Okay, I confess, I didn’t exactly bother with healthy eating while I was on holiday. When faced with all the foods I love that are unavailable here, I don’t have much self-control. There were fish and chips, cream teas, Cornish pasties and crumpets. But there were also days we skipped lunch because by the time we had finished whatever thing we were doing it made more sense to go straight to tea (uh, that’s dinner to most of you). And there was walking along beaches and around botanical gardens for miles. Plus we went hiking three times in the Lake District. That’s three four-hour hikes, up and down mountains, clambering over rocks, squelching through bogs… so why do my scales tell me I’ve not only put on all the weight I had lost (which admittedly was only just over a kilogram), but also put on an extra kilogram on top of that? It just goes to show what I already suspected… when it comes to weight loss, exercise is of no use to me. The only way for me to get those scales to be my friend is to cut calories. And with a mere three months to go until I need to fit in a bridesmaid dress, it is a matter of some urgency! So no more crisps, chocolate, cakes and bacon for me… except as a special treat. Healthy eating starts now.
This scone with clotted cream and jam was worth every calorie!
I say this every week, but how is it Friday again already?! This will be my last Friday letters of 2016 since I plan to take a break from blogging for the holidays. Next Friday I’ll be on a plane at daft o’clock in the morning (remind me why we picked the 7 am flight?!) and the Friday after I’ll be in Glasgow with Jan and K. Good times! Anyway, some letters…
Dear Christmas cards. You will not defeat me! Ten more to assemble and post then I’m done!
Dear Lebkuchen. I knew opening you was a mistake! It appears I’ve eaten you all already. Oops!
Dear scales. I will put new batteries in you eventually… but not until well after Christmas. Right now I really don’t want to know! (See previous letter…)
Dear Lemsip. You may not taste great, but you work and that’s good enough for me!
Dear Dara Ó Briain. Tickets for your show in January have been purchased! You’d better bring your best jokes along 😉
That’s all folks! Friday letters will return in 2017. (Eeep, 2017! How did that happen?!)
Between Monday being a holiday last week, the seminar in Mainz that caused my weekend to be only one day long and another yesterday I’ve spent most of the week being completely confused as to what day it was. But now it is definitely Friday and next week I’m on holiday!
Dear 30 day Squat Challenge. I am now on day 12. Yesterday I did 110 squats. That is a lot of squats! When do I get to start noticing a difference?
Dear Vienna. Can’t wait to see you on Sunday!
Dear scales. You and I are going to fall out if the number on you doesn’t start going down soon!
Dear sleep. I hope being on holiday will give us an opportunity to spend some more time together.
Dear throat. I fully intend to ignore your scratchiness until you go away. Don’t even think about turning into a full-blown cold right before I go on holiday!
Happy Friday everyone. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!
This is the last Friday in March. Monday is the 31st and on Tuesday we enter April. The thought that the year is already a whole three months old makes me want to cry… how could I have done so little in three entire months?! Not cool! Oh well, at least I have a few things planned for this weekend. In the meantime, have some letters….
Dear Spring. According to the weather forecast, you are set to return. Please hang around this time… I don’t want to have to wear my winter coat all through April again!
Dear scales. Since I had to move you to hoover, I can no longer trust anything you say. Curse you, uneven floors! How am I supposed to track my progress now? *sobs*
Dear boyfriend. I will probably be out when you get back from Turkey on Saturday night, but I’m looking forward to spending some time with you on Sunday!
Dear mam.Your Mother’s Day card will be late because I’m an idiot and didn’t leave myself enough time to stitch it and get it posted in time, but I hope you like it anyway (once it arrives…)
Dear Green Day. I read yesterday that your American Idiot album will be ten years old later this year. How is that possible?! I’m sure I only received it as a gift a year or two ago… (and yes, I was given it the year it came out).
Dear Easter.Why are you so late this year? I want my long weekend already!
That’s all from me for today. Happy Friday! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
*Note: I am entering this post for Kate’s Daily Diaries linkup. Technically, the idea is to write a post about what’s been going on with you over the past week, which I haven’t really done here, but if you read between the lines it sort of is about what’s happening right now soooo into the linkup it goes. To find out more about the linkup or join in yourself, click the button below.*
*This is the post I had actually planned to write today… the one from this morning was just an added bonus, hence the two posts in a day thing*
The observant among you have probably noticed that I don’t live in the same town where I work. Every day, I get up at 6 a.m. so I can take the (stupidly early) train to work. At first, I bought monthly tickets, but that got annoying after a while so as soon as I passed my probation period, I ordered the BahnCard 100 from Deutsche Bahn.
The BahnCard 100 (Photo: Wikipedia)
There are three versions of the BahnCard – BahnCard 25 gets you 25% off train tickets, BahnCard 50 gets you 50% and the BahnCrad 100… well, can you guess what that one does? Correct! It allows me to travel on any train within Germany for no extra charge. The card itself costs a small fortune, of course, but it comes with CityPlus, which allows me to use opublic transport within any town that participate in the scheme. As both Karlsruhe and the town I work in have CityPlus, with my BahnCard I’m covered for the trams as well. After working out that buying three monthly tickets (for the train and both tram networks) I would only be spending €15 less than the monthly price of the BahnCard 100, my choice was clear.
The other thing that comes with BahnCard 100 is a bonus scheme. It used to be automatic, but recently they’ve changed it so you have to opt in. Non-BahnCard holders can join the scheme as well – they just have to order a separate bonus card. Basically every euro you spend (either purchasing a BahnCard itself or travel tickets) equates to one point for the bonus system. And once you get enough points, you can go to the Bahn website and exchange them for things. There are various “prizes” (for want of a better word) available – everything from train tickets and reservations to wine gift sets and iPads.
Mmm, wine! (Photo: Wikipedia)
A few weeks ago, I received a letter telling me some of my points were about to expire, so I decided it was time to claim a prize. I went on the Bahn website, looked through all the options, and eventually decided to order myself a set of scales – the kind that promise to analyse your body as well as weighing you. They duly arrived on Saturday (when I was not home!) and the neighbour who had taken them for me brought them round on Monday night. Being a man, and therefore a sucker for anything with buttons, Jan wanted to set them up for me immediately. So into the scales went my age, height and the amount of exercise I do, and onto the scales I stepped.
(Photo: SalFalko)
My weight was pretty much what I’d been expecting (and no, I’m not telling you what it is!), so no surprises there, although I would like to get it down a bit. Then came the fat analysis part. Body fat proportion: 30%, said the scales. jan, who was holding the little booklet looked that up. “It says you’re normal,” he reported. “20% to 32% is the normal range for women in your age group.” I went and had a look. He was right… 30% is normal… but the upper end of normal. I’m only 2% away from the “Overwieght” category… just like my waist to height ratio puts me at only 0.02 away from being overweight. Eeep!
I’ve said it before, I know, but this time I really do need to get serious about shifting some belly fat! So far, I still look pretty good in most of my clothes, but seeing that I’m only 2% away from an unhealthly proportion of body fat actually kind of scared me, so I want to put a stop to the weight gain before I actually am fat! I’ve been doing quite well on the exercise front recently, so now all I need to do is ditch the junk food (would now be a good time to admit that I treated myself to a Magnum after work two days in a row? What can I say… I was hot!), pay closer attention to my portion sizes and make a real effort to cook nice, healthy meals containing actual vegetables!
Coincidentally, while I was planning this post, The Pink Rachael introduced her new weekly series,Weigh-in Wednesdays, so from now on I shall be linking up with that. I’m hoping to get at least a centimetre or two shifted before I go to England and have to appear at a christening in – gasp – a pretty frock!
Confuzzledom 