I'm not running a marathon...

I'm not sure how I stumble across these things, but earlier today I found a running and weight loss website called Run with Jess.  I think I had noticed on one of the other blogs I follow that this Jess is doing a weight loss challenge called "Lose a Marathon" - you basically can join her in her effort to lose 26.2 pounds before 17th September.

I have just over 26 more pounds to go before I'll be at my first goal weight (I say first because my goal weight is actually 160 pounds and that's a little heavy for my height - 5'4").  Because I'm also doing the 5k training programme and my diet is running along side, I figured I would sign up for the challenge because aside from weighing in somewhere else and being part of a whole "Lose a marathon" community, it doesn't really require any extra effort other than what I'm already doing.  Plus, there are hundreds of people taking part and Jess has promised to provide healthy recipes, motivation and there will even be prizes from time to time - so it's a win win!  If you're interested in taking part, I should just point out that you need to sign up before 25th June - so you've only got two days left!

Today my husband was at a men's conference at church all day, so it was just me and the kids at home. The weather was nice and warm, so I decided to pack some sandwiches in a backpack and go to the country park for a good long walk and a picnic!

I love this walk - it's quite secluded and makes me feel like I'm climbing up a mountain in the Lake District, even though I'm in the middle of Essex!

When we got to a hill by the lake, the grass had grown up really high - I took a photo of my daughter because it reminded me of Little House on the Prairie!

All total we walked 3.28 miles - so not bad at all!  But, when we got home I wanted to do my first session of Jillian Michael's Banish Fat & Boost Metabolism DVD.  Sundays are working out to be my first 5k training session of the week, so I needed to get the DVD in this afternoon.  It was quite a shock to the system, because of course the 30 Day Shred DVD is only 20 minutes - this one is 40 minutes!

I'm not going to lie and say I rocked, but I didn't do too badly for my first go.  It's quite hard, as you would expect and some of the moves I just have to try my best because they're a little complicated (and I'm not the most coordinated person in the world!).  But, I'm glad I did it and because of all of my exercise efforts today I can now relax for the rest of the evening!  Shame I don't have any wine in the house because I think I earned a glass today (or two!)!