It’s been a while take 2!

11/01/201513/01/2015Leave a comment

So almost a year to date I am writing an almost identical post where I promise to blog more, blame my job for the lack of blogging and generally been very very bad at sending any updates!

2015 is beginning to look like my year! In the space of the first couple of weeks I have been promoted at work, started my health drive, planning home renovations and made a pinky promise with my Mac that it gets some attention this year…..

The theme of my blog is changing, aiming for lifestyle blog rather than specifically me on my weight loss plan. I want to vary my posts, share my passions and discuss the things that crop up along the way, from landing my first big project as a fully fledged Project Manager to organising ANCHOR Wipeout for the 3rd year running.

Hows everyone’s New Year looking? Here’s to a great 2015 (and lots of blogging!!)

New Year Selfie

Gilly x

It’s Been A While!!

05/01/201405/01/2014Leave a comment

New Year, New Start!

I haven’t blogged in a while. Started a new job which has taken a lot of my time! But its time for a new start, and new blog!

At the tailend of 2013 I celebrated my 30th birthday 3 stone lighter! Still a long way to go, and my determination had slipped a lot over the festive period but starting afresh and looking forward to a healthier and slimmer 2014. Especially now as I have booked a beach holiday and determined to be body confident! (so that gives me until May).

The weather has been absolutely awful, with winds up to 60mph so I haven’t been out on two wheels as much as I would have liked, hoping we get a change in climate and I can enjoy my daily cycles again!

Now away to catch up on all the blogs I love and follow, and think up some blog posts 🙂

Love Gilly x

Friday Picture – Benefits of Cycling

04/10/2013Leave a comment

20 reasons to love cycling!

10/09/20133 Comments

Cycle to Work Day – 12th September 2013

10/09/201314/01/2015Leave a comment

#challengeyourself and take to two wheels on Thursday 12th September 2013!

WHAT IS CYCLE TO WORK DAY?

Cycle to Work Day is a national event, championed by multi gold medal winning Paralympic cyclist, Dame Sarah Storey, which aims to encourage everyone to take to two wheels and cycle to work for just one day on Thursday 12th September 2013.

In order to help make the day a success, they need lots of people like you to get on board and support the day. According to census data, 760,000 people in the UK cycle to work regularly – this number keeps growing steadily, but we want to see those numbers skyrocket this year and beyond! By 2021, they hope to see 1 million people regularly commuting to work by bike.

Cycle to Work Day is a symbol of our desire to be a fit and happy nation and our ability to challenge ourselves in order to see what we can achieve.

PLEDGE TO RIDE

If you want to join us, Dame Sarah Storey and thousands of others across the UK let us know – all you have to do is visit the homepage and hit the ‘pledge’ button. By pledging to ride you’ll also be entered into a prize draw to win a huge array of prizes including a Raleigh Revenio 2 – it’s a win-win!

St Cyrus to Montrose cycle route

24/07/201305/01/2014Leave a comment

I thought I would share my daily cycle route with my blog readers 🙂

As a cycle newbie I love the fact that this route is off-road and allows me to enjoy my ride with the peace of mind that I am safely tucked away from the busy traffic.

The route stretches round the coast from Montrose to the North-water Viaduct at St Cyrus and is designed to create an off-road path for both cyclists and pedestrians. Very popular with fellow cyclists and dog walkers!

From the St Cyrus end (my direction) I begin down at the St Cyrus beach reserve car park, and cycle the short 1 mile quiet road to the start of the cycle track just at the viaduct. The gravel track takes you over the viaduct with spectacular views and down through the flourishing fields (runs parallel to the road but fence separates in-between path and road).

The course is mainly flat but with some deceiving uphill slopes :). You are then off through a gorgeous wood path – my favourite part, through Kinnaber before hitting the long stretch at the old Montrose Aerodrome finishing at the former airfield at Broomfield, Montrose. From this point you can continue on a cycle path down to Montrose beach where quite conveniently there is an ice cream shop, or continue to the South side of Montrose at the harbour.

The route for me, St Cyrus to Montrose beach is approximately a 11 mile round trip, and makes the perfect evening cycle – even better as the route doesn’t not involve any busy roads my dog Rupert can come along for the trip.

Starting point – St Cyrus beach nature reserve

Crossing the viaduct

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View from viaduct

Kinnaber

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Through the woods

Heading onto aerodrome

Montrose Beach

Great track surface for my bike

Review: Runtastic Road Bike Pro App

23/07/201310/09/2013Leave a comment

I have spent a couple of weeks researching cycling computers for my bike. So many on the market to choose from and I couldn’t decide! Then it hit me – I own an iPhone!! Surely there is an app that can track my cycles for me. Yes… Many…

So I tried some free apps, to get an idea of which one works for me. I initially installed the free Road Bike app from Runtastic, loved it almost instantly and upgraded without a second thought to the Pro edition (£2.99).

The app allows you to track your cycles and is packed with features analysing your ride, progress and route.

From the main session window the app tracks the important measures of your rides including duration, distance, elevation, route and calories burned. The route map is a fantastic way of keeping a record of your routes, and ultimately analysing your progress on repeat workouts on the same path. You can also personalise the app to display the features that you want to see.

One of my favourite features is the voice alerts (coach) to distance and times allowing me to concentrate on the road, keeping upright and pushing my legs 🙂 !

From Runtastic’s Website:

In addition to data analyzing and tracking, this app offers a lot of extra features. Download and save maps to your smartphone ahead of time so you don’t need an internet connection while biking. Now trips abroad or to areas where you don’t have mobile access are no longer a problem. To gauge your performance during your rides, the Runtastic Road Bike PRO app lets you measure your exact cadence, speed, and heart rate. Thanks to these accurate measurements, you can track your performance and aim to improve it. Find out more at www.runtastic.com/en/apps/roadbike

As well as these features another nice touch is the session conclusion giving you a breakdown of stats, and a share to Facebook, Twitter and email option to show off your hard work and workout.

Overall I absolutely love this app from Runtastic. The features are ideal for me to keep a log of my rides, and help me set goals in improving my fitness.

Road Bike Pro is available from the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Diet Progress – Week 8

23/07/201324/07/2013Leave a comment

I have been following Slimming Worlds extra easy weight loss plan. The basis of the plan is food optimization.

Our generous eating plan makes slimming easier than you ever thought possible! Instead of telling you what you can and can’t eat, Food Optimising puts you in control. You don’t even need to worry about weighing all your food, counting points or monitoring every mouthful – it’s so liberating! – See more at: http://www.slimmingworld.com

I started this blog 7 weeks into my diet, with a total weight loss so far of almost 2 stones. I think I have tried every diet and plan going, but finally I have found one that still lets me eat lovely food and best of all lose weight and feel fantastic.

My first week loss was 9lbs – something that I would never have expected. Needless to say this has made me determined to stick to the plan and continue my goal of losing weight. I should mention that the first week on a healthy diet usually results in a high weight drop, but thank fully I have managed to maintain a steady loss.

My Typical Daily food intake:

Breakfast – bowl loaded with fruit and fat free yoghurt.
Lunch – brown ham salad sandwich (no butter)
Dinner – grilled chicken, baked potato with lots of vegetables.
Snacks – Throughout the day I snack on fruit, keep my fluids up by drinking water and my new love Green Tea. After my cycle at night I usually treat myself to a low calorie bar such as Alpen or Slimming World’s own Hi-Fi bars.

The diet itself allows you to eat lots of “free” foods, including pasta (dried), lean cuts of meat, and all fruit and veg. The books and website provide lots of tasty recipes and helpful articles to keep you on track.

I think my major change in diet is coffee. I was a total addict, but with both milk and two sugars I was choosing the unhealthy option. Tea and coffee is still allowed on diet, with a certain amount of milk but I have chosen to cut this out completely changing to water, green tea, or diet juice.

Another big change for me is exercise. I never had any weight issues until I was in my early 20’s (I blame the hubby haha). Since getting my new bike cycling has totally taken over my evenings, I like nothing better than getting out pedalling. This has helped increase my weekly weight loss and general well being. My mood has dramatically changed, I feel fantastic so far with losing 2 stones.

My achievements are mounting up – I have been slimmer of the week twice, slimmer of the month and last week achieved my club 10 (loosing 10% of starting weight).

Overall, going into my 8th week of my diet I am still very determined, positive and seeing big changes in the mirror.

Help knockout Cancer this Summer!

29/06/201323/07/2013Leave a comment

I am an avid fundraiser for local cancer charity Friends of ANCHOR.

Friends of ANCHOR is a Scottish registered charity that was formed in 1997 to raise funds on behalf of the ANCHOR unit in Aberdeen, and has a support area extending throughout the north east of Scotland including Orkney and Shetland. The Aberdeen and North Centre for Haematology, Oncology and Radiography (ANCHOR) unit is a fully funded NHS department at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Foresterhill that brings together experts and specialist nursing support to coordinate the care of patients with all forms of cancer, leukaemia and benign blood disorders such as haemophilia.

Friends of ANCHOR funds the purchase of non-NHS provided equipment for the ANCHOR unit and aims to provide additional care, comfort and support for ANCHOR patients. The charity also funds vital groundbreaking cancer research projects at the University of Aberdeen Institute of Medical Science, Foresterhill.

So the latest fundraising effort comes in the form of ANCHOR Wipeout!

The event will see over 350 participants battle it out at Hazlehead Park, Aberdeen on Saturday, 24th August 2013 as they take on challenges to raise money for Friends of ANCHOR in a bid to help knockout cancer. The games consist of 12 individual stations using a combination of inflatables, wet/dry games, team-together and relay games, suitable for all levels of ability.

Teams of up to 10 people cost £200 and we’re asking each team to collectively raise a minimum of £100 in sponsorship for Friends of ANCHOR. For every additional £100 raised by the team a bonus point will be awarded up to the maximum of 10.

There are sponsorship opportunities available for the event. For £500 an organisation will be given sole branding exposure at one of the 12 games areas. As a sponsor you get the exclusive and sole branding of one of the 12 game stations in Hazlehead Park as well as your logo on all the communications material for the event and social media activity in the lead up to 24th August, as well as 50% off team entry fee.

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Spectators and supporters will be welcome to watch ANCHOR Wipeout and there will be children’s entertainment, stalls, a raffle and face painting on the day to make it a memorable day out for everyone involved.

Importantly, every penny raised from the event will go directly to the ANCHOR Unit as all of our running and administration costs are covered by Balmoral Group.

So what you waiting for? Request your entry form today by emailing info@anchorwipeout.co.uk

ANCHOR Wipeout Poster

Find Friends of ANCHOR on Facebook or visit their website by clicking here.

ANCHOR Wipeout activity course is being supplied by It’s A Knockout – Knockout Challenge

Recipe: Skinny Coconut Meringues

26/06/201319/07/2013Leave a comment

So this week at slimming club is a taster session. Everyone brings in something they have made from Slimming World’s website or recipe books. Having a really BIG sweet tooth I decided to attempt a pudding style treat. I came across Coconut Macaroons – which I have aptly renamed skinny coconut meringues, as they are in fact nothing like macaroons 🙂

The recipe uses hardly any ingrediants, super quick to make and best bit of all they taster really really good, especially the chewy inside layer! (for anyone following Slimming World plan, each meringue equates to 2 syns)

Ingredients:

4 egg whites
198g sugar
71g coconut

Method:

Beat the egg whites until frothy (make sure no yolk whatsoever has contaminated the whites otherwise you could be whisking forever!)
Add the sugar and beat until stiff.
Fold in the coconut, put mixture into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe 30 macaroons onto a parchment covered baking sheet.
Bake for 30 minutes in a preheated over (170ºC / 325ºF / Gas Mark 3)
Remove from oven, and allow to cool for a few minutes before removing them from the baking sheet

My finished attempt!

Recipe from the Slimming World Website

Whole Lotta Gilly

Baby On Board!!