Holy CRAP!!!!!
I've just done something epic-ally stupid. I've just entered for this. Paid and confirmed.
My sanity has officially left the building.
I'm not sure what I was thinking, but ever since I spectated the Bristol Half a couple of weekends ago - the one that I thought I might do then utterly chickened out of - I've been regretting not doing it. All those people had such a sense of achievement on their faces. And bling round their necks that they'd well and truly earned. And as much as I'm terrified by the idea of trying to run 13.1 miles (holy crap, holy crap, that's a reeeeeeeally long way!!!), I'm also terrified of not trying.
Before I started all this, I thought I'd never be able to run properly. I longed to be able to do a 5k - my holy grail that I aimed for whistfully when I first started plodding around the streets under the cover of darkness. I never ever thought I'd manage a 10k - that was just stupid. And here I am - signed up to attempt 21.1k in just under 6 months time.
You've come a long way, baby.
Wednesday, 21 September 2011
Monday, 19 September 2011
Black Tie and Neoprene
Ooooh – that feels nice – I’ve actually managed a day perfectly on track, in spite of the mystery lunch I was provided with today. The little geek in me loves to be able to fill in a perfect 29 point day on the tracker :o)
There are a few photos floating round from the weekend, and I saw this one and it made me laugh. For some reason it’s made me look totally elongated like some crazy red-carpet regular. Not that I’m complaining, but I’m fairly sure I don’t actually look like that in real life!!!!
I also downloaded this from my camera at the same time, from a couple of weeks ago in Saunton …. I might not look great in a wetsuit, but at least I don’t feel like I have too much to fear anymore!
A Little More Control
I feel like this whole weekend was a bit more controlled than the last couple of have been. Less a major foody debacle, and more a little edible slip-up here and there. Not perfect, by any means, but within sight of where I should have been, instead of far over the hill.
After posting Saturday, from my comfy perch in my local coffee-shop, where I whiled away a couple of lazy afternoon hours with my book and a couple of phone calls, I pottered home to pack and (almost on time) rolled up to collect Phil, my fellow traveller to the party. Since I'd had brunch so late, I just added a chai latte and a piece of cake to that at the coffee shop to make lunch, rather than starting all over again.
We drove up to a little village near Salisbury for the evening's festivities, arriving just before 7, to be greeted by delicious bowls of bolognaise and fresh baguette for a little light supper. The healthy wagon derailed a little round this point, as I was heavily plied with bubbly from 7pm onwards, which lead to a little unauthorised snacking as the night and my inebriation levels progressed, but actually nothing tooooooo terrible.
We were soon into our finery for the "black and white with a twist" theme, and as the house filled up with beautifully turned out people, much fun was had. Along with more bubbly. I eventually progressed to white wine spritzers, before realising that I was actually quite drunk and reigning it back to lemonade and water for the remainder of the evening. And finally turned in about half 3, I think.
I didn't get much sleep as I got woken up at 8, and my wine hangover meant that going back to sleep wasn't happening, so I eventually crawled out at 9am. Somehow, my appearance in the kitchen co-incided with the tail end of the main tidy-up, and that progressed to me taking responsibility for whipping up bacon rolls for 20. That at least distracted me from my hangover, because I was quite surprised when somebody pointed out that my hands were shaking when I leaned over to grab my drink off the kitchen table, and also stopped me from eating far too much whilst sitting around feeling sorry for myself. I had my bacon roll at the end, added some scrambled egg, and retreated to the garden to sit in an errant bit of sunshine and eat it in peace. After some further lounging and suitable muted dsicussion, I headed for a good shower and we started the drive home.
For some reason, I'm finding it easier this week to cope with eating at odd times, and skipping meals because I'm busy. There's less of the but-I-might-get-horribly-hungry panic, and more well-I'll-deal-with-that-when-it-happens laissez-faire attitude. Yesterday afternoon saw me arrive at the sofa and stay there until an early night at 10am. Even with all the drinking and Saturday night nibbling over the weekend, my deficit going into today has been much less than half those of previous weeks, and something I can defnitely work with this week.
Today's work day has been punctuated by a very pleasant lunch mini-adventure, when City Boy took me for a walk up through Brandon Park to the newly reopened Cabot Tower, where we wound our way up the spiral stairs to the top to admire the views. This was followed by the home-made picnic he'd bought for us of a couscous salad with feta and cherry tomatoes and sandwiches with home-made bread. Terrible. Don't know how I coped ;o)
After posting Saturday, from my comfy perch in my local coffee-shop, where I whiled away a couple of lazy afternoon hours with my book and a couple of phone calls, I pottered home to pack and (almost on time) rolled up to collect Phil, my fellow traveller to the party. Since I'd had brunch so late, I just added a chai latte and a piece of cake to that at the coffee shop to make lunch, rather than starting all over again.
We drove up to a little village near Salisbury for the evening's festivities, arriving just before 7, to be greeted by delicious bowls of bolognaise and fresh baguette for a little light supper. The healthy wagon derailed a little round this point, as I was heavily plied with bubbly from 7pm onwards, which lead to a little unauthorised snacking as the night and my inebriation levels progressed, but actually nothing tooooooo terrible.
We were soon into our finery for the "black and white with a twist" theme, and as the house filled up with beautifully turned out people, much fun was had. Along with more bubbly. I eventually progressed to white wine spritzers, before realising that I was actually quite drunk and reigning it back to lemonade and water for the remainder of the evening. And finally turned in about half 3, I think.
I didn't get much sleep as I got woken up at 8, and my wine hangover meant that going back to sleep wasn't happening, so I eventually crawled out at 9am. Somehow, my appearance in the kitchen co-incided with the tail end of the main tidy-up, and that progressed to me taking responsibility for whipping up bacon rolls for 20. That at least distracted me from my hangover, because I was quite surprised when somebody pointed out that my hands were shaking when I leaned over to grab my drink off the kitchen table, and also stopped me from eating far too much whilst sitting around feeling sorry for myself. I had my bacon roll at the end, added some scrambled egg, and retreated to the garden to sit in an errant bit of sunshine and eat it in peace. After some further lounging and suitable muted dsicussion, I headed for a good shower and we started the drive home.
For some reason, I'm finding it easier this week to cope with eating at odd times, and skipping meals because I'm busy. There's less of the but-I-might-get-horribly-hungry panic, and more well-I'll-deal-with-that-when-it-happens laissez-faire attitude. Yesterday afternoon saw me arrive at the sofa and stay there until an early night at 10am. Even with all the drinking and Saturday night nibbling over the weekend, my deficit going into today has been much less than half those of previous weeks, and something I can defnitely work with this week.
Today's work day has been punctuated by a very pleasant lunch mini-adventure, when City Boy took me for a walk up through Brandon Park to the newly reopened Cabot Tower, where we wound our way up the spiral stairs to the top to admire the views. This was followed by the home-made picnic he'd bought for us of a couscous salad with feta and cherry tomatoes and sandwiches with home-made bread. Terrible. Don't know how I coped ;o)
Friday, 16 September 2011
Undoing the Damage
The verdict from the scales today is just over a lb down from last week, taking me back to 12st 7.8lb. That's not at all bad considering that I've been nowhere close to angelic with the eating this week, but moving my ass and tracking obsessively has obviously counted for something. Since I gained 2 weeks in a row from my recent low, I've now undone one week of that damage, and just have the hen party gain to reverse now. I can do it.
After the dramas earlier in the week with the car, 2 of my friends came to my rescue last night to come and get it started again. Annoyingly, it's such a little thing jump-starting it, so it's seems disproportionate the amount of stress and organisation involved in getting someone to come and do it. Anyway, it started fine first time once Andy had applied his Beamer's might to the battery, and I took it on a little drive out to Cribbs Causeway after that to recharge the battery a bit. And then apologised to Dan who was also on his way to fix it, but I'd forgotten to contact to say all way well! I'm not really supposed to be shopping this week, given that I don't get paid til Tuesday, and I am broke, broke, broke, but I did pick up some much needed work trousers from Dorothy Perkins for £12 in the sale, and a concealer pen to replace the one I managed to misplace, so I feel that was quite restrained.
I have another date with City Boy tonight, he's popping round to mine straight after work, and I'll cook us something quick like pasta, and then we're going to the cinema and maybe for a few drinks afterwards. He's turning into a real sweetie, as he wants to take me to go and see the view from the top of the newly re-opened Cabot Tower one lunchtime next week, and has said he'll bring a surprise picnic for us that day! I mean, seriously, how cute is that? He's also already booked the cinema tickets for tonight online, and insists that me cooking him dinner is enough and I don't need to pay him back for them.
Which just makes it all the more confusing that I also really like Aussie Surfer guy (aka - Mr Bike Date last weekend). They're totally different - polar opposite would be more accurate - but both lovely. I sense there's going to be a really tough decision ahead at some point, unless one of them makes that decision for me. I'm not day-dreaming long-term off into the future or anything, but I think I could be happy spending significant amounts of time with both of them, and I have no idea how to try and make that decision.
You know - when they said men were like buses, I didn't really believe anyone, but this has got a little ridiculous!
Aside from that, I'm off up near Milton Keynes tomorrow night for a black tie party with friends - a welcome home for my friend Hannah and her sister Maddie from their respective recent travels. No boys to worry about, just a nice black dress, some booze and lots of friends.
Have a fab weekend all!
After the dramas earlier in the week with the car, 2 of my friends came to my rescue last night to come and get it started again. Annoyingly, it's such a little thing jump-starting it, so it's seems disproportionate the amount of stress and organisation involved in getting someone to come and do it. Anyway, it started fine first time once Andy had applied his Beamer's might to the battery, and I took it on a little drive out to Cribbs Causeway after that to recharge the battery a bit. And then apologised to Dan who was also on his way to fix it, but I'd forgotten to contact to say all way well! I'm not really supposed to be shopping this week, given that I don't get paid til Tuesday, and I am broke, broke, broke, but I did pick up some much needed work trousers from Dorothy Perkins for £12 in the sale, and a concealer pen to replace the one I managed to misplace, so I feel that was quite restrained.
I have another date with City Boy tonight, he's popping round to mine straight after work, and I'll cook us something quick like pasta, and then we're going to the cinema and maybe for a few drinks afterwards. He's turning into a real sweetie, as he wants to take me to go and see the view from the top of the newly re-opened Cabot Tower one lunchtime next week, and has said he'll bring a surprise picnic for us that day! I mean, seriously, how cute is that? He's also already booked the cinema tickets for tonight online, and insists that me cooking him dinner is enough and I don't need to pay him back for them.
Which just makes it all the more confusing that I also really like Aussie Surfer guy (aka - Mr Bike Date last weekend). They're totally different - polar opposite would be more accurate - but both lovely. I sense there's going to be a really tough decision ahead at some point, unless one of them makes that decision for me. I'm not day-dreaming long-term off into the future or anything, but I think I could be happy spending significant amounts of time with both of them, and I have no idea how to try and make that decision.
You know - when they said men were like buses, I didn't really believe anyone, but this has got a little ridiculous!
Aside from that, I'm off up near Milton Keynes tomorrow night for a black tie party with friends - a welcome home for my friend Hannah and her sister Maddie from their respective recent travels. No boys to worry about, just a nice black dress, some booze and lots of friends.
Have a fab weekend all!
Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Recipe: Sauteed Chicken with Cider and Lovage
So this is new for me - I don't usually post up recipes on here. Mostly because I don't tend to cook much new stuff, or just make it up as I go along. But this is a great recipe - fantastic for the autumn and winter, super tasty, and perfect for casual dinner parties where you want something that looks and tastes great, but actually doesn't require too much effort or super-expensive ingredients, and doesn't take hours and hours to prepare.
The super-taste does come with a bit of a penalty if you're watching your waist-line, as I calculate the chicken and sauce comes to 10 PP on Weightwatchers, but frankly it's the sort of recipe you cook on an evening when you're not worrying about that.
Sauteed Chicken with Cider and Lovage
Serves 4
Whilst the cider is bubbling away, core and chop the apples into wedges and slice the mushrooms. Heat half the butter in a large flat-bottomed pan or frying pan, and gently fry the apples and mushrooms until golden. Put them aside and cover them to stay warm for later.
Dredge the chicken in the allspice and a little salt (I tend to just add them to a bowl and do it by hand, but putting them it all in a large plastic bag and shaking it up will work just as well). Heat the rest of the butter in the pan, and add the chicken fillets to seal and turn a light brown Leave the chicken whole - no need for chopping for this recipe. Fry in batches if needed, and you'll probably need a few extra minutes if using breast instead of fillets.
For the next stage you'll need to cover the pan, so transfer to a saucepan with a lid if needed. Add the reduced cider to the chicken, cover and turn to low-medium heat for 20 - 25 mins. Finally, add the reserved mushrooms and apples, the cream and the lovage to the pan, season to taste, stir and heat for a few minutes.
All that's left is to serve up and enjoy! This is quite a hearty, rustic, winter warmer in my opinion, so I served with oven-baked jacket potatoes. I salted the skins after washing them, so they were extra crispy but light and fluffy in the middle - about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half on 150 degrees in the fan oven. I also served tenderstem broccoli, fresh white baguette and salted butter, because that's how I roll.
The recipe suggests cider to accompany, but a nice crisp Sauvignan Blanc works just as well.
Bon appetite!
The super-taste does come with a bit of a penalty if you're watching your waist-line, as I calculate the chicken and sauce comes to 10 PP on Weightwatchers, but frankly it's the sort of recipe you cook on an evening when you're not worrying about that.
Sauteed Chicken with Cider and Lovage
Serves 4
- 8 chicken thigh fillets (or 4 chicken breasts)
- 2 Cox's apples
- 500 ml cider - the recipe suggests Leckford Cox's Cider from Waitrose, but any good medium dry cider will be fine
- 250g mushrooms
- 40g butter
- Ground allspice (I use whole and crush it in a pestle and mortar)
- 4 tbsp double cream
- 25g fresh lovage. If lovage isn't available, fresh tarragon is great substitute (and actually, I used dried tarragon because I was being a lazy arse).
- Salt and pepper to taste
Whilst the cider is bubbling away, core and chop the apples into wedges and slice the mushrooms. Heat half the butter in a large flat-bottomed pan or frying pan, and gently fry the apples and mushrooms until golden. Put them aside and cover them to stay warm for later.
Dredge the chicken in the allspice and a little salt (I tend to just add them to a bowl and do it by hand, but putting them it all in a large plastic bag and shaking it up will work just as well). Heat the rest of the butter in the pan, and add the chicken fillets to seal and turn a light brown Leave the chicken whole - no need for chopping for this recipe. Fry in batches if needed, and you'll probably need a few extra minutes if using breast instead of fillets.
For the next stage you'll need to cover the pan, so transfer to a saucepan with a lid if needed. Add the reduced cider to the chicken, cover and turn to low-medium heat for 20 - 25 mins. Finally, add the reserved mushrooms and apples, the cream and the lovage to the pan, season to taste, stir and heat for a few minutes.
All that's left is to serve up and enjoy! This is quite a hearty, rustic, winter warmer in my opinion, so I served with oven-baked jacket potatoes. I salted the skins after washing them, so they were extra crispy but light and fluffy in the middle - about an hour and a quarter to an hour and a half on 150 degrees in the fan oven. I also served tenderstem broccoli, fresh white baguette and salted butter, because that's how I roll.
The recipe suggests cider to accompany, but a nice crisp Sauvignan Blanc works just as well.
Bon appetite!
Full Speed Ahead
This week is continuing to pass me by at the speed of a charging rhinocerous, and I'm starting to feel like I've been run over by one too!
My eating is pretty out of whack at the moment - I'm eating too much, but I know I'm eating too much, and also exactly what I've eaten, because I'm still tracking 100% honestly. Maybe this is causing me to actually think it's worse than it is, because I've probably eaten this much in the past but not tracked it all, so I think it's most likely that I'm feeling it's a lot worse than it is, just because I'm truly conscious of the numbers on my food tracker.
Since I don't seem to be able to get my eating fully back under control, I've taken to trying to counteract it a bit with exercise. Because whilst I might have eaten too much this week, I've not really sat still whilst doing it. Circuits on Friday, bike ride and walking on Sunday, yoga and some extra walking on Monday, and, since I was feeling like a sloth last night, a run yesterday evening.
Monday's dinner went pretty well. I took a couple of hours off in the afternoon, because with the busyness of Sunday I hadn't quite finished tidying the flat and hadn't had a chance to go and get all the food. I had a bit of a panic when I got to the car, with grand plans of hitting up Waitrose, and found the car had a battery flatter than the proverbial pancake. Not even a whine out of it when I turned the key in the ignition. Amidst much swearing, I therefore had to walk over to the local Asda superstore instead, which is luckily only about 15 mins away, and then cut back the shop to the bare minimum essentials so I could carry it back. Carrying back several bottles of wine, a bottle of gin and a load of meat amongst other things, against the stupid wind, was a bit of an extra workout.
So I was a little bit flustered as I rushed round tidying like a fiend (it was already fairly tidy as I did a lot on Saturday, but City Boy is proper tidy - his batchelor pad was immaculate and I was freaking), and simultaneously trying to get dinner started, plus running round to the corner shop for the bits I'd missed or couldn't carry back from the supermarket. Dinner was a success though, and once my heart-rate had returned to a normal rate and I'd sat down and inhaled the first glass of wine, a very pleasant evening was had.
Dinner was sauteed chicken with cider and lovage, served with some crispy jacket potatoes, tenderstem broccoli and fresh bread and butter. He'd supplied dessert in the form of little pots of Gu Chocolate Ganache (good boy). All very tasty, and if you want the recipe for the chicken, see the next post - it's pretty much fool proof and sounds a lot grander than the effort required to cook it!
Last night was due to be a dinner out with work, but I was actually quite grateful it got cancelled at the last moment, as a) it saved me money, and b) I was knackered. Instead, I went home, scarfed down leftover chicken and crashed. Then I felt like a pig for eating too much, and levered myself out for a run instead. A very steady 5.5km on roads, because I fancied a change of route. It felt easy and relaxed, and I definitely could have gone farther, but I'm concentrating on enjoying my running and building the distance back up slowly. There's no rush, and it will come back in it's own time. It turns out I love Autumn running, with its slightly cooler temperatures and all the lights glinting in dark - I had a beautiful view as I ran down the harbour last night of a bright, full moon hanging low over the water, little wisps of cloud around it, and the SS Great Britain flood lit just below. Very pretty!
My eating is pretty out of whack at the moment - I'm eating too much, but I know I'm eating too much, and also exactly what I've eaten, because I'm still tracking 100% honestly. Maybe this is causing me to actually think it's worse than it is, because I've probably eaten this much in the past but not tracked it all, so I think it's most likely that I'm feeling it's a lot worse than it is, just because I'm truly conscious of the numbers on my food tracker.
Since I don't seem to be able to get my eating fully back under control, I've taken to trying to counteract it a bit with exercise. Because whilst I might have eaten too much this week, I've not really sat still whilst doing it. Circuits on Friday, bike ride and walking on Sunday, yoga and some extra walking on Monday, and, since I was feeling like a sloth last night, a run yesterday evening.
Monday's dinner went pretty well. I took a couple of hours off in the afternoon, because with the busyness of Sunday I hadn't quite finished tidying the flat and hadn't had a chance to go and get all the food. I had a bit of a panic when I got to the car, with grand plans of hitting up Waitrose, and found the car had a battery flatter than the proverbial pancake. Not even a whine out of it when I turned the key in the ignition. Amidst much swearing, I therefore had to walk over to the local Asda superstore instead, which is luckily only about 15 mins away, and then cut back the shop to the bare minimum essentials so I could carry it back. Carrying back several bottles of wine, a bottle of gin and a load of meat amongst other things, against the stupid wind, was a bit of an extra workout.
So I was a little bit flustered as I rushed round tidying like a fiend (it was already fairly tidy as I did a lot on Saturday, but City Boy is proper tidy - his batchelor pad was immaculate and I was freaking), and simultaneously trying to get dinner started, plus running round to the corner shop for the bits I'd missed or couldn't carry back from the supermarket. Dinner was a success though, and once my heart-rate had returned to a normal rate and I'd sat down and inhaled the first glass of wine, a very pleasant evening was had.
Dinner was sauteed chicken with cider and lovage, served with some crispy jacket potatoes, tenderstem broccoli and fresh bread and butter. He'd supplied dessert in the form of little pots of Gu Chocolate Ganache (good boy). All very tasty, and if you want the recipe for the chicken, see the next post - it's pretty much fool proof and sounds a lot grander than the effort required to cook it!
Last night was due to be a dinner out with work, but I was actually quite grateful it got cancelled at the last moment, as a) it saved me money, and b) I was knackered. Instead, I went home, scarfed down leftover chicken and crashed. Then I felt like a pig for eating too much, and levered myself out for a run instead. A very steady 5.5km on roads, because I fancied a change of route. It felt easy and relaxed, and I definitely could have gone farther, but I'm concentrating on enjoying my running and building the distance back up slowly. There's no rush, and it will come back in it's own time. It turns out I love Autumn running, with its slightly cooler temperatures and all the lights glinting in dark - I had a beautiful view as I ran down the harbour last night of a bright, full moon hanging low over the water, little wisps of cloud around it, and the SS Great Britain flood lit just below. Very pretty!
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Bestest Date Ever
So one of the things that's been keeping me so busy recently is dating. I'm kind of doing it New York-style, and have ended up seeing a couple of different guys, at least at this stage where it's all light-hearted and fun and non-serious. I guess at some point I'll have to make some decisions, but right now, I'm just dating. Quite a lot.
Today, I had a third date with one of the guys - he's very cool, an Aussie guy living over here permanently now, stupidly intelligent (he's a freaking university professor for God's sake!), and a surfer to boot. Lucky me! Anyhoo - he thought we should do something a bit different today, so we went on a bike ride. Nothing too energetic - just a fun, chatty 10 miles or maybe a bit more of canal tow-path on hired bikes, with a drink in a pub garden at the turnaround .... and an absolute muddy drenching on the way home that had us giggling and laughing like a pair of kids as we raced the torrential downpour. A very wet walk back to the car, some good banter, and he was gentleman enough to turn around so I could do a sneaky quick change on the side of the road. He may not have seen anything, but I think I accidentally gave a Range Rover driver a cheap thrill as I wrestled clean jeans over wet legs!
Who says you have to sit in bars and look elegant on a date? Drowned rat is the new black.
Other than that it's been a chilled weekend of rugby-watching, and relaxing with a take-away and a bit too much ice-cream, and Strictly Come Dancing watching, and flat-tidying, and mild panic that I've got to pull a romantic(-ish) dinner out my ass tomorrow night to repay a dinner last week (not the surfer - tomorrow's date is a software designer and ran the Bristol Half marathon today).
Why make anything simple when it can all be chaos??? Go big or go home I say ;o)
Today, I had a third date with one of the guys - he's very cool, an Aussie guy living over here permanently now, stupidly intelligent (he's a freaking university professor for God's sake!), and a surfer to boot. Lucky me! Anyhoo - he thought we should do something a bit different today, so we went on a bike ride. Nothing too energetic - just a fun, chatty 10 miles or maybe a bit more of canal tow-path on hired bikes, with a drink in a pub garden at the turnaround .... and an absolute muddy drenching on the way home that had us giggling and laughing like a pair of kids as we raced the torrential downpour. A very wet walk back to the car, some good banter, and he was gentleman enough to turn around so I could do a sneaky quick change on the side of the road. He may not have seen anything, but I think I accidentally gave a Range Rover driver a cheap thrill as I wrestled clean jeans over wet legs!
Who says you have to sit in bars and look elegant on a date? Drowned rat is the new black.
Other than that it's been a chilled weekend of rugby-watching, and relaxing with a take-away and a bit too much ice-cream, and Strictly Come Dancing watching, and flat-tidying, and mild panic that I've got to pull a romantic(-ish) dinner out my ass tomorrow night to repay a dinner last week (not the surfer - tomorrow's date is a software designer and ran the Bristol Half marathon today).
Why make anything simple when it can all be chaos??? Go big or go home I say ;o)
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