Hi,
time for an update before my weigh-in tomorrow.
In the time since I took that huge step in telling you all my problems and plans, I have simply been trying to get back to eating LCHF and moving a bit more. Nothing too structured to start with. I have plenty of time for that later. So I will jump straight into telling you about this weekend which turned out to be surprisingly good.
My husband, younger son and myself had tickets for Wembley. My elder son was going to a wedding. We weren't too hopeful about the football result; I am usually optimistic when I go to support a team, even if on paper there is no way they can win. This time, even I thought defeat was inevitable. We had planned on going to London for the game and then having a meal and coming home. However my son was invited to visit a friend that evening, so we changed things round a bit. We made our way to London separately in two cars, meeting up at a tube station. Our main focus of the day was not football, but having a good bit of family time together. So a walk, lunch, another walk, football was the plan. I made a conscious effort to go up the stairs wherever possible, which to be fair I nearly always do anyway, unless my ankle/knee/hip is playing up. Until Saturday, a mile was the longest distance I had walked in 2014.
We got off the tube at Piccadilly and walked to Covent Garden. We chose somewhere to eat, but they weren't opening for another quarter of an hour, so we retraced our steps and went back to a pub where we had eaten on a previous visit. We ordered drinks, I had a large bottle of sparkling mineral water with ice and lemon, so the others could have some too if they wanted. First big challenge. Food. There were a couple of healthy LCHF dishes on the menu, but I didn't really fancy them. I wanted the burger with blue cheese and caramelised onions. So that was what I ordered, with an extra side salad. The waitress was too hurried (there were several empty tables at that stage, so there was no need to be quite so rushed with us) so she didn't listen properly when we ordered and brought garlic bread (which looked wonderfully delicious) instead of my salad. I was slow to react, my husband didn't notice anything was amiss, but my son quickly said 'excuse me, this isn't what we ordered, we ordered a side salad'.
During the meal the waitress kept trying to take glasses and dishes away when we hadn't finished with them. I'm afraid she didn't get a tip. I ate the burger and salad and left the bun and ate 3 chips. I made a mental note that next time I would ask to exchange the chips for salad as well as having a side salad and the salad that already came with the meal. The waitress did me a favour by being so awful, so we didn't even consider desserts, we were glad to be leaving, even though the meals were very nice.
Next a walk. My son suggested walking to Green Park and my husband suggested Baker Street. Suddenly I felt very down. I would have liked to have suggested we walk to Wembley, but knew I wasn't up to that yet, and anyway we hadn't really left enough time for that. So I chose Baker Street, but not the direct route, we chose roads we had never been to before so it was more interesting and a little further. I don't know how far we walked altogether, but I know it was further than a mile and less than my first goal of 7 miles - the walk from Wembley Park Underground station to our entrance to the ground must have been half a mile or so.
Challenge number 2 came when we were walking round the concourse inside Wembley. I walked past the refreshments. I didn't want anything hot because I had had a lovely lunch. I walked past the snacks and noted my reaction. My favourite crisps...Walkers ready salted and Walkers cheese and onion. The packs did not entice me as they would have 10 days ago. I didn't need or want anything to eat. Good. I looked at the diet Coke (another thing which would have caused me huge problems 10 days ago......you know what I mean.....one won't hurt.....) No, not at all appealing, no craving there then. Good, looks like I was back on track with LCHF. I chose water.
Next the match. We didn't lose!!!!!!!!!! - Largely thanks to the BFG (Per Mertesacker for anyone who doesn't follow football) who scored the equaliser. I will make another post about my reactions to this goal later today, because I felt dreadful (!). This post is already far too long so I'll explain this comment later.
So we won on penalties and whilst still in the ground celebrating this, I had a lovely surprise. Now, as a stay-at-home wife and mother, one of my roles is ticket buying for my family and sometimes their friends, who are also members, but don't have the time to queue endlessly on the phone or computer because they are working. Two of my son's friends made the effort to come over and celebrate with us and say 'thanks' for getting the tickets. This meant a lot to me as I don't see so much of these guys now they are grown up.
Sunday. Aching muscles and pains in feet. How does anyone run a marathon????!!!! Normally I would rest when I ache so much, but in the afternoon we went for a walk by the canal for about a mile.
I will try to get out for a short walk later today, but I have a few things to do first.