Eating Well May Require Moral Support

"Discover Oprah's top-rated diet that celebrities use to get thin. I'm no celebrity, but it worked for me."

I found this line on an advertisement on Facebook. Celebrities are just people like us. They work hard to get the bodies they have. They don't just sit around and any eating or exercise regime they follow is not more magical than yours.

But there is one other tip you can learn from celebrities. If you want to become a certain way, you need to surround yourself with people who live in that way. They are all (seemingly) slim, trim and gorgeous. They are surrounded by people who are slim, trim and gorgeous... so if one day they walked out amongst their other slim, trim, gorgeous friends with frizzy hair, out-of-date clothing and a few extra kilos, well they would probably stand out a whole lot more than if they did the same thing amongst us.

If you want to eat healthily and exercise regularly, surrounding yourself with people who do the same will help you a lot. That doesn't mean you should just go out and ditch any friends who don't eat healthily, of course not! But if you regularly interact with people who live in the way you want to live, then they will become your benchmark. They will become your "norm" and not only will you find it easier to rise to the occasion to live the same, well, it will just become "normal" for you to live like that.

When I am out in the "normal" world, I sometime feel like a bit of a freak. I mean, I exercise more than 12 times a week (because it's my job not cos I'm a fanatic!) and my standard of what food is and isn't healthy are, well, a fair bit higher than most others. But when I hang out in "fitness instructors" world, it is normal to exercise as much as I do. In "fitness instructors" world my physique is also normal, whereas in "normal" world, to some I am skinny or petite.

Here's an example of how you can step out of the norm without ditching your friends:

Let's pretend you've decided for yourself that you're not going to eat pizza anymore, but there's been a long-standing tradition amongst you and your friends... a weekly movie & pizza. Instead of ditching your long-time friends for gym junkies, why not find a buddy amongst them who has also been thinking about eating healthier, and is willing to not eat pizza together with you? Rather than missing out on the weekly festivities, the two of you can still go to movie night. Instead of pizza, you could split a healthier option meal together - say, roast chicken and a gigantic, colourful garden salad.

Don't make a big fuss of it and certainly don't make an issue of the pizza. Just do what you feel is best for you whilst maintaining the fun and relationships. Everyone wins! And who knows, over time you might find yourself with a few additional converts to healthier eating... although there will always be that one person who likes to add a handful (or two) of chips to their meal, haha!

Weight Loss = What Are You Eating???

If you want to lose weight... SERIOUSLY... then your success will largely depend on your diet. Not enough exercise in the world is going to help you if you can't master the principles of calories out vs calories in.

How do I know? Personal experience. I am an aerobics instructor. I teach at least 10 classes per week but currently average at about 13-14. And over the last 3 months I've put on about 3kgs.

Most people's first response is "well, that's because you're putting on muscle!". Trust me, honey... it ain't muscle! Muscle doesn't bulge at the tummy or under the arms or around the tights. Okay well maybe a tiny bit of it is, but if only you knew how difficult it is to gain muscle mass - especially for females - then you would understand.

So why did I put on weight? Same reason a lot of other people do - I thought I could get away with the bad eating. The yummy extras. I figured, hey, what the heck, I've done 16 classes this week, I can have that second piece of cake! Not only can I have it, I deserve it! Never mind that one piece of cake probably requires 1.5, maybe even 2 classes to burn off. I mean, the average gym-goer probably does 3 classes per week, maybe 4 or 5 if they're hardcore. At 16, I've got at least 10 classes worth of eating on them! Probably more than 10 classes, because I also work harder than most of them trying to set the example on that stage!

It is this sort of self-justification that will greatly slow down if not ruin your chances of success.

I didn't put the 3kg on overnight, it was a gradual process. Chances are your weight gain was also a gradual process. You didn't suddenly wake up one morning 3 dress sizes larger than you used to be and feeling overwhelmed, wondering how you're ever going to lose it all without the help of the people at the Fat-zap clinic.

Some tips? Little, baby steps. One decision at a time. One little 'no' here and there. Deciding before you head out to a social function what your limits are and stick to them. Don't treat every meal and every dessert and every opportunity to eat chocolate like it's the last opportunity you'll ever have, because it ISN'T. Allow every good decision, no matter how small or big, to empower you towards making the next good decision.

And if you stuff up, don't beat yourself over the head like I like to do to myself. Pick yourself up and try again.

New "Mum-Friendly" Checkout Lanes?

I popped in to Coles today to pick up some grocery items and noticed a sign in the checkout lane, announcing two Mum-friendly checkout lanes. The lane I was lining up in happened to be one of them.

What's the difference? The contents of those shelves just above the conveyor belt. Typically stocked up with junk food goodies such as chocolate bars on special, lollipops and Kinder Surprise eggs, the two aisles claiming to be Mum-friendly have "healthier snack options" instead.

I must admit I didn't look at the items on offer any more than beyond a glance, but they seemed to be filled instead with things like granola/muesli bars, etc, with not a chocolate in sight. I'll have to have a proper look the next time I'm there.

What an interesting concept. It will be interesting to see if the alternative options really are healthy or not... my first instinct is to think that they might be healthier than chocolate bars, but not necessarily healthy. Most snack bars of any sort tend to be filled with sugars, possibly preservatives, and, well... maybe they could pop some fresh fruit, nuts and less processed items on those last minute shopping shelves instead of a "lesser of two evils".

Eat to Save Your Life

I don't even have a decent excuse for not blogging for so long. Let's just say, Facebook has heaps of neat little applications and I've been hooked on The Hatchery during my free time.

The night before last, Jamie Oliver's "Eat to Save Your Life" aired on Channel Ten at 9:30pm. What an eye-opening show. For example, we all vaguely know that sausages aren't particularly healthy, but Jamie got a butcher on the show, who made typical sausages from scratch. He started by mincing leftover cuts of meat (they were more like fat and sinew lined with a touch of meat) into a bowl, then adding the preservatives (including copious amounts of salt, sugar and unidentifiable emulsifiers) usually added to give that nasty, cheap, tasteless stuff some flavour. UGH. I am NEVER eating a sausage again. I don't usually eat them anyway, but will at times have a bite of James'. Forget that.

True, I could make them myself or pay premium prices for good quality sausages that actually contain meat and natural flavours, but why bother? There's plenty of other stuff out there I'd rather eat.

Other interesting features in this 90 minute show were an interesting look at the cross-section of two people, one of a healthy weight and size and the other an obese size. Yes, literally a cross-section ~ they were two bodies that had been frozen and preserved and then slice taken from head to toe for our viewing and education. The freaky Dr Gunther also performed a dissection of a 25 stone man (that's over 150kg for the non-British out there). The amount of fat stored in his belly area was typical of males that overweight. What I NEVER knew was that the fat was so excessive, his lungs were tiny, only HALF the size of that of a normal man! Shocking. So a large part of the reason that people who are too overweight can't really do any cardiovascular activity without wheezing and half collapsing to death is because they don't even have the lunge size to take in enough oxygen to fuel their bodies.

If you didn't watch the show, it is certainly worth it. In our modern society many of us are eating ourselves to death, with NO IDEA of what we're doing to our bodies! I hope Jamie releases this show on DVD because I'll be buying myself a copy.

Next week, Wed 9:30pm on Channel Ten is another show by Jamie Oliver - "Jamie's Fowl Dinners", this time about the chicken and egg farming industries. I'm not looking forward to watching that one, but whilst I feel I want to avoid the discomfort of learning the truth, avoiding the truth never actually made the truth less true.

It's Not Easy to Lose Fat ... Do the Math and See Why!

I've been meaning to post this one for a little while, just never got around to it. But to mark the final week of the Biggest Loser contestants' residence in the White House, I thought now might be a good time to open some eyes.

I love watching The Biggest Loser. But one thing a lot of people just don't comprehend is how difficult it is to lose weight. So I thought a little math lesson in weight loss might help some of you to see what sort of effort is required to lose weight.

The generally recommended rate of weight loss amongst nutritionists and fitness professionals is between 0.5 to 1kg per week. This is considered to be both safe and maintainable in the long term. Does that rate sound too slow for you? Well then keep reading.

When I refer to "weight loss" I am specifically talking about FAT LOSS. Most of us are aware that if you drink 1L of water then you will weigh 1kg heavier... but losing water weight is not what ultimately will change your body shape.

For the purposes of this math lessons, let's be conversative and aim for a weekly loss of 0.5kg (500g) of fat. To lose weight, you essentially have to spend more energy than what you eat. So, how much energy is in 500g of fat?

1g fat = 9 calories
Therefore, 500g fat = 500 x 9 = 4500 calories

So in one week, you need to use 4500 calories more than you eat! Bet you didn't realise just how massive that number would be!

Let's break that down into a more manageable figure:

4500 calories per week = 4500 calories in 7 days.
Therefore 1 day = 4500/7 = 643 calories per day.

If you decide to try to lose weight through diet alone, I can guarantee that not only will you find this difficult, you will be hungry all the time. You will probably also be likely to not just lose fat weight, but muscle weight too. This in itself could be another blog post, but for now, just take my word for it that you do not want to lose muscle weight. Trust me.

640 calories is not burnt in a mere 30min brisk walk. Nowhere close!

30min moderate walk (6km/h) = 130 calories
30min brisk walk/light jog (8km/h) = 260 calories
30min run (10km/h) = 340 calories

This morning, I taught an aerobics class which was a combination of Step and Hilo. My heart rate monitor informed me that I burned 510 calories in 47mins (the class was actually 90mins long, but I kept forgetting to turn the computer monitor on at the start of my classes, so I'm generally only recording half of my classes... ugh!).

This might sound great to you - do a 1hr aerobics class, and Bob's Your Uncle, you've clocked in your daily 643 calorie burn time. What most people forget to factor into the equation is how hard do they work during the class? Some of my participants certainly do work hard, but others do not. And let me tell you, when I teach an aerobics class, I probably work harder than when I simply participate in a class. Sure, I sweat when I participate, but when I teach, I don't just sweat... it actually drips off me! According to what I've read online, on average you can burn about 300 calories in a 1hr Step class... maybe more in a Hilo class (if you work hard enough in the Hilo class that your average heart rate is higher than in a Step class).

The purpose of this post is not to paint an impossible picture and make you feel like you can't ever lose the weight. It's to help you appreciate that losing weight IS hard work. There are no shortcuts (apart from liposuction I suppose, and even that requires lots of $$ and pain!). If there were shortcuts, then our nation would not be going through an Obesity Epidemic.

And as for those diets that promise you will lose 7kg in 14 days ... they work short term but won't sustain you for life. Plus, that 7kg is not predominantly fat.

Next time: Tips for a Successful Workout Program

Super-Challenge Results

Recap - my guesses were:

1. Cosi's 200g Nestle Diet yoghurt ~ under 100cal
   
2. Kirsten's can of baked beans ~ assuming it's a small can, maybe 150-180cal?
   
3. Garry's 60g of Carmen's fruit muesli ~ 250-300cal
4. Sam's 55g Cadbury milk chocolate ~ 250-300cal
   
5. Alison's 74g McDonalds french fries ~ no idea! I would hazard a guess at 250-300cal, but
   I'm putting it as higher than the chocolate because it weighs more, and I'm not sure which of the two have the higher fat%. I know chocolate is typically quite high... french fries might have a lower fat % because despite being deep fried the fat is on the outside not mixed right through the middle like chocolate, but then french fries have a large surface area.*
   
6. Michelle's 600mL bottle of Fanta ~ at least 300cal

According to the show, the actual caloric figures were:

1. 200g Diet Yoghurt ~ 80 cal
2. 220g Baked Beans ~ 181 cal
3. 74g French Fries ~ 250 cal
4. 60g Carmen's Muesli ~ 277 cal
5. 55g Cadbury Chocolate ~ 290 cal
6. 600mL Fanta ~ 304 cal

So in summary, I had 3, 4 and 5 mixed up. Some additional lessons to take away from this exercise:

1. Whilst some might "shudder" at the muesli being a higher calorie content than the fries, don't forget that 60g muesli is a MEAL for many, whereas 74g frieds is a SIDE that many adults buy for their children whilst they consume a medium or large size of their own.

2. Beware soft drink! A 600mL bottle has close to the same calorie content as a meal should contain (bearing in mind, women who want to lose weight should aim for 1200-1500cal per day... so a soft drink would be one quarter to one fifth of a woman's daily allowance!). Aside from the high caloric content, that amount of sugar in one sitting is not good for ANYONE.

3. The chocolate and muesli are almost the same calories... again, however, you would eat a bowl of muesli for breakfast, but there is no way a 55g serving of chocolate would be as satisfying (or good for you).

The Biggest Loser Super-Challenge!

This was on TV last night. If you're a fan - wasn't it awesome to see the six contestants achieving what they did during the race? a 500m uphill run, followed by 4km bike ride, 3km canoeing on the sea (which included turning around a small island so it wasn't just canoeing in a straight line).

But then the nastiest part of all - six food items to choose from. The person who arrived first got the first choice of course, and the person who arrived last didn't get a choice at all. And whoever ended up with the food with the highest caloric content would be eliminated immediately.

Here is the order in which contestants finished the race, plus their food choices:

1. Cosi - 200g tub Nestle Diet yoghurt
2. Sam - 55g Cadbury milk chocolate
3. Kirsten - a can of baked beans (I'm not sure of the size but it looked like a smaller rather than larger size)
4. Michelle - 600mL bottle of Fanta (I think the normal kind rather than a diet variety but again, not sure)
5. Alison - small McDonalds french fries (weighing 74g)
6. Garry - 60g of Carmen's fruit muesli
   

What a dilemma. I actually think it would be worse to come 2nd or 3rd last instead of last because you could potentially not be the last to finish the race and yet have a hard food choice to make. Last year Damien got knocked out ... even though his amazing effort got him in 2nd last place (remember the guy was still carrying close to 200kg of body weight at the time) he chose a healthy food - eggs - but there were six of them, something he forgot to take into account!

My main issue with this challenge is that some of food items are clearly unhealthier than others (e.g. McDonalds vs muesli) and yet might have a lower caloric content due to portion sizes. However, when I thought more about it, this issue does teach a few important lessons for anyone wanting to lose or control their weight:

1. Portion size matters! You can still eat too much of a healthy food item and not lose weight, or gain weight. An example of this is fruit - yes, fruit it healthy, but it is also filled with sugar. Now if you were to eat, say, more than 4 servings every day in addition to your normal meals, this could be a contributing fact to why you're not shedding those unwanted kilos. Or you could be eating muesli for breakfast every morning but having double or triple what you need to have.
2. Many of us are aware that one factor of weight loss or maintenance is allowing ourselves to have treats, as long as the portion size and how often we have them is under control. Chocolate is a good example - many people, if deprived of this simple pleasure for too long, are likely to get out of control and have a binge. Again, the principle of portion control needs to come into play. Have a piece of cake on your birthday if that's what you've been looking forward to in the weeks leading up to it... but decide in advance to have one slice, decide on the size of that slice, savour and enjoy that slice, and don't go back for seconds!

So... what's my personal verdict on the above food items and their caloric order? Well it's a very tough call for a number of them, I wouldn't be surprised if several of the items are less than 30 calories apart, but here's my guess, from lowest to highest, plus my estimate of calories they contain (I'm really testing my knowledge here!):

1. Cosi's 200g tub Nestle Diet yoghurt ~ under 100cal
   
2. Kirsten's can of baked beans ~ assuming it's a small can, maybe 150-180cal?
   
3. Garry's 60g of Carmen's fruit muesli ~ 250-300cal
4. Sam's 55g Cadbury milk chocolate ~ 250-300cal (would have more fat than muesli)
   
5. Alison's 74g McDonalds french fries ~ no idea! I would hazard a guess at 250-300cal, but
   I'm putting it as higher than the chocolate because it weighs more, and I'm not sure which of the two have the higher fat%. I know chocolate is typically quite high... french fries might have a lower fat % because despite being deep fried the fat is on the outside not mixed right through the middle like chocolate, but then french fries have a large surface area.*
   
6. Michelle's 600mL bottle of Fanta ~ at least 300cal
   

What do you think? How would you order the foods? Most importantly, which food would you have chosen and would you have been eliminated as a result?


*side note - knowing the fat % of these foods is importance because, gram for gram, fat is double the calories compared to carbs and protein. Fat is about 9cal per gram, carbs and protein are 4cal per gram. Hence the McDonalds chips being heavier than the chocolate should not be the only factor to consider... if this doesn't make sense to you, pop me a question.

Balut - Delicious Delicacy or Disgusting Duck?

Responses to some of the comments on my Balut photo album:

*****

Brave? I wish I had a video - James ate his with ease, instantly recognising that this was "simply" a test of mental strength. It took me 5-10 minutes of staring at mine and making funny noises before I could bring myself to eat it. The funny thing is, I've eaten this stuff once before so I already knew how it tasted... but the little baby ducky looked so sad, so forlorn, so... dead.

*****

It tasted quite nice - like the yolk part of a hard boiled egg, only softer and creamier. I know... just the word "creamy" in relation to an embryo is making some of you grimace. In fact, it even tasted healthy, especially after having eaten out so much and feeling like I've had at least 2 years' worth of my fried food allowance in the space of 2 weeks!

*****

But... who came up with the idea in the first place? Does anyone know? Did someone hard boil an egg only to crack it open to discover it had an embryo in it, but then being Asian didn't want to waste good food so they ate it anyway? This question shall be added to my list of food questions (e.g. who thought of putting chicken together with avocado?) until I find an answer.

*****

Regarding the Fear Factor comment - somehow I don't think Balut is anywhere near as bad as drinking an entire raw Ostrich egg (or some other large bird - it looked like about 2 litres of the stuff!). Did you happen to see that episode? I also think I'd much rather eat Balut than live worms... or coackroches. Ugh.

*****

Filipinos - you will be pleased to know that your national delicacy does have international fame. Balut-eating was featured as a challenge in one season of Survivor, although I forget which one. And they didn't just eat one, they ate up to four or more... the person who ate the most won.

*****

Stay tuned for a Balut-eating tutorial video... coming soon to a Multiply site near you!

Filipino Food Adventures

I must admit, I had a challenging time finding food that I was willing to eat for lunch and dinner in Manila. I suppose I could have just made life easier and settled for fast food, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Thankfully, from 15 July we will be staying with some Filipino friends so will have the advantage of insiders' advice on food, but in the meantime I am left subject to the food on offer at the malls.

My first dinner experience was at Megamall food court: I ordered a pork steak grilled on a hot plate and an additional plate of vegetables. They were my favourite veggies - “tung choi”, also known as “morning glory”. However, they arrived swimming - no, drowning - in oyster sauce. The pork steak was also drenched, covered by some sort of gravy thickened up with a mound of corn flour. Nothing like what the picture displayed - a nice, clean pork steak - no sauce - sitting next to very neat pile of rice. I did manage to rescue my dinner out of their sauces as much as possible… the sauce on the pork was so thick that I could just scrape it off with a fork.

For lunch the next day, we found a lovely Asian store where I ordered a delicious piece of steamed fish fillet, complete with an Asian-style dressing of coriander, soy sauce, ginger and probably fish sauce. Ordered my favourite tung choi again. This time it had soy sauce instead of oyster, a much preferred option to the previous evening.

For dinner that evening, I discovered a Mongolian store in my search for fabulous food. I purchased a bowl which I then filled with whatever I wanted. This gave me complete control over exactly what and how much veggies, meat and sauce went into my meal. A fabulous feed for a fabulous fee.

So concludes part 1 of my Filipino Food adventures. Now it's on to Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia - home of my parents, sister, grandma and other extended family. I'm looking forward to some good, familir home-cooked food after 3 days of eating out.

Filipinos seem to love their Fast Food

I have never seen so many fast food outlets in one single place in my entire life. Megamall, one of many shopping centres, boasts a huge array of fast food outlets. Yes it certainly lives up to its name - it is massive - yet it can’t be more than about 2 ½ times the size of Chadstone shopping centre, and it definitely has more than 2½ times as many fast food outlets.

The following is but a small sample of what I saw at Megamall, and by no means extensive: McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Donut King, Krispy Kreme, Mrs Fields, Wendys, Jollibee, Greenwich, Gonuts Donuts, BreadTalk. I can’t keep going because I don’t even remember the names of half the stores.

Do humour me and allow me add to the picture being painted:

• A number of stores had more than one outlet – I saw two outlets for McDonalds, KFC, Krispy Kreme, Pizza Hut, Donut King, a store that sells Brownies… and three Jollibees!! Jollibee seems to be the premier fast food joint in Manila, as opposed to the traditional McDonalds in most countries.
  

• Not only were there multiple stores for many fast food outlets, the stores themselves boasted a floor space of double, sometimes triple that of the average clothing store. And they were always filled with people.

• It seemed to me that 50% of Megamall's occupancy was food stores, of which 50% or more were fast food.
  

• There was a vast array of non-franchise fast food stores too, including at least half a dozen different donut stores, multiple bakeries (Asian bakeries often stock a lot of sweet breads and are more like fast food than what you might find at a bakery in Australia), brownie shops, ice cream vendours, bubble milk tea, “fruit juice” stores, fried chicken, all-you-can-eat buffets, Mexican food, pizza stores… the list just goes on.

• Even James thought there was a huge amount of fast food on offer - if that isn't telling you something, then I don't know what will!
  

• There seemed to be deep fried versions of just about any food you could possibly name.

The thingis - they're all so little.... where does all that food go?

Don't Dehydrate. Rehydrate!

Wonderful James came running with me yesterday. You can read about that run in my TRAINING bLOG if you're curious.

The day before yesterday I learnt about dehydration and heat stress. One of the things I learnt was that after exercise we should aim to replace our fluid loss through sweating by 150%.

Naturally, I was curious to see how much fluid James and I would sweat out during a 10km run. So we weighed ourselves before and after the run (note: 1L water weighs 1kg, hence weight loss is a good estimate of amount of fluid lost from the body during exercise).

I was so surprised to find out the results! I lost 0.9L of water, and James lost a whopping 1.2L. I was expecting much less - maybe, oh I don't know... 0.4L for me?

Therefore, to adequately rehydrate post-exercise, James and I needed to drink 1.8 and 1.4L of water respectively.

Now I know for a fact that I am a person who doesn't sweat very much - not only am I female, I also don't seem to work up much of a sweat, even compared to other females. So if not-very-sweaty me can sweat almost 1L of water during a 10km run in cool-to-warm conditions, you can see how easily many of us can become dehydrated due to prolonged exercise and not enough fluid intake during and after, especially in warmer conditions.

Dehydration is not good. You cannot train your body to tolerate dehydration better. With training, other aspects of your bodily functions will improve, e.g. your body might sweat less. But you will never tolerate dehydration better.

So be sure to adequately hydrate your body before, during and after exercise.

The Butcher, The Mousse and The Butterscotch Sauce

I love working at Meal Magic. I just love it. I have learnt so many new things about food in the short weeks I have worked there. Here are some of them...

New butchering knowledge:

• I now know how to take an entire beef rump (i.e. cow's bottom), cut off all the fat and sinew, and make it into steaks and/or diced bits. One month ago if you'd slapped a beef rump down on a kitchen bench in front of me, I would have had absolutely no idea where to begin, apart from pick up a knife and stare at the thing.
  
• On a chicken breast there is a bit that tears off quite easily known as a chicken tender. When I excitedly told James about this new piece of knowledge as soon as I got home, he informed me he already knew this. I was crushed.
• Cutting a hole in a chicken breast so it can be stuffed with filling... okay it's not a big deal to do this at all but I never would have known that if I hadn't tried doing it myself.
  
• Chicken thighs are definitely my least favourite cut of chicken to work with. Yes they are nice and tender in stir-fries but they are so annoying to try and cut the fat out off and there are just so many tendons everywhere. Give me chicken breasts or tenders any day.
• I can (sort of) tell the difference between lamb and beef mince. I can't do it with my eyes closed like Dan (j/k!) but if I stare at them long enough I think I can almost spot which one is redder (and therefore the lamb)
  

New dessert skills:

• In the last two or three weeks, I have made litres (and litres!) of chocolate mousse, raspberry mousse and tiramisu. I was up to my elbows in the stuff... literally! I know they probably cost hundreds or maybe even thousands of $$$ but I would love to have one of those giant mixers in my kitchen that can whip up 5L of cream in minutes! For now I will just settle for wishing for one of my own home-sized cake mixers one day.
  
• Butterscotch sauce! Yum, yum, yum!

Overall, I am way more confident in the kitchen. I used to think I didn't like cooking, but actually I tend to like things I think I'm good at or dislike things I think I'm not good at. And at this point in time, I think I could actually one day be good at cooking... all I need is practise and the opportunity to continue to pick Daniela's brain.

After all, I love eating... so why not learn to make all that yummy stuff too!

My FitNation Course... the saga begins!

Ah, yes, the anticipated post that is going to tell you all about how my FitNation course is going. Well, I've had two lectures now. The course consists of 5 modules, and every module comprises 1 to 6 lectures. To complete every module I need to submit assignments and also sit exams.

My first module is already 2/3 of the way through, i.e. I've attended 2 of the 3 lectures. My first assignment deadline and exam is a week from tomorrow... can you believe it?!

So this is shaping up to be a pretty fast-paced 14 weeks, with lots of information to learn and process in my brain within a relatively short period of time. I'm only into my first week and already I'm quite tired between balancing course attendance, study (which I've not had a chance to do much of) and also part-time work at Meal Magic.

Thankfully, this first module is relatively easy for me because of my science background. The module topic: Nutrition and Body Fat Management. Most of the nutrition stuff I've either already learnt in high school and university biology classes, and anything additional I've probably already read around the place because it's a topic of interest to me.

My next module however will not be so easy - Anatomy!

*******

Here's a story from my first night's attendance which I know you will enjoy:

One of our classroom activities was to pair up and interview our partners regarding what we'd consumed in the past 24 hours. I interviewed my partner first, and was astounded by the amount of food he consumed!

As for me... well, it is here that I have a confession to make: I lied... just a little! But a lie, no matter how small, is still a lie. *sigh*

Let me explain myself...

After interviewing my partner and learning how much he'd eaten, I began to feel insecure about what I'd eaten, and worried that he would think I ate too little. You see, our lectures start at 6pm on Mondays, so to get there on time I had to leave home by 5pm, which meant a really early dinner at 4:40pm! Lectures don't end until 10pm which would be too late to eat dinner.

So at lunchtime that day, I didn't really eat much, just a hot cross bun. I wasn't really hungry and I knew I'd be eating again in only a few hours. So what did I lie about? Well, when I was interviewed I added an extra sandwich for good measure - a salmon sandwich with cream cheese, to be exact. I just felt I had to... I mean, my partner ate 3 ham sandwiches with salad plus a muesli bar and an apple! What was I to do?

Yes, yes, I know. I'm a bad person. What can I say? But I have now appeased my conscience a little by confessing this lie in public. Actually, I appeased it as soon as I confessed my sin to James the next morning.

Go ahead, have a laugh. James certainly did.

Going Bananas!

Bananas were priced at only $1.95 per kilo at Safeway today!! I was so excited that I bought four. Yay!!!

A Berry Fruitful Day

If you have never been to a Strawberry Farm, you have to go sometime... my parents used to take us kids regularly during the summer months and I loved it. For the last 6 years, I have been wanting to visit, but I just never got around to it. Yesterday, James took me. We had so much fun!

On our way there, we stopped in Dromana for my favourite kind of fish n' chips lunch ~ the kind that you eat by the ocean:

Sunny Ridge strawberry farm:

Various berry-picking activities:

They never said we couldn't eat whilst picking!

My first BIG strawberry:

James was wonderful, because he took all the photos, which means we don't have photographic evidence that he was actually at the strawberry farm with me. But here is a picture of him afterwards trying their home-made vanilla bean ice cream (which tastes quites different from normal vanilla ice cream):

Lots of strawberries in our fridge!

And of course I had to have strawberries in my breakfast this morning!

25 Degrees

Isn't it funny how 25 degrees (Celsius) is an absolutely beautiful temperature during the day, but at night it's considered too hot? We slept in the living room again last night. Thank God for air-conditioning!

I've decided to store my chocolate in the fridge for the rest of the summer - it just doesn't taste the same when it's been melted by hot weather and re-set. It also takes on a funny colour and texture. So I'm protecting it... and my taste-buds.

A Very Snarey Christmas Lunch

The Snare family doesn't busy themselves with silly debates about whether an Aussie Christmas lunch should involve cold seafood platters or hot roasted meats... we have a simple solution that does away with any form of argument ~ we serve it all!

James waiting ever-so-patiently for his lunch ;-)

By "we", I mean James' mum Kerry and his aunt Evelyn of course!

The cold seafood platters featured Prawns, Crayfish and Oysters topped with yummy Seafood Dressing ~ I need to get that recipe from Kerry!

The hot dishes featured freshly carved Ham and Roast Turkey, accompanied by Gravy, homemade Cranberry Sauce (containing home grown cranberries!) and lots of yummy Roasted Veggies.

And I forgot to take pictures of dessert! Silly me. Who could forget the individual Plum Puddings (Aunt Evelyn, you outdid yourself this year!) , Contreau Ice-Cream, Brandied Butter, Fruit Salad Cheesecake and Champagne-soaked Berries?

Lunch was fabulous. Apart from the cole seafood, which I rarely get to eat and therefore helped myself to plenty, I was pretty good about watching my portion sizes. Even James, who was sitting next to me, didn't think I ate very much - and yet my stomach told me a completely different story ~ by the end of the day I had eaten so much that my stomach hurt and sitting in the car to go home was decidedly uncomfortable.

However, based on my observations around the lunch table, at least one or two people ate more than double what I ate... what baffles me is how on earth did they fit it all into their stomachs? Even people who are double my size surely don't necessarily have double the stomach capacity! What a marvelous skill to possess.

Heat Wave

This past Sunday, we residents of Melbourne endured our hottest December day since 1953, according to news headlines. The temperature hit a maximum of 42 degrees Celsius at about 3pm. A cool change then swiftly took place not long after, causing the temperature to drop 12 degrees in about 30 minutes.

Anyway, I'm not really here to report on the weather today. After all, James and I missed the experience because we were driving home from a weekend getaway in Daylesford ~ more on this later this week ~ and the cool comfort of my air-conditioned car. Thank God we weren't driving in James' car!

Although we didn't experience this heat first hand, we definitely felt the disastrous after-effects of it. Last night, I discovered, much to my horror, that all the chocolate in our house had melted and re-hardened.

I was mortified.

If you have ever tried eating chocolate that's melted and re-set, you'll know that the chocolate is not nice anymore ~ it loses its lovely creaminess and becomes dry, brittle and sometimes tasteless. It's all to do with the couverture or something like that.

I haven't even taken a peek into one of my many unopened packets of Tim Tams that I keep stored in the cupboard for special occasions.

New house rule: when Springtime arrives and hot weather is imminent, transfer all chocolate from cupboards into refrigerator.

Giant Gelati

I also posted in my other blog today, the one I share with my husband. If you like ice-cream, read on to find a fantastic $$ deal.

Yummy breakfast

Mmmm, pancakes for breakfast this morning. James is truly a wonderful husband. And look at how perfectly he cooked the the stack!

Hats off to our friend Chris who presented us with this lovely gift a few weeks ago - official, delicious buttermilk pancake mix from the Pancake Parlour!

On friendship - husbands take note! Sometimes i think James could run a very successful training school on how to be the best husband in the world.

On food - friends, even though I sometimes come across as a fitness and health food freak, here is photographic evidence that Fiona does, in fact, like to induge. She's just learning to do it in moderation, not every day. Our God is the God of tastebuds so let's use them!

And whilst I'm on the topic, ice-cream makes a great breakfast food ~ maybe not from the most nutritional perspective, but it certainly tops the scale from a yumminess perspective.