Another bank holiday, but....

...it didn't rain today!! Yay!!


Sorry I've been away again for a couple of weeks, it's been a bit crazy... We were away last weekend at Dive Fest, down on the south coast of Cornwall, about 5 minutes from Mevagissey. The event itself was fairly crap, the weather didn't help, it was windy and rained alot! We changed our minds the day before about staying in the van and decided as we still had it, that we'd take the caravan and boy are we pleased that we did! Most of the other people stayed in tents, one in a "tent" on top of his car, like a safari tent and got a big surprise when he climbed down the ladder out of it the first morning as he must have been about 70 years old! The star billed hog roast on the Saturday night was pathetic, 3 small slices of meat in an oversided bap, a small heap of salad and quite honestly, a teaspoon of pasta with pesto. There was one marquee with some trade stands in it, that took a grand 10 minutes max to go round (we did it 3 or 4 times, just to see if it was anymore interesting than the first time, it wasn't...) and we'd really looked forward to seeing Monty Halls who's been on the TV recently with his programme Beachcomber Cottage. He spent 8 months up in the Scottish Highlands living in an old crofter's cottage, and as he's a marine biologist, we were expecting his talk to be on diving around the UK, etc. There was a slideshow of sorts of diving that he'd done around the world at the beginning and then the next 45 minutes was all about his TV programme with the obligatory plug at the end for his book and DVD, utterly disappointing. After the shite hog roast, we went back to the caravan to cook something a bit more filling, watched a DVD (not Monty's may I add) and then went to bed. The tents all got battered with the wind and rain and on Saturday night, most of them must have been shitting themselves as the rain came down in full force! It woke us up at about 3am, the noise was incredible and the wind was rattling the caravan, sod being in a tent in that weather! Anyone that went to dive, couldn't, the chop on the sea was too bad. The diver's seemed to prefer to play cricket on the beach in their drysuits instead, which was odd...






On the Sunday we walked around Mevagissey for a few hours, as we'd both been there as kids, got a pasty and ate it on the side of the harbour and had a cup of tea in a tea room when it looked like it would hammer down, which it didn't :-)





We then went back to the campsite to have a walk along the beach and had a wander around Pentawan, which funnily enough, was shut! Only the pub was open, which was tempting, but we decided to attempt to fly the kite that I'd bought. When we bought the kite, we'd decided that a 1.2m kite just wasn't going to be big enough, so we decided to go all out and get a 3m one, despite all advice to get a 1.8m for beginners. Pah, we thought! OH MY GOD!! Well, to start with, the whole thing got tangled in the wind and I decided it was crap and to throw it in the bin, but David being the incredibly patient man that he is with anything to do with knots, untangled the whole thing in the caravan and then we walked back down to the beach, got it set up and then up in the air for all of 3 minutes before it made a beeline for my head, crashing down onto the beach. After a few failed attempts at getting it back up in the air, I realised that I was trying to launch it upside down and when I turned it the right way up, the bloody thing took off and David had to dig his heels into the sand to stop it from dragging him up the beach!! Then there was a crack and a flap, flap, flap, the bloody lines on the left side had snapped and it crashed back to the beach again! He's going to fix it so that we can have another go, when we remember! It's currently in the garage where we regularly kick it as we trip over it...

So on the diet side, been relatively good, despite the weekend away, didn't lose anything that week, put on 2lbs, but this week I'm down 4lbs and currently weigh in at 13st 4lbs. The best bit? I am starting to be able to wear clothes that I've not been able to get into for 2 years and that feels REALLY good! Today I put on a pair of shorts that I wore in Thailand and they are way too big. Good! I dug out a pair of combats that I bought to go to Thailand year before last and they were on the tight side and now they are just right and I'm incredibly happy. It really motivates me to lose more and stay on track. I'm wearing my pedometer again and that encourages me to walk more, hit the minimum 3800 steps. The Sunday at the Dive Fest, I walked 11,390 steps, 7.75km! Today I've been walking around and putting up the tennis/badminton/volleyball net that we've got for the garden and Helen next door came round late this afternoon and we attempted volleyball, but the ball was too hard and not round (and I'm shite at it as well) and gossiped whilst "playing" badminton, which I'm marginally better at!

So, off for now, but won't leave it so long next time, I promise :) xxx

That's better....

It's a bank holiday and guess what??? It's wet! Oh well, some things never change... However, what has changed, is my weight! Yes indeedy! I got back on the scales on Tuesday, which I know I shouldn't have, but I weighed 13st 7lbs! 3lbs less than the day before? Anyway, pleased to report that I've lost another pound on top of that, so I'm now officially under 13 and a half stone, 13st 6lbs to be precise! The Alli is working and so far so good with what they call the "diet related side effects"! As I've lost weight, my points on WeightWatchers have been reevaluated and I'm now on 21 points a day instead of 22. Not having to change much as last week I struggled on a couple of days to actually consume 21 points! Fingers crossed that the wine that I've drunk over the weekend hasn't upset anything too much... I still need to get back into exercising and the gym didn't come back to me, so I'll pop in there tomorrow lunch time.

Today's my Dad's birthday, grand old age of 65, officially pensionable! LOL! He doesn't look 65 and is still my Dad who I used to follow around the garden when I was a tot! We're having a BBQ and there's a May Day fete down in the park, so David, his Mum, his sister and her friend are down there at the moment and I'm waiting for my lot to turn up so that we can go down as well. It's bloody noisy down there but finishes at 4:30, so then we can put some music on!

Right, I'm off to finish of the last of the mountain of food that I've prepared and catch you all soon!

Weeza xxx

Slight slip up....

Morning all! Happy Monday and all that! So, straight to the point, I was bad last week! Not bad in the sense that I went over my points allowance, but bad in the fact that I did no exercise and didn't drink enough water! This has lead to putting 2lbs back on! Disappointed? Yes. Surprised? No.

So, the week was going well, but I had a stomach upset on Tuesday, which meant that yoga was out of the question. Helen went and I stayed at home with my flatulence! The week didn't get any better, I totally lacked motivation and the only exercise I did all week, was a long walk on Saturday and gardening yesterday. The gardening was hard work, cutting back brambles in the garden, as they are taking over and it was scorching! I've also ended up with many scratches up my forearms, that look like I've been attacked by a cat... However, the garden looks a bit better, 4 square metres done, only about another 400 square metres to go.

I've resolved to be much better this week. I've contacted the local gym about membership, as it is literally on my way home, I have to drive past it! I'm also on a no alcohol week. I'm going to get out the Wii tonight when I get home & do 30 minutes of My Fitness Coach. Yoga tomorrow, but Wednesday is going to be a no exercise day, as I'm in London in the evening with work and Thursday I'm going for a drink with an old school friend. Having to drive is going stop me from drinking at least! From Friday, we have a month-long challenge at work, it's World Cycling Week, so I've signed up to cycle in at least 3 days a week. As I've said before, it's only 3 miles each way, so no excuses! Even if it's raining...

I've also started taking Alli, which despite the controversy, is ok. If you continue to eat too much fat, or more than 15g in any one meal, then there are nasty side-effects, but I've only done that once and it wasn't too bad. I've yet to see if they work, as I only started taking them on Friday afternoon. I'll let you know if they start working, well, we'll be able to see when I weigh in next week.

That's it for now, I'll try to blog later this week, to update if I've actually done the commit on the exercise!

Ciao, Weeza xx

On top form!!

I am here! LOL! I've been busy with enjoying the weather :) Hasn't it been great in the UK? I weighed in yesterday and pleased to report that I've kept the 2lbs off, so the second successive week of weight loss, chuffed to pieces!

I've bought a new game for the Wii, My Fitness Coach, which is looking good as a training program. Oddly enough, the game is written by the guys in the building next door to where I work, you may know them if you're a gamer, they're called Ubisoft! I'm quite impressed with it so far, it asks for your height, weight and sex, the usual stuff, but then it goes a bit more indepth, you input your measurements for your chest, hips, thighs, waist and arms,then you have to take your resting heart rate, then do 2 minutes of star jumps (or jumping jacks as they call it), which I couldn't do, and then retake your heart rate and enter it in. It measures your abilities with other exercises, such as the number of crunches you can do, the number of kneeling push ups and how far forward you can stretch. Then you say how often you plan on training, days of the week and the amount of time you're allocating each day. I've not done the training yet, I hurt too much from the assessment on Sunday to attempt it yesterday!

So, yoga tonight, really enjoying the yoga and from the beginning of May, I'm going to start doing some stuff at home as well. I need to be a little more confident with my posture during poses. At the moment the instructor corrects me if I'm not doing it right, so I don't hurt myself! The running hasn't happened, I'm not ready to release that kind of activity into the public yet! I'll stick with the indoors workouts for the moment!! Nick next door has lent me a copy of Davina's workout, which Patsy Palmer recommends, so I'm going to give that a whirl too!

Right, I'm off now, will check back in over the next couple of days, just to say how much I hurt really ;)

Love to you all
Weeza xxx

Hoping that this blog actually posts.....

I tried to post earlier today, however, for some stupid reason, the 10 minutes that I was told that blogger would be down, turned into over an hour, so I gave up!!

Firstly, I got the haircut and am really pleased with it. Photo here doesn't really do it justice, but gone are the roots, the white hairs and the matted mass at the back of my head!!

I sneakily stood on the scales today, which isn't good mid-week, but I had to see if the really healthy eating, no wine and exercise was paying off. I sometimes feel that my clothes feel a little looser, but when I get on the scales, I'm the same or more. However, today I got on and found that I'd actually lost 2lbs! This is going by the scales in the bathroom and not the WiiFit. I've been told that the WiiFit scales are unreliable if you're using them on a carpet, which I am! So, 2lbs I'm happy with, but far from becoming complacent, I shall be trying even harder! No exercise for the last couple of days, I needed a bit of a rest! My legs are killing me from running and yoga!

I've also signed up for twitter as they kept going on about it on Radio 1, so I thought that I'd give it a go! I have 3 followers so far, one I know and the other 2 are completely random, I haven't a clue who they are!! If you want to follow me on twitter, then it's www.twitter.com/louisamaskell.

We had a little house guest last night, Arnold, an 11 month old Visler, who's a miniture Munkee but is like a coiled spring! There was a bit of a scuffle over a bone made of hide, but other than that, it was relatively peaceful, provided we restrained Arnold from pestering Munkee all of the time!! Picture of them in a more quiet moment about 6 months ago, Arnold's a bit bigger now, but still a lot smaller than Munkee!!

I'm off for now, take care all and see you soon xxx

Easter... No eggs!

Evening all! Well, for those of you that know me on Facebook, you'll know that I didn't end up going away this weekend. Long story, but the short version is that as soon as we went to pull away with the caravan hitched to the back of the car, the dog started to freak out. Got to the Fleet services on the M3 and decided that if we went any further, that the dog would have a heart attack from panting so much and hyperventilating! I made the decision that we should unhitch the caravan and David should take Mungo back to the house and then come and get me! As he had to go up to the Hook turn off and then all the way back down the M3 to home and then back again after settling the dog, it took about an hour and a half to come to get me... Thursday wasn't the warmest day and I was sat in the doorway of the caravan, reading my book (Slumdog Millionaire - see the film before you read the book!) and looking like I'd set up camp. One caravan, no car!! Got some rather odd looks to say the least!

Anyway, we've kept ourselves busy over the weekend regardless, catching up on some long overdue jobs! Plus, it means that I can go to yoga tomorrow as we're not away! Also long overdue is getting the Wii Fit back up and running. I did step yesterday and today I've done running, step and yoga. I tried one of the muscle workouts and OMG!!! It was agony!

The weigh in happened this morning and according to the bathroom scales, I'm the same, according to the Wii Fit scales I'm 13st 2lb. As I'm going to be using the Wii Fit more than anything else, I'm going with this figure. There's a difference of 10lbs, but at my next doctor's appointment, I'll note the correct weight in kilos and convert into stones and pounds.

Pleased to say that I didn't eat any Easter eggs, mainly because I don't really like chocolate!! HAHA! We went shopping today and only healthy meats and veg went into the trolley, no rubbish or processed foods. We had a great Thai meal tonight, all freshly cooked, Turkey Fried Noodles (the noodles are simply tossed in with everything else at the end) and stir fried mixed veg in black bean. All cooked from scratch, other than the black bean, which is in a jar from Wing Yip...

So, I'm off work for the next couple of days still, so looking forward to walking and running plus yoga tomorrow. Also getting some baking done so I have some muffins for work. Oh, and I'm getting a new haircut on Wednesday morning, which I'm very excited about, something of a COMPLETE change! ;-)

Laters Weeza xxx

Always read the label....

Well, a quick post, as I had a particularly bad experience yesterday with the diet...

I'd done so really well all day, muffin for breakfast, healthy prawn sandwich from Tesco for lunch, a couple of Special K snacks and very little caffeine. However, when I got home, the other half had bought some ready to eat meatballs and I popped one in my mouth and they were delicious. In retrospect, I should have read the label first, and worked out the points value. I had about 6 in total.

This morning, I go online and log my evening's food consumption only to be horrified that just one meatball was 4 points! That's the same points value as the prawn sandwich I had for lunch! Eating 6 meant that I'd exceeded my total day's allowance by 2 points! So, I didn't bank anything yesterday and I'm minus 23.5 points for the week so far.

Going away today, so I'm going to make sure that I do plenty of exercise with the dog and try to bank the maximum 8 points a day (4 from eating under my points allowance & 4 from exercise) until Sunday to get back the points! Should give me 32 additional points, plus a bit of room to manouvre!

So signing off for now, if the mobile broadband works down on the south coast I'll update the blog again. See's ya all! xxx