Keeping up appearances.......

Honey_Bear

Nifty idea, Joey. I've got old defunct telephone numbers so I might use that. I didn't realise about zinc, so thank you for that.

New target, one and only:

• Stop eating sugar.

Technically a fail but actually a victory. I added sugar to the raspberries we had for pudding (I love raspberries) and I ate one of the last chocolates I made on my birthday but that was all. I might also have scoffed a bowlful of crisps but they're not sugary which is my real Achilles heel and the more I eat the more I want.

HappyNow

Honey, I'm sorry to hear about Kelpie. Hopefully the anti-infs, mussel extract and, possibly, zinc will help soon. In the meantime what about carrying on with that daily walk without him? It's good for you too and it does sound lovely.

Sugar. I am totally addicted. I eat way, way, WAY too much and the more I have, the more I want. It's the thing I really struggle to cut out when I'm trying to eat healthily. And none of this 'fruit contains natural sugars' rubbish either - I crave proper, refined, sweet food and lots of chocolate. I can cut down for short periods but it always creeps back up on me.

Whoops, people here, must dash. Back later

Honey_Bear

HappyNow wrote: »

Honey, I'm sorry to hear about Kelpie. Hopefully the anti-infs, mussel extract and, possibly, zinc will help soon. In the meantime what about carrying on with that daily walk without him? It's good for you too and it does sound lovely.

I shouldn't be too surprised about his arthritis because he was believed to be nine when I adopted him so it was sort of inevitable, but he's got such a zest for life that I forgot about it. He's much better now that he's been back on the drugs for a few days and I remembered late last night that his @dapt!1 collar is on it's 28th day, so that needs replacing and he should be a happy, relaxed dog again.

As to me doing the walk without him - I know I should but one of the many reasons for getting a dog was that it would make me get my lazy bum out of the house and walking every day. Without a dog I just don't see the point, but fortuantely for me it's the History Festival this month and there are a lot of guided walks that are absolutely fab. Admittedly a bit more of an amble, but I'm not one of those health fascists who thinks that anything less than power walking doesn't count - I'm upright and moving, a vast improvement on the pre-dog days and therefore a total 100% improvement.

Sugar. I am totally addicted. I eat way, way, WAY too much and the more I have, the more I want. It's the thing I really struggle to cut out when I'm trying to eat healthily. And none of this 'fruit contains natural sugars' rubbish either - I crave proper, refined, sweet food and lots of chocolate. I can cut down for short periods but it always creeps back up on me.

Snap. The key line there is the boldy bit and that's what I'm dealing with at the moment. (Bless me Happy for I have sinned - more of that below.)

Whoops, people here, must dash. Back later

... much later, obvs.

Honey_Bear

New target, one and only:

• Stop eating sugar.

Can't remember Saturday other than I know there was a bit of 'I shouldn't, really ....'


And then Sunday. technically a fail again but actually a victory and one I'm not that proud of, but then again it was sunny and I was out, walking, like a good person .... I added sugar to raspberries again and had a proper, two scoop ice cream when out on a guided walk. One of bannofee pie, since you ask, and a scoop of salted caramel with peanuts. Oh yeah, nearly forgot, made a batch of Twinks for OH and did a bit of quality control ...

But, major change - no chocolate. So I'm counting it as a victory. :cool:

Honey_Bear

New target, one and only:

• Stop eating sugar.

Total victory yesterday. Now, where can I find some of those Rah Rahs? I think the last person to use them was Joey.

Honey_Bear

Caught one!

Dolphin1

Sorry Honey Bear, here you go...

rah rah rah

I am really struggling with chocolate at the moment, I can't get through the day without some, usually half a bar (50g) but yesterday I couldn't resist the whole bar (100g). I'm hoping this particular craving disappears soon :mad:. It doesn't help that I have found one that's lovely.

Honey_Bear

Hi Happy! :wave:

Thank you for sharing the Rah Rahs so generously, Dolphin. I've hijacked a few for myself again, as in:

for when I feel the need again.

The chocolate issue is really irritating. The L!d1 bar I love comes in one size - MASSIVE - and whereas I used to be able to restrict myself to half a bar, suddenly I can't stop scoffing once I've started. Same with the chocolate oranges. So, although there is chocolate in the house I'm not allowing myself to start eating it every day, as I was. When I've lost the 8lbs of flab I've put on since November last year I might allow myself to have some but in the meantime it's off the menu.

The trick, I've discovered, is not to start eating it. As Happy said, the more I have, the more I want.

So, for yesterday:

• Nothing. I am a good Honey Bear. *sigh*

HappyNow

Apologies for the absence, I've been wary of having my cover blown. I'm probably being paranoid, but our new high-speed internet was finally installed last week, hosted by a local company - the owner of which is a close neighbour. They said they'd monitor its performance for a few days to check speeds and reliability, and I'm not sure just what they can see. Hence I've been keeping my head down as I would hate all the neighbours to know how broke we are . Anyway, it has passed all its tests so I'll assume I'm anonymous. I now have to find £180 to pay for it. Great timing :cool: To be fair, I've been expecting it for months so I should have had the money saved, but I haven't.

So while I've been away, I have been mainly eating chocolate which I have bought even though I can't afford it. And ignoring my manky feet. And not inputting calories into my Fitbit. But NOT spending money - for the simple reason that we don't have any!

Mr H is still not working. He signed on for JSA last week but it takes three weeks to get paid, and there's no sign of the redundancy so far. We're managing though and it's only temporary. Today, instead of listing my May failures, I have decided to list reasons why I'm not panicking about money:

• We can juuuust cover the bills from my wage and the rental income. Not having horses makes such a difference. I'd still rather have them though.
• Mr H will hopefully get a job soon. July time would be great.
• There is redundancy and payment in lieu to come
• He is so much less stressed now and that makes life more relaxed
• I have posted for advice on the Pensions board and got some thought-provoking answers. We do have options.
• If we sold the rental house, we would have nearly enough to pay all our debts including the mortgage. We're not going to because we have a lovely tenant there who is looking after the place and paying promptly. We will possibly sell it when she eventually moves out, but there's no rush and I have no intention of making her homeless.
• If (big if) absolutely necessary, we could draw down on Mr H's private pensions. Through pure fluke and absolutely no management whatsoever, he has accrued private pensions of around £100K. We had no idea until one of the company reps knocked on our door to talk to us about it. They are theoretically there to cover the gap between us retiring/reducing work hours and our state pensions and my work pension paying out, but in an emergency, they're there.
• Last resort - we could downsize the house. I don't want to though and I doubt very much it will come to that.

It's a funny old world. Progress since Dec 2011 has seemed so slow and I've not paid even half the debt off. But slowly, slowly things have moved on while I wasn't looking and our finances are nowhere near as bleak as they were four years ago. So why can I still not shake that uneasy feeling?? Habit maybe?

Honey - hope Kelpie is improving and you are managing to leave that lovely brown stuff alone.
Dolphin - go on, share! Which bar have you fallen in love with? I'm back on twirls right now, but open to suggestions

smallholdingsister

Sorry Happy I think I missed something about horses. You don't have them any more?