Monday 9 November 2009

Apple pie. And ice cream. Bad Z, bad.

I'm quite silly. I made an apple pie last night. Fortunately, the Sage ate three quarters of it. And I only topped the apples with pastry, I didn't bottom (?) it too. But, as I said before, I do have an unaccustomed desire for puddings. Also, I'm hungrier than usual. Mostly, I'm eating fruit (in moderate amounts), raw vegetables and the odd slice of dry bread or toast, but I've also eaten two packets of crisps in the past week and I find it hard to care.

I'll be terribly fed up if I start putting on weight again and have to struggle all over again to take it off.

I've been meaning to say, I found in a long-unopened drawer a skirt I bought years ago in M&S. I would have been in my late thirties when I bought it, I should think. It's a size 10 and the measurements stated are waist 24 inches, hips 34 inches. Blimey. And it used to fit me. I haven't even tried to put it on now, it would be too embarrassing not to be able to get one leg in. There was also a pair of trousers, also M&S, and they, also a 10, said 25/36. They are still very old but, obviously, newer than the skirt. Now, measuring about 27/37, I'm a size 10 again. When I was a teenager, I didn't know anyone, however skinny, who was less than a 10. Now, if I weighed the 7 stone 10 lbs that I couldn't help being when Al was a baby (I was a 10 then) I'd probably be a 6. Oh well. I suppose it sounds good to be a smaller size, even if it isn't quite realistic.

Sunday 8 November 2009

Hmmm and hmmmm again.

Well, I'm back hovering around 100kg again, but I really don't mind. I've been running again, and I'm very pleased about that. Not least because on Saturday, I managed to combine it with other things I wanted to do, where in the past I might have just run and left it at that.

Saturday morning, I went for a run around 7:15, and saw a beautiful sunrise. My iPod playlist is just perfect for running, and I've been pruning it for some time now (nearly five years) to get the perfect blend of long, slow songs and upbeat, uplifting... And some plain odd stuff. The standouts this week were Bruce Springsteen's Girls In Their Summer clothes, peaking right at the top of a hill I decided to run up quickly. The dolphins surged right at the top with the song, and I couldn't help but grin. And Pearl Jam's new album backspacer, which is a very, very nice running companion as it's their most upbeat in years and has a bit of a punk spike to it in places.

Anyway, after my 30-minute run, I got home, stretched, changed then took the dog for a 90-minute walk, then got home, changed again and went down to the gym to do some upper-body weights. I tried doing bicep curls with a 20kg weight (44lbs, Fat Fans) and failed, and I like to think it's because I'd already done some sets with 14 and 16kg weights, and done dips and pull-ups. Yes, that must be the reason.

In short, I feel very good. Dog walking gets me out absolutely every day, and adding running to it is making me very happy. Next week, we shall try adding swimming last thing in the evening to that mix, and we'll see where I end up. Probably heavy as ever, but considerably more solid.