It's Hummus Time!

My sons and I just went for a nice long 6km walk. The boys were in their double pram and were very well behaved and we had 3 compliments from passers by saying so.
So at the halfway mark I stopped by the shore at the river and they had a little play in the sand with the jellyfish that were washed up. Then we had morning tea and we were off again.

You could not have stopped my older son who is 3 from grinning when I asked him to take my photo so I could share our gorgeous sunny day and the lovely river views. He did his best and took 2 okay photos which I think shows the river, gorgeous day and a little bit of Me!

Now we are home I have finally gotten around to making that hummus I have been meaning to do for the last 10 years! The last time I made it I blew up the motor in my food processor heehee Luckily that did not happen this time and it tastes divine!
I took a photo of my lunch to share with you all. I am dribbling just thinking about it only I am waiting till my boys take their daytime nap before I jump into it. That way I can enjoy it rather than having to inhale it in-between the growling at the children and them scabbing bits of my lunch :)

Hummus Recipe

• 400g can chickpeas, drained & rinsed
• 3 garlic cloves chopped or grated
• 80ml olive oil
• 2 tbs tahini paste
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Small amount of water
• 
  

Blend all the ingredients until smooth and add enough water to make a dip consistency. Add salt and pepper if required and serve with a sprinkle of mild paprika on top. 

Eat your Hummus with water crackers, vegetable fingers, or toasted wholemeal pita bread for a more filling meal. Store it in the fridge in a tupperware container until your ready to eat it and share with your friends. 

So tonight is weight watchers weigh in night and I am kind of dreading it because I did have a naughty eating week this week. Well not too terrible but it could have been much better. I planned on having sushi for lunch yesterday but they were closed so I skipped across the road to Red Rooster and grabbed a chicken roll & chips :( And I ate all of it too as I was super hungry. Now thats pretty bad!

I am back on track again today and will let you all know how I fair after tonights weigh in.

Remember your incidental exercise!

:-) Have a great day

The best things in life are FREEEEE!

My dear close friend and I were chatting about weight loss the other day and she said something that is not only true but genius. I am not sure if she came up with it or not but who cares because we all need to think about this gem.

'Your brain is the cheapest weight loss tool'

Enough said.

So go and ponder and leave a comment if you felt inspired by that pearler!

:-) Keep moving!

Week 10

Sorry friends! My lack of updates was due to my account being a tad weird and not letting me log in...

I have had some marvellous feedback about my blog and hope you will all continue with me as I discover new challenges, ideas and discover awesome motivation from every corner of life!

So week 10 went well. Not as well as I had hoped and dreamed. You know when you buy a lotto ticket and the night before the draw you lay in bed imagining checking it at the newsagency and the little alarm goes off on the machine whilst the display screen comes up saying "congratulations! your a winner!" And then you doze off and the next day at the newsagency nothing of the sort happens?

Well thats what happened this week. I ate well, did not snack at all and I also did a lot of activity. Then Tuesday night weigh in came about and I hopped on the scales very excited about the 1.2kgs I thought I may have dropped and then...... nothing of the sort happened!
Ahhh well! I did loose 0.4kgs and that my friends is better than a kick in the pants as the saying goes. I didn't leave disheartened I kept my chin held high and thought 'I must do some more cardio this coming week'

Only the week proved to hold more challenges than I could poke a stick at and I found myself trying to squeeze in some runs and walks at the tail end of the week. That guy Commando Steve from the biggest looser wrote a book that is called "No excuses" ........ Damn him!
I want to tell you about how my son was sick and I slept (or didn't sleep rather) in his bed that night and how he threw up in the car when we were only 4 minutes from home and WOW did it reek! And I want to tell you about how I simply couldn't sleep from worry and basically required match sticks to keep my eyelids open all week. I was so damn tired I 'forgot' to go for a walk, until my hubby reminded me that NOW is a good time (thanks honey!)
And how those pieces of cake physically jumped into my mouth! (you had to be there) But there are as Commando Steve says "NO EXCUSES" I will have to pull my socks up drink up a can of cement and toughen up!

This weeks motivation for us all is a saying....

I CAN AND I WILL -  Watch me!

and of course,  NO EXCUSES!

So have a marvellous week everyone, pull your socks up with me and lets get moving :)

Pump it up!

I put on my running shoes and iPod and burnt off some serious bad day in the office vibes on the footpath! Felt so good. And I made sure to get home after my hubby (Super Daddy) had gotten the boys snuggly tucked away in bed for the night. I did a good 6kms tonight, I ran for 3kms of that. WOW music really makes a difference doesn't it?

This is the only thing I stopped running for on my way home. And lets face it, how can you not stop and soak in these little beauties? Getting ready to bed down for the night. A couple of stunning parrots.

By the way when I did get home my hubby told me that our oldest son (the one who was moody, broody  and overtired) had put himself to bed tonight. He must have been seriously exhausted!

Fake Hunger

I was really good yesterday and today with healthy eating as per my personal vow to myself this week. I even took the kids to a cafe after playgroup both events had those yummy foods that I would normally jump into. Nice cakes, popcorn, crackers and dips, milkshake and chips! I had not a single taste or crumb :) Yay for me. My boys did not finish their chips which followed us all the way home and still I have not had a single one.

I was talking to my hubby last night and said after my healthy eating day I went to bed feeling peckish with hunger pains in my tummy. I would normally have gotten up and ate something but I ignored it and woke up the next morning feeling fine and not hungry at all. Interesting isn't it? Hubby agreed he felt the same way so the dinner we had must not have been a healthy and filling one. I think it was the lamb tagine we had with spinach in it and we had it with white rice so maybe next time I could put brown rice and more vegetables in it.

Anyway today I have a million things to do so I had better go and squeeze in some jumping jacks and leg raises which I really enjoy doing everyday.

Have a very happy and productive weekend everyone!

My vow to be good

Today I took the boys on a picnic to Kings Park with my Parents and we had a lovely day in the sunshine. I didn't just sit on my butt, I did some incidental exercise with my boys and my Dad. I played chase with my son's too.

For lunch I only ate the Salad Roll that was on offer and some strawberry and apple slices. I waited till I got home to have a cuppa made just the way I like it because if I had one at the picnic I would have had another when I got home anyway.

And do you know what?

I feels SO GREAT to say no to food and really mean it. Try saying no, meaning it and feel the joy and pride when you go home with absolutely no regrets. 

Week 9

This week I could have been at my 5% goal weight. I needed to loose 0.5kg

This week I lost 0.4kgs. You can only laugh in these situations. If only the saying "I laughed my bum off" were true?

Plus the tracking is still a sticking point for me. I have to start doing it again, I really do!

This weeks focus for me is to not eat any snacks or rubbish food in-between meals. Only brekkie, lunch, dinner, water, green tea and I have to have my daily coffee. That will make tracking super simple! That way there is no reason not to track. Plus if I don't start snacking then I won't need to stop it.

Next week I plan for a successful week

As I only decided to write this blog today I have obviously popped through my WW diary, updated & shared with you what I have achieved thus far. 

Truthfully I am very pleased with my progress so far. I have had many down days and bad days of 'the old me' snacking the boys naps away. But in general I have my head in a great space at the moment and I feel determine, powerful and most of all ready.

From my personal experience if you are not in that good headspace the chats we have at WW meetings really mean nothing at all because you know you will be heading home from a meeting to eat a large dinner have a glass of wine and eat something very evil after all that as well. And then you may top it all off with another little treat because you felt so crappy about the massive amount you ate already that day.  

Being ready to begin your weight loss journey means you help yourself rather than hinder, you desire exercise rather than sitting on the couch wishing you were not weak willed and overweight, you feel a tad frustrated if you can't do said exercise, you don't want to eat snacks/dessert after every main meal, you fill up on water. 

AND....You smile, a lot!  

My favourite WW tip this week was to plan for a hiccup in your weight loss journey. Make a plan just in case you have a bad week or illness and need a break from being 100% onboard. That way you can jump back on the horse ASAP, follow your plan and voila your on track again. I will have to think about this plan and get back to you on it. 

This week I will make sure hit the 5% goal weight at next weigh in and I WILL be well on my way to hitting the 10% goal too!

Wish me luck! 

Week 8

I am now 87.7kgs and still loosing!

I lost 0.6kgs this week and I say WOOOOOHOOOOOOO! No dash for me. Actually to be honest I am thinking more of a phew! After the last two weeks of nothing I am so pleased to have lost just over half a kg.
It has been raining a bit here and this week I was unable to go for my weekly Mothers group walk as there was no-one to go with but I went to the gym instead. I don't feel I went as hard as I normally would if I were outdoors but I do feel a bit fat, sweaty and uncoordinated at the gym. There are so many fit people there! haha I guess thats because they are always there. Anyway the point is I still made an effort and did some cardio instead of working on the arse groove in my couch :)

I have been for heaps of walks with the boys on the nicer days and that all counts to calorie burning as well.

I am really getting very serious about all of this health and wellness. It's very exciting!

Heres to you and a great week of exercise and calorie burning. Wishing you all a fantastic and successful week in whatever goals you are aiming to achieve this week.

I may share some easy recipes on my blog in the future. What do you think?

Week 7

I went for another jog/run/walk. As I now have a WW pedometer I was able to check the distance I managed to run without stopping and I can tell you I nearly fell over with shock. I did 3kms! I don't think I have ever run that far without stopping...EVER! Well done me!

Uh-ohhh this means I have to do better next time! haha Now I have done it. 

Anyways contrary to my saying I would start tracking this week I didn't. Well I did loosely track but not the way you should. So what a surprise to step on the scales this week to receive yet another dash! No loss or gain but that dreaded dash :(  I wasted yet another week. 

In a way I was very productive with my incidental exercise and my long haul workouts. So I do feel proud of that. I took the boys for some long walks in the double pram which earns extra points for me but I still have to address this slack attitude towards my tracking. 

The tip this week was a personal one from our WW lady and it was that she used to draw a tiny red heart on her hand. So when she reached for food it reminded her of what her heart desired not her tummy or mind. I loved that idea and was thinking oh I should get a large red heart tattoo on my forehead. Just so that I don't forget my hearts desires haha 

Okay so its been a couple of non-productive weeks in the weight loss department but I vow I will pull my socks up and get cracking again! 

By the way My heart desires to feel better about the way I look, to be fit again and to know when to stop putting food into my mouth. I also desperately desire to fit into clothes that are nice, sexy and gorgeous. Not just clothes that are cheap, stretchy and sometimes desperate looking because thats all I can fit into with huge boobs and a fat bum. :) 

What does your heart desire? 

Week 6

This week I have been jogging. I won't say running because it was slow going but I did it. I was only able to jog for about 1km which you will probably laugh over but I was proud of myself. I AM proud of myself.

This week was a bit of a bummer because I got a dash at weigh in. That is not the worst thing that could have happened, I could have gained weight. I had to keep reminding myself of the positive because I was really bummed that I had 'wasted' a week so to speak.
And the fact that I was actually burning calories with my workouts got me wondering why didn't I lose weight this week?  It didn't take me long to figure out that I had gotten lazy and had stopped tracking my daily points. Which by the way is the whole entire point of being with Weight Watchers. What a dope I am.  Next week I had better get back on the tracking wagon, in fact I had better do that ASAP!

Although I I am noticing real changes in the way my clothes sit. My podgy baby fat tummy is a little less sticky outy and my thighs seem less floppy and look like I may have lost some cms? I wish I had of taken measurements so I can be sure.

This week will be a great one. I will make sure of that because it is all up to me.

Week 5

Wow the weeks really fly by don't they? I did plenty of walks this week and as we were given a 5 week walking challenge by Weight watchers I had to try and do more more more! Each week we are encouraged to increase the intensity, distance or type of exercise. And so I did :)

What was my loss you ask? I will proudly tell you that this week those fantastic scales said I am 1.1kgs lighter! OMG was I shocked. I even asked her to double check it after the meeting was over. Two great losses in two weeks, how wonderful. That is a total of 3.5kgs in 5 weeks! WOW
Guess what? My pants which were a tad uncomfortable around the waist are becoming much looser. I wouldn't say I need a size smaller as yet but hooray for being able to breathe and bend over in pants that have something other than an elastic waistband! heehee

I am going for a run this weekend. I have started popping out on the weekend when the boys are having a daytime nap (that was time that I used to sit on the couch and re-coup with a cuppa and chocolate from the hectic morning with them) instead of my usual routine of stuffing my face with comfort food because I had a tough day with the kids. I love the fresh air. I take my dog with me. I even walk in the rain because much to my surprise I actually become disappointed if I am unable to get out for some form or exercise.

Back in the old days I didn't even need an excuse like 'its raining' or 'its too hot' to stop me from donning my shorts and shoes and heading out. I would make up any excuse and to me being tired was more than enough of one to stay home in my stretchy waisted pants and sit on the couch feeling sorry for myself.

But whatever happened to that attitude I don't know but its far far gone now. Maybe it was that I had children, am a stay at home mum and I now need to get out? Who knows. Who cares?

The best thing I learnt at WW this week was to spice up your exercise routine. Try something new or try and go a little further than you did the last time. Great! Im doing that!
I am going to get my body used to running. No excuses. I can list all the excuses I used against myself in the past.

Nowday's the earth would have to be disintegrating below me before I decided I can't be bothered. Which to be truthful to you, was my only excuse. But it's not a solid one so off I go!

See you on the pavement :)

Week 4

I ate well this week and I did lots of activity. I have been quite determined this week and it showed on the scales with a 1.2kg weight loss! I gave myself a huge pat on the back for that success.
Did you know that just a loss of 5kg is a whole dress size? did you know that I am almost halfway there? I have lost 2.4kgs so far in the past 3 weeks of trying!
That is the one bit of information that really ramped up my desire to eat well and to do some more exercise this week and in the coming weeks.
I have invited my girlfriend and sister in law along on my wednesday night walks. My friend is very keen and said she will join me next week. Yay! more walking buddies and I get to chat to her as well. We hardly ever catch up as we both have young children so this is a perfect arrangement for us Mums.

I did quite a few walks with my boys this week and really got my heart pumping. I am looking forward to another great weigh in at the next meeting!

Week 3

The psyching myself up took the best part of a week and so here I am at another WW meeting stepping on the scales dreading what I think will be a possible failed week....


Yay I lost another 0.3kg! Woohoo. We all shared our stats for that week at the meeting because everyone is so friendly there and it seems encouraging somehow to spill the beans about your week. Then you are not only accountable to yourself or the lady who discreetly weighs you but also to your WW meeting peers. And the best part is no-one judges you. No matter where you seem to be from one week to the next, the person next to you understands this is not a perfect world and we are far from perfect people.  
And about that exercise, my friend mentions to me she has started a walking group on Mondays and Wednesday nights. I am sooo there! Well on Wednesdays I will as my hubby is at his training class on Monday nights. 


I did join the walking group this week! It was great. We all had a lovely chat and I didn't even break a sweat or anything. 
Oh dear, is that enough activity to help these thunder thighs? Just quietly between you and I... I don't think so. Whatever I do it is going to have to hurt just a little bit if I want to move these wobbly bundles of blubber from my bottom any time SOON. 


Stay tuned! 

Week 2

I was very excited to get to my Weight Watchers meeting after a great week of eating. So off I went leaving hubby to pop the kids to bed and I popped down the road to my meeting. I forgot to mention that unbeknown to us both, my friend from my son's playgroup had decided to go to her first meeting last week also. So we have been in it together all week, encouraging each other along via text messages.
She even held a lovely WW food friendly breakfast for all the playgroup mums which was very encouraging as the food was delicious.
This week I managed to loose 0.9kg just by following the Pro points I was allocated last week. They took my height and weight and calculated my daily 32 points allowance. Awesome! But I was thinking I need to crank this up a notch. Hmmmmm I am going to have to actually exercise. Not just walking the boys in their pram but do some actual heart pumping sweat inducing work.

Ok I will have to psych myself up for that!

Welcome!

My name is Mel and I am married & a mother of two beautiful son's. You may or may not find my story interesting but if you do I invite you to join me on this hopefully fantastic and successful journey.
I hated sports in primary school and even more in high school. You see I was unpopular in school. This is not a great situation to be in during a sports day. If you are a girl you are made to wear a nice sports skirt with bloomers and sports shoes. My father dressed me in horrible boyish shorts and daggy shoes/socks. Yes, clothing is very important in school popularity ranking. VERY! It also helps to have nice hair, skin and teeth or generally for everything on your person to be in perfect condition so as to not attract any negative attention from the popular crew. Unfortunately that was not me. So I used to try and get out of sports with any excuse under the sun. My step mum was very understanding about my 'situation' and used to kindly write me a note to excuse me from sports whenever she could. "Dear Teacher, Melissa is unable to participate in sports today as she needs new reading glasses" or "Dear Teacher, Melissa is unable to participate in sports due to a sore throat" very funny stuff now I think about it and my gosh am I ever so grateful for my step mum being on my side.  And so began my unhealthy dislike and terror for participating in any form of group sports activity.

Just a small amount of time has passed & it is now approximately 26 years later...... 

I had my last baby boy on the 15th of May 2010 and recently felt it is time to get back on the wagon so to speak. I put on about 9kgs of weight during each of my pregnancies in 2008 and again in 2010. And I lost that baby weight pretty much as soon as my babies were born, yes I know I was very lucky. But my problem was, I was overweight to begin with.

Actually I could not even tell you the last time I was at a healthy weight. Probably when I was 19 or 20? the same year I met the love of my life. Yeah I know, you hear of it all the time. Couples getting together, becoming complacent and getting 'chubby' together. That was us in a nutshell. We did no exercise, we partied hard and ate whatever we wanted when we wanted it. This behaviour caught up on us very quickly, too fast in fact and we didn't know how to or care enough to fix it before we spiralled into the black hole of being overweight. So here I am.

I have never ever in my entire life felt this strongly or passionately about fitness as I do right now. The switch was flicked into the "ON" position by whatever or whomever, I'm not really sure. So I decided to join weight watchers. It worked last timed I joined, back when we were to be married in 2001. So on the 23rd of August 2011 I joined Weight Watchers again. And it was the best thing I have done. I have never been a dieter. I can't say I have ever tried any fad diet at all, EVER. Maybe I should have? Whatever the case was I am now in an amazing headspace and it bewilders, pleases and brings me so much happiness. I have been inspired by a couple of people. One of course is my husband who along with me got a tad podgy over the years. But this year he has been in training and has lost an amazing amount of weight through plenty of hard work, dedication and with plenty of discipline. Well done honey! The boys & I are grateful to have you around for many more years to come.
Another person is a lovely lady I met online who lives near New York. We met whilst doing a photography course which is a passion we both share. She is an inspiration in so many ways and I admire her so much.  Thank you M B!

I really want to get fit & I have seen some results from my efforts so I am now driven to keep going and make my life a healthier, happier one in regards to my fitness and weight maintenance.

I began my weight loss journey as of my first WW weigh in at 91.7kg and I am pretty sure that number would have kept climbing had I not taken some immediate action. I was floppy, podgy around the thighs, butt and tummy. Oh and those hideous arm flabby wings that jiggle when you wave your guests goodbye at the end of a dinner party where you have eaten far, far too much food.

My goal weight is yet to be decided (by me) but essentially the 5% goal is 87.2 kg, my 10% goal is 82.6 kg and I think the WW leader and I chatted about the ultimate goal being 74kg which when I look at that written down it blows my mind. Hmmm one step at a time.