I'm back from yoga, I missed last week and will probably miss next week so dragged myself there so I don't get out of the habit. I'm quite glad I did, I really felt the stretches a lot more this week as though I'm getting the poses better, and I'm definitely more flexible than when I started, my hamstrings are usually too tight to touch my toes with all my running, but today I found it surprisingly easy. Maybe it's because I've cut my mileage?

I did run this morning though, until the :censored: fire alarm went off 5.5k into my run. I was very proud of myself though when, after shivering outside for 10 minutes in shorts I went back into the gym and ran another 2k.

(by the way, does anyone else find themselves typing :swearword: instead of : censored : by mistake and hastily going back to change it?!)

I'm swimming in the morning I think, so I hope the fire alarm doesn't go off again. The world isn't ready for me in a bikini standing on a street corner in the (potential) snow! I've got all my food ready for Spanish night tomorrow, I can't believe how organised I've been getting recently!

Weigh in tomorrow. EEK!
I've been bloody good this week, filling up on free foods, but I bet I haven't lost much... if at all.

Even if you haven't lost tomorrow you have still done fantastic. :D

Hello all. The gods of shopping were looking after me the day before yesterday. I popped into Debenhams on the way home yesterday, they were having 20% off all clothing!!! I found three nice tops at Principles, that came home with me!!! And because of the sale, I still have some more pennies left, and will go and have another look tonight.

I posted in support about my crisis last week. I have discovered the problem, it's my schedule. I am exhausted, and feeling guilty because I am neglecting Colin and my friends. I just can't keep sustaining it and something has to give.

Go and read it and help me!!!

:wave: Hello all!

Did you miss me? ;)

I was in Leek, near Stoke on Trent. Oh and I was in Stoke on Trent in a traffic jam for about 20 years! :lol: We went to see Tilly the ballerina - she is so amazing! She was dancing in the new frame we made for her, there wasn't a dry eye in the house! I'm so pleased that it's finally working! We just need to spruce it up a bit and paint it pink and it's all ready for the media extravaganza that will come with the delivery of it!

I had a stuff your face day yesterday! I was majorly stressed, then we didn't have lunch till 4.30pm, which was fish and chips! Then I had hot chocolate fudge cake in a little chef! :doh: :rofl:

Back to it today, although I still want to carry on eating! I'm going to do some tidying and pop into town since I've got the morning off. We didn't get back to work till 8pm! :faint:

I just miss Evans knickers :lol: I've been known to stop at every Evans between Liverpool Airport and Cumbria trying to find the type I like.

I've been out of the UK for 18 years so I'm used to it. Of course, it's easier for me as I can fly to the UK for the day these days with Easyjet. I've been known to get the first flight to Luton on a Saturday morning and still be home in Switzerland for tea and all for £20 return.

Sometimes I don't even feel like I'm out of the UK. Just in a French-speaking part of it. I work at the UN so every nationality under the sun is represented and no one feels 'foreign' because we're all foreign.

Personally, I blame SKY TV *shhhh* You really feel away from home when you're talking on the phone to your best friend in Hereford while both watching Strictly Come Dancing at the same time and making sarky comments.

I'm sorry to the people who haven't settled overseas yet. I know it must be hard. I think I had a head start in that I spent from age 18 to 27 desperately planning my escape to more exciting climes (which I never did find :lol:).

Evans knickers huh? They do have a website but not sure if they deliver to Switzerland or not..... worth a try! Or I guess your friend could hunt them down in return for giant toberlerone bars!

I just watched fat pets (chan 4 Wednesday), those poor things, poor fat doggies :(

I need some healthy food to take to fat club next week... :dizzy: help meeee I need something no one else will take ;) I can only think of cold cous cous or houmous and something. Umm............. has to be veggie as well obviously so if no one else eats it I can! :p

You could take some beany muffins - they sound tasty and there's a link to them here...though I haven't actually made them yet and they could be horrible :barf: . I'm not a great one for cooking - I reached my culinary peak with chocolate rice crispy cakes when I was 5...you could always take some of those and pretend they were diet food!

Janey :hug:

Well, seems my good wasn't good enough! I did bloody good this week. But put ON 2 and a half lb! I am so so upset about that. I think it didn't help that I was having to come home on a few nights and eat... I figured there would be stuff in work, but there wasn't.

Oh well, i've been warned not to give up. I won't, it's just got me down a bit.

I'll get there!

Don't give up, that's what I did! I lost 3 stone plus then didn't lose for ages and struggled, instead of staying I left and gained. I really could slap myself!

Veg and Homersmummy - be a little kinder to yourselves! You should be proud that despite your setbacks you're still here and still plugging away at it - and there's always tomorrow! There's plenty of nasty folks out there just waiting to slap other people down and make them feel bad - don't pre-empt them by beating yourself up too!

You'll get there!

Janey :hug:

Full of woe!
 

:hug: for Veg & Mands, you'll get there ;)

I'm very definitely full of woe. Some *******'s nicked my bike cover... for the second time. I'm :tape: if I'm replacing it> I'm not supplying the whole of North Finchley with motorcycle covers, whatever the **** they are doing with them.

Then my bestest wierdest friend can't come to my wedding. Thanks. :cry:

Oh and I'm doing my red belt test tomorrow :yikes:

Oh no, I've stolen your good day. I went swimming this morning, had the whole of the pool to myself, it was lovely. And then Col happened to be in Bury the same time as me so we travelled in together!! And we're travelling home together tonight.

And I weighed in at gym and I'm the same weight as last week, which is a huge achievement!!! I have been really relaxed with my food and not as strict with my exercise, and I'm really clear now what I have been doing wrong, so my last relaxed day is today and I'll get back on the path tomorrow.

I've pretty much decided I'm going to try one strict week then one relaxed week for the next 6 weeks and see if any weight shifts.

Good luck for your red belt tomorrow.

And grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr and much bad karma to the :censored: motorbike cover thiefs

Hi Peeps - sorry not to have been around too much. I've DH at home here with a heavy cold which, he keeps telling me, is bird flu!

:hug: :hug: :hug: To everyone who had a nasty experience on the scales this week. I think we've all been there and done that - but you know that you've done the very best you can and that is what counts.

Have you ever noticed that its the naturally slender people who feel they are qualified to give dieting advice? My new neighbour stopped me this morning when I was on my way back in with the woofers and told me that I'm over-doing it!! Huh?? DH has told her about my walking, dieting and weight training and she said that at my age I ought to relax and learn to live with what God has given me. I was so GOBSMACKED that perhaps I was a little less than tactful when I told her it was none of her business and I would appreciate it if she would keep her thoughts to herself! :mad: Life is so not fair, she watches 18 hours of TV a day, has a constant diet of fatty foods and takeaways and their recycle bin is full of beer cans and wine bottles - and is a trim size 10! :devil:

My new swimming cossie arrived! I bought a size 20 and its a little on the large size. That's the problem in buying mail order, the things take so long to arrive. Ky has inspired me and I was planning to have a regular lunchtime swim at the nearest swimming pool which is about three miles away. The only problem is that there isn't a direct bus route, so I will have to walk there and walk back. I'm not sure how much energy I would have left for swimming after an 8 mile walk with the dogs and a 6 mile return trip to the swimming pool!

Ky, that weekly cycling sounds like a good plan. Are you zig-zagging? I find it really helps with my energy levels.

Isn't it nice to have a 'date' with your other half. My DH and I decided a while back that we should try to have one night a week when we go out on a 'date' on our own. We usually end up going fo a meal out but on one very memorable occasion last summer we hadn't planned anything and I thought he'd forgotten until almost bedtime when he told me to get in the car and he took me for a midnight picnic on the nearest beach (45 minutes away). :val2:

Frus, is there any way of running an alarm band thing around your bike when its got the cover on it? I used to have an alarm thingy that went right around the bike and sat on top of the seat - it was a pain in the rear end to keep setting it but it did stop it (and the accessories) getting nicked. It was the one night I forgot to set it that the thieving :censored: :censored: stole it!

I haven't heard of those alarm band thingies. I think they wouldn't care anyway, there's no-one around in the car park, which is why things go missing when the pot-heads hang out round there. I will try and get moved to the lower level which isn't open to the general yobs who like to make it their home when it's raining. :censored:

Oh and :tantrum: about your neighbour - she's just jealous ;)

Bird Flu! :rofl: men are so funny. I bet he's refusing to go see the doctor too Sarah.

Good luck on your red belt 2frust, sorry to hear your bike cover got nicked. It's amazing what people will take.

I'm feeling a bit better today, think I've picked out a date for my mum and auntie to come see me, just need to run it by them both then get the flights booked.

T.G.I.F, I've got Radio 1 playing over the net, they're playing 9-5 by Dolly Parton! Get in!

We're going to a bbq tonight with some guys my husband works with, he's going to Crete next Sat the lucky git for 3 weeks work! So they're having a little get together with "the wives", I'll have to be on my best behaviour!

Its not serious enough for him to see a doctor and he knows it! :dizzy: He is a typical man - if he gets something minor then he dramatises it up to something major and whinges a lot but when he does get something which is really, REALLY worrying (i.e. lumps in his testicles) then he goes all quiet and finally only goes to the doctor when he's scared himself witness.

Yeah, I think my neighbour is jealous too. Her marriage is on the rocks and she's been flirting outrageously with my husband. Not that he noticed.... d'oh... but her husband did.

And apparently YOU noticed too, Sarah!

Women flirt with my partner all the time. He is a cutie, but I think what gets them is the English accent.

I know it gets me:o

No, I didn't notice until her husband told me - then it became glaringly obvious. (I'm not the world's most observant person!) Yes, I've had other women flirting with my husband as well - I'm not sure why because he doesn't encourage it. :)

I thought I'd post a pic of Tilly Ballerina! I just resized them a bit. I should send her parents a copy. Bless her little soul!

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! What a little cutie! I know you've been a bit hassled with getting it finished but seeing her face must make it all worthwhile. :hug:

Oh isn't it just! There wasn't a dry eye in the house! I just have to put a few more bits on and then make it magically pink! Then it's all done and the media frenzy will ensue!

Awwwwwwwwwwwww what a little angel!!!!

Col has women flirting with him (often naked ones - he works at Daily Sport) but he never notices either, bless him.

No one ever flirts with me :( except losers! :D Oh and Pete at work, but he doesn't count!

Col and I had a good talk last night and we are both going to make an effort on the scheduling front. And he acknowledges that I need more emotional and practical support, so things are looking up. Swimming certainly helps me get clarity on things. I love my new pool, it's so pretty!!!

Is Daily Sport a magazine or newspaper? Just trying to figure out why he would see naked women on a regular basis!

Just please don't type it into a search engine!!! It's a newspaper, well a paper, I don't know how much news there is in it. There are a lot of naked women in it!!! And weird made up stories. Like me spotting an alien over our house (though I did manage to keep my top on when I appeared in the paper!!!)

Its a blokey thing something like the National Enquirer with lots of naked women. (I've never yet seen a woman reading it). It gets delivered to where my DH works and they run a sweepstake about how many boobs will be on show (female ones only).

:lifter: Frus - or anybody else who uses them - what weight dumbells do you use? And how long did it take you to move on from the light ones to the heavier ones??

My dh's job used to be to count the nipples in the paper, sigh!

Noooooooooooo :rofl: there are men out there that would pay good money to do that job! :rofl:

Do they have to have a particular number - I just thought I'd pass the info on to DH so he can win the sweepstake!

Nope no specific number, however it's usually an odd number!!! Which always makes me laugh.

Poor superwoman how dare they steal from superwoman :mad: I remember once someone stole one wheel from my sisters (push) bike outside M&S she had to carry it back to the office. :lol:

Sarah has she recently got god? Or just doesn't want anyone to get thinner around her? When my sis (another one) got to target at sw another woman lowered hers :lol: she had to be the thinnest!

Nipple counter! I could do that! :o :p

I'm going to Debenhams with the dh tonight, I must be mad! It wants a new fleece, so off we go. I must be mad. Shopping. With a man. On a Friday night. On the last night of Debenhams sale. Sigh.

I have got all organised, and planned all my meals for the week, and written an exercise schedule. I will NOT be stressed next week! I WILL have a happy week and lose a pound!!!

Oh I use a range of dumbells, from 2 kilos up to 6 kilos depending on what I am doing with them!!

I'm about to write my menus for the week, I thought I'd got them sorted but then I got hold of some new recipes which look too yummy to wait til the week after so I'm going to rewrite it then go shopping! I'm going to make the most of a rare Friday night in without having to dash over the M62 for the rugby.

I'm making some vaguely naughty but supposedly healthy apricot and oat bars at the moment, I'll let you know how they go. The recipe looked strange, it has tofu in it which I've never associated with sweet treats, but it looked fairly promising when I put it in the oven!

I ran 10k this morning, I'm having tomorrow off exercise completely (will probably spend most of it cooking stuff for the week ahead) then I've got a 5 mile race on Sunday. Typically I managed to get a bit of a blister on one of my toes this morning, but it doesn't seem too bad and shouldn't affect my run. My other big job for the weekend is to sort through all the recipes I've found recently and put them in some sort of logical order. I've got really into cooking proper food and making things like soups to take into work rather than buying pre-made stuff.

Ooh get you Delia! ;) :D Well done! I'm glad if I get my baked chicken done for the week! :lol:

Sarah - I use dbs from 10lbs (approx 5kg :chin: ) to 35lbs, depending on what I'm doing. I would say the weight increases happened pretty quickly. About 5lbs every 2 or 4 weeks. But some days I feel stronger than others. Some days I do heavy weights with low reps or a lower weight with higher reps. Sorry, that doesn't seem to be much help does it!! I have those spinlock dumbbells, York ones from Argos so that you can change the weights on them.

Oh I've been messing around moving my bike to a safer place - it took about an hour and a half! Eventually it's down in -2 where no pedestrian can wander in and be a :censored: I also noticed, when I went down to cover it up with a duvet cover... That they've nicked the Harley badge off the back seat. :rollpin: That was the last straw! Blubbing in public and everything! :lol: Anyways, it's hopefully safe down there, it's under a CCTV camera, so you'd bloody well hope so!

Which of course means that I've just had my dinner. Pork and apple stir fry. Yummy! I had a little bit of Green & Blacks ice cream :devil: It's seriously sinful! I don't recommend it at all :no:

I want to have a bath, but apparently our hot water system can't cope having the heating on AND providing hot water. That of course would be laughable! That people would want the radiators on AND have a bath. God lord!

So I'm here waiting for some water to heat up so I can wash my scum-bucket hair so I don't get marked down for having greasy hair in my grading :rofl:

Ok enough rambling, I'm off to check out LWL and then the hot water sitch! See youse lighter :D

Little :censored:, hope you have a lovely bath.

Morning! I've been running outside!!! I woke up this morning and though, I could go for a run, so I threw on my running clothes and out I went, it was great. I saw other runners and people with dogs, and the odd drunk, what a lovely community I live in :dizzy: But it was really good, and I have the confidence now to keep on going. Running on a treadmill is so mind numbing!

I'm shopping again this morning, with a friend, but not buying anything (hmmmmmmmmmmm) except my toiteries at Boots. I hope. Friend is shopping for hubby's birthday. My friend was slimming the same time I was, but she was a classic "wedding dress" dieter, doing the Special K diet etc trying to fit into her dress. She kept laughing at me and was quite sure I wouldn't keep the weight off. I started 4 dress sizes bigger than her, now I'm one smaller :D Oh my *****iness gets worse every day.

Jen, we have a brand new hot water system, which is :censored: worse than the old one. It too doesn't think people should need hot water and radiators, and likes to deliver super hot water between 10am and 12 noon and at all other times is :censored: lukewarm.

I shall leave the Green and Blacks ice cream well alone. Chocolate I can portion control, ice cream I have no hope. I only ever have proper ice cream when I am out somewhere, so I can't eat it straight out of the tub!!! :D

YP, more recipes please!!! I am trying to get organised, but I have planned my food for the week ahead.

Well I just decided yesterday to start planning my food properly as I've really just been exercising so far. Then I get a letter this morning to tell me I've won a VIP night out for ten at a vodka bar with food and drinks :lol3: :hun:

I'm glad you enjoyed your run, running outside is so much more fun than the treadmill :D Enjoy your day shopping.

I dread to think what I'd do at a VIP night at a vodka bar. Actually, I know exactly what I'd do...

I've been food shopping this morning, so I've just got inside jobs to do at the moment. I haven't got any money to go clothes shopping just at the moment so I'm going to try to stay away from temptation. Roll on pay day!

:carrot: Another couple of pounds gone! :carrot:

I know exactly what I'd do at a VIP night out at a vodka bar - I'd go to sleep after the third drink - I always do! (I'm a cheap date.)

I'm about to do my food shopping as well - I've been ordering it alternating weeks from Sainsburys and Tesco. The Tesco selection is a lot wider and you get less substitutions but the Sainsbury food quality is much better and everything seems to have a longer date code and/or stay fresher than Tescos. Tesco food is cheaper but you have to pay for delivery so the totals usually come to about the same (which is about £30 cheaper than I would spend if I actually visited the supermarkets and did the shopping in person.) Oh well - Sainsbury it is! I wish Asda delivered in this area. :(

We had a lovely 3 hour walk this morning - we saw loads of deer. It was pretty weird because there was a ground mist and it looked like the deers' bodies were floating without any legs. :)

DH is over the 'flu'.:dizzy: Funny how he can go to work and be okay but as soon as he comes in the front door he moans and groans like he's on his last legs! Yesterday he said that he thinks he needs to be 'fed up' - so could I cook him a Delia steak and kidney suet pudding. I haven't cooked anything like that since last October and just the thought makes me feel a bit :barf: Oh well - I'll put it on the menu for next week and try and think of something else for me that goes well with the same veg. :?: