Do you like prawns, shitake mushrooms and Chinese cabbage?

If you like prawns,

shitake mushrooms

and Chinese cabbage

(wong nga buk)

then here's a yummy dish.

Ingredients:
300gm green prawns (shelled)
quarter Chinese cabbage (or more)
6-8 Shitake mushrooms thinly sliced
2 slices root ginger 1 mm wide (then thinly sliced again into skinny strips)
oyster sauce

Instructions:
Stir fry in 1 tbs olive oil the shitake mushrooms and root ginger, add prawns, when prawns nearly cooked add 1/2 cup water and cabbage, cover to steam. Stir and add 2 tbs oyster sauce. Add salt to taste. Stir until cooked.

Serve as a veggie dish with rice or on top of noodles.

How to lose weight without even trying

I have to tell you that Brent has lost 3 kg since I started WW. How hilarious...he now weighs 70kg, not that he needed to lose weight - but the love handles are harder to grab onto now, lol.

Here's another first

First in exercise for about 5 years:

I went for a bike ride for the first time in years today.

My hubby Brent bought me a nice comfy-padded-made-for-women-bike-seat and put it on a bike I was given years ago. So we initiated it today. Boy did my bum still hurt! He's into mountain biking - the type that injures people. It was great to go on a family ride around the neighbourhood (the neighbours did notice)...only 2km, but had a slight gradient in places and I had to go down to bottom gear...thigh burn ouch.

A few clothing firsts:

I'm wearing a bra today that I bought years ago that was way too small for me, and now it fits although a little bit snug. And I'm wearing trousers that I haven't worn in years because they were too tight - and now they're not. I went out for dinner on Wednesday and wore an outfit that I liked but never wore because my bum stuck out too much (goodness knows why I even bought it), but now it fits me! I don't need to buy a whole new wardrobe, how good is that? Might go and try other too small things - it's quite motivating!

Going under 112

I went under 112 kg for the first time in years - mind you it was in the morning, after I went to the bathroom, and I was just in my nighty...so not a true reading, but I'll take it all the same!

I'm actually going for a walk by choice

I'm really going to go for a walk today (on purpose, not with my arm twisted behind my back). The kids aren't going to school today because of the teacher's strike so we'll take a picnic and go to Bi-Centennial Park at Homebush. My friend Tanya and I are aiming to take our kids right around the lake near the mangroves...it's quite a distance to walk but it's a lovely day in Sydney!



Probably a bit difficult to read, but we're going to go for a walk from the kid's playground right up the bike track nearly to where it says 'you are here'. The green area on the right side of the map. If you want to see it bigger you can click the map....
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Hours later that same day...

Well we're back now, and it was a lovely walk even though we ended up walking a section on the road (because we went so far)! We walked past the mangroves and around the swampy lake and read the little boards with wildlife info. It took about an hour with several stops to look at the maps.


So here's a rare full length photo of me on the path around the bay without anything or anyone to hide behind.

5 weeks and staying on track

The new Superman rollercoaster at Movieworld...I actually did this and loved it!

Well I think I've achieved a huge breakthrough - to be on holiday and still lose weight. I usually put on weight whenever we go on holiday, but we just got back from the Gold Coast yesterday, and I weighed in today and have lost 1.2kg. So I'm rapt! I even cut up carrot and cucumber sticks to nibble on when we had a picnic at Burleigh Heads, and declined dessert every night opting for my low point desserts which are alright actually.

I don't feel deprived cos of pitos chips, weight watchers cereal bars, dips and and diet desserts. Yes, the shopping budget has definitely gone up but with a grand loss total of 8kg in 5 weeks, it's worth it...and I'm saving money on takeaways, so it all evens out.


Queueing up for the river rapids ride with my sweet girl Sarah...I got thoroughly drenched

The first 4 weeks

So I've been following the weight watchers plan for 4 weeks now - and getting the hang of it. Today I weighed in with Joy before the kids went off to school. And I'd lost 2.1kg this week. So total of 6.8kg so far. Yay!

I've been counting everything that goes into my mouth so I think that helps me stay on track.

Feeling motivated! But boy, I've got another 45 kg to go!

Funny thing is that Brent's feeling a bit hungry now that we've changed our eating habits and has lost 1.5kg too - not that he's overweight but is getting that tummy that guys get in their 30s and 40s. He was super skinny before. Think I haven't been feeding him enough meat. LOL...

Yum Cha disaster avoided

Well, according to the scales (which I'm addicted to and jump onto about 20 times a day), I've lost 6.5kg since 14th april. So 6.5kg in 26 days. Not in the same league as the guys in Biggest Loser, but I might make my goal weight for the end of May at this rate. I want to lose 8 kg by the end of May. So far so good.

We were supposed to go to Yum Cha for a friend's birthday today - I absolutely love yum cha! But Ben has a soccer photo at the same time so I said I'd stay back for the photo and meet everyone later. So I got out of that potential pig out disaster. Mind you, I know I need to be able to go out and be able to make good choices...but I still have another birthday party to go to tonight.
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Several hours later:
Well, ignore the above cos I went to yum cha after all! But did alright as we ordered 2 plates of greens and I tried to fill up mostly on that. I also stuck to the steamed vegetarian or seafood dumplings, but didn't eat as many as I would normally cos of the greens. Drank heaps of Chinese tea and diet coke so did OK with my points! No fried stuff and had 1 mouthful of Sarah's mango pudding. I conquered yum cha!

Chinese noodle soup with chicken and veges

Here's what I made tonight for dinner, except it had a lot more vegetables - I think it came to 3 points for me as I had 50gm noodles...not much really. I filled up heaps on the chicken and vege soup instead (and held off on the amount of chicken)

Ingredients:

Egg noodles/any noodles you like - dry or fresh

Soup:
2 chicken thigh fillets
Onion
2 carrots
1-2 zucchini
1 cup Chinese cabbage - wong nga buk
2 Baby bok choy
3 slices of root ginger
1-2 tbs soy sauce
salt n pepper to taste
2 tbs chicken stock powder
water to cover the veges in the pot

Optional extras to the soup:

2 Chinese dried mushrooms sliced thinly (they need to be rehydrated in hot water first)
Lobster/fish balls or wontons (available from Chinese grocery)


Instructions:

Boil, then simmer together in a pot:
water, stock, sliced chicken fillet, veges sliced on an angle, ginger, soy sauce. Add green veges, lobster/fish balls/or wontons last.

In separate pot cook noodles - don't overcook them as they go mushy. Egg noodles only take 2-3 minutes once water is boiled. Dry egg noodles need some assistance in uncurling once water starts to soften them.

Serving:

Place desired amount of noodles in large Chinese style soup bowl. Add soup making sure you have bits of everything.

For less points increase portion of veges and decrease noodles and meat... Lobster balls were low for pts - 5 balls = 1.5pts. The key ingredient is the root ginger - it really makes it authentic.

My kids liked it and ate it happily - even the fussy one!

Caught out on marinated vegetables

I was taking great pride in the fact that I'd had a good week, staying within my points easily each day. Then kapow!!! I go out to the Macquarie Centre to meet a friend for a coffee and ended up at Maccas.


I did alright there, just got a breaky snack (small soft tortilla with an egg and bacon) - not greasy...and a fruit bag (which had an apple in it). So not a blow out. After breakfast we chatted long enough for lunch to come around. We got a smoked salmon salad which was good...except it also had marinated vegetables too...which caught me out because I forgot what they were marinated in! Olive oil! Arrrrgghhh! (So 6 points later just for the oil)... I'm regretting each mouthful...maybe I should have mopped up the oil with a serviette or something...but I didn't think of that till now, maybe next time...or maybe I won't order marinated vegetables again!


And then it seems I'm hungry or peckish all afternoon...a black forest bar (1.5pts), pitos chips (2.5), carrot sticks and hummus (1.5)...all I've got left is 2.5 points for dinner. Boy does that marinated vegetable on my salad really bug me...But I did walk up to get Ben from school, that's earned me 1 pt back.


It's gonna be soup tonight.

A clean slate

There's nothing like starting with a clean slate. I started a journey to being healthy just less than 4 weeks ago on the 14th April. So far, I've lost just over 5kg and it hasn't been too hard. The first week wwas the most difficult, just trying to get used to the portion sizes and the point counting. Quickly worked out what wasn't worth eating!

It's quite motivating at the moment so the first 10kg will be the easiest (I suspect) and then after that I'll need to keep finding ways to keep the momentum going. By the way, this is my 4th time doing weight watchers which means...

a) it works so therefore I'll do it again

b) it works but it's not a diet, it's got to be a way of life

c) it works but not if I keep eating the same foods and I get bored with food

Onwards and downwards!




Here I am with my husband Brent and kids, Sarah and Ben before I started (I'm the one holding the green bag and trying to hide behind my daughter) ...there are not many whole body shots for a good reason. Actually I'd put on a few kg after this photo was taken in Feb 2008.