Lite N Easy, week 3 - Day 1, Weigh in time...

Weight: 49.6kgWeight: (-1.1kg from last week, and -2.4kg total)
I lost my tape measure, again, so cannot do the other measurements.

I have been flat out this week thus far so, I don't have have a chance to do Kaitlyn's birthday blog yet. Will catch up next week.

Black out

We had a black out tonight. I was in the middle of my shower and end up having a cold shower... lucky it wasn't a cold night. Kaitlyn got very excited about all the candles. She had her bath in the kitchen and she found that very interesting as well and was splashing water everywhere. I am so proud of her, we did our usual bedtime routine without any problems, and she didn't even cry when I left her in her bed to sleep. She's a good kid...

Lite N Easy, week 2 - Day 1, Weigh in time...

The last few days has been very chaotic so no updates... the only things to note is that the Mac and Cheese Bake is very salty, same with the Terriyaki Chicken. So guess I won't be ordering those again.

Weigh in this morning:
Weight: 50.7kg (-1.3kg)
Waist: 29 inches (-2 inches)

We are making progress. If I could lose 500gm to 1kg a week, I am extremely happy. I don't think I will be listing everything I eat each day. I will only note down things that I need to remember for later. :)

Lite N Easy, Week 1 - Day 5

Day 5:

Breakfast: Bircher Muesli with half a cup of skim milk, A piece of fruit toast with marmalade
This is my first experience with Muesli and it was a good one. The serving was small, I barely had enough muesli to cover the bottom of a small soup bowl. But it was quite yummy. Fruit toast was nothing special. I was surprised that the tiny tub of marmalade had 40 calories. And also such a small-ish breakfast actually had the same calorie content as the big dinner last night.

Morning Snack: Red Apple
78 Calories, eaten with lunch

Lunch: sliced turkey and marinated mediterranean vegetables served on a leafy salad. Fruit cup
2 pieces of round sliced turkey, 1 small tub of marinated mediterranean vegies including olives, capcian and some orange slices of some sort. and a salad mainly of various lettuce. The turkey tastes really nice. I also ate the yogurt date bread from 2 days ago... I think I over ate, was rather full.

Afternoon Snack: Nutty Muesli bar
Didn't eat this. I still felt full after the gym, from lunch.

Dinner: Mango Chicken
Delicious.
2 pieces of chicken and some asian vegetables. I loved it. It actually tastes like mango chicken LOL.

Lite N Easy, Week 1 - Day 4

Day 4:
I think I still over ate last night at dinner because my tummy didn't agree with me much last night.

Breakfast: Toasted Multigrain muffin with ham, cheese and tomato
A small English muffin with 2 pieces of ham, 1 piece of cheese and a small tomato. The ham was quite salty. If I was doing this myself, I'd buy honey ham instead

Morning Snack: Green Apple
I actually forgot to eat this, so had it with lunch instead

Lunch: Corned Beef and Pickles on a soy and linseed roll, a peach
The Soy and Linseed Roll smelled divine. Note to self, need to get some of these. I get 4 pieces of corned beef and a tiny tub of cucumber and tomato pickles to go with the roll. This is my first experience eating corned beef and it was pleasant. The pickles though... not so great. I may substitute it with a small piece of gerkin when I do it on my own.

Afternoon snack: Apple and Sultana Pancake
I didn't need to eat this as I wasn't all that hungry at snack time. Strange.

Dinner: Special Lasagne
Well, it was quite special and yummy. It's filling yet not heavy. It's a lean beef lasagne, with a handful of beans and carrot pieces.

Lite N Easy, Week 1 - Day 3

Day 3:
I didn't wake up starvingly hungry for a change. Guess my body is adapting to the smaller servings of food.

Breakfast: Egg and tomato on one piece of multigrain toast
Well, it came in this form: a frozen piece of bread, a whole tomato, and an egg in a plastic container. I had no idea the egg was raw... and ended up cracking the raw egg on my piece of toast... not a pretty sight. Anyways, rushed the toast with egg into the oven... was still a mess, but at least after some toasting, it was edible. I didn't bother cutting up the tomato this time, so just ate it whole.

Morning Snack: Kiwifruit
I shared this with Kaitlyn. I thought it was rather sour, but Kaitlyn loved it.

Lunch: Curried Rice salad
Interesting flavour, a small rice with 2 small pieces of chicken, a few pieces of carrots, some chick peas, and 2 other types of Asian looking peas, and sultanas. I ate everything besides the saltanas... couldn't bring myself to eat those.

Afternoon Snack: Greek Style Yogurt with berries
I love their yogurts. Very yummy

Dinner:
Well, we went out for dinner tonight. So I didn't eat the "planned" dinner. However, it was a good test to see if I could resist the temptations. I ordered an entree instead of main, and a bowl of steamed vegetables. The entree still came out looking HUGE... Which is unusual for me as I usually eat A LOT and large servings never bothered me before. But it did tonight. I couldn't finish the entree plate, and I actually felt quite full. I felt bad leaving food on the table. I guess next time, I will order a salad instead.

Lite N Easy. Week 1 - Day 2

Day 2

Do you remember when you first break up with someone, all you see on the street are couples? Well, when you are hungry, all you see on the street is FOOD, people selling food, people buying food, people eating food, people sharing food... etc. etc...

Breakfast: Cheese and tomato toasted on Multigrain English muffin
Once again, the serving is so very tiny... a slice of cheese and a small/medium tomato on a tineee weenie english muffin. I am very surprised when I entered the meal into Calorie King that they actually have quite a bit of calories. I dread to think what a Macca's breakfast has...

Morning Snack: Green apple
I am going to morning snack at the right time today and see if it'd help keeping me from feeling too hungry by lunch time. So a green apple before gym (TBT today). Did you know one medium sized green apple has 74 Calories??

TBT was hard work... I had to get a tuna wrap right after the class because I felt quite weak. It was a small tuna wrap with lettuce, olive, and tomato. Not too sinful, I don't think.

Lunch: Asian Rice Bowl
This is positively delicious. The chicken pieces were so yummy and tender. I have to say, Lite N Easy has the least salty packaged meals I've tried. Weight Watchers and Lean Cuisin were all terrible in taste and very salty by comparison

I didn't need the fruit with lunch today as I am quite full with the wrap and rice bowl.

Afternoon Snack:
I didn't eat the Yogurt Date cake that was listed on the menu because I am still quite from lunch...

Dinner: Seafood Pasta
It was a bit disappointing. But it filled a hole.

Well, day 2 was easier than day 1. I didn't feel as hungry, although according to CalorieKing, today's meals had less calories than yesterdays... But then, maybe eating an extra wrap at lunch fixed it all. Note to self, tomorrow, no cheating ;)

Lite N Easy. Week 1 - Day 1

I am sick of feeling chubby and carrying the last 5kgs from the pregnancy. After going to the gym for a couple of months and still have the 5kgs... more drastic actions were needed. So, I started the Lite N Easy program this week. For those who doesn't know what it is: http://www.liteneasy.com.au/nova/index.html

I know it's quite expensive. But then, I had to buy a new shirt and suit recently due to my larger size (from 6 to 10 now) and that costed me $600. If I could get my waist back and fit into my old clothes again, that would save a lot of money. So I guess it will be worth it.

Day 1:
Breakfast: 2 pieces of Pikelets and Fruit Compote.
The pikelets were nice. Normally I wouldn't go within a mile of something like Fruit Compote. There were sultanas and strange smelling spices... BUT, if I didn't eat it, I'd be missing out on 96 Calories... Every calorie counts, hunger overrides personal dislikes.

Morning Snack: Greek Style Passionfruit Yogurt.
This was surprisingly tasty. I must confess that I ate this with breakfast as I was still SOOO very hungry after the tiny pikelets... Also, I couldn't be bothered brushing my teeth yet again after a morning snack. So I decided, I will eat the snacks with the main meals.

Lunch: Crunchy Vietnamese Salad with Chicken Tenders. Melon Fruits
I really did enjoy the salad very much. Perhaps I was just really hungry and everything tastes better when you are hungry. I even licked the bowl clean of salad dressing... a very sad sight indeed. The melon fruits were nothing special.

Afternoon Snack: Banana and Date muffin
I ate that with lunch. And together, they made me feel quite full. I checked the CalorieKing site and realised I had consumed over 2/3 of my daily calorie allowance... does that mean dinner will be tiny?? The muffin was ok. Like I said, I wouldn't normally touch a banana and date muffin as I liked either banana nor dates... But Beggers can't be choosers... I ate everything down to the crumbs.

I washed it all down with 2 nice hot cups of Nursing Tea to make sure I don't lose too much supply for baby to notice tonight.

It was torturing in the afternoon because we hosted a focus group and there was a huge plate of assorted cakes and sweets... and I couldn't have any... /sighs

Dinner: Steak with creamy mushroom sauce, 6 slices of potato wedges and a bunch of snake beans and carrots
It was delicious!!! I worked late, then had to wash my hair and have a shower right after I got home because I had the great fortune of sitting next to a sick/flu-y person... I wish people would stay home when they don't feel well... some people have babies to care for you know. :( I was so hungry by the time I got to eat. The food was GREAT and once again, I licked the plate... But I did feel full afterwards

I cheated a couple of times today by eating a medium sized peach with breakfast and another with dinner.

What did I learn today?

• To be within the 1200 calories a day, the servings are a lot smaller than I am used to.
• When you have limited food, you really learn to take your time and eat everything on the plate
• I enjoyed eating (well, I always have enjoyed eating) when I finally reach meal time, every time.

Well, I survived day 1 :) Now only 5 weeks and 6 days to go LOL.

Kaitlyn is walking (and I missed it)

Kaitlyn took her first steps last night. She stood completely unaided, then took 4 steps on her own. They were actual steps, one at a time. Unlike what she usually does, half running and tripping over most of the time, when she is not holding onto something. She's a very cautious girl, and still does NOT like having to walk without holding onto at least someone's pinky. Well, I'd say she's walking now. :D I was in the shower, and missed it too. I saw it when we asked her to do it again, and she reluctantly did a few steps for me.

And she's very vocal now. She babbles and "talks" all the time. Like last night, we kept asking her to walk on her own and she got a bit annoyed I think. She "ran" into Brett's arms and babbled for a good 5 minutes. We couldn't understand what she was saying, but from the way she was talking and her expressions, I think she was complaining about her "treatment" of being made to walk. Very cute...

She knows a few of her body parts and would point them out for us. She also points at things when we ask them where they are, such as her photos, birds, books, etc. She learned a new word: Rabbit.

Lessons Learnt, Part V -- Misc. tips

Having kids is an expensive business... unless you are very well off, your finances will be stretched. Here are some stuff I've learned about saving money, a little here and a ltitle there.

• Buy in BULK, especially for the following items
  
  • Nappies, get the 4 to 8kg size, more than you would get Newborn size. The Newborn size won't last you very long. Kaitlyn was in newborns for 2.5 weeks, but wore 4 to 8 till 16 weeks.
    
  • Baby wipes, unless you are using cloths and water to clean your baby's bottoms (good on you if you are), you can NEVER have too many baby wipes
  • Formula can also be bought in bulk. Most pharmacies have cartons of formula (6 or 12 cans). It all adds up
    
• DO read the catelogues from shops, there just MAY be some savings every now and then
  
• Baby clothes:
• if you plan on having more than one kid, buy gender neutral colours, such as white, green and yellow.
  
• Don't buy too many newborn sizes (00000 or 0000) as they grow out of sizes VERY quickly
• Buy onesies (jump suits), we found that Kaitlyn had worse collic/reflux when she wore pants or anything that constricts her tummy when she was little. As she got older, she pulls off her pants all the time and tries to take off her nappy. So buy jump suits, so it will stay on
• Hand-me-downs are great. If you can get old clothes from someone who no longer need them, they are better than new clothes. Baby prefers soft old colthes

• Buy Preen and NappySan OxyAction. It will help to get rid of all sort of stains that you are destined to have for the next 18 years...
• Baby's Toys:
• Colourful is good
• Try to avoid battery operated things. Baby gets bored of blinking lights just as quickly as anything else that doesn't blink. You will save a bundle on replacement batteries
• If you must have battery operated things, buy rechargeable batteries
• The following we NEEDed:
• Walker (we have a sit in one and a pusher). I wish we had them earlier
• Rocking chair (no need for fancy lights and music, baby is as happy in cheap bouncer without any gadgets)
• doll or teddy
• balls

• The following we wish we didn't get:
• A rocker/baby swing. It was only good for getting kaitlyn to do no.2 when she's slightly constipated
• baby mobiles, the stuff that spins and hangs in the cot. We had to remove everything from her cot because she wasn't sleeping
• pram toys. Maybe we are lucky with Kaitlyn, but she doesn't need pram toys to be entertained when we are out
• Everything else that uses lots of batteries...
  

• Household items make great toys, such as:
• cardboards
• boxes
• measuring cups
• junk mail
• old/unused remote controls

• Baby's "educational" stuff (books, dvds etc.)
• Kaitlyn loves her books. So we have quite a number of books.
  
• 0-3 months: we used flash cards. Kaitlyn mainly just stared at them, occassionally played with them
• 3-6 months: we started reading her the same bedtime story (still do). And she prefers cardboard books and clothes books
• 6-12 months: She likes all of her books, cardboard, clothes, flippies, pop-ups, foam. She loves the "peek-a-boo" book, where she could flip out the pages and reveal things underneath. She just started pulling out flash cards and pointing at the pictures and giggles

• We have the entire Baby Eistein Collection and many Chinese DVDs. These are good in small doses. Kaitlyn giggles and laughs a lot with the baby Eistein DVDs