Jen's Midweek Catch-Up - Latest News From Just Average Jen

How are you today? I am going to start writing you all a midweek catch-up post every week with an update of my weight loss/lifestyle changes, books I am reading and generally just a hello and an update. I already have a weekly email that I know many of you are signed up to, but I will probably cover different things in each, though I am sure there will be an overlap.

Contents

Weight Loss, Exercise and Mental Health Catch-up

This week has been a mixture of feelings. I have written an honest post about my weight and the difficulties I have had in the past. I have opened up and shared some things I have not shared before. I won’t go into detail about that here, but feel free to pop over and read it after you have read this post.

Exercise – I went for a long walk on Sunday and was out of the house 50 minutes, well 52 minutes to be precise! I listened to my favourite True Crime YouTubers on the walk and really enjoyed it. I am not sure my smart watch knew what to think of that sudden increase in exercise, as the following day I had the message below in my Samsung Health app. I have also been working out on my cross trainer whilst listening to audiobooks!

Whilst working on my weight this is a screenshot of a message from Samsung health which reads "Balance your exercise your moderate to vigorous exercise time of 52 minutes yesterday was higher that your usual 0 minutes this can lead to fatigue and injury affecting your energy score consider reducing todays exercise to your usual level boost your rest time to avoid potential issues keep up the good work and stay balanced."

Food/diet – I have been eating really healthily and, despite temptation, haven’t bought rubbish at the shop, which, as we all know, is half the battle! If it isn’t readily available, I am less likely to eat it! I made Caribbean Rice and Jerk Quorn (Chicken for Ben and Stuart), which we all enjoyed as we haven’t had it since last summer! We have also been eatiing a lot of salads but with different toppings so boiled eggs, cheese, Quorn/chicken etc

Mental Health – I have started a higher dose of my antidepressants. Whilst I am doing ok on the whole, I am also still having days where I am really struggling, and I hope the higher dose will help me more. It will likely take a few weeks to properly get into my system, but I will keep you updated in the catch-up next week and the week after!

Books

So I currently have three books on the go, I know that sounds crazy but I often do. This is because I have one I am reading on Kindle (usually in bed), one I read is a paperback that I read downstairs mostly, and one on audiobook for when I am working, exercising and sometimes driving!

So my current books are:

Spare by Prince Harry – Bought ages ago on Audible and hadn’t got around to listening to it!
Nothing to See Here by Susan Lewis – Ben gave me this one for Mother’s Day!
Ward D by Freida McFadden – I love her books! Free on Kindle Unlimited if you fancy a read!

The genre/topic for the current book club read is something that has been on your shelf for a while, so I am using Spare for that one!

Family

We are all doing ok at the moment, it is nice that we are all trying to eat healthily as it means there are fewer temptations for everyone. Both Stuart and Ben have also been helping more in the kitchen too which is always nice.

Ben has had some medical issues this year, which are still ongoing, which is frustrating for us all, but especially for him. We finally have an appointment at the hospital, so that is great. The NHS is so broken at times, isn’t it? I won’t go into detail about his issue, but he was referred to the hospital as urgent, and they said a 9-month wait for urgent referrals (longer for non-urgent!). Luckily, we have a good GP, and she GP wrote back and told them it needed to be sooner! She obviously did well, as the appointment is next week!

We have been planning and booking our family holiday. Do you remember we drove to Portugal last year? We loved it so much, we are doing another driving holiday this year and driving to Mallorca! Well, driving and ferries! I will be sharing a post all about that soon if you are interested!