Art of Healthy, Living and Slimming

 
Goji Berries. 11/23/2009
 
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Lycium bartarum - Goji Berries
Small red berries grow on what is best described as a 'vine-shrub'. Increased volumes and larger berries are produced each year. Plants take up to five years to reach maturity.

Sweet, delicious flavoured berries are delicious, eaten straight from the vine. They may be dried for year-round use.  These berries are great for snacks, used in salads, added to stews or baked goods.

Nutrients in Goji Berries

Goji berries are a very rich source of vitamin C. They are also a superb source of vitamin A, and have vitamins B1, B2, B6, E and are a famous antioxidant.

There have been many wonderful things written about Goji Berries, much of it is true.

Unfortunately, because the fruit of the Gobi Berry is a great healthy product, the fraud merchants use it to make false claims of everything from cancer cure to easy weight loss.  The only truth n these claims is that optimum nutrition benefits both health and metabolism but even here, fresh picked sun ripened fruit off your own bush/vine, will be richer in antioxidants and vitamins that a foreign imported ,highly processed or dried product.

Fresh is best and in many areas of Australia, it will be so easy to grow your own, Goji Berri.

Described as a mix between a cherry and a cranberry, I could not resist buying one today, from Garden Express at 470 Monbulk – Silvan Road, Monbulk, Victoria, 3793.

I saw firsthand the Garden Express staff, carefully packing the mail orders, I saw the healthy plants ready for direct sale or transport and they were all of a consistent quality.

 
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I arrived home with my 140 cm pot bush/vine, Goji berry plant and got to work immediately planting it. Our ground has been freshly soaked with rain and I brought my plant home, dug  the roadside bank, beside the  oat crop stubble paddock and planted my Goji Berry and under a poplar tree where it gets morning and afternoon sun but not the midday  heat.  I will be around to water it through summer and I read that these are drought hardy once established.

Because of some exaggerated claims made by some dodgy overseas marketers, promoting dried Goji berries  as a magic weight loss elixir or cancer treatment, over the internet, I am happy to put a link here to the genuine product available from a company I have always felt confident that I can buy healthy plants from.  Garden Express is a company well known as experts in the delivery of live plants ordered over the internet and by mail order.

Note:- I was not paid a fee for this endorsement.

I have not been paid a fee for making this recommendation of a product, I am doing this because I would love to see this healthy berry become a more commonly grown and eaten plant. Berries are nature’s most superb dessert.

 
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I used to believe the myth,:-‘obesity is in your genes’, and I could do nothing about it. 

For sure, the tendency to overeat, rich food in excess quantity to what my body was burning and to be a workaholic in sedentary creative activity was what was in my genes, and that lifestyle caused the syndrome x which leads to morbid obesity followed by more serious lifestyle illness if the cycle is not broken.

We do inherit behaviour and body types but what we choose to do about them IS in our own hands.

I did not always believe I was master of my own weight.

I once believed that I ‘tried’, to lose weight and short of extreme measures, I could not.  I did stick to Weight Watchers, points, twice.  I lost about 8% of my weight doing WW, but I then stalled at or around 102 kilo and I stuck there for months, still sticking to those points, 18 full months on my second attempt, enough to convince me (at the time) that it was impossible and that nothing short of starving myself could help me lose weight. That is how low and discouraged I once felt about my ability to succeed at excess weight reduction.

Concerned about my health risk because at that same time Reg was retired, and mine was the only income, I applied for life insurance and had my application ‘loaded’ due to my being considered high risk, due to my morbid obesity L and family history of early death from lifestyle diseases.  Seeing my own daughter at half my age at risk of developing the same lifestyle illnesses my family had, shocked me terribly. I longed to be able to lose my weight, to show her, it was possible.

In the end, it was her succeeding in reducing weight, by giving up her sedentary lifestyle, joining a gym, becoming interested in participating in a competitive sport and healthy portion controlled eating, that allowed her to achieve a healthy weight. She showed me that it was my lifestyle, not my genes, that caused me to be obese and it would be lifestyle not dieting that would be my way back to good health and weight management.

I’m not going to go on line and offer to sell my secret to losing weight without dieting for money.

I do not plan to sell the book, on how I lost weight without dieting.

Do not think the message is any less valuable because you do not have to pay for it.

Change your thinking before you can change your body.

If your current lifestyle is not supporting the person you now want to be, what do you need to change, in order to be the person you want to be?  No one can sell you a product to make you slim. There is no diet that will give you weight mastery. It is ourselves, our thinking, our lifestyle. 

Forget the diet, forget extremes, it is about a liveable, manageable, loving yourself, consistency.

Does your lifestyle support the healthy happy slim person you now want to be?

 
 
 
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Reminiscing  about a summers evening  in 1950 when my mother would hang an old  thin sheet outside an open combined workroom and kitchen window and position the garden hose to lightly sprinkle water on to the sheet so it would remain damp and cool the air entering the window.  My sister and I thought our mother the most intelligent being on earth as we watched her create this effective 1950’s style, evaporative air cooler. 

A year ago tomorrow, Reg and I purchased our summer retreat here in Northern Victoria. We set to work immediately to create the garden, with emphasis on cooling summer shade and winter sunlight as the functional purpose in the garden design

It was a very hot spring day today, unusually hot for spring, here in Northern Victoria, which for my international readers has a climate that can best be described as Mediterranean. We had 40-degree heat today, even the small birds, and the willy wagtails, flocked to our shady oasis garden, and sang their pleasure to us at the dense tree shade and birdbath haven we have created.  I did not even turn on our split system, air conditioner, as we were comfortable using the old fashioned cooling methods I learned as a child. I open and close doors, windows and drapes, according to the temperature and breeze outside.  I use electric fans and a portable evaporative air cooler fan, in the area of the house where we spend most of the day, during the heat waves.

During the hottest part of the day, I sometimes go to gym, it is very cool there and I exercise under the giant fans or I might do walking exercise in an air-conditioned shopping mall. The bathtub of cool water under a shade canopy in the courtyard garden is a great way to cool off and water the thirsty garden with every drop of that water after it has served my own personal use

The split system air conditioner is there for Reg and I to use, if we feel the need for it. Somehow, an energy guzzling, air conditioner is something Reg and I are both inclined to turn to as last resort; we are alike in being happy with our low energy simple system of cooling. 

Tonight I am sitting here quietly, late at night, enjoying the memories I have conjured up of what now seems a very peaceful and romantic family life moment from my childhood.  In my mind, my sister and I are sitting near our mum who is dressed in loose fitting, floaty, floral,  house dress, sitting at the industrial Singer sewing machine, sewing, piece work,  ‘for the rag trade’,  her second job after she had worked all day sewing in the hot sweaty factory. She would sew, every night, in summer, in front of the open window and her home made, evaporative cooler.  

My sister now lives in Northern California and right now she is thinking about furnace filters while I am thinking, ‘I must check and clean the air conditioner and cooler filter' and lol, J, my mum would just have hosed down the sheet.  
I feel an inner peace tonight, in remembering these quiet times, when my sister and I were proud of our mum and what she did do for us, like on that hot summers night at the peak of a heat wave in 1950,, when mum ingeniously it seemed to me and my sister, kept us cool, in front of her brilliant evaporative air cooler.
 
 
 
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Sofa rest is 'for the dogs', lol :-), I am ready to get active again :-).
Status update J
I am being true to my recovery plan, following injuring my leg last Saturday in that freakish accident involving a dog attack.   I have kept  to the sofa with my leg up most of the day, and bed at night, but I have kept up  with what exercises I could, performing as many crunches as I can from my recumbent position, followed by toe taps and  I am using my hand weights alternate days for an upper body work out..

I have kept my mind active working on developing my web sites and blogs, using two laptops, alternately as they have both been around the country with me a few times and they were overheating in today’s 40-degree heat here in Northern Victoria.

I have been surprised at how hungry I have been, given how little exercise I have had while resting this week,  I would not think that crunches and brain power don’t burn as much energy as I seem to want to eat.  I am eating according to my appetite though and am discovering how long periods on the sofa do make you think about food, far more than an active lifestyle does. 

So J, enough is enough,  My leg is feeling heaps better, I am heading out into the garden late tonight to water the vegetables, I might  even do a few squats while I stand there holding the hose, my body is craving exercise. Then if my leg handles that well, Reg and I are going to have a day out walking together tomorrow. We plan to go to the  Bendigo RV & Camping Leisurefest  J   Looking forward to it.  Looking forward to getting off this sofa, I am missing my active afternoons.

 
 
 
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Well my last post, rest and recovery, sure was not an exciting one. lol, it didn't excite me either,  I hope this will be a more chearful topic. :-)

FREE for the first 20 people to post a comment on this blog post, this week, ONE Motivational Fridge Magnet, as shown above.

“There is a misdirected obsession with weight and weight loss,

the focus is all wrong.

It's fitness that is the key.”

Steven Blair quote.


I have twenty of these fridge magnets to give away this week, one to each of up to 20 posters on this blog.

The image is from a watercolour of Anna Bay in NSW, that I painted a few decades ago, it's so simple yet I always loved it more than more complex works. I love the positive motivational message by Steven Blair, I used with the work, it inspires me and I love to share it with others
 so the first comment posters (up to a max of 20 ),  on this post, will all recieve one for free, I have 20 to give away. On Sunday I will contact my posters who have won.  This would also make a great stocking filler or gift to send with a card.

Along the thought lines of Steven Bliar's quote, I just discovered some wonderful,  Bountiful Women by  Bonnie Bernell
 Bonnie Bernell Web Site Highly recomended rading.

 
 
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I have been on bed rest for a few days, not ideal for fitness training or slimming.

A dog injured me last Saturday.  The dog did not actually touch me, it was the comedy of events that occurred, a real slapstick comedy situation if it had been filmed it might have won a funniest home video competition. I told the story of the dog attack in my doggies blog  

When this happened I was horrified, I was so pleased with how my gym program is going and I know how important to my weight management an active lifestyle is, I honestly did not know how I could come into my fitness blog and say, I was 'doing the sofa, feet up all day, activities'. I was disappointed and annoyed that this had happened.  I count my blessings, as it could have been a lot worse.

I did work out that I can do crunches and toe taps and my upper body, weight work out, from the couch, so there is no reason why I cannot have a good upper body work out.

I also was conscious that I must not comfort eat.  I have kept my mind very busy with developing some new web sites that I can use in the future. I have wanted to write some of the short stories from my travels, so I created my   Campfire-yarns site and will begin writing short stories in there during this recovery period. 

I began several other blogs, about subjects that interest me aside from this one about fitness and slimming. I have one, “words and works”,  where I record beautiful and inspiring quotes I find, some of which I will use on the fridge magnets I create from images of my artwork. I am still working in this blog/website, adding individual shopping carts to all the magnets and beginning to let people know it is ready for viewing even if not fully developed and I am doing some training in how to write a better blog.  So I am keeping my brain fit, lol, J, trying to relax and enjoy the enforced rest and stay focused on not overeating.  I am surprised at how hungry I have been doing sofa duties.  real stomach hunger before my meals, not just emotional hunger.  My gym instructor was talking to me about how the brain burns a lot of calories, lol, so, see, J, I am exercising.

This week is a good test for me. It is one thing to manage my weight while I am able to be active.  This week gives me a chance to learn how to eat for a sedentary person and work out what exercises can be done from a seated, legs up or laying down position.  I know I can keep up my upper body and core muscle exercises. 

I have had two full day and evenings of resting my legs, my good leg is fine now, it’s just the one with an old injury I still need time to heal. All will be goodJ, and I will let you know how things go.

 

 
 
 
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My fitness progress.

Garth, my gym trainer, has given me an entirely new gym program.  He say’s I will be working my core muscles, and working to reduce my 'tuck shop arms' lol, :-).

Lots of work in front of the mirrors to remind me to keep my back straight while I exercise.

No reduction in my weight or change showing in my body composition since my last assessment but my waist is 1" smaller so some improvement there and I am stronger.

My next fitness assessment will be in four weeks time.

Being your own boss.

I have a lot of sedentary work to do now, I need to buckle down and make the time to complete the shopping carts in my on line stores. It is not hard work but it is time consuming and it makes me want to pick on food.  Last night I had a constant urge to get up and make a supper to eat, I was not hungry, so I did not; I knew it was part of old, sedentary activity habits trying to return.  I told myself I would make a couple of cups of tea, if the feeling didn’t go away, and I would make a diet jelly for the following night if it was too hard to work late and not eat, or some vegetable soup if I actually did get hungry late at night.  I got ‘stuck into the work’, completed half of it, and went to bed, without having snacked. I was pleased about that. J

The sedentary activity has some advantages, we are experiencing heat wave conditions here in Northern Victoria and I gave my left leg a knock the other day.  Knocking a leg is not normally such a bad thing but my left leg had a crush injury about a decade ago and I have to be careful with it. It feels hot, so the sedentary shopping cart work will not be helping me lose any excess weight this week but I am doing it with both feet up, in front of the fan and using the time to rest the leg and allow it to recover and make the best of the heat.  The view into our garden as usual is lovely, day lilies and my first lilies are in flower along with the last of the bearded iris and my beautiful roses.

So here I am, feet up in front of my view, express coffee on hand. If I am doing ‘office work’, at least I’m my own boss.  J  I get to knock off early afternoon and head down to the Goulburn River for a warm up session before entering the gym. I work out with views over the Shepparton parkland then home to enjoy my beautiful garden, maybe bath in the courtyard garden and relax with a book before dinner and then a return to my sedentary shopping cart set up work tonight.

It is good being your own boss, you get to choose when you will do things, you do need to watch that there isn’t too much sedentary work in the balance, and even writing this, I can see, I’m slipping into old bad habits and allowing the sedentary jobs to dominate again.

Observations and Corrections tool.

I observe that my sedentary work, the setting up of the shopping carts, is blowing out so I am going to plan set hours to do this work, log in and strict log off times. When I come home from gym today, I am going to keep on active exercise, while I am still in a good fat burning zone. I can create another vegetable bed, plant another crop of beans, something I try to do  every fortnight to maintain a continual harvest through summer and autumn and I will weed, prune and tidy up the garden and do some well overdue housework.  A quick shower instead of the leisurely bath will do for today, it will be there as my reward on a more active day. Then, after I have had a very active afternoon and early evening, and not just one active hour at gym, I will get back to my shopping carts for a few hours with a deadline to log off at midnight.   Does that sound better? Lol J

As for the leg, it is sitting dangling the leg that is bad for it, not walking or having it up, activity is good for circulation = good for old injuries.

Yes its great being your own boss, just watch carefully that you do not become a self-abusing boss, it is so easy to do. If any one thing more than another, contributed to my past obesity, it was self abusive, self neglecting, 'workaholism' . I will recognise the signs early and not go there again.
(self talk) 'Love yourself, Kathy'.

  
 
 
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Sometimes I think I must be more a Tom boy than feminine in my thinking, speak to me of jewellery and I want to don, old jeans, and boots, grab a pick rather than head to a jewellery store. J, Well at least this desire of mine is fuelling my current, be as fit as I can be and release my excess body weight, as it’s a lot easier to enjoy life in the bush when you’re not carrying unnecessary weight on your body, along with the pick and gold detector.

I thought these earrings were beautiful.  They remind me of the very first pair of pierced earring I had, and loved. I went with my sister to a jewellery store in San Francisco, and I had my ears pierced with a pair of beautiful gold rose earrings with a pearl centre. They were always my favourites.  They were lost many years ago, and while browsing the web, I found this similar pair (see picture), at  Couture Jewelry.

When Reg and I travel, we love noddling for opal, near Coober Pedy, in outback South Australia. Reg has found me a few pretty opals and gemstones. I like to read about gem stones, learn about the quality cut and settings, whether you buy your jewellery ready made or  love the DIY life style of heading out bush with a gold detector, a pan, pick and a fossicking licence, it is good to have some idea of what represents a quality stone.

Our favourite place to search for Gemstones is at Gemtree, North East of Alice Springs in Central Australia and my daughter Carla took her family to Sapphire, in Outback Central Queensland.

Ideal locations to try gold detecting is in the golden triangle in Central Victoria and the Goldfields of Western Australia, a great time to fossick is after heavy rain when nuggets are occasionally exposed and deposited close to the surface.


 
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At some stage, I suspect most of us have wanted to achieve fast weight loss, I certainly have. The reality is that we gain weight slowly and that is how we usually take it off, but stick to a good action plan and it does come off. We can improve our chances of releasing excess weight, by otaining expert advice.

What worked for me in my early months of excess weight release, is not what is working for me, now. We are all different and need to find a way to manage our weight that will work for ourselves. For me, now, I am taking my cues from my fitness trainers at the Aquamoves Gym I am attending. I have my next fitness assesment in two days time.
I am spending so much time at the gym at the moment I treated myself to a new, wet or dry, gym and swim, outfit. I can work out, shower then swim, without changing outfits. This way I am more likely to follow up my gym work out with some laps of the pool. My current mantra, is "The only place where success comes before work, is in the dictionary".

Here is some excellent tips for weight loss, from leading sports scientist Dr Rob Newton. Most of it is common sense, but it is a great article, worth reading.
Printed in the November Cleo Magazine. 2009
Check out the easy-to-follow workout tips from leading sports scientist Dr Rob Newton.
Clink link ->Workout secrets your personal trainer won’t tell you
Photo is of me, ready to head out to gym, in front of my rose garden.
I am currently highly committed to a goal of achieving the best fitness I can for my three year anniversary of beginning my fitness training. My special anniversary to mark my three-year, life change plan, is 28th January 2010, less than three months away.
 
 
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Life is a holiday for us, all year round. Reg and I are currently loving living in Victoria, for the Spring into Autumn seasons,  when Northern Victoria has it's most fabulous living climate. We love our rose garden and rural view. The farmland opposite our home currently has the oat crop laying harvested in the field, waiting to be bailed.  There is a lake with water birds, black swans, ibis, ducks, here on our estate and now Reg is recovering from what probably was whooping cough, we will begin regular lake walks together most days. While Reg was ill, it was wonderful that the view was right outside our own window and the ibis and magpies even came to visit us.
I have had heaps of exercise here, at our Summer studio home, converting the far roadside bank into a productive vegetable crop.  Then in the afternoon I duck out to gym for a work out, and come home via the shops with our supplies. Life is very pleasant living here in Northern Victoria.. :-).

Our youngest daughter and family are just back from a wonderful caravan holiday at Lakes Entrance Victoria, and Leanne our eldest daughter, was browsing the overseas travel pages in the RACV magazine with us, drooling over some of the overseas destinations for holidays.

Leanne regularly takes her two children Hannah and Christopher to theme parks and she is as big a kid as they are and knows how to have fun with them. They are two lucky grand kiddies with the family and holidays they have J. Leanne is continuing on the family travel traditions. J

 I am sure one day the grandchildren will be having a ball at the fantastic, Orlando theme park vacations, orlando vacations, they are already, regular visitors to the Australian, Gold Coast theme parks for their long holidays.   The photos are of my grand children, Hannah and Christopher, enjoying the theme parks.

Leanne has an onsite holiday home, one that used to be ours, near Lake Eildon in North Eastern Victoria at the foothills of Victoria's snowfields. I have a small on site caravan and annex up there that I want to sell, as we rarely get there, if anyone is interested, I am only asking $8,000. fully furnished for it. . We paid $12,000

Reg is reading Australian travel books again, and we are making a variety of plans for our big 2010, Australian tour, not sure, which direction we will head yet, but travel we will, J, it’s in our blood.

I am off to gym in a few moments, I am making the most of residing near a fantastic gym with a swimming pool and working out with an interest in being as fit a senior as I can be, ready to take on any bushwalk or hill climb that presents itself. Once we are away, there are always lots of hill climbs and beach runs to keep me at my fittest.
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