Even before Hilary and Mike arrived, I was under pressure. I had not managed to fit in any exercise due to work, a vet appointment, a nail appointment and a funeral so that left Thursday feeling slightly empty. I cooked a decent supper of a grilled pork chop and ratatouille and shortly afterwards Hilary and Mike arrived.
I then departed almost straight away with brother in law in tow for the pub. It was finals night of the darts and dominoes league. Another sucessful year for the White Hart. Our team (WHB) came second in the league and pairs darts and won the league and pub game dominoes (go us!). The A team won the darts and came second in the doms. Our landlady left proudly clutching an armful of trophies!!
It was a busy and fun night so tricky to avoid the booze and food but I managed it until the very end when I weakened and had 2 gin and slimline tonics and nibbled on 3 small chicken wings. So, not perfect but, in the circumstances, not too bad. There was a mountain of tasty food - chips, sausage rolls, mini pasties and samosas etc so a few mouthfuls of chicken is not heinous.
It was great to spend some time with my big sis - chat about weddings (mine and 2 of her
daughters who are getting married this summer); catch up on all the doings of the nieces and nephew; and just generally allow her to relax and chill. She works stupidly hard as a GP so every day through her holiday she spent time on emails and notes/letters!
We also spoke the diet talk. She is in the same boat as me but hasn't ever really cracked it. I wish she would but suspect she will not ever put herself sufficiently high up the list in order to diet sucessfully. You need to be a little selfish to do it and take time to plan, exercise etc. I hope I am wrong...
Anyway to Friday. I had taken the day off and, knowing Hilary and Mike did not want an early morning, I got up and took myself out for a run through the sodden landscape. It was raining very gently but the ground water was much worse, splashing up and soaking my leggings and trainers. Anyway, a steady 3.8km before breakfast was not to be sniffed at.
As an aside, how bloody wet has it been?? The river and canal in the centre of Rotherham are scarily high. (Which is worrying as I am still trying to put the legal background to a flood alleviation scheme in place!)
Below, the River Don thundering over the weir.
And the canal moorings a foot under water
My father driove over for the day and we did a mini tour of the Valley viewing the church and wedding reception venue (our golf club). It made it feel very real sharing these places with my family.
We also dropped into the agricultural farm supply shop a mile down the road - William Eyres & Sons. Sounds a wierd thing to do, I know, but it is a brilliant shop!! You can get anything in there. We bought, between us, sunflower seed hearts for dad (large sack), specialist stain devils for Hilary, a spiralizer for me and some window cleaning detergent for Dad. Random.
After these visits, Richard had finished work and spruced up so we picked him up and headed to Castleton for a pub lunch. I was good - chicken and bacon salad ( I did eat the croutons though...).
In the afternoon we left the boys at the pub and took dad to the garden centre. He needs some shrubs and trees to fill in gaps in his massive garden so that was our mission (and late Christmas presents). Sucessfully achieved too. So, all in all a lovely, relaxing but active day. I cooked a thai green curry for us after dad went home substituting 2/3rds of my rice with cauli rice. Another winner.
Today has been all football. I was up early to prepare my food for the day. The plan was a smoothie for breakfast, a sensible pub lunch and a feta, tomato and lentil salad in the coach on the way home. Trouble is, we turned the wrong way in Beverley where we drinking before the game (at Hull). None of the pubs we went in served food and we couldn't find any helpful shops for a salad or sushi. As we left town, we realised that, if we'd turned right, there were loads of decent places...you live and learn. Beverley looked lovely though and is ringed by nice looking golf clubs so we might head back for a weekend sometime.
Here's me at the KCOM stadium:
So, diet rethink. The boys could have a pie or burger at the game but that was not an option to me. I ended up having my supper salad on the way to the game instead and saving a banana for the way home. I was peckish when I got home but I had stood firm.
I even had the energy for some experimentation. As Rich was not hungry, I prepared Tom Kerridge's creamy mushroom courgetti. Enter my brand new spiralizer. The results were extremely tasty, I think I need to do it again to get it 100% right but I will definitely have courgetti again.
I'm really enjoying the variety of this regime. Hopefully that and some wedding dress inspired determination will keep me motivated and shrinking for a long time. Two things I am learning is that it is ok to be hungry from time to time and that smaller meals can satisfy me.
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