Today's (28th July 2026) lunch photo

I was cold this morning, but now, after putting my groceries away, I'm hot, so I'm having 3 vegan ice creams for my lunch.

Opinions please - what is the healthiest way to keep my weight stable now that I've got it to where my medical team and me want it to be please?  I'm already sorted for lunches, but my choices for breakfasts are fruit juice as standard, but do I focus on choccie Weetabix with soya milk or toast and vegan spread or a vegan yoghurt for my breakfast please? I've already got the Weetabix, soya milk, bread and spread but if the yoghurt is the way to go then I'll just add it to next week's shop. 

I've always found it soooo easy to lose weight (just have to sneeze and I lose 1kg lol) but putting and keeping it on has been a lifelong struggle.  Now that I'm where the nurse wants me to be (right at the top of the healthy weight range for my height), I'm facing a constant battle with keeping my weight stable and I don't know how to do it!  Has anyone got any ideas please?

TYSMIA

Here's today's lunch photo:

Opinions please!

I'm a short-arse at only 152cm tall, so reaching into the bottom of my chest freezer is pretty much impossible for anything that isn't as long as a full loaf of bread and even that is risky.  

I'm trying to get more healthy, solid food into me now that my carers have fired me because apparantly I didn't need their help when I didn't wake them during their twice daily naps when I was only allowed to have a mug of instant soup/ready to eat snacks like picnic eggs a day or sometimes not even that if they were hungry too.

I've got a 3 boxes of vegan sausage rolls and 2 packs of frozen soya pieces because that's all I can realistically and safely put into and get out of my chest freezer.

Are there any freezer-safe shelves or anything like that I can get to put in the main part of my freezer so that I can get more thinner, smaller boxes or packets instead of just relying on the basket please?

What do I need to search for and what materials are best/worst for such a cold and slightly wet environment please?

I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments in reply to this blog post so that I can keep all of your ideas together!

TYSM

Vegetable cooking ideas please

You all have prolly already realised that I'm with OddBox (we both get £10 off our first or next box if you use this link) by now who rescue "odd" or "wonky" or just "too many" fruits and veggies from both farmers and shops that are all perfectly safe to eat and there's nothing wrong with them other than their size or shape.  I'm gonna be having fruit for every lunch over the warmer months, but I wanna try and experiment with veggies in the cooler months too.

It obviously depends on what is available each week, but other than sweetcorn, butternut squash and jacket potatoes, I've got zero idea how to prepare and cook other fresh veggies.  They need to either be softish (because I'm already too weak and unsafe to cut raw potatoes and squash and hard veggies like that) or like sweetcorn where I can just put them into the air fryer for a few minutes and they are ready to go.  Mushrooms are ideal 'cos I can just put them into the air fryer with zero preparation at all and it's things like that that I'm looking for.

Ideally veggies that I can have on their own (like sweetcorn and mushrooms) but definitely nothing involving sharp knives at all.  Peeling is OK as long as it's very minimal (like with the orange family) but if it needs more done to it than that, then it's a no-go atm.

Sooo, come on all you foodies, which are the best raw veggies to start with that are soft-ish, need minimal preparation, no sharp knives and can be cooked in an air fryer or ideally eaten raw?

Leave me a comment in reply to this blog post so that I can keep them all together instead of risking losing them in my mountains of emails please?

TYSM

Opinions again please

Is it true that hot drinks in hot weather actually cool you down rather than make you even hotter because they force you to sweat more which cools you down please?

Leave me your thoughts and opinions in a comment to this post please!

Thank you so much

Opinions please!

Which is bigger - "a lot" or "significantly" please?

Drop me a message in reply to this blog post with what you think and if possible, why you think that too.

I think...

...and I'm about to jinx it, but I think I'm over the worst of the explosive diarrhoea now, so I'll try having the fruit for lunch tomorrow but no breakfast or boiled sweets to see how my body reacts to it.  If my bottom is OK then I'll try adding in the breakfast to the fruit for lunch on Monday but still no sweets and take it from there.  If my bottom is OK on Sunday and Monday then I'll know to avoid the sweets in future which will do my teeth good from so much less sugar lol  I think I've just gotta keep experimenting until I find what works for my body.

I've just done a quick online search and it looks like the boiled sweets are the most likely culprit, so I'll have to find something else to suck/chew on instead.  I can't have chewing gum because of it not being suitable for vegetarians (because of the crushed up cow's bones) and I can't have boiled sweets any more seemingly, so I'm looking for other ideas if anyone has any please?

Opinions please!

My OddBox was delivered yesterday including 2 cartons of wonky juice - there's an apple one and an orange one and I can't decide which to try first lol  I've also got another carton of cherry juice to get through too, so which one do I break open first when I've finished my current juice please?

Mornin' all

Well, it feels like I've barely slept because of the pain and my phone ran out of battery power overnight so it's getting some emergency juice.  I've got a Visible score of 1 out of 5 today, so won't be lapping or exercising and I've popped a paracetamol this morning, then set a reminder on Alexa to take another one in 5 hours time.

I've popped my morning pills (including the paracetamol), run the virus scan (which found an advanced issue) and had 2 bananas for breakfast along with a second glass of water.  I can't remember what I use the big knife for when I make my salads, but I'm gonna take things gently today.

I've decided against tidying the bedrooms and getting washed and changed until the pain has stopped, however long that takes.

Time to get today's breakfast photo up, then my day's to-do list then read another book methinks.  I'm pondering on phoning the pharmacy to see if they've got any other ideas about how to stop the pain, but I hate using the phone and I can't get down there if they suggest a treatment, so is it really worth it in the end?

BBS

Will I...

...need a coat today or is it warm enough to go without please?

Wet brain

A bit late for my first memoir (available on the Kindle, in paperback or hardback) but I discovered this afternoon that my main (ie Neurological) disability is also called "wet brain" and it affects several parts of my brain:  the "Thalamus (medial dorsal nuclei)", the "Hypothalamus (Mammillary Bodies)", the "Cerebellum" and the "Brainstem/Periaqueductal gray matter" and what I was put through at the hands of my fellow temp in my first job after moving in with Steve, could very well have started it or at least played a big part in the damage.

Should I start calling it "wet brain" to non-proffessionals so that that it feels more accessible than WKE or should I still keep spouting the mouthful of my diagnosis and watch as it goes flying over everyone's heads though?

Opinions please!

I'm thinking that...

...tomorrow's lunch will be a take-away so that I can still eat while I'm waiting for my deliveries.  

I'll finish off the fruit for breakfast then it'll be drinks until about 11.30am when I'll put in my take-away order (I'm thinking curry 'cos I haven't had that since 2022 and I wanna see if my belly can still cope with it) and get something to drink just to be sure... or maybe I shouldn't risk it and stick to a jacket potato or even a Burger King?  

What do you think I should do please?  Leave me a message in the comments with your ideas and reasons please?

I've only just seen...

...my predicted energy cost for the year starting 1st April 2026 and apparently I'll save around £141 until 31st March 2027 'cos the ofgem price cap has gone down apparently!

There has to be a catch, right?  Prices go up every year instead of coming down by almost £150, right?

How can I...

...stop snacking out of boredom/loneliness?

I'm absolutely fine when I'm around others, but when it's just me I'm constantly having to resist reaching for snacks, usually at least once an hour, every hour.

I'm not hungry 'cos I had a big lunch, but I've gone looking for something to snack on 3 times in the last hour and a half to two hours, which really isn't healthy.

Any ideas gratefully received!

Coco Mint and Radley

I think they are the brands of my two new glasses frames and I know they aren't as well known as other brands, but they are posher than NHS frames - but how much more well-known please?  Are they just the next level up or are they quite well-known brands in the glasses fashion industry please?

I'm fine with both glasses either way, I'm just wondering how up-market/fashionable/posh I'm being this year is all.

Opinions please?

Today's (15th February 2026) breakfast photo

Today's breakfast was healthy in the extreme 'cos it was 4 Kiwi fruits, 2 plumbs and 2 easy peeler clementines, washed down with a 250ml bottle of Tropical juice, so I've well and truly had my 5 portions of fruit today lol

When they are fresh, are Kiwi fruits supposed to be soft or quite hard please?  It was difficult to use the spoon on some of the halves is all and I'm not sure if that was just because I'm just so weak and feeble or if the fruit had gone past its best please?

Here's today's breakfast photo:

Medical records

Quick question:  where are childhood medical records kept if the child has grown up and moved to a different county please?

I've got my third and final memoir bubbling away but need my childhood medical records up to the age of 17 and I dunno where they are or even who to contact!  Did they move with me and I need to contact my local hospital again or did they stay where I spent my childhood please?

I've already got my non-NaNo26 novel planned out, so the memoir will be for non-NaNo27 but I wanna get it all planned out as soon as I can so that it's got time to fester and rot before I write it and my focus, right now, is on my non-Nano25 memoir, but it doesn't hurt to get things sorted early, right?

Do I...

...make a start on my next set of edits because I'm feeling particularly motivated atm, or should I be a good girl and go with my original plan of letting everything rest until February?

I think I did the first set of edits at the start of January (but could be wrong).  I want it to fester for at least a month before the next set of edits so that I can let it fester and be forgotten so that I can go into the next set of edits with a totally clear head and everything forgotten.

I want to make use of this motivation while it's here, just in case it's a struggle to get out of bed again in February, but I also want to be stricter with myself and wait for the month to get started on the second set of edits instead of doing it twice in one month.

Opinions please?!

A productive couple of hours

I've been contacted by the publisher about the not being able to read the DRC because of some techie issues and they've sorted it now, so I'm gonna start reading and reviewing it again tomorrow with hopefully a more than single star opinion this time.

I've also used the second product test and got a before and after photo to upload to the end of test survey.

As if that wasn't enough, I'm now officially booked in for the Air Source Heat Pump service next week, but I think I've already said about that.

Do I deserve a J2O for achieving so much this afternoon??

Opinions please!

I've got a choice between two drinks today - either my first caffeinated coffee of the week (I'm medically allowed up to 3 caffeinated drinks a week) or a creamy hot chocolate for the first time in 4 days.

I honestly don't mind either way, but the hot choccie involves opening a fresh tub of drinking chocolate and a new can of cream, which is fine by me, but the coffee sachets are already on the side so it's less to fiddle with while the kettle is boiling.

So come on, coffee or chocolate please?

Today's (8th December 2025) lunch photo

My lunch today was leftovers of 2 servings of a vegetarian Family Roast cooked in 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil and a serving of boiled carrots washed down with a 500ml glass of water.

Could I have used a squirt of vegan mayonnaise with this to give it a touch of moisture or is it a gravy only kinda meal please?

Here's today's lunch photo: