My Valentines Day Delight

I am a true romantic.

I love candles, flowers, snuggling up to watch a movie and holding hands. I also love the butterflies in my stomach when I see my loved one, sharing loved-up glances and anticipating my breath being taken away by a surprise gift or night out.

In true romantic style though, often the reality is quite different. So this year, rather than feel sad that I don't have a love in my life at the moment, I am going to continue my positive thinking and reflect on my past relationships where:

• I never did get flowers
• My snuggle partner for movies tended to be my dog
• The butterflies were usually nerves waiting to find out what mood to expect
• We rarely went out together
• I can't actually remember getting any gifts 

I have two major Valentines Day disasters: one was travelling to Exeter for a weekend away which began with "we need to talk". The second was a wonderful planned (by myself) evening in for two where my guest turned up "steaming" at 2am.

So this year, I will do something radically different. I will buy the flowers I like, with a home cooked candlelit meal followed by a movie of my choice, likely to be of the Johnny Depp variety - a toss up between Secret Window (ooh) and Finding Neverland (arr). A lot will depend on my mood at the end of the day.

To everyone with a loved one, good luck I truly hope you have an enjoyable evening.
To those without a special someone for now, so what? Make the most of it, don't have any regrets just enjoy the evening doing what you want to do.

"Some day, someone will walk into your life and make you realise why it never worked out with anyone else."

Happy valentine's day!
Karen x

Focusing on the negative - no more!

Negativity breeds negativity. This is something of a mantra in the house at the moment. Without wanting to sound sexist, I do wonder if it's a bit of a female trait - or is it just me?!

So where has this latest negativity come from? Well in a nutshell, it's all down to one pound. Yes one very silly pound - and I'm talking weight not monetary value. To be honest the weight gain could have been much worse, especially when I look at what my kitchen looked like this morning: empty pizza box, half eaten box of Pringles and an empty bottle of wine.

I'd left work with what felt like the start of a migraine and decided not to go the gym as planned. Instead a did a bit of a supermarket trawl with some quick pick me up purchases. The migraine never developed, which was very surprising and just as well after the massive consumption of the rubbish that I'd taken home with me!!

I woke early this morning feeling very guilty, especially as my first thought went to my imminent Weightwatchers meeting. As soon as I could I lept from my bed and started to clean the house like a mad woman, deciding I was going to burn off as many calories as I could before the 10.30 weigh-in. Knowing this was not going to be enough, I headed to the gym at 9am and hit my local DW SportsFitness gym.

450 calories burned within 45 minutes and I felt good, almost confident that I would not fare too badly at weigh-in. Wrong!! Since finding out about the weight gain, I came across a calorie count website that explains 3,500 calories equate to one pound of weight. So realistically I was never going to work off all that food and drink!

I was so deflated after the weigh-in I headed home and went back to bed for 3 hours. partly shattered from the workout, and partly just not wanting to face the world. Feeling so negative about just one pound really ruined the day. Instead I should have looked at the positives:

• It could and probably should have been more
• I did something about the over indulgence straight away
• Today is a new day, yesterday is gone
• I don't over-indulge often
• Learn from it - plan for bad Fridays
• So what? Who did I hurt!

As part of my action plan to keep a positive focus, I've started this blog. From now on, I will channel my thoughts and musings online, instead of mulling on anything negative. It won't be a focus just on weight gain/loss, this is just my musing for today.

With my recent negativity now securely placed in a box far away from my state of mind, bring on tomorrow and a whole new day! Remember: "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference." (Winston Churchill).

It's all in the mindset so I'm channeling positivity from now on!!
Karen :)