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!