Okay so I have put on two and half kilos this winter…neh…once upon time I would be starving myself right about now but as I have grown up I have discovered I like to eat. I like food. And I like to eat particularly in winter when it’s cold, they don’t call it comfort food for nothing. So given my new love of eating these two extra kilos will most likely stay put for another couple of weeks as I’m not particularly diet driven and have numerous ‘parties’ happening these coming weeks (so not a regular occurrence. My hermit self is having a hard time adjusting to the people and the light) and they will be serving cake and beside I am a commonsense kind of girl. You eat too much you’re going to put on weight. You eat too much of the wrong food and you’re going to get fat and possibly sick. You dont move enough you aint going shift that weight either. So commonsense tells me my new found love of caramelised pork belly this winter means I got fat.
Besides I like to eat everything. A little bit of everything. It’s just this winter I was eating for Mongolia every time I ate when ordinarily I pretend I’m a French girl; you know because I’m alone a lot and it’s my prerogative to pretend. So in morphing myself in to a French girl sitting in a Parisian cafe come spring I reduce my meal size and change my plate to something real pretty (Currently its a 1940’s aqua marine Johnson Australia table plate, so pretty check out your local op shops) and imagine myself away. I eat slower. Enjoy my food. Eat simple food. Food cooked well. I serve myself less and operate a little self control. In saying that I never say no to pavlova, cheese cake or my husband’s tiramisu; I never deny myself anything. Why? Why would you do it to yourself? It’s like why buy 99.9% fat free why? When you can 100% full fat that taste’s so much better? Just have less of it. So instead I eat one dessert or perhaps them all if they are small enough but I don’t try and feed the nation of China in one sitting and then go back to feed Mongolia and Russia. My serving size? It’s more like dinner at a fancy restaurant where you pay crazy money for art on a plate but the reality is that small serving size is all you need. When you slow down and enjoy your food, its’ all you need and you get the cake to eat it too.
So given that I don’t believe in diets and pure commonsense I was amused by myself when into my inbox today came a newsletter from Oprah; new ways to burn an extra 100 calories and the best non diet tip they and I would presumably ever read. Amused I was; that I actually clicked and started to read. Okay so let’s just say if you lack ‘my’ commonsense then head on over but their best non diet tip that they felt was so amazing that it was included in their email news letter: reorganise your fridge. Healthy food in the middle and the rest (junk) I would assume elsewhere. Hmm…the commonsense in me tells me reorganise your shopping trolley and just don’t buy the junk. Oh the kids? Don’t take them shopping. What will they snack on? I hear Oprah scream? Fruit and sandwiches my kids don’t have it (I didn’t have it either) and well they are turning out just fine.
I then follow through to Bob Greens advice for burn an extra 100 calorie a day. A quick fix to my two and half kilo problem, yes. Thinking I will find something amazing. He is after all on Oprah’s team and I do think she is a little special. Turns out you need to already be exercising. So Bob Greens advice goes like this: stretch while you’re watching TV, walk more, lean forward on the tread mill, cook for your family (apparently burns 76 calories per twenty minutes who knew?) ride your bike up a hill and switch your swim stroke. There is your 100 calories! So whilst I don’t mean to be harsh and I know it’s ‘my’ commonsense. Unless you move more you can’t eat everything you want. You just can’t. And whist I’m not an exercise fanatic in fact I hate it the only sport I really enjoy is swimming. I run, walk, and ride my bike. I do this because I understand if I want to eat that whole bag of cheezles (guilty as of yesterday) or have two serves of roast lamb and gravy I’m going to have to do some work along the way. It’s commonsense be it ‘my’ commensense.
Now you can say you can’t fit exercise in or you have no one to watch the kids? Neither do I. In fact after all my boys were born I did laps around my yard and up and down the street. Never out of ear shot. You will find away to get the exercise in. Your to tired? Just do it. Your health depends on it. Run up and down your front stairs. Squats in the kitchen. Skip rope on your back verandas. Hula hoop in the bathroom. Play tag with the kids. Just. Move. More.
So I was hoping as I read through all this diet literature on Oprah’s newsletter that somewhere anywhere it would tell me that exercise and a healthy diet is good for your physical and mental health. That exercise reduces not only your weight, but improves your quality of sleep, mental health, increase strength and agility (for when you want to go round three with your toddler), helps reduce migraines, lowers your risk of osteoporosis and it betters your sex life. Your sex life people! It also decreases your chance of heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and stroke. Exercise can also help reduce your cravings if you’re trying to quit smoking I don’t know how it just does. She also didn’t tell me that by looking after myself I will be around longer with my kids, perhaps to see their kids. She didn’t tell me that exercise and a commonsense diet would help me feel more confident, and that playing with my kids would be easier. That taking care of myself, I would be a better version of myself. That I may even like myself more, which has endless possibilities in its self?
No in all her Oprah wisdom she didn’t tell me any of that. What she did tell me is that I will look better in a pair of Nordstrom jeans.
Well if that doesn’t get me moving I don’t know what will.
Xx Deb
