It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...But it's not even Halloween yet!

Seasoned mums know to slowly accumulate for Christmas across the year. Sales, stuff you get given that would be perfect for someone else, where ever the inspiration comes from. Often we pile it in the back of a closet. Then we forget what we have, go to the shops and then buy more than we need and still have Christmas stress.

I do presents a bit differently. I keep a spreadsheet of all my gift giving. Oh. My. Goodness. When you see it all written in one place. The amount of gift giving when you have kids is insane.

I do my spread sheets with Google drive. Then I always have access to the list. When I am at the shops and thinking of getting something for someone I can check my phone and decide whether I already have enough for that person yet. I don't need to rely of memory :)

The spreadsheet allows me to have a different tab for each year. Its fun to look back on what you did in previous years.  A lot of it repeats itself. The one that sneaks up on people is the end of year school and extra curricular teachers gift giving. There is the teachers, maybe the teacher aides, the music teacher etc... I like to give my teacher gifts on the Tuesday of the last week of school. They are extra appreciative as they haven't received many yet and if your child was sick for a the last two days you have gotten it out the way.

Having last years list means that you remember everything and everyone you did last year. It stops you from getting caught out and having to hunt down candy canes for the classmates that have disappeared from three different department stores, even though you saw them everywhere in mid November.

Its about saving time, money and stress.

It means being done before the school holidays hit so you can spend more time holidaying and less time dragging the kids around the shops. It is about minimising the the stress of an unavoidable annual social event.

I aspire to be done with Christmas shopping by the 1st of December, save for those entirely optional last minute bargains that you can only buy from mid December. I am to have everything ready to be posted in that first week so that it has heaps of time to get there, but doesn't get there too freakishly early.

So along with a spreadsheet reminder it is important to see everyone's stuff in one place. To gauge if its enough and to have it ready to go I love these little gift bags for this. In the past I have used click zip bags, they work well too. I have put sticky notes with a little bit of sticky tape to stop them falling off.

They store pretty well in the cupboard and my kids presents go in pillow cases. Hiding presents in pillowcases makes them pretty much invisible to the kids.

There is nothing better than having Christmas out the way with as little effort as possible.

Well not gaining weight from the stress and having a bit of smug satisfaction comes a close second lol.

Bounce, bounce, flip :)

Yesterday Karen J and I took the kids to Velocity Park for a jump. The only time available on short notice was 5-6pm. Rather smack on dinner time.

So what I did was roast some lamb for a late lunch (dinner at lunch time). Then before I left I made some lamb and salad sandwiches for the kids, and some lamb and salad rice paper rolls for us for dinner and left them in the fridge. I can't tell you how glad I am to be organised enough to not have to eat what the kids eat for dinner.

We headed out to velocity Park. I caught up with Karen J and had a good catch up which we watched the kids. Here is Kai --->

Jason is doing his best to blend in. I call him "Halloween Jase" as he is in orange and black throwing a foam block at me.

He has only just been able to fit back in that shirt after not being able to wear it for a couple of years! I am also fitting into shirts I wasn't able to wear for a couple of months :)

Gotta love the pay offs  :)




Jules is doing a back flip. He has desperately wanted to do one for over a year. And now he has found a place where he can.

He is in 7th heaven and we will be going every Monday night. As soon as we get back he gets out the calendar as he wants to know when we are going back. Melts the heart :)

We will find the money from somewhere... probably from not spending it on takeaway lol.





Here us Geordie loving the basket ball hoop.

Isn't my family gorgeous :) I can't tell you how much they are my world. I am so blessed.

The trick with action shots like this is to take a video and then pause it on a clear dramatic moment. Then you take a screen shot and turn it in to a photo.

The hour was over all too fast and Karen J left and said she was getting fish and chips for dinner. This would have been me a month ago.

The kids wanted a treat so we stopped to get the kids a McDonalds soft serve for 30c. I wondered if that counted as takeaway and I thought no. Its more the main meals I was meaning.

The rice paper rolls were delicious and this morning I was grateful for them as I was down 0.4 kilos to 103.5.

Lose twice as much weight with tracking!

It said that people who track lose twice as much weight!

I track everything in my little red notebook, but I don't work out the calories. Unless something goes wrong. Like today. When I got on the scales today I had gained a 100g which put me about a half a kilo higher than I expected to be. So then I went to my notebook and put everything into calorie king to see where it had gone wrong.

I had my normal breakfast, subway, roast chicken dinner and the normal types of snacks. Ahh I see the problem, both lunch and dinner were higher than normal. Subway was my favourite, a Tuna sub with old english cheese and southwest chipolte dressing. This made sense as we needed a quick lunch after the bike ride. And a gals gotta have a few safe takeaways. All together it was about 1980kj

Comparing it with other subs, if I had of gotten a Turkey sub, with Cheddar and honey mustard it would have been 1392kj. This is a great start.

I cooked a roast for dinner and I did feel a little like Suzie Homemaker. However.. Next Day.. Not the result I was looking for. So I had roast pumpkin, peas, corn, roast potato and 3 roast chicken legs with skin on. Ahhh I see where I have gone wrong. 3 chicken legs with skin is 1404kj. For a whole meal of 2267kj.

Having the same meal with 1 chicken leg would be 1331. But whos going to have just one leg? Its a kids favourite meal. See I told you kids are the biggest sabotages!

Go Jase!

Jason had started out at 97 kilos and now he tells the that he is 89.!

I am so proud and happy for him. He thinks his goal weight is 75 kilos. I really hope he gets to goal. How cool would that be?

We had a family bike ride today. Jules and I did about 5k at Boondall Wetlands. But I ended up with an exercise headache which really sucks when that happens. It kills the rest of the day. Down another 0.4 kilos today. I am enjoying scale love!

Jason did a massive mountain bike ride today. He is stuffed but very happy. He is doing so well!

I am determined to retreat socially this term. Its the social eating that does us in. I am best off eating as much safe food as I can. That said a girls afternoon is being planned by Nikki for the 26th of October. I will bring my tea, and fruit platter and maybe even a veggie and dip platter. I am hoping no one notices me eating just my own food. I hate it when its obvious you are dieting.

Subconciously people seem to want you to be the same as them. They either dismiss the diet or give you a lecture on how to diet: ""All you gotta do is...<fill in the blank here...>" I hate being the centre of attention that way. My preferred way to go is to not refuse food, then its not obvious. I can let that serving sit almost untouched on my plate for a long time and then discreetly bin it. People don't pressure you if they don't realise you are dieting.

Of course I would rather just skip all of that completely. Especially this term when I have a lofty goal of 85 kilos by Christmas!

Gorgeous Thai Curry!

Everyone in our household has agreed that they will be no evil takeaway until after Christmas! Its not worth the weight gain. Instead we are creating our own freezer meal take aways.

I have a large scan pan wok and every time I cook, I can fit in about 3 family meals worth. Its a very efficient way to get a large stock up. Here are the spares from tonight's dinner going in the freezer. -->

This thai recipe is based off Michelle Bridges 12WBT recipe "Amanda W’s Red Curry of Pumpkin & Green Beans"

But I evolved it and I absolutely love it:

1) Roast a tray of pumpkin that is very thinly coated in coconut oil.
2) Get 4 kaffir lime leaves, bunch of coriander, and basil, and basil in a mortal and pestle
3) Finely dice onion and fry it in veggie stock.
4) Add some red or green curry paste stir for a minute until aromatic.
5) Add some diced chicken and brown it
6) Add in broccoli, beans, and whatever stir fry veggies you like. More the merrier.
7) Quickly add in half of of the herbs and coconut cream
8) Lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes until veges are cooked.
9) Add in the rest of the herbs, a tablespoon of brown sugar, splash fish sauce, splash lime juice.

It really is the fresh spices that make this dish sooo good :) Serve over brown rice if you want it to be extra healthy :)

There are about 18 "take away meal"s that are weight loss friendly in my freezer, ready to go!

The problem is that the kids don't like many of them :( So I now I need to make kid friendly freezer meals as well.

I was down another 0.4 kgs on the scale today! So its all very much worth it. Think of all the money and time I will save from being organised!

Beach, Waves, Sand and Sharks!

This morning Jason cuddled my back after his ride. His chest feels much harder these days. I asked him how much he weighs now and he said that he doesn't bother with that. He knows that if he keeps eating small, and exercising that's all he needs to do. He's got his priorities right. Also with all the muscle he would be gaining, the scale would be meaningless.

I on the other hand, have a full on romance with the scale lol. Today I was down another 0.4 kilos. At 104.5 kilos I have lost all the weight gained from the hens weekend, but I am still up a 100g from the Gold Coast Holiday. This goes to show why it is so important to minimise social eating, talk about 1 step forward, 1 step back.

We took Oma (Grandma) to the beach today and a kindly gentleman warned us about sharks. He has seen them in the area. It made me really paranoid, like an attack was imminent. I wouldn't let Jules go more than about knee depth. He dealt with it really well and lay down in it.




When I got home I googled it. There is no way other than not going in the water to be 100% safe.

Its safest when: the water is clear, there a lot of other people around, and the surf life savers are there.

The last unprovoked attack in Queensland was 2011 so I needn't have been so concerned.

Wear dark colours, avoid any bling, and don't go too far out.

But you are more likely to be struck by lightning than attacked by a shark.


Jules loves the water and Geordie loves to bury himself in the sand. We need to get to the beach more often.

We left after lunch and on the way munched on strawberries, after the beach the kids had a box of shapes and I had one of my pumpkin cupcakes.

While I dodged the fish n chips. I didn't dodge the cravings. I had to wrestle with a monster craving to go to the pub and have the family special. We decided not to go as it really isn't worth the kilo I would likely gain from going. I have eaten a few naughty things today, but I am going to forgive myself as it could have been much, much worse!

Back on the wagon

As soon as I got away from the Hens weekend I was eating healthily. That night I had beef stew with veggies and mash potato. Yesterday the scales had me at 105.9. This is up 1.1 kilos because of the Hens Weekend. If I hadn't gone, I would have been down another 0.6. So I am actually 1.7 kilos worse off. When every gram is hard earned is is so damn frustrating to go the wrong way.

It was important to go, because it was good for Margi, Me, Jason and the boys. Really the only downside was the food. I focused on immediately getting back into the healthy mindset which was only possible as I had food cooked before I left.

I baked some Roast Pumpkin Mini Muffins:

Firstly roast pumpkin with a tiny baste of coconut oil.

Then mix:
1/2 cup of wholemeal self-raising flour, 78g 1158 kj
3/4 cup of self-raising flour, 107g, 1588kj
3/4 cup of dark brown sugar, 151g, 2476kj
Shake of cinamon and nutmeg
Grind of salt.
Puree about a cans worth of roast pumpkin, and add it in, 426g, 929 kj
2 Tablespoons coconut oil 40g, 1548 kj
2 large egg whites 68g, 134 kj
Vanilla essence
2/3 cup of sultanas, 90g 1191 kj
(997g total weight, 9029 total kj)
Made 16 small cupcakes, about 564kj each.
* 9.06kj per gram

The muffins tasted good, nice and sweet. Slightly rubbery though, so I might play with using one whole egg and one egg white next time.

Yesterday we went to Velocity Park. It is an indoor trampoline center. It was a really good work out for all involved. Regrettably I am too heavy for this at the moment, but the idea is that I should be able to do this next year.

Here is Jason giving himself a nice arm workout on the rock wall. He said his shoulders were sore the next day :)

Geordie and Jules love jumping into the foam pit. Apparently its another workout getting out of the foam pit. :)

That's Geordie jumping in -->

Jules loves to do a double front flip into the foam pit it is so cool to watch and he is so happy in his element.





I was 105.5 this morning, down 0.4 :) Such a long way to go, but nice to be plodding in the right direction :)

Hens Weekend

Down 0.3 from yesterday, 104.8. Which is awesome. Jason got up at 6am and went for a 26km bike ride. He then dropped me off at Nikki's who took me to Margi, my sister in law's hens weekend.

Nikki's on the right and she is lovely. We are both friends of Karen Jones and slowly becoming friends ourselves. Margi, Nikki, Karen and I all scrapbook together.

Despite Nikki suggesting we get a pie I was smart enough to insist that I get some subway for lunch. I knew that we both needed to contain the damage as best as we could.









Margi has had everything planned for months and had a two day celebration at her house. The Saturday was a Hens night and the Sunday was the a high tea Briday Shower.


Margi is the one in the pink. The food and drink was lovely, but fattening. And rightfully so.

Margis hens weekend was good fun. She had planned everything to a T. She had lots of games and details. Like this Candy Bar:





We made our own pizzas, and she had lots of topping for us to put on a wrap and bake in the oven. It was a delicious dinner, I just made sure to go carefully on the cheese. That night we got in our pajamas and watched Bridesmaids.



She has awesome friends and my favourite bit was chatting to them. Sue is my mother in law on the left and Renee is on the right. Renee is a vegetarian and it was enjoyable talking about food with her.

She hadn't heard of the movie Forks over Knives so it was awesome to give her that tidbit. She is clearly slim (years of practice she said) and I asked her what she eats. she said that most people would find it boring but she likes cut up vegetables for snacks and curries for dinner. She said she loves to mash up herbs, garlic and lime juice for a salad dressing.

She struggles with a late night cravings, but clearly she is a picture of health. She also has a gorgeous nature and is very loyal and kind.



The lovely lady in black was great for me to talk to. She is career driven at the moment .She doesn't cook and struggles to eat. She tries to eat very well as she has a depressed hunger.

She can go a day with just a coffee because she is so busy in her roast chicken takeaway restaurant. She is lucky to have her husband stay at home with her kids as he is very good in that role and he makes sure she eats well.

She says she finds it hard to eat when she is stressed. She smokes and drinks coffee which seems to replace eating for her. It was so interesting to meet new people and hear their new perspectives!


The next day was the high tea and look at the good job she did! So much attention to detail.









Each of the tea pots had what was in them written on the side. There was a lot of choices. I enjoyed the caramel tea. As caramel is my favourite treat.

Margi had Kyra, her brother-in-law to be wife as her bridesmaid. But it really wasn't working out. She only lived 15 mins down the road, but didn't attend at all and also refused to come the dress fitting. This was so bad, as it was the bridesmaids duty to throw the hens night, let alone show up! Margi is incredibly sweet and kept tolerating it.

Kyra also didn't attend the engagement party or Dan's (groom) 30th. Margi was in tears at one point and we all supported her and convinced  her to let Kyra go as she was too unreliable to risk her wedding. Margi has put her heart and soul into this wedding for the least two years and really deserved better. It was hard to do, but the lady in black is now the new bridesmaid :)

As expected I felll well and truly off the wagon. I was glad to return to my wonderful husband and hear what they had been up to.

You always appreciate your man so much more after a girls night out.

I had arranged for Oma to look after Geordie while Jules and Jason went for a mountain bike ride. Jules did really well. Here he is tramping through the bush.



After that Jason picked up Geordie, he took them to see a movie (Planes: Fire and Rescue) and then took them to the corner store to choose some treats.

They then had a guys movie night. Some good junk food choices there, not totally out of control but very fun for the kids.




Jason slept on the couch next to the boys on the Sofa bed. The boys had so much fun :) It looks like a healthy dad is a fun dad :)







Sunday was the biggest surprise of all! He took Geordie out for a family ride! Finally the ability for the four of us to go riding together! No babysitters required!

Geordie has been a very reluctant rider. I am so glad he got finally got there! Look at those smiles!

I need potatoes

Last week I ate a lot of beef stew with potato. This worked well because potato is a great weight loss carb. It is a vegetable which deeply satisfies and fills you up. I wasn't recording exact portions, because I didn't need to. Eating lots of vegetables was the ticket.

Yesterday I kind of forgot this and I had pasta for lunch and baked bean jaffles for dinner. When I calculated the calories they were bad and this is why:

100g of Potato is 60 calories or 251 kilojoules.

100g of Pasta is 140 calories or 584 kilojoules.

100g of Bread is 237 calories or 990 kilojoules.

I am used to a plain potato with a tiny bit of salt. If you have potatoes with lashings of fat you will get fat, but there is a big difference between chips and boiled potato. Give it time and slowly cut down the added fat, your tastebuds will change and you will reap the benefits.

Here is a 4 minute video which celebrates how awesome potatoes are. I also love how 5 kilos is $5, that is one cheap and healthy food!

Today I roasted some amazing pumpkin. I took half a pumpkin and cut it up small so it that  would roast in half an hour. Then I put it on a tray with some baking paper. I got a teaspoon of coconut oil and using a pastry brush I lightly coated the pumpkin pieces. The pumpkin had the most perfect texture and flavour. This was a good use of oil, but I needed very little :)

So this morning the scales were kind and they gave me a 100g loss. It would have been better if I hadn't had pasta and bread the same day. And better still if I had potatoes, but every now and then you have got to live a little eh? I just don't want to eat like that too often or I it will take forever to budge the scales.

The pumpkin and potato really filled me up. Later that night I just had some chicken. Today's eating has been great and I am looking forward to that showing up in the scales soon.

Today I installed a hair-drier holder and a hair straightening iron on the back of my bathroom cabinet door. Its nice for them to have have home. I have had them for about two months but they were just adding to the clutter as I hadn't installed them. Its nice to see the backlog slowly eroding :)

Quiet day

I had a nice quiet day at home with the kids :) I played pool and lots of other games with Geordie. I prepared strawberries and mandarins ready for the family to raid. Its amazing how much a difference it makes if the food is already cut up and placed front and centre of the fridge. And chilled bite sized fruit is so gorgeous, especially after your taste buds start to change :)

I put a beef stew with veggies on the slow cooker, and I have made Symply too good boscaiola sauce to go with pasta. This pasta sauce is a kid and party favourite and it is weight loss food :)  I calculated the calorie density of the meals as well. Its a pain to do but you weigh all the ingredients as it goes into the pot and then you weigh the entire food when it is finished.  You calculate the calories of the entire pot. I use Calorie King, then you divide the calories by the weight. Then next time you make that dish you have a pretty good idea of how many calories was in it. I save it as custom food in calorie king with the portion being a single gram then you just put in how many grams you ate.

I know that seems absurd and unnecessary and if it is for you that's brilliant, but for me I know I can get complacent and being accurate with calories means I can enjoy my food budget without worrying too much about going over.

Another thing I made today was some homemade veggie stock. Basically when I was chopping up the other two meals the veggie scraps were going into a large pot with water. I use the vegetable stock to flavour my meals and also to avoid using oil when I am frying onions etc. Oils is actually pretty nutrient poor so I try to avoid and minimise it. I hate buying vegetable stock as it is so cheap to make at home. When I make a batch I freeze off most of in a large ice cube tray. I then bag it. I also do this with coconut milk and tomato paste.

The obesity crisis is essentially driven by people not making enough food at home, so anything that helps us make food is critical to our health. I have an extra freezer which is essential. I can make extra food and then save it. This helps prevent a lot of takeaway and waste.

As I have been paying off the house debt I have been losing weight. I am down about 3 kilos from last Monday which is pretty cool given that I have just finished a 4 day holiday. I am getting ahead with the food reserve with some carrot cupcakes in the freezer, as well as ham and bean soup, spaghetti and beef stew ready to go when we need it.

Yesterday I farewelled James at the airport as he is on his way to see his parents for 2 weeks in Sydney. It is a bit harder not having a babysitter so that I can go for a ride with Jason in the morning. That said I do have a cross trainer and treadmill in the house and a trampoline out the back so its no excuse not to exercise.

I did some web work and I hung up some pictures up around the house. I have been really stuck on that for some time as I have been a perfectionist about where they should go and how much I still like them. So I didn't hang anything. I hung up two today and it took a bit out of me. (Yes I know how lame that sounds.) The good news is that I have got another little bit of the medium term backlog off my back, the bad news is that dinner suffered.

How could dinner (Boscaiola pasta) suffer when I cooked it early today? Well it suffered because I already ate it for lunch. What I felt like was baked beans and cheese toasted sandwiches. Yes I know that was diet suicide. And yes I did it anyway. And yes I am bummed about it now.

Some days we don't win eh? However at least I got a little bit ahead with the backlog and food prep.

Where I went wrong was not taking the time to find new things to cook, or maybe it was just not having enough emergency dinners in the freezer.