In the words of my favourite Star Trek Next Gen villains...

..."Resistance is futile!"

Yip, the chocolates are still out in force at work , Mars Celebrations, and The Force isn't that strong in me.

See what I did there? In a break from Sci Fi rivalry tradition, I quoted Star trek and Star Wars in the same paragraph! Some where, the geek gods are preparing a lightening bolt with my name on it :-)

Anyway, regardless of my nerdy references, I felt the need to give in. I had to have some chocolate. But I'm still relatively pleased with how I handled it. I made a conscious decision. Rather than eat a few mindlessly, and let's be honest, my definition of "a few" might stun some, I checked the MFP database for the calories. Most are about forty-five cals a piece! Defo not good calorie spending. I dipped in to the box of £1 charity sweets instead and got a 100g bag of mini eggs. I reckon about 450 cals, and there was more satisfaction to be had savouring them than scarfing down a hand full of tiny Twix and Snickers, or Heaven forbid, Bounties. Mmmmm, excuse me while I drool, fit to turn in to Homer J Simpson! Bounty!

I haven't been for a run for the last couple of mornings. Good sense finally prevailed and I decided to rest my ankle. It feels much better today. But I miss the extra calories that the exercise earns. My small session of circuit training doesn't earn much (though I can really feel the results in my abs) so I might walk up to TMM's work later, to meet him. It's a fifty minute walk, round trip, and should earn a couple of hundred cals.

Food has been good for the last few days. I haven't gone mad and cut down, just because I had my gain on Sunday. I've stuck within allowance though, and I'm happy that I'm doing what I need to to stay on track.

The day before weigh in

My thirty day, full body challenge app

Day thirteen of my thirty day, full body challenge. So my routine was as follows

• 29 sit ups
• 42 ab crunches
• 14 leg raises
• 27 sec plank
• 65 squats
• 66 sec plank
• 12 push ups

And may I just say? The plank nearly did me in. It's definitely the closest I've come to not completing the proscribed time. I did it though. Just! I wouldn't fancy anyone judging my form though ;-)

I did think that I might do the Parkrun this morning. TMM was on a late start shift at work today so we would have had plenty of time. We ended up having a lie in, and it was much better :-) So off he went to work while I have Saturday off. I hate that he works in retail and weekends off together are rare, but at least we're both working.

When I'm not working, especially when I'm alone at home, I can find it quite hard to eat sensibly. At the start of the day, I see all those calories ahead of me and my factory settings is to equate them to litres of ice cream. Even now, after nine months of healthy eating, my first thought, even before coffee this morning, was about what rubbish I could "afford" on my 1200 daily cals. (There will be no extras earned since I didn't go for a run. {And I've no idea how you count the small circuit that is my thirty day challenges.}) Still, the fact that it's weigh in day tomorrow should help to keep me in line. The last thing I want is a gain that would take me out of the 150s, just as I've gotten in to them. With my newly set, slightly higher, goal weight of 153lbs, it's just possible (though maybe not entirely probable) that I could hit it by the new year. Wouldn't that be something? Starting the New Year as I meant to go on. On maintenance!

A helluva thing to aim for!

Saggy, baggy, haggy

I am definitely the personification of saggy at the moment. It's sad but true. My poor boobies are each like a tennis ball at the bottom of a sock :-) It's okay when I'm dressed. It can be disguised with a good bra. It's certainly much easier to hide that than it was to dress up the weight that I've lost, so clearly I'd rather have this "problem." But it doesn't change the fact that I look a bit odd in parts. Inner thighs are another big (not so big?) problem area.

With that in mind, I started a small thirty days full body programme today. I got the idea from a girl who's been taking on thirty day challenges for the last few months, and one of her recent ones was a full body one.

Example of a thirty day full body challenge

While this isn't identical, it does have some of the same exercises, and works the same away, in that the reps increase as the days go on. I intend to run first, about half and hour, or 5 km, and then do the exercises. Today it was pretty easy. I ran for thirty-five minutes, then did

• 7 sit ups
• 2 crunches
• 2 leg raises
• 10 second plank
• 25 squats
• 15 second plank
• 7 push ups

None of this could be called tough exactly, as there are so few reps at the moment, but it doesn't take too long for them to increase, and since they all increase together, it will become a bit more difficult fairly quickly.

I'm glad there are a few ab exercises. Core strength is really useful in running, and I tend to ignore it, so this can only be a good thing. I always meant to strengthen my core before my marathon attempt, but never did. As always, Bikerbabe, my wee chum across the briney from me, has been leading by example. She was doing some strength work last week, and it really made me think that I needed to get off my arse and add a bit of diversity to my workouts (for "workouts" see "running"). My thirty day programme will take me almost to Christmas, a good, natural cut off point for such nonsense. I will get to Christmas and be just a little fitter all round, all things being equal. And then hopefully, TMM and I can continue a wee tradition that we started a few years ago. We get up early on Christmas morning, go for a 5k run, come home for a shower, put on fluffy pjs (well, fluffy for me, obviously, something more manly for TMM) then open our pressies, while eating chocolate! I can't wait!

This morning's run was the first to involve base layer and a top layer, as well as long legged tights. It's definitely colder in Norn Irn today. And I'm feeling it a bit more than I did this time last year. But there's always an up side. Check out my new hat!

My Anna from "Frozen" look.

Thankfully the forecast is a little more clement for tomorrow.

For the first time in a very long time, I ate a whole bar of Lindt dark chocolate last night. All 100g of it. So today's run was dedicated to earning that in retrospect. I'm proud of myself that I did just that.

My food today has been very healthy. Dinner was an absolute fluke of a triumph. I had the shopping being delivered sometime between 7 - 9 pm, and I didn't want to wait till then to cook. And you know that feeling when you want to use stuff up in the freezer? I knew there was fish in there that my gorgeous, but fussy, Main Man wouldn't eat. So I defrosted it (mostly) and threw it in a pan, covered it with thinnly sliced onions and potatoes, ground masses of black pepper and dried garlic over it and covered it with a glass lid. Then I just left it to cook gently in its own juices and steam till the spuds were tender. (By which time the groceries had arrives {nice and early} and were put away)  Oh my goodness. It was amazeballs! I'm not sure I could make it again if I tried, but it worked tonight, was very healthy and used up veggies and fish before this week's fresher stuff arrived. I feel so domesticated :-)