New Year Exercise!

I'm sure many people's Christmas pics are much the same - far too many presents, mess and loads of dogs!! This is my sister's younger dog, Treacle and very handsome he is too - rather dim but lovely!
Shelagh - bearing up well under the strain.

Minty not impressed by our attempts to convert her to Islam.

Hilary's elder statemean, Dusty. Now this is one canny boy!

Sister in law and niecelet, Hadi and Laila.

Me, Liz and Andrew - what a lovely young couple they are. Far more sensible than I.

Mary - the family dog lover, currently working in a boarding kennel while saving money to go travelling. Feeling the cold!

Kat - the rebel and livewire!

Littlest Rocky - lb for lb she'd take him though!

Doesn't Minty look pleased with her Christms present?

Shelagh annoyed by Treacle's unwillingness to surrender all his toys to her. He didn't seem to understand that they were hers, all hers.....

Grandad opens his present from me - tickets to see Anna Netrebko at the Festival Hall next weekend! Minty not bothered, happy on Jamie's lap.

See, even this stupid Teletubbie thingy is mine....

We did get out into the frigid air once in a while too! This is me and Lachlan.

I'm surprised how well this week has gone. Normally something like heavy snow and cold temperatures would have been all the excuse my chimp needed to persuade me to ditch the exercise, sit on the sofa and eat. Especially as the lovely Huw has been on holiday this week so I have not had my regular fix of personal training since 22 December.

But, I've been having none of it. Well, maybe a little on the extra eating front. But exercise has been stellar. I think it is due to finding a couple of gym buddies. I have joined up with my pals Vicky and Simon and we text each other about going, make dates in advance and just generally guilt each other into attending. None of us wants to be branded publicly on Facebook as the person who failed to turn up! This is one of the reasons why the gym has not worked for me in the past; it has been too easy just to drive on by or to leave it until a later time which somehow never comes.

It's early days, we've only been collaborating for 2 weeks now, but if we can keep it up I can see a good spring ahead.

The other positive thing about the gym is how hard I am managing to make myself work once I get there. In the past, I have found it inutterably dull. Pounding away on the cross-trainer/rowing machine/bike/treadmill. Forcing myself to stick each one out for 10 or 20 minutes of purgatory. I hate those machines! I find myself playing games with myself - don't look down at the clock until at least a minute has passed - then you look down and 30 seconds has crawled past in abject boredom. Soul-destroying.

So I thought - why is it that I can fly through an hour of exercise with Huw, sweating like a pig, working out and feeling great and hardly ever feel bored? One factor is obviously the conversation which I don't get in the gym but another is the fact that I don't spend hours on the damn machines! We do a warm up of 10 minutes usually and occasionally he hijacks me and we do 20 minutes instead. Then a load of weights and other exercises and then another 5 or 10 minutes warm down at the end with loads of stretches and abs interspersed.

So that's what I now do at the gym. I make sure I do at least 20 minutes aerobic stuff every time, usually 25 but I'm not picky about what sort and, if I'm really bored, I stop and do something else. Then I do weight and pilates based exercises and force myself to do them as hard as I would with Huw looking over my shoulder and nagging me. I am still sweating and whimpering out loud as I do with Huw so I must be working at least 90% as hard.

This strategy has removed about half of the resistance I feel towards going to the gym. It does make sense really - if you hate something, why persist - change it until you don't hate it any more.

So, since last Friday I have managed to go to the gym 4 times, swim once and enjoyed 3 long walks in the snow. And I've been sensible with my eating and drinking and, as a result, I've managed to drop 3 lbs. The eating is the thing I need to work on next week as there have been a few too many treats but it's not been horrendous. The sad thing is that I have lost that same 3 lbs twice since Christmas as I re-gained them over New Year!! Hey ho... That is NOT going to happen in January.

I was also pleased on Tuesday evening at my fortitude. What felt like the whole village was in the pub for early doors that day as we had been snowed in. There was a great atmosphere and much high spirits but I still managed to stick to water, coffee and just one glass of red wine and, when everyone decided to eat in the pub and was ordering starters and main courses of many delicious types, I stuck to a bowl of soup (and didn't even eat all of the bread)! And I didn't feel deprived, just enjoyed the company, which is what I was out for after all. It's not like a pub meal is anything to get over-excited about.

So - keep it up chuck as I say to others!!

New Year's Resolutions

Picking the 20 best photos from my walk on Bamford Edge with Vicky on Sunday afternoon has been murder. There were just so many gorgeous shots. The conditions could not have been more beautiful out there. Thick powdery snow, sunshine and blue blue sky. Heaven indeed. But quite hard work too!!

The view from New Road towards Win Hill

Shelagh not that impressed with the deep snow, cold on her belly!!

I love the apricot sunlight on the snow... wish I could be out there tomorrow as it's meant to be sunny. I was trying to wangle working from home but can't push my luck!

Minty gamely trying to romp in the 20 inch deep snow. She could only manage for a little while before she had to go back to clambering on her belly in our footsteps!

My friend Vicky thigh deep - we had been to the gym that morning too so our legs were burning after 3 hours in the snow but we both agreed we would not have missed it for the world!

Ahem, sometimes it got deeper - she really was in up to her waist there. I fell in too but wasn't wearing waterproof trousers like Vicky so couldn't wait around while she got the camera out - just too cold!

The lovely village of Bamford.

I love the sculpted snow on the rocky edges there; it was dazzling in the sunshine.

Ladybower Reservoir

No footprints in front of us!! This pathway through the wood was magical too. The trees were all sessile oaks so very contorted and mysterious looking and every twig had a thick riming of snow or ice.

The view back up to the Edge where we had been walking, we were very tired but happy by now.

God it's cold today!! I don't mean outside, I mean sitting here in the offices of this cash-strapped Council! We are all bundled up to the eyeballs in fleeces, scarves, gloves and extra jumpers and still, my fingers are icy, my feet are beginning to go numb and my cheeks are distinctly frosty. It makes it very hard to concentrate on your work I can tell you!

I was pretty proud of myself though - managed to make myself stomp through the snow and ice to the leisure centre and go swimming! It felt rather counter-intuitive leaving the cold to go and get wet but, once in the pool it was nice and toasty warm and there was hardly anyone there (unsurprisingly).

The stupid thing is, if I had worked from home like I did yesterday in the worst of the weather, which my bosses think is dangerous and an excuse not to do your work, I would have been warm and cozy and much more productive. My internet connection works fine, I have loads of work I could quite happily achieve at home; the dogs would be happy; I would be safe and would not have risked myself and my car on the roads and I would not be contributing to climate change in my gas guzzling but very necessary 4x4!! Sigh.....

It was -11 degrees in the car this morning....that is a mite chilly by English standards!

So, where am I? New Year's resolutions?

I don't normally make them to be honest but I feel the need to try and be more accountable and efficient in both my diet and exercise but also in my personal life. So, they're not really resolutions as such, more like targets and actions.

• Weight:
  Target - drop a stone and a half by April and then maintain that loss for the rest of the year
  Action - reinstate daily weigh-ins, weight and smily face chart and healthy eating regime; continue 5 or 6 times weekly exercise including swimming, gym, personal training, walking and home workouts.
  As an aside, I'm considering getting a Wii Fit; has anyone got one and can let me know whether it's any good??
  
• Exercise:
  Target - Complete a mini triathlon, preferably "The Hilly One" in Hathersage
  Action - Continue to protect my foot and the plantar fascitis; continue to cycle and swim in the meantime; continue to lose weight which will help when I get back to running training, hopefully in March/April
  
• Personal:
  Target - Re-organise our mortgages; update D's pension arangements; instigate better saving plan; claim back everything we're entitled to reclaim (it's free money dammit!!)
  Actions - Set aside an hour each night to do filing and home admin, write home "to do" list as I do at work; treat home admin as work and attack it in the same vein; set small daily and weekly targets to get through the main actions.
  
  
• Fun:
  Target - Do a photography course to learn to get much more out of my camera.
  Action - When new camera arrives, send DSLR off for service and repair; book course in Edale if appropriate or research other weekend courses; buy DSLR book on Amazon (as an aside, can anyone recommend a book?) I'm not very good at working things out on my own, like books and courses for new info to "stick".

That'll have to do for now - had better get on with making my new charts and doing the home admin!! I feel better though, having set some targets and actions.

I did it!!

A snowy walk just before Christmas. The girls are stuck at a stile...

No problem for mum, Shelagh - straight over!

Splat - too hard for Minty....

Help meeeee


Muuuum, pleeeaaase.... how could I resist?

The lovely village of Bamford

I managed to make myself go to the gym after a rubbishy day at work and despite the fact that my gym pal Vicky had to cancel due to missing her train!!

I was so cold! Our office heating has not been on all day so it has been arctic and that made me feel really bad - tired, achy and slightly feverish. Anyway, I was still intending to to to the gym and then got the text from Vicky saying she couldn't make it. That could have been the trigger for a real evening of comfort eating and not exercising. But it wasn't.

I got home, got changed straight away as that is always helpful in making sure I exercise and then was out of the door within 20 minutes. And I worked pretty hard too.

The lovely Huw is on holiday this week which is why I'm so keen to make sure I do plenty of exercise on my own and I'm trying to follow his routines. It is surprisingly easy. I'm pushing myself and really trying to hear his voice while I do the various forms of torture. For example, while doing the front lunges (which I loathe) I hear him tell me to lean forward and go slower and I always do 25 even though my legs are burning at 20.

And something amusing happened as my reward for all this virtue. I was on the bike, warming up. Usually I do a 10 minute cardio warm up, then a load of weight-based pilates type exercises and then another 10 or 20 minutes cardio. But this evening I was trying to make myself stay on the bike for longer. I was mentally working my way through my various chimp management techniques - well, just do to 15 minutes; how about 200 calories; well, you're here now, you may as well do 20 minutes etc etc . It was working too - I had almost finished when the girl on the bike next door leaned across and said "I've just realised where I know you from - you were on that Bike Challenge TV show weren't you??" She knew I was local because she recognised the field I was walking the dogs in in one shot and she thought she'd seen me on the road with Shelagh and Minty but we'd never met.

We had a really good chat and I carried on biking for another 5 minutes. I was pleased to be able to tell her truthfully that I still keep it up and that it has done me a lot of good, especially as I had been practising the techniques at the very moment she recognised me!!

Anyway, I'm going to dive into the shower and get up to the pub for a couple before I crash on the sofa. It the weather forecast is right, I won;t be going anywhere tomorrow! Hope the snow doesn't cause anyone too many problems - enjoy it if possible.

New Year's Eve and Resolutions

Oh yes - it really looks as though we're heading off to a stylish evening!!

He-Man and Worzle Gummidge...

No, I don't know why Vicky was wearing a Pink Lady outfit either - a fifties costume from a 70's film....still, she liked it and she looked cute!

Dig those shoulder pads!!

The fancy dress winner (male) - a Rubiks Cube - good effort I think.

And then things started to go downhill. I've no idea who was taking the pics or what we were dancing to but we were having a good time....

I was doing so well between Christmas and New Year - going to the gym, biking, walking, cutting back on food. I lost all the Christmas pud I'd gained and was feeling pretty smug about it. 5 lbs off and fit to boot!

Erm, then I went to New Year's Eve party at the Anglers and it all went wrong!!

As you can see (I hope), it was an 80's fancy dress night so I found a fantastic Dynasty style canary yellow power dress. All shoulder pads, peplum skirt, hideous jewelry, lacy tights and fingerless gloves. It really took me back. Anyway, much champagne was drunk and much diet coke and rum....it really was a good night. I eventually ended up walking home across the Rec at about 3am!! So, the next couple of days were a lazy blur of couch, rubbish TV and grazing indiscriminately. And this morning 4lbs back on!!

Hey ho. I'm not remotely cheesed off as I've had a good time and if I hadn't been good between Christmas and New Year, God know how bad the damage would have been!

Today was stellar at least. I went to the gym with Vicky and really pushed hard. I made myself do all the exercises which make me curse Huw when he makes me do them. How virtuous is that?! When we'd done there, it was just gorgeous outside, a beautiful blue sky and thick, thick snow. So we went straight out onto Bamford Edge for a proper tramp.

The snow was amazing. A good foot deep in places and occasionally even deeper than that. At once point, we were crossing a heathery dip and kept falling through the snow up to our waists!! It was fantastic. I haven't enjoyed a walk as much for a long time. Anyway, when I've doctored the pics I'll post a selection. It really was special.

So, it's back to work tomorrow. I'm neither looking forward to it nor dreading it, just ready to go I suppose. The dogs won't be happy not to have me at their constant bec and call! Once I'm back in the saddle I'll knuckle down to my New Year's resolutions....quite looking forward to a bit of soul searching again....

Well, I hope you all have a good return to work tomorrow if that's what you're up to. Happy New Year!!!!

New Year Review - well, if Piers Morgan gets a whole show, then I deserve at least a blog!!

I stole this quiz from Shauna on What's New Pussycat but thought it might make me think a bit. I've recovered from my hangover of yesterday but still feeling a bit sluggish so I'm unlikely to be able to make myself think without prompts!

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
I appeared on reality TV - My Big Fat Cycle Challenge on Sky Real Lives and Sky One. It was fun but nice now that it's over.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next this year?
The only resolution I made was to weigh less at the end of the year than I did at the beginning. I managed it too. Not by a huge amount but I am over a stone lighter now than I was last New Year. That is pretty much a triumph for me, especially as I wasn't "dieting" per se, just learning to live normally.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Some new friends of ours in the village had a baby around 3 months ago, little Fallon Rose. They are really active and fearless in their parenting too - taking her out walking up in the hills and to the pub etc - not wrapping her up in cotton wool.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No-one close. In fact I can't even think of anyone I know who died. There must have been. Oh yes, a nice gent from the pub, Humphrey, died in spring. He was far too young to go - only in his 60's - and another character gone from this world. I miss his drinking from a dimpled handle pint pot; his large collection of hats; his love of all sorts of music and his forays into political incorrectness.

Oh, I've just thought of another - Diarmuid's oldest friend's father in Ireland. Another sudden and untimely death back in March. An amazing funeral though.

5. What countries did you visit?
Ireland twice. Once for Kevin's father's funeral and once for a holiday in May. We weren't blessed with good weather but it was lovely nonetheless.

And Botswana in September. We loved it and will be back, hopefully many times.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
More discipline at work and in respect of home chores. I am a champion procrastinator and I'm going to work on that flaw this year. There are so many things I could achieve if I put my mind to them. The first step in doing that is to really think about my aims and set out some actions to achieve them. If you can't say what you want, how can you get it???

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
There are a few. August 19th. An away trip to Newcastle. A fun day out to the football. No reason in particular, just nice to do something I really enjoy and to see a new place.

November 7. My 40th birthday party. Although Diarmuid couldn't make it, it was a great party. so many people turned up and I had a brilliant time.

November 19th . My actual birthday. Spent in the company of my old school friends Jenny, Kirsten and Stephanie. A great night and wonderful to still be close to such lovely women.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Hmmm, not sure about this. The first one which comes to mind is weighing less at the end of this year than I did at the beginning. But the less obvious one is the mindshift which I seem to have achieved through the TV programme. The shift from feeling guilty about my failings to seeing them as challenges to be worked on and corrected. The losing of the words "ought" and "should" from my mental vocabulary. Long may it last.

9. What was your biggest failure?
It's weird but just thinking about this question has made me a bit sadder. I don't think I really had a failure this year. Of course there have been times when I should have done something and didn't, or did something I shouldn't have done. But these were part of life and the learning process. As to proper failures, I suspect these are the things you don't even try. The things you avoid. So, my failure of 2009 was probably not trying to really address my habit of procrastination in any systematic way. It really bugs me that I'm not more effective and self-disciplined. That is what I'm going to work on this year (while not giving up on the food and exercise side of things of course!).

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
No, thankfully. Well, I developed a mild case of plantar fascitis which is a pain as it stops me running. And I broke a crown off in December which will probably reuqire require expensive and extensive dental work which I hate. Both of these things are nothing though so I count my blessings to be happy and healthy.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
I'm not one for shopping or acquiring stuff so I suppose the best thing I purchased was our holiday to Botswana. Magic!

12. Where did most of your money go?
Mostly on that holiday to Botswana, but worth every penny.

13. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
I suppose the filming of a reality TV show was pretty exciting at times and seeing my trailer on the box, not mention the show itself. But, really, I got more excited by our holiday in Botswana, the animals and birds, the travelling around and the sights and sounds. And then there was my extended 40th birthday celebrations. I felt like a proper celebrity for the month of November!

14. What song will always remind you of 2009?
I'm rubbish about music and can't think of a single tune which reminds me of this year! Will dig out the old ipod and try and get a bit more up to date in 2010!

15. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder?
Definitely happier. I feel liberated compared to how I've felt for, well, the rest of my life! Brilliant.

b) thinner or fatter?
Marginally thinner. Last year I was a 16/18 and this year I'm a 14/16. Maybe next year I'll be a 12/14 which would be perfect!!


c) richer or poorer?
We're a little bit richer. Interest rates have come down in our favour and a nice tax rebate and annual bonus have made things bit more comfortable. Of course this year might be tougher as there are rumours of redundancies at the Council but at least we're in good shape.


16. What do you wish you’d done more of?
It may sound boring, but I wish I'd done more home admin and organisation. I want to get to grips with finances and systems as I feel that we could be a lot more effective.


17. What do you wish you’d done less of?
I wish I rowed with D less often. Not that it's really within my control but it's very debilitating. It's been less frequent in the second half of the year so I hope that continues.


18.What did you do for Christmas?
I went to Lincoln to my parent's. Christmas was spent with my sister, her husband and 4 kids, one of their boyfriends and 2 dogs. Also my parents and my sister in law and her 2 children. It was a busy, hectic but lovely time.


19. Did you fall in love in 2009?
No, D and I have been a lot nicer to each other this year and I feel more loving toward him but no falling in love....thankfully!!!


20. What was your favorite TV program?
I discovered (about 10 years later than the rest of the world) the gentle delights of Midsomers Murders!! Sky Plus has enabled me to feed this habit. Yikes!

Oh and 2 nature series - both David Attenborough - Nature's Great Events and Life. Both in incomparable HD and beautiful. They make you feel small and awed.


21. What was the best book you read?
The Street Philosopher.


22. What was your favorite film of this year?
Didn't go to a single film all year. Caught In Bruge and loved it.


23. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?
I went to my old school friend's house and spent the evening with 2 other friends from school. It was a lovely night, much chatting, dancing and merriment. I was 40!!


24. What kept you sane?
Walking the dogs and taking photos of the gorgeous countryside round here.


25. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
I, like many women before me, have developed a crush on David Boreanas from Bones. Sad but true.


26. Who did you miss?
I always miss my pals but this year has been a good year for making contact with old friends and meeting new ones so fewer to miss.


27. Who was the best new person you met?
I met (in the real world) some lovely blog pals this year so salut - Peridot and Beth!!