Food without the angst - Vegan SW

[BeeBeeSee]

The soup sounds really nice! Will definitely try it, sounds mega easy to make and good to keep in fridge or eat in large quantities I have to admit that I really can't stand the reduced salt and sugar baked beans. Seeing as they are free, I'm having the normal ones. I tried the others and the label should read "reduced taste". Because guess what I added....stevia and salt!
I do like some odd things. although I am all for freshness and eating stuff raw, I am a sucker for baked beans...and tinned potatoes! I know. It's so 70s. But I find them amazing as an add on. I slice them up and fry them in frylight and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Yum!

I'm glad your son got up, it sounds like such an exhausting routine. Well done for putting the time to good use. I know exactly what you mean with those long forgotten things. I even have stuff still with tags on. I am going to hopefully move soon if this place becomes available and it means reducing...I'm not good at that. I have taken a whole load out to the charity shop, I'm a big believer in them, it's the ultimate recycling! Although I do love boosting the economy buying new if there is some spare cash

The amount of stuff is unholy. But it's also exciting to find stuff you can actually wear or are very nearly there. Very pleased for you

 

[BeeBeeSee]

And .... everyone knows we have large bodies already, don't they? It's not as though going swimming will be a surprise for our friends. And I like your implication that by sheltering them from our skin we are assuming they have prejudices against our size. Off I go ...

Haha, very true!

 

[WasMicci]

Tinned potatoes eh? I've a tin, I bought two and tried one is a stewy soupy thing, or as we call that sort of thing, a stewp. It was horrible, IMHO. But doing them as you describe, well I can imagine that being quite nice.

If we are confessing the processed foods we like, I'm with you on baked peans. And mushy peas. If you like them too you can make an extremely easy soup with the, Bunbg them in a liquidiser with an equal amount of boiling water and some stock and hey presto, hot soup. I like instant mashed potato. When I get very very tired I get the munchies quite irrationally and rather like instant mash with what's left of my almond milk as a sort of instant porrige.

However, I've a nice fresh punnet of mushrooms OH bought me and I will have something based on that tonight.

More good things happened today. I had to go to the bank and popped into the nearest charity shop. They had a load of lovely new stuff out that I thought would fit me. Unfortunately I'm not quite into all 20s yet so this is more to put in the 'this will fit me within a month' bad. Good stuff though, Monsoon, Laura Ashley and M&S amongst the TU and less classy brands. Oh, I've turned into my mother. Or mainstream fashion design has become more style. There was one very nice grey stretchy top that will fit by Alex and Co of whom I have never heard before but IMHO it is rather elegant, with tiny little appliqued black ribbon flowers around the neck. So once I have sorted out the footwear and the hair I can present myself as what my children call 'posh'. Which is quite funny for an aging hippy.

Now I am bracing myself to supervise a maths lesson.

 

[WasMicci]

A fox just came into the living room whilst I was sitting there!!!! I know they come in but this is the best look at it I've had so far. Young and unscarred, lovely looking creature.

 

[BeeBeeSee]

Tinned potatoes eh? I've a tin, I bought two and tried one is a stewy soupy thing, or as we call that sort of thing, a stewp. It was horrible, IMHO. But doing them as you describe, well I can imagine that being quite nice.

If we are confessing the processed foods we like, I'm with you on baked peans. And mushy peas. If you like them too you can make an extremely easy soup with the, Bunbg them in a liquidiser with an equal amount of boiling water and some stock and hey presto, hot soup. I like instant mashed potato. When I get very very tired I get the munchies quite irrationally and rather like instant mash with what's left of my almond milk as a sort of instant porrige.

However, I've a nice fresh punnet of mushrooms OH bought me and I will have something based on that tonight.

More good things happened today. I had to go to the bank and popped into the nearest charity shop. They had a load of lovely new stuff out that I thought would fit me. Unfortunately I'm not quite into all 20s yet so this is more to put in the 'this will fit me within a month' bad. Good stuff though, Monsoon, Laura Ashley and M&S amongst the TU and less classy brands. Oh, I've turned into my mother. Or mainstream fashion design has become more style. There was one very nice grey stretchy top that will fit by Alex and Co of whom I have never heard before but IMHO it is rather elegant, with tiny little appliqued black ribbon flowers around the neck. So once I have sorted out the footwear and the hair I can present myself as what my children call 'posh'. Which is quite funny for an aging hippy.

Now I am bracing myself to supervise a maths lesson.

Yea, on their own or plain mixed in with stuff I don't like the tinned potatoes much either. But properly seasoned they are super easy to add. Oh I love instant mash! I make potato cakes out of them, make it quite thick and season and add any nicely chopped veg like onions and peppers and fry in frylight. This may be hard to believe but I have never had mushy peas in my life. Must try them at some point.

Good news about the clothes! That is such a success moment isn't it, taking all that stuff home and actually dressing to feel good rather than to not be naked At my lowest of times, that's how I felt, the clothes just served the purpose of coverage. But it does wonders to your self esteem to wear things you like, adds a bounce to your step.

A fox just came into the living room whilst I was sitting there!!!! I know they come in but this is the best look at it I've had so far. Young and unscarred, lovely looking creature.

Wow! that is quite something! I see foxes around a lot here but never see them come near the house. They are so beautiful, I love them!

 

[WasMicci]

Wow! that is quite something! I see foxes around a lot here but never see them come near the house. They are so beautiful, I love them!

I suppose ours are urban here, a different variety to your truly wild ones. Ours scavenge although there is a lot of undisturbed land here for them to catch wildlife. But we are a crazy cat household, full of rescued animals that needed a home when they turned up. On the odd occasion turned up pregnant too. For ease of feading we keep dry food down all the time, and the cat flap in the conservatory is broken and in the summer the door between the conservatory and kitchen is left open so once any fox has found us we are a good source of food. I suspect generations after generations have passed the word on about us.

Once, years and years ago I was woken by one nibbling on my foot that was sticking out of the duvet. Another time OH found a young one stuck in the living room, it couldn't find the door and was jumping up at a mirror and howling - perhaps with the reflection of the light it was confused and thought it was the exit gone horribly wrong. anyway, he left baby foxy to it and presumably it found the door.

Foods - lots of quinoa yesterday with the punnet of mushrooms cooked into some of it, some of it with almond milk. The rest of the bubble and squeek with half a B choice of pseudo cheese. Loads of fruit, packet of pom crisps and 2 nairns chocolate oat biscuits, will look up the syns on them in a moment. It doesn't look a lot but I think I overdid the quinoa, I feel a bit blaoted this morning. I seem to have forgotten to have anymore Bs, maybe I nibbled on some ryvita at some point.

 

[WasMicci]

I don't usually bring my activism here - except for my sigs but I am so cross that SW have been suckered in by CRUK. Without going into a rant about it, anyone that wants to know why I feel so strongly about them read this. It's not only the animal issue, they have such funds they could be doing so much good with. As for telling us about how much longer people live after diagnosis ... well read for yourself. The organisation hosting this post, btw, do not take any stance on animal testing. Open letter sent by Andre Menache to Cancer Research UK (CRUK). - Antidote Europe

 

[WasMicci]

Syns: 3 x biscuits = 6
3 x chocolates = 6
2 x different biscuits = 3

= 15 syns

Can't remember what my meals were earlier but finished off tonight witha whole bag of prepared supermarket salad with a tin of chickpeas. Loads of barley cup with almond milk but couldn't finish it.

ETA, I had lunch which was a bowl of pasta with some cheesey stuff on it. I think the rest has all been fruit and a large quantitiy of soup somewhere along the line.

 

[WasMicci]

Harumph. I bought new scales and was incensed by their behaviour this morning. Every time I tried them I got a different figure between 110 point something kilos and 103 point something. Then I wondered if it was anything to do with having soft lino in the bathroom so took them down to the kitchen where the previous ones were, it's hard wood floor with a harder lino on it. There the new scales were 21ying 107.7 or around that every time I tried them. So maybe I've lost less than I had hoped, goodness knows, I will just have to stay jolly determined until next week and the official WI

 

[WasMicci]

What a stressful day, left the lights on yesterday so the car wouldn't start when I was about to take Albert for his Xray. Fortunately I had a jump start thingy so I got it going but the journey wasn't long enough to charge the battery properly and by own gadget had run out of charge so I needed to get someone to rescue me.

that meant I missed most of the carer's support group but that's not the end of the world. Bad news is I HAVE to get a new batery, no dodging the issue anymore. Worse news is poor Albert needs an op on his knee that will cost hundreds and be quite unpleasant for him. OH is still not very will but is planning going back to work on Friday. He feels compelled to as he is on half pay and the overdraft is mounting. I do so hope that we get high enough DLA awarded for me to get carer's allowance. T couldn't get up or see his tutor .... worry worry worry

The very very good news is I didn't binge

 

[BeeBeeSee]

Hey Micci, aw you got so much going on! And on top of that, those silly scales aren't telling you the truth! I wonder if it would be worth it spending that pound in Boots or somewhere where they have properly calibrated scales. Those home ones can be enormously unreliable and it's disheartening then.

By the way, it was very interesting reading that letter to Cancer Research, a lot of things I hadn't thought of before. Thanks for the link

 

[BeeBeeSee]

I read this post yesterday and I cannot find it again, for the life of me, I have searched and searched so I hope I get the order right. It's quite simple really.

You know your body is beautiful when:

1. you have a body.
2. that's it.
3. congratulations.
4. you have won.

I liked that.

 

[WasMicci]

Hey Micci, aw you got so much going on! And on top of that, those silly scales aren't telling you the truth! I wonder if it would be worth it spending that pound in Boots or somewhere where they have properly calibrated scales. Those home ones can be enormously unreliable and it's disheartening then.

By the way, it was very interesting reading that letter to Cancer Research, a lot of things I hadn't thought of before. Thanks for the link

I hadn't thought of the commercial ones, there is a gadget in a chemist very near here that I plan to take my sone to so we know his BP. sometimes you don't see the wood for the trees. silly me, thanks for the idea. I think, if I have a sabatical again that is what I will do but I feel that atm I've had poss dubious figures from two scales and will go back to the SW ones next week. If I go for more scales that may well be accurate but being midweek I may get even more confused - or disheartened. But when I manage to get m'boy there I will quiz them as to how often they are calibrated.

These new scales did something even weirder. Or my body did something weird. Once I'd realized that I wasn't going to get a figure that I liked on my new scales, even if they were fairly consistant once I'd tried different floors, I came up with another scheme. As I'd actually weighed 2 hours earlier than I had been doing I thought I'd wait till later. Later came, and I'd been to the toilet again so I jumped on the blooming scales again. And consistently, about 4 times of on and off to check, I was a kilo and a half heavier. How can that possibly be? I'd neither eaten nor drumk anything, been to the toilet yet I was heavier?????

Anyway, the moral of this story is that I have totally cured myself of any residual scale addiction I might have had. so the experience has a positive side.

 

[WasMicci]

More ramblings on the subject of scales. The previous ones were from John Lewis. I can't remember the make but they were good and reliable. You know where you are with scales from John Lewis. If I can find the receipt these others are going back to Tesco and I'll tell the helpful person behind the CS desk this story till their eyes glaze over and they give me my money back.

 

[malamobile]

More ramblings on the subject of scales. The previous ones were from John Lewis. I can't remember the make but they were good and reliable. You know where you are with scales from John Lewis. If I can find the receipt these others are going back to Tesco and I'll tell the helpful person behind the CS desk this story till their eyes glaze over and they give me my money back.

Good luck.scales are evil but I'm an addict

 

[WasMicci]

This is so strange, I am actually looking forward to going back next week, I really don't like not knowing where I am on this weight loss journey. To use a cliche. I'm not feeling any slimmer and the tendency to over eat because of that is looming. Not seriously looming, I went to bed a bit hungry last night rather than eat the unsuitable foods that were the only things to hand. But a couple of nights ago I succumbed to almost a whole tub of hoummus with ryvita. Not the worst of possible excesses but we shall see when I go back.

Something rather nice. Nomads have a sale on and I indulged in a new coat. I felt rather guilty about this, what with the family finances and all, but justified it as I was meant to be putting a pound away for every pound I lost to treat myself, so I'm now in advance of myself by around a stone. I've not had a new coat for I don't know how long. Probably the last one I bought new was in my teens or early twenties. Since then I've had charity shop ones or they've been given to me.

This is an 18, and it fits me atm and I'd like to think that by the winter it will fit me with a thick jumper underneath. There is embroidery on the sleeves and on the back at the neckline.

 

[WasMicci]

Despite knowing how stupid my scales are I still get on them from time to time but am none the wiser as to whether or not I am going up or down. I assume down, I feel more slender, in fact looking at myself naked in the mirror is a bit of shock as I feel so much better in myself.

I went for my forst session of Pilates and Tai Chi, a special session put on for local carers. It happens during term time so next week will be the last session before september. Oh my, it was such easy gentle stuff and I still found much of it quite challenging. I do still have some residue of flexibility left from my Yoga and Escrima days, but not as much as I would like. I think I need to be more gentle with myself as I did feel quite a bit of strain on the area of my spine that caused the sciatica and I do NOT want a major return of that.

Yesterday me and the boy went for a swim, we didn't do much as we got in the pool very late and he hasn't swum for years and I didn't want to leave him to it, it was nice anyway.

Tomorrow evening is the moment of truth.

 

[malamobile]

This is so strange, I am actually looking forward to going back next week, I really don't like not knowing where I am on this weight loss journey. To use a cliche. I'm not feeling any slimmer and the tendency to over eat because of that is looming. Not seriously looming, I went to bed a bit hungry last night rather than eat the unsuitable foods that were the only things to hand. But a couple of nights ago I succumbed to almost a whole tub of hoummus with ryvita. Not the worst of possible excesses but we shall see when I go back. Something rather nice. Nomads have a sale on and I indulged in a new coat. I felt rather guilty about this, what with the family finances and all, but justified it as I was meant to be putting a pound away for every pound I lost to treat myself, so I'm now in advance of myself by around a stone. I've not had a new coat for I don't know how long. Probably the last one I bought new was in my teens or early twenties. Since then I've had charity shop ones or they've been given to me. This is an 18, and it fits me atm and I'd like to think that by the winter it will fit me with a thick jumper underneath. There is embroidery on the sleeves and on the back at the neckline. http://postimage.org/

Gorgeous coat

 

[malamobile]

Despite knowing how stupid my scales are I still get on them from time to time but am none the wiser as to whether or not I am going up or down. I assume down, I feel more slender, in fact looking at myself naked in the mirror is a bit of shock as I feel so much better in myself. I went for my forst session of Pilates and Tai Chi, a special session put on for local carers. It happens during term time so next week will be the last session before september. Oh my, it was such easy gentle stuff and I still found much of it quite challenging. I do still have some residue of flexibility left from my Yoga and Escrima days, but not as much as I would like. I think I need to be more gentle with myself as I did feel quite a bit of strain on the area of my spine that caused the sciatica and I do NOT want a major return of that. Yesterday me and the boy went for a swim, we didn't do much as we got in the pool very late and he hasn't swum for years and I didn't want to leave him to it, it was nice anyway. Tomorrow evening is the moment of truth.

All sounds really positive. Brilliant progress on so many fronts. How is your oh?

 

[WasMicci]

He went back to work, saw his own manager and the bloke who took the photo came in an made an abject apology. Aparently there had been quite a few engineers discovered sleeping during the night shift and this chap thought that OH was doing the same. In a corridor? Anyway, this man has had some sort of disciplinary procedure and has been made redundant. Coincidence or not, or on what sort of terms we do not know. Anyway, OH is still extremely weak and shaken by all this, still has an MRI to come and an appt with a cardiologist and the knowledge that these shift patterns have got to change. 12 hours shifts, 2 days nights, 2 days off, 2 days of doing days with a regular 3 days at the weekend of nights, off or days. He is not the only one who has been hurt by this. Thanks for asking.