Today was my first day in our new office.  I was almost hyperventilating with excitement when I realised exactly where it was.  When I realised it was literally a few metres away from one of my favourite urban streets on the planet.

About a 3 minute walk brought me to Seven Dials 🙂 Which is in the middle of my shopping Nirvana.  Even the stone in the road is attractive here. Yes, it’s Monmouth Street.  I absolutely love, love, love  Monmouth Street. I like the funky and unusual clothes shops – at least 2 of which sell things I can buy.  This could get expensive. This was a disappointment.  A pop up chocolate shop.  I hope it pops down soon because I was lured in, given a free bar of chocolate and tempted to try others.  All very delicious but not the thing for a weak woman on a diet. I’ll stick to clothes and homeware shops as they have far fewer calories. Beauty product shops are acceptable for lunch time shopping.  Can you see what is next to Kiehl’s? Monmouth Coffee Company !!!!!!  This is the one I discovered first (before the one in Borough Market) and I used to drop in on my way to classes when I was studying Nutritional Therapy. I popped in for old time’s sake – it had to be done!I needed somewhere for lunch and wandered hopefully in to Neal’s Yard.  It is so bright and funky you can not fail to smile and feel cheery in here.

I decided to try the Wild Food Cafe which ticks lots of boxes as it’s organic, has lots of raw and vegan foods and seems to be very fresh.  It only had a very limited menu and was expensive but I tried it anyway.  The staff were friendly and efficient and the cafe was bright and colourful but I had to get back to work so I ordered take out. I would have enjoyed sitting in though.Sprouted humous on sourdough with green salad.

Then one of the best brownies I have ever had. It was moist, dense, nutty and had an amazing fudgey topping.  Plus probably a squillion calories, particularly as it was a huge slice.

This is meant to be a weight loss and getting healthy blog, not a blog about Zoe’s shopping aspirations and moist brownie addiction.  Well the weight loss has suffered a major setback although I have eaten some really healthy and delicious meals recently.

Such as a poached egg on spinach and tomato for breakfast yesterday. And the wonderful chicken soup I made with chicken, swede, carrots, split peas, onion, celery, leeks and parsley. Cooked for hours in the slow cooker.  I then blended 2/3 of it to create a thick soup but left lots of chunks of chicken and vegetables, plus I added sweetcorn near the end of the cooking time. It was really delicious, although my photo does not do it justice.Unfortunately I have also eaten LOADS and loads of really naughty things.  I have been socialising too much which is not an excuse as everywhere I have been I could have either abstained or eaten a healthy option. But I rarely did.

For example on Sunday I went to Sally’s for lunch.  She had made a delicious butternut squash casserole which I could have had with salad but I had a sausage and then seconds as it was all so lovely. For dessert I could have had fresh fruit but I didn’t.  Well I did, but I also had roulade. And chocolate cake !I missed getting weighed last week as I opted to go to the pub with Jackie and Stella instead which was great fun but naughty.  I knew I would have put on weight last week so I didn’t go.  This week I knew I had put more on again but I made myself go.  It was bad, really bad.  I put 6 pounds on which is stupid.  Really stupid.  I have eaten too many sugary foods and done very little exercise.  I am going to put that right tomorrow by getting up earlier and walking before I get to work.  I am going to take food in too as I was doing well when I took my lunch and breakfast in.  This dieting lark is difficult!