I did it! I made the switch! I'm still not convinced and may come running back to blogger at any moment, but for now you can all find and follow me on wordpress!
http://wedolifeasithappens.wordpress.com/
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Tuesday, May 07, 2013
Making a move!
Sorry I haven't been posting much of anything lately, I've been helping J set up his very own page for his metal casting. We have set it up on wordpress so I was considering making the change from blogger to wordpress myself with this little blog, that way we will all be on the same thing and J can also post on this all using the same account... I'm not convinced wordpress is for me really though - 1. It doesn't work on my work mac, 2. It isn't as creative with the backgrounds etc as blogger and 3. I don't know if I can be bothered, lol! Anyway, I have a few posts and bit saved that I want to share with you all, so as soon as I decide whether or not to make the switch I will let you all know :) and don't worry, I'll transfer across all my posts etc if I do move, and I'll link this one to the new one... if there will be a new one!
Friday, May 03, 2013
Mountstewart Antiques and Art Fair
I am ever so excited for the Antiques and Art Fair at Mountstewart tomorrow! Mountstewart is one of my favourite places (Turf loves it too)! We have raided the family heirloom cupboard (that one that leads to Narnia hasn't got a patch on ours...) and are taking a few bits and pieces with us to be valued.
The regular Mountstewart car boot sale is on tomorrow from 9am-12pm, while the Antiques and Art Fair and the Second Hand Book Fair will be taking place from 10am-5pm Saturday-Monday. I might end up going all three days just to get a good look at everything! Lets hope the weather holds up.
Tonight we are heading to a wedding so of course a new dress was in order - a lovely vintage swing style red one - and a new (to me) fur was purchased, which is faux of course, I'm not a heathen! I spent last night putting a small stitch in the dress... it was rather a tad too low cut for me I'm afraid, I'm not one to have my bits on display, so I put a small stitch in the V to make it a bit more decent.
All in all it's set to be a pretty good weekend for us, and we hope it is for you too!
The regular Mountstewart car boot sale is on tomorrow from 9am-12pm, while the Antiques and Art Fair and the Second Hand Book Fair will be taking place from 10am-5pm Saturday-Monday. I might end up going all three days just to get a good look at everything! Lets hope the weather holds up.
Tonight we are heading to a wedding so of course a new dress was in order - a lovely vintage swing style red one - and a new (to me) fur was purchased, which is faux of course, I'm not a heathen! I spent last night putting a small stitch in the dress... it was rather a tad too low cut for me I'm afraid, I'm not one to have my bits on display, so I put a small stitch in the V to make it a bit more decent.
All in all it's set to be a pretty good weekend for us, and we hope it is for you too!
Wednesday, May 01, 2013
The Great Wall - Rising to the challenge
It will be two years ago this October since I set off on the adventure of a lifetime to trek the Great Wall of China for Brake, the road safety charity in memory of my brother. I covered the trip for the travel newspaper I work for, but thought I'd share it on here along with a few more pictures. I firmly believe that everyone should do something like this in their lifetime, there is nothing better for giving you a better perspective on your life and those you want in it, especially after a traumatic period in your life...
This is the first of a two-part series about my trip to China! I headed off on a charity trek along the Great Wall of China and found out that it’s a lot more challenging than many might expect...
Stretching 6000km in a dotted line across China, the Great Wall was begun in the 5th Century BC. As it snakes across the mountains it conjures up a sense of history, which is difficult to grasp until you have had the opportunity to experience it.
My trek across this sleeping reptile was very varied, we passed through woodland and terraced farmland, following the contours of the beautiful hills and mountains in remote areas north of Beijing. We followed old sections as well as restored sections with smooth flagstones and lots of steps - both with very different difficulties... jostling with crowds of tourists and school children on the restored sections or navigating crumbling stones, no side walls and sharp drops down steep mountainsides on the old wall.
The challenge was physically demanding but we were well rewarded with some fantastic scenery, breathtaking views and a fascinating first-hand insight into a rich culture and history.
Days one and two were filled with travelling. I took a mid-morning flight from Belfast City to London Heathrow with bmi... when travelling with so much gear (liquids, walking poles etc), all of which had to be checked in, it was much cheaper to travel with an airline who included a generous checked-in baggage allowance in the price of the flight. I had a couple of hours to kill at Heathrow before meeting with the rest of the Skyline group, so after a quick walk-round to find out where our meeting point was located I parked my luggage at an empty table in one of the cafes and grabbed a coffee and a hot filled roll. Food glorious food! When I ate that roll, little did I know it would be the last piece of proper bread I would see for 10 days!
It wasn't long before I spotted some people hanging around near the meeting point who looked like they were going on a trek... dressed in walking trousers, heavy walking boots and a warm fleece/coat (similar to myself). I went to join them and found out, after some introductions round the little circle, that we were all signed up to the Geat Wall of China trek with Skyline.
The group leaders showed up pretty promptly and got us all checked in, leaving us with instructions on what gate to meet at and what time. The key rule... DO NOT MISS THE FLIGHT.
I was very kindly given entrance to the Emirates Lounge and enjoyed a lovely cup of tea, some sandwiches and sweet treats in comfort, away from the hustle and bustle of the airport lounges/shopping areas. There is nothing more pleasant than enjoying a cup of tea (from a proper cup with a saucer!) and reading a book in peace before a long flight. I'm not a great flier so that little quiet time chilled me right out.
To be honest I don't remember much about the flight from Heathrow to Dubai as I spent the majority of it sleeping, with small intervals of eating. I love a full service airline... that is the life!
We only had 30 minutes between landing at Dubai and taking off for Beijing so we had to be off the plane pretty sharpish and run through the connecting baggage checks to make it which, thankfully, we did. I spent the Dubai-Beijing leg of the journey much as I had spent the Heathrow-Dubai leg... sleeping with intervals of eating, although I did manage to squeeze in a movie too.
We landed in Beijing on day two of our trek (because of the time difference) just as the sun was setting, and the journey to our hotel (The Dong Fang) wasn't very long. Everyone was surprisingly hungry I say suprisingly because we had all had two meals on each flight... four meals in total already), and the hotel had prepared a traditional Peking Duck welcome feast for us all. The Skyline staff told us to enjoy it as the food for the rest of the trip was "unpredictable", to which we all laughed... we weren't laughing two days later when we thought we may have unknowingly eaten squirrel in one of the villages!
After our feast of proper traditional Chinese food - I've always loved my local Chinese takeaway, but I've realised nothing can beat freshly cooked Chinese food, at home the takeaways use A LOT of sugar - some of the group (me included) decided to go off in search of beer... a local beer to be exact, and we found it... just down the road from the Dong Fang, yay! It was lovely... cool, crisp, refreshing and only 50p... we splurged on two each before turning in for the night, deciding it was best not to blow all our budgets on the first night.
Day three came quicker than I expected, but after all the sleep I got on the flights I was fresh and raring to go. Breakfast at the Dong Fang was another feast... a buffet of eggs (cooked several ways), meats, fried rolls, sweet bread, cereals and sticky pastries. This was were I realised chopsticks were not just used at dinner! I was pretty confident with chopsticks before I went to China so I coped okay with my scrambled egg and sausage... although some of the group gave in and asked if there was a possibility of a knife and fork (by the end of the trip and knife and fork was something completely unheard of, we were all pros).
I quickly learned that chopsticks and small rice bowls are the staple tableware. The Chinese don't use plates. The breakfast at the Dong Fang was an exception, with it's buffet style it was highly Westernised and as such we had the option of plates and cutlery. The general Chinese custom is to have everything put on the table in large bowls, each person then spoons some rice into their own small bowl. Everyone shares food from the larger 'share' dishes of meat and vegetables and eats them straight from the dish, no need to plate up!
I was very pleased when I impressed the waitress of the Chinese restaurant I visited when on a family holiday in Tenerife last month - I asked for chopsticks and a rice bowl... and thanked her in Chinese. Perhaps showing-off just a tad!
We had no time to spare after breakfast as it was straight back to the room for our baggage. The trek was imminent! We made the morning journey out of Beijing, heading for Huangyaguan and caught our first glimpse of the Great Wall ahead of us. We arrived at our accommodation in Huangyaguan, it was a monastry-style hostel at the foot of a mountain, the Great Wall running high along the mountain top... our rooms were arranged in a square with a courtyard in the middle and we could see the Great Wall high on the mountain from the grassy courtyard.
We were assigned a room buddy, who we would be sharing rooms with throughout the trek. My room buddy was Jeannie, a lovely lady who had signed up to the trek to raise money for Breast Cancer after battling with the disease herself, a very brave lady indeed!
After checking into our rooms and enjoying some lunch, we set off to the first section of the trek, which was to give us a good indication of the challenges ahead. The trekking time for the day was estimated at around three to four hours. The Huangyanguan section of the wall was originally built in 557 AD, and was repaired for the first time in the Ming Dynasty with bricks and for the second time in 1985. This section is noted for being particularly stunning because of it's water towers, which have all been restored to their former magestic glory. We completed this section of the trek in two hours, well under the suggested time and were pretty pleased with ourselves.
Later in the trek, as we progressed onto the old wall, we realised why we made such light work of our first trek day... it was smooth, with side walls and didn't crumble as you walked, oh how I longed for side walls!
Since we finished our trek sooner than expected there was time for a nap/beer in the courtyard before dinner. I chose the nap... strange but true! Dinner that night had been arranged in a local restaurant. We did a whip round of our table for a kitty and took advantage of the local beverages.
Dinner was lovely, sweet and sour pork like you have never tasted from your local takeaway, beef and potato stew, kung po chicken loaded with chillis and peanuts, light as a feather rice and several other vegetable and meat dishes.
After dinner we all headed outside and pulled up chairs round the campfire... the nights in China can be cold, very cold, so we all pulled our chairs close to the campfire and dipped into the kitty for another round. We ended the night with a game of campfire charades.
Day four saw us up early for a breakfast of steamed flat sweet dumplings (kind of like pancakes) and jam... there was also some boiled eggs. We loaded our bags onto the bag bus (which took all our large bags to the next accommodation, we took smaller bags with our daily essentials with us) and headed out for the second part of the trek. We hiked up the mountain and along a restored section of the wall. By mid morning we had reached the bottom of Heavens Ladder, a steep (and I mean steep) climb of over 200 steps. This was a tough section, but it's well worth the effort as the views from the top are out of this world... I guess that's why they call it Heavens Ladder - a view from the heavens over the Yanshan Mountains and the region below.
After a well deserved breather at the top (and designating a ‘rest-room’ spot for ladies and men – this was new to us all, but necessary) we headed on up the mountain further to join the top of the ridge where our path then wound it’s way around sections of the old wall. Some parts of this section of the wall were in very poor condition and impossible to walk on so we followed a narrow path along the side, but other parts were well enough still to walk on, and so we did… after climbing up some wall rubble to reach the top! This was the first taste I had of standing on a very narrow 10ft high (it could well have been higher) wall with no side walls, completely open to the elements and to the steep drop down a mountain on either side. This part of the wall was in poor condition but still walkable, the trick was to keep your head down and keep on moving, if you stop or look about you, there is the chance of some vertigo! I have never suffered from vertigo or a fear of heights before, but that day I certainly did!
In the afternoon we began our decent, winding our way down the narrow path on the mountain side. We stopped for lunch when we reached a small rocky clearing… our packed lunch for the trek consisted of the same thing each day, four slices of bread with a small bit of cheese and ham in each… and a banana or other fruit. To be honest I wasn’t 100 per cent keen on the sandwiches some days, but on others they were lovely! On the days the sandwiches weren’t so good I tucked into one of the snickers-type chocolate bars that I had brought along with me. Everyone seemed to have brought along a multipack of some sort of chocolate snack or energy bar… and when we all ran out we had to rely on Eric and his never-ending supply of Snickers bars – lifesavers!
When we reached the bottom of the mountain we made our way through the valley to the village of Longmen where we would be spending the night at local family houses. The family were lovely and did everything they could to make us welcome and comfortable. The accommodation was basic, and we bunked four to a room, pairing up with two other room buddies. After a day of trekking and makeshift ‘rest rooms’ we were all glad to see proper toilet facilities… you would be shocked to learn that toilet facilities all over China are normally a hole in the ground where you… ahem… squat. This includes all the public loos too! These toilets had obviously been fitted with Western visitors in mind.
Everyone was ravenous that night and we all tucked in to the now familiar fayre… including beef and potato stew, spicy white fish, kung po chicken, chilli vegetables, sweet and sour pork, an unidentified meat (no one could recognise the taste) and boiled rice. We noticed the beds around the side of the room we were eating in and realised that this must be where the family slept. It was very humbling to see an old man just walk across the room and lie on one of the beds to sleep while we ate. He was completely undisturbed by it all.
The family had set up a campfire for anyone who wanted to sit up and have a beer. I was absolutely beat that night, so headed straight to my bed with a full stomach and a weary body. The estimated trek time for the day had been 5 – 7 hours… we took 9, no wonder I was tired! There was no heat in the room so I dug out my sleeping bag (something I hadn’t yet had to use) and was glad to snuggle down into it’s warmth, like a giant caterpillar.
This is the first of a two-part series about my trip to China! I headed off on a charity trek along the Great Wall of China and found out that it’s a lot more challenging than many might expect...
Stretching 6000km in a dotted line across China, the Great Wall was begun in the 5th Century BC. As it snakes across the mountains it conjures up a sense of history, which is difficult to grasp until you have had the opportunity to experience it.
My trek across this sleeping reptile was very varied, we passed through woodland and terraced farmland, following the contours of the beautiful hills and mountains in remote areas north of Beijing. We followed old sections as well as restored sections with smooth flagstones and lots of steps - both with very different difficulties... jostling with crowds of tourists and school children on the restored sections or navigating crumbling stones, no side walls and sharp drops down steep mountainsides on the old wall.
The challenge was physically demanding but we were well rewarded with some fantastic scenery, breathtaking views and a fascinating first-hand insight into a rich culture and history.
Days one and two were filled with travelling. I took a mid-morning flight from Belfast City to London Heathrow with bmi... when travelling with so much gear (liquids, walking poles etc), all of which had to be checked in, it was much cheaper to travel with an airline who included a generous checked-in baggage allowance in the price of the flight. I had a couple of hours to kill at Heathrow before meeting with the rest of the Skyline group, so after a quick walk-round to find out where our meeting point was located I parked my luggage at an empty table in one of the cafes and grabbed a coffee and a hot filled roll. Food glorious food! When I ate that roll, little did I know it would be the last piece of proper bread I would see for 10 days!
It wasn't long before I spotted some people hanging around near the meeting point who looked like they were going on a trek... dressed in walking trousers, heavy walking boots and a warm fleece/coat (similar to myself). I went to join them and found out, after some introductions round the little circle, that we were all signed up to the Geat Wall of China trek with Skyline.
The group leaders showed up pretty promptly and got us all checked in, leaving us with instructions on what gate to meet at and what time. The key rule... DO NOT MISS THE FLIGHT.
I was very kindly given entrance to the Emirates Lounge and enjoyed a lovely cup of tea, some sandwiches and sweet treats in comfort, away from the hustle and bustle of the airport lounges/shopping areas. There is nothing more pleasant than enjoying a cup of tea (from a proper cup with a saucer!) and reading a book in peace before a long flight. I'm not a great flier so that little quiet time chilled me right out.
To be honest I don't remember much about the flight from Heathrow to Dubai as I spent the majority of it sleeping, with small intervals of eating. I love a full service airline... that is the life!
We only had 30 minutes between landing at Dubai and taking off for Beijing so we had to be off the plane pretty sharpish and run through the connecting baggage checks to make it which, thankfully, we did. I spent the Dubai-Beijing leg of the journey much as I had spent the Heathrow-Dubai leg... sleeping with intervals of eating, although I did manage to squeeze in a movie too.
We landed in Beijing on day two of our trek (because of the time difference) just as the sun was setting, and the journey to our hotel (The Dong Fang) wasn't very long. Everyone was surprisingly hungry I say suprisingly because we had all had two meals on each flight... four meals in total already), and the hotel had prepared a traditional Peking Duck welcome feast for us all. The Skyline staff told us to enjoy it as the food for the rest of the trip was "unpredictable", to which we all laughed... we weren't laughing two days later when we thought we may have unknowingly eaten squirrel in one of the villages!
After our feast of proper traditional Chinese food - I've always loved my local Chinese takeaway, but I've realised nothing can beat freshly cooked Chinese food, at home the takeaways use A LOT of sugar - some of the group (me included) decided to go off in search of beer... a local beer to be exact, and we found it... just down the road from the Dong Fang, yay! It was lovely... cool, crisp, refreshing and only 50p... we splurged on two each before turning in for the night, deciding it was best not to blow all our budgets on the first night.
Day three came quicker than I expected, but after all the sleep I got on the flights I was fresh and raring to go. Breakfast at the Dong Fang was another feast... a buffet of eggs (cooked several ways), meats, fried rolls, sweet bread, cereals and sticky pastries. This was were I realised chopsticks were not just used at dinner! I was pretty confident with chopsticks before I went to China so I coped okay with my scrambled egg and sausage... although some of the group gave in and asked if there was a possibility of a knife and fork (by the end of the trip and knife and fork was something completely unheard of, we were all pros).
I quickly learned that chopsticks and small rice bowls are the staple tableware. The Chinese don't use plates. The breakfast at the Dong Fang was an exception, with it's buffet style it was highly Westernised and as such we had the option of plates and cutlery. The general Chinese custom is to have everything put on the table in large bowls, each person then spoons some rice into their own small bowl. Everyone shares food from the larger 'share' dishes of meat and vegetables and eats them straight from the dish, no need to plate up!
I was very pleased when I impressed the waitress of the Chinese restaurant I visited when on a family holiday in Tenerife last month - I asked for chopsticks and a rice bowl... and thanked her in Chinese. Perhaps showing-off just a tad!
We had no time to spare after breakfast as it was straight back to the room for our baggage. The trek was imminent! We made the morning journey out of Beijing, heading for Huangyaguan and caught our first glimpse of the Great Wall ahead of us. We arrived at our accommodation in Huangyaguan, it was a monastry-style hostel at the foot of a mountain, the Great Wall running high along the mountain top... our rooms were arranged in a square with a courtyard in the middle and we could see the Great Wall high on the mountain from the grassy courtyard.
We were assigned a room buddy, who we would be sharing rooms with throughout the trek. My room buddy was Jeannie, a lovely lady who had signed up to the trek to raise money for Breast Cancer after battling with the disease herself, a very brave lady indeed!
After checking into our rooms and enjoying some lunch, we set off to the first section of the trek, which was to give us a good indication of the challenges ahead. The trekking time for the day was estimated at around three to four hours. The Huangyanguan section of the wall was originally built in 557 AD, and was repaired for the first time in the Ming Dynasty with bricks and for the second time in 1985. This section is noted for being particularly stunning because of it's water towers, which have all been restored to their former magestic glory. We completed this section of the trek in two hours, well under the suggested time and were pretty pleased with ourselves.
Later in the trek, as we progressed onto the old wall, we realised why we made such light work of our first trek day... it was smooth, with side walls and didn't crumble as you walked, oh how I longed for side walls!
Since we finished our trek sooner than expected there was time for a nap/beer in the courtyard before dinner. I chose the nap... strange but true! Dinner that night had been arranged in a local restaurant. We did a whip round of our table for a kitty and took advantage of the local beverages.
Dinner was lovely, sweet and sour pork like you have never tasted from your local takeaway, beef and potato stew, kung po chicken loaded with chillis and peanuts, light as a feather rice and several other vegetable and meat dishes.
After dinner we all headed outside and pulled up chairs round the campfire... the nights in China can be cold, very cold, so we all pulled our chairs close to the campfire and dipped into the kitty for another round. We ended the night with a game of campfire charades.
Day four saw us up early for a breakfast of steamed flat sweet dumplings (kind of like pancakes) and jam... there was also some boiled eggs. We loaded our bags onto the bag bus (which took all our large bags to the next accommodation, we took smaller bags with our daily essentials with us) and headed out for the second part of the trek. We hiked up the mountain and along a restored section of the wall. By mid morning we had reached the bottom of Heavens Ladder, a steep (and I mean steep) climb of over 200 steps. This was a tough section, but it's well worth the effort as the views from the top are out of this world... I guess that's why they call it Heavens Ladder - a view from the heavens over the Yanshan Mountains and the region below.
After a well deserved breather at the top (and designating a ‘rest-room’ spot for ladies and men – this was new to us all, but necessary) we headed on up the mountain further to join the top of the ridge where our path then wound it’s way around sections of the old wall. Some parts of this section of the wall were in very poor condition and impossible to walk on so we followed a narrow path along the side, but other parts were well enough still to walk on, and so we did… after climbing up some wall rubble to reach the top! This was the first taste I had of standing on a very narrow 10ft high (it could well have been higher) wall with no side walls, completely open to the elements and to the steep drop down a mountain on either side. This part of the wall was in poor condition but still walkable, the trick was to keep your head down and keep on moving, if you stop or look about you, there is the chance of some vertigo! I have never suffered from vertigo or a fear of heights before, but that day I certainly did!
In the afternoon we began our decent, winding our way down the narrow path on the mountain side. We stopped for lunch when we reached a small rocky clearing… our packed lunch for the trek consisted of the same thing each day, four slices of bread with a small bit of cheese and ham in each… and a banana or other fruit. To be honest I wasn’t 100 per cent keen on the sandwiches some days, but on others they were lovely! On the days the sandwiches weren’t so good I tucked into one of the snickers-type chocolate bars that I had brought along with me. Everyone seemed to have brought along a multipack of some sort of chocolate snack or energy bar… and when we all ran out we had to rely on Eric and his never-ending supply of Snickers bars – lifesavers!
When we reached the bottom of the mountain we made our way through the valley to the village of Longmen where we would be spending the night at local family houses. The family were lovely and did everything they could to make us welcome and comfortable. The accommodation was basic, and we bunked four to a room, pairing up with two other room buddies. After a day of trekking and makeshift ‘rest rooms’ we were all glad to see proper toilet facilities… you would be shocked to learn that toilet facilities all over China are normally a hole in the ground where you… ahem… squat. This includes all the public loos too! These toilets had obviously been fitted with Western visitors in mind.
Everyone was ravenous that night and we all tucked in to the now familiar fayre… including beef and potato stew, spicy white fish, kung po chicken, chilli vegetables, sweet and sour pork, an unidentified meat (no one could recognise the taste) and boiled rice. We noticed the beds around the side of the room we were eating in and realised that this must be where the family slept. It was very humbling to see an old man just walk across the room and lie on one of the beds to sleep while we ate. He was completely undisturbed by it all.
The family had set up a campfire for anyone who wanted to sit up and have a beer. I was absolutely beat that night, so headed straight to my bed with a full stomach and a weary body. The estimated trek time for the day had been 5 – 7 hours… we took 9, no wonder I was tired! There was no heat in the room so I dug out my sleeping bag (something I hadn’t yet had to use) and was glad to snuggle down into it’s warmth, like a giant caterpillar.
Monday, April 29, 2013
World's Worst Attempt at Parallel Parking...
This video has had me laughing all day, so I thought I'd share it with you all...
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Lists are taking over our lives!
I am a list person... I make lists for everything an anything (although I should point out that the pic above is not one of my lists), but for the past week and a half the amount of lists made in our house has been ridiculous! The count down is now on to get everything ready for November... it may seem like a long way away, but trust me it isn't. Last July when we got engaged I thought I'd have everything done and dusted by December... now we are in to April and I've still masses to do!
It's the little things that take up a lot of the time, so we sat down last week and made a list of all the little things we still have left to do - for instance, we completely forgot the we need new shoes!
We need to get the invitations sent out pronto so that we get the RSVP and menu choices back in plenty of time to make up the table plan and the hotel needs at least 10 weeks notice of the menu choices... and J has to find his birth certificate so we can get the marriage license... it's all the little things that need to come together!
We've also been considering taking on a renovation project... so have been working out the figures for that!
So I haven't been keeping up with the squat challenge, in fact I never made it past Day 1, but I do want to give it a good shot, so I'm getting back on the wagon with it today I'm starting all over again. I have also been quite naughty and been a little too flexible with my syns... back on track now though which feels good!
Friday, April 19, 2013
Happy Birthday to You!
Today our little puppy/unicorn is 1 year old! He's growing so fast *sniff sniff*
Happy Birthday little man!
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Goodlife Sausages and the 30 Day Squat Challenge
I popped in and bought a box of the Goodlife Glamorgan Sausages - had a look at the syns online, but could only find the ones with cheese in them... also tried the syns calculator, but it would only let me add one free food. The main ingredients are onion, leek, potato and cauliflower - so it isn't really acurrate to use the syns calculator. I would guess they were about 2 syns if I only syn the synful ingredients - rapseed oil and rice starch. I don't think there's much of either in them.
I've also started the 30 Day Squat Challenge...
I've also started the 30 Day Squat Challenge...
50 squats DONE... not looking forward to the 250 in 30 days time... I'll keep you all updated on my progress though :)
J's furnace is now up and running and he has a fair few ingots created already... he's now on to making the moulds to create his masterpieces's... I'm very proud!
Week Two of the Scan Bran Challenge Day 1
So I'm now into my second week of the Scan Bran Challenge... the idea being to add more fibre and less useless calories into your diet on the Slimming World plan and kick start your metabolism... I had my weigh-in last night and had lost 2lbs... I am very happy with that, would have been better if I had gotten 3lbs off, but 2lbs if definitely better than nothing, or worse - a gain!
I'm sticking with the Challenge this week too, I've enjoyed getting so much from my Healthy Extras... in fact I don't know how I would manage to stay on plan without them!
I love the Good Life veggie sausages (the vegan ones without cheese) but can only ever find the syns online for the cheese filled ones. I'm going to do a little bit of top up shopping (yoghurts, jellies, veggies etc) so I'll buy a box and run them through the syn calculator online. They are delicious, and should be pretty low in syns, so fingers crossed!
I'm sticking with the Challenge this week too, I've enjoyed getting so much from my Healthy Extras... in fact I don't know how I would manage to stay on plan without them!
I love the Good Life veggie sausages (the vegan ones without cheese) but can only ever find the syns online for the cheese filled ones. I'm going to do a little bit of top up shopping (yoghurts, jellies, veggies etc) so I'll buy a box and run them through the syn calculator online. They are delicious, and should be pretty low in syns, so fingers crossed!
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Scan Bran Challenge Day 7
So this is the final day of my Scan Bran Challenge... I really should call it the Finn Crisp Challenge! If you are giving this a go too, but hate Scan Bran, just substitute it for Ryvita or some other high fibre HEb crisp bread. I've actually really enjoyed the challenge and will continue using the Finn Crisp next week as well!
Just to give you a better idea of how I've been doing the challenge, here is my food diary from last Thursday -
Breakfast - Three Finn Crisp with three Laughing Cow Extra Light + coffee with 15ml skim milk
Lunch - Syn free noodles + Spelga fat free yoghurt + glass of water
Afternoon Snack - Three Finn Crisp with three Laughing Cow Extra Light + coffee with 15ml skim milk
Tea - Slimming World Chips + two Tesco Galmorgan Meat Free Sausage + Peas + Oh So Lean Peppered Sauce + Glass Diet Coke
Evening Snack - Sugar Free Hartley's Jelly
Supper - Two Alpen Light Double Chocolate Bars + tea with 15ml skim milk
Healthy Extras -
6 Finn Crisp = 1 HEb
2 Aplen Light Double Chocolate Bars = 1 HEb
45ml skim milk = allowed 250ml as HEa
6 Laughing Cow Extra Light = 1 HEa
Syns -
Tesco Galmorgan Meat Free Sausages - 3 1/2 syns each = 7 syns
Oh So Lean Peppered Sauce - 2 1/2 syns for tub = 1 syn
Sugar Free Hartley's Jelly - 1/2 syn
Total = 8 1/2 syns
I do Green Days, so all my meals are meat free. It is the only way that works for me. When I eat meat I put on weight, when I don't I lose it... strange but true!
I'm keeping everything crossed for a loss tonight now that I have changed back to doing Green Days and I'll do an update tomorrow on tonight's weigh-in!
Just to give you a better idea of how I've been doing the challenge, here is my food diary from last Thursday -
Breakfast - Three Finn Crisp with three Laughing Cow Extra Light + coffee with 15ml skim milk
Lunch - Syn free noodles + Spelga fat free yoghurt + glass of water
Afternoon Snack - Three Finn Crisp with three Laughing Cow Extra Light + coffee with 15ml skim milk
Tea - Slimming World Chips + two Tesco Galmorgan Meat Free Sausage + Peas + Oh So Lean Peppered Sauce + Glass Diet Coke
Evening Snack - Sugar Free Hartley's Jelly
Supper - Two Alpen Light Double Chocolate Bars + tea with 15ml skim milk
Healthy Extras -
6 Finn Crisp = 1 HEb
2 Aplen Light Double Chocolate Bars = 1 HEb
45ml skim milk = allowed 250ml as HEa
6 Laughing Cow Extra Light = 1 HEa
Syns -
Tesco Galmorgan Meat Free Sausages - 3 1/2 syns each = 7 syns
Oh So Lean Peppered Sauce - 2 1/2 syns for tub = 1 syn
Sugar Free Hartley's Jelly - 1/2 syn
Total = 8 1/2 syns
I do Green Days, so all my meals are meat free. It is the only way that works for me. When I eat meat I put on weight, when I don't I lose it... strange but true!
I'm keeping everything crossed for a loss tonight now that I have changed back to doing Green Days and I'll do an update tomorrow on tonight's weigh-in!
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