Nice stuff

OK, I've dropped off the radar again which, as ever, means things have been more than a tad stressful and weight loss/maintenance has taken a back seat for a while. However, things didn't get too out of control and, although I've gone up, down and back up again, I'm still fairly happy with where I am.

The stress... well, my poor lovely hubby has just been through his third round of major surgery in less than twelve months. Er, it's not been a great time but, to get the silver lining up front, this at least gave me the opportunity to play with my Florence Nightingale costume again. He is now recovering very well though, so it isn't all doom and gloom. Phew!

Although it hasn't been lots of fun, it is nevertheless a positive thing. And there have been a couple of other very nice things from the last few weeks...

The first was the results from my recent lung function tests. There is a table, apparently, a series of 'expected' results, based on gender, age and height and, if one attains the expected target when tested, one would see a resulting figure of 100%.

My results for ALL of the tests were better than the expected figure (yippee!), and, for three tests my results came back at c.130%, so are considerably better than the expected norm for this old bird (extreme yippee!). Reminder to self - regular exercise is a VERY good thing.

The next nice thing is that fresh peas in the pod have arrived at my local market stall. They are Italian, hence imported, and still quite expensive (until the British ones hit the streets), but I bought a little bag today as a special treat and they are gorgeous. Mmmm, fat lass heaven :-)

That led me to thinking... I've been getting a little bit stale and bored with what I'm eating during the day recently. A potentially bad move, as that way (especially when things get stressful) lies the temptation to look around for 'other stuff' to eat and maybe even tempt me to visit that devilish vending machine. This, as with most of them, is a complete waste of hard-earned cash and has absolutely NOTHING at all nutritionally decent inside. It also leads to gaining lbs as I lose ££s!

So I need to get myself more organised... once again, and it is about time that I reminded myself of something nice to eat. In fact, several 'something nice' things.

You see, I sometimes struggle (half awake, first thing in the morning) to decide upon what on earth I can put into my lunch box and take for healthy snacks. It has to be appealing (to shut out any possibility of the call of chocolate and crisps) and it has to satisfy me and stop me feeling 'fancy hungry'. I also need to have thought about it and planned beforehand so I can buy in the darned stuff!

So, a few suggestions to help my brain into gear... and remind me what to keep handy in the fridge.

Vegetables for crudites:-
Califlower
Broccoli (or cabbage) stalks
Cherry tomatoes
Celery
Carrots
Sugar snap peas (or, better, pod peas when I can get them)
Baby sweetcorn

For nice dips to go with my veggie crudites:-
Greek yoghurt & Marmite
Houmous, Greek yoghurt, chipotle paste & coriander

Or, for fruity stuff:-
Greek yoghurt, thyme honey and ginger (yum!)

Fruit, etc. for snacks:-
Apples (Pink Lady for preference)
Berries - blueberries, strawberries and raspberries
Bananas
Oranges (the big, juicy, messy to eat type)
Grapes (red or white, just not too many!)
Physallis
Mango, or melon
Pineapple (tinned is nice too)
Cold oatmeal porridge
Mixed seeds (or just pumpkin and sunflower seeds)
Ryvita (remember - pumpkin seed & oat is the one you like!)

Proteins:-
Cottage cheese (all the better with chives & onion, or a little garlic & black pepper)
BabyBel Light cheese portions
Philly cheese with spring onion & black pepper
Tuna
Hard-boiled egg
Edamame (soya) beans
...and my beloved Greek yoghurt (actually it's Turkish, but there's little difference)
Or, as a very occasional treat:-
Cooked meat (chopped chicken, turkey or lean beef, with red & black pepper)
Jerky or biltong

That should keep me going for a while.