All Is Not Lost

As expected, the weekend wasn't too good on the old eating and drinking front. But boy, was it a lot of fun.

I maintained a little bit of discipline on Friday and ate sensibly all day, avoiding too many snacks, knowing I'd be eating out in the evening. Good girl. I even made it to Circuits, despite last week's extreme beasting. This week's felt much stronger for me - possibly because of the different training format (straight 60 second stations before moving on, with 20 seconds on the second circuit, rather than the Tabata of last week), or possibly because this week was more cardio-focused.

After that, it was a frantic scramble to finish my work and a quick dash down to London. We stayed with Jo on Friday night, enjoying a quiet meal at her rather nice local pub with a nice bottle of wine. I did at least manage to track all my food for Friday, but after that it went a little off-piste.

On Saturday, which was gloriously sunny, Hannah and I made our way on into central London to meet up with the rest of the hen party. Dresses on at our hostel (surprisingly nice - we stayed at the YHA on Bolsover Street) and we moved on to The Chesterfield Hotel in Mayfair for full on decadence and traditional English afternoon tea.

I don't think I've ever been inside a hotel with a proper frock-coated doorman out front before, but it was gorgeous, and they were delightfully attentive without being snooty. They even pulled a gluten-free afternoon tea out of thin air for my friend with no warning - most impressive.

Now, when you're enjoying something that you definitely don't get to do everyday, it's worth savouring it - the perfect finger sandwiches (and yes - there totally was cucumber with the crusts cut off - with just a touch of cream cheese too - delicious!), the teeny cakes (chocolate eclairs with chocolate cream - the rapture!) and the perfectly formed fluffy scones with jam and cream. The champagne. The artisan teas. And the surroundings of the library, which our party had to itself with our own dedicated waiter. Delightful. The food kept coming and the tea kept flowing, although I did stop at one glass of champagne .... at £11 a pop I couldn't afford too many of those!

Several hours later, we emerged replete into the balmy sunshine and I hit the shops for a few hours looking for a dress for the wedding in a couple of weeks time. Note to self - Mayfair to Regents Street and 4 hours of shopping on 5 inch wedge heels is not comfortable!

In the evening, it was all about dinner at Côte in Soho (rather lovely French food) and then hitting the cheesy bars. Suffice it to say that, after an evening that ended at 5am new time and included sambuca and jäger-bombs, I wasn't feeling too shiny the next morning.

After a very late breakfast (which was really lunch), and a restorative hour sat in the sun in Regent's Park, we made it to the theatre to watch the new production of The Wizard of Oz, which was wonderful. Food on Sunday, wasn't plentiful, but wasn't especially good either - poached eggs and bacon on toast for brunch, a large bag of Maltesers at the theatre and (whisper it) Burger King on the way home. Ahem.

Good things - the scales weren't too bad yesterday - there was little snacking over the weekend and the badness was contained to a 36 hour period and then stopped. And I got straight back on it yesterday.

Today, I'm heading back to London for work, which makes exercise tricky, and eating well potentially trickier. I grabbed a croissant and a skinny latte at the station this morning, as well as a load of fruit. Lunch is out with our Group Finance guys, and I intend dinner tonight to be light. I had to taxi to the station this morning, because of the earliness of the train, but am hoping I can walk home tonight for a couple of miles in the bank.

Back on it, and enjoying that the next couple of weeks see me firmly staying in town, relaxing or working, or away camping where I can control my food and drink - lets DO this!!


- Posted from my iPhone