chaliepud

It's more a chuck it in and see thing Kay. I pop the chicken carcass (still with a reasonable amount of meat attached) into a large pan, cover it well with boiling water and Knorr stock pot thingy, add an onion, leek, couple of carrots, garlic, tomato puree if I fancy it.. bring to the boil then simmer for an hour or so, then add some potato, cabbage and fresh thyme and pepper for another half hour or so then leave to cool and then remove the chicken carcass and any bone and yucky bits that may have dropped off. I always mean to put the carcass in a muslin bag before cooking but ALWAYS forget!

Ah, all these pet pics are gorgeous, I must try and put some more recent ones of mine up.. Kylie, how lovely to foster some kitties that need new homes, you'll get a chance to assess theit temperaments and personalities so you can match them up to their lovely new owners. frankie, I am so excited for you, we need pictures later obviously, what type of dog is he/she?! Have a lovely lovely walk!

Homemade chicken and vegetable soup.. Just what is needed after a long frosty walk with the dogs.

I loved Malory Towers when I was young(er), I dread to think how many times I read them.. Over and over! I wish my parents had kept them for me, or indeed any of my books (not one!!!) They have always been vociferous readers so I don't quite understand why not. I have kept loads of my kids books so that I can share them, hopefully, with grandchildren at some point. Maddie and I read the Malory Towers series together a few years ago and she really liked them too which was lovely, but they are rather dated now and some of the activities and expressions did make her raise her eyebrows more that once!

I finished A Dog's Journey by W. Bruce Cameron last night, the sequel to A Dog's Purpose, it was good but very much a rehash of the first book, just different dogs and people, so a little disappointing. Now starting Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier which has been on my shelf for far too long.

And I've added The Giver to my wish list, sounds fascinating and I'm rather partial to some decent dystopian fiction.

Wasn't their fear extraordinary?! The way that if they slipped and relied on the ropes at all, they then had to redo that complete stretch of climb.

As I sat in the sun on the wooden dock that jutted out into the pond, I knew this to be true: my name was Buddy, and I was a good dog. A Dog's Journey ~ W. Bruce Cameron

I finished Mrs Sinclair's Suitcase, it was a lovely read. Quite sad in parts, it followed the lives of a grandmother and her granddaughter, while they were both young, one in present day, one in Word War II.. The present day is set mainly in the New and Old Bookshop and describes the notes the granddaughter finds in donated books at the beginning of her chapters. Highly recommended.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist, very very good, I've not read the book though so cannot compare them.

If you can be hardcore for a while then your body will stop craving it.. Read up on what soft drinks contain, that should put you off for a bit! http://bit.ly/16XVTfD http://bit.ly/1K7CrMF This may be interesting too as it talks about the link between high carb diets and diabetes.. http://bit.ly/1B6e6UK I'll leave now....

Hi Kylie and well done on taking the first steps to a healthier lifestyle, I was the same when I embarked, I needed to be organised and take things one step at a time, and now, at just over 6 months in, I have never felt better! For me it wasn't so much about weight but more about my health as I have suffered from headaches and migraines since my teens. I tried all sorts of things over the years, from vitamins and acupuncture to various health tests and medications.. At no point did I really consider what I ate. Then around a year ago I did some food allergy testing which turned out to be a bit rubbish and a bit obvious (caffeine, cheese, red wine and oranges.. the usual possible triggers for headaches and migraine).. After that I started to take a bit more interested in my diet, I presume your governments has similar recommendations to ours, more whole grains, less fat, more fruit and veg, did I feel better? Not really.. Then through a Facebook page I was perusing for arthritis help for my old dog at the time I came upon someone (actually in Australia) who was doing Hair Analysis testing and I got chatting to her. She said she works in partnership with someone in the UK where I could send a sample so I thought why not? It wasn't expensive and by this point I was getting a bit desperate as I was having more days with a headache than without. Around 10 days later I got the results and to be honest I was a little disappointed as a lot of it was rambling and involved recommendations for taking homeopathic remedies, of which I am not a great advocate. However I thought in for a penny and all that, I'll cut out all the foods on the list for 6 weeks, so I pinned the list up and went for it. It included a wide range of food and ingredients including wheat, beef, pepper, strawberries, ginger, carrots, aspartame and sodium sorbate. It was tough, particularly the wheat (you wouldn't believe the amount of things wheat is in, gravy, ready grated cheese, the list is endless!) But do you know, after 6 weeks I felt great, still a few headaches and migraines but I could attribute all those to hormones, still a nuisance but a great improvement from before. So, that was my lightbulb moment. I wasn't convinced that I was allergic/intolerant to all the foods on the list but clearly I needed to find a diet that was not only good for me, but that was sustainable and fitted in to my lifestyle.. Hence more research and the purchase of rather a large number of books. The one ingredient I decided I wanted to boot out was wheat so my research surrounded that and I came across Dr David Perlmutter and his book Grain Brain, he is a neurologist and the premise of the Grain Brain diet is to eat a very low carb, low sugar, high good fat diet. The complete opposite to what our governements have been telling us for years, despite the high rise in obesity, diabetes, stroke and dementia. The diet is an anti inflammatory one so it can help you not only lose weight but it can help with any inflammatory problems, diseases you may have or be destined to have later in your life. Many of my friends have scorned my diet, and that is entirely up to them, I will not argue about it.. maybe debate a little, they are happy to go by the government guidelines and go to Slimming World and Weightwatchers and eat lots of low fat and low sugar products, which contain ingredients that I cannot pronounce or understand, buckets loads of artificial sweeteners, preservatives and flavour enhancers, eat tonnes of fruit despite fruit (I should say some fruit) being higher in sugar than a packet of sweets. I know I am healthier than I have ever been, as are my children, although they do not follow the diet like me, but they no longer have sugar on week days at home and fizzy drinks only on special occasions. Strangely though this is the year of the 'new' diet, Paleo, I'm sure you've heard of it by now. You have a great guy in Australian doing a TV show that is all about Paleo, Pete Evans? Basically it is the Caveman diet, only eating what you could kill or grow in Paleolithic times, so lots of natural healthy food, like meat, poultry and fish, preferably organic, free range and wild in the case of the fish, loads of veg (not too much potato), salad, some lower sugar fruits, mainly berries and lots of good fats, EV olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil and high quality butter from grass fed cows (not grain fed). I now have very few headaches, even the hormonal ones are slowly decreasing, and on a bonus level, my PMT symptoms (jeez, now I know how horrid I was!) are all but gone. From what you have written above you are well on your way to a wonderful healthy lifestyle and you will reap the rewards very quickly if you are sensible and take the small steps you mentioned, and if you eat well enough (remember good fats and protein satiate, not carbs no matter how good they taste), so you don't feel like you are constantly starving and then become more likely to slip. A few quick tips then I'll stop filling the thread!.. Take your time, any small healthier changes you make today are an achievement and better than what you did yesterday. Research, decide what plan of sorts you want to follow, if you take too many ideas from different plans you may end up being less healthy and putting weight on. (For example, if I follow the Paleo yet still eat wholegrain bread I will put weight on). Make some list of foods to eat more of and foods to avoid, mine included more fish (frozen is fine by the way), more spinach, more nuts and seeds.. Less processed food, less high sugar fruit (pineapple, kiwi, melon etc), less inflammatory oils including rapeseed, sunflower and vegetable). Do try and do something active each day, I'm lucky I have dogs to walk, but just a 20 minute reasonably brisk walk to buy a paper will do in the early days. Look into some good quality vitamins, preferably food grade ones (I use Cytoplan in the UK, maybe look at the website to see why food grade rather than synthetic vitamins are better for you. Most women are low in the B vitamins, calcium, magnesium and D3. I try to incorporate foods into my diet that have these vitamins in but for the amounts that you need it can be difficult. If you are looking into juicing, Joe Cross is an inspiration, he has a couple of books but his website is pretty good and he has done a couple of movies about his 'journey'.. Just beware the lure of the high sugar fruits in juices! Alllow yourself little treats here and there for sure, or you will be truly miserable. I buy gluten free bread slices to keep in the freezer, it has lots of added crap but I can enjoy the odd slice of toast! I keep Lindt 70% plain chocolate in the fridge and have a couple of squares a day (it has some good stuff in it anyway) and I can't totally give up Kettle Chips, I just have the plain salted ones with less additives! Sorry, I've gone on rather a lot haven't I.. I wish you all the luck and joy in the world, just think of it as an adventure!

Or Human Traces...

Not having much time to read, but thoroughly enjoying Mra Sinclair's Suitcase (and some of it is set in a bookshop, with references to personal notes found in books!)

It was sooooooooo good! We did gasp last week too.. So many revelations coming out this season, how many more secrets can these people have?!

33 minutes to BROADCHURCH!!!

I think I might start Mrs Sinclair's Suitcase this evening? Has anyone read it?

I sometimes take echinacea at first sign of a cold but it gives me a headache so I weigh up how bad a cold I think it may be, I don't get ill often. Generally I try to eat well, with a good intake of food containing zinc and vitamin C. I also take some high quality food grade supplements that contain zinc among other things including B vitamins and Vitamin D3. I will also make drinks using fresh lemon and Manuka honey which is great for coughs. The odd square of good quality plain chocolate (Lindt) is great for coughs too.. And medically proven if you just want the excuse!

Ha ha!!! :D

I'll try and read The Miniaturist soon, I need to read a good book next as I finished my first book of the year last night, Cruel Summer by James Dawson and it was very disappointing.

I read on another forum today about someone who bought everyone who attended their wedding a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird as a table gift, and it got me thinking what book I would give all my friends and family should I have the opportunity. I thought it might be an interesting question to ask the forum? So, what would you buy? Maybe one fiction and one non-fiction? For fiction I would of course choose Human Traces by Sebastian Faulks. For non-fiction I would give everyone Grain Brain by Dr David Perlmutter, a book that last summer set me on the path to better health, I have plenty more since that have helped but this one was the trigger.

I always called my eldest son Charlie Pud when he was young as he was rather a pudding, so I thought it would be a good name to use as a username, unfortunately I forgot the 'r' the first time I used it.. but it stuck and I've used it for years all over the place. (He is 15 now!)

How about Pantomine Michelle? I have the sequel but have not read it yet.

I've just checked and it is Jamica Inn I have so that's positive. I have moved in to the front of the shelf so hopefully I will get to it sooner rather than later.