A Bank Holiday walk Part 1

 Right, now the weather has reverted back to winter/spring, here's some pics from the unseasonally lovely Bank Holiday weekend.  Perhaps the only summer we'll see this year??  Hope not.

We walked over the hill from Bradwell to Shatton and then up Win Hill.  It was coolish and cloudy when we set off but got gradually warmer.  Here are some happy looking lambs chilling.  I love watching the lambs in the fields, they're such little characters and so perfectly formed like any baby creatures but also so accessible.

It got warm quickly and there wasn't a lot of water around on the first half of our walk so a muddy ditch had to suffice for drinking and tummy cooling purposes.  Rich and I managed to restrain ourselves however.

Spring flowers on a sunny bank in a pretty sunken lane.  Lift the spirits don't they?

And lush hinge and bracket fungi.  I've no idea if it's edible but wouldn't want to try anyway. it looked too happy on its tree.

A buzzard wheeling overhead.

The village of Bamford nestling into the hillside.

The dogs were adamant that we should turn left to go down to the river for a swim and a swallow chase (if they were lucky).  We wouldn't and they weren't impressed!

Bamford Edge looms at us from the other side of the valley.

The light was sparkling and the greens were spring fresh and glittering in the sunshine.  Heaven.

We had to head up hill though - we're going right to the top. I can't remember why he was flicking the V's at me.....

We're about halfway up here and you can see Bamford way behind me.

We had a busy Bank Holiday weekend.  Golf at Woodhall Spa on the Friday; the last match of the season back in Sheffield on Saturday (a day which involved several celebratory beers and a curry); a golf match on the Sunday and a good long walk on the Monday.  It all sounds very active and you might think it would have helped me drop a lb or so.

But there was a clue buried in the middle there as to why it did not!  The day out on the beers on Saturday to watch Sheffield Wednesday save themselves from a remote chance  of relegation followed by one of the most delicious curries I've ever had certainly scuppered any weight loss chances I might have had.  That said, there have been no gains......yet!

What a day Saturday was.  To be fair, a LOT would have had to go wrong for us to have been relegated but it was possible so obviously we were not totally relaxed.  Luckily our team finally put us out of our misery and scored an early goal and then another before half time to make sure we were never in danger. Then we could sit back and enjoy the ride and look forward to some beers, music and a nice afternoon/evening out with pals.  We went to the restaurant we tried for my birthday last November and it was even better than I remembered.  I chose a fish dish called Meeth Bangla which was heaven on a plate - rich salmon and aubergine in a spicy sauce.  Beautifully done.   

Tomorrow is my next official WI so I'll call in then with a proper update.

I'm playing lots of golf and doing lots of hilly walking but being a tad lazy on the aerobic exercise and haven't been training for a couple of weeks so that is going to change next week.  I finally (after nearly 2 months) feel ALMOST fully better from my Easter flu!  Tomorrow I'm working from home and I'm going to go to the outdoor swimming pool in Hathersage for a thrash up and down the pool.  That'll be a decent change from trying to make myself go running or to training!!  I'll post pictures if...WHEN....I make it to the pool!!

Right - Sunday dinner is cooking so I had better get on it.

New Wave

All the chatting about "getting back to it" is finally paying off.  I dug out my old Six Weeks to OMG schedule and actually started DOING it on Monday.  Not perfectly admittedly but DOING it again.  Getting on the scales first thing (which I've been doing a lot anyway); cold showering (which likewise I've never really stopped); black coffee'ing (ditto); POM'ing (a POM is a "period of movement" or, in other words, exercise which I have been doing less of); waiting at least 3 hours before eating etc etc

I've managed 3 days so far and have had mixed results.  I've been stellar in the mornings and at lunchtimes but have struggled to stick to it in the evenings.  It'll come.  I have grazed before eating or eaten a modest meal and then carried on to have toast and/or cereals.  Hmmm  

I suspect it has been made worse because I'm ill, AGAIN!  I thought I'd got better last week and truly was for 2 or 3 blissful days and then the cough started up again.  Last night it turned from hacking, dry, explosive cough into a stremaing head cold.  Sigh.  I suspect that if I was well, I would find it easier NOt to graze as I'd be out and about doing stuff, not welded to the sofa looking after myself.

Anyway, mini-target for tonight is not to have anything else to eat (apart from a cup of tea later). 

Weightwise, I started at 14.11 on Monday morning (Grrrrr) but am down to 14.9 now so back in the approximate zone and not too much damage done as long as I can really make this push stick.

What else is going on then?  I've not posted much recently as I've been reeling a bit under all the "stuff" going on.

The job thing I mentioned in my last post was somewhat annoying but I have reconciled myself to it.  It was a restructure of my department which everyone read one way, meaning  Iwould have a realistic shot at the team manager job.  Trouble is, senior management made a decision to move a litigator over from his half of hhte department into my half.  This had the knock-on effect of removing a senior job from a chap everyone thought would get it thus leaving him competing with me for the TM job.  Obviously he got it leaving me and another woman out in the cold.  To be fair to him, he's similarly cheesed off as he's been effectively demoted in favour of a litigator and the only reason we can see for the litigator's sidewise move was to allow his chum over in litigation to get the senior promotion.

Great for that chap.  Not so great over here where we're all blocked now.  And not so great below him in litigation where they now have to recruit with no budget.  Cock up anyone??

I asked for a meeting on Monday morning to say my piece and clear the air and have done so so now  I can put it to bed and stop raging about the unfairness of it all.  I'm going to retrench and concentrate on enjoying life and staying stressfree (and hopefully illness free as well) for a while.  I like my job and want to do it well but there is no point getting ill over it or worrying about it unduly, especially now I've not been promoted.....

On the house sale front, it is GREAT knowing that it's not my responsibility any more!  I drive past it most days and it is so nice to see it lived in again.  And to know that they are a nice family who will love it and look after it.  It was such a nice house it "deserves" some TLC.  And, even better, I don't have to mow the lawns or cut the hedges!!

Football?  Hmmm, least said about that the better.  We should have been safe from relegation after last Saturday's game but couldn't manage a draw which was all we needed.  What a bummer.  Now it goes down to the last match of the season against Middlesbrough.  It's not toooo bad as safety is at least in our hands.  If we get a win we're safe and a draw would probbaly see us through dependent upon other results.  It's going to be a nervy, horrible affair until we've scored enough goals to be safe.  Ha!  As if that's going to happen - last chance dance is where we're at.

Golf.  I'm loving it this season but not playing particularly well, not badly but not brilliantly.  I'm hoping that that is because I've not been well....hoping.....still, hoping....  We're playing at Woodhall Spa on Friday which is a great course and usually far too expensive but we get a good deal because Rich is captain of his course this year.  Yay!! I hope I can do it justice.

So, that's a quick update.  I'll be back soon to let you know how SWTOMG Mark 2 is getting on.  See you soon peeps.

Normal service is resumed

Well, if by normal you mean drinking way too much and going to the footie! I should be dieting sensibly, exercising and keeping away from days out on the beer but I'm just not.

The good news is that the house has sold in time to leave me a modest but decent wedge. The bad news is that, having been dragged out of my nice, comfy team at work into the v stressy legal department, and having had the carrot of promotion dangled in front of me by way of consolation, I didnt get the job.  There was a monumental "jobs for the boys" stitch up which didn't just shaft me but several others.

I'm gutted to be honest cos I know I could have done a good job but now we have a chocolate teapot "political" appointment running the team. Well, that's it, no more Ms Nice Lawyer. Cooperation withdrawn. Easy life reinstated. Not the way I wanted it but I'm going to hunker down and just do MY job as well as I can for now.

Today I'm chuffed that we are off to the football. Peterborough away.  A big day out and hopefully I can put the disappointment behind me Wish me luck peeps.

Hi again

God I'm a rubbish blogger at the moment.  A bit like my dieting and exercise efforts; my blogging efforts are sporadic, disjointed and somewhat half-hearted.  Whoops!

However, I'm really feeling as though I'm getting back into the mood for having another go.  For one thing, I am a lot healthier.  For the first time in weeks I do not feel sick, am not coughing or phlegmy.  Yay!!

For another, my house has finally sold!  What bliss.  It all went through on Friday so that pressue is finally lifted.

For a third, spring is finally springing so to speak.  It's not exactly tropical or anything but it's nice to feel a modicum of warmth in the sunshine even if you are being blown over by the gale force winds!

Work is still heavy but no longer manic.  The current reality is that I just have too much on every day and will never catch up at this rate but it's the same for all of us and nothing is going to change despite our pleas for assistance.  My team and I have therefore decided to do what we can and hang the rest!

Weight wise, my sickness inspired low weight has not persisted.  What a shame.  Once I got my apetite back and stopped being so dehydrated, my weight reverted back to around the 14.9/14.10 mark.  This means that I've gained a few lbs from my lowest and am less than a stone down from my starting weight.  Grrrr.  But no real damage done and it's not out of control by any means.

I have not been running for weeks but I've been to 2 sessions of personal training last week and this evening so the exercise is beginning again.  I'm playing golf tomorrow morning (likely in the rain....) and working from home from my parents on Thursday so am planning a "starting again" run in Lincolndshire (flat, see).

The key thing diet wise has GOT to be cutting back on carbs and snacks.  Too much bread and too much eating between meals.  I've made a start this week at reducing noth but it's not proving easy.  Must. Try. Harder.

So, once again, peeps, wish me luck and see you soon. L xxx

Beginning again, again

So, I'm not better but I'm slowly getting better.  This is not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning.  I hate being sick.... I sulk.

But, so that I don't let anothe week pass un-acted upon, I stepped on the scales yesterday and saw 14.8.0.  My new starting weight.  Not too bad, would have preferred lower but there you go.  I'm going to concentrate on reducing the carbs which have unaccountably crept back into my average day and, eventually, getting back to doing regular exercise.

It is a good time to start again.  My old marital home is about to sell (should be completing in the next week or so).  It has been cleared and is totally empty now.  It was quite a liberating experience seeing the last remnants being loaded up onto the house clearance firm's van and driven off.  Part of me kept thinking "I could do something with that.  I could use that."  But another part thought  "You've done enough.  Let it go."

It has spurred me into action on the ebaying and selling off front too.  It feels like a positive thing to be doing; giving nice things a new lease of life and making a bit of cash from them to go towards lovely holidays and trips out with my lovely man.

So, hopefully I'll be reporting in with tales of dropped blubber, exercise and trips out very soon.

Listening to my body

Because I've been poorly sick, I've been trying to listen to my body about what it really wants to do - both in terms of activity levels and also in terms of what I eat.  For the first couple of days I didn't eat much at all anyway but the only things I fancied were fruit, sweet stuff (I ate half a bar of chocolate each day) and cereals.  Then yesterday I wanted to eat more and went for savoury meals of egg fried rice and later a stir fry for supper as well.  So clearly yesterday I wanted salty soy sauce based meals!

I have been all over the place being alternately dehydrated (the morning on the scales when I saw 14.4.8!!) and drinking like a horse all day thereafter.  However, I am definitely on the mend now and my weight seems to have settled down at roughly where it was before ie. 14.6 or 7.  This means that I can start again (on Monday as is traditional) from a decent level and hopefully make progress towards the elusive 13's.

In the meantime, I'm being very good foodwise and have this morning reinstated the cold showers and black coffee routine which I suspended while feeling so grim. 

I know that next week will be a struggle as, although I'm much better, I'm not actually well.  Breathing in is a rattley, sore affair  and I'm still achy and a lot tireder than normal.  Exercise will not restart for at least another week.  However, I think I did the right thing taking a week not exactly off work but working from home and taking it easy.  Hopefully I will have averted a longer spell of poorliness...

There is nothing else to report really as I've hardly done anything recently.  The house sale is going alright and should complete soonish so our house is full to bursting with stuff.  I'm ebaying away trying to create some more space and create a holiday fund.  We're off for a walk soon - flat and gentle, the only way to go!

Silver Lining

Hi all.  Here are yet more snowy pics taken over a week ago now when it was deep and crisp and even.  We still have plenty left although it's mostly in heaps on the side of the road or in strips in the fields.

Bradwell Church.  I must take some pics from inside and find out more about it's age and history etc.

Rebellion Knoll.  No idea why - once again, I must find out more about it.

Richard throwing a snowball for Shelagh.  She loves chasing after them an then heading off into the field to bury them.  Weird!

It was DEEP.

The poor pooches really had to work to run in it.

More snowball throwing.

Minty's technique is more destructive - she pounces on the thrown snowball to the point of disintegration - no need to bury it then, see.

 Man down, man down..

Well, poorly as I am, even I can see the silver lining.  I have been making myself stand on the scales every morning for a week or so now.  It's part of my "getting back into the swing of dieting" push.  On occasion in the last few days it has been a very disheartening experience with 14.11 and even 14.12 registering.  However, I suspect that seeing those numbers helped me to rein back and drop a few.  (I suspect also that those extreme numbers were temporary TOTM leaps too).

That said, being sick has really helped the cause.  I have not been hungry and not drunk booze all weekend either so I was very pleased with 14.6.8 yesterday.  Even more pleased with 14.4.8 this morning!!

This feels like a real Brucie Bonus.  One that I should capitalise on.  This has taken me right back to my lowest weight in this dieting cycle (well, not quite but near as dammit - the actual lowest was 14.4.0).  Although I know that it has come from being ill, I also know that there is no reason why I cna't take it and build a decent loss from it.  I am so much closer to the 13's now.  I can almost touch them. 

So, my main priority now is getting rid of this horrible lurgy (it is going - I feel better than I did yesterday although still very weak).  THEN, I am going to be straight back into a PROPER push to drop some lbs.  Not just going throught he motions but actually cut down on carbs and booze, do more exercise and get into those 13's - for summer and for good!