April 16: Skipping, a nice surprise and day two of fasting on the 5:2 Diet

While outside this afternoon, putting seed into the bird feeder, I heard the sound of alphorns from a neighbouring village wafting on the breeze. I love the sound of those horns – it’s so melodic and calming. Swissrose, are you often surprised by such sweet sounds too?

To make the most of it, I abandoned my plans to do yoga and grabbed my skipping rope for 15 minutes. Luckily, the constant (and sometimes sporadic!) thwack on the concrete terrace didn’t drown out their songs. A huge falcon was circling over the forest as well, so right now, after listening, exercising and nature spotting, I feel very relaxed.

A day with no plans meant a day of fasting. After the success of the first fast day on Monday, where I almost gave myself lockjaw eating a massive salad, I knew today was going to be more than achievable. So here’s how I broke down the 500 calories allowed on the 5:2 Diet:

  • Breakfast: 100g natural yoghurt with 5g goji berries – 64 and 16 calories
  • Lunch: 63g boiled egg – 102 calories
  • Snack: 104g kiwi fruit – 63 calories
  • Dinner: Stir fry thingy: 54g carrot – 22 calories, 214g zucchini – 36 calories, 50g bacon – 157 calories, tspn olive oil – 40 calories
  • Grand total: 500 calories exactly

By not having Monday’s glass of milk with protein powder, there was room to make a more appealing dinner. But I’ve promised I won’t waffle on too much about the 5:2 Diet, so here endeth my talk of food.

It’s been a day spent on the computer. I wrote another book review, sent a job application and sorted out my iPad’s detachable keyboard, so I now know what the function, alt and command keys actually do. And no, I didn’t find the exclamation mark. (Oh no, I hear you say!) I did find an upside down exclamation mark and a lot of Greek-looking symbols so I think this keyboard isn’t set up for English typing! Not to worry! (Can you tell I’m using my normal computer?! … !!!)

For giggles, I also looked at my stats for posts on fitfor15in15. By far the most popular story I’ve written is “The KonMari Method, with gusto!” Published on February 2, the story has been read every day without fail, and as of this afternoon, it’s been viewed 478 times. I have no idea how readers are being led to it, but I’m guessing most traffic comes from searching the internet for information about decluttering expert Marie Kondo and her KonMari Method (read my review of her book here).

Living with less is a very popular topic, which has been gaining momentum for years. And this month it cracked the bastion of buy buy buy consumerism – Vogue Magazine. I originally read the story of Prerna and Parag Gupta on LifeEdited.com and went to the Vogue website to read the whole story, here. All these kinds of stories make my eyes widen and my pulse race. I love hearing about people who’ve packed it all up and in, so to speak, to downsize, de-stress and hit the road.

Sometimes I wish I’d sold or given away all my things in Australia. They’re all currently stored in mum’s unit block, and I pay for the privilege of keeping memories. Every time I visit, I check to see it hasn’t flooded or isn’t infested with cockroaches and occasionally search for something I think I’ll need (like a trench coat, which I didn’t wear once this winter). I know, in the future, I’m going to wonder why I kept this stuff. I’m beginning to wonder about it now.

  • Physically Fit: Skipping for 15 minutes
  • Mentally Fit: Sorting out my iPad keyboard; applying for a job in Zurich; alphorns and the falcon
  • Nutritionally Fit: Fasting on the 5:2 Diet, 500 calories
  • Minimalism: Reading about Prerna and Parag Gupta; thinking about storage woes

Wishing you a wonderful day.

4 thoughts on “April 16: Skipping, a nice surprise and day two of fasting on the 5:2 Diet

  1. You keep tempting me with thoughts of trips to Europe with all this talk about wonderful sounds – woodpeckers and horns. I really get how wonderful it must be coming out of the cold winter and seeing things like first tulips. I am a little worried at all your tree hugger stuff – although loved the library thing (find it amazing people complain about them but there are lots of people filled with the unhappiness of life unfortunately) and I am afraid that the divacup sounded ‘ick’ to me. Glorious day in Brizvegas – slight chill in the air but will warm up during the day. My gardens were freshly mulched yesterday (that was my exercise) although more needed and I still need to deal with the patch of lawn the grubs got to which is now a pile of weeds. I have been to the gym (zumba today) and had coffee with people afterwards. Now on to work which is mostly today scribing over the phone for job interviews being done in Perth – will be tedious I think but not hard.

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    • Sounds like your past few days have been very busy Judy! I have a feeling I’d prefer to be in Brisbane today. It’s so grey here – at 10.43am it feels like dusk. Am off to the city soon to meet Pastora for a few hours. On Kristen’s suggestion, I might even wear my trench coat. I’ll let you know how the Diva Cup goes (I too have reservations!) but for me it’s worth a try. Keep up the Zumba! Can you do Zumba on the cruise too? I’m going to do morning yoga today, even though it feels like nighttime!

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  2. Wish I could skip beside you while listening to the alphorns! What a fantastic & unusual diversion from the monotony of skipping 🙂 And don’t second guess yourself about keeping memories. I know you’re not a hoarder by any stretch of the imagination so I imagine there really isn’t THAT much in that storage unit. Now that you made an effort to get that trench coat, I’m sure you’ll make more of an effort to wear it.

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    • You would have loved it Kristen. There were a few of them practising and it was the perfect reason to ditch yoga for the rope! Anything to be outside and enveloped by that sound. The weather is overcast and cool today, so maybe I’ll wear the trench coat for the first time. Meeting Pastora for a few hours after lunch. I’ll take a pic if I do wear it. (Bit dressy for daytime … maybe!)

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