Sarah's Target & 10K Mission

Is the golden rule of jetlag that you're not meant to run?! I never knew that!! Good to know!

Aww poor you, leaving your food at home is always the worst! I hate when I do that, it puts me in such a bad mood!

Well done you for getting so quickly back on plan though. The girls are right too, that gain will be mostly bloat and will be quickly on/quickly off. xxx
 
I didn't know it was the golden rule either, until I mentioned it to a girl at work who used to be cabin crew.I wish she'd told me all the flippin' rules beforehand!!

Just been down to Tesco and decided on an EE day today:

B - Alpen Light (1/2 HEXB)
L - Ham hock and cous cous salad (can't find the syns online but it's 340 cal and I won't use the dressing so can't be too bad?)
D - Tandoori chicken (2?) and salad
Snacks - Raspberries, Brekkie biccie (1/2 HEXB), carrot sticks and some red pepper dip (2)
There's no HEXA in there so might treat myself to a frothy coffee later :)

xxx
 
Oh, and the scales flickered on 10.7 before setting on 10.8 this morning so moving well and truly in the right direction!

And (gosh, I'm going on today!!) I'm signing up to the Kent Colour Run in October. Only a 5k, but I want to run it sub-30mins. Doing it with a few girlfriends so it should be a good giggle! Think I want to look at doing a 10k, but not until next year...xxx
 
Hey chick, tandoori chicken is actually 9syns! Thought you'd prefer to know! Rogan josh and jalfrezi are less xx

Wowzers, Tash - thanks for the head's up! I assumed it being dry and grilled it would be better. Don't think I've actually had an Indian out while I've been on plan...only ever treated myself to a naughty one on a treat weekend! Rogan Josh or Jalfrezi it is, then :D xx
 
Oh, and the scales flickered on 10.7 before setting on 10.8 this morning so moving well and truly in the right direction!

And (gosh, I'm going on today!!) I'm signing up to the Kent Colour Run in October. Only a 5k, but I want to run it sub-30mins. Doing it with a few girlfriends so it should be a good giggle! Think I want to look at doing a 10k, but not until next year...xxx

Oh my! I signed up to the Belfast one last week!!! Woooo!!

I wasn't sure if it was a chipped/timed race because of the colour thing?! Thought it might have been more of a faffy/fun event?! 30 mins would be pretty awesome with paint flying around! Ha! xx
 
No prob babe! Rogan josh is 6.5 and jalfrezi is 8.5 i think! It's a bit bonkers because they're saucy but they're tomato based and the tandoori must have something in the marinade!

The colour run! Fab! I assume that's the same as the colour dash here? I am hoping to do it too but the date might be a problem but here's hoping xx
 
Thanks Tash - Rogan Josh it is. Yum!

Love the idea of the colour run. Hoping it's timed, but I will use MapMyRun anyway so I'll have a fair idea of how I've done! xxx
 
Hey girls,

It's lunchtime and I've had enough of my enormous to-do list, so here's a bit of holiday chit-chat! Quite a lot of this is for the lovely Katie's benefit, so sorry for the potentially epic post!

Firstly, I can't recommend the Moon Palace enough....we had some of the best service I've ever experienced in a hotel, and I've been lucky enough to do a fair bit of 5* in my time. The staff just can't do enough for you, right from the minute you arrive. We were handed ice cold towels as we got out of the taxi and I got a flower too...such a nice touch! And great to cool off after a long flight and stepping into some serious humidity. The hotel is only about 15 mins from the airport so it's a lovely short transfer.

Walking into any of the lobbies is impressive - lots of marble and sparkly glass light installations. We stayed at Nizuc, the middle of the three areas (there's also Sunrise, which is the super kid's friendly bit and Moon Grand, which is slightly quieter). Sunrise was on a pretty big scale - the bar, the breakfast buffet...just huge! Stunning, but huge and lots of children. To be honest, we steered pretty clear of this end because we're not really children lovers! lol. Rooms at this end have medium sized balconies and a hammock!

Nizuc don't have huge balconies, but we were in the Dolphin section and had a sea view, which was awesome and there was plenty of room for two chairs and a little table. All the rooms have a hot tub and a huge shower. They also provide a good hairdryer and a set of straighteners in the room...wish I'd looked this up before I packed mine! There are robes and slippers in the room too. The rooms at the Moon Grand look to have the biggest balconies, with lovely rattan loungers. There are some swim up suites too, which looked the bees' knees! Our fave restaurant was there too - the Caribeno. It was buffet for breakfast and lunch (literally the best buffet you've ever seen!) and then Caribbean inspired food in the evening. Think prawn cerviche followed by sea bass or a delicious steak. You'll get a little taster before your a la carte dinner in the evening, which were always really tasty! And if you lay round the pool outside that restaurant, the drinks service is amazing, plus there's a swim up bar, and after lunch they come round with ice creams!

Round the pool the towels are great too - fluffy and white! Sometimes they ask you to write down your name and room number...no idea why...but most of the time we didn't bother. And you can change your towels as often as you like 'round the pool, so you can always have a dry one. There was also always sun cream and after sun by the area where you collect your towels, so if you haven't put enough on, or you feel the need for a top up and you're a long way from your room, you can go and help yourself. I think they top up their stash with what people leave behind in their rooms but it was all top quality stuff and a really handy thing to have. I took factor 20 but used some Piz Buin factor 30 round the pool one day when I was feeling a little sunburnt and delicate!

The beach borders the hotel and is lovely white sand but there's lots of seaweed at the water's edge. It was quite windy when we were there so we didn't really go into the sea but we had some lovely walks along the beach. I think you can get a free shuttle bus to their sister hotel Sun Palace, where theres a totally idyllic beach and still get your all inclusive privilieges but we didn't feel we needed/wanted to. Speaking of shuttles, the areas of the hotel aren't that far apart (maybe 5 mins from Nizuc to either Sunrise or Moon Grand?) but if you can't be bothered you can get a golf buggy or there's a shuttle bus which is constantly going round in a circle.

The first couple of days the weather was a bit mixed - lots of rain although it was still very warm - but there's lots to do in the hotel so we never got bored. We had some lovely long jacuzzi baths, drank amazing hot chocolate in the tea shop, played crazy golf in the rain and worked out way through the cocktail lists at the bars. The bars are all premium spirits...it's unbelievable. If you want a G&T you can choose between Tanqueray and Bombay Sapphire! There's tonnes of space to chill out and constant supply of bubbly and crisps to keep you going!

You can also borrow bikes (which are in really good condition), kayacks, wind surfing stuff etc. free too. And the crazy golf was fun too...especially after a couple of cocktails! We took our bikes on our second to last day and cycled round the grounds to where the horses are (you can have a horse and cart to your wedding ceremony) and they loved a fuss. We also spotted coaties (mexican raccoons) on the golf course - super cute! And huge iguanas! Apparently there are crocodiles in the rainforesty bits of the resort too, but we ddn't see any of those!

The Brazilian Grill restaurant (Arricifes - but that might not be the right spelling!!) is off the Nizuc lobby and the food was amazing. They come round with great big skewers of different grilled meats for you to try. In hindsight, they brought them all a bit too quickly so if we went again, I would tell them to do another lap and come back to me! They do flaming Mayan coffees after pudding too - you have to have one even if you don't drink it because the theatre of it is brill! Coporales is the Mexican restaurant, also off the Nizuc lobby. We went there twice - it was heaven. I'd recommend the Coporales Grill for main!

There's a bar called 'The Pub' which is beautifully British themed which is in the Nizuc lobby and open til 1am but if you want to be up later, you have to go to Sunrise, where there's the SkyBar (lovely bar upstairs) or Noir, which is the nightclub. The nightclub looks stunning but was a bit quiet when we went! We did meet some random Americans though and had a great giggle!

One night we also used some of our resort credit to upgrade to the 'Romantic Dinner' it was £399 resort dollars, I think, which cost us $48 in taxes. If they ask you to go to a welcome meeting to talk about it, or to a meeting to talk about 'your next visit' (by which they mean time shares) don't bother! They will just try and sell you stuff ;) If you have any questions about stuff to do, just ask me! So anyway, the dinner was lush! If the weather is nice, they set it up on the beach or if not, in one of their lovely function rooms. It's 5 courses with a cocktail to start, the bubbly, then we had white to start and finished on red. That's definitely worth it - we had a really nice evening. You have to remember about paying tax on the resort credit...like the spa treatments are mega overpriced but when you look at the taxes, they are pretty reasonable. And the jacuzzi and steam room in the spas are really nice (although men's and women's are separate - although you do have your massage together). You could also have a photoshoot, which we didn't, but kinda wish we had because we spoke to some other couples who said it was good fun! You can use your credit in the shops, but only on certain items up to a certain value, so bear that in mind.

We only took US dollars, and that was fine. We tipped a bit, not loads but probably $50 across the week to the maid, the bell boys, waiters and bar staff. You get great service anyway, so it's not one of those places where you need to tip to get drinks service round the pool, but the guys were working so hard, they really deserved it! Some of the prices at their airport were in Mexican Pesos (exchange rate was about 13 pesos to $1) but they took dollars no problem.

Right, I really do need to go back to work, but Katie, I hope this has helped! Do you know which area you're staying in? xxxx
 
Bums! Turns out I got the day wrong and I'm meeting my colleague tomorrow night, so there goes my fast day. Will have to do Thursday instead and hope for the best!

So today is going to be an EE day:
B - Alpen Light (1/2 HEXB)
L - Ham hock and cous cous salad (can't find the syns online because it's new but it was 340 cals so no worse than a mug shot with some ham in!)
D - Bacon and veggie omelette with HEXA cheese. Milka bunny for pudding (5) or maybe a Muller Greek (1/2 with strawbs?)
Snacks - Raspberries, Brekkie biccie (1/2 HEXB), carrot sticks and about 1/8 of the accompanying red pepper dip (2)

Plan for tomorrow will be EE again:
B - overnight oats (1/2 HEXB) with raspberries and strawberries
L - mini quiche with salad
D - Chicken rogan josh (6.5) with boiled rice
 
Well done for getting right back on it Hun xx
 
I'm being treated to dinner by the Farrell. There has been a bit of bread and hummus and a glass of wine. Oops!!!!xxx

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Well yesterday's plan went a little awry as Dave wanted to treat me to dinner. I made a good choice for main (harissa chicken with roasted veg) although it did end up being a little oily. But the mezze board to start and the glass of chenin blanc would definitely have taken me over syns. Feeling a bit cross with myself but it was a lovely evening and sitting outside at the pub was really nice, plus thankfully the scales were kind this morning and stuck at 10.8. I'm feeling tonnes better today after a cracking night's sleep though - bye bye jetlag!

EE day planned for today:
B - Muller Greek (1/2) with strawbs and rasps
L - low syn salad from Tesco (I REALLY need to go shopping but no idea when I will actually have time!)
D - Chicken rogan josh (6.5) with boiled rice
Snacks - Brekkie biccies (HEXB), banana

Happy hump days everyone! xxx
 
Aw bless Dave treating you! He's still in holiday mode? :) Nothing wrong with making the most of the nice weather though! Have a good day honey! Hope tonight goes really well and you have better insight! Enjoy your Indian! I can't wait to get a rogan josh on Sunday :) xx
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Haha. Yep, he's definitely still in holiday mode! He's normally good at keeping me on the wagon but he definitely dragged me off it last night ;)

Not sure how I'm feeling about tonight, to be honest...feeling generally content where I am so I guess I'm treating it more of a fact-find. You never know what might come of it though, and it will be nice to see Joe anyway.

Not meeting him 'til 7 now so should have time to do a quick Lidl shop on my way home from work - stock up on the super free! Loving the fact it's Thursday tomorrow and I'm off on Friday. Whoop to the whoop di whoop!

xxx
 
Hey girls,

It's lunchtime and I've had enough of my enormous to-do list, so here's a bit of holiday chit-chat! Quite a lot of this is for the lovely Katie's benefit, so sorry for the potentially epic post!

Firstly, I can't recommend the Moon Palace enough....we had some of the best service I've ever experienced in a hotel, and I've been lucky enough to do a fair bit of 5* in my time. The staff just can't do enough for you, right from the minute you arrive. We were handed ice cold towels as we got out of the taxi and I got a flower too...such a nice touch! And great to cool off after a long flight and stepping into some serious humidity. The hotel is only about 15 mins from the airport so it's a lovely short transfer.

Walking into any of the lobbies is impressive - lots of marble and sparkly glass light installations. We stayed at Nizuc, the middle of the three areas (there's also Sunrise, which is the super kid's friendly bit and Moon Grand, which is slightly quieter). Sunrise was on a pretty big scale - the bar, the breakfast buffet...just huge! Stunning, but huge and lots of children. To be honest, we steered pretty clear of this end because we're not really children lovers! lol. Rooms at this end have medium sized balconies and a hammock!

Nizuc don't have huge balconies, but we were in the Dolphin section and had a sea view, which was awesome and there was plenty of room for two chairs and a little table. All the rooms have a hot tub and a huge shower. They also provide a good hairdryer and a set of straighteners in the room...wish I'd looked this up before I packed mine! There are robes and slippers in the room too. The rooms at the Moon Grand look to have the biggest balconies, with lovely rattan loungers. There are some swim up suites too, which looked the bees' knees! Our fave restaurant was there too - the Caribeno. It was buffet for breakfast and lunch (literally the best buffet you've ever seen!) and then Caribbean inspired food in the evening. Think prawn cerviche followed by sea bass or a delicious steak. You'll get a little taster before your a la carte dinner in the evening, which were always really tasty! And if you lay round the pool outside that restaurant, the drinks service is amazing, plus there's a swim up bar, and after lunch they come round with ice creams!

Round the pool the towels are great too - fluffy and white! Sometimes they ask you to write down your name and room number...no idea why...but most of the time we didn't bother. And you can change your towels as often as you like 'round the pool, so you can always have a dry one. There was also always sun cream and after sun by the area where you collect your towels, so if you haven't put enough on, or you feel the need for a top up and you're a long way from your room, you can go and help yourself. I think they top up their stash with what people leave behind in their rooms but it was all top quality stuff and a really handy thing to have. I took factor 20 but used some Piz Buin factor 30 round the pool one day when I was feeling a little sunburnt and delicate!

The beach borders the hotel and is lovely white sand but there's lots of seaweed at the water's edge. It was quite windy when we were there so we didn't really go into the sea but we had some lovely walks along the beach. I think you can get a free shuttle bus to their sister hotel Sun Palace, where theres a totally idyllic beach and still get your all inclusive privilieges but we didn't feel we needed/wanted to. Speaking of shuttles, the areas of the hotel aren't that far apart (maybe 5 mins from Nizuc to either Sunrise or Moon Grand?) but if you can't be bothered you can get a golf buggy or there's a shuttle bus which is constantly going round in a circle.

The first couple of days the weather was a bit mixed - lots of rain although it was still very warm - but there's lots to do in the hotel so we never got bored. We had some lovely long jacuzzi baths, drank amazing hot chocolate in the tea shop, played crazy golf in the rain and worked out way through the cocktail lists at the bars. The bars are all premium spirits...it's unbelievable. If you want a G&T you can choose between Tanqueray and Bombay Sapphire! There's tonnes of space to chill out and constant supply of bubbly and crisps to keep you going!

You can also borrow bikes (which are in really good condition), kayacks, wind surfing stuff etc. free too. And the crazy golf was fun too...especially after a couple of cocktails! We took our bikes on our second to last day and cycled round the grounds to where the horses are (you can have a horse and cart to your wedding ceremony) and they loved a fuss. We also spotted coaties (mexican raccoons) on the golf course - super cute! And huge iguanas! Apparently there are crocodiles in the rainforesty bits of the resort too, but we ddn't see any of those!

The Brazilian Grill restaurant (Arricifes - but that might not be the right spelling!!) is off the Nizuc lobby and the food was amazing. They come round with great big skewers of different grilled meats for you to try. In hindsight, they brought them all a bit too quickly so if we went again, I would tell them to do another lap and come back to me! They do flaming Mayan coffees after pudding too - you have to have one even if you don't drink it because the theatre of it is brill! Coporales is the Mexican restaurant, also off the Nizuc lobby. We went there twice - it was heaven. I'd recommend the Coporales Grill for main!

There's a bar called 'The Pub' which is beautifully British themed which is in the Nizuc lobby and open til 1am but if you want to be up later, you have to go to Sunrise, where there's the SkyBar (lovely bar upstairs) or Noir, which is the nightclub. The nightclub looks stunning but was a bit quiet when we went! We did meet some random Americans though and had a great giggle!

One night we also used some of our resort credit to upgrade to the 'Romantic Dinner' it was £399 resort dollars, I think, which cost us $48 in taxes. If they ask you to go to a welcome meeting to talk about it, or to a meeting to talk about 'your next visit' (by which they mean time shares) don't bother! They will just try and sell you stuff ;) If you have any questions about stuff to do, just ask me! So anyway, the dinner was lush! If the weather is nice, they set it up on the beach or if not, in one of their lovely function rooms. It's 5 courses with a cocktail to start, the bubbly, then we had white to start and finished on red. That's definitely worth it - we had a really nice evening. You have to remember about paying tax on the resort credit...like the spa treatments are mega overpriced but when you look at the taxes, they are pretty reasonable. And the jacuzzi and steam room in the spas are really nice (although men's and women's are separate - although you do have your massage together). You could also have a photoshoot, which we didn't, but kinda wish we had because we spoke to some other couples who said it was good fun! You can use your credit in the shops, but only on certain items up to a certain value, so bear that in mind.

We only took US dollars, and that was fine. We tipped a bit, not loads but probably $50 across the week to the maid, the bell boys, waiters and bar staff. You get great service anyway, so it's not one of those places where you need to tip to get drinks service round the pool, but the guys were working so hard, they really deserved it! Some of the prices at their airport were in Mexican Pesos (exchange rate was about 13 pesos to $1) but they took dollars no problem.

Right, I really do need to go back to work, but Katie, I hope this has helped! Do you know which area you're staying in? xxxx

SARAH Thankyou for all the amazing info you have really helped I'm so happy you loved it as it makes me more excited to get there and experience all the lovely things you've spoke about sounds incredible :)

I keep rereading this post with a grin on my face whooooo I will be there on Tuesday intone for tea haha ;-)

Thankyou so much for the info chick I will let hubby read this later and get back to you with some questions hehe XxxxX
 
SARAH Thankyou for all the amazing info you have really helped I'm so happy you loved it as it makes me more excited to get there and experience all the lovely things you've spoke about sounds incredible :)

I keep rereading this post with a grin on my face whooooo I will be there on Tuesday intone for tea haha ;-)

Thankyou so much for the info chick I will let hubby read this later and get back to you with some questions hehe XxxxX

Oh my gosh, seeing it in quotes makes me realise how much I waffled on! Hopefully it's helpful though!

Yeah definitely shout if hubby has any questions :)

I'm so envious you're going back - you're going to absolutely love it!

xxx
 
OMG Sarah sounds like you had the most amazing time!! Love hearing the details :D

Lovely how your boy is still in holiday mode, why not?!

How did the business meeting go?

Lots of love xxxx
 
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