By visiting our site, you agree to our privacy policy regarding cookies, tracking statistics, etc. Read more

Simplified Mum Life

Nina A Spencer – Motherhood Mentor – Simplifying the every day for busy overwhelmed mums -Mum Of Twins Twice! Placenta Accreta Survivor, Mental Health Champion, On my own simple living Journey filled with adventure and travel . Embracing The Imperfectly, Chaotic moments of motherhood.
Meal Plan Monday

Gallstones Diet Plan

If you’ve read this post you will know that I have been told I have gallstones and I am currently awaiting minor surgery to remove my gallbladder.

I’ve said a million times that I need to be healthier let’s face it most of us have.

When I was faced with the worst scare of my life ( My cesarian hysterectomy with an unknown amount of blood loss) I prayed and told whoever was listening that I promised to be a better person, I’d eat better, exercise more and try to just be an all-round better person If they just could let me get through the op!

Now I’ve survived I have not much choice to but fulfil my promise as I have had to revamp my diet due to the gallstones!

I now have to follow a low-fat diet!

It’s one thing to be told low fat but what does that mean?

Well from talking to several people and using the knowledge I have from doing a healthy eating course years ago I have devised some rules for my new healthy eating lifestyle.

  • Low Fat –  Under 10 Grams of fat in any 100g
  • Low saturated fat – Under 5g in any 100g
  • Low Sugar – Under 10g in any 100g
  • Less Processed Foods – Wherever possible Home cooked foods with fresh ingredients
  • Hydrate – Drink 2 litres of water per day
  • Plenty of fruits & Veggies – A least 5 portions
  • Protein – As I’m still rebuilding muscles from my last op protein is important to aid them rebuilding
  • Carbs – Should be whole grain, Like brown, rice, pasta, bread.

So that is my diet plan

I’m going to print it out and stick it to the fridge!

IMG_2012.PNG

Feel free to do the same.

Leave in the comments if you have any tips for gallstone diets?

 

Nina x

 

Grateful Sunday

Grateful Sunday #3

I’ve decided to start a daily gratitude list.

IMG_1633

I have done it before both on my own and as a family – We would send our list to each other (Myself Hubby & Stepson) via our family messenger group! It really helped especially when hubby worked away and with stepson only being here at weekends anyway!

Gratitude lists or journals can really benefit your mental health. They help you focus on the good things of the day, give you 5 – 10 minutes of calm, and when you’re having a bad day you can look back and see all the good things you have written in the past!

To keep me accountable for writing out my list I will post a few of the top things I’ve been grateful for each week!

My List for Sunday 12th November 2017

  • I’ve reserved our real Christmas tree!
  • Saw a friend in the street. We haven’t spoken for months. We had a hug & a Cry It was lovely to see her.
  • The twins had a hip scan at Jessops. Both were fine. M has now been discharged.
  • Xmas Radio, Me & the big kids managed a dance at breakfast time in the kitchen to Xmas tunes.
  • Cuppa with friends.
  • Me time – I had my hair done at the hairdressers.
  • Living next door to Grandma, Shes a great help.
  • Cinema date with big twins & Hubby to see Paddington. While nanny Sue had Little two.

Don’t forget to leave a comment below with what your grateful for this week.

See you all next week.

Nina x

Health & Fitness

Village life

 

You wanna go where people know, people are all the same, You wanna go where everybody knows your name.

– Cheers Theme Tune  Where Everybody Knows Your Name by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo

When I was a teenager I did everything to leave the small town that I have lived in since birth. I moved to Skegness, Whitby, for the summer seasons, moved to a town nearby & even spent 6 months in Sheffield at 17 years old.

However, when I got together with my childhood crush (who is now my husband) I ended up back in my hometown. We planned on moving to Whitby after a few years however this never happened and instead we focused on making a family.

Now I’m a mum, I have actually made friends in the village! When I was growing up I had a couple of friends but we lost touch a little.

22689990_1971327963118118_686795056_o

They do say it takes a village to raise a child and we’ve now got 4. Our little town is more like living in a village.

Since being home from the hospital I really have a better appreciation for the village life!

I can walk around the block after school. Call into friends for a cuppa. Head to the coffee shop for breakfast and a chat with the staff.

People in the street that I’ve really only before said hello to ask me how I am and tell me how worried they were about me.

I feel so much stronger than I thought I would after all that has happened in the past few weeks and I believe it’s down to the support from not only my family and friends but also the people around the village that have asked how I was and shown me that people do still care.

IMG_0946

At the moment I feel lucky to be able to let my kids grow up in a village lifestyle. There are a couple of play parks that we can walk to – Yes sometimes they could be tidier, sometimes there is glass that idiots have broken. but this happens everywhere.

I am part of the WI in a nearby village and last week was the first time I’ve been in ages.

Out of the blue one of the members brought me a freshly made apple pie that she had made! I think really she wanted to meet the new babies 🙂 but it was so thoughtful and made me again feel lucky to not only be part of the WI but part of village life!

I also have my online village, the ones that give me a shout out from time to time, the ones that have been messaging me to see how I’m getting on and to give me moral support while I was in hospital, the ones that give advise on parenting and the ones that don’t even know I exist but keep me entertained with their vlogs.

 

Nina x

 

Grateful Sunday

Grateful Sunday #2

I”ve decided to start a daily gratitude list.

I have done it before both on my own and as a family – We would send our list to each other (Myself Hubby & Stepson) via our family messenger group! It really helped especially when hubby worked away and with stepson only being here at weekends anyway!

Gratitude lists or journals can really benefit your mental health. They help you focus on the good things of the day, give you 5 – 10 minutes of calm, and when you’re having a bad day you can look back and see all the good things you have written in the past!

To keep me accountable for writing out my list I will post a few of the top things I’ve been grateful for each week!

My List for Sunday 5th November 2017

  • I’ve been discharged from Jessops
  • My appointment to discuss gallbladder has arrived.
  • Lunch with the hubby.
  • A great neighbourhood to take the kids trick or treating in.
  • A nice hot bath.
  • Discharged from breast clinic after a follow-up appointment for a lump that flared up during pregnancy.
  • A day spent online Xmas shopping & snuggling with my babies.
  • Grandmas cooking and baking. (Pork roast dinner with plum crumble to follow.)
  • A great evening spent with family playing retro games and waving sparklers.

Nina x

Celebrations

Stocking filler ideas with The Sports direct £5 challenge. With BritMums.

The Countdown to Christmas is well and truly on the way with only 1 more paydays left beforehand I really do need to crack on with my shopping!

So when BritMums asked me to take on the £5 Christmas  Gift Challenge I Jumped at the chance.

Armed with a list of people who I need to buy for I set to and headed to the online Christmas gift guide!

There is much more than I thought Sports direct sold.

I loaded my basket with stocking fillers for my kids, along with a gift for a friend of mine who is often found taking selfies.

I hit checkout and was given 3 delivery options, the impatient part of me nearly hit next day delivery, however, I chose the cheaper option of standard it means my Items would still be delivered by the end of the week (3 – 5 working days) Sure enough, it arrived only 4 days later!

My Haul

First up I spotted this Selfie Booth kit for £5 reduced from £15

IMG_1714

I had just the friend in mind she is always taking selfies this will be fab for one of her stocking fillers! At £5 it such great value with a selfie stick included in the box which alone retail around the £5 mark. With it is a Bluetooth shutter and a range of props idea for a party photo booth.

With Christmas and two birthdays, fast approaching I’m on the lookout for inexpensive gifts for the kids When I saw these rolling art desks at £5.99 each (so a little over my budget) I had to get them.

IMG_1717.jpg

My big girl twin is a huge fan of frozen so this will be great for her and the Marvel one I’m sure my Big boy twin will love just as much. When they arrived they were much bigger than I expected and a lot more sturdy. I’m sure they will love these for their birthday! Well worth more than the £5.99 I paid for them.

This will be our new Twins 1st Christmas and they will only be 4 months old so they won’t really realise anything but I think they will need a few gifts from The big Man So these Fisher-Price Teething Rings at just £1 each are amazing value!

IMG_1715.jpg

Unfortunately, these are no longer on the Sports Direct website however they do have other amazing value gifts on there.

Finally, I bought this Raging Bull Rodeo game reduced from £10 to £5 

IMG_1731

At first glance, I thought it was great value for £5 however once I opened the box and tried to play with it, the bull didn’t seem to click into place properly so just spun around before any of the items were placed onto the saddle.

All in all, I think I did well on my challenge and there are loads other amazing gift ideas on the website!

#sdfiverchallenge Christmas Challenge, sponsored by Sportsdirect.com

All opinions are my own!

Nina x

Where to next?