Monday, Monday. So good to me.

I'm feeling disgustingly upbeat this morning. I have on a nice jumper that I rediscovered over the weekend, I sat on one of the skinny. fold down seats on the train on the way to work, and felt as if I had enough room, I feel slim and I went for a run first thing. All in all, it was a great start to the week.

I ran almost 8k this morning. I hadn't intended to do that much, but I've signed up to a training programme on Runkeeper, which sends me my week's runs. I asked for more than three per week, so last week and this it has sent me four. Last week, it started with a thirty minute workout on the Monday, so i guess I figured it would be more of the same today. Na uh! Today I was to do 7.2km (the long run last week was 6k) I think if I'd realized it was over 7k this morning, I'd have got up a little earlier. Still, I managed 6.8k last week getting up at 5.20am, so I reckoned today wouldn't be that different. And it was okay. I just tacked a bit extra on to the start of my route, and a wee bit at the end, and it worked out at 7.8km. Coolaboola!

I've been reading a bit about cinnamon, and it's health benefits. It's considered a serious wonder food, though I think we have to take claims like that with a pinch of salt. But it supposedly has anti oxidant and anti inflammatory properties. It's the anti inflammatory bit that interests me. Apparently, it's at it's most efficacious when it's consumed with fat, that's how you get the most of its goodness. I read a suggestion that you make up a tea with a teaspoon of coconut oil ( I have a very mildly flavoured one) a teaspoon of cinnamon, and a tea bag (I used a chai tea. Hell, let's over dose on cinnamon! I do love the flavour.) You know what, it wasn't the worst thing I've ever tasted, and at forty-five cals per teaspoon of the oil, six for the cinnamon, and none for black tea, it was way lighter in cals than making up a skinny latte would be. And I'd have needed to use full fat milk anyway, to get the fat content. I don't really want to use milk anyway. As much as I love cheese, I'm not a big fan of dairy. It's hard for me to get past the fact that we are pretty much the only animal on the planet that regularly used the milk of an animal of a different species, and that's not even taking into account that we are also the only beast that uses milk after weaning. Milk is nature's baby food. And there's gotta be a reason so many people are lactose intolerant. But that's just me. I'd rather try this tea combo. If I have time, I'll make it each morning. It's also a good way to get in a little healthy fat.

I was a bit hungry this morning, after my run and the tea. So I had a light had brekkie of two scrambled eggs. I earned over six hundred cals on the run, so it's no surprise that I was hungry. When I have time, I do enjoy an omelette for brekkie.

I spoke to Mum this morning. I really might change my goal to eleven stone (well, one pound below eleven stone, so I'm in the tens) I will see how I look in about sixteen pounds from now. I have a feeling 139lb is going to be too light, I don't want to look scrawny. That's very aging on a woman of my age. If I do change my goal, I'll be done in just sixteen pounds. Just over a stone away. That sounds ridiculously close. And theoretically doable by Christmas. I'm getting excited just thinking about it.

I got a great deal of fun out of posting that wee video of TMM and me in my "fat" jeans together. I keep looking at it and having a good laugh. I wish I could post the first attempt, but there really was too much of my knickers on show to be decent. And my belly was out too, looking less than flattering :-) Here are the stills. So glad I kept them.

In the jeans

Behind the jeans