Sad-ish news: Dee’s contract is not being renewed. So she’s on the hunt for work!
Despite our new single-income status, we spent last weekend at the Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo, “glamping” in the Zoofari Park there. We explored the zoo on Day #1, before checking into our “tent”: a canvas structure, true, but we hot and cold water, electricity, a massive four-poster bed and a wooden deck from which we could watch the giraffes, addax and other animals. We had a late night guided tour of the zoo — elephants, tigers, rhinos — followed by cocktails, chess and a meal in the “club” with the rest of the zoofaristas. A few too many drinks for me, considering the _really early _(6:50 am) tour the next day; thankfully Dee let me sleep in, and the organisers even had the bus swing by for me (at 8 am) before heading to the elephants!
A really great experience and, even better, it was all paid for in advance!
(It wasn’t just the cocktails that had me feeling a little shady in the morning, let’s be clear: I’ve also been fighting a cold all week, thanks to that one inconsiderate person who insists on making an appearance at work — spreading the germs — before fobbing off early. If anything, I like to believe the cocktail and wine helped, albeit not as much as the pseudoephedrine and codeine.)
This week we start another challenge: Sarah Wilson’s I Quit Sugar 8-week programme.
We’ve got a couple of her cookbooks, and really admire her ethos (fresh, homemade, reuse everything, waste nothing). A couple of dishes have been amazing (if not entirely ketogenic — but I’m yet to calculate the macros of the meals coming up) and today Dee did a massive cook-up for the rest of the week (another bit of Sarah Wilson’s advice, which has been working remarkably well for the last couple of weeks). We have chilli verde for lunch tomorrow and curried sausages for dinner; from then, it’s leftovers each lunch-time and a new recipe for dinner — hopefully easy, since Dee’s done all the hard work already.
For week one we start weaning off fructose, artificial sweeteners and (sadly?) booze. I’ll go back to my keto-friendly ways (no bread, no milk, no rice, no potatoes — unless it’s mandated in the IQS programme — and butter and coconut oil in coffee) and back to the gym and jūjutsu, so I expect to see some real gains (or losses, depending on what you’re measuring). It will be hard to stop buying the delicious artificially-sweetened protein shakes after a gym session, but I can do it: I’ve already done 6 weeks of “clean” eating earlier, so this should be a doddle.
I’m sure there’s more that’s happened since the last post, but even writing this much has been a challenge, as nobody knows interruptions like a 5-year old: “come see this! can I have a sandwich? I need a poo”. Oh, school holidays start this week! “Lucky” mummy will be home!