Good times @ Christmas time!

Firstly! I want to say a big thanks to Phil for making me an absolutely gorgeous scrap page about our new friendship! -->

We had a great time together the other night.. She and her hubby came over to dinner at my in-law's place! We chatted for ages and left feeling very giddy on sugar... meringue, fruit salad and light bulla ice cream! MMM.. Phil made the best sweets for us.. usually very point friendly... but not when you eat four meringues!

I am going well with the no cheese deal! I have also decided that this week will be a no ice cream week (even light) as I have been having it nearly every day and I know I don't need that much sugar!

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Sticking to 18 point days in preparation for the work Chrissy do on Thursday night and other festivities over the festive period! Glad TTOMYY is nearly through! That will make it easier to be good over this next couple of weeks!

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Last day of placement tomorrow...

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Here's my food plan for tomorrow..

B- 2 X wholemeal toast with vegemite (2) and a banana (1)

S- 1 apple (1/2)

L- 2 X vegetarian sushi hand rolls (5-6 ?)

S- WW cereal bar (1 1/2) and a diet yoghurt (1)

That leaves me 7 points for dinner... thats too easy!

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Exercise plans for the week(fingers crossed)..

Mon- 45 min brisk walk @ lunchtime

Tue- 45 min brisk walk @ lunchtime

Wed- walk/jog 45 mins either at the gym or out if it's a nice day

Thur- gym weights and cardio or class

Fri- jogging/walking 45 mins

Sat- maybe a swim!

Sun- Nothing planed but will try to encourage family to maybe go down to the park or something after we eat!

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Hope everyone is feelin' fine! I should really be in bed!

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May you all take the time this week to stop thinking about shopping, seasonal craziness and your new healthy lives and pause to reflect on what Christmas means to you. To me, it's about the birth of the one who has taught me what real love is, the one who cares for everyone regardless of their colour or creed, the one who gave it all that I might live abundantly... to me it's about the one!

Cheezin' down sumthin' rotten!

Gone over my points this weekend!

Have to make up approx 10 points over the next week.. how I am going to do this? I am going to cut out cheese this week.. thats where I have been slipping... damn cheese! I've been cheezin' down somethin' rotten!! (Lano & Woodley quote)

I will have an 18 point per day week this week... very close tracking!! Don't know the new program well enough to follow it yet!

It's going to be a good week! I finish placement this week! On Tuesday!

Hurrah!

Ho Ho Ho!

Delusional haze

Isn’t it funny how everything seems to be rolling along just the way you think it should when… BAM!!!

It’s that time of the month, yuk, yuk!! (TTOMYY)

Okay, so here is a quick re-cap of my last few days.

· Personal training on Tuesday, feeling great, ready to take on the world.. I say to myself on Tuesday night “I’m SOOO getting up early to go to the gym tomorrow!” And I really believe I will!

· Wednesday morning… alarm goes off, I roll over, eyes half open and say to John “I am SOOO not going to the gym this morning”. I roll over and go back to sleep… so does John, and we both sleep in.


· Wednesday night… convinced I am pregnant! I feel so bad! My boobs feel like two bricks! But no sign of you know what!! On the way to our small group (church thing) I scoffed half a box of Sohos and a few big handfuls of air-popped popcorn… must be pregnant coz I never binge!… ps. Ate the rest of the Sohos at the group.

· Thursday morning… Guess who arrived!? That’s right it’s TTOMYY! Did I mention that this happens every month? I fully think I am pregnant every single month! It is really quite hilarious/sad one of the two... You’d think after 9 years of experiencing TTOMYY that I’d recognise when it is near!


· Thursday night… Hubby’s work Christmas do- healthy salads and barbequed chicken breast! Praise the Lord! Don’t have to worry about controlling myself too much… whoops forgot about the huge bowl of ice cream I ate for afters... well it was LIGHT!! I know, I know! Just because it’s light it doesn’t mean I can have twice as much! But I did anyway… and it was very yummy… Blue Ribbon Light wild berry flavour. Do try it! Haha!!

So here I am on Friday morning... a little battered and bruised from my last few days of being in a TTOMYY delusional haze. But I’m still here! And I’m just going to take a deep breath and keep plugging along.

Christmas is nearly here! It’s is my favourite time of the year! Hey, that rhymed! Hubby put our little Christmas tree up a couple of days ago and tried to make our tiny little flat a little bit festive just for me… what an absolute sweetypie! I need that right now.. I feel good, but as I said, battered and bruised! I feel TTOMYY gets worse every month!
Ho Ho Ho!

Personal training!

I was in the Gym on Saturday and I got chatting to one of the trainers. I told her how I was thinking of doing some personal training sessions over the holidays just to keep myself on track in a time where it is very tempting to not exercise!

After chatting for a few minutes "Perri" offered me a complimentary session to try it out and see if I like it.. I couldn't turn down such a good offer and I booked in for 8pm tonight!

I have just returned home and I feel so great! I haven't pushed myself that hard in such a long time!!

We began with travelling lunges holding 4kgs in each hand, we then moved onto push-ups on the smith machine (where you set the bar really low and use the bar to lean on while you do push-ups), then we did a combined exercise where I used the 4kg hand weights and did a squat while I did bicep curls and then lifted the weights over my head.. it really got my heart rate up! Then I did bench press on the smith machine- I lifted 20kgs.. We did these exercises in a circuit.. reps of 15 done twice.

After that we moved on to doing dead and upright rows with a 15kg bar bell, tricep stuff with the bar bell at 10kgs (not very strong in my triceps!).. again in a circuit with 2x15 reps. I then did some ab work and Perri stretched me out..


It was such a great work out!

I am thinking of getting a package of 10 to use over summer.. I find it helps when I have a change of routine, or a new thing to do.. it gets me motivated again..

I took my measurements again (must remember to post them) and I have lost a total of something like 86cms off my body since March!! Wow! All those cms from only a 10kg weight loss in that time!

I love weights training!

Weigh in

Just a quick post to report that I had a loss this week and I am currently

83.6kgs!

Yay!

Gym Junkie

No.. that's not me!

I really needed an endorphin rush tonight after my crazy brain had it's fun with me during the day... I actually think it was the devil.. trying to get me to give up coz he doesn't want me to have a healthy body and an active fun life.. Yeah..

Well let me tell you that God and I have won this battle together using a lethal, fat destroying weapon called a step class!

I burned over 700 calories! yay!

I have been exercising every day in some way whether it be a class, my gym programme or a walk with my lovely hubby along the maribirnong river track (who knew it would be so nice?... certainly not me!). I have not gone over my points for the last 2 weeks... I've gone under actually.. yeah.. working on that one.. don't worry!

I decided not to make point free soup and actually try to eat up all my points tonight so I made an amazing (if I do say so myself) veggie curry..

Ash's special veggie comfort curry

1 tbs oil

2 large spuds cubed

1/4 pumpkin cubed (whatever variety you like)

1 med zuchinni cubed

1 large squash or 2 smaller ones cubed

1 onion chopped

2 cloves garlic however you like chopped/crushed

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp curry powder

1 tbs red curry paste

a small bunch of fresh basil chopped

1 can chick peas drained & rinsed

1 can brown lentils drained & rinsed

1 can (bigger.. not the tiny ones) light evaporated milk

Brown or basmati rice

1 cup water

(1 tsp coconut essence optional)

Brown onion, garlic, cumin and curry bowder in a large pot (don't let the garlic burn!)

Throw in veggies, lentils, chickpeas and evaporated milk (and coconut essence for a thai experience!)

stir in curry paste & basil

Add water and stir

Simmer until spuds (particularly) and other veggies are tender and the sauce has thickened

Serve with brown or basmati rice...

Serves HEAPS!

Frozen 5 containers of it and Mezz and I ate it for dinner.. so that's 7 serves!

Nothing like a few endorphins & a curry to cheer a girl up!

Mind games

Had a crazy day!

My mind has been playing tricks on me.. I feel like I am not doing the right thing when I am!

Here's an email I sent to Philippa.

"Feeling really confused about how much I should be eating...

How does this sound?

B- Allbran
Skim milk
skinny hot chocolate
S- 1 Light salada
light cheese slice
tomato
L- tuna tempers o.dried tom & basil
1 cup basmati rice
S- Apple
Diet yoghurt
D- veggie soup (point free)

S- Fruit and yoghurt
How many points do you think this is worth?

I have been doing this for ages and I shouldn't have to ask.. I guess my mind is playing tricks on me, telling me I am not doing a good job coz I'm still in the 84s.

I guess I'm lucky I wasn't more after the lazy food filled couple of weeks I have had.

Oh well, Back on the wagon again!

Went to the gym last night. Probably go again tonight.. there is pump on in the city at 6:30 tonight.. I probably shouldn't do it though coz I did weights last night and they say you shouldn't do weights 2 days in a row so your muscle can repair.

Maybe I'll do more jogging..

Hmmm... Feel a little flat.."

Here is Phil's reply

"You are doing so well darl, and I will not hear otherwise!
I think you might be experiencing what I was about five weeks ago. I had a
look at your list of food there and (you might hate me for saying this) but
I don't think you're eating enough. I worked it out to be 14 points (not
including the hot chocolate, which would take it up to maybe 15 or 16) For
our weight we should be on 22 points per day and not drop it back to 20
until we hit 80kg. When I hit my plateau of 88.9 I was eating around 18-19
points per day and exercising regularly (not really challenging myself
though, which is the difference between us - cos you are!) but I couldn't
figure out why I wasn't losing any weight.

Ever since it was pointed out to me that I wasn't eating enough, I started
eating a minimum of 20 a day. Most days I eat 21 - one day last week I had
23.5 (naughty!) but I have been losing every week ever since. There are
some days where I don't feel very hungry - those are my 17 days, but that
means I have some points to use later in the week, so I don't worry too much
about it.

Another thing that was suggested to me was to change the kind of food I ate,
and not have the same things all the time, particularly with breakfast.

This is a typical day for me:
B: 1 serve Vaalia French Vanilla Low Fat Yoghurt 1.5
1 serve Carmans Classic Fruit Muesli 3
A few strawberries 0
L: Homemade Pizza 6.5 or Vegetable Soup 4 or Stuffed Potatoes with salad 4
D: 1 piece Lasagna (6), carrots, corn, broccoli & cauliflower (0), then
strawberries and mango (1) with passionfruit frozen yoghurt (2.5), Diet
lemonade (0)
Total: 20.5 (pizza) / 18 (other lunches)

If I had the pizza for lunch I would have a piece of fruit or carrot/celery
sticks with salsa if I felt like a snack. If I had the 4 point options for
lunch, I would probably have a homemade date and apple scone (2 points each)
as well as the other snack options.

I remember when I worked full time what a pain it was to think of things to
take for lunch each day because most of the time I just didn't have the time
to think about it. 99% of the time I would take leftovers from last nights
dinner - which can be a great option. Taking a nice big roll jam packed
with lots of salad would be a great idea too. When I am out and about in
the city I tend to either get a wonton soup from the dumpling place (about 6
points) or 2 sushi rolls (5.5 points) - they tend to be the cheapest thing.
I think you came out of your birthday bash very well - and you had such
lovely healthy food at the party. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed
a party so much.

Keep trying hard darl - don't give up. You've come so far, and I know
everyone in your life is very proud of you. You are such an inspiration to
me. We will get there together!!!"

I am oficially crazy!

Weigh in

With much fear and trepedation after my birthday blowout I stepped on the scales.

Considering it was the evening and I ate my weight in cake 2 weeks ago, I am not too disappointed with maintaining my weight.. (well, probably ACTUALLY gained and then lost again!!) 84.4kgs...

I am pretty sure that if I weighed in the morning like I normally do I would be 84 or in the 83s..

I did interval training at the gym tonight and a full on weights session! I am planning to lose at least 1/2 a kilo a week and not set my expectations higher than I can acheive! I planned to reach 79 by new years.. It's not completely off the cards but I am thinking that with Christmas coming up I am probably fooling myself to expect a kilo loss per week..

I am re setting my new years goal to 82kgs

Feeling pretty pumped for running again.. It is just so good!

Going walking with Kathrynoh tomorrow night at the tan...

It will be good to meet another blogger!