Week 9

What's Motivating Me This Week?

Sewing exercise clothing - I've ordered some Supptex Lycra in royal blue. Plus I've been working on a pattern for an exercise 'tunic' like a t-shirt but longer to cover any possible camel toes and VPLs. Working with lyrcra can be a little annoying though.

What's Puzzling Me This Week?
What shoes should I wear? I did Zumba this morning but my shoes were too grippy - even thought I had rolled up the rug.  I took them off half way and kept my socks on. Should I try a pair of old Dunlops?

What's Bugging Me This Week?
I got sunburnt on Friday at the swimming carnival - even though I kept reapplying throughout the day.  Harsh sun.

What's Encouraging Me This Week? 

If I trust my measurements - my thigh reduced a 1cm! I have noticed that some of my pants are a little looser there, but I won't fully believe it until it stays the same measurement next week.  I'm hopeful though - one step closer to less thigh rub.

What's the Plan?
In preperation for Zumba classes - I've taken out Walk Away the Pounds and replaced it with ZUMBA!  I need to try her 2 mile walks soon though... I'm getting bored of that 1 mile walk - the people in it are really starting to annoy me - especially that one in the back that makes faces.

Signed up!

Yesterday was the sign up day for Zumba.

Yesterday was also our school's swimming carnival, so after the day at the pool a few of us (teachers) were sitting downstairs in the cool, relaxing and having a chat.  I reminded everyone that it was sign up day - as we are all pretty keen to do it - then we started talking about how she might do an actual jazz class if we asked her.

Sunny and I went down straight after that, we asked Em (the dance instructor) if she was thinking about doing an adult's dance class. She hadn't really thought of doing it because of past experiences, but we put our name down for it. Bec and Eb also went down later and put their name on the list as well.

So, I'm pretty keen to exercise with friends instead of in my lounge!  But then I started thinking about what I would wear.  What you see in the photos I take is what I wear to workout - probably not good enough for a gathering.

I have also been looking into moisture wicking fabrics to make some more exercise gear - but for today I'm going to sit down and sew another pair of 3/4s and may be a top using the lyrca blends I have here.

Plus I have been thinking about getting myself a short sleeved leotard to wear with my maxi skirts - so I ended up finding this on line shop which seemed like the only place to buy them in my size - I also grabbed a pair of jazz/yoga pants.  The postage killed!!! Purhaps I should try and get some patterns for these in future.

Dumps

Man am I sore today. Glad today is a rest day!

I was feeling a little in the dumps today because my measurements are all over the place (even though I check them a few times before I write it down) and it doesn't look like I have lost much on paper.

Should I buy a set of scales?

Week 8

What's Motivating Me This Week?

A proper dance instructor has moved to town and will be started up real Zumba classes!  I'm kind of excited about this!

What's Puzzling Me This Week?
Reading through blogilates and finding out about Gaiam TV. I'm kind of keen to find out if I can join up being from Australia and all that. Sometimes these things don't work because of copyright etc.

What's Bugging Me This Week?
That I really want to drink Pepsi Max. It tastes so good.

What's Encouraging Me This Week? 

That other people are noticing.


My husband C, joined me for exercise for the first time this year.  I hope I can keep him going.

What's the Plan?
I know that I said that I would probably keep that routine for a few weeks but I found that doing 'Get Strong' just wasn't cutting it for me - I think I do better when I have someone telling me what to do (on video) then having to use a peice of paper.

Today I did the 'Booty Shaking Waist Workout' video and it killed me. I think that it will be great to do this plan for a few weeks and see how much I can improve.

Plugging Away

Yesterday, my friend Maria said, 'You have lost a lot of weight!'

The back story to this is last week I went into work while everyone else bar the office staff were on holidays, just to say hello and move furniture. Maria, our office mum,  who always makes nice comments about my clothes especially when I'm wearing flattering things said 'those pants are very slimming'. I laughed and said, 'No, I'm the one who's slimming.' I don't think she believed me.

What makes losing weight harder is all the negative comments people make about their own weight or their diet. Today someone bought in a caramel pie to share. I had a peice - no second thoughts - no regrets. That pie was made with love, and I loved eating it. But some people made comments like 'I'm on a diet' or they cut themselves the tineist peice. Why can't we enjoy things, knowing that it's in moderation?

Week 7 - revision

What the Plan?

Increasing strength.


Keeping up with the mile walk - one mile is 1.6 km - this week I've added weights. I did it this morning and it almost killed me. I'm still trying to kill this cold, and also shark week! Stupid bloating.

A little while ago Discovery Channel was featuring Shark Week! Documentaries about sharks. It made me giggle every time.

Week 7 - or something

What's Motivating Me This Week?
Picking myself up again and getting myself back into routine before school starts.

What's Puzzling Me This Week?
Food still - looking for snacks to take to school.

What's Bugging Me This Week?
Stupid virus. I also have a doctor's appointment tomorrow about my meds.

What's Encouraging Me This Week?

http://fleurmeetsfitness.tumblr.com/

Wearing sleeveless tops. 

About 8 years ago I wasn't half as paranoid about my arms as I am now. It really started when I was at the local pool just floating around after the heat of the day - and when I say heat I mean 40-odd degree C is pretty average at this time of the year - when the manager of the pool swam up to me and told me 'To get rid of those flabby teacher arms you need to do this,' and flapped her arms around in the water. No joke, this biotch came right up to me out of the blue and gave me a complex about my 'flabby teacher arms'.  Well, I'm trying not to care anymore and have been wearing sleeveless tops - I bought 2 over the holidays and am wearing one right now.

What's the Plan?
I did such a shoddy job of last week's that I'm going to repeat it.  I probably will for next week too, but I'm thinking I might add this in:

But, I really think I need to add more strength training.

Things

That I have been looking at lately:

Dukan Cheesecake Recipe

I have the ingredeints but haven't felt like making it yet - I'll explain later

 From Thick to Thin

At the moment, I'm wondering if I should open this blog up to readers. I wonder if I can NOT have comments though, I don't think I could handle the haters.


This week I have been sick as a uni student after a Thursday 1 dollar shot night. I've caught such a nasty bug, with a sore throat, coughing with phlem, runny nose, vomiting at times, lost voice - really death warmed up.  I did struggle to work out for three days, but not the last three. Why don't things work out?

Week 6

What's Motivating Me This Week?
Losing the Christmas podgey fat feeling

What's Puzzling Me This Week?
How to set up a healthy eating plan

What's Bugging Me This Week?
Not much actually – going pretty smoothly at the moment

What's Encouraging Me This Week? 
Check out this:

Looks like I can celebrate my first short term goal!

What's the Plan?
Increasing the length of my exercise in the mornings.

What was the Plan for the Previous Weeks I was Away? 

Woes of Holidays and Protein

I found it really hard in the last two weeks of my holiday to maintain my work out plans and eating habits.  This was partly because my time and meals weren’t really my own as we were staying with family – everything that I ate and did was based upon their own needs and that’s just the way it should be. So not complaining because what we ate was YUM! We also spent a week in a rainforest cabin for our anniversary, where they made your meals for you and the food just kept coming.  We left with a lot of food in the fridge uneaten.

So I feel like all the work I did before Christmas was kind of wasted on one hand, basically I put on everything I lost – although I haven’t checked.  However, I know what I was doing was working and although I feel fat again I also feel healthier. When we were at the cabin we went for a hike up into the rainforest and it felt really good. A few months ago I wouldn’t have done it. I also know that I’ll be able to pick it up again pretty quickly. So now that I’m back at home I’ll start again.

Before Christmas my sister-in-law did a few days of the Dukan diet.  If you don’t know the Dukan diet, it is basically for a little while (called the attack phase) you eat protein foods and not much else.

This works in the short term because your body takes longer and works harder to convert protein into usable energy thus you end up with less of the energy stored away as fat because it is being used up instead. That is why many texts suggest you eat a protein rich food as a snack – it will help fill you up and take a while to convert.

However long term, some obvious side effects are constipation (no fibre), lack of vitamins and minerals (no fruit or veg) and kidney issues (as it tries to deal with all that extra protein).

The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating shows that lean meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nut and legumes (all give you protein) should take up about an 1/8 of your food intake – or between 1-1½ serves a day for an adult woman – up to 2 if you are male. 

Example of a serve:

2 small eggs

½ cup lean mince

½ cup cooked chick peas etc

1/3 cup peanuts/almonds

65-100g cooked meat

One of the things I’m taking away from the Dukan diet is the Galette.  My sister-in-law made them for breakfast, although I got her to add a little bit of parmesan cheese to add some more flavour, it wasn’t too bad. Making it into a pancake- which is apparently what a galette is – seems like a bit of time waster to me – plus you have all that washing up to do just for one pancake – so I’m thinking it could be microwaved in a bowl much like I do scrambled eggs, but I haven't tried it yet.

Galette

2 tablespoons oat bran

1 tablespoon of cottage cheese – we don’t have fromage frais of quark here

50g of cottage cheese – we don’t have fromage frais of quark here

1 egg

150g of thinly sliced ham

Sprinkle of parmesan cheese (not from the Dukan diet ha ha!)

Mix all ingredients together. Pour into pan and make a pancake or microwave in short 20 sec bursts with stirring until cooked.

Blister in the sun

Yesterday morning instead of my cardio which featured Christmas music from ReFit Dance Fitness group from YouTube, I went for a walk with my sister-in-law. I didn't mind the walk but what I didn't like was a huge blister I got on the back of my heel!

I suppose it was good timing because we had decided that I would try to get me eyes checked at SpecSavers and get my feet done at Athletics Foot yesterday as well.

So now I have a nice pair of runners that I'm frightened of wearing because of my current blister and any future ones.

Hip to be

The other day I worked out my waist-to-hip ratio. It is an indicates that you are susceptible to heart disease among other things.

I got mine worked out here - http://www.mydr.com.au/tools/waist-to-hip-calculator

My result was 0.86 but the cut off point is 0.8 for women. So looks like I still have a little bit more work to do if I want to reduce my chance of a heart attack.

Goals

I'm kind of sick of seeing 'before' photos of girls that thought they were fat when their 'before' is my goal - haha!

It seems that every one has a goal weight. I don't have scales so I have no idea what I actually weigh anyway.

I loved reading this article the first time round, but dug it up recenently when I thought about my goals.  My goal is - shock horror - to be average.  Size 16 women's would be a lovely first goal.

Chia Seed Experiement 6 - Pasta Salad

Carbs? Bring it on!  The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating shows that a 1/3 of your food should come from bread, cereals, rice, pasta, noodles etc.  I love pasta and rice.  We have switched over the brown rice for most things lately which is really yummy, but pasta is a little harder.  Wholemeal pasta just doesn't exist for our town - the closest I can get is Soyaroni.  I actually like the flavour.

This is a cold pasta salad which is pretty yummy and keeps for a few days in the fridge.

Ingredients

Pasta (I used half a bag for three meal sized serves)
1 carrot
Mayonnaise
Pine Nuts
Chia Seeds

Method:

1. Cook pasta, drain and cool
2. Put pasta into large bowl with a fitted lid
3. Grate carrot and add to pasta
4. Pour  mayonnaise onto pasta - I used low fat Praise but it is too sweet next time I will use the Japanese Kewpie Mayonnaise and stuff the low fat option.
5. Mix and store
6. To serve, sprinkle on pine nuts and chia seeds

I also use this Soyaroni in a tuna salad - which I haven't made with chia seeds yet but here is the recipe:

Ingredients

Pasta
1 can of chick peas
1 can of tuna
Kraft Salad Dressing
Chia Seeds

Method

1. Cook pasta, drain and cool
2. Put pasta into large bowl with a fitted lid
3. Drain chick peas into a strainer and rinse
4. Add tuna to the strainer and drain as well
5. Add chick peas and tuna to the pasta
6. Pour dressing onto pasta 
7. Mix well and store
8. To serve, sprinkle with chia seeds

Chia Seed Experiment 5 - Yogurt

Okay, so this wasn’t really an experiment, as this was the original suggestion that came from “Eat Yourself Sexy”. Chia seed + yogurt = good.

If you add the seed, stir and eat straight away the seeds add a little crunch.

On to another nice thing – this morning I got my husband to poke me in the stomach to feel my muscles. He agreed there is definitely some definition going on under my pudge.

Week 3

What's Motivating Me This Week?
http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/

What's Puzzling Me This Week?
When will my new exercise bra arrive? I usually purchase my bras from Big Girls Don’t Cry Anymore, although they have a great range of bras they have to be ordered in because they don’t keep a big stock in my size. I hope it comes next week.

What's Bugging Me This Week
My sore and cracked feet – time for a pedicure

How my measurements fluctuate. This could be because I’m measuring differently each time, that I was wearing different bra etc. Although it really does seem as though my hips keep getting smaller, even without knowing the measurements.

What's Encouraging Me This Week? 
Feeling thinner, wearing slim-fit jeans and feeling sexy in yellow heels.

What's the Plan?

Some fun dance workouts this week to celebrate the first week of holidays.

Motivation

There are so many blogs that just show heaps of images of skinny girls and text blocks. I don't want this blog to turn out like that, but I think they are great to look at, some of them are motivational.  This website it great.

No Diet Talk

I think that there are a few types of fat people, these are not limited to the following;

• People who have fat and are proud to be called 'fat'
• People who have fat and lose their fat to be healthier
• People who have fat and lose their fat to fit in with the mainstream - whatever that may be 
• People who have fat and try to lose weight using fad diets rather than just a healthier diet
• People who have fat and hate being 'fat' and do nothing about it

I've been all of these before and the others I no doubt left out.

So where am I now?

I think I'm at 'People who have fat and lose their fat to be healthier'.  You won't find me going on some crazy diet that I've seen in a book or on TV. I'm just trying to follow the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating. I'm trying to increase my physical activity. I'm trying to reduce my thighs so that I don't suffer chaffing.

Sure, if I lose weight and I end up looking better as well, that's a bonus. But if I don't become a six pack lean machine and keep my woobly bits I will still be proud of my body and the journey it has taken.

Definatalie posted this last month, and I loved the idea of the badge she created. So although this is a weight loss get fit blog, I'm putting it out there that this blog has no diet talk. I will talk about healthy eating because despite what I look like I did study this at Uni and teach it at school - but no FAD diets.

Splurge

Today was a bit of a splurge. I had my doctor's appointment you see, so as I waited anxiously all morning, I ate half a large packet of M&Ms and salt and vinegar chips.  I don't really mind, because it's not as though I'm a diet. The blood tests showed that my thyroid is fine and everything else was good. Only my cholesterol was a little bit higher than it should be,,, well dah.

This morning was my second time doing the pilates video.  My legs and tummy caned so much afterwards, thank goodness tomorrow is just normal cardio again. I don’t think I could do two days straight!

I ordered some more fabric so that I can make some more leggings.  Over the weekend I actually made a pair that has a skirt over it – great for swimming in and for workout. No more camel toe worries – hmm.

Chia Seep Experiment 4 - Vanilla Coconut Pudding

I have such a sweet tooth at times.

For one thing, I love Pepsi Max - it's so sweet and lovely. I'm trying to go cold turkey off it for a little while, the first few days were awful with headaches etc. Last night I broke down and bought a Diet Coke (because there wasn't any Pepsi Max) but karma kicked me in the bum because when I got home and opened the bottle,,, it was flat and off.  Oh well. That's what you get for trying to cheat yourself and from buying it at the dodgy corner store.

I saw this recipe from Delighted Momma, and thought I would have a go. I did have to change it because I don't have almond milk. I really don't think we would be able to get it here, but I did find some recipes for it that I would like to try. Unfortunately I don't have a food processor - yet - I've been saving up for a Kitchen Aid one.

Anyway, it was okay. Not exactly the pudding I am used to, but it was sweet and filling with a little bit of texture.


So here is my recipe:

1 cup of milk
1 tspn artificial sugar - maybe a little more
1/3 cup of chia seeds - maybe a little more
1/2 tspn of vanilla essence
1/4 cup shredded coconut

1. Mix the milk and the sugar together until sugar dissolves.
2. Mix all the ingredients together
3. Stand for 5 minutes
4. Stir and stand until totally thickened

Edit: On second and third attempts to eat this, I've decided that it's actually pretty bad.  The texture!!!

This was me:

Today was the my first POP Pilates for Beginners workout. I was going to woose out and do some yoga instead but then I remembered this:

I will be very sore tomorrow.

Fact Sheet: Chocolate

There are a lot of wives tales about foods. Sometime people say you can, others say you can't eat a certain food.

I thought I would keep myself up-to-date and share my findings.

So first off the rank is Chocolate!  My friend says that chocolate fixes everything, but it's one of my most craved for foods.

Without further adieu:

Chocolate Fact Sheet