Category Archives: Smartwatch

Healthy Eating… No More Diets…The plan that works…It really does…

Welcome to this week’s Healthy Eating…

Cheat week this week as by now I am on my way to see a friend until Friday so I have copied a previous post one of my early Healthy eating posts…But I will be back as normal next week…With news of my exploits and hopefully, the scales won’t tell too much of a tale of any excesses…haha…Holidays are to be enjoyed are they not??

Now to an earlier post but the advice stays the same and all these months later tHe weight is still coming off…If you have read this before ..my apologises but it may serve as a timely reminder it did for me…and for my new followers or anyone who hasn’t read the following…It works! FACT!

My first sourdough loaf is cooked, eaten and was divine…I was so chuffed at the lovely comments I received…Of course, I had to sample it in the name of quality control and with proper butter as well…haha…

It was lovely I thoroughly enjoyed it…No guilt…Just pure enjoyment…It was healthy( wholemeal) grass-fed butter and my home-baked bread …I savoured every mouthful…

Hubby ate the rest either a sandwich or toasted…

Sourdough Wholemeal loaf

The rest of the week has been just normal healthy eating and walking which has increased due to 2 factors one is that our granddaughter is staying with us for 8 weeks( school ) holiday and two my smartwatch is keeping tabs on my steps…The daily recommended guidelines are 10,000 steps which sounds a lot but doable…

As you know I advocate eating healthy balanced meals I don’t believe in cutting out food groups like meat, most fruits or pasta/rice/potatoes…I do believe we should avoid or eat little highly processed foods, food with added sugars, we should choose good quality cooking oils, avoid excessive intake of high mercury fish like tuna…Alcohol enjoy just not in excess. 

For me, that is easy to follow and coupled with the 16/8 intermittent fasting and exercise I am seeing results.

That hasn’t always been the case...At this moment I am the lightest I have been for a good few years …I have also accepted I will never be the weight I was when I married… More fat on a chip my husband used to say…haha

Life happened, I got married, I had kids… I ate what they didn’t, I worked and shopped in my lunch hour and while queuing to pay eyed the strategically placed sweets by the till ( those stores) know how to tempt one don’t they? The mums and friends who mean well…Just have one…That won’t hurt…

box four doughnuts iced

I feel your pain I know what you have been through or going through so does my friend Sally…Who is a Certified Nutritionist and knows the pitfalls and curve balls life throws at us …Both of us have struggled with weight at times during our lives …

It ain’t easy and while I may make it appear to be …I have eaten my share of what I shouldn’t and moderation did not come into it…I am now older and wiser…haha…Believe what you will…But I have realised I need to cherish this body as it is the one and only one I have or will have…Better late than never…

How to manage people…The well-meaning ones of course…

And remember…Losing weight is not a sprint, it is a marathon and your mental and emotional attitude towards the project is a key factor in your successful weight loss.

Sally’s posts are both informative with a little humour and she will tell you it is not easy she knows but I will let her tell you her story…

https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2019/03/16/smorgasbord-health-column-size-matters-the-sequel-before-you-get-started-managing-people-environment/

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Stuck for Recipes? Need some inspiration?…

Honey…Nectar of the Gods and so good for us…Sally will tell you the why and I will provide the recipes…Enjoy!

 

https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2019/03/13/smorgasbord-health-rewind-cook-from-scratch-with-sally-cronin-and-carol-taylor-honey-nectar-of-the-gods/

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Diets come and go...Faddy things aren’t they? Mostly a flash in the pan and not sustainable…A new one has arisen…A hybrid of the Paleo diet and the Vegan diet…All the good bits…The Pegan Diet…

I know it just had to happen, didn’t it?

The basics of the Pegan Diet…3/4 vegetables and 1/4 meat/fish @ each meal, the meat/fish from good quality sources…( no hormones and antibiotics)…It focuses on eating more fibre and low glycemic index fruits, eliminating sugar, dairy unless it comes from ( goat/sheep) products eating little or no highly processed foods thus avoiding foods produced using chemicals and pesticides…eliminating legumes except for lentils…

Great in theory and first glance and sounds similar to what I believe in however it is quite restrictive and would need some planning and the bottom line is we need a Healthy Balanced Diet…No eliminating essential foods… It seems to me that the people who market and promote all these diets think they have to come up with something new all of the time and I suppose celebrity endorsements don’t help that trend…

Frankly just because a celebrity endorses a product doesn’t mean it works…No one size fits all, no one’s lifestyle is the same as Fred’s next door we are all individuals with different needs, Stress levels, family commitments, work commitments so much factors into the equation…

Healthy Eating is a lifestyle choice and takes time to adjust…You will have blips or bad days/weeks but it is how you deal with it…

We just need to eat sensible, normal healthy foods and a balanced diet…Most of the time.

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Smartwatch Corner.

Smart phone and watch

I am still impressed with my new toy…I will say it keeps me focused…

So far I use the step counter…It does have other functions like running and workouts but I enjoy walking …The recommended daily steps are 10,000 which is doable…..Last Thursday I achieved 14,000 plus steps in one day…I was out and about doing kids things and shopping so although tired it was a revelation as to how many steps I did do that day…An average day for me is 6-7000 I am working on getting to 10,000 more often…

The other function I love is the sleep function...

lady sleeping

It shows 3 levels, Deep sleep, light sleep and Rem sleep plus gives you the normal range and tells you where you are in that either normal, high or low. Plus it gives your overall hours of sleep, how many times you woke up with an explanation of your total hours of sleep and how long you were in the stages and what happens to your body while you are in each stage of sleep…

It also offers an explanation as to what causes any changes and how you can remedy it with links to other sites for further info.

I am finding this really interesting as I am gradually seeing a pattern forming and am realising which factors are influencing my sleep for example what I am doing prior to sleep or what I have been drinking as I don’t eat after 8pm.

It also tells me my heart rate …An explanation can also be found on heart rates.

What I do find amusing is the little green man who buzzes and waves at me when I have been inactive for a while…

It also has other functions which I don’t use yet or may not as I purchased this mainly to keep a little eye on my health. Which while it may not be exactly spot on but accurate as these can be but as the watch is on your pulse give or take a few beats it is accurate enough for me…

Thank you for reading and please tell me in comments your thoughts if you have a smartwatch…x

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there will be more on this on my blog this year

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

More and more of my blogging friends have joined me on MeWe…A social media site which is fairly new and which promises much without the restrictions some other social media sites are choosing to impose on many of us…Join me if you will on  mewe.com/i/caroltaylor3 

 

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://carolcooks2.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great week xx

Healthy Eating…Eat Smart…Pomelo Salad…

Welcome to Healthy Eating...It does seem like there is a change in the trends…That more eating plans are advocating eating less processed and more healthy food which is good… I am seeing phrases like Clean Eating, Eating Pegan, Gut Health, Hemp is still being mentioned, Bitters and Un-Dieting… Let’s have a look and see if they are worth following as a diet plan…

Clean Eating…

Foods like whole grains, lean protein, healthy fats and plenty of fruits and veggies are on the menu while refined carbs, alcohol, added sugars and hydrogenated fats should be avoided or limited.

However it is a low carb diet as potatoes, rice etc are not encouraged…

Eating Pegan…

Think about combining paleo with vegan and what do you get? A trendy eating plan dubbed the pegan diet this first hit the diet world in 2014, but the philosophy has only since picked up steam. Pinterest revealed that interest in the pegan diet jumped 337% in the past year, with searches continuing to climb.

The pegan diet borrows principles from both the paleo diet and veganism. Paleo eaters try to consume only foods available in the Paleolithic era 2.6 million years ago: vegetables, fruits, nuts, fish, and meat. It usually excludes dairy, grains, sugar, legumes, oils, salt, alcohol, and coffee.

Veganism prescribes refraining from any animal products and by-products — including meat, fish, eggs, cheese, yoghurt, and honey — and eating plant-based foods instead.

Thus Pegan was born…My thoughts very restrictive and also high in some food groups not an easy eating plan to follow

Gut Health…

Encourages eating more fermented foods, probiotics, keffir, kombucha with the aim of creating a healthy gut…Research shows that plant-based, fibre-rich diets boost the diversity of microorganisms in the gut. Ultimately, the greater the diversity of the bacteria, the greater the beneficial outcomes.

The good news is, bacteria can be altered by diet alone. That means you do not need to purchase over-the-counter high-dose probiotic supplements. a healthy can be achieved by diet although if you have a diagnosed condition see your doctor before you change to any eating plans.

I think it is always a good idea to be mindful of our gut health within the confines of a healthy diet.

Bitters…

Bitter herbs have long been used in traditional medicine to support healthy blood sugar levels. Did you know that we have 25 different receptors for bitter in the gut alone, while only one each to detect sweet and umami compounds?

Waking up those often-ignored receptors can help support healthy digestion and regulate other eating-related issues and functions.

Most veggies naturally contain more bitter substances, tipping your diet in the right direction. For best results, include those that have a stronger bitter flavour, such as kale, arugula, spinach, radicchio, dandelion greens, and broccoli others include asparagus, grapefruit and cucumbers.

Un-Dieting…

Many dietitian nutritionists are hoping that intuitive eating replaces diets altogether and hope that people will begin to recognize the futility of dieting in 2019. Diets can also be harmful to our bodies, causing increased body dissatisfaction, weight cycling, and disordered eating… I am firmly in this camp how about you ?

Hemp…

Hemp is commonly confused with marijuana. It belongs to the same family, but the two plants are very different. Marijuana is grown to contain high amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the chemical that is responsible for its psychoactive properties. Hemp describes the edible plant seeds and only contains a trace amount of THC.

Hemp seeds can be consumed or used to produce a variety of food products including hemp milk, hemp oil, hemp cheese substitutes and hemp-based protein powder.

Hemp seeds have a mild, nutty flavour. Hemp milk is made from hulled hemp seeds, water, and sweetener. Hemp oil has a strong “grassy” flavour.

I think we will be seeing an increase in Hemp products this year as it is a hot topic …I will be following this with interest…

Personally, I don’t count calories any more, I know what foods are good to eat and which are not…

Why do people like diet plans is it because it tells you what to eat? But is it also the reason why you don’t sustain that plan…See what Sally has to say…

Sometimes faced with knowing that you need to change your eating habits creates the problem of what can I eat? You want to lose weight so you have to eat less so to start then maybe you will have to decide how you want to lose your weight( not overnight) over what time period…Sally looks at all this and breaks it all down…Plain and simply put …You are in charge so come on have a look at what you are going to do…No Fads. No quick hits, no exclusions maybe limitations …Just a sensible eating plan based on what foods you like and how they can help you lose weight…

https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2019/04/14/smorgasbord-health-column-size-matters-the-sequel-putting-your-plan-together-fats-portion-sizes-part-two-by-sally-cronin/

Smartwatch Corner…

Smart phone and watch

I am still loving this piece of technology… I do like how it focuses me …I have looked Deep Sleep and REM sleep the other stage of sleep is light sleep…

Light sleep is a non-REM stage, and it’s easiest to wake up during this stage. It occurs in stages 1-2.  The first stage of light sleep is a transition phase and only makes up about 3% of our total time asleep; most light sleep happens in the second stage. The second stage of light sleep consists of over half of our time asleep each night. We dream during this stage, but the dreams are not as intense as they are during REM sleep.

Typically as people age, they spend more time each night in light sleep. That makes sense as that takes up the biggest proportion of the little graph I get every day breaking my percentages in the three sleep phrases it seems there’s no specific amount of time needed in this phase although it’s not as refreshing as deep sleep. However, it is a necessary sleep stage for proper brain functioning.

Reading the news I hear that the UK is in for a heatwave which will be lovely for this Easter holiday…

Here is a recipe for one of my favourite salads…Thais certainly know how to make delicious healthy salads will ingredients I never would have thought of using…

Pomelo Salad or as it is known here Yum Som O is a wonderful light refreshing salad made with Thai Grapefruit( Pink Grapefruit) can be substituted and there is very little difference in flavour.

Ingredients:

  • 2 Pink Grapefruit or 1 Pomelo.
  • 12-16 peeled shrimps.
  • Sm.cucumber diced.
  • 1/4 cup finely sliced shallots.
  • 1/4 cup fresh Thai Basil or Mint.
  • 1/4 cup Fresh coriander.
  • 1/4 cup unsalted peanuts/cashews.
  • 2 tbsp shredded coconut.
  • 1 Red Chilli finely sliced.

Dressing:

  • Half to 1 lime.
  • 3 tbsp Fish Sauce.
  • 1-2 tbsp palm sugar.
  • 1 -2 red chillies finely sliced.
  • Kaffir Lime leaf very finely sliced for garnish.

Pomelo Salad

Let’s Cook!

Set a pot of water to boil on the stove. Add shrimp and boil for just a few minutes, until the shrimp turn pink and are plump and firm to the touch. Drain and set aside to cool.

Place shredded coconut in a dry frying pan or wok over medium-high heat and stir until coconut turns light golden brown and fragrant. Tip coconut into a small bowl to cool and set aside. Repeat with shallots frying in a little oil until golden and crispy tip into a small bowl and set aside to cool.

Prepare your grapefruit or pomelo, removing as much of the white peel as possible from the fruit. Break into bite-size pieces – 3 to 4 cups is a good amount. Set prepared fruit in a salad bowl.

Add to the bowl: cucumber, basil/mint, coriander, and fresh chilli.

Combine all dressing ingredients together in a cup, stirring well to dissolve the sugar.

To put the salad together: Add shrimp to the salad bowl, then pour over the dressing. Toss well to combine. Add most of the toasted coconut, shallots and nuts, reserving a little for garnishing, then toss again. Taste-test the salad for a balance of sweet/sour/spicy/salty. Adjust to your liking, adding more sugar if too sour. For more depth of flavour, add a little Fish Sauce. Your salad is now ready to serve.  Top with reserved coconut, nuts and shredded lime leaf, and

Enjoy!

Tip: Like most Thai salad dressings, this is an oil-free dressing, so it doesn’t appear to ‘cling’ as well as oil-based dressings, naturally collecting at the bottom of your salad bowl. This isn’t a problem – just be sure to toss a little more than you would for a regular salad in order to saturate ingredients with the dressing.

This salad is better served and eaten immediately, the fresher the better. If preparing for a party, keep the dressing apart from the salad until you’re ready to eat, then toss them together just before serving.

I do hope you enjoy as this is one of my favourite salads, I do shred my Pomelo much finer though rather than having too chunky. But as with anything, it is a personal preference.

Enjoy!

Thank you for reading this post I hope you have found it of benefit…Until next week…xx

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there will be more on this on my blog this year

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great week and enjoy your Easter holiday weekend xx

Healthy Eating…Eat Smart…No More Diets…

Welcome to this week’s Healthy Eating…How has your week gone? Are you finding the going tough, easy or a little in between …Good days and bad days…We all have those and we can’t change the past but we can change the future…

Cutting out the Samsung and soda( although) the soda was just carbonated water, the biscuits with my tea and increasing my exercise is working wonders… I have lost another 1.9 kilos this week although I am sure Sunday’s trip to the park helped greatly…He who shall not be named said let’s go down this road it will be quicker…To give you an idea a trip to the park from my house and back is probably around 4,000 steps…I clocked nearly 12,000 steps…Needless to say, he who shall be nameless will be ignored if he ever suggests a shortcut again…

I am really pleased as got to think ing about a goal weight and I fixed one in my head and my very smart watch also suggested one which was similar to what I had decided …That was until I read my friend Sally post over at Smorgasbord magazine where she talked in-depth about our ideal weight and how to calculate it…It was 10 kg less than my smartwatch and mine which was only based on what I used to weigh when I married and thinking I was too thin then and it wouldn’t suit me now and I have had children…

My decision was to split the difference which is 5 kg less than my original target…

 

I will now hand you over to Sally because quite frankly Size Matters to most of us for different reasons but it also matters that we are happy and healthy and eat a balanced diet…

https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2019/03/30/smorgasbord-health-column-size-matters-the-sequel-weightloss-how-much-should-you-weigh/

Once you have popped over to Sally’s and worked out your ideal weight…If it seems a lot cut it down into small targets and it could take a year or even more but by that time you and your family will all be eating healthily and be fit and well…

It will become much more of a lifestyle if all the family is included …Healthwise many of the chronic diseases today are caused by our lifestyles and what we eat… We are allowing these manufacturers to get away with murder as that is what it can amount to…Gone are the days when we could buy food safe in the knowledge that it was good for us…

We may be busy and work 24/7 or not have much money to spare but healthy eating requires thought and action and need not be expensive.

The kids don’t like vegetables or salad or ?????

If they are hungry they will eat… If they help grow or prepare and cook their food…They are more likely to eat it… We need to be sneaky as parents…Yep, you heard…A slice of tomato or beetroot, a piece of carrot in their smoothie and they won’t know they will just love the taste…Who doesn’t love a smoothie?? But it gets that veg down them and as they get older …tell them the truth…

Generally, fussy parents begat fussy kids so before you say you don’t like something think you might be making your kids even fussier! That is the truth it wasn’t until we had our restaurant that I realised many of the adults were fussier than the kids …Grown men who wouldn’t touch a vegetable at all..but happily down 10 pints of beer with crisps…True…

Where to start???

I would start by clearing my food cupboards, fridge and freezer… Read the packets with the kids, look up the words you don’t know do a little research, learn how they affect the human body and our kids, learn what chronic diseases they are linked to…Take charge…Decide what preservatives and chemicals you or your children shouldn’t be exposed to… Know what foods they are in… Boycott those foods…Don’t buy them…

Make them a smoothie who doesn’t love a smoothie?

Papaya, Banana and Lime Smoothie.

This one has just 4 ingredients.

Half a papaya….  seeds removed.

1 banana

4 fl oz of coconut milk

1-1 1/2 limes. I like to taste the lime so I would add one and a half hubby prefers just 1 lime.

But like with anything….and you know what I am going to say…Don’t you??? TASTE.

Blitz the papaya and banana with the coconut milk then add your lime juice, Taste and add more if required.

Papaya,Banana,Lime smoothie

Pour into a chilled glass and enjoy!

If you want a more frozen smoothie then just freeze the papaya and banana. I always keep bags of frozen fruit for smoothies…I just didn’t want brain freeze today…haha.

Sometimes I add a few slices of tomato, carrot, beetroot it is a great way to get some veggies and with fruit, they taste great…

Smartwatch Corner…

Smart phone and watch

I am still impressed with my new toy…I will say it keeps me focused…

There is also more and more growing evidence that eating fat doesn’t make us fat it is the sugar we eat which makes us fat…

Which leads me to what I have discovered that Fitbit and Apple are exploring a little known technology which could be the answer to healthy eating and peak performance.

  • Fitbit, Apple, and Google are investing in continuous glucose monitors that let people track their blood sugar and see how food affects their body.
  • Usually used only by diabetics, the devices could provide key insight to other people who want to eat better, lose weight, and even improve athletic performance.

It is a really interesting article as yes I want to look after my body even at this time of my life BUT I know I feel better for losing weight, cutting out processed and foods which have added sugars but I can’t see inside my body and really know immediately how a certain food reacts  and effects me…

I think that is why the sleep patterns interest me as every day I can see how long I slept, how much time I was in each stage of sleep and whether it is normal, low or high with an explanation…

I am really getting into this sleep malarkey or understanding how beneficial to our health and bodies sleep is… I now also know that when I was drinking and sometimes it was in excess of the daily recommended guidelines …A couple of times I woke suddenly, panicked and eventually calmed down but found it difficult to get back to sleep…It scared me… It was because the alcohol was affecting my REM sleep…

How to improve REM sleep

There are several ways to enhance both REM and NREM sleep to reap the benefits of a good night’s sleep. The following tips may help improve REM sleep:

Establish a bedtime routine

Following the same bedtime routine, every night prepares the body and mind for sleep. A regular bedtime routine may help to maximize the amount of time asleep, potentially increasing the number of REM sleep phases experienced.

Reduce nighttime awakening.

Bright lights can interrupt sleep. For optimal sleeping conditions, switch off cell phones and other sources of noise, and remove light sources from the bedroom. Keep temperatures between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit.

Get enough sleep

A healthy adult requires 7-9 hours of sleep a night. Sleeping less than this reduces the number of REM sleep phases experienced.

Address medical conditions

Certain medical conditions, such as sleep apnea, can affect sleep quality and impact REM sleep.

Avoid alcohol before bedtime

As moderate to high levels of alcohol intake before bed can reduce the number of REM sleep phases experienced, and any amount delays entering the first REM phase, it is advisable to avoid alcohol consumption in the hours before bed.

A regular bedtime and an excess of the hard stuff were causing mine and as I haven’t had a repeat of that for a while I think I am correct.

Thank you for reading and please tell me in comments your thoughts if you have a smartwatch and how you get on with it…x

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there will be more on this on my blog this year

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

More and more of my blogging friends have joined me on MeWe…A social media site which is fairly new and which promises much without the restrictions some other social media sites are choosing to impose on many of us…Join me if you will on  mewe.com/i/caroltaylor3 

 

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://carolcooks2.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great week xx

Healthy Eating… No More Diets…

Welcome to this week’s Healthy Eating…

How has your week been? Good or bad? Mine has gone well…I will get this over with my first sourdough loaf is cooked, eaten and was divine…I was so chuffed at the lovely comments I received…Of course, I had to sample it in the name of quality control and with proper butter as well…haha…

It was lovely I thoroughly enjoyed it…No guilt…Just pure enjoyment…It was healthy( wholemeal) grass-fed butter and my home baked bread …I savoured every mouthful…

Hubby ate the rest either a sandwich or toasted…

Sourdough Wholemeal loaf

The rest of the week has been just normal healthy eating and walking which has increased due to 2 factors one is that our granddaughter is staying with us for 8 weeks( school ) holiday and two my smartwatch is keeping tabs on my steps…The daily recommended guidelines are 10,000 steps which sounds a lot but doable…

As you know I advocate eating healthy balanced meals I don’t believe in cutting out food groups like meat, most fruits or pasta/rice/potatoes…I do believe we should avoid or eat little highly processed foods, food with added sugars, we should choose good quality cooking oils, avoid excessive intake of high mercury fish like tuna…Alcohol enjoy just not in excess. 

For me, that is easy to follow and coupled with the 16/8 intermittent fasting and exercise I am seeing results.

That hasn’t always been the case...At this moment I am the lightest I have been for a good few years …I have also accepted I will never be the weight I was when I married… More fat on a chip my husband used to say…haha

Life happened, I got married, I had kids… I ate what they didn’t, I worked and shopped in my lunch hour and while queuing to pay eyed the strategically placed sweets by the till ( those stores) know how to tempt one don’t they? The mums and friends who mean well…Just have one…That won’t hurt…

box four doughnuts iced

I feel your pain I know what you have been through or going through so does my friend Sally…Who is a Certified Nutritionist and knows the pitfalls and curve balls life throws at us …Both of us have struggled with weight at times during our lives …

It ain’t easy and while I may make it appear to be …I have eaten my share of what I shouldn’t and moderation did not come into it…I am now older and wiser…haha…Believe what you will…But I have realised I need to cherish this body as it is the one and only one I have or will have…Better late than never…

How to manage people…The well-meaning ones of course…

And remember…Losing weight is not a sprint, it is a marathon and your mental and emotional attitude towards the project is a key factor in your successful weight loss.

Sally’s posts are both informative with a little humour and she will tell you it is not easy she knows but I will let her tell you her story…

https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2019/03/16/smorgasbord-health-column-size-matters-the-sequel-before-you-get-started-managing-people-environment/

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Stuck for Recipes? Need some inspiration?…

Honey…Nectar of the Gods and so good for us…Sally will tell you the why and I will provide the recipes…Enjoy!

 

https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2019/03/13/smorgasbord-health-rewind-cook-from-scratch-with-sally-cronin-and-carol-taylor-honey-nectar-of-the-gods/

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Diets come and go...Faddy things aren’t they? Mostly a flash in the pan and not sustainable…A new one has arisen…A hybrid of the Paleo diet and the Vegan diet…All the good bits…The Pegan Diet…

I know it just had to happen, didn’t it?

The basics of the Pegan Diet…3/4 vegetables and 1/4 meat/fish @ each meal, the meat/fish from good quality sources…( no hormones and antibiotics)…It focuses on eating more fibre and low glycemic index fruits, eliminating sugar, dairy unless it comes from ( goat/sheep) products eating little or no highly processed foods thus avoiding foods produced using chemicals and pesticides…eliminating legumes except for lentils…

Great in theory and first glance and sounds similar to what I believe in however it is quite restrictive and would need some planning and the bottom line is we need a Healthy Balanced Diet…No eliminating essential foods… It seems to me that the people who market and promote all these diets think they have to come up with something new all of the time and I suppose celebrity endorsements don’t help that trend…

Frankly just because a celebrity endorses a product doesn’t mean it works…No one size fits all, no one’s lifestyle is the same as Fred’s next door we are all individuals with different needs, Stress levels, family commitments, work commitments so much factors into the equation…

Healthy Eating is a lifestyle choice and takes time to adjust…You will have blips or bad days/weeks but it is how you deal with it…

We just need to eat sensible, normal healthy foods and a balanced diet…Most of the time.

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Smartwatch Corner.

Smart phone and watch

I am still impressed with my new toy…I will say it keeps me focused…

So far I use the step counter…It does have other functions like running and workouts but I enjoy walking …The recommended daily steps are 10,000 which is doable…..Last Thursday I achieved 14,000 plus steps in one day…I was out and about doing kids things and shopping so although tired it was a revelation as to how many steps I did do that day…An average day for me is 6-7000 I am working on getting to 10,000 more often…

The other function I love is the sleep function...

lady sleeping

It shows 3 levels, Deep sleep, light sleep and Rem sleep plus gives you the normal range and tells you where you are in that either normal, high or low. Plus it gives your overall hours of sleep, how many times you woke up with an explanation of your total hours of sleep and how long you were in the stages and what happens to your body while you are in each stage of sleep…

It also offers an explanation as to what causes any changes and how you can remedy it with links to other sites for further info.

I am finding this really interesting as I am gradually seeing a pattern forming and am realising which factors are influencing my sleep for example what I am doing prior to sleep or what I have been drinking as I don’t eat after 8pm.

It also tells me my heart rate …An explanation can also be found on heart rates.

What I do find amusing is the little green man who buzzes and waves at me when I have been inactive for a while…

It also has other functions which I don’t use yet or may not as I purchased this mainly to keep a little eye on my health. Which while it may not be exactly spot on but accurate as these can be but as the watch is on your pulse give or take a few beats it is accurate enough for me…

Thank you for reading and please tell me in comments your thoughts if you have a smartwatch…x

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there will be more on this on my blog this year

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

More and more of my blogging friends have joined me on MeWe…A social media site which is fairly new and which promises much without the restrictions some other social media sites are choosing to impose on many of us…Join me if you will on  mewe.com/i/caroltaylor3 

 

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://carolcooks2.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great week xx

Healthy Eating…SmartWatch…

Welcome to Tuesdays Healthy eating post…It seems like last weeks post on Intermittent fasting is something many of you are following or thinking about it certainly seems to be the way forward and is on many health professionals radar…

Healthy eating is not about deprivation but about choosing foods for the well-being of the one body we have been given…I believe as do many that we need a healthy balanced diet and the occasional treat is fine and to be enjoyed…

When I stated what I had cut out last week it was foods I believed were having a negative impact on MY body…It is foods which have empty calories, do not add anything healthy to MY diet…That’s it!

You are in charge of yours and nothing wrong with having a drink of alcohol or a biscuit or two if you fancy it… for me altogether they were having a negative impact …

Enough of that…I have attached this little chart of Sally’s for you to check out if you want…No pressure here…just conversations as to what works for us as individuals no one size fits all…

fat accumalation chart

 

This little table certainly focused my mind… As did Sally’s and my recent post… together we are aiming to help you reach your goals…There are some great ideas to help you with your healthy eating and some straight talking from Sally…I just provide the recipes…

https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2019/03/09/smorgasbord-health-column-size-matters-the-sequel-emotional-factor-willpower-and-childish-things/

Nothing worthwhile in life is easy…Think about writing a novel….That bit is easy but what comes after …editing and rewrites etc BUT we do it…Healthy eating and or weight loss is just the same so… Let’s go and do it!

Stuck for recipes? Need some inspiration?…

In this series, we look at cooking and your diet from a different perspective. Usually, we emphasize the health benefits of food and how they can be incorporated into your diet. But, what happens if you do NOT include them in your diet.

We wanted to share with you what happens if your body is deprived of individual nutrients over an extended period of time.

https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2019/03/06/smorgasbord-health-column-with-sally-cronin-and-carol-taylor-cook-from-scratch-to-prevent-nutritional-deficiency-vitamin-b1-thiamin/

Smartwatch Corner!

I have a smartwatch….Yeah…It is smarter than me…Honestly not something I would ever have envisaged buying…Why? I am really not a gadgets person…Or one who has to have the latest phone person either…However when I could not have the apps I wanted on my phone because Samsung loaded all their bloatware and by the time they had done that it left me very little to play with and I ended up having to uninstall an app to add another app and my needs are small…I don’t play games, pay with my phone or any shopping channels not of my choosing…

This made me have a rethink and consequently, I bought another phone which allowed me to install the few apps I do have …It also had a pre-installed fitness app which one’s grandson alerted me too…Thank you, Aston x

It also focussed my mind…Told me how many steps I have taken in a day…Also, lots of other stuff if I wanted…I found I did…

legs people walking

Image by MabelAmber on Pixabay

Hence some research into smart watches …So starting next week there will be a smartwatch corner as I discover new things about it…That saying about there is life in the old dog yet is coming true…Haha

The lovely girl in the shop set it up and synced( get me) it to my phone…It has just waved at me and shown an image of someone getting up and walking…Please, I am writing…haha…

But joking aside it is showing me the error of my ways..She who tries but is not perfect..is listening oh hallowed smartwatch… just don’t get too smart…

It has however piqued my interest about my sleep pattern for example…I was normal on all counts the first night..It also explained every step with links …I was impressed as I like to know that statements on health are backed up by research…

Then life in the form of my grandsons birthday cake stepped in…I had two pieces and enjoyed them (I also) knew I should have stuck at one…The second was I am loving my Green tea but not a good idea to have a late night pot of the said green tea( caffeine)…My smartwatch had a hissy fit yesterday morning reflected in my sleep pattern stats…

It bloody knew…Haha

Once I had digested those stats and I didn’t like them one lickle bit but I also knew what caused the blip…This morning I woke up bright and bushy-tailed unlike yesterday and my sleep pattern was much better so hopefully, tomorrows will be back to absolute normal …Smartwatch it is… I am impressed (so far)

I am also impressed by how our bodies react…A wonderful piece of machinery which we can abuse and abuse and then we can much of the time apply a little moderation and TLC and it purrs like a well-tuned car…Mine will never be a Rolls Royce but maybe, just maybe a little Honda Jazz…

Until next week…xxxx

Thank you for reading and please tell me in comments your thoughts if you have a smartwatch…x

About Carol Taylor:

Enjoying life in The Land Of Smiles I am having so much fun researching, finding new, authentic recipes both Thai and International to share with you. New recipes gleaned from those who I have met on my travels or are just passing through and stopped for a while. I hope you enjoy them.

I love shopping at the local markets, finding fresh, natural ingredients, new strange fruits and vegetable ones I have never seen or cooked with. I am generally the only European person and attract much attention and I love to try what I am offered and when I smile and say Aroy or Saab as it is here in the north I am met with much smiling.

Some of my recipes may not be in line with traditional ingredients and methods of cooking but are recipes I know and have become to love and maybe if you dare to try you will too. You will always get more than just a recipe from me as I love to research and find out what other properties the ingredients I use contain to improve our health and wellbeing.

The environment is also something I am passionate about and there will be more on this on my blog this year

Exciting for me hence the title of my blog, Retired No One Told Me! I am having a wonderful ride and don’t want to get off, so if you wish to follow me on my adventures, then welcome! I hope you enjoy the ride also and if it encourages you to take a step into the unknown or untried, you know you want to…….Then, I will be happy!

More and more of my blogging friends have joined me on MeWe…A social media site which is fairly new and which promises much without the restrictions some other social media sites are choosing to impose on many of us…Join me if you will on  mewe.com/i/caroltaylor3 

 

Carol is a contributor to the Phuket Island Writers Anthology: https://www.amazon.com/Phuket-Island-Writers-Anthology-Stories-ebook/dp/B00RU5IYNS

Connect to Carol

Blog: https://carolcooks2.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRealCarolT
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.taylor.1422

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/caroltaylor56/pins/

Thank you once again for reading this post I hope you all have a great week xx