150 grams of meat to feed a family of 4?

Did anyone see ACA (in Aus) Tuesday night? (I think it was Tuesday-could have been Monday). The segment about feeding a family of four for $75 a week? I just had to laugh when the dinner consisted of only 150 grams of meat (chicken, beef-whatever) to fed the whole family! Obviously no Figure Competitors, or fitness people in general, in that group..we eat 100grams of meat/protein per person per meal-LOL! Did you see all the gravy/sauce in those dishes?!

It was funny, because before the segment started...hubby was jokingly saying "ready to take notes"...on how to save money-right?But after they showed the actual meals-sauce laden casseroles with lots of potatoes, some fresh veg and the measly amount of chicken or meat.....he quickly changed his tune-ha ha!

I know that our grocery bill is quite high compared to the average household...especially for just 2 people and a dog! However, we eat 5 times a day, and pretty much always here at home, and of course, we do eat a lot. Lots of chicken, turkey, roo, eggs, fish, low fat cottage cheese, low fat plain yogurt, & lots of fresh veg. I don't think the women in that story were able to do pull-ups or bench press...I could be wrong -but I doubt it-hehehehehe!

Then there was last nights story that WITCHAZEL mentioned at the end of a recent blog about how out of the zillions of breakfast cereals for kids, only 2 are safe for them to eat because of all the sugar and salt.
Like I commented on Cath's site....How can people not know that something called CHOCO POPS, or whatever the hell the name is is, would be full of sugar?! Why do people have to be told? I totally don't get how they can't know. Now, granted-lots of the cereals that sell themselves as being healthy on the cover may be a bit harder to figure out....IF YOU CAN'T READ!!!! That's what the LIST OF INGREDIENTS is for!!!!

I'm sorry, but they have these shows every couple of months, and people still say "it's just so difficult". No, it's not. USE YOUR HEAD.

Of course, I am preaching to the choir here...most everyone that reads this blog already knows how to read labels and that most cereal is crap, and that you need REAL food for real fitness and health and that does cost more than $75 a week-but it's cheaper than doctor bills every few months!!!

Here's to good health people!
Enjoy your day!

6 WEEKS....

Till I leave for my yearly visit to the states...YAY!!!


Excited much? LOL!
Feeling pretty good and feeling strong!

How do you feel? Are you challenging yourself? Are you working around certain limitations? Sometimes it's not just a matter of ACCEPTING that you can't do something....it's finding a way around those limitations-and that can lead to a whole new adventure!

Speaking of new adventures...have you checked out the new KELLY O site? I have read and watched her blogs and vlogs over the last year and I just gotta say- Kudos Kelly! She has grown, learned and shared so much through her experiences in the last year-and she is just so "up"! Fun and motivational...check her out! She's on a whole new, healthy journey these days....I'm lovin' the Balance! Go girl!

I love timeless oldies!!!.

Thanks MEG (CHECK HER SECOND VLOG ON THIS PAGE-good stuff chick!!!!)....for reminding me of such a fab oldie!

Back to our regular program...

So, hubby and I went and did a major cleanup of that house-and burned incense all day long. It did feel better when we left. The energy was starting to feel more positive. Thanks again LIA and CATH for your info on the smudging!

We talked to yet another real estate agent who had dealt with those people-and before we even mentioned our story at all-the first words out of her mouth were “those people were STRANGE!” Something was definitely up with them.

But now, we just need to move on. There is an interested party that may want to buy it-but we haven’t heard anything about them again since Thursday. If nothing happens with those people, we will most likely just do a little more work on it and move in. The grounds need heaps of work…which we knew already-but realized even more so this week.

Oh well!

So...as the title says,-back to the regular program-and this program is a fitness blog!


Since we are still up here in Innisfail….we needed to work out up here and since the ONLY real gym in town is the one where we had a falling out with the gym owner-but, money talks…and since I still had a month of paid membership-he let hubby pay for a month. So, we haven’t missed a single workout!

I have been having really good leg workouts lately. I do those lunges across the room where you hold a weight and twist opposite of the leg in front….and I super set them with body weight squats-heels up on a big plate and don’t come all the way up to get a super awesome burn-LOVE IT!!

I still haven’t done push ups again since my pec and shoulder tweaked a couple of weeks ago….I’m going to attempt some tomorrow and Tues and Thursday-since this is the week we are supposed to max out for the 6 week challenge. We'll see!

Hope everyone is haveing a fab weekend-And don't let anything get you down for too long-IT'S NOT HEALTHY!
Cheers!

Thanks Guys!

I really appreciate the support...it's nice to be able to get stuff off your chest and have people understand!
And thanks for the info Cath! No, I don't think that stuff is weird at all-we are going to give some of it a go today when we go to clean the house ;-)
....and our agent-who is also our friend, already has someone to show the house to-so could all end up working out sooner than we anticipated!

He did mention something interesting too...he remembered that the gal from his office who originally signed those sellers up with the listing last year had said to him that there was something wrong in that house and that the people were very strange....so this just confirms what we were feeling Tuesday! Somehow we didn't feel it the first time we went into that house-but damn we felt it Tuesday. Hopefully once we clean it and do a few of CATH'S suggestions it will not have that bad vibe anymore.

Back to the drawing board basically...we are still very keen to get a personal training studio going...that is our focus once we sell that property. Everything happens for a reason...I'm a firm believer in that-and everything falls into place as it needs to. MOVING ON!!!

“Be willing to have it so. Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.”
—William James (1842-1910), psychologist, philosopher, author

House Saga

Long post...feel free to read and comment if you have the time-I'd love your opinion-although I already feel justified after talking to our agent...he had more information to tell...

So, Monday morning, we wired the money from our account to the lawyers-and they were to then wire to the sellers lawyer-etc. We were told we’d be able to collect the keys from the seller’s lawyer Tuesday morning.

Tuesday morning, we started packing up the trucks-and called the sellers lawyer to confirm that we could get the key. Their office said “we are under strict instructions to not give you the keys until the money is in the bank.-and I’m not even supposed to be talking to you!” Well, ummm-ok-John called our lawyer and they just hadn’t signed the check to be given to the other lawyers yet-but they’d get it done soon. Around 11 our lawyer calls and says “ok-you can go pick up the keys but you have to do it by 11:30 as that lawyers office is closing then for the day” WTF?! We were ready 2 hours ago and they played this stupid hard ball game-and now we are supposed to make a 45 minute drive and do it in 30 minutes because they are suddenly closing?! Could someone arrange something please?

Sooooo ok, the keys will be at this other lawyer’s office…..good.

I said to John, we better call and make sure they are open and not closing for lunch or something.

So, he calls-and of course at first they aren’t even aware that they will have the keys for us (nobody called to let them know)-so they called the other lawyer and ok, yes we will have the key. Then they called back to say-oh, sorry, we are closing at 11:30 too…..a funeral.

They FINALLY arranged for a real estate shop to hold the key for us. Gee, thanks.
Great start to our move.

We collect the key, drive to the property-first thing we see is very large broken branches at the entrance hanging down that we have to drive around (they looked deliberately broken!) We go to the house-of course the verandah hadn’t been swept in a month most likely. We open the door to the house-and it just reeks of that stale musty old smell, the floors are absolutely filthy, a couple of screens have been broken, many of the kitchen cabinet door hinges were bent so the cabinets won’t close properly, the second toilet which is in the garage doesn’t even work-probably hasn’t in 10 years, a tile on the counter of the laundry area looks like someone took a hammer to it, the living room curtains were gone (she said she was leaving them), even took a curtain rod and bent the rod cover thingy out of shape..lord knows what else we have yet to discover.

We had a feeling something was going to be wrong…..
When we signed the contract they insisted on an “as is” clause….we were convinced that this was because they didn’t want to be responsible for removing the old tractor, van and pickup that doesn’t work…..(we were originally told the tractor and truck worked-but found out later that they really didn’t)…
After we had signed the contract to purchase the property we met with the people so they could walk us through the property and identify the trees, show us how to use the old tractor and point out the boundaries. The guy then said he had no idea where the boundaries were, and when we tried to start the tractor-it started but then took off and he couldn’t stop it without just shutting it off. And we found out then that the pickup didn’t work either-“needed some work”…and we didn’t even make a big stink-just pointed out that this stuff was in the contract and the guy freaked out because we got “such a good deal on the property”- and stormed back to the house.

This guy was a psycho-the place wasn’t even in his name-it was in his wife’s name because of bad business deals he had done in the past. Our agent didn’t like the guy from the beginning-and that is extremely rare for him. He likes everybody!

We had a feeling he was going to be nasty-and we were right. The place has a whole “bad vibe” to it now….we don’t even want to live there. We are going to take some time and clean it up properly-and very likely put it straight back on the market. It’s just ugly now.

So, there you go! We are still in the bungalow-but we are now making it our full time job to sell off everything (except the Dunsborough property). Then look again for the “right” property-never, ever allow an “as is” clause, and never take possession without a final inspection. Lesson Learned!

The end. (yes I stole that from Kitty-it just fits!

MOVING!!!!

This week we are moving to our new digs-YAY! Aaaand we will no longer be at our old gym. Now, as much as we couldn't stand that gym owner, his rates, his hours-he did have decent equipment (though not enough of it). So, now, we will be working out at a much smaller gym, with ummmm, less equipment of a lesser quality...until we can get together enough stuff for a home training studio-which will be for us and to do personal one on one training for clients-which has been our plan for a number of years.

So, we will have a bit of a challenge for a few weeks-at the small gym-but it will be fun and interesting to see what kinds of workouts we can come up with. After almost 60 years of combined training experience, hubby & I have learned much, not to mention becoming cert 3 & 4 PT's aaaaand of course almost 2 years of reading fitness blogs! ;-) With all of that under our belt, we will no doubt get some interesting training programs in place!

Isn't blog world fun?! I have so enjoyed reading about and sharing new (and forgotten) workout combinations-whether it's cardio or free weights or a combo of both-fun stuff!

Once we get settled-I will share any new stuff we learn or come up with-Promise!
I will work on my push ups this week though to see how far I can get for the final of the 6 week challenge next week. I took last week off from the push ups due to much pain in my pec, neck and shoulder...but since we won't be doing regular training this week-figure I can give the push ups all of my attention!
Will keep you posted!

For now-I will most likely not be on the blog much this week-
Cheers all!
Have a good one!

Motivational Pic and Quote of the Day...

“Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.”

—Joshua J. Marine

Push Ups and Small Town Gyms....(RANT!!!)

Well, first off-Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. We aren't too into holidays ourselves-so it was just another weekend for us. Except for the fact that the frickin' gym was closed Friday, Saturday, Sunday & Monday!!!! It's bad enough that we pay $239 for 3 months (each!!!), and that his hours are for the birds, but then he also closes for an entire weekend for a holiday!! Do you think we get get any credited days added on to our 3 months-F**K NO!

I'm so glad to be leaving that gym and cannot wait to get our own studio going at our new place. And we are not alone in our dislike for the owner. After hubby and the owner had a bit of a verbal show down last week (quietly but enough for the only other person there to notice); due to the owners attitude of coming up during hubby's workout to say "you need to pay"-rather rudely...after 3 years of consistently giving him money fairly on time and hubby helped him move his gym to the new building etc, etc....Hubby finally gave him a piece of his mind...after all-we are only there for one more week-hubby only would owe for about 6 days total-and I'm paid until mid May! Do you think he was willing to work a deal-no....so hubby told him nobody liked him, he cut his own throat the way he does business-and of course a few expletives etc, etc.

Next day we saw the lady that witnessed it all-and she went up and THANKED JOHN!!! for telling off the gym owner. And now we have learned that sooooo many people can't stand the owner but there is no other REAL GYM to work out at. Some people have quit training altogether because of this guy.

I actually had a client lined up to train at this gym. I was even pulling her from the ladies only place-so he would have had her paying him fees and of course me paying fees-so when I told him the plan-all of sudden he's decided to start charging people $21 per session to train somebody!!! And he wanted me to get insurance to cover him. I am a certified personal trainer (cert 3& 4) and got that qualification 3 years ago because hubby and I were going to do personal training at our b&b-but due to the cyclone etc things just didn't work out-and we figured this just wasn't the right spot for our whole plan. Now-since a person is not required by law to be insured or registered-we never bothered with that part of it-the continuing education etc. We have an indemnification form for people to fill out-and we know what we are doing. The insurance is not that great anyway-when you read the actual policy.
So, when he says he expects me and the client to pay regular gym fees to him and an extra $21 per session-about 1/2 of what I was charging her for a 6 week package- and I couldn't even get the insurance straight away if I'd wanted to because of the continuing ed stuff-so he lost her and all of her friends that were interested in me training them as well-and now he's lost me and John too! Oh-He didn't care about insurance or even certification when he asked me to teach aerobics at his gym 6 months 8 months ago-all of a sudden it's soooo important because it's my client and not his?

Sorry-I just had to get that off my chest. I really hope he goes out of business some day-he doesn't deserve to have all of these people paying him top dollar the way he treats everyone. Not to mention his crap hours!

So-now that that is out of the way...I've had to put my push ups on hold. I think I've really over done it with doing those 3 times a week on top of my regular training-something totally tweaked in my pec area yesterday and today (while making the bed!!!)-so in order to salvage my pec/shoulder/neck area-I'm taking the week off from the push-ups.

And next week we move! yay! Can't wait-and we are both stoked about getting our own gear again. We worked out at home for years in West Australia-it's just so nice to be able to get up and go straight into the gym-not drive and wait for the "gym god" to open the doors at precisely 6am and not a second earlier (mon wed fri ONLY!!!) And will be able to work out any day any time. LOVE IT!!! And be able to train other people-no waiting for equipment-can't wait, can't wait, CAN'T WAIT!! Can you tell I'm excited!

Ok-sorry again about the loooong rant-but it's my blog and I'll rant if I want to-RIGHT?! RIGHT!

Have a great day!
AND HAVE FUN!

TASTY TUESDAY! etc...

PUMPKIN, LEEK, SPINACH & BASIL QUICHE...super yum!

I got the recipe out of a grocery good mag from last year....However I added tofu & mushrooms and used low fat cottage cheese instead of ricotta-yummo and chock full of protein!

700g butternut pumpkin-peeled and cubed
1 leek-chopped (white only)
2 garlic cloves (or 2 tsp of garlic mince)
1/2 cup mushrooms-chopped (I use the swiss brown kind)
100g baby spinach
6 egg whites-1 yolk
1/4 cup low fat milk
1/3 low fat cottage cheese
1/3 cup basil leaves
1 small block of firm tofu
Oh-and I threw on some left over goat cheese too!

Preheat over to 200C. Spray large baking/casserole dish with non-stick (I use olive oil spray). Spread chopped pumpkin in dish..bake for 25 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook leek, garlic, then mushroom in non-stick pan until mushrooms just soft...add spinach and cook until it just wilts.
When pumpkin has baked for 25 minutes-pour leek, spinach, mushroom mix over it.
Whisk the eggs and mix cottage cheese in with it...then pour mix over the pumpkin leek mix in the casserole dish. Toss on the basil leaves and goat cheese if desired.
Bake for 20 minutes (until puffed & golden).

This has at least 16 g of protein per serve (but more with the tofu!), around 7g of fat, and 15g of carbs (roughly!)

This is a great vegetarian dish-with or without the tofu...but you could also use minced chicken instead of tofu-if you don't want to do vegetarian. Either way-very tasty and easy!

In other news...(hehehe)..
I'm into the 4th week of the 6 week PUSH UP CHALLENGE. I really struggled with last weeks program-so I had to go down a level (from 3 to 2)...which is still ok....Yesterday I did the following sets before my normal chest, shoulder & bi workout...

set1- 18
set2- 22
set3- 16
set4- 16
set5- 25 (barely!)
that is with a one minute rest in between each set. I'm beginning to have my doubts about doing 100 non-stop...these were soooo hard!
I hate, and know this is normal in any kind of training program....how some weeks I'm just way weaker than other weeks. Usually it's due to PMS...but-there are those times when the strength just isn't there-But at least I know it will be there again-maybe next training session or next week! What's funny is we can have a really good nights sleep, and really feel ready to go -but then get to the gym and just fizzle...then other days feel like we got run over by a truck during the night and then have PB's happening! Funny how sometimes the bod just doesn't care what the mind says-hey!

OK-I've blabbed quite enough about not much at all!
Hope you are having a great week-and keep challenging yourself-whether your body wants to or not-LOL!

KUDOS TO JO!

If you haven't checked out DIVA CONSIGNMENTS to buy or sell comp gear...I highly recommend it! Jo has been able to sell my comp outfit and shoes! If you aren't going to use your gear again because you either have a new outfit or are just done competing...send it on over to Jo! It's such a fab way to get a little of your money back and of course helps newbies on a budget...and we all know how expensive these comps can get!

THIS JUST MAKES YOU SMILE! TRUST ME!

I just got such a huge smile when I watched this, I had to post it here as well as facebook....THANKS HEATHER!!!
Have a great weekend everyone!

Pushups Anyone?!

These are not getting any easier people!!!! Yesterday's training regime was as follows:
Set 1=20
Set 2=25
Set 3=15
Set 4=15
Set 5=25
OMG!!!!!
That last set nearly did me in! But I FRICKIN' DID IT!!!!!

That's right-a total of 100 pushups...so, ok, yeah-1 minute in between each set...but still, I've kept up with the regime so far.
I gotta' say though....that last 4 on the last set was really, really HARD! I had to dig super, duper, frickin' deep to do those last 4 OMFG!!!

Hubby is convinced that I will reach my target...even promised me a lovely dinner out if I did the 100 pushups without stopping as incentive...But DAMN!!!! It's HAAAAAARD!!!!!

I've done pushups over the years..but minimally...10 here, 10 there....added as a super-set for chest-But, I never realised how hard MORE pushpups would be. SHIT! But hey....I did 100 within about 8-10 minutes....REAL PUSHUPS! Not that girly knee style shit!

Hubby wants to video my 100 pushups....so need to source a vid/cam for the event!!!! He's confident....he watched me do that last 25 yesterday and saw mass muscle poppling out...Awwww, how sweet! ;-) Y'all know what I'm talkin' 'bout! SWEEEEEET!

Other than that I'm super, frickin' sore from my TABATA THRUSTERS! OMG!! I haven't had my inner thighs AAAAAND my butt sore at the sime time and to this extent in ages! Doing wide leg squats super fast, over and over and over...really did me in. SORE AS.....! I will do TABATA again over the weekend...I'm thinking Tues & Sat for Tabata at the end of my hill-walks on a regular basis.
That's it from here folks!