Monthly Archives: January 2012

Vitality: January Happiness Round Up

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Well we are a month down with Happiness Online and this is the round up post. January has been a month of ups and downs. I’ve struggled emotionally this month due to real world things happening but I’ve tried to remain positive but my eating and working out has been inconsistent which in turn means I’m paying the price on the scales.

So at the beginning of this month I set five resolutions:

Get in to a bedtime and get up routine. 
No technology in the bedroom. 
Move more.
Commit to a workout routine. 
De Clutter, Organise and Clean up 

I’ve been a very busy girl since!

The bedtime routine has been a bust as I’ve not committed to it but I’m going to try again for the next few weeks (before we head to Cuba), because the times where I actually managed to do a good routine for a couple of days I felt miles and miles better.

No more technology in the bedroom however has been a MASSIVE success. I no longer go to bed playing Angry Birds and I fall asleep quicker as a result. I’ve set up a charging station in the spare room to plug in all our gadgets (and oh my god we have a few!), the only gadget allowed is my kindle and I think I’m going to fade that out as while reading the three hunger games book in two weeks there were a few unnecessary (but highly enjoyable) late nights devouring the books. It really has made a huge difference to how I sleep, and not waking up to my emails and immediately feeling stressed in the morning is quite pleasant too. It’s nice to have a cut off,  to be unable to contact the outside world, see the latest status or tweet.  If you’ve ever doubted the need for sleep.

Move More has been a bit of a success I think. Certainly sorting out the house has made me be much more productive. I’ve started writing a to do list in my diary every single day which keeps me focussed. My gym usage has been sporadic and I struggle to understand why because when I go I feel good about myself. Getting sweaty, getting messed up makes me feel great. So to help combat my lack of I booked myself in to a tonne of classes at my gym in the hope that they will start getting some fun in to my workouts. I’ve also signed up for three 5k runs for Charity so have started the couch to five k once again which fits in nicely with commit to an workout routine. I have started the New Rules of Lifting too, there is no way that I’m going to be able to do it every other day but I’m going to do it at my own pace. My legs can hurt for DAYS after squats! I can count on one hand how many sofa days I’ve had this month, and they’ve been largely when I’ve had something specific to do.

I think my biggest success, or ours at least, has been to de clutter, organise and clean up. This really has revolutionised how our house works for us. We’ve moved bedrooms, from the largest but awkwardly shaped bedroom in to the mid sized bedroom, Charlie has moved to the smallest room. These rooms are just for sleeping. Charlie has some books under his bed and some clothes baskets with his under crackers in and such but other than that our rooms are just for sleep. It is really really great. I mean I never did get it but it’s true, the less stuff in my room, the less clutter, and I sleep better. It’s like I de clutter my mind with the room. I’m sold on it anyway.

The big bedroom has become a multi purpose room, it has our chest of drawers in there (we have one each!) and our wardrobe, Charlie’s toys are there, a dressing space and I’ve taken the XBox and Kinect up there so that we have suitable space to play without having to shift the furniture. I’ve added hooks (well man did) to the end of the wardrobe so that we have pegs for our everyday clothes when we change rather than utilitising a floordrobe next to the bed.

The rooms are so much more usable and practical now, we actually use the family room to do family things. I’ve made pretty cards for cleaning which I’ve laminated so I can fill in, here’s the bathroom one.  If there is demand for printables that you can access I’m happy to upload them to the sharing area, just let me know. I made the fitness printables too which help me keep track of what I’m managing to do in the gym.

I have found this really the most useful resolution I made. It’s pushed me to do more during the day, be more productive, which means I feel better in myself. Weirdly when my mood is low I get less productive which pushes my mood even lower, I need to remember that. Remind me huh?

The doing differently is the bedtime and the workouts, I do need to force a routine and I think it’s a good one to do but I have to actually do it! So I need to focus on how to motivate myself to complete the actions day in day out.

January has been a month which has felt like a low, we’ve been bereaved, had a great deal of stress, anxiety and upset, but there have been good bits and I need to recognise those more.

February is the month of Love (of course!) and I’ll be updating those resolutions tomorrow. Don’t forget to link up! 

Well Well Well here we are again.

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I feel like this is day one again. I’m not feeling confident, in fact I’m anxious as hell but I have got a lot of things and tactics to keep me busy.

I’m saying goodbye to bread for a while, it’s a trigger for me, when I’m feeling good I can stop at one or two small bits of wholemeal, when I’m not I can’t. I’m not feeling good right now so there it is. No bread where I can plan not too.

We cooked a chicken today, Man has brilliantly packaged it all up, breast meat in one tub and other meat in another, he even removed all the skin for me. That man is awesome really. This means that when lazy strikes I have cooked chicken in the fridge, just heat it up, salad bag, job done. Or steam some veggies, add chicken job done. Or cook some pasta eat some chicken job done. I also have some soup which is mega speedy for weight loss frozen and so all I have to do is defrost it. I’m suspicious of it though lol. I don’t think I’m going to enjoy the taste but I’ll chuck a load of Tabasco in and get through it!

So tomorrow I weigh in, face the music and then start again. And just to give me a little public accountability, in the hallway as I enter the house…Obviously the top number should go up the bottom one should go down…

I’ve also warned the boy that we’ll be walking home from school from now on. It’s 1km one way so only a little walk really but I hate doing it because Charlie moans so much! I’m hoping if I stick with it not only will it build him up for Cuba but it’ll start becoming routine. Sadly I made the decision to do this before I realised it was snowing on the high ground just miles from my home. It better not come here I can tell you. If it mucks up my holiday there will be hell to pay weather *shakes fists*.

So there you have it. Here I am at day one again. Hopefully I can get my mirror up to double figures.

Making Choices

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How do you make long term decisions?

I’ve been thinking a lot about my diet recently. It’s not been going well. I use Slimming World as my general go to diet plan. It’s healthy, it allows me to eat all food groups, but it also allows me to cheat myself sometimes. I cheat because I think it won’t make a difference, or that one bit of cake won’t destroy the whole week. Trouble is it does. Because it’s never just one.

I’ve made no bones about the fact that I have struggled this year, I’ve been panicking considerably because if I’m panicking in January how is the rest of the year going to go?

I can’t allow myself to fall backwards. I mentally and physically can’t do it. It would destroy me in a year that has so much potential to be amazing. At the funeral on Friday they talked about how Sam had packed so much in to his life and how we should all take his example, he waited until he was really old to relax because life was worth living. It moved me to tears then and when I think of it it still does now. I should know this stuff but sometimes it takes someone else to make you realise what you are missing, that key part of the big picture.

I need to live life and part of that is going to be sacrificing the things I think make me feel better for the things that actually do.  

The question is how. That’s something I’m going to start working on straight away, but I don’t think I can really plan anything. I have things in place to help me workout to help me cope but I can’t plan to say no.

I considered going on a low carb diet but I have a considerable number of concerns with it, not least how to maintain those changes in a life long way. I want my routine to reflect roughly what it will life long now, I want to be building habits not temporary fixes. I’m reassured that there is a process with low carb, do you guys have any experience?

I need not to make decisions when I’m in a place of desperation. I am desperate to lose weight, be healthy, but I don’t make rational choices at those times. I need to be less desperate and more dedicated. I’m writing off this week. I’m going to weigh in, I’m going to face the music and draw a line under it.

How do you make yourself make the right choices?

Feelings

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Yesterday was emotional, it took me by surprise really, it was the mans grandfather, who’d been unwell for years and years, was 92 years old. The death wasn’t unexpected or unfair but when they talked about his wife, his wife who he spent every waking minute with most of his life who died 11 years ago (when I’d just met the man) it kinda broke my heart a little. That coupled with an emotional five year old facing his first experience of losing someone was upsetting. My man’s cousin sang Ave Maria so beautifully it took my breath away and it was a small but perfect ceremony, which kind of was like Sam, quiet, understated, but careful with his words and actions.

I was proud of myself yesterday though, I went to my classes in the morning, two back to back. I’d been thinking about accepting a lot about accepting who I am and tailoring things to that to make sure they work. It’s a simple concept but one that really takes quite a lot of difficult decisions in my opinion.

I’ve found it very difficult to accept myself over the years, I’ve felt – and still do feel – judged by others for being who I am, so it makes it hard to be truly happy with who I am because there is always a part of me that wonders what is it they find so offensive about me? I try to  just let go as much as possible, I can’t control others feelings towards me or their behaviour either, I can change how I chose to interact with the bitter little trolls though. I’m not bitter, honest. February’s Happiness Online has a lot to do with that, you’ll find out what on February the 1st! January’s round up will be January 31st.

I’ve learnt that I am someone who is insecure in her ability, I seek reassurance that I’m doing things right, that I’m able to achieve within the boundaries set in the task. I’ve been working out alone so there is no one there to motivate me, push me or tell me I’m doing it right so I decided the other day that in order to really push my motivation I was going to really start using my gyms facilities and do some classes. Taking a leaf out of Diet Smiets book I booked myself in and when I didn’t fancy it I really couldn’t face the phone call to the gym to cancel. So off I trotted, on the morning of the funeral, to Legs, Bums and Tums and  Body Balance. LBT was killer, I got an excellent sweat on and occasionally struggled to keep up with the moves, but I think I enjoyed it. I chugged back two bottles of water though so I totally worked (I was a bit late to the class and didn’t have time to get my HRM on so I’ve no idea in terms of actual burn), then Body Balance is tough in a totally different way. It’s a mix of Pilates and Yoga and the instructor we have is amazing. I have no core strength at all so it’s a very useful thing for me to do!

I came out of the classes so happy with what I’d done, I was really pleased that I’d stuck through two classes and I booked myself in for next week. I’ve only 2 Fridays before we head on holiday (guest posters are you out there? I really need you! you could post about anything, from why you love your sport to losing weight to happiness and anything in between. I’ve booked myself in to a tonne of other classes too, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to keep it up, a good range of activity should hold my interest. So I look for reassurance, as I feel more confident I won’t need to but for now I have to play to my weaknesses and strengths.

In other news my Antony Nolan T Shirt arrived today for the superhero 5k :)

Recipe: Garlic and Lemon Chicken

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Well this is a Slimming World recipe which features in the new book I just got from them Extra Easy Meals in Minutes, it’s super easy to make and really tasty to eat. My favourite combination. You can download a nifty little recipe printable by clicking here. 

The other up side of this dinner is that it smells amazing as it cooks. Really amazing.

So ingredients: (serves four)

Several Sprigs of Rosemary
4 Garlic Cloves
Rind of One Lemon
1 Egg White
4 Chicken Breasts
4 Potatoes
Salad and Tomatoes

Make it like this…

First take the rosemary, lemon rind and garlic cloves and chop finely. I mixed them in a mortar and pestle too.

Take the chicken breasts (or pork or turkey) and place them under some cling film, batter them until they are flatter. Whisk your egg white, and dip your flat chicken breasts in the egg white and then cover them in your lovely lemony mix.

Stick them on a baking tray and bake. Around 220C and in 30 minutes max you’ll have a lovely smelling dinner.

I served mine with home made chips and salad. The salad was bagged and added few cherry tomatoes to it. The chips were made by peeling and cutting up the potatoes, boiling them for 5 mins or until they are softer, remove them from water and rough them up a little. Pop on a baking tray and spray with fry light and stick in the oven for around the same time as the chicken, possibly 10 minutes more.

All of it is lovely, a really tasty dinner. The nutritional information stacks up pretty good too, 222 calories per serving. If you are a slimming worlder it’s a free meal on Extra Easy.

A Little Update of Me…

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Do you know what, I wrote a long post earlier, it took you through all the crappy things that have happened this week, it admitted that I skipped weigh in last week as I was one lb up on the scales at home and then by midweek I was 3 lbs up, it told you that there are many emotional things in my life right now, death, nasty name callers, and general frustration with lots of things, and it admitted that I was deeply disappointed by the half a lb loss I pulled at weigh in this week.

But then I realised what a moany cow I sounded and decided that I am not that person.

Do you know what. I messed up the last two weeks, I gained some weight but I pulled it back and ended up half a lb down. I am chalking that up as a win. This week I’m taking it every day at a time and I expect to have a better result by next week if my body co-operates.

Today I got my ass off the oh so comfy sofa and went to the gym. Just 40 minutes. Burned over 350 calories doing a weight lifting workout and a bit of running. I packed plenty in to that 40 minutes (I had to go pick up the boy) and had a great time. I’m feeling the burn right now and tomorrow I think my legs will hate me but I’m going to do it again anyway.

I don’t want to be ruled by anxiety. Yes there is a lot in my life right now, but there is a lot worse in the world. This will pass. The more productive I am the more I’m happy so I just need to remind myself to keep going. I need to stop analysing myself and live life, it’s much more fun that way.

 Happiness emails will be going out soon for my lovely happiness ladies, January round up and then February starting point.

How do you snap yourself out of it?

Healthy, Vegan, Tasty Ice Cream.

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Four words you didn’t think you’d see together right? but it’s true. No. Really.

Ok so it’s a well known trick in the blogosphere but not all of you are bloggers and even if you are you might not have caught on yet so I’m gonna share how it’s done! I ate it for breakfast this morning and didn’t even feel guilty, because I did it for you. That’s right. For you. I’m so dedicated to you guys. Plus as I have a Mr and a Boy who both can’t eat dairy it’s a bit of a lifesaver.

So what you need:

Bananas.

That’s it. I’m not a massive banana fan, I’m a bit “Meh” about them but my lord it’s not bad in this form at all. If you want extra flavours you can have them too but mostly all you need is Banana’s. Numerous research has proved these little, bent, yellow things to be an excellent source of all things good so guilt free. So I sliced up 4 banana’s and it made 3 good sized servings.

How To: 

 

Peel and slice your banana’s up and pop them in to a tub or bag. Believe me you want to cut them up before you freeze them. Oh yeah. Next Step. Freeze the Banana slices.

They look all lovely frozen don’t they? I love the look of them. It took overnight to freeze them in our freezer, yours may not been completely rubbish. Once out add the banana to the blender, blitz for a bit until it’s kinda sandy. If you are adding a semi liquid ingredient add it while it’s sandy, it blends better, solid ingredient at the beginning of the process. Either way. Blend until it’s smooth and creamy like ice cream.

It’s magic, before your eyes those lovely banana’s turn the texture of ice cream. At this point you have two choices, re freeze it and scoop it later, or eat it in a bowl now. What do you think I did? That’s right. I tested it. For you you understand. For you. FYI. It was tasty.

So things I added, one batch is peanut butter (^ that one there) another batch I made with Nutella which was damned deliciousness, and another with frozen raspberries.

Trust me, it’s so delicious and it was quite filling too, four banana’s involved after all, 5 of my 5 a day for breakfast. Bo yah. I wasn’t hungry till lunch and you could easily make a big batch if you had a decent sized blender. Sadly mine is teeny but that did allow me to do the other flavours. Sadly no pics of my heaven face this time (as there was with the smoothies) cause Mr was busy with the boy. Believe me though there was heaven all over my face.

As far as Slimming World goes you’d be expected to syn the fruit because it’s blended but it’s a small price to pay, I don’t for smoothies and I won’t for this IF it’s replacing a meal and I will continue to until it affects my weight loss, if it’s a snack you are gonna have to though. The nutella is 4 syns per level tablespoon, peanut butter is around 4 to 4.5 syns per level tablespoon.

So here we go again…

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I’m on the fundraising trail again, if you’ve been part of the Weight Wars family for a while you’ll remember that last year I ran The British 10k for the Children’s Heart Federation, I explained why CHF in this post last year. With gift aid I raised just over £450 which I was super proud of. Children’s heart federation are an amazing Charity who do fabulous things.

This year I’ve been inspired by a friend and her lovely son. Just last week my friend noticed  that her son had the odd bruise, not unusual for a 3 year old boy, but then a little rash appeared, something a lot of people would dismiss but something didn’t sit right for Jayne or her motherly instinct and she popped Felix to the doctors.

Let me introduce you to 3 year old Felix. Felix likes dogs, he loves holidays, lives not far from me and at that doctors meeting Felix was diagnosed with ALL Leukaemia.

That’s when their roller coaster began. He was diagnosed with ALL Leukaemia. Something that seems so deeply unfair is that his family were giving out hampers to families at Christmas who were staying in the relatives accommodation. It’s deeply unfair because Felix at 3 years old is facing 3 more years of treatment. By being a general super mum and trusting her instincts Felix has an amazing prognosis.

So I’ve set myself a challenge, inspired by Jayne, Felix and the rest of the family, I have signed up for several 5k races this year. I figure if Felix can approach his treatment like the tiniest bump in the road, then I can get my butt off the sofa and run around a bit.

First is the Great West Run 5k, a good local one for me, on May 6th, then the Superhero 5k in Regents Park for Antony Nolan on May 13th and then lastly but not least September 8th The 5k Fun Run for Clic Sargent in Cardiff.  Sadly there was another charity I wanted to run for but was struggling to find something to do then serendipity stepped in and through my door came a charity bag today for that very charity! I filled it up ready for collection on Monday.

We went through our things at the weekend and filled it even higher. It felt good to get Charlie involved too, he parted with some cuddly toys, even new ones because the sick kids need it more, and old clothes too, but most of all I love that we are doing something to help adults and children cope as well as helping find a fail proof cure too.

So my Fundraising page is http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Running4Leukaemia, and you can donate there for Felix and all the other Leukaemia sufferers, or you could join me for one of the runs! I’d love to run with some other people from the UK and beyond! The runs are spread about the country, come and join me!

I’ll keep you up to date about Felix. What are your race plans for 2012? 

And the Winner is…

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I’ve been teasing you all morning but the winner is comment number…..69 of 70!

So well done Ffion! Ffion blogs over at Chocolates & Raspberries and I can’t wait to see what she makes of it! Can you get in touch with your address etc so I can get it posted out to you asap! Email me rebecca{at}weightwars{dot}co{dot}uk, or DM me on twitter.

It’s been great fun, if you guys missed the give away check out the review of the Kenwood Smoothie 2GO and my best of smoothie recipes posts!

Also the blog has had a bit of a makeover, what do you think? You should stop having <<Blog Archive >> and <<title unknown>> if you remove from reader and readd (don’t forget to re add!) I’ve changed everything around so it should work better!

I have exciting news from tomorrow to about this years race plans :) Have a great day, things are feeling a touch more positive here although I am getting ill AGAIN! I KNOW! I’ve decided I’m not going to moan about it. Nope. No moaning here. Not even a little. The sun is shining. My family is healthy. My home is warm.