Keep Trying

I always try to take a gentle approach when it comes to myself and my health. I’ve learned that being hard on myself and trying to push myself too hard just isn’t a motivator for me, in fact it’s quite the opposite. Nothing demotivates me than saying “you must do …”, “You feel bad but keep going”, “Don’t be a quitter”, “No room for failure”. You get what I’m talking about. Failure is pretty disappointing, especially if you try hard and just didn’t meet your expectations. I’m learning that failure is just apart of life and rather than look at it in such a negative view, I tell myself I tried, I gave it a go and if I didn’t reach the goal then that’s totally ok, I can just try again.

I take this same approach when it comes to my diet and exercise. I had a bad eating day, well that’s ok, one day won’t make a difference but I know that 3 or 4 might. I didn’t exercise or I didn’t meet my workout length, that’s also fine, because at least I tried and I can always try again the next day. It’s good to learn to forgive yourself, but be careful this doesn’t turn around and become a bad habit. If one day starts turning into two then three, well you’re going to have to re-evaluate what you’re actually doing. Failure can be disheartening, but don’t let it stop you. I know how hard it is to get back up and try again, but if you’re putting in the effort then good for you for trying. All you can do is just keep trying, you will see a difference.

I’m taking this approach with myself, especially over the past week. I didn’t lose any weight but at least I didn’t gain any. I probably had a couple of days where I made bad choices and didn’t exercise every day, I also know being on my medication makes it harder to lose weight. However, I’m not giving up I just need to reassess my week and try to do better. Some good things about the week, I managed to keep my calories, most days, around 950 to 1000. I exercised 3 times during the week, which is definitely better than none. I also know I had a really tough week mentally so I’m not going to be too hard on myself.

I won’t lie, I was pretty disheartened when I saw the scales hadn’t moved. My first thought was “what was I doing wrong”. I have a really bad habit for quitting things when they get too hard, but I’m determined to not let that happen this time. I just have to keep trying because I know I’m eventually going to see results

The weigh things are

I had a bit of rough start to the week, I realised my scales were out and when I had weighed myself last was incorrect. I hopped on the scales after setting it correctly and what I saw made me feel like all my hard work had been for nothing. If I’m honest though, I have no idea what my weight was before I started so I really have no idea if I lost weight. My waist measurements don’t like though, I had definitely lost some centimetres. However, because of the mishap with the scales it put me in a bad mood for the day and I ate whatever I liked and didn’t exercise. This lasted 2 days, on the third day I thought “hold on, you can still lose something, don’t give up now” and I forced myself back on the treadmill. I won’t lie, it was agony, my whole body and mind were screaming at me saying how much it hated walking because my legs were burning. I couldn’t do an hour, but I did 40 minutes. I’ve read that the optimal length of time to exercise to lose weight is 30 to 60 minutes. So anything over 30 minutes is a bonus.

I’m trying not to be too hard on myself, especially because I know I’m entering a depressive low. I think being gentle on myself has really helped me along the way, I’m not beating myself up if I don’t exercise one day or if I have a piece of cake. After all, there is no joy in making your own life difficult.

I’m still sticking with bland foods, although I’m planning to add a bit more fresh fish and seafood to my lunch to stop it getting so repetitive. I have always heard that you should stop eating when you’re 80% full. I’ve found this really difficult in the past, but what I’m doing is working. I’m able to stop myself from overeating and I’m feeling satisfied. I never thought I’d see the day again where I was feeling satisfied.

When it comes to what actual foods I’ve been eating, well I still have the same lunch as I mentioned previously, but I plan to use some fresh fish as my protein. I’m making sure to measure my food every single time. No more than 1 cup of food. I believe my stomach has somewhat shrunk back to what it should be since I had surgery as a lot of the time I can’t eat more than 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup before I’m full.

Dinner has been pretty basic with a lot of meals containing rice or potato. I do have a hard time finding a protein to eat that I’m not getting sick of. I’m finding I get hungry quickly if I don’t include protein and the meal is just vegetables. I try to eat 1/2 cup of protein with each meal. I read somewhere that bariatric patients should always eat the protein first before filling up on other stuff. So that’s exactly what I’ve been doing and I definitely feel fuller for longer. I also eat at very set times because I know how hungry I can get by that time, for example, I always eat 8:30, 12:00 and 5:30, then no more food after that. My body has adjusted to that and I don’t really start getting hungry until close to those times.

Exercising is still a little difficult but I’m doing my best to do some. As long as I get over 30 minutes then I know I’ll feel better. Most of the time I make it between 40 minutes to an hour and I’m pretty pleased with that. Tomorrow is weigh day and measurement day so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ve made some progress. Even if I haven’t I know I’ve tried and I’m still making a difference to my body and my health. I’ll keep you updated!

You can drink that now?

I’ve been completely fascinated recently on finding out the effect that different types of tea have on our body. For a while I only ever had standard tea like English breakfast and I’ve always enjoyed it and still do, I especially love it when I’m sick and it’s only then that I ever add sugar to tea. So where am I going with this, well I’ve moved on to bigger better tea with more variety and flavours. Most of us know by now that drinking chamomile tea has a calming and relaxing effect on us, we know that peppermint tea helps to ease stomach problems, lemon and ginger for a sore throat, but there are so many others out there that are beneficial for the body as well.

While having a chat to my mother about my latest favourite tea (sounds thrilling doesn’t it?) She mentioned she had tried rose tea, I was like “What? You can drink roses now?” My first thought was how is that even remotely beneficial for your body, I don’t know if anyone else feels the same but I honestly thought roses in food were like some sort of decoration, serving no nutritional benefits at all. I was curious though as to what it does, as well as, what it would taste like. I’ve had trouble finding food grade roses to make my own and I wouldn’t use roses from the florist because those will be covered in pesticides, so I tried the next best thing I could find. I purchased a packet of Madame Flavour’s ‘White with Rose’ tea and I’m in love! As I’m typing this I am sipping away on some. I can taste the rose, not as strong as the tea flavour, but it is there and it smells divine. The tea is made up of Pai Mu Tan which is a white tea from China, rose flavouring and rose petals.  There isn’t as many rose petals as I thought that would be in there, maybe one or two petals per bag. Needless to say I still love it and it’s still bursting with nutritional goodness.

I can see it ticking over in your head “What’s so great about it, hurry up and get to the point”. Well here it goes, white tea is said to contain up to 30% more polyphenols than green tea or black tea.  Polyphenols are antioxidants and there are over 4000 different types of them.  Most of the stronger ones are anti-inflammatory and help to neutralise free radicals in the body.  White tea is also known to restore fluid balance in the body, accelerate the metabolism as well as having antibacterial properties. Woo hoo for White Tea!

Rose tea also has wonderful benefits on the body, as well as being anti-inflammatory, it aids in sinus relief, fights against infection as well as relieves bloating, diarrhoea, gastro, depression, insomnia and fatigue. After all that it also aids in pain relief from menstrual cramps! Turns out there is a legitimate reason women like and more importantly need flowers! There are also quite a few scientific studies showing positive results on the body from drinking rose tea. The only warning I have to give is if you drink too much rose tea it will have a laxative effect on the body…. Don’t ask me how I know this……

If you by chance have some food grade rose petals hanging around here’s how you can make your own:

2 cups of fresh fragrant rose petals
3 cups of water
Honey to taste

Clip and discard white bases from the rose petals, rinse thoroughly and dry.
Simmer in water for 5 minutes or until the petals have darkened
Remove from heat and strain into tea cups, add honey to taste.

Let me know if you have tried to make your own rose tea or have a better recipe than mine, I’d love to know!

I’ll be back soon!!!

Wow it’s been a long time; I really didn’t mean to leave it so long! I guess life just got in the way. So it’s been about 6 months since I wrote my last post so I’ll briefly fill you in. I’ve since gone back to study full time doing a Bachelor of Nutritional Medicine. I finally stopped procrastinating and did it and I can honestly say it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I feel alive and happy. I never realised how much a person can thrive on learning, I swear my brain is growing. I’m just about to finish my first semester and have learnt so much, I can’t even believe that the amount of stuff I remember!

I’m really looking forward to starting my next semester where I learn about food nutrition and can’t wait to share what I learn with you. One thing I am absolutely certain of is that I don’t want to stop here. I want more than this degree can offer me so after I finish my 3 year degree I’m going to go on and do a Masters of Nutrition and Dietetics and who knows from there. I have so many options to choose from and I’m sure I will change my mind probably 100 times in the next few years, but at least I’m starting it.

I’ve really enjoyed learning about the history of medicine and the history of natural therapies and I’m really excited to share with you some of the research I’ve been doing over the semester. I’m just trying to find my footing and work out where I want this blog to go and in which direction to take it. If you have any suggestions I’d love to hear it. I’d to keep sharing recipes with you and any tips and tricks I learn along the way.  So I’ll keep this brief today and spend the next few days coming up with a few new posts and look forward to the future of this blog!

Thanks for sticking around! I’ll be back in full force very soon!

The Waitplate System

The Waitplate System.

Fill in some time!

For the last few weeks I’ve been trying to think of a hobby to fill in some time, but in all honesty I’m madly into something for 5 minutes and then I’m over it and I know I’m not the only one! So it made me think, what do I actually enjoy doing, talking about and interested in? Food always popped into my head, but well, food can’t be a hobby (as much as I would love it be). I love eating food, cooking food, learning about food and talking about food. So it hit me one day, why not start a blog about food. I know there are people out there who can’t cook but want to know how, who have heard of the latest food crazes but are not quite sure what they are, how to cook on a budget and healthy alternatives for your favourite meals.

Now I am in no way a qualified nutritionist or experienced chef, nor am I claiming to be. I simply am just a normal person who enjoys eating good food with a nice glass of wine! I haven’t always enjoyed cooking; in fact a few years ago I hated it. That was until I met my current boyfriend, who was able to cook a few meals and how embarrassing for me, at the time being 23 and not knowing how to cook a single thing, literally I burnt water! I forgot I left the pot on the stove with water boiling! So I hung around mum for a few meals and slowly learnt one meal at a time.

I had always wanted to learn how, but being a day dreamer I would spend my time thinking about being a fabulous hostess, serving excellent meals which everyone was jealous of. My house would be the one that everyone turns up to when they want a hot meal and to ask for advice and me being so wonderful always had something cooking and spoke nothing but words of wisdom. Not to mention I would be size 10, wearing pearls, a 50’s style dress and a cute apron. Well that certainly wasn’t the case! In fact I was a size 16, self-conscious person, who at the point had withdrawn so far into myself, I had doubts about myself and who I was. The story on how that happened is probably another blog!

So continuing on, after a nasty break up and moving back into my parents’ house, so forth and so forth. I met Cameron and well, I may have embellished slightly on the truth of my cooking skills to him, so I had to learn and quickly. I observed my mother cooking a few meals and sat down and thought about how to make something, anything. My first successful dish was mushroom pasta. It was seriously good, and impressed my new boyfriend. One thing lead to another and now here we are 3 years later and I discovered a passion for food, for healthy options, learning, eating and a glass of wine along the way.

After this long winded introduction all I can say is, this is what I want to share with you. I want to share with you my cooking journey, the successes and the failures, and hopefully you learn something along the way! What I want for you is to come along for the ride and share with me your experiences. So have a drink and enjoy!