Friday 5 August 2011

Mishmash of things - carnival, 80's gear and diet...

So much for frequent posting...that didn't work out too well did it?! In my defence, it's been chaotic here: work very busy and demanding (but enjoyable for the most part); life full; family visits; Bradwell Carnival; golf etc etc.

Bradda Carnival is part of a week long Wakes Week which started last Saturday with a procession and fete on the playing field. It's quite a big affair round here - all the local carnival queens travel from miles around and there are several local floats who put in a massive effort with their floats, costumes and dance routines. Very amusing. We might be tempted to join in next year....

Our friends from the local pub dressed up as Smurfs and said that they had rehearsed a Macarena dance routine but, to be honest, I didn't see a lot of evidence of rehearsal!! The winners were the Bradda Dads (a local, charitable organsiation of village dads and mums who seem to "just get on with things"....very laudable) who had a Yellow Submarine float and were all dressed up in white navy uniforms (a la Richard Gere) or Sailorettes in the case of the women. The kids did a hornpipe routine and the adults managed something from the Village People!!

It's all very hokey and funny and involves lots of water balloons being hurled into the crowd and from the crowd and much standing outside of pubs!!

So Saturday was NOT diet friendly - a gorgeous sunny day which was mainly taken up with beer and ice cream and whose main nutrition was a cheese burger!

Sunday was the most hungover golf I've ever played and otherwise very quiet.

Monday we had taken off from work to go shopping for a fancy dress outfit for Rich for a 30th birthday party we have coming up. I already have my perfect 80's outfit from New Year's Eve 2 years ago but he needed to be kitted out. What a nightmare shopping with a bloke can be!! He was so easily disheartened by the smallest setback. Do they not learn how to shop??

Anyway, we persevered and eventually found him the "perfect" shell suit in a vintage clothing shop. It is truly horrendous! Turquoise and aqua slashes in lovely shiny fabric....mmmm. We will borrow a blond mullet wig from another mate and he is good to go. He will NOT, however, match my stylish canary yellow "power dress" in the style of Dynasty or Dallas!!

Monday night was the Carnival street party outside our local pub. They could not have booked a nicer evening, I think serious deals have been done with devil.... It was continental - gorgeous, sunny, warm, mellow. All the things which carnival street parties in the UK are usually NOT. A great night. Bradwell has a bit of a reputation locally for fighting but there was not a hint of bother despite the hundreds of people of all ages drinking and dancing in the street til the early hours. Well done Bradwell!!

Not surprisingly, Tuesday was another hangover.

So, as you may have deduced, the diet is not going well or at all really. I am hanging on by a thread. Not gaining but not losing. And it's beginning to drag me down. For the first time in ages I have felt those old feelings of depression about my weight. Feeling less confident and less happy in my skin and even less attractive to Rich. I have had a serious talk to myself about this as, weight or not, feeling bad about yourself doesn't help in any way and Rich has made it clear that it's all in my head and is not coming from him at all.

Actually, I think my saying that I've not got going on the diet is not quite true. While I've had too many big days and nights which have scuppered any progress, I have actually implemented many of the changes I was mulling over in my last post. I had salads every day last week instead of bread and cut back on treats. It's really the holiday and weekend days which have been the problems. Accordingly, now that those days are over for a while, I have tightened up again and over the last few days really knuckled down and cut out the rubbish and upped the exercise. It has had an effect and has stopped me gaining but I need to carry it on. Really need to learn from the bad feelings and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!

It's happening peeps - yesterday was stellar, I deflected bad choices left, right and centre and this morning has started well with grapefruit for breakfast. That's all I need to do - keep on making the good choices and remember that it's ME who wants to lose the weight, no-one else, so there is no point resenting having to cut back.

The exercise has been alright too - after my mulling post last week I reinstated swimming as I pledged, playing lots of golf and have been doing a little bit of running too. So, I have a decent base to work on and I will do it!! Wish me luck.

4 comments:

Peridot said...

This was key for me:
"remember that it's ME who wants to lose the weight, no-one else, so there is no point resenting having to cut back."
As that's what I struggle with - the feelings of resentment over all the things I want but can't have. But I desparately want to be slimmer too - do I want to have my cake and eat it? Hell, yeah! Cake, mmmmm.

Hopefully we're going to get to see this yellow Dynasty number?!

Px

Seren said...

Good luck! And do not give in to the dark side. You are absolutely stunning regardless of weight, and it sounds like your man would agree.

Also - well done you for maintaining in the face of all that pesky socialising ;-)). That's quite an achievement and one that deserves a suitably large pat on the back.

Sx

Love Cat said...

Hiya Missy

It's so easy to focus on the few negatives and slip ups - but as you say there are lots of positives in there. If you hadn't been mindful before your big weekend you might even have gained. But you didn't and you're back in control.

You can do it!

Sarah said...

Thanks for your nice comments a week or so back.

Your post, to me, seems like a perfect description of life getting in the way of trying to focus on one thing (food/diet, whatever you want to call it). Whenever I want to concentrate on one particular thing, life just comes at me and throws lots of other things at me, so I do nothing about anything that I want to get on with. You seem to be managing a bit better - getting a bit distracted but not going off track, just not speeding along in the way you want to. You should give yourself credit for doing as well as you are - and give the rest of us lessons in how to be like you!!