Campaign to better myself

Have been stuck in a lifestyle rut for a long while now so have decided to take baby steps to invigorate body and mind:

• I have been powerwalking for some time now but need to up my game and start running so I'm starting the Couch to 5K programme using the NHS podcast. It's largely due to time constraints: to get a proper workout from walking I need to powerwalk for an hour and that, frankly, eats into my early morning. Running, on the other hand, would cut my workout time to half an hour.
  
  
• My brain has gone rusty over the last few years - since I finished my PhD, in fact, way back in 2002. Since then I've exercised the brain matter largely on topics relating to work and parenting. So I am reading a daily quality newspaper every day again. There's no point me reading the news online because I get distracted. During lunch or after I've put Little Planet to bed I crack open the paper and try and educate myself on worldly issues.
  
  
• I've slipped into a chick-lit reading rut too. After a busy day, it's easy to unwind with some pink-covered slush. I never used to be like this. I used to read William Gibson and Margaret Atwood in hardback. So I've consigned the pink fluff to the charity shops and am reading Jonathan Franzen's Freedom. More of that ilk in the to-read pile.
  
  
• I also want to get more adventurous in my cooking. I tend to cook the same ten or so meals but I need to expand my repertoire of recipes. We have loads of cookbooks and Mr Planet is always perusing them and experimenting. I need to take a leaf out of his book.

My writing is going well - slowly, but surely. The book is longer and the plot much more intricate than I originally anticipated so it's taking me longer than I'd hoped. Also, my eating less regime is also going very well. I thought I'd fallen off the wagon for a couple of months but in fact had only put on 3lbs so the rules must be working for me at a subconscious level now, which is terrific.

A weekend in Spring

We've just experienced a perfect Spring weekend here in London. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, birds were tweeting, planes were streaking the sky, seeds were being sown, lawns were being mown, BBQs were lit, children were out playing, alot of DIY was being done, the parks were filled...

Saturday morning began with breakfast in the garden. Then we headed over to Coram's Fields - a children's park in the heart of Bloomsbury that is an oasis of calm first thing in the morning. Little Planet chased the goats, quacked at the ducks, stood in awe of the huge black sheep and chatted to the rabbits before running over to the sandpit.

Then we piled into a taxi and headed over to John Lewis on Oxford Street, where Little Planet had her feet measured and then met Peppa Pig in the toy department. Peppa Pig was rather big, with slightly scary, crazed eyes and huge feet. She towered over the children and though Little Planet was mesmerised and awestruck, she was also a little timid and kept her distance. But she obviously enjoyed the experience because she now can't stop talking about Peppa Pig whenever we ask her about her day yesterday.

Afterward, we bought wine, fresh fish, fruit (including rhubarb) and vegetables (including samphire) in the Food Hall before returning home. During Little Planet's post-lunch nap, M made bread and I went to the gym. I've been working out most of my adult life - waking up at 6am to do yoga or go to the gym since I was 16 (on and off). But when I got pregnant in 2007, I stopped and had not stepped back inside a gym until yesterday (on maternity leave, during Little Planet's first year, though, I did walk 3 hours a day pushing the buggy through heat and cold just to get out of the house). At the gym yesterday, I did 45 minutes cardio and 15 minutes weights and I felt terrific - exhilarated even. My plan is to go 3 times a week but cut down a little on the cardio and increase the weights session as I love feeling strong.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at home in the garden. Little Planet played, I read the papers and M planted seeds: four varieties of squash and pumpkin, kale, broccoli, radish, spring onions, rocket and salad leaves. Once Little Planet had gone to sleep, M seared the tuna steaks we had bought earlier at John Lewis and served them with lightly steamed asparagus spears and samphire topped with dry-roasted black sesame seeds. For dessert he made rhubarb flan which we ate watching the beautifully-filmed Control - a movie about Joy Division's Ian Curtis who killed himself in 1980.

Sunday began with M going out for a run, me dusting and hoovering the house and Little Planet pretending to dust too. Then breakfast and a long read of the papers outside in the garden, shopping for meat and vegetables, then more time in the garden including lunch, then more time in the garden... you get the picture! I also slow cooked a chile con carne from Thomasina Miers' Mexican Food Made Simple, which we'll eat for one of our dinners this week.

It's nearly 6pm now. After we put Little Planet to bed, M will cook paella with monkfish, prawns and saffron from the Moro Cookbook for our dinner. It sounds yummy! Then we'll settle in with another movie.

I hope you also enjoyed good weather this weekend.