Hi friends! I've had this post in my drafts for a while, and I can't wait for you all to read it! I was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease when I was 14, when it was a lot less well-known than it is now. I've experienced so many odd questions and remarks from people, as well as some interesting experiences in hospitality settings. I thought I'd write a little post on 14 things every coeliac can relate to! Please share with any coeliac friends or family, I'm sure they will have experienced some of these things too! I've also included some facts at the end of this post, which will hopefully help people to learn a little bit more about Coeliac disease. (PS don't be offended by how sarcastic I am, I'm just bitter about not being able to eat real doughnuts and pies x) 14 Things Every Coeliac Can Relate To 1. Burgers with no Bun A lot of restaurants have gluten free burger ingredients, but no buns. Which is totally fine (it's totally not) but I always get jealous watching the other people at the table eating their burgers in a normal burger-y way, while I'm cutting up my naked beef, cheese and tomato... 2. Getting excited in the Free From aisle when you spot a new product (!) The gluten free aisle is very exciting I'm not going to lie, especially the freezer section! (I'm still praying for more affordable sausage rolls though.) I vividly remember the first time I saw gluten free tiger bread, jammy dodgers, and gravy granules. Exciting times! 3. Paying extra in restaurants for dodgy cardboard bread. Paying an extra £1 for a slice of Schar bread is not what I want during my breakfast date thanks. But I'll do it anyway because I really want the poached eggs... 4. Especially when it's half the size! £6 for a toastie that's the size of a postage stamp, whyyyyy! 4. Being really REALLY sick of gluten free brownies. Coeliacs, if you know you know. This situation is made even worse when the non-coeliac person you're with excitedly tells you 'ohh they have gluten free brownies here!' and you have to pretend you're excited and really want a brownie... For the 53rd time in your life. 5. When people think being on a gluten free diet will help them lose weight... Um, everything is filled with sugar. They pile sugar into the bread, biscuits, everything so that it doesn't taste like cardboard! Unless you're eating a completely natural gluten free diet, it's definitely not going to help you lose weight. 6. The people who try to tell you about those 'gluten tablets' they 'saw on the web'... I don't have anything to say here, apart from the fact that 'medication' like this obviously doesn't cure coeliac disease. 7. When people make you feel like you're boring, difficult, or embarrassing! I've been in so many of these situations where people think you're choosing to do this to cause a scene, or because you're fussy. No matter how many times you explain your condition to these people, they'll probably never get it. Best to accept that people who make you feel like a burden are not your friends. The people I have in my life now will be the first ones to double check with waiters when I forget (I do this a lot...) 8. People giving you sympathy and saying things like "Oh that must be terrible, I couldn't do that!" I think people mean well when they say these things, but it just further reinforces the idea that we are choosing this life. We had no choice to 'do it' or not! 9. "Oh are you still doing that?" Yep, will be the rest of my life... Please don't ask me again! 10. "How come you can eat potatoes but not pasta?" Just because they are both carbs, doesn't mean they are made of the same thing... Potatoes are vegetables. There's no wheat in there. 11. "Is this gluten free?" "Yep, it's vegan!" That's definitely not the same thing. It's so worrying when people in hospitality answer the gluten free question so confidently wrong... 12. "Oh yeah I totally understand, bread makes me bloated too" This one just makes me want to pull my hair out. Bread hasn't even made me bloated before... Just violently sick and aggressively anaemic. But yeah, totally the same x 13. "Everyone is coeliac these days aren't they?" Yeah you just pay the membership fee, easy peasy! 14. When someone goes out of their way to make or buy you something gluten free Every coeliac knows that this feels like Christmas Day. Thanks friends x Some (not so) Fun Facts About Coeliac Disease
Thank you for reading! I hope this post has given you a little giggle, and maybe helped you understand this condition a little more. Let me know if you've experienced any other frustrating or funny reactions! Hope you're having a good day! Love Sophy x
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Forth One are running a '5K a Day' fundraising challenge this October. I've been hearing all about it every morning on the radio for the past few weeks, so I decided to have a look on their website to see what it was all about! I decided not to sign up as a fundraiser because I know everyone is struggling at the moment, and so I don't want to start asking people to sponsor me for something random like this. So I've come to the agreement with myself that I'll pretend I've signed up in order to convince myself to do it every day...
So what Actually is '5K a day?' In order to complete the challenge, I have to walk, run, or cycle 5 Kilometres a day. This can be done all at once, or in little bits. For example: a short run in the morning, cycling to work, and an evening walk. Renee has put her bets on that it'll last 2 weeks tops so I need to finish it to prove her wrong! Here's my progress so far: Week 1 01/10/2020 I started my morning with a 0.6K walk to warm up, then I ran until I got bored (1.2K) and walked the 0.6K home. Thursdays are my day off and this week Renee was off too! So we watched a film together - Enola Holmes on Netflix, I would highly recommend - and I had a ballet class in Edinburgh in the evening. It's just over a kilometre to the studio from the bus stop, so after having a look in the shops I walked down with my friend to ballet. We had a little catch up over some drinks before walking back up the hill again. This was a great first day of the challenged and I ended up running/walking 6.6K in total. 02/10/2020 I went for a run this morning while Renee was still asleep, and today (after my 0.5K warm up walk) I Ran 1.35K which I found really tough for some reason! We went food shopping - which by the way was a whole 1K of walking! - and I taught for a couple of hours in the evening. I also went for a little night time walk before picking Renee up from work. Today I ran/walked 5.1K in total. We also had a really exciting deliver today of our new fitness trackers! We've been looking in to them for ages and decided on a Huawei Band 4 Pro. They have built-in GPS, sleep tracking, heart rate and oxygen monitoring, message notifications, and lots of workout tracking options. So far I really love it and I've realised how full on my job is through my steps!! 03/10/2020 I went for a super early morning run today after dropping Renee off at work. I find running so much easier when it's early because there are less people and cars around. I also feel much more fresh in the morning and I love starting my day with a run! (When I can be bothered). I ran 1.5K and walked 1K this morning. I taught for 6 hours (Which actually turns out to be the equivalent of a 9K walk!) and then came home, ate a pizza and regretting none of my choices (You've got to have a balance right?) 04/10/2020 I started work at 9 this morning, and I was struggling to wake up so I didn't fit in my morning run today. I taught until the afternoon, and then ran (1.7K) around my parents' area before having dinner with them. I then went for a walk in the evening (3K) and picked up Renee from work. 05/10/2020 I had to drop my car off for an MOT this morning (it failed...) so I went for a run as soon as I got home. I did my usual 0.5K warm up walk and then managed a 2K run (!) Before walking the 0.5K home again. I went for a wee 2K walk before leaving for work and then taught for 4 hours. 06/10/2020 This morning I went for an 8am run and managed just over 2.1K (3.1K including walking), and then convinced Renee to get wrapped up with me and come for a walk around the village. We walked 3.7K so I was really pleased that I'd already completed over 5K before 11am! (I'd also already done my 10,000 steps for the day!) We had a chilled day watching TV before work for both of us in the evening. 07/10/2020 Today is the final day of week one, and so far I'm still feeling motivated and positive. I've worked out that if I increase my running distance by just 0.1K a day I will be at almost 5K by the end of the month. This is keeping me keen and motivated and I want to keep this commitment to myself (and prove Renee wrong!) However... Today I decided to have a rest. My body was tired and sore and my watch tells me I'm usually doing an average of 10K through my steps anyway... So I took some time to rest today after work :) Check back next week to see how week 2 has gone! And let me know if you think I'll make it to the end of October! Love Sophy x Welcome to week 2 of Food and Fitness! This week hasn't been super productive, and I'm going to blame it on the government 'Eat Out to Help Out' scheme. If you're not in the UK, this is a scheme set up by the government which gives funding to restaurants to allow them to offer 50% off food. Which basically means if you go to any restaurant or cafe on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday, you will pay half of what you usually would (very dangerous). This has been set up to help the hospitality sector which has struggled during lockdown, and also to encourage the public to start getting out and about again. We have taken FULL advantage of this scheme. We went to an Indian restaurant on Monday night with my parents which was AMAZING, then went out for lunch at a cafe on Tuesday with a friend, and dinner and drinks as a little date night in Edinburgh on Wednesday... So basically, if I don't get anywhere with my healthy journey, we can blame the government? Food Due to living the high life, we didn't eat too many meals at home this week (oops), but something I'd like to tell you about is this recipe! Baked Basa with Potatoes and Veg - We made this meal on Tuesday night and we got all ingredients from Aldi! This probably cost us around £2.50 to make, and it was amazing and healthy! You can click here to read the recipe. Breakfast smoothie recipe - I've also been making lots of smoothies this week and wanted to share this recipe that I found for a healthy breakfast smoothie! Click here to read the recipe. I'd also like to chat about some healthy snacks I've recently discovered. I'm trying to consciously swap unhealthy snacks for healthier alternatives, and only eat when I'm actually hungry (Although, I say this as I'm eating a biscuit with my tea) I've compiled a little list of healthy snacks, where to get them, and the prices on my Recipes Page. Fitness This week has been manic as we finally received a date for the return of dance studios!! So I've been making sure I'm ready for that, and teaching my (hopefully) last classes on Zoom! I have actually managed to complete week 7 of Couch to 5K - much to my own surprise - and I can now run over 3.5km in 25 minutes. Looking back, this is absolutely crazy. I ran for the first time ever in May this year, and now I'm running for 25 minutes without stopping! I never ever thought I'd be able to do this, so if you're keen to start something, whether that is in relation to health & fitness, or anything else, just go for it! What's the worst that can happen. There are only 2 weeks left of the programme now. Week 8 consists of running non-stop for 28 minutes (3 times), and week 9 is when the 30 minute runs happen! I will keep you all up to date with my progress for the next 2 weeks. Throughout the 7 weeks of 'Couch to 5K', I've found that listening to either podcasts or audiobooks has been much better than listening to music. It gives me something else to focus on other than how long/far I've run, my speed, and my breathing. I find listening to something I'm engaged in makes running so much easier and would recommend this to anyone who may be struggling. I've just finished the third audiobook in the 'Wilde' series by Louise Pentland, and my next blog post will be a review of the series! This week, Renee and I have also been on a few hill walks. She is super keen to start walking up bigger hills, and I'm trying my best to have a go too. I don't think I'll be bagging Munroes anytime soon, but I do enjoy the view from the top! This week, we walked up Benarty Hill in Kelty, Bishop Hill in Kinross, and Lendrick Hill in Kinross. I'm going to do a separate post about some walks we've been on, so let me know if you're interested in that! I struggle with the motivation of getting up there, and I usually want to throw Renee back down the hill everytime she says 'this is good fun!', but I'm trying my best to push through because I know I'll be proud of myself when we get there! As always, you can send any questions or comments via any of the channels on the Contact Page, or leave a comment below. Let me know about any great meals you've made this week, or if you have any hill recommendations! Thanks for all the feedback on my last post too, I loved it! Love Sophy x Hi friends! Thank you for the massive amount of support for Okay Sophy so far! I didn't think anyone would even want to read it, so I've been blown away that so many people have followed the Facebook page and subscribed to email updates. All your kind words and excitement for the blog have encouraged me even more and now I can't wait to get it started properly! I planned to start some sort of fitness schedule on Monday, but because life is life, Monday ended up being the biggest write-off ever! We literally didn't leave the couch, and ate nothing but macaroni all day, which is obviously totally okay, and I would definitely recommend that as a balanced lifestyle... So I started on Tuesday instead (who decided Monday was the start of the week anyway?!) Fitness I've been craving a ballet class for ages - weird dancer thing to say but okay - so I found this intermediate/advanced ballet barre video on Youtube. It was taught by Katrina Morgan who has a channel FILLED with ballet tutorial and follow along videos. She is a dream! I love that she doesn't talk too much in her videos, but still includes little technique reminders and the aims of the exercises. I was absolutely SWEATING during and after but it was great and a nice level of class! I've popped the link below incase anyone wants to give it a go too! x www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IXip5hM06U&t=2515s I thought I'd also chat about home workouts this week. I've always struggled to follow along to workout videos or other peoples' routines. I find that I stay more motivated and disciplined if I create my own workout plan/routine. I usually put together a combination of exercises that I find work for me, and cover abs, arms, and legs. I would just start with a number of reps or length of time (e.g. 20 crunches or 30 secs plank hold) and then increase/decrease as needed every day that I continue the routine. I won't post what my routine is, because it probably won't be useful to anyone else, but if you find you are struggling with motivating and disciplining yourself to work out at home, I would definitely recommend this! Another thing I wanted to write about this week is 'Couch to 5K'. This brilliant app encourages beginner level runners to run 5K by the end of the 9 week training programme. I've been doing the 'Couch to 5K' running challenge for the past 6(ish) weeks, but hit a major motivation struggle at week 7. The app challenges you to run a bit further each week, starting off with little 60 second runs during week one, and ending with consistent half hour runs by the end of week 9. I've been really enjoying it and I love running further and faster each run, but I'm just finding it SO HARD at the minute! I decided I needed to get a grip on Thursday morning. So I got up at 6am, got my running gear on (by 'running gear' I do just mean Nike leggings and any T-shirt I can find in the dark) and started week 7! This week consists of running for 25 mins without stopping, which is a struggle if you're not a runner. But I finally did this on Thursday morning bright and early and was super proud of myself! With any luck, I might do it again over the weekend! We'll see... Food Since we moved into our new flat, we have been really consistent with planning meals. We decided at the very start that we wanted as little waste as possible (of food and of money!) So every week before we do our food shop, we sit down and write what we want to have for dinner each day of the week. We then only buy the ingredients we need for those meals (and breakfast and lunch stuff, obvs) This has saved us SO MUCH money, stops us forgetting about (and therefore wasting) food in the fridge, and most importantly, stops that awful nightly drama and indecision of what to have for dinner. We used to be THE WORST for being indecisive and stroppy about what to eat, and would usually end up having something easy, random, and probably unhealthy. People who know me personally will have definitely experienced me waffling about meal plans (haha accidental food pun). Anyway, I would totally recommend this for anyone who wants to save money, cut down waste, and stop dinner decision dramas in their household (that's everyone, right?) Some fun things we made for dinner this week were: Homemade gluten free lamb gyros - We haven't cooked lamb before as it always seemed such a faff, but Renee's sister mentioned lamb on FaceTime today and we were inspired. Renee literally cooked and prepared all of it but we'll pretend I helped too.. This whole recipe is completely gluten free as always, and we bought all ingredients from Lidl (apart from gluten free wraps, we got those in Morrisons). It probably cost us less than £5 to make, and was so so good! If you'd like to make it too, I've posted the recipe here: Homemade Gluten Free Lamb Gyros Misty Copeland's Spinach and Goat's Cheese Salad - This recipe came from Misty Copeland's 'Ballerina Body' book. (A book that focuses on becoming strong rather than skinny, and creating a healthy lifestyle without restriction or deprivation) I would definitely recommend this recipe if you're looking to try a more exciting and different salad! Click here to go to the recipe I actually do feel like I've started to make some positive changes this week, and I'm hoping writing this blog will motivate me (and maybe other people) to keep going! Thanks for reading this week's blog post, let me know if you try out any meals from the recipes page, or if you've had motivation struggles this week too! You can contact me via email or Facebook. Love Sophy x |
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