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Exercise, Lockdown, Uncategorised

Lockdown – exercise circuits

I adapted one of my gym circuits as a home workout and I did actually film myself on my phone to demo it – but I cant download it! So I’m afraid it has to be the ‘paper’ version (though I guess that spares you seeing the flab!).

Suitable for all ages/levels of experience. No special equipment needed (but if you do the high-impact version you DO need proper gym shoes and, if appropriate, a supportive bra). If you have mobility problems, keep whatever you do to a safe level for you – don’t push your boundaries. Make sure you warm up first.

The key thing is COUNTING EACH REP OUT LOUD – because that will fill your head and give you no space to think about what’s going on in the world outside. It’ll give you a mental break as well as help your fitness.

It’s a ‘pyramid’ so you can repeat the circuit, or do it backwards, or do all the exercises in sets of ten – whatever you want to do. (But count the reps, because that’s the mental health boost!)

WARM UP
March on the spot, do circles with your arms (as in lift arm up, twist slightly to look behind as you circle your arm down), do a few knee bends, move your arms around

CIRCUIT

  • 100 jogs (each leg), marches or steps
  • 80 star jumps (full range if you’re used to it, step it out if not)
  • 60 punches (each arm) – 20 upwards, 20 in front, 20 down
  • 40 squats (go as low as you can, but make sure your knees are NOT further forward than your toes) – or if you’re finding the move tough place a chair behind you and sit down and stand up (without using your arms to help you)
  • 20 twists (standing – or if you want to sit to do a ‘Russian’ twist, bend your knees with your feet flat on the floor and your knees together, lean backwards slightly, hold a tin or a weight with two hands, and touch the floor with the weight each side)
  • 10 bicep curls (don‘t swing your arms – lock your upper arms, start with your arms at 90 degrees to the floor, clench your fists and draw your arm up from the elbow – do it slowly, three seconds up and three seconds down, because it’ll make your muscles work harder)

COOL DOWN

  • hamstring stretch – take a step back with one leg, bend the other knee (make sure it’s not further forward than your toe), both feet flat on the floor and hold (if you can’t feel it in the back of your leg, widen your stance!)
  • quad stretch – pull one leg up behind you and hold (should feel along the front of your thighs) – might need to hold on to a chair for balance, and that’s fine
  • shoulders – link your hands, turn them 180 degrees out, round your back and drop your head forward, hold

IF YOU DO HAVE A ROPE/STEP/WEIGHTS…
This is the original circuit. Enjoy!

  • 120 skips
  • 100 star jumps
  • 80 punches
  • 60 Russian twists with a shoulder press in the middle
  • 40 squats
  • 20 knee drivers (each leg)
  • 10 burpees
Lockdown, Recipe, Uncategorised

Lockdown – banana bread recipe

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Cake without eggs? Yes, indeed! This banana bread is based on the one from Angela Gliddon’s ‘Oh She Glows’ website, with some tweaks. And it’s seriously scrumptious. All storecupboard except the bananas. 

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas, mashed
15 g ground flaxseed
80 ml almond milk (soy milk and oat milk also work just fine)
80 ml sunflower oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
60 g brown sugar
50 g rolled oats
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
200 g plain flour

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line a 1kg/2lb loaf tin. (I use precut liners because it’s so much quicker!)

Stir in the rest of the ingredients one by one.

Spoon the batter into the tin and spread evenly.

Bake the loaf, uncovered, for 45 mins until golden and firm on top – it should spring back like a sponge.

Notes from me: I tend to cover the tin with foil for the last 30 mins and check it every five minutes – ovens do vary! You can make it without the oil, but it’ll be a slightly drier texture and need slightly less time to cook.)

Lockdown, Recipe, Uncategorised

Lockdown – cheese stars recipe

By popular demand… This is possibly the best recipe my mum ever taught me. Flat-out 1970s hedonism! Super-easy, brilliant for parties and afternoon tea, and everyone I’ve ever made these for has loved them – even my daughter, in her pre-vegan days (and she hated cheese!). Don’t ask me about the saturated fat content or calories because I’d like to stay in denial (but they are 3 Weightwatchers points each – worth it, in my opinion).

Normally I’d give tweaks to make it dairy-free, but in this case nothing works well enough. It has to be dairy cheese and proper salted butter. You can sub up to a quarter of the Gouda for cheddar and get away with it, but using all cheddar gives a different texture. This is my family’s favourite version.

Top tips: don’t skip the chilling stage (otherwise they spread and they’re impossibly crumbly and not as nice), and make sure the oven’s pre-heated.

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INGREDIENTS

  • 8 oz/250g butter
  • 8 oz/250g Gouda, grated
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 8 oz/250g plain flour
  • Paprika, to taste

METHOD

Beat the butter until creamy.

Add the cheese, egg yolks and paprika.

Work in the flour (with your hands usually works best!).

Chill the dough for an hour.

Knead, roll out to 5mm thick, and cut out star shapes (my cutter is about 3cm wide).

Place on a lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees C for 10-12 minutes then cool on a rack.

Lockdown, Mental health, Uncategorised, Writing life

Lockdown – working from home

 

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A few tips for working from home from someone who‘s done it for a couple of decades – pretty much common sense, so apologies if I’m womansplaining (!) but it might help someone – and in these times I think we all need kindness and help 🙂

1) wear your work clothes (it will help you keep a work mindset) – one of my friends says that wearing shoes helps

2) sort out a routine (where and when you work – it is hard, especially if you have young children, but it’s also a way to help teach the skill of compromising!)

3) batch emails and use a timer when you’re checking them (ditto going on the internet – both of them can be massive time sucks if you let them)

4) get up and move at least once an hour – stretching, walking round the room/marching on the spot, up and down the stairs if you have any – if you have a fitness tracker that reminds you, great, otherwise maybe use your phone to set an alarm

5) hydrate properly and eat well (ie put the cookies and tortilla chips in a cupboard – if they’re out of sight you’re less likely to scoff a cookie with every cup of coffee)

6) schedule in social breaks (again, use a timer! but those breaks are important – if you’re on your own, maybe work out a schedule with friends so you can FaceTime/Skype/whatever)

Main thing is – you’re not alone. It’s doable. Sometimes it’s boring, sometimes you won’t feel like it – but schedule in treats. Get two things ticked off your todo list, and that earns you 10 minutes doing a crossword/playing guitar/whatever makes you happy.

Stay safe, be kind, wash your hands, and we’ll get through this.

Lockdown, Recipe

Lockdown – dhal recipe

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Based on a recipe by Anna Jones – uses mainly storecupboard ingredients

35 mins + prep; cooked on stovetop; serves 4
Ingredients:
a little oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
Fresh ginger (thumb-sized piece), peeled and grated (or 1 tbs of the stuff in a jar, or 1 tsp ground will do!)
1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (can use red)
1 red onion, peeled and chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground cinnamon
200g dried red lentils
400ml stock
2 large handfuls of spinach
bunch of fresh coriander, chopped (can live without this…)
Juice of 1 lemon

Method:
Heat the oil; saute the garlic, ginger, chilli and onion for 10 mins.

Add the ground spices and saute for 30 seconds.

Add lentils, coconut milk and stock, bring to the boil, turn the heat down and simmer for 25 mins. (Check it and stir every so often so it doesn’t catch on the bottom.)

Stir in the spinach, chopped coriander and lemon.

Serve with rice or carb of choice (we also did roasted veg with ours – courgette, mushrooms, pepper – cut into 2cm pieces, mist with oil, bake at 180C for about 20 mins)

Lockdown, Mental health

Lockdown – mental health exercise

I’m resurrecting my blog during lockdown and I want to use it for positive things that might help people.

Lots of people are worried right now, and sometimes it’s hard to get out of a fear spiral. The exercises below (researched by me with my Medical Romance author hat on, some time back!) might help.

Start by ‘square breathing’ to help steady you (breathe in for 3 seconds, hold for 3, breathe out for 3, hold for 3).

Then you do the 54321 sequence below – what it does is use all your senses to ground you in the present and stop your thoughts spiralling.

5. Name five things you can see around you (eg table, dog).
4. Name four things you can touch around you (eg pen, chair).
3. Name three things you can hear (eg clock ticking, birdsong)
2. Name two things you can smell (eg coffee).
1. Name one thing you can taste (eg coffee, a biscuit)

Big hugs to all of you. We’ll get through this.

Publication day, Writing news

Publication day: Finding Mr Right in Florence

imageToday is the official publication day of my 84th book for Mills & Boon, Finding Mr Right in Florence.

It all started because I love the TV series ‘Fake or Fortune’ – actually, I’ve wanted to do an art mystery book for years (that probably owes a bit to an episode of the TV drama ‘New Tricks’).

And if it’s art, it has to be Florence, right? So we ended up in Florence, researching the location. I rather fell in love with the Duomo (the best bits for me were climbing inside the Duomo, and seeing the amazing Roman mosaic peacock in the crypt – not to mention 13th-century tombs that still had their colour – have I mentioned before that I adore church architecture?). We also visited a lot of art galleries – the Uffizi made me cry (Botticelli), but I really loved the ‘modern’ art gallery. Now, my taste in art is very much 19th century (Burne-Jones in particular) or medieval (so Florence was right up my street), but ‘modern’ in Florence is 19th century. I loved the Macchiaioli paintings, so I borrowed some of them for my book – but my Florence painter is completely from my imagination.

I wanted this to be called ‘The Girl in the Window’ (after the painting in the book), but I never get to keep my titles. But I did get to enjoy Florence. And the poppy fields – this one wasn’t far from me.

If you’re wondering what happened to publication day for book 83 – I forgot to sort it out. Bad Author. Rubbish at pubicity! So I’ll leave you with a card from my publisher for book 84: Happy Book Birthday to me 🙂

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Unlardy

The Unlardy Project – end of week 9

Weight change this week: 2.5 lbs down (total loss 9.5 lbs)

Exercise this week: daily dog-walk; Wednesday, C25K training; Thursday, lots of steps in London (!);  Monday, C25K training (w2 d1 – 1.5min running intervals); Tuesday, HIIT circuits.

What worked well/tip of the week: Planning round meals out

Bits where I had to think: Dinner out in London on Thursday, afternoon tea in London on Friday, dinner out on Saturday – planned it in advance so I had zero-point breakfast and dinner on Friday in particular.

What needs to change next week: nothing – keep up the good work!

Mindset: pleased with the results so am keeping going

Favourite/new recipe this week: cottage pie with caluiflower topping – serves 4

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Ingredients:

  • 1 large cauliflower
  • 250g 5% fat beef mince (could use poultry mince or Quorn)
  • 1 X 400g tin of chopped tomatoes in juice
  • 1 red onion, peeled and diced
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
  • 1 large carrot, peeled and diced
  • 1 red (bell) pepper, deseeded and diced
  • 150g chestnut mushrooms, chopped
  • 1 large stick celery, sliced
  • 1/2 a medium courgette (zucchini), diced
  • 1 beef stock cube
  • 40g reduced fat cheese, grated (use the fine side of the grater)

Method:

Steam the cauliflower, then mash it.

While the cauli’s steaming, brown the mince in a pan (if it’s non-stick you won’t need oil); then drain the mince, add all the other ingredients except for the cheese, and simmer for 30 mins until the carrot’s soft.

Place the mixture in a large casserole dish, top with the mashed cauli, sprinkle the cheese on top, and bake at 180 degrees for 40 mins.

(The sauce also works really well as a pasta sauce, with a jacket potato or rice – and you can mix things up a bit by adding beans/chilli/smoked paprika, or changing the the veg.)

Unlardy

The Unlardy Project – end of week 8

Weight change this week: 1.5 lbs down (total loss 7 lbs)

Exercise this week: daily dog-walk; Thursday, week 1 run 1 of c25k (for 10k Race for Life training – basically warmup walk, run 1 minute/walk 1.5mins x8, cool down walk); Monday, week 1 run 2 c25k (as run 1);

What worked well/tip of the week: Plan, plan, plan

Bits where I had to think: quiet social week – next week, however, is challenging!

What needs to change next week: need to increase my steps on non-gym days

Mindset: pleased with the results – that’s half of the Christmas/NY damage gone. And I need to be a bit kinder to myself. Frozen shoulder continues; my physio is a sweetie but has nixed more weights moves. Just as well I’m concentrating on the running training 🙂 It’s bearable, but at the moment I need to build up my endurance. Speed – well, I’ll do my best once I’ve cracked the length of the runs.

Favourite/new recipe this week: Nothing new this week as I’ve been busy! However my WW coach today suggested zero-point banana mug cake – mash one banana and beat with two eggs, cook for about 2 mins on high in the microwave. I haven’t tried this yet, but she did say use a large mug because it comes up like a soufflé. Let me know if you try it before I do!

Unlardy

The Unlardy Project – end of week 6-7

Weight change this fortnight: 3lbs up (total loss 5.5 lbs) – disappointed in myself, but I guess it could’ve been worse. And I am refocused. Plus at the six-week tape-measure thing I’d lost two inches off my waist, which is a very good thing. Onwards and upwards.

Exercise this fortnight:  daily dog-walk (no time for gym!) and there were a couple of really long beach walks in addition.

What worked well/tip of the fortnight: Planning for meals out first and then fitting in what I’m cooking for lunch/dinner. Banning shortbread from the house completely over the Christmas holidays (I’m the one who likes it and everyone else isn’t fussed, so it wasn’t depriving anyone else!).

Bits where I had to think: Christmas. I navigated lunch perfectly (I was cooking, so I had turkey with all the trimmings and lots of veg, fresh pineapple for pudding, a small portion of cheese and crackers, a glass of wine and a Bailey’s coffee), but I made the mistake of having a glass of wine and a bowl of nibbles in the evening. (Brown food!!) I did have weekly points set aside for it, but I felt horrible the next morning because there was wayyyyy too much salt. And also sitting on the sofa next to someone who is scoffing stuff is the quickest way to derail myself 🙁 So I need to refocus and develop a strategy of having healthy nibbles in the house (home-made hummus and crudités would work – no breadsticks!)

What needs to change next week: need to go back eating food that makes me feel good, and exercising properly (and definitely stretching properly before and after the gym)

Mindset: I’m a perfectionist and I was so cross with myself for being stupid with the nibbles. (I tracked them, and that one bowl was as much as my greedy lunch!) The point here is to draw a line, refocus and carry on with what makes me feel good, rather than repeating past mistakes. The irresistible stuff is out of the house now, so that will make it easier!

Favourite/new recipe this week: Chickpea purée (based on a Moro recipe but I’ve halved the oil – loving the the cookbook my dear friend Michelle Styles sent me for Christmas) – serves 2 – nice as a side with meat or fish (or a big plate of mixed roasted veggies – currently very keen on butternut squash misted with oil, sprinkled with ancho chilli flakes and very thin slices of garlic, roasted for 40 mins; sliced courgettes, diced peppers and quartered mushrooms take 20 mins)

Ingredients:

  • 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped
  • 3/4 tsp ground cumin
  • 15 threads saffron, steeped in 1tbs boiling water
  • 2 tsp olive oil

Method:

Whizz the chickpeas with about 6 tbs cold water in a blender until smooth and roughly the consistency of slightly runny mashed potato.

Heat the olive oil in a pan, add the onion, garlic and cumin, and saute for about 4 minutes.

Add the chickpea purée and saffron infusion and simmer for 5 mins.

Season to taste and serve.