Summer Holidays

Let us not speak of dieting and weigh ins! Instead, let us speak of summer and sunshine and fun!

The summer is of course awash with excuses for eating ice cream and burgers and I am not immune to these tasty temptations, but be assured that I am fulfilling my "turning up for weigh in" obligations when I am not away, and will be a good girl again very soon!

So far this summer we have had 3 trips away, with a 4th happening later this week. We are jumping on a train to Bournemouth to stay with my best friend from junior school - we've not set eyes on each other for over 30 years, but we found each other again thanks to the wonder that is the internet and the grand reunion is on Thursday! I'm excited and scared in equal measure and I bet she is too! But she has lured us to Bournemouth with the promise of endless sunshine, and after a quick look at the grey sky here, well who am I to argue!

Speaking of meeting people, I have been in the presence of greatness! I went camping with some friends and had the very great pleasure of meeting Spence Kennedy who writes Siren Voices. I have to admit to feeling pretty much star struck. I love the way Spence writes, the way he paints the picture with his words, and that he never ever passes judgement on what he has seen. There is no political debate, no angst at the issues that rage within the NHS, just stories about people. So I was in the presence of a great author, and all my words deserted me. He probably thought I was quiet or standoffish or something because the best I could do was smile and say hello most of the time - how embarrasing! But he's one of the good guys so I doubt he'll hold it against me. And he did try to help me jumpstart my car, and left me with a pack of wet wipes so I could clean my hands once I'd managed to get going again.

I should have got him to autograph the wipes - one day this guy will have his writing in print, of that I am certain!

Light Bulb!

Weight: 18st 1.5lbs
Loss: l.5lb
Total loss 66lbs

A little smaller loss than I would have liked but I am totally determined to see any loss as a good thing and not allow myself to fall because I became downhearted. So yay!

I had a little lightbulb moment this week. Without a doubt we all know that its important to eat breakfast and drink plenty of fluids. And usually I put this into practice because rules are rules after all. But one day this week I got involved in a busy day without eating or drinking before I began and as the day wore on I found myself battling severe cravings. I wasn't hungry. I couldn't have sat and eaten a big meal or anything. But I wanted chocolate or cake oh so badly. Badly enough that that my husband/enabler found me standing peering into the fridge frantically drumming my fingers on the fridge door. When he pointed out what I was doing I reverted to standing wringing my hands as I tried to head myself off at the pass. I call him enabler there because, bless him, with the best intentions in the world, he rushed out to buy me chocolate. I am proud to report here that I didn't eat it. It remains, 4 days later, uneaten and now hidden from me.

So when I looked back at my day, I very quickly saw where I had gone wrong. No breakfast, a rushed lunch, and shockingly little to drink. In fact once I realised how little I had drunk, I poured myself a huge glass of diet coke (yeah I know, it should have been water, but I was resisting chocolate in the actual house at this point you know!) and very quickly my cravings were suppressed.

I can't claim I will never make this mistake again, but at least I know there is a readily availble solution to the problem, and that's pretty empowering. Better than a Chunky KitKat!