[Kiwi]

Hi there everyone! I did have one of these a while back but now I can't find it! Goes to show just how often I used it, doesn't it!! lol!!

But it's a new year and it's time for a new me...

So hi (again!), I'm Tasha, 26 years old and in less than 8 months am planning on beginning my TTC journey. That in itself is enough to scare me into getting into shape and improving my heath. However over the Xmas holidays I realised I couldn't do up the top button on my summer shorts/skirts...

So it's time to do something about it...

Just to get me even more motivated, my boss has offered to pay for a gym membership for 12 months!! There really is no excuse now...!

A little about me: I've always been one of those annoying people that could eat anything and stay fairly skinny, although my health has suffered for it. Although I'm a small person, I couldn't say that I'm very healthy. I get hayfever and allergies, made worse by dairy products (this also gives me eczema)and so many different types of foods give me upset stomachs (although this has settled down now that I've come off the BCP). Over the past year my body shape has certainly started to change due to lack of excerise... gravity is slowly taking over my bottom and my tummy now sticks out further than my boobs! On Xmas day my mother actually asked me if I was pregnant, which was really quite humiliating... "No Mother, I'm not pregnant... I'm just getting fat!"

So... starting now, it's time to start eating better and excerising more. I have an appointment tomorrow to check out one of the gyms I'm interested in, so hopefully will start going by the end of next week once I pick one and get my membership sorted out...

Goals:
- Tone up my belly and bottom
- Increase fitness
- Make better decisions about what I eat
- Learn to cook healther meals
- Drink 6-8 glasses of water a day

I'm hoping posting here will keep me a little more motivated as I'll be able to keep track of exactly what I eat and how much excerise I do!

[Kiwi]

6th January 2009

Breakfast:
3x weet-bix with half a banana and few slices of peaches on top, and rice milk

Morning Tea:
Banana
Two chocolate thins (chocolate is my drug...!!! Oh this is going to be hard!)

Lunch:
HUGE salad (cucumber, lettuce, spinach, olives, feta cheese, red pepper, topped with some grilled chicken)
Cold boiled potatoes
Piece of sweetcorn

Afternoon Tea:
Big chuck of homemade blueberry icecream squished between two chocolate buscuits (d*mn next door neighbour made it for me! I couldn't say no!!)

Dinner:
Shepherds Pie (potatoes, lamb mince, veggies)
Salad (lettuce, red pepper, carrot and cucumber)G
Glass of red wine
Dessert - big piece of chocolate cheese cake (DBF's parents brought it as they were here for dinner)

Water:
At work - 5 glasses
Home - 1 glass

[Kiwi]

7th January 2009

Breakfast:
3x weet-bix with half a banana and few slices of peaches on top, and rice milk
Glass of orange juice

Morning Tea:
3x corn crackers

Lunch:
Leftovers from last nights dinner
Homemade icecream

Dinner:
1x piece of lamb steak, couscous salad (with feta and courgette) and half a piece of corn
2x glasses of orange juice

Water:
At work: 3 glasses
Home: 1 glass

[Chelnae6]

...
Goals:
- Tone up my belly and bottom
- Increase fitness
- Make better decisions about what I eat
- Learn to cook healther meals
- Drink 6-8 glasses of water a day

I'm hoping posting here will keep me a little more motivated as I'll be able to keep track of exactly what I eat and how much excerise I do![/b]

Those are my goals as well. I plan on seeing if I can cut out fried foods completely until V-day. I dont plan on making a log for them though. Viewing yours will be my motivation as well.

[Kiwi]

Chelle - I highly recommend you write down what you eat - you'd be so surprised at what you do end up eating. I get to the end of the day thinking I've done okay until I look back at what I've written down and see those couple of chocolate biscuits, crackers etc...!

I haven't had internet for a few days but wrote everything down and now I've lost the piece of paper! Hopefully I find it again...

Sunday 11th January

Breakfast:
Toast with peanut butter and honey
Glass of orange juice

Lunch:
Subway - the meatball sandwich

Afternoon Tea:
Crackers and cheese

Dinner:
Chicken stirfry with rice and veggies

Water:
Only one glass today...


Monday 12th January

Breakfast
3x weet-bix with half a banana
Glass of orange juice

Morning Tea:
4x Vitalife crackers with lite cream cheese and salmon

Lunch:
Tuna salad (olives, lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, feta cheese)

Afternoon Tea:
Banana and apple

Snack before dinner:
Crackers and cheese (this is my downfall - I need to eat more at afternoon tea so I'm not starving when I get home and can cook a meal without needed to snack before hand).
Glass of water

Dinner:
Fish fingers, sweetcorn, potatoes, beans and carrots
Glass of Ribena

Water:
Work: 2 glasses
Home: 2 glasses

[Kiwi]

Tuesday 13th January

Breakfast
3x weet-bix with half a banana
Glass of orange juice

Morning Tea:
4x Vitalife crackers with lite cream cheese and salmon

Lunch:
Tuna salad (olives, lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, feta cheese) and boiled potatoes

Afternoon Tea:
Apple and piece of toast (I was starving!!)

Dinner:
Takeaway: Roast chicken

Water
3x glasses (plain)
1x ribena


Wednesday 13th January

Breakfast
3x weet-bix with half a banana
Glass of orange juice

Morning Tea:
4x Vitalife crackers with lite cream cheese and salmon

Lunch:
Tuna salad (olives, lettuce, spinach, cucumbers, feta cheese) and boiled potatoes

Afternoon Tea:
Peach, banana and two vitalife crackers

Dinner:
Chicken in soy sauce and orange. Veggies: beans, carrots and sweetcorn

Water
3x glasses at work

[~*sierra*~]

as i scrolled down your meals got healthier and healthier! good job

i totally need to work this whole morning and afternoon tea thing........i always feel guilty when i have a morning and afternoon snack, since apparently you're only supposed to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner in north america.

i'm also very proud of you that i dont see like 10 tim tam slams a day on your food list - cuz seriously my sis went down to NZ for a month last summer and came back with a ton of tim tams and we went a bit crazy doing the slams! i'd be wired on caffiene and sugar all the time if i could get tim tams here in Canada!

[Kiwi]

My internet has been down for the last 10 days and I've only got it back up and running in the last 48 hours. I really can't be bothered writing out all my meals on here though!

Sierra - I wouldn't agree with the whole eating only breakfast, lunch and dinner thing. I guess you just have to know your body, but if I don't eat every couple of hours, I get a really bad sore stomach. As long as the snacks are healthy I don't see any problem! Easier said than done though!! Tim Tams!!! Haha - I cracked up when I read that! Yep, they are pretty good and I do have a major sweet-tooth!

Food over the last 10 days, not so great - been on a camping trip which consisted of lots of cheese, crackers, chips, dip and beer!! On the plus side though, I did lots of excerise on the trip - swimming, kayaking and wake-boarding!

Other good news, my boss has agreed to do a corporate membership thing at the new gym in town so I get to join the gym and don't have to pay for it!! Yay! I have my first appointment/assessment tomorrow night! Will keep you up to date with how it goes. I had a work out there on Sunday just to see what all the equipment is like and it's great! I'll get a key ring type thing which plugs into each machine and tells me exactly what i need to to do and for how long for. It also records everything I do, so I can't cheat!! I'm still really sore from that workout (two days ago), so it shows you just how unfit I am!!

On another note, my ticker for when we start TTC has just dropped under 7 months. WOW. I remember when we 'set' that date last February - this year has flown by! I really need to start sorting myself out and getting healthier!

3rd February 2009

Breakfast
Full cooked meal at a breakfast meeting - bacon, eggs, hash brown and cressont. Glass of orange juice and two glasses of water.

Morning Tea
4x chocolate biscults

Lunch
Salad - lettuce, feta, carrots, olives, cucumbers and tuna
Piece of Courgette Slice

Afternoon Tea
4x crackers with cheese on top

Dinner
Spag Bol with carrots and celery mixed in and pasta

Water so far: 1 and a half 750ml bottle of water.

So food isn't going so well, but water consumption is up!! And tomorrow the gym starts.

[Kiwi]

Had my gym assessment last night and we went over my goals (fitness, tone and strengthen) and then I had to do a 1.5 km walk/run on the treadmill (could do it however fast or slow I wanted) plus about 6 different weight machines. I go back on Monday to do another fitness test on the cross-trainer, then I'll get given my programme.

Went back tonight for another 'free' training session (I get two before joining) and I'm so sore - I'm so unfit! But going in the right direction!!

[~*sierra*~]

Sore is good!! Plus you'll find that after just a couple weeks you won't really be that sore anymore. After 3 weeks i have to work SO hard to get sore, and sometimes even then i barely am. It's wierd. And that is SO COOL that you plug a little thingy in the machines and it keeps track of your workouts and tells you what to do - genius!

keep us posted on the gym - and do you have any particular goals when it comes to fitness? or are you setting those when you get your plan?

[Kiwi]

My goals at the gym are to increase my fitness, tone up and to basically get more active and healthy for TTC in September this year. I'm planning on going every day before work (Monday - Friday) for a 30 - 45 minute workout, depending on what I'm doing. My instructor wants me to do a day of cardio (treadmill and cross-trainer), then a day of weights for strength, then back to cardio... and so on...

Both today and yesterday morning I got up early and went to the gym before work! Amazing for me to actually drag myself out of bed at 5.45am!! This morning I jogged for 35 minutes - 3.8km! Almost passed out at the end I was so tired, so might get instructor to slow it down a bit towards the end! Yesterday was weights. I did a 10 minute session on the cross-trainer before hand, so the weights seemed really heavy, but surprisingly I wasn't too sore afterwards!

Food going well - salads for lunch last two days. Water consumption is way up now that I'm exercising more. I had two 750ml bottles of water at the gym and work today, plus another two glasses once I got home. I'm sure I'll have another one soon - it's soo muggy at the moment. Just need to work out what some healthier snacks are...

[~*sierra*~]

Sounds like its going great! I found that i was way too hungry with having just a salad for lunch, i was miserable and with a headache by the end of the day. I have recently found a approx 250cal lunch that is really filling, and since its pretty low cal you could have it as a snack too. I take half a whole wheat pita and put 1/4 cup hummus in there then stuff about 8-9 slices of cucumber in as well. and i have about 5 baby carrots on the side. its filling, flavourful (i use the roasted garlic hummus), and you get around 2 servings of veggies in too. good snacks that I like are bananas, fresh berries and baby carrots. i just bring the whole package of berries to work and put it in the fridge and do the washing and cutting there.

Your workouts sound awesome, and always remember if it feels like hard work, then it is working!

ETA - I also like kiwis :-) for real. lol

PS - I always forget that its summer in nz!

[Kiwi]

Thanks for the tips on snacks! Hummus is a good idea. I brought some celery and carrots today so should get some hummus to dip them into.

Gym has been going great - I went 4 times this week! Would have done 5 but had to fill in at a breakfast meeting for my boss, so missed Thursday morning. Next week I'm planning on going 5 times (before work each morning!).

Did lots of gardening today (I guess that counts as excerise - I worked up a sweat!!).

Yesterday I drank 3x 750ml of water! Today I've had 2 x 750ml plus a green tea and some juice.

[Kiwi]

My second week at the gym and I managed to go every morning Monday to Friday! So happy! This morning was the start of my third week. I have to do a 3.8km jog, then .65km on the cross-trainer. Have been able to do the distance, but not the level the instructor wants me to, however this morning I managed to do the whole lot at the correct level, except for a 10 minute power-walk at the start of my 3.8km on the treadmill - hopefully by next week I'll be able to do the whole programme correctly! Am so happy I can already see results in my fitness level!

[~*sierra*~]

sounds like you're doing awesome!! you're making me motivated to get back at it when I get home (been on vacation for 2 weeks).

[Kiwi]

I've just finished my 4th week at the gym - first week I went 4 times and the the last three weeks, I've been 5 times a week! I can't believe I've kept it up for 4 whole weeks! It really helps having my work pay for me and every morning when I get to work after going to the gym, the first thing my boss asks me is "Have you been to the gym?!" He'd kick my butt if I hadn't - he's a huge fitness freak...

Also went for a mountain bike ride with DBF yesterday. Spent most of the time either pushing the bike or falling off it, but I'm getting there! It's good to have a hobby to do with DBF, even if he gets mad at me as I'm so slow!

Water still going great and I drink at least 2x 750ml of water at work each day. Don't do as well on the weekends, as I forget to carry my water bottle around with me.

Food is still an issue. I'm find during the week I only take healthy food to work with me, so don't eat any bad food. However during the weekend, I always just 'snack', so don't get hungry enough to actually go and make myself some lunch. It's a bad habit.