Showing posts with label Fat Nat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fat Nat. Show all posts

Friday, 3 February 2012

Not So Fat Nat




So, it's been one month of sticking to my new healthy eating regimen.... well, apart from those calorie-laden waffles and macaroons in Lille... and I am rather pleased to report that I've shifted nearly 9 pounds (4 kg) to date.

Rather than bore you all to tantrums and tears with my tedious weight loss tales, I will only be reporting on my progress on here every now and again. But, if per chance anyone wants to follow my journey to a healthier lifestyle in any detail, I have started putting together a separate blog of tasty low-fat recipes, trendy tips and tintillating tales of my trials and tribulations, rather aptly named Not So Fat Nat...that you can find over here.

Still a work in progress and perhaps rather self-indulgent, but I'm hoping that it will somehow keep me on track.. or at least distract me from exploring the contents of the biscuit tin!

Happy Friday everyone...

Wednesday, 11 January 2012

All The Small Things




It's the little things that have made me smile this week.....

Like getting an email from Annoying Demanding Client asking that we do a new risk assessment as there's concern their product may cause "anxiety", "confusional state" or "insomnia". Errrr.... I experience all those things daily when working with their personalities... don't think it's anything to do with their product!

Or finding out that one week on my New Healthy Lifestyle, and I've dropped 1.5 pounds (0.6 kg)... a small start, but little by little I will do it.

Every little helps! Helps ruin your reputation if you're a celebrity chef caught shoplifting cheese and wine at the self-service checkout of your local Tesco....like poor old Antony Worrall Thompson. He's been having a stressful time lately.... no excuse for nicking the nibbles, mate!



For the benefit of non-UK readers, Tesco is a supermarket giant, with the logo "Every little helps!"


Speaking of small things, there's an old adage in show business about never working with children or animals. Fair enough, photographing small people does come with its own set of challenges... none so strange though as having to worry about inadvertently capturing a naked man in the background of your children's clothing advert shoot.....


Oh-la-la! Imagine this on a billboard....


Anything making you smile this week?

Monday, 9 January 2012

Just Nat Turns 3




Three years on, and astonishingly, I'm still regularly knocking out this complete drivel highly intellectual, thought-provoking prose, as well as the odd photo or two.

I've racked up 372 posts, had around 10,000 views of my blog and received over 2,000 comments. A huge thank you to my fabulous readers! I hope that you will stick around in 2012, as I have quite a few things in store....

Most excitingly, I plan to travel as much as possible. So far, I am booked to go to Lille (North France) for a weekend break later this month, then there's the biggie of 2012 - the fortnight in Vietnam and Cambodia in April, plus a short break in Dubrovnik (Croatia) in June... to take advantage of the Diamond Jubilee weekend. Yes, she's giving us a holiday... 'cause she can!


God save our gracious Queen! Thanks for our 4-day weeeekend! God save our Queen!


Wonder if that counts as treason? If not and I'm still a free woman in October, there are plans afoot for a trip to New England and Canada to coincide with the autumn (sorry, I mean Fall!) foliage. We shall see...

This year I am determined to shift some weight by making some permanent lifestyle changes.... such a New Year cliche, right? Never fear, faithful readers, I will not be boring you with nonstop, tedious calorie-counting tales, but I may be sharing some new low-fat-but-still-easy-and-delicious recipes. 

Otherwise, expect the usual, completely random nonsense that a year in the life of Nat brings....


Hang in there dear readers.... there's loads more still to come!



Thursday, 5 January 2012

Notes From Nat...




Dear Howling Gale (that’s been blowing almost incessantly for the past three days and keeping me awake at night, rattling every window pane and threatening to lift our roof tiles)


Enough already!

That is all.

.........

Dear Nat’s Mouth

You and I have had a bit of a stormy relationship over the past 37 years... well, you started the whole thing by giving me so much grief on the Teeth Front! Firstly, I’m told I was a horrendous teether, really struggling to cut those first teeth as wee Nat. Then you thought it would be hilarious to set my teeth up with a massive overbite/Bugs Bunny lookalike that took no less than four years of painful orthodontic treatment to rectify. Just when I got that all sorted out, you decided to mess things up again by giving me 9 wisdom teeth. Normal people just get 4... some very lucky people get none. Did you have to be so generous? Two lots of extractions and possibly a third operation lined up for the very near future.... the novelty of this hyperdentia thing is wearing a little thin.

And another thing... what’s with the regular plagues of mouth ulcers and infections? Like that time back in July 2005 when I couldn’t talk, let alone eat for 3 days. To be fair, perhaps it was Nat’s Immunity kicking in... I had just had a whole load of jabs in preparation for the Caribbean trip. Or maybe it was all down to stress – just the day after those jabs, I spent two hours fretting that my hubby was possibly on the Northern line tube that got blown up by some criminally insane suicide bomber? Luckily though, as he’d missed his first train to London that morning, he arrived late at Kings’ Cross to find all hell had broken loose and the mobile phone lines were jammed... but he was safe! Whatever the case may be, could you please make a pact with Nat’s Immunity so that we don’t have a repeat of Ulcergate when I have to play pin cushion at the Travel Clinic later today for all manner of jabs to ward off potential nasty diseases in Vietnam and Cambodia?

Much appreciated!

.........




Dear Boxercise Instructor (aka Drill Sergeant #1) and Aikido Sensei (aka Drill Sergeant #2)

Go easy on me please... it’s been a while since I did some serious exercise, and there has been a lot of stuffing of my face in-between. I may be slightly heavier footed than back in 2011...



Yours


Nat

Tuesday, 3 January 2012

You'll Go Ape... For My Banana Muffins!

Yeah, yeah...we're all on new year diets, etc etc...but these easy peasy banana muffins don't count, do they? After all, they're one of your recommended 5-A-Day fruit and veg!



What you need

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup sour cream (or crème fraiche or plain yoghurt if you prefer)
1 tsp. vanilla essence
4 ripe bananas (mashed)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)


What you do

Preheat oven to 180C/350F.

Beat sugar and butter in large bowl until light, then beat in eggs until smooth.

Add flour and soda, alternately with sour cream/yoghurt.

Add vanilla, bananas and nuts. Mix.

Divide batter among 12 paper lined muffin cups.

Bake at 180C/350F for 25 to 30 minutes.

Et voila!


Tuesday, 16 August 2011

Flattery Will Get You Nowhere...

On Monday nights, you’ll most likely find me torturing myself at my boxercise class…basically, I pay four quid to be shouted at by Muscle Man (aka Boot Camp Drill Sergeant) for an hour, while I run around a chilly village hall and do squats, lunges and press-ups, drop dumbbells on my toes, question my sanity and dream of eating chocolates. And all this in the name of achieving a super svelte body (or at least trying to counteract my massive energy input with a teeny bit of output). Last night was no exception... except it was not Muscle Man taking the class (he’s busy sunning his muscles on the Portuguese Algarve) but rather his female counterpart.



Not the actual Muscle Man but some eye candy for the ladies on a slow Tuesday morning


The village hall backs onto a large, grassy park and recreational area, with basketball courts, a skateboarding ramp and children’s playground. Naturally, the place is popular with the local kids, making the most of the long summer evenings... although the area does have floodlights so they can use it in winter too. We do get the odd spectator, but generally the playground holds far more attractions than watching a bunch of “old people” running around in circles.

Yesterday evening, however, a couple of teenagers were extremely interested in the activities going on in the hall... especially when they noticed a pile of boxing gloves waiting for the punching session of the class...


Teenage Boy #1: “Look... they’ve got boxing gloves! We want to do that!” [Starts grabbing the gloves]

Muscle Woman: “You can join in, but you will have to pay for the class.”

Teenage Boy #2 “Why?”

Muscle Woman: “This is a private boxercise class, and we pay to hire the hall. Therefore if you join in, you pay the fee.”

Teenage Boy #2: “But what do you use the boxing gloves for?”

Muscle Woman: “We use them as part of the exercise routine.”

Teenage Boy #2: “But you lot ain’t fat! Why do you need to exercise?”

Muscle Woman: “That’s very nice of you, but we still need to exercise to stay fit. Are you going to pay now?”

The boys run off to the park.....



Tuesday, 8 March 2011

Pancakes For Supper!

To celebrate Shrove Tuesday, we had savoury pancakes for supper... given my rather shoddy culinary skills and half-arsed excuse of a stove, I worried the evening may end in tears, house fires, divorce and some hungry bellies, but it was a surprisingly successful cookathon!

I made curried mince filling (you can use lamb or beef) but you could try any other savoury filling, like cheese, tuna, cajun chicken, whatever takes your fancy.

I cheated a little, using a batter mix from a well known British supermarket... just have to add one egg and 250 mL water.

















Best served with Mrs Balls' chutney... one of South Africa's greatest exports, luckily easily available in most British supermarkets.

Are you having pancakes today?