Food and big cats

8 days since my last post and I'm already back again, this is progress and clearly means I have something boastful to report. Oh yes, I've shed 6 pounds. Happy dance. I've not really done anything remarkable, other than continue with the smoothies daily and I've taken my own lunch to work. Just goes to show how much crap I was eating during the latter part of last year.

We had another busy weekend. Saturday saw us head into London to see the matinee of Cirque du Soleil  at the Royal Albert Hall. Awesome show, you can't beat Cirque du Soleil for jaw dropping acrobatics.

For us though, no day out is complete without a meal out or two. I'm obsessed with food (you probably can't tell by the size of me) so spend hours researching restaurants every time we go anywhere.

We started with brunch at the Modern Pantry in Clerkenwell. I opted for the Feta, Sweetcorn, Chilli and Curry leaf waffles with streaky bacon. Sounds random, tastes awesome.

After the show we'd booked ourselves a table at Hakkasan, Michelin starred Chinese is not something you can turn down, now is it? This place is cool - and I mean too cool for a couple of OAP's like us. The music is very loud (do I sound like my Dad??) and you're sat in very close proximity to your fellow diners, but the food is pretty awesome. We ordered far too much thinking Michelin starred means tiny portions, we were wrong and were badly defeated. Roasted mango duck in lemon sauce is probably  the best thing I've ever eaten in a Chinese restaurant in my life and look at these for Prawn toast:

I'm hungry at the thought of it. If you're a lover of Chinese, do it, you won't regret it (well the bill is perhaps regrettable, but you know).

Sunday was slightly different, we headed up to Paradise Wildlife Park for a champagne breakfast with snow leopards - random much? It was my Christmas present to Matt since he's obsessed with big cats and it was awesome. We ate breakfast with snow leopards roaming around (behind glass of course) and then we got to feed a few of the big cats. Pretty special if you like animals. 

This weekend see's just a lunch with friends on Saturday and that's it! It's our first full weekend at home for about 6 months so I intend to embrace the sofa. Happy days.

Resolutions or lack of....

Oh dear, another New Year and another one where I am heavier than I ever thought possible. I seem to be gaining on average around 2 stone a year so something has to give otherwise I'll be hitting 40 and be weighing around the same in stones. The biggest issue for me with weight loss is apathy, I don't dislike myself so it's very hard for me to convince myself I need to change, but for the sake of comfort (I've had to buy emergency bra's over Xmas) I need to do something :)

My New Year's resolution is not "I must lose weight" (I mean I want to lose weight but that's not my resolution), I fail miserably at that time and time again, so I'm just going to resolve to being healthier. I can't do anything too drastic as that's far too miserable and God knows, January is depressing enough. I came back to work  62,000 emails (I kid you not) and a 3 hour commute today due to flooding. Things can only get better, right?

The juices/ smoothies are still in full flow, I'm enjoying the green sludge on a daily basis and I'm now coupling that with homemade soup or a salad for lunch and a 'proper' dinner. I'm also attempting a sort of dry January, in that we're cutting out all mid week boozing and attempting at least a couple of weeks off. Once I've settled into a routine with the eating then I'll attempt some exercise too. Happy Days!

On a brighter note, we had a lovely Christmas and New Year. We spent a week at my parents in Durham and then went on a mini tour of Scotland staying in  Dundee, Inverness, Oban and then back via the Lake District. All very lovely. Too much alcohol was consumed and too much food! New Years Eve saw us in a Roux restaurant in Inverness, we had the most amazing Fish and Chips in Oban and finished it off with an amazing 6 course lunch at l'enclume in Cartmel in the Lakes to name but a few.

New Years Eve

Loch Ness

View from our B&B in Keswick

L'enclume lunch 

So here we go, hopefully you'll see a bit more of me over the coming months which will prove I'm making the right kind of progress....