Only Smarties Have The Answer

I sometimes think how good it must be to be in advertising. I don't necessarily mean chain smoking, adulterous head cases like Don Draper, but more the fruit of labours of advertising types. Whoever came up with the concept of being a Secret Lemonade Drinker must chortle that R Whites continue to use that line when promoting their goods all these years later.

Smarties British Candy (Photo credit: fritish)

As a child I was always taken by the Smarties slogan, 'Only Smarties Have The Answer.' It was never a product that needed clever advertising, after all, how many children aren't going to love brightly coloured chocolate? Looking back now as an adult, I do wonder about the tagline and what it actually means. If Smarties have the answer, what on earth is the question?

Well, I think I may have discovered this yesterday evening. Rather shamefully I grabbed a handful from my son's Christmas stash, and proceeded to eat them. Except karma redressed the balance of me pinching chocolate by causing me to not just chew through the crisp outer coating, but also to thrust my teeth into my tongue, leaving me a bloodied mess. The great Smarties question apparently then goes something along the line of What is the most ridiculous way to demonstrate to diet blog readers that eating chocolate is bad for you?

The single most attractive selfie ever?

Speaking of teeth, it has been an interesting week for my youngest. Over the last 7 days he has acquired three teeth to offer company to his solitary incisor that pushed through in late October. All mums and dads reading this will know about the side effects of teething, and I hope will be sympathetic to how the past week has been for my household. It has been great fun scrubbing vomit from his clothes night after night. Yesterday I got a face-full of petit filous for my trouble after a pre-bedtime coughing fit. Fortunately we've got through today minus any sickness so hopefully that is the end of the teething for now.

Having felt like a tool for my Smarties exploits, and smelling delightfully of baby puke, I decided I needed to do something positive and so after a 10 day break from running dusted off my trainers. Conscious that my lungs were still not clear of gunk I didn't stray too far from the house. I managed five and a half kilometres in a very respectable 27 minutes and suffered no ill effect. Back to parkrun for me then on Saturday morning and maybe a longer run on Sunday.

After learning my lesson about chocolate, the reward for running was delivered pizza, which from a diet perspective didn't make much sense. However, if I am going to indulge in a takeout once in a while, it may as well be on a day when I've worked for it.

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Wednesday Weigh-In 10 July

Not a whole lot to be excited about so far as the weigh-in goes today. After a number of weeks of seeing the numbers go backwards, this week they've flatlined. Considering the food and drink excess of the weekend that I described yesterday, this doesn't come as much of a surprise and I've certainly no complaints. 

Apologies for the sideways shot - No Gain

So the positive spin is that I've still lost 12lbs over the past 6 weeks, I've completed a 5k run and according to one colleague at least, I'm visibly slimmer. No need to change what I'm doing at the moment then, just carry on with what has served me well to date. 

The first challenge of the week comes today when there is a buffet lunch available at a meeting I have at work. Restraint in the face of a table full of food is not one of my strong points! On Friday lunchtime I know I will be eating out ahead of a meeting and have already been carefully running my eye over the menu so that I have a good idea of what to get, rather than find myself plumping for a giant mixed grill or something equally daft. A bit of forward planning never hurts.

Without a birthday to justify diet breaking this week, I'm hoping to get down to 16st 6lb ahead of next week's weigh-in. That would mean 2 stone have been lost since the start of the year and then I can focus on shedding the last 13lb of my original 41lb weightloss target. All being well I'll be doing my second 5k ParkRun on Saturday morning and will be interested to see my progress on the initial run last weekend. If anybody fancies joining me, head to Black Park ahead of a 9am start and register online at Parkrun.com

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Wednesday Weigh-In 3 July

Well here is a bit of a turn up for the books. I've managed to lose 2lbs this week taking me down to my lowest weight of 2013. Here is the evidence

Loving those numbers going backwards

I'm going to consider this as a birthday bonus, because I had not expected to lose weight this week. The following sentence is likely annoy a lot of people, so consider this a health warning! When I've eaten cheesy enchiladas, take away from Pizza Hut, polished off 4 Damme Cold beers, showed little restraint in eating party food at a 4 year old's birthday and demolished moussaka and raspberry panna cotta from the M&S Dine 2 for £10 range, I'd have little complaint at levelling out or had the numbers nudged upwards. Well done me then, even if I don't really think my efforts of the past seven days deserved it.

That said, my increased food consumption has coincided with stepping up my running somewhat. 4 trips to the gym covering circa 20km will have gone some way to burning off the excess, and apparently helping to tackle the long-term flab. Back to the gym shortly to road test the new trainers and grease the wheels for hopefully another successful week of weighloss.

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• The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The last 36 hours have provided a snapshot of the highs and lows of dieting. There have been some moments to be proud of, times when temptation has been given into, and times when the shackles are well and truly off. We'll think of them in a Clint Eastwood inspired analogy - quite simply The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Lets start with The Good.

I've upped my game somewhat in the exercise stakes. As regular followers of this blog will know, my secondary aim for the year beyond achieving target weightloss is to run a 10k race. This goal is getting closer to becoming a reality as I'm going to be joining a number of my office colleagues in participating in a run towards the end of September. I've got about three months to get myself conditioned and I've every intention of doing myself justice and not just finishing the race but also breaking the 1 hour mark.

Yesterday my plan for the gym was to reach 5k. This was achieved, though it did require slowing to walking pace several times to catch my breath. However, 5k was travelled and just inside half an hour, which at this stage I was very pleased about

Thursday's trip to the gym

I went back to the gym again today, and tried to see how far I could get without slowing down. I managed to run 3k straight before I needed a breather. As you can see, 5K was notched up again. It was probably not wholly advisable to duplicate the training on back to back days, and I may well pay for it over the weekend, but I am happy to have hit the mark again. Laterally thinking that is 10k run - but combining the two sessions and running them back to back rather than with a 24hr gap will be a challenge

Friday's trip to the gym. Same distance, a touch faster

The Bad came in the form of dinner on Thursday night. After a stressful day for my other half, I very quickly and without hesitation agreed to buy take out for dinner. Pizza Hut was ordered and it goes without saying I devoured mine. I've learned in my many efforts to lose weight that on the times when you do give into temptation, you can still do a bit to help yourself. Rather than have deep pan, I opt for the Italian base, and I tend to go for a pizza with spicy toppings. I do enjoy the taste of jalapenos, but they also serve a purpose of ensuring the damage is minimised by staying in the system for a shorter period of time. You know what I mean, and I'm not going to spell it out!

A treat after a rough day is not a bad thing. I'm not one of these people who justifies what they eat by the amount of exercise they undertake, but I imagine that 5k either side of an unhealthy dinner will provide a little more leeway than if I had just gone ahead and scoffed my face.

Yes, I had a lot more to eat than a BBQ dip

The Ugly is a reflection of where I'm at this evening. Left to my own devices, bar the company of my kids, I've cracked open a beer to round off a long and tiring week, after a long and tiring week the week before. One has already become two. How many more are drunk will determine just how ugly things become.

There is cold, and there is Damme Cold

Beer and pizza are not traditional friends of weightloss. The fact I've exercised a bit doesn't really excuse them, or make for a balanced diet. What damage is done we'll have to see come Wednesday for the next weigh-in. But for now, I'm going to say cheers, enjoy a cold one and then face the weekend where I hope to restore some level of order in my food and drink consumption.