Surviving the weekend

Surviving the weekend’ might make it sound as though we’ve had a bad weekend. We haven’t… It’s been fab! However, it has been difficult in weight loss terms. A pub tea, cake in a cafe, too much alcohol and a hangover have made it difficult to stick to my plan. My calories were well over my daily goal… I ate over 2000 on Saturday despite trying to make healthy choices! However, a lovely 10 mile hike on Saturday and a 5 kilometre run on Sunday mean I managed to finish the weekend in calorie deficit. Hopefully I’ve got away with the excesses… sticking to my plan this week will help.

We stayed with our friends Dick and Mel on a lovely campsite at Little Stretton called Small Batch campsite. It was a small family-run site with clean and basic facilities, nestled at the foot of the Long Mynd, just a short walk from 2 nice pubs… perfect! On Saturday, we walked over Ragleth Hill, through Church Stretton and up Carding Mill Valley to Pole Bank on the Long Mynd. After lunch on the top, which a cheeky sheep tried to pinch, we returned to the campsite via a beautiful valley called Ashes Hollow.

On Sunday, John and I planned to visit Chirk Castle but when we got nearer to it, the weather was damp and drizzly so we decided to go straight home. After shopping for food, unpacking the campervan and cleaning the Airbnb, the weather was much better so, when John said he was going for a run, I decided to join him. We just did 5 or 6 kilometres up the river and back and, when we’d finished, we collected some lunch boxes and walked back down the lane to pick some blackberries, which we’d noticed as we ran. We also sneaked into next door’s garden and pinched some apples… They won’t mind… Especially if I take them some crumble!

I have a very busy week ahead again. I start a level 2 photography course this evening. It’s 3 hours rather than the 2 hours of the level 1 last year, and is likely to require more homework. Then I’m in Manchester tomorrow so I have an early start and a late finish and, on Wednesday, I’m going over to Anglesey to take my mum to an eye appointment. Hopefully I won’t have time to eat much, but can still manage to get my 70,000 steps in over the week. This week I managed over 82,000, although 2 days were well under 10,000. And my daily average for calories was just under 1,300, so it wasn’t a bad week. I just need to keep going… tracking and stepping!