*Linzerellos Blog

Crikey, it's been a while since my last post. Things have been mental Chez Linzerello. Work is utterly stupid - for the past 3 days I have been covering a team of 4 people on my own. I literally cannot wait for 6pm tonight or earlier if I can manage it.

I've had a couple of trips to the gym for PT - one ending up with leaving me completely disfigured thanks to my urticaria and a swollen eye which took nearly 48 hours to return to normal. Nice... thankfully the doctor is now referring me to a specialist (but only after I insisted) so hopefully in the New Year that will be sorted. Warning - ugly eyes to follow:



Obviously this has made me a bit nervous about exercising, which is rubbish, but I am attempting to persevere with the help of numerous anti-histamines. My second PT trip since my last post didn't leave my looking like the above, so maybe I just need to continue with the drugs.

We had a works Christmas party last Friday which was on a boat down the Thames, food was rubbish so I barely ate, but proceeded to drink far too much free wine. Thankfully, I made the sensible decision to go home once the boat docked, or I dread to think what rubbish I'd have been spouting at my boss about being totally overworked. The rest of the weekend was fairly relaxed, present wrapping on Saturday and a lunch with the girls on Sunday which was a lovely catch up.

Since then, we've driven up North to my parents house and I've spent the last 3 days attempting to avoid the numerous gorgeous food items dotted all over the house. I'm working from their Lounge (my dad is in the office and Matt has commandeered our bedroom), mostly with one sister's dogs running around like crazy and my other sister's daughters demanding my attention. I can't wait to switch my laptop off tonight and actually spend some quality time with them, it's pretty difficult trying to do a day's work with a 4 year and a 7 year demanding attention. No work until the 3rd January once today is over - it feels like it's very much needed. We are at my parents til the 29th and then travel back down via the Midlands to see Matt's family. My parents will be travelling down too and spending New Year's eve with us and some friends in a local restaurant. All very relaxed and lovely.

The plan of action regarding the lard is to take the aforementioned dogs for long walks and practice some squats and sit ups when I can so my next PT session on the 30th December isn't too much of a shock to the system. Diet begins afresh in Jan.

Right, I had better get back to work so I can hopefully finish at a reasonable time. Have an amazing Christmas and New Year everyone, I doubt I'll be posting again before Jan as this laptop is staying firmly off :)

xx

... except if you are doing my job at the moment. I am run ragged. Literally dead on my feet and it is doing my head in. Thankfully I've only 5 more days in the office and then 3 days working from home before I can have a bit of time out. I am literally counting down the days.

I've been suffering some form of man flu/ sore throat/ general feeling of rubbishness for the last week as well which really hasn't helped. My eating has been ok, I'm not making a right pig of myself, but I most definitely could do better. Being so busy at work and getting home a lot later than usual means I am so much less prepared than I normally am. Dinners have been a bit more of the convenience variety of late and there has been too much bread creeping in. Not good enough.

I did PT on Saturday and we focussed on strength instead of Cardio as it sounded like I was about to cough up a lung after 10 minutes on the cross trainer. I have never done so many squats or arm exercises in my life. I could barely move on Sunday and was literally walking like I'd had an accident in my pants, couple that with a massive hangover from far too many bubbles on Saturday night, well you can imagine I was a total joy to behold. Still, Saturday night was much fun with good friends so I won't complain.

I've not been near the scales for at least a week so I need to get an idea of the current situation with regards to maintaining. I meant to get weighed last night but we had a work's Xmas lunch yesterday which involved 3 courses, however it took them so long to serve us, I ended up having to stay at work til gone 8pm to catch up so dinner didn't happen. It's all swings and roundabouts at the moment.

Matt is away all week so I'm literally working and sleeping until the weekend. PT is scheduled before work on Thursday morning - it's the only way I can be sure I will make it. Work Xmas party on  a boat down the River Thames on Friday, I bloody hope we don't have a recurrence of last night's weather or we're likely to be swimming. Saturday will be spent with Matt and probably involve me moaning about being hungover and then I've an Xmas lunch with my girlfriends in Richmond on Sunday but that will be very civilised since all of them are either bringing their offspring, carrying an offspring or trying to get themselves impregnated with some form of offspring. Will be nice to catch up however and should stop me drinking so as to not look like the lush of the group.

Right, I had better get back to work. I've had 27 emails since I started writing this...

Someone tell me it's nearly Christmas...

Apologies for the radio silence, work is literally kicking my ass this week and I've not had time to think of anything else. I'm dreaming about Load Balancers and databases. How exciting.

The weekend (which seems like a very distant memory) was lovely. We walked miles, visited Borough Market (it's a good job I don't live closer to that place, the food is amazing) and had possibly the best meal of my life at Marcus Wareing. Every course was totally amazing, Especially the Quail and the Lamb. I'd go back every night if money was no object! Thanks for the tip Seren, we told the waiter we'd just got engaged so were invited into the kitchen to meet the man himself. I was all a bit star struck.



Afternoon tea at the Ritz on Sunday was also particularly lovely, but I'm still very much off cake. I don't have a sweet tooth at all but i couldn't resist.

The middle tier was later filled with freshly baked scones. Swoon.




Since all that loveliness, I've been bogged down with the drudgery of covering 3 people's work. This sucks! I had to cancel PT on Monday as I didn't finish work til 8pm - when you start at 730am, that's not a happy place.

I then had to cancel again on Tuesday due to the onset of man flu which couldn't have come at a worse time. Bah humbug.

So, I've skipped breakfast every day this week as I've literally not had time and by the time I've remembered it's been lunch time, this is ridiculous, i never forget to eat. Lunch has pretty much been a sandwich every day and dinners have been some form of meat with various vegetables. Nothing too hideous really but my eye is slightly off the ball.

I'm not going to make WI again as I'm still working, but to be honest, so long as I can maintain my current weight until after the festive period, I will be happy.

I've scheduled PT for Saturday and then we've a Christmas do with friends. Muchly looking forward to that.

So, hopefully next week won't be so stressy, but with 2 of my team out til Jan 12th, I'm not too hopeful! Merry Christmas to me :)

At least all this work is keeping me mostly out of trouble. Every cloud I suppose!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I'm having  one of those days where I just feel pretty darn miserable and I am actually annoying myself wallowing in this vat of self pity.

I hopped on the scales this morning - they've not budged at all (in fact they may even by up 1/2 since last week) so I really don't want to go to WI tonight. I thought I'd had a fairly decent week, I've tracked, made sensible choices and eaten so much Veg I'm sick of the bloody sight it.

Work is driving me mad already and I've got until 12th January before it returns to normal (2 of my team are off from now until then so I am basically doing the work of 3 people - whoopy do). Let's hope I don't get ill.

And finally, my urticaria is really playing up every time I go to the gym. It's now getting to the point that if I forget to take an antihistamine (which don't do much for me anyway) that my heat rash gets so bad that my right eye swells up and sometimes my tongue... Seriously - WTF?? I went back to the doctors today and he basically told me there is nothing they can do for me. So in an attempt to get fit, I am spending half the week looking like the Elephant Man (my eye is still swollen from Tuesday!). He's given me some more tablets to try and if these don't work, then it's tough. Happy days. I thought exercise was meant to be good for you, but I appear to be feeling fairly annoyed with it at the moment.

Lovely.

On a positive note, I am really glad it's almost Friday. We are spending the weekend in London  as our Christmas present to each other. We are going to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park and then dinner at Marcus Wareing on Saturday plus Afternoon Tea at the Ritz on Sunday. Hopefully that will cheer up my miserable face. Clearly it won't help too much with the weight loss, but if I keep an eye on things and cut back the rest of the weekend, then hopefully it won't be too bad... or am I kidding myself??

So, gym again tonight, spend the night looking like a freak, WI (possibly if I don't spit my dummy out completely) and then a weekend of Christmas Joy...

Normal more cheerful service shall resume next time.