September 28, 2011

12WBT Week 1




The 12WBT program began only two days ago but already I can say that I love it.
I love the additional motivation that comes from being "part of something".
I love the advice on diet and exercise.
I love knowing I am accountable to the program. Having to track my weight loss and never wanting to be the "bad girl" is highly motivating for me.

The biggest breakthrough for me has been the power that comes from treating my exercise like an appointment and scheduling a week's exercise in advance. That is making the biggest difference for me in not allowing me to talk myself out of it when the going is tough and busy here at home.

So here is what my week looked like:
Tuesday 20th - Gym cross trainer & stair runs (cardio)
Wednesday 21st - Gym circuit class (strength) and pilates (core)
Thursday 22nd - Rest day
Friday 23rd - Gym cross trainer & treadmill (cardio); power walk (on the way to the footy!)
Saturday 24th - Gym circuit class (strength)
Sunday 25th - Gym (12WBT fitness test)
Monday 26th - Gym cross trainer and treadmill (cardio)
Tuesday 27th - Gym cross trainer and treadmill (cardio and fitness)
Wednesday 28th - Gym 12WBT strength workout
Diet - My nutrition has been good, lots of fresh salads and protein. The sugar cravings are a little overwhelming and I have succumbed a few times. I have tried to make up for this by burning more calories in my workouts but I have to come up with a way to control my sugar habit! I am pretty sure sugar is going to be a common theme for me through this program.

Weight loss from September 19th - September 28th - 1.2 kilograms

Weight loss from April 14th, 2011 (beginning of weight loss road) to today - 10.7 kilograms.

Go me!

Image from We Heart It


September 22, 2011

How to make passionfruit curd in your thermomix

We have had the glut of all passionfruit gluts at our house these past months. We have literally had hundreds of these gorgeous juicy creatures falling off the vine. I have made cakes, muffins, jam, sauce and syrup with them but by far the staple recipe we have used is one for passionfruit curd. 


I have mentioned before about Mr Thermomix coming to visit at our place, on loan only at this stage. This machine is amazing and the amount of things I can cook in reduced time is astounding. Passionfruit (or lemon) curd in the Thermomix is too simple for words. I made a batch on the weekend so I thought I would show you in pictures because the colour is glorious.


Passionfruit Curd
Thermomix recipe (recipe from here)


2 eggs, beaten lightly
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 tblsp lemon juice
¼ cup passionfruit pulp, (about 3 passionfruit )
60g butter, chopped coarsely





Insert butterfly into bowl. Add all ingredients. 




Cook for 8 mins/80C/speed 3. Use steamer basket on top of lid instead of the measuring cup.





Check to see if mixture coats back of a spoon, if not cook for a further 2-3 mins or until desired consistency is achieved. (I didn’t need any longer).




Place in a small sterilised jar and chill until thickened. It lasts 4 or 5 days in the fridge.



Stove-top recipe


Combine ingredients in a small heatproof bowl, place over a small saucepan of simmering water, stir constantly until mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat.
Cover tightly and refrigerate until cold.
Passionfruit curd is yummy served in any number of ways

  • with meringues and berries
  • spooned into little tart cases
  • sandwiching a sponge together
  • straight from the bowl (my favourite).
I was hankering after cake when I made this batch of curd so I made this buttercake (recipe halved because it is a huge cake). After it was all mixed up and in the baking tin, I swirled through a liberal amount of the passionfruit curd. 


Then I baked it as per the recipe. The result? A light but super moist cake with the unmistakeable yum-ness of passionfruit. We ate it with a dollop of extra curd on top.


Needless to say....the cake didn't last longer than a day! I heart you Thermomix! The End.






September 20, 2011

12WBT pre-season

There will be no eating real ones but these are sweet! We Heart It.



As I mentioned in a previous post, I am just about to embark on the Michelle Bridges / Huggies 12 Week Body Transformation. Yikes! We kick off next week and so this week there have been a few tasks to complete in preparation. I have set some personal goals, made sure all my gear is ready to go (I still need to buy a heart rate monitor), cleaned much of the naughty food out of the cupboards and fridge and watched all of Michelle's podcasts. The slightly scary bit will be the measuring and taking photos of the "before" body.

One of the really important things that Michelle suggests is diarising your exercise and training program so that it really becomes another appointment to attend....like a meeting or a doctor's appointment. I know that if I have the conversation with myself about "will I or won't I get up early and go to the gym?", the won't sometimes might win out. If it is scheduled and in the diary there is little to no wriggle room for me to get out of it!

So this past week I scheduled my exercise and it's made a big difference to my approach (see my training program below). I have been exercising 3 - 4 times per week and watching my food for about 5 months now and in that time have managed to shed around 9 kilograms. There is still 8 kilograms to go to reach my goal weight so I am on the road and I am aiming for the 12WBT to be a big new challenge and motivator for me to achieve that goal by Christmas. Fortunately there are other lovely bloggy people on the road with me for support and encouragement. We will all need that.

I am going to blog weekly (on a Wednesday) so that I can keep a public track of my results. Having all of you to report into each week will be extra incentive too. So, here are this weeks results and training:

Monday 12th - Gym circuit class
Tuesday 13th - Gym cross trainer (cardio)
Wednesday 14th - Gym circuit class (morning) and pilates (evening)
Thursday 15th - Rest day
Friday 16th - Gym cross trainer (cardio)
Saturday 17th - Gym circuit (self directed)
Sunday 18th - Gym treadmill (cardio)
Monday 19th - Gym cross trainer (morning) and clinical pilates (evening)

Diet - pretty balanced; lots of sugar cravings and a couple of small break outs of a slice of cake and some chocolate
Weight loss from September 12th - September 19th - 1.8 kilograms
Weight loss from April 14th, 2011 (beginning of weight loss road) to today - 9.5 kilograms

I am thrilled to say the least. Bring it Michelle and 12WBT!



September 18, 2011

Beautiful Sunday





It has been a beautiful Sunday.
It has been such a lovely day that I feel wistfully sad that it is coming to an end.

There was a (small) sleep in.
A visit to the gym.
A slow and yummy breakfast for the boys.
Sunshine.
Playground.
Passionfruit curd was made (post on that coming soon).
A cake was baked.
Sunday newspapers.
Washing folded.
Saffron risotto for dinner followed by chocolate custard with home preserved cherries from summer.
A visit from the grandparents.
Household admin ticked off the list.
A lovely cup of tea made in a pot.

See, I told you it was a gorgeous day. Simple and family focused. It was great to feel spring in the air and have nowhere to be but together.


I hope that you had a beautiful Sunday too. Share with me?

Image from We Heart It

September 17, 2011

On customer service



I am often disappointed by customer service. A lot of the time it is as if those in businesses have forgotten the true meaning of the term. I have had customer service experiences in the last few months where I could have sworn that the so-called customer service representative truly thought they were doing me a huge favour by sauntering over to the register to take my money. That said, I do have some really positive customer service experiences in my world, but often they tend to be relationships that are built over time rather than exceptional one off consumer experiences.

This past week I had a great experience.

Back in July when I went to the "Blogopolis" conference, at one of the events we were given a voucher to redeem a free diary or calendar from Mooo. I love me a freebie and we do own a few Mooo products over here at the Pavillion so I was fairly quick to log in to Mooo and redeem my freebie. Some time passed and I realised the lovely red diary I had chosen had not arrived. Hmmmmmm.

I sent an email to enquire to Mooo's customer service team at 4:45pm last Tuesday and at 4:51pm the same day received an apologetic reply for the glitch with my order and a promise to ensure the diary would get to me quickly. Yes, it took only 6 minutes for a reply. You have to love that.

My diary arrived express 36 hours later. Wow. That's what I call great customer service.
This is not the actual diary, but it looks a little like this:


Image from Mooo


Thanks Mooo. Oh, and if you would like some freebie school holiday fun courtesy of Mooo, go here. Mooo are celebrating their 5th birthday and so there are loads of free printables available for all kinds of creative fun with the kids. Happy printing!


Disclaimer: This post was completely unsolicited and represents my personal opinion. I received the free diary as a result of my participation in a Blogopolis blogger gathering.

September 15, 2011

R U OK?







I am running a little bit behind schedule this week.
So at 10pm, with a couple of hours left of R U OK? day to go, here I am. Late to what would appear to have been a successful campaign. I saw yellow everywhere on my social media streams today, and that has to be a good thing.

I asked a couple of people today. And yes, I am clear that they are both ok.
A couple of my lovely friends asked me whether I am ok too.
It felt good to be asked and it felt even better to be able to answer with a clear yes.
In the last year, my answer would not always have been yes. As I have struggled with the Batsman's diagnosis and a house full of therapists nearly every day, there have been highs and some devastating lows.
I feel like I am standing a little more in the sunshine this past couple of months. I can feel it on my cheeks.

I am ok. Really. I am ok.













September 12, 2011

My bum (Part II) and the Michelle Bridges 12WBT










I wrote a little while ago about my bum growing keen attitude to exercise. In the last few weeks as my dodgy ankle came to the fore I fell off the wagon a little bit. Three to four gym visits a week had become one to two and combined with overly enthusiastic tasting of the goodies I baked for the kinder fete....well you get where this is going and what it means for my bum.

It is time to take things up a notch and while my ankle won't allow me to do the boot camp I was planning, I have found a substitute which I think may be even better. The Michelle Bridges 12 Week Body Transformation (12WBT) is an online program where everything you need to get off your butt and achieve your goals is provided - eating plans, exercise programs, motivation tapes, forums to get support from others - all of it and run by Michelle Bridges of Biggest Loser kudos.

So I have signed up.

I'm a little bit scared.
I'm a lot excited, particularly about achieving my goals.

I plan to work hard.
I am committed to losing another 7 - 10 kilograms by the end of this year.
I am going to be tough on myself about following the program and the rules.

And I won't be on my own. Loads of other mums have signed up for a 12WBT being run by Michelle via the Huggies website - a mum specific program designed to support mums with all the distractions of kids to achieve their fitness and health goals. There is also at least one other person I know who is going on the ride too. The very gorgeous Sarah from Ah, the possibilities is doing it too. Good luck Sarah, and hey, at least we know we can kick each other's backsides via the blogosphere should it become motivationally necessary!

I am going to blog updates on my progress along the way and would love your support and if necessary, a virtual kick up the butt to keep me going.

Wish me luck! We start on September 26.

September 9, 2011

Grateful for kinder community and how to make butterscotch buttons



Our kindergarten fete is tomorrow.

It is the biggest day of the year on our fundraising calendar. Huge.

An amazing array of goodies and activities will keep our local community entertained and raising money for four whole hours. This afternoon I went to the kinder to deliver my baking contributions and the place was buzzing with preparations and life - plants, cakes, jumping castle, farm animals, books, white elephant, craft, country market, show bags, auction, second hand toys, barbecue, coffee stand and more. It really is extraordinary and all from the 80 families who make up our lovely kinder community.

I'm grateful to be part of it and for my kids to have the opportunity of a day of fun in their neighbourhood. Thanks Maxabella for hosting our gorgeous gratitude fest too.

I have had a bit of a bakefest this week in preparation for the fete.
On my baking schedule have been passionfruit shortbread, muesli cookies, chocolate macaroons and cupcakes. I have also made lemon cordial, jars of preserved lemons and lemon and ginger marmalade with the abundance of lemons that have come from my parent's tree this year.

And there were also these little lovelies. Butterscotch buttons. They are so easy and so yummy I thought I would share the recipe with you. It comes from a Women's Weekly cookbook (circa 1991) called "Sweet Old Fashioned Favourites".


Butterscotch Buttons.


Butterscotch buttons (left) & passionfruit shortbread (right)



125g butter
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 and 1/4 cups of self raising flour

Beat butter, vanill, sugar and golden syrup in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in sifted flour. Roll 2 level teaspoons of mixture into a ball, place about 5cm apart on lined baking trays. Flatten balls slightly with a fork. Bake in slow (150 degrees C) about 25 minutes or until firm. Cool on wire rack. Makes about 40 buttons. Can be stored for a week in an airtight container.

Happy weekend everyone and thanks for being here.

September 6, 2011

Girl time





I had some girl time last night.
There were three of us.
We met at a little suburban Japanese place, after all the kids had started giving their dads the run around gone to bed.

We ate sushi and tempura.
We chatted, compared notes, laughed, shared stories and debated a couple of life's dilemmas.
It was lovely.
In the end, we were the last ones left in the restaurant and the waiter, doubling as clean-up guy, turned on the vaccuum cleaner. It was time to go. We stood on the street in the cold, still talking ten to the dozen. The shopping strip let us down. On a Monday night, there wasn't even a dodgy little bar open for coffee and a little more conversation. Booooooooooo!

There is not enough girl time in my life. There will be more.

I am hereby promising myself that.








September 4, 2011

An anonymous guest post: my friend has a new boyfriend







Tonight, I have an anonymous guest post for you. The post comes from a fellow blogger, who, for reasons which will become obvious as you read it, was unwilling to post this on her own blog. In my view, moral dilemmas make for great blogging so read away and leave some words of wisdom for Anonymous as she tackles this issue.



My friend has a new boyfriend.

I should be happy for her, I should be keen to have them over and to check him out.

But I am not. I am not happy for her, I don't want to meet him.

The relationship started 12 months ago, he is married, with two primary aged children. At the beginning he told her he would never leave his wife and family, he would never hurt them. His marriage was actually pretty great and he didn't want his children to suffer the consequences from a broken marriage.

I suggested she end it. I thought she had, but clearly she just hid it from me instead, knowing I didn't approve.

A few weeks ago he set himself up with a new apartment, changed jobs and then went home and told his wife he didn't love her anymore. He left. Into the arms of my friend, close to 20 years younger than he and his wife.

Imagine.

Apparently the wife is not taking it very well, and being "really difficult".

So here is my dilemma.

Relationships come and go, marriages break up, people fall in love.

Am I being childish? Should I at least meet him, without the voice in my head screaming, "you are a grubby, shit of a husband who treated your wife like crap and left her for the first piece of tight available arse you could get."

Should I be happy for my friend and not judge her as a 'home-wrecker'?

Is it right to be annoyed on behalf of a woman I have never met and don't know?

Am I being all moral high ground-ish? Or, am I right to think that my friend is not displaying traits I want in a friend, she isn't really gaining any respect from anyone and why should I pretend to like this new man, who I think is pretty scummy?


When you lose respect for a friend, can you maintain the friendship?






September 2, 2011

Grateful, happy 2nd birthday Segovia and you get to do the giving






It's two years ago today that I began to write this blog.

Happy bloggy birthday to me. Happy second birthday Segovia, my little corner of the internet where I began to write for me again, to put into words what moves and inspires me and to capture moments in the lives of our boys and the experience of being their mum. Segovia began slowly and intermittently and it has taken time to get into a blogging groove. Now, I couldn't imagine life without this little space, without my other blog, The I Love You Song where I tell the Batsman's autism story and without the amazingly gorgeous people I have connected with through blogging.
Thank you for being here. I love it.

I love it too, that people mark blogging milestones and birthdays. One year, ten years, one hundred posts or a thousand, it is a wonderful thing to mark the achievement, the words put down, the self expression, the connections - all of it. Lots of people having blog birthdays manage to arrange fabulous giveaways and the like to celebrate. I have not been anywhere near organised enough to achieve that however I want to turn the idea completely on it's head.

It's Segovia's birthday and you get to do the giving. Stay with me and I will get to the point.

I have written before of how grateful I am for this place. The Learning for Life Autism Centre provide the Batsman's home based early intervention program and have done so day in day out for almost  eighteen months. The program and therapy team have made an extraordinary difference in all aspects of the Batsman's development and Learning for Life deliver the program with compassion, expertise, grace and respect. I am just so very grateful for all they have done and continue to do to support our precious boy.

Each year in November, Learning for Life hold a huge fundraising ball to raise money. Early intervention programs of this magnitude and intensity cost big bucks and are beyond the financial reach of most families. In addition to their therapy programs, Learning for Life and their volunteers fundraise to subsidise the cost of programs for families who would otherwise be unable to provide this type of intervention for their child.

So here is where you come in.

As part of the Learning for Life Ball each year there is a live auction and a silent auction where an amazing array of donated goodies fall under the auctioneer's hammer. If you, or someone you know, is in a position to donate an item, goods or a service for the auction, then I would love to hear from you. So far, I have gathered donated items as diverse as a professional architecture service package worth $3000, a grove of semi-mature trees ready to plant, cases of wine, a hamper of deli goods and gift cards from big department stores. The only real provisos are that the item or service would need to be redeemable in Melbourne, Australia and be something that you can imagine a crowd of some 350 enthusiastic ball-goers would be willing to bid for. Think big, think small - it could be anything!

If you are able to donate an auction item and help a child with autism receive a program just like the one that is helping the Batsman be all he can be, leave me a comment below with details and I will email you.




Thanks so much for reading this and helping me celebrate Segovia's bloggy birthday.

Have an amazing weekend.