slog

school holidays and preparation of/for job applications/interviews often conspire to give me no daylight hours in which to exercise. or exercise successfully (i can get the children to the park, but it doesn't really count). now i know that you working people often have the same trouble, especially you working family people. in rob's case, not so much of an issue. he cycles to work, he often cycles back. he swims or runs or plays frisbee in his lunch break. in fact working affords him many opportunities to exercise. and he plays squash on wednesday nights while miley does judo.

my best chance for decent exercise is often on the weekend, although i do get thursday night basketball. sometimes,i go to the aquatic centre in then evening, although often the 50m pool isn't available and swimming in the 25 is like swimming in minestrone soup, too warm and with suspicious floating blobs of things.

i can only run on tracks and trails on account of my knees, so dark-time running isn't a possibility either, unless i'm brave AND i wear a headlamp.

so sometimes, it's just the (stupid) exercise bike in the evening. it's not the end of the world, i can have the fan on and i can watch tv, but i just find it boring and unrewarding. last night i did 40 minutes. the other alternative is walking around the neighbourhood in the dark, also boring and unrewarding. and cold. here are some pictures from last night and my walk this morning. i don't get much fitness benefit out of these sessions, it's more just the doing something and discipline.

anyway. at least i do it.

breakfast - see previous post.
morning tea - popcorn with the kids. with oil spray and salt, for flavour. butter is nice, but i wouldn't do it to myself.

then, because i was looking after 5 children, i knew my lunch would be last. i had some of these to keep me going...

until finally, after 2pm, i got my own lunch - morrocan (nb this means it has chickpeas in it) brown rice salad. you've seen it before.

next, as i cooked tea for everyone else - more nuts.

tea was a spicy red lentil and tomato dish from my indian cookbook.


my sister always sabotages my best healthy eating efforts by delivering stuff like this: chocolate pie!

monday

on saturday i had the worst oatmeal and apple ever. it had all the key ingredients: apples, oatmeal, cinnamon and maple syrup, with nuts on top, but i put far too much water in and it was a tasteless, soggy mess. will not repeat.
today was much better. 1 large apple, a quarter of a cup of water, half a cup of oatmeal, a tablespoon of flaked almonds and a teaspoon of maple syrup. this works perfectly and i should never stray from the formula (unless it's with coconut or cranberries or sultanas or brown sugar). first i cook the apple with cinnamon and water in the microwave for 2 minutes, then i add the oatmeal and cook for another minute. then stir in the nuts and maple syrup/brown sugar. if you are adding sultanas, put them in at the start and they will firm up nicely.

and more

on friday i went for an evening swim (i swim about 1400m usually), on saturday i did my 10km run on the pipeline track. it took me about 47 minutes, which i'm happy with. i like to do sub 5 minute kilometres, even if they are on a relatively flat track. i'm ok on hills so i hope that wouldn't change my time much.
i went for a recreational swim with the kids yesterday, and i was surprised to feel a bit stiff. i don't run so much on account of my knees, although all the fish oil and glucosamine does seem to be helping.
frozen raspberries, a tablespoon of coconut, and chocolate soy milk with plain low fat yoghurt - fantastic! look at that the straw stands up by itself:

a tofu vegie stirfry with lots of asparagus and some choy sum.

nuts: really fill you up when it isn't a meal-time...

chocolate brownie with icecream and hot raspberry sauce!

once again we've had some computer issues, so here's some highlights from the last few days:
firstly, a spinach, kale and rocket sandwich with a red olive pesto spread, avocado, mozzarella and blue cheese dressing:
popcorn (with oil spray and salt):

vegemite toast!

jelly beans - high gi whatever...

this is my favourite bread. helgas pumpkin 5 seed. it's the only thing i buy now. you can usually stock up on it when it's on special (eg 2 loaves for $6). it's worth it.

still no pics

and not much to report. played basketball this evening, swam yesterday, tomorrow is another swim. have been failing abysmally on the stretching & physio front. didn't eat any junk food today unless you count 1 square of chilli chocolate (nutritional!). so, move along. nothing to see here.

as part of ongoing computer problems i regret i cannot bring you any pictures from tuesday. suffice to say you've seen it all before, apple oatmeal, raspberry smoothie, salad roll from live-eat for lunch (yumm, it had pumpkin!) and home-made pumpkin soup for tea. for truth in reporting i must confess to eating 100gm of chocolate covered raspberries (after lunch) and two plain mini cupcakes (after tea). and they were yummy!

today i made a new smoothie - low fat chocolate soy milk, and low-fat plain yoghurt, and cherries, and a tablespoon of coconut! a cherry-ripe kind of thing. was good. probably it could have been improved if the cherries were frozen. even though it's cold enough externally at the moment.

cutting back on the junk...all i had was fruit tingles,
jellybeans, and a square of dark chilli chocolate (not pictured). really can't do better than that.

i made sushi for tea (avocado, and spinach and philly)

and had leftover vegie madras pie for lunch, along with more moroccan brown rice salad (see yesterday).

aside from that, the usual breakfast of apple oatmeal and a frozen raspberry smoothie. no exercise today, as it is day 6 - rest day. though i should stretch and do my physio exercises.

ok, so computer is back...

it's my goal to exercise in some capacity 5 out of every 6 days. and walking (unless it's uphill) should only constitute one of those sessions. other things i do on a regular basis are play basketball, swim, and run. i also walk up trugannini track, or skyline track (bicentennial reserve) in winter when "trugs" (as i call it) is too leechy and muddy. trugs goes from taroona to the signal station on mt nelson, and the skyline track goes from churchill ave near hutchins school to the same place.
here's some pics from my skyline walk yesterday (i run the flat and downhill bits).


on saturday, i impressed myself by going for a 10km run on the pipeline track. it wasn't the distance that impressed me, it was the time - 7.30am, and the temperature which was 2.7C (heard it on the radio on the way back). I ran half the distance wearing gloves, and nearly the entire way wearing a polar fleece beanie. i have never run in a beanie before. i had a singlet top and a long sleeve top on, normally 2 layers is too much for me too. here's a pic from my 10 min drive up to the track. there is snow on the top of the mountain.

i've decided that you (my imaginary readers) don't need to see EVERYTHING i eat, esp if it's the same thing i ate yesterday. such as my oatmeal and apple, (with sultanas, nuts, and maple syrup) that i eat most days:

or my frozen raspberry, soy milk, low fat yoghurt and choc powder smoothies (which we all like here):



but here's a yummy lunch i made yesterday - simple and tasty. morrocon brown rice salad with chickpeas and sweet potato. even better, it's a weight watchers recipe. probably not allowed to put it up, but it's basically brown rice, chickpeas, lemon juice, coriander leaves, roast sweet potato and grilled zucchini. the rice is flavoured with some vegetable stock powder, some lemon juice and some masterfoods morrocan 5 spice powder.

here's my favourite weekend breakfast - when i'm sick of my apple and oatmeal and i want to break out with something wild:
fruity bites. they kind of have jam in them (the cereal company would say it was fruit). my family can eat a box in one morning...

anyway. as i was saying, i will endeavour to show you the best and worst of each day...

friday sat sunday - highlights

a gingerbread cookie...

organic vegie madras pie (no, i didn't make it)...


making cheese and vegemite scrolls with pizza dough from the breadmaker...

apologies for the break in transmission due to faulty computer. standard services will return tomorrow...

so. usual breakfast. you know it. oats are great for vegos. and oj and vitamins.

had to eat some m&ms. doing some job application work that i hated.
and these. for the same reason.

lunch was some bread and butter with some pasta and an olivey-red-pesto-eu sauce. looked a bit oily. but i was in a bit of a rush. still no excuse, but it tasted good.

then some delicious rice-paper vegie rolls from the vegetarian place in bank arcade. they have crushed peanuts in them. pricey, but worth it.

it was my good friend amanda's birthday. look what her mum made!!
cake with 4 layers with caramel (and jam) in between.


then later, after basketball, i had the yummy dahl that i had two nights ago. with some plain yoghurt (sorry, no picture, but you can just scroll down).
then this icecream. i had forgotten about the cake when i made it. otherwise i wouldn't have. but hey - can't waste it...

i played a full game of basketball today for my exercise. it was great fun as usual, and i am relieved to be back exercising again. now for the stupid physio exercises...

Finally. Not such a bad day. I realised that over the last 2 weeks i have pigged out on mini magnuns, lindt balls, cupcakes and gingerbread men and this might be the likely cause of my half kg weight gain. which will be addressed. anyway. the only thing i forgot to take a photo of was a square of dark chilli chocolate. oh, and oj and fish oil.
started the day with my favourite smoothie - low fat soy milk and low-fat yoghurt, frozen raspberries and hot chocolate powder.
then followed by oats, apples, sultanas, cinnamon, nuts and maple syrup:



multi grain bread with butter and pumpkin/sweet potato soup for lunch...

some nuts:

vegies and pasta and parmesan cheese. this didn't work out so well for me because it was probably too much and it made my stomach all puffy and sore.

these jellybeans are darrell lea. ok, but not the glucose ones from the chemist which taste delicious.

no exercise again today! can't remember the last time i had 2 days off in a row when i wasn't sick! but very busy with the job-hunting etc this week. it's a temporary blip that is unlikely to be repeated. phew. basketball tomorrow.