What a week!

The kids fell like dominoes with horrible colds and I crashed in the early hours of Monday with bouts of coughing and sneezing so I took my leave and worked from home feeling very sorry for myself and in need of a little edible comfort…

I vaguely recall an old wives tale which goes something like ‘feed a cold and gorge a fever’ so I thought this was my green light to stock up my reserves in a bid to get well but, to be honest, I really didn’t feel like much when it came down to it so I opted for some fresh coffee and chocolate caramel biscuits on the basis that I thought the protein in the chocolate might help but after wolfing down most of the packet and deservedly feeling as sick as a dog I gave up and didn’t really have much more solid intake for the rest of the day.

The following day I managed to drag myself into London for a meeting in the City and contented myself with a few sips of mineral water as a coughing fit took hold on the train but at least this saw off the person next to me for fear of contracting my germs giving me space to spread out for the rest of the journey and have a brief snooze. Fell back onto the train home after the meeting throughout which I think I’d terrorized my colleagues as we were all stuck in a basement room together and the dry air brought on my manic hacking.

Started feeling a bit better mid-week but my appetite was still eluding me so I took this as a good thing and ate mainly fruit and salad, although definitely not enough energy to do much exercise.

Thursday was a different story though and my craving for something tasty gripped me with a vengeance sending me along the dark path of indulgence: coffee and cake at the station, burger and fries at lunch, chocs in the afternoon, beer after work and a takeaway when I got home meaning I went to bed feeling like the proverbial fatted calf – still at least I was on the mend!

So in my battle to be a bit healthier, I can’t help feeling that fate is a cruel mistress denying me the opportunity to really get into my stride for another week – maybe I’m just doomed to be a porker…?

On the savings front though the outlook is a bit brighter as I do seem to have largely broken the morning coffee habit and have cut down a bit at lunch – my cold even put me off the evening’s gin guzzling which I’m going to try and keep up so I should be on track to save around half of the £4,000 I was aiming for so not too bad.

I also learnt that the old wives tale is actually ‘starve a cold and feed a fever’ – not quite sure how I lost the translation…wishful thinking perhaps?!