Holiday(s) - Part I

First of all, we were only supposed to have a week off.  But...

After 6.5 hours driving to Cornwall on the Friday, getting the key to the cottage, unloading the car and getting ready to hit the pub, another couple arrived.  Yeah... so, to cut a long story short, we were a week early and I hadn't noticed the dates in the PDF attached confirmation to the booking.  So, tired, upset and grumpy we re-packed the car and drove to the nearby Tesco car-park to work out what to do.  I was prepared to get some food in us and drive home again, but Mr TOTKat was already checking Lastminute.com for somewhere to stay for the night.

A quick search for "hotels in Cornwall, sorted by price descending" threw up The Cornwall Hotel Spa and Estate which tunred out to be all of 12 miles away, just outside St Austell.  So we booked for the night and drove over that way.  Ohyes.  Yes.  Newly opened in March this year it was shiny and pretty and luxurious.  Over aperitifs we discussed that we really didn't want to go back to work on Monday; when you're in the mind-set that you're on holiday for a week and have spent a day travelling, you're really not in the best frame to pull it back to "off to work on Monday" all that easily.  So we decided to stay for a few nights.  I checked that we could get a room for the following couple of nights and booked us in.

Yeah, they're new and yeah they're a bit flaky around the edges but we enjoyed ourselves and had a couple of sessions in the little gym and a nice long (for me) run.  Couple of supply issues and timing issues with the hotel, but they'll improve that over time I'm sure.  Very nice.  Not -quite- Pennyhill Park, but ohmygod it was -exactly- the right thing at the time.

Tuesday, we came back to London and had a great night in with cat-sitters - mahousive Chinese takeaway and some fizzy wine, then back to work for a couple of days to get stuff sorted that couldn't wait another week.  Work didn't feel so bad at that point and we both got loads done (I left my Out of Office message on so people didn't book me for meetings that could wait a bit while I got the pressing things sorted).

Eating crow now alright

Having been so pleased with my lack of weight/fat gain over Christmas, I've just managed to weigh in 2.5kg heavier than 3 weeks ago. Way to go! AND I've done 3 really hard weights sessions this week where I've increased the weights quite significantly (for me - e.g. bicep curls which are new in this routine, I've upped from 5kg dumbbells to 7kg dumbbells in 3 sessions - 40% increase!) on some exercises and increased a bit on most. I ache like a bugger and my belly is wobbling; nice contrast there! I don't fit into shirts I fitted into nicely 3 weeks ago. It's all down to bad eating and too much drinking. I know that. I had a huge pile of bread yesterday for the first time in a very very long time and my stomach was phenomenally uncomfortable afterwards - I'm just not used to eating bread much any more.

So. Never has it been a better time to get a grip on food and drink and get back to doing things properly, and in fact take things up a notch:-

• I will complete 3 weights sessions per week (not a feeble 2; but work commitments may torpedo this sometimes) of 40+ minutes.
• I will complete 1-3 cardio sessions a week of 30+ minutes hard effort.
• I will take part in at least 2 of the 4 Thames Turbo sprint triathlon series.
• I will increase my protein intake overall as a proportion of my daily nutrition - by using protein supplements where/if necessary.
  
• I will significantly decrease my intake of simple carbohydrates; bread (eat that maybe once a week anyway), potatoes, pasta (almost never eat that anyway)
• I will not cut out couscous (I like it a lot and it's a great complex carbohydrate)
• I will have no more than 1/2 bottle of wine per week (or 2x cans of lower alcohol beer) and it will count as a cheat/free meal in itself.
• I will post my food and exercise plan/results every day (90% of the time averaged over a month)
  

And the lesser ones:-

• I will try yogurt with fruit in/on and maybe some nuts for breakfast at least 4 times before giving up if I don't like it.
• I will make lunches up in bulk a couple of days in advance to make things easier.
• I will try to fear nuts less as a snack - yes they're very calorific for their weight/bulk but they -are- good for me in small amounts.
• I will eat bananas as a snack before exercise only (or within 2 hours either side of it, but at no other times)

Wish me luck; it's going to take a bit more discipline than I've been maintaining the last few months.

I've got a skiing holiday in March which may mess things up a bit due to "Sno Camp" being on a Thursday for six weeks which means no weights on Wednesday or Friday as it looks like there will be at least some strength training in those sessions. Not quite worked out how to work around that and keep up the cardio and have 2 rest days in the week, so we're thinking maybe that it'd be better not to do "Sno Camp" at all; it's bound to be targetted at people who have done bugger all exercise all year anyway - and... have you -seen- my thighs?