Midweek Catch Up 18th February 2026
Good Afternoon, I hope everyone has had a good week. I have had another busy week at Just Average Jen with new posts and lots of reading. Grab a cuppa and have a read.
Health Catch Up
Here are a few catch-ups for you in various health aspects!
Menopause
All is good on this front, and there’s nothing really to share. My blooming smart watch keeps telling me my period is due in 2 days, though, which is ridiculous as it isn’t! I am hoping that the fact that I don’t even have another gynaecologist appointment and only have appointments for my injections means they are happy to keep me on them for now, which is good.
Mental Health
I feel pretty ok at the moment. I have had a few flashbacks and dreams lately, nothing too out of the ordinary, and I think they are mainly due to the books I have been reading. Some of the books I have read lately have really brought back some memories, but in an ok kind of way. Almost like they are reminding me how bad things were, but also I can look and think wow, I got through that.
Weight Loss
It is Wednesday, and I haven’t been on the scales yet this week for no reason other than I keep forgetting before I have my breakfast, and we all know that if you don’t weigh at the same time, it will all be wrong! I feel like I am doing ok, though, so that is good.
Last week, I also contacted the bariatrics team and officially told them I wanted to be removed from the list, as I don’t want surgery. Whilst I was 90% sure I didn’t a while ago, I stayed in the process until I was 100% sure. Now I am so I asked to be discharged. I know for some people, weight loss surgery is perfect, but I have decided it most definitely is not for me.
Family and Life
Ben is doing really well and not too far from healed from his surgery last October, now, which is really good as the poor chap has been through it all and is utterly fed up. Ben has also started doing some work experience at a local coffee shop that you may have heard me mention before, Poffles. He is really enjoying it, and it is helping him socialise a little more, get to grips with the world of work, and generally just be busier!
Ben and Stuart both support Mansfield Town Football Club, also known as The Stags. Last week, they beat Burnley to reach the next round of the FA Cup and will now play Arsenal at home in a few weeks. They are both really excited about that. I, on the other hand, couldn’t give a monkey’s!
Books
As I shared last week, the topic at book club this month is autobiographies, which I am really enjoying and have already read quite a few! Here they are, and a little of what I thought about each in case you are looking for something to read.
Remember When by Fiona Phillips – This is lovely and so well written about her life with Alzheimer’s, firstly talking about how her parents both had it and the support she gave them, but then about her developing it and how much her life has changed, with parts from her husband in there too. A really moving, interesting, and emotional read. I would definitely recommend it and give it 9/10.
Prison Doctor by Amanda Brown – This is very much my normal kind of book. I love true crime, and this was no exception, whilst it focused more on the life of a prison doctor of course. It was an interesting insight, but I wasn’t sure there was anything in the book that really set it apart. Most of the sorts of things in it I was aware of from other books and TV documentaries. That said, it was still a good read and I would give it 6.5/10.
Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry – I quite enjoyed this but also found it rather infuriating at times. It felt like, to some degree, Matthew Perry blamed a lot of his addiction on his younger years and took minimal responsibility. It was a good book, but I am not wholly sure I would recommend it, to be honest. 5/10 for me.
Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre – This was one I really didn’t know what to expect from. Virginia is the infamous girl in the photos with Prince Andrew in a nightclub in London. She was trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein and used and abused from quite a young age. I found the story sad and fascinating at the same time, but I also felt she was a little annoying! If this case interests you, I would definitely give it a read and would give it 7/10, but would say if you find abuse stories triggering, I would probably avoid it.
A Beautiful Nightmare by Christine McGuinness – Wow, I loved this book. Christine, married to the famous Paddy McGuinness talks about her childhood and before she met her now husband. Her book really shows who she is as a person and shares about her eating disorder, her troubled younger years and the difficulty she had in attending social functions etc. Knowing now that she has been diagnosed as autistic and her children also have autism, I thought this would be an interesting read. I do find some celebrities seem to have jumped on the autism bandwagon and seek a diagnosis because it has almost become a popular diagnosis to have (my personal thoughts only here!) but it felt like Christine really had been let down in childhood by the fact that autism was less known, and she really had a lot of the difficulties. I loved how she talked about her children and their autism diagnosis’ and how she felt about it. I really resonated with her in many ways also having a child with autism myself. I can thoroughly recommend this book if you want to know more about Christine, but if you are looking for a book about Paddy McGuinness, then I would avoid it; there is actually only a small amount about him in the book. Something I appreciated was that I wanted to read more about her. I would give this book a solid 10/10.
I’ll never call him dad again by Caroline Darian – Well, this was a bit of a rollercoaster of a book for me. Caroline Darian is the daughter of Gisele and Dominique Pelicot. The case was covered worldwide in recent years as Dominique drugged his wife, Gisele, over a number of years and raped her, whilst also inviting 80+ men to rape her. A harrowing story that I was interested to learn more about. This book is written by their daughter, and actually, I mostly found it quite disappointing. Caroline mostly seems to look down on her mum (though she calls her Gisele throughout the book) for the emotions she is feeling and the way she is reacting to all the revelations, whilst expecting everyone to sympathise with her for how she was drugged and potentially abused on a couple of occasions. Even when it is discovered that he hid cameras in her sister-in-law’s bathrooms and has images of them, she seemed to minimise this, focusing only on herself and how everything affected her. I wouldn’t say it was a bad book, but I felt very much like she wanted to be the centre of everything and was minimising everyone else’s experiences around her. Very little is said, for example, about the potential abuse of the children in the family, and she seems largely unconcerned about that. Perhaps I just interpretted it different to how others would but I gave it a 4/10.
Blog posts you may have missed
These are my posts from this last week that you might have missed. Feel free to share them, bookmark them, etc.
Recipes, Ingredients and Nutrition
- All you need to know about Garam Masala
- 10 Overnight oats tips for a diet
- Kebabs you can eat and still lose weight!
- White Pepper vs Black Pepper – the difference explained
- How you can have flapjacks on a diet
- 6 diet-friendly noodle recipes to try
- All you need to know about Worcestershire Sauce and alternatives to it
- Couscous and quinoa – which is best and why?
- How to make tasty cauliflower rice
- Chicken and bacon dirty rice recipe
- Thai Green Curry – tips to make it healthily
Weight Loss
- How many calories do I actually need a day?
- How much weight can a calorie deficit really help you to lose?
- Reasons you may not be losing weight with a calorie deficit
Exercise
- How to burn calories doing this housework
- How to work out the calories you burn walking – a calculator
Time for yourself
Lifestyle
Giveaway
I shared this giveaway with you last week, but it is still running. Also, watch out for a couple more to come, including a lovely sleep mask and some goodies for new parents.
