Starting from the bottom here - I learned a lot from Zoe Harcombe's Stop Counting Calories and Start Losing Weight and will keep the recipe book of these two for a few recipes which have become favourites, and one of my principles is not to count calories, or to totally eliminate any one food group.

French Women Don't Get Fat I have written about on 10.9.14. Sorry I cannot get the link to work :-(  (There are a lot of posts under Simply Eat if you have time to browse!)  Her light-hearted joie de vivre approach and emphasis on the pleasure of food makes the recipe book a keeper.

Lean for Life is my current favourite. Although I have given up trying her too-intensive-for-me six week programme I will incorporate many of her ideas and love her positive can-do attitude to health and fitness, and the recipes are lovely.

I will donate the top two as again I have taken on board what I want from them. I have adapted the 5:2 diet to have mainly vegetable juices on one day a week, two if my weight has gone up a little (there is a weight beyond which I will not go...)

I'm lucky  to gain only a couple of pounds now and then, but I'm pretty careful about only eating good, real food.

I just don't want to spend much time cooking it!


Meanwhile, the sun shone for a few hours today and the second brood of five baby swallows are about ready to leave the nest above the studio window. Yay!

Three carrots, two small apples, one small pear, cucumber, celery, spinach, kale and ginger..

Phillips Viva Collection juicer 700W XL feeding tube, Easy Clean.

One for now, one in the fridge for later or in the freezer for a day when I don't have time or am travelling. I do this about 9 days out of 10 and have supermarket fresh pressed juice for the 10th day.

Lovely.

For me the incentive to get healthier began with my eyes.

I am an artist and when the optician told me I had macular degeneration and gave me a leaflet saying it was the leading cause of blindness all I could think was 'No. Not my eyes. Please not my eyes.' I waited for her to tell me what would be done but she was very quiet (and wouldn't look me in the eye. It must be hard to tell someone this I guess). So I asked what could be done and she said there was no cure and no treatment but I could try eating more colourful vegetables and take a supplement called Macushield that was thought to maybe slow down the process. And, she added, if there was a sudden change in my sight to get myself to the hospital straight away.

Mercifully the degeneration has been quite slow, but to cut a long story short, I recently thought if eating more vegetables is the only thing on offer how can I get the maximum amount of vegetables into my body? I browsed the web and chanced on this health retreat! I thought about it a lot (I'd never been on any kind of retreat and thought I couldn't afford it), but after some months and at a rather low ebb I gulped at the price, and went ahead and booked it in January this year.

I think it may be the best money I have ever spent.

I made the decision that if I was going to be blind I was going to be slim and healthy and energetic and blind!

I've been given a Fitbit and it has motivated me already to move more.

Instead of loading myself up with everything that needed taken downstairs I found myself thinking 'I'll just make two trips it will be more steps'.

6,743 today.

Without really trying.

Wonder if I can make the recommended 10,000....

Getting up earlier is one of my new habits since I went to the wonderful  health retreat in January (see this post).

That was such a good decision! At the time I booked it I felt as though I was running on empty and I can truly say I haven't looked back. More good decisions and good habits followed. By making a few simple changes I eat better, sleep better and move more.

I mention it today because I have been talking to Katrina and she tells me there is now one place due to a cancellation, on her next retreat..see here. Perhaps it is for you? :-)

I love this card which says 'Make It Happen'.

Have you acquired any new good habits?

Am I more positive than before I went on the retreat?   Hugely.

Am I healthier? Undoubtedly.

Am I slimmer? Yes, by 5lbs.

Am I happier? Yes, I am

Thank you Katrina, Carolyn, Mo, Lorna, Donald and Sally!

Not wanting to put you off but....this puts my puny fitness goals into perspective!

I've decided not to let it make me feel I should give up, but to make me see that our goals are easy to achieve in comparison....Would you agree?

....on the road to slimmer and fitter!

I am going to make a point of setting an extra pretty table on fast days to extract every little bit of pleasure from my two mealtimes.

So far so delicious...

I have realised that by choosing the 5:2 diet I only have an 8 day challenge on my hands - 2 days each week over the 30 days. Yay! (I feel as if I've got away with something there!) They do say that one of the reasons for its success is that you only really have to summon up your willpower on two days each week....although of course you can't go mad on the other days.

My day started by sleeping late and almost missing my bus so I had no time for breakfast anyway! I had it at lunchtime, and dinner about 5.30. My exercise today was raking up grass and I had plenty of energy. I did have a busy day and that helped too to keep me from thinking about food all day  - looks like fast days could also be the most productive.

Have you started?

How did it go?

(Baby steps are ok. The thing is to start.)

Here is another nice quote from The Fast Diet - ....take a deep breath and relax. Better yet, shrug. It's no big deal; you have nothing to lose but weight.

simply get fit enough for a week in London!

I am feeling very sluggish lately and was telling a friend how much energy you need to go to private views, art fairs and the Ballet Rambert and see all the museums you want to see and ..and.. I was inwardly wondering Am I up to this?

I have four full days and a day of travel before I hit the capital so I am thinking what can I do in four full days. Well I shall eat really well (basically that means for me NO SUGAR) and I could go for at least one decent walk each day and do a little yoga each evening.

Do you think that will make a difference?

Watch this space....

Do you like exercise?

I tried swimming, I tried ballet workouts, but I have to confess I didn't stick with either of them for very long, and my basic antipathy to exercise has not changed much since this post way back in 2010. (Simply Fitter and Simply Move should really be one Category.)

What I do stick with though is gardening, and I enjoyed some in the sunshine today, in the delightful company of our tame robin....

I shall move on quickly to Simply Fun!

There are only four posts under Simply Fitter. (See under Categories.)

That tells you something..

I'm still a wimp I'm afraid, in spite of brave words and good intentions!

Don't miss the brilliant little video here.

I've just come across a book called I Quit Sugar by Sarah Wilson. Hmm - could maybe tackle my two failures in one fell swoop - cutting out sugar would also make a person fitter, don't you think? I did it once (for about seven years) so I could do it again.

Have any of you tried cutting out sugar?

To motivate myself I also need to remember what fun it is to be lean and toned! How much nicer clothes look. How I might stop concentrating on clever disguise, and just enjoy wearing slim dresses, belts, fitted tops....and a swimsuit. (Help! I'll have to wear one soon! That swimming course I booked is coming up.)

That's a deadline. I'm always better with deadlines.

Anyone going to join me in getting fitter?

They say it's a lot easier with a buddy.....


Click here for the fun bit. Enjoy!