The all-pervasive football

...in which I consider the far-reaching nature of sport

A couple of friends and I have had a Skype Instant Messaging conversation going for the best part of a year now*. We are from different countries (Belgium/Netherlands/UK), we hold broadly similar views about a lot of things (and wildly different views about some others), and you would be hard pressed to find 3 people who are less interested in football (except when the younger teen is playing, in which case I become interested).

*(edit for the sake of accuracy - one of the other participants has pointed out that the conversation has been going since at least April 2013, so a bit more than a year).

In fact the chances are that if one of us died tomorrow the average enthusiasm for football in our nation would actually go up. So it was quite a bizarre experience for the three of us to find ourselves discussing whether Robben dived or not in the Netherlands vs Mexico game, whether the penalty was justified, and how theatrical or otherwise his reaction was. There you go, you can't even get away from football in this little corner of the Internet...the world cup seems to have made us all football fans to some degree.

With that in mind, here's a link to an amusing but serious video about FIFA (some bad language):

John Oliver talks about FIFA

Now on to diet and exercise *Wiggles hands in a Wayne's World style transition*

I have to avoid having too many Syns early on this week because of the upcoming stag do. Slimming World have the following to say about saving Syns for the week:

"At Slimming World we don't recommend that you save all your Syns up for the week, just so you can have a few drinks on a Saturday night. Depriving yourself throughout that week is like putting yourself in a tight corset. Before Saturday night arrives, that corset could well have been flung off, and your eating plan been pushed aside for the week…then the month… then the year."

(From here - this requires a Slimming World log on).

I do not struggle with saving my syns up for the week; it's the approach that I have always taken, largely because there's nothing with syns in it that I really want that wouldn't take me well over the recommended daily intake (yes, I could theoretically have one packet of crisps, but I know it's not likely to happen so unless I'm absolutely positive that I'll only eat a single packet I find it better not to start). 

Being on Slimming World hardly feels like I'm depriving myself anyway. I didn't drink in the week (often..well, not very often) before I started, so only drinking at weekends doesn't seem a hardship, and I've actually come to prefer fruit and pickled onions and other healthy snacks to the stuff I used to eat; I feel about 100 times better than I did when I started and that helps keep me on track too. 

Clearly what works for one person might not work for another, so if you're on Slimming World I would follow their advice unless you're sure that you can manage without treats in the week (or can replace the treats with more healthy stuff).

Tuesday 1st July

(That's not right, is it? It can't really be halfway through the year already...)

Healthy A: Milk. Yes, again.

Breakfast

Wholemeal roll (healthy b) with bacon & cherry tomatoes

Lunch

Baked potato with beans & super rice

Dinner

Slimming world chips with pastry-less quiche (bacon, onions, tomatoes, spring onions, yellow pepper, mushrooms, cottage cheese, eggs) with runner beans, sweetcorn & broccoli (that's the veg I have to make so that all of the kids get at least 1-2 vegetables that they like and A. and I get our 1/3rd of a plate super free, although the quiche is largely super free).

Snacks/Drinks

Coffee, yoghurt, fruit.

Exercise

45 minutes running (5.5 miles, took 48 minutes).