So, it's the day before the diet starts....

...And I'm full of trepidation and excitement.

All the food I will need for the week arrived today and to my surprise, it didn't cost any more than a normal shop would for the healthy stuff.  To be fair, I don't eat particularly badly on a regular week - I just eat too much!  Double servings and picking at stuff in the fridge - it all adds up.

As of tomorrow I'm on the NHS website's 12-week plan, eating 1400 calories per day.  Calorie counting is pretty much the thing I find most difficult - not because it's a difficult thing to do, it's just difficult to encourage myself to make the effort.  In a bid to make it as easy as possible I had a read of the the NHS Livewell page for their advice.  It turns out I really did know the basics but it reminded me I already had an account with My Fitness Pal (from the last time I tried to get rid of my fat ass...).  Tonight I'm going to input the recipes for the meals I'll be having this week to try and make it easier for me in the week.

So, the weekly progress sheet is printed, I'm weight in (12st 3lb) and I'm ready for action.  Main challenge: motivation.  I'll be all excited about it for the first week and then it won't be fun anymore - especially if I don't see results.  The boyfriend is already instructed to give me a stern talking to if I start slipping (I'm sure that will go well).

In other news, we went for a bike ride yesterday, with total distance covered at about 18-19 miles.  Stopped halfway for some lunch and decided to sit outside under the umbrellas as we didn't have a bike lock.  Lunch ordered and two minutes later the storm hit - I mean constant thunder and lightning, hail like marbles, wind blowing everything over.  Lunch arrived mid storm... and then the power went out.  The storm passed as abruptly as it arrived and it was at this unfortunate moment we realised that our helmets were hanging upside down from our bike handles.  So, with lunch done we donned out soggy and freezing helmets, got on our soggy and freezing saddles and cycled back in the soggy and freezing weather.  We had to find it funny (and certainly the other people inside where we were having lunch thought it was funny) but it took 20 minutes in a hot shower to warm up...  No matter how hard the exercise we will be doing indoors will be, at least we're not being hailed on with the threat of random electrocution...