Diet and exercise progress

I've found a lovely steep hill to climb that is just around the corner from our house. A handy discovery.

I've walked up it nearly every day now. One day there was a large dog sitting halfway up so I didn't go up that day. I wasn't going to put in all that effort getting there only to have a dog jump on me and knock me back down. Yesterday, I took a different walking route but it didn't have a hill so I didn't feel like it needed as much effort to do. So this morning I went back to the hill again.

I was really excited because today I made it up without stopping (all the other times I've had to stop at least twice).

And I can now hold the plank position for 30 seconds. I'm trying to get up to a minute.

This afternoon, we are going to take the dogs for a walk. The park at the bottom of the big hill is an off leash dog exercise area. So after we walk the dogs, Chris will pack them and the two little kids (the two big kids are visiting grandparents this week) into the car and drive home.

And I will tackle walking up the hill for a second time today.

The diet is going okay. I'm trying to concentrate on eating more low GI foods so I feel fuller for longer. And reducing my portion sizes. This is where my struggle lies. I may have to do a bit less baking for a while. Today I made some sugarless chocolate blueberry muffins. They weren't bad. But you could tell they were sugarless. Without the blueberries they would have been very dull indeed.

I've noticed I'm feeling more energetic since the morning walks started. And eating the right kind of food always helps me to feel better too. My goal is to get into a good routine now so it doesn't all fall into a big heap when I go back to work in a couple of weeks.