Can't believe I haven't been back for a month!!! Time just goes by too damn quick!

I have hit the 2st (28lb) off in time for Christmas with another weigh in due tomorrow. Some people weigh themselves daily and can cope with the body's fluctuating weight but I can't do that; if my weight goes up a fraction I get despondent even tho I know it is just the way the body works, I am happier weighing myself weekly because I then know that I have achieved what I want to achieve.....and that is a loss!!! I am feeling better than I have in a long time and don't feel so lethargic!! I have also started seeing a difference in the mirror which has taken me a while to see, when others have seen it, and I am beginning to like what I see!! I am sure that if I carry on losing the way I am I will get to my target by May next year (2013, not 2014!!!) which will be sooner than I expected.

We all had a good Christmas this year, the best we have had in ages and it was good to have Rob home for both Christmas Day and Boxing Day this year as he has been working them for the past 6 years.

So on that note I will love you and leave you for the last time this year......2012 is nearly at an end. For once I am not dreading the New Year, I am feeling quite positive about it as I know we will achieve a lot of goals including my main one to get the rest of this weight off so no resolutions need to be made for 2013 other than to remain positive and happy.

Take care my friends and have a wonderful New Year wherever you plan to be!!

Back again to report how the 'Plan' is going!!! 6 weeks in and 19.5lb off now and to be honest I have suprised myself!!! I look in the mirror and don't see any difference yet people who have not seen me for a while have said that I have definitely lost the weight and my Robbie has said he can see the difference!!! I know I am getting into smaller clothes and the winter coat I have not worn for a couple of years is now fitting okay again!! Rob has admitted that he thought I would crumble a couple of weeks in as it is a very strict regime to a degree but fortunately I enjoy meat and fish (along with the other proteins I get to eat) so it is fairly straightforward for me to keep to the plan plus I now have vegs alternate days but still no potatoes or sweet veg (i.e. peas)which I am not really missing and the same with bread!!! I have a long way to go still but I should be in to my 'slim me' clothes by next summer easily!!

Anyway I am going to say ttfn and catch up with you again soon!!!

 

My Dukan journey into week 2

Its me again!!! Back as promised, lol!!

Well I am now into the 2nd week of the Dukan plan.....Attack phase (which is just pure proteins )ended Friday night and I started the Cruise phase (Proteins and selected veg but definitely not peas or potatoes) on Saturday. You also have to drink at least one and a half litres of water a day but that could also include diet drinks and tea and coffee with skimmed milk....oh and not forgetting the 1.5oz of bran daily. 

My weight loss for the 1st week was 5lb but I also lost some inches and managed to slide into a nice new pair of trousers one size down!!! I had been exercising as well and going for a walk with the dog so that helped as well!!

I have never felt so in control on a weight loss plan as I do with this one. I am not getting any urges to eat the things I shouldn't (chocolate, all things unhealthy etc) and feeling totally happy with what I am eating and the foods I can eat are unlimited. The one thing I have discovered though is that Diet coke does not agree with me so that is being kicked into touch, lol!!!

I have to admit my ever suffering husband Rob was dubious (He had heard it all before apparently.......and I will agree with that) at the start as I have attempted to do a few other diets since piling the weight back on after I had my bad fall and my huge weight loss with Slimming World went down the pan, but he now sees that I am determined and although it will take me some time (at least 9 months apparently) I WILL see it through and I WILL get the result I am aiming for!!! Plus I am learning a helluva lot from the Dukan plan book about nutrition and the rights and wrongs of what we eat and its long term effects on our bodies!!

Anyway, I will say ttfn for now and catch you again next week!!!

Love to you all

 

A fresh start

I have been missing for quite some time.......again!!! I have slapped my own wrist just in case any of you were wondering!!!

As some of you know I have had an ongoing battle with my weight but did successfully lose almost 6 stone over 4 years ago and managed to keep it off until one day in August 2009 when I fell in a pothole, dislocated my knee and needless to say the weight piled back on!! I tried a few times to lose it again but my amazing and wonderful consultant at Slimming world had left and the 3 attempts I had at rejoining over the last few years have prooved a waste of time due to the consultants only being interested in bums (large ones!!) on seats and failed to inspire me!!! Anyway, back in June I was finally put on treatment for an underactive thyroid and also joined a Facebook page for people with an Underactive Thyroid discussing everything from bad GP's not recognising that although your tft blood tests say borderline you have all the symptoms to general support for fellow 'sufferer's and giving advice if possible.....all in all just to be there to support one another. Anyway, a couple of weeks back on this particular page someone asked where everyone was from and I happened to mention I was living in Northants but originated from Hampstead in North London. The next day a fellow page user commented that she knew Hampstead and mentioned a few streets, including the one where I lived as I grew up. Basically it turned out that she had been the girlfriend of my then best friends brother and I remembered her from a couple of brief meetings!! Small world or what, especially as she now lives in Cyprus!! We have chatted a lot since and I happened to mention that I am struggling with my weight - one of the side effects of Underactive Thyroid. She told me she had lost 14kg on a diet plan called the Dukan and I was eager to know more. After a lot of chatting on FB, I ordered the book and I started the plan on Saturday just gone.

Now the Dukan plan is a bit extreme but it has been well researched and it works, plus my GP is happy for me to continue on it as she knows it has been well researched and was formulated by a Doctor in France. It has 4 phases and I am currently in the first phase, called attack, whereby I have to just eat Proteins in the form of meat (except Lamb and Pork), chicken, fish, eggs and fat free yogurt/cheese, plus some oatbran daily (to help keep 'things' working if you get my drift!!!).........oh and plenty of water and sugar free drinks! So far I am enjoying it, I do love meat and therefore it is not a struggle for me. Once I have finished this current phase I will then move onto introducing vegetables - but no potatoes or rice  - just green/red veg and have them on alternate days. No fussy weighing and faffing around with portion control, lol!!!

Basically I am going to use this blog to chart my progress!!! I will only say what I have lost......I won't be saying what I weigh (not good, lol) but I will say the plan has given me a realistic goal to aim for unlike the charts you see at some Slimming Clubs with silly goals and are not feasible for your body structure unless you are a tiny frame, which I am defitinetly not, lol!! My first weight check will be Saturday and I can't wait to see what I have lost in my first week!! Incidentally I am not doing it online as it is too expensive but having read the book I am sure I can go it alone with support from both my friend and other FB users. 

On that note I will say ttfn and will come back on Saturday to update my progress.
Loads of love to you all!!

Naughty me!!

Well, yours truly has been naughty and not blogged since January!!!

Lots been going on but nothing, unfortunately that was worth blogging about.......apart from the fact we are going to be grandparents again in August!!

Easter has, so far, been a strange weekend!! I am baout to go and visit my friend Lynn from schooldays, we have only been back in touch again for 18 months or so and still doing a lot of catching up......it is great tho cos it is as though we have not lost touch at all!!!

Tomorrow we are going to visit Virginia Water in Royal Windsor Park, then having some special time with my good friend Penny.....she is cooking us Roast Dinner as well!!!

As for Monday, well that is yet to be decided.....but I doubt it will be a relaxed day if my normal routines are anything to go by!!!

Anyway, I will love you and leave you for now......will be taking pics tomorrow so watch this space, lol x

Loads of love

Sunday, lazy Sunday!!!

I have not been too good this week, stinking cold has weighed me down; I had Monday off in the hope that if I stayed in bed and dosed up I would be okay but it didn't happen so I had to go into work for the rest of the week armed with tissues and paracetamol to counteract all the aches and other side effects that go with a cold. I am feeling brighter today, slight sore throat now and a tickly cough but otherwise not too bad!!

I spent part of yesterday baking cakes, I find it therapeutic and takes my mind off feeling rough or if anything is playing on my mind. I made 2 large coffee sponges and loads of chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate buttercream icing and white chocolate sprinkles......well pleased with myself!!

The band gigged locally last night but as it was such a small club I did not go for fear of passing on my remaining germs!!! Shame because it was an excellent evening by all accounts.......I just hope next weekend is just as good when we are at Sutton Bridge, near Spalding in Lincolnshire.

Because of this damn cold I have not been able to see Max as it would not be fair to inflict my germs on him .......or his mum - Angela does not do colds very well!!! I have not been to see Kevin, Lucy, Alfie and Leah either as they have had enough of their fair share of colds lately.........plus .......mmmmmm won't say anything - will keep you all in suspenders, lol!!!

I have been debating a haircut again as my hair is getting quite long again and proving a chore to keep under control......I like it long but the hassle of keeping it tidy gets to me, but at the same time it looks nice when it is long.....decisions, decisons........and to be honest I have not seen a shorter style that inspires me much just lately either so guess it is going to have to stay long until I get the 'got to have it cut NOW' point!!

Rob and I ventured into Kettering town yesterday to go to a couple of shops......butchers, chemist, Marks and Sparks, etc. I was saddened to see the town has changed a lot; let me point out that I do go into Kettering occasionally but is just normally to the bank at the far end of town and back out again, yesterday was the first time in ages that we actually walked round to do some shopping and could not believe the empty shops. Unfortunately it is the same scenario in a lot of towns these days, but when I moved to Kettering from London in 1986 it seemed to be a thriving town with lots of promise and I was happy to settle there. We moved to just outside Kettering (to a small town called Burton Latimer) in 2001 and consequently don't have much need to go into Kettering town centre, hence the shock at seeing how it had declined.......now with the news that Peacocks and Bon Marche are in receivership it looks like there may be 2 more empty shops to add to the list in the high street. Sad, so very sad.....and the immediate future does not appear too promising either as the local council don't appear to have a clue!!!

Anyway, time to go and sort Sunday dinner......roast chicken etc and all trimmings, followed by cherry pie and custard........yum!!  

Happy Birthday Leah!!!

14th January 2008 was the day our lovely Grandaughter Leah came into the world so she is 4 years old today!!! She is a gorgeous girl, precocious but love her to pieces!!!

We are going to see her this afternoon, hopefully there may be a bit of birthday cake around, LOL!!! We also have her brother Alfie's birthday due a fortnight tomorrow....29th....when he will be the grand age of 6!!!

2nd week into the New Year just about done and dusted and I have to admit so far it has been a pretty good start......I won't get complacent tho cos when I do something comes along and kicks me in the stomach when I least expect it!!! I hate January as a rule, always strange as it is the run down after all the festivity of Christmas etc and also a tendency to be a grey month weatherwise, but today we are sporting lovely sunshine despite the very cold temperature out there; we woke to a heavy frost and both our dark green car's were very much white but the sun came out and hey presto it is like a nice spring day out there now!!!  

Robbie was at the dentist this morning for a moulding to be done for his new false teeth; we had hoped he would be sporting his new dentures in roughly 2 weeks from now, but it is now looking like 4 weeks as he has to go back for a couple more impressions to be done to ensure perfect fitting. He is surviving quite nicely with no teeth and gumming everything to pieces,  lol, he is quite happy at the moment but can't wait to have the dentures so he can resume eating favourite foods i.e pistachio's.......and steaks!!!!

We aren't out with the band tonight, having an evening off but as of next week it starts getting busy and are out most weekends till the end of March. Yep, it gets hectic but wouldn't have it any other way!!! Mind you I will be having an early night tonight as I am so very tired just lately, even after a decent nights sleep I still end up yawning all day and can't wait to get into bed.....beginning to wonder if I need to see the doc tho cos it has gone on quite some time now and it is beginning to get me down cos all I want to do is sleep!!!

Well, time to love you and leave you. I'm going to prepare a casserole and leave it to absorb the gravy so it is nice and tender when it is cooked later on. Then we are off to see Leah, hope she likes her birthday present!!!! Catch you later!!
Love

Nearly the weekend so a time for something funny methinks!!!

Haha......I've been a bit like a bus with blogging this week, lol......you wait for ages for one and then 3 come along in a short space of time!!!

The following was sent to me today.....by my husband .......and having read it I am now of the conclusion that I must be male!!! See what you think, lol!!


THE LAST BASTIONS OF MALE SUPREMACY


MALE V FEMALE AT THE CASH MACHINE


A new sign in the Bank reads:


'Please note that this Bank is installing new Drive-through cash machines enabling customers to withdraw cash without leaving their vehicles.


Customers using this new facility are


requested to use the procedures outlined below when accessing their accounts.


After months of careful research, MALE & FEMALE Procedures have been developed. Please follow the Appropriate steps for your gender.'


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

MALE PROCEDURE:


1... Drive up to the cash machine. 2. LOWER your car window. 3. Insert card into machine and enter PIN. 4. Enter amount of cash required and withdraw. 5. Retrieve card, cash and receipt. 6. Raise window. 7. Drive off.

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

FEMALE PROCEDURE: (Unfortunately, most of this is the Truth.!!)


1. Drive up to cash machine. 2. Reverse and back up the required amount to align car window with the machine. 3. Put hand brake on, put the window down. 4. Find handbag, remove all contents on to passenger seat to locate card. 5. Tell person on mobile phone you will call them back and hang up. 6. Attempt to insert card into machine. 7. Open car door to allow easier access to machine due to its excessive distance from the car. 8. Insert card. 9. Re-insert card the right way. 10. Dig through handbag to find diary with your PIN written on the inside back page.11. Enter PIN . 12. Press cancel and re-enter correct PIN. 13. Enter amount of cash required. 14. Check makeup in rear view mirror. 15. Retrieve cash and receipt. 16. Empty handbag again to locate purse and place cash inside. 17. Write debit amount in cheque book and place receipt in back of it. 18. Re-check makeup. 19. Drive forward 2 feet. 20. Reverse back to cash machine. 21. Retrieve card. 22. Re-empty hand bag, locate card
holder, and place card into the slot provided! 23. Give dirty look to irate male driver waiting behind you. 24. Restart stalled engine and pull off. 25. Redial person on mobile phone. 26. Drive for 2 to 3 miles. 27. Release Hand Brake.

Personally I do know there are a few ladies out there that would be as ditzy as the aforementioned......fortunately none of them are friends of mine........ but I have seen antics at normal cashpoints (ATM's) that leave me totally bemused and on one occasion my gast was totally flabbered!!!

Robbie (my ever-wonderful and patient husband and he who thinks he should be obeyed ......some hope, lol) has just given me a diary for 2012....entitled 'Do it later......A 2012 planner (or non-planner) for the Creative Procrastinator'..........Yep he knows me well!!! We did debate who was the worst procrastinator and I am afraid it is definitely me - why put off till tomorrow when it would be better leaving it for a bit longer in the hope someone else will do it or it may even sort itself out!!! No seriously, I do procrastinate a bit but not a lot!!

Anyway, time to go and think about dinner and I will leave you with this thought......Multi-tasking is a good thing, it means that you get at least one thing done if nothing else!!!

Love to you all

Stuff on a Tuesday!!

Hmmm, where to start!!

I guess I could tell you all about our ditzy Sascha! She loves TV and this morning surpassed herself with watching a Jack Russell on BBC's breakfast show; said JR was doing lots of tricks and Sascha so wanted to play with it......so much so she fetched one of her toys and put it in front of the tv screen (on the tv stand) in the hope the JR would pick it up and play with her!!! She was whining at the tv big time, then when she found that the JR had gone she went round the few soft toys I have round the room (Meerkats - courtesy of Compare the Meerkat.com, white lions - from W Midlands Safari and Pudsey to name but a few) trying to get them to play, lol!!! Don't you just love pets....especially daft doggies!!!!!!

I have been naughty!!! I have been searching for my all time favourite Lindt Chocolate bar for ages.....Raspberry liquid.......and no shops round here sell it! Imagine my joy when I found that it is alive and well on the Lindt website, so I ordered some.....along with orange and strawberry to make up the minimum order value. Said bar's arrived this morning and I have to say the urge to eat some is fast getting the better of me!!! I am surprised I have lasted this long and did not succumb to taking some to work with me!! Yes, I know I should not be eating chocolate as I need to lose the weight I put back on after my fall a couple of years ago but I've not had the delicious raspberry choc for many moons (and some!!) so I will have some later, relish every piece and make it last a very long time.........I might even let Robbie have some, LOL!!!

I have just been browsing through some of the blogs on my dashboard.......one made me laugh and cry at the same time; laugh in that the lovely lady that wrote the blog was sooo funny and I loved her to pieces as a friend....we even joked that we shared the same husband!!! Cried with the knowledge that she is no longer with us and it is almost a year since she left us, yes I am talking about the lovely Angie of 'Can you hear me at the back'. Just days before she went into hospital we had an inane conversation resulting with us planning a holiday on a cruise ship without the menfolk (which would probably have never come about but it was lovely thinking about it, lol), and with all the crew at our beck and call cos we were so special, lol!!! She was a star and I miss her so much!!

Anyways, time to go and sort dinner for us humans and open a can or two of mutley nums for our Sascha.....she is definitely fit as a Butchers dog, lol, wish I had her energy!!!!

Love to you all 

Joan  xxx

Woo Hoo, I'm back!!

Crikey, seems like forever since I've been here!!!

Life has been pretty hectic, 2011 was a good year in some respects and not so good in others.

The highlight of 2011 was the arrival of little Max,  our daughters first baby and our 3rd grandchild; he is a little star and is now 4 months old

Rob and I both had our fair share of ill health of 2011 but hopefully that is all behind us now and 2012, if the first full week of it is anything to go by, should be a good year with a few things to look forward to.

Alfie and Leah are doing really well, does not seem possible they are growing so fast......this was them back in the summer, only seems like yesterday I was talking about them being born and now Leah will be 4 next week and Alfie 6 at the end of the month

Now we have 'Formerly J-land' on facebook I think it is inspiring a lot of us to start blogging again here on blogspot; I know the lovely Lainey has started again and I have decided to start again as since J-land closed I have felt there was that element missing in my day to day thoughts.......it was an amazing community, lots of friends made (unfortunately some no longer with us - Sylvia and Angie to name but 2) and these friendships have lasted through the internet despite the loss of J-land. No, it will never be the same but whilst there is the internet, facebook and blogspot will keep us all in touch.

Anyway, I am off to have some lunch and now I am back in I will definitely be backand post regularly.....that is one of my new year resolutions!!!

Love to you all

Joan xxx