Hey folks! It’s the weekend again! Not that it really matters for me – the days also have melted into one. BUT, I can still be excited because it does mean that Evs is home for the next two days and he can help alleviate some of my boredom free time.
I am plodding along and literally waiting for baby to arrive. My due date is in about a week (Easter Monday in fact), so every post could be my LAST. Duh duh DUH.
(Yep, I like to be dramatic somewhat).
Despite my lack of internet, I have painstakingly gathered some links that I have read over the last week and that caught my eye. I hope you enjoy them too!
For those people who aren’t really into heavy breakfasts – typically with either some sort of grain or bread – Maria over at Econest has some ideas to switch it up without getting all blah. Bonus – sugar-free as well.
I was looking at this list and thinking I should have known half of these things while I was in my corporate job. A great post for any professional woman with career tips from the most successful women in the world. My favourite – “Forget the ladder, climb the jungle gym”.
A beautiful post that reminds me that everyone’s love language is different. So Evs might not be a classically romantic guy, but he shows love in a different way.
I am really, really wishing I could go along to this – but alas small thing called a baby will be here. Melbourne peeps – if you are free – I’d highly recommend it. These girls are amazing.
With Winter coming upon us (and thus the shorter days and lack of natural light!) and the urge to take better photos (it’s half the reason I don’t post many recipes – Instagram can only do so much lol) – I’m considering building my own light box. Here’s a great tutorial on how to DIY one of your own.
Did you hear about Lululemon’s recall on their new line of yoga pants because they were too sheer?? Jimmy Kimmel give us his (hilarious) opinion on it through this video about the yoga pant shortage.
Also, given my sporadic blogging – for the first baby news you’re more likely to catch me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
At the start of the year, like many, I had a lot of ambitions. One of them was to Quit Sugar. I started on and successfully completed Sarah Wilson’s 8-week program that got me kicking the habit.
I was converted and started preaching a sugar-free way to all that would listen.
Fast forward a few months. Ok….most of the year.
About halfway through the year, and looking back it was funnily enough after coming back from holidays in Sri-Lanka and falling pregnant, I started craving the sweet stuff again. When I found out I was pregnant and couldn’t have my beloved wine, I think I started compensating by replacing wine with chocolate. MILK chocolate. And if that amount is anything to go by, then I was well on the way to becoming an alco.
Lots of compensating was done.
It was done in the most overt way that I didn’t even realise I was doing it. I’d accept a handful of M&M’s while watching a movie, and then find I’d eaten the whole packet. Foods that hadn’t graced our kitchen for a long time suddenly started sneaking back in for those “just in case we have visitors” moments. Vegetables were on my hit list for things I couldn’t stand the sight of. I started feeling sluggish and tired and bloated and I put it down to the joys of being pregnant.
The funny thing was, everything tasted SO SWEET to me still yet I couldn’t stop.
Weird.
Anyways, Sarah is throwing out the call to one and all to get back on the wagon – no judgement – in her pre-Christmas program. It starts today (29th October) and after seeing that and reading Laney’s post, I thought it was just the kick in the pants to get me back on track.
That being said, I’m all for listening to my body and if I wake up in the middle of the night with an itch only two things can cure (and the husband’s asleep)…well….I’m not going to feel guilty over that.
It’s really all about re-calibrating myself and getting to a place where I feel as good as I did the first time around. It’s also about respecting my body and ensuring that I’m giving this little baby all the best nutrients it can get.
The best thing about doing this is that I KNOW I CAN DO IT. I have done it before.
Evs is on board leading up to the silly season and I’ll be posting my journey here again for those who are interested. I bought the IQS cookbook when it came out as well and have since made some of the delicious recipes from it. One of the things I’ve been wanting to do more here is post more quick and easy healthy recipes, only because I tend to use blogs as my main source of inspiration for food and I want to share how easy it is to eat delicious food while taking care of your health.
For those interested, to get yourself started, I have a few posts I wrote the first time around that might help. I also highly recommend getting the I Quit Sugar e-book because it covers a lot more than what I did (or you can get the bundle with the cookbook which is also good) (and as a small reminder, they are aff links which means I get something small for it – which means – woohoo one free coffee for me!! )
You can also sign up for Sarah’s newsletter which will also give you a lot more tips and discounts on some of the things she mentions in her book as well. There’s a ton of support out there through the IQS community and I’ve joined Laney’s FB group as well which is great for meeting other people and sharing like-minded things related to quitting sugar.
As for me – I’m starting by getting myself prepared. I’ll be doing my weekly grocery shopping tonight and making sure I stock up on lots of nutritious food. I’ve made a loose meal plan for the dinners I want to make this week and will share some of the recipes as well here too.
So for the week:
Monday – leftovers (my cousin gave us heaps of food from the weekend – all healthy Indian stuff, so that with some rice will do )
Tuesday – Vegetable Noodle stirfry (may chuck in some meat for the husband, but I have tofu/paneer that needs to be used up)
Wednesday – Vegetable Cauli-rice (Evs will most likely have a steak with this)
Thursday – Stuffed chicken breasts with home-baked spicy sweet potato fries and salad (or possible going out for Pho)
Friday – Cheesy mushroom quesadillas
I’ll also be preparing for my breakfasts by making a batch of my fructose-free granola and removing all tempting things from my fridge and pantry.
Yeah, well turns out that karma is a bit of a bitch.
Yep…you guessed it right this time.
There’s a bun in the oven.
I’m up the duff.
I’ll soon be carrying a watermelon inside me and pushing said watermelon out of my….errr… you get the idea.
(And if I look so uncomfortable in that above photo, it’s because I could feel my pants falling down. I bought some maternity jeans online and tried them on except they’re a little too big for me yet. Classy, Sig. Plus I’m crazy bloated. The little joys of pregnancy.)
So after my April Fools joke, the joke is now on me with a wee little Evs or Sig due on the 1st April next year. I can tell this kid is going to have a frustrating sense of humour.
Evs and I (and the fur-babies) are crazy excited, however have kind of been in denial for the last 12 weeks until we saw the ultrasound for the first time.
So…I am currently finishing up week 14 and will start posting up weekly updates for those who are interested
It’s going to be an interesting journey.
PS – Weekend reading links will be posted tomorrow
I know I said I’d continue my adventures into salad making, but seriously sometimes you come across a question so startling it makes you stop in your tracks and pay attention.
One of my current favourite people Danielle LaPorte (author of The Fire Starter Sessions that I am currently meticulously reading – amazing book) posted the following recently:
“When you cop to your shortcomings a number of wonderful things can happen. You become more accessible to the people around you, you invite other people to step up and shine, and you create space for support to come into your life — you actually don’t have to be awesome at everything. Go figure. Mostly, when you approve of your weaknesses, you give yourself permission to pursue your genius.”
Then another one of my favourite blogs answered the same question and it stirred something within me.
I have been privileged, even blessed you could say, to have had a fairly decent upbringing. Not pretty enough to stand out, I relied on my innate passion to learn to get by. Intelligence came easy to me and the pursuit of things based on that intellect was a challenge that was often successful. But there have been moments when I have been the small fish in a big pond. Where my brain hasn’t been enough and I’ve been left standing, bewildered, without a back-up plan.
Even so, like Nicki, I’ve always resisted the idea that I can’t do it all – that really, all I need is my brain and some elbow grease and things will just…come. But I love the idea of calling out yourself, we all have room to grow and learn and invite opportunities into our lives.
So I suck at…
Making decisions. I to and fro over things way too much as I get gripped by a crippling anxiety that the choice I am going to make is the wrong one. The thought of the worst possible outcome is always lingering in my mind which makes it hard to finalise things. I admire people like Evs who make decisions without a second thought and are confident in their choices and the outcome.
Following through. Like Nicki, I am a dreamer, a starter. They are mostly good ideas but I get bored or scared and my vision fades. I need people in my life to give me a push to make my dreams a reality. I need reassurance that I won’t fail.
Time management. I STRUGGLE with this. I have no concept of prioritisation and often take on way too much and end up stressing myself into a corner. I’m the one constantly running late and apologizing.
Standing on one leg. Oh this one hurts. I cannot for the life of me – balance. I dread the balancing poses in yoga because I will inevitable wobbling all over the place and distracting everyone from their perfect tree poses. It doesn’t matter, one inch off the ground and I still lose my balance.
Being tidy. Yeah…I call it ‘artistic chaos’, Evs just shakes his head and pretends to have nothing to do with anything that is on “my side” of the room. I surround myself with mess.
Calling my family. Ok, we’re really dredging up the nasty stuff. I actually really regret this one, but years of teenage issues are hard to put behind me to bridge the gap to do it naturally. I love them dearly, I just suck at letting them know.
Being sociable. I’m the awkward one in the corner at events. I still get overwhelmed in crowds and my shyness rears its head amongst strangers. I tend to fluctuate between worry about not being “interesting” enough and thinking everyone is talking about me. I have an inferiority complex methinks.
Ohhh…it does feel good to get some of that off my chest. I look at each one of those points on my list and know how they make me feel, how much they have bothered me and deeply for a long time. They are things that I have attempted to fight and change and then resorted to covering them up.
The best part of doing this exercise is knowing that, as Danielle says, when we put our weaknesses in plain language and clear view, we can see where we need to become more conscious, and how our so called “shortcomings” point to our true strengths.
Like all good dreams – it scares me just that little bit.
And perhaps like a lot of people, it scares me that bit too much that I feel rooted to one spot with moments passing me by.
I have a vague idea of what I want to do, where I want to go – but visualising it – I shake my head and the picture seems fuzzy, blurry.
Today, I came across this wonderful blog post and it got me thinking.
I want to change my story.
So I’m sharing with you two things – my average day today – and my average day in my ideal life.
The one living my dream.
Fact: This was my day today
“The alarm went off at 5:45am. Evs hit the snooze and we slept in for a little more. At 6:30am, he was up and when he got out of the shower, I was awake. He left soon after, with a kiss and a reminder that my lunch was in the fridge. As per usual, I was running late for work and I threw on some clothes and vaguely registered the small hole in my stockings near the knee. I made myself breakfast – oatmeal with banana, chia seeds, almond milk, peanut butter and blueberries and packed it to eat later.
My commute is usually somewhere between 45 mins-1hr, no matter where I am and today I headed out towards the airport for a client. The traffic was horrendous and I arrived just after 9am due to a crash on the freeway. I was already in a sucky mood (since that hole became a giant ladder in my stockings and I didn’t have another pair)and made a beeline for coffee as soon as I got there. I then ate my cold breakfast at my desk while catching up on my emails and online news. The day went by in a whirl of meetings, emails, phone calls and typing and I added at least another ten deadlines on my to-do list. I finally left – heading out a bit early to avoid the traffic. I wish I had gotten out for a walk during my lunchbreak, but I spent it surfing the net and more emails. I got home around 5pm and savoured being home before dark for once.
I played with the dogs for a bit who went nuts to see me – throwing the ball for Toby and giving Dex some back-rubs. I half-heartedly thought about doing some exercise but I was too tired and it’ was cold. Evs got home soon after and we took the dogs for a 45 minute walk around the neighbourhood, catching up on our day. After a shower, I got to making dinner – something simple because I really could not be bothered. Dinner was an open-faced sandwich with avocado, spinach, veggie burger, cheese and topped with an egg and hot sauce and paired with some salad.
After dinner, we watched some TV mindlessly for a few hours while both of us on our respective technologies. Right now, I’ve mustered up some energy to blog, but typically I wouldn’t have the energy to open up my laptop again after spending 8 hours sitting in front of a computer screen. It’s 10:30pm and I’m headed up to bed once this done, exhausted.”
Fiction: Ideal average day
“I wake up somewhere between 7-7:30am and am actually refreshed. I head to my yoga mat and spend 10-20 minutes just meditating and spending time with myself. I then throw on my workout clothes and head to the gym, or outside for about some exercise. Finished and showered by about 9-9:30, I have my breakfast – something nutritious and filling. Coffee is a must and I savour my homemade latte while catching up on the news online.
Around 11am, I head back to the gym where today I meet with clients in regards to their health and wellbeing for the next couple of hours. Before I know it, it’s 1pm and I want lunch and head home. Being home, I have time to cook something and would step away from the laptop. I also think about dinner and call Evs to see he wants to go out. Weather permitting, I take the dogs down to the dog park to play a little and get some fresh air or take them for a walk one by one. While out, I call my sister or my mum and chat to them, making plans for the weekend.
The rest of the afternoon is spent writing– articles, for the blog, and doing a little more on the course I have taken up. I am also working on the business that I have started and responding to client requests and working on their cases. I finish up around 4:30-5pm.
Depending on the evening’s plans, Evs and I head out for a weekday dinner date or have dinner at home while catching up on our days. After, if the dogs haven’t been walked, we go for a stroll around the neighbourhood. Once we are home, we watch one favourite TV show and then I settle in with a book while he works on his photography. Just before bed, I jump back on the laptop and check emails and find a new client request and registration confirmation for an upcoming half-marathon and health and wellbeing conference as a guest speaker. I look up training plans and make a note to get new runners. While I’m there, I see a deal for a holiday in Queensland and I bookmark it.
Around 11ish, we head up to bed and sleepily chat before falling asleep.”
Wow…that IS different.
Funnily enough – Hannah’s and my day aren’t too dissimilar and I think we want some of the same things in life.
Funny.
The point of doing this exercise was to compare the two narratives and see the things I want to remove and things that were similar. Basically work out how to make my fiction into fact.
Similarities
Playing with the dogs and taking them for a walk
Catching up with Evs
Watching TV
Coffee first thing in the morning
Differences
Watching less TV
No commute
Waking up a little later and exercising in the morning instead of…err…never
Sitting down and having meals
Working as a freelance writer, blogger and business person rather than an employee
My to-do list is manageable
Having time to head outside in the middle of the day to break up the working blocks
Having time for myself (reading books)
Spending quality time with Evs instead of on the couch, side by side on our ipads.
Having regular travel plans
If I go one level deeper – what I want is:
Focus on self and relationships (especially family)
More energy and clearer head space to get things done (eating healthy and regular exercise)
Being ‘successful’ in my new field (i.e. the guest speaker, working at the gym, building the business)
Seeing it all written there in front of me makes it so much easier to understand and visualise where I want to go. A lot of these changes won’t come overnight or even in a few months but there are things that I can work on.
In the immediate future there are things I can do RIGHT NOW.
Stop watching so much TV. While the lure of the couch and blanket is tempting in these cold winter nights, I can use that time more effectively. Like to read books.
Working out flexibility with my current job so that I can exercise in the morning and manage the commute a little better.
Making the effort to go for a walk in my lunch break to get out of the office for a bit. Take an umbrella and a coat.
I really encourage you to do this exercise if you are struggling to know what you want to change in your life. I’d love to hear your thoughts and what you want to change – I think we’d have heaps in common!
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