Aiming for a debt free life on latitude 60.2100° N

Hiddenidenity

Aesop wrote: »

HELLO catsnaperre1983.

What part of the world are you in that xmas is next week?

Also looks like you have been copying Marru's post?

I've noticed a few weird posts today on quite a few diaries :cool:

Marru

Ooops was it Easter last time I posted? Ok I can now report that the snow is gone. It went so quickly that it was rather amazing. After not knowing if the spring will come at all I can now confirm that yes it came and went. We are in full summer mode now. Today 25 degrees Celsius and it has been like this for awhile now. It is weird not dragging my coat with me to work and back every day.

What is new then. Not much. I still suffer from migraines. I now have a huge pile of tablets and a migraine diary waiting for the next attack which is yet to come. No hurry for that. I am still not clear with the depression. Was quite a bit worse only last week but getting better now. Need to push my doc to help a bit with that.

DH is learning a new language with gusto and is keeping the household going. I feel really guilty for my lack of contribution. At least we have now very comfortable house that nobody can kick us out of.

DD has learned a new language really well and as school has now finished for the summer she is in the Scout day camp. She is going to go there tomorrow first time on her own using two busses :eek: DH is making sure thou that she is getting to the first bus ok. And she has lost her phone that just was given to her so I can't even call her to find out where she is. (The phone or the sim didn't cost a penny )

Our campervan is with the dealer and we are hoping to sell it. Flights to UK for July are booked and paid. I am only getting two weeks holiday this week.

My colleague (the one I was hired to help) is moving to another department in the company so I am left alone with the product we worked with. Challenging times. Also I am trying to get hold of two big client projects at work. They would be great to do and might also take me to a little flight over a stretch of water. Very exciting.

About money, budgeting, organising and filing. Not much progress is done. I have now decided that I am only allowed to use twenty per week for my own outgoings. So I will take it as cash and when it is gone it is gone. I tend to treat myself with breakfast croissants and coffees and sweets. I hope that will help. Also I have been thinking about some theme days like: spreadsheet day, filing day, sewing day etc. Can't commit myself quite yet thou as don't want to set up myself for an immediate failure.

Oooh, DH has just told me that he has transferred to my account here my tax refund from UK (had to circulate it though his account as he has the international payment set up). I might get some summer clothes. One or two pairs of trousers, one skirt and couple of tops should do.

Anyhoo, it is getting late here so better get some sleep. I have been in the training course all day today so big fuggled brain now.

The_Dragon

Marru wrote: »

Ooops was it Easter last time I posted? Ok I can now report that the snow is gone. It went so quickly that it was rather amazing. After not knowing if the spring will come at all I can now confirm that yes it came and went. We are in full summer mode now. Today 25 degrees Celsius and it has been like this for awhile now. It is weird not dragging my coat with me to work and back every day.

What is new then. Not much. I still suffer from migraines. I now have a huge pile of tablets and a migraine diary waiting for the next attack which is yet to come. No hurry for that. I am still not clear with the depression. Was quite a bit worse only last week but getting better now. Need to push my doc to help a bit with that.

DH is learning a new language with gusto and is keeping the household going. I feel really guilty for my lack of contribution. At least we have now very comfortable house that nobody can kick us out of.

DD has learned a new language really well and as school has now finished for the summer she is in the Scout day camp. She is going to go there tomorrow first time on her own using two busses :eek: DH is making sure thou that she is getting to the first bus ok. And she has lost her phone that just was given to her so I can't even call her to find out where she is. (The phone or the sim didn't cost a penny )

Our campervan is with the dealer and we are hoping to sell it. Flights to UK for July are booked and paid. I am only getting two weeks holiday this week.

My colleague (the one I was hired to help) is moving to another department in the company so I am left alone with the product we worked with. Challenging times. Also I am trying to get hold of two big client projects at work. They would be great to do and might also take me to a little flight over a stretch of water. Very exciting.

About money, budgeting, organising and filing. Not much progress is done. I have now decided that I am only allowed to use twenty per week for my own outgoings. So I will take it as cash and when it is gone it is gone. I tend to treat myself with breakfast croissants and coffees and sweets. I hope that will help. Also I have been thinking about some theme days like: spreadsheet day, filing day, sewing day etc. Can't commit myself quite yet thou as don't want to set up myself for an immediate failure.

Oooh, DH has just told me that he has transferred to my account here my tax refund from UK (had to circulate it though his account as he has the international payment set up). I might get some summer clothes. One or two pairs of trousers, one skirt and couple of tops should do.

Anyhoo, it is getting late here so better get some sleep. I have been in the training course all day today so big fuggled brain now.

Good to see you again (sorry about the Migraines though , I suffer every so often and hoo boy do I suffer!)

:beer: to the Tax refund as well!

Marru

Sun is rising today at 3:54. Sun is setting today 22:52. The length of the day is 18 h 58 min

Today is the Midsummer Fest. We were supposed to go to watch the bonfire last night but decided then against it. DD was a bit disappointed but I think she was pretty tired as well. We had been on the beach during the day and I actually managed to burn my shoulders a bit. Quite unbeliavable that few months ago the sea was frozen so that one could walk on it and now you can sun yourself on the beach and have a swim.

I have had a cold and despite being ill haven't slowed down at all. Not good as now I am exhausted. Yesterday was a bank holiday and was very welcome. One more week until holiday but DH has a full itinnery so don't know how much rest is included. We are heading to UK for my second holiday week, DD and DH then stay in UK bit longer than I will.

I came across this person called Zoe Harcombe and have been watching her lectures in YouTube and also I got couple of her books on Kindle. It makes perfect sense to me and adds to some other books I have read earlier. I am now 44, I will have my 45 checkup next spring through work. So I have now ten months to get myself sorted. I have decided to start with the diet and weight loss as that might then ease off other problems. When I come back from UK and don't have rest of the family to take into consideration I will start the Harcombe diet. I lost weight couple of years ago with the New Atkins but it all fell sideways came Christmas. Harcombe is not as restrictive so I am very hopefull. Sugar will be out of the window thou except in phase three when one is allowed to cheat as long as it is not too much or too often. We shall see what happens. I would be delighted to lose 20 kilos but actually I should really be able to lose 30 kilos to get back to the weight I was at my twenties before starting to put weight on at my thirties.

brizzledfw

Hi Marru..great to read your diary. Have subscribed and cheer you on your way!

Marru

Ooops it has been quite awhile since I wrote here last time.

Holiday has been and gone. I had one week here and one in UK. Family stayed there a bit longer so I had some quality time with myself at home (despite working) and of course I had the dogs and the cat to look after.

As soon as I was back home my new eating regime started and also exercise regime. I am following the Harcombe diet with its very simple rules:
1. Do not eat processed food
2. Do not eat carbohydrates on the same meal with fat foods
3. Be mindful of foods that you might be intolerant.

So I eat meat, fish and vegetables. Sometimes berries with natural yoghurt. Sometimes dark rice with a veggie dish and no other grains. I don't eat potatoes because they are my one food that I tend to over eat. I don't eat fruit yet but will add them back at some point.

All sweet cravings disappeared after the first five days. I have more energy, even to keep some sort of exercise routine going. I stopped caffeine two weeks before starting the diet because during the first five days I wasn't allowed milk. I still don't drink caffeine and I really feel much better. I now allow myself one to two cups of decaf coffee with full fat non homogenized milk. At work I drink herbal teas and sometimes in the evening I have cup of decaf tea with DH.

Exercise plan is to do one of the following each day together with one good cardio exercise:
- Yoga,
- Weights
- Hill run

Unfortunately the last one is now out because after doing it ones AND then doing very long walks on two consequent days I have now shin splints and had to take some inflammatory meds. Even long walks are now banned for awhile. So I am now cycling. I really want to have a really good bike. Good enough to be able to cycle to work every day (ok not during the snow months). We sold our camper van so I now have to convince DH that I really need a good bike and that some of the money should go towards it. We might go this evening to have a look.

And what is the result after all this? I have lost four kilos after three and half weeks and at least one dress size. :j

Pippilongstocking

All sounds fabulous here - good for you!

And its so lovely to hear - well done you!

Knit_Witch

Good to see you back and good to hear good news (apart from the shin splints OUCH!)

Marru

I have to say that the shin splints set me back mentally worse than physically. Plus that the torrential rains we got awhile back coincided with the injury time. I haven't got back to my regime at all. DD goes to swimming lessions on Sundays so I am now teaching myself freestyle swimming (watching DVD in the morning - practicing in the afternoon in the pool). And I did go finally orienteering on Tuesday. Yes I did get lost few times but thankfully the other people kindly helped me to find my place on the map. I wasn't even last in my group!!

However from 10th of September until mid December I need to put orienteering on hold as I am on English language course. I was in my local British Society for level assessment yesterday and they recommended for me to do the Cambridge proficiency test. So I need to prepare for that. The exam is in December. Ok I haven't spell checed this forum post so please do apologies. I am also starting Swedish conversation couse on Thursdays and TaiChi on Wednesdays. Tai Chi is only for the autumn same as English. The Swedish continues to the spring. Oh and I have one weekend course of Alexander technique. It was only 30!!! And I hope it will help with my back and that way with the migraines. And woohoo, cortisol kills my migraines with only one dose. At the moment it is not too much to take, as soon as I run out of them I will speak with the neurologist about either continuing with the cortisol or trying to find a preventative medicine.

Next year I think I will concentrate on getting an Excel certification. It is something I have been thinking for a long time but not managed to work towards it. Another thing I need to do is to get my Linkedin profile shining. In here you get a written certificate from each job but obviously I didn't get anything while working in UK. So I am thinking of getting my previous bosses to put some comments on Linkedin. Really need to get on with this.

It is knitting club again tomorrow. I missed the last one as it was my niece's birthday and I think I will miss it tomorrow as well as I would like to go and watch the triathlon competition. DH and DD are coming to UK in October and I need to get MIL's shawl ready by then so that they can take it with them saving the bother and cost of posting. Not much left to do but it is not something I can do while watching telly. That is why I have started a cardigan for DD. No need to count. I still have one jumper for her ready apart from putting it together and knitting the collar. Sigh, why do I enjoy knitting but not the putting together part?

DH is still nagging me to do the curtains. I have to admit that he is right. I should have done them months ago. I can't even promise to get cracking with them this weekend as we are busy tomorrow and have friends coming on Sunday plus Sunday is swimming day. However DH has promised that I can have proper bike (read expensive). I have finally found it and paid the reservation fee. We will go and get it tomorrow of Monday the latest. That means that from Wednesday onwards I need to do my commuting by bike (rain or shine). It will be jsut over ten kilometers one way. If I can bike lets say half of the year the bike will pay itself back in three years. Not to mention what effect it will have to my fitness.

Talking about fitness the weight has been coming off still. It is very slow but it is very steady. On my niece's birthday there was nothing I could eat so I ate what was there. That was only setback I have had and I think that was only a bit of water retention which was easily remedied in few days anyway.

I can enjoy small glass of red wine with a steak when eating out and now I do have some very dark chocolate in the cupboard if I really want it. Seems to do the trick. Today half a banan felt like cheating and to be honest it was awfully sweet. I am not used to that sweet now.

Better stop now, need to get DD to bed as she is messing with the cat. I.e go and rescue the cat. Byeeeee....

Marru

Just watched THIS

Before watching I would highly recommend reading THIS first.