Least favourite time of year

I think February is my least favourite time of the year in the UK. The above photo was taken at 8.35 this morning. It's dull, grey, damp, cold and miserable. Each February I think back to South Africa where it'll be mid summer and nice and warm. I know that doesn't help me one little bit but on days like today, I wish I could go back for the warmth ;). Roll on Spring - as soon as the flowers start popping through again I feel so much better. We've lived in the UK for nearly 19 years now but I still find February a difficult month to get through. Now that I've got that off my chest - time to get on with my day! Hope you have a good one.

Half way through the week

Today's been quite a quiet day. I did my exercises first thing this morning (well, once Emily had gone to school!) and then took Cloud for a walk. It was a bit grey and drizzly but we did our circuit and home again in 20 minutes. Today's other exercise was going up and down the stairs three times in succession and to do that four times in the day. I've got one more set to do and then I'm done. Claire invited Mum, Dad and me for breakfast at Wetherspoons. I'd told her about going last week but because she'd been at work she wasn't able to join us. Seeing as she's on holiday this week she thought it would be good to go again. Really good value and very enjoyable. Thanks Claire!

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I had the house to myself for a couple of hours this afternoon for the first time in ages. I ate my lunch watching an episode of ER then brought the kittens down into the lounge. When Emily got home we let them out to explore and they met Cloud and Tom. Cloud follows them around and gets in their way but Tom was happy to watch from his spot on the sofa. There wasn't any hissing or claws out so I'd say it was fairly successful. Charlie wasn't in the house at the time so I'm not sure what he'll be like. Hopefully he'll be fine and then we'll be able to let them out of Emily's room.

This evening's supper was a chicken and vegetable curry with basmati rice. It was very tasty and I'm quite full now. For anyone wanting a slightly healthier curry, this is the recipe for one person (taken from Rosemary Conley's Inch Loss Plan).

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Quick Chicken Curry

Dry fry 1 x 115g chopped chicken breast (no skin) in a preheated non stick pan with 1/2 a chopped onion and 1 crushed garlic clove. Sprinkle 1 tsp curry powder over and cook for 1 minute then add 1 small chopped chilli (I didn't add chilli as I don't like my curry too hot), 1/2 chopped green pepper (I used red pepper), 25g button mushrooms and a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes. Simmer for 5 minutes to reduce. Serve with 144g cooked basmati rice (55g uncooked weight).

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Enjoy!!

xx

I started today!

When Jon found out he'd got the job, I decided that I would start my "healthy eating" plan the day he started work. Today, Jon started his new job. It's been a long day for him, he was up early making sure he was ready on time, then it took him 2 hours to get there (he did the first +/- 33 miles in an hour and then the next 14 miles took another hour!). Because he was only starting at 9.30 this morning he worked till 5.30 and then hit rush hour on the way home so it took another hour and fifty minutes. The driving alone is quite tiring! He's had a good day though and is able to go in earlier tomorrow (which he prefers) so hopefully he'll miss a lot of the rush hour / school traffic in the morning.

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As I'd told myself, I started my healthy eating today as well. I'm following Rosemary Conley's Inch Loss Plan which says you can lose a stone in a month - that would be wonderful but we'll see how I do. I've prepared myself mentally and feel in the right frame of mind.

This book is a 28 day plan which gives you the meals, shows you the toning exercises, recommends the length of aerobic exercise to do each day and has a little daily motivational section. You can swop the meals around if you don't like something but the food is fairly standard and I'm sure I'll find plenty to eat as well as trying out some new recipes.

I've taken my "before" photo and plan to take one on the 2nd of each month, hoping to see some results. I've measured myself and started a daily diary on the computer which shows what I'm eating, how much water I've had and what exercise I've done. Each week I'll also note my weight and measurements.

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Today I did the toning exercises from the book - which are quite do-able and don't take very long; she says 5 minutes but it took me a bit longer because I had to keep reading to check I was doing them properly. I also took Cloud for a 20 minute walk and went fast enough that I was breathing quicker than normal. I have got a pedometer but haven't set it up yet (I'm hopeless at working out step length!), once I've got that working I'll aim for 10 000 steps a day. I believe it's quite an eye opener to begin with and you need to walk a fair bit more than you might think. I would also like to add some WiiFit into my routine as I found that did help when I did WW last time. Tonight I made homemade burgers for the family but had salmon, new potatoes, mixed vegetables and the 1 Tbsp of Mayonnaise I was allowed. It didn't look very much on my plate but I was quite full by the time I'd finished - which just shows me that my portion sizes are way out!

I'm looking forward to feeling healthier and fitter in the near future!

xx

A brief post

Today is one of those days when you dash from place to place but don't get an awful lot done. We woke to a dusting of snow which didn't look particularly worrying. Wrong!! I saw Emily off to school; Claire has a week's holiday and was coming with me to Sainsbury's, so we set off about 8.45am to pick up Mum for the weekly Sainsbury's shop. We eventually got to Sainsbury's at about 9.25am!! We live a 5 minute drive away!!!! The snow was obviously covering a layer of ice which was causing havoc on the roads. We sat in traffic for about half an hour to cover the 5 minute distance. Fun!

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Shopping done and we were ready for our weekly Starbucks coffee :)

Mine's a tall, wet, decaf cappuccino with soya milk

Claire's not a great coffee drinker so had a lemon juice and an apple cinnamon doughnut for breakfast

Mum's coffee is the same as mine but with normal milk rather than soya!

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We got home around 11.30am and I had time to unpack before heading out to take some more photos for the Trinity Playgroup website. Jon has been redoing the website and I've taken the photos for it but there were a few more shots they wanted.

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Lunch today was a tub of Saag Aloo from Sainsbury's. I don't need anything else with this, I love it just as it is. I think it must have been Mel's curry and rice lunch that got me thinking I fancied something similar. I didn't remember to take a photo though :(

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Emily has been having trouble with the wire on her braces since she went to the Orthodontist and I finally remembered to phone and persuade them to see her today to get it sorted. They explained that the wire is actually slipping in the brackets because she's still on thin wire. However, they've sorted it out again for now and we've bought another supply of wax and hopefully she'll be pain free.

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I've just had time to type this before going out again to take Tom to the vet for his vaccinations. I'm sure he's going to love it!! and going in his cat box!! Wish us luck ;)

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Claire has offered to make carbonara tonight so I'm looking forward to only cooking for Jon and Emily while Claire makes for Hugh, Craig, herself and me. Final fling before I start a healthier eating programme.

xx