Food shouldn't taste so good!

 Monday 11th November 2024

It's never a bad thing to start over if you feel you need to!  Anyone who knows me, knows I regularly start over with refocusing on my eating habits - I JUST BLOOMIN LOVE FOOD!  Plus the little 'issue' of red wine too :) 

Today, I'll try again to lose a few pounds before Christmas because I really do want to be able to drink Baileys and eat chocolate over the holidays without panicking that my clothes won't fit me on January 2nd!  

If I can lose a bit then I can gain a bit - not the best attitude for some I guess but that is me and I'm not likely to change at almost 55!  Could I?  Of course!  Will I?  Nah, I like being me, even with the spare tyre.  Don't get me wrong if I woke up tomo two stone lighter, I'd be good with that but am I will to not do all the things that cause that extra weight - erm NAH, I'm not. 

However, I'm having a word with myself again and asking if I'm willing to tweak a little and aim for making small changes even if they're not every day.  Yeah I am, I'm going for slow, slow, slow going forward because it's not working the other way.  I lose a couple of pound when I haven't expected too and then I think I've got it nailed.  

This week I will work at tracking everything to try and understand how my metabolism works, ooo I like the idea of the run up to Christmas as being me pressing a massive reset button and using this time as a pre run for next year, me getting to know my body again and what works, what doesn't.

I've planned our meals for the next four evenings, using up leftover pork for a spaghetti and sauce dish today, Aryn can have leftover steak with chips tomo and I'll have egg and beans with mine, I'm doing taco beef I think Wednesday and Chicken Nashville on Thursday, a packet mix thing that was reduced in Tesco, I have a couple of frozen breasts that can go with that.

If I can use up all the stuff I've got in the freezer, stay away from shops, I'll be able to do a bit of Christmas shopping for stocking fillers. 

Despite the lack of losing weight, I've had a wonderful week, went back to the gym, we had a lesson at Millride Saturday after a nice quiet night in the Lancaster, they had a singer who was actually very good, the music was just too loud where we were sat so had to move.  Maybe I'm just getting old!

Life is good regardless of the number on the scales, it's not my fault, dinner shouldn't taste so delicious :) 

Right, I have a busy day, so I better get started.

Hope you're world is good and your mind is calm.

Have a great day,

Mwah, luv ya

Love me!

50 days - seriously!

Monday 4th November 2024

It's been a few weeks since I blogged, getting up early and having stuff to do, I just haven't had time, plus I feel like I'm just writing the same things over and over, then there's stuff I can't include because it involves others who don't want to be wrote about or it's stuff I can't share on social media for reasons I've been advised not to. 

Let's focus on the stuff I can share then :) I can't believe how quickly that time has gone, it bonkers, there's only 50 days left time Christmas, that's just madness, I haven't even began to think about it, never mind have the money to cover it.  That's scary!  The same questions every year - what shall I buy them!

Back to now, I can't be thinking about that today!  So it's been a week since we were side swiped in the car driving home, insurance company said the car was an uneconomical repair so they would be writing it off.  I didn't want to lose it, I can't get a car like that for the money they were going to give me.  We decided to keep it, get the difference between what they'd have paid us minus the value CoParts would give them for it and fix it ourselves which we've done.  The only job now is to get the alloys sorted but they can wait, we've had it MOT'd as requested by the insurance company and it passed.  This meant Saturday was mostly spent sorting that!

The weekends gone too quickly as they always do, we enjoyed it though and I made a lovely lamb Sunday dinner, love the dehydrate option in my Ninja, it cooks lamb and beef so well.  We had an early night and I got up at 3.30am as he was off and I like to make him a drink and make sure he goes lol.  Couldn't go back to sleep, tried and failed so I'm catching up on Big Brother and I've just had poached eggs on toast using Jamie's way, it wasn't the best, the yolk was perfect but the white just disappeared through the slots!  PaulFosterChef (@paulfosterchef) Official | TikTok This version has worked for me in the past.

We're having lasagne for tea, I remembered to take it out the freezer yesterday YAY!  I'm gonna go to the gym this morning, I want to build up some strength in my arms and I'm back doing some of my physio exercises because of my back/leg, I've resorted to pain killers for a bit cos I need to sleep.

Can't believe Aryn's back at school this morning, where did those two weeks go!  We've eaten out and had takeaways so the scales haven't gone down but only went up a little so it's all good.

Coco and I are having a bit of love on the sofa, he purrs so loudly bless him, had him 2 years now which means he's about 5 years old, gorgeous boy he is.

Apart from the gym and planning our Be Happy Owls chat, I'm going to have a chill out day, I'll wash up and tidy the kitchen but that's my lot, I have control of the remote and I plan to use it ;) 

I'll be having an early night too, cos I have the bed to myself - yay.

Damn I love my life, told ya it was boring :) 

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me x

Blown Away Weekend!

Monday 21st October 2024

What a different weekend to last weekend, same place but the weather WOW!  Almost 50mph winds and dreadful rain thanks to Storm Ashley but we still had a lovely weekend, thankfully I arrived before it started.

I drove down after our huddle Saturday morning, took me 45 minutes to get from J10 M6 to J8, thankfully after that it was clear, we put the MH on a different pitch so we could have a meal and drink without having to have a taxi or walk far to get back.  Sadly the pub we chose didn't live up to our expectations!  Chewy steak which I left, this was dealt with badly by the chef who told the waitress to inform me that this cut of beef is chewy!  SERIOUSLY lol, I'm like forget it, he went to pay bill and they knocked 10% off the steak - £1.80, ridiculous, then they offered us a free dessert because they could see I wasn't pleased, we declined, I wanted a dinner not a pudding!  The owner then bought me a free drink over which just made things worse tbh, we drank up and left, I gave the waitress a tip because it wasn't her fault and I could tell she was mortified with the situation.  As we're almost back out the van, a lady came running towards us asking if I was the one who returned the steak, I'm assuming she was also the owner, I said yes and she went on to apologise and informed me she'd had words with the chef and went to hand me the money for my meal.  I said 'it was never about the money, it was the fact the steak wasn't good and she could give the money to the waitress because she'd had to handle the situation' so my dinner Saturday was chips and a few mushrooms and tomatoes lol.  

Thankfully we had a dvd to watch in the van because there was no phone/wifi signal either - early night for us!

The wind was dreadful all night and the rain was lashing down, those poor people in the field in tents!  Sunday morning we moved the MH early in case the tree by us decided to blow over in the winds.  We went back to his regular pitch and spend the rest of the day watching tv and chilling.

We did indulge in crisps so I wasn't on track this weekend at all.  Hey Ho, line drawn, back to it, I'm home now and I'm going to chill out for the rest of the day, the jobs can all wait till tomorrow!

I listened to a great audiobook driving down and back, Honeymoon for One by Portia Macintosh, easy read, funny (I even laughed out loud at it) and romance, no depth at all but I'd just done a deep read, I wanted light. 

Here's to improving my eating this week, although I'd love a slice of victoria sponge for some reason which is random as I don't really do cake!  It'll wear off I'm sure. 

Have a great week, 

Mwah, luv ya

Love me

How can it be midweek already!

 Wednesday 16th October 2024

Sometimes you don't get what you want!  I expected a maintain or a small loss yesterday and I gained 1.5lb!  I was surprisingly okay with the result because our bodies aren't machines.  This past few weeks I've had covid, so my body has dealt with that, I haven't eaten or drunk as much, and then last week I was better.  I'd lost 3.5lb last week which I didn't expect, so even with the gain, I've still lost 2lb over 2 weeks and that's good.  

Yesterday I was hungrier than I have been for a few weeks, not sure if that was genuine hunger or my sub conscious saying 'well we didn't lose, so....' but I went for good healthy food.  I ate the other half of the beetroot bomb I bought with mushrooms in a wrap, I had a cup a soup, the edamame salad I'd bought from the farm shop.  I nipped in Tesco on my way home and they had a spinach and pine nut pesto pasta reduced to £1 and I love that, so I took that for my tea and it was lush.  I also went in Farm Foods for some pop for Aryn and bought some Bernard Matthews wafer thin turkey ham - WOW it was way saltier than I remember it being when I used to eat it years ago, true processed meat at it's finest, won't buy that again.

Plant points list for the week ended at about 25, can do better and that's the plan for the week ahead, Are you getting your 30 plants a week? Plant points explained - BBC Food in case you don't know what they are.  List for yesterday includes

Spinach

Pine nuts

edamame beans

sun dried tomatoes 

beetroot 

carrot 

cumin seeds

chestnut mushrooms

olives

I'm impressed there as I didn't think I'd managed that many yesterday as I ate a lot of bready products, I'm going shopping today and buying some fruit and veggies.

I've got an olive soda bread that I bought on my way back Monday, it was a bit tough so I'm thinking of making a savoury bread bake with it to use it up and not waste it. 

Yeah, I don't like wasting food but I'm not gonna eat it just for the sake of it!

Right let's start the day, Tracktober is half way through, we got this!

Mwah, luv ya

Love me cc

Great Weekend!

Monday 14th October 2024

I've not just had the best weekend but I've also tracked everything and not felt like I've missed out on anything. 

I drove down to Dorset Friday, after settling everything at the MH we drove into Swanage to enjoy some fish and chips, 

Absolutely delicious and I left some, I didn't have anything else that evening either.  

Saturday morning we had a cooked breakfast in a pub where we went to check out their campsite for the future, we also opted for the small both of us, I gave him my hash brown though as I'm not a huge fan. 

After enjoying this we drove to look at the Cerne Giant, now I hadn't done my research here so we parked in the car park and followed the arrows saying 'giant hill', little did I realised until we got to the NT sign that to get the view of the giant you were better pulling into the layby at the side of the road and looking up lol, we'd walked up the hill and underneath the giant before realising this '-) that red line - oops, he had his best boots on too, they're all muddy now! 

We then drove to Abbotsbury Swannery, which has been there for over 600 years and in breeding season there can be up to 1,000 swans, after walking round, we did the Swan Maze, I'm a big wuss, shouting 'don't leave me, I'm scared I'll get stuck in here' when he started walking fast. 

We drove back to Swansea through glorious countryside, finding a parking space to leave the car for the night so we could have a few drinks and food.  I ordered seabass and samphire, was good, my photos not great. 

We had to walk 1 hour 15 minutes for a taxi, I wished I'd known as I'd have booked it earlier, was so ready for bed when we got back. 

Sunday he'd treated me to a nature trail with the National Trust we had our own ATV and driver who took us along the beach and through the dunes telling us all about the area, explaining how the dunes formed, all very interesting.

our ATV!

From there we drove to Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove and had our lunch there, I didn't eat again after eating this plateful of yummyness, I couldn't finish it either.  I did indulge in a bottle of wine when we got back to the MH though.

Perfect end to a perfect weekend.  Left early this morning and stopped at a couple of farm shops, one I've wanted to visit for a while because they make the best pies and I normally get them from Ocado so it was great to go buy them from source. Pies & Pastries | Thorner's (thornersofsomerset.co.uk)  I then stopped at the farm shop services on the M5 just after Junction 12, it's a bit expensive but I bought things that were reduced to try :) breakfast was a piece of black pudding - weird maybe but I fancied it, then for lunch I had a smoked trout cob, all reduced from the farm shop.

 

I'll be having an early night tonight as last night was unsettled, heavy rain in a MH makes for disturbed sleep!  Lots of dreaming too, I don't like dreaming at all. 

On a positive, huddle chat is prepared, house isn't too messy, I'm thinking I might have a toasted teacake for dinner and look forward to being weighed tomorrow - fingers crossed I lose anything, I'm not expecting lots, 1/2lb will do, I want to live and lose, enjoy life and be able to chip away at the numbers.

Here's to making it through another week.

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me xx 

Another day in the bag...

Thursday 10th October 2024

Short blog today, got to leave the house at half seven to get to the huddle at Bloxwich Mem, I'm still on track and tracking it all honestly, easy - no, worth it - yes!

Yesterday I had omelette for breakfast, adding to my plant points, so I'd already had 5, 

carrots

broccoli

potatoes

cauliflower

banana

I added 

yellow pepper

red pepper

mushrooms

wholemeal bread

Then with dinner, which was leftover lamb from Sunday served in pitta breads with salads and dips, blooming tasty it was, the lads loved it. 

  

Adding 

onion

cucumber

lettuce

white cabbage

tomatoes

I'm on  14 so far, now to see if I can add other stuff over the rest of the week! 

I finally got the remote back last night which meant I was able to catch up on MAFS and BB, you can't beat a bit of crap tv and a glass of wine, I love it, I nearly got the bed to myself too but the damn cats got under the bed before I had chance to close the door and then I couldn't shut the door because I couldn't get them out the room so I've not had the best sleep because Coco purrs so loudly!  

It's all good though, it's Thursday, a day full of huddles, the most difficult thing I have to do today is decide what we're having for dinner - mmm what shall we have for dinner?!

Here's to making it through 100% on track, we got this :)

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me xx 

Yay I lost 3.5lb!

Wednesday 9th October 2024

I lost 3.5lb in the first week of tracktober, I was really chuffed with that, writing it all down really, really, helps!  It helps you to see whether you're eating healthy, having those 5 a day etc, not just if you're within your calorie allowance! 

As he was home, he took me for lunch, we went to the Lancaster and I have to say it was good grub, plus on a Tuesday 12-4pm it's buy 1 main get one free so we both had belly pork for £15.99, bargain.  Now this is where you need to be impressed, I cut it in half and gave him half my pork, then I removed most of the fat, I was still full by the end of it and I enjoyed my lunch out.  As the calories weren't on the menu, I used the app to guestimate the calories. 

 

I wasn't really hungry again later but when he had cheese and biscuits I had a couple of those, perfect and meant I ended on track and under budget.  Here's to getting through the rest of the week.

Our huddle challenge this week is to get Plant Points, this is going to be a challenge for me too as I need to mix up what I'm eating, so yesterday I managed 5 points, I need to up my game because they recommend 30 a week but you can't repeat a plant point, it has to be different ones, so I had a banana yesterday, if I had one again that won't count as each plant only counts once.

I need to use up the leftover lamb today, I've bought pitta breads and wraps so they can have either, I suppose I could freeze it if it doesn't get used.  The meeting chat has made me fancy an omelette so that's gone on my to eat list, I can't eat everything in one day!

Anyway, I need to shower and get ready for work this morning, here's to another great day,

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me xx