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!

 

Phuza Thursday #Day16

In South Africa we have 11 official languages, "phuza" is the Zulu word for “drink”  so a few years ago, society decided that we South Africans like to party on Thursdays too and it was aptly renamed Phuza Thursday’s since it’s inception, many bars, pubs, clubs and restaurants have jumped on the bandwagon and tend to have great live music, as well as drink & food specials running on Thursdays.

Today was not a typical diet regime Thursday, but as mentioned on Monday I knew we would be meeting an institutional partner for drinks after work so I had to provision for those extra calories.  I did this by doing a semi-fasted day.

I had no breakfast or mid-morning snack and had a Caesar salad as a late lunch, to at least line the stomach.

My Chicken Caesar Salad consisted of:

Grilled chicken, Parmesan shavings, Baby Cos Salad and an Anchovy dressing, I did get them to leave the croutons out. There was no egg or bacon in this particular Caesar salad.

I did end up having 3 glasses of Chenin Blanc – 360 Calories
(There are 120 calories in 1 5 fluid ounce serving of Chenin Blanc Wine) 4 Tequila’s – 256 calories( depending on the variant of Tequila there are between 64-69 Calories in a tequila shot.)

This Tequila video is hilarious. 

 




Yeah, in hindsight we ended up having a bit of a late night. But do not be worried, for every glass of vino, I had a glass of water too – this upped my intake of water to 3l for the day, which should help mitigate the damage done by the booze.

I think that realistically it’s okay to “fall off the horse” so to speak, as long as you take your flops into account and ensure you get right back on the horse.

The events of the evening unfortunately did not end there, on the way home I got a flat tyre - FANFUCKING TASTIC! I was between Camps Bay and Hout Bay on an outstretch of road with poor signal. 1st For Women, my insurer were not reachable on their "Guardian Angels" line, so essentially I was Fucked.

I couldn't believe the amount of vehicles who just zoomed by - bearing in mind that I was woman alone at roughly now 12:00AM in the morning. After about the 15th car that just zipped by, I decided to actively wave the next one down - and low and behold they stopped! There are still good people in the world. Initially we tried to change the tyre ourselves but for some reason my "jack" did not have a key. Shame my rescuers as they are now aptly called, offered to use theirs and  in the process it got bent. So that idea was a wash. Eventually after about another 15 min I was able to get a hold of 1st for women, they advised that their driver would be about an hour.

While we waited for the "Guardian Angel" to arrive the 3 of us had a great conversation - they happened to be muso's too. It's really rare to just randomly meet such like minded people, nevertheless we did.  We wanted to get the spare wheel pumped up so it would be a quick tyre change, unfortunately the "car gods" had other plans for me, now of all times, my car's lighter was stuck!!!!! Argh sometimes the saying: "Anything that can go wrong...will" Is too bloody true! Luckily their lighter worked just fine so we did manage to get the spare wheel pumped up. It was closer to 1.5 hours, before the  "Guardian Angel" got there. Through all of this I have to say both Eben and Jana were awesome, they didn't have to wait for me, but they did. My tyre was changed and we all got away from there at around 1:40AM, just goes to show, that you can make friends in the most obb places.

Daily Data:

Water: 3l
Wine: 3 x 120ml Chenin Blanc
Tequila: 4 x 25ml Shots 
Food: Chicken Ceasar Salad 

Jawbone UP3 Tracker Data:
Step Goal: 6500                Actual: 6260 (240 steps short)
Sleep Goal: 7hr                 Actual 3hr 45m (Bleh)

Tomorrow is another day, I leave you with some words of wisdom and a minion meme. Ciao Ciao

 

 

WTF! Sometimes I just wanna scream - Day 15

To give you an accurate picture of my current mindset we have to start at 7:20 AM. I'm on route to the office listening to KFM I was canning myself at the silly little Faux Pas that the DJ's make, so the world is up in arms about a 12 -year old singer that was featured on America's Got Talent - Grace VanderWaal, somewhere in her heritage there's Dutch/German we Afrikaners have the Van Der Waal's  too. She is without a doubt going to be HUGE and I will put money on the fact that she will win America's Got Talent 2016 in a few days. She has a very wistful, hypnotic sound, a sound very similar to the music I love, and make.

If you haven't heard her, do yourself a quick fav and watch her latest performance:

Now I'm by no means saying the girl isn't talented, she really is. But there are artist's out there already with a similar sound, so when people tell me she has a unique sound (the morning show Radio Dj's in this particular instance) I want to flip out. The 2nd blunder in the same sentence, is stating how the US have things right with cultivating young American talent, then they mention "The Biebs" Justin Bieber - Uh hello guys, he is Canadian! Wrong example to use.

The truth is there are many many talented performers out there, the difference between getting discovered or not....is timing.

Being at the right place at the right time, can and will make or break an artist or band. As a qualified Producer myself, with a small independent Production Company, I am fully aware of the greatness that lies out there, it's all about cultivating it. I love finding new talent and working with independent musicians. Here are a few female vocalists, who may not be as "well known" but still have the talent and very similar vocal stylings.

From the US

Gnash Ft Olivia O'Brien - I Hate You, I Love You  
(I'm talking about her voice here folks)

Melanie Martinez - Mad Hatter

Halsey - Ghost  - Please also listen to the Acoustic(Stripped) Version

From South Africa : Ryki - Please Try














UK Based Singers:

Kate Nash - Foundations 

Imogen Heap - Hear me Out (Also known as Frou Frou she was in the Duo)

From Canada

Sarah McLachlan - Angel (One of my all time favourites)

In fact if we rewind to the nineties and earlier, we can look at artists, like Jewel, K's Choice, Lene Marlin, Michelle Branch, Bethany Joy Lenz, Kate Vogel, to name a few this vocal style was and remains loved! - I think I've made my point.

Suddenly Liezl V is telling me(she does traffic on KFM) that a mains water pipe has burst just outside the building I work, and even better the entire block is closed off -this presented several wonderful little "challenges" for me. Why did I use qoutes, so you can sense the sarcasm dripping from my lips. 

Challenge one would be that there would be traffic or should I say, more traffic than usual & two, I would either not be able to get to my designated parking area at all, or it would take a small miracle to get to it. When I eventually got to the turn off, I was met with a complete road closure, I had to circle round the block and attempt to reach it from the other side - nope also sealed. Okay I know what you're thinking, just find street parking...No people this is Cape Town, motorists here have no respect for road rules, they make 'em as they go along. those beautiful Red and Yellow lines, they're for decoration "to brighten your day" what I'm saying is that every possible place to park a car is already taken, including the illegal spots.

After circling round the block twice, I decided to put my hazards on and cornered one of the traffic officers, I explained that they either had to radio up to the other side to move a cone, or let me through that side so I could park inside our office park, the latter won out...finally.

Not the ideal way to start the day, but alas we plunder on. On Wednesday's I don't take a lunch break so that I can leave early and attend a Pilates class at my gym. This also means that I don't get my 2km walk in over lunch, which FYI I already had to skip on Monday cause no one was in the office but me - my step goal is suffering this week. Bleh.

I didn't get away on time and to add insult to injury the stupid closed road, caused a massive backlog in traffic, it took me 22min  to do 1 Kilometer! Sufficed to say, I was late for Pilates - so I opted to take a stroll in the vineyard at home instead.Today was going to be my first weigh in and measuring day to check my progress....why did I say Was??? Because it did not happen - My Landlord's cleaner Wendy comes to my cottage supposedly once a week to wash floors and vacuum(but hasn't for the last 5 weeks) and unfortunately she decided that my sheet of paper with the measurements on was garbage. 
She chucked it!!!!! ARGH ARGH ARGH - ANGRY BIRDS FACE.

Now we start again, look I can see and feel a difference in my tightest clothing and there has been a small drop in weight(from what I remember) but I don't get to phased about the numbers on the scale(mainly because muscle weighs more than fat), to me it's more about centimeter loss, overall BMI and optimizing my health. So...I will weigh and measure myself in the morning on an empty stomach and then have my official first weigh in and measure in 2 weeks time. Such a buzzkill.


Day 15 - Food Diary

Water: 2l
Tea: 1 Cup Rooibos Tea, (2 tea bags), 1 Brown Sugar, Milk
Coffee: 2 Cups, 1 Brown Sugar, Milk Special Coffee: 1 Nescafe Vanilla Latte

Breakfast - Apple

Mid morning Snack: 80g Yoghurt

Lunch - Beef Stroganoff & Cauliflower Rice (made last night)

Afternoon Snack - None

Dinner - Lemon Butter Chicken & Broccoli with Cheese (5-8min cooking time)

I was in a rush today with dinner so it was short and sweet, quite possibly even a bit boring. The key is to use spices of your choice on your chicken after it has been steamed.

Ingredients:
100-200g Broccoli
100g Chicken Breast (Deboned & Skinless)
40g Cheese
Spices of your choice - I used oregano, vegetable spice
Fresh Lemon
My Dipping Sauce : Paarlman's Blue Cheese Salad Dressing

Today I leave you with some inspiration and a laugh. Ciao

 

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.

Whoop there it is! #Day13

Today was a, less than blue Monday, I was on my Ace in the office, which is quite fun cause then I can sing without judgement, lol, not that I don’t sing when they’re here, I do, but I suppose the volume is turned down.  The only downside when your at the office alone is that you can’t go on lunch or for me, my 2km lunch time party stroll. This impacts my step goal heavily and I actually look forward to going on it, besides I've perfected my soundtrack for it, gotta test that baby out!!!

I have had a burning question on my mind lately and yes, it’s very random: Do construction companies give preferential rates during Winter? Why the hell am I asking that? Well it’s simple, I have been in Cape Town for a few month’s now and during the course of the last 2 months i.e Winter Month’s there have been 5 companies in our building altering their offices. Yes people I said 5!  It is such a blatant disregard for the businesses around them, I mean seriously, if you are on the Body Corporate for a massive building with multiple tenants who operate in various industries, from lets say 9AM-5PM(Keeping it casual as this is Cape Town). Surely out of respect for your tenants, you will ensure that only 1 unit at a time gets to do upgrades, or at the most 2 at opposite ends of the building. We have 5 that are currently building and breaking, it’s absolutely detrimental to our business as we do a lot of client sourcing and business development on a daily basis. If your client or prospect can’t hear what you’re saying or vice versa it really makes things tricky – and is generally not a great first impression.

To crown this incessant behaviour we have just received another bloody notice for a 6^th company who will be starting their alterations tomorrow – these are set to take 2 weeks to complete! For crying in a bucket people, 8-12 weeks of non-stop construction is outright ludicrous.

If these are not cosmetic in nature, but rather vital/structural upgrades then surely  the Body Corporate would be doing them personally. I don’t know I just feel that this blatant disregard for your fellow tenants is shocking. Surely in the 21^st Century some sort of concession can be made with the contractors to do the most noise polluting tasks at particular times – then at least productivity is not continuously interrupted. 

I suppose in an ideal world, Truckers, Construction, Road Works there's more but today these 3 in particular come to mind - all the various laborious things that annoy the rest of society can start working at other hours than the rest of the world. Wouldn’t that make more sense ??? I know what your thinking but then they should charge more – my answer, not necessarily. I'm not saying it wouldn't suck for them to now work different times, but hey a lot of jobs require odd hours.

Broadcasters, Performers, Security, Traders, Pilots, Air Hostesses, Delivery Services, Police, Doctors, Emergency Service Workers, Taxi's, Musicians,DJ's,(Radio/Club), Producers, Directors, Actors/Actresses Barmen, Waiters, the list is long people, I'm just backing my sentiment that odd working hours are an everyday part of the world already.

If you look at these jobs all of them work odd hours and believe you me they don’t get time and a half when they happen to have to work the night shift or the early breakfast show.  How many accidents involving large vehicles have claimed lives on our roads, or caused complete chaos in peak hour traffic.

Have you ever tried getting home at 5PM in Jhb just to find roads are being painted? Yes I kid you not, peak hour traffic held up because you can’t drive over the wet paint. Hellooo South African Road Works - try painting them at 10:00AM by midday they’ll be dry, yes that is before the lunch rush and guess what, the morning rush is unaffected because they left home and got to work between 6-9AM.

Unfortunately I could point out thousands of little Faux Pas like that, where people just need to look at things a little more logically. If you tried driving from Jhb to Pta on the N14 over the course of the last 6 months, you will find bloody roadworks for miles and miles with no clear end in sight, surely there are better ways to do these things. Like I don’t know planning the work load, sectioning off different areas and actually completing one part at a time, but doing it effectively and properly.  Here’s a thought instead of closing a lane for 5km at a time, maybe work on 1km at a time, God knows, you would need a crew of at least 200 strong to finish 5km’s at a time. 

I dunno, commonsense definitely is not so common yall.

Back to the life challenge. It’s day 13, can’t believe almost 2 weeks are up – that means only 8 days to go before I reach my alcohol-free end date. This may have to change as I have a work meeting at Bascule Bar on Thursday evening and it would be outright rude not join in for a glass of Wine. Only 1 glass, and if that is indeed the case I will make sure that I do an extra few reps/laps to make up for it – but for now the Tequila will have to stay behind the bar.

It was an absolute rushed day for me, I work full-time, am working on my own independent doccie, studying for my 2^nd qualification through Unisa, looking for a good Community Project/Org to join as a volunteer,writing this blog and of course trying to lose weight. It all can be a bit daunting at times, especially when you realize at 5:00PM that you misread the due date on your Assignments and you have French and Economics Assignments due before 12:00PM. ERRR ME GERRRD!

For the most part I stuck to a decent food intake but unfortunately I just couldn’t cook, I went to my dune after work, had a quick smoke and decided to bail on swimming at the Gym. I would do Pilates at home instead. It’s a shorter workout and I could listen to my French CD while doing it – 2 birds one stone (always a preferred route, wouldn’t you agree?)

Our Pilates Trainer had given us a head’s up about a home Tubing option at Makro, which I duly bought last weekend. I got one for my bestie too, ah I miss my Blommie! (if you watched Liewe Heksie,  a very popular children’s program(when I was a kid) here in South Africa, there were 2 main characters - I’m Heksie and she is Blommie – partners in crime lol) Ag shame, she will now kind of be forced to do the exercises with me (in tandem – she’s still in Jozi) on some nights.  Okay getting off topic, the point is I didn’t go to gym but exercised at home instead.

 

 First Image: 10 of each, 2 reps.

 

2nd Image : 30 each,  2 reps

3rd Image Below: 10 each, 2 reps for the arms and 20 each, 2 reps for the core.

 

 My Food Day: Day 13

Water 1.8l 

Coffee: 2 Cups, 1 Brown Sugar, Milk

Special Coffee : 1 x Vanilla Latte

200ml 100% Pure Strawberry Juice

Breakfast: 40g All Bran Flakes

                 2 Chopped up Strawberries

                                                        80-100ml Milk

Lunch: Chicken Cordon Bleu + Creamed Spinach & Mushroom (From last night)

Afternoon Snack: None

Dinner : 2 Gluten Free Rice Cakes with Hummus, Cucumber, and 40g Gouda Cheese (Sliced)

Jawbone UP3 tracker data

Step Goal: 6500                              Actual 6872

Sleep Goal: 7h                                Actual: 5h41

Lowest Heart Rate: 57bpm            Highest: 74bpm

Resting Heart Rate: 65bpm 

Today I will leave you with some motivation, and a giggle. Ciao Ciao