Tag: Slimming World

Winning in a happy non-competitive way!

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So I followed up my first sub-31 parkrun since 2018 with… my first Slimmer of the Week award since 2018! Two and a half pounds off this morning. Just a few more weeks of consistent effort and hopefully I will be back in my target range!

On a less happy note I’m sad to see our latest temporary Slimming World consultant, Julie, moving on. Our group has had six different consultants in the last year for various reasons, and it sounds like our seventh will only be temporary as well. Fingers crossed we get our ‘forever consultant’ soon – the ladies have all been lovely, but it’s much easier when you have someone who’s followed your journey for a long time.

I was planning to get out for a walk this afternoon to make up for the pizza that Geth and I had tonight to celebrate the end of his marking, but I was a bit tired after this morning’s run so will be getting in some extra exercise over the next few days instead. I’ve got lots of work to get on with anyway.

Tomorrow is quite busy, so I’m really looking forward to the weekend!

Slimming World fridge magnet
Not an OOTD: also, our group gets fridge magnets for being Slimmer of the Week nowadays! When Katie (our original consultant) was running the group, you only got them for Slimmer of the Month.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Ed Sheeran and Khalid – ‘Beautiful People’
Duran Duran – ‘Winter Marches On’

Midweek miles

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Still battling various aspects of winter weather while running. High winds in Newcastle meant that this morning’s four-miler felt like a bit of a struggle! However, my overall pace was consistent with what I’ve been doing recently, which is great.

I did some day job work and admin this afternoon, and then headed out to poetry night this evening. It was good to get back into the habit of reading for a room again – I’d only missed one month, but November in some ways feels like ages ago now. I got some good comments on my poem, so am feeling motivated to keep writing over the next few weeks.

Other than that, will just be keeping fingers crossed for another good result on the scales at Slimming World tomorrow! Geth and I have been really good this week so here’s hoping…

Night walk
Not an OOTD: the dark nights can be quite pretty, but I’m getting a bit sick of them now.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Duran Duran – ‘Tel Aviv [AIR Studio Version]’
Sugababes – ‘Hole In The Head’
The Midnight – ‘Explorers’

Back to the Thursday routine

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Really good recovery mile run this morning followed by a good loss on the scales at Slimming World. Still some way to go to get back into target range, but I just have to keep putting the same effort in every week until it happens. Thankfully marathon training and daily running is really helping with this, as it means I’m in the habit of logging everything relating to diet and exercise.

Have spent the afternoon doing day job work – I’ve been lucky in that business has really picked up this month. I’ll be getting up early tomorrow to finish all of this week’s work before next week’s scheduled projects arrive.

Now to finish today’s admin ASAP so that I can get a few hours of videogaming in!

Geth, having finished marking
Not an OOTD: Geth has finished marking all the first year essays and is very happy about it!

Today’s earworm playlist:

The Wanted – ‘Glad You Came’
Stormzy – ‘Crown’
Blur – ‘Parklife’
Lesley Gore – ‘It’s My Party’
Duran Duran – ‘Pressure Off’
The Midnight – ‘Shadows In The City’
Vera van Heeringen – ‘Riverside House’

Running over the hump day

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I had a REALLY good run this morning. Midweek middling distance, which is four miles at the moment, and I felt I was able to get a bit of speed up in the second half. Lovely mild morning for it too – really hoping we don’t revert to ice and snow during February and March.

It’s weigh-in eve so I’m making slow cooker curry (with neeps rather than tatties as Geth and I tend towards SP (low carb) meals on Tuesdays and Wednesdays). The house smells lovely as a result!

Slightly sleepy after my run, so while I am looking forward to ukulele class tonight, I’m also looking forward to getting home afterwards and curling up with some YouTube and videogames.

Slow cooker curry
Not an OOTD: curry in the early stages of slow cooking. I promise you it smells better than it looks 😀

Today’s earworm playlist:

Revo – ‘Ship Upon The Open Skies’
Russ Abbot – ‘Atmosphere’
Lady Gaga – ‘Always Remember Us This Way’

Back to basics

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Geth and I both went to our usual Thursday morning Slimming World group (and stayed to group) for the first time in… a while! Geth spent the autumn attending groups at different times because of his teaching commitments, so we’ve been out of routine. Neither of us had a particularly good result on the scales today, so I spent a bit of time this afternoon planning out all our meals for the next week, including some nice recipes that I’ve not had the chance to make in the last few months.

Daily running is still going well. I’m really looking forward to the weekend – I’m trying a new parkrun on Saturday, and I’ve got another seven-miler to do on Sunday. Very enthused about it at the moment – which is probably a good place to be in during marathon training to be fair!

Daffodils
Not an OOTD: the first daffodils of the season have arrived in the supermarkets 😀

Today’s earworm playlist:

Michael Land – ‘Captain Dread’
Duran Duran – ‘What Happens Tomorrow’
Ed Sheeran – ‘Shape Of You’
Meat Loaf – ‘I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)’

At a crossroads

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I’m having a bit of a career crisis at the moment.

My life plan for the last decade or so has been: work as a freelance editor while patiently waiting for the magical moment when someone will agree to publish a book I’ve written, and after that moment arrives, gradually build up a writing career to the point where I don’t need to do the editing work anymore.

It’s not exactly a detailed plan, and it has never really taken into account (a) what happens if that magical moment takes a lot longer to arrive than anticipated (or never arrives at all), (b) what I’m going to do if editing technology gets good enough that human editors are no longer required, or (c) the fact that it is depressing, frustrating and mental-health-toll-taking that I simply don’t make enough money from editing to cover my living costs and am dependent on Geth for a lot of them.

I’ve been feeling for a few years now as though I’ve backed myself into a corner in terms of my career. I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that I need to retrain.

I’m looking at a few options, but it’s still very early days and I need to do a lot of research. By the end of the year, however, I’m hoping to be on a new trajectory.

Anyway, to today. I went for a run, then found I’d lost 3lbs at Slimming World, which is the first chunk of Christmas weight off. A few more solid weeks on plan and I should have got rid of it.

I intended to run some banking errands in town, but I’ve had a bit of bad luck over the last couple of days with banks being shut and services not being available, so I’ll have to find some time to do it tomorrow instead. As such, I came straight home from group and got some admin done in the afternoon. Squeezing in a quick bit of videogaming tonight to try and de-stress.

Lots more day job work to do tomorrow. Looking forward to the weekend already!

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy
Not an OOTD: I’ve finally got to the last 3DS Layton game in my backlog. Will probably end up getting the new one on the Switch – I love these games!

Today’s earworm playlist:

FM-84 and Ollie Wride – ‘Never Stop’
The Beatles – ‘Drive My Car’
Bill Withers – ‘Lean On Me’
Kate Bush – ‘Them Heavy People’

Strings

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Geth has been working from home today, so we’ve got back into our home workplace groove, with lots of synthwave in the background but no other distractions. I did my first midweek run of the marathon training plan this morning, and then spent the afternoon editing for a client. I’m off to ukulele class this evening!

When I get back I’ll be finishing off my nails (had to take off my New Year polish and cut them short this afternoon so that they don’t get in the way of ukulele-playing), chilling out with some videogames, and hoping that four days back on plan has been enough for an okay-ish result at Slimming World weigh-in tomorrow morning.

Nail varnish
Not quite an OOTD: nail colours ready to be put on later tonight.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Harry Styles – ‘Lights Up’
Monty Python – ‘Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life’
Spice Girls – ‘Spice Up Your Life’

Feeling a bit heavy

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A bit of a Slimming World saga this evening. The website had advertised the usual Edinburgh group I go to as being on from 4pm to 8pm tonight, so I merrily trotted along, only to find the venue in darkness. I texted the consultant to find out what was going on, and it turned out that the website was wrong (she was very apologetic) and the group was happening in a totally different part of town! I considered driving across to it myself, but as it turned out, Dad was going out anyway to see if he could move his car from one parking area to another and so gave me a lift.

After all that, I don’t even want to say how much weight I’ve piled on over Christmas. At least I’m still going to group and keeping track of it!

Otherwise, I’ve mainly spent today planning out my marathon training for the next four months. All that running will certainly help get the Christmas weight off.

Slimming World 2020 book
Not an OOTD: I did pick up the annual Slimming World New Year motivation book. Just reading it makes me feel a bit healthier!

Today’s earworm playlist:

Tomohito Nishiura – ‘Carnival Night’
Tomohito Nishiura – ‘Puzzles’
Lightwood Games – ‘Block-A-Pix Theme’
Koichi Sugiyama – ‘Unflinchable Courage’

Monster fighting

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Geth and I are planning on the New Year’s Day parkrun double on Wednesday, so this morning we went for a drive so as to make sure that we know where we’re going. After that, we headed round to Kieran and Lisa’s for an afternoon of boardgaming. It was nice to get a game of Eldritch Horror in for the first time in a while (complete with occasional encouragement from the wee ones) and to catch up with Sharpy for the first time this Christmas period.

A very quiet day tomorrow, although I will be facing the music at Slimming World in the afternoon.

Call To Adventure
Not an OOTD: our Christmas present from Sharpy and Steph was a new boardgame for the collection! Looking forward to trying this one.

Today’s earworm playlist:

Robson & Jerome – ‘I Believe’
Kuana Torres Kahele, James Ford Murphy and Napua Greig-Nakasone – ‘Someone To Lava’
Tomohito Nishiura – ‘Puzzles’

In town for the day

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Geth and I have been out and about all day. We headed to Slimming World weigh-in first of all to assess the damage from the last few weeks (mine wasn’t as bad as I’d expected – still need to be careful during Christmas though).

Next up was some last-minute Christmas shopping in town. I think that really is the Christmas shopping finished now! I certainly don’t want to have to go back into the centre of town again – it was far too busy for comfort today.

After that, we went to see the new Star Wars film, The Rise Of Skywalker. I really, really enjoyed it (despite a few annoying plot points) and will be posting a proper review in the next few days. We then headed to Pizza Hut for a debrief!

Back home now. I’m having my hair done tomorrow, but otherwise I’ll be staying inside in the warmth.

Star Wars 2020 calendar
Not an OOTD: Geth found this fantastic Star Wars calendar for next year!

Today’s earworm playlist:

Bing Crosby – ‘Silver Bells’
Elton John – ‘Step Into Christmas’
Chris Rea – ‘Driving Home For Christmas’
Tony Deans – ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’
The Cardigans – ‘Lovefool’
Carl Doy – ‘A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square’

And a bonus track that Geth was humming earlier:

The White Stripes – ‘Seven Nation Army’