New Year Resolutions pt 2
Well it’s that time of year again where we all think this will be the year we make changes and get more out off life and become happy. In reality, not much changes and by the end of the year we feel bad for not having achieved anything that feels worthwhile.
Apparently the top 10 New Year resolutions are ;
- Exercise more
- Lose weight
- Get organized
- Learn a new skill or hobby
- Live life to the fullest
- Save more money / spend less money
- Quit smoking
- Spend more time with family and friends
- Travel more
- Read more
I would like to do most these too, except for losing weight and quitting smoking, they are all big things, but we believe that they will make us more happy. Many people will have already given up, or like me won’t even have started yet as life gets in the way and most of the things we want are too vague and we feel overwhelmed by it or just realise it is not realistic. Then of course we get annoyed and feel like we have failed.
I have decided to write a post about each resolution, I would love to say I will do one a day, but know that is far beyond me, one a week would take us to the end of March!! So will just have to see how it goes and how much I ramble on or get distracted by other things.
I always find this time of year hard and would love to be able to do so much. I always feel that I haven’t achieved anything and am in the same place I was a year ago, only change is I am a year older!!
No. 2 Lose Weight
In my case it is not lose weight. But I lose weight easily due to stress, doing too much and stomach issues. Even when I was 13 I was told I was underweight at 6st 12 and all my adult life Drs have always said I was under weight even though at one time I was over 8st. My natural adult weight settled at around 7st 10. I lost weight at the start of the Pandemic and then after having a wisdom tooth removed and not being able to chew for several weeks. I got down to 6st 4 which even for me is low. I seem to have stabilised at 6st 6 for now. Ironically the Drs haven’t mentioned my weight, only ask me if I have lost weight and then ask how much, when I say a few pounds they are not bothered any more!! According to NHS BMI calculator I have a BMI of 16.5 which is under weight. A BMI of 19 to 25 is classed as healthy, but it says my weight should be between 7st 3 and 9st 10. I can’t imagine being 9st 10, I was only 8st 10 when pregnant.
I have many food intolerances which makes it hard to eat some types of food, my main issues are wheat, dairy, fish, caffeine and sugar. It is much easier to get Gluten free and dairy free products now, but they are expensive and not all of them are good. The bread I buy works out at 33p per slice and the slices are not very big and because of the shape of the loaf about 4 of the slices are all crust and end up getting used for breadcrumbs, which then makes usable slices 41p per slice. If I buy it unsliced it costs a lot more as I can’t slice it as thin. Gluten free bread is better toasted, but I have to be careful, it’s too expensive to burn! You can get a whole loaf of normal bread for those prices. People assume that I am being fussy or awkward about food and think I will be ok eating the things I say I can’t have.
Having intolerances makes eating out quite stressful, many places now have GF options, but have often run out or it means they leave part of the meal off to make it GF. We are lucky to have some good GF places nearby, but don’t really eat out a lot. A meal out we have just before Christmas, my meal was inedible so I ended up going without. Another recent effort at eating out we found that all the GF options were unavailable, it rather puts us off, especially as things are so expensive. Eating out should be a treat and a pleasure and it isn’t.
Due to my ME I am unable to cook meals, if I did I would be too unwell to eat it! This means that Rob has to cook when he finishes work and as Emily has evening commitments several times a week meals can be very rushed. Trying to find something we can all eat and that cooks quickly makes meals quite boring and stressful.
During lockdown we started have a vegetable delivery from Market Garden, they are very good and having it delivered makes it much easier. We started by having a Medium veg box, but it includes fresh herbs and spices we we never used and always has potatoes, onions and carrots which we didn’t always use. We reduced it to a small box, but were still getting stuff we didn’t use up. I have just gone to ordering what we want instead so we get a bit more variety and stuff we know we will eat, but of course I have to remember to put the order in.
People always think being thin is good, but it’s not, you can never get clothes that fit properly, they just hang and are often too big. many shops don’t stock small sized clothes. I also have an issue called Lichen Sclerosus which means I can’t wear tight fitting trousers or trousers with chunky seams like Jeans or tights, so I spend most of my time in leggings or lose trousers and tunics or jumpers. I hate shopping for clothes as I can’t find anything that fits or looks good. Buying small sized bras is almost impossible and again they never fit properly, but without them I have no shape at all.
I try not to lose weight and eat more now than I ever have, but due to food intolerances and IBS, I often get upset stomachs which give me painful cramps and diarrhoea. These can be brought on by sitting upright or bending over too, so often happen if I am in my wheelchair for any length of time or when doing my craft stuff. They can also be triggered by food even though I am careful to avoid what I am not supposed to have. I do occasionally eat dairy and refined sugar and sometimes get away with it, other times not. Refined sugar makes me very dizzy and exacerbates my Lichen Sclerosus, so I often allow myself a “treat” and then regret it. Eating too much also seems to exacerbate my IBS, so eating more to put on weight is difficult.
It’s difficult to know what to do, so I just eating sensibly and take vitamins and hope for the best. I know people who eat a lot less than me and are heavier. I want to be more involved in cooking meals, but my husband prefers to cook on his own. I try to plan meals, but getting everyone to agree is impossible and even when we do agree my daughter will take one look at it and refuse to eat it. Shopping is difficult too as my husband does the shopping so I don’t get to see what is available and trying to make a list again is a battle as no one will say what they want. At the moment it isn’t always possible to get the things we do have on the list and we haven’t worked out how to sort these issues yet. I see many recipe ideas, but often they are spicy which we don’t like or they take too long or have ingredients we don’t have so we just end up with the same meals all the time.
Next month we are having a new kitchen fitted, which will be a night mare and will make cooking and planning meals even worse for a while. We bought an air fryer so we can manage without an oven, we have a microwave and an electric grill. We are having one of the door into the kitchen blocked up with a hatch so I should be able to sit on the dining room side without being in the way in the kitchen so maybe have a bit more input into meals, but only time will tell. I am looking forward to having a better laid out kitchen with more storage space and workspace, but not looking forward to all the chaos, noise and mess. Hopefully having a better kitchen might spur us into eating more interesting food and being more enthusiastic about cooking and shopping.
We have had the delights of her bringing in mice and birds, not nice to wake up to. The colder weather put a stop to her hunting, I hope that she doesn’t resume as the warmer weather brings them out in search of food..jpg)
