Keeping up appearances.......

Honey_Bear

• No computer after 9.00pm. Hopeless.
  
• Lights out by 11.30pm. And for this.
  
• Five fruit and veg a day. Just about managing this.
  
• 15 minutes flying a day, sticking to the new schedule: Monday: Dusting/dewebbing; Tuesday: Kitchen; Wednesday: Floors; Thursday: Bath/shower room; Friday: Windows/Paintwork. Shower room swill, hairy carpet areas sucked and kitchen sort of tidied - again. I just don't have the time for anything more at the moment. It should be all back to normal next week.
  
• Go flour free. I ate a bit of apple and blackberry crumble tonight, which can't have a whole lot of flour in it in comparison to pizza! I cannot believe how much difference this is making to me - I can never go back to eating that much bread again which means I have to rethink the food I fall back on when I can't be arrised to think of what to eat.
  

Hope Granny Happy's house is coming on well.

HappyNow

Honey_Bear wrote: »

The trouble with being really, really busy is that if the tiniest thing goes wrong, the whole thing becomes nearly impossible to manage. The dog or cat peeing on the spare-est bed has resulted in all sorts of problems which have to be resolved by Wednesday night. Things are not looking good and I'm totally knackered.

Oh no, what a nightmare. My money's on the cat, they have no sense of naughty - and very smelly pee. I can't remember if I said, but while we were on holiday one of our cats (we have three for some reason) pee'd on the dog's bed. We tried everything to get rid of the smell but eventually gave in and chucked it. Hope you managed to sort your mattress.

Honey_Bear wrote: »

• No computer after 9.00pm. Hopeless.
  
• Lights out by 11.30pm. And for this.
  
• Five fruit and veg a day. Just about managing this.
  
• 15 minutes flying a day, sticking to the new schedule: Monday: Dusting/dewebbing; Tuesday: Kitchen; Wednesday: Floors; Thursday: Bath/shower room; Friday: Windows/Paintwork. Shower room swill, hairy carpet areas sucked and kitchen sort of tidied - again. I just don't have the time for anything more at the moment. It should be all back to normal next week.
  
• Go flour free. I ate a bit of apple and blackberry crumble tonight, which can't have a whole lot of flour in it in comparison to pizza! I cannot believe how much difference this is making to me - I can never go back to eating that much bread again which means I have to rethink the food I fall back on when I can't be arrised to think of what to eat.
  

Hope Granny Happy's house is coming on well.

Well the two involving your diet are the most important ones, so well done there.
The house is getting there and will be completely empty by Saturday afternoon. What I hadn't appreciated is just how upsetting Mr H would find the whole process. It's been quite distressing and very draining. His mum, surprisingly, is taking it very well, although she hasn't been back to the house for over 18 months so she perhaps feels quite distanced from it. And she was worrying about meeting the home fees, so that weight has been lifted.

HappyNow

Suptember has died a bit of a death today!
Breakfast - a fried egg and mushroom sandwich with brown sauce
Lunch - a box of smarties and three biscuits
Dinner - a quorn turkey steak with potato wedges
Snack - two glasses of red wine

Impressive eh? I don't know what came over me, but I'm back on it tomorrow.

Honey_Bear

Hmm. I think it must have been the dog after all because as you say, cat's pee is the niffiest stuff in the world and it wasn't actually niffy. Anyway, sorted, finally and all back to rights.

Secret healing (((hugs))) to Mr Happy, delivered by Mrs Happy, please. It's a real ending and I think quite a lot of people find the whole thing knocks them for six, unexpectedly.

HappyNow wrote: »

Suptember has died a bit of a death today!
Breakfast - a fried egg and mushroom sandwich with brown sauce
Lunch - a box of smarties and three biscuits
Dinner - a quorn turkey steak with potato wedges
Snack - two glasses of red wine

Impressive eh? I don't know what came over me, but I'm back on it tomorrow.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

... and that's the reason I don't go on diets of any description. I always end up shovelling in junk after a few days, although I admire you for sticking to your eye-watering regime until the 24th! And it's not that bad, surely, because the smarties and one of the glasses of wine were already factored in, no?

Honey_Bear

• No computer after 9.00pm. Hopeless.
  
• Lights out by 11.30pm. And for this.
  
• Five fruit and veg a day. Still managing this.
  
• 15 minutes flying a day, sticking to the new schedule: Monday: Dusting/dewebbing; Tuesday: Kitchen; Wednesday: Floors; Thursday: Bath/shower room; Friday: Windows/Paintwork. Still sort of on top of it, just, in the house but the progress I though I was making at the chalet by winterizing it early have bitten me on the bum and we'll now have an extra plumbing bill. He was supposed to be installing a proper vanity unit this year anyway, so he can fix the blown internal stopcock at the same time but it'll need to be done in a hurry if we get a late booking. Unlikely this year, I think, but I don't know why.
  
• Go flour free. I found myself buying tins of veggie things I could scoff as an instant meal instead of sandwhiches yesterday which will work out super-expensive if I don't develop a better strategy. The aubergines in tomato sauce were lovely, though. As was the lentil tarka dahl thing last week. Curses. So to quote myself from my last Suptember post: '... which means I have to rethink the food I fall back on when I can't be arrised to think of what to eat.' Law of unintended consequences and all that. God I'm lazy.
  

Honey_Bear

• No computer after 9.00pm. Hopeless.
  
• Lights out by 11.30pm. And for this.
  
• Five fruit and veg a day. Still managing this.
  
• 15 minutes flying a day, sticking to the new schedule: Monday: Dusting/dewebbing; Tuesday: Kitchen; Wednesday: Floors; Thursday: Bath/shower room; Friday: Windows/Paintwork. This system has totally broken down this week, but now that the house has emptied (and starts to refill tomorrow) I've got a bit of catching up to do over the weekend before it kicks off again. Next week should be back to normal. I'm rather looking forward to not having to spend 15 minutes dusting areas of the house I can write my name in, the dust is so thick. That has to happen sooner or later, surely?
  
• Go flour free. Made Nigella's flourless clementine cake yesterday - fabulous. Excellent as both dessert last night and breakfast on the run this morning.
  

Honey_Bear

• No computer after 9.00pm. Not quite as hopeless, it was switched off by 9.45 last night so that's an improvement. Having this target does help me to at least think about not keeping it on longer than I need to unwind, and I've realised there is no failsafe with computers. After reading for a bit I'm too sleepy to keep going - that never, ever happens with the computer. ... just one more game ... must ... stop ... just one more ...
  
• Lights out by 11.30pm. Done, and much needed.
  
• Five fruit and veg a day. Yup, and I worked out that the amount of tangeriney stuff in each of the slices of Nigella's cake counts, gram-wise as a portion. Get in!
  
• 15 minutes flying a day, sticking to the new schedule: Monday: Dusting/dewebbing; Tuesday: Kitchen; Wednesday: Floors; Thursday: Bath/shower room; Friday: Windows/Paintwork. Enough extra Flying undertaken for me to feel virtuous enough to stop. Good.
  
• Go flour free. Now the main elements gone in the oven! Typical. So I can't have a shot at baking the potato crust I wanted to try. Grr. Still, all in all, I can safely say I've found the energy vampire culprit and I just need to tweak things so that I can use alternatives easily and not go back to eating flour-type food four times a day.
  

I hope all is well with everyone else. Is there any enthusiasm for an October Challenge?

HappyNow

Well done, Honey, for keeping your good work going with absolutely no supportive pom poms.

The house-emptying took a bit longer than expected, but it's finished now and we can all move on . For me that means getting back to business with the money and the eating. I should probably clean a bit too .

Money - things are pretty dire this month, just as expected. I will need to borrow from Christmas to buy food and petrol, but I will replace every penny as soon as possible and definitely before 25th December .

MyFitnessPal - Hmm. After my epic dietary cack-up the other day I've managed to play it reasonably straight, apart from work on Friday which hosted a very lovely MacMillan coffee morning. I enthusiastically blew both targets by spending £3 on a mahoosive piece of chocolate cake. Followed by an even bigger bit of carrot cake. Luckily charitable calories/spends don't count so I think I got away with it. Phew.

Honey_Bear wrote: »

• 15 minutes flying a day, sticking to the new schedule: Monday: Dusting/dewebbing; Tuesday: Kitchen; Wednesday: Floors; Thursday: Bath/shower room; Friday: Windows/Paintwork. Still sort of on top of it, just, in the house but the progress I though I was making at the chalet by winterizing it early have bitten me on the bum and we'll now have an extra plumbing bill. He was supposed to be installing a proper vanity unit this year anyway, so he can fix the blown internal stopcock at the same time but it'll need to be done in a hurry if we get a late booking. Unlikely this year, I think, but I don't know why. Oh no......I feel for you on that one.
  
• Go flour free. I found myself buying tins of veggie things I could scoff as an instant meal instead of sandwhiches yesterday which will work out super-expensive if I don't develop a better strategy. The aubergines in tomato sauce were lovely, though. As was the lentil tarka dahl thing last week. Curses. So to quote myself from my last Suptember post: '... which means I have to rethink the food I fall back on when I can't be arrised to think of what to eat.' Law of unintended consequences and all that. God I'm lazy. Aubergines in tomato sauce? Lentil tarka dahl? Are they from a mainstream supermarket or some special Plymouth place? They sound right up my street (apart from the 'super-expensive' bit of course)

Honey_Bear wrote: »

• Monday: Dusting/dewebbing; Tuesday: Kitchen; Wednesday: Floors; Thursday: Bath/shower room; Friday: Windows/Paintwork. I'm rather looking forward to not having to spend 15 minutes dusting areas of the house I can write my name in, the dust is so thick. That has to happen sooner or later, surely? *shrugs* Dunno. It's not happened here so far.

• Honey_Bear wrote: »

• 
  
• Five fruit and veg a day. Yup, and I worked out that the amount of tangeriney stuff in each of the slices of Nigella's cake counts, gram-wise as a portion. Get in! BAM!
• Go flour free. Now the main elements gone in the oven! Typical. So I can't have a shot at baking the potato crust I wanted to try. Grr. Still, all in all, I can safely say I've found the energy vampire culprit and I just need to tweak things so that I can use alternatives easily and not go back to eating flour-type food four times a day. Bummer about the element but BRILLIANT that the flour-free stuff has been such an eye-opener

Honey_Bear wrote: »

I hope all is well with everyone else. Is there any enthusiasm for an October Challenge? I'm definitely going to keep up my Suptember two because I don't feel that I've fully got where I need to be with them. Another month should do it! I will record it on here because it 'formalises' things for me and I'm more likely to stay focussed. You have definitely earned a month's relax if you feel you need it, but equally I would be delighted to wave some pom poms at you if you're still game

Honey_Bear

Good to see you posting again, Happy, and glad to hear that the house sort is over. It's always massive, much more work than we think it's going to be. I'm ploughing through it here, hopefully in advance of necessity because as I get older I've realised I won't be able to keep zipping up to attic [STRIKE]eventually[/STRIKE] soooner rather than later and I'd rather deal with the mountains of [STRIKE]crap[/STRIKE] useful stuff while I still can. I had to sort my parents attic and basement on my own and I wouldn't have wished that on anyone. The Flylady thread's helping and I've even had a peek at the Kondo thread and tried a couple of the techniques. Helpful. We don't have kids so we have to do this ourselves - while we still can.

The aubergines in tomato sauce (£1.19) are available this week at L!d1 as part of its Greek Week along with a bean thing in tom sauce (99p) here but I can't find the Tarka Dahl stuff again. It's often the way with L!d1 I find - they get random stuff randomly. I keep popping in because their hazelnut chocolate is fab and to stock up on Cu$e11e loo paper when it's on special office (like now.)

Dusting. Hmm. I need to know how little I can do to stay on top of it once I am. Getting on top of it is not something I've ever achieved and it sounds as though your house is pretty similar. I wonder if anyone who reads this has the answer? Hmm?

I'm very up for Suptember 2, so to speak. Your thread keeps me on a straightish and narrowish, as opposed to a wiggley wandering. Oh look ... just over there ... fancy that ... looks rather interesting ... wanders off pi$te and gets totally absorobed and lost ....

Honey_Bear

• No computer after 9.00pm. Managed it! Fabby new author found, as well. Bonus!
  
• Lights out by 11.30pm. Done.
  
• Five fruit and veg a day. Done. I've realised buying ready prepared beetroot is a lot cheaper than buying beetroot juice, as in 45p as opposed to £3-ish. And probably has more fibre in it, of course. *kerching*
  
• 15 minutes flying a day, sticking to the new schedule: Monday: Dusting/dewebbing; Tuesday: Kitchen; Wednesday: Floors; Thursday: Bath/shower room; Friday: Windows/Paintwork. Enough extra Flying undertaken for me to feel virtuous enough to stop again. Even better. Must do stairs today as well as the kitchen floor again. I'm rather surprised that crunchy dog biscuit crumb kitchen floors haven't caught on elsewhere, but there you go.
  
• Go flour free. I've finished Nigella's cake *wail* but I froze a slice for 24 hours to see if it freezes well and it does. Excellent, because that means I can bake it, slice it, freeze it in portions and then not scoff it all in one go/on impulse. It seems to satisfy my sugar cravings as well, so it's all good.