I've been having problems with weight gain for a couple of years and no matter how hard I have tried to diet, nothing has shifted the extra pounds. Some of the gain is down to some of the medication that I have to take and having a metabolic disorder hasn't helped either.
Anyway, a couple of years ago my daughter Sarah gave me a book the she got when she attended Slimming World and she did lose a stone when she followed it so I had a read and thought I'd give it a go. I'm certainly not off to any weekly meetings because I don't want to be weighed in front of everyone and I can't afford it either so I'm going it alone at home.
I have found that this way of eating does actually work and I haven't felt hungry at all. It is called 'food optimising' and you have either 'red' or 'green' days. On a red day you can eat as much lean meat, chicken or fish as you want and you have to have what are called 'healthy extras'. On green days, you can eat as much pasta or rice as you want and as much fruit and vegetables or vegetarian dishes as you need to fill yourself up.
Eating this way, I have found that I eat less bread and fats but I can still have a varied and satisfying diet without the need to weigh or measure or count calories. As I love fruit and vegetables and enjoy vegetarian dishes anyway it really suits me. There are odd days when I mix things around but I have found that sticking to the main principles the diet is really working and I have already lost a stone. There's still a long way to go but browsing through cookery books I have come up with lots of inexpensive and tasty new dishes to try and I'm also experimenting with 'quorn' and TVP (textured vegetable protein made from de-fatted soya).
Of course summer is easy with a plentiful supply of vegetables and fruits but I will have to come up with some good alternatives for the winter. I'll let you know how it goes.
Friday, 29 July 2011
Thursday, 21 July 2011
A good threat works wonders!
I'm usually a quiet, easy going person but there are a few things that really get me going and then I take the appropriate action.
However, there are some things that I can't really do much about apart from issuing a few stern warnings followed by a threat which is always seen through and it nearly always works.
I'm not talking about the actions of people here, nor animals or birds but plants. Yes, that's right, plants. There have been occasions when a plant hasn't done very well in the spot where I've put it so I move it to a more suitable part of the garden and nine times out of ten, the plant does very well.
But there's always one that does it's utmost to defy me. I have had plants that have flourished for a couple of years and then stopped flowering for no reason. I give them bucket loads of TLC coupled with some stern warnings and wait for the next flowering season, but still nothing happens. Then they get the threat. I tell them that if they don't flower next year then I will dig them up and plant something else and this has always worked for me. Last year Nellie Moser (a clematis plant that has large flowers with a dark pink stripe in the middle of the petals) only put out one flower that looked rather pathetic. I never had time to do much with it but as I was tidying it up in the autumn I did tell it that if it didn't flower this spring I would dig it up and put another one in it's place. This spring it was completely covered in flowers and was the most spectacular display it had ever given.
A few years ago Sarah and the grand-children gave me an orchid for Mother's Day and sadly, the last one they had given me did not survive despite me being very careful with it so I knew I would have to be extra careful with this one in order not to upset them. After the first lot of flowers finished I did what it said in the book and it did flower again but not very well. Since those flowers finished it has done nothing! I have fed it and cared for it as the book says and it has grown a couple of leaves in the last eighteen months but no flowers.
It was time for me to issue the threat and so I did. I told it that if I didn't see a flower very soon it would be banished to the coldest window sill this winter or even worse, I would put it outside. The threat of that has shocked it into producing three flower stems that are just beginning to poke out from the leaf base.
So next time you've got a plant not doing very well, threaten it with something horrible because it works for me!
However, there are some things that I can't really do much about apart from issuing a few stern warnings followed by a threat which is always seen through and it nearly always works.
I'm not talking about the actions of people here, nor animals or birds but plants. Yes, that's right, plants. There have been occasions when a plant hasn't done very well in the spot where I've put it so I move it to a more suitable part of the garden and nine times out of ten, the plant does very well.
But there's always one that does it's utmost to defy me. I have had plants that have flourished for a couple of years and then stopped flowering for no reason. I give them bucket loads of TLC coupled with some stern warnings and wait for the next flowering season, but still nothing happens. Then they get the threat. I tell them that if they don't flower next year then I will dig them up and plant something else and this has always worked for me. Last year Nellie Moser (a clematis plant that has large flowers with a dark pink stripe in the middle of the petals) only put out one flower that looked rather pathetic. I never had time to do much with it but as I was tidying it up in the autumn I did tell it that if it didn't flower this spring I would dig it up and put another one in it's place. This spring it was completely covered in flowers and was the most spectacular display it had ever given.
A few years ago Sarah and the grand-children gave me an orchid for Mother's Day and sadly, the last one they had given me did not survive despite me being very careful with it so I knew I would have to be extra careful with this one in order not to upset them. After the first lot of flowers finished I did what it said in the book and it did flower again but not very well. Since those flowers finished it has done nothing! I have fed it and cared for it as the book says and it has grown a couple of leaves in the last eighteen months but no flowers.
It was time for me to issue the threat and so I did. I told it that if I didn't see a flower very soon it would be banished to the coldest window sill this winter or even worse, I would put it outside. The threat of that has shocked it into producing three flower stems that are just beginning to poke out from the leaf base.
So next time you've got a plant not doing very well, threaten it with something horrible because it works for me!
Monday, 18 July 2011
New boys on the blog!
These two little chaps are the sons of Nutty Norah and are this season's youngsters. At the top is Jack in the Box getting his tea from the larder while his brother, Wee Willie is checking his pockets to see if he has left any nuts in there!
Jack is keeping his eye on his tea while Wee Willie demonstrates acrobatics as he tries to raid the bird's nut feeder.
Sunday, 17 July 2011
Back bloggin' again!
After being 'off blog' for a while I am pleased to announce that I can now return to regular blogging. I'm not sure if the problems have been fixed completely but I have discovered a way around the main issue of not being able to sign in properly or comment on other blogs thanks to a friend of Emma's.
It seems that the problems don't arise if you disable the 'stay signed in' box so I'm going to give it a go.
Perhaps no-one has missed me (I am not sure how many people take a look) but from tomorrow 'normal service will be resumed' and the usual mixture of rantings and ramblings will be back!
See you soon!
It seems that the problems don't arise if you disable the 'stay signed in' box so I'm going to give it a go.
Perhaps no-one has missed me (I am not sure how many people take a look) but from tomorrow 'normal service will be resumed' and the usual mixture of rantings and ramblings will be back!
See you soon!
Thursday, 16 June 2011
A temporary break
As blogger is still not working properly I will not be posting until it is fixed. I have difficulty signing in and cannot comment on other blogs or even my own.
Sunday, 12 June 2011
A fairly idle morning
Yesterday morning I had bought a couple of plants that I wanted to put in the garden especially as I knew the weather forecast was for heavy rain today but just as I was going to go out of the back door I noticed Nutty Norah, the mother squirrel was out there and she had her youngster, Jack in the Box, with her. But then I saw that there was another young one as well and I couldn't tell the two of them apart when they were chasing each other around.
It seems that all youngsters are much the same and Nutty Norah really had her hands full with these two mischievous little ones. They were having great fun playing and exploring while Nutty Norah was hanging upside down on the birds' wire peanut feeder. I had put the bird food on the table earlier and had included a handful of sunflower hearts which I know they also like. I thought the youngsters would like some peanuts because they were having problems finding out how to get them out of the peanut box so I went outside the back door and put a few on the path. As soon as I came in they came and helped themselves but to my surprise, Mum came down and started taking the others and then burying them around the garden!
I don't know how squirrels communicate but Nutty Norah got up on the fence and the two youngsters scurried up onto the bird table and started eating while Mum left the garden. After a good feed they were off chasing each other around again and Mum returned and sat on the fence watching them. When they had finished their game they too got up on the fence and all three had a good, long doze in the sun while I realised that I had in fact been enraptured by their antics for a full two and a half hours!
It seems that all youngsters are much the same and Nutty Norah really had her hands full with these two mischievous little ones. They were having great fun playing and exploring while Nutty Norah was hanging upside down on the birds' wire peanut feeder. I had put the bird food on the table earlier and had included a handful of sunflower hearts which I know they also like. I thought the youngsters would like some peanuts because they were having problems finding out how to get them out of the peanut box so I went outside the back door and put a few on the path. As soon as I came in they came and helped themselves but to my surprise, Mum came down and started taking the others and then burying them around the garden!
I don't know how squirrels communicate but Nutty Norah got up on the fence and the two youngsters scurried up onto the bird table and started eating while Mum left the garden. After a good feed they were off chasing each other around again and Mum returned and sat on the fence watching them. When they had finished their game they too got up on the fence and all three had a good, long doze in the sun while I realised that I had in fact been enraptured by their antics for a full two and a half hours!
Monday, 6 June 2011
Time to stand and stare
For the last week or so I've been a bit stiff and unable to do as much as I would have liked but at least I was able to get out into the garden to do some dead heading even if it did mean that I had to take frequent long breaks. Anyway, one of the advantages of taking things slowly means that you have more time to observe the flowers and insects and everything else around the garden.
At the moment there are a lot of baby birds being brought to the garden to be fed and it's fascinating to watch the parents carefully making sure that each of their offspring get their turn and they appear to ignore the ones that chirp the loudest making them wait until it's their turn again. The young birds also watch what the parents do and where and how they get the food then it isn't very long before they have a go themselves.
When they have all been fed they are ushered to the tub on the patio and shown how to get a drink then stand on the water lily leaves to have a bath which is always a communal affair. Despite having a proper bird bath most of them prefer to bathe together in the water lily tub and then stand around the egde preening their feathers and drying off in the sunshine. A very social occasion!
Nutty Norah the squirrel has also been down with Jack in the Box and I must say he's got the hang of things now and doesn't fall off the ledge in the front of the nutbox and sits up on the lid instead of eating with his head in the box. I don't think I'll change his name though.
We have had some rain and are due more later this week and all the plants are growing like mad. We've already had a lot of strawberries from the few plants I have in the containers and the tomatoes are flowering so I can't wait for them to start showing fruits. My only regret is that I don't have the room to grow more plants and I wish I could have a vegetable plot too!
At the moment there are a lot of baby birds being brought to the garden to be fed and it's fascinating to watch the parents carefully making sure that each of their offspring get their turn and they appear to ignore the ones that chirp the loudest making them wait until it's their turn again. The young birds also watch what the parents do and where and how they get the food then it isn't very long before they have a go themselves.
When they have all been fed they are ushered to the tub on the patio and shown how to get a drink then stand on the water lily leaves to have a bath which is always a communal affair. Despite having a proper bird bath most of them prefer to bathe together in the water lily tub and then stand around the egde preening their feathers and drying off in the sunshine. A very social occasion!
Nutty Norah the squirrel has also been down with Jack in the Box and I must say he's got the hang of things now and doesn't fall off the ledge in the front of the nutbox and sits up on the lid instead of eating with his head in the box. I don't think I'll change his name though.
We have had some rain and are due more later this week and all the plants are growing like mad. We've already had a lot of strawberries from the few plants I have in the containers and the tomatoes are flowering so I can't wait for them to start showing fruits. My only regret is that I don't have the room to grow more plants and I wish I could have a vegetable plot too!
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