Move-It Monday: Overcome Fitness Laziness

Hey Movers, how is life going for you all?

I’ve had such a busy last few weeks with so much working. I just haven’t made time for exercise and I’ve missed it. I’ve felt so lazy and just want to get back into a routine. So today, the start of a new week and its back to action. It’s so close to the end of the year and my desire to lose the extra poundage before the New Year is not looking remotely like reality! Last night, I cooked up a big pot of winter vegetable stew for these cold days. Yum Yum and very healthy! : ) Here was breakfast:

I love dragon fruit.

It is so easy to fall out of habit quickly when not doing something for a while. Do you find that you start to lose courage and lose that Nike ‘Just do It’ attitude? It is like my muscles forget how to act and my brain puts up bars instead of being active.  Even after just a short break, my mind starts to concentrate on other things and I need to direct myself back to what is important!  I found this appropriately named article today – How to overcome fitness laziness.

What do you find to be the best fat burning calorie things to do? Any secrets on how you’ve lost weight? I’d be interested to hear what has worked for you.  I need some fast fixes! In the meantime, I’m off on a run…

 

Sunday Book Club: Can a Robot be Human?

I’ve just finished reading “Can a Robot be Human?” by Peter Cave. This is a brilliant read! Wonderfully written by the author with great style and humour. This should interest everyone – as it covers a wide range of topics, from ethics to religion to science to metaphysics, but in an entertaining way (even with the odd cartoon).

What are you reading at the moment? Pop along to the Woollywotnots Bookclub to share your reading.

Craft Saturday: Noro & Scarves

Hoorah! It is time for Craft Saturday. What beautiful things are you crafting in your world? Inspiration comes in many forms.

This weekend you may be looking through your camera lens to capture nature or working in embroidery. How about some painting or sketching? Blogging to share your creativity or some writing. You may wish to sing or dance; knit or decorate; garden or collage. Make beads and jewellery, work with paper crafts. Whatever your thing, share it in Craft Saturday.

Craft Saturdays are for YOU to create something.

I’ve been knitting a scarf with Noro wool.  I love all the changing colours in Noro wool, it makes it really interesting to see what colour will come next.

This is a simple scarf pattern. Cast on 20 stitches and work in a rib stitch of knitting 2 stitches purl 2 stitches. Continue until the desired length. Cast off and sew in the ends.

 

Pink Friday:Stockings

Pink Friday is about commemorating an important cause. The pink awareness ribbon represents breast cancer.

Designer Erssie Major has created these beautiful stockings using Lorna’s Laces Pink Flamingo Stripe, “I named them Ann Marie Stockings, after my own mother who died at a young age from ovarian cancer,” she explains. “Her mother, my grandmother, also died at a young age of breast cancer, so I felt designing the stockings would be a good way to raise awareness.”

Don’t fancy knitting thigh-highs? This clever toe-up pattern can be cast off at several points, allowing you to make ankle socks, regular socks or knee-highs, as well as the full length version. There’s no shaping to worry about either: the close fit comes from the elastic properties of the lacy rib and is widened by changing needle size.

If you enjoy knitting this free pattern, you may like to make a donation to Cancer Research UK or a similar charity. Don’t forget – every penny helps!

Ready to cast on? You can download the Ann Marie Stockings pattern (PDF), visit Erssie’s website for more information.

Creative Space: Noro

This is my creative space today! A lovely ball of new wool waiting to be made into a scarf.

Midweek Inspiration:Pebble away your worries!

We spend an awful lot of time in life worrying. For this week’s midweek inspiration, try this technique, to pebble away any worries that are out of your control.

Here’s what to do. Take a plate or dish and some pebbles and say each worry that you have one by one.

For each worry, say if this is something that you have control over. If you don’t, then put a pebble in the dish to represent you not worrying about this anymore.

Do not waste your energy worrying about things that you can do nothing about.

Spend your time more wisely and more enjoyably by freeing up your mind of worrying thoughts.

Every time you worry about something, think about whether this is something you can do anything about – if no, then place a pebble in the dish and don’t worry about it anymore.

Do this every day and over time, you will find that the pebbles in the dish reduce, as your mind is trained to stop worrying about things you have no control over.

If you give this technique a try, let me know how you find it.

Target Tuesday: 30 things to do in November

1. Plant a tree, become a tree hugger and knit yourself some super scarves and gloves from this link . Here’s the direct link to the PDF knitting pattern
2. Make a list of what you need to get done, set some deadlines – and get reminders emailed to you by using free to-do list software like Remember the Milk.
3. Become a fast knitter! Miriam Tegel’s appears in the Guinness Book of World Records. Her knitting secret is to keep all movements to a minimum. Use size 8 knitting needles and DK weight yarn for optimal performance. After casting on sixty stitches, see how many stitches you can knit in three minutes. Good luck!
4. Knit some breasts! The Lincolnshire Echo has published Midwives’ plea for knitted breasts to be used to help new mothers learn to breastfeed.Download the free knitted breast pattern (PDF) and email Ruth to let her know. You can use any colours, but skin-tone yarns are preferred and ideally they should be machine washable. If you’re not in the Bath area, why not see if there’s a need for knitted breasts in your area? “Contact your local midwifery or health visiting teams,” suggests Ruth, “or voluntary organisations such as La Leche League or the National Childbirth Trust, to see if they would like some support them locally.” You can also visit the NHS Breastfeeding site for more information about the benefits of breastfeeding and for helpful information for new mums.
5. Premature babies are often so tiny they need special clothes. For a mum or dad worrying about their tiny new baby, the last thing they want to think about is going shopping! Fortunately, charities like PreemiesUK help special care baby units around the country by providing clothes and hats for these tiny new borns. They’re great, quick projects, and so easy to carry around. So if you’re looking for something new to cast on this week, or have some yarn or baby clothes to donate, please email Shelley Mitchell
6. Knit a Darlek!
7. Crotchet a carrot bookmark
8. Use up odd balls and yarns you don’t love by knitting for charity. Scraps of DK yarn make great brightly coloured Teddies for Tragedy or Burundi Bears.
9. Knit a cool bag for crossword fans
10. Knit a crown for the Princes and Princesses in your life!
11. Entertain your cat and knit an eyeball to play with!
12. Try your hand at weaving
13. Make this gorgeous Scrap strips squares quilt / tutorial
14. Crotchet a Meerkat
15. Take part in November writing and produce a novel Take part in nanowrimo
16. Try a new technique – see this link on using your lovely coloured pencils
17. Create something for you
18.  Here’s an idea: try some alterated art
19. Visit an exhibition
20. Find a market and talk wit hthe vendors about what is on the table
21. Join Clare in her blog where she writes 3 things she is grateful for every day.
22. Make a doll
23. Try out some new stitches http://primrosedesign.blogspot.com/search/label/Stitch%20School
24. Making Yarn With A Drop Spindle
25. Make yourself a new coaster
26. Sew yourself a skirt
27. Read lots of books
28. Explore all the colours in your art box
29. Try something new
30. Revamp something in your home

Move-It Monday:When and How to Eat

Hey Movers, hope your Monday will be fun and that you’ll have time to do a bit of moving about! If you’re new to Move-It Monday, you can read more about Move-It Monday here 

When to eat

Optimum nutrition means eating the right foods at the right time and good health depends on eating regular meals. Breakfast kick starts the metabolism and boosts blood sugar levels. If you miss breakfast it may lead you to feeling tired and unable to concentrate. Lunch should be the biggest meal of the day because this is when the metabolism is at its most effective. Have a light supper at least two hours before you go to bed as it is hard for hte body to digest a large meal at the end of the day.

How to eat

A leisurely meal is much more enjoyable than a snack on the hoof and infinitely more relaxing. The next time you eat, sit down and savour each mouthful. Experience the different flavours and notice how they complement each other. If you are drinking a glass of wine, wait before swallowing and allow the complexities of taste to become apparent. As you chew, appreciate the different textures of food. If you take time to appreciate food you are less likely to overeat and more likely to chew properly, which will benefit your digestion.

The problem with stimulants

Stimulants such as tea, coffee, chocolate and sugar, are chemicals that act on the body like rocket fuel, giving a quick burst of energy followed by a rapid burnout. They boost your energy levels by stimulating the adrenal glands, which sit on top of your kidneys and release hormones that give your body’s cells an express delivery of glucose. You soon become caught in a vicious circle whereby you need more of the stimulant to get the same effect until you become dependent upon it.

Stimulants also contain toxins and your body has only a finite capacity to deal with these. As your body’s chemistry becomes more exhausted, your body is in a constant state of red alert and you become prey to anxiety, fatigue and mood swings.

Reducing stimulant dependence

Cutting down on stimulants is essential to helping you feel relaxed. Keep a diary for three days to identify which stimulants you rely on and be honest about just how much of each you are consuming. Try to identify at which point in the day you usually take them (as a reaction to a stressful situation, or as a pick-me-up, for example) and see if a pattern emerges. Try to replace these behaviour patterns with healthier ones, such as eating a piece of fruit instead of a bar of chocolate.

Cutting out stimulants completely is impossible for most people, but the way to cut down is to target one at a time and reduce you intake until it is no longer a daily necessity. You will probably feel groggy and get regular headaches for the first few days (particularly if you are addicted to coffee), but persevere and you will soon feel much better and healthier. Nicotine and alcochol dependence are very hard habits to overcome and may require professional counselling or group theraphy.

 

For lots more ideas see previous Move It Mondays below:

Move More

Your workout

Obsesity

Bikini Body

Move your booty

Have Fun

Magic Number

Charts

Exotic Fruit

Complementary Medicine

10 Tips

Lifestyle

5k

Visit Your Park

Yoga

Eat your way to health

Exercise

Stress

Diet

Sleep

Sunday Bookclub: November

Ooo it is November and time for a new selection of books to read. Here’s four from Woollywotnots bookclub. Grab a book, any book and come along and join us for a good chat : )

If the four recommendations don’t grab you, then you can browse through my bookshelf for more ideas. Click the woollywotnots logo below to view:

I’ve chosen to read two books from the recommendations: Feel the fear and do it anyway by Susan Jeffers and Taking Flight by Kelly Rae Roberts.

What will you be reading this November? Add a comment or pop along in the forum to share your books. : )

Craft Saturday:Scarf Knitting

Happy Halloween and Happy Weekend!

Today also marks 1000 days until the 2012 Olympics in London and there will be fireworks tonight in London to mark the date.

It is a very cold, wet day here today, so I’m staying indoors with hot chocolate and knitting!

I’m working in a yarn 50% polyester and 50% acrylic. The combination of this yarn with chunky knitting needles and a plain knit stitch makes the scarf long and stretchy and I’ll be able to wrap it round and round several times . I’m working with 8mm needles US11. Cast on 20 stitches and knit until you’ve worked through 150g of yarn. Cast off and tidy the ends.

Enjoy your weekend. If you’d like to join in Craft Saturday on your blog, feel free to add the “Craft Saturday” button and add a link in the comments.