Slinky By Tuesday: New Balls Please!

So after the minor eating misdemeanours committed at the Robbie Williams concert (hot dog & a fair few cocktails) I decided last week when Dad and I went to Wimbledon, I was going to do my upmost to have a day out where I ate healthily. It’s got to be possible right? Surely it’s an easy thing to do and it’s just me getting my head turned by the smell of pizza and chips?

Luckily for me, my Dad is also on weight watchers so we promised not to lead each other astray and do our best to eat healthily. Dad was even really patient when I screamed “stopped” before he was allowed to eat anything so I could take a picture!

I love tennis, it’s the only sport I’ve ever really been able to play with any confidence and yet sadly it wasn’t one we got to play a lot at school. For some reason the PE teachers thought hockey was far more fun (it’s not) Plus I hated PE, it wasn’t just the ignomy of running round in the mud in the rain or having 2 minutes to get changed after swimming, it was also one of the “lovely” teachers who once asked me if I was having Rosemary Connelly’s Hip and Thigh diet for Christmas. She didn’t laugh quite so much when I replied I would probably just borrow her copy! My views on sport in school are probably best saved for another blog!

Anyway that aside, going to Wimbledon was a big deal for me, I’ve always wanted to go. If you haven’t been then it is amazing, it’s just so English, which may sound like a stupid thing to say. Everything is very clean and ordered, everyone looks smart and even the security staff are pleasant as they rifle through your bags. Plus tennis fans are way more relaxed than football ones, whoever you’re supporting you can all sit together without a fear of having a stand up row with someone just because you’re both supporting different people. Even the tennis players themselves just seem to wander around and are quite happy to sign autographs. One of the highlights of the day was seeing Goran Ivanisevic leg it by us as we were sat having a drink.

Me & my Dad

When we first arrived, I had a slight panic that eating healthily throughout the day might not be as easy as I thought. The food stalls seemed to all do things that involved chips, there was of course strawberries and cream and a frozen yogurt stand, which I always think sounds like it should be healthy, but really isn’t.

We did however decide to have a Pimms (when in Rome and all that) Surprisingly Weight Watchers fans, it’s only 1 point a measure, if mixed with diet lemonade and we also had some sushi, which we shared, so again not bad.

Pimm's O'clock

After we’d watched Serena Williams beat Caroline Garcia, we decided it was lunch time, particularly as the couple next to us had spent the whole match munching on pork pies, pringles, hummus and chicken legs (it felt a bit like sitting next to Henry 8^th, if indeed Henry 8^th was partial to a chick pea based dip) We wandered to the food court, where again everything seemed to come with chips, we eventually found some salads, which had all been drenched in oil and seemed to contain a variety of couscous or noodles. We ended up with a beef sandwich, which in truth was 2 slices of bread with a sliver of beef!

We also succumbed to bag of wine gums, which we shared and pointed I might add! (8 for half a bag)

By the time we got home we were so tired that we ordered a King Prawn chow mein (8 points) and shared a bottle of wine (9 pointes each)

In all honesty it probably wasn’t the healthiest of days, but we did our best. It highlighted just how difficult it can be to eat healthily at concerts / sporting events etc. A trip to the cinema is the same, many a times I’ve been to meet friends straight from work at the cinema and ended up not eating because my only options would be something with the word “giant” in it – “giant” hotdog “giant” popcorn, “giant” bag of sweets. I know an apple isn’t a traditional cinema snack, but there are healthier options, a flake for example is 2 points as is a normal sized bag of quavers!

I wish now we’d have taken a picnic to Wimbledon because then we would have been completely in control of what we were eating. It wasn’t possible to do that at the Robbie concert as they weren’t allowing them in, we passed many a person scoffing down their sandwiches before they went in.

Still I loved my Wimbledon experience and hopefully later when I step on the scales my efforts will be worth it!