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Bits and pieces about life as we puddle through day to day....hope you enjoy! ps it's nice to read comment feed back..please share!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Woop,Woop,Wednesday!!!

Breakfast saw me enjoy one poached egg on one piece brugen low gi bread
i then did an interval training workout! Sweat dripping off me....i crunched on a very small apple and drank water big time.
Lunch saw me have grilled salmon and green salad with roman tomatoes sitting at a cafe sipping on a bottle of water overlooking the river with two friends :)
grabbed some fresh fish and veges/salad at the shops before heading home - pooped!
so time for a snack...mmm a small serve of special k with a little trim milk....but then a nanny nap!
tea was steamed flake with a small serve of veges.
no added sugar icecreeam with a sprinkle of milo was a nice sweet treat.
then a water based milo with a dash of trim milk.
hmm.learned today that i gotta balance things better!the how .? but still trying.
water x #1#2#3#4#5#6

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Terrific Tuesday!!

Awoke early and devoured not only my special K with trim milk i munched on some really scrumptious brugen weight loss toast x 2 with homus dip on  it!!!Then i hit the pool (cos i needed to make up yesterdays exercise lacking day) i did my usual 12 laps. However, this time i did lots of kickboard kicking and breaststroke as i asked a friend who swims heaps of the best strokes things to do for legs and tummy areas. After this fired up start to my day, I then went visiting teaching with my much loved companion. It was a very special morning visiting ....followed by my companion and i enjoying the most yummy lunch at sizzlers :)
I had one triangle of cheese bread,
one ladel full of tomato,basil and capsicum soup that was simply heavenly.
then the traditional plate full of salad.  (i only had crab as meat) and most salads were kinda mediteranianish...one had some penne and one some cous cous. But i did stop at the one plate. only drank water.
afternoon tea i ate 2 whole sticks of celery with some more of that yummy hommus.
then went for my two lap walk :) for 20 mins. followed by a game of ten pin bowling for Family Home Evening Outing :)
Dinner tonight was a steam/fried chicken breast and mixed veges
milo made on water with a dash of trim milk.
Water consumption today cups #1#2#3#4#5#6
i ate a few 'naughty' things today - eg the piece of cheese bread etc however, i am happy cos i really increased my exercise for the day ...so wins and loses........but feeling blessed and more comfy in my own 'shell' :) xoxo

Monday Muchings!

very quicky: cos i a day late to blog and i gotta go swimming and visit teaching :)
special k n trim milk for breakfast...then....had to get all dressed up and look like a professional 'mum' at a teaching pd day! I have been out of the game for just over 6 months due to hooping cough, pre cancer surgeries and phnemonia..so i was quiety 'terrified' and if it weren't for a friend that i could text prior - i probably would have sat in the car too scared to go in. 4 schools were gathering. I went and I learned and I excelled socially (which is very un-me) i received about 12 compliments about how great I was looking :) so considering I still have 46kg further to lose....i was in a happy place...amidst a  very young and fit crowd who are not forthcoming usually with the positive and uplifting messages to suppy/contract teachers. I felt BLESSED for my weeks efforts even if sunday was a bit wobbly!
morning tea: while the teachers downed coffee like it was scotch...I drank water....but i did partake of a piece of healthier looking slice - but i am sure it would not be low gi!but it was a yummy!
lunch- catering was provided with very limited ability to pre order as a suppy tchr - i ripped down the road to the bakery - found a yummy prawn and pasta wrap - again not the most 100%low  gi but i did manage to sit with two male tchrs I have worked with as they ate the most feral looking bacon,egg and steak burgers washed down with their 'mother & coke drinks' i was really repulsed at the site to be truthful. but it was good to catch up with these two dads and here about how their lovely families are growing with new babes etc.
i ate a peach for afternoon tea
and consumed flake fish/vege stir fry with watermellon for dessert.
one cup of milo made on water with trim milk.
i had much foot pain (fluid) from what i think was all the 'sitting' and despite every good intention i physically could not weight bear last night so going to town pool to do yesterdays exercises this morning! and hopefully that will ease some of the fluid.
Water #1#2#3#4#5 drank (one short)but hey no decaf for a week!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Sundayitis!!!!!!!!

Wins and loses today....... i ate :
special K for breakfast along with its portionary milk,
:S I did NO exercise today - massive fail!!!!!!!!!!!!
I enjoyed a talk at Church by a fella called David that I had not met before........his wife appealled for someone to play golf with her on Friday.....and I sat like a mute- why did I not take down her number and say yes!!but can you teach me how to play? :( another exercise opportunity missed -fail!!!
Once home from Church i ate:
Medium GI taco shells filled with low gi salad and meat that was eaten 'sparingly' (about 2 tablespoons in each) However, my epic fail here was that I did not stop at just one or two...i feasted on four :( FAIL in the portion department........I think next time i will need to take some low gi snack to church to 'keep me going' so i don't come home and just snort my way through food like a PIG! I also had drunk no water until 2pm -not good! although i did get trough my 6 cups for the day of H2O...I have been up all night to the loo FAIL!
Dinner was some stir fry low gi veges with side dish of lantina low gi pasta on the side, with watermellon and low gi yogurt for dessert.
but then...........NO EXERCISE - FAIL!!!!
So apart from spiritual exercise today....I really did not reach my goal in more ways than one..need to lift my game tomorrow.What exercise do you do on a sunday ??please comment!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Sluggish Saturday

My day began at 2.40am due to barking dogs :( not a good thing when I had gone to bed around midnight! So Sluggish to get going Saturday came at me like an unwelcome inconvenience. The boys were eagre to get to their silver smithing class so that meant down the special K super fast...with trim milk (about a cup and a half ).
I then called on a friend to see if she wanted to join me at the Quilting Shops grand relocation opening. Wow did I score some bargain patterns :) then it was a hurried trip back to collect the boys. Before going home and devouring a can of baked beans and a low gi norganic flat bread, and an apple for lunch. But then, the sleep deprivation hit me...and i had to have a nanny nap. waking very unenthused to do excercise or anything much,,,, i decided to go for a spa and very minimal lap swim at a friends pool. But walla! By the time I came home i felt totally fired up and completed an aerobic interval training session following a dvd. By the end of it I was really glad to do some serious cool down exercises ! It obviously works!
Evening dinner was  a piece of fresh flake steamed with dill, onion, tomato and lemon juice that tasted heavenly, with side of mixed veges and corn cob.
water #1#2#3#4#5#6 all drank...dogs asleep, kids asleep..my turn ...goodnight!
ps i had a tiny bit of philly lite (80% fat free) on the corn!!!gotta be honest..even if it were a bit naughty.oops and watermellon for desert.
ok bed time...hope you are enjoying my blog..some comments would be heartening as have all the emails of support been :) catch ya

Friday, March 25, 2011

My Conversion Story & Testimony

As you will discover by my blog i am not some 'articulatedly (if that's a word)gifted member' such as yourself. But still learning and pressing forward in faith.


I suppose this is a good challenge to me to reflect back on not only the past few years when i came into contact with Church members for the first time but to look further back knowing that Heavenly parents sent me here with a divine mission in mind. I was born into a Christian home with rich traditions and values, I am one of 5 children to a family. Family was essential to me right back then as was the rich knowledge that God's love was 'unconditional'. As i grew, i discovered very painfully that love like that was often not my experience in day to day life. But with every hurt, abuse and violation experienced i continued to know that Heavenly Father's love was -unconditional.

It my early 20's I entered formal religious life with a congregation based on being like Mary and serving God with a wholehearted "Yes".The congregation I was most closely drawn to was one that was imaged on the "Family Tree", in that it had Priests,Sisters,Brothers,Missionaries and the Laity all working, living,serving and growing in the charism of Mary (Jesus Mother). However, despite my deep love for the sisters and this congregation I knew deep down that I could serve the Lord better without taking vows. So press forward i did, leaving behind a depth of gratitude, love and respect for my 'religious life' companions thus far.

It seemed like seconds after that transition that my darling dad began a fight with Leaukemia! I was totally gutted. My dad had been a sheep farmer for most of his life and a wonderful example to me of the 'good shepherd' ... a friend, a guide and a spiritual example to me throughout my life. I then met my now husband who I married feeling a sense of stability and love that I had long thought impossible from anyone other than God himself! We began our family with two beautiful sons. I don't think i had fully appreciated what a 'miracle' was until giving birth.God's hand was definitely involved in bringing these babes into my arms - how else can you fit something the size of a watermelon through a key ring!!!!!! My beautiful dad died three weeks before my second son was born. A bitter sweet moment for me...but i knew then like now that my dad would be with me still - just from Heaven! We then had a miscarriage whom we call (Joy) followed by a beautiful little boy whom we named (Thomas) who was stillborn whilst he saved my life...i could not save his. Grief and loss seemed to surround me...questions about the eternities were not forth coming from my Church I had always known and grew up with.......yet i had a reassurance like never before that my babes and my dad were indeed in Heaven and that Mother Mary would help dad with those babes until it was my time to join them!


I began to quilt...trying to make something beautiful from scattered pieces of fabric seemed like therapy that reflected my struggle of life and my new found desire to "Know my purpose for being here". In a Church that could not acknowledge my sweet Thomas(because he was 6 hours too young in womb, to be given a full birth certificate!) I was sent home to bury him myself on Mother's Day with my husband. A Church who believed a life is a life from the moment of conception, I was now faced with a search for 'truth' like never before...which Church is true???whilst trying to continue raising two boys and loving two babes in heaven and a husband as Christian. We visited and were fellowshiped by other Churches during this time of 'ecommunical' searching. I then had phnemonia and passed it on to my husband and nearly killed him with it....

It was time to prioritize our health like never before...we began a home delivery run of 'organic' fruit vegetables and groceries......and strangely enough i started to feel like i was coming alive again. One of our customers was Sister and Brother Stevenson and their family of 10 (mostly male) clan. Sister Stevenson and her ideas of provident living matched mine, she too knew that my 'angel' children were in HIS fold in heaven ...we became great friends. Brother Stevenson was a fishermen with stories of faith through trials that would capture all of my families attention and appreciation for 'truth'. One day, that I am moved to tears at fondly remembering...Sister and Brother Stevenson sat me down (as they often had at the end of a busy delivery run), however, this time was different! This time they acknowledged that I had come from a Church background and that they respected me in my search for truth. They told me how much they would like me to read a book and ask the Spirit to testify if it was true...but above all not let the book come between our friendship. (i think i failed 'em on that last one- cos i think it kind of built a bridge between us but i guess that wasn't what they feared). I folded the book in my arms and assured them i would read it. Why wouldn't I ...this family had some of the most amazing teens I had ever met - i wanted my boys to be like that!


Well please don't ask me what my family ate that week... I just thank heavens that I did come home with not only the Book of Morman but also with several boxes of organic produce that kept the family all nourished as I chewed my way through the book...I read it cover to cover...not stopping ...night and day...with the exception throughout - i paused to ask what Brother Stevenson had said "ask the Spirit to testify of the 'truth'"...................Walla! I was balling, reading, balling,reading (in australia balling is when we cry enough to break the even the worst drought) ....it was true...it matched everything i knew from life's experience to that point...even the unexplainable events......Thomas and Joy did have a heavenly purpose....to get me to search for "truth". We had wonderful missionaries, who had times taught us much more than the Plan of Salvation! David my husband was baptized two years ago on Joy's birthday(this past week) and in turn baptized the boys on their birthdays and me on Thomas' birthday.


It didn't happen over night...we took 18 months to begin to learn from a 6 week cycle of missionary talks...but I wasn't going anywhere - I KNEW like i have a nose on the end of my face that this book is true and that unlike Pinocchio...my heavenly babes "were REAL" children and they like the Stevenson Family and so many others were great missionaries that helped get us this far...as did our "FAITH". I will be 'eternally' grateful for the courage and Faith it took for the Stevenson's to share this little book with such a HUGE impact on our family!



In December of last year we went on our first ever international trip...to UTAH........we were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple after taking our endowments. It was the most beautiful day with my family all sealed and aknowledged as a "Family Forever". Our life leading up to and even after the temple has not been smooth sailing.Indeed there have been times when if it were not for 'taking the Saviours hand' I like Peter would surely have drowned. However, faith moves me forward through those trials when I place trust in HIM and 'not look back' i feel HIS reassuring Love and Companionship again.


To catch a glimpse twice of our beloved prophet along with Elder Ukdorf and Elder Eyring was like seeing the snow and how beautiful things are clean...beautiful people are of God!


I testify that we do have a living prophet and of the prophets since Joseph Smith that have so truthfully restored the Gospel. I believe that when we too share this Gospel in our lives and how we live in Faith knowing and learning of "truth" that My Redeemer Lives! I testify that the blessings of the atonement are real and that when we take the Saviour's hand we can have the Holy Spirit's peace and our Heavenly Father's love with us daily. My name is Tanya Boylan and I am a Latter-Day Saint who writes this testimony and story of my conversion in the name of Jesus Christ.

Fantabulous Friday!!

i awoke with an unusual weariness today...and reflected that even my 'insomnia' (inability to sleep) has been greatly improving in it's decline. i kinda was surprised myself...so i guess like fuel and oil to a car diet and exercise do effect the efficiency of how we function (or not).
My trusty bowl of Special K in hand with some fantabulous trim milk followed by a quiet day reading. My thoughts today have been a bit mixed with a good friend having yet again another miscarriage :( Life is indeed a fragile gift that we must value daily!
Ok, now for lunch i had the other 50grams of salmon with a very green salad with the exception of a mushroom and some beautiful cherry tomatoes. i also had a low gi 'norganic' wrap with skinny hommus on it.
For afternoon tea i have managed to have a juicy Red Apple.
The boys are dead set keen workers today because i have said we will go to the town pool again today. I need to do some arthritis /stretching too before and after my swim today i think. Having fun...and beginning to feel more interested in people and the things around me too. So that has to be good. I have lost 4 kg in the past 4 days and I really ok with the fact that many will argue 'but that is just fluid'- yep - it is...4kg less of it that i have to walk around or swim carrying :)very happy....(that is the weight of more than 9 cans of baked beans)So feeling FANTABULOUS!!
Water #1#2#3#4#5#6 all done!

Off to the pool!
several hours later........
12 laps and the strenching achieved 25 mins.(50 m. pool) followed by a muscle relaxing spa at a good friends house. I truelly think i could hear my muscles screaming "THANK YOU" to her even though she wasn't home!haha
Dinner became a quick omelette full of  (2 eggs/ 1/3 cup trim milk, hand full spinach, mushrooms, capsicum, cherry tomatoes and canola spray was used for the pan ) YUMMY! Watermellon and low fat low gi yogurt was the order of the day for my dessert.

A good day topped of with the most magnicent sunset on the way home from the pool (driving west) a sky of pink, orange, and blue...just beautiful!How blessed we are :)

########I have changed some settings so that comments can be left easier by friends! Tired tonight :)

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Thursday otherwise known as OUCH day!!!

After waking pleasantly early i actually 'felt' like breakfast  (major change- cos i usually HATE breakfast) so much so i bet both boys out of bed and to the  special K cupboard and the cup of trim milk on it. But despite my renewed enthusiasm for the day ...i also have discovered today that i have muscles in arms, legs etc that I had forgotten ever even having.So to look at it positively - the exercise is working. 10 king prawns and a mixed salad with a piece of Brugen weight management bread ...n there was lunch done . oops forgot to mention a deliciously juicy pear for morning tea. Then to make us 'feel' like exercise i used up free vouchers for a game of ten pin bowling :) and i won!!!Immediately followed by our two laps of walking the lake again like tuesday. however, the boys used their ripsticks which make for a faster pace for me to keep up...i shaved 1 minute and a half off tuesdays effort :)Home to a cool shower and rest afterwards. Followed by watermellon and 3/4 of a cup lof gi yogurt. Dinner time involved some Chargrilled eggplant,ricotta & Basil low gi 'latina' pasta and 1 cup stir fry veges.
WATER #1#2#3#4#5#6 #7 all have been enjoyed today!
Pressing forward...think hydrotherapy day tomoz

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

2010: MAY YOU HAVE.... enough faith, hope, peace and light.

Tuesday..day two!

I have reflected much this morning about how all this effects my family...and our being a 'forever' family...I need to remain on this goal to strengthen me as an individual so that i can be a strength to them as a mother and a wife.
I was moved to near tears when in an ajoining room today i heard my oldest son correcting his younger brother by challenging him to 'think' (CTR but without saying it) ...you see little mate as he is often known was about to copy his father's long embeded habit of pouring honey all over his other wise healthy weet-bix! I heard "Do you remember how nuts you went at mum yesterday after doing that...do you really think that it's a good idea to do it again?" I was so heartened by this suggestion to 'reflect'/'ponder...indeed it was a fleeting moment when i felt LOVED by a child who rarely expresses 'with ease' his affection.
He made me wonder not about my hubby's habits but that of my own that i am teaching my children - good and bad. I think that my commitment to losing this weight is a way of teaching myself that 'i can do hard things' and that not only am i worth it- but so are they :)

Today i have had:
special K with low fat milk (about a cup each)
a medium gi whole peach that just tasted heavenly.
water #1,#2,#3 &#4 already so that i don't spend half the night in the loo :)
lunch-
10 king prawns...yummo, with one piece of low gi weight loss brugen bread spread with cottage cheese,with a large (2 cup salad) cosisting of mushrooms,spinach,lettuce,1tbsp avocado,3 cherry tomatoes,cucumber. All generously covered in half a lemon squeezed (mmm yum my mouth waters just at the memory of it all :)

I am going to swim laps for 20 mins/hydrotherapy exercises today to ease the inflammation of arthritis.
vegan stir fry for dinner (about 2 cups), with some apple and watermelon for dessert.
because i am writing this paragraph ahead of time - i will not highlight things/food until achieved.

off to get ready for my swim :)
back again...12 laps in 20 mins of town pool (which i think is 50 metres)water #5 #6 drank ad that not even counting the pool water i choked on!

TOFW: He Sees the Beauty Beneath

This has inspired me today...hope it does you also...indeed the beauty HE created within people is beautiful,despite the surroundings of them!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Time for Change

It has been ages since i last blogged...and that in itself tells me much! Life has been it's usual busy full of blessings and trials to help me learn what it is i am needing to learn. However, I am working on a PLAN... I would like to lose weight and lots of it...i figure i am carrying an extra 50kg and it is time to get rid of them!So in an effort to 'face  up to the facts' i have decided to blog this journey because i figure it won't happen over night but it will be a slow and steady goal achieved by grit and determination.

The need to adjust my diet to a low GI is a choice for now but if i don't lose weight i figure that it will be a necessity with time to fight diabetes from obesity. For too long, i have eaten to mask and hide some very ugly and painful scars from life's educational rollercoaster. However, unlike on a rollercoaster at times i could not scream or cry....at times i could just hang on and chew my way through emotions until i can no longer recognize myself.

Rule no. 1 to learn and remember: I am not my body!!!
Rule no. 2 to be applied: when i fall down i need to get up and finish the race...failure is to not try!!
Rule no. 3 exercise is not the enemy it needs to be a habit!
Rule no. 4 Be true to myself and those around me!

ok here goes:
today began with the usual 'don't want to face the day kind of feeling' but having worked out my plan last night it was time to begin!line upon line precept upon precept!
Tuesday:
i began with a pear, skipping my usual decaf coffee. within about two hours i needed an apple...note to self buy some cereal (special k) and yogurt.
i enjoyed reading 4 chapters of a book titled  " I hate it when exercise is the answer- a fitness program for the soul" by emily watts . It arrived this morning from deseret books (oh what timing)!!
With the usual busy school day routine at home i managed to squeeze in some laundry to be folded and some to be washed- gotta love sheet day! It didn't take long for the dilemma of lunch to be upon me...hmm need to plan ahead better for tomorrow........
but i ate  53grams (half a small can)of pink salmon (major coo for me cos i really can't eat tinned fish without a major intolerance rearing it's head.) spinach, lettuce,capsicum, cucumber,avocado and about a tablespoon of cheese.(about a cup of rabbit food in total)
i replaced my usual decaf with a cup of water #1, realising that my sipping was going to make drinking 6 cups by the end of the day a to be improved on area!
i downloaded some inspiring talks onto my phone to 'enthuse me' to go for a walk later today...sipping cup of water #2. I have come to relise that if i try to include the saviour in this plan i might have a hope of 'growing- whilst slimming down'
Some supportive texts from a friend and an email from a friend in the states has inpired me to 'share this goal journey' in an effort to remain true and at the same time feel the loving support of friends (when the going gets tough)
ok that is enough for now, i am off to listen to my inspirational talk and walk the botanic gardens before picking up some fish for tea at the cold stores. :) love ya
...a few hours later...
i managed to walk around the lake twice in 20 minutes and consumed water #3 at the end of it, whilst feeling quietly pleased with myself. I immediately felt pain in the ankles so i think some swimming tomorrow will be good.The kids had lots of fun keeping up the pace whilst taking in the enjoyment of ducks and lizards  of the gardens...we had many a laugh together.So maybe exercise is a good cure for depression :)
To go to the cold stores straight after made for some magnicent 'cool' down from exercise. Fitted in some quick low gi shopping...then home to tuck into 8 king prawns and two cups of salad mix (capsicum,lettuce,spinach,mushrooms,carrot,cucumber,half a tomato) topped of with fresh lemon juice from half a lemon. two slices of brugen low gi bread with low fat cottage cheese saw me as full as. ( the bread was an after thought cos i realised i had no dairy or grains during the day ).
water #4 is now being swallowed while i scribe and reflect on the day. My idea to listen to the talks whilst walking proved to be really helpful in keeping me going as well as zoning out the distractions of motherhood which allowed me some time for myself whilst enjoying the company of my little men.water#5 now on the go!Better look into how many king prawns would be a 'sparingly' serve..cos they were yummy!
And with the promise of water #6  having been poured ...i will drink it after a refreshing shower! A good day one...proving to me I CAN DO HARD THINGS!!!