Weekend Reading

Stone Soup

This would have to be one of my favourite food blogs of all time.


Where do I even start?


Jules (the author) creates meals using five ingredients or fewer, with a maximum cooking time of ten minutes. Which is great for me, since I'm lazy and poor (horrible combination). The difference between her recipes and most "under X ingredients" is that she focuses on nutritious whole foods instead of packets and pre-made ingredients. 


She also posts wonderful, thought provoking posts such as should you be buying organic and great tips like $5 dinners: 7 unusual tips for reducing your food costs, not to mention she runs a virtual cookery school and sells her own line of ebooks! I don't know how she does it.


She definitely inspires you to think outside the box. Every now and then, an ingredient I haven't used before (or don't like- I'm looking at you, brussel sprouts) will pop up in a recipe and, despite that, the accompanying photos alone are enough to make me want to shovel those disgusting little shriveled cabbages into my face. True story.


The posts and recipes are so well organised, with archives and searching easy enough for my grandmother to use, and every recipe and post is like a breath of fresh air in an otherwise distinctly unoriginal world.


Jules responds to almost every single comment (!!!) with tips and graciousness. She is a fantastic blog host, a wonderful writer and, most importantly, an inspiring teacher. I thoroughly recommend you waste hours reading the whole thing from start to finish.

The No-Excuses Jump-Start Workout Plan

The title of this post is somewhat deceiving. I'm actually writing this to tell you what NOT to do.


Now, its very, very rare that I'll suggest to someone that they shouldn't work out. Its only really in cases of illness, pain etc. that working out can be a BAD idea. However, as I mentioned in this post, the "No-Excuses Jump-Start" Plan is a VLCD and because of this, you need to take it easy.


What I will suggest, is getting into a routine. Once you start exercising every day, you body adjusts and you begin to actually crave it. So set a time, or two, and do a little something each day. Then, when you become comfortable with that, add a little more to your existing routine. This way is so much gentler than what most people do, throwing themselves into full, hardcore routines straight away.


This is what you're going to do. Every day, go for a walk. Just ten minutes. I don't care where, I don't care how fast, I don't care if its pouring and you have to walk around the house. Ten minutes, walking, everyday. I promise, you DO have ten spare minutes (if you want, you can do more, but I wouldn't do more than 45-60 minutes).


The next thing? Stretching. As soon as you wake up. Get up, go to the bathroom, then stretch. No coffee first, no getting dressed first, nothing. If you're completely frazzled and busy in the morning, that's fine, but really try to make time. You can do any kind of simple stretching, but I personally recommend yoga. There are a ton of websites that can show you some soothing beginners poses that won't take more than 15 minutes.


So there. Less than half an hour a day, spaced out if you need too. Setting little, achievable goals is the key to staying motivated, and that's what this is about. When you don't dread your workouts, you'll keep doing them until its second nature and you feel 'off' if you don't do them!

Stay happy!

Love, 

Me.

xo

The No-Excuses Jump-Start Meal Plan

Here she is. Go get 'em.
Links go to actual recipes and a * means there'll be a rough guide down the bottom of the post.
PS. If you're curious about the actual calorie content of the meals, let me know and I can email you the full calorie breakdown of each day/meal/recipe.


Monday


Breakfast
     Apple Pie Porridge 
Snack
     23 almonds
Lunch
     Rice Paper Rolls
Snack
     1 cup air popped popcorn
Dinner
     Char-Grilled Vegetable Stack


Tuesday


Breakfast
     Avo Toast (Two slices of wholegrain toast with 1/2 small avocado, mashed, salt and pepper)
Snack
     ½ an apple with 1 tbsp peanut butter
Lunch
     Epic Salad (2 cups mixed leaves, ¼ cup carrot, grated, 1 tomato, sliced, 3 inches of cucumber, sliced, ¼ cup roasted red pepper, sliced, 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds, ¼ cup canned chickpeas, ¼ avocado, diced)
Snack
     100 calories worth of your favourite yoghurt
Dinner
     Bangers and Mash


Wednesday


Breakfast
     Cereal (1 cup puffed rice, ½ cup multi-grain cheerios, 1 cup puffed wheat, ½ small banana, 1 cup light soy milk)
Snack
     20 large grapes
Lunch
     Hearty Sandwich (2 slices wholegrain bread, 2 tbsp hummus, ¼ cup shredded carrot, 1 handful baby spinach, 5 sun dried tomato halves, thinly sliced, 4-5 rings of red onion)
Snack
     100 calories worth of your favourite yoghurt 
Dinner
     Taco Salad


Thursday


Breakfast
     Smoothie (1 banana, frozen, 1 cup soy milk, ½ cup strawberries, plenty of ice, ½ tbsp honey)
Snack
     23 almonds
Lunch
     Soup with roll (Vegetable Soup, tinned/homemade/bought, max 200 calories, with a small wholegrain roll)
Snack
     1 cup air popped popcorn
Dinner
     Two-mato Pasta Salad


Friday


Breakfast
     Avo Toast (Two slices of wholegrain toast with 1/2 small avocado, mashed, salt and pepper)
Snack
     2 5in stalks of celery with 1 tbsp of peanut butter each
Lunch
     Chunky Vegetable Pasta
Snack
     1 small apple, sliced, sprinkled with cinnamon
Dinner
     Vegetable and White Bean Stew


Saturday


Breakfast
     Simple Pancakes with Strawberry-Almost-Compote
Snack
     1 large orange 
Lunch 
     Brown Rice and Vegetable Salad
Snack
     Cucumber-hummus bites (1/2 cucumber, sliced into coins, dipped into 3 tbsp hummus)
Dinner
     Super Simple Stir-fry


Sunday


Breakfast
     Coconut-Banana French Toast
Snack
     100 calories worth of your favourite yogurt
Lunch
     Baked beans on toast (2 slices wholegrain bread, toasted, topped with 3/4 cup baked beans)
Snack
     1 apple
Dinner
     Burger with Sweet Potato Fries

So


What do you think?

Stay happy!

Love, 

Me.

xo

The Perfection Program Presents...

The No-Excuses Jump-Start Plan

From my personal experience, starting a diet, exercise plan or lifestyle change of any sort is a big deal- its exciting, and empowering, and motivating. You go completely crazy, setting huge goals and plans. 

New schedule (5:00am: Jog; 6:00am: Yogilates; 7:00am: Bike to work; 5:30pm Zumba), new grocery lists (nothing white, nothing refined, no sugar, no carb, no fat), scary new ingredients (What the f#*k is okra?!), you get the idea.

So you make all these huge goals and your expectations are raised really high. Then, comes the week one weigh in:

Nothing.

Or worse, you gained weight. 

All of a sudden, any motivation is gone. You want to drown your sorrows in pasta and ice cream (or both. Together). The diet starts to slip. The workouts get shorter, less passionate. You start using your yoga mat as a shower mat. Trainers banished to the back of the closet. Vegetables sadly wilting in the crisper. All because of one weigh in.

This diet plan is designed to help you drop enough weight in the first week of so to get you started AND keep you motivated. 

A few notes about this diet:

• If you are already following a healthy eating plan, you won't lose as much weight as someone coming from a diet of crap. Just sayin'.

• This is considered a VLCD (very-low-calorie-diet), so I don't recommend any strenuous exercise. Seriously. Do some yoga, walking ten minutes a day, things like that. I'll talk more about this in the Workout Post.

• If your job or lifestyle required you to be more active than a basic retail job, then please add some extra healthy snacks. Even if you just double up on the ones I recommend.

• I am vegan, and as a result, my menus are also vegan. This is a personal choice for me, and I didn't feel comfortable making menus including animal products as I don't feel I have enough knowledge to properly recommend any. If you want to substitute something, feel free, however remember that this will change the calorie content and possibly your results.

• If you find you really like one meal and hate another, or you need have a packed lunch, or have allergies, go ahead and switch the meals around a bit. Nothing is set in stone, and each meal type (eg all breakfasts or all lunches) has similar calorie contents.

• THIS IS NOT PERFECT! Some days will have a ton of carbs. Or be missing a vitamin. Or not have enough.... fibre. Or whatever. What this is, is a meal plan for normal, every-day people, by a normal, every-day person. I want it to be easy, and quick, and fun.

This is how it is. 7 days, you, me, no excuses.

Stay happy!

Love, 

Me.

xo

Productivity and Positivity

I love making lists. Groceries, things to do, things to buy, movies I want to watch, anything really. This, however, concerns ‘To-Do’ lists.

The best way to make a to-do list, oddly enough, is to make it really long. As long as possible, actually. Confused? Let me explain. Take one job you have to do, and split it up into as many small jobs as you can think of. Then, as you do each mini-job, mark it as done or check it off. 

DO NOT ERASE IT! 

This way you can see how much you’ve already done, instead of just how much you have left to do.

I’ll use house work as an example- this is a bad list.

• Clean house

Bad! You have one huge job to do. This is a MASSIVE de-motivator. Just looking at one huge job like this makes me want to sit on my butt in front of the TV and zone out the mess.

This is a slightly better list.

• Clean bedroom
• Clean kitchen
• Clean bathrooms
• Clean living area

See? Even though it’s the same amount of work, you have a longer list and thus more items to check off. Going by room isn’t a bad way to go, either. But we can do better, get really detailed. I’ll just use a few rooms as an example.

• Wash dishes
•  Put away dishes
• Wipe down benches
• Sweep floor
• Take out rubbish
• Organise pantry
• Wash clothes
• Put clothes in dryer
• Fold clothes
• Put clothes away
• Iron

Now that’s hardly two rooms’ worth, but its super long already. My lists, honestly, get ridiculous and you might think I'm silly for turning one job into ten. Or twenty. Or more. But with each 2-10 minute job, you get to cross another item off the list, keeping you motivated!

Stay happy!

Love, 

Me.

xo

Introductions

When you decide to lose weight, you want results- Now. That mentality is largely due to the nature of the world we live in today. We are in the age of instant gratification, and it’s ruining us.

Now, don’t get me wrong- I love the internet and all the information at my finger tips. I love knowing that my loved ones will virtually always be contactable thanks to mobile phones. I love being able to send emails and receive bills online and save a few trees and some time. But it means that we’ve become very, very impatient.

This is the reason that the most popular diets (and there are plenty) are the ones promising that you will lose ten pounds in five days, or something equally ridiculous. But it does sound alluring, doesn’t it?

Well here are the facts. I won’t be able to teach you to lose “X amount of kilos in X amount of time”. I can’t promise you “a bikini body in just two weeks!”. But what I can do is give you the tools you need, to make the changes you should, to get the body and life that you want.

Yep. That’s right- Change. You will not, I repeat, WILL NOT get to where you want unless you change something. Don’t get scared! It can be something as small as buying smaller plates (scientifically proven to naturally reduce portion sizes) and easy stretching in the morning, or as big as a full diet overhaul and having PT sessions 6 times a week.  

The name “The Perfection Program” may be misleading. I don’t want you trying to be your mothers’ idea of perfect, or your bosses, or anyone’s. In fact, I don’t want you trying to be “perfect”. I want to inspire you to be the best version of yourself you can possibly be. That, to me, is perfect.