Birthdays all around

After a day of fasting followed a day of feasting (which by the way is also a book called ‘Fasting, feasting’ by Anita Desai) in Wednesday. Yeah, finally! This was especially great because I was invited to a surprise party that evening.

I left work and went to my Pilates class. Usually I feel refreshed after a work-out but in this heat I was sweating profusely. It is inhumanly hot and humid in Vienna. Every night it looks like there might be some rain and then it never does. Maybe climate change is really upon us. Our winters are definitely longer, colder, harder. I should not complain though but should store up all the heat like a squirrel its nuts.

I had to make do with a ‘French shower’ after Pilates (Clarins ‘Eau Dynamisante’ works every time like a charm) and was then off to the party for my friend Pat. Lovely party, sitting outside in a small garden right beside a park. Very relaxed atmosphere and also relaxed neighbors (none had complained by the time I left), good music and plenty of Mojito.

Thursday evening I had a ‘pre-birthday party’. This time not a private venue but at a club downtown.

The pool looked so inviting but you are not even allowed to put your feet in. The place was packed and I was not really in the mood for a long evening. Also it was a fasting day, so after two glasses of wine it was over for me. Partying with mineral water is not my kind of thing. (I know, very Bridget Jones!) Here I am with the soon to be birthday girl.

Then on Friday afternoon I went to see my great-uncle. He had turned 91 on Wednesday and I wanted to surprise him with a cake. So on the way to his place I stopped at a little French bakery called Fruth. What a place! Can only highly recommend it!

After another hour on public transport in scorching heat and just so that you know what I am talking about

(and we don’t have a lot of AC in either metro, tram or bus) I arrived with my chocolate mousse cake. We had to put it in the fridge for an hour before I dared cutting it. But when we finally did it was excellent!

Happy Birthday, Onkel Walter!!

We shared a piccolo (a small bottle of Prosecco) with the cake, then a second, then a third. I had a wonderful time celebrating his birthday and my uncle is the best example on how to live life to the fullest!
Yours, Pollybert

PS: I finished ‘I heart Paris’ by Lindsey Kelk, but started right away with ‘I heart Vegas’. I can’t recommend it because it has the literary value of Twilight. But I am now obsessed with Angela and Alex. What can I say, it’s a guilty pleasure.

New masterplan

After an amazing weekend with parties all around, my friends beside me and an abundance of sunshine I went to my second class of HIIT yesterday. Today my legs feel like pudding but way better than last time. Hopefully my Pilates class in the evening will improve everything else.

If you are wondering where this new sporty ambition is coming from: I have decided to take some drastic measures to lose the extra weight I put on over the last year. The more I talked about losing a bit, the more I gained. After seeing myself in the bikini shots from Rhodes, I knew it was time to do something. And still… even this didn’t help. I tried cutting carbs in the evening and just eating healthier, doing a bit more sports and so on. Nothing, nada, nul. I just enjoy eating too much!

So now I have a different approach, having decided to keep it with Kate Moss: Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. She also added though that “you try to remember, but it never works”. I don’t want to be stick thin (not that there is any danger). I am way too old for that because being skinny would also make me look like an old hag. No, no, I need a bit of fat to look fresh. The glow is long gone and I never had a peachy complexion, but I don’t want age prematurely by weight loss. What a waste of good body fat (also hard-earned).

I started yesterday with EODD (every other day diet) or 10in2. Basically it is one day eating, one day not eating. So far, so easy. I started with the not eating yesterday and I was ok. I was really, really hungry around lunch time but the rest of the day was not hard. Especially after my HIIT class I was glad to be home, just sat on the balcony enjoying a glass of wine (you are allowed to have one on the 0 days).

My goal is to go through with it for three weeks and then see if there is any progress and if there is (hopefully, cause isn’t that the reason I am doing all this?) then to decide if I go on (meaning did I lose enough to keep me going). Not that I am expecting a miracle (although that would be nice) but a change would be very much appreciated (ahem, a must actually what with all the sacrifices). I have another bikini vacation looming ahead and I need to look a lot hotter than last month.
Yours, Pollybert

PS: I finished reading ‘I heart New York’ and ‘I heart Hollywood’ by Lindsey Kelk. The first one was very funny, fresh and just so nice to read. Like a fluffy cake without the guilt trip. The second book was not as good as the first one, but I liked the girl and wanted to know what goes on in her life. The guilt of the fluffy cake had definitely started. The book was an advertising bible on where to go shopping and which designers to buy. Not that I minded so much but it got fairly bland. Still I started with ‘I heart Paris’, and so far so bad. I think the series is taking a turn for the worse and I am not sure it’s coming back to its former glory. Let’s see how it goes though, otherwise goodbye Angela Clark.