Sunshine

Oh where Oh where did the warmth go???

It is 32 degrees f outside and pretty cold. I think it is time for this county to start warming up.

Ok, Ok, I know it only has been cold for a few weeks but we do not have the appropriate clothes to wear, just standing at the bus stop I said to Nathaniel - you should have put a jacket on!!, He replied I did, pointing to his "jacket", I said that isnt really a jacket mearly a light sweatshirt!!

He put his hood up and the bus arrived, I know once he is in class he will be toasty warm!!!!

Keep warm out there!!

Gluten free

So mid November I decided to try a gluten free diet. I will tell you this was after some debate but eventually my will was stronger than my need for bread.

Here is my story!

I left home 21 years ago and soon after that I started with a lot of gastrointestinal issues, these include, vomitting, cramping, severe pain, constipation or diarrhoea, terrible exploding smelly gas and a feeling of lonliness.

Seen by many specialists throughout the last 21 years, which did include many diagnostic examinations, they said it was a lactose intolerance and irritable bowel syndrome and started me on medication. After a year on pills which were only meant to be a 6 week course and no improvement I gave up trying different diet's but finding it hard to isolate anything that caused problems.

years pass, nothing changes and then I started reading up about Gulten and how it affects the body so 2 months ago I thought - lets give it a go.

I must admit the 10lb i lost instantly was encouraging but other changes were occuring, my psoriasis hich I have been struggling with for over 3 years has almost disapeered over night, I have more energy and I have less mood swings (although Simon may disagree)

So I am now on a gluten free diet and when I have had some by accident it has once again caused havock to my intestines.

Thinking back, growing up my diet was mostly meat veg and potatoes, a well balanced diet, leaving home allowed me to try pasta's pizza's and sandwiches by the barrel load!!

I am seeing a nutritionist tomorrow to review if I need any nutritional suppliments and to ensure I stay on the straight and narrow!!

With this sucess how could I not!!

A bit of family history!

So we asked dad to some questions for a school project and here was some of his interesting facts!

I dont want to waste this info so here it is

FAMILY NOTES
All your Grandfathers served King(Queen) and Country Grandad Peter Royal Air Force Cold War

Great Grandad George Main Royal Engineers XXX.Corps – France-Germany (Lübeck)

Great Grandad George Wood Royal Engineers 51.Highland Division in North Africa, Italy, France-Germany

Gt.Gt. Grandad William Main Infantry The Boar War in South Africa

Gt,Gt, Grandad George Smith Infantry First World War – France

Gt.Gt.Gt.Grandad John Main no Service – lived during the “Long Peace”

Gt.Gt.Grandad George Smith – was a Railway Passenger Train Guard and was Yard Foreman Of the Edinburgh Waverley Station – One of the biggest in Great Britain.

Grandad Peter (Petrus) – Has a great Model Railway – German Federal Railways 1956-71

Gt.Gt.Grandad William Main – His Hobby was Photography

Gt.Grandad George Main – Great Golfer, and played the banjo and was a super crooner (like Bing Crosby) Gt.Grandad George Wood – was a shooting Champion and a Great Gardener

Thanks dad for this history!!

Happy New Year!!

So, another year has passed us by and a big year for me has arrived! We celebrated the event at a friends party with Nathaniel strugging to make it to midnight, as soon as we drank our drink and said happy new year he was wanting to head home!! I must admit I do feel a little sleepy this morning, but I did not drink too much alcohol!!

This year I will turn 40. Having witnessed many people, feeling concern over this number I am not afraid because I know we all get older and there is nothing we can do about it what we can do is keep ourselves as healthy and physically fit as we can on a day to day basis.

I do not really have any hopes or dreams or goals for this year as most of the things I have hoped for in the past are not going to happen.

I just hope to keep my head down and work hard and I know 2012 will be here before we know it!! I am not wishing my life away just thinking that for "nothing special" to happen is a whole easier than dealing with crazy stressful, upsetting events!

So sit down relax, and enjoy 2011

Happy New year

good ol Hogmanay!!

Well, recently I have cut out Gluten ( more about that later)and had a renewed feeling of energy, is it that false sence of security from the bottom of the wine glass or am I really feeling healthier and stronger??

I discovered the Nike plus for Iphone a few months ago but due to an achilles injury I was unable to run for quite some time so here I am back at day 1 setting a few goals

The first is to just go and run and enjoy it, the second get some clothes to fit, i swear my trousers were falling down on the route!!

So today, 8am, off I went iphone in pocket nike plus running and listening to my favourite tunes, i managed to 2.87 miles in 30 mins, no record breaking speed but I completed it , didnt walk and ran the hill!!

Hip hip hurray for me.....

happy New year to you all!!!!

now go shower!!!!

Have you done anything fun lately??

So someone asked me lately - what are you doing for fun. The look on my face must have looked like -"are you crazy?" I then thought of course I do fun things, I thought and thought and nope, I do nothing I just currently "function" moving from one task to another.

exercise, breakfast dropoff, work, pick up, play dates, dinner, bedtime, knackered! This doesn't include, house keeping laundry groceries, and meal planning but i do it all

So what do you do, I need ideas I am thinking of trying to come up with something realistic, I used to be involved with life, not just letting it pass me by!!

All suggestions welcome

A brand new day!!

Camping was so much fun and right here in Marin on Alice Eastwood campground. So near and yet so far, able to check out, hike a lot and enjoy the company of good friends.

Although I did enjoy some alcohol, I did not go over board at all on either food or drink.

The problem came when i returned home and people started posting pictures. uug fat me and horrid fat pictures of me!!

I must do something to improve myself very soon!!

Charting my points!!

Satuday

So today we are having our first family vacation of the year. Yes we do not do very well going away as a family! This vacation will be short lived and I am afraid it will just be 2 nights camping with the theater group but I know we will have fun.

Next year we must plan some time away properly or maybe we could squeeze something into this year.

Ahh

Now off to pack up the house in order to go camping locally for 2 nights

Well Hello!!

Dear readers,

Let me introduce myself I am a delinquent blogger "why" you may ask - no reason just lazy!!

Hope to be better at blogging soon and give you lots more drivel to read,

Love

Me!!

Well nice to be back, haven't update this site in a while as I was doing my "skinnythinking challenge" but that fell flat as I traveled around and didn't have a laptop to write my stories, I considered restarting or continuing on by decided to not bother and stick with this!

been a busy summer, camps, UK holiday, seeing grandparents, cousins, friends was lovely to catch up and now back at school.

Still desperate to loose some weight, worked out at boot camp and the gym this morning so now i just have to make sure I don't eat those burned off calories for lunch!!

With school back I am heading to work 4 days a week, going to give it a shot and hopefully can contribute something to those homebound people in Marin. Trying also to make more "me " time.

OK got to stop it is hot, more soon!!

See ya!!

Out of the fog

So after feeling so sick for so long i finally feel like I am heading out of the fog and back into my normal self.

It has taken a while and I am so glad I am beginning to get better. I was all packed and ready for boot camp this morning but unable to sleep until around 2am I gave up on that idea for a bit of rest. If this illness has taught me anything it is that I need rest to keep going. I have had a few false starts but I am feeling positive this is the one that means I am BETTER!!

I am still charting my progress daily on http://skinnythinking71.blogspot.com check it out and join the revolution on facebook!

Have a great weekend!!

Latest rant

So I had a mental breakdown on Monday feeling like I never get to do things for myself but just for the rest of my family and that got me thinking - what would I do if I had the time and a stark reality hit me.

I left home at 18 (1990)started nursing for 3 1/2 years my life was studying nursing, once qualified I worked a few years then on top of working full time I started to study for my 4 year degree course online, which during that time I got married and eventually moved to California and finished my degree, so i had a year off in the USA in which i studied and applied for my nursing license, and during my free time I did a theater production of Oliver and did tap classes. By now it was 2002 I got a job, had a baby, kept working, baby grew up, wanted to do activities I took him and ended up doing all this "mandatory" volunteering.

So that is me up to date and if I say pretty pathetic.

I have basically done nothing for myself except earn a living.

What would I like to do - I have no flipping idea. I like to cook but am too fat to eat, so there is a problem.

Any suggestions to my dilemma will be very welcome!!

Last big rehearsal

So today was the last big rehearsal and to be honest i am so glad mainly because we as a family are just so tired, it will be so nice to have Nathaniel back to his cheery self after being able to rest properly and go to bed on time for a change and eat some healthy meals!!

He has I think enjoyed the process but understands the need for a break!

He has little mermaid in 3 weeks, after that who knows where his stage career will head!!

So no complaining lots of smiles and 3 more shows!!

here goes!

Skinny thinking

So facebook is terrible for games but every so often you find something interesting, I am finding out and following Laura Katleman-Prue and her idea about skinny thinking,

today is day 1 of her 91 day plan to get everyone "skinny thinking" so here goes!

Today you have to focus on at least 5 minutes of exercise Freedom is possible.

I also managed to get back on track with boot camp after family responsibilities stopped me from going last wednesday and Friday, luckily the leader is kind and does not shame me for not going!! Those push ups were extra hard today!

I am also going to try and do at least 30 mins strength and yoga on the wii to get my balance better!!

You can follow my progress on my personalised blog - skinnythinking71

Happy Monday!!

Friday arrives

Fridays are always hard for me they signal the weekend and I know we as a family"enjoy the weekend" with meals out, drinking alcohol and generally having a good time.

I am working this weekend so have gone out and bought myself some salads to see me through thus avoiding me rushing my work to enjoy a fry up with Nathaniel and Simon and hopefully feeling better about myself.

It is too early to notice any weight loss but I have been tracking my food intake and I even bought the light for my bike and rode to boot camp this morning and it was fine. To be honest this is the most fun I have had with exercise in a very long time. So thanks to Keli and the other mum's for inspiring me to keep going, I almost look forward to the alarm going off at 5 am and next week I will definitely start the swimming on a tuesday and thursday and look forward hopefully to some positive news next friday in the shape of maybe a pound or two down!

Happy Friday and enjoy your weekend - in moderation as always!!

The next challange

Come on, there is always the next challange, for me it has to be loosing weight.

I would like to loose 40lb but lets start with the first 10!

I am being really good and going to bootcamp and I am putting in my all into it and it is hard (thanks Keli) but hard is good - there is no point if it is too easy!

Now I need to really focus on charting what food I eat and doing more exercise at home.

Lets see by the weekend if I have made a dent into that first 10lb's

Life in the old dog yet!

So I embarked on a 10k run this weekend. It was not something I expected to be good at, over weight and under trained I felt that this could be a necessity to spur me on the better health and fitness.

The packet pick up day is always exciting, I enjoy seeing the booths and the spirit of the race, I dont get this excitement at home as Simon and Nathaniel dont really understand how hard these things are to participate in or how fun they can be!

So this morning I headed off at 6.30 to park and get the shuttle to the start! Surprisingly it was pretty quiet I am used to bigger Marathons and there were onlt 700 people registered for all races and 112 for the 10k, we waited for our start which ended up being delayed due to poor planning and the 1/2 marathoners were still coming up the hill in an abundance when we were due to start on the same path, so a slight delay then.....

Suddenly I am off racing down the hill from Mcnears beach telling myself, go slow warm up it will be fine, the first mile was easy and then my achiles on both legs started hurting, every step hurt and I was regretting my decision to run, I struggled on back up the hill passing mile 2 and mile 3, by mile 4 the sun was out and high in the trees and I was warming up, 4,5 and 6 was pretty much a downhill then a back uphill and the last .4 was trail along the seashore.

My official time was 49.21 a good 6 seconds off my personal best and I placed 13th in the women, 25th overall (men and women combined) and 4th in my age group!

Not bad indeed!!

Now as keli would say - go out and run!

A Walkathon

So today was the school walkathon, much care was taken not to sign nathaniel up for too much per lap as you never know how much they will do. Last year in kindergarten it was very controlled, maybe it will be the same this year - at least they limit the time.

It is always so much fun to see the kids with pure excitement on their faces and in their voices!

We headed off to the route and everyone was so excited and the sun was blazing down.

The kids all hurriedly headed round their first lap and as you can imagine the last lap was more of a struggle, it was also very funny to see the boys racing round trying to beat their buddies while the gilrs strolled around without a care in the world!

Funny how when grown up the roles reverse;)

THe Scouting Movement

So Nathaniel and I spent the last 4 days at the scouting 100th Anniversary jamboree, camping for me always fills me with dread, seems like too much work but once I am there and my tent is up I usually have a good time.Baden Powel has achieved greatness with the organisation that he formed over 102 years ago and following 100 years ago with girl guides/scouts and the Boy scouts of America. Having moved through the girl guide movement in the UK I learned many skills and mostly I would say "organisation", "thinking for yourself" and "teamwork" were some of the valued skills I used as I left school and started my career. I helped celebrate the 75th Anniversary 25 years ago.

For Nathaniel I wanted him to experience that too and learn some independent thinking but also working as a team towards a goal.

The 100th Anniversary event was probably a bit wasted on him at 6 years old he doesnt understand the point of the scouting movement but instead he just has a good time camping with his friends and at some point you just have to let them do that! Friendship is a good thing to learn at cub scouts too!!

The boys enjoyed the usual activities of Archery, Soccer, BBguns, lighting fires and many other things as well as the more fun events of campfire and smores.

So, scouting continues to bring boys (and parents) of all ages over to enjoy and c

elebrate learning and friendship and i don't think there is any sign of it stopping anytime soon!!

Another new one

Every year there are new TV series, and some make it and some don't and every few years you find one that seems to "capture" the hearts of the world. Glee seems to be one of those that has hit it off with most people, as friends eagerly post "spoilers" on facebook and such joy to know you are ahead and know what is going on that say the UK it gives a strange excitement - it is a TV show!! The last one that had this much "buzz" was probably Ugly Betty in 2006 and prior to that Lost in 2004 (22nd september). The fates of these programs are not just in the audience but how the writers write so time will tell if "Glee" can maintain the phenomenon and keep going for many seasons, Ugly betty went quickly down hill and has now been cancelled, Lost, lost it's way around the 3rd season but came back strong for the 4th and now we are looking at the final season with just a few episodes left - I hope it makes sense!

Many of these series have dips and peaks and some people tolerate more than others but the main thing is just go out and enjoy what you can.

Our current favourites

Flash Forward

Nurse jacky

Lost

Brothers and Sisters

Just let me lie down!

So today I read an article from the new "Real Simple" magazine (may edition). Can I call you back in 15 years got me at the title, how I so feel like that some days and the past month it has been just definitely like that. Kristin Van Ogtrop author of "just let me lie down" writes about balancing kids, work and sleep - she leaves the husband out of it (for a minute). She talks about us having lots of time when we are young and suddenly balancing everything in our lives in our 40's it brings us to a subject of friends, she never thought she would have to "choose" to see friends rather than it be a natural thing, she notes that "friendships need consistent attention and occasional aggressive pruning" and really having to give up a few minutes of alone time to see a friend it becomes a juggling game.

I did as she did in the article and that was to draw up a pie chart and divide it up with the things you do in a day and boy I discover the same as her, I have very little time alone to do the things I love - yes I do not have cleaning the toilets on my "love to do" list.

I pride myself in being efficient and a good time manager but when asked to go out and I cant make it (babysiter problems or just exhausted) I am often made to feel guilty, but honestly i am tired or I do have to do the cleaning/tidying/shopping, god forbid I go to bed early! Is it because nathaniel is an only child that I take him to all these activities - I doubt it cause if he wasn't doing them he would be on playdates, but I sure feel like I spend a lot of time ferrying to his activities (14 hrs per week), and still working about 30 hrs a week minimum and volunteering and still having food on the table a smile on my face and a clean pair of knickers on!

I try to be good at everything, but it is more than obvious that as I take care of everyone else, it is me that goes down hill in the food I eat and the clothes I wear and the lack of exercise I do and the lack of friends that I see. I really do try and keep in touch as much as I can but it can be a struggle during these busy times! I am sorry.

So if I am sitting alone when I hit 80, please come and say hello, I know being busy isn't an excuse but sometimes it is a reason!

Happy Monday