Action-packed day

Delivered my two-hour nutrition presentation for Rob's students this morning. It went pretty well and they all seemed to enjoy it.

After I got out of the class I checked my email and found out that our loan had been approved, so the house is ours - yay!

This afternoon I am at Lonely Planet for some more work. Am here next week as well.

I'm looking forward to meeting Rob tonight to celebrate our new house (although we won't be moving in for a while).

What are your priorities?

On Sundays Todd Samson divides his life into seven roles and plans his week around each of the seven:
1. himself [health, wellbeing, etc]
2. role as a husband
3. role as a father
4. role as an extended family member
5. role as a friend
6. role as a financial controller
7. role as a corporate leader.

When he gets stressed he tends to prioritise No. 7 - when this happens he regroups his week.

From How six high-flyers stay ahead of time

Measurement Day

Weight is back to what it was a fortnight ago, after a small spike last week due to TOM. So how I'm eating at the moment is 'maintenance' for me (without any formal exercise). Will try and get out for a walk before breakfast or at lunchtime each day over the next week.

Meal Plan

Breakfast: oats, dried fruit, reduced-fat Greek yoghurt, flax oil

Morning tea: coffee with milk; boiled eggs, fruit

Lunch: toasted sandwich with tomato paste, kale, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms and swiss cheese; vege sticks; fruit

Afternoon tea: hot cocoa with milk; kangaroo sausage, fruit

Dinner (with fish oil and fruit):
* Sat – chicken korma, brown rice, spinach
* Sun – chicken and vegetable soup, noodles
* Mon – leftover chicken and vegetable soup, noodles
* Tues – crockpot meal cooked by Rob
* Wed – crockpot meal cooked by Rob
* Thurs – leftovers from Tuesday night
* Fri – leftovers from Wednesday night

TGIF!

Its been a busy week! Had the day at home on Monday to sort out and submit all the house paperwork to the real estate agent and mortgage broker. The rest of the week has seen me travelling into Lonely Planet for work (nine hours' work per day plus an hour travel each way), and doing more house-related paperwork and phone calls. I'm looking forward to popping into Borders for a bit of end-of-week relaxation on the way home! I'll be working again over the weekend to get my proofreading job finished by Monday, then back into Lonely Planet again for the next two weeks. Next week will also involve instructing our lawyer over some issues we have with the building inspection; taking out building insurance on the new house (which needs to be done from now, not the settlement date in 90 days); changing our life insurance etc; and doing a nutrition presentation for students at the college Rob teaches at. When it rains, it pours, LOL.

Sold (almost)

After some negotiating we have bought the house we are interested in, conditional on a building and pest inspection (being done today) and the bank approving our loan application (by next Friday).

Interview with Skwigg: Non-Food Lunatic, Happy-Go-Lucky, Healthy Blogger

Like Skwigg's Blog?

Read an interview with her here.

Measurement Day

Weight up 200g since last weekend. Am happy with that as I haven't done anything except incidental exercise this week, and it's that time of the month. Food has been great - as per my post on Monday. Ended up going out for drinks and Japanese for our anniversary on Thursday.

So will continue in my current 'holding pattern' while I'm slammed with work. Plan for the next seven days is:

Breakfast: oats, fruit compote, reduced-fat Greek yoghurt, flax oil

Morning tea: coffee with milk; rice protein shake, fruit

Lunch: toasted sandwich with tomato paste, kale, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, and mix of goat and swiss cheeses; vege sticks; fruit

Afternoon tea: rice protein shake with milk, fruit

Dinner (with fish oil and fruit):
* Sat – warm tuna pasta salad with tomato dressing
* Sun – barbecue beef buns, red onions, gherkins
* Mon – leftover barbecue beef, pasta, zucchini
* Tues – chilli beans and rice, silverbeet
* Wed – rich dark beef stew, brussels sprouts
* Thurs – chicken and vegetable soup, noodles
* Fri – out

Most of these are crockpot recipes that Rob will make.

Offer Submitted

Have just faxed off an offer on the house we are interested in. The agent will show it to the vendor and get back to us. Waiting...

Happy Anniversary!

Sixteen years today since our first date.

This Week’s Menu

I’m going to be busy this week and may not be able to post regularly. Thought I’d do a quick summary of my menu for the week ahead instead. For simplicity’s sake, most of my meals are going to be the same each day, with dinner being the main thing that changes. Here’s the plan:

Breakfast: oats, dried fruit, milk, flax oil

Morning tea: rice protein shake with milk, fruit

Lunch: toasted sandwich with tomato paste, spinach, artichoke hearts, sundried tomatoes, mushrooms, and mix of low-fat feta and cheddar cheeses; veggie sticks; fruit

Afternoon tea: same as morning tea

Dinner (with fish oil and fruit):

• Mon – Dahl, brown rice, peas and zucchini
• Tues – Leftover lamb and silverbeet casserole from last week, mopped up with bread
• Wed – Huntsman’s Chicken, gluten-free pasta, broccoli
• Thurs – Something with tuna. Haven’t decided yet. Any (low fat) suggestions?
• Fri – Leftover dahl, brown rice, veggies

In between I will be juggling two jobs and organising an offer on a house. The latter involves liaising with the lawyer, savings bank, mortgage broker, registry office (so I can buy a house in my married name; apparently the ceremonial certificate you receive on your wedding day is not valid for financial purposes), real estate agent etc. Hope I don’t explode!

Have a great week!

Sunday

Happy Mothers Day!

This morning Rob made me a (strong) coffee with milk, and even took the photo for me:

Then for breakfast I made us fruit French toast. For my portion I sliced a spelt fruit bun into four pieces, soaked it in beaten egg and cooked it in a non-stick pan. Before eating I drizzled it with a little flax seed oil:

 

Lunch was ryvita crackers with low-fat cheese (two with tomato, two with vegemite), carrot and red pepper sticks, and a mandarin:

 

Afternoon tea was a shake with choc rice protein, milk and water, and an apple:

Later I had another snack of chocolate rice protein and banana mashed together with a bit of water:

Then I walked to the shops to get some supplies for next week.

When I got home I made up some sandwiches and put them in the freezer for next weeks’ lunches. I’ll just grab one out each day, take it to work, then put it in the toasted sandwich maker at lunchtime:

For dinner I sautéed together some garlic, red onion and chilli flakes, then added capers, sliced black olives, salsa, drained tuna, pepper and salt and reduced it down a bit. Near the end of cooking I grated in some zucchini. I served it on top of some gluten-free spirals:

I also had half a green apple:

Later I got hungry again so had some more of the tuna dish:

and some celery with almond butter (unpictured)

Saturday

Weight this morning was down 200g from last Saturday. Girth measurements were the same as last Saturday. Am happy with that since I ate a lot more than usual at the start of the week, and missing a training session yesterday.

For breakfast I had steel cut oats soaked overnight with raisins, then finished off this morning with milk and flax oil:

Morning tea was a shake with milk, water and choc rice protein, and an apple:

I had it on the way to having a second look at the house we are interested in. We had our first look at night time so I wanted to see what it was like during the day. Still keen!

When I got home I had a toasted sandwich with low-fat feta cheese, red onion, mushrooms, olives and pizza paste, plus some carrot and celery sticks, and some dried cranberries:

 

I had a small afternoon tea as Rob was hungry and wanted an early dinner. Just coffee with milk:

 

and half a large pear:

 

We’ve had a jar of korma paste sitting in the fridge for ages so tonight I made chicken korma. I had mine on steamed silverbeet and topped with coriander:

 

I had quite a lot of sauce left in the bottom of my bowl, so just added a bit of brown rice to soak it up:

 

Rob felt like having something sweet tonight. We had two open jars of tahini in the fridge (my bad), so he made Tab’s Tahini Balls. We didn’t have any LSA, so he rolled them in a mixture of almond meal and sesame seeds. They were very moreish. So I had two lots:

Before bed I had an apple:

Friday

Forgot to mention yesterday that we got tickets to see Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) in June.  Really looking forward to it!

Last night I put some steel cut oats and dried cranberries in a pot with a bit of water, brought it to the boil, then turned the heat off and left it covered overnight. This morning I added some soy milk, turned the heat back on to low and cooked until the soy milk was absorbed. I had it topped with a little bit of milk and some flax oil:

I went to the gym this morning but only got as far as doing my foam rolling and mobility exercises. I went to bed too late last night and felt quite tired and negative about my workout while at the gym so I decided to give the rest of my training a miss.

Check out what I picked up at the supermarket on the way home:

 

Organic skim milk marked down to 94 cents for a litre! (They’re close to expiry date, but fine to freeze until needed). I’m going to try using this for a while instead of soy milk and lactose-free milk.

Once I got home I put dinner in the crockpot for tonight:

 

Then had a coffee with milk:

 

and a smoothie with choc rice protein, milk and banana:

 

Lunch was a toasted sandwich with low-fat feta cheese, red onion, red pepper, mushrooms, olives, spinach and pizza paste, plus a carrot and some raisins:

 

For afternoon tea I had a hot chocolate made with chocolate rice protein, hot water and hot milk, and an apple:

Here’s the dinner I prepared earlier - lamb with silverbeet:

  

And here’s my share, with mashed potato and some extra silverbeet:

 

I also had a mandarin:

 

Today I received electronic copies of the paperwork for the house from the real estate agent, and emailed them to the lawyer to review before we make an offer. This is the first time we’ve bought a house in Australia, so want to make sure we’re doing everything properly!

Thursday

We just took TJ out for a short walk along the bike track this morning as it was drizzling. We also had to allow a bit of time to put some drops in his ears when we got back. He’s got a bit of gunk in them at the moment – the poor thing keeps shaking his head  all the time. Apparently ear problems are quite common in labs.

After playing vet I had oats cooked with water, salt and banana, and topped with banana, soy milk, flax oil and cinnamon. Yum!

 

For morning tea I had a coffee with lactose-free milk:

 

a choc rice protein shake and an apple:

 

Lunch was a toasted sandwich with low-fat feta cheese, artichoke hearts, olives and pizza paste:

 

some steamed cauli:

 

and a few dried cranberries:

 

For afternoon tea I had a hot cocoa with lactose-free milk:

 

and vanilla rice protein mixed with apple and cinnamon:

 

Dinner was split pea soup, with toast:

 

and half a large pear:

Later I had kangaroo sausages (x 2):

 

some broccoli leftovers:

 

and a carrot:

 

Today I started proofreading a book on TV-free activities for kids. I’m enjoying it so far! Next week I will be juggling the proofreading with some in-house work at Lonely Planet. I’d still like to get to the gym if I can, but it will most probably be after work. I’ve planned a few crockpot meals for next week, so I can just come in the door and eat after training. 

Wednesday

My body seems to be wanting more food (carbs) at night time lately. My preferred workout time at the moment is after breakfast, so usually I’d have most of my carbs around this time. However, I’m ahead of schedule in terms of weight loss so am going to try including more carbs at night time (and a bit less fat elsewhere in my diet) and see how my body responds.

So this morning for breakfast I had low-fat cheese and tomato on sprouted grain toast:

 

Then I headed off to the gym to do weights plus cross-trainer intervals. Had a great workout today, probably courtesy of all the fruit buns I ate last night!

After training I had a protein shake with lactose-free milk, rice protein and banana:

Lunch was a toasted sandwich with mushrooms, artichoke hearts, low-fat feta cheese and pizza paste:

 

plus some salad with pineapple:

 

For afternoon tea I had a rice protein shake and an apple:

Then we went to look at an open home. We liked it and think we will put in an offer on it.

For dinner I made a lentil shepherd’s pie with sweet potato topping and a side of broccoli:

I also had a piece of bread to mop up the sauce:

 

and a bit of fruit salad:

 

That didn’t keep me full for long so I had some oats, raisins and yoghurt (x 2):