Life is a Journey – Page 146 – The life and times of Libby Withnall

Clean eating and organic food

Posted on June 8, 2012November 6, 2026 by Libby Withnall

For a few weeks now I’ve been trying to get my head into gear and back on track with my eating. After a few months of eating really well (little additives and preservatives and watching my snacking) I got very frustrated with my VERY slow weight loss and started to rebel. I learned last week that the pain meds I take for arthritis can cause weight gain. I’m pretty sure this is what happened to me. Now that I know this I can hopefully accept a slow weight loss as being a good thing.

I’ve been trying to work out the best form of attack – Weight Watchers, Tone It Up, etc but I keep coming back to eating clean organic foods and limiting snacking. My meals are pretty good overall, just need to tighten up those snacks.

As you can see I have lots of books to reference, plus Heather’s Whole Foods class that I took a while back, and some other online resources and magazines. There is certainly no lack of inspiration out there but I need to make this my journey and not compare myself to others.

Our home is chock full of good nutritious foods and we still get an organic delivery each week do it really should be easy for me to do. Not to mention that I LOVE healthy foods.

We all know that we need to approach a new eating plan as a way of life and I really am going to focus on this. From now on I’m going to eat the way I intent to eat forever. There will be times when I enjoy a yummy treat, but most of the time I will eat small amounts of clean, organic foods. This will be good for my arthitis and for my weight.

And I’ll just have to prove that the pain meds don’t mean I can’t lose weight. Picturing a “new” photo at Disneyworld is a BIG motivator.

Planning for a Disney holiday – part 1

Posted on June 7, 2012November 5, 2026 by Libby Withnall

One of my greatest joys in planning a holiday, esp. a Disney holiday. We gave a lot of consideration as to where we should celebrate 20 years of marriage. Being December we ruled out Europe as we’d like our first visit there to be in the warmer months. For the same reason we had to rule out many possible destinations and came back to an old favourite – Walt Disney World. We made our first visit here when Amy was just 9 months old, with our best friends, Leanne & Noel.

There were a number of other trips when the girls were young but we haven’t been to WDW (Walt Disney World) since October 2004. With the girls aged 3 and 5, I’m gathering this upcoming trip is going to a be a lot different.

Of course, we can’t go to Florida without doing a Caribbean cruise (they are crazily cheap). So our initial plans were 2 weeks at WDW and a week cruise.

Usually about one year before the trip I have a rough draft and flights booked. But this time around things were up in the air for some time – do we take the kids? how will we cope with my arthritis? etc.

Our first booking was our cruise – when I found out a certain room was available – a large rear facing verandah stateroom. We are cruising on Freedom of the Seas out of Port Canaveral.

Next I found some great accomodation – the Wydham Bonnet Creek – off site, but so close – a 2 bedroom apartment for the price of about 3 nights on-site. Since we’re staying 14 nights it was a bit of a no brainer. And we’ll love, and appreciate, having so much space…and more spending money.

Then finally, after watching the flight prices for months, we got a great price flying Qantas (our preferred airline). Kevin said 6 months out was the best time to buy and he was right. Definitely worth waiting for.

With our flights booked the holiday was definitely a go ahead. In my next planning for Disney holiday post I’ll share my favourite resources and the start of my day-to-day plans.

Further, in the midst of planning this trip we found out about a school excursion that Amy is going on. A 3 week trip to Germany next April. With her Nan & Pop paying for Amy, Kevin and I decided it was a great opportunity (and price) for us so we’re going to tag along as well. Christy is most excited to be staying with Nan & Pop so we don’t have to feel guilty about not taking her. No planning for me on this trip though. Just follow the noisy bunch of school kids :-).

Recipe Folder Revamp

Posted on June 6, 2012November 1, 2026 by Libby Withnall

Firstly just wanted to mention the few brave bloggers who decided to undertake my June challenge of blogging every day. Please try and pop by their blogs and give them some love.

Cathy@Stillwaters

Paola at Spades and Spoons

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Todays post is all about revamping my recipe folders. It’s been a work in progress for some time and I last did a major re-sort over 2 years ago. As you can see things are looking a bit messy. And Amy is always complaining she doesn’t know where to find things.

The first step was buying some new folders and breaking things down. I now have

– one folder for main meals (which are are favourites)

– one for bread, dips, salad and soup

– one for recipes still to try

– one for baking

– and one for my whole foods class recipes.

I put dividers into the folders and sorted the baking folder by muffins, biscuits/cookies, slices, cakes.

Then it was time to make them pretty. I got some co-ordinating papers and cut them down to size.

Don’t they look great? I have done a cover like this once before but don’t be surprised if you see a lot more from now on. It was SO EASY and the plain white binders were about half the price of the pretty coloured ones I nearly bought.

Last step was labelling the folders. I don’t expect to hear any complaints from Amy now. I’m so happy with how it turned out. Pretty and functional, and best of all, so easy.

I also put together a video of the process if you’re interested.

Birthday Pressies

Posted on June 5, 2012November 6, 2026 by Libby Withnall

A few people were interested in seeing what I got for my birthday.

From the girls and Kevin I got some chocolates…… we won’t talk about this – the girls insisted I got enough for Mothers Day!!! Amy did make me crepes for breakfast at least…

My Mum & Dad spoiled me…. isn’t this teapot for one the cutest? Love the box as well…

I got a lovely tea towel set and oven mit and another box of my favourite chocolates….

and this absolutely gorgeous salad bowl…. the photo does not do it justice….

I also got some money from them and my Granny and have my eye on a new fossil bag – not sure I can spend that much money on a bag though, cute as it is….

Then yesterday my friends Kay and Sean gave me this beautiful bunch of flowers….