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...

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!

Hangover shame

I'm usually quite diligent when it comes to work (honest!) but today was a total write off. People thought my pale face and occasional stifled retching was due to some kind of illness. And I swear I didn't sober up until at least 1pm.

But 'every cloud' and all that - when I ventured out at lunch I must have notched up at least 3,000 steps going from shop to shop buying lard-based offerings that I hoped might just appease the hangover god. Alas, after 2 M&S cheese scones (once a thing of rare beauty, now de-cheesed and tasteless), a chicken and mushroom slice, a jumbo sausage roll and a pork pie, I just feel disgusting as well as hungover. Not even the bag of Revels and Wispa bar could help.

Inputting these things into myfitnesspal is enough to make you weep - 'you are 947 calories over your target'. Holy crap batman.

So with that disaster over with, I just need to navigate through Friday breakfast tomorrow and then it's *drum roll please* - cheat day! I know cheat day really should have been today considering the lard count, but there's no way I'm watching my husband gorging himself all day and not getting involved.

I've been under my calorie allowance every day so far, so surely it'll all work out in the end? Right? RIGHT?!

Ok, probably not, but I've got a cunning plan. The husband loves castles (as you do) so have suggested we visit Ludlow Castle on Saturday - all that walking up turrets and plodding around the grounds will help to counteract the inevitable face-stuffing of banned goods.

Owwww

Ok, so that was a bad idea. Not only do I have a hangover (and I never get hangovers!) but I'm craving all sorts of naughty food. Plain porridge and a healthy soup is just not going to cut it. Actually still feel a little bit drunk. Good job I walk to work...