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....

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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