End of Week One and Beginning of Week Two

Well our first week ended well, with the kids (including the husband) finally settling into the new routine of eating clean and keeping our bodies moving! Friday night I tried yet again to make muesli bars, with a little more success but they just didn't quite make it! Some of them stuck together and the rest just made a really good crumble.

Disappointing but it still tasted good, but I would say they turned out less healthy than I would have liked. Not to stress, I'll keep experimenting and eventually I'll crack it!! Of the ones that did stick together, I tried them and thought they tasted good, but nobody else in the family thought they were good. Oh well.

On Saturday I managed to get the whole family out for a little bonding time doing one of our favorite things... feeding the ducks at Centenary Lakes. This is something we have done with the kids since they were little, and something Marc and I have done as a couple forever. We loved it and it was a beautiful time outside together.

We followed that time together with a fantastic walk up Mt Beerburrum, although Marc didn't realise this was the walk he agreed to earlier in the afternoon! I made it up in 14mins 11secs and I was pretty happy with that considering the kids and I haven't done it in twelve months and even though I knew it was a very steep incline, I forgot how much it made my lungs burn.

I had to make several stops to take five deep breaths and then continue on. I would have been much happier with myself if I could have just walked it nonstop like I used to before I left for the US. See what happens when you have no mountains nearby to climb regularly?? LOL!! Broderick made it up three minutes after me and Aspen arrived six minutes after Brod, and Marc arrived thirty seconds after that!

I was really proud of Aspen though because it was the first time she has completed this particular climb without tears and complaining!! She actually was smiling when she arrived and announced that she thought it was a really good walk!! The kids climbed the lookout tower and posed for a picture like kids do ....

And I took some shots of the wonderful view....

It was a really nice way to end the week together as a family. Aspen even found a tree to snuggle into.

Sunday saw Marc fly out to Malaysia for work, and it was our rest day. No exercise, but still eating well! I decided to take the kids out to movies and we decided our movie snack would be not only our treat for the week, but also our morning tea. The kids were super excited, it was just home popped popcorn, but it was still a treat and way healthier than what we could get at the movies!!

We finished up our week by making of course.... our juice for dinner!

Monday morning saw our first progress weigh in (Marc weighed in Sunday morning before he left) and here are the results....

Jodie - 85kg (187.4lbs) --- total weekly loss of 2.8kg (6.1 lbs)
Marc - 149.8kg (330.3 lbs) --- total weekly loss of 2.8kg (6.1 lbs)
Broderick - 76.9kg (169.5 lbs) --- total weekly loss of 1.6kg (3.5 lbs)
Aspen - 30.6kg (67.5 lbs) --- total weekly loss of 800g (1.8 lbs)

****please note we are not striving for Aspen to lose weight, just eat healthier. She just likes to weigh in because we are doing it!****

Broderick celebrated by making his favorite breakfast meal on the new diet - Ham, Tomato and Cheese on toast!

And of course I can not fail to mention that my kids were so excited to have a solid meal as their dinner tonight for the first time in a week! This week we are alternating a solid meal with a juice each night for dinner. Tonight was chicken and veges :) Yummo! Brod was so excited he took in all the smells before consuming! LOL!!

Towards the end of Week One

Ok so this week has been full of learning for the kids. They are now joining me in my routine of exercise, and at first they were all keen, now they are just aware that its an expectation that they exercise as part of this new healthy lifestyle. Broderick is getting better with the exercise, but he still doesn't like it before and during, but is happy he did it after he's completed it. Aspen on the other hand just doesn't like it. This week began with lots of rain locally, which meant that Broderick thought we wouldn't go for our run/walk. More fool him! We went anyway on our 3.5 mile (5.6km) run/walk and we had our own personal mud run!! The mud and slosh made our shoes heavier and of course it was a little more slippery requiring us to be a little more cautious so it took a little more time to complete, especially with the wind against us. I was especially cautious watching my step through every slippery slushy muddy section, very mindful that I did not want to fall and fracture my pelvis (or worse) again.

These runs coupled with our morning workouts at Lifestyle and Fitness (Broderick's trainer is Angeline Briggs) and Life Personal Training (Marc's & my trainer is Darren Briggs), has ensured that we are actively moving and working out each day of the week! It is always nice to see a lovely sunrise just as you are about to walk into a training session!

It's also been a week of trying new recipes and learning how to make healthy snacks. Aspen tried and discovered she likes Peppermint Tea! So now she loves having little cups of peppermint tea in her little china tea cup that her Old Grandma (my grandmother) has handed down to her!

Aspen has also been helping make the new healthy snacks... First of all were the Quinoa Pizza Bites!! Yummy... boy were they are a hit and they are so simple to make!! If you want the recipe you can get it here. We modified it a little to make it a little healthier, we used low fat ricotta cheese instead of mozzarella and we did not use any pizza sauce - there was no dip for these yummy bites.  Aspen did a great job of helping to measure out and mix the ingredients....

.... scooping them into the tray ready to be baked .....

 ... and of course enjoyed smelling them after they had baked and cooled!

 Both kids are starting to enjoy making their own juices and are beginning to experiment with different foods, sometimes this has worked for them ....

 .... sometimes this has not!

Today is Friday and is the last day of our personal training sessions this week. Broderick and I had our session today in the form of hiking up Mt Ngungun on the Sunshine Coast and it was fantastic. I have not done it for over twelve months, and in that time it has been upgraded by the Department of National Parks, Recreation, Sports and Racing. It no longer requires you to climb up a steep rocky track with your hands and feet. Now it is just a dirt track with rocky steps, but it is still a pretty decent hike and of course it does take you 253 metres (830 feet) above sea level, so it is no picnic walk! Both Broderick and I thought it was a fantastic way to finish our personal training for the week!

P.S..... I forgot to write about our starting weights at the beginning of the week, so here they are:

Jodie - 87.8kg (193.5 lbs)
Marc - 152.6kg (336.5 lbs)
Broderick - 78.5kg (173 lbs)
Aspen - 31.4kg (69.25 lbs)

Day One - Let The Change Begin

Many people that are close to me know that I have worked hard during the past three years to lose my excess weight and become healthier, and fitter. I have been steadily successful, but I still have a long way to go to reach my end goal, but as I keep plodding along my families health is, as always, an ongoing concern. What prompted my original turn around in my health was my youngest child, a seemingly healthy and active child, being diagnosed with a life threatening heart condition which required immediate open heart surgery. The surgery was successful and then a couple of months later my husband had two heart attacks! Crazy year 2010 was!!

So here we are three years later, and I've been on a plateau with my weight loss for at least six months, and my son Brod (12 years old) and my husband Marc have both gained significant weight since then. My daughter Aspen (8 years old) has just again recently been told that she is probably going to need further surgery on her heart in the future. How do I deal with this? Time to get the whole family on board with a new focus on health and fitness. So I enlisted the help of my Australian Personal Trainer,  Darren Briggs (Life Personal Trainer) and his wife Angeline Briggs (Lifestyle and Fitness), who have developed both a fitness program, and a new personally tailored diet (including a shopping list) for the family - which began today.

So after our workouts today, I went grocery shopping and $300 later we had some serious fresh and healthy foods.

 

So after washing all the vegetables and fruit, and putting all of the purchases away, it was time to begin to organise dinner --- tonight's challenge for the family - a juiced meal. Aspen was so excited about the whole thing, she wanted to learn to juice too!!

Both my husband and I have done juicing before so we were quite prepared and looking forward to our juiced drink for dinner. Hubby had Kale, Spinach, an Orange, an Apple, Celery, 1/2 a Lime, Mint, a Tomato and two Carrots. He drank it up and loved it!

My son's juice was Kale, an Orange, an Apple, Celery, 1/2 a Lime, Mint, a Tomato and two Carrots. He drank it up and hated it! It took a lot of effort for him to drink the whole thing, it involved a great deal of screwed up facial expressions, upset words and reminding about the commitment we all made to become healthier, but in the end he did drink it all.

Mine was much greener as it had Kale, Spinach, an Orange, an Apple, two handfuls of Green String Beans, 1/2 a Lemon, Mint, and a Tomato. I LOVED it!

Aspen tried a mouthful of each of ours and loved mine the best! So tomorrow night she's having a green blend too!! For tonight though she had a small salad that she had to complete that was left over from her lunch.

Well Day One is complete... and we are looking forward to Day Two!!