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Camping was cool... in the real sense on the word. It threw it down with rain and thunder and lightening for the first night - thankfully after we put up the awnings though!
It was so heavy we could not even hear ourselves talking, but rhythmic enough to fall asleep. To be fair, I think I would have fallen asleep anywhere that night I was so tired.

We didn't get to be until 1:30am because of setting the folding trailer up and getting everything straight inside and then cooking the lunches for the next day. So that I could stay on track with my diet pretty much I made pasta salads each day, a snack bar, yoghurt and chopped melon.

The pasta salads alla slimmingworld were:
Pasta spirals
tuna
chopped onion
chopped olives
spoonful extra light mayo

Pasta spirals
Puttanesca sauce - Cooked at home and taken with us(Red peppers, chilli, Onion, Black Greek olives, tuna (hate anchovy!), pine nuts, tomato, capers)

Pasta spirals
Passata
chopped onion
Parmesan

Very uninteresting, but all doable with one gas ring in a tiny caravan.

In the evening however, we ate out. On Thursday we had Fish and chips en-route. I have 2 fishcakes and a few chips. Haven't had them for ages and it was goooooood. Then Friday we went to pizza hut. I had mixed olives to start with, a small thin pizza and NO PUDDING!!!!!! GO ME!
Saturday night we went to Nando's with some Friends and I had a very random meal. Nando's is all about chicken really and how spicy you want it. Well, I had Olives and garlic, Hummous, Green Salad, ratatouille, Chicken livers. The Olives came in a dish on their own, The humous came with about 60 chopped pitta breads, The Ratatouille came in a little dish too, the salad was like a handful of lettuce greens on a huge bowl/plate (the plate was warm too.... a pet hate is having salad on a warm plate. That's just rubbish), and the chicken livers win a luscious creamy spicy gravy were on their own too. So the Banded Lady at the table actually had FIVE dishes on the table. Well, I just dumped each dish on top of the lettuce bowl and Bingo! Salad of the year.

Oh man... the chicken livers, ratatouille, olives and garlic and humous all on a salad is the best combo and dinner out I have had in a long long time. It was heaven. I was on a roll and I did order the GAWJUS caramel cheesecake and ate every tiny crumb and enjoyed each and every delicious mouthful!

Then Sunday night we got a quick happy meal from McDonald's for the drive home. I got mozzarella dippers and a cheeseburger. When we arrived back at the ranch, Sue had made a full Roast dinner - Lamb and all the trimmings! Phew, so I knocked that back too. It was ace.

So it was with a little dread that I approached the weighbridge yesterday morning. I gained 1 and a half pounds! That was all!! I was really really pleased.

Obviously to people in the world at large, I must stress that it might sound like I ate a lot of food, but the portions were all very small in reality. DH ate much more than I did, and also put on 5 pounds, even considering he was on Slimfast milkshakes during the day! So the band is a limiter I guess. I also have to go so slowly to eat normal food, that its not such a problem. That little fill has done me the world of good as it just slowed me down that little bit more.

Not that its not a battle still because I don't feel like the band has restricted my intake of normal fattening foods at all. I could easily put on weight each week, so I need to keep with slimmingworld to lose weight, but what the band has done is slow me down, make me less prone to snacking and not feeling hungry between meals.

Maybe that's the perfect solution. This time last year I could not eat much of anything as it was so tight, but I am tighter now that last year, and I am going fine.

I just find the whole band thing a very weird experience.
So, we continue...