Nothing changes...

...until it does.

Now (19th December) seems as good a time as any for a "let's look back at the year" post.

Nearly a year after I decided that I wanted to lose some weight; I'm still not sure why I suddenly, after 20+ years of being 3 - 4st overweight, decided that I didn't want to be fat any more. 

I do know that I'm extremely glad that I made that decision. I'm really very happy to be wearing 30" jeans for the first time in about 25 years. I'm probably fitter now than I've ever been; I'm pretty sure that even when I was 17 if you'd asked me to run 10 miles or more I'd have thought you were mad, whereas now 10 miles is my weekly run on a Sunday and I don't even think of that as being a long run now (15+ miles now counts as "long" if you were wondering).

So, here's the thing...or a thing, at least. At this point last year I was about 4 stone overweight. This year that 4 stone has disappeared, and I feel pretty good about that, but the point of the post is pretty much this: if you're unhappy with anything that you have the power to change then the choice is yours. (note the emphasis - far too many people seem to think that people have the power to change things that are completely outside their control).

You can accept it, or you can choose to change it; if you choose to change it, then commit to that change 100% and I guarantee you'll succeed (this is a message for myself in the morning when I'm more sober). 

Remember last year, when being 4 stone lighter seemed like an impossible dream? Well, just look at yourself now. If I can do that, then anybody can do anything that's within their power. Yes, really.

So, what's next? Well, I've always fancied playing music for a living....

Another half-marathon

...in which things are a bit different to last time.

On Friday night I went out to run a half marathon with Amy, who recently ran 53 marathons in 53 days; there were about 30 of us running to start with, and we ran 2 loops around the town. A lot of people stopped after the first loop (I think largely because it was Friday night and halloween), but 8 of us finished the whole thing - there's a picture of us all at the start on the 53.53 Marathons facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/5353-Marathons/188981147892380.

(For some reason I keep typing "marathong" instead of marathon, which sounds like a piece of underwear that it'd be really uncomfortable to run in)!

I have in fact run a half marathon before, but I was 3 or 4 stone heavier and could not train for it; since I'm now running 25 - 30 miles a week (usually 2 "short" (5 - 10 miles) and one longer run (12 miles or more)) the half marathon wasn't really a big issue this time. (I can't believe I just typed that).

The loops were only actually 5.9 miles (someone had one of those posh watches that measures such things) so I ran home to make up the distance; by the time I'd finished I'd run 13.5 miles.

Last time I ran near that distance I was in considerable pain for several days afterwards; I had to walk up the stairs by holding on to the banister rail and pulling myself up one step at a time for 2 - 3 days. This time after running nearly 12 miles I still felt able to run home afterwards, and I still managed to go to the gym on Saturday (although I did take it fairly easy on the lower body stuff).

I'm quite proud of that; I only started training in earnest about 6 - 7 weeks ago and I'm already at a point where I can run a half-marathon in just over 2 hours without struggling.

I'm still at my Slimming World target, although I was very close to the top of my allowed range last Monday, so we've been a bit more sensible this week; we haven't had any alcohol for a couple of weeks now and we've been sticking to the SW plan more closely this week so hopefully I'll be back at target or below today.

I'll be aiming to get back down to the very bottom of the range for Christmas so I can treat myself a bit over the holiday - I may start adding food diaries again. And now I'm off for a little run :).

A tale of two voices

...in which I talk about running. Again.

So, first things first - I'm still in my target weight range (I was exactly at my target on Monday's weigh-in), and still enjoying being fitter and having more energy. Still sticking to the Slimming World plan, with maybe a few extra syns here and there and extra cheese. Mmmm, cheese...

Sorry, drifted off into a bit of a cheese related reverie there. Where was I?

Oh yes, running. Today is a training day. I have to have a proper training plan and stuff if I'm going to run a marathon next year (which I am), so I run 3 times a week; 2 short runs and one longer one at the weekend, although the 2 short runs are always over 5 miles now and today my short run was 7.85 miles. (Side note: it wasn't that long ago that I'd have considered that an insanely long distance).

I always decide on the route I'm going to run before I start so that I know what I'm aiming for, but I've noticed that while I'm running there are two voices in my head. I think the one comes more or less straight from my legs, and says things like "you don't need to go so far today, you already did extra the other day. You can slow down a bit, too, your pace is well over what it needs to be at this point in your training. You can stop now and walk for a bit, it's fine."

The other one tends to say things like "come on, you can do this. You've run further than this before with no problem so there's no reason to stop. Up the pace a bit, you can smash your target for the marathon at this rate. Don't you dare even think about stopping to walk you little maggot."

I think most people probably have analogues of these voices for most activities; I certainly do. The one is the one that says things like "eat the pizza! Drink the wine! Have a cigarette!" when you're trying to lose weight or give up smoking, versus "you had pizza already this week. You've had enough wine for one day. No, you've given up, don't start again."

(Note - if you've ever given up smoking, you know that it's not something that you just do once, you do it every day. The addiction fades, but the desire is still there; what keeps you an ex-smoker is that you don't give in to it).

I suppose you might call the one of them temptation and the other one willpower. What I've found is that the more often you give in to temptation, the harder it is next time; the more often your willpower wins, the easier it gets to resist temptation because you get rewards from the willpower winning that are usually better than what you'd have got if you gave in.

I'm pretty sure there was a point to this post somewhere but it seems to have slipped my mind...

Mild self-torture

...in which I experience the joys of a foam roller.

In a fit of enthusiasm for this whole running thing I have bought one of these things:

This is called a "foam roller" (other brands are available). They are supposed to facilitate "self myofascial release". You put your weight on them at various points and sort of roll along them, as the name implies. There's an article about how to use one here: A runner's guide to foam rollers.

So, you think, (or at least I thought) "it's just foam, it'll be fine". And then I tried to copy some of the suggestions in that article.

Calf...well, not too bad. Bit painful on the arms if you do it for too long because they're supporting most of the weight of your upper body, but no pain, no gain I guess. Same for the Tibialis Anterior (try saying that after a few beers). Front of the thigh, not too bad...and then the Gluteus (the bottom of the buttocks, if you're not sure).

Imagine being kicked by a donkey. No, harder than that. An Arcturan Mega-donkey (thank you, Douglas Adams). A really angry Arcturan Mega-donkey. Now imagine that the pain from the kick is somehow constant rather than a sharp spike followed by relief. 

Got it? Right. That's a bit like what it feels like to attempt to put your weight on one of your buttocks with one of these things underneath you. Really, I have no idea who invented this idea but it must have been someone that really hates people that exercise. Apparently they're a good way of easing out aches and pains in muscles, although I suspect that actually you just feel better after you get off it because it hurts so much when you're on it.

I'm still within my target range at Slimming World, but we're cutting down a little this week (since we might be living on the credit card if a contract doesn't turn up soon, and I've put a couple of pounds on over the last 2 weeks) so I may well lose more weight. 

I'm up to running around 20 - 30 miles a week (two 5 - 7.5 mile runs in the week and one 10 - 12 mile run on a Sunday, along with 2 - 3 visits to the gym a week), so the preparation for April's marathon is going pretty well at least.

Weekus Horribilis

...in which a rather Bad Thing has occurred

First things first; I'm still within my target weight range, or at least I was on Monday when I got weighed (I now get Slimming World membership for free as long as I'm within 3lbs either side of my target).

Marathon training is continuing, and going pretty well; I'm still doing over the actual amount suggested by the Asics training plan as the runs would be quite short if I stuck to them (5 miles...I'm not sure when 5 miles became a "short" run for me, but it's weird how perception changes).

Anyway, the Bad Thing...this week my PC's hard disk has been more or less completely wiped due to a combination of a Blue Screen of Death and a hard reset performed out of impatience (not by me, I hasten to add - I was out at the Younger Teen's football match). 

When Windows attempted to reboot it ran ChkDsk (a utility for scanning and "fixing" a disk) and the result was that it moved nearly all of my files to a hidden directory, but in the process it's renamed them to nonsense.

I'm currently running some software to attempt to recover what data I can; I have backups of my work for clients, of course, but some other data that should really have been backed up to a different drive has not been for a little while (I'll be setting up an automated backup procedure as soon as this is done...lesson learnt the hard way).

This has led to a sequence of events that can be summed up as buy new hard disk, install Windows 8, realise I have to install Windows 7 first because I only have an upgrade license for Windows 8, Install Windows 7 Home Premium, upgrade that to Windows 7 Pro, then upgrade that immediately to Windows 8, all the while wondering why Microsoft couldn't have just included the ability to check a Windows 7 key in the Windows 8 upgrade install.

That process (and the missing data) has led to a few days of being a bit fed up, which in turn has led to not eating brilliantly, culminating in a bit of a crisp-and-wine-fest last night. Today I am back on the Slimming World train though; Slimming World quiche will be made for dinner, with paprika wedges (the kids can have pizza and chips as they won't eat the quiche).

Anyway, on the plus side I now have a "clean" C:\ drive with very little on it other than the operating system, development software, Open Office and a bit of software that tries to recover deleted files (currently doing a scan on the ex-drive, which is apparently going to take a total of around 75 hours).

Oh yes, and I was in the local paper last night. They haven't put the story online, but it was about the weight I'd lost and the fact that I'm running a marathon next year. So that's quite nice :).

The training begins!

...in which I talk about running and future plans for the blog.

Now that I have reached my Slimming World target and don't intend to lower it again (I have lost a total of 4 stone 1 lb and I feel pretty happy with how I look and feel now; still toning up a bit, but getting there), I have decided I need a new project to blog about and help keep me at my target.

So, as you might have read in the last blog entry, I have entered the Greater Manchester Marathon. to raise funds for the Isabelle Lottie Foundation. You can donate by clicking the button over on the right, or if you'd rather you can donate to Amy, who ran 53 marathons in 53 days, here. (It goes to the same cause and she deserves to get to her target)!

I've had the app that Asics provide generate a training plan for me; I'm not following it too closely though, mainly because the initial "pre-conditioning" runs would seem like a big step backwards, and I pay for the gym so I'm not skipping my resistance or core strengthening sessions. And anyway I enjoy them. I'm not quite sure what happened to the me that was horrified at the idea of going to a gym...

Having blogged about running when I was preparing for the Reading Half Marathon back in 2011 (was it really that long ago?!) I know that it can be a bit dull, so I won't be doing a huge number of posts about that - I will occasionally do a bit about the marathon preparation, but I'm going to keep blogging about food as it's much more varied (today's dinner: Slimming World friendly quiche with slimming world chips, baked beans and steamed sweetcorn).

I'm going to aim to do 2 blog posts a week now; one on a Monday after weigh in (yes, I will keep going to the Slimming World group - I really like them, and I will stay as often as I can) and one at the weekend to talk about whatever's happened in the week and occasionally my marathon preparation. 

Training this week has consisted of a 7.7 mile run on Tuesday morning, and a 6 mile run on the treadmill last night. On Sunday I'm aiming for my first run over 10 miles (abiding by the "10% increase per week" rule - I did 9.5 miles last week).

Apparently I need a thing called a "foam roller" to help prevent injuries. Having looked into it, it seems that these things hurt and some of the pictures look as if they'd be more likely to cause injuries than prevent them...

So there we go. As always, plans are subject to change.

Is that it?

....in which a milestone is reached.

Today was Monday, and therefore weigh-in day; I was pretty sure that I would get to target this week, but not absolutely certain, so it was a great relief to get on the scales and have it confirmed (I lost 2lb, so I've now lost a total of 4 stone 1lb (25.8kg, for those who prefer measurement systems with less character but more logic) since January).

As an illustration of what that looks like, there's a before/after picture at the bottom of this post.

As another illustration, Claire the Very Lovely Consultant brought a wrapped up box of....something,,,(I assume it was stones) to group tonight, and had us pass it round. It weighed a stone, and it's very hard to believe that I was carrying 4 of those around with me; a stone is a lot more than I realised. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to run more than about half a mile carrying something that heavy.

The challenge now, of course, is to stay at target. I don't have to pay for Slimming World now as long as I stay within 3lb either side of target; my wife has managed this for well over a year now. It's surprising how many good habits you pick up over 9 months of eating sensibly and exercising, so I'm hoping I won't find it too difficult, but time will tell. Plans to keep me at target are already afoot....(see below).

Since I know myself, and therefore know that I tend to have an attitude of "well that's done" to things I've already achieved, and also know that healthy living is not something you "achieve" and then stop doing, I have already set my sights on a new target. It's a little extreme, but after running with Amy and managing 21 miles the other day I believe I can do it, so I've signed up for a marathon. Um. Gulp.

To be specific, I've signed up for the Greater Manchester Marathon in 2015...since it was Amy that inspired me to do this, I have decided to run it for the Isabelle Lottie foundation, which raises funds for children and young adults with brain tumours (I also have a cousin who is directly affected by this).

If you can afford to and would like to donate, my BT "mydonate" page is here: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/chrisnmanchestermarathon. 

If you'd rather, you can donate to Amy's page here (it goes to the same cause, but she's prettier than me and really deserves it): https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/53marathons

Here's the obligatory before/after picture:

A week of strange happenings

...in which odd things have occurred

You may (or may not, depending on how often you read the blog and how much notice you take of it)  remember that back in June, our younger son's scooter went missing when the Elder Teen left it in the park while we were at the beach.

This week it turned up out of the blue; some of the younger teen's friends saw someone on it, asked him where he'd got it (apparently he'd just found it) and brought it back to us. Since we've claimed insurance we have to pay that back (but not all of it, which was a bit of a surprise...insurance companies being reasonable and quite nice is a new one on me).

Our kettle (which had stopped working for no apparent reason a couple of weeks ago) started working again (also for no apparent reason); since I'd had to buy a new kettle we now have a spare one (we like the old one because it has a filter in it).

The oddest thing that happened though was probably Wednesday. Amy, who is doing 53 marathons on 53 consecutive days was in town. She's from a local village, so I thought I would go along and support her by running with her for part of the route around the town (along with some other folks, including a lady from the Slimming World group I go to).

I don't have much work on at the moment (if anybody needs a contractor to write C# for them please feel free to get in touch), so I had most of the day free; I originally intended to run until around 11, when we would get to my daughter's school. I'd run 9.5 miles last Sunday, and that was supposed to be around the 10 mile mark, so I was pretty confident that I could do that; I had to drop Princess Bubblegum off at school and only had about 15 minutes to get to the start, so I ran up there to be on time.

So...somehow I didn't quite stop at my daughter's school. I didn't stop when we got to Whittington either (although I didn't know how far we'd run at that point)...and then just after Whittington someone said we'd just passed the half-marathon mark. By now I'd made friends with another runner and we were running together, and neither of us wanted to stop, although we were both quite surprised to hear that we'd gone quite that far.

Somehow, even though neither of us usually runs more than 10 miles, we carried on to West Felton (where Amy was interviewed by the BBC at her old school) and then back to Oswestry....at this point it was around 2:30PM and I had to stop and pick the daughter up from school (and my running partner had given up and got into the pace vehicle, but she'd made it to 20 miles). 

I worked out later than I had run a total of around 21 miles (including the run up to the start point and the runs around the various school fields with school kids); I'm pretty sure I could have made it to the end of the full thing if I'd had the time though.

This was more than a little surprising, since the furthest I'd ever "run" before was the Reading half marathon, and I ended up walking probably about 5 miles of that (I was 4 stone heavier back then, after all, and I couldn't train properly); I was running all the way this time, although there were admittedly quite a few breaks for things like photos.

It definitely helped to be running with other people; I usually run alone, which gives me a chance to listen to music and get a certain amount of peace (in a house with 2 teenagers that's in short supply), but there was a lovely feeling of camaraderie about the event, even though a lot of us didn't know each other.

My legs still feel pretty good; I rested on Thursday and then went for a short (3.5 miles) run tonight; I'll be going to the gym tomorrow and aiming to run 10 miles or so on Sunday.

Of course, compared to Amy (who is on her 53rd and last marathon tomorrow (27th September 2014) in Manchester) 21 miles looks pretty unimpressive; but for me it was a major achievement.

In honour of this, and since it was Amy that inspired me to run so far, I have decided that I will run the Manchester marathon next year and will raise funds for the same cause that Amy is running for (the Isabelle Lottie foundation). 

If you'd like to donate to the foundation for Amy (and boy does she deserve it), you can find a BT giving page here: https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/53marathons

We have a barbecue (almost certainly the last one of the year) tomorrow with Saira and her VSO. Some innocent songs will no doubt be subject to sonic abuse again....

So near and yet so far...

...in which our intrepid hero is almost but not quite there.

It is Monday, and therefore it is weigh in day. I have lost a pound since last week. I am feeling a bit ambivalent about this. On the one hand, it's nice to lose any weight, and a pound a week is around my average; on the other hand I was really hoping to get to target tonight. I needed to lose 1 more pound to do that, so I am really, really close now.

Of course, the wine on Friday/Saturday (I can have alcohol again now) probably didn't help; one of my favourite Merlots is on offer in one of the supermarkets at the moment, so clearly it's a conspiracy to make sure I don't get to target too quickly. Those naughty supermarket people, tempting me with their fermented grape juice.

Other than alcohol, it's been a fairly good week food-wise. I've made a couple of things that I made up the recipe for on the spot with what we had in the fridge and they were pretty yummy (according to other people in the family too, not just me)! There was some cider on Monday as well as the wine and I had a couple of moments of weakness involving the kids' definitely-not-healthy leftovers, but I did keep under my allowed syns for the week.

Exercising is also going well. I went out for a pre-breakfast run on Sunday (powered by a single banana) and did 9.5 miles; this is the longest I've run since the half-marathon and I've recovered really quickly - I was a bit achy yesterday afternoon but that's hardly a surprise, and I was fine today - fine enough to go to the gym, even.

I'm intending to run a couple of 5 mile runs this week (hopefully one on Wednesday with Amy from http://www.53marathons.co.uk), and then do 10 - 11 miles on Sunday; if that goes well, then I will think about signing up for another half-marathon, but this time I'll do sponsorship and stuff.

I think these Sunday morning runs will be a regular thing now, at least as long as the weather stays good; I went out at 6:40 on Sunday, just as the sun was rising, and although it was chilly (which isn't much of a problem for very long when you're running) it was lovely to run in the slowly growing light. We live in quite a rural area and there was mist on the fields as I ran past, and as the sun rose it gave the mist a sort of pale gold glow on top.

There's a certain peace about the world at that time of morning too; a kind of silent anticipation of the new day, with all its possibilities. There's only you, and your thoughts, and the music, and the need to keep putting one foot in front of the other, and it's a wonderful kind of solitude.

Sorry, got all poetic there for a moment. In other news, I had an interview today for a new contract; I have no idea how it went really, although I didn't feel as if I gave the best account of myself I could. Still, if this one doesn't work out there's plenty of others around (a contract is unfortunately a necessity in the next month or so).

Anyway, that's it for tonight....more may be forthcoming this week. Or maybe not till next week. Until then....

On the home stretch!

...in which the (probably) final target is so close I can taste it.

On Saturday we had Saira and G around for a barbecue (probably the last one of the summer). The wine flowed freely, and (as usual) a good time was had despite mine and Gary's insistence on creating as much noise pollution as possible via the medium of our guitars and voices.

So to help make up for the wine, on Sunday (despite the rather late finish on Saturday) I decided I would do a pre-breakfast 5-mile run; I'm told by people that know such things that if you run before you've eaten anything your body burns fat immediately rather than using up stores of carbs (the body stores carbs as glycogen and the body will burn this first during exercise if it has reserves of it. Apparently). 

I'm not sure if this is 100% accurate or not (there seems to be some debate on the Internet, but that's a bit like saying there's some discord between cats and dogs), but I did actually really enjoy running early in the morning and will probably do it again next week.

Since I'd also had cider last Monday I wasn't that hopeful for weigh-in yesterday; however, the run (plus 3 visits to the gym and runs on other days), along with eating sensibly the rest of the time, seem to have done the trick; I had lost 2 pound (0.9kg), which means that now I have just 2lb to lose to get to my new target of 11 stone 4lbs, so I'm really hopeful I'll get that next week. 

That will mean I'll have lost a total of 4 stone (yay! another sticker and certificate! I love those. No, you're a bit of a child at heart :P) in a little under 9 months; I haven't had to go hungry (I have had to eat sensibly, of course), and I'm really very impressed with the way Slimming World fits together so many strands of common sense into a single diet plan that's easy to follow, doesn't involve fiddly weighing or measuring and lets you eat loads and still lose weight.

This is also the last week of my platinum body magic award; that's 16 weeks of doing 150 minutes of exercise over 5 days. I have become the sort of person that has a fitness regime; I go to the gym for an hour every other day, do resistance and "core strength" (I'm not even sure what that is but apparently that's what I'm doing) workouts for 30 minutes and then 30 - 40 minutes of cardio (treadmill or elliptical, rowing machine, and exercise bike or cross trainer (Oxford comma seemed appropriate there)). 

So, with any luck I'll get a hat-trick of awards next week (4 stone off, target and platinum body magic). Go me! :)

On the days when I'm not in the gym I run (generally a minimum of 4 miles), and am aiming to get up to 10 miles by the end of this month (I've done a couple of runs that are close to 7 miles and been fine, and I'm planning an 8 mile run after lunch today. I usually have one rest day per week as that's all I feel I need right now.

And I feel good about it. There, I said it. I like being the sort of person that can run 5 miles without struggling. I like the feeling I get after exercise (not so much the feeling I get during it). I like the effect it has on my body. I'm not vain (I hope), but I like what I see when I look in the mirror now; I still have (very small) man-boobs and a bit of a tummy, but they're shrinking and slowly becoming more toned....I may do a topless before/after picture. If you're really unlucky ;).

On that rather horrendous thought I shall bow out for the week...till next time.

Another week, another weigh in...

...in which the new target creeps inexorably closer

Today is Monday, and therefore it is weigh-in day. I lost 3lbs since last week, but since I'm not allowed alcohol or basically anything I actually like to eat that might make me fat at the moment that's not a huge surprise.

With that said, I'm currently on my 3rd can of cider (it's made of apples, so it must be good, right?). I suspect my stomach will get its revenge for this tomorrow, but we shall see. I have tablets and stuff. And I've been sensible for like 5 days. That's waaay longer than I usually manage.

Err...I'm sure there was a point to this post but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. This may or may not be related to cider and the consumption thereof.

Oh yes, food. You really don't want to know what I've eaten for the last few days because it basically boils down to chicken (without any kind of spices), pasta/rice and vegetables. I have made stuff like beef stew and chicken curry for the rest of the family but I'm not allowed to eat any of it so I've mostly stuck to (non-acidic) fruit and lean meat with boiled or steamed vegetables.

I've also done quite a bit of exercise; today, for example, I ran to the gym, then did an hour of exercise in the gym, and then ran home again because apparently that's something I can do now. When I got home I felt really good, Knackered, but good.

I did the Rainbow Run in Wrexham yesterday, and it was really rather excellent fun - a group of us from our Slimming World group met up there, and it was a great laugh to meet up with other SW members and raise some money for a good cause at the same time. I even managed to resist the complimentary bacon roll afterwards and swap it for a banana (mainly because I'm not supposed to have bacon at all due to gastritis, but I'm still calling it a triumph of willpower).

I think I may be doing this sort of thing rather more often in the future...watch this space, as they say. In the meantime, here's a picture of me at the end of the race (I think I was in the top 20 out of 1000 people):

So...4lb from target (I've now lost 3st 10lb in just over 8 months), which I can make this week if I have a good week. Been a bit naughty tonight with the cider, but it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll be good for the rest of the week (as long as I don't drink too much).

Gastritis!

...in which illness rears its ugly head.

While we were on holiday, there was one day where I had a fairly bad burning pain in my abdomen for most of the day. This eventually resulted in an extremely unpleasant night/morning where I got very little sleep because of having to stay in the toilet, for reasons I won't go into but are almost certainly exactly as horrible as you're imagining. The next day I felt a bit queasy but the pain had gone and I was generally fine, and continued to be so.

Until yesterday (Thursday). At about 3AM, I woke up with the same burning sensation that I had had on holiday, and was then stuck being awake because of the pain. I am very rarely ill, but by about 10:30 AM it was bad enough for me to call the doctor and ask for an emergency appointment (which is almost unheard of without a lot of nagging from A, but the fact this was a repeat of last week was a bit worrying).

The doctor diagnosed me with mild gastritis (if that was mild I don't want to think about what a serious case would feel like) and gave me some tablets that will reduce the acidity of my stomach juices. She also advised me to eat "bland" food for a while, 

She didn't really go into detail about this, so I did some research online and spoke to Saira about it; the basic advice is:

No alcohol, no coffee, no spicy food, no bacon (and nothing cooked with bacon or onions) and nothing acidic like citrus fruit etc.

Four out of the five things on that list coincide with my "list of things I really like to put in my mouth". It could be worse of course - it could be permanent, so I've probably got off fairly lightly as I should be OK after a couple of weeks of a bland diet. I still managed an hour in the gym last night (I took my first tablet at midday and the pain had mostly gone by the evening).

From a Slimming World perspective it's not too bad; I can still have lean meat and vegetables, and rice/pasta/potatoes, as long as they're well cooked and not cooked in sauce. I can have apples and pears and bananas; the coffee prohibition does bite hard though, since I usually need 2 cups of coffee just to be half awake in the morning. On the plus side, having no alcohol should help with my quest to get to target...I was 7lb away on Monday and am aiming to get as close as I can this week.

On Sunday I'm doing the Rainbow Run at Wrexham; this is a short (2 mile) run where they throw powder paint at you (they provide a white t-shirt). I'm a bit useless at getting sponsors (since I work at home there aren't many people to ask!) so I will make a donation to Nightingale House, the children's charity that the run is in aid of.

Weigh-in update

...in which the regular Monday weigh-in has occurred

Weigh in was last night, and I hadn't quite managed to maintain over the 2 weeks; however, I'd only put half a pound on and I'd managed a few extra treats that I wouldn't usually have (chips and so on), and actually found that because I no longer eat them all that often I enjoyed them far more.

I'm now 7lb (3kg) from my new target (11st 4lb, around 71.5kg), so I'm really not far off. I've hunted out my first couple of weeks of food diaries and I really did stick to the foot optimising plan absolutely 100%; everything I put in my mouth is written down there, so I've printed out a food diary and I'm really going for it this week. The gym shall be hit lots, as will the pavement.

That's just a quick update because I'm trying to do my C.V. ("resumé", if you insist) and look for a new contract. This means dealing with recruitment agencies, which is not normally a very pleasant experience, but needs must when the devil vomits on your cornflakes (as somebody a lot funnier than me once said).

I'm back!

...in which a holiday has occurred

I haven't posted for a couple of weeks because I've been on holiday with the family. I suppose I should have posted that that was going to happen before I disappeared off the face of the Internet really.  

Last time I was weighed (18th August) I got my 3.5 stone award and had lost 1.5lb on the previous weigh in, so I was 6.5lb off my current target.

Holiday has involved a few extra treats; ice creams, chips on the sea front, possibly a couple of packets of Monster Munch and of course extra wine, but usually while everybody else was enjoying sweet treats I stuck to black coffee with sweetener. The night we got there we stayed with friends and it was the first episode of the new series of Doctor Who, and there were some very yummy cup-cakes and dalek biscuits and Adipose marshmallows, and a few of those may have accidentally found their way into my tummy...

I did still manage to do my body magic - two 4 mile runs, lots of walking, some swimming and some playing rounders etc. with the kids on the beach; I'm now just 3 weeks away from my platinum Body Magic award (16 weeks of doing at least 30 minutes of exercise for 5 days of the week - or at least doing 150 minutes of exercise over 5 days; I quite often do the 150 minutes over 2 days but you have to do some exercise every day for 5 days out of the 7 for the week to qualify). 

I ran with a friend on the first night and discovered that if I run at a slower pace than normal it has far less impact on my knee and I can keep going for much longer, so I will now be attempting to pace myself more carefully when running.

Since we were in a pretty well equipped static caravan I was generally able to cook meals that were SW friendly; I had to settle for wraps a couple of times during the day but managed to avoid bread and stuck to lean cooked meat as filling; on both the way down and back A and I had pasta salad (the second time made with mayonnaise as that's how A prefers it so it wasn't quite free - I prefer it with paprika and soy sauce, but we had that on the way there).

Men don't often talk about this sort of stuff, but one thing that did feel good on holiday was being able to strip down to my trunks and not feel like I was wobbling everywhere, or feel self-conscious about taking my t-shirt off and getting into the sea. I'm not Adonis or anything (yet ;)), but I don't feel like I have my own gravitational well either now.

I also wasn't out of breath after playing with the kids for a bit (after all that time in the gym I should blooming well hope not!)

I'm trying to avoid staying in "holiday mode" as I'm only too well aware of how a couple of extra treats can suddenly become a couple of extra treats a day, so today I'm back onto SW 100%. I will make baked bean lasagne with bacon and jacket wedges today, I've measured out my milk allowance and I'm going to the gym later despite my body's feverish protests that it would rather stay at home and have a portion of fish and chips.

We stopped off to visit some friends on the way home last night and the scales came out for some reason...according to those I've put about 2.5lb on but this morning on our scales I seem to have lost 3.5lb and be 3lb from target. (my weight does fluctuate a bit during the day, as does nearly everybody's, and the clothes I wore last night were a bit heavier than the ones I'm normally weighed in). I guess we'll see tomorrow...in the meantime, it's time to head to the gym. I might even run there, just to show off.

Weigh-in update

...in which all is not as it seems.

So. I should probably be working, so this will be a quick update, probably. This week at weigh-in I put on half a pound, despite having no alcohol, far fewer syns than usual and going to the gym a lot. For the first time that I can remember in 7 months of doing Slimming World this made me feel slightly despondent after Monday's weigh-in, despite the fact that I was half expecting it. I couldn't stay for the group portion ("Image Therapy") this week, but I would have liked to in order to get some encouragement.

Another reason it was maybe a bit more disappointing that usual is that I was so close to my 3.5 stone award (half a pound off, now a pound); also I have a holiday coming up that's going to make it tricky to stick to the plan 100%, and that might put me back a bit when it comes to hitting target by September, which was the original plan when I lowered it. (We also have a barbecue/food evening coming up on Saturday with Saira and her Extremely Significant Other coming round, depending on the weather, but I can make that SW friendly with no difficulty).

I am feeling better about it now; I had a look at my progress graph thing on the SW website and even with the gain I've lost 4.5lbs over the last 3 weeks, and an average of 1.5lbs per weeks is really pretty good, and that's despite a wedding featuring lots of beer/wine.

The reason I was half expecting it is because some of the exercise I'm doing now at the gym is designed to build muscle rather than burn fat, in order to get to the elusive state of a toned tummy and chest. (I'm not looking for a six-pack or anything, since my wife doesn't like that look, I'm just going for slim and toned). Muscle, as most people know, is denser than fat ("heavier" makes no sense - 1 cubic inch of muscle weighs more than 1 cubic inch of fat, but that's because of the density).

I doubt that I've actually put on half a pound of muscle in a week, so some other factors probably came into play; the human body has a way of kicking in "emergency fat storing mode" when it feels it might need to, and it's quite possible that the increased exercise last week caused this to happen for me so that fat that I would usually burn just got stored instead.

Still, nil desperandum, as they say. This week I'm going to do a bit more outside running again but still go to the gym 3 or 4 times. I'm still somewhat confused by this sudden desire to go somewhere that until recently I'd have considered a sort of hell on earth, but apparently it's good for me so I should probably just go with it.

Food this week...I made a sort of rice salad thing yesterday (chicken tikka chunks from Sainsbury's, stir-fried onions/peppers/carrots/tomatoes with white wine vinegar, sweet chilli sauce and paprika all mixed with sweetcorn and rice) - A. has the leftovers for her lunch today at work. Tonight I'll make diet coke chicken, and tomorrow probably paprika pork. If Sainsbury's actually have any half-price steak in I'll get some of that for Friday...

Okay, that wasn't as short as originally intended....back to work. Probably. (Or maybe I'll just procrastinate a bit...where'd that guitar go?).

Confusion

...in which things are slightly odd.

(Observation 1 in a series of n, where n is a number between 1 and as many as I can be bothered to do: Why do people assume "all natural ingredients" in e.g. shower gel means "good"? Arsenic is natural, but you wouldn't want to bathe in it).

Not odd in a bad way. Just...odd. For this post to work, you have to imagine that the below is said a slightly puzzled way. I am not showing off, I'm just...perplexed.

As you might have read, I joined the gym last week. If you had told me at the start of this year that I would have joined a gym by August I would have looked at you as if you had just told me that you were training an elite defence force made up of ferrets. If you'd then told me that I would not only have joined a gym but would actually be using it and enjoying it I'd have looked at you as if you'd gone on to say that you were training the ferrets to combat an army of space badgers that were about to land and take over the world.

Now, I am firmly with Jennifer Lawrence on the subject of people that claim they're addicted to working out. ("I hate people who say 'Oh, I’m addicted to working out', I just want to punch those people in the face." - from Pinterest). I'm working out as a means to an end (to tone up my tummy and chest a bit); I'm certainly not addicted to it. It makes me sweaty (and not in a good way), it's hard work and the gym is often full of people that could easily give you an inferiority complex, but...(there was bound to be a but)...it does give a certain satisfaction to challenge the limits of your own body, and there is documented evidence that exercising does actually make you feel better (since 90% of the time when I'm exercising I feel like I'm about to collapse in a heap I assume they surveyed people after they'd finished exercising rather than during).

I've actually started reading articles about how to exercise. That deserves the italics, believe me. If you only know me through the blog then it probably looks like I'm a pretty fit, healthy kind of guy, but until the start of this year the only thing I was fit for was moving around slowly and eating a lot of food. Seriously, I once ate 15 pieces of pizza at Pizza Hut to win a departmental competition (there was no prize, other than the pride of being the winner and preventing PH making any profit on their "all you can eat" buffet).

So, the point, inasmuch as I ever have points to these posts. Today I took the younger kids swimming (the eldest was at OsFest, a local music festival), and I swam 1 kilometre (with quite a few breaks, because swimming is hard work). Then this afternoon I felt like I wanted to do more exercise. Wait, what? That makes no sense even to me. 

I still don't know why, but I went back to the gym (and remember I'm not showing off here - this is said in tones of complete confusion) and I did 2km on the rowing machine, 3km on the Octane (I'm not sure what this is called "officially" - I guess an elliptical trainer? It's like a cross trainer except the movement feels more like running and it has bizarre settings designed to hurt exercise your arm muscles (edit: I looked it up and this is indeed an elliptical trainer)), 2.75km on the treadmill and 1km on the cross trainer. Before that lot I did a bunch of what's apparently called "resistance work" (machines with weights). If you'd told me even a month ago that it was even possible to do that much exercise in just over an hour I'd probably have taken my chances with the space badgers.

Anyway, there we go. To sum up: I'm going to the gym and exercising quite a lot, and finding it...um...what's the word? Enjoyable? Err, no, that can't be right, surely. Satisfying....yes, that just about fits.

Right, food. This week I've made some rather nice pork loin medallions with jacket wedges - I fried the pork as per the instructions (using low fat cooking spray, of course), but added some dark soy sauce (about 2 tbsp), a good sprinkling of paprika and fried onions, mushrooms and red pepper in the pan at the same time. I served this with broccoli and sweetcorn and it was really yummy (it doesn't sound like diet food, does it?). 

I made something similar tonight, but we had no soy sauce left so I used teriyaki sauce; this means there were probably a few syns in the pork/veg but they would be very low (call it 1.5 per portion).

Tomorrow is weigh-in day. I'm hoping to get my 3.5 stone award, but it's possible that all the exercise may be counter-productive (when A joined the gym she maintained for a week or so after). Also I had a really big piece of chocolate cake on Monday after weigh-in and it's just possible that I may have had a few packets of crisps this week...we shall see.

Edit: In "other news" today I bought a pair of underwear that are "small" in size and they fit. Small victories (no pun intended).

A quick update

....in which original target has been achieved

Last night was weigh-in night, and I had lost 3.5 pounds last week. This puts me at 2.5 pounds below my original target, but I have now lowered my target by 10 pounds because that puts me right in the middle of the healthy BMI range for my height. (Edit: That put me at 3 stone 6.5 pounds lost, so I didn't quite get my 3 and a half stone award, but I will next week)!

This isn't always a great measurement (it's hopeless for Rugby players, for example, but it's a pretty good indicator for someone like me who's of medium build). I'm 7.5lb to my new target now, and really just need to a) lose the man-boobs and b) tone up my tummy a bit.

To help in this endeavour I have joined the local gym; my wife gets a month free for introducing me and I get it discounted by £8 a month on a no-contract basis because of Slimming World membership, so it's pretty good. I have about 3 weeks left on my countdown, so if I can keep up this sort of weight loss I will hit my target within that and Slimming World will become free (as long as I stay 3lb either side of target), so that will more or less pay for the gym.

Bizarrely, I am rather enjoying the gym; I have been twice so far (once for induction, once with my wife while my daughter was at her swimming class doing her 3000m badge), and intend to go tonight as well. I am actually looking forward to it, which feels somewhat bizarre.

Today I am making beef and tomato stew, so I suppose I'd better go and get it in the slow cooker.

A quiet morning

...in which I consider the week gone past

I don't have much to do this morning (at least until later when we will be heading out to the local park where a brass band is playing that we are taking A's mother to see), so I thought I'd post about the last week.

Saira and G's wedding last Sunday (how can it have been a week already?!) was a huge high point for us. We do not often get to go out as a couple with just the 2 of us, let alone to meet up with lots of people (some of whom we knew, some of whom we met at the wedding - Saira and G did a great job of grouping people up for the Wedding Breakfast, so we were on a table with people that we either knew or that they thought we'd get along with, and we did).

A (my wife, for those not keeping up) looked utterly, utterly stunning. She does not usually bother with beauty treatments or even make up (she doesn't really need it as she's naturally pretty anyway), but she had her hair done in the morning and a spray tan a couple of days before, which really suited her; she had fairly minimal make up applied by the lady that did her hair and she looked beautiful.

Usually we are both stressed (because that's the default state for people with 2 or more kids) and in constant "alert" mode (parents will know what I mean..."what was that noise? Are the kids fighting? Is there an argument that's about to erupt into violence? Why is it so quiet?"), but that day was all about not being stressed; the kids were at friend's or family's houses (except the eldest, who was at home).

We didn't have to worry about being home since we had a room booked and we had just seen two good friends get married to each other, so right from the start of the day we were relaxed and just happy to be with each other (Saira commented on how great it was to see us just enjoying ourselves and each other's company - usually they only see us in the context of being at home with the kids (and they've been through that already so they know how stressful it is - apparently it does get better!)).

I think G and Saira's obvious happiness was infectious too; it was impossible to feel down when we could all see how happy they were to be with each other and their families. They are a lovely couple and if ever two people were right for each other it's them. Saira looked radiant in purple, and I think it's actually the first time I've ever seen G not in a black t-shirt with jeans; he scrubs up quite well really (he was also smiling a lot rather than scowling in concentration while playing the guitar, which is how we usually see each other ;)).

Anyway, the rest of the week....well, basically A and I have been on a high for most of the week, but of course sooner or later "real life" asserts itself. I have lots of work to do over the next couple of weeks before our break (which is a Good Thing, as work was starting to look a little sparse and therefore so was the business' bank account), and A has had to work all week.

On the slimming front, I have joined the local gym (we get it discounted via Slimming World and A. gets a month free as she introduced me); I've been a couple of times already, and actually enjoyed it far more than I thought I would.

I've also had virtually zero alcohol this week (about half a glass of wine that A had left, but it was very low alcohol stuff). I'm hoping to get my 3 and a half stone award tomorrow - lots of exercise has happened, along with the usual eating healthily. I've made a beef stew, diet cola chicken, Penne Ragu and chicken nuggets with wedges this week. These have mostly gone over pretty well, especially the beef stew (although I had to eat mine after the gym as I had to go to be inducted).

Something old, something new....

...in which a wedding has occurred.

Yesterday Saira got married to her Very Significant Other (who is presumably now upgraded to her Extremely Significant Other :)). 

Since this is a public site I won't share pictures because facebook privacy settings exist for a reason, but I will say that they're an absolutely lovely couple who thoroughly deserve the happiness they bring each other.  (I do think they're rushing into a bit though - 12 years is an awfully short time to be together before you get married ;)).

The wedding/wedding breakfast/reception went on all day (except for a brief interlude, where we went back to our hotel room) and we had an absolutely fantastic time. We love our kids, but sometimes we need to stop being "mum and dad" for an evening and just be Ann and Chris, who can stay up till 2 AM dancing and chatting with friends and drinking (although the drinking isn't necessary). I'm quite proud of the fact that we were 2 of the last 6 people to go to bed (the other 4 being the bride and groom themselves and another couple), although I've also been somewhat exhausted all day!

Saira and her VSO quite often come round to our house for barbecues (basically whenever all of us have a weekend free and the weather is good enough to cook outside). G and I will invariably get the guitars out and inflict sonic abuse on everybody within earshot, and it appears there's no law to stop us (or if there is nobody's found it yet). 

This is great fun (for us at least), and G is actually a very competent guitarist, so it was great to see him play the guitar on stage with some friends who are musicians (Little Red Bird and Vera van Heeringen, who is also G's guitar tutor). He's normally very shy about showing off like this so it was great to see him getting up on stage to play (he only did one song with them and did his best to hide at the back, but it's a start! :)).

I decided to not worry about Slimming World stuff for the day; I did make a mental note of what I was eating/drinking and tried not to go too far over my allotted syns for the week (I hadn't had any for the whole of the rest of the week, which isn't recommended but didn't really bother me). This seems to have worked - at weigh in tonight I had lost 1.5lbs, which means I'm now just 1 pound above my original target. Which is nice.

Food-wise I've been making the usual Slimming World stuff; paprika pork is the kids' current favourite, with chicken rogan josh coming a close second; we've had steak a couple of times too because it was half price in the supermarket.

That's kind of it for now....I may not be able to update much more than once a week for a while because of the summer holidays and looking for a new contract (getting quite urgent that I find one of those now, at least before September).

New Website? What?

...in which I demonstrate mastery of procrastination

I'm in the middle of designing my company's new website, so this seemed like a good moment to stop and write the blog because I hate web design (I can't afford to pay someone to do it for me, or I would). Procrastinating? Me? Well of course.

The other day I decided to have a clear out of our bedroom and tidy it up, because it was starting to look worryingly like a teenager's sleeping place. As part of this I got rid of all the jeans that were too big for me, which resulted in about 6 pairs going into the charity bag because there's no way I'm going back up to a 38" waist.

I'm now in 34" trousers, and I can get into 32" ones fairly comfortably; since I've lowered my target by 10 pounds I'm not buying too many new pairs yet in case I end up in 30" trousers, which would probably be the first time ever I've been that slim (this would put me right in the middle of the "healthy" range for BMI, although the main reason for lowering it is that I'm not happy still having man-boobs; some toning may be required too).

With the school summer holidays now in full swing I've found sticking to the plan easier than I expected; the kids mostly like the Slimming World friendly food I make, so them being home isn't too much of an issue. They do have the occasional chicken nugget/oven chips/takeaway, but A and I always have something different when they do.

This week has been a good week so far food wise. We've had diet coke chicken, beef & tomato stew and yesterday I had sirloin steak (it was half price in the supermarket) with wedges, tomatoes and friend onions and mushrooms (both fried in low calorie spray, of course). The kids had ready meals because A. had taken Turquoise Princess out to see How To Train Your Dragon 2 and they had food out.

Tonight I'm planning on doing Paprika Pork, probably with Slimming World chips; I'm going to take Emily to the park in a minute for a picnic, but I have cooked chicken, ham, pickled onions and fruit to take for myself (Emily can have sandwiches).

I've had very, very few syns so far (no more than about 3 at most in the whole week), although I expect that to change significantly on Sunday at Saira and G's wedding, where (in Saira's own words "the meal in the day isn't too bad but there's probably no point even trying to flexi-syn the buffet"). So I'm being extra good this week in the hope that I can still manage a maintain or a small loss next Monday.

On the exercise front, I've been keeping up the running, although anything over 4 miles makes my knee ache a bit. I've been alternating this with the exercise bike to build strength in the leg as apparently that's the most likely cause; I also need to start doing some exercise that tones my stomach and chest as otherwise I'll have super-fit legs but my upper body will be floppy.

I know, I know...

...in which many things are discussed

Sorry. Lack of blog. School holidays. 3 kids. Work at home. House stuff to do. I've also got to find a new contract so I'll be doing my company website and sorting out my C.V. - if you're reading this and you need a C# .NET contract developer for either web or windows work feel free to contact me via the comments, or look me up on LinkedIn. My company website should be up at some point this week too (like most developers I rarely have time to work on my own stuff).

This week I gained half a pound, which isn't really surprising given that I had about 8 pints of beer (over the week) and a bottle and 3/4 of wine on Saturday night, which led to a bit of a crisp-fest (the sort of crisps that pretend they're healthy, but are still crisps). I've lowered my target by 10 pounds, but I'm still close to my original target (2.5 pounds away now).

It's Saira's wedding on Sunday this week and I need to get into 32" trousers so I'd better make a bit of an effort with the alcohol control.  Since the wedding is likely to be a day of celebration involving much eating, drinking and being merry I'd better be good this week.

I've also lowered my target by 10 pounds because I would still have been in the "overweight" BMI range at my previous target and I've decided if I'm going to lose weight I'll do it properly and get rid of my man boobs completely.

During the school holidays I will probably only post once every couple of days and I won't do the big lists of food because they're getting a bit tedious - instead I'll probably just say what the main meal was on a given day and how many syns I had. I might put some daily menus up on a separate page somewhere as I guess that might be useu

In any case, I always have fruit (sometimes with a yoghurt) for breakfast and nearly always have a wholemeal roll for my healthy b (usually with bacon), I always have milk for my healthy A and I rarely have syns except for alcohol.

On Friday I had steak (fat removed) with pasta, fried onions and mushrooms. I also had a bottle of wine while A was out with her workmates (27 syns).

On Saturday, err...oh, yeah about 4 packs of "pops" (16 syns total), plus 47.25 syns' worth of wine (oops). So really I got off quite lightly with a half a pound gain. I can't remember what I had for dinner on Saturday - A went out with friends on a sort of impromptu hen night for Saira (and by all accounts had a fantastic time), so it was pretty light since I was only cooking for myself (the kids had sausage and chips from the local chippy).

On Sunday we had the usual roast Sunday dinner (this is because my mother-in-law comes down every Sunday since my father-in-law passed away a few months ago and she's quite set in her ways).

Yesterday I made diet coke chicken with the leftover chicken with jacket wedges and it was very nice. Tonight I'm making beef stew in the slow cooker, but I need to go down the shop to get extra vegetables for that at some point soonish.

Exercise-wise I've been going on the exercise bike more because of my knee - I'm trying to build the strength in it up as it appears that's what the issue is, so I've been putting the resistance up on the bike to help with that. I did go on a quick 2.5 mile run last night though, but the knee is still feeling quite tight. We tidied the bedroom yesterday so I may see if I can get the cross-trainer in there now since it's been sitting in its box waiting to be assembled for the last 2 years (yes, really). (Edit: A pointed out that actually it's been there for 4 years. Oops).

Right, time to sort out the website.

Okay, okay, I'm posting...

...in which I will skip lightly over current affairs, because they're scary and more than a little crazy.

Right, I've been a bit lax with posts for the last couple of days because it's hard to think of stuff to write every day, and lists of food are boring to read. I've been meaning to do some musical recording for the last few days but work has kept getting in the way (plus it's actually quite a lot of work to record stuff by yourself and it always takes me way longer than I think it will, so I tend to put it off and do other stuff...must focus).

Anyway, dieting and stuff. After Monday's beer/cider incident I was doing fine, until an old friend strolled into town last night and decided to drag me to the pub (admittedly I didn't take a lot of dragging). The 2 pints I was going to have somehow turned into 4, so that's err..oh. 26 Syns (assuming 6.5 syns a pint). With the 42 on Monday night that puts me on 68 for the week, so I suppose I'd better avoid wine tonight. 

On the plus side, the beer was a rather lovely local beer from Stonehouse brewery and was much cheaper than I expected. The beer was Cambrian Gold, but you can only really get it around Oswestry (I'm not sure if they offer an online ordering service, but the bottled stuff is slightly different apparently because it's bottle conditioned).

I did a 4.8 mile run last night, but my knee started playing up a bit after 4 miles or so. I'm finding this quite frustrating because I'd like to run quite a lot further and I think I could, but I can't because of the knee. I'm told that it's likely that it's just because the knee is being asked to do things that it's just not used to, so building strength may be the key; I'm going to take a few days off running and use the exercise bike instead. 

(A version of me from 2 years ago is looking at that paragraph and saying "What? You want to run further than 5 miles? What the hell is wrong with you? Have you become a masochist?", but I'm ignoring him).

With a following wind and if I can resist more alcohol I may hit target this week, but Claire the Lovely Consultant is not around this week because she's on holiday, and it would actually be quite nice to hit target when she is there and I can stay to group so I'm not too fussed whether I do or not (plus it has got harder to lose more than a pound or so a week as I've got closer to target).

I've already decided that I'm going to lower my target to 11 stone 4 pounds (71.7kg), as that would put me right in the middle of the healthy range for my height (also I'll get 2 more certificates and I like getting awards. Yes, I'm just a big child at heart).

My V.S.O. is out both tonight and tomorrow, so that may make avoiding wine over the weekend a bit easier because generally we have a couple of glasses together. One of my clients (a wine & spirit wholesaler) has sent me a bottle of rather posh rosé though, which may make it slightly more difficult to resist...but that's supposed to be an anniversary present (we'll have been married 20 years in August) so I probably shouldn't drink it alone.

Right, I think that's all the news/stuff I can muster for now...here's the food I can remember from the last couple of days. Healthy A was milk on both days.

Wednesday 16th July

Breakfast

Fruit, yoghurt.

Lunch

Chicken tikka pasta salad (onions, peppers, mushrooms, spring onions, tomatoes).

Dinner

Jacket Wedges with broccoli, sweetcorn and piri-piri chicken (chicken marinated in fat-free natural yoghurt and fromage frais with piri-piri spices and some tikka powder added).

Snacks/Drinks

Coffee, fruit, yoghurt.

Bacon & tomato on a slice of wholemeal bread (healthy b)

Exercise

Rest day

Thursday 17th July

Breakfast

Fruit

Lunch

Super rice, baked beans, tuna with crushed chillies

Dinner

Pasta salad (onions, red onions, peppers, tomatoes) with Piri-piri chicken, broccoli, sweetcorn, runner beans

Snacks/Drinks

Bacon & tomato on a wholemeal roll (healthy b), coffee, fruit, yoghurt. 1 pint Guinness Extra Cold (6.5 syns), 3 pints Cambrian Gold (19.5 syns). Fortunately all the takeaways were closed on the way home so I had some melon and an apple

Exercise

4.8 mile run (50 minutes)

Walking (~45 minutes).

Yesterday's food

...in which I was lazy yesterday

I didn't get time/was too lazy to do a blog post yesterday. So here's what I ate, and I shall post a longer post later:

Tuesday 15th July

Healthy A: Milk

Breakfast

Fruit (peach, apple, clementine), fat free yoghurt.

Lunch

Savoury rice (Batchelor's super rice) with beans

Dinner

All-day breakfast spaghetti - this was a recipe from the Easy Express cookbook. I really ate an awful lot of it because the kids weren't too keen; it was quite nice, but the recipe made it sound a lot easier than it was!

Snacks/Drinks

Coffee, Bacon with tomatoes on a wholemeal roll (healthy b), fruit, yoghurt.

Exercise

40 minute run (3.66 miles)

15 minutes exercise bike

Are we nearly there yet?

...in which yes, we are nearly there.

Tonight was weigh-in, and I lost 1.5 pounds (about 3/4 kg, for those who insist on using measurement systems based on powers of 10 rather than arbitrary weights of stuff).

This puts me 2 lbs (1.1 kg) away from target, and this makes me happy.

So, on Saturday I said that I might post a video of myself playing the new guitar I bought. However, having recorded said video and reviewed it, I'm pretty sure that I'd be arrested for cruelty to music lovers or something if I released it in its current form (this is partly because I recorded it on my phone, which apparently has the worst microphone ever, and partly because I made the mistake of singing while playing and my voice sounds like a donkey being attacked with a chainsaw - my actual playing isn't that bad).

I do have some software that lets me make higher quality recordings and the necessary equipment so I shall try to get that out this week and do a recording that doesn't make me sound like Simon Cowell should be shouting at me for wasting his time (not that I'd care if he was - I'm with Dave Grohl on that show and all its ilk. I don't suppose he'd have been too impressed with Dylan's voice either...)

Anyway, in celebration of being so close I have bought some beer tonight, but I'm pacing myself and sticking to no more than 3 cans (~18 syns - I couldn't find the exact brand on the app, but bitter is usually around 6 syns per 440ml can, which is considerably better than cider)!

I was a bit naughty today and didn't really eat very much in the day because I really wanted that weight loss - I would have been happy with half a pound so I was really happy to get one and a half. I don't recommend this though - it's far better to eat sensibly each day.

Also I won the raffle at the group tonight - lots of staple foods to cook with, including some mushy peas - haven't had those in years! :)).

Sunday 13th July

Healthy A: Milk

Breakfast

Fruit

Lunch

Roast chicken with boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, broccoli, sweetcorn and carrots (1.5 syns for the gravy)

Dinner

Bacon with tomato on a wholemeal roll (healthy b)

Snacks/Drinks

Coffee, Singapore noodles, small portion sweet & sour chicken from the food festival (5 syns at a guess), fruit, yoghurt.

Exercise

19 minutes running (2 miles - knee a little better but still sore).

Monday 14th July

Healthy A: Milk

Breakfast

Fruit (peach, grapes, strawberries)

Lunch

Marmite on a wholemeal roll (healthy B) plus a banana (in between a lot of exercise)

Dinner

Chicken Rogan Josh with rice (recipe can be downloaded here)

Snacks/Drinks

Coffee, fruit, yoghurt, lean meat (beef/chicken - I knew I'd be hungry this evening so I bought some reduced lean cooked meat from the supermarket).
3 440 ml cans of Boddington's Extra Smooth (18 syns but may go up to 24)!

Exercise

30 minutes exercise bike

30 minutes Just Dance 4

25 Minutes running (2.5 miles)

A new guitar!

...in which a new musical instrument has been "accidentally" purchased.

Today it was the first day of the Oswestry food festival, which I thought would be a hotbed of temptation to go well beyond my normal syns allowance. I had therefore avoided syns all week, but when I came to it I found that it was quite possible to eat lots of yummy stuff without going beyond my syns allowance:

Chicken tikka with salad and pilau rice (1.5 syns for the rice; tikka/salad should be free as it's just grilled chicken with spices, but the Slimming World app only has Tikka Masala which is not the same and not as low-syn as it has sauce)

Venison burger (grilled) with fried onions on a wholemeal roll (2 syns for fried onions, wholemeal roll as healthy b)

Ice-cream cone (2 scoops of rum & raisin, 14 syns, plus cone, 2 syns)

50g fudge (11 syns)

So, that's errr....(clicking of calculator keys despite the maths degree)....30.5 syns

And then tonight I had 750 ml of red wine (27 syns) so that's 57.5 syns, which is considerably less than I had last week at the stag night. Oh, and about 8 syns' worth of rosé last night, so that's a grand total of 65.5 syns. But I'll probably "have to" drink another glass because A. never drinks a full bottle, so call that a 250 ml of rose and that's 74.5 syns. Which I can live with.

At some point today I decided that I needed a new electro-acoustic guitar (although actually I decided this several months ago). I went to the local music shop and they happened to have a rather nice electro-acoustic in, which was reduced from £170 to £110 because it had been dropped at some point and there was a bit of a crack in the lacquer. 

I tried it out and it sounded fine, and was certainly a lot easier to play than my current guitar (which is OK, but very difficult to play barre chords on due to a high action - if you don't know about guitars, the action is how high the strings are above the 12th fret. If the action is high then it's harder to fret the strings; the one I had was fine for open chords but difficult to play barre chords (where you fret several strings at once with the same finger)).

I may post a video of me trying the new guitar out tomorrow, although that might be the wine talking.

The wine has probably got to me so I shall just list what I've eaten today now...

Saturday 12th July

Healthy A: Milk

Breakfast

Fruit (nectarine, apple, satsuma).

Lunch

Err...yeah. Chicken tikka with pilau rice and salad, venison burger with fried onions on a wholemeal roll (see above for presumed syn values).

Dinner

Diet cola chicken

Snacks/Drinks

Fruit, yoghurt, coffee, ice cream, fudge (see above for syns)

Exercise

30 minutes brisk walk.

Houston, we have a problem.

...in which an issue is encountered.

While out running last night my knee decided to sort of stop working. I'm not sure why, as all I'd done was stop to change the tune on the MP3 player as I didn't want to listen to whatever had shuffled itself on, but when I started running again my knee made it clear in no uncertain terms that it was not going to co-operate in this endeavour any more. It had been fine up until then, so I'm really not sure why it suddenly decided it wasn't going to work any more.

I had to walk/limp the last 1.6 miles or so home (this happened at about 5 miles in and I was aiming for 6.6 miles - I didn't take my mobile with me but I'd have called A to come and get me if I had). I found this a bit frustrating because the rest of my body was perfectly happy to keep going and I'm fairly sure I could easily run 8 miles or so if it wasn't for that knee, but there's not much I can do about it.

Since running is currently the main form of exercise I do this is a bit of a problem; it feels a bit better today but I know better than to run on it for a few days, so I'm going to stick to the exercise bike and see how that goes - on the plus side the 75 minutes I did running/walking/hobbling means that I only need to do about 15 minutes each day for the rest of the week to fill up my fit log (this is a Slimming World thing - I'm currently going for my Gold Award, which means doing 150 minutes of exercise a week over 5 days for 8 weeks).

Today I made what my Very Significant Other (VSO) described as "the nicest beef stew I've ever tasted" so I thought I'd record it for posterity here, since it was totally made up on the spot (done in the slow cooker)

4 -500g extra lean casserole beef, cut into bite size chunks
1 onion, finely chopped
3 - 4 small tomatoes, quartered (cherry would do - I used Vine Ripened tomatoes from Sainsbury's),
5 carrots, peeled & chopped into bite sized chunks
1 swede, peeled & chopped into bite sized chunks
1 500g carton passata
600 ml beef stock
2 cloves garlic, crushed
~2 Tbsp Paprika (I just sprinkled it in out of the jar so quantity may not be exact)!
1 1/2 tsp sweetener
Low calorie cooking spray

(Preheat the slow cooker if required - ours has an "auto" setting that it has to be left on for 20 minutes before cooking but I've no idea if that's a normal feature)

Spray a frying pan or wok with the low calorie cooking spray and heat over a medium heat; add the beef, garlic and onions and fry for 5 - 10 minutes, until the beef is browned

Put the swede and carrots into the slow cooker and add the stock. Transfer the beef, onions and garlic into the slow cooker and sprinkle the paprika and sweetener over the mixture; stir well to mix, then add the passata and tomatoes and stir again.

Leave the mixture in the slow cooker for 4 hours on high, then turn down to low for 30 minutes or so.

Serve with boiled potatoes and superfree veg (I used fine beans and broccoli).

Friday 11th July

Healthy A: Milk

Breakfast

Fruit (nectarine, apple, satsuma)

Lunch

Bacon and tomato on a wholemeal roll (healthy b)

Dinner

Beef stew with potatoes, fine green beans and broccoli

Snacks/Drinks

Yoghurts, fruit, lean meat, more fruit, coffee, a bit more fruit and some fruit (having a hungry day)!

Exercise

15 minute exercise bike (I hope...about to go and try the leg now).
Update - 30 minutes done on exercise bike and the knee actually feels better than when I started, so I'll do the exercise bike thing tomorrow as well and then maybe do a short 2 mile run on Sunday...

Thursday Food

...in which I've already said most of what I have to say!

I did a long blog post earlier (here) and I don't have the inspiration or time for another one (I have mowed the lawn though) so here's today's food (I'm having another "eat ALL THE THINGS" sort of day).

All caught up for the week now....normal service may resume tomorrow if you're lucky.

Thursday 10th July

Healthy A: Milk

Breakfast

Fruit (peach, apple, orange)

Lunch

Pasta with bacon & veg stir-fry and crushed chillies

Dinner

Chilli (made with Quorn)

Snacks/Drinks

Fruit, yoghurt, bacon on a slice of wholemeal bread (healthy b) with tomatoes, blackcurrant ice lolly (3 syns).

Exercise

30 minute run (may be longer, we'll see how I feel later).
This turned into a 75 minute run, but I had to walk most of the last 2 miles due to a dodgy knee. No running will be happening for a couple of days at least :(.

Of Karting and Curries

...in which the stag do is discussed

Right, I've been meaning to get around to writing this since Sunday but life kept getting in the way. I have therefore neatly moved life aside and will mow the lawn later, honest.

As you'll know if you've been following the blog, Saturday just gone was Saira's VSO's (henceforth referred to as G) stag party, which I was invited to and attended with much enthusiasm. We first went to glan y gors karting track, where we drove small go-karts at what felt like very high speed around a big track. I thought the hair-nets and overalls we had to wear were particularly attractive. Unfortunately G's brother had neglected to mention that it was a stag do when booking it or G would have been wearing neon pink overalls.

I am not (normally) hugely competitive, but once you're in those karts and racing there's a certain impulse that kicks in. If there's somebody in front of you then you really, really want to overtake them and if there's somebody behind you then you really don't want to let them. This may or may not have led to a "oops my kart's on the grass" incident...but generally I think I held my own, given that I'd never been karting before and most of the others had. I didn't come first, but I wasn't last and I had a great time, and shall definitely go again if I get the chance.

There are, however, certain disadvantages to sitting in what is effectively a plastic bucket travelling at anywhere up to 80mph, especially when you're high on adrenaline. During the racing you don't really notice the way you're being thrown around in the seat (although you certainly do notice the strain in your arms from turning the kart); the turning circle on those things is insanely small and you do tend to start throwing them into corners with complete abandon once you get the feel for them. 

You do, however, notice the bruises and bumps the following day....although to be fair some of those might have been self-inflicted during the drunken shenanigans that followed.

After the karting we headed back home in the minibus, via Llangollen and a couple of pubs (allegedly to watch the Belgium match but very little football watching actually happened). After that my memories of the day are somewhat hazy. That may have something to do with the Guinness and the wine that followed, but I do vaguely remember leaving the remainder of our jolly band at around 11:30pm to go and get a curry, because that's always been the traditional end to a night out for me.

I'm quite impressed that at that point I could remember that a chicken vindaloo is 6.5 syns and that therefore I should go for that, although having walked/staggered (delete whichever is least appropriate) home with it I apparently forgot that the accompanying complimentary poppadom was 4 syns by itself. Apparently I was singing along very loudly to my wife's MP4 player and attempting to eat with my fingers...

Anyway, moving swiftly on...I worked out that I'd had around 78.5 syns for the entire day, but since I'd saved my syns all week that was fine (yes, I know you're not meant to do it, but it works for me). I still lost half a pound, and am now 3.5 pounds to target.

I'm planning a very low syn this week as it's the last week that I've paid for and once I hit target membership is free (as long as I stay within 3lbs of target), although it's likely that I will lower my target by at least half a stone once I'm there...and it's the Oswestry food festival this weekend, where it is traditional that I take my daughter and eat a lot of stuff, so that may get in the way.

Wow, that was a long one (as the actress said to the bishop). Yesterday's food (I'll do a short post later with today's now that I'm caught up):

Wednesday 9th July

Healthy A: Milk

Breakfast

Fruit (peach, apple, orange)

Lunch

Bacon pasta salad (bacon fried with mushrooms, red onion, tomatoes and spring onions and added to cold pasta with some crushed chillies)

Dinner

Gammon with Jacket wedges, sweetcorn and broccoli.

Snacks/Drinks

Coffee/fruit/yoghurt

Exercise

Rest day.

Busy busy busy

....in which life is not playing ball

Since I run my own company occasionally things get a bit manic. This is one such time, so here's a quick update with the last few days' food - I will try to do a longer post later, but more work beckons (because apparently we need money to buy stuff).

Oh yes, I lost half a pound this week despite the stag do shenanigans - 3.5 pounds to target!

Sunday 6th July

Healthy A: Milk.

Breakfast

Fruit (peach, apple, satsuma), fat-free yoghurt

Lunch

Roast pork (fat removed) with boiled potatoes, carrots, broccoli, roast potatoes & sweetcorn. 1.5 syns for gravy.

Dinner

More fruit...wasn't very hungry!

Snacks/Drinks

Coffee, fruit, yoghurt

Exercise

Rest day (largely because of various bumps and bruises that were either a result of karting or drunkenness - not sure which!

Monday 7th July

Healthy A: Milk.

Breakfast

Fruit (apple, peach, satsuma), fat-free yoghurt

Lunch

Ham & Mushroom omelette with spicy wedges & baked beans

Dinner

Paprika Pork

Snacks/Drinks

Coffee, fruit, yoghurt

Exercise

30 minute run (approx 3 miles)

Tuesday 8th July

Healthy A: Milk.

Breakfast

Fruit (apple, pear, satsuma), fat free yoghurt

Lunch

Piri-piri jacket wedges with runner beans and fish.

Dinner

Diet Coke chicken (never tried this before)!

Snacks/Drinks

Coffee, fruit, yoghurt, marmite on a slice of wholemeal bread (healthy b)

Exercise

Another rest day because ow my side and my arms and I think I might have a bruised coccyx....
(Okay, I ended up running 3.63 miles despite all that. Somehow I now consider this to be a medium length run...)

Stag Do Food and Drink

...in which Saturday's food diary is presented

I'll talk about the karting (which was excellent fun) and general shenanigans more in a later post. Here's what I had on Saturday though:

Breakfast

Fruit (can't remember exactly what, I've slept twice since then), yoghurt

Lunch

Plain burger in a white bread roll - 7.5 syns for the bread roll, 3.5 for the burger (I think it was grilled); I'm assuming that the meat wasn't extra lean, but it's possible that it was.

Dinner

2 Fish from fish & chip shop with batter removed (free - yes, I remembered to remove the batter even after 3 pints of guinness).
And then later on the way home I got a chicken vindaloo (6.5 syns) with boiled rice. I don't remember eating a poppadom, but judging by the mess on the table yesterday morning one of those ended up in my tummy too (4 syns)

Snacks/Drinks

Coffee (espresso, so free)
6 pints Guinness Extra Cold (6.5 syns each = 39 syns)
500ml red wine (my head was a bit fuzzy by then so measurements may not be accurate) 18 syns

Exercise

30 minute run (in the morning)
15 minute walk (home from town....may have meandered a bit....)

Total syns for the day:78.5. Which is actually kind of disappointingly low when I saved all my syns up for the week for it!

Stag Do!

...in which I am not here.

Today is Saira's Very Significant Other's stag do. So I'm having a shower in a minute and then going out.

This also means that I haven't got the faintest idea what I'll be eating today, but I will probably be drinking enough beer to take me well over my syns limit...unless I manage to resist, which is unlikely. So there we go.

Run time!

...in which my mind probably wanders a bit.

(Run time as opposed to design time. This is a programmer thing, you can ignore it. Unless you want me to explain it...no? No, didn't think so).

This morning I ran 4.8 miles in 45 minutes. If I'd tried to do that 6 months ago there's a better than even chance that I'd have keeled over halfway around; even briskly walking it would have caused me to get out of breath (probably within the first mile). I ran in the morning today because it is the Elder Teen's prom tonight (when did proms become a thing in the UK?)...I will probably run again tomorrow morning, since I shall spend the afternoon driving go-karts around very fast and the evening engaged in beer drinking).

This wasn't one of the reasons I originally joined Slimming World; I did want to feel a bit more healthy (and in fact I feel about a hundred times more healthy; I have more energy, I feel more alert and I'm generally much fitter) but a side effect of that has been that I can now run much further than I've been able to since the half marathon, and without feeling anywhere near as tired.

The picture on the left below is why I decided to slim down (not just that picture - the aggregate of years of living unhealthily and really starting to feel its effects as I hit my 40s):

The picture on the left is August 2012; the one on the right is a couple of weeks ago. The t-shirt on the left is a large; on the right I'm wearing a Medium (although they're different manufacturers so there's not much difference).

I have been told by 3 separate ladies in the last week that I look "amazing". (Okay, one of them was Claire the lovely SW consultant and it's part of her job to make us feel good about ourselves, but it still counts)! That is what Claire calls a "non-scale victory"...it feels good that people have noticed.

I am very close to my target now (4 pounds to go) but I still have a bit of a belly and slight man-boobs, so it's quite likely I will lower my target a bit - I have a very clear image of how I want to look when I have no shirt on and it doesn't involve a belly or man-boobs, plus I will still be in the overweight range for my height at my current target.

So, there we go. Sorry, that did ramble about a bit...but to sum it up I'm glad I joined Slimming World.

Friday 4th July

Healthy A: Milk

Breakfast

Fruit (Apple, nectarine, pear)

Lunch

Chicken Tikka pasta salad; fruit (orange and grapes).

Dinner

Paprika Pork (recipe here for Slimming World members - requires log in)

Snacks/Drinks

Coffee, bacon on a wholemeal roll (healthy b), fruit, yoghurt

Exercise

45 minute run (4.8 miles)