Category Archives: Goals

Inspiration for the Year Ahead

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I am a goal setter.  Not just at the start of the year, but all year long.  For a few years now I have had a Vision Board with pictures clipped from magazines of what I am working towards - healthy eating, special holidays, organised work spaces, new job opportunities.

Now, using Pinterest, I have created an online version.

Pinterest is a really neat site that allows you to create a visual collection of things you love. You can even categorise these images across boards – 2011 Inspirations, For the Home, Favourite Places and Spaces. Then you can follow people with similar interests.

I love this tool as I am always coming across gorgeous images of amazing clothes, beautiful rooms, great entertaining ideas and recipes while I am browsing the net. Now, using Pinterest, I can bookmark these images on one of my boards for inspiration and future reference.

If you’d like to signup to Pinterest you will need an invitation. You can request one from their home page, or drop me a note in the Comments as I have a few invitations too.

My 100th Post

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For the last 100 days, every day, I have shared with you something I have created. I’ve baked cakes and biscuits, birthday cakes, a caravan cake, spider cupcakes, bones and fruit cakes; cooked and eaten my way through Jill Dupleix’s ‘Totally Simple Food’; I’ve made long dresses, short dresses, party dresses, jumpsuits, tops, cushions, costumes, bags, blankets, tablecloths and christmas decorations; I’ve tried to stay fit and tried to be healthy; I’ve posted my favourite recipes and ‘what’s for dinner’ each evening; I’ve created fun things to do with my family; I’ve shared the life that I live and the life that I love.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey so far.  Thank you for following along!

Lisa
xxx ooo

Weigh it Up

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As I’ve mentioned before I really don’t eat enough fruit. I love to cook delicious food; I keep busy moving around and running here and there; I am rarely sick and have lots of energy; I am fortunate to keep quite slim…but I worry that I’m not doing what I need to do to live a long and healthy life. 

Grilled Fish

So, I was very interested to read about the new Weigh it Up program. Whilst it is focussing on weight loss my interest is solely on strengthening my immune system and reducing the risk of contracting cancer. 

The program offers a menu plan and an exercise program via it’s website. Some of the meals look quite delicious.

I’m not going to be following the menu plan to a ‘t’ but I am going to cook meals from the recipes, exercise for 25 minutes four days per week and adopt two of the principles Dr John Tickell recommends:

  1. FRUIT PLATTER 100
    A fruit platter that lives in your fridge 100% of the time. You cut up 7 or 8 different fruits into ‘bite-sized’ chunks. The more varieties of fruit the better. Kids love the colours of different fruits in bit-sized pieces, so it’s a great thing for the whole family.
    I know this is something my sister does…and I’m going to get on board too!
  2. RULE 15
    Dr John is absolutely convinced that if you wish to reduce your risk of the western cancers such as breast, bowel and prostate cancer by up to 75%, then you should aim to eat/nibble 15 different varieties, different colours – small portions of vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains and seeds every day.
    This sounds like a lot, but I guess it’s just a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Who’s on board?  Are you going to Weigh it Up?

The Quest to Eat More Fruit

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As I previously posted, I am on a mission this week to eat three pieces of fruit and drink 2 litres of water each day. I am finding this oh so hard! I am not a person who eats a lot generally so trying to fit in three pieces of fruit is rather tricky. For some reason I do find eating fruit a bit of a chore. So, I’ve come up with a list of ways to make this challenge a little more appealing.

  1. Make a fruit platter.
    Instead of serving cake to my friends I served up a fruit platter taking care of at least one of my serves of fruit for the day.
  2. Buy special fruit
    As it starts to warm up the really delicious fruit is coming into season. Today I went a little crazy at the fruit store and ended up with a trolley full of gorgeous fresh fruit & vegetables, including mangos, passionfruit, pineapple, pears, kiwi fruit, oranges, apples and bananas.  My fruit bowl is looking much more tempting today.
  3. Make a fruit salad
    It’s somehow so much easier to eat fruit and feels so much more like a meal when it’s mixed together into a delicious fruit salad. My kids are able to clarify this point: ‘Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy’.  And – does it real hurt if there’s a little scoop of vanilla bean ice-cream on the side?
  4. Have a bowl of fruit on your office desk
    If it’s right there in front of me I find it much easier to grab a piece of fruit and keep working. It’s no longer ‘out of sight, out of mind’.
  5. Use fruit in meals
    Whether it’s apricot chicken, watermelon salad, chicken with peach salsa, or blueberry pancakes - it’s no longer just a fruit it’s an actual meal. We tried the Four Ingredient’s blueberry pancakes on the weekend and they were sooooo delicious and sooooo simple.  1 cup s-r flour, 1 cup milk, 1 egg and 1/2 cup of berries. Mine don’t look quite as nice as the ones in the link but they tasted great.
  6. Grab an apple on the way out the door
    For some reason if I’m heading somewhere I find it quite easy to eat an apple on the way. Am I just bored by eating fruit and need to be doing something else at the same time?
  7. Make a smoothie
    Yum – I love frozen yoghurt, banana, honey and wheat germ blended up into a delicious smoothie – and at the end of it that’s one more piece of fruit I’ve eaten!
  8. Add fruit on your breakfast
    Again – maybe it’s the distraction but a banana or strawberries on my weet-bix is quite delicious and means I don’t mind skipping the spoon full of sugar.
  9. Mix fruit through some yoghurt
    I managed to find the most delicious passionfruits today so I’m planning to stir one through a bowl of yoghurt tonight. I don’t normally have dessert but it’s the price I have to pay to achieve this mission.
  10. Make a fruit based dessert
    Again – it’s the price I have to pay to achieve this challenge – but I might just have to make a peach melba or berry sorbet to reach my goal by the end of the week. 

Wish me luck and send your tips through to help me achieve my goal!

A Week of Goodness

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Well – I did it. A full week of fresh juice and daily exercise. Both were enjoyable but I’m glad the week is over.

I’ve juiced carrots, beetroot, apples, celery, ginger and oranges in various combinations.

I’ve marched in a parade, jogged, ridden a bike around an island, juggled whilst balancing on a ball, popped big balls with my hips, completed a number of obstacle courses, flapped my arms to fly to a boat, hula hooped, boxed, skated, played tennis and had several snowball fights without leaving home! Turns out my greatest challenge when it comes to exercising for 30 minutes a day is what to do with the children. In the past I have taken them to the park with me and we’ve all run around together but I’m keeping Hamish and his broken arm still at the moment so I pulled out the Wii Fit and had a ball.

So from here I’m going to try to use the Wii Fit a couple of times a week and squeeze in a walk and some fresh juice on the weekends. Plus – I’m going to challenge myself for the next week to eat three pieces of fruit and drink 2 litres of water every day.

So – what do you do to stay fit and healthy? How do you fit it in to your busy life?

A Glass of Goodness

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I love fresh juice. It’s a glass of pure goodness. Everytime I make a fresh juice I wonder why I don’t have one everyday! I guess it’s a little like exercising – it always gets pushed to the bottom of the list. So – for the next week I’m committing to a glass of fresh juice and 30 minutes of exercise every day. Wish me luck!

Beetroot, carrot and celery juice.

My Blog

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The first creation that I am sharing with you is this very blog! I am a communicator by day and creator by night and for quite some time now I have been keen to share some of my creations with the world. I love to make new clothes, soft furnishings and food and I look forward to sharing these creations with you. I also love to create new dreams and work out exactly what I need to do to achieve them…so some of my posts will be about these goals as well. Finally, a few years back I created two amazing baby boys who are now 5 and 7 so there will no doubt be a tale or two about these creations throughout my blog.

I hope you enjoy my creations and that I am able to provide some inspirations for your creative lives. I look forward to hearing about what you have been creating too.