Feeling good!

Amazing how a pretty bad week diet-wise can be turned into a good thing when it motivates you to get a grip and get back on it.

So yesterday was cheat day and as one our friends was visiting for the weekend, we planned to spend most of it at various pubs around Leamington. I was thinking of scrapping cheat day due to the disaster that was Friday (and Thursday, and pretty much every day last week), but I'm glad I talked myself out of it. Although I'm probably going to have gained pretty much all my lost weight when I weigh in on Tuesday, I'm rapidly discovering that routine is pretty important for me to feel in control. I don't want to be inflexible, because that's what causes problems when something unexpected crops up, but I definitely feel more prepared for the unexpected when I've been successful in my routine for a few days.

So yes, cheat day was definitely on yesterday! I had a huge steak sandwich for brunch and all 5 of us shared packets of crisps and the most amazing little desserts - millionaire shortbread, a rocky road slice, a huge cookie and a raspberry flapjack. It was fun having tiny tasters of everything and also felt really indulgent.

Then my husband came up with the most ingenious suggestion - instead of just going to the nearest pub for a pint, we should make a day of it and go for a nice walk to get to some out-of-town pubs and visit some establishments we haven't been to in years. In effect, a far healthier pub crawl than usual. It meant we could get our fitbit steps up as well as having a few cheeky pints! It's times like these I remember why I married him - the boy's a genius!

So we set off along the canal to the first pub, The White Lion, where I had a bottle of Hoegarden and we shared some olives which were very, very tasty. Then we pottered on back down the road and through Newbold Comyn to get to the Newbold Comyn Arms. Here I had a pint of Magners Draft and we shared some prawn cocktail crisps and a packet of Mini Cheddars. After tramping through the park we stumbled across a BMX event and climbed up a huge hill to get to the cycle track. A true fitbit convert, I just kept thinking I'll get my floors up today! This is going to count for loads! After watching the guys and girls whizzing and jumping past for a while we headed back down the hill and to the Somerville Arms.

It was here we found a little gem of a pub. Not only do they sell draft ale and cider, but they have a cheese night. Any place that has a cheese night is fine by me! So we stayed here in our happy little bubble for the longest out of any of our stops and I had two pints of Weston's Scrumpy - a very cheeky cider at 6%. We also shared some Monster Munch (universally agreed to be the perfect snack for drinking), some Quavers and some nuts. After that we headed to our friend's house, ordered Mexican (although I had a mahoosive burger instead) and settled down to watch Anchor Man with a bottle of Old Rosie (another cheeky cider, this time at 7.5%!). This was swiftly followed by vodka and ginger beer!

When we all left a few hours later, sleepy and a little wobbly, we couldn't believe it was before midnight! Hardly rock n' roll for a Saturday night, but after eight hours of drinking, I guess we'd paid our dues.

The best thing is that I feel absolutely fine this morning - in fact, I feel fantastic. Not a hint of a hangover, incredible amounts of energy and loads and loads of motivation to get back in control and have an excellent week of diet and fitness. I did more than 21,000 steps yesterday - 11,000 more than my target - I climbed the equivalent of 16 floors and I burned almost 2,600 calories. Sure, I probably consumed more lard and sugar than I should do in a week, but that's not the point! And this morning I jumped out of bed and enjoyed every second of my zumba class - my instructor even commented on how bouncy I was for a Sunday morning!

I have the eye of the tiger and I'm determined to make this diet work. One slight adjustment I might make for next week, however, is to track my calories on a cheat day. Until now I figured it would be counter productive as the whole point is to get all the cravings out of the way guilt-free so you can get back on it for the next 6 days. But if I'm honest, I tend to go a little too overboard, to the point when I'm stuffing chocolates into my mouth simply because I can. I'm not actually enjoying everything I eat. Perhaps if I track the calories too, it'll encourage me to only choose the foods I really, really want.

Here's to an active, healthy week!

Karma's a bitch, ain't it?

Urghhhhh. So days after getting loads of undeserved sympathy for essentially being hungover, here I am with a hideous real-life virus and I feel TERRIBLE. Every part of me aches and I can't keep anything down. Now, this says a lot about the mindset of a constant dieter, but whilst this is no fun at all, I can't help but see the bright side of not being able to eat anything - I mean, I'm bound to lose some weight, right?

That said, I'm also feeling really dizzy and I've just slept six hours straight through the day, inadvertently missing the sunniest and warmest day of the year so far.

What's more, I watched Contagion last night. Waking up with a virus the day after watching that is more than a little disturbing!

Anyway, cheat day yesterday was a success. After loading ourselves with bacon butties (such a treat!) we drove to Ludlow, which is a gorgeous little town famed for its annual food festival. We logged an impressive 8,000 steps just by exploring the castle, and an even more impressive 49 flights of steps. The little Fitbit must have been so proud! Then we ventured around the town for a while and came to the church, which has stunning stained glass windows and dates back to the 14th century. We climbed the 200 steps up to the top of the tower (adding even more to our total) and then... it all went a bit wrong. At 2.30pm, you're already pushing it for lunch and we made the mistake of deciding to travel to a pub half an hour away which was recommended on Tripadvisor. It stopped serving food at 3pm. Now mroe than a little hungry and expecting great things from a cheat day lunch, we set off towards Temple Wells, which was 20 minutes away from the doomed pub. By the time we got there, everywhere was shutting up, so we ended up having a dirty (and I mean dirty) fried meal from a grumpy chippy. Chips (horrible and soggy), a chicken and mushroom pie, a scallop and pollock in batter, all shared between two. I think we took cheat day to another level. But again, it wasn't satisfying and it certainly wasn't tasty.

After heading home, we arranged to meet with some friends to have a curry, wine and film night, hence the paranoia-inducing viewing of Contagion. The curry was amazeballs - set menu for 4 and we got poppadoms, various starters, 4 different mains, rice and naan. It brought cheat day back from the brink. Hurray for curry!