MrsB

I got up a bit grumpy this morning (you could probably tell based on my last post) but went to CrossFit regardless. At 5:40 there was no point in going back to bed knowing Oliver would be up around 6 and I knew I was going to feel better after the class – no one EVER feels worse after exercising.

So by 7am I was in Canary Wharf again and it was raining and totally miserable outside. During the warm-up we practiced the head stand and I usually just balance with my knees resting on my elbows. When the trainer asked whether I can lift up my knees I said “Nope”. [...]

It’s no surprise to anyone who’s a mother that motherhood changes you. It changes you in ways you predicted (e.g. boobs – gone, bellybutton – ‘frowning’) but it also changes you in ways you never thought about (e.g. not being able to watch the news, not being able to listen to music when home alone because all you want to listen to is SILENCE).

In my case I’ve also noticed that ever since my last baby was born, I’ve actually for the first time started to have PMS :|. The fact that for 33 years I never really felt like I ever had PMS is I guess good for me, but to get it NOW is sort of not very hilarious. [...]

Oliver’s nativity play + Joseph’s oufit
Oliver not really participating because he hates big crowds
Office Christmas dinner
Five working days
Seven CrossFit days [...]

Haven’t written a Run for Fun post since 1st of October when it was all about mixing up the training in preparation for the two half marathons I ran that month. Since then I’ve pretty much stayed with the same training schedule – CrossFit twice a week, 10k run on Wednesdays or Thursdays, and a long run (22-25km) on a Saturdays or Sundays. I haven’t done any hill repeats since my last half marathon though – CrossFit gives my muscles a good enough workout that I don’t feel the need to go mad on the hills at the moment!

My long runs have been to Richmond Park lately. I finally figured out how to run there without getting lost :) The quickest way is through Wimbledon Common but at this time of the year the common is very muddy so I’ve been taking the road around it which makes the loop a bit over 22km long – perfect for a weekend run.

I love long runs because they make you think about running, they make you preservere, they make you patient and they make you cherish how far you have come in the whole running journey.

The more I do it and the more distance I cover, the more I am seeing how running is just as good for my mind as it is for my body. [...]

This time I’m just referring to colour – I have been actually feeling ok since the post on being a hopeless geriatric and never fitting in at CrossFit – so I’m only talking about lovely blue Instagram shots that happen at this time of the year here in London.

Instagram is probably my most used app and even though I have other photo editing apps, I keep coming back to Instagram because it’s so simple to use. A few months ago they added a new ‘add a bit of sunshine’ button to the app – have you seen it?

I use it for most outdoor shots, it adds a tiny bit of extra colour and just makes everything pop. For indoor shots and portraits is does not work at all, so don’t be alarmed if you try it on those and the result is awful. [...]

Our little holiday in Corwall was so nice, coming back to London and running the Run to the Beat half marathon last Sunday was nice and then – then everything’s gone downhill. Little trivial things in the great scheme of things, but little things add up…

So what’s happened? Well, Tuesday and Wednesday in CrossFit have left me really sore again and for some reason I’m not able to find joy in that soreness this time. For some reason it hit me really hard on Wednesday morning that I’m at least 10 years older than everyone else in my class and just twice a week CrossFit makes me exhausted and sore. Also, there is only 1, sometimes 2 women in my classes… they are very nice but in general I feel really out-of-place in a big group of guys, I feel like a fraud, like a silly old geriatric trying to keep up with the young kids. The sabotager part of my brain has been saying: Who am I kidding? I will never have a six-pack. Those abs of mine have been shot to shreds by those lovely kids of mine. I will never be able to do 10 pushups or even a single pull-up. I’m an old woman.

I hate that part of my brain… [...]

MrB and I ran our 3rd Run to the Beat half marathon this morning. Almost 4 years ago he signed me up for the 2010 race when I was strongly in the mindset of ‘I cannot run’ and in pure fear of dying in front of a large audience, I started training and the rest is history!

First RTTB was freezing, second RTTB was HOT, third one today was freezing again. No amount of hopping in one place for 40 minutes before the start can keep your body warm so the legs felt totally stiff from the get go. I actually appreciated that it was really crowded in the beginning – it meant that I was forced to run slowly. I wish I could say that I warmed up and sped up but after a few kms but that didn’t happen. I did increase my speed a little every km from about 5km onwards, but the legs never felt loose. [...]

I baked some cookies last week using this recipe. The kids looked at them and said “What?!? Porridge cookies?! No thanks!”.

Great.

They demand porridge every morning but when I put oats in baked goods it’s a no-go?

Oh well. My brain was frazzled and not thinking straight due to the joy of PMS… so I ate two that evening. It would be no big deal if I didn’t know clearly that sugar does not do my body nor my mind any good. Darn hormones.

Anyway, these babies are good. I would bake them on a regular basis IF I could handle sugar – IF I didn’t feel noticeably healthier, happier, stronger when I do not eat sugar.

So after my lapse last week (I had a couple the next day as well :|), I am now back to my sugar-free existence and feeling much better now that the sugar-bloating has passed. [...]

It’s FrOctober… and as vain as posting photos of you outfits online can seem – I rather like this initiative and have seen lots of good come out of it on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

So keep on frocking it, ladies! (and kick that PND to the curb!)

As you can probably tell from the change of my post subjects in the last 12 months from mostly parenting stuff to mostly health and fitness stuff – I’m having a midlife crisis. It’s the good kind of midlife crisis though :), the kind that urges me to make positive changes in my life and [...]

A comment to my recent protein pancake post said “Are you still on your sugar free diet? I seriously don’t know how you do it…” …

I have been thinking and thinking about all the comments that were made on my last post and I feel like I need to clarify what I’m thinking…

What I’m thinking is that I know what depression feels like. It is a dark and awful place to be in. I have been diagnosed with it so far twice in my life, once in my early 20s and again about 18 months ago. …

Life is weird at the moment. I ran out of my Citalopram tablets about two weeks ago, went without them for a few days, then got a new prescription but started taking half a dose every day.

I am definitely feeling the effects of the lower dose. …

I think that a large proportion of the western world does not take care of new mothers.

It starts with labour – the baby is monitored closely, but very often the wellbeing of the mother is a secondary priority.

After the birth, most of the attention is on the baby. …