GLAD THIS WEEK IS OVER ....

.... why??

Well its been less than ideal on the nutrition front.

1. Monday was a public holiday here and after several weekends of it being all about us, this weekend we socialised and had my parents over for a BBQ (SIL + BIL declined their invite - all is not well in their world). I chose to have a wine (or two) that evening and with it came some yummy but not-so-lean-and-clean-nibbles (think brie cheese, crackers and cashews). The BBQ was great and so was the desert I shouldnt have had.

2. On Wednesday night I was out (will post about that soon) and wine was offered and I accepted. WRONG CHOICE!! Cause it was followed up with the yummiest (and therfore what must be the fattiest) hors deuvres. Yep a few too many found their way into my mouth. Damn it!! And I was planning to be good.

3. Thursday - hmmmm perhaps best described as a red light day or "score one for the Binge Monster". At least I'm not following it up with a long self indulgent post about my actions and subsequent feelings. Just thinking things through and trying something different to manage better next time.

So I'm glad that the week ends soon and I have a fresh start tomorrow. You win some. You lose some. You have good weeks. You have not so good weeks. You can fall in a heap and feel like you're worthless cr*p. Or you can accept that you stuffed up, made some poor choices but that you'll put it behind you and make the next day a good one.

WOOHOO its the weekend and THAT is to be relished.

:-) Magda

FOUND: MY TRAINING GROOVE

Since my last post I've knocked off 2 more training sessions.

Yesterday was shoulders and bis which is the end of my "weight training week". Being 2 smaller muscle groups its not a killer session and in fact in all my training I've never had shoulder DOMS despite working to failure on some exercises and clocking up a reasonable amount of sets and reps. Following that I did a short session of steady state cardio on my exercise bike.

Last night I was out for an issue which I'll post about soon. Lots going on inside my head and a big decision looming. Watch this space ....

Today's training started a bit lacklustre so I headed out with "just walk if thats all you want to do". At least it was a warm morning :-) and it wasnt windy :-) :-). After one song I decided that I felt ok to jog a song and proceeded to do so. All good so I decided I could jog a second song and then I'd have a song walking. Hello!! this is one of my fave cardio sessions - 1 song walk / 2 songs jog which I did for about 9 songs (I actually lost count as my thoughts were constantly elsewhere).

At about the half hour mark I decided that I actually wanted to do some sprints so I headed over to my fave sprint track and luckily today it was deserted. I belted out 5 x 100m sprints and felt really good doing so. Then it was time to head home which was a short-medium walk away. Aha one last chance to make a difference here so I did 4 x 20 walking lunges and then on my front lawn (luckily it was still dark) I did 4 x 10 jump squats.

Voila training done for this week. Tomorrow is my rest day and my week starts again on Saturday.

Magda

LOST: MY TRAINING GROOVE

I'm changing the focus of my blogs away from food (for a bit at least) and focussing more on training. So today I had this cracker post planned about an awesome session of cardio / legs that I was going to do. I had it all planned out in my head and was mentally ready to cane it.

Alas my session didnt go according to plan.

I walked to my local oval where there is a great paved track thats about 100m. Its well lit with a very gentle slope and it resembles a true running track. I love to sprint there. But on the way there (and its 5.20am mind you) I see someone walking near my track. I start to jog around the oval looking out for the walker who I've lost sight of. Then I see them sitting on a bench at the covered picnic area right adjacent to my track. BUGGER!! What are they doing just sitting there at this ridiculous time of the day? I change course and run elsewhere but I'm unsettled and annoyed that they upset my plans.

NOTE: I didnt feel in danger at all but I wasnt going to test my luck.

So I came back closer to home and picked a street which looked good for a sprint track and off I went doing my first sprint. A couple of seconds to recover and its into walking lunges. My plan was to do them for the length of the sprint track but I soon realise that's damn near impossible and I settle for 20. A couple of seconds recovery and its into 10 squat jumps. By the 8th rep my legs are screaming and I'm thinking "what was I thinking when I thought I'd repeat this sequence 10 times?"

Anyway it wasnt to be. On the second repeat a big van comes tearing down the street and around the corner of the park there and pulls up to a fast stop. Again I dont like the look of the situation and move elsewhere (another street) for one more repeat of my sequence.

By now I've had enough. I cant find my groove. My legs are screaming and I'm in that pouty "I dont like this" mood. So I stayed close to home and did a mix of jogging and walking to take me up to 6am. I did venture back to the oval when the Step Into Lifers had set up their flood lights and I felt totally safe with it all lit up. But in all it was one of more crappy sessions and I certainly didnt finish it feeling like I had conquered the world. Maybe that'll be next time :-)

Magda

PS My legs were SOOOO tired after this so it must have been somewhat effective even if I didnt achieve what I had set out to do.

CHANGING TASTES AND HIGH EXPECTATIONS

Today I had the good fortune of eating out twice and not just once. This morning the Adelaide Figure Girls (Kerry and Cheryl) and Coach H and I had brunch at the Old Lion Hotel. (Not a patch on The Store which was chockers and we couldnt get a table). After an hour + of cardio before breakfast, I decided to go the carb option instead of the usual protein based meal. I had fig / apricot bread (a small thick slice) with a dollop of yogurt (sweet and spicy) and a little berry compote. It was a tiny serve and Coach H gave me one of his pancakes when he saw my sad face at the size of my meal.

I remember a time when a meal like that (carbs, carbs and more carbs) would send me into raptures. I would salivate at the thought of it and savour every sweet mouthful. I must say that today I thought it was tasty and nice but I would have enjoyed my favourite Store omelette a lot more. How times change??!!

I had dinner out with WH and BS after a brief visit to Womad. I always get excited when I see interesting salads on a menu so the nicoise salad with tommy ruff fillets and the usual nicoise ingredients (boiled egg, olives, green beans, chargrilled capsicum, chat potatoes and cos lettuce with a red vinaigrette dressing) was my inspired choice tonight. Except it was so disappointing. 2 little dry bits of tommy ruff, soggy lettuce, lots of potato (wasted on me) and a couple beans was the offering and it just didnt cut it. Thank God for my glass of wine and 1 slice of garlic bread.

I'm disappointed that tonight's meal was not enjoyable. We dont go out a lot anymore so when we do I really look forward to it. Its a shame to be let down.

Magda

PS I think I have to stop blogging about food so much lately. Its been the topic of my posts just about all week. OOPS.

SPEED SHOPPING AND CHOWING DOWN

Following in the vein of OMG I'm so hungry lately here's a snapshot of my day.

I've trained legs and followed it up with a brief HIIT on the ex bike as time is short. I bolt down breakfast of my oat / egg whites / cottage cheese pancake with banana, SF maple syrup and LSA. Need to hit the shower to get some morning chores done. EXCEPT WH breaks into conversation about a matter I couldnt brush off. BUGGER!! Time is slipping away but this cant be ignored.

Anyway some of the chores are done and I race BS off to his swimming lesson. When we get back its 3 hours since I had breakfast and I'm HUNGRY!! I start to organise WH's lunch before I get mine. Except WH is standing along side the kitchen benchtop with hands on hips waiting for me to get out of the way so he can finish cleaning the floors.

"But I'm starving. I need to eat," I plead.
He rolls his eyes and is about to throw down the mop.
"Oh no," I think, "I'll have to finish cleaning the floors." So I quickly scoot out of the kitchen muttering that I'll have a coffee before I shop and I'll be ok. I know there's a Slim Secrets bar in my bag and that, with a skim cappuccino will tide me over. Out of there I race and off to do the shopping.

Settle into my local coffee shop with a skim cappucino ordered and reach for the bar. BUGGER!! Its in my other bag. Geez the stack of fruit loaf slices looks soooooo appetising and I almost order a serve but decide against it. Instead I do the quickest grocery shop known to man, race home, throw some veges and protein together and chow down like there's no tomorrow.

CHALLENGE FACED. CHALLENGE CONQUERED.

Magda

UNLEASAHING THE HUNGRY TIGER

I'm not happy about the cooler weather which has descended on us. No complaints about the much needed rain but I'm not ready for summer to be over and the weather to be cool so early in autumn. I feel like I've been shortchanged. Winter is SO LONG and the cold weather seems to go on forever and then its finally summer but its over in the blink of an eye. We need more heat!!

But I think what I'm finding the hardest to deal with is my increased appetite in the cold. I had a later than usual breakfast due to a much needed sleep in. So I skipped morning snack and planned to have an earlier lunch. That didnt eventuate as a scheduled meeting started late and lunch ended up being later too. I came out of the meeting starving, only to be bombarded by my staff with issues galore. They know me by now though. I tell them I MUST eat or I'll pass out and they usually leave me alone until I'm fed, human and approachable again. Its that serious!!

But WTF, an hour after lunch my stomach was rumbling again like a wildly hungry tiger had been unleashed inside me. So an hour and a half after lunch I ate my afternoon snack and had a big mug of peppermint tea (hanging out for some Diet Coke, I tell you!!) and prayed it would sustain me. By the time I left work at 5.15 I was really hungry again and I'm sure its the colder weather. Solution I think is more hot food and maybe a little increase in cals.

But to finish on a happy and positive note, at this morning's weigh in I had reached the milestone of 10kgs off since since 1 November. I was so happy about this and I'm finally feeling like I'm a "normal size" and not large or fat. Its a great feeling and I love it. I'm wearing clothes that I havent fitted into for a long time and my fatter clothes are now looking embarassingly baggy. The size 11 jeans havent been tested but I'm sure fitting into them is not far off.

So on that note I'm going to gear up for a fantastic long weekend and hope you all have one too.

:-) Magda

WHEN ONLY A LAKSA WILL DO

Every Thursday my work colleague Miss J and I go out for lunch and have a thai meal thats cheap, cheerful and very tasty. I normally order a chicken + veg dish with various (cleanish) flavours and I leave the huge pile of streamed jasmine rice that it comes with. Its actually quite a small serve so the guilt or sinning factor after consuming it is virtually ZERO.

But today was quite cold and I was feeling it plus I was feeling extra hungry. I knew the piddly little meal I normally have just wasnt going to cut it today and I might be looking for something else afterwards ...something that I shouldnt be having in quantities that would feed a small third world country.

So I ordered a chicken laksa which, true to its name was loaded with chicken breast, some veges, noodles and the usual laksa soup. It was devine. It was tasty. It was filling. It was just what I needed. Accounting for it on CalKing was a challenge so I picked the middle option of laksa meals and stopped fretting over it. I dropped my afternoon snack as I truly didnt need it and I modified my dinner to lower calories and lower fat content (the grilled atlantic salmon was replaced with tuna) and my daily totals were ok. Now if thats not scoring a few home runs, I dont know what is!!

Oh and I did my sprints this morning followed by my favourite walk / jog combo. Only my HRM wasnt turned on so I couldnt record how many calories I'd torched or what my HR was etc. Never mind I know I worked hard despite having another bout of "oh poo, I dont want to do it".

Magda

THE LAZY FITNESS CHICK WITH THE DIET COKE ADDICTION

This morning I almost went back to sleep when my alarm went off at 4.40. Then I remembered it was Shoulder Day and here was my chance to make those babies grow (well as much as you can when you're dieting and cardioing to fit into size 11 jeans) so I dragged myself out of bed and started with little enthusiasm. Lo and behold by the 2nd set I was right into it and lovin' every minute. Then a brief hammering of the bis followed and a bit of cardio to boot. In fact I was planning 20 minutes of cardio and ended up doing 30 instead. Easily done when on the bike and reading a good book (Eat Pray Love by Liz Gilbert - can highly recommend).

I just gotta share this little ditty with you guys. Conversation at work today with colleague Miss C (who, BTW is young enough to be my daughter and a real sweetie).

Me: (holding empty mug and peppermint tea bag at 4.30pm): (sigh) Oh its peppermint tea today instead of my usual Diet Coke.

Miss C: (enthusiastic) Good girl thats great. Well done for ditching the Diet Coke. Its bad for you, you know. You can do it. Just dont have it again.

Me: (sheepish) I've run out of cans of Diet Coke at home and I'm just too lazy to walk to the shops to buy one.

Miss C: (appalled but laughing hysterically) Listen to this, the fitness chick is too lazy to walk to the shops. What hope is there for the rest of us?

I drag myself over to the kitchen to make the cup of tea coz I truly cant face walking to the shops to buy my much loved Diet Coke.

Geez whats a girl gotta do justify her Diet Coke addiction and maintain her "fitness chick" image?

:-) Magda

FEELING LEAN, MEAN AND NOSTALGIC

Today the scale bounced back a little but I'm feeling lean and mean so the numbers are not doing my head in. (I still dont weigh every day but was a bit curious this morning). On Sunday I wore a pair of (largish) size 10 capri pants and they were quite loose. Today the stripy pants got another outing. These are a size 12 and were purchased when I was well over 70kgs last year. They are really loose now and wearing a belt with them is obligatory. I'm definitely feeling smaller and leaner and am pretty happy about it.

At work today I shared my 2007 comp pictures with one of my colleagues. I felt all misty and nostalgic flicking through the pictures from the Asia Pacific Championships held in Sydney. So many memories came flooding back and I felt so proud of what I had achieved that year. Hearing my colleague's "Oh my God you look amazing" reaction certainly made me puff up even prouder than before. I just know in my heart that I'll do it again. I'm training for this year but I have some other factors coming into play which may delay my plans. Time and future developments will tell.

Funny how many other bloggers are recently also contemplating their returns to competing. It seems to be the hot topic of blogs for the retired / semi-retired. So on that note I have a training session to prepare for so that I start as close to 5.40am in the morning as possible. Have a great night all.

Magda

OP S11J

How funny!! This morning the Whoosh Fairy graced me with a nice .5kg loss and I’m now sitting nicely in the 66s thank you very much. I guess last night’s leg session and cardio helped to nudge things down.

A couple of weeks ago we had a casual day at work to raise money for the Victorian Bushfire Appeal. With trepidation I pulled out the only pair of jeans that I thought would fit (yes the fugly ones) and sure enough they are now not only fugly but very baggy and fugly making them ultra fugly. Eegads I went to work in a pair of casual looking stripy pants lamenting that right now, I have no jeans that fit me.

However, in my wardrobe hangs a pair of size 11s that when they fit, look great. I tried them on very recently and they were still way too tight. I have made progress though, as last time I couldn’t even get them up. I’ll probably survive March without them BUT on April 2 I’m off to Sydney for a girls’ weekend and I MUST have jeans for that weekend. So March goal is to fit into those Size 11 jeans by 2 April, hence the OP S11J (Operation Size 11 Jeans)

So on that note I’m cranking the cardio up a bit and will be smacking down that bl**dy Binge Monster when he thinks he’s going to be boss again. 30 days to make a difference and I’m a woman on a mission. If .... NO! When I succeed I’ll have to post a pic as proof of my achievement.

Cheers

Magda

FEBRUARY SUMMARY

Following in the spirit of my January Summary (see 1 Feb post), I thought I'd do the same again and its a bit of an eye opener now that I've looked back.

WEIGHT

I finished January at 68kgs and was roaring along beautifully looking like I'd cruise into the 66s and maybe even the 65s. :-( This morning I was 67 on the dot. More about that later. I have lost a total of 8cms over 5 sites so I better be happy about that.

TRAINING

Feb was a bit of a topsy turvy month and it took me quite a while to find my groove. I trained hard most of the time but I was out of sorts until I was in a routine. I'm still not quite in a routine per se but I'm working towards one and then I'll feel more settled. The reason for my late post tonight is that I trained legs at 8pm and followed up with 20 mins cardio on my exercise bike. I really wanted to get the session done over the weekend and we were out all day today so it had to be tonight.

HEADSPACE

This has been good overall. However the Binge Monster paid a nasty visit in the middle of Feb and sent me into a downward spiral for a few days. Emotions downward. Weight upward. Double whammy. Had it not been for that, I would have made it into the 66s but the past is past and I'll leave it there. I DID have many instances where there was an urge to eat the wrong thing but I stayed strong and I'm pleased that I seem to be improving in this area.

HIGH POINTS

Work has been "normal" instead of really busy and thats a nice change. The other high points have been small ones like making the habit of having breakfast on the way to work on Fridays, enjoying some nice meals out, and completing some killer training sessions. All things that put a smile on my face. Oh and I almost forgot ... in Feb I smashed my 3 week curse and went 4 weeks without binging. Now that was an achievement for me.

LOW POINTS

Visit from Binge Monster and how bad I felt afterwards. End of story.

Next post will be about my March goal. Stay tuned.

Magda

COLLISIONS AND BLOODSHED

All day yesterday I was looking forward to my Saturday morning training. Whatever I do on Saturday is ALWAYS my favourite session. I love having extra time to really cane the workout of my choice. And I love the drop on the scales that I usually get after that workout.

Well last night the cat accidentally collided with my left foot as I was stepping out the door and she was trying to scoot in. Blood was shed - yes mine and NOT Miss Moneypenny's and I have a really sore toe with a decent scrape and cut on it :-( I was hobbling a bit this morning and wearing socks and shoes didnt feel nice at all. Bugger there went my plans to train legs and follow them up with a jog/run afterwards.

So I attacked my back and abs and then cardioed on the rower and exercise bike. Nowhere near as intense (think boredom factor and reading on the bike) but cardio nevertheless. Tomorrow I might have to cover the sore with a bandaid or similar and push through the pain.

Food has been good today and have downed 1.5 litres of soda water with a wedge of lemon since around 5pm. We had an unexpected visit from a dear friend who now lives in Coomera. The boys had a beer together but I refused my usual wine and had the soda instead. Feel really good for it now. Plus I have a date with the Metal Monster tomorrow morning for my official end of February weigh in and I'm hoping like hell that he is kind with a number in the 66s. I'll post my Feb round-up tomorrow.

Well I have a bed to make, truckloads of washing to fold, kitchen benchtops to clean and ...... yeah I could go on and on.

Cheers all

Magda

FRIDAY = TREAT DAY

I love it when Friday rolls around. Here are the little treats I enjoy:

1. A sleep-in. After getting up at 4.40 or 5am the rest of the week, I take a rest day from training on Fridays and I turn my alarm off. I usually wake between 6 and 6.30 which is my "sleep-in" LOL.

2. To continue in the spirit of treating myself on Friday I have breakfast on the way to work. While I'm still home I have my protein portion (low fat creamed cottage cheese with cinnamon and Splenda) and then on the way to work I stop at a favourite cafe and order Dutch fruit loaf and a skim cappuccino. The fruit loaf slices are small but heavy and loaded with sultanas and raisins etc and I only use about 2/3s of a pat of butter so its not too sinful. While I eat my breakfast and enjoy my cappuccino, I read the paper and relish that little bit of "me-time".

3. Wine night!! On Friday WH and I enjoy a drink together before dinner. Previously we'd have lots of junky nibbles and I'd have several glasses of wine but I'm now used to 1 or 2 glasses of wine and a small portion of raw nuts. Dinner is quick and simple as there is nothing worse than slaving in the kitchen when all you want to do is wind down. WH will have 3-4 glasses of wine but I'm now finding that 1 medium glass-full is enough to have me feeling happy and mellow :-)

4. Staying up a bit later is another bonus (yep I'm blogging at 10.31 which I just cant do on any other week night). Most nights I try to be in bed between 9.30 and 10 and its quite an effort (I too have self-management rules that I impose to help me cope with life's demands). But those rules are relaxed on a Friday.

5. Today I got to enjoy one more treat. My Director's team (including me and my team) got together for an informal and impromptu glass of wine at the end of the day. We shared some really funny stories both about work and not and it was a great end to the week.

So that's my Good News Post for today. It makes me happy just to read it. I hope you're all in a good, happy place too.

:-) Magda

WORRY WART

I had lunch with a work friend today and one of the topics of conversation was "worry".

Worry is an emotion in which a person feels anxious or concerned about a real or imagined issue, ranging from personal issues such as health or finances to broader issues such as environmental pollution and social or technological change. Most people experience short-lived episodes of worry in their lives without incident; indeed, a moderate amount of worrying may even have positive effects, if it prompts people to take precautions (e.g., fastening their seat belt or buying fire insurance) or avoid risky behaviours (e.g., promiscuous sexual relations or cliff diving). However, about one in four people, have chronic worry, an anxiety disorder which requires professional treatment. Chronic worry can cause heart attacks, high blood pressure, ulcers, gastrointestinal problems, muscular aches and pains, skin rashes, eczema, respiratory problems and asthma. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

I'm a skilled "worrier". There are issues that no matter how hard I try, I just cant get my mind around or remember x, y or z. But when it comes to worrying, well I can analyse everything to the nth degree and then do it all again backwards and upside down and inside out. There's quite an art to it. You just wake for whatever reason during the night and let your brain click into gear. No, let me rephrase that - experience your brain kicking into gear. (Its involuntary, like your heartbeat). Then you go through infinite scenarios, with an infinfite number of outcomes, an infinite number of time. The worry process from go to woe can be anywhere from 2 - 5 hours. I wonder how many calories all that brain activity is burning?

So in talking to my friend today, and she being very sympathetic and giving advice on how to cope, I assured her that very soon I'd reach the end of my worry quotient. My brain would realise that the issue had been worried to exhaustion and then I could park it until the next stage where another bout of worrying would be justified. Aaah bring on the calm between the storms.

In the meantime when I'm not worrying (coz its really just a middle-of-the-night-thing) I'm keeping up my training and eating well. The MM has done a little stall but the Whoosh Fairy cant be too far away.

:-) Magda

NOT MUCH TO SAY

If this was an honest from the heart post it would all sound a bit down and gloomy so I'm drawing on the positive things in my life coz I dont want to drag everyone (including myself) down.

I had a really uplifting meeting with my Manager today. We spoke about my career planning and personal development and she was very supportive and complimentary about my future plans. At a time when I'm worrying about that stuff its nice to have her declare her confidence in me. It also helped to put a little spring in my step today :-)

With a few days to go til the end of February (can you believe it??!!) I'm working hard to get my weight back into the 66s. Yep it was there before the "feast weekend" and its dropped now but not quite enough. So a couple of decent cardio sessions and nutrition on track should fix that. I have a specific goal for March which I'll write about later. My focus now is on finishing February strong.

I'm going to wrap up there as an early night is imperative after a very poor sleep last night. So good night all.

Magda

GIRL, YOU TRAINED HARD

What do you do when you wake up at 4.45am on a Sunday (besides get really grumpy about it)? After laying in bed for a while and getting bored and restless I got up and:

made fresh pikelets for BS's breakfast
made a week's supply of sandwiches (to be frozen) for BS's school lunches
cursed that I didnt have my training gear handy so I could do my cardio (and didnt want to disturb WH by going to search for it)
heard the loo flush so ran in and grabbed my training gear
headed out for cardio at 6.30am

It was a glorious morning. A bit fresh but just lovely. I was dying to do some sprint work and after a decent warm-up I pushed out 10 x 100m sprints with 100m recovery walks and then completed the hour with my 1 song walk / 1 song jog combo. Rocked home around 7.30 feeling like 110% fanbloodytastic.

About 2 hours later the leg DOMS set in and I could barely walk hahaha. Gotta love that level of DOMS coz it says "Girl, you trained hard". WOOHOO

I was hoping to have a 100% clean day with food today but we were out for lunch and the menu was a bit limited and I had cajun style salt and pepper calamari with salad. It was delicious but fried and fatty. Hopefully my light dinner balanced it out a bit.

Have a great week all

Magda

BTW Pre-dinner activity for me tonight was ...... cleaning my house. The bare minimum but better than doing nothing

TRAIN / CLEAN / TRAIN / CLEAN .....

.... this is the debate I was having in my head this evening (gee I lead a sad life dont I?? LOL)

Today has been a blur of:

cardio, breakfast, strip bed, start washing, shower, quick trip to Mercato (resisted the yummy continental cakes woohoo), hang out washing and start another load, make BS's lunch for later, take BS to his swimming lesson, hang out washing, grocery shopping, fill car with petrol, home, unpack cold stuff, make lunch and eat while updating Calking and catching up on blogs, clean up, play board games with BS, start dinner, bring clothes in from the line, remake beds, sit down with WH and a glass of Bickfords Lime for a chat (WH had a beer and some nibbles), cook dinner, eat, clean up, update Calking and all the time having the debate in my head .....

....so after dinner do I tackle my weight training or do I do some cleaning? Weight training vs cleaning. Whats more important? That my house looks pretty or I work my muscles?

And the winner is .....

.... WEIGHT TRAINING!!!! I did legs tonight and now I feel great. So my house doesnt look all pretty but you know what ... WHO CARES??!! If I keep this up, my legs will look great :-)

Magda

I'M JUST NOT MEANT TO EAT THAT ROO CHILLI

Today I traipsed the roo chilli with extra veges in a separate container all the way back to work so that I could have it for lunch. Little did I know that one of my colleagues was having a birthday tomorrow and I got an impromptu invite out to lunch. Being the social butterfly that I am, of-course I accepted. Roo chilli and veges are in the frij at work for Monday's lunch. Third time lucky maybe??

Its been a tough week at home. My world is ok but at work WH has been under the pump BIG TIME, hence needing some extra TLC. I know he's finding things hard when he wants wine with dinner nearly every night. I have a firm rule in place that I dont drink during the week (well maybe rarely on a Thursday) and I find it pretty easy to stick to, but when the weekend rolls around I'm looking forward to my wine ration. For me it is one of life's pleasures.

I'm looking forward to my weekend training because I get to do longer cardio and I'm not so stressed with the time limits I have in the mornings. Then its domestic chores and swimming lessons for BS on Saturday and a day trip to the Yorke Peninsula on Sunday. Oh and somewhere in there I have some work to tackle :-(

Hope everyone has a great weekend

Magda

ROO CHILLI IS STILL THE TOPIC OF CONVERSATION

FOR WITCHAZEL

I often cook without a recipe just making meals up as I go with ingredients I have on hand. This was how I made the roo chilli last night and as a guide here is what I did.

1. Chop 1 medium onion and brown in a non-stick pan thats been sprayed lightly with cooking oil/spray. Add a little water if it sticks.
2. Per serve I allowed 130g minced roo meat. (I buy the best cuts and my mum minces them for me so I know they are 110% fat free ). This cooks into about 100g which is my standard protein portion. Add the roo mince to the onion and brown.
3. Add a big sprinkle of Masterfoods Mexican Style Chilli Powder and either a little salt or beef stock (powdered).
4. I kept mine really simple and just added about 50g/serve of fresh chopped tomato because I had home grown ones that needed to be used up and were past the "use them in a salad stage".
5. Add a bout 1/2 cup (I never measure it) water and cook until most of the water evaporates.

Thats my very quick and easy roo chilli but some options are:
1. Add 1-2 cloves of minced/chopped garlic when browning the onion.
2. Add a jar of salsa instead of the tomatoes.
3. To ramp up the veges sometimes I add chunks of red/yellow/green capsicum but be careful not to overcook as the capsicums will turn to mush.
4. A tin of drained and rinsed kidney beans goes really well in the recipe too. Just add when you add the water.
5. And as a real treat, serve it with rice of your choice, a huge dollop of sour cream, guacamole and a handful of corn chips ....

.... woops we just went from lean and clean to dirty and naughty :-) I hope that helps.

Now for the funny bit.

Today I packed up my cooler bag with morning tea, lunch and dinner all set to eat "on plan" at my parents' house tonight. What I didnt count on was WH having a shocker of a day at work and not being able to get away at our usual time. I'd had enough so I left work and waited in my usual spot which is a cafe close to our carpark. While waiting I partook of a medicinal red, read the paper, did the Target puzzle and chatted with a Britsih tourist who was travelling all over Australia. We were so late getting away that mum and dad ate with our BS and we decided to take WH's pizza and head off home. I ended up having a salad with spicy chilli tuna. At least I have some meals pre-prepared for next time.

Bring on Friday as its my weekday sleep-in and I really need it. I'm very tired and will relish the day off from training.

Cheers all

Magda

ROO CHILLI IN THE MAKING

Keeping it very brief tonight as I have some roo mince defrosting and will be making me some roo chilli before I go to bed. Why you ask? Well its either that or eat pizza for dinner at my parents' place tomorrow night. Yes we accepted an invite to have dinner there but it is home made pizza on the menu. Mum understands if I bring my own food so thats what I'm doing. The Metal Monster is making its way down and I want to keep it moving in that direction. Plus after last weekends feasting (polite term!!) I'm not hanging out for anything dirty right now.

Off to slave some more in nthe kitchen folks. Good night.

Magda