Weekly Update Y2w28

This week wasn't as good as last week, but not horrendously bad either.

My weight has gone up this weekend.

Entirely my fault what I put in my mouth, so I'm not making excuses, but we have had a lot of food in the house that we don't normally have: peanuts, snacks, marshmallows, sweets, cookies etc.  My husband took part in the Quarantine Backyard Ultra on Saturday, and needed a lot of high calorie snacks to help him run.  From being somebody who had only run a single half marathon before, he racked up an astonishing 36 miles over 9 hours!  I'm very proud of him, and my step-father-in-law who also competed.  (At time of writing, the race is down to the last 2 competitors who is on their 48th lap!  Wow!)
I do much better when I don't have these foods in the house.

We also had a BBQ yesterday.  I enjoyed having a naked burger on a big salad and home made
dressing. It was delicious.  Unfortunately, I also had two smores made with those giant marshamllows and digestive biscuits, as well as having marshmallows randomly through out the evening.
Again, I do much better when I don't have these foods in the house.

It's a new week, and I have another chance to try again.  At least my 'highs' are not even reaching 92kilos anymore, and my lows are regularly below 91kilos, that that is a good improvement.

Weekly Update Y2w27

Overall, I've had a good week this week.  I hit a new lowest weight, and though I haven't managed to break through 90kilos, I'm not gaining and that's the main thing!

For the past three weeks I have started exercising again by going  on walks with a friend, and with the family last Saturday.  It definitely raises my heart rate, though it's not too fast as I can still hold a conversation. It's certainly nice to be out of the house after being locked down for so long.

And I have finally finished Ilana Muhlstein's You Can Drop It (I'll write a review in a different post).  I am eating more vegetables, and enjoying different flavours and textures, and I'm genuinely not missing carbs in my evening meal.  Even yesterday, my family and I went to a drive-thru cinema and could order food to our cars, I had a naked burger, salad, coleslaw, a handful of sweet potato fries (giving the rest to my girls) and instead of dessert, I had a butterscotch milkshake. I'm not pretending the shake was 'healthier' than a regular dessert, but it was a treat that I could savour and enjoy.

So, this week, I am looking to cement Veggies Most, and hopefully break through this invisible barrier of 90kg.  I have already gone for a 4km walk today, and will see if I can sneak in another exercise at the end of the week.

Ties That Bind by Anne Patrick

I could not put this down.  Ties That Bind is a thriller that stars Jo McDaniels, an FBI profiler with 10 years experience.  After years of study, training and a wealth of cases under her belt, Jo is called to use her special talent to investigate a serial killer back in her hometown of Claremont.  However, Jo is estranged from her family so going back isn't as easy as it may seem.

The blurb says:

FBI agent Jo McDaniels has been called to her hometown of Claremont, Oregon, to help on a grisly serial murder case. As with most profilers, she is able to take the evidence, background of the victims, and crime scene photos, and reenact in her mind what took place between the killer and the victim. But what if there are no crime scenes and the victims have been decapitated in order to hide their identity? This is where Jo's unusual gift comes into play. Unlike other profilers in her field, she is able to sense what the victim felt prior to death. She not only feels their emotions, she feels their pain.

Sheriff Austin Garrett doesn't quite know what to think of the beautiful and sassy profiler with a unique gift that defies all reason. He's willing to try anything, though, to stop the monster plaguing his community.

But can Jo and Austin find the killer before he makes it even more personal?

I chose this book as my P in the alphabet of author's names that I haven't read yet, and I am very glad that I did.  It is full of suspense, and whilst the murders are horrible, there is no excessive gore or mutilation that can be found in other books.  

What I particularly liked about this book is that despite there being two more obvious suspects, the evidence keeps swinging one way and then the other, so you cannot be sure in your predictions.  The author keeps you on the edge of your seat as each bit of the plot unfolds as we move towards the climax of the story.  Really enjoyable and well written.  I have added the sequel, Malice, to my wishlist and will read that soon as I've finished going through the alphabet.

The Centurion's Wife by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke

The entirety of The Centurion's Wife takes place within an 8 week period during 33AD.  It starts just after Passover when Leah is told that a Centurion has asked to marry her.  Leah is kept as a servant in Pilate's house, whilst also being his niece.  As Pontius Pilate is concerned that Jesus' followers will start rioting and a revolution after His death, Pilate's wife asks Leah to find out what she can about these rabble-rousers and determine whether they pose any threat to the peace that Pilate seeks to maintain.

The blurb says:

Janette Oke has dreamed for years of retelling a story in a biblical time frame from a female protagonist's perspective, and Davis Bunn is elated to be working with her again on this sweeping saga of the dramatic events surrounding the birth of Christianity. . .and the very personal story of Leah, a young Jewess of mixed heritage trapped in a vortex of competing political agendas and private trauma. Caught up in the maelstrom following the death of an obscure rabbi in the Roman backwater of first century Palestine, Leah finds herself also engulfed in her own turmoil facing the prospect of an arranged marriage to a Roman soldier, Alban, who seems to care for nothing but his own ambitions. Head of the garrison near Galilee, he has been assigned by Palestine's governor to ferret out the truth behind rumors of a political execution gone awry. Leah's mistress, the governor's wife, secretly commissions Leah also to discover what really has become of this man whose death and missing body is causing such furor. This epic drama is threaded with the tale of an unlikely romance and framed with dangers and betrayals from unexpected sources. At its core, The Centurion's Wife unfolds the testing of loyalties between two young people whose inner searchings they cannot express, between their irreconcilable heritages, and ultimately between their humanity and the Divine they yearn to encounter.

This book is a romance that would also be enjoyed by those who like historical or political fiction too.  The Centurion's Wife was recommended to me by a friend from church, but in all honesty, I was not expecting it to be as good as it was. 

Leah's family met hard times, and though she was living as the personal servant to Pilate's wife, she was an intelligent and independent woman who made the most of her situation, and did not want to lose the little freedom she has by being married off to a soldier.  Having a good knowledge of the Bible and the events after Jesus's crucifixion, it was interesting to see that as the backdrop of this unexpected romance.  I liked how these fictional characters were interwoven with the historical characters of Pilate, Herod, Mary Magdalene, Mary, Martha, Lazarus etc. and though it is fiction all the events are entirely plausible.  I also liked that the story focuses on strong women in a historical setting where that would have been difficult.

I really enjoyed this book.  I read it in a day, and even though I knew the story of the context, I wanted to find out what happened between Leah and the Centurion.  My only slight niggle is with the title - Leah and Alban only get betrothed at the halfway mark in the book, and the actual wedding celebration isn't until the end of the book, but that's only a minor thing.

Weekly Update Y2w26

Halfway through the year and I have lost 5.1 kg since January 1st; that's just over 11 lbs in old money.  That is a lot less than I would have hoped I would have lost by this point in the year, but I cannot get too disheartened.  My progress is steady, I am losing weight and I am forming new habits - that's a big win!

This week, I have been focusing on eating Veggies Most, as coined by the 2B Mindset, and it seems to be working.  I am feeling full and satisfied and genuinely am craving more vegetables in preference to other foods.  It's bizarre! lol

Here's a selection of the foods I've been eating:

Cabbage Steak with Piccalilli

 To bake the cabbage steak and the carrots, I simply lay them on a baking tray, coat with onion salt and garlic powder and a spritz of oil, before baking at 180C for 20+min, until they look soft and yummy.  I flip the cabbage steak halfway through baking, and the edges start to caramelise.

The topping for the first picture is sliced onions and chorizo, fried together.  As chorizo is a strong flavour, I kept to the basic for my baked veg.  Alternatives can be adding cumin, chilli or Mexican spices before baking the cabbage.  Then I added piccalilli mixed with a little yoghurt and thinned with vinegar so it goes further.

Naked Cheeseburger and Salad

By buying decent thick burgers, you honestly don't need the bread roll.  I've had burgers with cheese and BBQ sauce, or more piccalilli (I've only just discovered I like it), on a bed of spinach, cucumber, tomato, mushrooms etc and it is really filling and satisfying.  As a bread lover, this has been the main surprise for me, that I can enjoy traditionally breaded food without it!

Cabbage Steak with Mushrooms

The third picture shows cabbage steaks and carrots again (I love baked carrots - I feel like my eyes have been opened and atm I could eat them every day!), this time with mushrooms and spring onions on top.  I also made a sauce to accessorise them, of Korean BBQ sauce (which was too spicy for me) with Greek yoghurt and vinegar.  It was sweet, and tangy and spicy.  Despite having cabbage steaks twice this week, I don't love them, but with strong flavoured sauces, you can change what you're eating to keep it exciting and fresh.

This coming week, my plan is to keep eating the vegetables, and to keep off traditional carbs after lunchtime (I am still eating fruit and the occasional dessert or glass of wine in the evenings).  I am really noticing that this is making a difference (when I stick to it) to both my weight and to how my body feels in terms of bloatedness and hunger.

Exercise-wise, I have shifted my focus, so I am not worrying too much about getting the exercise done, but since lockdown has eased, I did walk 4.5km with a friend last Monday, and we plan to walk further this afternoon.  It may not be much, but this is a good habit for me to develop as it feels more like fun than hard work.

If I didn't Care by Kait Nolan

If I Didn't Care was my N in the series.  It is about best friends Judd and Autumn who have a shared trauma from the past which shapes their future lives - Autumn's father tried to kill them both. Set in the small town of Wishful, the story centres on these two characters as they try and deal with the fact that Autumn's father is being released from prison.

The blurb says:

He has one mission

Since they were children, career cop Judd Hamilton has built his life around taking care of his best friend, Autumn Buchanan. While he might once have dreamed of a different future for them, everything changed the day her father tried to kill them both. Determined to keep her safe, Judd put his feelings aside and turned his focus to protecting her, always.

She leads a double life

Nobody in their small town would ever dream that Autumn, Wishful's friendly librarian, is really successful erotic romantic suspense author, Rumor Fairchild. No one knows that the swoon-worthy hero of her series is based on her best friend, Judd. He's been fulfilling her rescue fantasies for years, and now she's ready to catapult them out of the friend zone to make her real life romance come true.

Their nightmare returns

But when the past comes full circle and Autumn's father returns to Wishful, even the power of Judd's badge isn't enough to keep her safe from the madman. If he wants the chance at a future with the one girl he's always loved, Judd may have to toss everything he's worked for aside to do the one job that matters.

This book is a romance, but with a definite suspense element to it. Though the who-done-it side of things was quite predictable (I won't say more as to not give it away), the build up of suspense and the plot was really good. There are plenty of humorous scenes too, especially at the book club...

If I Didn't Care is the first of the Wishing For A Hero series, and I happily spent a day being immersed in Autumn and Judd's lives.

Reading List O-Z

As I finished yet another book yesterday (I'll write a review of If I Didn't Care by Kait Nolan soon), I was searching my Kindle for the next book to read based on author - I'm now on O.  I had to scroll through over 70 pages of books, just to get to author O!  (There may well be a quicker way of doing it on my kindle, but I can't seem to be able to search specifically for an author's letter, so scrolling it is.)  Given that I don't want to be repeating that all the time, especially as we progress through the alphabet I'll have to skip more and more pages, last night I chose and downloaded the books I will read for the rest of the alphabet.

Usually I go by gut-feel, so sometimes I'm in the mood for romance, sometimes a thriller, sometimes fantasy, sometimes Sci-Fi; sometimes I'll want to read a classic, other times I want to read something lighter.  It depends on what I have just read and what's going on in life.  Now, however, with this pre-chosen list I have to hope that I've chosen well.  As always, I have gone by the title and by the book cover, so though I may have an inkling of what the book is about, I am often wrong.

O - The Centurion's Wife by Janette Oke and Davis Bunn
P - Ties that Bind by Anne Patrick
Q - Third Daughter by Susan Kaye Quinn
R - Rise of the Dragons by Morgan Rice
S - The Lanvin Murders by Angela M Sanders
T - Incarnation by Jason Tesar
U - [ETA: Plague 99 by Jean Ure]
V - Stronger than Magic by Melinda VanLone
W - Now, Then and Everywhen by Rysa Walker
X - [ETA: On Her Own Two Wheels by Stacy Xavier]
Y - Forged in Rage by Sean Young
Z - The Forever Man 1 by Craig Zerf

As you can see, I am missing a U and an X.  Though I'm meant to be working my way through the books I have already bought, it does bug me somewhat that I'm missing just two of the letters of the alphabet.  If you know any fiction authors whose last names begin with these letters, please recommend them to me.  Ideally, I'd like a free book on Kindle (as the whole point of this was to not buy any more), but I'd be willing to pay a little just for completeness.