Healthy Lifestyle Change Week 5

Hello Blog World

Just a quick update on the healthy lifestyle challenge this week and I am one day late sorry.  I am on holiday’s in my home town and it’s been a BAD BAD BAD week.   I arrived on Thursday last week so it’s not even a good excuse but this week is no better so far and as I don’t go home until Sunday night so unfortunately I don’t see it getting much better.

I have had pretty much little to no exercise and the eating OH MY BOY!!! It has been bad, cakes, chocolates, Chinese banquets, copious amounts of wine etc…

However I did weigh myself this morning and  I have stayed the same I think.  I have been doing this for 5 weeks and lost 6kg in total, so not too bad.  I just pray that I can keep it off for the rest of my holidays and get back into full swing when  get back to Brisbane,

So more of this


And less of this





So as always I am hosting my link party and last week I had two entries besides mine, Natascha’s Lovely in Pink blog, she will be posting  today about her week, I hope it’s better than mine and also Ashley over at Me and My boys has a weekly feature called Motivate me Monday’s, last week it was about the importance of water and this week it’s about trying to eat healthy during the holiday season, which I think is very hard for all of us.  Anyway check them out.



So I have managed a healthy dinner today, I am about to go for a walk now the weather is cooler and I am still using this really slow and awkward laptop, I will try to post again before  I leave for home.  I am also trying my link party again so come on people I know you are out there trying to get healthier! Please give me ideas on how to stay on track when you are away from home and struggling, I look forward to what you can come up with until then Happy crafting.

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I often link up to these parties

Healthy Lifestyle Change Week 4

Hello Blog World,

Week 3 was a bit of a disappointment, no weight lost and a few bad days. What will this week bring?

Only had one other entry in my linky party so the award for entering goes to Natascha from No Pain No Gain Tuesday, she lost 3.5 pounds last week, which is fantastic, I wonder how she goes this week.  Check it out tomorrow for her latest update!

I am putting the party up again so please, please, please people I need recipes, exercise tips, stories, motivation, basically anything goes!!

Firstly my motivation for this week!

^{(src: http://pinterest.com/pin/404769059/)}

^{(src: http://www.kindovermatter.com/2011/01/freebie-alert-free-positive-thoughts.html, Click for the free printable, and don’t forget to say thanks!)}

Monday
The weekend was terrible, bad food and not much exercise and today was the same. I had a Microsoft excel training course in the city and while I learnt lots they provided lunch!

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – protein shake
• Over 3 litres of water consumed

Lows

• Spinach and Ricotta cannelloni for lunch with a lemonade
• 3 Biscuits (or cookies) consumed
• Went to the pub with my friend after the training course and shared a bowl of wedges with sour cream and had 2 bourbons and diet coke
• No exercise

Tuesday
A pretty good day today, didn’t get on the treadmill but feel I am getting back on track.

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy Morning Tea achieved – 2 cinnamon flavoured rice cakes
• Healthy Lunch achieved – Tomato soup with 2 slices of bread, unbuttered
• Healthy Dinner achieved – Chicken Balls with couscous salad
• Over 3 litres of water consumed
• 40 minutes of aerobics

Lows

• No Treadmill

Wednesday
Ok today was not so good! No exercise and ice cream!

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy Morning Tea achieved – low fat yogurt
• Healthy Lunch achieved – left over chicken balls and couscous salad
• Over 3 litres of water consumed
• 40 minutes of aerobics

Lows

• French Toast for Dinner
• No exercise
• Peppermint Choc Top Ice-cream at the movies

Thursday
Ok need to get motivated today!!!

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy Morning Tea achieved – low fat yogurt
• Healthy Lunch achieved – More of my left over chicken balls
• Healthy Dinner achieved – grilled chicken, garden salad and low fat tzatziki
• Over 2 litres of water consumed
• 45 minutes of aerobics

Lows

• No treadmill

Friday
Busy busy day today…but not for my challenge. Spent all day at my sister in laws and got nothing else achieved

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy Morning Tea achieved - low fat yogurt
• Healthy Lunch achieved – Chicken and salad bread roll
• Over 3 litres of water consumed

Lows

• Dinner consisted of 3 party pies and 3 sausage rolls
• No exercise

Saturday
OK Market day finally arrives!!! Had to get up at 4am and be there at 5:30 to set up for opening to the public at 8am – 2pm, this is after getting to bed at around 12:30am as I was helping Kel prepare for her market. It was a great day, Kel sold lots and I sold 4 cards! But unfortunately it didn’t leave time for anything else.

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy Lunch achieved – Ham and salad sandwich
• Over 3 litres of water consumed

Lows
Terrible morning tea – plate of mini pancakes with maple syrup
It was also very hot today over 35 degrees Celsius so I gave in and bought an ice cold can of normal lemonade
By the time I got home I was starving, so I had spread out over the afternoon 6 pieces of toast with butter and vegemite!! (this constituted my dinner)
I also dozed on and off all afternoon as I had a killer headache from the heat and lack of sleep, therefore no exercise

Sunday
OK Michelle, 2 really bad days in a row!! Need to get back on track have a weigh in tomorrow!

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy Dinner achieved – Grilled chicken, garden salad and low fat tzatziki
• Over 3 litres of water consumed

Lows

• Quiche and Low Fat Iced Coffee for lunch
• No Exercise

Ok so I am a little embarrassed by this week, after having 3 really good weeks, I have seemed to slackened off a little, it’s a bit disappointing, but I still got on the scales this morning and low and behold I had lost 1/2 kg (which is over 1 pound)!  So it’s better than nothing and does show even with a bad week I can still have some positives, so to anyone out there reading this (this includes you Natascha) don’t be discouraged by a bad week. Look at the positives!!!
Anyway Check out my link party below, it’s another scorcher here today and I have to prepare for my trip to Melbourne later in the week so until then Happy Healthy Crafting.

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Also linking up with these parties

Healthy Lifestyle Challenge Week 3

Hello Blog World,

Week 2 was a lot easier than I thought, not to say there weren’t hard or tempting moments but I resisted and am feeling great and have even shed a few kilos to boot! Bring on week 3!!!!!!

I had a few entries this week for my link party and there are 2 fab recipes that I definitely want to try.

Check out
KB & Whitesnake’s Home – Salmon with Dill Buttery Sauce
and
Organised Living Solutions – Healthy Treats
and don’t forget
No Pain No Gain Tuesday from Natascha’s Blog – she has finished week 4 of her challenge and will post week 5 tomorrow, can’t wait to see what she’s accomplished.

Now to some motivational material before letting you in on my week!



The first photo is me on my wedding day, if I see this I know I CAN DO IT! I have been there before.

Monday
Had a really good weekend and a great weigh in this morning but that doesn’t mean I can slack off today.

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – protein shake
• Healthy Morning Tea achieved – Carrot and Celery Sticks
• Healthy Lunch achieved – chicken and salad wrap
• Healthy Dinner achieved – Grilled Fish served on lemon rice (recipe to come)
• Over 3 litres of water consumed
• 35 minutes on treadmill
• No schedule aerobics today – It’s my day off!

NO LOWS!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday
Another great day today, it’s amazing what you can do when you set your mind to it, the important thing is to stay committed even if there are down days.

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – oats made with water, no sweetener
• Healthy Morning Tea achieved – 2 cinnamon flavoured rice cakes
• Healthy Lunch achieved – tuna, garden salad and low fat tzatziki
• Healthy Dinner achieved – grilled steak served with baby spinach, rocket lettuce, roma tomatoes, low fat feta cheese and home made salsa.
• Over 3 litres of water consumed
• 30 minutes on treadmill
• 40 minutes of aerobics

NO LOWS!!!!!!!

Wednesday
It was a good day today but I feel like struggled. It was hard and I lacked a bit of motivation I feel. But I still got through!

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy Morning Tea achieved – 2 cinnamon flavoured rice cakes (these are my new favourite snack)
• Healthy Lunch achieved – Tomato soup with 2 slices of bread, no butter
• Healthy Dinner achieved – Ham and Low Fat Feta Mini pita pizza’s (recipe to come)
• Over 3 litres of water consumed
• 30 minutes on treadmill
• 40 minutes of aerobics

Mixed Bag
I was feeling a bit hungry after aerobics today so I had another 2 rice cakes – honestly I shouldn’t beat my self up as these are very low calorie and low fat, so maybe this should still be a high?


Thursday
Today was a really hard day!! A funeral and just overall exhaustion, I can’t wait for my holiday coming up soon.

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy Lunch achieved – Tomato soup with 2 slices of bread, no butter
• Healthy Afternoon Tea – ¼ of Chicken and salad wrap.
• Over 3 litres of water consumed

Lows

• Not so healthy dinner – 2 (COUNT THEM 2) Tuna and cheese (not even low fat cheese) grilled sandwiches
• No exercise
• 2 glasses of Bourbon with diet coke

Friday
After yesterday’s failure I have to get back on track!!

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy Morning Tea achieved - low fat yogurt
• Healthy Lunch achieved – Tomato soup with 2 slices of bread, no butter
• Healthy Dinner achieved – Grilled Chicken, garden salad with low fat tzatziki.
• Over 3 litres of water consumed
• 30 minutes of aerobics
• 30 minutes on treadmill

NO LOWS!!!

Saturday
So the weekend has come again, I have another weigh-in in 2 days, today was not so good!

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy Afternoon Tea – low fat yogurt
• Healthy Dinner achieved – Left over grilled chicken, with salad in a wrap
• over 2 litres of water consumed
• 30 minutes on treadmill

Lows

• Not so healthy lunch – grilled fish (which is healthy) but I had it with a side of chips
• No Aerobics

Sunday
Today was a mixed day,  a few ups and a few downs.

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy Lunch achieved – tomato soup with 2 slices of bread, no butter
• Healthy afternoon Tea  -  Low fat yogurt
• Healthy Dinner achieved – grilled steak, garden salad with low fat tzatziki
• Over 2 litres of water consumed
• 50 minutes on treadmill

Lows

• I was offered a mini cup cake and I took it!!!!
• No aerobics

So a few more lows than last week!!! I still haven’t measured myself (must do that this week).  I had my weigh in this morning and I haven’t lost any more weight, but all in all I have lost 5 kg’s since I started so I will not get discouraged by this!  This week will be good, I have a lot going on, advanced excel course today, midnight screening of twilight on Thursday night, Friday off work to help Kel with the markets and then the market's on Saturday.  Wont leave much time for crafting but there is always next week.

I have posted my link party again this week.  I had a total of 4 entries (one was mine so it doesn’t count really. So link up obviously I need the help!  Until then Happy Healthy Crafting.







Linking up with the following parties
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Lifestyle Challenge Week 2

Hello Blog World,

Week 1 was a challenge but week 2 WOWEEE even harder. I have tried to push myself and achieve more this week.

First my motivational this week

SRC:http://pinterest.com/pin/222662677/
SRC: http://pinterest.com/pin/238084911/

Secondly as I only had one entry into my link party last week I will feature her!

Lovely in Pink – Natascha’s Blog
Another lovely lady trying to change her life style, check out her space there are lots of recipes including a yummy looking celery and carrot soup and a personal diary updating her progress in this lifestyle change.  Go over there now and offer her support




Monday
After a not so good weekend Monday has turned out fantastic!! Lots of good healthy food, water and exercise.
Highs
Healthy Breakfast achieved – protein shake
Healthy Morning Tea achieved – 1 apple
Healthy Lunch achieved – tomato soup with 2 slices of multigrain bread (no butter)
Healthy Dinner achieved – grilled chicken with a morroccon seasoning, garden salad with low fat tzatziki dressing
Over 3 litres of water consumed
30 minutes of aerobics
30 minutes on treadmill
NO LOWS!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday
WOW Another great day!
Highs
Healthy Breakfast achieved – Oats made with water, no sweetener
Healthy Morning Tea achieved – 1 low fat diet jelly
Healthy Lunch achieved – tomato soup with 2 slices of multigrain bread (no butter)
Healthy Dinner achieved – Tuna, garden salad with low fat tzatziki dressing
Over 3 litres of water consumed
30 minutes of aerobics
30 minutes on treadmill
NO LOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday
Wow another great day except for my dog chewed the cord of my treadmill so no treadmill till hubby get’s it fixed
Highs
Healthy Breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
Healthy morning tea achieved – 1 apple
Healthy lunch achieved – Lean Cuisine Sun Dried tomato and pasta meal
Healthy dinner achieved – Broiled Salmon with lemon, green beans, 1 baby potato
Over 3 litres of water consumed
30 minutes of aerobics
45 minutes on exercise bike
NO LOWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday
What can I say this week has been fabulous, great healthy food and exercise which is starting to pay off, and today is no exception!
Highs
Healthy Breakfast achieved – protein shake
Healthy morning tea achieved – low fat yogurt
Healthy lunch achieved – tuna, garden salad with low fat tzatziki as a dressing
Healthy dinner achieved – Grilled Chicken, cauliflower, broccoli, corn and 1 baby potato with salsa (rest of the family had beautiful baked potatoes, drizzled with garlic oil)
Over 3 litres of water consumed
40 minutes of aerobics
30 minutes on treadmill (husband fixed it!!!! What a good boy he is)
NO LOWS!!!!

Friday
Friday is my day off for aerobics because we have to go to little athletics on Friday nights and it goes from 6pm to 9-9:30ish.
Highs
Healthy Breakfast achieved – oats made with water no sweetener
Healthy morning tea achieved – apple and small box of sultanas
Healthy Lunch achieved – weight watchers meal vegetable cannelloni
Healthy Dinner achieved – Had to head out to little athletics so quickly whipped up a tuna and salad wrap.
Over 3 litres of water consumed
30 minutes on treadmill after athletics
NO LOWS!!!!

Saturday
So another weekend is here and I am hoping that I have a better weekend than last!
Highs
Healthy Breakfast achieved – protein shake
Healthy Morning Tea achieved – low fat yogurt
Healthy Lunch achieved – tomato soup, with 2 slices of multigrain bread no butter
Healthy Dinner achieved – Chicken meatballs with a couscous salad (recipe to come soon)
Over 3 litres of water consumed
40 minutes of aerobics
Lows
No Treadmill

Sunday
We had another little athletics carnival today. Check out this great photo that appeared on the courier mails website.  Congrats to my daughter who came 2nd in her relay race.  And I also managed to stay healthy! 



Highs
Healthy Breakfast achieved – protein shake
No morning tea today
Healthy Lunch achieved – ham and salad on a wholegrain roll
Healthy Dinner achieved – warm mustard chicken salad (again recipe to come soon)
Over 3 litres of water consumed
30 minutes of aerobics
30 minutes on treadmill
NO LOWS!!!

All in all a fantastic week I feel, I have stayed highly motivated, but I still want to see how everyone else is doing out there.  I have a lost a massive 3.5 kilos this week for a grand total of 5kg!!!!!!
I am going to get into my skinny dress in no time if I keep this up

Link up below and help me keep motivated  so until later happy healthy crafting 

I am also sharing with the following link parties
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Healthy Lifestyle Change Week 1

Hello Blog World,

I have decided to record my progress week by week, I will record daily so I can keep a better track of things but post weekly, so here goes week one. (Beware long post, but there is a present at the end)

Overall I think I eat quite healthy (maybe a dietician will disagree) and of course I am only human and have moments of weakness.  What is my killer is doing that little bit of exercise I need to do daily to slim down to something vaguely resembling my wedding weight, which is my ultimate long term goal.  Baby steps first, 1 week at a time J

First some visual stimuli

 








Monday
A very up and down day right round - could have been a lot better, but I guess it could’ve been a lot worse.

Highs

•       1 ½ litres of water consumed
•         Healthy breakfast achieved – oats made with water – no sweetener
•         Healthy Lunch achieved  - weight watchers frozen beef cannelloni
•    Healthy morning tea achieved -  low fat, low calorie, low GI yogurt

Lows     

•  No exercise (had all intentions to go for a walk/jog on my treadmill after dinner, but after cooking, and cleaning I was too bushed… I know I know excuses)      
• Small slice of chocolate cake at work (it was someone’s  birthday)      
• Small glass of Iced Coffee (husband bought a 2 ltr bottle and it needs to be drunk before going off)

Mixed Bag

• Dinner was a mixed bag of good and bad, baked salmon which is low in calories and fat.  But the sauce was balsamic vinegar, white wine and sugar (not so good) with baby potatoes and steamed fresh green beans.

Tuesday

As I skipped exercise Monday night, I set my alarm for 4:30am!! to try and get half an hour in before leaving for work.  Needless to say my sleepy brain did not agree and snoozed until 5:15am to get up at my normal time.  But all ends well I got off my but and did 40 minutes on the treadmill Tuesday night and 10 minutes worth of strength training, sit ups, lunges, wall push ups.

 Highs

• Over 2 litres of water consumed
• 1Healthy breakfast achieved sort of ( hubby bought the wrong oats, he bought proper oats instead of quick cook) so I couldn’t cook in the microwave at work like normal, so I bought an Up n Go from our vending machine which is low in fat and calories
• Healthy Lunch achieved – Lean cuisine frozen meal
• Healthy morning tea achieved - low fat, low calorie, low GI yogurt
• Healthy Dinner achieved -  small serving of steak, steamed broccoli, cauliflower, carrots with salsa as a sauce ( I have learned that salsa has very little fat and is quite low in calories)
• 40 minutes of exercise achieved

Lows

•  1 small glass of Iced Coffee
•    5 gummy bears

Wednesday

Wednesday was a great day, lots of exercise and a lot of healthy eating; I am very proud of myself and hope to have more days like today.

Highs

• Healthy Breakfast achieved – low fat yogurt with a handful of muesli mixed in
• Healthy morning tea achieved - low fat, low calorie, low GI yogurt
• Healthy Lunch achieved – multi grain sandwich, fresh chicken, lettuce, cucumber and avocado – no butter or margarine, no salt and no pepper, with a low fat Iced Coffee (it’s a really good brand here called Rush, and it’s better in calories, fat and sugar than most juices!)
• Healthy Dinner achieved – tuna with a  garden salad and low fat tzatziki dip as a dressing
• 30 minutes of step aerobics
• 35 minutes on treadmill
• Over 3 litres of water consumed

Lows

• Small Glass of Iced Coffee consumed (it’s all gone now) 

Thursday

WOW!!! What a great day!! All healthy, lots of exercise and even some housework!!

Highs

Healthy Breakfast achieved – protein shake
Healthy morning tea achieved - low fat, low calorie, low GI yogurt
Healthy Lunch Achieved - Tomato soup with 2 slices of multigrain bread (no butter)
Healthy Dinner Achieved – Baked fish with lemon, baked onion, zucchini and tomato.
Over 3 litres of water consumed
30 minutes of aerobics
40 minutes on treadmill

NO LOWS!!!!

Friday

WOW!! 2 days of being really really really good in a row.  I was going to put no treadmill down as  alow and I though NO I have been good, I did the 40 minutes of aerobics and ate really well so it’s still a good day,  a bit worried about the weekend though…

Highs

• Healthy breakfast achieved – oats made with water – no sweetener
• Healthy morning tea achieved - low fat, low calorie, low GI yogurt
• Healthy Lunch Achieved - Tomato soup with 2 slices of multigrain bread (no butter)
• Healthy Dinner achieved – Grilled Chicken with a  garden salad and low fat tzatziki dip as a dressing
• Over 3 litres of water consumed
• 40 minutes of aerobics

NO LOWS!!!!

Saturday
I knew today was going to be hard and hard it was…no morning tea and a very bad lunch!! But I did expect the weekend to be hard.  No excuse it just gives me something to work towards

Highs
Healthy breakfast achieved – oats made with water added a bit of apple for something extra
Healthy dinner achieved - Tomato soup with 2 slices of multigrain bread (no butter)
Over 2 litres of water consumed

Lows
Popcorn Chicken for lunch
No exercise, I had full intentions of getting up but I sat down after dinner clean up and managed to fall asleep on the couch as hubby was watching some boring movie (I guess that’s what happens at 8:30pm when you get up at 4:30am on a Saturday 

Sunday
As I said I knew the weekend was going to be hard and having to go to my daughter’s atheletics carnival today made it a tad harder.  It was a great day but a long day, we arrived at QSAC (Queensland Sports and Athletic centre) at 7:30am and didn’t get home until 7pm! Needless to say no crafting, but as I said fun day nevertheless, but long.  Well done to my daughter who worked very hard all day and gave it her best go in all her events. 
Highs

• Healthy breakfast achieved – Protein Shake
• Healthy morning tea achieved – half of a ham and salad wrap
• Healthy lunch achieved – 2 Tuna Sushi Rolls
• Over 2 litres of water consumed

Lows

• McDonalds for dinner ( seared chicken burger, small fries and a small juice)

Mixed Bag

• Not much formal exercise, managed to fit in 10 minutes of strength training before my shower and I    did walk around QSAC for about 8-10 hours all day on a very humid and hot day.  

Well week 1 completed, it was a mixed week with some very very good days and some not so good days, but as I said earlier one day at a time.  I am not a superhero and I know I will mess up but I will get there eventually.  I did forget to take measurements this week so I don’t know if I had any decrease that way but I jumped on the scales this morning and WAH LAH 1.5kg lost. If my weekend had been better I may have lost that extra 1/2kg. 

Seeing this makes me more motivated, I wonder what week 2 is going to bring?

I hope whoever reads this gets something out of it or not but please let me know what you think.  Is a weekly run down too much?  Should it be daily or every second day to save on sooooooooo many words in one post??  I appreciate feedback and will take on board all criticism and suggestions. 

Onto the good stuff I want to see if anyone else is trying to be more healthier, share your ideas, success stories, failures etc... just link up below (i know you want to) and next week I will show case my most favourite. A link back would be appreciated ( I even have a new button for you) but not required.

But until then Happy Healthy Crafting ;) 

 

I will be linking up to the following parties


Confessions of a stay at home mom, Petite Hermine Sunday Link Party, Creation Corner & Lolly Jane Boutique Link Party