For your amusement and delectation......

I couldn't resist this.  It's so me!  I nicked it from Carol E Wyer's Facebook page.  I'm sure she won't mind.  It definitely raised snigger from Sir Grumpytrousers!

Goodbye to the scales......................

..........well, the old ones anyway.

I jumped on them this morning and they wavered up to 7lbs.  If I stand up straight as a ramrod I can't read where the needle is through the lower half of my glasses.  I can hazard a guess where it is if I squint!  If I hunch over and look through the middle of my glasses I can see better but that's when the needle wavers.

So, tomorrow I'm off to Argos for THIS digital scale with an extra large readout for old biddies with dodgy eyesight so I can see it without hunching over.


I'm such a wimp when it comes to weighing myself.  I recoil and go into denial!  I used to grit my teeth when I was weighed at Slimming World, but it was rarely as bad as I imagined it would be.  If I thought I'd gained 3 pounds, it turned out to be just 1.

Anyway, my courage is up because I'm making a proper effort to get myself in order.  I've played at it for too long; and because the courage is there I'm getting the new scales.

I'm thinking these will make Grumpytrousers even more smug, but wish me luck.  I'll be posting again on my progress.

A few pounds gone already!

I promised to keep you updated about what's happening with the new eating plan, so here goes.

Last Monday, I made a start cutting down on bread, potatoes, cereal and dairy.  I phased a bit more out each day and gradually upped my intake of fruit and vegetables.  I have the Paleo eating plan at the back of my mind all the time, but I'm not being too strict with myself just yet.  I have stuff in my kitchen that will get wasted if I convert right now.

I don't THINK it's my imagination, but a few pounds seem to have gone already!  However, My bathroom scales are rubbish and never give the same reading twice.  (Note to self to invest in new scales). Anyway, here's an outline of what I did.

The Easy Ones
Some things were easy to substitute such as cow's milk.  It often made me feel a little nauseous in coffee later into the day so the switch to Almond or Hazelnut milk was really easy.

Potatoes are easy for me to leave out.  They are something I can take or leave, so in their place I'm using Sweet Potato to keep up the fibre intake.  Sweet Potato is counted as one of the world's healthiest foods, packed with vitamins and other health boosting properties.  Good for diabetics too. You can read about it here.  Oh, and they don't half make good chips (fries)!!

Normally I'm a person who likes to sweeten my hot drinks, but I phased out sugar in my coffee a while ago.  Again, something to link to the nausea.  Tea is more of a problem, particularly the 'builder's bum' tea, like Tetley.  If I have it at all now, I just dip a damp teaspoon into the sugar and pop it straight into the tea.  A bit pointless you might think but it does actually take away the tannin taste.   After all that, I can go for days without a cuppa so no great loss there.  I've rather taken to Green Tea but I haven't QUITE acquired the unsweetened taste for it yet. So I invested in a jar of Manuka Active 10+ honey (£13.99 in Morrisons) and am using that now for my little sweetness fixes.  I think any kind of honey will do but I have another use for the Manuka hence the investment.  It works well on an itchy patch that I have on my arm.  A little massage with the honey soothes it very quickly.

The Harder Ones
Dressings on salads wasn't quite so easy.  I have a penchant for mayonnaise so giving that up had me scratching my head for a substitute.  As I write, I still can't think of one so for the time being I'm putting extra tomatoes in my lunchbox together with the salad.

I haven't found a tolerable substitute for cheese either.  Suggestions welcome on that one!

The most difficult of all was my breakfast.  I'm a porridge lover, which naughtily I had every day, but with a different topping, such as raspberries or bananas.  So the porridge has had to go for the time being.  The fruit is staying though.  I'm combining that in a fruit salad with a couple of strawberries, a little bit of mango, and blueberries.  I drizzled a teaspoon of the Manuka over it, and added a tiny bit of cinnamon.  I have to say, it was blooming lovely!  My last note on the fruit only breakfast is that it cures constipation.  My system has adjusted to it very quickly and I'm not making any mad dashes now!

So, folks, that's the effect it's having on me.  Husband (Grumpy trousers) on the other hand, who annoyingly doesn't need to lose weight, is also adapting quite well to the regime.  It's more a need for general health benefits for him.  He's going his own way at breakfast, religiously having his two Weetabix absolutely covered in bloody sugar but I can't wean him off it so it's his choice.  Before long, any change in MY eating regime which he tries out will see his 32" waist jeans dropping off his already slim hips and he'll be fetching his braces out to hold them up.  Then he'll be on the scales every day smugly declaring he's below 11 stone.

Don't men get on your t*ts at times????

Hang out with me and you might gain something!

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.

Irish Proverb

I really like this proverb.  I wonder with whom it originated?  Anyway, who cares, its a good one.

So.....feeling short of a good laugh and a long sleep?  OK, hang out with me and I'll either make you snort with laughter ..............

or bore you to sleep.........

Just saying..........

Have a great weekend!

Getting Unstuck: Work Through Fear and Change Your Life

Good day followers and lurkers! 

You know sometimes, when we feel ourselves stuck in that rut of repeated behaviour, it's easy to just keep doing the same old, same old, isn't it?  For example, eating the same breakfast every single day without giving consideration to its nutritional value, or whether your system might be so used to it so the food isn't providing you enough nourishment.  Not good, eh?

For the same reason, I truly believe the mind needs nourishment too. Instead of sitting comfortably in an unhealthy rut, we could try something a bit different such as reading a book that we wouldn't normally consider. Likewise, a new experience to challenge ourselves with, see new places.  Learn a new skill perhaps.  No matter what age you are, giving yourself a little push every so often works in your favour, and hey, it gives us something different to talk about and share.  It's investing in yourself.

I know not everyone has the confidence or inner resources to go and chuck themselves into something new. They may consider it to be a terrifying step and do nothing. Some others make take time to 'buy in' to a new idea.  Either way, perhaps it takes just one small grain of courage to grow into a tree of nourishment for your mind and body.

***************************

To highlight my point, I thought I'd share this inspirational feature below from a website named Tiny Buddha .   The writer has a story behind the feature, a lot of which is quite sad due to her illness.  She's overcome such a lot though and I found this whole feature not only sensible and sound, but uplifting too.  Have a read and see if it inspires you too.


Getting Unstuck: Work Through Fear and Change Your Life

By Chantal Houde

“When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life.” ~Eckhart Tolle

We’ve all been there. Feeling stuck is very distressing, and it can often make a situation feel even more difficult than it already appears to be.
Many of us may have felt trapped in job, a relationship, a place; any unfavourable situation, really, that we see little way out of can leave us feeling deeply discouraged.
The uncertainty of it all becomes overwhelming and, over time, paralyzing.
I have felt the frustration, the sadness, and the hopelessness that accompany this predicament many times.
In fact, I’ve lived most of my life feeling stuck in one thing or another—a volatile family situation, unhealthy relationships, various jobs. For a long time, I rarely made proactive decisions about anything.
I had a number of distractions I used to try to avoid thinking about it. I drank heavily, took drugs, took trips, took on other people’s problems, overworked, over-exercised, over-sexed, under-slept, worried constantly, and generally avoided thinking about the specifics of what I needed out of life, a job, or a relationship.
Opportunities and endings did flow through my life, as they inevitably will, but they were seldom based on what I wanted.
After a while, negativity and worry used up much of my energy. I was diagnosed with cancer at twenty-six, and started to have other major physical ailments, not to mention regular nightmares. I knew I had to make changes.
I started with my diet, something that I felt was within my control. I gained a lot of knowledge about food, health, and lifestyle very quickly and just soaked it all up.
I also learned a lot more about our inner emotional lives and about taking responsibility for my feelings, my actions, and my words.
I started practicing meditation and continued to deepen my yoga practice with a new awareness of my mental and emotional environment. I’m now able to observe my thoughts and am quick to see how my thought patterns change when I feel stuck.
Those negative, self-defeating, fearful thoughts come creeping back into my mind, whispering to me that I don’t have any other choice.
The depressed feelings and anxiousness come quickly too, and I often start to wonder, if I’d done something differently in the past, would I be here now? I tell myself that only if a certain event happens in the future will I be able to make a change.
Dwelling on the past and obsessing about the future is a surefire way to stay stuck.
I now know that I need to be careful not to qualify decisions based on imagined future events happening or not happening, and not to make decisions out of fear. Sometimes doing what is best for you means facing those fears head on.
When I was diagnosed with cancer, I told myself I’d only take time off work if I started to feel really physically ill. I was afraid I’d face financial difficulties if I took a leave. I didn’t give myself nearly enough space to process the emotional effects, and I didn’t give my physical body the time to rest that it was clearly telling me it needed.
I got very ill with a string of severe infections in the two years following my recovery because I never proactively made a decision to take care of myself.
When I start bargaining with myself, I know I’ve given away my power. I’m no longer listening to my intuition or connecting with what’s really best for my well-being.
I’ve realized that the only way to get unstuck is to detach from the outcome of our decisions and the fears about things not working out, and instead focus solely on what exactly we want and need. In this way, the uncertainty can lead to opportunity.
There are a few things I did make proactive decisions about over the last ten years—like pursuing a degree in Environmental Studies, moving to Australia, and committing to building a more healthy lifestyle—that have turned out better than I could’ve imagined.
It has become more and more clear that the decisions I make from now on need to be based on my true desires, not my fears.
I now recognize that I’ve kept myself in unhealthy situations mainly because I didn’t have the tools to help myself.
When I’m having trouble getting unstuck, I use some of these small actions that can be helpful in creating space to move through and out of the undesirable situation:

Take time.

One of the most difficult things about feeling stuck is that you want to fix it right away. This urge to control the situation really doesn’t help solve the problem.
If you’re having trouble moving out of a bad situation naturally, you’ll need time to process all the feelings that will come up as you move toward a new phase of your life. Let it happen and enjoy it as much as you can. The best approach you can take in this situation is to trust that things will improve over time.

Don’t wait for this-or-that to happen.

This is a big one. If you’re always waiting for something else to happen before you act, you won’t make proactive decisions in a way that’s in line with what you want. 

Stop thinking about it.

I like to practice meditation and yoga, read a good book, or take a nap. The trick is to not think about the issue actively, but just take some time to enjoy where you are now.
Obsessive thinking can do far more harm than good and never actually causes any change. Once you start feeling more present, you’ll take less joy in feeding the mental drama around the situation and naturally be less willing to put up with negativity it brings.

Get some perspective.

Taking a short (or longer) time away can break emotional ties in a big way and allow you to see things in a different way. You may also be motivated to make change as you recognize how much better you feel when you’re out of the environment where you feel stuck.

Get healthy.

Focus on yourself. Make your physical, mental, and emotional health your biggest priority. Once I started letting go of all the stress I’d been holding onto for so long, I was truly shocked by how great I could feel. I knew I wanted to pursue that amazing feeling.
The key here is really to figure out what works for you to help you get unstuck. That may be chatting with one of your friends, taking a weekend out of town, or walking by the water. Then do it as much as you need to until you feel better.
Don’t lose sight of what’s important to you. And if you’re not sure what’s important to you, make finding out a priority.
I am still stuck, as I write this, in an unsatisfactory situation. I’m far from being able to completely avoid feeling trapped by certain situations I’ve gotten myself into, but I am committed to the personal values I’ve uncovered within myself, and I’m working hard to build the life I want. I also don’t let depressive and self-defeating thoughts take over at these times.
Over time, you will learn to move past jobs, people, and places that don’t work for you more quickly and with ease.
In the meantime, it always helps to remind yourself that you’re doing the best you can, as fast as you can. When you’re finally able to let go of your fears and be proactive about your decisions, you will find that life is yours again, to be shaped and lived in any way you like.
Photo by Rob Lee