Hoo Hah (as I believe some sort of militaristic sect says...)

You may remember those lovely few days of summer we enjoyed a week or so ago....I took the girls out for a long walk with no aim in mind and ended up walking for 3 hours. It was delicious; a hazy summer scene with everything bursting with fresh, green life and flowers everywhere.

The colours were fabulous...

Just the sort of day for running through a meadow, lucky there was one handy!

I'm quite taken by the hawthorn blossom this year.

And mellow, green river banks to cool down by.

More lovely flowers.

Then up the hill for a good view of Hathersage.

And finally back round the corner to Bamford and an envious peek at this gorgeous old house which is being lovingly renovated from a wreck into a very des res - Offerton Hall

Anyway. Now Lainey, Claire (?) and I have all signed up to the Great "Lose a Stone by 1st August" Challenge I feel very motivated and refreshed. I like a bit of healthy competition and so does my chimp. She does not like to lose face in front of her peers so must devote some energies to this quest now that it has been publicly acknowledged. It's not destructive to be a bit competitive as long as set backs don't cut you in 2!

So, I'm pleasantly tired after my session at the velodrome this evening. The psych session was very useful and the track session was technical but satisfying. Not as exhausting as last Thursday when I could hardly walk straight by 10pm. God knows how I managed the drive home over the Snake Pass!!

I'm going to give it my all for the next 8 weeks and hopefully see a sizeable chunk of fat melt from these bones.

Thanks for the inspiration Lainey - I really needed a kick up the backside and you have delivered it with a well- timed suggestion. I hope you don't mind me hijacking your quest? Hopefully it'll make it easier for you to stick to as well??

One of the things we discussed in the psych session today was how to stop yourself going off the rails. So far he has given us distractions or rewards for our chimps (he calls them bananas). These are useful but not particularly powerful tools to control your chimp.

Another one is to exercise it, ie. to let all your woes and moans and gripes hang out. The trick with this one is to do it at the right time and to the right person (or even to yourself). The other person must know what you are doing and take no notice of all the rubbish you spout. It should be done with venom and rage. The idea is to let your chimp exercise all her irrational emotions and get them out of the way so that you don't drip feed them to the people nearest to you and cause more anger and anxiety. To be used sparingly I would suggest.

The final one is to use logic and truth on you chimp and "box" her in. This one depends upon you finding something devastatingly strong which will just shut her up. For example I was explaining how I'd eaten a second portion of supper which I knew I didn't need and yet I'd not stopped myself. He suggested a Stop Sign saying "If you eat this, what does that make you?" Then I supply the answer which would most make my chimp stop in her tracks. A glutton? A failure? The idea is not to berate yourself but to shock your chimp with the truth of what she is trying to con/persuade you into doing. You can still go on and eat the second portion but you should do so in full awareness and acknowledging what you are doing. And obviously 99 times out of 100 you're not going to do so.

So, plenty of food for thought there for me. Need to work on both the distractions and the stop signs to help me power through this next 8 weeks. Not so sure about the exercising the chimp - I'll let you know if and when I get round to that!!