Fresh Mint ginger and lemon juice

 I find myself on a candida diet and I am having to become very creative about what I put into my body. For the last week all I have been drinking is water and ginger with hot water !
 Jeff suggested that I make a lovely summer drink since he was squeezing orange juice for him and the little person.

•  Half a lemon. Don't worry about the pips. Add a slice of the skin and peel. 
•  Some fresh mint sprigs. I picked quite a generous Sprague. 
•  6 to 8 ice cubes. 
•  About a tablespoon full of fresh ginger root 

 Put all of this into a Nutribullet or similar blender.

Add about 250mil  of filtered water.

 Blend them all up for 30 seconds or more. You may want to add a bit more ginger if necessary to taste! 

 Drink and enjoy !!

Curves Complete

I've not written in a while as I have been too busy with work and everything else!

After a rather rocky start to Curves where I PUT ON weight in the beginning, I started gaining muscle & strength and losing weight. I lost 1kg a month for 4 months & decided I needed to do more, so I started on Curves' Complete program 3 weeks ago (8 April) and I am loving it!

The first week was quite hard as I needed to get into the program and it is hard for me to follow a set eating plan. I lost 612g in the first week.

The second week saw me feeling strong. I weighed in at having lost 300g which was a bit disappointing, but I had a bit of a tummy ache bug but managed to still do my workouts (which weren't very good!)

I weighed in at the beginning of my 4th week this morning & it turns out that last week wasn't so bad! I got on the scale about four times to check.. but it was true! I lost 1.3kg in the last week!! So happy! :) This officially means that I have lost 2.1kg in the last three weeks and have less than 10kg to my goal weight, AND it means that I am less than a kg off my pre-pregnancy weight!

I am feeling fitter and stronger every week. I am enjoying the 'Curves Smart' which monitors how I do on each machine during each workout -- I didn't understand it until I got into it, but it really pushes me to do my best in every workout.

It has been a challenge getting to gym 4x a week, but Stella wakes us up around 6 / 6.30am every morning which is my queue to 'get up and go'!

Dietician

We went to see a dietician today... she gave us some pointers on eating well.. healthy food choices and such. She said I must snack on plain yoghurt and fruit - that yoghurt & the calcium in it would be very good for me. She also said that our portion sizes are probably too big, so I'm going to get working on that. We really need to bring both our cholesterol levels down as they are both over 5.

She said that the cm are better than kg to lose as cm are the real weight showers. I don't know so much: I want the scale to go down!!

Onwards we go then....to healthier selves.

Curves - month 2

During this last month I lost another 7cm! So that's 13cm all together.
Only a 1/2kg though so only back to the start :(

We are busy with all our Vitality checks for Discovery Health. Turns out my cholesterol is 5.6! I never thought I would have an issue with cholesterol!! So it's off to the dietician (hopefully this week) and a fitness assessment, and sticking to my 3 x a week at Curves & hopefully, when I put everything together and make all the changes, I will lose kg's in addition to the cm shrinkage! ....it's going to be a long summer :/

First month at Curves

Well, my first month at Curves has paid off! Although my heart sank when I found out I am a 1/2 kg up (they said that is quite normal), I have lost SIX centimeters! :)
One on my bust, waist, hips & thighs and a half on each of my arms. Yay. I feel encouraged to continue..

Curves..

So I joined Curves this morning.
I am at the point where something has to happen to get myself to a healthy BMI. I am aching to be lighter on the ground - more agile in my movements & back to my previous prowess on my surfboard.

It was somewhat mindless, the way I let myself be led through their sales process & into signing myself in at almost R300 a month for the next year. Why: Because I really really have to do something about myself! If I think about it too much, it just won't happen & I really need to fit into my former clothes.

I did a walk-through with one of the ladies and it seems reasonably straight forward.
They took all my measurements & I have 52cm to lose over all. I have 15kg that I want to lose. They are confident that they will harass me to the point where I am meeting my goals. I have to go 3x a week for it to make a difference & quite frankly, it wouldn't be worth the money if I didn't go at least that much.

SO it's done.

Watch this space for less of me!

7-month mommy ready to get back into herself!

I had a beautiful pregnancy & gave birth to my little girl on the 9th of September 2011. Geoff and I have been doing many beach walks, but other than that, the only exercise that I have been getting is baby-related: picking her up, putting her down..bouncing her etc. My arms feel pretty strong but the rest of me has been constantly achy and sore

SO I come to the reason why I have returned to this blog:

A week and a half ago I went surfing. The waves were beautiful! I was pathetic. I just couldn't get my body to do what it knows it should be able to.

We went to see Sting this past Tuesday night. I tried on about 8 different outfits - all of which had something uncomfortable feeling about them - & eventually I went with something I wear all the time. Boring. I really wanted to dress up but am too out of shape to wear the cloths that I really love. PLUS: Sting is in such good shape at age 61 that seeing him was the final straw:

Yesterday (Wednesday), I did 5 rounds of sun salutations & swam 40 lengths (1km) at the gym. Today I did 8 rounds of sun salutations. I plan on getting up to between 15 and 20 rounds every morning.

I have also stopped cold turkey on eating between meals (unless I'm really starving I will have a fruit)... I am easing back into the Natural Way.

Geoff and I bought a water filter for our tap so we have been drinking tons of water without having to lug heavy bottles behind!

So I am resetting my progress report...
My last mission saw me lose 8kg.
My new goal is to healthily lose 8 to 10kg - 3kg of which are still baby-kilograms.