New Year, New Start, cont.....

I find it amazing, having done so much research that I haven't actually committed wholeheartedly to a new way of eating/living, even though I know it will benefit me in many different ways. 

I would have thought being locked down for most of 2020 it was the perfect time to get my act together, to cook healthy meals and exercise regularly, but I've actually found it much harder to be healthy at home, than in an office. 

My husband is a sandwich, crisps and chocolate bar or biscuit kind of lunch person, whereas my lunch of choice was usually hummus, sauerkraut and crudités packed for work, but now I'm home it's become a mixture of the two. I'm still having the hummus and sauerkraut, but on top of that I'm also now having the crisps and chocolate. It therefore comes as no surprise that I've put on quite a lot of weight. But its a New Year and no more excuses, time to pull my big girl pants up (and they are quite big) and get on with it.

So back to the research. As well as internet articles, documentary films and blog posts, I have also read, amongst others the following books;

• How not to die - Dr Michael Greger
• The China study - Dr Colin Campbell
• Eat to live - Dr Joel Fuhrman
• The starch solution - Dr John McDougall
• Forks over knives - Founded by Brian Wendel  

All of these books and many others conclude, through years of separate scientific research, that eating a Whole Food Plant Based diet (WFPB), SOS free (no salt, oil or refined sugar) is the healthiest lifestyle to adopt. Not only can it help with losing those excess pounds, but it can also stop or even reverse many deceases, from heart decease to Alzheimers. For me personally if I can avoid or reduce my chances of ever getting Alzheimers, having watched my mum deteriorate daily or heart problems like my dad, then I'm going to have to start now, no more dilly dallying around and I haven't got time to put it off any longer. 

Even though I am plant based 95% of the time, I haven't been truly committed and the odd bites of cheese and what has become the regular milk chocolate bars most certainly do not count as vegan or whole food.

So from tomorrow I will be starting my journey to a WFPB life, dragging my husband along for the ride. 

It is my hope that committing to making regular updates, through this platform, will keep me on the straight and narrow and help me reach my goal of becoming a happier, healthier individual by the end of 2021. 

But it's not all going to be about diet and getting healthy this year, I also want to get art projects up and running, whether in the form of printing, mixed media or painting. I want to do this to build up my confidence and portfolio, with the hope that I will be able to start making sales by the end of the year. 

New Year, New Start

Thank goodness 2020 is out of the way. 

2020, the year I got to leave work to finally do fun things with the grandchildren, spend time with my mum, go on a cruise, enjoy Black Deer festival and get fit and healthy.....well it didn't turn out as planned for any of us, but we've got through a year that will go down in history and be remembered as possibly the worst year in our lifetimes.   

But looking forward; apart from the obvious hopes of life returning to some sort of normality, for me a major start to my new year has got to be about gaining control of my health and fitness and I need to do this both for my physical and mental wellbeing. 

I want to try to avoid, halt or reverse any further chances of developing deceases that I may either inherit or develop with my current lifestyle. It does include losing weight, quite a lot of weight, but it means more than that. It means putting into practice all the knowledge I've gleaned over the last couple of years through much research, reading and learning along the way. It means having more energy and not feeling like I'm dragging myself around all the time, it means not needing afternoon naps because I'm exhausted from doing nothing all day, it means sleeping through the night rather than just a couple of hours at a time and it means just being happier in my own skin. 

Having lost 2.5 stone 4 years ago on a low carb, low calorie diet I find myself not quite back at where I started but definitely on my way, overweight, sluggish and miserable, but not quite miserable enough to go back to the low carb plan, rather this time around it will be a much healthier way of eating (WOE) and I will be adopting a Whole Food Plant Based diet (WFPB).

To be continued......

 

The Making of Miss Maggie Rabbit

In April this year I decided I wanted to make my mum a little present to brighten up her room in the home she now lives in. It makes me sad that there's nothing really of hers there, it still looks like a random, albeit nice, hotel room. 

For some reason dad won't take or send in any of mums personal things to make her room more comfortable and homely. Maybe somewhere in his mind he thinks that he'll be letting her go completely and that she'll really never be coming home if he does. I don't know the real reason but I do know that she needs to have some of her own lovely things or at least some new lovely things around her. 

As we all know, in April this year it was impossible to get your hands on anything, especially toilet rolls and pasta apparently, but as someone who is lucky enough to have a lot of 'stuff' cluttering up the house, I mean, a large array of fabrics and notions at my fingertips, I was in the lucky position of being able to take advantage of the wonderful free Miss Maggie Rabbit pattern that I'd had my eye on for an age, from the amazing Posy Gets Cozy. 

After gathering up everything I needed, I could sit quietly stitching on the bed listening to music, whist my husband worked from home downstairs. An added benefit was being able to shut my brain off whilst I concentrated on getting my stitches as neat as possible. She was a dream to make and the only thing I had to get my sewing machine out for was the dress. 

I was so happy to be able to pass my finished Miss Maggie Rabbit onto the reception at the home and looked forward to seeing a photo of it with my mum later. Sadly mum was having a difficult time that day and I never heard anything further. But at least as far as I am aware Miss Rabbit is sitting comfortably, keeping mum company, in her room. 

Blimey it's been a long, long time.

Eight and a half years! An absolutely scary amount of time. Not only has the eight years disappeared in a blink of an eye, but so much has changed in my life in that time frame. 

Ive found it quite a difficult decision whether to write here again, on my Real Life blog, or to start a new blog and move on as I have in my 'real life' I guess, but Ive decided that I don't want to give up on this blog just yet.

Why start again now? Why not throughout this year when there's truly been things to write about? I've actually been wanting to start again for a while, but lacked the equipment. For the last umpteen years I've only had my iPhone and iPad, neither of which can cope with writing or updating a blog properly. But here with a new MacBook and a new opportunity. 

Major changes since 2012?

Since my last post, my family has grown and I now have three beautiful grandsons. Two from my eldest daughter, who are now 6 and 3 and the newest addition from my younger daughter, who is nearly 9 months old and very sadly for all of us a lockdown baby.   

My mum was diagnosed with Alzheimers in 2014 and I lost my amazing sister in 2016. I found myself after my sisters death having to hit the ground running becoming a part time carer to my ageing parents and still have days so full of sorrow and grief that sometimes I'm surprised life can just go on as normal. But life does go on and changes along the way, mum is now in a home and has been since February and although its good that she was settled in before lockdown, its also very sad that she no longer knows who I am through lack of contact.

It's not all doom and gloom though, I retired (very early I would point out) on the last day of February this year, so very lucky that I didn't have to worry about working when we went into the first National Lockdown. I learnt during this time to start enjoying making things again, having time to get more into art projects, pick up my crochet needles and learn new skills. I also renovated a house this year that we have had empty for some time and thankfully it has finally sold, with fingers crossed it still manages to go through early next year. 

So here I am on Boxing Day 2020, very nearly the New Year and a new start. I may add odd bits and pieces from the last few years if I feel it either warrants a mention or just simply takes my fancy and one other thing I'd like to write about this time around is getting control of my physical and mental wellbeing, hopefully writing about how things are going will be not only cathartic and also spur me on to stick to my goals.

October 2020, one last day out as a group of 6

Candid camera

24 hours in Salisbury

A Friday night away and very nice it was too.

The Cathedral

with its temporary installation inside.

Dinner and a pint in the The Lazy Cow.

And on Saturday.... 

A bit of pomp and ceremony

together with a brief visit to Stonehenge for a picnic, with some time to people watch. 

And then home, lovely!

Guinness world record?

The smallest chicken egg ever?

I'm not sure its the smallest but it is very tiny and its definitely from one of my girls and not a stray blackbird thats got into the henhouse.  Just slightly bigger than a 10 pence piece. 

Omelette for dinner tomorrow night anyone?