Jet Lag

So, as predicted, yesterday afternoon I suddenly became the tiredest person on the planet. Literally falling asleep at my desk with the whole slightly embarassing head jerk thing that goes on when you nod off somewhere you shouldn't and you spring your floppy head back upright and hope no one has noticed (usually on the train after a boozy night out, not at 3pm at your desk at work). Not overly professional. Copious amounts of strong coffee and a banana gave me a bit of a boost.

I decided to bite the bullet anyway and get my sorry ass to spinning - only to arrive at the gym to a text from Matt saying he couldn't make it as he was stuck at work. Cue me spending the next 10 minutes trying to talk myself back into going whilst sat in the gym car park. I also managed to nod off for 5 minutes - major head jerks again! Anyway, surprisingly I won the battle with my inner devil and I went to the class. Jesus Christ, it was hard. One of my fellow spinners (who I swear I've never seen before) also asked me where I'd been as he'd not seen me for a while. Ahem, pretty bad if your absence is noted. Anyway, I did most of the class - I had to stop on the last song as my legs just wouldn't pedal anymore. My body is not adjusting overly well to the 8 hour time difference - or the lack of spinning for 6 weeks. Plus I think Freddie, our instructor, was on something yesterday - the class had all sorts of mental new routines, press ups on the flipping handle bars while pedalling?? Not in my lifetime son.

Cooked prawn stir fry last night instead of our usual Wednesday Chinese washed down with a couple of glasses of wine. All in all, a pretty good WW day.

The exercise and extreme tiredness (I am such a hypchondriac - I imagine people with children are reading this thinking she has no idea what its like to be tired!!) saw my head hitting the pillow at 930pm and me knowing nothing more til 5am this morning. Feeling a lot more human today, let's hope there is no exhausted dribbling on my keyboard later.

Off to a friends tonight for a catch up and a pizza, I've got about 15 points to play with so I reckon I can have a little treat. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a 2lb loss this week - that would get me my 3 stone and a drop into the 17's - I have not been there for a very long time. However, I always find the next stone bracket really hard to get into so I reckon there will be a few weeks of frustrations. How's that for positivity??

Have a good day y'all.

Post holiday Weigh In

Well - I've just picked myself up off the floor after collapsing with shock (ok so I am prone to exaggeration...) I went to WI somewhat worried that despite my best attempts on holiday I'd be pounds heavier - but.... I LOST 2.5 pounds??!! Seriously, that's beyond anything I was even slightly hoping for. So that's 40 pounds gone, check me out!!

I've just had a little gloat to Matt who spent the whole holiday telling me that walking wasn't enough exercise and we needed to go to the gym as well - ha! I'm even more smug given he thinks he's put on 4 pounds... aren't I horrible??!

I have booked myself in for Spinning tonight to celebrate my loss (yes I am glutton for punishment) I've not been for about 6 weeks I think, which is pretty rubbish. That's going to hurt. Even more so, given jet lag kicked in with a vengeance last night. I was still wide awake at midnight, slept an hour, awake, slept 2 hours, awake, another 2 hours and then I finally gave up at 5am. I feel surprisingly ok, but you can pretty much guarantee that by 615pm when spinning starts, I'll be the tiredest person on the planet.

Right, I am off to fill in my Weight Tracker online and do a little happy dance around the office.

Well I am back

Booo! Can't believe how quickly my holiday has gone by!

Had a brilliant time at Nina's wedding on the Saturday - drank far too much sparkling stuff however and was slightly feeling it at stupid o'clock on the Sunday morning for our flight to the US! My little sister did my make up for me and my middle sister did my hair - bless them both. My little sister also made my fascinator, shoes and bag (here is a shameless plug for her website!) I actually felt like a lady for once and not a man in drag!!

Holiday was amazing, I loved San Fran again, the coast between San Fran and LA is beautiful so we had a few stops on the way. LA is totally mad and Vegas is just brilliant! We went to Alcatraz, Universal Studios and the Grand Canyon. Saw some Cirque du Soleil shows whilst in Vegas which were amazing, relaxed by the amazing pool at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Vegas, drove through Death Valley (100 degrees at 8am in the morning!) walked Hollywood Boulevard and the Sunset Strip in LA. I could go on for hours! Totally brilliant time and I am very sad it's all over.

My trusty pedometer seems to think we walked a massive 72 miles over the 2 weeks and I can well believe it! We tended to just stick to 2 meals a day due to the rather large portion sizes so hopefully not too much damage has been done. I guess I will find out tomorrow. I won't be too upset if I've gained a little as I wasn't concentrating on WW overly! I did write everything down that we ate and its not too shocking so fingers crossed.

Right then, had better get back to work and stop procrastinating. Few photos below - I think we took nearly 700!

Us in Vegas on our last night at Cirque du Soliel, on the right - me at the Grand Canyon. Below, me at Alcatraz and on the Hollywood Boulevard.

If we took a holiday, took some time to celebrate....

16 whole days off work. I am overcome with excitement! Technically I am working today - I had a 630am start so by my reckoning I am almost done. In reality, I've patched a system, made a bacon sarnie and repacked my bag for approximately the 16th time. I now need a little lie down. I've been bounding around like Tigger since 6am and it's taken it's toll.

First we fly up to Newcastle for the wedding of one of my best friends. Really looking forward to that tomorrow. Slightly concerned that I am going to freeze given she is getting married in Cullercoats which is by the sea near Newcastle. Might need to do a last minute dash to buy some form of cardigan or wrap, I'm not sure blue is a colour that works on me, especially when it's the colour of my skin.

Then we have a pretty awful journey on Sunday, 730am flight from Newcastle to Heathrow, 3 hours to get our bags and check back in and then a 12 hour flight to San Francisco - all this on very little sleep and possibly with a large hangover. I'm glad I am slightly smaller than I was so the flight shouldn't be as hideous as when we went to New York in November.

San Fran, LA and Vegas are our major destinations, with a few other stops on the way. Trips to Alcatraz, Universal Studios and the Grand Canyon are booked as are a couple of Cirque Du Soliel shows. I cannot wait :)

I've taken the advice of Starfish (Thanks Sue!) and got myself a notebook to try and keep on top of my food intake. If I come back reporting a large gain, I'll be needing a huge backside kick to get me back on track.. get your kicking boots polished just in case.

Right, I'm off to do the 17th repack of my bag.

Holiday mode

I am in full on holiday mode, loads of work to do, but completely zero motivation to get on and do it! Any excuse really to be a lazy wotsit. My last day in the office today until the 22nd September. Get the heck in. I am working tomorrow, but I'll be sherking from home... sorry working :)

Last night I had to pop back to my old flat to meet my new tenants and sort out some stuff with the other flat owners. A nice 90 mile round trip on a Wednesday night in a monsoon. Seriously - what is going on with the weather?? I find myself agreeing to be £300 lighter this month in the name of giving the communal areas a face lift. Given my new tenant is a massive Wasps playing rugby type - might not be a bad idea to keep him happy!

Whilst I was over that way I went for a quick slimline tonic with friends - My last drink with Nina as a single girl before she gets wed on Saturday. I am likely to blub like a baby. So in the end I didn't get home til gone 9pm - by which point I had snaffled a Tesco Cheese Twist. Work of the devil. Bloody gorgeous but 8 points or so leaving me zero points for my delicious slow cooked pork. Stupid girl.

If you have a slow cooker - you HAVE to cook a joint of meat in one. It literally melts. The last time I tried to cook pork it was as tough as old boots and drier than a mouthful of sawdust. Chopped up some onions, threw in a bit of stock and popped the meat on top. Hey presto, meat that falls off the bone and a delicious basis for a gravy. I am such a domestic goddess at times. I am counting down the minutes until lunch - hot pork and stuffing sarnie and gravy. Get in.

I attempted to pack for the US last night, but I was struggling really. Not had a 2 week holiday for ages so I clearly have overpacked to mammoth proportions (I am using the word mammoth a lot these days. Odd) Tonight will be stage 2 of packing - i.e. repacking and removing approximately half of what I have in the case already.

I've planned dinner so hopefully I can come in under points today. I think the plan for holiday is maintenance - so that means around 6 points more than normal a day? Obviously I won't aim to eat all of those, but its good to have a rough idea.

Oh and an NSV - I'm into a size smaller in my jeans. Whoop!

Half on

Phew, I think I got off fairly lightly. I was braced for a gain of woolly mammoth proportions but half a pound I can cope with - maybe if I'd taken my dress off (yes a dress!) prior to stepping on the scales I'd have stayed the same.... something to think about for future reference. We also had a different Leader since our usual one has 'stepped down' apparently. All sounds a tad fishy, but then I love a gossip.

I've now stocked up on WW sweets, a points clicker (I'm a sucker for a gimmic) and a new pedometer for my hols. I am pretty determined that I won't come back half a stone heavier as I have in the past. We've decided to lay off the booze while we are away given we'll be driving a lot. That should help.

Last night I ended up with a fairly healthy dinner, my friend is following WW as well and she cooked Caribbean meatballs from the Delicious Cookbook instead of us going out. Very nice. Saved me cash and points. Recommended if you have the book.

Today I am armed with soup and pitta bread, a pork joint is in the slow cooker so will have that with veg for dinner. I feel a renewed enthusiasm for all things Weight Watchers. Just the small matter of a wedding on Saturday and then 2 weeks in the US stands in my way of reaching 17 stone something by October. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Oh dear

So, despite my enthusiasm to be good yesterday it didn't seem to happen. The sun came out and with it, my good intentions went out of the window. It all started so well - a vodka and slimline tonic. Good work. Then came the koppaberg mixed fruit cider - OMG that stuff is dangerous, far too easy to drink, it's like vimto. Then we went for tapas. In theory, I could have been relatively good. However, the place we went to had an offer on - 2 for 1 on tapas at lunchtime. There were 7 of us and we'd decided to opt for 2 each.... until we heard about the offer. So the 14 dishes became 28 - plus 4 bottles of Vina Sol. Who's clever idea was that??

Needless to say I came out stuffed and ready for a lie down. However, one for the road was deemed to be a good idea.... this is what our one for the road looked like:

30 shots of flavoured Sake at 5pm on a Monday??! Absolutely ridiculous - even more so given only 5 of us were drinking them. Needless to say we left soon after that.

I have no way of pointing or evening remembering what I consumed yesterday. Let's just say I am dreading WI tomorrow. I am meeting a friend for dinner tonight as well so it's not even like I can starve myself into some sort of loss!

One good thing is I am off booze for a while and I am craving salad - this holiday could turn into a health farm.