See, writing stuff down helps!

If I hadn't written in my post yesterday that I was going to go for a run then I am fairly sure I would not have gone out for a run.  Today was hectic and without that motivation I reckon my chimp would have rationalised an excuse for not going out. But I DID say I was going for a run so run I did. Yay!!

It was hard work. A week off and the tail end of a nasty cough meant that I felt every step. But it was well worth it to ensure that the running does not slide off the agenda. It had been chilly during the day but once we set off the sun came out and it was almost too warm. I managed 35 minutes at a very stately pace so now I have a nice low bar for improvements.

Food has been fine but 2 glasses of red, whoops!!

Anyway, it was a good day..... Golf tomorrow, I hope the rain holds off until we have finished.

And in a clunking change of gear, here are some pics from a glorious Lincolnshire walk a couple of weeks ago. The light was just heavenly as the sun went down. Minty was poorly so it was just me and Shelagh which possibly explains how I managed to grab a couple of decent photos of her for a change.  She wasn't very happy though as she brushed up against an electric fence. She howled and glared at me and on our return trip refused to enter the offending field. Luckily we could bypass it or I would have had to carry her!!

Starting again, again, again...

But I'm not starting again from a bad place. I'm still weighing in at 16.7 so in effect, after shifting the Christmas 4 lbs, I have spent the last nearly 3 months in "active maintenance". I have not strayed far or slapped weight on but neither have I forged ahead with dropping weight, self evidently.

So, I need to go back to what WAS working rather than the looser, vaguer version of it which is not working.

To that end I am back logging ALL my calories EVERY day. And I'm going back to proper amounts of exercise rather than the 1 run and lots of walks which has appeared. Blogging too - I'm always much better when I post more frequently.

To be fair to me, I fully intended to do all this at the beginning of last week but was stricken by a combination of a nasty cough hitting on Sunday (yes, another one), a dental operation on Tuesday (dental implants) which left me with a horribly sore and swollen face and year end leaving me with a mountain of urgent work. It was a tough week but I'm quite proud with how I coped with it. I didn't overeat and, although I didn't do any running (couldn't have done it), I did go for decent walks every day. My weight did not change so the proof of the pudding is there.

So, the restart is on. Dancing tonight, run tomorrow, golf Wednesday, run Thursday, walk Friday and golf again on Sunday. Should be a good week provided I keep a lid on the calories.

Fingers crossed for me peeps. In the meantime here are some only slightly out of date pics of a walk over the golf course and around Bamford. I used to live there so it used to be a standard walk but now it was more unfamiliar and all the more lovely for that.

Catching up

Weight matters have drifted along for a few weeks now. I have logged calories, exercised and counted steps regularly but sporadically. My weight has gone down (I've seen 16.5 and 16.6 a few times) and up (16.11 - gulp). However, as today it has mostly stuck at 16.8. This means I have not dropped anything since Christmas. 

While pain-free maintenance is great, I want to be doing it at 14 something not 16 something so I need to buck my ideas up! My chimp is well and truly winning at the moment. 

And there's our trip to Australia at Christmas to consider. It is booked now and will be hot. I do not want to be this heavy out there in that heat. I want to feel comfy in shorts and vest tops and light summer dresses.

As well as Australia there is a packed summer full of golf. It will be a lot easier and more pleasant if I'm lugging less lard around and hopefully being lighter will ease my chronic foot pain too. 

Many incentives to get going again.

So, enough of that, what else have I been up to?

I bought this lovely bowl from a ceramicist friend of mine from Bamford. Her lovely pieces are usually a bit too pricey for me to justify (I was thinking I might ask for one from my family or Richard's as a 50th present) but this was a very slight second so 50% of retail so I snapped it up. You can't see the fault (well,I can't and I just love it. She is about to exhibit some pieces in the National Gallery so a touch of class has hit our living room. 

The overflow at Ladybower reservoir reminded me of the bowl when I was out running a few days ago.

Richard was away for a week golfing in Turkey to celebrate one of his pal's 50th birthday. I didn't begrudge him his trip but I was jealous as I would have loved it too. Bloody men and their "lads only" trips.....

Minty missed him and spent a lot of time staring out of the window presumably waiting for him to come home.

Shelagh, not so much.....

I missed him but went over to my dad's for a couple of days and organised a much overdue girls' night out one night so all was not wasted.

One day

I have not been logging calories consistently so decided to make a concerted effort to start afresh today. And I managed it - everything logged; calories within the limit; 11k steps; a walk round town at lunchtime and dancing this evening. Back to what was working. So now all I need to do is rinse and repeat. Wish me luck!!