The post about a London adventure, feeling shite and getting back to reality

Flight from Stockholm to London...then at my lodging in London!

Thanks to Lynda over at Living the Life, I was able to recreate my lost blog from last week. If you've already read this, skip over it. If not, you can still skip over it. I re-entered it for me to be honest:-) Thanks all the same Lynda. You rock!!!!

What an adventure I have had. Time to return to reality:-) And trust me, I'm so happy to be home with my family. It was definitely hard being away from Julien. Especially since he was cast a few days before I left. He is no longer in a cast. Turned out his broken fibula was just a sprain. Thank goodness!!!!

I traveled from Stockholm to London on the 16th. I had a hard time that day. I was missing my family. And I was nervous to be traveling to London alone. Getting from Heathrow to Central London seemed a daunting task. And it was. I landed at the most inopportune time. Five pm. That's right. I got into London during rush hour. I was stuck in a subway car with no escape at 6:30pm. Luckily some Londoner in a suit took pity on me and got me out of the Tube at my stop. I think crying uncontrollably helped!

I stayed in Camden in Central London. Which was awesome. Walking distance to everywhere. And surprisingly enough I knew about a lot of places in London from the historic romance novels I read. Hangs head in shame...

Sites seen around London:-)

• I was blessed to meet some really awesome people in London. I was treated like a Queen. I met up with Frank whom I follow on Twitter. He took me around London on foot. I honestly have no idea how far we walked, but we walked a lot. Such a gentleman Frank was. We've been friends on Twitter for a while and it was a pleasure to finally meet him.
• I also met with my best friend's cousin. We haven't seen each other since the "wedding party" seven years ago, so it was super great to catch up! Val took me to Cafe Rouge at Hays Galleria for salad and wine. Lots of laughing an a fun evening!
• I also had the very humbling privilege of meeting with a couple of my favorite bloggers Tanvee and Ayesha. Such an awesome experience and such beautiful women inside and out. And I got to meet Tanvee's extremely lovely husband Terrence. Such a great person and they are so incredibly cute together! 

Clockwise: Ayesha, Tanvee and Terrence, Val, Frank

Something that was not on point during my vacation? My exercise and food consumption. I ran the half marathon with Tanya on the 13th...and that's it. Yes I walked a lot, but didn't run again until yesterday morning. I ran a pretty brutal 6K. I knew it wasn't going to be fun, but I sucked it up and did it. I felt better for having gotten out there. This evening I'm cycling 21K up the escarpment and back down. Need to just get right back into doing what I need to do. 

While away I definitely over indulged. In wine and cheese. No grains, but wine, cheese and sauces. In Sweden the cheese is ridiculously delicious. Cheese and dates and wine. And in London, the blue cheese is equally delicious. I have eaten more cheese in the past couple of weeks than I have in the last year before that! So how did my digestive system do with all this cheese? It got used to it. Dairy no longer bothers me. This is not good! So starting yesterday...No more dairy! And wine only on the weekend again. And only protein and veggies grown above ground for the next month. I feel bloated and ugh! My clothing still fits, but doesn't feel right. I don't have a scale since we moved but I will be weighing in at the gym. I need to detoxify.

And I need to start running regularly again. Running is my favorite exercise. It's what works me the hardest and I felt best physically and emotionally when I ran 5 days a week. So starting yesterday, I'm going back to my 5-day running schedule. Mondays and Fridays are my running rest days. Today I'm going to cycle, but in the future those are the days I'll be going to the gym. So I aim to be active everyday of the week. 

Next month I find out if I'm going to be heading back over the pond in April to run the London Marathon. If I get a lottery spot, it will be my first and likely only marathon. My Morton's Neuroma makes it very difficult for me to run long distance. The half marathon and 30K is doable for me. Doable but painful. Adding another 12K onto that could be torturous. But if given the opportunity, I'd have to do it. It will be a challenge and I won't back down from a challenge.

So here I am. Back in reality. It's great to be home with my family again. I missed them loads. And Skype is an awesome thing. Even when you're far away, you don't feel like it. Back to work today. A crisp fall day it's going to be. My favorite time of year for the clothing options. And I'm bringing my lunch. Two cans of salmon, broccoli and lots of cucumber. Today is day 2 of Operation Detoxify European Vacation. I'm not even going to remotely whine or complain. I could have done things differently and chose not to. So now it's time to pay the piper. And I need to just do it:-)

Drank cappuccino every day here in London. Apparently I am the nations favorite coffee place:-)