Wednesday, 27 February 2013

Well those few days went quickly....

Its been a busy few days, went to London on the weekend to take part in a Testing Panel for Black and Decker - a group of us were testing their latest Steam Mops and comparing them to the others on the market, Black and Decker won hands down!  I love cleaning with steam, so much quicker than any other form of floor cleaner and with a dog and a child, hygenic too!

The good news is that I had all my expenses paid, £100 worth of John Lewis Voucher (feel a spending spree coming on!) and two Steam Mops which were delivered today and used already because I was stupidly excited.  However, I do not know what to do with two mops and I feel that one may have to be rehomed, however my kitchen floor looks blooming lovely and I think I could possibly eat off it - if the dog hadn't already!

Haven't started exercising yet, as I said in the beginning I have been very busy.  Been helping my lovely husband to get his business website up and running, he is a Photographer and Graphic Designer and has now opened his own studio - the business is called PhotoPosh Design and he undertakes all types of photography and graphic design stuff (which I obviously know nothing about:)).  The only headache is that his studio is in the house and he has "acquired" the largest room, needless to say we shall be moving soon and I feel a garage conversion coming on!  His website is looking great now and in a couple of months when I am ready to go back into business I will get him to design my website for me, check out www.photoposhdesign.com if you want to have a look.

I am missing bread this week.  I am on week 2 of my Gluten Free Diet having recently been diagnosed as a coeliac which appears to be the cause of all my problems - bit suspicious about that but we shall see over the next few weeks.   Amazing how much food stuff contains gluten, I thought of the obvious bread, pizza type of things but so many sauces, condiments etc contain a form of gluten so I find I have to check the labels on everything, fortunately I can still drink Cola and wine, even if I can't have my Worcestershire Sauce anymore!  My stomach is feeling a little better though - I don't look so bloated and am not in agony every five minutes...we shall see.

I've also been Bzzzing over the last couple of days,  what is this you may ask - well it is something called BzzAgent and they are a consumer testing panel - they send you stuff, you test it and write about it and talk about it, it is very easy and interesting.  Currently I am testing Maggi stuff, Vanish Oxi Action (can't wait to test that out on Friday night when I wash all the whites!) and today I received my latest one which is for Flora Pro-Active, Buttery Taste spread that is supposed to lower your cholesterol.  I need to go and have my cholesterol checked first and then checked again at the end of the trial to see if it does work - will go to Morrisons as they are running free cholesterol checks at the moment as part of the current campaign with Flora.  I will get my husband onto this as well as he does have high cholesterol (and blood pressure and smokes but more of that another day!) and anything that can help lower that will be great.

So that has been my last few days, nothing exciting just the ordinary day to day stuff but it is my life and I quite like it.  Will go onto Twitter now and find out how you are supposed to use it and also have a look at some other peoples blogs that I can follow....will report back on the good ones.

xx

Thursday, 21 February 2013

In the beginning.....

I've been meaning to write a blog for ages, but never got around to it...well here goes.  I have an awful lot to say for myself (as my husband never forgets to tell me!) and most of it is probably rubbish but I reserve the right to say it anyway.

Before I had a child I used to work as a Fitness Instructor and really enjoyed it, becoming a stay at home mother was hard for me, and boring but it was ultimately worth it to watch my son grow up and to be there for him...but now is the time that I want to start getting back into work again, not just for the money (which will be very, very useful in this day and age) but because it will be nice to meet people again and not just other mothers at the school gate.  However, over this last 14 months in my life, what with one thing and another I have put on 15kgs and I need to lose them and get myself back to being physically fit and also get some study done to refresh all my qualifications.

It sounds easy but I am always short of time, the day flies when my lovely son is in school and then of course the evening is always busy with mundane stuff.  So I have to schedule my time very carefully to try to fit it all in.  I am aiming to start an exercise programme next week - Monday 25th February, so I have to get a programme designed for myself (which is harder than one would think - so much easier to write one for another person) over the next couple of days and Saturday I am not going to be at home because I am taking part in a Test Panel for Black & Decker in London, testing Steam Mops! So I have to get it done tomorrow and prepare the paperwork to do a food diary etc etc etc......this is my first challenge.

Future blog posts will have more pictures of my progress etc together with training tips and I am happy to answer any questions that you might have.

This isn't just going to be about my fitness though, it is also going to be about how I see things that are happening around me and in the world - for example this case with Oscar Pistorius at the moment, wow what a shocker.  I cannot claim to be a fan of his as I was disappointed at his reaction in the 2012 Olympics when he was comprehensively beaten but to think that he has been arrested and charged with murder is unbelievable.  I have been following the case daily and there are a few things that interest me at this stage (and yes I have probably been watching way too much CSI-NY), I know that this is only the bail hearing so all the evidence is not going to be published but I would have thought that the main evidence is going to be about his legs and whether or not he was wearing his prosthetics (apparently he claims he wasn't) so therefore wouldn't it be easy to see whether he is lying or not by just working out what height the gun was at when it was fired using the angle of the bullet wounds?   That to my mind would be a good start.  I don't know whether or not he will get bail, we shall see tomorrow but regardless I think the full case when it comes to court in a few months will be very interesting.

OK so that is my first post, I could actually write a few pages of stuff but am going to save it for another day...possibly tomorrow!