Day 15 of 30 Day Shred

Today I am halfway through the 30 Day Shred and Level 2 is still thoroughly kicking my ass.  It hasn't helped that summer has suddenly arrived here in England and the temperatures have been soaring.  I was sweating buckets before the heat arrived, but exercising in 26+ degree (celsius) temperatures is torture!  Thankfully we had a torrential downpour of rain yesterday which has cleared the air a bit.

The fantastic news is that I have dropped 2.5 pounds since last week, so the combination of calorie zig-zagging and Shredding is definitely working!  Who knew that upping my calories would actually make me lose weight!  Now there's upping my calories within a restricted sense - as I have been doing, and upping my calories in the binge sense - which is what I want to avoid.  I suppose this is paramount on my mind as we are shortly about to go away for five days on a little holiday.

On Sunday, my family and I will be travelling north to the city of Chester for a short break over the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.  I'm a compulsive planner when it comes to going away - where we will go, what we will see, collecting postal codes so the sat-nav gets us there!  We will be staying at a budget hotel in Chester and we've booked in for a breakfast and dinner meal deal - so I've been inspecting the restaurant menu, trying to plan my meals to ensure I don't blow the diet!  The only problem is that literally ALL of the choices are ridiculously high in calories - even the salads!  Ironically, the least calorific item on the menu is the beef lasagne (served with salad), which is 656 calories.  The majority of the other meals available are between 800-900 calories - and that's without an appetiser or dessert!

I mentioned previously that I was tempted to bring the 30 Day Shred DVD with me, as I've got a portable DVD player and I could just do the workout in the hotel room.  I'm now certain that I will do this and complete the full 30 day programme.  I know that we will be doing a lot of walking while we are up there.  We even plan to drive to Wales and climb the highest mountain in England and Wales - Snowdon. On the one hand - I totally believe that we should allow ourselves to enjoy a holiday and not stress so much about what we're eating when we're away from home.  But on the other hand, having just got into the 'losing' zone again, I don't want to go back up to 204 pounds and struggle to get back down!

So, my plan is to be sensible, enjoy myself, but try to balance out what I'm eating with exercise.  I know that if I do gain weight, I'm ultimately determined to lose it, so it will come off.

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On a sad note, my friend Diane passed away this morning.  She had breast cancer, which led to further complications and she lost her battle today.  She was such an inspirational person who was always the life of the party and made everyone laugh.  I dedicated my race for life to her on Saturday and I do feel blessed that she was my friend.