Everywhere's gonna be all about the love today

14^th February 2018

Taking time to be alone is the best place to find strength.

Valentine’s day ay, so the radio just told me, make sure you let those significant others you love them every day not just a day when you’re told to buy roses and chocolates!  Better still tell everyone you love, how much you love them, start with yourself – go look in the mirror and tell yourself, you love yourself just the way you are.  Getting healthy, losing weight is all a plus but if you don’t start from a place of self-love, you ain’t gonna find it so easy or the results so permanent.

I had a good day yesterday, I love it when I sit there just before I go to bed and think to myself ‘today has been a good day’, it’s been a few weeks since I’ve done that.  Life isn’t going to be good all the time, we aren’t going to be happy constantly but realising that, accepting it is what gets me through.  I realised last week something needed to give, I needed to do something and slowly I’ve been making changes, doing stuff, thinking differently and it’s working.  My refocus challenge task today is,

Day 5 – 14^th Feb – Take a walk outside

That’s easy enough, Alfie is already whining because he wants to go, I’ve told him he’s got to wait till I’ve had a cuppa and blogged!  Depending on how much walking he wants to do, I might go out later by myself and have a proper walk, I was going to say through the fields but if the ground is anything like the greens by me, it’ll be much too soggy.  Ooo I might go take a walk outside at the garden centre, get looking at ideas for my garden.

Anyway, back to reconnecting with myself, it’s really helping, a few heart to hearts with my bestie have helped process stuff in my head and I made a phone call yesterday that should help me focus even more – we all need support and guidance. 

I even tidied my desk a bit yesterday, that’s day 7’s challenge, there’s still a little more to do there so I can continue then.  Today’s other mission is to clear my landing, all my ‘clean’ washing is in two huge piles on my landing from where I’ve bought it up and it’s got no further into cupboards and drawers.

Like so many of you, my life is busy, yesterday morning I got up at 5am but by quarter past seven I was still running behind!  I thought to myself, I haven’t got time for breakfast now, I’ll have toast when I get to the meeting, I knew that wouldn’t fill me up and it would waste 6 Smart Points I didn’t want to spend so instead, in a few minutes, I’d thrown onions, mushrooms, peppers, asparagus and broccoli into a frying pan, then whisked up some eggs and 3sp of cheese and made myself a frittata which I took with me, the other half is in the fridge and I can have that this morning.  Just taking that moment to acknowledge I needed a good breakfast, taking care of me is just as important as making sure my mom had her drugs and breakfast was enough to put me in the right mindset for the day.  It’s much too easy to ignore your own needs when you’re taking care of others.

The sunrise is incredible this morning by the way, I’m enjoying watching it as I type, so many different shades of pink and red.

Lunch was stew (5sp) and then for tea I had the starter from my Waitrose meal deal, Beetroot risotto with dill and mascarpone (14sp), another day I survived Flex.

I’ll think about today whilst walking Alfie, actually I won’t I’ll do that when I get back, when I walk Alfie, I’ll enjoy listening to my audiobook.  I turned my radio up full yesterday when a tune came on, I’d forgot how much I enjoy really loud good music, think I’m going to treat myself to a good pair of headphones so I can listen to it when I’m at home, it might encourage me to do the housework if I’ve got some tunes to wail along too. 

OH I nearly forgot, one of my lovely members gave me a bit of lemon cake yesterday she’d made yesterday and it was really low in Smart Points, she’d tweaked a recipe she’d found online and changed ingredients as she’s played around with it.

Katies Lemon Drizzle cake

2 large lemons

4 eggs

30g self raising flour (3sp)

20g coconut flour (2sp)

45g granulated sweetener (she uses Truvia and recommends you do the same!)

Sieve the sweetener and flour into a mixing bowl.

Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon into the mix.

Using a hand grater, zest both lemons and add the zest to the mix.

Separate the egg yolks from the whites.  Keep the whites aside, beat the yolks and add to the mixture.

Whisk the egg whites until they are fluffy and form soft peaks.  Fold into the mixture.

Add to the cake tray.

Bake for 20-30 minutes on 180oC until golden brown, allow to cool a little.

Mix the juice of the second lemon and 15g sweetener, pour over the top of the cake and bake for another 10 minutes until the top of the cake is glazed.

Right I’ll leave you with that cake recipe, the sky is now an apricot colour and the dogs given up but I’ll go take him for this wander.

Enjoy your day, share the love, let everyone know how much you love Weight Watchers and losing weight, feeling great and being happy BeYOUtiful, you know it makes sense.