Aha moments and beautiful finds

I had such a glorious start to what has turned into a super lazy day. I woke up early to get some breakfast in (same as yesterday: Bircher muesli, banana and natural yoghurt) before my hour with my personal trainer. It was another hectic session but of course I felt so good afterwards. Chatting to Ruth after she made such an insightful comment. I was telling her how many people at work are commenting on how much weight I've lost. People are going up to friends of mine and telling them to tell me to eat something because I am looking too thin. I have also been asked if I'm throwing up! Now I know this is (mostly) not malicious, but I feel that the comments are made without an understanding of all the work I've put into getting fit. I'm up at 5am more mornings than not running and I'm learning (slowly) to choose the right food. It's certainly not perfect but I've never said it was. I think I'll be learning to navigate this new lifestyle for the rest of my life. 

Ruth made an interesting comment. She's always been on the smaller side and made the point that no one goes up to a larger person and says, "you're looking a bit fatter today. Best you don't have too much to eat today" but people don't seem to have a problem saying the opposite to smaller people. I'd really never thought of it like that. I'm working hard at being healthy and the key word here is SUSTAINABLE so I'm definitely not going to do anything that I am unable to maintain for a very long time. 

After that philosophical rambling I decided on the spur of the moment to go to our local farmers' market. My husband and son were out watching cricket (what else?!) so I had an hour or so to spare. I bought them a couple bacon and egg rolls and myself a few gorgeous mangoes and plums. Yum! I could not resist two boutiquy bouquets of flowers. I bought two as I'd planned to give one to my neighbour but I think I may just hang on to both :-). 

I also bumped into a beautiful friend at the market so had a bit of a chat with her and her hubby. I always love moments like that: so relaxed and they leave you feeling all happy and warm! 

I spent the rest of the day pottering - my absolutely favourite thing to do. I just love being at home as of course with a full-time, 40-hour a week job I'm not home often enough. 

For lunch I made a corn, tomato and cucumber salad with a mesculin 

 mix and an organic vegie burger. 

Dinner was a little more experimental and sadly somewhat of a flop... well partly. I spiralled some more zucchini pasta and cooked up some extra lean beef mince meatballs with a tomato sauce. The zucchini and meatballs turned out ok but I buggered up the sauce. I was converting a recipe in the Thermomix to which you were supposed to add pasta. Now what I didn't do was reduce the amount of water to compensate for the fact that I didn't add the pasta. So needless to say the sauce was pretty much flavoured tomato water. And for someone who always likes her sauces and soups on the thick side it was seriously disappointing. 

I still ate it - I wasn't going to waste it now - and it was ok. The zucchini and meatballs were pretty hearty and I added a little sauce to give it a bit of flavour. It had a bit of a kick as I'd added a dash of prego sauce so that was fun. 

Now it's time to clean the kitchen and round the lazy day off with a lazy evening. Bliss. 

Hot as Hades

It's been another crazy week - but a short one at least. My boy and I had Friday off from school and work and we did... absolutely NOTHING. I have still been so exhausted lately. The combination of getting up at 5am every day to get my run in before work (and the heat of the day) and every work day without aircon is seriously taking it's toll. I know I've mentioned it before but seriously!

I'm also still struggling to find my feet as far as knowing how much to eat each day. I'm at my goal weight and my personal trainer has told me I should be on 2000 calories per day but I am really struggling to HEALTHILY eat that much. It's as much mental as anything else. I'm terrified of putting the weight back on and am just in the habit of eating 1500 calories per day. I know that with all the exercise I'm doing I need to up it, but first I need to convince myself that it's not a bad thing to eat just a little bit more each day. I suppose I've got to learn to trust myself (if someone had told me a year ago I'd be struggling to eat enough I'd have laughed at them - that has never ever been a problem for me before!)

I've also been reading (thanks to my personal trainer) articles on metabolism and how under eating can play havoc on it. It's an absolute minefield I tell you. But I'm working on getting it right. After all, this is a lifestyle change and not a quick fix. 

For the first time I did weights training - all by myself! I felt a little silly but I got through it. I was pretty proud of myself for doing it, and today's run felt SO GOOD! I'm not sure if that's because of the rest day yesterday or because of working on my core - perhaps a bit of both. I was up at 5am this morning so I could get my brekkie in before a 6am start. I met a friend down at the river and we did a halfie. It really makes such a difference running with someone. I find that I'm not obsessing about how many kms I've done/have still to go. I also did a bit of a different route to what I normally do which is always so refreshing. 

Well it's another scorcher in Perth - 37 degrees and we're off to my boy's cricket final at the WACA. It's going to be SO HOT. Did someone say it's the first day of Autumn? Thank goodness I got my run done by 8am!

After that it's back home and then book club at The Merchant on Beaufort Street. I can NOT wait for the down time. 

A new baby!

I have had such a wonderful day, surrounded by such beautiful people. I truly am so so fortunate. The morning started with my boy and his friend waking up (thankfully only after my alarm) and wanting to play straight away - of course! I had to hand over to the hubby as I had a date with my amazing friend Tammy at (what I will from now call) OUR personal trainer. We survived the hour and therefore felt it our duty to reward ourselves with another delicious breakfast at Cookie Dough. We had the Rosti again - a scrumptious collection of the most delicious flavours: chorizo, egg, potato cakes, avocado and chutney. Are you hearing me?! Is it too early to start dreaming about next week's brekkie?

Check out these gorgeous flowers on display at Cookie Dough. 

After that it was back home to spend some time with my two boys. We decided to go to The Running Centre as my husband wanted to get a drinks bottle belt (is that what you call it?) He's right now on a run trying it out. I'm quite interested to hear what he has to say. I've been having these terrible calf cramps at night so I bought a pair of compression socks to sleep in. Ruth, our personal trainer, recommended some coconut water so I'll give that a go too. It's clearly a sign I need to up my electrolytes. Hopefully the combination of the socks and water will help - I'm over waking up two/three times a night!

The best news of the day was hearing the wonderful news that my darling neighbour gave birth to a little boy this morning. I've just got back from the hospital to see him and he is too too precious. I can't get over how little he is. And mama - after five hours of labour - looks like she's stepped off the pages of Vogue. Sigh! I can't wait to get some cuddle time with baba when they get home. 

Right now I have just finished my dinner - pizza! A take on Michelle Bridges pizzas. For the base I used Lebanese flat bread, and for the cheese I used Light Ricotta. Then I loaded it with pumpkin, eggplant and a bit of prosciutto. After spending 8 minutes in the oven it was good to go. To add some colour I popped on some spinach leaves. It was super yummy - of course the prosciutto made it. I was also pleasantly surprised with the egg plant. I should have cut the pieces a bit smaller but on the whole it beefed up the meal and filled my tummy quite nicely. 

I'm off now to enjoy the last few hours of the weekend before the craziness of the work week begins again. It seems like it's going to be marginally cooler this week (low thirties instead of mid-to-high thirties) so hopefully I won't be entirely sapped of my energy. It's also only a four day week for me and my boy as we get the Friday off before the long weekend. Woohoo!

A busy week

I couldn't tell you what has made this week feel so busy, but I sure have been exhausted. The only thing I can think of is the heat - and to top it off I don't have air conditioning where I work. Urgh! I'm not one to feel the heat but I really think it must be affecting me. Last night I was in bed and asleep by 9pm - big Friday night in our house!

I did have a big 'moment' yesterday. For the first time EVER I wore a girly dress to work. I was so nervous about doing it and I know why. I've always dressed a certain way to work: black pants and a plain top - my staple during the larger years. Since losing 30kgs I've been a bit braver with my wardrobe over the weekend where I know no one will judge me. Work, for some reason, is a different story. Well, I did it. I wore the dress. A beautiful blue flowery dress. I wish I had taken a pic but alas - I'll be sure to the next time I wear it. Of course it had to be one of the windiest Perth days so a lot of the day was spent ensuring I wasn't flashing the world! 

I did a 5km run yesterday morning and then my long run today. I did 16km at a slightly slower pace and I really enjoyed it. I stupidly forgot to go to the toilet before I set off so needless to say, about 4km in I was busting! I contemplated running through it but I really wanted to enjoy my run so about half way in I paused my Garmin and dashed into the public loos. Thank goodness they were there! Quickest wee ever! TMI?! :-)

It was also my last run in my old Asics. I can't believe I've only had them for four months, but I've already done over 800kms in them. Yikes! So this morning it was off to The Athlete's Foot to upgrade my runners. Yay! I just bought the exact same pair although apparently this version is a little smaller so I had to get a half size bigger. The colour is certainly something. It's a pretty bold statement which I don't mind but pity the poor women who would rather go a little incognito. My only dilemma is to decide whether to wear them to my personal trainer tomorrow or save them for my run on Monday. Decisions decisions! 

Well we're off to a birthday/house warming BBQ now which I'm really looking forward to. I have a dear friend's son staying the night so I'm quite grateful for something to do with the two boys although they are playing quite nicely now (touch wood!)

Best I go do something marginally decent with my hair. 

A happy run

I did it! I had my first run this morning since my keyhole surgery on Thursday. And it felt really good! I set my alarm for 5am (urgh!) and was out the door by about 5.20. It's definitely getting colder and darker in the mornings but I just love watching the sun rise while I run. It's so peaceful in the morning - it's about the only peace I get all day so I really appreciate it. 

The run felt really good. My legs were well rested and I was just feeling so grateful that I was able to run - I often think of that when I'm having a tough session. I keep reminding myself that I should be thankful that I can run - no matter how slow! I felt like I was going really fast but when I checked my stats I saw that I had averaged only slightly faster than normal. Oh well. I'm still really happy with the run. 

It was Tuesday morning tea at work today which means cheese and ham croissants, brownies, fruit platters, party pies... you get the idea. Before I started on this weight loss journey I would just use it as an excuse to let myself go and have anything and everything on offer. Now I limit myself to 5 goodies (I know - that is still A LOT!) but what it does is make me only choose what I really enjoy and not put something on my plate and in my mouth simply because it's there. Of course that means no evening treat but I'm ok with that. 

Go team!

I'm super excited. I went to the doc today to have my stitches removed from a keyhole surgery I had on Thursday, and he's given me the all-clear to start running again. Woohoo! I've decided that I'm going to get up at 5am and do at least 5km then. I don't want to overdo it and end up going backwards so I'll see how I go while I'm on my run. Hopefully I can get out a few more kilometres than that but I'm going to try my very best not to be disappointed if I can't. Fingers crossed it goes well and I have no pain or silly niggles. 

Yesterday afternoon I roasted a heap of vegetables and divided them into 250g tubs to take to work for lunch - yum! I had some left over so I decided to have it for dinner tonight (the boys had a leftover noodle dish). I thought I'd try to make zucchini pasta to accompany my roast vegies. They didn't look anywhere near as delish as on some of the websites, but it actually lightened the overall dish quite nicely. I cooked them with a bit of olive oil spray and some salt and pepper. I really only did them for about 5 minutes and then added the roast vegetable simply to mix them in and heat them up. It ended up being really yum. 

It doesn't look anything like those fancy photos online but my tummy was happy. 

I ate really healthily today so I'm going to treat myself to a coffee and a Cookie Dough Elvis cookie - oh Lordy I can hear the angels already! It's a peanut butter and chocolate biscuit that is simply to die for. I've had these in my cupboard for ages and have been saving them for a special occasion. I think surviving Monday deserves a special treat :-)

Nuts for Nutella!

What are you doing to me Brumby's?! I was off to the IGA early this morning (before 8am - urgh!) to get the groceries for the week (we had a friend's son's sixth birthday at 10am AND I needed some more yoghurt for brekkie, otherwise I would never have been out the house before my coffee)! My weakness for bread of any variety means I need to summon ALL my willpower to walk past the bakery on my way to the store, but what do I see that they've started making at Brumby's?! Nutella filled Hot Cross Buns! Oh. My. Word. 

I swear I would've caved and bought one but as I've not been able to run since Thursday I didn't think I deserved it. I also knew that I had a kiddies party and wasn't sure whether I'd have the strength to resist the food (my friend is an amazing cook/host/general feeder). 

Well, I didn't buy the Hot Cross Bun (next weekend may be a different story though) and I was very good at the party. I didn't even have birthday cake! And it looked SO delicious - four layers of chocolate icing inside the cake. Even the thought of it now is making me salivate :-). I was pretty proud of myself. I tell you, this no running business is for the birds - if I run for no other reason other than the ability to eat chocolate then it is absolutely worth it.

I'm seeing the doc tomorrow and I swear I won't leave his office until he tells me I'm fit to run. I even think I'm going to treat myself to new runners next weekend. I wanted to get them today but we only ended up leaving the party after 2pm and I had coffee and a play date booked with my beautiful neighbour at three. I'm not too sad as it gives me something to look forward to next weekend.