Easter Holidays Holiday!!! PART 3 - Newport Beach, Bumping into a Celeb and Watching Whales!

Before I get going I apologise for this taking so long to get out there. My mind has been on a few other things over the last few weeks and I haven't really had enough headspace to sit down and blog. But today I'm sitting in the garden in the sun and it seems like a great time to write something.

So here it is.......the much requested final instalment of the Kinsman family holiday!!!!

PART 1 - Skiing in Utah!
PART 2 - Disneyland!

PART 3 - Newport Beach, Bumping into a Celeb and Watching Whales!

Our final location was Newport Beach in California. I chose for us to finish our holiday here because we wanted to finish with a few relaxing days on the beach. We'd never been to Newport Beach before and it looked really nice with lots of different parts to explore. Plus it was only a 20 minute drive to the coast from Disneyland so we wouldn't end up wasting time in the car.

Out exploring

I'd decided (in a very reckless manner) before we even went away that I wanted to live in Newport Beach because it looked like such a great place, right on the beach, posh houses directly on the sand with fabulous views, a harbour, surfing, body boarding, sun-bathing, paddle-boarding, boats, an island to explore, shopping. What more could a girl want? Well, to say that it didn't disappoint is an understatement. Even Rog decided there and then that this would be a dream place to live. We've decided that if by some amazing freak of a miracle we become stinking rich we'll buy ourselves a place there overlooking the ocean and spend our (early) retirement mainly sitting with our feet up in the sun on our balcony, drinking mimosas and watching the world go by. If you could all keep your fingers crossed for us I'll let you come and stay in the guest room when we move out there.
OK, back to reality....

 I'd booked us into a little motel that was a bit out of the way (because we couldn't afford to stay right in the centre) with the intention of hiring bikes to get around. The motel had some really great feedback online but I was still a bit nervous because it was small and family run and you never really know what to expect until you're there. Anyway, when we got there it lived up to the hype. The room was basic (as expected) but it had everything we needed, was plenty big enough for the four of us and it was perfectly clean (always a bonus). It was sunny when we arrived so we dumped our stuff in the room, grabbed some boogie boards, beach towels and beach chairs from the front desk (all free to use for people staying there) and made the 2 minute walk across the road to the beach.
It was beautiful, everything you'd expect from a Californian beach really! Big wide sands, lovely blue ocean with plenty of surfers out on the rolling waves. We even saw a couple of seals bobbing along in the surf. We set up a spot near to a lifeguard tower and settled in.

Sunset at the beach

The next morning I'd booked for us to go out on a whale watching tour so we had to get up early to get some breakfast in and to make it across to Balboa Island in time for our trip. The plan had been to pop into the bike shop next door to the motel to hire some bikes and then to cycle down the peninsula and take the little ferry across to Balboa Island ready for our meet time of 11am. The trouble was that we'd been told that the owner of the bike shop is only ever there when he's not surfing, which is basically all day every day!!! Well, Jason was certainly proving hard to get hold of because every time we nipped across to see if the shop was open it was in darkness with a little dog guarding the door and barking at us whenever we approached. We decided that we'd go into the café two doors down, have breakfast and then check if Jason was around on the way back. If not, we'd have to drive down the peninsula and ditch the car somewhere whilst we went out on the boat. No biggie, just not as much fun.

So we went into the café and waited to be shown to a table. Almost as soon as we entered a big guy who was sat in the corner started talking (pretty loudly) to us. He was friendly so we talked back to him and the waitress sat us at a table just a couple of tables away from him. As we were looking through the menu and deciding what to order he carried on talking to us and some of the other people that were sat near. He was a larger than life character, a big guy, quite loud, wearing a white tracksuit with sunglasses on even though we were inside. He looked a lot like Dennis Rodman (one of THE best basketballers there has been) and the more I looked the more convinced I was. I just had to get a look at the tattoos on his arms to be sure, but I was just that bit too far away, plus I didn't want to seem rude staring at him! It's not easy trying to work out if someone is actually who you think they are without them noticing. Then Rog whispered to me "he's Dennis Rodman isn't he?" and I knew I was right! When the waitress came over to take our order Roger asked her outright and she said that it was Dennis and that he often comes into the café. HOW AWESOME!!! Dennis Rodman right there talking to us! OMG! He was such an awesome player, right up there as one of the greats.
Although we were completely star-struck (I mean, it's not your normal thing to be talking to one of the greatest and well-known sports stars in the world at 8:30am whilst digging into a stack of pancakes at the greasy spoon next to your cheap motel is it?) we'd never use that as an excuse to intrude on someone. So we spent the next half hour tucking into breakfast and telling the kids about Dennis and how awesome he was. Just before we left though Roger asked if he'd mind if we took a picture with him. He was more than happy to and we took our pictures and talked to him for a while. George asked him some questions like "who was your biggest rival on the court?" which he gladly answered and we had a general chat. I know he's had some struggles (and is clearly still going through some) but he was nothing but a gentleman to us. I truly hope that he finds some peace within himself and that things work out well for him.

Our friend Dennis

Anyway, so after our bellies were full we walked back to the motel, popping to the bike shop on the way, but still no sign of the elusive Jason! The car it was then.

So we made our way to the whale watching meeting point on Balboa Island taking the ferry across Newport Bay (which was really cool!). We met up with Captain Ryan and a lovely lady who was coming on the trip with us and off we went.

Leaving Newport Bay

Out on the ocean waves

The experience that we has was truly amazing. I'd purposefully booked us on a small boat (basically a motorised blow-up dinghy) so that we could move quickly, be more responsive to the movements of the wildlife and could get up closer to them. I'm so glad we paid the extra money because it was brilliant. We saw some of the other boats out whale watching and they were really big with about 60 people on them. Ours had just 6 of us in total and we could move way faster than they could. we had the most fabulous couple of hours, exploring the coastline and following pods of dolphins and tracking down whales. We saw some amazing sights- loads of dolphins, sealions, seals (even a really cute baby one) and four grey whales. We came across two adult whales who were moving in the wrong direction. They were headed south instead of north and Ryan said it looked like one of them was ill so it was taking them longer than usual to make the migration down to the breeding grounds off Mexico. Then we saw a mother and baby travelling together northwards to their feeding grounds off Alaska. We spent ages gently following them and watching then surface every now and then. It truly was a fantastic experience and we Ryan was great at teaching us about all of the creatures we saw and how to look out for them. We thoroughly enjoyed it. If you're ever in the area I strongly recommend you hunt down Captain Ryan and go out on the water for a few hours with him. You won't regret it! 

Being waved at by a seal!

Feeling chilled out on the water

After such a brilliant morning we had a bit of a walk around Balboa Island and Newport Peninsula, stopping off for burgers and ice-cream at the end of the pier and generally taking in the sights and sounds of the area. It was fun being nosey at all the big houses and wondering who lived in them.

Famous ice-cream shakes at the end of Balboa pier. Yummmm!

When we got back to the motel guess who was in?! That's right, Jason!!! He was the epitome of a Californian surfer. Long hair, full on tan, proper laid back. He told us he hadn't missed a day of surfing in 3 years. I can't even imagine how awesome that would be! Anyway he sorted us out with bikes and told us to just bring them back when we didn't need them anymore.

So last few days were spent cycling around, exploring, sitting on the beach, eating more ice-cream (we weren't even bored of it yet!)... you know the drill.... and it was quite fabulous. Really relaxing and enjoyable.

Fun at the beach

On the last day we decided to drive up the coast towards the airport instead of taking the direct freeway route. We drove through all of the beach towns and got to stop briefly at various points and have a look around. When we got to Long Beach we made a quick detour round to the harbour because we wanted to see the RMS Queen Mary which, for those of you who don't know, is a retired historic British ocean liner (and it was the grandest one in the world at that!) and World War II troopship. I really wanted to take Roger to see it because his Grandad once told us a story about it when he was in the Navy. During the war the ship was converted from a passenger ship to a troopship and it ferried Allied soldiers across the Atlantic for the duration of the war. It had been stripped of all its luxuries and painted grey and it was the largest and fastest troopship to sail. Roger's Grandad told us that he was part of the Queen Mary's crew as bosun's mate, which meant that he was involved in maintenance and repairs of rigging, anchors, cables, painting, etc. Somehow (and we never did really find out the reason) on one of the journeys back to England from the US Roger's Grandad found himself at the helm, steering the ship for about 20 minutes even though he'd never had any training and certainly wasn't the correct rank. He was really proud when he told us that story before he passed so I knew that we had to go and have a look at The Queen Mary whilst we could. It was really cool to see such an awesome sight and know that Roger's Grandad had steered it through the Atlantic.

The Queen Mary

Our final stop was Santa Monica and had a mosey around the pier and promenade (as you do) before heading to the airport.

Santa Monica, with the famous pier in the background

We had such a lovely time an we were sad to see the holiday come to an end but it felt like we'd been away for ages and we'd done so much. We'll be looking forward to skiing in Utah again next year and we're currently planning which city to explore next. The frontrunner at the moment is San Diego because we've heard so many good things about it. If you have any great suggestions let me know!

That's it for now. I hope you've enjoyed my little peek into our family holiday! Now I'd better get booking the next one......

Feeling relaxed

Easter Holidays Holiday PART 2 - Disneyland!!!!

PART 1 - Skiing in Utah

PART 2 - Disneyland!!!!

After 10 days in Utah we hopped onto an internal flight from Salt Lake City to LA. It's a really short flight and it's just like getting on a bus. You don't even need your passports, which feels odd. Anyhow, after 1 hour and 30 mins in the air and flying across a time-zone so we lost an hour, we landed in Los Angeles at about 9:30 in the morning.
We collected our rental car and drove straight to Anaheim (about 45 minutes) where our hotel for the next 2 nights was located. Even though we arrived about 5 hours before we could officially check in the hotel reception guys were awesome enough to nominally check us in (even though our room wasn't available yet) and they let us park our car in their limited car park. We had a quick clothes change in the car (snow in Utah and sun in California within the space of 2 hours needs a costume change y'all!) and then we abandoned our suitcases in the car and walked to Disneyland!!!!

Not even kidding, it took us about 3 minutes to walk from the hotel to the gates of Disneyland. Even I was impressed with myself - I'd chosen GOOD! (entirely on purpose of course :) ). The hotel location was ridiculously close. It was right across the street to the main entrance!!!

We spent the rest of that day and evening in Disneyland (nipping out for 10 minutes later in the day to get the key to our hotel room and moving the suitcases in before hotfooting it back to the park again). It was a lovely sunny day and we did pretty much the whole park before we found a jammy spot on the sidewalk in the evening to settle down with a pastry (Rog bought me a crème brulee which was delicious but enormous. Naturally, I finished it all) to watch the light parade. It was so lovely. It was a special one for Disneyland's 60th anniversary which they're celebrating this year and the floats (or whatever you call them) were brilliant and really animated.
After the parade we moved out into Main Street ready to watch the fireworks. Again, they were special ones to celebrate the anniversary. They were really great and they had special effects projected onto the buildings all down Main Street all at the same time. They even made it snow at the end of the firework show (in their own very special Disney way!). It was fabulous day and we did everything we wanted to do.

They were also celebrating the release of the new Star Wars film with 'Season of the Force' so there were special displays and some of the rides had been updated with a Star Wars theme. The absolute best was that they had re-themed Space Mountain to Hyperspace Mountain and while you were whizzing around in the dark on the ride they were playing Star Wars music and you dash through a battle between Rebel X-Wing Starfighters and Imperial TIE Fighters. It made an already brilliant ride into an out-of-this-world ride! I really hope they consider keeping it that way because it truly took it to another level.
There was also an exhibit of Star Wars items, props and costumes which Rog loved (complete Star Wars geek!) and to top it all off you could meet Chewbacca if you queued for about 40 minutes. We HAD to do this. Rog has always wanted to hug Chewie since he was little so it was a must-do. I have to say that whoever was dressed up as Chewbacca was awesome. He completely got it that it was actually the dad's that were star-struck by him and not so much the little kids. Although he was great with the boys and me, it was actually Rog that he interacted most with, giving him massive hugs and keeping his arm round Rog the whole time we were with him. It was Rog that he waved goodbye to when we left. Honestly I haven't seen such a huge cheesy grin on Roger's face like he had during that experience for a long time. He really was like a little kid again. Brilliant!   

'Dabbing' for the camera seemed to be a theme for the holiday!

The next morning we were up at the crack of dawn to get into Disney's California Adventure Park at opening. The sun was shining again and made for another splendid day. The immediate priority was to snag some FastPass tickets to go on the Cars ride. FastPass tickets for this ride tend to be all out by about 10am, and without a FastPass ticket you're looking at about a 2 hour wait to get on it. I know, it's crazy right? There's no way I'll queue for 2 hours to get on  ride, even it is an amazingly brilliant and clever one! FastPasses in hand we hotfooted it over to the other side of the park to get the next most important thing - FastPasses for the evening show, World of Color. If you get one of these tickets it allows you entry into an allocated viewing area so you get to see the show from a good area without having to stake out your spot 2 hours in advance! Once those were safely tucked away in our bag we could relax and enjoy the rest of the day at a much more leisurely pace.

 

Meeting the Mouse

I love the California Adventure park. It's got a really nice feel to it and it's not overly big so you can get the whole thing done without having to bust a gut. In fact we did so well we were able to take a couple of hours out to walk to Downtown Disney, have a meal and then get back inside in time to find our spot for the show.

World of Color was fantastic. I'd seen it before 2 years ago but it was different this time because they'd changed it for the 60th anniversary celebrations. It's such a well thought out show with all the music, flashes and fountains on cue. Disney absolutely know how to do these things right.

We had two excellent days in Disney and did everything we wanted to do (sometimes twice!). It was time for a good nights sleep ready to move onto our third and final location the following day......

To follow...... PART 3 - Newport Beach, bumping into a celeb, and watching some whales.

Good news!

Maybe TMI but in case you were wondering.......I've had the results of my smear test back and everything's normal. Great news! I'll be sure to go back for my next test when it's due in 3 years time.

Make sure you get yours booked in if you're due for one!!!!!

Easter Holidays Holiday!!! PART 1 - Skiing in Utah

Hello friends!

I'm back after a few weeks away from the blog. We took the opportunity of the school Easter break to go away on a family holiday (which was awesome of course). Hence the lack of blog posts!
Quite honestly Rog and I both needed it. There's been a lot going on with work for the both of us over the last few months and a getaway was just what the doctor ordered!

On our way!

We love to go skiing every year so this year we went back to our favourite place just outside of Salt Lake City in Utah. We love to visit here. The snow on these mountains is quite simply amazing and the area we stay in feels like small town USA which means it feels really relaxed to us. The ski resort itself is pretty basic with no big restaurant or après-ski facilities. However, what it lacks by way of typical European resorts it more than makes up for it in skiable acres of terrain, friendliness, value for money, lack of crowds and that all important POWDER. It truly is a one of a kind winter wonderland! I feel so blessed that we're able to visit such a wonderful ski resort each year. I can hardly imagine skiing anywhere else now! We usually go skiing with some very good friends of ours but this year they couldn't come with us (as if emigrating to Australia is even an excuse!) so it was just the four of us for the first time ever. We missed them very much but we had a brilliant time just the four of us too.

We were dead excited because the mountain had been getting a lot of snow over the last few of months and for the first couple of days we were there it was still snowing quite hard. George got on his snowboard again on the first day (he spent a couple of days on a snowboard last year) and got right back into it. Joe decided to learn to snowboard this time (he's only ever skied) and he took to it like a natural. I was so impressed with the both of them for sticking it out in the early stages when you end up spending more time on your knees and bum than you do actually boarding! For Joe especially, he could easily have given up and gone back to skiing but he persevered and actually ended up picking it up really quickly and progressing to carving before we knew it!!!
Roger has always snowboarded. He loves it and would never switch out to skis. I always ski. I have tried snowboarding but I hated being on my bum or knees in the cold. It's not for me, and I really didn't pick it up well. I'm much happier on skis and I try and push myself harder and work on improving my technique each time I go.

Looking like some sort of weird Tellytubby

Anyway after the first couple of days there was a MASSIVE dump of powder. Like LEGENDARY. We decided to switch the boys back onto skis so that we could go out and enjoy it without the boys getting frustrated as beginners on the snowboards. It turned out to be a really great decision as the powder was so deep it was really challenging at times. There was one point when I was up to mid thigh trying to get down a (normally groomed) piste. That was not fun, I can tell you. There's only so far you can lean back when you're trying to ski down a hill and I kept getting stuck deep. And it was impossible to turn! I pretty much ended up hiking my way down the mountain in my skis. Oh my God! That was a workout in itself. It didn't help that the cloud was so low that I couldn't even see 10 foot in front of me. N o t   I m p r e s s e d.



Our fantastic 'fly' impressions

By the following day it had all settled down and we finished our skiing days in the most beautiful conditions. True Bluebird days without a cloud in the sky and lovely snow that was a dream to ski on. Couldn't have asked for better <3


Such an amazing view (the mountains, not us!)

 

Whilst we were there we also went to see the Utah Grizzlies play against the Alaska Aces (ice hockey). We try to do this every time because it's such a great evening out. Ice hockey is mental! There's always a punch-up and this game did not disappoint! The biggest team fight we've ever seen! Plus, the Grizzlies won which is always a bonus!!!

We also managed to eat our own body weight in ice-cream. Not even kidding. There's an amazing place called Farr's Ice Cream where we stay in Ogden and it's this little ice-cream parlour dating back from the 1920's. It makes loads of amazing flavours of ice cream and it's always a treat going in and picking which flavour to try each time. We LOVE Farr's!!! A trip to Farr's was basically our apres-ski each day!!!! Having tried nearly all of the flavours they have by now I think my favourite is Butter Brickle. Yummmm!

Whilst we were there in Utah we managed to squeeze in a trip to the cinema to see Zootopia. It's a brilliant film. Go and see it if you haven't already! There's also a Surf Rider there. It's one of those things that generates a permanent wave and you can surf or bodyboard it. Rog and George both went on for an hour. They were awesome and had great fun. Joe and I aren't fussed with getting wet. It just seems like a lot of effort to me......we were fabulous at being spectators though.

It was a sad day when we finished skiing on the last afternoon and had to hand back our rentals. But we'll be back next year (hopefully!).



We'd spent 10 nights in Utah and it was time to get our internal flight for the next exciting instalment of our holiday.....

Next time...PART 2 - Disneyland!!!

Looking after your lady-bits!

Warning: this is possibly a TMI post for some of you (especially the men out there!) so I get it if you don't want to read on......

I do, however, encourage you to keep going because what I'm writing is MEGA-important for all you ladies out there (and gents - it's important for your wives, partners, daughters, and anyone else of the fairer sex that you care about).

Here goes.....

This morning I popped along to my doctors surgery, got naked from the waist down, laid back with my legs akimbo and let a nurse get busy with my vajayjay. Not your average Friday morning.

Why on earth would I be telling you this??? Because it's important. Like REALLLLY important.

The results of today's smear test will let me know if there are any abnormalities in the cells of my cervix. If there are any abnormalities it means we can get on with treating them, and hopefully reduce the risk of them ever developing into cervical cancer.

Worryingly, the uptake of smear tests has decreased since the introduction of the HPV vaccine and according to The Eve Appeal it appears that there is still some stigma around the vaccine itself.

 

It seems that somehow, the message that there's a vaccine available that can help prevent some cervical cancers, is translating either into 'we don't need to get tested', or 'my daughter doesn't have sex, she's too young'.

 

Now, you're all intelligent people so you must recognise that this really isn't the case.

 

Now, I've got some things I need you to do - RIGHT NOW! NO EXCUSES!

1. Read the facts below,
2. Keep up to date with your smear tests. If you're receiving reminders, make the appointment TODAY. If you have any unusual symptoms, please do not dismiss them. Make an appointment TODAY,
3. If you have a teenage daughter, sign the consent form and let her have the HPV vaccine. It does not mean she's sleeping around. It means you are being a grown-up and are manning up to the fact that some day she's going to have sexual contact with someone else. You did.......she will too. It's normal, so don't make it into a big deal.  

HPV:

• HPV is a very common virus. Up to 80% of people will be infected with a HPV infection at some time during their lives.

• There are over 100 different types of HPV.  Around 40 types of HPV affect the genital area, of which 13 of those can cause cancer (high-risk HPV).

• In women, high risk HPV can cause: cervical, anal, vulval, vaginal and some head and neck cancers.

• Girls in Scotland are routinely vaccinated against HPV from aged 11, whereas the rest of the UK routinely vaccinates girls from ages 12 – 13; up to their 18th birthday. 

• Your very first sexual experience may put you at risk of infection.

• You are still at risk of contracting HPV even if you do not have penetrative sex as the virus is transmitted through genital skin-to-skin contact.

• Infection with HPV does NOT imply either infidelity or promiscuity.

• If you get high-risk HPV you will not require treatment nor will your partner. However, if your cervical screening test detects abnormal cells and high-risk HPV you may be sent for further examination.

• For younger women who are eligible, the HPV vaccination helps reduce risk. It protects against four types of high risk HPV that cause 70% of all cervical cancers.

• The immune system can help your body to clear an HPV infection. Yet, smoking can make it harder for the body to clear HPV.

• HPV vaccine is 98% effective in preventing cervical abnormalities associated with HPV in those women who have not yet been infected with HPV.

• Despite the fact that the vaccine cannot protect women from existing HPV infections, it can prevent reinfection.

• The body can clear the HPV virus naturally, but when seen on a smear, the next smear test done is called a “test of cure” to make sure the body has cleared the HPV virus away.

• The HPV vaccines are not a substitute for cervical screening. Having the vaccine reduces the risk of developing cervical cancer; however, it does not protect against all cervical cancers. Therefore it is vital that when invited to attend cervical screening that you do so. 

           

Cervical screening:

• It is NOT a test for cervical cancer, it is a screening test to detect abnormalities in the cells of the cervix at an early stage, which if left untreated may develop into cervical cancer.

• Between 90 and 94% of all screening results are negative.

• Cervical screening saves 5,000 lives a year in the UK.

• Having regular cervical screening offers protection against developing cervical cancer

• A total of 4.31 million women aged 25 to 64 were invited for screening in England in 2014-15 and 3.12 million women were tested, representing a fall of 3.3% from 2013-14.

• Cervical screening can prevent around 45% of cervical cancer cases in women in their 30s, rising with age to 75% in women in their 50s and 60s, who attend regularly.

• Around a quarter (24%) of cervical cancer cases in England are detected by screening.

• In England, Northern Ireland and Wales; women aged 25–49 are invited every 3 years for a cervical smear and women aged 50–64 are invited every 5 years. Whereas in Scotland, women aged 20–60 are invited every 3 years. However this is due to change on 1st April 2016 to conform with the other countries eligibility criteria. 

 

 

Have the vaccine and have your smear tests people. I know it's not the most pleasant thing but worrying about it or being too embarrassed to go could literally be the difference between life and death. You've gotta look after your lady bits girls. And I mean YOU'VE. GOT. TO. 

The Eve Appeal is working hard to raise funds for world-class research to save women's lives through better detection, risk prediction and prevention of all five gynaecological cancers. For more information, go here: www.eveappeal.org.uk

 

Missing in Action....

I thought I'd check in with you all because lately I've been AWOL. I didn't want you to think I'd completely disappeared or anything.
I've not been posting because I've been ill :( I can't believe the irony because extremely shortly after making my last blog entry (yes, that one down there...
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you know, the one that tells you how to avoid getting a cold and flu) I got a cold! And it was a nasty one too in the end. I thought that I'd be able to just fight it off like normal, but this time it was playing hard ball. I spent the weekend feeling absolutely rubbish (OMG the sinus pain! Never had anything like it in my life!) and I've even had to take a couple of days off sick from work, which is completely unlike me. I'm actually writing this from the comforts of my duvet (sad as that sounds).

Me being pathetic (I don't have much sympathy, even with myself)

Quite honestly, being ill doesn't suit me at all. It really just won't do. The last few days I've been mainly sleeping, eating (because I get starving when I have a bad cold), getting bored, having hot and cold episodes (nice), getting bored, napping, reading, popping pills, getting bored...... it goes on. One thing that I absolutely refuse to do though is to watch daytime TV, anything but that!

So, because this nasty bug wouldn't let me out of it's grip I've not exercised for 5 whole days. I KNOW! But I've tried to be good and listen to my body for once. And I'm glad I did, but I just can't shake the feeling that I've put myself a bit behind. My eating hasn't been on point either so that's not even a saving grace. I'm counting down to our annual skiing holiday and every day counts.

Now, there are two reasons for this...

1) The sensible reason, which is that I want to be as fit as I can when I hit the slopes. Now that I can actually ski "alright" *smugness* I don't want to have to be stopping every few feet to rest my aching thighs like I normally do. I want to be able to ski hard and use it as a workout in itself. I can picture it now, elegantly and swiftly carving through the sparkling powder, leaving everyone else behind in my wake. OK, OK, I know that's not going to happen, but a girl's gotta dream right? And it certainly won't happen if I don't keep up with my squats and lunges!

2) The self-imposed reason (and probably the main reason), which is that I've got new salopettes to squeeze into. So I bought myself a new ski jacket and salopettes, no biggie. Jacket is fab, no problems there. But the salopettes are a slightly different matter. They're tight and stretchy. AND TIGHT. For some crazy reason I decided to go for streamlined 80's ski chic, instead of baggy snowboarding cool. I thought I'd look a bit glam and classy as if I'm skiing in Klosters or something. Yeah, right! Anyhoo, I still need to be able to shimmy myself into them somehow, and of course I need them to not split when I spectacularly face plant at some point (which I will). Probably on a black run, just underneath the ski lift whilst everyone on there's watching me magnificently fail.

So what I'm saying is, hurry up cold and go away so that I can get back to the plan. Even if it's just to save me from future embarrassment!

Smart Nutrition Tips to Help You Start Out on the Right Foot

 

These top tips will help you launch your health and fitness journey with a bang!

1) Never Skip Breakfast

Missing out on the most important meal of the day will affect your performance, not just at the gym but at work as well. Eat healthy carbs such as wholegrain cereal or porridge oats with protein from milk (or preferably a plant based-alternative such as unsweetened almond or soya milk). Add nuts or seeds for essential healthy fats, and berries for a hit of antioxidants.

2) Reshape Your Plate

Two thirds of your plate should always be plant-based - think vegetables, fruit, wholegrains, pulses, beans, nuts and seeds. The remaining third should be animal protein, such as meat or eggs.

3) Stay Hydrated

You really need to aim for 2-3 litres of water every day. Make sure you're always hydrated before you exercise to be able to perform at your best. It's best to sip slowly through the day rather than chugging at once!

4) Always Refuel

Protein encourages growth and repair of muscles, while carbs replace lost fuel so it's best to combine the two after exercise. Try all-natural peanut butter and banana on rice cakes, or hummus and wholemeal pitta bread - both are great protein/carb combos.

Sniffle Busters!

It seems like right now everyone's dropping like flies around me. People are getting lots of nasty bugs that they can't manage to shake off very easily. Touch wood, the fam and I have managed to get away with it so far but I'm not planning on taking any risks!

 

Your diet is the most powerful natural weapon against flu and colds. Healthy foods are way more effective than supplements at keeping our body's defences working because pills simply can't replicate those benefits.

 

If you're fearing the flu like I am then you'll want to stock up on this group of immunity boosting ingredients so you can dodge the lurgy and head the sniffles off at the pass.

Read on for an A to Z of the foods that you MUST eat RIGHT NOW!!!

 

AVOCADO

These will give you a hit of antioxidant vitamin E, and infection-fighting glutathione.

 

BLUEBERRIES, BLACKBERRIES or BLACKCURRANTS

These are all stuffed with immunity-boosting and inflammation-fighting purple anthocyanin antioxidants. 

 

BRAZIL NUTS

A great source of selenium to attack viruses, plus vitamin B6 to help your body fight off bugs.

 

CANNED SARDINES

Contain a plethora of anti-sniffle nutrients including zinc, B vitamins, iron, selenium and vitamin D.

 

CARROTS

Bursting with vitamin A these beauties keep your virus barriers up and fighting.

 

CASHEWS

One of my faves, a few of these max your zinc levels revving up immune cells to function at their best.

 

CURLY KALE

It's a veritable vitamin A, C, E and folate-fest of green goodness.

 

EGGS

An all-round nutrient powerhouse, eggs are protein-rich and full of vitamin D, which is proven to boost immunity. 

 

MUSHROOMS

Little bundles of B vitamins which help your body make bug-battling antibodies.

 

RED and ORANGE PEPPERS

Bet you didn't know that these lovelies contain more vitamin C than oranges. Now you do :)

 

RED ONIONS

All onions are good, but choose red onions for an even higher boost of cold-fighting anti-inflammatories.

 

SPINACH

My favourite! And there's a good reason for it. They contain infection-fighting ingredients galore, with vitamins A, C and E, folate and iron. It doesn't get much better than that!

 

TURKEY BREAST

A mega-combo of vitamins B2 and B6, which are essential for making defensive antibodies, plus lean protein, the building blocks of immune cells.

 

WATERCRESS 

This top trio of vitamin A, folate and glucosinolates boost immunity and are responsible for switching on your cells' defences.

 

Now put away those tissues because you won't be needing them!

Staying Successful - How to Change Your New Years Resolutions into a Way of Life

Hi everyone! I hope your 2016 is going great so far!

Towards the back end of 2015 I posted on my Facebook page and Twitter how I wouldn't be making any new years resolutions. Rather, I was making a year end resolution. That year end resolution was to finish 2015 fitter and stronger than when I started. And I did! I'd been following my fitness programmes and eating clean (with a little balance thrown in on occasion) since October. I'd lost weight, toned up, and was beasting my workouts because I was fitter and stronger *round of applause!*

I've never been one for new years resolutions, I can't really see the point. Surely if you're that bothered about losing weight/giving up smoking/cutting back on alcohol/insert your vice here... then you'd just do it. Wouldn't you? I'm always surprised that people are willing to wait until January 1st to make the change.
Oh, please don't get me wrong. I'm playing devil's advocate to a degree here. Anyone that makes an effort to start a journey towards better health and fitness is frickin' awesome in my mind. It's not an easy thing to commit to and I salute anyone that goes balls out for it. It's just the January 1st bit that I don't get. Forgive me?

Anyway, so as not to run the risk of offending anyone who has made a new year resolution to get fitter, stronger and healthier in 2016 I wanted to give you some tips on how to keep that momentum going.

After the initial excitement of it all the reality hits and excuses start creeping in as to why you don't have time to work out today, or some of those unhealthy favourite treats start to creep into you shopping trolley. But you know that if you want it bad enough, if you have a strong desire and motivation to do something then you'll find a way! If you're not highly motivated then you'll find excuses instead.

So here are my TOP TIPS FOR STAYING SUCCESSFUL WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH:

Number One

A strong 'Why' or driving force to change your nutrition and fitness levels is absolutely essential. I made sure to ask my challengers in our recent 5 Day Introduction to Clean Eating group what their 'Why' is. It's easy to answer "to lose weight" or "to look better" but it's often deeper than that. Lack of confidence, health concerns (either current ones or potential issues in the future), worries that you won't be able to keep up with your kids/grandkids as they (and you!) get older, a desire to set a good example to your children, wanting your family to be proud of you, wanting to feel ALIVE again! The list is endless and much more involved than any superficial 'vain' reasons.

The point is that you have to really want to change. If your 'Why' is strong enough it serve as an internal motivator that keeps you going even when the novelty wears off. You have to want to change more than you want to stay the same!

Number Two

Be committed. You have to commit in order to succeed. You have to be willing to do whatever it takes to get there. You've gotta go all in!

Number Three

Stick to good nutrition. The 80/20 rule won't put you far wrong! Have a treat then get straight back into the game. Make sure you're drinking lots of water. You may find it helpful to track your daily food intake in a journal. You will make steady and healthy progress.

Number Four

Trust that you'll be successful. If you really want it you can have it! So give yourself some credit - you can do it! It may be trial and error for a while. It may take some time to find out what works best for your body, but it'll come. Go ahead and tweak things as you go along. Progress is slow, you just have to have faith that you'll get there. Give it time and don't give up too early because you've got this!

So now you’ve started, don’t let anything stop you!

Chicken and Broccoli Cheesy Pasta Bake

Point winner dinner! This new recipe went down a treat. All 3 boys asked for seconds! This one is definitely a keeper.

Chicken and Broccoli Cheesy Pasta Bake (Serves 8)

230g uncooked fusilli wholewheat pasta
375ml unsweetened almond milk
500g cooked chicken breast, chopped
125g mature cheddar, grated
1 large head of broccoli
4 tsp pure butter
2 tbsp wholemeal flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

1.  Turn the oven on to 190deg C.
2. Cook the pasta according to the instructions and set aside.
3. Cut off the broccoli florets and steam for 6 minutes. Chop into bite sized pieces.
4. Melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the flour and whisk for 1 minute.
5. Slowly add the almond milk to the saucepan and cook, stirring constantly for a few minutes or until it thickens.
6. Reduce the heat to low and add in the cheese, salt and pepper, stirring constantly for a few minutes.
7. Add chicken, broccoli and pasta and stir through.
8. Tip into a baking dish.
9.  Bake for 15 minutes.

ENJOY!

Roasted Vegetable Soup

Oh yum! Dee-licious! Roasted vegetable soup. You've gotta try this recipe. Guess what the best part is??? It's got 3 portions of vegetables in one serving! Yep, you heard me right, 3 of your 5 a day in just one heavenly bowlful! This is my most requested recipe so far. Try it - you'll love it!

Roasted Vegetable Soup (Serves 6)

1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1" cubes
6 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into 1" chunks
2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1" chunks
2 medium onions, peeled and cut into quarters
1 medium pepper (red, orange or yellow, cut into large pieces
1.5 litres reduced salt organic vegetable stock
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 200deg C.
2. Put all the chopped veg into a big bowl. Add the oil, thyme and 1/2 tsp salt. Mix together so the veggies are covered nicely in the oil.
3. Tip into a baking tray (or 2) and roast for 40 minutes.
4. Blend the roasted veg together with a total of 1 litre of vegetable stock until it's nice and smooth. You'll probably have to do this in batches.
5. Put the blended veg into a saucepan with the remaining 500ml of stock and 1/2 tsp salt. Stir and heat through.
6. Serve (or portion out into 6 containers to enjoy later!).

2016 (so far).....

Evening everyone!

I hope you've all had a good weekend and are feeling rested and ready for a brand new week.

Time for me to reflect on the past couple of weeks :)

 

The first thing I want to say is that I've been struggling to find time for blogging. I think that's because I'd been focusing most of my time in preparing for my 5 Day Clean Eating group. This actually took up a LOT of my time and I'd definitely underestimated it. I kept going over and over the same things time and time again to check I was happy with it and that I hadn't missed anything out. It was important to me that the group was useful to my challengers. I mean, that was the purpose of it right? I wanted to be able to teach and show people what clean eating was all about and how they could incorporate it fuel their body with nutritious food and achieve a healthier lifestyle. It was really important to me that I got it right. So, yes, I did spend a lot of time on it and my blogging suffered as a result. But I now have the basics organised so that next time I run the group a lot of the work is already done. Yay! And now we've had the opportunity to run the group I'm glad I spent the time on it that I did. More about that in a minute!

 

Right, so this new workout that I've been doing.....well actually it's going GREAT! I truly didn't know how I was going to take to this one as it's so unlike anything I'd ever done before. I was worried about using weights so much. I didn't even know if I was strong enough for it! My biggest worry though, was that without loads of cardio exercise how would I even maintain my current weight, let alone drop any more pounds!?! The proof is in the pudding as they say. About one week in I started to feel really bloated and pudgy around my belly area. I could see that I was already toning up my legs and shoulders but my tummy had started to look way worse than it had been a few weeks earlier. I mean, it was really quite big when I looked in the mirror from the side and it just felt really flabby. I wasn't making it up, Rog agreed with me but he said I should ignore it and not worry. Then I made the stupid mistake of getting on the scale in the hope that it would be the same as it was before, proving that I shouldn't be discouraged, but to my absolute horror I was 4 pounds heavier than I had been the week before!II was so upset and I truly felt like I'd taken a massive step backwards. It wasn't the number that upset me particularly, I just felt that all of the work and effort I'd put in over the weeks before had just been undone. Needless to say I was really quite upset about it and it made me question if I wanted to continue with the programme or go back to my old one. Luckily I had Rog on my side and he managed to convince me to keep going. I googled it (I love Google! What did I ever do without it?) and found that other people doing this workout were also experiencing the same sort of thing. This put my mind at rest especially when it was made clear that this is actually quite a normal reaction when using weights at this sort of frequency when you haven't been used to it before. Apparently it's caused by inflammation. When you work out, it causes little tears in your muscle fibres (that’s why you feel sore after a workout). When your body heals those little tears and strengthens the muscle there’s so much going on that the area swells up. The fluid needed for this obviously weighs something—and that might show up on the scale. But it’s temporary. I'm a scientist at heart so that made me feel a lot better about it. And wouldn't you know it.....in this last week I've dropped that 4 pounds back off and all of the water retention has gone leaving me feeling that I'm exactly where I should be!!! So it's full steam ahead with the workout schedule! 

So, back to my clean eating group! I was really nervous about doing this. I'd never done anything like it before and I wanted it to be worthwhile. Plus I'd given myself a deadline of a start date so I couldn't get out of it, even though I did consider backing out a couple of times! I thought that it was highly possible that nobody would be interested and I wouldn't even have any challengers. But I was wrong!! I got a full quota of challengers in the group (each one of them approaching me rather than me having to pester them - bonus!). It was ideal. It seemed to run well and my challengers were actively involved, posting about their days and asking lots of questions. They encouraged each other and it was a really positive experience. I've also found some opportunities for improvement so I'll be making those tweaks for the next time I run it (I'm hoping that this is something I run every few weeks depending on interest). Let me know if you're interested and I can start to build up a picture of how to plan these for the future :) I've had great feedback from my challengers that they're ready to start to make some lasting changes to their health and fitness. I'm so happy!!! 

 

At the same time as my clean eating group some of my very good friends have started a fitness routine where they're following a workout schedule (one of the ones I've previously been doing) and it's been awesome listening to their daily trials and tribulations, as well as their daily successes! I'm so very proud of them and I love being able to help and support them. They're telling me that they're seeing improvements every day and I know they're going to crush it! 

 

I honestly have to say that 2016 has started on a really positive note and I cannot wait to see what everyone will accomplish this year!