3 good,, 2 bad

Like on Match of the Day where they pick 2 good things and 2 bad but with a twist cos I thought of an extra good thing....

3 good:

1. My backside doesn't hurt this morning.
2. I slept for hours so am ready for a party this evening.
3. The scales have seen sense and dropped those extra 2lbs they "found" yesterday.

2 bad:

1. It's raining, again.
2. The golf course is shut, again.... ooh I thought of another....
3. There's no football this weekend when it's a rainy weekend. (I don't mind no footie but I like those weekends to be fine so I can take advantage with golf or long walks, now I have chores....)

Not gone away

I know I haven't posted for a few days but I haven't given up or anything, I have just been very busy.

Wednesday was working from home but with an appointment at lunchtime so less time for dog walking and exercise. I did not give up though and went out for a decent run with the doggo early evening.

I'm still slow running but I'm getting out more often so am building consistency. As a result, I'm experiencing less reluctance to head out now which is a good sign.

My problem on Wednesday was too many calories. I didn't snack or anything and was actually quite good during the day but I hadn't planned a sensible supper and ended up preparing a thai green curry. Whoops.

I then compounded the error by going up to the pub where our friend was setting the quiz and enjoying myself! By which I mean 5 gins!! I did resist the chilli and garlic bread though. It was not a terrible day but too high! Better planning required.

Thursday I was in the office and knew I would have no time for exercise. I had a stressy morning and left a tough meeting to go straight down to the cafe where I dived straight into a jacket spud with cheese and coleslaw!! Gah! Why didn't I pick beans or prawns? Anything but bloody cheese and coleslaw?!  My only excuse is that I had been going to have chilli but the chap in front of me had the last portion so I had to pick something quickly and the cheese and coleslaw looked soooo tasty....and I was hungry....

So, no excuse really.

On the plus side, I logged it all and had a light supper to compensate.

I had to head straight from work to go to my french lesson near Matlock. Helen assured me the flooding had subsided but the weather was absolutely filthy! The rain was hard and incessant so the spray on the motorway in the dark was hellish. The queues were bad too so I ended up turning for home at Chesterfield. I'm glad I did as I only just made it through flood at Baslow and people coming through later had to drive the long way round home over the tops. I was shattered when I got home after nearly 2 hours hard driving.

But, no rest for us thesps you know. A modest supper then out to panto rehearsal. It was very complicated; going through big scenes with loads of people on stage. Good though. The scenes make more sense now and I'm loving my part - angry, shouty, rude and violent. Yay!!

Straight from panto to darts and dominos at our local. I won my game and resisted the post game snacks despite them looking delicious but I was tired out so headed home reasonably early. It was such a shame after that to have a terrible night's sleep. Blegh. I was cold and alert and Rich has a cold....not good!

Luckily I have been working from home today so could have an extra hour kip to catch up.

I went for long walk with my mother in law at lunchtime. 90 minutes round Bamford including some big bugger hills. Great exercise.  Trouble is, I think I have either trapped a  nerve or pulled a muscle in my backside now. My right buttock is sore and numb and if I stand for long the pain heads down my leg. Blast. I hope this doesn't last.

We went down to the stepping stones. The river is raging. I have never seen it so high in nearly 25 years nor Carolyn in her full 60!

The left hand side below is the footpath!! God knows what state the stepping stones are in under those giant trees and that torrent.

We had been going to our local cement works which puts on an excellent delayed free firework display and bonfire every year. However, I couldn't face thestanding so we watched the display from our driveway a couple of fields away. Nearly as good.

I did manage a sensible chilli supper tonight though and I have still logged everything.

The downside of all this is on the scales. As of Thursday morning I had been doing really well - 3lbs off in 3 days. Then yesterday, after a good day mind, 2 back on. Grrrr

I am remaining steadfast.

Best laid plans....

So, it didn't quite go to plan today but all is not lost.

For some reason I woke up with a start at 3.50am and then just could NOT get back to sleep until 6am when the alarm would be going off in another 15 minutes! Aaargh.  I hate not sleeping.  It doesn't happen to me often and I'm a big baby about it.  Sulks.

So, I got to the office nice and early and tried to get stuck into work despite being continually frustrated by things just NOT going right.  IT, the printer, a dodgy monitor, 30 fruitless minutes on the phone to the service desk and unexpected requests for urgent updates on different matters from 2 senior managers.  So much for what I intended to get done!

Initially I was very grumpy and glum but I spent a little time writing in my food diary and gradually the frustrations ebbed away.

So, what did I do right?  A sensible breakfast and no snacks.  I walked into town at lunchtime despite being seriously tempted to stay in the office and eat in the warm, dry cafeteria downstairs.  I have written everything down and not been tempted by contraband.

And wrong?  I did not have that calorie counted Boots lunch.  I looked at it but it was cold and wet and I was frustrated and I just wanted to sit in a warm, cosy cafe with some comfort food and a pot of tea.  So that is what I did.  I had a chicken pesto melt and a large pot of redbush tea and I chilled...and, breathe....

And what else?  I didn't go for a run this evening.  There, I've said it. Despite there being no real excuse: I was home in good time, it was not raining and my running gear was out waiting for me.  I just didn't feel the thing.  I had had a long afternoon in complicated meetings and was tired and hungry.  I wanted to snack.

In the end I stayed at home and cooked early to avoid the snacking.  But it was a good diet meal and I'm plenty under my calorie target so I'll live with missing what would only have been a short run after all.  I'm working from home tomorrow and no golf so I will have plenty of time and hopefully lots of energy for a much longer run.  I'm (almost) looking forward to it!!

What piccies do I have for you today??  In response to the horrible flooding besetting South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire, how about some sunny autumn pics from my most local of dog walks?

PS. I'm sure I posted these earlier but just noticed that there were no pics...

Determination

I feel as though I'm suddenly seeing clearly about this new dieting start where in recent months I have not been able focus on it. It probably helps my focus that I recently saw some photos of me in Australia with a very tubby tummy and too tight shorts which made me stop and think. I had dropped 2 stone from that weight and kept it off in the main for 18 months. What am I doing chucking that away??

While I cannot get back down to 15.9 in the 5 weeks before our trip, I CAN make a difference to how I look and feel. Even half a stone off would make me feel better.

So, today my first day has been, as first days often are, full of determination and steadfastness.  After a very generous food day on Sunday, I certainly wasn't at all hungry this morning so found it easy to be restrained.  Obviously bad habits over the whole summer are now knawing away at me making it much harder to stick to my guns.  However, I'm writing everything down and calorie counting and upping my exercise and that is all I can do.

I went for a determined dog walk at lunchtime, dodging heavy showers and striding up the big hill and taking the long way round on the way back.  I am going to personal training tonight so the exercise quotient will be good today. It is not hard when you're working from home and have PT  scheduled.  The tricky thing is making time for exercise on a day when you're in the office an hour's commute away.  So I need to make a plan for both food and exercise and then stick to it.

The plan is - a low calorie Boots lunch in Rotherham and a run tomorrow evening with my cold weather gear and a head torch.  The Boots lunch is to avoid what I have got in the habit of having for lunch on an office days - generous jacket spuds, with cheese, the odd slice of cake or other treats.  I need to change a lot of habits.  Eventually I will get back to preparing and buying smaller, healthier and less calorific lunches but, to start with, I will just rely on calorie counted lunches where one cannot cheat!!

I am setting out my head torch and high vis bib in the hallway now to make sure I go for that run as well!!  I need to anticipate the avoidance ruses my chimp will come up with.

I can't really explain why, but I do feel like this time is different from the many recent uncommited "new starts". I hope I'm right!

In non-dieting news, I threw a big party for my 50th birthdays couple of weeks ago!! I'm not quite 50 yet bit I had to go early as the band is very popular and could only offer me one November date!! After the traditional "Why the hell am I throwing a party? No-one will come! Aargh!!",  people turned up in reliable waves, brought presents, ate, drank, danced and we all had a cracking time time. Yay me!!

I have proof!

Me and my lovely school pals!

2 of my nieces

Doomism

I read today that there is a new tactic by climate change deniers.  Now that they can no longer realistically deny that climate change is happening and is caused by our actions, they are saying, 'well, it's too late to do anything about it' in order to encourage apathy and atrophy and thus continue their profitable pollution of the planet etc. Charming.

Well, I'm not posting about this particular atrocity but about how the phrase itself has some resonance with me.  I think my chimp is encouraging doomist thoughts about my weight:

"You have had ages to do something about this but it's just got worse, now it's too late, you may as well buy some bigger shorts (having given 2 perfectly good pairs to charity this spring on the basis that I was never going to be that size again!!), enjoy winter and Christmas eating and think about dieting again in January."

Does that sound familiar?? Well, it's bloody annoying.  Firstly that I am in this position and secondly that I finding it so hard to get off my big bottom and do something about it.

We are heading off to South Africa in 5 weeks time and, unless I do something urgently, I will going there the same size as I went to Australia 2 years ago which was pretty damn fat!  I had a wonderful time but it was uncomfortable at times in the heat and some of the photos have made me cringe.

So - I can drop at least half a stone, even 10lbs in 5 weeks if I really focus and 5 weeks is NOTHING.  10 lbs would make my existing shorts work and make me much fitter and more comfortable.  I would not be slim but I would look and feel demonstrably better and it will be a lot easier starting the inevitable January crusade without those 10lbs!  That is worth doing, surely.

So, starting tomorrow morning, I am going to be calorie counting, exercising every day, using my chart and blogging.  Let's see what I can achieve in 5 weeks?! (Tonight I'm tucking into roast chicken!!)

In the meantime, here are some lovely autumnal pics from round the village this afternoon.