So, at the end of August I was hoping to make a Fresh Start on various things - exercise, diet, attitude, direction. And with that Fresh Start, there would have been lots of wonderfully fascinating blog posts that would have kept you hooked, on the edge of your seat, thrilled by my adventures, my daring, my skills, my achievements, gasping at my success...
Ahem.
Yeah, well. That didn't happen. Life got in the way, as life does - and it was always next week, next week, next week... Consequently I am writing this feeling unhealthier than I have done for a very long time, and looking it too. That photo I titled Gratuitous Vanity Shot? Vanity indeed. Serves me right. If I could fit into those shorts now without a muffin top, I'd be happy... Well, not happy but you know what I mean.
So, this post is a kick up my own backside really. A note to myself to Get A Grip. Yes, Christmas is coming up and yes, my diary is jam-packed full of meals out and parties. But that's not excuse to end 2009 feeling like a whale, so. Belated damage limitation ahoy. Wish me luck.
(It hasn't all been bad bad bad. I have more or less completely redecorated the upstairs of my cottage (admittedly after the ceilings fell down), and it looks so much nicer now. I lie in bed and look at my lovely wallpaper (such an exciting life, isn't it?) and coo with pleasure. And I have booked myself on a month-long professional cookery course, in March 2010. To see if I really can stand the heat in the kitchen.)
Thursday, 3 December 2009
Friday, 28 August 2009
Summer Holidays
I spent 4 wonderful all-too-short days in Portugal on the Algarve last week. Lots of pottering around, and lying in the sun (well, in the shade but there was lots of sun!), and generally relaxing. It must be so easy to be CR'd in warm climates; all I wanted to eat was lots and lots of the wonderful tomatoes and cucumbers that were in the markets.
Some random pics of interesting things, and a gratutious vanity shot.
Some random pics of interesting things, and a gratutious vanity shot.
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Feeling Blue
I think that this article about the places in the world where people live the longest, healthy lives is something I need to flag here and read again and again myself. Simple, no nonsense, straight-forward commonsense. And it's *not* hard to live life as if one were in a Blue Zone.
But I don't do it.
But I don't do it.
Monday, 27 July 2009
Clearly I have failed to put anything into the new blog, which shows shamefully on my profile. Flake.
Still, have some flowers.
Crocosmia
Borage. Perfect in Pimms, apparently. But I don't like Pimms, so I don't know. I eat the flowers on salads, and scare people by putting them on cupcakes.
Sweetpeas. After I'd done the picking for the day. Triffids have nothing on them.
And now have some veggies:
View up the veggie patch...
Squash gone mad... yummy though.
Radicchio (sp?!) and swiss chard. We had chard for dinner tonight... the patch is, shall we say, somewhat denuded. I can eat A LOT of chard.
My enchanted asparagus forest. Unfortunately, this was something I could not eat a lot of this year, and here it is, taunting me with all its flowering glory.
As for CR.... Usual story - loads of veggies, but not counting calories. Probably far too much bread and cheese and, yes, wine, lately. Which I am feeling.
As for life, a hell of a lot of horrible stuff which paradoxically makes CR very hard. Life is too short v life cannot be long enough.
Anyway, xxx all.
Still, have some flowers.
Crocosmia
Borage. Perfect in Pimms, apparently. But I don't like Pimms, so I don't know. I eat the flowers on salads, and scare people by putting them on cupcakes.
Sweetpeas. After I'd done the picking for the day. Triffids have nothing on them.
And now have some veggies:
View up the veggie patch...
Squash gone mad... yummy though.
Radicchio (sp?!) and swiss chard. We had chard for dinner tonight... the patch is, shall we say, somewhat denuded. I can eat A LOT of chard.
My enchanted asparagus forest. Unfortunately, this was something I could not eat a lot of this year, and here it is, taunting me with all its flowering glory.
As for CR.... Usual story - loads of veggies, but not counting calories. Probably far too much bread and cheese and, yes, wine, lately. Which I am feeling.
As for life, a hell of a lot of horrible stuff which paradoxically makes CR very hard. Life is too short v life cannot be long enough.
Anyway, xxx all.
Tuesday, 19 May 2009
Cholesterol Test Results
Sainsbury's are doing them free, so I thought - why not?
Anyway. I think these are okay in themselves, but wonder if I practiced CR more rigorously (or, indeed, more often at all) whether they would be better?
Total Cholesterol Reading - 4.22 (I feel this should be lower)
HDL Reading - 2.26 (... and this should be higher?)
Ratio Reading - 1.9 (er...)
Glucose (non-fasting) - 5.0
And I weighed 110.2lbs on the scales this morning. The scales are mad. I probably could have gotten on them 30 seconds later and been 2lbs heavier.
(The last time I had some tests done was Dec 2007. Then my total cholesterol was over 5.00 and my blood sugar was, as I recall, 3.8).
Anyway. I think these are okay in themselves, but wonder if I practiced CR more rigorously (or, indeed, more often at all) whether they would be better?
Total Cholesterol Reading - 4.22 (I feel this should be lower)
HDL Reading - 2.26 (... and this should be higher?)
Ratio Reading - 1.9 (er...)
Glucose (non-fasting) - 5.0
And I weighed 110.2lbs on the scales this morning. The scales are mad. I probably could have gotten on them 30 seconds later and been 2lbs heavier.
(The last time I had some tests done was Dec 2007. Then my total cholesterol was over 5.00 and my blood sugar was, as I recall, 3.8).
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
May Morning
I woke up early this morning just before dawn and lay in the gathering light, listening to the bird sing and breathing in the damp clean air that smelt and tasted of childhood holidays in summer. A gentle drizzle has been falling all day, and the garden is lush and green and glimmering, wearing the droplets of rain like jewels. Before my coffee, I planted rows of yellow climbing beans in the veggie patch and trained their grasping tendrils around their canes, patting their roots into the damp soil and tucking the loose earth around them.
Some pictures that I took last night, before the rain.
The veggie patch. On the left, from nearest to furthest: sweetpea canes, over-wintered endive lettuces, beetroot (grown mostly for leaves), peas, strange random leafy vegetable (that was supposed to be rocket but isn't and has come up again from what I failed to dig out last year when I cleared the ground), spinach; behind the spinach are rows of salad leaves, heritage carrots, rainbow chard and spinach; raspberry canes; various fruit bushes and rhubarb, and right at the back of the patch, runner bean canes. And then on the right, from furthest to nearest: peas under fleece; supports for yellow climbing beans, flowering asparagus, rows of parsnip seedlings; supports for borlotti beans (looking very sad at the moment; I think they are shocked by cold), and membrane laid down ready for squash, sweetcorn and tomatoes.
The flower bed above my courtyard. Lavender, sweetpeas, catmint, geraniums, and pots of various spring bulbs that are dying back.
The path from the courtyard up to the garden, with snaking hose that I was using to water the veggies with last night.
Flowers in the courtyard, and the beans waiting to be planted. I am particularly happy with the way the clematis in the pot is scrambling up into the yew tree and pyracanthus and am really looking forward to it flowering; last year it had amazing white blooms, blousey and elaborate, like old-fashioned ballgowns. I love my aquilegia too.
Some pictures that I took last night, before the rain.
The veggie patch. On the left, from nearest to furthest: sweetpea canes, over-wintered endive lettuces, beetroot (grown mostly for leaves), peas, strange random leafy vegetable (that was supposed to be rocket but isn't and has come up again from what I failed to dig out last year when I cleared the ground), spinach; behind the spinach are rows of salad leaves, heritage carrots, rainbow chard and spinach; raspberry canes; various fruit bushes and rhubarb, and right at the back of the patch, runner bean canes. And then on the right, from furthest to nearest: peas under fleece; supports for yellow climbing beans, flowering asparagus, rows of parsnip seedlings; supports for borlotti beans (looking very sad at the moment; I think they are shocked by cold), and membrane laid down ready for squash, sweetcorn and tomatoes.
The flower bed above my courtyard. Lavender, sweetpeas, catmint, geraniums, and pots of various spring bulbs that are dying back.
The path from the courtyard up to the garden, with snaking hose that I was using to water the veggies with last night.
Flowers in the courtyard, and the beans waiting to be planted. I am particularly happy with the way the clematis in the pot is scrambling up into the yew tree and pyracanthus and am really looking forward to it flowering; last year it had amazing white blooms, blousey and elaborate, like old-fashioned ballgowns. I love my aquilegia too.
Monday, 11 May 2009
Ever Contrary
After the last few weeks of a) holiday and b) mega life stress, I'm not too sure that it isn't such a bad idea to keep this blog going purely to keep me on the straight and narrow, literally and figuratively. And also while I have actually set up another blog, I've yet to post anything to it and am not sure what I would post anyway so... I may ramble on here for a bit. I might even count the occassional calorie, but I think the sheer numbers consumed thereof lately might terrify me so I might equally well not.
It hasn't all been doom and gloom though, thank heavens. It's the time of year where I can now count on eating fresh leaves from the veggie garden every day, which always makes me happy. I do love to see things grow; it is such an every-day miracle. I'll post some garden pics later on, when I am home. I've spent almost an entire week in London with P now and while his company is, of course, wonderful, I am weary of town and noise and concrete and pollution and excess of everything. Yesterday I was desperate to plant things and get my hands dirty and so headed for a garden centre, armed myself with implements of destruction, and spent the afternoon hacking through the wasteland of P's garden, uprooting brambles and couch grass with the intention of planting him pots of herbs and tomatoes and peas and lettuce this evening after work. However, I forgot that the only key to the back door is on his keyring, which is in the pocket of his jeans, which he is currently wearing and he is at work several miles away so the planting is unlikely to happeny. Boo hiss.
Prior to gardening I was at the farmer's market and bumped into MiniCronnie and G at the leaf stall. Small world! Lovely to see you both and look! I am blogging, even if it's only you reading it.
I was buying lots of leaves to take to a friend's house for dinner. In the end they didn't get eaten (so that's my tea sorted for tonight) but we did eat piles and piles of white asparagus bought over from Germany by my friend's friend. It's a very strange thing... I've only ever had it canned before, and wasn't too sure I liked it - slimy, over-salted, over-cooked... but I guess that is the way it is eaten in Germany; the friend's friend boiled it for 20 minutes and it was much as one might expect a veggie to be after that; very soft, but not unpleasant for all that. I think I prefer my asparagus the Sara way though - green and steamed or roasted, or sliced with a knife from the allotment and eaten raw before I make it to the back door, which is how I've been eating it the last few weeks, because I am asparagus glutton with novelty asparagus shoots.
Er, yes. Amazing how much I can ramble about nothing at all, really. Anyway, photos to follow and maybe something a lot more interesting than this, either here or on the new blog. We'll see.
It hasn't all been doom and gloom though, thank heavens. It's the time of year where I can now count on eating fresh leaves from the veggie garden every day, which always makes me happy. I do love to see things grow; it is such an every-day miracle. I'll post some garden pics later on, when I am home. I've spent almost an entire week in London with P now and while his company is, of course, wonderful, I am weary of town and noise and concrete and pollution and excess of everything. Yesterday I was desperate to plant things and get my hands dirty and so headed for a garden centre, armed myself with implements of destruction, and spent the afternoon hacking through the wasteland of P's garden, uprooting brambles and couch grass with the intention of planting him pots of herbs and tomatoes and peas and lettuce this evening after work. However, I forgot that the only key to the back door is on his keyring, which is in the pocket of his jeans, which he is currently wearing and he is at work several miles away so the planting is unlikely to happeny. Boo hiss.
Prior to gardening I was at the farmer's market and bumped into MiniCronnie and G at the leaf stall. Small world! Lovely to see you both and look! I am blogging, even if it's only you reading it.
I was buying lots of leaves to take to a friend's house for dinner. In the end they didn't get eaten (so that's my tea sorted for tonight) but we did eat piles and piles of white asparagus bought over from Germany by my friend's friend. It's a very strange thing... I've only ever had it canned before, and wasn't too sure I liked it - slimy, over-salted, over-cooked... but I guess that is the way it is eaten in Germany; the friend's friend boiled it for 20 minutes and it was much as one might expect a veggie to be after that; very soft, but not unpleasant for all that. I think I prefer my asparagus the Sara way though - green and steamed or roasted, or sliced with a knife from the allotment and eaten raw before I make it to the back door, which is how I've been eating it the last few weeks, because I am asparagus glutton with novelty asparagus shoots.
Er, yes. Amazing how much I can ramble about nothing at all, really. Anyway, photos to follow and maybe something a lot more interesting than this, either here or on the new blog. We'll see.
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