A life Style book for me

This morning I pulled out the life style book "Skinny Bitch" and the cookbook that goes with it. I also have to journal to finish the series, but only because it was given to me. She though it was a cookbook to. Guess sometimes it does help to understand English when buying things. ;-)
My gout is pretty bad. Yesterday was Hubby's birthday and I had some cake. Not even the sugar loaded kind. And a half an hour later my fingers swelled up and started hurting, and this morning my big toe hurts and cramps up. (insert roll eyes smiley here)
Since I need more inspiration about this whole change in my lifestyle thing again I started searching the interwebs. In my search I remember reading "Skinny Bitch". It was a fun read and they promote the vegetarian lifestyle. So off into the kitchen I went where all my food books are. If the book has anything to do with food in any way and I own it, it is in my kitchen.
I will reread the lifestyle book and look threw the cookbook for new things to try.
I also remembered one of my German diet books named "Brigitte Diät" has a vegetarien tip in the daily meal plans. If it isn't a vegetarian meal already. And luckly I don't have to give up my beloved coffee. So this isn't all bad. Now if I can only figure out how to be able to eat some chocolate without the pain spasms afterwards, I'd be one happy woman. Docs appointment is on thursday, maybe he can tell me.

Foodie Penpal and a sick baby

My baby has been sick for over a week now. Nothing bad, just a common cold, but she's to young to drink the apple vinegar, honey and lemon anti cold remedy. So she get's other helpful things done to her to help her get better faster, like chamomile steam, and Anis butter.
My foodie penpal sent me a wonderful organic honey from Belgium this month, and I'm using it in the anti cold remedy mentioned above, and in the weight loss remedy. It tastes wonderful!
She also sent me a St. Bieber. I thought I read her note wrong for Bieber translates to biever, a furry wood eating creature, but I was so so wrong. It was a spice cake simular to Lebkuchen here in germany but not as dark, with Marzipan in the middle.
Then there was 3 small bunting cakes with green mate as a key ingredient. Unusuall taste. Not queit mine, but I loved trying something new.
 Since she sent me a lot of sweet things and I can't have a lot of sugar I gave my hubby a chocolate bunny and a Ragusa blond candy. I kept the bunny in the hot pink wrapper, for although I didn't mention it it is my favorite color. :-)
The honey nuts will have to wait for better days, but the miso soup is today's lunch. I have a bad cold too thanks to my poor sick baby. We'll get over our cold soon.

Can't wait for the next foodie penpal. Next month is easter month and I want to send mine a easter basket.

Weight loss "remedies" on the cheap?

I've tried a few weight loss remedies and/or pills. A lot of them were not cheap either. From Chitosan to Alli, from Almaseed to Slim Fast :-P (yech by the way), they all cost a pretty penny.

That's why when I was browsing around on Pinterest I decided to try two home remedies that supposedly aid you in losing weight, exspecially around the belly where I have the most fat.

One is easy:

Well I am a Tea drinker, and I have a few very good quality green teas in my cabinets. I have no problems with drinking 5 cups of tea a day. So I started that yesterday after I discovered it. Let's see how this weeks weigh in will look like.
Number two is a little time intense, but nothing serious, and it costs a tad bit more money.

I discovered that little tid bit 3 days ago and started the "treatment" that evening. This one together with the green tea should give me a terrific weigh in Saturday right? Just in case I measured my tummy too. If the two remedies do not show on the scale. (Ha Ha from Nelson here)

Yes I am also critical.
A little background Info: I changed my eating lifestyle from a lot of meats to vegetarian a little over a week ago. No, not because of the animals, bless them for they do have to suffer, never should have watched that slaughter house movie (shudders), but because of my health. 
I've been having a lot of joint pain due to gout and possibly the starting of arthritis and that with 35 years of age! Changing my eating habits has cured the joint pain within two days! Yep it was that fast, and the pain was so bad I could hardly move my left arm, or lift my baby up.
Maybe it could also mean a big difference when it comes to my weight too. I wouldn't know for the last time I've eaten little to no meat was when my mom did all the cooking for the family. Back then it was cheaper than buying meat daily.  
I am also watching my calorie intake. Hey I have a lot of fat I want to get ride of. You can't do that if you keep eating to much. 
I am also doing something for my body and soul. My little girl deserves a happy mommy and every once in a while mommy deserves a break, so my little one stays with daddy or Omi so that I can do something for me for a hour or two. Most of the time I do something fitness related. I'm going to start a running program next week. 

So maybe in the end just like the big expensive weight loss cures it is me doing a lot of work that is the "trick" or "cure". Not the green tea or honey water. They do taste good though.
Not that I am  bickering or putting the "cures" down or anything. 
Green Tea is good for my health, full of cancer smashing antioxidants and so is honey, along with a load of minerals and vitamins that fight viruses and the like, cinnamon helps keep blood sugar levels under control. These are "super foods" by my definition.  
I also feel calmer and more confident, lack of sleep due to the baby waking me up at all hours doesn't bother me as much as before I started. A big plus. The cold I felt coming on hasn't broke out yet, just a slight stuffy nose that I can help with mint oil. I haven't had much of the usual sugar cravings due to lack of sleep either. 

So looking at all this even if the "cures" don't help with weight loss they have helped me in a few other ways. 

Still out of curiosity I will tell if I have a significant amount of weight off my body Saturday. When I just eat right and exercise I usually have a kilo per week off- if it's more this time I will tell you all.

Bye for now, Thanks for reading.

Foodie PenPal Febuary 2014

Sorry I'm late blogging this. I didn't get it until yesterday. Mail was a little slow.

I was excited when I came home late yesterday and it was sitting in front of my apartment door. One of two parcels, the other one was my repaired tablet, another story.

Opening up the parcel I was greeted by a note and fire kindling. LOL. After that was taken out I was greeted by. . .

Jamie Oliver!  :-D        And a few other goodies! My foodie PenPal sent me a whole lot of different flavours and textures to try,I had the fire cracker and Proper Corn this afternoon. Both where extremely delicious although I have to admit when I read Worcester Sauce and sun dried tomato I thought "ick!", but I was pleasantly surprised. 

Next I want to try the Jamie Oliver stuffing inside of chicken.The malteaser bunnies will be saved for a while later. The rest will be tried by and by. I think on the next rainy day I'll have a soup. 

It was a wonderful Parcel for rejoining the foodie penpals, and I really enjoyed what I've been given. Thank you very much!!

New Goals

This morning I've been planning new goals and how to reward myself for them.
I'm an unusual woman that looks for workout plans for men. I think that a woman should train like a man, after all we do not have enough testosterone to get the bulging muscles, but the men's training plans get results! That is what I'm looking for.
I am tired of the baby weight.
I am tired of being tired, and without energy.
I miss my workouts.
I really, really need some time for myself and myself only. This is the best and effective way to get it.

So starting March 3rd until March 30th I've put up a goal plan with reward system. I will pin it up on my motivation board in the kitchen. The only room where I will be seeing it daily. Every day after I have followed the workout for that day I will either check it off on the list or glue a star next to it. The weekly rewards are also written on the list so that I have extra motivation to complete things. My first reward is a Disney workout top that I've seen on pinterest. I think they are perfect!

At the end of the month if I have completed all workouts my hubby will get me a reward AND I will reward myself. Hey I need all the motivation I can get!
I also signed up my mom in law to help by babysitting on the days I go wandering and swimming.

I will also write regular blogs about how it's going here and I should reinstall twitter onto my phone and twitter about my workouts. Keeping all this a bit public will help me stay accountable. I think it would be slightly embarrassing writing about all these great plans then not following through.
On and I will look and see if I can post about it on sparks. I'm on that site often too.

So here's to a great March!!

Making your own Diet agenda, a rough how to

If you fail to plan then you plan to fail- Not sure who said that

A goal without a plan is a dream- have to look that one up too-

What I'm getting at is this: I finally realised what these saying mean. Yes really, I do.
I want to lose weight. And I have been going about it all wrong, and up until now I have hardly anything to show for it. You really do need to plan every little detail.
-Not only what will I eat and when. I tough that would be enough, but it wasn't.
-You have to check how many calories you need to maintain your currant weight, and every time you've lost around 3 to 4 kilos. Take maintenance calories minus 500 to lose.
-You have to plan when will I workout
-Who will watch my kid(s) (if you have any).
-You have to plan time for yourself/Friends/family/Partner
-You have to plan when will you do your shopping/errands/etc
-You have to plan EVERYTHING (OK at least I do)

Then there is the "emergency" planning:
-What should I do when I'm frustrated
-What should I do when I'm stressed
-What should I do when I'm bored
-What should I do when I feel like celebrating
-What should I do when I feel depressed
and so on and so forth.

If you really think about it it is a lot of planning and thinking that you have to do.
You have to really think about who you trust to support you. You don't need a saboteur. You have to realise that the one that is a big help now might be a drag later. (Here is the key word "might"). You have to remotivate yourself over and over again. You have to give yourself regular pep talks. You have to remember why you started in the first place. You have to think about your goal and what it means and what it might change in your life. You have to be realistic about it. Just because you reach that ultimate goal weight doesn't mean your life will magically change for the better.
You have to realise that losing weight is a lot of hard work, this isn't a easy task. You have to plan that it will cost money. Not a fortune but it will cost some. You need new clothes, shoes, underwear, etc, Healthy foods and some vitamins. For that you will also save money. You'll get sick less, you'll save on fast food, you'll save on insurance, in some catalogues you'll save because you need a smaller size etc.
You need to think up a reward system for yourself. At what stages you want to reward yourself and with what. It helps trust me.

After realising all of this, I sat down last night and started to plan things out. It took me a total of 5 hours thanks to my little girl to get it all done, but now I'm very happy with my results.
I choose a 2013 agenda that I had laying around. I bought it at the end of 2012 for the new work year, and didn't need it after all. You can use a notebook, spiral bound notebook, old diary or whatever suits you.
I grabbed a pencil and notebook, and started planning. Grocery shopping every Monday and Thursday, Friends and family visits on either Saturday/Sunday or Wednesdays. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays are fitness days, Saturday Nights are Date nights.
Next was agenda, wake up time, bed time, cleaning and daily cleaning chore, when to leave the house and for what I'm off for (Friends/errands/shopping etc), time to drive home, sports, dinner, TV time etc, etc
Then cleaning agenda, I made this a little easier on myself I checked pinterest and choose the best one for me on there and just redid a few things.
Sports agenda: at what time, list of sports I love, workouts I need to do, how long and shower afterwards, with babysitter.
Time for myself, I can't really plan this, I take the times when my little one is sleeping. For that I listed what I can do at that time. Blogging, knitting, reading, etc.
Next reward system. That was a little tricky. I figured I need to lose a total of 42 kilos for starters. I broke that down into 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% 25%, 30%, and end goal, then again into 3 kilo parts in between to keep motivation going. And again in U130, U120, U110 and U100 Kilos (U=under). Loads of reward possibilities. For small ones I have under 1 dollar ideas, for the major ones I have bigger things planned like small trips, massages, manicures etc. You need to figure out what rewards motivate you..
Last but not least meal plans and what day to make new ones. I choose Sunday to make new ones since I have all the food advertising and sales by then, that way I can choose stuff that is on sale to make.

Oh and a important day! When you week restarts and you weigh in! I choose Saturday for that. That way I can enjoy date night and make up for it the rest of the week. No guilt trips!

After doing all that planning I put it all into my agenda. Ignoring the dates just using the days that where listed I wrote it all down. Sometimes using a extra post it note to keep everything in the day needed. At the end where the addresses are usually listed I wrote down my goal list with space for when it was reached and rewards for that goal.

I set aside a part of the agenda for my thoughts, and my emergency contact lists. Who to call or talk to when I need support, what to do against boredom etc, breathing exercises against stress and frustration, and motivational quotes for those depressing times. (A little tip from me sparkpeople.com has a help button that is just great! I love it! Joining is free.)

Now all I have to do is decorate the thing as I go. Nothing more, nothing less. Stickers, magazine cut outs etc. You will go back and look at how far you've come from time to time. You'll want to look at the meal plans you've designed, the work outs you started, what really helped and what didn't. So take your time and plan well.

busy, busy

The perils of dieting.

I'm getting ride of the baby fat, and boy is it hard! I made something for my foodie penpal and every time I went into or threw the kitchen I was so tempted!! The must yummy smells! I am so very glad that all is now packed away and ready to be sent off today. My hubby will take it to the mail for me when he goes to visit a freind. I'm in no mood or health to deal with going myslef. I have a terrible migrane headache.

Today I will take it easy as far as possible. I will take care of my little one, do some cooking, and maybe some knitting or crocheting. I have a few projects I want to start. I found a few adorable toys that I want to make. And there is a tshirt that I want to do for a girlfreind. It's her birthday soon. I have a parcel I want to finish up for my mom and sis in the states. Oh and some sewing I want to do.
Then there are freinds that want to be visited, and trails that are begging to be walked, couple time, and family get togethers to be planned. I am never bored.

Today I will be trying a few new recipes. Broccoli mousse on a salad bed, and crunchy veggie lasagne. Both easy and cheap to make, your in the kitchen no longer than 15 minutes for prep work, and dinner is ready in 30 minutes. I hope they both taste good. If they do they are going in my make more often list.

Dieting

Ahh the joys and frustrations of dieting.
Yes you read that right there are joys. New recipes, new clothes, lost weight, friend's compliments.
But it is the frustrations that keep you from being successful! Mine is not getting enough sleep! It is very hard to do that with a teething baby I can tell you! I have to remind myself time and time again that I don't need sweets I need sleep!!
It is slowly working but I am far from perfect.
As a help I am using a Weight Watchers program from 1996. That was when I first joined WW. I have all my paperwork from back then still so all I had to do was dig them out. I've put myself on this "diet" and so far it is working really well.

Tomorrow I have my baking and making day! I'm making nutella smarties cookies and self made hot chocolate on a spoon. I hope my foodie pen pal will love what I send her. It's not all that I'm sending, just a very small portion of a idea I had. Since it is February my FPP Theme is Valentine's day. All hearts and love.
March will be Luck of the Irish, because of St. Patrick's day. All greens and clovers and luck- I have ideas until July. That's when I stopped planning boxes to ship. Think I had enough planning in advance that I can shop for things here and there without problems.

Hubby and I wanted to go out with friends tonight, but they all canceled. So instead we are staying in and still bringing our little one to the babysitter. Instead of going out I'll take a long wanted bath, then movie night with popcorn!! Sleep in until I wake up on my own, and making and baking till the afternoon. Then I'll pick up my little girl with energy again.

Back

It's been a very LONG time since I've last logged in and bloged.
Since the last time I have:
-taken time off from foodie penpals due to stress in life
-did on/in the job schooling to persue a carerr
-put that on ice due to becoming pregnant
-getting things ready for baby
-moving and that twice. Once in the beginning of pregnancy, once months after
-having my little girl and getting accostomed to life with her

I'm still on baby leave, and so far life with baby is getting smoother that I can take things up again that I love doing.
I'm knitting again
-rejoined foodie penpals
-considering joining a gym to get my pre baby body back or at least close to it.

And I found my love of blogging again and want to stick with it. It's been way too long.

Foodie Penpal for July

This month I won't write about my Foodie Pen pal. Although it was a lovely parcel with a load of yummy goodies. Thank you so much!!

But this month I had a load of problems with my foodie pen pal parcel!
I put it together with a lot of consideration and love for food. And the mail screwed it up. Twice!!

First it came back to me because they couldn't read the address. Considering that it had a big black smear across the front it doesn't surprise me. So I repacked it with care and sent it off again.
This morning I check the stats and it hasn't left the post office that I brought it to!
So after I saw that I went there and asked WTH?! They looked around their office, and couldn't find it. It seems to have disappeared. They are conducting a search for it and if it doesn't get found I'll get a refund for the postage and what the inside was worth but man I am so ticked!! It is the first time this has ever happened to me! Now it might take up to two weeks before it might be found.
I feel awful that my foodie pen pal hasn't received her goodies!
So to make it up to her I will send her a new one this month AND my foodie pen pal this month too.

I hope this never happens again. But I am thankful for parcel tracking.

My shift times kind of suck

2 weeks ago my shift times at work changed thanks to a new law here in Germany.
My shift times now are 9:30 am to 7 pm for morning shift
7pm till 4 am for night shifts
and 8 m till 4 pm for the in between shifts.

Figuring out when to exercise is a challenge for me to be honest. I never now how the shift will be. I have mostly the morning shift. My hubby works all day to. He comes home at 6pm. Of course I want to spend as much time as possible with him. And I have a home to clean, and yes hubby helps to, and cats that need some attention.
So today I sat down and looked at what I can do.

So far I figured out this:

Tomorrow I will get up @ 5 am
go out for a jog by 5:30 am
come back by 6 am, strength by 6:30am
then stretch and shower, wake hubby up my 7:20 am.

Then I still have time until 9 am, then I have to get ready and go to work. Have to be there by 9:30 and open up by 10 am.
I'll be working until 7pm and I'll be home by 7:15 pm.
Then cooking and some cleaning and time with hubby and cats.

If at work I notice that it was too much I'll have to sit down and figure out something new.

Discouragment

I'm on day 6 from the 30 day shred, after I had to restart due to a slight injury after I did 4 days the last time. According to a few people that did the shred they started to see results after this time.
I do not.
Yet.

I have to remember that in losing weight there is no quick fix solutions, no magic pills and no way around hard work and dedication. Yes there are days where I am very discouraged. Those are the days I have to remember where and why I started and the reasons why I want to keep going.

I want to feel good about myself and not ashamed to run/walk around in a skimpy bikini.
I want to run and NOT feel my hanging belly slap against myself. Geez that is embarrassing I can tell you. And yes it has gotten a while lot better.
I want to wear the cute clothes I see where the largest size is a German 42 woman's. (Around a size 10 US size I think)
I want my hubby to be proud of me. Although I have to admit he is very proud of me already.

And the biggest reason I want to lose this weight is for a baby. I can't get pregnant if I weight to much. That has been proven to me twice already. The first time when I hit 112 kilos the second time when I hit 110 kilos. They both ended tragic but that will not stop me from trying again!

So today I recommit myself to this. I will do my shred twice today to make up for the missed day yesterday and from then on I will dedicate myself to finishing this strong.

I know I can do it. The only thing that can stop me is me after all.

Foodie Penpal for June

I'm a little late posting this Blog about my foodie penpal for June. I had to go to a diffrent location for work without a advanced notice. 

So this is my June package. I am always eceited to get a penpal. And this time my penpal was Carol Anne. This is what it looked like when it came in the mail.

And this is it after it was unwrapped. I loved the cupcake theme wrapping paper.

 When I opened it I was like: what the heck! Cause I had what looked like oatmeal flakes in the box that fell to the carpet. I thought something she sent broke. But nothing was damaged. It was from the Cranachan Marshmellows. They are in the box in this picture.
I tried one right away and that was the death of them. They are so delishous I couldn't stop. I gave my hubby a bite and that was all he got. The rest were mine! And I enjoyed each and every chewy gooey morsel.

I also recieved a candy called Rock. Really really sweet. 

The yo yos were so good! The peach flavour really came out on those. I haven't tried the Bounce energy ball yet. ut I will soon. Doing the shred takes the energy right out of you.

I ate all the oatcakes. What I liked about them is that they were not sweet at all. 

And then those beautiful baking cases and glitter. I'm waiting for a special occasion to use those. 

This was my june foodie penpal. I loved it! And can't wait till Julys

30 Day shred and wheat intolerance

I started the 30 day shred a few days ago. And thanks to my wheat intolerance I had to skip yesterdays workout due to migraine headaches. I would have been mad if I had the brain to do so. But it was totally out of order yesterday. I barley functioned. Thankfully I'm on my vacation, so I didn't have to worry about work.

The 30 day shred is really kicking my butt. I curse Jillian every time she's on  my TV screen. I have a bad sailor mouth by the way. But I am very happy with some of the results I've seen so far. And that after only 3 "days". My jeans that were a little tight in the calf is getting loose. And so are the thighs. And although my scale is telling me I've gained weight, I choose to ignore it and use my clothes and measuring tape to determine if I lost or not.

As to my wheat intolerance, it has gotten a whole lot worse. After I've cut so much wheat out of my daily eating, I get the worst Migraine headaches. I'm not sure how much wheat is needed to trigger one of those. I'm not willing to find out either. I do know that my beloved cookies are out of the house. If I want cookies I have to make them myself. So now I'm looking onto cookie dough that is freezer friendly.
I think sugar cookies are a good start.
For now I made a coconut cake where you use a cup to measure out the ingredients, and some chocolate chip spelt flour cookies for when the craving hits me. I needed to make the cake cause we're invited to coffee and cake at my hubby's uncles and they buy their cake. So there is wheat in it. And I don't want to sit there and watch the others eat cake, that's really hard for me to do. Reminds me of some things in my childhood. (Don't want to go there) And they know that I have some wheat intolerance, they just don't know how bad it has gotten. So they won't mind if I bring some cake with me. I'll even bring enough for everyone to try if they want to.

Here is the recipe for the coconut "cup" cake

To measure the ingredients you need two small coffee cups.
Ingredients:
2 cups of Buttermilk
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
4 cups of spelt flour (or normal flour if you want)
1 packet of backing powder
2 cups shredded coconut
1 cup sugar
2 cups sweet whipping cream unwipped

Combine the Buttermilk, eggs, sugar, Flour and Baking powder to a nice cake dough, put it in a slightly greased baking sheet. Stir the coconut and sugar together and sprinkle evenly onto the cake dough.
Bake for 20 minutes at 175 Degrees Celsius, afterwards pour the cream evenly on top of the cake and bake for another 5 to 8 minutes.
Let cool completely and enjoy!

My anti flabby tummy diet

OK first off this isn't a diet it's a change in my way of eating for the better. A so called lifestyle change. And it's a healthy one, made up from things that have worked out in the past for me and some of the newest medical discoveries. I do my research.   ;-)

So the food guidelines for me are:

6+ Portions of Veggies daily. 1 Portion = 1 Handful
2 Portions of Fruit daily. 1 Portion = 1 Fruit or 1 Handful
Breads, cereals etc only once daily and when at breakfast and then make sure there is no wheat in it. Wheat causes a "beer" belly. You can read up on this in a lot of diet and medical magazines.
Cake, cookies or donuts only on Sundays! Then only a small piece, 2 cookies or 1 donut only.
Eat lean proteins, Fish, chicken, beef, lamb, and pork in that order. Eggs belong to category chicken.

I will allow myself one cheat meal in a week if I remember to have one and if I do it will be a very small one.

If I crave sweets I will eat dried fruit instead. Dried pineapple is very sweet and I only needed 3 pieces to curb the craving.


As for the exercise guidelines:

I will do the exercises a personal trainer told me where good for getting ride of my flabby tummy. Plus I will start the 30 day shred, and keep up the jogging.
I need to strength train more according to the trainer. So I will.  :-D


All this is also doable if I have to travel for work again. I just have to remember that my company has freezers and microwaves at each location. Then there is always a store close by so that I can buy salads and microwave veggie dishes. Chicken comes precooked in strips for salads, and I'm sure if I use this healthy microwave fish recipe I found in this one magazine I'll be more than fine. I just have to make sure that I take the microwave plate along with my cutlery when I pack. That way I have no excuses.
The exercises I can take along with me either as a print out on cards or DVD along with my laptop. For weights I can either take mine in a extra bag, resistance bands, or be smart and use water bottles. I always take exercise clothes and running shoes with me anyway, but now I have to remember to take my water bottle belt with me.

I think I have this all covered.

So now I will go and do some grocery shopping.

On the road again

Tomorrow I have to go to Heßdorf, 180 Km away from home. I'll be living in a hotel room again.
So today I bought: 2 Menu Salads. One is with Tuna the other is a Chicken Cesar salad. I also bought two "TV" Dinners. Asian Chicken and Chicken Fricassee. Both have rice and no wheat. Everything is low in salt too.

I baked a loaf of spelt bread to take with me, and I have butter, honey and low fat lunch meat for it. I have my soy milk in vanilla and natural flavors, plus my spelt waffle cakes. So I'm set until Monday. Then I have to go grocery shopping again.

Today is day 6 week 3 and so far I've done 5 workouts with today. I did a 2 hour walk this week, yoga, jogging, walking again, and a full body circuit. A total of (I think) 6 hours. Could be more though. The only thing I have to do better is the sweets. I really should cut down on those even more. Had candy or chocolate or cake/cookies 5 times this week. The days I really over did it on chocolate I had a wheat product. So that is a big one I'm cutting out completely!

Looking over my To Do list I'm proud that I have all but one thing checked off. And that's packing my suitcase.  Funny thing is I have everything together that I need for workouts on the road. *laughs* I seem to have my priorities straight.

Now I'm off to make dinner. I'm hungry!

Kilos and Centimeters

I didn't lose a damn Kilo this week. Not even a few grams! I weigh the same as last week.

I lost a few centimeters though. 2 here and there 6 in the middle.

So what gives? Why did I lose Centimeters but not one freaking kilo?
Boy am I glad I track weight and measurements. Otherwise I would have been totally frustrated and down in the dumps.

Foodie Penpal for Mai 2012

Well my foodie Pen pal Parcel for March was a big surprise!
And of course I took pictures.

OK this is Picture #1, unopened, token fresh from the mail box. I cut it open and spilled to contents out on my couch

And this is what was inside. Loads of wheat free and Lactose free goodie!! Oh boy oh boy oh boy!!

And the cutest Card was in it too. I'm going to put this up somewhere and some how. Just don't know how yet.

And now to what was inside in detail.

I've read about the Kale Chip that is just the bomb now days and I always did want to try some but they didn't come to Germany yet. And here I was pondering 1) what is kale in German, and 2) how do you make them yourself and 3) would they even taste good? 

Well my foodie pen pal this month sent me a container of these kale chips called cheesie purple corn, and they are dehydrated, not fried. I tried one or two chips already because I just can't curb my curiosity, and I have to say I understand the loving of them! They are just wonderful!! I love the taste and the crunch. 

Then there is a bag of dries Chile Chipotles. Oh yeah!! Love the spices! And these kind of Chilies are hard to find here. I will use them in my next crock pot roast! Thank you for those Pen pal!!

Next up is Tea from the London Tea Company. Oh the Flavors that are here now! I just love tea and since I've cut down on coffee so much it is my favorite go to pick me up. I have 8 different flavors ahead of me and I will savor each and every one!

My Pen pal sent me the weirdest Chinese "Candy" I've ever seen. It's a dried plum with some strange flavoring. I have to admit I tried one and I'm not sure if I like it or not. It's a strange taste, very healthy, and chewy. Will try a second one in a day or two and come back on that one.

I also received three "naked" bars. The wrapping says it's a 100% dried fruit and/or nut bar. Dairy and wheat free. They sound wonderful and delish, and I'll save them for later. To be honest they sound like the perfect power snack for my next long run or hike, so I'll eat one then and write about it.

Last but not least my pen pal sent me a small packet of raw Honey and a bottle of Jasmine Essence. I've never used something like that in my baking before so I'm curious to try it. I'll use it in my next batch of spelt flour cookies.

All in all this was a wonderful Foodie Pen pal parcel. I enjoyed it so much. And I just have to say thank you 1 million times over!

Running and Water

I used to run on a regular basis. But ever since my first official 10K I haven't hit the dirt roads or the pavement to do so.
So as part of my new found fitness and nutrition goals I printed out the C25K and C210K training plans and I'm starting today after work!
I work until 6pm today, then come home and rest make dinner then off on the road. Day 1 of Week one is Walk for 2 minutes then run for 1 minute repeat 6 times. This is from the C210K beginners plan. If I find out I'm more out of shape than I thought then I'm going to follow the C25K plan until I get better, then return to the C210K one.
Sounds reasonable.

As for the body parts I know need work, as in stomach, upper arms, inner thighs I need a good weight lifting or body weight routine to perk those up. And although I love my boobs they could be perkier if you ask me.
Yes I realize I'm 33 but I've seen women older than me topless sunning and they had great boobs, so why can't I? All they need is some TLC and muscle mass behind them.
So I need a good complete body workout. Thanks to sparkpeople.com I can find a ton of them for free online, as videos or print outs.
(I can't use sparkpeople.com to track my food, I'd have to add to many German foods to do so, and that's where fddb.info kicks in.)
Tomorrow is grocery shopping day. After I get up tomorrow I'll be planning meals with my hubby and writing down all that we need for them. I have to remember to get the things for that flavored spa water I found on pinterest. I also thought up one of my own. Green Tea and Orange with Mint. I want to try that and if the watermelon isn't to expensive the watermelon and rosemary one. I'm also thinking I could use frozen berries instead of fresh ones. Just do the same as you would with the fresh ones, but I'd have to try that first. I think I still have some frozen berries too. Just need something to go with them. Lemons and Limes are always cheap, and fresh herbs are not that expensive until my garden gets up and growing. Now all I need are some big Weck Jars since we don't have mason jars.

Spa Water

Oh I just found the best idea thanks to pinterest! Flavored Spa Water. So simple and easy too. Here is the link:

http://www.theyummylife.com/Flavored_Water

I want to make the rosemary and watermelon one on Tuesday. Monday is a Holiday here in Germany and the stores are all closed. I love my slightly fizzy water, and 0,19 cents for a 1,5 Liter bottle isn't bad but it does tend to get slightly boring drinking nothing but water all day. So the idea of these simple spa waters amaze and excite me. And I love watermelon, never thought to combine it with rosemary though.