Yesterday's walk and some hungry cats....

 


Now I’m back in Turkey, I can get back in to walking.  Back in the UK, for most of the 3 months I was home, I did none and have put on quite a few pounds.  More importantly, I could feel my fitness levels had dropped.  In the last month before I returned, I did start doing some walking, particularly when the sun was shining, so I’ve no excuse now.

Yesterday, I went walking from the marina to the port and back a few times with my friend from the complex.  It was good to have some company and conversation.  We had a tea break of about an hour halfway through, at a restaurant on the edge of the port.  Next to the port there is a paved square surrounded by fish restaurants and the fish market.  Before I left in July, the square was being re-paved but it’s now completed and looks fabulous with the restaurants and fish market all appearing to have been spruced up too.  On the side of the square, as you move towards the fish market and a few more restaurants, there is a cute, amusing sculpture of a box of fish with three cats about to enjoy a feast.




By mid afternoon, we’d walked over 17k steps which was very encouraging.  On the three occasions I’ve been out in the last week, I’ve only done about 6k steps but it definitely helps having company!  On my previous occasions both here and in the UK, I’d noticed that my pace had slowed considerably to a stroll but yesterday’s walk seems to have got me back to normal as today I was moving at my faster pace.  It did help that it was a tad cooler and overcast today, but it’s still T shirt weather.

I’m determined to get back in to my daily walks and will try to do 10k steps a day.  I’ll also watch what I eat.  Here, I eat a lot more bread and ‘treats’ than I do back home so I’m cutting that down.  Eating more vegetables is easy as every meal starts with a mezze of vegetable salads.  I think the food here is very healthy, particularly if you keep an eye on the carbohydrate content. 

Despite people’s assumptions, the Turks quite like their alcohol and most days I’ve had one or two glasses of red with dinner but after a few too many rakis on Saturday night when we had a barbecue, I’ve decided to limit myself to no more than one glass of red per evening and no raki!

I’ve also bought myself a cay kettle but that’s a story for another day.

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