London

Well I'm on the train on the way back from a fun filled weekend in London. Been a tourist for a couple of days - visited Tower of London (really enjoyed tour by Yeoman Warder); Hampton Court Palace (enjoyed the Palace and the gardens but really disappointed with the maze); went to Wembley and watched the Minnesota Vikings beat the Pittsburgh Steelers (American Football) and today took a walk past Houses of Parliament, Downing Street, Horseguards, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square.

Managed to get my new iphone 5s before I went and pleasantly surprised by its camera and loved 4G.  So here's a few photos I took...

Photos

I said I'd post some more up to date photos of Charley, so here you are...

I'm off to London tomorrow. I'll blog on the move and maybe get one or two more of these....

Moving on

Well as expected I didn't get the job.  But I did get some very nice feedback, lots of positives to take away.  So, I'm moving on and busying myself planning a weekend away in London this weekend.  Off to Wembley to watch Steelers v Vikings and going to fit in a couple of days of sightseeing.  Plan to visit Tower of London and Hampton Court, hopefully photos to follow and not do too much damage to my diet...

Time passing

This is Charley, my chocolate labrador puppy, taken when he was about 10 weeks old.  This weekend I've been telling everyone that he is now 7 months old.  But, I noticed that I'd marked different dates on the calendar so I checked and he was actually born on 2 March 2013, so he's not 7 months old for another week or so!  Of course, he doesn't look the same now and I'll try and get a more up to date photograph of him for the blog.  He is a mischievious, active, adorable little dog who will eat just about anything, in other words a puppy...

Fate

Well what a couple of days it's been. Remember that interview I was telling you about? There I was a few minutes early nervously waiting when I was told that the interviewer was on the phone for me. I wondered what had happened to delay them. But it was me that was in for a shock, I was at the wrong building on the other side of town. I couldn't believe it, what a numpty! But, maybe it was fate, given my last post. Anyway, they were very nice about it and managed to rearrange the interview for today.  I started off by apologizing profusely and thanking them for taking the time to interview me today and then ruined it by waffling for the next hour. I don't think a lassie who loves to blether is what they were looking for. I'll find out next week....

Lacking ambition?

I read an article earlier this year that said we lose our ambition at work when we hit 35.  I think that may be true for me, I certainly don't have the drive that I had when I was younger.  So, why have I applied for another post at work?  That's one of the questions I'm asking myself, but with an interview tomorrow it's a bit late.  It's been 5 years since I had any sort of interview and I'm not looking forward to the grilling on what I've achieved or the 5 minute presentation I have to give on how I'd take the role forward!  Mmm, better do some preparation then...

Fighting back against diabetes

Well I said yesterday that I'd write about my very low calorie diet (VCLD) journey, so here it is.  You might be asking what is a very low calorie diet?  Well, it's one of those shake and bar diets that gives you all your daily nutrients, but where you don't eat 'proper' food.  I have been a real sceptic about such diets in the past, they are not 'real' are they and you are bound to put all of the weight back on the minute you go back to eating normal food.

What changed, well I'm diabetic (type 2) and my last check up didn't go well.  My HbA1c had gone up from 7.9% to 9.7%.  I knew why, I was eating all the wrong food and my carb addiction was out of control.  So, I was prescribed more medication and insulin was mentioned.  Metformin doesn't agree with me and I didn't want to take more pills but the status quo clearly wasn't an option.  Not if I want to avoid diabetic complications in the future.

Looking about for alternatives, I found the Newcastle Diet and while the patients in the study had all been diagnosed in the last 4 years and I've been diabetic for a decade I figured that if nothing else at least I'd lose some weight.  There are lots of different shakes out there, but I decided to go with Exante and their Total Solution VLCD.  Their shakes are nice and the bars are convenient for work.

Well, I hear you say, how's it going.  OK, 7 weeks after I started I'm still taking the shakes/bars with only a couple of slips to celebrate family birthdays etc.  I've lost 27 lbs and my BMI has reduced by 4 and best of all my diabetes control is much improved.  My daily blood sugar tests are typically in the 5-6 range, as you can see from this chart.

Some think that this type of diet can reverse type 2 diabetes, but I don't think that's the case with me.  If I have carbs my blood sugar level goes up as a diabetic's would.  I'm still diabetic and I still have to avoid the bakery section in a supermarket!  But, my diabetes is currently well controlled.  I'll find out how well when I get my HbA1c done again in October.  Until then I'm going to keep going.  I'll let you know what happens.

No. 53 Make pancakes

Well, I said I'd make pancakes and I did using this recipe.  I'm on a very low calorie diet at the moment so I didn't try them (more about that tomorrow).  They're maybe a bit peely-wally but hubby seemed to like them, he even had seconds!  Challenge achieved.

Where does the time go?

Almost 2 years ago I created a day zero project of 101 things to do in 1001 days.  The list includes things like bake a souffle, take a first aid course and toast marshmellows over a bonfire.  Nothing impossible you might say, but here I am with 10 months left to achieve 59 of my 101 goals.  I'm clearly going to need to get moving.  So, tomorrow I'm going to make pancakes (number 53 on my list).  I don't cook much so I need to build up to that souffle...