Buy this bra now!

Boob loss can be an unfortunate side effect of weight loss. I was hit hard by boob loss during my weight loss. I went from a 30H to a 28F, so down 1 back size and down through GG to G, and FF to F (and it's still probably going down!). The bra industry seems to go a little crazy when you have a small back and a large cupsize. I've been wearing the most ugly of bras for months now. I desperately needed something with a little lift - but because my cup sized was deemed to be big, surely I wouldn't need lift? WRONG!

Well my prayers have been answered and I received a new bra in the post this week and it is AMAZING! Introducing the Freya Deco Bra. Seriously, the lift and shape this bra has given me, it's like I've got a new set of boobs!

If your looking for a bit of oomph, get this bra you will not regret it.

Last day at work

I'm so glad it's my last day at work this week. I had a TERRIBLE nights sleep and could really do with a mini lie in tomorrow morning. I don't know what time it was, but there was a low flying helicopter outside for what seemed like forever. Totally disturbed my sleep pattern and I feel like turd today.

Yesterday I tried on my festival outfits (you know to check I look ok as there won't be any mirrors where I'm going) and I snapped one pic of my altered shorts and bandeau top. I'm quite pleased with them, you'd never know that the top started life with a straight across upper line and the shorts were about 4" longer. I ♥ making & modifying clothes!

I'm taking these shorts, this top, the tights, a black bandeau top (which has been altered the same way) and a pretty floral dress. I'll also pack some pj bottoms to sleep in, a shirt incase it's really sunny and a cardi in case its cold in the evenings.

Mr H picked up our passes last night at band practice, it's quite exciting! We've got to be at the site for 1pm which is earlier than we had thought because he's got press interviews to do. Means we'll be setting off from home about 10.30am tomorrow. My plan is to get up relatively early (but not as early as usual - thus getting a mini lie in) and run our 10k route, shower & leave. Means I can relax a little on the food/booze front over the weekend.

I did run yesterday evening, 3 miles in around 29 minutes. When I got home I experimented with a choconut ice pop in my Zoku. I mixed a scoop of soy chocolate protein powder with some of this coconut milk and a teaspoon of dessicated coconut. I poured it into the moulds and waited. About 10 minutes later I had the most awesome protein pop! It was seriously tasty. Here it is being admired by Dolly and Edie.

On to today and food, breakfast consisted of a 200ml Protein Shake made up with Coconut Milk, followed by a mixture of strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. Mid morning I'm planning to have a banana. Lunch will probably be a jacket potato from the canteen as we have no food in the house!, mid afternoon will be a nakd bar and some of the delicious yellow watermelon. Finally dinner will be homemade turkey meatballs in a ratatouille sauce.

Exercise wise today, I'll be hitting the gym at lunchtime to do my full programme. I'm going to try and mix it up a little today as I don't feel like it's working me particularly hard at the moment.

Watermelon Wednesday

I can't seem to get this pic up the right way, but who cares!

I bought a yellow watermelon t'other day at the supermarket and this is it. It's really yummy, perhaps a little sweeter than a regular watermelon and a rounder flavour (no pun intended). It's delish. I hope Tesco continue to stock them as I can see me trying to get my mitts on one of these again.

Last night I had attended the focus group at Waitrose. It was quite interesting. They were asking purely about the grocery section (i.e. excluding fresh foods & alcohol). So lots of questions about rice, pasta, different sorts of cuisine (Indian, Mexican, Italian, Chinese, etc). I think because it's quite a small store, they are trying to figure out whether people need 3 different options for each product (own brand, brand, premium brand) or whether 1 or 2 options at the most would suffice. For example, they stock 3 different types of linguini - MADNESS! We talked a bit about packaging of own brand stuff too. Waitrose Essential coconut milk has a picture of a coconut on the front, whereas their higher end own brand is a blue tin with a purple square on - it looks like dog food! I'd pick the lower end own brand just because in a rush I'd instantly know what it was. We were in there for about 1.5 hours and then I was given a crisp £50 (more than I was expecting) and sent on my way.

Today I've been working from home, nothing too groundbreaking on the food front. Porridge for breakfast, omelette for lunch, 1 square dark chocolate, 1 homemade pineapple and coconut (I guess thats a pina colada) lolly, yellow watermelon and dinner will be a pizza wrap with some salad.

I'm going to get out on a run a little later once it cools down, not going to go far, probably just a 3 miler so I can say I did something today. Mr H won't be home until late (last band practice before the festival on Friday), so its not like I'll be doing much else this evening.

Last day at work tomorrow before the weekend begins, hurray! Tomorrow we need to buy our camping stuff and some food to take to the festival with us. I guess I probably need to think about packing too!

Struggling to keep my head above the water

Remember yesterday when I posted about the shit and the fan? Well that has well and truely continued into today! It's now 12.23pm and I'm in no position to have time to hit the gym as too much stuff has hit my desk. I really hate being busy at work! I blame all these slackers and their summer holidays, means people are being productive before they go and getting all the things they've been sitting on for months out the door and back to me. Boo!

Still, at least I only have 2 more full days left at work. Tomorrow I'm working from home because so many people from my team are away and if I came in I'd be the only person on our bank of desks. I hate being on my own at work, so my boss said I could work from home. Means I get to have a mid week pug day! One of my favourite sort of days.

I didn't get a pic of my Emergency Cheesecake as I ate it took quickly and it wasn't that visually appealing. However, I did snap dinner last night which we ate in our garden as it was so humid. Dolly was on hand in case my hand slipped to help me clear up dinner. Once again this combo was awesome. Where has Gnocchi been all my life? Mr H is still unsure on the texture, but I think this sauce combo would work well with pasta too.

Tonight I've got my focus group at Waitrose, I'm quite looking forward to it. I just hope that due to them skewing my survey answers I don't mess up their whole piece of research. I'm going to wear something I can run in so I can run home once its done, to make up for not going to the gym. It's only a few miles away, but I guess its better than doing nothing at all.

Food for today is pretty standard, porridge for breakfast, wholemeal pitta for lunch, bits of fruit here and there and dinner will probably be freebies at the focus group (though I hope I've got time to have a mini wholemeal pitta before I get there).

I started thinking about my festival attire last night. I had a delivery through from ASOS with some new sunnies, a scoop back top, a bandeau top and some horrendous leggings (seriously, what was I thinking!!). Needless to say the leggings went back in the post today and I'm going to try and forget what an error I made. I'll leave fashion to people who know what they are doing and stick to what I know thanks!

I sat down with a pair of too-big denim shorts and butchered them to make them into hot pants, I cut off a pair of tights to re-create the look I was hoping to acheive with the leggings (so they come down to my knees to wear underneath the shorts) and I pinched in the top of the bandeau top so it has more of a sweetheart neckline. I won't need that many items of clothing, my thoughts are as follows:

* Shorts
* Legging-esque tights (and a pair of longer ones if the weather sucks)
* Bandeau Top
* Bikini Top
* Pugs not drugs tee(which still needs altering)
* My cons, still not sure whether to wear my worn down wedding ones (if it rains they have holes in the bottom, or my newer not quite worn in ones - blisters ahoy?)
* A band tee & a vest top

On top of this I'll clearly need underwear, something to sleep in and something in case it rains (or does the bikini cover that?). Not sure really what to expect! I guess worst case scenario I can put some extra bits in my car as we're driving there - maybe sleep in it too?!

Anyone been camping or to a festival more recently than 8 years and can give me any advice? We'll have a slightly more luxurious festival experience than a regular punter, as we've got artist passes, but its still ultimately a tent in the middle of field!

4 day week :)

I'm pretty glad I'm only at work for 4 days this week. The shit has really hit the fan and I'm working to sort too much stuff. This week should see some of the projects die, so if I put in some effort for the next 4 days hopefully next week will be easier :)

Friday was one of my short term goals, I think I'm doing ok, I feel much better in myself, so that would suggest that the muscle/fat balance has shifted in the right direction again. I'm waiting for an order from ASOS with some new clothes to wear this weekend too, so that will help things I'm sure. I don't think we're going to stay at the festival the whole weekend, but we are at least staying Friday night and seeing the bands until Saturday evening. Will wait and see what Mr H wants to do.

Not sure if I mentioned it, but I was invited to an 11 year school reunion about a week ago. It's not until September, but that gives me another nice target to aim for. The day after the invite went out I bumped into a guy I went to school with in Southampton. Last time I'd seen him was Christmas 2007 or 2008, he sent me a facebook message afterwards and said how well I was looking. I'm hoping that means I look fit and healthy rather than full of food and happy! I think the reunion could be cool, other than I'd be going alone as I haven't really maintained any friendships from school. Not really sure why that is, I guess I never saw myself as the one who would drift away, but I was. I've still got a few months to think about it, so I'll wait and see who RSVP's yes.

Back to today...

Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, usual Porridge Combo, 150ml Berocca.

Mid Morning: Banana

Lunch: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, Salad with Ham, Cucumber, Red Pepper, Spinach, Rocket, Houmous.

Mid Afternoon: Raspberries, Blueberries, Strawberries

Dinner: Bacon & Spinach Gnocchi with Blue Cheese Sauce.

Hitting the gym at lunchtime and will also be doing my physio later this evening. Speaking of my physio, this new program is hard work!!

6 Minute Ice-Pops and Emergency Cheesecake

The weekend has been and gone. To recap on some of the events...

Friday night I took my Mum to see Jacobs abs Eclipse at the cinema. Not sure it was really a great film, but the fact that Jacob wore a t-shirt like once gave me enough of a distraction from the plot....if only he were 10 years older (I'm a cougar right?!)

Saturday it seemed like we spent all day walking around. We went on the search of a running shop to get Mr H some new running trainers, then down to Southampton for a wonder around. We also took the dogs on two long walks (once around the park and once around the woods to watch the sunset). Sunday we did our 10k route into Winchester for a mooch around and then did housework and walked the dogs some more.

I think the highlights of the weekend were the Ice-pops, my emergancy cheesecake and knocking more time off our 10k route (and that was with 3 minutes walking at various points due to stitches & cramps!).

Onto the Ice-Pops. As we were wondering around John Lewis, I saw this cool looking box, on closer inspection I was baffled. How on earth did this thing work? It had to be worth a shot!
When we got it home it turned out that it needed to be frozen for 24 hours first & perhaps most interesting that the pops need to have sugar in them to set properly (so no diet coke pops for example).

On Sunday we nipped out and got some fruit juices and then I experimented. We got Pineapple Juice, Orange Juice and Apple & Raspberry Juice. This is the unit set up with the lolly sticks in place ready. There are lots of different techniques to end up with different types of lollies. I went for a 3 flavour one.

I filled 3/4 of the mould with Orange juice and waited for the outside to freeze. Then using a straw I sucked out the unfrozen juice and filled with the Apple & Raspberry juice. Once that had frozen I topped it up with Pineapple Juice. The whole process took less than 10 minutes!!

This is the final result! How cute is that. I'm loving the quick Ice-Pop. You can see the layers of juices in the first pic, then the different flavoured inside in the second, and finally the funky sticks in the last picture.


They were super tasty and super quick. Just perfect for that emergency sweet fix. Apparently you can make them and then freeze then seperately in freezer bags too if you did want to make a batch up, but I like the idea of being able to make whatever flavour I want on a whim. I'm looking forward to trying out lots of different combinations and think I'm going to start a seperate blog dedicated to recipes.

This leads me onto my Emergency Cheesecake. It was early Sunday evening, I was flagging after the run in the morning and I needed sugar and it needed to be in the form of cheesecake.

Ingredients
1 tbsp Philidelphia Light
1/2 tbsp Double Cream
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tbsp Caster Sugar
4 Squares Dark Chocolate - melted (I used Montezumas 70%)
Handful of Raspberries
2 biscuits - crushed (I used 2 rich tea biscuits as that was all I had)

Method
Mix the philly, cream, sugar, vanilla until combined. Crush in the two biscuits and add the raspberries and mix up so they split a little. Finally add in the chocolate and fold in so the mixture marbles.

Stick in a bowl and freeze for a few minutes (you can lick the bowl in the meantime). Remove from the freezer and enjoy.

I've got a spare in the fridge, so I might give you a pic tomorrow (if I remember to photograph it before eating it that is)

And one more thing...

I've been having a chat with Mr H about the ol' leg press machine at the gym. We were having a conversation about who could leg press more weight. Of course him being a boy, he assumed he could do more. We agreed to go away see how heavy we could press in a 3 set, 10 reps and guess what?

Yup, thats right, I won! Mr H was genuinely shocked. At present I easily leg press 230lbs (~104kg) and Mr H managed 4 reps at 80kg. I'll be going up to 240lbs next week which puts me at ~109kg. He's got to start working a bit harder if he wants to beat me! My current aim is to be leg pressing double my body weight which would be around 116kg or 256lbs.

Nearly hometime

I've got just over an hour til it's hometime. Thank goodness!

Just a quick recap from yesterday, I ate fairly well during the day but did have an impulse buy of a Nutella Shakeaway and I ate 8 chocolates in the evening through boredom. Good news is that I only have 1 box of chocolates left from Christmas and they are still in their shrink wrap, so they are safe for now.

I had my doctors appointment in the morning and they were mystified as to what had caused my face to swell. I've been given some antibiotics that are the size of horse pills to take to see if that breaks the cycle of this swelling. She wondered whether I have some sort of underlying infection that my body is working on but never quite suceeding in ridding itself of. Got 7 days of pills, then will just wait and see if it happens again.

In the afternoon I had a sneaky snack of boiled soya beans with a little salt (think edamame without the cases). They were yummy but I probably cooked a little too much as I didn't end up having dinner until gone 8pm (which for me is late). I never made it out on that run as the weather was pap! It would be dry for a little while then absolutely crash down with rain. I can handle consistent light rain, but heavy downpours aren't really my idea of a fun run.

Whilst I was working at home I caught Dolly doing some head weights with my leg weights. She had undone the velcro and carried this all the way from the other side of the living room to her bed. My pugs are a bit like magpies, when we wash their bed we find all sorts in it. They'd had their bi-weekly clear out earlier this week and we found a pen, a lottery ticket, a deflated balloon and a handful of hazelnuts from the tree outside. It's really cute that they find things and take them to their little place to investigate and I presume subsequently get bored and leave them there. Alas we'd not won any money on the lottery ticket, but it was nice of the pugs to save it for us anyway.

As I'm sure you'll know, I had a bit of an outburst last night. Today I'm still really angry and upset. Some of you may know that there was a time when I was vegetarian, so whilst I do now eat meat, we tend to buy 'ethical' meat which for ages I've been fine with. However, yesterday has made me take a step back from this and subsequently I couldn't stomach my lunch. I tried, I really tried, but I just couldn't eat it (it was a prawn salad incase you were wondering). I ended up with a cheese & pickle sandwich and a bag of crisps from the work canteen.

Back tracking a little, breakfast this morning was amazing. It was my half honeydew melon from yesterday filled with blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. No jokes it took me about 3 hours to eat! Of course I was getting on with other things, but thats still some feat.

Tonight we're off to the cinema with my Mum. We're taking her to see the new Twilight film. It was supposed to be a girlie trip, but Mr H wanted to come along too, so I let him :)

Not sure what the weekend holds yet, will wait and see how I feel when I get up tomorrow and decide then. At least the weather looks like it should pick up!

Hope you all have a good weekend whatever your planning to do.

Completely off topic

I sky+'d a docuentary a few nights ago called 'The Cove'. I didn't really know what to expect when I sat down to watch it this evening other than it was Oscar winning and about the illicit slaughter of dolphins in Taijia, Japan.

What followed in the next 90 odd minutes was something I was totally unprepared for. The tears streaming down my face probably tell you all you need to know.

Every year thousands of dolphins are callously slaughtered after being herded into the natural coves of Taijia in the Japan coastline. Of those trapped, the best are sold off to aquariums or places that you can go to swim with dolphins, the rest are slaughtered and sold to supermarkets for human consumption. Of course it isn't just occuring in this one coastal village, it's taking place all over Japan.

It's not often I see something that makes me want to stand up and do something about it. But this is definately one of those things.

I urge you all to suck it up and watch the documentary. I'd be hard pushed to think that anyone would be able to watch it without being absolutely horrified by what they see.

To find out what you can do in the UK to help...

http://www.campaign-whale.org/campaigns/japan-dolphins

The Curious Case of the Swollen Face

Not sure if I've blogged about this before, but I have this weird recurring face swelling thing. I first noticed it back in December the day we flew out to Chicago. I assumed I'd had some sort of allergic reaction to my Mum's pillows or something, it had only just gone down by the time we got back from holiday nearly a week later.

Since then, it's happened pretty regularly. I should really be making a note of when it happens to try and figure out if there is anything I'm doing that is causing it. However, I'm pretty sure its not an allergic reaction just because antihistamines do nothing to help it. I'm actually stumped as to what it could be. I lose all definition in the left side of my face. In my head, its a bit like Violet Beauregarde from Charlie and The Chocolate Factory.

Today it's happened again, I knew it was going to from about 8pm yesterday when my face started to feel uncomfortable. I've somehow managed to get a doctors appointment for 10.40 this morning (I've tried many times in the past 6 months!!), so hopefully I'll be on my way to getting some answers.

Once again last night we didn't eat what I expected to, I don't think I've eaten one planned dinner yet this week! We ended up with Thai Green Curry (like we had the other night with Philly instead of Coconut Milk) and some Brown Basmalti Rice with Yellow Lentils and Oats. Delish!

I didn't complete my list of things to do last night, but I wasn't far off. I managed my thankyou leters & the Tesco shop. By the time I got home and made dinner it was too late to do my photobook! My plans for the weekend away have been scuppered by a mysterious girl named Lizzie. No idea who she is, but she's already planned stuff for my friend to do. So I'm officially free this weekend!

The food shop I did last night came to £79.92. I got a shit load of food. When I go shopping alone I seem to get so much more for our money than if I go with Mr H. I guess he's perhaps more of an impulsive shopper, whereas I go for the things we need. I got a few new things for us to try:

* Yellow Watermelon
* Carton of Coconut Milk (as in a dairy replacement rather than actual coconut milk)
* Red Jalepenos
* Basmalti Rice with added Lentils & Oats

Other than the rice that we already tried (which has been given the thumbs up), I'm looking forward to trying the rest.

Food for today...

Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, half a honeydew melon filled with strawberries, raspberries and blueberries (I'll pick on this for most of the morning probably)

Lunch: Mackerel Salad (Rocket, Spinach, Cucumber, Tomato) & L/F Salad Cream

Mid Afternoon: Banana

Dinner: Ham, Mushroom, Spinach Omelette topped with Gouda.

Exercise wise, Mr H has forbidden me from doing our 10k route tonight as he's not expecting to be home until gone midnight, so if I get run down and knocked off the road no one will know for quite some time. So if the weather is ok I'll just do the 4 mile route which is 99% on pavement in well lit, well populated areas.

Mid Week

Do you ever write stuff out and then just delete it? In the blog world this would be writing out a blog post (perhaps even several times) and never posting it. Or maybe you do this in the world of emails, write the kind of response you really want to give someone, then delete it and start again. I do this ALOT. Today I have written on this blog 3 times, but none of these posts have made it as far as being published. However in the process of writing things down, I feel somewhat better about things.

I don't really have an awful lot to say today, yesterdays dinner ended up being a tuna pasta bake, it was nice, I ate too much though. I ended up having to clean my teeth and cover the dish with tin foil to stop my fork going into the bowl every time I walked past.

Today food has been fairly similar to what it always is!

Breakfast: Shake & Porridge Combo
Mid Morning: Nakd Bar & Banana
Lunch: Shake, Mackerel Salad (seriously tasty, it's been ages since I had mackerel)
Mid Afternoon: Plum
Dinner: Jalepeno Pizza Wrap and Salad

All washed down with 2 litres of water. I did about 70 minutes in the gym at lunchtime today but it was really busy. Yesterday I was literally the only person in, but today I had to share the equipment with about 9 other people. Didn't do the full programme I had planned, but still burnt off a respectable 550 calories.

Tonight I've got a tesco shop to do, a photobook to create, thank you letters to write for my birthday pressies (I know its soooo late) and possibly a weekend break to organise for my bestie who should have been getting married this weekend.

Unexpected Reasons to Smile

1) Yesterdays Physio appointment was great. Other than wearing a really inappropriate top which meant I had my entire appointment in my jeans and bra it was a really good session. I've been given some more exercises that will work different areas and I've also been given a stronger rubber band to increase the resistence. But the best news by far was that they are now happy for me to start using upper body weights again. Nothing too extreme, but bicep curls and chest presses should be fine. I'll also be starting back up with some tricep exercises.

2) On my way home from Physio, I stopped off at Waitrose to pick up a few bits. As I walked out I was cornered by two ladies with clipboards. Street surveys are one of my pet hates so I tried to avoid them by going the other side of a pillar but they still got me. I tried again to wriggle out of their questioning by saying I had frozen goods in my bag and I had to get back to work (which incidently I did!). But then they flattered me by asking how old I was and that I probably wasn't going to be old enough anyway. I informed them that I was 27 (as I took off my sunglasses to give them my best unimpressed glare) and they said I was just old enough to fit their required sample... but I didn't look at all 27 *blushes*. They quickly managed to get in that they'd be paying £40 next Tuesday evening for a focus group and I was sold. I ♥ focus groups. Give me a glass of wine and the promise of money/vouchers and I'll talk about whatever you want!

3) My 'Pugs not Drugs' shirt arrived. I'm a little unsure how the heck to wear a cropped t-shirt, I'm not sure it's really 'me' you know. Think I'm going to need to do some google research to find out what I should be wearing it with. I think in any case I'm going to butcher it a little to make it a bit tighter, sleeveless and I might alter the back to make it more interesting. It's a possible festival shirt thats for sure.

4) On a whim I decided to try on my wedding dress yesterday evening. I should have been getting ready to go on my run, but it was so muggy outside I got distracted by doing anything other than going out for a run! I'm not really sure why I was suprised that it fitted, but I was. For those of you that know I wore a corset with my wedding dress, it now fits without the corset on. The only bit that didn't fit was around the bust, but I'm sure a better push up bra would help to fill the gap that my former boobs filled. So I spent about 5 minutes swishing around our bedroom before putting it back in its bag and back in the wardrobe.

I now just have to hope that today is just as good :)

Food for today is as follows...

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

Mid Morning: Pecan Pie Nakd Bar & 2 plums (which both got attacked by my fork in my bag on my way into work this morning)

Lunch: Ham and Egg Salad with a bit of L/F Salad Creme, 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake

Mid Afternoon: Grapes

Dinner: Mackerel Salad

I'm hitting the gym at lunchtime for my full programme with some additional arm weights - yay!

Monday

Today I'm working from home because I have my second physio appointment at midday. Looking back at last week, I think it was a success. The reasoning behind this is down to how I feel. I feel pretty damned good! Planning to attack this week much the same as last week, lots of water, fresh foods, exercise, etc.

I started the day with a bowl of Chocolate Porridge and a glass of Berocca. Which because I'm at home, I bothered to photograph :)

I've then sat down to catchup with various blogs and re-cap my own weekend (it's taken 90 minutes so far - oops!). Food for the rest of the day will be as follows...

Mid Morning: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake

Lunch: Butter Bean/Chorizo Soup with a slice of homemade bread (assuming it hasn't turned into rock over night)

Mid Afternoon: Banana

Dinner: Ham/Jalepeno Pizza Wrap and Salad

I'm hoping to get out on a run before Mr H comes home from work, so around 5pm I'll head out. I think I'll probably go for 3-4 miles. So I'll probably have another Protein Shake after that, maybe with some blitzed frozen berries in - yum!

Weekend Recap

Ever have weekend's when you just get loads done? I had one of those this weekend just gone.

We had a lovely little lie in on Saturday morning, then Mr H got up and took Dolly to the vets. This is the only bad bit of the whole weekend. The vet has found a lump the size of a grain of rice in a place where the sun does not shine. We've got to take her back in a month and we're obviously keeping everything crossed that whatever it is will have gone and was just irritation, I think it's going to feel like a long month!

When he got home we jumped in the car and headed down to Ikea. I reckon we must visit Ikea about 1 weekend in every 4 these days, it's quite a scary thought. We were relatively restrained, we took the stairs to completely avoid the marketplace and just headed straight for the self service and then the checkouts.

To say I was excited at our purchases would be a lie, I'm positively squealing inside. First of all, we got a kitchen trolley thing on wheels. This now lives inside our giant cupboard in our kitchen and homes all (yes ALL!) of my baking things. This includes my KitchenAid, my baking trays, most of my ingredients housed inside a super pink bread bin, mixing bowls, cupcake cases, sprinkles, sparkles, etc, etc. It's a one stop baking shop that I can just wheel out of the cupboard anytime I fancy baking. It gives me a bit more workspace when I am baking and also has freed up a stack of space in our fixed cupboards and drawers to put other things in.

The other two purchases we made were for our spare room. We've been working from room to room in our house trying to make improvements to the layout and design of things (as I don't think the builders thought about the practicalities of living in a house with no loft storage). The spare room has been a work in progress for a while now. We're trying to de-clutter it by bringing all the media stuff (books, CDs, DVD, etc) downstairs to our living room so we can get rid of an enormous book case that has been housing all this crap for the last 3 years. We've been buying a few bits and pieces over the last few months and the latest two purchases were a desk and a chair. Welcome to 'Craft Corner'.

I think Mr H would die a little inside if he heard me refer to it as 'Craft Corner' :P. We've got a spangly new red desk and a totally awesome plastic chair (which looks like it's not really there). That's my new sewing machine hiding out beneath that plastic cover and my work in progress picnic basket and my new sewing box under neath the desk. The lamp is also new, I picked it up with leftover wedding vouchers (over a year since receiving them) from John Lewis. The base is clear glass and the black squiggley line is the excess cable pushed inside. It's a little hard to see from this photo, but the picture above the desk is Mr H's creation. Isn't it cool and colourful? It is made up from some of the AAA passes he's got from the show's hes played with his various bands over the years. We've got a box full of these and I think the plan is to make another frame or two out of the rest.

Whilst not new, here are a few other things that lurk in our spare room (taking deliberately to avoid showing you the mess thats in the middle of the room right now!!).

Some funky red filing cabinets and our new lampshade (all have been bought from Ikea over the last month or so). The red came about because when we first moved in we bought some vinyl stickers for the walls in our spare room of Robots. The robots are various shades of blue and red. Once we've got the furniture right, we'll repaint the room and get the sticker up on the wall.

The only other thing we finished this weekend is our holiday memento frame. Most people might perhaps remember a holiday by putting up a picture of them sitting on some glorious beach or something. We prefer to remember our holiday for different reasons. The Small Brown Bike show poster is from our holiday to Chicago in December 2009. We flew all the way to Chicago and planned a holiday all around seeing this band. The show tickets cost like $11 each. Best.Show.Ever. Not only are the band probably my all time favourite, the whole atmosphere was just spot on. American venues from my experience really do seem to get it right in terms of sound and American crowds seem to get it right in terms of attitude. The whole thing comes together in a really good way. I think what also made it a special night was that Mr H had contacted the band to say we'd flown 3,000 odd miles to see them and we got a shout out and a cheer :). When the evening ended it started to snow when we were waiting for our cab, totally amazing. If you've never been to Chicago I'd really recommend it, I absolutely loved it!

The poster at the bottom was pinched off the wall at the Roseland Ballroom in NYC in May 2009. We had our honeymoon in New York and as Mr H's wedding pressie, I gave him two tickets to go and see his favourite band. Now for anyone in to metal, the line up of this show was mental. In the UK each of these bands would be headliners in their own right, out in the states (I guess as its closer to home for most of these bands) we got to see a stack of awesome bands all on the same lineup. We'd had a long day pacing the streets of NYC, but the show was incredible. The bass drops made my t-shirt move. It was incredible.

Anyhoo, back what this blog should really be about! I made 4 new meals this weekend. Thai Green Curry, Steak Salad, Butter Bean and Chorizo Stew (with sundried tomato and pumpkin seed bread) and Gnocchi with blue cheese sauce, spinach and bacon.

This is the homemade (well sort of) bread and the Butter Bean/Chorizo stew. Mr H still is totally off Chorizo after the 'possibly food poisoning but I was fine' incident of last year. So I've got this all to myself. He did like my 'risen in my car' bread though :)

All the meals were yummy, the steak in the salad I made was cooked to perfection. Substiting Philly Light in the Thai Green Curry worked suprisingly well and was clearly much less calorific than using coconut milk. The meal with Gnocchi was also good, I'd never had Gnocchi before and I'm not entirely convinced I liked the texture but the blue cheese sauce tasted fab. Again I used Philly Light to bring down the calories by mixing it with a small amount of Saint Agur. Food wise, this weekend was therefore great, I love trying new recipes and most of these will definately be on my list to do again. The only one I might not do again is the Chorizo Stew, but only because Mr H won't eat it. I think the next time I might have that is in October when he's away for a week.

I guess I should also mention the 10k run we did on Sunday, poor Mr H was suffering, he'd over done it at the gym on Friday night and was a bit sore. However, despite his aches and pains we got round 4 minutes faster than the last time we ran it! I burnt off a respectable 879 calories. I also monitored my heart rate for about 16 minutes after the run (whilst we cooled down by walking the dogs) and that stated another 145 calories burnt just in the cooldown. Awesome huh! I treated myself to a chocolate brownie at Starbucks in the afternoon with a friend. It wasn't actually that nice, but I guess thats the problem with chain places and Sunday afternoons.

Another working week done and dusted

....well just about! I'll try my best to ignore the 8 hours that I have left *sigh*

Just a quick report on yesterday, it went ok. Lunch wasn't as nice as I thought it would be. The Lamb Koftas were like chewing bricks (one was so solid I nearly pinged it across the pub when I tried to cut into it), and the cookies and ice cream was clearly a case for Trading Standards as it was just a single cookie split in two. I was most disappointed with my pud. I had Cookies and Ice Cream at a pub in April and it was superb, oven warm cookies, a ball of ice cream and a shot of buttermilk for dipping. Yesterday's was literally cookie out of a packet & vanilla ice cream in a sundae glass. Rubbish!

We didn't make it out for our run last night. We got home and took the dogs to the park for a walk and it was getting darker and darker until eventually the sky opened and we got soaked. We ran all the way home with the pooches and decided that running in rain that heavy was just pointless. We'd need goggles to be able to see in front of us!

Today looks set to be a good day. I've had strawberries on toast for breakfast, I have a piri piri Turkey salad for lunch, a Cashew Cookie Nakd bar to try and I've got a gym session planned at lunchtime. This evening I'm hoping to get some house work done before sitting down for a film night with Mr H and the pugs.

Oh and I've just bought a t-shirt after a friend sending me a text alerting me to it last night. How funny is that? I didn't have a clue what size to order, but I've gone for a small (its a cropped t shirt). It's also pale pink which I don't think is a great colour on me, but I figure with a cardi it will be fine and hopefully look more off-white than pink. It arrives Monday so I'm quite excited! Talking of shirts, I'm waiting for a mahoooosive order from the States at the moment. I ordered a stack of t-shirts for Mr H for his birthday and a few spares for when I feel like spoiling him and I got an extra one for me too. I'll share that when it arrives :)

Yum.

I think I have a new favourite Nakd bar - Cocoa Orange. They were on offer in Waitrose t'other day so I branched out into a few of the other flavours, Cocoa Orange, Cashew Cookie and Pecan Pie. I'm yet to try the latter two. I've also seen that they do a Ginger Bread one. Depending on how the other two bars go, I might treat myself to a box from their website.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Hooray for Daddy

Yesterday I went and picked up 'The Silver Bullet' (my car) from my Dad following an MOT and subsequent fixes. Whilst we were waiting for the rain to subside my Dad said how 'slender' I was looking. I tell you, knowing that I've put a small amount of weight on and lost a fair amount of muscle definition in the last month this put a massive smile on my face! Yay for Dads and their seldom yet well timed compliments!

I've also now got a shorter term goal to work towards my way of getting back into shape - 30th July. Mr H's band were confirmed for a music festival and I want to be looking super hot. I have far too many ex's that will be there, so I want to make sure I look fabulous. That gives me a measly 16 days (including today). I would imagine that my AF related bloat will be gone by the end of this week, so that should see me return to my regular weight. It's just the exercise to trim me up that I want to work on. I'll have a months worth under my belt by then, so hopefully I'll have reduced the inches :)

Last night we ended up having homemade burgers and ratatouille for dinner. I also had some sneaking Gherkins with my burgers. I ♥ gherkins.

Food for today is somewhat ok,

Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, Raspberries & Grapes

Mid Morning:Cocoa Orange Nakd bar

Lunch: Eating out here, if we're going for two courses, I'll pick from the Prix Fixe Menu and have the Lamb Koftas, Tomato, Cucumber, Onion Salad, Tzatziki with Chilli Jam and Frites followed by Cookies and Ice Cream.

Dinner: Piri Piri Turkey Steak & Jalepeno Pizza Wrap with Spinach, Rocket & Watercress

Hoping that the weather will hold so that Mr H and I will be able to get out on our 10k route tonight.

Is it really only Wednesday?

This week is already feeling too long. I'm not sure whether it's because the weather is effecting my sleep, or perhaps the half day I took on Monday, or possibly even our late night food shop last night, but it really feels like it should be Thursday at least!

Yesterday was a good day, I ate well (only additions to yesterdays food diary was 1.5 boiled eggs with dinner, a few spoonfuls of the last Key Lime Pie and a post-shopping Chilli Hot Chocolate with Skimmed Milk - as I didn't want to pour the milk away when there was no longer any space in the fridge for it).

Before we did our food shop, we defrosted our freezer. I'm still a little ashamed at what our freezer is filled with...

1st Drawer - Bags of Ice
2nd Drawer - Ice cream, Frozen Fruit & Hot Cross Bun Loaf
3rd Drawer - Freezer Packs, M&S Bacon & Cheese Rolls & homemade fruit/oat muffins
4th Drawer - Some ancient frozen veg, quorn products and a lonely piece of cod.

I'm not sure that storing some 5 packs of bacon & cheese rolls and about 6 loaves of hot cross bun is particularly space effective! But I guess seeing as we don't buy much frozen food, nor does anything really ever last long enough to justify freezing it, it doesn't matter a huge amount.

Our fridge on the other hand is busting full of food now. We did a whopping £90 shop last night. It feels like forever since we did our last food shop, so its nice to have everything stocked back up. We've got lots of yummy things planned for our weeks eats, salads, ratatouille, homemade burgers, etc etc. I bought two things I've not had in a while; mackerel and butter beans. Not to have together, but am looking forward to fitting them into some meals.


I experienced something a little gross last night too, you remember that toenail that went black? Well it finally came off last night. The human body is an amazing piece of equipment, just like the way sharks have teeth lined up to replace lost ones, I had a newly formed nail underneath ready to take on the world. It looks a bit crap but nothing a bit of polish won't sort out I'm sure. I think the fact it came off whilst I was trying to put my trainer on for dog walking will gross me out for a while though.

On that lovely thought... on to food :S

Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, Strawberries & Raspberries

Mid Morning: Banana

Lunch: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, Vegetable Crudities (Red Pepper, Cucumber, Carrot, Celery) with Fiery Chilli Houmous and some Ham.

Mid Afternoon: Bear Cocoa Cherry Pie Granola Nibbles

Dinner: Steak with Grilled Vegetables (peppers, mushrooms, courgettes)

Hitting the gym again today at lunchtime :)

On a side note, this morning we saw a heron watching over the pond at the end of our road. He was magnificent. I tried to get a photo, but another car drove passed and spooked him and I managed to snap the dashboard of the car - nice.

I guess it's also a good idea to mention that I have a little bit of a goal to keep me focussed at the moment, in just over 3 weeks time I have a hen do to go to and also a 30th Birthday party, all in the same weekend as Mr H's birthday. I want to getting towards where I was earlier in the year by then, so lots of hardwork required between now and then to make sure that happens!

PYO, Picnic, Pie, Pigs, Popcorn, more Pie & a Wedding.

We've had a busy few days!

To summarise...

Saturday:

• Pick your Own - got two enormous punnets of Raspberries and Strawberries & a huge bag of Broad Beans all picked by our own fair hands for a great price of £6.
• Picnic - had a fabby picnic with two awesome friends!
• Pie - yum!
• Pigs - and other farmyard animals. I touched up many a goat, sheep, horse, llama, etc. We had homemade popcorn in front of the TV when we got home whilst we watched a film.
• The main thing to note on Saturday is that I wore an outfit that I felt slightly outside my comfort zone in. I wore a strapless top and denim shorts. I felt a little on show and I was worried about how I looked. But the photos confirm that I looked alright! So much so that I wore the same outfit on Sunday.

Sunday:

• BBQ at the in-laws - I had 1 burger, 1 sausage and a chicken breast and stacks of salad. Followed by Strawberries, Raspberries, a meringue and Key Lime Pie.
• We played Badminton in the garden, Team H vs Team CH. Because I'm not supposed to be using my right arm for things I played left handed and I wasn't actually too bad!
• We snoozed in the sun
• We had cheese & pickle sandwiches for tea :D

Monday:

• We had a wedding to attend at 2pm, I managed to pack my dress, but I left my shoes at home. I bought new shoes on the way (cuff sandels from Next).
• I ate pretty well during the morning at work, and we had a 3 course pub meal after the wedding. I had Cajun Mushrooms, Ham/Egg/Chips, Chocolate Brownie Sundae (which I just picked the cake out of), 1 glass of Champers and 2 diet cokes.
• Got home late and just had time to walk the pooches and hit the hay.

That brings us onto today. Today started with a Facebook message from a guy who did the dirty on his fiancee (who is my best friend). It's been 7 months since I got phonecall where she could hardly breathe she was so upset. I'd not seen such a broken human being since my Mum left my Dad. I gave a short and polite response, basically saying it was too little too late and that people who were capable of treating others like that were not the kind of people that I wanted to be my friends. I ended on hoping that his life turns out like he wants it to. I just got a message from my bestie saying that at least 3 other people have received similar (if not carbon copy) messages... looks like no one else is replying because they knew I'd reply!! I've been biting my tongue for seven long months and I feel like I've gotten some closure from today. I can now get on with my life knowing that I've made it clear that I want nothing more to do with him. I know that if I was him, I would have totally laid low and waited for people to contact me. I think his blase attitude in his 'woe is me' message speaks volumes. Anyhoo, no point in going on about it, its time to move on!

Food for today is looking good!

Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake, 150ml Berocca (I've got some Raspberries & Strawberries to Pick on too)

Mid Morning: Banana

Lunch: Mixed Leaf Salad with Ham, Cheese, Cucumber & Carrot, 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake.

Mid Afternoon: Half a Honeydew Melon.

Dinner: Ham & Jalepeno Pizza Wrap with Salad.

Hitting the gym at lunchtime for session 1 of 6 planned this week.

Hurray for Friday!

Is it just me or does this week feel like its majorly dragged? I'm so glad Friday has arrived!!

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I burnt of a respectable 354 calories in the gym, this was 15 minutes on a light resistance on the Cybex (to try and recover feeling in my left hip) and then various new exercises with the gym instructor to take into account my dodgy shoulder.

I'm quite pleased with the things that we have planned. I'm not sure if this is all of what we went through (as its from memory) but I'll be picking up my schedule later today.

The new gym instructor has been through physio for exactly the same shoulder injury (he's a pro ice hockey player) and he specialises in fitness for recovering from sports injuries - SCORE!

We've concentrated on keeping my shoulder locked in place without having any weights pulling it down out of the socket. The types of exercises we planned were:

Weighted Squats - 15kg Plate across chest (narrow squats, wide squats, ballet squats, ATG squats)
Weighted Squats - 12kg ViPR tube across chest (works biceps too)
Weighted Lunges - 15kg Plate across chest, one foot behind and on bench
Leg Press - 110kg
Leg Extension - 6kg
Leg Curl - 3kg
Single Leg Calf Raises no weight
Calf Raises with one foot on step, foot on floor jumping (with 5kg plate on chest)
Side Lunges Across step - 3 x 10
Side Lunges with 12kg ViPR tube
Front Lunges with 12kg ViPR tube
Roman Chair side cruches + 5kg weight on chest
Variety of different sit ups (from my regular routine with added weights)

Then I plan to continue with things like butt raises, side leg raises, etc.

So proper lower body beasting! Hopefully some of these exercises will also help keep my arms in shape.

I'll obviously continue with running outside of work and will probably stick to the cross trainer for my warm up cardio at the gym.

Not sure how often I'll be able to do this at the gym as its clearly lower body intensive, but I generally go to the gym 4 times a week. Will have to see how the next week works out for me as I'm hoping to do at least 2-3 runs a week as well. Will see how I feel after doing this programme today and how I feel tomorrow morning!

Yesterdays dinner was a little different to plan, we ended up having our turkey stir fry, but with a really tasteless shop bought sachet sauce (it was 100 calories for the whole packet so I didn't think that really mattered), and some homemade egg (non) fried rice. It felt like a pretty treaty meal, even if the sauce sucked. It would have been much nicer with a sweet and sour sauce. For pud I had a big bowl of strawberries with 1 tsp of sugar.

We spent 90% our evening trying to update my iphone to IOS4. It took FOREVER! We've been trying and failing for the last week to get it done in an evening but have always had to give up before completing the upgrade. Yesterday we managed it and then spent another hour or so trying to restore all my photos which don't automatically show up after the upgrade. We downloaded this snazzy piece of software called 'iphone explorer' so I was able to backup all my photos before trying to restore them (as they go all the way back to our NYC honeymoon in May 2009). Finally it worked and it was literally time for bed!!

Back to the present and my food plans for today.

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

Mid Morning: Banana

Lunch: Rocket, Tomato, Cucumber, Grape, Fiery Chilli Houmous, Cheese, Ham.

Mid Afternoon: Grapes & Strawberries.

Dinner: Pizza Wraps probably as Mr H is going out to band practise, so we need something quick and easy.

In other slightly un-related news. I've eaten practically everything under the sun this week and I was hoping that it was because AF was on her way. I *think* that she's going to arrive today which means that my cycle this month was a measly 31 days. I came off the pill 9 months ago and my cycles have been proper fucked, first cycle was 42 days, second was 51 days, third was 60 days (I had started to wonder at this point whether I was forming a pattern of increasing in 9's!), fourth was 91 days and fifth is probably 31 days. Clearly with such wide ranging cycle lengths theres no point getting my hopes up that this short cycle means anything, but I really hope it means that my body will start being a little bit more predictable.

Littleton 10k

I didn't run the Beale Park 10k last night, it just seemed like too much hassle. On reflection I'd have spent the whole evening either running or sitting in a car so I'm sure I made the right choice. We got home from work around 6.30pm and we headed out around 6.50pm.

I picked a route we had run before, that was a perfect 10k. Its all on road, up and down some nice steeps hills and through some fabulous surroundings.
We ran the whole way round. Well I say we, Mr H stopped before we got home to 'walk it off' where as I sprinted all the way home. We made it round in 1 hour 11 minutes and 29 seconds. Considering I've not run this sort of distance since the end of May, I think thats pretty good going. I burnt off a respectable 935 calories according to my HR monitor and I felt fab when I got home.... well apart from my left hip feeling like it needed to be replaced! I think I might have my mojo back :)

I know I didn't run as fast as I could, Mr H and I held a coversation the whole way round which of course if we'd been running at full speed this would not have been possible. But for a nice way to somewhat ease ourselves back into our running regime this was nice. The highlight of the run had to be when we were running on the section of the map between 7-8. I heard a rustling on the side of the road and all of a sudden a bunny leapt out and dashed across in front of me, I think this is where I messed up my pace and hurt my hip. I'd not seen a bunny fly before, but no jokes it dashed to the middle of the road then took a leap of faith across the other half onto the bank and straight into a hole! The roads round here are much narrower than regular roads, but it still seemed like quite a big distance for a little bun to jump. Of course being the overdramatic girl I am I squealed with fear as this tiny bunny leapt in front of me and then struggled to stop laughing as we continued up the hill.

We got home and took the dogs straight out for a brief evening walk so we could cool down and drink our Protein Shakes. Mr H cooked the dinner and we ended up with turkey steaks, a small amount of wholemeal pasta with Fiery Chilli Pesto and a side salad of rocket and spinach. All washed down with a glass of diet lemonade & sugar free squash packed with ice. Was totally lush.

Yesterday was much cooler than it has been recently, so after I'd had a shower and got into my pjs I chilled on the sofa with my pugs and they got really snuggly. I totally miss pug snuggles in the summer because they overheat quite quickly with all that fur. But last night Edie had snuggled up with my legs, resting her chin on my feet and Dolly was curled up in front of me watching the TV. Sooooooooo cute! Whilst I am enjoying the summer, I would love some of those cosy autumn/winter nights.

Today I've got food and exercise under control.

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

Mid Morning: Banana, Homemade Banana & Chocolate muffin (I have a late gym session with the gym instructor, so need to eat a bit more than usual!)

Lunch: Rocket, Peas, Cucumber, Tomato, Grapes, Houmous, Small Wholemeal Pitta, slice of Gouda, 2 slices Ham (basically a build your own pitta as I couldn't figure out how to cut my pitta open this morning without it all completely falling apart).

Mid Afternoon: 2 plums

Dinner: Turkey Stir Fry

At the gym today I'm hoping to get a new weights routine that I can focus on whilst I'm completing my physio. Looking forward to getting my teeth into something new that I can blitz.

Mid Week and Catchup

When my alarm went off this morning I seriously believed it to be the weekend. I'd slept so well that there was no way that my alarm was beeping at 5.45am, it must have been at least 8am. But it is Wednesday and my alarm was beeping at 5.45am!

Last night I got a text from my friend, you know the one who asked for a running companion for the 10k tonight. It said "Just a text to let you know that it is looking more and more unlikely that I will able to do the run tomorrow - I am having a few probs with work a the mo and may not be able to get out on time. Also doesn't help that I have done no training!"

Now the sceptic in me believes that she's bailing on the race because of the training & the bad weather... not her job which she is leaving in a few days time. I'm pretty annoyed to be honest, I've been stressing about this race for the last few weeks, knowing that I've done next to no running in June because of my tooth problems but I was going to go through with it because I'd promised to run with her. I know it shouldn't be all about running because of someone else, but I'm not that fussed about running organised races, I'm quite happy timing myself around distances we plot on a map. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it now. I've got my running stuff & my race pack with me, so perhaps I'll just see how I feel about things at 5pm this evening when I leave work. Mr H would be dropping me off on his way home from work then would come and pick me up. I'd be at the race site about 1.5-2 hours before the race starts, so if its raining its pretty much a no go as I'll be soaked through before I even get going. Plus I'm not sure about how confident I am running cross country on wet ground, 99% of my running is on road and this race is around a bird park! It's pissing with rain at the moment so I guess I'll just wait and see.

Now the catchup elements of this post. Firstly, we did our food shop at the weekend, check this out. Yes, this is a Mars Milkshake with a Sports Cap - seriously! WTF? Now I do understand that research has been carried out that shows drinking chocolate milk after exercise can help muscle recovery, but I'm a little wary of the actual benefits of Mars Milk over other types of post-exercise drink. Not least becauethe research appears to have been carried out by organisations who would have a vested interest in this product. Looking at the Nutritional content, it appears to be rammed with calories, sugar and not an awful lot of protein for the amount of millitres. I think I'll be sticking to my protein shakes.

Onto my Physio. I had my first session on Monday and I had a bit of a wake up call really. It shocked me to see how limited my range of motions are now in my right shoulder. We are beginning with working on the inner range which means working the muscles in the area of my shoulder that do not hurt/do not hurt much which is with my arm down and moving my arm across/infront my body. The idea being that if I can strengthen areas around the areas that have been damaged, when I progress on to the outer range (90 degrees to the side of my body and up) I'll have the strength from my inner range to help support my arm.

My Physio explained that it won't be a quick process and that I will have to be careful with any other arm weights I do. She basically said she wasn't happy with me doing anything more than about 0.5-1kg apart from bicep curls when I could do heavier. The theory being that even holding something heavy in my arm is effectively pulling at the rotator cuff in my arm. So even a heavy shopping bag is pulling at my weakened socket. She compared my shoulder to my hip and explained that the only thing keeping my arm in place is a complex set of ligaments, muscles and tissue, there is no fancy ball and socket like in my hip to stop my arm falling out of place.

It was quite interesting when we were going through various comparisons of my left and right side, it turns out that because I'm quite flexible anyway, it means that my arms stretch more than the average person - this sort of injury is more likely in this type of person. It turns out that apparently 'average' people when they raise their arms to their head can only comfortably get their arms parallel with their ears, stretchy ligamented people can get their arms much further back. When I raise my arms they end up way behind my head. On the day that I injured myself, my arm was too far back and the support went.

I've come to the conclusion that I really want to get my strength back into my shoulder and that I don't want to do anything that risks damaging it further. So as of now, I'm going to be limiting the amount of arm exercises to my physio and a few other things that I'm hoping my gym instructor will help me with. I still want to work muscles, but I need to do it in a way that doesn't put extra stress pulling down on my shoulder. The only thing I can think of right now is seated bicep curls supporting my elbow. My physio just consists a few standing pushups and various exercises pulling at these rubber band things. I've got two different resistences for different exercises. Most I use quite a strong band, but there are other motions where my arm can't even pull at that without feeling discomfort. I'm having sessions approximately every 2 weeks for the forseeable future and I need to try and do my exercises about 2-3 times a day.

In the meantime whilst I'm doing my Physio, I'm going to concentrate on my running and working my middle-lower body. I'm going to have to find some clever ways of increasing resistance on my lower body without using my arms, hopefully the gym man will again help out with this. Off the top of my head I was thinking of squats holding a plate weight with both arms across my chest and doing something similar for sit ups.

Yesterdays food was much better than Monday, I still snacked a fair bit, but on much better things (fruit, Bear Granola nibbles (ah-may-zing!!), a babybel).

Today I'm back into the office so I've got things much more under control.

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

Mid Morning: 2 Plums

Lunch: Jewelled Moroccan Cous Cous (without the Chilli), Chilli Cous Cous, Spinach, Rocket, Crudities of Carrot, Cucumber & Red Pepper.

Mid Afternoon: Babybel Light & Banana

Dinner: Turkey Salad

If I run tonight I'll also have another Protein Shake and will eat my banana much nearer to the time of my run.

Oh and finally, heres a sneak peak of my re-vamped Picnic Basket, its nearly ready!! I'm so in love with my new sewing machine, I've become such a home-maker in just one week with the addition of my KitchenAid and now my sewing machine. I was truely born in wrong era.

Please do not feed the animals.

Yesterday didn't go quite as to plan as I would have liked. Remember me posting that long list of sweets that some terribly unthoughtful friends got me for my birthday? Well it appears that I still cannot be trusted. Infact, theres no such thing as 'appears', I cannot be trusted - end of.

At the weekend it was most of a box of Lindor, I threw the last 3 in the bin. Yesterday is was 80% of a 230g Bar of Dairy Milk. Thats right, I consumed 6 lines of 900 calorie crappy chocolate on a whim. At about 7pm at night, after eating another 2 lines enough was enough. I gathered up all the chocolate/biscuits/wine I was given for my birthday, put it in a bag and demanded Mr H to take it to work to give to his colleagues when they do something worthwhile to get a reward. At the same time as doing this, I put the last two lines of Cadburys chocolate into the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet and came downstairs. I sat on the sofa for about 2 minutes before that open bar of chocolate was burning a hole in that filing cabinet. What the heck was I thinking hiding it away? Did I really think I'd forget about it? Hell no. So I marched upstairs, grabbed it and promptly chucked it into the bin.

Check out the blurry photo to accentuate the force at which I through it in... or it could possibly be the dodgy camera on my iphone.

Enough is enough! I can't let one bad month ruin things. I've got to snap out of this destructiveness and get back on track.

I also took a picture of yesterdays dinner, it was yummy! It was a tuna steak, 2 poached eggs, iceberg lettuce, yellow pepper, vine ripened tomatoes, radish & peas. Had it with a little splodge of salad creme. Delish!

I also started work on a picnic basket re-vamp last night. I cannot begin to explain how excited I am. I was given a picnic basket for my 18th Birthday and over the years it's had a reasonable amount of use, but its looking a little dated and crap these days. So its time for a change.

Yesterday I stripped it back to the wicker (removing the inside bit) and sprayed it a new colour. Then replaced all the handles/fixings. I'm not working on a new interior in the most fabulous summery fabric. This morning I've made two napkins and later I hope to make the liner for the main basket & recover the top of the inside of the lid. Mr H is hopefully going to pick me up some new plates and an extra glass to replace the existing plates/glasses and then we just need a rivet gun and we can finish the rest. I'll post photos when I'm done, you know just to keep ya'll on the edge of your seat.

On to todays food,

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

Mid Morning: Banana

Lunch: Pizza Pitta with Salad

Dinner: Steak with grilled veggies (mushrooms, courgette, onion & peppers) & half a baked sweet potato.

Won't be doing too much exercise today, I'm hoping to get out for a brief run just to loosen up my legs a little for tomorrows 10k. Also planning on setting out around 7.30pm just to see what the temperature is like!

Focus

This weekend saw me well and truely fall back to Earth with a bump. The reality of how badly June went was not something I was prepared for. I knew I'd not eaten particularly well and that I'd not exercised as much as I would have liked, but even so I wasn't prepared for the dramatic changes in my body.

To summarise as I don't need to dwell too much on it, I've put on inches in most places on my body, my lean muscle mass has dropped and my body fat has increased. However, I have stayed the same weight, but frankly I'd rather be half a stone heavier and inches slimmer than what I've got now!

So, shocked and horrified at the amount of damage 1 month has done to my body, its time to get back onto daily food/exercise diaries to keep me accountable.

Breakfast: 200ml Skimmed Milk Protein Shake post run, Bowlful of Blueberries & Strawberries with 1tsp Sugar.

Lunch: 2 Egg Omelette with Mushrooms, Ham, Spinach and 1 slice Gouda.

Mid Afternoon: Banana

Dinner: Tuna Steak & Poached Egg Salad (spinach, rocket, tomatoes, cucumber, peas)

Exercise for today was a 3km run this morning, I've got my first physio appointment at 12:30pm and I hope to get some free weights/squats in this evening... along with some hula hooping!

I'm going to make a really conscious effort to drink 2 litres of water, probably to ensure I'm doing this I'll get a bottle when I'm out at Physio later.

I don't think there is anything that will really get in my way this week. I'm running the Beale Park 10k on Wednesday evening. This morning was the first time I've been out running in about 2-3 weeks. It's going to suck on Wednesday, but my aim is to just get round and to try and enjoy the scenery (it's in a wildlife park). Saturday we're off to Finkley Down Farm and Bourne Farm PYO (Pick Your Own) with some friends. We;re going to take a picnic, so I can watch what I eat and the only thing bad will be key lime pie which I'm planning on making in old GU Souffle ramekins - so it shouldn't be too bad on the ol' waistline. Looking forward to picking lots of fruits & veggies too :)

Oh, I suppose I should just mention my Sunday. I had such a lovely day, I went over to my Dads house (the house I grew up in) and I spent the whole day helping him out in the garden. First of all we dug up a flower bed and rebuilt the brick wall around it. I was squealy for most of the time as all the bricks had beasties lurking beneath them and I'm an uncontrollable screamer when it comes to things with more than 4 legs. Then we dug up another flower bed and planted hydrangea. We took a break for lunch which was a lovely salad with some leftover BBQ'd steak. I then mooched in the garden for a while trying out our new camera, got a fab photo of bee collecting pollen on the flower head of Wild Garlic (sooo pretty!). I also took some photos of the new family cat 'Thomas' who may not actually be a boy. He's a stray that started visiting our house just before Christmas. When our last cat died he became a more permanent resident and since my Dad cut out all the clumps of matted fur on him, he's decided he likes us enough to stay 95% of the time. He was sitting out in a flower bed covered from the sun and I'm not sure if I'd ever seen such a content cat. Anyhoo, after that I set about cleaning the swimming pool. Its such a therapeutic job, you have to move the vacuum really slowly and it's quite satisfying to watch all the crap come off the bottom revealing a shiny blue surface. The temperature is about 72F at the moment, so it's becoming bearable. I did take my cossie with me, but chickened out getting in when the sun disappeared behind clouds. Fingers crossed that the weather this week makes it another few degrees warmer and I'll get to go in next weekend. Once it hits a nice temperature I might suggest to Mr H that we stop by on our way home from work each night for a dip! If he doesn't fancy it, I might just drive over myself for an evening swim.

I think I might spend a bit more time at my Dads house helping out in the garden, we don't really have much of a garden (its 100% low maintenance). I really had a fab day.

Oh and in other completely unrelated news, my new sewing machine just arrived!! :D

Death & New Goals

The opening lines of Stand by Me springs to mind this morning..."I was 12 going on 13 the first time I saw a dead human being. It happened in the summer of 1959-a long time ago, but only if you measure in terms of years. I was living in a small town in Oregon called Castle Rock. There were only twelve hundred and eighty-one people. But to me, it was the whole world."

I've just turned 27 and this morning on the way to work I saw my first dead body. We cover about 100 miles to and from work each day on major roads (motorways & A roads), so I'm fairly used to seeing accidents on the road. However, we've never been past an accident so soon after it happened where there is a fatality in the road. We drove past as the police were trying to cover the body with a blanket - no ambulance was on its way, it was clearly too late.

I was oddly upset by the sight of a stranger lying lifeless in the road, I even shed some tears. Mr H just thought I was weird, but I could just imagine what this persons relatives will go through later on today when they find out the news. I could even imagine what must have been going through the mind of the lorry driver especially when I think it was unlikely that he could have done anything to avoid this rogue pedestrian on such a major road. It's what made me think of Stand by Me, take me back 15 years and I'm sure at face value I would have thought a dead body sounded cool, but of course the dead body bit aside, this lifeless shape used to be somebody. Someones child, someones parent, someones sibling, someones friend.

Needless to say, I didn't feel much like breakfast this morning.

In an attempt not to dwell too much on the tragic sight I saw this morning, I thought it would be sensible to set some new goals for the month. June wasn't great for food or exercise, the tooth problems I had really knocked my progress. I want to have a great July to make up for it!

So the plan is:
1. Exercise at least 5 times a week & log it.
2. Get my running back on track (first stop Beale Park 10k 07/07).
3. Following my first physio session next Monday, keep up the exercises and work with the gym instructor to create a new sensible arm weights regime.
4. Take the next leap on weights - clearly I've lost strength in some areas, but I can still improve in others. I want to be able to leg press 120kg which is more than double my weight. The other weights I use will be upped to the next set. For my dumbells I want to increase another 2-2.5kg and my bar weights I want to increase between 2.5kg and 5kg.
5. Get my eating back on track, June contained too many treaty foods and given that I've got a carrier bag full of chocolate I need to be mindful to not eat it all in one go.
6. To try one new food each week.
7. Drink more water! I've been really slack lately and I'm totally feeling it.

Birthday Brilliance

I woke up early yesterday morning to open my Birthday pressies. I got a whole range of exciting things. As per usual I got a lot of bakeware (muffin moulds, spatula, oven gloves, mixing bowls, chocolate mould, cake tester, sprinkles, glitters, icing bags, 2 x heart shaped pink Le Crueset Bowls, cupcake liners, cookery books, polka dot trays), a new sewing box (which is hot pink with a silver coloured button on the front), some grey leopard print tights, some money, some socks, some cupcake related items, trainers and a whole stash of chocolate. Now I'm not sure why I got so much chocolate, about 3 years ago I imposed a ban on friends and family buying me chocolate - I just don't need the temptation! But that appears to have been thrown out the window. Off the top of my head I can remember the following:

* 2 enormous bars of Dairy Milk
* 1 Box of Lindor
* 1 Box of Munchies
* Giant bag of pick and mix
* A packet of cookies
* A box of Maltesers
* Assorted Marshmallows
* Bag of Haribo

Seriously?! This is going to see me through to my birthday next year. I'm still struggling to find the time to finish the chocolate were given for Christmas 6 months ago!!

Anyhoo, I had to be in London for the day, so I got dressed and set off. When I arrived in London I decided to treat myself to a Tall Hazelnut Hot Chocolate with Cream and I didn't make it skinny. It was lush. I also like getting a hot chocolate in the morning because it provides me with a makeshift weapon as I walk through a particular rough street. There is a drop in centre that offers homeless people breakfast & shower facilities. Now whilst most of the people who are waiting outside when I walk past in the morning just keep themselves to themselves, there are others that shout at you, etc. So I like to have something practical that I could use if someone got a bit too close. I was a little later than I usually am when I walked down the street, so I was greated with a man who was face down in a pile of his own vomit with a stash of injectables next to him being treated by the Ambulance service.... all in front of a school excursion of children no more than about 7 years old... Welcome to London kids!

I stopped off at my office and randomly saw some of Mr H's colleagues who are working on a joint bid with my company. Was a nice suprise to see them as I think they are lovely.

After my brief catch up with my colleagues in the office, I set off to Borough Market. On my way through I picked up a banana and a Boston Brownie from Konditor & Cook to get me through my day of dull meetings. Just before heading into my meeting, I picked up a can of San Pelligrino Lemon from EAT and headed up to my meeting room.

Boring would be an understatement. It was seriously the worst day of dull meetings ever. The meeting rooms were hotter than the surface of the sun. We took a break for lunch at 2pm and I had a few buffet sandwiches (which sucked) and a handful of crisps. At this point my plans to head to Wholefoods over in Soho had to be scrapped because I'd never make it there and back in time. So I took another stroll into Borough Market and then around the Tate Modern.

At 5pm the meeting finished and I got a good pace on walking back to Waterloo. I leapt on a train and got back to Winchester at about 6.30pm, raced home in the car and got in the door at 6.45pm. Outside the house Mr H had set up a 'Happy Birthday' banner and some helium balloons (so cute!). Inside on the kitchen side was a big box wrapped in cupcake paper sitting on top of a bag from a local fabric shop. At this point I wasn't sure what was inside, I'd hinted for various large items for my Birthday, one of which was a sewing machine. Knowing Mr H, this bag could have been a decoy. I ripped open the paper and could see the edge of what could be the most exciting present this girl could have ever wanted.....

My very own *pink* Kitchenaid Artisan Mixer. I cannot wait to get started using this bad boy. I've been browsing the accessories for it this morning and am squeeling with excitement inside about things like the ice cream maker, the can opener, the grinders, shredders, pasta makers, sausage stuffers etc!

Back to last night, after opening my pressie I had a quick 10 minutes to shove on something pretty and head up the road for dinner. We were met by my Dad, Stepmum, Nan, Brother, his wife, BIL and his wife. We sat outside having drinks and opening more pressies. From my Dad & co I got a book on Sewing, some proper fabric scissors & a Hula Hoop (along with my road tax paid for), my Nan gave me some money, and BIL + SIL gave me some silicone cupcake moulds, a cupcake book and some cute brooches that my SIL makes.

We sat down for dinner and I had 3 course (what a pig!). To start I had a Goats Cheese Parcel on Tomato Cous Cous, main was Rib Eye Steak and chips, pud was Chocolate & Amaretto Torte with Raspberries. Lush Lush Lush. Also had a glass of wine with my meal.

We left the pub around 10pm and walked down the hill back home, we had a great laugh with the hula hoop on route - goodness knows what anyone who saw us was thinking, me going crazy inside a hula hoop & Mr H walking along with a handbag and a Joules paper bag!

After getting home we opened all the doors and windows and took the pugs out for a late night airing to cool them down. Because it's so stuffy at the moment they are really getting quite hot. It was nice to have an opportunity to walk off dinner and spend a bit of time with them before we all went to bed.

Today is traditionally my weigh in/measurements day. Because of my excesses last night I'm going to defer weigh in/measurements/photos for a few more days, will probably do them all at the weekend.