What inspires you and motivates you to keep going?

Hi Lovelies

Hope you are all doing well.

Today’s blog post is going to be slightly different. I have been thinking a lot about what motivates me, what inspires me, what keeps me going on my journey.

There is no simple answer to this question.

Let me take a few steps back and go back to my original reason for starting on this journey. It was back in June 2015, I was overweight, unfit and disappointed in myself. It had been almost a year since my Gramps had passed away and I decided that I needed to make some changes. Although my Gramps was no longer with us, I wanted to make him proud and also make him laugh at the decision I had made; I was going to run a half marathon for charity. I can hear his laugh now, but after he had stopped laughing he would’ve wanted to hear all about it and would’ve been my biggest supporter. I miss him so much, but I know he would be so proud and smiling his big smile.

My gorgeous Gramps

And so that’s where it all began. I wanted to make my Gramps proud. I wanted to make myself proud. I wanted to be happy. I wanted to get fitter and healthier.

June 2015 – I weighed 14st 2.6lbs

As my journey has gone along I have gained inspiration from lots of people’s stories that have been shared on Twitter, from people I barely know, to those who I now class as really good, close friends. There are way to many to name everyone, but here are just a handful of those who have inspired me recently:

I will forever be inspired by @bigcarlrunning (check him out!) because he always pushes himself and is doing incredible things

@boudicaruns has become one of my close friends, she never gives up, is taking on an amazing challenge next year and always looks at how she can get better

@audreybubbles because she really doesn’t know how amazing she is – she completed her 10th marathon today and she is always smiling when she runs,

@stellian because she always gives her all, she motivates and encourages everyone and she gets stronger and stronger,

@fightingfatness who I have recently followed, he is at the start of his journey and is totally smashing it. really excited to see how he continues in his journey.

@emma_morgan_ who totally smashed the Silverstone half marathon today. She is running her first marathon very soon and also jumping out of a plane. She has raised an amazing amount for her chosen charity too – The RAF Benevolent Fund 

@milebuyclub – again another person I have recently followed who is running 1000 miles this year raising money for Asthma UK. He ran a PB at Silverstone today and has another half next weekend!

@mtbodkin, @sherieamore1 and @jedi58 because each of them is training hard and pushing themselves every run or training session. I know they are all going to be fabulous at the Manchester Marathon

@elbonio23 because he never ever gives up. He changed his way of training and now uses heart rate training and is going from strength to strength. A wonderful PB today at Llanelli half

There are so many other people who inspire me, these are just a selection. Give them a follow if you don’t already, support them, read their blogs.

I have also gained inspiration from looking back at photos from right back to when I started uni in 2006. One photo in particular really gets me; my graduation photo. It is on the wall in the living room at home and I see it numerous times each day. It fills me with immense pride at gaining my degree, but also makes me feel sad because of how big I was and I keep wondering how I let myself get that big. I wasn’t happy, not truly happy. Every day I look at it and know that I am on the right path. There may be bumps in my journey, but I will reach my goals.

I am motivated by getting stronger, pushing myself, doing things I never thought I could or would do, trying new things, challenging myself and wanting to be the best version of myself that I can be. I haven’t always been happy. I sometimes used to put on a smile, make everyone think that I was ok, when all I wanted to do was cry about how I looked. I was never in the right place before, but 2015 is when things started to fall into place. It was my time. It was my time to do things for me, to make me happy.

And so we get to now. I feel amazing and I don’t want this feeling to stop. I want to get stronger. I want to be able to use a 10kg kettlebell. I want to be able to jump onto the red box. I want to be able to do proper press ups on my toes (not my knees). I want to get more PBs in running. I want to learn how to cycle and maybe complete a duathlon.

Going to classes really helped me – Nicki who is the instructor is incredible. You exercise and push yourselves whilst having fun and don’t realise quite how hard you are working. She believes in everyone, she challenges us to push ourselves, she motivates us and gives people a sense of enjoyment and achievement at the end of each class. Without attending the classes I do with Nicki, I wouldn’t be anywhere close to as strong mentally or physically, I wouldn’t have lost as much weight as I have and I may have lost my way when I was unable to run. But thankfully Nicki modified exercises for me when my hip was really bad, whilst still enabling me to push myself and work hard. For that I will forever be thankful to her.

One day I will jump onto the red box!

There are so many things I want to achieve (but that’s for another blog post), and this along with everyone’s kind words, motivating comments, inspiring stories and so much more keeps me going.

So thank you all from the bottom of my heart for commenting, sharing your stories and being inspirational.

Keep sharing your stories and keep being the fabulous people that you are.

K x

Feeling amazing, getting stronger

Hi lovelies

I’m back with another blog post. I really need to get better at posting more often, I think the last post was around a month ago.

So an update on the past month. As you may know if you follow me on Twitter or read my blog, I signed up to a 12 week KSFL Transformation Programme. There are a group of us who meet once a week, and during that session we do a HIIT session led by the fabulous Nicki (who does all the classes I go to) and then afterwards we have a session where we talk about how we have been doing that week and there is also a focus topic where we are given more information on how the changes we are making are impacting on our bodies. We have covered hormones, sleep, stress, what to do if we have slip ups or we have planned for days where we are going off plan. I find these sessions are really helpful because we can ask any questions we have and get lots of ideas from others on foods they are eating.

The HIIT session we do varies each week – but usually consists of burpees! Nicki loves them and thinks that we all love them. I’m saying it right here, right now… I HATE BURPEES! But I can’t deny that they are a good exercise to do. We have done sessions with weights, using the big exercise balls, just our own body weight and we do 50 secs of work and 10 secs rest for 6 exercises, then we get 10 secs rest, and start again with 6 different exercises, we then get 45 secs rest and we repeat twice more (with different exercises). We do a mixture of cardio and strength work and focus on arms, legs and core to get a whole body workout.  These sessions happen on a Thursday evening.

I am still trying to go to Step aerobics on either a Monday night or a Saturday morning (but that depends on whether I am going to watch Leicester Tigers or not on a Saturday). I also go to Kettlercise on a Tuesday night (which is possibly my favourite class of all). I feel like I am becoming much stronger and I am currently using an 8kg kettlebell. I may try a 10kg kettlebell very soon – I will keep you updated. I also do Pilates on a Wednesday night which is a lot tougher than it sounds! It always leaves me feeling really chilled out though, even after doing the one hundred, plank and push ups! There is definitely something about Pilates, lots of the Leicester Tigers players do various Pilates exercises during their pre-match warm up and I’ve been told that the All Blacks and the Welsh Rugby Union team also do Pilates too.

So I may not be running, but there is definitely no slacking going on here.

I have also recently started doing a workout at home on a Sunday morning, incorporating lots of the exercises we do in the classes I attend and using my 8kg kettlebell. It’s a great way to workout, especially if I haven’t been able to go to Step aerobics on Saturday morning. I have lollipop sticks with different exercises written on them and pull different ones out and see which workout I get. It makes every workout different.

This morning I switched things up and went to circuits. I haven’t been to a circuits class for ages and didn’t really know what to expect, apart from I was going to work hard! I walked in and was greeted by the sight of 3 box jumps. I did think about turning around and going home for a split second, but I like a challenge and I wasn’t going to be put off by this one. I have to say I really enjoyed circuits and will definitely be going again, I’m just trying to work out when I can fit it in. I managed to jump onto the green box and the orange, but I couldn’t quite get onto the red one. I gave it a good go though. I left with a massive smile on my face, knowing I had completed a good workout. Although I got home and really wished I could go for a run. But sadly I can’t just yet.

So that is what I’m doing every week. And I’m really enjoying it.

 

The next question is… How am I getting on with the 12 week transformation programme?

The short answer would be really well. But that doesn’t quite tell the whole story. We started the programme on 19^th January, we were weighed and measured and we also did a fitness test. We then had our next weigh in and measurements night on 16^th February and we redid the fitness test as well. We are tracking progress using all of these different methods.

My results are as follows:

	19th January	16th February	Difference
Body fat	42.9%	40.4%	-2.5%
Weight	13st 8lbs	13st 1lb	-7lbs
Chest	111cm	105cm	-6cm
Waist	100cm	98.5cm	-1.5cm
Hips	116cm	112cm	-4cm
Right thigh	65cm	64cm	-1cm
Left thigh	64cm	62cm	-2cm
Right arm	32.5cm	29.5cm	-3cm
Left arm	32cm	31.5cm	-0.5cm

I literally couldn’t believe the difference in just a few weeks. I haven’t noticed a difference on the scales in a long time and I always used to forget to measure myself to track progress that way.

For the fitness test we did the following exercises for 50 secs with 10 secs rest in between:

	19th January	16th February	Difference
Squats	23	27	+4
Lunges	20	22	+2
Tricep dips	22	25	+3
V Sit	19	29	+10
Burpee	8	11	+3
Press Up	16	20	+4
Knee raises	54	55	+1
Side lunges	24	28	+4
Jacks	54	55	+1
Curl Ups	23	27	+4

There isn’t a huge difference in the numbers of each exercise that I did, however, there are small improvements and that is really good to see.

Overall I am making good progress and feeling amazing. I am still not sleeping that well, but that is one thing that I am working on. I am trying to get to bed earlier and I have been taking magnesium as that Is supposed to help with sleep. It is making a difference so far and I have had a few nights where I have slept the whole night through.

Eating wise, on the whole I have been following the list of foods we can/can’t have, however, there have been a few times where I have had chocolate, and that’s ok. This isn’t a diet, this is a lifestyle change and a way of feeling better and eating better, and there will be times where we do eat other things, and in the grand scheme of things it won’t make much difference. I went to watch Leicester Tigers on Friday night after work and had eaten a good breakfast which filled me up, had my lunch and also a smoothie as I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat until later than normal. I got to Leicester and the only place that was close to the ground that wasn’t crazy busy was Nandos. I had a Chicken Wrap and chips. I didn’t feel guilty and nor should I. I enjoyed it, I had planned that I wasn’t going to be eating what I have been from my plan and I chose something I wanted. I’m not sure what it was, but something upset my stomach the next day and I felt awful. But lots of water and a high protein breakfast and I felt much better. We have been told all along that if we can stick to the food side 80% of the time we will see results and that having something like my chicken wrap is ok.

Post-Leicester Tigers Game – still smiling even though we lost!

Next weekend I am lucky enough to be going to watch England vs Scotland at Twickenham. I will be going on the train and I am planning to have a pint or two during the game. My plan is to have a good protein breakfast, take lunch with me, have lots of water the day before, the day of and the day after, and to do some exercise Friday night and Sunday morning. But I will be enjoying every sip of my beer and whatever I choose to eat at the rugby.

My body and my face are really changing.

14th Jan 2017

3rd March 2017

14th Jan 2017

5th March 2017

14th Jan 2017

5th March 2017

My favourite things to eat are:

Breakfast casserole

Fry the turkey mince (or beef mince) in a frying pan, when cooked add a chicken stock cube, salt and pepper, mushrooms, peppers (anything you want) and fry until cooked, then tip into a ceramic dish and cover with 7 whisked eggs and put in the oven at 180 for 30-40 mins until the egg has set. Yum yum!

Smoothie

Raw cacao powder, almond milk, avocado, blueberries, raspberries

Casserole

Diced beef or chicken, courgette, parsnip, aubergine, carrot, sweet potato, tinned tomatoes, onion stock cube.

Nakked bar

Stoned dates, chopped hazelnuts, ground almond, raisins, desiccated coconut, raw cacao powder. Yum yum!!

I’m looking forward to seeing how I get on in the next few weeks, to trying new recipes, and to the next step on my fitness and well-being journey.

 

Hope you are all well.

What changes are you making this year? Are you focusing on food and nutrition, strength training, speed work, cross training? Let me know in the comments.

Keep running, keep smiling.

K x

A letter to myself…

So this post will be a little different, I won’t be offended if you choose to skip reading this one at all. It’s probably a little self-indulgent, but I wrote myself a letter. A letter so that I could read and re-read all of the things I wanted to tell myself but up until now haven’t (not in a coherent way anyway).

Before I get to my letter, if you do read it, a massive thank you, if you don’t read it, that’s ok too. If you were to write yourself a letter, what would you say to yourself?

 

***********************************************************************

Dear Kimberley

We are two weeks into 2017 and this year you will turn 29. People will say you are almost 30. It sounds a scary number, but that’s all it is… a number. Don’t be scared, embrace turning a year older, being wiser, having another year of wonderful memories and experiences. Don’t let it change you. Just keep being you.

Reflect often. Look back at everything you have achieved and be proud. Don’t ever doubt yourself; you are an intelligent, funny, kind-hearted young woman. You have a determination within you that you never knew was there. You are strong in mind and body. Your experiences have made you into the person you are today.

Remember that it is ok to feel sad, angry, disappointed, exhausted, but don’t let these feelings define you. Smile often; share your smiles with everyone. Find what makes you happy, not what makes others happy, and do it often. Be positive, life has its up and down, but life is good and full of potential.

Be kind to yourself. It is so easy to pick faults with how you look and how you are. But you are unique, individual and special. You are your own kind of beautiful. Embrace your imperfections, nobody is perfect, they make you who you are.

Be kind, thoughtful and caring. You have lots of wonderful friends, make sure you let them know often just how much they mean to you. Make memories with them, laugh with them, share your life with them.

Try new things, challenge yourself, take a chance once in a while. Make a list of things you would like to do, no matter how silly or small, and tick them off one by one. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t… remember when you started to run and people thought you were crazy wanting to do a half marathon. You did it, in fact you have done 4. Nobody else did it for you, your strength and determination along with your training helped you achieve what you set your mind to. Running may have changed your life, but the possibility and desire was always within you. It was just waiting for the right time. You changed your life by having the courage and the will to do something out of character, to do something different, to challenge yourself, to be the best version of you.

People will say unkind things, people will try to hurt you, make you cry, undermine you. That isn’t a reflection on you, but it does say a lot about their character. Try your best to ignore them. Use their words and comments to fuel your determination, your strength and your sheer bloodymindedness to do what they say you couldn’t do, to be what they say you couldn’t be, to be the strong girl you are.

People will compliment you, people will say lovely, kind things that will surprise you, and make you emotional. Remember their words when you need them most. They may never know the impact that their words have on you but they can change how you see yourself, how your day has been, how you feel.

Life doesn’t always turn out as you planned, but that isn’t to say that this isn’t what was planned for you all along. Maybe you needed to have these experiences, to make you into the person you are today. Maybe you were always destined to live this life, to meet the people you have. Embrace everything life has to offer, even if it isn’t what you had planned. You may not be exactly where you want to be at this stage of life, but maybe, just maybe you are exactly where you are meant to be.

Take time for yourself. It’s ok to do that. Pamper yourself, read a book, watch a film, go for a walk, go to the rugby, do things you enjoy, things you love, things that make you happy. Don’t feel that you have to do things just because everyone else is doing it. You have a choice, you always have a choice. And you have the right to do what is best for you. Nobody knows what that is more than you.

Try not to compare yourself to other people. You will always find people who are xxxxx-er than you, but they are not you. Know that YOU are enough. You are cared for, loved and thought of often.

Share your smile and heart with the world.

Love always

Kimberley

Paris was amazing – no runs but i did walk 36.7 miles!

I went to Paris for 5 days and had the most amazing time! I packed my running shoes and clothes and was hoping to go out for at least 1 run when I was there. However, my legs had other ideas – after walking for several hours around Paris seeing the sights (and walking up what seemed endless steps!) and shopping my calves were so tight that running just wasn’t an option. I’m pretty sure it was walking up the steps to the top of the Arc de Triomphe! They seemed like they were never ending!!

I wore my Garmin Forerunner 15 each day and over the 5 days I walked 36.7 miles (an average of 7.34 miles per day) – no wonder my legs felt like they were ready to give up!

Thankfully I had remembered to take my compression socks! I put them on most nights for a few hours and they did help to ease my tight calves a little. Whoever invented them is a total genius. I wore them for a few hours on Sunday night to try and get my calves into some kind of shape to go for a run on Tuesday morning when I got home. I’m happy to say that they totally worked.

I have to admit I was really shocked to feel disappointed at not being able to go for a run! I think i have definitely been bitten by the running bug.

I shall write another blog post very soon (hopefully tomorrow) about my running this week.

Happy running everyone!

K x

I’m raising money for The Matt Hampson Foundation by taking part in 2016 adidas Silverstone Half Marathon. If you would like to sponsor me visit www.virginmoneygiving.com/KimberleyMiles

To find out more about the Matt Hampson Foundation please visit: http://matthampsonfoundation.org/

Liebster Award

The very lovely Skinny Running told me yesterday (Monday) that she had nominated me for the Liebster Award, which is a lovely surprise. Thank you very much Skinny Running! Definitely check out her blog – I love reading all of her posts and she is so supportive.

This totally made my pretty awesome day, even more awesome!

Here are the rules of the Liebster Award:

Skinny Running posted 11 questions for me to answer. So here goes:

1. If you could be any age, what age would that be?

I would love to go back to being 18 just starting out university again. I would probably do things a little differently too. But I loved my time at uni.

2. What’s your favorite word? Least favorite?

ooh that is so hard! I love the words whimsical and mellifluous (and many more) they are such lovely sounding words. Words I don’t like: amazeballs, bae, ream – mainly because I am so not cool enough to even begin to use them, let alone pull them off!

3. If you could brainwash anybody, who would it be?

This is so hard, maybe the Prime Minister, so I could influence him to give us more Bank Holidays and stuff!

4. What has been your greatest challenge?

Deciding to do the half marathon and getting myself motivated to train for it!

5. What is your number 1 goal for the future?

to run the half marathon next year (and possibly a full marathon in the future!)

6. If you could get a drink with anyone – alive or dead – who would it be? What would you drink?

Jesse Owens – I would love to be able to talk to him about his achievements. I’d have a Gin and Tonic!

Or possibly Jane Austen – because I adore her and her books – I’d have a cup of tea!

7. If money was no object, how would you spend your days?

I would go travelling and visit all of the countries and cities on my list! I’d also buy every book I wanted to go in my own personal library

8. What’s your favorite book? Film?

Book – Northanger Abbey or Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Film – Aladdin or Silence of the Lambs

9. What’s the best gift you have ever received?

Being asked to be Godmother to my friends gorgeous baby.

10. What TV character are you most like?

I always joke with one of my friends that we are like the Chuckle Brothers! So probably one of them! 😀

11. I will also ask a question posed to me. What blog post are you most proud of?

Probably my first post where I posted photos of what I looked like when I started. Writing that first post made me realise that writing a blog would be a good way of recording my feelings, achievements and everything else.

Eleven random facts about me:

1. I own hundreds of books and haven’t read half of them!

2. I am super tidy at work, but very messy at home.

3. I love Gin!

4. I am a chocoholic

5. I am addicted to buying Yankee Candles

6. My favourite places are Bath, Plymouth, Paris, New York, San Francisco

7. I love rugby and support Leicester Tigers

8. I have 27828 songs in itunes!

9. I love cups of tea!

10. I am a super fast texter!

11. I love pens, notebooks, filofaxes, highlighters etc!

Eleven blogs I nominate:

Runvivvyrun

hitthegroundsrunning

Travel Run Style

Run David Run

Kerrie Is Running

Me and my run

Running on Planty

11Months26miles

Chocolaterunsjudy

Slow and Steady(ish)

A Marathon in a year

It’s so hard to choose which blogs to include and some fab blogs have more than 200 followers. I’m hoping that the ones I have chosen haven’t – I’m not really sure how to check!

Here are the eleven questions I hope you will answer on your blog:

1. Which superpower would you like to have?

2. What makes you happy?

3. What is your favourite song?

4. What would your dream job be?

5. How would your best friend describe you?

6. Which animal are you most like?

7. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would you eat?

8. Which was your favourite subject at school?

9. What is your biggest fear?

10. What would you like to achieve in your life?

11. Why did you start your blog?

Phewwwwww that was an extra long post! Well done if you made it this far! I hope you enjoyed reading my answers and have found some new blogs to enjoy.

Happy running 🙂

K x

Calf pain troubles…

So it appears that my right calf doesn’t like any type of exercise. After every type of exercise I have tried recently (Pilates, exercise bike, treadmill walking and running, cross trainer, Zumba and skipping) I end up with a really tight right calf. My left calf is fine but the right one hurts for at least a couple of days after.

I have changed the way that I stretch and keep stretching out my right calf throughout the day but it still feels so tight.

I’m wondering whether compression socks or tights will help? or whether it is to do with my trainers?

any help will be gratefully received!

I hope you are all doing well with your workouts, training and races.

K x

I’m raising money for The Matt Hampson Foundation by taking part in 2016 adidas Silverstone Half Marathon. If you would like to sponsor me visit www.virginmoneygiving.com/KimberleyMiles