Saturday 15 September 2012

OMG, it's Venice Fulton!!


Some final summer pictures from an evening walk a couple of Saturdays ago.  Richard was out playing golf so I headed up Bradwell Edge with the dogs.  I always feel the need to make the most of sunshine at this time of year; to "bank" it against the winter to come.

This is the start of the steep hill above our house leading to Bradwell Edge.



Minty is considerably quicker up the hills than me so she has to wait for me!



The lovely village of Bradwell with the Lafarge cement works in the background.


When we got to the top of the Edge we found a couple of empty, mowed fields - perfect for swallow chasing. Trouble is, we were miles away from any trees or houses on moorland on top of a hill so no swallows!  The dogs ran around checking anyway and seemed to enjoy the freedom to feel the wind through their fur.



All that running makes girls feel a little thirsty.  Luckily there was a little pond in the corner of the field.


Which they made full use of.


As we hit the lane, I looked right and saw the Red Arrows doing a display over Chatsworth.  Chatsworth House is over 10 miles away so I was surprised to be able to see them flying. 


The view towards Bamford and Bamford Edge.


The omnipresent Win Hill





Then back down the hill to Bradwell, refreshed, revived and renewed.


So, hands up who has heard of Venice Fulton and Six Weeks to OMG??  Now, hands up anyone who has followed Venice Fulton's "Six Weeks to OMG"??  Or KNOWS anyone who has followed it???

Nope, didn't think so.  So many books bought, read but not really followed (through).  I can think of a few I've started on over the years.  I did follow Atkins for a couple or 3 months (lost 2 stone); lost half a stone doing Paul McKenna; half a stone on that You Can be Slim (Marissa somebody or other)and a stone or so on Becks (v fiddley with all thoese cards and notebooks).  I have read a few others but not felt the love so they're probably still sitting forgotten and abandoned on a bookshelf back at my old house.

That said, I have learned something from all of them and it is unarguable that I'm getting better at staying stable and not gaining (much). I have taken away snippets and techniques and hints and helpful strategies and some of the time I put some of them into practice.

As you know, I gave up (at the time temporarily) on Slimming World a couple of months ago because it wasn't happening for me and I wasn't "feeling it".  I didn't give up on trying to stay fit and healthy though and didn't go mad or anything.  I won't deny that I'm 2 or 3lbs heavier now but I suspect that was mostly as a result of a couple of weeks around the Olympics with our holiday in London and several big days out over the summer.  The exercise took a bit of a hit (too much golf, not enough running) but I never dropped it entirely and I'm getting back to it now.

So, over the last few weeks, I've been mulling around what I'm going to do next.  How I'm going to approach this.  I really want to lose at least a stone, probably 2.  But I wasn't quite ready to tackle it.  Too much going on in my life and work very hectic and teetering on the brink of being out of control.

I have managed to sort out the life and works issues (well, most of them) and feel back in control again after a dodgy few weeks of feeling disorganised and irritated by myself.  But, still no plan of attack.  What to do.  What to do.

And then, yesterday, I picked up a book I had bought  several weeks ago on Sheffield station. I don't even know why I bought it - Buy One, Get One Half Price perhaps??  Perhaps because it had the word "skinnier" in the title which struck me as different from the average diet book.  I read the other book and 2 pages precisely of the Fulton book and then left it on my bedside table.  It could have stayed there forever and eventually been moved onto a shelf but yesterday I randomly picked it up and read half of it in the bath!

Which is ironic once I got to cold baths bit!

I feel the need for a kickstart.  Something to do for a few weeks to drop some blubber and get me back into action (and slimmer trousers!).  To this end, I'm going to actually DO the Fulton plan for 6 weeks and then I'll let you know what I think. 

I have prepared a schedule with each day mapped out to monitor my progress (and my weight).  This is not like me.  Usually I MEAN to prepare a schedule but only get round to it every 5th time or so.  So this plan is truly blessed.

I haven't actually read all of the book yet so will finish it off tomorrow.  But I DID do the morning element of it this very morning - cold shower, black coffee and skipping breakfast an' all!  Sounds mental but who knows.  It seems to be generally a low-carb diet so that works for me.  There are alarming mentions of "no liquid carbs" which sounds innocuous until you realise that that writes off booze.  Not so simple after all!  Then again,  I've been cutting back over the last few weeks and I went back to sparkling water after a long break over lunch today so it's do-able!

I only did HALF the Fulton plan today though.  It was Rich's Dad's birthday lunch in a local pub so we had a lovely meal.  I stuck to water as I mentioned and picked a sensible main course (chicken supreme with goats cheese, spinach, new potatoes and roasted tomatoes) and then blew it on pecan pie with caramel icecream.  Mmmmm delicious. 

So, will I make it through the next 6 weeks?  Will I drop blubber??  Will I stick to it after my 6 weeks???  It's all go.

1 comment:

Claire said...

So what is it? Low carb and cold showers? Sounds rather boarding school to me! Lol x