Angela Smange

Mastering the Art of Performance

Angela Randall — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 20:55:17 GMT

It’s all about getting on the stage.

Continue reading on ILLUMINATION »

Working Mothers Really Don’t Need Your Judgement During a Pandemic

Angela Randall — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 14:57:55 GMT

It’s been rough on mothers lately, what with the pandemic and all. Keep your opinions to yourself.

Continue reading on ILLUMINATION »

My Antivaxxer Boyfriend Refused to Get the COVID-19 Vaccine

Angela Randall — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 21:00:59 GMT

And How I Convinced Him to Get It

Continue reading on BeingWell »

A Brief Reminder to Back Up Your Photos

Angela Randall — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 07:16:44 GMT

One of the most missed items when a house burns down is collections of photos.

Continue reading on Medium »

Two Lessons About Entrepreneurship I Wish I’d Known Earlier

Angela Randall — Sun, 20 Dec 2020 14:40:12 GMT

My path towards entrepreneurship has completely changed the way I view every company I know of.

Continue reading on Better Entrepreneur »

5 Simple Habits to Accelerate Your Progress

Angela Randall — Thu, 26 Nov 2020 16:37:06 GMT

If you’d told me a year and a half ago how much I’d get done in the next 18 months, I’d never have believed you.

Continue reading on Better Advice »

About Me — Angela Randall

Angela Randall — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 02:03:10 GMT

Aussie Francophile in the UK with half an MBA.

Continue reading on About Me Stories »

The Burger: A Stomach-Churning Tale of Terrible Crisis Management

Angela Randall — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 08:22:15 GMT

Here’s a little story about a manager who missed the mark by a mile and showed me what truly bad restaurant management really was.

Continue reading on Better Entrepreneur »

If You Want to Be Well Known in Your Niche, Try This

Angela Randall — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 08:21:47 GMT

A way to be memorable that actually works.

Continue reading on Better Entrepreneur »

What Am I Working On Now?

Angela Randall — Sat, 24 Oct 2020 14:31:27 GMT

I’ve just updated my Now page and have decided to copy it across to a blog post for posterity.

Here’s my newest work playlist. It’s good fun! 🙂

What Does My Current Work Life Look Like?

Working full time as a marketing manager at Rockford, all from home thanks to the pandemic.
Freelancing doing business & marketing consulting and training.
I write a lot for Medium and I have a few books in the pipeline (see sidebar for links to my recent articles).
I run Bookings Connected and have a few big projects underway.
I’m studying an MBA and a CIPD Level 7 Diploma in Human Resource Management (plus a bunch of smaller courses).
My MBA Research Project will probably revolve around business performance and decision-making in leadership.
My HR Diploma Research Project will probably be based on the effects of good leadership, information management and internal communication on managing a remote workforce.
I’ve recently become accredited as MIDM, MCMI, and ACIM (see my certificates).
I’m singing with the Ipswich Gilbert & Sullivan Society, but through the pandemic most of my singing has been via Smule.
I’m reading mainly non-fiction business books to complement my studies. See the sidebar for some random recommendations and below for recent business books I’ve read and recommend.

Ange’s Recent Recommendations

The post What Am I Working On Now? appeared first on Angela Randall.

Now Everything is Different

Angela Randall — Sat, 24 Oct 2020 13:23:03 GMT

It’s been a while since I updated my Now page, and it’s worth posting the changes for anyone who’s following along.

I’m listening to this. Play something while you read on.

What Does My Current Life Look Like?

Working full time as a marketing manager, freelancing doing business & marketing consulting and training. I also write a lot for Medium and I have a few books in the pipeline.
Currently living in Suffolk, UK with Craig and four kids.
I’m studying an MBA and a CIPD Level 7 Diploma in Human Resource Management (plus a bunch of smaller courses).
I’m singing with the Ipswich Gilbert & Sullivan Society, but through the pandemic most singing has been via Smule.
I’m watching these TV shows & movies.
I’m reading mainly non-fiction business stuff to complement my studies books.
I mostly listen to music via Spotify these days and Last.fm can show you exactly what I’ve listened to lately. Mostly it’s background music while working, cheery pop with the kids, or stuff I plan to sing.
I did a lot of walking in Summer, but now my exercise is mainly Sh’Bam on my Les Mills app.
We’re playing a lot of the Game of Thrones Card Game, Pandemic, Catan Junior, Kingdomino, and Stone Age Junior. The kids are becoming really good gamers!

This page was last updated in October 2020. I’ll try to keep it up-to-date.

The UK’s World-Breaking COVID-19 Test and Trace System is Missing Something.

Angela Randall — Sat, 26 Sep 2020 01:07:05 GMT

See If You Can Spot it.

Continue reading on Writers’ Blokke »

How do you restart your business life?

#Connected by 👻AngelaSmange — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 08:51:25 GMT

Whether you need to start over or give your current situation a boost, it all comes down to connections. How do you do it?

Author Marketing - - A Basic Strategy

#Connected by 👻AngelaSmange — Mon, 14 May 2018 06:43:56 GMT

Thoughts on how indie authors can approach their marketing strategy.

Introducing the #Connected Podcast

#Connected by 👻AngelaSmange — Thu, 10 May 2018 13:57:14 GMT

I'm Ange. Basically, I'm going to chat about marketing and branding and other stuff that will build your business. You know?

Paris, Je T’Aime

Angela Randall — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 08:02:41 GMT

My two brief trips to Paris recently have convinced me I need to spend more time there. Much as I am also looking forward to living near London, I will want to duck over to Paris as often as possible, I’m sure.

I love the buildings, the streets, the parks with chairs under every tree and around every fountain. And there is so much left to see.

I loved every second of walking around Paris (even while carrying kids and luggage and stressing about visas), while Bruce complained about everything and couldn’t wait to get home.

So, despite the fact that we’re moving to the UK, I’m going to actually ramp up my French learning and find some good excuses to come back as often as I can. Paris is actually about the same distance by train from Suffolk as it is from Aquitaine, so despite crossing the channel it’s not as crazy as as it sounds, compared to visiting from here.

The whole UK move is basically for Bruce, anyway. He’s itching to have English-speaking friends to play games with, and just for everyday life to be a bit simpler.

In the UK, I’m going to enjoy the easy access to vegetarian food and close proximity to London. I’ll no doubt make a few new friends and catch up with some old ones, too.

But England is too much like Australia and it won’t truly feel like a big travelling adventure, which France has managed to do for years. Even though we’ve been stuck at home with kids a lot, there’s always something new to learn every day about France that’s so completely different to anything I’ve come across before.

I’ve spent so much time in the past few years changing nappies and breastfeeding, with plenty of time to think about what I want to do with myself when I get to the end of it all. And that was always to travel A LOT. I think I’m also at that stage of motherhood now where the kids are okay with hanging out with their dad and I’m free to spend a bit more time away (and it’s not like Bruce wants to come travelling). So, it’s ON.

Bring on the travelling. And bring on my second home in Paris.

Stuff and Nonsense

Angela Randall — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 08:14:12 GMT

When your kids start demanding things that no-one in their right mind would understand (yet you do) there’s a problem. See if you can guess any of these favourite books, TV shows and movies.

Gwen: “I want Sunset Shimmer is a baddy, three mean singing girls, then the mean girls.”

So, that would be the MLP Equestria Girls movies.

Blaise: “Mog and sick witch!”

That’s the Meg At Sea book.

Gwen: “Scary Papa!”

That’s the Hotel Transylvania movie.

Blaise: “Dangerous mouse and scary frog!”

That’s the new Danger Mouse.

Blaise: “Race car dragons and pirates”

Yeah, don’t ask me why he’s seen that. It’s one of the Hot Wheels movies on Netflix “Build the Epic Race”.

Blaise: “Broom Broom Snails!”

That’s Turbo. Thanks again, Netflix.

And on another note completely, this cute thing happened last night and I need to write it down somewhere. I was doing dishes with the oven pre-heating. Then…

Blaise: I need a hug. Hey, you’re making hot things.
Me: Yes, I’m making dinner.
Blaise: Oh.
(After a hug, he wanders off then comes back quickly)
Blaise: Hey. No making dinner. Get out of the kitchen. Papa can DO it!

I guess I should tell you all one of Gwen’s things too. First, she’s got a weird franglais quirk of saying “last year” when she means “yesterday” (probably because it sounds similar to “hier”). Very cute. She also talks about the future as “next year”, but I don’t think that she means “tomorrow”. Anyway, she’s decided that when she turns five she’s going to be the perfect human. She’s always saying “Next year, when I will be five…”, so it was with great pleasure I decided to remember this one for her.

“Next year, when I will be five, I will not do any more farts.”

Brilliant.

What Am I Doing Now?

Angela Randall — Wed, 02 Mar 2016 06:29:19 GMT

What Does My Current Life Look Like?

I still work a lot for MakeUseOf, but I run several of my own projects, including my social media management business Vocal Content, and blogs Online Careerist and WriteRevolution.
Currently living in France, but we’re planning to move to the UK soon.
Bruce and I just had our 8th wedding anniversary!
The kids are four and three years old, so we’re looking into UK kindergartens and schools.

I went vegetarian (again) in 2015 and although morally I’d love to go vegan, I’m not quite up to that yet.
I’m still singing in choirs regularly and with the trio for weddings and events — and I’ve also gone solo.
When I’m not being forced to watch Cars, Frozen or Tinkerbell movies (or My Little Pony or Thomas The Tank Engine or CBeebies), I’m watching a lot of interesting TV shows. I’ve been really getting into documentaries and crime/law dramas like The Good Wife, The Bridge, The Mentalist, Sherlock and Broadchurch. It might be time to swap back to period dramas soon.
The books I’m reading are even more varied, and I tend to swap from non-fiction to fantasy rapidly. Currently that’s “The Diet Myth” by Tim Spector and “One of Our Thursdays is Missing” by Jasper Fforde.
I mostly listen to music via Spotify these days and Last.fm can show you exactly what I’ve listened to. Mostly it’s background music while working or stuff I plan to sing. Which means lots of schmaltzy love songs.
Most of my exercise is in the form of walking and riding, and I’m looking forward to living near a pool and joining a gym with regular classes.
We’re building up a huge collection of board games and play them whenever we get a chance. I’m currently addicted to Castles of Burgundy and Bruce has a hard time getting me to play anything else. The kids are into Super Rhino and Tummy Ache.
I’m starting to really get into survival needs and homesteading. I expect I’ll take up mushroom growing soon.
I’m obsessed with eating a sort of lentil queso with corn chips.
I worry a lot about climate change, environmental disasters, refugees and the homeless. I also feel as if I can’t do enough to help right now (online activism and throwing money at the problem don’t help enough), and I’m hoping that in England I’ll find a way to do something positive.
Despite really wanting to learn guitar, I never seem to find time to pick it up and practise.
Working on getting TESOL qualified. I’ve got some interesting projects up my sleeve this will help with.
Still working on learning French — I think that will be on the list for my whole life.

Why Have I Written A /Now Page?

The /now page was inspired by Derek Sivers, and is intended to cover work and personal things that are important to me right now. So, if you were a friend I hadn’t seen in a year, and you asked “So what are you doing with yourself?”, this is what you’d probably get in response. You can see more /now pages on NowNowNow.com.

(Image cloud from NowNowNow.herokuapp.com)

What I find really interesting, is that this almost exactly resembles the content of the front page of my website in the late 90s before blogging software came along. Basically, every day I’d change the code to tell people what I was doing and what was important to me. Over time, I started using widgets from social networks to tell most of the details of the story. And yet, no social network gives the overview quite like this /now page does. So here we are 20 years later back at square one, and simply telling people what we’re focusing on.

But There’s A Slight Twist

My official /now page is on my professional blog and will be tweaked regularly, so I thought on my personal blog instead I’d create blog posts out of these every now and then and turn it into a /now category with all the previous now pages (and similar updates) visible too.

Funnily enough, this is a similar idea to the pages I set up for Gwen and Blaise, but I’ve been meaning to change them to blog posts in categories too.

Because I can. 🙂

Mum Showers vs Dad Showers

Angela Randall — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 15:04:18 GMT

In all my time reading forums and Facebook groups, I’ve come to realise that the “mum shower” scenario is not just me: this is normality for a sizeable population of the world. Here’s how it goes down in our house.

The Mum Shower

Right, the kids have been changed/pottied, they’ve eaten breakfast and they’re now watching cartoons. If I’m lucky I’ll get five minutes in the shower before the screaming starts.

I’ll spray the walls while the water heats up and scrub them a little while I’m in there, because when else am I going to get time to clean the shower?

Hurry up hot water… no time to waste!

Right. Shampoo first because greasy hair is the WORST. Then soap, just in case this is all the time I get. Conditioner in, then lean out to the other side of the sink to get the razor I’ve strategically hidden from the kids as far away from the bath as possible. Rinse conditioner ASAP as you don’t want to get stuck with it still in your hair when the screaming starts.

Remember to shave evenly on each side just in case your shower gets cut short. Armpits first, then front calves, back calves, front thighs, back thighs. Amazing – I actually got my whole legs done today! Success!

Ah, there it goes. What are they screaming about now? *Runs downstairs still wet with only a towel on*

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON THE TABLE? GET DOWN!”

Oh crap, I forgot to clean the walls off. Oh well, tomorrow.

The Dad Shower (Two Hours Later)

Ugh, it’s morning. Why do I always have to wake up? Life is cruel. It should be full of pillows and books. Not showers and work.

Yawn! Mmm nice water.

Erg. Soap.

Rinse all the soap off.

Starting to wake up. Need coffee. Coffee in the shower would be great, huh? That could be a thing. Maybe I should tell /r/ShowerThoughts. Hah, funny.

Nice hot water. Wish I was in bed though.

What comes next?

Shampoo. Shampoo comes next. Ugh, mornings.

Huh, I always forget that waterproof speaker is there. One day I should remember to put music on before I get in. Maybe I should rig up one of our old phones in a waterproof casing so that we can set up the music while we’re in here, just in case we forget like I just did. Ange would love that – she loves music! And singing! She could sing in the shower!

Rinse hair. Rinsey rinse rinse.

Conditioner. Lots and lots of conditioner for my short hair. Essential. Don’t know why Ange thinks it’s too much.

Ugh, still morning? They should be banned.

Rinse rinse rinse.

Hmm. Did I do conditioner yet? Um.

Nope, can’t work it out. I guess I’d better do it now just in case.

Lots of conditioner.

Ugh, can’t I just go back to bed?

Rinsey rinse. Rinse. Yawn.

Water off. Towel. Where are my pants?

“Hey, Ange. I just did that thing where I forgot if I’d put conditioner in or not. Heh! Ugh, mornings. Why are you looking at me like that?”

Do You Need To Perfect Your French? Try Frantastique!

Angela Randall — Tue, 17 Nov 2015 14:06:31 GMT

We’ve just partnered with Frantastique in order to help you all learn French at your own pace. It’s a really neat French course, so I thought I’d introduce you all to it and let you know how it works.

If you’re anything like me, you did a quick French course before you moved to France. But since then, your plans to improve your French have been left for another day.

Whenever I pick up a text book it’s either well below or well above what I need to be learning. My best tactic so far has been to just learn new words regularly, and wing it with the conjugation I already know. This is really not the way to perfect your French. And it’s why I really love Frantastique’s approach.

–> Try Frantastique Now – 1 Month Free! <–

What Is Frantastique Like?

Frantastique has a unique method of teaching French, showing you daily short videos and comic strips that get you following a short story. When you’ve finished the story for the day, you get a quick quiz that relates to the story in some way.

Often, you’re asked how else someone could have said a certain phrase, or how to conjugate a particular verb in different ways. It’s varied and interesting, so it won’t leave you feeling overwhelmed. If you don’t understand something, you just let them know and they’ll adjust the future lessons to take that into consideration.

You can also do these lessons on your phone or tablet too, so there’s no excuse not to get your daily 15 minute French workout done!

How You’ll Perfect Your French With Frantastique

Every day, Frantastique sends you a new, tailored lesson via email. All you have to do is click the link and you’re presented with the vocabulary you’ve elected to revise, corrections from the last lesson and a new lesson set specifically at your level of comprehension.

You can check the pronunciation and translations of anything at any time, so you’ll always be able to improve and perfect what you know. It’s ideal!

Essentially, it makes you feel like you’re progressing when you’re given a set of questions that you can potentially answer — and it makes you question whether you actually know these things or if you’re just halfway there.

What Does Frantastique Cost?

The rates for Frantastique depend on how long you sign up for: if you sign up for 36 months it’s only 18€/month, whereas if you sign up for only six months it’s 36€/month. Basically, on most plans you’re paying much less than 1€/day.

And that’s a tailored lesson you can take whenever it suits you, unlike most other French courses. Give it a try!

–> Try Frantastique Now – 1 Month Free! <–

There’s no commitment required in order to take a trial, so you’ve got absolutely nothing to lose by signing up. Give it a go! And tell us what you think!

So, I Went Vegetarian (And Why I Love It)

Angela Randall — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 15:10:14 GMT

It’s taken a while to get around to writing this, but I thought it was worth actually writing down: I went vegetarian again.

Actually, I was already halfway there. I have basically been cooking vegetarian every second night for the past few years, and on the other nights only really cooking chicken breast, shrimp and beef.

I started to cook myself shrimp on nights when everyone else was eating sausages or burgers. But then one night I was rushing and figured I’d eat a burger too. I was about to put it into my mouth and I just thought “I don’t actually want to eat this — Why do I even try to eat meat?”.

Okay, that’s the simple version anyway. The version Bruce likes to tell involves the effect of the sounds on the TV at the time. Uh, so Blaise was watching Cars (as he does) and there’s a bit where the tractors (cows) are all mooing and rushing off somewhere. I heard the moos. Yep, it was that stupid.

Not like last time when I read Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation and went vego for 2-3 years. That was perfectly sensible.

Now, I’d love to say I have been strictly vego ever since, but this is France. The very next weekend we had visitors and went off and about doing sight-seeing things. France isn’t particularly good at feeding vegetarians in restaurants just yet — just because there’s a vegetarian option on the menu doesn’t mean they have any left for you to eat. Or, just because you asked for the vegetarian option doesn’t mean that’s what they think you want. But c’est la vie.

We hardly eat out thanks to toddlers, and when we do we usually have time to get to one of the few restaurants that can reliably cater to vegetarians.

In the meantime, I’m using the opportunity to eat a lot of French cheese. Because I can.

So. Much. Chevre.

Did you know you can get fried chevre bites that are oven bakeable straight from the freezer? Yum.

Anyway, since then I’ve felt a whole lot less guilty around mealtimes. Also, It’s like a weight off my mind — I think it’s quite draining to be doing something regularly that you don’t actually want to. Hey, they say willpower is a limited resource, so that makes perfect sense.

It’s also related to decision fatigue too. I like not having to make the make the decision to keep eating meat with every mouthful once it’s on my plate. I don’t even have to decide not to put it on my plate anymore as that’s the default.

Being vegetarian just feels so much better.

French Revision: Toutefois / Tout Fait / Tout de Suite (and more)

Angela Randall — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 13:24:49 GMT

So, how’s your French? Do you know the difference between Toutefois and Tout fait? Here’s some French revision for you from the latest @FrenchMot posts. The links click through in case you want to star or retweet something (or start following @FrenchMot).

And here are the embedded versions of those tweets, along with some recent pins for fun.

[pin_widget url=’https://www.pinterest.com/pin/260927372138499936/’]
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/650631591123898369
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/650284332578406400
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/649906836494225408
[pin_widget url=’https://www.pinterest.com/pin/260927372138487758/’]
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/649559585930485760
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/649182075019468800
[pin_widget url=’https://www.pinterest.com/pin/249457266837291335/’]
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/648865070441754624
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/648834824178921472
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/648457298311053312
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/648109989853310976
[pin_widget url=’https://www.pinterest.com/pin/249457266837255763/’]
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/647762736517091328
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/647732485862871040
[pin_widget url=’https://www.pinterest.com/pin/249457266837291334/’]
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/647385247294844929
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/647007744311074816
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/646660493940293632
[pin_widget url=’https://www.pinterest.com/pin/249457266837255746/’]
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/646313213668274177
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/646282992453820416
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/645966027105402884
[pin_widget url=’https://www.pinterest.com/pin/249457266837291337/’]
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/645935699259207680
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/645588429292617728
https://twitter.com/frenchmot/status/645558197072363520
[pin_widget url=’https://www.pinterest.com/pin/249457266837255741/’]

I hope your French learning is coming along well. If you need a bit of a boost, check out the offer of French lessons from our partner Frantastique – there’s a free trial, so you can try before you buy!

Which Country Is Better To Bring Up Kids: France Or Australia?

Angela Randall — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 12:50:17 GMT

I just got a little distracted by a question on Quora:
Which country is better to live in: France or Australia?

They were asking particularly about raising kids, so I was compelled to answer. I was feeling particularly qualified to explain the differences, as I’ve been looking after two toddlers in France and hearing stories from my Aussie mum friends about the state of affairs there at the moment.

So, my full answer on Quora is here.

If you’re reading this post, you’re probably more interested in what bringing up kids in France is like, rather than Australia. So, I’ll quote the section of my answer that explains the French system for you.

France has paid maternity and paternity leave as part of the social security system everyone pays for. Even freelancers can take paid maternity leave.

Both countries have free schooling available (and private options if you want them), and the quality of the education is good. There are some small differences, though.

In France, the school days are long, but kids get Wednesday afternoon off. One parent per family is entitled to take time off work to look after the kids on Wednesdays. Every school has an on-site before and after school care program to look after kids from 7am until 6:30pm, often with cultural activities run by the local mairie. The system basically makes it easy for both parents to work. School lunches, the before/after school care, and all other forms of childcare are highly subsidised by the government according to your family income. For two parents earning modest wages, the childcare costs are negligible. For instance, we pay 115 euros per month for our two-year old to go to creche 25 hours per week with all lunches and snacks paid for. That’s over 100 hours per month, so we pay about 1 euro per hour. My three-year-old is at school (school starts at three – it’s basically kindegarten) and we pay about 20 euros for her lunches each month. They’re eating proper three-course meals with good meat and vegetables too. All of the staff at the childcare centres and schools are highly trained and certified, too. The only downside to childcare is that in some areas it’s hard to get a spot at a creche. But, there are alternatives like nounous, and since school starts at three, you don’t have to worry about that for too long.

I concluded that France is better for raising kids financially, and for the resulting bilingualism.

BTW, I didn’t know all this stuff about France before we moved here. It was a lucky accident.

The Llama Says It’s Time To Go To School

Angela Randall — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 09:02:19 GMT

Have you ever seen a toddler try to cure another toddler of the hiccups? Lots of giggling, pretend hiccups and a repetitive, yet slow, drawn-out “Boooooo”. This is pretty standard stuff around here – and I love it.

All it takes is teaching kids how to do something difficult, impossible or completely silly and you’ve got yourself a recipe for non-stop entertainment.

I’m particularly proud of my “Elephant in the Bath” efforts, especially with the unexpectedly brilliant results I got. You see, since Gwen’s birth I’ve joked with her about the elephant in the bath whenever Bruce blew his nose in the bathroom. You know, the sort of silly thing you make up and then run with. Gwen’s caught on now and tries to make the same joke for Blaise. Pronounciation plays a key role here.

Gwen: “Blaise, can you hear that noise? There’s effluent in the bath!”
“Can you hear the effluent in the bath?”
“Papa is effluent!”

From the mouths of babes.

Gwen’s also got another sweet mispronounciation I’m not hurrying to correct. Every day at 8:10 my alarm goes off to tell us it’s time to leave.

Gwen: “Maman. The llama says it’s time to go to school!”

Why can’t you buy actual llama alarms, huh? She needs one.

And when it comes to alarms, my entertainment training at its peak. I have a setting on my phone that lets me say “Stop” to turn it off, which works perfectly if the microphone can pick up my voice and the phone hasn’t recently had a bunch of notifications come up. The kids have heard me stop the alarm with the magic word. Now, when my alarm goes off, I get a toddler choir trying to be the one to make it stop.

Gwen: “Stop. STOOOOOOPPP!!!!”
Blaise: “‘top ‘top ‘top!”
Gwen: “STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!! Stop! Stop!”
Blaise: “‘toptoptoptoptop”
Gwen: “I did it! Maman, the llama says we need to go to school.”

Okay, llama.

Slow carbs? Low carbs? New goals.

Thu, 07 Nov 2013 09:55:49 GMT

Some reading on slow food and revised health pyramids:

A quick run-down on slow carbs as defined by Tim Ferris in the 4-hour body
A muscle-building new food pyramid (which fits nicely with why French women don't get fat)

Apparently Tim Ferris is all over the joint, contradicting himself left-right-and centre. He does seem to think 2 glasses of red wine per day is okay though, so he's got some sense. ;) The new pyramid seems to agree that 200 calories of splurging on junk or alcohol is ok. I can live with that. You can't be perfect all the time. A 200 calorie splurge per day is pretty big, really.

So, with all this information in my head, I'm considering the slow carb thing, the low carb thing and a number of other things. I was considering the gym, C25K, etc. etc. but I actually don't have time. Not until Blaise drinks from bottles and goes to creche, anyway. I find it hard enough to get time for a shower and my work.

I also recently made a deal with myself to be "good" during the week and take a break on the weekends. That didn't pan out. Also, since I eat at home pretty much all the time, the only "bad" things I do are to get hungry (thanks to breastfeeding) and eat everything I can see until I'm not hungry any more, plus I do like my wine. So, I'm thinking of mixing this in with some Tim Ferris ideas and some new pyramid thoughts. Problem is, I don't like eating meat much. This doesn't help AT ALL. Tim Ferris's thoughts are really anti-milk too, as well as anti-carb. This is very limiting. Though the pyramid seems to think 2-4 servings of carbs are okay. I tend to agree - you do need some. I tend to feel that cutting out any one item from your diet is wrong and will lead to disaster.

I also have a sandwich-loving husband, a pasta-loving toddler and a fantastic bakery (or 12) nearby. Not helping. I do love eggs and vegetables though. And legumes. I just somehow have to wrangle this into meals that fit my goals, that I can also feed to the family. We also alternate vegetarian nights and meat nights. Tricky.

Tim Ferris's ideas of alternating days of food limiting and not seem useful. I can do that more casually though. If I splurge a bit one day I'll be good the next.

As for exercise, I have bought kid seats for our bikes and I intend to use them, I want to make sure we get out of the house every day, even in the cold, dark days of winter, and I want to do something every day to get my heart rate up for a while, like skipping. I can actually do this indoors.

I think some new goals are in order:

One glass of wine per day at most unless it's a weekend.
Always keep boiled eggs in the fridge for starving snack moments. Bananas too. Avoid any snacks in packets unless absolutely desperate.
Drink tea instead of coffee (I have very little milk in tea).
Eggs & spinach for breakfast as often as possible. Try again for lunch if I didn't manage it for breakfast.
On sandwich lunch days, I'll eat only one small sandwich and have lots of tuna & salad.
If I screw up, I will try to be very good the next day.
I'll continue to make the meals our family loves for dinner, but I'll personally eat less of the rice, pasta and potatoes. I'll eat more of the other veggies and meat.
I might try harder to do the French thing of always having a soup or salad entrée before each meal.
5 minutes of skipping per day (or dancing with Gwen - I don't want her to see me skipping inside!)
Family walk every day no matter what.
More bike rides when possible.