Reasons to be Cheerful: Happy New Year #R2BC

Our hostess with the mostest for January is the lovely Michelle and I will be back in charge in February! Hopefully more folks will come on board again now Christmas is over.. Here are my first reasons to be cheerful of 2017:

1) Welcoming the New Year in

We have a tradition of staying up and watching the fireworks from London and this year's display was definitely one to put a smile on all our faces:

2) A New Year walk

Another family tradition guaranteed to put smiles on faces is a New Year's Day walk up the Helm. Fresh air, great company and stunning views what more could you ask for?

In search of MORE in 2017

Most people end one year resolving for less of things in the next year. I know that I normally do and I generally fail! Looking back at this time last year I only achieved one goal which was to run the Brathay Half Marathon:

So what do I want MORE of in 2017? Well its the things that make me happy... So..

More Family Fun

We have plenty of adventures together which is great for all of us. This means more spending time outdoors:

Spending more time playing games:

More Running

Running is good for physical and mental health and I have not done enough this half of the year! Its even better when we do it as a family at parkrun so here is to more running:

I have just signed us all up to plenty of Virtual Races to inspire us all!  

What do you want more of in 2017?

My hopes for 2016

Please note avoidance of word resolutions as I always fail these!

I am hoping that 2016 will be both a healthy and happy one for all of my family. There are a lots of strands to helping this to happen:

1) All working together

When my children do their bit and help with chores then more gets done, I feel more relaxed and the house looks a lot better:

2) Getting organised

Despite moving in the house in June a lot of our possessions are still at my parents' as we haven't got fully organised yet. Things are starting to change with plans for new shelving etc so that every room in the house can look as neat and tidy as I got my son's floor this week:

3) Healthy and happy children

My children have shot up over the last year and have been pretty lucky health wise (apart from my son breaking his nose!). Here is hoping they continue to thrive physically and mature into the kind and generous young people they show they have the potential to be:

4) Healthier family

I have to admit that as a family our diets in 2015 were far from perfect. So I need to lead by example and encourage a higher consumption of the good stuff and discourage the naughty stuff. To kick us off I have given up booze once again for January (this time in aid of Alcohol Concern) and I am avoiding unnecessary sugar. I will not buy junk food for anyone so the children will just have to earn pocket money if they want sweets! Homemade cakes will be allowed though as I am not a complete meanie... I have even dusted off my multi layer steamer so that we have a wider range of veggies:

5) Shape up for the half marathon

There is no way I will run 13.1 miles in May within the cutoff time if I don't get into a lot better physical shape. So I got my daughter to photograph me in my lycra tonight and I've both weighed (eek!), taken body fat measurements (eek!) and used the tape measure (eek!) to record where I am now. Not posting the measurements in public but here is the embarrassing photo from today showing the starting point:

What are your hopes for 2016?

Challenge 2014

Oh dear I just looked at last year's resolutions. Let's just say it doesn't look good...

1) Carry on getting in shape and actually lose some weight

Well this one isn't a complete white wash. I have actually dropped nearly a dress size though the scales haven't shifted very much.

2) Learn to knit

Nothing to see here...

3) Sort the house out

Well I did get my son's room looking a lot better when I swapped all the kids' storage around. He does now mostly have floorspace to play on! My daughter's room has been a work in progress since we started converting it to a tween room. Hopefully it won't be long until her's is finished.

As for the rest I sort it and it goes backwards... Oops need to do better!

4) Read another 100 books

Well this doesn't appear to have succeeded this year. Apparently I have only read 69! I am sure I did better than that but maybe reading 500 page books isn't the best way to go about it..


So how about 2014 is it the same old same old or something new?


1) Carry on getting in shape


I am ignoring the scales as I agree with Thinking Slimmer that its the size you are not the weight you are that counts. So my challenge is to get this belt off the loosest notch:

Added to this I've signed up to LETJOG14 to see if I can keep on running and do the equivalent of Land's End to John O'Groats over the course of the year.. I couldn't even run for 5 minutes this time last year so I am amazed I am even contemplating it!

2) Operation House

I need to just keep on trying! Small steps at a time so that I can happily have friends round... Need to get children trying harder to put things away to help me though!

3) Family Time

We have such lovely games and toys in this house we need to make sure we spend more time playing with them. So its going to be less TV and more time having fun together.

What are hopes for 2014? These are some of the weight loss slimpods that have been helping me:

Fresh Start

Home today properly for the first time since December 22nd when we set off down south to visit friends! Since Christmas Eve we have been staying with my parents as there was so much going on it made sense to remain there. I have nipped home a few times to collect or deposit things but we are now all home to stay.

 

The advantages of a long stay away are twofold, firstly I am feeling relaxed and have more energy for 2013, secondly we have no naughty leftovers at home to tempt me! So now it's time to knuckle down for the new year.

 

I have tried to make sure none of our bits from Christmas are left cluttering up the already crowded sitting room. Tomorrow my mum will help my daughter sort out her chaotic room so we can see what she really wants to keep. I have to decide which room to tackle first on my own declutter mission. This may well be the kitchen as I am doing a lot more cooking from scratch to be healthier.

 

The healthy eating has kicked off with my new Hairy Dieters cookbook. It was a modified breakfast of crumpets and honey as my healthy food delivery hadn't arrived. Once my fridge was refilled with plenty of low calorie foods I set off to rustle up a Golden Vegetable Soup:

 

Because my children never eat my homemade soups I have now got soup already to reheat for the next few days. It was yummy and I resisted having bread with it and still felt full.

 

At tea time my children didn't fancy joining me with salmon with chilli ginger sauce so I managed to cook myself one meal and them a quick pasta dinner. It's useful having a stacking steamer to do pasta and new potatoes at the same time. I cooked a half portion of the recipe as I had a double pack of salmon and I'll have same dinner tomorrow - though maybe different accompaniments. There was a slight change to the recipe as I didn't have a chilli but my flakes seemed to add just the right amount of heat for my taste:

 

 

So as far as day one of healthy eating goes its a good one. Just need to work out what to have later for my last calorie allowance! Tomorrow I will have to think about exercising other than housework too.

 

It's that time of year!

End of another year and time to look back at what I posted at the end of the last one. Looking back at what I'd hoped to achieve it isn't looking good!




Lose 2 stone - oops! I'm in better shape but weight not changed much!

Learn to finish one job before starting another - maybe I'm too old to learn this one...

Learn to knit - this is back on the list for this year

 

 

Read 100 books in a year - looks like this is the only one I've achieved!

 

Guess I need to think about 2013 now.... I thought I'd picked some simple ones last time so let's do better....

• Carry on getting in shape and actually lose some weight!
• Learn to knit for those little grey cells
• Sort the house out
• Read another 100 books

What are you challenging yourself to do next year?

Festive Friday!

Wishing all my lovely readers a Happy Christmas and a healthy 2013! For some of you it's Yule or Hanukah so best wishes for your celebrations whatever they may be. Lets hope the next year brings much happiness to us all.

 

 

 

Reasons to be Cheerful XXXII ( #R2BC )

Well we have made it to 2012 so I guess that is a reason to be cheerful in itself! This is the 1st anniversary of the blog hop so even more reason to smile (and Michelle has a giveaway for all those who take part in January). But here are my more mundane reasons to be cheerful:

1) Pride in my children

It's been a very wet week but it hasn't put my children off going out and doing things. On Friday they did their longest bike ride to date and we all got soaked but they did it!

We also did a 4 mile hike on New Year's Eve and got very wet and very muddy but it hasn't put them off hiking!

2) New Year's Eve

It was a very quiet and soberish New Year's Eve for us but a very enjoyable evening rounded off by watching the amazing London fireworks from the comfort of the sofa whilst drinking Prosecco:

2011... resolutions or not?

Is there any point in making New Year's resolutions? How many will be broken before the end of January? Hands up if you make the same ones every year only to fail to keep them...


So maybe we should make positive affirmations instead? Then we are less likely to fail and maybe actually get somewhere!


Here are mine:

I will get into better shape!

I will finish moving into my new home!

I will encourage my kids to be tidier - by leading by example!

I will start working out how to get myself off benefits and self-sufficient!

There you go that's nice and easy....

How did those resolutions go??

Well on my old blog I made some resolutions 12 months ago. Time to look back and see how I did...

1. losing 2.5 stone to get to just being overweight! result: loss 4.5 stone and now healthy; challenge for 2009 keeping it off...
2. sticking to a sensible budget. result: better but still more going out than coming in; challenge for 2009 reducing level of debt
3. maintaining kitchen & living room and sorting out rest of house. result: kitchen & living room mostly OK, dining room making occasional appearances, kids' room 50:50, rest of house - ummm; challenge for 2009 keep on baby stepping to declutter
4. attic playroom. result: started freecycling furniture but filled up space with medieval kit and car boot left overs! challenge for 2009 keep on freecycling...
5. keep up quality time with kids whilst doing everything else? result: hope so though temporarily doing 3 jobs wasn't good
6. keep blog up to date. result: better than last year but still not always doing it - must get off Facebook more!!

So what am I going to do in 2009:

1. Keep on working on the budgeting
   
2. Work hard to keep the weight off  (1 might help as no money for naughties!)
   
3. Keep on sorting out the house (might help 1 if I can sell some stuff!! and help 2 to keep running up and down to the attic)
4. Blog to preserve my sanity!!

Let's see if I can do better this year...