Rambling!

...in which I'm all over the place.

Advance warning: this blog post may ramble on a bit and be a bit stream-of-consciousness, because I'm tired and have had cider, so may not have my usual focus (hahahaha).

Slimming World stuff first...today was weigh-in day, and I lost 2 lb and got this

This makes me happy. I now have just 4 pounds (about 1.8 kg, for those who prefer measurement systems with less character but more sense) to go to get to target, but I am not expecting to lose any weight this week because it is Saira's Very Significant Other's stag do on Saturday, and I will spend half the day racing go-karts around (and probably losing very badly), and the other half of the day in various pubs.

The week after it is Oswestry food festival, and it is traditional that the turquoise princess  (she doesn't like pink any more) and I go and sample the food until we are stuffed, so it is quite likely it will take me at least another 3 - 4 weeks to get to target - I'm hoping that I can maintain my current weight for the next couple of weeks.

Talking of TP, last night she started singing "The Lazy Song" and after the first line stopped and said..."but if you didn't do anything then you wouldn't breathe, and then you'd die". That sums up pretty much all you need to know about our daughter (other pearls of wisdom...the first time she saw a Smart Car and was told what it was called, at 8 years old, she declared "well it doesn't look very smart!").

The Elder Teen has finished his exams now, and it's amazing how stuff like dirty cereal bowls and plates that have had toast on appear to materialise magically in the kitchen...I suppose at least it's the kitchen and they're not being hidden under his bed with mould growing on them.

I have had a couple of cans of cider to celebrate hitting the 3 stone lost mark, but I must avoid the temptation of eating whatever I feel like just because I know that it's unlikely that I'll lose any weight this week.

Monday 30th June

Healthy A: Milk

Breakfast

Peach, Pear, Apple, Fat-free Greek-style Yoghurt

Lunch

Jacket potato wedges, runner beans, sweetcorn, piri-piri Chicken

Dinner

Chicken Rogan Josh (recipe in Rich Text Format here - you should be able to open this in most word processing software packages).

Snacks/Drinks

Fruit, yoghurt, cider (2 cans Strongbow Pear Cider, 19 syns total).

Exercise

Rest Day

The joy of the run

...in which I consider the attractions of running

Today, I have been for a long (by my standards) run of 5 miles, which I did in around 50 minutes. My legs still feel OK and I probably could run a bit further - after a flurry of facebook comments I'm now tentatively considering signing up for another half marathon, despite what my legs thought of the last one I did.

I would be interested to see what sort of time I could do it in now that I'm carrying a lot less weight and am generally fitter and have more time to train....watch this space, as they say.

Anyway, running...there's a strange sort of attraction to it. When I run, there's nothing but the effort of putting one foot in front of the other, and the sound of the music through the headphones. It's a good time to think about stuff, and it's actually kind of satisfying to finish a long run and feel as if you could go further.

This afternoon I took the Youngest Child into town, and we stopped off in Costa for a coffee (in my case - black with sweetener since I didn't have my milk allowance with me) and a cake and a "creamy cooler" in hers (which she decided she didn't like in the end). While we were there I saw a guitar in the local music shop for £60 (I do actually play the guitar), and was super tempted, but held off as I already have about 5 guitars and probably my wife would not be too impressed at me bringing home yet another one....

Saturday 28th June

Healthy A: Milk

Breakfast

Bacon on a wholemeal roll (healthy b) with tomatoes

Lunch

Fruit (Nectarine, orange) fat-free yoghurt, slice of ham - I wasn't very hungry for some reason.

Dinner

Home made potato wedges, garden peas, sweetcorn, broccoli, gammon (fat removed, fried in Frylight).

Snacks/Drinks

Coffee, fruit, yoghurt, some sort of free sample sweet from Mollie's (I'll count it as 0.5 of a syn - I have no idea what it was, some sort of small hard ball coloured gold).

Exercise

45 minute run

15 minutes exercise bike

A quiet week...sort of

In which I can't think of anything much to write.

I've had to get my brother with his enormous ladder (no, that's not a euphemism) around yesterday.  This was because Mad Middle Child had decided to throw the front door keys onto the roof.  This may require some explanation, I realise.

A little while ago he (Mad Middle Child (MMC), not my brother) bought himself a new bike with his pocket money.  As children will he's treated it quite roughly, but this week the handlebar stem snapped, which I'm pretty sure is not supposed to happen unless you drop it off a building or something. 

The people in the shop were very apologetic about this and replaced it, despite the fact that he'd taken the "peggies" off and it was generally a bit wrecked.  They also said he should wear a helmet in case there was an issue with that specific model and the new bike does the same thing - it could have been quite dangerous, after all, and they gave us a free helmet for him.


To say that MMC was a bit upset at us telling him he couldn't go out on his bike without a helmet on is like saying that the sun is a bit hot.  Incandescent would be about the most gentle word you could use for it.  So he decided to grab the keys to the garage, and when I went to stop him getting the new bike out he threw them on the roof.  At least it's better than the times he decides to throw shoes at us.


He's still refusing to wear his helmet and we're still refusing to let him  out on his bike without it.  It's a war of attrition that will be won by the side with the greatest willpower. 



If you don't have children yourself and are planning to tell me how to deal with this in the comments, feel free; but I suggest you get some children first - it will be the last time in your life you have all the answers.


Right, where was I?  Oh yes, training and dieting and stuff.  I've been skipping the fried breakfasts this week and eating quite disgustingly healthily at lunchtime and dinnertime, at least most of the time, and I've been for 2 5.5k-ish runs with the guys from work, which is more than I've run in any week since starting training.  So I was a bit disappointed to find that I've only lost a pound this week.  It's quite important for me to lose weight since the heavier I am the harder it is to run, but at least it's going in vaguely the right direction (just slowly).

 On the plus side, I'm not feeling so tired after runs and am generally managing OK.  My legs still ache a bit, but I don't have to virtually crawl up the guest house stairs when I get back; and on the second run this week we managed the distance in less than 40 minutes, which I felt very proud of until I realised that to make my target for the half-marathon I have to do 4 times as much distance and each 5.5k needs to take less than 30 minutes.  Oh-oh.


I have a week and a half left at my current contract before I go off to a place even further away.  In one way I'm looking forward to it since I'll actually get to use all the software development stuff I've learnt over the years, but in another way I'm approaching it with some trepidation.  I know it won't be such a relaxed environment as I'm in now, and I doubt the people I have to work with will be as nice (but we shall see).

They have sent me the source code for the application they currently use; I won't go into technnical details, but if it was a building it would be on a show with a name like "return of the worst cowboy builders from hell ever - the baddest of the bad".   This is code that was not so much written as perpetrated.

I think I'm starting to ramble a bit now, so it's probably time to sign off.  Until next time, folks...