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)