You CAN have your cake and eat it!

Went on the Grand Tour of coffee shops with my sister in Manchester today. I have a few days leave and she is staying for a few days. We went into Manchester city centre and did some shopping, 'resting' a couple of times in coffee shops. At the first I drank a fruit tea, accompanied by a raspberry muffin. At the second I opted for a Diet Coke - and unfortunately I couldn't resist the temptation to eat another muffin! This hasn't worked out quite as badly as it might have done because as well as walking about 11,000 steps during the day, I also did a fairly hard workout on my stepper machine before we went out this morning. The result is, that at the end of the day, I will still have ratcheted up a net calorie deficit of about 800 calories. If I did this every day I'd lose 1.5 pounds a week.

While we were in town I had a look around for some more trousers. I searched all the major high street stores without much success. I didn't really find anything I liked the look of. I explained to my sister that for the first time in many years, I can actually choose what I want to buy. In the past there's never been any choice; I've simply had to buy what fit. So now that I am able to choose, I want to do just that. In reality I only found one pair of trousers that I liked, a size 18, and while they were OK round my muscly thighs but miles too big round my waist.

Then we decided to look in Millets for some outdoor style walking trousers, and initially, I had no success. However, I then had a look at the mens selection and tried on a few. I made two discoveries (apart from the fact that men seem to have much more choice than women). First, in mens clothes I am now a size 34" - when I've bought mens trousers in the past I've needed a size 44"!! Second, the mens trousers feel much more snug on me. The upper legs are bigger so fit my large thighs, but the waist also feels just right too!

So all in all, a very pleasant day out. I got loads of exercise, enjoyed TWO muffins, bought some perfect trousers, and will go to bed knowing that I've still lost weight today! Sometimes, you CAN have your cake and eat it!!