Great Start

I was at my Weight Watchers meeting this morning and I am down 4lb. I'm delighted. It's a great start and I hope I'll be able to keep it up.

I didn't starve myself, nothing like that. I was just careful not to over-indulge and my portion sizes went down a bit too.

Currently: 10 stone 8 pound
Loss so far: 4lb
Goal: 10 stone for the moment.

It's my 32nd birthday next week so I may have a few pound on the week after. I'll try not to go too mad but we will be having a family meal in my favourite Italian restaurant on the Thursday and then, a night out on the tiles on the Saturday night. I'll have to be very good the rest of the time!

No other major news. Still working on DITC. I've decided to do up the house a little (along with the garden). I'm going for a Cath Kidston kind of style. I will post photos when it's all done. I have been buying bits and pieces for the last few weeks. Want to have it nice for Beth's birthday in September!

Weather is still really good but the blue skies are set to break today. No sign of the rain yet though :-)

Back on Track

I did it. I finally plucked up the courage and went back to my local Weight Watchers meeting. Thankfully, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be!

It has been one year and three months since my last weigh in and I have put on, roughly, a stone. I'm now 10st 12lb. I've 10lb to lose to get back to my free gold membership but I'd really like to lose about a stone and a half.

I hadn't weighed myself in a very long time. I just knew from my clothes that it was time to do something. I'm going to try to get back to jogging and get my food intake under control!

Today's menu consists of vegetable soup for lunch, chicken, broccoli and pasta for dinner. Snacks will be fruit.

I've no time frame in which to lose the weight. Slow and steady wins the race. I'll try to do a weekly weigh in every week and share any recipes I try out.

Burn out

I'm afraid I burned out after I finished Devil in the Clouds. Trying to get my writing/blogging back on track now. I'll hopefully finish editing by the end of this month. There are a few things I want to put into the novel and lots of polishing to be done. It's funny how I know the differences between two words that sound the same but when I'm typing quickly my brain doesn't register and I spell something wrong. I'm forever finding 'here' when I mean 'hear' and visa versa.

The weather here in Ireland is fantastic! I've all the windows in the house open, a load of washing on the line, another in the machine and I'm sweating in my t-shirt and shorts (reminds me of the phrase "women don't sweat, they perspire"). Anyone reading who is from a country with reasonable weather won't understand the fascination we Irish have with good weather, it happens so rarely. There are so many sun burnt people going around it is crazy. When the good weather is in, sense is out! I was badly sun burnt when I was 11, I take care of my skin now. I've had a mole removed from my back, not cancerous, but it was removed 'just in case'. I've a few on my neck that cause me worry but the doc just says to coat them in factor 50 whenever I go out in the sun. I never tan anyway. I'm as white as the day I was born! My Sicilian friend is always laughing at how white I am, he can't get over it :-)

The garden is coming along nicely. I planted a few shrubs this week, the cornflowers have come out in beautiful pink, purples and blues and I have gotten rid of loads of weeds. I'll be putting up before and after pictures when it is all finished.

In other news, Beth and I went camping in Slane, Co. Meath last week. We stayed in at Slane Farm Hostel and Cottages. We had a wonderful time. The staff were so friendly and we had full use of the fruit, veg and herb garden. We were also allowed to collect our own eggs in the chicken coop. We will definitely be going back before the end of the summer.

Beth in the chicken coop

Up close and personal

Our tents with the chicken coop and garden in the background

The two of us at the Hill of Slane

The Tower

Beth and the donkey

It may not be everyone's cup of tea but we really enjoyed it! It has left me refreshed and ready to get back to writing.