The End Of 2010

In a few hours it will be brand new year!! 2011

2010 has been rather up and down. I'm still suffering with depression, had to have 2 lady tests which came back alright...phew! We have re-vamped all of our downstairs although we still need the tiles for the kitchen which we will get very soon, received 7....yes...7 tree's for my garden.....mega pleased about that!! Received BAD news a few days ago, still waiting for 3 of my Christmas pressies to arrive through the post, we have had HORRENDOUS snow and I have been feeling unwell for about 2 weeks BUT getting better! I think that is about it, I have to say I have had worse years.

The snow has all but gone here now which I am rather pleased about.

I am hoping to get out for some Green Coconuts tomorrow, that is if the shop has any, it may not have managed to get any because of the weather here in the UK, I will ring the shop first.
I am also going to vacuum my bedrooms and stairs and generally spruce my home up.

I have sorted the remaining Christmas goodies today, the last of the Christmas cake is in the freezer along with the last of the choccies, I know that I should throw them out but when my grandchildren visit then the sweets will come in nice for them.

Well I am all ready for the new year and my 'RAWCADEMY' and I suppose I am ready for my 45th Birthday on the 8th January. I am ready to take 2011 by the horns and RAWTOX my body to be fit, healthy and happy!! I got Zumba for Christmas and I am going to be giving that a go...WooHoo

That is all for now so I will wish you ALL a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 2011

I will be back tomorrow in 2011

Devastated!!

I received some VERY VERY bad news a few days ago, the 27th December to be precise. It was TERRIBLE news, I'm not sure I want to talk about it yet. I am trying SOOOO very hard to stay positive and focus on other things.

I have decided to start a new lifestyle and even more so now after hearing the bed news so as of January 1st 2011 I am starting my lifestyle change and naming it the 'RAWCADEMY'
I will be blogging daily as of 1st January 2011
I will do a weekly recipe titled 'RAWLICIOUS THURSDAY' may change the day.
I will be doing my rawcery shopping...teehee
I will be starting a fitness program and my Raweauty regime/rota's
My house and surroundings will be kept immaculate as well as myself.....not that I don't keep my surroundings and myself immaculate anyway of course.

I am more fired up for this especially after hearing the TERRIBLE news. Whatever illness goes through my family I am the one to inherit the same illness.
Blood clots and pulmonary embolisms went through my family and of course I had a pulmonary embolism when I was 24 years old, experienced an out of body experience and was clinically dead at one point, thankfully because I was so young and didn't smoke (I still don't smoke) I survived it, none of my siblings have had this....typical of me, and now I heard this other awful news which I am going to do my best to avoid and stay healthy and not inherit and this is the way to do it.

Okay then, I will be back on 1st January 2011

More Blogging

I will be blogging on a regularly basis as of 1st January, yep that is my new starting point and when I am going to give this MY ALL!
I have put on a few pounds lately and I feel it is now affecting my health so come January I will have a NEW AND VERY FRESH START!!....I am REALLY looking forward to this.
I am trying to be concious of what I am putting into my mouth until January and I am pretty much staying the same on the scales, well, I lose and gain the same few pounds, I am alright with that.
I will be following an exercise routine, I will be following ALL my routines commencing January. Did I tell you that my OH has bought me the Zumba DVD's for Christmas also? *EXCITED*

I have a few pics to post but until I find the cable to be able to upload them I will just keep them on my camera.

I tried to replicate a raw cake from Raw Living the other day but I didn't like that one very much, my absolute favourite raw cake is the 'Raspberry Ganache cake' from Ani Phyo's Dessert book, it is DELICOUS!! So that is the cake I will be making for my 45th Birthday in January! (early January) Something else to look forward to!
I feel that I am ready to tackle things and to get to grips with my body and get slim, fit and healthy!!

I am hoping to get out and do a rather healthy big grocery shop tomorrow oh! And attempt to finish off my Christmas shopping, I still need to buy for my two grandaughters (bought for my grandson, a punch bag and boxing gloves.....ummmm) I also need to buy for my dad, niece and eldest son, Michael Oh! And I still have two more things to buy for James, I don't think I have ever left it this late to finish.

I will try to get back later or tomorrow

Raw

Last night I was busy for what seemed like hours. I made almond milk, cheesy kale, Nomi Shannon's sunny paté, I cracked open 4 coconuts, the meat is in the freezer and the water is in the fridge. Along with the cheesy kale I also put some buckwheat into the dehydrator that I have been sprouting.

I am lucky to have a cold press oil extractor for my Samson juicer so I am going to press some sesame seeds for the oil because I am going to make some mayonnaise that Ann Marie Gianni made, you can watch it here:



I had to buy a new washing machine last week-ish...grrr my other machine that I haven't had for too long started banging loudly when it was spinning, just like the previous washer to that....humff - ah well, I have a new machine now, I can't NOT have a washing machine.

I STILL have not received my Walnut tree....GRRRR! My hubby rang them because after 3 weeks still no signs of the tree, they told him that the dept still hadn't acted on the request for the replacement to be sent out....SOOOO ANGRY!! The guy has now passed it onto a higher dept....we will see.

Well, tomorrow I am planning on making the mayo and other things, I will let you know and maybe take some pics.

Since Saturday

I was up bright and early on Saturday morning because I wanted to get a big grocery shop in. I wanted to be in and out of Asda before the nasty, ignorant and pushing people filled the shops, so I got up at about 5.30am. I got up so early because I needed to drop my hubby off at work first because I needed the car. I was in Asda by about 7.15am and I spent £235.00....oops!
When I got back I quickly put the freezer and fridge foods away and then I went over to Netto because they had a fire I wanted for our livingroom. When we re-vamped our livingroom this year we had the existing fireplace removed....it was an eye sore, we were thinking of not bothering with a fire, we never used it anyway because of having the central heating and after the new central heating was installed, BOY! It so much warmer but I couldn't get used to not having anything on the fire wall. We have been looking around for a fire for sometime now but I didn't particularly want anything that would fill the chimney breast wall again, I wanted something small but oldy worldy.....kinda, so I bought this:













I LOVE IT!! And it looks good in our livingroom. I wish I had taken before pics of our livingroom, maybe I have some livingroom pics somewhere.

After Netto's I went into town for a shoe rack. I had a lovely shoe cupboard but I gave it to Michael because it was too big for our hallway after doing the work around here and changing things around, I have a lovely cupboard in my hallway now. I put the shoe cupboard in the coat cupboard but it was too big for the cupboard so I needed a smaller shoe rack to put into the cupboard. I found a shoe rack....£10 and so not worth the price but it was all I could find.

It was time to go pick up my OH and we then went onto Costco where I spotted a much nicer shoe rack for only £5 more....typical but I wasn't going to spend more on another rack.
£137.00 later and our Costco groceries were all bought....phew!
On the way home we stopped at Tesco where I bought my usual of Sweet Onions. On our way out we stopped at the Nutri Centre (which is a franchise inside of Tesco's) where I bought sprouts, Nak'd cashew bars, tea and coconut.

Onto Christmas. I still have more presents to buy for Christmas. My OH bought me a gorgeous standing mirror for Christmas which also has storage for jewellery....LOVE IT!





















My hubby has bought it in Oak for me...woohoo...can't wait!
We also bought Adam a bike for his main Christmas present, one more thing for Adam and that is all of his presents in. I still need to finish James' presents and then Michael's and our two granddaughter presents, we have bought for our grandson, little Michael...Oh! I nearly forgot, I need to buy my dad's and stepmam's present.....how could I forgot my pops and stepmam?

Sunday
Well, Sunday we went to B&Q to buy a mitre because the mitre we had wasn't suitable for the scotia's, instead we borrowed a good mitre from my dad and I am pleased to say, we now have the scotia's fitted and it looks GORGEOUS! It has finished the floors off beautifully, although we still need one more length of scotia for 3 tiny pieces in our kitchen.
The rest of the day was rather lazy.

Monday
We took some rubbish to the eminites then home.

Today
Lazy. My OH has had a couple of days off work so we just relaxed.

Tomorrow I am going to attempt to get some things into the dehydrator so I have some good things to hand.

All Done

I had my lady appointment on Wednesday which I obviously attended which is all done now just waiting for the result.
When I was at my appointment the nurse asked if she could weigh me because this hadn't been done for a good few years - WOW!....*SHARP INTAKE OF BREATH* NOOOOOOOoooo!
I weighed in at 92kilo's which equates to 202.4lb or 14st 4lb....OH MYYYYyyyy BUT that was fully clothed. I weighed in at home on the Thursday morning and I was 199.4lb - I have to say, I have lost 2.5lb since last weeks weigh in. To think I always said I will NEVER let myself hit 13 stone and I did and so I always said I would NEVER EVER hit 14st and I have and at this rate I am well on my way to 15st....time to TAKE STOCK which is exactly what I did on Wednesday and so I have been EXCELLENT since then and have been eating a good high raw diet.
I have my breakfast thickening at the moment.

Breakfast
Blend
1 Banana
1/2 c Water
1Tb Chia
1Tb Carob
1/2 Tb Coconut Crystals

Let stand for 15 mins then blend again
Top with berries or unsweetened Coconut

I have never tried this before so I am looking forward to it.

My washing machine is packing up so I have had to by a new machine which is to be delivered today. I NEEEED my washing machine!!!

LATER
My breakfast was YUMMY! I will definitely have that again. I like carob. When I make chocolates I sometimes mix carob and cacao instead of all cacao, I find it isn't as strong when I mix the cacao and carob together

Back later today

Getting Colder

It is beginning to feel so much colder and we have had some frost over the last few weeks.....BRRRR

We went out to Tesco this morning to buy some Buckwheat as that seems to be the only place to buy it locally. Whilst in Tesco I took the opportunity to stock up on 5 Romaine lettuce, Tomatoes, 2 Pineapple, Butternut Squash, 4 fresh Sweetcorn, 2 Cauliflowers, Broccoli, Banana's, shredded Coconut and Coconut Oil. On our way back from Tesco we saw a sign advertising top soil £2 per bag....GREAT! I thought because my 4 fruit tree's arrived and I needed soil to pot them, so we drove down the farm track and saw the lady there, but they aren't doing the soil now......grrrr.....why have the sign up then?? My sister was going to pop to the same farm for top soil and she too asked why the sign if they are no longer doing it?
On our way home we popped into Aldi where I bought a couple of salad bags, only 49p WOW! I also bought cucumber, I think that was all. Strangely as we went into Aldi I was looking for something my sister had been talking about which was very small slices of Rye and other German Breads in 2 slice packets but I couldn't find them so my OH rang my sister and asked her where they are in the shop and it just so happened that my sister had just left the shop....teehee so as we were coming in she must have passed us as she was going out, she was still in the carpark.

We also went to visit my Dad and step mam Beryl......we LOVE those two people!! Yes I am biased but they are lifes genuine folk, really REALLY nice folk and I am very proud to have them as parents.

Well, this weekend we are going to be getting through some jobs around here i.e. the windows outside need cleaning so my OH is getting up the ladders and he is going to do that for me and he is also going to clean the stair inside window and blind, I can't reach that window inside.

This weekends jobs:
Scotia's - to finish the flooring
Clean undersink cupboard
Clean outside windows
Clean inside stair window
Clean stair blind
Clean and sort raw equipment cupboard
Clear work surfaces
Sort out shelves in bedroom and throw out old shelving
Start my Kombucha pot off (made a hash of the first lot)
Glue drawer bottoms on desk
Soil and plant trees

I think that is all for now.

I am very tired today so I think I will make the families evening meal and chill, maybe watch a nice DVD in bed.
Nighty Night for now.