A weekend of excess ....

Phew - it's been a good weekend (mostly), but I honestly feel like I have consumed way too much. Too much food. Too much drink. Too much sun.

Friday afternoon I shot off from work to go mountain biking. I was going to post some photos up here of how glorious the trail looked, but unfortuately, they're currently stuck on my phone and I can't download them. I rocked up to the centre to find it really quiet, which was how I wanted it, but I still felt a bit nervous about going out on my own. Of the few other people there, they all seemed to be the usual guys who know exactly what they're doing with their bikes, competent and kitted out to the nth degree. I didn't mess around, just put my bike together and got out of the trail away from anyone seeing me doing something stupid. Actually once I was on the trail I barely saw a soul. They'd been logging in the area recently, and where this had crossed the trail it was sometimes really hard to actually work out where it went as it because practically invisible, but away from those mercifully short sections, it was generally in pretty good condition. Certainly better than the last time I was here, when it was a foot deep in mud!

I started to race round the first circuit, and soon realised that I'm not yet as fit as I think I am! The climbs were really taking it out of me - legs and lungs burning, and not helped when my chain was occasionally jumping which threw me off my rhythm. Once I slowed my pace a bit, I found it easier, and stated to enjoy the downhills and all the drops, jumps and turns. After about 45 mins, I tore out the end of the trail feeling pretty chuffed and stopped at the car. Checking the time, I debated quickly whether I had the time and energy left to try for a second circuit, and so headed back into the woods again.

The second attempt started better as my pace was steadier, and I had the advantage of the trail being fresh in my memory this time which helped to pick out the lines to take. However, it quickly became apparent the skipping chain on the first lap wasn't a one off, and the problem started snow-balling as the chain started jumping off completely or coming slack and sticking with alarming regularity. I persevered for a bit longer, before jumping off to inspect it properly, and finally realised that part of the chain guard (a piece of plastic that I never bothered to strip off when I first got the bike) has snapped and jammed between the wheel and the rear cassette, preventing the wheel from spinning freely. Not the best thing having a bike that can't freewheel properly when you're out on singletrack that deliberately goes up and down hill.

Since I didn't have any tools with me, or anyway to fix the problem, I limped on a bit further on the bike, until I got a section that would be absolutlely impassable with the bike in it's current condition (i.e. everytime I went downhill and freewheeled to any extent, the chain pulled slack, and I'd then have to put in 3 or 4 full turns of the pedals to pull it taut again before I could actually put any power in with the pedals). At this point I was close enough to the end of the trail to decide to risk using one of the wide open logging trails to try and run paralell to the trail and find my way back to the centre. 5 mins later I made it back to the car grumpy, but relieved, and with just enough time left to grab a shower and shoot off to meet the girls for dinner.

Dinner was lovely but, my god, it was rich! Couldn't finish all of either my main or dessert, despite the fact that I was absolutely starving when I got there. It was great seeing the girls though and catching up on the going's on at my ex-work. Made it home about midnight and collapsed into bed.

Yesterday I was up bright and early at 7 for the wedding. For once I was out on the road on time and over with Jo and Lissa in plenty of time to get changed and get some make-up on before we left for the church. It was a beautiful day, both in terms of the weather and the service and reception. The bride looked ravishing, the speeches were emotional and the venues were lovely.

The food was pretty good, if not the best for someone on WW's, but I think it was the free-flowing champagne and wine that was the killer. Because I wasn't pointing, having worked quite hard all week to earn my day off, I paid no attention at all to what I was drinking, and since I've been drinking far less anyway since the start of the year, suffice it to say that it all got the better of me, and I was quite ill when we finally made it home, before passing out in bed. I'm pretty embarrassed by that, although at least I didn't do anything stupid at the wedding itself.

All in all we had a glorious day:

The picture at the very top of this post was taken just after Jo had flashed her pants at me for some unknown reason - hence my slightly traumatised expression!!!

Weigh in's tomorrow morning, and right now I feel like a total heifer, so I will be extremely surprised if I've lost anything this week. Guess I'll just have to get my head down and concentrate next week. The one nice thing I have taken away from this week though is that my confidence in myself is definitely on the rise. I had lots of nice compliments yesterday, and I now just casually accept them and thank the giver of them. I also noticed that I didn't have any moments yesterday when I felt self-conscious (well, apart from when I started to feel very drunk and didn't want to do anything stupid lol), and Lissa commented this morning that I seemed much more self-assured, especially larking around in front of the cameras.

Anyway - I'm exhausted so I'm going to head for bed now. The final test will be tomorrow when I climb on the scales - I will report in tomorrow.

Day 4 (Week 2) - Status Report

I'm still here (more or less awake), I'm still capable of walking (just about), and I'm still planning on going mountain-biking on my own this afternoon (eeeeeeek!).

I went along to running club for the first time yesterday. I'm torn between saying it was lots of fun and I did good, and that it was hell on earth and there ain't no way I'm doing that again. At least until next Thursday.

Firstly, there were about half a dozen other ladies, and I can confidently say that I was the youngest, and completely middling in running ability and general size in the group. Everyone ran at different paces - I wasn't the fastest or the slowest, and it was quite weird for me to be running a section, then stopping to stretch, or waiting for others to catch up. When we were stopped for a minute, I found myself restlessly pacing because I was scared that if I stood still that would be it and I would just seize up and grind to a halt.

The route was more testing than something I would have chosen to run as it featured some quite steep up and downhill sections, and I couldn't believe that I voluntarily found myself doing shuttle runs up and down a short gentle hill section, in public, without feeling really embarrassed or self-conscious. That was hard, doing the shuttle runs, knowing I was out at the furthest point on the run, and therefore still had to run back. Mark, our instructor was quite cunning as when we got to that section he told us what we were going to do, but not how many. The instructions were to put all the effort into running up the hill (a short distance of maybe 75 metres to a specific lamp post) and then to just really gently jog back down. So we did the first 2, and then he told us we were doing another 4. So 4 more we did. Then he said just to head back the way we'd come, didn't matter what speed, but to keep jogging rather than falling back to a walk, and he'd meet us back at base. I interpreted that as back at the gym, so traipsed all the way back in one long run. By the time I was near the end, it was a matter or pride to not walk so I just kept mechanically going along. There were 4 of us at the front of the group, and although we took slightly different routes back (2 sides round the square type scenario), we all arrived back more or less together. It was then about another 5 mins until the rest of the group got back. I was probably really annoying for that 5 mins as I was still pacing up and down, unwilling to just stop, although I did stretch.

Mark's heart rate monitor, said he'd been running for 56 mins, so adjust for the fact that we got back 5 mins before him (he was running with the slower runners) and we were out for about 50 mins. Obviously not all of that was running as there were a few breaks, and we were walking for 5 mins at the start as a warm up, so conservatively, I reckon I was running for about 35 mins or so. Maybe a little bit more. In that time we covered roughly 3.5 miles, which is about 5.6km for the metric folks.

Surprisingly I feel no after effects at all this morning, not even sore legs. I've said I'll meet them again next week for the Thursday run, which is going to be up on the hills proper, although we are driving and meeting up there, so we don't have to run all the way up there first! I'm quite looking forwards to running up on the open grassy trails of the hills.

So yesterday, in summary:

• Points eaten 20.5 with 2.5 saved. I had quite a points heavy lunch which didn't leave much left for the evening, but I made lovely home-made soup again which I had for dinner. Also means I've got another bowl for lunch today which is yummy and low points.
• Fluids - enough for the now familiar smiley face.
• Exercise - running, and probably more of it than I ever thought I'd be able to do.

Now we're on Friday, and this is where it all starts to go horribly wrong. I've had my usual healthy breakfast of cereal with skimmed milk, and a glass of orange juice. I've just inhaled a cereal bar as I'm starving, and I've got healthy soup and a yoghurt for early lunch. My bike's packed in the car with my kit, and I'm going to head over the Forest of Dean when I finish work at lunchtime and brave some singletrack on my own. I don't know whether I'll do one lap, or 2, or chicken out and just go for a cardio work out on the family trail. I guess it depends on the weather, how much time I've got when I get there, and how busy the singletrack trails looking. But I'm hoping to do one circuit of the singletrack minimum which should take about 40 mins if my last performance there is anything to go by (it's a 3.7 mile circuit, but very technical and with some vicious climbs in it).

From there the plan is to grab a shower at the bike centre (assuming the visitor's showers are open!) and then change quickly back in to my normal clothes and head down to the Cotswolds to meet the girls from my old work for dinner. Dinner will be a challenge as I've seen the menu and it pretty much all look really good, or evilly bad, depending on which way you look at it. After that I shall head home, grab a good night's sleep and then I'll be up bright and early to head off to the wedding tomorrow via Jo and Lissa's house to dump my car and overnight bag there for tomorrow night. I'm going to leave my bike in the car, and shove in some clean kit, and I'm hoping to ride out for a bit in the Wyre Forest on Sunday, to kill off a bit of tomorrow's excesses.

That's the plan anyway. God knows how it will pan out! I shall report in on Sunday with a full account.

Day 3 (Week 2) - Status Update

Firstly, and on a completely unrelated note, I've just noticed that my counter is showing a 1000 hits, so thanks to everyone who's been coming on regularly and reading about my exploits, and especially to those who've taken the time to comment - it means a lot.

Right, down to the business for the day. As promised, yesterday was more like the rest of the week should have been.

• Points used - 20, and 3 points saved. I was going to save 4, but to be honest I nicked one for dessert, as I felt I deserved it by the time I'd got back from the gym and stumbled out the shower. It was a lovely dessert too - a concoction of 0.5 points worth of meringues, crumbled in a bowl, a Weight Watchers strawberry yoghurt, 0.5 point, tipped over and mixed in, kind of Eton Mess style, and then a small tin of apricot halves (in juice) on top. I kept the juice back to have separately, so it didn't all get too liquid, but it all tasted lovely, and only 2 points for the bowl.
• Fluids - tick. Job done.
• Exercise - done, and done again. Spinning and a run, and I actually feel absolutely fine this morning, where I thought I might feel a bit crippled. So no excuses for not going along this evening and seeing what this running club malarkey is about.

So far the scales are holding steady this week, and I haven't dropped anything further since Monday (boooo), but then with my general monthly hormonalness upon me, I'm not overly surprised.

In some ways, I'd be surprised if I lost a lot more anyway, because now I'm getting to the point where I've lost quite a bit continuously, I just keep thinking that it will all stop soon, and I won't be able to lose any more. And I know that this block is in my head, but it's hard to get past it. I think it stems from years of the knowledge that losing weight is hard and diet's fail that has been drummed into me, whereas in reality I know logically that if I stick to the plan, it should just keep slowly coming off a bit at a time. I guess for the moment, I just have to put my doubts to one side and just keep proving myself wrong, one tiny little step at a time. Afterall, for years now, I've been saying that running is the one thing I just can't do, that it's not my fault, I'm just not built for it, and I've been slowly proving myself wrong on that front.

Either way, I'm still holding that golden ideal in my head of being close to goal, if not at it, by the time I jet off windsurfing again in November, and I refuse to give up on that dream.

Day 2 (Week 2) - status report

I'm feeling somewhat disappointed with myself for yesterday's choices. They weren't as good as they could have been, so I didn't save any points, and the blame sits firmly at my door (i.e. nobody strapped to me to a chair, forced my jaws open and shoved food down my throat).

• Points eaten - 23. Not over my daily allowance, but no points saved like I wanted either. I don't feel like I'm as focused this week, and so when B came over for tea last night, I allowed myself to be tempted away from the path of righteousness, a.k.a. sticking to my plan, and then I used more points than I intended. I need to refocus and get my mojo kicked into touch for the week.
• Fluids - fine - got a smiley face on my tracker.
• Exercise - went for a 20 min run with B. My legs still felt absolutely knackered from Pump on Monday, but running with someone was nice - I think I'm slowly losing the fear of that. We did walk briefly twice on the circuit - both times instigated by B, but I've got to admit they were a relief. I think the difference with the break though is I run slightly faster in between which kind of evens it out a bit. It still takes 20 mins to complete and I'm still absolutely dead when I'm done.

It's a fresh day today and my foot is readied to kick my ass in gear. This is a complicated manouvre involving some interesting contortions if you've never seen it done before, but I'm practiced at it. Circus contortionists ain't got nothing on me when I decide a little self-ass kicking is in order!! I promise that tomorrow I will report both points saved, and exercise done. It's spin tonight, but I'm in a later class than normal with my old instructor. Actually, it'll be good because his classes are a lot faster with a lot of sprints and races to get a real burn going, plus forfeits for the losing team. So that's half an ass-kicking right there.

Day 1 (week 2) - status report

So here we go again for the week. It was a funny old day yesterday as I spent most of it in town either at the opticians for various appointments or lurking / shopping waiting for my glasses to be made up. For me, that means that it's great for snacking as I'm busy and not thinking about food, although does mean making a sensible choice come lunchtime (god bless Caffe Nero and their healthy choice paninis!).

All in all, not a bad day yesterday:

• Points eaten - 21. I ate an extra point over my 20 purely because I didn't have any normal size jacket potatoes left in the house when I was cooking dinner and have to have a larger one, but I think I can live with that. I was absolutely gagging for some dessert of some sort in the evening, so I resolutely spent about an hour and a half doing some much needed tidying of my room instead to distract myself.
• Fluids - tick. I was coming up a bit short on this as I went into the evening so I chugged my way through 2 pints of water whilst I was tidying. Good - but not wholly conducive to an unbroken nights sleep!
• Exercise - Body Pump class. I was typically late to get there as I thought it started 15 mins later and arrived in a dishevelled, flushed mess and had to try and squeeze my workstation in to the packed class. I hate being late as it means most of the kit is already in use and you have to make do with what's left. So no 5kg plates left, and a weirdly annoying bar end (the gadget that keeps the weights on the bar). It was a tough class as I miscalculated when loading my bar for Squats and ended up with more weight than I usually have, which is hell when you hit the bottom half only squats and your legs are screaming. Definitely seeing some improvement in other things though - I can just about manage the tricep dips which are my nemesis, and actually doing full plank in the abs track rather than doing a cheat-y knees on the floor plank.

So on to day 2. Been back to the optician's this morning and they've said that there's still an interruption in the cornea but it seems to be healing clearly. I've got to leave my lenses out for 5 days and then see how I go, which by my calculations means I can put them back in on the day of the wedding (yay!).

Got healthy food with me today, and tonight's my night for running. Bridget's asked to come out with my this evening on my run, so we'll see how that goes. I was just thinking about the weekend, and I reckon I might take my bike over to the girls' house with me, before the wedding, and I can go try out the trails in the Wyre Forest on Sunday then.

Day 7 - status report

As promised, this will be a proper update of the weekend. It's been a blast, and I'm a tad knackered now. The pic on the left is me hoofing it down one of the paths at Llandegla yesterday, which was awesome fun. But the biking comes later, so rewind 24 hours.

I was pretty good up til Friday lunchtime, with the exception of the giant chocolate chip cookie that I had on Friday morning. Can you classify yourself as being good if you still make one bad choice? Everything else was good anyway. Friday afternoon passed in a blur of last minute packing, panicking over which dress to wear (and the inevitable final decision to go with something completely different than originally planned) and just about being ready when my lift arrived.

The journey up to North Wales was tediously long as we got stuck in traffic, so we ended up just making it with 10 mins to spare before dinner started and all dived in the loos to get changed quickly out of jeans and into dresses and heels. This is Bridget and I in all our posh dress glory.

Dinner was probably about a million calories - it didn't start too bad as there was soup and bread rolls (with actual proper butter - god that stuff is good!), and then pan-fried chicken with loads of lovely veg, stuffing, and roast potatoes. So far, so good. The main was enormous, so I loaded up with veg, ate til I was full and left some of the potatoes and chicken - a good habit for me to practice. Then there was dessert which was profiteroles with fresh cream and a light and dark chocolate sauce. This is why I'd been saving points all week and it was well worth it. There were probably about 4 or 5 glasses of wine with dinner, and then 2 glass of sparkling wine afterwards - in other words: many, many points.

After a fun night, and a late finish (I think we got to bed about 2am), we were up bright and early to split up into a biking party and a walking one. We rocked up to Llandegla in the rain, and as expected B looked a little bit mutinous at the prospect of the weather. We cajoled her to at least come to the cafe for lunch first (the best bacon baps in the UK they claim, and to be honest they were pretty damn awesome - I had mine with extra mushrooms) and luckily once we'd refuelled the weather was looking a little less fearsome, so we kitted up and set out. That's my baby in the pic below - expensive but worth it! And then a general pic of us getting ready.

This particularly cheesey shot, is me looking smug that we've got to top, and a tad excited about where we're going - i.e. the fun downhill bit in the forest below that I'm pointing out. We were only doing the blue run as B wasn't feeling up to trying the red, but the long swooping runs down were just awesome and as they weren't too technical I was able to hammer it on the speed front which felt fantastic.

The shot above is Bridget showing off her mud collection. I wasn't quite as bad as my bike sports some rough and ready mud guards which fend off the worst of it. The trails were still pretty wet, and in the big version of the opening shot in this post you can actually see the spray being thrown about 6 feet in the air off my rear wheel, although I doubt you can see it on here. The best thing about the trails, really though, was that I found the climb up during the first couple of miles pretty easy going - I felt good and not too strained. I am sooooooo tackling the red route next time I go there!

Once back down to the centre, we jet sprayed the worst of the mud off the bikes and reassembled the jigsaw puzzle involved in getting 3 bikes, some luggage and 3 people back in a medium size car. Then a long drive home, and I admit that I wasn't as good as I could have been with my evening food choices. I was going to have home-cooked stir-fry before realising I had no stir-fry veg. Then since I was feeling tired and hungry I was going to go and get some take-away since I didn't feel like waiting round for something to cook, but didn't have the energy to leave the house either. Finally I remembered that one of the local takeaways delivered, so ordered some vegetable chow-mein to be bought to the house. Not ideal, but also not the worst choice I could make.

I have pointed up everything from this weekend as best I can, and as at this morning, I had pretty much broken even. Today's been all about running around. I had to retrieve my overnight bag back from the boys as it got bought home in the walkers' car from Wales, then go over to B's to get my bike back, then shoot down to Bristol for a first date, which lasted over 3 hours (we only met for coffee!). Just need some tea now, and then I'm going to have a quick tidy and collapse.

My right eye is killing me - it's been sore all day, but I've just taken my lenses out and now it feels worse. I'm praying I haven't got another ulcer on my cornea as I remember it feeling like this when I did just before Christmas. It won't stop watering like crazy as well as being overly sensitive to the light. Might have to go get an emergency optician's appt tomorrow if it's still feeling a bit off.

So in summary:

• Food eaten - way too much - about a million calories, but it was good. Although rich food doesn't agree with me so much anymore.
• Fluid intake - plenty - but mostly alcoholic, or post-ride Lucozade - errrrr, perhaps a little more water required.
• Exercise - one awesome bike ride, and then not enough today.
• Time spent off plan - about 12 hours longer than intended, but I'm back on it now, for next week.

And then repeat all over again starting tomorrow for the wedding next weekend!

• Weekends enjoyed - 1 really good one!!!
  

Day 4 - Status Report

The highlights are as follows:

• Points eaten - 19 - 4 saved, which makes up for my little indiscretion with the ice-cream yesterday (that sounds kinky somehow doesn't it?!).
• Water drunk - lots! Smiley faces on tracker - 1.
• Exercise - errrrrr - I don't suppose playing Shaun White Snowboarding Tour on the Wii balance board really counts does it? Ok, so I might have dropped the ball a little bit here. I admit it, I got home, it was cold and miserable outside, and I just plain couldn't be arsed to go out again to go to the gym. So I kinda, sorta had a night off *looks a bit embarrassed*.

On the upside the scales say another 0.5lb off, so that's 2.5lb off this week. On the downside, all bets for maintaining that loss til Monday are now off as it's Ball Day today. I doubt I'm going to have time to slip in any exercise this afternoon between getting home, packing and heading off to Wales, so I've just planned my food til lunchtime, and we'll run from there. I have no idea what's on the menu tonight, so I'm not going to stress it.

Tomorrow morning we're heading off to Llandegla for some mountain biking action. The weather's turned a bit pants today, so it could well be pretty muddy up there but that doesn't particularly bother me - just part of the challenge. It won't bother Tim either as he's a pretty hardcore biker, but I'm hoping it won't put Bridget off as she's probably not as in to this getting on the bike come rain or shine malarkey as she's still a pretty nervous rider. Really, really don't want to get the bikes all the way to Wales and then find it's called off because of a bit of rain and mud ....... fingers crossed please!!!

p.s. is it wrong that I'd like to mountain-biking with my friend's boyfriend, but without the friend occasionally, because it would faster, harder and more exhilarating??? I feel it would be somehow.

Day 3 - status report

Ha - ironically, on the less complicated day food-wise I actually ran a point over because I decided that I wanted a little pot of Haagen Dazs pralines and cream at the cinema last night. Typical. It tasted pretty good though. So here's the major highlights:

• 21 points used, 2 points saved. Not quite perfect, and in fact it would have been 2.5 points saved but I forgot I had an apple at lunch. Oh the little things ....
• Daily drinks quota - tick.
• Exercise - ditched spinning as I just didn't have enough time to get to the supermarket, spin and have dinner before the cinema, but went for a 20 min run instead.

I really, really didn't feel like running last night. By the time I'd driven back from work, done a very quick pitstop at the supermarket for essentials, and got back home I was feeling tired and low-sugar, and it was drizzling rain and cold. But I kept thinking that if I didn't do it I'd break all the effort I'd put in so far this week, and in any case if I was feeling tired I could just walk when it got too much. So having dumped the shopping bags on the kitchen counter, I literally stopped long enough to get changed, drag on a fleece and fill my water bottle and then headed out.

I did my usual circuit, but in reverse for a change of scenery and gradients, and chopped out the last tiny bit to turn back up the hill one road earlier (the difference is literally about 50m's in distance, but the hill on the earlier turning is a lot kinder, the further one is steep and a killer). Set out with legs already feeling like lead, but crested over the first little incline without stopping and on down and across, and that kind of takes you to half way, and then it's down and across again. Then up another little incline, cross the main road, and then across and down again, and then it's only the final road back up and flat back home. I kept thinking that I could just stop when it became too much, and though I was barely more than walking speed sometimes, my wibbly-wobbly apres-windsurfing legs somehow got me the whole way round. Does it ever get any easier though??

On to day 4. Soup and low fat mousse bought from home for lunch. Home-made muffin for a snack. I'm going to try and save 4 points instead of 3 to make up for yesterday, and I've got a night in organising my packing for tomorrow so no temptations tonight. Haven't decided yet what exercise to do tonight, but I will try and do at least half an hour of something - maybe just go out for a walk and get some fresh air and let my tired muscles relax.

It feels a bit like a military operation this week, and I certainly couldn't keep this level of discipline up for ever, but it's a good way to give myself a kick up the ass and remind myself what I'm capable of when I set my mind to it.

Day 2 - status report

I'm now on day 3 of this week's mission. Day 2 wasn't easy, but I was successful in each of my aims.

• I squeaked in at 20 points for the day, with the aid of a zero point dinner - just did my usual tomato and chunky veg sauce that I have with gnocchi or pasta, and didn't bother with the carbs themselves. Still tasty and filling though - kind of like veg casserole.
• The smiley face is there on my chart - testament to me drinking plenty of water. I probably also inadvertently picked a few extra millilitres of lake water whilst windsurfing too!
• As you may have guessed the weather held, so we went windsurfing last night, so that's my exercise in the can. First time out in 6 months, feeling very wobbly and a little nervous, but no time to worry with the wind gusting up a storm and lots of concentration required. Fell in a lot, but got some good sailing in too, and felt more confident as time went on. I was absolutely dead after an hour on (and in) the water, so made my way back up wind to the beach and called it a day. I've got a few new bruises this morning, 2 on my shin and one on my arm, and lots of aching muscles - if you want an all over work out, screw body pump, just do an hour on the board! My glutes hurt, my abs are sore, my triceps are one solid ache and my shoulders protest when I move. It feels gooooooooooood. FYI - it appears losing 2 stone makes it a lot easier to haul your ass up on the board - good job really as I spent quite a lot of time doing that last night!

So - on to day 3. Things should be a bit less complicated food-wise today, as I haven't got any annoying lunches out or cakes to contend with. Bought my lunch with me from home, had a good solid breakfast, and I'm nearly at the bottom of my second drink already. I've got spin tonight to tick off my exercise goal, and a peek at the scales this morning says another half a lb gone.

Day 1 - status report

Just to report that I'm sticking like glue to my plan for the week. Just look:

• Points used - 18.5 - Errrr - I'm not actually sure what happened here as I was aiming for 20, so I could save 3, and I thought that was what I used, but somehow miscalculated and stopped short. Slightly annoying as I wasted half a point that I can't save past the maximum 4 for the day. Note to self - PAY MORE ATTENTION!!!
• Water intake - smiley face achieved! And I swear to god I've probably walked half a mile backwards and forwards to the kitchen for refill drinks and the ladies for ... well ...
• Exercise - 1 x Body Pump class done.

A little look at the scales this morning shows the gain from yesterday back off, so we'll see where we go from here.

******

Not sure how today will pan out as I've got lunch out today. In fact everything's conspiring against me today! Firstly, I ran out of cereal this morning so had to have porridge - 1.5 extra points. I chose a grilled tuna sandwich on brown bread to try and keep points down for lunch, but then somehow put down that I wanted chips because it was a choice of chips or salad, and I don't like salad. I've put everything in the tracker already, and decided that if it's anything more than a few chips on the side, I'll only eat half the portion to keep points down, and give the rest away. I've resisted the massive muffins that were bought into the office today, in favour of one of my home-made muffins from the weekend (2.5 points versus at least 8-10 I should think). And I'll have a very low points tea tonight - so hopefully I'll just about scrape it to remain under 20 points.

I'm also hopefully off windsurfing after work this evening for my day's exercise - can't wait as it'll be the first time this year. Just got to make sure I avoid the ritual pub dinner afterwards, although shouldn't be too hard as we're due at the pub at 9pm this evening, so just time to get home, eat and sprint up there .... for a couple of diet cokes, natch.