Monday, October 14, 2013

Thanksgiving At Matheson Island - A B&W Project

You could say I am a B&W hater. Something that always bugs me is when people switch their photos to monochrome and call it professional. While monochrome can save some images with terrible white balance, it isn't a single defining thing to make a picture great. 

I rarely use black and white, so this weekend I attemped to take some photos with monochrome in mind. It was a fun challenge, and I am happy with the result. B&W is growing on me, but I still love my color better. I am a colorful person. 



















Sunday, October 13, 2013

THM Thanksgiving

Starting a diet right before Thanksgiving might seem like a bad idea. And you are right, it is a terrible idea.

Thankfully, this is not another fad diet. It is a lifestyle change that doesn't involve counting points, tracking calories, weight or measuring food (other than for recipes of course). This is a way of eating I want to make permanent.

That being said, when Eric and I were talking about changing to this lifestyle we agreed on two exceptions, when we go to people's houses and holidays/birthdays. In our own home, we will follow the THM lifestyle because we can control what we make and buy. We don't want to impose our diet (noun) on other people. We may choose to have a smaller serving of carbs and a larger serving of veggies in the meal permits, but we are not going to refuse to eat. We don't want to turn down hospitality.

And for holidays we are not going to pass on the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy. We are not going to pass on the cookies at Christmas, or some chocolate during Easter. Moderation is the key, and if we have these things occasionally it is not going to be a set back. In fact, it may just make it easier to find success. Nothing is harder when trying to diet (verb) and people all around you are indulging in delicious food and you can't.

I also forgot the mention in my first post is that the ladies that wrote the book are Christian stay at home mom's. I love the fact that God was involved in the writing of this book. 

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Trim Healthy Mama: Day One

Flashback to several months ago. I was on my way to do a Steeped Tea party in Okno, rather upset about the fact that I feel like I have tried every diet in the book and nothing has ever given me permanent results. I prayed to God for an answer, some direction, some hope.

At my tea party I was telling the hostess about how I wanted to learn to eat in a more healthy and natural way. She asked me if I have ever read Trim Healthy Mama. I said no, and her and her guests were shocked! Everyone they know has read it. One of the ladies had a few books for sale for $40, so I bought it off her and picked it up a few weeks later .

It took me a few weeks and another tea party later to finally read the book. I loved it. Immediately ordered tonnes of the specialty ingredients and starting making recipes from the book. Most of them were delcicous. I ate from the plan for 2-3 weeks pretty strictly. I lost 6 lbs and Eric lost 7 or 8, (it kills me cause he didn't stick to the plan as closely as I did).

Enter summer vacations and cooking at camp for a week, and I was completely off track. I struggled to get back on for weeks, always saying I would start Monday, and by midday I was stuffing my face with candy or having a hardcore chocolate craving.

This past Tuesday I weighed myself to find, not to my surprise that I had gained all my weight back, and then some. It was time to try again.

Yesterday completed a whole day, I ate food I enjoyed, I didn't crave anything and I wasn't hungry.

This is what I had yesterday:

Breakfast: Scrambled Eggs with cheese, 2 slices chicken bacon and a glass of chocolate almond milk.
Lunch: Asian Salad with Sweet Chilli Thai chicken
Snack - Some cheese and a few almonds
Supper - Pizza on Joseph's Lavash Bread (Very low carb flatbread that I bough online at http://www.lowcarbcanada.ca )
Dessert: Secret Agent Brownies with Icing. I made the brownies with Chana dahl beans.

On the menu today:

Breakfast: Sweet Cinnamon Quinoa, 2 slices chicken bacon and 1/2 Banana
Lunch: Tomato soup with 4 slices Little Big Bread (it's sprouted bread, I get it from Costco for 5.99 for 2 loaves. It is the best bread I have ever had, I would eat it even if I wasn't on plan)
Supper: Ground beef tacos with Josephs low carb Tortilla's (also from http://www.lowcarbcanada.ca)
Dessert - Brownies from last night. They are even better the next day.


The basis of the plan is not eating fats and carbs at the same time, and you have protein with every meal. The plan is divided between two main types of meals, S - Satisfying and E- Energizing. They focus on only having one fuel source at a time. Fat being one fuel source, carbs being the other.

S meals are your fat based meals, they have generous amounts of healthy fats - butter, olive oil, coconut oil, red meats, nuts, etc. They must not contain more that 15 grams of carbs.

E meals are the carb bases meals, but they are supposed to be good carbs. Ones that have a low glycemic index which do not spike your blood sugar. You are still supposed to try to keep the carbs under 45 grams for these meals, and fat no more that 5 grams (1 teaspoon)

There is also Fuel pull meals, which have protein but less than 5 grams of fat and 15 grams of carbs. These meals help to speed up weight loss.

There are Crossover meals as well, meals that have over 5 grams of fat and over 15 grams of carbs, these are meals that will help maintain weight. If you are trying to loose weight, you should have very little crossovers.

Basically, you switch between S and E meals, with at least 3 hours in between types of meals. You can have 3 S meals in a row or whatever you want, but you always are supposed to wait 3 hours between types of meals. Fuel pull meals and snack you can have at any time, because they don't have any major fuel source.  Yesterday, all I ate was S meals because it was easier not to switch. Today breakfast and lunch are E's (the soup is a fuel pull, but with the bread added in it is an E) and supper/dessert is an S.

I find it much easier to make and enjoy S meals. I struggled to find tasty and enjoyable E meals, so I end up eating more S' than E's. Which is ok, they say to have at least 2-3 E meals a week.

This has turned into a very long post, and it is time for me to make lunch! One reason I wanted to start blogging again was so I could share my everyday struggles with this. I am hoping it will help me stick to it in some way or another.

Wednesday, October 09, 2013

First Day Of Daycare

Tallet went to daycare for the first time today! I want him to get some socialization, and it also gives me a chance to get some stuff done at home. I will probably take him once every two weeks, possibly once a week. We will see how things go. 

His first day went really well as far as I know. He didn't cry when I dropped him off, and he was happily playing outside when I came to pick him up! The girls said he was super happy all day, napped well and barely cried. 

I wanted to get a bunch of my house cleaned, make and can pasta sauce and make some bibs. I got half my house cleaned and pasta sauce canned, but that's it. Honestly it feels like I got nothing done even though I was worked all day. Sometimes it is depressing to know that the housework is never ending. I cleaned the kitchen all morning and afternoon, and now due to supper and backing bean brownies, it is filthy again and I am wiped. I guess I also did some laundry, sorted and washed Tallet's baby toys and packed them away, and swept the floor. And I showered. Always nice to get a shower in now and then. ;)  

So even though I didn't get as much done as I would like, it was nice to be able to focus on those things. When I am cooking/cleaning/crafting when Tallet is home, I always feel guilty for not spending all that time with him. This way he gets attention all day and I get stuff done. 

Back In The Saddle

I did say I wanted to start blogging again, so I figured I should start with short update!

I am officially jobless. My mat leave is up and I am not going back to work. It is a dream come true to be able to stay home with Tallet. Although that makes our income the lowest it has been since we were in college, and our bills the highest. It is quite hard to adjust your lifestyle from what you are used to. 

I definitely feel the pressure to contribute, so in my spare time I have been doing photography and sewing. It makes me feel very overwhelmed at times. I can't be a mother, work/craft/edit pics and have a clean house and be a good housewife. So I usually have to choose between the latter two. I make stuff and have a messy house. I clean the house and nothing gets made. I can't have both. 

Tallet is going to daycare for the very first time tomorrow! He will get some much needed socialization, and I will get some much needed time at home to catch up. I plan on doing some crafting, cleaning and making pasta sauce. 

I am thinking I will take him once every two weeks. I do have family that could take him for the day, but I really think it will be good for him to be around other kids a bit more. He loves other kids! 

That's it for now, I would like to post more in depth about my work projects next! 
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