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Monday 30 July 2012

You know you're back at uni when you don't have time to blog!

Uni is certainly in full swing again, tomorrow is the beginning of week three! Lots of readings and classes to attend, coupled with trying to find a job (preferably in the planning industry so I can get some experience) and help around the house as much as possible = neglected blog!


It's been a little while since my last entry. Nothing profound in the way of food or weight loss, but have learnt that no matter how good I am feeling, I should not stop taking my iron tablets because then my appetite starts to disappear, I get tired easily and start to lose focus on things.


This week was monumentally bad in terms of food consumption with more sugar than I have been consuming. Today though, no sugar (in the sense of chocolate or ice cream or sweets). The desire was there, but I pushed it to the back of my mind. I need to do this more often (this week was a little tougher though).
This week though I was faced with my first alcohol challenge. It was A's step-brother's 30th birthday on Thursday, so we had a family dinner at a lovely restaurant in Elsternwick called After The Tears. Now, when I did drink, I loved vodka. We had a very good relationship. A's family is Polish and Russian, so vodka is standard. After the Tears' menu comprises around 15 pages of vodka beverages, and about 5 of food. Did I mention that After the Tears is a Polish bar/restaurant? Anyway, I was umming and aaahhhhing and umming and aaahhhhing but decided against the vodka - the hips and the hip pocket just couldn't afford it. I did have a very tasty salmon dish though!



I've managed to keep my exercise up this week, which I'm happy about. I'm hoping that I will be able to start swimming this week (holy heck, just checked out casual prices at St Kilda Sea Baths, $9 for a concession casual swim!! Looks like I'll be headed to Melbourne City Baths who charge just $2.80 for a concession casual swim). I tried my 8 year old swimsuit on the other day, and it's not as bad as I thought it would be. Swimming after class could be a goer I think. Maybe even on days off as well. We'll see what happens.


I'm sitting here with the Olympics on in the background, and seeing all the swimming is getting me amped up to get back in the pool. Right now though, it's basketball - USA vs France. Australia just went down to Brazil. 


We've also decided to put Thailand on the back-burner for the time being, but that is not stopping me on my journey! Along with my health, I have plenty of other reasons to lose weight: 2 weddings in January 2013, 3 family 30ths in August/September 2013 (one of which is my sweetheart's), and a new swimsuit to buy. Pretty darned good reasons to be looking svelte. 


Today I ate my first lot of white bread in a long time - and it was 600-odd calories for the bread alone! I'm glad I asked them to take out the cheese and the mayo from the baguette, that would have made it even worse! It was the price I pay for tasty, affordable goodness at an inner city cafe. Today we also carved up a little bit of the city while looking at buildings as a part of Open House Melbourne. Certainly was lovely to get out on this wintry day and enjoy what this fine city has to offer! We only got to see two buildings (queues + transit times) because A wanted a bit of a sleep in after working all week (and understandably so). Next year, we're hoping that he can have all weekend off and we can do both days! We had 7 buildings on our list for today, and only got to see two! The first building we saw was Council House 2. It was my second visit to CH2, but was nice to be there when the building was quiet and not full of workers (though I might be one of those workers one day!). It was great to learn more about the interior's sustainability features. After CH2, we walked up Swanston Street to Rue Bebelons in Little Lonsdale Street for lunch. Mmm delicious baguette. We ate then we lined up to see the State Library but the queue was an hour long! We'll skip that one, we said. Instead, we went to the Royal Melbourne Hospital Tunnels and Tower tour. That was great! The tunnels are actually constructed at True North, so from the core, you've got one tunnel running in each direction: North, East, South and West. I was astounded to learn how far some of these tunnels stretched! 


Will try to be a bit more communicative this week and give you some updates - no doubt there will be some photos from Thursday when I see my girl Ilsa!!

Wednesday 18 July 2012

Breakfast: What to have when you have no bread or milk?


We had no bread or milk this morning, so I was forced to come up with something else for breakfast. In my head, before falling asleep last night, I was brainstorming. I thought about the fresh fruit we had, the Greek yoghurt in the fridge, and the oats in the cupboard. Mmm. I'll have a muesli kind of thing. I didn't end up going with the oats, instead I put in one Weet Bix biscuit instead, and also some toasted pepita (pumpkin) and sunflower seeds. Omnomnom.

This is what it looked like before I tucked into it:


Fruity Breakfast Mix

Cantaloupe, white cherries, half a Granny Smith apple, half a Kiwi fruit, one Weet Bix biscuit - crumbled, and two spoonfuls of Jalna Greek Natural Yoghurt. Oh goodness me it was super tasty, but I couldn't eat it all! It's in the fridge. I showed A who has just now returned home from work (it's 19:05 as I write) and he wants to have some!

It's been a busy few days for me and A - a trip to Geelong on Sunday/Monday (was a bit worried about this and the food side of things, haven't really eaten out since being on this journey), and uni went back yesterday. Geelong was good on many levels - my brother was also home (we hadn't seen each other for 18 months); I got to see my best friend who I hadn't seen for 3 months, and I ate REALLY well! (Check out my daily diary entries on My Fitness Pal to see how I'm going. There's recipes on there too, including this morning's Fruity Breakfast Mix).

On Sunday, before we left, I had A take some photos of me in some tight fitting clothing as my 'before' pics:


15 July 2012 - 93kg 

Uni went back yesterday, and with an 0900 start, I knew I would need to be up and at it early so I could have breakfast. The day went well, until the evening. We had a little disagreement that resulted in us both being too stubborn to eat dinner! Needless to say, I was very hungry upon waking this morning!

For those of you following me, you will know that Wednesday is weigh in day. Last week, I gained 500 grams, bringing me to 93.5kg. When I stepped on those scales this morning there was a round number of 92.0kg! Woohoo, a 1.5kg drop for the week! If I can do that every week, I'd be one happy girl!

You might remember in my first post I mapped out that I wanted to lose 5kg between 1 July and 31 August of this year. In 2.5-3 weeks, I've lost 2kg. With a little over 6 weeks to lose 4kg to reach my goal of 88kg, I really need to knuckle down. I'm not saying the work I've done is bad, it's great, but I need to focus on getting healthy. Shifting these 4kg is going to take a lot of hard work and dedication. Six weeks from today will be my final August weigh in when I'd like to weigh 88kg.

With so many family birthdays to celebrate between now and then (A's step brother is 30 in the last week of July while his step sister celebrates her birthday in the first week of August; A's birthday is just 3 days after his step sister's; mine 16 days after A's, not to mention many other family members on my side of the family and wonderful friends back in Geelong) I really need to tighten up and make sure I don't stray too far, if at all. In my head, 4kg in 6 weeks really doesn't seem too difficult at all, reality could be a different story though!

OMG I also just realised that if I do get to 88kg by end of August, I'll:

              1.       Have lost 10 kilograms in 4 months
              2.      Be under 90 kilograms for the first time in two years
              3.      Be a similar size to when A and I started dating, which means
              4.      I will fit into my benchmark dress (which I can wear right now but it's just a
              bit funny around the edges)

Oh this excites me, this excites me a lot!

It's one of my favourite times of the week right now - meal planning for the next fortnight! I wonder what delicious foods we will nom in that time! Mmmm tasty delicious foods. Tonight we had leftover stuffed capsicums and a small serving of lamb with chickpeas - the leftovers of which will serve as tomorrow's lunch!

Time to plan these meals!


Saturday 14 July 2012

Body/Weight Simulator

I stumbled across CGI bodies on a forum the other week. I thought this was a pretty awesome idea. Today, I made it my mission to find a body/weight simulator online. I used this one to generate the images.

In April, I weighed 98 kilograms. Today, I weigh 93 kilograms. I haven't gotten around to taking any photos of myself yet for you to have a look at sorry, maybe on Wednesday just before I weigh in.
Here is a CGI of April vs now.

L-R: 98 vs 93 Left; 98 vs 93 Back; 98 vs 93 Front.
I have been noticing the difference in my body shape, the way my clothing fits etc. These CGIs confirm what I'm seeing - yay!

For my height and weight, I am considered obese. I have a BMI of 38. Bringing my weight down to 72 kilograms and a BMI of 29.6, I'm classed as being overweight. In order to achieve a normal BMI/weight rating, I need to weigh 60 kilograms, giving me a BMI of 24.7. I'm not sure how I feel about going as low as 60 kilograms right now. I look at A, who is less than 15cm taller than me, and he weighs around 65 kilograms, and is very, very slim. If I was to get to that size, I would worry I would look too gaunt.  Will assess when the time comes though!
(BMI information obtained at BBC Health).

Currently at 93 kilograms, I want to lose another 5 kilograms by August 31. That's 48 days (6 weeks and 6 days) to lose 5 kilograms. A kilo a week. I can do this. And that will be a total of 10 kilograms lost in 4 1/2 months. In my head, and as I type this, it seems super easy. In reality though, I know it's not! I need to try on my bathing suit to see how comfortable I feel in that and start swimming again.

For Wednesday: weigh in, measurements, pictures.

Thursday 12 July 2012

Winter is here.

Haven't been around much the last couple of days, have been tied up with lots of different things here and there.


A & I were both feeling pretty miserable on Tuesday night, so we ordered in pizza. Pizza in our house is only worth it if it has meat and vegetables on it! Or, a cheese garlic pizza mmmm yum. We order a pizza with the lot (without anchovies on my half) - so there's hot salami, shredded ham, onion, capsicum, mushroom, pineapple, prawns, olives and cheese.


I am not a fan of meat eater type pizzas though, I find them too dry. Occasionally we'll have something different, like a Tandoori pizza or a gourmet one with prosciutto or something along those lines, but most often than not, a large pizza with the lot and a small cheese garlic pizza. Will last us for two meals, so $20 delivered is pretty good bang for your buck.
Tell you though, I felt like SHYTE after eating it. Although it's one of the healthier take aways, my body just didn't like all those fats and oils going in and I felt very ill for the rest of the night. I told A yesterday that he could finish off the leftovers as I didn't want to make myself sick again. We'll definitely be making our own pizzas from now on!


I had a serious case of the cbfs with meal planning until yesterday, and then I managed to plan all the way through to 22 July. That's a weight off of my mind, I tell you that!


Thursday 12 July: Leftovers from Wednesday night
Friday 13 July: Fish and vegetables
Saturday 14 July: Roast and vegetables
Sunday 15 July: Dinner with family and friends in Geelong
Monday 16 July: Five Spice Meatballs with Plum Sauce and Asian Greens
Tuesday 17 July: Pea & Prosciutto Gnocchi
Wednesday 18 July: Lamb with Spicy Chickpeas (this has fast become a favourite of ours!)
Thursday 19 July: Frozen Lean Cuisine-type meal (the Australian Aldi version)
Friday 20 July: Frozen Lean Cuisine-type meal (the Australian Aldi version)
Saturday 21 July: Fish with cous-cous
Sunday 22 July: Basil Chicken Cannelloni on wilted spinach




A was feeling a little blue yesterday (thanks, winter), so we had some ice cream, but I just got those single serve Bulla cups so we didn't have ice cream in the house! Win! A little over my cals for the day but not going to lose any sleep.


Weighed in yesterday morning too. After a stellar week of eating and exercising, a 500g gain :( My friend suggested it would just be the sodium from the pizza the night before, so I am really hoping that is the case. Didn't get to take my measurements. Really must do that next Wednesday morning. Gah.


Tonight I really wasn't feeling like much for dinner after the dude at A's work got my order wrong and gave me a schnitzel in my wrap. Four hours after seeing my gorgeous friend today, I wanted something light to eat to tie me over til dinner. I asked to make up my own wrap instead of off the menu, and just wanted a wrap with avocado, carrot and tomato...but A has trained his staff that unless otherwise specified, the customer wants a chicken schnitzel in their wrap or roll (and that's fair enough). I thought that me saying "I would just like x, y, z" that would be what I got, and then when he charged me $8.20 for what I thought was going to be x, y and z, I was a little miffed. Then when I watched A make my wrap, I realised why it was $8.20. Next time round, I need to remember to say no schnitzel!


Dinner tonight consisted of two slices of cheese and a bubble & squeak pattie om nom nom. Surprisingly, the pattie was only 176 cals. I thought it would be worse than that! Struggling though because MFP app doesn't have ANY type of schnitzel in the db, so I'm hoping it's in the online db.


Tomorrow should be a good day though for foods, especially seeing as how we're having fish and veges for dinner! I'm trying to eat less in the evenings too, and bulk up so to speak in the day.


Sitting down with a mug of lemon and honey water as my throat is still feeling terrible, I think I'll be back at the doctors soon to find out what's going on!


Until next time, adieu!

Monday 9 July 2012

Monday, Monday...

Like The Mamas and The Papas said: "Monday, Monday, so good to me..."




While Monday usually signifies the beginning of yet another week slaving for the man, it is the one day a week that A and I can spend together without work interrupting us. Even next week when uni goes back, I have no classes on Monday.
Today A had an exam though, so we didn't get to spend it doing things together until after the exam, but that's okay.


We did, however, have time to have lunch together at Schnitz Hawthorn before A's exam, and dang it was tasty! I had something made up for me because I wanted to be able to estimate the calories going in my lunch (usually you order off the tasty, addictive menu). I had a wrap with mashed avocado, grated carrot, tomato, spinach, and Moroccan chicken (breast). Ohhhhh yummmmo! I'm practically salivating at 22:14 thinking about it - and I ate dinner two hours ago!
While A was sitting his exam, I went to Victoria Street to buy some fresh fruit and veges. I didn't get much in the way of fruit as I didn't go to the right grocer, but I got lots of fresh veges. Mmmmm yummy iron-rich veges. I'm not putting enough iron in my body (which really isn't good, considering that I am iron-deficient anaemic), and today I made a pledge that I would try to double my iron and Vitamin C intake in comparison to what I have been consuming. Hey presto, what I ate today worked!


In the evening, I went walking with the girlfriend I was meant to walk with yesterday (plans fell through as her plans earlier in the day were delayed). We walked about 3.6km in 30 mins - I was stoked! That means we were walking about 7.2km/h. Not bad considering I haven't done too much in the way of cardio for a VERY long time. I am super happy with myself. 


A cooked a scrumptious dinner while I was out walking - roast beef, with lots and lots of veges!


Meanwhile, I STILL haven't done my meal planning for the week! This is not good! Although I did buy some lup chong and some fish balls today in Victoria Street with the plan of having stir fry sometime this week. Guess I've got my work cut out for me tomorrow then!

Saturday 7 July 2012

It's been one week...

Someone should write a song called 'One Week', they might make a bit of money out of that. Oh wait, they already did. Damn you, Barenaked Ladies.


Well, it's been a week since I started this little blog. Eight days technically seeing as how I started it last Saturday, but who's counting?
Yesterday is the only day I haven't made an entry, and that's because I really had nothing to say.



Today my appetite really seemed to return to me. I wasn't eating anything and everything, but I was able to finish every meal I ate today - yay, go me! If you're following me on MyFitnessPal, you'll see that my calorie intake has not been up to scratch the last few days, and then today it sky rocketed. Meh. Not beating myself up. A little annoyed though at the fact that 6 cocktail pastizzis (6 just fill me, 4 would have me still being hungry and looking for sugary goodn-, I mean sugary evilness) is 702 calories (though I guess that is to be expected with pastry products). I even had ice cream tonight. But you know what, life happens, and you just keep going. While I may have consumed 1,765 calories, which is 565 more than I am aiming for, I just don't make a habit of it, and I make sure that if it is going to happen, I make sure there is enough time for exercise.
Today I made the simple mistake of breaking my appointment with myself to exercise because I was too busy and too engrossed in my work.


lizziesjourneytoweightloss
Found that little pearler on Pinterest. Need to print it out and stick it somewhere I can see it when I'm working. Too bad my desk is set up in the middle of the room!


To try and compensate for the high intake today, I'm going to walk twice tomorrow: once in the late morning after taking A to work, and then again in the early evening with my girlfriend, M.


On to the delicious and repeatable offender of today: Lamb with Spicy Chickpeas
OMNOMNOMNOMNOM
Seriously, this was super tasty. We didn't put the Moroccan seasoning on though, I didn't buy it, but you know what, I don't think it needed it. We enjoyed the chops just as they were with a little salt to taste, and boy oh boy, it was tasty! Here's my plate:



Lamb & Spicy Chickpeas
It's really not even that spicy at all. I think next time round there might be a bit more experimenting. Such a very tasty dish though. We're having it for dinner tomorrow night too because the recipe serves 4, so there's leftovers! Yay! Not to mention the fact that we're using things from our freezer (the lamb chops) that have been in there for a very long time.


Tomorrow is meal planning day! I really look forward to meal planning day, and funnily enough, I really look forward to cooking as well! Shock, horror. It makes shopping day easy too.


Right, time for me to head to bed. Another busy-ish day tomorrow!

Thursday 5 July 2012

If it ain't broke, don't fix!

Day 2 of tonsillitis, though I'm feeling a lot better than yesterday.


Had a really good day food wise - my first day without sugary sweets! I really thought about having ice cream, but it would have put me 44 calories over my daily intake, and as I don't have the energy to be moving about a great deal, I thought against it. Have I missed it? Absolutely NOT. Weaning is the key! haha. That doesn't mean that I'm never going to have it, I just know to have it in moderation (which I have always known, but ice cream is my weakness). And, believe it or not, I would much prefer to have ice cream in winter than summer!


Tonight's dinner was a Lean Cuisine meal. It was delicious.
Last week, when A and I went to do the grocery shopping, I knew I wouldn't want to cook dinner for myself when he was at work tonight and tomorrow night, so I went with a healthy frozen meal that I knew was tasty - Lean Cuisine. I was scouring the shelves for my favourite steamed Atlantic salmon and veges. I couldn't find it. I tried to see if the perishables staff had overfilled its out of stock spot, but there wasn't even a shelf label. I found it impossible to believe that it was a completely deleted line and figured that it mustn't have been a good seller at our local Woolies. Oh well, I can always check another. Or so I thought.
Talking to my girl RM today I learned a horrible, horrible thing: Lean Cuisine took our favourite meal from their shelves! I hadn't had it for a few years, and I'm guessing this is a good thing. RM told me today they changed the recipe, put it back on the market, had exceptionally bad feedback and pulled it altogether. Like today's title says, if it ain't broke, don't fix!

Also today, as there was no energy to do anything, I emailed a place in Koh Samui we're interested in staying, and it's quite possible that we will be booking in there!
Asked a friend, AJ, who recently stayed in Thailand (and it was a photo on her Facebook profile that set our minds on Thailand) for some pointers on where to go, what to see etc. so I've had my eyes opened a bit.
And, putting it out there - although I am a self-confessed nerd, it turns out my geography of South-East Asia is pretty poor. I had no idea River Kwai was in Thailand, I thought it was in Cambodia. No, I've never seen the film. So, best I brush up on my SE Asian geography before we go holidaying. Good thing I've got 12 months up my sleeve!



Time for bed now, almost an hour past my bedtime!

Wednesday 4 July 2012

The day I was well under my calorie goal

Well, today went nowhere to plan, other than dinner. I woke up with tonsillitis (for the second time in three weeks). I had no appetite at all, consumed mostly sugary foods to soothe my throat except for the two small pieces of  homemade pizza (Mission Pizza Bases are AWESOME) and one piece of garlic bread (sans crust). As a result, without exercising because I simply had no energy to even get out of bed, I was 315 calories under my daily goal of 1200.


Tomorrow, I'm off to the doctor to get some more antibiotics. Although the last two times I have had (this is the third time in 7 months) tonsillitis I haven't finished the packet of tablets, I have still taken them as directed - two tablets, twice a day for 10 days. Forty tablets, however there is 50 in a pack. So I have almost a weeks' worth but not enough for 10 days . Part of me is hoping that I continue to have tonsillitis so they might remove my tonsils , but the fear of missing uni and the thought of surgery really doesn't bode well with me.


Hopefully tomorrow is a better day for food consumption. A will be home to look after me a little in between study for his exams before he has to go to work.
Shattered that I have to cancel all my plans to catch up with people though, I was really looking forward to having a social life!

Not a good start to the day...

I've woken up to find that the tonsillitis I thought I kicked to the curb about a week ago is back with a vengeance. This is not good. I need to figure out foods that aren't high in fats and sugars that I can consume comfortably. But all I can think of eating to help soothe my throat is ice cream, icy poles, and jelly.
Maybe a mashed banana, lots of water, but I just don't know what else! Suggestions anyone!?

Tuesday 3 July 2012

From Rage Face to Sick Face

Earlier today, I wrote about my rage that I felt towards the Australian Government.
As the day wore on, it became apparent that I may not have kicked the tonsillitis I came down with two weeks ago (despite taking the penicillin as directed) when my throat became all swollen and cloggy on the inside. Cue sick face.



I plodded along through the day, getting distracted here and there. I started writing a letter to my local member and kind of forgot about it when 15:00 hit and I still hadn't got my pumpkin soup that I put in the microwave about an hour before, and when I realised I needed to start dinner as the recipe said it would take 4 hours in the slow cooker. For the record, tonight's dinner is a repeatable offence (it's just high in the calorie count at approximately 1008 calories for the ragout without pasta etc).

One thing that did get me down very early in the day was learning that just your basic Homebrand Rolled Oats have BOTH poly and mono fats :( Here I was, thinking I was doing my body good by having oats (muesli in summer, porridge in winter) but one 30g serving of oats has around 1g of each of these fats. That put a big fat downer in my day. 
I sussed out that quinoa could double as an alternative to oats, but we go through oats like they go out of fashion, and we don't really have the coin to be buying quinoa in the same manner. On the upside, quinoa is tasty. I guess it just means that I'm gonna have to get that butt working out more often than I originally planned.

I discovered something I could use for a little resistance training today. We have this jar that had 2kg of mini easter eggs in it (used for my Little Goldfish markets and also for family gifts), but now it's just got random stuff in it to use as a door stop. It isn't even a quarter of the way filled, and it weighs 2.5kg. The plan is that I'll actually buy some dumb bells but for now, this will do!

Tomorrow I'm home alone while A is at work, so I've got lots to get done in the way of paper crafting, as well as a walk, but must remember to rug up more substantially than the other day, otherwise I'll freeze!

Time for this new blogger to get to bed, it's almost 22:30 and A has an 09:00 start...getting him up out of bed at 07:00 is going to be one heck of a ride! 
Night all!

Rage face

This is me right now!




And because I feel this way, I am not feeling hungry at all (this is not a good thing, by the way)!


Maybe I might feel better later on after I've written a letter to my local Member of Parliament (Federal, not State).

Monday 2 July 2012

Good day, me thinks

Today was a pretty good day overall, I would like to think. In fact, I do think.


My food intake was orright, went for a 2.5km walk, and didn't exceed my calories for the day. Also drank almost 2L of water, go me!
Back did feel a wee bit tight though and kinda spasmed a touch this evening but I'm hoping that will fade out after some sleep tonight.



Lunch today was superb. Last night, A cooked a delicious pot of his wonderful pumpkin and corn soup. No dairy, just pumpkin, corn, cinnamon, ground coriander, cumin and water. On the stove, let it do its bit, and when the pumpkin and corn are pretty much broken down, blend it all together, and voila - pumpkin soup!


Had a massive craving for cheese and crackers after going for a walk, but didn't have any crackers, so just had some cheese; rectified the fact of not having crackers tonight when we went to the supermarket. 


Am really looking forward to cooking Beef & Carrot Ragout tomorrow in the slow cooker. And, I'm actually really liking this cooking game. I'm not a fan of cooking, but trying these new recipes and cooking things that I know I already love and can cook, I'm really enjoying it.


On MFP tonight, I saw a banner that we're probably all seeing around advertising 5 foods we shouldn't be eating, and I decided to click on it. So I'm kind of listening to that (it's a video that plays as soon as you arrive there) and typing this at the same time. Here, check it out. It's all common sense stuff that I did already know. Except for the fact that I didn't know that the liver is used to breakdown fats. They do say you learn something every day; there's my one fact that has been learned! The only thing that I hate about this video is the fact that they suggest eating sweet potato because it's fantastic; too bad I'm allergic to sweet potato!
(Nb. this is a paid program like Lite n Easy or Weight Watchers et cetera if you did want to join after watching the vid. I recommend MFP - it's a free online community).


Decided to have a look at some accommodation options for Thailand today. Found some really great places at sensational prices (one place, at the highest room rate, for 6 nights was $444!). Of course, we will need to really budget and work out where we're going to go, but these places have brilliant reviews on Trip Advisor. One of the places we're thinking of staying is run by Aussies apparently, but have local employees. Most importantly, it looks so incredibly relaxing and beautiful. 


Well, time for me to get ready for bed. Until tomorrow, ciao!


PS - tonight for dessert I had a mint pattie instead of ice cream. Yeah, refined sugar, I know, but it was within my calorie limit, and I even managed to stay under my daily calories. And, most importantly, I'm already finding that I'm not hungry because I'm eating better than last week (even though we don't eat junk food in this house) - more balanced, consistent portions, and different foods.

Sunday 1 July 2012

Day One of a better me

Today I began to look after myself (again). 
I've told A, shown him this blog, and he's proud of me and very excited and thinks that it's great that I've set myself this (ultimate) goal. He's been getting about the house today saying "Baby's gonna wear a kini, baby's gonna wear a kini!"

I did a little tweaking of layout and adding plug-ins etc. What's social media without plug-ins!? Any suggestions anyone has, glad to take them on board. This blogging thing is completely new to me!

We also had to eat into our Thailand fund and buy a washing machine today as ours died on Thursday night. Made the executive decision to not go to the laundromat yesterday so we weren't spending unnecessary money as I knew we would have a washer by Tuesday at the latest. No need to spend $30 down the laundromat (washing and drying...this weather is crap!), better off in our pockets!

Down to business.

So, as you may have seen, I've got me a ticker that will count the kilos lost along the way; that's a part of My Fitness Pal (MFP). MFP is a place where you can count your calories, talk to other people on a weight loss journey, network et cetera et cetera. MFP allows me to enter exactly what I'm eating and it adds the calories as I'm going along. Even better thing is that there is an app for it (Android and iOS); no need to be sitting in front of a computer all day to log your cals, nor be jotting them down in your diary with a pen or pencil. Isn't technology grand!? Here's my profile on MFP; be my friend, please?

With MFP making life so much easier, I didn't find calorie counting so bad. Plug in what you eat and drink, the exercise you do, and voila, it's all done for you (just don't forget to save).
I am giving myself 1200 calories per day. We were a little naughty today though and finished off the left over pizza from last night's dinner with lunch, and that is what put me on 1204 calories! But you know what, for a first day's effort I'm pretty darn happy with that!
No crazy fad dieting, just regular, every day H & A eating.
I still got to have sour cherry porridge for breakfast (see my MFP Food Diary until I get all the recipes photographed) with Greek Yoghurt and honey, I ate a piece of pizza, and had a scoop of ice cream. It's all about portion control. I've done this before, and I can sure do it again.

I'm pretty sure I will almost be able to eliminate those super refined sugars etc too, but I also want to be realistic. One scoop of ice cream isn't going to kill me every now and again. Factor it in, make sure I've got a workout in for the day, and life will continue.


Not going to lie, today really wasn't the day for exercising, my back reacts really badly to the cold (I have a tiny bit of a spinal disc herniation in L4 & L5) and simple activities like walking can really impact on me greatly. 
I tell you, relying on elevators and the likes is such a pain in the butt, I love to walk up and down stairs, I know how awesome it feels, but some days (like today), walking up the three steps to our door is a killer. My physio can tell when I've been bad too, so steps are a no-go zone unfortunately (and that's a shame, we live on the ground floor of a three-storey apartment building).
Tomorrow, I'm going to go for a walk, even if it's just to get out of the house! It might not be far, but I need to build my strength and resistance before I can go like a bull at a gate.


Have started meal planning for the week as well (just dinner for the time being):


Monday: Antipasto and prosciutto pasta in a tomato sauce
Tuesday: Beef and carrot ragout
Wednesday: Antipasto and salami pizza 
Thursday: Lean Cuisine Frozen Meal (Alex is working til 10pm)
Friday: Lean Cuisine Frozen Meal OR out for dinner with friends (Alex is working again until 10pm)
Saturday: Lamb with Spicy Chickpeas
Sunday: Roast Beef with veges


These dinners are based on what we've already got in the fridge and freezer (meat only in the freezer, we buy veges fresh).
Lunches I'm still working on. Breakfast is usually sour cherry porridge or Weet Bix, occasionally an omelette but I think that it could be a bit high in the calorie department.



Anyway, it's 10pm. Bedtime in this house is now 10pm! It's time to get back into our routine now that we're germ free.