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.