Back to basics

Finding 12 hour work days very draining, so going to keep my posts about the eats during the week, with minimal rants and blab on the weekends!

Though I will say, clean eating is about 70%-80% at the moment – room for improvement that can be fixed, I think, through good shopping and planning!

Breakfast: Steel cut oats, banana, natural peanut butter, chia and soy milky
A small portion due to physical activity at work

Lunch: Leftover Teriyaki Salmon with broccoli, onion and shallots, brown rice with nori and sesame seeds and a fresh date with frozen raspberry and coconut butter.
In my other bento, used for soups and cereal!

Snack:  Not exact picture, but a cup of this with blueberries and flax seed oil.
Its not the best, but will be doing a review of yogurts soon!

Dinner: Mine and the Boy’s peanut soba (semi clean due to soba noodles being wheat + buckwheat) with chicken yakitori and Coles Vegetable and Prawn Gyoza
Gyoza bought as they are the boy’s fav food (after chocolate). They were mostly “real food” but did have sugar and too much salt – will make my own one day.

Lastly, I have been getting crazy sugar cravings – clean eating is about the food, but its also about the mentality behind it. You need to be really motivated otherwise in a moment of weakness you may let yourself down (which for me is focussing on the short term, rather than long term goals).

Rubi Shoes Day!

Images from http://www.cottonon.com/au/rubi-shoes

I used to have an unwritten rule about Rubi Shoes, the footwear offspring of Cotton On: NEVER AGAIN.

After buying THREE pairs of the same killer awesome $20 heels, but the heels breaking/wrong sizes I decided I should just spend $50 on some nice Novo ones. Same same with the flats that looked cute and colourful on the shelf, but cheap and nasty on my feet.  The sizes were also annoying and never accommodated my wide feet in heels, so I stopped shopping there. But recently I’ve been venturing in more often and have been quite delighted!

Last weekend I checked out the sale rack and found these fantastic wedges marked down to $20– and just my size. At the counter they were 50% SCORE. They also give my calves definition, and I get comfortable height!

More about Rubi – pros and cons – below!

Today’s Noms

I actually got up  at 5:30am to attempt to ease myself back into fitness. At my peak I was doing an hour 5-6 days a week (1 cardio, 1 weights, 2 circuits, 1 yoga) but I have barely clocked up a whole hour in the past week! This morning was 30 mins – 10 min run, 10 min brisk walk, 10 min stretches and abs. Its difficult when you come home late, don’t get tired until after “bed-time” but want to get max sleep so you can concentrate on academia and work. But no excuses anymore – it should help me clear my head and get to sleep faster!

But onto the foods!!

Breakfast: Muffin and Egg – small but powerful!

Not ideal, but didn’t feel like oats. A “failure” muffin – carrots/bran/chia -  frozen then reheated became doughy and very edible (especially with natural peanut butter). Mini glass of Soy Milky. I also tried to boil an egg, but it came out runny... so I stuck it in the microwave, turned my back and when I came back the egg was gone!

Well... stuck to every wall of the microwave!! I made another… 

Some say egg yolk’s aren’t clean, but they seem pretty natural (and healthy) to  me. Sure, I’ll limit my intake, especially in pies/omelettes, but we don’t have egg beaters in Australia, and it would be such a waste to throw out every yolk!

 

 

Lunch: Beef n Black Bean and Brown Rice with Nori and sesame seed seasoning 

A co-worker's meat pie made me doubt my bento for a second, but once I digged in, I was happy. Did get hungry early - sugar in the jarred sauce? Peanut M&Ms were dancing in my head all afternoon – should have packed dessert. Drat. And then watermelon mid-afternoon, still CRAVING chocolate. Had a few cups of stevia sweetened tea.

Dinner: Teriyaki Salmon

At least the sauce is clean and the Salmon and veggies are fresh (and Australian!). The hokkein noodles, not so much. I like my Salmon skin-on but crispy, so I seared it in the wok, then added the sauce and brought to a boil.

The clean sauce was a marinade I turned into a sauce (see after the jump) Needs some adjusting – wayyy to salty! The boy didn’t finish his portion (extra noodles, mine was extra veg)

Just another manic Monday

So a review of my eats today. A little boring, but baby-steps, yes? I have italicised the clean foods involved. Oh and PS I am not a photographer – my point and shoot camera is lucky to still have battery, but I am improving!! I think…


Breakfast: Simple Warm Oats and Apple
Steel-cut oats (made in rice cooker) with Vaalia low-fat vanilla (leftover – may not be clean…) flax seed oil and chia. It was quite a small portion for 1/3 c dry oats, but it was uber filling – couldn’t finish my apple, and wasn’t hungry until midday!!



Lunch/Snack: Bento!!
First trial of my new bento box. Smaller than I thought, but it really helped with portions and surprisingly I wasn’t hungry!! Its leftover Bolognaise with extra veggies (the birdy has parmesan cheese in it) plus broadbeans and corn. For “dessert” I had a fresh date stuffed with a little natural peanut butter. Haven't got the right Tupperware for inside yet, so had to glad wrap my watermelon snack.



So not  fully clean, but note the lack of candy bar. This is what I carry my lunch in. I even have a mini fork-spoon=chopstick set.
Oh and I didnt even eat any of the brownies/cookies that I took into work. Bonus.





Dinner: Beef and Black Bean with Brown Rice
Cooked by the boy. Jarred Kantong sauce, so that’s a no-no considering the junk that was in it. Although not 100% clean, I am more concerned about impending mac-cheese night… This still had lean beef, lots of veggies and a small amount of brown rice.


Summary: A good start, although no exercise because I came home late so I’ll be up early tomorrow for a good session!
I never thought I would become an 100% clean eater straight away, but I made good choices from what I had, stopped before I got too full and had good willpower despite temptation. There are still a few hours to go (and a tub of Homer Hudson Icecream in the freezer) but I think its going to be ok! The transition has begun!

Green, clean and lean?

I have been  seriously considering “eating clean” as of late and last night’s late night sugar binge  may just push me over the limit (cookies and packet brownies. Not even worth the tummy pain and awful taste in my mouth!). My crazy love for all things sugary (especially when mixed with fat, in say, CHOCOLATE form) has gone too far.
I am starting to really care about what I am putting into my body because I only get a certain number of calories if I want to be lean – I need as much of that to be helping me get through the day, happy, energised and motivated! So I don’t seem the harm (only the benefit) in trying to eat more things as natural as possible for a number of reasons.
1. I am really busy in life now. I need to simplify things.
2. I am a bit of a control freak and I read labels, comparing EVERY brand on the shelf, balancing price, ingredients, calories, fat, fibre, you name it. It would be nice to put my health first for a while – goodness knows I need it.
3. I am sick of counting calories. Its not natural. What is natural is to know that the food you are eating will nourish you, and to eat a normal amount.
4. I think I have lost touch with myself, especially my health. I have awfully irregular sleeping patterns, am semi-addicted to Pepsi Max, fall asleep during classes yet have no energy to gym, stress to the point of tears, and have been sick three times in the last month, despite my “semi-healthy” diet (I eat all the “good stuff”, but just as much “bad stuff”).
Can eating fresh, clean, fruit, veg and lean protein really help? Given the amount of junk I just ate… I think so.

Follow the jump to read about clean eating and my plans!

Bron’s favourite things!

Yes its that time. Where I go on about how wonderful the things I have in my life are. Unfortch I only have one of these things so I can't really have a big giveaway.... just yet :)
These are the things that make my cooking/eating/fitness/home/blogging life a little easier or better!

 
First up (and stupidly sounding) this handy dandy can opener. I am pretty darn clumsy (I cut myself on a bread knife yesterday...) but this opener unseals the can lid, vice cutting, = smooth edge = no cuts!! It was crazy $$ from king of knives  but apparently you can get them for less if you look around.  I imagine it would be great if you had kids too.
 

 My Nespresso: in a moment of eternal lameness I called him George. I don't drink much coffee - maybe 2-3 cups a week at work, so I usually go the cafe, and pick up drinks for other etc. It can get to be $20+ a week, plus they dont do resuable cups there so I invested about $500 into this. I use George at work, making it about $1 a cup and take him home when guests are coming or on weekends. PLUS I use the aerrocino all the time for chai lattes and hot chocolate, and its much better than the hand whisk thingo.  Note: There is no way I could take a photo this good. Click for source
Jump to more of my fav things!
OH NO – my bad wb skills meant to just deleted the rest of my post! ARGH. Will continue later!
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