Living 5:2

So, I know this isn't really related to what we usually post about but I've been doing the 5:2 diet for nearly 10 months now and I wanted to share a few tips and recipes I've learned and also a bit about what it's like. I've decided to do this over several posts as I started to write it and it got REALLY long! So, this first post is general stuff, then I will do one on recipes and one on tips for getting through a fasting day.

So here's an overview of my experience on 5:2:

First of all, weight loss: I've lost about 6kg since I started. It might not sound like much to some people but I didn't have very much to lose (my BMI has dropped from 23 to 20.8). I'm happy with where I am now.

Health: Although I initially did go on the diet to lose weight (I had been struggling to shift the couple of kgs by exercising and eating healthily), I was also interested in the health benefits. There are lots of claims about how it's good for all sorts of things (best check out the official website or book, I'm no doctor...). I can't measure most of them and I didn't really have any previous health problems but I do feel better on the diet. I also feel like I can eat healthy fatty foods on my feast days without worrying about putting on weight, which means I can focus more on getting the right nutrients instead of counting calories or grams of fat.

Psychological: I feel better for having a break from eating a couple of times a week. If I overindulge at all at the weekend, or at a meal out or anywhere (which, to be fair, happens a LOT) then I don't feel so bad knowing I'll be fasting the next day or soon after. I feel like my body gets a break and gets to clear out.

Exercise: I often go to the gym, swim or cycle on fasting days, I don't notice any difference really.

Side-effects: For a few weeks I felt nauseous on my fasting days. I don't know why that was, and I couldn't find much information about others feeling the same but I found that fizzy drinks or tea sometimes helped and I was fine the next day. It has now stopped happening, but I don't know why.... I think sometimes I'm more irritable on fasting days. I work with kids and sometimes I think I have less tolerance when I'm fasting but it's hard to measure. By the evening, I'm more likely to be short-tempered but I think if you recognise why it helps to alleviate it.

Fitting it into life: It might sound a bit cliched but I do see 5:2 as a lifestyle, at least for this stage of my life (I think it might be hard to do it if you had to cook for and feed children on fasting days). As it's a lifestyle, I am not always strict about it but I do try to stick to it when possible. If I miss a day, or if I eat a few more calories, or even a cupcake, it's not the end of the world. I'll be fasting again in a few days and the majority of the time, I do it properly. Sometimes I fast until evening and then eat a normal meal (if I'm going out for a meal for instance). Basically, I make it fit around my life. Whenever I can (unless I'm on holiday!) I fast properly, but if it's inconvenient, I don't worry about breaking the rules for a day.

Coping: I know some people struggle with 5:2. In my family, 5 of us have tried it, 2 of us do it properly now and 1 does 'fasting days' but I'm pretty sure he doesn't count calories! I found the first day I tried easier than I expected. I was surprised with how much I could eat of some things (and how little of others!). The second day was the hardest I think, then after that it got easier. Now, some days are harder than others but I know I can do it, and I know I can eat tomorrow.

Pretty Paperwork

I've been wanting a letter tray for a while now. Bank statements, pay slips, bills and other bits of paper get left on our dining table all the time. I wanted somewhere to put paper while it waited to be sorted or filed... and six months later I finally got around to making this:

It's not perfect but it's a lot cheaper than the pretty ones you get in shops (in fact it was free as I already had everything I needed) and it's a lot prettier than either a cardboard box (which is what it is, essentially) or the cheap ones you can find in pound shops (still more expensive than making this!).

So, here's how I did it.

First I cut one side off a cereal box so I had a tray shape and flat piece of card board. Then I used the spare cardboard from the open end of the box to make little 'L' shaped supports and stuck the flat piece into the box to make a second tray using a glue gun (I know that sounds confusing but the pictures should hopefully make it clear!).

Next I covered the top, sides and a bit of the inside with some pretty wrapping paper. I used a mixture of about half and half PVA glue and water for this. I didn't bother to cover the bottom or right inside the lower tray and it won't ever be seen but you could if you wanted to be thorough. If you want to cover the inside of the lower tray, I would suggest doing this before you stick the upper tray in.

I then left the tray to dry for 24 hours before coating it all over with the glue and water mix. I did this twice leaving it to dry 24 hours each time. And that's it. Now I have a pretty letter tray to put all my un-organised paperwork in!

15 Minute Basket Rain Cover

Now it's spring and I've fixed up an old bike, I'm intending to cycle more (we'll see how that goes...). British spring weather (or in fact, all-year round weather), however, means that I need my bike basket to be shower-proof. I got this very useful basket last year and it's great, it clips on and off easily and holds a good amount whilst being very light-weight. Although the main basket is made of a shower-proof canvas, the top is just a thin fabric drawstring so I decided to make a cover for it. This is really simple and quick (and probably not very durable but it will do for light use). It took me about 15 minutes including collecting the materials from around the house and tidying up!

What you need:

• Large plastic bag (I used a bag for life one)
• Elastic
• Sewing machine with coordinating thread

My basket has a detachable hoop at the top so I took this off to draw round it, if your's doesn't, just turn your basket upside down and draw around it onto the inside of your plastic bag (there should be a few cm spare all around it, otherwise you need a bigger bag!)

Next cut out your bag leaving a few cm around your line. You can measure and draw another line to be exact but I just did it by eye. 

I then realised that the sharpie line could be seen from the other side of the bag, so I wiped it off with some nail varnish remover.

Next sew your elastic around the edge of your circle using a long zig-zig stitch and stretching the elastic as you go.

Put on your basket and you're ready for a rainy day!

Cheap and Easy Hand-Wash Upgrade

I've been wanting a nice handwash dispenser for a while but I just haven't got around to finding one. Recently I bought a Tesco Value hand soap for the bathroom and I realised that if I pulled the label off it would just be a nice plain white bottle. Then I thought to decorate it with Sharpies to match the toothpaste mug I have.

I think it looks really sweet now and it was basically a free project as the soap was the cheapest I could get anyway to have in the bathroom (and it smells really nice!) and I already had the coloured Sharpies It was really easy to do, if you go wrong, you can wipe it off with some nail varnish remover. I'm not sure whether it will last, it might fade or rub off with use but if it does I can clean if off and put another design on.

Happy Easter and A Mini Easter Craft

Happy Easter! I hope you're all enjoying lots of yummy chocolate today!

I am actually home alone until this afternoon so I decided to make some little Easter baskets and fill them with chocolate for my boyfriend and sister. They only took a few minutes each and they look so cute!

I used this tutorial, but made them a bit smaller and I didn't bother with covering all the staples, I just used some pretty washi tape to cover them on the outside and left them showing on the inside (the chocolates cover them anyway and I don't plan to keep them to use again). The card I used was some pretty stripy card left over from some packaging on something I got ages ago.

Babushka Doll Peg Bag

This was my Christmas present to my mum. I was inspired by this pin, which I thought was really cute but although I thought my mum would like it, I didn't think she'd LOVE it and I couldn't help but think that I could probably make one shaped like a Russian Doll, and my mum LOVES Russian Dolls, so I had to try! (Sorry for the lack of photos, I didn't start taking them until I had all the pieces ready)

Materials
Main fabric
Lining fabric
Filler fabric
Wire coat hanger
Felt (face colour and hair colour)
Embroidery thread (for face details - I used black and red)
Paper for making the pattern (I used newspaper)

To make the pattern I just drew round a cereal bowl for the head and then drew the body freehand. When I cut it out I folded it in half length-ways to make sure it was symmetrical. Now that I have finished it, I think it would actually be better bigger. It turned out smaller than I'd intended even though I put in generous seam allowances so I would suggest making it even bigger (my pattern measured about 39cm by 27cm).

From the pattern I cut out 2 pieces of the main fabric, 2 pieces of lining fabric and 2 pieces of another stiff fabric I had for strengthening (you could use any spare fabric or interfacing or batting for this, it's just to give it a bit more bulk and help it to hold it's shape when it is hung).

I then cut the top off my pattern in a kind of extended 'w' shape to make the pattern for the headscarf (see photo below) and cut one of these from another fabric. I hemmed the bottom of this (the 'w' shaped bit) as this would not be sewn to the main piece.

I cut a circle from some skin coloured felt, sewed on some felt hair and embroidered a face on it. After testing out a few faces on paper I decided on a very simple closed eyes and a small smiling mouth. Anything more looked a bit silly but you might be able to pull it off if you're better at drawing and embroidering than me!

Once the face was done, I sewed it onto my scarf fabric (I centered the face at this point but it did end up a bit wonky by the end so you could leave the face until the very end and sew it on there to make sure it is in the right place (or you could be better than me at sewing even hems...).

I pinned pieces for the front of the bag together (lining fabric, then filler fabric, then main fabric then scarf) and cut the slot for the pegs. I then hemmed this. You can add binding but I decided I liked mine as it was and with the stripy fabric I thought binding wouldn't look good.

Next, I layered up the back of the bag (lining, filler and main fabric) and sewed together the front and the back, right sides facing. Start and end at the top of the head and leave a small opening for the hanger to go through. I then used pinking shears to trim the hem to stop it fraying. Turn the bag right way out through the peg slot.

Finally, cut a wire hanger and bend it to shape so that it will go round the edge of the head and shoulders of your bag inside, then just slip it inside through the peg slot and you have a Babushka Peg Bag!

Also, my mum did LOVE it!

My Neice's Very Own Quiet Book

The Quiet Book I made for my niece’s Christmas present was my major Christmas project. I started it in October and only finished it just before Christmas. It took many many hours of work and also cost quite a bit in materials (despite using lots of fabric I already had). But it was worth it I think. I am very proud of it (despite it being far from perfect) and she is enjoying a lot it and hopefully will do for years to come (I plan to update the pages as she gets older).

So, first of all, here is my Quiet Book.

Playdough shape matching page

There is one of each shape in each colour

Face making page

There are about 3 different eyes, noses and mouths, 

she can make happy, sad and angry faces to help with

her emotional understanding

Aliens Love Underpants page

The aliens are hiding behind bushes and the pants can

be taken off the washing line and stuck on any alien

This is just a simple clasps page so she can play

with different fastenings

Incy Wincy Spider climbed up the water spout

Down came the rain and washed the spider out

Out came the sunshine and dried up all the rain

Gruffalo page

I wrote The Gruffalo words into a little hand-made 

bookletand she can act it out with the finger puppets

I spoke to my sister recently and apparently Bryony's favourite pages are the Aliens one (she loves to lift the flaps and say 'Peepo!' ) and the Gruffalo one. She is still learning about sticking the pieces on and taking them off (although apparently she can already do the aliens' pants).

How I Made It

There are plenty of websites and blogs that can give you far better instructions than I can on making a quiet book. These are the ones that I used.

• How To Make a Quiet Book

• Imagine Our Life

• Serving Pink Lemonade

• And this is where I copied the Gruffalo finger puppets from

I got ideas on page content and information about the technical bits of making the book but in the end I designed my own pages (some more influenced by my research than others) as that was easier to do than trying to find specific materials and also I could tailor them to my niece’s interests. I asked my sister about what she liked before I started (she didn't know what I was making) and she told me she liked Aliens Love Underpants, and Incy Wincy Spider book she had, mirrors and faces, playdough and some other stuff I couldn't fit into the book. It's me who loves The Gruffalo but I'm sure she will too!

Here’s the specifics about my book if you’re interested (everything else can be found on the pages linked above):

• The pages have 3 eyelets each and they attach to the cover using book rings (found at Staples) which means that the pages are removable and can be replaced as she grows out of them.

• The cover is made of denim so hopefully will be fairly durable.

• I used Velcro for most of the removable pieces as it was easy to sew on and should be easy for her to stick on and pull off. I’ve seen some that used poppers but  I thought they would be harder for her little fingers and also more expensive to buy a load of than just getting a strip of Velcro, especially as I only had to use tiny pieces of Velcro.

• I used some old fabric I found in my parents attic for the pages, it’s quite stiff and kind of canvassy but unfortunately I don’t actually know what it is! I didn’t need anything to strengthen this, two pieces sewed back to back and the fabric making up the pictures on the front made stiff enough pages.

• The mini pegs on the Aliens Love Underpants page were from Amazon but I wouldn’t recommend them, I think I will need to replace them with Velcro as they were already falling apart over Christmas. I’m not sure if they were just bad quality pegs or if it’s because they are so small.