I went for a run last night ...

Only for a mile and a half or so. I haven't been for a couple of months and I just fancied it.
It felt great and left me feeling really energised.

More exercise followed - we bought a Wii yesterday, so I spent the evening prancing around the living room pretending to play tennis.
I must have looked an real idiot but it was great fun!!

A bad day

I broke both my rules yesterday and seem to be feeling the effects!

I spent my time from 11 till 2 manning a car boot sale stall, and from 3.30 till 7 at a barbecue. The circumstances seemed to dictate what I was eating and when. In fact, that's just an excuse - it was lack of planning on my part!
Come the evening, I was feeling tired, so I sat down to watch a film. I spent the evening on the sofa and resolved to get up a bit earlier to make lunches and so on. It didn't finish till 11 and wasn't even very good. Bang goes rule number 1.
I thought I'd be fine until, just after 4am this morning, my darling 5-year-old woke me up announcing "I've finished! Can you wipe my bottom, please!". Great.

The upshot was that I couldn't drag myself out of bed before 6.45 this morning, making me late, and I still had all my chores to do from the night before.

So, after a manic start, rushing around and getting flustered, I eventually got to work and settled down for the day.
Somehow, I managed to throw some healthy food into a bag before I ran out of the door this morning and am now back on track with my eating.
I will definitely be going to bed on time tonight!

Planning is the key to all of this, I think.
I feel rule number 3 coming on. :)

One happy lady

In the setting of a beautiful sunny garden, sat in the shade of a tree, watching the children run around having fun, and chatting with good friends, the only effect that lashings of tea and cakes had on me was to make me more happy and relaxed. Fantastic.
Home to a lovely greek salad with a little crusty bread and some ham, then homemade hummus and toasted pitta bread for supper with a glass of white.
I went to bed a happy lady - and that's what it's all about! :)

The 80:20 rule

When I was discussing the food thing with Gina, she gave me loads of useful information, including a sheet titled The 10 Principles.
I'm not sure whether she wrote it, or if it came from a book or the internet, but I'm sure she won't mind me sharing it with you.

Principle 1. Eat protein with complex carbohydrates.
Principle 2. Stay hydrated.
Principle 3. Eat a wide variety of foods.
Principle 4. Fuel up frequently.
Principle 5. Eat breakfast.
Principle 6. Avoid sugar.
Principle 7. Exercise is essential.
Principle 8. Follow the 80:20 rule.
Principle 9. Make time to eat.
Principle 10. Eat fat to lose fat.

This afternoon, I'm going to stray a little bit as I'm going to a charity garden party where there will be lashings of tea and cakes. Principle 6 is definitely going to be temporarily ignored! However, I like no.8 which tells me that it's perfectly normal to stray from time to time. If I eat healthily for at least 80% of the time then I can stray for 20% of the time. Which means I can enjoy this afternoon without feeling bad.

The last thing I want is to tie myself down to a diet where I can't eat cake! And, I believe Pat's cakes are the best I've ever tasted.

I'll blog about the other principles over the week but I thought I'd better add that Principle 10 is talking about eating essential fats not saturated ones!

Waiting for the weekend

It's 3:18 Friday afternoon and the day is dragging...
Time to reach for my grapes and oatcakes!
Good stuff.

I'm certainly feeling less hungry and more healthy eating low GI, but I'm finding it hard to plan the evening meals for all the family.
I guess I'll get better at it.
Anyone know any good recipes?

Rule 2. Eat often, eat well.

Well, the first rule seems fairly sensible to me. More sleep = less tiredness. As long as I don't have children wandering in to me with bad dreams at 3 o'clock in the morning, it definitely helps.
I think it's good to have a settled body clock, ie. go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning. There's also the added bonus of escaping into a good book before drifting off to sleep.
So, that rule's done and dusted (for now). It's a success!

The next rule, I've decided, is to do with eating.
I've had a long chat with my good friend and gym instructor, Gina, who has advised me that low GI foods are best for keeping your energy levels up and stop you getting sugar highs and lows.
It sounds straight forward, eat foods that release energy slowly and eat them often. It's not going to be a huge departure from what I do already. I'll have 3 meals a day with snacks in between, restricting the bad stuff and increasing the good stuff.
I've tried it for a few days already, keeping a food diary, and it seems fine. I'm going to stop doing the diary now because I think I've got the hang of it and I don't want it to take over my life, just be part of it.
The great thing about this is that I can apply it to the whole family and they shouldn't notice much difference! This should be a good one all round. :)

Bookworm reborn

I have, much to my surprise, found it quite easy to get to bed on time every night this week. Mind you, it is the summer holidays - no school uniforms, school run or karate classes to worry about.
I think I'll revisit this one in September when my schedule will be rather more hectic. Might not be so easy then.
One fantastic benefit that has come out of it is that I have more time to read. I love a good read and I've done loads more of it this week - reading a chapter every night rather than just a spread!
I'm definitely going to try to stick to this rule.

Good news, bad news

I have had a good start - getting to bed on time two nights in a row. Unfortunately, I suffered a migraine in between. :(
I wonder if any of the things I'm going to try in the forthcoming weeks will stop my migraines. ?
Still, even Wonderwoman has to have her off-days!

Rule 1. Get to bed on time.

Getting more sleep seems the obvious thing to start with. I usually plan to get to bed at 10:30 but I very rarely achieve that. And eight hours' sleep sounds ridiculous!
So what is realistic? I think I'll aim for 10:30 but make 11:00 my absolute deadline.
I'll try to get all my chores done in the evening so I don't have to get up so early in the morning.
Let's see how it goes.

Welcome to my blog

My problem is a common one. I am a married 33 year old mother of two young boys, with a job, and a house to look after. I love my family, I enjoy my work, and life is good. So why am I always tired?
OK, so there's always lots to do and, sometimes, just watching the children is exhausting, but I can't change that. So what can I change? There must be something!
I have a plan. What I intend to do is, every week or so, apply a new rule to my life. It could be anything from getting more sleep to more positive thinking. I'm going to stick to it as best I can and see what happens. If it helps I'll keep it, If not I'll forget it. Any help or advice would be very welcome.
Hopefully, it will be as simple as it sounds, so let's get started!

Dedication

Before I get started, I'd like to dedicate this to two wonderwomen whom I miss very much: Nanny and Merlin. I learnt many valuable lessons from each of them.