It Was the Weekends That Got Us Into Trouble...

I’ve been having a sort out this week and I found this sign hiding in a draw. Maybe I'd put it there to try and hide the guilt it made me feel!

It struck me that where my Slinky mission is concerned, this has very much been the case. Monday to Friday I behave impeccably, planning my meals, trying to exercise as much as I can and accounting for everything I eat. Monday to Friday, I am the perfect Weight Watcher.

Then Saturday arrives, screeching in like Lewis Hamilton for a pit stop, when he knows Nico Rosberg could take the lead and blow his chances of winning!

Only my Lewis brings wine and takeaway! 

  One quick drink in the pub, whilst out walking the dog turns into a bottle (for us, not him) And Saturday night tele for some reason has become a special occasion that can only be celebrated by drinking more wine and ordering pizza. The pizza is normally ordered after we’ve had dinner and are awoken by a loud banging on the door, where we discover Pete (everyone’s favourite pizza delivery man) stood at the door with a large seafood and a portion of cheesy chips!

  Well not this time! This time, I decided that if I were going to give myself the best chance of being fabulously Slinky by the time I’m 40, next July, then I needed to bid Pete (everyone’s favourite pizza delivery man) farewell and enjoy my weekends without ENJOYING my weekends too much! Which in fairness, now my weigh day is a Sunday, I don't have the option of trying to rectify my wrongs the early part of the week!

  So I took charge! Friday night, Lucy and I went out for a meal and wine! However, we’d checked out the menu beforehand and knew what we were having. It was on my tracker before I even stepped into the restaurant. There was also wine, but again all within my points and there was lemonade!

  Saturday, involved a long dog walk with Cyril and Saturday night’s dinner was planned and prepared before the wine was open and again everything was pointed.

  On Sunday morning something weird happened, I got up early and went to zumba and then took Cyril for a walk! By the time lunchtime had arrived, I’d done over 12,000 steps and earned 10 bonus points! So a wander around town to see the Christmas lights being switched on, meant that I could indulge in this little beauty.

Only if you're from Mansfield, will you understand the true joy of cockles, mushy peas and mint sauce from the market place. (Don't judge it, until you've tried it!)

  So when I stepped on the scales and it showed that I’d lost 4 pounds, I was so proud of myself. I was proud for lots of reasons. I’d been in control of the weekend, it hadn't controlled me and I’d had a really good time, done all the things I enjoyed and still managed to lose weight!

  I know it’s just the first weekend and I’m sure at some point, there’ll be a late night knock from Pete (everyone's favourite pizza delivery man) with a large seafood, and a portion of cheesy chips, but not right now!

The Three Little Pugs

After a couple of weeks of not being able to get to meeting, but sticking to my diet (apart from one takeaway with a friend on Saturday night) I was actually feeling fairly confident when I headed to the scales. However my confidence was severely misplaced and I’d put on a pound! I know it’s only a pound, but I was gutted.

 Takeaway aside, because that’s the first one I’ve had in months! I have done a fair amount of exercise. I haven’t become a gym bunny, what I have been doing is dog sitting. Alongside my lovely Cyril (who is allegedly part beagle, part pug, as you can see he’s clearly all pug!)

Cyril the alleged Beagle / Pug cross!

Can you spot the pug? 

 We have been joined by my Dad’s dogs, Barney and Buddy, 2 pugaliers (part King Charles Spaniel, part pug)

Barney & Buddy

This is the first time I’ve had all 3 for a week, as well as my cat and my sister’s cat and carnage doesn’t quite cover it! Imagine the "Big Brother" house with Perez, Katie Hopkins, Wylie Coyote and the burglars from "Home Alone" and that's pretty much the level of carnage.

I swear I am doing about 4 hours cardio everyday. Not only are we all going on lovely walks. Walking 3 dogs is quite the art form, I’ve bought this contraption, which allows me to put Cyril (the biggest) and Buddy (the smallest) on the same lead, they look like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito in “Twins”, but as they like to run around a lot and Barney’s more of a casual stroller, this is the best option. 

 Most days one walk becomes two, and they are accompanied by phrases such as these;

• “You’ve got your hands full” (other dog walkers, normally with well behaved dogs to me”)
• “Don’t wee on his head” (me to one of the dogs)
• “We don’t need an old sock” (me to one of the dogs) You will be amazed how many odd socks there are in the world, who goes for a walk and takes a sock off halfway round or accidentally loses one? (well anyone over the age of 5?)

  Not only are bonus points earned by walking the dogs, they are also earned by the constant opening and closing of doors to let the dogs onto the other side of them, because apparently a closed door is an offensive door, although if the door is left open, I then end up running upstairs to prevent a row with the cat.

A rare moment of Cyril & Pudding getting on!

  I’m pretty much managing 10,000 steps a day by these means!

When I looked at my tracker (Weight Watchers speak for the place you write everything down that you eat) and I realised that over the last few weeks, it was rare that I had eaten my points everyday. Most days I had between 5 and 10 left and I never touched the activity points.

Since my bewitching a few weeks ago (being hypnotised) I haven’t eaten any form of chocolate, cake, biscuit, desert and try and buy things with a really low / no sugar content) I know in the past I’ve been guilty of saving points so I can eat (a lot of) chocolate throughout the day. All within my points, but I think I’ve sacrificed better choice meals for chocolate.

So now I’m trying to eat better meals and snack less and eat enough. Lets face it if I’m doing the right things, at some point it’s all going to click!

  Plus even though it's taken me hours to write this blog, there are rare moments of peace!

Cyril & Buddy snuggling

And relax!!!

"What Have you Done to Your Hair?"

So week one of adjusting what I’ve been eating, I’ve heard friends of mine who are REALLY into fitness and healthy eating refer to it as “eating clean”. Not sure I’ve eaten totally clean, but it’s been less dirty than normal! And when I stepped on the scales this week, I’d lost a pound, so I was happy with that!

  It’s not been as hard as I thought to adjust, because to be honest there’s not been that much adjusting to do. Since I got my DNA fit results, the hardest thing for me is not just having toast every morning for breakfast, because it’s an easy option, or toast for my tea after a long day and I can’t be bothered to cook. I’ve actually been organised! 

Breakfast of yogurt, blueberries & nuts

Lucnh - Prawn Salad, Chopped stuff & Hummus 

I’ve only had carbs with one meal a day (normally my evening meal) I’ve eaten more fish and have been taking Vitamin D and Omega 3 supplements. I’ve also dragged my tired (yet fabulous) ass out of bed in the mornings to go to the gym before work. I may have only lost a pound, but I’m feeling loads better and the other day someone said “I think you’ve lost weight, you don’t look as fat round the middle” My friends say the sweetest things.

  I’ve still been counting my Weight Watchers points, so that I don’t go mental with portion sizes and attending meetings. It all appears to be working and I’m actually feeling pretty good about myself, or at least I was!

  Dad and I had to attend a funeral, as a long-term family friend had passed away. It was the first funeral either of us had been to since Mum died 4 years ago and it was in the church where Mum had sung in the choir as she was growing up, Mum and Dad had got married and Lucy and I were christened. So even despite it being the funeral of someone we really liked and admired, I think Dad and I were even more emotional. I spent a lot of time biting my lip and digging my nails into palm so I didn’t cry.

  As we sat down, we realised that the place was full of lots of our old neighbours and people we hadn’t seen for ages, so there was a lot of catching up to do. Dad was busily chatting to someone who used to live near us and she prodded the lady next to her and said, “Do you remember Ken, he used to live round the corner. The old bag looked Dad up and down and said “I didn’t recognise you because you’ve got so fat!”

  I stifled a giggle as Dad turned around muttering something about her being a rude old bag. Dad’s lost 4 stone and is looking great! However pride does indeed come before a fall, because as we were leaving, another old neighbour stopped us and had a chat with us. She hugged Dad, told him how well he looked and then just as I was about to hug her and say how nice it was to see her, she took a piece of my hair between her fingers, twirled it around between her finger and thumb and uttered

“What have you done to your hair????”

“Gone brunette” was my reply and I retracted my “I was going to hug you pose” and walked off.

Me, with my offensive brown hair

   Dad and I ended up having a real laugh about it all, which took our mind off the fact we’d just been to a funeral.

  There would have been a time when a comment like that would really have bothered me, I’d have made an appointment at the hairdressers to go back to being blonde, it would have played on my mind as I tried to work out why someone would say that to me and then ultimately I’d have turned to a pack of Oreos to make me feel better.

  

  Not now, I don’t care, even if that woman didn’t like my hair, I love my hair and I’m generally feeling better about myself and as I’ve already been told this week “I’m a bit less fat around the middle”

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Jai Ho!

The weirdest thing happened to me yesterday, I went to the gym and I actually had fun! I’m always a bit nervous when I go to exercise classes, because I have a massive fear of being singled out by the super fit teacher at the front for being a complete lumbering incompetent!

   My fear is slightly justified. Many years ago I used to go to a spinning class and I think the guy that taught it thought he was beasting a team of Olympic athletes as opposed to a group of people who were just trying to get a bit fitter. He would march round the class turning the knob up on your bike as high as it would go and if he caught you trying to alter it he would scream at you. He once halted the whole class because my friend stopped for a second because her knee hurt. My last memory of him is him screaming

“STOP, STOP, STOP everyone, Sarah has decided her knee hurts so until SARAH decides to start spinning again we will all sit here”

It was a little bit like that scene from “Matilda” where the Trunchball finds out Bruce Bogtrotter has eaten her chocolate cake. The room shook with fear! After that incident we never returned.

  As a result I’ve always been slightly worried that a gym instructor will single me out and make me “drop and give them 20” if I stop for a drink of water. The reality is apart from one body combat instructor who clearly thought I bought the weight average up to unacceptable level in her class, so therefore didn’t acknowledge my existence, everyone else has been lovely. (I should add I've now swapped gyms)

  I’ve probably tried every gym class going and whilst they hold my attention for a few weeks I’m soon bored. However I noticed that my gym had started a new class; “Just Jhoom” A Bollywood inspired dance fitness class. Well they had me at “Bollywood”

  I love Bollywood dancing, I’m not sure whether it’s the colours, the movement or the sheer noise and jolliness of it all, but I couldn’t not try this! 

  When I arrived everyone in the class was really friendly and most importantly so was the teacher. I was lulled into a slight sense of false security when we started with an eye warm up! I can do the moving them left, right, up, down thing, then optician makes me do it all the time, although he’s never referred to it as a warm up and I'm not sure it earns me any bonus points! That was as easy as it got and before I knew it I was doing hand movements called “the beak” and “lotus flower" and kicking my legs about like Dick Van Dyke had asked me “Step in Time”

  My favourite routines were “Jai Ho”, although I suspect I did not resemble a Pussycat Doll in any way shape or form. I think I liked this one most because there was an element of it being like a Bollywood version of “Tragedy”

  My other favourite was a track that sounded it was saying “Barbara Windsor” and wouldn’t have been out of place in a holiday resort!

  I blooming loved it from start to finish and I can honestly say it was the most fun I’ve ever had at the gym, even though by the end of it I looked like this!

Me at my most sexy!

  As I’ve still got 2 pounds to lose to take me back to the weight I was before I went on holiday, I’m really hoping I sweated some of that off!