On eating healthier

Part of our plan to be fitter and lose weight is to eat healthier. (I am stating the obvs here)

See, the trouble with moving out of home is the amount of freedom you have to sit on your couch alone in your house eating nothing but cheese and popcorn and chocolate. Then you get married and you feel the need to impress your spouse with delicious cream and butter soaked meals. Now, facing 30 we're chubby and slightly under nourished.

I struggle to trust the advice of dietitians because none of them seem to agree with each other. So my theory is to just eat more like my mother and grandmother prepared food (since my grandparents are all getting to or past 90 years old it seems they probably figured out something about staying healthy). So the diet we're on is more fruit and veggies, less salt sweets and deep fried food and generally trying to eat smaller portions of fresh home made meals instead of take aways.

In a first for blogging for me, I thought I would share a recipe of what healthy (more or less) dish I like to make.  tonight for dinner I made savoury rice. It's my mothers recipe which I picked up by observation which means I can never get it exactly how it takes when she makes it. But this is a pretty good second best.  I present one tasty simple meal with mostly ingredients you can find at home or at a normal shop. I usually make up the quantities according to what is available in The fridge. The baby marrow and sweet corn are not negotiable and are the key to the flavour of the meal. 

FRANKIES TASTY RICE

Rice (if you are well organized and have the time, try soaking it for 40 minutes before cooking - especially if it is brown rice)

Onion - chopped into blocks

Peppers (any colour of the traffic light) - chopped in blocks

Baby marrows - sliced

Sweet corn (frozen type) 

Bacon

Optional extras : chicken stock, mushrooms, pepperdew, chilli, garlic

1. Cook the rice. For a touch of decadence, cook it in chicken stock instead of plain water.

2. Fry the onion, peppers, baby marrows and bacon on medium-low heat. You only need a splash of oil if any because the bacon usually is a bit fatty. Be patient and cook for a while - You want the onion to soften and caramelise and the bacon and baby marrows to get a bit of a crispy crust. Mushrooms, chilli and garlic can also be added here.

3. When the veggies are close to done, microwave the sweet corn and add it at the last minute along with pepperdew desired as well as a splash of lemon juice and a sprinkling of pepper. 

4. Add some herbs to the cooked rice (I experiment with a touch of thyme, Italian herbs and parsley what ever the nose thinks is right at the time)

5. Combine veggies and rice and mix. 

Serve with a smile.

And there it is, my attempt at sharing my cooking skills. 

As for gym newbie-ing, we managed three sessions last week but were too tired last night to go sweat out our case of Mondays. We will be gearing up for session number four just now. No signs of increased fitness yet... Only sore muscles.

Tales of a gym newbie - the second visit

While it is easier to start getting in fit in summer than in winter, starting gym in the same week as Christmas and the festive season is not smart for those wanting to lose weight. 

So after our tremendous first session (all 30 minutes of wheezing heaving vomit feeling glory) we got busy with celebrating and enjoying food and wine and other good things with friends and family and didn't get around to going back for two weeks. 

But today I went back to work after a nice summer holiday on leave and so it seemed fitting to restart our new get fit endeavor.

Now I have seen all the comments on the social networks about all the crowds spoiling the gym for the few who have the habit of it by all going to gym in January. But I will not be put off... I will be in that crowd trying to be a better shaped person too.... And hopefully be there by Valentines and Easter and Winter and Spring. 

So we packed our access cars and our towels and cooled water bottles and sports bras (well just one of those) and strode purposefully into the gym trying to not look like losers. 

First up was warming up with some running. I dutifully remembered the lessons of starting Run Walk for Life and did some slow then fast then slow then faster then slightly slower then  much faster then slow down. I confess it is pretty good to get back into the running part of getting fit. 

Then we went again to the Super circuit and once more tag teamed the machines and the stair hopping ... Which lasted all of three machines cycles since stair hopping is pretty bloody hard work and your bum jiggles in front of the orbital machine-ers. 

I have a personal bane machine in the circuit. Mean Machine number 8 which is the one that makes you pull the weights down like you're a flustered chicken. I can't even do two lots of five repetitions on the smallest weight. It makes me feel quite pathetic. I'll have to confess my weakness to the excitable trainer soon to find an alternative to build up my arm strength to face the machine. 

After we did the whole circuit, we went to cool down on the orbital machine (since we started on the treadmills) except the orbital machine. Is like a run away puppy, there just isn't any going slow on it! We both kept getting error messages "heart rate is too high!!" Yeah we know, our legs are being rotated off. My personal goal now is to make it a minute going backwards while not holding one with my hands. I'll call it the Super Balance Achievement.

We promised ourselves to try again on Wednesday this week... Like two days time. Go team Frankie and MrT!

Tales of a gym newbie - the second visit

While it is easier to start getting in fit in summer than in winter, starting gym in the same week as Christmas and the festive season is not smart for those wanting to lose weight. 

So after our tremendous first session (all 30 minutes of wheezing heaving vomit feeling glory) we got busy with celebrating and enjoying food and wine and other good things with friends and family and didn't get around to going back for two weeks. 

But today I went back to work after a nice summer holiday on leave and so it seemed fitting to restart our new get fit endeavor.

Now I have seen all the comments on the social networks about all the crowds spoiling the gym for the few who have the habit of it by all going to gym in January. But I will not be put off... I will be in that crowd trying to be a better shaped person too.... And hopefully be there by Valentines and Easter and Winter and Spring. 

So we packed our access cars and our towels and cooled water bottles and sports bras (well just one of those) and strode purposefully into the gym trying to not look like losers. 

First up was warming up with some running. I dutifully remembered the lessons of starting Run Walk for Life and did some slow then fast then slow then faster then slightly slower then  much faster then slow down. I confess it is pretty good to get back into the running part of getting fit. 

Then we went again to the Super circuit and once more tag teamed the machines and the stair hopping ... Which lasted all of three machines cycles since stair hopping is pretty bloody hard work and your bum jiggles in front of the orbital machine-ers. 

I have a personal bane machine in the circuit. Mean Machine number 8 which is the one that makes you pull the weights down like you're a flustered chicken. I can't even do two lots of five repetitions on the smallest weight. It makes me feel quite pathetic. I'll have to confess my weakness to the excitable trainer soon to find an alternative to build up my arm strength to face the machine. 

After we did the whole circuit, we went to cool down on the orbital machine (since we started on the treadmills) except the orbital machine. Is like a run away puppy, there just isn't any going slow on it! We both kept getting error messages "heart rate is too high!!" Yeah we know, our legs are being rotated off. My personal goal now is to make it a minute going backwards while not holding one with my hands. I'll call it the Super Balance Achievement.

We promised ourselves to try again on Wednesday this week... Like two days time. Go team Frankie and MrT!

[expletive deleted] We're getting old.

So MrT and I are both on holiday at the moment. He has been catching up on computer games and I have been catching up on reading. Also I have been buying thoughtful insightful but not budget breaking christmas presents for 25 people... Thank goodness MrT doesn't speak to many people on his side of the family. 

So after two weeks of reading and kitchen experimenting and playing copious amounts of candy crush and solitaire and other iPad games as well as catching up on months of interwebs,  I was feeling a bit bored. 

At 930pm tonight we decided to go on a spontaneous road trip. 

Now here is a surprising fact about becoming an adult (roughly around the time you start paying a home loan instead of rent, or when your friends start divorcing instead of breaking up, or when you get married). See, before this time, 9:30pm is when you start wrapping things up at the bar where you have been drinking to go start the real partying. After this time, 9:30pm is when you get up off the couch, switch off the TV and go brush your teeth and hopefully be in bed by 10. (Reading by bed side light and married persons cuddles not included)

So at 9:30pm tonight we set out in our jerseys and jammies and my fancy car and playing some excellent tunes we decided to go to the KFC drive thru. MrT declined to have anything and so exactly one milky bar Krusher, three road trip songs and 20 minutes later, we were safely back home. 

MrT surprisingly is back at his computer game and I am once again reading. And soon we'll be brushing teeth and lying in bed browsing real estate agents websites for our next family home. (Or something else vanilla)

I fear we are long past our childish days to ever go back. (Until we have our own kids and become childish in a whole other way)

Tales of a gym newbie

So MrT and I finally did that thing that I always thought was only done by wealthy people who can afford to waste money on trivial things.... We joined the gym. I grew up thinking normal hard working people just ran around the block to stay in shape.

Now other than a singular visitor visit many many years ago, I am a complete total and utter gym virgin. Growing up I stayed skinny by walking to and from school and a healthy amount of gymnastics training wriggling out of my brothers grip while they tried to give me noogies on the scalp and arms. I joined road running clubs but didn't have the staying power. I joined one again just after getting engaged to be a typical Beautiful Thin Bride but alas starting a before work morning road running habit in winter is only for extreme morning people, better yet, insomniacs. 

And so, after a health review in October where the results were some what shaming, Eben and I decided it was time to change our sedentary lifestyle that has too much pasta and cheese and wine and chocolate and too little fresh fruit and fresh air and other heathful things. Also, we'll both be past 30 years in 18 months and we are realising that 30 years is when the body starts hinting that you are not young and spritely anymore.... It seems our bodies, like cars, are overdue for a major service when the mileage is at 30 trips around the sun. Sucks for you if you haven't been taking regular care of things.... And been eating cheese while watching too much SATC until 2am on a work night. 

Now my weight is around about normal for my height and age but I am a little too much fatty fat and a lot too little muscle mass. Typically it is all on my bum, belly and boobs.

And so, (to move things along) last week, Vitality discounting memberships in hand, we joined the local gym. We took one last weekend to eat red meat and butter cooked mushrooms and asparagus and drink heartily of liqueurs over ice and bourbon with cola all guilt free. 

This morning, not at all bright and early, we very nervously arrived at the gym, towel and water bottles in hand ready to give this thing a bash. 

After asking around and explaining that we we're completely new to this, the personal trainer took us to the super circuit to get started. As MrT and I were training together (my absolute precondition to joining a gym - or else I'll never get into the habit) we had to take turns wit he machines. So while he was on machine 1, I was doing stair exercises. Then we swap and I press/lift/weep while MrT conveniently remembers he has knee troubles and does the easy stair hops. And swap again. 

New realization: be it the current cold I have or pending older age, my balance is pretty shit. The stair exercises were a bit hit or miss after the first 10 repetitions. 

But on to the super circuit. I was pretty good at the first few (the energy jump from banana bread and tea for breakfast having not worn off yet) especially since a lot were leg exercises. But at the later machines (like all of them from 6 to 10) I was seriously taking some strain. It is worrying when on the lowest weight possible, you can't make the machine move. But I did my very best at each machine trying to do 20 repetitions, followed by 10, then 5, then 5, then 1, then 1, then please can we be done now, then one more, then oonnée mooreeeee, and Yes done! Time for a sip of water... And more graceful jumping up and down the stairs. 

Needless to say, after all 10 machines I was feeling more than a little ragged. I had excuse myself to take a polite bathroom break because I was afraid I was going to puke, pass out and my legs fall off all at the same time. I might be a newbie but I have my dignity (what dignity left that I hadn't sweated off or left in the hands of the trainer helping my lift the tiny 2.5kg weight on the arm machine of terror. )

After saying our thanks and good byes to the trainers we went home for a shower (MrT is a little gun shy in the change rooms at present) and now 12 hours later I can't say I am in agony. This means that I'll be fully capable of going back in a day or two. Joy! more pain and profuse sweating.

And so to wrap up, setting some new healthy living goals.

Very short term goal: do the super circuit with out help from the smug trainer

Short term goal: start fitting my current clothes better. (I am horrified to be getting too chubby for them and my ego cannot Cannot handle going up another size)

Medium term goal: be capable of a 5km run

Longer medium term goal: lose 5kg by Easter and be able to go for a run with my dad or brother and be able to keep up. 

Long term goals: a longer marathon perhaps, being able to to kill my fear having flabby flappy swinging upper arms. No more muffin top. Be on the B side of a C cup. Be back at my end of varsity weight (so lose 20% from what I am now) A thigh gap like when I was 16 yo would be nice but I may be beyond such youthful legs now. 

Disclaimer: being fat or thin or round or pear or apple or stick or watermelon is beautiful, all ladies should wear bikinis if they feel like it and have the right to feel sexy. (Fat old men wear speedos because they feel sexy in it and they don't give a crap what anybody thinks)

But we try to stay healthy for the family and friends who love us and want us around to the end of making good memories. 

Frankie's Travels: ancestral homeland

I finally made the list of invitees to go visit the office based in the UK for Work. Officially I am going for training and business development. Secretly I am going to prove to the people there that our office has young engineers and to allow me to make a few friends so I can call them up for help later.

I am 50/50 split on my feelings about this trip. I am stupidly excited to be going to see a new country - especially one with so many preconceived notions in my head thanks to too much fiction and tv. It might be a fun (if expensive thanks to the 14:1 exchange rate) Trip. It will be nice to see how things operate in another office and nice to change the work schedule a bit. It is also good to stretch your self a bit contemplating making it through one 11 hour flight, getting the next connecting flight in a different terminal, getting a taxi, finding the hotel, checking in, cleaning up and getting a taxi to the office all over the next 25 hours and all on my own. Married life makes you too comfortable about never having to do things alone and despite having flown to foreign countries for several years now, this is still a bit daunting. Whoot for adventures!! 

HOWEVER.... This trip also means leaving my beloved husband alone for a week. We fight a fair bit because we are both stubborn and independent but it only takes an extra few hours without him to make me clingy and lonely and needy. I'm like a limpet trying to get Eben to wear me like a backpack. If it was me staying home and Eben travelling, I would be climbing the walls with anxiety and loneliness and quietness before Monday morning. But Eben is too strong and manly to admit to anything like that. Perhaps he will bury his time in work things and make the week zoom past. Secondly, I really wish I could take Eben with me on a trip like this. Months because I afraid t go alone but because I want to share the excitement and newness of things with him.

I'll try keep things updated with my adventures in the land of eternal mud and rain (so I hear) but I suspect the trip story will be a lot of sleep-eat-work-eat-sleep with sprinklings of snow and icy winds. 

First adventure will be praying to the fairies of aeroplane seat allocations for a rare sweet empty seat next to me. Followed closely by attempting to sleep in a cramped leg room position. 

Yaaay! Let the Travels commence!

New Travel Blog

I am getting married tomorrow! I can't believe I am finally able to say this. I'll be blogging my travels from a new blogger spot at mrsfrankiestravels.blogspot.com Feeling all excited to depart on my new adventure on Sunday morning with my new husband in tow. Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!