Writer’s Weight Gain!

Things have changed since I hit fifty. I feel like I’m thirty-six but none of my mirrors are working. I bet I’m not the only person who has finished writing a book and finally had time to look in a mirror.

In the past I had a job and wrote in my spare time. The work I did was physical and there were times friends said I was worryingly thin.

When I met my partner he thought I was not eating well, only to discover I eat like a horse. He brought me chocolate trifle and cakes but it made little difference.

The crunch came when he told me he would support me financially if I wanted to quit my day job.

Two years later, I looked down to find my writing journey hadn’t involved many miles. I wasn’t any different to friends who had previously claimed I had a fast metabolism or good genes.

I went back to work for the summer conference season in a Housekeeping Department and my figure returned.

The weight came back when I wrote and published my next two books. This time the mirror told me the same thing as my daughter, who prodded me in the stomach and said,

“You need to do something about that.”

I didn’t think the change would be permanent.

I had gained weight working as a baker in a Tea Shop and had solved the problem by using a boxer’s skipping rope but years of standing had ruined my knees, skipping was no longer an option.

I began to trawl the net to see what could be done and considered dieting.

Many years before, a colleague had told me his relative had self-published a book after inventing a new diet.

Having failed with traditional salad methods Joseph McNally had decided to use the difficulty he suffered with chilli peppers and embarked on a trial period, journaling his findings in a book, S?it Yourself Thin.

I would have given it a go but I had changed from dairy to oat milk and it was doing the same without the pain. What I needed was toning up.

I saw several ladies using Smart Hula Hoops on social media and invested in one. They made it look easy. It wasn’t. It took dedication to learn how to keep the weighted ball, attached by a short length of string to a waist band, spinning.

I doubted I would keep it up, until a gently spoken woman emerged on Facebook.

Kath Routledge and her Smart Hula Hoop started popping up at various locations every day and I began to feel a glimmer of hope.

She had started the group Hooping Awesome on Facebook, to encourage herself and others to commit to a month of hooping. I doubt Kath knew what she had started.

When her group gained a hundred enthusiastic members she seemed shaken, having hoped for ten at best.

She started fun competitions and asked what exercise equipment members had bought, used once, and left in a cupboard.

Group numbers swelled to thousands and Kath was stunned to find she had followers as far away as Canada.

Hooping Awesome became flooded with hoopers giving each other advice and encouragement in difficult moments. Ingenious members shared tips.

Furniture polish was the answer on a sticky hoop. Rocking gently from one leg to the other, as opposed to the mad belly dance I had been doing, got better results. 

I was not brave enough to video myself hooping but many were happy to show off their technique, roping curious neighbours and relatives into their gardens to have a go.

We mourned the loss of a lady’s television set, when she forgot to secure her waist band properly. We laughed with dog owners, whose spaniels thought the spinning ball was intended for their entertainment.

We checked in every day and said how many minutes we had achieved. Members proudly sent pictures of the links they had taken off their hoops, as they got thinner, and we cheered them on.

I got my mojo back, returned to being a size 12 and my posture improved immensely. Somehow this simple exercise made my knees stronger. I couldn’t have been more impressed with the results achieved from very little exertion.

When Kath published a journal for group members to keep a note of their achievements, not only was it appreciated but it came to light she had published other books.

It was of interest to me, having thought often about the background of this quiet unassuming person, who always managed to find the time to respond to comments made on her posts.

Little by little we learnt more about Kath, until I summoned the nerve to message her and ask for more details about her life. I knew she was involved in some sort of therapy but that was about it.

What she told me was even more impressive than her hooping adventure and her story is a good example of how writing shares niche knowledge.

May 2023 saw Kath celebrating her ninth anniversary of a major career change.

Kath told me,

 “I trained as a Relax Kids coach in 2014 after taking voluntary redundancy from my job as I didn’t want to go back to work after having my second child – so a total change in career nine years ago.

I slowly built up my Relax Kids business in Basingstoke and absolutely loved working in schools, preschools, nurseries, in the community and a 1-2-1 basis with families locally.

Then it all changed in March 2020 when schools closed, we went into lockdown and nothing face to face was happening.

         Instead home learning, trying to encourage my children to learn while trying to support their worries; worries we all had during those crazy times. It was a stress for everyone and it got to the point that, as I wasn’t working, I needed to do something, so I embarked on a project to write a book.

In this same time I had signed up to a coaching programme with a high profile fitpro to build up my yoga classes (I’d also recently graduated from my two hundred hours yoga teacher training) but as we went into lockdown I didn’t want to teach yoga online as, for me, I much preferred face to face classes, so instead we focused on my book! And, to be honest, without that accountability I don’t think I would have finished but thanks to Rachel (a fitpro coach) I got it self-published.

The intention for my first book was to be able to support children’s mental health and wellbeing at a time when I couldn’t work face to face in settings, in the community or 1-2-1.”

Kath explained the characters in her books were based on her children. Her eldest child was a bit self-conscious about being identified, as she was going to be starting a new school and thought her mother was going to be a famous author.

Her youngest child, however, was a very willing participant in both the development of the books and social media posts.

Kath continued,

“After this, there was no stopping me! I’ve since added to Yasmine Yogi and Phoebe Bee and written a book to support children transitioning to school – Hollie Hamster Goes to School (Hollie is my daughter’s pet hamster!)

I’ve also self-published a whole load of notebooks/journals.”

Last month Kath celebrated her career change with a record week, relaxing seven hundred children as part of the local schools Wellbeing Week.

As for me, my figure is back under control, having suffered a minor set-back over Christmas.

I have to be realistic, I’m hurtling towards an undesirable age at an astonishing rate.  I’ll stick with hooping, for now. When that doesn’t work anymore I might consider torturing myself with chilli peppers but I doubt it.

If you have tuned in because I promised to teach you how to cook perfect rice or you want to know about my nifty hack for cleaning silver jewellery in minutes, look below.

Happy writing, Rachel.

Perfect Rice Every Time

I have seen rice cooked in many ways.

My least favourite being, what I call, the canteen method, boiled in a sea of salted water and drained into a colander.

There are many people who insist on washing rice a hundred times because, back in the seventies, they were told to wash the starch out of it. Washing the starch out was never the reason, by the way.

In the seventies we used to buy rice in an unwashed state. I can remember relatives bringing us rice from Bangladesh in large green plastic jars with yellow lids. As children it was our job to sift through the rice and pick out stones and other odd things.

Naturally, you would wash rice which entered the home in that condition but modern factories don’t allow it to reach you like that anymore.

Believe me when I tell you, supermarket rice has been washed enough to pour and commence cooking without fear of foreign bodies or starch.

It is so simple to cook rice.

There are no magic measurements, just a simple rule of thumb.  All you need is heat, water and a pan, which is big enough for the rice to expand to three times its size - with a tight fitting lid. A glass lid is especially helpful if you are nervous and tempted to look at the rice!

No matter the amount of rice you are preparing there are only two things to remember.

Thumb

Pour the rice into the bottom of the pan and cover with water.

Rest your thumb gently on the top of the rice, THE WATER SHOULD ONLY COME UP TO THE FIRST RING ON YOUR THUMB.

I know it sounds odd but the fact is it works, no matter how much rice you use or the size of your hands!

Put the rice on your hottest ring and bring it to the boil, until the lid is rattling.

Turn on the smallest burner and get the flame as low as it will go, without being in danger of blowing out. Transfer the rice pan to the smaller burner and cook for 20 minutes.

If you are using an electric hob, do not turn the smallest ring on until the boiling pan is on it (it will still work, trust me)

Do not lift the lid, if you can help yourself.

If you are afraid the rice will stick to the bottom, do not be tempted to stir it like a stew.

If you simply can’t leave it be, pull the pan off the hob and get a fork.

Lift the lid and scrape the fork, quickly, in a zig-zag across the bottom of the pan and, in one sweeping movement, pull the fork around the edge of the pan (turning the rice over) and replace the lid as soon as possible.

If your lowest flame or electric ring is too hot, it is fine to take the pan off the heat when steam holes have appeared in the top of the rice and most of the water has been absorbed.

Leave the rice pan with the lid on for 20 minutes more, it should still cook in its own heat (when I do this I place a folded clean tea towel over the lid to try and keep as much of the steam in as possible)

The biggest thing to remember is that once the rice is on the lowest possible heat, it doesn’t need you to look at it. Keeping the steam in is the key to success.

If you Want other Ingredients in your Rice

Use exactly the same level of water using your thumb line to measure the level.

I make Pilau Rice with cinnamon quills, green cardamom pods, fried onions and crushed garlic, using the same amount of water.

Once you get used to how much water you need to use you can use this method, using boiling water, to prepare dishes which you would like to have meat in (measure by eye, don’t use your thumb!)

NEVER PUT COLD WATER ON MEAT WHICH IS ALREADY HOT, the change from hot to cold and hot again could encourage bacteria to grow and cause food poisoning.

My favourite rice dish is chicken tikka strips with fried onion, garlic, spices, and peas. I cook this by frying everything in the rice pan and adding rice and BOILING WATER, then treat it exactly the same as boiling plain rice.

Please remember, if you are cooking catering sized amounts of rice, especially with meat or prawns, you must put it into smaller containers to cool to room temperature as quickly as possible before putting it in the fridge.

You should never leave it in a pan to cool if it contains more than 15 large portions. Allowing large volumes of any food to cool to room temperature in vats poses a food poisoning risk.

Clean your Silver Jewellery in Minutes

This hot tip has saved much of my old silver filigree jewellery from Bangladesh.

It works using a mild chemical reaction, rather than rubbing with metal polish, which is often impossible with smaller pieces of jewellery.

When I use the word chemical, I am referring to a simple reaction rather than the use of actual chemicals.

You will Need

Boiling water

Bicarbonate of Soda

Malt Vinegar

A pair of thick rubber gloves

A drop of washing up liquid (dish detergent, USA)

A large piece of aluminium foil (enough to make a ball the size of a tennis ball)

A soft LINTLESS cloth (not fibre cloth, it will catch on clasps etc.)

Method

Get a bowl and fill it with freshly boiled water and ad half a mug of malt vinegar and a drop of washing up liquid.

Add a level dessertspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda.

Crush the aluminium foil into a loose ball and drop it into the bowl.

Immediately drop the jewellery into the bowl and leave for two minutes at the most.

Take the jewellery out, rinse it with clean warm water and rub gently with the soft cloth.

Most of the tarnish should be removed. You may dip the items several times until you are satisfied.

When you have finished you can unfold the foil. If the process has worked properly you will see the foil has attracted the black tarnish to itself, even from the finest detail of the smallest piece of jewellery, removing the need to scrub delicate details with a damaging brush.

How clever is that?

More cooking and cleaning tips in next month’s journal.