3rd Weekend Down - Days 17-19

What a bloody mess Friday turned out to be, I started the morning off by trying to find a tyre replacement place, eventually got sorted at Superquick in Sea Point. 900 Bucks later I had a new tyre. Bleh! Not the best way to start your day, especially not a week before payday.

Anywhoo, the diet damage done by the previous evenings shenanigans also played heavily on me, so much so that I decided to do another semi-fasted day.

I had my 2l of water and split a summer salad into 4 portions. I also ensure that my apple was split into 2. This pretty much made up my daily meals. Now I have been told by one of my mates, who is a dietician that this could work for some but not necessarily for all - she has advised that fasting even for short periods of time may actually halt my metabolism entirely - Bleh, okay then, thanks for the heads up love, unfortunately I don't have 2k right now to run a full blood panel and see exactly what would work for my specific body - for the most part though I feel that I am trying and eventually will stumble onto what works for me - this is about a change in general and not so much a diet, yes I want to kick the pounds too, and with enough exercise I'm sure they will abate. I am seeing centimeter loss and lets face it, most sports professionals/trainers etc will tell you that the real results you will only start noticing in yourself between 4-8 weeks, so we still have a ways to go.

I am back on the alcohol free stint until Wednesday of next week. That makes 22 Days yes, but remember I lapsed on Thursday so I had to add another day.

So regardless of having had several explanations I was still very dismayed and completely thrown by the lack of weight lost over the last 2 and a half weeks but have been told that this could also be linked to my current emotional state. I guess that’s valid, but didn’t quite realize how big of an effect your emotional state/well-being has on weight loss – until I started researching this.

In particular I was floored to find the clinical trials and psychological studies that had been done over the course of the last 2 decades. These were done on a variety of people trying to lose weight. All different shapes and sizes as well as racial demographics. Some only wanting to lose 5pounds others 100pounds. It was strange to find that a whole lot of them showed that a real key to weight loss was not diet or exercise, but is instead a person's emotional state.  A recent study inclusive of questionnaire discovered that 90 percent of the participants ignored the psychological link between food and exercise.

Okay, so yes. I am an emotional eater, yes I have been sad and angry recently. Yes my personal life is an absolute disaster right now…so maybe I need to start seriously focusing on getting my mind right too. The truth is that there are a lot of logistics involved in happiness. So I will now start actively trying to sort out my “shit”. We all have baggage, some only a handbag others a duffel some even vans and vans full of baggage. So in an attempt to “declutter” my personal baggage I will work on some much needed emotional stability, with my recent relocation, being away from my kids(they are furry) and trying the long-distance thing with my boyfriend it has been putting a heavy strain on my chi. Furthermore missing friends and family is hard, but there are always ways around things. I need to go and set a realistic game plan into motion to figure out what I want in life and in love.

Jawbone UP3 Data:

Step Goal: 6500     Actual: 6628

Sleep Goal: 7hr      Actual: 4h22m (Bleh)

Food Intake:

2l Water

Coffee: 3 Cups, 1 Brown Sugar, Milk

Woolies Summer Salad with 1 can of Tuna(in Water)

1 Medium Apple

Saturday Day 18

The day started out fairly normal, I did my washing and went for a stroll in the vineyard. I saw the strangest thing ever! A Hadeda chasing Ducks out of a tree! Yes you heard me right. Now this is not something you see in Gauteng people. You may see ducks on a pond but certainly not in high trees.

A lot of my day was spent on studies and binge watching Felicity. There are so many now famous actors who had small roles in that show. It’s actually funny that I didn’t remember them before now.

Here’s a quick list of the stars and their most recent shows.

Bethany Joy Lenz – Hayley in One Tree Hill

Tyra Banks – Top Model and now her own Talk show

Donald Faison – Best known as Turk from Scrubs

Eddie Cahill – CSI NY, Under the Dome

Christopher Gorham – He played Harrison in the 2000’s tv show Popular and now recently played Auggie in Covert Affairs and can be seen as Wyatt in Heartbeat.

Simon Rex  - Scary Movie 3,4 & 5

Amy Smart – Many movies, recently played Allison in Justified

I didn’t feel like cooking at all this weekend, I did make myself a 2 egg omelette in the morning, filled with mushroom, onion, green pepper and cheese. But when it came to lunch and dinner I opted for a delicious Caesar Salad from Woolies which I split over the 2 mealtimes.

Jawbone UP3 Data:

Step Goal: 6500             Actual: 4991 (Epic Fail)

Sleep Goal: 7hr              Actual: 8hr40m

Sunday – Day 19

Sunday started out all smoggy – for all intent and purpose it looked like it would be a day spent indoors, but with some luck this swung around and by 12PM the sky was clear. For me it was a day of reflection and some much needed introspection. I took a long stroll in the garden, past the pond through the vineyard –  after which I spent some time with my awesome neighbours (They are horses by the way). There are 5 of them, right next door and they are super friendly. I don't know there is something about stroking a horse and looking into it's eyes.

In the afternoon I went to spend some time at my dune.  There were some gorgeous sail boats sailing on the turquoise water – I want one!

That is something I love doing, sailing, yes it's hard and yes we got stuck on a hobie cad in Mauritius for a while, a loooooong while. But sailing is a blast, fishing and diving are blasts too and they all go hand in hand together. Don't get me wrong I'll take a speed boat too, but sailing with wind, is just something else. Ideally I would like to get a combination boat, with sails and a powerful engine.



 

A song in particular that helped me today with my "introspection" is 'Catch & Release" - Matt Simons

Do yourselves a favour and really listen to the words, ah, such a great song. 




The food day was pretty boring but at least I cooked again.

Breakfast - 2 Egg Omlette
                   Cheese, Tomato, Mushroom, Green Pepper

Lunch - Green Salad - Lettuce, Cucumber, Onion, Cherry Tomato, Feta

Dinner: Beef, Green Beans & Baked Mushrooms

Ingredients: 100g Tenderised Steak
                       80g Portobello Mushrooms
                       80g Green Beans
                       30g Grated Cheese
                       5-10g Cream Cheese
                       5-10g Pesto (Mine is made  
                        with Red Pepper, Garlic, Cashews, Spices and Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
10ml Sweet Chili Sauce
10ml Soy Sauce (Can be reduced salt soy too)


Here's the video, it really is super easy! Remember to liven things up through spices.

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.