Healthy Eating weekend

Well we have made it to the 8 week point of our "Diet Regime".  I know I have been a bit slack in the updates and since I am in a bit of a rush today I still don't have time for a thorough update but I will give a quick rundown of our results at least.

Hubby has now lost 7.7kgs and I have lost 5.8kgs.  After the last few weeks being a bit on the dismal side for the weight loss this week finally picked up again with both of us losing another 1kg.  It is amazing how the school holidays and the different routines that happen in those 2 weeks can affect you.

This last week saw us back on the stricter calorie counting and we started to look for some new recipes to tempt our tastebuds with.  We have been trying out a few recipes from Michelle Bridge's book and I have to say they are quite nice.  We have tried the Chicken Pad Thai, her Baked Fish and Chips and the Thai Chicken Stirfry over the weekend and each meal was really yummy.  The kids didn't like her fish but hubby and I quite enjoyed it, although having said that I think we will just stick with our usual fish cooking in future as we prefer it without the crumbs lol.

Chicken Pad Thai

Thai Chicken Stirfry

Baked Fish and Chips

The Chicken Pad Thai we will definitely make again and probably the Thai Chicken Stirfry too.  Both those meals are so quick to make they are just right up my alley for convenience lol.

This week our exercise was the Wii Fit Plus.  We went through the 18 (I think thats how many it was lol, possibly 15) activities in the Challenge section of it.  We left the actual exercises such as Yoga etc out of the equation this week.  Naturally some of the exercises are pretty useless when it comes to burning calories as you don't really move but the run, the bike ride and the obstacle course in particular raise the heart rate.  Lol, one of the bike ride's I did, had me going for 39 minutes as you need to find all the flags on the island course and I couldn't find the last flag (there were 27 in total),,,,,,I was totally destroyed by the end of that, my legs had turned to jelly!!!  Thankfully, I am proud to say that yesterday when I did it my time was down to about 11 minutes,,,,,,,,,,,,,and then of course I have now unlocked the next course,,,,,,,,,I can't bring myself to see how many flags you have to find on this course lol!!!

But today is Monday so it is time to change over to our next exercise in Mr17's "Torture Regime" (did I say that lol?????, sorry I meant "Diet Regime"), which is Don King Boxing on the Wii.  This will be an interesting one for someone as unco as me lol.

More snippets from our weekend.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yummy Chicken Salad

A new to me recipe Hot Cross Cookies.....so yummy...will post recipe to my Cooking Blog soon :-)

Our "raid the freezer" stirfry meal when we didn't have kids on Sunday night

My Easter treat to myself bought at a book sale we attended on the weekend

My blog is having an attack of "I don't want to cooperate with you itis" lol.  I don't know what it is doing but I will just carry on as though nothing happened lol.

I have found that since starting our diet our world seems to be revolving around food and shopping.  Its starting to drive me a little insane.  I think I have lost my planning mojo and it is starting to show with us just making the same meals over and over again, both for us and the kids.

I have been browsing through Michelle Bridges book "Crunch Time Cookbook" and I think we will start incorporating a few of her meals into our diet regime.  I feel like we have slacked off to a degree this past week with Easter and Mr10's birthday really playing havoc with our weight loss.  This week we have Mr11 with Autism here so that makes life really difficult too.  I can't leave the house with him on my own because he will just throw himself to the ground and he is getting too big for me to lift now, so we are housebound while hubby is at work and can't get to the shops.  I planned for Easter food really well but not so much for the rest of this week lol.  The best thing about our little diet break was the fact that after having junk food, we really didn't feel that great.  It showed us that our bodies are adjusting to not having crappy food (not that we over indulged in it before but it was little bits pretty regularly lol).  We both really felt it on Saturday after having had junky meals the last two days.  It is great because it is inspiring us to keep going on the diet and even though I hadn't really felt any different or healthier, last week made me realise that my system has in fact changed for the better and it doesn't really want to go back to nibbling on crappy food.

Exercise this week has been a little tricky too.  We were supposed to be doing one of the Wii games but having had between 6-8 kids in the house all the time and will have for the rest of the school holidays for the most part, it has been a little  hard to find time to use the Wii uninterrupted.  Therefore, we made the decision that for this week at least we will do either the treadmill or the bowflex instead.  Next week I will be back to having just my boys and probably a few extras at various points in the week.  I hope (fingers crossed the weather will help me out here!) to be able to get out and about a few times next week even if it is just going for some walks or bike rides!!  Money is tight right now so free activities are a must lol.  As I keep telling the kids, we can leave the house and not spend money and enjoy ourselves,,,,,my boys get it but Miss13 just doesn't, not at all, which makes me feel sad.  It is hard being a step parent and only having minimal influence on a child, especially when the other parent has totally different values than you do....can make life rather difficult at times.

I better go and check on my Anzac cake I have in the oven.  It smells delicious!!  (No I won't be eating it lol, I promise!!)

So Proud of my Boy

 As I said yesterday, My Mr15 made me very proud last week.  For his Hospitality lesson two weeks ago, they had to bake a sponge cake.  This was quite the achievement in itself as Mr15 definitely isn't into cooking.  About the only thing he makes are 2 minute noodles and toast!!  You may wonder why on earth he is doing Hospitality for one of his subjects this year???  Well he chose it as a last resort in case he didn't get in to his first couple of choices, lol well look at what he ended up with!!  I am very proud to say though that he is doing quite well so far.  I was so blown away by this cake he did, I think for a first time effort it is brilliant.  He baked the sponge all by himself.  The teacher froze them and then last week they did the decorating and this is what he surprised us with when he came home that afternoon!!!
Isn't it pretty??  The cream didn't photograph very well but he actually did piping around the top edge which looked great and the sides were all nice and smooth.  The patchy bits on the photo were where the top of the container accidentally touched when he lifted the lid off it.  He made the chocolate decorations and cut the strawberry so it was spread out (I know there is a more technical term for this but it escapes me at the moment lol).  To say I was amazed at his efforts was an understatement!  The chocolate decorations were all standing up which you can't really see in the pic either and it just looked so beautiful.....it tasted pretty darn good too!!  Yes our diet was cast aside that night as we had to have a small piece of his cake.  The only thing I think it was missing was a little vanilla and caster sugar being added to the cream.  The teacher wouldn't allow them to add anything so it was a little too "creamy" tasting for my liking (I'm not a fan of plain cream except on apple pie lol), but overall it was really nice and he even managed to create a pretty light fluffy sponge!

Ok after talking about fattening things I really should do our diet update.
Day 29 results are:
Hubby lost 200 grams
I lost nothing, but gained nothing either.

This brings our total losses to 6.6kgs and 4.8 respectively.

Week 4 Diet Results

Gee life has been busy this last week or so and with school holidays/Easter/Mr9's birthday later this week, it doesn't look like stopping any time soon!

I thought I would quickly pop in to update our diet results.  We are both please with this weeks results and have our fingers crossed that it will keep on going (having said that we have arrived at the traditional time of the week that we always seem to put on weight,,,,Monday/Tuesday, who knows why lol).

Anyway off we go.....

Day 23 results
Hubby gained 800 grams bringing his total loss to 4.7kgs
I gained 600 grams bringing my total loss to 3.2kgs

Day 24 results
Hubby lost 200 grams bringing his total loss to 4.9kgs
I lost 100 grams bringing my total loss to 3.3kgs

Day 25 results
Hubby lost 1.0kgs bringing his total loss to 5.9kgs
I lost 600 grams bringing my total loss to 3.9kgs

Day 26 results
Hubby lost 200 grams bringing his total loss to 6.1kgs
I lost 300 grams bringing my total loss to 4.2kgs

Day 27 results
Hubby lost 100 grams bringing his total loss to 6.2kgs
I lost 300 grams bringing my total loss to 4.5kgs

Day 28 results
Hubby lost 200 grams bringing his total loss to 6.4kgs
I lost 300 grams bringing my total loss to 4.8kgs

Our measurements for this weeks were down by 11 cms for hubby and 5cms for me.

So after 4 weeks our bodies have shrunk by 32cms for hubby and 28cms for me.

I am pretty happy as I have lost 9cms off my waist, 4cms off my hips and 6cms off my chest and my thighs and arms have lost a little too.  No one has really noticed it on me yet, hubby says he can tell I have lost weight but I'm a typical girl and until someone from outside of the house notices it, it doesn't seem real lol.  I wouldn't say I really feel different or healthier or anything like that, but I have found that my cravings for salt/sugar are diminishing and I have found that I'm not really missing the "junk food" any more.  Hubby and I still have a couple of chips if we make hot chips for the kids, just so that we aren't totally missing out, and the older two boys have both brought home samples of their cooking from school last week so  obviously we had to try their cooking out......I have to remember to tell you all about Mr15's cake tomorrow, that boy really suprised me last week!!

This week's exercise is the Bowflex Machine (weight training).  Last week on the cross trainer just about killed us I tell you lol.  We didn't do as much as we should have and probably if we had done more our results would have been even better.  But we can only do what we can do and we are doing our best to fit in the exercise where we can each day.

This week I promise to update you on my son's cake and his sports day achievement, my latest crochet project and I am bursting to show you all our newest family member.  I was unsure and thought it was too soon for a new member of our family after our dear old Billy passed away just 3 weeks ago but with our younger dog missing Billly very much I gave in.  I will share more over the next couple of days....Stay Tuned!!

Here is something to think about when shopping at Woolies and Coles....

Wow I am so behind in everything at the moment.  I haven't done a diet update in quite a few days.  I promise I will do a big update on Monday.  I have been so busy this last week.  Tuesday I went to Mr11's school excursion and then Wednesday - Friday I was at Hubby's work helping him do his stocktake.....he is a 1 man band at work and with a whole warehouse to get counted he needed an extra pair of hands.  Therefore, my poor blog along with my house, has been sadly neglected.  I am happy to say though, that apart from missing one ay of exercise we have been sticking to our diet with pleasing results.

Anyway I need to go and get some housework done, 4 days of neglect has seen every corner fill with dust bunnies and the clutter on bench tops is out of control......not to mention the cleanliness of bathrooms and my ironing/folding pile.  Sheesh I try to do minimal housework on weekends but it looks like this weekend is going to be different.

I will leave you with this snippet of just how big Coles and Woolies actually are in Australia.  It makes me more determined to support the locals and try to reduce our reliance on supermarkets altogether (easier said than done when you don't have a big garden but we will do what we can lol).

Scary stuff huh!!!

Day 22 diet results....

We are back on track yay! 

Hubby lost 0.5kg bringing his total to 5.5kgs
I lost 200 grams bringing my total to 3.8kgs.

Not sure what will happen tomorrow as I was out on a school excursion with Mr11 today and lunch and recess were provided.  Luckily it was pretty healthy with lots of fresh fruit and a 6 inch subway roll for lunch.  The only downside was the one I picked up was a pizza one which naturally contained salami.  I thought I had grabbed the turkey, oh well these things happen.  I also had an Anzac cookie for recess.  But I did stick with drinking water and not the juice they had on offer so I was a good girl.

The excursion today was to a "Carbon Kids Workshop".  About 30 year 5 and 6's from my son's school got to go and there were about 6 other schools there too.  They got scientists from the CSIRO to talk about carbon and climate change and the production and effect of BioChar.  It wasn't bad but I did feel that it was a little too advanced for 10 and 11 year olds and it really shouldn't have been so much sitting and listening to speakers, but more hands on stuff.  We were there for 5 hours and approximately 3.5 of those we were seated in an auditorium listening to them speaking.  The kids all wanted to do stuff, but thankfully they were a really well behaved bunch of kids and the teachers didn't have to do any disciplining so that was great.  I believe though the kids should have been given ideas for things they could do and achieve within their schools/homes to help them become greener individuals, not learn about the production of a product to help with agriculture.  They just couldn't really relate to alot of what was said because they are all suburban kids.  Talks should have been about backyard gardening and recycling for their age group!

Oh well, I know the teachers were a little disappointed too, so at least it wasn't just me lol.

Tonight Hubby and I have a night to ourselves as the boys are at their Dad's and his kids have returned to Mum.  A nice quiet night with a nice bowl of homemade soup in front of the tv sounds good.  I am feeling very drained right now and I'm kinda glad I don't have to deal with homework and lunchboxes this afternoon.  I think a coffee sitting out in some fresh air is in order.  Today we have been stuck inside way too much.

Picture borrowed from JadeKeller.com

Have a lovely night everyone!

Day 18-21 Diet results - Weekend Catchup Soccer Season Kicks Off

Okay I'm a little behind in the diet results aren't I....whoops!
Day 18
Hubby lost 100 grams
I lost 300 grams

Day 19
Hubby lost 900 grams (evil eyes were given again lol)
I lost 300 grams

Day 20
Hubby gained 300 grams
I gained 100 grams

Day 21
Hubby gained 100 grams
I lost/gained 0 grams

Measurements for this week show hubby gained 1.5cms and I lost 4cms

So our total losses for the 3 weeks have been:
Hubby lost 5.0kgs and 21.0cms
I lost 3.6kgs and 23cms

Overall we are happy with the results we are achieving.  I haven't lost much in weight in the last 2 weeks (only 700 grams) but in that time I have lost 12.5cms from my body.  As long as that continues I'm not so fussed about numbers on scales.  Hubby for whatever reason seems to be gaining cms each week.  This week I admit he gained it in his arms mainly so I am guessing that is due to him lifting heavy boxes at work, having said that, it may be simply a matter of us not measuring in the exact same spot each week.  As everyone knows you measure up or down your leg in just a slightly different spot, you will get a different number.

Also this week has seen soccer season kick off for Mr15 and Mr11's kicks off next weekend.  Our lives are now officially sports driven with soccer occupying 6 days a week!  Mr15 bought home his season schedule on Friday night and I was a little (okay alot!) disheartened to see that his games kick off at 8.45am and we need to be at the ovals by 8am on Sunday mornings.  There goes Saturday night movie nights for the next 22 weeks!  Normally we watch a family movie with everyone and then the younger guys go to bed and we watch a M rated movie with the older 2, so it is often 1am by the time we get to bed.  One of his games is down South which is a good hour's drive away so that is going to be a killer I tell ya lol!  I am grateful though that this year he has a few games against Port Pirie which is a decent 2 hour drive for us.  Those games have been moved to 1pm,,,,yay!!!!  Best we start saving for the cost of the fuel to get there the way petrol prices are going!

Yesterday Mr15 played against "The Cove" team.  Sadly he lost 4-1.  They did play a pretty good game though and they could all walk away with their heads held high.  They are pretty much a newly formed team this year with only about 4-5 kids having stayed from last year.  They also have a new coach so it is going to take a little while to gel together.

Yesterday afternoon we drove over to the outer perimeter of the Parafield Airport (this is a small airport just north of Adelaide and only about 5 minutes from where I live) to watch an Airshow they had on yesterday.  We had Mr11 with Autism with us so we couldn't stay too long but the kids got to see a few planes doing their acrobatics which was pretty cool.  There was no way we were going to pay to go to the Airshow, they were charging $25 for adults and something like $12-15 for children.  That I thought, was a little over the top!  I was disappointed I forgot to take the camera,,,,,,I am shocking for this lol, I always forget!!!!

Day 18 Diet Regime

Just a very quick update today.....

Day 17 results
Hubby lost 400 grams bringing his total to 4.4kgs
I gained 100 grams bringing my total to 3.1kgs.

I gave Hubby the evil eye look this morning when he reported his loss to me,,,,,he didn't even exercise at all yesterday!!  I on the other hand walked 4.5kms and did my exercise on the vibration machine.  Life can be so unfair lol, us girls have it tough I tell ya!!!!!!!!!!

Today's menu is:
Breakfast - Poached Egg on Rye
Lunch - Tuna Melt
Dinner - Salad (not sure exactly which one yet lol)

Now please excuse me, I have to go and retrieve my kitchen........this is what it looks like at this moment,,,,see that grey bit that pokes out here and there on top of the cupboards, well that is my benchtop, somewhere under all that clutter.  This is the result of me not having cleaned up after  people for two days,,,,,,,none of them seem the least bit bothered but it stresses me out!  Another thing that is driving me nuts is those walls,,,,,,,we still haven't tiled them and it is just driving me insane.  We think we may have finally made up our minds now though and we just need to do it.  (I'm a little nervous, we have never tiled before and we are going to give it a go ourselves,,,,,,crap I hope it turns out okay!! lol)

I can't believe I have actually shown you all this disaster zone, lol ok I am off to make it look nice again.  Seeya!

Day 17 of the Diet Regime

This daily stuff is getting a little tedious lol, but its the only way that Mr17 is able to keep up with his work easily.  I use this as my diary and then he takes notes from it.  He is basically writing down our daily menus and our daily weight loss and measurements.  We are supposed to be giving him comments as well.
Aaah well, I will stop complaining and just get on with it huh......

Day 16's results....
Hubby lost 300 grams bringing his total back to 4.0kgs
I lost 300 grams bringing my total back to 3.2 kgs (I'm catching up with him lol)

Exercising on the vibration machine is a little weird.  It doesn't really feel like its doing much at the time.  But within half hour or so you can really feel that you have done something for sure.  I'm still not convinced that we will see any real change this week but I guess we will just have to wait and see.

Today I also walked the kids to school.  This is a 4.4km return trip so that can only be a positive for me.  Mr17 said it would throw out his results if I did extra exercise but I simply said that when it comes to weight loss, history says that I need all the help I can get and I don't want to waste this "experiment" and get to the end of it not having lost much at all.

On other news....its a beautiful day here in Adelaide today, just my type of weather.  It rained last night but this morning is blue sky, a cool breeze, bird chirping in the trees, absolutely beautiful.  I need to get to the shops and get a large piece of coloured card so that Mr11 can finish off his project.  It is due in tomorrow and he still needs to stick down all his information and do his decorating.  Wednesday nights are busy in our house so he needs to get straight on to it when he gets home from school for sure!  I was meant to buy the card yesterday but totally forgot about it.  I am hoping now that I can get his chosen colour of red!

Okay I'm off, shops to head to, bathrooms to clean and hopefully dry washing to get off the line a little later.

Day 16 of our Diet

Yesterday we decided to make a home made fried rice, which was meant to be for the kids to have with their chicken tonight style dinner.  Hubby and I were supposed to be eating the plain boiled rice for dinner but we were naughty and decided to treat ourselves to a little of the fried rice instead.........big mistake as far as the scales went today lol.  But we are back on track today and determined that this week is going to be better than the last!  I'm still happy with last week, I mean a loss is a loss and although I didn't lose much in the weight area, I still lost centimetres and that is the main thing.  My body is shrinking and I am happy!  Hubby didn't have a good week in either area but that was to be expected when he basically had 4 meals in a row that were take away variety.  He moaned that he only lost 200 grams until I pointed out that I was home the whole week eating well and even I only lost 300 grams.

I think it is good that we are doing this for Mr17 primarily because if we had been just doing it for us, we may well have thrown in the towel by now after the results we have been getting.  This time though we are looking at the long term picture and the daily weigh ins show us how different foods affect us.......like yesterday for example.  That fried rice we ate, we both ate more than we should have, we knew it at the time and this morning we definitely knew it.

Day 15 results are:
Hubby gained 800 grams
I gained 300 grams

Not good results but not earth shatteringly surprising either.  But its okay, today we are back on track and we will see how we go.  Tonight for dinner we are deliberately staying away from Carbs to try and push our results back in the other direction.

Today's menu:
Breakfast:  Weetbix with milk, almonds, grapes and strawberries

Lunch:  Tuna Melt
Dinner:  Steak and Slaw

2 weeks finished of our Diet Regime - Week 2 results......

I know that I haven't updated for a couple of days.  Hubby was away Friday afternoon till Saturday night in Melbourne for work.  His diet got a little off track and by Sunday morning weigh in he had gained 900 grams (just goes to show what beer can do to you!, even though he only had two he says).  Saturday night we went down to the Adelaide Fringe Festival and treated ourselves to a comedy show.  It had Will Anderson in it and it was a real laugh, so glad we went.  Of course, we were also faced with a barrage of take away food, of which we had to choose something to have for dinner.  Hubby was naughty and got some  hot chips and we shared a small pizza.  The pizza, wasn't actually too bad for a pair of dieting people.  The base was very thin and light and there wasn't a huge amount of toppings and very little cheese.  It wasn't at all greasy which was good.  So Pizza and chips it was.  We did only have a bottle of water with it so it wasn't all bad lol.  I thought I would hate myself the next morning lol, but amazingly I actually still managed to lose 100 grams that day!

So at the end of week 2 our results are:


Hubby has lost 4.5kgs and 22.5 cms all up, although week 2 saw a total loss of only 200 grams and a gain of 1cms in  his body.
I have lost 3.2kgs and 19cms all up, week 2 saw a total loss of 300 grams and 8.5cms from my body.

We are hoping week 3 gives us a bit better results on the scales.  This week we are using our Vibration Machine as our chosen exercise equipment.  I'm not expecting huge results from this machine.  We got this when we bought our treadmill and I have to say that it hasn't had much use, I think I have dusted it more times than it has been used.  I like it as a wind down at the end of the day.  It does help to loosen up your muscles but as a weight loss tool, I'm a little sceptical I must admit.  But in the name of helping Mr17, I am willing to give it a go, I mean what do have to lose really?? lol.

Day 15 of the diet has us eating:

Breakfast - Spaghetti/Baked Beans on Rye Bread
Lunch - Ham/Salad Sandwich
Dinner - Stirfry chicken and veggies with a little homemade fried rice

I have been finding our snacks are hit and miss.  Sometimes we have them, other times we don't.  I haven't been finding myself all that hungry the last few days so I have just been grabbing a small handful (about 8-10) grapes at night and nibbling on those.

Day 12 of our Diet Regime and some fun in the sun last weekend

Today is Day 12 of our "diet regime".  We have definitely settled into the healthy eating.  It doesn't feel like such a chore any more,,,,,well except for the bit of having to cook two meals each night, that is still a pain in the butt.  For the most part though we are incorporating ours and the kids meals together and just doing it slightly different for the kids, with not quite as much of the salad and veg for them (I have typical males who aren't keen on their veggies lol, feed a man meat and all that stuff is how the younger 3 boys at least think!)

Our results from Day 11 are:

Hubby lost 400 grams bringing his total weight loss to 5.1kgs
I lost 600 grams bringing my total weight loss back up to 2.8kgs

It seems we are now back on track, although the last couple of days we have been pretty busy and have dropped our snack altogether so have only been averaging about 1200 calories again.  But thats okay, we haven't been starving hungry and don't feel deprived which is good.

We have continued on with the treadmill.  Half an hour a day, not really that much but we can definitely feel it at the end of the session.  We have been doing fast walks, just enough to keep the heart rate up there but still be just able to have a conversation.

Hubby is going to Melbourne this afternoon for work.  He will be back tomorrow night.  Therefore he won't get his Saturday morning weigh in, or his treadmill in for today or diet meals for dinner tonight, breakfast and lunch tomorrow.......instead he will be eating dinner with the guys, which of course means healthy doses of beer.  It will be interesting to see what his scales reveal on Sunday morning lol!!!

Since we had a public holiday on Monday and also to get us out of the house after losing our beloved BillyBoy on Sunday night, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and head down to Glenelg Beach for the afternoon.  My Mr17 was out with friends and Mr15 decided that he would be too bored if he came with us without Mr17 so he wanted to stay home and play Xbox online with his mates.  So Miss13, Mr11 x 2 and Mr9 came with us down to the beach.  Normally we are at the beach just about every weekend during summer, but this summer has been quite mild and we haven't had many opportunities for our little trips to the sea.

Monday was a beautiful day, it was warm in the sun but cool in the shade.  The water was beautiful, it didn't have a chill to it really (well we Hubby and I only went in up to our knees and it was nice lol).  Due to Mr11's Autism he doesn't really like the beach that much generally.  He has no sense of balance and the water rushing in and out totally throws him off lol, it can be quite funny to watch.  Generally he fusses and carries on like a pork chop refusing to go in further than ankle deep and more often than not will just sit on the sand and whine.  On Monday though, he got a little braver.  The first half hour was the traditional whine time but after that he went in a little deeper.  He then actually walked in the water away from Hubby (normally he remains glued to Hubby like a leech).  This time he actually headed over to where the kids were when they were sitting in the shallow area near the jetty.  We got Miss13 to grab his hand and take him in a little deeper.  She managed to get him into his knees before he became too strong for her to control and she gave up.  The main thing is that he actually seemed to be enjoying the water for a change.  It was nice to see a smile on his face and for us to have a chance to just enjoy the moment instead of having to put up with his continual protests.  Fingers crossed it may continue,,,,,I doubt it lol but will live in hope!

I think I can..........

Mr9 was telling him to let go of the jetty lol

My Mr11 performing some kind of opera it seems

Mr9 was still trying to convince him to just step away from the pole

He did it, he let go of the pole!!!

Miss13 and Mr9 just chilling out

Look, he is nearly in up to the knees and not a pole in sight, yay!!!!  See the smile,,,,,just a shame the hat on was lol

On his way out, one step at a time, that moving water was tricky to navigate but he was actually laughing about it so that is a good thing!!

Quick diet update...

Today there is a bit better news on the weight loss front......

Hubby lost 1.1kgs bringing his total to 4.7kgs
I lost 400 grams bringing my total loss back to 2.2kgs

Don't you love it how men seem to just do things so effortlessly.   Over the last couple of days hubby had gained 700 grams so today he loses that plus another 400 grams,,,,,me on the other hand had gained 1.1kgs and lost 400 grams lol grrrrrrrrr, I threw him daggers this morning I tell you!!!

Today for breakfast we again had the Vitabrits with banana, almonds and milk.
Lunch will probably be a Tuna Melt today.
Dinner will be a burger made with the leanest mince I could find and a few oven baked sweet potato fries, yummy.

I am going to drop the snack out of my diet for a few days and just stick with 1200 calories just till I get back on track and try and find a happy medium that my body likes.  I also realised last night that if we had only been weighing weekly, we wouldn't have even realised that we had gained that weight and probably by the end of the week we would have been showing a loss on the scales anyway.  I mentioned this to Mr17 and he said "yeah but it's an interesting experiment don't you think???" lol, yep that it is my son, that it is!

Updates from our diet the past few days.....

Day 8

Hubby lost 100 grams bringing his total to 4.3kgs
I lost 700 grams bringing my total to 2.9kgs

Breakfast was bacon lettuce and tomato muffin
Lunch was Ham/Salad Sandwich and a banana
Dinner was Grilled chicken salad

This also was the beginning of our exercise regime.  This week is the Treadmill.
Hubby and I each walked for 30 minutes.

This was also measurement day....Hubby had an overall loss of approx 23.5cms and I had a loss of 10.5cms.  We are happy with the first week's results, hopefully they continue!


Day 9

Hubby gained 200 grams - total of 4.1kgs
I gained 200 grams - total of 2.7kgs

Breakfast was Vitabrits with banana/almonds and milk
Lunch was Ryvita with ham and salad and avocado
Dinner was Fish with zucchini, sweet potato, zucchini and green beans

Day 2 of the treadmill - 30 minutes each


Day 10

Hubby gained 500 grams - total loss of 3.6kgs
I gained 900 grams - total loss of 1.8kgs

We aren't sure what is going on.  Obviously it is fluid retention as we have been sticking to the diet.  It seems since we have added exercise into the equation we are putting weight on lol......I knew there were benefits of being a couch potato!!!!  If it was just me, I would have put it down to the usual girly things but as hubby said this morning, unless he is going out in sympathy with me it has to be something else lol.  We will see what tomorrow brings.  We can't give up so we have to just keep plodding along and see how things go......as long as I don't end up heavier I still think a loss is still a loss lol.

Today for breakfast we had Egg on Toast with avocado
Lunch was a non event (I know that's naughty!)
Dinner is a Grilled Chicken Salad again (that was really yummy)...here is a pic from the other night....

This was Hubby's plate, mine had slightly less chicken

Day 7 of the Diet and a little weekend blog reading

Today's Diet updates are:

Hubby lost 300grams bringing his total to 4.2kgs
I lost 100 grams bringing my total to 2.2kgs

Meals today were/are:

Breakfast - Scrambled eggs with toast, lettuce, tomato and avocado

Lunch - Ham and salad sandwich with a banana

Dinner - Mince and Veggie Pasta

Its measurement night tonight,,,,I'm scared!!

Also this weekend I have been sneaking a peek at a few of your blogs and adding to my already expansive blog list from your blog lists,,,,does that make sense? lol.  Its not like I really need a bigger blog list to look at but I'm just hopeless!!  I love reading blogs,,,maybe I just need a life???? lol

Day 6 of Diet

Just a very quick post today just to do my updates.

Results from day 5 are a little dismal, but it is our first day on the 1600 calorie a day part of the diet and we also had a cup of coffee and a glass of diet coke.

Hubby lost 100 grams bringing his total to 3.9kgs
I lost 100 grams also bringing my total to 2.1kgs

Yesterday also, due to it being a very rushed kind of day we didn't get to eat dinner until 8.30pm and we missed our snack for the day.

On the Flat Belly Diet Anti Bloat part (the first 4 days) we weren't allowed salt, soft drinks, coffee etc.  So yesterday we treated ourselves.,,,,,,may not have been such a great idea.  Also yesterday we chose meals that contained bread at each one and of course missing our snack may have also stuffed things up a little.  We will try to stay more focused today and see what happens, its all a matter of tweaking it to suit us I think,,,,we shall see lol.

Day 5 Health and Fitness Regime

Today marks the end of our Anti Bloat diet,,,,,no more sunflower seeds Yay!!!

This morning's weight in results were:

Hubby lost 500grams bringing his total weight loss for 4 days to 3.8kgs
I lost another 200grams bringing my total weight loss for 4 days to 2.0kgs.

Pretty good totals.  This would be a great little mini diet to do if you wanted to lose just a little for a special occasion.  We haven't measured so don't know if it shows in the measurement side of things or not.  We will be measuring up on Sunday night again so it will be interesting.

Today starts the part of the "normal" Flat Belly Diet.  The meals go from 1200 calories a day up to 1600 calories a day. 

For breakfast we had Baked Beans/Spaghetti (I hate baked beans lol) on toast with an apple.

Lunch was Tuna and cheese on toast.
Dinner will be Steak spread with Dijon Mustard served with coleslaw which gets dressed in a balsamic viniagrette dressing.
Our snack tonight will be Ryvita Crackers with peanut butter and a fresh pear.

I remember that this was the part of the diet where my weight loss dropped right off,,,,at times to the point of stopping altogether.  This time thought I will keep going as it is for Mr17's assignment (this is a great motivational tool I tell you lol, I will feel really guilty if I don't stick at it!!).

Monday sees the exercise side of things kick in.  For the week of 12-18 March we will be walking at least 45 minutes a day.  Mr17 is wanting to see how different exercises impact on weight loss.  Each exercise session will be between 30-60 minutes.  We will attempt to keep our calorie intake to approximately 1600 calories a day for the rest of the time we are on this "plan".  We will most likely be trying out different meal plans etc along the way or we may just make it up as we go for the last half, we haven't worked that bit out "officially" yet.

The first 4 days have gone pretty well.  We are getting into the right headspace now and are looking at it as a total lifestyle change rather than something we have just taken on for 6 months.  We are hoping that slowly but surely we can bring the kids on board with us.  Even though our family's diet isn't too bad generally, we want to cut back the amount of meat they eat and get more veggies into their diets.

I'd say definitely the worst part of being on a diet with a family to feed is the shopping and meal planning,,,,I shopped for the next 5 days today and it was a long drawn out process, I just couldn't get my head around making sure we had our food for our diet as well as making sure we had the food for the kids normal meals too aaaghhhhh!  I think I should have received a medal for the most "back tracks" while shopping.  I swear I visited some of those aisles at least 3 times lol.  My list just wasn't helping today!

Have a lovely weekend everyone,,,,it's a long weekend here in SA.  I will try to update our progress daily but if not I will definitely do a big update on Tuesday!

Day 4 health and fitness - last day of sunflower seeds - yayayay lol

Day 4.....the last day of the Anti Bloat part of the Flat Belly Diet.  Although I am glad to be through this part which is only based on a 1200 calorie a day diet, we now have choices in what we decide to eat and that seems to make life more complicated lol.  I think we will have to sit and actually write up a meal plan.  The Flat Belly Diet book gives you many recipes you can mix and match.  Each meal is now approx 400 calories each.  You can mix and match as much as you like and if there is something that you don't like you can swap it for something else within the same food/calorie group.  Coming up with meals for the kids as well is what makes it complicated.  Some things we can tweak and make into a family meal but others, well I can see we will be cooking two completely different meals which I hate to do.

Results for yesterday weren't as impressive as previous days, but I was expecting that.

Hubby's weight loss for Day 3 was - 300grams bringing his total loss to 3.3kgs
My  weight loss for Day 3 was - 200 grams bringing my total loss to 1.8kgs.

I remember last year that this was the point that my weight loss seemed to come to a halt lol, while hubby's kept going.  I'm hoping this year will be a little different!  I guess this year we are committed to seeing this whole thing through for a full 6 months so I will just have to keep going and keep trying as best I can.  We are doing the Flat Belly Diet for 4 weeks and then we may move to a different diet or we may just follow a healthy eating approach, Mr17 hasn't quite worked that one out yet lol.

Today breakfast was VitaBrits with sunflower seeds and sultanas and lite milk.
Lunch was turkey with steamed carrots and cheese
Dinner will be chicken breast with zucchini and rice
Our snack for today is a Strawberry smoothie (am hoping this will cover the sunflower seed taste lol, the peaches in the smoothie yesterday weren't too bad, I actually enjoyed that one!)

Will be back tomorrow,,,,,fingers crossed for at least another 200 gram loss!!

Day 3 of the Health and Fitness Regime - 2nd day results AND Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere!

We are on to Day 3, we have today and tomorrow left of the Anti Bloat part of the Flat Belly Diet and I can honestly say that I won't be sad to see it end.  Overall it has been pretty easy to follow.  I have been feeling hungry at night but nothing too bad.  I have found the only part that has been hard has been the amount of sunflower seeds you need to consume for breakfast......1/4 cup!!!  After tomorrow I don't want to look at another sunflower seed again lol.

This morning's weigh in was another pleasant surprise.

Hubby lost 1.0kgs making a total of 3kgs lost.
I lost 600grams bringing my total to 1.6kgs lost.

Now if it follows the same pattern it did last year when we started this diet my weight loss should slow down to a dribble once I get past the first 4 days lol.  I remember getting cranky because hubby continued to lose decent numbers each week, while I lost only about 300 grams a week, so we shall see what happens this time!  Its so unfair that men can drop weight easily and us girls have bodies that just seem to want to hold onto every last gram of fat it can :(

But moving on lol, I am determined not to dwell on the negative for this "regime" and only focus on the fact that it can only be doing me good and I will be happy at the end of the 6 months! 

It has been rather amusing the last two mornings, as my Mr17 has actually been eating breakfast with us, complete with a full dosing of sunflower seeds this morning,,,,I wish I had a camera this morning when he hit a large amount of sunflower seeds in one spoonful of cereal lol, it was priceless.  He didn't manage to get through all his sunflower seeds but I am proud of him for at least giving it a go.  Yesterday he had the cereal with us but only had about a tablespoon of the seeds, today hubby was mean and gave him the full serving!

Today's menu is as follows:
Breakfast - Weeties with Sultanas and sunflower seeds (the sultanas did a pretty good job of hiding the seeds!!)
Lunch - Turkey with cherry tomatoes and a slice of cheese
Dinner - Steak with Beans and Sweet potato
Snack - Peach Smoothie

Now on to some other news,,,,just to prove that there is life outside of this diet lol.  From the garden we have picked 5 pumpkins and we have another 3 left on the vine.  Two of the biggest ones had started to get attacked by those black lawn beetles but hubby chopped away the bit that they had started getting into and the rest of the pumpkins is perfectly fine.  (I was more inclined to just toss the whole thing but hubby was determined to prove his point that the rest of the pumpkin is perfectly okay lol.) 

The first pic is of our smaller 3 pumpkins which I thought looked so cute stacked into a tower lol.  As you can see the top one could have stayed on the vine a while longer but I got a little over enthusiastic with my pruning one the weekend and accidentally chopped his vine,,,whoops!

These two big boys were my pride and joy until I went to pick them and discovered holes on the section that was touching the ground.  I was mortified lol, my pride and joys were less than perfect!  Hubby simply attacked them with his little axe and voila,,,,we have perfectly good pumpkin ready to turn into soup for the freezer.

The weights of the pumpkins are:  4.1kgs, 3.8kgs, 3.9kgs, 2.8kgs and 1.9kgs.

Early last week we picked our first "Spooky Pumpkin" as the label on the seed packet called them.  I was pretty happy that out of 2 little seeds of Spooky Pumpkin that I planted I have ended up with 3 pumpkins.  One of them is only little but I have also had 2 large pumpkins, only one of which has been picked.  We picked it and used it for our roast chicken meal and with the left overs we made pumpkin soup, yummy!  I forgot to carve a jack-o-lantern with it lol so the boys have their eyes on the other large one that is still growing.  As Mr9 informed me,,,,a jack o lantern is the reason we got those seeds in the first place.  He is so right lol, so in the next week or two we will be carving our jack o lantern a few months early!

Here is our first spooky pumpkin....

and our mighty haul of pumpkin seeds,,,,,the kids are already imagining many, many jack-o-lanterns for next year lol......all I can imagine is the amount of space that many plants would take up lol.

Well I have rambled on enough for one day I think lol.  Have a great day everyone and I will be back tomorrow with more regime results!!

Day 2 of the Health and Fitness Regime - 1st day results

Well here we are half way through day 2 of our regime as my Hubby is calling it.  As mentioned yesterday, there is no extra exercise thrown in this week, which gives us time to adjust to our Flat Belly Diet.

Lunch yesterday consisted of Lean Ham, Cherry Tomatoes and a slice of Lite Cheese.  The fact that there were no sesame seeds made me very happy lol.

Dinner last night was Fish, Green Beans and Sweet Potato.  This was really yummy.

The snack for the day which we chose to have for Supper simply because afternoons are just so busy here that we don't really get time to worry about snacking, was a Blueberry Smoothie.  Normally for us a smoothie would include either yoghurt or icecream but sadly that obviously isn't allowed at the moment lol.  Our smoothie consisted of Blueberries, Skim Milk and,,,,,wait for it,,,,,,,,you guessed it,,,,Sunflower Seeds lol.  We could have eaten the sunflower seeds as a little side dish but I just can't stand them so I chose to blend them up into the Smoothie.  Their taste shone through unfortunately but it was tolerable.

Hubby and I did our weigh in this morning (I'm still not wrapped with the idea of a daily weigh in but Mr17 wrote it into his contract so now we have to just get on with it lol).  So the results for the first day are......

Hubby lost 2.0 kgs
I lost 1.0 kgs

Naturally this is just water loss but right now it is a start in the right direction at least.

For the beginning of Day 2 we had VitaBrits with milk and pineapple pieces and the now familiar sunflower seeds.  We were happy that the pineapple somewhat masked the taste of the seeds!  Lunch today was steamed carrots, tuna and a slice of cheese.

I have decided that Anti Bloat part of the diet is doable except for the breakfasts, they suck lol.

Tonight's meal is grilled Chicken Breast, Mushrooms and Rice and we will have a Pineapple Smoothie for our Snack.

Hubby is keeping a tally of how far we are into our Diet Regime,,,,this is Day 2/182 days.  He actually even worked out how many meals he has to go through before he can have a serve of hot chips again lol.