Right! Today is the first day of 11 days of annual leave and I have really been looking forward to it, not because I had anything special planned, but because I really needed it!

Like everyone else in the country at the moment, I have had enough, but with the vaccination programme in full swing and a road map out of lockdown giving us some dates to reach for, I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

However, the last year has seen a real dip in my fitness and it wasn’t good to start with!
I have piled on the weight and I am now really feeling it in my right knee, my hips and my lower back after a long day at work.
My uniform is now very snug but I refuse to get a bigger size. I need to lose the weight.
I look really tired in my face. Just over three years ago when I went to Italy for my brother’s wedding, I had lost about 3 stone in weight and I felt great. I want to get back to ‘that’ me and there’s no reason I can’t!

I want the 2017 me back!! I was happier. I looked healthier. I didn’t have bloody great bags under my eyes and I was able to have my hair cut every 5 – 6 weeks!
Can’t remember the last time I was in the mood simply to play with filters!

Don’t think anything will be happening today though.
It started with a pretty good lay in until almost 9am…. believe it not that’s a good one for me as my body clock usually has me out of bed by 8am on a day off.

I have been sitting here pondering plans for the next week over a milky coffee (problem number 1).
I know I still have alcohol in the fridge (problem number 2)
I know I still have snackable rubbish in the cupboards (problem number 3)
I have made no meal plans (problem number 4)
I just have no motivation (problem number 5)

So, where to start?

Today I am just going to chill but it doesn’t mean I am going to do nothing.
I have decided to get organised and plan a little bit today so I don’t have to think about things too much.

Problem number 1 – Quite simple. I have just had my last cup of milky coffee. I need to think about a proper breakfast from now on and stop having milky coffee when I wake up and for my morning break at work!!

Problem number 2 – I’ll fix that one today!!

Problem number 3 – I need to sort through my cupboards and get rid of all the rubbish.

Problem number 4 – I am going to sit and make calorie counted meal plans and do some shopping around them so I don’t have to ‘think’ about food all the time.

Problem number 5 – I am hoping that sorting out problems 1 – 4 will help with number 5.

Seeing it all written down like this is actually quite motivating.

As I headed towards this annual leave, I already had a plan to get cracking on my back garden and get it all spruced up ready for summer.
It’s been really neglected over the last year and needs a lot of work but I want to try and make it easier to keep tidy in the future.
With an idea in mind, I have been getting a few bits delivered so my back garden now has 9 x 100L bags of bark, a 50m roll of weed matting, 6 galvanised steel rolls of lawn edging and a few new tools sitting it waiting for me to get cracking. I just need to make a trip to our local garden centre to choose a few nice shrubs for a bit of colour.
Looking at the weather for the next week, I need to aim to get the garden done before Weds if I want to avoid rain.
If I remember, I’ll do some before and after pictures.

Ok, this blog has wasted enough time, I’m going to get cracking.