Frugal Frump to Fab/Winter Solstice

lessonlearned

Forgot to mention - one of OH's new treatments is to inject Botox into his saliva glands - to control saliva production. Hopefully it will also reduce the number of choking episodes. Maybe less saliva might also mean his speech becomes a bit clearer too. Fingers crossed.

Of all his symptoms he finds this the most difficult and it has had a serious impact of his previous outgoing personality.

Wonder if they might have a little spare Botox for my frown lines:eek:

BTW - If anyone is interested. Regarding cutting out bread, I read recently that Waitrose had introduced a "bread less sandwich".

Apparently instead of slices of bread, they were using leaves of Romaine lettuce which they filled with the usual sandwich fillings.

I think I might give it a try. Don't know how practical they would be in a lunch box for work but certainly doable at home, although maybe a bit messy.

Romaine lettuce looks very similar to Cos lettuce - long leaves as opposed to the round lettuces such as Iceberg etc, so I think that Cos would also work in pretty much the same way as Romaine.

Anyway I've managed no bread today and am already feeling less bloated.:)

Quick tidy up, prepare DS2's packed lunch for tomorrow and an early(ish) night.

G'night all x

bratz81

morning all.
Afraid I've only been lurking recently - I'm very under the weather with flu/cold type thing and a cough. I think after camping in a wet field! So have been doing nothing apart from dragging myself between work and bed.
I am keeping up though and will hopefully get back on the bandwagon soon - just wanted to say to everyone keep up the good work!

Maisie_M

morning

finally getting a chance to post although I have been reading every day it seems that as soon as I go to post the baby needs feeding or something!

Managed to Lose 3.5lbs this week and have also managed to keep up my hand moisturising routine by having the bottles near the sink.

Have rooted out a foot scrub from my stash and a foot moituriser so am planning to have a mini pedicure doing that this week.

Maman love the dress. I thought it was so versitile and you would get lots of wear from it.

Willow your dress is lovely too. I had never been on the very site before so had a good look. There is some lovely things.

Hope you both have a lovely time at your events.

LL sorry to hear about your husband. It must be really difficult for you both, but I can understand why he wishes to have these things sorted now rather than being unable to make the decisions later.

Sorry have to go baby calling. Hope everyone else is okay.

tru

Morning :hello:

LL

I've cleared most of the clutter from the lounge :T There's still a big box of jiffy bags, about 200 eggboxes and some other small bits and pieces in there, but at least I've made progress.

I'm feeling like THIS at the moment *sigh*. I'm usually the first to say "no-one can make you feel a certain way, you're responsible for your own feelings, you can't help what someone says but you can help how you decide to react it, blah blah blah....." but when you're already feeling rubbish, then someone else's words CAN have a massive impact.

I'm sure I've gone back up to a size 16. I haven't measured or weighed myself but my skirt fits - it was too big a few weeks ago. I could pull my jeans on without undoing them, now the zip stays done up but I have to undo the button.

I have all this healthy food around me and I can't be bothered with it. We pulled some lovely red potatoes out of the garden the other day. After breakfast yesterday, I decided to have a small baked potato for lunch. I was looking forward to it all morning, then 1pm arrived and I ended up with a jam sandwich I still wanted the potato, but couldn't be bothered to throw it in the microwave and open a tin of tuna. I managed one healthy thing yesterday, at about 10am I ate a banana. Even then I had to force myself to eat it.

Today I'm going to eat a large bar of Dairy Milk and I'm not apologising for it.

Bitsy_Beans

Tru have a hug I know how you feel. 10 weeks in and despite wearing perfume every day and a wee bit more personal grooming than usual I am pretty much the same as I always was. Same weight <rollseyes>, same struggles with what I eat. I've done NO exercise, feel tired (thanks to bl00dy cat keep waking me) and just a general feeling of it's all too much hard work BUT I think as usual I am trying to change too many things in one go. I am going to concentrate my efforts on taking my time to eat mindfully. I need to stick with that, get that bad habit broken and then start on the next thing. Might not look like the Xmas cracker I want by the time December rolls around but baby steps.

Anyway Tru is there any way you could in say bursts of 5 mins make sure you've got something prepped for lunch today?? Sending you a bit hug xx

bratz - hope you feel better soon xxxx

LL - Crossing everything that the botox works. I am not a fan of it personally (for cosmetic reasons) I just find it really sad that women are not expected to age. I bought Eva Frasers book and I need to get back into that.

maman

tru wrote: »

Today I'm going to eat a large bar of Dairy Milk and I'm not apologising for it.

:rotfl:

Seriously tru, you sound a bit down. I sometimes get like that when I feel I'm not achieving much. You have a very good point about maybe trying too much, too soon. I worked hard on cutting down my wine consumption (:o) before I started on the slimming. Then, as the weight started to come off I felt more disposed to looking at my wardrobe and make up. It's really hard to motivate yourself when you're feeling down but you've acheived a lot of decluttering now think of the next step.

My back's really painful at the moment. I've had it before, sort of nasty sharp pain between shoulder blades, sort of muscle spasm. I'm dosed up with co-codamol and ibuprofen and hope it will go away very soon. It's painful to sit at computer at the moment, I'm better in a high-backed chair with a hot water bottle at my back.:(

Hopefully back later, feeling brighter.

Bitsy_Beans

Maman I know heat relieves the pain but actually ice will be better to help reduce any inflammation. Hope it feels better soon xx

lolly101

Hey Everyone,

Things have been a bit hectic lately so haven't been posting much. DS1 is back at school now though so things should calm down a little now He came home today and told me that he loves school and can't wait to go again tomorrow, lol! He felt very differently last year, so I'm pleased about that.

I've been feeling a little more fab over the last few days, I've been keeping up with things and doing a little something each day to pamper myself so that's definitely helping. The main thing for me at the moment is my weight though, I'm not losing anything and am really struggling to find the motivation to do anything about it.

PP - Yes, please send me the link, it sounds great! The portrait class sounds interesting, what did you decide?

Skymist - Very interesting stuff!

Polesalot - Thanks for reminding me about flesh coloured tights! :T I used to wear them years ago, but kind of forgot about them. They are now on my shopping list as my legs definitely look a lot better in them.

Willow - Lovely dress! I think that having support when losing weight is very important. I've been trying to lose weight for years but never lasted more than a couple of weeks until I joined one of the MSE weight loss threads. As Maman has said, there are some great threads on here. I'm on the Lose Weight 34 thread on the 'I wanna buy it or do it' board, as I switch between calorie counting and low carbing depending on how much time I have (low carbing is great... but it's hard work!). There are people doing all sorts of diets on there, and we have monthly exercise challenges to keep it fun, so it's definitely worth looking around and joining a group for support.

LL - RE the breadless sandwich. When I was low carbing I saw quite a few meal ideas based around this idea, the least messy looking ones were more like breadless wraps, using round lettuces (think stuffed vine leaves). I've not tried it before, but maybe they would be a bit more practical when at work?

Bratz - Hope you feel better soon

Right, I'm off to wash my hair and use a conditioning mask - I probably won't be able to see any difference as my hair is as dry as straw, but it's worth a go, lol.

lessonlearned

Good evening everyone

Hope all those of you who are struggling or feeling a bit down are feeling a bit better today. TBH don't think the weather is helping some of us.

I love the Autumn, it's my favourite time of the year, all that mist and mellow fruitfulness (thanks Keats).

I love the gentle warmth of September/October (Octember in this house) days, the clear blue skies when the early morning mists have cleared, but particularly the glorious autumn colours when the trees go into show off mode.

As October goes into November I love the wind when it swirls the leaves around, crisp frosty mornings, cobwebs on the hedges, drawing the curtains to shut out the cooler nights, snuggling up by the fire, real cooking - casseroles, soups and stews.

I decorate my house in Autumn/Winter colours swapping the cream and blue accessories for reds, purples and oranges, buying new houseplants with colourful foliage, changing my fireplace displays to suit the seasons etc.

However, this year we've had no real summer. I feel quite cheated. And we seem to be missing those lovely early Autumn/Indian Summer days that Keats described. It feels like we are plunging straight into late Autumn/early Winter. Perhaps the Weather Gods are angry.

Perhaps we need to appease them - maybe some small sacrifice is called for - stopping chocolate for a week :eek: or maybe dancing naked in the woods at midnight - oo-er missus.

Never mind - winter draws on - and all that. Time to overhaul the wardrobe and dig out the woolies. I've even started wearing socks/pop socks etc already and re-acquainted myself with my trusty hot water bottle.

Anyway to all those who are feeling a bit down, it's time to up the pampering and really start taking care of yourselves.

Be kind to yourselves - try not to worry to much about actual weight loss - just try to eat healthily, up the fruit and veg if you can to make sure you are getting the right vitamins and nutrients. Now is a good time to start taking a multi-vitamin if you don't already do so - set yourself up for winter.

Also - if the Weather Gods relent and send us a bit of sun occasionally get out there whilst you can - soak up as much Vitamin D as you can.

Tru - you sound awfully low - sending you a big hug. Just keep going - gently - try and get some rest. You've been working very hard with the decluttering - don't overdo it - we're allowed to take a break now and then.

Sorry to hear about your back/shoulders Maman. You too have been working extra hard helping your DD to settle in to her new home, which is lovely of course. We Mums do like to help our offspring - it's only natural. Take care though and rest up for a few days. Hope you feel better soon.

Well done Masie on the weight loss. You must be really busy with your new baby - it makes me feel quite broody just thinking about it.

Back in a mo ..............

lessonlearned

Today I went to the Soap Factory. It's in a little town called Ashby de la Zouch - about 20 minutes from where I live. (Don't you just love that name - it sound so exotic and French - ooh-la-la).

Actually it's just a rather nice typical English market town - the setting of Ivanhoe - lots of nice little individual shops.

Anyway for me the main attraction is the soap factory (I think it's called Standard Soaps). It sells all sorts of goodies, so I stocked up on some lovely soaps, shower gels for the boys, body lotions, colognes and sprays. They make a lot of products for M&S, Crabtree & Evelyn - really nice organic or pure glycerine soaps. Really gorgeous stuff.

The real reason for my trip was to buy some pampering goodies for my sister who goes into hospital on Friday for something nasty and unpleasant. I picked up a lovely basket of goodies for £6, all prettily done up with ribbons etc. to cheer her up and help her recuperate.

My total spend was just £13 for a big box full.

If anyone is ever in the vicinity I thoroughly recommend it (no I'm not on commission:rotfl:). It's always worth a visit and is particularly good at Christmas.

Anyway - dead on my feet tonight. Off to bed.

G'night all x