Table of Plenty – Hot or Cold Muesli

As the weather is getting colder, I have been looking for warmer breakfast options, moving away from my favourite 12WBT banana bruschetta.  Always a fan of oats and porridge, Table of Plenty’s new Hot or Cold Muesli is a great quick option.

I have tried it cold…I love the crunch!

And hot…perfect on its own and hits the spot! 90 seconds later -

And hot with added banana and cinnamon…!

Definitely a yummy winter breakfast, and I am happy with the calorie content and nutritional stats, fitting in to my new 12WBT regime.

Must try it with berries next, I think!

Note:  This product was sent  to me for consideration.  All opinions are my own.

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The Weekender – Easter 2013

I was so excited for a low-key long weekend, staying at home, no need to rush with the Easter traffic, and no need to over-indulge on Easter treats   So I set out for relaxation, and that’s exactly what I got.

Sleep ins – tick
Exercise – tick
Quality time with my husband – tick
Some indulgence – tick

Friday, I slept in, made a lovely brunch for myself and Mr. J – can’t go wrong with bacon and eggs.

Look at that perfectly cooked egg!    Anyway(!)  Chillaxed, made some hot cross buns, went for a walk in the sunshine with husband and later I went to Zumba.  I *love that my classes were still held over the long weekend.  Great chance to get out there and do more to make up for the extra treats.

My hot cross buns were babies – the 12WBT recipe called for 15, I made 20.  So they look a little knobbly, but were even more snack friendly!  I didn’t get a good ‘after’ pic, cause we were too busy eating them

Saturday was another sleep in, and I met a gf for chats before Samba Fitness.  Another yummy brunch, before heading out to the shops – Funny how it gets so busy over a long weekend when people can’t go the day before/after (Good Fri/Easter Sun). We scored a
couple of bargains though, and I enjoyed having a leisurely tea and sharing a junior spoil at Koko Black.

Saturday night I made pizza, even the dough(!) and we had a movie night at home.  Talk about domestic goddess; well I try

Sunday the weather was not looking to good, but I dragged Mr. J out to the Lake and we took it fairly easy, but tried to maintain a good pace for 10km.  We were a little slow while checking out the new developments on the Kingston Foreshore – pretty crazy.  Although it
was a little chilly, and threatened to rain; the temp was better for a good pace, and it stayed clear.

Not overly speedy, but good amount for calories burned.

Monday was more relaxation, interspersed with washing and the threat of going back to reality (work) the next day.  Some cleaning and then Samba that night.

Farewell long weekend, see you again in June 

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SlimKicker Giveaway – Get motivated and Win!

I have been at this health and fitness thing for a while now.  Motivation comes and goes, and I have been learning about what works, and doesn’t work for me.  I find anything that has immediate feedback is more likely to keep me interested

Recently I was introduced to a free health and fitness app – SlimKicker. The website and app uses people’s fitness and health related goals and turns them into a game with challenges, such as quitting chocolate for a week 

SlimKicker also has a lot of recipe ideas such as this chicken soup recipe.  It’s starting to get chilly, and soups are a great healthy lunch idea.

So, SlimKicker are on the hunt for new challenge ideas and in exchange for your ideas, you could win this slow cooker –

To be in the running:
• Sign up to SlimKicker – Check it out, it’s free
• Follow me on twitter and tweet about this competition – SecretLifeJen
• Leave a comment on this post with a great fitness or health challenge idea … for example – “doing 10 pushups every day for 1 week” or “doing squats between commercials” or “drinking a glass of water before every meal” – I could go on(!) But over to you, give me your ideas!

SlimKicker will choose their favourite challenge idea after one week, and use it on their site, so entries close next Sunday 14th April, 2013.   SlimKicker has offered this competition to US and Australian readers – so my Aussie readers, go for it!

The winner will be announced here on the blog and I will forward the winner’s details to SlimKicker to post the slow cooker – perfect timing for this winter-y weather 

Note: No remuneration was received for this post.

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12WBT Week One

Officially three days in to the program and … 1.5kg down.  First weigh in today, and I sucked it up and took the ‘before’ photos.

As I was a little late to the party and missed out on the pre-program, I have been working on my pre-season tasks.  Glad to say that I am done, and ready to dedicate all my focus to the nutrition and exercise plans.  First weigh in today, and I sucked it up and took the ‘before’ photos.  Yesterday I did the fitness test and measurements – I have to say I was surprised at my results, I thought I would do better.  I was pretty sore from Samba the night before, so the wall sit was agony, but I pushed through the 2 min mark.  The run was the hardest; if it wasn’t for the run I would have made it into the advanced, but hey, better to be honest.

Other thoughts >>- I love that the program works around the exercise I already have locked in. e.g. Zumba and Samba are my two cardio days, bikram is my core day – So I just need to do the two toning days and figure out my super Saturday sessions.  I have no access to the gym, so I love that she offers at home vids, and outdoor sessions.

- I have not made many recipes yet, but looking at them – YUM.  I will be altering them to gluten-free, and I have still been fitting in my green monster smoothies, which kinda works as a snack under the program.

- Today was a hard day craving-wise, I think I probably was over my calories, but, I said no to sugar… opting for healthier options.

- Surprisingly I am only burning 380 calories at Samba and 440 calories at Zumba.  There is a fair amount of core work at Samba, which I guess explains for the lower burn.  I am not sure what to do to hit the 500 calorie burn for those days though.  Maybe a walk would suffice?

Noting that it is Valentine’s Day tomorrow, I have yet to figure out how to eat out on the program.  Obviously I will make sensible choices where I can, but I think I will have to work extra hard to compensate.

 

On that note for tomorrow – Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy National Condom Day!!

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12WBT – 12 Week Body Transformation by Michelle Bridges

Just a quick one, I am super busy doing the pre-season tasks for 12WBT.  Round One starts tomorrow.  I am a bit late to the party, but when I decided to bite the bullet, I didn’t want to wait until Round Two(!)

I have been thinking about giving 12WBT a go for a while, and when I met a friend for coffee today, I was convinced.  I have not seen her for a couple of months, and her transformation is simply fabulous.

So here goes, I look forward to blogging my way toward success! 

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January 2013 Fitness in Review

This month just flew by.  I held really strong on the fitness front, slacking a little toward the end of the month.   Same with healthy eats, really good for a couple of weeks, but then almost to the point of giving up.

Fitness-wise, the initial goal was c25k.  This dropped off as the month progressed, and I started becoming more interested in Bikram (hot) yoga.  I also started a new dance class – Samba Fitness.  This was a great new challenge – amazing the difference between the difficulty in Zumba and Samba – I’m pretty used to Zumba now, and feels like a breeze (well, sorta!).  Just goes to show that you have do different activities, to keep challenging the body.

Nutrition-wise I felt like I was doing pretty much 99% clean, e.g. paleo, no sugar, but seeing no real result on the scale.  And when you look at my activity, seems pretty unrealistic that I would not see a change in weight/body fat.  I think this is why I started to fall off the wagon toward the end of the month, both with healthy eats and exercise.  After seeing a dietician, I have been told to just keep recording my daily eats, focus on consistency and keeping active, while not going too hard (this is where the giving up usually happens).

The good news is that I am loving green monster smoothies, and packing more and more spinach in each one(!)  Sounds crazy, but I am starting to like the taste without needing bananas, berries, or any fruit.

So… on to February then(!)  After a few days off exercise and taking it a bit easy on the diet, I am looking forward to getting back to it.

 

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Christmas and New Year Healthy Eats – Featuring Kurrajong Kitchen.

I am so excited for this year.  It’s day 3, and I feel less bloated and my skin is clearing up
Although Christmas and New Year was certainly a time of indulgence for me, I thought I would share some of my healthier eats over the season.

Still getting that hit of sweetness, I enjoyed a lot of fresh fruit over the break.  I would have liked to have seen more mango in the picture though. 

There was also a lot of raspberry consumption, particularly in Tasmania.  I have to make the most of it, while we visit Mr. J’s family.  Every year I insist on visiting Christmas Hills Raspberry farm.  This year we also visited the Cherry Shed, but I wasn’t so impressed.

I was lucky enough to sample a selection of Kurrajong Kitchen Lavosh Bites, which were provided to me to try.  I think the original flavour is a winner.  Yeast and egg free, it was great with lots of cheese, hello camembert(!) and dips.  My favourite dip, basil, cashew and parmesan is pictured is below – Doesn’t look very appetising!  Or perhaps it’s my terrible photography skills   Kurrajong Kitchen provide healthier recipes, which may have been a better choice than all the goodies below.

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May Fitness Goals

Three days into May, and I am going strong     Pushups and core/abs on Tuesday – tick!  Zumba last night – tick!  I am sore today, which is great, and the scales are a little lower too, which is always nice 

So here is my exercise/fitness plan for May >>

Of course, in the initial weeks I do not expect to manage double workouts, or even daily workouts.  It is going to take time to build up the intensity again.  But the count down is really on: 134 days until the wedding, and just a couple more until our honeymoon(!)  And quite a few less than that until dress fittings…

So the very minimum exercise routine >>
Weekly zumba – 75 mins of cardio: paid for, so less excuses!
Cardio – c25k or slow moving
Strength – p90x weights & abs

But most important, nutrition.  I want to get back to paleo, and as much as possible, restrict dining out to once a week.  Of course, this won’t always be the case, but where possible, it is a must. I haven’t got back to wearing my BodyMedia, but come Monday – it will be charged and ready to go    I love that it is almost winter and it will be tucked away under my long sleeved tops.

Less calories in, more calories out = fat loss and toning.

 

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I went away for a while…

Wow… where did the last two months go?

Yep, you might have guessed it – my absence means that I not only dropped out of the blogging world, but the ‘fitness/health/generally looking after myself’ world too.  Yes, life gets in the way; but that’s not how I want it to be.  I want it to be part of my life, a part that I don’t have think about, a part that comes naturally to me.  Perhaps this will never be the case, but I can hope, and try my very best to make it routine.

So what’s news?
- I went to Tasmania for a week for a wedding: It was great to go to a wedding so close to my own – got some ideas about what I do (and don’t) want at our wedding.  I also had great intentions in terms of exercise and took my joggers, but it was a complete fail.  I went for one walk. One!
- I started work.  Part time at this stage, which means I should have no excuses about exercise.  Even so, it has been pretty tiring.  I am a bit out of my comfort zone, which is great, but also challenging.  So I clearly need to work out what will work best for me: a.m./p.m.?
- I have been ‘sucking it up’ and starting the wedding planning process:  I will share soon, bit by bit    Our wedding is in Sydney which means I have been doing the trip up and back a fair bit (also interfering with my routine).
- Over the last two months, I have gained about a kilo, and my body fat has increased about 1%

And what’s ahead?
- The countdown is on. 4.5 months: eeeep!  To the wedding that is 
- It’s time to get back to routine – goals, plan, do, etc etc!
- Weight lifting, barefoot running, here I am
- Bodymedia, you will be my friend; Sugar you are not my friend.

May goals to come soon!  And a wedding update

 

 

 

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Getting over the hump, back on the wagon, out of a slump…

Perhaps I spoke too soon.  In my rush to see results, I went from zero exercise during the previous two-three weeks, to expecting cardio, and weights, every single day.  See here, for my awesome, but perhaps unrealistic March goals.

So far, I have been to Zumba once, and completed c25k once.  Yep, something is wrong with this picture.

I don’t have any real excuses for this, everyone experiences waning motivation once in a while.  I think more than anything, I have just been lazy.  And I have been fairly happy with my plateau – sitting with a loss, and not gaining.  But, I have about 8 more kilograms to say farewell to forever!

So, where to from here? What to do?!!  I think I’m going to try to lower the expectations a little bit, and just focus on consistency – exercise and paleo.

But, at the same time, complacency is not ok.  I know paleo = weight loss for me, but if I want faster/maintainable weight loss I need cardio, and to lift!  I need to exercise a minimum of four times a week, and(!) I need to start incorporating weights.  And I need to start saying no to sugar (100%).  And And And!

I want this, so I gotta be the one to make it happen 

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