Healthy Pony the New Year

[tulagirl]

You guys are so inspirational.  I can relate to not making progress you hope to make.  Sorry you are feeling yucky Kiwi.  It is that time of year where these bugs are just nasty right? ugggg  Dreamer I am not making the progress I would like to make either.  I am just losing it already and it is only Monday LOL.  Maybe after the first few weeks we will have this thing.  Shatyr you are super sweet and thoughtful.  Also I know how that food at the office thing goes.  Goodness that was a nightmare when I was working.

[Ponyfan]

Congrats on finishing your scarf Crowning Glory. Glitterball, congrats on getting so much done today.

Taproot, I think you’re making good progress also. 

I’m surprised at how well I’ve done today. I’ve eaten a lot of vegetables  and mostly  healthy foods. Thanks for the drink tip Glitterball. 

Don’t give up Dreamer and tulagirl. You can do it 

Ponyfan

[Crowning_Glory13]

I passed up an extra food today. I was so ready for it, and the cashier distracted me with a funny story so I forgot...greatful for her. I just got asked to knit a half of baby blanket by monday!!!! I love this stage theater, so I am going for it. I can only do my best and that is what they get for last minute, so knitting in, no on working ng out, I did teach 2 piano lessons, so I at least kept it in n my head.

[Dreamer]

Well, things have been shaping up lately. My nails are regrowing (slowly but steady), I figured out a plan to work on my creative projects after my exams are done, and I think I studied enough.

All this talk about healthy food choices makes me want to reconsider mine, but that will be after studies - I don't need to worry about more things right now! Could anybody recommend me some starting tips, please?

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Have to go appeal my employment insurance as now they don't want to pay me, despite having been told by them that they wanted me to report no earlier than January!  What!?

The house smells of sage and rosemary and bacon grease and turkeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...  very nice when we have to bundle up and face -20C in the wind!

Dreamer:  Can you go to the library and look at cookbooks for ideas of healthy food you would eat?  really just understanding what to do with the very basic ingredients is helpful.  Depends on your diet though.

Crowning_Glory13: Try to think about the reality that if you are doing new, extra, other activities, then your body is using more calories anyway.  It's exercise in a different fashion!

Ponyfan:  Veggies are delicious as long as you have variety of flavors.  Are you trying to just eat more raw or trying to sneak kale into your mac and cheese ?

tulagirl: I hope you are feeling better soon! I know how taxing that can be on the mind.

Shatyr: Good for you!  Keep it up!

glitterball: your cleaning sounds exciting!  the weather here is absolutely NOT the kind of weather one wants to open an overflowing shed in.  I feel you, though, my DH hoards kitchen things and gardening pots and I'm left speechless by how many can get squirreled away in a cupboard if no one is watching....   

[Pokeyonekenobie]

Well, things have been shaping up lately. My nails are regrowing (slowly but steady), I figured out a plan to work on my creative projects after my exams are done, and I think I studied enough.

All this talk about healthy food choices makes me want to reconsider mine, but that will be after studies - I don't need to worry about more things right now! Could anybody recommend me some starting tips, please?

My tip for starting to eat healthy:  Switch to water.  Even if you just start with substituting one soda or other drink a day, it gets you started.  I think I'm down to an average of one soda every other week with an average of one non-carbonated drink a week, usually that's a glass of juice or milk, though occasionally it's horchata when we eat out at a Mexican restaurant.  It's a little thing but I think it helps get you in the right mindset and you can even do it while you're juggling exams with little to no effort.  Also, I think that switching to water has helped my health in multiple ways.  I sleep better at night and if I'm hydrated then I don't feel hungry.  Many times you're hungry it's because you're dehydrated and your body is trying to compensate in any way it can.  I don't get headaches as often anymore. 

[glitterball]

Well done everyone for plodding on! Battles are lost and won, keep trying! 
 
Healthy eating tips:
Pokeyonekenobie - upping the water intake is always a great tip!
steam or boil (fresh or frozen) veggies in the microwave; portion your regular meals so that at least a third of the plate consists of fresh veggies (do not include potatoes or beans in this third as they are very starchy!)
Cut down on bread - don't stop eating it, just ration yourself the odd slices during the week.
Don't deprive yourself of a chocolate treat or slice of pizza, just have a small portion and fill up on veggies for the rest of your meal, drinking water while you eat (to fill your tummy further).
Beware of sugar-coated cereals - lots of hidden calories tricking you into thinking you are eating healthily! Special-K is naughty like that. Plain porridge or Shredded Wheat (UK) or Weetabix (UK) are the "purest" low sugar/low fat cereals that I am aware of.
Beware of dried fruits - super snacks if portions are kept small, otherwise packed with sugar - check the weight + calories of your bag of fruit to see what I mean!

Calories - (facts according to My Fitness Pal)  ladies need approx 1,800 calories daily, to sustain themselves (neither lose nor gain weight). Approx 3,500 calories need to be burned to lose 1 pound of weight. Having a daily calorie allowance of between 1,200 and under 1,800 will help you lose weight slowly and steadily.
 
My day:

Spoiler

Cleared lots again today, 2 more trips to the dump - plenty of metal recycled.
Tomorrow - carry on! Move furniture to cleared part of room and tackle the hidden horrors around the edge, hidden under sheets; made a good start on one side today already.
Food: being so busy stopped me feeling hungry but by school-run time I craved something warm so had a skinny decaf latte.
WW meal + veggies for dinner + some mango + grapes later.
Swimming lesson with kid this evening (but I watch from the benches as the teachers do their thing in the pool!

[tulagirl]

Hi everyone.  I can see everyone is working hard.  Yesterday my neck cricked up and I can't move it.  Then Yuki got sick.  Boy aren't we a sight.  So, I can work on my reading and my memorizing and my stuff for R2, but that is all.  Oh and I can work on not eating candy and sugar and not shopping.  I can't really sew or go through boxes though because of my movement being restricted.  So, I sat down and watched Totoro yesterday which really just makes me smile.

Hey lovesbabysquirmy is it unemployment insurance you are talking about?  My R2 went through all that a few years ago. I have never known so much stress as dealing with the loss of a job and then trying to get the insurance payments. 

Glitterball those are wonderful ideas. I do not eat any grains except for oats.  So, I have been without bread for a while and it makes a huge difference.

Poeky you are so right about water. I love water. I drink a lot of it all day long and it is the only thing I drink.  Being well hydrated helps your body so much.

Congrats Dreamer on your nails. I need to work on that one too, but I don't think I would be good at it with my situation lol.

Crowning Glory, knitting for the stage - don't worry. You should see all the things that go on with props and costuming up close.  Sometimes they use duct tape, but from the audience you can't see it.   Well what I mean is if you are in a hurry it won't show. You make lovely things.  I love my pillow.  squeeee  Usually when we have more time our stuff turns out different.  If we have to rush through it we worry about the project in general.  I think you will be aokay on that one!!

Thanks for the cheering us on Ponyfan.

I will come back in a week or so and hopefully my neck will be moving again by then.  Hugs to everyone.

[Miniature Sheep]

Well, the past couple of days have been a bit odd. I kept up with my goals despite being in an incredibly duff mood and there was immense temptation to just have a couple of lazy days. Actually making myself get things done produced results anyway, I have an interview lined up for a job I applied for just yesterday! It's only a 20-minute walk away from my house as well, so there's none of the stress with catching trains this time!
My sleeping patterns are still a bit erratic but it's taking less time to get back to sleep when I wake up in the night at least. Taking a few minutes to relax a couple of other times in the day would be a step in the right direction, it'd probably work a bit better than literally just going "Alright, I'm going to chill out now" a couple of hours before bed. The light from my mp3 player is probably a problem as well (it's ridiculously bright and there's no way to adjust it), so I took an old one with a busted backlight and put all my relaxing music on that, so I can leave it on shuffle and switch it off before bed without catching any blue light from it, just in case. Very much hoping that this interview tomorrow doesn't end up keeping me awake tonight!

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Job interview today!  wish me luck! though it will be over before most of you read this, LOL

yes tulagirl, I am talking employment insurance which is different in Canada from the USA version.  Plenty of bureaucracy though!  Eventually yesterday I collapsed in the Service Canada office and basically sobbed my humiliated self through my papers, and they told me, "Yep.  This is exactly what is supposed to happen.  They locked your account manually. So try to log in no earlier than Friday.  You can not do anything until you get the paperwork in the mail anyway.  And yes we will get around to paying you what you are entitled to, but it may take 3 weeks. Or more, we cannot say."  AUUUUUUGH what the crazypants!!! We have bills to pay!!!  DH doesn't see why I am stressing. 

the roads are newly snowed and iced and many of my citypeople have NOT purchased winter tires... and I have to drive my LEAST favorite road in this -33C weather .  Wow universe you really like pushing my buttons don't you?!  Seeing how many obstacles it can throw at me?  *sigh*  No more coffee!  last thing I need during this crisis is to need to go to the washroom

[Ponyfan]

My advice for making healthier choices is to start small/change on thing at a time. Maybe switch a Coke for water or healthier drink once a day. When I started working out consistently  I could barely go once around the mall without getting completely worn out. Now I can do 3 rounds without too much trouble.

Something else that helps me is a motivation/reward jar. I get marbles for working out and watching the jar get full makes it easier to see my progress.

Lovesbabysquirmy, good luck on the interview. I am trying to make healther food choices but don't always succeed as it's really easy for me to grab something microwaveable instead of something healthy. 

Glitterball you're making great progress  on the house. 

Taproot, good luck on your interview and I think using the mp3 without a backlight is a good idea. I have an alarm clock that has blue light too. I usually sleep facing away from the clock but if I can't get comfortable and turn towards the clock  I'll pull the covers up higher so I'm not bothered by the light.

Tulagirl I'm sorry that you are in pain. I hope you feel better soon.

I am still not feeling well.

[Crowning_Glory13]

I touched a piano yesterday. Getting that book is helping. I am relearning songs, so I feel alot better about my ability.

I have my family visiting this weekend, so I will be bad....not much choice:)

I take points for what I do in a day. I average about 3 points. I hope next week I can push that.

[lovesbabysquirmy]

I too am having trouble with sleeping!  either it's too cold or too hot...  I woke up at least five times last night trying to figure out what would make me comfy enough to fall back asleep.

I think the interview went okay but I will just try not to think much about it! 

[Crowning_Glory13]

I am struggling in my temp job, and I could just cry....i just wish I stayed with my previous job....i could just cry.

[glitterball]

Oh no, Crowning_Glory13! New jobs do take a lot of getting used to  suddenly all the things that were meh in the old job feel all nice and cosy, eh?

lovesbabysquirmy - fingers crossed for your interview results! 

Ponyfan - hope you feel better soon! 

Taproot - a job - so local to you! Very convenient - crossing fingers for a good interview! 

tulagirl - eek a bad neck is no fun  I hope that by next week it will get better 

Today:

Spoiler

Drove up to the house, filled 5 bags of general trash + 2 bags of metal-recycling, 4 boxes of glass recycling, 1 box cardborad.
Cleared out the freezer - of shoes(!) cardboard (!) dozens of old glass coffee jars and dog grooming kit (my gram hoarded broken stuff and used the old freezer as storage for her hoarded empty jars 

Dad eventually turned up, so I left him to look after the garage + sort through old paperwork while I piled all the junk into the car + did a single trip to the dump. SUCH a good feeling clearing that stuff out!

My car is now filthy; much mud on the Oxfordshire country roads, it is an agricultural area so the tractors have helped to spread lots of mud! Bodywork is covered in a thin film of spray.  The car had a valet only 2 weeks ago, it now looks awful! Once I have completed this week I may get another posh valet done (wash/vacuum/wash upholstery) or just visit a petrol station + simply jet-wash the mud off. If I have yet more stuff left to clear, I may just hold-off the valet for now...

tomorrow - back again, but this time, as I have more space, I will concentrate on sorting the hidden stuff and putting it into sorted piles/bags ready to take to the dump on Friday. Dad won't be there tomorrow and it is too much hassle having to lock everything before going to the dump + then re-opening stuff again. If the opportunity arises I may do a single trip to the dump after shutting everything then head straight home.

I spied 2 more rusty birdcages, old shopping trolley-bag on wheels and 2 broken lawnmowers that need shifting.
The 2 freezers will either be driven to the dump via my dad's trailer or I can pay £35 to the council for them to pick 'em up, but I am in no great rush, just yet.

The buyer's surveyor is due a visit either tomorrow or Friday, too, not that I need to be there as he will have the keys via the estate agent.