New year resolutions. Do you make them? And if you do, do you stick to them? And for how long? Sorry for the questions but this issue does intrigue me. I thought I would do some research into the origin of them and found out with the help of the indomitable AI that they date back over 4,000 years to the ancient Babylonians, who made promises to their gods during the 12-day Akitu festival for a favourable new year, promising to repay debts or return borrowed items.

First, I’d just like to say that I am not Mrs Grinch at Christmas time. I love Christmas. I love the lights, the music and the general festiveness of it all. I enjoy popping into town and seeing all the shops decorated and the Xmas market stalls brimming over with useless … sorry I did slip a bit then! But yes, overall, it is a lovely time of year.

As you know, if you have read my blog before, my favourite form of travel is cruising. I love nothing more than a trip by boat, waking up in a new place every day. I recently went on a cruise for a week that would take us to France and Spain. So, a nice, relaxing trip, visiting some lovely cities in the fresh, October air.

I’m not a big fan of flying. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that I hate flying. I’m not one of those people who feel that their holiday starts as soon as I get on the plane. To me it is merely a necessary form of transport to get me to my holiday destination as quickly as possible.

I really didn’t think that I would ever dedicate an entire blog post to any one particular artist or performer but of everyone I think that Taylor Swift warrants it and there is a tenuous link to my favourite form of low carb bread here too! I have to confess to being a complete and utter Swiftie. I have all her albums, have seen her Reputation tour and was extremely privileged to have been able to go to the Eras tour last year.

So, it’s now time to seriously think about our autumn/winter wardrobe, and be honest, are you panicking about it slightly? Apparently, there is an actual thought process that makes us worry when we think of what we are going to wear when it comes to a change of season. After all that’s totally normal. We go from wearing bright colours and soft fabrics to more muted shades and thicker, heavier fabrics.

A short while ago I was looking online for some potential summer dresses to take away on my next trip and I came across a dress I really liked. It was blue, light, midi length with straps and perfect I thought for a summer break. But as I was going to put it in the magical basket, I stopped myself with this one question, Is it too young for me?

To be honest, I’m not even sure that I have the right name for it. What I’m referring to is the type of leisure wear that we see being worn all around us every day. The crop tops, tight fitted leggings and trainers’ outfits that most young people in the UK seem to be wearing. I’m trying not to sound like an old fogey here, but why?

I love clothes, as you’ve no doubt gathered. What I love most is the discovery of clothes. Different fabrics, colours and styles. The choice that you can be a different person with the clothes that you wear and the colours you choose. Clothes are sadly very expensive and as I have a very short attention span i am constantly looking for new things, more so than my bank balance can afford. 

I have recently come back from a cruise holiday that was lovely. I know that is quite an obvious thing to say, but as we all know some holidays are not always so great. It’s just that I love cruises, I mean I really love cruises. My love for them goes back quite a few years now to when I went on my first trip.

A few years ago, I was diagnosed with a lower back condition called Facet joint arthritis, meaning that I was in a lot of pain even after walking a few yards. Being overweight clearly wasn’t helping and I thought that was how life would continue. When I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and I started on my weight loss journey, I noticed I was starting to walk a little bit more each week.

I was thinking that I would talk a little bit today about the difficulties that you face with hunger and snacking when you embark on a weight loss /wellness programme. You never get to the stage when you think, well that’s it, I’ve done enough, I can ease off now. It’s something that you live with constantly particularly when you lose a lot of weight and are concerned about putting it back on and your health being affected.

So, I was feeling a bit tired the other day and everything, including the sky, seemed a bit grey and I was wondering what to wear. I decided to put on my favourite george@asda cream and red jumper, and my leopard print jeans and I don’t know why but I did feel a lot better. I started to think about the whole concept of dopamine dressing, something you can read quite a lot about lately.

In my last blog post I spoke to you about how I’ve changed what I eat for breakfast and lunch, so now it’s time to talk about the main meal of the day. Like I said previously, whatever time you eat your main meal doesn’t matter but what does count is what you eat and the balance that it is important to achieve.

So, a little while ago I started to talk about my low-carb diet, and I’ve been asked a few times to go into a bit more detail on the kind of foods that this may include. It’s hard to detail everything but I will talk about the kind of foods I eat daily and what I try to avoid. Breakfast turned out to be one of the hardest to deal with.

There has been a lot of press attention around actress Pamela Anderson of late, and it’s not, maybe for the first time, referencing her former Baywatch days. Ms Anderson has decided that she does not want to wear make-up and has graced Paris Fashion week and other events with her make up free face. Her intentions were, she claims, that she wanted attention to be on her clothes and her natural self and not on her face.

Photo by Gonzalo u00c1lvarez Balcazar on Pexels.com Lots of people have asked me since I started this wellness journey in October 2023 what advice I received after I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. I thought that I would just put down some of the areas that helped me in the beginning and what information I found useful as I started all of this.

Photo by Andre Furtado on Pexels.com So, I read not long ago that apparently it is not deemed appropriate for a woman over 40 to wear red lipstick. Who came up with that I don’t know but as I thought about it, it just made me think about how many other rules there are about what we should or shouldn’t wear or how we look when we reach a certain age.

When I first started to reduce my carb intake it was with an aim to lose weight and hopefully reduce my sugar levels. What an absolute minefield it was though! Food that I had barely paid attention to in the past, I found contained carbs, and lots of them! A simple banana can contain at least 10 carbs, depending on its size.

Photo by SHVETS production on Pexels.com Sorry but it is Blue Monday and I feel like a bit of a rant coming on Does anyone else feel that the sizing of clothing brands is still ridiculously varied? I can go from a size 12 in one store to a 16 in another on virtually the same item of clothing. Why do manufacturers do this?

If you look at the photo on my bio, you can see the beautiful, colourful scarf I’m wearing. I love it so much and I wear it a lot, probably too much! It’s from a fashion brand called Scamp and Dude, who are known from their colourful leopard print designs with their trademark lightning bolt. @Scamp and Dude hold a special place in my heart.