Day 20 – dis-organisation = cravings

Am getting a bit antsy for snacks and sugar. It definitely didn’t help that the fruit I have been having has been kicking off the cravings again. I think I have been looking for a pick me up in the mornings and have been reaching for the smoothies instead of having the cooked breakfasts I should be planning for myself.

Raspberries, Cashews, Avocado, Almond milk, and Frozen banana - Thanks to Cath for the recipe :-)
Raspberries, Cashews, Avocado, Almond milk, and Frozen banana – Thanks to Cath for the recipe 🙂

So tomorrow – in between getting my hair did, my lashes filled and going to work for a few hours – I am going to get the Pete Evans cook book that features lots of gluten and dairy and sugar-free recipes. Will also be (hopefully) getting heaps of recipes from the ‘I quit Sugar’ program which I am signing up for tonight.  I will let you know how that goes, and whether it is worth trying it out for yourself – IMO anyway. There is a lot of hype around the program and I know that quitting sugar is the cool thing right now – for lots of good reasons – but what appealed to me about this program was the shopping lists and meal plans you get each week – and they can tailor them to be Gf and DF too. So it’s just another crutch for me for days like today when I am feeling weak and wanting to ‘just have a taste’ from the jar of nutella in the cupboard…

Outside of cravings and the usual, today was a rest day – I counted our walk and swim this afternoon as my exercise – but I am looking forward (as always) to boot camp tomorrow morning. Hopefully the new girl will come back and she can see that I’m just a really awkward, friendly, non-psycho who likes to meet new fun excercisey boot-camp people.. from a distance… and just grins weirdly…

Holla to y’all.

Day sixteen – I killed Kermit

photo (20)

This afternoon, after I broke down from my sugar withdrawal and inhaled a packet of Neurofen, and was feeling human again, I googled more smoothie recipes because I am getting a teeny tiny bit sick of my peanut butter chocolate smoothie…

And I found a green one that looked yum and tried it out. Typically if I offer the boys anything that looks even vaguely healthy or has evidence of green vegetables in it they run screaming to the Dairy for a nice comforting steak and cheese pie.

Tonight we had a breakthrough – they loved the ‘Kermit the frog’. I named it but it’s someones elses recipe of course. I got it from http://www.simplegreensmoothies.com in the ‘5 ingredients or less’ bit. I changed it up a wee bit – going by what we had in the fridge. Here it is;

  • 1 cup Kale
  • 1 cup baby Spinach
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup Almond milk
  • 1.5 frozen banana
  • 1 whole small avocado or half a big one

Whack the spinach and kale in the blender with the liquid and whizz until it’s whizzed. Then add the fruit and avocado and whizz it up some more – voila! (in the past I have not whizzed the leafy greens separately from the other bits and it has been bitsy and yuck – this time it was a revelation! not tiny bits of greenery in my teeth afterwards).

Then I told the kid it was a ‘Kermit the frog’ and, once I had calmed their fears that there was an actual frog in it – they drank it and Master 7 liked it! success! He said ‘Mum we can drink these in the morning after we go running eh?’ and I went all warm and fuzzy. We got him running shoes today so he is a bit keen on it.

That’s all from me – melting in the heat but loving it – withdrawing and aching and nearly died in boot camp this morning – got the shakes HARD. But, like I said, I know why and I know how long it will last roughly so I’m not freaked, just hanging out for it to be over. Another Bootcamp session tomorrow – on the beach so it will be lovely and good for my soul – if not my poor old shaky legs….

New Years Day – Day One has dawned bright, rose tinted glasses on!

hot-yoga

(not my image/shoulders – it is the first one that comes up when you google image search ‘hot yoga’ – you should have seen some of the others!)


So the day dawned bright and beautiful and me and the littlest lad rolled over to greet the sun; despite the fact that master 4 had been awake until well after midnight last night (beating master 7 and I hands down).

Hot Yoga this morning – my first yoga session of 2015 (and first session in over 9 months) what to eat so that I didn’t throw up in the heat later on? I settled on my fave – a chocolate smoothie – and in fact I only had half because it is so filling – and saved the rest to have chilled after Yoga. Here is the recipe – it’s really easy – just whack them all in the blender and whizz it up. 1/2 an avocado, 1 cup almond milk, 1 frozen banana chopped, 2 tblsp raw cacao powder, 1 tblsp peanut-butter and 3 dates. SO GOOD.

Yoga was fucking hard. I am NOT flexible and NOT great in the heat – I have a red face in a warm room in winter ffs but it felt good to be doing something and I like the instructor Bruce; he wanders around telling absent minded little stories that keep your mind off the hard core ness of the temperature and the disgusting grunting sounds the man next to you is making. Seriously – the women don’t make those noises – are they really necessary dude? Anyways – it’s a nice change of pace between boot camps and the studio I go to has introduced different types of (not hot) Yoga in my absence so am looking forward to trying them all out.

Back home and I am thinking about what to do to prep for the year ahead, I have thought about it a lot, and have been planning but not really anything tangible as yet. Mostly I am obsessed with all things food so it will be a matter of making sure I am always prepared like a good girl guide – and never caught on the hop starving – because that’s when I weaken and make bad food choices for my tummy (and pay for it later). I have talked to friends on similar missions or people who eat a certain way for health and have gotten lots of good links to sites and recipes, and a book recommendation from Jonni that I am waiting to come in at my local library.

                          GAPSdiet GAPSBK3 Picture                 110596184

Here are my starter guidelines, mostly gathered from appts with various specialists including Dr Jenny who I see now, reading the book ‘The Calorie Fallacy’ by Libby Weaver, and general hunches firmed up by conversations with Cath (my friend with PHD’s who is amazeballs). Some of this stuff I was meant to be already doing but got seriously slack over the Xmas break so am getting ‘back on the wagon’ as it were 🙂

These are the rules for ‘my year of health’ all based around the plan of healing my gut and in turn (hopefully) fixing my skin and everything else;

  • No Gluten duh
  • No Dairy
  • No refined Sugar, and certain natural sugars (honey and high fructose fruit like apples and grapes)
  • No Alcohol or Coffee
  • Try to cut out or limit dramatically processed-to-death food
  • No raw food to start with, this might improve with time but for now the fiber is too much and it gives me instant tummy aches
  • No ‘crunchy’ or ‘scratchy’ food – toast, crackers, corn chips, etc – anything that might scratch or damage my gut lining
  • that goes the same for raw whole nuts – I can have nuts but in paste or totally ground up
  • MORE yoga
  • Regular WOF’s to check gluten, iron, magnesium etc levels
  • MORE ‘good for my gut’ food i.e. bone broths, smoothies, avocados, salmon, casseroles etc
  • MORE walks around the neighbourhood with the fam and the dog
  • LESS beating myself up for not fitting my clothes at the moment.
  • MORE mindfulness – appreciating the moment. The glorious here and now and the wonderful peeps in my life.

So not that much eh? HA HA. well, this is day one after all – Got to start positive!