Urrrrrrhh.
Had a lovely night with the neighbours last night. I asked Fisher to help stop me drinking too much - which she did not do in any way. We drank until 3am, including me and Kai consuming a bottle of whisky between us. This was not big or clever. I am still unwell and it's 9.30pm the next day. Officially and completely, I am OFF THE BOOZE.
Great night. Horrid day after.
Sunday, 7 February 2010
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Accursed Snow
Location: Home
Mood: Antsy
Listening to: Radio 4 (programme about Henry Moore)
Reading: 4-4-2
Our sleep patterns are all screwed up. We weren't asleep until 4.30am last night, and now it's half eleven and I'm barely awake. The whole day gets lost this way and I loathe it.
On a more positive note, we at last managed to visit Andrew Fairlie's on Tuesday. It was supposed to be a surprise for Fisher - her last birthday present - but Fairlie's phoned earlier on Tuesday and left a message on the phone asking us to confirm the table that night. Naturally, she listened to it. She still got a surprise when Kai and Ina turned up as our 'cab', and another one when Wheeler and Phid were sitting at our table.
The food was excellent, although I can't say it blew me away. To start with I had crispy egg with truffle oil and artichoke salad. I wanted to compare it to the similar dish I've eaten at Devonshire Gardens, and it wasn't as good. The coating was much more of a generic batter than the crispy shell at DG. The salad was delicious - full of little cubes of flavour, and the truffle oil was superb.
My main course was lamb: a roast loin, a kidney, and confit neck. It was lovely, but again, not particularly innovative. The loin was a small roundel, and Ina - who had the same - was slightly disappointed that hers was tough. I didn't find mine tough, but I wasn't impressed with the confit, which I thought slightly underflavoured and a little dry. The kidney, though, was delicious. And to finish I had an extremely good cheese plate, with Artisanal cheeses from France. There were about 9 small slices on the plate, which is an excellent and if there could be any complaint it was that there were too few accompanying crackers. But only by one or two, so I managed.
The highlight of the evening, food wise, was probably Fisher's dessert. She had a chocolate brownie with brambles and basil & thyme ice cream. The brownie was a small sphere served in a case of chocolate - over which was poured hot chocolate sauce. The hot sauce slowly melted the chocolate coating, revealing the brownie and ice cream inside. Clever! It was the first sign of real innovation, and we all appreciated it very much.
So, while I don't come out of Fairlie's thinking I've experienced something new and different, we did all come away having thoroughly enjoyed our meals and having had a very lovely night. Especially enjoyable was the wine: Felton Road's pinot noir from New Zealand. Deliciously easy to slip down - so we had 2 bottles. Mmm.
Of course, all this did nothing for my calorie count - but I had a small lunch, and it doesn't seem to have knocked me off course. Yesterday I consumed about 1300 and burned off 400 at a half hour gym session. If my BMR is around 1700, that means I burned at least 2100 during the day - 800 more calories than I consumed. Which is ok - especially as it'll be a little more than that owing to a mile walk with the dogs.
Alas, we are now sitting under a good few inches of snow again - so it's back to slippery roads, running inside, instantly soaking dogs, and general irritation. Grrr. Feeding Epona and Shah tonight, too, and we need to go shopping. So I must start getting the day underway.
Adio'.
Mood: Antsy
Listening to: Radio 4 (programme about Henry Moore)
Reading: 4-4-2
Our sleep patterns are all screwed up. We weren't asleep until 4.30am last night, and now it's half eleven and I'm barely awake. The whole day gets lost this way and I loathe it.
On a more positive note, we at last managed to visit Andrew Fairlie's on Tuesday. It was supposed to be a surprise for Fisher - her last birthday present - but Fairlie's phoned earlier on Tuesday and left a message on the phone asking us to confirm the table that night. Naturally, she listened to it. She still got a surprise when Kai and Ina turned up as our 'cab', and another one when Wheeler and Phid were sitting at our table.
The food was excellent, although I can't say it blew me away. To start with I had crispy egg with truffle oil and artichoke salad. I wanted to compare it to the similar dish I've eaten at Devonshire Gardens, and it wasn't as good. The coating was much more of a generic batter than the crispy shell at DG. The salad was delicious - full of little cubes of flavour, and the truffle oil was superb.
My main course was lamb: a roast loin, a kidney, and confit neck. It was lovely, but again, not particularly innovative. The loin was a small roundel, and Ina - who had the same - was slightly disappointed that hers was tough. I didn't find mine tough, but I wasn't impressed with the confit, which I thought slightly underflavoured and a little dry. The kidney, though, was delicious. And to finish I had an extremely good cheese plate, with Artisanal cheeses from France. There were about 9 small slices on the plate, which is an excellent and if there could be any complaint it was that there were too few accompanying crackers. But only by one or two, so I managed.
The highlight of the evening, food wise, was probably Fisher's dessert. She had a chocolate brownie with brambles and basil & thyme ice cream. The brownie was a small sphere served in a case of chocolate - over which was poured hot chocolate sauce. The hot sauce slowly melted the chocolate coating, revealing the brownie and ice cream inside. Clever! It was the first sign of real innovation, and we all appreciated it very much.
So, while I don't come out of Fairlie's thinking I've experienced something new and different, we did all come away having thoroughly enjoyed our meals and having had a very lovely night. Especially enjoyable was the wine: Felton Road's pinot noir from New Zealand. Deliciously easy to slip down - so we had 2 bottles. Mmm.
Of course, all this did nothing for my calorie count - but I had a small lunch, and it doesn't seem to have knocked me off course. Yesterday I consumed about 1300 and burned off 400 at a half hour gym session. If my BMR is around 1700, that means I burned at least 2100 during the day - 800 more calories than I consumed. Which is ok - especially as it'll be a little more than that owing to a mile walk with the dogs.
Alas, we are now sitting under a good few inches of snow again - so it's back to slippery roads, running inside, instantly soaking dogs, and general irritation. Grrr. Feeding Epona and Shah tonight, too, and we need to go shopping. So I must start getting the day underway.
Adio'.
Monday, 1 February 2010
New Regime
Location: In ma bed.
Mood: Bit headachey, but content.
Listening to: Love, Where is Your Fire (preeetty)
Greetings all.
At long last I feel like 2010 has begun. Frankly, January has been shittier than a cow's backside, and it's about time things turned round. We've decided that the heating is just too unreliable to ... well, rely on, frankly, so are looking into getting a stove put into the sitting room. We had a fella round today who was very pleasant, young and enthusiastic, who turned up on time (in the evening, no less) with no need of directions. The news wasn't great, in that it's going to involve widening the hearth and taking the mantel off, but we'll just have to wait and see what the price will be.
This post is really about my new targets exercise wise. I'm a bit fed up of constantly falling short of my goals, so I reckon it may be wise to think of new goals rather than keep stabbing away at the old ones. So I'm having a rethink of my gym targets, and general attitude to weight loss.
1. I will be counting calories, which is terribly dull, but probably suits me better. I can eat what I like as long as I don't overshoot my target. I know the number of calories I burn, so I have to consume AT LEAST 500 calories fewer. Ideally I'd like it to be closer to the 1000 mark, and even more than that if poss.
2. My gym workout will involve calorie targets. Weights do not count.
3. I must burn at least 1500 calories a week at the gym. I don't know whether that's too little, so we'll see how it goes. If I need to up the target I shall.
Today I presume was a good day, but let's just see, shall we? (I promise all my blogs won't be like this - I'm more thinking aloud right now).
Eaten:
1 bowl oxtail soup = 98 calories
1 baked potato = 245 calories
Butter = 74 calories
Tuna = 75 calories
Mayo = 70 calories
Salad = Should I bother?
Salad cream = 45 calories
Pudding = 200 calories
Total = 807 calories.
Burned:
27 minute run = 363 calories
15 minutes on cross trainer = 210 calories (websites say 270, but it's so easy I don't believe them)
20 mins on static bike = 150 calories - so says the bike. But looking online, this is incredibly conservative. I always thought it was shonky, too - a low return for high effort. So I'm going with 200 calories. All the websites say 230 odd, so this seems fair. 10 calories per minute.
Total = 773 calories.
Holy crap on a stick!! Can this be in any way accurate? From this calculation, I'm running on 34 calories!
Well ... put it this way. I'm well, well, WELL below my 500 calorie target. I'm wracking my brains to try and think of things I've forgotten. Did I consume a small ox and forget about it? No, don't think so. That was yesterday.
Just joking.
It was a sheep.
The only other thing I've consumed is coffee - which, ok, had milk and sugar in it. Even so ... if I can keep this up I'll be larfin'. And the weird thing is - I had a cracking headache earlier, but I think that was from muscle tension in my neck - I don't feel hungry. At all.
Ok. This is all good. I had a choccie treat for pudding, butter on my potato, mayo in my tuna, and still seem to be coming in well under target. I treat this with suspicion, but I can't seem to think how I've gypped myself, so ... y'know. Good.
Quite excited now. Roll on the weight loss!
Mood: Bit headachey, but content.
Listening to: Love, Where is Your Fire (preeetty)
Greetings all.
At long last I feel like 2010 has begun. Frankly, January has been shittier than a cow's backside, and it's about time things turned round. We've decided that the heating is just too unreliable to ... well, rely on, frankly, so are looking into getting a stove put into the sitting room. We had a fella round today who was very pleasant, young and enthusiastic, who turned up on time (in the evening, no less) with no need of directions. The news wasn't great, in that it's going to involve widening the hearth and taking the mantel off, but we'll just have to wait and see what the price will be.
This post is really about my new targets exercise wise. I'm a bit fed up of constantly falling short of my goals, so I reckon it may be wise to think of new goals rather than keep stabbing away at the old ones. So I'm having a rethink of my gym targets, and general attitude to weight loss.
1. I will be counting calories, which is terribly dull, but probably suits me better. I can eat what I like as long as I don't overshoot my target. I know the number of calories I burn, so I have to consume AT LEAST 500 calories fewer. Ideally I'd like it to be closer to the 1000 mark, and even more than that if poss.
2. My gym workout will involve calorie targets. Weights do not count.
3. I must burn at least 1500 calories a week at the gym. I don't know whether that's too little, so we'll see how it goes. If I need to up the target I shall.
Today I presume was a good day, but let's just see, shall we? (I promise all my blogs won't be like this - I'm more thinking aloud right now).
Eaten:
1 bowl oxtail soup = 98 calories
1 baked potato = 245 calories
Butter = 74 calories
Tuna = 75 calories
Mayo = 70 calories
Salad = Should I bother?
Salad cream = 45 calories
Pudding = 200 calories
Total = 807 calories.
Burned:
27 minute run = 363 calories
15 minutes on cross trainer = 210 calories (websites say 270, but it's so easy I don't believe them)
20 mins on static bike = 150 calories - so says the bike. But looking online, this is incredibly conservative. I always thought it was shonky, too - a low return for high effort. So I'm going with 200 calories. All the websites say 230 odd, so this seems fair. 10 calories per minute.
Total = 773 calories.
Holy crap on a stick!! Can this be in any way accurate? From this calculation, I'm running on 34 calories!
Well ... put it this way. I'm well, well, WELL below my 500 calorie target. I'm wracking my brains to try and think of things I've forgotten. Did I consume a small ox and forget about it? No, don't think so. That was yesterday.
Just joking.
It was a sheep.
The only other thing I've consumed is coffee - which, ok, had milk and sugar in it. Even so ... if I can keep this up I'll be larfin'. And the weird thing is - I had a cracking headache earlier, but I think that was from muscle tension in my neck - I don't feel hungry. At all.
Ok. This is all good. I had a choccie treat for pudding, butter on my potato, mayo in my tuna, and still seem to be coming in well under target. I treat this with suspicion, but I can't seem to think how I've gypped myself, so ... y'know. Good.
Quite excited now. Roll on the weight loss!
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