Back to basics.

Well the man in the red suit has been and certainly spoilt the little people (and the big people) in our house.  I hope he was generous to you all :)
I'm enjoying my last couple of weeks at home as a mummy before my return to work on the 9th January and the chaos of working split shifts, sleepless nights and organising 3 children (2 littlies and the hubby) hits!  Definitely feeling mixed emotions about it all as I've really enjoyed my time at home, but I do miss my clients and having some regular "adult" time.
So I've decided for the last couple of weeks of "mummy" time I'm forgetting about schedules, scales and all things technical (heart rate monitor etc) when it comes to training.  I highly recommend EVERYONE forget about the scales for the next week or so until you feel like your training and eating is back on track.  Once you're back on track give yourself a week and then weigh and measure to start off the new year. 

I'm still teaching a couple of classes throughout the week but other than that, I'm training for fun.  Bella and I made the most of our Chrissy pressie the other day and had a great dance around to the Wii Just Dance and Just Dance Kids games.  It is seriously such a good workout, but so fun that you don't even realise how hard you are working.  Brandon was loving it too as he sat in his bouncer and laughed at mummy dancing lol. 
So even though I'm not doing alot of structured exercise I'm increasing my incidental exercise where I can.  Yesterday I caught up with a good friend who I don't get to see very often, and instead of meeting for coffee we went for a walk.  Mind you it was more a leisurely stroll and a gossip but it was still the better alternative. 
However, most of you are hopefully using this time of year, with the extra public holidays and days off, to train harder so I want to leave you all with a couple of short training sessions. 

Workout 1:
     10 rounds of: 100m sprints and 10 pushups

Workout 2:
     As many rounds as possible in 10 minutes of: 
     10 box jumps and 5 pullups (alternative - burpees)

The last thing I want to leave you with for 2011, is forget about setting New Years resolutions.  New Years resolutions are destined to fail.  Instead find a spare 10minutes and sit down and seriously think about your GOALS for 2012.  Set a few long term goals (to aim for over the year) and then break them down to set some short term goals (anywhere from 4-12 weeks).  Goals need to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable and Realistic.  And always give yourself a set Time to achieve them by.  Think S.M.A.R.T when setting your goals. 
My next blog (the first in 2012) I will share with you my achievements (and downfalls) from 2011, and my goals for 2012.  Bur for now have a fantastic New Years Eve, stay safe and healthy and I look forward to sharing more of my "Be Hot After Baby" adventures with you in the new year :)

Survive the Silly Season.

Well only 3 more sleeps until the man in the red suit arrives and I am so not organised!  I've bought all the pressies but haven't wrapped any yet.  My poor nursery has a pile to rival the size of Mt Archer in the corner of the room and I've got a heap of baking I want to do but haven't started.  Hopefully you are all more organised than me :)
I just wanted to give you a few tips to getting through the Silly Season without needing to go up a dress size by the end of it. 
1.  Try to keep moving.  Try to stick to your regular training sessions when you can.  And the days where you can't, move more.  Increase your incidental exercise by parking further away at the shops, running around with your children at home, walk around the house when talking on the phone.  Make a game of it and even include the children ie. when you wash the dishes do 5 squats for every plate you wash, or every time you walk through a doorway do a burpee.  Sure you might look strange but no one else will see you, except possibly the children and they'll love to join in. 

Christmas Bodypump class 2009

2.  Christmas day dinners are a recipe for calorie overload.  Keep these tips in mind so you don't overindulge to beat the bulge - use a smaller size dinner plate as you will fit less food on it, and don't go back for seconds, thirds, fourths etc.  Also fill your plate with lots of fresh green, leafy salads or vegies (try to make half of your plate salads or veg, a quarter protein and a quarter breads or pastas) 
3.  If you are asked to take a plate to a social occasion make it a healthy one.  Opt for a fresh fruit platter, fresh cheese and grape platter or bake something yourself so you have control of using healthier ingredients.  You could even go for little egg muffins or mini crust less quiches, zucchini slice or some mini berry muffins. 
4.  Never skip breakfast.  If you know you're going to be hitting the festive parties that night don't save up your calories by skipping meals earlier in the day.  You'll end up starving and as soon as you walk through the door you'll be elbowing everybody to get to the buffet table and over indulging.  Stick with your regular healthy breakfast and lunch options with a good mix of carbs and proteins.  And even before you go to the party have a light snack if you're feeling hungry to prevent the hunger gorge.
5.  You can still enjoy your festive fizzies (ie alcohol) but remember moderation is key.  For every glass of alcohol you have, follow it with a glass of water.  Don't let people refill your glass until your glass is empty and don't just have a liquid dinner.  Try to stick with low carb beers or low alcoholic wines/champagnes.  And avoid the creamy cocktails.  Ensure you fill up on a good meal of protein and carbs.  Keep in mind a big night on the Christmas cheer can potentially have you blowing out your calories that night (late night kebab anyone?), blowing out your calories the next day (my hubby's hangover cure is KFC nuggets - yuck lol) and can leave you feeling sluggish and tired for a day or 2 after so your training suffers. 

6.  Don't feel guilty for saying "NO".  I know sometimes you don't want to offend Nan by saying no to her second serving of plum pudding but your waistline will be grateful.  It is a sad reality that people (usually our nearest and dearest) will try to sabotage our healthy choices and usually they don't do it intentionally.  I constantly get told to "take it easy and rest" and "one little piece of cake won't hurt" from one family member.  I just let it slide and know that I'm doing things for my own benefit of a healthy body and mind. 

7.  And lastly enjoy this time and don't beat yourself up for having a bad day.  Accept that it's the time of year that your healthy eating may slide but don't use it as an excuse to eat a years worth of bad crap in one day.  It's all about moderation and making healthy choices.

I want to wish all of the Be Hot After Baby followers a very Merry Christmas and Wonderful New Year.  I thank you all for following over the last few months and your wonderful words of support.  I look forward to sharing more time with you in 2012. 

Stay safe, stay active and stay healthy xx

'tis the Season.

Well the crazy Christmas rush has hit and I can't believe that this time next week I'll be one big meal down, and one more to go ;)  I had a great little getaway down the beach last weekend but it just didn't last quite long enough. 
I managed to get in a couple of training sessions although it was a bit harder than I thought as hubby didn't have time off work so it was just me and the 2 kiddies most of the time, and I usually train before they wake but of course they both decided that 5:30am was a great wake-up time on holidays - little treasures. 
I was very grateful though that my mum offered to watch Brandon on the morning Bella went to daycare so I got an hour of "me" time.  And I can't believe how fantastic it felt!!  I went for a lap and a half at the Bluff at Kemp Beach.  And halfway through the walk I realised this was the first time in a very, very long time that I've had time like this to myself.  Sure I get time to train but usually it's at the gym with other people, or walking the dog which is the same scenery every time, or at home where I'm constantly reminded of the housework to be done, or being interrupted by the kidlets.  This was a full hour of peace and solitude.  I cranked the music in my car on the way there and enjoyed the scenery and tranquillity as I walked instead of thinking of how much washing I needed to do, or going through bodypump chorey in my head.  I highly recommend it for every mummy, even if it's just one hour a month.  Get a babysitter, get outside and go for a walk somewhere different and just enjoy your own company and thoughts.

My idea of "Heaven"

I also managed to do my i365 workouts each day and a couple of leg/ab workouts.  Cardio was harder as I had planned on doing some dvd's but the upstairs of the house we were at had wooden floors and I don't think the downstairs guests would appreciate me jumping around at 6am :)

So with one week until Christmas and only 3 weeks until I officially return to work after having 6 months off, I'm taking the pressure off!  I'm not weighing, I'm not planning and I'm not stressing about training.  BUT I'm also not forgetting about it.  I'm going to try to include some sort of physical exercise MOST days of the week.  I'm going to enjoy my last 3 weeks as a full time mummy and treasure this extra time with my babies. 

I will get in one more blog this week with some tips on surviving the festive season.  But until then just move when you can and don't use Christmas as an excuse to ditch the clean eating, after all Christmas is only one day, not a week or more ;)

Off on a mini break...from my scales and life xx

Well I've rebelled this week and not weighed in.  I've had my scales in my gym bag for the week and it's probably been the best thing for me as I was starting to weigh myself a little bit too often.  And I'm off today on a mini beach break and won't be weighing until I come back next week. 
I'm really excited to get away for a few days.  It will be great to spend some quality time with my kiddies without having to worry about checking emails, work planning or stressing about the housework getting done.  The only downside is my biggest kid (aka hubby) won't be with us the whole time :(  But we will get some time altogether as a family.
I'm also excited to have a break from my usual training regime.  As much as I love my Bodypump and Bodycombat classes, they are pretty much all I've been doing lately.  I'm struggling to shift my last few kilos and have the dreaded "jelly belly" which I loathe with a passion.  So I'm looking forward to getting outdoors, away from the norm and hitting up some hardcore workouts.  I'm going to aim for some HIIT cardio and some intense resistance training (think Tabata).  I've got my workout clothes, joggers and some training gear packed and ready to use.

I've thrown in a couple of dvd's and a Health and Fitness Home training magazine.  I've also got a fantastic little iPhone app. called 365 Workouts.  I'm setting myself the challenge in the 2 weeks lead up to Christmas to do the daily workout off this app, starting from tomorrow. 

For example today's workout is:

Five rounds of - 20 squat thrusts (burpee with no pushup) and 8 one arm pushups.

hhmm kinda glad that I'm starting tomorrow and not today lol.  It's a fun little app and I highly recommend it.  I will do my normal training session and then just finish off each session with the daily workout. 

http://workout-of-the-day.com/2009/01/17/i365-workout-of-the-day-iphone-app/

Well I'm off to finish packing.  It's a good thing I'm taking a few days away from my laptop as I'm turning into an obsessed, on line shopper.  I think I see my parcel man nearly every day :S  But yesterday's parcel was a bargain pair of toning joggers that I had purchased. 

I'm not one to fall for the advertising gimmick of these styles of shoes.  Basically I bought them because they were cheap, they look good and I go through heaps of shoes in my line of work.  But after wearing them yesterday I've fallen in love even more!!  Super cute and super comfy.  Now I just need to remember where I bought them from and see if they have any more in stock....

Crunchy Parmesan Chicken Salad

As promised here is the recipe for one of my favourite dinners!!  I can't take the credit for this one, I'm not creative unfortunately.  I remember seeing this advertised on TV a few years ago for Donna Hay magazine and googled the recipe.  You can modify the salad, I don't like tomatoe and Brett doesn't like cucumber so we just put our own salad straight onto plates. 

Crunchy Parmesan Chicken Salad

4 x chicken breasts, trimmed and sliced
2 cups finely grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup (2.5 fl oz) olive oil
3 egg whites beaten lightly
2 TBS lemon juice
200g (7oz) baby spinach leaves
1 lebanese cucumber, sliced thinly
1/4 cup freshly chopped basil leaves
240g punnet yellow tear drop (cherry?) tomatoes cut in half
2 green onions, sliced thinly (scallions)
Sea salt and black pepper

Preheat oven to 200C.
Dip chicken in eggwhites then parmesan. Bake on baking trays under a pre-heated hot grill for 15-20 minutes until golden and crunchy.
Toss spinach, cucumber, tomatoes and green onions to combine, set aside.  Or place spinach on plate and top with the other salads. 
In another bowl whisk the basil, lemon juice, oil and seasonings, set aside.
Serve salad on individual plates with chicken on top and then drizzled with oil.

This is seriously one of the easiest dishes to make and is high in protein, low in carbs.  I enjoy mine with either a nice glass of red or a low carb beer - cause life is all about moderation ;)

http://www.girl.com.au/donna-hay-magazine-spring-edition-35.htm

 

Cheers to Carbs

Breakfast Berry Smoothie

I lasted a week but now I've Kicked no-Karbs to the Kerb (feeling very Kardashian like saying that lol).  After one week on my low carb eating plan I sneaked a peek on the scales (well truth be told I had been sneaking a peek every day tsk tsk) and nearly cried when I had PUT ON 200g!!!  So that was it - I whipped out my blender and started my day with the one thing I had been craving for breakfast all week, a protein, energy filled smoothie.  It is seriously the best Summer breaky - quick, balanced, refreshing and filling.  I just throw a cup of Rice or Oat milk in the blender with some frozen mixed berries, a serve of vanilla protein powder, a tablespoon each of LSA and Chia seeds and a handful of ice.  Blended in less than a minute and ready to drink, it's near perfect at 350cals, 30g carbs, 34g protein and 9.5g fat.  Time is no excuse to skip breaky with these smoothies. 

Anyway so when I did my official weigh in this morning I had dropped the 200g, so weighed in the same as last Monday.  I've never been a fan of fad diets and I know I should have stuck with my gut instinct on this one, but thought I'd give it a shot.  I've hit a plateau over the last few weeks and can't seem to shift off my current weight.  But I know I've got to give myself a break and take the pressure off a little bit, my little man is not even 5 months old yet and I have lost 8kg from when I came out of hospital after having him.  I constantly keep reminding myself it takes 9 months to put it on, it may take 9 months to take it off.

Having said that I know over the last few weeks I have let my cardio training slip as I have been thoroughly enjoying some extra weight sessions, so this week I have a goal of 3 sessions on the treadmill (see below).  Plus I am covering a couple of extra classes this week, one being Bodycombat, so I have a big week of training.  Here's my plan:

Monday - am - Bodypump (teach)  pm - Bodycombat (team teach)

Tuesday - Treadmill 1.6km run - 3min recovery, 1.2km run - 2min recovery, 800m run - 1min recover, 400m run

Wednesday - Bodycombat (home)

Thursday - am - Bodycombat (teach)  pm - Bodypump (teach)

Friday - Bodypump (teach) Treadmill - 30mins Intervals (1min run, 1min walk)

Saturday - Treadmill - Incline Intervals 30mins

Sunday - Rest Day

My meal planning for this week is:

Monday - Leftover Roast Turkey with salad

Tuesday - Parmesan Chicken with Spinach Salad (my fav dinner - will blog a pic and recipe of this one)

Wednesday - Pork Cutlets and Salad

Thursday - Dinner with the in-laws

Friday - Zucchini Slice and salad

Saturday - Turkey Breast burgers

Sunday - Chicken and Pumpkin cous cous salad

So my goal this week is extra cardio - I put the challenge to you to join me with this one.  Try to include 3 cardio sessions this week (only has to be 30mins, but make it High Intensity Interval Training ie HIIT).  If you already train enough cardio, mix it up with a different form of cardio and try something new - a class, use a different machine, train outside, different intervals - the options are endless.  Have a great training week!

No carbs...no comment

Well I've finally gotten around to update with this weeks weigh in - 900g loss which of course I'm happy with as it's a loss.  I had my dear Miss 3's birthday party on Sunday so I've spent the last couple of days recuperating and recovering lol. 
I paid a visit to a Naturopath last week as I am fascinated by Iridology.  For those who don't know what Iridology is:
Iridology (also known as iridodiagnosis^[1] or iridiagnosis^[2] is an alternative medicine technique whose proponents claim that patterns, colors, and other characteristics of the iris can be examined to determine information about a patient's systemic health. Practitioners match their observations to iris charts, which divide the iris into zones that correspond to specific parts of the human body. Iridologists see the eyes as "windows" into the body's state of health.
Iridologists use the charts to distinguish between healthy systems and organs in the body and those that are overactive, inflamed, or distressed. Iridologists believe this information demonstrates a patient's susceptibility towards certain illnesses, reflects past medical problems, or predicts later health problems.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridology
So I took myself and my little eyeballs off to see her, under a recommendation from a friend.  Once there I filled in a form asking the usual questions of health history, reason for visit and a basic daily food intake.  Once I went in and we had a little chat and she took photos of my eyes she picked up on some stuff that was 100% accurate.  She asked if I experienced heart burn, which was always my biggest pregnancy complaint.  And she told me I was lacking energy and just pushing myself to get things done, as they had to be done.  And when she asked me if I was a bit foggy brained I nearly fell off my chair in agreement.  I had noticed in the last couple of months I had become quite "off my tree" for want of a better quote.  I was putting it down to lack of sleep and possibly taking time off work and not stimulating my brain as much.  And I knew before I went back to work in the New Year that I had to get my head together or work would be a struggle.  So here's hoping the super pills she gave me will make me smart again??  So I was super impressed with the Iridology part of our appointment (although anybody could probably guess that as mum of a 4 month old and a 3 year old I would be lacking energy and a bit space headed lol).
Then she handed me a couple of sheets of paper and said she wanted me to cut out carbs (or limit to 20g a day, which ain't a lot!).  As soon as she said that one word popped into my head...ATKINS!  But then she said don't worry about keeping track of fat content as everything you can eat is healthy fats, so 2 words popped into my head....HEALTHY ATKINS??  So basically that means I can't eat bread, pasta, rice, fruit, anything with flour (which is ALOT of things), grains and alcohol *sob sob*.  However the silver lining is I am allowed 1 low carb beer per day.  So when I checked out my list of unlimited foods I wasn't expecting to see cheeses (nearly all sorts) and bacon.  It was just like the infamous Atkins diet which I am not really a believer of, and to make it worse, she wanted me to do it for a month!!  So I've struggled with the decision to follow it or not, as it's not something I would put my clients on.  I am a big believer of everything in moderation and Atkins can be very successful if followed smartly, but it can become quite unhealthy with some poor food choices (oily bacon and eggs for breaky everyday anybody?) and generally people struggle to stick with it long enough to see the results.  BUT I've decided to have a crack at it and I started last Thursday and went surprisingly well Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  Although I did have to teach a Bodycombat class Saturday morning and after 2 days of no carbs that was probably one of my hardest classes ever.  Then Sunday was Miss 3's party day and I'm sorry but I had a devine birthday cake made, I was going to eat it.  But I did behave myself alot better than I would have if I wasn't following the plan.  So back on it Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday has hit and I am struggling today!  No energy, tired and all I want to eat is carbs when I feel like this :(  But I'm giving myself until Sunday to see how I go and as I'm expecting BIG results for such deprivation, if I don't see a big drop on the scales I won't continue on with it.  The good thing about it though is it is based on lots of clean eating (lots of vegies and salads, although some are restricted).  You just have to be mindful of your choices when it comes to your meats, cheeses and eggs as it can become a very high fat diet. 

On the plus side I ordered a few low/no carb items from the net, including cookies, cookie mix and savoury wafers (so I can have Camembert and crackers with my low-carb beer - ok this diet is starting to sound better and better!).  They arrived today so I'm hoping they will make the next few days a bit more easier.

I will keep

So that's my ramble for the week and I will keep you all updated on how I go.  I'll leave you with my attempt at a no-carb meal plan for the week:

Monday - Beef Stirfry (no rice for me)

Tuesday - Dining out - so proud I ordered an Eye Fillet steak for the first time ever, and I didn't eat my chips (ok I had about 5) and I refused chocolate cake and cheesecake while everyone else ate in front of me :(

Wednesday - Chicken Caesar salad (no croutons)

Thursday - Zucchini Slice and salad

Friday - Parmesan Chicken and salad

Saturday - No Crust quiche

Sunday - Either leftovers or Low-carb lasagne (still researching recipes)