The picturesque Laverstoke Mill, the distillery where Bombay
Saphire is made, is on my bucket list of places to visit. So when I saw a
cocktail which had been created to mark the opening of this magical place, I
had to try it.
I’m not a massive fan of ginger ale, and I’ve got to be
honest, I wasn’t sure how it was going to marry with the elderflower cordial,
but marry they did and for me, it was love at first sip!
In a large wine glass, mix together one measure of Bombay
Saphire, one measure of Martini Extra Dry and 10ml of elderflower cordial. Add
crushed ice and top with diet ginger ale. Garnish with a wedge of lime, a
spring of mint and some fresh ginger. Cheers!
I think there is much truth in the words of Bobby McFerrin:
In every life we have some trouble But when you worry you make it double
As a rule, I tend not to worry about things. My mum won’t
mind me telling you that she is a big worrier. I have often encouraged her to
ask herself the following question when she finds herself worrying about
something:
Can you do anything about it? If the answer is ‘yes’, great! Do something about it and then you won’t need to worry about it anymore. If the answer is ‘no’, well then there’s no point in worrying about it.
This has become a kind of mantra that I use and I know my
mum has begun to worry less since asking herself this simple question.
Do you have any mantras that help you put a positive spin on
a negative thought? Let me know in the comments section.
And if all else fails, have a sing-a-long with Bobby – it might at least help to lift your spirits.
Based on my posts thus far, you’d be forgiven for thinking
that I’m all about the cocktails with the occasional cup of tea thrown in. This
is simply not true – I’ll drink pretty much anything!
In particular, I love a nice glass (or two) of wine. One of my favourite varieties in recent years has been New Zealand sauvignon blanc. I love the crisp refreshingness of the tropical fruit notes that you get with it.
A friend, who knows my tastes particularly well, recently treated me to a bottle of Mud House. It’s not one I’ve tried before and so I was excited to try it. It packed a real citrus punch with lemon overtones and was made for a very satisfying drink after a hard day at work. Definitely one I’d buy myself.
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The main aim of this blog is to share with you all my journey of becoming healthier by losing weight sensibly. A big part of this journey has been building healthier habits into my day-to-day life. One of the things that has helped me most with this aspect of my journey is a book called ‘<a href="http://<iframe style="width:120px;height:240px;" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" src="//ws-eu.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=GB&source=ac&ref=tf_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=fatfightingfo-21&marketplace=amazon®ion=GB&placement=1444769014&asins=1444769014&linkId=1c6d618cb61639ef446759d6dd055e1d&show_border=false&link_opens_in_new_window=false&price_color=333333&title_color=0066C0&bg_color=FFFFFF"> Better Than Before’ by Gretchen Rubin. I came across this book when listening to Rubin’s podcast Happier and thought it sounded like just the thing I needed to help me to build the healthy habits that I have struggled to get to grips with so far.
In the book, Rubin shares 21 strategies to use for building
good habits. Not all of them are applicable to everyone – after all different
things work for different people – but I thought I’d share with you some of the
strategies that I’ve found work best for me, starting with…
Deciding not to
decide
When people are struggling to build a new habit, they often
talk about lacking willpower or self-control. Rubin refers to studies showing
that when we try to use willpower to resist temptation, we are only successful about
50% of the time. She argues that instead of relying on willpower to help us
form new habits, we should instead rely on decision making. Habits don’t
require us to make decisions; we just ‘do’ them. For example, we don’t decide to brush our teeth each morning
or wear a seatbelt every time we are in a car, we just do those things out of
habit. So we should decide that we will adopt a healthy habit, and then stop making
decisions about that habit: we’ve already decided we’re going to do it, so we
no longer need to keep thinking about whether or not we are going to do it or
trying to resist the temptation of not doing it, which requires a lot of
willpower.
I’ve used this to good effect in helping me to drop a couple
of bad habits and establish a good habit over the last few months. At the
school where I work, we’re lucky enough to have a plentiful supply of biscuits
and bread and butter for toast in the staffroom. In the past, I have
over-indulged in these items or found myself eating them even when I’m not hungry
– I find them hard to resist, especially if I’m having a hard day. So, when I
went back to school in September, I made the decision that I don’t eat biscuits
or toast at work. I’ve found this to be really liberating. No longer am I doing
daily battle with my self-control in resisting the temptation to indulge
because I’ve already made the decision that I don’t eat those things in that
setting.
The habit which this strategy has made the most difference
with so far, is exercising regularly. I’ve never been that active. I’ve had
many fits and starts of exercising but I’ve always found it difficult to
maintain a regular exercise routine for a sustained period. At the beginning of
the summer though, I decided that I wanted to give it another go as regular
exercise is so important for good health. So I decided that I was going to exercise
3 times a week. End of story. No further decision making required. As with the
formation of many habits, at the beginning I was really motivated to keep up
with it. As time has progressed though, there have been occasions when I’ve not
really fancied going, for a variety of reasons, but when this has happened,
rather than getting into an internal dialogue with myself about why I should or
should not go, I’ve just reminded myself “You’ve already made the decision: You
go to the gym 3 times each week”. No will-power battle required. I’m now 17
weeks in and I haven’t missed a single session. Not even when I’ve been on
holiday or away for the weekend. I’m still often surprised that I’ve managed to
establish this habit so securely and that it has felt so easy to do so compared
to my previous attempts.
There are several other strategies I’ve employed as well to
help me form these healthier habits, including the strategies of scheduling, accountability
and convenience, but I’ll talk more about these in future posts.
Are you trying to form any healthier habits? How could you
use the strategy of deciding not to decide to help you on your way?
I am not paid for any of the reviews I write and products that I review are paid for with my own money. Read more on my disclaimer page.
It’s no secret that I love a bath bomb, and this one might
just be a new favourite.
I was advised by one of the ever-enthusiastic sales
assistants that as a lover of Avobath, I was bound to love Mesuline. According
to the description:
…perfumed with zesty Avocado Co-Wash perfume and sure to make waves. Sweet lemony litsea cubeba and cheerful bergamot oil lift your senses, while olibanum will have you floating in no time. Finally a pinch of carrageenan extract hydrates the skin…
Personally, I didn’t get any of that. I thought it smelled
like toffee apples but it was an absolutely delicious scent. Fortunately, I
learned many years ago that Lush products do NOT taste* as good as they smell!
Regardless, it was the ideal thing to enjoy on a cold and
blustery autumnal evening. If you’re after an indulgent, relaxing and warming bath,
try one of these beauties. I’m definitely going to treat myself to some more.
Thanks for reading,
FFF
*FFF once licked a (clean, newly-purchased) bar of Honey I Washed the Kids. FFF is sometimes an idiot. Don’t be like FFF: Lush cosmetics are NOT meant to be ingested. Or even licked.
I am not paid for any of the reviews I write and products that I review are paid for with my own money. Read more on my disclaimer page.
October’s Big Comfy Book Club read was Fredrick Backman’s A Man Called Ove. It was nominated by my sister, and following her previous disastrous nomination of the weirdest book most of us had ever come across, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
The Premise:
Ove is a grumpy old man who is bitter towards his neighbours
and fed-up with the stupidity and ineptitude of pretty much everyone he meets.
But behind his hostile exterior, is there a softer side to this solitary,
unsociable old curmudgeon?
I am not paid for any of the reviews I write and products that I review are paid for with my own money. Read more on my disclaimer page.
I’m a big tea lover, and whilst Mr FFF often complains that
I have too many boxes, pouches and packets of tea, my philosophy is the same as
that which I apply to shoes and handbags – you can never have too many!
I used to drink buckets of English Breakfast Tea each day,
but a few years ago I decided to reduce my consumption of caffeine. I substituted
my usual brew with redbush/rooibos and, like with most things, I’m always keen
to try new varieties.
I also love all things caramel so imagine my excitement when
I came across these bad boys in Sainsbury’s: Rich & Indulgent Caramel
Rooibos Infusions. Disregarding the likely inability to be able to fit them
into the cupboard at home, I chucked them into the trolley hoping that the
flavour would be as good as the promise – as experience has told me this is not
always the case with flavoured teas.
I needn’t have worried. The cup of tea I enjoyed as soon as
I’d put the shopping away more that delivered. It smelt of toffee popcorn and
the taste didn’t disappoint either: it was sweet and creamy – almost like
sucking a Werther’s Original. It was so sweet (though not sickeningly so) that I
had to check the ingredients list to make sure there was no added sugar. As an
added bonus, the teabags come individually wrapped so they’ll stay fresh while
I enjoy all of my other tea varieties.
I can’t see maintaining freshness being too much of a
problem though as this has quickly become a firm favourite of mine and is
perfect for enjoying on a cosy, autumnal evening.
In one of my early posts, I wrote about rewarding myself for my weight loss achievements.
These days, I think about the idea of a ‘reward’ a little bit differently (more about that in a future post) but I still believe in the importance of treating yourself, be that with something simple like a fancy cup of tea and half an hour with a good book, or something more indulgent like a spa day.
Self care is so important to your mental health so make sure you take some time this week to treat yourself.
What are you favourite ways to treat yourself? let me know in the comments section; I’m always looking for new ideas.
I’ve decided to approach my progress reports slightly
differently for the time being for a couple of reasons:
I was finding writing weekly reports a bit
tricky to keep on top of
It’s probably not that interesting for you to
read each week whether or not I’ve lost weight
So I’ve decided to try monthly updates instead. I think it’s
important for my obliger nature to have the external accountability of letting
you know how I’m doing, but hopefully it’ll be more manageable for me and less
boring for you!
So, how’s my month been?
Weight – altogether in October, I’ve lost 5.5lb bringing me to a total of 1st 4.5lbs lost so far.
Inch loss – 12 inches lost in total and I’m delighted to see that my collarbone is beginning to reappear. I haven’t seen that for years!
Exercise – I’ve continued to maintain my exercise schedule, even when I went to visit my mum for the weekend, and I’m definitely seeing my endurance and strength improving:
Exercise
Starting Point
Current Performance
Plank
3x 1 min
3x 1min 15sec
Side Plank
–
3x 1min each side
Deadlift
3x 20 reps 16kg
5x 20 reps 24kg
Lunges
3x 10 reps 10kg
5x 12 reps 10kg
Chest Press
3x 20 reps 12.5kg
5x 18 reps 20kg
Bicep Rows
3x 20 reps 15kg
5x 18 reps 20kg
Upright Row
3x 20 reps 10kg 60sec recovery
5x 20 reps 10kg 30sec recovery
Lateral Raise
3x 20 reps 3kg
3x 20 reps 4kg
Lateral Pulldown
3x 20 reps 20kg
5x 18 reps 25kg
I’m really not a fan of having my photograph taken but I was pleasantly surprised to see the difference in a photo taken this time last year to one taken now.
My biggest challenge this month was having a 2 week holiday from work with the temptation to sit around eating biscuits and chocolate all day that that brings. Although I did indulge in a couple of treats, I generally made healthy food choices and rigorously stuck to my training plan and even added in a couple of walks.
Speaking of food choices, although I have generally been
making healthy choices, I haven’t been tracking what I eat so that’s something
I want to focus on in November as it’s very true that we often eat mindlessly
and forget what we have actually consumed.
November is sure to bring with it some challenges as the nights get darker, we get closer to Christmas and it’s also my birthday month, but I’m just going to keep on trying to make healthier choices for the benefit of my future self and with the shorter term aim of looking as good as I can by the time my Christmas holiday comes arounds.
Fat Fighting Foodie 