At last, my Christmas has come along,

First I have a few things to talk about before I get on to Christmas. Today I had my second weigh-in in, well, forever really and it turns out since last fortnight I've lost a kilo and a half. Nobody was more surprised than me, I don't actually own a set of scales, I really don't believe in them.
Personally I'm less obsessed with a set of numbers and more obsessed with how I look in my clothes or if I can get back into my jeans already.

Now getting back to my weigh-in, and my surprise I knew it was happening but I can't say I've gone out of my way to do extra to help it along. Especially given the pavlova and eggnog I quaffed just yesterday. In a way I have been slightly aware of making better choices to eat and of course workign on portion control by actaully measuring what I am eating. A tedious but necessary evil!
I have also managed to totally curb my peanut butter eating, and the cheese.

After this triumphant piece of news, and content with the knowledge I probably could indulge in a piece of Xmas pudding and cream (or maybe light cream?) I scurried off to K-Mart to seek out So Fresh Christmas 2010 CD, I must admit my disappointment at their lack of choice of other Christmas cd's normally they have loads of choice. Not this year, but no fear as I downloaded Twisted Sister's Twisted Chrisstmas through iTunes and Miss Stash bought the Glee Christmas album. New Christmas music glut! Although I must confess the Twisted Sister one is the best.
Glee as much as I love it is just a tad too chipper Disney sounding.

Anyway while I was at the K-Mart I had a very joyous moment, I found Season 1 of 30 Rock, you may remember from a previous post where I talked about only be able to find Season 2. Not only did I find Season 1, it was only $16!
This was followed by another happy thought when I remembered I still hadn't finished watching all of Scrubs Season 1 yet. I've still got half a season to go. Take that bad summer tv!

Another thing I am aiming to do over summer is to try and see my way to the end this time of the Roller Derby Workout Challenge.
Other things I like to give a try over summer is try on some more vegan cooking for size and dip my toe into the raw food movement.

This is my tribute to Christmas...


Probably would have been cheaper to just buy the chocolates, but I think it was worth it to pay the extra to get the benefit of someone else's time and expertise.

No other cooking yet, but I'll try to get pictures of anything I do get round to making this Christmas.

Don't Cha

Dont cha wish your life was fun like mine? Dont cha, dont cha?

"To look at you, you wouldn't think you were very energetic. But the way you jumped out of that chair and leaped into my office, your obviously naturally very energetic. Don't resist it." - My doctor to me on my last visit.

It's a good thing I am so energetic as earlier this week I had to leg it down to the back garden of a two-storey house in a big hurry. The Daft White Cat and I have been house sitting. It's now over, and I never once managed to convince Miss Stash to have a vegetable curry. Sad.
Back to the story at hand, I only open the doors onto the balcony that had fly screens to keep the DWC in. Only I had to open one that didn't to chase a fly out, DWC also got out.

While I'm trying to move outdoor furniture to retreive him from where he was hiding, I just saw the white tail and back legs disappearing into a tree that grows next to the balcony. I rushed downstairs and out into the garden, over to the tree. No sign of him under it, peer over fence into neighbours garden no sign of him there. I'm trying to peer up into the tree thinking maybe he is stuck up there and I need to find a ladder to get him down. No DWC in the tree either.

He was gone, there I was standing in the garden convinced I've lost him for good and feeling all sad, when I catch sight of something white under some bushes about 5 meters away from the tree.
It was a DWC, completly oblivious to the panic he's caused me, merrily sniffing the plants in the garden. I was thrilled to find him. Alas the DWC was more thrilled with the garden than with me.

Snaffled up and brought back into the house, I'm panicking about him, the DWC? Just capers about the house like nothing happened at all. We had a one sided conversation where I informed the DWC he might have 9 lives, but I have only 1 and it's been considerably shortened by him climbing into trees off balconys. It ended when the DWC rushed to the window to watch birds flying outside.
I know when I'm defeated, another battle to the cat, at this rate I think I should just concede the war and be done with it.

Once a week since I've been doing the Healthy For You, I have to do the naked eyeball. Stand in front of the mirror naked, and eye myself off as I do quarter turns. This week I have shrunk, which I'm pleased about. So far I have one of two results, I've shrunk or nothing's obviously changed at all. So far, touch wood, to my delight I haven't actually been putting anything on anywhere. Yes! I rock.

I can also touch my toes, which seems incredible, it's been years since I've been able to do that. This is surely a good sign?

Not the so positive, I failed my accounting unit and will need to repeat it this year, which I am a tad annoyed about because it now I have to post pone another 2 subjects that I need to have it for.
Really a) I struggled on the exam so I'm not surprised this happened.
b) I struggled during the semester so not surprised about a)
c) Loads of people (me included) failed to pass the in semester test. About 10 people actually passed, the rest of us got not close, quite not close or perhaps you should reconsider your subject choices level of marks.

End result? I suspect I'll spot a few familiar faces when I re-do the subject.

Something I am madly in love with at the moment is e-books. They tend to be really cheap, there's no extra cost for postage and they arrive almost instantly!

Just before Halloween I bought Wicked Treats from Bittersweet. I haven't actually made anything from it yet sadly. But am intrigued about the licorice recipe. I haven't really baked or made any sweet things in forever, well apart from a couple batchs of muffins loaded with fruit.
Christmas is approaching now's the time to make goodies and give them away I suppose.

Last month I bought the EtsyVeg Team's World Veg Day Cookbook, haven't made anything out of this either. Trouble is I am notoriously bad about cooking for myself. And the rest of the family just can't be enthused about vegetarian food. Who are these people? And how is it that I can actually be related to them???

The latest e-book purchase or should I say purchases was for Potluck Mania zine number's 1 and 2. These I've only just got, but they are full of yummy things. And I totally want to hijack the Thanksgiving menu for a Christmas one. Pumpkin Spice Bread with Streusel Topping how good does that sound?

While I've always been down with vegetarianism, I always was a bit sceptical about vegans. My mind has been changed, I can't see myself tagging myself with that title any time soon. I like wool and alpaca yarns way too much to forgo them forever.
But I am now intrigued about raw foodists, it is a vegan diet, but nothing is cooked as such. Although the one book I have seen on the subject things were "cooked" in a dehydrator, food couldn't be heated past a certain tempature to be considered "raw". I think it would be a fascinating topic to know more about and even experiment with, but I can surely say it wouldn't be a lifestyle of choice for myself.

Pretty quiet on today's front. Had a session of Mari Winsor's pilates with a resistance band this morning, a lot of fun but I'm not really very stretchy. Ah well with practice I suppose.

Tonight before bed I am hoping to do some relaxtional yoga, see if it helps me settle down and sleep better at night.

Last night I tried to tape the first episode in a series called Mistresses, it's hosted by that woman who's name I've forgotten but co-hosted Scrap Heap Challenge with Robert Llewellwyn (aka Kryton from Red Dwarf - took ages to figure out why he seemed familiar).
Anyway back to Mistresses last night's episode was meant to be interviewing Jeffrey Archer's (some British dude is all I know, think he writes books?) ex-mistress, a serial mistress, a dominatrix and a mistress who had a child with her married lover. And also the bit I was most interested in, talking about one of history's most famous mistresses, Cleopatra.

Only it must have been bad reception last night on the channel, because the sound works fine but I have a lot of problems with the picture freezing up.
I was highly insulted, a study found they said men prefer blondes, followed by red heads for mistresses and brunettes for wives. Second to blondes???
Although I will confess I'm less miffed about not being a bride, would you eat the same food everyday at all meals and be happy? No I'd be bored in no time. I do object both morally and selfishly to having to share, when your with me, it's only me! But still second to blondes.

A German study a few years ago released results that said that red headed women were the most passionate at playing chess. Although if using a board game analogy perhpas Twister would be better. Unless it's a woman in a commited relationship who is dying her hair red, in which case she's subliminally advertising to other men that she's currently unsatisfied playing Twister with her current partner.

Now you'll have something to think about with your hair colour now won't you? Especially if your dying it something other than your natural colour!

My date with diestiny

I had my appointment with my dietition today, I am very excited. My diet is pretty good, I need ot keep eating what I'm eating but just less of it. Too much of a good thing can also add weight if your not using it all up.

My peanut butter addiction has to be curbed, working off current consumption, I'm at 15kg a year! And given I'm eating quantities that gives me an energy intake equivelent to a full meal, so not good. Especially given that I've probaly had the PB as a snack from the jar pre-dinner....eep!

I've come away also more aware about glycemic loading (different again to glycemic index), carb exchange and the start of calorie/kilojoule counting (I can pick which ever I prefer).

And the really good part? I seem to be getting enough protien to meet my needs, without actually needing to increase my meat intake. Something I have been hoping to avoid.

Oh and I also scored a free tape measure, bonus! And I have had my fears about the BMI put to rest, it's less usueful than it appears.

Now in a new fun size!

I've been trying to do mini-blogging, just little short posts. I hoped I might be able to keep it up everyday. We'll see.

Yesterday I ordered a copy of Appetite For Reduction by Isa Chandra Moskowitz. I've had all her books bar Brunch through my local library and she has a fantastic style and comes across as very passionate about food.
I'm going to be jumping out at the postie everyday till it arrives now I am so excited about it, this one of Isa's (rhymes with pizza) is about low-fat low-sugar vegan cooking.

On the weekend I am planning to make these from her website - Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles. Granted mine won't be vegan, I can't justify opening non-dairy milk just for this when I have so much dairy needing to be used up first in my fridge. They sound delicious and I read about them on another vegan food blog where they'd been having a month of cookies. I will look up the name later and link to it here for anyone who's interested.

Today I had an adventure to town, it truly was an adventure, involved comedic timing to miss the bus to get there to start with. Dawdles in the Body Shop haven't been in to it in years, they still have the exquisite white musk scented stuff and I tested out their hemp body butter. My skin does feel quite lovely having tried it. The hemp body butter does have a slightly unusual scent though and have no idea how best to describe it.

Quite a few of the newer veg cook books I have been reading make reference to hemp products for use in cooking. I must investigate here and see if we have any available.