Firstly, yes I’ve been incredibly lax with blogging lately. I’d like to say that this is now going to be rectified and, moving forward, things will be more consistent but, I’m not a liar by nature and I’m not going to start now! I can say I’m going to try to write something once a week and that’s the goal I’m aiming for.
I’ve dusted off my bullet journal, I affectionately call it my brain as it stores all the important and trivial information relating to my life. Everything from dentist appointments to books read to calls I have to make. If I don’t write it down I forget it! This goes for both my work and home life. Along with the important and trivial, this week I’ve been making notes about things to put in the blog, things that happened through the week that may not necessarily have made the cut during Alan’s editing.
So, what’s been happening this week? Well, firstly I got a cool new app called Yolt. What it allows me to do is track where our money goes every month, all the bills and their dates, all the books I buy at Waterstones and the sandwiches Alan buys at the canteen. It was a bit of an eye-opening experience, to say the least! The idea behind downloading the app was so I could keep a decent track of things and work out how much of our hard-earned pennies I can safely tuck away for a rainy day (or computer parts if Alan gets his way). It took a little bit of setup time as you need to categorise some of the things where the app doesn’t recognise the location or website or you’re paying through PayPal but, once it’s done, it pretty much looks after itself. Incidentally, I’m not being paid to promote or review the app, I’m a genuine user. I’ve been using it for about a week now and, so far, it’s been really useful. I might do a further review after some time has passed.
Anyway, after a little bit of thought (and app checking) we took the decision to re-instate our Cineworld Unlimited membership. The reasons for this are two-fold, we plan on going to the cinema more and this is actually a more cost-effective way of doing it as the monthly subscription pays for itself if you go twice a month. The second reason is, in order to make the savings we have to go at least twice a month so it makes us go to the cinema more often… self-fulfilling prophecy! So, expect more cinema reviews on future vlogs, blogs or both!
Given that I’m part of a couple who vlogs the minutiae of our life this may be hard to believe but I’m actually an introverted, insecure and highly self-conscious person. Part of my issues stems from how I look. Lately, I’ve been struggling with my body image and that, coupled with Alan’s diabetes, has resulted in several failed dieting and weight loss attempts in the last year. This week we embarked on yet another attempt to get our proverbial s*it together and try to get things under control. We re-started our VLCD diet, I started on the 16th and Alan joined me on it a week ago (he had an on-site course which included lunches). I was coping fine but Alan made it to Tuesday and text me saying he was suffering from shaking and blurred vision… classic signs of hypoglycemia. I immediately called a halt to the VLCD until I could consult with his diabetic nurse and modified our food to a healthier eating regimen. We’re now both sticking to the recommended 2000kcal/2500kcal limits set by health professionals/government people and I’m tracking everything with My Fitness Pal. I figure this way we’re not fasting but we’re also still working with a calorie deficit compared to our baseline BMR for our respective weights. I always find it amazing the amount of knowledge I have in my head about nutrition, body function and weight loss. Oddly enough, sometimes in my head, I hear my mothers voice telling me I know better than to have let us get into the metabolic mess we’re in! Eat less, move more is my current mantra. I’m quite excited as our gym has started doing key fobs which let us in and out without having to key in a 10-digit number neither of us can remember. Alan’s always struggled with the doors so it’s doubly helpful. I ordered and received our key fobs this week and I’m looking forward to using them next week!
I know this was on the vlog earlier this week but I’ve cancelled my Fairyloot subscription. It wasn’t that I don’t enjoy getting a book surprise every month because I really did. It was more of a case of that, for the price of the box I was getting a book and then some book-themed items which were failing to elicit the same amount of joy that they used to. For the cost of the subscription (£32/month including shipping), I could get several books, or practically cover the cost of the Cineworld subscription (depending on which way you look at it). It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while and this month I’ve taken the plunge and cancelled it.
Speaking of books, this week I finished Into The Water by Paula Hawkins. Some of you may recognise the author, she wrote Girl on the Train. I had her new book on pre-order and then it sat on my TBR shelf for a while. It’s a compelling read, the story covers a series of what appear to be female suicides and the lives of the people affected by this. It’s written in much the same style as Girl on the Train, each chapter is written from the perspective of one of the main characters so there’s no central narrator. I gave it 4 stars on Goodreads, it would have been 5 but I had 90% of the ending figured out around two-thirds of the way through the book. Amy’s interested in reading it so I’ll be passing my copy onto her, I’m doubtful I’ll re-read it so it’s not making it onto my permanent library shelves. At this moment in time, I’ve read or listened to 33 books this year and have read 15 of the 52 books I set as a list of TBR books to clear this year. So, on one hand, I’m ahead of schedule to hit my target of 52 books read this year, and on the other hand, I’m behind schedule as I still have 37 books from my set list to read and the year is more than half over. Guess I’d better work on the backlog instead of adding books and then reading those first!
Right, so that’s pretty much me at the end of what I wrote down to cover in this weeks blog so I’m going to head for bed now. It’s nearly midnight, it’s been thunder and lightning outside since 8pm and Alan’s been in bed since 9:30pm.