offline....and eye back on the ball....

The last few weeks have been eventful and included a sojourn in hospital followed by the sort of drugs that make your head spin and not in a good way.

Last week was the BNP Parisbas Tennis event at the beautiful Hurlingham Club in West London.

Rumour has it that the waiting list to join the Hurlingham Club is now 30 years, when I first moved to London, a friend offered to put my name down, the wait list was 7 years, at 20 years old that seemed like a lifetime, I wonder if I will regret not signing up now, may be 30 years will fly by as quickly.

The event itself is quite hard to describe, there is something a little eccentric and uniquely British about it.
It's meant to be all about tennis, but like all proper sport, it starts with lunch for about 150...

The tennis stars are a mix of those who want a warm up for Wimbledon, and the legends who just come for fun.  Each table is designated a player.  We got the biggest 'player ' of all (no necessarily in the tennis sense)....Pat Cash.

I went to have a chat with him and do a photo and.....

'All my clothes fell off' (said in her best Cupid Stunt, Kenny Everett voice)..

 Clearly his mere presence has that effect on women...

 He tried to help me put it back together again (to be honest a little half heartedly)...

Following a beautiful lunch we headed outside to watch a bit of tennis....

 Walking past the Pimms bar, the Lanson Champagne bar, the second Pimms bar....

 You get an idea of the focus of the day...

 The crowd were effortlessly gorgeous...

 And making a bit more of an effort to be gorgeous....

The tennis was spectacular, and so close it was like they were playing at home in the garden....

After all of the physical activity, we adjourned for tea...

 The tea resembled a makeup counter more than food.

The weather was perfect, there was a fashion show and a bit of shopping, it was a perfect day out!

Have you got any exciting plans for the Summer? I will be having a blog catch up now that I have left the land of the bewildered.

Chelsea Flower Show

Day two of the juicing, after another two hours in the gym, I was invited to lunch at the Bluebird and a trip to RHS Chelsea.  I misguidedly thought that people dressed for Chelsea, may be for the opening, but not, I later found out, on the other days.

My first choice was this floral dress, but I wanted to wear a floral coat too and that 'almost matching' print is not a good choice, neither did the lengths work at all....

Really, really didn't work....

 I found an old dress from H&M, which I think I picked up on ebay for around a fiver, that ruched V front shape has always flattered and I have worn this shape dress since the 80s...

 It is a size 12 and I could only just do it up, but considering it is white, does hide a multitude of sins...

 I took a lot of pics, mainly because I wasn't sure, this is a lot shorter than I would normally wear and I couldn't work out if it 'worked' or just looked cheap...

I had a work meeting (on a building site) before the lunch so had 2 hours to kill in West London, a lot of ladies spoke to me, probably 5 or so as I went from shop to restaurant, but there is always the niggling question, are they staring in disbelief and because they are nice make a comment about how much they like my jacket or is it a genuine compliment?

The whole of Chelsea has embraced the flower show, this is the new J Crew store on Sloane Square...

 Peonies at Links....

 Carnations at Whistles...

 This is the lovely PR lady from Roland Mouret, looking chic and fabulous...

 The equally fabulous facialist Amanda Lacey, a decade older than me, who looks a decade younger, whatever she does it WORKS!

 Beautiful pink flowers... it rained, we stayed in the tents for most of the afternoon (and sought out Earl Grey tea at every opportunity)...

I am such a rubbish blogger, for a proper post about Chelsea read this....

Muffin top...

The jeans above are Citizens of of humanity, size 28 jeans (10-12) they used to be hidden deep in my 'not for now' clothes as they were slightly on the baggy side, now they are tricky to zip up and I have a muffin top of 3 trimester proportions.  My deportment isn't great, along with greasy hair and specs... but this was the pic that made me realising juicing was a necessity not an option..

The 'Thermic Juicing' worked pretty well for the first 12 hours.

I had my eggs, went to the gym and did two hours of proper exercise, without feeling hungry or tired.
At 11am I scored an Alkaliser (kale, cucumber, mint, parsley juice) not tasty but virtuous and did make my exercise recovery speedier than usual.
At 2pm I had the protein drink and hadn't felt a single pang of hunger
At 3pm I had tea and an apple still feeling great
At 5pm I HIT A BRICK WALL and felt awful, strained, slightly sick, headache, if I had been eating normally I would have thought that I was going down with flu
At 7pm I met a friend in Covent Garden, we had a red wine each and some olives (went to my head but felt human again)
At 8pm Balthazar for dinner with 3 lovely friends, one glass of wine and one steak tartare and green salad later, feeling very happy and at one with the world (I did also give in to two small pieces of bread)

The muffin top 'almost' hiding dress below is from Phillip Lim and was the best I could do for the night out, with Anya Hindmarch bag and sunglasses, yes it really was that warm an evening...

 (picture bombers of furry and non-furry variety)

The day after juicing wasn't a good one, my stomach felt like concrete, I am not sure if it was the protein drink, the steak tartare or a bit of both.
However, it was pretty easy to do, no feelings of 'hunger' until later in the day, went to bed feeling fine and woke up full of energy.
There will be a repeat today, but this time, I am going to have more juices and no red meat in the evening.
We'll see now it goes...

Juicing

I blame this cover, Kate Upton in all her voluptuousness, made me a bit relaxed about having crept to a size 12, but in less than 6 weeks, I'm no longer fitting into my new clothes and a 14 is beckoning...
I can disguise it for now, but the St Trop beaches are a little less forgiving, and my inches aren't on the top half, it's all around my waist.
Blaming working is a cheap shot, there must be women who can balance work, exercise, loved ones, dogs and feeling a bit knackered all the time. But I am not one of them.

 I am very anti short term weightloss plans, years of being overweight and yo-yoing from fasting to feasting, led to a steady weight of around 15 stone.  Conversely, eating proper food and exercising allowed me to lose over 30% of my bodyweight.

I have always followed the Thermic Plan, lots of protein, lots of food, anything that boosts the metabolism and very little restriction.
But the last few weeks have seen an endless round of 'bulk eating' and no exercise and I just can't get back into the 'Thermic Zone', a friend is juicing, and I thought I might join her with my Thermic version.
As I have a dinner tomorrow and lunch on Friday, it all needs to be sensible and do-able.

So here it goes...

Breakfast 3 eggs and coffee

11am Green juice (veg based not fruit)

Lunch Protein mix (soya based not whey)

Tea time Earl grey tea and small bag of nuts and raisins

Dinner meat and vegetables

(lunch and dinner inter-changeable)

Exercise 40 mins each day
It's a cross between all the old favourites; juicing, Slim Fast, Cambridge diet and most importantly REAL food.

Currently weigh around 10 1/2 stone (evidence of this will be posted tomorrow)

Aiming to get to 9 1/2 by July 14.

Will follow this for 3 days and re evaluate.


Do you have any diet plans that you swear by?..

Here are some clothes pics, opted for a nude and black week, a few weeks ago (before the 'tipping point' of the weight gain)

Lace jumpsuit for work...

With Valentino Rockstuds and pink bag (should have changed that)...

 Same By Malene Birger coat, beautiful suede Nicole Fahri dress and Warehouse bag..

Tomorrow will be the visual evidence of the necessity of the juice cleanse...

Feeling like this...

Thinking about buying this....

Any one read it?
Any good recommendations for 1. an extra hour in the day 2. how to be in two places at once?

Dressing like a cartoon...

 I had intended post a typical week on the Thermic , Plan but as I sit here in the cold, polishing off a packet of Hobnobs (dark chocolate of course), it feels a little hypocritical.  So instead, here are some clothes.  As per the previous post, I'm only buying 'different' and these looks are a million miles from anything currently in the closet.

Now here is the kicker, this outfit is from Matalan, wear it in the Cowley Centre (it is as glamorous as it sounds, you don't need much imagination, 70s low built concrete shopping centre on the wrong side of town) and everyone knows the shirt was 12 quid from Matalan.  Wear it in the fashion office and of course the assumption is it is from Burberry.  I've always thought it true of diamonds, it's WHERE you wear them that is the indicator of authenticity...

More cartoon colours, I love this frock for the South of France....

And finally what I wore out to do the shopping, perfect comic book fun courtesy of Markus Lupfer who you can buy on secretsales.com for up to 70% off!

Has anyone else gone cartoon crazy or is it just me and my very own trend?!