Category: Lifestyle

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Mindfulness is a new thing for me.

We’ve probably heard it called a multitude of other things, but learning to make time for ourselves is something we should all do, no matter what our budget or free time looks like.

It’s not the same, but as an example, I’ve lost count of the people who’ve asked me how I lost weight, but when I tell them I log all my food, they say they don’t have time for that, or they don’t have time to exercise.  What they’re really saying, is that they’re not prepared to do it, or they don’t want to, or they’re not yet ready to focus on themselves, or I somehow, magically, have many more hours in a day than they do.

Let’s talk about a stereotype of some women I met in the playground when my kids were younger.

I can’t help thinking they’re going to have a heart attack, due to being constantly on alert, always worrying about what people say about them, always worrying about whether their kids are clever enough, pretty enough, top of the class, a genius in whatever, or whether their husbands are making enough money or not.

They’re STRESSED…..  With a great stonking S…….   Not only do they have to contend with the playground mums these days, they also have to content with the mythical perfection that exists in family life on Facebook or Twitter, or Pinterest, or Instagram, or whatever their choice of social media, where the pressure to conform is massive.  Their phones beep every few seconds, and they’re always being at the other end of demand from someone or other…    And when it comes to appearance, many are doing the latest Botox, or fillers, or Microblading their brows to perfection, but what about their minds????

Mindfulness is a new term to me, and one that I might mention frequently from now on.   Looking after our mental health is a place where we tend not to go these days, as time is always just that few seconds ahead of us, and we struggle to catch up.

For relaxing treatments, a move to treating the mind, in order to relax the body, isn’t a new thing, but it has tended to be ignored.  A move to more holistic approaches to treatment is always going to relax the mind, body and soul.

Aromatherapy, Hot Stone Massage, Facials, Hot Stones, Reiki, Reflexology and much much more, are all examples of therapies where we can sit back, and let our minds wander, especially if we’ve turned our mobile phones OFF for the duration.  I’ve come late in life to the benefits of holistic treatments, but I’m finding the therapy, where we have time to concentrate on our breathing, sit quietly, and actually relax, allowing our minds to rest, is something I’ve been missing all my life.

Sleeping is a no brainer, and a big issue for many of us, whether it’s falling asleep, or simply staying asleep.  I find that my hayfever makes that worse from Spring to Autumn, but on the whole, whenever I’ve taken time out for me, I’ve found my sleep has improved enormously, especially if there are aromatherapy oils or a well delivered massage involved.

Do some research and find something that works for you.  You won’t regret it.

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Having Wide Feet Isn’t Fair…….

Brought to you, in collaboration with Simply Be.

I think the name of this says it all.  I’m one of those people with boats for feet.  Really, when I was around the age of 10, I’d hit a size 7 in shoes, and was just touching five foot tall.  By the time I was 11, I’d gone into 7.5 and have fluctuated between 7 – 8 over the years, depending on the styles, manufacturers and widths on offer.

In an upmarket shoe shop, they once measured me as having a C width….  I don’t know about their tape measures, but standard shop shoes tend to be around a C to D width, and I’ve hardly ever been able to get anything with a heel on in a D width, unless the manufacturer has been very generous indeed.  Perhaps it’s my high instep that throws the width I need off, but I’ve always had to consider good width shoes.

I remember years ago, buying a pair of Sole Diva boots.  They were ankle boots, in black suede wedge, and a good height, at around 3 or so inches high.  They were like pillows on my feet, and I loved them.  Over the years, I’ve tried to find another pair that are similar, but never come up smelling of roses for this.  Simply Be asked me to take a look at their ranges for the new season, and the first thing I headed to was the shoe department, for obvious reasons.

I’ve not looked at these for a while, so it was nice to see regular shoes in EEE widths, as well as regular.  I’ve tended to live in trainers and fitflops over the last year, but that has to stop as I go into a new business venture for the future.  I do need footwear that will be a little smarter going forward.

I quite like the look of these silver mules.  in E width for £35.

These look quite comfy for standing about all day in, and cool enough to go with jeans on black trousers.

I’m very much a jeans with sandals girl in summer, and jeans and boots girl in winter.  Perhaps I shouldn’t say girl, given my age, but you know what I mean.  I also think it’s important for brands to design for women, not just for very skinny, boyish figures, which is why I’m not surprised that there are several online shops now that have good clothes, in a range of sizing.  For jeans, at the moment, I seem to very between brands, ranting from size 8 to size 12, depending on who makes them.

The one thing I’ve learned over the years, from being all sizes of clothes, is that if a size 10-12 model on the larger clothing ranges doesn’t look good in something, then it’ll look ten times worse on me.  I go for things I like the shape of, and try them.

These jeans have a great shape, and at £28, for a shape I like, is good value.  I tend to pay for shape rather than brand with jeans, which I think many of us middleaged people do.

Brought to you, in collaboration with Simply Be. Opinions are my own, and not reflective of Simply Be.

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The Spring Beach Clean – ps, it’s not what you think….

Every so often, as bloggers, we’re asked to share initiatives that are actually beneficial for all of us.  This is one of those initiatives, that I think we all need reminding of from time to time.

The #binit4beaches campaign team contacted me, and asked me to do a post, which I’m delighted to do.  They are a group of environmental campaigns and businesses, working together to reduce the pollution in the UK’s rivers and seas.

They say.

Did you know that there are approximately 200,000 sewer blockages throughout the UK every year, of which up to 75% are caused by fat, oil and grease poured down the sink? These blockages can cause sewage to overflow into local rivers and to the sea, places we all want to be able to enjoy safely with our friends and family.

What They Asked Bloggers

We were asked to become WATER AMBASSADORS, by informing all of you who read us, about the simple things we can do to help at home.

Remember that when you’re washing up, after making any of my recipes, DON’T pour oils and grease down the sink.

Instead wait for the oil or grease to cool and either wipe with kitchen roll into the bin or create a fat trap in an old jar to throw away later, either way; make sure these products go in the BIN, not the SINK!  I’m actually really good for doing this now, but a few years back, I’d have just turned on the hot tap, and let it swish down the plughole, never thinking where it would all end up.  Clean pipes, mean a higher chance of clean beaches.

Oils and grease can cause sewer blockages, which can overflow into homes, rivers and finally to the sea.  And we all want our beaches to be places we enjoy safely, especially if we have children and dogs with us.

This Easter make the change and #binit4beaches.”

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Update & The Twiddle Mitt for Dementia

Those of you following my blog, know my mother has dementia and has been in hospital for a while now. With the wrong medicine initially, and the trauma, her hearing and sight are now fairly badly impaired, although at a medium distance, she can still make things out, but not close up, even with glasses.  They missed her retina scan at the hospital, and I’m hopeful they actually take her to the rescheduled appointment this week as I’m working, but apart from that, she gets to rest a lot more and is generally much happier.

She’s had a rough time, but she came home for a visit today.  A few days ago, they told my husband they’d changed her care package to help me with her, apparently, from something different to what I was told, but nobody has told me what that is yet, and at the home visit today, they told me there’s no care……

She didn’t seem to recognise terribly much, and it’s clear the OT etc had no understanding of how little she could do before she went into hospital.  She’s seen as a significant risk of falls, which really isn’t any different to before, but with her dementia more advanced, her confusion is very sad.

The poor thing was frozen in her wheelchair when they got her here.  The OT who came with her looked a bit taken aback when I asked why she didn’t have her coat or any socks on, on a cold breezy day.

Social media, however, is amazing.  People regularly message me and ask how she is and one of my Twitter friends sent me a gorgeous twiddle mitt for her.  She’ll get more use of it at home than in hospital, where they don’t give it to her, and she only gets it if I’m in, but it’s a fabulous thing.  I’d never heard of them before.  With lots of stitched in little bits, and a wooden toggle inside, it’s great for warming hands and fiddling with.  The lovely purple mitt that I was sent, has tinsel wrapped around it, and a couple of little bells, and some fancy stitching.  It’s simple, and lovely at the same time.

I’d never heard of them before, but I’ve since seen them on e-bay, as I’ve been looking, and some hospitals have been asking for them to give to patients.  It was one of my Twitter friends who was knitting twiddle mitts for her local hospital, who knows about my mum, and very kindly sent me one.  The kindness of strangers is often overwhelming.

The blanket she has on her in this pic, is one I made when I was 15 – several decades ago…..  She used to recognise it as something from home, but I’ve taken it home and given her a thicker one, as at the moment, she doesn’t seem to recognise much from her old life, and is always cold, so the thicker blanket it is.  She’s getting thinner and thinner by the week, as she hardly eats anything, although she seems brighter than she has for a while.

Thanks to everyone who reads me, and sorry for the sporadic posts these last few months.  I am still here and pottering away with a few different things.  I hope to let you all know more soon.

x

 

 

 

 

 

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Pear and Apricot Stilton Stuffed Pork Loin

I was lucky enough to be asked to provide a pork recipe for Quality Meat Scotland.  As part of that lovely challenge, I got my meat from John Davidson, a local butcher to me, who provides great quality, and devised this lovely dish, which photographed a treat.

The carrots prepared like this are absolutely amazing  To find out how to make it for yourself, head on over to the website to find the recipe.

http://www.speciallyselectedpork.co.uk/recipe/pear-apricot-stilton-stuffed-pork-loin/ 

See it for yourself, as well as lots of other recipes from bloggers like myself.

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To Breakfast or Not!

Now here’s a thing.  My time has been all up in the air recently, and the first thing that always suffers in my life is that thing called “breakfast.”  It’s that alien word that has spent most of my life being sent to Coventry, as it’s one thing I’ve very rarely had time for in my life.  For the past couple of years, I’ve tried to add some sort of brekkie in the morning, but true to type, as things get more busy, breakfast for me, goes out the window.

Now I hear from all sorts of people that breakfast is a must, it’s a metabolism kick-starter, or it stops us being hungry, which by the way, is one of the most silly things I’ve heard.  For one, eating breakfast actually makes me hungry later in the day, but no breakfast = no hunger at all for me.  Do I want food, yes, but am I hungry – no.

I now also know the difference between hunger and wanting to eat now.  That has been alien to me my whole life.  I’ve gone day, and I mean days, at some points in my life, eating only an apple or two a day, but didn’t actually experience hunger as such.  Some food cravings yes, but no physical discomfort.  For me, it was all a mental thing.

Perhaps my metabolism has been out of whack my whole life, and yes, I can lose weight now my diabetes and badly behaved thyroid are behaving themselves, but sometimes, I do actually feel some discomfort when my body needs food nowadays. Note that I didn’t say “wants food,” but rather “needs food.”

The fact I now know what this feels like, and have never, ever felt it before, tells me that my thyroid has probably not worked properly, for the whole of my adult life.

This being said, I only feel that kind of hunger in a day, where I’ve kickstarted eating already.  If I haven’t eaten, the discomfort of needing food just doesn’t come quickly at all, but if I eat a bite or two, a couple of hours later, I need some food.

I’ve come to my own conclusions over the last couple of years.

Not Eating Breakfast Doesn’t Stop Weight Loss

To all those naysayers, who are adamant that breakfast is the holy grail of weight loss, with a calorie deficit, you are most certainly completely wrong.  Timing of food isn’t that important in my view, as long as we eat balanced meals throughout the day.  I’m sure my body doesn’t care if its first meal is 7am, 10am or lunchtime?  I prefer to begin my eating day from at least 10am, and lunchtime onwards if possible.  I eat fewer calories over a day that way.

It’s all about doing what works for us.  For some of you, breakfast could be the biggest meal of your day, and you eat little in the evenings.  I like to do things the other way around.  I eat little during the day, and most of my calories are consumed from evening meal onwards.

I’m not hungry in the morning, so I don’t want to eat when I don’t need to.  I do, however, finally know, at my age, what people mean when they say the world is only three meals away from anarchy, ie empty bellies for the masses will cause devastation for the world.  I really didn’t know what that type of hunger felt like for my first few decades of life.

Arguments For Breakfast

Kick-start the day, and get in vitamins and minerals.

I can’t argue with this one.   Eating can kick-start the day, and it does give us vitamins and minerals for the day.  I just prefer to have them later 🙂

Stops mid morning snacking.

Um, not if you’re anything like me.  I eat breakfast, and a couple of hours later, I’m ravenous.  I eat more calories in a day when I eat breakfast.

Cereal is a good breakfast.

Have we all actually read the sides of cereal packets?  Honestly, I think a chocolate bar would be healthier than some cereal brands.  It pays to read the nutritional labels to know what you’re getting, or what your kids are eating.  Many are full of sugar and have very little fibre.   Take a look at Ricicles and Frosties, or Coco Pops and decide for yourselves.  It’s easy to get the kids to eat them, but I doubt they should be a daily thing for anyone.

Bacon and Eggs are a good breakfast.

Once upon a time, I’d have said I disagree with this, but in comparison to cereal, then yes, it’s a great breakfast when bacon is grilled and eggs are poached.

To Breakfast or Not?

As much as the people who’ve tried to convince me over the years are concerned, I’m still ignoring most of you,  unless I’m going for a run, or need to concentrate for a long period of time, where I’ll have something to eat earlier than usual.  What we eat in a day has more effect that the time we eat it, so sorry to all of those who keep pressing breakfast on me, as it’s just never going to be a 365 days of the year thing.

And just in case you do like breakfast, here’s a recipe for Mango Frozen Yoghurt.

 

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Where I’ve Been – Hospital and Dementia

Apologies to everyone who expects regular posts from me.  It’s been a bit of a whirlwind week or two, starting with my mother falling and breaking her hip.  As a hospital patient, she hasn’t had the best time, and I find how they’re treated quite cruel, but I’m just the person who looks after her 24/7, and I suspect they think I’m being a bit of a pest now, but I can’t just watch her so miserable.

She coped with the wait to go to hospital pretty well, and the operation also went well, with her smiling broadly at the offer of a piece of chocolate once she was out of recovery.  It went downhill from there.

Her blood sugar began to rise and rise.  They use finger prickers for great big burly blokes with calloused hands on everyone, and all her fingers are black and blue.  They even used her index fingers, which is a big no no, as they are so sensitive.  My brother fell out with them one day, and the next day, they transferred her to the rehabilitation ward.  That went as badly as everything else was going.  She was hallucinating, delirious, hadn’t eaten for nearly 4 days, and had no clue what was going on.  The dementia along with the operation knocked her for six.

She was dropped off in the rehab ward in the afternoon, and when I got there at 7pm, there she was, miserable, hallucinagenic, in a chair that there is no way to rest her head on.  Absolutely shit done. Apologies for swearing, but hospital have given me a lot of reasons to swear this last week.  I cleared her suitcase from the bed, where it was still sitting from when she’d arrived.  She hadn’t been helped to eat, despite not being able to see at that point, as well as hallucinating, and nobody noticed.

This was her a few years ago.  She’s a shadow of her former self now, having lost a lot of weight in the last week.

My brother was called up for her not having any clothes, but because she was in that chair, I’d popped her clothes into a drawer, as she was blocking the wardrobe, just to clear space so she could lie down for a while.  They didn’t bother to check there.  Then they popped her on a toilet and left her alone for 20 minutes, while he paced outside the ward and they eventually went back.  If he hadn’t been there checking his watch, I suspect she’d have been there for longer.

I thought that once we’d pointed out she couldn’t see, that she’d have an easier time.  I was kidding myself.  Daily, she’s been plonked in that cruel chair, made to sit there for hours, bolt upright, with nothing to do, and by the time they try and do physiotherapy with her, she’s exhausted and in no way able to cope..  Every time I go in, she’s done.  Heavy eyes, miserable, exhausted, ill, vomiting and more, yet there she is, sitting miserably in that chair, not understanding why she’s there, or why everyone is being so horrible to her and making her sit upright for so many hours at a time.

We had to go in twice a day to make sure she had something to eat and drink.  By day 5, she became very aggressive, and despite me telling them there was something wrong with her blood sugar, it took a week for them to realise she’d been on the wrong insulin since she came in.  Misprescribed.

It took another day for them to watch her try to eat, which isn’t easy when you suddenly can’t see, and they finally agreed to feed her.   She’d kept knocking over all her water and food you see, and probably was annoying when she did that, but she was having to feel for things, and the dementia meant she couldn’t tell them what was wrong.  She’ll never be able to tell them what’s wrong.

Today, I went in to help with physio, and I felt like crying for her when I went in.  There she was, head bobbing on that awful chair, obviously after sitting there for hours on end, not moving at all.  I got two steps from her when she started to heave.  A bowl full of bile later, at 11.30 am, eyes hooded and miserable, I asked them to put her to bed.  They didn’t want to.  Lunch was coming soon.  Really, lunch, after her just vomiting……

Then they told me that if I wanted her put to bed, they wouldn’t feed her, as they didn’t agree with eating in bed, even with the back straight up.  I told the male nurse that she was miserable, and just to look at her.  He said she looked fine to him.  Honestly, if that is fine, I’d hate to see how close to death someone has to be, to look ill.  I told him what they were doing to her was cruel.  She doesn’t sit up for 15 hours a day, in a straight back chair that forces her head forward at home, so why should she be made to do that in hospital.  It’s not as if sitting in that chair is helping her to be mobile, as she’s not moving when she’s in it, at all.  She gets far  more movement having repeated stints of up and down from bed to chair, so she can rest in between.  I suspect it’s got more to do with not having to change the bed when she wets it.

Ten minutes after putting her to bed, she needed the toilet.  I told the lady at reception, and got told that dinner had started and she’d have to wait thirty minutes.  Really?  Thirty minutes for a sick woman, recovering from a broken hip op, vomiting every day regularly, eating hardly anything, massively suffering from dementia, still hallucinating and still struggling to control her hands.  No way can she listen to having to wait.  Disgusted, I told them to enjoy the wet bed in thirty minutes and went back to her.   Tears were flowing down her face when I told her they’d have to get the machine again.  They came a few minutes later.

True to their word, they didn’t come to feed her at 12, so I did it, even though she still felt nauseous, then I cleaned her filthy nails, shaved her chin, and brushed her teeth and tongue, which were disgusting.  A rehab ward is no place for a sick woman, that’s for sure.  If they let her relax in the morning after she gets dressed, she’d be in a better place to do rehab, then rest again, but that blasted chair needs to be scrapped from use for actual sick patients.  It’s damned cruelty what they do.  She’s still not seeing, and I had to really press it with the doctor as her sight was pretty good the day before she went there, and now it’s pretty bad.  They’ve messed with her anti-depressants and she’s heading downhill, and there’s no need for that to happen at all.

They simply don’t have the time for her.   She doesn’t make any fuss.  She can’t physically make any fuss.  I’m pestering them to take her to the toilet, my brother has fallen out with a couple of the staff now, and she’s the only one in her ward who is immobile.  The rest are all physically able and can make their needs known.  She can’t.

I’m absolutely disgusted with that chair more than anything else.  Far more than the days they ignored her hallucinations and inability to see.

So there you have it.  This week, on top of the kids, work, and having to go to hospital to check she’s had a rest, my time has been swallowed up, and then some.  Hopefully service will resume as normal in a little while.  I just wish she’d become a bit more vocal and be able to press that buzzer for help, but it’s never going to happen.

To end with, don’t get me wrong, there are some lovely people there, but they have a schedule to stick to, and she’s not fitting into it.  She’s lived with me for so long, it’s like having my child in hospital, so yes, I’m becoming annoying to them, but I had a fabulous mum, and she deserves someone fighting in her corner to make her as comfortable as possible while she’s going through tough patches.  I suspect I could get her on her feet again if she was properly rested before physio started, but they’re not prepared to do that.   That torture chair must be on their tick tick list.  I don’t know how this will end, but based on hospital care, it’s harder going for her than it should be.

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Single Pot Cheddar Cheeseburger Casserole That Will Blow Your Mind

Guest Recipe by Chidinma of Fruitful Kitchen.

Who doesn’t like burgers?

I think there are very few people out there who truly don’t enjoy one. But today, as I was getting ready to go out and buy a burger, I realised how unhealthy that is. I thought of making my own burger, which isn’t hard, but then I wasn’t in the mood to go and get the ingredients.

In comes the one pot cheeseburger casserole! Sounds weird, right? Well, it’s actually delicious and fairly easy to make. I came across this idea because I already had ground beef, cheese, veggies and pasta…why not make something out of these?

Don’t worry, even if it sounds complicated, making this casserole only requires a few steps, some easy-to-find ingredients, and it can be done in one single pot at a time, just make sure you have a sturdy and big pot.

Let’s get cooking this crazy but yummy take on a cheeseburger!

One Pot Beef Burger Casserole With Cheese

Servings: 6/ Prep time: 10 minutes/ Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ lb ground beef
  • 1 diced yellow onion
  • 1 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 8 oz tomato sauce
  • 2 cups chicken or beef broth
  • ⅓ cup ketchup
  • ½ tbsp mustard
  • 1lb rotini pasta (or any small pasta such as mini penne, mini fusilli, or conchiglie)
  • 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • ½ cup water
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Step-by-step Directions

  1. Pick a large pot and add olive oil, let it warm over medium heat. While your pot is warming up, chop your onion into small squares.
  2. Place onion and let it cook until golden or transparent. Once it looks cooked enough, add ground beef and increase the heat a little bit.
  3. Let the meat cook until browned, for about 3-5 minutes. Make sure you mix the beef and onions as it cooks, add the minced garlic and mix again. Finally add salt and pepper to meat as it cooks.
  4. When meat looks brown, stir in diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Mix together for about 1 minute. After, add ketchup, broth, mustard, pasta and water and stir well so everything mixes together.
  5. Cover your pot, turn down the heat to low, and let it simmer for about 15 minutes, or until your pasta looks tender.
  6. Remove from heat and sprinkle the cheddar cheese on top. Cover again for about 3 minutes, or until your cheese melts sufficiently.
  7. Serve with your favorite toppings, such as lettuce, fresh tomato or even pickles. Enjoy!

Ready to Try This Deconstructed Burger?

I know it seems bizarre at first, but I promise you, once you have tried this casserole, you will be in love. This is the perfect recipe for cold weather, or for a group of friends. Try accompanying it with some baked potatoes, or oven-roasted potatoes if you have a large group of friends coming over to try this dish.

If you are vegetarian, maybe use some mashed chickpeas, or lentils, instead of beef. And if you want gluten free, skip the pasta and use rice pasta, or simply use diced potatoes instead.

When making this recipe, you can add different veggies, I picked these because they are usually the ones that go with burgers, but you can change them up for something more Italian, like olive oils, or something more Mexican, like corn and hot sauce. Give it a try, but always allow your meat to cook first before adding your veggies and sauces.

What do you think? Does this seem like a good, easy recipe to make perhaps this weekend? Let me know what you think and if you have tried it!

Author Bio: Chidinma is the founder of Fruitful Kitchen, a blog that shares delicious recipes and lifestyle tips. Most of her recipes help women with fertility issues, especially fibroids, PCOS, and Endometriosis. Sometimes, however, you will find other interesting recipes, as well as cooking tips and tricks there.

 

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Healthy Food for January

I don’t know about all of you, but after Christmas and New Year, one of the things I look forward to is getting my food back under control and being organised in January.  I’m at a point where much more weight loss isn’t really what I’m after as I’d like to recomp, ie add a little muscle but stay roughly within the same weight range, give or take 5 pounds or so.

I don’t want to drop too much more weight, as it will go from my face, instead of where I’d like the last of it to go, ie my belly, but I don’t like looking haggard.  I’ll trade a bit of belly for some flesh on my face.

Hopefully some of the belly will go as I try to decrease body fat in total, but if it means my face gets too thin, I’ll put a couple of pounds back on again.  It’s all about being stronger as I get older, rather than fitting into the smallest size clothes.

So, for the rest of this month, I am back into focussed mode, and that means eating as healthy as I possibly can, while increasing the amount of exercise I do.  Over Christmas, I’ve only done a few runs, and most were on a treadmill.  I don’t mind admitting, that two days ago, my first run outside for a month was punishing.  It took a km for my lungs to settle, and at 4k, the tops of my legs got still although easier to run.  I stopped around the 5k, as I didn’t want to risk getting injured.  I can still pound out 10k+ on the treadmill, but outside is different, especially if there’s some wind.

My internet connection is pretty rubbish at the moment, so I can’t upload the new videos I have sitting waiting, but in the meantime, I’ve added posts that have some of the food I’ll likely be eating. I’m aiming for 1300 calories and 100g protein a day.  As I don’t eat that much meat at the moment, finding protein in lower calorie foods is a challenge, hence my choices below.

My Go To Foods This Month

  • Protein Powder – My choice is MyProtein, due to how easy it is to get and value for money.  Want to get a discount on your first order? Click here to use my referral code and get 25% off your first order if it’s over £25.
  • Protein Bars – Again, I go to MyProtein, and get their High Protein version as it’s nearly 30g protein in each bar.
  • Dried Mango.
  • Medjool Dates.
  • Skyr – Various Flavours.
  • Mixed Berries.
  • Persimmon and Banana.
  • Milk.

My Trusty Filler Recipes

 Cream of Sweet Potato and Tomato Soup                 High Protein Chocolate Pudding

          

Chunky Mediterranean Vegetable Soup                   Veg

          

Broccoli, Sweetcorn & Asparagus Soup                      Frozen Mango Yoghurt

          

 

 

 

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Skavi & Ray Alkoholfrei Prosecco and Lush Bahlsen Christmas Goodies

Thanks to Scavi & Ray, and also to Bahlsen for our Christmas samples.

Scavi & Ray Alcohol Free Prosecco

I have to say, that I haven’t understood the Prosecco thing.  I’m pretty much teetotal, but not through deliberate or sustained choice.  I’ve had times in my life when I’ve drunk alcohol, it’s just that it hasn’t been that often, and I rarely ever found a drink I actually enjoyed.

Wine for me, is a bit hit or miss.  I rarely drink it in company, as it tends to be either very dry, or to me, pretty bitter.  I’m usually a cheap fizzy wine girl when I choose to imbibe, as I have absolutely zero alcohol class, and because it’s rarely on offer, I usually say no.  I’d been quite negative around the Prosecco culture, but I hadn’t ever really tasted it, nor had I understood why it’s talked about so much.

Scavi & Ray asked me to try the Alcohol free version, so I gave it a go.  I also have to say, I’ve never understood the put the kids to bed and have a glass of wine thing that goes on in blogging circles. I’d rather have chocolate……  Perhaps it’s just the younger ones, but hey ho.  The times I do miss having a drink in my hand, is at the Christmas dinner table, or at New Year.  I usually end up having to drive, so it’s often fizzy grape juice, but you know how it goes, there’s often someone, who’s usually had a drink or two, and they’re trying to push ‘just one,’ glass on you.  It annoys me that they push, and it annoys them that I don’t take.

The bottles really do look like a real bottle of wine.  I received two sample bottles, in a perfect size, and immediately – my Xmas and New Year problem is solved on the fooling those who are drinking into my actually taking one.  Unless they scrutinise the bottles very carefully, they’re not going to know.

Tasting some of my wine, I realised it’s a sparkling wine, and is refreshing, almost as sweet as grape juice but it looks like the real stuff.  I have no idea if this tastes like the alcoholic version of Prosecco, as I’ve never tried it, but if it does, I understand why it’s popular.  I have also realised the attraction…..and it’s that many people who drank wine, used to pretend they like the other stuff…….   This non-alcoholic Prosecco is fizzy wine, and doesn’t have a name that’s frowned upon.  It’s also very easy to drink…

I don’t think I’d be persuaded to go down the alcohol version route, as I don’t fancy a hangover with my daily routine.  There are no days off when you have 2 people with disabilities in your house, and you need to be able to get up during the night when the need arises.  Available from Amazon.

Bahlsen Christmas Goodies

This type of Christmas food, is something else I hadn’t ever tried, so is the main reason for choosing to feature these on my blog.

Our samples were:

  • Lebkuchen Mischung – An assortment of spiced lebkuchen cakes with chocolate.
  • Mohn-Stollen – A Christmas stollen with a poppy seed filling.
  • Zimtsterne – Star shaped cinnamon spiced, hazlenut cakes.

My favourite is the Mohn-Stollen.  I honestly thought the crunch was nuts, but it’s the poppy seeds.  I don’t mind either way, as it was delicious.

The Zimtsterne and Lebkuchen Mischung tasted very similar to me, but with slightly different textures than I expected.  From the shape and size, I expected crunch biscuit, but they really are a cake like texture in the middle.   I believe Waitrose, Amazon, Ocado, Asda, Morrison and Tesco stock Bahlsen goodies.  The cakes tasted cinnamony to me, but my youngest is convinced they are ginger based.   I checked the packaging and I was right. That’s why I liked them, as cinnamon is my favourite spice of the season.

Sadly, I opened the Mohn-Stollen early afternoon, and it was half gone in less than an hour.  I can’t see this hanging around for long.

I hope you all enjoy your own pick of Christmas goodies when you go shopping this month.

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Review: Disney on Ice Frozen

We had the good fortune to be invited to Disney on Ice for Aberdeen, where it’s running until the 11th December, so if you want to see it, you better get your skates on..  See what I did there…..

As luck wouldn’t have it, we ended up being late for the pre-show, after I scratched my car.  Well, I wouldn’t call it a scratch, as I pulled off a side skirt on a friends fence and scratched two side panels.  I also ended up doing my back in, by pulling the fence away to stop more damage while I reversed, but at least it wasn’t until the next day when I really felt the burn.

After a horrendously long drive time wise, we ended up in rush hour traffic and missed the meet and greet we’d been invited to, which couldn’t be helped, but I did manage to snaffle the Princesses on the way from the meet and greet room, so bagged a picture for one of the boys to show their nephews.

I’m ashamed to say that it’s my first ever Disney on Ice show.  It’s one of those things I kept meaning to get to, but somehow never did.  I won’t make that mistake again.  I’m going to be finding every excuse under the sun to take my nephews with me next time it comes around.

The skating was amazing, and the intricacy of the steps phenomenal.  Despite having a car and friends fence to fix, I’m glad we made it in time.  At one point, I worried we wouldn’t get there at all.

The favourite part, by the reaction of most of the kids, seemed to be when the Trolls came out.  I have no idea why ghoulies and ghosties and all things trollish please children of most ages, but they do.

It’s the full story, live on ice.  And it’s not just for the girls.

There were groups of adults, plenty teens, and a fair few boys sitting around where we were.  Not to mention the two Aberdeen footballers beside us, who middler kept checking up on.  I’ve no idea who they were, but the kids did.

Disney says:

Whisk your family away to the wintry world of Arendelle as the entire heart-warming take of Academy Awared-winning Frozen skates into town!  Featuring never-before-seen characters, sensational skating and inspirational songs like “Let It GO”, treat your family to a dazzling celebration of love and friendship they’ll never forget!

The show is running in Aberdeen until the 11th December, 2016, and then onto the Sheffield Arena from the 14-18th December, and The O2 in London from the 21st to the 30th December.

We’re advised to arrive early to learn the snowman dance.

For more information and tickets, visit www.disneyonice.co.uk

On the way out, I heard someone say that it was “stunning.”  She was right.  It really is.

Disclaimer:  Thanks to Disney on Ice for our complimentary show tickets.  All opinions are my own.

 

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Personal Trainer or Not?

This is quite a personal post.  It’s pretty long, but I think it’s necessary to show how I’ve felt about exercise and my health.  It’s also as a very big thank you to people who have given me some very special time, and have recently been helping me enormously.

Ok, on with it.  None of us are getting any younger, well maybe Demi Moore, Cameron Diaz and Victoria Beckham are, but I’m traditionally ageing forwards, bulldozing my way towards retirement at a frightening speed.  I’m pretty proud of what my body can do these days though.  And that’s a decade and a half after entering menopause.  Yes, I did have the luck to enter mine early, in my thirties, so my worst days flew away with the cuckoo long ago.  It does mean that I’m more at risk of osteoporosis than everyone who hits hot flushes in their late forties or early fifties, so I’ve been desperate to begin taking care of my joints and bones.

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With my weight loss, I’m feeling better than I have for at least two decades, with the odd blip of two of a runny nose and sore throat, when those pesky kids of mine take home precious germs from school, just desperate to share them around.

So, the short story is, I can run….  Very slowly, as I keep telling everyone, but that’s so I don’t have to get embarrassed when a ten-year old whizzes past me in public, or I huff and puff my way up a new hill.

Back to what I’d planned talking about.  It’s a simple question isn’t it?  Whether to consult a personal trainer or not!  Or maybe it isn’t.  What do we even mean by a personal trainer anyway?  Shouldn’t it be someone who knows more than how to train us, or someone who knows about how fitness affects overall health?

Honestly though, it’s a potential mind blower…with all the terms and confusion.

I can imagine about a quarter of you who are reading, silently thinking, ‘no brainer,’ yet the other three-quarters might either be sniggering their socks off, or wondering what else the money could be spent on.

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All of the above, are actually valid reasons, as is the concern of hitting a gym full of late teens and twenty year olds, either pumped up or perfectly body beautiful.  In reality, few, if any, care about us oldies with wobbly bits, but how we feel, does often stop us from doing things that are good for us.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and when I was young, I longed for skinny legs and the smallest clothes I could fit.  I’m eons more sensible now, having realised that being strong is infinitely more attractive to anyone with a bit of sense.  And that’s not on the outside, but on the inside, where it counts. Think about it. What we look like on the outside, isn’t going to help us age gracefully or healthily, if we’re thin but unfit, or overweight and wanting to do something about it, but can’t get up the courage to take the next step, or perhaps don’t know where to start.

That was me.  After I was asked to run the Race for Life, I just kept going, not having a clue what I was doing really, but just putting one foot in front of the other, and building it up slowly.  It was the right way to do it, and I’d read and read about strength training, but just hadn’t figured out how to go about it.  I knew I had a skinny fat type belly, and I knew I wanted to do something about it, but somehow, I still felt embarrassed.  I thought about using the gym, but thought I’d look like a numpty newbie.  Even worse…was that my husband bought himself a home gym in January, but has never used it, so I wanted to, but never felt I was doing anything constructive.

For a while now, one of my secret wishes, was to add strength training as my middle body is weak, and not in good condition.  I look fine, but I haven’t felt fine about it.

I’ve often wondered how to measure body fat percentage over the last year, but a body fat caliper seems to be very far out, as most of the fat I’m left with, is stored in one area.  It could throw those results off.

I had the opportunity to have an InBody test done at Temple Medical, by the lovely Jo, one of their doctors, and the reading pretty much confirmed what I thought.  The test, which measures our body composition, is fairly comprehensive and does far more than simply measure body fat.  I know my body water, protein, mineral and fat mass levels….  It’s an enlightening and very quick test to have done.  It’s also an eye opener.  Lots of people are telling me that I’m soon going to be too thin, yet the InBody test tells me I still have a lot of work to do.

Most of my fat is centered around my abdomen, and it’s not a great thing to have, considering my weight is inside the normal range, but I am only a smidgen under the line for dangerous visceral fat.  Yes, I have UK size 7-8 feet at just over 5 foot 4, so I’m never going to have a skeleton that lets me on the lower side of the weight scale without looking emaciated, and my InBody score came out at 72, which I am assured is fairly good.  Yet it’s not ideal either, considering that my body fat percentage came out at over 30%. That’s despite all the running and weight loss.  In other words, it was staring me front and centre, in black and white, that I’ve done nowhere near enough to be fully healthy.  I’ve had blinkers over my eyes..and stuffed cotton wool in my ears.  I knew this stuff, but whey hey, pretend it doesn’t exist, and I could fool myself that I was more healthy than I was.

Put that BFP into perspective.  In some places, they class people with over 30 BFP as obese!!  Compare that with the fact I take a UK size 8 jean in Next these days.  Usually 8-10 in most other places.

With a few tips from Jo about food, and advising me to eat at the level of 1300-1400 calories a day, with around 130g protein in 24 hours, and how to get that in, I set off to make a few changes, knowing I could ask her for more advice.  I don’t need to diet as such, as that would be daft, but what I do need, is to replace some of that BFP with lean muscle instead.  Yep, I’m back to strength training, aka weights, and lifting…

It’s laughable – lifting weights at my age, isn’t it?

Or is it?

Who doesn’t want to be strong?  I’m sure I do.  When I get to sixty, or seventy, if I make that, or even beyond, I still want to be able to climb stairs, go for walks, maybe even still run, chase around any potential grandchildren, and enjoy life to my potential max.  I’m never going to be ready for my pipe and slippers when I retire.  I’ll be blogging till I’m ninety….

Moving on, and back to the issue of personal trainers.  They’re scary…  Usually perfectly fit and able twenty somethings, who’ve never fought with life, weight, stress, or kids running around their ankles. That’s what I thought.  There are lots of gyms in Aberdeen, yet I wanted to talk to someone who’s had a bit of life struggle.  Someone who would understand that having a dodgy thyroid makes losing weight tricky, someone who had perhaps lost weight themselves in the past, and someone closer to my age. Regular personal trainers don’t seem to have that experience, even if they do have nutritional qualifications.  I can imagine they exist, but I hadn’t found them.

My one and only experience to date, a few years ago, was a very young lad, telling me to go longer and faster on an elliptical, which I hated, then onto a treadmill, where my legs wobbled like jelly and my heart felt like it would burst by the end.  I never went back.

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I found what I was looking for when I didn’t expect it at all, and it’s changed my life in a single session.

Tracy is the Health and Fitness Consultant at Temple Medical, and she was my next stop.

I have to admit to being a little anxious when I first met Jo and Tracy.  This isn’t even what I initially went there to review.  I was asked to review treatments, which I naively thought were all based around the face.  On my blog, they’d spotted my weight loss and let me come to talk about the service as part of their aesthetics treatments and weight loss management.  I’ll talk about it in another post, as I’ve begun the body contouring phase of their Alevere Weight Reduction Therapy programme, although I don’t need the weight loss segment.

As an overview, I took advantage of the session with Tracy, secretly hoping she’d be able to help me decide what to do with my pathetically weak belly.

Have a giggle at the wee time-lapse below.

[fbvideo link=”https://www.facebook.com/ScottishMumBlog/videos/1241732369226042/” width=”500″ height=”400″ onlyvideo=”1″]

I felt fine with Tracy.  She’s around my age, has life experience, and knows about the difficulty of being fit, and struggling to find the nerve to do something about it.  In short, it seems I have lazy glutes.  Those backside muscles that seem to have withered away on me.  Honestly, there’s nothing back there these days.  I’ve got strength in my thighs and calves from running, but my mid section, glutes, and almost everywhere else, is pathetically weak.

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By the time I left that one hour session, I could have kissed her.  Really.  The introduction to exercise is tailored at our ability to cope, and can be built up slowly.  I don’t think I stopped talking all the way through, asking questions over and over..

In the studio, she introduced me to kettlebells, basic stretch exercises, and has given me a great idea for using the redundant weights machine in my house, by adding an extension to the front instead of needing a cross hook.

I’ve had a mat for years, that I’ve finally unrolled for my home gym (in the pic).  I’ve bought a couple of kettlebells from Amazon and I’m all the bash. I’ve no intention of joining a gym, but I would if I had to. I just can’t get to one often enough to justify the expense, and I like the idea of being able to go to my gym any time I want to.  Whatever we can stick to is what we should do, if we can.

I believe Temple Medical has classes and Tracy has invited me along to see one, so I’ll try to stop my joints popping before I mosey on along.

I’m back to see Jo in a month or so, to see how I’m getting on for a follow on InBody scan, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed I manage to make a little progress. Kettlebells and protein, here I come.

Temple Medical are introducing a new product, which includes everything I experienced, which runs initially until Christmas.

New Temple Body Health Assessment in Aberdeen

  • InBody Scan, ie Body Composition Scan and Results.  Find out your percentage body fat, protein, minerals, body water and more.
  • 30 minute session with Jo, Medical Doctor, to discuss InBody results.
  • 30 minute session with Tracy, Health and Fitness Consultant.

You get all of this for £99, initially until Xmas.  Call: 01224 869997 for current offers.

I’d often wondered how to get a full body scan done, and thought it would cost hundreds and hundreds to have it done.  I had no idea how simply and quickly it could be done and analysed.

Find Temple Medical at:

Temple Medical Ltd
6 West Craibstone Street
Aberdeen
AB11 6DL

Thanks to Temple Medical for my consultation and treatments.  All opinions are my own, based on my experience.  Other treatments available include light therapy, wrinkle relaxing treatments, skin rejuvenation, blemish removal, body contouring, ipl laser hair removal, and many more non surgical cosmetic procedures.