Exercise and General Update WK 21st January

Argh another awful exerise week!

My heart has not been in it and I had an awful week or eating badly and not really exercising. I think I hit rock bottom when I ate half a tub of chocolate, Pralines and Caramel Hagen Diaz and Apple and Blackberry Crumble for breakfast. Afterwards I sat and cried.

Hopefully this awful morning has made me realise I want to be healthy and carry on losing weight and not start gaining it again. 

I only did two things this week, I walked to work one day and cycled to town and back yesterday, it was so windy yesterday it made the cycling a killer which is a good thing. 

I have blonded my hair yesterday and I am hoping a change is as good as a rest and its change enough for me to get my exercise back on track.

This week I will also be updating this my latest craft (its knitted) and writing about the first book I have read this year. 

Exercise Update WK 14th Jan - 20th Jan

In a word this week I have done nothing!

I have had an awful week exercise and healthy eating wise, where I have done anything at all and I have eaten a shed load of really unhealthy food included but not limited too cream cakes, chips, pie, ribs, chicken wings...

...But today I am back on the wagon and will be good. 

Since Christmas I have really struggled to get back into the swing of things but I know I really need to stop and be good again or I will end up undoing all the good hard work of last year in a couple of months which is silly. 

So it very snowy here so really don't think that cycling is going to be an option as its very icy out there too (I will take some pictures and post up, we don't really deal with snow well in England). That being the case and the fact I am on 12-8 at work this week so can't really get to the gym I am going to have to do some things at home. I am also going to walk into work today and see how that fairs. 

Book Art

So I have finished my first craft of the year...kind of.

I saw these little beauties on Pinterest and Etsy



And found a great blog entry about it on Ruffles and Stuff which made me confident this is one I could do myself.

I decided to rope Paul my long suffering craft hating boyfriend into helping me with this one much to his protest. So we went charity shopping for some frames and books. I decided that I didn't want to mess up a brand new book and ended up finding a second hand one.

The frames we found were only £1.60 for all three. Two matched and one was slightly different but I planned to paint them so this didn't matter. I'd like to point out they did all come with the glass and backing.



I sanded down the frames and gave them a base coat in white.



I painted them a really bright turquoise in acrylic paint and although I liked the colour it had a weird texture to it and the more I looked it the less I thought it would go anywhere in my house. So with that I bought a cheap £1 tester pot of paint in a nice green shade which I love.



So on to the pictures!

All you need to go is find some clip art pictures of your choosing. It did take quite a bit of clicking about to find free ones but I just Googled them and put a copy in Paint. I then measured the size of my frame and set this as a Custom setting, I then used a craft knife to cut my paper to the correct size, using the glass in the frame as a template.

This is the finished result - sorry photos are poor and just leaned on a speaker as I haven't had a chance to put these up in our hall yet.







My favourite is the tree picture by far. These are a really quick easy make that is very affordable, I did all 3 for under £6 and still have paint and obviously a number of pages in the book to do other things with.

You can also make this very personal to go with your décor or along a theme, even making your own silhouettes. I found using this tutorial Crafted Niche really helpful, and although Picnik doesn't exist any more Google+ works exactly the same.

Exercise Update W/K 7th - 13th January

I haven't exercised as much as I should this week.

I work shifts at work and this week I was working 11am-7pm which is my absolute least favourite shift. You get home later than is ideal, I can't do many classes and you don't even get much time in the morning. 

So this week, I have cycled to work and back 3 times. Its a nice easy ride there which is manly downhill and only takes about 20 minutes which means I get to leave an extra 30 minutes later than if I am getting the bus in. Yay! 

The way back is a bit more challenging and takes me roughly 30 minutes to do. There is a lot that is up hill, its not steep but its just a constant slope which really starts to take its toll after a while. When I first started cycling to and from work I used to always have to take a break or 2 to get me home and I would always end up walking some of it. Thankfully now I can do it with out that and if I do need to break for a moment it is only for 10-15 seconds and then I am fine to tackle the rest.

I have only done two classes this week and no swimming. 

The first class was an aquasize class which is essentially water aerobics. I used to go to it all the time a couple of years ago, at least once or twice a week but then my exercising stopped and I haven't been since starting again last April. I found in the past it left me really tired me and I just generally found it a challenge, however I found it no problem at all. I found it to be a really good toning class but to be honest not something that really got my heart rate going. 

The second was my usual Sunday 20-20-20 class. Its roughly 20 minutes aerobics, 20 minutes weights/toning 20 minutes floor stuff (legs, bums and tums). Its really fun and because its short bursts of it good if you have got a short attention span. 

So lots booked for next week to keep the exercise up! 

Recipe - Cauliflower Crust Pizza

So if you have Pintrest I imagine you have seen photos of a Cauliflower Crust Pizza like me. It had me intrigued for some time... but (there is always a but) as someone who has done low carb diets I was dubious. I have tried cauliflower as a stand in for potatoes and in these weird bread  things before and its just never worked for me, however I thought I had nothing to loose in giving it a try.

This is how it turned out (sorry the photos are some what awful!)



Its not exactly beautiful and it really wasn't really like Pizza to be honest but I did actually rather enjoy it (enough to make it a few days later again). I have made some modifications to the original recipe found at Eat. Drink. Smile. because I wanted to cut the fat down and I didn't have the same kind of cheese at home at the time so this perhaps also played a role in the fact I couldn't really pick it up.

So here is how I made my version..

For those that can't read my awful scrawl that's

170g Cauliflower Florets
1/2 Cup Grates Cheese (I used 25% reduced fat Strong Cheddar)
1 Egg
1/2 Teaspoon Dried Oregano
1/2 Teaspoon Dried Parsley
I also chucked in a pinch of salt for good measure.

1) Cook the florets until al-dente. I cooked in a pan of boiling water but you could steam if you rather, just don't over cook or I don't know if the consistency will be right overall.

2) Drain the cauliflower well and leave to cool slightly. If you have a food processor using the blade you can just pulse this to a rubble, if not leave to cool until you are able to handle the cauliflower and then grate it.
It should look like this




3) Place the cauliflower along with the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well ensuring it is all well combined. Once this is done place on baking tray you have liberally sprayed with non-stick spray and press out to create a round pizza base shape, then spray with a little more of the cooking spray and cook for approximately 15-20 minutes on Gas Mark 7 (425F or 220C).

You should be left with a cold crust that likely has some darker edges.

Now you need to sort out your toppings. I recommend that you use things that will either cook very quickly or that you have pre-cooked and I don't advise using any meats you haven't pre-cooked.

This is what I used



1 Cup of Pizza Sauce (recipe below)
1 Sliced Mushroom
1/2 Cup Shredded/Grated Cheddar
1/2 Diced Tomato
1 Slice Back Bacon, Cooked and Diced.
1/2 Sliced Green Pepper
1/2 Sliced Onion
1/4 Diced Red Chilli
Some Sliced Courgette.

You just chuck this on top and place under a grill (if your in the UK or broiler in the US) until golden and melty which only take a few minutes.

If you would like to make your own Pizza sauce this is how I did mine.



1-1/2 Cups Passata/Sifted Tomatoes
1 Teaspoon Dried Italian Herbs
1 Teaspoon Sweetener
2 Cloves Garlic Minced
1/4 Teaspoon of Chilli Flakes
Pinch of Salt to taste.

Just chuck everything into a pan and boil it up stirring occasionally, it takes about 15.-20 minutes and it will reduce down to a lovely rich and thick sauce.

First Craft of the year - failed attempt?

So I have been trying to make these fingerless mitts (beautiful photo below from Mushy's blog) for sometime....




However mine look like this as I can not work out how to form the thumb...

 I have used different colours of wool also as that's the wool I had. So far despite a few imperfect bits where I have dropped a stitch and put it on the needle the wrong way I am actually happy with them, although they are obviously not completed yet.

So hopefully I can figure out this thumb thing before the 14th So I don't miss the first deadline of my first goal!

What is this blog?

Hi Guys,

I am Laura and this is a place for me to document my goals for 2013. I say goals as resolutions just feels like blanket statements that I will forget and loss interest in within the first 6 weeks, where as goals sounds like a key specific thing that tells me what I need to achieve.

So what are my goals and how does this blog relate to them?

1) To start and maintain a blog for at least a year, with an update on all goals as and when they are completed.

I have started over the years about half a dozen blog and never posted more than 3 updates. They are normally cooking related and I am hopeless for not measuring and writing things down and my photography is poor, yada yada. Mostly I just get bored and forget about it.

So by having a nice mixture of things to write about and also by putting a deadline in place for things to be done I hope that this will ensure I maintain it and also give me a place to record my progress.

2) To complete a creative project every 2 weeks and update the blog on it.

I am not an inherently creative person, and it’s something I have always wanted to be. I also have a very short attention span to at best become a jack of all trades and master of none, and I find mostly that I look and plan all what I want to do and then achieve nothing as I spent the time I could have been doing it looking at other things I could do (Pintrest is an insane time sucker).

So what I am going to do is set fortnightly projects for myself to complete to ensure that I actually create something instead of being one of those people that re-pins and does not do!

For me the projects can be art, knitting, crochet, sewing, paper craft, jewellery making, home decor/DIY projects or making a home made beauty item (like soaps, moisturizers etc.).

3) To read 1 book a month.

I know as a former avid reader that this is a completely achievable goal, but I also know as a former avid reader I really don't read that much any more.

I used to devour any book, it didn't matter a genre, it didn't matter if I got part way through and found it was rubbish; I would carry on until the end. Now, however I am a lazy reader, so I find myself reading a lot that sticks to set format so all stories are essentially the same (Mills and Boon anyone?) or I just re-read and lazily skim the book. Other times I read a little decide I don't like the book and that’s it, it just goes to the book graveyard or I find it takes me so long to read I forget big chunks of the plot and have to re-read passages sometimes multiple times as by the time I have re-read the passage the opportunity I had to read the book has gone.

So what I will be doing is reading and writing about 1 book a month, and hopefully this will force me to widen what I am reading, make me read some new things and ensure I finish the book!

4) Try 2 new recipes a month.

I used to cook everyday, however now I do shift work and its just not practical for me to make every meal. This means my boyfriend who hates cooking is forced to cook a lot of our meals, I have also been on a healthy eating kick these past 10 months, I have lost around 80 pounds (and still have a long way to go) but this also means I don't always enjoy or find it easy finding and creating new dishes.

So this can be baking, healthy, decadent or whatever I am just going to try out of the number of recipes I have book marked and pinned to make 2 I haven't tried making before a month.

5) Exercise regularly, this includes at least 4 sessions a week and reporting at the end of the week what I have done.

I started exercising in earnest around mid March 2012, and as I mention above have lost a lot of weight. I don't believe on just going by weight, it should be about health and how I feel. I still have a long way to go and am still over weight but I think healthy eating, moderation and exercise are key.

To ensure accountability I am going to record what I do each week. Sometimes this is literally just going to be me cycling to work, other times classes I do, swimming and anything new I try in-between.

So that’s it, they are what I intend to achieve and this is where I will be recording my endeavours and how they go.