Into the blue

What stunning weather we are having. My joy in it is tempered by concern. For the moors, gardens, wildlife etc. Our streams are low and fields are brown and, although the weather was perfect for hay making, without rain the grass hasn't grown so the yield is very low.

Hopefully we will have some steady, overnight rainfall soon.

In the meantime, I don't know if I can thank the weather but the scales are being extremely cooperative. 15.9 this morning which is amazing. That's 30lbs shed since the beginning of April. Smiles all round.

I will have to schedule wedding dress viewings in the next few months. It would be nice to drop another stone or stone and a half first as I will then be a lot closer to my target so will know what I'm aiming at.

But enough of that....I need to keep my head in the game for now and not let up.  We're having a barbie tonight which makes dieting easy provided I keep on top of the booze, which might be tricky as all our lovely new wines have arrived!!

We did chores all morning getting the house, garden and fridge ready for this evening and then took the girls out for a short walk. We can't take them too far in this heat.

Have a great sunny weekend wherever you are.

Talking and running

I had a meeting yesterday at work with a colleague, Lucy. After we finished our work chat we settled in for a catch up (well, it was the end of the day 😉😉). Lucy dropped about 4 stone following Slimming World 2016/17 and then maintained, seemingly effortlessly, until last Christmas. Since then she has struggled and has "found" around a stone.

We discussed where we both are now and found our similarities to be many. Our respective positions are reversed but we both know they can swap and swap again.  Lucy was feeling a bit bleak. She was recognising that reality that she will never be able to eat in the way she wants to eat.

It is a perennial problem of dieting - success brings a reward of being able to eat smaller portions, fewer treats and not let up for the rest of your life!!

I tried to lift her by pointing out that she had been very happy while dropping weight as I am at the moment. It is only crooked thinking that leads you to believe that you NEED to eat and drink loads in order to be happy. You can still have nice stuff just not as much and not as often and you will probably enjoy it more when it is a treat anyway.

So, we each encouraged the other. Lucy by admiring my progress and reminding me how easy it is to let a good thing slide and me by persuading her to get her food diary out and try to get going again.

I had mentioned that I was intending to go for a run this morning. To be honest when I woke up I didn't really feel like it. Rich was late up having drunk more than he expected last night and the temptation was to sleep a bit later and skip the run. But I remembered my (slightly smug with hindsight) words to Lucy yesterday about how I'd really enjoyed my recent runs etc etc.

I shamed myself into getting up and dressed into running gear. Rich then had an attack of conscience too and asked if I could drop him off at work for 7.30. I decided to combine the 2 - drop him off in Hope and take the dogs for a cool morning run around a field and lane loop near Hope.

Shelagh is usually quite grumpy about running, in fact I've just about given up taking her, but this morning she was like a puppy, galloping around like a mad thing. I think it was the cool, sunny morning and the unfamiliar surroundings. Whatever caused it I loved seeing my old lady on top, happy, smiley form.

The icing on the cake was stopping off at the river for a proper swim. The stream in Bradwell is pretty low now so only suitable for paddling but here Shelagh could wade out for a proper swim which she loves.

I hate myself for saying this but we NEED rain. The fields are dry and brown.

My smile is a little broader as a result of the news from the scale - 15.11 - I hit the 2 stone off mark this morning. WoooHoooo!!

Overdoing it and week 12 weigh in result

The run of big nights and days started on Thursday. We went to a wine tasting event in Sheffield with Rich's wine club. We don't profess to be wine buffs but, as with real ales, we don't like the bland blends and find that the wine club provides us with some more quirky options.  We'd rather detest the odd bottle but love some than find them all slipping down unnoticed.

So, Rich having saved up a nice little war chest in his account, we set off into Sheffield to abuse the ticket price and try to find some wines we really like. It was all big, generous sloshes and enthusiastic reps. As we drink more red than white we decided to spend more time on the whites to work out what we like.

Our notes started off as measured and detailed but, as we became fired with, erm, enthusiasm, they deteriorated to more "pithy" statements like "yum!", "meh", "yuk"...etc! We put in a solid 2 hours on empty stomaches before picking our 2 mixed cases and staggering off to a chinese buffet restaurant which would guarantee to feed us before the last bus home.

I had a solid hangover on Friday morning and thanked my stars that I was working from home that day.

There was no Friday evening trip to the pub or weekend bottle of wine with our steak..... Just a nice sunny dog walk and an early, jaded night.

Saturday dawned bright and early for golf.  It was the mens' Captain's day and, for the first time he had invited the ladies to play. Rich had already fixed up a team by the time we knew we were included so I arranged an all girl team.

It was a perfect day for golf and we played pretty well. I was gutted to miss a short putt on the last green bringing our score to 79 rather than the 80 we should have scored. It's horrible when you muck up the very last shot of the day. You never remember the missed shots mid-round, but you never forget the missed putt on the last!! Especially when it cost our team first place!!

Which is probably a good thing as it might not have been politically sensitive for a team of girls to win the mens' Captain's Day at first time of asking!!  So we were chuffed with our second place and Rich was pleased with his team's 4th place considering that he carried the other 2 round!!

It was the Captain's BBQ on Saturday night. A lovely, if somewhat midge ridden evening with a band and a moderate amount of booze.  Here's Rich with the assistant pro working on getting an extra sausage.

There was nothing moderate about Sunday though. We had tickets to the cricket at Old Trafford for the fifth and final one day international in the series against Australia. England were 4 nil up so a win would be a first ever whitewash over the Aussies. After the terrible test series we endured in Australia, it would be pure heaven to see us beat 'em!!

We got the early train to Manchester and set ourselves up for the day with a traditional cooked brekkie from Wetherspoons. I changed my order to have the modest one rather than my previous usual "fat bastard" brekkie. Small changes add up.

This was our stand!! Yikes. We were very pleased to be in row 9 not 59! Especially Rich who is not good with heights!

The Aussies were in to bat first and everything was going swimmingly.  After a hot scoring few overs the wickets started to fall and they were all out in just 32 overs for a modest 205. Happy days.

Off we toddled to watch a bit of the England football game where we were satisfyingly whooping Panama's ass 6-1! This international sport is easy....

Erm, not-so-much. When we came back after our lunch break, England were already 34 for 4 and the wickets just kept falling. It wasn't looking good for the whitewash. It was always possible to win as our target was low but only if we could stay in.  At last Buttler and Raschid made a stand and nearly got us over the line.

But then, with just 11 runs needed, Raschid got out and our last batsman came to the crease. It was torture. Watching him block ball after ball until Buttler could get back on strike was incredibly nerve wracking. All was well though, he made it through and England knocked off the last few runs.

Whitewash!!

During the quiet period when things were looking bad, our spirits were lifted by a couple of giant inflatable melons pinging around. It's the little things...

All this socialising was likely to play havoc with my primary goal of weight loss. Although I saw 15.12 on the scales on Sunday morning, I didn't trust that. I meant to have a proper tough day on Monday to try to get a drop but that didn't really work due to the heat and my mild jaded hangover.

So I was thrilled with a whole lb off taking me to 15.13.6 and a total drop of 26lbs. 15s!!

I celebrated by going for an early morning 5km run without the dogs. Much quicker than with them and kinder to them in this heat. My average time per km is down to 8.21! And I ran 5.2km which is 1km more than my last run.

I'm still on the move despite the booze. Need a quieter week this week.

Top of the world!

I played golf  on Wednesday afternoon with the golf society. As they play on summer Wednesdays, I don't play very often with them. However Rich had heard that Crosland Heath GC was a good course so I sacked off the ladies' comp that morning and joined the lads in blustery Huddersfield.

It was a brilliant choice. I would usually play early when it was cold, rainy and windy. By the time we got to Huddersfield it was bright and sunny although still windy.

The course was interesting and sited on the top of a high, heathy moor. Views across to Holme Moss and down into steep sided valleys. It was quirky and littered with old quarries so a proper challenge but that is part of the fun.

Sadly the post match meal was sandwiches and chips so very carb heavy but I was too hungry after the full on afternoon to desist.

You don't really see it from the picture but we're looking down onto the top of a church spire way below us!

The rest of the week has been very social and hectic so the force fed fresh air was a boon.

Unorthodox

It's been a good day today.  My weigh in result pleased me mightily. There's something very satisfying about a solid 2lb off. It's what we aim at but it gets harder to achieve after the first few weeks.  As you know, I have had an up and down few weeks recently so it makes back-to-back good results doubly pleasing.

However, I'm trying not to become complacent as I want to keep this good thing going.  To that end I was determined to do some proper exercise today. I had intended to go for a run in Rotherham yesterday lunchtime but that didn't happen. I have no proper excuse for it not happening, the fail was purely chimp related. Sigh.

So, making sure that I did some exercise today was paramount. I had planned to go to bootcamp at 6.30 but started to get worried that my chimp was going to start in on cancelling bootcamp.  The inner dialogue can be devastating but, having failed on Monday, I was ready for her on Tuesday!

I got changed into my running gear straight away as, for some ridiculous and inexplicable reason, that is often half the battle. Then I decided to go for a run at 5.30 rather than waiting for bootcamp at 6.30. I took Minty and ran a reasonably  fast (for me) and hilly 4km.

It was great.  I checked my Fitbit and see that I haven't been for a run since 21 April!  Since then it has been the gym, then bootcamp and latterly golf (and more golf). So it was a pleasant surprise to feel fit and strong and quicker too. My average time per km has dropped from over 9 minutes to 8.58.

Part of the reason for swapping to a run is that I spotted adverts for a 10km in Dronfield as I drove through the village on the way to and from the dog groomer today.  It occurred to me that that could be a good target for me to aim at.

Trouble is, when I checked the date for the race, I discovered that it was rearranged from March to 1 July due to the appalling weather back then. I'm not going to be ready to run a 10km in less than 2 weeks and, even if I was, the race is full! Hey ho. At least now the idea is in my head I can keep an eye out for another target.

The upshot is that I've reminded myself that I enjoy running and don't need to be scared of it.

When I picked the girls up from the groomer I thought they deserved a treat so stopped off at Nether Padley on the moors halfway home. It was grey and not very warm but they loved the novelty and the quiet. Hardly anyone around and millions of new smells!!