Really healthy and happy

The weekend is just around the corner and I can't wait

Breakfast: Oats so simple Golden Syrup Pot

Lunch: Raw pepper, handful of tomatoes, cucumber sticks and M&S Moroccan topped houmous

Dinner: Baked BBQ chicken breast with rosemary roasted potatoes and steamed veg

Waking up at 8:30 was fantastic, I haven't slept so long in ages. Unfortunately it wasn't unbroken as I woke up earlier with a rather bad headache and despite being able to get back to sleep, my headache continued when I woke up later. Checking my phone, I saw I had a Facebook message from one of my overseas work colleagues telling me he had heard the news about my resignation - So much for my Boss respecting my wishes to keep it private, huh? Oh well, if that's the case.... So I suggested I give him a ring and let him know why I was leaving. To say he was shocked was a massive understatement, however I don't see why I shouldn't be honest as to why I'm going. I then started getting emails from the overseas office people that I recruited saying they were really sorry I was going - It's a really nice feeling to know that people do appreciate you, even if it's too late to stay.

Unfortunately I forgot to defrost a kipper last night, so breakfast was 'the usual'. Sitting down with a cup of tea, I fired up my work laptop and apart from answering any emails than came in, mostly watched TV in the morning - I decided to give 'Whitechapel' a go, which is an ITV drama series about Jack the Ripper.. Right up my street :-) At 11:00am, I decided to go and grab some lunch as it gets very busy in the shopping centre at midday. I headed to Marks and Spencers as it was the closest place to my house and bought a lot of really healthy things. I think the fact that I had eaten breakfast later meant that I wasn't hungry, therefore wasn't thinking with my stomach, but my head.

Rather than Pita bread for lunch, I decided to have some cucumber strips with my houmous and I also decided I'd try a different brand of Coconut water. I wasn't overly keen on the one I found a few weeks ago, but maybe this one is different? Result: Sadly not, it still tastes like cystitis powder :-(

After suffering with my headache for most of the morning, I finally gave in and took some paracetamol at 11:30 - I am not keen on taking tablets, so do try and see if headaches and other pains go, however I also don't really want to be a martyr and if I'm in pain, I should do something about it. Thankfully my headache went within half an hour :-)

I also worked out what I wanted for dinner tonight and yes, it's got BBQ sauce involved.... I was supposed to be having dinner with my parents and my boyfriend tonight, however my parents are being.... difficult. My Father has been diabetic for 25 years and when booking restaurants, my Mother has never specified this. I suggested a healthy restaurant for tonight and everything looked fine - Then my Mother texted me on Monday 'Have you told the restaurant that your Father is diabetic?' er... why? So I replied 'You don't usually do that, do you?' and she said 'They might offer a sugar free pudding' - OK, fair enough.. Except my Father eats RUBBISH most of the time and I mean true rubbish - He drinks a lot of alcohol, eats chocolate, massive amounts of cheese on its own, packets of pork scratchings.. and is currently about 4-5 stone overweight and does absolutely no exercise at all. So I'm not entirely convinced, why, in 25 years, the need as suddenly arisen to notify restaurants that he's diabetic.

However, to keep the peace, I told the restaurant that my Father was diabetic. Then on Tuesday, I get another text from my Mother 'Your Father wants to know if the restaurant serve lager, if not, he will decline your kind offer x'  - I went mental... I mean, what the Hell?  This has never been an issue before and even if they don't, he can't live without lager for what, 2 hours? I texted back and said 'I don't know, sounds like it will be too much hassle so I'll cancel'. Maybe I should have phoned my Mother there and then and told her that my Father is being an idiot, however I've got real issues about telling my parents how I feel and I tend to just go quiet and ignore them for months at a time.

The rest of the day was pretty productive from a personal perspective - I've booked a dental check up that's been needed (she wants to see me after my Wisdom tooth removal operation in January) and I've also booked my smear test in for a couple of weeks time (Apparently they like to do it mid-cycle and my period is due today). I also phoned my Mum and chatted to her about how I felt annoyed about her text and she actually apologised - I don't know why, but this meant so much to me and also made me think that maybe I also need to change and tell people how I feel as opposed to my default 'shut up and close down' on stuff. We actually had a really, really nice chat on the telephone and I've arranged to see her in a couple of weeks time and spend a day with her - I'm really looking forward to it, as well! 

After lunch I also decided to sit in the garden on a blanket for a while with my laptop, just being outside in the sun is lovely and hearing all the birds tweeting in the trees reminded me that there's more to life than work :-)

I'm feeling so motivated and just so eager to continue my healthy eating. I want to get my life in order (nothing major, just 'stuff') before I start my new job and the next 4 weeks are going to be all about ME - My health, spending time with friends and family in fun ways and exercise. I also want to think of doing something really nice for my boyfriend as he's been so amazingly supportive, however I've not come up with anything awesome yet.....

Dinner was marinated BBQ chicken with rosemary roast potatoes and steamed veg. The weird red pointy thing you see in the photo is apparently a Healthy baking mat as it helps the fat drip away and allows things to cook more evenly. I've used it a couple of times and it seems to be quite good - It also washes really easily which I like :-) My boyfriend ate the other chicken breast along with some other meat that he bought (as I said before, he's on an Atkins-esque diet at the moment) and after dinner we headed off to a local village to see some scarecrows as apparently there's the annual 'Scarecrow festival' where everyone in the village makes scarecrows and sticks them outside in their garden - It was random, so I enjoyed it.

There were 'Minion' Scarecrows, Mexican scarecrows, Teenage mutant Ninja Scarecrows..... We spent a good 30 minutes driving around the village and as we turned the corner, we kept seeing more and more scarecrows doing crazy things! After that, we headed to a local pub, however I decided against red wine this time - I really don't want to get another 'munchie' attack and eat loads of rubbish.

Tomorrow I'm back in the office which I'm not going to really enjoy as I don't have any work to do. However, I've only got 6 days maximum left, so I'll just take each day as it comes and soon enough, it will be over :-)