Words and Pictures - A long drive

The majority of the trips that my Husband and I have been on in the time we have been together involve driving. There is a certain excitement that goes along with a driving holiday.
One such trip we went to visit Friends in Bathurst and came across the eternal question - Which came first - The chicken or the egg?

Well depending on which way you were driving - too or from Bathurst on the inland road from Brisbane, they both took turns at going first:



We aso regularly qnjoyed Driving past the Lamb and Potato festival. I can't remember which small country town hosts this festival but every time we have driven through this town it seems to have been on:




My Take on the weekly theme from Meet me at Mike's.

Birthdays

After getting the Anna Maria Horner book last week and I have an inkling of a feeling that I am getting the Material Obsession book from my husband for my birthday tomorrow (see earlier posts), I have itchy fingers to get stuck in and start making things.

Specifically on my list are:

The Taxi Tote:

This Apron:

Images from Seams to Me Flickr Pool

There is also a tunic/top that I am going to have a go at as well as a skirt but I need to find some fabric for the skirt first.

I also bought a birthday present for myself of a rotary cutter, a cutting mat and a cutting ruler so that I can start experimenting with quilting.

Lazy Week

One of the great things of living in a house with a western facing balcony are the georgous sunsets that we get occasionally - tonight was very pretty

This afternoon I had the pleasure of catching up with Amanda for a quiet birthday drink for me
(eek I turn 30 on Tuesday!) the rest of marks family were there too but you don't want to see pics of them.


I had a lazy week this past week because I was distracted by other things and thinking too hard about the exercise/food thing and putting too much pressure on myself. Everything I did the previous week had left me feeling tired and sore and I didn't feel like I could face feeling like that for another week as well as look after Harris the best I could. I need to find the right balance of activity otherwise it just won't work.

I also need to make sure I am more organised on the whole. I get distracted far too easily by things that are more fun - like sewing projects etc.

I will try and get my head back in the right space this week because the sooner I do that the sooner I will feel better on the whole.

Smiles for everyone

Cheesecake in my future

My mission for today is to make a cheesecake to take for dessert to dinner at a friends place tonight. When I asked my husband what his second choice was he said...cheesecake...hmmn - guess I'm left with no choice.

Until then I am going to sit here and keep pondering the pile of fabric that will one day become a quilt for my friends baby....

More Books

Another one for the reading pile.....

What's Cooking?

I know that it is still a bit early in the year for soups BUT I do so love having a tasty meal tucked away in the freezer.....mmmnnn Potato and Leek Soup

New Header

Being Autumn and all that I thought I would get inspired and create a new header for my blog.

Very soon the leaves here will start turning all the amazingly vibrant colours of Autumn; ochre, burnt orange, gold and russet - I am going to try and take lots of pictures outside this Autumn because when we moved here last year it was right at the end and I just didn't quite make it to taking photos in time.

I have a few jobs toget done in the garden this week and that includes a fair bit of pruning of fruit treesand roses, some soil preparation for planting of a few new veggie crops (broccoli and broad beans, possibly a cabbage and a cauliflower - we'll see) and I am contemplating popping some bulbs in to see what we end up with. Jonquils are my favourite flower ( They have the most georgous perfume) and I am tempted to fill the garden beds out the front of our house with Jonquil bulbs right along the edge of the bed so that I might possibly have jonquils this spring by the bucket load.

Now I have to go and research Broad beans .....

Winter Vegetables

Unfortunately I can't get to carried away with growing veggies this winter because our very loving Labrador likes to eat things straight from the plant - I have to be careful what I plant in the back garden.

Hopefully by next Summer we will have some of these raised garden beds installed in the front yard so that we can have crops that don't get eaten by the dog for next summer.



I did however throw some Butternut pumpkin seeds into the garden and they have produced what looks to be the beginnings of a bumper crop that will see us through winter.

I am also very tempted to try my hand at growing some broccoli.


The other thing I need to do is put some legumes in the end of the garden that had the eggplants growing in it for the past few months. Need to re- nitrogen the soil!

I would love...

These are the two sewing books that I have my eye on at the moment - unfortunately they are only available through Amazon in the US so that means I have to suffer through the dodgy exchange rate... we will see what happens...

Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross

Seams to Me by Anna Maria Horner

Back to it

It's been a while between crafty sessions - due in part to the arrival of Harris Pedro - the newest addition to our family. He is a darling child most of the time - BUT - he doesn't really let me put him down for long enough to really get stuck into a sewing project. I have a sling that I carry him around in and I have mastered the art of typing with him in the sling so sewing is the next fronteir.

I did manage to cut a few things out before I had him so I have a few little projects to start with.
This below is going to be a toy giraffe. And I have a couple of aprons to sew up as well. I might start with the aprons to get the sewing finders back into touch.


I have decided that I am going to have an ongoing project this year of making a quilt. I am going to start off with a really easy pattern of just squares so I can get the techniques down pat. I would like to have it done by winter so that we have a nice rug to put over our laps when we are watching TV - but we will have to see how we go. I have a pattern so I am just in the process of deciding on fabrics now.

Weekend slacker

I - Like a few other people I know - have trouble staying focussed on the weekends. Weekends are relaxing and fun and are much more fun when they revolve around lazy late breakfasts of bacon and farm fresh poached eggs right?

So I got a bit lax this weekend as compared to my efforts during the week BUT I did stick to the exercise plan and had 2 leisurely walks up the nearest mountain.

Last night there were fireworks in Canberra and we walked up Mt oakey to see what the view was like. As the centre of Canberra isn't more than 5km as the crow flies - and there is nothing in the way of the view from the top of the mountain - it was pretty good. I carried Harris in the Baby Bjorn so a little bit of resistance training for me while we were at it.

I think that I have room for one off plan meal on the weekends - especially considering that the scales stayed the same this morning - I'm not sure they will tomorrow morning though. Two days of off plan nutrition cannot possibly be that good to me.

So back to it 100% tomorrrow.

The other thing is that I have been incredibly thirsty and no amount of water seems to quench it. It has been hot here this weekend so considering it is meant to stay these temperatures for the rest of the week I will have to try and drink even more water.

On a Date

Harris and I have a date on a Friday morning and last night when I realised that today was Friday - that made me happy. Normally I would go to Tilley's - because I like to people watch - but I had to get a few things in town so I went to one of the newish cafes in the Canberra centre called Raw sugar.

They do a beautiful job of presenting Tea - just the presentation of the pot of tea they serve makes you want to have one and I was sold when I walked past the other day - so I thought I would give it a go. I only had tea so I can't comment on the food - but the tea was good. They have this brand of tea called Tea Drop and it comes in these beautiful little silk tea bags. Half the fun is in the pretty factor I think. I had Lavender Grey flavour.

I think that I will be back at Tilley's next week though. I like the people watching.

So this morning was run/walk day and I managed about 6 km in an hour with 1:30/3:30 intervals.
Started to get a bit sore/lethargic on the runs after about 40 mins but it was a good session. I think I will stick to these intervals until I feel like I can run further - 1:30 was the most I could run at the moment (with the pram). On Sunday I am going to have a short run by myself to see how I go without the pram. Note to self - breastfeed harris before going out running - got a bit painful towards the end.

On another not - scales read 80.4kg this morning which is very nicely on track!

Understatement

Well I guess that I was expecting it but sore legs was an understatement. It has been such a long time between DOMS that I think I had forgotten just how bad they can be. Combine that with a tiny baby who demands lots of hugs and attention (willingly given of course!) when standing up and sitting down is painful - lets just say OUCH and be done with it!

So I had a great 7 km walk on those sore legs yesterday. I also had a sopt on day with food consumption and the scales did reward me today. I am going to have to be tight with the food side of things if I want to get where I want to be by April 2nd.

I have been having a protein shake for breakfast the past few days (Oats, protein powder, 100ml milk, 100ml water, ice - blend) - mainly because it was quick and easy to eat while I was feeding Harris. I did a bit of research first to make sure that it was OK to have protein powders while breastfeeding - and everything I read said yes. However - I'm not sure it agrees with the little one - we went through 5 nappies in an hour yesterday afternoon - eeewww! However - the day before it didn't seem to bother him too much. I am have 2 protein powder free days to see if it makes a difference.

So now I have to come up with a few snack options that don't involve protein powder. Breakast is OK - I can live without it - even though it is very convenient. There is always omlettes and oats. A protein shake and an apple was always a good snack option for me though. I had almonds with my apple this morning.

I also had a very tasty lunch today Salad with a small drizzle of mayo and a smattering of capers with a tin of tuna and a tortilla wrap.

So today I have to sort out some arms, shoulders, back and abs strength work to add to the program. I am liking the way my week is shaping up so far.

Monday - 1 hour walk + Shoulders/Back
Tuesday - Legs + 1 hour walk (inc hill)
Wednesday - 7km lap of Lake Gininderra (will be walk/run eventually)
Thursday - 40 mins walking + Arms/Abs
Friday - Walk/Run intervals 1 hour @ Lake Burley Griffin
saturday - Rest/Leisurely walk to shops
Sunday - Leisurely walk up Mt Oakey with Dog + 20 min run without baby and pram (building up to Long run)

HaHa - I also did something that I have never done this morning. I bought something off an infomercial on the television. It was just makeup and I thought hey - why not I'll give it a go.
It can be a birthday present for myself!

more progress

I actually managed to feel like I accomplised something that resembled training this morning - and I have a strong feeling that I am going to have sore legs tomorrow!

Went out for a 40 min walk, followed by some body weighted leg strength work at the park play equipment, and finshed up with at 10 - 15 min hill walk home.

I was really quite surprised at just how much the leg strength work dug deep into the old muscles. It made me feel good and gave me reassurance that I didn't need a gym membership at this point in time. I swear - with body weight alone I was really feeling it by the end of each set - and that just goes to show what having 10 months off all exercise will do to you. Here I was thinking that I would need at least my 5kg dumbells to gain something from leg work but no!

The set inluded:
3 x 12 x deep squats
3 x 10 x Calf raises (Lt and Rt)
3 x 12 x Step ups (30cm step)
3 x 10 x Lunges (stationary basic - nothing too dynamic just yet!)

So that was a good start to re-introducing strength training to my legs I think.

I want to add in or mix it up some weeks with squats aganst the wall using the fit ball - but mine isn't pumped up at the moment and I need to find the pump valve. I also want to add some hamstring work in there too but I need to use the dumbells for that one so I may make it on another day.

Food today has been pretty good - I have set myself a challenge to stick to the food plan for 1 entire week. Had a little slip up today because I had lunch with Mark while he was on his break from work - and lunch was a steak sandwhich - but everything else today has been spot on. I think the most important thing for me to get beck in the habit of is eating every three hours and being organised with what I am going to eat - that way it is right there and I have no excuses.

My mini goal is to get under 80kg by my 6 week follow up appointment (April 2nd) at the doctors. On track at the moment - today I weighed in at 81.4kg.

What a difference a year makes..

I was just reading back over my posts from this time last year. Trying to find the inner 'why' for getting back on track and getting rid of these extra kilos.

Unfortunately the inner saboteur voice is very loud at present for me.

There are things like:

"You will never get back to where you were before while you are breastfeeding because you can't eat low enough calories"

"12 kg is alot of weight to shift when you can't exercise at the high intensities you were used to"

" How do you expect to see any results when all you can do for exercise right now is walking - walking barely elevates your heart rate at all"

"The scales aren't moving, you're clothes aren't getting looser"

etc etc

This is what I am trying to overcome.

I think if I was seeing even a slight downward shift on the scales I would be content but they kind of stay the same.

I have been trying to coach myself with positive self talk such as:

" You need to compare on a week to week basis and only use the daily numbers as a guide"

"the long term outcome is what is most important and every day that you take the steps in the right direction you are moving closer to achieving the goal"

This last one is the one I need to be loud.

The Why - especially on the food front - just isn't there. I have such little time to myself that I am lucky to be able to eat at all - let alone prepare food. I find I am often trying to grab a snack on the run or with baby in hands and I end up just wanting portable things - like biscuits.

It will come back to me eventually I know.

isleep

Anyone would think all I did was sleep......

but I do wake up sometimes...... and when i do I'm starting to be pretty cute!

Baby Steps

When I was out at the cafe doing my weekly contemplative session on Friday I realised that I need to have small goals to work towards that allow me to track my progress and allow me to feel like I am accomplishing things.

So I go to thinking about what I could do in the upcoming months to keep my progress on track for regaining the level of fitness I had prior to being pregnant.

I thought that it might be good to do a few smaller running events to build up to half marathon again - so once I have the blessing of my doctor (On April 2nd) - I have decided to enter in the Canberra Marathon eve 5km event on the 18th of April.

It is a relatively flat 5km on a Saturday afternoon and I will be doing it simply to regain confidence with participating in an event and to have a guage for my fitness at that point in time.

I may not even run the entire way - although I am hoping that I can! So no times to beat or anything like that - purely finishing is the goal - preferably running the whole event.

I feel that if I continue the run//walk sessions 3 times per week, that I should be up to 5km by then.

My other little accomplishment point will be when my wedding rings fit me again - because alas they are still quite a bit too tight! When they do, I would like to go to Sydney to the jeweller to get them all polished up and looking pretty again.

The other thing I want to do - tonight if I get the chance (miraculously Harris is in his cot right now asleep) - is write down the visualisaion I have to keep me motivated towards regaining the physical condition I was in previously. I'm not going to write it down here because I would rather keep it in my own world but right now whenever I think about it I get motivated.

A day in the Country

Today we went to visit our friends who live 'in the country" about an hour outside of Canberra past a VERY small town called Captains Flat.

We went for lunch and our lovely host cooked a beautiful roast chicken and vegies followed by Chocolate Self saucing pudding - yum!

I think that deep inside of me there is a desire to live a simpler life, away from the sress and hustle bustle of the city, however the other part of me knows that i couldn't really cope with being so far away from town. I like to be able toduck to the shops when I need to!

They have a georgous piece of land and live in a cottage style house which is just beautiful and quaint in a 1970's kind of way. Our friends are into collecting old things and their style fits the house perfectly.

So we whiled away the afternoon eating, chatting and going for a lovely walk around the property after lunch.

It was a nice relaxing day and so nice to get out of the house.

Now if only I could remember to take a camera along with me when we go on these outings!!

running between the signs

After my little tantruma bout exercising earlier in the week I sucked it up and decided that I need to make exercise the highlight of my day - rather than thinking drearily "but what am I going to do after I get home from my walk" or the alternative "I would rather go to the shops".

After all - I don't have to go to the shops - they will still be there tomorrow - hey they will still be ther in the afternoon!

Some more of the lovely self talk was telling me "But walking around the suburb is so boring!" - So I didn't walk around the suburb - I went to the lake. I realised that I could - that I wasn't limited to just walking around my suburb. I could just pack Harris up in the car with the pram and go to all sorts of places to go walking.

So today we went and parked at the Black mountain peninsula and walked along the lake towards the city. We stopped near the boat hire place and came back again - it was around 5km I think. But I thought I would see how I felt running with the pram. It felt good - but only in short spurts - so I alternated 1 minute running with 4 minutes walking for the majority of the walk.

After that we went to Tilleys for a nice pot of tea and some reflection time and somepeople watching.

I think that this little outing might become a friday regular. I really liked sitting at Tilley's (Cafe for non- Canberrans) and people watching, writing a few things down in my journal.

Harris is 1 month old today!

I am slack

I said I was going to post everyday and walk everyday and drink lots of water everyday...but I just haven't!

After my walk on Tuesday after my walk I got to about 1:30 and I just crashed completely. I was sooo tired that I was falling asleep - and anyone with children will know that you can't just nod off to sleep whenever you want to.

The last couple of days I have had what I think may be DOMS right through my pelvis - hardly surprising but I just didn't expect it.

That reaction (the exhausion, DOMS and severe hunger - even though I was eating heaps) took me by surprise and threw me for a six. Evidently I need to eat more - especially in the early part of the day - the hunger would have definitely contributed to the exhaustion.

I need to get back to the mindset of just getting up and going out for a walk and not thinking too hard about it all. as soon as I start thinking about wher I will go etc etc my brain is flooded with self talk messages telling me how much nicer it is here at home.

As for the water I really have no excuse!

I have no excuses really - but I do need to get a bit more on top of food preparation in advance, AND overcome my dislike of eating lunch at home. I think I like to go out in the middle of the day because Harris will go to sleep easily for the whole time I am out usually and I don't need to worry about getting him off to sleep. I seem to be on top of his afternoon nap at home - this is the time I have taken to using for tidying and doing internet things.

He is 1 month old tomorrow - how time flies - although I do feel like the past month has been a bit of a haze!!

A good walk

I just got back from a really good 50 minute walk with Harris in the pram. Last night when I was driving Harris to sleep around the neighbourhood I discovered a 1km long hill a few streets over from my house and I thought now that would make a great addition to my walking route. So I gave it a go today and it was very good.

I downloaded a few new songs on my ipod too and I am now feeling energetic and much more motivated about the day ahead.

Last week I was being a bit slack and sleeping in the mornings when Harris would go back to sleep after his morning feed - so I wasn't getting up until about 9:30am. As you can imagine this was leaving me feeling hungry and lethargic and because I was so late getting up.

I remembered how skipping breakfast and allowing myself to get that hungry is a recipie for very poor eating habits so I made a point to focus on eating breakfast this week - even if that means I have to prepare it the night before.

The other thing I really need to do is find the right headspace to recognise that at this stage, walking does count as training for me. After 9 months off I can't expect anything else. I tend to associate walking with leisure activity and in my head it is not enough to achieve what I want to achieve. In my mind I need to be exercising at much higher intensities to get back towhere I was before. BUT right now, walking is the only option I have.

Long time no post

I just haven't had much of a chance to sit down at the computer this week.

Harris is quite the cuddly child and tends to scream if he is in his rocker and awake. He just wants to be picked up. Picking him up means that I have no free hands to do anything else so no computer for me! The rest of the time this week has been a bit tough because Harris seemed to have a bit of an upset tummy and was very grumpy. That seems to have settled down now and I am being much more careful about what I eat.

I did however buy a sling to carry him around in while I am at home because that leaves me a little more hands free - which makes me feel a bit better as well because I still get to do things that make me feel productive. I think that feeling productive during the day is key to retaining my sanity during this stay at home mum phase of my life.

Although I have noticed that it takes twice as long to do some things.

I am coming to terms with the stay at thome thing a bit more now and I have a list of things that I need to do this coming week.

I think I may have managed to re-ignite the flame for wanting exercise over this weekend - Mark and I have been going for walks in the morning and the little twinge of what I love about exercise has been flicked over in my mind. There is still abit of work to do there but at least thie small flame has been ignited.

There is just something about the combination of being slightly out of breath, a light sweat and a cool crisp morning that makes you feel really good.

So in saying that - my goals for this week are:

- To blog accomplishments each day
- To drink 2 - 3 Lt of Water each day
- To go for a walk after breakfast each day
- To get a fortnightly menu sorted out again.
- To do one enjoyable thing each day (such as go to the coffee shop for a cup of tea, go shopping etc)

No Groove New Car

Mark bought us a 'family car' this week - a secondhand Subaru Forrester Turbo with leather seats and all that. Its quite a nice car to drive but I am going to miss my little zippy fiesta. It was my pre-children city girl car!

I am very tired today - I had a really severe headache last night and it made it really difficult to feed Harris. I could only feed him for 10 minutes at a time - and when he doesn't have 20- 30 mins he wakes up ever 1.5 - 2 hours for a top up. Hence - I get very tired!

We went to the baby clinic to get him weighted this morning and he now weighs 4.2kg - which is great!

I am feeling a little dulled to life at the moment - kind of like I did before I got into training full on for the half marathon last year. I feel as though I am moving through life with no pupose and because I dont have anything major to do each day (except look after Harris) that I am just plodding along. All I need to do is get into the right headspace - but getting motivated to do even that is hard.

Right now though - I think I need a nap!

A new week

Hi All

While my physio appointment was a little uneventful on Friday - she did inform me that the separation in my abs has improved somewhat and is now only around 1cm.
She also said I should be OK to start doing body weighted strength work so I am working on putting something together.

I sat down to write this post about an hour ago but then Harris started carrying on and I had to abandon it for a while - now I can't remember what I was going to write about.

I hadn't had coffee at all since I had Harris and yesterday I thought i would give it a go and see if it affected him at all - Well - We had a lot of crying and evidently upset tummy last night - so no coffee for me! I can live without it.

I just booked flights to come up to Brisbane in June - Mark can't take time off work so it will be just me and Harris. I am sure that will be a big adventure!

I really wish I could remember what Iwas going to write!