Enjoy the process
It’s Publication Day for our Up & Running book! Why a pic of Julia Jones in a tub? Well, when Dietgirl came out I didn’t properly enjoy P-Day. I felt scared, fraudulent and undeserving. Back then I still believed if I dared celebrate something I’d be immediately struck down for being so indulgent (see also: iPhone laundering incident). But now I appreciate that life is random and you can’t dress rehearse disaster (paraphrasing Brené Brown), so you have to soak up these moments! I went a bit bonkers during the writing part of Dietgirl, too. I had a meltdown over the last chapter, on...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - January 8, 2015 Category: Other Conditions Authors: Shauna Tags: Read and Write Up & Running Source Type: blogs

Everyday Life: November 2014
November began as usual with a birthday, the highlight of which being this card from Rhiannon: The last of the Autumn colour… Arrived home one night, flipped on the lights and found Neighbour Cat waiting. After many long and boring months of slowly re-building the post-surgery forearm strength, I finally got back into proper heavy weight training this month! Mondays is the big lifts with Shona, then I do kettlebells on my own during the week. It’s good to feel back in the groove. There were some eerie, foggy days which made the cold feel kind of glamourous… Gareth made his first ever loaf of brea...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - December 11, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Authors: Shauna Tags: Everyday Life Source Type: blogs

Book 1, Book 2 and 13 teaspoons of whisky
Update on the 52 Whiskys In 52 Weeks Project: It’s Week 49 and I’ve only clocked up 13! I’ve tried to get into the spirit of things but I think maybe I just don’t like whisky. I’ve dabbled across the islands, Highlands, Lowlands and Speyside and while the milder fellas taste less like punishment, it’s not exciting me like it would if it were 52 gins or 52 chocolate bars. It’s mostly likely because I just slurp about a teaspoon’s worth then declare, “Bleeeeurgh!”. And I’m still intrigued by the romance and history and culture of whisky, so I’ve d...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - December 5, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Authors: Shauna Tags: Read and Write The Whisky Project Source Type: blogs

The many inboxes of David
I recently discovered something fascinating about my father-in-law David: he has six email inboxes. He’s been retired for a few years now so wasn’t sure why he would need six. But he has a lot of hobbies. And he likes to keep the email relating to these hobbies completely segregated. So he has: one email account for family correspondence, one for online shopping, one for bird watching, one for the allotment, one for golf and one for photography. Personally I’m a Gmail devotee, corralling my different email addresses (personal, online shopping, blog & business) into one Gmail inbox so I only have t...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - November 26, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Authors: Shauna Tags: Read and Write Source Type: blogs

Everyday Life: October 2014
October started out with a visit to Italy. First I stayed with Julia for an Up & Running workathon. This included a wee photo shoot to redo all the photos and videos in our running courses. I’ve been busting to get them done professionally for years. Most of the originals were clumsily shot on my old iPhone 3 in the hallway of an Edinburgh hotel room, on the very first day I met Julia in person. We kept stopping and starting as the cleaner made her way in and out of the rooms with the vacuum cleaner. They didn’t quite match my vision of perfection but if we’d waited for perfection we’...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - November 18, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Authors: Shauna Tags: Everyday Life Source Type: blogs

The other Mrs Reid
Growing up in rural Oz through the 80s and 90s, I didn’t know any other Shauna’s. I thought my name was daggy and annoying. I longed to be a Jenny, Tracy or Melissa and be spared the indignity of being nicknamed “Shauny Prawn”. But thanks to the invention of the internet I now know there’s twenty gazillion fellow Shauna’s, and many Shauna Reid’s too. There is one living in Canada. I know this because I often get her emails. Because of a missing hyphen or full stop or similar, I hear about Canadian Shauna Reid’s PTA meetings, carpool plans, and practice schedules for th...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - November 10, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Authors: Shauna Tags: Everyday Life Source Type: blogs

Hairdresser, cook or cleaner?
I was struggling to get to sleep last night so I passed the time by pondering a very deep question: If given the choice of a weekly visit from a hairdresser, cook or cleaner, which would I take? Sleep grew even more elusive as I got carried away with the terms and conditions of this fantasy scenario (kind of like when you imagine what you’d do if you won the lottery. How to keep it private, how much is too much, how far out on the family tree do you go paying off mortgages, which charities would you donate to, would you buy a sports team… to the point where you decide being a pretend millionaire is too hard...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - November 6, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Authors: Shauna Tags: Doctor G Everyday Life Source Type: blogs

Everyday Life: September 2014
Just to clarify, we haven’t moved again – the Brown House was our house in Dunfermline. We rented it out the past year then decided to sell. We’re still in Inverness in the same rental place, where the awesome Neighbour Cat still sneaks through the bathroom window and falls asleep in random places. Catching up on September… it was one of those months that make it look like I have an actual social life! It started with the annual Jocktoberfest at the brewery. The theme was Wild West and the place looked fab. We had a weekend in London to see Rhiannon. I’m sure we didn’t just talk...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - October 11, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Authors: Shauna Tags: Everyday Life Source Type: blogs

Farewell to the Brown House
Last Friday we handed the keys of the Brown House to its new owners. After very smelly beginnings we loved that place in all its 1970s glory. But much has changed since 2009 so it was time to pass the brown baton. Apparently the new owners plan to do all the Someday things – replace the aged kitchen, bathroom, stairs… and put in an en-suite! Looks like they have no need for a bedroom beer cellar. We paid a visit to finalise things and camped out in the living room for old times’ sake. We narrowed down our favourite Brown House memories. Mine: the time Gareth was putting up curtains and the curtain...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - October 10, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Authors: Shauna Tags: Everyday Life Source Type: blogs

Scotland dot jock
I’ve never written about politics in 14 years of this blog but thought tonight would be a good time to wade in, while snotty and half delirious with a cold. Next Thursday September 18 is the Scottish Independence Referendum. I don’t know how much chat is happening outside the UK, so to summarise: we will be voting Yes or No to the question, “Should Scotland be an independent country?” I’ve never spent so much bloody time pondering a question. I’ve debated with strangers. I have asked learned friends for detailed explanations of their views. I’ve scoured the internet for neu...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - September 10, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Authors: Shauna Tags: Life In Scotland Source Type: blogs

Win a spot on the September Up & Running 5k or 10k course
Following on from the Robert Plant post, who would you invite round for tea? Yep, it’s nosy question time again! We’ve just opened up registration for the final Up & Running courses for 2014, thus I’m making my last attempt to lure you into our international running club. The 5K Beginners Course starts on Monday 8 September and the 10K Course starts on Thursday 11 September, each going for eight weeks. Here’s what you get… an eight week training plan to get you race ready, designed to gradually increase your strength and fitness while avoiding injury a daily blog chock ful...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - August 25, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Up & Running Source Type: blogs

Come over for your tea, Robert Plant
Do you think Robert Plant ever Googles himself? I bet he doesn’t because he’s Robert Plant. He’s quietly aware that he’s magnificent and has no need to click through to the 25,675th page of search results to find some random loon banging on, ROBERT PLANT IS MAGNIFICENT. But I’m going to do it anyway. Last night I was re-watching his set from Glastonbury 2014 (there’s still three days left to catch it on BBC iPlayer) and kept thinking that he’s ace in so many ways. So I made a list. He was in Led Zeppelin, one of the greatest bands of all time, but he doesn’t go on abou...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - August 13, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: I Love Rock n Roll Source Type: blogs

Everyday Life: July 2014
We went down to Dunfermline to visit the in-laws and I spent the whole weekend sneezing and crying. Good ol’ Fife pollen. We got the royal tour of the allotment… It’s unrecognisable from the weedy wasteland we inherited back in 2011. It’s now crammed with tomatoes, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, blueberries, leeks, onions, carrots, pumpkins, broad beans, peas, rhubarb, courgettes and even wee apple trees. David and Mary have put so much hard work into it. Meanwhile back in Inverness there’s only one plant in our little rental back yard, but it’s a goodun. It heaved w...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - August 5, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Everyday Life Source Type: blogs

Pool party
This crumbling beauty is Tarlair Swimming Pool in Macduff, Aberdeenshire. It was built in the 1930s in Art Deco style and is one of only three surviving outdoor seaside pools in Scotland. The pool’s outer wall was designed to be fractionally below high-tide level, so the waves could roll in over the edge, refilling it with clean sea water twice a day. In its heyday it was the place to be, but it closed in 1996 after the impact of indoor heated pools and cheap overseas holidays took hold. The pool then fell into decay. At once point there was a proposal to turn it into a lobster hatchery! That would have been sacrile...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - July 29, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: Travels Source Type: blogs

Life: you’re doing it all wrong
Chalky hands + battling ropes = happiness Do you ever have those grumpy, paranoid weeks where you feel like you’re the most incompetent person on the planet? That you have nothing of interest to offer and you’ll soon be living in a cardboard box? I’m sure studies have found this phenomenon is 73% more common amongst the self-employed, as there’s no one around to tell you to please be quiet and go make a round of tea for the team. Thank goodness for exercise to restore perspective. I switched my weekly personal training session to 6.30AM as part of Operation Morning Person, which after a decade i...
Source: The Amazing Adventures of Dietgirl - July 23, 2014 Category: Other Conditions Authors: shauna Tags: This Sporting Life Source Type: blogs