Injured. Drat.

Having finally given in to the increasing pain behind my left shoulder-blade, I went to the physio on Friday.

Of course it has nothing to do with my shoulder - I have four vertebrae in my lower neck/upper back which are out of alignment.

Drat. Bugger. Blast.

It has something to do with my posture when I carry things (like bags of rugby gear and my laptop). I carry with my shoulder and neck, using my upper and middle trapezius muscles, instead of my back or lower trapezius. I always like to have a 'name' for these things!

None of this is helped by the fact I always lift and carry with my left arm. This is because my right arm is officially 'weird'. Remind me to show you that scar some time...

So you will see my exercise plan is somewhat saner than usual this week. It's probably about time I had an easier week, anyway. I'm sticking to walking and yoga for most of the week. I'll try the gym on Saturday, but won't do my full workout if things don't feel right. While I'm there I'll get Dale to give me some 'lower trapezius' exercises.

I'm trying to be particularly conscious of my posture, as my 'office-worker slump' is not helping matters.

Lots of walking was always going to be in the plan from next week anyway, when I will start my six week training for a half-marathon walk on 25 June. I was originally toying with the 10km run in this event, but my knees really aren't up to that distance. So, it's the 21km walk for me. I walked 13km last Sunday and felt great afterward.

I've decided my biggest obstacle will be to walk for over three hours and not die of boredom. So I've conned a girlfriend into doing it with me. She is recovering from abdominal surgery, so our aim is completion rather than a certain time.

Of course, an event like this in Wellington in winter holds the likelihood of its own special challenges. Unless we fluke one of those fabulous days when the harbour looks like glass, there's every chance we'll be hammered by a freezing southerly or a howling northerly. In fact if we're really lucky we'll walk the first half into a southerly and then it will change to a northerly for our return trip. With a bit of horizontal rain thrown in for good measure.

Anyway, great to have another event to look forward to. I'm off to the physio.

Substance abuse

Mark and I went to a 40th birthday party last night. Yes, we do still have friends that young!

We had a lovely time catching up with everyone and I may have drunk a little much champagne.

Somewhere in my drunken musings I came up with the following theory. It may be overly simplistic, but it struck a chord with me.

In the group of 100 or so, there were several people who have substance abuse problems, and have faced them to some degree or other. The man who hasn't had a drink in over seven years. The man who has not only overcome his problems with drugs, but now competes in marathons and Ironman competitions. The man who has stopped betting on the horses and is now trying to kick his replacement addiction to the pokies. The woman who is still taking major pain medication some four years after she broke her leg. The woman who had little or no control over her food consumption for many years.

That would be me.

And the thing that struck me about all of this, apart from the fact I have some wonderful, strong friends?

The difference with these addictions is that I cannot give mine up completely. The absence of alcohol or drugs will not kill them (although it may feel like it will), but without food I will starve to death.

I am not belittling their problems or the enormous struggles they have had. But there is quite a difference here. I need to learn to cope with my problem without being able to banish it completely.

Realising this shows how important the 'mental' side of my lifestyle change is. No matter how much I learn about healthy eating, exercise and portion control, the long-term solution to my particular brand of substance abuse lies in recognising why I overeat and stopping that behaviour.

I still have some internal demons to banish.

Improvement

I've certainly had a better week - a loss of 2.2kg. But recently each good week has been followed by a bad week, so I need to keep the mental discipline going.

My progress in my three focus areas:
Water - drinking plenty, but still want to up my evening consumption (gin and water doesn't count).
Steps - lots of these. Daily average over 12,000 - I'll post my week's worth on Monday when I update my exercise plan. Two benefits from wearing the pedometer - I like knowing how much I'm doing, and it prompts me to do a bit extra, like going for a walk at lunchtime.
Scales - clearly my scales have a borderline personality disorder. I ignore them all week and they're much nicer to me on Friday.

I tried yoga for the first time this week. As I'm a complete novice, I got the WW yoga and pilates (haven't tried the pilates yet) DVD - it was on special. I really enjoyed it and discovered which parts of my body are REALLY inflexible. I think I will get bored with this basic level one fairly quickly, so I'd love any suggestions from you yoga girls out there about what DVD to get next.

Another highlight from my week was meeting Felicity (and Janine very briefly too). There is something so special about meeting bloggers in the flesh. Felicity has obviously been having a great (and very active) holiday. I wonder how she'll ever find time to write about it all on her blog!

Sorry about the lack of comments on your posts lately - I've been reading as you update but haven't had much time to comment. Please don't think I don't love you anymore!

First real game of the rugby season for Jake tomorrow - I'm probably more nervous about it than he is! It's always good to get into the proper season after all this pre-season stuff. Last week I learned how to strap his thighs for when he's lifted in the lineout - including strips of foam rubber under the tape to make little 'handles' at the front. The funniest part was watching him take all the tape off afterwards. He takes it off very, very slowly, because he doesn't want to lose all the hair off his thighs - and there is a lot of hair. He really doesn't want to turn up to underwater hockey in his speedos with big bald patches on his legs.

Mark is picking up his new bike today and is beside himself with excitement. We'd better get some fine weather in the weekend - if he can't ride it he won't be much fun to live with.

So, another week of discipline for me should see me through this slump/plateau - the 70s are looming!

Action plan

I have identified three areas I want to concentrate on. They're not necessarily things I'm doing badly, but things I could do better. Monitoring them will help me get back into the habit of mental discipline. And then that habit will spill over into the rest of my life.

Water

Most days I drink plenty of water. But I don't drink it right through the day. I drink 500ml as soon as I get up. I drink plenty while I'm working out and (mostly) during the day at work. Often I drink none at all in the evening (and not much of anything else either).
Action point: drink a glass of water as soon as I get home from work, one while I'm cooking dinner and one about an hour after dinner.

Steps

I have never bothered with a pedometer before. I do get lots of exercise - but how much and how consistently?
I'm also interested to know how much exercise I get APART from my planned exercise. Does running up and down to the courier room a couple of times a day help much at all? Am I doing 6000 steps when I take the dog out, but only 600 steps for the rest of the evening?
Action point: hook on that pedometer. Every day.

Scales

How did I go from being a once-a-week to a once-a-day weigher? Weighing every day has a negative effect on my eating, no matter what the number. If my weight is down from the day before, I subconsciously relax my attitude to eating and allow myself extra because I'm doing so well. If my weight is up, it's easy to slip into thinking the week is a write-off anyway.
Action point: weigh on Fridays. Any other day, the scales are just a big pile of dust in the corner of the bathroom.

Of course, I blame my sisters!

Oh, I don't blame them for any of the important, existential stuff!

I'm just choosing to blame them for the fact the report I was supposed to write last night is still a jumble of words in my head, instead of an email in P's inbox.

Auckland sister and Wellington sister popped round for a couple of quiet gins last night. And we did only have a couple of gins, and they were only here for about an hour, but somehow by the time they left I had quite lost the impetus for report-writing.

And now I think I'll choose to blame my blog-sisters for the fact I'm still not writing my report. It's 4am and an ideal time to get it out of the way, but I've been surfing blogs instead.

But I really can't find anyone to blame for the fact I've had another out-of-control (food) week and have just recorded my second gain in a row.

This isn't a major crisis. But it is a small, lost-my-focus crisis. And it threatens to become more if I can't click onto whatever is causing it.

I spent some time yesterday thinking about switching back from NoCount to the points plan, or signing up to use the WW online tools. But that's not the answer. I have all the tools I need and I know how to use them. There's a mental switch somewhere that's sitting in the 'Off' position - I just need to work out how to turn it back on.

Now, maybe I could blame a server crash for my missing report...

Confused?

Okay, I never thought I'd say this, but I'm pretty much over these short weeks!

We have had: a four-day week, followed by a four-day weekend, followed by a four-day week, followed by a two-day weekend, followed by a one-day week, followed by a one-day weekend, and now we're in a three-day week which will be followed by a two-day weekend!

It's not that I don't like the extra days off, but my increasingly enfeebled brain is struggling to remember what day it is.

I came on here to update my exercise plan, just like I do every Monday - damn, today's Wednesday!

I just realised I didn't send out an email reminder for tonight's rugby meeting (even more confusing because we moved it from the usual Tuesday to Wednesday), so we'll probably only get about three people there - but I'll still have to turn up.

Remembered just in time to put the wheelie-bin out last night. That COULD NOT have lasted another week, as it was full to the brim with pizza boxes and fizzy bottles - school holidays always see a marked increase in the consumption of these things at our house.

Of course, my brain might also be addled by TIS - testosterone inhalation syndrome! I'm used to having extraneous boys lolling about the house, but yesterday was a marathon effort.

Yesterday, our house was the site of the Great ANZAC Day Poker Tournament. A dozen teenage boys squished around our dining room table, playing poker - for over nine hours!

I fed them all Eggs Benedict for lunch (I know, I'm such a soft touch - I even make the hollandaise sauce from scratch), then tried to leave them to it. But, when you live in a townhouse, escaping the noise all those boys can make is impossible. I guess one saving grace is that they don't drink when they're playing cards, because there is money at stake. I hate to think how much more noise a dozen DRUNKEN teenage boys could make!

By the end of the afternoon, Mark and I had had enough, so we went out for dinner and a movie. Only five or six of them were still going when we got home, and they were basically packing up. Still, I'd rather they were having fun at our house (and there wasn't too much mess), than out on the streets getting up to who-knows-what.

On the subject of movies, Sione's Wedding is one to see. Pretty light-hearted, but the great depictions of Samoans (by Samoans) had me absolutely HOWLING with laughter. I don't know if there is an Aussie release date for it - but if there is, get along to see it.

And, of course, today's post wouldn't be complete without a HUGE congratulations to the lovely Philippa, who has reached goal weight. Phil, you are one amazing woman.

It is clear I have learned nothing!

I have been a blogger now for almost a year. It's something I really enjoy doing, even if I do fade from the scene at times. And I have 'met' so many wonderful people here (and a very small number of complete twits!) - people who are funny, inspiring, entertaining, intelligent, caring - all the things we look for in new friends.

But despite this massively rich resource of support, sometimes I think I really haven't learned a thing.

Let me tell you about self-inflicted unnecessary pressure...

A couple of months back I rejoined WW to help me lose my last 10 or so kilos. Instead of being an At Home member, I now actually go to meetings. At that time, the entry forms for Slimmer of the Year were on display. "Hmmmm" thought I, "I could do this". With a closing date of 12 May, I had about 8 weeks to lose 10kg.

See, I told you I've learned nothing!

Up until now, I've always set myself goals - be under 100kg by Christmas, be under 80kg in time for the duathlon, that sort of thing. Some of the goals I've reached, some I haven't. But they were my own personal goals and deadlines - it felt great when I reached them, but I could also handle it when I didn't.

Suddenly, here was this new possibility - and let's be honest, I was tempted by the prizes and the potential brief flash of fame. So I decided that my goal weight was 76kg - the top of my healthy weight range and that if I was really strict with myself I could blitz the entry deadline.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Up till then, my plan was to get to 76kg and THEN decide what I wanted my goal weight to be. I didn't want to take months to lose the last 10kg, but I knew it could take a while.

But no, despite all the months of claiming this was a lifestyle change and my health and fitness were more important than my weight, I was seduced into deciding I could force the weight off in a rush.

And the result - several weeks of yo-yo-ing (how the hell do you type that word without it looking ridiculous?) weight as I tried to force myself into this unrealistic expectation.

It's okay, I'm over it

After this attack of brain fever, I have come to my senses. I know that the weight will go - if it's a slow, steady loss, that's better than obsessing about every item of food that passes my lips. And much better that beating myself up for every slip-up. And I know (have always known, but chose to ignore briefly) that the weight-loss is just practice for maintenance.

My lifestyle now needs to reflect what my lifestyle will be in the future - not one of self-denial, but one of balanced and enjoyable eating.

Besides, I can always enter Slimmer of the Year in 2007!

Don't forget the old stuff worked

I can hear this concerted yell around blogland!

"What are you, nuts?"

I know, you've spent all this time getting rid of your old ways of thinking, eating and (not) moving. And now I'm telling you not to forget the old stuff?

But I'm actually talking about the old stuff from when we started losing weight, not from before that.

Phil got me thinking about this with her post about doing yoga again.

Do you remember those great feelings you got when you first started to see results from changing your lifestyle?

When you got to the end of the week and felt like a champion because you'd stuck to your eating plan EVERY SINGLE DAY? (Instead of feeling relieved because you cheated on your points all week and still managed to lose 200 grams.)

The first time you walked up the big hill in your neighbourhood without stopping, or made it all the way through that exercise DVD without hitting the pause button and putting your head between your knees so you won't faint?

The first time you went out for dinner, ate only two courses and didn't feel cheated?

Remember how good all that felt?

So, in that spirit, last night I went home and did the WW Exercise for Success DVD.

FLASHBACK TO A YEAR AGO (sorry I can't do the wobbly-screen thing they used for flashbacks and dream sequences on The Brady Bunch)
The first time I did this workout, I could barely breathe after the warm-up, although I did still have enough puff to yell at the TV "That was only the warm-up?". I used to just do the warm-up, one of the the four workouts, then the cool-down.

BACK TO YESTERDAY
I did the whole thing - warm-up, four workouts and cool-down. And it wasn't easy. I did the high-impact version of everything, used the coffee table (it's very sturdy) for my step-ups instead of just one step on the stairs, and used 1.5kg hand-weights instead of 400g cans of food. This is still a great work-out. And a great feeling seeing how much more I could do than a year ago. And today I can really feel it - and, yes Phil, tricep dips do work!

So, there was a point to all this rambling...

This is not just about getting back to basics. Find something you did when you first started on your journey, something that was a major achievement for you then, that you don't do anymore. And go and do it! Recapture the euphoria you felt the first time you overcame that obstacle.

And reflect on what an amazing person you are.

Success and compulsion

The duathlon was great! I really enjoyed it and almost ran the whole thing. I ran the first 3.5km leg, blitzed the bike and then ran most of the second 1.5km leg. I had to walk about 200m in the middle, because I had a bit of a dizzy spell.

And I came in under 1 hour - 59 minutes and 12 seconds, to be precise. The lovely Karen has emailed me some great photos, including one of the look of delight on my face as I looked at my watch at the finish line.

I think one of the things that made it so much fun was doing an event that hadn't consumed my life for 3 months beforehand. I'd been training for it in a vague sort of way, but I actually have enough basic fitness now to just rock up on the day and not disgrace myself. Ah, how things have changed...

So, events haven't become a compulsion, but Easter may be another matter!

Despite my high-minded intentions, I spent most of the weekend in an orgy of food-indulgence. This included chocolate, ice-cream, chocolate, Eggs Benedict, chocolate and more chocolate.

It was a weekend of eating reminiscent of the Sue of old. But what has changed is that it won't be a trigger for me to carry on like this for days, weeks or months.

I slipped up and ate badly for a few days. The world hasn't ended. I will spend the rest of this week eating healthily (not starving myself, not fad-dieting). By the time I weigh in at the end of the week I will hopefully only show a small gain. And in a week or two that will be gone and I will once more be moving toward my goal weight.

I'm less confident about knowing what triggered it. I'm used to having chocolate in the house, as I still buy it for Mark and Jake. I think it was just the amount of chocolate, combined with having so much free time and feeling I deserved a treat for doing the duathlon. I'm by no means perfect in my usual eating, but to go off so track for several days in a row is unusual.

Still, there's no point in berating myself too much - that's likely to lead to further self-destructive behaviour, rather than help me deal with it.

I hope you all had a nice Easter. If you feel like you may have over-indulged - you're certainly not alone!

Update time

The broken nose wasn't mine (or Jake's). Our friend Jacob, who is the Head Prefect at school, had his nose broken in a game in Napier on Sunday. As soon as his head slammed into the back of our fullback's head, I knew his nose was broken. There's a quite different sound to head-on-nose, as opposed to head-on-head. A sort of crunchy, cartilage sound. I got to him just after he hit the ground, and the bridge of his nose was over by the corner of his eye! Not pretty! So I hauled him off to hospital. When we left our boys were losing 11-0. They won 28-16, so I clearly missed the best of the game.

It was a long way to go for 20 minutes of rugby. Four hour drive up on Saturday, and then back again on Sunday, once the morphine had kicked in and Jacob was comfortable enough to travel. Luckily, I have long since learned not to travel with van-loads of teenage boys (too tough on the sanity), so I had my own car.

Most of our rugby boys were billeted with the team they were playing. Severe culture shock on both sides - our predominantly Samoan team going off to stay with boys from a private school. It's funny to see our big tough 1st XV go all shy when meeting new people. One of the boys came up to me the next day and exclaimed over the fact the house had 5 bathrooms - ' do they shit in a different one every day?' he said.

I got to stay with our very good friends in Havelock North. On Sunday morning I went for a lovely walk around the hill suburbs and through the pretty (and well cared-for) cemetery - which made me think of you, Phil, as you enjoyed our Bolton St cemetery so much. When I got back I had some of the best coffee in the Hawkes Bay - our friends have recently closed their cafe and have their coffee machine in the kitchen at home!

I have my duathlon on Sunday, but I do have to admit to not being particularly fussed about it. I'm sure I will enjoy it, but it doesn't have the excitement of the triathlon, because that was such a milestone for me. I have also been having a lot of trouble with my left knee, so may yet decide to walk instead of run.

My brother got engaged last week - at the lunch they were having to celebrate his Masters' graduation. Very bravely, he proposed in front of everyone, including both sets of parents!

My eating has been pretty good this week - probably guilty of not eating enough, rather than too much, as I seem to have spent most of the time racing from one meeting to the next. Exercise has been a bit slack, but I should be taking it easy in an event week anyway. In case I haven't said this, I'm completely sold on NoCount. I can see why it wouldn't work for everyone, particularly people just starting out on weight-loss, but it's perfect for me at this stage in my journey. It also feels like it will work well for maintenance.

Really looking forward to Easter. I will have to do some work (I usually do in the weekends anyway), but I will make sure I have at least two days with no work at all. Now that's a real Easter treat! And then to have the extra day off the next week for ANZAC Day - absolute luxury...

Up to my arse in alligators!

Sorry guys, not ignoring you, just irrationally busy. Back soon, with tales of rugby trips, broken noses and the ever-shrinking me!

What to do about Easter?

Easter really is one of the big 'treat' holidays, isn't it? It has no religious significance to me, but I'm always up for an excuse to eat chocolate!

Last Easter I had just started WW, so I basically skipped the whole thing (and was so motivated then I could do so with very little angst).

But this year I'm going to work Easter into my plan. Because we all deserve some treats and continual self-deprivation is just wrong on so many levels.

So, how to approach this whole hot cross bun and Easter egg thing? Don't tell me it hasn't crossed your mind - especially as the bloody things have been in the supermarkets since Valentine's Day!

Well, I do have a bit of a head-start on the discipline required for this - courtesy of my Mum and Dad. *happy wave to Mum*

The rule in our house when we were growing up - hot cross buns are for Good Friday and the eggs are for Easter Sunday.

So, I will buy one pack of really nice buns from one of the flash bakeries in town. I'll have one for breakfast on Good Friday and Mark can scoff the rest. And I will buy one small but expensive egg in really nice chocolate for me to have on Easter Sunday and the boys can have their usual small mountain of various Easter eggs.

Of course I do have a duathlon on Easter Sunday, so I'll feel awfully virtuous while I'm stuffing chocolate in my gob!

Fresh week, fresh start

Don't worry folks, I'm not about to give up on my healthy journey - but thanks for all the concerned comments and emails!

Last week was just one of those little bumps in the road - call it battle fatigue, I guess.

Saturday morning was a fresh start, and I feel like I've got my focus back again. This is helped by a return to 'winter sports Saturdays'. By the time I go to the gym, get the supermarket shopping done and then go and watch Jake play rugby, Saturday is practically over - no time for sneak eating!

On Sunday I did my full duathlon distance as training - 3.5km run/10km ride/1.5km run. I did it all on the machines at the gym, which made it easier than it will be in real life - although it still wasn't exactly easy! 3.5km is the longest I've run in one go, and then I still managed to run the 1.5km after the bike too. I can really feel it in my thighs today - but I now have some hope that I will be able to run (jog) the whole distance in the actual event in 2 weeks.

The duathlon is my last planned event. I'll be quite happy to go into winter mode for my exercise after that. That doesn't mean I'll turn into a couch potato, but I will plan most of my exercise around indoor activities* and just grab the chance to do things outside when the weather allows.

*Now, now, don't be rude, I didn't mean that sort of indoor activity!

Fear of finishing

I've had a dreadful food week. I have found myself unable to control my eating in the evening, and have also hardly dragged my arse out the door for exercise at all.

So - what the bloody hell is going on?

There could be lots of contributing factors: the aforementioned hormones, the dark evenings brought about by the end of daylight saving, the fact that the weather is cold and miserable and it feels like August not autumn.

But I suspect a more deep-seated issue - fear of finishing.

I am one of these people who often leaves a project 'not-quite-done'. It's not such a problem with work - I have to meet other people's expectations, so things have to be finished off. But when it's a task or a goal I've set myself, I don't seem to be able to get through the last little bit.

But why should I be like this?

I think it's something to do with my 'all or nothing' attitude. When I take something on, it really becomes a big part of my life. So when I finish it, will my life become a little emptier?

This seems to be related to something I talked about a couple of weeks ago - about letting my weight-loss become too big a part of what defines me. As I get closer to goal, I have to face what my life is going to be like after that.

I know that I will still need to be aware of my food and exercise - all this won't suddenly stop just because I've reached a certain weight. But on a fundamental level, something will have changed - and I need to find a way to cope with that.

Because otherwise, my self-sabotage will continue.

The trouble with being pre-menstrual

is that KNOWING you're pre-menstrual doesn't actually help you cope with the side-effects of BEING pre-menstrual.

I know I only wanted that English muffin with butter (and that ice-cream and those chips) because I'm pre-menstrual, but that didn't help stop me from eating them!

I also know that's why I didn't have the patience today to let a colleague ramble on when she was going in completely the wrong direction, but corrected her straight away (but did she really have to call me officious?).

However, here are my new thoughts on pre-menstrual comfort eating (to be applied at will to other situations). I get the feeling I've just clicked to something you guys all worked out ages ago, so excuse me for stating the bleeding obvious.

Giving in to these urges isn't always wrong. It would be wrong if we gave in to every single urge, but relenting occasionally is not only fine, it actually helps stop us from giving in more often - and from going on a power-binge!

See, I told you that I've just clicked to the obvious!

It's been a great week!

So, what's been so good about my week?

1. Jake made the first cut for the 1st XV squad
2. I have stuck to my gruelling cardio schedule for the week (one day to go) and feel FANTASTIC for it
3. The Hurricanes ground out a win against the Sharks last night - a typical home game - cold, wet and not pretty rugby
4. I have lovely new running shoes
5. Oh yeah - I have now lost 50 kilos!

When walking is not enough

Now, don't get me wrong here - walking is my friend. I love walking and it helped me form my exercise habit last year. And, of course, it is my 'Mummy and Moose' activity (for those who don't know, Moose is the dog).

But from a fitness and weight-loss point of view, walking just doesn't cut the mustard any more.

I wore my heart rate monitor on a walk the other day (I know, geek!). Apart from when I was going up some of Wellington's famous hills, I just couldn't walk hard enough to get out of Zone 1 and into Zone 2. So, basically, I have to walk for a damn long time for walking to have much beneficial effect.

Now Moose has to get used to me breaking into a jog at random intervals.

This week I'm also have a real focus on cardio exercise - no muscle building exercise, just pure, sweaty, leg-wobbling, face-reddening cardio all the way!

I got to meet Karen last night. It was so nice to meet someone whose blog I've been following - especially someone as friendly and bubbly as she is.

It's not the plan's fault!

I'm having a weekend of struggling with NoCount. Despite having meticulously planned my meals, I'm putting too much on my plate and sneaking extra food as well!

So, I considered switching back to counting points. But, actually, I was having the same issues with that.

So, don't try and say the plan isn't working!

I need to regain the focus and motivation that has served me so well in the past.

The plan is good and I know it can work - but only if I let it.

During some computer issues on Friday I had to reload my profile and so have lost all my internet favourites - most of which were blogs. I've got some of them back, but please leave me a quick comment so I can recover the rest.

Anniversary

There I was updating my sidebar, because it's Friday, which is my weigh-in day. I wasn't intending to post, just update my stats. But I found myself typing 'Week 52' - that's right, it's one year since I started on the WW At Home programme.

Yeeeeehaaaaa!
Ain't that just something to celebrate?

Sloth!

I'm having an attack of the lazy-arse bastards this week and have already missed two of my planned exercise sessions - and will miss another one tonight as we're going to Les Arts Sauts.

Oh well, I guess I can't be the Exercise Queen all the time.

I did take 5 minutes off my 7km time on Monday though - which basically means I ran for more of it than I did last time.

I was intending to only go 2km, because on Sunday the dog had a sore leg and was limping quite badly. I thought I'd just take him round the block to see how he was (and whether or not he needed to go to the vet). But when I let him in on Monday he raced around like a complete lunatic and leaped over Jake who was sitting on the floor - "Mum, I think the dog's leg is better". So, off on 7km we went. By the time we got back he was limping a bit, but he'll get over it!