Keeping up appearances.......

Dolphin1

Day 5...

1) No chocolate, sweets or biscuits.
2) No cake.
3) Light off just after midnight.
4) Finished off the meal plan for the week and finished the online shop for today which should be here shortly.
5) No spends on other people.

Cold no better so feeling completely drained. _pale_

HappyNow

Hi Dolphin, sorry to hear about your cold. They are horrible and so pointless. Well done on your successes and I hope you have treated yourself to lots of soup (not cake!).

I have copied your example and done a meal plan today - my first ever! As you know, it's not payday until Friday and rather than put more groceries on the overdraft I've gone through the cupboards, fridge and freezer, to see if I can make it all stretch until then. I can, but some of the combinations are a bit unconventional. For instance, on Wednesday it's frozen fish and pasta with mushy peas! I've actually enjoyed making it work but the cupboards will be seriously bare on Friday and I'll have to do one heck of a shop! Tomorrow I will spend the last £3 in my purse on flour, sugar and milk, so I can make loads of rhubarb crumbles (free from my neighbour, as much as we can eat!) which is everyone's favourite and will more than make up for the other dodgy meals .

HappyNow

Hi Honey, I have never seen Keeping up with the Kardashians BUT I am actually partial to a bit of junk TV! I will be watching every episode of Big Brother when it starts again this week! I watch every series (as does Miss Happy) much to Mr H's disappointment - he hates it, as do most people!

Sounds like you've had a good day with Kelpie. Are you going to try without a crate and see how it goes? I've been very lucky with the Happy Dog - she is one of life's snoozers, and although she was crated as a small puppy when we left her, we stopped when she was about six months old and have never had any signs of stress or damage in the house. Our neighbour takes her out twice daily on my office days, and in return his dog joins us on our walk for half an hour each night. It works very well for all of us.

HappyNow

Yesterday's update, with a bit of today's thrown in.

• Finances. Dire. Mr H worked yesterday (time and a half) and today (double time) so I can see a way out of it and it's not getting me down too badly now.
• Healthy eating. We are now completely out of chocolate and biscuits :eek: which completely serves me right for bulk-eating them. Anyway, Honey says I have to have chocolate every two days and she seems to know what she's talking about so that'll be another £4.20 on the overdraft
• Sleeping has been dreadful yet again. Too hot, too cold, too thirsty, need a wee. You name it, it kept me awake. Going to bed now for another try.
• Spring cleaning. Abandoned in favour of dozing on the sofa, which is clearly why I'm not sleeping at night. Tomorrow I'm in the office all day so I won't be able to have a nap which will help get the routine back
• Sit-ups. Nope, but I did go for my Sunday run with my friend this morning. We did our standard four miles but mostly walking because we wanted a natter about our holidays etc, and we get too breathless when we run!

Honey_Bear

HappyNow wrote: »

Hi Honey, I have never seen Keeping up with the Kardashians BUT I am actually partial to a bit of junk TV! I will be watching every episode of Big Brother when it starts again this week! I watch every series (as does Miss Happy) much to Mr H's disappointment - he hates it, as do most people!

Mr Bear goes a fetching shade of purple when Towie, KuwtKs or BigB is even mentioned! The K'fest happened only once a couple of years ago and I simply could not believe what I was seeing. It's very oddly structured, with people who are obviously told what the scene is about 'acting it' and then they narrate on it, in some sort of strange quasi-objective analysis of their own behaviour, the other person in the scene's behaviour and themselves. Most odd. As for BigB, I loved the first series and then, as it progressed, found it more and more like eating candyfloss - lots of bulk, very little satisfaction. There was, however, one series in which whoever was directing the Thursday episodes made made me howl with laughter and after that one ended no one of that quality ever went anywhere near it again.

I totally understand anyone's addiction to reality TV. It's wonderfully entertaining and all I've done is replace it with an addiction to cookery programmes - not food programmes, I need to see chopping, boiling and stirring, not people shovelling grub into their mouths going 'MMmmm.' *yuk* That just doesn't cut the mustard - see what I did there?

Sounds like you've had a good day with Kelpie. Are you going to try without a crate and see how it goes? I've been very lucky with the Happy Dog - she is one of life's snoozers, and although she was crated as a small puppy when we left her, we stopped when she was about six months old and have never had any signs of stress or damage in the house. Our neighbour takes her out twice daily on my office days, and in return his dog joins us on our walk for half an hour each night. It works very well for all of us.

What a fabulous arrangement! I'd love to think I could get our dog-loving neighbour to have Kelpie when we're out and I know it would do him a lot of good (he's a virtual recluse) and he would agree to it, but he has previous for agreeing to good stuff and then ... nothing.

I'm building absences into his 'This is not training, this is fun' stuff, which is all designed to nip all of the potential problems that I have reason to be concerned about in the bud. He's got a favourite spot in my office, so the crate tray is going there today, grated cheddar scraps in the kong (his favourite) when I can drag the beast down from the attic with Mr Bear's help. I just want all the choices I can have with this dog, as opposed to none with two of my previous three - all my dogs have been collie crosses. So glad to know you love them too! The first one was a collie cross German shepherd and I'll go to my grave missing her. A wonderful, wonderful dog, all heart, the kind of dog people dream about finding when they rescue one.

Honey_Bear

HappyNow wrote: »

Yesterday's update, with a bit of today's thrown in.

• Finances. Dire. Mr H worked yesterday (time and a half) and today (double time) so I can see a way out of it and it's not getting me down too badly now.

I think the worst thing is feeling that the endless hard work is just that, endless, but if you both know that this is a brief opportunity to get slightly ahead, that makes it do-able. Good on Mr Happy.

• Healthy eating. We are now completely out of chocolate and biscuits :eek: which completely serves me right for bulk-eating them. Anyway, Honey says I have to have chocolate every two days and she seems to know what she's talking about so that'll be another £4.20 on the overdraft

I never want to meet the person who can have a chocolate stash and not gobble it all up, and I couldn't trust anyone that puritanical. What I've learned works for me is that if I don't buy it, I don't eat it. That's the only way I can stop myself gorging on goodies; so limiting yourself to £4.20 sounds like a week's worth of 'something to look forward to' to me!

• Sleeping has been dreadful yet again. Too hot, too cold, too thirsty, need a wee. You name it, it kept me awake. Going to bed now for another try.

I hope you find a way to deal with the insomnia. I'd still suffer from it if it weren't for Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra and the World Service and an earpiece. Nothing else worked, although I've finally got Mr Bear into the habit of a hot milky drink at bedtime on top of the radio thing and the combination is helping him.

• Spring cleaning. Abandoned in favour of dozing on the sofa, which is clearly why I'm not sleeping at night. Tomorrow I'm in the office all day so I won't be able to have a nap which will help get the routine back

The cleaning will wait if you're over-tired - it did for 20 years in this house!

• Sit-ups. Nope, but I did go for my Sunday run with my friend this morning. We did our standard four miles but mostly walking because we wanted a natter about our holidays etc, and we get too breathless when we run!

Walking (and swimming) are much, much better for you than running. I know running's fashionable but the damage it does to the skeleton is horrendous; like The Plank, honestly, being fashionable doesn't make it a good idea. Walk, talk, enjoy it and you're also more likely to do it again next week; get hot and sweaty, come home and fill up with junk food because that's what we all do after extreme exercise and the whole thing is a pointless exercise - see what I did there. Gotta stop this word play thing. It's driving me mad.

Honey_Bear

1. Lovely lodger agreed to be in the house while I went to the supermarket to get more chicken for the poorly tummy dog; he was absolutely fine for the hour or so I was out. Fortunately he didn't see me leave and did see me return so that worked as well as it possibly could have done. Dog bottom given a thorough wash with a damp microfibre cloth, twice. Grooming tailored to the individual dog's needs, or what?!
2. Nothing on insurance again. Oops x 6. As the vet said, that's why it's four weeks cover I've been given.
   
3. 'Very cheesey day, leftovers, so very MSE but not ideal in the weightloss world' - but apparently still successful. The tragectory is still downwards, very surprisingly. It probably won't be after ten days of working through the leftovers while Mr Bear is away; he leaves on Wednesday.
4. Completely cream-crackered yesterday. I'm in mourning for my long lost youth - two nights of not switching the light out until 1.15/1/30am and I'm utterly useless. What happened to being able to dance until dawn and then go into work and put a full day in? I turn into a pumpkin at midnight now.
5. The house is almost straight again after Thursday night and I've washed half the kitchen floor. Not much, but all I could manage yesterday.

Dolphin1

HappyNow wrote: »

Hi Dolphin, sorry to hear about your cold. They are horrible and so pointless. Well done on your successes and I hope you have treated yourself to lots of soup (not cake!).

I have copied your example and done a meal plan today - my first ever! As you know, it's not payday until Friday and rather than put more groceries on the overdraft I've gone through the cupboards, fridge and freezer, to see if I can make it all stretch until then. I can, but some of the combinations are a bit unconventional. For instance, on Wednesday it's frozen fish and pasta with mushy peas! I've actually enjoyed making it work but the cupboards will be seriously bare on Friday and I'll have to do one heck of a shop! Tomorrow I will spend the last £3 in my purse on flour, sugar and milk, so I can make loads of rhubarb crumbles (free from my neighbour, as much as we can eat!) which is everyone's favourite and will more than make up for the other dodgy meals .

Well done on the meal planning! :j Hope you make it through to payday with minimal spends. There's nothing wrong with "frozen fish and pasta with mushy peas" _pale_.

Dolphin1

HappyNow wrote: »

Yesterday's update, with a bit of today's thrown in.

• Finances. Dire. Mr H worked yesterday (time and a half) and today (double time) so I can see a way out of it and it's not getting me down too badly now.
  
  That's good then, it sounds like Mr H's overtime really has come at a good time and at least you and he have the holiday to look forward to.
  
  
• Healthy eating. We are now completely out of chocolate and biscuits :eek: which completely serves me right for bulk-eating them. Anyway, Honey says I have to have chocolate every two days and she seems to know what she's talking about so that'll be another £4.20 on the overdraft
  
  Hmmm, .
  
  
• Sleeping has been dreadful yet again. Too hot, too cold, too thirsty, need a wee. You name it, it kept me awake. Going to bed now for another try.
• Spring cleaning. Abandoned in favour of dozing on the sofa, which is clearly why I'm not sleeping at night. Tomorrow I'm in the office all day so I won't be able to have a nap which will help get the routine back
• Sit-ups. Nope, but I did go for my Sunday run with my friend this morning. We did our standard four miles but mostly walking because we wanted a natter about our holidays etc, and we get too breathless when we run!

Maybe you should give up your target for the sit-ups. I can't recall you doing them once yet . They can't be good for your back anyway.

Dolphin1

Day 6...

1) A chocolate mousse (again), two peanut M&M's (yes that's right, only two, don't ask me how I stopped at two) and no biscuits.
2) No cake :j.
3) Really late night, light off just after midnight and then coughed most of the night away so knackered today. Going to be difficult to resist going back to bed for a bit.
4) Had first item from our meal plan for the week which was something different for us, sausage casserole. OH wasn't keen, he didn't say that he disliked it (he wouldn't dare ) but he said "it was ok, it was food" which means that it was ok but he wouldn't want it again. Maybe that's why I have the old faithfuls because they have been tried and tested and we both like them ).
5) No spends on other people.

The cold can 'do one' now.