Our daily lives are so often filled with obstacles. Sometimes we stumble and fall, it can slow us down or if we are lucky,  we can sidestep them. We have to decide how we will handle and overcome each and every one, whether we will be discouraged, stressed out or handicapped by it.

There are many physical obstacles in the life of a visually impaired, because of that,  we become frequent “fallers”. To fall is one of the most humiliating happenings, it brings along fear, uncertainty and often injuries.

Yesterday,  after cleaning the house, I decided to leave the vacuum cleaner in the passage. I still had to vacuum around Rio, our parakeet’s,cage. I should have known better not to leave it there,  but rather to packed it away till the next morning.

When going to the bathroom  in the middle of the night, I totally forgot about the vacuum cleaner,  standing in the passage, ready to trip me.

As I walked down the passage with my poor night vision, my foot got stuck in the cord. I landed  on top of the appliance, which slipped over the tiles and then I hit the hard floor.

Today,  with every movement of my sore and stiff limps, I was reminded that I caused my own obstacle. I had to see this as a learning curve, to be more cautious, not to create a situation that can trip me, leaving me vulnerable and injured.

This is also a lesson for our daily obstacles, that we can fall down,but the victory is in the standing up, the lessons learned,  and the courage to face the world again.

This morning in the office, we spoke about happiness.

If you ask me what makes me happy or making me tick, I can tell you it is in the little things in my daily living.

Things like~

When I was cleaning my desk this morning, I found a picture, drawn by The O, blowing me a kiss.

Holding my grandson, all his cute little baby smiles and rocking him to sleep.

Receiving a picture of the Fiefies having their bathtime chats.

Stepping on the scale and getting a reward of another 2kg down.

Happiness depends on ourselves,  the little things in our daily living. ~Z

Yesterday I attended the baby shower of Vivian, the illustrator of my logo, Sweetheart, my little vintage caravan.

While I was busy wrapping the gifts, which included something for daddy and mommy, I was curious to find out the real meaning of this little baby girl’s name, Liliane.

I was delighted by the meaning ~ innocence, pure and beautiful. It reminded me of the slogan “innocence is like polished armor, it adorns and defends.”  – Robert South

I am sure she will be blessed with her mother’s talents to create, decorate and to make things beautiful.  May we all contribute into her life, to keep her innocence and purity and that she will be found the most beautiful among the maidens

Today I celebrate my first Banting anniversary.  A good day to launch my blog. There is  a lot of April fool jokes going around, but for sure, this is not one of them.

A year ago, when I tried to step into my brothers Jeep, I struggled to lift myself into the, very high, seat. I blamed it on my 162cm height and the MT 33 inch wheels, well, if you don’t know what that means, I am very short,  and the wheels are very big. When I finally got comfortable and ready to go, my niece made a comment  from her car seat,  “you are to fat to get into our Jeep”. That was it, the honesty of a child was my wake-up call.

There and then I started following the Banting lifestyle.  The first week was tough, every day  I woke up with a bitter taste in my mouth, but I didn’t give up, you see,  those words of Hannah left a bitter taste in my mind and I knew , I need to change my life.

I looked up Banting desserts, I was craving something sweet,  I was addicted to sugar for too long, like almost 70% of all humans. I started trying out different recipes, you will notice I posted some here on my blog.  These helped me to overcome my desire for sweet treats.

After a few months I noticed I do not crave sweet things so much. Even 70% Lindt chocolate started tasting like Smarties. It is amazing how much my pallet changed in such a short time.

I started loosing weight, every week I felt like a winner.  I never felt like hiding away anymore. I was ready to face the world again. I lost 25 kg so far and never felt so good in a long time.

To be honest, this lifestyle is a very pleasant journey.  No diet pills, shakes, injections or weighing of food. I started surfing the Internet and with the help of so many other banters whom shared their recipes, I started to experiment with healthy, delicious, fresh real food. I never look back to bread, pasta or potatoes. The reward, a healthy, radiant, slimmer me.

I hope that, as from today, you will join in on ~ a colourful life with Z.