oh my gosh - is that a scrapbook layout??

Yup it sure is! 

Something that really isn't seen around here so much lately!! I made this last weekend, took and photo and didn't get around to sharing it till today. You see I started a new job two weeks ago at a fabulous Australian owned cosmetics company, Natio (more on that later) - and I'm staying in Melbourne three nights a week which means no blogging for those three nights (more on that later too!)

Anyways so here's my little layout! It's of my (not so new) nephew! :)

And some close ups!

Staying fuller for longer...

My new favourite snack: Vita-weats with avocado, tomato and colby cheese!

For a while now I've been reading a few blogs like Gabriella's "Une Vie Saine", Jane's "Tea & Vegemite toast", and Gina's "Fitnessista".

Each have their own take on healthy eating and fitness. Over these past few months I've taken stock of my own eating habits and made a few adaptions and changes to a healthier lifestyle.

You see, I used to eat quite large meals of an evening - now I'm not talking unhealthy take-away meals, but just BIG meals of veges and meat etc. I also used to eat dessert AND then a cup of tea and sweet biscuits. This was because of how I was brought up - Mum and Dad always had a cup of tea and sweet biscuits after dinner and dessert (usually ice cream).

So over the last few months, I've slowly cut back my evening meals, cut back desserts and biscuits and even more recently stopped having so many chocolates and sweet bits and pieces throughout the day at work.

I wouldn't say I eat crap food, but those few pieces of sweet things and the evening meals were obviously making an impact. You see since the 15th of March when I last had a gym assessment I've lost approximately 3.7% body fat. I haven't dramatically changed my exercise habits, I truely think it's my eating habits that have made the impact.

Here's a few things I've found:

* Eat less sugar and more 'good fats' = More avocado, cheese, nuts, legumes and grains.

How I do it: Instead of something sweet for afternoon tea I'll eat vita-weats with avo, cheese and tomato - it keeps my full all arvo long

* Eat a big healthy breakfast

How I do it: Either 3 weet-bix & banana OR muesli, greek yoghurt and berri's at the moment

* Dinner should NOT be your biggest meal of the day

How I do it: I mix up dinner during the week, and keep to big servings of salad/veges and a small portion (as big as my palm) of meat. Generally I eat salmon & salad/veges, steak & veges, a takeaway meal of thai/vietnamese, chicken skewers and veges, stir fry etc.

* Reduce (not exclude) the carbs.

How I do it: I don't eat a lot of bread. On the weekends I treat myself to a slice (or two) of fresh white bread/toast for breaky or pancakes. During the week at the moment I'm eating soup for lunch or salad.

* Sugar (in excess) is bad

How I do it: As much as I LOVE chocolate, ice-cream and ANY sweets in particular. I'm slowly eating less... I'm trying to drink green tea during the day, not eating breaky/muesli bars for morning tea (instead I eat yoghurt). I'm also cutting back on desserts and eating NO chocolate during the day (mini chockie bars were my weakness!)

Qu: What food habits would you like to kick - or you have recently?

The process to create a scrapbook layout

How do you create your scrapbook pages? Everyone is different, and I always wonder how others scrap. That's why I love scrapbooking with others and going on retreats/crop days - to not only have fun, but it's always interesting to see how others scrapbook.

So here's my process:

Generally I start with a photo, pick a patterned paper or cardstock for the background and then search for coordinating embellishments (die cuts, stickers, buttons etc).

I then start trimming my photo(s) and paper(s) if needed and start to arrange the layout on my Basic Grey precision cutting mat (I love the magnets so I can keep things in place!)

 

Then sometimes over an hour or so (or over a couple of days if I leave a layout like the above) the layout evolves and I start sticking things down, adding a title and finally journalling!

Later this week I'll share the finished layout!

What have you been creating lately?

Currents: V1

 listening: the tv in the background ("The Bucket list" is on)

eating: Easter eggs (yep I hoard them for ages!)

drinking: Hot chocolate

wearing: grey track pants, a t-shirt and a new Adidas jumper.


feeling: tired.

weather: was beautifully sunny today, overcast now.

wanting: for my injured ankle (an old sprain injury resurfaced)

needing: a sleep in. :)

loving: being able to treat myself a little at the moment! Yay for a pay rise!

Missing: seeing my parents so often.

thinking: about my second week of my new job at Natio already!

enjoying: buying new winter clothes!

wondering: 

card making

two weekends ago I made four cards... I mean I whipped up! I made two mothers day cards and two friends birthday cards.

The first two are mothers day cards using Kaisercraft's 'Chanteuse' collection. I pretty much just used the paper pad to make these!

And the next two are for a couple of good friends who have had birthday's recently!

Materials: DVWV cardstock, Kaisercraft 'nan's favourites' paper pad, Kaisercraft rubons

Materials: Kaisercraft 'bubblegum hills' paper pad, MT washi tape, Kaisercaft rubons.

Awol...

Hi there! Sorry for the lack of posts. It is all for good reason! ... I got a new job and have been staying in Melbourne all this week! I haven't been able to read blogs or write my own posts ( this is being typed on my iphone).
I promise I will write a post over the weeekend to catch u all up on what I've been up to!!

Stop... running that is!

Why is it that when you're feeling fit, happy and healthy something comes crashing down?

Last week I had an awesome week exercising, running a total of 12km, heading to the gym and even going to Body Attack on my birthday! My ankle was feeling a little niggly, and then by Sunday when I went to Body Attack my ankle was feeling terrible! :( 

 Then on Monday night I went for a 5.5km run (including lots of stairs) with a friend and my ankle (even after strapping it) was killing! Lucky I saw Kathleen on the way home, and she checked it out and after a shower came back and put padding, taped it and strapped it! :( My poor little sprained ankle!

(Sorry for the weird picture - my calf looks HUGE)

And now I've got to rest and all I want to do is bloody exercise! :( Any ideas of what I CAN do while my ankle is recovering?

She & He: April

She + He April

He celebrated his 28th birthday

She made his favourite - Choc Ripple cake for said birthday

She ran 50km during the month of April

She had two interviews, and then landed a NEW job at Natio as marketing coordinator!

She and He went and saw Collingwood Vs Carlton (and didn't kill each other!)

She and He celebrated her good friend, Marie's birthday with cider and good pizza

She ran in Run 4 the kids 14.38km fun run

She continued to play indoor soccer and go to the gym

She and He spent Easter at his parents and little nephews

She finally found out what with her rosy red cheeks are all about.

a new recipe - terrific tempeh

The other day I was reading the Fitnessista's blog - and she was cooking tempeh 'bacon'. I was quite intrigued by it...

So when I was doing my grocery shopping at coles the other day I picked some up for myself!

I did a little googling and came across a few versions of marinade to try.

So I put about 1/4 of a cup of soy sauce and a splash of of kecap manis along with 1/2 a teaspoon of crushed ginger and 1 1/2 teaspoons of minced garlic. I thinly sliced the tempeh and fried it.

For lunch the next day I enjoyed it in a rye wrap with lettuce, red onion, cucumber and mayo. :)

And today I enjoyed in cubed, marinated in the same stuff and then stir-fried with lots of veges, served with steamed rice. :)

Yum!I found out I like tempeh more that tofu, the texture is unusual and it's so yummy (and healthy!)

May Goals.

• Create one 'logo to layout' scrapbook layout
• Use my day spa voucher that Brad got my last May for my birthday
• Finish my book I'm currently reading
• Start and complete another book
• Complete 'week in the life' mini album
• Complete Thailand mini album
• Start USA digital album (3-4 pages)
• Make time to catch up with more friends (2-3 different friends)
• Scrapbook six 2011 layouts
• Scrapbook a layout about working at Kaisercraft
• Try 2 new recipes
• Run 70km
• Plant a vegetable garden

Fun Run #4 completed - Nail Can Hill

I think I'm addicted! To fun run's that is!

This past Sunday I completed Albury's "Nail Can Hill" Fun Run! 11.3km of pure pain and lots of uphill running (or walking in my case)!

I'd heard about the run for years, having grown up in the area, and always admired those that did it.The course looked hard, those hills looked steep, but I really didn't appreciate all those that have conquered the Nail Can Hill run until I actually completed it! Those hills (and that one steep mother f%$*ker in particular) were a lot harder than I thought!

The course looked something like this:

And the climb (aka the MEGA HILL) looked like this:

Post run review:
This was one of the hardest run's I've EVER had to do! I had only done a teeny-tiny amount of hill run training (like 3 runs) and totally underestimated how hard this run would be! Brad dropped me off in the morning at around 9am. I registered, stretched, and then had a chat to my Uncle who was also doing the run.

I found my spot on the starting line - in the section between 60-70mins (my rough aim to finish the race in). The run started out ok for the first 1.4km, after that, that's when things got hard! THE hill was INSANE - a 6.6% increase over 2.79km - oh boy. I started to jog it, then walked (even to the extent where I was walked with my hands pushing on my thighs to help me!) the rest of the main hill. The rest of it I ran, and it went fairly fast - except for a couple of other slight inclines that I walked. There was one bit towards the 7-8km mark where I didn't feel too good at all. I The downhills were just as bad, there was one that you had to do those quick little steps it was that steep!

The last couple of km went sooo slowly,even though the 10km mark popped up before i knew it!. The worst part was the last 1.3km to the finish line, by that time I was BUSTING for the toilet and just wanted it finished!

As soon as I saw the oval I run harder, and what i thought was the last straight, I sprinted - then it turned! And a I ran as hard as I could to the finish.

I teared up towards the end because Mum, Dad and Brad were there waiting. It was such a special moment. I was greeted with smiles, Gatorade and directions to the toilet! :)

Boy that was good to get done!

Running for the finish!

 Pushing through the pain!

 Yipee - I love when I see those blue matts!

Done!!

The final result:

The final result was 11.3km in 71.31 mins (averaging 6.19minutes per km)! Yay!! I was super pumped with that effort!

P.S If you're still reading, thanks for ploughing through this super long post!! :)

April Goals - How I went

At the start of the month I drew up a quick little list of goals to complete by the end of April. I was happy I completed 5/9 goals and half completed 3!

Here's how I went:

- Practice yoga at least twice.
I went to one Yoga session.

- Try Bikram Yoga once.
Nope, on the list for May.

- Finish 'Run for the Kids' 14.1km fun run.
Completed! Read all about it here.

- Run a total of at least 50km.
Completed! I ran 50.18km. My goal was to run an average of 10km a week.

- Complete a 'week in the life' mini album 4th - 10th April.
I've taken the photos, and printed them. Now I have to scrap them (on the to-do list for May). 

- Cover and stain storage box in my bedroom.
Completed this on the Tuesday after Easter. Read about it here.

- Finish my Thailand mini album.
Really I just didn't have time! :(

- Take Brad on a lovely (and unexpected date).

While we didn't 'go' anywhere I did make Brad lamb roast and his favourite choc-ripple cake for dessert.

- Try three new recipes. 

1. Potato Salad

2. Chocolate Chip Biscuits (I made about 2 batches of these) YUM!

3. Pumpkin Risotto