End of the Month Wrap Up

At the beginning of the month, I was amazed that it was 2019. Now, I'm amazed that we're already at the end of the month! I've been slowly trying to get back into the good habits I abandoned during the holiday season for bad habits like junk food. Candy. Cookies. Spending time with the kids and skipping the gym.

I've returned to the gym, or when there is snow, I have the treadmill and yoga on demand. I found a 30 day yoga challenge on Amazon Prime. Sure, it might take me 300 days to finish the 30 day challenge, but I'm still doing it.

Weaning myself off the cookies and candies is also a work in progress.

Then there's also this:

In 2019, I'll be turning 50, so health and aging are suddenly a obsession concern. Osteoporosis and arthritis are common problems for my family. I was visiting Life Away From The Office Chair blog and blogger Lisa suggested taking collagen supplements to not only reverse the effects of aging, but to reduce joint pain and promote bone growth.

Sounded like a great plan to me, so I ordered a jar. While waiting for it to arrive, I checked into the research. It seems to be legit. Which is good. It comes from natural sources. Also good. And those natural sources are ground-up animal bone, hair, teeth, etc.

Not good. I told my husband. He said, "You eat gelatin. What do you think it's made of?"

I suppose...

It finally arrived. I tried to tell my brain not to imagine it was made of ground up bone, fur, teeth and whatnot, but I never made it over the hump. Somehow, the idea of mixing it up and drinking it was  too much.

My husband wasn't so squeamish. He mixed up a glass and gave it a try. He assured me it wasn't too bad-- just don't smell it before drinking, because it had the same smell as when the dentist grinds your teeth to fill a cavity. 

Needless to say, that whole jar is now his. I ordered some collagen in pill form. 

Wish me luck. 

It's the end of the month. Time to reflect on the best of January's entertainment. 

Movies

Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse. Double thumbs up. I'm not usually a big fan of cartoons, but this was a well-written script. The characters were likable. The story was fresh. And the action was balanced with poignant moments and humor. 

Hector and the Search for Happiness. I love Simon Pegg movies. This one didn't let me down. It was funny and thoughtful. I bought a used DVD from a video store. A great way to stock up on movies for a few dollars. 

Television

Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It's back. It has a new home over at NBC, but it's funny as ever. 

Quantum Leap. I bought my husband the full series on DVD for Christmas. We started watching it and I still love it as much as I did in the 90's. 

Books

The Baroness: The Search for Nica, the Rebellious Rothschild. An enjoyable, informative read. From the beginnings of the Rothschild dynasty to the early days of jazz, this book takes an honest look at the humanness of those who live in worlds that seem so much larger than life.

That's it for January. See you in February!

Obsessing Smarter

It's been a month since our first post about ending the weight obsession in exchange for a healthier way of eating and treating our bodies. No more beating up on ourselves or doing crazy things to try to be perfect. I have been implementing my get-healthier habits, and with the exception of this weekend, it's gone pretty well. I am a few pounds down, which doesn't sound too exciting, but it beats being a few pounds up. Ideally, I'd like to lose thirty pounds, so as of today, I am down two, so twenty-eight to go!

Here are some things that have worked for me. They're not fast fixes, but my goal isn't to return to a life of self-abuse and rapid weight loss, but to treat my body like I appreciate all that it does for me.

-Get enough sleep. When I'm tired, I crave sugar like a junkie looking for a hit. That's where I went wrong this weekend. Fatigue pushes the body to look for energy in the form of food, usually high carb quick hits.
-Hydrate. Drink enough water. I've read that your body confuses thirst with hunger- have a glass of water before scarfing a cookie.
-Shoot for 8-10 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Thinking of what you should be eating over what you shouldn't eat helps change the brain's food obsession.
-Keep a food journal. Like Jo Wake commented last week- writing down what you eat is helpful. I use an app on my phone that tracks my intake and calories. Doing this keeps me conscious of my snacking. If I'm not logging in what I eat, I tend to do too much mindless grazing, especially when I'm tired, busy, or stressed.
-Move. As a writer, I spend a lot of time in a chair. Time to make exercise a priority. I've been
walking a mile a day, at least.

-Log your success on a calendar. I have been giving myself stars for each day I get in my mile walk. The other day, I was walking on my treadmill and reading and accidentally walked an extra half mile. The more you move, the easier movement gets!
-Avoid fast food. This is the hardest of all the changes. It's so handy to grab dinner from a window rather than cook when I'm busy and tired. I've found keeping healthy lunch meats and soups in the house is a good alternative.
-Get rid of the junk. If there are chips and candy in the house, I'm grabbing handfuls mindlessly.
-Choose healthier snacks. Popcorn, fresh fruit, brownies- without the oil. I quit adding the oil to my cakes and brownies years ago and as long as you don't over bake, you will never miss the oil.

It's also the last post of the month! Time for our entertainment check in. It's a good thing I had a weight obsession post planned because this month's entertainment was slim pickings. My husband and I were on a roll in April choosing one bad movie after another.

I did switch up my satellite line up. I reduced my channels to a much smaller package and joined Hulu. I was able to catch up on all the sitcom episodes I missed. My two favorite for the month?

New Girl 

The series begins with Jess surprising her boyfriend (and his date!) with a striptease. She leaves the cheater behind and moves into an apartment with a group of crazy, lovable guys. New Girl always makes me laugh and the characters are loyal and enchanting.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Jake Peralta is a quirky detective working among the most unique, hilarious staff of co-workers. Unique characters, unlimited shenanigans.

What I'm reading...

The Moral Compass by KA Servian

Set in the 1800's, the heroine, Florence is forced to leave England with her indebted family for the wilds of New Zealand. It's a romance with plenty of twists, turns, and engaging characters.

Life Beyond the Glare

My husband and I recently sold our house and moved into an apartment which includes a cable television package with the rent.

This, for me, was a very big deal.

I'm one of the zillions in the world with a very addictive personality when it comes to passive entertainment. So much so that it majorly got in the way of accomplishing my goals. So in spring of 2006, with no small amount of self-righteousness, I cut the cord.

And it was glorious. I left the house. I talked to people again. I made phone calls to family members. I read like crazy, learned to transliterate Cyrillic, and - most importantly - wrote several books. Now that we have cable back after a full decade without, I'm dealing with some pretty mixed feelings. I mean, this isn't Netflix we're talking about. This is real TV.

That blasted TV, that beacon of passive entertainment, was always the siren to my Argo. It didn't matter what was on - if it was a hemorrhoid commercial you'd still find me sitting in front of the flickering glare completely mesmerized for the 15 seconds until something else came on. My hobbies suffered, my social life (such as it was) suffered, and my house cleaning habits were non-existent. Who can think about spring cleaning when "Supernatural" re-runs are on???

So now that we have cable - my old arch-nemesis - again, I've had to learn how to protect myself from accidentally getting caught in a channel-flipping loop so I can live a full life beyond the glare. Especially considering I've got a book due this spring! Here's what I've done so far:

1. Figure out what shows I'd like to see, and DVR them. 
2. Only watch them via DVR and ONLY when I'm already caught up for the day.
3. Never turn on live TV. I did make exceptions for the debates, though a large part of me wishes I hadn't.
4. Prioritize show-watching by how quickly they're likely to be spoiled by Facebook trolls. By this reasoning, we always watch "Game of Thrones" and "Walking Dead" before getting around to "Big Bang Theory."
5. No turning on the TV for "background noise" while cleaning. You know what happens if you do that - you'll end up immobile the couch with a rag and polish in your hand watching crime drama re-runs before you know it.

Now I'd like to hear YOUR methods for keeping TV from taking control of your household. What are the boob tube rules at your house?

Netflix, Anyone?

Ah, Friday… The start of the weekend. Any plans? In the UK, it’s getting colder and wetter—perfect weather to curl up with a mug of tea, a slice of cheesecake and a bit of Netflix viewing. I’m new to Netflix. So far I’ve only used it to watch Matt Smith’s Doctor Who and a David Tennant film that’s not available in the US.

Today, I’m sharing some amazing, diverse series that I love watching. This list started off much bigger, until I realised how underrepresented British TV is on US Netflix. (Such a same, we have loads of US series.) I hope you enjoy checking out this selection. 

1.       Black Mirror: very dark British humour set in the near future. Individual stories, so if you don’t like one, you might love the next.

Read more on IMDb

2.       Derek: quite controversial when it first aired because of the apparent learning difficulties of the central character. But it’s actually a brilliant, funny, poignant comedy series, filmed as a mock documentary.

Read more on IMDb

3.       Merlin: a brilliant family-friendly drama reimagining of the King Arthur stories. The first series started off light and humorous, but it gets a lot darker as you work through it.

Read more on IMDb

Have you watched any of these already? What did you think?




Besides being a pro at getting healthy, Annalisa Crawford is a multi-published author of literary fiction and dark, psychological suspense. She lives near the beach in Cornwall, UK with her musician husband, her two boys, and some furry critters. Check out Annalisa's work HERE.



 
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Thanks for stopping by Annalisa! I always find it fun to weed out the differences in our very similar cultures. 

I never realized Brits used scales over cups when cooking- I suppose that saves on dirty dishes. 

I also get a kick out of digestive crackers from her mum's cheesecake recipe. I imagine a wafer made by Pepto Bismol. Annalisa promises if she ever flies to the States, she'll bring me some. She also assures me a cracker is a cookie. As we all know, I'm all about the cookies, so I'm eagerly awaiting Annalisa's visit. 

And I certainly didn't know they have access to so many awesome shows that we can't get. It's like they have their very own, secret Netflix. What's up with that?