Did you Stick to It in September?

30^th September 2014

You know, all that really matters is that the people you love are happy and healthy.  Everything else is just sprinkles on the sundae.  Paul Walker.

Welcome to Tuesday, let’s make the last day of September a fabulous day, I’m up for that!  I finally planted all my bulbs, that’s the last time I get carried away in a garden centre, planting bulbs is not a fun job, it has to be said, hopefully it’ll be worth it next spring when they all come up and fill my garden with beauty.  I do lose myself in my garden; I even forgot lunch because of it, forgetting to eat isn’t something that happens often. 

We did enjoy a chicken dinner though, using up the leftovers from the day before, I do enjoy doing Filling & Healthy I have to say, it means when I pick at the chicken on the carcass, I don’t have to worry about how much I’ve had. 

So believe it or not I’ve started week 6 of my journal yesterday, that’s the furthest I’ve got through one in a very long time, in those 5 weeks I’ve lost 2.5lb, an average of 1/2lb a week and I’ve decided I like the idea of ½’s, they mean I’m losing weight slowly enough to be able to indulge that little bit more than I would if I was aiming for the 1-2lb a week.   I’m not in a rush am I!  I’ll lose another half stone at that speed before Christmas, I can live with that and I still get to drink my wine which let’s be honest is a priority ‘-)!

Mom’s just woke up, she’s early this morning so I’ve put the kettle on, she decided yesterday she doesn’t want a steroid injection, her choice and we’ll cope.  I have to say she sounds like a baby elephant moving across the bedroom, she may only be ten stone but she moves like she’s ten tonne because of her limp ;-).  She’s over the moon with the money we’ve raised for Alzheimer’s so far, I keep reminding her it’s not for her.  Yesterday morning we had a few conversations about it;

Mom "How much we got now?"
Me "£45"
Mom "WOW"
Me "You're not getting it you know that right"
Mom "I know"
She didn't sound convincing!
Me "£55 you’re up to now mom"
Mom "WOW just for being me! They really must like me"
I love her I do xx
Thank you if you’ve already donated to Alzheimer’s already if not, to donate go to www.justgiving.com/mymom or text MOMS76 £1 to 70070 (you can change £1 to whatever amount you can spare).  

I did my food shop yesterday and planned my main meals whilst walking round, I took advantage of the 3 for £10 meat and I’m going to make a beef stew, chicken curry and we had a chicken dinner too.  I also bought the 5% beef mince, think I might make burgers with one tray and do the taco boats with the other, but not both this week, all too much beef for one week, I’m thinking salmon one day and fish curry maybe another. 

Right it’s a work day so time for a cuppa tea then I’m ready for action. 

I paid in the £220 to MacMillan we raised last week in my meetings, great to see cake do so much good, even if it did mean I had a stayed same at the scales – led me astray it did! Hey Ho, there’s always another day….

Here’s to ending September with a smile BeYOUtiful, have a great day.

Enjoy every day x

29^th September 2014

Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal.  Live this day as if it were your last.  The past is over and gone.  The future is not guaranteed.  Wayne Dyer

How about me only just turned on my pc at 7.45am, normally I’ve been up and at it for a few hours, this morning I stayed in bed and finished my book, was lovely, plus I’ve even started another one and am already 4 chapters in.  I didn’t get much done yesterday either, mom and I decided to have a very relaxed day, I read, she did her crosswords, I stayed away from the work side of Facebook and we ate a delicious dinner of fishcake, swede and potato mash with cabbage and cauliflower, it didn’t look to good all being pale food but it tasted delicious.  Yep yesterday was a lovely restful day and I plan to have many more of them in the future, work and rest should be balanced shouldn’t it.

Today I am most definitely going to plant the rest of my bulbs; I can’t keep putting it off and being lazy ;) I did manage to deadhead a few flowers in the garden yesterday and walk Alfie but that was as energetic as I got, I do love lazy days.

In my book the mother had Alzheimer’s, it’s a cruel illness, dementia of any kind is a very unfair condition and so last night I set up a Just Giving page, in my life I’ve done lot’s of things for charity, I’ve cycled across Laos, Trekked in the Himalayas and Peru, walked a marathon up Snowdon 3 times in one day, we even did a 15 mile sponsored walk last year on Cannock Chase, this is just a few of the things I’ve done and I’ve raised thousands, at least £25k I bet, I’ve not counted to be honest.  This time I’m doing NOTHING, I’m just asking for you to donate £1, if my mom’s ever made you giggle with her antics or I have with my stories of her and what she gets up too, or if you know anyone who has dementia, donate anything you can because one day it might be you and who’s going to take care of you?  To donate go to www.justgiving.com/mymom or text MOMS76 £1 to 70070 (you can change £1 to whatever amount you can spare).  I’m not being lazy by not doing a sponsored event, I’m actually saving money by not having to sort it all out, I’d rather spend the time with my mom, we never know how long any of us have and she’s one of my favourite people I like to spend time with. 

So I need to get back to reality today, I’m going to make another cuppa when I’ve written my blog, do some office work ready for the working week, then go check out what I have in my fridge and cupboards and plan some meals, plant my bulbs and take mom for a drive if she’s up for it.  I also need to arrange a doctor’s appointment for her if she’ll let me, her knees really hurting her at the moment, I was thinking they might be able to give her a steroid injection to ease the pain.

Not much to say today, I’m too chilled to think ain’t I!

Have a healthy & Happy day BeYOUtiful and remember the time we enjoy wasting is not wasted time at all xx

Make the life you want!

28^th September 2014

Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you should set up a life you don’t need to escape from.  Seth Godin

My fitbits telling me I’ve had 8hours 59 minutes of uninterrupted sleep, I didn’t really need my fitbit to tell me as I can feel it, feel really rested this morning, I’ve even just lay there reading for half hour this morning and that’s how I think the day will continue, this weekend is mostly about me, not work, not Weight Watchers but me and of course my lovely mother, I thoroughly enjoyed my day out Friday, yesterday I had a fantastic massage and chilled with my mom all afternoon, I made us afternoon tea (instead of lunch & dinner), we had sandwiches - ham & beetroot, cucumber, egg and ready salted crisps, plus of course the obligatory jam and cream scone, we then sat and watched a film (Jack Ryan) followed by two episodes of X Factor before having an early night.

Today I’m thinking more of the same, relaxation, maybe planting a few garden bulbs and reading my book in the garden whilst recharging my batteries, perfect weekend.  As my friend Liz said Friday when we were chatting “We make the life we want” and I’ve most certainly done that, I’m all for a quiet, uncomplicated, peaceful life that’s for sure.  

Speaking of Friday, here are the photo's for anyone that's interested https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152632919575862.1073741888.595730861&type=1&l=cff2578138 in true Beverley style, there's a lot of them!

I shall walk Alfie in a bit despite the 4 blisters, one of each little toe and two in the crease of the balls of your foot, thank the universe for thick fluffy socks and walking boots I say and next time I go to London, I shall wear them too!

This week hasn’t been a very ‘on track’ week to be honest, it started with a 1/2lb weight loss, I got kidnapped and force fed cake by MacMillan, Sheila my helper led me astray with curry flavour chip sticks, I was made to partake in G&T’s in First Class on the train and because I’m due on any day, I went along willingly with a “yeah who care - let’s do it” attitude!  The good thing is I did it knowing 100% that it was a short term thing and I’d get back to my usual healthy eating routine soon enough. 

That’s the beauty of Weight Watchers, it helps you change your relationship with food forever, it’s not a deprivation diet, those that don’t work because you starve yourself short term, or you eat weird combinations of food to lose weight, there’s none of that.  With Weight Watchers you can find a way to eat that suits you, as an individual, it’s not a one size fits all plan.  So just like Liz said we make the life we want, with Weight Watchers we can ‘make the diet we want’ too and by ‘diet’ I mean in the context of the food we choose to eat to help us achieve the body we want without deprivation, misery or feeling like it’s a torturous journey.  Food should be a friend not a foe, eating should be enjoyable, foods shouldn’t be labelled ‘good’ or ‘bad’, nothing should be a ‘sin’ or a ‘syn’ depending on how you spell it!  Everything in moderation is the answer, loving yourself enough to realise you want to treat your body with respect, to feed it nutritious, delicious food not convenient, unhealthy junk.

Yep, having a good respect for my body and a whole lot of self love has meant that today I’ve woke up thinking about making a good healthy lunch full of lots of fresh vegetables, it’s meant that although I haven’t been following the weight loss plan well the last few days, I also haven’t sat and stuffed my face.  When I’ve indulged, it’s been controlled, reasonable and enjoyed, not with the attitude let’s eat as much and as badly as possible whilst I’m ‘off track’.  How come?  Because I’ve changed my relationship with food forever, yes my weight may fluctuate but it doesn’t carry on going up an up and up, it fluctuates because of life and things that are happening.  So maybe when things change, such as my work schedule gets really busy, I may get caught out and gain a couple of pounds but it comes off when I slow down or when I realise what’s happening and do something to help me stay in control despite the rush.  Having lots of social events all come along at once can make a difference at the scales, but again once things get back to normal so does my weight.

Yep, we make the life we want and the body, and if yours isn’t quite what you want it to be, guess what, you keep working on it till it is, no one’s perfect, we all do things we said we would never do, but guess what you may be your problem, but you’re also your own solution! 

Here’s to making the life you want BeYOUtiful, have a very healthy & happy day.

A lovely day complete with blisters...

27^th September 2014

Don’t just be good to others, be good to yourself too.

Wonderful day was had yesterday, there’s nothing better than meeting up with someone who you haven’t seen for over a year and it’s as if it was yesterday, we had a lovely day.  The poppies at the Tower are incredible, I knew they would be and that was my main reason for the day out, they certainly are worth a trip to London.

I wore my converse because I didn’t think I could walk in slip on sandals all day and I couldn’t find my other really comfy sandals (mom tidies up!) but apparently converse aren’t that comfy, blister on little toe and the balls of my feets were sore by the time we got to the river for lunch, luckily I’d put my slip on sandals in my bag so swapped footwear, turns out I can walk in them and I think they saved my feet from blood and further blisters!  Trainers or walking boots next time for sure!

We ate at The Swan which is attached to the Globe theatre, instead of a main we ordered starter and dessert, good job because the starter was really filling, Aubergine Caponata, I’m not usually a fan of aubergine but this was delicious, I expected it to be a warm dish, it came cold yet still really tasty and enjoyable, something I’d make myself, to eat warm though as a stew type dish.

I’m having a right game uploading my photos onto facebook, it doesn’t want to play at all this morning!  Frustrating when you have other things to be doing :), hey ho I’ll keep trying.

So after lunch we walked don’t to the tower to view the incredible poppies, what a sight, interesting to watch people’s reactions, notice how the grass is already growing through them in places and we even saw a volunteer drop and break one – oops, that’s £25 down the swanny!  Seriously though it really is worth jumping on a train between now and remembrance Sunday and having a look, the mere fact that every one of those poppies represents a soldier’s life is breathtaking.  I know the poppies will be removed in November but how fantastic would it be if they decided to scatter thousands of red poppy seeds in the Tower moat so that every year we remember, I think that would be just incredible.  If you haven’t already I really do urge you to go and watch the short video of the making of them http://poppies.hrp.org.uk/ Just imagine, 888,246 poppies, that’s one poppy for each British fatality in the First World War.

Both of us wearing our badges of blisters we decided to jump on a boat to get us back nearer to Covent Garden, so for a tenner each we were enjoying a boat trip to Westminster with fabulous amusing commentary, we laughed out loud quite a few times, once when no one else did, his witty didn’t go over our heads at all.

When were stopped outside Westminster by a reporter with her video camera, she was from ABC and was after British people to interview about the voting in the house of commons that was going on, as I don’t watch news or read papers I looked at her blankly, Liz was torn between the chance of being on the tele and the fact we would look totally dumb as we didn’t know her stuff, thankfully she declined and instead we jumped in a taxi to Covent Garden (£6 I thought that wasn’t bad really!  My feet were very grateful) we’d already covered about 7 mile walking, that was enough.  Covent Garden’s great if you have lots of money, we meandered, we were encouraged out of the Whittards tea shop by the Chinese assistant, she wasn’t impressed I said her apple crumble tea smelt like air freshener and looked like Pot Pourri, Liz liked it and bought the White Chocolate flavour, I’ll stick to PG!

All in all it was a fab day, finished off lovely by a half price cardigan purchase at Euston stations Fat Face and then I’d got a First Class seat for £16 on the way home so I was sat in comfort.  Amusingly I was sat opposite a lovely young lady who was extremely excited to find out not only did we get a free sandwich but a free glass of wine too!  It was the ‘Quiet Zone’ but she was far too excited to be anything near quiet, and no one seemed to mind because her enthusiasm really was infectious, she was lovely.

It’s now 7.30am, I’m uploading my pictures one at a time, as it won’t work otherwise, hey ho, I’ll do a little reading whilst I’m doing it, I managed 5 chapters of a new book yesterday, first time I’ve been able to concentrate to read in a long time, and I think it’s going to be an enjoyable read, “The Story of Us” by Dani Atkins, it’s only 59p on Kindle too, bargain.  Other than maybe plant a few bulbs, I think I may just spend the rest of my weekend reading and chilling with my mom, tis a good life.

However you’re spending yours, enjoy it BeYOUtiful. xx