Preparedness for when

moneyistooshorttomention

I can understand all that.

I could always have done with extra money - but the thought of antisocial hours combined with the fact that I'm a "lark" and not an "owl" and social life tended to be in the evenings and sometimes it feels like an effort to get something "proper" to eat anyway at the best of times and my mind quailed at the thought and I only ever applied for 9-5 Monday to Friday type jobs.

Retirement has confirmed to me that I operate best on a 6am-10pm type timetable and my eyes are starting to close at around 10pm and I'm all ready to start "rolling" for the day at some point between 6am-7am and having to be quiet if staying with a "night bird" friend, as I was recently.

greenbee

Not sure why the idea of office jobs being '9-5' still persists. Very few of them are. And now most people can work from home/via their phone, a lot of jobs are starting to become 24/7. I'm on leave today, but have already dealt with half a dozen emails and my part in a workflow that needs to be done to prevent delay to a complex process. I can't work while driving, and I can't do online work while on a plane, but otherwise, even if not constant, there are ad-hoc bits to do.

Admin roles are no longer 9-5 either - in my job our team shares 4 assistants - one in Europe, one US east coast, one US west coast and one Australia. That gives us 24 hour coverage, but in any case most of those are available well outside normal working hours because they know what our work patterns are. They may only be in the office part of the time, but if we have a flight delayed or cancelled or a problem with a hotel booking or whatever, there is always an overlap and always someone available to prevent us getting stranded. They have to be incredibly organised and ensure we always know who is covering for anyone on holiday or off sick.

GQ is right - having spare energy to exercise doesn't feature in many people's lives, but sometimes it is important for mental health to get outside in the fresh air for a walk or get some exercise to get the endorphins going. Sedentary jobs can be very draining and are unfortunately very unhealthy, hence the encouragement to exercise. If you're lucky enough to live close enough to work to walk their and back it can have a significant positive health impact.

Right... must get going. Still recovering from my 2 week work trip and my body clock is not cooperating. But I have to go and visit my parents and see how my Dad is doing. My mother sounded terrible last night, and said he is looking incredibly frail and finding it harder and harder to eat. He starts chemo on Monday which I hope won't be too much of a strain for him. But I get the feeling we're looking at 6 months rather than a year.

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

MTSTM,
Having worked production lines of 8 hrs at a stretch, on my feet, I have to note two things; no one was overweight and no one had any energy to go to the gym by the time we clocked off at 22.00.

Having spare energy to 'exercise' doesn't feature in many people's lives.

I agree with that. Just standing up at work is exercise, not impact exercise but nevertheless is fat burning. I prefer to stand up when I do my wood carving, stand up all day and then go home without backache and tired but not lifeless

I am trying to overcome inertia these days, probably age related so I make a very short to-do list, designed to finish at lunchtime. If I get on a roll and want to carry on all day then that is good but otherwise lunchtime is enough. Just as an example but not written out yet (due to inertia ) 1 clear tables of clutter 2 clean sink properly 3 sew hems. Number 1 will get the feng shui flowing again and number 3 will give me satisfaction. In order to get this done, lunch is coming out of the freezer, rabbit and rice in a small dish, just need the fresh veg. I will now make myself close the laptop and start on the easiest one, the sink

thriftwizard

Yes, Kittie, I use old Kilners for the water kefir, just covered with a piece of kitchen roll (only ever used for culinary purposes around here!) and a rubber band, supplied free by the postman. My Kombucha scobys reside in old glass sweet jars (found at the Tip) and my sourdough starter lives in an old Pyrex bowl with lid. The girls also keep their milk kefir grains in Kilner jars; every now & then I'll find whole boxes of the jars at the dump or at car boot sales, which keeps costs down. DD1 makes hers with ordinary doorstep milk, DD2 with raw Guernsey milk which is available quite cheaply at the weekly market, from a herd we can go & look at if we feel so inclined.

I'm carrying too much weight; 12 stone when I should be 10½. At 5'4" that'd still leave me fairly nicely-rounded, but that was my "healthy" weight when I was playing sports every weekend, climbing mountains, hurtling round after 5 small children, etc. - by nature I'm a sturdy beastie, a draught horse rather than a race horse! Thankfully I never gained a stone per child, as they used to "allow", as that would have left me at 15½ stone. I really put weight on after having my hip replaced; it fell off me in the first few weeks, then piled back on as I became more mobile, so I suspect the drugs really upset my intestinal flora. I too used to be able to eat anything I liked without gaining weight, but have to face the fact that those days are gone now.

My attempts to do anything about it are half-hearted to say the least; real life keeps getting in the way of sensible eating! Most of the time my diet is probably quite healthy, but every now & then I don't get time to eat so stuff a slice of cake or something equally damaging in. I don't even really like cake - it's just there when I need something. But I am pretty active; we go for a 3-mile walk most days & I'm on my feet most of the rest of the time - except when I'm on here - so I'm hoping that if TS ever does HTF bigtime, I'll be fit enough to cope whilst having a little extra on board to keep me from starvation...

ETA: hope your father responds well to the chemo, Greenbee...

ivyleaf

(((HUGS))) greenbee. My brother in Germany has just started chemo yesterday. We are going to go and see him in April, probably, when he will have finished the course (two sessions of a daily injection for 9 days, with a break in between. I never knew it could be given by injection til now) and hopefully starting to recover from it.

fuddle

Alot of my digestion issues are down to stress in the work place. I did an extremely stressful job for 6 months that saw me working 40plus hours a month delivering care on top 8.30-5.30 in the office 5 days a week. I never had time to take a lunch break, eating amongst my computer work and answering the phone. Salaried work can be the devil... I would opt for zero hours over salaried or 'progress in the workplace' any day because I was happy without the expectations having a salary bring. I was also healthy!

kittie I never took antacids to reduce the symptoms when I was having my really bad episodes. It makes sense what you say. I eliminated grains and sugar to initially get well again after I left the salaried position but then had to give up dairy too. It's been a long 8 months trying to get back to some sort of normality with eating habits but since the stress of the job had gone (and not to forget that I have had a pretty stressful 6 months with life after that) I have not had one episode of feeling like I should call an ambulance for the excrutiating pain in my chest etc. Tummy aches yeah but not awful chest pain.

For me, the work place is turning into a killer and it's not just the rights for zero hour contract hilders we should be fighting for, it's the right for salaried people to be able to shut off from work to live a life and calm down. In my view of course.

I do take probiotics in tablet form (which I dont like as into pretty primal ways of eating) so I'm wondering if kefir water would help with this at all?

Also sourdough? I'm loving the thought of a starter from the air but wondering would it still be heavy in flour?

mitstm I'm pleased you've pulled back on the wine. I know we don't see eye to eye alot of the time but I never realised you were a heavy drinker. I suspect the you of old was a very stressed lady by day and under the influence at night. That would change anyone's character. That is a lot to be consuming and well done to you for not letting it get that little bit more and little bit more.

Karmacat

Very interesting and **knowledgeable** discussion about fermentation - thanks to all who took part. I have a couple of books, but its one of those things - a discussion like this is much more likely to help me make sense of it than a book. I actually bought a scobie, fed it for a while, but the instructions were so complex I stopped using it - what's on here is much more simple, and much more helpful, so thanks again

And hugs all round for all the health issues, our own and our rellies.

jk0

Enjoy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nd01DwuHwE

[Deleted User]

fuddle wrote: »

Also sourdough? I'm loving the thought of a starter from the air but wondering would it still be heavy in flour?

What do you think upsets you in the flour? It could well be because it is refined and bleached. I only used unprocessed flour and it could be white too ie unprocessed, ground and sieved to take out the bran. Bran is not good for most people, the insoluble bran as found in wholemeal flour and bran flakes. It can cause little nips in the bowel and a lot of people have this bran every day. What you will likely find is that a good flour and sd will likely not upset your digestive system. If nothing else try a long fermentation with a white flour like shiptons. If you have a bm, then a french dough setting and then pop it in the fridge all night, take out, shape, leave an hour or so and then bake. The longer the fermentation then the more starch is `eaten` by the yeast

Greenbee, I just want to say that I am reading your posts and I empathise. A truly difficult time for you

I used to get IBS constantly and it took a great deal of work on myself to get rid of it, starting with me leaving that job. Dh never had that luxury until he retired but I was able to use whatever I knew to help him a lot and it did. Yes all work stress related

Yes I have finished for the day, feel the need to rest and I listen to my body. Had to re-learn the overlocker, not having used it for 15 months, last time on altering lycra, not mine. Tops and dress edge overlocked now and ready to sew up another day. Rust coloured trousers not overlocked as I couldn`t be bothered looking for cottons and then threading up. Oh yes, did 10 minutes on the rebounder, to stop me shrinking any more, two bits of talking and one song on radio 2. Going to watch tv and start knitting a rug this afternoon, homespun natural wools, big needles and then felting in the machine. I need a small bedside rug

fuddle

Thanks kittie. It's definately down to grain in bread as any grain in the peak of the situation would make my tummy bloated and upset. I can eat bread again but I try to keep all grain consumption low. I admire how you identify a problem then seek to change to help yourself. I seek to try help myself too but have a lot of knowledge to gain...

And with that I will admit to having a change of heart re: kefir water. I want to give it a go. I've been on youtube and having a read. I think I would benefit from consuming it. Great advise re: bran etc will take note and research later. Thanks kittie.