Wagon Woes

In the weight-loss/trying to get fitter realm there is possibly no feeling worse than falling off the wagon. You feel like all your hard work - meal planning, label-reading, calorie burning etc - has been for nothing if you're just going to give in to temptation and stuff yourself silly at the first opportunity.

Well, that's where I am right now! An "ex-wagon member". In all fairness, to myself and the forces which conspired against me, it was entirely a wagon fall ... in two nights (Fri & Sat) I had a wedding and dinner at a FABULOUS restaurant with friends. For the wedding I had given myself a bit of a "free pass" - and if I'm honest it wasn't SO bad. I probably ate one too many of the finger food thingies ... I had five, although two were small cubes of cheese with an olive, one 4cm diameter mini-pizza, a meatball and slice of chicken sausage roll. Heh, high society wedding of course. I ate less than a quarter of my entree - piece of lasagna (horrible) - and one slice of my soggy cardboard masquerading as lamb, and the ONE piece of cauliflower and broccoli, and some of the overcooked carrots. I had about half of my dessert - some sort of baked cheesecake.

I DID have about five drinks though - oops! One glass of champagne - some revoltingly sweet stuff - a light beer, a glass of red wine and two full strength beers. That was from 6pm to midnight though, so was pretty-well close to sober, plus there was a good dose of dancing!

Dinner with friends was pretty good too, honestly. Had two slices of very delicious authentic Italian pizza (as previously raved about) and shared a small rocket & parmesan salad. Had two glasses of red (it was an ITALIAN restaurant, it's just culturally insensitive not to) and another one of those AMAZING hot chocolates. Mmmm.

The food was not good, but it could've been much worse. Plus, on Friday did 40 mins of continuous swimming, Saturday did 40 minute walk with dog (Bella) and Darren (not a dog), and on Sunday I mowed Darren's lawn and washed my car, as well as lugging an 8km gas bottle (for the BBQ) all around Bunnings, the carpark, Darren's place and then up six flights of stairs. Heh, not REALLY exercise, but better than nothing.

Anyway, today I have seriously been positively saintly. Muesli/yoghurt for breakfast, salad with feta for lunch, some natural yoghurt for arvo tea, a green tea and then did Bikram (90 minutes of sweatin'). Dinner was sorta homemade fried rice ... without the fried bit. Basically stir fried zucchini, carrot and broccoli in a pan with just a light spray of olive oil, then 100g of tofu, then about 1 tab of sweet chilli sauce and 1/2 cup of Doongara (low GI) rice. Whoo hoo!

Now am having a cup of Dandelion tea. Heh, LOTS of people turn their nose up at the Dandelion tea ... but it's really good for liver function. A few years ago (two I think) I contracted Ross River Fever while on holiday in Darwin - pesky mosquitos! The side-effects/symptoms vary, but for me it meant extreme fatigue, night sweats/fevers, headaches and YAY slightly reduced liver function. Thankfully the liver is an organ you can "fix" through healthy eating and lifestyle. I've never had it tested again, but I reckon it's doing pretty good. I look after it. Heh, major segue there.

Here's another one. Darwin is AWESOME. Aside from the mosquitos (and it probably could've been a mosquito in Sydney or anywhere else I'd been that year). ESPECIALLY if you're single. There's a chronic shortage of non-slapper women up there. There's every variety of single man you can imagine - business owner, journalist/editor, tour guide (aHem), PLUS there are all three arms of the defence force up there ... and at any given time there are soldiers/sailors/airmen visiting from other countries. Hot English Navy boys - ahoy there! Ha ha. Obviously you've gotta take care of yourself, but you can have some fabulous fun. Not just with the male attention, but there are some fantastic things to see and do.

Hmm, travel plug over. For now.

In major MAJOR countdown mode for the weekend/start of my holiday/A's 30th. Four more sleeps. Speaking of sleep. Must get some asap.