Tuesday 20 February 2018

Know your breaking point and find your balance





If you follow my blog then you will know that finding a balance in life is something I find difficult and something that I continually have to work at. Working freelance and having a mountain of debt means that work often has to be the dominant factor and other things in my life suffer. Issues that throw me out of a routine also put a lot of pressure on me and sometimes I just don’t know how to cope with that. Emotional eating is still a huge issue for me and if I start to feel under enough strain then the temptation to try and bury myself in food can be overwhelming.

The last week put me under pressure. It was half term so my youngest was at home. I normally work while she is at school and then late in the evening once she is in bed. Last week I had to work most days because we needed the money and I had bills to pay that couldn’t be left. This made me feel rotten as I couldn’t take her anywhere. I was also working really late so lack of sleep was making me feel worse. I was cheating on my diet with sugary snacks to try and boost my energy which also made me feel rotten about myself. Finally my stupid fluctuating hormones made me want to sit on the floor and howl. Basically it wasn’t good.

I should have seen the signs and I should have prepared better as I knew half term would be difficult. Instead I let that little tight ball of anxiety in my stomach grow and grow until today, after a heated row with my dsughter’s school in which I nearly cried, I realised that I needed to stop this before I reached a breaking point that I couldn’t pull back from. That happened last year and I slid into months of overeating.

So tonight I’m going to bed at 12 instead of 2:30am, I will give myself regular breaks during the day tomorrow and I will treat myself to a bath instead of the shower sprint that I usually go through.

I know that this post doesn’t really have much to do with losing weight but for so many people, their mental state will have a huge impact on lifestyle changes that they might be trying to make. I realised today that I wasn’t in a good state and if I had read the signs then I might have realised even earlier. So try to be aware of yourself. Look at what issues could trigger mood swings or problems for you. If you start to feel that it is all getting a bit too much for you then do something immediately to try and lift your mood. It doesn’t have to be anything large or expensive. Just something that will make you feel happier. It’s important to recognise what could be your breaking point. It’s the only way to make sure that you don’t actually break.
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Saturday 17 February 2018

Can the Menopause make it harder to lose weight?




I turned fifty last year so I knew then that I was at the age when menopause is literally just around the corner. I hadn't really had any symptoms up to then but within a month of my birthday, out of the blue, I literally felt like menopause had jumped up and slapped me in the face. I've always had a problem with fluctuating hormones and have found herbal supplements have helped but this time my hormones went haywire and I found it stated to get harder to lose weight. I also found that if I lapsed with my diet or had to cut down on my workouts that I put on more weight than I expected. I felt awful, was bloated and constantly exhausted with no energy. I started reading about how the menopause can have an effect on your weight and ways to help combat it. I found out quite a few interesting things.

The most important impact of the menopause is that any weight gained will go to a different part of your body. Hormone changes make your weight move from your hips and thighs to your belly. This can cause the so called middle aged spread. The weight gain can be made worse by fluctuations in the levels of oestrogen in your body. Either very low or very high levels can mean an increase in the amount of fat that your body stores.

You will also find that your metabolism slows although this is also a part of general ageing so that diets that have worked in the past are not now as successful. As we age, our bodies generally need less calories so portion control becomes more important. This is one reason why an exercise routine alone will not be enough to prevent weight gain during menopause.

Menopause can be a stressful and worrying time especially if you are experiencing distressing symptoms such as hot flushes. Unfortunately this can also have a detrimental effect on your weight. When our bodies are under stress, this causes the production of cortisol to increase. A high level of cortisol can cause you to develop more fat stores around your belly. Stress can also cause comfort eating which is always a huge problem for me.

So the answer is that yes, going through perimenopause and menopause can have an impact on your body both in terms of your weight and also how you store fat and the shape of your body. This was interesting to find out as it partly explains why, when I fell off my diet last year, I was able to put weight back on so easily and so quickly. The extra weight also definitely all went on my belly.

I've been trying a few different things to help myself adjust to this new stage in my life and I will write a post soon to share some of them with you and explain what has worked for me and what hasn't.

Speak to you soon


Love Erica xxx



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Friday 16 February 2018

Blueberry Bites



I had a lot of blueberries left in my fridge yesterday and, as I felt in the mood to do some baking, I thought I would see what I could create with them.

My initial thought was to try and make some sort of Blueberry cookies but they sort of evolved into these instead. I've called them Blueberry Bites and they remind me of little mini scones in taste with a little bit more crunch. Here's the recipe.

Ingredients
800g Self Raising Flour
150g low fat margarine
200ml skimmed milk
1 egg
250g blueberries
150g caster sugar

Method
  1. Beat the margarine into the flour 
  2. Add the egg, sugar and milk and mix well until combined 
  3.  In a separate bowl, mash the blueberries with a fork until they are broken up into pieces
  4. Fold the blueberries into the mixture until fully combined
  5. Take a small piece of the dough, roll it into a ball and then flatten with your fingers
  6. place on a greased baking sheet
  7. carry on until you have done this to all of the dough.
  8. bake near the top of the oven at 175 degrees for approximately 20 minutes or until browned on top.
  9. Leave to cool slight before removing from the tray




 This recipe makes an amazing 75 blueberry bites. I know that this is a lot but they will keep for about 5 days in a airtight container. Each bite is 2 weightwatchers smartpoints.




If you feel that this is too many for you then you could freeze half the dough until you want to make another batch or you could make larger version of the blueberry bite and just double the number of smartpoints.

As I said, I had intended this to be biscuits but they turned out to be gorgeous little scone bites, perfect with some spread and a cup of tea.



I find that I need to have a little snack available that won't completely ruin my smartpoints total for the day so these are perfect for me. Let me know if you try making them.

Speak to you soon



Love Erica xxx

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