Weight loss....AGAIN

When I started this blog, back in 2010, I was a good bit overweight, around the 13st mark (82kg) and at 5 foot 3 inches, it really showed. I hated going out or buying new clothes. I generally wasn't happy with how I looked but hadn't the will power to do anything about it. Then I saw this...

October 2010

I started Weight Watchers a week later and after about fourteen months I received my gold membership, which is reaching your goal weight and maintaining it. After ten months, I was happy with how I looked again and started to be complacent. That is why it took another four months to reach my goal.

At my 30th birthday, ten months after I started WW (40lb lost)

With my gold membership, I could have gone to meetings for free but I got lazy. Last April, weighing 9st 10lb, I stopped going. This was a bad idea because I have a very unhealthy relationship with food. I can't simply have just one biscuit, sweet or crisp. I have to have the whole lot. I can't have anything sweet in the house at all, I'll just devour it.

So now, after nearly a year, I finally weighed myself again.... 10st 11lb! Yikes! All my clothes are tight on me again and I could kick myself for letting it go on so long. It's not so noticeable at the moment because I can wear baggy clothes for the bad weather but Summer is coming (in Ireland, Summer usually happens for a week in April, and that's it) and I've a wedding in three weeks!

So, here I go again... Homemade soups and low calorie snacks. No chocolate, alcohol or any sweets. It'll be a bland few weeks/months.

St. Patrick's Day, do you like the new fringe?

Starting weight: 10st 11lb
Goal: 10st (for the moment)

Today's Menu:
Low calorie yogurt and fruit
Homemade vegetable soup
Lasagna (Not exactly low fat but it'll balance out the day)

Feel free to pass on any low calorie snack ideas you have. There is a recipe for 3pp scones on my blog. I'll be baking them with Beth tomorrow.

Moving House

I have been a bit quiet lately because we have moved house. Monday was my last day in the old house and I was manic trying to clean everything and move out the last bits. Thankfully, I'd most of my stuff already moved. My sister helped me with three runs in the car on Sunday. Fair play to her because on Monday she flew to Dubai to start a year of travelling the world with her partner. I miss her already.

This is just a short post to say I'll be returning soon to update on my new house and everything else going on in my life. 

Moving house isn't easy...

Thirteen pairs of shoes/boots/runners!! Twice as many as me!

Playroom mid-move

Playroom almost sorted

There's great drying out

Finally, the sun has returned to Ireland. For months we had terrible weather but now it looks like Spring has finally sprung. It's wonderful and I'm in a better mood for it. Not that I was in a bad mood but a bit of sunshine always makes me feel good and I can put my washing outside on the line again.

I do love Winter though. The long nights, warm soups and, of course, Christmas. January, I can survive if it is cold and dull but it was starting to drag a bit.

Now is the time for planting seeds, time to have a clear out and time to move house. Yes, I am moving house. I had been thinking of it for a long while. I love my current house but the rent is steep. I never have any spare money. But that's all going to change in three weeks. I can't wait. My current house no longer feels like 'home'.

I moved in here just over three years ago when Beth was only four months old. She crawled, walked and said her first words in this house. I've loads of great memories from all the firsts, christening celebrations, birthday parties and this is where I finally settled down to do what I've always dreamed of doing, writing.

However, I'm not sad to leave. It just feels like a new beginning. Beth spent her baby/toddler years here but now she is a little girl and has different needs. I want to live somewhere that has more of a community to it. Where I am now, there are no front gardens, I barely know my neighbours and as Beth gets older there is no way I'd let her leave the house even if her friend just lived a few doors down. The cars race up and down this narrow road. Our new street has ramps to slow down cars, we have a front garden/driveway, people say 'hello' to each other when they pass you by! It is only a ten minute walk from where I currently live but feels so different.

The park near our new house.

In other news, I passed my driving theory test last week. Also, I didn't make it through the pitch round in the ABNA. No great loss. I'm still working on the new book. I hope to be finished mid-March. It's going well. A much bigger project than Bleeker Avenue.

Has Spring arrived in your part of the world?

Yummy Cookies

Thought it was time for another recipe. This one is really easy and wow, they are yummy!

The Great Helper

6 oz melted and cooled butter

6oz dark brown sugar

4oz sugar

Pinch salt

5ml vanilla extract

2 egg yolks

1 whole egg

1.5tsp baking soda

14 oz plain flour

Chocolate chips (I just used a 100g bag)

Bag of M&Ms

Pre-heat oven 180C/Gas mark 4

1. Mix butter, sugars and salt until smooth

2. Add vanilla and eggs and mix very well

3. Add baking soda and flour to the bowl. Mix until just combined

4. Add chocolate chips and stir until well mixed through

5. Roll into small balls, place on a well greased baking tray and put M&M's on top

6. Bake for 12 minutes. Watch for the sides starting to brown and take out. The centers will still look puffy and pale but that's how they're supposed to look. Place on wire rack to cool.

The Finished Product

Enjoy :-)

Dolly Parton's 9-5 Musical

Last night, our book club, Housework Can Wait, went to Dolly Parton's 9-5 Musical in the Bord Gais Theatre in Dublin. It has been a while since I was at the theatre and wow, it was brilliant!

Our book club is a member of the Bord Gais Book Club's of Ireland and they gave us free tickets for last nights performance. I have to admit, I do like a bit of country and western so I was really looking forward to the show. That and the fact that I so rarely get out! 

We collected our tickets at the Box Office and made our way upstairs for a delicious glass of wine before taking our seats. I tried not to cry at the €18 charged for three glasses of wine and just soaked in the ambiance.  

View from where we were standing

The show began with Dolly herself narrating. The main characters, Violet (Jackie Clune), Judy (Natalie Casey), Doralee (Any Lennox) and the boss Franklin (Ben Richards) were introduced along with a little explanation of the differences in working conditions in 1979.

Taken from the official website 

It had been a long time since I saw the movie so can't compare the two but really, would I want to? I doubt it. The performance was fantastic. The choreography, acting, sets and costumes were amazing. Even from up in the circle, the attention to detail in costumes was apparent. The sets were designed well to allow a fluid movement between scenes and often played a part in the story. The actors put on such a great show and one of the more memorable performances came from Bonnie Langford (Roz) who, in a very sexy number, had the audience in fits of laughter.

Towards the end, when Dolly comes back on the clock screen suspended above the stage, the audience were in high spirits. She broke into the song 9 to 5 and had a lot of the theatre goers up on their feet clapping in time (I'd say there was a bit of foot stomping too!).

All in all, it was a very enjoyable experience. If you get a chance to see this performance do not pass it up!

Here we go again...

The ABNA contest opened this morning and my entry is in. This is my second year in a row entering and I've gone with the same novel. Since this time last year, Bleeker Avenue has been extensively edited, professionally and by my beta readers so hopefully it will do better.

Another item on my agenda today was to post off a short story to Take a Break's Fiction Feast. Done!

It's been a busy day because I also applied for funding for my writing from the Arts Council of Ireland. Fingers crossed for me! It would mean I wouldn't have to worry about bills while I finished Devil in the Clouds and I would be able to get it properly edited.

Fourth on my list was a new blog post. I had something else in mind for this but I'm going to save it till Wednesday (I'm still working on it).

Today's list

Lastly, I plan to do 1,000 words on my WIP. I've about 2.5 hours until Beth arrives home. I think I can manage it!

Check out my lovely new bookcase (Beth owns the bottom shelf)

 Did you enter the ABNA this year?

New Year Resolutions

Good morning world! Happy New Year to you all. Hope you celebrated in style whatever way you wanted. I had a quiet night. Some bright spark let off the loudest firework known to man at midnight and, as a result, I spent the first hour of the new year with Beth. She was still up at 8am, sitting on me and telling me to get up!

I don't usually make a list of resolutions but I do believe lists make things happen so here it goes...

New Years Resolutions:

1. Finish Devil in the Clouds

2. Enter the ABNA

3. Learn to drive

4. Get more writing jobs

5. Stop eating rubbish and get back down to my ideal weight (not sure what weight I am but know it's not ideal)

6. Start jogging again and complete the Dundalk 10k in May

Just before Christmas I received the first printed copies of The Secret Beneath Bleeker Avenue. It was pretty cool to see my book actually in print.

So happy with them :-)

I made only one (sort of) resolution last year. It was to keep my blog more up to date and I think I kept that! Well, it's definitely better than previous years. 

2012 was a good year. I finished and published my first book, had articles published in The Irish Times and online with journal.ie, I turned 31, Beth turned 3, we went on holidays to Carlingford and Spain. It has been a full year and I hope 2013 is just as good!

How were your New Years celebrations?