The Road To Hell

Was paved with good intentions…

That’s what the past, oh, I don’t know, 10 days has been like. Lots of half-blogs written, goals jotted down, notes of “I’m going to fill-in-the-blank-here” but honestly, it’s all been just a cover-up of paving the road to hell.

Last week I was in London for work and before I left I wrote this brilliant post that I obviously did not publish about how I was going to tackle the fact that I was outside of my normal routine. I would eat well. I would use the hotel gym facilities. I would get up early and run in the Hyde Park. I would not drink tons of alcohol. Sounds like it was a great plan, right?

Fact is, I went to London on a Sunday evening with a colleague, and met up with another colleague (but also a friend, who was at my wedding, so he’s not *just* a colleague) to have dinner and *ahem* cocktails so that was basically 5 minutes into the plan before abandoning it. We made plans for breakfast the next morning and even stopped off at a convenience store for fruit supplies (so I could eat at least something when I woke up, since I am usually very hungry upon waking). The plan was: Breakfast at 7am, walking to the tube station, at work by 8.30.

The Hotel breakfast wasn’t too shabby. I managed to avoid the sticky buns and croissants and other sweet pastries that were available. I did have fruit, nuts, and protein. However, hotels seem to not take the low-to-no fat approach on anything – the yoghurt I had was full fat (and absolutely, divinely delicious), but I ate fruit and a few slices of toast and cottage cheese and I felt like that would hold me well until lunch time.

Lunches and Dinners were something else. You know how when you are with colleagues, sometimes you just pretty much go with the flow because you are not there long enough to just do your own thing. Or you are visiting another office and you don’t know what is in the area so you just follow along. That’s pretty much what I did. Two of my colleagues were around from Seattle, one was travelling with me from Amsterdam and the rest were the colleagues we went to visit. On Monday we actually went to a Thai restaurant for lunch (which, I might add, was fine for me, but my Dutch colleague was a little confused about it “What? Thai for lunch? Can’t we just get sandwiches?”) and Monday night we were in a pub for dinner. Tuesday was pub lunch and out for Italian for dinner. Wednesday was Fish and Chips (a must apparently in Jolly Old England), and dinner wasn’t really dinner at all since we were travelling back to the Netherlands (so beer at the airport with garlic bread and weird sandwiches on the plane).

I really wanted (and so did my friend from Seattle) to go for a run around the park, but there were three of us staying at the hotel and one didn’t want to eat too late so we opted to skip the workout and just go to dinner. I’m totally ok with this but it took me a little while to switch my brain from being selfish to being flexible. (On the other hand, why do I give up what I want when others aren’t always flexible with me?). I thought about using the hotel gym, but as it was I still had to get up at 6 (instead of 5) to get ready and be down for breakfast on time. I really thought I would do it Wednesday, and just order breakfast for in my room, but again, I gave up the selfishness and decided against it at the last-minute. Besides, Tuesday we went on the London Eye Experience and got back around 10.30pm. Not super conducive for getting up early, working out, packing the suitcase, eating breakfast and getting to work by 8.30 (considering the gym only opened at 6.30).

Thursday I tried to get back to normal, but wasn’t very prepared food-wise. That evening I ended up home just after 8pm, dropped by the supermarket and “accidentally” bought a bag of m&m’s. Hey they were the special “Oranje” ones to celebrate the World Cup. Obviously I *had* to buy them!

Friday things were fairly ok, but still had wine and m&m’s in the evening. I thought I would go for a run, but I was “too tired”

Saturday I was meeting with friends in Amsterdam. At the Hard Rock Café. No self-respecting patron of the HRC goes without having cocktails, a big-ass cheeseburger, fries and onion rings whilst at the establishment! Did I exercise before I went to off-set the damage? Oh hell no!

Wow. Check out all the excuses I had the last week!

On Sunday I *finally* ran. It was ok. 13.5KM in 93 minutes (that was 5 min warm-up, 85 min running, 3 minute cool-down). I’m not super impressed with myself right now though. There should be MORE kilometers in that time. It just seems like I can do BETTER now.

Sometimes I feel like I should be doing more, doing better, achieving more results. The results are not really showing physically on my body at the moment and that is frustrating, though I really strive to keep a good perspective on the whole thing. I guess once in a while I just feel like I have nothing to report and am one of “those” bloggers who just talk a lot and have nothing to show. I wish I could report every week what a great loss I had or that I ran more, faster, longer. But I can’t. So this is what you get. The real, honest-to-goodness-yes-I-make-tons-of-mistakes Pinky. One day you will see me reach my goals. Not just the number on the scale either. I hope you will stick around that long. It could take a while.