Weighing In

I weighed in this morning. I lost almost half a kilo, or a pound.

In tiny increments, I have made it to two stone down from my original weight. Or 28.82lbs, or 13.1 kg…..

As Dory from ‘Finding Nemo’ says; “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming” 🙂

 

Soap Cutting and an Unexpected Meeting

Quick update on the soap front. After 24 hours, I turned out the soap and cut it into bars. I got 32 bars, each weighing about 120g. I don’t know how much weight will be lost as they dry but I’m expecting that they’ll end up at over 100g a bar, which coincidentally is about the weight of an average, shop-bought soap.

I like that the box they’re in has a history too. I bought three of them last year, from an elderly man who was moving. He’d made them a long time ago, for storing homemade beer I think. They’re rough and well used and perfect for their new purpose.

I love the way they look in their box lined with newspaper.

 

I think I could have left the soap to set for a bit longer. I wasn’t quite done and the middle pieces were a little messy to cut, even with wiping the knife down after every cut. The knife ‘drag’ through the soap means that you can’t quite see the subtle swirls of light and dark. Still, it’s a first try and it’s good to be learning what works and what could be done better.

It smells really fresh and beautiful and (this is the bit I’m really excited about) it really lathers! Soft, creamy, fresh, and after I’d washed my hands with it, my skin didn’t have that tight feeling it gets with commercial soap, it was really soft and comfortable.

Success!!

Andy’s calling it ‘Soap-Henge’ 🙂

 

The other thing was that tonight, I was at the supermarket, loading shopping into the car when my name was called and I looked up to see a woman I worked with very briefly, a couple of years ago. We said hi and then she walked over to tell me she’d been reading my blog. We have a mutual friend who had posted it on her Facebook timeline, so I don’t know why I felt so surprised but I really did.

She said she’d felt inspired by some of the things she’d read here and we talked about our weight loss journeys for a little while. I’d been feeling a bit low today. There was nothing wrong exactly, I’d just been carrying a nebulous sense of blah all day, added to which, it was a coldish evening and with the healthy food for dinner, I’d also bought other, less healthy stuff. An emotional response to the feeling of unease.

Our conversation brought me gently back to a sense of balance and reminded me to be grateful and mindful. So I’ll start by being grateful for that. 🙂

No Photo!!

I had a most wonderful day today. It wasn’t big or exciting or full of achievement but it was completely lovely. There was no work today, and I decided to give myself a day of rest, particularly since my calf  (muscle, not animal) is apparently strained and I no longer resembled a sweet tottering lamb but rather a drunk on a particularly determined bender.

Andy was very nice about it, offered me a massage to calm the discomfort and then pronounced the verdict of muscle strain when I nearly leaped through the roof. Either way, I was having a day off, so I waved them all out the door, pulled the coffee table around in front of an armchair in the sunshine and set myself up with a coffee and some books.

The only sound was the small padding of the guinea pigs’ feet in their play area, as they went about their business of eating breakfast. After which, they curled up in the warm padded house I bought yesterday and napped the morning away. Later there were a couple of bird calls but mostly what there was, was lots of pillowy, ear-calmingly, gentle, silence. It was an indescribably peaceful morning.

Later I did useful things; emptied the dishwasher, tidied the kitchen, made a herbed beef stew to go into the slow cooker, wrote a little. Later still, I collected Zac and we went shopping, where we discussed the relative merits of one head of broccoli over another and other really important things…. Actually, I joke but I really like the way he listens and I harbour a hope that these memories, of us together, choosing fruit and veg, might make a difference for him later, with food choices.

And now to the title of this post….

By the time dinner was served, there was a great rush happening, since Andy and Sam were going out for a couple of hours and in the midst of serving the dinner, I forgot to take a photo of it.

I’ve borrowed this one from Pioneer Woman’s lusciously food-filled site;

 

http://thepioneerwoman.com

 

It wasn’t quite the same but it gives you the general gist I think. It was served with oven-warmed French Bread and it was yum 🙂

So Day 3 is complete.

 

Legs Like a Lamb

Have you ever seen a newborn lamb? Or maybe a calf? Come to think of it, any of those newborn creatures that lift themselves delicately to their feet so early and totter, fall, stand again. Determined but oh so tender and wobbly?

 

Like this….

That was me today, after yesterday’s walk and this morning’s gym workout. Oh it felt wonderful at first but half an hour after leaving the gym, I sat down. Standing, for the rest of the day, became one of those faintly farcical manoeuvres, done carefully and with much thought, until my muscles warmed sufficiently to get me to the next place.

I know it’s just a function of exercise and I drank water and stretched and all those good things but I still made those little noises every time I stood up. Somehow, it mitigates the pain. I don’t know, don’t ask. 🙂

Anyway…. at the gym today, they were doing sign-ups for a challenge and before I even knew what it was about, I signed up. Nothing like throwing myself in at the deep end for getting me going again… Turns out, it’s a month long challenge, weigh-ins every week, the aim of which is to lose 5 kilos. I forget what the prize is, nothing very full on but there was a buzz in the gym and it added to the general air of fun and positivity. While I was doing the circuit, I found myself working just that little bit harder than usual, which of course is the point.

And so to tonight’s dinner. Another simple dish tonight. Chicken breast fillet, butterflied, or whatever that cut is where you slice it as though you’re opening an envelope. Served with steamed broccoli, carrot and potato and a tomato sauce. I used garlic salt and a little olive oil to cook the chicken and it was savoury and gooood.

 

 

Day 2 Chicken and veg

 

 

 

 

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