Living beside the sea has made me more aware of the beauty of the clouds. I think it’s because you san see so much sky because your view is not obstructed by any buildings. As I drove along the seafront this morning the cloudscape (is that a real word?) was stunning. The sky was filled with a towering black could but it was fringed by a bright white cloud layer. I had to pull over and take some photos as it was so beautiful.
My iPhone has not managed to capture the contrast between dark and light accurately. The lower layer was bright white rather than gold.
The colours are more accurate in this photo.
Very dramatic.
I didn’t eat anything very exciting today. Cherries and melon for breakfast.
Heated up leftovers for lunch: I mixed the leftover pasta in a cavelo nero pesto with last night’s left over lentil and mixed bean curry. They did not taste good mixed together but this bowlful kept me going for hours.
HOW MANY CALORIES ARE IN A PIZZA ???? I am so shocked. I knew they were bad but had no idea it would be that bad. This pizza has hardly any cheese and obviously no meat. But it has nearly 700 calories – it weighs 320 g. That converts to between 30 -35 syns so more than 2 days worth. I didn’t have any yesterday so I have evened out but even so, that is shocking.
This was not a patch on the amazing pizzas from our local pub but it was ok. However, now I know how many calories/syns are in it, I am not having another one. I will save pizza calories for the Imperial pizzas.
I ate it with some lettuce, tomatoes and sprouts.
I didn’t do very well with exercise today but I did get some chores done so I am ok with that but I must eat better and exercise more tomorrow.
I made syn free potato wedges but chopping up potatoes, rubbing them with smoked paprika and salt and baking them in the oven at 200 ° for 30 minutes. They were for a picnic on the beach.
Lucy picked me up and we drove over to the Country Park and parked up near the Visitor Centre (near Fairlight Church). The Visitor Centre was open today and we got a really informative leaflet with a much needed map.
This is the view from the Coast Guard Cottages, looking towards Hastings.
This is the view looking back the way we had walked, towards the Fire Hills and Fairlight.
Our destination was the little beach in the cove near Fairlight Glen.
The scenery was so varied, it made for a very interesting walk. I was only in trainers but it was muddy and slippery in patches so proper walking shoes next time and walking poles as it was very hilly and in places, very steep.
A little waterfall. I loved the variety of woodland areas and open clifftop areas with sweeping sea views. 
The descent down to the cove. This was very difficult and I was glad of a rope someone had provided.
We made it.
What a perfect spot. We nearly had the beach to ourselves and we sat and relaxed for a while as it was so warm and peaceful.
I ate my lunch; potato wedges and celery sticks. Not very exciting but I didn’t have time to make anything else and it was sufficient to keep me going for the day. It was a long and steep walk back up to the top of the cliffs.
We were blessed with perfect weather. Look at the colour of the sea!
It was a hilly walk and I had to stop to catch my breath several times – thank you Lucy for being patient.
Near the end of our walk was a disused quarry so another scenery change.
Near the car park is a cafe and having walked up and down all these hills and down to the beach and up again, we enjoyed a good cuppa. I will be back here, that’s for sure as it was such a beautiful walk.
Supper was a made up lentil and mixed bean curry. I “fried” some onions in vegetable stock with fresh ginger and garlic, added ground cumin, turmeric and coriander and then added carrots, cavolo nero, and a tin each of lentils and mixed beans. I added a smudge of maple syrup and the zest and juice of a lime to balance the flavours.
I also added a large jar of passata and served it on a bed of rice with fresh coriander. Nothing very exciting but nourishing and good enough.
I haven’t had any syns today and no HEB and I walked for about 3 hours. And had loads of fun. So a brilliant day.
It did, as it always does, but I still felt a bit tired.
I reviewed the weekend’s meals while I walked and they were not good enough; either in terms of being on the diet plan or being nutrient dense enough. So I resolved to head home and have a large green smoothie. Green vegetables are so nutritious and I have not eaten enough lately and an easy way to consume a lot of raw green leaves is in a smoothie or a salad. So I had a smoothie for breakfast and a salad for lunch.
I used 500 ml almond milk (half my HE A) and packed the blender with green vegetables: cavolo nero, and, from the garden, Japanese spinach and mizuna. I feel better just looking at those green leaves.
Plus a scoop each from the 2 green powders I regularly add to my food. I usually only add one at a time but today I had both. 
I also added 2 bananas. You are meant to add syn values when you blend them, even though bananas are free usually. This is because you would eat more in a smoothie than as a whole fruit. However, I would eat 2 bananas if that was all I was eating so I did not add any syns for this glass of greenness.
The veggie patch is doing well. These are the Japanese spinach plants.
This is the mizuna, which I usually add to salad but it was fine in a smoothie too. It’s a bit peppery, similar to rocket.
I am thrilled with how quickly it has grown as I only planted the seeds, directly outside on the 26th August – less than a month and they are ready to eat.
I planted radish (and lettuce and borage) on the same day and they radishes are now growing well too. The lettuce and borage are progressing but far more slowly.
For lunch I was aiming for a large green salad and topped it with a carrot and corn salad which I have not made before. This recipe comes from one of my favourite cook books – ‘My New Roots’.
It was really easy and tasted lovely. Although I must say I don’t like carrots cut in to rounds. Is that weird? The recipe said to cut in to rounds but I much prefer sticks and I cut both ways to check. Yup, sticks beat rounds hands down.
I blitzed the cooked garlic and cavolo nero with fresh basil and the seeds.
Then stirred that in to the cooked pasta.
Harvey and I both had the same supper and both declared it perfectly pleasant and very adequate.
I liked the combination of colours, flavours and textures.
So my day’s eating was very nutritious and I feel much better. I end the day on 12.5 syns and having walked 9,000 steps. I will try to get that up to 10,000 before bed tonight.
After a misty start to the day, the rest of the day was spent in sunshine which was lovely. The sea was ultra calm today so we had a lovely swim. Harvey swam with me (well, he was in the water at the same time) and Milton scavenged around for mussels. I upped the distance to swim 8 times between the groynes today. The swimming was so enjoyable and we both relaxed in the water for a while before getting out as the water temperature is still warm enough to enjoy being in.
Our next outing was to Fairlight Hall, which I have never been to before. WOW! WOW! WOW! I am going again.
There are so many stunning plants there; I highly recommend a visit.
This was perfect though. The greenhouse really was beautiful.
I was so impressed I have signed up to get a Fairlight Hall vegetable box. The vegetable gardener is new so they may not take off properly until 2018 but I said I would like to start this year if possible.
There was a plant sale and I did treat myself to a couple of plants and a plant support for next year’s sweet peas.
We walked for half an hour to get to The Stade to the Seafood and Wine Festival. It was packed!
I am obviously not a fan of seafood but Harvey likes it and I wanted to support a local venture which is why we went. I managed to avoid all the fabulous wines on offer which was a relief as I don’t need the calories and the wine makes me forget my diet!
Harvey chose a paella and I had lunch from this van: 
Punjabi Samosa Chaat
and I also bought some samosa’s to share. None of it was at all greasy but I have no idea how to work out the syns.
It was very crowded at the festival so we walked round to the beach and enjoyed our lunch, sitting in the sunshine.
I have never sat at the harbour arm end of the beach before and it was very pleasant, watching the boats coming and going and the paddle boarders drifting along.
Hastings looks very small compared to the huge cloud hanging above it. When the rainclouds began to get larger and darker we walked home. So as well as swimming for half an hour today, I have also walked 13,500 steps which is great.
My view was back when we got home.
I hope you all had a good weekend. I certainly did.
Milton would have enjoyed the mussels.
I find the colours and patterns on the beach very lovely.
I haven’t seen such pink seaweed before on these beaches.
Time to get in. The water was so calm there was no reason not to so in I went and it was fabulous. The air temperature was 13 °and the sea temperature was 16 ° so it was actually warmer in the sea than out! 
I swam backwards and forwards between the groynes 6 times. It felt great and I was so glad I went in. 
I also met another swimmer out there, who swims all year round and she suggested I join a local sea swimming group on Facebook. So I have done that and can see there is a swimming event annually from the harbour arm to the pier and back again; I hope to be able to do that next year.
Back at home I had a hot bath and then a large bowl of fruit with 150 g Alpro vanilla yogurt (2 syns). I added the yogurt and banana as I was hungry and knew I wasn’t having lunch until 2:30.
I drove up to Surrey to have lunch with my Dad and step-Mother and was delighted Lara joined us as well. Dad took us to Zizzi’s which I like as they have a really good vegan menu.
As a main I had the broccoli salad and some herby potatoes. The salad was very tasty and low calorie but the potatoes were very calorific. They tasted great though.
Green Goddess Salad (broccoli) = 256 calories
I should have then just had a black coffee but I didn’t because Zizzi does the most amazing vegan dessert; sticky chocolate torte with a scoop of coconut and chocolate ice-cream. So yummy it’s hard to believe it’s vegan.
Total Zizzi calories = 1,486. Wow !!!!! So high but it was all very enjoyable and it was great to spend time with my family. But I think next time I need to resist the torte and ice-cream and then I would only have had 835 calories.
I intend to swim again in the sea tomorrow morning and eat extremely sensibly.
I did some new exercises this week or familiar exercise in new places. I did a challenging (for me) yoga class in Udimore on Monday. I will go again as I enjoyed it and really liked the teacher.
Lovely weather for a walk too as it was sunny and very clear so we could see for miles.
It was windy, which I suspect is not unusual in these parts, judging by the trees! 
We plan to walk the entire length of the park, which is about 5 miles, hopefully next week.
The sea conditions were too rough for me this week so I have not been in the sea since Sunday but I do plan to go tomorrow. Instead I went to a swimming pool and yesterday I swam 50 lengths (of a 25m pool).
I prised them away from the garden so we could go for a walk around the Old Town as neither of them have been to Hastings before. We started at Rock A Nore.
We were blessed with a beautiful day.
I have wandered round the Old Town many times now and every time is different as each visitor notices and is interested in different things. Ian and Helen liked the architecture and all the different doors and door furniture.
Its a delightful independent and family run nursery, with many greenhouses which are being restored. We walked through the melon house which has lots of succulents and cacti in which I liked.
I have also enjoyed walking at Bulverhythe this week. It is convenient to get to after dropping Harvey at school and the sun has been shining brightly first thing. I have not added any filters of edited this picture in any way – I love that blue.
These two enjoyed their walk there this morning.
More cloudy today than yesterday but such pretty blues in the sky made it a real delight to walk about in.
So that was my week. I did well from Monday until Thursday night when I went to Marion’s with Sarah for a belated birthday celebration. Marion’s daughter Lucy is a vegan and her daughter JoJo lives with 2 vegans so they are really good at vegan catering. Jo Jo made a wonderful tomato, aubergine and pesto tart which was so good I ate too many slices of it (and too much humous and olives in oil). Hey ho, it was all delicious and lovely to be back in my old village for an evening with my former neighbours.
I had earlier that day spent a happy afternoon with another friendly face from Sissinghurst; Lisa, who came to visit. I love living in Hastings and am so glad it is easy to keep in touch with the super souls I met in Sissinghurst.
I am happy with my weight loss this week, happy with my exercise and very happy to have spent time with so many lovely people. I feel really motivated to have a good week and can not see any obstacles. I hope you have a happy weekend.
Can you see it?
There we are – the Terrace.
On Sunday I had all good intentions of getting back to plan but I was incredibly tired and then had a bad experience in the sea. It seemed much rougher than it appeared and I mis-timed my entrance and ended up being battered by large waves and all the pebbles they contain! It is the getting in and out that is hard because of the way the waves crash to shore. If you time it correctly, you can enjoy swimming as away from the shore the waves are more manageable. But I blew it yesterday and suffered the consequences. Suffice to say I did not enjoy it as much as I should and quickly became cold. Once home I thawed out in a long hot bath and then wasted the afternoon dozing on the sofa, eating toast and drinking tea. So not great. But I can report the new goggles were fantastic.
I did much better with my eating and exercise today. I was unable to swim due to huge waves today so I went to a yoga class in Udimore for the first time. It was very challenging for me but the teacher was incredibly helpful and supportive and I enjoyed it very much but have felt achey all afternoon as she really pushed me, which is a good thing. I have included a picture of the geese who roam around the village green in Seddlescombe; I had stopped to get some water as I was thirsty after yoga and stupidly had not taken any water with me.
I made more effort for supper and cooked a vegetable and cannelloni bean soup. It was acceptable. Very nutritious but not quite as tasty as I wanted. No syns in it though because I did not add any oil during cooking. The liquid is a combination of vegetable stock and a tin of chopped tomatoes. 
I cold sit and watch the waves for hours.
In the evening Rebecca and I took the dogs for a walk along the beach at St. Leonards.
We went at low tide so all the rocks and little rock pools were exposed. The beach is so different at low tide and is lovely to walk along.
Milton was like a kid in a sweet shop.
As I usually take him at high tide, he scavenges mussel shells off the beach. But at low tide he could pick them off the rocks. I only let him have a couple as I am not sure if they are good for him and he has just had a very upset stomach.
The water is quite calm this evening and it is a full moon so we did debate going for a moonlit swim but actually it’s a bit chilly and I feel tired and so we both agreed to skip the moonlight swim. Another time.
2 dogs and 2 birds enjoyed their evening beach stroll.
So I did ok for exercise today, with the swimming and walking. Eating was mainly good but not perfect today.
Then the vegan full Monty. I find it really hard to work out the sun value on these meals as I don’t know what was cooked in oil, what type of bread it is etc. So I calculated 4 syns as follows:
Supper was easy as it was leftover Tex Mex casserole from yesterday. I made Harvey’s in to a burrito and I had mine with jalapeño, juicey tomatoes and half an avocado plus coriander. It was delicious and it reheats very well.
7 Syns for half the avocado. The rest was speed or free food.
I was ok at this point (16 syns) but as we had eaten a very early supper (4:30 as we had to be at an event at Harvey’s school), I was hungry after the evening walk along the beach and so I had some tortilla chips (25 g ish) and humous ( 1 tbsp ish) which I have synned at 6 + 2.5 = 8.5.
The sea was much calmer today than yesterday which meant we were able to actually swim more, rather then just bobbing about and enjoying the huge waves. The colours of the water and the clouds made for a very dramatic swim today.
Our only company in the sea today was a fishing boat, surrounded by gulls hoping to get lucky with some fish. As a vegan I obviously do not like fishing but if people are going to eat fish, I would rather they bought fish caught by the local fishing boats as their fishing methods are more sustainable than the huge ships used by the supermarkets.
One of the first vegan blogs I started reading was 
I only planted the radishes, borage, lettuce and mizuna last Saturday (9 days ago) and they are already looking good. If we have the warm Autumn we are forecast they should grow to an edible size. You can also see baby leeks (top bed under the chicken wire – they look like grass) and Japanese spinach in the front right hand side.
Was it swimming weather though?
It was more of a challenge today because it was very overcast and actually raining so going for a swim in the sea did not seem very appealing but we decided to go for it regardless. 
Obviously we were the only ones on the beach!
The sea was VERY lively and I wouldn’t have gone in alone but as we were together, we both swam. And it was absolutely marvellous. 
E-X-H-I-L-A-R-A-T-I-N-G. Getting in and out was quite a challenge as the waves were high and when they crashed to shore the pebbles all swirled around but once you were out a bit deeper it was great fun, bobbing about out there.
I don’t feel as if I ate much today but I managed to use 14.5 syns, mainly from the oil in the cauliflower and lentil supper as I ate half the amount I made.
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