Prosperous soul embraces creativity & mortgage neutrality

beanielou

Lovely list of lovely things in your life.

jwil

EssexHebridean said:

On the food stuff - maybe try switching your language about a bit. “Less nutritious food” rather than “junk food” is a good one to start with - no food is actually “junk” and by referring to it as such we can create guilt around the occasions when we choose to eat it. Creating or condoning a culture of “good” and “bad” around food and other rules like “I can only have X food in Y situation” can also lead to us ending up craving those foods more - I found exactly this with peanut butter, back in my full on disordered eating days I wouldn’t allow myself to have it in the house “because I might eat it all” and, sure enough, at the times when I did crack and buy a jar it would disappear in a matter of days because it was so long since I’d had it and I knew I wouldn’t “let” myself buy it again for ages. So I’d eat the jar inside a week, and feel horrifically guilty about it, and the cycle began again. Now I ALWAYS have a jar (or currently, a whacking great 1litre tin!) in the cupboard, I eat it on a slice of toast at the weekend - not because that’s when I’m allowed it, but purely because those are the days I eat toast for breakfast. If I have porridge I’ll sometimes dollop a spoonful on the top, and sometimes - shock horror - I’ll eat a spoonful straight from the jar! Despite all this, a jar now lasts ages, I really enjoy eating it, and I never find myself being tempted to binge my way through it - I don’t need to - it’s always there, and it’s not forbidden any more. 🤷🏻‍♀️ (And before you go there, it’s nothing to do with “willpower” - that’s diet culture that’s given you that message, it’s not actually true! 😉)  It frustrates me that society has created all these difficulties around food and eating for people - babies and children have none of these hang-ups,  it’s purely a societal and cultural thing, and mostly only in the West, I believe! I’ve found all this stuff fascinating since I’ve started learning it, and learning to question the way we are encouraged to classify food is probably the single biggest thing I’ve done to improve my own health - physical AND mental. Even now eating some things without looking at the calorie count of or fat content is still a huge step - there was something while we were on Lundy that I chose without even considering the calorie content and it was SUCH a big thing - and that’s best part of 4 years on from when I started trying to step towards intuitive eating. I’m getting there, but it really IS a work in progress. 

Glad you got home to find everything was good and how lovely that it seems as though DD was missing you - although I’m not sure why that would be surprising, I’d expect that she would! 

This is what I'm trying to work towards.  It's really hard to ditch diet culture, but I'm trying and there's lots of really interesting books out there on it.  It can be really eye opening.  

savingholmes

Thanks EH, MF and Beanie

The spag bol with parmesan at the restaurant was amazing. I may have had some chocolate covered nuts and dark choc coconut.... These have useful vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants in them. I think you are right EH changing how I think about stuff could help. I hope I'm not triggering issues for others... I've also had strawberries today - so some more nutritious food in the mix.

In MSE news I got the £150 energy credit today- so paid it off my gas bill via my points CC - which I then immediately paid. Hopefully I can have some nice treat food / clothes at some point thanks to the points built up on stuff I buy anyway. I took meter readings for gas and elec today and submitted them - so should a) have accurate bills and b) confirmed we've hardly used any gas in April so I am very happy!

The glass top is now in the house and covering the kitchen table which I'd wrecked over a year ago - so this will allow me to continue art in the kitchen for now but make it easier to clean up. I've just put it on top of my existing table. It's the right width and then has a slight overhang at each end. At £15 it was a real bargain. I once enquired about getting some tempered glass cut to size and it would have been £70!

A potential new friend is coming to my house on Monday night and we are going to play with my art supplies. Looking forward to that. We are going to do 'pouring' so very messy!! Not done any since the xmas holidays - but it's partly why I wanted a glass topped table as should peel off that a lot easier than other stuff - and worst case it will scrape off.

savingholmes

jwil said:

EssexHebridean said:

On the food stuff - maybe try switching your language about a bit. “Less nutritious food” rather than “junk food” is a good one to start with - no food is actually “junk” and by referring to it as such we can create guilt around the occasions when we choose to eat it. 

Glad you got home to find everything was good and how lovely that it seems as though DD was missing you - although I’m not sure why that would be surprising, I’d expect that she would! 

This is what I'm trying to work towards.  It's really hard to ditch diet culture, but I'm trying and there's lots of really interesting books out there on it.  It can be really eye opening.  

Good luck Jwil

Well had cheese and onion omelette for tea with spinach and YS ratatouille from mns.

EH - on DD - we have an interesting relationship... Ex took her to primarni so she came home happy. She didn't go in her car as I expected though.

I'm watching a free movie - a kids one - and keep having to pause it as it's too scary

MovingForwards

It's only about 3.5 months of the year when gas is used heavily. If your suppliers have a graph showing usage, it's worth looking at each month, writing it down or download it each each year. Lets you build up a picture of when your spikes are, helps with budgeting and where you may be able to tweak things to save a little.

Restaurant has done you good and you've reflected on the comments. 

I remember you pricing up the top, you've bagged a bargain! 

savingholmes

I hear you MF - however - I can't afford to continue our historical gas usage. It has to change as it's unaffordable. I also changed suppliers so don't easily have all the info to hand. My usage graph for Oct-Jan the period I had no visibility of my bills at the time put me about £130 pcm. That would be more like £200 new world. That's unaffordable. I've dropped since having visibility to £105, £75 and more recently £55. It will be interesting to see what my latest bill is - it should be pretty much standing charge and a tiny bit extra. I want to go into winter with a big credit so that my monthly bill doesn't fluctuate much. With elec I'm less worried as it's dropped and it feels steadier.

Today and tomorrow I am planning

Unpacking
Decluttering
Organising
Art

Hopefully along the way I'll also find items to list for sale on FB

Have a fun extended weekend

boxofpaws

I’m glad you had a lovely break. And that’s a brilliant gratitude list, so much to be glad about. 

How is the book coming along then? How do you do it? Do you have an idea for plot and then fill it out as you go along? Or does it all just come to you? 

Alchemilla

Jwil did you get to Lundy without being seasick?

Alchemilla

@savingholmes I hope you're having a fun weekend?

jwil

Alchemilla said:

Jwil did you get to Lundy without being seasick?

I haven't been to Lundy, so it must be someone else.  I'd love to go sometime though!