Merry Christmas to you!

I have been meaning to write a post about how great the Myer Melbourne windows and Christmas experience was, and about all if the awesome things our football club, Melbourne Victory, have been putting on for it's fans, but this is the busiest time of the year... For my work, it gets crazy, looking after around 100 high school students book and uniform lists... And then there is the general Christmas social fun, and planning for the big day... So here I am saying Merry Christmas to you! From my family to yours... We have the kinder, soon school, holidays and we are both home with the kids for two weeks! So there will be loads of fun, probably not much posting! See you in the new year!

Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Catching Fire: Hunger Games Trilogy

If you are new in my life or to my blog, you may not know about how much I enjoyed The Hunger Games books... I read them twice in a row, and once we saw the movie, I read all 3 books aloud to Mark... The first film was actually that bad that I felt bad he had to sit through it before knowing the story...

We went to see the film with the same couple that we saw the first film with, who had also read the stories... Gold class is the only way to see a film this long (over two hours), and it was worth every cent... I was really happy with everything about this film, I felt that it was true to the books, as well as being something someone who hadn't read the books could get easily... Even if you were disappointed with the first one, definitely give the second one a go!

Perfect Mums?

Perfect Mums?

I don't read tabloid magazines... No interest, no time, would prefer to read a book... But today I was at my Nanna's and had a moment of browsing her Woman's Day... This was a mistake... Front cover is Katherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, new mum, on the front cover with what is effectively a before and after Prince George picture... She looks tired... I was horrified that there is even comment about this, let alone a front cover!!! The woman is a first time mum, raising a Prince and doing it without all of the usual household staff required to raise a prince... Way to let all the new mums down, nobody feels great after a bad night, the last thing they need is some before and after shots...

Then Fifi Box going on about losing weight to be a mum her kid can look up to... Seriously... Sure if the actual focus was the healthy lifestyle she says she has taken on to lose the weight... But ultimately the headline was that she lost the baby weight to be a good mum...

Now I know that parenthood is different strokes for different folks, and what I think is best for my family may make you cringe, and we can all be a bit judgy sometimes, but ultimately we all do our best with our families, what works for us... And we should all support each other in that... Whole I think it makes all the sense in the world to lead by example, to eat healthy meals with your kids, and let them see you exercise and prioritise being healthy, but being thin doesn't make you a good mum... If there are days that you look and feel like crap, that doesn't make you a bad mum... It's all so bad... I hope that only old people read these magazines and that no new mums out there can possibly take these publications seriously or let them affect their self worth...

Clean November...

Clean November

Late October I was reading my girl Amy Cohen's fitness newsletter (find her at AC fitness on Facebook) and she suggested we all try Clean November, giving up wheat, sugar, sugar substitutes, dairy, dairy substitutes, processed foods, caffeine and alcohol... Immediately the answer was no, the more she wrote about it, and the staggered approach, giving up food groups one by one, by the time November 1st came, I was ready! Was completely sucked in to the idea, and as a happy surprise, Cassie decided to join me in this venture... This was a highlight because there was support, only a text away, in moments of triumph and moments of weakness... 

There was one caffeine detox headache, it was mild, but then I only drink a couple cups of tea a day... The most surprising thing that happened was sugar detox! Holy moly it was bad!!! I was feeling so low, I thought I was getting really sick, this went on for a couple days, ending in me having a 10 hour sleep, and waking up fine! Until I really thought about it, I didn't realise that sugar is in just about everything we eat... It's bad! And of course explains the detox...

The meals themselves were mostly delicious, though more then once I are food just because it was nutritious instead of being because I actually wanted to eat that particular meal... I felt like I was eating all the time, I have never consumed so much food! 

Once that first week was over (even though it was a staggered approach, I cut just about everything immediately), my skin was glowing... My insides felt great, my body was functioning brilliantly! Overall it did feel like my body was happy with my eating choices... And as a reward I lost cms off everywhere, which is a nice kick start to Dirty December! 

I definitely learnt a lot about my own willpower... Preparing food for the kids was very hard, but I did it, I even threw out sweets they didn't want! I baked chocolate caramel brownies for a kinder meeting, and didn't even lick the batter off my fingers! We went to Sydney for a weekend and I even kept it together there! 

A great experience, highly recommend doing it...