Colouring books & recipe blogs

Hey everyone,

So depression and anxiety hit me in recent weeks… in reality it has been going on for a long time… firstly due to our insane neighbour downstairs who insists on being a complete nuisance all of the time… not enough to be illegal but too much to be normal…

after time it got to me and John and I stopped sleeping.. I got sleeping tablets from the doctor and they worked… too much… for like 16 hours a day!  To say I was a zombie in work would be a complete understatement… I had been sedated by these prescribed pills that I imagine have similar benefits to ketamine for a huge horse…

An alternative to sleeping tablets!

So after a few days I stopped taking them and decided instead to find other outlets and give myself a big shake!  This blog was one outlet… last night after my first blog I was flicking through all of the updates on the Facebook HOOP page and came across someone asking advice on adult colouring books (… haha and no not the illustrated version of Fifty Shades!) – actual colouring books for adults suffering from anxiety and stress.  I thought that’s interesting… casting my mind back to buying my niece a felt picture to keep her quiet and amused while I cooked her dinner one evening but ending up buying one for myself… well offer me glitter, glue and colouring and you’ve got me!  I remembered how much I enjoyed giving my mind something completely creative to concentrate on and switching off to the rest of the world…

… so today, I went to Waterstones and sheepishly asked the CSA nearby to the self help section…. well did she not just take me all the way back to the front door… where there lay a whole table display of adult stress-releasing colouring books!  I thought she was walking me out of the shop at first!  I bought two of them – the first one being Millie Marotta’s Animal Kingdom full of intricate pictures of animals, plants and flowers… the second was Creative Colouring for Grown-Ups by Michael O’Mara and between baking some low calorie freezable goodies I have been engrossed!  My crayola pens and pencils are being well used!

I have had an afternoon of complete creativity and I wanted to share it with you!  I have been colouring and baking and it has been wonderful.  I wanted to credit the baking as the recipes are truly divine and guilt-free!  John and I have made –

Greek yogurt banana oat muffins – Running With Spoons

Low calorie brownies – Baking Mad

Weetabix ferrero rochet – courtesy of Slimming World!