Fighting the Festive Flab

(Warning… I have my whingey whiney pants on for this post)

Image from here

The holiday season has come and come and left with it a few extra (and extremely unwanted) kilos that I am clueless to know how to lose. And before anyone starts bagging me for only wanting to shed 4 or 5 kilos, please note I AM FIVE FEET TALL. That means there aint much space for the excess weight to spread to. Flab at this height is very unforgiving – there is basically nowhere for it to hide…. So in my humble opinion surely that means it equates to the average heighted person’s desire to lose 10 -12 kgs?

While I know the theory behind shedding these unwanted kilos – eat a sensible diet, exercise like crazy –putting that into practice is a whole other realm for me.

Here are the factors I am up against:

• Cooking – I am no Masterchef that is for sure. Add in the fact cooking the main meal coincides with Master H’s bath time and the fact I am usually juggling both solo, I don’t seem to have the time to concentrate on cooking anything other than the tried and tested meals we usually eat. Throw in the fact I have a fussy son who sees it as his right to complain about everything I dish up makes me even more weary to branch out. 
• Time – my gym currently does not have a crèche so I squeeze in workouts around daycare days. Any other days I’d like to exercise means I am at the mercy of my son’s mood. Once upon a time I could put him in the pram and walk places but he isnt the least bit interested in being ferried about anymore. Walking with him is fine, but at snail’s pace it aint exactly calorie burning stuff… 
• Exercise – I am to exercise what Kim Kardashian is to wedding vows; an unhappy union with a fast approaching expiry date. That being said I am smart enough to understand the benefits; however that doesn’t make me enjoy it any more. Getting sweaty is not something I relish and as soon as I feel that lactic acid I am all “abandon ship”! Yes, I know “no pain, no gain” but in the heat of the moment I am looking for the nearest exit. I can rack up a good hour in the gym but the maximum cardio I can handle is about 35 minutes. Probably not enough to burn the extra blocks of chocolate I so eagerly consumed over Christmas…
•  Diet - I’ve never really dieted so I don’t know how to deprive myself of my favourite things. And yes, I know this isn’t the key (all is ok in moderation I’m told) but what about if you lack the willpower to last the distance? It doesn’t help when you unconsciously graze like I do for no good reason (comfort and boredom are the main repeat offenders). Not to mention all the good stuff tastes bad and all the bad stuff tastes good. Sigh… 

That being said, I am certainly hoping to try and win with war with the excess weight somehow. While I can’t imagine living happily in a world without chocolate I am trying to limit myself. I wont indulge as readily as I did over the festive season but I will make some other sacrifices.

So long alcohol, it was fun while it lasted... The empty calories are something I can live without over losing chocolate from my world. I’ll aim to steer clear of takeaways (though we don’t indulge in them often in any case) but no, I will not give up my lunch time Diet Coke. I don’t drink coffee, and as my son is so fond of starting the day at 5.30am it’s basically medicinal! (There is a real fear I will morph into an unfit mother without it).

I’ll try to remind myself that food is fuel and nothing more, and to drink water instead of aimlessly snacking. Guess it comes down to how badly I want to return to my normal transmission.

So if you have any weight loss, diet or exercise enjoyment tips for this antithesis of a gym junkie and good food guru please, now is the time to impart them! My stomach will no doubt eventually thank you – and me!

“I didn’t die; I’m just frozen in time” - WoW week 2

Its time for Write on Wednesday (even if yes, it is technically Thursday, twas a bit busy yesterday!...) and the spark this week is the below:

Pay attention to the conversations around you: at the dinner table, in the supermarket, while DVD Returning, wherever. You are looking for one line, one tiny sentence of dialogue. chatter. Write down your line. Use it to inspire your Write on Wednesday post.

My trigger came to me in a dream I had on Tuesday night. It was the line “I didn’t die, I am just frozen in time,” that struck me. Below I have weaved it into a fantasy to fit around this writing trigger (that I hope isnt too long - sorry!).

Image from here

Gleaming white walls greeted her as she stepped gingerly into the lab. It was the stark chill in the air that first took her breath away; that was, until she saw him…

Lying prostrate, in a sealed glass cabinet that stretched the entire left wall of the sterile room, was the man she loved so many years ago.

Choking back a sob, she swept across the tiles as if taking flight, before coming to rest by his side. Tentatively, she raised her hand, hovering it above his enclosure, suddenly unsure what to do next.

“Perhaps you’d like to touch the real thing?” asked the grey haired man with the kindly smile, who appeared at her side. She turned to him, eyes incredulous, asking without speaking, if this could actually be possible?

Ushering her into the next room, she unfurled from her hunched stature, with the heat now seeping back into her bones. And there, basking in the brown hued warmth of his surroundings was her first, and long lost love.

Lounging on a tan recliner, his face lit up with the smile that had waited to be unleashed for a decade. Arms wide, he beckoned her forward.

With a slight, shocked shake of the head she leapt towards him, and lost herself in an oh so familiar embrace.

“How… When…” she stuttered, unable to articulate the right words for such a surreal situation.

“I always was one for the unusual,” he offered with an embarrassed shrug of his shoulders, while inhaling the heady scent of her skin. “They rescued me after the curtains closed”.

He smiled at her then; it was the grin she thought she would never feel on her face again…

“How did I not know until now?”

“My mind’s eye has always followed you, even in the state you just saw me in, in the lab room. But I was told to leave you be. How would you have moved on if you had known?” He kept stroking her arm, as she sat, encircled in his embrace, trying to put the pieces together of this most perplexing puzzle.

“I can’t live a normal life. I only appear out of my sleeping shell for a very small amount of time each day. And there is no possible way for me to survive outside of this room, without any technology." he explained.

“So… are you alive or dead?” she asked meekly, unsure if she even wanted to hear the answer.

“I didn’t die, I am just frozen in time,” he explained gently, stroking her skin. Suddenly, his eyes began to glisten with tears. "The experiment is almost complete and I have to let go... This is their gift back to me, a chance to say a proper, and final, farewell." she went to protest but he silenced her with a kiss. "Don't ever think of me as dead, just frozen in another place and in another time."

Moments later she began to feel him fade from her grasp. And instead of mourning once more for the man she loved so many years before she felt herself fill with gratitude for that one last chance to feel the warmth of his skin and his eyes on hers; an image that she would eternally keep frozen in time.

To Tweet or not to Tweet, that is the Question…

Image from here

I’m all in a twitter over Twitter. Sometimes I just don’t know if the blue bird is really beneficial or just one big time suck.

Perhaps it boils down to the fact I’m still not sure how to use this medium to its best advantage. Or perhaps it is possible to be too shy even in the realm of social media!

I first aired my hesitations about it at the 2011 Aussie Blogger Conference. In front of the crowd I stood and asked the expert panel if there was any sort of online etiquette when it came to Twitter. It just felt so foreign, so fast paced, so brutally open and well, at times, downright rude. Intruding on other people’s conversations felt completely impolite and so for a long time I basically lurked, willing only to interact with those who’d first interacted previously with me (schoolyard revisited, anyone?)

Even now, with a year of practice under my belt, logging into the Twitterverse can be like walking into a room where everyone already knows each other and you are but a lone wallflower, looking for a way in. You spurt out a few short, sharp sentences, and hope to God that someone decides to throw a conversation lifeline your way. Otherwise you are basically left looking like the loony who is holding a not so riveting conversation for one.

Or you feel like one giant eavesdropper, willing to listen in on the conversations whizzing by you, but unwilling to participate. And that feels equally as ill-mannered!

But, I have experienced the blessings of Twitter too – without it I’d not have won the Sealy Sleeping on the Job competition, or got to make a dream come true and meet the divine Deb Webber. Best of all, it can also help you connect when you might just need it most (even if from a veritable stranger!). Sometimes just putting a little plea out there into the big black hole of cyber space can reap rewards. Suddenly you are not the only one who has a feral anti sleeping child, who refuses without hesitation to clean his goddamn teeth... Or the times, when you are home alone, and it’s too late to phone anyone, and you just feel the need for a bit of social interaction. Twitter is an insomniac’s paradise!

The fact it brings the rich and famous into a much more accessible hemisphere is also a plus. I do enjoy being nosy and having such celebrity interaction at my fingertips.  Being retweeted by the good people at Oprah ranks right up there with one of my highlights of 2011 (don’t judge – she is my Everest of celebrity crushes!).

Or it can bring down the big guns who were once upon a time untouchable (yes, Vile Kyle, that means you) and keep businesses accountable for their slips in customer service towards your husband (hi Virgin Mobile!)

What it comes down to is the realisation Twitter is a necessary evil of sorts. If you blog, there is a self-imposed pressure to maintain a presence. To best spread the word, build your brand, engage, interact, you need to use the blue bird. Some Masters of The Twitterverse make it look effortless, but I struggle to sound witty in 140 characters or less. And I do loathe the random rudeness I’ve seen unleashed (not to mention the mundane).  On the flip side, there are some genuinely awesome tweeters whom I love to engage with (hi Jenn!) and closing the gap between we mere mortals and the celebs of the world is a kinda cool thing to see played out.

For now, as long as I blog, I will tweet.  So if you have any tips to make twittering an altogether more manageable pursuit, or your go to guide for online etiquette, feel free to espouse them here! I am all ears and eager to embrace the power of the big blue bird.

Operation "Wipe Your Own Bum" has begun - plus Kleenex Cottonelle giveaway!

I’m about to commit the ultimate mummy blogger sin and stereotype than many have fought to banish from this blogging genre and talk about toilet training. Or to be precise, that after almost 3.5 years, and a solid 6 months of rather successful toilet training it’s about time Master H started to learn the art of wiping his own bum.

What a blessing then that the good people at Kleenex have come to the poo party and offered me the chance to trial their fabulous Cottonelle flushable kids wipes!

Now, my son does not always readily take well to change. So when it was announced that we’d be learning this most essential life skill, I wasn’t met with much enthusiasm on his part. And the home truth that he surely didn’t want his own mum still wiping his bum when he was in his teens was of course lost on him at his 3 and a half years of age…

But upon showing him the cute Kleenex Cottonelle pop up tub (complete with also adorable puppy on it!) and how easy the wipes were for his chubby little fingers to access, we began to make a little progress.

Made from Aloe Vera (and containing no alcohol for that still so sensitive skin of theirs!) the wipes are the perfect size for them to grasp and begin to learn. It helps to foster their independence and are super safe to flush after use.

Then there is also the cost effective factor to consider. Children seem to have no concept of how much toilet paper is appropriate to use (and let’s not forget the whole scrunch or fold debate but I dare not open that can of worms yet!) so you either find them tearing off one piddly square to clean up with – or the other extreme where only half a full roll of loo paper will suffice!

And is it just me or has anyone else found how bloody versatile wipes can be? Forget other cleaning products – these babies do everything from get stains out of my carpet and clothes to disinfecting one of my son's beloved toy that fell down the toilet bowl yesterday (true story and one I am remiss to discuss further for fear of flashbacks…)

Right now we are navigating the road-testing of this new skill by taking it in turns (one wipe from him, one from me) but the gradual exposure seems to be working. Or let’s put it this way – there have been no foot stamping tantrums of refusal to use them so I’ll take that as a green light we are good to keep going!

Kleenex have also kindly offered one lucky reader (in Aust. only sorry!) the chance to teach their toddler the all-important art of bottom wiping. Please leave me a comment below with your best bum-wiping- toilet-training tip for the chance to win two tubs of Kleenex Cottonelle flushable wipes, a super cute plush Kleenex puppy and the all-important refill packs (4 in total!). 


If you would like to spread the word via Twitter, be sure to include my @NappyDaze handle and come back and leave me an extra comment.

Competition closes Saturday 28th Jan, 2012 at 9am and will be drawn via random.org




Please note my all opinions expressed are my own.  I was not paid for this review but did receive a generous supply of wipes to road test. My thanks to the kind people at Kleenex Mums

"Write On Wednesdays" - time to kickstart the creative juices

One of my writing goals for 2012 is to get back to what I love doing most – like losing myself in the written word.

For me my passion for prose has always centred on creative writing. So the fact I scraped through last year performing the bare minimum of a task I use to treasure is about to be rectified (and eventually, I hope, in a big way!).

In order to do this, I’m finally linking up to a “Write On Wednesday’s” group where we receive a prompt and get to try our hand at being creative.

Its the perfect avenue for me to began flexing a forgotten muscle.  And I hope that just like I worked hard to find my blogging voice in 2011, 2012 can be all about rediscovering my imagination.

On that note, I’ll dive on in to Exercise 1 for 2012 with the below picture as its prompt… (Drum roll please….!)

He strolled along the gritty grey sand, shoulders slouched and hands shoved deep into his pockets. With eyes downcast there was no opportunity for him to witness that the hue of the sky now matched the matter beneath his feet. Nor did he notice the hulk of ancient nature looming before him until he became face to base with this woody heirloom of ages gone by.

He had clearly been far too embroiled in the internal slanging match inside his head and the ensuing angst that then permeated his soul.

Yet the fact that he had almost managed to escape seeing such a sizeable chuck of fallen foliage made him pause. Could there be other items and issues, noticeable to the majority of the world, that were also be passing him by without his knowing?

Staring into its intricate web of gnarled and windy roots was like looking into an endless vortex. He had been so fixated on the thoughts that each jostled for his immediate attention that he almost missed a rare opportunity to simply ponder Mother Nature’s power.

With his shoulders now set in a relaxed line and his hand free to swing by his side, the seaside march continued; except this time he was both lighter of heart and pace. Because sometimes a moment spent immersed in wonder of nature has a way of making the seemingly significant suddenly insignificant.

It’s time to play the music; it’s time to light the lights...

I was in my happy place last night; surrounded by some people I love very much.

There was of course, my sweet (patient) lovely husband, holding my hand as I took this trip down memory lane (and no doubt trying to keep my potentially embarrassing hysteria in check!)  You see, I was off to catch up with a gaggle of of some of oldest and dearest childhood companions that I hadn’t spent enough time with in about 12 years.

And I couldn't have been MORE EXCITED!!!

There was Kermie and Fozzie; Scooter and Rowlf, goofy Gonzo and his faithful squeeze Camilla (who was looking a bit hen pecked after all these years), Dr Teeth and his rag-tag band of misfits… And what’s a party without the always vivacious (and on the occasion vicious!) Miss Piggy?

Oh yes, the whole gang was reunited and it felt so good!

To me The Muppets WERE my childhood. So to spend 2 hours last night immersed once more in the contentment and hilarity that combines to create a Muppet Movie extravaganza, might well be the highlight of my year (big call, I know…)

I can’t even pinpoint the moment in time that my furry friend infatuation began. All I know is that it has just always been there… We had all the videos (including the Muppet Babies cartoon!) which I’m sure if we ever tried to play again would have worn out from overuse. Happiness was an hour in the company of Kermit & Co - it shines out as the brightest beacon of childhood joy I can recall.

And even as a grown woman, I still bubble over with unbridled enthusiasm whenever I see them on the screen. Take for instance this recent scenario:

“Quick Mummy, come see; it’s your friend on TV” came the excited shout from the 3 year old. I raced into the room, wondering just who among my buddies he was referring to…

“It’s the frog!” he announced. And sure enough, there he was. My old pal, my Rainbow Connection creating childhood hero, Kermie…

So thanks Jason Segel, for reigniting the Muppet flame. The fact that you never strayed from the premise of not taking yourselves too seriously complimented the Muppet Movies of yesteryear perfectly.

There was the sublime (Emily Blunt’s cameo reprising her Devil Wears Prada character) to the ridiculous (further proof that this is one franchise who likes nothing more than to laugh even at itself - gotta love the concept of “travelling by map”!) and everything in between. The catchy sing-along songs, directed by Bret McKenzie, of Flight of the Conchords fame (and if you are a fan, as I am, you will recognise his heavy influence) inject extra enthusiasm and amusement. But there are also a few lessons too.  That sometimes we forget that by having faith in everyone else in the whole world sometimes means you forget to believe in yourself. But when you, you come to see a whole other side of yourself you previously never knew.

The characters still come to life, still crawl into that familiar vacant spot on your heart where you cherish your childhood memories, and still leave you wanting more as the credits roll.

“Everything is great, we’ll live happily ever after,
And well keep giving the world the greatest gift: laughter”

Life is indeed a "happy song" when you have the Muppets back again in the world to shine on!

Back on the Blogging Block

To steal the theme from the lyrics of Irish lassie Sinead O’Conner, it’s been 5 hours and 24 days, since I took my blog away….

But you can only keep a blogger away from the keyboard for so long… I’m back baby and ready and raring to go in 2012!

I needed this blogging sabbatical so badly; I was weary of words.  However when you factor in it was held over the busiest, most social time of the year (plus I was still working, scoring my first ever paid web content writing gig) meant that it wasn’t a true writing detox. But I did scale back heavily on the other side of blogging: the social media demands, the reading and commenting etiquette on other blogs, for example.

However, try as I might, I could not switch off the part of my brain that automatically conjures up paragraphs and posts. And with there being no other outlet to release them too, I fear it’s been a little detrimental to my rationality. Crazy as it sounds, I’m sure it’s why I am not sleeping well. There are too many sentences spiralling around inside my subconscious that previously had a release valve. So for my sanity, it appears I am back on the blogging block!

I have had plenty of time to ponder the direction of NappyDaze, and my writing goals for 2012… After many early morn walks though the tranquil surrounds of my childhood home, with nothing but the sound of my own breath, the twittering of birds and the crunch of country gravel roads beneath my feet, I began to plan.

This would be the year that I vow to only compete with myself. There is nothing to gain (except angst and stress) when you worry about the blogging escapades and successes of others. I find it not only unhealthy, but stagnating to my creative juices. Sure, I am all for gleaning inspiration from other’s achievements but I will not allow it to become the compass for which I set my journey towards.

I remember when my first ever post went live. I was completely oblivious to the fact an extensive blogging community even existed! I wrote only with the purpose of posterity and sanity; to release the overflowing ideas from my mind and record the moments of my son’s life to share with anyone bothered to read. In fact I was not ever sure if anyone other than my husband and son’s grandparents would ever even look at my site!

Since then, it has been a challenge to stretch and discover my writing voice. I adore painting a picture with words about anything that captures my imagination. So I may never fit neatly into one particular blog genre but I am oh so ok with that. I may never reveal the raw truths others can but I am also fine with that personal choice. I’ve drawn my line in the sand and shall stay behind it.

My main focus will always be to clear out the clutter of constantly gathering sentences and potential blog posts that bubble away in my brain.

I’ll also be sure to carve out time to explore other writing avenues in 2012. So if you see less of my online presence it’s because I have other dream gardens that have become overgrown with weeds and need my attention too.

One thing I do know is that I need writing like I need oxygen; it’s an essential ingredient in my psychology.

Here’s to heralding in the new year feeling the most refreshed and focused I’ve felt in a long time – look out 2012, I’ve got some BIG plans for you….