What Preps are you doing this week

[Decaff]

My 3 litre kilner jars arrived today, they are huge!! I didn't realise they would be as big as they are I know, I know but seriously they are fabulously big!

Got 1kg of pasta swirls freezing and another waiting to go in, another bag of rice which will fill two of them, got another couple of bags of penne to freeze and then they can go into the third one.

Slowly getting there and every prepp added makes me feel a weeny bit more confident.

Also got 4 boxes washing powder, as they were on offer in local shop, 4 fabric conditioners, 1 bottle washing up liquid, 2 packs teatree wet wipes and tub cotton buds.

[Decaff]

For anyone who is overweight, giving up fizzy drinks is the first place to start - especially the diet ones.

I definitely agree with Feisty that the first place to start being healthier is giving up fizzy drinks - and I'd add, replace some with water, certainly for a week or two - when you stop adding toxins to your body by stopping the fizzies, your body will want to start getting rid of the toxins you've already accumulated, and the extra water will give you a help in doing that. You might still feel like crap tho

I have had health issues recently that have led to me having to give up fizzy drinks. I've not felt like crap, so much as had serious cravings for fizz! It's really odd! I have replaced the fizz with water (lots of!) or Ribena (not very strong). Apart from the odd lapse, I've been quite successful and I do feel better for it. I just have to step up my activity levels - which is hard when I have a quite sedentary job.

Have you tried making the ribena or any juice in fact with fizzy water? Very refreshing.

[Stasher]

Feisty: One small problem with this statement,

Do the naked test once a month and, unless you like what you see, eat better and less than the month before and move about even more, faster, harder.

A test based on personal judgement is how eating disorders can start......Whereas a test based on a third-party medical opinion is just going to lead to confusion.

Speaking for myself, according to a couple of BMI tables I've seen I'm either "Very Over-weight" or "Obese". As a 5'10" man I'm supposed to be between (roughly) 9 1/4 stone to 12 1/2 stone.... The last time I was sub 13 stone I was four inches shorter

Nick: Expect to be called in to your doctor's at some time, theres a scheme on to do basic heath checks on the over 40s.
Despite the extra four stone I'm supposed to be carrying, my blood pressure is exactly the same as the last data-point they have for me.....Fourteen years ago. And I have less the half the national average chance of getting cardiac problems in the next decade.
Diabetes, however stands a good chance of getting me (My father was diagnosed recently so my chances rocketed ).
Time to sort it

Yes, I would never give that advice to a teenage girl (or boy, for that matter), although I think the media is more to blame for putting unobtainable, photo shopped beauty in their minds eye, but from what I see of the general population, they have all their mirrors covered at home and certainly never stand in front of them naked for a full appraisal of the facts . Are you telling me you didn't know you were chubby before you checked your BMI ? How long have you known your BMI? Has it made any difference so far? Just the point I'm trying to make is that the multi-billion diet and "health" industry just love having you spend all your money on all the garbage they produce with very little result (in fact, it's in their best interests for you to fail and keep coming back for more of their products) but a few decades ago, before junk food and door-to-door transportation, very few people were overweight or had Type II adult (apparently pre-teenagers being diagnosed now) onset diabetes, caused mainly by obesity. For anyone who is overweight, giving up fizzy drinks is the first place to start - especially the diet ones. You just don't need to spend money to be fit and healthy. If you really must know the numbers, book a health check and get them for free. Spend the money on quality food and a nice hiking/cycling holiday .

WHOA!



We have recently started drinking low cal tonic water (because we both suffer from night cramps and the quinine in the tonic water has eased the symptoms significantly).

What do you mean,'give up the fizzy drinks, especially the diet ones' ?

The tonic water (and sometimes bitter lemon because it also contains quinine) are the only fizzy drinks we have in the house (unless it's Christmas!)

Why is tonic water so evil?

[FEISTY]

My 3 litre kilner jars arrived today, they are huge!! I didn't realise they would be as big as they are I know, I know but seriously they are fabulously big!

Got 1kg of pasta swirls freezing and another waiting to go in, another bag of rice which will fill two of them, got another couple of bags of penne to freeze and then they can go into the third one.

Slowly getting there and every prepp added makes me feel a weeny bit more confident.

Also got 4 boxes washing powder, as they were on offer in local shop, 4 fabric conditioners, 1 bottle washing up liquid, 2 packs teatree wet wipes and tub cotton buds.

After years of spending a fortune buying expensive washing powders, liquids and tabs, I now buy the cheapest powder (<£1.70 for a largish box) and have noticed no difference whatsoever in the cleanliness/stain removing power. The best things for stains is soap and water. The biggest factor in removing stains is elbow grease and the temperature of the water. I'm not saying I don't use one or two other products, but I don't need them for every wash and I've saved a fortune. I needed to increase my spend at Morrisons last time by about £5 to qualify to use my 3 vouchers for £10 off a £40 shop and 10p/l off petrol, so I nipped over to the aisle and grabbed 4 boxes of powder. Still using it. My husband picks up Fairy fabric conditioner £several. I buy the cheapest white one and it is less watery and much better value - does the same job!

[Decaff]

After years of spending a fortune buying expensive washing powders, liquids and tabs, I now buy the cheapest powder (<£1.70 for a largish box) and have noticed no difference whatsoever in the cleanliness/stain removing power. The best things for stains is soap and water. The biggest factor in removing stains is elbow grease and the temperature of the water. I'm not saying I don't use one or two other products, but I don't need them for every wash and I've saved a fortune. I needed to increase my spend at Morrisons last time by about £5 to qualify to use my 3 vouchers for £10 off a £40 shop and 10p/l off petrol, so I nipped over to the aisle and grabbed 4 boxes of powder. Still using it. My husband picks up Fairy fabric conditioner £several. I buy the cheapest white one and it is less watery and much better value - does the same job!

Can't use many brands or my skin itches too much and I will scratch till it bleeds.. And scratch again.. Thankfully its an own brand I can use so its cheaper! I Always wash on no lower than 40 so that bacteria if present is removed. All bedding though is washed at 90.

[Arzosah]

Aw, Stasher! I personally don't include tonic water in my mental list of what fizzy drinks are - its things like Irn Bru, Coke, that sort of thing. The stuff with a million chemicals that sends kids totally hyper.

[Le Mouse]

I finally finished the extra chicken wire fencing on my allotment this evening. It's taken longer than planned because on Midsummer, some nerk smashed a corner of the fence, breaking two of the posts (they then constructed a sculpture out of my tools , but that's by the by...) so I had to fix that.
Decided that the rocket bed wasn't coming to anything thanks to the rabbits so I dug that over. Torn between trying rocket again or putting more Minutina in which has got on really well or try the mustard green seeds that I've been waiting until after midsummer to put in.
I have the day off tomorrow so lots more digging and thistle and nettle genocide may well feature in my plans

[Stasher]

Aw, Stasher! I personally don't include tonic water in my mental list of what fizzy drinks are - its things like Irn Bru, Coke, that sort of thing. The stuff with a million chemicals that sends kids totally hyper.

Phew!

Thanks, thought I was missing out on some major health scare dibber wotsit there!

[FEISTY]

Aw, Stasher! I personally don't include tonic water in my mental list of what fizzy drinks are - its things like Irn Bru, Coke, that sort of thing. The stuff with a million chemicals that sends kids totally hyper.

Actually, Stasher, I like a G&T occasionally too, although I drink "full fat" tonic. I am not fat ;)! The evilness of fizzy drinks is now legend, but, in short, they all, to a greater or lesser extent, contain:

Some form of fizz: carbon dioxide, phosphoric acid, etc - very bad for teeth and phosphoric acid will leech the calcium from your bones as well.
Sugar or, in America (I hope not here yet), the very evil high fructose corn syrup - very naughty indeed (a cheap by-product which is now accredited with contributing majorly to the obesity epidemic).
or
Sweetener, usually Aspartame - now believed to be responsible for a whole host of nasty conditions - you would need a week to Google it all. As someone who has used a variety of artificial sweeteners since I was in my teens, it makes me apoplectic with rage to consider the damage they may have done and, in my mind's eye, I can see class actions occurring all over America, similar to the groundwater pollutant ones. I live in hope.
A variety of chemicals, including phenylalanine, which turns kids a bit crazy and some of them full-blown certifiable.
No nutrients at all. In the case of the "full fat" fizzies, lots and lots of teeth rotting, brain mushing, bone sucking and fattening empty calories. In the case of the "diet" fizzies, no calories, but you still have a teeth rotting, brain mushing, bone sucking beverage, which your body recognises as not satisfying the need for food and induces hunger pangs, so you eat more - catch 22.
Coke, BTW, are bringing out a sugar/stevia version in the near future - still a lot of sugar.
Our dentist says the kids he sees swigging back litre bottles of Irn Bru will have a mouth full of rotting teeth by the time they're in their 20s. Bad teeth are also connected to heart problems, but whether that is just indicative of someone who doesn't take care of themselves generally is unknown.
Sorry to rant, but fizzy drinks really are appallingly bad for us and my kids have come to view them as a rare treat.
The quinine in tonic does help - I've used it for "jumpy leg syndrome". I would also recommend bananas. I think they are safe to eat :).
Don't worry if you just have tonic occasionally, but please do Google some of this stuff - it's fascinating - it will keep you up at night :lol:.

[Decaff]

I remember years and years ago writing to a big company who promote juice drinks for children asking about their use of aspartame in ALL of their products, I included lots of scientific papers spelling out the horror of this poison, they were not happy and just kept trying to avoid my questions with a bog standard reply of "this product has been approved for use in food and is deemed safe" I am waiting for this to be banned,its in so much stuff now its madness!