A Reading Wrap Up
08 Jan 2012 Leave a Comment
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of (some of)
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Posession A S Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazu Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo
How many have you read?
Disney!!
17 Nov 2011 Leave a Comment
in Family, Loo, Noos Tags: Disneyland, Family, holidays, Hong Kong, Loo, Noos
I have been very neglectful of this blog of late. Part of this is due to the effort I have been putting into the exercising component of 12wbt. Other reasons are work being busy, children being busy and plain old laziness. But the most exciting reason was that we spent a week in Hong Kong!
Our first day in HK happened to be Loos birthday. What better way to spend your 9th birthday than at Disneyland! And so that is where we went. HK Disney is a very small park and is only 5 years old. There are only 3 worlds apart from Main Street - Fantasyland, Adventureland & Tomorrowland. This week they are opening a new land all about Toy Story. The benefit of it being small is that you can do it in one day. The other joy for us was that going on a Monday meant that lines were virtually non existent and we could ride what we wanted, when we wanted, ignoring the options for Fastpasses.
We caught the train from Kowloon, changing onto the Disneytrain at Sunny Bay. The train was so cute - Mickey Mouse windows and little golden disney statues all through it.
We walked up from the train station into a stream of people all heading to Disneyland. We were very excited!
And then got to the gate & waited for half an hour to get in. Lots of fuss was made over the first people to arrive at Disney for the day – they were let in first and had some special time with Minnie & Mickey. We had to make do with admiring the statues out the front.
It was Halloween and so the House of Mouse was all decked out in Halloween finery. Disney does celebrations like noone else!
And lots of special halloween goodies to be bought in all the stores.
All the old favourites were there – the boys loved stumbling across the disney images.
The boys weren’t too keen to line up & have their photos taken with the characters – they think they are too old and cool. So instead we went and saw some shows – this was the Golden Mickeys. Most of the speaking was in Cantonese, with english subtitles on the screen, but all the singing was in English. The dancing was amazing! We also watched Mickey’s Philarmagic – a 4D movie. Best 4D movie I have ever been too, the 3D effects were incredible, I just had to reach out & touch Donald Duck as he flew at my head.
We also went on some rides – you can’t go past the teacup & Saucer. Noos wanted to try Space Mountain, but wouldn’t go on his own. Loos was not keen, and as I didn’t feel comfortable leaving him alone to wait for us, we gave it a miss. We did have fun in the Buzz Lightyear ride, enjoyed the orbitron and, just to make my Dad happy, went on Its a Small World – and the HK version is exactly the same as the LA version I went on 30 years ago.
We had some fun with food – tried roast chicken & rice, and discovered it to be full of bones, definitely not the way we normally eat our roast chicken. But Noos had this very cute waffle while I chatted to some people from Melbourne.
We loved our day in Disney – we were all exhausted, especially after arriving very late in HK the night before. We managed to find our way back to our hotel via train & taxi. Loos was asleep by 8, and missed dinner! But what a great way to spend the day you turn 9!
Why Michelle Bridges’ 12WBT works for me
06 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
in 12wbt, Exercise, Weight Tags: 12WBT, Exercise, Running, Weight Loss
A question was asked this week in a facebook group I am involved in about the pros and cons of the 12WBT. I knew I couldn’t answer this in a facebook comments block, and so thought it easier to blog about. I also know that today isn’t the ideal day for me to be blogging this as I have really really struggled today & made some bad choices – hit the week 4 hump in the road. But here goes.
12wbt is more than a diet, it is more than an exercise or weight loss plan. To me it is life changing. I have tried many programs – Jenny Craig, Easyslim, Herbalife, weight watchers, Fernwood’s slimplicity as well as various attempts at watching what I eat, joining gyms, starting walking plans. But this is the first program that has not only worked for me, but the first one where I have actually achieved my goal weight.
I believe the key to 12WBT success is the preaseason, 4 weeks when you spend time contemplating the reasons for why you have ended up where you are and recording them. Thinking through all the excuses you use and how to overcome them. You get your kitchen organised, you make sure you have the right gear and you measure & weigh yourself.
So apart from this my pros would be as follows:
- the amazing support you receive from Michelle Bridges & her team through the 2 weekly videos (generally one is live where you are able to ask questions), forum posts and facebook page.
- Being given a menu plan, shopping list, recipes & and a workout plan everyweek. No thinking involved (and there is a con with this too).
- You are dealing in calories with every meal and snack. You learn to read the nutrition boxes on packets and understand how many calories are too many – no hiding the facts using points or other methods or carrying around books advising how many points etc in things. This can then be taken outside the program easily to work out whether food that looks OK really is.
- the support from other people doing the program. It really is a community, and as such you see the good, the bad & the ugly. But definitely the good far outweighs the bad. I have made some wonderful friends through 12wbt, primarily through local meetups.
- the cost (though some would say this is a con) . Compared to other programs I don’t believe this is expensive. I know I have spent way more on other programs that have not been as successful.
- you are eating and preparing real food, not prepackaged frozen meals, meal replacement shakes or a heap of tablets. You are learning how you should eat.
- Having a freezer with frozen leftovers of healthy meals for those nights when life gets in the way or I just can’t be bothered.
- Learning new habits & learning to love new things. Who would have thought 18 months ago that I would kinda enjoy running & would voluntarily enter fun runs. How good my day is depends on how much exercise I have started the day with (hence my bad day today).
- Feeling awesome about myself and how I look. This is huge! I have confidence in myself that I never had before. I know I can achieve.
And to be fair the cons:
- it is not magic. You need to work hard, you need to be organised and consistent. But put the effort in and you will see the results.
- the weekly meal plans & shopping list – makes my life a bit tough sometimes. There are some foods I will not eat and so I spend time each week tweaking the plans and working out our own menu plan. Some things I can’t convince my fussy eating boys to even try so need backup meals.
- The consuming nature of the program. I find when I am focussed on the program other things slip by the wayside as I try to find time to fit exercise & cooking into my day.
Each of the 4 rounds I have done have been very different for me, and I have been looking for different things. Round 1 last year was all about weight loss, and I achieved that. Round 3 last year was about consolidating the weight loss & also meeting other 12wbters – again successful. I told myself that round 1 this year was about fitness, and yes, I did run my first ever fun runs, but let the food side slip & did not achieve my goals. The current round is about changing my mindset about food – reinforcing that I am an adult and shouldn’t continue to eat like a child. This is a big deal for me and if I get it, it will set me up forever.
I love 12wbt and I will be forever grateful for the changes it has made in my life!
12WBT Blogging Challenge Week 2 – A picture of Health
27 Sep 2011 1 Comment
in 12wbt, Weight Tags: 12WBT, 12wbt Blogging Challenge, Exercise, Weight Loss
Thank you to the lovely Cath of Courage to Start for hosting the challenge! This weeks topic is health – what is a picture of health?
I’ve been thinking about this over the evening. I have always considered myself & my children healthy. We very rarely get sick & when we do it has never been very serious. Small things, like a tummy bug or a cold. Never anything nasty that we have had to rush up to the hospital with.
So despite seemingly be in good health, I found myself significantly overweight a couple of years ago – was I still healthy? Well in a way I was, but was I on a path to good health? Nope, don’t think so.
Heart disease runs in my Dad’s family – his father had heart health issues and my Dad had a scare a few years back that through medical intervention was resolved. I am at risk too. Luckily my family all shares the same GP, so when my Dad started having issues, my GP started checking my cholesterol and other tests every couple of years. 2 1/2 years ago (and I am now overdue for blood tests), my bad cholesterol was a little high – not too high, but just starting to creep up. That is when I started my journey to lose weight.
Up until recently I haven’t thought about my weight impacting on my health, but now I can see that it very clearly does. I also know that when I put on a couple of kilos, the nagging lower back pain reappears together with neck pain and headaches. My body struggles to deal with the extra weight and accompanying lack of exercise.
So a picture of health – well for me that would be having satisfactory blood test results, no lower back pain, minimal neck pain, knowing I can run up a flight of stairs without feeling puffed & having the energy to participate in all life with 2 boys offers!
Mean Girls
26 Sep 2011 1 Comment
in Friends
We have all known these girls, seem then in action. We knew them at high school, we may even have been one of them. The girls who deliberately set out to be hurtful to other girls, to make themselves look good or feel good by belittling another girl or bullying her. Picking on a girl for the way she looks, or the way she talks, or her family, or her opinions, or her extracurricular activities, or her lack of sporting prowess. Or for just not being popular enough.
It was a high school thing wasn’t it? Part of being a teenage girl and dealing with the nightmare of spending 6 hours a day, 40 weeks of the year crammed into classrooms with people you may not have chosen to spend any time with, all going through hormonal changes and learning to become women.
Well, I thought it was. But over the last 18 months I seem to be seeing it happen amongst grown up, supposedly mature women.
When I discussed this with my Mum, she was surprised to hear that this sort of behaviour was occurring amongst women of my age. As she reminded me, women should be supporting each other, providing a confidante, helping each other through what in many ways is still a mans world. Not turning on each other, bullying, attacking, provoking, taking a passive aggressive attitude to achieve what you want at all costs.
We all love having a chat with our friends, and chatting about other people we may know, what they have been doing, who they are doing it with, venting about things that frustrate us – but these are private conversations. But some of what I have seen lately amounts to out and out bullying in public places – for what purpose?
In high school it was about being the Queen Bee of the playground. But as an adult- what is it for? Does it make you feel any better about yourself? And what about the other person, the victim. What impact is this having on them, particularly if they have low esteem, a lack of self confidence or are already stuggling with self loathing.
Maybe we all need to take stock of what we are saying and how we are treating each other. And if someone does something to hurt us, whether intentional or not, let go of the need for vengeance. Forgive and move on. Let it go!
Think twice before you say something, do something, post something. Think about the path you are going down and what this path will cost you – friends, respect, loyalty?
Kelli
PS this post is not aimed at anyone in particular, but is something that has been bothering me for the last 18 months or so and something I am hearing about & seeing more and more often.
Week 1 Wrapup
19 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in 12wbt, Exercise Tags: 12WBT, Exercise, Food, Running, Weight Loss
Week 2 has started & I managed to make it through week 1 with few hiccups. At weigh in on Wednesday morning I had lost 1.1kg, so for me a successful week.
Each morning I dragged myself out of bed to get moving – now that spring is here it is much easier to be out & about at 6am than when it is cold & dark. My exercise for the week looked like this:
Monday – 12WBT outdoor circuit
Tuesday – Boxfit
Wednesday – 12WBT outdoor circuit
Thursday – jog & 12WBT outdoor circuit
Friday – Jazzercise
Saturday – Jog for 45 minutes (could not manage a super Saturday session this week)
Sunday – 1hr hike in the hills behind my house.
Each day I came close, or was just over the 500 calorie requirement, apart from Saturday where I only managed to burn 350 calories.
Food was pretty good (apart from the takeaway with friends on Saturday night). Things I discovered this week:
- A banana smoothie does fill me up for breakfast
- I don’t have to have 6 coffees a day
- My boys will eat any meat if it is cut up & served with salad
- Strawberry bruschetta is not as great as it sounds, in fact it is pretty average
- Chocolate Rice Cakes from Table of Plenty are awesome
- Chicken with Yoghurt herbed sauce is awesome the next day.
I didn’t seem to have too many challenges this week, and in fact saved money as I did not buy any coffee, takeaways or snacks. My muscles and body were feeling tired by Friday, but I know this will pass as I regain my fitness.
So onto week 2 – week 2 will finish with an 8km fun run on Sunday morning. I’m not too worried about the distance as I regularly run 4-5km as a warmup prior to doing the circuit. Boxfit is an ongoing challenge as I dread going, countdown the time until it is done, but then feel amazing once it is over. Again, the menu plan is being juggled – switching between the regular & vegetarian option, depending on what is on offer each day. Highlight of the week will be pancakes on Saturday morning!
Hope all other 12wbters had an amazing week.
12WBT Bloggers Challenge
13 Sep 2011 1 Comment
The lovely Kath of Courage to Start is once again hosting a 12wbt blogging challenge. She did this in round 2 and I occasionally looked on enviously, but as I wasn’t doing the round did not feel I could join in. But this round I can and will!
The blogging topic for this week is to introduce yourself – she has provided questions, which are below, which require answering.
1. Describe yourself in 25 words or less. You can get straight to the point – or bring your creativity into play.
I don’t have any creativity – I’m an accountant! But seriously, busy, stressed but happy and loving my life right now.
2. What brings you to 12wbt? Getting fitter? Losing weight? (Gaining weight??) Are you first timer, a repeat offender??
I am a 12WBT repeat offender. This is my 4th round – I started in Round 1 2010, did Round 3 2010 & round 1 2011 and am now back for round 3 2011. I am back this round to get rid of the excess kilos I stacked on during a very very cold winter and to be as fit as I was at the end of last year. I am also hoping to nail the mindset lessons this round and start looking at my life differently.
3. Why do you blog??
The truth??? A very dear friend of mine organised a weekend get together for crafty people who blog. When she organised the first one I was neither crafty nor bloggy. But I was so jealous of missing out on all the fun. So I started to learn to sew (still have yet to finish a project) and started a blog so I could go this year. And it was brilliant fun and so worth starting a blog for. Already looking forward to 2012!
And now I blog to keep me on track with 12wbt and so that my blog does not look neglected or forgotten!
4. Who is your biggest inspiration in life and why (doesn’t have to be weight loss)
Tough question Kath! I find my pastors wife to be a very inspiring lady and also my Mum inspires me every day. I find my Mum inspirational as she has achieved so much & oversome some huge hurdles, and gives and gives to us all the time. My pastors wife inspires me in so many ways – she is so incredibly capable (or so it appears) and lives her life guided by God & always has time for other people.
I am sure there are other people who I find inspiring as well, but can not think of any specific person right now.
5. What things in life bring you the most joy?
A sunny day in the garden with a good book, watching my children achieve and strive to be their best, a beautiful view and spending family time with my boys.
6.What do you think your greatest challenge is going to be this round?
Staying focussed on food. It is so easy to think one won’t hurt. But when 1 becomes a packet it certainly will.
7. What are you most excited about 12wbt?
Having my meals planned – love not having to think about food each night. How amazing I am going to feel about myself in 12 weeks and buying some pretty summer clothes in a smaller size.
8. And what scares the pants off you?
Burpees & Turkish Getups! Oh, and the Boxfit instructor.
9. Tell me – right now – today – how do you feel about exercise in no more than 10 words
Excited & Exhilerated
10. Complete this sentence – in 12 weeks time – on the last day of 12wbt I am going to be feeling ____________________
fit, fabulous and so very very proud!
Preseason Week 4
10 Sep 2011 1 Comment
in 12wbt Tags: 12WBT, Boxfit, Exercise, Running, Weight Loss
The end of preseason is nearly here. Only 2 more sleeps until I am leaping out of bed at 5.45 to run up the very steep hill next to my house 4 times – thanks Mish, do you really know how steep that hill is????
So week 4 is basically done. Hard week food wise, I had a massive case of the I just want to vacuum up everything in sight and I just don’t care. Exercise was good. Managed to do something everyday but Wednesday (even though today was just the fitness test).
This week I tried Boxfit – don’t know if I actually enjoyed it, but it was an awesome workout. I managed to hit 500 calories in the hour though. There were only 3 people in the class, so no hiding or slacking off was allowed. I managed to make it through without being sick, or needing to go outside for fresh air – which apparently means I did well. And it was certainly felt the next day – abs, thighs, shoulders all were aching. So my plan for at least the next 12 weeks is to go every Tuesday. I am also thinking that for the next few weeks I may also go Thursday evenings. The biggest benefit of Boxfit for me is that it is just in the next suburb and on Thursdays it is at the school my children go to – mega convenient. Once Futsal starts next term Thursdays will be impossible as I need to be a spectator, watching my very clever big boy.
Today I did my fitness test – at all levels I am in either Intermediate or Advanced. Given I am only a few seconds outside of the advanced time for my run (and it was very windy at the time) I have decided that I will give Advanced Lean & Fit a go this round. The fitness test consists of a 1km run, a wallsit, pushups, sit up test and a flexibility test.
Measurements have also been taken this week, and there is definite room for improvement there. In fact all I need to do is convince one of the males in this house to take my before photo and i will be ready.
The shopping for next week is also done – I have a fridge full of fruit & veg. I have adjusted the meal plan to exclude all seafood, and have worked out when I will be cooking this week. This evening I made a batch of pumpkin soup and it is all packaged up into serves and sitting ready in the freezer. My plan is to make lasagne tomorrow night, which will mean the most time consuming meal this week will be ready.
Hoping to be reporting some great results next week – can hardly wait to get started now!!!
Chalet Girl
07 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in Movies Tags: chalet girl, Thank you
A week or so ago I won a prize on this blog (Can’t get linky thing working tonight – www.chaletgirl.wordpress.com). A double pass to see Chalet Girl at the movies. And tonight I used my prize.
The movie was as expected – a light fluffy feel good chick flick. The ending was obvious from the start – no unpredictable twists or turns here.
The movie is about Kim, a champion skateboarder, whose mother is killed in a car accident on the way home from a big event. Kim stops boarding, works in a deadend job and looks after her Dad, who is unemployed, and money is tight. Looking to earn more money, Kim takes a job as a Chalet Girl in Austria, takes up snowboarding, falls in love with her bosses son & ends up being a superstar snow boarder.
The movie was humerous, with Bill Nighy in it there was always going to be some laughs. The mountains were spectacular and there was plenty of great skiing & boarding in fresh powder to enjoy. Overall a fun movie to watch with girlfriends.
My biggest question from this movie is: when did Brooke Shields become old enough to play the mother of a man old enough to be getting engaged & married???? Wasn’t it only a few years ago that she filmed Blue Lagoon????
It was fun night out with my friend. So thank you Sheridan, and Paramount for providing the tickets.
Preseason Week 3
04 Sep 2011 Leave a Comment
in 12wbt, Cooking, Exercise, Weight Tags: 12WBT, Exercise, Noos, Weight Loss
What a disaster of a week. I feel like I have really dropped the ball this week – only exercised 3 times, ate badly and snacked too much. Mindful eating just didn’t happen.
However, I am up to date on the preseason tasks!
Preseason task 5 was saying out loud, which I did here.
Preseason task 6 is the kitchen cleanout. When I grocery shopped on Friday I was very mindful about what I purchased. I did buy biscuits, but they are ones I am not that keen on, and purely for the boys to eat. There is no chocolate in my house, no cakes, no yummy chocolate biscuits. When I looked into the cupboards for things to throw out, there really wasn’t much. I do need to spend some time organising the freezer, just to make life easier, but that is it.
Preseason task 7 was released today and is all about organising & diarising. I have been thinking about this throughout preseason. Diarising workouts is easy – I will be working out first thing in the morning. I have been investigating box fit and think I may try this out this week. So if that is OK my workout week should look something like this:
Monday – 6am Outdoor circuit from 12wbt
Tuesday – 6am Boxfit
Wednesday – 5.30am Outdoor circuit from 12wbt (and this is normally a run). Once daylight savings starts I am also planning on doing a second exercise session on Wednesdays at 5.30pm with a friend. This might be running around Lake Burley Griffin or climbing Mt Ainslie or similar.
Thursday – 6am Outdoor workout from 12wbt
Friday – 6am Jazzercise
Saturday – Long run first thing in the morning, and occasional workout with other 12wbters. I have also been thinking about maybe doing a Jazzercise class on Saturdays.
My shopping day is Friday – has been this day for the last couple of years, and I generally pop into the shops for bits & pieces on Tuesdays. This also suits the program as the menu plan is released on Thursdays for the following week.
It also appears I have Noos on board this round – he is very keen to build up fitness and muscle. He is dreaming of a six pack. I have asked him to do the food with me, including trying new foods. And he is even saying he will be up with me tomorrow at 6am to go for a run – will believe it when it happens!!!!
So onward with week 4 of preseason. Determined to have a better week than last week – will get the will power and determination happening and will try to crawl out of bed every morning!!!
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