Daily Dish, more like Daily Mich

Yes there are apps for everything nowadays, Daily Dish is in essence a personal shopper slash recipe provider for those who are "too busy" to shop. Ok fair enough however, the sevice comes with a pricetag and quite frankly I could spend that cash more effectively. So instead of paying someone else to shop for me or plan recipes out for me, when I can't get to the shop there's online ordering and delivery from many stores these days.

As for the 30 min meals....challenge accepted! I will create my own meals and recipes and aim for the 30 min cook time although I will be checking commentary on the Daily Dish to see whether all meal cooking times are truly 30min. The DailyMich meals will never take longer than 45min but with Winter looming I know a hearty caserole or 2 will be on the books.

Becausd I'm a major foodie the recipes I will be sharing tasty, hearty, flavourful yet healthy meals. For the first  month to 6 weeks the meals will lean towards the banting style of things as I'm looking to shred a few pounds but I will always make a carb recommendation to accompany the meal for those who are so inclined.

Day 1

Breakfast: Fried Egg  & 3 Rashers of lean back Bacon (Fried in coconut oil)
                    1/4 Green Pepper(substitute for slice of toast)
                    Spices - Sundried Tomato & Garlic Salt
                                   Cayenne Pepper

Lunch: Tuna Salad

Lettuce, Tomato, white onion, pimento stuffed olives, cucumber  1tbsp Mayo, 1 can Tuna 

Daily Mish Dinner Number 1

 - Creamy Chicken Nut Ratatouille

(Serves 2)

200g Deboned Skinless Chicken Breast 

300g Zucchini 

60g White Onion

60-80g Button Mushrooms

20ml Coconut Oil for frying

Cayenne Pepper, Oregano, Lemon & Garlic Salt

Sauce:

25g Cream of Chicken Soup powder

80-100ml water

35-50ml Cream

20-25g Peanut Satay( Peanuts,ginger,garlic,chilies,vinegar,canola oil,antioxidant:TBHQ,stock,curry paste,salt,gelatins,citric acid blended in food processor then chilled) or buy in store "Sauceress Sauces" is proudly South African and available in most Spar's, Pick & Pay's, other brands make similar so any peanut Satay will do

Chop the Zucchini, Mushrooms and onion ibto thin slices, debone and skin your chicken if not bought pre-skinned and deboned. Cut chicken into strips or cubes down to your own preference.

Heat up pan, with coconut oil. When hot add onions until browned, slowly add chicken cubes and spice generously with Cayenne pepper, lemon & garlic salt and oregano. This should take 3-5 min depending on the volume of chicken. Now that the chicken and onions are spiced and browned it's time to add Mushrooms and Zucchini now reduce heat and stirfry.

Whilst this is in pan add the chicken soup powder, water, mayo and cream together and stir well finally add peanut satay and stir until dissolved. Turn your attemtion back to the pan. Once colour starts changing on Zucchini we will be ready to add the sauce mix.

Add sauce mix being up the heat to med-high 3-4 and wait for it to thicken, stir throughout takes approximately 2-3 minutes. Taste and serve! Delish

Make your presence known & your absence felt! Day 20-21

Just a short and sweet one today, Monday was a wash! Yes the day was a 0 on a contract and I have decided to expel it from memory. Well not quite but I sure wish I could.  There is a lot happening in the financial world right now, with investors looking for the next best thing, emerging markets have seen a lot of growth over the last 2 quarters and we are hoping to maintain this going forward.

Unfortunately here in SA our strengthening Rand has lost a lot of ground in the month of August, predominantly relating to the ongoing Hawks Vs Gordhan saga.

Sufficed to say, it was a busy busy day at the office. I had a bit of a food wobble as well. With all the chaos, I was unable to eat at my regular intervals. I did manage to keep my water quota in tact and did go for my 2km walk, so that was a bonus. After work, I got to Betty (My little Sandero) and noticed that the remote didn’t work, I manually unlocked the car and to my shock horror realised that I had left the lights on accidentally and that she was dead!

This would’ve been absolutely fine, except that I had taken my jumper cables out of the car on Friday when I went to get a new tyre and didn’t; put them back in. The mission to find jumper cables began…strange as it may sound 5 out 6 people don’y have jumper cables, or at least that was my experience. I eventually had a chat with the hotel security staff and they offered to have their CID team come out with a Jump Kit for me. This was at 5:05PM, at 5:45PM I had reached my limit in patience and decided that I would call my insurer: 1^st for Women – after 6 failed calls/dropped calls whatever you want to call it, I eventually spoke to someone and they requested the roadside assistance. At 6:55PM the roadside assistance guy arrived, he gave me a quick jump and I was off. I work in Green Point and live in Hout Bay, it’s roughly a 30-40min drive.

Now yes in fairness I could’ve still gone to gym and returned home at around 8:45PM-9:00PM (1hr gym session and 50min to get there and then back to my house) then gotten the camera ready and cooked a healthy dinner but I didn’t…. Instead I succumbed to temptation and got myself some comfort food in the form of a McDonald’s Big Tasty Burger. Yes I know 800 Calories in one burger, but I really did not give a fuck at that point.

I have to say after 20 days of no carbs that burger was like a blessing!

Daily Food Diary

Water 2.5l (I compensated and drank an extra 500ml with my burger, to aid digestion)

Tea: 2 cups green tea, no sugar, no milk

Coffee 2 Cups, 1 brown Sugar, Milk

Food

1 Medium Sized Apple

1 x Big Tasty Burger

Jawbone UP3 Tracker Data:

Step Goal: 6500                     Actual: 7775

Sleep Goal: 7hr                      Actual: 6hr

Resting Heart Rate: 64 Bpm  

Highest Measured Heart Rate: 81 Bpm

Tuesday Day 21

Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day, I have a beautiful feeling everything’s going my way. Yes indeed, this Tuesday morning was started with clear skies and a glorious view on my drive to work.

I was feeling energized and ready to tackle the day. Only one more day till I could actively start incorporating alcohol back into my eating regime and 3 weeks of for all intent and purpose sticking to my diet.

Work is work and play is play yes, but sometimes I get so upset at the sheer volume of mediocrity I am faced with. People so bloody complacent and content in doing the very least possible. Arghh this is what causes a person to snap! I don’t know I tend to live by the mantra when it comes to work that “ Make your presence known and your absence felt” if you live your life that way, you will always be an asset to your business and in demand for future prospects. I believe no matter what position you find yourself in that you should immerse yourself in it and become the best in it. I think I need to patent that slogan, as my peers from various other industries are already using it in their motivational talks - pay me my royalties guys... Evidently that is not what the rest of society believes and it fucks me right off. Can we please get a grip and start being contributing members of society, or is that too much to ask?

I had a great lunchtime stroll down Somerset Road and have managed to cut my walking time down to 22min, bearing in mind that I am in full office attire and can’t very well run or work up too much of a sweat in them. I have made a decision to start changing into another set of clothes for the walk when I return from Jhb on the 11^th.

It was also back on track with the food day here’s the breakdown:

Water: 2l

Tea: 1 Cup Green Tea

Coffee 2 Cups, 1 Brown Sugar, Milk

Breakfast: 1 Boiled Egg

                   6 Strawberries

Mid-morning snack: 80ml Yoghurt

 

Lunch: Tuna Salad

Lettuce, Herbs, Cherry  Tomatoes,     

Carrot Shavings, Beetroot Shavings,  

Onion 

1/2 can of tuna (in water). 

5ml Mayo

Dinner: Chicken Stir-fry(Great mix to have with some noodles making it a Chicken 

Chow Mein for the rest of the fam)

               

 100g Chicken Breast

 50g Cabbage,

 40gCarrot,

 40gOnion,

 40g Mushroom,

 30g Bean Sprouts

 20g Sweet Corn

10ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Soy Sauce

Salt & Pepper

There is no video today as I was crammed for time, besides, everyone of you knows how to chop, and that is all a stir fry is, getting your ingredients together, chopping them up and frying them. Starting with the onions folks, then add the mushrooms, then the meat and then everything else and Viola you have your meal!

 Jawbone UP3 Tracker Data:

Step goal: 6500             Actual: 8928

Sleep Goal:                    Actual: 3h46m (Not great at all, couldn't turn my mind off been worrying about a friend of mine who's gonna have a baby soon - positive vibes to the universe that all goes well)

Today's exercise was something different, I did a little bit of a cardio dance work out at home, it'll get the blood pumping guys, try it if you wanna pump up that booty! Hey O hey o!

 

Triumph on a Tuesday

Hahahahah my word, I completely forgot that Tyra used to be in Felicity! As my recent Gilmore Giirls binge came to a close, I started on Felicity and am now on Season 3 where Noel(Scott Foley) Yes the guy who was married to Jennifer Garner before Ben Affleck has just met Tyra's character. Damn Tyra looks good 15 years later!

As I'm sitting here in my bed vigorously typing away, Felicity has now ended and I've switched to a doccie featuring my favourite animal in the world, Orca's. Oh my word, these beautiful, intelligent, savages have always tickled my fancy. Before music and film stole my soul, my first love was Killer Whales. I have memories of a vacation to Durban when I was a little kid, we had been to Sea world in Durban - now call Ushaka Marine World, and had seen all the marine animals as well as the live shows. I wanted to become a Marine Biologist, I remember the poster on the wall. The biggest animal on the poster was the Blue Whale, and lower down was a much prettier whale, it was black and white. I became obsessed, I had countless books on marine life and was desperate to find out more. At age 5 I saw the 1977 Movie Orca for the first time, it left a lasting impression with me, so much so that I was happy the whale ate the man and got his revenge, I mean, jeez human beings can be such bloody heinous creatures... My grandfather Oupa Rassie (He was my mom's dad, told me that they actually have real live Killer Whales in some Aquariums in the world, and that people swam with them. In that moment, I put the first thing on my bucket list. To touch and hopefully swim with, a killer whale.

2 years later the world was blessed with the gift that was "Free Willy" and despite the sequel, 3rd and 4th movies not being as awesome, this sent the world into a new direction, It awakened a global empathy towards these majestic creatures and sparked the whole “Captivity Debate” all over.  Eventually public outcry for the freeing and reintegration into the wild was so overwhelming that Warner Brothers(yes the film studio) could no longer blame funding or logistics. The long road to freedom for Keiko began.

In case you live on another planet, Keiko is the Orca Whale that was cast as Willy. This process took years and eventually he did spend time in the ocean as a “free whale”, unfortunately he never found his pod again and died alone in 2003-20 years after the original release of Free Willy. 

Why am I going on a whale tangent right now??? Because it’s a prelude…I will be uploading a blog about this incredible journey and some other Orca controversy over the weekend, so stay tuned.

Back to the day at hand. My colleagues were back in the office today, which meant 2 things for me… Firstly I would have to go on the "Office Sundries Run" - which turned out to be a painfully annoying experience, as everyone and their uncles were all at Makro! What was supposed to be an hour max took me an hour and 40 min.

The 2nd and more important implication that everyone was back is that I got to test out my afternoon stroll Soundtrack – The song selection worked like a charm yo, I was two-stepping all the way, yes the general public think I’m an escaped mental patient, but fuck em I really don’t care, what other people think – Life is too short.

Here’s the soundtrack:

JT – Cant Stop the Feeling

Meghan Trainor – Me Too

Mr Probs – Waves

Ellie Goulding – Never Forget You

Halsey  - Strange Love                                

Calvin & RiRi – This is what you came for

Halsey – Colours

Matt Simmons – Catch & Release

Lukas Graeme – 7 Years

Lochnville - Cold Shoulder

Can I say –Holla! This mix not only put a spring in my step, but it provided a lot of entertainment for passersby. My food day was a little more normal, today but because I didn’t make food on Monday evening I didn’t have lunch, so I whipped up a basic green salad and added some Billies (Biltong) but like the clever girl I am I forgot to add my Feta to the mix.

My job requires a lot of research and statistical analysis, as I was perusing the net for the top daily investment related articles, I stumbled across a post by one of my fav entrepreneurs Hootsuite CEO/Founder Ryan Holmes.

For those of you who don’t know what Hootsuite is, don’t worry, a lot of people don’t. In a nut shell Hootsuite is a platform/tool that businesses use to manage their Social Media – But now we’re getting off track the reason I mentioned the article in the first place is that I tend to share Ryan’s views on business. His most recent article “How not to run a Billion Dollar Company” definitely makes me feel better about the world and society as a whole, knowing that we have CEO’s out there with a little more grey matter between the ears, then say the “Trumps” of the world, helps my chi. Feel free to read this insightful article as well.

"How NOT to Run a Billion-Dollar Company in 2016"

After work I headed to the gym for my normal swim – did 80 laps and didn’t feel quite as pasted as the week before, but the Pilates I did Monday were definitely impacting today – I could feel a distinct burn in my core area for the entire day. I’ve also read that a combination of weight-cardio-toning –exercises are the ideal course of action for  weight-loss so I think I will change my routine a tad starting next week.

On the dinner side of things I wanted to try something new. I have been hearing a lot of good things about cauliflower rice and as such decided that I would give it a try – however when I got to the grocery store I was horrified to find that the pre-diced cauliflower rice costs nearly triple the price than a normal cauliflower head, Being the Al Cheapo that I am, I opted to grab the normal cauliflower instead – I would be making my own cauliflower rice.

Here's my food day, followed by the cooking vid for dinner.

Day 14 

Water 1.85l

Tea: 0

Coffee : 2 Cups, with Milk, 1 brown Sugar

Special Coffee - 1 Nescafe Vanilla Latte

Breakfast: 40g All Bran Flakes

                 2 Chopped Strawberries

                 100ml Milk

Lunch: Biltong Salad

Ingredients:

Lettuce, Cucumber, Tomato, Onion, Olives, Avo,70g Beef Biltong (and there should be Feta in too, I just forgot #Facepalm)

Afternoon Snack: Apple

Dinner: Beef Stroganoff & Cauliflower Rice

Ingredients (2 Portions)

200g Tenderised Beef Steak

50g Onions

80g Mushrooms

80g Green Pepper

180g Cauliflower

Olive Oil

Garlic

Here's the vid:

Okie dokie lemon shmokey, tomorrow is another day and you bet your ass I still have more to say. Today I will leave you with some "Peaceful Warrior" quotes, something minion related and a song, that you may have never heard before.

I absolutely LURVE Halsey - Her voice is freaking awesome - Here's 2 songs that you may or may not have heard before and if you like it, be sure to check her other stuff out too! Yes this is not the official music vid, there doesn't seem to be one yet, but it's about listening to the songs.

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Ah yes some remnants by U2 are very fitting here. You ever have one of those days, where the emotions just run you the fuck over. Well for me today was one of those days, I woke up early - by early I mean before my alarm(8:30 on a Sunday). Got out of bed to a grey sky with thunderous clouds, I decided I would get a crack on the final load of washing for the week. 

I also had to start narrowing down my Community Outreach Volunteering situation, I have always been involved in one form or another with Community Outreach, strange that now after my 3rd year of Psychology, it is deemed a prerequisite for one of my modules. (Not strange that it's a prerequisite, strange that it only becomes one in year 3). When I still lived in Jhb, I volunteered at The Florida Baby Clinic - A place of safety for orphaned babies, most of them HIV positive, I also spent time at the Rape Crisis Centre in Hillbrow, and for the last 2 years have been actively trying to get my own Social Entrepreneurship program going in Zandspruit - Now that I have moved, I think Langa or Kayelitsha will be ideal areas. Yes it's frustrating that 2 years of hard work, dealing with the community and their elders have just been washed down the drain because I had to relocate, but it is what it is and we will start again. There are always people less fortunate than you, they don't need a hand out, they need a hand up, change starts and ends with each one of us, personally I want to be someone who makes a difference, not for glory or praise but rather to make an actual difference!

For whatever reason I was very emotional, I cried over the smallest things. I don't know whether it's the overload of Felicity I've been watching, food deprivation, this "time" an emotional overload from the hectic week, being angered at myself for eating the bloody fruit pastilles or what! But for the life of me I couldn't stop randomly crying today. It's more fitting to quote REM - It's been a bad day please don't take a picture it's been a bad day please...

Yes my life is a tad chaotic right now and I have had a lot going on over the course of the last few months, but for the most part, I've got a lot more to be thankful for than most. So it was just random and weird kind of gives me the eerie feeling that something is coming. I don't know, it's like a pang in my gut....watch this space I will keep you in the loop.

Before we get into the food day, I have to note how amazingly talented and insightful JJ Abrams is, the man is a bloody genius, I would love to have a coffee and just get into his mind. When I think of all the shows I watched and loved growing up - now specifically thinking of my teens up until early 20's he was the producer/director/writer of quite a few of my favourites. 

Felicity is just one example.... I love when writers/producers really grasp their target audience. This comes through by how well the targeted viewers react to the work. You may not know Felicity but I'm sure you remember, LOST...woah look I hate what they did in the end, but no one out there can deny he had us hooked.

I also love his movies. He tends to go a bit beyond the norm, and pushes the envelope, but I like that. A show I loved even more than LOST was without a doubt FRINGE - if you haven't watched it, please do yourselves a favour and get it. If I had to go into the awesomeness that is Fringe I would take another 3-4 pages and at 22:25PM on a Sunday night, that really isn't an option. All I can say is if you are a paranormal activity enthusiast and love to venture into the I unknown, exploring the vastness that is the universe, ah it's brilliant, nope it's decided I will have to get you all the Skinny on Fringe. But that is definitely a blog for another day.

So back to the issue at hand, day 12 having cheated yesterday I think added to my bad mind space, and in fairness it really wasn't the end of the day as even with those calories added to my intake, I still kept my daily intake under 1300 Calories, which is 200 calories less than the recommended calorie intake for women to lose weight healthily (1500 Cal). I don't know, I just felt guilty as fuck and the constant stream of water running down my face did not help one bit.

However as I stated yesterday, the distinguishing factor between success and failure, is getting back up and on continuing on your journey. So I will dust this off and now that the crap's out of the house, I won't have it there to eat. Simple. My food day was actually not too boring today.

Food Diary Day 12

Water: 2l

Tea: 2 Cups of Rooibos Tea, with milk no sugar

Special Coffee 2 X Vanilla Latte 

Juice: 200ml Strawberry 100% Pure Juice + 200ml Water

Breakfast - 2 Egg Omlette

                  2 Eggs (Medium roughly 43g each)
                  Cheese 40g

                  1/4 Med Tomato
                  3 button mushrooms

                  1/4 Onion

  

Mid morning snack: None

Lunch - 60g Beef Biltong & Remaining Salad from Saturday night's Prawn Tempura

             

Afternoon Snack - 25g Cashew Nuts (Raw)

Dinner: Chicken Cordon Bleu & Creamed Spinach With Baked Mushrooms

Ingredients for 2 Portions

160-200g Chicken Breasts (2 in total(Skinless & Deboned)

70g Cheese.                  2-4 Bacon Strips

1 Egg                           Self Raising Flour

String

250-300g Spinach.        50-80g Onion

50ml Cream.                  Fresh Garlic/Chopped 160g Mushrooms (Portobello)

10-15ml Cream Cheese

This is a great meal for entertaining or when you wanna please the fam, it;s easy enough to combine a starch to and doesn't take too long. Enjoy!

 Here's the vid:




Jawbone UP3 Traker Data:
Step Goal: 6500              Actual: 9492
Sleep Goal 7h                 Actual: 8h7m
Resting Heart Rate: 63 Bpm
 
 


As we all need a little pep in our step, I leave you with these quotes:

Chicken Soup for the Soul #Days 10 -11

Heehaa it’s Friday, can you say excited….yes the weekend is upon us and I couldn’t contain myself. Regardless of the work day today, tomorrow is Saturday and I can just hang back and relax Whoo-hoo!

Today a good friend took me along to go pick up apparently, the best koeksusters in Cape Town! For those English speaking people out there wondering what the hell a koeksuster is… It’s an Afrikaans traditional dessert/tea time classic, every boer worth her salt, has someone in her family with a fantastic Koeksuster recipe, 9 times out of 10 it’s from Grandma.A golden delicious doughy twister directly sent from heaven, sweet, gooey and soft. 

Why did I opt to join him on this obviously temptation filled outing , well because we would be meeting them at Haas Coffee - a really eclectic chic, coffee shop in Cape Town, it can be found on Buitenkant Street in the City Bowl. If you are in the area pop in for a quick cuppa, you will not regret it.

Why is this special you ask, well Haas Coffee is a place that charms and enchants all of your senses.  For me as a Coffee Addict of Note the fresh aroma of roasted and ground coffee beans in the air immediately puts me in a happy mood. I would probably even like it more if I were not on a diet. Why??? Oh my giddy aunt! Their  assortment of decadent baked goods, just looking at them through the display counter window made me salivate like a bloody hungry dog.

I did peruse the menu, which also offered some sumptuous looking breakfasts and lunches, the ambience is also something to note, the background music sets the tone for a chilled out time regardless of whether meeting a client, or an old friend.  

Me likey, very mucho.  As I was perusing the menu a flyer on the table grabbed my attention.

 

A brew claiming to be the world’s strongest cup of coffee, I was intrigued. Aptly named Black Insomnia coffee, it’s predecessor called Death Wish contained 660mg caffeine, Black Insomnia contains a whopping 702mg. I had to try a cup.

Yum Tikka! Whopow that coffee is one for the books, I couldn’t even risk ruining the deliciousness of the coffee by tarnishing it with sugar.  Hmmmm for a moment all was right in the world again.

I guess I have a really high tolerance for caffeine because I felt completely fine,  not even the slightest hint of the jitters, I think that coffee and I might just start a really serious long term relationship.

After the coffee it was back to work and a fairly normal afternoon followed. I had already exceeded my minimum of 3 trips to the gym per week, so I opted to spend some time at my dune instead. I love my dune, it’s big, it’s high and what a view. Living in Hout Bay you are slap bang behind Table Mountain, we also have a small harbour and a long outstretched beach. My dune is closer to the harbour than the swimming beach…I think, I haven’t lived here long and to be honest I don’t know yet.

I happened to find it  my first time out there and just completely fell in love with it. It’s the highest point on that part of the beach and you can always appreciate the view, glorious mountains and a vast turquoise ocean, the beaches here are sandy white.  I come here after work before gym, to have my chill time, my thinking time.  I love people watching, and my spot is the ideal place for that.

Before I knew it, 40min had passed and the sun was starting to go down, I made a unilateral decision that I would rather go for a walk in the vineyard with Harry(My landlord’s Alsatian) than trek off to the gym this late(Rush Hour time for everyone who just came home from work).

I didn’t feel like cooking at all and had some curry leftover from lunch, so I decided to have that instead of cooking. So far this battle has continued to be won, but  today I faltered, twice. I gave into my friend’s plea to try the best Koeksuster in Cape Town – although only one bite I didn’t feel to happy about it later. In the late evening I did also succumb to a craving and had 10 Fruit Pastilles, I discovered the packet in the back of my drawer. I felt so guilty and gross after having them, yet felt to weak not to reach for them once they’d been seen. For me I guess it’s really much better to keep things out of sight and out of mind.

These types of changes and life challenges  really aren’t easy and I honestly can’t wait for it to be over, I just know that without  my snacks I would be totally screwed. It definitely affects you emotionally, obviously my wonderful cycle has also had a hand in my feelings this week and have driven me mental with cravings but still, I hate failing even if just a little.

I suppose it’s how you define success, in my opinion the difference between success and failure is not whether you fail or how many times you fail. The difference is the amount of times you get back on the horse and try again. - this is a marathon after all and by no means a sprint, I see a lot of high high’s and bloody down low’s coming over the course of the next 90 days, I’m just glad that I haven’t completely gone off the rails and binged like a banshee.

Below I have outlined my food day

Water: 2l

Coffee: 2 Cups, with Milk, 1 Brown Sugar

Teas – none

Special Coffee: 1 Vanilla Latte + 1 Black Insomnia Cappuccino (No added sugar for either)

Breakfast – 1 Medium Apple + 100ml Yogurt

Mid morning snack – Boiled Egg

Lunch – half of my left over curry

 

Afternoon Snack – None

Dinner: Remainder of my leftover Curry

Dessert: 20ml Cream, 70g strawberries

Cheats: 10 x Maynard’s Fruit Pastilles (470kj)

Jawbone UP3 Data:

Step Goal: 6500      Actual Steps: 7608

Sleep Goal : 7hr      Actual Sleep: 5hr42m (this always represents previous night)

Resting Heart Rate: 63Bpm

Day 11 – Saturday

I was home alone today, my landlord has taken a trip to Paternoster, a small town up the coast. This meant that I would need to feed Harry and lock him inside at night. It was for a change, a very pleasant change a glorious sunny day in the Mother City. This to me has been a very rare occurrence and has been the first Saturday in 4 weeks we’ve had sunshine. I fully capitalized on it, went for a 40min hike in the vineyard, played a little with Harry and had some me time next to the dam with Buddha. Yes there is a tiny built dam with a Buddha in my garden. Now that I had taken care of my step goal for the day, I could focus on other things. 

I did a little “Spring” clean in my place, did the general washing and decided to give Betty a wash too – for those who don’t know, Betty is my car.   

If you aren't aware, South Africa is currently facing one of it's worst droughts ever! So please everyone when washing your cars, do it with a bucket, minimize the hose usage and please do it in the afternoon. If you are like me and wish to take it even further, get yourself a nice scratch relief foam car was, which goes on straight to the dirty car - It feels like you are prepping your car for OPPIKOPPI (The best Music Festival in South Africa - only this time it's not for decoration, and it's not shoe shine. 

Not only is this a better way to wash your car (by saving water) It also yields amazing results.

  Behold - Tyre Before

 

 < Tyre After - That's with no scrubbing, FYI.

Get this stuff man.

Friday was one of my closest friend’s in the world’s birthday, my Steph. We’ve been friends for over a decade now, we met in the UK, we worked, lived, partied and traveled Europe together. I’m the kind of freak that will approach you in a public bathroom and ask you a question out right, that’s how we met actually. I had gone to an interview with my cousin in the UK and Steph was assisting the interviewers. I cornered her in the bathroom and asked her straight up not to give me the “practiced/pitched” answer but to lay the shit out there about the Company and how it would be to work there. Whether they were just sugaring us up – this was a very unorthodox interview.

She was so shocked, I remember her face like it was yesterday. Well sufficed to say we are both back in SA now and despite living at opposite ends of the country we always stay in touch.  It was her birthday on Friday and we’d been missing each other for a catch up chat for weeks already, it’s actually pretty bad, but life does have a habit of occasionally getting in the way. Well we had our catch up chat, about an hour and a half in all. It’s always so cathartic to speak to a close friend, to vent, to express, to share. I dunno, but it’s like “chicken soup for the soul” If anyone’s ever read the book, you’ll know what I mean. I needed it folks, I needed that pick me up.

The food day was also a bit of a fail, but this was mainly as I didn’t feel lus to cook (lus means in the mood/eager/looking forward to) here goes anyway –

Day 11 Food Diary

Water: 2l

Tea: 1 Cup Rooibos, milk, 1 brown sugar

Coffee 2 Cups, Milk, 1 brown sugar

Special Coffee 1 x Vanilla Latte

Breakfast: 40g All Bran Flakes

                     20g Peanuts

                     20g Raisins

                     100ml Full Cream Milk

Mid Morning Snack – None

Lunch: 100ml Yoghurt

Afternoon Snack – 50g Beef Drywors

Dinner: Tempura Prawns & Salad

 No video for today, I made this last week, the only difference for today, is that I actually had olives. Unfortunately I also had the remaining 10 Maynard’s Fruit Pastilles. The packet is now finished and has been thrown out so no more distracting Temptation, don’t get me wrong, this little fopa still brings me in under the max calorie intake for the day – every day I aim for between 900-1200Cal, according to most dieticians the best calorie intake for women to lose weight is between 1200-1500Cal a day. Regardless, it still makes me feel like a weakling that I had to have those sweets, damn it man. I was doing so well, but I won’t let this throw me completely, we’ll regroup and start again, tomorrow is another day I guess..

 

Jawbone UP3 Data

Step Goal: 6500        Actual: 9848

Sleep Goal: 7h           Actual: 8h13m

Resting Heart Rate: 61 Bpm

I will leave you with some cute and quirky quotes.

Laughed my ass off, especially at the one on Sweat by Ray Kroc.