Monthly Archives: June 2020

2020, Fitness and Health

Now get to work, work, work

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Progression in weights

Dear Jessica

Hope you and your family are well.

I only discovered you in January 2019 and since then you have been an important part of my life. I was trying to lose a stone in weight (again)  and came across your Walk Off the Weight DVD plan. Six DVDs later and after learning how to get YouTube on to the TV, I am hooked.  You are like having a personal trainer: one day I’m doing Hiit cardio and next day I’m doing a fusion walk.  There are so many different routines to try that I can never be fed up plus you never shout at me. Now I know that some people feel that having someone who forces you to work hard works for them. It’s not for me – I would just go and eat cake!

Cake is one of the reasons I do have to exercise and as we are all going through a difficult time at the moment, I’m baking and eating a lot more. Even more this week as it’s been my birthday!  

Normally my day will start early and I will do some exercise before work. It might just be one of your 15 minute walks but I would always try to do something. I would come home and if I wasn’t running (during the winter months I run after work but actually prefer to run in the morning), then I would pop on another routine and exercise again. Silly me thought life would be easier when we made plans to start working from home. Whilst everyone else was scanning the local Sainsbury’s for toilet rolls, I picked up my order of my heavier weights; after all, I was going to have all that time I wasn’t travelling to work (or so I thought).  I was ready to start on a Jessica Smith plan.

On my first day of working from home, our prime minister  announced strict lockdown measures including only going out for one day of exercise. I was going to have to choose wisely but I could work out to lots of your different workouts. My normal lunchtime walk could be replaced by a 15 minute fast fat blast walk.

Did that happen? Well some days it did but not as often as I would like. Well it turns out you do actually have to work very hard from home. You forget to stop for lunch and your 4pm finish stretches to 5.30.  My monthly email would come from you and was so full of encouragement. You understood, as you were also experiencing these uncertain times too, that it sometimes was too hard to do any exercise. I was finding that the beginning of each week even going outside for a walk was an effort. Most weeks I was able to turn it round by Thursday so I did have 4 days of good exercise. 

12 weeks after our lockdown started, life is slowly starting again to what is being called a ‘new normal’ and I’m able to exercise outdoors as much as I want.  I have managed to complete your core week (persuaded my daughter to take part in that) and am running regularly. This week I set myself a target of reaching 20,000 steps a day by enjoying the fresh air by walking and running. Finally finished my 5k runkeeper plan. Not as fast as it wanted me to be but there is always next time. I also opened your yoga stretch for beginners & beyond DVD to try to encourage me to start enjoying the benefits of yoga. It’s early days but I think it could soon become a regular part of my exercise. 

I’ve also decided that I will exercise Monday to Fridays and use my weekends to ride my bike, take long walks or dance and sing badly in the kitchen whilst making dinner. I’m also going to start your Summer of Strength program on Monday. I’m still taking one day at a time though so hopefully I finish week 1.

Once again, Jessica, thank you for all your wonderful workouts.

Stay safe

Tina x

P.S. Whilst walking back through the store with my weights, one of the wonderful workers came out with a trolley full of toilet rolls so there was a lot of happy shoppers!

Next time I will be sharing my birthday whilst on relaxed lockdown

Pretty leggings make workouts easier!
2020, Family, friends and favourite things

Happy Birthday to You

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Happy Birthday Dad

Dear Dad

I wanted to wish you a happy birthday on the 25th birthday without you. Those years have gone so quickly. When you left us, Jordan was a 3 year old toddler and Kathryn just 3 months old. They are all grown up now and making their way in life.

We are experiencing very strange times at the moment so I haven’t been able to see them in the normal way . Recently I have been able to go for walks with Kathryn and she was even able to sit in the garden on Tuesday. Jordan lives in London so for almost 12 weeks, he hasn’t visited. Technology has moved on a lot since 1996: we all have mobile phones now and also the Internet. Honestly how we survived without Google is beyond me. You just ask a question and the answer will appear. Sometimes it is a bit too much overload! I’ve also got a kindle to read my books; an electronic reader which means I don’t have to have a huge book in my bag. The kids are more old fashioned and love the physical books (don’t tell anyone but they might be slowly coming round to owning one!). Anyway with all this technology, we have been able to video call each other, cook together and also have weekly quizzes. It’s not the same as seeing them in person but it’s certainly better than nothing.

You will be pleased to know that as they were growing up, we liked to bake together. You will remember how much Jordan loved his food, his hands would fly up in the air in excitement as he was being fed. Kathryn is a bit of a foodie; she loves all sorts. Jordan has been cooking roasts whilst he has been away; he has promised that he will make one for me when he is allowed in the house again. Although he has been asked to join us, he hasn’t taken part in baking with me and Kathryn on a Sunday. For ten weeks, we have been baking by video call on our phones. I’m sure you would like to know what we have been baking:

  • Victoria Sandwich – Kathryn is an expert at these and I always made these for the birthday cakes.
  • Munchkin Cakes – a bit like jaffa cakes and one of the favourites when the kids were younger. I made a bit of a disaster here – I didn’t turn the oven down. We both thought they weren’t as good as they used to be. Must look at the recipe again.
  • Scones – we love afternoon teas. We baked on a lovely warm day so I was able to sit in the garden with Chris to enjoy ours; Kathryn enjoyed her scones with her boyfriend, Aaron. The scones were delicious spread with jam and then clotted cream. After eating these, I’m not sure if I will go out for a cream tea again! That’s another family favourite.
  • Cheese Scone round – a recipe by Mary Berry which I know we will enjoy baking lots.
  • Lemon Drizzle bites – these were lovely and easy to make. Who doesn’t like lemon drizzle cake?
  • Raspberry and passion fruit muffins – will make these again. So good.
  • Jam tarts – pastry making this week. I don’t think I made these with the kids before. Mum always made them for us when we were children.
  • Cheese straws – we thought we would try something a bit savoury. Both of ours looked different. Very good though.
  • Bakewell tarts – Mr Kiplings bakewell tarts are a firm favourite of us all and remind us of picnics. We used ready made pastry. I think that these were probably the most fun to do and again become a favourite. When Jordan returns home, we have to make these for him as it wasn’t fair he didn’t have them.
  • Small Victoria sandwich cakes – freshly made today. We have loved making them. We normally bake on a Sunday but as I’m celebrating my birthday tomorrow, we did it today.

I am looking forward to when we are all together so we can sample all the baking together. It will be sad that Jordan won’t be here tomorrow to help celebrate my birthday.

I always loved the fact that my birthday was the day after yours. Wish you were still here to enjoy the bakes we have been cooking.

Sleep tight Dad.

Love Tina x

P.S. Love to Mum and Tony. I miss them lots too. Wish Auntie Rose a happy birthday for tomorrow xx

As you can see, baking has been a big part of the lock down. Join me next time to see how I’ve tried to keep fit whilst indulging in the foods I love to eat.

2020, Family, friends and favourite things

Rule Breaker – Are You Happy Now

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Mum with Kathryn and Jordan

Dear Dom

You were not someone that I was familiar with until I saw the headlines in the paper on that Saturday morning and then watched as you did story with Dom in 10 Downing Street gardens. It was quite concerning that we had been told we couldn’t have friends and family in the garden and there you were throwing a garden party!

Anyway I made sure my daughter was settled to watch the afternoon story (we were due to watch Breakfast at Tiffanys remotely of course because those are the rules).

Now I’m not going to go into your story too much but wanted to talk about integrity. The dictionary gives the word as the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles (I did find a meaning that it is a personal quality of fairness that we all aspire to – unless you’re a dishonest, immoral scoundrel). I will let you make up you mind about where I think you lie.

I always believed that my husband and I tried very hard to teach our children strong moral principles from the start of their lives. These included being respectful of others and following the rules. I am so proud of the adults they have become. To this day, they follow the rules but will question them if they believe they are wrong. We all followed the rules that the government set out on 23rd March.

My husband and I have had to get used to each other’s company without my daughter popping in for dinner or my son visiting for the weekend: my son is around 70 miles away in Wimbledon and my daughter is 3 miles away. By following the rules, we have sacrificed our family gatherings but hope we can make up for this in the future. Planned theatre trips have had to be put on hold and sporting events the ‘kids’ were due to compete in have been postponed. We’ve been working from home. Unfortunately my daughter who loves working, has been furloughed. Unfortunately for me, one of my jobs is in payroll and I have had to deal with learning this new skill which is very stressful.

We have missed Easter and bank holiday gatherings. I have wondered if we have followed the rules a bit too much; VE Day celebrations for both my neighbours seemed to include family from other households in their gardens. Are we missing something?

If I had been a journalist at your garden party, I would have asked this one question. When you made your 260 mile journey to Durham, and you might not have stopped, did you actually think what lives you were putting in danger. It wasn’t just the lives of yourself and your family with you but also if you had an accident, you would have put at risk emergency crews and added extra burden to our NHS service. This was the reason why my daughter would not drive her car so she could run longer than her drive or why my son did not ride his bike for 100 km to keep up his training. They used their integrity; do you really think you used yours?

Well Dom, just like Boris, I am bored with the Dominic Cummings story now. I want, which I would have liked to have seen on Saturday 23rd May, is for someone to say that you have made a mistake and that you and the government were very sorry for what has happened. I know that is all I wanted. Instead all the “ordinary people” like myself wouldn’t have felt that they did wrong in following the rules. My family were okay but other parents had to just watch helplessly as their loved ones had to look after their families whilst being ill – they followed the rules and couldn’t help. Others lost family and weren’t allowed to hold their hands in their final moments. Only a few are allowed to attend funerals so the grieving process of so many are on hold.

Please do the right thing, admit you made a mistake and let’s move forward.

Here’s hoping again

Tina

P.S. I can no longer watch the daily update because I do not have any trust in the politicians or experts at this stage. However, the public are actually a lot smarter than you, Dom and we will do the right thing

As I approach my 54th birthday, I’m excited to know that I can now have my family back in the garden. My next post will be about how we still managed to bake together although apart.

Sunday Baking