The Casual Vacancy #TheYearInBooks

I last joined in with Laura & #TheYearInBooks in April.

That's not to say I haven't read - I have read loads, but always seem to be at the end of the book when it's time to share what I've been reading!

So grateful to Laura for getting me back into reading. It's so good to escape inside the cover of a great book. So here's what I have read since April.....

The Woman In The Fifth - Douglas Kennedy. It took me a while to get into this book, once I did I enjoyed it. Suspense and mystery, the ending a little unbelievable.

Going Dutch - Katie Fforde. Very easy Summer read! Man meets woman, overcome obstacles, fall in love, yada yada! Perfect if you don't want anything too taxing.

Body Surfing - Anita Shreve. I just LOVE her writing. Relationships, love, family dynamics, grief, deceit all contained within. Makes me want to read more from Anita Shreve.

My Lovers Lover - Maggie O'Farrell. My heart was in my mouth at times with this book, my heart beating fast.....but it ends up weird and not at all what you think is going on!! Shows how your mind can play tricks on you.

My favourite by far was Anita Shreve....

My book for this month is by J.K.Rowling. It's a biggy but I'm off on holiday Thursday. The Casual Vacancy starts with the death of a young member of the Parish Council, the ramifications of that for the different characters and the growing unrest of this seemingly peaceful village.

I'll let you know how I get on at the end of July.
Why not join in - it's a great way to get into reading if you have fallen off the literary wagon!
XX

Fitter, Stronger, Leaner

Since October last year I have lost 2 and a half stones in weight.

This has been a slow loss, done sensibly, not a quick fix and definitely not a diet. More a lifestyle change. A combination of running and pilates, but also completely changing my diet due to a realisation I have a slight gluten intolerance, eating protein only meals for breakfast and lunch, juicing daily and cutting down my portion sizes.

Rewind to October and I felt tired, lethargic, bloated and had tummy ache most of the time. My BMI was sitting around 27 - I needed to do something and decided I wanted to do a detox - get everything out of my system and start again.

To kick start I read this book by Jason Vale, aka The Juice Master. It really made me think about the way I ate, what I ate and when. Written in a no nonsense, engaging down to earth way.

It also helped me to prepare for the next stage which was to complete a weeks juice detox, with the help of this book.

The detox went well, I didn't suffer any ill effects, headaches or feel like I wanted to chew my arm off!!! In fact by day 4, I didn't need as many juices as allowed, again normal as after all, Jason Vale's aim is to get you eating when you are hungry not because a book tells you or it is lunch time.

After the initial weeks detox, I then ate protein only for two weeks, using recipes from Turbo Charge.
My energy levels increased, I started running more, my skin was great, I felt motivated.

After the 2 weeks of protein only I slowly introduced my usual diet, but smaller portions, I then
realised the link between my bloating and belly ache and link to gluten/wheat products causing this.

Moving on I now have gluten free when it is the main ingredient, e.g. bread, biscuits, cake, pasta, pastry. Gluten free products tend to be expensive, so if I have biscuits I only have one, whereas before I could easily eat a full packet of Malted Milk!!

I start my day with a wholesome breakfast juice, eat protein only for lunch and a healthy dinner, usually a rice dish, pasta (gluten free), salad or sweet potato (in place of white potato). Dinner is a much smaller portion to what I used to eat, I also try to eat before 6pm although this isn't always possible. I feel so much 'better' - fitter, stronger, leaner.

So tell me....How do you stay healthy?
XX

One Small Step

I have just done something I have been thinking about for way too long......

Over and over in my head - Where am I going? What do I want? What do I enjoy? What could I potentially make a living out of?

I know I work now and I love my job, but in the ever increasing insecure world of the NHS I need to think about where I need to be should things go tits up.

So, back to today - I have enrolled at my local College to study Massage starting in September (I already hold an Infant Massage qualification) - Yay! There has been lots of pondering, discussion and yes, procrastination too to get to this point. This is the first in a number of steps I hope to make in this coming year of wisdom and growth.

Has anyone visiting ever retrained, taken up something new that has led to new opportunities?
Always love to hear :-)
XX