Back to Blighty

The holiday was amazing. Very relaxing and very hot. Got exceedingly tanned and did brave a bikini - not because have an awesome beach bod (yet!) but simply because us fatties are never alone on the beach - there is always someone rougher than you... so what the heck. Its much easier to go to the bog in a 2 piece as well. I hate peeling of a cold wet clammy swimsuit and bearing myself - even in a cubicle - but worst is getting the darn thing back on. It rucks up and feels horrible and I am NEVER doing that again.

Also, I am most amazingly proud of myself. I ate well in Crete and I shall give you a little snap shot of the food I ate in a bit. How much do you think I brought back with me from my holiday this year?

2006 12lbs

2007 7lbs

2008 5lbs

2009 ........ JUST 2 TINY POUNDS

That's just so awesome.. and to be honest... I doubt it is that much because I got the painters in on Sunday! So yesterday when I went to the weighbridge, I was feeling bloated and in full hormonal swing and had only gained 2 pounds after a 2 weeks ALL INCLUSIVE holiday in the sun!

How did I do it? Well I did actually kept thinking about what I was eating whilst I was on holiday. I didn't want to be back to 18 stone or anything horrific like that, so although everything was obviously cooked by them and I had no idea what was in the food, I was crafty. MWAHH HAA HAA

For breakfast each day I had 2 coffees, followed by Greek Yoghurt with sliced tinned peaches followed by about 10 olives. Occasionally I had a slice of bread and butter with a slice of cheese.

For lunch I always made myself drink a coffee and a glass of juice and then got myself a large salad with lettuce, olives, onion, cabbage, carrot, tomato, cucumber and Tsatsiki or some other creamy looking yoghurt based dip stuff. I always had french dressing or oil and vinegar. Then I would go back for main course. This was usually vegetarian, although I eat meat, but I just liked the veggie stuff. So could be a stuffed tomato or moussaka or whatever... but because of the large salad, meant I only had a very small portion.

Dinner was exactly the same as lunch, bu instead of having to drink coffee to warm my band up, I had the soup of the day. It was usually a watery clear style soup as opposed to a thick chunky one so this was great for getting things going.

Over the course of the 2 weeks I had puddings 3 times. Each time I had pudding I had Baklava. I only had it three times as they only did it twice in the hotel restaurant, and I chose it on our anniversary meal out too. I didn't fancy the mouse or cakes, and I don't particularly like ice cream so had that once simply to cool off. Had fresh fruit a couple of times I suppose.

Drink wise... they had wine and beer on tap (+spirits but we don't do them) and the wine was Ok, but a bit too 'home brew' for me, so although I did drink while I was away it was mostly beer... a couple of small glasses a day and then soft drinks and water.

TB asked if I had done a lot of swimming to counteract it, and the straight answer is no. I did get in the pool, but the kiddies one so that I could sit on the side and cool down, but read my book. I submerged myself once in the sea and swam about 1km around the point whilst snorkeling, but that was the only time.

So am very proud of myself, and am back on plan. I really want to use this band to help me, and its such a hard thing for me to get my head around. I doesn't seem to work with me as it does with other people. I can eat an awful lot of food, but what happens is that I never get hungry between meals, and I think as long as I make that connection and keep to strict three meals a day I will lose it. It has to be healthy eating too otherwise that doesn't work either.

I have bought some Black Cohosh tablets as these are supposed to help balance hormone shifts, and this is my dangerous patch. I feel really hormonal right now, and had a rash of spots that threw themselves over my lovely tanned face the moment we got back letting me know the curse was imminent. I hate that. When you are in your 30's you think this rubbish should be over by now. They spots have just cleared up by the time the next wave hits which is exceedingly depressing.

So black cohosh... lets hope you work.