The House of Gastro

I haven't been up to much lately, but I am thinking of submitting an idea to the yearly show for another horror attraction. I would call it The House of Gastro!

Apparently Christmas has come early this year..............

"Howdy Ho"

Thankfully it hasn't been me that has been effected by the dreaded poo bug, but the kids - all 4 of them!  To make it worse, they get it one by one.  Why can't they get it all at the same time and it all be over in a week?? WHY????

There have also been a couple of throat infections in there as well causing fevers and vomiting - it has been such an awesome few weeks, I just love it.

Apart from my lack of exercise, my food choices have been really, really bad so yesterday I went grocery shopping and have now filled the house with healthy foods.  I didn't buy any chips, sweets, chocolates, biscuits etc. much to the disgust of my husband.  I told him if he wants softdrink and biscuits he can buy it himself and eat it at work.  I don't want it in the house and the kids don't need it to be here either.

Today I have swapped this.............

For this............

AND I am making it a permanent part of my life.  I know that if I keep a healthy kitchen, I will keep a healthy body.  I don't care how much the kids and hubby complain that there's "no dessert" or "softdrink" in the house, I refuse to buy it from now on.  I mean what sort of example am I setting for the kids by having it in the house anyway?  Plus, it is so, so easy for me to just grab a biscuit instead of making myself a salad.

Even though I enjoy the salad just as much as the biscuit, the difference is the convenience of the junk cause it's pre-made.  Now instead of grabbing a biscuit, I can grab an apple which is 1000 times more satisfying anyway - I am such an idiot, why am I just learning these simple, healthy lifestyle tips now?  I can't believe how long it has taken for it all to finally start sinking in.

I do owe my epiphany to a good friend of mine (Me from My Journey - Am I There Yet?).  Thanks to a conversation between us the other day, she made me realise something extremely significant which has greatly been effecting my attitude towards food that I didn't even know was happening.

Thank you so much Me, I love your support and the encouragement you give me to make myself a better version of what I am now xx

Please tell me if you have had a complete brain and kitchen overhaul.......

• Did / does your family complain about the changes to the food?  
• What's something you have given up and never looked back?
• How do you cope with your new lifestyle changes when cravings hit?

 

Big Plans, Little Motivation

**WARNING**  This post is a little gross, but if you have ever had sick kids you should be OK!

I had big exercise plans for this week.  I sat down last week and planned what I would be doing on the treadmill for the upcoming week.  It looked like this :

Sunday 9 October 2011 - Saturday 15 October 2011

• Sunday : incline
• Monday : incline & speed
• Tuesday : speed
• Wednesday : incline & speed
• Thursday : incline
• Friday : speed
• Saturday : speed

Looks simple enough?  Well so far, this has occurred..................

 This sums up exactly how I have been feeling :(

 

It's not because I don't want to do it, but I am just soooooo tired.  The kids have been sick since last Thursday.  I can't even remember how many pairs of underpants Christian went through!  Then Ava woke up at 2am vomiting and I was up with her till 5ish.  Every 20 mins she would wake and puke.  I had that special mummy alarm and every single time she moved I would jump up and grab that bucket whether she needed it or not resulting in no sleep for me.  

This has been going on since last Thursday with Holly and Hayden joining in as well.  I think I went without sleep from midnight till about 5 am Thursday through to Monday.   It was like a production line.  Clean up vomit, clean up poo, move onto the next kid and repeat.  The kids all seemed better yesterday and slept through the night, but I didn't, I am now the one who is up all night in the bathroom with a bucket.  I love how the kids just sleep through it and how none of them get up to help me.  Luckily though, I make it to the bathroom in time and none of my sheets need changing :) 

The kids are still not 100%, the vomit has stopped, but other end just keeps on going with them and it is driving me crazy.  Poor Hayden ended up with a face full of vomit the other night.  Christian leaned over the edge of his bed (bunks) to vomit and it landed on Hayden's head.  I was already up with Ava and her bucket when I heard something coming from the boys room.  The next minute Hayden walks in with vomit dripping from his hair into his face.  He was close to tears when me mumbled "Christian vomited on me", I couldn't help but laugh.  Unfortunately, Hayden didn't see the funny side at the time, but at least he laughed about it later - after his shower.

The worst thing about all of this is the lack of sleep = lack of motivation = lack of desire to eat well and all I want to eat is....

......this

Today I had the biggest urge to just guzzle 5 litres of coke, but I resisted and had water instead.  Also, I have no desire to cook anything healthy for myself, but I forced the issue cause I knew that with my lack of exercise, the last thing I couldn't afford to do was to binge on all things sugar.  I steamed up a pile of veggies the other day and they have been a quick and easy go to dinner.  I just re-heat and eat.  I have discovered that the veggies are delicious with a sprinkling of shredded cheese (melted on top) and a drizzling of Ranch dressing.

I am also lacking any desire to jump onto the treadmill at the moment.  I think I just need a good night or two of sleep and everything will be back to normal - I hope!

My motto for this week is :

Confessions of a Husband

In case you didn't know, I LOVE meringues - any size, shape or colour. Meringues are my serious weakness! Thanks to my Health Blitz, I have been able to limit myself to one of these babies a week and I can't wait to have it. I cherish every single bite. I have no trouble saving myself 3 Pro Points a week to indulge myself.

My husband knows I love them and with a bakery right across the street, access to these is not a problem. Every time he goes over there he brings me back something from the bakery and it is usually a meringue and he knows I can't resist them. I have always wondered why he does this. Is he trying to prevent me from losing weight?

I came across a post called Friend or Foe over at Just Another *** Weight Loss Blog. The part of this blog that really stood out to me was "ultimately you need to be able to rely on and take responsibility for this journey yourself". I immediately thought of my husband and all the times he brings me food and not just meringues. Luckily for me, I have learned to say no to the potato scallops, the McFlurry's, the Crunchie chocolate bars, the packets of chips and the chocolate and caramel slices from the bakery. I began to wonder whether my husband was a friend or my foe? I am bad enough on my own at sabotaging my efforts without the help of someone close to me who knows how much I am trying to shed the kilos.

We were talking the other day and the subject of dreams came up. I told my husband how I had a dream with Kim Kardashian and how I was a little upset because even in my dreams I am the fat girl, but then a couple of nights after that I had another dream where there was some kind of reunion and I was skinny in it. I loved that dream! It was after this that my husband confessed to me that he didn't really want me to lose the weight because he is scared that when I do get to goal that I am going to leave him for someone else. It all makes sense now - naughty husband!

Today's workout began with Day 5 of the 30 Day Shred. I am quite surprised with the differences I can feel between Day 1 and now. I still detest jumping jacks, but my shoulders must be handling the squat and press up better now cause the burn is nowhere near as bad.

Another improvement I can feel is the "butt kicks". This is just jogging on the spot but kicking your heels up to your butt. On Day 1 I had trouble with these and was just doing the "easy" option where my heels were about half way to my butt, but now, I can actually kick my own butt.

Although I was happy with my progress, my legs weren't. When I jumped onto the treadmill and started my interval workout, I could really feel it, especially in my knee (stupid knee). I was all pumped to repeat Tuesday's treadmill workout because I absolutely loved it. How sad am I falling in love with a workout!

My knee really started to hurt around the 11th minute so I decided to crop the workout to 15 mins. I have learned a lot from Janae at The Hungry Runner girl, but one thing that always sticks out is "listen to your body". I know that if I push my knee it will put me out of action for at least 2 weeks and that's somewhere I don't want to go right now.

*workout*


*Cool Down*


*HRM Stats*

Chocolate - Gift (Part 3) / Pudding (Take 2) & Oats

*A Chocolate Gift - Part 3*

Well, with help from my husband and kids we finally ate the rest of the chocolates that I received for Mother's Day from my In-Laws. In particular there were 3 Lindt chocolates that I had never seen before, a dark green, a lime(?) green with flowers and an aquaish blue.......

*White chocolate inside with MINT flavour*

*White chocolate inside milk chocolate*
*Chocolate speckles in white chocolate*

ALL of them were sensational and made me very happy :)

*Chocolate Chia Seed Pudding - take 2*

I said in my last post that I couldn't wait to try this pudding (Chocolate Chia Seed from PBF) so I made it as soon as I logged off the computer. I let the pudding sit in the fridge overnight, but as I had stuff to do first thing this morning (school drop, doctor appointment, grocery shop etc, etc) I thought I would have it for dessert at lunch.

I excitedly got my pudding out of the fridge and gave it a stir. As I was stirring it I could smell the chocolate and it smelled wonderful, it was nice and thick and I couldn't wait to eat it. Finally I put a spoonful into my mouth.........well, I'll just let the pictures do the talking.......

*Before*

*After*

Unfortunately the bowl is still full! I just couldn't stomach it - it was the texture!!!

I am a weird freaky texture person. I absolutely love peaches, but I can not eat a fresh peach because of the fuzz. It is only recently that I have been able to eat poppy seeds because they remind me of ..... this is embarrassing......ants (stupid? I agree!) and strawberries because of the seeds.

I have always, always had a texture problem with food and this pudding would have to be the worst one ever. It reminded of that hideous cat food - pilchards in aspic. Just for the record, - I have never actually eaten this cat food, but I used to cringe while feeding it to the cats and wonder how they could eat it - yuk!

I think it was that the seeds do thicken up and make a gel, which is great for other recipes. I put Chia Seeds in all my homemade soups and I love them, but as a pudding, just not for me. All I could pick out of the pudding was the gel, it just took over for me, I couldn't even taste the chocolate.

For my next experiment I went again with Julie from PBF using her Chocolate Overnight Oats recipe. I have been hearing and reading so much about these overnight oats so I thought I would try them and hope that they were better than the Chia pudding :)

*Chocolate Overnight Oats*

I started with :

1/2 cup oats
1 tsp chia seeds
1 tbs cocoa powder
1/2 cup milk
I gave it a stir and let it sit overnight in the fridge.

I was really looking forward to my oats this morning, but again the bowl remained full. I don't know whether I am making these things wrong, but the flavour of this one was horrible. The oat texture was fine and I could have eaten it texture wise, but flavour wise I think I need to add a ton of sugar to it and that just defeats the whole purpose of making, well attempting to make a more healthy breakfast for myself.

I like experimenting with other people's recipes and although these 2 particular recipes have just been a big NO,NO for me, I have found a lot of other great recipes at PBF that myself and / or the family have really enjoyed, like the cinnamon pita chip idea or the Healthy BBQ Chicken Pizza or the Salsa Chicken and I can't wait to try the Peanut Butter Energy Bites. I haven't got photos of the chicken dishes (or any other meat dishes) because I don't eat them. I tend to only put up pictures of things that I eat, also my husband thinks I am a complete weirdo for taking pictures of food!

*Cinnamon Pita Chips*

This was as quick and easy as anything to make. I just sprayed a little oil on a sheet of Lavash bread, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar (not ground cinnamon) and then I just got my pizza cutter and cut it up, placed it on a baking tray and put in the oven for around 15 mins.

A Chocolate Gift - Part 2

You can read A Chocolate Gift - Part 1 here.

After being a good girl and waiting until Sunday to open the box (just like the sticker said) I found a beautiful yellow bucket filled with delicious chocolates and as suspected, it was from my In-Laws.

As I already knew what was in the box - chocolates, it wasn't too much of a surprise, but some of the chocolates themselves were surprises :

These 3 Lindt balls - I have never seen them before, I didn't even know they existed. Can't wait to see what's inside these interesting wrappers.

Stay tuned for A Chocolate Gift - Part 3.

A Chocolate Gift - Part 1

The courier left this at my front door this morning and when I saw that it was for me for mother's day I was even more excited, I love getting packages delivered even if they aren't for me. It is from Edible Blooms which can only mean 1 thing - CHOCOLATE!!!!

**Chocolate Gift Inside** It is chocolate - not that I need it or particularly want chocolate, but who am I to turn away such a generous gift??

As the sticker said not to open till Sunday (mother's day) I don't know who it is from, but I have a sneaking suspicion it's from my in-laws. I guess I will have to wait until Sunday to find out for sure. Even the box is pretty :)

I knew it wasn't from hubby even before I phoned him to ask, he is more of a *midnight stroll while stealing flowers* type of man. In the 19 years we have been together, I don't think he has ever purchased flowers for me, but I prefer the *homemade* kind anyway, bugs and all.

BIG Meringues and SmallTriumphs

This is what my husband bought home from the shops for me, for the woman who is trying to lose weight and still has close to 40 kilos to go. A beautiful big white meringue covered in sprinkles - a girls dream right? Well, even though it is, it isn't!

What is he trying to do to me? I am trying to be soooooo good as I am really trying to focus on my weight loss at the moment and he (husband) is always making little niggling comments about my weight more specifically about what I eat, so why on earth would he bring me home something like this???????

I am sure that he is trying to sabotage me sometimes! Does he really want me to lose the weight? If he does why doesn't he help me by not bringing me things like this?

Anyway, I was very tempted and I did really feel like something sweet, especially since it's been nearly 3 months since I've had any chocolate so I had a couple of bites and then threw it in the bin. I even took a photo as proof and also to remind myself that I am stronger than any sugar urge, that I can beat the cravings and that I will WIN!!!!!!

This is definitely a non-scale victory for me - yaaaaayyyyyyy!

Crazy Lady Says What???

I could not believe myself this morning, but a small miracle happened! See that crazy face over there well that's exactly how I felt this morning. I am tired cause I have been awake since about 3am and when I finally started to get back to sleep at around 7am the kids came in so any hope of sleep was gone, plus I had to get up and get child #1 ready for school.

I got back from dropping #1 at school and #'s 2, 3 & 4 were all sitting at the table waiting to get changed and have breakfast while husband is doing whatever it is he does in the morning while not helping me. He thinks because he has to go to work that he shouldn't have to change kids etc - that's a whole other post, maybe I should call him husband #1!!

Anyway, I finally got clothes and food ready and then #'s 2, 3 & 4 decided they all needed to go to the toilet at the same time so there was fighting, screaming and crying about that. We do have enough toilets for them all, but 2 of the toilets are upstairs and they are not allowed upstairs by themselves because I am sick of finding things in the toilet - for example, whole rolls of toilet paper, toys, marbles or my mobile phone just to name a few.

Now, the toilet downstairs is attached to the laundry and after doing 2 loads of washing this morning and the weather not being the best I had to use the clothes horse to hang certain items like my husband's work shirt and my son's school shirt. With kids still in the toilet I hear #3 calling for help and I discover that he has done a poop and while doing so he has forgotten to aim properly and both shirts have been given another wash by him, not to mention the floor!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Eventually I had them all sitting quietly after another massive screaming fight about which show they would watch this morning - The Fairies, Lazy Town, Johnson and Friends, Bananas in Pyjamas and so on. With breakfast the kids have milk. My husband bought these new cups home yesterday with lids that are really easy for the kids to open so you can imagine how I felt after 3 cups of milk ended up all over the kids and the floor. That's me over there the one crying on the floor. I felt like I was going mental!!!!

The DANGER here for me was that I hadn't put away the breakfast stuff yet, so the bread, butter and jam were still sitting on the bench staring at me, inviting me to eat them and when I feel like this, what's the first thing I do? TURN TO FOOD! I stood at the bench just looking at the bread and imagining how nice a hot piece of toast with lots of melted butter and jam would be. I took out 2 slices of bread, but I knew if I had those 2 I would go back for more, at least another 2 maybe another 4 - this is where the miracle sets in. I put the bread away and I actually asked myself WHY was I going to eat all this toast? I must be going really crazy cause I even answered myself out loud with "Why would I eat that? It doesn't make me feel better, it just makes me fat" I was shocked that I had said this to myself - I have finally admitted to myself that my current, yet changing behaviour is what has made me fat. It's one thing to think it, but to actually say it out loud to myself is another.

I was amazed at how easy it was to stop myself from scoffing down 6 pieces of toast. Instead I made myself a cup of "magic" tea and got myself a bowl of grapes to snack on so instead of blowing my daily points plus most of the weekly points in one go I used up 1/2 a point of milk instead in my tea. I call it my magic tea, not because there is anything strange in there, though on some days I wish there was, but because it has a calming effect on me. I think it is because when I have tea I sit down and do nothing else but drink it, I zone out and just think about whatever comes into my head. All the thoughts about having to re-wash the pee off the shirts and having to mop the floors again today because of the milk when I mopped them last night before bed and all the fighting over toys and the complaining because I gave someone the wrong plate or bowl or the wrong coloured straw - all of that just goes away - I feel calm, well for a little while anyway. Then it's back to the storm. 

It has actually taken me about 2 hours to write this post because of all the other stuff that goes on, but I have finally finished it. It is a long one today, but I just needed a vent as well as sharing my minor miracle of putting the bread away, I like to call this my NO Power, ie, the power of finally being able to say no to things I never would have dreamed being able to say no to.

Good Weigh-In

I had a fantastic weigh-in this week with a loss of 2.1kg. I really concentrated on my water intake and I could have been better with my tracking which is what I am concentrating on today. I did some moderate exercise, but I suppose it all works together to give us the losses we get each week. I was really happy with my loss this week, it's been a while since I had a really good one. I doubt my next weigh-in will be as good though, especially with father's day yesterday. I wasn't too bad, but I am sure I went over just a little.

We ended up just ordering pizza for lunch, so I ordered a thin & crispy cheese pizza. Because I knew that the pizza was coming I quickly made up a huge green salad for everyone. I filled my plate with the salad and then only had 2 pieces of pizza so I thought I was doing really well and that it was a really good start to the week, but come dinner time last night I was exhausted. I had put the kids to bed, well most of them and then I had to feed everyone again and I just couldn't be bothered cooking anything so it was left overs. I had another 2 pieces of pizza for dinner, but that's not all. I also had a piece of cake with low fat ice-cream. Overall, I guess it wasn't too bad a blow out for me. Once upon a time I would have eaten the whole pizza in one go and had 2 - 3 pieces of cake and tonnes of lollies and chips which were also floating around all day.

I actually like these type of days when I am tested cause I prove to myself that I am changing, that my habits are getting better. It could have been so much worse yesterday, but I just wasn't interested in scoffing down every morsel that was in front of me. I even gave the in-laws the rest of the pizzas and lollies and soft drinks that weren't used. I just don't want that stuff in the house anymore. I don't need it anymore. I can do this, I will do this.