Crazy life of Chilli

heh i need to give myself a good kick up the arse overall 🤪

How was cake?
 
yeah it's been a long month @Cavegirl21 but almost over now. Thanks for thinking of me @ladybird777 I'm ok just tired and struggling with motivation but I'll get there. Hope you're ok too.

Well I've tried a couple times and failed and pretty much given up. I've no idea what I weigh, but I may do a monthly weigh in, or go back to weighing all the time you can never tell with me lol. I'm not overly worried as I know whatever has gone on that I'm still weighing less than I did last year at this time, and I always said I knew it would be a long haul thing. Sure I hoped it would be faster, but because of my body and my life and my habits it isn't.

So, diet wise honestly I've not paid any attention really most of the time in the past month, but everything still fits albeit a bit snugger 🤣 I think part of the problem is I can't 100% decide what to do next. I still have a fair amount of exante left, and I'm addicted now to chai latte lol. So my loose plan for the next week is 2x exante, 1 fairly healthy meal (I'm not going to really calorie count) I need to up my fluid, and ration the chai latte :D I'll probably try and throw in some IF. But ya know it's all a maybe. I'm just as likely to jump back into BSD at some point.

Using the exante products during the day I'm hoping will cut down on the time and procrastination over what to eat, when to have it etc. One shake and one soup whenever. I may treat myself to an order of peanut butter chocolate shakes mmmm lol.

In other news of the mobile shop variety - well I jumped from getting a big van, to looking at smaller vans, medium vans, then looking at horse transporters, back to vans again, eventually giving up and thinking 'WHY? Why, universe would you give me such inspiration with no means to make it happen?' Then suddenly I saw an ad for a teeny caravan, small enough for my car to tow and I suddenly thought 'ooh' it is such a cute thing, easy to tow, and we can use it for holidays too which justifies the cost. Soooo I am going to make a caravan shop :D

Latest thing I've been working on are embroidered notebook covers, I'll post a pic of the ones I've made.
 
ooh I forgot to post a pic of the book covers. I will do it soon.

Well I weighed in on 1st feb at 185lb's absolutely terrible as that means I'm only down 6lbs on this time last year but hey, I've not gained it all and more so I'm still having it as a win!

So I have been making lots of plans over the past week. I think I need to treat everything from my craft business to self care to food as a job. I need to plan it in, make time and do it.

So my plan for from Monday is...

For home and family - Monday is now housework catch up day. If it doesn't get done on Monday it can be top of the list for next monday. Lunch with daughter once a month, day out with son once a month, takeaway at home once a month. There will be other stuff but that's the minimum.

For survival - continue with my 1-3 care shifts per week. It will vary as long as I get enough over the month.

For my business - 25 hours of working on it every week, with regular plans for posting on my pages, and a weekly video.

For my Self care - Most mornings for a few hours are going to be 'me time' so if I want to take a long bath or veg out that's ok. I will continue to do my daily morning pages journaling before I get up in the morning. Take the dog for her 40 minute walk which is also my exercise, at least once a week going a longer walk. I also plan an 'artist date' once per week whenever possible (morning pages and artist dates as recommended by Julia Cameron in her Artists way book feel free to ask)

For my Food plan - exante shake for breakfast, exante soup for lunch, 2 x chai latte at most per day (lol lol lol I'm an addict), low carb healthy meal at night. At the weekend (or 2 other days per week if I plan to be out etc) just general low carb eating.

See what I really need to do is cut the crap. I've been eating every biscuit, crisp and chocolate bar in sight. I know that proper food isn't the demon it's the high carb snackery that's the issue. So I'm gonna do the above, trying to treat all of the aspects as a job, with a real commitment and I'm thinking I'll weigh in again 1st march and see how I'm going.
 
Book covers. They're reversible. Although the planner isn't, it was the first one and made a different way
 

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well as usual my day hasn't gone quite to plan. I got a bit of housework done but not it all, went food shopping, had a cuppa with a friend, took son to his drama group, sorted out my work planning app - which I've not been able to get working for ages! I've enough shifts planned now over the next few weeks - as far ahead as I can plan.

Tonight I have an easy overnight shift, I get to sleep lol. I don't get many of these shifts anymore so it's great when I can pick one up.

Food wise today I didn't eat at all until about 2pm (hello intermittent fasting) first of all I had 2 dates with peanut butter (my friend made home made peanut butter and wanted me to taste them) I don't usually like peanut butter but I like it in dates, and I like peanut butter exante shakes lol. Then a few hours later I had a couple of skinny whip bars (75 calories each) cos I was really hungry and had to take son to his drama class. It was bad food planning really. Anyway after that I had an exante shake, soup and a few small pizza slices. I also had 2xchai latte.

So not a perfect day, but not as bad as some I've had... I guestimate around 1000 calories, not especially low carb, but all within a 6 hour window. So... onwards to tomorrow!
 
That doesn’t sound like a bad day at all!

When I’m all over the place diet wise, I find staying on plan just one day helps me get that sense of achievement to stay on the next day. And then only focusing on one day at a time helps me pass the days on plan.

I love your notebook covers btw. I’m old school and keep all my food diaries etc in notebooks, they get so tattered after a while and I had never thought of notebook covers for them!
 
hey there @Halley you could even make your own covers with wallpaper or wrapping paper like at school, no special tools or equipment needed for that. (or get in touch with your minimins seamstress to make you some ;) )

well needless to say my wagon I fell off has never truly returned and I'm really not sure what's up at the moment. i'm struggling with motivation on too many levels to bore you all with.

In fun news I bought a Ninja foodi and I love it! I have never pressure cooked before and it's great, the air crisp function is also great I've had it for about a fortnight and I've never used the hob since and I think the ovens been on twice.

It's re-ignited a love for potato, however. So I think I'm going to need to re-address intermittent fasting properly to minimise damage lol.

I'm in the process of making a food plan for the week, before heading out to get my shopping so I'm going to try (again) to make some progress this week.

In other fun news, I made a shirt! it wasn't nearly as difficult as I expected altho I did use snaps as I didn't fancy chancing my luck at that many buttonholes! I used the lumberjack pattern from patterns for pirates, shortened by 2 inches for my 5ft height. I've never had a shirt that wasn't too long with too long sleeves before! it is a really oversized fit though, moreso than I expected but I'll still wear it. I've no pics of me in it yet but I'll post the pics of it on the table. I'd planned a dress with this fabric but it never happened lol.

Mine is a basic unlined version, but the pattern shows how to line them too, so I'm going to make a cosy one at some point, to use as a 'shacket'

Right I best get a move on

toodles
 
Hi @ChilliQueen just catching up, you have been busy. I love those notebook covers, what a great idea. Strangely I was doing some tidying yesterday and found my last 5 diaries and all of them I had decorated the covers either with paper or fabric and I plan on doing this year's today.
 
Hi @tipperary its nice to make things a little more unique and personalised I think.

I'm still just trudging on, however I've gone and booked some trips :) I'm going to England in summer, caravan near to my mother in law, we'll be taking my son together to London for a day to go to the Harry Potter world. I'll spend a couple days doing my own thing, then my sis in law is going to babysit son so we can go to Pagan camp. It'll be fun. Then a few weeks later I've planned a few days in the Highlands, to take son on the Harry Potter train. I also plan some shorter trips over summer closer to home and I'm hoping to go to Oban in April.

So now I've lots to look forward to :)

I'm finding losing any weight impossible, but I've not gained anymore so I guess that's a win.

As usual I forgot to post the pics of my shirt, I've still not worn it but I will soon.
 

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Hey Chilli - what a gorgeous shirt, I love the fabric! And the book covers are lovely too, you're a very talented lady :).

I've been the same with motivation, been all over the place, but am back at SW where i feel comfortable, and eating well but also losing - I just need to stick with it! Good luck with all your plans x
 
Thanks guys
welcome back @ladyfelsham hope you're doing ok?

Well I've still not stepped forwards really this year with weightloss, but I'm gearing up for a proper push start now.

I think part of the problem is I was half in, half out with exante. I still had lots of packs and was half heartedly using them up but not in a meaningful way, alongside a pile of crap because deep down now I know... lower carb and intermittent fasting are the only things that work for me properly, and even though I liked the exante products, I still craved food alongside.

So... I've sold all my exante stuff, it's all packaged up already and getting mailed on Monday to those who have bought it.

I recently bought a ninja foodi (think it is a 9 in 1 I forget) anyway, I love it. Amazing thing the only function I've not thought much of is the slow cooker, so I'm going to keep my slow cooker. The only down side is rediscovering a love for the humble roast potato... but I have dscovered that air fried carrots are also rather lovely and many more things yet to try. I've never pressure cooked before, or air fried but having lots of fun trying stuff out.

I don't want a life without potatoes anymore, or without food, and enjoyment of it so I have decided now on a really combined compromised approach to see if I can step forwards again. I guess I will have to tweak this going forwards, but this is the starting outline, it will also need tweaking on my nightshift periods.

Number 1, possibly the most important thing - I must minimise snacking. this is a huge downfall of mine and all it leads to is even more snacking.

Number 2, Intermittent fasting - I'll skip food until at least lunchtime and shut it down as soon after my evening meal as possible. Trying to keep the window as short as is reasonable.

Number 3, Keep it lower carb at least one of the meals - so either lunch or dinner, minimising my 'carbs' to only one meal.

Number 4, cooking from scratch as much as possible, bulk cooking etc as chosen and generally having more healthy veg with everything.

Number 5, Although I don't think cheat days are necessarily helpful, I think having a more laid back approach once a week may be helpful, so I'm going to be laid back on one day per week. This may be a take away this week, or that I'll bake a cake next week, or I'm out for a meal the week after. trying to keep things 'reasonable' and not going crazy.

In other news I've signed up to this virtual walking thing... You choose your virtual route (I've chosen the NC500) and start walking. You save how far you walked each time - I have mine linked to strava, and it shows you on the virtual map where you are. It has points of interest and use the online maps to look around where you 'are' it's using google maps. I thought I'd find it motivating. Once you complete your miles, they send you a medal. It's just a fun thing really. You pay around £30 per route - you're really paying for the medal and site access. It's around the same price whether you choose a long or short route so as I've not loads of cash at the mo I've chosen a long one lol, there are longer ones as well, and also some I'd like to do just because I'm interested. They have ones for all over the world.

I'm considering an exercise bike but my spare cash is pretty much accounted for at the moment.

So On Monday I'll be weighing, measuring and getting on with it I hope!

Other other news - I bought a new dressmaker dummy with a view to learning to make corsets! and dresses for forthcoming summer (hopefully)

Lots going on and lots to look forwards to :)

Hope you guys are all doing good.
 
All good with me thanks hun.

I think you're spot on to go for an eating plan that takes it slow and steady, and one where you have food that's enjoyable - and if you come across any magic tricks on how to avoid snacking, please share! The only way I can do it is to not have anything even remotely snacklike in the house!
 
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