Just a quick question for you: What kind of crazy ass person, takes her dad out for an unscheduled meal out, screws her points up a bit (how can you resist the hopeful look on your Dad's face when the word "pudding" is mentioned - the only favour I did myself was turning down his suggestion of getting the sticky toffee pudding for two to share, and getting sorbet for me instead), and then decides to go for an extra unscheduled run to help burn off two and a half courses of Italian food?
Answer: That would be me.
I ask you this - are these the actions of a sane woman, or someone a leeeeeeetle bit obsessed? I'll leave you to ponder that one.
Whilst I sit here and feel faintly sick.
Showing posts with label eating out. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eating out. Show all posts
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Saturday, 8 August 2009
Ladies what lunch
It was a good job I actually got up fairly early this morning, as there was a ring on our doorbell at 9am, and there was Bex stood outside ready to go shopping. When she said 9am last night after dinner, I thought she was joking, but apparently not.
Due to several hangovers being in evidence this morning (obviously not me, since I wasn't drinking last night) the pool party idea got binned as there simply wasn't enough collective energy available today to shift our asses over to Jon's parents' place. So us girlies reverted to our earlier plan of a chilled out shopping trip. Consequently, I am now a poorer person .... damn, damn, damn .... although I do have some pretty new things draped over the end of the bed.
Food management has gone well today, considering it was all completely unplanned. We had lunch out, sitting out in the courtyard at one of my favourite lunch establishments, but rather than go for one of their amazing, and truly enormous, hot sandwiches, I ordered soup with granary bread, and left the butter on the side. Just as well really, as when the sandwiches the others had ordered arrived, I realised that there is no way I'd have even known how to begin to point them up. Truthfully, I'd ordered soup because I was debating having a pudding, having a craving for an ice-cream sundae like you wouldn't believe (TOTM to blame for that one I'd guess), but I was full after the soup, so didn't bother ordering anything further.
The one good thing with shopping days is that you're getting in the exercise without realising it, as you stroll round from shop to shop for hours at a time. Since we were in town from 10am til at least 3pm - that's 5 hours. Deduct the half-hour time-out that was lunch - still 4.5 hours. Allow for copious amounts of faffing, and conservatively that's still about 2 hours at least of slow strolling round. Add a 20 mins stroll back from Bex's house on the way home (it was a nice afternoon and it seemed a shame to waste the opportunity for a bit more leg-stretching), and that's a nice 8.5 points of activity clocked up for the day!!! Bloody amazing how that works out!
We did grab an ice-cream cone each from Thorntons as we were leaving town - be rude not to really, but I could answer the "single, double or triple scoop?" question without having to think about it. Single, please. Maybe I'm learning.
I now have points banked again for the week, and I'm feeling comfortably full, and like I've had a little bit of everything I fancy today. Tomorrow I'm supposed to be going out for another walk, up on the hills this time, and possibly stopping for lunch while we're out. It's been a really nice chilled out weekend so far, so there's only the guilt of too much money spent that brings me down - problem is, I keep running out of bloody clothes in the wardrobe!!
Due to several hangovers being in evidence this morning (obviously not me, since I wasn't drinking last night) the pool party idea got binned as there simply wasn't enough collective energy available today to shift our asses over to Jon's parents' place. So us girlies reverted to our earlier plan of a chilled out shopping trip. Consequently, I am now a poorer person .... damn, damn, damn .... although I do have some pretty new things draped over the end of the bed.
Food management has gone well today, considering it was all completely unplanned. We had lunch out, sitting out in the courtyard at one of my favourite lunch establishments, but rather than go for one of their amazing, and truly enormous, hot sandwiches, I ordered soup with granary bread, and left the butter on the side. Just as well really, as when the sandwiches the others had ordered arrived, I realised that there is no way I'd have even known how to begin to point them up. Truthfully, I'd ordered soup because I was debating having a pudding, having a craving for an ice-cream sundae like you wouldn't believe (TOTM to blame for that one I'd guess), but I was full after the soup, so didn't bother ordering anything further.
The one good thing with shopping days is that you're getting in the exercise without realising it, as you stroll round from shop to shop for hours at a time. Since we were in town from 10am til at least 3pm - that's 5 hours. Deduct the half-hour time-out that was lunch - still 4.5 hours. Allow for copious amounts of faffing, and conservatively that's still about 2 hours at least of slow strolling round. Add a 20 mins stroll back from Bex's house on the way home (it was a nice afternoon and it seemed a shame to waste the opportunity for a bit more leg-stretching), and that's a nice 8.5 points of activity clocked up for the day!!! Bloody amazing how that works out!
We did grab an ice-cream cone each from Thorntons as we were leaving town - be rude not to really, but I could answer the "single, double or triple scoop?" question without having to think about it. Single, please. Maybe I'm learning.
I now have points banked again for the week, and I'm feeling comfortably full, and like I've had a little bit of everything I fancy today. Tomorrow I'm supposed to be going out for another walk, up on the hills this time, and possibly stopping for lunch while we're out. It's been a really nice chilled out weekend so far, so there's only the guilt of too much money spent that brings me down - problem is, I keep running out of bloody clothes in the wardrobe!!
Friday, 7 August 2009
Warning - smug alert!!!
Hee hee - I apologise for being this smug, but well .... I just am!!!
I've had my meal out with friends at the Indian restaurant, and I still have one point saved for the week. It's like having my cake and eating it!
What's more, I've had a really nice night out, and don't feel like I've denied myself anything. I've stayed off the booze tonight, as I still haven't drunk since my return from Scotland, and I can't quite be bothered to break the dry spell now. I had a chicken tikka starter, and then a korma main - but I shared the dish with my friend Sheena, and had it with plain boiled rice, and only used half of that portion. This meant that even with crisps devoured in the pub beforehand (as dinner wasn't til 9 and I'd been out running at about half 4 and not eaten since), I'm still in my points for the week.
Bonza!!!
I did another 3.5km route this afternoon on my run, and did it in the same time as Wednesday's run. The difference with today's was there was far more gradient involved, and about half the route was off-road, either over footpaths or on the common. I ran out as far as the common and about half way across it, then I'd already decided before the run that I'd use the big hill up as a walking breather. I actually did jog up two short stretches of it, then ran across the shallower incline at the top, very quick walk over the crest of the hill, then ran back down the hill and ran through the park to take me home. Taking the breathers (or knowing I was going to be taking a breather on the outward run) meant that I could push myself to lengthen my stride a bit and more run than jog, so that made for a nice change from my usual slow, steady maintaining pace.
I'm heading off for a bit of morning shopping tomorrow with some of the girls, then we're off to Jon's parents place to lounge in their pool for the afternoon, have a barbie and play croquet (how quaintly English!!). Hopefully, Sunday will be a day for quiet lounging and going for a walk.
Have a good one, folks!
I've had my meal out with friends at the Indian restaurant, and I still have one point saved for the week. It's like having my cake and eating it!
What's more, I've had a really nice night out, and don't feel like I've denied myself anything. I've stayed off the booze tonight, as I still haven't drunk since my return from Scotland, and I can't quite be bothered to break the dry spell now. I had a chicken tikka starter, and then a korma main - but I shared the dish with my friend Sheena, and had it with plain boiled rice, and only used half of that portion. This meant that even with crisps devoured in the pub beforehand (as dinner wasn't til 9 and I'd been out running at about half 4 and not eaten since), I'm still in my points for the week.
Bonza!!!
I did another 3.5km route this afternoon on my run, and did it in the same time as Wednesday's run. The difference with today's was there was far more gradient involved, and about half the route was off-road, either over footpaths or on the common. I ran out as far as the common and about half way across it, then I'd already decided before the run that I'd use the big hill up as a walking breather. I actually did jog up two short stretches of it, then ran across the shallower incline at the top, very quick walk over the crest of the hill, then ran back down the hill and ran through the park to take me home. Taking the breathers (or knowing I was going to be taking a breather on the outward run) meant that I could push myself to lengthen my stride a bit and more run than jog, so that made for a nice change from my usual slow, steady maintaining pace.
I'm heading off for a bit of morning shopping tomorrow with some of the girls, then we're off to Jon's parents place to lounge in their pool for the afternoon, have a barbie and play croquet (how quaintly English!!). Hopefully, Sunday will be a day for quiet lounging and going for a walk.
Have a good one, folks!
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Running news
Hey hey guys!
How goes it this morning??
I got a reply from Jenny, who runs the novice run with the local group - she was very welcoming, and said she thought I'd enjoy their group. They run about 5k over the course of an hour every Wednesday at 7, and I'm going along next Wednesday to join them. I'm really looking forward to it, because they don't always run actually in Malvern, which means some runs will be flatter and some hillier - at the moment I've always got the hills to contend with somewhere along the line which is .... interesting. Also they run lanes and cross-country during the spring / summer / autumn which will be awesome, and only come into town under the streetlights during the winter nights.
I also behaved at the girls night. For one, I walked up - it's not far, only 10-15 mins away but it's a chance to stretch my legs, and it was a gorgeous evening (something I hadn't appreciated much earlier when I was running, it was warm, there was no breeze, and there were a million insects contesting with each other to be the one to zoom into my mouth and eyes at random!). Also one of the girls (bride to be in 9 weeks) had bought a massive bowl of fresh strawberries with her, which was something I could safely pick on at random , whilst ignoring the massive array of chocolate and flapjack based things. I did eat something else - wait for it - I had 2 Weight Watchers chocolate biscuits. My flatmate had rocked up with a box of them, and since dinner had come to fewer points than I thought it would, I felt safe having one of the individually wrapped packs of 2. All in all, a success!
I'm still on track this morning, and the scales have now retreated back down past Monday's WI weight. And someones just put a load of pots of mini chocolate bites opposite my desk, right in my eye-line. You know what? Not. Interested. I had a low-fat muffin earlier (I went to the dentist this morning and needed something to take the taste and smell of tooth dust away - ack, ack, ack!!!!) and it's totally killed my craving for anything more that's sweet for now.
Body Combat this evening - love it, and looking forward to it!
How goes it this morning??
I got a reply from Jenny, who runs the novice run with the local group - she was very welcoming, and said she thought I'd enjoy their group. They run about 5k over the course of an hour every Wednesday at 7, and I'm going along next Wednesday to join them. I'm really looking forward to it, because they don't always run actually in Malvern, which means some runs will be flatter and some hillier - at the moment I've always got the hills to contend with somewhere along the line which is .... interesting. Also they run lanes and cross-country during the spring / summer / autumn which will be awesome, and only come into town under the streetlights during the winter nights.
I also behaved at the girls night. For one, I walked up - it's not far, only 10-15 mins away but it's a chance to stretch my legs, and it was a gorgeous evening (something I hadn't appreciated much earlier when I was running, it was warm, there was no breeze, and there were a million insects contesting with each other to be the one to zoom into my mouth and eyes at random!). Also one of the girls (bride to be in 9 weeks) had bought a massive bowl of fresh strawberries with her, which was something I could safely pick on at random , whilst ignoring the massive array of chocolate and flapjack based things. I did eat something else - wait for it - I had 2 Weight Watchers chocolate biscuits. My flatmate had rocked up with a box of them, and since dinner had come to fewer points than I thought it would, I felt safe having one of the individually wrapped packs of 2. All in all, a success!
I'm still on track this morning, and the scales have now retreated back down past Monday's WI weight. And someones just put a load of pots of mini chocolate bites opposite my desk, right in my eye-line. You know what? Not. Interested. I had a low-fat muffin earlier (I went to the dentist this morning and needed something to take the taste and smell of tooth dust away - ack, ack, ack!!!!) and it's totally killed my craving for anything more that's sweet for now.
Body Combat this evening - love it, and looking forward to it!
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
I think the scales are giving me payback for the Great Eating Out Debacle of last week, as they've currently bounced back up by a 1lb or so. Deeply irritating, but I'm eating well this week, so I've just got to be patient until I can regain my pre-holiday weight, and start going down again.
I had another absolutely rubbish day at work yesterday, in full out stress mode. I had a big deadline for 5pm, but the data file I needed to work on didn't get delivered until 4pm. The problem is that it takes me around 3 hours to prep the file assuming there are no major problems with it. So on top of the fact that this obviously meant I had to work over by a couple of hours to get it submitted, it meant that I spent mid-afternoon essentially twiddling my thumbs and getting more and more wound up over the non-appearance of my data. So what do my thoughts naturally turn to? Self-medication by food.
It's weird that now I've noticed I do this, I'm hyper-aware of it. Luckily for me, the only food within the vicinity was jelly sweets, which aren't exactly highly damaging. I did pick at a few of them, but they don't come to more than about 2 points worth, so it was fine.
Having done the world's quickest supermarket shop on the way home (I had 10 mins before they closed - lucky I'd done a quick list while I was waiting round during the afternoon so I could just whip round grabbing what I needed), I got home just in time to meet Bridget for dinner at 8pm. I was absolutely starving by that time, so I was rifling through the cupboards for something to snack on while we waited for dinner to cook. It's funny how that works out when there's no crap in the cupboards - do you know what my naughty snack was?
A handful of unsalted cashews and a satsuma. Last of the big bingers, eh?
Had such a nice dinner of left over cold salmon fillet from the night before, a jacket potato, broccoli spears and green beans, and a tablespoon of extra light Philadelphia to substitute for butter on the potato and veg. The best thing about B coming round, is she actively likes eating healthy with me, so it doesn't mess up my routine.
I did catch myself later in the evening when I was reviewing my points for the day, and I realised I'd forgotten to put down my pre-dinner snack - I was half-tempted to say oh well, I don't need to really point that do I?, which I've found myself thinking a few too many times recently. YES!!! I really do need to point them. I need to point everything! That's one bad habit I need to bash on the head right now, otherwise I'm not going to get anywhere.
I've now got a dinner invite for Friday night. I'm a bit wary because it's for an Indian restaurant, and I know that that cuisine is notoriously bad for healthy-eating, but I'm quite lucky really, because there's not that much Indian food I actually like, so it should be ok for me to stick to something healthy, and not be tempted to eat the whole menu.
Anyway, less stressful today (I hope) and then I'm going for a run straight after work. Then a quick dinner and off to the girls night. B and I made a deal last night to watch each others backs on a snack front and to implement wrist slapping as appropriate for straying from the plan.
"I'll get by with a little help from friends ...." Definitely.
I had another absolutely rubbish day at work yesterday, in full out stress mode. I had a big deadline for 5pm, but the data file I needed to work on didn't get delivered until 4pm. The problem is that it takes me around 3 hours to prep the file assuming there are no major problems with it. So on top of the fact that this obviously meant I had to work over by a couple of hours to get it submitted, it meant that I spent mid-afternoon essentially twiddling my thumbs and getting more and more wound up over the non-appearance of my data. So what do my thoughts naturally turn to? Self-medication by food.
It's weird that now I've noticed I do this, I'm hyper-aware of it. Luckily for me, the only food within the vicinity was jelly sweets, which aren't exactly highly damaging. I did pick at a few of them, but they don't come to more than about 2 points worth, so it was fine.
Having done the world's quickest supermarket shop on the way home (I had 10 mins before they closed - lucky I'd done a quick list while I was waiting round during the afternoon so I could just whip round grabbing what I needed), I got home just in time to meet Bridget for dinner at 8pm. I was absolutely starving by that time, so I was rifling through the cupboards for something to snack on while we waited for dinner to cook. It's funny how that works out when there's no crap in the cupboards - do you know what my naughty snack was?
A handful of unsalted cashews and a satsuma. Last of the big bingers, eh?
Had such a nice dinner of left over cold salmon fillet from the night before, a jacket potato, broccoli spears and green beans, and a tablespoon of extra light Philadelphia to substitute for butter on the potato and veg. The best thing about B coming round, is she actively likes eating healthy with me, so it doesn't mess up my routine.
I did catch myself later in the evening when I was reviewing my points for the day, and I realised I'd forgotten to put down my pre-dinner snack - I was half-tempted to say oh well, I don't need to really point that do I?, which I've found myself thinking a few too many times recently. YES!!! I really do need to point them. I need to point everything! That's one bad habit I need to bash on the head right now, otherwise I'm not going to get anywhere.
I've now got a dinner invite for Friday night. I'm a bit wary because it's for an Indian restaurant, and I know that that cuisine is notoriously bad for healthy-eating, but I'm quite lucky really, because there's not that much Indian food I actually like, so it should be ok for me to stick to something healthy, and not be tempted to eat the whole menu.
Anyway, less stressful today (I hope) and then I'm going for a run straight after work. Then a quick dinner and off to the girls night. B and I made a deal last night to watch each others backs on a snack front and to implement wrist slapping as appropriate for straying from the plan.
"I'll get by with a little help from friends ...." Definitely.
Sunday, 2 August 2009
Not again!
Shit, fuck and bollocks. I have to stop eating out, because I've keep getting sabotaged!!!!!
No. Freaking. Soup. On. At. The. Pub.
WTF?????? They always have soup. But no. Nada. Rien. None what so bloody ever. Arrrrrrghh!
And no casserole either - so no cop out with something that at least has lots of root veg in it, and no chips on the side.
My choices were pie, fish and chips (battered or grilled), cheesy leek bake or scampi and chips. I have no idea where the rest of the menu disappeared to as usually there's loads of choice, but I get the impression they'd been rammed all day and didn't have much left. As the lesser of several evils I had the grilled fish, which is good in that I've been craving fish and chips for a week now, and bad in that there were chips. And there might have been apple crumble with custard afterwards, but we'll not mention that shall we? Please?
The only mitigating factor in yet another disastrous meal out is that the walk up there included a slight detour up the Worcestershire Beacon (bloody hell my legs are out of practice at walking up hills), so it took us an hour to get up to the pub, accumulating a flippin' good sweat and a thirst on the way, and then another 40 mins to get back.
All in all, not quite the angelic finish / catch-up for the week that I had in mind, and I'm so annoyed with myself for losing my grip yet again. I did save some points for the day, but I'm still over for the week, and wondering just at what point during the week did my control slip. I would imagine the point where I ate out 4 times.
So here's a challenge for next week. I'm not going to eat out. I'm not feeling like anything's going to have budged in the right direction on the scales tomorrow morning, and I think the blame can be fair and square laid at the door of my lack of self-control / forethought when I'm not cooking for myself. Maybe going forwards I should try and limit myself to only eating out once a week?
More anon, my lovely readers - the moment of truth tomorrow morning.
No. Freaking. Soup. On. At. The. Pub.
WTF?????? They always have soup. But no. Nada. Rien. None what so bloody ever. Arrrrrrghh!
And no casserole either - so no cop out with something that at least has lots of root veg in it, and no chips on the side.
My choices were pie, fish and chips (battered or grilled), cheesy leek bake or scampi and chips. I have no idea where the rest of the menu disappeared to as usually there's loads of choice, but I get the impression they'd been rammed all day and didn't have much left. As the lesser of several evils I had the grilled fish, which is good in that I've been craving fish and chips for a week now, and bad in that there were chips. And there might have been apple crumble with custard afterwards, but we'll not mention that shall we? Please?
The only mitigating factor in yet another disastrous meal out is that the walk up there included a slight detour up the Worcestershire Beacon (bloody hell my legs are out of practice at walking up hills), so it took us an hour to get up to the pub, accumulating a flippin' good sweat and a thirst on the way, and then another 40 mins to get back.
All in all, not quite the angelic finish / catch-up for the week that I had in mind, and I'm so annoyed with myself for losing my grip yet again. I did save some points for the day, but I'm still over for the week, and wondering just at what point during the week did my control slip. I would imagine the point where I ate out 4 times.
So here's a challenge for next week. I'm not going to eat out. I'm not feeling like anything's going to have budged in the right direction on the scales tomorrow morning, and I think the blame can be fair and square laid at the door of my lack of self-control / forethought when I'm not cooking for myself. Maybe going forwards I should try and limit myself to only eating out once a week?
More anon, my lovely readers - the moment of truth tomorrow morning.
Saturday, 1 August 2009
Not the best day
It could have been worse, but it could also have most definitely been better. We've been out shopping today and as a result we've had both lunch and dinner out and I've clocked about 33 points I think - I have a daily allowance of 22. Ok, so I can probably deduct about 5 points off that if I factor in that I spent a couple of hours walking round the stores and bloody Ikea, but there were definitely things I could have done better.
Error 1 - I wanted a poached egg for breakfast this morning. Toast in, egg in ..... ah crap, I've fucked that right up, and the egg is a write-off. Another egg in, this time using one of those funny little silicon cups .... sunk - second egg written off (spot the fact that I'm still learning how to do poached eggs). By this time the toast has popped so rather than waste it, I eat it. Don't want to waste another egg, so I'll just grab a bowl of the home-made chunky soup I did yesterday evening. That's in to heat up - ah .... but wait! The second egg isn't lost - it's just taking ages to cook! Well, another slice of toast in then, but the soups already heating. Result - breakfast turns into a feast of two slices of toast with spread, one poached egg and a bowl of soup. Points used - about 8.
Error 2 - when friends turn up for shopping, they're chanting "Yo Sushi! Yo Sushi!". So I'm thinking that's lunch then. Too full to contemplate eating right now, but after a very delayed journey to get the mall (2 frickin' hours), we stop for late lunch and I'm thinking I can eat something now. It started well, and then went downhill when I grabbed a dessert. That and I've just got home to discover that chicken teriyaki is actually 7 points for that little dish - what???? Anyhoo, since I was planning on just having a bowl of soup for dinner when we get back - no worries.
Error 3 - we haven't gone home yet, after getting lost somewhere in a particularly dodgy area of Bristol, we're still at Ikea and it's dinner time, so we're staying to eat. Small victory in that I avoid both fresh cod and chips and meatballs, which both look great, in favour of a bowl of fresh tomato soup, no bread. Failure in that everyone grabbed pudding, and I'd picked up cheesecake before then realising further along that I could have had a pot of organic low-fat yoghurt instead. Too late now as already got cheesecake - I didn't eat all of it, but still smacking myself round the head for being too hasty!
I've also spent too much money on clothes for holidays - all in sales, and it's lush to be able to buy board shorts from Animal in a 16 that could shortly be on the loose side, and a size 14 dress from Monsoon (ok - so the back is elasticated and then it flares out - but that's not the point - it fits!), but I think I might have to do some judicious application of really looking at what I need and returning everything else. I just keep getting carried away.
Some good news - since I've been feeling a bit down about the fact I finished the month back where I started due to my holiday gain, I did a few quick measurements this morning, and I've actually lost another inch from around my belly since last month which is great.
And then the serious stuff. I realised this morning how much you guys have invaded my life since I started blogging and following what you're all up to. I might never have met you, I might never do so, but by showing me your vulnerabilities daily I feel like I know you so well in such a short time. I therefore shed genuine tears for Jen this morning, upon reading the awful news that her mum had been killed by a car yesterday. Such a horrible thing to have someone snatched away from you so suddenly like that. It was different with my mum, as she was ill over such a long period of time - an entirely different grief to have to bear, but the end result is still the same. Someone you depend on so much is gone, and there's truly a hole left where they were.
Error 1 - I wanted a poached egg for breakfast this morning. Toast in, egg in ..... ah crap, I've fucked that right up, and the egg is a write-off. Another egg in, this time using one of those funny little silicon cups .... sunk - second egg written off (spot the fact that I'm still learning how to do poached eggs). By this time the toast has popped so rather than waste it, I eat it. Don't want to waste another egg, so I'll just grab a bowl of the home-made chunky soup I did yesterday evening. That's in to heat up - ah .... but wait! The second egg isn't lost - it's just taking ages to cook! Well, another slice of toast in then, but the soups already heating. Result - breakfast turns into a feast of two slices of toast with spread, one poached egg and a bowl of soup. Points used - about 8.
Error 2 - when friends turn up for shopping, they're chanting "Yo Sushi! Yo Sushi!". So I'm thinking that's lunch then. Too full to contemplate eating right now, but after a very delayed journey to get the mall (2 frickin' hours), we stop for late lunch and I'm thinking I can eat something now. It started well, and then went downhill when I grabbed a dessert. That and I've just got home to discover that chicken teriyaki is actually 7 points for that little dish - what???? Anyhoo, since I was planning on just having a bowl of soup for dinner when we get back - no worries.
Error 3 - we haven't gone home yet, after getting lost somewhere in a particularly dodgy area of Bristol, we're still at Ikea and it's dinner time, so we're staying to eat. Small victory in that I avoid both fresh cod and chips and meatballs, which both look great, in favour of a bowl of fresh tomato soup, no bread. Failure in that everyone grabbed pudding, and I'd picked up cheesecake before then realising further along that I could have had a pot of organic low-fat yoghurt instead. Too late now as already got cheesecake - I didn't eat all of it, but still smacking myself round the head for being too hasty!
I've also spent too much money on clothes for holidays - all in sales, and it's lush to be able to buy board shorts from Animal in a 16 that could shortly be on the loose side, and a size 14 dress from Monsoon (ok - so the back is elasticated and then it flares out - but that's not the point - it fits!), but I think I might have to do some judicious application of really looking at what I need and returning everything else. I just keep getting carried away.
Some good news - since I've been feeling a bit down about the fact I finished the month back where I started due to my holiday gain, I did a few quick measurements this morning, and I've actually lost another inch from around my belly since last month which is great.
And then the serious stuff. I realised this morning how much you guys have invaded my life since I started blogging and following what you're all up to. I might never have met you, I might never do so, but by showing me your vulnerabilities daily I feel like I know you so well in such a short time. I therefore shed genuine tears for Jen this morning, upon reading the awful news that her mum had been killed by a car yesterday. Such a horrible thing to have someone snatched away from you so suddenly like that. It was different with my mum, as she was ill over such a long period of time - an entirely different grief to have to bear, but the end result is still the same. Someone you depend on so much is gone, and there's truly a hole left where they were.
Monday, 13 July 2009
Horse racin' and bunny chasin'
Sue 1 Weekend 0Just about.
I've had a most excellent weekend, and now I'm knackered. But I'm proud of the choices I made, and I managed to lose a lb this week, so all is good.
After Friday's model choices, I was up early on Sat (7am - far, far too early for a weekend) to drive the boys down to Bristol, pick up Hannah and then head over to join the birthday party at Ascot. A slight error in dress code, based on my judgement of the weather first thing in the morning, meant that I was feeling pretty underdressed compared to the rest of the party who had rocked up in little cocktail dresses and heels, but I got the last laugh when the rain caught up to us, and we had a loooong walk to the restaurant in the evening, when my long flat boots trumped everyone else's heels lol.
We had a fabulous day. There were 40 of us in our party, so we claimed a whole little section of the grandstand for ourselves, which was mostly sheltered from the rain, and from there it was easy to make our forays out to the bookies, and we had a great view of the whole finishing straight.
I am very pleased to report that I did not eat an Ascot burger in any way, shape or form. Success!! In actual fact, we'd stopped at the supermarket on the way out of Bristol in the morning, and I bought a Weightwatchers chicken wrap and some fresh mango, and I had that for my lunch whilst everyone else chomped their way through their picnics or the burgers. I also showed restraint in the presence of big bags of sweets in the car on the way there and back, and I limited my alcohol intake to a moderate level - enough to enjoy without feeling deprived, not enough to kill off my common sense.
I'm telling you - if you looked up self-restraint in the dictionary this morning - there'd just be a picture of me in place of the definition.
To add to an already lovely day, I had a really good day gambling-wise, and won on 5 of the 7 races, meaning I walked away with my modest £20 stake in tact (I worked out what I could afford at the beginning of the day, and that was what I gave myself to play with - mostly it was £2 or £5 bets though - last of the big spenders, huh?), plus an extra £30 in my pocket, which rather conveniently paid for the post-races dinner! How nice is that?!
I was also really proud of myself at dinner. Apart from the drink that someone bought for me without asking (but it was a vodka and slimline tonic - how well do my friends know me?), I stuck to water with the meal. We had massive platters to share for starters, so I just took one of each little thing and stopped at that (which was about 5 mini tid-bits I think), and of course I had already pre-booked my healthy main, but I also kept to plain rice.
And the birthday cake? One piece, which I shared with my two neighbours at the table. Incidentally, it was freakin' amazing! Chocolate, with raspberry filling and blueberry icing - heaven!
So, I stumbled home yesterday, just a few points over for the whole week, but not having counted all the walking from Sat, as I couldn't even begin to work it out. I got home absolutely starving, and then promptly committed the cardinal sin of eating too much as a result. Once I'd digested a bit, I thought I'd go for a run to feel a bit better, and then remembered I'd put all my kit in the washing machine. Rather than admit defeat, I used it as a reason to finally take my newly fixed bike out for a spin, and I'm glad I did - it blew away the cobwebs and was just what I needed. I did just over 5.5 miles in 40 mins, and my loop took in both commons in town (they're at opposite ends of town), so I got to go off-road down across one, and enjoyed the slow climb back up across the other.
As it was late evening, I virtually had them to myself and as it was so quite all the rabbits were out on the second one. As I slowly climbed, I ended up almost herding the rabbits with me up the hill as they all just slowly hopped along for a bit in front of me, had a little nibble and then hopped a bit further - I had a bow-wave of bunnies!
I also picked up a cat at the bottom of the hill, who seemed to want a fuss, and weaved in and out around me for about half the length of the common - I felt like I was walking a dog, except for her being small, black and feline!
All in all, a lovely way to finish the weekend! Well, except for losing a lb - that was a good way to finish the weekend.
Going to be having an early weigh in on Sat this weekend before I head off to Scotland for holiday, so let's see if I can improve it just a tiny bit more!
Wednesday, 8 July 2009
Into the unknown
Without stepping on the scales in the mornings, I'm feeling a little bit lost this week. I don't know whether I'm up, or down, or exactly where I was on Monday, which is strange for me as I'm used to knowing exactly what weight I am.
I find it hard not to get paranoid that nothing's happening, or worse, that something is happening and it's a gain. I don't know where this paranoia comes from - whether it's still a sense of disbelief that Weight Watchers not only works, but that I'm managing to stick to it, or if it's a lack of confidence in my own continuing abilities to keep going like this - but I wish it would fade and go away.
I'm not going to let my sense of unease put me off though. I've been good so far this week, and although there's a few challenges coming up over the weekend, I see no reason why I can't see this week out successfully.
I'm now going out for dinner on Friday night - think I shall ring the restaurant either tonight or tomorrow and get the menu so I can mull my choices over and do a bit of planning. It's hard to point their food as everything is homecooked, and generally quite luxurious, but on the upside everything's homecooked (lol) from good, fresh ingredients, lots of veg (and tasty veg, not anaemic, floppy things resembling carrots), and if you ask nicely they're willing to be flexible over stuff. I'm also thinking walk to and from the restaurant (20 mins each way) and stay off the booze - there's going to be enough of that over the rest of the weekend!
I'm then heading down to Ascot overnight on Saturday. We're going to the horse races during the day (DANGER!!!! The legendary Ascot burgers ahoy - VERY bad idea - need to steer clear of that!) whoop - can't wait, that's going to be so much fun! And then in the evening we're going straight out for dinner. Luckily, I've been let off the hook a bit here as the restaurant for the evening is Asian cuisine, and we've been asked to pre-order - I've asked for a sizzling prawn dish with ginger and lime, which should be pretty healthy. As long as I stick to a small portion of plain rice, avoid the prawn crackers, and maybe get some thin soup to fill me up, I should be ok.
Oh, and STAY AWAY FROM THE WINE. AND THE PIMMS.
Okaaaaay - there's my plan. I feel a bit calmer knowing what I'm doing.
I find it hard not to get paranoid that nothing's happening, or worse, that something is happening and it's a gain. I don't know where this paranoia comes from - whether it's still a sense of disbelief that Weight Watchers not only works, but that I'm managing to stick to it, or if it's a lack of confidence in my own continuing abilities to keep going like this - but I wish it would fade and go away.
I'm not going to let my sense of unease put me off though. I've been good so far this week, and although there's a few challenges coming up over the weekend, I see no reason why I can't see this week out successfully.
I'm now going out for dinner on Friday night - think I shall ring the restaurant either tonight or tomorrow and get the menu so I can mull my choices over and do a bit of planning. It's hard to point their food as everything is homecooked, and generally quite luxurious, but on the upside everything's homecooked (lol) from good, fresh ingredients, lots of veg (and tasty veg, not anaemic, floppy things resembling carrots), and if you ask nicely they're willing to be flexible over stuff. I'm also thinking walk to and from the restaurant (20 mins each way) and stay off the booze - there's going to be enough of that over the rest of the weekend!
I'm then heading down to Ascot overnight on Saturday. We're going to the horse races during the day (DANGER!!!! The legendary Ascot burgers ahoy - VERY bad idea - need to steer clear of that!) whoop - can't wait, that's going to be so much fun! And then in the evening we're going straight out for dinner. Luckily, I've been let off the hook a bit here as the restaurant for the evening is Asian cuisine, and we've been asked to pre-order - I've asked for a sizzling prawn dish with ginger and lime, which should be pretty healthy. As long as I stick to a small portion of plain rice, avoid the prawn crackers, and maybe get some thin soup to fill me up, I should be ok.
Oh, and STAY AWAY FROM THE WINE. AND THE PIMMS.
Okaaaaay - there's my plan. I feel a bit calmer knowing what I'm doing.
Friday, 3 July 2009
Aftermath
I'm feeling the tiniest little bit of an ache in my back and shoulders this morning from Combat last night, but in a nice way - just letting me know that I used some different muscles from usual last night.
I resolutely put the scales away in the cupboard this morning, so I don't know which way they went this morning. For the moment I'm going to try and avoid them til Monday's weigh in, basically just because I've been having a bit of a think about stuff, and my attitude to this whole thing, and think I need to have a bit of a re-adjust. I'm still thinking it all out, so more on that when I've got it straight in my head.
I've not got too much on this weekend. I'm meeting Jo in a couple of hours time for dinner and the cinema - I'm pretty sure we're going to Ask, so I've taken the liberty of sitting down with the menu this morning and working out what I'm going to eat, so I don't have to think about it and make bad decisions when I get there.
I have no fixed plans for tomorrow at the moment, beyond trying to remember to get my bike fixed, and then Sunday I'm off to Wembley Stadium to see Take That with Jo - yaaaay - cheesey, girly, good times ahead! :o)
I resolutely put the scales away in the cupboard this morning, so I don't know which way they went this morning. For the moment I'm going to try and avoid them til Monday's weigh in, basically just because I've been having a bit of a think about stuff, and my attitude to this whole thing, and think I need to have a bit of a re-adjust. I'm still thinking it all out, so more on that when I've got it straight in my head.
I've not got too much on this weekend. I'm meeting Jo in a couple of hours time for dinner and the cinema - I'm pretty sure we're going to Ask, so I've taken the liberty of sitting down with the menu this morning and working out what I'm going to eat, so I don't have to think about it and make bad decisions when I get there.
I have no fixed plans for tomorrow at the moment, beyond trying to remember to get my bike fixed, and then Sunday I'm off to Wembley Stadium to see Take That with Jo - yaaaay - cheesey, girly, good times ahead! :o)
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