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Poor Mother

a recipe for a richer life

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Life & Style

Poor Mother's family life, animals, attempts to be stylish and random other things.

Weight loss after 50

March 28, 2016 by Lisa Leave a Comment

Losing weight in middle age might be a lot harder than it was at 20 or 30, but it’s certainly possible. If like me you’re one of those people who’s dabbled with every diet going; Weightwatchers, Cambridge, Fast diet, Atkins, and so on, and constantly promised yourself that this will be the year you finally do it, then I have news for you. If I can do it then anyone can.

berries

You can pick any regime you like, but there are three rules

  1. Eat more fruit & veg
  2. Move more (a LOT more)
  3. Keep going, day after day after day.

No excuses

Don’t let your age be an excuse for giving up. When I think of the energy and emotion and money I’ve wasted on eating crap, buying shakes, buying clothes that fit every size from a 12 in my twenties to my biggest 22. Plus the missed opportunities. I have a sewing room full of fabulous fabric and patterns that I’m waiting to make up when I lose the weight. You probably have your own examples.

And we now have an added incentive for losing the excess weight: the health of our brains. There’s general agreement now that being overweight is a big risk factor for dementia. My mum died from dementia almost a year ago. My grandmother and an aunt also had this horrible disease. I might get it too, but I know for sure that I’m going to put it off as long as possible. I have too much still to do!

Don’t let your family be the excuse for giving up. You shouldn’t be cooking twice; once for the family and once for yourself. There’s more important stuff to do. I’ll be posting later about my six-week menu plan. I prep ahead as much as possible and the whole family reaps the benefit in saved time and money, and increased health.

Pick a diet, any diet

If you look at any of the diets recommended for brain and body health they are all pretty similar. Plenty of fruit & veg, especially berries, lean protein, oily fish, beans and nuts, and whole grains. There’s also evidence for a daily dose of red wine and dark chocolate. Compare Dr Fuhrman’s Eat for Life diet, the Fast diet/5:2 diet, eat Paleo, LowGI; even the Atkins diet broadly follows this principle. Fruit and veg are the king.

Check out this infographic from Yahoo.com:

MIND diet infographic

This is what works for me:

  • Porridge and berries, or a smoothie every morning
  • Salad or soup for lunch
  • Salad before dinner in the evening (and I cook fabulous dinners!)
  • Lots of kale, spinach, berries, onions and mushrooms every day.
  • Snacks are usually dried fruit, hummus with carrot or red pepper sticks, a banana,
  • A glass of red wine and a square of chocolate every evening.
  • Avoid processed and junk food. You know what it is.
  • I try to stick to 1300 calories, but if I earn extra by being active I’ll eat those too.
  • I track my food on MyFitnessPal, and count my steps with Pacer, both phone apps. No pocket in my leggings? My phone goes into my bra.
  • I walk every day, usually around 6000 steps but I’m building it up. I’m also following a couch to 10k programme. I really don’t like exercise. But I don’t like housework or food shopping either. It has to be done so get it over with.
  • I have days when I don’t follow this plan, but I know that each one undoes some of the good. So I get over it and get on with it.[Tweet “Get over it and get on with it”]
  • I set myself a target of 7lb a month through 2016, and weigh/measure myself on the 1st of the month.

Let’s support each other

I’d love to hear about what works for you. I’ll be posting updates here, and you can sign up for the newsletter to read each month’s report plus recipes, meal planning tips and more.

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I’ve also set up a private Facebook group where we can share support and keep each other accountable!

Add me to Poor Mother’s facebook group

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reduce your dementia risk today

November 27, 2015 by Lisa 1 Comment

reduce-your-dementia-risk-today

[dropcap]Y[/dropcap]ou’ve already stopped smoking cos that’s a no-brainer, right? As many as 14% of all dementia cases may be a direct result of lighting up, which means it’s never too soon to quit. Here are 5 more simple lifestyle changes you can make that will reduce your dementia risk today. Alzheimers and other forms of dementia have a huge impact on everyone they touch, but even small lifestyle changes can delay dementia.

Learn a new language.

Forget school language lessons and learning about “the pen of my aunt”. Learning a second (or third, or fourth) language today is fast and fun.  Free apps like DuoLingo on your phone, or paid-for online courses like Fluenz have transformed the way we learn. Want to learn Arabic? Need to know Zulu? Start learning and delay Alzheimers for 4 years or more.

Laugh more.

When it comes to brain health, laughter really is the best medicine. A good belly laugh reduces stress hormones and strengthens your immune system.  Put on a rib-tickling DVD, pour a glass of wine and chuckle away.

Go for a walk

Or even better, go for a run. Getting plenty of exercise can have a massive impact on your risk for dementia. Couch potato? Move a little more today than you did yesterday, and build it up gently. Walk the dog or run with friends for maximum benefit. Need new running shoes? I love my New Balance trainers, they fit perfectly right out of the box.

Keep busy

A busy life with a sense of purpose helps stave off dementia. People who volunteer, have an active role in their community and spend time being sociable tend to have healthier brains. Get involved with something that fires you up, or organise an event.

Have a glass of red

Or dark chocolate or raspberries..they all contain ingredients that protect your brain. In fact having a glass of wine a day means you have a  lower chance of developing dementia and Alzheimers than someone who never drinks at all. Cheers to that!

On that note I’m off for a walk, then I have space booked on the sofa with a friend, a glass of red and the funniest film of all time. How will you reduce your dementia risk today?

Middle age went by…..

November 12, 2015 by Lisa Leave a Comment

Midlife went by while I was mourning a lost youth[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hy is it that middle age is so often portrayed as a time for regret: regret that youth and inexperience has passed and regret that old age and inability may all too soon be with us? Personally I was glad to be out of my twenties, and only really felt grown up once I reached my thirtieth birthday, but reaching 50 did feel like  a kind of watershed at the time. Four years later I think of it more as a plateau after the hard struggle up the north face that was childrearing, having no cash, working at three jobs and getting used to being married. I’m now on the wide open plains of middle age and the view is spectacular!

But for a while there I needed reminding that middle age should be a time where we don’t waste the opportunity to grow and thrive by obsessing over what was, and what might yet be. It should be a time like no other when we can live in the moment. Let’s leave regret to other people and enjoy ourselves

It’s true that middle age brings its own challenges. The family dynamic may be changing, women (and maybe the men they live with) have to adapt to a different body, and our time and money are often needed for new commitments. But for me I have to say that I feel as though I’m on the brink of something exciting. My world is opening up and I have choices ahead that could change my life. I’m also fortunate that my best friend will be coming along for the ride.

I think I can safely say that when I get to the other side of the plateau, just before the inevitable descent down into old age and quite probably (for me) dementia, I won’t have spent my middle age mourning a lost youth. There’s too much fun to be had for that!

Am I unusual? Do you spend more of your middle age looking forwards or looking back?

Things to bear in mind

June 25, 2015 by Lisa Leave a Comment

I’m making a few notes to help Project 60 along the way.

 Little steps make up the whole journey.

Image source

I used to look at my ideal weight and plan out how long it would take to get there, by losing so much per week. Guess what! I haven’t made it yet! So now I feel much more relaxed about the whole thing, and I’m looking to the next week and the next month. What happens beyond that I’ll decide closer to the time.

A poor choice can be followed by a good choice.

Just because I had an emotional meltdown and ate a load of crap, or my best friend invited us to tea and gave us cauliflower cheese, followed by chocolate mousse, doesn’t mean I have to carry on eating like that. After all if I stub my toe I don’t repeatedly whack my foot against the table leg. Stop a moment, feel the pain, and carry on more carefully.

Step trackers make it fun to move more

I keep mine on my phone and love to see how many steps I’ve clocked up. It motivates my husband too (men love a gadget), and we’ll often take the dog around the block last thing to hit that 10,000 step target.

Rewards little and often help keep me motivated. 

I broke my weight loss into half stones (to be more accurate into 4% chunks as that fits with the DietBet  goals, but it’s more or less the same); and spent some time thinking about things I’d really like to reward myself with. They don’t have to cost money, but some do. The first one is a pair of floral Converses:

When I do get to goal I’m planning to reward myself with a couture sewing class.

I like healthy food

I actually do prefer healthy food to sugary, fatty food. I’m not saying I never eat cakes, sweets, or creamy puddings, but I do love a bit of fresh fish and salad, berries, purple sprouting broccoli, tomatoes, olive oil, puy lentils, broad beans and so on….

It just needs a little more planning ahead and prep than shovelling in another slice of buttery toast and jam. Which leads on to…..

Planning is my friend

Life’s so much easier when I make the time to plan the week’s meals, make a shopping list and set aside time to prep some lunches. It’s a win-win.

Sewing is a great motivator: no self-delusion is possible when you’re letting out a seam!

I’ve always made my own clothes, from the very first skirt I made aged 8, on my mother’s Singer. Being tall and large chested means ready made just doesn’t fit, and the quality is often iffy in any case. So as I’m investing money and time in a made to measure wardrobe I might as well invest a bit of the same in the body I’m sewing for. And to be frank I’d rather make up a size 14 than a 22. Seeing the tape measuring a little shorter every week is a fantastic boost!

Have a fall-back plan

This really involves changing the way you look at those poor choices I talked about. Have a plan ready for those times when it all goes out the window, whether its because I blew it myself, or because events threw me off course. And it’s not failure, it’s regrouping. As Stevo says in the link, it doesn’t matter what you do to get back on track, just do something.

Enjoy yourself!

Whatever happens over the next few months or so, I’m going to enjoy it. I’m going to try new exercise, new food, and really enjoy my rewards. Even the unexpected detours will be enjoyable, precisely because they will be unexpected. And even if something awful sidetracks me, I’m going to enjoy the challenge of finding a way around.

Thanks for reading. Comments are welcome!

Project 60

June 24, 2015 by Lisa Leave a Comment

I just signed up for a DietBet to kick start Project 60. Currently I weigh about 60lb more than I did when I met Tim, when I was at my best. A few things have spurred me on

My mum recently passed away after a few years living with vascular dementia: one of the risk factors is being overweight
I have a whole load of clothes I want to sew, and would rather make stuff in a 14 than a 22
I found Roni’s blog via Hello Healthy (I use MyFitnessPal to log my food and activity)
It’s summer solstice and I thought it would be interesting to see how much progress I can make between now and the winter solstice
I really want to take Susan Khalje’s Classic French Jacket class one day, and it would make a fantastic reward/motivation for getting to goal

But I know baby steps are the only way to get there, one pound at a time. Why not follow along and see how I do?

Thanks for reading. Comments are welcome!

What we ate and what I spent: week 3 of 52

February 7, 2015 by Lisa Leave a Comment

Youngest daughter expressed a desire for granola this week. I think she’s fed up with toast for breakfast, but as she is terrible at getting up on time in the mornings, I refuse to put time and effort into fancy breakfasts. (See how far from perfect we are!)

But granola, greek yogurt, berries are a quick and stylish breakfast so we stocked up.
Mornflake’s Classic Raisin and Almond was such good value, even cheaper than Asda’s own brand, that it wasn’t worth making our own. Plus the mill is local-ish (only half an hour up the road, in Crewe) so it was a feel-good purchase.

I tried a carb-free banana and egg pancake that popped up on pinterest, but I was frankly disappointed. A waste of calories…and I have Christmas weight to lose! So porridge and apple for me.

I used the last two Red Falstaff apples from the garden this week. They’ve kept better this year, stored on newspaper in the greenhouse. I love that I’m eating home-grown apples until the middle of January.

A lot of this week’s lunches and dinners come from The Diet for Food Lovers which has some really lovely gourmet recipes that feel luxurious..ideal for me as I hate to feel I’m eating diet food.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Diet-Food-lovers-Pure-Package/dp/0297866540

  • We had the spicy burger meatloaf with home made tomato sauce and mash. A friend rears and sells amazing pork, and gave us a pack of his new spicy burgers to try. We ate some in a bun, and I made some of them into meatloaf
  • The turmeric chicken was made with the second chicken from last week’s 2-for-£6.99, jointed and marinaded.
  • The frittata had a whole lot of leftover veg thrown in.

Baking: wholemeal bread, white bread, cranberry and white choc cookies. I also made 3 jars of marmalade from some caramelised oranges that were lurking in the freezer.

Thanks for reading. Comments are welcome!

Fast diet: getting into a routine

August 1, 2013 by Lisa Leave a Comment

I’ve been fasting 2 days a week through July, and a routine is beginning to emerge. I don’t find the fasting difficult, especially when I’m at work and occupied. but the 2 small meals thing is tricky for me..once I start to eat it’s hard to resist one more morsel.

So this week it’s been tea only until the evening meal with the family, then have a normal plateful (within the 500 cals, and passing on the carbs)

Then nothing else until breakfast the next day.

This gives me a 24 hour fast from 8 or 9 the day before (Sunday or Wednesday) and another 14 until late breakfast the next day (Tuesday or Friday)

Loss so far: 5lb

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