not MANIC at all MONDAY

Lovely, peaceful weekend. Feel very calm and zen today after a few days doing…as little as possible. It’s anathema to me to be such a sloth. That said, it did me the world of good. Plus by being a sloth, I may well not fit into everyone’s example of that (I own one, by the way. Well, sponsor one at London Zoo – ha ha! My friend A bought me one for a year as an engagement pressie, as I told her how I had fallen in love with one on a visit. So sweet).

I met K on Friday eve after work to buy classical CDs on the Southbank and have Japanese for dinner in our favourite wee place in Waterloo. It’s a no-frills sushi and noodle restaurant; excellent value and not in the least bit pretentious. By the end I was feeling really wiped, as if I were coming down with the cold that a colleague had been nursing all day. When we got home, all I could do was curl up on the sofa with the Evening Standard, and was in bed by 10.30. I woke Saturday, however, feeling absolutely fine - a bit whacked, but no sign of the sniffles. K headed off to Camden to do what he calls his circuit – record and CD shops, army surplus stores, books etc and I resisted his terribly kind invitation to join him – ha ha! Instead I wandered over to Canary Wharf at my leisure and meandered all round there before doing a big Waitrose shop. The Wharf is perfect on a weekend – empty of all the ‘suits’ that clog it up in the week, but with some lovely and extremely quiet shops where I can happily while away a few hours with a coffee to break it up.

I did us dinner in the eve (spatch-cocked poussin, I’ll have you know!) and it was another very relaxing one, with an equally early bedtime! On Sunday K and I rolled out of our pit around lunchtime and then he came to help me do the boring weekly shop (you know the score washing up liquid, loo roll and other staples) at Sainsburys. I liked the joke I saw the other week that Sainsburys exists so that Waitrose remains posh as I frequent both in equal measure – ha ha. Anyway, spent the rest of the afternoon on sofa with papers and other than a bit of ironing, that was that.

As for missing the drink, well so far (fingers crossed it lasts) that seems to be far easier than I’d banked on. I honestly can’t think of a moment when I really have wanted one over the last few weeks. I’ve thought about it, inevitably given I am writing a blog on the subject, but have been more surprised that I’ve had no real cravings. I’ve just finished a book (Beat the Booze – highly recommend it) and that has helped me consider each day why I am dry and the benefits. I am planning (best laid plans and all that, we shall see tomorrow!) to go to something called a Life Club tomorrow http://www.lifeclubs.co.uk/ which I hope will help me shape the challenge and give me a whole new set of ideas and inspiration. My friend C is meant to be joining me, so if she still fancies it, I’m gung ho. I am convinced that the key to my success is thinking of and implementing, 101 things other than the no booze rule. I have become quite obsessed with beauty routines (yep, drink gives you wrinkles, dehydrates the skin, is a factor in broken blood vessels and so on), am starting now to focus on diet and my five a day and am gonna tackle exercise in earnest next week. Along with seeing friends and domestic chores, there hasn’t been time to either sit and drink nor dwell on not being able to. Even poor K is having to submit to my new-found interests and is bawled at of a morning if he doesn’t moisturise!

Am taking weekends off my give up/take up exchange, as it’s important that I spend them just being, so to speak. If I spent every day giving myself grief for what I haven’t done up until now, I’d really start to hate myself. I think the key is to remember that whilst I have a lot of things to improve upon, I’m starting from a fairly solid base. If I can’t take 2 days off to simply keep up what I have been practising that week, then I will start to resent the point of the whole exercise, I think.

So today I am:
· Taking up weights again. I spent a while being dutiful and doing them every day when I was training for the 3 peaks. I’m gonna start gently and do an exercise a day, adding them in as I get fitter, but the first stage is to actually start doing a few at least every day.
· Giving up anything sweet bar top quality black chocolate!! Over the weekend I found a million and one ways to bypass the no biscuit (flapjack anyone!) and sweets (chocolate mini rolls are cakes aren’t they!!) rules. It seems the better thing to do is decide what I can have in the way of treats and the rest remains off limits. Ha ha. So plain black chocolate (flavoured if I must!!) is the one and only thing. Everything else is banned, bloody well banned.
As for being thankful, I am so far:
· Thankful that K has been promoted. He found out today that he becomes MD of a company later this week and I am so chuffed for him. He’s had a hard time finding a role to suit him since he overcame his illness, so to see him happy and progressing means more to me that I can possibly say.
· Thankful for a very peaceful office! One colleague is in Paris, another is off sick and 2 partners are at a BD meeting, giving me plenty of me-time today. Heaven!!!
· Thankful for having my pal S back from her hols. We lunch every week so I missed her last week whilst she sunned herself in Madeira. You never know how much something matters until it aint there, so am very chuffed we will be having our catch up on Thursday. Bring it on!