Half way .....

Heeey! We're about half way through our Whole30 .... and your probably thinking whoa this has been a long 30 days but we actually restarted after making a few accidental boo boos! So we would've been 5 days off finishing but that's okay! We've made the executive decision to finish the day before my little ballerina's birthday (we'll end on Thursday 6th Sept ..... so it's The Final Countdown ...... di do dooo dooo, bu da bu baaa baaaa), it's a few days short of 30 days (well technically it would be Day 40!! And our boo boos were so very minor!!) but we like to make a big deal of birthdays in our house. Izzie has requested a sushi dinner and a surprise :) Such a precious girl! 

At this stage in my Whole30 journey, I am concentrating on sleep! I do love sleep! In fact I've always thought I've had an unhealthy relationship with sleep! But it turns out I've just been having too much of it in the mornings and not enough at night! (Sorry, I just noticed how many !!!!!! I use!) So I'm focusing on much earlier night's and much earlier mornings. It's one of my "Whole30 goals" which I will share later on this week (after I actually sat down and written them out :p). So far we've had some pretty exciting results which I love sharing!! 

1. Our family's eating habits have improved 100%! Every meal is at the table (when we're at home), together. It's so enjoyable, the kids rave about my cooking (yes, meat and veg 100 different ways), they don't complain about certain foods anymore, they eat what's put in front of them!
2. I don't feel the urge to snack in between meals anymore! YAY! I'm full between meals and now that my body isn't reliant on sugar for energy, I don't get ravenously hungry if I'm out and don't get to eat at meal time ... my body still keeps kicking on, feeding off it's own fat! Sweeeeet!
3. On the topic of my body eating it's own fat, my jeans are getting a bit looser. Yesterday I pulled my jeans out of the dryer and instead of doing my usual "Stretch and Jump" jeans routine (please tell me someone else does that .... especially straight out of the dryer!), I just stepped into them and pulled them up, did the button up, put my belt on, had to pull it in so much I don't have any extra belt holes (luckily my belt has little flowers all the way around so I can put the little spoke through one of the flowers), and my jeans had a nice little bunch in the front .... it looks real pretty! :p But very exciting!
4. Also on that note, husband thinks my back is looking slimmer .... that always makes me laugh! I hear it every time I loose weight, "Wow your back is looking slim", it always makes me think, whoa did I have a really massive back or something? What are they trying to say? Lol, so random! It must be where I loose weight from first!
5. I only noticed this one last week cause it was .. *Cough thattimeofthemonth Cough* .. BUT I haven't had any hormonal/emotional ups and downs! I had noticed since having no. 3 child, I had very prominent PMS. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who noticed (sorry husband & kids!), but I could always tell when that dreaded time of the month was approaching as a few days before I would get quite over emotional, really needy (towards husband dear) and just generally down. This month my period caught me by surprise! There was no roller-coaster lead up! WOO! Also in general I haven't been an emotional wreck. I've just kind of cruised through this month ..... and there have been stresses, we have faced some things that would normally have me declaring "I'm going back to bed, I don't wanna deal with this" but not this month!

Who would've thought that food plays so much of a part in your day to day life. We put things in our mouths and don't put much more thought into than that! I think what excites me the most is, we're making life long changes for our family! It may be just 30 days but they are habits we'll take on for life and I just am so stoked we can do this for our children.

I've been a bit slack at taking photos of what we've been eating over the last week or so (and some of the meals just aren't worth photographing :p) but I have a couple to put up! I hate writing a new post without having photos to put in it, I'm a very visual person!

I urge everyone to always have frozen prawns in their freezer!
I managed to whip this up in ten mins when I realised I hadn't
organised lunch and husband started work in half an hour!
Salad of mixed lettuce,  avocado, red onion, prawns &
home-made mayo. Easy and tasty .... bring on summer!

This is how we keep our meals interesting! Home-made
mayo, ranch dressing, tartare sauce & pesto. The top 3
are all made from the mayo base.

Chicken breast crumbed with shredded coconut! Was a
nice alternative to breadcrumb, had a sweet taste to it.
Served with roasted sweet potato, & a roasted broccoli,
brussel sprout & pesto salad, & a dollop of ranch dressing.

Roast Day! Roast chicken with sweet potato, pumpkin &
steamed broccoli. I pushed some ghee, herbs & lemon peel
under the skin of the chicken, it was soo tasty!!

My take on spag bol! Zucchini "spaghetti", & pork
"Bolognese" ..... this was really a yummy, fresh take on
a family classic! 

MMMMmmm my favourite, roast pork, complete with
crackling and a yummy fresh coleslaw. 

SO that's a few of the meals we've had over the last week. I recently brought the pdf version of the "Well Fed" cookbook and it is amazing! I think I'll have to purchase the actual cookbook! It's so helpful, not just the recipes but the meal planning sections! It's been an absolute God-send. Go ahead, take a look at the free 30-page sampler!! You won't regret it :)

Nearing the end of the week, I hope you all have a rocking weekend! I am looking forward to a games night with the girls on Friday! Woo! Party animals :D Catch y'all later x

Day dreaming .....

With the influx of POST-tax bills (why do they always come as soon as you've spent the last dollar of your tax return??), I'm lost in a day dream of a life without money! My head goes here frequently (more than I am willing to admit!), to a life without the limits of money, free from finance, in abundant excess. See money and I don't have a very good relationship. From as far back as I can remember, it's always been messy! My problem is not careless shopping splurges or some kind of shoe/handbag/clothes fetish that has put me in massive debt, it's more that I believe that money is for living not the other way around. Which I guess is probably the main reason we have bills piling up. Hmmm ..... I just don't value money in the same way that a normal, budget keeping, house owning, bill paying person would. I would just hate to fall into that habit of thinking everything we do is for the money we earn ..... and then what? (Not that people who do own their homes and pay their bills value money over life ... I'm just talking out my bum to justify my short comings!) I guess it's like everything else in life, you have to find a balance ...... blah blah blah ..... balance shmalance! For now let me daydream :)

Do you want a sneak peak into my daydream ..... 

here we go ......

It starts off like this ..........

And then snowballs .........

And it doesn't stop there ..........

And so on and so forth ......

So there it is, I let you all in on my little guilty secret, my day dreams of houses and renovating and nice cars, veggie gardens, any gardens, travelling the world ..... *sigh* ..... one day .... one day :)

Time to go make my dreams come true ... what I really mean is turn my day dreams into night dreams ;)

Nighty Night x

Life ....

My Bella ballerina has learnt to whistle! So now she is constantly whistling, everything she hears, she'll whistle it! It's pretty cute (right now she is whistling along to the tv :p)! I've had a lovely few days with my little family. I love that we've reached the stage where we can do things with our little tribe, we can go adventuring, we can improve our health and lifestyle together, we can spend time and have fun together! When we were out in the canoe on Sunday, Theo was just exuberant, he laughed and squealed with excitement and said over and over again, "This is so much fun, I love this!". Gosh it filled me with joy! Some of you might be wondering why it's taken us so long to "enjoy" our family and I don't want you to take me the wrong way, I've always enjoyed my beautiful family through all the stages of life but I guess I'm surprised I'm enjoying this stage in life so much, cause you see, I always thought I'd be a baby person, having one baby after the other! I thought we would have quite a "large" family ..... but I find myself, mum of 3, satisfied, content and just plain stoked with life! 

The weekend before we started the Whole30 we decided to have our "final supper" in style! We hit up a fancy seafood restaurant (I call it fancy because they didn't have a kids menu and they put our napkin thingy in our laps ..... it was our 3rd choice because all the others were booked, we were hoping to completely binge at a buffet!!) and I just sat there amazed that we can take our family out for dinner now! There was no screaming for food, no spilt drinks, no up and down off chairs, just 3 kids who sat and waited patiently for their food, ate with gusto and used outstanding manners (we reminded them to use manners before entering the restaurant which seemed to turn "using manners" into a competition! I'm sure they each said thank you at least 20 times :p), it was a truly lovely experience, followed by ice cream at the local food hall :)

Training is going well although we are doing it way too late at night (sometimes we don't start until 9.30-10pm), I feel I could be reversing any good effects I should be getting from the Whole30, I'm waking up so sluggish and ugh in the mornings cause I just can't seem to get the 9.30pm bedtime down! So as soon as I've finished this post, it's training time! Apart from that it's going pretty well! This week I got my mojo back I think! After my body struggled to make it through last week and every train being a huge effort, this week I have a bit more spring in my step. And I actually have muscles in my arms now!! They are still incubating under a nice thick blanket of fat but I think they should be due to make an appearance this summer!! This is what todays train will look like:

Wednesday

A1) 5 pass thrus

A2) 6 swings

A3) 6 burpees

A4) 6 swings 

A5) 5 squat thrusts, done for 10 rounds.  Scale it if needed.

B1) 8-10 bear hug squats

B2) 6-8 clean and presses

B3) 8-10 each side zercher lunges

B4) 10-12 bent rows

B5) 8-10 curls

This will be done 3 times through with a 45-60 second break between exercises (if needed).  Take about a minute between rounds.

Ouch .... it's gonna hurt BUT next week's a light week!! YAY!! My best friend and her hubby-to-be are very game and have asked to come and train with us next week while they're in the state. Might have to chuck a few extra burpees or mountain climbs in ;) Be prepared to be whooped by this couple .....

 

Hehehe don't we look scary? No?? Oh well :p

Whole30 update: So far the biggest improvement I've noticed are our eating habits! The kids dig into every meal, get excited about a plate of meat and veg & sushi in their lunch boxes, even little Lucas will sit down and devour a plate of raw spinach. The kids are learning to eat more at meal times and snacking less in between. The fact that they are so keen to eat all their healthy foods has made this completely worth while for me! They are constantly telling me they love all my "new cooking"and boy does it put a smile on my face. For those who are wondering if they can do this with their kids, I'd say go for it! The hard first week and the occasional tanties soon subside and you are left with a child who is happy to eat and will enjoy anything you put in front of them, a child who understands a meal isn't complete without a dose of veggies and it's better to eat your greens first, and a child who thinks a special treat is a small handful of berries! One week of hard, for a lifetime of easy = well worth it!! (For us anyway :) ).

Well that's it for me for today I think, now I better get my train on, make my house a little more habitable and organise a hen's night! Have a good day all :)

Oh oh oh ... I just brought a new paleo cookbook called "Well Fed", all of the recipes are Whole30 approved and I am mega excited to start to get this Whole30 family organised and get some more tasty meals on the table :)

Today's Inspiration Pics :)

Busy times ....

Whoa .... it's been a over a week since I posted last!! So much to catch you all up on! Hmmm where to start? Just briefly, the fundraiser last weekend went well. Not as many came as we were hoping but those who did come really enjoyed themselves I think (I hope!!). I dressed up as Cindi Lauper, with a hideous pink dress, all the jewellery I could find, plus a shocking orange wig that you could have seen from space!! There was a bit of a stressful lead-up (mainly cause I'm a bit particular like that, I like things to be just so .... even if I do tend to leave till the last minute!) but the night ended up being really laid back and enjoyable! The mums did an amazing job of pitching in together and dressing up!!

I think the thing that has kept me so busy this week has been constant cooking! With the Whole30 plan, I'm finding myself needing to cook 3 meals a day, mainly cause we're newbies and haven't quite figured it out completely! The next time we do it we'll have it all figured ;) (my husband would go crazy if he heard me say "the next time we do it" :p). It really hasn't been that bad at all! It's not like any "diet" I've ever done before!! It's very maintainable the only things we've been caught up on is all the hidden sugar in things ..... the worst was BACON! Yes bacon has sugar and that was pretty devastating news!! Not just bacon but prosciutto, pancetta, ham, all sausages (even the "healthy" ones) ... anything that you could think of to eat with eggs at breakfast time, has sugar or rice flour. (I just rediscovered smoked salmon today! And was happy to find out the ingredients list read: Salmon, Salt. YAY!) Also we did manage to find one lot of sausages from a small "boutique" butcher in town that had sausages without sugar, and boy they were tasty, Lamb Kofta sausages nom nom nom ..... but at $7.50 for five sausages, (and that was on special!!!) they won't be something we buy very regularly! 

So given that we had been eating bacon up until last week, (plus some truly accidental eats last night) our Whole30 might be more like a Whole45, but we don't like to look at it that way! The last 2 weeks have just been a settling in period and now we get into it!! Also i feel that even when it's over we're not gonna jump straight back into eating crap anyway so it doesn't really matter "how long" we do it, I'd like to stay as close to this way of eating as I can, as I can really see the benefits. I don't feel hungry in between meals, I've pretty much almost completely stopped craving sugar, it's easier to say no to food (so maybe it's starting to have less of a hold on me), on the down side I have been a bit exhausted lately which could be either I need to tailor my eating to suit me better (which they really encourage you to do constantly in the book) or it could be that my body is working hard to repair itself which they talk about happening during the first few weeks.

Some of the foods we've been eating over the last fortnight! Bottom left and middle were from Salsa tapas restaurant. I emailed in advance to make sure there would be something we could order and they made a whole menu for us which was exciting! The downside is that your putting your complete trust in the chefs, hoping they don't use ingredients you can't eat! We did make a couple of mistakes though (which I realised after reading a few more chapters of the book today), the mushrooms had a sherry dressing, alcohol in any form (even cooked) is not allowed; and pancetta definitely has sugar in it! Booooo...

So all in all, the Whole30 is still an exciting life change for our family that I would highly recommend to anyone wanting change their lives. I'm learning new stuff everyday!

The other thing we've been excited about this week is our new canoe! We just brought it last week and took it out yesterday and today. We've had so much fun in it! We took it nice and easy yesterday and just cruised around a dam getting used to it and then today we hit the river and it was an entirely different trip! The river moved us along at a nice pace with occasional "bumpy" parts which were heaps of fun! My big boy Theo sat up the front of the canoe and paddled so well and my pretty Izzie sat in front of the front seat, "King of the World" style and took all the water that hit the front of the boat like a champ, so brave! 

It was the perfect mix of serenity and adventure! Love my family time :) 

Day 4 ......

So just a quick post because it's been a while! I have been flat chat with taking care of my little family and getting ready for our MOPs (Mothers Of PreSchoolers) fundraiser coming up this Saturday. It's gonna be such a blast! We're doing a spicks & specks style music trivia night complete with MOPtails (mocktails :p) and dressing up (photos to follow!). I can't wait but have a lot to do in the meantime!


Despite having only 5 hours sleep (I'm preparing the slide show for the before mentioned event!) I actually feel pretty damn good this morning, possibly the new healthy living? It has been such an exciting change for my family, every body is on board and completely doing it! The kids eating habits are improving, they are becoming more and more happy to eat their whole meals instead of constantly snacking throughout the day! Having to cook 3 meals a day has made me a lot more organised in general! My house isn't a complete bomb (It's far from perfect either!!) but I think my favourite thing of all is that we're doing it together! It's such an awesome feeling doing something, that would generally be a bit of a challenge but something that's so great for us all, together! 


I'm pretty sure we all had some pretty intense withdrawal symptoms earlier in the week! Matt and I both had very unsettled tummies for the first 2 days and Izzie had a couple of vomits Tuesday morning (could have been completely unrelated!) .... Matt and I both agreed that the closest feeling we could relate it to was having a nasty hangover! Who would have though withdrawing from sugar/dairy/wheat and all the other crap could of been so bad!?! It was good though, it kind of confirmed just how bad the stuff we were eating was and just how much of a hold it had on us and our lives! Anyways I've had some fun playing around with "paleo" recipes including a tasty Thai beef and coconut curry on cauliflower "rice" which we had for tea last night (sorry forgot to take a photo of it!), I am really enjoying the quality and tastiness of the food, stoked!!

Breakfast this morning :) Bacon cups with eggs, mushroom, zucchini & garlic inside, on a salad of red mizuno, rocket, basil, coriander and avocado. Oh and a lemon & Olive oil dressing. Who says you can't have salad for brekkie!?!

This was a special "lunch dessert" treat for the kids because they've done such a good job with the whole transition, these were ultra simple banana pancakes
(3 bananas, 1 egg, 1/4 cup ground cashews cooked in coconut oil)
topped with a dollop of coconut cream and some organic blueberries.
Gosh they were tasty (I did only have 2 thought, learning how to not binge :p )

This was my lunch yesterday. Mexican beef with guacamole! Nom nom nom.....

We had some super tasty roast pork belly the other night! I keep forgetting to take photos! BUT I am loving the food! Day 4 and we're going strong, learning the ins and outs and what we can and can't eat!

We've had a pretty heavy week with training, although we took the night off on Tuesday, as we were both feeling pretty horrid! But made up for it last night with what was supposed to be a "light" train but gosh ... ouch! Husband got his adjustable kettlebells in the mail earlier this week and so we gave them a crack last night! With one armed swings on the agenda I decided Matt's 24kg kettlebell was a bit too heavy so he "custom-made" me a weight with the adjustable bell with which I used during the train ..... later husband told me the kettlebell weighed 22kg .... I was thinking more like 16-18kg ... so feeling a bit stoked with myself! Plus we replaced bear crawls with mountain climbs because a lack of space and gosh I pretty much almost left my dinner all over the floor! I was really pushing it! 3 sets of 60 mountain climbs ..... blurgh!! But I did it and I'll do it again I'm sure :) 

Alrightie really must get back to this slideshow making!! Have a super day all and hopefully I'll post again soon but probably more likely after the weekend :D x