Category Archives: Fitness and Health

2020, Family, friends and favourite things, Fitness and Health

I’ve got my mind set on you

13th September 2020 Admin 2 Comments

Dear Tony

Another birthday without you. I hope that you are happier where you are and you are enjoying having mum and dad to yourself.

Life is a bit strange here. As well as the restrictions that are in place, there is uncertainty about jobs which of course brings emotional and financial worries. Charities are suffering a lot as events that would be held to raise funds have been cancelled. I’ve decided to set myself challenges and give a small amount of money to charities each month.

For the month of August, I did 10 days of alternate 5k running and walking. I started running about 6 months after you left us in 2016. As well as health benefits, exercise is also great for our mental health. I always think of you when I run. I wonder if it would have helped you if you had taken up something like running.

I actually chose to do this challenge after seeing Macmillan advertising it. I didn’t get sponsors though but gave a very small donation to them. I loved the walks and will continue with the 5k route which took me by our family house, over the bridge as mum would say which led to the park we liked to visit as children, then up to the Green Dragon before returning home. Not a scenic walk but one full of memories. This route takes me around an hour. I listen to the Joe Wickes podcast who always had interesting guests talking about what they turned to to help their physical and mental health. A very interesting listen. I finish off listening to radio 2. I ditched my favourite radio 1 shows long ago but interestingly some of the DJs that we would have listened to now appear on radio 2!

In honour of your birthday, September’s charity is Mind. This is another great charity and one that is in great need at the moment. I have chosen to try to improve my running and am aiming to run 30 miles in the month. I am running 1 mile runs for 3 days, having a day of rest and then running a 5k. So far, and I’ve only run 2 of the 5k runs, managed to improve my times. Now Tony, when I say running, I am actually very slow but at least I can run for a bus now.

I can see how tough life was for you with all your mental health problems. Listening to Joe Wickes asking his guests what they do to keep their spirits up made me ponder how I would answer. One of the first things I like to do is bake. I also like getting lost in a book, playing games on computer such as sudoku and solitaire (can be very addictive!) and cross stitching. Being out in the fresh hour to run or walk also helps. For you, getting out of bed to do these pastimes would have been a major hurdle. Hopefully charities like Mind will be able to continue to help people like yourself.

You are always in my thoughts.

Sleep tight.

Your big sister

Tina x

P.S. I still love the picture of us when I visited you at your school. I can’t quite believe I was actually taller than you for a while!

P.P.S. On my mile run today, I actually did a personal best of 11.13 min/mile!

2020, Fitness and Health

Now get to work, work, work

13th June 2020 Tina Terry Leave a comment

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

Fitness and Health

It’s all about the plan

3rd June 2019 Tina Terry Leave a comment

I joined the gym in 2017 and for 7 months, I went to lots of different classes. The gym itself didn’t appeal to me at all. I did enjoy the aquafit classes and even liked going swimming occasionally. I will always look like a meerkat when swimming though: I don’t like putting my face in the water at all.

After June, I didn’t go to the gym a lot at all. I like to get my money’s worth from my monthly fee so when each session was costing me more than £8, I knew it was time to give it up. My running for the year hadn’t been spectacular but I did manage to complete the couch25k again in August and built up gradually. In December I did one run of 3.38 miles: my longest for a while. After that I pushed myself and can now do a 10k run (6.2 miles in old money!) once a month.

In January, I upped my game a lot. I joined a group on Rosemary Conley online to complete 1,000 miles by walking in one year and also joined RedJanuary, a community initiative to support your mental health by doing something active every day in January. I will tell you more about these later but whilst I was doing Red January, I discovered a lady called Jessica Smith and her walk strong workouts. I bought my first DVD, Walk the Weight Off 30 day plan, at the beginning of January and have worked out with her regularly every week. I now have two more of her DVDs in my collection. In the DVDs, she has two other ladies working out with her. There is Debbie, her mum, who shows you gentler versions of the exercise. If you want to up the game, you follow her friend, Beth. Jessica is a very likeable lady and it is like having a personal coach working with you. I’ve always liked cardio but not very good at toning. With the walk the weight off DVDs you have a 30 days plan, which includes toning with weights and a toning band. Jessica explains every move and you feel she is in the room when she suddenly tells you how to stand so you don’t hurt your knees. There are also some stretching plans too which includes yoga moves.

Jessica’s workouts can be found on YouTube and you can join the community at Jessica Smith TV. You are sent newsletters with new challenges coming up. I have just started a Summer of Strength plan and it is great. You are given two options; a DVD workout or something from YouTube. Now I have finally learnt how to watch YouTube on the TV, and as I don’t have the DVDs, I am working from YouTube.

This plan is more about building up strength rather than cardio so there is a use of weights. It also includes stretching, something I need a lot of practice in. The challenge is over 5 weeks and is broken down into:

Week 1 – stamina
Week 2 – endurance
Week 3 – power
Week 4 – function
Week 5 – total strength

Each week is over 5 days with two rest days to do what you want to do. I always make sure I have one day of rest although I aim to walk for pleasure on that day.

I love the plan as I wouldn’t normally choose these type of exercises. My last day of exercise for week 2 was total body barre. I did 52 minute ballet burn. I loved it. It’s a sort of cardio and strength ballet inspired workout so I didn’t have to point my toes too much! Some days I have said glad that is over but I’ve always been chuffed I’ve done it!

Maybe not getting ballet burn quite right!

Basically if you love the gym, keep up with the membership. If not, find something that suits you. I much prefer working out on my own and in my own time so this is perfect for me. One thing that I try to do is plan my exercise each week especially now I am fitting in this plan. I am trying to use my bullet point journal for this (more about this another day) and planning week two was great as I could fit it around going out.

Happy exercising whatever your choice.

Speak soon!

Being 50, Fitness and Health

Weighting for that day (you can get what you want)

1st June 2019 Tina Terry Leave a comment

When I approached my 50th birthday, I had a very trim figure. I was determined that I wasn’t going to be one of those people that believed excess weight came because you were older. I knew that it didn’t: most of the time it comes from eating too much and/or lack of exercise. I had lost my weight in 2012 and I was proud that I kept it off.

So what happened between 2016 and 2018 when I started putting the weight back on. Well I could give many excuses but it was mainly to do with eating too much. The biggest culprit was cake. I do love baking and I love eating it. I also decided not to get on the scales. What a mistake. Whilst I don’t think you should get on the scales daily, I would recommend once a week weigh in (or once a month). It helps you keep on the straight and narrow.

Every month in 2018, I sat down making a list of 10 aims for the month. Each month I aimed to lose 4lbs. It never happened. I got to September 2018 and decided that the only way I was going to lose anything was to rejoin Rosemary Conley online so I joined up for 3 months. Pleased with my achievements, I continued my membership for a further 12 months.

Unlike my 2012 weight loss, my loss this time has been slow but steady. I have even had gains some weeks but they haven’t been a shock. This week saw a gain of a 1/4 lb. I wasn’t surprised (I actually thought it would be more). Here are the reasons why:

Sunday roast made by my son Jordan and his lovely girlfriend Thais. (Not the roast itself; I blame the banoffee pie we had for dessert)
Carrot and Pecan Squares from my Baking Club subscription (so worth the extra 1/4 lb. More to follow!)
Pimms and more Pimms
Thursday’s macaroni cheese (one of my favourites and it did include broccoli and spinach) whilst eating out on a night to the theatre
Yummy Cake

Whilst I know that I would have had a loss if I didn’t indulge, I enjoyed all I ate and drank so I don’t have any regrets.

I do believe that following any diet and exercise plan is going to help you lose weight; you just have to find the right one for you. For some people, going to a weight loss club where they are weighed and can share their experiences, is the better option. I like online because I can go on to the website when I want. It is more of a self accountable experience; you have to be totally honest with yourself. Why wouldn’t you though? You’ve paid the money so it isn’t any good cheating.

So what do I get out of it:

Rosemary’s daily motivation minute (also a daily exercise challenge. I will try to do this from today!)
Recipe of the day (see my favourite breakfast at the moment).
Recipes – there are lots. I love cooking and a lot of my favourite meals come from this collection
Weight loss challenges (I’m in the Summer 2019 challenge at moment)
Coaches who you can message and also send you words of encouragement. They do have one-2-one coaching which is an extra cost. If I lose my motivation, I would give this a go
The community chat – I look here daily. I find tips here as well as encouragement and motivation. Most of my Fitbit friends are from this lovely group of people.

I have only got 4lbs to get to goal. I’m hoping that with a big effort in June, and I will be there.

Speak soon!

Books, Cross Stitch, Fitness and Health

No more counting hours

15th January 2018 Tina Terry Leave a comment

The first two weeks of the year have flown by and as I approach my 52nd birthday, I would like to make this year (and all future years too) another memorable year. My aims that I have started this year are to make sure I do achieve this. I’m also on a mission to make my Me You diary an exciting read; one that Dawn French would be proud of. I’m not going to be jumping out of planes or do any bungee jumping but I would like to make sure that each day counts.

I do have a few exciting things to look forward to. I will be going to London to see The Lion King in April. Kathryn wanted to see this so we bought 2 tickets for Christmas presents. Lucky old me gets to go with her on this outing. We are also going to go to The Ritz for tea in May. This had been one of Kathryn’s challenges set for my 50th birthday but when she did set it, she hadn’t realised that poor students could not afford this luxury, so, with reluctance, we changed the challenge. Imagine my surprise when I unwrapped a box from Kathryn at Christmas time to find a voucher for tea at The Ritz. They are certainly two experiences that I am looking forward to sharing with you.

Looking at my list of aims for January, I can confirm that I should be collecting quite a few ticks this month. Here is my progress:

Finish Puddles of Love

I actually finished all of the cross stitch on Sunday. Just have backstitch, some French knots and beading to do so it will be a very good tick.

Book 3 classes at leisure centre per week

In November, I took out a membership at our local leisure centre. I have attended the gym a few times but much prefer the classes. To make the membership pay, I need to go at least 2 times a week. My initial cost was £99 for 3 months which was a bargain. I like value for money and have made sure that I have stuck to going. I have been going to the same zumba class for other 5 years now and I always go with somebody else. Going on my own was a little out of my comfort zone. I decided I would try a selection of classes and find what I liked. I have found everyone so friendly; even the receptionist calls me by my first name without looking at my card now! Last week I did 5 different classes. This week I have 4 booked:

Aquafit – this was another challenge for my 50th Birthday. Amazing that I love this class now.
Fat Blaster – my stomach ached a lot when I did this last week but I had done a Legs, Bums and Tums class the night before.
Zumba – as I have other plans for Friday, I have to do this class straight after fat blaster. I love this zumba class.
Body Jam – this is a mad dance class. Absolutely no idea what I’m doing but it is fun and worth getting up for on a Sunday morning..

I do recommend trying classes and finding what you actually like to do. So far, there has only been one class that I haven’t been keen on and that was totally to do with me; not the class itself. There are still a few more I plan to try so I think I will be making my membership pay.

Read an author from my favourite author list

My old faithful kindle with hundreds of books still to read was replaced at Christmas by a Kindle paperwhite. I can now read in the middle of the night if I can’t sleep in my bed!! Haven’t had to yet though. I am always downloading books and thought that I would make sure that I downloaded new books this year from my favourite authors. I intended to make a list of 12 authors but came up with 14!

My author this month was Jodi Picoult. I read Small Great Things, a book about what happens when a new born baby suddenly dies. I have always loved reading books by Jodi Picoult; I love her style of writing and learning about the subjects she writes about. I have to admit that I felt uncomfortable reading this book at the beginning. It involves racism in a very violent way. There are a lot of other prejudices in the book apart from the racism and it made me think about my own prejudices; I couldn’t find any sympathy with the character who was racist at all. I actually don’t think that the author wanted us to anyway but it did make me realise how easily it can to be judgmental. I have read other readers’ reviews on this book and there are some who believe the author is not qualified to write on some of the subjects. Whilst it can be an uncomfortable read, it is a powerful one. I look forward to her next new release.

Aim for a relaxed and on time morning start

This aim might seem a little mad but I always tend to cram far too much into the time before I leave for work. This one will always be a work in progress but I am actually leaving for work on time at the moment. I just can’t be held responsible for traffic though!!

Buy a mascara and learn to apply

Another mad one but I will explain. I have never been big on make up and always find I look like a panda when applying mascara. I had started having my eyelashes tinted but I’ve decided that it is an expense I could do without. After reading reviews, I purchased an Eyeco waterproof mascara from Marks and Spencers. I decided to go for a travel size one as there wasn’t a lot of difference in the price and I wanted to check it was right for me. I have only had it a few days and have yet to check it out for a full working day or whether it lasts in the swimming pool.

So this week I am hoping to start my running again, plan out the food better and maybe try to get 10,000 steps a few more times!

Enjoy the third week of January – lighter evenings are coming!

Fitness and Health

Runnin, runnin, runnin, ain’t running by myself no more!

28th October 2017 Tina Terry Leave a comment

This time last year I was taking part in my first 10 mile run; the Great South Run That was one of the best challenges ever and I will never forget how I felt at completing that run. I couldn’t take part in this year’s race due to my foot injury but I would love to do it again.

I first started running 5 year’s ago using the NHS Couch to 5k podcast. This is a 9 week programme that gradually builds you up to run 30 minutes. Since I had my foot pain in May, I have found it difficult to get back into a good running pattern. I made the decision to try the couch to 5k again. This time though I was going to have a running partner; Chris.

I am a bit of a plodder when I run and because of this I do find running on my own is an advantage. Whilst Chris hadn’t run for a while, he was going to make me run and not plod! Can I cope?

As someone who never believed they would never ever run, I am a big fan of the couch to 5k. I am now coming to the end of my third week and I am fully committed to my running plan.

All runs start with a 5 minute walk and one of the other recommendations is to have at least one day’s rest in between each run. I have always stuck to this. Your narrator is a lovely encouraging Laura, who will tell you when to start, give you encouraging tips along the way and really is too nice to shout at when she tells you that you are half way through and don’t give up.

This is the first 3 runs:

Week 1 – run for 60 seconds and walk for 90 seconds for a total of 20 minutes. As this is my second time round, I found it so much easier. This was not the case the first time round. Running the first 60 seconds was so hard and then when I realised I had to do this 8 times, I was devastated. Normally maths is my strong point but first time I really could not make that add up to 20 minutes; more like 50 minutes.

The one thing I recommend when you finish running is stretching. I missed this out on my very first run and my legs did ache. I use a stretching plan from Rosemary Conley 28 day inch loss book and I rarely ache now.

Week 2 – run for 90 seconds and walk for 2 minutes for a total of 20 minutes. This time you run 6 times.

Week 3 – start with a 90 second run followed by a 90 second run. This is followed by a 3 minute run with a 3 minute walk. This is repeated again which makes your 20 minutes of exercise.

I certainly would have whinged a bit about running 3 minutes the first time round but as Laura says, the feeling you get when you finish the session certainly outweighs the pain you feel. Honestly it does!

So I will start week 4 next week. It is certainly helping me gently return to running. I am a morning runner but as I have been doing this programme with Chris, we have been running early evening. Normally I shy away from change but I haven’t noticed the change at all.

So if you have always thought you could never run but are up for a challenge, give this a go. You won’t regret it and honestly it feels good to run for a bus!

Fitness and Health, I love to cook

It’s Hard Work But It’s Good For Me

18th October 2017 Tina Terry Leave a comment

Thursday was the big weigh in. After following normal weighing procedures (and yes I did try it three times!), I had lost 3 and a quarter pounds in 8 days. I don’t expect to see these results again but the first week of reducing calorie in take does result in a bigger loss. I have seen people lose a lot more than this but I was overjoyed with this.

This result was due to the fact that I cut down on all that extra rubbish I had been eating; crisps, chocolate biscuits, chocolate and all the food that I put in my mouth when I am cooking! I am still eating normal dinners; curry with onion bhajis (a weakness this week), homemade pizza (I will share this later) and a toad in the hole made with my favourite vegetarian sausages.

So, as I am doing this as part of a challenge on Rosemary Conley Online, I was so pleased to find myself 13th in the league table on Thursday. There is currently 164 people in the “lose a stone” category; they are so honest. They record their gains too!

I thought that as I was 13th (don’t expect to be that next week but I am still competitive) I would try to come up with 13 items that have helped me lose weight this week:

Planning dinners – this helps a lot. As I knew what I was having for dinners, I wasn’t tempted to have a takeaway
Cutting out on a biscuit with my tea at elevenses at work. I had my pot of grapes if I needed something
Making lunch last. I did find that if I didn’t have grapes at 11 a.m., I did want my lunch at 12.30. When I am at work, lunch is always the same; sandwich and a yogurt. I try to make this last over 90 minutes. That way I don’t feel overfull either.
Letting Chris cook me breakfast most mornings. Okay I have to ignore the fact that he puts butter in to the scrambled egg. Yes there is a slimmers version of scrambled egg but it is so delicious and most of the time I walk 2 miles to work!
This is more of a Tina’s tip – on the first week of a new eating plan, don’t also be too ambitious with your exercise. I always think that on the first week, eating less can take a bit of getting use to so if you are adding lots of exercise that you normally wouldn’t do, you can feel quite drained.
Doing the couch25k with Chris. So I have run 10 miles before but as I have had an injured foot, I haven’t been able to run. I have found that getting back into running hasn’t been so easy so starting at the beginning this week has been very good and having a running partner is a good incentive
Telling family that you are going to be good in your eating. Okay,Kathryn did say that I am better when I am eating everything but she is encouraging too. I did try one piece of her Montezuma white chocolate bar;it was delicious but I didn’t have a second piece
Not telling work colleagues. I do the tea run at 11 so they don’t need to know I’m not eating the biscuits! It is amazing the opinions of others on this subject so I find it best not to talk about eating habits.
Sticking with my normal meals. I have had what I actually want to eat including my favourite food ever, chips! I do have oven chips served with my own healthy turkey burgers.
Wearing clothes that make me feel good. I did admit defeat a few weeks ago and bought some work trousers in a size 12. I found some cheap trousers in Asda’s George range which look good too.
Treating myself. How many times do I say I need a treat and it will be a bar of chocolate or a cake. This week I had a shellac manicure and really love seeing my lovely nails. Surprisingly if I bought chocolate or biscuits regularly it would be the same price as having my nails done so if I can keep off them, my nails will be done regularly. Another treat; a food one. I bought four individual pizza trays from Marks and Spencer’s. Maybe not a treat in other people’s books but I was so excited to find them. We did have a lovely pizza using them.
Dancing to George Michael’s Fantasy helped me this week. I have always liked this song and now it has had a bit of a Nile Rodgers touch, I certainly enjoy dancing around to it.
Staying positive and not letting any problems encountered make me reach for chocolate and crisps.

If I follow these again I am hoping that my next weigh in will be successful.

Cross Stitch, Fitness and Health, I love to cook

It only takes a minute girl!

11th October 2017 Tina Terry Leave a comment

Well I’ve been away from blogging for a while now. In fact, I have been avoiding a lot of things for a while. I’m not going to blame anything or anyone but myself for this negativity. I haven’t been idle for all this time and whilst one of the activities I have chosen to do can be attributed for this post, I have also started a Christmas stitch a long and am actually managing to keep up with it.

Last Tuesday evening, after finally accepting that I have a wardrobe of beautiful clothes that seem to have shrunk, I decided to visit Rosemary Conley online site. I have been a member for years and actually used the site to lose weight 5 years ago when I got down to my target weight. I had stayed within 7 lbs of this weight for quite a while. My love of cooking, which is an activity I have been doing a lot of recently along with my lack of exercise has contributed to a bit of excess flab around the waist.

Do we need diets? Well, I don’t think we necessarily do if we accept the reason we weigh a bit more (or a lot) than we should is the result of overeating and/or lack of exercise. There are medical exceptions to this; something I can’t put my weight gain to unfortunately. I think diets do give you a purpose to lose weight and whether you go alone in reaching your goal, or find other people to go along the journey with, they are certainly worth trying. It is important to learn how to eat correctly and the importance of exercise whilst doing it.

Which diet do you choose? I think you choose one that suits you. Personally, I do not like fad diets at all. All this do not eat after 7pm, this food group is not good for you or calorie counting is not what I’m all about. As for liquid diets; I would never go there. I still believe that is everyone’s choose though; just don’t try telling me I am wrong in my choice when you decide you are not going to eat bread!

So why have I been a member of Rosemary Conley? I have found her books and exercise DVDs very useful. The DVDs could be described as low impact but if you haven’t exercised for a long time, they are perfect. I love the music in them too although sometimes Steps can get on my nerves. The recipes in her diet books are brilliant; so much flavour and for someone who likes to cook homemade food, perfect. For my weight loss 5 years ago, whilst keeping an eye on what I ate, I did the Lifestyle Plan which wasn’t a diet as such but made me think about what I ate and gave me guides to aim for each week. The first week, I learnt to put a number on my rumbling tummy. I soon learned that my rumbling tummy did not mean I was hungry at 10 a.m. so my lunch could wait until lunchtime. Just following it meant I chose wisely when going out for a meal at a restaurant the day before my birthday, ate fish and chips on Brighton pier in the rain for my birthday and had a slice of homemade birthday cake. I still managed to lose 2lbs that week! On this plan, I gave up on a guilty pleasure, eating Pringles. Pringles were only something I bought at Christmas but once they were open, I had to eat them. I have been Pringles free for 5 years. Since then, I have given up on chocolates in tins; roses, quality street,celebrations. I would eat them without tasting and enjoying. This worked for me although it might not work for everyone.

On Tuesday, when I visited the website, I hadn’t stood on the scales for months. I had decided I didn’t want to be ruled by dieting. After cutting back on exercise but eating too much chocolate, crisps, biscuits and lots of homemade cakes (could you resist these?)

I really needed to get back in to control. I just went to look at the diet plans and ended up signing up for their winter challenge; lose a stone in 8 weeks. I needed now to make the brave mood to weigh myself.

Wednesday morning, I woke to start the routine of weigh in. I am very particular on this routine. It has to be done first thing in the morning before any liquids or food passes through my lips. First of all, I like to be in the lightest clothes as possible; pyjamas are perfect for this. A visit to the bathroom is then necessary then I make my way to the kitchen. I weigh myself in this room because the floor is more level. I knew the result is not going to be good and I do the best of three. They are all the same; I have to lose a stone. Now I know, I feel a bit more motivated to try to lose it. I can do this one step at a time.

First step is to give up eating in between and to stop picking at food whilst eating. A week later I have been okay with this. I have made Thursdays my weigh day so I will let you know if I have lost anything soon! Hopefully it will be a lighter me writing the next post.

50 Challenges, Books, Fitness and Health

A Winner Never Quits (Don’t Give Up)

5th June 2017 Tina Terry Leave a comment

Tomorrow is the final day that I have to complete the challenges. Today I have 6 left to get a tick against. They are:

Challenge 4 – Revisit learning French – I got this changed to Spanish. If I am very honest, this isn’t going too well. I did sign up for a course on Future Learn. First part of course needed me to type answers with the correct accents over. I work from a laptop and the process of downloading the keyboard was so complicated – very foreign to me. Next I tried a website Kathryn told me to use – Saysomethingin. I have to say it was very good but I have so far only managed one lesson. I need a compromise here.

Challenge 18 – Learn 7 – 10 (new) German words a week. Another foreign language one that I haven’t mastered. There is a pattern here – I am only just mastering English!

Challenge 19 – Spa day with your daughter. Partly achieved whereby we did go swimming yesterday completing another of my challenges; no 48 – take up swimming on some level. I had been trying to pluck up the courage to do this for sometime. I can swim but I have a confidence issue. I had found a small private pool and evantually booked to go yesterday. It was great having the pool to ourselves and we managed 100 lengths (I did say a small pool!). It was enjoyable but I am slightly deaf now due to water in my ear! I do think I might try aqua-size in my local pool now as I do think I would get a lot of benefits from exercising in water. To complete this challenge, we are aiming to get our nails done on Tuesday. I think a proper spa day might be on the cards later in the year.

Challenge 28 – Take a dance class with your daughter. We are completing tonight. Going to do Shbam. I have no idea either but should be interesting!!

Challenge 49 – Make blog! I think I can have that one although I will share with you tomorrow more on how I will continue.

Challenge 50 – On 6th June on your blog, write about how you found being 50. That can’t be done until tomorrow!

Apart from the first two challenges which I am going to have to strike a deal with Kathryn so I get a rollover challenge, I will get this completed.

The challenge I did complete yesterday which I enjoyed more than I thought I would was reading Kathryn’s 10 favourite books in “proper” book format. She does have more so I plan to read a few more. The books, in no particular order, were:

Dream a little Dream by Giovanna Fletcher
Stolen by Lucy Christopher
I Was Here by Gayle Forman
Looking for Alaska by John Green
I am Malala by Malala Yousasafzai and Patricia McCormick
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Invoice by Jonas Karlsson
The Truth about Forever by Sarah Desen
Scarlett by Cathy Cassidy
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig

Writing the list, I realise I can not count (which is very bad news for the clients!) and have actually read 11. How did I not notice this?!!

I was a little negative at first about reading a “proper” book but I did enjoy reading them all. I know that Kathryn would like to know what my favourite was and that is a very hard question. They all had something about them that I loved and a lot of different issues were tackled in each. I am Malala and Reasons to Stay Alive are non-fiction and were telling you about problems faced by both authors. I think that my favourite has to be The Truth about Forever. The book is about Macy, who at 17 years old is still coming to terms with her father’s death by trying to be perfect whilst her mother and sister cope with it in different ways. Macy starts working for a catering firm and becomes friends with an interesting group of people and finally allows herself to open up. I loved the characters in the book and whilst it is written for teens, it was a book I couldn’t put down.

See you tomorrow for the final chapter of my challenges. I will not quit!

50 Challenges, Fitness and Health

Sisters are doing it for themselves (well for mums, dads and everyone really)

3rd June 2017 Tina Terry Leave a comment

Well there was two more ticks today – a few problems with both challenges but I think Kathryn has passed both with ticks.

After doing The Great South Run which I will always be proud of doing and will always be grateful for Kathryn setting me this challenge, today’s challenge of running a 10k run with Kathryn should have been just a run in the park! Unfortunately my body had other ideas! I had been determined to prepare for this run and make sure I did 10k practice every month. January 1st was my first 10k of the year so I was on to a great start. I was running regularly in April but after a run on April 29th, I found myself limping. I had a pain in the bottom heel area of my right foot. I carried on walking to work but it got very painful. With my race for life 10k run looming, it was not good news. I did manage to go to zumba and tried to take it easier than normal but managed to hurt my knee! It was great yesterday when I had my first day without a limp so I was hopeful that I would be able to run today.

Finding a 10K run before Tuesday proved difficult locally so today’s run was for a great cause, Race for Life, at Royal Windsor Racecourse. It did mean a very early start with Chris driving us up at 7 a.m. Luckily the day was gorgeous and the venue for the run was stunning. Before the start of the race there was a guest speaker from a survivor of cancer; a great inspiration as to why we were running this race. After a warm up, we found ourselves near the front for the start of the run. I would love to say I ran the whole of the race but with being a bit out of practice and the heat of the day, I did have to ask Kathryn to walk a few times (okay more than a few times!). I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t run all the way this time but it was great running with Kathryn and running for such a great cause. I do have a bit of pain in my foot but not as bad as previously. Once it is fully healed, hopefully I will take on another running challenge.

My second tick today was challenge number 35 – DVD night with your kids (one film chosen by each). This has been very difficult to arrange with Kathryn being in her final year at university and Jordan back in London and having restricted time at home. We decided to change to just one film and all of us sat (well collapsed) in front of the TV this afternoon and watched Kathryn’s choice, Me Before You. Kathryn and I had seen this at the cinema but it was just as emotional watching it the second time. It was a hit with Chris and Jordan too. I still want to watch the film I would have chosen so we will find some time in the next couple of months. One of my favourites, and one that Jordan and Kathryn haven’t watched, Sixth Sense.

I only have 8 more to do but with only a few more days, can it be done! I will have a good try.