Goin' down the only road I've ever known.....

Right, so silence usually means things aren't going well on the 'let's be healthier and possibly lose some weight' front? Well that'd be correct.

I've not weighed myself in months, so I suspect things could be bad, but I'm struggling to motivate myself to do much about it at the moment.

In my defence (cue a list of excuses) I've been promoted, so work is quite crazy (but at least I am paid for the craziness now), we've been spending a lot of time gallivanting and socialising around the country, so I'm either eating out or drinking out and when I'm actually at home or able to leave work at a reasonable time, well the gym is the last place I fancy.

But... last week when Selfridges had some fancy 20% off promotion, we did invest in a Vitamix. I am hailing this as the answer to all of my healthy eating prayers. So far, so good. I've been devouring green sludge every morning (which actually fills me up way past lunch) and really quite enjoying it. This little beauty contains Kale, Spinach, Grapes, Apple, Clementine Banana, Lemon Juice, Wheat grass powder & Flaxseed. Surprisingly good and all of my 5 a day in one fell swoop.

So, I've made a promise to myself, continue with the green sludge for now and then in the new year, start afresh with a more concerted effort. I might have to rejoin Weight Watchers or some other class, as I'm clearly useless at going it alone, I don't overly care about what I weigh any more, I just need to be healthy and fit. Exercise also needs to make a reappearance as I'm in danger of needing a zimmer frame before long.

In the words of Whitesnake, 'Here I go again".........

Gourmet dining and man flu

Oh man flu, it's been a while. We had a lot of run ins last year, you were pretty much stalking me for a while, but I thought we'd moved on from that. I was mistaken, you persistent little bugger.

I appear to have become delirious. Having spent the weekend laid up with a pretty nasty cold which now appears to have lodged itself firmly on my chest, I am still feeling on the fragile side of well so work feels pretty tedious today. Plus I am talking to an illness, so what can I say?

Anyway, I digress. Since my last post, life hasn't overly slowed down much. We spent the weekend before last, in London at the lovely York & Albany. I know we only live 25 mins away from London by train, but we like to spoil ourselves once a year with a weekend in London proper.

We spent the Saturday in gastronomic heaven. Brunch at Balthazar (Macaroni cheese for brunch?).

Then the evening was spent at possibly the best restaurant I've ever had the pleasure of eating in - Le Gavroche.

One word - AMAZING. We obviously went for the 9 course tasting menu (Menu Exceptionnel) with matching wines (I'm a porker, what else would I opt for??) and I can honestly say, every single course was divine. The Souffle Suissesse was amazing, but it really all was. If you fancy re-mortgaging your house and you are in London, go, you really won't regret it.

So, once again the get healthy quest is on hold. I was meant to have a 600 calories day today, but since I am currently coughing up both lungs, I didn't think that was the most sensible of options.

I'm hoping to be feeling more human again soon so we'll try and restart once again.... 

Catching up

Oh dear me, where on earth has the time gone?

I've been extremely busy over the past 6 or so weeks, life has been exhausting and has generally gotten in the way of my best laid fitness/diet/looking after myself plans. I guess that explains the radio silence...

So instead of typing a massive essay, I'll show you what I've been up to since my last attempt at blogging.

I accepted an offer on my old flat:

I went to the Henley Rewind Festival

We spent our first Wedding Anniversary at a wedding in the Cotswolds

We spent a week in Cornwall

St Ives - the view from our apartment

Mousehole

Porthminster Beach

Amazing meal at Porthmeor Beach Cafe

Padstow

Stunning Lunch

 Quite possibly one of the nicest white wines ever!

button mushroom soup ~ persillade ~ crispy poached egg

moorland lamb ~ hoggett pie ~ broccoli ~ salsa verde ~ goats’ milk

a trip to the fairground ~ 'great british menu 2011' (for two)

Seriously - go to this restaurant if you are in Padstow, it's amazing!

Redecorated the flat

And on top of that, I've been working 12-14 hour days which has left me in this state :)

So, you can imagine, the weight loss and fitness isn't happening. I need to make more of a concerted effort. We've a few things coming up (lot's of Michelin stars!) which will need careful negotiation but I'll attempt to be back soon with some amazing progress on my quest to get fit again...... Watch this space.

Sucessful starving

The scales are in my favour today. I didn't expect much given the weekend was very bad. Too much cider, a lot of pastry and other bad food passed my lips so I wasn't expecting much at all. Monday was a tough starve day given I'd stretched my poor stomach beyond belief over the weekend and I was working from home. Being hungry and surrounded by food is a disaster.

Anyway, enough of the moaning, the scales saw me 4lbs down this morning which is a minor miracle. Let's hope this continues.

So this is what Monday looked like:

Breakfast - 145 cals - Cottage cheese & Mushroom scramble. 3 tablespoons of 2 chicks egg whites with dry fried mushrooms and a serving of reduced fat onion & chive cottage cheese. Looks awful, tastes good :)

Lunch - 240 cals -  Amy's Kitchen  Mushroom Risotto. Pretty tasty and not a bad portion size

Dinner - 199 cals - Diet Coke King Prawns with Zero Noodles. Dry fried mushrooms, onions, cabbage and courgette with a sauce made from Diet Coke, Tbsp of worcesershire sauce, 1/2 tbsp of sweet chilli sauce, 1 tbsp Tomato Ketchup simmered until thick and sticky, chuck in some prawns and some zero noodles and job's a good 'un.

So far, so good. I just need to get the balance right on my non-starve days as I'm eating a bit too much.

Next day to torture myself is tomorrow.... better get planning some low cal treats. 

Starve day 2

I was dreading starve day 2, but it turned out not to be so horrific. I think a bit more preparation is key. Also, being ridiculously busy is helping, I didn't overly have time to think about food! I deviated slightly from the original plan due to getting up late, so breakfast wasn't as good as expected but it worked.

So:

Breakfast - 4 rice thins, lurpak lightest and marmite - 120 cals
Lunch - Glorious Skinny butternut squash soup, 2 teriyaki rice cakes and a plum - 184 cals
Dinner - Kirsty's sausages and sweet potato mash with peas - 286 cals
Total - 589 cals.

I drank black coffee and water all day with a treat of a diet coke for the journey home to my parents. Go me.



Yesterday morning I did wake up fairly famished and spent the day at the cricket undoing all of Thursdays good work.








Next starve day is Monday along with weigh in. I'm not expecting much after yesterday but I'll persevere.

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Starving....

In theory I should limit myself to 500 calories, but given I am very fat, I decided I can have a man's allowance and knock myself out on 600. I had to start this regime yesterday in order to fit in 2 full days this week and I was woefully unprepared. I did some frantic research at lunchtime and off I toddled to Holland & Barret and Sainsbury's to stock up. 

Monday is a bad day to fast/starve. We get breakfast delivered to the office, mound upon mound of baguettes filled with Sausage, Bacon or Egg all calling to me from the kitchen, which I sit right next to. Couple that with 25 bars of Swiss chocolate from a colleague, well you get the picture.

Now, I felt actual hunger yesterday, clearly not something I have felt in a long while. It was quite refreshing. I was really hungry by dinner time and no amount of water was going to help me, but it really wasn't as hideous as I anticipated. I expect being mega busy at worked helped, so I suspect future days could be more difficult, but we will see. 

This is what I existed on yesterday:

• 1 sausage removed from a baguette and a small dollop of ketchup - approx 125 calories (clearly not ideal but it was the only way I could resist)
• Sainsbury's Medium Fish Sushi pack - 256 calories
• Chicken breast (130 cals) stir 'fried' with garlic (2) cabbage (22), courgette (10), mushrooms (15) & onions (30) with low soy sauce (10) , 1/2 tsp of peanut butter (20), lime juice (6) and lemon pepper served with zero noodles (0)

Grand total of 626 calories.... not perfect by any means, but it's a start.

The next day to starve is Thursday. I'm out tonight and tomorrow, and Friday, Saturday and Sunday we are at my parents for the Cricket so that's a no go. Thursday see's us drive up North, so that could help as if we take no food with us, we can't eat! 

Plan for Thursday is:

• Egg white Omlette (2 chicks egg whites) (23) with mushrooms (15) and 30g cathedral City Light cheese (93)
• 1/2 Pot of Glorious Skinny Butternut Squash Soup (103) plus 2 Teriyaki Rice Cakes (56)
• Kirsty's Sausage and Sweet Potato Mash (260) just before we leave the house to drive home
• 100g Strawberries for the journey home (50)

Total 600 calories.

The weekend will no doubt see a lot of boozing, so this could all be in vain... let's hope not...

I'm still here

Oh dear, it's been ages. Life has well and truly gotten in the way of late. I'll try to keep this brief.

My current situation:

1. I have 2 hands again - yay! My finger is still very iffy, but it works  - kind of. It'll probably never be normal again. Sigh.
2. I've been promoted at work. Big sigh (more stress)
3. I'm attempting to sell my flat. Small sigh (relatively stress free so far, but I suspect that's imminent)

My recent activities:

Hen weekend in Brighton

Weekend in Cornwall - St Ives

Wedding fun

Free night in a hotel!

Feeling a little bit left out with my besties :)

London Zoo with my nieces.

The weight loss has been crap, in fact I've not really been trying at all. Exercise has also been non-existent since before the hand incident, so I've a new plan of attack.

Today we started the 5:2 diet, i.e. 2 very low calorie days per week and 5 days of eating normally. It seems fairly straightforward, although finding 2 days a week where I've no plans is proving difficult. 

Given work is currently mental, I am not as fixated on food as I usually am. Today hasn't been too hideous, so I'll do a proper post tomorrow on what I've eaten and we'll see how we get on.

I'm off to try and catch up with all of you, it's been ages since I read a blog.

Glove puppet.

So, it's all been a bit hard work of late. Once the hideous plaster cast was removed from my hand, I was left with this:




So that's not at all frustrating!! I'm in this (24x7) for 6 weeks (3 down on Friday) so it's incredibly hard work as you can imagine....I'm thinking of doing a bit of moonlighting as a child's entertainer with my own built in emu puppet.

Anyway, despite this hideous splint, we've just returned from 2 of our closest friends wedding in Santorini.

How's this for a hotel view?




The only downside was the 121 steps I had to walk up every time we left the hotel. My hamstrings feel like they might snap.





Anyway, a lovely time was had by all and I'm now once again attempting to shed a few pounds. Since I can't drive for at least another 4 weeks, I'm hoping all the walking will help. Plus, one handed eating is a flipping nightmare, so every cloud!



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Stitched up.

Ouch.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cutting it

Oh dear, it's been a disastrous few days Chez Linzerello. I've managed to incapacitate myself somewhat with a small cut to the finger on Saturday morning which was perfectly placed to slice a couple of tendons, resulting in a permanently pointy finger.

Amazing. I'm still awaiting surgery to fix it (they've cancelled on me 3 times already) so fingers crossed (no pun intended) they see me today. It's a bloody nightmare as I won't be able to drive for 2 months once they fix me and we're supposed to be flying out to Greece next Thursday for our friends wedding. What an utter dickhead I am...

On the plus side, I've had to be nil by mouth every day since Saturday until mid afternoon (whilst I await confirmation of surgery or not) which has resulted in me losing 10 pounds since last Tuesday. There's a lot to be said for fasting it would seem!

So, exercise is scuppered (other than a couple of long walks) and eating is also somewhat impacted.

I'm off to hospital again today, so I really hope they sort it today. Although once they fix me, I can't drive for 2 months and my hand will be completely useless for a while. It almost doesn't seem worth it.

Best laid plans

Ok, my chest officially sucks. Having spent the last 3 months or so, struggling with breathing (just a minor thing) I've now been given a large dose of steroids in an attempt to knock whatever this crap is on the head once and for all. I've been fannying about with inhalers for months, to no avail, so keep your fingers crossed for me that these tablets now work. And if they don't, well at least I'll be a muscle woman by the weekend... :)

Other than that, eating is going ok. I've felt pretty crappy again the past 5 days so it's put paid to much excess. Exercise is zilch. I really need to get back into the gym, but my doctor has ordered I rest for at least the next 4 days, which I'll find impossible, but the gym will have to go on the back burner for another week. I'm going to work from home for a couple of days, which I suspect is not quite what she meant, but it's step.

Sigh.

In other news, I have the following engagements to try and negotiate whilst attempting to shed some pounds:

Tuesday night - dinner with the girls before an imminent birth (not mine, clearly).
Wednesday night - cinema with the husband
Thursday night - late shift at work (I was meant to be at a spa, but my boss is not in agreement) happiest of days
Saturday - day trip to Paris for lunch (as you do)
Tuesday - Polo! (again as you do)

My life has become ridiculous. I think I really need less social plans!

A winning weight loss formula.

 A week after my return to work and Thailand is all but a distant memory. Boo hiss to real life!

I've not really stopped since we returned, I've been taking it a bit easier at work (by that I mean working 10/11 hour days instead of 15) but I was struck down with some sort of dysentery lasting about 5 days last week, which scuppered my return to the gym. You can't really work out when you are having to run to the loo every 5 mins. On  the plus side, I dropped 6 pounds last week. Every cloud and all that.

Friday saw me fly up to Glasgow for a hen weekend which I'd organised for one of my close friends who I met while working in Prague. She is marrying Matt's best mate, just call me Cilla.

Cheesy hen do shot

We fly out to Greece in 5 weeks time for their wedding so I really need to try and sort myself out before then. They are getting married in Santorini which is very, erm, steep. I don't want to be a complete sweaty mess just getting to our hotel every day so the gym needs to make a sudden appearance. 

Glasgow was good fun, not overly diet friendly, but hey ho. I did dance for about 6 hours on Saturday night plus we did a Glee Dance class on Saturday afternoon (my friend loves performing!) so that's enough exercise for one weekend. Couple that with a dodgy stomach and you're onto a winner, I might try and market this new diet plan. 

I had planned to join my local Slimming World class on Monday, but the Bank holiday put paid to that so that's on the agenda for Monday coming.

So, the plan of action this week - eat less, try to move more. Simples. 

Sawatdee

I'm back after an amazing couple of weeks in Thailand. I totally fell in love with the country and I really don't want to be back at work at all. At least the sun is shining for my return, even if it is about 20 degrees colder than I'd gotten used to.

We spent 4 nights in Bangkok at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel which was stunning, followed by 9 nights in Phuket at the Indigo Pearl Resort. I feel totally refreshed, sick of Thai food and beer and ready to get back to some healthy living.

patpong night market

the view from our hotel in Bangkok

from lebua

Nia Yang Beach Phuket

boat trip to Phi Phi

Phi Phi Islands

I had 2 realisations whilst we were away:

1) Work has been killing me. I've not been able to switch off, I've been working at least 12 hour days and for what? I don't earn enough money to kill myself over a job and if my boss is not working these crazy hours, why should I? So it stops now. I do what I can and that's it.

2) I am fatter than I am happy with. I am ok with being fat, but I am not ok with being this fat so I want to lose a couple of stone. I also need to get back to the gym and regain my fitness.

So, the plan of action:

1) Eat healthily again, cut out the random carbs, the excess alcohol, the fatty foods and possibly join a class to keep me on the straight and narrow. I am never going to be thin and I don't want to be, but I do want to be less fat.

2) Get back to the gym, I've 2 PT sessions left then I need to go it alone. If I'm no longer working crazy hours then there is no excuse for me to miss the gym.

Sounds simple, huh?

I need to get back to blogging more regularly to keep me on the straight and narrow, so expect more of my ramblings in the near future :)

AWOL

I've been MIA for a while. Life has been utterly mental of late. Work is driving me crazy and I've spent the last 4 weekends in various parts of the country so this is the first actual Saturday morning I've woken up in my own bed for a while.

So, what is new Chez Linzerello? Not much really. I've managed to drop about 7 pounds over the course of the last few weeks by cutting down my carb intake, but I can't say I've been overly focused on it. This is probably stress related as I'm working on average, 12 hour days, and also at weekends. This does not make for a happy Linz.

Exercise has been more sporadic than planned, my chest has been really bad which means I'm now on 3 different inhalers and a course of steroids. Given I'm the worlds worst hypochondriac, this is not ideal. Anyway, I'm feeling a lot better now so hopefully I can get back into regular gym workouts instead of the once a week PT sessions which absolutely kill me.

So, instead of rabbiting on about what I've been doing, I'll leave you with a selection of photos from my last 4 weekends....

Pennyhill Park - utterly fabulous!

The Latymer

Girlie weekend in Manchester...

Jack Spratt Burger

The Place hotel

Devon via Stonehenge and Somerset.

The Lanes Hotel

Hull to visit friends

 Bar snacks - amazing pork pies at Ye Olde Black Boy

Larkins

Actually, reviewing those photos has made me realise I must've been eating a hell of a lot of carbs before if I think I've cut down!

So, this weekend see's me working this morning and then my parents are arriving. No chance of a weekend of doing nothing for me. Sigh.

I might have to try and sneak in a cheeky afternoon snooze, we've woken up to yet more snow (seriously?? BST starts this weekend, sort it out UK) so my motivation to anything other than sit on the sofa is zilch.

Back to work for me now then I'll attempt to catch up on blogs, my social media has taken a battering due to work and we can't be having that.