Day 13: Obligatory Diet Post

It's Saturday... the day of stress in this house.

Even before marriage and children I've never known what to do with myself on a Saturday. This is probably due to me always working on them during my formative years and well into my mid 20s.

To this day I find the whole process that is Saturday horrific.

The Brothers Thing always act up on Saturdays, Mr C is more often than not mardy and not in the mood to do things.

Overall I crave routine. This comes out, more often than not in my eating. I crave sweet things, stodgy things, simple carbohydrates - basically stuff wrapped in bread! (That's a throwback from my 15 years in the catering industry working in cafes, bars and restaurants up and down the country).

Instead I'm almost 2 weeks into 6 weeks of permanent Saturdays. Which right now is half making me want to hide at the moment of the biscuit tin or seeking solace in the company of Ben & Jerry.

My clothes don't like this however. So I have to be careful. I have lost and gained and lost again more weight than I am going to ever acknowledge. This year alone I have gone up and down within the same 18lb. I'm currently 7lb down again, another 11lb to my lowest weight this year, 28lb to my lightest in 2 years and 84lb to my lightest in 8 years. Even then I wasn't a skinny minny, I still had only just gotten into a size 18/20.

 Then to underline how bad I have gotten recently I went on a cub camp, we took a hike (on the hottest day of the year) I could barely make it up the hill and through a field. That is just plain embarrassing, when last summer I was running 5 and 10k races. I am so disappointed that I let myself go back to this size and the lack of fitness.

Right now my best friend is the website myfitnesspal.com. I wouldn't have said that yesterday when I forced myself on to the treadmill so I could eat my tea, mainly because I'd had a syrup waffle and salted peanut binge. Never a good idea. But at least I counted. That I have to look at as a positive. In the last 2 weeks I have lost 7lbs. Which is better than a kick in the teeth, but still it's just not enough.

I am planning to return to eating in the style of 5:2 next week, as I'm returning to the office twice a week - my school holidays are over, fast days on Wednesday and Thursdays. However, I've just been told about 16:8 which is where you only eat between 12noon and 8pm every day. This may be the best idea for the next few weeks of the summer holidays. It is though to have the same health benefits as fasting but I'm not so sure about the weight loss bit.

So it may occur that Saturday may turn into weight loss rant day.

Enjoy.

Day 7: Kids in the Kitchen

It's the last day of the weekend, the final day of Mr C's week off work and 1 one full week into my 2 weeks away from the office.

I'm going to attempt to do a sort of recap of the week so far.

Looked promising... then British weather happened. The end. How's that?

Anyway, while I was planning for this week's meals Thing 2 saw a recipe he wanted to try and make Smoked Paprika and Cheddar Risotto - or how it's now known, Easy Cheesy Risotto! Dumbing down at it's very best. With a couple of tweaks we changed Soup Addiction's recipe to something child proof.

Click here for the recipe.

Thing 2 was proud of his culinary and stirring skills. Thing 1 cutting things almost gave me a heart attack. Sharp knives and that child just scares me. Next cups of coffee and I will at last have the brew slave I desire!

Tomorrow Mr C goes back to the office and we are going to spend the day at my friend's house with her 2 children. This blinking English Summer weather that is creeping back in... gah! If I knew who to have stern words with I would.

So here's to Week 2 of the School Holidays!

Blogs and Books #1

So here I ramble into the realm of Book Reviews.

I know that The Lost Symbol has been out for a while, but my book pile is immense and many of the tomes I will talk about on here are exceedingly old. I have a habit of buying books that I like the look of then not reading until I hit a momentary time in life that sort of reflects it... Hence Oliver Twist has stayed on the shelf for over a decade!

Anyway I finally finished reading Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol last night, took longer than I expected I had read his other offering in 2 days and this one took me 5 nights. After he stopped recanting the past and checking each character back to the same point in time and hammering home the same piece of information the book gathered pace at a fantastical rate.


Following Langdon as he attempts along with another female sidekick to solve a long standing Masonic mystery before his good friend and mentor (oh and head honcho mason to boot) Peter Solomon is killed by a man looking for revenge against the Soloman family.

Overall the book appears to be an advert for The Secret and The Laws of Attraction. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing but also not a good selling point.




So today I have begun reading Eat, Pray, Love which has just been released as a film with Julia Roberts. So just in case I get to the cinema to see it (yeah right!) or maybe before I can buy it on DVD I thought I best read it. I have seen an interview with the author Elizabeth Gilbert on Oprah some time ago which encouraged me to buy the book, and so it has been sat on my pile for a few months.