Trying to lose!

22nd Sept 2019 – prepped and ready to go!

Evening all

The key for the cottage we’re staying at next weekend has arrived, so excited! I love this little cottage, especially as we can see Snowdon from it!

Last time (and first time) we were there, the owners cat hid before she could grab it, so we had a cat to fuss and feed for the weekend 😂. The owner was so happy we happily looked after Purdy (the cat) that she offered us a half price weekend, hence our upcoming visit!

Even more exciting, we invited our friend and his partner to join us, to give you an idea, I’ve known Dan since I was a child, he lived one court down. He is the one he introduced me to Paul 💖.

Anyway, enough of my babble 🤣

Today we had five bean baked beans on brown toast for brekkie, and pork chop plus spuds for dinner. We will have a little bit of chocolate later.

I’ve had 1 glass of orange juice, two teas and two cans of Pepsi max today, which might explain the headache that’s building. I’ll have a glass of water now.

We wanted and had a lazy day today, just taking time to enjoy eachothers company.

Lazy or no though, prep had to be done, so we went to weigh in then shops. I lost 4lb, Paul lost 1lb – very, very pleased! Then, shopping for pack lunch stuff.

So I got our lunches prepped ready for the four days we’re at work, all our salads tubbed up, nuts weighed out, eggs hard boiled!

I can’t believe I’m thinking this, I’m actually looking forward to the air walker style c25k tomorrow morning, and yoga and stretches tomorrow night! Me! Looking forward to being active! Unbelievable!

Anyway kind folk, that’s enough from me for now. Until my update tomorrow, good night 🤗

Weight loss success, 16lb lost in total!

Hi all, I’ll do my usual update later.

I’ve lost 4lb this week – WOOHOO!

I was wondering what the scales would read, especially given yesterday, but then it dawned on me that although it’s good to see the number go down, I’m not gonna be disappointed if it doesn’t.

It’s a strange change of mentality, to know And understand with complete conviction, that the result is my body not the scales. To appreciate no matter what, I am, on the whole, doing everything right for myself and that the scales are actually not required.

But…. it is nice for validation 🤣🤣🤣

Anyway enjoy your day all.

Until later.

21st Sept 2019 – new exercises discovered! Oops food!

Evening all!

There are loads of you who write great poetry, some funny, some profound, all of which are cool. I’m not a poem person, but something popped into my head, which I thought I’d share! I apologise in advance on every single level 🤣

My nose did melt, as his fart he dealt!

There is a reason there’s no pic of food today, I’m not going to put that image in front of your eyes!

Let’s just say, I was bad! Really, really bad!

I worked out how many calories I had, as you’ll know if you follow me, I will look to calories as a guide on occasion. Wish I’d weighed before this, I’m weighing in tomorrow, so the truth will out then!

In keeping with my warts and all honesty, I’ll tell you my meal at lunch time, and the only main food I’m having today, was about 1000 calories!

What I will say, is there was once a time I would have scoffed the lot, today I stopped about 2 thirds through, so that’s not too bad is it?

I will have a handful of nuts, and some fruit later today.

I’ve had a couple of teas with halfspoon sugar, about 0.5l water, and 1 can of Pepsi max. I will have another 0.5l of water this evening.

Exercise, thank you Andrea, I checked out you suggestion for Adrienne on youtube, and did her beginner’s yoga this afternoon – I could manage it! Almost 🤣. This will be my go to yoga programme. I also found another stretchy exercise programme which I also enjoyed. When I’ve got access to a computer next week I’ll add the links!

My day also included; visiting with my dear friend, plucking the monobrow into submission – I now have two! And treating my feet, oh man they needed it! I’m a barefoot person, always have been, so they’re not the best! Now the bottoms are nice and smooth again, they’ll be moisturised before bed.

Ah bed! I get to starfish tonight! At least until my darling comes home from London in the early hours!

So that’s me for now. I’ll take a walk to a shop soon to buy something for breakfast tomorrow, something much more sensible than our food earlier.

Hope you all have a good evening/day. Night 👋

20th Sept 2019 – good food day, a decision about exercise

Evening all, hope you are well 😊

I’ve decided that c25k isn’t for me as it stands. My hip was agony all day. The pain has subsided now, but only because of the magic of ibuprofen.

I’m not giving up on it though, I’ve decided instead to do it on my airwalker. This will take pressure off my joints.

I will need to be careful I don’t do too much on the airwalker, it’s a non resistance piece of kit, and my ‘stride’ on it is much, much longer than my own natural stride when walking. Still, I’m looking forward to the workout I will get, especially in conjunction with the c25k programme.

Then, when I’ve lost another half stone, I’ll try properly outside again.

I’m also going to try yoga out, as I think I need to get more flexible.

So I’m hoping to get my regime as follows:

Monday am – airwalker c25k

Monday pm – yoga

Tuesday am – yoga

Tuesday pm – quick cardio, strength 1&2

Wednesday am – airwalker c25k

Wednesday lunch – yoga

Thursday am – yoga

Thursday pm – quick cardio, strength 1&2

Friday am – airwalker c25k

Friday pm – yoga

Saturday – quick cardio, strength 1&2

Sunday – nice country walk

This is the aim, I can’t concentrate on all that properly until I’m back from Wales next weekend, I’ll do as much as I can this coming week though, with at least one exercise thing every day. Also, I’m human, so there will be times I can’t hit it all.

So, onto today.

Exercise – c25k

Fluid – 200ml milk, 2 cups of tea with halfspoon sugar, 1.5l water.

Food – Forgot my nuts, so had 160g fruit for breakfast.

Went to lunch, just with my daughter this week as mum was having work done at her house.

Olives, pineapple, rice, pasta, rice, raisins and low fat vinegarette

I had chicken salad, Amy had halloumi salad
And Pepsi max

Then tonight we had sock eye salmon with spuds, sweetcorn and peas.

So that’s my day.

There’s been a miscommunication between Paul and myself, I thought we had this weekend together, just us, no commitments, in fact i made a point of saying we should have kids last weekend so this weekend we could relax together before Wales next weekend. Paul doesn’t remember this, nor me stating i couldn’t wait for our quiet weekend together.

He ‘reminded’ me that he’s off to London tomorrow over dinner this evening.

I’m feeling quite low at the moment, I was so looking forward to full weekend of us time.

Never mind, there’s plenty of ways I can spend my day tomorrow, visiting my friend, maybe a nice walk, tv programmes I don’t make Paul watch 🤣

It’s also been ages since I’ve done girly things! My nails need some attention as does the monobrow 😊

I am worried about my food tomorrow, we don’t have anything for 1 person. I shall need sensible and motivated head on tomorrow.

Going to chill out for the evening now.

Night all, til tomorrow 🤗

Couch to 5k – day 2/3, week 1/9 – hip hurts

Morning all, so I stumbled out of bed and grunted at Paul once or twice. Really did not want to do this today, especially after a poor night sleep, but heyho, I know it’s good for me.

I am glad I did it, but both knees started hurting and my hip, oh my word, it’s felt every single jolt! And still hurts now 10 minutes after stopping.

I had planned to go again Sunday, but am deferring to Monday.

Anyway I’m looking forward to a nice hot shower now.

Catch up later.

19th Sept 2019 – great food and exercise day.

Evening all, hope you are well.

The pain in my side has gone, no idea when, I simply noticed it wasn’t there! My hip is no where near as bad as it was yesterday, good job as it’s gonna be worked again tomorrow morning (c25k day).

Traffic was bad coming home from work, no idea why, no accidents or anything, just rough traffic. Luckily Paul was cooking tonight.

So, on to the day…

Food – 25g natural nuts, 1 hardboiled egg, 160g fruit (black grapes, strawberries, blackberries). Salad for lunch.

Liver for dinner. Impressed with Paul, he made a swap to his recipe, creme fraiche instead of sour cream. He looked at the traffic lights on both products, and opted for the product with greens and oranges rather than the product with reds!

Dinner was delish!

Fluids – not so good with water today. 200ml milk, 3 teas, .5l water, half can of Pepsi max. I’m hoping to get another glass of water in. Tomorrow I’ll remember to take a bottle of water to work.

Exercise – yup! I didn’t do the step routine, Paul really struggles with it (hip problems from birth) so we did cardio and strength. And then we started a harder strength programme… OMG! It’s a killer! It is good, not as much an all rounder as the original, but good.

I figure I’m quite happy to do more strength as I’m thinking of alternating daily between jogging and youtube exercising.

Paul is a true love! He’s made our yoghurt with seeds and honey while I update you guys 😊

Anyway, enough of my mindless chatter 😀 I’ll update you tomorrow

Night….

Part 4 – THE NETHERLANDS – some cool facts!

So, here we are again for just a few fab snippets, today on The Netherlands!

As usual, these are just a few snippets, do feel free to comment with more fab facts 🙂

The Netherlands are the Fifth happiest nation according to the UN World Happiness rankings, and the kids and young people are also happy souls, even though their counterparts in other countries are experiencing increasing rates of depression and anxiety – Go The Netherlands – you’ve got something very, very right!
The Netherlands have come top of the list in an Oxfam report for being the healthiest country in the world for diet. They have the most healthy and affordable food.
The Netherlands have the oldest national anthem in the world – words and music date back to the 16th century
Their TALL folk! Men are the tallest in the world on average, and women are the second tallest in the world!
Need a bit of Dutch courage? Reach for the gin, which was invented by the Dutch in the 16th centruary!
There are over 1000 windmills still standing!
The Netherlands produce around 80% of the world’s flower bulbs! But… TULIPS are not native to the Netherlands! The tulip was imported from Turkey in the 16th centuary!
The Netherlands is the lowest country in Europe, with 26% of the country sitting below sea level!
Licourice – it’s an acquired taste – The Dutch love it! so much so they eat 32 million kilos of the stuff each year! that makes them the champions at global liquorice consumption!
Purple carrots anyone? The orange carrot – you can thank the Dutch for that, during the 16th century, and with careful breeding the Dutch made orange THE colour for carrots, using the carrots at the time, which ranged from pale yellow to purple!
There is no such thing as queuing in the Netherlands – it’s every man, woman and child form themselves!
The Netherland’s traditional footwear is the CLOG – a wooden and (usually) painted shoe, and they are still popular with agricultural workers as they’re great for walking on muddy ground. They’ve also been certified as safety shoes!
The Netherlands football team are said to be the best national team never to have won the World Cup. What a shame, given some great players, including Arjen Robben!
And speaking of sports, we have to mention Daphne Schippers! she was a 2 time heptathlon world champion and if that wasn’t enough, she is now a specialist sprinter!
And, i’m sorry for non-sports readers – but we can’t not mention Max Verstappen – the youngest ever F1 driver! He was the grand old age of 17 when he first competed in F1!
Those forward thinking Dutch plan to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2025!
The Dutch were the first to legalise gay marriage!

I have been fortunate enough to go to the Netherlands, but that was so very long ago. I remember it being an absolutely beautiful place as we were driving though, with great markets. I would love to go back again at some point.

I’ve added links to sites I’ve used. Please do add your snippets in the comments box if you have any 🙂

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/17/why-dutch-bring-up-worlds-happiest-teenagers

https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/about-amsterdam/overview/history-and-society/clogs

https://www.iamexpat.nl/expat-info/dutch-expat-news/dutch-people-are-5th-happiest-world

https://www.invadingholland.com/guides-to-holland/19-strange-dutch-habits

18th Sept 2019 – great exercise and food day!

Hello! Hope you are well today 😊

I’ll start today’s update with exercise! I started the c25k this morning, and I don’t mind telling you my hips are getting stiff after sitting down for a while today, and my backside aches! I mean…. really?!?!?

Now on to food – 25g natural nuts, 1 hardboiled egg, 160g fruit (strawberries, apple, blackberries) and at lunch time salad.

For dinner, healthier sausages with passata, dried herbs, garlic, onion, mushrooms and healthier pasta. I ate slowly and stopped when satisfied. There’s now a portion freezing for another day.

I’ve prepared our yoghurt for a little later, Greek yoghurt, seeds and a drizzle of maple syrup this time. We didn’t have yoghurt last night. Really need to get on top of dairy intake.

Fluids – 1.5l water, 1 cup of tea with 1 halfspoon sugar, 200ml milk.

So. . Yeah, great day, again! Feeling pleased with myself 😊

So that’s more than enough self satisfied smugness from me!

Wishing you all a good evening 👋

Part 3 – MEXICO – some cool facts!

Ah, so the stunning Mexico, I have been fortunate enough to visit and soak in Mexico’s sunshine, and visit some of their fascinating historical sites!

So after a little delve on the internet, below are just a handful of fantastic facts – feel free to add more in the comments 🙂

Mexico is the SECOND happiest population in the world according to the Happy Planet Index!
Mexico is thought to be home to about 10% of the global biodiversity
Day of the Dead – It isn’t as macabre as it sounds to non Mexicans – it’s a day to celebrate and honour loved ones, who are thought to come alive on this one day
Mexico is the home to one of the seven wonders of the world – Chichen Itza! 2.6 million of us visit every year to be stunned and amazed by this incredible pyramid – me included!
Mexico is home to the worlds smallest volcano – Found in Puebla, volcano Cuexcomate stands at a teeny 13 metres high! luckily it’s inactive!
Mexicans make stunning silver jewellery. And speaking of silver, Mexico was named the worlds largest silver producer in 2017!
Old Gods can be cruel – It is estimated that in an effort to appease their Gods, the Atzecs sacrificed around 1% of their population each year!
Mexico is the world’s largest beer exporter
Who knew!!! Mexico is home to one of the worlds LARGEST pyramid! Cholula Pyramid can be found in Puebla
Ceasar salad was invented in Mexico!
Mexico, we adore you – you are the originators of CHOCOLATE!
Mexico can get a tad warm – how about taking a dip in a cenote! Cool, clear, deep and clean, these fresh water pools are a welcome relief! They are also one of the most beautiful geological features on the planet!
Mexico is the site of the asteroid that ended the reign of the dinosaurs, and it’s because of this that cenotes exist
Who hasn’t been pleased to see the Mariachi bands! This traditional music has been dated back to at least the 18th century!

I think I would be very, very pleased to return to Mexico, I’ve seen Tulum and Chichen Itza, but would happily go back again, but then….. There’s just so much more to see! I dream of the day we might be able to go back.

Anyway, that’s it for my little snippets of garnered info, links I’ve used below. Do you fancy adding some more snippets? Please do feel free to leave comments 🙂

https://web.nmsu.edu/~lleeper/pages/Voice/marrujo/whatisMM.htm

101 Interesting Facts About Mexico

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robinandrews/2018/02/26/the-dino-killing-asteroid-impact-also-created-an-stunningly-beautiful-geological-masterpiece/

https://www.swedishnomad.com/interesting-facts-about-mexico/

Couch to 5K – day 1/3, week 1/9 – DID IT

I DID IT! First day done!

I’m not sure if my jogging bits count as there was never I time when both feet were off the floor, and I lot of time both feet were touching the floor 🤣🤣🤣

That goodness for sports bras! I wonder if they do sports knickers, stop the backside bounce?!?!?

Who knew 60 seconds could feel soooo long! However, on the whole it wasn’t as bad as I expected, wouldn’t say I’m looking forward to Friday morning, but I’m not dreading it.

Anyway, on to the shower for me! Have a good day/evening all 😊