I didn't really have accomplished something with getting my engineering diploma (german diplomas are higher than bachelor but less than master). Though I'm still in awe, that I am an engineer now. There are so many engineers out there but a lot less Ironmans and you can't fake it or cheat at the tests.
There you are, these are my reasons for running and starting out with tri training this year.


Okay, enough of the pity party. Sundays and Mondays stats.
Sunday training stats:
distance: ca. 5 k in 20 cm of fresh snow!!!
time: 1:02:55 hrs
in zone: 7:33 min
HR: 113 bpm

Monday was SCAL(R)E DAY
weight: 63,9 kg (+ 400 grams)
H2O: 51,5 %
fat: 29,4 % (+0,4 %)
muscles: 34,3 %
bones: 7,6 kg

I will do my march today. I have to go to the city to get a scan for my application and even though I could use the streetcar and it's -10°C = 14°F, I'll need to get back to training more than a warm butt. I mean, I've gained 400 grams. That's inacceptable! My goal is 51 kg on April 24th 2010, one day before the Leipzig marathon.

And to end this post on a positive note, on Monday I've bought my first training reward: the earrings. (Might be the reason I didn't get into gears yesterday, because I've got what I wanted. mmh) The next reward will be a sports duffel, since I want to start with swim training in April and don't have a appropriate duffel for it. Oh yeah, I'll go swimming this Saturday, the first time in about 2 1/2 years! Lets hope my suit still fits.

Keep running!

Good news post! (edit)

Hi everyone.
The new track training definitely works. I've got sore leg muscles. It's weird, but I'm glad about it.
Today, I'll eat a lot of protein, to help my muscles to recover. Chris will run track with me tomorrow. I'll look up the Runners ABC later, then we can start with it tomorrow too.

Today is Monday, so it's SCAL(R)E DAY.
I don't know how you ate on your holidays, but I ate too much and mostly bad stuff. Which would normally mean that I gain weight.

BUT NOT THIS TIME!

San proudly presents her AFTER-X-MAS-WEIGHT-STATS:
Weight: 63,5 kg (- 1,3 kg! = - 2,87 lbs!) = 139,99 lbs or 979938.2716 grains (hihi)
H2O: 51,8 %
Fat: 29,0 %
Muscles: 34,3 %
Bones: 7,6 kg = 16,75 lbs

WAHOOOOOOOOO!

(new)
I finally got around to do a spreadsheet for this whole scale thing. And what I found in going through the numbers was this: I got rid off 2,4 % of body fat since November 27th!!! Which I consider really good news!

(old)
Chris and I watched "Bright Star" yesterday. I'm sorry to say, but this movie sported a lot of lengths. Though it was beautifully made and the actors were good and Fanny's dresses were great.

Keep running!

Christmas preps and SCAL(R)E DAY

Hello again.
Have you all got every christmas presents in place? I've got nearly everything ready, and I'm glad about it. I've been to a christmas "party" or better christmas tea with some friends of mine (and their kids). I think most of my presents were appreciated. And I got the coolest thing ever an iPOTT. Yes, you've read right, it's in fact a big cup.

Since I barely leave the house without my iPod, it's a perfect gift. ;-D

Anyway, yesterday was also a training day and it was freezing outside. Temperatures were around -15°C = 5° Fahrenheit. My Dad started on Saturday to talk me out of training, due to the temperatures. Chris and I went anyway, and we were really lucky because we had perfect sunshine, though it was pretty windy at the lake. When I got home after 3 1/2 hours, I had warm feet and frozen thighs, as always. Another reason to get rid of the excess fat, I want warm thighs and for that they have to be nothing but muscles. Well, a girl can dream.

Yesterdays stats:
Distance: ca. 16 k
Time: 3:21 hrs
in Zone: 52 min
heartrate: 118 bpm

Since I did another 5 km on Saturday when I went to an indoor christmas market, I'd say mission accomplished for this weekend and the whole week! Here are some pictures of yesterdays fight against the cold.

Me! I wear running gear under the wider clothes, well, I hate to feel cold.

Chris, she's in fact wearing her bike winter tights.

A tree on a small old cemetry.

On our way to the lake, we found it interesting that the water was still flowing.

The Markkleeberger See, one of the huge (european huge;-) lakes which were made after the open-cast mining stopped in this area. The lake was flooded during the last years, it's actually the first time I went there. And since it's a long round, without too many streets, I'll do my future long runs there. Fun fact: water temperature was a lot higher than air (3°C to -15°C). So I joked about going swimming to warm up. hihi.


Today I had finally the guts to get back on the scale. It's SCAL(R)E DAY!
Weight stats:
weight: 64,8 kg (The scale couldn't decide, it got higher when I stepped on a second and third time, I'll stick with the first measurement. ;-))
body fat: 29,6 %
muscles: 34,1 %
H2O: 51,4 %
Bones: 7,7 kg
Seems like I got a higher bone density and some more body fat :-( But I put on less weight than I thought I did, I wouldn't have been surprised to see something like 66 kg. Well, running is good, but I need to keep an eye on my diet. I'll be more serious on Paleo from now on.

I'm nearly finished with tidying up my room and but I'll run some numbers since I've decided to buy myself a new macbook in February. Mine is driving me nuts. Well, in fact it's the battery, but I won't pay another 120 € for a new battery when I've already decided to buy a whole new macbook in a few months. Originally I wanted to buy it in May, but due to the battery problem...

KEEP RUNNING! Even if your battery gives up. ;-D

Recovery Day

Where to start?!

Okay, first the speed training with the running seminar yesterday.
We met at 7 p.m. on the testfield of the DHFK (German University for Physical Culture, it is now a part of the University of Leipzig. But if you ask any denizen of Leipzig for the DHFK, he/she will still know where you have to go.) We were a huge group as you can see.

Since the track isn't big enough for 8 different pace groups, the six "slow" groups went down to run at the river bank. (Seems to be the runners route in Leipzig, we met so many.) The training went as followed. We had to run 1 km in the time we wanted to have our normal pace later. Between the "fast" 1 km legs we had 3 minutes of trot. This 1 km we had to ran accordingly to our schedule 6 to 10 times.

So, since I want to run a 6:30 (hahaha, dream on girl!) pace, I had this amount of time to run from the special parkbank to the second stairs, which is exactly 1 km. (I'll see how the weather is on Sunday, to get some pictures for you.) And my schedule said 8 km.

If you've read my post from last week, you'll know that my normal pace is 8:57 min and I only ran 3,5 km then. You're starting to guess it, don't ya? To make things worse, I walked 11 km on Wednesday to and fro the city (5 km one leg), after the 12 km training on Tuesday. Worsest? Yesterday I walked 9 km home through the city. I guessed it was fabulous weather so why pay for a tram ticket when I have legs?! When I got home at 3:45 p.m. my feet hurt already. And then I went to speed training!!! Do I have to write any more?!?

I got there with the tram (streetcar) and walked to the changing room. Meeting all the other runners was really exciting and I couldn't get the grin from my face. Peter, the organizer, called out the groups and so I went to the 6:30 group. HUGE mistake! We trotted down to the start at the river with Katharina (our tutor). Where we started with the fast running. Well the others started. I ended up with two Ladies trailing 100 m behind the group. What a humiliation! And if that wasn't enough, my right calf couldn't decide whether it wanted to cramp or not. After km four I wanted to throw it, but I stuck with the two ladies and did 2 more. After them we trotted back to the track grabbed our things and left. Well before I left the track I trank my vial of aminoacids. Eek, but if it helps. I went home by tram.

When I got home I was totally beside me. I even took a bite from a cookie! Luckily I realized what I did after the first bite and gave the rest to my dad. (Later I was really hungry and ate a buttered roll. >-( ) After that incident I sank into a hot and very relaxing bath and granted myself a chocolate treat - Fioretto!!! (I bought it myself and don't work or write for this company and this is my honest opinion.)

Necessary items to train for a marathon: chocolate treats and a bathtub!!!

http://www.clawfoot-connection.com/Fgallery/clawfoot222.jpg
(This would be my dream bathroom. Sadly my parents have only a normal bathtub / bathroom. But it's better than nothing.)

Oh, and since my Polar didn't work I don't have any stats for you. Sorry. But here is my Mampf
Diary:
BF: 350 ml protein chocolate shake, 2 golden kiwis (the fruit! I'm not a cannibal.)
Lunch: Veal with a Dream Apple and 2 golden kiwis (pic)
Dinner: buttered roll (told ya I was totally off)
Snacks: 1 waffle with vanilla cream, 1 bag of nuts, 1 Fioretto, 1 bite of a chocolate cookie

Yesterdays lunch. Strange but Yummy!

Today was SCAL(R)E DAY! I wanted to know if I had lost some weight since Wednesday, hopefully another 300 grams. I was NOT prepared to see this:

Weight 64,2 kg

Thats 800 grams less. And it wasn't water! It's been bodyfat. The full scale stats are this:
Weight: 64,2 kg
body fat: 29,1 % (minus 0,9 % since monday!!!!)
water: 51,7 %
muscles: 34,1 %
bones: 7,6 kg

So, yesterdays nightmarish training was worth something. My thighs aren't too sore, but we'll see what they say tomorrow. Essentially I took this day off to recover. My mom was really nice and got me some marvelous beef tenderloin (she was so mad at the butcher, because it was really expensive). This is what I made for my lunch today:

Beef tenderloin with sautéd mushrooms and a tossed salad with bell pepper and tomatoes. The dressing on the tenderloin is "Balsamico Cremoso". This was a culinarily marvelous meal. *Sigh* After that I took time to recover more deeply (afternoon nap ;-).

As you can see I'm back on track when it comes to eating Paleo. Next scheduled training is on Sunday. 15 km. Tomorrow my dad and me will repaper the kitchen of my grandma. No other workout, though I thought I would run my 3,5 km but my legs feel crappy. So, I'll give them more rest. And since the weather is bad too, I've got no guilty feeling for not being out in the sunshine.

KEEP RUNNING!!

Leipzig south-western sky, Wednesday, ca. 3:30 pm.

A Day out of time

you sometimes need days like this. And yesterday certainly was one for me.

I went to sleep really late Saturday night 4 o'clock in the morning. No, I haven't been out, it was what I call a "link-aton" on youtube. I started watching with some video, by midnight I wanted to watch "The Glass Slipper" with Leslie Caron (I love this movie and wish the would finally release it on DVD). Thanks to the Pawlowian reflex I'm trained to eat something while watching it. And since I had no bell pepper already cut, I turned to toast bread. (Which is wrong on sooo many levels.) Gone the two days of nearly eating Paleo (the cheese remember?!).

Here's my first trick for you, always keep some fresh vegetable pieces in the refrigerator ready to eat. Because sometimes you just need something to nosh on and are mostly to lazy to make something at these moments. Prepare some slices of apple, bell pepper, carrots or whatever you like. But remember, it has to be raw and non-starchy. I love green bell peppers for this, funnily enough I don't like them cooked or baked, they are getting too bitter for me through it.

My Mampf Diary of Saturday, 28.11.09:
BF: 400 ml of chocolate protein shake, 1 sliced apple
Lunch: 1 saladheart (green salad which is sold as a triplet, I found that 1 saladheart is just the right amount for a salad for me alone), cherry tomatoes, 1 red bell pepper, some mushrooms & a diced and baked turkey cutlet.
Dinner: non, since I ate lunch a 5:30pm.
Snacks: 1 green bell pepper, 1 bag of nuts, 2 slices of toast.

My lunch salad. (Sorry that it's so blurry, I haven't found the right way to take these pictures, but I'm working on it. :-)

Trick No. 2: As you've read I ate a bag of nuts. Now before you're too shocked. Nuts are perfect for your body, rich in good fatty acids and other stuff, really low in carbohydrats. Still you shouldn't eat too much. Now since they are so munchable you easily eat too much, but you can outwit yourself fairly easy. Put the allowed amount (something around 50 g per day) in small(!) zipper bags, this way you can't overeat unconsciously. I bought a 200g bag of nuts and put about 50 grams in the zipper bags. (Since it was a nutmix I actually counted every sort of nut and put the same amount in every bag. I know, I'm weird, it probably comes with the engineering, everything has to be measured. ;-) You don't have to count them, if you've got a kitchen scale it's much easier, but I don't have one, so... (I think I'll get myself one for x-mas.) These little snack bags are really practical, you can put one in your bag/purse, this way your not tempted to get some easily available sweets (e.g. cupcakes or really bad things like donuts, don't get me wrong I like them too) or burger.

Back to my Sunday. I had to get up fairly early (8 am) to meet with my friend at the flea market (9:30 am). I walked there (2.5 km) and didn't buy a thing (proudly swelled chest;-). The market was a lot smaller then the last time and no interesting stuff. But my friend and I talked about a job offer for which I have an interview in exactly two weeks, about which I have really split feelings (Story for another post). When I came back (11am), I repaired my bed together with my dad and then we had lunch. Afterwards I took a really long sunday afternoon nap, because of my sleeping deficit. The dream I had was a nice mixture of a lot of my favourite stories and stayed with me when I woke. So I dozed along, since it was already dark outside and could think of nothing better to do. Later on I watched "Howl's Moving Castle" (if you haven't watched it yet, you should it's one of my alltime favs) and got to bed fairly early.

Sunday Mampf Diary:
BF: 400 ml of chocolate protein shake,
Lunch: scalloped cutlets, salsifies, apple puree
Dinner: 4 slices of toast with hungarian peperoni (my mom bought the peperoni just for me, so I had to eat it, otherwise there would have been a 'discussion', now that there is no peperoni left I can eat fully Paleo)
Snacks: 1 Dream Apple, 3 pieces of dark chocolate

Since I was in a hurry yesterday morning I didn't weigh myself. But I did today, so its SCAL(R)E DAY.
weight: 65,3 kg (300 gr. less than Friday, impressing no?)
water: 51,1 %
bodyfat: 30,0 % (1,4% less, but don't get too excited, I think it's because I changed some of the parameters, the activity level is 3 now and was 2 on friday)
muscles: 34,0 %
Next SCAL(R)E DAY is Sunday.

I won't run or march today, but do some stretching and crunches to strengthen my stomach muscles. Tomorrow I march/run 12 km though.

Enough, this post is a lot longer than I wanted it to be.

Keep running!

SCALE DAY - Horror or fun?

Hi, hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Mine certainly is, though no sunshine so far.

Today is sunday and that means SCALE DAY.

If I read the display right my weight is 63,5 kg. Which is more than last week. But since I started to run again and it's a certain time of month (you girls, know what I'm talking about) at which I always put on some weight thats okay with me.

As I've written in my Ouch - post I had been pretty sore after my first proper run in months and the Friday run wasn't exactly easy on me either. Interestingly enough yesterday and today I'm fine. No soreness whatsoever! Since I want to find out how many days of rest my body exactly needs I won't run today but tomorrow, we'll see how that works out.

Allright, I've promised a tasty recipe to you. I made this recipe up on my own and I LOVE IT. It's called Dream Apple, it's easy, fast, yummy, healthy, paleo diet okay and it contains only 3 ingredients.

Ingredients for 1 person:
1 apple (i like fuji, but you can take whatever apple you like)
pinenuts (as much as you like)
cinnamon (dito)







Additionally you'll need a small bowl, a knife and a spoon.

Preparation
Wash the apple and then diced it into the bowl, add as much pinenuts as you like and then sprinkle it with the cinnamon. Et voila. A tasty and paleolike dish or dessert. Enjoy it.



Okay, I've got some stuff to organize, I wish you a good start in the new week.

Keep running!