Eat. Sleep. Run.

This is what my brother wrote on my Just Giving page when he donated to the run. It made me laugh, but I've been thinking about it recently because I have finally managed to implement some changes.

Eat
I've mentioned before my seasonal habit of eating Easter eggs as between meals snacks, and I'm not talking about a handful of those little ones you get in mesh bags. I like chocolate, I like cake. Before I was 26 years old I could eat as much chocolate and cake as I liked and it didn't seem to make any difference to anything.

Now I'm over 30 it most certainly does make a difference. When I'm feeling tired or down I do tend to turn to chocolate and cake to wake me up a bit and cheer me up too. I also find chocolate a really handy snack for when I'm hungry and need something on the go.

However, I do notice that when I cut down on the sweet stuff, my energy levels tend to be more even, fewer peaks and troughs, and I generally feel a bit "better". I suppose this is because instead of the morning chocolate bar I'm having fruit which is definitely better for you. I don't think I'll give up chocolate though, just eat less. I'm also making an effort to eat breakfast, which definitely helps my mood too.

I don't always find it easy to fit in my daily fruit and veg. I appreciate plenty of people manage it but if I have a big lunch and a busy day at work, all those picky fruits that I prefer to eat, or carrot sticks, just get left in the fridge. I've been trying to make sure I have my afternoon fruit snack.

A pot of fruit I've brought to work today - apples, grapes and blueberries

 

Sleep
As I've posted before, I'm dreadful at going to bed at a reasonable time, which makes me more and more tired as the week goes on and less inclined to be organised enough to get my healthier food ready and all of those organised things that help me to make better choices. The last couple of days I've managed to get to bed before midnight, and properly before midnight, not 11.58pm. And guess what! I wake up really early! And feel awake! It's amazing. I do think the lighter mornings are helping, and it was lovely to run yesterday in daylight, so everything is coming together much better. I'm really trying not to get stuck in front of the television and having fewer commitments in the evening means I'm more likely to get up early instead of oversleeping to get more rest for a longer day.

Run
And finally to running. Of course, there's a lot of full time work in between these activities but I'm feeling pretty positive about running at the moment. I'm going to be trying a longer run at the weekend, to see how I get on with that, and perhaps mix the training up a bit more next week to increase my aerobic fitness - hill runs, sprints - along with the training distance runs I'm doing anyway. I've sort of stopped doing the 5K MP3 training but I might give it a try again and see how I get on. I do get disappointed when I find it difficult though but it's useful to have a measure.

Here's to improving all round for the long term. *fingers crossed*