Right - I'm ready!

24th January 2022

Let's just be who we are.

Let's get some weight off!  I've had a wonderful birthday week, the scales will show tomorrow and I'll take the gain with a smile on my face because I enjoyed every moment of it.  I was spoilt with lovely flowers and gifts and surrounded by people that make me smile.  A huge difference to the last few years when I was lucky to get out for a meal for a couple of hours with my besties.  Can you believe in 8 weeks time it will be 12 months since mom died, where has that time gone, at least now I've done all the firsts without her, first Christmas, first birthday for both of us, just my sisters birthday to get through which will be tough because it was a couple of days before mom died.  What a bonkers year!  We spent Saturday making the back bedroom which was moms, more boy friendly so it's his own now.  It was very emotional for me as I realised I used clearing that room as therapy almost, it was what got me through those first weeks as it kept my hand occupied and wore me out every day, stripping the woodchip wallpaper, ripping up the carpet, sorting all her stuff.  I still have the bad back from it to remind me of my loss!  Although I shed a few tears on Saturday, it also felt good knowing mom would've liked Aryn and she always had a lot of time for Daragh, we even know she wanted us to get together because she wrote it in her diaries.  

Today, I get my healthy back, I've had a bad throat for a week and it's annoying me now, my snoring is even waking me up and my hormonal sweats in the night are also waking me up.  I believe cutting down drastically on alcohol, losing some weight, eating healthy and getting active again will help all those things and that's what I plan to start doing as of today.

I'm going to make sweet and sour pork with rice today using the leftover pork from the weekend, we all like that, I'll also make a Chinese curry for the males in the house for tomorrow, I won't eat that but I can make me something else.  There's pizzas too in the fridge and I can enjoy a few slices as long as I could the calories, the rest can be frozen and man child can eat them as and when.  The freezer has plenty of fish and veggie stuff in it and I need veggies, salad and goodness in my life, I'm missing it!

We had a get together Saturday in the garden and a wonderful time was had, yesterday we just kept walking in the kitchen looking at the mess and deciding it was better to go back to bed and ignore it or sit in the living room and pretend it wasn't there.  Today I shall mostly be sorting that chaos out and doing housework, I'll also try and get the lad out for a walk, he can bring his longboard with him and we can go over the park.  I'm hoping to hear about getting him into a school today or tomorrow, they said 10 school days when they called me on the 11th, I originally sent the first email with the in-year transfer form on the 4th.

Wish there was a cleaner knocking the door in an hour to sort this lot out but as there isn't I will think of it as activity that burns calories and get on with it.  I want to turn that 21lb weight loss into 2 stone, then 3 stone, yeah I'd be happy with losing 3 stone for sure.  

One pound at a time, fit for summer, and look forward to walking up those hills in Wales.

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me x

When will you be hungry!

Monday 17th January 2022

Mondays are for fresh starts, the chance to set a new tone for the rest of the week!

Another weekend gone!  January just runs away with me every year, we're already over half way through, it's my birthday Wednesday so no chance in hell of a weight loss for the next few weeks and the chance in my life and circumstances is making it really hard to resist temptation.  I know one I can do it and I take full responsibility for my actions, but hey I LOVE FOOD and actually I'm just a greedy bitch if the truth be told, if food is there, I'm likely to eat it, so things like crisps and chocolate which I managed to keep out of my house for months is there now so I need to work at saying no and resisting these things.

I will get there, it'll just take time and patience with myself.  Trying to agree what time to have dinner yesterday, I had to explain I don't really get hungry, I just eat, so we need to eat when they want to eat because otherwise we'll eat constantly or never at all lol. 

Last week in our huddles we talked about family meals and budgeting and this is something I really want to get into the habit of doing, meal planning is the future for me I think, it's make my life easier.  Tuesdays and Thursdays are busy days so I need easy food, like stuff in the slow cooker, I'm thinking chill for Thursday once I've had the ingredients delivered.  I was going to make sausage meatballs and spaghetti today, so need to think of something easy for tomorrow, I'll go check the freezer out when I've finished typing.  

Going to have fruit and yogurt for breakfast, I can be healthy and start my day with deliciousness, the news is talking about Blue Monday, today is the most depressing day of the year apparently, well I'm having none of it, I'm going to make it a good day, might nip to shops and get the ingredients for the curried lentil bake, see if I can get man child to eat it! Curried Lentil Bake (behappyowls.com)

We did our second ice skating lesson yesterday, I'll never be a professional but as long as I can get round a rink with confidence and enjoy it, that'll do me.  We then spent a couple of hours clearing out the sheds, that felt so good once it was done but now all my bins are full!

This is another recipe that can just be thrown in the slow cooker and left Garlic Chicken (behappyowls.com) so maybe go buy some more ingredients!

Right I want to watch all of Season 3 of After Life, but I also need to get stuff done!

Here's to enjoying Monday xx

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me x

I wasn't going to track!

Thursday 13th January 2022
This months choices are next months body!

Well once again my day didn't go to plan yesterday, after a lovely meeting on the morning with our Happy Owls at Wimborne Road, I came home and got my housework done.  It finally looked how I like it to look, I could see the coffee table, the beds were changed and the floor mopped - yay!.

I then planned to get man child out of bed (we're still waiting to get him into a school!) and get him out for some fresh air, we were taking his long board over the park.  Oops, turned out Sunday after our walk over Chase Water when we both got beyond muddy, that I murdered his black Nikes and my Sketchers by washing them and tumble drying them.  They were okay when I did it in the condenser dryer in Ireland but turns out mine is brutal.  Now this wouldn't have been the end of the world but he only has one other pair of trainers, they're the fancy ones he had for Christmas and he was not wearing them to long board and ruin. 

We ended up shopping for new footwear instead of longboarding, thankfully because he's now gonna be a 'skater boy', they wear Vans or Converse apparently!  Off to the Van's store at the McArthur Glen outlet in Cannock where we were lucky not only to get them at discount price but an additional 30% off on top of that because of their sale, he know has some to board in and a waterproof pair for the next time we go walking :)

We were back in the house long enough to prep some veggies, eat 9 quality streets (oops!) and for man child to inform me a toffee from the tub had pulled one of his teeth really loose (just saying but when that comes out, the tooth fairy can do one, he had Vans already!) when I had to go and pick up Daragh from dropping his car off for it's MOT, the traffic was horrendous!  

Dinner wasn't eaten until half 7 but it was delicious, I wasn't going to track it all because I hate tracking but I had said it would be my tweak this week was to track and be honest!  I've just sat and done it because I've been up since just gone 4, woke up and couldn't go back to sleep, not tired, thankfully when to bed just after 9.

  

Now this is why you should track as you go because otherwise you forget stuff!  I've sat here typing after tracking and suddenly remembered the leftover pasta I ate when we got back from shops, that's another 300 calories.

Another thing I need to start doing is planning what I'm eating in the day time, I'm making sure they're meals are sorted but not thinking about my own.  Need to get a routine going I think, I'll make me a scrambled egg sandwich this morning to take with me or even eat before I go as I've been up a while now, I'm hungry.

Now what shall I cook for dinner tonight, I have some chicken breasts, was thinking chow mein Chicken Chow Mein (behappyowls.com) but I'll have to go get beansprouts to make that.  I have got a Flava It garden mint sachet which is lush on chicken, I could do that on a bed of rice with roast peppers, yeah I think that's an easy one, it'll all go in the oven, could even dice some carrots and add peas for stuffed peppers. 

Right I'm off for breakfast and another cuppa, here's hoping today is trouble free, what after melting trainers yesterday and bumping his car the day before, I don't need anything else thank you very much!

Mwah, luv ya

Love me x

Ready for a busy day

Tuesday 11th January 2022

Remember why you started & make yourself proud.

Well I'm not optimistic about the scales this morning but not getting on them won't help me so I'll be brave and step on and take whatever they say.  I finished the Bailey's off this weekend but on a positive we went Ice skating and walked round Chase Water - I did slip and fall in the mood pulling my groin which wasn't  good thing but hey ho, it'll heal.

Covid test done this morning and it's all clear and a healthy shop is just about to arrive, fruit and salad and I'm looking forward to some healthy meals.  I nipped in Lidls on way back from dentist yesterday and bought a few things including chicken breast and pork chops so I will look for a couple of recipes, I also fancy a bowl of pasta with a big pile of salad, might have that today actually.

This week we're talking  budget meal ideas which I'll be very grateful for because I'm now feeding 3 a lot of the time and if I can do it cheaper - happy days.  I want some recipe ideas for meals everyone will eat, but to be fair they are pretty easy going, the man child just doesn't like onions and mushrooms but he'll eat the onions if he doesn't know they're there.

Looking forward to our meetings today, we have three now on a Tuesday, the two on Stubby lane and the one at Great Wyrley, keeping us busy for sure!  

I need to start tracking, I know it's going to make the difference, so my Nutracheck app is coming out!  If you haven't already got it, trial it for free for a week, then you'll see what a bargain it is.  We even have a code to get our members an extra month.

Shopping's just pulled up, so I'm off.  Have a great day xx 

Mwah, luv ya

Love me x

Falling down is an accident - staying down is a choice!

 Sunday 9th January 2022 

A little each day adds up to big results.

Well what a week!  Great to be back at work with Elle seeing all our members in the huddles, we opened two new ones so working more than we have in a long time!   Here they are, please share and let others know so that we can grow our tribe.  

I've also had a lot of fun with the man child, we went ice-skating twice, the first time I wasn't loving it, just went round the side holding on to the tiny gap between the plastic at Telford rink and only let go when he looked like he really needed help because he'd fell down that many times, he couldn't get up without help and the member of staff helping him was a tiny thing who had no strength.  Fair play to the lad, the next day he wanted to go give the Cannock on a go to see if he could get better as I'd said I'd treat us both to lessons.  He only fell once and we shall be starting the lessons today hopefully if he can walk after yesterday!  

Yesterday he had a long board (a long skate board) delivered which he bought himself with his Christmas money, we took it over the park when it stopped raining yesterday afternoon and he was doing great on the flat but stupidly his dad suggested he try the skate park ramp, doh, you can guess what happened next!  I do have a video but I've promised him I won't share, let's just say he went down like a sack of you know what!  Hurt his hip, stayed down for a bit but got back up and I pushed him round on the board to get home.  He had a bath when we got home so I'm hoping he'll be okay when I wake him up in an hour and we get to go to the ice skating. 

I really need to get some housework done, but you know what, it'll wait, he'll be in school soon enough and I'll have plenty of time then to get stuff done, neither of us have done a fat lot of anything for a long time so we're enjoying ourselves. 

We had a takeaway for tea last night, I was good all day, so hopefully the damage won't be too bad, we didn't have any takeaways over Christmas being in Ireland and it was delicious, Pearl of Bengal on the Cannock Road is just delicious food.  

We've also got a lamb dinner to look forward to today, been fancying on for a while and my wonderful sister gave me a shoulder out of her freezer yesterday which saved me going to the shops and spending more money than I needed too.  After Christmas I need to get some money back in the bank, we had a lot of fun overindulging and spending money! 

I never thought I'd have a television in my bedroom but I have to say I like it a lot, it justifies going to bed at seven lol, I watched The Masked Singer - no idea of any of them at all, it's the daftest thing on tv but it's easy to watch and I enjoy the bit where they take it off.  I fell asleep towards the end but woke up to see who was behind the mask.

Well let's enjoy our Sunday shall we, I'm thinking lots of veggies on my plate, bit of fruit for breakfast, some exercise on the ice, maybe we'll all go for a walk if it's dry and generally a very, good day.  

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me xx

2022 let's have you!

Wednesday 5th January 2022

doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.

Two weeks in Ireland, Christmas indulgence, bottles of Baileys resulted in a 4lb weight gain - I'll take that!  Absolutely thrilled to be honest because in the past I'd have easily done half stone at least.  Man child gained a much needed 5lb and the man cheated taking his jeans off before getting on scales which would've added 2lb to his 2lb gain, so really he gained the same as I did.

Now to get back to healthy eating, I started well, beans on toast, saying no to the option of bacon, sausage and eggs, I also ate an apple - check me out!  Then for tea we had sweet and sour pork which I'd put in the slow cooker and added an extra pepper with egg noodles, it isn't something I'd cook again, the jar of Uncle Bens wasn't flavoursome enough for my liking, I'd rather make my own but they all ate it without complaint, even my brother who popped round for a catch up.

It was lovely to be back at work and we were thrilled by the turn out, especially for our new meeting open in Great Wyrley, 3 times as many people turned up than we expected to, so here's hoping that continues.  

I was going to continue the house sort out when I get back from work today but if boy wonder is up for it when he gets out of bed, I might suggest we go to the zoo!  I've filled the forms in to get him into school but they've said it could be 2-3 weeks before it's sorted so I'm thinking, the zoo can be educational and I know he likes animals, so I'll ask what he thinks, otherwise he's gonna be doing some stuff on the BBC school section, he ain't sleeping and playing games for the next few weeks like he has over Christmas that's for sure. 

Food today, I've just had a cold sausage sandwich because I didn't want them wasted, I had food waste, for dinner later I think we'll have fish in batter, potatoes and veggies.  I want to get the freezer right down, use it all up then do a shop at the weekend maybe,. I've emptied the big drawer in the freezer in the kitchen, I need to pop to farm foods or do an Iceland order for frozen fruit for man child to make his own smoothies, fresh fruit goes off too quickly, I think I'll even start freezing the bananas I buy. 

Right, time to get ready for Wimborne Road this morning, let's do this!  Let's have an amazing day shall we?

Mwah, luv ya 

Love me xx