Saturday, March 10, 2018

A good week...

I’ve been walking each day this week - 3km every morning.  It’s getting chilly but the days have been in the high 20’s, just lovely.
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This is the route I’ve been walking, although I mix up the direction a bit.  The green dot is my car (I drive into town so I can walk on footpaths instead of gravel on the side of the road), better for my knees.
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Lots of lovely fruit being eaten...but in moderation.  Two serves a day, basically.
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Another veggie frittata for breakfast...
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The vegepod continues to flourish although I do wish I hadn’t planted the cukes...
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Little tomatoes everywhere!
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Strawberries...
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Cukes...not sure how these will turn out...
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Turkey salad plate...
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Delicious Tuna and vegetable mornay bakes...
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Burgen soy-lin toast, one with Vegemite and the other with 1 tspn cashew spread and banana...very good!
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Turkey Mountain bread wrap...
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Our recycle bin after 2 weeks, only half full.  I’m buying less processed foods, so less packaging.  I’m not drinking fruit juice and hardly using any milk for tea and coffee either. (And yes, that lid needs to come off the milk carton...)
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(Instagram pic)
We’ve been looking at wedding flowers...so beautiful!
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Seven o’clock is a pretty time of the morning...
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The path behind our Civic Centre...
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Our lovely manicured parklands - we have lots of parklands...
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The famous Millicent rotunda...
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A new hair colour this week...
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I thought I’d get a bunch of flowers to take out to the cemetery  and found that there were half price bunches...I love when that happens so I bought two!
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Absolutely nothing wrong with them!
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I made Weight Watchers Butter chicken last night...
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It was delicious!
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I had a big tidy this morning, putting away things that had accumulated on the benches - much better!
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I quite happy with the family room redo...just need some family to sit in the chairs! 
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Lunch today - another wrap with smoked ham, some of my pickles and salad veggies...
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I’ve made up this fruit salad to last us over the weekend, nice with a dollop of yoghurt for dessert.
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I’ve got wholemeal bread rolls rising which will be frozen when they’re cooked. Gus loves a bread roll with dinner - unfortunately, they’re pretty much off limits for me at 4 points.
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We’re having a Lamb and lentil ragu with linguini pasta for dinner - I’d best get that started as it slow cooks for a few hours...
Cheers - Joolz xx

Monday, March 5, 2018

Four days in Adelaide but still on track...


Saturday we got our shop on.  I found not one but two evening dresses in my quest to find a Mother of the Bride dress.  One is black with a few sequins on a symmetrical cape and the other is a similar style but the dress has a squiggly rose gold sequin pattern on it.  I bought earrings, a bracelet and I even found comfy black shoes.  This outfit will take me to Sydney for the Dealer of the Year dinner in May.  I am usually struggling and in despair to find something the week of the dinner.  Sorted!
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Onto another salon looking at bridesmaid dresses...had some success!
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Home again to a lovely evening and sunset...
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Kirby cooked some lovely beef skewers along with some quinoa noodle cakes and cucumber salad...
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Sunday we ventured up into the hills to the winery and vineyard where the wedding will be.  This is their casual Sunday fare.  Six of us shared these plates...~
2 x Calamari 
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1 x salmon
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2 x dumplings
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1 x pork belly
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2 x fish tacos
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1 x steak
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A delicious dessert each - homemade vanilla icecream with a muesli and macadamia style crunchy topping.
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Then it was time to head home again today.  Trying to eat healthy on the road is quite hard.  I had a banana snack at 11am.  I would usually have two sandwiches (ham and cheese and a cheese and gherkin) at the BP in Tailem Bend.  Today I chose this one little turkey, lettuce and cranberry jelly sanga. I clocked it at 3 points (2 for bread, 1 for the turkey, jelly and lettuce were 0 points).  I bought the sandwich and travelled on for a while before stopping at Salt Creek to eat it.  I drank plenty of water too...I was keen for a pit stop in Kingston.  I had a Date Bliss ball (1) a bit further down the road.
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I’m home alone so this frozen leftover Turkey shepherds pie was a very handy thing to have. Six points and a salad for 1 point for the lite balsamic dressing.
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I have just clocked up my 10,000 steps for the day (even though I sat in a car for 4 hours) and that has earned me 11 FitPoints. I’m aiming for a total of 84 for the next 7 days...
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I weighed in on Kirby’s digital scales this morning and the scales said 84.1 kg...

Start weight - 20/02/18 ... 86.0kg
Current weight - 05/03/18 ... 84.10 kg
Loss of 1.9 in 2 weeks 🙂

Cheers - Joolz xx

Friday, March 2, 2018

Off to Adelaide ....

More salad plate lunches...
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I was excited to get my WW order in the mail.  A beautiful recipe book; a journal to record my efforts (It is all recorded on the app but if feels good to write out what I’m eating and how I’m feeling); an eating out guide, listing popular restaurants and foods you may buy while out and about; a Shop guide which lists thousands of products and their smart points and two packets of WW Choc hazelnut bites which are 1 sp each. They are very yummy!
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For dinner Wednesday night, we had chicken schnitzel, potato and parsnip mash and I roasted all of these veggies.  Zero points for these! 
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 I split two chicken breasts (500gms) into 4 thinner pieces then coated in flour then egg then panko crumbs.  I didn’t have parmesan or fresh chives which was meant to go in the crumbs also.  Then I cooked two at a time in 1 teaspoon of olive oil, crisping up the first side the most then flipping them for another two minutes. I then transferred them to a baking tray to finish cooking in the oven.   They were delicious and tender.  It just goes to show that they don’t neec to be dripping in oil!
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Thursday lunch, the other two schnitzels were chopped up and used in our Mountain bread wraps. Yummo!
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We got away late to Adelaide and arrived at 8.30pm...Gus is going to the Adelaide 500 motor racing and there is a Bridal expo on so us girls will go and have a squizzy there.
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Beautiful sunset as we came through the hills....
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Kirby’s fiancé Nate, had dinner ready. Scrummy, healthy balsamic, mustard pork fillet, expertly cooked with cous cous, asparagus, brocollini and sweet potato chips. So good!
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I did have a few wines so blew my points for the day but I’ve been very good all week.  No alcohol Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and only 1 glass of pinot noir on Wednesday.  
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Two boiled eggs (0), 1 slice light rye toast (3) and dairy spread (2)...
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One thing I love about the city is that you can always get an appointment pretty much straight away.   I hopped online at 8am and booked a physiotherapy appointment for 10am.  If I rang one that comes to our town (no resident physio), they are usually booked out a month in advance.  Mount Gambier, I’d probably be looking at 1-2 weeks.
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I’ve been having trouble with my neck and muscle spasms which feel like a red hot poker digging into my neck and shoulder and it’s become worse as the week has gone by.
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So I went to Balance Physio, on The Parade and saw a nice girl, Prue.  She worked on my neck muscles with intense massage and a heat cream.  She found my sore spot!
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(Web pic) 
 I then had some dry needling (acupuncture) down the right side of my neck and shoulder, about 6 needles, I think.  After that, she strapped my neck and shoulder with tape.  She also gave me a 12 hour heat pad to use when we travel home.  Prue believes my neck pain is a combination of every day stress, ‘mouse hand’ - clenching the computer mouse which radiates up my arm, screen use and general degeneration due to age and probable arthritis in my neck.  I do know that when we go on holidays, the strain goes away...
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So, I’m taking it easy this afternoon, watching a bit of tv.
Cheers - Joolz xx