World in black and white

Virgin snow - no footprints at all.

Wheeeee....

Ladybower Reservoir in the gloomy snow.

I hope you're all enjoying the snow rather than being stuck in it. We're a bit more used to the bad weather here in the hills than other areas of the country but even so, it was fun yesterday.

I left work early as the snow was coming down and the roads were getting bad so that meant I could take the dogs for a walk before it got too dark. It was great - really snowy and dim - no colours, just black, white and grey. Minty has not seen proper snow before, just a dusting here and there, so she was very excited about it, racing around and sticking her nose in. Unfortunately, I forgot to rub some oil into their fur so they got all balled up with fist size marbles of snow which made Minty have to run in a comical splayed leg stance....very John Wayne!

They were absolutely knackered on the way home though and seriously annoyed with me when I inisted on going in to the back garden for a photo shoot! I told them that it was for my blog, Facebook and D out there on the rig but they still wouldn't crack a smile!!

Foodwise, did I stick to the plan over the weekend?? Well, here is where the shades of grey come into play. I knew it would not be a particularly good weekend as I had friends visiting and we intended to go into town but I was keen to avoid the excesses. I did manage that at least.

I went for a run on Saturday morning to stock up some brownie points. Tick. I also had a healthy lunch before my friends arrived so that I would not be tempted by a chip butty in the pub. Tick. I did have several drinks in the pub before the game and several more afterwards! I was planning on having a reasonably good meal too but was thwarted by the fact that every restaurant we went to was rammed full (honestly, I thought there was a recession on!!). So we ended up having a curry....sigh. Still, I did not eat all of it and managed to leave the table not feeling uncomfortably full which is tricky with curries. So a qualified tick there.

Sunday was a day of tiredness and hangover which is usually a danger time for me. I could have descended into comfort eating watching the snow flurries fall. But I didn't. I had a cooked breakfast, various cups of tea and pieces of fruit and some unauthorised toast. I managed to resist temptation but with difficulty. Peridot spoke of gritting her teeth to not eat an extra square of chocolate. Well, I had to do the same. I actually picked up a packet of shortbread biscuits and was about to open it. I just caught myself and threw the packet onto the top shelf to await some proper guests. Phew.

Yesterday I was straight back on track and had a pretty good day. A long hilly snowy walk and good food choices all round. Today seems to be going well too and I managed to drag myself out to personal training first thing despite the freezing weather.

So, what have I learned?

• That there are going to be times when my diet regime is under pressure and at those times, I need to plan ahead, read the book and concentrate on sticking to the plan.


• That, if I go off plan, I should still try to limit the damage and not feel like a failure for what I have eaten.


• That it is a lot easier to get back on track if you have limited the damage than if you've totally given up and said "oh, I'll start again tomorrow".


• That exercise helps.