So. September. Mostly I just spent it cooking meat and watching kids play cricket…






























Making the most of the last rays of summer…
So. September. Mostly I just spent it cooking meat and watching kids play cricket…
A snapshot of August for you.
So this month it has been all about 3D printing, BBQ’s, Boerewors, Piles of collectables, Rain, Summerhouses, Food and trying to get a little fitter.
June though my camera lense
So this month it has been all about finishing the renovations, unboxing the 3D printer, rebuilding the arcade machine and starting to take more exercise…
The ongoing saga of the right old state our doors were in…
I know were not still strictly locked down but I figured I’d carry on with this anyway. Last post I wrote on this is here if you want to catch up first.
So after 2 months I about 16kg/35 Lbs down. Roughly back where I was when I last did the Whole30 thing, so whilst a real boost it is rather annoying that I have just lost weight I already lost previously and then put back on. But if you’ve ever been overweight then you will be familiar with this cycle. Losing it can be easy but maintaining it often seems to be the difficult part.
This time round I have tried calorie deficit combined with intermittent fasting. I really like cooking, and I love eating and I just don’t think it is possible for me to not enjoy the things I love to eat so I have endeavoured to simply have what I want – just less of it. Looking at a calorie deficit of around 500 and you’ll lose about one pound a week, but I have probably ran a little more than that and I do tend to lose weight really fast when I start getting things under control. Apart from the last week where I have pretty much maintained my weight because I could not stop eating bourbon biscuits and jammy dodgers! I have a real problem with them…
So in addition to the calorie deficit I started intermittent fasting and broadly eat in a 5 hour window between noon and 5pm. This really helps me to focus and helps me with the discipline I usually do not have. I know there are all sorts of actual benefits of intermittent fasting and there are great sites out there that will extoll those but for me – it mostly stops me eating about 11 meals a day at all hours. Simple really.
To help me keep track of what I am doing I use two apps each day. Fastic helps me to track my fasting hours and I use MyFitnessPal to track my calorie intake. The former does have the ability to track calories but I prefer the latter as it has all the foods from most stores in its database so I can be more accurate with it.
There have been hiccups and blips along the way, and I have struggled at times like you do when youre trying to fix something that has been a problem your whole life but this time I do feel different about what I am trying to achieve. Perhaps it is because I am 50 next year and know I cannot carry on like I have been. That pending sense of mortality can be a real awakener.
Oh there is one more thing I have been doing. Drinking a lot of water. I have a glass that takes 500ML and drink about 6 of these a day. There are studies out there that show drinking more water helps with weight loss and it does seem to have helped me – perhaps I just feel fuller I don’t know -there will be science to it. Mostly though it just feels like a useful part of the routine I am developing.
The one thing I haven’t really done yet is exercise. I’ve barely been out during the last 4 months and my step counter on my watch struggles to get to 5000 most days. I will be remedying that though over the next few weeks when our building project completes. We’ve put in a small home gym and I will have a cross trainer, static bike, treadmill and rowing machine.
So there you go, you’re up to speed with what I have been doing on that front. Here’s my head 2 months apart and some of the food I have been making…
Snip snip buzz
Okay so strictly speaking we aren’t exactly locked down anymore. We have commenced with an experiment to see how many pub goers we can kill off which seemed to commence without too much drama at the weekend. London saw some dumbfuckery in particular and there were pockets of shenanigans country wide so now we wait to see what the impact of it will be.
Hairdressers and barbers also opened and against my better judgement me and the boys managed to get a slot at our local barber this afternoon. Asim moved into the area a few years ago and is a top chap and the boys have always enjoyed what he does to their hair so off we went.
During lockdown the eldest seems to have somehow grown a fringe that when brushed out goes below his chin. The youngest was looking like Boris Johnson on one of his particularly bad days. Not that the twat has good days, but hair wise imagine him at his blondest and most boufont…
Oh me you ask? Well I have half a Mohican (given I don’t have to go into the office any more) which I have been doing with an old beard trimmer so mostly look like a fat extra from a shit fan film version of Mad Max.
So a few hours and a couple of quid later (he has rightly put up the prices – now we know who the crucial people actually are in society) we are all shaven, coiffed, tidied and presentable. Mostly.
I decided to actually keep the Mohican and get him to do it properly. Looks a bit mental and like I have a dead animal on my head but meh, there’s a bloody apocalypse going on – it actually seems more appropriate than ever…Mrs Afterwards didn’t mind as much as I thought she would. Maybe that’s because we don’t really leave the house anymore…
Happy apocolypse! Stay Safe!
June though my camera lense
Mostly all about cooking, building work, occasionally popping out and not a lot more really…
I’ve got a house full of manly men…
About 3 weeks before lockdown we started a cellar renovations project that we had been planning since we moved into this house 15 years ago. The cellar compromises 3 rooms which we have used for storage and a play room for the kids when they were younger. We had a big screen and a projector down there for a few years which was pretty cool too.
It was never a really clean and tidy space though and had damp in places and lots of exposed pipework and wiring. So, after a few years of saving it was time to get the builder in and see what he could do. It was going to take a few months but we figured we could live with the mess for a short while and proceeded to box everything up we wanted to keep (and trash everything we didn’t).
Then we went into lockdown and everything stopped for a few months…
Whilst they are back now, and there isn’t long to go, it has certainly been an experience. We have patiently waited as they have done a great job in truly transforming the space and…even as I write this I am struggling to concentrate because someone is fucking drilling so loud in the room below me that I could just…Bloody hell get done already, you’ve been here since March!! Our living room barely has enough room to fit the four of us in, I cant actually even see the TV screen in a lot of the room because things are piled 5 foot high! And stop drinking chuffing cups of tea…build something damn it, anything. Hammer, cut, saw, plaster, shovel…I don’t care just do it. Do it NOW! Finish my fucking house you bloody buggering bastards!
Ahem…Anyway, here are a few progress photos of one of the rooms. Lots more to follow somewhen but it’s getting close to being done.
I think they just put the frigging Kettle on again! Twats!
Only kidding…I actually really do like them 🙂
The ongoing saga of the right old state our doors were in…
So…The doughnut returns.
For those of you not familiar with it I wrote a lot a while back about food, dieting, whole30 and generally trying not die prematurely. It went quite well for quite a while, and I lost quite a lot of weight. About 30lbs as I recall. I then proceeded to put it back on again plus another 10lbs. I then lost that but no sooner was it off than I put that back on again in double quick time. Plus probably a but more.
If you’ve ever struggled with your weight then you know how it goes.
The most recent weight increase was following a health review I had at hospital in December. Despite me having concerns I was in a pretty bad shape, my weight aside I was apparently not doing too bad. This emboldened me to embrace the Christmas and New Year with wide open arms and an even wider mouth and before you know it I am in lockdown and as heavy as I have ever been.
Anyway…fast forward three months and I have managed to shift close to 30lbs and am now close to where I was when I did the whole30 thing. So a long way to go but I have undone a year of cocktails, pies, meat feasts and general gluttony. Just another 48 years worth to do now…
This time round I have concentrated on calorie deficit and intermittent fasting. The fasting helps me to be disciplined in terms of when I eat, and the calorie deficit keeps what I eat under control. I am using the Myfitnesspal and Fastic apps to track things and it really does seem to work for me.
Being home 24/7 and being able to plan and cook has made a huge difference too. There are far fewer takeaways and processed foods have mostly been replaced with freshly cooked meals. I;m even growing my own herbs to help with some of the dishes I have been dabbling with.
Anyway, I will write more about this I am sure – just thought I’d share a little as a starter for now. Pun intended.
Oh and we are putting a gym in in the cellar as part of the renovations. But that is also for another post…
Bon appetit!
always a good way to start the year…
Once a hirsuite chap from old Bulgaria
had a lass though he wanted her hairier
arms and legs, butt and back
craved the hair in her crack
in fact liked her to look like a terrier
Next up, new year!
Christmas day comes at last to an end
dad’s been racist, your sis banged your friend
Grandad’s shit in his bed
“Gifts were garbage!” kids said
it was great though, let’s all just pretend
Excuse the typo, I can’t be bothered to redo it…
When one becomes two
and two becomes too many
and judgement impaired
And a pear martini in a pear tree…
It’s a slippery slope this Christmas period when it comes to dieting. If the scales are to believe then cocktails are the most calorific foodstuff known to mankind.
Now I know I have had a lot in the last few days with a work Christmas night out and a party at our home but it seems the olympic nutritionalists out there are missing a trick because if you want to prepare for a marathon race or the 10000m against a pack of Ethiopians then you need to be preparing by quaffing half a dozed porn star martinis and a jug of woo woo.
You dont need high altitude training if you’re plannign on taking on the Chinese on the high board – you need a chocolate martini and a couple of white russians. Need to have a crack at a couple of bulgarian wrestlers? A purple rain is just the tonic.
I am going to try and do better in the run up to Christmas I really am, but if I slip then you know what I will simply declare that I am in training and watch out Mo Farah, I’m coming for you you skinny bastard!
Be careful this party season
The alcohol flows
HR, busy January
careers ruined
Bringing you puppies and sweeties in his big blacked out van
He sneaks into your house late at night
while you sleep creeps around, lights shine bright
his full sack he then spills
neath your tree, oh such thrills
Then he enters your chimney, delight.
Each to their own I guess.
Starts with a baby
all ends a little stabby
now we just buy gifts
Family and all that…
Each year I tend to see my family well before Christmas for our get together because my dad works away a lot of the time so we tend to fit it in where we can, and today was that day.
My parents were there, my sister and her husband and step daughter, my brother and his wife and two of his children and the 4 of us. We don’t get together that often, perhaps a couple of times a year at best, and It was mostly as you would expect from a family gathering – there was food, the exchange of gifts and a few games before we all headed or seperate ways again.
The top highlights for me though were, in no particular order:
My dad announcing rather loudly and somewhat proudly that he must go and have a poo as the gift unwrapping started. We didn’t wait as he tends to be a lingerer.
I commented that my nephew looks like his mum (not my brothers current wife) and he amusingly asked whether he really looked like an alcoholic middle aged woman. And if you are wondering yes he does. Not a great look for a 16 year old.
My vegetarian wife being warned that one of the cheesy pastry things was best avoided as it had pepperoni in it and she should instead have one of the other ones. Turns out that that one only had really small pieces of ham in it so it’s almost meat free.
When playing games the question was “name 3 ways to make a baby stop crying.” My niece offered “Feed it, sing to it, give it a bottle.” My eldest offered “Stab it.” Quite a lot of disturning baby murder jokes ensued.
Family eh! Happy early Christmas…
Okay so Jesus never said that but he might have.
Oh bring me your turkey, it’s anus and gizzards
it’s Christmas and we need to eat
this fellow was killed and hung up on a cross
so rejoice with some servings of meat
I’ll have sweet panda sausage and lashings of gravy
a pie made of puppies and cats
and some spicy kebabs made of hamsters and gerbils
and a bbq sauce made of rats
Give me eagle wings sticky with dark sweet molasses
and elephant steaks thick and rare
and a slow roasted monkey with sides of plump rabbit
and a soup full of grilled koala bear
maybe curry with kittens or maybe a souffle
of lightly browned mice or some sparrow
and a serving of horse topped with mash and some carrots
or a stew with a soft llama bone marrow
And let’s not forget dishes with sauteed gorilla
and some spicy meat balls made of camel
for it’s Christmas you see and as Jesus once said
“Eat it up, oh rejoice, cook than mammal!”
Families eh!
Snow Crisp, blue skies, mulled wine, mince pies
wonder seen in children’s eyes
and gifts unwrappd with such surprise
in the hearth a fire burns
And family travels many miles
break bread together, warmest smiles
’tis season now to reconcile
as slowly seasons turn
And bellies full and drink it flows
facades they fade and contempt grows
and pretty soon they come to blows
past sleights so soon return
And dad gets smashed, insults son’s wife
siblings argue, filled with strife
and mother cries, she hates her life
for someone else she yearns
And she says he’s “just like his dad”
Then he protests “well youre mum’s mad!
and when she’s dead I will be glad!”
and children lessons learn
of family feuds and anger lingers
whilse drunken uncle Albert fingers
his own anus, in the bathroom lingers
without care or concern
They scream and shout, insults and hate
and cry and sob but it’s too late
the damage done, ain’t Christmas great
when will we ever learn…
Personally I love it but I know not everyone is a fan so here’s somethign different.
Night still and calm all through the night
They travel ‘cross the skies
And pull their load for girls and boys
For Christmas morn surprise
With Gifts wrapped bright such joy they bring
And never ever late
Beneath the tree their cargo sits
For youngsters to locate
And off once more away they set
God speed into the night
Unknownst to them below he has
Them firmly in his sight
He calms his breath and sets his sight
a finger on the trigger
and zooms right in above the heart
the target he makes bigger
For meat he craves, and prey to hunt
A quarry none have taken
This year it’s reindeer meat he craves
A sausage wrapped in bacon
Or chops or ribs or tender flank
Or maybe steak’s the answer
Or Rudolph snout or Blitzen pie
Or lightly sautéed Dancer
He holds his breath, squeezes a shot
that echoes in the night
and watches, slowly as it snows
and ends their lives mid flight
Oh how very horrid.
M’s writing prompts for March came with the following instructions:
“…set your timer for ten minutes and begin writing about one of the prompts listed below. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, neatness, or anything like that; just write!”
Let us see what whimsical nonsense I can whip up in ten minutes…
Ruby red she swirls and spins
And craves a life he cannot give
And laughter peaks and frantic dips
Entranced by eyes and heart and hips
Each day and night he toils and strains
To please her hunger as it grows
Voraciaous she devours it all
And never sated death does call
Worth more in the ground than with beating heart
with greed consumed she seeks to feast
And so she schemes and plots and plans
His life to take with blood soiled hands
And with widows sorrow she does weep
as slowly lowered into the ground
and ruby red heart swirls and leaps
all that was his now hers to keep
Oh how very horrid.
M’s writing prompts for March came with the following instructions:
“…set your timer for ten minutes and begin writing about one of the prompts listed below. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, neatness, or anything like that; just write!”
Let us see what whimsical nonsense I can whip up in ten minutes…
They crawled up his leg and then into his bottom
And there they did live in his innards quite rotten
For long was he dead in a battle forgotten
And now he’d returned for revenge
With such ants in his pants and a six rats in his bowels
He would walk through the night and quite hungry he howls
And a brain full of worms in control of his vowels
He would mumble for b-b–b-brains
He would seek little kids quite delicious and plump
With an eye full of spiders and a rather bug lump
On his face from the wasps than would sure make you jump
When they flew from his mouth like a storm
And his fingers quite rotten and tongue chewed away
Beetles covered his flesh and he strode night and day
To find children to eat who’d perhaps lost their way
and to hell drag their sweet little souls
Oh surely not…
M’s writing prompts for March came with the following instructions:
“…set your timer for ten minutes and begin writing about one of the prompts listed below. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, neatness, or anything like that; just write!”
Let us see what I can do in ten minutes…
Old Artemis Bilge fine purveyor of poodles
Loved them so much that he ate them with noodles
With fresh veg and soy sauce he scoffed oodles and oodles
and for pudding fresh strawberries and cream
He would slow roast a leg and eat it as a starter
With pickles and fennel and mustard or tartar
And sometimes on a sandwich with cheese and tomato
Licked his fingers, such tastes quite supreme
Late at night to his fridge he would head tummy rumbling
And with platters of neck, thigh and flank he’d head stumbling
Back to bed where he’d gorge ‘till his tummy stopped grumbling
Then to sleep and of poodles to dream
Hopefully just 4 rather gross lines…
M’s writing prompts for March came with the following instructions:
“…set your timer for ten minutes and begin writing about one of the prompts listed below. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, neatness, or anything like that; just write!”
Let us see what I can do in ten minutes…
Seething writhing piles of rancid filth
Maggots thrash hungrily and gorge on rotting flesh
Where once there was life now putrification reigns
And death’s foul breath belches and cackles
My what a big appetite you have.
M’s writing prompts for March came with the following instructions:
“…set your timer for ten minutes and begin writing about one of the prompts listed below. Don’t worry about spelling, punctuation, neatness, or anything like that; just write!”
Let us see what I can do in ten minutes…
Guzzling Gary likes pies
And hes rather fond of meat
Oh he really loves chips
And thinks snake meat quite a treat
He will eat a bag of raddish
And he’ll quaff a pint of soup
See him down a foot of sausage
Eat spaghetti, straight or loop
He will neck a quart of ice cream
Followed by a glass of sherry
And eat burgers by the fistful
Followed by a pound of cherry
Then it’s onto quail and liver
Lightly braised and served with veg
And some monkey and a lizard
And a squirrel from a hedge
Then perhaps a baby llama
And a bisque made from some cats
And a stew made from some puppies
Or some dumplings stuffed with bats
Oh and see him eat a whale steak
And a platypus on rye
Lick the juices from a goldfish
And bake hamsters in a pie
And then turtle stuffed with budgies
then some parrots braised with figs
but for daft religious reason
theres no bacon, its from pigs
Following a drunken discussion at the pub.
I would not eat a panda
it does not appeal to me
Despite it being grass fed
and not tough and quite juicy
It’s flesh I would not sauté
bake or broil or steam or fry
I would not make some pastry
and then bake it in a pie
Please do not serve me blue whale
it would surely be obscene
To brown it in a skillet
with chopped garlic and some cream
I could not sample blow hole
or a steak of flesh most pink
Do not prepare me sperm whale
or an orca or a mink
Bald Eagle’s off the menu
it could never pass my lips
I’d never shallow fry it
And then serve it with some chips
Please do not bring it to me
if you do I will reject
The smorgasbord of tasty
claws and wings and beaks and necks
Be gone you furry entrée
do not ask me to abide
A puppy stuffed with kitten
and Koala on the side
It leaves me feeling queasy
and on me it does repeat
I gag on eucalyptus
flavoured mar-su-pi-al meat
I’d never eat a chilli
made of simians for sure
Orang-utan with lentils
that I surely would deplore
I’d not enjoy chim-pan-zee
milk poached with fresh vanilla
I’d rather eat a salad
than bar-be-cued gorilla
But pig and cow I’ll gorge on
and chickens fill the belly
Once eels I even sampled
But the hot ones not in jelly
So why’s each species different
some not headed for the pot
whilst others we eat freely
quite delicious cold or hot
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Fancy something else?
https://afterwards.blog/2017/07/03/first-blog-post/
https://afterwards.blog/2017/07/14/we-unlikely-few/