The problem with being away for the weekend is that all my Sunday tasks can slip: planning the week’s work, exercise, meals, packed lunches and what’s happening with the children. I’m better than I was, but I really need to actually put aside time to plan for the following week if I know I’m away. Which I am again next weekend.

Dinner was therefore a bit of a larder challenge along with some tasty looking sausages that I’d grabbed yesterday at the Tesco in Oxford. We’re out tomorrow evening and Thursday is tight, so I’m raiding the freezer later in the week and we can grab something in Manchester tomorrow.

I also hadn’t planned what exercises I’d be doing in the week. At the end of last week I had finished two months of the NROL Hypertrophy I and was looking at taking a break from it before starting II. We’ll be away for a couple of weeks in April and there is the Manchester 10k in May, so things have to be organised better. Last week I arranged a session with one of the personal trainers on Wednesday to put together a transitory programme between now and the start of May.

I also need to get a grip of my weight again. The weight dropped reasonably steadily from July through to December, until we got to Christmas. Oops! Then it has been dropping more slowly. I’m doing more exercise and not eating like a crazy person, but I need to really shift another stone before I’m reasonably happy.

So the gym session will be working towards cracking that last stone. Given that the bulk of the weight-loss last year was when I was doing the programmes devised by the PTs at the gym, I’ll give them another go.

The session tonight was a bit hit and miss. I had a sort-of plan which was to do an older programme to see if there had been any progress. However, most of the gym was very busy and so I ended up pulling in some of the NROL exercises as well. When I did the old exercises, it was pleasing to see that I could lift, push or pull things much heavier than I could a few months ago. So there’s definitely some improvement. Plus I can roll right out using the abs-wheel. This may mean nothing, but to start with it was virtually impossible to do.

I also walked this afternoon – after I’d picked up the children from school. It was cold and I didn’t fancy walking back with the children. When I was out, I bumped into our local Labour candidate for the Scott ward. Out delivering leaflets along County Road and Scott Estate. Leaflets about an issue from two months ago and with a date of “Winter 2014”. Ah well, it’s all news if you haven’t heard it before.