I must be doing something right…

We had our annual family reunion picnic on the weekend… my cousin said “Wow! You look fantastic!”

🙂  🙂  🙂

I always liked her… 🙂

However, The Leptin reset has been a failure for me.

Or, rather, I failed at the Leptin reset…

I simply cannot eat so much food so early in the morning… So, I am tweaking it – Dr Jack would probably roll his eyes – but, I would eat the huge protein breakfast within 1/2 an hour of waking – then I would be uncomfortable for the rest of the day.

It just didn’t feel right.

My tweak? Well, I still eat protein for my first meal – just not as much, and I eat around 9ish  – instead of at 6ish.

I’m not eating lunch – I simply am not the smallest bit hungry. And I have noticed that I get full much faster at dinner-time. AND, Dr Jack says one of the first effects women notice once their Leptin normalizes is they feel calmer…. which for me means, when the students over the back fence had their second noisy party of the week, I just rolled my eyes and tried to go back to sleep…whereas previously I would lie there and fume until steam poured out of my ears.

The bottom line is still the same – lack of sleep, but – there’s nothing I can do about other people’s children, right? 🙂

I’m still not eating sugar. I do still crave something sweet every now and then though, but the cravings are manageable and I haven’t given in. So, I guess – though I’m not doing the reset the way I should  (should – my least favourite word in the world) – it still seems to be working. 🙂

I spent yesterday afternoon trying to put together a compost tumbler… sigh… I got it done. It took 2 1/2 hours… I should have blisters on my hands – they are really sore … AND my back is killing me…

Summer is something of a wash-out thus far. We’ve had the odd lovely day, but mostly it’s been grey and windy, with the occasional storm – though the veggie garden has finally started to produce and I’m off to pick tomatoes… 🙂

 

 

 

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Food for thought

I am in trouble – deep…

I have discovered Pinterest – well you know how I used to collect magazines, and cut the pretty pictures out?… Pinterest is like having a shiny new magazine each day (or several times a day :-)), and you can cut out any of the pretties you like – and keep them in folders, and look at them any time you want…

I’m hooked.

And I’m discovering something interesting… for instance, I have been pinning pictures of the beach (any beach anywhere – uncrowded, a little wild)… I realise – I love the beach… and I cannot tell you the last time I visited a local beach. This was something we often did when I was a kid. Dad, Mum, we three kids, our little dog (Buffy) – all piled into the VW Beetle and off to spend the day at the beach… all weathers… we would walk for miles, mum would sit and search for shells, Buffy would chase bugs. We would gather driftwood. Dad would build a fire and we would skewer sausages on sticks… a piece of bread, a squirt of tomato sauce… lunch. We’d come home tired out – but at peace – with ourselves and with each other.

I remember telling you that if you could read my commonplace journals, you would know more about me than anyone I know in real-life… my Pinterest boards are shaping up the same way.

What I want to know… why does my real-life not look like my Pinterest boards?

I do have a board that I have titled “Because I am really a Princess” – it is filled with pictures of the most gorgeous gowns 🙂  I do NOT mean that board!

Some of the others though….

I wish I was techy enough to figure out how to share them with you (if you were the slightest bit interested of course! :-))

XO

 

 

 

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Dr Seuss

“Don’t cry because it is over. Smile because it happened.”  a quote from Dr Seuss.

 

I love Dr Seuss.

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More bad news

A small plane crashed in a park in a small town 20 minutes from here.

On board were two men.

One of them was my old boss.

Brett was a chiropractor. I worked for him after being made redundant from radio, then he and his family moved to Australia. He was a good guy – a hard worker… ambitious.

Brett was back in NZ to check on some investments, visit family etc… he went flying with his friend.

He leaves his wife and three young sons.

This has been a very bad week.

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Lime and Caper Vinaigrette

I have been unable to sign into my blog for the last few days… WordPress tells me I do not exist…sigh…

So, I have been spending my time on Pinterest. I blame Michele, who blogged about it recently… I googled a tutorial and have been lost ever since!

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. I used to love cutting pretty images out of magazines, and pasting them into notebooks – along with quotes, excerpts from books that appealed to me… that sort of stuff.

Now I can do all that on Pinterest.

I think I need to get out more 🙂

I cooked salmon for dinner the other day – just baked it in a hot oven for about 10 minutes. We ate it with roasted asparagus, and I made this dressing …

2 tbsp capers – rinsed and chopped up a bit

1 small clove garlic – chopped

2 tbsp evoo

1 tbsp finely chopped parsley – flat leafed

1 tbsp finely chopped tarragon

zest and juice of a lime

Combine everything in a jar and shake it all about.

Pour it over the salmon.

 

 

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The School of Essential Ingredients

It’s not a cookbook – it’s “A delicate, meltingly lovely hymn to food and friendship.” (That’s  a quote from Marisa de los Santos, author of Love Walked In)

It’s just lovely.

This is an excerpt: … she just knew she loved its slim stainless-steel handle, the fanciful bit of metal at the working end with its five demure little holes, the edge scalloped around the opening like frills on a petticoat.

(It’s a lemon zester! – isn’t that lovely?)

The writer is Erica Bauermeister. The rest of the book is just as lovely as the bit I just read for you.

I thoroughly recommend it. And, if while we’re on a roll – Erica also wrote Joy for Beginners – another one I can recommend.

You’re welcome XO

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Back on Track

Ok, so … life goes on.

The integral part of this new stage of my diet is that in order to re-set the hormone called Leptin, I need to eat at least 50g of protein, within half an hour of waking up.

50g of protein is a HUGE amount of food – especially since I have never really been a breakfast eater. In hindsight, I wonder if that is because – as a child mum used to try and force me to eat cereal and milk for breakfast. I have always hated cereal and milk both. Perhaps I instinctively knew they were no good for me??

I have heard eating that enormous amount of protein so early in the day, does get easier… and anyway, it is only for 6-8 weeks – because that is how long it takes to smack my leptin hormone around the ears and get it to do its job again.

Leptin is the hormone that lets your body know you’ve eaten enough for now, and also reminds your body how to use stored fat for energy…. yay Leptin! How do you know if your Leptin needs a shake-up?

Look in the mirror. If you’re overweight… or if you’re underweight – your Leptin needs help.

Anyway, even though I know to eat 50g of protein first thing in the morning – I am still having problems figuring out what amount of food to eat to get to 50g. Today I ate 200g of ham, thinking I that would do it…

But, no. It turns out to be only 34g…. sigh.

I think I’ve found a website that will help me to calculate it. If I’m going to do this – I have GOT to do it right.

UPDATE:  There is this really cool website called Fitday – google it. You can set up your own foodlog and put in everything you eat in a day. Fitday gives you a breakdown of calories, nutrients etc… It turns out that I DID get enough protein with that amount of ham!!! Also – it is now 1:30pm and I ate a tablespoon of coconut oil for lunch… I am not the smallest bit hungry (the coconut oil tastes like the best kind of white chocolate). So, far today I have eaten just 661 calories (holy crap!)

 

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Thank you

You girls rock. That is all…. oh, and MaryPoppins’ message will be read at my funeral, when that happens…. many, many years from now.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

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Saturday

Was not a good day.

At least, it started off good. Then we had some bad news. Then some friends came around to share their shock at the news. There was wine involved. Quite a lot of it.

A friend of ours died on Saturday. He was competing in an event at Taupo, when he had a heart attack and drowned.

He was 54, fit and strong. He was a respected member of our community and will be greatly missed. He leaves a wife and daughters.

All that wine, and the subsequent hangover didn’t bring Bennie back.

Rest in Peace Dave

 

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Me – I’d RUN!

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