Lamb vindaloo with keema naan…Paleo? Discuss…
So I knew from the off I would go somewhat off piste this weekend…but I didn’t think the recovery day of Sunday would be so ridiculous.

With Friday off work, my ginger chicken lunch prepared for the journey and two of my mates in toe…we set off on the nearly 5 hour journey to Masham for our friend Warwicks (to be known as Warren) stag do! #ladsladslads #stagsornagsrule

Great car journey and kept it Paleo with my pre prepped ginger chicken but on arriving at the very un staggy rather beautiful house I Masham a bottle of fizzy carbs was thrust in my hand…and I couldn’t have been happier! A cold Heineken…perfect! After all this was a stag and I don’t like to break rules! Some 2346 pints later, a brewery tour, two benches I broke, some shooting and a couple of portions of fish and chips later it was Sunday. What happened next was un expected…  

We were officially off stag so drove home and as we stopped for a service station lunch I found myself ordering a subway salad and a coffee #paleoas It was delicious…and I could already feel the beer carbs being neutralised! We carried on our journey and upon getting home I text my mate to see if he was around for a roast later on. He’d just eaten with his parents but encouraged me to meet them anyway. This was always going to be a bad idea…as we all know what goes well with a country pub and roaring fire is a nice cold beer! I buckled…I wasn’t stagging…I wasn’t nagging…I simply found myself having a beer in the pub. A few of these glasses of fun juice later and I’d cancelled the idea of a roast dinner and firmly planted the idea of a lamb vindaloo on my head. Who was this rogue in my head making me drink beer and eat curry…I’m not going to lie…I liked this renegade!

So…I ordered a lamb vindy, mushroom rice and keema naan and went home to greet the delivery man and enjoy these choice Indian flavours all before my lovely gf returned from a weekend away. She looked confused as to why she had a slightly tipsy boyfriend with curry all round his chops on a Sunday post two days stagging. Even I was confused!

Back to it today! Back on the waggon…back to reality…as much as I like the rogue…still got a way to go so curry, naan and beer Sunday’s need to do one!

February…tick…another 10 pounds down

Okay, so I had a better start to the month than most…and you’d be right in thinking this…getting ill, looking sick and losing 4lb in day and 7lb in a week was a pretty strong way to kick start my month. It would appear despite contrary belief that getting ill and looking sick helps you lose weight, that this was 50% water loss I reckon. I popped a couple of pounds back on after the ill week when I started eating again but didn’t let that stop me in my mission to get a body like Arnie (okay maybe not quite…but at least to look healthier and happier).

I’ll not lie to you either…I had several beers (obviously accompanied by betting on horses…the old nag and stag beer rule was in full force) in the month of Feb. I still avoided generally drinking beers in the week (but replaced with many gins and wines) but because of the wonderful people I work with there are always occasions to enjoy some social midweek drinking…in fact if anything I’d say it’s encouraged! So…there were dinners, lunches, parties, birthdays a plenty…and even a massive curry where I lost the plot and ate so much food I was nearly sick…but I still managed to lose 10 flipping pounds!

The principle stayed the same…in the week try and train in the gym (insanity or spinning classes) at least twice, ideally three times…and if lucky four times. Then…try and do a min of 10,000 steps a day walking. Keep meals as paleo/clean focussed as possible with good but not ridiculous portions and make sure I had at least breakfast, lunch and dinner…with protein snacks thrown in when peckish.

Some of the delicious meals I made…note the general stacking and layering theme…I need to get a grip…

The weekends were a bit too big in places but I tried to only booze on one of the nights (this wasn’t always an option)…and to where possible stick to slim drinks! February was a wonderful month though and not only were mid week nights often packed seeing friends and colleagues…but weekends were outrageous! We went to three birthday parties (one of which I’ll go into more detail on below), three dinner parties, and a mega roast every Sunday! Honestly I think I’m starting to nail the sh*t out of this balance thing…basically if you don’t go nuts in the week and eat pies, sandwiches and chips every day with beers to wash down and eat lots of tasty healthy food and do some exercise you can go a bit wild at weekends without worrying too much!

With nags, stags, and it would appear special birthdays you can’t beat a good old beer…but all in moderation

I also lost my phone (twice)…finding it once…and then totally losing it a second time so took very few pics as kept using my temp phone for a bit. A refreshing experience when you can’t access the www. emails, texts and calls at every waking minute…I think I’ll do it again or change my phone to a nokia 3210 once a month for a weeks break!

So with that also meant less blogs…and for that I’m sure you were all grateful…or not as it would seem after a few messages to get my bum in gear and get writing up some recipes and nonsense about what I’ve been up to. Anyway…I hope you had a smashing February and have an equally wild March coming up you lovely lot!

My Favourite Weekend in Feb…a Downton affair

Here goes…to my favourite weekend in the whole of Feb (sorry to the people that I spent the other weekends with…they were also incredible but this one stands out!)…So my Aunty Shazza, who is a good sort…a top lady…and loads of fun was celebrating a special birthday (I won’t say which one) and decided like you do to hire Downton F*cking Abbey…well it wasn’t actually Downton’s Highclere Castle…but it was a massive blinking house in Dorset!

I’ll be honest with you…I didn’t read the pre posted itinerary (I never do) that she had been lovely enough to have printed and posted to everyone. It’s a mistake I make with weddings and other events (I once missed my friends wedding by not reading this vital bit of paper)…anyway…I just paid up a couple of quid when asked if I’d like to shoot and go for a roast away from the house on the Sunday. In my head the house was going to be modest, we were all getting some posh frocks on the Saturday night for a couple of gins and then having a roast before coming home on the Sunday.

When we rocked up late on the Friday night after a busy days graft I was ready for a drink…and my sat nav had me pull up at a house that made me feel like I had already been drinking…had I some how ended up at Downton Abbey on a Friday night for a few jars.

I walked through the grand double doors, into the hall reception with classical strings playing, to be greeted by my Uncle Steve serving up Power Margaritas and had one forced into my hand before I’d even had chance to even get my coat off (won’t feel the benefit)! I HAD ARRIVED! It then took me 30 mins to check out about half of the house whilst continually having fresh margaritas popped in my hand. A few hellos later to family and friends I was well and truly in the zone and talking bollocks already in what felt like minutes. The margaritas were kicking in. Then…at 11pm I was feeling pretty peckish to be fair having not eaten…miraculously some waiters (who knew you could hire them in?) who came out of nowhere came around and asked that everyone go to the dining room for supper…we were then fed a cheeky 3 courses and many wines were passed around and I don’t actually remember much more of the meal but I do remember it was tasty. Apparently afterwards we went into the house’s very own on site “club” room (yes it had flashing neon lights…aka essential!) and danced to some motown and northern soul until I woke up on someones ensuite bathroom floor at about 4am to be turfed to bed! Strong start I thought!

Woke up relatively hangover free at noon…and was told to get myself together as a day of shooting was ahead! Lovely! Cleaned up…obviously! Returned back to the house to be greeted once again with a large drink by my Uncle just before the England Ireland game where I proceeded to start the proceedings! After Big Billy V finally finished running through every Irish man on the pitch, England won much to 95% of peoples happiness but a lone Irishman looked less than impressed…for all of 2 mins until he was handed a large gin and we all were ushered to our rooms to get our posh tackle on for the evening!

I threw on a little black number and accompanied by my lovely lady who also threw on a little black number (and looked like a mega babe!) to the champagne evening reception. My mum…who was also at the birthday weekend also happened to look like a film star…I can see where I get my devilish looks from!

Anyway the main event was now in full flow in the house’s dedicated champagne lounge…many many champagnes and canapés later (I am aware I sound like a tit)…we were summoned to another…yes another dining room for supper…

Nice English sparkling vino

After the starter, one of my good friends and partners in crime (my cousins boyfriend) decided to pop to the little boys room (so he told us)  after consuming 5 pre dinner litres of fizzy wine this was perfectly feasible…a cool 20 mins later and not far off the main being served we were a little concerned…had he caught his tail in the seat? Had he been been caught short? Oh no…My cousin just popped to go and check on him to find him wait for it…having a classic tactical mid dinner nap in bed. Startled by her wake up call he joined us back at the table fully refreshed and ready for the main event.

We tucked into some delish food which I’d totally forgotten we’d pre ordered and clever lovely Aunty Shaz had got a chef in to rustle up this feast for us all. Then once we’d polished off the main two random young smartly dressed chaps walked into the room…and pulled a microphone out of his pocket and started ripping out Nessun Dorma…I kid you not Il Divo could have been singing in the room with us…every lady in the room was sobbing but next up…his mate dove tailed it with Mark Ransoms Uptown Funk…these lads knew how to please a crowd (they were no Il Divo…they were better…they were like Il Divo on acid)…we were up, dancing, and singing with them!

Fortunately this magnificent dining room was nicely close to the “club” room and some smart cookie (couldn’t tell you who as I couldn’t see by this point) took to the wheels of steel and popped some Abba on to get everyone moving! Perfect choice! Next thing I knew my mum was performing air guitar, my uncle was singing, my aunty was spinning…my girlfriend…was asleep somewhere…the party had fully started. I don’t remember much after this again apart from having a conversation with one of my auntys friends about a Fender Stratocaster…I don’t know a bean about guitars…but reckon I styled it out…

I woke up once again on someones floor and was turfed out! I woke on the Sunday to an actual hangover but I was driving later that day so spent my day relaxing, unwinding, hearing stories from the night before and generally working out how I was ever going to cope in my little flat and not being in a house with it’s own “club” room, champagne room, hot tub, and driveway longer than my road…I got over this by going for a massive roast and watching everyone else get drunk before I drove us home! What a weekend…incredible times!

Thanks Aunty Shaz for an incredible way to mark a birthday!