My 10 Point Plan Towards a New Me

Me now

Growing Old Disgracefully? Not Me!

My 10 Point Plan

1.     For the only bat wings I own to belong to my favourite new jumper and not as a description of my upper arms.

2.    For the only craters and crevices I see are when I look at the moon from my son’s telescope and not in the mirror.

3.    For the only spare tyre around my middle to be from a push bike and not a Pirelli tractor wheel.

4.    For my teeth to shine white in the dark and not to loom yellow through the smog. (Eugh! Even I think this is too much.)

5.    For my bones to scream joyously when I move and not to creak eerily like a sunken ship.

6.    For my feet to welcome high heels and not utter a huge sigh of relief when I get out the crocs.

7.    For my hair to bounce energetically around my neck and not hang disappointingly beneath my ears.

8.    For the grey to cease breeding on my head.

9.    For my skin to shine.

10.  For my eyes to be sharp enough to watch the pigs fly past my window tonight.

How I will look in a few months time....hopefully!

We Love you, Jamie O

We

   You, Jamie!

I was never really a Jamie fan. The “gercha” and “lovely jubbly” approach was a far cry from the more refined Nigella and encyclopedic knowledge of the legend that is Delia and it was the latter I was used to. I honed my (extremely basic) culinary skills using Delia’s ‘How to Cook’ texts and by listening to the honeyed tones of Ms Lawson.  I would be prone to turn the TV over on hearing the juvenile sound of “bish, bash, bosh.”

Not so now. The young, fresh-faced Jamie O has now blossomed into the foodie freedom fighter with the determination of a half-starved rotweiler giving us gems like ‘Jamie’s School Dinners’ and fighting the good fight for our children to get nutritious and delicious meals at school.

My own experience of how schools approach food, along with my children’s, leaves a lot to be desired.  Rather than instilling a passion for all things healthy and a longingness to get into the kitchen and get prepping, I got the feeling that it was merely a way of filling an hour whilst giving children what they want i.e. cakes and sugar-infused pies. I am sure this isn’t the case with schools now, at least I hope not, but when I and my children attended primary school our first experience of ‘cooking’ there was making rice crispy cakes. Never mind, I thought, it will be different at high school. Okay, fruit did feature on the menu.  In fact my daughter’s first cookery lesson at high school was fruit salad….and they were allowed to use tinned fruit! It got worse.  When gathering the ingredients for her first apple pie I helpfully suggested she could take some windfalls off our tree. Unfortunately not. The teacher had requested them to take a jar of fruit pie filler because they wouldn’t have time to prep the fruit in lesson time! Seriously, I’m not making this up. I have similar stories from my sons. 

What Jamie has given us is like a breath of fresh air. We want children to be equipped for life when they leave home and this includes cooking healthy, easy, nutritious meals. I have made it a personal ambition of mine to instil this on my own three offspring and, now they are all teenagers, I have a rota for the evening meal.  Granted, my youngest two have a repertoire of only two main meals at the moment but we are building on this. Why can’t schools support this too instead on insisting on going for the ‘safe’ cake options? (In fact there are some very easy meals children need to practice and hone before going out into the big wide world.) Schools can’t on the one hand promote healthy eating by joining Change4Life and on the other allow children to stuff themselves with sugary fat-filled foods. They need to fully embrace what a healthy diet is and looks like and lead by example.  Maybe then we can start addressing the huge problem of childhood obesity in this country. 

...And For My First Trick...

…….And For My First Trick: Introductions and Aspirations

“I Want to Live Forever” 

I don’t being really believe in immortality but I’m going to have a damn good go at achieving it…..even if it kills me.  Deep down I have always been a believer in looking after yourself; not eating what you want on demand and getting plenty of fresh air and exercise just like our mothers and grandmothers taught us.  At the age of 20 I was, what us Yorkshire folk would term, in fine fettle. I walked everywhere, didn’t eat too much junk and became a vegetarian . (Let’s face it; I was a student so couldn’t afford the finer things in life.)

Having children changed all this for me.  My children became my sole focus. (I gave up work to devote 100% of my time to them.  I have no regrets – that just isn’t my style.  I loved being a full-time mum and my children have flourished. Now teenagers I find myself hauled out of my job as a mum, middle-aged with a waist thickening by the minute. My exercise regime leaves a lot to be desired, my diet is iffy and my ‘joie de vivre’ has become languid.  It’s time to take action.

So, what next? I have a plan.  A plan to reclaim my waist (or as much of it as I can find), stop stuffing my face, save up for an exercise bike (Norman Tebbit would be so proud) and cycle may way into a healthier way of life. That’s it. That’s my plan. And I’m not even waiting for Jan 1^st to start it. I’m doing it right now. (Gulp. Now having second thoughts. Can I do this?) This is my first personal blog in a series relaying my trials and tribulations on my road to a better way of living. (Don’t worry, in between there’ll be lots of other stuff I’ll be talking about during my own vain attempt to sound interesting and opinionated.)