Blogging | But I Smile Anyway...

Ritu’s Healthy Living – Week 24 #icandothis

20 Jan 2017 24 Comments

by Ritu in Recipes, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: Baked Oats, Bhangra, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Exercise, Healthy Eating, Recipe, Slimming World, Weight Loss

Another week, another bunch of wonderful meals… and some exercise!

I have had some naughty things,

I have had some extra healthy things…

And I discovered baked oats! Ooooh! So good!

Simple recipe

40g plain oats
Half a Muller light vanilla yoghurt
1 teaspoon sweetener
1 small egg

Mix together
Bake at 180 C for 30 mins.
Enjoy

You can bake fruit in it too but that adds syn values to it as the fruit is cooked (an SW thing!) so I just ate it separately. And for one of them, I added chocolate chips too which made it rather sumptuous!

And I attempted my first Bhangra class too this week!

I am by no means a beginner to Bhangra. I have been dancing pretty much since I started to walk (though if you ask my mum, she’d say I started in her tummy!). But whatever I have learned has come from observation, practice and a natural rhythm inherited from my Pops!

But this class was a ladies beginners class, and at the same time as the kids’ Dhol drum lesson. It was convenient, and one of the other mums wanted to go too. I went, all dressed in my fitness gear, and sports bra (a must for the more generously chested of us. Bhangra involves a LOT of jumping!) and it waws 45 minutes of great fun, breathlessness, and realising I really needed to get fit! We were learning a routine, and remembering the moves in the correct order was hard enough!

True bhangra has never been touted as a ladies dance in the Punjab. At functions, we would probably do a more sedate version. The real ladies dancing is called giddha, which I also do, which has song rhymes that you dance too. Nowadays, however, you have more female bhangra teams and they use more or less the same moves as the men. It is very energetic, and some would say not that ladylike!

I survived it, though, and was told my body moves naturally to the beat (as I said, it’s in the blood!) so I hope to try it again next week. At least I will be managing one physical activity a week! (This class was on Wednesday evening… I am still aching!)

And on to the important announcement…

This week…

I lost another 1lb!

That makes 22.5lb down since I started Slimming World, and 27.5lb in total on this journey…That leaves 0.5lb to go until I hit my 2 stone loss!

I have not been this weight since university I think!

I am so proud of myself!

And I am off to finish my chicken and chips… not diet at all, for my dinner now! See, now I have that control in place, I can still eat naughtily, and make up for it in the week!

Until next week my dear peeps!

#JusJoJan Daily Prompt – Jan. 20th/17 – Transcendent /#WRITESPIRATION #99 52 WEEKS IN 52 WORDS WEEK 3

20 Jan 2017 23 Comments

by Ritu in #jusjojan, Challenges, Fiction, My Writing, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: #jusjojan, #Writespiration, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Deborah Trucker, Fiction, Linda G Hill, Lost Things, Sacha Black, Transcendent

Combining two prompts together again today because, well, I can!

Day 20 of Linda’s #JusJoJan challenge with the prompt below;

The Just Jot It January 20th prompt, brought to you by Deborah of the blog, Notes Tied on the Sagebrush, is: “Transcendent.” Use it any way you’re inspired to. And make sure you stop by and say hi to Deborah as well! Here’s her blog: https://notestiedonthesagebrush.com/ .

And week 3 of Sacha’s new, improved #writespiration prompts.

SO, your challenge if you choose to accept it, is to write your story using the weekly theme/prompt and write it in just 52 words…. EXACTLY, no more, no less.

This weeks theme:

Lost Things

Certain things, once lost, can never be ‘found’ again.

She learned that the hard way.

Famous once for her transcendent beauty, she had it all.

Then that damn thing called ‘Age’ happened.

No amount of surgery helped.

If anything, each treatment seemed to bury her looks further.

Who said beauty is ageless?

Lantern #writephoto

19 Jan 2017 24 Comments

by Ritu in Challenges, Fiction, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: #WritePhoto, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Flash Fiction, Lantern, Positivity, Religion, Sue Vincent

Sue’s #writephoto prompt this week.

In the darkness, all seemed hopeless. What was I supposed to do?

I’d done what I had seen done in countless films, gone to the confessional in the church.

I’m not a church-goer. I don’t know whether it would help me, but they always seem so relieved in the movies, like a weight lifted off their shoulders, then something miraculous usually happens and all is right again.

But nothing did happen initially. I came out, after pouring it all out to whoever was behind that curtain, still feeling full of guilt.

Sitting in a pew, I looked up at the cross ahead of me.

The night was drawing in fast, the setting sun casting long shadows across the whole of the church.

I closed my eyes. I wanted to cry. Maybe I just needed to shut my eyes forever.

That’s one way the guilt would go.

I opened my eyes again.

The whole church was shrouded in darkness.

How long had my eyes been shut?

Suddenly, a light shone in from outside.

Looking up, I saw a lantern illuminating the church with a dull glow.

Then I looked back at the cross.

I don’t know why but something lifted from my shoulders.

Maybe things actually would be ok…

#JusJoJan Daily Prompt – Jan. 19th/17 – Rubbish

19 Jan 2017 39 Comments

by Ritu in #jusjojan, Children, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: #jusjojan, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Children, Let kids be kids, Linda G Hill, Rubbish

Day 19 of #JusJoJan, the writing challenge by Linda G Hill, inspiring us to write every day in January!

The Just Jot It January 19th prompt, brought to you by Wendy of Wendy’s Waffle, is: “Rubbish.” Use it any way you’re inspired to. And make sure you stop by and say hi to Wendy as well! Here’s her blog: https://waffle-with-wendy.blogspot.ca/

Rubbish

I wondered what to write when I saw this prompt initially. Should I muse about the trash? Or about things that I think are like garbage?

Then a conversation with Lil Man the other morning, triggered something.

My son is 11.

He is in Secondary School.

He is still a child.

When he went to the local park, on his way from school one evening, with his friends, they stopped at the climbing frame, which incidentally, is one outside of the play area for young children, for the older kids to play on.

“We went to climb on there, and about three different men in green jackets came up to us and told us to get off, that we couldn’t play on there! The park people are rubbish!”

So, according to these officials, 11 year olds are too old to go on park equipment, that has been designed for the older child… Hmm…

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t the world generally always complaining about the fact that kids are growing up too fast?

So why limit their playtime in a park?

Surely that is a good thing, that they want to play, and be children, not sat at home watching TV or buried in their phones!

My son is small in stature as it is. He is often mistaken for a Primary School aged child, but the badge on his blazer gives away that he is older. He is a very physical person, and for that I am glad.

But to have the opportunity to burn some energy taken away by idiotic officials… now that really is RUBBISH!

Let kids be kids!

#JusJoJan Daily Prompt – Jan. 18th/17 – #OneLinerWednesday

18 Jan 2017 35 Comments

by Ritu in #jusjojan, Challenges, Thoughts Opinions & Memories Tags: #jusjojan, #onelinerwednesday, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Golf, Humour, Linda G Hill

As part of #JusJoJan, day 18, Linda has asked that we take part in her weekly One-Liner Wednesday Challenge!

The rules are:

1. Make it one sentence.
2. Try to make it either funny or inspirational.
3. Use our unique tag #1linerWeds.
4. Add our very cool badge to your post for extra exposure!
5. Have fun!

Hmmm, January 18th… 18… makes me think of golf… here goes!