Clean & Lean - Day 23-25

This weekend the benefits of all this exercising and healthy eating I've been doing the last few months really hit home.

We went away for an active weekend in Snowdonia where we did mountain biking on the hair-raising tracks of Coed y Brenin, and climbed up and down Snowdon; the second highest peak in the UK.

Just to set the scene; around a year ago I did a big climb. It was a disaster. I stopped half way up the mountain/hill and had a strop; I sat down in a field in the rain and refused to move any further for a full 15 minutes. My boyfriend was not impressed. This time was completely different. It still hurt; the mountain was bigger, longer and steeper, but I didn't stop. We didn't stop at the cafe, we didn't stop at the top (it was peeing with rain), we didn't stop to eat (we ate on the go) and we didn't stop on the way down . I even jogged down parts of the mountain where it was not so steep. It was mega.

I'm hurting a little now though, and weighed 61.5kg on the scales. DOMS attack! Or it could be that slab of banoffee pie I ate at that quirky little cafe... hmm.

Also this weekend I also had a drink for the first time in 30 days! It tasted strong. I was drunk after 1 glass of wine, and hungover about an hour later. For the first time I fully realised what alcohol does to you, after experiencing it's effects on a body that has been super-clean for 1 month. It is poison. I slept dreadfully; I was headachey, overheated; sweating, tossing and turning in the night, with bad dreams and a dry mouth. Now breaking my alcohol fast on the same day as trekking up, and running down, a mountain, was possibly not the most sensible thing to do, but it seemed like a good idea at the time (I find having a drink usually does).

I'm lucky having a boyfriend who is pretty active, and I quizzed him about the alcohol thing.

• When he's racing (he does road biking races) he cuts right down on his alcohol. He finds out it affects his performance for weeks after having a drink in a really noticeable way.
• One drink is usually ok, but 2 or more is when the effects kick in.

So I'm going to take a page from his book, and limit my alcohol intake to 1 glass again, with a 2 day break in between drinking days, especially during the week. Hopefully that will be the right balance of having the odd treat, without affecting my exercise performance too much.