Making Healthier Choices...Part 3

The whole energy in versus energy out thing sounds so simple.....but in reality it is a whole lot more complicated!  New habits are so hard to form!!

I am still doing okay in the coke and chocolate department...but the daily exercise department...that's a different story!

My best effort for this week was three consecutive days of exercise....nothing too strenuous...but exercise nonetheless.

I am hoping to kick start some of these school holiday days with an exercise dvd before the girls wake up and the day becomes too busy.  By night I am full of motivation for such ideas...but come morning when I am tucked up in my bed well I am not so motivated!

Hopefully I can dust off the wii fit and wii dance and have a bit of fun with the girls whilst getting some exercise too!

School holidays are always a hard time to stick to healthy as cupcakes and brownies are much more desirable than fruit smoothies....but with a fridge full of fruit I am hoping to work towards changing that perception!!!

End of year holidays are creeping closer so I really need to get my butt into gear!!!

Making Healthier Choices...Part 2

Well the past two weeks haven't seen too many good choices in the healthy department....probably due to a lack of planning and really busy weeks!

I spent three consecutive days at school one week with Father's Day gift wrapping and sorting, the next day with Miss 5's tabloid sports carnival and the next day with the Father's Day liturgy, morning tea and stall.

I managed to still go without coke during this week but cakes and chocolates crept in!

The following week Miss 5 was home for three days with conjunctivitis so I was pretty much housebound except for school drop offs....not having been organised with grocery shopping I turned to what was in the cupboard....and there was coke, chocolate and biscuits!

Even though I did have a can of coke here and there I am finding that I can have a can one day and not just fall back into having it everyday so that's a good thing.

Recently I have been seeing chocolate fudge everywhere....at the shops, at the markets, on tv....everywhere!!  I have been planning to try making some and this week I came across a Thermomix recipe so I decided to give it a go!

Needless to say it was delicious.....and maybe I over-indulged a little or a lot...and now I could go for a very long time with never seeing another piece of fudge....so perhaps I have done myself a favour there!!

Hubby and I have been saying each week that we would do some exercise...but weeks come and weeks go and no exercise!  Well today hubby did half an hour on the exercise bike.  So now that meant that I had to do half an hour too.

Oh my gosh....that was the longest half hour....ever!  My legs felt like jelly when I got off the bike.  But then I decided to do half an hour of kettle bell exercises....I have no idea where that came from but I was impressed!

So my aim for this week is get back to no coke and no chocolate and to exercise each day...and to start making better food choices....hmmm sounds like a lot to ask when I write it down!!!!

Making Healthier Choices...part 1

Today was my first sip of coke in 21 days!  Hubby and I had planned a day out, which doesn't happen often, so I decided that I would have a coke with lunch!

Selfie at the movies...well we were the only ones there lol !!!!

I am happy to say that it wasn't all that satisfying and having a taste hasn't left me craving for more.  

Over the past 8 days I have also managed to reduce chocolate consumption.....yay me!  I went 5 days with no chocolate and then I weakened a bit on the weekend. On Saturday I had 2 squares of chocolate....which I made last forever rather than just eating so quickly that I am left wondering if I actually ate it or not!  And on Sunday I had a Freddo Frog after I did the grocery shopping.  

Chocolate I am finding a little bit harder to kick....it was consuming my thoughts pretty much every waking moment for the first few days.  Now I just have to fight the part of my brain that is very quick to suggest that I reward myself here and there with little chocolate treats!!

I even managed to lose a little weight this week...and when I say 'little' I really do mean 'little'!!  Think it was about 200 grams!!

In reducing coke and chocolate I must admit that I have probably just replaced them with lemonade and red frogs!!!  So now my aim is to find healthier substitutes....maybe water and an apple!!

Well I said I was going to take baby steps...and you can't get much smaller steps than the ones I have taken so far...but it is a teeny tiny start!!!

You Are So Not Coming On Holidays With Me...

I cannot believe how fast this year seems to be going for me.  It is my first year with all of the girls at school and to be honest I had imagined that by now I would be a little bit more organised and somehow finding a little bit more 'me' time!  That hasn't really happened but I am taking small steps to get things heading in the right direction.

One of the 'me' things that has really been lacking this year is time to exercise, even just to get out and go for a walk.....and it is starting to show with more than a few excess kilos piling on!

At the beginning of the year when we were on holidays we were walking to the beach, swimming in the lagoon, enjoying plenty of fruit and home cooked meals.  Then we returned to the chaos that is our home and our everyday lives and bad choices crept in...especially now that I could enjoy a hot chocolate in peace and quiet...I may have really taken advantage of this one!

Then autumn and winter came along and since our current sleeping arrangements see hubby and I still sleeping in the loungeroom on the fold out sofa while other rooms are painted etc.. we easily fell into a very comfortable routine of night time hot milo and midnight snacks as we watched our way through the World Cup, followed by the Tour de France and then the Commonwealth Games.

Slowly jeans became too tight and were gladly placed with leggings and tracksuit pants.  It was when these elasticized clothes started to feel a tad tight that I did a double take!!

I had planned on returning to my local Contours gym earlier this year.  It has been a few years since I was a member but I did like the concept of it...but a few weeks after I had thought about returning I received an email that they were closing down....!!  I tried right!!??

We've had more than our fair share of winter coughs and colds and a few stomach bugs thrown in so it is time for a healthy start to spring for the whole family.  

Time to dig out my zumba dvd's (unused might I add!!), dust off my Michelle Bridges workout dvd's and get myself an at home exercise routine underway.  And if this Sydney rain ever stops I could add walking the girls to school a few times a week to my schedule.

And an overhaul of some of my eating habits might be in order too!  Perhaps I could limit those delicious hot chocolates to a once a week treat!  Today marks 17 days without so much as a sip of coke and 3 days without a taste of a chocolate bar...baby steps !

My big picture is to improve our overall health and fitness but if I manage to shed a few kilos before our Christmas holidays this year well that would be a bonus because I am not too keen to take them on holidays with me!

Watch this space...!!!  Well hopefully, coz I'm not really good and consistent exercise and healthy stuff!!!

Week 5 gone.....no loss no gain!

Week 5 has been and gone....I had no weight loss and no weight gain....given the week that I had I am happy with that result.

I have been feeling sick and have had really bad headaches this week so have not exercised at all and have not focused on food either.

I'm happy to take it easy and get better, then continue on!

Til next week....

Weeks 2 & 3 gone.....and 1 kilo gone...!!

Well weeks 2 and 3 are just a blur!!  

This mum decided to hold her youngest daughters 5th birthday party and her eldest daughters 16th birthday party on the same day with a little over 3 weeks to organised it all!!

So days and nights were filled with cake decorating ideas,  jumping castle price comparisons, fancy dress costume enquiries and the list goes on.....an on and on....seriously !!

I was up until til late each night and racing around each day....so I found myself with little time to exercise and so shifted my focus to the food side of things.  Whilst my eating wasn't 100% perfect I managed to stay in a good place....in the past I would have just given up and grabbed myself a can of coke and a family block of chocolate (I have no idea why they call them a family block...surely you are not meant to share them with family members!)

So there you have it....not much to tell other than 400 grams was lost in week 2 and 600 grams lost in week 3.  I didn't quite make it to the 3 kilos before the girls parties but I did lose 1.9 kilos and am happy with that.

Next goal is to lose 4 kilos before our long awaited family beach holiday after Christmas !!

1 week gone.....and 900g gone !!

So here I am.....1 week gone of Shannan's 8 Week Fast Track Challenge.....and 900 grams gone as well !!

I am surprised at how well I am coping without consuming coke and chocolate which have been daily staples for way too long!  I'll admit that in the first few days chocolate did occupy a lot of my thoughts but I seem to have gotten over that now.

Another adjustment was going shopping, especially on those ever too rare moments that I get to do this alone, and not giving in to old habits of purchasing a donut or a hot chocolate to get me through.  Did you know that Cadbury family blocks were on sale last week....now that's just cruel!!

Although I haven't eaten the exact meals for the week most meals that I had were a bit of an adaptation of meals listed on the challenge.  I have been sticking to a plan of having breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and dinner and so far this is working well and I am not feeling hungry.  I have also gotten into the habit of taking a bottle of water with me everywhere to increase my water intake.

Exercise has been a bit of a downfall with most days being quite smokey as a result of the Blue Mountains fires even though we are some distance away.  So being asthmatic I have avoided outdoor activities.  Being left to indoor activities I never seem to get any done.....I only have a rather crappy exercise bike which spends most of its time transformed into a school uniform hanging device!!  Our lounge room floor area is probably about 1.5m x 1.5m and most of that is covered in lego or barbies!!!!  I need to motivate myself to come up with indoor workouts!

Sunday evening I was able to drag (almost literally) hubby and the girls to the park to complete SS....after much whinging and whining on their behalf we got through it and I managed the following results...

1km time trial - 7.35.6 mins
pushups - 30
squats - 21
burpees - 10
side crunches - hmm forgot to do those!
tricep dips - 24
plank - 1 min (just made it!)
wall squat - 30 seconds

Come the end of the session the girls we already planning the next one!!

So there's week 1....hoping week 2 is even better!

What about weeks 7 and 8 ??

Okay well lets just say that after having numerous sick children during the school holidays...and being sick myself....things didn't quite go to plan for weeks 7 and 8 of Shannan's Fast Track Challenge.

But ya know what...that's okay....we all got over our illness.  It took a couple of weeks to build up my fitness again.  I started with the 1km walk to school and have built back up to 5km walks.

At the end of the challenge I kinda found myself in a good place so even if only a couple of kilos were lost a lot was gained.

I lost a little bit more last week and have started this challenge off strong.

My youngest daughter and my eldest daughter are having their birthday parties in 3 weeks so that is my first mini goal......I am aiming to have lost 3 kilos by the day of the parties.

Then after Christmas we are going away for a little family holiday at the beach.  It has been a few years since we've been away so I plan to make the most of it.  I'm not really a beach person but it is still a motivating force for a bit more weight loss.  I am aiming to have lost at least 6 kilos by then.

I am still battling with being organised and with dealing with the unexpected things that arise everyday which seems inevitable with 5 children....but these are things I just have to work around. 

So here's to a new day and a new challenge....!!!

A Healthy Start Part 3

{sponsored post from Mums United and The Heart Foundation }

Well after two weeks of school holidays I can tell you that I am exhausted!! Dropping the girls to activities here and there, driving them to friends houses or movie sessions.....no rest for the wicked as they say!

I feel like I am starting each day tired already....so by the time the afternoon rolls around it is all too easy to reach for a chocolate bar...or two...to try to give me a little boost to get through the rest of the day.    But in an attempt to provide healthier snacks for myself and for my family I went searching the recipes at the Heart Foundation website and found this one here...  Apricot and Oat Balls and it is super quick and super easy to make...!!

The four ingredients are literally all placed in the food processor....given a mix for two to three minutes and then simply rolled into little balls...that's all there is to it....

Well I love anything that is this quick and easy to make...and it doesn't leave me with a huge mess to clean up..!!

One batch made about 18 balls....next time I will have to double, or even triple, the ingredients as it didn't take long for seven mouths to devour these.  Highly recommended and well worth a try!

    

I would like to thank everyone that has stopped by my blog in the last 2 weeks to enter our $200 grocery giveaway.  Entries have now closed and the winner will contacted via email and will also be announced on Tuesday 15th October on the blog....so pop by to see who the lucky winner is !!

6 weeks in.....

Well week one of the school holidays arrived....and with it came a stomach bug that hit hard.

Miss 9 was the first but luckily for her she was only out of action for a day.  Miss 4 was next and she was hit a bit harder.  She took about 48 hours to get over it.  Having nursed her through it I was next in line!  I was completely out of action for 48 hours and was still off food for another day or so.  Miss 12 was the last victim but she recovered after about 12 hours.

So that week saw no exercise and no attention to eating.

I did have a weight loss of 700 grams on the scales on Sunday but that was purely from being sick.

It was disappointing but to look on the positives I am lucky it was the school holidays so I had less running around to do and could take a couple of days to get better.

Moving on from here...will see what next week holds....

A Healthy Start Part 2...and the giveaway continues...

{sponsored post from Mums United and The Heart Foundation }

We are well into the second week of the school holidays here and what a week it has been!! Sunday was spent sightseeing in Sydney.  Monday saw us arrive at the airport at 7am to welcome home Miss 14, she finally emerged well after 8am!!  We then went for a little trip to the beach at Brighton-le-Sands to relax and listen to her recount of her trip to Japan.  Tuesday saw Miss 4 off to preschool and the rest of us off on a shopping adventure. Wednesday saw three of the girls at a death by chocolate adventure and myself, Miss 9 and Miss 4 off to the local markets.  And today has been filled with workshops for the girls...fishing from 9.30am til 2.00pm and then off to a sports activity for the rest of the afternoon.  And tonight my great nephew...we'll call him Master 4....is having a sleepover with us....!!

The cupboards and fridge are looking quite bare.  So it was no surprise that hubby was hesitant to ask what was for dinner tonight!!  

Usually on a day like this he would be lucky to get frozen party pies!!  But thanks to the Heart Foundation website I actually had it covered!

I had browsed their dinner recipes earlier in the week and had made quite a list of favourites. One of the recipes on my list was the Linguine with Garlic Prawns.....you can find the recipe here...

Now this is a new favourite of mine for a few reasons....firstly because it has so few ingredients, secondly because it can be prepared and cooked in only half an hour and thirdly because it doesn't create a lot of extra washing up :-)  


I have to admit that hubby was quite impressed with this meal and it will definitely be a regular in our meal plans from now on.

Don't forget that thanks to Mums United and The Heart Foundation I have a 
$200 supermarket voucher to give away.....so now you too can go shopping for some Heart Foundation tick products....

Here's all you have to do to be in with a chance to win...

*  pop over and 'like' my Facebook page.....just click on the button on the top right of this blog
*  post a comment on my previous heart foundation blog by clicking here  and tell me which of the recipes from the Heart Foundation website tickles your fancy the most.....and why?
*  please include your email address in the post so we can contact you if you are the lucky winner
    

terms and conditions
-  competition closes  at midnight on Tuesday 8th October 2013
-  competition is open to Australian residents only
-  only one entry per household
-  we will be looking for original and creative answers
-  judges decision is final
-  winner will be announced here on the blog on Tuesday 15th October 2013


So pop on over to the Heart Foundation website, check out all of their wonderful recipes and remember to pop back to my previous Heart Foundation blog and complete your entry....feel free to share the competition with family and friends too...and good luck !!!!!

A Healthy Start.... and a giveaway!!

{sponsored post from Mums United and The Heart Foundation }

Being a busy mum of five girls I often feel that I should be doing more to promote a more active and a more healthy lifestyle in our home.....but where do you start?

Well recently I took part in a Mums United - Heart Foundation Challenge which was perfectly timed as the focus was on improving our family's health by making simple changes in our diet such as looking for Heart Foundation approved products.....and by increasing our exercise, starting with simple things like a walk around the block.

As part of the challenge we were sent some wonderful Heart Foundation approved recipes.  So I decided that that was the place to start.  You can check out the recipes for yourself at the Heart Foundation website by clicking here .

With a few family members popping around for a visit I decided that the banana cake from the website was the way to go.....here's the recipe....

At first I thought this would mean a quick trip to the shops but I was actually surprised that some of the ingredients right there in my fridge and pantry were already Heart Foundation tick products.....

So I was able to get straight to making the cake which was an easy to follow recipe.

When all the ingredients had been combined it was into the cake tin and into the oven.

The aroma of the cake cooking was torture....it smelt so good!  Time was up and the cake came out of the oven looking wonderful.

As soon as it had cooled I whipped up the icing and put it on the cake....just in time for our afternoon tea with the family.

The cake was devoured by all with high accolades received.  When I revealed to all that this was in fact a healthier version of banana cake the requests for the recipe were overwhelming !

So the cake was a hit and it was simple to make the changes to Heart Foundation tick products (though most for this recipe I already had!).....

Next I think I will pop over to the website for some dinner inspiration....check back next week and I'll share the results!!

But wait.....

Here's some good news.....thanks to Mums United and The Heart Foundation I have a 
$200 supermarket voucher to give away.....so now you too can go shopping for some Heart Foundation tick products....

Here's all you have to do to be in with a chance to win...

*  pop over and 'like' my Facebook page.....just click on the button on the top right of this blog
*  post a comment below on this blog and tell me which of the recipes from the Heart Foundation website tickles your fancy the most.....and why?
*  please include your email address in the post so we can contact you if you are the lucky winner
    


terms and conditions
-  competition closes  at midnight on Tuesday 8th October 2013
-  competition is open to Australian residents only
-  only one entry per household
-  we will be looking for original and creative answers
-  judges decision is final
-  winner will be announced here on the blog on Tuesday 15th October 2013


So pop on over to the Heart Foundation website, check out all of their wonderful recipes and remember to pop back here and complete your entry....feel free to share the competition with family and friends too...and good luck !!!!!

5 weeks in....

Well nearly every waking moment of this week was consumed with getting miss 14 packed and ready for her trip to Japan....and Wednesday night saw her depart safely....

It was a terrible week for food as the dining table was covered with clothes, suitcases, yen, toiletries....you name it it was probably on there somewhere.....

So meals were more of a rushed convenience type....ranging from toasted sandwiches to two minute noodles !!!

A check of my Lorna Jane app shows zero exercise this week.

Sunday's weigh in showed no loss....no gain....I had to be happy with that knowing that zero effort had been put in by me!

A busy life with 5 daughters and a hubby who works long hours is always going to throw these kinds of weeks at me....I have to work at being prepared or having a back up plan.....if I could cook up some of the meals and have them in the freezer for these situations it would be ideal...just to find the time to get this done!!!  And to find a back up plan for exercise when time is tight.....

School holidays are here....that makes me nervous as most of my exercise is currently being done walking to and from school.....  I'll have to see what I can do.....hoping I don't just lose it for the next two weeks...already disappointed with myself at how slowly I am progressing....well more realistically it would be that I am disappointed at how I can't stick with it 100%.....

4 weeks in...

This week I struggled a lot with the 'foreverness' of this whole thing.....

Whilst it is an 8 week challenge it is more than that....it has to become a way of life.... FOREVER!!

I felt like every day my head was consumed with thoughts of food from morning til night even though I had mapped out what I was going to eat the thoughts wouldn't go away !!!!!!!

I have downloaded the couch to 5K app and managed to complete day 1....it was a five minute warm up followed by 1 minute jogging, 1.5 minutes walking, 1 minute jogging, 1.5 minutes walking...repeated 6 times followed by a 5 minute cool down...but I kept walking to complete 5kms.  I found having the walk/jog broken down like this was achievable....but I need to be child free to get it done so only managed day 1...hoping to get back to it soon.

On top of that I only managed another 8 kms over the rest of the week.

Food was reasonable with even a few perfect days thrown in.

Come Sundays weigh in I knew once again that the figures wouldn't be great.  I managed a loss of 400 grams.....still it was a loss.

Til next week...

3 weeks in....

So we are 3 weeks in to Shannan's 8 week challenge.....

And this week I increased my exercise which was huge for me...

On Tuesday I attempted a teeny tiny jog/walk and did 1km in 9.37 minutes.  I kept walking from there and ended up completing 5.70kms in 54.39 minutes.

Hugely impressed with myself I set out again on Wednesday walking 3.26km in the morning and 1.98km in the afternoon, Thursday I walked 2.93kms and Friday another 3.21kms so a grand total of 17.18kms over the 4 days.

I said no to the little....yet loud.....voice in my head telling me to each chocolate and drink coke...I succeeded most days but did consume 1 little freddo this time (improvement on last weeks big freddo!)....although I didn't follow the menu plan entirely because the fortnights grocery budget had run out I resorted to a plate of steamed veggies when hubby and the girls had sausages, where ever possible I had grilled chicken and salad.

I was thinking mid week that I was totally awesome !!!!

Then came Saturday and we were heading out so I popped on my jeans....well in actual fact it was more like struggled to put on my jeans....and at the moment I knew that there was no fabulous weight loss figure waiting for me on Sunday morning.

Sunday rolled around with a little sleep in...precious! Then I delayed getting out of bed for as long a possible with a hungry household...avoiding the inevitable weigh in.....

Finally I summoned up the courage and stood on the scales to see a 200gram loss.

Devastated was the first thing that came to mind.  I had got my butt out there walking nearly every day, I had attempted some of Shannan's exercises, I had completed a few sets of cardio and abs exercises from an app on my iphone and here I had a 200gram loss.

Usually that would have seen me down at Woolworths in a flash to stock up on a few family blocks of Cadbury.....but although the scales did not reflect what I had wanted them to in my head there was growth on my part because I didn't even think of taking a huge step backwards....I just felt more determined to get it even more right this week....

So late last night I trawled through the menu, made a few swaps and adjustments and made my shopping list.  I am off to the supermarket this afternoon to get everything I need for this week...I have posted in my diary for probably the second time in this challenge....and I will attempt to do so each day this week.

I even have my heart rate monitor packed in my bag to get a replacement battery tomorrow.

So I am typing this update now in an attempt to push myself a little further before I eat lunch...so that then I will hopefully survive the chaos of the afternoon and activities with the kids without hunger pains or temtpations !!

So here's to 110% this week......

2 weeks in....

So we are 2 weeks in to Shannan's 8 week challenge.....

and I had a weight loss of 200 grams.....

Again I was not 100% on track with exercise and food.... but I did manage one huge breakthrough...no chocolate (except for that one large Freddo on Friday) and no coke...now I'm pretty sure that I won't be getting any special awards from Shannan for that but considering chocolate and coke were consumed on a daily basis I am happy with that progress.

I have completed one or two of Shannan's 8 week challenges in the past and have seen some positive results myself....but I have always only given it a half-hearted attempt (really more like one eighth hearted if that's possible!!)

I have either been slow to start and therefore always behind the pace from the get go...or I have been on track at the beginning then hit a bump in the road part way through and totally veer off course.

This challenge I have once again started off slowly but I am catching up and have actually completed some of the challenges set by Shannan...which is probably a good idea coz that is the whole point of doing this really....do what Shannan tells you to!!!

Today I kinda almost jogged a little...now you may recall that running is not my thing....so I was pretty impressed with my little attempt.... I walked/jogged 1 km in 9.37 mins and then combined that with Sunday's SS to complete 5 kms....so I walked the rest and ended up completing a total of 5.70 kms in 54.39 mins.

But wait there's more....when I got home I did a 10 minute cardio workout and a 5 minute ab workout on some app that one of my daughters downloaded onto my iphone.....I am now sooo exhausted and can hardly walk...which is a good thing because all I can think about now is food but am too exhausted to walk to the kitchen!!!

Last week I attempted to improve my planning.....that is still a work in progress but it is coming along.

Last week I was also supposed to pick up the pace with my exercise and whilst that didn't happen I am making steps in the right direction now.

Again there is still room for improvement but I am feeling good...oh and I forgot to mention that my HRM needs a new battery so I don't have a calorie count for anything but I'm guessing today was like a thousand calories burnt   ;-)

Now to stay good for the rest of the week !!

1 week in.....

So we are 1 week in to Shannan's 8 week challenge.....

and I had a weight loss of 500 grams.....

I would strongly suggest that this small loss was due to my following the program in a somewhat less than perfect manner.....   :-0

My main problem so far has been with planning and preparation so this week I am aiming to improve these areas.....I need to look at my week, organise my meals around activities, events and meetings and have snacks organised in advance to reduce the temptation to be naughty!! 
I also need to have some meals prepared in advance and frozen where possible because no matter how much I plan ahead it can all go terribly pear shaped with five children added to the equation....!!!!

I also need to pick up the slack with my exercise.  Last week was so busy time was scarce.  I did walk to and from a few of the events that I had on so that's a start....but it is a long way from my 600 calorie burn per day.

So it seems I have some room for improvement....a lot of room.......and I may need to harden up a tad too !!!

The New Me....

A little bit about me.....

Well I could do with losing say 6-8 kilos.  It really can't be blamed on pregnancies when your youngest child is turning 5 in a few months can it??

I have an aversion to exercise...unless walking to the fridge for chocolate counts...which it really
should...sometimes I do walk quickly!  

I did join the gym years ago when the girls were younger....more so to utilise their crèche facilities than their exercise equipment....

I may have run for the bus in my teenage years....perhaps once.....

I love love love chocolate.  I don't love love love vegetables.

So it's time....well beyond time....that I join Shannan Ponton's 8 week Fast Track Challenge and get my butt into gear...lose a few kilos, increase my exercise and improve my diet...and subsequently the diet of my family.

I have so far survived today...Day 1...!!