Brisbane French Festival 2011

Food 0 Comment

Yesterday I took a stroll down to Southbank for the Brisbane French Festival. It was a miserably cold wet day and when I got there it was a miserably crowded affair. I took a walk around. I didn’t get any photos that I wanted to take because there were just too many people. I then decided, well I should get some food. First thing I did was queue up for Macaróns. Got hold of each flavour. I can’t remember all of them but the pistachio and lavender were to die for. The people who did it are found at monsieur-macaron.com.au. I might get an order in for a special occasion because they were quite lovely. Not Ladurée but hey, close enough.

Next I queued up and got some pastries. Picked up an almond croissant, chocolate croissant and a plain croissant from French Sin. I have to say I quite prefer the versions by Le Bon Choix (in Brisbane) and Fauchon (in Paris). The almond croissant wasn’t doing it for me sadly (no photos of the pastry as I ate them before I remembered I should’ve taken photos). The chocolate ganache wasn’t great. :( I’m picky. Oh and they didn’t have jam donuts!! Sorry, 2 points off for that.

Everyone was really friendly and in a good mood but I think if it wasn’t for the crazy crowds, I would’ve stayed longer.

The last 4 weeks commitment and goals

Fitness, Personal 0 Comment

Here we go. It is week 8 and I’m going to reassess my goals again. Here were my goals from last month and little comments:

  • Lose 1.5kg – Weigh in is tomorrow, I’m hoping that I get this goal. I am already 1.1kg down :) beyond my goal weight and starting to see things take shape.
  • Finish 10km run at Gold Coast in 1hr 20mins – Done! 1hr 7mins. SMASHED!
  • Do a chin-up to prove I can do them – Well still haven’t really done 1 but have attempted jumping chins and able to get the reps out although not so graceful.
  • Keep working with heavier weights wherever I can – Done!
  • Complete new website layout! – You’re looking at it!

My goals for next month are:

  • Maintain weight lost
    I have started upping my calories having extra snacks. As you may have read, have been struggling with that and listened to the live video today and might try adding calories in my main meal. Going to be tricky but we will see. I have also found more nutritious and higher protein snacks to get me by.
  • 15 push-ups on toes
  • Keep working with heavier weights. Try to chest press 1 set with 8kg dumbbells with good form.
  • Buy a pair of size 6 pants (0_0)
  • Get body fat to 18% based on my scales (not entirely accurate but at least a gauge until I get it done properly)

I hope to accomplish this in the next 4 weeks. I’m worried I may not get there in terms of certain strength goals. I am feeling a lot of un-love from some friends in terms of how they see me. I keep getting the whole “just eat whatever you want, you deserve it”. It was precisely this mentality that got me to my lowest point in the first place and the whole point of why I took up this challenge, to cultivate good habits. I don’t deny myself treats, I negotiate, I lay by, I do everything I can to make sure I eat clean. It appears that some of my guy friends (in particular) can’t get it that I can’t live the way that they do. I am a person that can put on weight in the blink of an eye, even with exercise (important point to make is that I was the same weight for 2 years (overweight BMI) trying hard to look good but never worked because of my nutrition and lifestyle, then slowed down exercise and got heavy). I just hope these friends don’t sabotage the hard work I have put in the last 5 months because I will get mad. I still can’t believe after all this time, I still get this sort of crap from my friends. They just don’t get it. I think it might be time to move on. The point now isn’t weight loss. It’s about living clean, being healthy and strong as I can be. I just want to look and feel great!!

Enough of the rant because it just makes my blood boil. Now I leave you with some pretty pictures!

 

 

Chewy Chocolate Cookies

Food 0 Comment

You may have noticed my adding recipes onto the site. Well one of the reasons is I am trying to make the effort to make things from scratch. It’s the case of knowing what I am putting into my food before eating it. It is so hard sometimes when buying food in the supermarket to be certain of what ingredients are being used in a product. Unfortunately certain foods like ham and cheese I can’t make at home but at least with these little desserts and snacks, I can limit the amount of rubbish that goes into my mouth.

So this evening, I made chocolate cookies to use up some leftover chocolate I had. They look yum. Very meringue like texture so that is probably why they are pretty low calories. Didn’t like the amount of sugar but oh well.

Chewy Chocolate Cookies

Adapted from here. Mine don’t look like the picture. More rounder.

Yields 15 biscuits. Roughly 86 calories per biscuit. It’s because of all the sugar. You could substitute sugar with a sweetener but I don’t think it would taste the same.

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
  • 1 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 large egg whites
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • dash of vanilla extract
  • 125g dark chocolate, melted

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180degs.
  2. Beat egg whites till fluffy.
  3. Gradually beat in granulated sugar, beat until shiny.
  4. Gradually beat in brown sugar, beat until all combined.
  5. Beat in melted chocolate and vanilla extract.
  6. Combine flour into beaten egg mixture until smooth.
  7. With tablespoon add mixture to baking sheet with enough space between to allow for the cookies to expand.
  8. Bake in oven for 10 mins.
  9. Cool on tray before removing to cool on wire rack.

Summer mission and nutrition rant

Fashion and beauty, Fitness, Personal 0 Comment

To keep my on track and my eye on the prize, I’ve decided this summer, I want to be wearing this from Missoni (only £239.00 from Harrods -_- ) …

Not that ambitious but at least it will help me keep focus. I just want to see some abs… LOL. My bloating situation got worse this week and I blame it on dairy. I’d been having lactose free yoghurt but that doesn’t seem to help with the bloating. At least no gut wrenching pain for 2 hours.

Relaxed a little on food which isn’t so bad but would like to try and keep eating clean for the duration of the program. Still working through my intolerances and will be seeing a naturopath sooner rather than later to help me out. I love my daily and don’t want to miss out on the benefits of dairy. I don’t like the idea of having to buy fortified soy milk and the like. Tofu cheese just isn’t the same.

Today I feel I let myself down a little bit. I think it didn’t help I felt tired and a little bored. Ate really well up till lunch. Normally I’d be fine but today I went a little overboard. I nibbled on the following after lunch:

  • Handful of wasabi peas
  • 1 carrot
  • 2 celery stalks
  • 1 wedge of laughing cow light cheese
  • 1 mug of soy milk with cocoa powder and teaspoon of honey
  • 1 be natural dark chocolate muesli bar
  • 1 square of dairy milk chocolate
  • 1 small pineapple tart

EURGH. It’s awful I made some good choices and towards the end I just f-ed it all up. Then I got home had the prescribed dinner and dessert and added 3 sour cream and chives rice cake and half a muesli bar. God dammit. All up roughly 860 calories in snacks. OMG… Need to find lower calorie snacks. Still struggling to find high protein snacks I like and can eat. This lactose intolerance thing is a hinderance.

Looks like I need another sit down with myself and also need to look at my fluid intake again. Only 4.5 weeks to go and I shouldn’t blow it now, should I? You would think after last night’s video I would resolve to fix this but I didn’t. Do you think I am being too hard on myself? I did work out hard today to as I do every day. I’m trying to stick to the 80% nutrition, 20% exercise but the way I see it, at the moment I am doing it the other way around.

Words of wisdom – Yoga

Fitness, Quotes 0 Comment

I thought I might post some words of wisdom as part of a weekly thing to keep me on the go for my creative side. I’ve also decided to find a new creative project when soon because at the moment, I’m itching for a new project! Anyway, here’s one I found on Google. I think it’s great.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that this graphic below was designed by me. The quote was found on Google.

The things I want to say to me

Fitness, Personal 0 Comment

A bit behind with the blogging challenge but here it goes.

BLOG CHALLENGE # 4 – The things I want to say to me

I’m not sure where you are right now?

Are you on top of the world. Do you have that awesome – wish you could bottle it – on top of the world feeling?

Or are you struggling? Do you know you deserve better and you are trying to find your way forward?

I want you to write yourself a letter entitled “The things I want to say to me”

Use your letter to help you remember how awesome right now is. Encourage yourself. Pat yourself on the back.

Or if you are struggling confirm to yourself how much you deserve better. Be kind but tough to yourself. Reestablish the reasons why YOU DESERVE this. Find that fighter within.

The biggest rule is … you have to build yourself up in this letter. Not knock yourself down.

You guys inspire me soooo much! I can’t wait to read your letters!

Dear Lindsay,

Congratulations on getting this far. Really, the drive and determination is a real inspiration. I can’t believe you have done this and it is really paying off. Don’t be so hard on yourself. You’ve proven that you can do anything you set your mind to. You know you can run 10km in over an hour. You can do 10 push-ups on your toes and heck your back isn’t as bad as it used to be. Everyone is so impressed with your commitment and the results you have achieved. I think it is time to let go of your perfectionism and just keep doing what you are doing. Give yourself a hug and pat on the back. You deserve the results you have achieved today. Smile and soak up the compliments.

Love,

Me.

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