I have been drinking coffees from the Nescafe Cafe Menu for at least 6 years now. I originally picked them up because I wanted to start drinking coffee (I guess because it appears to be an adult thing to do) but didn’t like the instant stuff my parents had. I’ve always loved the smell of coffee but never liked the taste until I tried this brand. But I think its time for a change in coffee habits.
To be honest, when I first started having them I was having 1 sugar in the flavoured ones and two sugars in the cappuccino, which is just ridiculous when you think about it. I have also been known to have one every day but in the last year or so I have been limiting myself to one or two a week, usually when I am out at a client’s office for the day.
They come in a multitude of flavours and usually work out to be around $1.00 per serve, even when they are not on special. I remember the first time I stocked up on these at the supermarket. I ended up with about eight boxes, all in different flavours. My favourite flavours are vanilla, caramel and hazelnut.
As much as I love them and like to treat myself, I just don’t think they fit in with my health and fitness goals anymore. We have a pod coffee machine at home, which I use exclusively on weekends. And we have a different pod coffee machine at the office so I can still get my fix. There is also a McDonald’s across the road from the office, but let’s face it: I’m not that desperate for coffee.
On the 15th of January, I finally joined a gym. I had been considering it for a little while, mostly because I love the idea of running inside away from the elements. I follow the gym on Facebook &and noticed they were offering a very attractive deal, compared to the other 24/7 gyms in my area. I’m pretty sure all the gyms in my area are now 24/7 anyway.
Back in December I started using a ‘couch to 5k’ app and was making good progress but was finding it hard to get going in the various climates of the Australian (more so Melbournian four seasons in one day) summer.
Here are some non-fitness reasons I joined:
On to the unexpected effects, I have experienced so far!
For me every 4-5 days was regular (apart from that time I was vegetarian), now it’s every day. Which is totally fine, just something that I noticed. I’m assuming it is from the increased blood flow to the organs.
I first came across this phenomenon when doing a 12-week boot camp in 2012. The fitter I got, the earlier into the workout I started to sweat. It’s happening again now while doing the first leg of the ‘run’ during the couch to 5k. Again, I’m putting this down to increased blood flow to the heart, getting the heart rate up and sending the blood around the body.
I noticed the skin on my outer thighs appeared to be firmer within about a week. I feel like it’s not just reduced cellulite, I really think the skin has become softer. Once again, I think it comes down to increased blood flow, particularly while running and leg training.
As a belated (October) birthday present, I took my mum for High Tea at Hotel Windsor. I wanted to go during the week, because I thought it wouldn’t be so busy but it had to wait until I had time off work over Christmas. They offer two sittings 12.30pm & 2.30pm, I thought 2.30 was more appropriate for afternoon tea but is only offered Wednesday to Sunday.
Here is the 2014 resolution final update of the original list that was my first ever blog post.
• Wear jeans less often – This has been much easier to do in the warmer weather, I’ve been able to wear skirts & dresses instead. I also got myself a new pair of black work pants & have been wearing those instead.
• Read 100 books – I almost didn’t succeed in reading 100 books. Enter Goosebump books! I can now read a book from the Goosebumps series in about an hour & a half. I owe my success with the challenge this year to that series.
• Create a blog & possibly a youtube channel – I haven’t been too great with the videos but there are a few floating around.
• Seriously consider further study – This hasn’t been in my thoughts much lately. It has been in the very back of my mind to do my Diploma of Accounting. As with the garden, it all comes down to time & money. This will probably go on next year’s list too.
• Run 2km in 10 minutes – I got back on the running band wagon at the start of December. There’s a chance I might be able to achieve the next goal on the list before this one.
• Run/jog 5km without having to slow to a walk – I’m making progress with this, I can now jog for about 3 minutes without stopping, it’s hard, but I can do it.
• Write a letter to my nan at the end of every month – Quite sure I only did this in January & February. I’d like to start doing it again next year though. But I think I will have to write myself a little summary each week to remember any important things that happen.
• Start saving – We have been saving to pay down some debts to try to get ahead. So not much actual saving has been going on, we are getting ahead though. We split our mortgage in July when the bank offered a great interest rate that we couldn’t pass up. So the mortgage is ahead by a bit more now.
• Garden more – I think we are finally almost happy with our front garden. Although, it has changed quite a bit since it was completed when we moved in. It has been quite a long work in progress, so long that we received a notification from the estate saying we were in breach of our contract (completed front garden within 6 months of handover from the builder) & we had 30 days to fix it. It all comes down to time & money. Spare time to devote to the hard labour of adding a retaining wall, shovelling dirt & rocks, selecting plants & keeping them alive. Money to buy said dirt, rocks & plants. But I think we are pretty happy with the result.
• Move the office into a bedroom – Completed in April.
• Continue to experiment in the kitchen with both sweet & savory foods – I’ve been pretty good with this. I make up about one thing a week & luckily most have been awesome. Have a look at the recipe tag to see some examples.
• Meal plan – I haven’t been too great with this lately. Granted we have been eating a lot of steak (or other meat) with vegetables almost every night, so that doesn’t take much planning.
• Stop using credit cards to pay for things – Out of all my goals this year, this is the one I am most proud of achieving. I did not purchase one thing on my credit card this year. And now that I haven’t used it for a whole year I don’t want to go back to using it again like before. I think I will keep it just for emergencies or big purchases.
Clean out the spare bedrooms – Um, this still hasn’t been done. We had to put another bed in one of the rooms in April when we had 4 people stay over after a wedding. The rooms do get tidied but everything went into the cupboards. Then when you need something, you pretty much have to pull everything out just to get to what you want. This will be carried forward to next year’s list now.
Again, I signed up to The Color Run all on my lonesome hoping I would find someone to go with when the event rolled around. This time they only allowed pack pick up on the three days before the event & not on the actual day. After I found out that I was hoping extra hard to find someone that could pick up my packet & I would offer to drive them on the day. Lucky for me a colleague from work signed up about 5 days before. I’m glad I managed to convince her, after all 5 kilometres is nothing to the 35 we walked the weekend before!
Kathleen (noun), newly 30, bustling employee, inventive house wife & wannabe creative, just wanting to share the favourable parts of my life.
