Hello Dear Reader,

Frugal in Bucks asked in her blog “Can you be healthy and frugal?” My resounding answer to that is yes you can!

I thought I would break this up into manageable chunks as any form of ‘change’ doesn’t happen instantly or easily. The first one to over come is the attitude of people around you. It doesn’t matter if you are on a diet, not spending money, giving up smoking, getting more exercise, giving up booze, sugar or just staying in a getting more sleep. Some one will be the voice that tries to tell you that not eating cakes, not eating sugar, going running, being on a diet is dull and ‘you’ve only got one life’. It never ever ceases to amaze me that people think my life is boring or unfulfilled as I’m not bored and my glass is over flowing! I have a **** you attitude to what anyone else thinks of me and I also have a rubber arse. If I fall down or get knocked down then I just get back up again.
The first thing that is frugal and even free is ‘your own mind’. If you have decided that you are going to change your life then remember it’s YOUR life and no one else’s business if you choose to change it.

Now you’ve stood up to the nay sayers, they biggest voice you have to overcome is your own! I’ve stamped on the little voice that used to whine and say this hurts, or this is aching. I’ve silenced the moaning that feels deprived and wants what it can’t have. I no longer hear ‘oh go oh, eat it, that won’t hurt you’ into ‘good for you, you make the right choices and you are healthier for it!’. Every single day, my advice to everyone is to practise positive self talk that allows you to praise yourself for the good you are doing to yourself. Today, I praised myself for eating fruit, plenty of veg and drinking lots of water. I also praised myself for the 3K run and for cooking a healthy supper. I didn’t nag myself for not running 5K and I didn’t beat myself up that my supper portion was large. I stick to the positives.

Healthy food. I eat real food. I don’t eat diet food and don’t suggest that anyone else does either! I followed the Weight Watchers plan initially and found the habit of tracking my eating invaluable. I now no longer need that level of support and use an app to track all of my calories per day. I find it easy to stick to the prescribed amount of calories. However, to get plenty of food down my neck I have to bulk out my meals with vegetables. I eat a box of salad for lunch every day and pile my plate high with veggies with my supper every night. My change in my eating habits is that I don’t snack so I don’t eat anything between one meal and the next. This means any meal tastes amazing as I am hungry. A simple veggie risotto or a vegetable soup tastes amazing when nothing but water has passed my lips for six hours! I eat meat but stick to portions of 100 - 130g in each serving. Anything is affordable when you eat a small amount only. I eat good cheese such as parmesan but only eat 15g grated at a time.

Exercise. I’ll come clean. I started seriously exercising on and off many years ago. I have been a gym member over the years but never kept it going. Now, I’ve been almost every day for a year and for the first time, I’ve really had my money’s worth. I’m not going to let this one slip. I also have a personal trainer and no, he is not cheap but he has reprogrammed me to become a runner and I thought that would never ever happen. I certainly won’t keep him forever as he’s going off to pastures new but I have been left with a fitness legacy that means I have formed a habit. What I will do that costs me nothing is run. I’m a plodder and run very slowly. I run in spits and starts and interval train. So, I walk run, walk, walk, run, run and get round a self prescribed route whilst listening to music. However, this is not where I started. I began by walking. I built that up to power walking and that alone kick started a whole new lifestyle where I was active every day.

I’ll try and sum up the how to be healthy as cheaply as possible.

1. Listen to yourself and not others. If you want to be healthy then go for it. It’s not just about weight or shape but most importantly living a full and active life and that’s difficult if your body size impedes your mobility. If you want to change that then don’t listen to others but listen to yourself.

2. Positive self talk - praise yourself for the things you have done each day to take care of yourself.

3. Eat real food and plenty of veg. Eat at meal times and quit the snacking. A big bowl of vegetable soup will taste amazing if you only eat at meal times. Eat until you don’t feel hungry anymore instead of eating until you feel full. Get used to the difference and you will become healthier.

4. Walk every day! Get home, put your coat on and walk for 15 minutes every day for the first week. Do this every day! After one week, build that up to 20 minutes a day! Even if that is just up and down your own street. Make a point of doing it. By the end of the first month, you will be walking for 30 minutes every day just by increasing the amount you walk by five minutes a day. Each week, add five more minutes to the daily walk until you reach one hour a day. Now, start to add hills or steps. If you have steps then add in five minutes a day of just going up and down the steps! Within six months, you’ll be able to skip up them.

Over to you Dear Reader. Are any of the four steps helpful? Would any of the four steps be prohibitively expensive? Can you be healthy and frugal? As ever, I look forward to hearing from you.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hello Dear Reader,

Well, I should say, hello the reader who wrote this.

” Could you write a post about your epiphany, how you decided to lose weight and get fit and what were the first steps you took, along with other bits of Froogs wisdom, please please please pretty please ?”

I love new starts. I love the New Year, the new seasons, a new book, a new challenge, somewhere new and most of all I love a new day. The greatest thing about a new day is that yesterday is totally gone and we can all start again. I am at my best between six in the morning and midday! It all goes down hill after that BUT if it doesn’t go well, there’s alway another day (Thanks for that one Scarlet). I have lost weight before and got all the way down to almost a size 10 and bit by bit I ate all the weight back on. The weight did not creep on without my permission. I made it welcome and even though I didn’t want it, I made it comfy and kept on feeding it!

I had a personal, deep and very real self loathing of my entire body! I’ve always hated it! I hated every bit that droops, sags and wobbles. Fat is not a feminist issue, fat is the issue of a greedy human who just ate too much. I’ve never read fashion mags and couldn’t care less what anyone else looks like. I physically hate myself and have now declared war on my whiny, pitiful miserable self loathing and I’m not prepared to put up with the wobbles or sags anymore!

I’m 5’10” and far more suited to being an Amazonian warrior than a passive dainty and submissive waif. I will never simper, tousle my hair, lick my glossy come and get me lips. I’m a big, strong and healthy woman who birthed her children as easily as popping peas and got up and got the dinner on the table a few hours later. I may hate the sight of the bingo wings, saddle bags and roly poly thighs but I am not letting them stay any longer. I was never every going to get there by moaning, or talking about it………….I just had to do it. I know this all sounds very Dr Phil but I needed to put some verbs into my life!

Every drop of sweat, every stride on a pavement gets me closer and closer to having a lean, strong, long and muscular body. I like to work my legs the hardest as that’s where the most over fed areas of my body harbour past cakes, pies and pasta! I like to use the Myride bikes at the gym and set myself a mountain bike ride and push myself to the point that sweat is literally dripping off my tits! I like to get off and mop the floor where I have splashed sweat. In fact, the more I sweat and stink, the better I feel! I also like to push big weights around! I love the way my legs and push a ‘full stack’ on a leg press, I love the way I can squat 40kg and I love the way that every step down stairs after a really hard ‘leg’ session’ is a reminder of the tone and strength of those incredibly strong and powerful legs of mine.

Whilst I was over my happy weight and size, I beat myself up all the time and all it gave me was a headache! Now, I actually beat my body and it makes me feel incredibly positive about all the new tomorrows. We are spending slightly more on food and I am making the most of smaller but really healthy food. We deserve to be fit and well, we deserve to be well fed and we deserve to be happy.

I started the gym and a new year’s resolution. I love new resolutions. No one who makes them actually just falls off the wagon. The consciously stopped. They actually said, stuff the diet, stuff the exercise or stuff the money saving. It didn’t just happen that they opened their mouth and a Hobnob fell in, they walked to the shop, bought the stuff, opened the packet and then their mouths and they made it all happen. There are no reasons for not exercising, there are no reasons for eating too much or eating unhealthily and there are never any reasons to not live well and to make the most of our lives.

As a woman, I know all the excuses that I could use. I could make excuses that my husband doesn’t support me. I could make excuses that I have joint pain and IBS. I could make excuses that my family needs me. I could use the excuse that I don’t have time. All of those excuses made by anyone are the reasons you have personally chosen because you actually don’t want to do something and are not ballsy enough to just say……………actually, I’m just lazy. When I was over my ideal size and suffering from joint pain, I walked. I added hills and took them slowly to begin with.

I went to a gym! Me, who had decided that she couldn’t afford to spend any money on myself and as I’m frugal with my money and have to get my money’s worth…went every day! In the beginning, I walked on the treadmill and I graduated to walking on it set on a hill programme. I progresses to weights, interval training and after a few months of working indoors, set food outside for the first time to run. I hadn’t run in years and I had two massive fears……………wobbling and pissing myself! The secret is to stop and pee if I needed to and wear compression leggings………..nothing wobbles in them.

I would also like to point out the gyms and pavement pounders are full of people full of every shape and size. I often pass larger people running and every time I just wish I could run as fast as they can! I’ve gained an incredible respect and appreciation for anyone who works hard at anything. Getting a leaner and stronger body takes years. There are no quick fixes! It takes repetition, repetition and repetition and really hard work.

I’ve always known that when I was debt free, when I had reduced my mortgage and when I had plenty of savings that I would be able to afford to make different choices. I don’t buy many clothes, I’ve only recently been to a hairdresser and now my investment is in myself. I no longer loathe my body, infact I am incredibly proud of what it can do! I’m proud of the fact that it gets lycra on and gets out in the cold, gets sweaty and is improving my life chances!

I’m going to reveal my secret weapon! My biggest investment in my health was in getting professional help. I hire a personal trainer. It would be an understatement to say his expertise have changed my life. No shouting, no driving me on just the quiet affirmation that I am getting fitter and healthier with every step I take.
Paul Penrose (I have his number and he’s available in West Devon, Plymouth and Cornwall but he’s moving to London next year) is a triathalete and iron man who has competed for team GB and continues to train university teams, Plymouth tri-club and is a highly sought after personal trainer. Yes, it costs what it costs, but it’s cheaper than Lighter life and fraction of the price of the ruinous misery I was suffering when I hated myself!

Now lets get this straight! I’m not suggesting anyone does as I do. You need to find your own personal motivation. No one wants to hear their own whining or self pity any longer. I was sick of my own negative self talk and had to do something to make my own life better. Remember though, if you do nothing to improve your lot, it’s not fate - it’s your own choice!

On that note………….I’m off out for a run round the block!

p.s - it’s not too late to go out for a walk - set yourself a mile a day - that’s how I started!

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs

Hello Dear Reader,

I was contacted by moneysupermarket.com with an offer that I won’t take up but I will pass on to fellow readers and bloggers. They want to offer bloggers a month’s free gym membership and then see if you are motivated enough after a free month to continue using it.

As you know, or may not know if you’re a new reader, I was reluctant to join the gym as I felt I wouldn’t use my membership and that gyms were not for me. My first tentative steps into a gym took me into a world that I initially found strange and soon became a habit that I just can’t break. Diet alone just doesn’t work for me, but a combination of diet and exercise has reduced me from a size 18 to a size 14 and I’m not stopping there! My weight has reduced from 14/4 to 12/12 and I hope to hit my target of 11 stone within a year. I will admit, it’s vanity, self consciousness and a degree of self loathing that keeps me going and, although it’s a cheesy catch phrase………………..this time is the last time I am ever going to lose weight.

I’m following advice and making successive workouts harder and try to push myself a little bit further. I squat deeper, I add another 10 kilos, I tighten the brake more and more on the spin bike and I add more reps. If it gets easier then I just make it harder.

So many of you have been reading this blog for years and know that I don’t part with money easily and certainly don’t spend money needlessly. I keep going to the gym as I’m not prepared to give up on the investment in myself. I think many women will get what I’m about to say. I put off looking after me for years and years and looked after everyone else and didn’t put myself on the list, let alone at the top of the list. I woke up to the fact that I was tired from carrying around the weight of a small child and was out of breath just walking up a steep hill. I found out very quickly that I was healthy and strong and that the only thing that was getting in the way of a slimmer and more importantly healthy me was quite simply eating less and moving more. Now, I’ve no need of a month’s free gym membership so I’m going to pass this onto as many bloggers who want this. See the article below and follow the link!!!!

Don’t say I never give you anything. I’m going to give you firmer bits and less dangly bingo wings!

Looking to get in Shape?

Here’s where We Can Help!

We’re offering bloggers the opportunity to try out a gym local to them for a month, paid for by us, in order to see whether they feel like it’s worth the expense.

That’s right - We want an army of bloggers to try hitting the gym for a full month and see if they think the paying the money in order to stay fit and healthy, then write about it - and we’ll pay for it too!

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle can really have an effect on your life insurance premiums, and we’re really keen to help our customers save money any way we can - all you need to do is email [email protected] with the phrase GYM FOR THE WIN in the subject header and a link to your blog, and we’ll get in touch to let you know exactly how to go about getting your month’s free gym membership!

Feel free to share this with any other bloggers that might be interested - whether they’re interested in getting in shape for the summer, want to lose a few pounds to fit into those jeans , or even if you think they’d enjoy the challenge!

To Recap…

To get involved:

• • simply email us at [email protected] with “GYM FOR THE WIN” in the subject with the address of your blog
• • We’ll get in touch to arrange your membership
• • You tell us about you experiences on your blog
• • We send you a questionnaire at the end of it

… And that’s it - Good luck!

View Terms and Conditions here

Enjoy!!!!!

Love Froogs xxxxxxxxx

Sorry folks ……. No internet connection tonight xxxxx

Instead, some news.

In January, I weighed fourteen stone and four pounds and today I weigh twelve stone twelve pounds.

Should be back tomorrow xxxxx

Hello Dear Reader,

Thanks for all the kind words, nothing’s changed and I’m in a million little pieces and feeling very fat, very old and very unwanted, but life goes on. I was asked about what I’m eating to lose weight; I have now lost 12lbs - just another 25lbs to go! Here’s this week’s food, and I keep a very close check on it. I’m following the Dukan plan again of alternate days of pure protein and vegetable and protein the next.

Monday - Poached egg, two rashers of grilled bacon. Lunch 120g of low fat plain cottage cheese. Dinner - Microwaved chicken breast with squirt of lemon juice.
Tuesday - Tinned tomatoes and poached egg. Lunch tin of tuna and plain salad. Dinner - 8oz rump steak and plain salad.
Wednesday- Oatbran galette with lemon juice and splenda, Lunch - half a pack of roast beef. Dinner - microwaved salmon and garlic fat free cream cheese.
Thursday - Poached egg, two rashers of grilled bacon. Lunch smoked mackerel and plain salad. Dinner - Chicken in tomato sauce with vegetables.
Friday - Oatbran galette. Lunch - half a pack of roast beef. No dinner.
Saturday - part of my 24 hour fast each week, no breakfast, no lunch, 8oz rump steak and salad for dinner.

No lectures please, I don’t eat that much anyway and for me to lose weight requires WW2 rations! I need to accept that I can’t eat what I like without having 46″ hips (for fuck’s sake!!!!!) and a tummy that gets in the way when I tie my laces so small meals it is! It’s definitely cheap! Watch this space for changes afoot!

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx

Froogs - 5′ 10″ - for those who asked

Hello Dear Reader,

You may have noticed that I haven’t written much about food recently. It’s that time of the year again! Froog’s weightloss challenge. I can lose it, but I slip after about six months! It took me three attempts, many years ago, to give up smoking. I’ve lost weight twice and put it back on but I stand a very good chance of keeping it off this time as Dearly Beloved is doing this with me.

I’m not joining the gym, Weight Watchers, Slimming world, eating dust or drinking shit shakes; I’m just eating small meals and exercising as much as I can. I’m getting used to the hour of exercise a day. I would encourage everyone to find a way of exercising without spending any money. No one needs a gym membership or fancy equipment. I favour walking, I stick my ipod in, put my old trainers on an walk a four mile route and keep the pace to a reasonable puff.

I came back from France 1lb under 14stone! I am now 13 stone 5lbs - and Dearly Beloved has also lost half a stone. I’ll save even more money this way as we’re eating even less with no cake for snacks………….in fact, no snacks at all!

So, anyone want to join Froogs free to join frugal weight loss support group? I’ll blog weekly about frugal exercise and weight loss and I’ll continue to save all my money to give to Santander! So, no fear about that changing.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs