Xmas catch up and New Year Holiday...

A belated Merry Christmas everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful time. I have made a complete pig of myself, but I'm not going to stress overly about it. It's made me desperate to get back on track, I am very much looking forward to being back in control!

I had a lovely time at my parents, it was wonderful to spend time with the family, especially my nieces who were so over excited by Santa Claus coming. On the 23rd we took my parents to see White Christmas and had a lovely meal at a small restaurant called Paprika - gorgeous food and highly recommended if you are ever in the Sunderland area.

Christmas Eve was spent with my nieces and then a few drinks at my parents local. Very relaxed.

Christmas day at my parents was the usual manic affair. My little sister and her hubby stayed over as well and my other sister and her family came round at 8am and we all opened our many presents (my mother goes completely OTT at Xmas, she is brilliant, bless her). There were 13 of us for lunch, so you can imagine the amount of food that was on offer. We'd literally just cleared the table from lunch when my mother began the buffet preparations (more of the family come round for Christmas tea) - I was so stuffed however, I managed to ignore food for the rest of the day.

Yesterday, we headed over to the coast to see our friends Alex and Rory who were also up North for Christmas (I went to school with Alex, but we now live about 500 yards from each other in Reading). They had hired an apartment in Tynemouth with Dorothy the cat, so we went there for food and drinks and to watch Rory do the Boxing Day swim in Whitley Bay - utter madness! We then headed to my sisters for yet more food and drink and a few rounds of Just Dance on the Wii. I can honestly say, I am sick of food and drink for now!

Today we drove back down South - a fairly hideous affair. 7.5 hours of stop, start, stop start, due to sheer amount of traffic on the roads. I am blaming Sales shoppers, as the weather was fine and there were no roadworks or accidents, just bloody millions of cars. Matt was suffering some sort of stomach bug (or if you ask him, he was dying), so I had to drive pretty much all of the way - I was not overly sympathetic to his plight as you can imagine.

So tonight, the plan is to relax. I've unpacked my bags from Christmas and am now thinking about repacking for my holiday!

Tomorrow we are off to Tenerife for the New Year and not back until the 8th January. The weather is looking good, so I cannot wait to escape the freezing cold temperatures of the UK and literally do nothing for 10 days. I've downloaded a few books on my new Kindle (I love it!) so, I shall be spending the next few days reading and lying around doing as little as possible before attempting a bit of tennis, swimming and walking to ease me back into some form of fitness.

Once I am back, I am determined to shift some more of this lard. I've made a pact with a few of my best  friends that we are going to get fit and attempt to walk up Mount Snowdon.... madness perhaps, but it gives me something to work towards. I'm going to join a gym in January and I am refocussing on WW 100%.

I doubt I'll be online much between now and when I get back from Spain, so I hope you all have a wonderful New Year. Expect me to be a lot more prolific in my blogging as I attempt to get this lard arse back into some sort of shape :)

xx

I've escaped!

Well, the office at least. I'm still working, but I'm now not back in the office until the 11th January. Happy Days.

Yesterday we decided to try and beat the next round of bad weather and headed up North to my parents. We had a relatively stress free journey, 4.5 hours to do just under 300 miles. The weather down South was not ideal and the roads were pretty icy, but we made it home around 8pm last night.

I immediately feel less stressed being away from work. It's lovely to be at home with my parents, however now we are surrounded by loads of food - my mother is catering for 13 of us on Christmas day so the house is just full of tasty treats which I am trying to ignore. Obviously, I am not going to stress overly, but at the same time, I don't want to completely lose the plot and pile on all of the lard I have managed to lose so far.

We've a couple of things on over the next week  or so and then drive back down South on the 27th, before flying to Tenerife for New Year on the 28th. Fingers crossed the weather doesn't cause too much havoc, the snow is coming down somewhat today up here!

My hospital appointment eventually came through for the 24th December, so that's been rescheduled for the 10th January. It's a relief to finally have that in the diary, will be glad to get it over and done with.

I'm going to try and blog a bit over the next few days to keep me focussed, but if I don't check in much, have a fantastic Christmas everyone and a wonderful New Year!

Christmas party

Thank you everyone for your kind words after my last post, it really means a lot that you take the time to comment and give me a little kick when I need it. You guys rock!

It's all been very hectic chez Linzerello still. I was out on Thursday with a couple of girls I used to work with, I took the car so I couldn't drink and I skipped starter and dessert. Small steps, but better than I have been of late.

Friday night was our office Christmas party, I was determined to take it easy and not get overly drunk. Obviously the best laid plans and all that... I ended up getting home after 4am, ever so slightly worse for wear. Still, it was a great night although I suffered majorly yesterday. I am not good on 4 hours of sleep and a lot of tequila, it would appear. Strange that. We had a 3 course meal, but I seem to have skipped a lot of the food. Thankfully, everyone was in the same inebriated state, so it wasn't just me (fairly sure our Chairman was buying bottles of tequila).

We had Xmas lunch with Matt's friends yesterday, but since I had heartburn from hell, I couldn't drink and I didn't eat so much either. Hangovers are good for diets it would appear.

We were meant to be heading up to the Midlands today to see West Brom v Wolves, but it's been called off due to the snow and since we can't actually get the car out of the carpark, I think we'll be staying put. Means we don't get to see Matt's family before Christmas, which is a shame, but I am sure we'll head up there in the New Year instead.

Agenda for today is to do very little. My iPhone has completely died, which is completely frustrating as I've not backed it up for months, so I've pretty much lost everything. I've tried to restore it about 20 times now and it just won't do it. Gah! I hate technology.

Hope you've all had good weekends. I am off now to try and make it up to my body with some fruit and veg. I think it's a long shot.

Failing....

So, I am learning that to deal with stress at work, I seem to think I should reward myself with food or alcohol. I use excuses that I am too tired to cook anything from scratch, so I'll just pick up a pizza in the supermarket on my way home - and then I'll have that with a glass of wine, because I've had a bad day. This is seriously not healthy behaviour. I am exhausted as I wake up in the middle of the night remembering all the things I haven't done at work and need to do and then I can't get back to sleep. It's a horrible, vicious circle.

I am also hormonal, which is making me ridiculous - I cried at The Apprentice last night. Seriously.

I'm tracking again, I'm over points. I am feeling fairly rubbish about myself. I don't want to admit that I am failing, but I am. I am boring myself with my inability to do this, so I apologise to anyone reading this for my complete lack of focus of late.

No more messing around,. I am going to have to take it one meal at a time and plan better.

Sorry guys, normal service will resume at some point. I need to shift this bloody lard!

Checking in

I am getting so bad at this blogging business. I need to blog to keep me accountable, especially since I just realised, I won't make my regular WI now until the 11th January - there is one heck of a lot of damage I can do in that time! I am clearly going to have to find some way of keeping me slightly on the straight and narrow.

Anyway, things are going ok - I think. I eventually recovered from the hideous man flu around Saturday lunch time (although I still  have all the residual crap which makes me still sound fairly unwell). We spent a lovely weekend in London. Flashdance the musical would have been brilliant, had it not suffered numerous technical issues, which saw us staring at a curtain for the best part of an hour. Shame really. We had an amazing curry beforehand, which I think actually did my cold the world of good. Nothing like a bit of spice to clear one's head.

Saturday we did the tourist  thing and wandered around London. It was freezing but sunny, so we walked a fair few miles to clear the cobwebs and get a bit of exercise in. Dinner at Joel Robuchon was completely amazing (although being full of snot doesn't help your taste buds). I think treating ourselves to this for Christmas was the best idea. A fairly startled looking me before we went out :)

Yesterday was a crap day at work (yes another one) and I was tempted to turn to food to cheer me up, but I resisted the temptation to shovel food down my face all day. Popped to see a friend after work who is very pregnant (like 3 days overdue now) so I shared some Pizza with her, but it could have been so much worse. 

So, the plan of action for the next few weeks is to try and be as good as I can. We've a lot of social functions coming up, but I am not going to use all of them as an excuse to treat myself and fill my face. I really don't want to be back to where I was last year.

I shall do my best to check in from now on in, even if it's just inane ramblings and I am going to try and take some time tonight to catch up with you all. I don't like work getting in the way of life. 

Thanks (and WI woes)

First of all, thank you all for your lovely comments yesterday. It really does help to have such lovely people out there. I continue to feel like absolute poo, but I am soldiering on and trying to pretend I do not feel like a steamroller has hit me and that I am not a snot filled mess.

As predicted, WI last night was not good. 3 pounds on. Which puts me back at 1 stone heavier than my lowest ever. Not exactly happy with that, but it has given me a little bit of a kick. I have at least pointed what I have eaten today, which is progress.

I am popping round to see a  friend tonight on my way home from work for dinner, so I am hopeful it will be a fairly healthy affair. I did offer to stay away on account of my lurgy and her having a small child, but she was adamant I should still go over. Tomorrow, I am supposed to be out after work for a couple, but if I still feel like this, I will probably head straight home for a bath and an early night.

We are spending this weekend in London (sounds bizarre given I have lived in London since I was 22, but I've never really done the tourist thing). Friday we are off to see a show (FlashDance, much to Matt's disgust) and Saturday we are going to do a bit of sight seeing and then off to Joel Robuchon for dinner. How very pleasant.

So, fingers crossed I can stay on track the next few days, I am not going to stress about it overly while I feel like crap and work is mental and still no news from the hospital, I can only concentrate on so much.

Man flu, over work and lipstick on a pig....

I am still here, I am just completely overworked at the moment, so have been struggling to find time to do anything blog related. I am going to make a conscious effort to get back at this and the diet over the next couple of weeks. I've missed keeping up with everyone.

I will be making WI tonight, come hell or high water. I've not been for 2 weeks and I am fairly sure it's not going to be good. I've not been pointing, but I am trying to make good decisions. I am still getting my weekly Abel and Cole Veg box which has been a life saver as it's helped me be a bit more healthy than I would have perhaps been. Howver, I've been treating myself a bit too often.

I've also been struck down with the dreaded man flu the past couple of days, I feel fairly awful today, but I can't afford to take time off work, so I am shovelling Vitamin C down my neck like it's going out of fashion. Mind over matter, I will force myself into believing I feel fine.

I've also got the added stress of waiting for a hospital appointment, which seems to be taking forever to come through. Fingers crossed I get seen this side of Xmas. I need to go for Colposcopy (unpleasant) as I've had a recurrence of pre-cancerous cells that I thought had been sorted 8 years ago. Not a happy place, but at least I know they have been caught early, so all should be good.

Anyway, I digress. I had a lovely weekend, which seems like a lifetime ago now! Friday night, I went out with my bestest girlie friends for Dinner which involved a few glasses of wine and too much food. Saturday was spent shopping and then lazing around (and working) and then Sunday I met my friend for coffee and watched films with Matt (and worked). All very pleasant (apart from the work bit).

Last night I slept really badly as I couldn't breathe (I find it fairly essential, so an inability to do it makes life a little difficult). I thought I'd make a bit of an effort with my appearance this morning to try and cheer myself into feeling well. Not sure if a skirt really works on me, but I've gone curly, popped a bit of lip gloss on and I feel almost human (I'd describe it as putting lipstick on a pig, as that's how I feel today, but that seems overly harsh on myself!)

(Lace pencil skirt, Tesco, leopard print cardigan, Tesco, 100 Denier tights, Evans, Black and Gold pumps, Dune)

So, in short, not much changes here, I will report back on any mammoth gain later and I will make an effort to get back on track with the diet and the blogging. Normal service resumes as of now.