Damage report

Big breath .....

4lbs on.

Well, it could have been worse I suppose. A bit depressing, but hey, holiday happens but once a .... well, 4 or 5 times a year.

I'm pointing again properly today, and in a weird way I'm looking forward to a quiet evening at home. No alcohol. Just as much food as I need and no more. No drinking games to tempt me. No staying up ridiculously late.

On the other hand, no friends, as they're pretty much all still in Scotlandio without me. Sob.

I want to do a gym workout this evening, but I'm also in desperate need of doing a food shop and running errands, so I might have to go for a ride or run later in the evening or something similar, as I'm going to run out of time otherwise.

The one awesome thing about last week was how active I was. Most days we were out - I went out on my bike 3 times, including an epic mountain bike ride with the boys, Andy and Tim, on Sunday. We tackled the Fire Tower Trail near Lochgilphead, and although 6 of us started out - 4 girls (my friends Hannah, Nia and Bridget) and 2 guys, the other 3 girls caved fairly quickly and headed back to the car. From an entirely selfish point view this was actually quite a relief as it meant we could really pick up the pace, stop waiting half-way up hills (and a quarter of the way up, and three-quarters of the way up ...) and really pelt down the downhill sections.

Far more technical than anything I'd done before (i.e. a damn-site steeper .... new trousers were required after a couple of sections ;o)) and challenging, and with just the three of us, I became tail-end Charlie, meaning I had to work my socks off to keep up with the boys. I freakin' loved it. It was the first time I've actually done downhill that was demanding enough that I had to drop my saddle down in order to hang off the back of the bike, and also my first go at a water-splash (it was only 20cm's deep, but we've all got to start somewhere!).

We did a 2 and a half hour walk across country on another afternoon, which was glorious, scrambling up and down hills, and hopping across bogs and streams. It's funny how much more challenging and interesting it is when you're walking on moorland that is a footpath-free zone - wading through waist-high bracken and having to pick your feet up extra high in the heather - you can practically feel the toning effect on your bum!

We rowed out to some of the islands in the loch in the old boat - it's about half an hour's solid rowing each way with a 8 or 9 foot oar - having to keep time with the other rowers and concentrating hard, but worth it when you moor up on a desserted heather-strewn island to eat your picnic and explore the ruined churches and bothies.

We spent a day down at the beach, shrimping in the shallows (i.e. running up and down with a net in front of you in the hope of catching something), dodging the monster red jellyfish (the bastards are a foot or so across) and then I tried my hand at a bit of windsurfing on Graeme's rig. Somewhat challenging as he uses a smaller board than I'm used to and a bigger sail, but I got up and going in the end. Minor problem when I came to tack and turn back though as I was wobbling all over the place and then promptly fell in and flipped the board upside down. You've never seen anyone get the board the right way up again and back up on it so quickly as me, when I looked down in the clear waters and realised there were about half a dozen big jellyfish floating in a ring around my feet!!!! Major fright! I did eventually manage to get back to shore without any stings, but I did fall off again and smack my head on the board on the way down, which is still a bit sore. Still, if it weren't for the jellyfish, it would have been a fun session of windsurfing.

I think I had one quiet day when I stayed at the cottage and crashed out, but I still pulled my running gear on in the afternoon and went out for a half hour jog up to the end of the lane and back.

So really, it was just the food that did me in. My meal time choices were generally fine, it was all the eating between meals that really did me in. That and the fact that I used the excuse of all the exercise as a get-out for snacking on returning to the cottage in the afternoons.

One thing that did make me feel really happy - one of the guys up there, Andy, was ridiculously fit - he climbs, mountain bikes (100 miles in a day!), walks, plays football, and it shows. So how chuffed did I feel when for some reason someone asked him what he weighed, and he said 14 st something - I know he's a guy, so it's a bit different, but it felt uber-good for me to weigh less than someone that fit and healthy for once.

And another good thing - I saw a picture that my friend Bec took of me in my wetsuit down at the beach - and it didn't look hideous. Good lord, I hear you say!

So there we go - holiday over, reparations began this morning, and hopefully I'll see the scales drop away again this week. For one thing, my metabolisms going to be a bit like Wil E Coyote running over the cliff this week - after all that food last week it's going to be scrabbling around wondering what the hell happened!

3 weeks tomorrow til I head to Croatia, and I'd like to have made a little bit more progress before I go!