Ultimate Coffee Date – December

Ultimate Coffee Date is hosted by Jill Conyers, Grab your kicks, and Fitness Mom Wine Country, and takes place on the first Saturday of each month.  Some of the blogs that I have added into my reader have come courtesy of link ups, and think they’re a great way to get introduced to new people.  The point of the Ultimate Coffee Date is to take 5 minutes once a month for a bit of a catch up.

I’ve been a bit slack on the blogging front this month, so I think a catch up is overdue!

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that if I had to move out of the country, Belgium is still my top place to move to.  It is such a beautiful country and the people are very friendly.  Mum and I went over for the Christmas markets last weekend.  I will do a full blog post on our trip shortly.  Surprisingly, I didn’t stuff myself full of Belgian chocolate, waffles or crepes, but I did manage to knock one of my #30before30 items off the list.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I am struggling with my work/life balance.  That might have been a bit obvious because of a lack of blog posts, but I am probably struggling the most that I have done in a while.  We’re going through our first major project at work since I took my new role on last year, and I won’t lie, I’m feeling an immense amount of pressure.  Looking back over the last year, I think I have been particularly poor at achieving balance and maintaining my physical and mental health.  I can see that I need to focus on this more.

(Source)

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that me, Matt and my sister went ghost hunting this month.  I am the resident sceptic.  Every Thursday is “Ghosts on Really” (the TV channel) and is a regular fixture of our week.  Matt has been into supernatural type things for a very long time, and I’m open minded about it.  We headed off to Fulford House, met Francis Fulford, and then went off ghost hunting, organised by a small company called Haunted Happenings.  It was an interesting evening, and I won’t say that I am a converted believer, but there are some things that I can’t work out a logical explanation for.

On the thought of scary happenings, if we were having coffee, I would tell you that I had a rather disturbing call from a researcher at Sport England.  The caller themselves weren’t scary, and most of their questions weren’t, but there was a segment that made me think hard.  It started off quite innocuously – age, gender, height, profession, education.  All things I am comfortable with.  What is my weight?  Ha! No.  I declined to answer that one (somehow tell you on the internet is not as bad as tell a complete stranger on the phone!). Next up: how many times in the last week have you walked briskly for more than 10 minutes?  I thought hard.  I was sad and slightly concerned to say “not once”.  In the previous 7 days, I hadn’t walked continuously for 10 minutes at all, let alone briskly.  How bad is that!  There was a question about whether I had cycled.  No.  I don’t really like cycling.  How many portions of fruit had I eaten in the last day?  None.  I like to think though that I redeemed myself on the next question – how many portions of veggies had I eaten in the last day?  I’d obviously had something that was veg heavy and I could answer 7.  I think it was part due to a salad at lunch.

So, because of work commitments, it hasn’t been my most interesting of months.

How about you?  What’s new with you?

Woman of the Year Nominations

Last week, I had a text from my Slimming World consultant, saying that I had been nominated for Woman of the Year.  What is Woman of the Year?  It is about the people who have provided the most inspiration to the group, voted by the members of the group.  I was voted last year, when I had only (relatively recently) joined my current group.  I was unprepared for it last year, and to be fair, I hadn’t really lost that much weight (given I dithered a lot with my weight loss last year).

I was touched to be nominated again this year, and I felt more positive about the whole experience.  I was also a bit more prepared.  The consultant likes you to bring in things to highlight your weight loss.  Frustratingly, despite being nearly 3 stone lighter, there isn’t too much change in terms of dress size (which partly leads me to believe that I may have crept into a size 24, but squeezed myself into a size 22).  Anyway, what is obvious to me, is that you can see my eyes better, I’m not as pudgy faced.  This is the collage that I took with me:

I enjoyed the evening, as it is always nice to hear recaps of other peoples’ stories that can get glossed over week on week.  I find my group to be a really friendly, welcoming and inspiring place to be, and there have been some amazing losses (my friend H has lost over 5 stone, and G has lost 4.5 stone).  H was nominated and won, which was really great – she’s a real inspiration to anyone who doesn’t think they can do it.

I weighed in last night and lost 1.5lbs.  I am a little bit out of sync with it, and I thought I’d put weight on.  I really need to have a look in my booklet to see what I actually weigh.

I had planned to get out for a run this week, but it’s a really busy week again (Monday was shopping, Tuesday was Slimming World, tonight I had my eyebrows done and started packing for the weekend, tomorrow I’m in late for work, and Friday we’re off to Silverstone).  Yes, I could get up early, but I am trying to get into a good bedtime routine before I start messing around with my wake up time.  I am definitely benefitting from attempting a proper routine.  Ultimately, I know that I really do have to make the time to go for a run, and I need to remember that it is just half an hour to 40 minutes.  Next week is looking a lot clearer, so I will definitely be able to get out for a few runs.

Organisation wise, I’m doing well.  I made tonight’s tea last night (in part because I forgot I’d defrosted some chicken and we hadn’t planned on chicken last night).  Meals are planned for the rest of the week, and at the moment, I’m not fighting the constant urge to stray and seek high fat/sugar foods (though I have gone off chocolate a bit).  I feel much more rested and comfortable with where I am at the moment (certainly in comparison to the last few weeks).