Developing 28 - Strange weather Saturday

I was full of plans to garden today and do loads of chores but then remembered that my father was due to visit! So, tidied up instead and just spent some time with him. He was only over for the day to measure up a cupboard/shelves that he's making for me and really to check up on us!! I know he loves seeing where we're up to on the garden projest and how I'm doing with the weight loss. He hasn't seen me for 7 weeks so was well impressed by how little I've got. He said he could put his arm all the way round me which, funnily enough, is what D has noticed too!!

So, although I didn't do anything in the garden, we did have a lovely day. We did pop to the garden centre which was nice and D managed a couple of hours of work while Dad and I chatted and surfed the net. He say the internet is a step too far for him - he refuses to become a silver surfer and asks what the point of having daughter is if I won't be his internet operator! Actually it works quite well that way so what harm??

I cooked him and D a nice supper - a proper Irish standard of boiled bacon and cabbage with mashed spuds (God, my Irishman loves his spuds!). It sounds weird but is really tasty and pretty healthy too as no fat!

Off to the pub later but am determined to have an early night - I've got french tomorrow and still haven't done my homework....as usual.

That leads me to a few answers for Mrs of The Lard Arms (please visit her on:-www.thelardarms.typepad.com She's great!):

• What are your plans re the move to France?
  
  We're hoping to move to France (at the moment we're thinking of Limousin or Auvergne but that's not settled) around this time next year. Before we can go we have to finish off the renovations we've started to ths house including a loft extension in order to sell for the max value we can get. We also want to buy a smaller cottage round here to rent as an investment, holiday let and a base to return to for the odd holiday and weekend. That's all going to take time so this time next year is probably slightly ambitious but it's always worth setting goals etc.
  
  Once in France D will carry on working on the rigs and just come back to France instead of the UK and I won't work at all, at least not initially. We might have kids (who knows??) or I might eventually find something to keep me interested but I'm sure I'll find plenty to do running the gite (we're assuming that we'll have a gite or something to convert into one) and looking after the land and dogs and chickens and goats and horses and donkeys and God know what else that D has in mind for me!! Sounds worse than the bloody Good Life out there!
  
  Hopefully I'll play golf in the summer and ski in the winter and have loads of mates (from real life and blog land??!) visiting so Diarmuid's menagerie might never materialise - just a couple of dogs and maybe a few chickens.....
  


• When are you going to Canada?
  
  We're off to Canada on June 9th for 3 weeks and we're going to visit friends, cousins of mine and my brother and his family who moved over there in February. We're going to Toronot, Nova Scotia and Ottawa. Can't wait. Will try and be healthy and outdoorsy - whale-watching, hiking, kayaking etc and also the usual sightseeing and Niagara Falls too.
  
  I'm going to take 3 weeks' worth of packs with me and intend to stay on the diet nearly all the time. I may allow myself off it very occasionally but only for something special, not just for run of the mill meals and even then will try and be low carb and sensible. I'll be so close then to my goal that it seems daft to come off it for no real benefit.
  
  
• What does my LLC say about strenuous exercise? LL only recommend gentle exercise. What are my general thoughts on exercise?
  
  Re the exercise - you may regret asking!! I think LL's attitude to exercise is a bit low key. I personally think they should encourage it more. At the end of Foundation, we were asked what we think LL should do differently and I said basically, that. My LLC said: "Yes well but, although this group is quite youngish and reasonably active, there are others where the members are absolutely massive and for whom even walking is too much - for these people being told to exercsie would put them off". Now I think this is a bit of a cop out- even if you are chair bound you can do some tiny exercise and what's the harm in tailoring the advice depending on the group. Basically they're going for the lowest common denominator which is not really fair to those for whom more exercise would be beneficial.
  
  I don't find that I get overtired when I've done a hard workout. I try and have a pack before I start to make sure I have something to go on and I drink water throughout as you would normally do. I think it'll help with the sagginess and I feel great. It can only help me keep the weight off when I reach goal and is always going to be a major part of my life so I may as well start now rather than waiting 'til I'm thin. I just love it and know that I wouldn't be enjoying it nearly as much if I hadn't lost 6 stone. It's just too hard to lug all that weight around with you.
  
  So, my advice would be: start small; set achievable goals; if you can do it with friends or a partner that always helps; and find something you enjoy doing.
  
  I think the real reason is that our LLC is not keen on exercise herself hence doesn't push it much. She kind of chucked the fitballs and bands at us absentmindedly and very much gave the impression that they would be a waste of time!! We haven't watched the DVD's since about week 4 or 5 so haven't seen any of that stuff either.
  
  Which leads me onto the other strange thing about my LLC - she is massive! She lost about 10 stone when she LL herself but must have put most of that back on which is tragic. She is easiy a size 28/30. I don;t mean to sound mean saying this and I'm definitely not knocking her as I gather it's very hard to start again on LL once you've come off it. But it is kind of strange being told all this stuff about losing weight by a woman who is double the size of anyone in the room! Don't know what other peoples' LLC are like? Any thoughts?
  
  I do respect her as she is very shrewd and some of her instincts are pretty honed about people and their motivations but she and I don't really have anything in common. I can honestly say I've learned more from this blog, you (Mrs), Mel, Chris, Cath, Antonia, Claire, Sam et al than I have from my LLC. Our different attitudes to exercise are just one of the many aspects of life on which she and I don't agree. I also sometimes feel that she thinks I'm a bit of a bigmouth and we semi-clash because I take a pretty active part in our discussions. Don't think she likes there to be another Alpha Female in the house!! Still, she runs a tight ship and gets great results, so what do I know??!
  
  Bet you didn't think your innocent questions would elicit that sort of rant eh ? Thanks for the interest though, thequestions certainly made me think about a couple of things.