Month: June 2019

I had been looking forward to attending this conference since I booked it. Temple Grandin was the headline speaker and I am quite a fan of hers, a fascinating woman. As we neared the date of the event it was announced that HRH Princess Royal was going to attend as well, excited doesn’t really cover it!

So with 3 other colleagues I travelled to London on Monday, had a nice meal and a catch up, then early to bed ready for the main event.

It has been a bit of a ‘moment’ for me really Meat Business Women, an ongoing moment if there is such a thing. I have been to previous events of theirs, and I support it as it is a networking group that was desperately needed in the meat industry.

This morning I was up early, emails etc done and even a 30 minute beachbody on demand yoga session completed, which was quite an achievement in. Premier Inn Hub room. Flat white in hand (get me, living the city life) and off we went to the conference.

I am still going through the day in my head, there was so much useful content I couldn’t do it justice just by social media posts. A day like today would have taken serious planning and negotiating effort by the MBW committee, and I am so grateful that they did it.

Today was full inspiration and information, and it has given a serious amount of food for thought.

Temple Grandin is a visual thinker and understands how animals see differently. Animals think in pictures and not words and this allows Temple to be a complete specialist in her work with animal behaviour and welfare. I was very fortunate to see a cattle handling system she had designed near Colorado a few years ago.

She was a strong advocate of not allowing bad to become normal, and of just getting things done. Now these seem like simple things to do but we are all guilty of letting others get away with things, it can be hard to stand up for what is right sometimes.

I really liked her point of just go and do it, too often we talk and plan, but to really find out we have to do it. Perhaps she should speak to our political representatives and get that point across.

A legend in my eyes and an honour to hear her speak.

We had many other speakers throughout the day, one other highlight for me was Teresa Exelby from Morrisons. I met Teresa very briefly the night before the talk and enjoyed our conversation, but when I heard her on stage, well wow! What a speaker, she was incredibly inspirational, because she was so real. Something I took from her talk was to be my best, don’t settle if I want to improve further, and to set my own targets, wise words in the crazy work worlds we are all in.

Nobody wants to read this for too long so although we had other excellent speakers covering international trade, the value of a mentor and veterinary talks, I simply can’t put everything in so have focussed on my personal highlights.

The day was closed by HRH Princess Anne. I had heard her speak at the Oxford Farming Conference in January so I knew she was a straight talker. One topic she covered was food waste, how we have too much choice. Which we maybe don’t realise because we are used to it, so we don’t value it or respect it. When we think about what humans really need in life, it can all seem a bit ridiculous.

HRH is known to be a supporter of agriculture and it was fantastic to have her speak to a room of women from the meat industry.

HRH had some wise words to share, a very down to earth talk and a lovely finish for the MBW team as she congratulated the room for coming so far and wished us all well as she was interested in what we can do in the future.

I attend a fair few conferences over the year and they vary, I mainly attend to gain information, Im not good at networking but do do it sometimes. This conference was full of useful information but I left with other take aways as well.

I have networked and not even realised, and although it is a good few weeks since I left room, I still feel inspired from the day, and excited about the future of our meat industry here in UK.

Well done to MBW team for this conference, one that will stay in the mind for some time 👍👌🏻👏👏

Since I have started this blog, and the instagram account to run with it, I have had some realisation. I have always thought I eat well, and what I mean by that is that I eat good food. I eat too much but I don’t eat lots of chocolate,crisps, processed food or junk food in general. I sound so self righteous saying that but it is true. I just eat too much of everything.

Looking back through my instagram posts, and hearing from friends about the food envy, I realise that I eat way way way too much! A horrid thing to realise but I feel as though I have pushed through the denial now and I hope I will get myself back into shape.

Exercise is key, I know, and the fittest and most toned I have even been was when I was doing tug of war. Id hoped to get back to it this year, but my work means I travel a lot so I cannot commit to a team as I will miss too much training. To resolve this I am now app happy! I have downloaded the beachbody app (I have high aspirations😂) from the insanity website. I have even done a few work outs and enjoyed them 👏💪.

Food, I need to eat less energy than I use. Easy?? It sounds it but I really do love food….as I may have mentioned before!

I am quite laid back, I need a motivating factor, and often struggle to have this in mind, so I am open to suggestions, cmon, send ideas my way! I don’t aim to look like anybody famous, and I am a true believer of the person on the inside being more important than the skin/bodies we are in- but I think this is part of the problem, I am too accepting. I know I am too fat for me now, but I know how much amazing food got me here, so I almost accept the weight gain because I had such an amazing time getting here!

So the challenge is set, I need an end goal to accompany it….I am 40 in two years (minus a couple of weeks) and a girls get away is on the cards so that is a long term goal. Short term I’m not sure of yet.

I have tried a good few weight loss programmes in the past, weight watchers (worked the first time round and then I got bored), slimming world (made me fatter), herbal life (worst thing I ever did, convinced it gave me a sugar addiction) and Joe Wicks. Joe Wicks worked for better fitness and shape but no weight loss at all, which I know isn’t everything but it is something and it counts to me.

Zoe Harcombe has written a couple of books about better eating, and I am going to just try that. It isn’t rocket science, in fact it is common sense so why don’t we do it? Temptations!!!

Wish me luck, I will let you know how it goes but am loathe to become a diet obsessed person (highly unlikely mind🙈😂).

Thanks for reading, catch up again soon xxx