Winners and Losers!

On my first blog of 2022, I ran a competition to win signed copies of my Rachel Hart Series of books and I’ll be announcing the winner later in this blog. But when I say ‘losers’ I’m not talking about all of you who entered and didn’t win on this occasion. Don’t worry, there will be plenty more opportunities to win throughout 2022 in fact, there will be another giveaway on my next blog.

No, when I say losers, it should really be in the singular as I’m referring to me and my weight loss. As those of who read my blogs regularly will know, I’ve had a very tricky couple of years with various health issues. In fact, the above picture popped up as a reminder of the fact that two years ago Chris and I were in Mexico on holiday prior to my ankle surgery. To digress for a moment, it was while we were there that I experienced the incident with the couple swimming while their dog waited patiently for them on the beach, that was the inspiration for The Woman on the Beach.

It’s hard to believe that it was a mere twinkle in my eye two years ago and is now my most reviewed book since publication in August 2021. On her five monthiversary a couple of days ago, she topped one thousand two hundred Amazon ratings/reviews, the latest being from Mona Lisa (no, not that one) saying, ‘Enjoying it… it’s an unusual story, it keeps me wanting to read it.’ Thank you if you’ve read it and rated or reviewed as it helps spread the word!

Anyway, back to me being ‘a loser’. Throughout the past two years, well, three years really, as my progressively weakening ankle made it tricky for me to exercise, I’ve gradually put on weight. Once I had the all clear from the neurosurgeon to go in the gym, and with my blood pressure being on the high side for me, I decided to go on a calorie-controlled diet and exercise everyday if I possibly could. That was on November 19^th and I’m pleased to say that on January 19^th, even with Christmas, New Year and both our children’s birthday celebrations I had lost exactly a stone in weight! More importantly, my fitness levels have noticeably increased, and my blood pressure is now only slightly above what is considered normal, so I’m very happy to be ‘a loser’ in this instance.

As it happens, January 19^th was also the 44^th Anniversary of Chris and I living together. We normally like to be somewhere sunny and warm to celebrate, but there has been nothing ‘normal’ about travelling abroad in recent times. We did however mark the day with a meal out. Because we’ve been watching our diet, pizza hasn’t featured very much recently, so we opted for a Prezzo restaurant near us as they had a good choice for vegetarians.

As you can see, the diet went out of the window for the evening! We started with olives, white bean houmous and deep-fried mozzarella which we shared.

Then we shared a Margerita Max pizza (appropriate as my married surname is Maxwell) with truffle fries and tenderstem broccoli.

And finished with a triple chocolate tart with vanilla ice-cream, all washed down with a glass of Pino Grigio for me and an Italian red (or two) for Chris. I have to say it was all very tasty, but we were straight back on the diet the following day.

I’m aiming to lose just over another stone which will take me back to the weight I was before my ankle started causing me issues. It’s handy now that I have my Apple watch to keep track on not only how much I’m moving, but also things like heart rate and blood oxygen levels. Unfortunately, it doesn’t read blood pressure, so I still need to have that checked properly by wearing a 24hour monitor next week, but I feel pretty confident that it will have dropped sufficiently for me not to need medication.

So, January 19^th was already notable, and it was also the closing date for my first competition of 2022. Thank you to everyone who entered, and for all the lovely comments, but there could only be one randomly selected winner. Congratulations to Lisa Davies, your signed books will be in the post on Monday.

And that picture reminds me that I had an appointment with my optician last Monday who is very impressed with what I can now see. I will only need glasses for prolonged periods of close work… like writing a book! I’m pleased to say I’ve made a start on writing book 10. Watch this space for some exciting news very soon, and for more giveaways, of course.

Much love

Julia xx