I gotta have faith, a-faith, a-faith, ah!

(Me and sand dunes)

TGIF!! It's been such a strange week, I am so glad it's over except I know the insanity will continue throughout the next... I'm just glad we get a break!

I had a job interview in the Department I want to work for, however, the job is in Canberra. This wouldn't be so bad if my partner didn't have a job interview here in Adelaide in the same week! Our situation is this: we moved to Adelaide (taking leave without pay for 12 months from our jobs) to have a break from icy cold Canberra and get to the ocean, I was unemployed for an unhealthy, mentally challenging 6 weeks and my partner had landed a job before we got her; however, we strangely and coincidentally got job offers from our respective Departments; I got offered a job in the State and my partner was offered an out posting. It was so good for my wellbeing! No more trackies, no more eating half a tub of peanut butter, no more crazy twitching....

But now that the year is almost up we need to figure out what we want to do, where we want to live. We decided to try to stay so my partner started applying for jobs and I was to wait until he landed something. In the mean time, I had applied for this other job I was interviewed for back in June when we had decided to go back... Anyway, I haven't heard the outcome yet so I don't have to decide just yet... But I think Dave's got a very good chance at getting his job - he's a f@#$ing super star!!

So not only am I having a conscious dilemma, I also went to the physio this week... oh how I looooove the physio - not!

• last week she told me no more triceps until my elbow gets better;
• this week she not only is the triceps restricted but so is weighted squats and lunges, running, netball, stairs, boxing-foot work, skipping, jumping and any other kind of jarring exercise to my knees; and
• she told me to swim...

Um, hello... there are no swimming pools near me and the ocean in like 10cm deep and freezing as f#@$ - besides do you really think my body and confidence is ready for a swim suit just yet? Um, not likely.

So whats left to do?? It's a tricky one... I'm going to give the weights a rest for a while. I've decided that I've been doing weights for so long and nothings changing too much so I'll focus on some kind of cardio. I'm going to:

• alternate jogging and walking for 7 days;
• include some weighted biceps, hamstrings, shoulders, back and chest twice a week; 
• squats without weights (sooo un-challenging); and
• quick boxing using the bag and no foot work.

Not too sure about when and what but I will work on a plan over the weekend.

(This is my beach :D)

I think I now really need to watch my food. Even thought I feel like I'm doing okay with it, I probably need to focus more on getting enough protein and stop picking at the peanut butter jar (DAMN PB!) - especially when I'm not feeling the greatest. You know what, I might actually throw it out! Damn thing, I end up eating 2tbs at a time before dinner... not cool Sonja, not cool!

Man, I feel like I'm reassessing myself each time I get on here, so it's time to stick to a damn plan and stop getting injured! 

 

Oh positive thing happened too this week! In 2010 I completed my international diploma in beauty therapies. I won the 'best thesis' award (yep international you have to write a thesis!), and my Principal emailed me asking if she could submit it to the International Body CIDESCO for consideration to be published! Uncanny, I mean, it was okay and original but publish worthy? Sweet!

This weekend - reflection and planning plus a run, walk, go to the zoo, clean up my thesis, make some bean burger patties, give myself a facial and do my nails.

Peace x

Failure to Launch

Once upon a time I read this book called skinny bitch... It was very eye opening and kind of got under my skin like a dirty termite in an old rickety shack, slowly but surely the termite multiplied and ate away at me until the look, smell and thought of flesh made me sick! Damn book, damn impressionable me!!

I went vegetarian for two years and dabbled for a fortnight as a vegan - hardest thing to achieve let me tell you! I missed chocolate, cheese and honey too much to keep living like that! I had no idea you had to give up honey.... So, screw that! I failed at being vegan! Thank god too because I was getting pretty sick of pumpkin and chickpea curry - blah!

Anyway, after two years I was at a family Christmas gathering and my uncles slow cooked turkey in the webber was way too good to resist, just a little bite, it wont hurt.... In fact it didn't hurt at all!! The turkey jumped up into my face and made me the happiest girl in the world!! After that it was meat for breakfast, meat for lunch and meat for dinner mmmm vegetarian fail!

Hmm now about 3 years have past. I've been on the dukan diet, the body trim diet and dabbled in the Aitkins diet... obviously these diets get super boring and I quit them too! I reckon I've eaten about a bazillion animals over those three years with the egg and bacon breakfasts, ham and cottage cheese morning teas, steak lunches, salami afternoon teas and chicken dinners... I actually feel nauseous just writing that! No, seriously, 100 grams of ham would now make me gag!! I digress...

So, anyway, when I was packing for Ceduna a few weeks ago I went through the book shelf and gathered a heap of recipe books and threw in the skinny bitch book for recipe inspiration. It called to me, so I read the whole thing again... And I feel sorry for my bf, because I read most of it aloud to him! I remember a few years back when I first met him I was vegetarian, it took 4 dates of vegetarian dinners and a lot of me talking about how grose cow milk actually is for him to run away and not call me again!! Funny thing is, when we ran into each other again 6 months later he was vegetarian himself - and I was on the voyage of succulent turkey breast! We made it work ;-) I'm pretty persuasive and he too became a carnivore once again. We dined on many animals!!

Anyway, after reading the book again I decided to go semi-vegetarian. notice semi? Because I know I wont be a full vego!! I will eat fish at home and I will eat meat when I'm out because thats how I roll - no excluding anything cos I will rebel ;-)

Fail 1: I have been trial cooking for four weeks now and where I thought I had talent, I actually don't :( I bought dried beans to try. I've never been a big fan of gassy grose mushy beans but you tell me, how can you make a vegetarian dish full of healthy goodness without beans? Yes, tofu is a good option but one can't and wont eat it every day. I got so excited about making beans that don't come from a can!! I soaked them for over 24 hrs and then dumped 2 cups into a tomato, mushroom and onion base sauce for lettuce tacos! OMG it smelt soooo good! I was salivating like a bull dog on a 30 degree day! These I declared to my bf, are going to be the best damn tacos you'll ever eat!! here, have a try...

Bf: Mmm 'chippy' (yep he calls me chippy) those beans are crunchy... did you boil them?
Me: Um, no....
Bf: when I was living in Guatemala they boiled the beans for ages before putting them into a dish.
Me: Well, if you know sooooo much about beans, why didn't you f*@#ing cook it!!?? 
More profanity and sooking I had to throw it out and order Indian take out.

Jaysus, what a mega fail!! I can't believe I didn't look up how to on google?

Fail 2: Oh how I love iherb.com! I get all of my flours, coconut oils and flavoured stevia on there. And oh how I love to make pancakes. I've totally mastered oatmeal flour pancakes and damn they are fine! Saturday is pancake day, I get up, go for a lovely walk or run along the beach and then get stuck into a gorgeous pancake breakfast and nothing was going to change that this weekend! I got up relatively late and dragged my lovely bf out of the house for a morning stroll. When I came back I decided to give coconut flour a trial and make coconut flour pancakes... I made an awesome batter and started to fry away. As soon as I tried to turn the delicious looking pancake, it crumbled like a mass of coconut flour would... I don't understand? I had egg to combine it? I was devo! Last night with the beans and now this!

Bf: You're going to have kitchen issues if you're using hippy ingredients!
Me: Shut up! I'm so sick of this kitchen! It sucks
Bf: hahaha you're too funny

I wasn't going to let a little coconut flour ruin pancake day! No siree bob! I made another batch of oatmeal pancakes this time and let the coconut batter sit. What to do? I thought while devouring my oat pancakes with chia berry jam and chobani, what to do? I thought what the hell, coconut cookies might work? I sooo wasnt going to let another recipe fail me so hard I had to throw it out! I added Xylitol, cinnamon and almond meal and baked into the greatest cookie ever! mmmm!! Fail turned into extra goodies... Bf better eat them all.

Fail 3: I love veggie burgers like a fat kid loves cake! I bought a new food processor and decided that I'd be lazy and throw in some onion, zucchini, a tin of chickpeas, parsley, egg, carrot, spinach, cauliflower and probably a few other things and blended it to hell! I opened the mixture and to my surprise it was so sloppy.... Hmm I'll throw in some oats, oats are good for you - will have to eliminate the amount of sweet potato chips I have on the side but I'll live. Kept processing until it kinda wasn't as sloppy and quickly froze it into sloppy patties. I think it could work? I've got some in the oven right now, they look good, smell good but there a little soft, paste like actually but they'll do!

So this week has not been so successful in the kitchen, I feel like a bit of a failure but you know what, its the bf's cooking week from tomorrow!! He's going to have to go back to vegetarian cooking as well... poor little mite, I bet I've scarred him for life!

Dave if you're reading this, stop pointing out my poor grammar! I want to thank you for being so supportive and falling in line when it comes to me and my 'food fads'. I love you, you rock.

PS: After all the food consumed last week with my family I am still struggling to get back into my food groove... Dinner's going to happen no matter what!! Salad, sloppy veggie burgers and sweet potato fries - NO CHOCOLATE OR ICE CREAM OF ANY KIND! 

Peace x

A Few Good Weeks - And A Few Hard Lesons From Said Weeks!

OK, so a few weeks have passed since starting this blog and its been a tough tough ride!

I've been on the road traveling to visit my partners grandmother last weekend and this weekend with my parents visiting along with work and general chores, I haven’t had a lot of time to do any of my usual prep and planning... I’ve had such a great time seeing the sights of country Victoria and hanging out with my family but I think I’ve had too good of a time!

Previous to the last two weeks of hectic family time I've traveled with my partner to Ceduna where my work base is located for two and a bit weeks. I managed to plan and prep travel snacks and we managed to shop for healthy meals for most of the time and I allowed myself a few nights off when we stayed in hotels where I chose healthy item off the menus. I did a lot of walking but not as much exercise as I usually do but I was amazed when I came home that I lost a kilo!! No gain  however I suspect this was muscle loss, but shhhh!!

So needless to say, I attempted to do the same prep for the trip to grans. I packed fruit and nut snacks for the car trip, baked a spinach, feta and zucchini quiche for dinner and planned to buy oats and food provisions when we got there. So what happened? Well, grandma mode happened! We ate cookies, drank tea, very early dinners combined with desserts and not a lot of moving about. It was bliss, I relaxed like never before for 5 days (2 full days of driving). With my sensible eating and not too many cookies I managed to loose another 200g – I was stoked!

During the working week days I had started getting into 6am workout routines. Running, weights and sprinting – I was feeling pretty awesome! Starting to see some definition in my arms (not a lot but enough to show off to my partner!) and starting with 4 sprints and making it to 10!! What an amazing feeling seeing yourself go from strength to strength.

But then my parents came to visit... I love them dearly but by that stage I had gotten home on Tuesday afternoon went to work all week and they arrived Friday 8am. I didn’t have time to think about much at all. I did keep my 6am workout time for the 3 days leading up to their arrival. I made them my clean pancakes with chia seed jam and we went for a looong walk along the beach for the first part of the day, unfortunately that’s where my good work ended…

We hit up yum cha for a late lunch, the oyster bar for oysters and champagne for pre-dinner and Greek for a late dinner. I did end up eating several dumplings and a Portuguese custard tart for yum cha but ordered steamed and a plate of greens, I had 4 oysters and one glass of wine and stuck to an entrée sized main for dinner however that entrée size was enormous (but probably the best Greek place I’ve ever eaten at)!

The next day we went to Hahndorf in Adelaide Hills after a breakfast of bacon, eggs and sour dough down at the beach café. I simply love Hahndorf!! So many things to see and do out there and the gorgeous scenery. We took my parents to McLaren Vale last time they were here in Easter but it was so cold and so busy that we didn’t get to do much so this trip had to be better! We started off at a tasting at Bird in Hand winery and bought a few too many bottles of pink bubbles. Saw a sign for Melbas chocolate factory and decided to track it down! I was hoping for little orange men but instead it was just a rather large chocolate shop. So I bought a few items, cherry ripe squares and chocolate coated snakes and liquorice. My dad almost bought out the shop!! Then off to the cheese factory for some tastings… I bought 2 tiny rounds of cheese… We didn’t feel like lunch after late tastings so at 3pm so we decided upon tea and scones. We walked around the main street looking at quirky nick nacks for the rest of the day and decided to eat at the German pub for dinner. All they had were sausages and giant pork hocks so I was pretty boring and ordered the salmon with Thai noodles in a German pub… pretty sad but this was the most healthiest option on the menu and after all the eating during the day I couldn’t face a sausage or beer but I did settle on pear cider – two in fact!

The next day we had an amazing breakfast at the White House of bacon, eggs, mushrooms and sourdough, simply amazing! Then we hit the main street again for more shopping. I didn’t buy anything strangely, there wasn’t anything I really wanted. Then back home for relaxation with wine, cheese, chocolates and crisps. We went through three bottles, all the cheese we bought, most of the chocolate and a packet of crisps “oink”! Dinner was pretty casual with take away Thai and some homemade apple pie with ice cream.

What an indulgent weekend!! I didn’t really concern myself too much with being overly cautious because I wanted to have a good time with my family and not be a prat. I did manage to pick some decent food choices off menus but I didn’t really practice constraint when faced with a table of cheeses and chocolates…. Or wine!

Stepping on the scales on Monday I wasn’t too shocked with the 2kg gain - I wasn't happy but I knew it wasn't going to be pretty. I knew I screwed myself over and I am willing to pay the price!

Now here is my revelation, I would normally berate myself and fall into a guilty pit of depression eating but this time I just shook myself off and picked myself up.

Even being extremely exhausted and feeling a head cold coming on I still pressed on. I took Monday and Tuesday off work to:
1. Prevent the head cold from turning nasty and
2. To rest my body; and
3. To prepare for the week to come.

Monday I cleaned the house, did a legs and shoulders work out, made a menu, did the groceries and made vegetarian lentil cabbage rolls for dinner.

Tuesday I slept in, went for a walk/run on the beach, did ALL the washing (5 loads), made toasted granola and visited a friend for coffee.

Daylight savings has hindered my morning routine, now it gets light at 7am again so I will be taking a break from mornings and hitting up my workouts in the afternoons until I get my morning sunshine back! I just can’t seem to function when the lights are out…

Things I have learnt: one weekend can ruin a whole month of being good, I can do 10second sprints x 10 in a bout 5mins, prep and plan is necessary, granola is awesome!

Things I will be doing this fortnight (prior to Barossa weekend):
1. Clean eating for a whole two weeks
2. ONE cheat meal in the fortnight to a Vietnamese restaraunt that I have been hearnign a lot about
3. Throw out that ice cream in the freezer
4. 3 weight sessions and 4 cardio each week NO EXCUSES
5. Blog!!
6. Plan plan PLAN!!

Sonja’s Toasted Granola
2 cups of wholegrain rolled oats
1 cup brown rice bubbles
½ cup of sunflower and pumpkin seeds
¼ cup slithered almonds
¼ cup pinenuts
3tbs shredded unsweetened coconut
2tbs cinnamon
120g Apple puree
1.5tbs coconut oil
1.5tbs honey
1 loose cup of dried unsweetened cranberries
1 scoop vanilla protein

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
2. Mix the first 7 ingredients together and line a baking tray with baking paper. Add a layer of the dry mix and bake for a few minutes until slightly toasted, continue in batched until all are toasted.
3. Mix in cranberries and protein powder into the dry mix in a large mixing bowl.
4. Microwave the apple puree, honey and coconut oil until melted, mix together
5. Drizzle the wet mix into the dry mix and stir until combined well.
6. In batches (I did 3) toast the mix again in the oven for a few minutes, open and crumble/un-stick the granola and take out of the oven to cool. (I used a few sheets of baking paper and let it cool on the bench).
7. Place in air tight container.

Serve with almond milk or Greek yoghurt.

Makes 15 half cup serves.
Cal: 177; Protein: 5.1; Carb: 20.4; Fiber: 2.3

Peace beauties x