Thwarted by Gonzalo

Well, I'm assuming that there was some excuse for my delayed train which prevented me from getting to my weigh in....

Hey ho, I will go to another class in Rotherham on Thursday instead which might help me see a drop!!  Every cloud has a silver lining I suppose.

So, to assuage my disappointment at not being able to be weighed and sit around chatting about how hard I'm finding it to locate some discipline, here are some pretty pictures from the weekend before last with my lovely niecelet and her boyfriend.  Mary is my second niece and I haven't seen her much recently as she's been hard at work on her thesis down in Swansea.  But they've handed them in now so they're enjoying a short break before the job hunting began.

It was great having them up here. They love dogs and are very outdoorsy- perfect!!  We had 2 long walks on the Saturday and Sunday in stunning autumnal (almost summery) weather and then, when they left on Monday morning, the rain started.  Brilliant timing for a change.

The pics below are of our Saturday walk around Stanage Edge.

It's quite easy to get a posey photo of Minty but I do like this one.

It is NOT easy to get a decent photo of Shelagh however.  The minute you raise the camera to your face she turns away.  I had to be VERY quick with this one but it was worth it!!

Stuck. Floundering. Doing nowt.

My last 3 weigh ins have yielded a half lb gain!  So, in the last 5 weeks I have dropped 4.5 lbs.  NOT stellar.

I seem to manage a few days following my plan and then relax thus undoing any good work.  I can't seem to get it into my head that I can't just ignore the fact that I'm dieting because I'm out.  Any old excuse is good enough for me at the moment.  Darts and dominoes? Quiz? Football?  All apparently perfect excuses for a few sandwiches.... or some chips.... or a couple of slices of pizza.... or wine, beer or whatever else is on offer and all totally surplus to requirements.....sigh.....

Usually when I'm dieting I acquire some discipline and the ability to say 'no thanks' at least for a few weeks. So where are those qualities now??  For a few days they make an appearance and then desert me.  Grrrrr

I've done better with exercise and have actually been out running 2 days in a row!  It is getting easier too.  Hopefully it will lead me to greater discipline on the eating front but I see no signs today  I've wanted to do is trough. While I haven't given into great naughtiness, I have eaten stuff I don't need just for the sake of it.  Double-Grrrr

We're off dancing tonight though and I have a virtuous stew ready for the oven.

My mini target is for tomorrow (weigh in day):  Sensible breakfast, a run along the canal side followed by homemade leek and potato soup for lunch and hopefully I may scrape some weight off in the evening.

Wish me luck peeps and some back bone too!!

Squats, we meet again.

Having (hopefully temporarily) given up personal training for several months, it occurred to me that I need to do some resistance based workouts to supplement the runs and swimming.  So, feeling in a "no time like the present" sort of mood, I dug out the Sunday Telegraph supplement workouts which I was following earlier in the spring and quite enjoying.  I had forgotten that I had given weeks 1 and 2 to my pal Natalie on the basis that I would not need to be going backwards *hollow laugh*

So, I picked up weeks 3 and 4 and waded straight in.  The recommended warm up was in Weeks 1 and 2 (natch) so I cobbled one together confident that it would do the trick,  "What can possibly go wrong"??

Straight in to a lower body workout consisting of 4 reps of 10 (each leg) knee raise squats, dynamic lunges, hip raises and burpees.

Oooowwww

It hurt.  A lot.

In fact it still hurts.  A lot. The squats in particular have ruined me.  Both thighs are solid concrete from groin to knee making going up hill or stairs sore but going downhill or downstairs absolute purgatory.  And this is now Day 3!!

So, while I'm pleased that I made myself do a workout, it has been a bit counter productive as I have hardly been able to move since! Hey ho

In SW news I had a pesky stay-the-same this week.  Irritating at this early stage but perhaps not unexpected given that I was away golfing for the weekend with a group of 16 blokes.  As well as golf, this involved a silly number of shots of sambucca or rum for imagined infringements of random "rules";  MANY pints while watching the last day of the Ryder Cup (pure heaven); a curry; and a hotel breakfast on a hangover.  On balance, an STS was no bad thing!

Next week will be better.  I have held off the booze over the weekend and am determined to run or swim and do another (more moderate) workout.  That first half stone off will be mine!!