Friday 11 June 2010

Are cucumbers healthy?

Well, most people would think so...

I was sitting in the café of a well know supermarket chain yesterday, having a cup of black coffee [1 calorie] and a slice of cheesecake [prolly 250 calories], for breakfast. Admittedly it wasn't the healthiest of brekkies, but it was just what I fancied, it was only one slice and not the whole cake, and the option of the full fried breakfast after having Chinese for our anniversary the night before wasn't going to cut it.

So, there I was, sitting happy in the knowledge that I knew that my food wasn't the greatest but hey, I run so I can eat whatever the hell I like, and more importantly, I can choose a healthy option for lunch or tea or the next day.

I just happened to be sitting on the other side of a dividing screen wall (you know the trellis type things they have in these places) with two ladies sitting discussing the calorie content of food whilst tucking into their full English & tea. From what I can gather they were in there to do some shopping for whatever diet plan they were going to be following. It all seemed to be fairly sensible stuff, but they were already looking forward to 'getting back off the plan and into real life'.

Why the hell do you even attempt to do this if you're already thinking about ditching it before you've even started. One would think that there's absolutely no way that this plan could ever have worked out for these people as there was no motivation to stay on it 'afterwards', what they needed was a bit of a sitting down and just explaining that in order to maintain any kind of weight loss you either have to a] stay with the healthy eating forever, or b] pull your thumb out and do some exercise. Preferably a combination of the two.

I was just finishing off my cuppa and preparing to leave when I heard the line that told me they were definitely doomed.

'I've got cucumbers on my list here'

'Oh don't get those, I've heard they're really fattening'

If I hadn't of been with my hubby (and didn't want to embarrass him, them or myself by putting my two peneth in) I'd have put them right. But to be quite honest I think I could have sat there for two days talking to the ladies and still not made any impact.

Health professionals, and TV programs, doctors, reports and the government keep banging on about how much of an obesity epidemic the country is in. They seem to put most of the problem at the feet of fast food chains, takeaways, and the cheap processed food which is available for pennies. It's just not the retailers fault. People have a choice with their food. They can chose to eat healthy on certain days have takeaway on others and lead an active lifestyle. There's excellent seasonal veg, meat and bread available for decent prices, it's just that people really don't know what's good for them, or choose not to learn.

I hope that whoever has set the plan for those two ladies can let them know that there's only 0.1g of fat in a cucumber, and around 8 calories, and that they'd have to eat 67 cucumbers to eat the same number of calories than in a Big Mac, and with any luck get them to realise they actually have to change their eating habits forever and not just while they're losing weight.

I'll think about these ladies when I'm out for curry tonight, and on the track running it all off on Monday.

Happy running folks!

Tuesday 8 June 2010

Keep on tracking

Afternoon Folks :)

It's been a bit of a mad weekend sportswise, Had a track & field meeting @ Whitley Bay on Saturday, then golf @ Tyneside on Sunday, then another t&f meeting last night @ Monkton. It's all go in whippet-land ;)

I'll start with Saturdays efforts.

Northern Senior League Div 3E : Churchill Playing Fields, Whitley Bay

I did have all intentions of doing the 3k, or the 1500m, but both events had enough entrants from my club (shock horror), so I was left with the decision of a] trying to find space in the 800, or b] volunteering for anything that had a gap on the list.

After some frantic fb updates to and from our ladies captain I ended up in the 800 and the 4x 400m relay. I did get the offer of the 100m & 100m hurdles too, but really, I'm not going to be taking up hurdles at my age, the effort would probably finish me off.

800m - 2:58.6
Got off to a pretty decent start, and tried to hang on for as long as possible. It was very hot (no real excuse I know) but I felt ok and I'd done a decent enough warm up. Felf canny until about 600m when I started to flag. Came through in 2:58 which is only 2 seconds slower than my pb so was chuffed :)

4 x 400 relay (unofficial pb)
An unofficial pb in the 400m (because it was as part of the relay) ran the third leg in a fairly blistering time (for me) of 73 and a bit seconds (going off my watch). Will be focusing on getting a real pb at 400m distance for sure this year. Well done to Angela, Steph K, & Claire for our finishing time of 4:43.8

Full results are available here: link to Northern Athletics

Sunday: Teetime @ Tyneside

Thinking that I may not have enough hobbies to fit my shrinking free time I thought I'd have a shot at golf. The ladies section at Tyneside Golf Club are running beginners golf sessions, so I decided to sign up and give it a go. I'm not too bad to be fair (I can make contact with the ball which is a real bonus), but it's going to take a whole lot of practice to get the hang of it.

For more info (if you're a lady who may be interested in taking up golf) check this out: link to Tyneside Ladies section

Monday: VAANEE T&F 2 @ Monkton

Okay, I originally decided that because I'm doing the results, I'd just do the 800m then focus on getting all the paperwork done, but on the night the 200m was looking pretty tempting so I signed up for that too.

800m - 3:01.5
A bit disappointing, but not surprising considering I only warmed up in the 10 metres from the results box to the starting line. Actually quite surprised it wasn't much much worse :S Gonna try and target 2:50.x sometime this year

200m - 34.8
Probably the second worst warm up in history (after my 800m warm up tonight) as I ran from the results box to the start in spikes one size too large for me, but somehow, amazingly, managed a pb...what the heck is that all about?

After the 200m I dashed back round to the results box just as Ron was writing out the entrants for the 1500m and I thought "sod it, I'm gonna give that a go too" :P So quick change from the spikes back into my trainers, and onto the track again.

1500m - 6:00.8
Third in the series of last minute warm ups as I decided to run this one around two minutes before the race started. Quite pleased that I managed to hang on for the 3 and a bit laps without being sick, and romped home in bang on 6 minutes. Just about held onto Helen from Blyth so I was happy enough with that.

Quite a fun packed weekend all in all, just wondering what to focus on next, short stuff or long stuff, though I don't really have any decent long races planned in till the Jelly Tea 10m in September. Hopefully the rest of June won't be so packed in together.

Happy running folks!