Summer?

There are a few days for the forecast to turn around but I am not too optimistic for the summer holiday really...

Bike race

Given that I missed a bike race on the grounds of rain last weekend, I wonder what I'll do tomorrow morning. I haven't trained properly for the last week or so and I felt far from fast when I was out last night so I may well skip it again tomorrow.

Diet Changes - Going Paleo

The paleo food pyramid

About March last year I changed my diet to lose weight and it worked last year. Since last autumn though, I have not lost any weight and have struggled to shift the few pounds that I gained over Christmas when I relaxed my eating.

I don't really need to lose a lot of weight but I am interested in not getting fatter again and I would like to get leaner and thinner so that I can go faster on my bike and not repulse people when I take my shirt off. After quite a lot of research I have decided to make some changes to my eating that should help with fat control and also make eating a bit more enjoyable than it has been.

The Paleo diet is based on what a caveman ate which is somewhat misleading because it suggests that it is based solely on some crackpot idea. However, there is a lot of scientific evidence that continuing  to keep out refined carbohydrates, sugar and grains should be good for me. At the same time, I am going to drop bean and pulses and eat some tubers instead particularly sweet potatoes should be good apparently. I am also going to eat some fruit which is great at this time of year as there are so many wonderful berries around and I have decided (rightly or wrongly) that it's OK to have cream with them.

I'll report back on the results but so far I can say that I have managed to get away from the weekend cheat days which left me feeling bloated and a bit crap and at least a kilogram heavier each week.

Good Feet

The surgeon in Manchester who takes care of DK's feet was very happy with how his feet have come out of the operation. She said that he has a better arch to his foot, good ankle movement and he has better stability than before. That's all good news, but on top of that she said that she didn't think she'd have to operate on them again which is by far the best news.

MK always comes back from Manchester with complaints about the airport but also having been reminded how nice and friendly people are general over there. There are some great things about living in Denmark, but I do miss the friendly,free and easy way that people deal with each other in England and especially Manchester.

Manchester

MK has taken DK to Manchester today for a check up on his feet. This is the first time they have seen him since his operation in March and the following month in plaster.

We think he is doing really well and the twice weekly physiotherapy sessions seem to be helping him with his stability and mobility. We'll have to wait for the official line on his progress though.

In principal, he can stop wearing the brace in bed at night after his 4th birthday. We don't plan on taking it away from him until he asks us to (as recommended by the doctor) but it's nice to know that it's not absolutely necessary.

Eating breakfast

I am bored of cooking and eating breakfast and as I appear to have convinced my body to run more on fat than carbohydrates, I seem to be able to manage without it with few problems.

At least that is how I feel at 7 in the morning when I decide not to bother getting the bacon and eggs going. However, by 11 I am starting to feel more than a little peckish and am very ready for lunch.

The weather continues to suck a lot. Last night we had an extra duvet on the bed to keep us warm and it was just about right. I can't believe that this is the end of June and we have eaten outside only once or twice and I have cycled in shorts and short sleeves no more than 4 or 5 times despite training regularly.

The summer holiday isn't looking too optimistic either...

Polruan 10 day forecast

making hay whilst the sun shines

Well, more of the opposite really. I was supposed to do a bike race yesterday, but as it was raining heavily with a forecast for continuous rain all day (which it in fact did) I was not much tempted to drive an hour or so for a filthy and dangerous soaking. That added to the worn out brakes on the car had me looking for something else to do.

So I spend Sunday in the loft laying the insulation that was delivered on Thursday. It took me about 4 hours I think. It was horrid work involving being bent in two, banging my head, sweating, getting very dirty and itchy and crawling around in filth.

However, it's now done and I don't ever need to do it again as we now have at least 250mm insulation all over the loft.

Gone

I spent 2½ hours last night moving the 40 packets of insulation up into the loft as the forecast was for rain all day today. So far the forecast has been spot on as it has been raining since we woke up.

It was harder work than I had anticipated, but I got it done and stashed ready to be laid at some point before the winter. It was really warm up there as the sun had (amazingly) been shining all day so I have decided to wait until some wetter and cooler weather before I set about the rest of the job.

The walkway is the floorboards that are laid over the centre section of the loft so that you can walk around. They actually cover more than I had remembered so I may have to consider how to deal with the problem a bit more than I originally intended. I'm still not sure of the solution.

Most of the insulation...

Gazing upwards

This time I am looking towards the ceiling and considering how much work and how unpleasant it will be fitting the 140 sqare metres of loft insulation that is being delivered to out house this afternoon.

First step is to get it all into the loft. Then out to the edges on top of the old insulation whilst making sure that I don't block off any ventilation gaps

Then comes the tricky bit of figuring out what to do around the walkway. The builder was going to take it up and elevate it but that seems like a lot of work for a space that we never ever use so I may do that on the bit between the hatch and the chimney and just bodge the rest of it.

I'm dreading the whole project.

photos to follow...

Big decisions and small decisions

A bit of navel gazing:

Life is full of decisions, most of them are small, in fact so small that you don't realise that you are making them (well I don't or didn't)

• You choose to eat the cake that is put in front of you, you shouldn't let the person offering the cake make the decision on your behalf, it's up to you.
• You chose to do your homework instead of watching TV (or not as the case may be)
• You got out of bed to go to lectures in college
• You do or don't do those extra bits of work that make the difference between OK and good
• You choose to watch TV instead of training outside in the rain (as a general rule) 


 I am beginning to think that it is these small decisions that have just as much, if not more influence over your life than the big decisions that you agonise over such as buying a house or having more kids. The small decisions make you who you are as a person and it is who you are that ultimately make the big decisions

If you start to attach more importance to the small decisions, I think you are more inclined to make better choices.

Weekend shenanigans

Friday afternoon I took DK for a bike ride whilst J played tennis

Note the new basket

Saturday we went to watch J play football, unfortunately he couldn't really be bothered to play so we watched some football from the side line whilst J watched it from on the pitch. I did have a nice bike ride in the afternoon and the sun even shone although it wasn't warm.

Sunday was a gymnastics display in the forest in the cold and rain which wasn't all that great to be honest. Thankfully we could come home when J was done.

Flying J

wrapped up with a down vest under the rain coat

rolling, rolling, rolling

Ahhh High summer

Our for a ride

Bloomin' busy day

Yesterday went by in a flash. I worked at home so I could get a bike ride slotted into the morning around my work before taking DK to the physiotherapist at 14:30.

He is currently going to physio twice a week in the middle of the afternoon and it seems to be helping his stability a lot, but it takes some organisation to be able to get him there. That was the first time I have taken him and it was good to see how he interacts with her. He is engaged and really tries hard to do what she asks, it's not at all how he is when we do exercises with him.

The evening was taken up with a barbecue and watching Denmark lose a football match against Portugal. J had come home from school with his face painted red and white, we had world war 3 when we had to wash it off as he said he absolutely wasn't having soap anywhere near his face.

Turned out he was wrong...

Then there was 2 hours ironing before bed.

Lunch

The glass of juice is nothing to do with me, I had the water to the right.

It's salmon, a hard boiled egg, some quinoi salad and some other salady stuff and cold meat.

Football weekend photographs

One of the dads who was at the football overnight thing last weekend has posted some photographs that you can take a look at here

Ground flax seeds

This was breakfast washed down with 2 glasses of water. I couldn't face the usual bacon and eggs this morning. They are whole flax seeds that I grind up and wash down more like a medicine than eating them.

Tuesday food diary

Breakfast

Flying weekend

Blimey, where did that go?

Firstly, I must say that the weather really isn't as good as it should be. It's cold enough that we lit the fire one night last week and wished we had last night as well. It has also been fairly wet and windy this last week too.

Thankfully, we have dodged most of the rain over the weekend with only 5 minutes in the shower on friday evening at J's school party. The party was fun, there was plenty of wine available in exchange for our tickets, especially when I didn't eat much and I spent a bit of time talking to an English woman who's son is in the 3rd grade along with her husband who lived in England for 20 years and a kiwi friend of theirs. It was also very funny watching DK riding a Segway on his own, but unfortunately we didn't have a camera to hand.

I managed a couple of hours cycling on Saturday morning before J and I went to the football club for an aftenoon and evening of playing games and watching Denmark beat Holland 1 - 0. We went to be late and I was woken quite a lot by vomiting kids and the like so I think I managed about 4 hours sleep on a hard floor.

Sunday was much more relaxed and luxurious with the christening of K&L's twins followed by a "do" at a local golf club and thankfully an early-ish night.

Next weekend is clear so I am hoping to get some good training in in the next 10 days before my next race.

Euro 2012

The European football championship finals start this weekend (I know that at least 1 of my readers will not know or care about this). I am not that interested but J is something of a football fanatic these days and his football club have arranged an overnight party to watch Denmark playing against Holland on Saturday.

That involves us spending the night sleeping on the floor at the football club which will no doubt be great for J and very uncomfortable for me. I will also get the opportunity to not eat too much at a barbecue and see two teams play football that I am not that bothered about.

Tonight is School party night at J's school as well so this will be a duty filled weekend

Check up

This morning we took DK to Roskilde hospital for his yearly check up with the Paediatrics department and to get the usual feedback. He is doing fine and just needs to learn to talk.

We already knew that and apparently the doctors in the hospital cannot order the local speech therapists to treat him, just recommend it so we will carry on until after the summer when they are planning to begin some more formal help with his speech.

I am really busy at work these days. Life (as for most people) is a bit of a survival exercise during the week. I manage a couple of bike rides in the late evenings and to keep on top of the enormous amount of washing that the family generates along with keeping the lawn short enough to not loose the kids in the grass. That means that there is a bit of a lack of inspiration for the blog at the moment and it becomes something of a tedious daily journal of going to work, taking kids to football and riding my bike.

Sommerland Sjælland

We had a lovely weekend with T&B at Sommerland Sjælland which is a small amuzment park about an hour north of where we live. They had rented a couple of small summer houses and took the kids up there on Friday afternoon whilst MK and I were working. As MK works close by, she drove up and I cycled the 60km into strong headwinds and driving rain. Not much fun.

K, L and their kids arrived on Saturday morning to join the winter weather and the fun.

Saturday morning was fine, but the afternoon was rather wet and it was all cold. We had a good barbecue in the evening before K, L et al left and we settled in to another night in the huts.

Sunday morning was nice and sunny with only 1 coat required.

Landed on his face

The boys were having rides down a hill in a little cart yesterday. Not surprisingly, it ended in a crash. J bounced and DK landed on his face!

Nespresso a-go-go

Our old Nespresso machine had developed some age related incontinence so, in the absence of a home for old coffee machines, it had to be replaced.

We considered getting another type of machine, but frankly, the faff of making espresso is rather high added to the enormous cost of a decent machine and compounded with the fact that we don't drink that much of it meant that we headed straight back to Nespresso.

We got £40 back in credit at Nespresso and without any trouble at all, managed to save £100 from the retail price so the new machine actually cost 30% less than the original one did 8 years ago which was a pleasant surprise.

The coffee is as good as it always was and now we have the ability to do super frothy milk or even just heat milk on it's own without using the coffee machine.