Another lovely weekend that was rubbish for Big D

Torquay with Husband, B&J to visit in laws and to enable B to try sea fishing from a pier (he's only done it from boats before). It was great but I ate & drank way too much and didn't do much exercise bar a little walking.
Highlights included finding some good watercolours in an exhibition of local artists - 1 for us and 1 for R&T.

Plymouth Gin Distillery tour - small but extremely well led by an enthusiastic & knowledgeable tour guide - it explained why I prefere Plymouth to Bombay Sapphire!

We tried playing bowls for the first time on Sunday - interesting & very good of T to show us how it's done but it's not a sport I'm now itching to take up!

Sunday breakfast was a full english at the beach hut - always a winner but I'm a little pink due to not using enough sun block.....

Husband & B enjoyed their fishing - Husband has a great photo of sunrise from Babbacombe pier. Apparently, B apologised to each mackerel he caught before despatching them to the great ocean in the sky.

Friday ramblings

This is going to sound a bit mushy but I am so so chuffed that Baby Sister and A have been so supportive of the Big D and increased exercise campaigns I've been boring them with! It does make a huge difference - being able to rant with A about the randomly inaccurate WLR food ratings, cycling with A again, seeing how well Baby Sis has been sticking to her programme - and seeing just how strong her self motivation has been - all v.inspiring!

It's almost enough to make me think again about WW and the like - it must help meeting up with others in the same situation. But I still can't get my head around weigh ins - seems a bit too much like the village stocks & public humiliation!

3 Times This Week

Gym last night - 45mins cycling, 18 on the cross trainer. Might compensate for not doing much exercise this weekend!
Made it to the allotment on Wed night & did a brief spot of digging - prepping soil for Husband to plant purple sprouting seedlings into.
Had a disproportionately good feeling last night - tried on a red sundress that I wasn't expecting to fit into until mid Sept - but it fits now - yay me (to use my Baby Sister's phrase)!

Gym again

2 nights running - good huh? 30 mins on X trainer and 20 mins of treadmill - which incorporated a little interval work. Followed up with a big-yet-not-calorific tea of smoked haddock, peas and a tub of Waitrose colcannon which is as close as I get to cooking in my rabbit hutch!

TMI

Gym last night - 15 mins X trainer & 40 mins cycling followed by some weights. I opted to keep it low impact as I am avoiding bouncing around due to injury sustained at the weekend (see my last blog!). Air con was working a bit better.

And some unexpected exercise this morning. Came downstairs & when I got to the block's door, remembered I had forgotten my lunch. Up to 2nd floor to get it, go back down again. Get half way acrosss car park & realise that I've forgotten my tooth! Back up to 2nd floor & down again. According to WLR, that's 50 cals burned already today....

Testway, Danebury and lots of mud

Rain delayed the start by about an hour, but Saturday's ride was great. About 14 miles-ish with Husband, M & A. A did absolutely brilliantly - opting to do a much more challenging ride than I'd expected and completing it without appearing to be too wiped. Husband is complaining about how M is harder to keep up with since he quit smoking - good bit of motivation for Husband to get faster!

Due to the torrential rain, there were big unavoidable puddles that meant we were very wet right from the start - as you can see from the photo of M's legs further down this blog!

Nice, varied route - started on the ultra flat ex railway that is the Test Way. Then we moved onto undulating tracks with better views of the countryside. Brief bit of road & then onto very rucked tracks - I did fall off and bruised my chest with the handle bars - it's a lovely burgundy colour atm!
Final bit was road but going across a very picturesque bit of the Test with thatched fishermens' huts and eel traps - as you can see from the photo.
A reckons my bum has got smaller - she did get a good view as she was just behind me for some of the way...
Lots of nettles & brambles - my legs are covered in little scratches.
Only wildlife stuff I noticed (OK, I was chatting too much to notice much!) was a v.pretty pair of goldfinches. Blue scabious stood out in some of the field edges.

Later, Husband & I walked to & from the pub - another hour of exercise to add. I felt very justified in enjoying 2 pints of summer lightning (an appropriate beer for a day with thunderstorms) in addition to gin & slimlines.

No other active stuff to report. Christening on Sunday and a prolonged search for a car 4 me took up most of the rest of the weekend. A little over on calories for Sunday, but looking good for the week as a whole.

Big D has gone to pot

Close to 1900 cals consumed yesterday and over 1600 the day before & naff all exercise. I could go for feeble excuses about being in a hotel & how self restraint is difficult when lunch is consumed during meetings (and sandwiches are plonked in front of me!).

But to be honest, I've just lost a bit of focus this week. Going to have a virtuous dinner tonight chez baby sister who is a paragon of nutritional intake virtue atm - hopefully it will inspire me to get back on track....

V.impressed with Husband's support so far - he's even said that if I do go down a couple of dress sizes, he won't moan about any resulting clothing expenditure - now that's motivation!

Wilting

Yesterday was a great day for the air con in Esporta in Hemel to be having a bad hair day. Allegedly, it was working - but pretty ineffectually! Gym instructor came to talk to me about it & suggested that I drink lots and don't push myself too hard - useful advice but I'd already decided that I needed to adapt my routine for heat.

So, 30 mins on the X trainer followed by 30 mins cycling and some weight training.
The showers at Hemel aren't reliably suppplied with hot water - last night though, I was very grateful for the tepid-cold shower experience!

Good weekend for me - rubbish for the big D

Lovely weekend! Thoroughly enjoyed it but it was rubbish for the big D as I ate and drank loads. And loads. And then a bit more.... I'm still OK for the week as a whole if I count my exercise calories - so it could be worse.

Should have gone to gym on Friday but was too tired post interview & commute so hit the supermarket instead. Then curled up with husband & a bottle of rose.

Saturday: 19.5mile bike ride (v.virtuous) with husband, A&M, S&X and Z followed by pizza, wine & DVD (much less virtuous!) with A & Z. Ride was in the New Forest - probably the easiest 19.5 miles ever (never needed to come down from 3rd gear) but beautiful weather, great scenery & good company.

X came off her bike after splashing through a ford but was unharmed - and back on her bike again very quickly. I was quite pleased with my speed. Hit the pub afterwards and kind of wished we could have just stayed there.

Really good to see A out on her bike again - I missed you!!!

Sunday: presentation writing & housework followed by last minute barbie with husband, A & M. Feeling moderately merry now following a couple of gins.

Devotion Diversion

Nothing to do with exercise at all...... just looked at Devotion Corsets website - the place where I got my wedding corset - and I'm on it! www.devotioncorsets.co.uk I'm in Bridal on the top row of thumbnails.

Beeney whilst I work....

Longer gym session last night than usual coz I got there for about 7:45pm and started watching Property Ladder at 8. Managed to time things so I was switching machines in the ad breaks! Cross trainer, interval jogging on the treadmill with some cycling to finish.

Only downside is that I don't think I drank enough water coz I'm fighting off eyestrain type headaches today.

Big D vs Quitting Smoking

I've been thinking about whether controlling diet is easier/more difficult than giving up smoking - was talking to M about this last night. The chemical addiction is virtually absent from controlling diet (unless sugar rush/crash counts) so the first week or so should be easier for someone dieting (hate that word!) than for someone quitting smoking.

After that, when the ex smoker goes into losing the habit as opposed to the chemical addiciton - not so sure. M asked if I was thinking about chocolate all the time - I'd have to say no, but if I'm not doing something, I am thinking about food - it's my default thought. When I'm stressed or bored, I miss being able to eat lots - but having said that, I don't miss the down & guilt feelings afterwards. I don't feel hungry, but I do feel the absence of eating.

It's also made more tricky in that I seem to be exposed to unhealthy food & eating behaviour - it's really difficult not to eat a chocolate biscuit when it's offered to you - but I know it's difficult for M not to cadge a cig off smoking buddies when in the pub...

Licenced to drive powerboats

It was a very active weekend - but not many calories expended unless frantically spinning the wheel of a RIB counts.... Husband & I completed the Level 2 Powerboat course that now enables us to rent powerboats out. The course was great - 2 days on 7.6m RIBs with 3.2L engines delivering 250bhp. 1 instructor for the 2 of us on day 1 and 1 for 3 of us on day 2.

Husband loved the high speed stuff, I was pleasantly surprised that I could do the slow speed manouvering OK, given my inability to reverse or park cars well!

Lack of gym & cycling means that my weekly calories expended was way under 1,000 last week. This week may not be much better as I've got lots of stuff to do in my spare time - but will be cycling next weekend.

Getting my energy back

After months of feeling down & sluggish, I seem to be getting my bounce back - which is good.
Gym tonight - cross trainer, weights & some interval work on the treadmill. Also did about half an hour of walking today as I had a meeting in central London.

Finally booked a cute looking B&B in Dorset for our anniversary weekend - so I have something to add to my "reasons to be cheerful". I wonder if G knows all the lyrics to that one..... I strongly suspect yes!

Tiny amount of exercise this week

No gym visits so far - the warning light for my brake pads came on when I was driving to work on Monday & its taken a few days to sort out - Kwikfit have just phoned to say they are now sorted. As a result, I've been reluctant to do any unnecessary driving - and that does include driving up to the gym at Hemel after work.

Still - will have done about 30 mins walking today (Kwikfit-station-office & back again) and I spent yesterday afternoon on my feet doing store walks - better than being a complete couch potato - but I'm aware that I'm getting close to that!

It was too hot!

Not the most active weekend in terms of exercise - but didn't feel that it was inactive overall.

No booze at all - good for the Big D - but it's not something I want to repeat regularly.

Went to the beach on Saturday - but no swimming - just a very virtuous bbq (discovered marinaded courgettes work very well as a meat subsitute for me!) and enjoying Husband's company - came to the conclusion that we're not good at womance.

Sunday - bits of gardening but it was too hot for our planned bike ride. Instead, we went to the pool - where I discovered I'd managed not to bring my costume (a new feeble excuse!). However, as I had a change of clothes in my bag, did 25 mins on the X trainer instead.

I have 2 sets of gym kit in my bag - and may manage to go Mon & Tue. I have a very strong motivation - my flat is horrendous in hot weather whereas the gym has aircon....