Category: Lifestyle

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I’ve a confession to make.

Yes, I have.  Through stress, and under active thyroid and diabetes, over the spell of a few years, I gained a bunch of weight, and I mean a whole bunch.

100lbs if I’m to be exact.

Last June, I was diagnosed and put on meds for my diabetes and for my underactive thyroid.  The thought of losing a limb or going blind terrified me, but the possibility of losing was daunting.  I’d reached as low a point as I could go.

Yet, I didn’t really share.  How could I?  I met many of my fellow bloggers in 2011, in London, but have not met any since.

My circle has shrunk and shrunk, and while my kids are part of the reason, they’re not the reason I turned down a lovely TV company on their offer of being part of something awesome.  My weight gain was also the reason there have been so few photos of me over the last few years.   I’ve avoided the camera like the proverbial plague.

So, last June 2015, I kick started my change.  To stay alive and keep my limbs, I needed to get in control of my life.  Having my thyroid balanced again made a huge difference, and instead of maintaining and often gaining at sometimes calorie levels of 800-1000 a day, suddenly, eating 1200 calories a day meant I was losing weight which helps with the diabetes.

Having a medical condition may have been responsible for me gaining weight, but I have still had to put the work in to lose it, and it’s been a long haul so far.

I’ve lost weight in the past, pre online diet websites, and I used to track using a spreadsheet.  This time round, I took My Fitness Pal seriously, and it’s free, so I had nothing to lose by starting to log my food.  I started off being majorly stupid.  Going down to 300-400 calories a day, and all low carb at the same time.  It was completely unsustainable, but it’s the way I’d lost weight, every time, since my first “diet,” at 15, when I lost a stone the sensible way, by calories in v calories out.  What my 15-year-old self knew, was that fad diets just don’t work – at all.  Somehow, along the way, I forgot how to be sensible.  And now you know why I make so many soups….

Me (1 of 1)As of now, I’m 83 pounds down, and with only 17 to go until my gain started, probably around 2009/2010, I’m eyeing up being back to the weight I was at 15, as I can see me getting there this time round.  I’m conscious that I will have to eat at this level for what is possibly the rest of my life, eating around the 1200 calorie mark, but I can live with that.  What I struggled with is gaining at 1000 and less, as people just didn’t believe me, so I’d hibernate away from the world more and more, until I became a virtual recluse, only going out the front door when it was absolutely necessary or for people who knew me through the gain.  For people I hadn’t seen for years, I made every excuse under the sun to avoid seeing them.  Ok, I know it’s a flattering picture from a night out, but hey, after all this weight loss, I deserve a little bit of flattery. 🙂

The one thing people don’t tell you when they’re really fat, is how much of a struggle it is to get through daily life.  Just tying shoelaces is a near impossibility, as is bending down to pick things up from the floor.  And the shame, when you’re the fattest person in a room is simply incredible, if you feel all sorts of negative emotions around being overweight, which I do.  My father in law died, and the only thing I could get on my expanded backside was a pair of dark coloured jeans, that were so tight that I felt they were cutting me in half.  I saw the half lopsided eye sliding people, even though I wore what looked like a suit jacket to cover up a bit, but I suspect many people thought my wearing jeans was disrespectful, but I’d no choice in it.  I’d convinced myself that “something” would fit, and on the day, when I tried to find something……there was nothing.  It was put on the jeans or not go, and that wasn’t an option for a family member.

I’ve declined to go to two funerals of people I should have gone to, simply because I couldn’t face people seeing how fat I’d got.  I always pulled childcare duty, going out of my way to do it, in an excuse to be busy, and have a reason not to go.

Then, we’d have someone like the TV personality who gained and lost weight to “prove,” how lazy us fatties were, and I’d feel even worse about myself, and possibly eat something that took me over my very low maintenance level, and that would make it even worse again.

It’s safe to say, that I’ve lost more years than I care to think of recently, due to the wobbly blubber that I laid down under my skin.

So – extreme weight loss…. Yep, that’s what it’s called.  I qualify for that now, but I’ve still got possibly a fair few to go, before I try to reach my age 15 weight…….  I think I’ll aim for the 100 mark, then see where I go from there.  At the 100lb mark, is where people used to tell me I was too thin, despite still being past the middle section of the BMI chart.  I’ve also started C25K, using the NHS running app, and have lost inches that don’t correspond to the numbers on the scale, so I’m getting slowly smaller, despite not losing so much recently.

The big ho ha, is people I’ve not seen for months, for whom, I’ve dropped almost 6 stone, and they say nothing………  I’m never sure whether to laugh or not.  Perhaps they’re scared to say anything in case I pile it back on again. 🙂

Anyway, that’s where I’m at, and why this blog is turning so foodie.  Food is becoming something I enjoy very much now that I can eat more than I used to, but making healthy choices has become a big part of my life, with some treats thrown in.

My youngest has joined me in doing Couch to 5K, and we’re muddling along nicely, despite my fibromyalgia that means my feet often suffer.  Hopefully they get better with time, and I did the first weeks wearing Fitflop trainers…  Nothing else would do, but I’ve now got myself proper ones, and I’m really pleased that one of my boys has joined me in doing it.

The last part of my weight seems to be taking an age to shift.  I only lost 1lb in the last three weeks, so it’s going to take a while.

There, I’ve done it.  So, now you all know…

Love and light,

Lesley

ps, ginger tea for weight loss tends to get mentioned a lot.  Make your own mind up about it.

 

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Happy New Year for 2016….

Just a little thank you from me to my readers.

Thanks to you all.  Yes, all of you.  I’ve had a great year on the blog, and without readers, there wouldn’t be any point continuing to write.  I also want to thank all those who’ve stuck by me through the years, still getting and opening their little e-mails when I publish a post, and I’m still slightly thrilled when the report comes in, to say how many of you have opened each one, whether it’s to enter a giveaway, check out a recipe, or just to find out what I’m talking about.

We still have our three boys, who are now all moody teenagers with a definite preference for spending all day in bed whenever the opportunity arises.  I have a parent with dementia living with me, and another parent with dementia in a care home an hour or so away.  The days are often too short….and I still miss my furry four legged friend who left us last year.

I’ve a few things on the go for next year, and will begin early in the year with an e-book full of soup maker recipes for those of you who are interested.   I keep being asked, so I’ve finally got it almost done.

Massive best wishes to all, and I hope you can all have as happy a new year as is possible for your own circumstances.

The very best of the seasons greetings.

Lesley
x

Lesley Happy New Year

 

 

 

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Review: Titan Steel Lightening Cable. Is it the strongest cable on earth?

I can’t guarantee that the Tital is completely indestructible, as we’ve not managed to break ours, but a virtually indestructable cable is one thing that we really needed.

My middle boy is very hard on his chargers and we’ve gone through quite a few in his iPod lifetime.  As much as we try to tell him to be careful with them, they fray, get pulled apart, and don’t usually last for more than a couple of months at a time.

Titan Cable 1

Fuse Chicken, offered their new Titan cable for us to try, and it’s been put through its paces by him.

There are two versions of this cable.  One for Apple, and one for Android.  If you do ever decide to buy one, make sure you choose the right one, as they’re not interchangeable.

About the Titan Charging Cable

  • Made from industrial grade cable, wrapped in dual layers of flexible, high-strength steel.
  • Connectors are sealed with a one piece housing, fused directly over the electronics and metal casing.
  • It charges and syncs.
  • USB connector.
  • It winds and twists into shapes you can mould for your charging point.  Some people even use it as a stand for lighter devices, though I’d worry about the connection port on my device, so I resist using mine for that.
  • Titan took a chainsaw to the cable, and couldn’t break it

The Hype

Ok, so I’d seen some negative reviews about this cable on Amazon, so I really went into reviewing with an open mind.  I was actually really pleased with it on first taking it out of the packet.  How my cable performs in use, is all I can tell you about.

Titan Steel Lightening Cable

Due to the reviews, I allowed my middle boy to do his worst with it for over a week, making sure it has gone through several rounds of being fairly roughly handled.  Ours is still holding up well, and hasn’t broken the connectors.

Would I buy this?  I’m afraid to say I would.  I have a very accident prone boy who goes through cables like water.

 

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Bank Accounts & Scary Debit Cards for Tweens and Teens

I spent a long while, looking for bank accounts for my boys recently.  They’ve had savings accounts for years, but I hadn’t realised that kids as young as 11, can have their own debit cards.  In my head, I had that little milestone filed away for 16+.  I got their new accounts with the RBS, and we just got on with it.  They have apps on their phones which let them know how much money they have left, and they feel all warm and fuzzy, as the pseudo grown ups that such freedom brings.

Debit Card

Until…….

I overheard a conversation at the table next to mine, when I was clacking away on my keys in our local coffee shop, having left the man in charge of the house while I got out for a while.  Nobody knew I’d gone out for a solitary coffee fix, but hey, why should they!

Anyway, the conversation at the next table turned to wealth management.  Having absolutely no idea what that meant, I started seriously lugging in on their chat about savings and current accounts for their kids.

From what I could gather, wealth management for regular kids is just posh speak for being in charge of their own accounts.  In circles of people who have serious money, it will mean something entirely different, but calling sproggets pocket money ‘wealth management,’ is a bit OTT for me.  I pretended to be laughing at something on my computer screen, as I did a very unladylike snort, but it did bring home some issues that have niggled at the back of my head for weeks.

A few months ago, I’d had one of mine complain about not having his own debit card to buy things online with, but as a principle, it’s something I still struggle with.  As far as I knew, it wasn’t legal for someone under the age of 16, to actually get involved in buying online at all…  Perhaps I’ve been living in the dark ages.

I still have not got to the bottom of it, but my youngest has a debit card now, and he’s bought and received goods he’s paid for online.  I guess it does make a difference that most shopping accounts don’t ask for dates of birth, but whatever it is, I’m elated that kids can learn all about budgeting and paying for goods sensibly.  On the other hand, it also fills me with complete horror.  Just what on earth can they get access to when they can buy anything they want online……

Perhaps I’m worrying too much, but that would frighten the life out of me if I was a parent and had absolutely no idea what my kids were up to online.  As it is, I nab the statements once they’re read them and I can research what they spend until they’re older.

I’m not too sure if I like them growing up nowadays.  The world is a much scarier place than it was when I was their age.

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Staying Safe at Christmas

We shouldn’t really have to say this, should we?  Only we do….

Fire kills, and Christmas is really a time where we roll out decorations and lights for trees, that we use rarely, then bundle them up and squish them back into the decorations box until the next year.

Christmas-1000.png

There are lots of hidden dangers around Christmas, and for this year, I wanted to highlight the main ones for my readers.

Christmas Lights Safety Checklist

  • Only buy lights with the British Kitemark.
  • Buy from a respected source, ie a large chair or reliable name.  Do not buy lights second-hand, or from a dodgy bloke in a pub.  You have been warned.
  • If your lights are a few years old, treat yourself to new ones if you can.
  • Before adding your lights to your lovely new tree, check each one for signs of damage and change bulbs if needed.  If the cables are worn, replace the lights.
  • Switch OFF the electric before removing or adding a new bulb.
  • Use a surge protector.
  • Don’t use indoor only lights for wrapping around the top of your garage outside etc.  Keep indoor lights for indoor only.
  • Watch out for the trip hazard that cables along floors can create.
  • Switch off the lights when you go to bed, or when you go out.
  • Christmas lights are not toys, neither are the fibre optic trains and santa sleigh’s out there.  Don’t let your kids play with them.

Christmas Fire Awareness

  • Extinguish candles before you go out, and before you leave the house.  Candles really shouldn’t be left unattended at any time.  When you have them lit, make sure they are out of drafts and away from soft furnishings and curtains.  Keep candles, lighters and matches out of the reach of children.
  • Keep decorations well away from heaters, fans and lights.  It’s tempting to hand a star from a chandelier, but just don’t do it.  Don’t.
  • No matter how tempting it is, don’t put on your Christmas dinner, then leave the house.  Cooking needs to be kept watch over.  Kitchens are dangerous places.  Keep dish towels away from hobs and hot ovens.
  • Check smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors.  Are they working correctly?  If not, replace them, or change the batteries until they are.
  • Do not, and I repeat, do not, overload sockets.  With all those new gadgets and whole families in one house, all eager to charge them, stop and think…..is it worth the risk?
  • Be careful with Christmas costumes.  Some materials are very flammable and can catch alight easily.  Know what fabric you are wearing and your risks.  Making a stir fry using an open flame on a hob, but wearing a flammable material, is a recipe for disaster.

If you can think of others I’ve missed, please add them in the comments.

 

 

 

 

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Have you heard of a cord blood bank? Should you donate blood?

I suppose you can say I was on alert after seeing BBC Doctors, where a nurse pretended to have placenta in a bag for cooking, when it was in fact chicken liver for pate.

It was only a couple of days later when I saw the headline…that simply said something like “Why do we use cord banking?’

It had me beat.  At first, I imagined some form of rope, or fibre, or perhaps even some airy, arty, cloyingly sweet name for something as simple as a blood sample from the doctor (what can I say).  I even wondered if it was something to do with some kind of blood for a speciality dish.  We Scots are used to black pudding which is made from ox blood, so although I don’t eat it, my interest was piqued.

Initially, it was a bit of a let down to find out that it’s simply storing blood from the placenta of a new born baby, within one minute of the baby being born, otherwise the blood congeals and is no good for future use.

Then I read further and discovered a whole new world of donation, that helps save lives, and I’d never heard of it.

Donations and Storage

The NHS has a cord blood storage bank.  Yes it does, strangely enough.   You can even register to donate on their website.  It seems a fairly simple thing to do.

Private v Private Storage of Cord Blood

Private

Knowing that there is a difference between public and private storage is very important.  The NHS blood bank is public, and operates in a different way.

In the private banks, donors store the cord blood of their babies, in the hope, that if someone in their family ever becomes sick with a disease that involves stem cells, and is treatable, there’s already a store of blood that can be used, and more importantly, one that is a match.

As with any private service, fees are usually charged yearly for storage after the original bank deposit.  The cord blood banking cost can run into thousands, so it’s not something to be taken lightly

Public

Our good old NHS Cord Blood Bank, collects from public hospitals and is free.  I can’t figure out just how many hospitals can use this service, but for those who are interested in donating, it would be worth calling their hotline to find out.

With a public donation, like any other blood donation, it’s given for the greater good of our fellow mankind.   The blood can be used for anyone who is a match for that tissue type and is not stored just for use by the donating family.   Although the donation is stored for ever more, if it has been given to someone else, then it turns out the child whose blood was donated needs it for themselves, there is no guarantee that it might still be available.  There would, however, still be the possibility for a further match in the public bank.

What Can Cord Blood Be Used For?

As well as cancer of the blood, it can be useful in cases of bone marrow problems, blood disorders, such as sickle cell anaemia, or where an immune system is not doing it’s job, or where waste products in the body are not properly being broken down.

Do We Really Need To Bank Cord Blood?

The possibility of our children needing a stem cell infusion of blood might be rare, but are people actually going for this, given that it is written about as painless and easy to do at the point of birth?

I didn’t give birth to my boys, and I’d no idea this whole thing even existed, but I suspect that if it was available when I was giving birth, I’d be sorely tempted, just for the possible benefit to some child somewhere that might actually need some cord blood in the future.

It’s not something that is ever going to be a consideration for me, but I thought it was worth sharing on my blog, as if even one person donates cord blood as a result of me raising a little awareness, some child somewhere might survive a miserable health condition in the future.

Find out more from the NHS Cord Blood Bank.

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Halloween Is Coming

This often fills my heart with dread.  Standing out in the freezing cold for ages, while little cherubs run amok through the streets, knocking on doors and telling jokes to get sweeties.

My middle boy is now a teen.  He’s the same height as me, and takes a size 8 shoe already.  He STILL wants to go door to door, asking why the chicken crossed the road, and the house owners look at him with staring eyes, as the answer is always ‘to eat his supper.’

Our kids call it Trick or Treating nowadays.  Americanism has taken over, in more than just Halloween, but the kids love dressing up, so who am I to spoil their fun.

Halloween

This year, his disability is embarrassing him, and to be honest, at times, the rest of the family too.  Our embarrassment is for him, as we’re used to his antics and inappropriate comments and funny hand actions, and sometimes, just sometimes, the unbelieving looks from strangers get through, and he understands he’s made a big faux pas.

We try to head it off by only visiting houses where people know him, but with the pumpkin outside the house rule, he can take off to join the tots at the home of someone I don’t know.  All I can do is raise my eyebrows and try to send a telepathic signal to the disbelieving recipient of the chicken dinner joke, that makes them laugh, despite knowing it’s not even a joke, let alone a funny one.

Half a decade of trying to get him to change his joke has come to nothing.  This year, I’m not even going to try.

The best bit about Halloween, is when it’s over….  We can retreat back inside our front door, while he dumps his bag of sweets on the lounge floor and tries to count them out.

Recapping some of the Halloween, here’s Devils Food Cake Recipe from a couple of years ago too.

Enjoy your spooky evening.

Happy Halloween

Devils Food Cake Halloween Nigella 570
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Does how you live affect your chances of being burgled?

In collaboration with Legal and General.

It’s that time of year again, when burglaries start to rise, as thieves know most of us are likely to have some Christmas presents lurking around, but how vulnerable do we make ourselves?

When I was about 14, I came home from school, to find our front door open, and a pair of socks discarded on the steps in front of the door.  My neighbour was standing at our door, making sure I didn’t go in, just in case someone was still inside.  It was my first experience of a direct theft, that wasn’t just some other child nicking my stuff at school.

To make matters worse, the only thing we could find that had actually been taken, was my wages from my Sunday job in a shop, that I’d thrown on top of the piano before going to school.  Easy to find, and easy to pinch.

What’s worse, is that years later, I found out that a neighbour had seen the burglar enter our garden and then leave, but hadn’t come forward.  She KNEW who’d burgled us, but kept schtum.  The robber is long dead now, but the feeling of anger at someone taking what I’d worked so hard for, has never left me.

What also angers me, is that we’d left ourselves wide open to being an easy target for a burglar.  In spite of living one floor up, in a flat that shared a front door with another flat, we had no lock on the shared outside lobby door.  That was rectified pretty quickly.

Our lack of decent security, had meant the burglar could walk into the shared lobby and close the door behind him, leaving him all the time in the world to break down the inside doors.

Vintage Key in Sea

Our inner door was also too weak.  We’d never experienced a burglary before, neither my mother, nor myself, and as two females living alone, we really should have.  We had a flimsy yale lock on the inside door, which must have been easily shouldered through, as the damage when he broke in, was very slight.

So, for us, adding a new lock and changing the totally inadequate one on our flat door, made us feel safer for the next few years, and I’m much more safety conscious than I would have been, had we never been burgled.

When friends of mine leave their doors open when they’re at home, mine are always locked, unless it’s the patio doors when we’re out in the garden.  Ingrained habits are hard to break.

Legal and General have written an excellent article that helps us to understand hour our lifestyle can affect the safety of our homes.  It’s well worth a read for anyone who is unsure about thinking seriously about the potential for risk.

Having teenagers myself, it hadn’t hit me that a house with teenagers, actually increases our risk of being burgled, but it makes perfect sense to keep anything valuable out of sight, and not store things in the master bedroom.

Stay safe everyone, as as the run up to the festive season begins.

 

 

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Garden Vegetables

I thought you might like a look at some of our vegetables from the plot this year.   We’ve had a bumper crop, including broccoli, cabbage, potatoes, leek, onion, carrot, cucumber, green beans, swede and strawberries.

Mr Scottish seems to have taken growing veges in his stride, helped along by middler of course, who needs something to keep him occupied, especially at weekends and school holidays.  I think this is a major success.

Here’s a small selection of what we’ve prepared for tonights supper, along with the cucumber and courgette, which is very likely to be turned into some sort of jam.  We’ve had a massive courgette crop which has been difficult to use up, so friends and neighbours have all had plenty.

It’s been a lot of work, but we’ve got a few sacks of potatoes, and the strawberries were turned into jam long ago.  Our raspberries weren’t so successful, and our tomatoes were a non starter this year, but there’s always next year.  Rhubarb is always a chore for us, as apart from crumble and jam, nobody else will eat it.  Most of that has been given away.

This was well worth starting.  It pretty much halves our fruit and veg bill during May to October.

Cabbage
Vegetables
Courgette Cabbage and Potatoes
Courgette
Potatoes
Swede

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My Solution to Pathetic Broadband – Hello 4GEE Mobile Wifi (Osprey 2)

Update:  Inserting the sim on Osprey 2.

This seems to trouble some people.  I can only show you how mine is inserted.  Locate the little cover with the sim image on the side and gently pull it open.   With the sticker on the back of the Osprey, I’ve taken a picture of which way to put in the sim.  If your Osprey is sitting with the EE logo on the top, contacts will face up, and if it’s sitting with the smooth back of the Osprey upwards, it’s the EE sticker on the sim on the top.  Hope this helps a bit.   Your sim needs to be exactly in the middle, so pop it in gently so that you can remove it if you miss the centre slot.  When it slides in easily, use your nail, or a pin to push it in until it feels like it’s clicked.

IMG_1968 IMG_1967

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Our broadband is dire.  I don’t like to shout too loudly, as some of my neighbours have it even worse than we do, but if there’s more than one person hooked up to the WiFi, there’s no hope of EE3getting much of anything done.

At times, our speed isn’t much more than the old dial-up.  To make matters worse, if the broadband goes down, there have been no 3G or 4G connections to fall back on with a phone.  I’d tried 3, Vodafone and O2, but at least with O2, we get calls.  We couldn’t even get that with Vodafone.

I know some of you probably think we live out in the sticks, but although we’re a village on the outskirts, we’re still actually classed as being in Aberdeen, and not the Shire.  Yes, that’s right, we’re in a City and the broadband needs a good talking to.

We’ve been promised faster internet for years, but after an extended slo-mo outage, I decided to get myself a hold of one of the EE Mobile WiFi units.  To be honest, I expected very little from it, as our trials for other networks have been so poor.  I switched it on, fully expecting it to have to go back, then I sat it on a window ledge, and what do you know – I got three bars of 4G!  I think my neighbour heard me whooop…
EE Osprey 2 2

I can’t move it around too much, as there only seems to be a few spots where the signal is this good, but I can join it, just like any other hub.

I’ve seen the reviews that said the unit was quite large.  I don’t know what they’re reviewing, but I don’t find it large at all.

There is a mini version of the Osprey 2, but that does not allow you to charge a phone if you’re out and about.  I can see my youngest wanting a mini for Xmas though.

As for the data plans…  I do find them slightly on the expensive side, so I’ll be restricting my useage on the gadget, but it’s finally reassuring to know, that when my internet dies totally, I can still actually use my phone to get online….or turn off automatic updates on my computer, to save data.

Anyway, you can choose pay as you go, or sign up for monthly payments.  If you’re using it a lot, then monthly would be the way to go.  This is the first time I’ve tried a mobile WiFi gadget in my house, and there isn’t an alternative.  I’m just happy to see a light flashing anywhere, on any gadget that connects to the internet.

Easily pleased aren’t I?  Perhaps I should just get a life outside the internet….

EE Osprey 2 1

In the box:

  • EE4GEE Osprey 2 Unit.
  • Quick start guide.
  • Top up card.
  • Sim card.
  • Little carry pouch.
  • Charging cable.

Disappointingly, the cable is ultra short and there is no plug.  I found that a bit inconvenient.

For surfing the web, I have to say, it is much preferable to our BT Broadband at present.

In Use

I’ve popped it in my bedroom, where I’ll use it to check mail, surf a few web pages, social media, and some low data hungry things.  Our WiFi doesn’t work well up there, even with a booster, so moving onto this for the evenings will make me very happy indeed.  Now, I’ve just got to work out how long I can make my original 6GB of WiFi last for.

With one machine under our belts, I doubt I would actually swap this pay as you go sim for a monthly one, as the units are free on a monthly package.  If I decided to tie myself down to a monthly payment, I’d simply get them to send me a new unit too.  Possibly the mini as a Christmas present.  It would be the same price overall.

Surfing on 4G is very much faster than with our broadband.  I went for a walk, popped the Osprey into my pocket with my phone and was able to download messages and read the news on a local park bench when I stopped for a breather.  It’s the first time ever, that I’ve had any connection in our village.  I doubt I will do without this gadget in future, unless O2 get their finger out and give us 4G too.

Littlest is simply thinking about having WiFi on his travels.  When we go away in the van, we tend to get zero signal wherever we go for data, but some people have been mentioning finding EE signals, so if we get WiFi in a place where our phones pick up nothing, I might just kiss the boots of whoever invented these little magic gadgets.  We can connect up to 10 devices to these units, so they’re quite versatile.  I just wish the data was cheaper.

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Is Your Windows 10 Machine Updating Someone Else’s Computer?

If you’ve downloaded Windows 10, and are loving it, congratulations.  Windows 10

I, on the other hand, really do like it, but I found a problem.  After installing it, my machine seemed to be working constantly, and my processor sat at 98% most of the time, with only one program open.  It meant I could hardly do anything without the machine freezing for a minute or two.

I could do very little, as I had no ram left on my slightly ageing PC.

So I did what we all do when our computers temporarily freeze up.  I went looking for what I could find.

Potential For Peer to Peer Updates

Windows 10 will do mandatory updates, but  the really tricky part of this, is that not only can Microsoft then use your download to update the other machines in your network, it could use your broadband to deliver updates to other PC users, wherever they may be, by using a form of peer-to-peer distribution.

I don’t know about anyone else, but our broadband is pretty rubbish as it is.  The potential to lose some, so that someone else can download their updates, fills me with dread…….  There isn’t enough information to say how they will use it, but the wording on the image below is pretty telling.  Make your own decision.

For those of you with superfast broadband, I have no doubt this is a great idea if you don’t mind sharing, but as someone who is stuck on ASDL, for what seems to be eternity, with no option of going faster, finding ways to get my machine nippier is definitely a priority.  On the plus side, Microsoft’s servers would get a break from the pressure of downloading.

I have horrific memories of the old fashioned peer-to-peer stuff of a few years ago, so this did not fill me with joy.

Thankfully, we can actually stop this happening.

Image from Windows 10 Settings Page
Image from Windows 10 Settings Page

Turn It Off

It’s on by default when you download and install Windows 10.

  • Start
  • Settings
  • Update & Security
  • Windows Update
  • Advanced Options
  • Choose How Updates Are Delivered
  • Either:  Choose PCs on my local network OR Click Off to switch off the sharing option completely.

I do have to say though, I am loving the new Start Menu and the options for apps.

And to the potential person/people who I may have downloaded Windows 10 from today, whoever you are, thank you for sharing.

 

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Is it ‘right’ to ban high sugar products?

Ok, I’ve read the hype and the arguments and I have a point of view on this.  As the general consensus seems to have been bashing Tesco for deciding to ban some high sugar products, I thought I should add my balance to the argument.  For the record, this post is not sponsored or in conjunction with any brand of any kind, and is just my opinion.

The conversation seems to be based around the following principles:sugar

  • Tesco banning sweets from checkouts.
  • Promoting energy drinks as a healthier alternative.
  • Removing some high sugar drinks from sale.
  • Sugar Consumption.
  • Obesity.

Banning Sweets from Checkouts

Kudos to Tesco for this.  Every journey begins somewhere.

Ok, there is still a learning curve, and perhaps individual store managers have a say on what does get promoted, but on the whole, this is a great initiative.  I’m not convinced that dried fruit has a place here either, as the sugar content is still high, and our bodies treat all carbs as sugar, but if it’s a choice between candy and dried fruit, isn’t it better if children pick the dried fruit (and adults for that matter).

Promoting Energy Drinks as a Healthier Alternative

I guess we could say that this is actually true in some respects, though perhaps it would be better if we tried to work with retailers on what’s acceptable and what is not.  After all, we all have differing opinions.  As a diabetic who also has to manage someone else’s diabetes, I’d much rather deal with aspartame than high sugar, but if I can get rid of the aspartame, I will.  I don’t think we know enough about it to know how safe it is long-term.

It’s not the shop who is at fault with the sweeteners, it’s ours.  There are alternative ways to sweeten products, but we choose to buy ones loaded with aspartame.  I know I’d rather drink an aspartame product than an added sugar one, but that’s just me.

The caffeine element is not so easy for me to rationalise, as the drinks say they are not suitable for children.  Checkouts are very much driven by impulse last-minute buys by everyone in stores and I find plenty of shops that sell high caffeine energy drinks to kids.

Even my local shop does it.  It’s not illegal, and a couple of glasses of most brands of cola, or a few cups of coffee will add up to the same caffeine intake, but does not gather such vitriol as energy drinks.

I don’t like the promotion, but I can see where it came from, and to some extent, it applies to almost all shops that sell energy drinks and fizzy stuff.

Removing some High Sugar Drinks from Sale

I am really struggling to find the downside of this…..

I think people are perhaps confusing the removal of drinks with added sugar, with the removal of products that are high in sugar naturally.

In the Telegraph, David Beardmore, soft drinks buying manager for Tesco explained that it is part of a ten point plan against obesity, and that from September, they will only sell no-added-sugar drinks in the childrens juice categories.

Read that again.  no-added-sugar…..

It’s seems to have nothing to do with the brands of Ribena, Capri-Sun, Ribicon, or anything else.  It’s about removing products which are loaded up with extra sugar.  That’s sugar that nobody needs in their life.  Ever.

He also states, that most of the suppliers are supportive.

The manufacturers are free to modify products to contain no added sugar, and I suspect they would be stocked once again.  It wouldn’t be a bad thing for us to develop a less sweet tooth than we currently seem to have as a species overall.

Sugar Consumption

Look at the back of almost every processed product you buy, and in there will a label that tells us all about the carbohydrates.  Most of us tend to scan the list and take a look at the sugar content, forgetting that all carbs are treated as sugar in our bodies.

Let’s face it, even soups, pasta, ready meals and all sorts have sugar bumped into them.  Many bloggers make their meals from scratch, so we tend to consume less sugar, but on the whole, many of us, and our kids, eat plenty added sugar foods overall.

Sugar is addictive.  Apart from the lucky people who eat to live and treat food as fuel, the rest of us derive large amounts of pleasure and satisfaction from eating food, and food tends to taste better with fat and sugar added, even if we don’t always know why we like the taste.  Crucially, sugar is one food ingredient that we don’t need at all.  We get zero benefit from it, and it adds absolutely nothing to our diets.

If someone is a T1 diabetic and needs a sugar injection, there are many other choices to have on hand as a quick sugar release.  Added sugar products seem to be overkill, though I admit, it might be easier for a parent to persuade a hypoglycemic child to drink their favourite sugary drink.  The point being, though, that if it’s their favourite, they are more than likely consuming it when they don’t actually need the sugar, and then just topping up sugar levels that don’t need to be topped up.

I use sugar in my recipes for sweet things, but often reduce the content that other people recommend.  I suspect few of us would add sugar to our full meals, so why manufacturers think we need it in those products, completely flummoxes me.

Yes, I would like to see sugar content reduced, and products taken off the other shelves, but I’m old enough to know that a single step can eventually turn into cracking a mountain, if someone is determined to carry through their convictions.

Obesity

Yes, I’ve read and listened to the arguments for other products listed in stores that are high in sugar, but those are not solely aimed at children.  The products being removed are directed specifically at children.

We can deny it all we want, but on the whole, kids are getting fatter.  Two of my kids are skinny and one is slim, but he did have a problem for a while, and we’ve managed to wean him off the taste of high sugar products, but like me, he’s an addict and will always have to watch how much he is taking in.

Being fat sucks.  I don’t care how many people dress it up, or say how happy they are with their bodies at a heavier weight, there are few people I would believe.

Along with the difficulty in getting clothes that fit well, there’s excess sweating, stress and pressure on joints, stress on the heart, cholesterol levels, the possibility of Type 2 diabetes, or being shamed and called names in public, at school, or anywhere else.  And those are just for starters.

I have been very fat, and I have been very thin.  I know which version I prefer.  I wish that all products, apart from desserts, had been made sugar free throughout my life.  It would have made my choices so much easier.

As someone who finds it very easy to be addicted to the one thing that also can make me ill, there is no escape from my poison.  An alcoholic can stop drinking and not have to pass another drop across their lips.  A food addict does not have that pleasure.  Every day, they have to face their demons and swallow a portion of what they are addicted to.

And sugar is addictive…. Craving carbohydrates is common, as is the carb coma that can make someone want to sleep after eating a carb rich meal, but at the same time, it’s impossible to ignore the plethora of products out there to choose from.

My Last Words

If a huge retailer can enter discussions with providers of added sugar products, to remove the excess, then I think it is one step in the right direction.

Yes, there are bound to be teething problems, and yes, I think it could have been done differently, but I really do like the principle.

I am hoping that the initiative is built upon and expanded.  I think I’m just pleased to see a large household name start to take responsibility.  The test is going to be whether they can keep it going, and alter manufacturers product ingredient choices as a result.