A tiring but amazing day

Well, my mum and I went to the Vitality Show on Friday and it was fantastic. If you are into healthy living then I recommend to go. It's over for this year but there should be one next year, which I hope to go to again. After 1 train ride and 3 tube rides, we got to the show in Olympia about 11.15am and the first thing I had to do was go to the toilet. After that we found the stage where we planned to listen to a talk that afternoon (more about that later), then we wandered round. It is as big as I first thought with 2 floors. One of the first things we came across was a Rosemary Conley fitness stall where we had our Body Fat measured for free. Both our BMI and Body Fat rates came out excellent and I was told that I don't need to lose weight. What a good start to the day. More wandering round, we picked up a couple of freebie bags and bought ourselves each a crystal emery board, which we were told lasts much longer than normal ones. Then at lunch time we went up to the gallery where we sat and ate our lunch, then wandered round upstairs. The Bupa centre was booked up for the day so that was out and there wasn't much else to see there so we went back downstairs. We picked up more freebies and bought several healthy bars and drinks, then went to the talk by Dr Wendy Denning and Vicky Edgson, the original 2 tv Diet Doctors. Their talk was called Beyond Calories in, Calories Out and all about how to keep the weight off after losing it and the factors that count ie stress and thoughts. I was interested to hear Dr Denning mention about hormones esp high cortisol levels and that in turn can lay fat round your middle. This made me think is that why I can't lose weight now because my cortisol levels are high. Then Vicky talked about food and a vegetarian asked about protein for diets and she talked about soya and that we should ease it into our diets because the western world isn't used to eating it like the eastern world. This got me thinking again. Was that why I ended up becoming intolerant to soya because I went straight into eating/drinking soya once I found out I was intolerant to milk. Probably. All in all it was a very interesting talk and they are very friendly ladies. After I heard Dr D talk about stress I was prompted to ask a question about advice for raised cortisol levels. She answered about keeping a check on your blood sugar levels and stress levels, incase I was sensitive to that. After the talk, I took a photo of them together (to come later to prove I did see them) and talked to Vicky who suggested to eat as much fresh foods as possible, inc meat. So next week I will start to eat meat from the deli counter and not packed as usual. We had a brilliant time there, bought lots of goodies inc a bag each on the way out, and picked up lots of freebies, inc the biggie of a water filter fridge jug, which happens to be too big for our current fridge. I learnt one important thing from the day. Not to stress about my weight. One person tells me I am OK, another says that high cortisol can lay down fat.

There was one more thing I learnt from what I had been given on Friday. My body is definitely intolerant to milk. Of the foods that were freebies were a KitKat Sensation and Alpen bars, all containing milk. I ate the KitKat on Friday night, and 2 Alpen bars yesterday and ended up with diarrhoea. From now on I won't be eating anything which has any kind of milk in it or anything with soya in, but esp milk as I know that was the cause of my problems this weekend and I was a fool to even eat one Alpen bar let alone 2. I've learnt my lesson, so to speak. I also want to avoid anything with added sugar in to control my blood sugar levels as Dr D said in her reply to me. We came home tired but happy that we went and my mum says that she'd love to go next year. Roll on the next one, I say.

Tap water

You probably have read in the papers recently that health authorities/bodies are urging people to use tap water instead of bottled mineral water to help the environment. Well, I would agree with them as I took this bold step myself last Thursday when my mum and I went out for a meal at our favourite Chinese restaurant. We both asked for a glass of cold tap water and got it, free. I think they anticipate customers asking this because one of the staff, who are very friendly, came up later with a jug of water asking us if we wanted more. So, next time you go out for a meal, ask for tap water and not bottled. Not only is it cheaper on your pocket because it's free, but you will be helping the environment by not buying bottled water that has probably been transported from miles away polluting the air, and using plastic. I actually asked for cold tap water at my hairdresser's too and she said, "I note that you mention cold tap water." It doesn't hurt to ask, so go ahead and try it.

Now that Easter is over, I am going to try to cut down the sugar in my diet, not that I have too much anyway. The main one is in the fruit spread I have with my porridge in the morning, which says on the jar it's 36g of sugar per 100g, and even if that is with natural sugar that is very high, so am cutting it out and instead will have frozen raspberries. I might still have honey on ryvita at the weekends. I want to not have any sweets or biccies until my next holiday in June/July, except on Friday when I go to the Vitality Show. I will be taking an energy bar and sunbites then as they are convenient and easy to pack and carry with you.

I did some work on Checkmate over the break and am now on Chapter 3, and have done over 25,000 words so far. Have a bit more to work on as I need to put some romance into it, which should add to it. My Weekly pocket novels are 30,000 words, so that is what I am aiming to get to. I don't have that much to go to reach it. I typed up a short story for a competition as well and that ended up nearly 1000 words too long so have had to cut some out. Have worked out some to cut out but not sure if it's enough, will work on that at the weekened.

Must get on with work now.

A busy weekend

I had a very busy and productive weekend. Saturday, in between going to the hairdressers, I managed to transfer the rest of my clothes from my old bedroom to my new one (my mum's old bedroom). I can't see me moving back into my old room anytime soon because over the weekend we found several live ladybirds, and as long as they are still coming in then I won't, and the window needs fixing because it's all rotten on the outside. The man is due to come the end of this month, fingers crossed. In the afternoon I typed up all that I'd written of Chapter 8 of Checkmate. Yesterday was food shopping in the morning and in the afternoon I wrote the end of Chapter 8 plus amended the reference pages for Rosie, and whilst reading my writing magazine on an article about writing for health and beauty, I had an idea for a letter to the magazine and an idea for a small view piece for the health magazine I subscribe to, which I jotted down. I'll probably type those up over Easter.

Well, phones are ringing here so must go.

Trial and error

Well, going organic with beauty products has really been trial and error. I have finally decided to stop using Essential Care facial products and chuck them away. Not only were they making my face tight and red but now my face has started to itch. I must have extremely sensitive skin because the cleanser says on the bottle that it's for dry/sensitive skin. So as of tonight, I will use the replenishing cream for my neck only, the cleanser I will chuck away and recycle the bottle, and instead I will use Green People day solution in the morning and Barefoot Botanical SOS face and body cream at night. We shall see what happens then. I do like the BB SOS body lotion but I don't particularly like the BB Rosafina body lotion which I am using at the moment. I think I will stick to the SOS body lotion.

Must get on with some work now and look as though I am doing some.

Tests and more tests

Well, I saw the consultant yesterday and he wasn't sure what was causing my raised cortisol. He first said it could be nothing, then he said that oestrogen can cause high cortisol and said that he would look into it further, and give me tests. He mentioned having a 24 hour screening test which meant me to have onging blood tests during the day, which I didn't like. Anyway, it ended with me having a blood test there and then, which was brave of me considering I hate needles and had to travel back home on a train. I also have to do a 24 hour wee test at home on Sunday and take it back to the dept on Monday. Then I have to go back in 4 weeks, when he should have the results of both tests and depending on what they say, I might have to have another blood test. He mentioned about taking a steroid tablet last thing at night which suppresses cortisol then having a test done first thing the next morning, then he said that just to go with the blood test and the wee test first and go from there.

Well, must get on with some work this last half hour before going home.

Another small success

When I got home last night I had through the post one of the 2 small press mag's I subscribe to, and when I opened it there was a £2 coin stuck to it. I looked at the index inside but couldn't find a story by me and then I read on the editor's page that my story was separate in a little booklet. Yay. Success. Not only that, but I looked on the front of the magazine and saw that it too had an ISSN number, so when I become a member of the ALCS I can register all the stories I had published from 2004 to present with them. I sent off the membership form and the ISSN forms with it yesterday so they might get it today. I feel that I am now becoming a professional writer ie taking my writing professionally as a business. My mum wants to read my story so I will let her as she likes to read what I have written. A fan.

Health - I haven't been eating that healthily recently because mum has been buying chocolate and biccies, oh and I had some natural organic tortilla chips at the weekend, which were really nice. I hope today to get some answers about my raised cortisol levels as I am seeing my Endocrine consultant this afternoon, and he deals with hormone issues. Fingers crossed he says something that I like to hear. I still get exhausted and stressed. I had a couple of days off 2 weeks ago with it and felt useless and frustrated. I hate feeling that way and want it to end, so that's why I can't wait for my appointment today. Let you know sometime this week what he says.

Well, must get on with work. See you soon.

I'm excited!

Why? Well, I went to a Writers' Day on Saturday in Oxford Circus and found out some interesting information. One of the speakers mentioned that if you write for a magazine with an ISSN number you can register it with the ALCS (Authors' Licensing Collection Society, I think it is) and if your article/story you have registered with them is read and copied over the years then you can get royalties which they send you yearly I think. This I didn't know. I got excited because one of the small press magazines I write for has an ISSN number. Anyway, after doubting if this was true I emailed the membership dept of ALCS this morning and got back a reply. Yes, it's true and they attached various forms for me to become a member and register any works I've done with a magazine with ISSN numbers. I just so happens that I have recently had a story published in the magazine which has an ISSN number so I shall register it at the weekend and let what happens happen. Royalties here I am. The talks on Saturday were really interesting with main ones by Lee Weatherly and Diana Kimpson, and a few brief ones, inc the one on the ALCS. The journeys to and from Oxford Circus were a nightmare as the Northern Line was shut and I had to walk to Bank station from London Bridge and vice versa. I got really confused coming out of Bank coming home and got rather frustrated but found my way back to London Bridge in the end, after asking for directions. Apart from that I did enjoy the day.

Other exciting news. I discovered today that some of my colleagues here at work do read my blog. Yay, I have readers I know. So folks, if you read this, please could you let me know by adding comments.