A month??

I can’t believe that January has flown past so quickly! Last time I looked it was New Year, and here we are at the end of the month already.  Which is interesting, because it means in 4 short days time I’ll have been super-duper on plan for a whole freaking month.

GO ME!!!

I weighed at 12st 10lbs at the start of this year - well, after New Year, which let’s face it, in dieter’s terms is the start of the year – and I’ve lost half a stone already at my last weigh in – what a fabulous way to get going!

I didn’t get to run today, which was part of my loose plan, as I didn’t escape the office until half 8, but my eating was clean …. so clean that I’ve been able to have a late evening snack of a yoghurt and some chocolates to get to my daily total.  In fact (and please be very proud of me for some world-class self-restraint here) I wandered into Hotel Chocolat yesterday at Cribbs Causeway, and bought a little box of 6 chocolates.  Cinnamon pralines, if you please.  I had 3 last night, put the other 3 in the fridge and enjoyed them this evening.  That is practically unheard of, but I enjoyed them sooooo much because I knew they were in my daily allowance. 

Also – just for the record, I am totally loving the leftovers habit I have at the moment.  Since I started cooking double portions (or more) of my dinners, it’s made things so much easier.  I know it’s stupid that it didn’t occur to me to do this more often before, but it makes such a difference getting home every other night and not having to think about what I’m cooking, and having a dinner that’s super quick to get done and on the table.  Together with the meal planning before I do my weekly food shop, it’s giving me a much more stable routine, especially while I’m working the crazy hours. It’s also meaning I’m starting to eat a bit more of a varied meal plan again, because I’m thinking ahead on what I want to buy, which means I can pick up different ingredients for new dishes if I want to.  I’ve got an entire recipe book of awesome to work through!

Next month, as well as continuing to rock this (which I will!), I’ll reach my 2nd anniversary on this blog.  2 whole, freaking years – where on earth did the time go??  On the fun stuff, I guess.  Today I decided that this year should probably include some more surfing.  And windsurfing.  Which makes it new wetsuit time.  Funny how that doesn’t hold any fear anymore.

6km in the bank

6km’s more added to my yearly running total this afternoon.  41 minutes.  It’s funny how the runs that you really didn’t want to go on sometimes turn out to be the better ones.  It felt pretty smooth and easy, and I could definitely have gone longer / further if I’d chosen to.

I slept in til noon today – still desperately trying to catch up on a bit of my sleep deficit from the last couple of months, and I felt much better for it.  The good thing with getting up late is that you skip straight to lunch and save yourself some points for the rest of the day – happy days! :o) 

Tasty poached eggs on a toasted muffin with mushrooms for lunch, and a mahoosive portion of stew for tea for just 4 points – lamb, kidney beans and lots of lovely vegetables.  Which left me tons of points over for a WeightWatchers Sticky Toffee pudding and custard (and I may have snuck a sliced banana on top – toffee and banana – awesome combo!).  Although, FYI – the pudding?  Mmmm – it’s ok, but not great.  And now I’m using my last couple of points for some cinnamon pralines from Hotel Chocolat ….. and they are super tasty.

I feel like I’ve had a fairly productive day today – done the food shop, fixed my necklace, about to sew the button back on my cardigan, but I’m a little frustrated.  While Jo was down yesterday we had a long conversation over the fact that I’m budgeting like crazy at the moment, and how hard it is, and how impressed Jo was with me for doing so.  One thing I commented on was that I was little worried about how I was going to afford her birthday as she wants to go karting and then out into Birmingham for a night out which means staying in a hotel as well.  I’m already going on a canal-boating weekend 2 weeks after that which I agreed to weeks ago for Graeme’s 30th.  Jo’s birthday is going to cost over £100 all in, which is so much of my weekly budget. 

But no, last night I start getting angry text messages from Lissa about how I sucked for not wanting to go karting as well as the night out, because I was “supposed to be Jo’s best friend, and I can’t believe that you’re going to Graeme’s instead” and that I “should consider your choices better”.  I pointed out that I had been asked to Graeme’s first, and that I hadn’t known what Jo wanted to do at the point of how much it would cost.  Apparently, I was meant to have said no to Graeme's just in case Jo wanted to do something expensive.  I’m so frustrated.  If I’d been asked on Graeme’s when I had already started budgeted, I’m not sure if I’d have said yes.  And if Jo “is only turning 30 once and wants all her friends around her” then perhaps she should have picked a way to celebrate that doesn’t cost so much money.  But what can I say.  I never said I wouldn’t go, but I’m getting grief for expressing an opinion.

And I wouldn’t mind so much, but Jo and Lissa are the same people who gave me such a hard time for not budgeting in the first place, so it now sucks that I’m getting yelled out over what is effectively a double standard: I should budget, unless it means saying no to something they want to do.  Rant over.

Oh crap, and I’ve just watched the saddest episode of Grey’s Anatomy.  Think I need to watch another one to cheer myself up now!

Time to pick up the slack

Yep – it’s time to get my head down and make this week a good one.  And why’s that you ask?  Because I actually had a really good loss this week and, frankly, that terrifies me a little!

I feel a little discombobulated to be honest – 2.8 lbs off this week – which is fab, don’t get me wrong, but means I’m going to have the hell of a job to lose anything this week – especially with dinner out last night and two more out this week – yikes!

I’m hoping that the crazy at work is finally dying down a bit now – the final curtain yesterday was that Jo was down to visit and I was still late to leave the freaking office – poor Jo had to wait half an hour in the car for me!  I did make it to my morning spin session though, and even tortured myself through my personal trainer’s weights program.  I was a little broken afterwards.

Anyhoo, after I did finally get home, we dollied ourselves up and went out for dinner (excellent Mexican) and a few drinks / cocktails.  After that, we were both absolutely shattered so we actually came back to the flat and both crashed out.  The good news is that the early night meant that I didn’t blow all my weekly flex points.

I’m enjoying my first full weekend off this month – heaven!  I’ve only had 3 days off in the last month so it’s good to have 2 days together and an actually opportunity for a lie-in.  We went for a walk by the coast this afternoon and had a picnic – this was a good thing as the alternative was a pub lunch – aren’t you proud of me for going for a sensible sandwich and crisps instead of what would know doubt have been something waaaaaay more calorific instead?

I spent this evening wrestling with my conscience, as I suddenly took it in my head that I wanted Chinese takeaway.  Do you ever get times like that?  Doesn’t matter that I already used most of my points for the day, or that I already think what I’ve written about about the impossible task of losing this week.  I sat there looking at that menu online trying to work out what I wanted, when I was torn and didn’t really want it.  The only thing that stopped me in the end was the realisation that I’m going for Chinese on Thursday for the Chinese New Year – I’ll be getting exactly what I wanted then, and I can sure wait 4 days.  Instead, I did the sensible thing, defrosted some lamb and made myself what is an awesome casserole, if I do say so myself. 

I admit that I ate more of it than I needed, and mopped up the sauce with a couple of slices of bread – so yes, I’m a few over my daily points, but with my activity points from my walk I’m still a few saved for the day.

And I’ve got tasty,healthy stew for the next couple of days.  So, all in all, not a terrible start to the week.

Shouldering the burden

Do you ever have one of those moments when you find yourself in the middle of something with a feeling of surprise? The how-did-I-get-here syndrome?

Just such a thing happened to me at about 25 to 2 today as I found myself mid-shoulder stand with my knees on my forehead and feet hovering just off the floor behind my head.

If you'd have asked me this morning if I could do a shoulder stand, I'd have undoubtably told you "no". But there I was in my lunchtime yoga class doing them. And not too shabbily at that.

I'm not sure I've ever been to a pure yoga class before - lots of Body Balance but not straight yoga. I gave it a bash today, and I enjoyed it, although by golly, it's quite hard! When it got to the shoulder stands I stopped myself thinking about it too much and just tried it. I got surprisingly straight up in the air, and I managed the scissors and the legs to the floor behind my head stuff pretty well.

There will be a lot of advanced moves that I still won't be able to do, but it was so nice to make that one realisation of how things have improved.

It's been another hideously long day otherwise, but I'm on plan and still remaining resolute in eating right and working out where I can.

A late evening conversation with some of the girls I work with might have turned me up a new yoga companion as well as a new running buddy. We're going to investigate the possibility of the showers at work so we can go for a lunchtime run once or twice a week. Rob (my PT) will be proud! :-)


- Posted from my iPhone

Little things

Who’d have thought it, but lunchtime workouts are turning out to be my saviour these days!

When you’re not leaving the office until sometime around between half 7 to after 8 every night, it’s difficult to find the time or motivation to get a workout in in the evenings, but a lunchtime class allows me both a decent opportunity to sweat and burn off some calories, and, as was the case today, a much-needed opportunity to vent some frustration and get away from my desk for an hour.

I’m also finding I’m falling more and more into a routine with this eating thing at the moment … and part of that routine is making sure that I’m not being too routine, and that I’m being conscientious about my eating and tracking.  For instance – I had always assumed that a pack of stir-fry veg would be zero points, because all the veg individually are – but according to the tracker it’s 2 points per portion! Who knew?  Dutifully noted though.

I spent what little thinking time I had to myself today, going through a bit of an interesting mental exercise.  Yesterday, I mentioned that, among other things,I was feeling rather overwhelmed by my debt, and the task of clearing it (and p.s. thanks for the nice comments as always – much appreciated!).  Today – with the benefit of a clearer mind after some sleep – I thought about it a different way.  You see, it’s so similar to the feelings of hopelessness when overwhelmed with a large weight loss to be accomplished, that I carried that analogy a bit further.

When I started this health challenge, I knew I had a long, looooong way to go.  To help avoid the overwhelming size of my challenge, I avoided thinking about the whole, and just concentrated on the task immediately in front of me, and occasional mini-goals to aim for.  Soon enough I found, that even without needing to be perfect in my efforts, I was chipping away at the whole big amount, and had made surprising progress.  And this debt is just the same.  I’ve scared myself enough to be in the right frame of mind to want to deal with it and commit myself.  Now, I need to stop worrying about the sheer size of it, and just concentrate on the little day to day achievements that help me get a bit closer to my goal.  Take my budget a week at a time, and focus on getting that right.

And where I felt utterly bereft of not having any holidays yesterday, it occurred to me that the only way to solve that is to have something to save for.  A goal to work towards.  That goal is simply a holiday of my choice, wholly paid for upfront – no credit cards involved.  It might not be skiing, but it will be something I’ve chosen and want to do, and having something to work for will keep me a bit more focused.  And like the diet – saving up for those occasional treats stops me feeling like I’m being denied anything – I’ve just got to weigh up what it is I want – a bit more on a day-to-day basis, or be a bit more strict and have an occasional controlled treat.

I can do this.

Lost

I’m feeling a little lost today.  Lost and a bit miserable if I’m totally honest.

A whole group of my friends went away skiing yesterday, which was something I wanted desperately to do – to go with them.  I know I couldn’t go because work is so manic that there is absolutely no chance of time off, but really that just covers the underlying reason that I couldn’t go because I’m so broke at the moment.

Absolutely flat, stony broke.  And whilst I have acknowledged that fact to myself, and that I need to address it now rather than letting it spiral any further, that means that my depressing reality for the next couple of years is that I have virtually no spare money at all.  Not for holidays or shopping or extras. 

Everything just feels a bit much today – friends gone away without me (even though it is just for a week), no money, hardly any friends down here, and a lot of stress at work.  It feels all a bit much to handle, and what I could really do with is a big hug … but there’s no one here to give me one, so I’m having a wallow in self-pity for a little while instead.

The eating has survived today more or less in tact despite that.  I took cupcakes to work which I baked yesterday and I didn’t have one of them – well, not one of the iced ones anyway – I had one of the remaining un-iced ones for dessert after my dinner.  I had intended to run too tonight, but not finishing up in the office til quarter to 8 kind of put paid to that.  But I have already packed my kit for tomorrow so I can spin at lunchtime, and made my sandwiches too.

Another day done – tomorrow can only be better right?

Hard to believe ….

…. but there it is in my tracker … another weekend on plan!

I’m learning to live my life and still lose weight – although I was working all yesterday, I ended up at an impromptu dinner party last night and thoroughly enjoyed beef bourguignon, 2 slices of lemon drizzle cake, red wine, champagne, white wine and some very posh chocolates.  But in moderation.  I ate well the rest of the day, and I was so glad I’d taken my own lunch to the office, when the free lunch picked by the team was Indian – as tasty as it looked it would have knocked me right off course.

Today I actually ended up with an unexpected day off work as I was told yesterday I wouldn’t be needed.  With nothing planned, it’s been a bit of a catch-up day – I had a bit of a lie-in this morning (much needed when you’re working extra days in the office and long hours with it) and then dragged my sorry ass out for a run.  Rob (my trainer) has decreed that I should start running again – partly for the upcoming runs in May and June, and partly because it’s the best calorie killer known to man, woman or beast and will help with my weight loss – so running I went.  It wasn’t a particularly great run, but it was 5k in the tank none the less.  Only the second run of the year, but with rather a lot more to follow.

I’ve also been baking today to take to work tomorrow to cheer up my over-worked colleagues.  I actually screwed up the first batch of cupcake bases, so had to do a second set.  But I did eat 2 of the un-iced bases from the ruined batch that were ok.   In the interests of remaining completely honest with my tracking I sat down to work out how much the actual recipe is in Weightwatchers points …. and here’s the surprise:  the bases are only 4 points each ….. the icing however is another 5 on top!

Anyway – I was very organised earlier and sat down and planned my meals for the week and then did the food-shop.  Annoyingly, I thought that would make it loads cheaper, but it was still pretty pricey (grrrrrr to ever inflating costs of living!), but I do have a fridge chock-full of good food and a meal-plan for the week to help me continue on track.

Time for bed now to face yet another working week!

Happy Saturday!

Another day, another day in the office.

Isn't it funny how when you're motivated, everything seems easy?

Bread's gone mouldy?

Eat the free lunch that work will provide?

Naaah - just walk to the corner shop for more bread, go back, make your sandwiches and head for work.

Where was this motivation when I needed it last year? Oh well - it's here now and I'm glad to have it.

Happy Saturday!

- Posted from my iPhone

Mostly a success

That’s me at the moment – mostly successful.

I’ve lost just over another lb this week, which is great, and brings me just another small step closer to my end goal.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll definitely say it again:  I’m happy to lose slow and steady, just as long as it is steady.

I tracked everything this week, which definitely counts as a success.  Weeks when I don’t allow myself to cheat with my tracking are generally weeks which are successful.

I did, however, allow stress to get a little bit the better of me yesterday.  I was pretty good good all day at work yesterday, and whilst I did have a square of home-made brownie, I considered how it fitted into my day before I had it.  Conscious eating = excellent.  Where I fell down a bit was my incredibly rushed exit from work to meet friends for dinner (not even kidding about how I power-walked home and threw on the closest clean clothes to hand before sprinting out again) – if someone had put a vat of wine in front of me when we reached the bar, I’d have gladly dived in, fully dressed and all.  As it was I had a couple of glasses of wine, and then we went to a gorgeous restaurant called Old India for dinner.  The food is to die for, and (no shocker here) caters Indian cuisine, which as we all know isn’t the most diet friendly. 

By now, I was somewhere between being in a total “fuck-it, I’ve had a bad day” mood and a warm and fuzzy cloud of wine.  I chose exactly what I wanted off that damn menu and savoured every last little mouthful.  Actually, not strictly true.

I ordered king prawns with an saffron and almond sauce and sesame seeds, and we ordered sides to share between us – peshwari naan, pilau rice, an amazing mushroom dish and another type of bread call paratha that came stuffed with veg.  I ate all my prawns, but stopped picking when I was full – there was still quite a lot of amazing sauce in my bowl, and naan, paratha and mushrooms left to spare.  I might not have ordered healthily, but I ate healthily, and I’m sure this is going to be one of my key behaviours going forwards – eating (key word coming up here) a little of what I fancy.

I’ve had another diabolical day at work today, but eating remains on track.  I’ve noticed that I’m starting to treat my lunch a lot more like fuel than an object lesson in emotional eating at the moment.  It was another session of Brutality at the Gym today, a.k.a. personal training with Rob, so I split my lunch to eat an early sandwich an hour and a bit before I went, and my yoghurt when I got back, and that seemed to work well.  Training was hard today, but I like that he targets everything around my personal aims and I actually feel both pushed, and like I’ve achieved something.

Today’s session was high intensity interval training on the rower for 10 mins followed by upper body weights and then about 25 mins straight of abs / core circuits.  Ow, ow, ow!!!  I’ve also now got a fancy laminated card that has my gym program for the next couple of weeks on it, so I have no excuse, and I’ve also been told to get my ass out there running again.  Yes, Boss!!!

Back at work, I did a little more conscious eating, and after a consideration went for a small fruit salad this morning – who says habits can’t be a little flexible????

My motivation feels great today!!  I’m gunning for a third week solidly on track and another loss.  I feel like I’m getting motivation from all different sources at the moment – from my upcoming races, from friends, from my trainer, more immediately from wanting to look good my best on my next date, from the slightest peek of the sun still being above the horizon at 5pm last night, from feeling good about treating myself right and also from the satisfaction of knowing that I’m succeeding right now!  Even with dinner out last night and wine, all it meant was that I’d used all my activity points for the week, but I still wasn’t in deficit.

I have no mini-goals right now, no way points on the way anymore – it’s all about getting this done and getting all the way to goal now.

How’s everyone else’s New Year motivation doing????

p.s. today’s treat was courtesy of Jaffa Cakes – I loves me a little daily treat of some sort, dependent on points being available.  Sort of a bright point in the evening to savour something that feels naughty as I unwind.

Stress Days

Today is going to be a test. I know everyone has different ways of dealing with stress, and traditionally, I was always an eater. Just eat them there emotions until you feel better.

Work at the moment is super busy, and today is an added ball of stress on top, so the challenge is not to let that carry me away from my good eating, especially as I'm eating out tonight with friends.

I was uber organised last night - even though I didn't leave work til late, I cooked myself a load of roast veggies and some ratatouille-type veg, and whilst that was going, I used up the rest of the veg making homemade soup (and then I cleaned the kitchen and changed the bed, and finally settled down to watch a couple of episodes of Grey's Anatomy!). That's a bit of a life-saver today as I've been able to bring soup for lunch with my sandwich and save myself some money and points for tonight. As it's super-filling I think that should also help me avoid the stress-snacking.

I was thinking on the way to work this morning, that the one trap I don't want to fall into at the moment is carelessness. Sometimes I get so zoned in on my routine, that I don't actually notice when I start sliding a bit and it's those small differences that add up to me not getting good results at the scales. I was wondering, for instance, whether I actually need a medium fruit salad each morning, or whether a small one would be enough most mornings. And I need to pay more attention to my lunch sandwiches, as I'm not entirely sure whether I bought medium or thick bread this week even though I'm pointing it as medium.

Little things that add up!

New Year. New Habits

I realised something this morning as I checked my watch, and bounced out of my seat at my desk.

I've changed a habit. Replaced an old one with a brand new shiny one, and I hadn't really understood that I'd done it until then.

See, as far back as I can remember since I started work, when the opportunity has arisen, I like a hot drink in the morning. When I worked in London, it was probably a grande skiny Chai Latte from Starbucks in the morning (I'm not a traditional tea or coffee drinker - sadly I don't like either). At my last office, it was a small skinny hot chocolate from Costa, because I'd started eating better and realised that I didn't need a big drink to satisfy the craving; the smallest would do.

In November we moved to my current office and there was a Starbucks pod in the office (yep - swanky office - we have not one, but two, Starbucks concessions in the office), andI returned to my ways - a small hot chocolate or chai every morning. But when I gave myself a kick after the New Year and properly started tracking and paying attention to what I was eating again, I dropped a lot of my habitual snacks or only ate them occasionally, and the drinks were one of the things that went.

Around the same time my fruit intake went way up, as I replaced my usual sugary / processed (although portion-controlled, of course!) snacks with it, and I eventually discovered the fruit bar in our staff restaurant (we're not allowed to call it a "canteen" for fear of being shot by the chef lol). Every morning during breakfast, they put out an entire self-service counter of yoghurts, cereals, muesli ... and fruits. Lots of fresh fruit. You just grab yourself a box and get ladling. And that's what I've been doing every morning now - a medium carton of fruit salad at 10-ish am, and it keeps me full til lunch. Fresh pineapple, grapes, peaches, oranges, mixed fruit salad or, as it was this morning, fruits of the forest. I strain the juice off and stuff that little box full.

And there it was ..... a little new habit replacing the old.

Funny how they sneak up on you!

I still have my chai sometimes, but now it's in the afternoon and only when I've got points to spare. And you know what? I suspect I enjoy it more for not having it every day.

Sucess!!

Sucess sometimes comes in small packages.

Of Maltesers.

And larger packets too.

Just a very quick post to say that there was an uncomfirmed sighting of a novel event reported at a cinema in Bristol tonight. I went to see The Kings Speech (which is most excellent by the way, I can see why it's scooping all the gongs), and as we didn't have much time between work, eating dinner and going to the cinema, I didn't have time to go to the corner shop and buy the bottle of Diet Coke and small pack of Maltesers I'd been intending to take with me. Once at the cinema, I bought my diet soda, but was at a loss as to what snack to have. Not ice-cream - it goes to quickly and I wasn't in the mood, and they only do the share-size packs of sweets. Eventually, I agreed to share Hannah's pack with her with a sense of impending doom (no way was I going to only have half, never mind just the equivalent of a small bag).

But there it was at the end of the film .... a bag that still had sweets in the bottom. And amazingly, I ate far, far less than half of the rest. I am confident that I didn't have any more than the original portion I'd aimed for.

Wonders will never cease - I somehow slowed down and prevented my hand from making the constant meander from bag to mouth.

The rest of the day has gone equally well - I've eaten on points, done a spin class in my lunchbreak, and stayed well away from the tin of Roses chocolates that were bought to the office. I decided that not having any was better, as I'm not good once I get started. But I did enjoy an afternoon cup of chai latte from Starbucks with some of my spare points.

Feeling good about myself.

Happy Monday!

Morning lovelies,

Unbelievably, I've emerged from a second weekend on plan completely unscathed. Still with a few flex points in the bank and my activity points untouched.

The really nice thing about that is that it's been a weekend that included a dinner out, a cream tea, dinner with a friend with wine and 2 nights out. In other words: a really normal weekend with treats like a "normal" person has.

And how did I do that? I made the decision to not drink on my nights out on Friday and Saturday - I decided that the drinking was not integral to me having a good night out (especially as it was two separate nights out), and in this case I would rather have the extra flexibility with the food.

Having said that, I had a few sneaky glasses with Hannah last night over our very tasty (if I do say so myself) butternut squash risotto, but I had those knowing I have the points available for them. Consequently, my head was a little fuzzy this morning .... I may not have thought that one through properly! Lol.

One thing I am finding is that I'm largely falling into a new routine. It becomes a little bit easier every day to make the right choices. At work, I've now cleared two full weeks of my new-style eating which is largely snack free, and I realised this morning that the reason it gets a little easier, is I've now come to realise that I'm not getting overly hungry without my former snacks, and without that unconscious worry nagging at the back of my mind, my need for snacks has actually diminished. It is becoming far, far easier to resist the temptations round the office as they arise ..... I didn't bother with a cake on Friday at all, despite them being about 5m's away from me all day, and it wasn't a terribly hard decision to make in the end.

It's going to be another super busy week in the office, but after 2 busy weeks already, I know I can fit a work out in if I choose to, and I know I can eat right. Cooking multiple portions of dinner so I have leftovers I can simply reheat an evening or two a week really helps me too. I did last night's risotto for 4, so I've got 2 dinner's worth sorted already this week. I've got a dinner and drinks out on Thursday night, but I'll jump that bridge when I get to it.

Hope you all had great weekends! I had a lovely time at home, catching up with friends and spending some time with my Dad, although I was in the office for a half-day yesterday, but I still feel fairly refreshed.

Chat from the scales

And the scales say .... just over 2.5lbs off this week. Which is excellent.

A fresh new week, and a fresh new tracker to work on. I am determined to have another week as good as this one.

I'm off to a good start, as 6am this morning saw me stumbling blearily round the kitchen in search of cereal before hitting the gym. It must be some kind of insanity to find yourself sweating on a spin bike before 7 in the morning. 45 min spin class, 15 min abs class (ow, ow, ow!) and a quick round of upper body weights, hit the showers and at my desk just before 8.30.

It's going to be another busy, busy day (surprise surprise) but hopefully I'll be able to leave on time and head back to the Shire to see friends and family for the weekend.

So far today, I've had two sensible breakfasts (cereal wasn't enough and I was starving after the gym so had so wholemeal toast and jam), eaten 2 of my portions of fruit and totally ignored the two sets of cakes in the office. Off to a good start!!


- Posted from my iPhone

Weekly round-up

Well, despite work going into what can only be described as hyper-drive, over the last couple of days, I’m still here and surprisingly still standing.  It’s been late nights and long hours all round, and I’m pretty sodding knackered, but I’ve actually managed to get a workout or two in.  I woke up early on Tuesday just to ring the gym and book a spin session, and I’d intended to get a workout in today, but ended up working past the class time.  But I’m planning on going to (seriously) early spin class tomorrow morning ….. so spare a thought for me at 6 freaking 45 tomorrow morning!!!!! 

It’s the end of my week on Weightwatchers, which means tomorrow is the dreaded weigh in.  I think I’ll have hopefully lost at least something … the scales have been bobbing around all over the place, so I’m not at all sure what to expect!  I’d actually rather a smaller loss than a ridiculous big one though, as it gives me a better chance of making steady progress over the next couple of weeks.

I have actually achieved what has previously seemed the impossible and completed a week on plan and only used 8 of my activity points.  I’ve eaten a ton of fruit and veg, and good lean meat, and I’ve eaten a lot more home cooked, and home made food and a lot less processed / pre-packaged stuff.  I seem to have also got my snacking down to a reasonable amount,despite all my extended hours in the office, so I’m really hoping it will pay off with a little karmic love at the scales.

This weekend will be my first real challenge since the pig-fest that was New Year.  I’m off home for the weekend, supposedly out to the pub tomorrow night (assuming I can get away from work soon enough) and then Saturday I’m out celebrating my friend Sheena’s birthday with a dinner and cocktails / night out.  Dinner’s not too bad as I know the restaurant we’re going to (it’s an Italian) and I know they have a fair few vegetarian / tomato based options on the menu which makes things easy.  I’m debating whether to drive to either the pub tomorrow night, or Sat night, so I can lay off the booze though and give myself a fighting chance.  I’d love to see another tracker like this one at the end of next week!

The portion conundrum

Hey guys – how’s it hanging today?  Good?  Healthy?  Rocking your New Year’s Resolutions?

I am.  I didn’t make my resolution about losing weight, I made it about being on plan.  And, yes sirree, I am still rocking it.  Good God – at this rate it’ll become some kind of crazy habit!

So – a fairly quiet day on the eating front today.  Everything’s crazy busy at work at the moment – working late every night and in the office on the weekends kind of busy, so one thing I’m thinking a bit harder about it where to get my exercise in.  I’m not seeing My Trainer-man again until next Friday, but I need to make sure I actually make an effort in between those appointments, or what’s the point?!  The weather’s been so uncertain the last couple of days that I didn’t want to take the risk of having a run rained off again, and I don’t feel like working out when I finally finish work, so I woke up early this morning and rang the gym and managed to get myself a spot in the super-popular lunchtime spin class. 

Having the spin class on my lunch makes life really easy because it means I get some activity done and dusted, without really eating into my day at either end, but it’s also great to get away from my desk and do something stress-busting on a high-pressure day.  The gym runs shorter versions of classes on lunches, and I should definitely make better use of them.  I might even go and have a little look at what else is available this week …

Eating’s good today, and has been pretty easy given that I knew I was eating stir fry again for tea.  It’s a great standby as it’s low points and soooooo quick to cook when I get home all tired and starving.  Here’s a conundrum though … and yet another example of why us poor sods go wrong so easily … yesterday I had noodles from a pack from Waitrose.  Each individual nest was a 62.5g portion and came out at 2 Weightwatchers points.  They were the last of the pack though, so I had to go shopping on the way home from work to get some more.  Sainsbury’s didn’t have any dried noodles again, and I’m not touching their fresh noodles with a barge pole, after the 9 point debacle last time.  Co-op had Sharwood’s dried egg noodles, so I got those.  As I checked the nutritional info though, I got a shock – each Sharwood’s recommended portion is 125g.  That’s twice the Waitrose portion!!!!  If I hadn’t had the Waitrose portion yesterday and known that that was plenty, I’d have quite merrily had the whole 125g portion of the Sharwood’s noodles and not thought anything of it.  As it was, I decided I’d just break a portion in half and have what I needed …. but didn’t have to, as when I opened the packet there were actually 8 small portions rather than 4 large ones.  How odd, that Sharwood should recommend 2 normal portions!!!  Anyway, I had one, and it was plenty and dinner was delish.

Just for amusement, and to help slow down my eating, I ate today and yesterday’s stir frys with chop sticks.  It’s an art I need to master anyway, but it doesn’t half force me to concentrate on what I’m eating! lol

Right, I’m going to settle down in front of the tv now – I’m about to form a close personal friendship with my sofa and a blanket, use the last of my Flex points, and a couple of my activity points to enjoy a Curlywurly and watch Letters to Juliet – guilty pleasure viewing at it’s best.

Laters!

Eeeeeek!

|The scary thing has happened – someone I actually know out The Real World has found my blog (hey Dom!).  I’m not sure why I thought no one would ever find it, but it might have been a little naive.  I guess it doesn’t really change anything though, and I should just write as I normally do.

So – I was a bit worried that I’d struggle to get back onto my regular workday eating after the weekend.  I did great last week, and over the weekend too, but you know me – I always worry about my motivation!

I ended up having a great weekend, both in real life and in terms of my tracking.  I loved seeing Bec yesterday when she visited Bristol – we had a lovely lunch at Yo! Sushi (and the lovely Hannah joined us too) and then spent a couple of hours mooching round the shops.  It was so nice to catch up, and made me feel a lot less left out of things back home having moved away.  Best of all though, I … wait for it ….. ohmygod, actually-finished-a-weekend-on-points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Woooooooooooohoo!

Yes I did. 

I tracked absolutely everything, did the best I could with working out my sushi points, and I haven’t quite used up all my Flex points, never mind my activity points.  Whoop!  And I’ve done alright today too.  Packed my lunch, controlled my snacking (and did that even though I worked an hour and a half late this evening), and came home to cook my planned dinner.  Amazingly, I’ve actually underpointed today too, as my dinner actually came to far less than I was expecting – so I’ve still got 6 points to kill.

The stir-fry beef was lovely – I did it with my usual “sauce” – garlic, light soy sauce and ground ginger – simple, tasty and zero points.  I used half a pack of Sainsbury’s Be Good To Yourself Beef Stir Fry, which came to a very economical 4 points, and a nest of egg noodles from Waitrose, which were just 2 points!!  See – sometimes actually pointing everything individually works in your favour :o)

Now ….. what to use those remaining 6 points on ….. I can’t save ‘em after all!

A little experimentation

Morning my lovelies!  I am currently sat on my sofa basking in the sun pouring in through my living room window as I write this post, and I feel pretty happy.  It’s a lazy Sunday morning, the sun’s out, I’ve just had a really nice breakfast, and one of my best friends is arriving in the hour for an afternoon of catching up.  The sun is definitely shining in my life today.

So, I’ve made it my target for this week to try and eat a little more adventurously.  I’m a little bit guilty of tending to eat the same things over and over again, which is a bit silly when there’s a whole world of healthy loveliness out there to eat.  After I escaped the office yesterday, I needed to do a food shop (and you can tell my fridge was near bare as it cost me a small fortune to restock!), so I made it my mission to try and get some new things to try and mix things up a bit.  I did some mental planning as I was wandering the aisles, of what I needed for the week and came up with the following:

• salmon with portobello mushrooms, couscous and broccoli.  I don’t eat anywhere near enough fish, especially seeing that I love it, and oily fish is very good for you.  I had this last night, just oven-cooked in a foil parcel with some seasoning and fresh lemon juice, and it was sooooo tasty.  The portobello mushrooms were new for me too; I adore mushrooms but usually just get the boring closed cup, button or chestnut ones.  I had half the pack last night, which was one and a half mushrooms, and just sautéed them very quickly in the pan with some seasoning, and they were amazing – really meaty texture and good flavour.  The couscous was also a bit of an experimentation for me, as although I have previously eaten couscous, it’s always the pre-flavoured stuff.  This was plain couscous, and it has been sat in my cupboard unopened for ages!  I just did it with a vegetable stock cube and some dried tarragon, and it was lovely – really tasty.  All round verdict – success.  And I get leftovers for dinner tonight – winner!
• Beef stir-fry.  I’m a stir-fry addict, and absolutely love it, but I’m very boring and always have the same variants – chicken or prawns and fairly straightforward veg combinations.  So this time I’ve gone for lean beef strips and an edamame bean stir-fry selection – tasty!  And I’ll be more careful with which noodles I’m using this time.
• Lamb steaks and roasted root vegetables.  Again – I loves me some roast vegetables, but I always have the same ones.  And usually with chicken.  Last Monday, I had dinner at Hannah’s and we had fennel, celeriac, swede, and roasted onion quarters and it was amazing.  I like all those veg, but don’t often think to buy them myself to play with.  I couldn’t find fennel (I guess I might need a greengrocers for that?), but I did get celeriac, half a swede, carrots, onion and a small butternut squash.  Likewise, the lamb steaks are a lean cut, and I thought it would be nice to be a bit different.  And although lamb is more points on Weightwatchers, most of the veg are zero points, so it will totally balance out.
• Carrot and celery soup – as anyone who’s read this for a while knows, I love some homemade soup.  I still have a fairly narrow repertoire at the moment, so this is a flavour I had at work the other week, which rocked, and I thought I’d try it for myself.
• Weightwatchers individual cheesecakes.  I’m addicted to dessert, but tend to avoid it when I’m head down and on plan.  But I thought it would be nice to have a back-up treat in the fridge.  So I’ve got two little lemon cheesecakes – I tried one last night, and it wasn’t bad at all – rather tasty.  It’s not real cheesecake of course, not full-fat stuff anyway, but it helps stop me feeling deprived.

The real thing that struck me about my shopping last night as I looked at it all stacked up on the conveyer belt, was how much “real” food I had, and how little snacks.  Kind of cool!

One thing that’s surprising me at the moment is how much food I’m actually eating.  When I was tracking yesterday’s food last night, I kept thinking I must have missed something off because I’d felt so full all day and felt like I’d had several treats, but in reality I’d only dipped into my flex points by a few.  I’d enjoyed a nice afternoon break of a chai latte from Starbucks on my way back from town, which I sat down and enjoyed at home with the rest of the Maltesers from Friday.  I’d had cheesecake, and all my lovely salmon.  It seems that my daily allowance can in fact be made to stretch rather a long way if I just think about it properly.  On a side-note though – I posted yesterday about my obsession with poached eggs and English muffins at the moment, and I have to confess I made a slight error.  I stopped to double-check the points on the muffin earlier, as I was surprised to see one muffin was 2 points in the tracker and another registered as 5.  I’ve been pointing the 2 point version, but when I actually looked more closely at the default portion sizes and double checked my muffin I had, I discovered that it should have been 5.  How annoying!!  5 points for a muffin seems steep, and puts my whole meal up to 9 rather than 6, but as much as I want to undo my knowledge of that and pretend ignorance, I’ve re-done my tracker to match.  I guess 9 points might seem a lot, but on the other hand that combo – muffin, mushroom and eggs – does keep you full for ages. 

Talking of breakfasts, I went old-school this morning.  I’d forgotten how damn good plain ol’ toast and jam can taste!  Decent granary bread, butter and proper jam – sooooooooooo tasty!!  It might be heavy on the points 8 but it was super nice – proper comfort food.  Sometimes it’s just nice to rediscover the simple things.

Going banana's and stepping away from the scales

I mentioned yesterday that I was having a love affair with bananas at the moment, and I totally am. Seriously - I love, love, love them. I always did love bananas, because not only do they taste good, but they are seriously filling and give you a real energy boost to boot. And you can use them in loads of cooking / baking too - versatile!

Under old-style Weightwatchers I'm ashamed to admit that I was a bit wary of them though - if I wanted fruit, I'd often veer off in the direction of lower pointed things - equally tasty, but not as satisfying. Now they're free though - well, hellooooooo baby! Awesome before the gym, and whenever I start to have serious snack cravings, like while I'm cooking and absolutely starving. I am careful not abuse them though, I probably eat 1 - 2 a day (mixed in with other fruit), but I only eat if I'm actually hungry, and only one at a time.

The other thing I'm having a serious re-acquaintance with at the moment is eggs, and for much the same reasons - wholesomely delicious, versatile and so filling too. My obsession-dish du jour is a toasted English muffin, split and lightly buttered, with a layer of mushrooms and then 2 poached eggs. A lot of very tasty food for just 6 points (I use medium eggs, a fairly small muffin and just a spray of olive oil to fry the mushrooms, topped up with a splash of water - by the time you've seasoned the mushrooms in the pan, they taste great). Takes 10 mins to cook, and bugger me if it doesn't keep you full for ages. I eat it for breakfast, for tea, for lunch - it turns up pretty regularly at the moment.

It's so filling in fact, that I had it for breakfast at about half 9 this morning, and I seriously can't even contemplate my lunch yet at half 1! No word of a lie - I keep thinking I want to eat something, but I'm not even vaguely hungry, to the point that actually food doesn't seem that appetising after all. But worry not - when I am hungry, I've got my home-packed lunch with me. Just as well really, as the Pizza Express takeaway menu is currently doing the rounds - it would appear that work springs for lunch when we're in on the weekend - thank heavens I came prepared!

In other news, the scales suddenly dropped today. Which is great, but also bad. Yeah, perverse aren't I? See, when the scales drop big time, I see big success, and my instant reaction (after "yeeehaaaa!" obviously) is "excellent, it obviously works, so I don't have to work as hard now". Not helpful. At. All.

I loves me a bit of scales accountability. When things aren't so good, I step on that scale daily and acknowledge the truth to help keep myself on the straight and narrow. Now things are better, I will need a new tactic I think; I don't want to see a (hopefully) steadily falling number and be tempted to slack off .... I think it is now time to step away from the scales once more. As you may remember, I got quite into that in the Autumn last year when I was making good progress. I learned to trust myself, look at how my clothes felt, and I had to work hard because I couldn't be sure what the scales were doing. I need that again, so I'm going to weigh myself no more than 2 times a week going forwards, and see if I can keep this current momentum going. I can already feel my jeans feeling a bit better as the post-Christmas bloat deflates, and it does feel so much better.

And lastly: I can not move today. Between Combat and bloody Rob yesterday I'm so stiff. I was going to go to yoga this morning, but seriously, I don't think I'd have been able to bend!! Hopefully, I'm going to be done with work shortly, so I'm wondering about going for a walk or possible a very gentle bike ride somewhere this afternoon to try and loosen up a bit. Alternatively, I could go do a proper food shop and find lots of nice vegetables for next week ...

Freakish

I had one drink and 2 non-alcoholic ones in the end - all with diet soda. Positively saintly.

But weirdly, I only ate a third of my little bag of Maltesers. I'm sorry, but how freakish is that????? Who only eats part of one of those little bags?? I mean really? I sat down to eat the whole thing. I had mentally allowed myself to eat the whole thing. But then didn't need to. I'm officially a freak of nature for refusing perfectly good chocolate!

That's dedication to the cause, kids.

Off to bed now because I've got to go to the office tomorrow. Boooooooooo.

- Posted from my iPhone

Ooooh – that hurt a bit!

And might well continue to do so for a little while!  I had a personal trainer session at lunch time today – weights followed by a one-on-one spin session.  So the the good thing was that Rob (my PT) reckons my weights strength isn’t too shabby.  Better still, he said I was streets ahead of where he was expecting me to be on the bike.  15 mins of interval sprints on the bike, followed directly by 15 mins of intense hill intervals.  It sounds stupid but 90 seconds of straight out sprinting on the bike is hard.  It certainly kept my heart rate high, but at least I had the pleasure of watching my trainer sweat it out with me as he was on a bike too!

As today was my last free session, we discussed the possibility of me continuing our sessions privately.  Even though I’m on a strict budget at the moment, I’m going to do it.  For the first time in the on-and-off history of me having a trainer, I feel like Rob really understands what I’m trying to achieve and is actually listening to me.  He knows that I’m trying to finish losing weight, achieve all round fitness and that I’ll be training for my 10k and duathlon, and he’s putting my training sessions together accordingly.  In the past, it’s always felt like I’m just doing whatever cardio and weights the trainer fancies doing that week with all their clients, rather than something actually that’s tailored for me.  Either that, or they’ve pushed me so damn hard that I’ve either felt like vomiting or passing out …. and I do mean literally.  It’s like they paid no attention to my actual levels of fitness at all. 

I’m going to have a sort of trial period up til mid-March – if it can give me a boost and make a difference, then it’ll be worth the money, and I’ll think about carrying on with it.  I’m going to continue with fortnightly sessions, as I think I can afford that a bit easier – it’s a compromise between cost and effectiveness.  In return, Rob is not only going to conduct the sessions with me, but put together and monitor a proper program for me, and also wants to see what I’m eating via a food diary.  Yep – I’m going to have to own up to what I’m eating.  That’s accountability for you!  The initial plan is to spend the first couple of sessions in the gym, concentrating on weights to boost my metabolism (yay!), and after that the next step is ….. *gulp* …. Rob wants outdoor sessions concentrating on my running.  Oh gawd.

I’m quite proud of myself actually this afternoon.  I’ve managed my hunger twice.  I had a sandwich before the gym, as I only wanted a light lunch, so I was bloody starving when i got back … and I managed to eat relatively sensibly.  A Go Ahead slice, satsuma and a yoghurt and I treated myself to a skinny hot chocolate – I thought the milk would be pretty filling given that the soup bar had closed by the time I got back from the gym.  No crisps.  No chocolate.  No cakes from the coffee bar (yeah – we have pretty varied catering options at work – soup bar, deli sandwich bar, hot food, jacket potatoes - pretty lucky really, but also open to abuse if I’m not careful).

Even better – I’m using a couple of my flex points this evening to treat myself (again) to a little bag of Maltesers – damn it – I’m a frigging angel:  I bought my Maltesers on the way home, and even though I was absolutely freakin’ starving by then (left work late), I made it in and out of the shop with just my chocolate, some fruit (oh my – am I having a love affair with bananas at the moment!) and (super organised here!) lunch ingredients for tomorrow so that I’m good in the office.  Damn it – I am on a freakin’ roll!

Soooooooooo good in fact, that I haven’t actually eaten my Maltesers yet, because I’m going out for a quiet drink in a bit with Hannah and can’t decide whether to use the points on a drink instead.  I can’t quite decide whether to stay alcohol-free tonight, or maybe just have one – I’m working tomorrow and don’t want a groggy head.

Sorry – I know me crowing on about how good I’m being at the moment is pretty boring – it’s just I want a record of me being on track –  I guess it’s a bit more for me than you guys at the moment.  Bear with me, huh?

Love ya all muchly – and just to amuse you – here’s a proper pic of this little ladybird from New Year.

 

A funny thing

It's the start of a brand new week. Not a half week on plan because I ate the contents of several fridges over the weekend and then got back to it, but a whole shiny new week.

The official report from the scales was only 0.5 lbs off this week, but I figure it this way - I've eaten a crapload (that's the official term by the way) of bad food recently. Now I'm eating a lot of good food. And I do actually mean quite a lot, because my veggies keep my plate full. But I know what I'm eating, and I honestly know I'm on plan - I'm just not starving myself. So the weight is not dropping off super-fast because of the not-starving, but if I eat like this for long enough the fat will start a-burning itself and then the scales will drop. Logic and no need for immediate panic.

The funny thing is though - the better I eat, the better I find myself wanting to eat. Before you sigh - I know a lot of you are probably hearing all the evangelical zeal of the new quitter. We've all heard it before from brand new non-smokers, dieter's, and probably reformed alcoholics too. That massive burst of enthusiasm that's so annoying / amusing for the old hands. God knows I've read enough of those blogs and shaken my head. Maybe it is that, but I'll take my motivation where I can find it.

For the moment I find myself returned to that glorious mindset from 2 years ago. After the initial crunch of getting back to it, I'm finding that the more I eat clean, the more I want to. Little things like not giving in to pre-dinner snacks and not having my morning hot chocolate at work. Lots of fruit instead of my more normal cereal bars. Making sure I say no to the odd little bites of food that can sneak in.

And you know what? I realised today that I think I'm genuinely starting to feel less hungry. I've noticed I'm not needing as many snacks during the day and between meals. Maybe it's a psychological response but it's cool.

Went to Body Combat last night for the first time at the new gym (and the first time in months too) and it has literally kicked my ass. I'm not even kidding - my ass aches so much today. And all of my back too!!! Youch!!!! Even more youch as I have a personal training session at lunch which was promised as a one-on-one spin session. Urgh!!!! Death!!!

- Posted from my iPhone

Avoiding the pitfalls

Hellooooooooo my lovelies!

Can you believe it? Another good day under my belt. It's almost like I'm on some kind of roll! Or even a diet! Actually, scrap that - I hate that word. I stick my tongue out at it and blow raspberries (mmmmm .... raspberries ..... I'm easily distracted).

Anyhoo - yes - another day of no snacking, all pointing, sensible but tasty eating goodness. Just to clarify though - when I say "no snacking", I mean no rubbish mouthfulls of stuff, not my proper snacks eaten at sensible points during the day. My fruit and veg intake is up. Rubbish intake down.

Annoyingly, the scales aren't quite reflecting that, but I shall ignore them (and blow loud raspberries at them two, maybe even flick the finger in their general direction .... oooh, I'm such a rebel!), because I know for once, that I'm honestly eating the way I should. They'll figure that out eventually.

Since I've been busy the last couple of days I haven't worked out since my slow, slow run on Monday, so it's time to give myself a proverbial ass-kicking again. Any time the gym texts me to see if I'm still alive is probably time for me to get down there and show my face. Consequently, my bag is packed under my desk and I'm heading to Body Combat straight after work tonight. Yay - I haven't done Combat in forever!!!

I still haven't had time to get to the supermarket for a proper shop, so I've stocked on lots of veg from the local shop - dinner tonight is already sorted. I also remembered the joy of exercising after work is that I can have a slightly bigger lunch to fuel it - healthy of course, but tasty, tasty, tasty.

That's all from me really - tomorrow's my official weigh in day, but I don't expect to be showing any big climb-downs from my current high yet. That's ok - I'm happy to just keep up the good-eating. I'm being vigilant over my bad habits - last night I had to remind myself that dinner would only take a few minutes to reheat, so there was absolutely no need to go sniffing out snacks from the cupboard. Not that I have any, as the cupboards are deliberately pretty bare at the moment, but it's still a familiar habit that needs breaking. Getting there slowly!

Wonders never cease

First things first .... thanks Lexie - the date was great :o) More of that later.

Secondly - I'm extremely proud to report that on day 3, I have just realised that one of my bad habits I am now going without is eating anything that wasn't on my tracker. Wooooohoooooo! I know that sounds like such a small thing, but in that case it's such a small thing that I stumble over again and again ... and freaking again.

I was flaming starving on the way home from the office last night, so I grabbed dinner from the supermarket on the way home ... and unlike the flying visits of before Xmas, I actually just grabbed my dinner, a copy of Heat (not known to be highly calorific) and left with nothing else. Victory!!

Another small victory / change was that when I looked at my dinner (king prawn stir-fry with ginger and soy sauce), I was bizarrely tempted to eat all of it in one sitting. Errrrrr .... I think my brain's shortwired somewhere .... I know it's vegetables, but seriously? That's a ridiculous portion when the bag of veg clearly says 2. Then when I started cooking, I realised my error, and thought "no, that is definitely 2 portions, and this way I'll have ready-done dinner for tomorrow". I don't know why it is sometimes, that I'm wired to try and eat waaaaay more than I need - a definite case of eyes bigger than my stomach. But in this case I did it properly and tupperwared the rest of it straight away.

And another small victory? (Yeah, I know, they just keep coming today). When I pointed up dinner, I expected the noodles to be 6 points-ish. Afterall, I'd eaten the suggested portion from the pack. By chance, I thought I'd check it against the actualy nutritional information, and it turns out that Sainsburys Free Range Egg Noodles are a whopping 9 points for half a pack. Nooooooooooo!!! Not happy. I can tell you, right here and now, that I was highly tempted to put in the standard points suggested by Weightwatchers so it didn't upset my planning, but then thought what on earth would be the point of that?

I'm not here to trick myself, or lie to myself, or to wonder later why it is I'm not losing weight. Honesty, honesty, honesty. All pointed and accounted for.

And finally - round of applause please ladies and gentlemen ........ I managed to go to my favourite cocktail bar last night and drink sensibly!!!!! (Excuse me while I just pick my jaw up off the floor). No cocktails. Not one. None at all. I had 1 vodka and cranberry, and 1 vodka and diet Coke, and then just a diet Coke sans alcohol. Oh good God - there must be something wrong with me!

Soooooooo - good day all round really. The date was lovely - he was lovely - I thought he seemed really nice, and apparently the feeling was mutual, as we're going to try and find some time in our ridiculous diaries to meet again (which is a little tricky as he's now headed back to London and we're both working pretty much the rest of the month continuously including weekends ... boooooo). Despite my best efforts at sabotaging myself by a) somehow being the most clumsy person ever and attempting to fall over, or take out the lamp next to us on several occasions, and b) nervously talking away 19 to the dozen, and probably revealing way too much about my bad habits / neuroses / general-stuff-you-should-never-tell-a-guy-on-the-first-date it somehow went well. He's fun, well-travelled, intelligent, attractive, good with the compliments, kind enough to laugh at my jokes and not laugh when I attempt to fall over. He's promising.

Going cold turkey

Day no 2 of the New Year restart, and so far we're going surprisingly well. I made it to the end of yesterday without caving to dessert or sweet stuff - I realised that what I was mistaking for hunger as I walked home was more likely the unfamiliar sensation of my stomach being comfortably full rather than stretched to capacity.

And today? First day back at work: home-packed lunch and no snacking - yay!!! I even realised that I hadn't bothered with my habitual skinny hot chocolate and I didn't need it.

I don't have time to work out this evening as I have no food in the flat and I have a date later, so my little bits of walking to and from the office and the bar later will have to suffice. Healthy dinner with lots of veg and then some sensible drinking tonight. Do I remember how to do that? You bet I do! Besides - I can't get hammered on a first date ... it's not really polite ;-)


- Posted from my iPhone

Day 1

Hmmm - yesterday didn't work as exactly planned. It wasn't going badly until we got stuck on the M5 on the way back from Cornwall and then Jo had to stay overnight as the motorway was completely closed for the rest of the day.

The first day of the new year turned into the last day of the old day - way too much bad food and half a bottle of cava, followed by cocktails.

Ugh to feeling uncomfortably full (yeah, hello Food Baby for about the third or fourth day in a row).

Right - today is the first day of the new year. I'm committed to making a proper restart. I ate cereal and fruit for breakfast. I went for a 5k run. It didn't feel great - it felt sluggish and draining and I got snowed on, but at least I ran all over it. Well, plodded at something that might be vaguely recognised as a jogging pace. It wasn't walking anyway.

I kept my head at Yo Sushi! at lunch (not too many dishes, mostly vegetarian and some
Miso soup). I stuck to my budget whilst shopping in the afternoon which is a freaking miracle. I didn't snack in the afternoon, and Hannah cooked me lots of roast vegetables with lean turkey for dinner.

I struggled with not automatically eating dessert afterwards. I'm comfortably full, I don't need dessert but I've got used to eating so much more. It's like going cold turkey on an addiction, but I want to be doing this properly.

New year, new start.

- Posted from my iPhone

Back to the start

The New Years / Festive eat-feat is now over. As of this morning, I ate a sensible breakfast and we're going for a walk on the beach before we get in the car for the mammoth trek back up North (we being Jo who is back with me on the healthy trek).

I've eaten my fill of crap - hello fruit and veg, old friends!


- Posted from my iPhone

Hello!!!

Hello 2011 and welcome!!!!

So far I'm having a great 2011. We had an awesome night out. I dressed up silly and actually felt pretty good about it .... I luuurved my stockings!




(Apologies for the dodgy photo quality - all the proper photos are on my camera but this one was on my iPhone.)

I felt great, laughed, got chatted up, danced hard, may have had a cheeky kiss (or 2) at New Year, and was actually grumpy to be dragged away from the club. But then we went on to Fistral Beach afterwards and lit Chinese lanterns and watched them til they disappeared - one to say goodbye to 2010, and one to welcome 2011.

I can't say I've eaten healthily over the last couple of days, although I have eaten well. BUT I have made some good choices and it's really only the snacking on chocolate and pringles that's been bad.

We're here for another day, then back home to Bristol for me. I'm excited to get home and go for a run and start this 2011 off properly. Another 10k (or 2?) and a duathlon coming up! I eat better when I'm exercising properly, so this is something to look forward to.

Here's to a fantastic year (another one) and lots more adventures!

- Posted from my iPhone