Boob Loss

This post is dedicated to the memory of my formerly massive boobs.

It's something that I'm sure many people who embark on weight loss worry about. I know it was something that crossed my mind. The fact is that when your losing weight your boobs are probably going to get smaller. They might not get teeny tiny, but there probably will be some changes.

This week I got measured for the 2nd time this year. So I thought I'd take a moment to reflect...
In September 2008 at the beginning of my weight loss journey I was wearing a 30H
In May 2009 I was wearing a 30G
In February 2010 I was wearing a 30 FF
In May 2010 my bra is currently between a 28FF or 28G depending on the style.

I should consider myself lucky, for nearly 2 stones in weight loss I've only lost between 1-2 cup sizes and have gone down 1 back size. Mr H however is devastated :P

The best bit from my perspective is that bra's are gradually getting prettier. The styles available in a 30H left alot of be desired, the straps were nearly an inch thick and I didn't really feel that 'hot' in them. My new range of bra's include delicate straps and even a strapless one that does the job perfectly and neatly hides under all things strapless. I guess the worst bit is really just that I still can't nip into M&S to pick up a new bra, I have limited options available at Debenhams, but for now I'm still having to trek into specialist shops or order online - booo!

Hurray for 3 day weekends!

Well it's not quite the weekend, but near enough! This week has been difficult, the first week back since 1.5 weeks away, 2 days out of the office, lots of work to catch up on, house work to do, etc, as a result I'm shattered.

I'm looking forward to the weekend so I can have a lie in tomorrow, go shopping for a pretty dress for Ascot, spend some quality time with Mr H and the Pug dogs (sounds like it could be a band name), the weather looks set to be ok so I'm looking forward to getting out and pounding the streets, getting in some long dog walks, maybe have a BBQ and just generally chill out.

However, there is still one more day of the week to get through. Yesterday was a good day, I had a fab session at the gym burning a whopping 670 calories and today I can feel a dull ache in some of my muscles so I clearly worked hard :). I also ate pretty well, only sneaking in a low calorie pudding as an extra (as we needed the ramekins back and more space in the freezer).

Plan for today is as follows:

Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, 30g Jumbo Oats, 1 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 2 tsp Sweetener, 2 tsp Flax, 150ml Skimmed Milk, 150ml Berocca.

Mid Morning: Babybel & Grapes.

Lunch: Rocket, Spinach and Strawberry Salad with Ham and Cous Cous. 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake.

Mid Afternoon: Half a Canteloupe Melon filled with Raspberries and Grapes.

Dinner: Pizza Pitta & Salad.

Heading to the gym at lunch, hoping to get in a slightly longer session today with the aim to do about 30 minutes cardio and 45 minutes weights.

Tonight I'm gonna party like its 1999

I haven't really given the blog much time since getting back from Dubai. Everything has been a bit hectic. Today is my first proper day back in the office and it's time to get back on track.

I thought I would start with a little bit of nostalgia. I'd like to take you all back 11 years to 1999, back to when I was 16 years old. It was the the dawn before the millenium, which I celebrated by attending a friends parents wedding reception in a swanky hotel. I remember feeling great that evening, my parents had bought me a really grown up outfit that I felt a million dollars in. It was a turqoise strapless top with a black below knee tight pencil skirt. Unfortunately, I got rather drunk that night and ended up falling over in some country lane the next day on the way back to civilisation and ripped the skirt! However, for whatever reason I still have the entire outfit hanging in my wardrobe. Its followed me around for the past 11 years, through college, university, 5 years of employment, countless houses, different towns, through different relationships - all the time, unworn since NYE 1999-2000.

Last night I thought to myself, I wonder if I'll fit back into that yet? So I tried. And guess what? It fits.

I remember being so confident in the way I looked when I was 16, I guess partly because I looked older than I was so I could get into bars/clubs, could buy booze at off licenses, I never worried about what I looked like and I could wear anything. It's such an extreme opposite to how I feel these days, but I guess I have mistreated my body a little bit and I'm still working to rectify that. If anything, getting into this outfit has really given me a boost, something to be proud of. For comparison purposes, I'm going to try and find a picture of me wearing this outfit back in 1999 and get a better quality pic taken of me in the outfit in 2010. I think it should be quite interesting to directly compare the two.

Moving on to today's plan, seeing as I've missed my weekly goal setting day of Monday my goal this week is just to get back on track!

Food for today:

Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, 30g Jumbo Oats, 1 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 2 tsp Sweetener, 150ml Skimmed Milk, 150ml Berocca.

Mid Morning: Babybel.

Lunch: Salad with Ham, Cous Cous, Raisins and Pine Nuts, Babybel & 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake.

Mid Afternoon: Half a Galia Melon.

Dinner: Turkey Steak with Salad (Lettuce, Peppers, Tomatoes, Red Onion)

I will drink 2 litres of water today and I will be at the gym for at least an hour at lunchtime.

Post Holiday Weigh-ins

Just for fun, I thought I'd weigh myself at regular intervals in the days after coming from Dubai.

On Wednesday 12th May (before we left) I weighed in at 9st 2 1/2lbs.

On Thursday 20th May (the day we got back) I weighed in at 9st 9 3/4lbs.

On Friday 21st May I weighed 9st 7 1/4lbs

On Saturday 22nd May I weighed 9st 4 1/2lbs

On Sunday 23rd May I weighed 9 3 1/2lbs

And today I weighed in at 9st 3lbs.

Hows that for water retention!?

Nitro Muesli

It's my new favourite breakfast. Everyday on holiday I'd have this with a topping or just plain. Of course in the real world its known as Bircher Muesli, but at home its now known as Nitro Muesli thanks to Mr H.

Ingredients
1 cup Rolled Oats
1 cup Apple Juice
1 cup Skimmed Milk
1/2 cup Fat Free Greek Yoghurt
1 Grated Apple (sprinkle with a little lemon juice to stop it discolouring)

Method
Mix together and leave in the fridge overnight. In the morning add topping of choice or eat it plain. Strawberries and flaked almonds are my favourite right now.

The above makes more than enough for a small family. For a single serving use the following quantities...
30g Rolled Oats
50ml Apple Juice
50ml Skimmed Milk
>1 tbsp Fat Free Greek Yoghurt (add enough to make it creamy)
1 Grated Apple (sprinkle with a little lemon juice to stop it discolouring)

45 hours until Dubai

and I feel stressed! We're still rushing around trying to get things that we need, I still haven't finished packing, I still haven't done all the washing that needs doing, I still haven't given the house a once over and I still have toothache.

I went to the dentists this morning who took an x-ray of my ye olde root canal. There is some irritation right at the bottom and whilst its likely to go away on its own, it could get worse. There was nothing she could do right now, so I've got a box of antibiotics to take away to Dubai with me in case things start getting serious so at least by the time I get back to the UK the anti-b's should have sorted out any infection and we can get straight into operation fix my tooth. At the moment I can control the pain with regular paracetomol, which is a good sign!

Not sure there is any point really logging food/exercise in the 3 days before I go, I've barely got time to eat or exercise! Yesterday I managed 40 minutes of free weights at home in the evening and didn't eat dinner until 9pm *sigh*. Tonight is looking equally as busy, as is tomorrow night. At least in 45 hours I'll be at the airport, sitting on my plane, heading to a week of relaxation.

Sad Monday

I'd started to write a post this morning about my crappy weekend, how I didn't buy the things I needed to, how I haven't packed, the terrible toothache thats been keeping me awake, etc. But then I found out that the guy who used to run the gym died this weekend. He was dismissed a few weeks ago following a complaint and sadly had a fatal car accident at the weekend.

The things that felt all consuming this morning when I woke up, now seem so insignificant. He was so full of life and helped so many people at our gym acheive amazing goals through his encouragement, enthusiasm and drive. The gym hasn't been the same since he left 3 weeks ago. The attendance at the classes has dropped off, lunchtimes aren't as busy and its a bit like a ghost town.

People wanted to go to the gym because he made it worthwhile. If you were on the treadmill taking it easy, he'd yell across the gym to speed it up... or he'd get the 'foam roller' (which he would poke you with). Our body pump classes were like 'Body Pump on Speed', we'd be jumping up and down off those Reebok steps as if our life depended on it. At the end of the classes when our legs were literally about to give up on us, he'd get us to 'sit against the wall'. We'd all sit there in silence, legs aching, knees shaking, not making eye contact with him, hoping that no one else in the class would let us down, just hoping that you'd impressed him enough in the class that he'd let you go first... and hoping that you'd not been the worst in the class and would be told to do frog jumps before leaving. Every session he gave 110%, even if we were only giving 90% he'd push us until we gave him back what we needed to get the results we all wanted.

There are certain people that you meet in your life that have a profound effect on it. He was one of those people. We had talked about my long term goals for my body, I'm just sad I won't be able to share my results with him when I get there. RIP James.

Subject: Anyone fancy running a 10k with me?

That was how it started. One by one I saw the replies to this email come back saying 'no', 'no', 'well done for doing it, but no'. It pulled my heart strings.

So I replied 'yeah why not'.

I've never done any sort of race before, I figure why pay to run 10k when I can run 10k for free at home. But I'm all up for encouraging someone else to train and run it. Plus its only £14 to enter.

So this is it, the Beale Park 10k, Wednesday 7th July at 7.30pm

Things to Motivate/Inspire Me - Part 1

With thanks to the Lib Dems for sticking this in our letterbox yesterday. I'm going to recycle this message into every day use.

Happy Friday!

Happy Friday! I'm so stoked the weekend is finally here, it feels like its been a really long week. Yesterday I took a break 100% from exercise, no gym, no running, no situps before bed, no nothing. I still feel quite tired this morning, but only have one more day to get through. Last night we did our Tesco shop so now have a fridge full of yummy things to keep us fed up until we go away.

After we got home from Tesco, we made dinner (I had my prawn salad, which for the record was amaaaaaazing) and Mr H had a homemade curry. We sat down and tried to catch up on some TV we have missed, then leashed up the pugs and headed up to the park/polling station. Here are the pugs on their way to cast their votes.



After we had voted we had a stroll around the fields at the recreation ground watching the sun set.


On our way out of the park, we found a mysterious wardrobe, perhaps it was some form of Tardis, or maybe a portal to Narnia, or possible an alternative polling booth. Whatever it was, it was locked and really bizarre!



Reviewing yesterdays goals...
1. Drink 2 litres of water a day check
2. 5 Fruit & Veg a day check - banana, grapes, strawberries, onion, avocado, spinach, rocket
3. Exercise 5 times pending
4. Get out on my bike pending
5. Continue with extra exercises FAIL - I took a night off, but I'm ok with that.
6. Do not drink on Saturday night pending

Today's food plan is as follows:

Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, 30g Jumbo Oats, 1 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 1 tsp Flax, 2 tsp Sweetener, 150ml Skimmed Milk.

Mid Morning: Banana

Lunch: Lemon & Garlic Cous Cous with Spinach and Rocket Salad and Roast Duck

Mid Afternoon: Grapes & Strawberries

Dinner: Hame & Jalepeno Pizza Wrap and Salad

Exercise wise I'm going to do a weights session in the gym (with 10 minutes cardio to start me off) and I hope to get out for a 3 or 4 mile run this evening.

Operation 'don't look like a skank' in the holiday gym has been completed

Yesterday Mr H confirmed that we can use the gym at the resort for free, so we're both packing our gym stuff. In an attempt to not look out of place in a hotel we could never really afford on our own, I've just bought two Nike tops in Sports Direct to go with the Capri's I run in.

I've just been having a mooch on the website to see what sort of facilities are available and it looks quite good. Theres also a restaurant nearby that serves Vegetarian food and an "array of crystal-enriched waters".... whatever they may be. Sounds like it will be worth a visit :)

I really want to eat well whilst I'm over in Dubai and of course the temptation when your on a holiday is to indulge a little. I'm not really planning on drinking much (if at all) whilst I'm out there as I'm worried I'll get drunk, do something stupid like kiss Mr H and end up in prison for it! Whilst I'm sure it's not as bad as I think it is out there, I've read some pretty disturbing stories lately.

We get breakfast included in our room rate, which I gather is some sort of breakfast buffet serving foods from all over the world. I'm sure because of the heat I won't be tucking into mountains of food, but I want to make sensible choices on the meals I can control more easily. Especially on the first 4 days before we start doing 'company' dinners where the menu is fixed. In previous years the food has been quite generic with a buffet on the first day, BBQ on the second day, Steak and Lobster at the final dinner - but this is the first year that EMEA is going it alone and organising their own do, so maybe things will change a bit. Having said that, I know there is cocktails & food on the beach on the first night, BBQ on the Dune Safari on the second day and dinner at the Burj Al Arab on the last night. So chances are they still think that the buffet/bbq/surf & turf is a good format to go for. I think if I pick sensibly for breakfast and eat carefully at lunch (which might be a mission!) I'll probably relax a bit more with my evening meals.

You know what? I think I'm actually starting to get a little bit excited about it. I might even clear out my suitcase later with a view to starting to put things inside :D

Slowly shutting down

It's official. My body is starting to wind down ahead of my holiday next week. Its not just the holiday I guess, I'm sure getting my body clock out of sync over the Bank Holiday weekend is also to blame. I always get like this, even at 'Summer Holiday' and 'Easter Holiday' time, its been 5 years since I got time off with education and I still 'shut down' in time for it. It's no good.

As a result, I'm trying to use food as a pick me up. Last night was a prime example. I got home and I had an omelette (pictured with the pugs awaiting any opportunity to jump up and snatch it from my plate). I then went out to get Mr H some dinner, as he doesn't approve of my omelettes. I ended up buying Duck, so when it was cooked, I had some of that. Still un-content with my stomach contents I blew it by having a slice of bread with almond butter. It totally pushed me to being uncomfortably full. I went to bed feeling uncomfortable in my skin.

We're going food shopping tonight, so at least that should help curb eating for the sake of eating because I'm not really planning dinners too well at the moment. We don't need an awful lot of food as we've got a few bits and pieces in the freezer. We just need to pick up some fruit/veggies to be able to make whole meals.

On the list I have:

* Lettuce

* Peppers

* Tomatoes

* Cucumber

* Red Onions

* Spinach

* Stir Fry Veg Pack

* Strawberries

* Apples

* Grapes

* Carrots

* Asparagus

* Skimmed Milk

* Cous Cous

* Wholemeal Pitta

So not exactly the most extensive of lists! But it will give us more options when it comes to meal times.

Reviewing yesterday against my weekly goals:

1. Drink 2 litres of water a day check

2. 5 Fruit & Veg a day check - apple, grapes, strawberries, onion, mushroom, lettuce

3. Exercise 5 times check 3/5 completed with a gym session burning 400 calories.

4. Get out on my bike pending

5. Continue with extra exercises check

6. Do not drink on Saturday night pending

Food wise today is as follows:

Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, 30g Jumbo Oats, 1 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 2 tsp Sweetener, 150ml Skimmed Milk, 150ml Berocca. (Mr H made my porridge up yesterday, he put in 2 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder and 1 tsp Sweetener which totally explains why it took me nearly an hour to eat, it was rough!).

Mid Morning: Strawberries & Grapes

Lunch: Wholemeal Ham Sandwich with a side salad of Rocket & a Babybel Light

Mid Afternoon: Banana

Dinner: Prawn & Avocado Salad (I remembered to get the prawns out this morning, yay!)

I'm not going to the gym today as I wanted to get into town. However, I might try and get out for a run tonight. But given that we've got a Tesco shop to do, it might be difficult. I'm sure I could fit in a 3 miler though.

I mentioned before about my black toenail, I've been monitoring it and I think I'm tucking it under when I run. No real idea why, I do it in my regular shoes too, I think its just one of those bizarre habits that I need to kick. The good news is that is isn't hurting after I'm running, so I don't think I'm making it any worse now I've identified the problem. It's so ugly though, no french polish for me next week on my holiday - I think I'll have to paint them all black.

Review of Pledges

When I started this blog, I wrote a list of pledges. Its been a while since I looked at them, so thought I'd do a review...

As of 24th March this what what I wanted to acheive...

1. I will exercise 5 times a week, every week unless I am ill/injured.
I have been doing pretty well on this, infact I'd go as far to say that I have managed 5 sessions a week apart from one week where I was ill at the beginning of April.

2. I will maintain my weight between 9st 6lbs and 9st 10lbs, hopefully replacing some of the wobble with heavier more streamlined muscle.
My weight has dropped below this now, I'm not overly concerned by this though. I think as my body fat/lean body mass continues to shift around these figures will continue to change.

3. In the short term, I want to lose 1-2" off my thighs/hips.
Check! I've lost 1.5" off my hips and 0.5" off my thighs. Totalling 2" overall. Still want to reduce this further.

4. I want to define my abs, butt, thighs and arms.
Getting there, needs more work.

5. I want to look hot in my JW shorts.
Need to try them on and see if I look any better in them.

6. I want to minimise muffin top.
Minimised! But could still be a little bit less squishy.

7. In Body Pump, I want to be using the Orange weights (10kg bar overall).
The gym man got fired and Body Pump sucks now. I'm using heavier weights in the gym though, so I know I'm working hard enough even though I'm not in a class.

8. I will make the most of the long light evenings in the summer and run more than 10 miles a week.
Generally this is going ok, I'm loving the longer evenings.

9. I will conquer the Monkey Bars at the recreation park.
Since I injured my shoulder, I've not tackled the Monkey Bars at all. They will not defeat me!

10. I will be able to do 10+ proper Man Push ups.
I can do many half hearted man push up but I need to get my face closer to the floor and accept that I can only do a few I think!

11. To cut down to once a month weigh ins.
Check, happy to continue with this too.

Time to update my Pledges I think.

Got over it?

So I did some shoulder presses today. I managed 3 sets of 5 reps on 5kg weights. By the end of the last set I was full of self doubt that my shoulder wouldn't be ok, but I got through it and feel fine!

I'm going to try and up the reps slowly, but try to increase it at each session, something like
6,5,5
6,6,5
6,6,6
6,6,6
7,6,6
7,7,6
7,7,7
....etc

On a completely unrelated note, I've just realised that this is the 2nd day in a row that Mr H has consumed houmous! He's really taking this eating better and trying new things seriously. Pat on the back for him.

Getting over it

Sometime ago I injured myself at the gym, my shoulder sort of semi-popped out of its socket. Having just looked back in my blog, I can't believe it's nearly been 7 weeks since it happened. It really knocked my confidence with heavier weights and as a result most of my arm weights dropped back to 4kg. For the past few weeks I've been using the 5kg weights again for everything but my shoulder press. Generally my shoulder is recovering nicely, I can now just about lie on my arm (you know when you use your bent up arm for a makeshift pillow) without a searing pain in the joint, it moves much more freely and further down my arm my wrist has recovered (as I think that took the strain from the weight when my shoulder popped).
I know I've lost alot of strength in my shoulder area since the incident so I've been slowly building the weight back up and I'll be hitting the 5kg weights today on my shoulders. I'm going to sling the 5kg discs onto a bar, so hopefully it will enable my left arm to help out if my right shoulder has any difficulty at any point. I'm totally bricking it, but I have to get over this fear. I was easily lifting the 5kg before and I will do it again.

Yesterday was a good day. I ate well, exercised, slept well and felt great for it all.

Reviewing my goals...
1. Drink 2 litres of water a day check - I drank a litre during the day and a litre whilst I was cooking dinner
2. 5 Fruit & Veg a day check - banana, grapes, strawberries, brocolli, carrots, lettuce, sweet potato
3. Exercise 5 times check 2/5 completed
4. Get out on my bike pending
5. Continue with extra exercises check
6. Do not drink on Saturday night pending

Today looks set to be another good day, hopefully the weather will stay nice until the evening and we can finally get my bike out of the shed, pump up the tyres and set out for a short ride.

Food wise...
Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, 30g Jumbo Oats, 1 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 2 tsp Sweetener, 150ml Skimmed Milk, 150ml Berocca.

Mid Morning: Banana

Lunch: Same as yesterday, boiled egg, ham, lettuce, carrot sticks & tsp of Red Pepper & Jalepeno Houmous. Babybel Light & 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake.

Dinner: Red Onion, Mushroom & Ham, 2 egg omelette with cheese on top.

Pud: Melon & Strawberries

Snack: Roasted Duck & a slice of wholemeal bread with Almond Butter.

New week, new plan

So this is a slightly delayed Monday post, I'll combine it with Tuesday.

After writing so much covering the weekend, I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that Monday was pretty uneventful! I got up, had breakfast and then went running. I ran the same 4 ish mile route I did on 22/04. I followed this with 45 minutes of free weights at home, burning off a whopping 871 calories. We also took the dogs on a 2 mile walk in the woods.

Food wise, I had usual breakfast combo, 1.5 Pizza Wraps & Salad for lunch and chicken, cous cous and salad for Dinner and I had a few of the chocolates from our failed delivery on Saturday (yes I cleaned off the soil and yes I should know better).

Onto Tuesday and I'm back at work (boo!). Food for today is as follows:

Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, 30g Jumbo Oats, 1 tsp G&B Cocoa Powder, 2 tsp Sweetener, 150ml Skimmed Milk & 150ml Berocca

Lunch: Lettuce, Carrot Sticks, 1 heaped tsp Jalapeno Humous, boiled egg and ham & 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake.

Mid Afternoon Snack: Grapes & Strawberries & Babybel Light

Dinner: Probably Chicken and Veggies with Gravy.

I'll be hitting the gym at lunchtime for a session. Will probably be concentrating more on upper body than lower body.

New goals for this week are as follows...
1. Drink 2 litres of water a day - I need to keep to this at weekends especially
2. 5 Fruit & Veg a day
3. Exercise 5 times
4. Get out on my bike - the weather should be better this week so must do this.
5. Continue with extra exercises - as I think they are paying off
6. Do not drink on Saturday night - we have a party and a gig to go to and I don't want my skin to breakout ahead of Dubai.

Cocktails, friends and the runaway dog

What a weekend!

Starting with Saturday, Mr H and I got up early and got in some breakfast (usual porridge & berocca combo) before heading down to Southampton with the aim of getting holiday bits and pieces. I think I had a bit more success than Mr H, but he got a shirt and watch!

To start off my new additions, Mr H got me a fabby jumper from Oasis. I don't generally rate Oasis, I think their clothes are really expensive and don't usually wash that well. But I'll make an exception for this beauty. Mr H also treated me to a new pair of holiday sandals, for the first time in years I was able to buy shoes that go around my ankles, and have them actually fit around my ankles. Yay!

Then in M&S, I got a bikini I've been after since I saw it a few weeks ago. I got it in black and I think it completes my collection of holiday bikinis now. Must resist buying any more. Whilst in M&S I also spied a cracking pair of patent peep toe stilettos. They had to be mine and so they were. M&S really have excelled themselves in recent times in the shoe department, I've got several pairs of really cute shoes from there and they are not only really well made, but they are all super comfy too.

Then to finish off my purchases, I got a white cotton shirt from Gap and a blue tulip skirt from Zara with gold buttons down the front. I actually bought a size 14 in this! I wanted a slightly looser fit skirt, so instead of wearing it high waisted like I guess was intended, I bought a bigger size and slung it low on my hips. Looks fab. I also got some more Liz Earle Cleanse & Polish which I totally rate as the best stuff I've ever used on my face and some black polka dot tights :D

By about 1pm we were getting pretty agitated walking around the shops, we'd got into the car park at 10.10am and we knew we still had to tackle Ikea. So I fuelled up with a Nakd Bar, Mr H hit the Diet Coke, we walked back to the car with our purchases and then headed into the depths of hell itself.

We knew roughly what we wanted, but we didn't know which section in the self service area downstairs we needed to go to. We both hate Ikea with an absolute passion, it is the only place on earth that actually riles us up enough to break out in fully fledged arguements in the middle of the store. We go often enough to now know most of the short cuts and we know our way through the exhibits well enough to be able to bypass most dawdling people. We found our filing cabinet locations, picked up some trays to go inside them, picked up 2 toys for babies (which we thought the dogs would like), grabbed a photo frame and headed for the self service area. Once down there Mr H bravely grabbed both flat pack metal filing cabinets, one under each arm and we made our way to the tills. We really should have used a trolly, but surely we'd be able to get through the 50 metre dash to the tills without any major mishaps? WRONG, people with trolleys walking stupid slowly, ignoring Mr H's pleas to 'excuse me' with 10 metres until the till he was literally running as he was going to drop one or both of the packages! As we left Ikea it started to rain, just before we joined the M27 there was a boy'd up MX5 in pieces on the other side of the carriageway, i guess whoever had been driving it had clearly forgotten the dangers of wet roads. I was glad we were going the other way and had been down to Southampton early as the tail back was miles long. Also on that same stretch of road we saw two horses in a field having a fight. I've never really thought about horses fighting before, but it was pretty brutal. One of them kicked the other in the face twice in a row. Proper Buckaroo style.

When we got home, we had received a parcel from Mr H's parents for our anniversary. Good ol' Home Delivery Network, they really know how to make an impression. Beautiful huh?! The side of the box cleared stated not to drop kick the box, but it would appear that didn't bother them. Our beautiful rose plant had broken stems, the chocolates had soil in them, the card was damp and covered in soil - the only thing that really survived was the bottle of wine. Mr H was promptly on the phone with Waitrose to complain about the state it had arrived in. They did question why we were ringing and not the Original Mrs H, but as Mr H pointed out, they could either deal with him or her - I know who I'd chose. She would have been gutted if she'd known how our gift had arrived! They have promised to send out a completely knew package on Wednesday. Lets hope they make good second time around.

For lunch we had Moroccan Chicken leftovers in two wholemeal wraps whilst we watched the rest of Avatar (we fell asleep during it on Friday night) and built our filing cabinets.

In the evening we went out for dinner/drinks in Winchester with a couple of friends. We went to an American style diner for food, we had a sharing platter of loaded nachos to start and I had a coke float. For my main course I ordered a 8oz Rump Steak with Fries & Onion Rings. I managed most of the steak, 2 onion rings and about 10 chips. My stomach was NOT happy and remained unhappy for the rest of the night. If this is what eating out does to me, I'd like to eat at home please. For dessert I had a Woo Hoo cocktail, I don't know what was in it but it was pink and tasted nice. We then mooched down town to a pub where I shared 3 jugs of cocktails with my friend Nicola. It's weird having a friend of the same name. We've only known each other since October last year when we met at a gig, but we're both from the same home town, the same age, went to different schools but know alot of the same people and have a spooky amount of things in common. We got home around 1am and me & Mr H had a quick snuggle on the sofa with the pugs and then we went to bed.

Sunday was our first wedding anniversary, Happy Anniversary to us! We began the day by opening the cards that had arrived in the post. It was really sweet that so many people had remembered. Mr H got me the cutest card with ladybirds on, I didn't do so well in the card department, I'd wanted to write him a letter on nice paper but never had the chance to get any nice paper. So I ended up writing a message in a card I found in the spare room - FAIL! Still, it was paper and the message was from the heart so I guess it doesn't really matter what it was written on. Gift wise I got Mr H a picture. Its a screen print I found on Folksy. It's now framed and up on the wall outside our bedroom. Mr H really treated me, made me feel a little stingey having only spent about £40 on his picture though. He got me a Pink ipod Nano and an arm band so I can stop taking out my 20GB second gen Ipod on runs (its like running with a brick) and he also got me an Alex Monroe necklace I've been coveting for ages. As for our plans for the day, we got up and had breakfast (usual combo for me) and then after a little bit of filing in our new red filing cabinets we got dressed and headed down to Petersfield for a trip down memory lane. We went for lunch at the pub we'd eaten in the night before we got married (I had Roast Beef and Chocolate Brownie for pud) and then we drove over to our wedding venue to take a peak. It was a shame the weather wasn't as good as it was a year ago, it was drizzly and over cast most of the day. There was another wedding on at the Tithe Barn, so we didn't hang around long, but it was nice to see it again.

We then drove home, both struggling to stay awake after the food! We nipped into town on the way back and I bought a jumper from Joules. They had a sneaky 20% off sale so I got it a bit cheaper. It will be fab for those cooler summer nights & I totally love Joules jumpers, so it was about time I got a new one :)

Before heading home, we popped into the tanning centre (I know, I know) and 6 minutes later were back in the car and heading home. When we got home I went to bed for a few hours as after the food and the heat I was pretty snoozy. I think this was partly due to not having much water over Saturday/Sunday too. I got up around 6pm and we fed the dogs and took them to the park.

This is where the runaway dog comes in. We had walked around the majority of the park and were on the final stretch back towards the exit. Mr H was lagging behind and I was up front Edie, Dolly was somewhere in between. I saw another dog entering the field we were in and I managed to get Edie's attention and we walked down between the Croquet Green & the tennis courts. I could see Mr H running to catch up with Dolly (who had headed over to see the other dog). I waited for a bit and then decided that Mr H must not be walking my way, but had already made his way to the other field, so I turned around and started walking. A few seconds later, I see Mr H running faster than I have ever seen him run across the other field. I yelled to ask him what was going on and he said that Dolly had gone. I leashed up Edie who was by my feet and joined in the running. As I entered the same field as Mr H, about 200 metres away I could see Dolly, followed by a little white terrier type dog leaving the car park - which is about 20 metres away from the main road through the village which people drive much more than the 30 limit in. My heart sank but the adrenaline was rushing through me. Mr H and I were running parallel by the time we exited the park with poor Edie. There were some kids at the end of the road on bikes and we asked them which way the dogs had gone - THEY DIDN'T KNOW?! Mr H went down the road towards our house, I ran straight on and the kids agreed to help look. I was literally screaming Dolly's name and also screaming at all the cars driving through the village at what seemed like a million miles an hour. All I could think about was if she was being chased by another dog, what would stop her from running straight out in front of a car - and 90% of the cars were travelling too fast to stop in time. I couldn't see her in any of the gardens on the road I'd taken, so I ran back to the main road. As I got to the cross roads, the guy who owned the white dog was coming out in his car. I said that no one had really been up the road so he should try that. I felt so helpless. Suddenly a cry from down the road came 'her she is' I heard. Then the white dog came pelting out of a side road, being followed by some of the kids on bikes. As it ran past me I tried to grab its collar (as it was running in the road), but I missed and it headed straight back to the park. It was hard work explaining to the kids that it wasn't my dog, my dog looked like the one I had on the lead next to me. The guy who'd gone up the road in his car came back down and I said that the kids had followed his dog back to the park and he should find it there. I'd still not seen or heard from Mr H, he'd been gone a while now but I didn't want to leave my good position on the main road where I could see up and down most of the village. I saw a kid cycling up the hill towards me as fast as his little legs could carry him, about 20 metres from me he leapt off his bike and ran the rest of the way. Out of breath he told his friends that he'd been given £10 for helping out. I was trying to extract from him whether he'd been given the tenner as bribery to help or as a reward for finding - he really wasn't sure! Soon after Mr H appeared on the main road with his thumbs up - Dolly had been recovered. From what we can gather, she must have run from the park all the way home. Poor love, must have been petrified. We did try calling her in the park, but now the trees have leaves our voices bounce all over the place so I wonder if she thought we'd gone without her. Makes my heart break thinking she might have thought that. Looking at the state of the gravel on our driveway it would suggest that she practically flew across it, the gaps between paw impressions were huge for such a dinky dog.

Both Mr H and I had major breathing problems for the rest of the evening, the downside of running outside this time of year without an inhaler! We had planned to run in the evening, but after sprinting around for 20 minutes we both agreed that we probably didn't need to and opted just to do some weights at home instead. I didn't have any dinner that evening, just had a protein shake after my weights session.

Reviewing my weekly goals as an overall for the 2 days...

1. Drink at least 2 litres of water a day. semi check, I didn't on Saturday, made up for it Sunday afternoon

2. Exercise at least 5 times. check - 6/5 completed

3. Run at least 15 miles. FAIL- 6.5 miles completed

4. Continue with the extra exercises outlined last week. check

5. Try to eat at least 1/2 of every meal (excluding breakfast) salad/fruit/veggies. semi check

6. Prepare my work lunches the night before. check

7. Dust off my bike and go out for a ride. Fail

8. Hold my abs in a bit more in day to day life! check

Results

So a month of hard work is over. Time to weigh in, get the tape measure out and put Mr H's photography skills to the test.

Lets go!

All measurements compared to 01/04/2010

Weight - 130lbs - down 2 lbs

BMI - 21.63 - down 0.33 pts

Lean Body Mass % - increased from 73.46% to 74.30%

Body Fat % - decreased from 26.14% to 25.70%

Bust - down 0.5" to 34"

Underbust - down 1" to 27"

Waist (narrowest point) - down 1" to 25"

Waist (navel point) - down 3" (yes 3"!!) to 26"

Hips (over bone) - down 0.5" to 34"

Hips (widest point) - down 1" to 37"

Thigh (thumbs down) - down 0.5" to 21"

Thigh (widest point) - STS at 23"

Calves (widest point) - down 0.2" to 13.5"

Bicep: STS at 11"

Wrist: STS at 5.5"

Total Loss = 7.7"

I exercised 22 days out of 30 and I was doing extra things like sit ups, squats, lunges and things at home.

On to photos. Left picture is April 2010, Right Picture is May 2010

* Waist looks smaller

* Butt looks smaller and lifted SIGNIFICANTLY

* Thighs look tighter and less crappy

* Calves look slimmer

* Arms look slimmer

* Back looks smaller

* Off topic - look a bit more tanned :)

I guess to summarise, I think the hard work has paid off. Still got 10 days until Dubai which is still enough time to make even more progress :D

Better get back to enjoying the rest of my anniversary! Will report back on all that tomorrow hopefully.