Love, a great restaurant, chocolates and losing 6 kilos … what a week!

If there was ever a challenging week when it comes to food – this one was it!

Our office has been bombarded by gifts containing the very best chocolate money can buy – for me, Ferrero Rocher and Lindt balls of chocolatey goodness all count in that category.

My finacee and I also celebrated the anniversary of when we met on December 20. And, guess what he got me:

Yum! But, another temptation. I’ve obviously been doing ok so far. As of today I have lost almost 6 kilograms, including 10 centimetres around my waist – 5 off my hips and also bits and pieces from my calves, thighs and arms. My clothes are starting to feel loser, and even my watch and rings are getting looser too. I’m loving it!

Speaking of food – we also went to Geelong’s Empire Grill for dinner to celebrate – and there was no holding back.

The happy couple

I had pork belly with butternut squash puree and mushroom vinaigrette for entrée and Matt had gnocchi with duck and cherry tomatoes. I have to admit I was so hungry, I forgot to take a photo, but it was absolutely delicious!

Next, we had steak – I had Wagyu rump, with house-made chips and a asparagus and avocado salad.

I’m not sure if it’s all the healthy eating I’ve been doing, but I actually only had a few of the chips. Not that they weren’t fabulous – I just seem to have lost my desire for them. I can’t tell you how happy this makes me because chips were definitely my weakness! Not chocolate or lollies or cake, but chips. The steak was perfectly cooked to my liking, which as you can see, is medium to rare. It was succulents and juicy and tasted like steak should.

Matt has rib-eye on the bone with chat potatoes (which I would have preferred on my plate – they were very yummy) and a cafe de paris butter. Every mouthful was heaven and that is something coming from me, who swears by Neil Perry and his Rockpool Bar and Grill.

We pondered dessert – yes we will – actually no, we’ll just get the bill – but at the end of the day, it was our anniversary and there’s nothing quite as romantic as sitting in the corner of a restaurant and sharing dessert. So, we did.

We had the chocolate trilogy (anything with that name would have to be amazing!) – chocolate brownie, white chocolate panacotta, dark chocolate sorbet. The panacotta was by far my favourite – and Matt adored the sorbet. We definitely weren’t fighting over the same thing – which was nice And you have to love the sweet, white chocolate message they left for us.

And it was delicious too!

I know what you’re thinking – what about the diet? Well, my answer is, I’m not on a diet. I’m good most of the time, and then on special occasions, like this one, I get to just enjoy myself. I have been very public about my pursuit to lose weight – and sadly this means if you decide to eat out, or God forbid eat a piece of chocolate, then some people chose to make guilt-inducing comments.

But, I’m not going to let that get to me. I said from the outset – if I can’t enjoy myself from time to time and still eat wonderful food that I enjoy – then I’d rather be fat for the rest of my life – and I would be because any eating plan where you can’t eat things you enjoy isn’t sustainable. That’s why people fail.

What did we do after our amazing dinner? We went for a walk down along the foreshore where we went on our first date. It was so special to retrace out steps and to recall the things we talked about the beautiful Sunday afternoon in 2009. It just so happens that there is a huge ferris wheel on the bay for the summer - and so we decided, why not, let’s have a ride.

Once I paid for our tickets - my nerves really started to kick in. I don’t go on rides – at all! I knew going on a ferris wheel was meant to be romantic – it seemed like the perfect end to an amazing night – until it started to move. I held onto Matt’s hand and buried my face into his shoulder, telling him I couldn’t look knowing we were going higher and higher. He kept reassuring me and saying how beautiful the view was. I peaked, holding on even tighter.

As always, Matt was right – the view was amazing and by the time we had gone around for the third time, I was having an absolute ball. I felt like a kid again!

Matt was as cool as a cucumber the whole time, except for nearly hitting his head on the way off the ride – now that would have hurt!

I was up at 6am the next morning with gym gear on running like a mad woman on the cross trainer and counting the flights on the step machine. Life is all about balance, I think. There’s no point depriving yourself – or being too indulgent. Me = 1 Guilt = 0

This time next year, Matt and I will be married and about to celebrate our first Christmas as husband and wife. I can’t wait!