Monday 3 February 2014

Michelle Bridges 12wbt Day 1 Week 1

My day in a nutshell:

  • 6am - alarm goes off. Groan. I've woken up 4 times during the night, which is unusual for me. WHY is it already 6am? Maybe I can sleep in and avoid the morning walk. But Luke is up and he makes me feel guilty about not exercising! Not intentionally, but he will just go for a walk himself even without the dog and I will feel guilty. For letting him go by himself and having the dog miss out on her walk. 
  • 6.30am - okie dokie calm down dog - you are really embarrassing. WHY are u carrying on like a pork chop and WHY do u have to poop so MANY TIMES!!!! 
  • 7.10am - breakfast time! Egg and bacon roll for brekkie, and who knew, commercial bacon is overly salty to the point that it was revolting. Breakfast was hard to swallow, maybe next time I will try a lick of tomato sauce or relish - despite what Michelle says! I will count the calories. Or maybe I will opt out of this breakfast in the future! 
  • Around about 8am, it becomes clear to me that it is inevitably going to be a disaster because we are starting with a treat meal and that means NO snacks on the first day! I predict starvation central.
  • 10 am - I'm peckish. Not hungry, but I'm peckish. I did have breakfast earlier than usual, so I'm not overly surprised. But no snacks today... so what am I going to eat? What the hell, I will have a bite of my chicken salad wrap. And it was DELICIOUS! The question is... why haven't I eaten radishes prior to this?? Dammit, now I want to eat the whole thing. But I have a gym session... or do I?
  • Noon - gym time. I really can't be bothered. If I get changed and just go, I'm adhering to Michelle's "just do it" advice. Robot mode, robot mode. Oh, I suppose I should ask GB if she wants to go with me. After all, we always used to go together. I don't think she will anyway.
  • Oh. She wants to come too! That's cool, I will have a gym buddy to motivate me. But she starts phaffing around and running a few errands before the gym. I'm ready to go NOW!!! So I go and sit in the car before I lose interest and feel lazy.
  • 12.15pm - phew. Made it to the gym. Just have to focus on my workout now... ah treadmill, my old friend. 
  • 12.17pm - oh treadmill, you are a bastard of epic proportions. Why has this run gotten so hard? Is it because I'm carrying a bit more weight than when I last ran? Probably. Why oh why did I eat like there was no tomorrow??? Why didn't I keep up with my running? And whose STUPID idea was this to exercise at lunchtime??? 
  • 12.45pm - survived the 30 minute trot - time for stretches.
  • 1pm - hallelujah! It's lunchtime and I get to eat. Nom nom nom... and it is a delicious lunch too! Too bad I already ate a mouthful. Still, I was pleasantly surprised that the wrap made me full. AND I was impressed that I enjoyed the radishes. Who knew. 
  • The dreaded 3.30pm - I am now starvation central. WHAT CAN I EAT?? Nothing. Clearly. But I'm so hungry!! 
  • Green tea. Surely green tea is acceptable. What the hell, I'm having green tea.
  • 4.45pm. Made it home and requested that we eat dinner earlier. And when I say earlier, I mean 5pm. But realistically, it would take about an hour so about 6pm. 
  • 6pm - ate my treat meal and my word, was that delicious. Honey baked sriracha wings with tater tots. I will post a recipe soon. Totally worth the hunger and lack of snacks during the day. And because I now portion control, I didn't feel ill afterward from eating too many!
  • 7pm - fell asleep on the couch while watching the Superbowl. Yes, that was why we had the treat meal. Wings and tater tots are tradition in the household during the Superbowl - always fun... except this year, it wasn't pleasant to watch the Seahawks annihilate the Broncos, which is probably why I fell asleep.
  • 8pm - took a shower.  Then watched My Kitchen Rules which was a bad idea because it made me hungry all over again... now where is that herbal tea?
  • 10pm - after cleaning the kitchen, settled down with a cup of herbal tea (lemongrass and ginger from T2). The upside about drinking tea is that tea has so many fun accessories. Who knew? Watched the Biggest Loser which motivated me to keep going!
  • 11pm - Oh, is it bedtime already? Does that mean I survived day 1? YES, I BELIEVE I DID. 
Well, until tomorrow, peeps - happy dieting! xoxo

Saturday 1 February 2014

Robbie

Does anyone have any dogs that shed 364 days of the year? We got a beautiful golden retriever cross labrador from the Dogs home a few years ago, and while she is the most beautiful natured dog (not around other strange dogs though, but definitely with humans), she sheds like a mo fo. Pardon my French. I even wanted to gather all her fur at one stage and knit a sweater. It is THAT bad.

In my previous unit, she lived in the laundry and was never allowed on the carpet. She sat with us over the night time in her tiled area by the front door, but even though she was never near the carpet, she managed to COVER it with her hair.

Then we moved to this rental (while we build) and it has hardwood floors throughout. And I thought this would be fantgastic as she would have more freedom to roam the house. True. I also thought that because we had hardwood floors, her hair would be easier to clean. Also true. But I foolishly thought that the hair would not be so much of a problem in our new house. NOT SO TRUE. Whilst it is easy to vaccuum her fur, it is not so easy to keep the fur off the hardwood floors. Often times, I would find  when the sun is shining bright (and contrary to popular belief, Tassie has many many sunny days. It's COLD, but sunny) I can see that the hardwood floors are covered in her hair.

What is a girl to do? I couldn't bring myself to restrict her to certain tiny areas AGAIN. She has tasted freedom and she likes it. And besides which, she should be able to roam the house (only on the hardwood floors, not on the carpet which thankfully are only found in the bedrooms). On the other hand, I don't want to be vaccuuming every single day.

Then the answer came to me in a Boxing Day sale message: ROBOT VACCUUM CLEANER. $89 from Godfrey's. As with all my other gadgets, I thought about it long and hard and did my research. I recognise that it will never substitute the actual vaccuum and mind you, we have a great one. But I thought that this would be a wonderful addition to our household. Just something that we can put on daily, to pick up the dog fur which is driving me INSANE and then once a week, we give the house a thorough vaccuum.

Today I trialled my new toy. And I am pleased to say that he (we've of course named him Robbie the Robot Vaccuum Cleaner... and no, I do not have children, it's just a thing I do) does a great job! Half an hour and three rooms were done. He did, scare the dog though and she promptly ran away from him - have I mentioned that she is a fantastic guard dog?

Now, I'd better get organised for the week! I start Michelle Bridge 12wbt tomorrow (and no, I'm not paid to endorse the product) and I intend to be as compliant as possible. Even though I am starting with a treat meal, but the Superbowl is on, and it is tradition dammit! :)

For dinner tomorrow, Honey Sriracha wings and tater tots. Don't tell Michelle.

xoxo

Lifestyle change

So I stepped on the scales and I figured that I needed to lose 30 kilos. 30 KILOS!!! How did I let myself go so bad that now I have to lose 30 kilos? NO one believes me, I think I'm even finding it hard to believe myself.

So what I decided to take matters into my own hands and join the MIchelle Bridges 12wbt. I have heard great things about the program, so I thought why not?

Tomorrow I commence Week 1 of the Total Body transformation ... which kind of leaves this blog at a bit of a loose end. If I'm not talking about food and the things that I am cooking, then what will I talk about? I will update my progress here.

I recognise that diet and exercise for food lovers is hard, but I'm willing to put in the time and effort to change that. To that end, this blog will now be dedicated to my journey called life. (Wow, did that totally sound corny or what.)

What I mean is that I am committed to a lifestyle change. Living life to the fullest, travel, health, starting a family - it is all going to be here.

My life is going to take a shift - from being completely food-centric and food-focussed, it will now encompass so much more.

I'm prepared to bare my soul, I hope anyone reading will enjoy it.

xoxo