Party Food Pics and Last F3 Challenge Check-In!

I don't know what it's like at your place, but over here life has morphed into an unbroken stream of parties, eating, drinking and people coming :D  and going :(

Have a great time in Liechtenstein, Mamasana!

On Friday night we held our Christmas party. I was too busy playing hostess-in-heels to take many pics, but here are a few - mostly of the food, haha. We also had the BBQ going and lights strung up outside, but.. I hardly ventured out there!

I had intended to make some vegan cakes, but in the end, there was no time and I took the stress-free option of organic fruit plate, stuff from bags (organic biscuits, corn-chips, crackers, salad), fresh bread from the organic french baker and then I made some guacamole and hommus and loaded up on organic meat from the butcher (+ some vege ones for the non-meat-eater - yes, there was only one!), and threw a bunch of potatoes in the oven to bake. 

Note how many times I used the word 'organic' in the previous paragraph? I hate that when other people do it, it sounds pretentious doesn't it? The wine was not organic and neither were the baked potatoes. :D Redeemed.

Needless to say, it was not the ideal week to be finishing up a fitness challenge, but I did my best:

F3 CHALLENGE - FINAL CHECK-IN

This week was all about doing what I could. There were a couple of mornings where I got up early for yoga, and a couple of evenings where I ate too much and stayed up too late. My spreadsheet went by the wayside as the xmas rush kicked in, but I've been making notes in my journal and nutrition wasn't too bad. I've been keeping indulgences small and making sure I eat my veges before my macarons.

Speaking of which, is there anything better in life?

Source

No, there isn't. Macarons are the best thing in life. End of.

I faced the scales this morning for my final F3 Challenge, with a certain feeling of doom. I did a little weight check on Tuesday, after last weekend's munching and was back up to 58.5 (yikes!), but things have stabilised back at just under 58kg (57.9kg to be precise). So, that's a total challenge scale loss of exactly 1.5kg, or just over 200g a week. That's really ok :D

Even more important, I'm finding it easier this year to indulge without slipping into 'eat the world' mode and I'm doing some exercise without telling myself off for not doing more. These are both positive effects of the last 7 week's efforts.

However, I also seem to have managed to lose nine out of 11 fellow challengers!  That's not so good and I feel unpopular, like people came to my party and left early because it was boring and the food was bad and I smell. Never mind, it's a crazy time of year, there's a lot going on. I'm sure it's not personal :-/

To anyone that checks in today, I adore you and thanks for sticking with me and making it a bit more fun. Please make your final check-in and let me know if you have any ideas for another joint blog fitness / nutrition challenge. January detox / junkfree challenges are popular. I'd be up for one, and probably well ready to ditch the bubbly and christmas cake by then!

Because this post really had to be today, I'll be back soon with the planned blog post about what arrived in the other sort of post. Hint: it won't be interesting to my vegetarian readers. 

In the meantime, please have a fantastic xmas eve tomorrow, drive safely, enjoy yourselves and relax.

I'll be catching up on some sleep, doing a little 'must do' stuff (which might include blogging, depending on how the rest of it goes!) and resting up for the feat of endurance which is Christmas day. This year we have lunch with Sistaprogrammer and dinner at my uncle's place. Better pace myself.

What are your plans?

F3 Challenge Check In!

Thanks for your (Facebook) tips on how to get Razzy healthy. I felt like such a deficient cat mama at the vets. For a start, I turned up an hour early, and had to stand there looking shamed while the vets frantically shuffled appointments to accommodate us.

Then Razzy suffered the indignity of a public weigh-in (7.75kg, yikes!) and I got a telling off by an otherwise nice, Scottish vet.  Apparently all of Razzy's current issues are due to obesity and I've been instructed to either get the weight off him with strict diet and exercise (exercise?) or look forward to him dying of a urinary disease - apparently these can be rapidly fatal in male cats.

So, it's check-in and day #1 for Razzy. My plan is to start him on the prescription diet food while I research raw food options. This morning was painful to my ears, but I'm dedicated, determined, shall be as unmoveable as as mountain when it comes to dieting the chubby cat. 

It's also Festive Fitness Focus Challenge Check-In Day for humans!

How are you doing?

This week I focused hard on diet, particularly on keeping sugar consumption as low as possible. Training was minimal because I just wasn't feeling great for most of the week. In fact, there was no organised training, just a few walks, and some major housework sessions - we are prepping the casa for an upcoming Christmas party. So. Much. To. Do. 

Nutrition was on track. Generally the content was carby breakfasts,

and leafy lunches and dinners:

Snacks were mostly leftovers, but I also worked my way through a pot of quarg.  It's been a while since I had much dairy and it seems to be agreeing with me right now.

There were a few indulgences - a chinese food lunch, a few glasses of wine to celebrate passing exams, a few espressos (*cough*).  Moving right along....

Progress with the flab is slow but steady. I think it's about right. I'm not going crazy, I'm not bingeing, I'm not obsessing, I'm not avoiding any social events.  So far, the scale showdown has been like this:

1. 59.4	31.00%
2. 58.7	29.50%
3. 58.6	29.50%
4. 58.6	29.80%
5. 58	29.50%
6. 57.8	28.60%

I don't put much faith in the BF% readings. They can be as much a 7% different between morning and evening, so I just use them as a sort of comparison, rather than absolute number.

So, yay! I'm back in the 57's!  It's only a little different to last week, but feels major because for the last 6 months at least I've been springing up and down the frustrating 58-60 bungy. It's nice to get past that sticking point. My ultimate weight is about 54kg. That's not as slinky as I'd like to be in my dreams, but maybe those dreams are stupid, a bit pointless and based on what, exactly? 

It's hard to remember what my original motivation was, it's been so long.

I'll be back later with a Week in Eats (somehow I corrupted the last one, causing it to re-publish itself repeatedly like a self-reproducing mutant.. I had to delete it/them), and in the meantime, I look forward to hearing about your challenge-busting week.

Check-In in the comments section!

Lower-Sugar Avocado Ganache, F3 Check-In

Yesterday I realised that my fruit bowl contained six gorgeous avocados, all at the perfect stage of ripeness. Something had to be done.

Kraut! Bug Murder, F3 Challenge within a Challenge

Today I nearly fell off the wine wagon (or should that be: back onto the wine wagon?). Having sorted out a quicker route home, I made a supermarket trip and.. hello, free samples. So tempted. The pressures of the day could have been eliminated just . like . that. But no.

F3 Check In Day and Party Pics

Festive Fitness Focus Challenge Check In!

F3 Challengers, it's check in day! You can either comment on this post, or email me your spreadsheet, or both.  How is it going?

Week two for me was.. ok. I'd give it a B. As mentioned in the last post, I find the 2-4 week part of a new fitness regime to be, well, challenging.  That's why it's a "challenge", I guess. If it was not somewhat difficult, it would be the F3 .. what? The 'F3 easy'?

Nice Day for It..

'It' being a public holiday for the rest of Christchurch and a biostatistics exam for me.

In spite of an unwelcome attack of my old buddy insomnia last night, and then a doubly unwelcome attack of the feline-that-must-be-fed-NOW, the exam went well. I've been pointlessly torturing myself over whether 'litter' really is a fixed effect (it might be random), but otherwise, no real issues. I managed to get the code into SAS, which obliged by spitting out almost comprehensible output, and that's more than I was hoping for.

Week in Eats, F3 Check In and 'a thing'

Eats!

It's important to fuel those study efforts with awesome food. You may notice a certain 'thrown together' feel to this Week in Eats. This is how I eat when kitchen time is limited.