Healthy eating? Not!

Well this week didn't get off to the best of starts.  We babysat for our daughter on Sunday evening so I didn't get moving very quickly yesterday morning.   I ended up faffing about and leaving myself no time for a walk before it got dark so my step count was very low.  Is it me or is it starting to get dark much earlier?  I know that logically it should be but August is still a summer month!  I'm going to have to start adjusting my timings.

Today was a better day for steps - I'm just over the 10,000 level so I'm pleased with that.  I also had company here for lunch - my former work colleagues that I meet up with regularly - we take it in turns to host lunch and it was my turn today.

The main course wasn't too bad - chicken, new potatoes and air fried broccoli and cauliflower but, of course, I love making a nice dessert.

I tried a new recipe and it turned out really well.

Of course I forgot to take a photo when it was whole but this is what's left:

Summer berries mousse.

I could try and argue that it contains a lot of fruit especially raspberries but of course the mousse also contains a lot of cream and creme fraiche.  Oh and a biscuit base.  Definitely not on the healthy eating list.  But it was delicious.

Anyway I shall be passing some of the leftovers to my daughter tomorrow and maybe only having another tiny piece.....😉

I did walk for nearly 50 minutes this evening and at a reasonable pace so hopefully I've counteracted some of those excess calories.  Back to the healthy stuff tomorrow.

A Wednesday Waffle in lieu of Hodgepodge

Well apart from Book Reviews and regular memes like the Hodgepodge and Friday’s Fave Five, my blog still seems a little bit neglected lately.  Today being Wednesday usually means a Hodgepodge post but as Joyce is taking a break this week I was determined the day wouldn’t go by without a post of some sort.

Hopefully Joyce will have some exciting news to share with us soon as she is waiting to become a Grandmother any day now.  

Having become a Grandmother myself back at the end of March I can relate to that.  I’m slightly surprised at how doting I am on Nathan.  Maybe that’s because I was there at his birth, or because of the bumpy ride he’s had or maybe I’ll be this soppy about all my grandchildren.  Time will tell but I’m loving every minute of it down to changing stinky nappies!

The blanket I promised for him is almost finished.  Just the edging to complete.  I’ve already bought wool and have a pattern lined up for the next one.  Nathan’s early arrival ruined my schedule for completing this one but hopefully if I get started on the next one soon it’ll be ready for the next arrival.  None expected at the moment but I’m always open to baby surprises especially now that all the kids are married and (apart from one) settled in their homes.

The couple who live with us are away for 2 weeks at the moment visiting her parents in the US so I’m taking advantage of not having to worry about their meals and re-doing the South Beach Diet.  The first two weeks are pretty strict but after that it should be fairly easy to fit in with meals for all of us.

I prepared in advance for this – working out a 2 week meal plan and shopping for the food we’d need as you can see:

Of course nothing goes to plan!  The first day had to be switched as I’d mistakenly put chicken in the freezer instead of the fridge and on day 2 we visited with Nathan and our daughter and went out for lunch.  I was fairly good though and just had a chicken salad.  (We’ll pretend I didn’t touch the streaky bacon or croutons!)

Alongside that I’m also trying to get my step count up – or at least back to the target I originally set myself.  So far so good this week.  Fortunately, although my knee is not great on stairs and I can’t do anything weight bearing on it at the moment walking is fine.

A friend commented that I didn’t need to diet but when your scales keep telling you your weight is increasing it’s time to call a halt. My problem is that I have such a sweet tooth so I’ll always choose sweet over savoury but not for the time being. 

Anyway plenty going on to keep me busy – I’ve even managed to get more reading done the past couple of weeks.  Trouble is once I get stuck into a book that I find hard to put down everything else gets put on the back burner.  I’m going to try restricting reading until I get to bed but that will mean going to bed earlier otherwise I’ll be reading a few pages and falling asleep!  But that will mean less time for watching TV and catching up on all the programmes I’ve recorded!

I used to say that for every child you had the day seemed to shorten by an hour.  Well none of my kids are children anymore but the days still seem short.  How did I ever manage to work full time?

Successful shopping

Well I braved Westfield today and managed to get the paper cutter I wanted.  I also got gold and silver inked pens to use in the scrapbook - it has black pages so they should contrast nicely on those.  I've become quite a savvy shopper since we've come down to one income.  I noticed a coupon in our Saturday paper for £5 off if you spent £12 in W H Smiths so guess where I got the paper cutter from?

I expected the shopping centre to be more manic than it was as it's school holidays and I didn't get there very early.  Rain was forecast for this afternoon so I wanted to get the washing done before I set off which meant it was almost lunchtime when I got to the shops.  It wasn't actually that bad and it helped that I knew exactly what I wanted and where to get it.

Paper cutter and pens - tick

Birthday present for D-I-L - tick

Watering can  - tick

Milk, onions and marmalade - tick

I had tick symbols next to those when I typed this in word but they didn't translate when I posted here. :(

I took the bus there and back as parking is quite expensive so I did what felt like quite a bit of walking, especially as the watering can had to be bought from a shop in the old Stratford shopping centre.  I was pleased to see quite a lot of people there though as, when Westfield was built just across the way, I did worry that the old centre would decline.  But they are two quite different shopping centres and both seem to be thriving.  I was disappointed to find though, that despite trekking there and back by bus and walking between the centres I only managed to clock up about 2 miles of walking.  But that’s 2 more than I would have done had I stayed home.

I have been quite lazy this afternoon though, just getting the washing dry and looking at properties online.  My daughter is flat hunting at the moment and she sent me details of a flat she was going to view.  Well that flat led to another …..and another…..it’s scary how easy it is to fritter away time looking at things on the internet.  But being lazy means I don’t get so hungry which is good when you’re trying to diet.  I lost 3 pounds last week so that’s a good incentive to keep trying to be good!

Saturday Summary

Well I decided to do a round up of the week and initially I was feeling quite down about it as another week has passed and not much has been achieved in the house.  But then I stopped myself and remembered that I'm supposed to be positive and focus on what I have done.

Firstly this is my third blog this week which is an achievement in itself based on recent weeks, especially as there was no Hodgepodge this week to keep me motivated.  I even managed to think of a topic on Friday that I may try and make a habit of.  (Friday Five News Stories.)  This gave me something different to think about rather than my routine logs of my days.

My days were fairly routine this week but that enabled me to keep on top of chores.  I did meet up with some old work colleagues on Tuesday evening.  Two of them are a married couple who are currently teaching out in Zambia but were home to visit family and friends.  It was good to be able to catch up with them.

I visited my sister-in-law on Wednesday and did some ironing for her.  This is something she'll struggle with for a while but she is doing so much better than she was.  I've also managed to do a few walks and today I've spent time with hubby.

I even picked up my knitting this week.  I'm just knitting squares for a blanket at the moment but every square helps!  I've joined an online reading group and I've read this month's book.  (The Other Child by Lucy Atkins.  Can't review yet as we're supposed to wait until the 18th to give everyone a chance to finish it.)

The main achievement though has to be sticking fairly well to phase one of the South Beach diet.  Phase one is quite hard as you're not supposed to have any fruit, no carbs, no alcohol and caffeine free drinks.  On the first day I did have decaffeinated tea all day but I had a terrible headache by the end of it.  I don't know if there was a link there but I switched back to ordinary tea after that and I've been fine.  I've also had some strawberries because we already had them and I couldn't bear to see them waste.  I've also had two small glasses of wine.  Other than that I've been fairly good, even passing up our regular Friday evening take away.

This phase is supposed to be done for two weeks so only 8 days to go.  I wanted to try and shift some weight before our holiday with our extended family as that's bound to involve lots of nice food and not much exercise.  Although I think I will just have to try and motivate myself to get out and walk more this year and not over indulge on the cakes etc. 

For any of you out there who struggle with keeping your weight down you could be forgiven for looking at pics of me and thinking why all the fuss?  I'm not exactly fat but the weight has been creeping on gradually for a while now and I decided it was time it had to stop. There's also the minor incentive of having to find a wedding outfit to fit.

Hmm actually, reading back over this it wasn't such a bad week after all!