Blip

During yesterday afternoon I'd considered my next blog entry and decided it was going to be on cooking. However, there's also a Pilates session to mention and also last night where I was bad; bad to the degree that would normally require a visit to a Hague Tribunal...so I better examine them instead.

First the initial 1:1 Pilates session.

In reality this was a massage on my lower back, my neck, my hip flexors and a piriformis stretch as well as a few minutes explaining what might be a good approach for me in the future. Overall it was good. Before the session I couldn't turn far to the right making driving dangerous, but afterwards (as now) my neck is sore but mobile. The back probably got worse afterwards but the groin, which wasn't painful before, does feel looser and is pain free.

Last night though I had a good old fashioned binge. There's a few things that conspired to create the conditions for it so its maybe worth mentioning them:

The weather - it was dull, windy and raining for most of the day. Distinctly autumnal if not wintry. Such weather makes me feel a bit down and gives me a significant craving for carbs.

Work - nothing terrible, just that a few things went wrong that were outside my control but where I'll need to pick up the pieces and formulate the apologies. That's a common feature of my job but one that occasionally gets me down a bit.

Eldest daughter - started high school recently and seems to be feeling forced into getting closer to a couple of vacuous girls from her old school who flitted between friendship and alot of mind games and online/offline bullying of her last year.

Home alone - OK, not quite alone, Charlotte was with me, but no restraining adult influence!

Disappointing meal - I'd made a cucumber and lentil curry to have with brown rice. In itself it was alright though it needed something with it to give some variety, and the rice timings I'd been blasé about leaving it a little undercooked and chewy. I felt a bit let down by it and didn't really feel satisfied, with the next options all being calorific and 'dirty'.

Bread - this can be such a danger for me and features in most of my episodes. Sue had bought a fresh baguette and crusty rolls (neither of which normally feature for us and I later they were for her work - oops) and left them on the side. They taunted me and once I'd given in to have just one it was like a feeding frenzy - think Cookie Monster from Sesame Street.

Rest day - even with the extra 250kcals a rest day can feel a bit restrictive and sometimes I can feel like rebelling against that. Plus, exercise forces me to be disciplined in a way a rest day doesn't.

(Any of these triggers sound familiar to anyone else?)

In isolation none of those cause a problem but put together they can do. And they did.

Overall I left myself with a sugar induced headache by 8pm and went over by 2000 kcals for the day.

In a way though, that's the silver lining to this particular cloud: I did, at least, enter what I'd eaten (after the event) and feel that I can put it behind me and get back to plan immediately. It might be a big blip but its still only a blip!

That's something isn't it?