My weekend

I can't believe it is almost over. I try to make the most of my weekends but sometimes it is just too hard to get out of bed and use my time more productively!

Yesterday was a huge day. 3 friends and I went to a music festival.  It was stinking hot before we left, it hit 33 degrees at 11:30. We went to the pub for pre-festival lunch and drinks, during which a cool change came and it dropped 10 degrees by 12:30. As the day went on it got colder and started to bucket down, so we got soaked and the festival grounds turned to mud and mush.  Luckily there was some shelter and we made the most of it in between acts.

This is us before the rain hit:

Things got muddy:

And messy:

Besides the cold, the rain, the mud and it being a long day, we had lots of fun, and I feel like we are back in Festival Mode. Looking forward to the next.

Since I had no hangover this morning and wanted to make the most of my Sunday, I woke up earlyish and cooked up some Mexican Mince :

for my famous (only in my household) Taco Salad:

and also used my Tupperware hamburger press to prepare some burgers for cooking later on today:

 

Now I am sitting on the couch, watching the kittens taunt each other, playing on Facebook and Twitter, and being generally unproductive.

Speaking of the kitty-brats:

Me and Roy

Billy

Better go do... something... before this weekend is over!

x

Kitty love

My sister and I went into the city the other day to go shopping, and to visit the annual food and wine festival known as The Taste of Tasmania. It was a beautiful sunny day, and driving home we decided to stop in at the cat's home to see if there were any new cats or kittens there needing a home.  

There were. 3 kittens had been brought in from the same litter, they had been fostered in a carer's home, but brought in for adoption.  One was tiny, obviously the runt of the litter, and craving affection. When I picked him up he curled up in my palm and fell asleep, and did the same when I gave him to my sister to hold. His brother and sister were absolutely gorgeous too but this little one had stolen my heart, so I brought him home.

Here is Roy:

He is a beautiful loving kitten and when I brought him home he had fun exploring but was very timid and shy.  So the next day I decided to go back and get another one to keep him company.  I wanted to get his sister but she had been adopted, so we brought home his big brother instead.

Meet Billy: 

They adore each other, and spend every moment playing, cuddling, wrestling and grooming the other.  We are so happy to have these beautiful boys in our life!

<3

2011

Happy new year!

Happy New Year!

I don't make new year's resolutions, they mean no more than any of my other goals, and get forgotten as easily as my other wishes and plans.  Do you make them? What are yours?

However... I have decided to turn over a new leaf. New year, fresh start.

I have joined the gym.

I have written a meal plan.

I have washed all my gym gear and packed my gym bag.

I have written my exercise plan and worked out my routine for gymming.

I have ignored the banoffee pie and triple chocolate cheesecake in the fridge {in the last 30 minutes anyway}.

It's all a good start and I am going to keep it up.

In 4 weeks I am going to the Gold Coast with some beautiful girls, and I am setting a mini goal to lose weight before then.  I don't want to be embarrassed by how I look, and I have started working on getting to that point. 

It has been such a busy break, I can't believe how quickly it has flown by.  I go back to work on Wednesday, so am heading off now to enjoy the time I have left.

x

False Start

Why is that when you decide "Today is The Day", something pops up to knock you back on your booty and muck up all your plans?!

I am sick! I have a horrible cold, complete with all the bonuses of Killer sore throat, alternating blocked / runny nose, terrible cough, all-over-yucky-feeling, and poor-me self-sympathising to complete the collection.

So the plan of amping up the exercise, sorting out my food plan and being generally healthy and hearty has had a False Start, and I have done no exercise, have eaten whatever is closest to hand (when I actually feel like eating) and have just felt generally blah.

BUT... in other news, I ordered new sneakers from the US on Monday and they arrived on Friday. Who knew postage could be that quick, especially at this time of year?!

They tick all the boxes. Nike. Tick! Black but not masculine. Tick! Comfy. Tick! Sparkly. Tick! (Ok so sparkly wasn't on my list of must-haves for sneakers, but it is always a bonus.)

So once I shake this cold, I am lacing my new shoes up and hitting the gym! In the meantime I am sitting on the couch, watching hubby vacuum and watching The Hills re-runs. ;)

New House: Lounge Room

When we came through the house at the first open home, we were a bit umm... "stunned" at the owner's choice of colours. Firstly, they had exactly the same 2 colours on the lounge room walls as us - dark chocolate and creamy latte, which was surprisingly lucky. Secondly, they had decided that blue was the best choice of furnishing to go with these colours. That I found to be stunning (shocking?) in itself, however they had gone on to accessorise with white, yellow, and a range of other inappropriate shades.

The "before" (real estate) photo:

Lovely...!?!

And the "after":

We are currently in the process of deciding on new couching options. The one that I have my heart set on is a ridiculous price and will involve years of favours and bribes being paid to my husband if we do buy it. This is it:

It is the most comfortable lounge that I have ever sat on, and it is enormous. The 4 seater is just SO big, the picture doesn't show its size but my husband and I sat at each end and it felt like there was about 2 metres between us! This is the gorgeously comfortable and prohibitively expensive matching ottoman:

Sigh! I am in love. I think we need to go for a drive tomorrow to look at our options and have some serious couching discussions... and maybe begin negotiations.

Going down

My weightloss journey has hit a few speedbumps lately.  Things have slowed down, reversed, kept going, reversed a bit more, come to a complete halt, then reversed a little more.

Lots of the above in NZ didn't help my cause

 

Motivation has come and gone. I find myself, shortly after committing to a diet, munching on chocolate and chips.  I know that my health is at it's best when I follow a low GI, lower carb diet, so why do I put my body through the trauma of ingesting high amounts of sugar and other rubbish and feeling awful both physically and mentally afterwards...?  I tell myself "I don't care", "I have lost this much, I can do it again", "I will start again tomorrow"... But I do care.

So I have put on a few kilos.  

I am so far out of my healthy weight range that my mini goal weights don't even start with the same number as that of my (maximum) goal weight.  I have a few goals in mind.  People constantly tell me that I don't look like I weigh as much as I do, and I don't want to become a skeleton (yeah, 'cause THAT'S gonna happen!), so I plan to reassess as I reach my goal weight, then possibly set another goal.

The yo-yoing ends HERE. <- at that full stop 

I am going to the gym this morning to re-instate my membership and get back into daily exercise.

No more self sabotage.

I am going to make good choices that reflect my healthy lifestyle.

I actually feel really excited about getting back into the gym classes that I love, like BodyPump, BodyCombat and RPM.  I know once I get into a routine again, I can stick to it like I did before and love it.

My bathroom scales tell me all kinds of awful things, like how much I weigh, my body fat percentage, BMI and bone density. I am going to start recording the stats here as a bit of accountability / motivation.

SO here goes...

04/12/2010

Weight: x7.8 (ok maybe I am not brave enough to post that first number yet ;) )

Body fat %: 35.3

H20: 47.2

Bone density: 7.0

BMI: 31.3

*Gulp*

November

I have been completely slack, yet again, and neglected my poor sad little blog. Hopefully now that the year is coming to an end I have some more time to devote to keeping it updated.

What a year it has been, these last few months have been draining. Uni ended well with good results, we went to NZ for two weeks in November and had a fantastic time, my big brother told us he is coming home for a visit from the UK with his wife and little boy on New Years Day, we started on the courtyard and garden makeover.

There has been so much happening but one major event in my life actually happened this week.


My wonderful kind intelligent charming witty Grandpa passed away on Monday, 29 November 2010 after a very quick decline in health. In August, Grandpa was living alone, managing independently, driving himself around, visiting his wife of 62 years in her nursing home every day. His health started to decline very quickly during August and he decided to put his house on the market and move in with his son and daughter-in-law as he was unable to care for himself any more.


Shortly after, he became quite sick with pneumonia and was admitted to hospital. We didn't know then that he wouldn't return to live at home. Grandpa's health continued to decline further and further until he was finding it hard to complete sentences and to even stay awake while he was speaking. It was heartbreaking to watch our eloquent story-telling grandfather turn into an old man so quickly.

We returned from NZ on Thursday 25 November, Grandpa's 87th birthday. I had contracted a throat infection while we were away so the doctor told me to hold off a week before going to visit Grandpa. Unfortunately this meant that I didn't get to see Grandpa alive again or tell him about our trip and show him our holiday photos.


He showed such an interest in not only his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but everyone who he came in contact with in his daily activities, and was very much loved by everyone who knew him. He knew all the names and stories of the carers at Granny's nursing home, the chemist where he picked up his medication, the newsagent where he bought the paper, the supermarket where he bought his groceries. When he was moved into hospital he got to know all of the people who cared for him, from the doctors and nurses to the tea ladies and orderlies. By showing a genuine interest in people and remembering their names, he formed immediate friendships and gained great respect wherever he went.


I miss my Grandpa so much already. His funeral was held yesterday, Thursday 2 December. My father did a beautiful talk which perfectly honoured Grandpa, and a bagpiper played his favourite piece of Scottish music then walked away into the distance, so we could hear the music fade away as Grandpa's coffin was lowered out of sight.


I came home last night and just wanted to go and see Grandpa, I just can't believe he isn't there.

Rest in peace Mr MacGregor, my amazing strong inspiring grandfather. No more pain. You live and are loved in the memories of your family.

Ian Murray MacGregor

25-11-1923 ~ 29-11-2010

"Tata sweetie"

Highland Cathedral