when clean eating is hard

I'm slowly, slowly losing weight. Probably a little TOO slowly, but I'm confident I can more easily keep it off if I lose it slowly. Problem is, though, that I have hit that part of my journey where I'm losing momentum, losing motivation, losing inspiration and just finding things altogether too hard. I haven't given up by any means. I know I just have to keep plodding along, but I'm just going through the motions half heartedly and I'm succumbing to temptation too much with my strong cravings for sugar and junk food. Why can't clean eating be easier? Why can't I love and crave whole foods all the time? Stupid sugar.

Anyway, my goal for now is to find some inspiration to reignite the fire within me to reach my health and fitness goals. I need to find something that can get me passionate about it all again. The gym date I have lined up with my personal trainer in less than a week might get me going!

food journey update

Well, I'm pleased to report I'm 3kgs down so far. Slow and steady wins the race right? I've been pretty good at stripping away all the junk food from my life and filling the void with fresh food. I'd love to go back to organic all the time, but finances are a bit tricky for now. Surprisingly I haven't had too many bad cravings for bad and sugary food as much as I thought I would, but when I do I have found great solutions to satisfy my tastebuds. My favourite go-to sweet treat is two slices of Burgen Soy & Linseed bread with half a dozen strawberries on top, a little cottage cheese and a drizzle of maple syrup. Yum!

I've also been finding new things to try like the Loving Earth Chocolate Buckinis! Oh my! Have you tried these? They are super delish with a few spoonfuls of greek yoghurt. Even my four year old, who has a very limited range of foods she eats, loved these. I've already been through a bag of these and ready to order more. They come in caramel too which I'm keen to try.

Easter was a bit of a blip. But I just wanted to enjoy a good hearty but still healthy Easter lunch with my family, and maybe a chocolate or two as well. Or three. Or was that twenty? Anyway, I'm back on track now.

**This post is not sponsored at all. As per my new policy, anything I write about on my blog is because I have chosen to tell you about it because I like it! The only advertising I will be doing is sidebar advertising.

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the old and the new

This little photo just warms my heart. We were leaving my mum's friend's house and when I looked up before me, I saw this and quickly snapped a photo. Zoe doesn't easily warm to many people, so this is pretty special. Friends.

goodbye junk food, hello clean eating

I'm a bit scared. Tomorrow I get measured and weighed and start a 40 day focus that will see me eating cleanly (ie. no processed foods, only whole unrefined foods and no carbs after 2pm) and exercising like a crazy person. Well not too crazy. Well, the only crazy thing about it really is that I'll be doing this over Easter.

I'm almost too scared to write that I'm doing it here, for fear of failure at this yet again. But no, I can do it, and I WILL do it.

They gym I've joined is running the program so I will have people checking on me. I'm tired of feeling sluggish and not proud of the way I look. I just want to be happier and feel better about myself, and be healthier. But that will involve a lot of hard work. So, yep, I'm scared. But I just need to get on with it and do it. No excuses.

So goodbye junk/sweet/treat food. Hello healthy stuff, like paleo pumpkin bread. Mmmm yum.

Do I sound convinced?

Feel free to hit me with any great sites for 'clean eating', especially lovely clean sweet treats!

so here's the thing...about blogging and advertising and stuff

I know. That was a really long blog post title.

Anyway, the thing is. I don't really like what the world of blogging has turned into in lots of ways. When I first started blogging, it was just a fun little hobby and a way to connect with a wider community of people to help me keep my days sane. And thrown in there, I used to love sharing things that I used, bought, found and these were just my own finds or discoveries. And then somewhere along the line, things changed and now blogs can be platforms to advertise things, and well, now it kind of feels like a product or a discovery can't be mentioned without feeling like it is necessary to explain whether you genuinely are sharing it as something amazing or whether it was gifted to you or is (or isn't) a sponsored post, etc. etc. 

I more or less fell out of blogging while a lot of this blog monetising/advertising thing started to really take off and it has scared me off coming back to it I think. It all seems like such a serious business now, and all the while I can't help thinking......it's just a blog. When did it all get so intense?

So, anyway, from now on, I'm not going to do reviews, give ways or anything else of that nature anymore. I just want this blog to be a place where I can write about whatever I want, whenever I want, like I used to. The blog post content will be mine and not influenced by gifts or money. So if a product is mentioned it will be because I bought it and I genuinely want to share about it.

And now, it's back to normal viewing and posting.....like being silly taking selfies while your 4 year old pretends she's still a baby in a high chair. As you do.

check out my melons!

Well, there's only one melon - but check it out!

I thought it was time for a vege patch up date, so here it is. I continue to be amazed at how quickly everything has grown, and I still get excited when I discover new veges ready for picking! We've had plenty of zucchini's and cucumber, the basil has been great, and of course the watermelon! The vine of the watermelon has gone craaaaaazy. It's growing over the lawn now. Mental note - if we ever grow these again, we will just plant the one vine.

Since the photo above was taken, I've cleared some of the zucchini section and pulled out the remaining rotting bits of cucumber plant and am trying to make way for some new veges in the coming weeks. Our blueberry tree and strawberries didn't fair so well. They were up against possums or rats, so we never got to eat any of the fruit. Actually we did get a few blueberries at the start. So we put netting over the berries but then that got overrun with the sprawling watermelon vine which blocked any sun from getting to them. Anyway, lessons learned there, so for next time we will plan the garden bed a bit better. I'm hoping to plant some carrot, beans, broccoli and maybe some more cucumbers soon.

Am hoping that eventually, we will have enough growing in our little patch that there will always be something that will feed us should we have nothing in the cupboards! Bit ambitious? Maybe, but one can dream!

Anyone got a vege patch they would love to show off? Leave me a link in the comments below!