Blogging 1 - Chimp nil

She tried. She tried really hard. And initially it looked as though she may have won. I didn't make it to swimming early this morning despite putting all my gear out in readiness and setting my alarm etc. I woke before the alarm, realised that Rich was not going in early so I would be waking him, noted how warm and sleepy and comfy I felt and promptly reset my alarm. I regret nothing.

But that did leave me with a choice of doing no exercise;  lunchtime running; or late running. So, lunchtime it was. That chimp was toast. I smashed through all her excuses and headed down to the canal.

I'm not saying it was good or anything but I made it to the second lock and back and even managed 3 sets of, erm, we could call it sprinting if we were feeling extremely generous in our interpretation of sprinting. Running a bit faster while trying to lift the knees and panting like a carthouse pulling a dray full of beer up a hill while being chased by wild dogs about covers it.

But I went running for the first time in about 5/6 weeks. So that's good.

Foodwise I have gone straight back to where I was without too much trouble. No bread today but a packet of Rolos after my lunch, out of the machine on a total whim. Hmmmm, perhaps it should be 1 all between me and chimp after all??

Hey ho. All in all it is good news as I'm beginning to feel the love again. Thanks for those pushes and shoves.

Baby steps

I wasn't brave enough to step onto the scales this morning but I have made a start at dieting again. A late breakfast/lunch was SW compliant as was supper and I haven't scarfed down on toast or "naughty" snacks.  Exercise was only dog walking and dancing but I made sure the walk was a hilly one despite the rain.  I will admit to an unauthorised piece of toast this evening, but only the one so not tooooo bad.

I will give it a good go this week and will try to find the time tomorrow to mock up a sheet for recording of food and exercise purposes.  It really helps me stay on the straight and narrow.

So, if I'm going to keep the momentum going, I need to work out what exercise I'm going to do tomorrow while working from the office. Choices are an early morning swim on the way to work, a run at lunchtime or a run in the evening. None are particularly appetising.  The early morning swim is, well, early.  The lunchtime run a pain as I have town type chores to do and not enough time to do both run and town. And I know I'll be out of energy by the evening as I have to meet up with someone for a legal favour straight after work so I'll be later home than usual.

On balance, I think the early morning swim is the best option so I will have to prepare properly to avoid all temptation to back out! I know what that sneaky chimp is like.

I feel better for getting started.  As though I've opened the door to the hallway of The Zone and can hear and smell the action within but I'm not quite inside yet.

Come on someone - give me a push through that door!!

A new walk!

I arranged to meet up with my pal Jenny on Saturday.  She was dropping her daughter off at a wedding in the middle of absolutely nowhere.  The daughter was invited as the friend of the daughter of the bride so I hope they both enjoyed it.

Talk about remote though.  Where I live is very countrified but at least we have a couple of shops in the village and pubs and a chip shop.  These villages didn't seem to have any of that and the roads were TINY!  I was searching for the venue, a luxury farmhouse B&B, and found myself on the wrong side of the valley, driving up a huge, steep hill on a road a few inches wider than my car.  I was dreading meeting another car and having to reverse down.  Luckily I didn't meet anyone until I reached the top and we were level with a farm track so could scoot past each other in comfort.Phew!

God knows what it is like in winter.

Anyway, we eventually met up at the farm place and realised that it was the perfect place for a walk. So we abandoned our earlier plan and headed into the unknown.  Genuinely the unknown as we were walking on concessionary Access Land paths which were not marked on the OS map! Still with some creative guess work we married our path up with the official footpaths and found a perfect 6 miler, right over the hogsback of Chrome Hill. A stunner.  Hope you like the pics:

That's Chrome Hill to the left.  A weirdly modern name for a hill I thought.  Most were much more ancient sounding - Packhead Edge, Axe Edge etc etc

 Minty admiring the view while hiding amongst the rocks.

That's Packhead Edge ,the razor sharp looking hill in the middle of the shot.

The dogs enjoyed a cooling paddle in a ford.

An unusually sturdy footbridge.

The farmplace to the left is where the wedding was taking place.  It is hard to describe how "in the middle of nowhere" it is.

But lovely backdrops for the wedding photos!

Slipping....I can feel it starting.

I really need to get back into the swing of it. Has anyone got some SW food records  (the Extra Easy ones) which they could email or post to me? I have lost my stash and this seemingly minor setback has been seized upon by my chimp as a reason not to re-start properly, week after intended week! If you can help, comment because the email associated with this blog died years ago.

In other news, here are some pics of Minty being hosed down rolling in something foul while walking near my parents. I couldn't let her near the house in that state!

Sad night

I've been thinking about posting about weight and exercise and the summer and food and golf and all the other crap but don't get round to it.  But then tonight I finally drag the laptop out to be sad.  So, sorry about that.

I'm sad for my lovely dad.  And my lovely mum.

She is getting too much for him.  Messed herself and then was fighting him trying to clean her up and they both took as tumble in the downstairs shower room.  They're both fine physically but she would not get up. He couldn't persuade her to help him get her up and he couldn't pull her up without her help.  She's quite a big, strong woman (I know where I get it from) and she just would not even try to get up.  She is incredibly stubborn and obviously  there is no reasoning with her and no logic to be applied.

So he had to call an ambulance.  He's had to do it once before when a chair broke under her in the conservatory but then they only waited 30 minutes or so and it was the afternoon.  Today it was evening and the ambulances were busy with life threatening cases.  So she sat on the bathroom floor for just under 4 hours.  The first responder arrived after 2 and a bit hours and at least checked her out and kept my dad company while they waited on the proper ambulance.  Who came, were really nice and concerned about my dad, got mum up and then left him.

He rang me while he was waiting and again when they had left and sounded jolly and resigned.  But after we hung up I was just so sad.

I know it is the middle of the end for mum living at home.  Which is probably the right thing for both of them but it will be, just sad.

So, we're going to chase Social Services for a re-assessment to see what additional help they can get him.  Apparently we're entitled to one at least annually although you'd never know it from the GP or Community Psychiatric Nurse who comes round every 6 months, drinks Dad's tea, no doubt eats his biscuits and does sod all for him or her.

It is difficult to keep trying.  We battle for one change, say someone to help her with showering but then her condition changes or deteriorates again we need more help but somehow we don't recognise that until it's just a bit too late.   It's not as though he is not paying for the help or nearly all of it so I wish they would be a bit more proactive with him.  It has happened time and time again but we still get caught out.

And my dad takes the brunt of it and I feel so bad for him and guilty that I haven't helped him out more.

Gah!!  Anyway, I'm due to go over next Wednesday/Thursday and will hopefully make some progress then.

Thanks for listening.  It has helped to get it all out.  Rich is out at darts so not available to be a shoulder to cry on just yet.