Lessons from the Weekend

It was, for once, just a normal weekend. So it was useful to be able to see how the new SW regime will fit into normal life. Not bad is the answer. I did relax the reins a little but not far, only enough to enjoy a few drinks here and there and cook slightly different meals.



Friday night we went to see Inbetweeners Movie. What a great film! Hilarious, laugh out loud, crude, real, soppy, nostalgic, clever, silly, puerile at times, good romping fun. The audience was mostly made up of teens and 20-somethings. We oldies stood out a little with our general fat-ness and baldheaded-ness (not both together obviously) but there were a few other kindred spirits dotted around. I would recommend it if you like the series and, if you haven’t seen the series, check it out… For the record, I resisted all treats and stuck to a cinema sized vat of diet coke….saint-like virtue.



Saturday dawned and I dressed straight into my running gear but then, for some unknown reason, couldn’t quite make myself go for a run. I usually enjoy them so don’t understand my resistance. Instead I waded through chores as a penance. I was meeting my pal Kerry at her house for lunch before the football as Rich wasn’t going due to a golf match (the shock!). I thought lunch at Kerry’s would probably be lower cal than a couple of pints and a steak sandwich at the pub which is our usually routine! What I hadn’t factored in, because I didn’t know until I got there, was that Kerry had also invited her parents over as it was her mum’s birthday. So lunch was a slightly more festive occasion than I’d anticipated.



It was lovely, all pretty salads outside in the garden with champagne and strawberries etc. Very “magazine photoshoot” for Sheffield! But, despite being salad based, the meal was not “SW salad” based. There were a couple of pizzas for a start and then the salads involved nice things like sundried tomatoes in olive oil with mozzarella or that giant cous cous stuff which I adore. And lots of pulses….mmmm. Delicious but tricky. In the end, I decided just to have a modest meal of everything I fancied and to hell with counting. Although it wasn’t great SW-wise, it was not by any means a blowout so I don’t see the point of being all prissy with my mate for the sake of avoiding a few hundred calories. And I had a glass of champers…surely calorie-free when eaten outdoors on someone’s birthday???



The match was good too – after a couple of rubbish away defeats Wednesday is back to winning ways on home ground. Not brilliant but steady and solid. Something to build on (I keep saying this – when will I learn?).



After the game, I had a few hours spare before Rich returned from the golf club so, probably as result of going off-plan at lunchtime, I finally felt ready to go for a run. Initially I told myself that it would just be a quick one, a token run if you will but when I came to the proposed turnaround point, the dogs slipped under the gate as if to carry on, so I did too! Good doggies. In the end I went on my standard long, hilly-ish run and, although it was a bit of a struggle, did it in the usual 55 minutes. Go me!



Rich rang earlier than expected for his lift home and when I got there I ended up joining him for a couple of glasses of wine but managed to stop at that point. I also managed to make sure that my much-delayed supper was very diet-friendly despite the wine – SW sanctioned chicken salad. Halo well and truly back in place!



Sunday was golf in the morning, a modest lunch of roast beef sandwich and a SW supper of steak and mash/veggies. And another couple of glasses of wine in the sunshine outside pub with the dogs on our way back from a gorgeous evening walk.



So what I have learned about weekends and SW is that I’m likely to relax the rules a little from time to time and add in a few glasses of wine here and there. But what I must NOT do is allow myself to fall off the wagon just because I’ve done so. So, if I have a generous lunch, I should make sure that supper is virtuous. If I have some wine, I should not have dessert. If I miss exercise somewhere, I should fit it in somewhere else. It’s do-able without too much stress as long as I remain vigilant and keep in mind that it is ME who wants to drop the lbs so there is no point in feeling bad about the restrictions I have imposed. It is MY decision to do this.



I still step on the scales every day and they are still showing small drops every other day. I’m hopeful that, unless I have relapse tomorrow, I should achieve a decent loss this week which was all the incentive I needed to make myself go to Pump this lunchtime and swimming tomorrow lunchtime before weigh-in tomorrow night. I was a little scared of Pump and hoped it would be easier than last week. It was not....aching now - in fact even typing is sore!