Dr Gill's horny goat weed

Guess what I saw in the health food shop when I popped in for some tofu and sugar-free peanut butter? Dr "Eccentric Brilliant Bollocks" now has her own product range (buy her book, get a free chewy bar woo). Anyone for horny goat weed?




I think I am banned from the health food shop for the involuntary cry of "oh ffs!" that escaped when I saw their beautiful display of Dr Gill products.

A bottle of organic wine got bought somehow. Surely organic wine must be good for you?

Cyclocat

I want one of these porta-pet bike racks. Want one want one want one! O wants one too, he is keen to introduce the cats to the joys of trailer biking.

Eccentric, brilliant, bollocks

You Are What You Eat (tm) woman featured in the Gruauniad's Bad Science column yesterday. Heheh. They don't like her much over at spiked, either. Diet Girl's not too keen. Nor lovely Jude. Maybe making TV shows pointing and laffing at fatties isn't such a good career move after all.

Spoke too soon

Official weigh-in day today, and I have put on 1 lb since Wednesday, so lost 2 lb this week. Feel a bit pissed off but as R said, if I hadn't weighed myself midweek I wouldn't've known and I'd just be pleased to have lost 2 lb. Teach me not to keep weighing self.

Yesterday went OK, ate my lunch on train (tho I had finished it and all my water by noon). Walked for an hour. Kept to my resolve to have soup for tea (cup of leek & potato with walnut bread yum). But then disaster struck, my train was seriously delayed and I had the munchies. I got fruit and nuts, as the most healthful option available, but did eat a huge amount of them, which probably accounts for the 1 lb gain.

Overall, I think things have gone OK this week. I've had no choc or sweets, no crisps (but one bag of snackajacks) and only one can of fizzy drink (sugar free redbull). I've drunk masses of water and kept an eye on portion size. My only real slide into mindless eating/snacking was yesterday. So, a good re-start I reckon.

First big d*et challenge tomorrow. I have to go and work away for the day ie leave my house and be confronted by temptation at every turn. Includes long train journey, during which i am apt to get bored and eat. Eeep. I have tried to prepare for this, have made food to take with me (tortilla wraps with hummus, roasted peppers & watercress, fruit, small tub of nuts) and plan to buy soup for my evening meal (rather than pizza/pasta/curry). But it will be stressful, workwise, so we will see how things go.

Sunny morning but rainy afternoon. O is playing with his trains, for the first time in what seems like months. It's a bit sad that he's outgrowing trains now. Who knew I'd be nostalgic for Th*m*s the T*nk Engine?

It's working - I lost 3lb already! Yes I know it's mainly water, I know it drops off easy at the start of a diet, and I know I shouldn't keep hopping on and off the scales (weigh-in day is officially Friday). But it still makes me feel good.

Put my belly dance video on this evening and practised in the living room. First time I have ever done an exercise vid at home. Felt a bit silly, and had to draw the curtains so no-one could see me. Did bout 20 mins of the vid, not as strenous as proper class but better than 20 mins of sitting round on arse. Am going to reward self with nice glass of cava and warm bath with lovely Lush bubble bath bar slice mmm and read the Heat magazine Big Brother finale special edition.

R is looking after O today, and this afternoon they set off, by bike and trailer bike, for the train museum. O was kitted out in matching shorts and t-shirt, fancy new bike helmet, and his new cycling gloves (he was desperate for a pair and I saw some on special offer at Wiggle, they arrived this morning). He looked like a Lance mini-me.

Wooo Catster. Aww look my cat and my other cat. Awww.

Convention of the Idle. Wanna go but can't be arsed.

I've been to aquarobics hurrah (didn't make it last week). Regular instructor is on a course for 6 weeks - the stand-in instructor was One of Us ie a beautifully large lass. Hurrah for not-stick-thin exercise instrutors. She was teaching a different style of aquarobics, lots of woggle action.

Had very scrummy-but-calorific salad for tea, cubes of melon and feta cheese with fresh mint mmmmmmm. All hail Nigel 'god of salads' Slater for the idea.

A rainy afternoon. When not trying to keep bored kid amused or stop bored kid fighting with bored friend, I've been surfing round a few d*et blogs. I like what that Yvonne @ 67.6 fluid ounces wrote, alot ...

I mean, it's a LOT easier to wolf down a qu@rter p0under and an order of fries -- then pass out in front of the tube -- than it is to confront whoever it is that's pissing you off or hurting your feelings. It's a lot easier to consume mass quantities of pizza than it is to change whatever it is that's getting in your way. And it's a helluva lot easier to lay down and put your head to sleep than it is to take it for a walk and have to actually listen to what it might be trying to tell you.

Well, Friday went OK, d*et-wise. Saturday was not quite so good - went to visit my parents and deserts were eaten. Sunday was generally a good eating day. I've had no choc or crisps or fizzy drinks for past 3 days, which is Good, and have drunk lots of water and eaten lots of fruit, which is also Good. Inspired by Jude, I got a pineapple and a slimming mag in Asda yesterday. The pineapple was great - we had huge fruit salad of pineapple and melon and grapes and apple and banana with low-fat greek yoghurt yum yum. Dunno why I bought the sl*imming mag, it was just the usual nonsense, plus free book on the cover "Only fat people skip breakfast". Haven't read it yet but not impressed. While skipping breakfast is A Bad Thing, the skinniest person I know never ever eats breakfast.

My d*et plan is, thus far, fairly minimal. I'm not counting calories (at least not for now). Just concentrating on portion control (eg weighing out breakfast cereal), drinking plenty of water and not eating too much crap. Plus doing exercise. Will see how that goes ...

Short series on R4 next week about nutrition (history of)- The Square Meal, presented by Roger Bolton. Starts on Monday 9th at 9am (repeated 9.30pm same day, or anytime you like that week by the miracle of listen again).

I have gone a bit mad drinking water today. I'm on my 3rd 750ml bottle (tap water, chilled in fridge in nice bike water bottles). Better than the 2 litre bottles of diet irn bru I've been drinking lately. I think one of the reasons I probably feel so tired and low is that I've been eating and drinking mainly crap lately. If I ate proper food, I'd feel better and have more energy. Of course there is the problem that feeling low in the first place starts me eating crap.

R just told me that he weighed himself yesterday and found he put on half a stone during our holidays. Rather unreasonably, this makes me feel a bit better about my gain. Only someone of superhuman will power could survive the onslaught of choccie bics and cakes with every single cup of tea and after every single meal, and not gain weight, particularly while taking no exercise. Hah. Still gotta shift it, tho. Bah.

Yesterday was A Bad Day. Life, work, relationship, eating, weather, all bad. Actually it's not fair to call the weather bad, I love summer thunder storms. But all else bad. Even had an urge to smoke. So I did what I do when things are bad, and ate. Went for a curry, first time in months. Mmmmm. And then I decided to try and draw a line and start over. So I weighed myself this morning and it was Bad. Regained all but 3 lb of what I lost earlier this year.

I am tentatively calling today restart day. Probably not a good day to start, as we have little food except white bread and peanut butter in the house, and also tonight is Big Brother Finale night, which will call for cava and pistachios. But I could always find a reason to put off starting weight loss. Today is as good a day as any so I will make a start here.

Wish me luck.

so far I have been to the Bike Shop 5 times in 4 days this week.
Monday - need to replace O's bike helmet, after his old one was eaten by grandad's dog
Tuesday - trailer bike arrives, I break valve pumping up tyre (stupid woods valve grrr), emergency trip to buy new inner tube
Wednesday - went to park on trailer bike woo! call in to bike shop on way back from park to sort out lights for trailer bike and my bike (I had to remove my rack to fit the trailer on, and I used to fit rear light to rack).
Today - yesterdays 5 mile round trip to park made me realise just how knackered my back wheel was, so went to shop for replacement. Got home with new wheel (and new tyre too). Tried to fit inner tube, discovered the hole on new wheel too small for my type of valve. Back to bike shop. Get back home again and remember I forgot to get small but vital thingy for brakes. Can't face going back to shop again, email R and ask him to go instead on his way home.

No I haven't weighed myself yet.

Products I would go on adverts for

• Tip-Top Hand Cleaner
  cleans bike grease off hands, smells nice, kind to dolphins
  
• WD 40
  I introduced my neighbour to the joys of WD40 t'other day, he was amazed and impressed, he'd never heard of it before. Praps they don't have it in Portugal?
  
• Lush
  Jumping Juniper Shampoo Bars, Hot S3x Bath Bombs, Ocean Salt (with Vodka) Face Scrub, Fever Massage Bars .... mmmmm
  
• Seabrook Crisps
  the best crisps in the world
  

updated 06/09/04

Back from holidays. 10 days on the farm with R's family. Tea and cake and relatives non-stop. Far too much cake consumed, plus v little exercise. Am feeling pretty blebby, can tell by how my clothes feel that I've put loads back on. Haven't dared weigh self yet. Before I went, I said I'd re-start weight-loss attempts when I got back, but haven't done anything about that yet.

At least I will get back to exercising now I am home. I will go to aquarobics tonight (not been for weeks cos it clashed with bike maintenance but that's finished now) and belly dancing tomorrow. And get back on my bike, with O in tow. Our new trailer bike arrived yesterday! We've got an Adams 5 Speed Shifter Trail-a-Bike, just like this one



Had a quick spin round the block on it yesterday, todaay we might go as far as the park. O is v excited about it, so am I. Folding mechanism is ace, as we have so little space to store bikes in the hall. And a quick plug for Wiggle - ordered trailer bike at lunchtime on Monday, it arrived 8.30 am on Tuesday. Plus, a couple of weeks ago, I enquired if they stocked spare hitches, so we can couple it to either mine or R's bike. They didn't at the time but now they do. So hurrah for Wiggle, I shall deffo buy more things from them (and already have a spare hitch on order).