Hannah's Meanders

January 2010 is the restart of several things for me.

The first one is that I’ve started learning to drive again (barely a restart, I only had 12 hours of lessons, and they were almost 12 years ago). In order to get the girlchild to school from September I need to be able to drive so I’ve had to bite the bullet and go for it! My instructor seems like a nice guy, very much an Essex bloke. We had the first introductory/assessment lesson and booked in four more, all of which have since been cancelled! The first two due to the snow/ice, the third as another pupil had their test rearranged (again due to the weather) and wanted a last minute extra lesson and the fourth because my instructor’s sister was taken ill. I have another lesson this evening – I hope it’s not cancelled as well.

The second is a complete restart. I’ve put on more weight since the boychild was born than I did when pregnant with him! Clearly that’s not right. I’ve tried to watch what I’m eating at home but with no accountability it simply wasn’t working. I joined a new Slimming World class this morning and have paid in advance for 12 classes. I have to get myself sorted. I’m only 4lb less than the highest I’ve ever been. I need to lose almost 3 stones just to get to the top end of the healthy BMI range. As well as being very unhappy with the way I look I’ve started to get more aches and pain in my hips, knees and ankles. I have a history of cartiledge problems in my left knee and some hypermobility in some of my joints, combining those with carrying too much weight is I think the root of the pains. I’m hoping that losing the weight will help the aches and pain  as well as making me feel better about myself.

Along similar lines I’m determined to work harder at cooking ‘proper’ food for the girlchild. I’m relying on pre-prepared bits for far too many meals, whether it’s tins of beans and sausages (a big favourite!), cheap sausage rolls, pizzas, pasta sauces or fish fingers and chips. I hate that I end up doing it, I want the girlchild (and the boychild) to have a healthier relationship with food than I do. I know part of the problem is timing, at lunch we only have a hour in the house some days between nursery and going out to a session at the Sure Start centre, it’s not a lot of time to get as decent lunch made and eaten (especially when the boychild and I are out of the house all morning at different hings too so I can’t prepare much in advance). I’m hoping making sure I eat a healthy lunch will help, I need to work on tea time as well (she tends to eat between 4 and 5, Mr H and I don’t usually eat until after 7 so we’re not likely to have the same). I’m not a very adventurous eater and neither is the girlchild, we know what we like and stick to it. I want to challenge us both and cook something different at least once a week.

I’m going to try and keep the blog a bit more up to date and, especially for the last of the restarts, try to keep track of how things are going. I might even try and record the recipes I try on here every week…