Ummhh.... writing it down should help!!!!

...thats what I told myself when I started this diet challenge at the start of the week! Writing down the list of foods I had eaten in the day was going to help me refrain from eating them, and I will admit, it did help at the start of the week, but now that its weekend I can forget about anything helping me to stick to it!!

Today found me in Copenhagen again. Leah was once again in at her puppet theatre. This time Kristian drove us in...(I dont know how he drives in Copenhagen - its totally crazy) anyway, he drove and we had a couple of hours to put in before meeting Leah again. We parked the car and took to the walking streets of Copenhagen, but we werent there long, it was just too cold, so we sought shelter in the warmth of one of the big churches. It was open for "a time of quietness and reflection" and so we sat there for about 10 minutes. It was sooo beautiful, and it was warm!!!

Was very tempted to buy a new piano today!! Went to the music shop and found out that they had a Yamaha Clavanova 405 - amazing piano going at a good price becaus e it was a demo model - just about £2700!!! Kristian was in a spending mood and was telling me to go for it....only one small problem - I didnt have £2700!!! haha (and neither did he!) but it was fun to look at it, try it out and then pretend that I did have all that money!

Just before going to pick up Leah we made a very special stop at a very special place......

Yes SUBWAY has once again come to Denmark, but it is only in Copenhagen (and a couple places way over in the west of Denmark!) I sooo enjoyed getting my teeth into a Subway melt with all the trimmings and dripping in a BBQ sauce!!!!

As for the diet - I am not even going there again - but there has been consumed A LOT of food, a lot of chocolate, crisps and cola....tomorrow I will start again:-)

I should play a Michael Jackson song.....

......and it would be "I´m bad, I´m bad, I´m really, really bad!!" I think you get the picture!!! So I am not even going there this evening!!! All I can say is that I was BAD!!!!

Today found me exploring a part of Copenhagen that I havent explored before. Its an area called Nørrebro. A few years ago I was in that area at a praise night in one of the churches, but today I got to explore the place which was totally something else!

First I thought I had left Denmark and had landed in some foreign country. I honestly think I only heard 2 people, in the whole 2 hours that I was there, speak Danish. It was an experience!!!

I saw 2 drivers getting really mad at each other while sitting at the traffic lights. One was pumping his horn and the other was opening his door and shouting back at the driver behind him. Further down the road more people were pumping horns and shouting - ALOT of very impatient people around on a Friday afternoon!!

So what was I doing in there? Well Leah was off to do her puppet training for the TV show. She was a bit nervous about going in on her own, so I got off work a few hours early and went on the train with her, to show her the way. (She has to change trains at one point and she wasnt sure where to get the next train, but now she knows so next time she is going solo!!! YIKES!)

While she was in practising I explored the shops and sights of Nørrebro. The time went quickly and I actually enjoyed my afternoon of wandering around.The best thing was that Kristian was the one making dinner. Leah and I would first be home around 6.30pm. so he had agreed to make dinner. On the train home I was wondering what he would have in store for us....I was not disappointed.

First he fed the kids - pizza (the frozen kind that just need to be popped into the oven.) The kids love these!! Then he had made a wonderful dinner for me and him. It was pork down with potatoes that had leeks and bacon through them....it was really delicious. He had cheated a bit! He had bought the dish from the butcher in the supermarket that does special finished dishes (only need heating in the oven)...but who cares....it was wonderful.

I´m dead!!!!

.....I just literally finished 30 minutes of aerobics and I am dead!!! Totally out of puff and out of shape, but hopefully dancing around the living room has helped burn a few extra calories that I ate today!! Oopps:-)

A few weeks ago I arranged with my colleague that we would go out for hot chocolate after work, so being a woman of my word, I had to follow through on it. Diet or no diet!! So off we went for hot chocolate with lots of cream. We were in this really fancy chocolate shop having our drinks when I suddenly realised that I had no cash on me to pay the car parking. I was forced to go and buy a lovely piece of white chocolate with nougat inside. Buying this meant I could use my debit card again, but this time instead of just paying for the amount of the chocolate I paid a little extra on top, and got the extra amount paid out in cash. My problem was solved....and yes, the chocolate was delicious!:-)

So in case you havent worked it out for yourself - I was bad today!! haha hence the aerobics tonight - will that have saved the day??? We´ll know in the wee early hours of the morning when I stand, once again, on my scales.

Otherwise it has been an uneventful day. Good day at work and a good day here at home!!

Sweet dreams to all - I am now off to bed:-)

Things I ate: Breakfast -cornflakes (100cal) Break - 2 pieces of bread with jam (250cal) Lunch - 100g rice and lots of veg. (450 cal) Afternoon break - hot chocolate and a piece of chocolate (which by the way cost me £1.60!! - told you it was a fancy shop - calories? dont want to think about it!!) Dinner - 2 spring rolls, assorted vegtables (600 cal) Just drank water and tea all day.

Look!!!!!

67,2kg

this morning!!!!!

YIPIEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

I´m on my way!!!!!!

If at first you dont succeed....

try, try again!!! Isnt that what they say?!!! So if you havent succeeded at this healthy eating challenge dont lose hope and dont give up!!! (and here I am preaching to myself!!)

Today my healthy eating plan went well until I was about to make dinner!! Then I realised I had forgotten to take the chicken out for dinner. I had been shopping for the old lady I visit. I was home late and I was tired so when I discovered the chicken was still stone hard and that it was impossible to get any sticks through it to make chicken kebabs.....I gave up and ordered pizza!!! However I did make a lovely salad to go along with the pizza!! while Kristian went to get the pizza I had a wee talk to myself and made an agreement with me, that I would only eat 2 (at the most 3) slices of pizza but I would eat loads of salad. Well that agreement held until I tasted the first mouthful of pizza!! haha

So heres my confession for the day:

Breakfast - bowl of cornflakes and a glass of orange (150 cal)
Break time - a lovely warm bap with jam - and then half of a bap again (250 cal)
Lunch time - 100grm ham, 100grm potatoes, 50grm peas/sweetcorn (400 cal)
Break - Banana (100 cal)
Dinner - 5 slices of Pizza and mixed salad (probably about 1200 cal)

Total of 2100 calories - ooops!!!!

But my weight this morning was 67,6kg so being good yesterday paid off !!

Anyway I was thinking that I am not going to bore you all everyday with my weight results and list of foods consumed. I will just put, in small type, at wee list at the end of my normal post, just for anyone interested in knowing what I consumed in a day....and it is mainly to keep me on the right path.

The moment of truth

.....it was not good news. I weighed in at 68,1kg!!! My goal is to lose 4 kg and today I started on the road towards my goal!

So heres what my day of eating looked like:

Breakfast at 6am: bowl of Cornflakes, 1 glass of orange juice - (approx 150 cal)

Break time at work: a bap with jam - (approx 250 cal)

Lunch time : an open sandwich with letuce, ham, tomatoe and egg, with a spread of miracle whip light (max 5%) - it was rather delicious (approx 300 cal)

Afternoon break: 3 carrots (approx. 50 cal) (got a bit fed up eating carrots so I bought some bananas on the way home!)


Dinner: 100grm peas, 100 grm sweetcorn, 100grm potatoes, 100 grm ham, 100grm carrots and gravy - (approx 450 cal) it was soooo good and I only had one helping (very tempted to take another helping, not because I was hungry, but just because it tasted good.)

Drinks today - orange juice, cup of tea 3 times, water rest of time....absolutely NO COKE!!!YIPIEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Total of 1200 calories - so I am under what I should have eaten....but this is all approx so maybe its a little more or a little less calories.

The thing is that I didnt feel hungry throughout the day...I did have a bit of a temptation when I went to the supermarket to buy milk and bananas. Standing in the queue I was sooo tempted to buy some chocolate - it was screaming at me. There had gone over an hour since I had eaten my carrots so I was starting to get hungry but I thought about my blog and said "NO - I cant write it in the blog that I bought chocolate and ate it in the car and on my first day!!! " So my plan worked - writing down what I ate, and being accountable to cyber world helped me stay on the road to success - at least for today!

For excercise I did 100 strokes on Andrews row machine - it was hard!! I could feel in in my legs, stomach and arms!! I didnt have time today for aerobics....

.....and the reason I didnt have time was that Leah had to go to the doctor for her second 12 year vaccination. On the way home we popped into a new shop that had opened, just to have a quick look. Well they had bargins gallore!! and I love a bargin! We went wild.

Leah needed new clothes and last week we were meant to go and get some things, but I was sick. Well thank goodness for that.....today she got a whole new wardrobe - 4 pair trouser/jeans, - 4 jumpers, - 3 t-shirts - hairbands, 2 skirts, 1 blouse and all for 40 pounds. We added the receipt up when we came home and we had bought 300 pounds worth of clothes!!!

The shop had 50% and 75% off things but then they had another 50% off their sale price - it was crazy!!! So thats the reason I never got to exercise!!! (Good excuse eh!!)

Well I better get off to bed. I can feel an urge to eat biscuits and cookies coming on, I am actually craving them right now and hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream is sounding like a rather wonderful way to end the day. I think the best place to be is in bed. Hope you`re all surviving......lets hang in there!!! Goodnight all:-)

The challenge....

...time for a challenge. Well its mostly a challenge for myself, but feel free to join in.

Over the last couple of months I have felt the fat growing back on my body and now enough is enough!!! I will not go back to were I was a few years ago so its time to get serious.

Tomorrow starts my healthy eating lifestyle. I will NOT let a piece of chocolate rule me anymore. I will NOT let a bottle of coke (zero) have power over me. Tomorrow I take control.

So heres the idea......

I will weigh myself in the morning. The result will be posted here on the blog - totally open for all in cyber world to see! Then I will be accountable to my blog (and its readers - I need someone to be accountable to!) I will write down and share what I have eaten each day...that way when I want to put a piece of chocolate in my mouth I will remember that I have to write it on my blog for all to see and hopefully this will help me refrain.

My aim is to lose about 4 kg (just over ½ stone I think!) But I might need to lose more. Tomorrow morning when I stand on my scales, and see the damage, I will decide how much I need to lose. To accomplish this goal I will have to cut my calorie intake down to 1400 caleries a day and also exercise 5 times a week!!!! (oh its sounding really hard and scary now! maybe I should excerise 4 times a week to start with?!)

So my friends in cyber world is anyone out there willing to join me in this challenge. It will take commitment, and most of all honesty - but the results will be worth it - I know-I have been down this road before!!! It is so wonderful to lose the weight, but what is even more wonderful is feeling fit and healthy. It fills you with energy...and I want energy!!!

So cheers my friends - heres to my last cup of hot chocolate with loads of whipped cream - at least for a while:-)

and to end this post I want to show you my pictures from the painting course. Todays paintings were harder - a bit more advanced. We had to paint a house (bottom left hand painting) and then some boats at the beach (top right hand painting) It was hard, but still fun. I like my house, but dont like the boat picture so much.(I will try painting it again another day.) But I am now hooked on water colours. Its great fun painting with them.

Well time I was snuggling down in bed. The alarm is now set for 5.30am!!!! Back to work in the morning - oh how I wish we had another week off.

You learn something new everyday....

....and today I learned how to paint with water colours.

John, a man from our church, is sooooo good at painting water colours. I love his work and today he held a workshop for those of us who were interested in learning about water colours. We met down at church and spent 4 hours painting.

John showed us what to do and explained the different technics.

Then we were sent down to try the whole thing out for ourselves. It was soooo much fun! I am now so inspired to paint with water colours!!

The 4 hours just flew by. We got 2 pictures done in that time. I like my first picture, but the second one I would do a bit different next time, use different colours for some of it. I enjoyed the afternoon sooooo much. It was so relaxing to get away and just sit and paint with 10 other people.

The best thing is that we have another 4 hours tomorrow. After church we meet again!!! Roll on tomorrow afternoon:-)

If you want to check out Johns paintings here is his website:- www.johnovergaard.dk When on his site, press the button "akvarel" on the top left hand corner- (Its the first button direcctly under his name.)

Feeling human again....

...yes, I am feeling human again.

Its Friday and the holidays are almost over. Mine didnt go exactly as I had planned...but in 5 weeks time we are off again!! Maybe then it will work out better.

But at least I did get to experience some good things in my holidays..... I relaxed on the sofa for 4 days and got to see lots of films!!

Tuesday evening I was restless. I had seen all the films I wanted to see, I was fed up lying around and so I got out my paints.....

The painting is still a work in process...I wasnt at all happy with it, so the bottom half of the grass is painted white again. I am waiting for another day to feel inspired to go in and fix up the grass and flowers.

Wednesday afternoon we went to visit the family. Our niece Christine was in America a few years ago. She lived with a family for almost a year. Well the family had come to Denmark to visit Christine. We were meant to have them on Monday at our house for dinner, but had to cancel. However on Wednesday we got the chance to meet them.

Their daughter turned 18 so we were invited down to cake and hot chocolate. Leah and I went and Kristian came from work and met us there. (Andrew had other plans and Sara is in Belgium this week visiting Alessio.) We had a lovely afternoon there.

It was 6.30pm when we left them. Leah and I wanted McDonalds...Kristian on the other hand had eaten soooo much cake he wasnt at all hungry!! (He loves his mums birthday cake and goes a bit overboard when she makes it!!) So Kristian drove home and Leah and I went to McDonalds and had a cosy time there together. It sure was nice to be out and about again!!

Thursday was family fun night and as usual we headed off to Anne and Peters. if you follow this blog you´re probably wondering why its always at Anne and Peters house and never at ours? Well, thats because they have a small boy of 2 years, so it easier to put him to bed in his own home....not to mention their house is like 3 times the size of our apartment!!! and they have all the latest games and playstations!!

So we had planned fondue. We all brought a bit of food along and shared it....and it was delicious!!

We stuffed ourselves with sweets too....

We played some silly but fun games......

and ended the evening rocking the house!!! They just got band heros for playstation 3....it was sooo much fun.....now we want one too!! hahaha

I found it again....

.....yes, I´ve found my voice again. Its back, a little weak, but its there! Oh its wonderful to be able to talk again!!

I discovered it this morning as soon as I woke. I turned to say something to Kristian and instead of a whisper or a croak an actual voice came out!!! I was so excited - Kristian on the other hand didnt seem so thrilled! Half asleep he came with this advice...."I dont think you should use it so much Laura, you dont want to over do it. Take one more day without saying anything!" The cheek of him!! NO way - I´m back and so to his annoyance I chatted away (I wake up quick, he doesnt!) but it wasnt long before I needed to get out of bed!! I have been lying around for 4 days now, but today, waking up without a pain in my lung or a sore head was wonderful - so I wanted up - much to Kristians delight - think he was glad to see the back of me. So now I am up and feeling soooo much better. Let the holidays begin!!

I wonder where my voice was hiding all this time - I think maybe it was under my pillow! haha

It really is all quiet.....

....because I have lost my voice!!! Now some people in this household are calling that a blessing in disguise!!

I woke on Friday with a bit of a sore throat again, but decided to go to work anyway. By Friday afternoon I was feeling rotten again. Home to lie on the sofa. I had planned a fun Saturday out shopping but that day was also spent at home (spitting up green slime!! hahaha your glad I shared that with you eh?!!) By Saturday evening I was sore in my lungs and by Sunday it had gotten worse. It felt like a knife going into me every time I breathed....thats when I decided I better do something about it, so of to the hospital I went to see the "out of hours" doctor. I was given a 10 day course of penicillin and when I came home I couldnt talk - my voice was totally gone!! Kristian now believes in miracles....hahahaha

The house is really quiet. I discovered yesterday just how much I talk and how much I love to talk!! Its hard sitting around saying nothing....and when I do talk I have to repeat myself a few times cause no one can hear me!! Roll on the day I find my voice again!!

Its all quiet again

.....the house is all quiet again. Jeff and Ivan have gone home. I think they really enjoyed their stay in Denmark. We really enjoyed having them. Kristian was glad he got time off work to go out with them.

Friday they headed out to Copenhagen.

They visited the Queens palace....

Then on to see the little mermaid!

On Saturday I was able to join in on the fun. We went to see another castle and ended the day by doing some shopping.

Sunday after church they headed home.

I have had a cold since Saturday. When I woke this morning I felt totally rotten, so I have been home in bed all day. It has helped soooo much! After sleeping the morning away I thought I would spend the afternoon lying in bed watching a film. So while out shopping the other Saturday Jeff recommended a film to me...."Closing the ring" and I bought it.

I saw it this afternoon. By the time I was finished watching it my head was hurting 10 times more than it had this morning when I woke, thats because I cried for like an hour during the film. Then I cried for another ½ an hour after the film was finished. To say I enjoyed it is an understatement!!! hahaha So thanks Jeff for telling me about it.

(Check out below the most beautiful song from the film)

I`m not dead.....

....just been busy running my new top class hotel - The Rasmussen Hotel. At the moment we have 2 guests. The first one, Jeff arrived last Friday all the way from wonderful Northern Ireland. Then last night our second guest arrived, Ivan, also from the same wonderful place!

Its great having them here! The craic is good, (as they say in good old norn iron!!)



Since Jeff arrived he has been a busy man. Saturday saw Kristian, Jeff and me in Copenhagen, ending off with a visit to Kristians mum and dads. Then Sunday he got to see our church. On Monday and Tuesday the Rasmussens were all at work and school but Jeff knows the area so well, so he was off for his usual walks around the place.



Ivan arrived late last night. Kristian had free from work today so the boys went away for the day. They saw a lot of Danish castles! They took a ride down the coast road and ended up in one of the towns. After a bit of shopping a visit to a local coffee shop was totally necessary!

An enjoyable day was had by all, especially my husband who sooo enjoyed the irish craic!!

Someone though, had to do all the dirty work while they were out having fun.That job fell on me! I was busy slaving away while the boys had their fun. However they did pop by work to say hello and so they were given the grand tour of the place!!

This evening we watched a few episodes of "Everybody Loves Raymond." We all laughed soooo much. I think we have got Jeffrey and Ivan hooked on it too!

Tomorrow Kristian is off work again and so the boys are all heading into Copenhagen. Ivan has never been there. As for me, I will be doing what I usually do on a Friday - WORKING!!!