fascinating

Having dropped off a decluttered bag of items in what is my favourite charity shop, I was having a little look around and spotted this wedding hat. My niece has invited us to her wedding at the end of April, so I thought it would be lovely for that.

Don’t know what else I’m wearing yet, but it should go with most things. It’s held on with a headband and is a fascinator type hat. It cost £10, which is quite a lot for a charity shop hat, but seems to be the going rate.

new cardigan

I also got this teal coloured cardigan at the same time. It is a good length and as you can see, goes beautifully with a stripy summer top I already had. Very pleased with that.

Following my self imposed rule, having added an item to the wardrobe, I now had to find something else that would leave it.

what’s going

I decided on this good quality cotton sweater by Marks and Spencer. I’ve had it for years and years and it’s still in very good condition. It’s a good colour for me, but having seen a picture of myself whilst wearing it, I have to admit that the style just doesn’t suit me. It’s the dropped sleeves, they just look completely wrong and unattractive on me. I’ve noticed it before, and never buy them now.

too much stuff?

I read an article recently that had a passing comment about the amount of stuff that charity shops get. Apparently, they get so much, they have no chance of selling it all and have to send loads for rags. I thought that this said volumes about the over consumption in our society and made me rather sad about so much waste.

The newspapers report increasing sales by the shops all the time, and shops themselves strive to sell more and more and more every year. There is so much to be said for a simpler life, not least that we wouldn’t have to work so hard to earn so much money to buy all this stuff.

in the garden

I didn’t go to the gym today, but I did give the bathroom a deep clean, which always makes me puff and blow, then whilst I was still warm from that, I moved the top of one compost heap to the other heap, and distributed some of the lovely, crumbly, black, compost to some of the beds. Lots more to distribute yet, but I need to weed first. I want to do away with the second heap. We only have an average bungalow sized garden, so two heaps is a bit over the top really.

2002 to 1700

To try and speed up my weight loss, I have decided to cut my calories again from 2002 to 1700. When I have done this before, if I average 1700 a day over the week, I lose weight. If the average is more, I don’t. Simple as that. I have 2 weeks left to the end of this 12 week program, then another week, then I’m taking Mum to a very posh hotel for a few days for her birthday, then we’re probably going on up to Newcastle for a couple of days on business. When we come back, I’ll start the next 12 week program. So I’ve got three weeks before going away to see what happens, and if I can stick to it. I’m usually horribly hungry at that level, but this high fat, high protein diet may help that. If it’s too ghastly, I’ll just go back to 2002! I’ve done 1700 today, and it’s been fine.

worth the weight – why it’s time to do some heavy lifting

Having said that, there was a very interesting article in the i newspaper today with the headline as above.

It sets out the case for lifting weights that the lads at the gym talk about. Ladies in particular need to lift weights. Two points especially caught my eye.

1. ‘For every pound of muscle you gain, you will burn 30 to 50 more calories a day’. That’s a really significant amount of calories! Muscle burning up calories for you all day long, without you doing anything at all to contribute to that burn. Lovely
2. Nadia Cole, who was crowned London’s Strongest Woman in 2015 stayed the same weight, but went from a size 16 to a size 12. Wow!

What does my coach keep telling me? Don’t go by weight, go by measurements. I have such a lot to lose, I find that very very challenging. I  NEED to see some weight loss. If I stay the same weight as I am now but get to the size I want to be, I’ll be like a super dense star ! Hahahah

wild garlic

Food wise, I had a nice little treat this week. I have eggs in some form at breakfast quite a lot at the moment. The wild garlic has been up for some time in the garden, so I picked a handful of leaves, washed and chopped them and added them to some scrambled eggs on a slice of toast.  They were lovely and made a nice change. If you can get out to some woods, follow your nose and you’ll probably be able to find some wild garlic.  If you find some and pick a lot of leaves, you might like to make some pesto with them. It’s very good!