Browband - from webbing & Vinyl

This is for all my ribbon and browband customers. Some information to help you make your browbands.
The following instructions and images are for a simple, easy to make browband using webbing and vinyl. My horse has been wearing the same browband for 3 years now, it has been re-covered a couple of times, but the browband is still sound.

What you will need
1" webbing (or narrower for a small pony)
vinyl (cheap flooring type will do)
needle and thread
ruler/tape measure
Stanley knife or similar

METHOD: (See illustrations at bottom)

Cut a length of webbing 13cm longer than actually needed to fit the horse it is intended for.

Fold over each end about 6cm to form the browband loops. Make length adjustments if needed and pin loops in place.

Stitch the loops into place, making sure the loops are big enough for you to thread your bridle strap through. Over stitch at least twice to make sure the loops won't come undone.

Cut a length of vinyl to the width of the webbing. Trim the ends so they fit over your stitches. Sew the vinyl into place, it doesn't need to be too neat as you will be covering the stitches with ribbon and bling. (see illustrations below).

Walla - you are finished - the browband is ready to be decorated however you like!!

Got to get back to basics

How long is it since I posted? several weeks at least. I've been so busy with piano, kids, work that I haven't given myself time.

Well that will change as from tonight. Back to tracking, tracking, tracking and healthy eating. havent gained too much weight over the last few weeks, but certainly need to get back on the wagon before that changes.

Swimming too has suffered, but will get a swim in tomorrow I hope.

And I'll post my food in the morning too. Truly back to basics, that is fruit, vegetables and whole meal.

new week, new start

Well it is more than a week since I last posted. So much has happened in that little week. From an eating and exercise point of view it has been pretty good. Weighed in this morning to a 1.2kg loss, so down to 75.8kg now, less than 2kg from the upper end of my healthy weight range.

Swimming has been really good this last week. Have fitted 4 swims in each of 2km or more, and getting faster and fitter too. Lots of walking as well only painful hip is restricting me from increasing the distance and time taken.

With the colder weather I have been eating soups, especially my favourite - pumpkin soup - . Otherwise my daily food diary is very similar to previous postings. And I have to say they work if I can stick to my plan.

Fruit is changing too, now that summer fruits are over, am enjoying the first navel oranges, and apples.

This week I plan to swim 3 times each increasing speed or distance, including more and longer sprint sessions. With only a few months till the World Games in October I have to seriously start training. Although I do want to be at goal before I really push myself to the limit. I'd like to be maintaining my weight whilst training as hard as possible.

That's about it for now, will post again soon, might even put some photos on the blog.

Difficult week, much to learn!

Well, I haven't posted for a week. The past week has been extremely difficult - I don't know why - if I did I wouldn't have made so many bad choices with food. It was busy, but that hasn't stopped me in the past.

Today I have looked really hard at my goals. I don't think I need to change them - maybe I have to reduce them.

It was weigh in morning and my weight stayed the same, but I do expect my follys of the past week to show up next week. You can't eat whole blocks (not just 1) of chocolate and not have some repercusions. However, it is too late to worry about what is past, and I must move forward.

On an exercise note - I swam twice last week, both good tough workouts the first of 2.1km the second of 2.5km and I will swim thisafternoon too and aim to swim 2.5 again as I've had 2 days off, my body should be relatively fresh.

Walked 4km thismorning - and might stick to the 4km for a while - 5km was taking too long and making it too difficult to deal with children issues, homework, getting to school on time etc!

It is now 5 months until the World Masters Games. I have to up my swimming just slightly from 2 times a week to a more regular 3 times a week.

Todays food plan:

Breaky: 1 crumpet with jam followed later by 1/4 cup natural muesli with 1.5 cups sliced rockmelon and 80g low fat fruit yoghurt (6)

Lunch: 6 rice thins with small spread of philly extra lite spread and vegemite. 1 cob of corn and pumpkin soup. (7)

Dinner: last nights leftovers - delicious beef stew with carrot, onion and mushroom. (recipe later). Mashed potato on side (mashed using skim milk - no butter). (5)

Snacks: apple (1), carrot and cucumber sticks (0), small banana (1).

Always come back on track

Well if I don't all the hard work will be undone. This morning was an eating disaster. Started out well, but soon found myself finishing off a loaf of home made bread (thankfully I left off the butter), but it still equated to 160g of bread (equivalent of about 6 normal slices I think). Then I felt so bad I even got into the cooking chocolate - I haven't eaten chocolate like that for more than 3 months. So that was bad.

Why did I do it? It is so silly, even more silly is to give in and do it again just because I've done it once. Well I won't. Not even tomorrow, starting right now. I will eat my alloted lunch (rice thins and vegemite), I will just have to live with the consequences of thismornings failings on the scales next week.

To get over it and move on - I will win this battle - for once in my life I will get to be a healthy weight, and it will be Before September this year, not the next or the next!

I lost 400 g this week so down to 76.8kg, but next week I don't expect to show a loss after this mornings effort. However if I don't get back on track - all is lost as far as weight loss is concerned. So I forgive myself, I will move on - the rest of my healthy life starts right now!

OK that said and done.

Exercise today - walked 5.2km in a slightly faster time than usual (55 minutes - so I am going faster than 5km/hr - that is good, when I first started a couple of months ago the same walk took 1 hr 10 min. Today is not a swim day, but yesterday I swam - 2km in 45 minutes - so I am swimming faster too.

500m freestyle,
2 x 400m medleys
500m alternate breastroke (easy), freestyle (flat out).
200m cool down (doggy paddle).

I taught Scripture today - the children are just gorgeous and so interested. Unlike us adults they haven't learnt to be so sceptical or complacent, they love to learn about creation and are happy to ask tough questions that involve very thoughtful answers. Today's lesson was the ressurection (can't spell).
Jesus is alive, God has power over death! as the headlines. Most of these children have heard this before, but they still ask relevant questions and want to know more.

Well it's off to work soon, so I'd better save and run.

Too sweet or not to sweet

I've been thinking about this for a while - Whether or not eating sweet foods increases the cravings for sweet foods.

YES IT DOES! - SO how to combat those cravings. Just don't eat the sweet foods? - I don't think it is as easy as that.

Here's how it started. Last time I joined ww to loose weight, I chose to try and combat my hunger by using very low kilojoule/fat/sugar yoghurts etc - this in an effort to increase my calcium intake as well, but it wasn't only restricted to yoghurt, I purchased and ate all sorts of items with manufactured sweeteners included.

I began to loose weight quite well, but by week 3 I was suffering the hugest cravings for anything sweet, chocolate, lollies, biscuits etc. So I turned to using diet labelled snacks. It didn't help, the cravings got worse. I struggled along till I'd lost about 8 kilograms and then gave up.

Soon after this experience I wondered if there was any relationship between the cravings and the use of sweet foods and foods with fake sweeteners.

My opinion is that YES - eating the sweet things whether they contained real (natural sugar), or manufactured sweeteners definitely increases the cravings for sweet things - WHY do I think this.

At the end of January 2009 I went back to ww to loose weight and consciously chose not to use sweeteners of any kind and to drastically reduce my use of sugar (like on cereal), biscuits, jellies, etc.

Now I am getting the fastest and most amazing results I've ever experienced with weight loss. So far I have now lost over 12kg, have had very few "bad" days and even less cravings, mostly I am only hungrey when it is appropriate to be hungry, and when I am hungry I turn to not so sweet snacks like - rice biscuits with vegemite, vegetable sticks (carrot, cucumber, capsicum etc).

I know my head space is in the right place at the moment, but it sure helps if you are not suffering from cravings - in particular cravings for sweet things.

Busy day Wednesday

An exercise rest day yesterday truly paid off, my knees and hips are thanking me. Only managed around 6000 steps on my pedometer. But thismorning managed 5.2km walk on fairly hilly terrain. And felt good afterwards, so that is a bonus, not hobbling around too much.

So later I'll be heading for the pool and will swim between 1.8 and 2km programm thus: but I must do 2 hours piano practice first. The swim is reward for putting my hands into gear and playing as I should.

1. 500m warm up freestyle
2. 200m breastroke
3. 200m backstroke
4. 200m butterfly
5. 200m freestyle
6. 5 x 100m medleys (freesyle, breastroke, backstroke, butterfly) reverse order.
7. 200m cocool down (dog paddle, walking etc).

Food today:

Breaky: 40g natural muesli, 200g rockmelon, 6 strawberries. (4.5)
Lunch: 8 rice thins with meagre spread of Philly extra lite spread and vegemite (my favourite lunch). (4)
Dinner: At my sisters, and I don't know what she is preparing, so I'll leave 10 points for that.
Snacks: carrot sticks (0) apple (1).

To Exercise or not to Exercise!

Photo caption: Autumn has arrived in the hills, view along my walking route.

Yesterday I completed my swim, not as planned, but for the first time in a long long time I found the "zone", so I swam out 1km of freestyle before commencing the rest of my training session. It felt great and I got out of the pool feeling good.

Today is an exercise (relative) rest day, my right hip and knee need a break!

I've been thinking about some of the things I've done to loose weight this time, that have worked compared with strategies that have not worked. Keep in mind that I've been at goal weight 3 times previous and half way to goal on many occasions. Right now I am well and truly past the half way mark and am feeling motivated, healthy and happy. SO what is different?

One thing I've learnt previously is: exercise is important BUT over exercise is not sustainable and for me that means The gym - I hate gyms, but I've always joined one previously, because I thought it was the right thing to do and yes it has worked, but NO - long term it hasn't because it was too difficult to sustain and extremely expensive if you are not going at least 3-4 times per week. The consequence is that membership lapses and the desire to go and get hot sweaty and uncomfortable outweighs the wish to go. Also who likes to be seen as a failure? not me - so it is easier to opt out. And guess what, the weight piles on again, the wrot sets in and the head space that desires to be fit and healthy for life switches off.

So: Exercise has to be sustainable, it has to be enjoyable and it has to be affordable! It is part of the mind space that keeps you in the "zone".

NOW: To stay fit and active, exercise has to be planned, so sacrifices may still have to be made to fit it in. The easiest sacrifices are probably time sitting in front of TV, early mornings, late evenings. Make an appointment with yourself to get some exercise in every day. It is still a discipline - a self discipline!

For me it is walking. It only costs me the clothes I am wearing, and a pair of good shoes! Then the will to walk out the front door and get moving.

Of course I love to swim and have set myself a goal of competing at the World Masters Games in October 2009. BUT Here is where I have to be OH so careful. This is where I can go terribly wrong. If I exercise (train) hard to swim, is it sustainable into the future? That is why it is so important that I keep walking. The walking is sustainable, the swimming may not be. It is dependent on all sorts of external influences, such as having a pool to swim in! Last week it was not swimmable a couple of days because the chlorine levels were so high - apparently some extra bugs found in the pool. The cost of getting to the pool is an issue, it is a 1/2 hour drive to the nearest heated all year round pool for me. Which of course means it takes an hour of travel for an hour of exercise! That all has to be taken into consideration.

I could very eaily fall into the trap of going to the pool every day, but I think it is important that I don't because I don't want to fall into the trap of being so fit and healthy before the games that it isn't sustainable afterwards.

Summary: Exercise is important, it has to be enjoyable, affordable and it MUST BE SUSTAINABLE for life!

Monday - Weigh in Day

Well, I achieved a loss of 1kg thismorning at weigh in, so I now weigh 77.2kg, just the motivation I need to keep going. It has been a pretty difficult week, mainly because of my hip and knee (ongoing) problems.

An entry going off today for my first swim comp in 8 years. I'm going to be brave and enter 200m butterfly. 100 backstroke, 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle.

Food for today:
Breaky: 40g natural muesli, 120g rockmelon, 100g pear, 90g ski d lite peach and mango yoghurt (4.5)
Lunch: corn on the cob, vegetable salad, bread roll (4.5)
Dinner: home made spaghetti bolognaise. (7)
Snacks: low fat ice cream (1.5), carrot sticks (0), Rockmelon (.5), apple (1), ww muesli bar (1.5).

Exercise for today
Walk: (done), 5km

Swim:
500m freestyle warm up
4 x 50m kick, 50m breastroke (200m)
200m butterfly
200m backstroke
200m breastroke
200m freestyle
2 x 100m medleys (hard)
200m cool down (dog paddle)
Grand total of 1.8km

Sunday

The photo was taken just after leaving my house for my morning walk on Saturday. It was one of the best mornings of the year so far. Crystal clear, all the way to the city.

Saturday was a swim day, although I wasn't able to get away until after 3.00pm, I still managed quite a good program including the first 200m butterfly without stopping. It was very very difficult, but hopefully if I can keep the momentum going it will get easier.

so my program:

250m Freestyle warm up

200m butterfly

400m medley (butterfly, backstroke, breastroke, freestyle)

4 x 100m medley

50m kick (freestyle kick)

200m freestyle cool down.

Today ended up being a bit of a rest day as my hip and knee acting up really badly, I wonder if it is the cooler weather which has arrived. But walking hurts, so I will have to try and get to the pool a little more often.

Food over the last couple of days has been pretty good. And each day I learn more. On Saturday night went to friends for dinner. She was serving up risotto (good), Pasta (good), Sausages (not so good). I was able to say to her without hurting feelings, that I would love to taste her risotto without the sausage. She reacted very positively. However when desert came out I couldn't resist - pavlova - I did manage to eat it without eating the cream. And it turns out pavlova with just fruit and low fat fruit yoghurt or low fat icecream is a very light dessert only doing (2) damage for the serving.

Today I am listing my food in hindsight as It is almost time for bed.

Breaky: 40g natural muesli, 200g rockmelon, 90g low fat yoghurt (4)

Lunch: Home made flat bread with salad and low fat cheese, 2 servings (5.5)

Dinner: steak (3), mashed potato, with gravy (4), carrots, peas (0) corn on the cob (1.5)

Snack: Banana (1.5)

Tomorrow is another day. I hope to get up early and walk, but that will be entirely dependent upon my hip feeling OK.

It will be a swim day, plan to swim 1.8km.

Fabulous Friday

Wow, what a great day Thursday turned out to be. Not easy, but well worth the effort of eating well and exercising. After work I went to the local swimming pool as planned and swam 1.8km, not quite as far as I wanted to go, but in the end it was the Chlorine levels which chased me out of the pool. After checking with the staff, they reckoned they were normal, but I'm pretty sure you shouldn't suffer from burning throat and dry mouth if the chlorine levels were correct. So I won't go back again at night.

Today's plans - not sure yet, have to entertain my 2 DDs. Might get another swim in with any luck. Already completed 5km easy walk (don't want to hurt my knees or hips). Would love to find some time to scrapbook.

Food plan-
Breakfast: Home made apple porridge (recipe below) (4.5)
Lunch: Salad wrap - 1/4 avocado topped with grated carrot, sliced cucumber, beetroot, alfalfa, salt and pepper. (3) Bowl of fruit salad - rockmelon, grapes and apple (2)
Dinner: 200g flake (fish),(recipe below), steamed vegetables potato, carrot, zuchino and broccoli. (6)
Snacks: Carrot sticks (0) 1 scoop Low fat ice cream (1.5); ww muesli bar (1.5) 150g ski delight yoghurt (2.5)

Apple porridge: Yummy and filling, a bit fiddly to make, but well worth the effort. Serves: 4. (4 per serve).

1.5 cups rolled oats
25g sultanas
1 tbs LSA mix (optional)
5 level tbs skim milk powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 cup unsweetened apple juice
2 large green apples (thinly sliced)
2 level tbs brown sugar (optional) (I can't manage without it!)
3 cups very hot water.

Put the whole lot into a solid based pot and let stand for 10 minutes. Then put the pot onto the lowest setting on the cooktop and simmer (stirring occasionally) for around 1/2 an hour, serve immediately.

Microwave fish: Serves 1, each piece needs to be cooked separately. Cooking time only 3 -5 minutes in microwave. (3.5)

200 g fish (per person).
2 tbs lemon grated lemon rind
2 tbs lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste.

Place the fish onto a microwave safe ceramic dish. Rub the piece of fish with the lemon rind, salt and pepper, gently sprinkle juice over the top. Cover the container leaving a small opening in one corner. Cook in microwave for 3-5 minutes. Fish is cooked when it is tender, white and falls apart easily (over cooked it becomes very dry and hard).

What happened to Wednesday?!

Well it is Thursday - and what a blow out of a day yesterday. Went to my mum's home, she wants an ebay garage sale, but can't do it herself, so I spent all day sorting, photographing and listing. she must have felt guilty, 'cause she plied me with home cooking all day and of course I didn't say no to very much. And I'm pretty angry with myself, but time to get over it and move on again!

What can I learn from that? I have to be firm with the closest people to me. My mum knows I am trying to make a complete lifestyle change. Maybe it is up to me to be much stronger (nicely) about what I will and won't do with my food and exercise regime.

Today of course is another day and I've already been out and walked 5km, but it's time to be very very careful, my hip is starting to pain me again and if I overdo it I will not be able to walk at all.

Exercise today: my walk + I intend to swim after work tonight. The program will be as follows.
Over distance training (reduce stress on joints of sprint training).

• Warm up of 800m freestyle
• Alternate 50m butterfly breastroke - 400m
• 100m Backstroke
• 100m breastroke
• 100m freestyle
• 400m alternate laps breastroke/freestyle

Food for today: (Oh yes, pretty much the same as previous - but for the record here it is and it helps me keep on track!)

Breakfast: Natural muesli - 30g served with Jalna fat free yoghurt, 1 cup of chopped rockmelon, 1 chopped apple and 1 tsp of white sugar - to make the yoghurt palatable. (4)

Lunch: 8 rice thins with a very thin spread of Philly extra lite spread and vegemite (you might have guessed, this is one of my favourites). It takes so long to eat that it is worth it (4)

Dinner: Small tin of pink salmon (for the calcium and protein value) (3.5); Vegetable salad - carrot, cucumber, tommy tomatos, capsicum and beetroot (0)

Snacks: 100g ski delit mango & peach yoghurt (1.5); Heinz very special soup winter vegetable (3); ww muesli bar (1.5); small banana (1).

Tuesday

Have 3 pre-teen girls for breakfast - so something healthy that they will eat.

Banana Pancakes:

2.5 cups plain flour (you could use wholemeal only I didn't have any)
8 level tbs of skim milk powder (90g)
2 eggs
2 large bananas
1 heaped tbs LSA mix (optional)
enough water (about 3 cups), to make a good pouring consistency.
either butter or oil spray to stop the pancakes from sticking. (only need very small scraping of butter for each cake).

This makes about 18-20 pancakes (use 1/3 cup of mix each time in pan).
The whole lot needs to be mixed really well until it is as smooth as you can get it. Rest the mixture for 30 minutes before cooking the pancakes.

Each pancake is worth (1.5), but to make them really palatable spread 1tsp of strawberry jam and sprinkle with fresh lemon juice, roll up and enjoy. I allow (2) per pancake and ate 2 for breaky thismorning. Totally yummy and a bit different from the normal - it is good to have a change every now and then.

WI today and thankfully I've lost .8 of the 1kg I gained over easter. So my weight now is 78.2. Can't wait to get to 77kg, that's my next goal. And at 77 I might be able to fit into a pair of jeans I haven't worn for (don't laugh) 20 years!

Today's exercise: Already done - walked 6km thismorning in just over an hour, so I'm getting fitter, covering more ground in the hour. When I started out 2 months ago I struggled to manage just over 4km per hour walking. Pedometer steps for the walk - 7,239.

Try Hard Tuesday

Just leaving the Hotel on Sunday morning. That's me in the silver jacket behind the red bike

Our Bikes outside the Bushranger Hotel, Collector

How the heck has it got to Tuesday?

Eating out again was the order of the weekend. Rode our motorbikes over 900km on the weekend and I have now proved that good choices can be made when eating out, but you have to get very savvy, there are all sorts of ditches to trip one up. You have to maintain resolve and keep goals firmly in mind at all times. I wonder if I'll get sick of having to mind what I eat and do all the time?

The other thing is to be very firm in what you ask for at food outlets. I've been bullied a few times, but no more. Make sure you get what you ordered, I have discovered it is important to be very clear about what you want when ordering and if it isn't what you asked for (especially when its offered on a menu), send it back!

Below is a summary of what I ate from varying outlets, but all pretty good choices and well within my daily food allowances, these might help others when eating out!

Breakfast Sat - YuckDonalds (Maccas) at Narellan - I chose a slice of raisin toast, but it was hard because everyone else was eating hotcakes, or egg and bacon muffins and so on. But the choice was made and I drank water.
Morning Tea: Marulan cafe- I didn't have anything except a drink of water but had to watch everyone else eat devonshire teas etc. (That was torchure, but I felt good about it later.)
Lunch - at Berry Bowling Club. The choice was very difficult as everything was served with chips chips and more chips. I asked for the hamburger with vegetables - but they didn't want to do it. In the end I had to pay an extra $3 to get my plate of vegetables, but I stood firm and that's what I got.
Dinner - at the Bushranger Hotel, Collector: Fabulous selection, so it was easy to pick well. I chose steak and vegetables and it was really nice. Looked at how much I'd eaten over the day and decided I could afford a couple of small scoops of icecream for dessert which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Breaky Sunday - Bushranger Hotel: Continental breaky served, so again it was quite easy to choose wisely. I had 2 pieces of wholemeal toast and a very small serving of sultana bran.
Morning tea - Yuckdonalds Batemans Bay: I chose to have a Mango smoothy, it was yummy and probably the worst choice of the weekend.
Lunch - Berry Bowling club: Easy choice for lunch - Beef and vegetable stir fry and it came out just right with the smallest amount of beef, so I was happy, a couple of the men weren't (as you can imagine).

We didn't stop again till we got home - the riding conditions had deteroriated drastically, we battled heavy rain and fog in a few places, the road was very slippery, but we made it home just after dark.

We were too tired to do anything in the way of cooking so I made up a pot of Pumpkin soup from dehydrated mix, it was enough.

Back on track

Views in Timbertown

Aspley Falls, Oxley Wild Rivers National park


At the base of the Breadknife, Warrambungle National park

It is Friday 17th April, I've just returned from 8 days on the road with my family.

I love spending this time with my family, BUT, it comes with its pitfalls and I fell into them, and without dwelling too much on what I actually ate, suffice to say it wasn't really good. I got on the scales thismorning to a gain of 1kg. I will however move on.

There is a lesson to be learnt here. For those of us trying to change our lifestyle, become more healthy and stay healthy. It isn't easy. We have to become totally focussed, something I am not good at. I have learnt that I will have to always plan what goes into my mouth, there isn't room for complacency.

I cannot go back to the old ways, which involved no thought about food or planning exercise or anything else. It was just a matter of eating whatever was available - and guess what - it doesn't work that way. I had a friend say to me recently she hated feeling she was just thinking and planning food all the time - so she doesn't and I didn't either - but Now I have too. So it is for life - I will continually plan my food and exercise regime.

So today's plan is:

Breakfast: -1/3 cup natural muesli with chopped fresh rockemlon and a small apple chopped into bits topped with fat free natural yoghurt and a very small tsp of white sugar to make the yoghurt palatable. (3.5)

Lunch: 8 rice thins, vegemite and a very thin spreading of Philly extra light spread and a small banana. (5.5)

Dinner: Spaghetti bolognaise (home made) (7)

Snacks: Rockmelon (.5); Low fat ice cream (1.5) carrot stick and green salad (0); Apple (1)

Exercise: 5.3km walk (done). This afternoon I will take the children to the local heated pool. I will swim a mixed stroke 1km (am still recovering from a really bad cold).

Now to the holiday: Spent first 2 days in Narromine at the Aerodrome - Recreation Aviation Australia annual fly-in. It was huge fun except for the rain - sorry farmers - I know you need it. Anyway left Narromine when it looked like we wouldn't leave for a week as everyone getting bogged in the car park (including us, took 5 people to push our motorhome out of the carpark).

We drove from Narromine to Tooraweena for dinner, then on to spend a day and night in the Warrumbungle National Park. We went to the Easter Day Church Service in the National Park, before my youngest daughter and me walked up to the base of the Bread Knife (weird stone structure, volcanic plug apparently). Anyway, it rained for most of the walk and we couldn't see the top of the Bread Knife for it was in cloud. But we enjoyed the walk. Altogether we walked over 12km that day and some of it was very very steep and involved many many steps.

From there we headed to Tamworth and down through the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park (Aspley falls picture), Ginger Creek to Wauhope where we took the children to see Timbertown (see picture of train and old bicycle)

From Wauchope we drove to Port Macquarie and then slowly down the coast. Spent a night with relatives in Tuncurry and then on home.

This cold has really got hold of me today, so will rest up till I feel a lot better.

Weeping Wednesday

So how to nip a bad day in the bud before it happens. I woke up thismorning with raging sore throat and head ache - obviously a cold. So there will be no swimming for a few days and reduced walking until I see where the cold is going (which is hopefully nowhere.)

Of course with children you just can't stop just because you don't feel too good, they don't get it. I've already prepared breakfasts and gotten one of them off to school. The other one has been asked to practice the piano and clean her room. For me today, it is piano lesson this afternoon if my teacher will have me in the state I'm in, otherwise it is paperwork/tax, phone calls and bill paying day.

I'd love to do some scrapbooking, haven't had a chance to do that in such a long long time and I now have a stash of pictures that need to be archived before they get lost in the great abyss of this computer.

However to business: Food plan for today:-)

Breakfast: Home made low fat bircher muesli, fresh fruit (apple, rockmelon and peach) all topped with 80g of low fat natural yoghurt (and if its not sweet enough a teaspoon of sugar to make it palatable). (4.5) (now that sounds depressing!)

Lunch: 4 rice thins topped with thin layer of Philladelphia extra lite spread, 50g ham, cucumber, tomato, grated carrot and beetroot. (3.5)

Dinner: Weight Watchers recipe: Tabouli and chicken salad (and it was yummy). (6.5)

Snacks: Low fat icecream (1.5).

I actually have had a shocker today, and I don't feel too good with this cold and all, I've eaten much more than I should have too. Added 2 slices of home made bread with strawberry jam on top (at least I didn't use butter) And managed to keep within the my allocated allowance.

Also joined in on a 10000 step challenge yesterday and managed 11,232 steps today. Should do much more when feeling better.

Food for today, exercise as well

Exercise:

Walk- Up bright and early for a 40 minute hill walk (2km down - 2km up)

Swim program for today- 1.5km broken down into less boring segments - 300m warm up (freestyle); 400m medley (Butterfly, backstroke, breastroke, freestyle); 200m interval: 25m breastroke (easy) x 25m freestyle (flat out); 200 kickboard (alternate breastroke legs and freestyle legs); 400m alternate backstroke and butterfly.

Food:

Breakfast: 30g muesli, 80g low fat yoghurt; 100 g rockmelon; 1 nectarine; 50g blueberries. (4.5) (see picture)

Lunch: Wholemeal roll topped with 1 level tbs of extra lite Philadelphia spread, tomato, capsicum, grated carrot, beetroot, 50g low fat ham. (4.5)

Dinner: Small piece of steak topped with 1/4 avocado, with steamed potato, carrot, zuchini and broccoli, gravey (prepared in water), potato topped with 1tbs fat free natural yoghurt. (8)

Snacks: 1 scoop of low fat ice cream (1.5); 1 carrot (0); small bunch grapes (1.5); hot chocolate (recipe below) (0.5)

Hot chocolate: do you worry about all the additives that you find in commercial hot chocolates: emulsifiers, preservatives, colourings etc. Here is a very simple easy to prepare treat for chocoloholics (like me).

1 level teaspoon cocoa powder

2 level teaspoons sugar (or less if you aren't a sweet tooth like me)

21/2 level tablespoons skim milk powder

200 ml boiling water.

Combine in mug, add boiling water, stir well and enjoy sloooowly!

Monday - Weigh in Day

Weigh in day today: and a great loss of 1.6kg which of course I am very happy about, so my weight loss to date is 11.2kg my current weight 78kg. But didn't sleep at all well last night, kids still got friends sleeping over and one of them decided to be allergic to something during the night. She's OK, so that's the main thing. Just spent 3 hours preparing scripture classes for tomorrow - the story is Easter - the true meaning of Easter, the story of Jesus, God's son being crucified and his rising from the grave to new life 3 days later, so that we can have new life too. So where did the egg come into it. The egg is a symbol of new life - the bunny rabbit? not on my list. I hope (probably in vein) that people will think about the real meaning of Easter and not get to tied up in the marketing giant that tries to sell sell sell. I for one am over it!

Photo of me taken in January this year before starting on ww (again), very scarry and you've got to feel pretty sorry for the poor horse!

Food diary for today:

Breakfast: 1/3 cup muesli, 1 finely chopped nectarine, 125g chopped up rockmelon topped with 80g low fat fruit yoghurt. (4)

Lunch: 8 rice thins with very thin spread of philly extra lite, yummy vegemite (my favourite) (4).

Dinner (at work tonight): small tin of baked beans, chopped salad vegetables (carrot, capsicum, tomato, beetroot), wholemeal bread roll with ham and extra lite cheese (9)

Snacks: Rockmelon (.5), ww muesli bar (1.5), ww ice cream (1.5).

No exercise formally today as my hips are still playing up!

Sunday April 5, 2009

Special day at our local church today - lovely country fair style day with old fashioned food and entertainment for the children. Some of the food was oooo sooo tempting - but I withstood and chose instead to eat corn on the cob (no butter), I watched everyone else with cake, biscuits and sausages in bread with butter. But I can't go there anymore. This new lifestyle requires the old food lifestyle to bother me no more.

You know... it didn't and I feel great for being strong enough to say no to it all and choose wisely for myself.

So today so far I've had my usual breakfast: Muesli, yoghurt and fruit.

Lunch: wholemeal roll, peach and corn on cob.

Dinner: At the local Returned Servicemen's Club: half size main meal - roast beef, roast potato and vegetables. Yummy and well within my food allowance. What was outside the food allowance for the day but covered by savings during the week was the serving of 1 scoop of icecream on fresh fruit salad.

It worries me though, can I always choose like this because? iI I want to keep the weight off in future I will always have to choose small servings. I watched my two best friends tuck into full sized meals - don't know what was on them, but it would have blown my eating plan out of the water for sure. I am just going to have to get used to this, I don't want them to feel awkward about what I am doing because I love to go out with them and socialise. I don't think they even noticed that my plate was not much bigger than a bread and butter plate - and that's how I want it. (Oh yes - it was much cheaper to, I should think of the money I am saving - drank water only as well.)

Saturday, April 4, 2009

At 7.30 went for my 5km walk, but my right knee gave me quite a lot of grief and now (lunchtime) it is giving me a whole lot of grief as is my right hip. So tomorrow I will rest from formal exercise. I think at my age the body just doesn't bounce back as it did when 30 years younger.

Today is a kids day, my 2 daughters have a friend each to stay over, so that will be challenging to keep them all occupied, fed and relatively clean - it is raining outside again today, great for the water tanks, but not so good for children's activities.

Breakfast this morning: 1/3 cup muesli, 1 nectarine and 11/2 cups of chopped rockmelon, all mushed up with 80g of mango/peach low fat yoghurt (4.5).

Lunch: 8 rice thins with very light spread of Philly extra lite spread (4); sliced ham (2).

Dinner: Grilled steak (4);sauce for meat (.5) vegetables steamed (0); and mashed potato (2) - dessert 1 serving of low fat peters vanilla ice cream (1.5)

Snacks: 1 carrot; 1 peach (large and juicy) (1).

Totally upset with pedometer - it only registered 3350 steps for 5 km, I don't have that long a stride. I will purchase a new one in due course, in the meantime I will just enjoy my walks, love the view from the top of the hill, looks right across Sydney. Sunrise (when I get up that early) is fabulous.

Well - it is nearly 9pm, the girls are all in bed at last. They have been noise, but pretty good really. Just a shame the weather wasn't OK for outside play.

Friday April 2, 2009

It's Friday, April 3. I've already completed my 5km walk thismorning, first in 2 days due to the heavy rain we have been experiencing. Can't wait till daylight saving finishes, I won't need to take a torch with me.

Breakfast: Bircher Muesli recipe - serves 4 (4.5 per serve)
1 cup uncooked rolled oats
3/4 cup no added sugar apple juice
1/4 cup loosly packed sultanas
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1 apple, grated or food processed

15-20 blueberries (preferably fresh) x 4
1 big slice of rockmelon chopped into 1cm chunks x 4
80 grams of fat free natural yoghurt x4

Prep: night before combine oats, apple juice, apple, almonds, sultanas in a bowl, cover and chill overnight.

In the morning.
At breakfast: Scoop 1/4 of the oat mix into a bowl, add fruit and yoghurt and enjoy - yum yum! and very filling. If the rockmelon is a bit bland, sprinkle 1/2 tsp of sugar over it. (don't get carried away with the sugar).

Today was a swim day my programme was:
50m pool
500 metres freestyle - easy pace
800 metres alternate breastroke and butterfly
200 metres freestyle sprints broken into 25m sprint, 10 second rest.
200 metres cool down easy swimming, breastroke/freestyle/backstroke.
Note: stretches after 800m and 200 sprints.

What I ate: Breaky - my bircher muesli (as above); nectarine and 8 rice thins with philly extra low fat spread (very thinly spread) and vegemite, lunch; Large peach snack; Small lean piece of steak, mashed potato (no butter), steamed carrots and zuchini, dinner; 1 scoop of low fat ice cream, late snack.

Today was a bit tough - received a phone call from a good friend to tell me her mum had passed away, so we had a little cry together over the phone. I will go to see her tomorrow.

On the food front it was a good day and I haven't been hungry, except just before dinner. From an exercise point of view it was very tough - I over estimated what I could do in the pool. Will take training sessions back by 100m for another week and reduce the amount of butterfly for a week too. My shoulders were beginning to ache by the end of the butterfly session. However I was happy with the time it took.

I have to remember that slowly is better - and not to overdo it - keep it sustainable! And keep it enjoyable. Won't swim tomorrow, but will try to get out for my walk early. Getting late so I will post now and diarise tomorrow - tomorrow!

The exercise bits - getting fit

The experts tell us that to loose weight, we need to exercise. I new that and to help motivate myself I'd entered one of the biggest sport events for adults in the world. But it is now only 7 months until the World Masters Games, so I really need to get cracking. I've entered amongst other things the 200 metre butterfly swimming race, not for the feint hearted - But definitely for the crazy - (is that me?)

I must be totally mad, the nearest winter heated pool is at least 35minutes drive away, that is a problem in iteslf, but I am determined to do it.

THE PLAN:

1. To walk (I started out walking 4km) and am now walking 5km every day (that it isn't raining). I heard somewhere that walking is the best exercise for weight loss.

2. To swim. I started out with a very gentle 1km swim and continued in this way for the first 4 weeks. I am now swimming 2-3 times a week and completing 1.5km of medley swimming in the same time I managed 1km in the first month of swimming.

3. Walking to continue walking as above.

4. To gradually increase the distance covered in a swim training session then add in short (25m) bursts at sprint speed for butterfly and freestyle. By May 1 I should be completing 2 to 2.5km each session.

Below is an example of the early swim training sessions I used.

1. 200 metres of breastroke, slowly (warmup)
2. 400 metres alternate laps of the pool - freestyle and breastroke
3. 200 metres: alternate laps breastroke and butterfly
4. 2 minutes stretches - (particularly upper arm and shoulder)
5. 200 metres: very easy laps of freestyle/backstroke and breastroke (cool down)

Getting healthy, staying healthy, loosing weight!

Where to start?

I wanted to share my journey, I know so many others are on this journey too - that is to loose weight, get fit and maintain it for life!

Cheesy, I know, but I have to start somewhere.

This is a journey I am not strong enough to travel on my own, so I have joined a weight loss organisation to help - and whilst the organisation provides the tools and knowledge it is the amazing people I have met on the message boards that have sustained me, motivated me and shown me how to have patience and how to persevere.

It all started back in November last year when I decided to enter the World Masters Games which are to be held in Sydney, October 2009. It was a very big call for at that time I was 22kg overweight - no not overweight - OBESE. I struggled along and managed to loose 2kg - By January 2009 I had still only lost 2kg.

In the last week of January 2009 I had to do something or I would not be competing. I wondered If I had set myself a goal way beyond my own capabilities (I probably have).

It was a small trigger that got me finally on the right track. I had bought a pair of motorcycle leather jeans (ebay), absolutely gorgeous, BUT they were way to tight. That was all the motivation I needed to get me started.

Over the next 9 weeks I lost a total of 7kg and now it is the first week of April 2009, I am starting to feel better and I hope look better too.

I will diarise my journey here in the hope that others can be motivated too. Over the next few weeks I'll analyse what works for me and record it too along with my favourite recipes and more.