This month has been pretty great!
- I went to NYC and had a wonderful time!
- Achieved my first ever sub 2 hour half marathon – increasing my distance and speed:
- Completed 4 assignments for my Diet and Nutrition Advisors Course, and passed them all!
- Started to refocus on my grocery spending:
- Stuck to my training plan
- Welcomed my May Sponsors and ran an awesome giveaway!
- Created and discovered two new favourites: my Raw Cacao Coconut Frappe and Kirsten’s Melon Slushie:
Its been such a great month, I feel like I have achieved so much and my trip to NYC was just fantastic, I had such a great time!
Here’s a few things I’ve been pondering this month:
Weight maintenance
Yet again, my thoughts turn to weight maintenance! This month I lost a lb (FYI: losing weight is no longer a goal for me – see this post for more background on this) but since the end of January apart from a lb up or down I have stayed the same which is excellent and tells me I must be on the right track! I’m also feeling at my strongest and healthiest ever! I know there’s a lot more to things than the number on the scale and the only reason I’ve been weighing myself once a month is because its the easiest way to check that I’m not losing any more. In fact I feel like I’m getting to the point of being able to ditch them all together.
One area I do need to watch is making sure I eat enough when doing these longer runs. I don’t tend to feel anymore hungry than usual even though I know I need to eat more to make sure that I don’t lose anymore weight. If your a long distance runner, how do you manage your calorie intake? Or do you just wing it / listen to your body?
Running
One thing that has really hit home this month is how different my running training has been this year compared to last year. At this point in my training last year I was injured and feeling sorry for myself. Even when I had been on form I was slower and seemed to suffer from a lot more aches, pains and blisters! I am amazed at how well my body recovers after my longer runs this time round! I’m sure doing yoga on a more regular basis is helping with this :-)
Goals for June:
- Continue my running ready for my 10k in July and the Great North Run Half Marathon in September. I’m now looking to maintain the good form I am enjoying right now. I think I’ll probably look to continue my 3 weekly runs: a treadmill run, a mid distance (6-7 miles) hills / tempo / rest run and a weekend long run with my distance moving between the 9 – 13.1 mile range.
- Continue with last months training plan, possibly changing up my interval training a bit and trying to structure my resistance training more
- Continue to complete assignments for my diet and nutrition advice course
- Keep an eye on making sure my calorie intake is adequate
- Continue with my grocery budgeting!
June Sponsors
This month I am happy to welcome Rude Health, Cosy Tea and Goodness Direct as Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish sponsors. Keep posted for a fantastic sponsors giveaway coming soon!
I am extra excited to be able to offer Keeping Healthy Getting Stylish readers an exclusive discount offer for Goodness Direct. To save £10 and receive free delivery on orders over £35 simply click this link and then use code ‘32234339’ at the checkout. I am a big fan of Goodness Direct for sourcing a lot of the harder to find products I often rave about here on the blog, check them out! There’s also a discount code for iHerb in the links on the right, another online store I love!
How was your May? What are your plans for June?
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
AWESOME month for you Laura!! I bet you’ll achieve all your May goals too:)
Actually when I’ve got long runs I usually ignore my body, because it’s never that hungry, but I need the calories! So on those days I try to eat more calorie-dense foods to get the calories in. Haha I never complain about more nut butter though! ;)
Plan for June: recover fully from my shin splints!!
Sounds like you’ve had one amazing May!! Bring on June hey?! I’m particularly jealous of your trip to NYC and I have to say, your running is impressive. You have improved SO much and I absolutely love your mentality about your weight and wanting to maintain to stay healthy and strong. You are a true inspiration, you really are.
It’s great that you’re getting so many sponsors now – you are a popular little blogger hey?! I’m looking forward to some giveaways and hopefully this time I’ll be able to enter haha!
My May was one of change. I finished uni, moved into my new apartment, got a new job and started to focus more on my health. I’ve been happier than I’ve ever been in a long time this month and I’m hoping June can only get better! Need to make some goals I think :)
It seems you had an amazing month behind you! I am so glad you enjoyed so many awesome things, you deserve it:) And your June goals are good, well set and I wish you good luck in achieving them:) For me May was a month of some big changes in my work and personal life, but the approaching June and July will show me what will become of those changes:)
You hAve had a fantastic month, and I’m sure that June will be just as good, if not better (:
Hmmm, I think that may has been good for me, too. Lots of change for the better, and I have been so much healthier, emotionally and physically.
Looking forward to the giveaways! Xxx
Brilliant post, really like the review on your weight goals. Congrats on passing your assignments and MASSIVE well done on sub 2 hour half marathon. So inspiring.
P.s. Love the nakd bars! Thanks so much
You really had an amazing month, this one will be even better! You have set some great goals!
I’m thinking of mine today but I haven’t quite got there yet :P
What an amazing month! Well done on that amazing run and very jealous of your trip to NYC. My plans for June are to run 3-4 times per week in order to complete my 10k run in a decent time and so cut down on Starbucks frappes, more for the sake of my wallet as they’re so expensive! Very tempted to take advantage of your Goodness Direct offer, that’s amazing :) x
You had such an awesome May! My June goals are more targetted to my running progress, which I’ve just posted. I hope June is even more amazing than May for you! x
Sounds like you and May treated each other very well :-)
Sounds like a fab month x x
Wow, sounds like a brilliant month! Congratulations and hopefully June is the same :-)
Great that you feel so good too and I think as long as you are and your weight’s stable, you must be doing everything right!
May has been great for you… I won’t comment on the weight maintenance.. I think we all know I suck at that at the moment! That goodness direct code is goood, think I’ll be doing a big shop :D Thanks!
Amazing month for you! I’ll definately have to try and take advantage of those discount codes! My plan for June is to keep on going!
Hi:)
Sounds like you had a great May! And you are so lucky to have your NYC trip!
Good golds for June also! I will just keep up with trying to listning to my body so I make the right choices. Its is a big one for me, so I think this is the only gold I will have :) I have been running for so many years, so workouts comes naturally, and i dont really need to set any golds there!
However, I have one gold that doesnt have anything to do with food. I want to get into charity work. I need to get the focus away from myself, and I think this would be a great way to do it! I signed up yeserday, and im so excited about it :)
Emma – hope you get your shin splints sorted! Yes, I have no problem loading on the nut butters!
Nicky – thanks for such a sweet comment! So lovely to hear that your feeling better than ever :-)
Lenna – hope those changes all work out for the best :-)
Lana – so lovely to hear that you have been feeling better, bring on June!
Hayley – so glad you like the nakd bars!
Megan – thanks!
Lily – haha, I can relate to the starbucks, its a delicious but expensive habit!
Jemma – thanks!
Baby wilt – yes, thanks!
Tam – thanks!
Eleanor – thanks!
Laura – yes, hope you take advantage of the code they have some great stuff :-)
Ffion – good for you!
veganaphrodite – That sounds like a lovely goal. I work with charities – I’m sure you’ll find it very rewarding!
Yay what a great month for you :)
My plans for this month are to recover from my marathon, and then start working on my speed.
And an i-herb code! I am excited about that- thanks so much!
I really liked that picture of the scales, I don’t think I’ve seen that before.
You really have a great month with the running too! When it comes to calories, I have always tended to trust my appetite. I’m amazed that since I’ve been ill, and my training and diet have completely changed, my weight has returned to my pre-marathon training weight. I always seem to end up back there if I stop consciously manipulating my diet. It’s amazing how you can actually trust your body.
Hurrah, I can finally comment on your posts! For some reason I haven’t been able to comment on the past few, but that might’ve been because I was using my iphone, hmm :-/
May was a great month for you, especially with your NYC trip and running achievements! I’m sliiiightly jealous of your running progress actually, I’ve been trying to increase speed/distance in prep for my half marathon too but I still more-or-less plod along at the same pace! A sub 2-hr half is just not on the cards, but ah well :) It’s good to read about your approach to weight maintenance too. It sounds like you’re really aware of your body’s needs and are fuelling it exactly how it requires in order to achieve your goals.
Love your monthly round ups. I always mean to pinch the idea but never get round to it!
Err, I just eat masses of food regardless of whether I’m hungry so I’m sure there’s no danger of my body going short. But cardiovascular exercise does curb appetite (hence there’s an argument that distance running ‘hunger’ is partially psychological because the person is thinking they earned/deserved far more food than they burned. Obviously this is not the case for you though!) and often people are hungrier on a rest day after a long run as a result. I think if your weight is stable and you’re not suffering from fatigue or weakness/dizziness during your runs, particularly the longer ones, then you’re doing a grand job :)
And brilliant achievements this June too: don’t sell yourself short with your GNR projected time! The only thing that annoys me is that they might put you in a corall too far back for your ability and you’ll lose time that way. What did you put your predicted time down as?
xxx