April Photo a Day

 

I am still a bit useless with remembering to take a photo every day. I could even do a "cat" photo a day!

Roll on May!

78 days

Might do my food snapshots a bit differently next week. Perhaps a straight dump into the blog rather than a picture. 

Really wanted to have Eggs Benedict for lunch, but decided on a healthier option with scrambled eggs and salmon. Still very nice.

Still eating too much.  

No exercise.

79 days

So much for no junk food, but the day could have been worse I guess.

Did not do any exercise at all today other than a quick walk around the block. 

2012 Project 52 – Week 16

15^th – 21^st April

Bit late posting this.

We went to see Jersey Boys at the Civic on Saturday afternoon. There was a bit group including my birth family, friends and Raewyn. I do not know what I was expected, but I absolutely loved this show; such a great story about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.

I was surprised to learn that Joe Pesci the actor was partially responsible for introducing Bob Gaudio to the Frankie etc. 

Jersey Boys is on until mid-June at the Civic in Auckland; you know you want to see it!!
 

I have not seen many musicals:

Dirty Dancing

Grease

Joseph and his Technicolor Dream Coat

Jersey Boys

I would love to see:

Cats

Wicked

I have decided that if Wicked comes back to Australia then Mark and I are flying over to watch it.

What musicals would you love to see?

80 days

I am still eating WAY too much.

This weekend will be spent planning some fantastic meals for the following week; low calorie, low-GI and more vegetables. I would love to do some roasted cauliflower.

I need to be better prepared for eating out. We went to Wagamama for dinner and I ordered the Katsu Curry…I honestly thought I was ordering something different. Entered it into My Fitness Pal and it had a whopping 800 calories. WTF! So, next time I will try and aim for a stir-fry chicken with rice and NO chocolate cake.

Minimal exercise although managed a very short walk at lunch time and we walked around Sylvia Park.

I rubbed my thigh raw on my Wednesday night walk and that is sore; first time that has happened since I started the walking thing.

Friday definitely needs to be a very, very good eating day. I think I have my breakfasts sorted with Special K Berries and yoghurt. Could throw in a boiled egg I guess.

81 days

Today was a slightly better day except for the homemade meringues after lunch.

I missed the gym as for the 2^nd day in a row I slept through my alarm. I had planned to go for a walk in the afternoon, but when we got home I did not want to go.

I was procrastinating and then Penny (from Twitter) sent me a message and said she was driving over to come for a walk. So we walked about 7km in 80 minutes and I burned 470 calories. I felt so much better after going. I have not been walking at night for a while and my walking ‘fitness’ has definitely decreased.

I find it hard to get out the door, but once I am walking/at the gym then it is all good.

Just need to get more sleep at night and on the weekends so that I am not tired when I want to get up at 5am to head to the gym.

The plan for Thursday is the gym or a walk after work and NO treats after dinner.

82 days

I was feeling hungry at times today; I think there is a way to eat more but still stay under my calorie intake. It was a good eating day until I tried the Whittakers Dark Chocolate mini’s infused with Peppermint.

Had Nando's for lunch and chose their chicken paella which was actually lovely.

Had a takeaway coffee and looked longingly at the baked goodies and walked away with just the coffee.

We had leftovers for dinner which was awesome as I did not need to cook.

No exercise again today but planning the gym and a walk for Wednesday.

I think it could be helpful to include in my blog each day what I plan to do better/differently the following day.

83 days

There are 83 days to go until our trip to Rarotonga. So to keep me honest and on track a close friend suggested a blog-a-day challenge about my food and exercise.

Food was pretty good except dinner (which I was so excited about all day) took a lot longer than expected. We had Baked Lemon and Sesame Chicken from the Healthy Food Guide.

Next time I make it I am going to make some changes.

• use a bigger baking tray so the vegetables are spread thinner and cook quicker
• toss the chicken in a mix of lemon, garlic and olive oil and then top with sesame seeds
• a bit more salt and pepper

We also went food shopping. My challenge was to get more exciting things for lunches. So Mark has a Tasti Snak Log, Little Ripper Meat thingy, yoghurt, coco pops, leftovers, a juice box and a little Whittakers chocolate and peppermint bar.

I also made the mini frittatas with chicken bacon and I am going to store these in the freezer for different lunches. So 2-3 Frittatas, sweet chilli sauce and a bit if salad. Done.

I had a late night Milo and milk and it tasted different. That made me a bit sad.

I did go to Delish Cupcakes and I did not have a cupcake. Also, there were no quick trips to my favourite cafe for afternoon treats.

I was hungry leading up to dinner though and ended up having a cheese roll.

No exercise, but about 4 litres of water.

Lazy

I have been super lazy for weeks. I have no excuses. The buck stops here.

I have fallen off the wagon with making lunches and also my weekly exercise has almost become non-existent. Also, poor Mark has ended up with a ridiculous mash-up of stupid lunch options.

This stops today.

I have re-read a few of the latest healthy food guides to get some inspiration for great lunches and dinners. I found a cool recipe Patty Pan Frittata with Bacon and Corn except I will use chicken bacon. These are cute, small little snack-sized frittata.

I am going to experiment with making different kinds of soup. We also need to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables. I'm considering cutting cheese right back and instead focussing on feta or cottage cheese. Also beans will start to form the basis for more of our meals.

I actually compiled all our recipes into one cookbook; it is a mix of recipes that we love and recipes to try. As we go through and try all the recipes we keep the one’s we love and delete the one’s we do not. Eventually we should be left with a cookbook that has tried and true recipes. I want to aim to cook at least 1-2 recipes from this a week until we have tried them all as I have at least 140 more to add to it. I think that the plan going forward is to only add recipes we have tried into the cookbook.

A friend suggested I blog my food and exercise everyday to keep myself honest; so that is what I plan to do.

Here is the honest truth.

I weighed in this morning.  I weigh 147.6kg and if I want to be 129kg when I go to Rarotonga it means losing 18kg which is about 1.5kg per week. It means more exercise and not having “treats” each time I get a coffee from my favourite café. It means being prepared with snacks and meals. It means have a glass of water if I am still hungry after a meal.

1. Run Auckland 10km Walk | Remuera

I came last but I finished. Surely my time will improve over the next few months? I was doing so well with the first 1km completed in 9 minutes. Then I slowed right down. Still it was a far easier 10km than Motutapu. 

I did not enjoy walking 4x laps of the same course. Also, while I know the people at the start/finish line were there to support I just found it unnerving. I am so used to walking on my own so public events are still a challenge.

I am always so tired after a walk so I need to find something to do to keep me on my feet and active for the rest of the day. Perhaps as I lose weight I will feel better.

I have registered for the quarter marathon which is part of the bigger Auckland marathon and I am doing it with a team which is cool.

I only managed the gym once last week and I'm disappointed in myself and one 7.2km walk; so much for sticking to my plan.

My new plan is to jump out of bed as soon as my alarm goes off and flick on the light. This means I am up on my feet and not hitting the snooze button on my alarm.

Also, I'm going to do shorter walks in the evenings and try and up my pace and then a longer walk (or two) on the weekends when I have more time.

Two friends want me to do the Lake Taupo bike ride in late November; it is 160km. So I will start training for that now and increase the number of km’s I do each week. By July/August I should be able to tell if I can do it or not. 

Challenge for this week:

- RPM at Les Mills on Wednesday

- 5-10km Bike Ride

- 4 x gym sessions

- shorter walks at night

2012 Project 52 – Week 15

8^th – 14^th April

I love finding new music that motivates me to exercise or dance around the house. 

So this week...I totally love Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Call Me Maybe’