Hectic

Oh dear. I keep going AWOL. Life is completely mental at the moment, work is crazy and stressful which means I am not really managing to look after myself too well.

I've lost a few pounds without really trying, but exercise is suffering because I have to keep cancelling my gym sessions due to being stuck at work til after 1900 most nights. I'm also on the verge of illness again, but I'm trying to keep the pesky germs at bay with Echinacea and vitamins. Fingers crossed.

I'm hoping things will calm down in the New Year. Only 7 more working days before I get some much  needed holiday and then in January, I'll have a new plan of attack. God knows I need to do something.

It's not all doom and gloom though, we spent a lovely weekend in London, went to Jamie Oliver's Fifteen and a Taste of Christmas, both of which were great. This weekend I've a couple of Christmas outings and some relaxation planned. So all in all, life isn't too bad now really, is it?

It's been a while

After my last pity party post, I pretty much lost my blogging mojo. Following on from the second cold of the month, I succumbed to Norivirus last week which just about finished me off. Mentally, I don't cope with being ill overly well. I am a doer, I hate sitting around feeling sorry for myself, but after non stop illness since September, I was ready to admit defeat.

I'm starting to worry that I am allergic to being married. However, we've now had a week, germ free (touch wood) and I am hopeful that I can pull myself together and get back on with the task of taking care of myself.

I managed to lose 9 pounds after 2 days of projectile vomiting, clearly that was not sustainable, but I still find myself about 3 pounds lighter. so every gloomy cloud does have a bit of a silver lining.

Work has also been crazily mental. My boss did his yearly disappearing trick (this time only 3 weeks instead of his usual 6) and left me to man the fort. Now bear in mind he usually comes into the office around 1130 am as he works late with our US colleagues and I usually come in for 0730 am. He decided he had no one else to cover the early (we are a team of 7!!), so that meant me working at least 14 hour days for the 3 weeks he was off. Still, it was all worthwhile when he came back and thanked the whole team for their efforts, especially given none of the rest of the team had to work any different to their usual hours. Thankfully his boss appreciated my efforts, but still...

I also worked 3 weekends in a row, which seems to have gone unnoticed, but my boss did send a nice email to the whole team thanking one of my colleagues for putting in 20 minutes of work on Sunday. Seething does not come close. It's probably time to start looking elsewhere before I'm up on an assault charge.

But enough of the doom and gloom, life is all very lovely really. Being married to the funniest man I know is brilliant. We've spent our illness periods planning next years holidays to give us something to look forward to. We've planned our trip up North for Christmas and a weekend in London before that. Now if I can just stay healthy for the next few weeks, I can crack on with the gym and healthy eating and possibly shed a few more pounds before Xmas otherwise I'll need a whole new wardrobe to accommodate my ever expanding backside.

So, here's the plan.

• stop feeling sorry for myself - life is good
• get back to the gym at least 3 times a week
• stop turning to alcohol after a bad day
• eat less crap 

Simples.

Woe is me (Part II)

Ok, enough already. I have another blooming cold and I am, quite frankly, sick of it now. Since I came back from Italy in the middle of September, I have been nothing but ill. It's becoming very boring.

I started back at the gym, all guns blazing, last week. I did a PT session on Thursday, which despite being really hard, felt good. I made a renewed vow on Saturday morning to track everything I ate, no more letting things slip by - which given I was just heading off to a Spa for the night with a couple of girlfriends, seemed fairy bad timing. I photographed everything I ate on Saturday and Sunday to try and remain in control. See the proof below:

Salmon, pear and fig salad

Spinach Gnocchi with parmesan

Rosemary and Garlic Chicken breast with fries (I ate about 2), beans and salsa

Fruit Salad with ice cream (I hate ice cream so that was left)

Help yourself breakfast buffet - restrained for me 

(1 sausage, 1 egg, 1 hash brown, streaky bacon and mushrooms)

Stuffed Lamb breast with Sweet potato mash, home made Yorkshire and cabbage

I swam at the spa - only 20 lengths, but it was something, then I came back yesterday for another PT session. I was feeling pretty good, a little bit smug that I seemed to be back in some sort of control and expecting a decent loss on the scales. I'd tracked all weekend, I was under my calorie goal. I was invincible.

Clearly, pride very much comes before a fall, because last night, my throat started feeling a bit scratchy, I ignored it because I couldn't possibly have another cold in the space of 4 weeks, right? Today the scratchy throat is a full on cough and runny nose and I am now wallowing in a massive vat of self pity.

I'm aware I've not really been looking after myself for the last few weeks. Work has been very stressful which has meant I've had a few sleepless nights and my diet, up until the end of last week, has been somewhat suspect. My immune system is clearly proving a point.

I'm off to dose up on Vitamin C and feel sorry for myself a little bit more. Here's hoping this is a temporary blip and normal service will resume tomorrow. If anyone wants to take these germs off my hands, they are all yours?

Woe is me

On the back of the dreaded man flu, I've now developed a chest infection which has put paid to any form of exercise for the last 6 days. I've managed 1 session of PT, which left me barely able to walk, but since then, a combination of antibiotics, a chest like someone who smokes 60 day and an adverse reaction to aforementioned antibiotics has left me somewhat incapacitated.

I've had to cancel 3 PT sessions, which is somewhat frustrating but I guess there is no point until I am no longer sounding like Darth Vadar.

In other news, despite feeling pathetically sorry for myself at the weekend, we managed to have a fairly lovely one. Friday night we went for dinner at the Hotel du Vin in Henley on a Living Social Deal and on Saturday we ended up having a few too many quick ones in our Local. I suspect this may have had something to do with the adverse reaction to the antibiotics! Yesterday was spent looking through our wedding photos and putting together a couple of photo books  and a collage which was very pleasant.

So, operation weight loss is temporarily stalled. I'm nowhere near ready to face the cold showers of a morning but I am eating vegetables like there is about to be some sort of massive worldwide shortage.

I think that's me for now. Boring :)

The curse of man flu

Since we got back from Italy (did I mention my wedding already??) life has been pretty hectic. We spent last weekend in the Midlands, visiting friends, watching West Brom beat Reading at the Hawthorns (Matt's birth town versus our current home town) seeing the Mother in Law and Brother in Law and just generally over doing it.

As a result of not stopping for weeks, we've both been struck down with a pretty hideous cold. In fact I'd almost say it was flu. I felt so ill on Tuesday I could barely lift my head off the pillow and my whole body ached. Given I work in a ridiculous environment. I was still expected to work, albeit it from home. This did not make for a happy time Chez Linzerello.

Exercise has very much been off the radar this week, but food has been pretty healthy and there has been no booze at all. An abundance of fresh fruit and veg has been consumed in attempt to stave off the dreaded germs. I've lost a couple of pounds without overly trying, just goes to show that the odd cider after work and  assorted treats is not the answer.

I'm back in the office today and feeling a little bit more human. I'm avoiding the gym until my PT session on Sunday and hopefully by then I will be back to fighting fit.

Spurred on by Lesley, I have ordered the OMG diet book. I'm not sure I am ready to embrace it just yet, but I'm going to have a read and see how I get on.

We're at home this weekend and mainly catching up with friends, I expect it to be fairly relaxed. There will be alcohol involved, but I am going to attempt moderation. Let's see how this goes.

To counteract the misery of this post, I'll leave you with some food porn. Check out my Yorkshire!

 Courgette Fritters in the making

Lamb Chops with Courgette fritters and balsamic roasted veg

heaven.

The wedding

So I'm back to reality with a massive bang. Nearly 3 weeks out of the office means you come back to over 6000 emails and a hell of a lot of work that has been put aside for you during your absence. Happy days!

Anyway, I won't get bogged down with the dullness of daily life and I'll give you a bit more of an update on the wedding. Thanks for all of your lovely comments on my last post. I'll try not to bombard you with too many photos of me in a white frock!

The day was amazing, everything we could have hoped for. The weather was awesome (perhaps a bit too hot for prancing around in a wedding dress, but never mind), the hotel was gorgeous, the food was amazing. I'm going to run out of superlatives soon.

The ceremony took place at the Cloisters which dates back to the 8th Century. It was outdoors, so everyone was hot, but thankfully the ceremony only lasted about 10 minutes. Short and sweet. A truly lovely setting.

 

We then headed back to the hotel (The Bellevue Syrene) for the reception, processco, a delicious 5 course meal, brilliant speeches and amazing views. It was wonderful.

After 5 courses of food we headed to another venue called the Foreigners Club for more drinks, food and some very bad dancing. I'd planned to stay in my wedding dress all day, but it was fairly uncomfy due to the corset and the fact that I was boiling, so I changed into another dress that I just happened to have handy... I look slightly bedraggled here!

Oh and take a look at this for a honeymoon suite. It was built into the rock - so our very own honeymoon cave. Utterly ridiculous!

My dress was everything I'd hoped for. Ballerina length with the most amazing bodice that sucked everything in and up. I had been disappointed that I'd not lost a bit of weight before the wedding, but on the day it didn't matter at all. I felt lovely. I was hot and sweaty, but then everyone was, I was a fat bride, but nobody cared.

Now, it's back to it. I'm heavier than I am happy with and I've not exercised for 4 weeks. I'm back to eating sensibly and really enjoying it, you can have too much of a good thing (I don't need to eat pizza for a very long time). PT returns tonight and I fear it will be really hard, but I need to get fit again. I'm not planning to join a weight loss class at the moment, I just want to concentrate on cutting down and seeing how I get on. Watch this space!

I'm a wife!

Just a quick post to share a few photos from the wedding, there'll be a proper post once I'm back!

It was an amazing day, Sorrento is beautiful and we were so lucky that so many of our friends and family came to join us.

The view from our wedding terrace.




The terrace.




With my dad.




With my husband and bridesmaids!




Posing :)







I'm off to enjoy the Sicilian sunshine.

Mrs. Jones x