They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.
Lest We Forget

I feel sick. I just made, and ate, a (chocolate) cake in a cup and now I feel sick. I shouldn’t have made it, shouldn’t have given into the craving. Ugh, I can’t believe I did that especially with weigh in day tomorrow.

I really need to work on my willpower and not giving into cravings.

Ugh.

Weight – 87.6kg

I put on 200grams!! What the frick is with that? I was so upset this morning and it put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day

I thought I had done pretty well this week but I guess there were still too many treats such as crunchie bars (treat size) and feijoa muffins. The problem is I’m really starting to love baking and improving my skills but unfortunately the end results get eaten…by me, as well as by everyone else.

Is there a way to balance baking with weight loss? I guess willpower is the key.

I have found some yummy sounding recipes for cupcakes in my blog browsing and would love to try them out but I know it will be very hard to resist eating too many. I guess that is just something I need to work on.

I didn’t have breakfast this morning which I know is a no-no but DS was very grizzly and clingy and it was enough to try and get him fed and myself ready let alone trying to have breakfast myself. I am very proud that I didn’t do my usual thing of going to the petrol station and buying an Up n Go so I guess I can pat myself on the back for that.

Saturday night is takeaway night but I know what I can have that isn’t too bad, as in it’s not the best choice but it is the better choice. It’s the Wendy’s Grilled Chicken burger small combo with diet coke. When I was counting my points before the wedding it’s what I could usually fit in and work around pretty easily so that’s what I’m going to have and I’m looking forward to it

Good luck with keeping up the healthy eating for the weekends, I’m told it all gets easier once it becomes a habit

xoxo C

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do; not that the nature of the thing itself is changed, but that our power to do is increased.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I’ve been missing in action from here purely from a lack of motivation to do anything! I think I may be getting to the stage where the groundhog day-ish-ness (yes I know that’s not a word) is getting to me. I love being at home with DS don’t get me wrong but I feel like I can’t do anything because my attention should be on him instead of painting/gardening/tidying. When he’s asleep I should be fine but 1. I want to sit and enjoy the peace & quiet and 2. I don’t want to make too much noise in case I wake him up.

Anyway, the reason I’ve come back on is I’m starting weight loss attempt number 1 million, seven hundred thousand….you get the picture. I’ve been trying to work out why I don’t have the motivation to stick to my good eating plan, I know I need to lose the weight for health reasons not just to improve my appearance. I wanted to lose weight for DS’s first birthday so I wouldn’t look like a fat slob in the photos. Doesn’t look like that’s going to happen huh.

However, while I may not get to the weight i originally wanted to be at I am going to do my damnedest to lose as much as I can as that will still be an improvement on what I am today.

I can’t believe I originally got down to 82 point something and then went back up to 88! How and why did I let that happen? Is it because I’m at home all day so essentially I’m hiding from the world so it doesn’t matter what I look like? Maybe.

I should have taken more advantage of the good weather to get out there and do more walks.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda….

Check out my weight loss page for my current stats and stay tuned for updates which I plan to do on a Friday night for weigh in and Sunday night for reviewing the week of eating and exercising.

Wish me luck!

We had a massive blitz on the gardens and lawn today. Mum picked DS up this morning and took him for the day so we could concentrate on getting some stuff down without having to keep an eye out for a certain little boy.

Hubby started earlier than I did of course seeing as I had to work till 12 but I got stuck into it and it felt good, very constructive. I called into Mitre 10 Mega on the way home and picked up some gardening gloves that have a rubber coating to them to protect my nails a bit better, some Yates carrot seeds and a small bag of Yates Black Magic seed raising mix.

I’ve joined the Yates Autumn Veggie Challenge as a bit of motivation to stay up to date with everything in the garden. There are 2 x $1,000 gift cards and 3 x Yates Garden Sprayers to be won, all you have to do is register at http://www.yates.co.nz/vegie-challenge/autumn-2011 (sorry tried to insert at link but I’m having technical issues), keep a blog on how your veggies are going and get your friends and family to vote for you.

How to win:

People’s Choice Award – Goes to the person with the most public votes
Yates Choice Award – Goes to the best entrant as judged by Yates
Encouragement Awards (x3) – As judged by Yates

What are they looking for?

• Use of Yates Products: Of course we want to see you using our products. Submit photos of you using Yates products in your garden.
• Quantity of Posts: This competition is about sharing information with other gardeners. So the more information the better.
• Quality of Posts: This means helpful gardening advice, interesting commentary and honest blogging.
• Photos: Not only do photos show the progress of your plants and prove that you’re actually growing from seed, they may also help other aspiring gardeners.
• Public Support: Your family, friends, neighbours and members of the public are able to vote for you.

Wish me luck Also if you would be so kind check out my blog and vote for me I’d love you forever!

You can vote for me here – http://www.yates.co.nz/vegie-challenge/autumn-2011/gardeners/Dzinergirl (again, sorry about the lack of link )

I’ll post some photos of our garden tomorrow, including some of the vege garden with the rhubarb and lettuces planted and photos of me planting the carrot seeds into the garden and the cauli and brocolli seeds into seed trays.

Stay tuned and as always thanks for reading

C xx

I’m on fire this week

This morning before the First Aid for Littlies course I was going to I walked down to the BP/Wild Bean Cafe to grab a (trim) hot chocolate. I thought I would get back with at least 10 mins to spare but they were mucking around, so I had to run the last 100m so I wouldn’t be late. Yes, I did have a hot chocolate in my hand as well and part of it ended up the back of the stroller :(. Got the heart rate going though!

I also went for another walk this evening with Mum, we had a bit of a gander (isn’t that a funny word!) at some different streets in the neighbourhood and peeked through the fence at the local Playcentre.

So I feel like I’ve done very well today

Food Diary

B – 2 pieces of toast – marmite and apricot jam both with olivani

S – Small trim hot chocolate

L – Small bowl of pasta (leftover from dinner earlier in the week), glass of cordial, most of a mandarin.

S – Banana

D – Sausages in a Tomato & Onion Sauce with approx 1 1/2 cups of Jasmine Rice. 1 1/2 x fish fingers (leftover from DS’s dinner). Glass of Diet lemonade. Glass of juice.

Work tomorrow so I don’t know if I’ll get a walk in, possibly in the evening again. Will try hard to keep my eating in line too.

Hope you’re all well

C xx

* Gazing into my son’s eyes and knowing he trusts me completely.

* Sitting in bed in the mornings while feeding him, complete mum and baby time

* Watching him sleep in my arms

* Hearing him giggle when I tickle him or blow rasperries on his tummy

* I now know the right things to say and the best way to help when friends have a baby or even when clients have a baby/are pregnant

* Making new friends through coffee group (and hopefully Playcentre when I start too!)

* Watching him playing and talking to his toys

I said I’d do it and I did, went for walk #3 of the week! Also started keeping a food diary.

Here’s what I ate today…

B – 2 pieces of toast – 1 x marmite, 1 x marmalade, both with olivani. 2 tsp of DS’s breakfast (weetbix with yoghurt & fruit)

S – piece of banana cake. 1 x glass of Diet Coke

L – Shared with Mum so I had – 1/2 chicken, cranberry, brie & avocado panini, 1/2 apple turnover, 1/2 bottle of Just Juice

S – 1/2 apple, 1 x mandarin. glass of ginger beer

D – 2 x burritos – mince, lettuce, cheese, carrot & lettuce. glass of ginger beer.

I’m still feeling a bit hungry and it’s been over 20 mins since I ate so I might have a banana and a cup of tea for dessert/supper. I also noticed I got very hungry an hour before dinner so my lunch and afternoon snack didn’t fill me up enough to tide me over. I’ll need to work on having more filling lunches AND a big one – drink more water!

I’m feeling good

C xx

While my eating hasn’t been the greatest, the banana cake I baked yesterday has been calling my name, I have been on 2 walks both 2-3km long.

I should confess that I have indulged in some of the aforementioned cake, however when in a moment of weakness I reached for it to have for breakfast ( I know, shock horror), I am quite proud to say I resisted. Instead I had nothing, the better choice by a slim margin but by no means ideal. After all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, isn’t it?

I think I need to go back to writing down everything I’m eating. I really need to start tracking my points again but I’ll start with keeping a food diary to start with to get back in the habit of writing everything down and then start working out the points.

Have you noticed it’s getting colder over night? Brrr, winter is definitely on its way which isn’t going to help the whole exercise thing so I’ve got to get as much as I can in while the sun is still shining.

Updates on my other missions;

Organised Home – I was doing so well with keeping on top of the washing and dishes daily and then we had a manic weekend which threw everything out of whack so I’m back to square one. I did manage to do a deep clean and de-clutter of a corner of the lounge, that made me feel like I had accomplished something I cleared out the bookshelf, dusted and re-arranged, putting a stack of books into my “To Donate” pile. I threw out some rattan decorative balls that were old, faded and dusty and just really needed to go. So they’ve gone Some other bits and pieces have been moved to more appropriate homes as well.

Vege Garden – I  weeded the garden, again! This time however I actually dug in some Tui Organic Compost and watered it in. It then sat like that for about a week before I got out there again but then I (finally) transplanted my lettuce seedlings along with a rhubarb plant that I had been given at Christmas.

That’s it from me for today.

Keep well

C xx

I decided to do a bit of baking this morning to use up some of the frozen bananas I have in my freezer. Everything was going perfectly I defrosted and mashed the bananas and added them into the cake mix. As I was folding in the dry ingrediants though I noticed it had become really lumpy! And then I realised what had happened, when I mashed the bananas they weren’t completely thawed therefore still cold and the coldness caused the creamed butter to harden! Duh

So note to self (and any other novice bakers out there) – defrost your frozen bananas completely

I hope the cake still turns out okay despite of this.

I will let you know how it goes