more awesome than you'd think

I am addicted to these things, seriously. I don’t know what it is about wasabi, but the stronger it is and the more my eyes water and my sinuses burn, the more I love it. Crazy, but that’s wasabi for you.

5 Reasons I Heart Wasabi Peanuts…

1. Nothing wakes you up like a wasabi blast to the brain
2. The combination of sweet peanut and strong wasabi is a winner
3. These babies have all but cured me of the sniffles I’ve had this week
4. They put me in my happy place, quickly and smoothly
5. They are super addictive and not completely unhealthy

I think the world needs more wasabi… popcorn, chips, pretzels, the works!

This weekend I had a good mix of family and me time, with visits from friends thrown in as well as a lovely day out today with my mom. She took me out for lunch and tea, and got me a present or two (another pair of sunglasses for my collection plus Oh So Heavenly Wish Upon a Star pillow mist). We also chose a present each for my sister and her housemate when we were at Wordsworth Books in Gardens Centre, where the most gorgeous boys work… probably half my age, but too cute for words, hehe.

It was rather good timing with the presents as it turns out, as this afternoon I was roused from the start of my nap by the door buzzer, only to find my sister and her housemate here in the city for the tattoo convention! This called for a round of my special tequila and juice cocktails, and gave me a chance to check out the book we had gotten for my sister… Tim Burton’s Melancholy Death of the Oyster Boy and Other Short Stories.

Tim Burton’s manic, fretful and oh so sad little characters

This book is so beautiful, I have to get myself a copy too! The characters are all tragic and hapless, and with adorable little limericks and Tim Burton’s dark and twisted outlook, the stories are utterly bewitching… epic stuff indeed. The housemate got an Afrikaans crossword puzzle book, which he was very cuffed with too.

I am very jealous though, the main reason they were down for the ink convention was to fetch a Dutch tattooist who will be coming back to Piketberg with them to do a private inking session in return for a Murg piece she’s after. They seldom end up paying for any of their ink, sigh.

Anyway at least I’ll get to see what they get next weekend, hopefully going up there to see kittens – other peeps are coming down from Durban, so it’s set to be a bit of a party which should be fun. The fact that it is post-payday makes it even more fun, cannot wait!

For the rest of this gorgeous day in the city, I am contemplating risking a bit of a run… back has been a bit iffy over the weekend, but it’s such a lovely evening and dying to get outside for a bit. Will take it slowly and power walk if it starts hurting, but just can’t waste ideal running weather like this can I?

Hope everyone has had a stupendous weekend too, and let’s hope this next week is a corker!

I am now beyond poor, lord knows how I will manage to eat this next week or so until payday, but the good news is that I have a fab new haircut. Far more important than food, and besides, on this diet I hardly need much anyway!

This week has been quite strange, but mostly rather good. My intentions for Kelp revival tonight have been thwarted by family obligations sadly, but next Friday is the end of the month and will have money again (and maybe if I’m really lucky, a new dress) so guess one more week of this recharge and whatnot can’t kill me. I’m looking forward to taking my hair out, and with my back feeling stronger and better every day (although damn thing still gives me issues when I least expect it), and my heath and zen levels also on the up, really feeling quite peachy.

Some other reasons to smile about today…

* I am loving, absolutely adoring my new hair-do. It’s short and shiny and back to its natural colour, can’t stop touching it! Much as I try and grow my hair, long hair just isn’t my thing – I get bored so easily, and a choppy bob always makes me feel so much lighter and cooler… hard to explain. Also, the back of the cut makes my spine tat look hot.

* Peppermint Rooibos is quite possibly the best invention ever. Refreshing, delicious, soothing and turns out peppermint has all these super powers too, from nausea to colic, anxiety and tummy issues. I guess this makes it good for hangovers – no more need for awful Coke Zero!

* I got some lavender essential oil the other day. I use it on my pillow at night, and wouldn’t you know it, I sleep like a log. On Wednesday night I was asleep almost the minute my head hit the pillow, my last thoughts were a pleasant waft of fragrance and the next thing my alarm was going off. Thursday night wasn’t bad too, hoping to see how it goes.

I was working quite a lot on Thursday and sneaking bits of Sleepless in Seattle in between, still have one or two things to wrap up this afternoon when I get home from work. After a good week of eating properly and no junk, I am having urges for avo toast… but that is not quite as bad as pizza or junk I guess, so perhaps it’s ok to indulge. I haven’t had a cheat day yet this week after all, and avo is good.

P.S. I read an interesting post on Thought Leader yesterday about women and food issues… some valid points, but my argument is that diets and calories aren’t always a bad thing. Do you think that we should eat whatever we want (in moderation of course) or do you think that it’s not such a bad thing to be careful about what you eat? ie. are shakes and protein bars really all that bad, and is it the slimmer people who advocate the ‘do what you want’ angle or what? Thoughts please!

I had a tough session at the chiropractor today, toughened me up on such a hectic level – seriously don’t think I will ever see pain the same way again. It was intense. Nevertheless, it left me feeling rather fretful and fragile. Not great for the diet, birthday cake and the most deeeevine Four Fields 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Cabernet Franc was sadly a necessary treatment to recover.

Rain…

Leaving work this evening, a soft rain was falling. The smell of rain on hot tar is something that will always remind me of Zimbabwe, it is such an African thing – summer rain is my favourite type of rain, and walking in that soft drizzle I felt my spirits lifting and a sense of overwhelming love for this place I call home. Washing away the grime and heat from the past day or two, everything feels refreshed and brand new. I love it!

Re-gain…

Well, some gains and some losses. The good news is that it’s a bit of weight I’ve lost, and it’s an old favourite skirt I’ve gained. I got the skirt at Second Time Around many moons ago, it’s seen me through some crazy times, sad times, good times and mad times. It has a history, and being able to wear it again is awesome on many levels. Even better? I am seeing a slow but steady difference from diet alone, so once I get back into the swing of things at gym it can only get better. Yay.

Tomorrow is Friday, I will be going to gym and then doing as little as possible this weekend besides working on the book, maybe some gym and Dexter. At this point, rest and recovering is my main concern, plenty of time for Kelp 2010 when I am better.

Well it’s almost half-way into the month, and slowly my diet is starting to come right. With all the stress, deadlines and pure laziness of the past month or two I was slipping back into bad habits, not exercising much at all and was just starting to feel less than good. I began to be more careful about what I ate towards the end of December but then it was Christmas and the holidays, which was of course not the best time to consider a diet shift, but New Years (and the advent of my divine smoothie maker) was the ideal time to gear into action for real!

So, over the past two weeks I’ve been making a few adjustments to my diet…

1. I cut out coffee and started drinking more tea
2. I got myself back into the habit of having breakfast every day
3. I stopped buying lunch
4. I started having fruit, veggies, yoghurt and/or nuts for lunch
5. I started having smoothies every day, using whatever fruit I have
6. I cut out bread, pasta and junk as much as possible
7. I did however have one cheat day to trick my system into burning it off
8. I got myself some meal replacement shakes
9. I started eating apple and carrot every day
10. I cut down on my cheese intake

Ten fairly simple changes, some of which I’m still working on and most of which have been pretty easy to integrate. Things I don’t miss are coffee, pasta, cheese and chocolate (was going off sweet things anyway). Things I still find harder to resist are salty things though, and I find that the most dangerous time for me is the evenings when I get home. I’m going to start taking my shakes in to work I think, these are ideal for late afternoons to tide you over. I also think that it’s time to get some oats again; Pronutro doesn’t really cut it for sustained energy. Maybe will start making some soups or something for lunch, lentils are very good to keep you going.

The way I see it, it’s a work in progress. Slowly but surely does it, and practice makes perfect. They say that diet is 80% of fitness and weight management, and exercise is 20% and on a bigger scale I have always found that a very low-carb diet gives me the most energy.

I am finding that my awesome Joe’s Goals tool is excellent for diet tracking – I record what I eat each day so that I can be aware of my intake over each week. Each day I find it a bit easier to stay on track, which in turn motivates me to keep it up.

At the end of the day, diet shouldn’t be a scary word for not eating… it should be a lifetyle that you can keep up to stay happy and healthy. True story.

Super cool glow panel

It’s a Russell Hobbs Glow, and has everything you need and then some. It makes around 4 or 5 large smoothies, and has a tap (naturally), plus mixing stick or cap if you want to use it as a blender. Plus, the cap has a tiny hole in the top and used upside down, it can be used for making mayonnaise or pesto, allowing you to slowly drizzle oil as you blend. It crushes ice, and just about anything else you put into it is juiced within seconds. Best of all, it’s easy to clean – you just throw in some dishwashing liquid and hot water, scrub it out and then open the tap to flush it out, then give it a rinse and leave to air dry. Tres simple!

The fun part: loading it up

As for the smoothies, all I can say is that you can put pretty much anything together, add a few blocks of ice, some water/juice/milk and/or yoghurt and you will end up with a divine smoothie. I’ve tried a number of different mixtures of fruit, and yesterday I added carrots and Rosa tomatoes to apple, passion fruit, nectarine and orange juice for an uber vit-C boost. My favourite things to add though are bananas, strawberries, kiwi, grapes and apple.

Yesterday I did a bit of a detox, and stuck to smoothies, Rooibos and water all day. Soon I will try and do a whole weekend detox, and stock up on lots of fruit and veg to experiment with power smoothies. While I will draw the line at becoming a total juicarian (yes, you actually get people who live on juice!) I think that smoothies are an excellent way to pack in the vitamins and for meal replacements they are the ultimate solution to a carb-heavy meal. Raw food is also loaded with nutrients, so all in all, smoothies are a great way to get my diet sorted!

Sunday blend: apple, banana, passion fruit & OJ

In other kinda related news, I’m going to ask my chiropractor about what exercise I can do. Seriously desperate to get back to gym, and while obviously running is out for now, I’m sure there must be something I can do with this back! *holds thumbs*

‘Tis a good feeling to be slowly getting back on track!

One of the most surprising things to happen so far in this past week or two has been my rather painless parting from coffee. I’m not quite sure how it happened, last year I was knocking that stuff back far too often, and now I just don’t even think a cappuccino will cut it anymore. In Piketberg my sister uses a chicory-coffee blend that she makes on the gas stove, and we only had once a day, so perhaps a slow transition allowed me to wean myself off caffeine. Towards the end of the year I was drinking a lot more tea but it was only last weekend and my discovery of peppermint tea that I really realised how much I love tea.

I’m not the only one either. At work, two of the copywriters in my team also drink tea, so any time of us gets up to make, we always end up making for all of us ladies, which works out pretty well. Because this is the thing about tea – you can drink loads of it, and if you drink the right type of tea, not only is it not bad for you, it’s actually GOOD for you. Tea is super high in antioxidants, and has all sorts of healing properties. Green tea is obviously the best, but Rooibos and other herbal teas are also excellent.

Some of my favourites so far include the following:

* Green tea
* Green tea and jasmine
* Jasmine tea
* Rooibos
* Rooibos with Hoodia (great for mid-morning or mid-afternoon!)
* Rooibos and buchu tea
* Peppermint tea
* Peach and ginger tea

I keep a few different types at home and at work, and on average I get through about six or more cups during the day. I don’t drink tea at night though, especially not peppermint or green tea as these contain stimulants. The trick is to have it straight up, no milk or sugar. Just pop the teabag into your cup, pour boiling water over it, bring it to your desk, after a few minutes remove the tea bag and voila… instant zen boost!

It seemed like it would never get here, but at last 2010 is upon us. I am feeling so optimistic and excited about the year ahead it’s insane, and with so much to look forward to, it just HAS to be a good one!

After a good few days away in Piketberg, high up on the mountains away from everything; relaxing, eating, napping, reading, missioning through forests, swimming in gorgeous jacaranda-filled pools, and spending time with friends, family and of course my relocated cats, I am feeling rested, uber chilled and ready for the year ahead. Last year, my resolution was to wing it, and mostly, I did just that. There comes a point however when you realise that you need a bit of a plan, and you need to decide what matters most to you. For me, the biggest challenge of 2009 was dealing with ever-increasing stress loads. From deadlines to job losses, heartache to cat relocations, I somehow lost the crucial work-life balance, and I paid the price with poor sleeping patterns, lapses in gym and diet, bigger lapses in my social life and all sorts of other crappy stress-related issues. It sucked, big time, and this is why this year I decided to focus on one goal… to cut down on stress as much as possible.

What does this mean exactly? Basically, I started setting things into place before the year ended, to cut down on freelance work and start focusing on myself and my zen levels. In addition to this, I plan to do things I enjoy doing – read more, reclaim weekends again, go out more, work less, worry less, eat better, run more, gym more, work on my book, work towards my personal growth goal (more on that later), get away more and generally get a life. Tres simple in theory, obviously may not be this easy when I factor in things like money, work and reality. Still, that is my goal, and I plan to work at it daily.

As for my holiday, all I can say is that five or so days of escape from the city has done me the world of good. Here are some of the highlights of my holiday, in photo format. The full set can be found over here.

Getting pulled over somewhere on the R47 for doing 103k in an apparent 80k zone

Picnics in the gum forest, which has loads of massive towering blue gums

Enjoying walks in the forest with assorted cats, dogs and people... this cat in particular is a real forest cat!

Picking divine fresh fruit from the orchards - these apricots are small, but utterly delish, as were the plums

My awesome R25 slops I picked up at the P-berg budget fashion shop - super comfy and rather cool!

Beautiful sunsets every evening, and always a cat or two around to add to the view

Braais, fires, candlelight and star-lit skies... let's not forget the marshmallows on sticks!

Chicken and the mouse on his back, very sweet!

Swimming in the best darn pool ever - cold spring water, floating jacaranda blooms and a stunning backdrop!

There were many more moments of course, click here for more pictures!

Here’s to a super awesome year ahead!

After a rather fraught night of tossing and turning and trying to process eleventy million things at once, I woke up this morning (after missing my alarm a few times) feeling that something was a bit different. First, I could actually breath properly for the first time in well over a week, and also, I felt much calmer.

And after a good and productive day, I’m feeling even better. I had a really nice email from a good friend of mine (who know who you are!) offering his support and understanding for this tough decision I’m making, and it reminded me how lucky I am to have friends who want what’s best for me. It also put things into perspective, and slowly I’m starting to feel excited about the future, rather than petrified. Baby steps still at this point, but I’m getting there!

Here are a few of the things making me smile today…

1. I had the most awesome, intense gym session at lunchtime – today was a cardio day, which meant 40 mins on various cardio machines, plus a 5 min warm up and warm down on each side, and some abs work and stretches. I was sweating bullets, but my word did I feel good at the end… haven’t felt that sort of burn since Muaythai, it was really awesome!

2. It’s coming on for almost a week of no bread or bad carbs – and I’m not finding it that hard at all. I’ve been having oats for breakfast, and fruit, divine Fabulite yogurts, rice cakes, home made soup and salads instead, and I’m feeling a lot lighter and more energetic.

3. My editing project is almost ready to be wrapped up – editing this book has been so much fun, and I’ve got to learn a lot too, bonus. Just have some final picture stuff and layout stuff to do, then it goes off to the designers.

4. I’ve got a very special birthday party tomorrow night – and it’s at Deco Dance, one of my favourite places with the best old skool alternative music, like ever. I haven’t been out in a while, and not sure if I’ll get to go out after this party, so really looking forward to a good night out!

5. I’ve got a good weekend in store overall – aside from the party tomorrow night, I also have gym tomorrow morning, then a networking event with my aunt, and on Sunday I’ll be seeing my parents for the last time before they leave for their holiday in France, and seeing my dad for Father’s Day.

Physically, I’m feeling really good today – my lunchtime workout gave me so much energy, I just couldn’t sit still for the rest of the afternoon. And it is SUCH a relief to finally have my sinuses clear… just the pure bliss of being able to breath is an awesome feeling indeed!

I’m also very proud of myself for ending off this (rather hectic) week on a positive and healthy note, and looking forward to starting this next week ahead in a healthy and focused state of mind.

Hope everyone has a super radical weekend, catch you on the flipside!

So I had my second Pilates class this evening, and I have to admit that I’m really enjoying it. It’s totally different to all the training I’ve done before, from the hard full contact Muaythai to running, gym and even Kung Fu.

The evening class is a bit fuller and it’s a bit harder to keep up as the instructor goes quite quickly, but it just feels like I’ve been doing it for ages, and I love the grace and conditioning it’s teaching me – limbs and muscles are being worked in such a cool way, totally controlled and precise… no wonder Pilates is so popular with control freaks like me!

The breathing takes some getting used to, and you generally exhale on the movement rather than inhale – plus you exhale through your mouth, but I’m getting there. I am also starting to be more aware of my ‘core’ and my posture in general, which is great.

It’s pretty basic mat Pilates, no equipment or anything, but it’s a start and I’m looking forward to Monday’s class. My flu has subsided enough for me to go to gym tomorrow, sinuses still a bit stuffed, but breathing fine and if I take it easy I should be fine. Ooh, and I’ll get my personalised training programme from my session with a trainer as well, yay.

To round off my brownie points for the week, I have actually managed to avoid bread and other bad carbs for the whole week!

Instead I have been eating rice cakes (unsalted and unpolished of course) as well as home-made vegetable soup made from scratch (and loaded with whole coriander, chili, garlic and fresh herbs), salad and fruit. And lots of water. Ok, and *possibly* a tad too much coffee, and a bit of chocolate and red wine.

Still, not too bad – and today I didn’t feel too bad in front of the studio mirror. So ja, feeling quite good tonight.