Food Glorious Food

My workshop: Kids, Clay, Cabbages and Corn

I've got  a confession to start this post with. I have simply not got around to logging anything on the myfitnesspal website since I was eating local delectable dishes at the Firenze ceramics festival. I have to admit that for me, at the moment, it's just one more thing to remember to do in a pretty busy day, which can include anything from making soup, to running workshops, to sourcing a replacement washing machine for the one that blew up.   Now you may think this is just a complete lack of dedication to fitness, and you may be right. I've realised already that I'm not a dieting kind of woman. However, my first challenge to myself was to get back on my bike and have a stab at upping my metabolism. One thing at once I thought. 

Fabric Printing with Anna Read

In the short time since I've been 

reintroducing myself to bike riding, I have discovered that biking folk fall into several categories:1) Die hard bikers who are very fit, generally environmentally committed and encouraging, but fail to see the huge leap from where I am now to where they are. (So are rather matter of fact about my gargantuan four-miles-each way efforts.)2) Super Bikers who have all the luminous lycra gear and are really all about having the right bike/helemet/outfit and who race up vertical surfaces at the drop of a protective hat. (another species)3) People who are fair weather bikers, who store their bike in a purpose build narrow shed and get it out at the weekend to take to the rural cycle paths. (They often lead a russian doll set of smaller bikes with wobbly children on them) 4) Average folk who have biked for years, will never win races but who can readily advise on the right kind of bike lock and the merits of baskets and panniers for getting around with a pile of work related articles and books, and where to buy your optimum (quick releasing) bike lights.  

David Otterson's wooden fruit selection
Alan Bulmer's painting at Gallery TS1

I met members of all those categories in that first week and I'm sure there are more. However I don't fit into any of them. Ten minutes up my local back roads and my heart is pumping. I wear whatever I have to hand. I'm not brave enough to set off in the rain in a pair of shorts and a topshop vest and get changed at my destination. I have acquired, through the gifts of people who don't ride, and therefore have no  use for them,  a fetching helmet and de rigeur reflective jacket. No lights though, and as yet, no lock. So I'm confining my adventures to the hours of daylight, and I only go places where I can stash 'her' behind a locked door.  

'Fruit' felt picture by LarchField Craft
at Gallery TS1

Within twelve hours of being back in Middlesbrough I was on that bike and cautiously picking my way up Linthorpe Road to Gallery TS1. The two big surprises of my first day were: A) A builders' wagon driver, who not only stopped pulling out of his parking spot to let me past, but used his own mirrors to check the way was clear for me and signal reassurance.  Gratifying; maybe he has the keen awareness of a father of enthusiastic kids who are newly venturing out on their bikes into the mayhem of the modern urban road system.  The second surprise, nay, utter shock, was B) The ambulance driver, who waited till he was immediately behind my line of vision in a stream of tea time traffic, before he turned on his siren, causing me to leap virtually out of my saddle and screech in horror, to the loud amusement of the smartarse in the car coming the other way.  I'm still pondering on making a formal complaint. Maybe they were short of RTA patients that day.

Anyway, with a combo of bravely biking with a backpack, and borrowing my brother's furniture restoration van to shift the heavy and awkward equipment, I managed to co-ordinate and hang an exhibition at the gallery, and the first gig of The Secret Artists' Company CIC from the saddle as it were! The annual Middlesbrough Town Meal, an extravaganza of local produce and healthy eating was the scene of our arts workshops, and the inspiration for an exhibition of local artists' work on the theme of Food Glorious Food. So in this atmosphere of food awareness and eating healthy soup, I forgave myself for not logging calories. Maybe next week!

 

Wren Miller's Healthy Still Life trolley
inspiring on the spot paintings & healthy eating

Bowls and Bicycles!

Bowls and Bicycles!

Argilla - bowls and bicycles simultaneously!

 I'm writing this on the train to Pisa airport, having spent a few days with friends at the Faenza 'Argilla' ceramics festival. You  may not be surprised to read that calorie counting has not been at the top of my agenda! Faenza, however was inspiring, not only because the food was delicious and there were more ceramics in one city than I've ever seen before  (plenty of beautiful bowls & plates to eat from) but also because there were bicycles everywhere.  Cars seemed to take second place on those cyclist-friendly city roads, and when parked up, often they weren't even locked. My new bike is safely stashed in Middlesbrough, not reducing anybody's  body fat! But I'm encouraged to get in the saddle as soon as I get back. I just hope my home town drivers can become as bike friendly as the Italians! 

A local bike shop 

However I've not been lazy - I've done a lot of walking, some of it up and down mountain paths, and did some garden maintenance at Casa Rosa (scything/lugging things about). For a few days before I set off for Italy, I did bite the bullet, by logging my food consumption on 'my fitness pal ' as a bit of a stock take of my average eating habits. It's an interesting thing to do - have a go! Once I got over my resistance to the numbers game (weighing stuff seems such a faff) I found my remote fitness coach Heather was right - put in muesli , for example,  and it brings up every permutation from every possible retail source.  It logs your favourites, so you only have to work each thing out once.  Then you log your exercise for the day and it neatly tells you what you'll weigh in a month's time if you were do the same each day. 

hundreds of fabulous bowls to choose from!

Now, I'm not one for dieting. I think people, and women in particular, can get obsessed with weight watching and there's a plethora of magazines, TV programmes and other media  giving so many conflicting messages that we forget to just listen to our own bodies. But in our busy lives it is hard to keep track,  so writing down every morsel and sip helped me to take a birds eye view of the week and notice what I could be eating more & less of as well as noticing habits. Less tea and more water for example, would be a bit healthier! Anyway, I did lose a couple of pounds that week, just by being more mindful about it. I have no idea if it stayed off - I have no scales in Tuscany. 

delicious breakfasts every morning!

Eat Play Laugh!

Eat Play Laugh! This is the philosophy behind one of our Casa Rosa Tuscan Retreat programmes, which we facilitate together. My sister Heather is an inspiring health and fitness coach, and for years has balanced her desk bound accountancy work with gym based exercise. For years I have been the classic join-the-gym-and-then-not-go 'exercise' avoider!

Not that I'm allergic to exercise generally, I just don't enjoy gyms. I do other things, and for years never worried about either my fitness or my weight, I was pretty fit and my weight stayed reasonably the same on my veggie diet and my fairly active lifestyle.

But like many busy women in the middle of their lives, my weight has been creeping up for a few years and my fitness levels have been harder to maintain. I was ill for a while, which was a wake up call, but more of that later. This summer I was very busy and not exactly a couch potato, but I still found myself fretting about feeling heavy and not so energetic as I think I am in my head. Time for a new approach I think, and to keep me focussed I've decided to write about it.

Our Eat Play Laugh! retreat is designed for women to find their balance. A week away from our 'normal' life can give us time to get an eagles eye view of what we are caught up in. There are lots of reasons why some of us struggle to fit in healthy eating and exercise, and we are surrounded by conflicting messages about body image. Many of us are managing much more than our grandmothers needed to manage, and still we expect ourselves to do it all and stay fabulous.

Elizabeth Gilbert's Book Eat Pray Love, made both my sister and me laugh and we each related to different parts of it. I can recommended it as a good read - I haven't actually seen the film, but when I get round to it I'll let you know. The premise though, is of a woman ditching her ordinary life and for a literal journey through various countries, along with into her own psyche. We paraphrased her title for her retreat programme, because actually, this is what Heather and I both believe life should be about: journeying, playing, laughing and eating well. We also work hard but we aim to get a balance, and we invite women to come to our Tuscan mountain retreat for a week as part of their own journeying. We believe that we each have to find our own way to stay fit and healthy but that the key is about having fun along the way.

This diary though is about my own journey to better health and fitness, because I've decided to change what I do and see if it makes a difference.  Four days ago I got a bike for the first time in 24 years. I felt ridiculously excited, like a child with a new toy! I'm lucky to have a personal trainer, even though at the moment we live 250 miles apart!  This morning I did as Heather suggested and registered on www.myfitnesspal.com to keep track of my diet and exercise. I hope my blog will inspire you and I welcome you to comment and join in if you want! Maybe we'll see you in Tuscany!