Its that time again....

WEIGHTLOSS WEDNESDAY is here!

OK, so how is everyone going? I notice we've had a few drop-offs. Well maybe you need a little push.....

Remember this.....the prize!  Its on its way to my place ready for the announcement of out first weightloss winner. Ooooh...its yummy! (and very low calorie! LOL)

Ok, so whose gulity? (LOL).  Whose been slacking off?  Are you game to dob yourself in?

Karen tells me that she was guilty of this sometimes (and have to admit, I've had my days too).  Sometimes we need a bit of a push. I have heard on the grapevine that Sue, one of our non-bloggers, is doing really well and may be in contention for first prize? She wants that Prima pack!

TIP: Don't let midnight or late night snacks be your downfall, have them but just make sure they are healthy.

OK, so it time to share:

In your blog post this week, we want you to share either:

•  next week's menu plan or 
•  a recipe or
•  snack idea.

And don't forget to tell us if you've lost any more weight! Even if you haven't, we want to know.....maybe we can help you win that Prima pack.

Leave your blog post link here:

smart snack ideas

Hi ladies :)

How are you all doing this week?? Only 1 more day till our next weigh in. I wonder who will be 'the biggest loser' for this week.

I thought I d share a few ideas Ive used over the last 12 months, for those times when the 'snacking monster' strikes. I start looking for something to eat around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, then again in the evening while watching TV with hubby. Alot of the time in the evening, when I start wanting something to eat, I will go in to my scraproom, and start playing in there for a while, to distract myself. But if I really do 'need' something, I will always make sure I grab something healthy. My absolute biggest problem, pre weight loss, was eating icecream in the evening, I avoid that like the plague now, and dont even have it in the house :) And believe it or not, I actually enjoy a tub of low fat fruit yoghurt as much now as I used to enjoy my icecream.

Here are few ideas I use when I want a snack

1. my all time favorite is fruit yoghurt, I LOVE 'nestle peach and mango'
2. 2 crackers ( I eat light cruskits) with a slice of turkey and some low fat cottage cheese
3. I cut up heaps of fruits that are in season, put it in a container in the fridge, so its always there as a quick and easy snack, my kids love this too
4. occasionally I have a 'nestle weight watchers chocolate mousse' they arent alot of calories, and definately satisfy the sweet craving

Some other ideas

one for the sweet tooth

Pineapple with ricotta ( about 170 calories)
quarter of a cup of crushed pineapple (in juice)
quarter od a cup of low fat ricotta cheese
half teaspoon lemon juice, 1 teaspoon ( or equivilant) sugar substitute ( I use 1 sugarine)
2 cruskits

mix all ingredients ( other that cruskits) in a small bowl and serve on top of the cruskits......
***************
and one for the savory lover

Parmesan popcorn ( about 80 calories for the whole lot)
2 cups popped popcorn
2 teaspoons grated parmesan cheese
season with black pepper

pop the popcorn ( I use the plain microwave type, with NO BUTTER)
as soon as its done, and still hot, toss through the parmesan and pepper
**************

I will be back soon with a few more ideas....
see you all tomorrow :)

Its weightloss Wednesday!

Its Weightloss Wednesday...

So how much did YOU lose? but first....

OUR 1st INSPIRATIONAL WEIGHTLOSS SCRAPPER!

Hi everyone,

I have a treat for you today. The beautiful and talented Trina McClune is our featured scrapper for this week and I'm sure you will love her story.

Trina has been featured for her scrapping ability on many websites such as The Dusty Attic, Addicted To Craft and Prima. And now she has a very inspirational weightloss story to tell you about and has also made a gorgeous mini album (using Prima) to celebrate the journey and achievement.  She is a fantastic lady and I am thrilled to have her as our first inspiration.

This was Trina after having her twins and another baby not long after...

then she went on a 12 week challenge with amazing results.

Please go here to her blog to see how she looks now & read all about it.

Now its your turn....

Share with us how your week has been...good, bad or indifferent, we want to know so we can draw on inspiration and give it to one another. Have you lost any weight or centimetres? What changes have you  made to try and achieve your goals?  Are you struggling and need some help?

Leave the link to your blog post here with Mr Linky.

(Remember to click on your post to get a direct link first).

Can't wait to read your stories and don't forget to leave a comment so we can chat!


NEXT WEEK:

Menus & Recipes - share yours!

Off and racing!

WEIGHTLOSS WEDNESDAY - Off and racing!

Hello Ladies! Nerrida here. So how is everyone going?  Did you get off to a good start or a not-so-good start?

I know for me it wasn't the best. In fact it was a down-right non-event!

The week started with a bit of a spinal injury from jumping in the shallow end of the pool - not one of my best ever choices but I was playing with the kids so I wasn't really thinking at all when I jumped (LOL). So no Zumba or treadmill for me for a few days. But at least I have managed to stick to the eating plan mostly having smoothies for breakfast, salad wrap with a little cheese for lunch and some low-fat dinners.

One of my favourites has been a beef salad packed with salad goodies picked from our organic garden with some beef strips cooked in a reduced chicken stock and just a little low-fat sour cream and seeded mustard - YUM! Now my mouth is watering (LOL).

SO...how has you first few days been?  Please share and tell us how it all went (or didn't go) for you. We won't ask for a blog post today (unless you really want to do one) but just leave a comment under this post so we can all catch up and maybe hand-out some encouragement for those who need some.

Remember this: 

D DAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK ladies.... Today is the day.... Are we all ready??

I know I am. I have been a bit slack the last week or so, and not been really vigalent with what I eat, and getting enough excersise, and I have come way to far to allow myself to slack off.

I just wanted to post a few little food ideas that I use, for quick, simple and yummy foods. This first link is a really nice fish I would eat 3 nights a week, its yummy, and is only about 180 calories per serve. My favorite is the 'Lemon and parsley'. click here . You can buy them in any supermarket.

Next is a really quick and easy recipe I use for lunch.

Cauliflower and fetta soup....
all you need is 100g cauli, steamed, and around 40g of low fat fetta cheese.
crumble the cheese into the cauli, season with some cracked pepper, and give it a wizz with a stick blender. Its that easy !!!! serve with some cruskits, or another really low calorie cracker.... sounds a bit weird, but its YUMMO !!!! Just give it a try.

Have a great first day everyone.

HUGS Karen x

24 hours to go!

THE COUNTDOWN IS ON.....

Yes, ladies, it's just 24 hours till the start of a new improved & healthier you.  And its not too late to join.

So, here's your reminder of what you need to do to be in the running for one of these fabulous prizes:

Prima surprise.

Summery and soft.

Stamp away.

Add a post to your blog (if you haven't already) and include your current weight with a photo of scales showing a record of this, and a short paragraph on how you plan to lose the weight. Add a link back to Mr Linky on the http://www.5kilosscrappers.blogspot.com/ and start racing!

REMEMBER:

We'll be keeping an eye out for our first featured weight loss inspiration story - it could be you!

Karen's Diet

Ok, a lot of you have asked me what I actually did to lose 48 kg's. So I thought I'd share a few of the foods I have have enjoyed over the last 9 or 10 months.

To begin with though, I really feel I need to mention that I am in NO WAY a weight loss professional, The diet I chose to follow isn't entirely what the 'professionals' would recommend, so if you decide to follow what I did, you need to be aware of that.

I chose to lose the weight the fastest way possible. I was 50 kg's overweight, and I didn't want my weight to take 2 years to come off, I wanted it FAST. So I set myself a calorie limit of around 900 calories a day ( again, be aware that this is less than the weight loss professionals recommend) I bought a calorie counter book, and went from there.

I have been on just about every diet known to man, and then some, so I took bits and pieces from each, and kind of formulated my own plan... One really good diet I was on once upon a time was 'ultra lite' It was a very low calorie, low carb diet, and I started my weight loss by following along with their plan to a degree. Then as the months went on, I changed things around to suit me.

I have chosen to avoid most carbs, especially pasta, bread, rice, potatoes, and most cereals other than porridge, and cruskit biscuits.

A typical day for me would go something like this:

Breakfast: 4 cruskit biscuits ( the light, lower fat ones) topped with low fat packaged turkey breast and about 100 grams of flavoured cottage cheese. ( I like the chive and onion one, and the gherkin one isn't too bad either) I would love to say i don't drink coffee, but, umm, I do have 1 cup in the morning, with saccharine, and skim milk. If I'm still hungry, some days I will have a low fat fruit yoghurt too. ( I buy the nestle diet brand)

or:I will sometimes have porridge for breakfast as a change, about 1 cup, cooked, with skim milk. But do prefer the cottage cheese and cruskits, as its a good source of protein. sometimes I will have 2 eggs for a change also. Just remember not to have the toast with them :)


Lunch: about 100 g of a low fat protein source. Chicken breast, turkey, fish, tuna, prawns, egg.....I try to avoid processed deli meat as much as possible. with a salad of lettuce, cucumber, tomato, onion, mushrooms, carrot. (any salad veggies are OK) I dont use salad dressing as most of them are full of fat, but sometimes will have a tiny bit of 97% fat free mayonaise. balsamic vinegar is a good dressing when trying to lose weight, but I dont like it :)

Dinner: again, I would have about 100g serve of protein. steak, fish, etc, with around 100-150 g veggies, or salad. again remembering to avoid the high carb ones such as potato. I also try to avoid sauces and gravies, as these are high in calories.

Snacks: I try to keep these to a minimum. But if I really want something, or am feeling like my blood glucose is a bit low, I will have a little tub of weight watchers fruit, of a tub of yoghurt. Another favorite is stewed apple, I don't add sugar when cooking it, I use 'sprite' DIET lemonade ( make sure its the diet one) too cook my apple in. I give me the sweetness I sometimes crave, without any of the calories. yum !! and for an extra treat, I will have a little bit of 'nestle' diet yoghurt on the top....

SO WHAT DID KAREN EAT?

If I am out, and have nothing with me to eat, I will have a "Subway" wrap, with one of the 6g of fat or less fillings. I would probably do this once a week. :)

Drink: usually I just drink water. ( I try to have 2.5 ltrs per day) But sometimes, I will have a 'coke zero' a bit of a treat. Oh, and my coffee in the morning :)

Ok, thats enough info for now... Hopefully I have answered some of your questions. There's nothing magical about this diet, unfortunately, I wish there was. Some days its hard not eating the foods I love. Some days I get so tired of fish and salad :) But, I want to be thin, and healthy, and finally realised, this is the only way I can do that. My heath is more important that a chocolate bar, or an icecream :)

I will be back in the next little while to share some of my recipes with you all. Take care my friends,

Karen

Are you ready to lose 5 kilos?

So... are you ready to achieve your goal of losing 5 kilos (or maybe more?).  We thought, just to help you get started, we'd share some of the tips that have helped us.

Feel free to add your own tips in the comments section below - you never know just how much they may help someone else.

Here's Nerrida's TIPS:

Count calories just occasionally - if I have to count calories every meal I'd go nuts and give up. I took half an hour to count the calories of what I usually eat (and got a shock that it was too many!). So I figured out what to put in my morning smoothie, cut back on cheeses and snack dips and now my calorie intake should be around 1200 instead of over 1500. I didn't realise how bad some of the things I was eating were for calories.

Reduce your serving size - I have found that I can be part-way through a meal and starting to feel full, but then because the food is in front of me, I want to finish it. I was taught by my parents to empty my plate (which may not have been such a good thing after all?) I am learning to put lesson my plate to start with to avoid temptation.

Cut white sugar and white flour - I was forced to learn this one when I ate so much sugary junk food as a teen and young adult that I ended up damaging my pancreas. The sugar can be converted, by the body, into fat because it is un-used fuel for energy.  White flour also does exactly the same thing. Wholemeal and brown sugar (or no sugar) are much better choices and give you longer lasting energy so you won't get hungry as often.

(Bakers Delight are one of the few stores in Australia that make 100% wholemeal bread & bread rolls and its yum!)

Shop for groceries online - If I shop online, not only am I avoiding all the impulse buying of junk food when I walk down those tempting isles, but I am also saving money. Things just don't look as tempting online and I can stick to a list. I can also delete things things from the cart at the end and feel good about it. If icecream or chocolate is not in the house then how can I eat it?

Juice puts on weight - When I was doing a Gloria Marshall program years ago, they couldn't understand why I had stopped losing weight when I seemed to be following the diet to the letter. Then they discovered, that instead of water, I had been drinking full-strength juice (grape juice). As soon as I stopped, the weight started falling off again. Water-down your juice 50% or have none at all. Eating the whole fruit is much better.

Sluggish livers stop you losing weight - My DH (darling husband) had trouble losing weight although eating the same diet as me (and he was getting more exercise). He had the classic 'muffin-top' shape. The nutritionist told him he had a sluggish liver. The chiropractor confirmed this.  Once this was cleared (using liver cleanse vitamins), the weight came off.

Dancing can knock those kilos off - I am currently trying out 'Zumba'. When I was a young adult, and was still carrying an unwanted pot belly, my friend got me dancing and it made all the difference. My body became more toned.

Be practical about your menu - trying to count calories everyday and follow strict diets are hard (and I have had to do it when I was so sick with the Epstein barr virus years ago) but you are more likely to succeed if its easier then that.  I am choosing to follow the http://www.lightneasy.com.au/ menu plans. I don't have to think what to cook, I just make up a shopping list from the plans and follow them - easy (especially when I'm so busy scrapping and raising kids!). You can find their dinner menus here and their breakfast/lunch menus here.

Watch out for sugar withdrawal - Just like nicotine, if your body is used to having something, it will want more if it doesn't get it. You can get headaches, feel lazy & lethargic, just plain YUK, because your body is craving sugar. Recognise it for what it is and try to get past it. It'll get easier and it can happen every quickly in some cases. I look at a sugary bun these days and feel nothing - I just don't want it. (Potato chips on the other hand, is a different matter -LOL - but I don't crave them at least).

Healthy can be fattening - I thought because I was adding almond meal and organic coconut milk, full cream milk, wheatmeal and honey to my banana smoothie that it must be healthy and ok, but it added up to over 600 calories (half my daily allowance). I was adding too much honey & almond meal & not using reduced-fat coconut milk and cow's milk. I reduced all of them and added protein powder instead.  Also, we were eating too much pasta - it was wholemeal but still too much.

Use online tools - I used this website to figure out my BMI (body mass index), how much I should be eating and how much exercise I should be doing. It also has a calorie counter if you want one.

Walk 45 minutes - 1 hour if you can - Walking (or any exercise) stirs up toxins in your body.  The first part of your walk can feel slow but after about 45 minutes, endorphins start to kick in and its like a sudden body shift, you start to feel good, like you could keep on going another 45 minutes or even go faster. Endorphins destroy toxins.

_______________________-

And some TIPS from Karen:

My absolute number one TIP would have to be Don't give up...  No one is perfect, and we WILL have days that we totally lose track of our goal. That's OK, everyone does it from time to time, BUT, the important thing is to 'get up, dust yourself off, and get right back into it the next day. 

Another very important thing is to learn to eat slowly. The experts say that it takes at least 20 minutes from when you first start to eat for you body to register its had enough. If you gulp you food down in a few minutes, you body wont have a chance to realise its full, and wont have time to tell you to stop..... you will most definitely overeat !!  

Another idea I found great was to eat from a bread and butter plate.  It tricks the brain into thinking you are eating more than you actually are, because your plate looks full.


Don't compare yourself to others. We will all loose weight at different speeds, depending on our metabolism, and more importantly, how much weight we need to loose. Someone who has more weight to lose, will lose it quicker than someone who only has a couple of kilos to lose. 

Measure yourself weekly. A lot of the time, as we get further into the weight loss, there may be weeks that we don't actually lose any weight, but by measuring yourself too, you may find you have lost cm's even if you haven't lost weight.  You will also find that if you are excersising more than you are used to, you might start to gain muscle, which is a great thing, but, because muscle is heavier than fat, you may stop losing weight for a while, even though you are still losing fat.


Always keep healthy low fat snacks on hand, things like yoghurt, home made fruit salad, or little snack tubs of fruit,  for those moments when you really want something to eat. You will be tempted to grab a packet of chips or chocolate bar for a quick snack if there is nothing healthy readily available.

Move more, park your car further away from the shopping centre, use the stairs rather than the lift, walk the kids to school. Anything that gets you up and moving will help shed the weight faster. 

Drink, drink, drink, at least 8 big glasses of water a day. I aim for 2.5 litres ever day. 


If you absolutely HAVE to have something that you know is not the best choice, then have it, but only have a small amount. ie: if you love chocolate (like I do) and you absolutely NEED one, have one of those little fun sized bars, and eat it really slowly, you will probably find this is enough to satisfy the want !!