HOD Toastmasters was given a club coach. Kanti of Harrovians said instead of have a whole year plan and ambitious events which take lots of organizing, look at a three month period of progress.
Whilst one member for VPE, President Martin takes over.
PR Angela will learn from Martin how to put meetings on Eventbrite,
we need three more Icebreakers.
My husband was organizing a lunch event. A guest phoned with a problem. She was having difficulty walking. She could manage the journey. But she needed our help at the venue.
Footstool Needed
My friend Gillian needed a footstool at lunchtime.
We phoned the person hiring out the restaurant which was in a room our dine and wine booked for lunch at a London club. She asked, Can you supply a footstool? She told us they had answered in the affirmative.
On the day my husband and I arrived half an hour early to check everything was ready in the room and I asked for the footstool. They did not have a footstool.
What could we do? I looked around the room. No low table or chair was suitable. Apart fromt the size and inconvience of the bulk, and the risk of damaging a table or dirtying a chair, nothing wwas novable and low enough.
I walked down the corridor, to where our waiters and the superviser were in the kitchen. I wondered if they had an object, a large saucepan, or box of food or drink? How about an empty box?
Cardboard Box Footstool
I asked if they had an empty box we could use as a makeshift footstool. I envisaged something big enough, and tough enough not to collapse with the weight of feet or legs on it?
A brown cardboard box would look ugly. How about putting something on top? A large table napkin? A small tablecloth? A washable table runner? (A table runner is the long strip of cloth you put down the centre of a large oblong table to look decorative.)
A few minutes later they appeared with an ideal size box and a small table cloth. I put the box down with the cloth on it. I tried it out by sitting on a chair and putting my feed on it. The cloth slipped sideways alarmingly, possibly jolting a delicate ankle, then fell off. It revealed the empty, ugly box.
I dashed back to the kitchen and explained the problem and asked if they had a weight, or strap, or sticky tape to fix the problem.
They produced a roll of thick sticky tape. They used it to seal the fabric over the box, underneath. Like a wrapped birthday present. Neat creases and folds. No bulk visible. Elegant.
Sticky Tape
I wondered whether they could easily remove the stikiness from the fabric, and mentioned this to my husband.
He was busy counting out menus and wine glasses and answering phone calls from people who were delayed in traffic and reassuring them.
He dismissed my worry. "That's their problem."
If I were to make a footstool at home, and had time, I would use one or several fabric table napkins, of which I have inherited or kept several. I would sew them in position with a large running stitch, so the table napkins could be retrieved and returned to the set of matching table cloth and napkins.
You could cover your box with any fabric. Cut up jeans, an old pair, for something sturdy. Pretty velvet, with foam undeneath. two or four boxes could be taped or glued to the big box to make legs.
I though of adding wheels, from an old suitcase, or bought from the internet. But you don't want to footstool to run away. That's why a walking frame has two wheels at the front and none at the back. You would need a brake or a lever, or a wall behind the desk or table, maybe with another box behind the footstool.
So, many options for a temporary footstool in a restaurant or hotel. Or a permanent DIY footstool at home.
Of course, if you copy this idea elsewhere, for example, in your own home, and want to dismantle a tamprary footstool for a visitor or invalid with a temporary disability, that will be your problem.
Wonderful. Professional looking. You would not know it was not a custom made piece of furniture.
Plastic Washing Up Bowl
At home I had an old-fashioned footstool. I moved it for a family dinner party and could not find it.
I have just made myself a temporary footstool under the kitchen table which i use as a desk. I inherited a proper footstool from my late mother.
However, when we had family over for dinner, we moved clutter out of the way. Where is my footstool now? I have no idea.
I had a plastic washing up bowl which was in the way. I put it under the desk, out of the way.
It moved. I found myself with my feet in the bowl. When I moved my feet, the edge of the bowl trapped them. Nuisance. Distraction.
I turned the bowl upside down. I put out my feet, accidentally on top of the bowl. I found I had made myself a makeshift footstool. However, when I took my feet out of my slippers, I found the base of the bowl had an ucomfortable edge.
What could I put on top? A cushion?
On my office chair I had two items. A rainbow coloured bathmat, and athen chair cushion, seat cover, the sort you tie onto hard wooden dining chairs or metal garden chairs. I wanted to keep the cushion on my desk chair. Besides it kept slipping off. But the larger bathmat could fold under the bowl.
This was not intended to be a permanent solution. Just a temporary fix until I found the proper footstool.
But I now know I have two ways to make a foostool in a restaurant or hotel bedroom. For myself. For anybody else.
Now I have the idea of covering a cardboard box, or an unwanted or ugly or old and stained or damaged washing up bowl, I have several more ideas for recycling. I can also re-use a bathmat or the matching or non matching unwanted toilet seat mat. An opportunity to fulfil a need. Or recycle to make an item to give away as a gift or to sell, for oneself, as pin money, as a business, for charity. Or to give away free, simply to recycle.
I found that my back was straighter and I felt more comfortable and did not slide forward with unsuported knees on a short seat desk chair when I used a footstool.
In theory I could raise and lower my desk chair. When I bought a desk chair, I made sure it could raise and lower so that I could sit in the recommended way, with my feet on the ground.
Unfortunately, the desk cannot be raised and lowered. When my feet were flat on the floor, the desk was too high.
If you had one of those tables which swing up and down, and raise and lower, and wheel about, to go over a bed, or couch, you could put this by your chair, or even above a low table. But if your kitchen table or dining table or desk is too high, what can you do?
In theory, you can adjust your table legs. Cut them down.
To raise the table, you could put a platform underneath, such as an old door.
Add wheels to the table, not to move it but to add height.
I googled raise desk legs and immediately found lots of sets of four furniture raisers. Designed for chairs, sofas, desks, or even chests of drawers.
Furniture raisers come in assorted colours. White. Black. Pale brown to co-ordinae with pine or teak. Dark brown to go with dark oak or other woods or dark furniture. Some are round. Some are like dice. Some are hollow.
Some look like each leg etender consists of two different sizes which slot together, like lego, with a hollow top for a round or square talbe or chair leg. These offer a choice of three heights, with the lowest, the taller one, or both together.
My footstool was moved out when we had a dinner party, because it was in the way and I work at the kitchen table.
By good luck I had a plastic washing up bowl under the desk. I kept catching my feet inside it. So I upturned it.
More details on covering it in the next post.
I came home from hospital with codeine and paracetamol. Both are pain killers.
Don't confuse codeine with caffeine. Caffeine in your coffee is a stiumland. codeine is a pian killer. It has the opposite effect. Caffeine wakes you up. odeine send you to sleep, hence less sensivive to everything outside and inside, including pain.
I slept all afternoon. I thought that meant I was getting old, and dying.
Then I read the insctructions with the pills. I knew how many to take and how often. That was on the outside of the packet, on a sticker.
The Instruction leaflet icluded the side efects.
One side effect was feeling sleepy. That explains it.
No driving. No drinking with the pills.
Different pills are used for different maladies. And different amounts for different ages and weights. Be guided by your doctor. However, by reading background inforation, you may be able to ask relevnt questions, and to notice side effects.
Useful Websites
https://www.nhs.uk/medicines/codeine/side-effects-of-codeine/
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When buying a laptop overseas, or at home, note whether the keyboard has dollar signs or pound signs on the keyboard. America uses dollars. On my Dell keyboard, the dollar sign is above the number 4.
So does Singapore. In Singapore you add the capital leter S before the dollar sign, S$.
If you are technically minded, you can go into settings and re-configure any key on your keyboard. We did this once when the key for full stop was stuck. We switched it with the colon which was rarely used. For several days I instinctively used the full stop key with no result. So we found that you need to print and stick on the new sign on the key.
Then one day we cleaned the keyboard with a blower. The Key must have been jammed by a microscopic piece of grit, or toast. We removed the sticker, then reconfigured the keyboard settings back to the way they were originally.
I have a Dell laptop which has dollar signs. To show pounds I can list them as GBP, as is done by some websites. I sometimes do that here in blogspot. You read my posts in blogspot where they are read-only and cannot be altered. I create posts in blogger with a passcode.
However, I can also use my Samsung phone which was bought in the UK. This has pound signs. So I can create posts on my phone with the pound signs. Alternatively, create posts on my laptop, then edit on my phone to insert the pound signs.
If you have a separate numeric keyboard, you can type in the codes for certain characters which you use frequently. My husband has a list of those he uses a lot. But he knows off by heart the numbers he uses frequently. For example 0163 is the pound sign. For French and some other languages, the acute accent used frquently on the letter e is 0233/
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Take measures to prevent repeated loss.
Note where you lost your spectacles last time. My list is
In the car - in the glove box. Between the seats. Under the seats. Under a blanket.
In the Bedroom - dropped on the floor between the bed and the bedside table (which Americans call the night stand).
The Bathroom
The windowsill
The side of the bath
On top of towels o the towel rail.
On the toilet lid - this is the best place.
On Your Chair
1 You are sitting on them.
2 They are behind the cushion behid your back.
3 On the floor under the chair or desk.
4 Dropped inside your shoes.
Clothes
Accessories
In the straw bag you took to the bach on holiday.
Inside the straw hat or baseeball cat.
1 How To Locate Spectacles
Keep spectacles in a glasses case. Mark the case with a coloured ribbon. Attach the ribbon to a bedside light. Attach the ribbon to a desk lamp.
How to List Lost and Found Places
List in an email sent to yourself filed under WHERE IS IT?
In a whatsapp labelled LOST & FOUND.
Inside the front cover of your diary.
In a list on the fridge door.
On a pincbard in the office or home study.
LOST NEEDLES
In the item you were sewing.
On the floor under your chair.
On your lap or in your clothes.
In a pin cushion.
In the corner or edge of the sewing box.
In the cotton reel or polyester thread.
BOTTLE CAP OR JAR TOP
In the sink.
In the dishwasher.
On the work surface.
Under the bottle or jar.
In the waste paper bin.
LOST KEY(S)
In your pocket.
In the lining of your jacket.
In your bag, tote bag or rucksack.
Still in the door lock.
Hanging on the key rack.
Picked up by mistake by a visitor or workman.
1 Ask the doctor for smaller pills, or liquid medicine.
2 When buying, look for chewable tablets. I found chewable vitamin D and clacium in the UK. Boots sells chewable tablet with vanilla flavour, and the sixe of the tablet show on the label o the outside of the plastic bottle.
2 Grind up pills, if the doctor or pharmacists says it is OK to do so (Pill directions ought to tell you this. If you can, write to the manfacturer.)
3 Swallow a large gulp of water before takig the pill. Then put the pill in your mouth and take three large gulps of water. Take another three gulps of water to prevent a pill which sticks in your throat from being brought up.
Note which pills are small. For example, I have codeine pain killer which is small. My panadol tablets are larger.
I buy chewable vitamin D and calcium tablets.
Boots sell their own brand oval vitamin D and calcium tablets, vanilla flavour, with the size shown on the packaging.
Useful Websites
USA website
UK NHS (National Health Service)
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/problems-swallowing-pills/
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For this you need
1 Your broken pottery item
2 A superglue
3 A gold felt tip pen and/or
4 A gold glitter pen
Why Not Use Gold Spray?
I considered using gold spray, which I already had.
I had a gold paint spray. I decided against using this because of the risks of
a) Breathing it in
b) Getting it on my hands
c) Getting it on my clothes
d) Damaging nearby items
e) Extra time spent covering the table and floor
f) Needing to discard plastic or cardboard covered in paint, thus adding to landfill
g I would need to use more paint to cover the entire vase.
h) I wanted to cover only the cracks because the green base matched the lampshade
Verdict - Success
1 I was pleased to have my lamp restored
2 I had put together the pieces which were cluttering up the house waiting until I thought of a way of repairing the item.
3 I was proud of my skill
4 My husband was impressed by my resourcefulness and creativity
5 He said the restored lamp base looked like the gold pattern abstract was part of the design, better than the plain green original.
Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi
Problem - Redundant
Years ago I was made redundant at an advertising agency.
Cause
It was not my fault. The company had lost contracts.
Help
When Personnel gave me the bad news, they went through a relevant newspaper, found me two jobs to apply for. They helpfully printed off a cv for me to send and stuck it in the envelope.
They also rang up another company, explained my situation. Then, they put me on the phone for an initial phone interview, arranging for me to go to the office for an interview.
Success
When I left I had a new job to go to.
If you lose your job, or are out of work, you might be unable to pay rent and bills. This can lead to eviction.
Eviction
The person being evicted might have nowhere to go. The stress of leaving their home could overwhelm them.
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Pictures in public domain under eviction from Wikipedia.
Divorce
Being homeless can lead to divorce. Divorce can lead to financial disputes. Also custody of children battles. Divorce can be the result of financial problems. Or the cause of them.
For one person, divorce can be news of a new start. For another it can be the end.
Marriage guidance is there to try to help prevent divorce. But where is the help for those divorcing?
Lawyers tend to go into battle to help their client financially. Some lawyers encourage mediation.
Another factor contributing to divorce, and depression, is bereavement.
If you think of the mind as like a see-saw, put too many items on the negative side and the see-saw goes down. You need to have something on the positive side.
Prediction
When somebody is divorced or made homeless it is pretty obvious that they will be angry. They might attack those who they blame or random bystanders.
Preventing Problems
A system should be in place to register and help the homeless, unemployed, divorced, bereaved, neighbours in disputes, before matters get out of hand.
Relevant Websites
A search online will produce websites related to the country where your computer setting show you to be. If you are on holiday or working in another country, or trying to help somebody in another country, you need to change the wording of your search, or your computer or phone settings.
Divorce
Redundancy
https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/redundancy.html
Eviction
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice
Refugees
https://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/our-work/mental-health-support-for-refugees-and-asylum-seekers/
It seems we need to train every child and driver and adult what to do in an emergency. From a baby crying, to a road accident to an elderly person's corpse.
First, a baby is not evil. It cries because it is cold or hungry or tired or wants loving attention. You don't hit it to quieten it. You offer food, hugs, rocking, or a rocking cradle or a ride in a vehicle.
Secondly, if you make a mistake, such as knocking over somebody's drink in a pub, or causing damage with a vehicle, you apologise.
Thirdly, if somebody else makes a mistake, you address them politely, not angrily which escalates things.
Fourthly, it is not safe for children and pets to run around in driveways and on roads where they might be hit by vehicles, wander off, or fall in ditches, or be abducted, or die of starvation or cold.
Nor is it safe for children and adults to be locked in windowless basements or outbuildings.
Fifthly, we already have mandatory (in the UK) signs for restaurant staff toilets saying Wash your hands. In restaurants, hospitals and places serving food there should be signs saying, do not touch the blades of knives or tines of forks, bowls of spoons or inside plates, bowls and glasses.
I have a book which gives children multiple choice questions about what to do in school and visiting homes, telling them the likely result of each choice. Everything from avoiding eye contact with a teach to prolonged unsmiling staring at another pupil, or shoving somebody or prodding them or threatening a child or adult to scare them or 'for a joke'.
Often running away causes an animal, especially an attack dog, to chase you.
A friendly pet or animal can get aggressive when hurt, as any vet knows. The animal does not know the pain comes from inside or another source and will attack anybody who approaches or tries to touch it. Even friendly pets should be kept away from or muzzled in the presence of babies and small children who might scream, shout, fall or pull the animal's tail for a joke.
The same applies to the police. Run or drive away in a hurry and they think that you are a criminal. They fear that if you escape you will make a circle and come up behind them and kill them from behind soon after or another day.
Useful Websites
Problems
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11518965/FedEx-driver-killed-Athena-Strand-7-hit-van-strangled-panicked.html#reader-comments
Solutions
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1187506343/good-choices-vs-bad-choices-behaviour?
You can find lots more books on good and bad behaviour to share with one child or a group.
If the person doing the questionnaire makes a choice which will likely result in a worse situation, they are told the best answer and are asked to re-do the quiz and try another choice.
Useful search words are behaviour, choices, tracker, questionnaire, chart, flash card, book.
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Watering
To prevent waterlogging of the roots, you can have a flower pot with a hole or several in the bottom to allow drainage. And/or put pebbles at the bottom of the pot.
Remembering to water plants
Water in the evening so that the water does not evaporate in the mid-day sun, which would waste the water and cool the plants. Set a timer as a reminder.
To save carrying water backwards and forwards, fill one large capped urn with water and leave it near a balcony or set of patio plants and use this larger container to refill a smaller watering can.
Talking to Plants
Talking to plants has several practical effects. Firstly, you are breathing out moisture. Secondly, you are obliged to look at them and notice if they need watering or attention. Thirdly, it takes your mind off other stresses and problems. Fourthly, seeing plants growing is positive. Fifthly, plants give out oxygen during photosynthesis which takes place during sunlight in daytime. Sixthly, you create the illusion that you are in control if you are praising them, or thanking them or even threatening them. Lastly, you talk and they listen, which is good for the soul.
Remembering Passwords
After you have changed your password, note the new password with the date in a brightly coloured notebook which is kept in a regular place.
Pin the opened website on your desktop.
Sharing Passwords
If you are chronically ill or elderly you might want to leave a file of passwords for your descendants or executors. After my uncle died, I had trouble cancelling subscriptions to magazines because their system would not let me into his account to contact anybody without a password.
One solution would have been to create a new temporary account for myself to get into their system, then tell them about my problem with the other account.
The other solution was to return the unwanted goods with a note that the recipient had died. However, the company's mailing system did not catch up.
Security
For more security, select a random password protector.
Useful Websites
https://www.amazon.sg/Forgot-Password-Problem-Organizer-Journal/
Why leave on a label? Why remove it and how.
1 Why leave on a label?
To remind yourself of what needs replacing when shopping locally. To recall the name when ordering online. To remember to search for it on your next holiday in the country where you bought it.
2 Why leave on a label?
As a historic item to display in a museum or to sell to a collector.
3 Why leave on a label? You don't know how to remove it.
To remove a label from a glass jar, wet the label and rub it with your finger. If you don't want to use your finger, anything else can be used to rub. For example, a cloth, sponge, a washing up brush.
Why remove a label?
If the jar is labelled containing food or drink, after it is emptied, somebody else might use it as a container for something poisonous such as cleaning materials. You do not want somebody to thin a bottle contains whisky, or water, when it has been refilled contains bleach, or paint thinner, or limescale remover.
Now that you have removed the label, what can you do with the empty jar?
1 Use it as a vase for cut flowers or artificial flowers.
2 Covering a Jar
You could tie a ribbon around it.
2 Use if for storing buttons or ribbons or string.
3 Use it as a pen and pencil caddy.
Photograph your items on your mobile phone. Upload to your laptop. Print the picture in colour or black and white and stick it on the jar.
If you are saving ink or the picture comes out small, print it in a frame, by printing a border, or use the window from a window envelope. is Over it with wrapping paper or magazine pictures or birthday and Xmas gift wrapping paper.
A tall jar can be used for taller flowers, rulers, kitchen brushes, salad tongs. Use it to store spaghetti.
4 Make A Label
The simplest and quickest is to write on it with pencil, then go over the writing more neatly with a felt tip pen or Biro.
Improve on this, now or later, by printing a label. Simply type into your laptop, enlarge, choose a fancy or bold typeface, copy half a dozen times to have labels for several jars or all four sides and the lif of the jar. Print. Stick on using glue on the back, Blu-tac, or double sided sticky tape on the back, or photo corners, or clear or coloured sticky tape around the edges or diagonally across the corners.
Uses For Lids
A lid can be used to cover a cup of coffee to keep it warm or to keep out insects in summer and hot countries.
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We have a rusting white clothes rack. I asked my husband if he could paint it.
He replied, "No. I would have to sand it down. Then paint it. The shape is awkward. It's not worth the effort."
I was painting my nail with white varnish in the bathroom. I thought to myself, it's a pity I can't get a tiny white paint pot like this varnish. It's a pity I can't use the varnish. Why not try. Nothing to lose. Just a few drops.
I painted over the rust. The rack looked a lot better.
No rust to stain the clothes. Stops it getting worse.
Some of the varnish dropped into the base of the bath. i wiped it off fast.
1 My Husband's Solution
I said to my husband: "I have too many problems."
He replied, "They are not problems. They are tasks.
"Just make a list. Put them in order of priority and work through them."
2 My Son's Solution
I said to my son: "I try to get one major thing done every day. That way I get seven things done every week."
He replied, "Why not try to get three things done every day. Then you'd get three times as many things done. Twenty one things every week."
3 My Neighbour's Solution
I told my neighbour, Alice, who was a nurse before she married, "My mother worries a lot".
Alice replied, "Your other doesn't have enough to do".
Modern Solutions
1 Meditation
2 Water
Drink more water
3 Sleep
Get enough sleep. Set an alarm 30 minutes before bed to allow time to undress, clean teeth, shower or bath, make bed, read.
4 Eat
Snack on fruit, not sugar which gives a spike of energy followed by a decline.
Go out for a good meal. A change is as good as a rest.
5 Phone Friends
Phone a friend
6 Call the Samaritans
Keep their number handy.
7 Discard Prablems
Write your problems on a piece of paper and throw them in a wastebin.
Other solutions are burying or burning, but the wastebin is quicker and more environmentally friendly.
8 NLP
Put your problems in the past. Don't say, I have a pain. Say, I had a pain.
9 Tapping
The tapping solution. Tap your wrist and say an affirmation.
10 Pinboard Affirmation
Write affirmations on post-its and place them on a pinboard to look at and cheer yourself up.
11 Pray.
12 Advise Yourself
Say your problems aloud. Reflect. Answer as if you were a head teacher advising a pupil. Thank yourself. Nod and say you agree to follow the advice.
13 Pinboard Praises
Whenever you hear a compliment or praise, write it down. Put it in a book, or a jar. When you are sad or discouraged, read all the good things people have said about you.
14 Copy Compliments
When you hear somebody else being praised, instead of being envious, decide whether you would make the effort to achieve what they have achieved. If so, start doing it.
If not, just write down the compliment, and remember to praise them and others for doing things and making efforts which you would not do. You will make them happy.
15 Pet A Pet
Get a dog. Or cat. Or pet. A fish tank.
If you can't afford a dog, or don't have the space and time, babysit or dog walk a dog for somebody else once a week.
16 Reframe your name
Name and describe yourself positively. For example, rape 'victims' are told not to call themselves 'a victim', but to think of themselves as 'survivor'.
Do so alliteratively, or with rhyme. Active Angela. Brian the biker. Contented Chloe. Danny the dancer. Efficient Emily. Funny Freddie. Gorgeous Greta. Generous Georgina. Happy Harry. Humorous Hubert. Intelligent Indra. Johnny the joker. Jolly Jasmine. Kathy. Lovely Lucy. Modern Mary. Neat Nora. Organized Olive. Powerful Peter. Recovered, rested Rebecca. Rupert the runner. Sarah the saver. Smiling Sally. Swarna the swimmer. Tidy Tommy. Early Ursula. Victor the victorious. Wonderful William. Excellent Xavier. Easy-going Yvonne.
17 Write A Speech
Imagine a local school or college has asked you to advise the school leavers on getting a job, studying, getting married, having children, and life.
Write a list, two lists. Divide a piece of paper in half. On the left write down all the disasters in your life. On the right, write down all the successes. Opposite the disasters, write what you could have done better and differently. Does everybody face that problem, or is it something you faced which you hope they will not have to face? Regarding the successes in life, were they out of the blue? If so, you never know how your luck could change. Or did you work hard for them? If so, that shows hard work pays off.
Summarise your speech with a catchy phrase. It can start with a bad thing and end with a good one. Think of the book title, Feel the Fear and do it anyway.
Before Covid-19 when we met at the Community Centre
Let me tell you how I did it. First you need a good enough reason. Not just, 'I would like to wear that dress.' I was weighing I didn't know what, and had to wear caftans to be sure the sleeves would fit over my arms. I bought cape blazers which don't fit over the upper arm, just the shoulder. I was
I had a good reason to slim. I wanted to lose weight to look good in the photos at our son's wedding. September 2019. I used to swim intermittently. I ate lots of pizza and samosas and chocolates at Toastmasters International meetings.
The Slimming Mantra
'Move more and eat less.' So said my husband. I was moving a bit more and eating a bit less, every now and then. We had to change that to every day.
The motivation came with the start of Covid-19. Danger, or rather risk factors, were being older and overweight. I could not change my age, except by lying, but that would not change my body. I could, however, change my weight.
I started by swimming. I used to swim when I felt like it. I often postponed until later in the day. It sometimes rained in the afternoon. I changed to swimming in the morning.
Slimming By Swimming
I was swimming most days.
I knew I had to increase the number of widths. So I increased gradually. Each month I added an extra width.
Slimming By Moving
While waiting for the lift, I walked up and down. Walking to the swimming pool and back increased my steps. So swimming every day not only increased my swimming, it increased my walking.
When I woke at night, or early in the morning, I kept moving. I twirled my ankles, cycled with my legs in the air. I lifted one leg when I was on my side. Anything to keep moving.
When I remembered, such as right now when sitting at y laptop, I swayed from side to side, or lifted my feet off the floor and taped my feet together.
I weighed myself every day and wrote the result in my diary.
It was easy to see that when I ate out at a restaurant I put on weight.
I cut out eating out. When we had a stop for coffee and cake, my husband and I ordered one coffee and one cake. We looked up the calorie counts. He had two thirds. I ate one third.
I hope this helps you. To motivate you. You should consult your doctor who may give you a diet sheet, taking into account your needs and medication.
Diet
No Sugar
Elevenses at 11 a.m. each morning, consisting of half a biscuit with a smear of soft cheese, an apple slice, and half a teacup of apple juice and a glass of water.
First I cut out sugar in my coffee.
Less Alcohol
I cut out alcohol altogether some months. Otherwise I limited myself to wine with one meal at the weekend and only half a glass.
Less Milk
Later I went onto skimmed milk.
Not enough result.
When I stopped losing weight, we changed to low fat yogurt and the slimmest milk.
Less Dessert
Instead of dessert I ate a piece of fruit.
Smaller Snacks
For elevenses, I had coffee and sometimes a dice size piece of cheese.
For tea time mid afternoon I had apple juice and a date, or at weekends, for a treat, one third of a scone or crumpet.
Fruit
Half an hour or an hour after dinner in the evening I had four grapes, or two sections of an orange, or both. With a glass of water.
I never felt hungry.
Useful Website
https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/weight/kg-to-pound.html
About the Author
Angela Lansbury, is a semi-retired travel writer still researching bucket list countries and seeking out the special, unusual, people, places, landmarks, hotels, museums and trails, fabulous foods, recipes, clothes and online souvenir shopping.
Angela Lansbury is a member of Toastmasters International.
Angela Lansbury B A Hons is the author of ten books by regular publishers plus another ten self-published books.
About Angela The Speaker & Trainer
Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.
Angela has several blogs speeches, comedy and song writing and organizing, writing intermittently, but writes almost daily on these three:
Please share links to your favourite posts.
Next BHA meetings?
Wednesday July 7th 2021. 7 pm Singapore time on bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha
Meet Angela and the new committee.
Glues start with the weakest and simplest glues suitable for positioning paper. Some allow you to slide the top piece around and get it straight long before they set.
Paper glues are often like roll on deodorants in small sold sticks at small prices from craft shops. You can wind them up by twisting the base like a lipstick, without touching the glue. Advisable to wear an apron and place an important piece of paper below. Practise on an unimportant objects. Wipe your fingers before touching the front of any drawing or photo.
Shoo goo.
For shoes you want glue which won't pull apart. But you don't want a glue which sets so rigidly that your sole of your shoe cannot flex as your foot bends as you walk along.
Next we come to tougher glues.
Evostick
The strongest glues stick firm. But you don't want them to glue your fingers together. Nor to glue to the table top the item you are repairing on constructing.
To prevent any danger of making a mess on a precious work surface, it is a good idea to use these stronger glues outside and not on a precious work surface. You might want to wear old clothes or overalls or protective gloves or use tongs.
You can also buy spray on glue. Not cheap. About 20 US dollars.
Read the instructions before starting.
