Salad Days!!

Soup or Salad?

Soup or Salad is the question I ask my partner each evening, that are our choices for lunch the next day and will be for the next 12 months.

So far I have lost 6lb so I am now 18st. My target is in 12 months time I will be 12 stone. This equates to 1/2 stone per month loss which is quite achievable. I will not get as boring as to blog each lb lost, but will let you know the major milestones.

This week I have mainly been eating Salad, ham salad, fish salad, egg salad chicken salad. etc.

Today was my favourite so far, chicken and grape Salad, yum.
Take 1/2 bag salad leaves,
1/4 cucumber sliced,
1/2 green pepper sliced,
20 grapes.
place in a lidded lunch box.
mix 5ml olive oil and 10ml balsamic vinegar, pour over the salad, place the lid on and give it a good shake.
Then add 2 slices of thick sliced roast chicken.
And enjoy.....

Tomorrow....Soup!
2 onions,
1/4 swede
2 leeks
4 carrots
4 potato's
10ml cooking oil
1 1/2 pints veg stock.
season to taste.

Dice veg finely,
first add onions and start to lightly brown, then swede and carrot, keep stirring as you don't want the veg to burn just colour, then add the potato's and leek, fry for 2 more minutes add the stock, cover and cook for 20 minutes.
The soup can be served 3 ways.
1 as a broth with the whole pieces of veg with a stock sauce.
2 as a thicker soup, by using a potato masher to break up the  veg.
3 as a thick soup by blending the veg together.

Whilst I have been diligently eating my way through fields of greens. I have been creating some very yummy treats. 2 old fashioned favourites.

1st bread pudding. I baked a large bread pudding with banana and sultana's.

2nd, a chocolate tiffin,

I had completed a punishing aerobics class and had made chicken and veg for tea. I then found myself stood over the hob, stirring a pot of melted chocolate and adding fruit and biscuits.

It was hard but I managed to make it without eating any of it. !!

oh and the recipe's for these will be in my forth coming cookery book. !!!

(pictures this week were from Internet not my camera)



I love Autumn!

I have just returned from a fab Sunday afternoon walk with the dogs and getting ready to cook a nice warming dinner. I am now sat looking at  tired but happy dogs laying on the rug after our 3 mile walk.

The walk was fantastic and we walked through the trees,

It was cold but a nice cold, enough to make your cheeks red and glad to be wearing a fleece.
I adore footpaths,I find them so inviting especially through woodland. I find myself thinking whats round the next corner?

There are still enough leaves on the tree's to feel nice and enclosed. For a dry Sunday it was quite quiet and we did not meet many other humans or dogs?

This is one of our favourite walks, I love the landscaping.

The Labrador, loves the pond!

The Spaniel loves the footpaths !

I just loved the colours,

In case you are wondering Sunday is a non Gym day so we get to be more creative with the exercise what a fab way to clock up 3 miles of walking.

Round and round and round we go.

Tonight, was the first circuit training class, well to be honest I was dreading it. I anticipated a drill Sergeant type bloke with a whistle and we would be doing lots of, Press ups, sit ups, star jumps etc. In a class that was full of super fit and skinny people.

Well I could not be more wrong, firstly it was not a PT drill Sergeant but a rather friendly looking woman.

There was not a press up or sit up in sight. :)

We started with step ups, then some weights, then running (fast walking) the kettle bell, then the spotty dog.


Yes I did just say the spotty dog, that is a strange moving your legs back and swinging your arms around. (yes I did look daft)! next was the press up against the wall, I know I said there were no press ups but I do not count it the same when you are standing up! then Skipping, which was fun (honestly) then more weights, then boxing and finally squatting with a ball on my back.

Yay I survived a circuit, so why don't we do it again, yes we did it twice with a few variations to make it slightly harder. (I wont bore you with the variations).

Circuits with a similarity to aerobics bring about a great change in me. I start as a dry pale skinned woman. I end up as a bright red sweaty dripping thing.  not a pleasant sight to say the least!

No Legwarmers required.

Ok so tonight was aerobics 1st time.

I don't know what I expected from an aerobics class but tonight was good.

there were 9 of us in total and 7 were regulars. My aim was to not fall over or trip anyone else over!

I managed to achieve it, (just).

we were told that the instructor was called Lee, ok so I just assumed that Lee was a woman, wrong!

It started well, stepping side to side, raising the knee's and marching on the spot. It started to get complicated when I had to cross my legs. There were several different moves that required the crossing of the legs and feet.

ok, s when I started to get the hang of crossing my feet on a side to side motion. We then started to go diagonally. I began to think I was in an episode of pineapple dance studio!

We had 1/2 hour of aerobics and 1/2 hour of body conditioning and weights.

By the end I was drowning in a puddle of my own sweat.
Tomorrow, Gym and Thursday circuits.

If I could walk 500 miles...

Hi All,

I spent a lot of my summer attached to a small blue step counter.

This was because I was undertaking the global corporate challenge. Me and 6 other workmates, tried to walk as much as we could over 111 days. 

It was not easy, not by a long shot. I walked and walked then walked some more. I walked to work, I walked across town, I walked the dogs sometimes together sometimes separately to maximise the walking potential. I would walk on my lunch breaks, I would walk up the very mean hills and down again. I would walk to the shops, I would walk round the shops. I would walk back from the shops, I would walk whilst geochacing, I walked on holiday, I walked at home, I walked in London, I walked in Scotland. I even walked on the spot.

In the end my step average  was 14,969 steps per day, which was great - it could have been better if I had not had an operation at day 41 which slowed me down a bit. :(

In total I walked 1661605 steps, which is far!

So today we were rewarded for our effort's as my team was the top in our organisation and we were presented with a certificate, followed by an inpromptu visit to the Mayor for a quick handshake and a well done. It was great talking about all that we achieved and reminded me of how far I have come and how far I have to go....

Oh well aerobics tomorrow (yes really aerobics) and my step count for today.....18692 but who's counting!

Gym and bear it!

Ok so getting used to the Gym and have developed a nice little routine.
5 minutes on the cross trainer (get it out the way early)
stretching- v important.
leg weights
15 minutes on the bike
Arm weights
15 minutes on the rowing machine
stretching
then shower.

It adds up to an hour, I feel its a good start! I am also standing on 1 leg a lot. Apparently this helps build your core stability, all the micro movements build your muscles!

Have not managed any crafting this weekend as have been so busy with other stuff.

On Saturday night we went to the theatre. What was it I hear you ask?
A grand musical like Les Miserables?
The Ballet?
or a classic like an inspector calls?
No, It was ..........

How to survive a zombie Apocalypse!
It was an interactive seminar,

"introduced by leading expert in his field and zombology guru,  Dr Dale Seslick, the seminars are your one shop, whistle stop tour through the world of zombie survival techniques.
Aided by his dedicated team of specialists from the School of Survival - Judy, Donald & Tristen, you will learn everything you need to know to cope when the undead rise from their graves and begin eating their way through the population of the world."

It was like nothing I had every seen before, wonderfully funny.
It was a special night on Saturday, why? It was the first time we had gone out with both of our daughters and their  respective  boyfriends.

We commenced with a meal out , both men completely unprepared for the night ahead.

It is a monumental occasion, the meeting of 2 young men who have nothing in common except for dating sibling's! however, the evening went well!!

hoping for a more productive week this week.

What does not kill you makes you stronger.

Hooray I am still alive!

What perils have I put myself in??

I went to the gym!

So am hopefully a little bit stronger (lol).

We signed up yesterday and went today.

Ok so the first thing I did was weigh in, I weigh 18.5 stone. (gulp) which is roughly twice the weight I should be. Imagine walking around all day giving someone a piggy back. well that's what my legs do everyday.



The next was the warm up, spent 15 minutes on the cycle and cycled for 5.3km. cycling on an exercise bike is not like cycling on a road bike as the positioning is all different, also there are not as many potholes. At the moment I need to be exercising and losing weight as well as building up my road cycling.

I maneuvered my way around most of the equipment. Different weight machine's to help build my arm and leg muscles, then I moved onto my arch Nemesis, the cross trainer! (it even looks like a torture device)



To those of us who are co-ordinatingly challenged. the cross trainer is the ultimate torture device. Walking around in the street, my arms and legs know exactly what to do! Put me on a cross trainer and it is laughable. I started off by walking backwards, then was walking but using only 1 leg, the other one was not making any effort it was just there for the ride, then my arms appeared to be doing all of the work. eventually I managed to get into some kid of rhythm, despite the fact that I had to cope with the most awful music that was on the unknown music channel that was blaring out across the gym. Note to self, bring MP3 player next time.

Well before I knew it - the hour was up. I left the gym feeling tired but with a sense of self satisfaction.
Lets see how stiff I am in the morning!