9 months since I last posted...hmmm

Well, I can honestly say, 2013 was one of the craziest years of my life!!! Sick bubba, busy family life, often sick or burnt out myself, and the wee business that I looked at starting up, making tutus and other crafty stuff, kind of got a lot busier than I ever expected it to!!!

My Dexter Bear is now 4!!! Can't believe he starts school in September!

2014 is all about changing my attitude towards my health, time management, but also being a better mummy and wife. I have been working on my "happy face" and trying to be more positive for my family's sake. It's a work in progress, but I'm trying.

Nutrition wise, we are having a lot less takeaways. Hubby really felt like Butter Chicken and Naans today, so we had them, but neither of us enjoyed it at all, nor did we clean our plates off. Serving sizes have come down, I have discovered that an actual serving size of a low sugar cereal for breakfast is actually NOT the end of the world, and does keep me full longer than expected. The emotional eating is coming back under control, and I am working on my willpower to say no to foods that I REALLY don't need.

Now to up the exercise. This is the hard part. As I have written about in the past, I get many many aches and pains, these have all gotten worse over the years since having Glandular Fever at 17, and then worse after having my son, and MUCH worse still after having my daughter 2 years ago. Being 30kg heavier than my "ideal" weight does not help in any way, but it also means that most days, even just getting out for a decent walk (we have some big hills either way from our place) is too much even. So I am starting back into exercise REALLY sloooowwlllyyyy. Very gentle, in the hopes that not overdoing it for once will help me increase my strength and fitness, then lose weight and be able to build it up without coming crashing down again, as I did last year, and ended up sick for over a month.

Wee Ambi has just turned 2!!! This is her at her 2nd Birthday Party

So yeah. I'm hoping resurrecting this blog will help keep me accountable, and also the Facebook page that this is connected to as well, with a few followers there, if they are still around.

Does anyone still read blogs? If you are out there and you are reading this, drop me a comment and say hi :)

Nikki

A few diet changes - Starting with Breakfast

Good Morning Bloggy Land!

So with emotional eating a very big part of my weight loss issues, (see that post here), I need to keep on top of not succumbing to the allure of chocolate, ice cream, sausage rolls, pies (I like pies),  biscuits and the list goes on, when I have a bad day.

One of the many upsides of being a stay at home mum is that I am at home. When I was working, it was so easy to walk down the road to the lunch bar (when I worked as an Account Manager for Telecom) and buy a Double Happy (those giant sausage rolls with mashed potato and cheese in them), and a coke and some chocolate... just for a snack. Or when I was at Trustpower, the Vending Machines were just a hallway away.

Ah yes. The sausage roll. In all her fatty, greasy goodness.

And even before the wee princess was born, just going out with 1 kid was so much easier and quicker, I could pop up the road to BK or the Supermarket. A toddler and a baby takes a lot more organising and generally, the inconvenience outweighs the very short termed feeling of eating that naughty but so tasty food.

But I digress.

So, when you are at home most of the time, Emotional Eating only "works" if you have the food in the pantry. So if I can go to the Supermarket with a full belly and in a good state of mind, I generally come home with a lot less rubbish food.

So the first meal of the day I wanted to change, is, well, the first meal of the day. Breakfast. Here are the changes thus far:

Milo from "Heroes". Not actually the Milo I was googling,
but he will do.

Normally 3 pieces of toast, with peanut butter and jam, and a very milo-ey milo with 1 sugar.
For the last couple of weeks I changed that to still 3 pieces of toast, but with honey or marmite, and still the milo, though with less milo, and occasionally a green tea instead.

Ah. Yes. That Milo.

From today I have removed one piece of toast and replaced it with a low fat yoghurt, and kept the green tea with the intention of today getting another kind of herbal tea for some variety, but keeping milo out of the morning meal. I will also alternate between toast and porridge now that the mornings are a bit cooler.

Green tea always makes me feel so healthy and virtuous. Less inclined to eat naughty food. Can only be a good thing!

So that's the first meal attacked successfully. Next I will attack lunch, where there is currently far too much bread being consumed!!

Talk again soon!
Nikki

New Post over at The Mummy Diaries - Emotional Eating.

Happy Monday!

It's my turn again today for an informative post over at The Mummy Diaries. You can check it out here. A "from the heart" post about Emotional Eating.

We are about to start up our first giveaway, when we reach 30 followers. More details to come, but be sure to go over and follow us!

Also, you can "like" my page, Multi Tasking Mummy, by clicking here.

I'll be back later today for a proper post, but for now, my Mummy job calls :)

Nikki xx

First Weigh In for 2011 - An unexpected sucess!!

So I just weighed in this morning for the first time for 2011.. Actually the first time in about 3 weeks, as I have been eating badly, not exercising and generally just staying away from the scales.

But I've lost half a kg!! I'm happy with that seeing as it was over the Xmas Period and chocolate has been my best buddy through all of it. So that brings me down to 86.8kg and that slightly below my weight when I got pregnant with Dex. So I'm very happy as surely that means the only weigh/way is down from here, right? Until #2 starts making an appearance and I go back to whaleness!!

We are off to the supermarket today and have promised each other we are to buy no chocolate, or general naughty stuff. We still have a bit here from gifts etc and have agreed to make it last as long as we can and not buy any more for some time. I'm actually hanging out for a nice big chicken salad with some nuts on it. Mmmmmmm.

Another beautiful day here in Tauranga, will have to make the most of it.

If you are trying to lose weight, have you braved the scales for 2011 yet? How did it go?

Talk to you again soon
Nikki

So cutting out my daily sprite Zero made ABSOLUTELY nothing!

Well. Never mind. It was worth a try.

I usually have at least 1 glass of sprite zero a day, usually 2-3 smallish glasses. In cutting them out from Sunday-Friday night, my weight STILL stayed exactly the same. But it was worth a go, and I will still try to keep the amount of fizz I have to a minimum.

I am weighing in again tomorrow, and as much as I would love for the scales to go down, I don't feel that positive about it, after my huge dinner I had last night at Lone Star (early birthday dinner). Was a huge gorge, and wasn't that good in the weekend either, so if the scales reflect that, it's my own fault.

ON A POSITIVE (very positive) note, I am sitting here, about to shoot out to work for a meeting, and I am wearing a pretty new top, and a new pair of jeans, both in a size smaller than I have been able to comfortably fit since before having my baby. SO I AM HAPPY!!!!! The jeans aren't even that uncomfortable!!

Am still hopeful for a good number tomorrow, but if you don't hear from me, you know why!! :)

Emotional Eating

Since I have had nothing much to post about recently, I haven't been on here a whole lot. Have had a grizzly, teething baby with a cold and now an upset tummy to contend with, along with a cold myself and hideous weather, so not much walking has been done by me lately.
I did manage a 13km walk early in the week so at least that's something!

The weigh ins' were getting me down. I cut out chocolate, I'm walking further than ever, downsized my portion sizes and yet the weight is still either staying the same, or in some cases, going up again. So I decided not to weigh myself for a few weeks. One can get pretty obsessed with      the scales, as I have found in the past

It has been 2 weeks today since I have had any chocolate, which I must say, makes me damn proud of myself. However it does bring me to discuss one thing. Emotional Eating. This is something that I have struggled with ever since I was 11. I remember the exact moment my "eating issues" started. I was at a demonstration for "Clogging" (Mock away, I don't care) and my Nana, who was my teacher, lifted up my skirt in front of everybody, to pull my top down so it was tidy, told me I have gained too much weight and needed to lose it again.

Now this is something that no one wants to hear, but especially not an 11 year old already impressionable girl. And even more so, not from your own Nana!!! It wasn't the first, or last, time she said something to this accord, but it was the time that affected me the most.

From then I was always convinced that I was fat. Even though at a lot of the time when I was younger, I was nothing of the sort. But there you go. So for the following 17 years to now, if I am sad, I eat. If I am angry, I eat. You get the idea. There is the obvious suggestions, don't have the bad food in the house, do something to distract yourself. But I have had days where (pre-baby) I decide I want a burger and chips, and it doesn't matter what anyone says, I will have my burger and chips. I even recall having fights with my hubby, who while would never tell me I need to lose weight or anything, will very nicely tell me that "WE" shouldn't really have takeaways for a 3rd time that week, but it didn't matter, I would have my takeaways, enjoy it for all of 5 minutes then spend the rest of the day feeling like crap and very disappointed in myself.

Having a baby changes a lot of this though. It's not so easy to just drop everything and drive to get some fatty goodness. And I have to say I have found that it hasn't been too hard to just not have naughty food in the house. So now I think the main time I am going to have to watch myself is buying naughty food when I am out, eg at lunchtime while in town. And if I am being totally honest with myself, this is not an "emotional" kind of eating rather than a habit. Something I am going to have to break if I am going to lose weight.

Cutting out chocolate has to be a good start. From here I am going to aim to start cutting down my sugar intake in general, but chocolate was definitely the biggest problem for me at the moment.

So that is enough of my rambling for one day. The sun has just come out and so I might make the most of it and get out for a walk while my baby is still sleeping. Any feedback/pointers regarding emotional eating are most welcome :)

Happy SUNday :)
Nikki

First 5 days with no chocolate down and did my biggest walk yet yesterday!

Well haven't had any chocolate since Sunday night and its now Friday night, go me!
Yesterday I attempted my first big walk in 2 weeks and my first walk of any kind in a week after being sick. I did my biggest walk so far! Managed 11.5 km and felt like I could have carried on but had my baby with me who had been sitting in his pram for 3 hours and was starting to get fairly over it. Who can blame him really? Anyway felt pretty good afterwards, and today felt fine too.

Am planning to get out for a big walk again on Sunday, if the weather gods play nice that is! This time I will go by myself and not have a grizzly, teething baby riding in a pram with flat tyres. Can only be good resistance training though I suppose!

Another challenge to add to the walking...

So as of Monday I am going to attempt to not eat chocolate for 12 weeks.... A HUGE challenge on my part as I really do love chocolate! It was meant to be just until the half marathon in 8 weeks, but what's another month, which will bring me to 12 weeks and the 1st of September. A good date I think.

So I have half a block of Whittakers Bittersweet dark chocolate sitting in the fridge right now and I am tossing up wheather to scoff the lot before Monday, or be strong and put it away somewhere, or just give it to my husband to eat for me. Really I shouldn't eat it at all.

I have had a friend who has decided to join me on this crusade against chocolate. Although she lives no where near me I'm sure we can keep on at each other via Facebook and MSN.

So this time in 8 weeks I will be in Taupo having an early night in preparation for walking my first ever half marathon. I'm pretty nervous about the whole thing now, 8 weeks isn't a very long time when I am feeling more than a little unprepared. But I have seen many a training guide for half marathons that are over an 8 week period, so it is obviously do-able and I am walking half the distance already... Long as there are no more set backs and I get rid of my mini cold (really I'm just tired with a sore throat) then I should be sweet. My dad has offered to go for a walk with me tomorrow to push me on and push the pram for me so I can work on walking minus my child attachment, as I won't be pushing a pram on the day so may as well get used to it.

Thats all for today, I am going to have an early night I think. Have added a couple of photos of my last walk since I just realised I can actually load photos on here!!

Good night all
Nikki

Day 1

EEEEKKK 92.7kg!!!
Ok so it was just Easter (and I do have lots of chocolate left over) but still... Besides when I was pregnant I have never been over 90kg.
So todays mission is to get my lazy butt outside and go for a walk.
Considering how many times I have tried to lose weight and failed miserably because I just deprive myself of all the good (read: tasty) things in life, and then completely lose the plot and fall right off the fatty wagon, I think I will start off slowly and still have a little treat occasionally, if I have exercised that day.

I'm going to take a look at a couple of weight loss competitions such as Body For Life and see if I am game enough to enter one. Have taken a huge liking to Zumba after one class a week ago before i got a cold. Now that thats gone, will have another go at Zumba. Ive got the dvds at home too so will have a go. Be nicer than going for a walk when its raining anyway.

I think for me the biggest issue is not going to be the exercising, but the emotional eating side of things. All my life I have been one to try and solve my problems with food. It never work, but you neglect to remember this when you are feeling down and there is unhealthy food sitting in the pantry. Definitely something to work on...