I started the day with the best intentions, a 7 km walk along the Merri Creek. I've been wanting to walk from my place to the zoo which is 8 km just to prove to myself that I can walk 8 km. There is a sign near here that says the zoo is 4 km away so that's what I was going to do. The only trouble is that the sign is confusing - I thought the walk was along the Merri Creek trail but no, that goes nowhere near the zoo. When I worked that out, I had no idea how far I'd walked but judging by the dodgy maps along the trail, I'd say 7-7.5 km sounds about right. Arrghh.. by the time I got to the last km, the sun was out in full force and I'd left the shady banks of the creek. I was so happy to see my front door.

I'd been invited to a friend's place for drinks in the afternoon. Well, half way through lunch I got a message - they'd changed it to a lunch time BBQ instead. I looked at my avocado and vegemite toast and thought I could ditch the uneaten slice in the bin but it was really yummy avocado toast so I finished it, promising myself to have just one sausage at the BBQ. My net calories (food less exercise) for the day were in the negative so I had a bit of leeway to indulge.

Before lunch, we had bread and dips. Not your dodgy Chris's Hommus from the fridge at Coles style dip but scrumptious homemade dips - dhal and a walnut, dried tomato concoction (shudder to think of the fat in that). I had one of those skinless sausages in bread. Then I had to try a big, fat Cornish sausage (kind of like a Cornish pastie in sausage form).

At that point, I was full but not doing too bad. So we watched the race and I won the sweep and I had a couple of wine spritzers (aren't I doing well? I used to be a total cup day lush and would need a nap by the time the race started. Seriously, I'd never even heard of Makybe Diva before cos every year I'm napping).

Then we headed to the park and lazed on the grass, grazing on dips and breads and crackers and I think there was some cheese there somewhere and then apples soaked in Baileys (surprisingly good). I think I ate a lot but, after drinking a 1.25 litre bottle of Diet Coke plus at least twice that in water, I find it hard to judge.

At least I was the voice of reason when going out for dinner was mentioned! Eating dinner after that feast? Arrghh, no way! I thought about going for a swim but was worried I'd sink.

So I came home and worked out an estimate of calories. I'd thought sausages were about 1,000 calories each but they are way less! Still not something I want to eat every day but a very worthwhile treat.

Tomorrow's going to be a light day, that's for sure (don't you hate the term "light day", sounds like a tampon ad). With lots of exercise. But I don't think I did too much damage.


Just to finish, before I roll my bloated body into bed, I had a thought while walking this morning. I do a fair bit of walking but my walking is mostly random - I'll walk home from work or whatever and try to do it as fast as possible but you can't really time walking through the city - a run of luck, good or bad, with traffic lights can mean up to 15 minutes difference either way.

So I was thinking I want to give myself two different walking challenges - one is to walk the same route - I have a route in mind that is around 4 km - and challenge myself to walk it faster each time.

The second challenge is to do a longer walk and increase the distance each time.

I figure this gives me a lot of flexibility and variety and with daylight savings is something I can do every day.