We used to have children, now we just have debt...

pink68

Oh bless you for being impressed. Food wise it's for the week. And I've only got one cat at the moment. I might have to get some more dry food but I've got enough wet food which he prefers as he's a bit 'toothless ' he had to have a lot of teeth extracted last year poor lamb. He's only 8 but he definitely prefers fish in gravy too!

Hoping for a NSD today but no promises!

pink68

Sorry that should read human food wise...��

pink68

I successfully managed a NSD yesterday though DH did buy some new lights for the kitchen to replace some faulty ones. They're all in and working so thats good.

I had a look at our gas and electric usage yesterday expecting to see that it had reduced since the kids had left but horror or horrors the electric had gone down but the gas had actually gone up! We're using more units of gas than we were when we had an extra1 and a half kids here! Going to have to have a think about that where those units are going...

I've also given myself a good talking to (whilst laying awake at 3AM this morning of course) about my diet. I can't keep complaining about my sore hands and knees and not face up to the fact that I am overweight. I could do with losing at least 2 stone, probably more likely 3, and have been fannying about with SW for several months, losing it then putting it back on every time I have a few days away or anything to celebrate. Time to face up to it I fear, so I've put my big girl pants on and am off to SW to be weighed and hopefully inspired. Then when I come back I'd better do some research into anti-inflammatory diets....

Anyone got any tips?

supersaver1000

Morning Pink, I was awake at 3 am this morning too (must be something through the airwaves) and I started listening to the Woman's Hour podcast about being overweight. The guest was a size 8 all her life and then ballooned to 19 stone. They were talking about how it can dent your confidence etc.

Like you, I need to lose 2 or 3 stone. I lost a half a stone when I took up running and bought a bike to cycle to work. I've lost my mojo a bit recently and haven't run or cycled very much, but I have managed to keep that half a stone off.

I've just been reading a couple of articles in the Times about how running isn't bad for your joints and there was another about keeping fit in mid-life. I've decided to make sure I either run, walk or cycle for at least 10 mins daily, join our running club again and also use my dumbbells and do some home exercises for 2-3 sessions. Well that's my resolution anyway, and now I've written it on your pages I'm going to have to hold myself to account :rotfl:

I haven't worked out the diet yet, but I when I lost weight before I was using the Myfitnesspal app to keep a track of my calories and it seemed to work.

Anyway, hope my ramblings are of some help - have a good day.

pink68

Yes all comments gratefully received! I will hold you to the plan if it helps supersaver :rotfl:

I'm modelling some rather bizarre half glove things today at work to support my thumbs which are helping so far. They are rubbery though and make me look like I have android joints!

Leftover veggie lasagne for lunch with salad.

The kids have both left again so I can start using up the remnants of the freezer for meals now. Sausage risotto for tea tonight.

I downloaded a help sheet from an American Healthcare site about anti-inflammatory food, and have already had one of the guys here at work ask for a copy of it as he has crohns and has just decided to try and go plant based to see if it helps. I've been nagging him for months to look at his diet but I was kind of ignoring my own advice...ain't that the easiest thing to do!

pink68

:jNSD yesterday.
And should be NSD day today too!

Watched the Netflix documentary Game Changers last night, it's all about vegetarian/vegan athletes, wow it was inspiring!

DH watched about a 1/3 of it before he went out and even he was ready to embrace going veggie after just that, I'm going to make him watch the rest of it later.

I'm not ready to fully embrace vegetarianism at the moment, even though I accept it would be better for me and definitely better for the environment. Both my children are veggie when cooking for themselves so it's not a new concept to me but I've always resisted because pulses don't like me and give me terrible IBS.

But I've made a new meal plan of 2 meat meals, 2 fish meals, and 3 veggie meals a week ftb. Then when I've eaten up what's in the freezer I'll reconsider where we go from there. Maybe pescatarian (?) to start with? Surely it can only help with everything!:j

Can anyone recommend any good websites that have veggie recipes that are simple, I can cook long winded things but I lack inspiration to replace the simple quick after work meals.

supersaver1000

I watched Game Changers Pink over Christmas and it certainly changes the way you think about food and animal welfare.

We don't eat a lot of meat, but this will reduce even more now. Who would have thought that it was a all big misunderstanding about animal protein being essential.

DH loves curry - so many curries are veggie/vegan and we have a good Indian food book we use regularly. I know what you mean about pulses - we tend to eat a lot of red lentils, some pulses but I avoid chickpeas like the plague (unless its hummus of course) and my absolute favourite is the basic veggie curry but I add sweet potato and coconut cream block.

I used to follow Greying Pilgrim's threads on here - she has some amazing ideas and recipes, all very frugal. But online I tend to stick to BBC Good Food, Delia, Nigella etc. Jamie has some good vegan recipes - I have cooked his toffee/apple/cake pudding several times but sadly I do prefer it with a bit of cream on.

We also had a leek risotto from the River Cottage veg book the other night, but we had mushrooms on it rather than the chestnuts in the recipe - it was delicious and I will definitely cook it again. I microwaved the mushrooms as I had printed off an article a week or so ago which said it was the best way to cook them. It really was, and with no parmesan in the risotto or butter on the mushrooms it was a lot healthier - and it was very easy and quick to cook.

pink68

Yes I used to read greying pilgrim too, I loved how she could turn a couple of old veg and a bit of rice into something wonderful!

Meat has definitely been low on the agenda this week, I think I've eaten a couple of sausages and that was only because I'd already meal planned.

Might treat myself to a chicken korma tonight though! Yum Yum!

I might have a River Cottage book on the shelves, I'll have to have a browse, I'm struggling with lunch ideas at the moment as I don't eat much bread so it's salads all the way but I might have to expand my repertoire. The risotto sounds lovely.

db2016

subbed! and following, good luck.

just a bit to add, about what i can / know about.

i have some disabilities myself, and employer HAVE To make reasonable adaptations.

a disabiliy (for the relevant laws etc) is defined as something which has an effect on your day to day activities for 12 months (past, or is expected to for the next 12).

so thats your qualified i'd say!

now im also a techy so, voice recognition, i havent tried proper office ones for years but they were a bit crap, but phone ones have come on leaps and bounds such as the smart speakers etc so this may have changed.

roller balls do lessen strain, i know of a few people who use these.
also a good keyboard, think old style clicky clack ones (usually labelled as gamer ones these days because gamers love the noise feedback so they know when they hit a key). not the low profile laptop style that everyone has now.

the clicky clack ones (switch) keyboards have a lil rebound in them so they can make it easier to use and require less pressure (or more if your a gamer etc). they have different "colours" of switches which corresepnd to the pressure needed to activate, "cherry mx" "blue" etc and more are the colours of the switch under the key which says what pressure they activate at.

they can help by meaning less pressure gets a character typed on screen etc.

so yea, pull out the good old equality and diversity words of the DDA 2010 i believe (disability discrim act) and theyll make adjustments.

i know of people who vary this from a good solid office chair, so keyboards and mice / input devices. all the way upto blind people who use screen reading software.


hope that helps.
dan

pink68

Well lots to report and at the same time nothing. Lol

Spends have been a little higher than hoped for on food, I planned for £25 and seemed to have spent nearer £50 again, but the meat is still in the freezer and will eek out even longer. We actually had a nut roast on Sunday which was rather nice, with all the trimmings. Then yesterday I made a veg tagine but didn't have any apricots so ended up throwing sultanas in. The recipe was for 6, I tried to do about half of it but actually only ended up eating 1/3 of that, so we have 2 more portions stored away in the freezer as well now.

Dinner tonight is what Greying Pilgrim would call cardboard fish. In a box!

Work have been fine about all my little adjustments. But I've known them all for 30+ years so they know what I'm like!

I've got a whizzy new upright mouse which has hoped no end, and have had my desk 'dropped' by about an inch. I've also asked a programmer we use to make some adjustments to one of the programs to make it easier to navigate without the mouse, which they are happy to pay for.

I also had a play about with some dictation software and found if the bosses gave me a tape I could play the tape into my phone and it was half done already,. I emailed it to myself and then it just needed the punctuation popping in! Who knew?! Now to try and get them to dictate straight into the app themselves.....

I went to pilates last night so now I ache but I'm determined not to become inactive, my instructor is very good and lets me adapt the exercises to what works for me as I have trouble with my knees and hips too.

I'm beginning to feel a little bit old these days!