Be Well with Bernie

No!!!!! Not this sort of date... This sort of date 😅 Although both dates are great I'll stick with the sweet ones for now 👏 Dates are great for our health.  The benefits include relief from constipation, intestinal disorders, heart problems, anaemia, sexual dysfunctions, diarrhoea, abdominal cancer, and many other conditions.  They are rich in several vitamins, minerals, and fiber which are all beneficial for health. . I would have been inclined to stay away from them in the past because they are so high in sugar but it is only naturally occurring fruit sugars so I'm ok with them now.  This is something I've struggled to get my head around for a while. I've been using dates a lot lately to make flapjacks and other sweet treats and I find them great as a source of energy and I find them really satisfying. I was trecking down to Spice World on the Quay to buy Medjool dates every week (a major pain as you can imagine) until I discovered that Aldi...

A simple bowl of soup is so underrated!!! There's nothing more comforting than a hot bowl of soup when the wind is howling outside and the rain is pelting off the window. This butternut squash soup is one of my favourites. It's so easy to make and even better has only a few ingredients and nothing fancy that you wouldn't already have in the fridge or the press. The smell in the kitchen while the veg are roasting is just divine. Give it a go and let me know what you think ✌ ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP INGREDIENTS 1 large butternut squash 1 medium sweet potato 2 stalks of celery 1 large onion 5 cloves of garlic 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional, add more or less depending on how much of a kick you like) salt and pepper to taste 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 litre of vegetable stock DIRECTIONS Preheat the oven to 175. Peel, core and chop the butternut squash. Add to a large roasting pan. Chop the sweet potato, celery garlic and onion and add to t...

I love doing jigsaws!!   Is anyone with me??? I used to do them all the time and my love for them was rekindled recently when I spotted that Liam's sister Anna Marie had a half finished 1000 piece puzzle on her dining room table.  I bagsied getting it when she was finished and so the love affair restarted just where we had left off. I love the fact that you have a lot of time to think when you're doing a jigsaw.  There's no background noise, no distractions, just you, the puzzle and your thoughts... Some people would run a million miles from this but for me its like therapy. Whilst doing this puzzle I was thinking a lot about how you could easily relate piecing it all together to making lifestyle changes. Opening the box and being faced with 1000 tiny pieces can be a bit overwhelming.  You know what you need to do but there are so many pieces to put together that you just don't know where to start.    You have the picture on th...

Storm Ophelia has hit ☁⛈ and I'm home alone. I have to say that a forced lazy day is very welcome.  It's nice to just kick back and relax without feeling like you have to be running anywhere or doing anything.  As nice as it is I'm bored stiff.  I've already watched two movies and the kitchen is calling me non stop.  I know I'm not hungry, it's just boredom.  So, I've decided that I will kill a bit of time and satisfy my belly and do some cooking...  Lets hope the power doesn't go??? Since going meat free I've fallen in love with falafels...  I have to admit that a few months ago I had absolutely no idea what they really were...  I remember finding a falafel stall at Electric picnic a few years ago.  Myself, Mags and Paul were there for the weekend and we had them for dinner every day.  They were absolutely delicious and totally satisfying.  I thought the wrap itself was the falafel.  I didn't know the falafel was the...

Did you ever wake up feeling a bit low for no reason at all? You try to figure out what’s making you feel down and you just can’t put your finger on it? I woke up like this last Friday morning.  I just felt a bit "meh" and found it hard to get out of bed but I got up and went to the gym anyway.  I had a great workout but felt no better after it.  Normally a workout would lift my mood but it hadn’t done the trick so I drove home thinking I’ll lie down on the sofa with a blanket and watch a movie and that will make me feel better. When I got home Lenny was hopping out of his skin looking to go for a walk.  The internal battle began.  The good Bernie said go out for a walk in the fresh air, it will make you feel so much better.  The bad Bernie said lie down on the sofa, you deserve to have a bit of a rest, and you can take Lenny out later sher…. The good Bernie won the battle and I put Lenny’s lead on and headed out the door.   By the time...

We see quotes like this on Instagram and Facebook every single day encouraging us to “STEP OUTSIDE YOUR COMFORT ZONE”.  While these quotes are always so motivational and inspiring, is actually doing what they say ever as easy as it seems?   So what exactly is a comfort zone??   A comfort zone is a psychological, emotional and physical state where things feel familiar and we're totally at ease and in control of our surroundings.  When we're with family and friends we're chilled out and relaxed but if we're thrown into a room full of strangers we feel uncomfortable (well most of us anyway!).  When we go to the gym we may feel comfortable doing the same routine every time and then when we decide to go to a fitness class we feel totally out of our depth. If we take the kids to the hurdy gurdy's we might feel happy to take them on the flying chairs but start to sweat at the thought of going on the roller coaster.   When we’re in our com...

I smashed my iphone on the kitchen floor last week 😞 I’m sure lots of you have done this before and know exactly how it feels.  That moment when your phone slips from your hand onto a hard floor or down the toilet is just awful. It’s like a scene from The Matrix.  Time slows down.   You reach for your phone.  Your reflexes are quick but not quick enough and the echo from the impact, that horrible crack or splash, vibrates in your ears 🙉 I’m going to confess that every time I've smashed my phone on the floor it was totally down to my own stupidity and this time was no different.  This particular drop happened last week when myself and Liam were rushing out the door to go to the gym and we were heading straight on to a training course from there.  We were both well organised the night before and had our bags packed and ready to go.  I had our breakfast and lunch prepared too and everything was on the table waiting ...