My Life in Mono...

Putting it out there...

Last week, I spoke about the 12 Week Body Transformation programme that I have enlisted myself in. We are in the midst of doing pre season tasks now and one of them is "Saying it out loud". What it entails is putting our commitment to ourselves out there for everyone to see and read and make us accountable for our actions. 

 

This is extreamely hard for me to do because I have been there, with the Jenny Craigs and the doing it on my own and more than often, failed becuase I lost steam a lont the way. Well Jenny's was just because we couldn't afford it anymore but you get the idea. 

I really want this time to stick so I am putting it out there so that YOU the reader can come back after 6 weeks of me not posting about my health updates and ask me "What happend to your 12WBT program hmmm??" "You promised me that you will commit so WHERE IS IT?"

Yes I want YOU my dear dear readers to ASK me if I am still keeping my promise to you. I need to to give me the STEAM to power on. Let's do this together! 

So here is my commitment to you, myself and my family...

This is my commitment to you. 

I want to commit my time and mind to lose 20 kilos this round. I have done it before and I will do it again.

With my time, I will commit to running every other day if not everyday. I will commit to take time to listen to my hunger and make good choices with my food.

With my mind, I will commit to saying "Robot Mode" every time I find an excuse not to exercise.

I will remember the concept of Analysis Peralysis and will not let my inner thoughts give me a reason not to run/exercise that day. 

I will commit to only choosing healthy snacks and food everyday. 

THIS IS MY COMMITMENT TO YOU AND TO MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY. THIS TIME I WILL OWN IT. NO MORE EXCUSES. 

This time, I am keeping my word. :)

{image source here}

Running and 12WBT...

 

 

 To those of you who are following me on Twitter, you would know by now that I am learning how to run.  Yes. You heard me right. Learning how to RUN. I have never been able to run long distance before. As part of my "Things to do" this year, I am training to run 5Km. Slowly. I am currently using an app on my iPhone that beeps and tell me when to run and walk to ease me into running. So far so good. I am up to week 3 now. I am doing this slowly because I do not want to have a burnout so early and discourage myself. 

I also just enlist myself with Michelle Bridges 12 Week Body Transformation program. I have been reading a lot about it on twitter, blogs and facebook so I decided this year I am taking myself back. I know I am capable of doing it. I did it once with the help of Jenny Craig. Why not do it again right? Jenny Craig is too expensive for me and financially I am not prepared to make that commitment again. So I am trying out Michelle Bridges instead.

Preseason has already started and already I am learning a lot from it. How to set goals. How to stop giving excuses and etc. It is a really good program and I hope I learn a lot from it. I now watch what I eat and exercise almost everyday. 

I am not a morning person so waking up early and running does not appeal to me. I work all day so when I come home from work, all I want to do is just chill and care for my family. So where do I find the time to run or do any form of exercise? LUNCH TIME! Yes. I try to run everyday during lunch time. 

Everyone in my new office is some sort of a health nut. The girls in my team runs and do Jacob's Ladder 3 times a week. Now if you lived in Perth you would know who and what Jacob's ladder is all about. Life on Perth has a good take on what it is. Yes these girls are crazy. Hopefully one day I would be crazy enough to join them 3 days a week as well but for now I will stick to running around Subiaco and Kings Park. 

I am interested to hear stories from any readers who have tried the 12WBT program or is learning how to run like me. :) 

{image source here}

My "things to do" for 2012...

With the success that I had last year, you know the one where I acheived everything on my list, I guess that I should make 3 more in the year 2012. So here they are, 

1. To be HAPPY. Yep. H A P P Y. Something so easy to do but to most of us, HARD to achieve. I know people go on quests to find happiness. Maybe this year, I will start my own. Who knows, I might be able to inspire some of you readers out there and take you along with me on my quest. 

2.To be able to run 5 kilometers. Just 5 kilometers you might ask. Yes. Just 5. For someone who is overweight with bad netball knees AND who couldn't run to save her life, 5 Km is daunting and FAR. I will be doing the Couch to 5K program with a fellow mummy blogger, Yvette from Delightfully Tacky Lil Squirts. If you would like to join us, let me know. We have a hashtag on twitter #c25k2011 that we use so if you are doing it with us and have a twitter account, use the hashtag and I will try to come up with something everyweek. 

3. To post 3 times a week on my blog. I realised that last year, I have not blog as often as I would like to. I use to be able to blog every single day. "You have a child now" or "You have a full time job" you might say but I think, now that the Lil Tiger is more independent and has a sleep routine going on, it should be eaiser right? Otherwise how would other working mums out there with 2 or more children do it? I say, if they can do it so can I. :*)

So there. Just 3 things to do for this year. One for my family, one for myself and one for the bloggy life. Hope you will join me as I cross each and every single item off this list! 

 

Mum's United...

I had the opportunity to join the Mum's United via the Soup team. 

Mum's United's aim is to promote healthy eating and healthy living via the greatest person. THE MUM! I mean come on! It make sense doesn't it? Who is the most important person in the household? THE MUM! Who is the one that plans meals and activities in the household? THE MUM! So why not unite every single important person in the household across Australia and get them fired up about being healthy! 

There are several ways that you can get information about being a United Mum health club. You can go on to the Heart Foundation website or better yet, you can go on their facebook page and "like" their page I know most of my readers will have a facebook account right? 

I am going to host morning tea for my friends and family soon. Of course every single thing that is edible will be healthy of course. I know I will be using some recipes from the Heart Foundation. I have also been given a map of Australia in my host pack and I am going to give them to my friends and set a goal for them. For each 30 minute walk that they do they move up one step. First one to the finish line wins a mystery prize from me. :)

So are you a healty eating mum? Why not join Mum's United and let us Unite and fight for a Health! Please do not forget to share your tips on healthy eating as well.

Embrace it...

{image via Curve Appeal}

Ok. Here is a revelation, well maybe not a revelation but something along that line, I LOVE FOOD. And when you love food as much as I do, it's hard to go on a diet. SO I have decided to approach my self image in a different way. BY EMBRACING IT. 

Yes you heard it. Embrace. Don't get me wrong, being overweight is not healthy and I do know that M would prefer me to lose a few kilos, but I am not stressing myself out anymore. It's not worth it. Instead, I would just embrace that I do have curves. I know girls would do anything to have E cup boobies and junk in their trunk (yes I said it). 

What am I going to do is be happy and healthy and if I lose weight a long the way then hey that's a plus no? But I am not going to be anal about it. Just look at how beautiful the girl pictured above is. We both wear the same size and at the end of the day, I want to look like her. :*). 

So here's me.... EMBRACING IT. 

Second Skin

I wish I could live forever in my maxi dresses. I found this dress 3 weeks ago and I have worn it a couple of hundred times already. It's cotton and lightweight and will not cling on to your body. Perfect for the stinking hot days that we are currently enduring at the moment. I will have to learn how to make a dress like this.

I went to see my consultant at JC today. I manage to lose 800 grams during the silly season. WOOT. Not bad for 1 week. I also realise that my intake of fruits and vegetables is more now that I am back on JC. This week, I am going to take it up a notch. I will try to go to 3 RPM classes, 1 Yoga class and 1 Pilates class. On top of that, get back into waking up early again, 6am, and walk the dog each morning. A habit that I dropped after my trip back home 2 months ago.

Shedding the Light 2...

I know I have never spoken much about my family on this blog (not counting my parents sisters M and myself). I have never really shared anything about my extended family. Today will be one of those rare occasions that I do.

A few months back, I received a text from my mom telling me that my Uncle DB got cancer. I was in shocked. I did not know what to say or do but say a prayer. Uncle DB has always been down to earth and is actually one of my uncles on my Maternal side that I am comfortable with.

He has a blog and he is sharing his experience with Chemo and Cancer on the blog. It's really inspiring to read his journey. I have never had someone close that I know that is dealing with Cancer and it's usually a friend of a friend or a family of a friend and it is making me think really really hard about taking care of myself and my family.

Wow... Cancer...and this close to home too. My prayers goes out to him and his family

Shedding some Light...

Firstly I would like to thank you girls out there who gave me tips and advise about the Mammogram. Like I said I had conflicting facts about the matter that's why I put it out there so that you girls could share some of your advice and experiences.

I have spoken to my GP about my concerns and he said at this point in time, there should be nothing that I should worry about at this point in time because 1. I have no history of Breast Cancer in my family (that I know of) and 2. I have not found any lumps on me. So he said to wait and continue to do what I do. That is eat healthily and exercise. He also was quite impressed that I manage to stop smoking since I last saw him (the last time I saw him as about 2 years ago). So he said that that reduces the chances of me getting anytime of cancer at all. COOL.

All I have to do now is set a reminder to do a health check once ever year.

Mini Olympics...

Yes Ladies and Gents, I participated in the First Step in to Life Mini Olympics. I had fun!! I mean our whole team had fun. We weren't that competitive too and WE WON!! We won the first place. Wooohooo... I never have been in the winning team before and this is how it feels like. Wow.

I did the 2km walk/jog. I ran for a km and then walk the other km back. I was pretty proud of myself. I also joined in all the relay races and also played moving netball. Don't ask. I never played it before until today.  We were the smallest team too.

The day was fantastic and beautiful. Sunny and clear skies. More pictures on my flickr album but here is a few for you to enjoy...

Eating Right...

One thing about being in a JC program is learning how to choose your food. Today I had 3 things that I have to eat which is not in my list of favourite things to eat. This includes Muesli, Orange and INSTANT NOODLES.

I had to eat Muesli for breakfast and man, it was so hard to swollow. I have a tendancy of acting like a Hamster, you know where you stuff food at the side of your mouth a.k.a cheeks that you look like a hamster, when I eat something that I don't like and then spit it out after I decide that I do not like it at all. But this morning I had to eat it because I HAD to. So I told myself to get over it and just swallow the damn thing and I did it while reading my emails and blogs to get my mind off the taste.

The second thing that I had to eat today was Instant noodles. This was provided by JC and man they were terrible. I hate eating instant noodles where all you need is to add boiling water and let it sit for a bit. Not my cup of tea, or in this case, not my cup of noodles. I felt cheated this week. See, last week I was looking at the menu for this week and shouted with glee that I had can have Singapore Noodles for lunch this week. Little did I know that the Singapore Noodles came in a CUP!! I thought it will be those delicious thick Hokkien Noodles ( they can freeze it you know) with long green vegies but nope. It came in a CUP. I think the people at JC needs to have a lesson in Asian Cooking. That thing that they claim were Singapore Noodles, WAS NOT SINGAPORE NOODLES. I know how Singapore Noodles taste like okay.

And the last thing that I had to eat today is an Orange. I am not a fan of ORANGE the fruit but I will take Orange cake, Orange sweets and Orange Juice anytime. I had to eat the orange quickly to get the taste of the Singapore Noodles out of my mouth. I cut up the orange in to smaller pieces and ate it while I was doing some work. Luckily they were the sweet ones too. Western Australia Navel Oranges. They are Okay.