45 wombatting quid.

Admittedly I was running on fumes when I pulled into the petrol station, but still…£1.14p/ltr and 45 WOMBATTING QUID to fill up is nothing short of DAYLIGHT ROBBERY.

Mortgages UP. Household fuel bills UP. Food bills UP. Petrol UP. Salaries? Exactly.

Environment, bigger picture, blah, blah, blah. Stuff all of that, I need to get to work, run the house and put food on the table.

Rant over.

Kill or cure really - not perhaps the best option when you’re feeling fat & depressed, but desperate times mean desperate measures, and I needed a pair of jeans that actually fitted and felt comfortable.

Cue M&S. And thankfully they came up trumps. They’re a size bigger than I would have liked, and certainly cost more than I would have liked, but they fit and almost flatter - so provided I wear them to death while I (hopefully) lose weight, they’ll be worth it. A couple of t-shirts and a new pair of joggers for the gym, and my credit card had had enough.

…until I walked out and saw Lush. Following Sally J’s recommendation, I popped in, but having completely forgotten the name of the product she suggested, thought I was just going to come out with some stress relieving bath bombs, but then - by the till - I spied the Flying Fox stuff and the name rang a bell, so I bought some of that too. Kerching!

I even managed some housework when I finally got home after a visit to Mum. Not a bad day.

Yes fog. I drove home in fog. In May. FOG???!!! Oh for a little sunshine, I’m sure I’d feel better for just a smidgen of sunshine…

To answer KW’s question in the previous blog’s comments, I’m on a tapered dose - missing one tablet in every three - Doc is very good, and was keen to do things gradually, but I guess it’s still a 33% reduction, and some effect is to be expected. I’ve decided to give it one more week, and try and speak to him if there’s no improvement.

The weigh-in? Well, good news and bad news. Bad news is - no weight lost. Good news - none gained either. And what with all the late finishes, it hasn’t been as gym-active a week as I would have liked, so I’m not (too) disheartened. Even when hearing this in the sitting room this evening :

“Hey chunky!!! Look at your flab!!”

Hee hee, Chris talking to Eric. Not totally lost my sense of humour then…

Oops. I don’t usually go quite so long without blogging unless I’m actually away, and I haven’t been…have had a few late finishes at work, so have been pretty tired…and my head’s a bit of a mess at the moment.

I’m not finding the reduced anti-depressant dose very easy to adjust to. I’m feeling over anxious again, a tendancy to be weepy for no particularly good reason, and a distinct lack of good days, they’ve all been either flat or black. I honestly don’t know if this is just transitional (it’s been two weeks now) or a sign that maybe now isn’t the right time after all. And as I’m not due to see Doc again for another 2/3 weeks, I’m not sure what to do for the best. This certainly doesn’t feel like progress.

But, trying to look on the bright side, we have finally managed to clean our decking and get a coat of stain down (would have been more but traditional bank holiday weather intervened), and tonight we’re off t’quiz. Tomorrow I can lie in, weigh in (fingers crossed), work out and chill out. So maybe tomorrow will be a good day.

Right, here we go again. The new, seasonally adjusted starting point for my losing weight campaign is :

11st 8.5 lbs

My new scales are very shiny and digital, so no danger of a misreading or not having reset them properly. I’m now going to steadfastly ignore them ’til next Monday morning, and, despite all the good reasoning imparted via the comments to yesterday’s blog, will have a screaming hissy fit if I haven’t lost so much as an ounce by then!

Since my first blogged weigh in last week, I’ve done the Race for Life, an aerobics workout, a normal gym workout, and had four days of running up and downstairs at work. We’ve also had a meal out, but otherwise I’ve tried to be good about what I’ve eaten, with only a couple of lapses. When I got on the scales this morning, I was thinking I’d lost about 1lb - not amazing, but realistic, and a step in the right direction.

I have NOT - no WAY - put on 4lbs. My clothes would tell me!! It ain’t the case!!

I now have a nice new pair of shiny scales (the old ones were OLD) - and I’ll weight myself in the morning.

Bah!

There are 2 distinct groups of women who use my new gym.

There are those who, already perfectly honed and coiffeured, take to the machines in immaculately applied make up, and never break sweat;

And there are those who struggle to camouflage their baggy bits in even baggier t-shirts, try (and fail) to contain bedhead hair in a manky old scrunchie, and fall off each piece of apparatus at the end of the prescribed 20 minutes in true Bridget Jones fashion, red of face and dripping sweat in a most unladylike manner.

No prizes for guessing which category I fall into!!!

Last night : Chris’ belated birthday present, a meal at Bella Italia (yum!) followed by An Evening With Dara O’Briain (he who hosts Mock the Week). Hysterically funny, we both cried with laughter all the way through. That man should come with a health warning and a Tena Lady sample…

Tonight : All Saints’ annual general knowledge quiz. OK, not quite so hip, but thoroughly enjoyable, especially as we won…and got chocolate!!!

Quiet night in tomorrow to recover. I’m getting old…

PS Funny story : sat in the theatre last night, saw a bloke who looked a lot like Lois. I mean A LOT. Same dress style, everything. He even had a walking stick!!! We even texted Lois, who assured us he was sat at home, just he replied, dopelganger reached into his pocket…we thought he was about to get out his phone; at that point we were 99% convinced it was Nige!!!

Had my induction at the new gym tonight - think the whole old gym going bust thing might turn out to be a blessing in disguise (provided I get my money back!). It’s a much better equipped gym, with no time limit on work out sessions. I have my own programme designed next week, but I’ve been shown the basics, and am back tomorrow morning for a beginners aerobics session. Just had time to squeeze in a 20 minute exercise bike session, with 118 calories burned. Start as you mean to go on!

Because he didn’t tell me there was a fire engine parked in our car park this morning, and several firemen in the showroom.

That’s a resignable offence!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know Bel will understand…

5km - in 58 minutes - on the hottest day of the year so far.

PLUS about a mile’s walk to and from the car park (that was a killer after the event itself, especially the long hill bit!)

Puce doesn’t even come close to describing the colour of my face at the end of all that!!!

I have a sneaky suspicion I’m going to get up and fall over tomorrow morning…

PS It’s not too late to sponsor me if you were waiting to see if I actually did it!!

Well, sort of. I’m nowhere near as technically au fait as Simong, so you won’t get any fancy moving figures, but I’ve decided to chart my progress (I hope) in the old losing weight challenge online.

So here’s my starting point : 11 stone 6

And here’s my first target : lose 6 pounds in the first month

Next weigh in 7 days time! :-S

Spotted in the reduced (no kidding) stuff at TK Maxx yesterday :

CD - BeeGees for Babies

The mind boggles…

Firstly, I’ve joined another gym! It’s almost as close as the last one, and doesn’t put any premium on membership if you opt to pay monthly (not getting burned that way again!). Moreover, it only charges £25/month with no peak/off peak restrictions, with exercise classes included. I am determined to keep us this exercise lark, and lose weight before the holiday, and with nearly 6 months, I have a realistic chance of success. Watch this space for weigh ins and updates, I may need some moral support!

Secondly, and perhaps more fundamentally, I had a check up with my doctor today, and we’ve agreed I’m going to give coming off the anti-depressants a go. It’s been nearly a year now, and whilst I have concerns about how much is due to environmental factors (ie Mother - she still has the power!) and how much if any is more deeply rooted than that, there’s really only one way to find out. It is medically pretty likely that I have inherited some genetic predisposition to depression, but if it is more environmentally triggered than clinical, the anti-d’s aren’t likely to be much help - they could even hinder. So, time to suck it and see. It’ll be a gradual thing, over a few months, with regular checks to see how things are going. Again, watch this space.

2008’s OK so far - and hopefully it’s going to get even better.

Today was our second wedding anniversary!

In marked contrast to last year, where we bolted our food and went to check on Mum (who was in between hospital admissions), and ended up at A&E with her anyway, fearing she’d had a stroke as she was rambling & incoherent - we went back to the same pub and had a much more leisurely meal and genteel conversation.

Having bought Mum a card to “send” us and slipped it in her shopping for her to find, I wasn’t too surprised when the phone rang at her normal just gone half past nine…

“it’s only me, just a quick request - can you bring me some primula cheese tomorrow please”

Ah well. Here’s to the next 12 months!

A mere 7 days til I have blisters on top of blisters…in other words, 1 week to go til I crawl round the Race for Life circuit. Have I been training? Erm, no, not really. I’ve been on a couple of walks, but being very much a fair weather exerciser, and bearing in mind my stupid gym went bust, there haven’t been many oportunities for training. So crawling & blisters it is then.

If you’ve already sponsored me, then THANK YOU very much. If not, and you’d like to (please!), click the link top right. As the ad says, every little helps!!

Til we go on holiday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And we’ve booked for a FORTNIGHT this time!

This is the longest in advance we’ve ever booked to go away, which means I actually have a realistic chance of losing weight before we fly…