Motivational Monday- Part 2

If you missed part one, you can read it here. If you don’t need motivation you can skip to the end to hear about SATC2!

Action/Sport Movies

Thats right, I gain quite a lot of motivation, on a fitness level, from movies. More specifically ones where there is a strong female lead. While Rocky and his theme tune are certainly inspiring there’s something a little more invigorating about a woman kicking ass 🙂 Happily there are more and more female characters like this in films nowadays.

Charlie’s Angels

Scarlett in Iron man 2, she rocked in this role, but didn’t have enough screen time IMHO!

Angelina in Mr and Mrs Smith- one of my favourite films 🙂

Bridget Fonda in The Assassin, a good movie with lots of action!

Aaliyah in Romeo Must Die, she doesn’t have a whole lot of action shots but it’s a good film regardless.

Michelle Pfieffer as Catwoman

Jessica Alba in Honey. It’s not action, but I guess you could call it sport? Is dance classed as a sport?

T.V. heroines

Buffy

Buffy is by far my favourite ever t.v. series and I’ve seen every episode multiple times. I love the choreography along with the humour!

Faith. Sometimes in on the fight for good, sometimes plain evil. Always looked hot!

Wonder Woman

There should be more strong women in film and tv I think. Who are your screen idols? Do you ever get inspired by watching films or tv?

*  *  *  *  *

Sex and the City 2

(Let me assure you that now I’ve seen photos of myself in that top it’s going in the charity pile!)

So Rachel and I went to see SATC2 yesterday afternoon, after a mooch around the shops. We both liked it. I actually preferred it to the first one which I had found both dull and depressing. I was surprised by how much older the stars looked and at times I felt they were deliberately made to look older. By the way, Rachel and I are convinced that it’s not actually Kim Cattral in the poster above us! She looks like a completely different person!

The fashions in the film ranged from being lovely things that you would buy yourself (Charlotte’s dresses mostly) to hats that should have been left in the warehouse, let alone at home (Carrie’s).

The highlights were the relationships between the girls (despite marriages and children which can get in the way) and the interior of Carrie’s home. Stunning!

A walk

Yesterday I also went for a walk with my friend David. I thought I’d share a couple of photos.

This is the house that will be mine one day. Should I win the lottery or marry that millionaire I’ve been waiting for 🙂

I hadn’t been aware that my headlights made a lot of noise. Will need to be careful of this in future 😉

I hope you guys are all having a fab bank holiday weekend! I’m driving home this afternoon and then hopefully I’ll have time to read your blogs and see what you’ve all been up to!

Book Review- Live alone and like it

Hey guys, thanks for your kind words about my outfit etc! I’ve been really busy, sorry I’ve not posted much. Today I’m off for a walk with David and then shopping and SATC2 with the bride to be 🙂 I’ll leave you with some photos of the hen night (which was completely awesome!) and a book review!

The hen and I (I’m on the left obviously!)

The camera adds 10lbs!

Won’t Rachel make a beautiful bride? I can’t wait to see her dress!

 

‘Live alone and like it’ by Marjorie Hillis

I ordered this book from Amazon after reading a recommendation by In Limbo.

I thought it would be a nice book for me; I live alone and like it already but you can never be too happy or have too many pairs of shoes 😉

The book was written in the 1930s and mostly you can tell that it is that out of date. Back then it was not common for women to live alone and singletons did feel a social pressure to be in a relationship. Hell Bridget Jones was only written 13 years ago and the poor woman couldn’t cope with singledom, partly due to her match-making mother! Luckily my Mum couldn’t care less if I was married, gay, Asexual or a life-long spinster, so long as I’m happy 🙂

The author obviously thinks she’s being liberal, “There may still be those in Alabama who look upon an unmarried state as an affliction, but in New York it is at most a very minor ailment.” I just don’t think she succeeded particularly!

What she does do is set out a number of rules for the single woman. The title would suggest these rules were in aid of making the reader happier. This isn’t the case though, the rules are simply to stop the reader from ‘letting herself go’ or to keep them from becomming a hinderance to their married friends and family, or simply to prevent them from making a show of themselves. According to Ms Hillis (single or not I have no idea) we must not dine out alone, we must have a hobby to do indoors and one to do outdoors and we must not spend time alone in shabby clothes. Most of the book is made up of case studies which validate her rules, these were pretty fun to read. There are also some reader questions. One reader asked if it was okay to wear pyjamas when recieving a gentleman guest. The writer goes on to say that it depends on the pyjama. Did you know there were 4 kinds? Sleeping, beach, hostess and lounging!

One thing I loved was the notion of the breakfast in bed being one of the major perks of the single life. You guys know how much I love my breakfast in bed 🙂

 

I personally don’t lay on my front while I eat right enough 😉 I prefer to fluff up some pillows and get right back into bed, read blogs and take my own sweet time over my porridge and coffee! Bliss!

There are many more little pockets of treasure in the book. Case studies of women who know how to treat themselves with kindness and respect, and humourous annecdotes too. A random thought: I think Marjorie Hillis would love Carrie Bradshaw, in fact I reckon if she’d been the same age she would have been one of the SATC gang!

I hope you guys are all having a great weekend! I’ll be back tomorrow with Motivational Monday!

Feel Good Clothes

Some food from today:

Believe it or not, fish fingers and rice is a comfort food for me! When I was a child my family had a curry night at least once a week, I didn’t like curry so my Mum would give me fish fingers with my rice!

Body Demons?

I’m going to a hen night in Glasgow tomorrow night. I’m leaving straight from work and driving 3-4 hours and then meeting my friend and all the other hens at around 8, they’re meeting at 7.  I’m really looking forward to seeing my friend and having a night out but I’m having something of a clothing dilemma. I know my friend and some of the others are wearing glam dresses for a night out on the town. The truth is I’m not very comfortable in my clothes at the moment. Since I lost half a stone I’ve gone from a size 16 to a 14, and my body shape has changed from an hour glass to a pear. I have literally nothing that looks good on me anymore! Lots of clothes stopped fitting and had to be put out, but lots still fit; I just don’t feel like they flatter me in any way. I was always a good dresser; I knew how to dress for my shape and never bought anything that I didn’t look good in just because it was ‘in style’. I also dressed for my size- no muffin tops for me!

As the hen night is tomorrow night, and there are no clothes shops in my town, I have to wear something I already own. I have one dress that fits but planned to wear that to the wedding, one pair of jeans that are too short, and one pair of nice black trousers. Obviously I’m wearing the black trousers. Having tried on my whole wardrobe this morning I have narrowed it down to 2 tops, a knitted purple short-sleeved one with beads around the neck, and a black and silver top with an open back (it ties in the middle to cover the bra strap). I’ll let you know which one I wear! So now that I have taken the best from my wardrobe, I have to find the mental resolve to go out there with my slim friends and their dresses and feel good about myself. I’m going to be completely honest- I have rarely felt uncomfortable in my skin, I’ve been happy with my figure and not felt the need to compete, when in clothes. Mostly. The reason I started trying to slim down was because my body was changing, my arms were getting cellulite on them, and the cellulite on my legs was getting worse. Also I was starting to put weight onto my waist, where I’d never carried much weight before. Isn’t it strange that I’m getting slimmer but feeling more unsure of myself? So the aim for tomorrow is to get ready, look in the mirror, remind myself that I look beautiful and go out there smiling! Wish me luck! Then on Saturday I’m going to buy a decent pair of jeans and a dressy top in a size 14 so I don’t have this dilemma again for a while!

Glamour magazine’s Rules on ditching the body demons:

1. Bin any clothes that you don’t feel great in. Wear the clothes that get the most compliments most often. I agree that it’s better to have 4 great outfits than 10 so-so ones!
2. Admire your good points. Before you go out look at yourself in the mirror and look at the part of yourself that looks the best. I happen to think that I have a great smile, and get compliments on it often. So I never look in the mirror without a smile on my face! If someone else saw me smiling at myself in the mirror they might think me odd but I dont care. I even do it in public loos!
3. Fake it till you make it. I am a huge believer in this. I think I’m naturally quite shy but I try not to show it, I also never show insecurities when I’m out on a night out, I grin and strut about like I think I’m Naomi Campbell! (Not quite but you get the idea)

Glamour can come away with a load of nonsense (like this months diet advice) but this article speaks a lot of sense and I’m going to try and remember it tomorrow night! How is your own body image? Do you feel comfortable with yourself?

**I will be away until Monday, I’m taking my laptop and will post when I can! I’m going to try and be a bit braver with the camera, and take food photos when out and about. Expect a photo of a starbucks frapp on Saturday! I’m also going to the cinema tonight, so if I don’t comment on your blog- I’m sorry and I’ll get to it soon!

Have a lovely evening everyone XOXO

Cajun Salmon

Look whats back:

I couldn’t go without strawberries on my porridge for long!

Lunch was 2 rolls, one with ham and one with marmite.

After school snack was a big bowl of Special K oats and honey. I hate how Special K has this wierd control over me! I can’t resist. How is it that I can walk past the cadbury’s but not the cereal? Gah!

I also ate this:

The other day I walked past the watermelon in Tesco. Today after work I really wanted that watermelon, so I went and bought it!

Dinner was something new:

Cajun salmon and roasted corn salsa Click for recipe. It was so simple! The whole prep and cook time totalled like 12 minutes! It was also pretty heavenly, and only 320 cals apparently. Try it! I made a few substitutions for items I didn’t have. Balsamic instead of white wine vinegar, canned corn instead of corn on the cob, I left the limes out and I didn’t have spinach.

Dessert:

So I have spent far too much money on food this week. The watermelon cost £2.50, the salmon was £1.80, the strawberries were like £2 for a small tub (maybe 3 porridge servings) and the Special K was £2.50. I don’t mind paying out for strawberries as they are arguably my favourite fruit and they are only in season for a short time so I have to make the most of them! Salmon is so healthy I need to get it, but maybe canned salmon is cheaper? The Special K should have been avoided! What do you splurge on, food wise?

Do you find eating healthy to be more expensive than living on junk? Today though there was an offer on veg! I got a cucumber and salad onions were free! That never happens. There’s never a shortage of offers on biscuits or crisps though. Also, the whole thing where they put those cheap deals on chocolate right inside the door so that’s all you can see when you go into Tesco: well that’s driving me mental!

A confession: Since I started eating and shopping more healthily- I’ve been obsessed with other people’s trolleys. I am so nosy! I look at the person, wonder if they’re shopping for a family, check out their choice of cereal, analyse the ratio of plant to processed foods . . . Ok that confession made it sound like I go around leaning into baskets and even checking out people’s food nutritional labels. I don’t do that! I also don’t judge. It’s like the ex-smoker thing, I know what its like to be addicted . . .

I hope you guys had a good hump day! XOXO

Hungry Fish

I went for a swim with my friend Shell today. She tends to go Tuesdays and Thursday lunch times so I’ve been trying to go with her. Before I went I babysat baby Cara for an hour so her Mum could go to the gym. I had 2 slices of brown toast, with margarine, in the cafe at 11. When I got home at 1:30 I was still starving! So I ate a wholemeal roll with ham, and carrot and cucumber sticks on the side. Yummy! But didn’t hit the spot. So I had another roll with PB, Nutella and a banana. Major Yum! But still hungry, I managed to wait half an hour but then I went and munched a cereal bar and some dried fruit. I was still hungry for dinner at 5:30!  

Fahitas! I had 1 and a half 🙂 I wont show you a photo of them after they were rolled. It’s not a skill I possess!

So yesterday I had a really good day of eats, and I had a good gym session. I was starving hungry in the evening but really I was just craving sugar. I’ve been getting a little too good at indulging in the sugar lately! Last night I managed to resist the sugar but still ended up eating 2 rice cakes before bed. I wasn’t overly hungry through the day.

I really do feel like I’m hungrier after swimming than I am after the gym. Which is just ridiculous as I rarely swim more than 20 lengths and it only takes about 20 minutes, so theres no way I burn more calories. It’s something I’ve noticed over the last couple of years, not just a new discovery.

Do you notice an increase in appetite after a workout? Which kind of workout increases your appetite most?

I’m guessing the runners among you really need a good amount of calories after the long runs! I notice an increase in hunger after any gym or swim session, but can walk for miles and eat normally. I guess I should go out and walk more!

P.S. I was looking for a picture on google images, of a hungry fish, and found this:

How freaky is that?

Have a great night guys- I’m off to read my book 🙂

Motivational Monday- Part 1

Let go of the outcome

Focussing on the effort, rather than the outcome can be a huge relief for some. Those of us who are very goal-oriented may find it a struggle, but we all need to try to congratulate ourselves for the steps we make.

If your goal is weight-loss you can:

• Cook healthy dinners for the joy of being healthy, for the relaxing time you can spend in the kitchen listening to music, the enjoyment of experimenting with herbs and new cooking methods (for me this is all cooking methods!)

• Exercise for the stress relief, for the endorphins, for the feeling of strength you can get, for the knowledge that you are helping your heart.

 

If you only focus on the weight-loss: you are missing out on enjoyment, exercise and eating healthily will become a chore, and you will find that once you achieve your goal the lifestyle you’ve adopted will be unsustainable.

If you are looking for motivation for another project then the same rules can apply.

I know that for many of my readers this is common sense, and I’m writing it here to keep me on track! If you can gain anything from this post though; please let me know!

No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope and fear;
But grateful take the good I find,
The best of now and here.
John G. Whittier

 

Keen- Wah

I’m still trying to get used to saying keen-wah and not quin-o-a. My Mum keeps ‘correcting’ me the wrong way too which is funny! I keep telling her but she won’t listen 🙂

Breakfast

Shreddies, cheerios, cinnamon thingies, banana and skimmed milk.

Lunch

Salad of lettuce, cucumber, red pepper and cashews. Toffee yoghurt.

Dinner

Angela’s quinoa salad

I really enjoyed this, and have plenty in the fridge for lunch tomorrow!

I may keep it for my evening meal and stir-fry it with some chicken, we’ll see 🙂

Dessert

Strawberry Fro-yo 🙂 I love this stuff. It doesn’t make up for the envy I feel when my fave American bloggers go to fro-yo shops, but it is good!

I don’t have a broken foot

So today I met a friend of mine who has been doing great at getting to the gym and is making an effort to lose some weight. She’s been pretty overweight for some time and has been doing well. She’s going to Uni in September to study a really intensive course so she wanted to be physically strong and healthy. But she’s broken her foot. As it’s in a cast she can’t even swim! I feel so bad for her. She really is more bothered about how it’s hindered her progress, than about the pain or discomfort.

Lately I have been struggling to get to the gym. I keep making plans to go and making silly excuses or just choosing not to go on the day. It’s not good enough, I will not lose any more weight if I don’t do something active! So tonight I’ve been thinking, ‘I don’t have a broken foot’, and, ‘I am paying £30 a month on a gym membership’ I have no real excuse. The other way to look at it is: Exercise today because tomorrow you might have a broken foot.

What thoughts get you out for your workout?

Here comes the sun . . .

Here comes the sun

And I say it’s alright 🙂

Today was a stunner. After cleaning my kitchen and bathroom last night I decided to clean my parents house today. I do this occasionally as my Mum and Dad work really hard and are very good to me. They also have a Hugh Jass old house that takes a lot of cleaning! The bonus was that I got to spend the afternoon soaking up the sun in their beautiful garden.

Check out that sky 🙂 Bluer than blue.

Yummy snacks. I can’t believ how lovely the cocoa orange nakd bar is, it’s actually like a chocolate orange!

Factor 15, I have ended up with 2 red triangles on my back 🙂 I had factor 50 on my face.

Reading material. I finished ‘Live alone and like it’, I’ll review it tomorrow. Then I started ‘Cooking for Mr Latte’ by Amanda Hesser. I’m liking it so far!

I had company from the chooks:

Do you guys remember that last Friday I stayed up late watching BBC4 and then raved on Saturday about Tom Petty?  Well last night I watched a James Taylor concert on BBC4. I ❤ James Taylor! My favourite song was always Fire and Rain after it was featured pretty heavily in the 80s film Running on Empty (which I adored partly due to River Phoenix being in it!) James Taylor has this kind of soothing quality to his voice that I don’t think I’ve heard, to the same degree, on anyone else. He’s the kind of artist you’d want serenading you or singing you to sleep 😀 This is a clip of the concert I saw last night:

So I was thinking that the sofa with BBC4 was the place to be on a Friday night, and was almost sad that I had a hen night to go to next Friday. It’s ok though as I checked and it’s Elvis next week and I’m not a fan!

Was today a scorcher where you are? Hope you all had a lovely day no matter the weather!

Whiskey?

My morning started out beautifully. I woke naturally just after 7 and made this breakfast.

Breakfast was followed by a leisurely hour in bed reading blogs. Then I did some housework before meeting a friend for coffee. I had mineral water. Well I would’ve done if the cafe had any, they had sparkling and about 6 flavours of water. I had tap water. At least it was free! 🙂

Then I went for a swim before being dragged to a whiskey open day. I don’t like whiskey but my friend’s husband works for the company so we wanted to show support. There ended up being quite a few people there to chat to, and I took some photos happily. I had thought I’d be too shy but there were 2 buses worth of tourists there with their big fancy cameras!

I may not like whiskey but I do think the barrels look mighty pretty!

I had a taste of something with water in it. I didn’t hate it. I didn’t like it either.

A random large wheel.

Tonight I’m off to the cinema to see something about dragons, can’t remember the exact title- it’s a kids film. I’m taking Bear granola nibbles for snacking as well as something from this box:

I ordered the pressie box from natural balance foods so that I could try everything 😀

Reader question: what’s your tipple of choice? I used to be a vodka and diet coke girl but I rarely drink at all nowadays.

Have a great evening everyone!

*I just noticed that wordpress published this while I was halfway through writing it- how annoying!

You Guys!

They cancelled Ghost Whisperer.

I’ve taken the news badly.

How shall I cope without the swishy, wavy hair envy?

Not to mention the lipgloss admiration!

and the clothes . . . . and the antique shop with the beautiful things . . . and the husband.

Anyone who watches will also miss Jim, as he was so adorable.

They were really the perfect on-screen couple.

You know I totally lived my romantic life vicariously through them.

I never really cared about the whole ghost storyline. I only watched for the hair, clothes, gloss, husband . . .

Now, I could have dealt with this news with food. Not quite. I took to my bed for a couple of hours, had cereal for tea and then moved on. It’s been quite a relaxing evening actually 🙂

Some Foods

Dinner last night

Linda McCartney sausages, sweet potato fries and some veg. I was NOT a fan of the sausages. I’ll be sticking to Quorn ones after I finish the rest of these.

Breakfast

Mmm this was the first time I tried strawberries on my porridge, it will NOT be the last!!

Lunch

Seeded bread toast and marmite, with sesame seeds thrown on for fun. I ❤ marmite!

Nightnight people! Don’t dream of ghosts, dream of having JLH hair instead 🙂