Saturday 31 March 2012

Week 11 Summary


My sinuses have finally given in to the cooler weather and it has now turned into a sneezing and runny nose.

Diet & Exercise

I haven’t exercised much this week due to having headaches and my face hurting from the sudden irritation of my sinuses. I did get in two dog walks and a jog from the running program but it wasn’t a good jog.

I have kept up my Dukan diet throughout this entire sinus issue. I am really hoping that this doesn’t turn into a cold as it has in the past.

Work

I came across a position at a University that I wanted to work at and noticed that the closing date for applications was last week. I called the contact listed to discuss whether I could still submit an application and he agreed to it. Hopefully I will be able to get an interview from this application as it took me two pages to answer all of the selection criteria listed for the application.

Received my call form the Centrelink representative, who basically asked me information about my current bank balance and further details of my situation. It was a good hour long conversation but the lady was nice. She organised for me to meet up with a job seeking agency.

I went to the agency and there was a bit of a mix up with my name but it all got sorted in the end. The agent who saw me was very impressed with my resume and my achievements and he gave a listing of website where I could look for potential work. He also advised that if I was still unemployed within 3 months that I would have to come back to the agency regular for meetings on interview techniques and a review of my resume, etc. I was a bit disappointed that I would have to wait 3 months for that advice as I needed it now because I was already striking out and coming up second best at all my interviews.

Love

I am still talking to Christian boy on and off but it is more casual and brief. I have started talking to someone new online and he reminds me of Aaron Eckhart. We seem to have quite a few things in common like we both love old buildings and he’s quite cultured. A few bonuses are that he’s quite tall and I find him attractive. Thus far it’s fairly new but we will see where it goes.

Week 10 Summary


Perseverance has been my challenge this week.

Diet & Exercise

I have been working out hard and eating almost right but the scales just don’t seem to reflect it at all, which is VERY FRUSTRATING!!

I started the Cruise Phase of the Dukan diet this week. The Cruise phase consists of having a protein day followed by a protein combined with complex carbs in the form of vegetables day.

This has been a challenge for me as I love my salads and I am finding that I am not having a protein only day after eating vegetables or salads. Something that I have to work on I guess.

Good thing though, this morning’s weigh in has put a lovely smile on my face. 92.1 kg :D

Work

Since I am no longer employed, I have had to go and visit Centrelink this week. For non-Australian, Centrelink is a government-funded scheme that assists unemployed individuals like myself.

It was a pain to go there, as there is always a line. After waiting in line for over an hour, the consultant advised me that I should use their phone service to get more information on my situation. So off I went to the phone section and dialed the right number. After a 35 minute wait of listening to classical music, a human voice was heard and they gave me advice but as the reason for leaving my work was a bit complicated she advised that I should talk to another department to double check which scheme I should be on. So another 40 minute wait and the person I spoke confirmed the same information that the previous phone consultant told me.

So I spent over 2 hours at this place, only to be told that a person will be calling me the following week to get further information on my situation. After all that, to me it’s easier to go to work than having to wait around Centrelink for unemployment payments.

Love

Organised a date with a lovely Christian boy. We met up at a coffee shop at night and just had a lovely. He was very interesting and nice. On a previous phone conversation I had advised that I was available during the day and at the end of our lovely conversation he organised a second with me for the following day.

I met him at his house and we went for a mid-morning coffee. The conversation started out normal but then he started talking about religion and contesting certain things that I believe in. I automatically felt turned off by him. He was someone that I was kind of looking for, cute, nice guy that’s into religion but even though I go to church everyday and I have my faith, I don’t like talking about religion or debating about it for hours. I have to say that was one of the most uncomfortable conversations I have been in. I was sitting there, hoping that it would stop.  I think he caught on after a while and changed the subject. At the end of that date, he organised to see me again the following day. I told him that I would play it by ear and confided in a friend for advice who told me not to dismiss so quickly.

So the following day, I went to his place to watch a movie. We just hung out and while I was on the couch I was hoping that he would make a move and he didn’t. So I automatically allocated him to being a friend. Once the movie ended and I had to go home, he grab me by my waist and held me. It was nice but all I could think of was “Oh my god, he’s making a move and he’s probably going to kiss me’. And he did. I went along with it and came out with sore lips. Not because we were kissing for a long but because my lips were literally vacuumed into his mouth. My lips were sore the whole drive home. After that performance and having doubts about whether we click or not, I decided that we would be better as friends and told so.

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Week 9 Summary


Welcome autumn. I can see that my nose has noticed that you have moved in because my sinus is acting every morning. It’s so good to wake up and just start sneezing like the big bad wolf. I’m surprised that the roof hasn’t been blown off.

Diet & Exercise

Ok sarcasm aside, I am loving this cooler weather. It has been more enjoyable to continue my current love affair with Mr. Treadmill. I have also purchased some dumbbells to use while walking on the treadmill. 


Gotta love being able to multitask.

As mentioned, I recently restarted the Dukan Diet and so far the all protein attack phase is going well. I have been giving into my craving of eating sashimi and I am starting to quickly get over eating steak. Hope this seafood phase lasts.


While grocery shopping I came across these diet cordial drinks.


With no added sugar and having only 1.5 grams of carbs and 1.3 grams of sugar, thought it would be a good way to spice up my water intake.

Work

As of this week, I am officially unemployed. My work had sent a letter stating that they would be terminating my role as it seemed to them that I was not going to recover from my illness. It was fine by me because I didn’t want to return to that company but now comes the hard part updating my resume to state that I had finished my current role.

I wonder I am going to explain to people at future interviews that I left due to a worker’s compensation issue without freaking them out.

If anyone has any advice or pointers on this matter I’m all ears.

Love

I decided to go on a date with someone whose race I don’t normally go for because he seemed like a nice guy. The date went well and the conversation flowed nicely and was fluid. But unfortunately there was no spark at all.

We both made it clear that we were to be friends and I reinforced that I wasn’t ready for a relationship and only wanted to be friends. I don’t think that that sunk in quite well with him as I was still getting messages that stated differently. As someone who’s in the profession of listening to others problems he didn’t listen to what I was saying at all.

I’m really wondering whether I should continue this chase of finding love or just put it to rest.

Restarting the Dukan Diet


After a week of ups and downs, well more downs. I decided to restart the Dukan diet as I was starting to feel very sluggish and also started feeling bloated again, which was something I didn’t feel while being on the Dukan diet.

So Attack phase commences yet again. A week of no vegetables, salads and obviously carbs, but a welcome of steaks, fish and chicken. I seem to be a bit in love with salmon at the moment, so the fridge has been stacked with raw salmon, smoked salmon and flavoured salmon. Lots of yummy foods to eat.

Starting weight is 92.9 kg

This is approximately 2 kilos lower than when I first started the Dukan diet 2 weeks ago. So according to the Dukan website I should be down 2.7 kg after completing the Attack phase for 7 days. Then the Cruise phase will kick in and I should be down 27 kg after completing the Cruise phase for 187 days, which should be mid-September.

So here we go again.

Tuesday 6 March 2012

5 Km Running Program



Since I’ve been taking advantage of my treadmill a lot more lately, walking seems to be getting slow. Though the way that I have been using the treadmill lately you wouldn’t quite think that it was only for walking or running. It has been my dance floor while I exercise. I have been shaking my booty to some very exciting tunes.

I am not bored it yet but I have always wanted to be able to run 5 Km and since I’m in a motivated state at the moment, I thought that I should incorporate training to be able to run 5 Km.

Since joining the Daily Mile website and seeing everyone post their km and achievements onto the site it has amped me into wanting to be able to get back into running. When I downloaded a compatible app to record my workouts, I noticed it came with several running training plans.

So I decided to start the 5 Km beginner running training program which I started this week. I will provide my progress on this training plan within my weekly summaries.

I would love to hear your experiences with starting a running program.

Raspberry Clafouti recipe



I know don’t quite remember how I came across this recipe but I think it was while I was searching for a low carb dessert. Though this recipe is not low in carbohydrates but the photos looked so delish and it seemed simple to make that I thought I would try it out.

The recipe was found on this website.

This is a French recipe for a cake that is similar to a soft custardy tart. The linked recipe used mixed berries but since I had a bag of opened frozen raspberries so that’s what I used instead. I was somewhat pressed for time as we were going to lunch as relatives within 30 minutes of me getting this recipe together and that’s how long it took to prepare and cook.

I think this will be a go to recipe for dessert if I need to make something quickly.

Here is how my version turned out.



Let me know if you decide to try this recipe out.

Monday 5 March 2012

Lent



The time of year where I really practice self control.

In the past, I have found that I always start off a little rocky and tend to accidentally cheat on the thing that I’ve given up for 40 days. Then I regroup and everything is done to the letter. Previously things I’ve given up throughout lent have mainly been food related, such as meat, rice, bread, etc.

This year seems to be quite challenging.

For the first time I actually knew when lent was coming up so I had no excuse to start late. I wanted to do something with more meaning than just give a food item in the hope that it will help me lose weight. So I thought I would give up three things this year.

The first is to reduce my swearing. The fact is curse words are just coming out of my mouth like water comes out of a tap. For example, I tried to make a table booking for dinner and after waiting forever to be transferred to correct section of the restaurant, the lady that answered the phone sounded as though she pretended not to hear me and hung up on me. First thing out of my mouth was “MOTHER F…..!!!”. I’m sure you can fill in the blank space. A go to word that seems to be used quite a lot when frustrated or while experiencing some mild frustration with people that don’t know how to drive is ‘Geez!!” but most of the time it comes out as “JESUS!!!!”. I am sure he has far better things to do other than listen to me say his name in vain lol.

I thought I would give up refined carbohydrates again as my second item of penance. This is a big challenge but it does have some personal gain.

Hence why I thought that for my third item I should really give up or reduce something that I absolutely love and that it to cut down on my TV viewing. Watching movies and these silly reality shows are my entertainment and my wind down time. So I thought I would try and sacrifice that for the next 40 days.

So far it’s been two weeks into the process and I have broken all of the things I have set out not to do. The curses words are still flowing, this week I’ve gone back to eating rice and bread as it was much simpler to just eat what my mum had prepared instead of worrying about what to while we are going through this time of grief and I’ve even prepared a cake/tart today that I will share the recipe with you all in another post as it is the simplest thing ever and quite delish. I have also been eyeing new shows that are starting and still following the ones I love.

So come this Monday 5 March I will be making a recommitment to the three things I originally decided to give up, swearing, refined carbohydrates and less TV watching.

What have you given up for lent?

Thursday 1 March 2012

A great loss


After a great day of working out and finding a song that I had been searching for on YouTube for some time, I came across the saddest news on my answering machine.

I found out that my uncle who lives overseas had passed away over the weekend. This literally made me stand still. I hadn’t eaten at all the entire day and my starvation went away automatically. I felt frozen in time and after alerting my family I broke down in tears. That’s all I’ve been doing since the call.

I get waves of sadness where I think of growing up with him. Shared birthdays, laughs and how alike we were. It saddens me greatly that I will not see him again or hear his voice.

I feel a little more alone in this world as my close blood relatives has now been reduced to two people, my mum and my grandmother. I know that we will all leave this world at some point but I am feeling a little bit more alone in life.