So far so OK

So a few ups and downs weight loss wise over the last few days. Great day on Saturday, slightly ruined by the 4 pints of cider I had in the evening (whoooooops!), but felt I recovered pretty well with an hour of zumba the next morning and a healthy bean and veggie casserole for brunch. Only problem was, we had a last minute guest for our roast dinner that evening - our travel buddy RJ - and, well,  my quiet night turned into a bit of a drinkathon. We managed to plough our way through several bottle of red wine before we got on to the vodka and ginger beer *shudder, followed by that hallowed soaker-upper of booze - the pizza. Because our route had taken us from ours, to the pub and the to RJ's, we hiccuped our way home at 4am. So much for a quiet night!

I have to say, yesterday started out a bit of a write off. Woke up at 11am (!), rolled out around noon (cue Berocca and aspirin) and then realised we had very little food-wise in the house. Craving bacon sandwiches and Pot Noodles and seriously considering venturing out to get them - even though I looked like a zombie victim - I eventually stumbled across a tub of ready-to-shake pancake mix. It wasn't a Pot Noodle, but it certainly did the trick.

The rest of my day was really quite exciting. Spent an hour at Trailfinders planning our trip, I saw the light after finally venturing to Nando's *dribble, and then caught Prometheus at the amazing and highly recommended The Electric in Birmingham.

And just a note about Nando's - apparently it's a good shout for slimmers. As long as you take the skin off the chicken, it's a pretty healthy fast food. And on that note, I need to eat - I'm going for a Mullerlight yoghurt and a banana as a post workout snack. In-keeping with my exercise plan, I did Jillian Michael's 6 Week Six Pack this morning and although I was still a sweaty mess afterwards, I've noticed big improvements in my strength and core stability. Still worried about the thighs though, so opting for some cheeky side lunges and scissor jumps from time to time, just to get some extra toning in. I must look like a loon...

A change of plan...

Wow, two whole months since my last post - that's pretty poor, even by my lazy standards!

But there's a reason for the radio silence. Because of that wonderful way that life throws up the most unexpected and exciting things, I'm in an entirely different place to where I was two months ago; one week ago, even! Because last week I quit my job, giving three months' notice before we leave our familiar and cosy UK shores to explore the world!

I'm side-stepping the usual life plan for something altogether more butt-clenchingly terrifying and exhilarating.

I can't work out if we're being brave or stupid. Probably a little of both I guess. But you can't fail to feel alive when you've just quit a well-paid career and plan to rent your house out to some complete strangers in the hope they'll cover the mortgage for you and hopefully not break the place. In the words of Dr Pepper: "What's the worst that can happen?" Well, we could run out of money, get kidnapped by triads, default on our mortgage payments and have to return home, tails between our legs, to work three jobs whilst we put our broken lives back together.... OR... everything could turn out just fine and we could have the most amazing time of our lives. I'm opting for the latter... :)

So here's the thing - in addition to the alarming number of things we need to do before we can bugger off, I've GOT TO shed this weight. Currently, my thighs rub together - this is unacceptable considering the heat of Thailand (our first stop). Also, my bingo wings are outta control. I'm paranoid about sweat patches and I know that a lot of it is down to having more flesh - and therefore insulation - around the top of my arms. And finally, my spare tyre is monster truck-sized at the moment. I think I'll probably lose weight naturally when we're away, I tend to eat less in the heat anyway, but having massive flubbery balloon thighs when we get on that plane is not an option. The thighs must die.

With this in mind, I've replaced my previous eating plan with something a little more realistic. I'm back on Slimming World (my brother and my aunt are shedding ridiculous amounts of weight on this plan and I've got slimming envy) and I've drawn up an exercise schedule that gets me moving for at least half an hour, one way or another, every day. And I'm not talking about a half-arsed walk for 30 minutes, I'm talking pushing myself. Today, it was 30 Day Shred. Things hurt. This is good...