Ben: You need a title about the tube strike

Me: That’s not a bad idea actually

Kate: Maybe you could do something like mind the gap?

Me: What about “mind the thigh gap”?

I know what I’d rather have – more importantly though what is that even about? Bloody thigh gap. How 2013.

Moving on! Lots more comments FLINGING themselves at me over the past 24 hours. We like it! We also like the tube strike. Quiet down in the back will ya! Let me finish! Hands up who knows why I like the tube strike? Ok fine, the fact I get to work from home tomorrow MIGHT be an added bonus. More importantly though it means everyone has to walk places.

Stompy stompy stomp stomp. Walking is awesome. I know I’ve touched on this previously but let’s put it into terms that can be readily understood. We know I like walking to and from walk. It is roughly an hours walk. At my age, weight and height that means I burn roughly 250-300 kcals each way. That’s a minimum burn of 500 kcals a day which ALSO saves me money by avoiding the tube which ALSO saves my sanity by avoiding the tube and which ALSO gives me a tan (when it ain’t chucking it down).

I know a few people that have adopted the walking philosophy. One of my besties – wee Julie – HIYA! – started walking to and from work. Few weeks later? Bye bye lbs and hallo more energy and stronger thighs (toning is for sissys). Walking is massively underrated. If you are in London get the City Mapper app and use it for the walking guide instead of the tube stop guide. Get Spotify whilst you’re at it. I am making a Fuelling The Foodie playlist. If you like dance/electro/techno/house then wave your hand because you will like this. Sharing is Caring!

So there you go – I once walked from Clapham to Camden, admittedly that was maybe taking things a bit far but you’d be surprised how little time it takes to walk versus tube/bus. (I understand people living outside London have to use cars etc but you get my point right?)

Fasten your seatbelts – we’re going in for a total 180 now!

Driving! Driving is also awesome! Ha – Cat you big hypocrite. Seriously though, I know anyone living outside of London will generally be driving to work etc so here is something to think about…

My friend David Pye did this. I’m not going to start getting into details about the rally because that’s not what we are here to learn about but put it this way – you think your daily commute is the cause of not having time to eat well and exercise? This was a 10,000 mile journey and Pye-so (I have to call him that) is hench. Yes. Hench. Did he come back fat? No. Did he lose all his muscle? No.

I asked him how and why – take note long distance commuters and weekly motorway travel by car work(ers).

What did you eat Pye?

“Imagine trying to buy healthy food in petrol stations… oh and then the desert. We mostly lived on miscellaneous meats (including horse), curds (wtf is that?!), whey, sesame seed bars, dried fruit and pickles. Oh and then sausages full of ground up bone/cartilage or whatever in Romania. We made some lorne sausage on the transfagarasan (famous Top Gear road) as we couldn’t pallet the bones so threw them onto the road to get squashed by other cars. Then there were the chicken legs pumped full of orange stuff in Russia near Mongolia. Tasted like rubber. BBQ was wasted on that meal”

Sounds nice huh?! Next time you’re turning your nose up at the options on your travels think about the Mongol Rally team. There is almost ALWAYS a better option than crisps and chocolate. It just takes some thought. Think yoghurt/fruit/nuts/meat and generally speaking you will be better off. Oh and water over Diet Coke. Obvs.

But how did he keep the guns?! Hang on hang on I mean biceps not friggin’ firearms. Well OBVIOUSLY I asked him that as well…

Pye, did you manage to do ANY exercise?

“Well yes Cat! Yes I did! (He didn’t say this but I think it sounds better) I didn’t get much time but took TRX (the ropes that are attached to the ceiling in the gym) and as you’ll see in the film I did press ups whenever we got a minute and I wasn’t ill (ground up bones and horse meat will do that to you Pye). I did sit ups and air squats some mornings before we packed up the tent and I ran on the beach in Romania. We actually did crunches in the sea! We had a hand grip thing in the back of car and we did lots of changing tyres and pushing cars out of steep rocky valleys… My bro challenged me to do handstand push ups at every stop but I just way too frantic. (Pathetic excuse Pye)”

How’d you like them apples?! Not trying to make anyone feel bad. Just putting it into context. Sometimes the best exercises are the random ones. Laugh about it! My friend Phoebe and I have been doubled over laughing at ourselves doing ministry of silly walks (aka walking lunges) through Regents Park. Body weight exercises can be absolutely brilliant if you can’t get to an Olympic bar (the bar you load the plates onto and look hellish strong doing chest press with) or a set of kettle-bells. Once you learn proper form you’d be surprised at where and how often you can do them. I’ve been known to do press ups off the sink in the bathroom every time I go. Which can be a lot since I drink at least 3l of water a day. Oh – too much information? Sorry about that…

Oh before I forget – the link to Pye’s Mongol Rally documentary. It’s AWESOME.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI-x35CMXgc

Oh and another thing – before I go and do some press ups, ha – have we  talked about setting challenges/goals? Well Pye and I were discussing it earlier. Remember me mentioning the chin up goal? Well I am NEARLY there (by there I mean I am nearly able to do ONE). I strongly recommend setting yourself some goals that are NOT “lose 10lbs” or “be a size 10 by Christmas”. Pick something you will enjoy doing.

Pye and I are doing some sort of CatPye (see what I did there? Sounds like we are making a pie out of cats doesn’t it – larfs) challenge. My goals after Ironman are:

1. Chin ups AND pull ups
2. One armed press ups
3. Squat twice my body weight (I weigh around 63kg and I can’t currently squat thanks to messed up ankle alignment but I’m not letting that put me off)

Let me know what you’re going to do and I can feature your progress to prove it’s worth doing!

As always – send me your messages – it makes a big difference to my day…

C xxx