A couple of months ago I was contacted to participate in a series of sessions called 'Life'(or something like that), that's been run through the hospital where I had my children. Since I had gestational diabetes, the government is running a program and scooping up the gestational diabetic mothers in the hope to educate and stave off this disease. I've been to two sessions so far, and I'm yet to learn something new. I don't mean to sound all arrogant and know-it-all, but I really feel as if I'm being talked at a bit - by a very lovely knowledgeable girl. I just wish it was a bit more interactive for us participants.
The other thing that I really hate is the assumption that if you're overweight - unfortunately for me this is so - you eat junk food. For the record - and because it makes me sound really good - I rarely eat junk food. I prefer to cook from scratch, and I like to use whole ingredients. I must also say that I'm no angel and there will be times when I do eat some junk, but it's not often, and I know when I'm being 'bad'.
Our takeout meals tend to be curries and thai food, or Chinese, vietnamese. We don't go to cafe's as much as we used to because of having small children.
I love salads. I love steamed vegetables. I love salad sandwiches, and I hate the taste of butter or margarine on my bread. However, if I have toast I love to put lashings of butter on it so it melts into a lovely greasy pool. But I don't have toast very often. I should eat more fruit. I try to eat low GI when possible. I don't drink soft drinks or alcohol. Having a father who was an alcoholic does something to you, and as a result I only drink water. All my friends think I'm strange for doing so, and if people who don't know me too well, see that I'm only partaking the clear stuff, give me knowing looks as though I'm pregnant and not telling.
My biggest vice is my one daily coffee (and I've blogged about the significance of my daily brew before) that I teaspoon three sugars into. Yes, three. If I'm buying a takeaway coffee and the barista asks if I want sugar, I lean over the counter conspiratorially and very quietly say, yes please, three. And then I lean back with a sheepish look on my face. My reasoning is that since I have only one coffee a day I can have three, since I'm not stacking up on the sugar intake through multiple cups throughout the day.
Now here's my downfall. Portion size. So yes, I probably do make various healthy meals, but boy do I eat large serves of the stuff. Have you seen the new government ad campaign, all about swapping it? Well I've sort of being trying to do this in the last couple of weeks, but I'm still yet to be more consistent about it. I also need to exercise more. At the moment I'm averaging only twice a week with my exercise regime and that's no where near enough.
I'm very all or nothing when it comes to exercise. I find that I have to really prioritise it for it to happen. Since my teenage years I reckon I've tried it all. I've done the high impact and low impact aerobics; the Tummy Hips and Thighs; Step (I love step but after having children find it really hard now); Pilates (boring); yoga (ditto); Spinning (a favourite!); pump (another fave!); body step (not as good as 'traditional' step classes); swimming (too time consuming with the whole taking clothes on and off); and I have done running many years ago. I've found that nothing beats walking. So that's what I've been trying now. Ideally I would like to add a spinning class and pump class a week to my walking regime, and I think I'd be on a good run (pardon the pun) with my exercise. But where to find the time?
I'm sure everyone has this problem. Where to find the time to exercise. My husband leaves for work super early in the morning and gets home around 5pm. So early morning is out. When he's home is when I'm cooking dinner for the family. This leaves all my walking to happen in my day-to-day routine. So I walk the kids to daycare and kinder. I walk to the shops. In fact I rarely use the car at all during the week. When time is permitting I do take the dog out for one hour walks, but this may happen only twice a week.
Next week a nutritionist is coming to speak to my Life group and I'm sure there will be a session on exercise as well. At our first session measurements were taken so now I need to really focus because she's going to check after five weeks and then again in six months if we've all made any progress.
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