Great weight loss going on

Yeah right! Below you can see what my weight was this morning. It´s working….not!

77,0 kg

This calls for a new approach on thing I think.

I will come back later…..

//Anna

First day accomplished!

I did it! I have been at work for the first time since 2006. I had a great time, everyone was so nice and polite and it felt really good. My head felt like a watermelon when I was going home today because of all the new things I heard and from trying to remember all the new names and faces, but other than that it was just great!

Me and the girls had a fun afternoon – singing and dancing in the living room. It felt different to be away from them all day and then have a great time in the evening. I hope they felt as good as I did.

Well, I will go to bed now and tell you more about my daily life tomorrow

 

//Anna

New life begins….

I am going to tell you what my weight is because I did say yesterday that my new life was beginning today. And since I know I am overweight (maybe not to the extreme) there is still a lot to get rid of.
76,9 kg

If I can remember I will enter my weight here as often as possible and this might be a boost for me to really loose it. I think I need about 10 kg to feel very pleased with myself and it is not a unrealistic goal at all. I am only 166 cm tall so there is even more to take off I suppose but 10 kg is a very good start.
What will help me?
This blog – hopefully
My training program
Being stubborn
Only having good food at home and not falling for buying things that are not good for me. I think that is my biggest problem. I walk around the store and don’t really have a plan for what to buy and I just end up with everything and nothing.
I have started my day with a nice bowl of yoghurt and bran flakes, coffee and a brown toast. (Know the toast is not the best but I did not have any other kind of bread at home, will buy that really nice brown rye bread next time I´m going to the grocery store.)
Off to work in a bit.
See ya!

Last day of freedom!

This is it! Tomorrow is the big day. It is going to be so nice to start working. I know it sounds really weird to be excited about this but I am……My little girls are not! Both of them started crying today when we were talking about me going into work tomorrow. They really do not understand why I have to go back full time. On the other hand they are both in school now so it is not like they need me the same way any longer.

And this also means that my new life is starting. Will start training again. I am going to work on that jogging plan that I have which is really good and working really well when you haven´t been jogging for a long time.

I also must tell you about a thing that I got from my friend in the UK. She was here visiting this summer and she had a Tangle Teezer. I have never seen or heard about them before but it is just amazing how good it is. I bought the two colours of the childrens version from this website, beautybay.com to give to my girls and I must say that it is really working with hair that is all full of tangles.

If you have loads of tangles in your hair you just must try this one. You will not regret it!

 

See you soon. Will tell you all about my first day

//Anna

Time to work with my horse again

My lovely horse, my Arab mare has come back from her summer field. She has been there for more than two months just grazing and having a good time with her friends.

I have not had her very long and before the summer I tried mostly to get to know her and to establish some sort of relationship between us. I think working from the ground with your horse actually gives you a lot. She is only 3,5 years old so I have a lot of time. She is still growing, will do for another couple of years, and I need to get used to having a horse again. My family needs to get used to it also.

I will start again now and try some things I have read about and hopefully I will get her to understand what I want her to do and we will be able to get to the riding part soon!

 

Tell you all about how it goes soon again!

 

//Anna

Time to think about Christmas

I can´t believe I am saying this but it is really time to start thinking about Christmas. I realized that yesterday when I saw some really nice yarn in the shop and thought about what I could knit from it.

The reason I think about this is because I really think the knitted garment is the ultimate Christmas gift!

I think two very nice hats for my girls. The yarn is in a very nice reddish-pinkish colour and is mostly acrylic which is good since we do not want any itchy hats for wintertime. I am thinking about a nice slouchy beret style of hat.

I am going to see what pattern I can find and show you it here on the blog and hopefully I will also be able to show a finished product for you. Hopefully before Christmas……

The other thing I have been doing today is going to the hairdresser and I can honestly tell you I am not pleased at all! I have not had a style for a very long time (read 10 years) just had it cut and long. And it has worked but now I really feel that I need a change. Might have something to do with me getting back to work on Thursday or just me getting older, I don’t know really. I have had some comments about cutting it short because I am now over 40 but I cannot do that! Not yet.

Will come back later with that pattern for you and hopefully a picture of the yarn.

 

Bye for now

//Anna

How many jobs are there today?

In Sales, Purchase or Marketing , Stockholm city with counties, 1427 jobs. (Mark that this number is only taken from the Swedish Arbetsförmedlingen, there are many other sites where you can put an ad out when in need of personnel)

If you look at the ads for those jobs many of them do not require any prior experience. And if there are about 17 % unemployed young people (under 25, whole of Sweden) this is just telling me that people are not desperate enough to try and get jobs, they rather be unemployed.

I think this is a generation and a moral question really! When I grew up there was not any question about finding a job, if that meant we had to move to another city or anything like that, you would do that. And the other thing was to accept any job you could get! You had to start somewhere even if that could be cleaning hotel rooms….

And sorry to say maybe, but I really feel that this is a problem created by this unemployed generations parents really!

 

Bye!

3 days left

of freedom!

I am only kidding. I´m looking forward to going back to work. But I think it will be exhausting, interesting, mind blowing and any other word I can think of!

Today is going to be a working day. I am going out to cut the lawn, it has not been done for two weeks, and then I will go to the shops for some groceries. I need to buy everything for the week because I will not have the time to do anything after I have started working on Thursday. It feels good to do two days and then have the weekend off, makes it a little easier the first couple of days. I mean I haven´t been in an office working since 2006!

Since the economics are as they are I am also thinking of trying to get some extra jobs done. Have anyone tried Real Writing jobs? Or any other site were one could earn some extra money?

Any tips are welcome!

 

See you soon!

All is calm

Everyone else is still asleep. We are out in the summer house probably for the last time this season. The weather outside is not the best. Windy and wet.

My coffee have never tasted better this early in the morning. I love being up before everyone else. I think I like it because I can here all the sounds around me that I cannot do when the family is awake. The girls make such noise that you hardly here yourself thinking.

This is my little slice of peace …..

I´m back……

or at least I am trying to be. I cannot say that I have missed blogging because I have been really really busy. Moving, starting children in school and nursery, being on summer holiday (that is really time consuming and hard, you should try it!) and just trying to not do to much!

But now I am back blogging and will try to do this as often as possible.

I am also starting work soon, after being a stay at home mum for the past 5 years I am a bit nervous about this I can tell you, but it is also very very exciting!

For one reason it is nice to know that someone wants to hire me after being away from the market for five years and second it is just nice to be able to get out there and talk to adults!

When it comes to me being hired this brings to mind that there are a lot of people out there with no jobs. The thing that bothers me about this is because when I was looking for a job I found that there were so many jobs out there that it does not feel like anyone should be without one! Does this make sense? I admit the jobs where not the best paid ones or the most funny jobs you could have but they were actual jobs! This is telling me that there are a lot of people out there without jobs who really do not want to work. Is that possible? Who would not want to have job if unemployed? One day I was looking at Stockholm and sale jobs and that day there were over 600 ads for jobs just around Stockholm and this was only on the unemployment's office website, there are so many more places to place your ads.

It really makes me angry because when I grew up there was never any doubt that you would take any job that you could get. Better to work and be able to show that you had been doing something with your time than not been doing anything. In your CV a space will look bad, and you can bet that if you have a space they will ask you what you did then, but if you were at least cleaning hotel rooms or flipping burgers you will get no questions about why you chose to do that! That is at least my experience from interviews with employers.

Well I think I have been writing some of my daily anger off and will now have a nice cup of coffee.

I will write soon so be patient and do come back for more if you dare too!

Bye, bye

Finally out at the summer house again

After almost a year of bad weather and just wintertime we are finally out at summer house again. It feels like it has been a very long winter. We have also decided to move back to Sweden. We came in April and it feels really great, sad to leave good friends in England but really nice to be back in good old Svedala (Swedevalley) as we sometimes name it. It is just a nickname for Sweden, widely used by everyone I think.
I have also bought myself a horse. I just couldn't think of not continuing with horses again when coming back home. Looked a long time for something to share but that is not as easy as you might think. There are s lot of ads from people wanting to have someone help them with their horse but they usually want to have some sort of payment for it. Which I don't really get, if I need help with my horse I should pay you? Not the other way around. But I could not find anything that I really liked and I did not really find anything were I could just ride the horse like I wanted to. The owner usually have his or hers specific ways to how to ride their horse. I am just too old for that and I really don't need anyone to tell me what to do anymore!!!!
Her name is Michayla and she is a three year old Arab. She is the most beautiful horse I have ever seen! She seems to have a really good temper, I have only had her four days so I can't really say yet, but I think she has all the potential to become a very nice horse in whatever sport I would like to do. I am leaning towards endurance riding since that is what the Arab is good at and I must say I like they way you train your horse to become an endurance horse.
Anyway, I will write to you soon again about the island and my new horse.
See you

Lovely day today….

so far anyway!

Its a bit cold today but it is not too bad. We have had some warm weather a time now and you can actually see bulbs coming up in the beddings around the house! It is almost spring already, I cant believe it!

My little girl has one of her friends over for a play date and they are so funny when they are playing. Apparently they are playing dogs at the moment, one of them is in the dog park making a poo! The imagination they have……

I have had a set back when it comes to my weight loss, I just cannot make it when I am alone at home (my husband has been working abroad this whole week) I seem to just fetch everything that we have in the cupboards and stuff in my mouth! It is really depressing! And it is not like I don't know that what I am doing is wrong. Of course I do, I am 41 years of age and I think I know almost everything there is to know about loosing weight and nutrition. Even though I am not a nutritionist I have been interested in my weight and health for the last 20 years so I would say I am qualified!

I will try and get back into the mood of loosing weight again, making some nice food for us all and see if I can get this going again! It is hard work everyday and I think that is what puts me off. This is a never ending story for me, for the rest of my life and the thought of that is just exhausting!

My sister has joined the weight watchers online and it is working very well for her. I might think about that as well. I will let you know what will happen.

Talk to you soon again. Going to get a fat free cup of coffee know……..

More fish to the people……

Have you heard of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls Fish fight? If you haven't you should really have a look at either the show at Channel 4 or go to www.fishfight.net and join the fight for the completely senseless waste that is happening within the fishing industry. Tonnes and tonnes of good eating fish is discarded back to the seas because of the quota system.

This must be one of the most disrespectful and unbelievably horrific things I have ever seen and heard about. Perfectly fresh and eatable fish is to be left in the sea to rot. Did the people who decided about the quotas not anticipate this? How could that be?

I do understand that we need to take care of the diversity of species we have in our seas but there must be a better way than this which is actually killing off tonnes of the fish that we are trying to save by having quotas. Talk about a catch 22! 

 

Signing off – talk to you another day! Do not forget the Fish Fight

Birthday

It's my birthday today! I'm turning 41 and I feel like I'm no more than 25. Is that fair do you think? Sometimes I think life goes too quickly and sometimes it can't go fast enough! Do you think it is like that for the rest of your life?
There is a lot of questions going on tonight......
Might be that crisis that people are talking about when you turn 40!

I have had a really nice day though which started with home-made chocolate cake in bed at 7 o'clock (which I had made myself but anyway)and some really nice gifts. I did the schoolrun and after that I went up to the horses and fed them. I was thinking about riding but the rain was just poring down so it made more sense to go home, relax and have a cup of coffee. I did enjoy that I must say, the rain tapping on the roof and complete silence in the house. That is rare , believe you me.
Now I am having my second glass of wine and I starting to feel a bit tipsy.....

I think I might just write more tomorrow.

Got a new phone

Got the new iPhone 4 for Christmas. It's amazing and beautiful and I am almost scared to use it! The screen is very bright and really amazing on such a small little thing. I am actually writing this post from the phone and it is not hard work either! I wont be writing a very long post tonight but I think this is really fantastic. So far the only bad thing about this phone is that it is beautiful and I am somewhat scared to drop it all the time......

I can report on my weight as well, I have not yet gone down more but I also haven't gained anything so I am happy. I also got back on the horse today so hopefully this is going to help shift the weight too.

Well....talk to you soon!

Long time ago now…….

It has been a very long time since I wrote anything on this blog. Life has sort of come in the way of everything. Nothing special, it has just been so much going on after the summer finished.

And frankly I was not sure I did the right thing writing a blog. For whom am I writing this? For myself or everyone else? It is a good question, right? I would say it is all for me and for no one else but why would I start a blog since the blog phenomenon is all about sharing!! It is a bit confusing…….

Anyway - I have yet another time started to try and loose weight! Yeah! I know, again….it is the curse of the female body. You need to be (as a mother) nurturing and caring and when you take care of all and everyone around you you need to cook good and nourishing food but you cannot EAT any of it because then everything is just piling up!!!! Life sucks! I love food but I really have a bad relationship with it. This time I will try and loose weight together with my sister who also has a slight weight problem.

My sister is very determined and cannot see a failure so I am hoping some of that determination will rub off on me. It has gone very well so far. I weighed myself in on 75,8 kg, which is an all time high. And now I have gone down to 72,3 kg. And this over Christmas time, so I am very happy about this. I will just take one day at a time and see what happens. But this is not only for beach 2011 this will have to be for the rest of my life. I know that I have not been very determined in the past and mostly because it is hard to do everything all the time. Taking care of a family and everything that comes with that it has been hard to put another thing to do on top of everything.

I will also try and get some more stuff out on this blog – hopefully give you a little bit more to read and maybe some really useful stuff as well!

See you soon!

The elections are over…….

Sweden’s political election is over! The blue side won (right wing), although not with full power, and their is total chaos following this not just because there is not a majority but also because people have elected another party who are a bit radical in their beliefs.

The counting of all votes is not really over because of the postal votes and the votes who are coming from abroad. It may take until Thursday before they have counted all the votes. And if the right side is really lucky they might actually get another two mandates and then they will be in majority. Which would be amazing! I like the right side, they have done really good things for Sweden the last four years. Even though there is people who will show something else and worse things have happened the fact is that they have put pressure on people to work, not to stay on benefits, and to take charge of their own lives! And of course that is going to hurt some parts of the population. Anything else would be weird. People on benefits don’t want to hear that they are going to loose their benefits if they do not get up from their bums and make an effort to find a job, any job! Or move to where there are jobs! What is the problem with that? Swedish people must be the most lazy and ungrateful people on the planet at the moment! And that is only one of the things that have changed. Some people do not do well with change, do they? I suppose that is why the socialist have done so badly the last two elections, they have stayed in an old way of politics and haven’t really seen that the world have changed outside their window. Pathetic!

The other thing that you notice when reading comments in the internet newspapers is how many people who seem to change their mind every four years! How do you change political direction every four years? Isn’t that weird as well?

Well enough about politics, I am going to try a new recipe for cupcakes, sticky toffee pudding cupcake……mmmmmmmm.

Talk to you later!

There is going to be some changes coming!

From next week we will be back in the UK again and with this there will also be some changes. One thing that I very foolishly have done is to enter a bet with my sister to loose 8kg until November when we are going on a vacation together! She will probably be very successful and I will not! I have the worst of character ever known to mankind. If I see something to eat it goes down. And it has become worse over the years. First I blamed everything on the pregnancies (as every woman does I think), you know breastfeeding and that, but after the two I had it sort of did not stop! And it has just become worse these last 5 years. I am now at my heaviest ever in my life. I weigh about 75 kg and that would be about 15 kg too much for me.

Now some people would probably say that it does not seem like a problem, there are people who are much heavier, have real problems with there weight and so on. And I feel for them, weight problems are real, dangerous and really exhausting problems. And for some very hard and psychological. But do you know what? It really does not matter to me because it does not take my problem away. To know that there are other people with the same problem like me does not make it easier for me, it’s just sad!

From next week there will be some changes to the diet and my exercise regime. I have 3 months (about) to get into better shape and show my sister that I can make a change to the better and I will do my very best. I have been training a lot when I was younger and I think I can still do it, it will just take the willpower of I do not know what to get started. I will probably hate it and I will be reluctant to do it on a daily basis because I know it will be very hard and boring. (No more nice Sunday lunches at the pub with a nice glass of wine.) But the thing that makes it easier is that if I do not make a change very soon it will be too late for me. I have turned forty and it feels like this is a breakpoint in my life where I will determine if I am to be heavier for the rest of my life or not. And I do not want to end up like some people I know who have struggled with there weight all their adult life.

I will tell you more as this progresses and I will also tell you how much I have worked out and what I have been eating to reach my goal. I hope to loose 6 kg, at a minimum, in these 3 months. That’s 0,5 kg per week which is reachable and on the lower side.

Talk to you soon again!

//Anna

A good day starts with a dip in the sea

This morning was just amazing! The view from my bedroom was something else. It is hard to explain but everything was very calm, no wind in the trees, not a curl on the water and the sun was just getting warm and nice. These days are easy to count in one summer but today was one of them. We have been bathing and laying in the sun all day long, the girls and I. I have been knitting and they have been chasing fish and building a sandcastle on the beach. It has been just lovely. Here is a picture of me sitting on the stairs down to the jetty. And yes it is just as amazing as it looks……..it has been the most wonderful day today!

I hope for more of these days but you’ll never know with the weather in Sweden.

Later on we ended up fishing until late and the girls have just gone to bed even though it is long after their bedtime.

I am doing my knitting and I have taken a picture of it. I need to keep on knitting if I am going to be finishing this before we leave. It is coming on nicely but I have done only 2/5 of it so far. I will show you more later.

Good Night from me and see you later

//Anna

The Swedish elections is coming closer

On the 19th of September Sweden is going to vote for which political party is going to rule the next 4 years. It is really nerve-racking, specially for us who live abroad at this time. We are planning to return home during the next year but I must say it all depends on who wins this election!

There are two side and then some smaller parties in between, up and down. The coalitions today is known as “dom Rödgröna” (the Red and Green) they represent the ones towards the left, and then there is “Alliansen” (the Alliance) who are leaning right.

The last thing I read about was that they (the left side) had a proposition to have a butler service in the underground! You should be able to leave your laundry, have your groceries done for you to just pick up when coming home and so on. This is a suggestion from a party who thinks cleaning ladies are not suppose to be working in other peoples homes!

It is not nice to be a maid. (But a butler is apparently ok to be and use for service). Because being a maid/cleaning lady is degrading and really not something anyone should have to be. Well do you know what, I have been cleaning hotel rooms when I was younger and I can tell you that is not something nice. Wiping up pee around the toilet seat, changing sheets, and the best thing must be wiping up vomit on Sunday morning after the big company party! That is a job that I think would be considered degrading if anything. Not cleaning in a private home for a nice family! But they do the same things, don’t they (apart from the vomit on the Sunday I hope).

But the worst thing the Social party is doing for Sweden when talking about this job (the maid thing) as something degrading and not nice is what kind of message they are sending to a very young and impressionable generation. If one kind of job is not good enough for our elected people, why should we do it?

What kind of job is next?

It will be very exciting to see what they are going to talk about next and who is winning. What else is going to be read about in the newspapers tomorrow?

See you//Anna