My Typical Day: Want To Know What I Do? FREEE Cereal, Secrets and Puppies
6am:
In case you didn’t know, we’ve got a 15-week-old Cockapoo puppy called Ronnie… there’s no way you didn’t know that, I don’t stop talking about it!!
Where did his name come from? Long story short, Charlie and I went to LSE Uni together and spent as much time as humanly possible in Ronnie Scotts, the best Jazz club in Soho. We said if we ever had a dog and the named fitted, we’d call him Ronnie. He’s “full of character” as everyone says, so the name certainly did fit!!
Ron sleeps in a pen in our room and luckily, we don’t hear a peep out of him before 6am. Around that time he wakes up and comes to sleep with us for a few hours like this…
7am:
Having been shuffling around and trying to get back to sleep for the last hour or 3, I usually decide 7am is an acceptable time to properly wake up! No sign of Ronnie or Charlie yet, so I blame them for the next bit…
The first thing I do is commit the cardinal sin of reaching for my phone. In my defence, it’s only because I want to catch up with you lot!
I put together my “3 morning thoughts” to share on my stories (2 things I’m thinking about that morning and 1 quote I find online that relates to my mood), attempt to catch up on my overnight DMs and comments and wait for Ronnie to wake which looks something like this...
My tummy will be thinking about breakfast before I’ve even opened my eyes properly! We have the whole FREEE cereal range in our cupboard and right about now, I usually start deciding between my top 3 – the Chocolate Stars or, Cereal Flakes or Fibre Flakes.
7.30-9am:
It’s get ready time!! Ronnie, the vegetable garden, Charlie and I are fed and watered.
Breakfast is always an important meal for me because (1) I’ve got ME/CFS so need to keep on top of my energy levels and without brekkie, I’m off to a bad start!! (2) It sets off my mood for the day. A good, relaxing brekkie and I feel like I’m ready to go 🙂
It’s also an important meal for a growing little pup but the whole experience is exhausting…
WHAT DO I GO FOR??
Charlie has really got me into cereal- it’s pretty much a 7-days-a-week habit! He’s got me into cereal, I’ve got him into terrible channel 4 reality TV. Fair trade?!!We have the whole range of FREEE in our cupboards at all times – my favourites are the chocolate stars, fibre flakes and cereal flakes.
These are all gluten free, vegan certified, organic and a source of/high fibre (depending on which one you go for). That’s a big attraction for me as I find it near impossible to hit the NHS fibre intake guidance. Have you ever looked at yours?! I track it every day and without my bowl of cereal I don’t get near.
Can you guess which bowl is mine and which is Charlie’s! It’s like this every morning… Charlie with a massive bowl of cereal and milk, me with alllll the toppings! Which one would be your favourite?
FREEE stockists: www.freee-foods.co.uk, Ocado, selected Sainsbury’s stores
Brekkie is particularly special now that Charlie is home and can squeeze in a quick bowl of cereal before he starts work. Because its such an easy breakfast, I’m hoping we can keep this up when he goes back.
9-12.30pm:
With a bit of luck, Ron is having a nap at some point, so I get on with my ‘work’.
I feel like I have to put that in inverted commas because it certainly doesn’t feel like work.
As lots of you know, I used to be a trader in the city, working ALL the hours for a big American bank. 6am-6pm staring at a silly number of computer screens with no breaks and then client dinners in the evening was the normal day. 2-hour commute either side too – crazy!
Unfortunately, I had to leave due to illness so now I’m focusing on getting well and blogging. Preparing pretty plates, pulling blog posts together and testing all the food samples that arrive on my doorstep does not feel like ‘work’.
So, what does the new ‘work’ entail. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still really busy!! It’s surprising how much time goes into taking one pic or putting together a blog post – to give you an idea, it takes days, not hours!
Here’s a few of the bits I might be doing:
- Planning ideas – usually see something I like and then it inspires a creation
- Testing recipes – takes a lot of time. Every recipe is different in how long it takes to get perfect (for example the party rings took 3 attempts, but the Mars took 2 years haha). I always remake the “final” recipe 2-3 times to make sure it works perfectly every time before I share it with you guys.
- Photography & Stories – I am no photographer. I hadn’t EVER picked up a camera a year ago. So, it can take me a while to get the right pic!
- Blog Posts – I spend hours deciding what I think would be useful/interesting for you to read and typing them up 🙂
- Emailing companies about exciting collaborations
This Morning will be on throughout. I am a bit of a daytime TV queen.
Ronnie sits staring at me, wondering what on earth I’m doing and why I’m not playing…
12.30-1.30pm:
Lunch time!! Confession: I always sit down at 12.30 to have a little break and watch Loose Women. I loveeee it – I’ve even seen it live (maybe one confession too far haha). Told you I’m the daytime telly Queen!!
I was very ill during my GCSE and A-level years and was bed-bound a lot so I learned to love daytime telly then. As well as Prison Break.
I’m in charge of lunch – you can see what I eat in my Meal Plans.
1.30-5pm:
This is where my day can really vary. I’m recovering from a severe relapse in my ME/CFS so by 1.30 I can be wiped out, with nothing left in the tank.
ME is a funny thing because it makes you REALLY understand what kind of tired you are so you can balance your energy – mentally, physically and emotionally, etc. I’m learning this with the help of 3 different doctors – it’s taking a lot haha
If I’m mentally tired from the blogging, sitting on the sofa and watching the TV will be too draining so I’ll go for a little walk (20 mins at most).
- Physically tired, I’ll switch on the telly, potter around the house and have a tidy up or keep blogging. I also LOVE jigsaws but when I get started on one, I can’t leave it alone. 1000 in a day is an expensive habit haha…. yes, I am 70yrs old really.
- Emotionally tired, I’ll try to switch off with Headspace, get myself into a book or put the telly on as a distraction.
- If it’s all of the above, I’ll sleep and hopefully this little guy will too…
Obviously sometimes I’ll have deadlines with the companies I’m working for, so I’ll have to ignore all the above and just keep going! That can wipe me out for the next 3-4 days, so I have to plan everything verrrryyy carefully.
5-6pm:
If I haven’t walked already, its Ronnie’s walk time now!! I also check-in with my very organised weekly Excel to-do list (I use it to plan my week and make sure I’m keeping balanced and healthy).
At 6pm, I usually post something I’ve been working on to my Instagram. I do my best to reply to every comment, story reply and DM following that too :).
7pm:
The dinner prep starts!! It has to be something quick and easy though as I’m usually wiped out by the time 7pm arrives. Ideas in my meal plans.
7.25pm: Quick shower. I know this is weird, but I do it practically every day. I have a second shower just before dinner, get my make up off, pjs and dressing gown on and get all comfy. It’s an old ME trick. It signals to my brain that it’s time to unwind now!
7.30-8pm:
Eat!!! We have a bad habit of sitting on the sofa, Ronnie in between us, watching Married at First Sight Australia. No picture, it’s embarrassing enough that I’m admitting it haha
We get the washing up done too – I can’t stand coming down to a dirty kitchen in the morning. Anyone else the same?!
8.30pm:
TV on the sofa time. Hopefully I’ve got enough energy to get back on Insta and speak to you lovely lot. When we’re not watching Married at First Sight, its usually some kind of action film or BBC documentary.
Things I’ve loved recently:
- The Missing (scary drama)
- This is Us (family drama – persevere through the first few episodes, its amazing)
- New Amsterdam (hospital drama)
- The A Word (family drama)
- Selling Sunset (US reality TV, selling houses)
- Inside the Worlds Toughest Prisons (I love prison programmes!)
- Safe (Harlen Coben series)
- The Fall (scary drama!)
That said, Ronnie needs a wee every 30 seconds so we usually make a 1hr programme last 3 hours. The other 2 hours we’re sat watching the pause screen.
10pm:
10pm: Bedtime has finally arrived haha ? By the time we’ve taken Ronnie upstairs, played with him until he’s asleep, teeth and bed its 10.30 and my eyes are shut before I’ve even hit the pillow.
…. And then we do it all again!!!
**This post is written as part of a paid collaboration with FREEE but as always the pics and thoughts are all my own!**
