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Healthy Living Challenge: Day 3 – Salad Day

Published by Oana

Day three has started well, I have waaaaay more energy than I used to have just a couple of days ago, so by 11 o’clock I had cleaned the house, did ALL my ironing and made two yummy healthy salads!!

The first was a wild rocket, giant prawn and avocado salad. I was quite ravenous at 11, when I finished the housework and felt like having some protein so the prawns in the freezer came to mind. I added a drop(literally) of olive oil in a pan, a cube of frozen garlic and one of frozen chilli(Tesco does them and I find them amazingly handy and use them in almost everything) and threw the rinsed prawns in with a bit of salt and pepper. I left them long enough to change colour but no longer as they can easily overcook. Threw them on a bed of wild rocket and added some avocado, following the advice about good fat I received the other day. I found it delicious and I enjoyed the various textures put together, the crunchiness of the prawn, the bitterness of the wild rocket and the softness of the avocado.

For my second salad I got the inspiration from this amazing 10 Creative Quinoa Recipes from Health Celebrity Chefs which is free to download as a pdf file, by the way. I had cooked quinoa before but I found it soggy and bitter and never went back to it! But this time I used Mary Cleaver’s recipe in which you rinse the quinoa BEFORE you cook it(which makes more sense, as washing it after would wash any taste off) and boiling it with a shallot, some garlic, a bay leaf and of course, salt, in order to infuse it with flavour. Added raw veggies, some black beans, one tablespoon olive oil and a touch of lemon.

Divine lunch waiting for us!!

We’re heading out for a drive and a walk with some salad, lean turkey and hubby’s energy bars packed with us so we don’t give into culinary temptation :-).

This is day 3 of this health challenge, only 37 days to go!

Have a sunny day, wherever you are!

Healthy Living Challenge:Day 2 – Hubby’s Energy Bars

Published by Oana

Last night I got a lovely surprise. Went out to church to listen to the African’s Children Choir and came back to healthy sweets, made by hubby and Emma. They worked well as a team,as you will see in the pics below and the best bit is that I have now healthy things to munch on when I get a sweet tooth.

Today was good,I stayed right on target with my dieting and exercise.

I managed to get a walk with Emma for 45 minutes. It wasn’t sunny like yesterday but mild and just right for a relaxed walk with a little girl whose cough settled overnight, thank goodness!

In terms of eating I felt more hungry that yesterday (probably a psychological thing since Saturdays used to be our treat days) but I managed to stay good with my oat breakfast(with a sprinkling of cold-milled flaxseed, a couple of walnuts and a touch of chocolate powder). I felt ravenous after our walk so I had a nice lunch of baked potato, beans and beetroot and snacked on dates, one of hubby’s energy bars and celery sticks and hummus. Dinner will be lean turkey and steamed veggies.

What have I learned today? Mary, one of my lovely friends who’s an expert in nutrition and healthy living reminded me of a couple of golden weight loss rules:

1. Drink a glass of lukewarm water and lemon first thing in the morning.

2. Exercise before breakfast, as it burns some of your stored fat.

3. Use good fats like coconut oil for cooking otherwise your body will go into starvation mood and hold on to the exisiting body fat instead of burning it during exercise and dieting.

Well this is all from me. Day 2 almost over, only 38 days to go of this challenge!

P.S. – if you find the energy bar idea appealing and want to give it a go, let me know. They are all natural and go at about 150 calories per bar. Plus they have a chocolate topping!!

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40 Days Healthy Living Challenge-Day 1

Published by Oana

Day One rolled by successfully.

I managed to go for a half an hour walk in the morning thanks to an unusually sunny day(for Northern Ireland!). So that’s my exercise covered for today. I don’t know if we’ll be as lucky tomorrow but it felt good to be out in the sun. I haven’t been out for a walk since we came back from Greece in October and it was long overdue, this walk!

I have been REALLY good with my eating too: had my porridge in the morning, had a light lunch of Romanian chicken and noodle soup(skin removed and no oil added) then snacked on fruit and celery sticks with hummus(reduced fat, from Sainsbury’s). Dinner was salmon baked in the oven(no added oil) with peas(my mother-in-law’s recipe, delicious!) and wheat free, gluten free pasta.

I am heading out to a concert tonight in our church so I am a bit scared of coffee and bun time at the end. I will need all my determination NOT to touch a bun.

What have I learned today:

1. Dispense with temptations or at least put them in the cupboard where you can’t see them. Out of sight, sort of out of mind 🙂

2. Remember to drink liquids. I got a bit tired and headachy around 3 o’clock just to realise I hadn’t had ANYTHING to drink today. Our boiler died this morning and then Emma came home with a very bad cough and needed attention, bed linen changed after boking her lunch from so much coughing and a trip to the pharmacy in the hope of a room humidifier.

3. I have great friends who left a lot of comments and advice on Facebook as to what worked for them when dieting.

4. Supplement your vitamin intake while dieting. I need to buy some iron tomorrow as I read yesterday that the lack of it from a woman’s body(and apparently 90% of us do suffer from a lack of it) makes weight loss more difficult.

5. Take one day at the time, one hour at the time, one meal at the time. Makes it less stressful.

Right, I am all chuffed with myself about today. Another 39 days to go!

40 Day Healthy Living Challenge

Published by Oana

Okay, this week I noticed I have put weight on. Again. I know, I know, all those months of quasi-hibernation and comfort eating do just that but I think enough is enough. Need to turn this around. I have done it before in the past with diet and exercising and I have decided to set myself up for a challenge. Do just that for 40 days. Why 40? Because I remember my mum trying to fast when I was young for the whole 40 days of the Orthodox pre-Easter period and I think it’s as good a number as any.

So here is what I need.

I need people to join in and keep me accountable as I have come to agree with Hubby and believe that real friends are the ones who know the truth about yourself and spur you on to change when change is needed.

I need advice. So if you have been on a balanced weight loss program and it has worked for you, I would like to hear your tips. For example, I struggle to get myself motivated, how do you keep yourself motivated?

I need to lose 5 kilos. At least. That includes unsightly bits on my tummy, hips, ribs and back.

I need to have fun with this so I can keep at it.

How am I going to do it?

Post every evening an update of what I have done to keep myself on the good side.

Talk to you tonight!

I really want this body back!

Happy love day!

Published by Oana

I won’t say happy Valentine’s Day due to this reminder I saw on Facebook a few minutes ago of where Valentine’s day originates from:

I just wanted to say: Enjoy your relationship at whatever level it’s at.If you’re a busy mum who can hardly find time to squeeze in a couple of kind words to hubby in the evening before collapsing in bed(like I am), do just that and accept this is reality for the moment and one day things will be better.

As a couple we have seen many highs and lows in our almost seven years of marriage but the most important lesson we have learnt is that sticking together is sometimes the only thing we can do to show each other we care. The lows soon end, the highs don’t last but love in its nitty gritty form of a common me and a common you is the most beautiful thing on earth.