I'm alive. Just about. I think.
It's turning out to be a pretty intense first week, with the training and constant socialising - I've just had my first experience of the chalet shop today with a banging hangover and, conveniently, a chalet list for one of the Austrian chalets, that gave German translations instead of French ... tricky when you in France.
Intermittently, I get concerned about the amount of food and booze I'm consuming, with absolutely no exercise happening (unless you count the nightly trek through town to the bars, and several hours dancing), but so far everything still fits. However, as of today training has officially finished and we've started working, and suddenly it's 5 hours trekking round the supermarket and hauling crates into chalets, and foraging for your own food, and I suspect that the amount of food available and the copious, free wine is about to disappear completely, so that should counteract this week I suppose!
With no scales to stand on, I'm going completely blind, but I did sneak a tape measure into my bag, so I took some measurements yesterday and jotted them down - they were smaller than when I last took them mid-October, so that will have to do as a sliding scale to alert me to changes. I'll probably try and take them every week or 2 so I can track. For now I'm not tracking my food at all, as it would be virtually impossible, but if the measurements start going seriously up I may have to start trying to do that again.
I've spent this first week with some amazing people, and now we're all splitting up to go off to our respective resorts, and I suddenly felt a bit sad, and a little homesick with it - just hope the team I end up with in resort, and the friends I make there, are as lovely! It seems very quiet here at the moment, as we're one of the last teams to disperse from the training lodge, and it's absolutely freezing as well - it's -11 here and the heating here doesn't seem to be working properly right now, so between the cold, the quiet and feeling a bit rundown ... I'm fighting the inclination to feel low.
Tuesday, 26 November 2013
Monday, 18 November 2013
Survival
I think I'm just about alive, but it's hard to tell. Mostly because I feel extremely tired and more than a little hungover.
The last couple of days, the first of the season, have been HECTIC! It's Monday and since Friday it's been non-stop. On Friday I frantically finished packing and shoved my 3 bags in the car, before wishing my dad a rushed but emotional goodbye and getting my hire car back to Bristol. I knew what time I needed to leave to get the car back in time, but obviously I was late leaving. I was still booking coach tickets on Friday morning and it was never going to be a relaxed morning.
One thing I'd massively underestimated was how hard carrying all of my bags at the same time would be. None of them were unmanageable on their own, but try adding them all together and I was struggling to walk more than 50m before having to put everything down and reorganise. Just walking from the hire car garage to the bank in town and then back to the coach station killed me - probably a distance of less than 500m. Getting them from the coach station on to the tube in London and then dragging them all the way to my mate's house was an absolute nightmare. Seriously - a walk of about 10 mins at either end and a couple of flights of stairs and I was ready to cry. Or collapse. Or both. I've never been so glad to put everything down and pick up a glass of wine before!
I had actual bruises on my shoulders on Saturday morning and my entire upper body felt like I'd had a mega workout the day before ... so I booked a taxi to get myself back to Victoria coach station - one last little luxury (necessity!) for myself.
It's sort of been a blur since then: the 18 hour coach trip, arriving in Val d'Isere, finding our rooms and getting uniforms etc, followed by a very boozy night out when you literally haven't been to sleep for 36 hours. Suffice it to say that I was feeling a little wobbly for our first morning's training this morning.
But I'm here! There's snow outside! There's some really lovely people and it's really happening!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
The last couple of days, the first of the season, have been HECTIC! It's Monday and since Friday it's been non-stop. On Friday I frantically finished packing and shoved my 3 bags in the car, before wishing my dad a rushed but emotional goodbye and getting my hire car back to Bristol. I knew what time I needed to leave to get the car back in time, but obviously I was late leaving. I was still booking coach tickets on Friday morning and it was never going to be a relaxed morning.
One thing I'd massively underestimated was how hard carrying all of my bags at the same time would be. None of them were unmanageable on their own, but try adding them all together and I was struggling to walk more than 50m before having to put everything down and reorganise. Just walking from the hire car garage to the bank in town and then back to the coach station killed me - probably a distance of less than 500m. Getting them from the coach station on to the tube in London and then dragging them all the way to my mate's house was an absolute nightmare. Seriously - a walk of about 10 mins at either end and a couple of flights of stairs and I was ready to cry. Or collapse. Or both. I've never been so glad to put everything down and pick up a glass of wine before!
I had actual bruises on my shoulders on Saturday morning and my entire upper body felt like I'd had a mega workout the day before ... so I booked a taxi to get myself back to Victoria coach station - one last little luxury (necessity!) for myself.
It's sort of been a blur since then: the 18 hour coach trip, arriving in Val d'Isere, finding our rooms and getting uniforms etc, followed by a very boozy night out when you literally haven't been to sleep for 36 hours. Suffice it to say that I was feeling a little wobbly for our first morning's training this morning.
But I'm here! There's snow outside! There's some really lovely people and it's really happening!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Friday, 15 November 2013
En Route
Well, this is it - the adventure starts here.
I'm currently sat on the coach heading to London, with 3 big bags of stuff to my name, and quite a big case of nerves. I'm spending my last night in the country for 6 months with one of my oldest friends. I've said goodbye to my Dad for the longest time we've ever been apart. I've panicked, run around like a loon trying to get everything in my bags and now all I can do is put my best foot forward and be the best me I can be.
Weigh-in wise, I stepped on the scales for the last time this morning and registered a 2lb loss since last week. Last week's lb back off and an extra one as well. Ideally, my goal had been to aim for 12st 6lb by time I left, but I feel like 17lbs in 10 weeks was a pretty good effort, so I shan't be disappointed that I haven't lost an extra 2.5lbs.
Where I go from here, diet-wise, I don't know. I feel a bit like the last 10 weeks was the easy bit, and now the hard part starts. To try and track or not to track? No scales to measure it by. A different life-style and culture to get used to (by which I mean the seasonaire's little ski-bubble world up the mountain, as much as being in France!). I'm going to take it one step at at tine and see how it goes.
Wish me luck!
- Posted from my iPhone
I'm currently sat on the coach heading to London, with 3 big bags of stuff to my name, and quite a big case of nerves. I'm spending my last night in the country for 6 months with one of my oldest friends. I've said goodbye to my Dad for the longest time we've ever been apart. I've panicked, run around like a loon trying to get everything in my bags and now all I can do is put my best foot forward and be the best me I can be.
Weigh-in wise, I stepped on the scales for the last time this morning and registered a 2lb loss since last week. Last week's lb back off and an extra one as well. Ideally, my goal had been to aim for 12st 6lb by time I left, but I feel like 17lbs in 10 weeks was a pretty good effort, so I shan't be disappointed that I haven't lost an extra 2.5lbs.
Where I go from here, diet-wise, I don't know. I feel a bit like the last 10 weeks was the easy bit, and now the hard part starts. To try and track or not to track? No scales to measure it by. A different life-style and culture to get used to (by which I mean the seasonaire's little ski-bubble world up the mountain, as much as being in France!). I'm going to take it one step at at tine and see how it goes.
Wish me luck!
- Posted from my iPhone
Thursday, 14 November 2013
Late Again
Aaaaargh - where did the week go already???? Sooooo much to update on, and the time is just flying by without me noticing!
Ok - first things first - last week's weigh in. It actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but it was a gain and I fully deserved it. 1lb on, taking me back to 12st 10.5lb.
Accept it and move on.
This week has been absolute chaos, and I can't believe how quickly it's gone by. On Friday night I had some leaving drinks for work - although I'm actually on sabbatical and therefore coming back to the company next year, there were demands for drinks so I capitulated. Pub at lunch time and drinks in the evening, which were really nice and relaxed. Yeah, I ate a bit too much during the day and then downed about 7 gins in the evening, but I then rolled myself home, ate a bit of healthy dim sum and poured myself into bed at a reasonable hour to get some sleep.
As a consequence of my good sense the night before, I was awake bright and early on Saturday morning and managed to get to the gym. Sadly spin class was full when I got there, so I inflicted my trainer's circuits routine on myself instead (and successfully made myself ache for several days afterwards in the process!). The rest of the day was taken up with collecting some parcels from work that I'd left there on Friday night and trudging home through the rain to dry out and cozy up for the day - no point spending more time in the pouring rain that I had too! Especially as Saturday night was my (now-ex)flatmate's 30th b'day. Amazing Carribbean food, a lot of rum and some good times before again pouring myself into bed at 3am.
Sunday was a chill day - a much-needed lie-in, some washing and pottering and a trip to my favourite coffee shop just so I could say I'd left the house. And also because it would be my last chance to spend lazy time there before I left my beloved Bristol for the winter! Sad times!
Monday and Tuesday were crazy busy work days, as they were my last two days in the office before my sabbatical started, and I was frantically meeting up with friends to say farewell before my adventures - my lovely, crazy ex-flatmates threw me a Fake Christmas evening on Tuesday, since I'll be missing the festive season here, complete with full roast dinner, crackers and warm mince pies with ice-cream for pudding. They also bought me a whole array of lovely birthday / leaving presents.
In fact, I've been totally overwhelmed with amazing presents from various friends and colleagues. I've been given gorgeous elbow long fingerless gloves, socks that won't smell (they contain bamboo ... and they're covered in pretty birds - what more could you want?), super bright bobble hats, with gin and tonic in cans for the coach trip, gel hand warmers, amazing chocolate to take, butterfly bunting for my room and photos of all my friends and me to take with me as mementos / decorations, a travel journal, comedy plasters and playing cards, fleece lined mittens - I'm just fantastically lucky to have such wonderful people in my life.
Yesterday was my first day on sabbatical and ended up being pretty hectic as I ran round collecting contact lens supplies and my hire car, packing everything from my temporary digs into the car and cleaning my room up, and then rushing home to unpack and finally get to the pub in time to see my home friends last night (giggles aplenty - I'm so glad I did).
Imagine my surprise though, after all that eating out and drinking, when I stepped on the scales and saw quite a drop in them. I moved them and stepped on them again, just to be sure, and then went and stepped on my Dad's scales to compare. Somehow, I seem to have lost quite a bit this week! My final official weigh in isn't until tomorrow, but if the scales stay where they are I'll be mighty happy!
Then what? Well, tonight is my last night at my Dad's - I'm spending the evening in with him and tomorrow I have to say goodbye for 6 months and drive back to Bristol to take my car back. I'll have to finalise all my packing this afternoon (for what seems like the eleventy billionth time), and when I return to Bristol it will be with just three bags - everything I'm allowed to until next Spring. Then I'll be catching a coach to London to spend my final night in the UK with one of my oldest friends and then ... I'm leaving.
Eeeeeeeeeeek. The longest I've ever been out the country before, and therefore away from all my friends and family for, is just over 1 month. This trip will be 5 times that and I'm nervous and excited and anxious all in one.
I'm still trying to finalise my packing in my head, and work out what I've missed. I have a few last things to get today and errands to run, and I'm still trying to work out how best to maintain my weight whilst I'm away. Do I try and track? Do I just rely on having a job / lifestyle where I'm likely to be running around the mountain most of the day and then scavenging food from the chalet kitchens when I get time to keep my weight stable? And what about this first 10 days when I'm on training in a very nice lodge and being cooked for at every meal? I just don't know. All I know is I won't be able to weigh myself for the next 6 months and I'm looking at there being a lot of bread, cheese and booze, so I'm going to have to find some way to deal with it! I'm sure my clothes will tell me soon enough if I'm overdoing it!
I'll try and keep checking in here though and updating on my adventures!
Ok - first things first - last week's weigh in. It actually wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but it was a gain and I fully deserved it. 1lb on, taking me back to 12st 10.5lb.
Accept it and move on.
This week has been absolute chaos, and I can't believe how quickly it's gone by. On Friday night I had some leaving drinks for work - although I'm actually on sabbatical and therefore coming back to the company next year, there were demands for drinks so I capitulated. Pub at lunch time and drinks in the evening, which were really nice and relaxed. Yeah, I ate a bit too much during the day and then downed about 7 gins in the evening, but I then rolled myself home, ate a bit of healthy dim sum and poured myself into bed at a reasonable hour to get some sleep.
As a consequence of my good sense the night before, I was awake bright and early on Saturday morning and managed to get to the gym. Sadly spin class was full when I got there, so I inflicted my trainer's circuits routine on myself instead (and successfully made myself ache for several days afterwards in the process!). The rest of the day was taken up with collecting some parcels from work that I'd left there on Friday night and trudging home through the rain to dry out and cozy up for the day - no point spending more time in the pouring rain that I had too! Especially as Saturday night was my (now-ex)flatmate's 30th b'day. Amazing Carribbean food, a lot of rum and some good times before again pouring myself into bed at 3am.
Sunday was a chill day - a much-needed lie-in, some washing and pottering and a trip to my favourite coffee shop just so I could say I'd left the house. And also because it would be my last chance to spend lazy time there before I left my beloved Bristol for the winter! Sad times!
Monday and Tuesday were crazy busy work days, as they were my last two days in the office before my sabbatical started, and I was frantically meeting up with friends to say farewell before my adventures - my lovely, crazy ex-flatmates threw me a Fake Christmas evening on Tuesday, since I'll be missing the festive season here, complete with full roast dinner, crackers and warm mince pies with ice-cream for pudding. They also bought me a whole array of lovely birthday / leaving presents.
In fact, I've been totally overwhelmed with amazing presents from various friends and colleagues. I've been given gorgeous elbow long fingerless gloves, socks that won't smell (they contain bamboo ... and they're covered in pretty birds - what more could you want?), super bright bobble hats, with gin and tonic in cans for the coach trip, gel hand warmers, amazing chocolate to take, butterfly bunting for my room and photos of all my friends and me to take with me as mementos / decorations, a travel journal, comedy plasters and playing cards, fleece lined mittens - I'm just fantastically lucky to have such wonderful people in my life.
Yesterday was my first day on sabbatical and ended up being pretty hectic as I ran round collecting contact lens supplies and my hire car, packing everything from my temporary digs into the car and cleaning my room up, and then rushing home to unpack and finally get to the pub in time to see my home friends last night (giggles aplenty - I'm so glad I did).
Imagine my surprise though, after all that eating out and drinking, when I stepped on the scales and saw quite a drop in them. I moved them and stepped on them again, just to be sure, and then went and stepped on my Dad's scales to compare. Somehow, I seem to have lost quite a bit this week! My final official weigh in isn't until tomorrow, but if the scales stay where they are I'll be mighty happy!
Then what? Well, tonight is my last night at my Dad's - I'm spending the evening in with him and tomorrow I have to say goodbye for 6 months and drive back to Bristol to take my car back. I'll have to finalise all my packing this afternoon (for what seems like the eleventy billionth time), and when I return to Bristol it will be with just three bags - everything I'm allowed to until next Spring. Then I'll be catching a coach to London to spend my final night in the UK with one of my oldest friends and then ... I'm leaving.
Eeeeeeeeeeek. The longest I've ever been out the country before, and therefore away from all my friends and family for, is just over 1 month. This trip will be 5 times that and I'm nervous and excited and anxious all in one.
I'm still trying to finalise my packing in my head, and work out what I've missed. I have a few last things to get today and errands to run, and I'm still trying to work out how best to maintain my weight whilst I'm away. Do I try and track? Do I just rely on having a job / lifestyle where I'm likely to be running around the mountain most of the day and then scavenging food from the chalet kitchens when I get time to keep my weight stable? And what about this first 10 days when I'm on training in a very nice lodge and being cooked for at every meal? I just don't know. All I know is I won't be able to weigh myself for the next 6 months and I'm looking at there being a lot of bread, cheese and booze, so I'm going to have to find some way to deal with it! I'm sure my clothes will tell me soon enough if I'm overdoing it!
I'll try and keep checking in here though and updating on my adventures!
Thursday, 7 November 2013
Stumbling Along
Where did the week go?? I've just realised I weigh in again tomorrow and I still haven't posted last week's result!
Last week's result: good. Another 1.5lbs off, taking me to a solid 12st 9.5lb. Just 3.5lb away from my target of 12st 6lb for the start of the season with 2 weeks to go.
And then this week happened. I got a little contemplative, wedding weekends came and went, friends birthdays got celebrated, and with one day to go before this week's weigh in, I can say without doubt that there will be no loss this week. In fact, I expect a slight gain.
Nooooooooooooo!
I've single-handedly managed to break the longest losing streak I've ever had! Damn it!
It started with moving day on Friday. A stressed, flat-out morning to get all my remaining belongings out of the my flat, my room cleaned and everything moved to my temporary digs at a friend's house. OF COURSE it took longer than expected and I was stressed, sweaty and knackered by the time I had to rush my hire car back to its allotted space and run into town on foot to meet a friend for lunch.
Strike 1 - I didn't eat a particularly healthy lunch.
An afternoon spent running errands in town and getting more stuff off my final kit list, and arriving back to my new home to find chaos in my room and it was cold and I was tired and it was raining hard.
Strike 2 - takeaway. Not a good one (although not the worst).
Over the weekend we were wedding-ing in Herfordshire - staying in a B & B with spectacular food, drinking and eating it out for most of the weekend.
Strike 3: two massive lunches and a huge breakfast. Even ditching dinner on both nights because I just wasn't hungry wasn't going to help.
Strike 4: birthday drinks for my ex-housemate on Tuesday night. She bought home Patisserie Valerie cake and I had a slice without even thinking about it.
Yeah - it's not been a great week. And the remaining time before I go is a flat-out social smorgasbord, so I need to find a way to arrest the rot before "holiday" mode well and truly sets in for no reason!
I might not be able to hit my perfect target, but I can still aim for one further loss at the end of next week before I go. I need to plan!!! I have cocktails, leaving drinks, birthday celebrations a fake Christmas to negotiate but I don't see why that has to be a disaster.
Wish me luck!
- Posted from my iPhone
Last week's result: good. Another 1.5lbs off, taking me to a solid 12st 9.5lb. Just 3.5lb away from my target of 12st 6lb for the start of the season with 2 weeks to go.
And then this week happened. I got a little contemplative, wedding weekends came and went, friends birthdays got celebrated, and with one day to go before this week's weigh in, I can say without doubt that there will be no loss this week. In fact, I expect a slight gain.
Nooooooooooooo!
I've single-handedly managed to break the longest losing streak I've ever had! Damn it!
It started with moving day on Friday. A stressed, flat-out morning to get all my remaining belongings out of the my flat, my room cleaned and everything moved to my temporary digs at a friend's house. OF COURSE it took longer than expected and I was stressed, sweaty and knackered by the time I had to rush my hire car back to its allotted space and run into town on foot to meet a friend for lunch.
Strike 1 - I didn't eat a particularly healthy lunch.
An afternoon spent running errands in town and getting more stuff off my final kit list, and arriving back to my new home to find chaos in my room and it was cold and I was tired and it was raining hard.
Strike 2 - takeaway. Not a good one (although not the worst).
Over the weekend we were wedding-ing in Herfordshire - staying in a B & B with spectacular food, drinking and eating it out for most of the weekend.
Strike 3: two massive lunches and a huge breakfast. Even ditching dinner on both nights because I just wasn't hungry wasn't going to help.
Strike 4: birthday drinks for my ex-housemate on Tuesday night. She bought home Patisserie Valerie cake and I had a slice without even thinking about it.
Yeah - it's not been a great week. And the remaining time before I go is a flat-out social smorgasbord, so I need to find a way to arrest the rot before "holiday" mode well and truly sets in for no reason!
I might not be able to hit my perfect target, but I can still aim for one further loss at the end of next week before I go. I need to plan!!! I have cocktails, leaving drinks, birthday celebrations a fake Christmas to negotiate but I don't see why that has to be a disaster.
Wish me luck!
- Posted from my iPhone
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