Alibi

As a girl in my mid-twenties, I love to party. Don't get me wrong, I am not out EVERY weekend getting sloshed, but when the mood takes me, I can certainly get going with the best of them. The only problem is, I really get punished for my sins the next day. 

Even when I was a teenager, my hangovers were awful. I wouldn't be able to leave my bed, and when I did it would just be to go to the toilet to throw up. Unfortunately, it's only got worse as I have gotten older, and now even a couple of glasses of wine is enough to give me a fuzzy head the next morning. 

So I suppose Alibi was made for people like me. According to its website, Alibi is "the world's first PRETOX drink... [it] has been developed to prepare your body to recieve and process toxins quickly and efficiently."

I have seen it around for a while, but my default setting on all things ending in "-tox" is "cynical", so I never really felt tempted to give it ago. It wasn't until I saw it on offer in Holland and Barrett last week that I decided it might be worth a punt. 

I had a flat party last night, so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to give this stuff a test run. I had the pomegranate flavour, which was sweet, light and refreshing. It was so tasty in fact, I would probably just have it as a regular drink. At 99 kcals, it's not exactly saintly, but it could certainly be worse. I chugged it down before I left the flat, and then just carried on with my night as normal.

The results? Well I had a pretty heavy night (as was to be expected), but I made sure to do what I usually do and break up the alcohol with some soft drinks throughout the night, and chugged down lots of water before I went to bed to prevent excess dehydration, which I know even on its own helps massively.

I woke up this morning with the expected fuzzy head, but it wasn't nearly as bad as what I was expecting. You could have been forgiven for thinking that I had only gone out for a couple, and I hadn't stayed out the entire night tanking vodka jellies, downing jagerbombs and dancing to godawful R'n'B (which I DID NOT do.... obviously...).

So, even though I have been quite cynical in the past, I must say that I will definitely be using Alibi again! I know that it's hardly a replacement for not partying hard in the first place, but life is for living! And a girl's got to have some fun, right? ;)

TL;DR

So once again, I have let a few months slip by without posting. Man, that's a nasty habit I am developing.

I know that excuses aren't really my style, but if I was going to make an excuse, my personal life has been a bit of a roller-coaster recently. Luckily, I haven't let my fitness routine slip, but unfortunately life pretty much drained me of any extra energy to do anything else.

Have you ever felt that your life is so exhausting, that you are happy with just existing? Not sure if that makes sense, but basically for a while back there, I would get up, work out, go to work, come home, and sit in front of the TV until I fell asleep, then start the whole routine again the next morning. That was all I had the energy to do.

I am not going to go into it, but basically pretty rough shit has been going on in my professional life. It wasn't anyone's fault, but it was a pretty tough situation that started a whole existential crisis about what I was doing with my life, was I doing the right thing, am I capable of doing more... and then when I thought I didn't have enough emotional energy to deal with anything else, BAM! Death hit. 

It was Mr MFC's grandad. I don't think he would mind me saying that it was expected, he had been ill for some time, but it didn't make things any easier. Losing someone close to you never is.

That was a couple of months ago now, and it's just now that I have started to feel like I am coming back to life again. I think I still have some way to go, but I feel now like I am taking positive steps to change things things, rather than just sitting back and letting stuff happen to me.

So, with all that chat out of the way, let me update you on the stuff that has been going on in my life since I chatted to you last:

• I went to Crete for a week and discovered my love for Greek yoghurt and honey
• I have run in not one, but two races!
• I have gained 6lbs in weight (but it might not necessarily be a bad thing...)
• My ankle is still giving me hassle, but not so much that I have had to stop the running. Thankfully, I am getting fitted for my own custom made orthotic which should make things even better!
• I have handed in my notice at my current job (see reference to "rough shit" above) and start my new job in two weeks. Yes, I am cacking it.

But enough about me, how have you been? :)

Someone scratch me

So I am in a bit of a huffy mood today. I just feel minging. Why you ask? Uch, it might be something to do with this:

Basically a few months ago I was prescribed a skin cream by the doctor, which I reacted badly to. So the doctor, being the caring and thorough professional that they are, referred me to the dermatologist to have a skin patch test.

Now, I was imagining the sample size would be quite small, and I'd maybe have something about the size of an A5 sheet of paper put on the base of my back. Silly me. When the nurse wheeled out all the samples she had to administer, I wondered whether there would be enough room on me to fit them all. There were 132 in total.

132.

And I'm not sure if you've ever had a huge selection of irritants stuck on your back, but I'll tell you now. It fricken kills. First comes the tightness, where you can barely move because the skin on your back has been glued together, but that loosens off quick enough. Just in time for the itching. MY GOD the itching.

It's taking pretty much every ounce of my being not to rip this thing off and go to town on the nearest tree like Baloo...

But I have managed to resist. Thankfully I only have to endure it one more night, then it gets taken off tomorrow morning.

Unfortunately, it doesn't end there. Did I mention I am not allowed to shower during this?

Yeah, the last shower I had was on Monday morning, and I'm not allowed to shower again until Friday afternoon. Delightful, right?!

At first I thought that I would be able to wash after I got the patch taken off, but no. I have to keep the whole area dry until my last appointment on Friday, to make sure they catch any delayed reactions. Funzies!!!

If you haven't gathered already, this puts any form of excess perspiration out of the question for this week. That includes - you guessed it - any form of vigorous exercise. Which means I am having to put my training on hold for a week. With my 10k just around the corner, that is mighty frustrating.

I know I know, it will be good when I am done to have a comprehensive list of things that cause my skin to react and I'll know to avoid, but right now, with my back alight with all the horrible itching, it's difficult to be positive.

Pity me. :(

Me after 45 minutes on the cross trainer

Sweaty is sexy, right guys...? :p

Food organisation

I have been wondering whether to put this on my blog or not, as it's not really relevant to the whole theme I have going on here, but I have been going through a massive decluttering spurt.

It started when I was out of the game with my ankle, and I was practically crawling up the walls with frustration. To take my mind off it, I started to go through all of my stuff and weeding out the unnecessary.  It felt really good, and now I feel properly cleansed.

But I am not stopping there. Last weekend I decided to give my kitchen a revamp and re-organise my food cupboards. Given that this blog is about food (well, sometimes), I thought I should crete a post to boast about my efforts.

There was one corner that used to really annoy me. It was wasted space, frankly, and a dumping ground for all the food that I couldn't fit in my cupboards:

ICK.

There was two issues with this arrangement: firstly, it looked like a total guddle, and secondly, the water from the nearly sink sometimes seeped over onto the work surface, making my teabags all soggy. :(

I realised that there was also a lot of wall space there that I wasn't using, so I came up with a plan to start storing up, rather than out. I invested in a cheap £10 Billy Bookcase from Ikea, and voila! Instant organisation!

YAY

It looks so much better now!

I was even able to bring out some of my pretty jars of rice, pasta and pulses, and put them on display. I don't know why, but there is something so nice about having all of my wholesome ingredients on show.

So yeah, that was my weekend.

Do you have any kitchen organisation tips? Please tell me about them in the comments! Now that I've got the ball rolling, I get a total kick out of this stuff. Seriously.

Just a quick one...

... To say how shocked and saddened I am to hear of the tragic events in Boston.

The day before the race, my Twitter feed was full of excitement and anticipation... but at the moment it's so full of heartwrenching stories, that I dread opening it for fear of what I might read next.

I know it's hard, but we need to look on the bright side. Ill leave you with this quote that popped up in my Facebook feed (because that's where I seem to get all my blog inspiration nowadays).




The tales of the many heroes rising up to the plate in this difficult time have been inspirational. We need to take the positive out of this if we can, and keep our chins up. Because when we let things like this bring us down, that's when the fuckers win.

Be strong, Boston. The world is thinking of you.

X

New Beginnings

I freaking love April.

Winter is well and truly behind us (well, in theory), the mornings are getting lighter, the days are getting warmer and I am feeling good.

Screw new year's resolutions - resolving to make a change for spring is where it's at, and here's why: there is a kind of hope attached to spring breaking that cannot be found at any other time of the year. With new blooms appearing, and the sunrise ready to greet me when I get up in the morning, it feels like the whole planet is awaking from a six month slumber.

Don't get me wrong, my ankle isn't completely better, but it is the best time of the year to start a new training plan. I went out for my first run yesterday in over two months, and boy it felt good.

Well, at the time. About 10 hours later the dreaded and inevitable DOMS set in (you know, when those muscles you haven't been using for a while go "remember us?!") so I've been walking like John Wayne most of the day, but I know it will pass.

The main concern is my ankle. I don't know if it is true or not, but a trainer once told me that the pressure equal to 8x your body weight passes through your foot every stride you take on a run. That's quite a hammering. So, I am starting out really really easy, only 15 minutes at a time, and then building up from there. The flare ups are to be expected, but I am trying to minimise them as much as I can.

In the meantime, so far so good. I'll keep you posted.