Day 82 – Week 13

Unlucky week 13. As regular readers of this blog may have noticed – I have been extremely late in posting this week. Why? Embarrassment. Sheer unadulterated embarrassment, with a bit of disappointment thrown in too.

I actually put on weight last week – TWO Pounds!! This is the first time I have put weight ON since starting this blog and my plan to shed 30 pounds.

A few glasses of wine and a massive Easter egg did have a negative effect after all. I thought I was immune to calorie laden foods - even invincible – OK, not invincible :-(

Thankfully I have been well-behaved this week and this additional weight seems to have disappeared – although I will find out next Monday. I MUST do loads of gardening, walking and aerobic exercise in the next few days! Or else. :-)

Day 75 – Week 12

178 pounds. (12st 10 pounds) 2 pounds lost. That’s 20 pounds in all. I am starting to see my ultimate weight-loss goal in sight! I have set out to lose 30 pounds in all – 10 to go. (I nearly wrote ‘only’ 10 to go – but I have started to realise that it has started to get tougher!)
Despite the best of intentions I didn’t do any ‘exercise’ this week (again). No excuses.

I’ve been ‘home alone’ this last weekend – Peggy’s been with friends in Scotland – so I decided to dedicate the weekend to working in the garden. Lots of hard digging and planting, often in the pouring rain and driving wind. It paid off though – not only will the garden benefit but it improved my chances of a successful weigh-in this morning.

As for the garden, I’ve planted out nearly 150 bulbs of different sorts, with far more to be done. And planting numerous vegetable seed trays and dozens and dozens of broad beans in individual pots.

I’ve had quite a few meals this week of just boiled and roughly mashed or roasted vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, swede, parsnips and carrots) – who needs meat? I’m sure this has contributed to my weight-loss. Especially as I came off the wagon this week over the weekend a couple of times – a bottle of beer and a few glasses of wine. Hey, what’s a guy to do when left alone!?

But I did try on the blue trousers featured at the top of each page of the website - they fitted. OK, they were a little bit tight (but not much). That's quite a difference. It was prompted when I was looking for a particular photo I needed and found some of me driving around the garden on my ride-on mower. My extra 'tyre' was shocking! Thankfully - that's nearly gone - are at least much 'deflated'!

Day 68 – Week 11

180 pounds. (12st 12 pounds) 0 pounds lost

“You haven’t been doing much exercise lately, have you?” said Peggy. That seems to sum up my progress this last week. I’ve kept to my regime (with one exception – more on that later) although the walking and exercise was put on hold. I could detail precisely why it was impossible and SO many other excuses! But bottom line; I didn’t do it. And I didn’t lose any weight last week. Period!

My ‘rich Swiss’ client who insisted on me taking part in a gastronomic tasting 10 days ago in Montreux did it to me again! This time I was invited to attend his retirement dinner – at he stunningly gorgeous Brockett Hall in Hertfordshire. He had been with his company for 16 years and is about to retire to St Moritz. His company put on a lavish dinner for a select group of colleagues. I was one of only three ‘outsiders’ to be invited. When I arrived I was shocked to discover that this dinner was for about 50 – not 200 as I’d thought. The guest list was indeed very select. One guy flew from Tokyo to be there! Others from the Southern States of America. It was humbling to think that so many seriously high-powered executives would want to be there to wish this man well on his retirement. How many of us have developed such deep friendships in business that colleagues would be prepared to do this? Truly impressive.

The dinner, as you might expect, was exquisite. And it would have been so rude not to partake of it. And the wine flowed freely – into my glasses. I am SUCH a cheap date these days. I sat next to Paul, a guy who I’ve known for a few years. I said “I have to ask – how much weight have you lost?” 11 kilos! OK, he’s a lot younger than me – but he was looking really good on it. Although he admitted that he has quite a problem because he’s lost the weight. His collection of very expensive Italian suits don’t fit. He’s gone from a 44 inch chest to a 40. Even though he’s tried getting a tailor to re-cut the jackets – it can’t be done without it showing!

The dinner was on Saturday night. Knowing I had to weigh-in on Monday morning – I starved myself on Sunday - so even though I came in at the same weight as the week before – I don’t think I would have if I hadn’t taken drastic action on Sunday!

A final mention for James my neighbour who popped in last night with a few opened bottles of Cava, a red and a bottle of fine port. James has lost 22 pounds since January. Well done James! Very impressive. His wife Jenny is a senior wine consultant to one of the large supermarket chains – and she has to taste everything they sell!) According to Peggy, the port in particular was VERY smooth. Thank you Jen.

Target - 2 pounds this coming week! I have some catching up to do.

Day 62 – Week 10

The Montreux Palace Hotel in Montreux, has been awarded ‘best hotel in Switzerland’ status this year. I stayed there Wednesday night for a client meeting on Thursday morning. On Wednesday night I was ‘forced’ to take part in a ‘tasting’ to help decide what should be on the menu for the 150 guests who will attend the conference at the hotel I will be moderating later this year. It will also be attended by a former world leader.

At the dinner we were presented with a ‘menu de gustation’ – actually there were 3 separate ‘taster’ menus. Each of us were asked to taste and assess all of the food on our own menu. When e had finished sampling the dish, we would then swap plates with another guest, sample their dish and then swap it with yet another colleague. This was TOUGH!!! My own menu was; Foie gras terrine with apricot and nut jam and brioche. This was followed by scallops, cauliflower mousse, seaweed caviar. Then veal chop cooked at a low temperature, carrots with ginger, seasonable vegetables and Lyonnaise potatoes. Dessert was chocolate Manjari, Grand Cru and cake – then coffee and petits fours. TIMES THREE!!! One of the other menus featured the most mouth-watering duck. My client was gently insistent that everyone take part because we all had to vote at the end of each course for what we preferred. Oh – I forgot the wine…. There were 3 whites (including a stunning white merlot – which I’d never tried before - I think it won the white vote) and 3 reds – none of which satisfied my clients requirements. A fourth red was produced from the extensive cellar – this one saved the day!

The quality of the food and wine was excellent (not something you find that often in a hotel restaurant) I was very well behaved – until I found a petit four melting in my mouth at the end of the evening!)

Lunchtime the next day I caught my train back to Geneva airport (it arrived absolutely on-time. It left Montreux exactly on time. It travelled at a gentle pace along Lake Geneva past vineyards that stretched for miles. Even the smallest terraces right next to the railway line had vines. Every square meter had vines. The train then went right into Geneva Airport. All I had to do was go up an escalator onto the airport concourse. Why can’t WE do that in Britain? So well organised, smooth, calm and stress-free.

Friday morning at 5.45am I had to set off for Brighton in my car to moderate another conference. I stayed at the Grand Hotel in Brighton. My room was on the same floor a terrorist bomb tried to murder Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet when they stayed there during a Tory party conference all those years ago.

More hotel food. Surrounded by biscuits, cakes and 300 litigation lawyers for 2 days. I avoided the biscuits and cakes – the lawyers were nicer! Really.

Got back home – crashed out. Then on Sunday headed up to South Gloucestershire for lunch on Mothers Day with Peggy’s parents. It was also her dad’s 88th birthday. Even more food, including crumble, chocolate gateau, wine and champagne.

I knew it was going to be a tough week. It turned out to be true in more ways than I’d have chosen.

But what about my weight? 180 pounds. (12st 12 pounds) 2 pounds lost – as per my weekly plan! Phew.