WWW's 10 year younger bootcamp, Oct 08, all welcome

[WideWebWitch]

Hello everyone, old and new.

This is about feeling better about yourself and looking and feeling better etc. But mainly we chat and laugh quite a lot, which has all got to help towards happiness etc.

The rules (anyone can join):

• Sunscreen at all times

• No or little booze. Wine or Champagne or whatever at the weekend is allowed if you want it

• Walking is important, a small amount every day if possible. 30 mins if you can

• Lots of water, aim for 2 litres a day

• Apply body cream as often as possible

• Use hand cream

• Go to bed early, by 10.30pm if pos

• Eat healthily

• Be happy

The idea is that we all feel happier, healthier and glow with the good food, sleep, exercise, water and lack of sun damage.

Some people are doing India and Neris's Idiot Proof Diet (Atkins, more or less), others are doing Slimy World, others are just being as healthy as possible.

Welcome everyone, have a good week.

Welcome Claudiaschiffer (Ds's playgroup leader used to say to all the children at playgroup "and who am I today?" and they would all shout "Claudia Schiffer"

lol at Guardian headline Eemie, did anyone see the front of The Times one day last week with The White House with storm clouds behind it? Very Independence Day, it is all terrifying isn't it? Dh and I did say yesterday that in a way we're glad we've got nothing as we literally have nothing to lose. We are very nearly debt free (and it's almost all on 0%) and have an ok income (fingers crossed, obv) but it is all v scary imo.

lol at Issy and Gordon joining us. I wonder if Sarah's a mumsnetter?

Drank wine again last night
oops
but had omelette for supper

and feeling happy today as it's Friday.

Actually I must add some Abba to my running tracks - I am obsessed with music to run to. It often involves bands I don't normally like but who have certain songs you just gotta move to (I'm talking about you Queen, for instance).

Claudia - acne in middle age is vile and unfair! I am using a supplement called Skin Perfection (snort) from Boots here and shall report back, but putting a thick layer of Sudocreme just before bed also seems to help - I guess it's the zinc oxide (are you an ex-pat or does none of this make sense?). I am also now cutting out all the dermabrasion stuff (except for once/twice weekly exfoliation) as I think I am being too harsh on my skin. I have used Liz Earle but it doesn't seem to make much difference and have gone back to Neutrogena which does seem to suit my skin.

WWW - we have mortgage but hardly any savings to worry about but there is definitely an atmosphere of Doom all round.

I have always thought that Brown needs to get acquainted with some Boing or similar under-eye concealer for those eye circles. His dog-tired eyes do make him look rather dozy and a little bit sly imo.

Couldn't go to gym today but have been walking to and fro from school (forgot book bag so had to had do it twice this morning plus pick up ds from nursery!) and what with collecting dd and going back for fireworks (!) later I should have walked at least 5.5/6 miles today. Have put chicken in slow cooker in anticipation of nice dinner and glass of wine after having got kids into bed tired from the fireworks [wistful emoticon]. and have succumbed to dandelion tea. Hold on, it's brewing, I shall just go taste some............well it's not as bad as I imagined. Let's see if it helps me wee the bloat away.

Happy Friday all!

Issy, was your 'do' the one where Gordon Made A Joke? Not rofl material exactly from what I read.

We now have two pitifully low offers, waiting for 'best and final' offers from each. Still have feeling either could easily evaporate, but less doom-ridden than I was.

Puppy much better - hasn't coughed or thrown up in 36 hrs. Going to take her out to woods now

And it's the weekend and my dsis arrives tonight with her family

hey well done on getting offers at all eemie!

I am eyeing up a bottle of wine that probably, by the end of this post, will no longer have a cork in it.

Had a relatively easy day at the office (for a change) so I am starting the weekend off feeling relaxed for the FIRST time in a very long time. Did watch the markets implode all afternoon though :-(.

Am off to a friend's tomorrow evening for dinner with the children as all the kids love X-factor which is great as it kills time while we can drink wine (and they are a short bus ride away so no driving!).

Sunday first proper day with dh since he's been back where we will actually see each other...so it's only been about a month . I just hope my bloody contraception holds out (have irrational fear having fallen pregnant on the pill before).

Anyway, on that rather crude note, I hope you all have lovely weekends. Is due to be 19C tomorrow - yes NINETEEN! Can hardly believe it.

Hello all

Last night drank loads of Cava, ate pizza and stayed up til midnight

but feel good today as it's Saturday and I only have 11 days of commuting left, yay!

Today (and yesterday, and day before etc etc) had two veggie juices (beetroot/celery/carrot/cucumber/courgette/broccoli/ginger/lemon/apple/alfalfa) and tonight pushed the boat out with a carrot, pepper, mushroom, tomato, cucumber, rocket, avocado and mixed leaf salad with a zero fat dressing [while DD and DP made snorting and truffling noises while they devoured steak, sausages, chicken rissoles and french bread to go with said salad].

During my phone interview on Thursday I got offered the job . My new manager said the magic words "I don't care where you work from as long as it gets done" and "if you have to work late you can take the next day off". Today I celebrated by shopping for 5 hours for new work clothes. I have chalked this up as today's exercise.

So, I managed to take two of DD's long holidays off and her short term. I start back at work the day after she starts term 4. I am being just ever so slightly pleased with myself.

My smug aura swiftly vanished in the 4 way, brightly lit changing room mirrors of doom as I tried to jemmy on skirts and do up blouses however, so my resolve is strengthened.

DD starts her first ever surf lifesavers tomorrow morning on the beach at 8.30am (on a Sunday! It's outrageous). It's a rite of passage apparently for Australians so very important.

Have put juicing photos on profile for those interested. I'm almost starting to enjoy not having sugar/carbs/fat/food/wine and the associated slumps/highs etc. Almost.

Although I can barely wait until I get back to the UK and have egg and chips in a gastro pub with one of those gigantic 250ml glasses of wine (they are 80ml here so you look like an alchie if you have more than 3 glasses - 240ml).

Congratulations on the job offer arfishy.

I have had wine only on 1 evening out the last 5 and am feeling strangely alert.

Dd is on a 3-night residential science/geog trip with her school so dh and I are going to the cinema to watch a 15 film.

I am eating very controlled amounts which I find is always easier to do when not cooking meals for growing children.

Congrats on job arfishy, sounds good.

Www, did you decide against job you were thinking about?

Sat up stupidly late yakking to dsis and drinking wine last night. Tried to make up for it today with healthy eating, loads of walking (in glorious sunshine) and a little swim.

Have cooked shepherd's pie to end all shepherd's pies for my nephews.

And have accepted an offer on house. SO now we have to wait and see...

Congrats Arfy on the contract and Eemie, fingers crossed re your house.

I have been offered another interview on Monday, but the contract involves a 450 mile a WEEK drive, so I'm going to decline it. The other company (where I've already had one interview and a phone interview) have come up with the budget but still want me to do a 2 hour test (and this is for a six month contract which would also be a 2hr per day commute so although I COULD do it it's not near enough to be the contract of my dreams) so I am going to say no to that too. Yay, long chat with dh about it this morning and feel relieved tbh.

So, having Nov and Dec off beckons, I am feeling quite pleased at the thought, spent time with ds and dd separately today and love their company so much and have missed them enormously over the last year while I've been working so hard.

Really rubbish today, have eaten loads of carbs and bacon and ex dh is here and we've just ordered lovely Chinese so Singapore noodles and duck and pancakes. Have just started on a glass of Cava so feeling very happy.

Rushed to get dd to a party this afternoon only to arrive to find the hall shut and no signal on my phone to call dh to ask him to check the invitation so walked home again with disappointed dd to discover it's tomorrow! Had been feeling so pleased with myself too for a) buying and wrapping present and card last week b) rsvp ing the day I got the invite c) buying dd party shoes (she only had school shoes) JUST before the party (well, what I thought was the party) and managing to make my transaction take about 2 minutes - "Please could we have these, in this size, we won't be trying them on, don't bother with the box, here's my card, I don't care what they cost, we want them now as we're in a rush, thanks" in a crowded shoe shop and d) knowing where I was going and being fairly sure of the time. Gah! Oh well, better than missing it I suppose!

So bootcamp bad, work life balance about to be good, husband and ex husband good, children wonderful, weekend enjoyable so far.

Hope everyone's having a good weekend. I will be seriously good again next week.

Hi all hope you've all had a good weekend. And can someone email and tell me what is going on with cod and MN? I saw a thread lamenting her departure, but being me, missed it all.

I've not had a great weekend really - we've had a really really stressful week, and Friday night after going to bed I had this really really awful and frightening panic attack thing - I'm SO not the sort of person who does this, but I didn't get to sleep till 5.30. Every time I got close to getting to sleep my heart started racing really fast, and I got really dizzy, and sick, then wide awake. I was CONVINCED I was going to die there and then, but reading up on the internet I think it was literally a panic attack. Which was REALLY horrible, and I'm sure a reaction to the stress of this week (can't really go into details on here, but is work-related and dh related, and has basically been going on for about 5 years, so long-seated stress.

If anyone has any really good relaxing tips I would be very grateful, as I'm really scared of going to bed, in case it happens again.

Hope everyone else is ok. x

Oh god TS, that sounds so awful, poor you and lots of sympathy, will think about it, how horrible. Just wanted to say xxx to that post. Will post more tomorrow.

Oo ts - so sorry to read that. Panic attacks are really not nice - I think the most important thing is recognising it for what it is. It does feel really horrible but holding on to the knowledge that it is panic even though you have true physical symptoms is a good start. You may not ever have another one - if you do try to focus on your breathing and keep calm. It will pass.

Not sure about the cod thing except that there was an odd post on her blog yesterday (basically the offical punishment for offensive message/calls via telecommunications) so I assume she's had some sort of offensive/stalkerish emails.

eemie - good luck with the house.

www - happy unemployment and well done on the job arfishy.

I'm off to the GP tomorrow after another nose bleed on Friday. They're not massive but bloody inconvenient and I've ended up not running in a planned 10k today despite glorious weather becuase I don't want to start another one off.

Hurrah for the new job Arfishy, and hurrah for the house offer eemie - fingers crossed for a successful sale.

Poor you TS, panic attacks are awful and very frightening. I used to have them about 10 yrs ago and it became very debilitating. If they continue I would suggest CBT (Cognative Behavioural Therapy) as it is very helpful for anxious states. But as in interim measure I found that being aware that it was a panic attack and that I wasn't going to die/go mad was a good thing - ie repeat as a matra "this will pass, it is a panic attack, I will not die" or something similar and calming. They are VERY frightening tho, and it is worth tackling the source of your stress - as I'm sure you are well aware (sorry to state the obvious). There are some very good books that I found helpful - will try to track them down on the bookshelves if you think it may help you.

I was reading the paper yesterday it had some good tips for weight loss. All fairly obvious but some may be useful . . .

Basically if you do the following you will find weight loss easier . . .

1. Keep a food diary
2. Measure your portions - don't go large
3. Eat regular meals - Don't go longer than 3hrs between feeds
4. Don't always finish everything on your plate
5. Avoid high-energy foods
6. Eat slowly and concentrate on your food - don't eat in front of the telly
7. Don't eat while stressed or bored
8. Plan food intake in advance

Basically the big idea was to KEEP A FOOD DIARY. Then you can easily see where you are going wrong - for me it is snacking whilst bored and not eating proper meals. I tend to chomp away all day then eat a small lunch/dinner but still eat too much overall ifswim.

Also do loads of exercise blahblahblah.

Yesterday

BAD
crispy roasted duck, omg, it was SUBLIME!
crispy roasted potatoes, the best I've done for ages
cranberry sauce with the duck
Cava, also with the duck
bacon sandwich
Maltesters
Iced gems
bed at 11 ish

lethal carb, sugar and alcohol combo basically + not enough sleep,

GOOD
carrots
peas (although both too carby for IPD)
green beans
broccoli
water
walked 6 miles
used sunscreen

So sorry to hear about the panic attack TS. I had one a good few years ago and it was terrifying. In my case it was down to being about to leave ex dh, having been out a lot nad not slept enough for ages and other stress. It was scary but I've never had one since (this was 2000 so 8 years ago). I think breathing deeply and telling yourself it will pass could help and I think you need to make sure you get enough sleep this week and eat well and generally look after yourself my love.

Saggars, sorry to hear of nosebleed too and your dd batters.

Ds will have re taken the 11+ - probably JUST finished it as I type this, it was this morning - so fingers crossed he did ok. He seemed unconcerned, hmm.

I walked 2 miles this morning after dropping the children, very lovely autumnal walk along an avenue of green and gold trees, very uplifting.

I will be better this week!

Just popping on v quickly as DS is stirring but wanted to join the panic-attack chorus - I had one a couple of weeks ago (hmmn: leaving DP, arranging childcare for DS, moving into my sister's with a 6mo, no sleep ... can't imagine what brought it on) ( and a watery ). Agree with others - it was horrible and I thought I was going to die. Meh. Have found since that bootcamping(!) and general self-love (no giggling at the back - talking hot baths and healthy food here ) have helped.

Bootcamp-wise, an absolute disaster of a weekend. Dinner last night was - and I think this deserves and all-time-bootcamp-low drumroll - two fried egg sandwiches. Feeling a little disgusted with myself today. But did have a credit-crunch-chic clothes swapping party at a friend's on Sat night, which was great - got rid of lots of old non-fitting, non-suiting clothes, and got some nice things back. Hurrah. In other news - I am full of cold and cross. And DS Keeps Waking Up at 5.30am. Something must be done (earplugs? )

Oh TS that sounds awful, how frightening. All I can think of to help is a relaxation CD for you to listen to in bed, they're quite effective - Paul McKenna does them IIRC.

Thank you all for the well wishes. I'll be back whining about work/life balance before the week is out.

WWW - I've really enjoyed my time off, it was lovely to be able to spend these last two holidays with DD and be there at school at 2.40 each day. I have learned so much from this time off - I will definitely be taking much more time off between contracts in future. You'll love taking the next 2 months off. Aside from spending loads of time with dd, I've got on top of things, like DD's wardrobe and toy stash, all the sort of things that you just don't have the time or inclination to do if you only have 2 days with the DC at the weekend. Although I do have to say I'm pretty pleased at being able to get the cleaners back in.

I've just found some more juicing people on one of the slimming threads. We are the new in-crowd . Although DP has brought home an amazing new low-carb recipe book full of the most gorgeous food I'm almost tempted.

Nippers on Sunday was amazing. We were down at the beach at 8.30 and stayed for about 5 hours. It was sweet to see all the little 5 year olds practicing their life saving!

Morning all, and big kisses to all the panic-attack survivors, am so sorry to hear this. TS will mail you XXX but have to say gals, I think a panic attack is an entirely rational response to the stress you have both been under.
Bootcamp not great this weekend, but damn, that Sticky Toffee brick pudding was good. Not garnished with fried eggs however.
Spent entire weekend escorting dcs from pillar to post - ballet, tennis, parties x 2, church and am fairly zombified.
Am feeling slightly less stressed though and have prospect of a week off next week to keep me going.
Have done very little of merit this am . Must try harder.
Hope those with flu and nosebleeds are soon back in fighting or running form.

Selfishly posting here to just log own achievements, or lack of. Last week was rubbish.

Lots of hard-labour gardening over the weekend. Food, water & moisturiser good. Dry hands are improving. A very measly one mile run this morning, I've become very unfit and will have to make more effort into finding time to run. Hopefully swimming later.

I'm very off MN at the moment, not so much the trolls as the response they get. So many MNers seem to love the excitement, so they fuel the nasty threads by posting on them again and again and then start new threads to discuss how awful it was afterwards . It's just crap. And the debates all descend into lunacy within minutes. So I'm only staying for bootcamp, chickens and comedy.

you poor things ts and L&S - CBT type therapy really will help - I've just bought a great book for dd called "what to do when you worry too much" and whilst it's a bit American it really is a great simple intro to CBT - basically,

Use logic against worries
Lock worries up in a strong box in your head
Make them wait for worry time
Tell worries to get lost
Move your body to re-set your system
Switch the TV channel in your head from a worry to a favourite memory.

batters, I do hope it works out for you and dd. I do think part-time is sometimes the worst of both worlds - the stress of work (because I bet you aren't great at ignoring work thoughts on your days off) without the full-time salary. Is there any way you can try and get something full time but negotiate extra holiday so you at least get longer breaks and don't have the holiday childcare nightmare?