Rock of 'gages cleft for me, let me hide my fruit in thee - 10/10 club, all welcome :o)

[TooTicky]

For anyone who wants a boost to their general health. The suggested goals are:

EAT 10 PORTIONS OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES EVERY DAY - if you don't usually eat much fruit and veg I would build up gradually or you could upset your digestion.

DO (AT LEAST) 10 MINUTES OF EXERCISE EVERY DAY - can be yoga, stretching or something more energetic. The plan is that the idea of doing 10 minutes is not too daunting, and having started you may well find you want to do more.

There are no restrictions on what you eat so long as you get your 10 fruit and veg as well. The focus is not on weight loss but on improving our energy levels and hopefully our general mood and well-being. Sign up below and post here to tell us how you're getting on and how you are feeling.

Basic guidance on what constitutes a portion of fruit and veg here and you can download more detailed information by following the link at the very bottom of the page.

100x, it doesn't look as if today will work out
Now, your pie - if you're doing it properly, you simmer the cores and peelings in water with sugar and cinnamon sticks and then sieve it and pour it over the apples in the dish. And you absolutely have to make pastry apples and leaves for the top. Good luck!

I have been very bad indeed. Maybe I was missing you all. I won't even meention dinner but breakfast was five slices of white bread and butter with marmite. I was shovelling it in. Revolting sight.

ooohhh yes boco the alliteration is fab

So - I am in need of help - I am a vegetarian and my diet has become very poor of late.

And I no longer exercise.

I feel lethargic and yucky

Can I be saved?

I hope so, Gibbon, I too need saving.

I was only there for a week as part of an inter-raily type holiday but it has left a big impression.
Franny, come and clean my house instead. I can guarantee it needs it more than yours. You can see my bathroom and admire the mould

MrsCarrot, and your name sounds so healthy too

Gibbon, do you eat a lot of dairy? Giving up dairy was one of the best things I have ever done. I feel so much cleaner inside. Cutting down is good too - I think vegetarians often become overly dependent on dairy products.

One of dd2's favourite songs atm is the Funky Gibbon.

Yes everyone can be saved. Here is the plan:

Everyone go out today and tomorrow and buy lots of fruit and vegetables that you like and that you will actually eat. You need lots and lots of them and nice varieties that will tempt you.

IMO you need to eat a good ration of fruit at breakfast time. Fruit juice or smoothies can help you pack it in if you don't feel like eating much. Then with lunch you should have something vegetably, eg soup, or salad, or raw veg, or beans, or whatever. But if you don't have any veg at lunchtime I feel it becomes a struggle to fit it in.

Dinner should probably have something beany or lentilly in it, ideally, and plenty of veg either in the meal or on the side. Think of HC's description of the greengrocer's wet dream A couple of pieces of fruit, fresh or dried, as a snack or for pudding and you should be away.

I too need bootcamp. I am eating very badly indeed. I have just lost my rag totally with a baby would wouldn't go down for his nap, yelling "I'll beat 7 shades of sh*t out of you if you don't shut up now". I am on the edge of a pyschotic episode. And the windows were open so all my neighbours must have heard and will be phoning Social Servies any minute. I think bad diet is increasing the unhingedness in addition to everything else. I know i shouldn't speak to anyone like that least of all a one year old and you'll probably expel me from the thread. I feel exhausted and ill and about to flip. I think I have turned into my mother and my child will be damaged for life.

yes, it does, doesn't it? Hmm, I tend to live my life by extremes. One week I'm all quinoi and carrot shavings and the next, it's all champagne swilling, almond pastry stuffing gluttony.

Possum you poor bugger. How horrible for you. Is it tiredness or are you depressed or just struggling generally?

Possum - oh dear, you sound very down, it's the tiredness is it?

I am trying to do a full time job and look after my baby and the house is being renovated and my mother is being more evil than usual and I can't stop crying. I do feel rather peculiar. I am surviving on about 3 hours sleep a night. And I love my baby so much and he is the last person on the person i should be cross with.
I need fruit and vegetables, lots of them.
I'm not exercising at all but mysteriously the weight is falling off me.

Oh possum - you sound very down and with no surprise considering all that is going on at the moment.

Sleep deprivation is utter torture

He knows you love him. Don't worry about that, you are a wonderful mother, trying your best to do what you think is right but you are only human. I guess you have to work full time if you are but it must be a great strain. Is there any help you can get?

Oh Possum you do sound down, - what would help? You really need a bit more support don't you - does anyone help with the baby? Why so little sleep? Do you think you're depressed and might need to see GP?

Am just checking in as no email TooT - a no show then? Shame, but thank you for the pie tips, I shall do that then.

Possum - how grim, I am sorry. You are clearly exhausted. Nobody can work full-time and have a mad mother AND a one y-o AND survive on three hours sleep without going a bit crazy.

YOU are a Hawthorn, because you thought of it and it was beautiful, and sometimes even Hawthorns shout and say mean things without turning into their mothers.

Mrs C - Oh hoorah. I have missed you.

Am back to work now.

Yes the other stuff you do for him is the important stuff not the shouting episode.

I am not surprised you feel a little peculiar on 3 hours sleep, you will be going slowly mad. How can you get more sleep? This is urgent, you need to do something drastic and immediate so you can feel better.

I can't find the analogy that Possum said, I think I missed it when I was scanning and ranting yesterday. I shall keep looking, but if anyone find the post could you direct me?

ah i have found it

"100X, your comments are really thought provoking about how we define that line which lies between providing boundaries in accordance with our values, like a hawthorn hedge (a bit prickly but with blossom, a part of the landscape and a haven for the entire ecosystem plus means of wriggling through if you really must) and building the Berlin Wall with broken glass on top, machine guns mounted and guard dogs snarling - i.e. becoming controlling and dictatorial."

how brilliant

sorry i missed it, I just homed in on the therapy bit and ranted some more

Have to go now - hope you manage to get some rest possum.

Thanks for the tips - will make myself a jasmine tea and tackle the housework (deep joy)

My F&Z email is locking me out atm, but I have received money for the meet up from

avi
FK
PSW
Boco
and Tatties so far

If you have emailed me about it and haven't heard anything, sorry - I will keep trying and switch to a different email if it doesn't work soon

and if anyone wants a cheap hotel room Greeny's one is still going spare

My full time job is a PhD for which I have a government scholarship with a strict deadline for submission. They allow one year's maternity leave and that's it, no option for part time after that. We have just moved and DS is very unsettled by that, as am i probably, so I'm not ready to find child care for him yet, one change at a time. I love my work and i love caring for DS, I could even manage on little sleep as I have a lot of drive but the problem is probably my mother. If you don't have mothering yourself as a mother, one's resources are stretched very thin and I find myself resenting DS for requiring the energy that I need for myself to keep going, I don't have any spare for him.
Honestly, i do think a better diet would help a lot as my mood swings are smoothed out when my blood sugar levels are even.
I am going to do as Franny said and focus on making big batches of soup for the freezer and getting in lots of fruit for breakfast. I am a veggie and Toot is right that hence I am too dairy dependant which makes me feel clogged up and icky. i need to embrace lentils with fervour.

Any favourite veggie cookery books to recoomend?

Possum, where are you? You're not near here are you? Wish I could help in some way.

100x, I feel very anti-climax. I shall unpack my bag