And it begins....

I have a bit of a thing about lone trees on the horizon....does that say something about me??

Minty is not very good at stiles so I'm trying to encourage her to work them out for herself. I don't want to have to lift her over them forever getting muddy and wet in the process ....she's pleading with me here to help her out, poor mite!

That's real trepidation there.

But she made it. Yay!

The lane home from Aston to Thornhill.

The moon coming out to play.

Sheep at sunset.

Sunday was a reasonably good day. Didn't really pay much attention to what I was eating but didn't snack and overall didn't eat too much or too badly. I just did lots and lots of chores so it was pretty productive but a bit boring. I'm looking forward to Diarmuid coming home on Wednesday if the weather allows him off the rig.

I managed one walk but purposefully did not take my camera as I wanted to walk briskly and not dilly dally too much. Which I did but I did regret not snapping as it was pretty down by the river.

I went to the quiz league match in the evening which, surprisingly, was not postponed by the raging snowstorm. It was fun as I had to be captain for an evening due to our usual brain box being absent. I didn't do too badly but Dave is welcome to resume the role next Sunday!! Far too stressful having to make decisions all the time and all the boys (aged from 30 to 65!) took the piss out of me!!

Today - I've taken the plunge and officially started to diet. It hasn't actually had much effect in terms of what I've had to eat so far but I am now super-conscious of what I cannot eat this evening and much more tempted than I have been recently!! I'll have to really concentrate on my Beck techniques tonight to make sure I don't self-sabotage from sheer irritation at the denial. That would be most perverse. In fact, I have 3 options to alleviate the risk:

• Do some exercise, thus increasing my allowable calorie intake and decreasing the time available to eat. Downside is that it's dark, sleety and miserable outside and going to get worse.....sigh
  
• Go to the pub. I'll drink water and be distracted from temptation and see some friends. Downside, it's miserable outside and I don't feeeeel like it....whine...


• Stay in and keep busy, read my Beck and really concentrate on NOT giving in to the totally self-induced desire for fooood. Downside is that it's quite a high-risk strategy, what if I fail, it'll make it worse next time.
  

So, none of them really jump out at me. I know the exercise thing is the "right" answer. I'm desperately trying now to talk myself into it but then I glance out of the window and have to start all over again. I'll let you know how I get on!!

Update:

I didn't do the exercise or the pub but I did dance round the kitchen a bit while cooking supper!! (Pethetic I know....)

I have spent a good half hour reading Beck and catching up with some of the tasks, re-reading some old lessons and making new Response Cards. I also, very pleasingly, looked at my cooked portion of seafood pasta and decided it was too big. So, I almost halved it, added more greens to my salad to fill up my plate and put the rest in a tupperware for tomorrow's lunch! Now, how is that for fortitude?! I would/could not have done that a couple of weeks ago. I've spent a lot of time this evening thinking about hunger, distraction and cravings and planned out my meals for tomorrow.

So, although it wasn't exercise, it was time well spent. Phew.