You Are What You Eat

I have eaten a lot of rubbish today. Started with a sausage roll, then some parkin cake that a lady in the office had baked, then someone bought some biscuits left from a meeting, then there was some banana crisp things - that didn’t taste at all like banana -, then a ham sandwich, then more biscuits. I just don’t have the will power to say no. By the time I was due to drive to see my mum I was shattered so got an energy drink, something I’ve never had before and will not again it was disgusting.

I have just felt tired, sick and headachey. I’m sure it’s because of all the sugar and fat I have put in my body today.

After eating all homemade food for the last month I have noticed the difference in how better I feel, so tonight I had a light dinner of salmon and salad. I have bought some vegetables and am going to make lots of soup to freeze. Tomorrow for lunch we are having some turkey that I have cooked with spices, salad, homemade hummus and pitta bread. We will be having tastey homemade food again this month, maybe lose some weight again and hopefully feel better again.

PS Hello and welcome to my new followers.

Things are getting going.

A bit of an update:

Postcrossing
I send another couple of postcards. Postcrossing is a project where you can send and receive postcards to different places around the world. I love coming home to find a card from a random person, writing random things.

Fat Fighters
Well i finally singed up to Slimming World. I did the plan a few years ago and thought that this time it would be cheaper to just get the magazine and do it myself but the plan has changed and I didn't understand it so bit the bullet and signed up a few weeks ago. So far, so good, I've lost 16 and a half lbs (the half very important). I haven't felt hungry and I've only told one person at work as we take it in turns to bring lunch in for each other and bless her she has made things that I can eat.

Music Festival
After hours online and on the phone I managed to get weekend tickets for Leeds Festival. The line up is ok - I need to squat up on some of the bands but am looking forward to the whole festival experience. I've also spoken to the friends I went to Bingley with and they want to go again this year which is great.

August Update

I had intended to update on here regularly and set some targets for August however it hasn’t happened for one reason or another that I won’t go into. Instead I will concentrate on where I am with the challenge.

The bathroom is nearly done. The plumber and builder/tiller have done a great job. We decided to paint the walls a light green and have brought the paint. I am aiming to have it decorated by the end of the month. Then we will just need to get new skirting fitted and the flooring done. Luckily, even with the wall falling down we came in under budget on costs. As we have some money left over I want to get the loft hatch moved. At the moment it is in the bathroom but we have no way of getting into the loft. I would like it moved onto the landing with a pull down ladder. The loft really does need more installation in it and I would like to get this done before winter but I don’t know if funds will allow it.

I have been seeing my mum more often, which has been nice. We are making the most of it while the weather is good and the nights are light. Once the nights start to draw in I think I will go to stay with her a bit more on the weekend.

I have continued with wearing makeup and doing my nails etc. My skin is a lot better although I have had an eczema breakout and had to get cream from the doctors (I know my eczema is stress related). I have got into a skin care routine and treated myself to some very nice Clinique foundation and powder.

The homegrown vegetables have been a bit hit and miss. The lettuce and potatoes have been great but the radishes didn’t get going and the courgettes looked very promising but haven’t come to anything. It hasn’t put me off and I am planned more for next year. I layed some old paving stones down to make a bbq area and OH and me had our first proper bbq (not a disposable one) this week. I cooked far too much but it did my OH for the next day. It was a lovely evening we sat out late just chatting, reading and listening to music. What I have found is that on the evenings where we don’t have the TV on I feel a lot more relaxed. I know that most of the programmes I watch such as the soaps are just out of habit. When I met my OH he didn’t have a TV and even now doesn’t watch half as much as me. We are enjoying having the Lovefilm subscription and try to have a film night when they send the dvd. We have both watched films that we wouldn’t normally and have liked both of them.

I sorted all my cd’s out and they are all ready to take to a charity shop. DH still has his tapes to go through. I found a big box full of recipe books and recipes torn from magazines. I went through them and did get rid of a lot. The others I want to put in a folder or book of some sort to keep them organised. Also I want to start using them.

I have been planning our meals each week and am running them freezer and sort cupboards down to try and not spend much at the moment. I really want to work towards cooking more from scratch, which I do most of the time but would like to be more organised and do batch cooking and freeze them. I have made a list of what we have already in the freezer and are using things up in the menu planning. The plan is when we have use most of the stuff in the freezer then I will stock up with meat from the local butchers and get the veggie box delivered each week, cutting back on trips to the supermarket.

I’m going to a music festival!! A friend saw it advertised and the got tickets that day. It is at Bingley Music Festival and the tickets are only £25 for the weekend. I’ve only heard of a few of the bands plus there are lot of local bands playing. I keep telling everyone it is going to be the next Glastonbury lol. We had wanted to camp but all the campsites are fully booked so we have got a BnB. We are going after work on Friday, and one of the girls is driving us there. There are four of us going and I only know one other girl but it should be a good laugh.

I think that is it for now, but hope to update more frequently.

Not Everything goes to Plan

We have made a start on the bathroom. About 2 weeks ago we started knocking tiles off the wall – god that’s hard work. Luckily OH was only working weekends so he did most of it during the days. Last Thursday the plumber came to remove the bath and sink with the plan of coming on Saturday and fitting the new suite. But like lots of things in life it didn’t go to plan. Once he had removed the bath we discovered the wall was rotten. The next morning I thought I’ll just check the other side of the wall in the spare room, as soon as I moved the bedside table I could see the stain on the wall, pulled the wall paper off and the wall came with it! Panicking I called the builder/tiler who came straight round and within a few hours I only had the top half of the wall left! The whole of the bottom section of the wall from floor to about 3 feet up had gone. The wall is made of stuff like straw and there had been a leak behind the tiles which has just rotted it. Needless to say the plumber couldn’t fit the bath as planned as we had no wall to fix it too! We are getting there now. All the walls have been re-boarded and plastered, the bath and toilet have been fitted and it is tiled round the bath. Hopefully by next weekend we will be ready to paint the walls, even though we’ve not decided on what colour. I quite fancy bright red but OH isn’t to keen.

Having to move everything round in the spare room for the new wall to be rebuilt has given me the push to make a start to declutter it. I will have to be ruthless as I’m such a horeder – I always keep things “just in case”.

Another task that I have started is losing weight. I have joined “Junk 7lb in July” (thanks Dragon) and have lost 5lbs so far. I haven’t been too good last week as OH was away and I did eat a lot of rubbish but I find that if a plan what we are to eat for the week it is better for me. Also it helps with us not wasting food.

The home-grown veggies are good, and I’m already planning what to grow next year. The new potatoes are tasty and seem to be all the better for growing them myself.

Update

Sorry haven’t posted for a while so just thought I’d give a quick update.

Have managed to keep up with no 10 “Be more girly”. My nails are looking good after a bit of looking after and have worn jewellery to match my outfits to work every day since last week – I have felt nice making a bit of effort.

Am trying to not buy bread this month but it hasn’t worked. However did make some bread for a guy at work – sun dried tomatoes and herbs – in return he gave me some of the veggies from the box he gets delivered. Also baked a loaf for me and 2 colleagues to have for breakfast this morning and got nice comments from them :) . Am going to keep making it when I can and have a go at some other recipes.

Finally got rid of the old sofa plus a couple of old push bikes we had. Choose the vanity unit for the bathroom today and have been looking at all the different types of taps and plugs – very exciting bedtime reading – I never knew there was so much choice. Will let the guy who is fitting it know we are good to go.

The NSD are not going as well as I had hoped but I have cut back. Yesterday all I spent was money on aerobics which I go to each week and today at work we had a cake stall to raise money for Cancer Research which I don’t really count as spending as the money is for charity – plus the sponge cake was yummm.

I am so excited with my veggies in the garden. I swear I can see some of them growing! We now have potatoes, lettuce, courgettes, radishes, tomatoes and carrots coming through. Have decided what to do with the area which I was going to use for veggies until DH pointed out it doesn’t get much sun! I would like to have a bbq. We have some old paving stones that I think will fit and have seen a reasonably priced bbq. Our next door neighbours invited us round on Sunday for one and I enjoyed just sitting outside, chatting, making the most of the weather.

Things are going well at work and am still writing a list of weekly/daily jobs to be done. As this has worked well I’m going to transfer this to home life as I think it will help me to keep onto of things.

Love reading all your blogs, seeing how you are all getting on – keep up the good work! xx