Belly laughs

January 14, 2009 at 3:48 pm (General life, fitness)
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Firstly, I need to start this post off by saying that I’m DAMN cold. I’m craving carbs and my body is hating the fact that there’s less fat to keep me warm. This weather is inhumane.

Now that’s off my chest, I’ve been reading a lot of New Year’s/January themed articles relating to, you guessed it, losing weight. It is of course the top New Year’s Resolution every year, which results in packed gyms and sold out aerobics equipment until the middle of the month or, at the latest, the end of January. Then all the resolutionites give up, get back on the couch and the rest of us normal people continue on. Some resolutionites end up becoming part of the crowd every year but most tend to crave the quick result and, when that fails to materialise after 2 sessions in their brand new lululemon workout gear, they give up.

Every paper and magazine and website seems to be filled with easy ways to lose weight – A good laugh works your abs, so get telling jokes and you’ll lose weight! Drink this tea 8 times a day to lose weight without trying! Spend 15 minutes a day strapped to a vibrating belt and you’ll lose weight and get fit! Amazing – all these things you can do without any effort and look amazing!

It’s all bollocks of course. The only way to get healthy is to BE HEALTHY. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? The January articles all seem to focus on the quick detox and quick results but in my opinion, that’s the surest way to disappointment.

I’m tempted to follow Charlotte’s lead and follow a “Lose 10 lbs” exercise and eating plan for a month and see if it actually works because, really I have my doubts.

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Things I’ve learnt today #1

January 10, 2009 at 10:31 am (Uncategorized)
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Eating 2 small chocolates at 9am does not sit well, regardless of whether you had breakfast at 4:30am due to insane rampaging jetlag.

Damn my body and its desire for real food.

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The shoe … it dropped

December 10, 2008 at 2:29 pm (Uncategorized)
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Okay, so the other shoe DID drop. The guy went AWOL for a week and then broke it off on the weekend. I was kinda expecting it so I think I’d started preparing myself during the week. So by the time we spoke and made it final, it only took me a day or so to realise that hey, his issues, not mine.

I’m doing okay actually. Better than okay. Weird actually. I’m still a little sad that he couldn’t see the potential I saw but otherwise, I’m not letting it get to me.

I’ll post more later :)

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The other shoe

November 27, 2008 at 9:20 am (Rants and Vents, Uncategorized)
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It’s that feeling that things are going so well and it can’t last. It’s not possible.

  • You’ve lost the weight and kept it off even though you had pizza for dinner last night (and the night before but nobody’s keeping track)
  • You’re training hard and lifting heavier.
  • You’re fitting into your ’skinny’ jeans.
  • You’re dating someone fantabulous.

It can’t last. Something HAS to go wrong. I mean, that’s what happens, right? Because that’s the nature of the world. It’s almost a given that, as soon as the world seems to be spinning beautifully, a meteor will come out of nowhere and suddenly, we’re all The Day After Tomorrow and all that jazz. Suddenly, the other shoe drops.

  • You step on the scale and you’re up 10 lbs from yesterday and it’s all pizza.
  • You get to the gym and struggle to lift the pretty pink 5lb weights while people laugh and point.
  • Your skinny jeans get up and walk out of the room when they see your new pizza enhanced thighs.
  • Your new guy/girl stops calling and it all falls apart.

Yep, I’m waiting for that other shoe to drop. Cos at the moment, things are too freaking good. Yeah, I know. By writing about it, I am, in fact, inviting the shoe to drop. Please shoe, please drop.

Because all this waiting is driving me bonkers. I’m imagining slights and issues. I’m doubting myself and everything around me.

And then the phone rings and it’s the guy. And all is right in the world again.

I’m pathetic really.

And no, this blog didn’t really have a point other than to illustrate how screwed up this new relationship is making me because damn it, I LIKE this guy. I’m actually getting the flutterbies and all that jazz. I’m smiling on the phone. I’m (semi) facebook stalking him (he added me first so it’s allowed). And I’m making myself sick.

Oh yeah, and I added another 10lbs to my leg press last week and did push ups with 10lbs on my back. I rock.

Happy Thanksgiving to all you Americans who won’t be reading this but will instead be gorging on turkey. :)

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Whew it’s dusty in here! *Sneeze*

November 3, 2008 at 11:35 am (Uncategorized)
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Hey strangers!

Wow, it’s been a while. A quick update:

  • I’m still on legal up here – waiting on my work permit and waiting and waiting some more. It’s getting annoying. But I’m not completely illegal, don’t get me wrong – I gots me a visitor’s visa. Just means no paycheck for a while. It’s tight and annoying but I did plan for it so I’m not on tuna and ramen yet. If it comes to that, I’m skeered.
  • All my IKEA furniture is now assembled and looking pretty in my apartment. I love love love living alone. Did I mention I love it? It rocks. I can invite people over at the last minute and not have to worry about the state of the apartment. Bliss.
  • In my stress and non-legal status, I have to admit that the eating has gone mentally off track. I’m trying to get back onto the wagon but the wagon is so far away and so high up and I’m so short … lol. I’m working on it.
  • I can now dead lift 50lbs. That’s huge for me considering I don’t think I could move 50 lbs when I started.

That’s a quick update. More posts to come. Promise.

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Two screws loose

September 8, 2008 at 1:26 pm (Uncategorized)
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My IKEA desk that is. Nothing is wobbly or wonky and yet I have 2 screws left over. I wonder…

I’m finally moved into my new place and LOVING it, if not loving all the IKEA furniture stacked up against one wall, waiting to be assembled. I wonder about the minds of IKEA designers and their many methods of torturing the poor consumer.

“I know, let’s add 2 more screws to the pack and make them wonder if their desk is going to collapse any time soon!”

“Even better – let’s have some of the screw holes NOT line up so their furniture either wobbles or they go insane while trying to assemble it!”

I imagine them chuckling insanely in their workrooms, working on new strangely named designs that will increase blood pressure medication sales.

I’m slowly getting settled in my place. Boxes are getting unpacked. I’m feeling almost settled. Things are good.

Sorry for the short post – trying to get things done at work and at home is taking up time. I am here and I am reading other blogs – just being a bit quiet on my end. I’ll be back properly soon. :)

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How to cure road rage (or any type of rage)

August 25, 2008 at 10:17 am (Uncategorized)
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Send them to baking class. Make the offenders bake their own bread.

This, my friend, is the ultimate lesson in patience. There is NOTHING you can do to make bread rise faster or cakes bake better. You have to follow the instructions, let things do their own thing and relax.

This I learnt on Friday when I took up my own challenge and baked my own challah, following Leslie’s Yummy Challah Recipe. Two things you should know about me first:

  1. I have not been blessed with patience. When I drive alone, I yell a lot. I mutter when walking behind slow people on the sidewalk. I try to curb my impatience but alas, my father has a lot to answer for.
  2. In the past, when I’ve tried to bake, I’ve screwed it up and never gone back. For the past 5 years, unless it was pre-mixed-just-add-water-and-an-egg, I wasn’t baking it.

So Friday, I got home from work and decided that it was Time. I got all the ingredients together, read the recipe (already printed out) and got to it. I mixed and I poured. I kneaded the dough til it needed no more. I covered the bowl and I left it to rise. Leslie said 1-2 hours.

Those were the longest hours of my week. I checked the bowl incessantly. I fretted that I should have added more flour. I fretted that it wasn’t rising. I found a million reasons to wander past the Bowl. I agonised that my bread was a flop and I should just give up.

It rose. I braided it and I baked it. And it was good. I tad salty (my bad – I added salted butter instead of unsalted) but oh so good.

But nothing I did made it so. The bread rose in its own sweet time. It baked in its own sweet time. All I did was combine the ingredients.

So, any police officers and judges out there – you want to teach road ragers a lesson? Send them to baking class.

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You’re eating WHAT?!

August 8, 2008 at 9:49 am (Uncategorized)

Aiming for perfection sets us up for failure. That’s a blanket statement and a half, I know. I also know they say you should aim for the stars and all that. And yes, I’m all for setting long term goals like that but perfection? That’s never going to happen. We’re human.

I’ve never been a fan of diets and nutritionists etc. and yet here I am, seeing a nutritionist. Huh? When I signed up for more personal training sessions, I got 2 free nutrition appointments and I thought Why not? I hadn’t lost as much of the fat as I would have liked so this could help.

In the 2 months since I started seeing Mr Nutritionist I’ve lost 8 lbs. That’s awesome for me, considering my body holds onto fat like we’re living in a depression. The fact that I have PCOS doesn’t help but I’m not making excuses really. I may not have been eating terribly, but I was eating a muffin everyday and justifying chips and snacks and not planning at all. I would get to work and be reliant on whatever the cafeteria was serving as my meal. And we all know how good cafeteria food is for weight loss!

So in the past 2 months, what’s changed? I plan my meals (most of the time) and cook enough for leftovers for lunch. I pack a lunch bag with snacks for the day so I’m not tempted by the vending machine (most of the time). I drink 2-3 litres of water a day. I drink green tea instead of coffee or normal tea so I don’t use sugar or sweeteners. I’ve switched to brown rice and whole wheat or brown rice pasta. I eat protein at every meal.

In short, I’ve overhauled my entire diet and I’m pretty proud of myself. No, I’m not perfect (I’m still working on the cutting down on chocolate thing) but I never set out to be.

Mr Nutritionist doesn’t seem to realise that.

I had an appointment with him on Tuesday where I proudly told him how things were going. I told him that instead of eating sugar loaded cereal with milk for breakfast, I was having oatmeal with protein powder. His response: What kind of oats? Quick oats are bad. You should be eating steel cut oats. Now, I know that but I’m looking at the babysteps here. I still need something that’s not going to take a lot of time to prepare, otherwise I’m going to end up skipping it. But some of my elation was dampened.

Then I told him how I had switched to brown rice pasta instead of regular pasta – it’s about 200 calories per serving instead of 375+. He asked how big my servings were. I told him that I was having maybe 3/4 of a cup or a cup in total. 200 calories, lower in carbs and gluten and sugar etc free. His response: your serving should be 1/2 cup at most. Unless you’re training. Not more. You’re eating too much.

I’m eating too much?! Dude, I lost 4 lbs since you saw me last. I’m at my lowest weight in over 5 years. Obviously I’m doing something right here so fug off.

I felt really low about it all until Wednesday, when I told my trainer. His response: 1 cup of pasta is fine. Regular oatmeal is fine – obviously steel cut would be better but let’s be realistic. You’re doing great. Maybe add a little more protein to the pasta but otherwise it seems to be working!

And I realised that yes, it seems to be working. So screw you Mr Nutritionist and screw your perfection. I’m not a robot. I’m a person with cravings and that’s never going to change. I can’t beat myself up over oats or pasta. So I’m not going to.

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Lose a pound in 1 hour!

August 6, 2008 at 3:34 pm (Uncategorized)
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Yes, that’s right, lose up to a pound in one hour. No diets. No exercise. How can this be, you ask? And why is she talking about what is obviously a fad diet when she always goes on and on about how much she hates them?

Because this is not a diet. The easy way to lose up to a pound in one hour?

A hair cut. Preferably a radical one. Like chopping off 5 inches of hair in one go.

I have, for the first time since I was in kindergarten, got short hair. Me, who has always had longish hair – either shoulder length or longer – for as long as I can remember. I have short hair. I’m still getting used to it but I’m sure a lot of tomorrow’s weight will be attributed to a lack of 5 inches of hair.

This is ever so slightly frightening. I watched the hair fall onto the floor and tried not to regret. I mean, I’m excited but still getting used to this short hair thing. The front is still technically long enough to pull into a low pony tail but something tells me it’s the kind of pony tail that’s going to fall out in 5 minutes. I can pull it back into a clip, so that might be the way to work out. It’s a bit of a shock.

But it’s a quick cure when you’re bored with what you see in the mirror. Trust me on that!

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HYC Check in – week 5

July 29, 2008 at 8:30 am (Healthy You Challenge, Uncategorized)
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No change in the vital statistics this wee – another week of holding steady, which is good considering I stumbled off the wagon a little bit this week. I rebelled. My rebelling included much chocolate and a small bag of chips yesterday. Ooooh … aren’t I the rebel?

My rebellious nature is dead when chocolate is the height of it.

NSV:

In training yesterday, I got on the leg press. I started with 75lbs for the first set. Moved up to 95lbs for the second set. Moved up to 115lbs for the third set. Moved up to 135lbs for the fourth set. I probably could have gone higher (but don’t tell my trainer!) but OMG that was the MOST weight I’ve ever pressed. I’m right proud! I’m a small person so pressing 135lbs is pretty major for me.

On the goal front last week, I’m at about 50% – kept up the water drinking, went to the gym 4 times but didn’t try a new recipe with a new ingredient or get my dresses altered. So, for this week:

  1. Get to the gym 4 times
  2. Keep up the water drinking at 2-3 litres
  3. Get the dresses altered
  4. Try a new recipe with a new ingredient
  5. Cut out dairy for 2 weeks

That last goal is one my trainer has set me. He thinks I’m eating too much dairy and it’s affecting me health-wise and energy-wise. So I’ve made a deal with him – I’ll (try) cut it out for 2 weeks and see how I feel. So far I’m 2 hours in and I’m not impressed. Oatmeal with protein powder for breakfast sucks. But we’ll see. I’m going to have to log my food for this week at least, just to keep myself on the straight and narrow.

Hope everyone has a great week!

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