Dani and myself enjoying some time together on the sea front in Gijon.

Book recommendation

Hey ladies, thought I´d blog in even though I´ve nothing to report points wise. Still sick, (though getting better), so only managing my water and fruit/veggies.

Anyhow I thought I´d share a book recommendation "Dangerously Alive" - Simon Guillebaud


Dangerously Alive - African adventures of faith under fire

It´s very challenging, especially to me as I have a tendency to put off till tomorrow sharing the love of the Lord with my friends and people I meet. In western Europe it´s very "safe" and the probability that the person will be dead from disease or murdered by next week is very slight (unlike in Burundi) but busyness or just not wishing to offend stills my tongue of stops me from reaching out the hand of love.

He quotes a letter received by a Pastor from a homeless woman he was too busy to help. She re-writes Matthew 25 v 34-40.

"I was hungry,
and you formed a humanities group to discuss my hunger.
I was imprisoned,
and you crept off quietly to your chapel and prayed for my release.
I was naked,
and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.
I was sick,
and you knelt and thanked God for your health.
I was homelss,
and you preached a sermon on the spiritual shelter of love of God.
I was lonely,
and you left me alone to pray for me.
You seem so holy, so close to God,
but I am still very hungry - and lonely - and cold."

Wow!

I know this is a fitness blog but I just wanted to share with you all. It is Sunday after all.

Blessings

Kathy <><

WEEK 1 Points

Weight loss - 0

Volume loss - 0

Exercise - 9

Journal - 4

HEP - 1

Water - 14

Bonus - 11

Over all Total - 39

Pineapple Chicken - Super easy and quick to prep low fat meal

2 lbs/1 kg skinless chicken pieces

1 can (14 oz/398 mL) unsweetened pineapple chunks.

 1 tsp dried rosemary

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp ground ginger

Place the chicken in a baking dish.

Drain the can of pineapple, pour the chunks over the chicken.

Combine the rosemary, paprika, salt, pepper and ginger, sprinkle this over the chicken.

Bake, covered, for one hour at 375F/190C, or until the chicken is no longer pink in the middle.


Serve with rice and lots of veggies.

# tip: I used whole chicken breasts but next time will slice them thinner so the flavour goes

all the way through the meat.

Introduction

Hello Ladies!

I am Kathy and have been "blogging" in on Facebook. For those of you who don't know me already, you can read my intro post here  http://faithfitnessandfun.blogspot.de/2011/02/this-is-me.html

This is my last year in my 30's and definitely time for my to make some positive changes for my health. On 11th May is our city's fun run, 7.9km and I'm going to run it. Yes me! If you're interested in following my efforts and different goals here's the link http://beforeihit40bucketlist.blogspot.de/

I must admit, facebook is easier for me but I will blog here once a week, I really appreciate the support of all of you.

Blessings

Kathy <><

Free Audio Books!

If you work out and listen to an MP3 you might be interested in getting free audio books. Once a month a different book is free to download.

http://christianaudio.com/free/

Happy Monday!

Hey Ladies!

Just thought I’d check in at the end of this sunny Monday. I hope you all had a good weekend, mine was great J  Saturday Matt and I went walking and totaled up 6km along the river before heading back home for brunch, then yesterday we met up with another family from church and went into the Spessart for lunch and a walk. The Spessart is a large hilly and wooded region close by, Aschaffenburg us just on the edge. After a short walk up to the former hunting lodge for lunch we set out on what should have been a round walk back to the car park, after an hour of mainly downhill we were told by other walkers that if we keep going we would not reach our car before dark. “Ok, let’s turn round!” But of course that meant the way back was all UPHILL!!!!!!! That was one serious work out for me and my legs are aching today. However I am feeling rather please with myself for managing it.

I’m glad that Dani declared Sunday a free day as on the way back we stopped off at Kathy’s Diner. A 50’s American style place (in the middle of Germany – yep, definitely an oxymoron). I only ordered a sandwich but I forgot how BIG American sandwiches are; white bread plus mayo and sweet and sour sauce I really enjoyed the free sugars.

Thought I’d share a couple more photos with you. As Theresa mentioned, can I encourage you to take you camera out on walks to share little interesting things from your town/country with the rest of us.

Blessings,  Kathy <><

Just as we set off on our leafy walk in the Spessart.

Matt and I found this cute little guy on a walk along the river.

5km – Nordic Walking – 55min = Yeah! Go me J

Happy Monday Morning!

Morning ladies!

It's Monday morning and I've been up since 7am, quite an achievement for me. Normally Mondays are my rest and housework day, Sunday's being so busy and my working week doesn't start til Tuesday.

Physically and emotionally the last few weeks have felt like I've been walking through mud, getting a cold and chest infection, one lot of visitors after the next. Lots of stuff going on at church etc etc. But the last 3 days I've been out walking for 1 hour each day in the beautiful autumn sunshine and this morning I feel bright as a button! Even though it's a dull morning I really want to got out walking right now, but have to stay put waiting for the heater man to turn up :/

Anyhow, here are a couple of photos I took yesterday on my walk along the river with Matt.

Kathy <><






Beautiful blue sky but we're all muffled up against the cold.












Winter sun shining through the gate into the gardens of the former Capuchin monastery.

Just a little inspiration!

The temperatures have really plummeted here in Germany this week. Woke up to -3°C this morning and we had to scrap the car before heading off the Church. Even so, the skies are clear so that means some lovely winter sunshine!

I've put that to good use these last 2 days going for an hour walk along the river Main with a friend on Friday and another hour's walk yesterday with Matt in a local park.

I read the following link this week and thought I'd share it with you all.

Kathy <><

http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/article/20111015/NEWS01/110150303/Blind-Lexington-athlete-making-history-dog

Getting started at last!

Hello Ladies!

For those who don’t know me already I’m Kathy and you can read about me here.  http://faithfitnessandfun.blogspot.com/2011/02/this-is-me.html 

I think this must be my 3^rd Christmas Crunch Challenge and not as far along the fitness and weight loss road as I would like to be. I started writing this blog last week when my in-laws were staying with us and didn’t get very far.

It is really tough staying on point with visitors, especially ones who HATE to exercise and love to eat! Breakfast, lunch and dinner, coffee and cake every afternoon and chocolate/sweets in the evenings. Their walking pace is painfully slow (even for me), needless to say neither of them are small people. I did resist most of the extras but a little here, a little there adds up.

Add to that a horrid chest infection (thankfully it didn’t turn into bronchitis) I managed a grand total of 2 x 20 mins exercise last week. Anyhow, we’re now visitor free and I’m almost cold/cough free :o)  I’ve also just started reading “Made to Crave” so am very interested in hearing what Sarah (and others) write about it.

Recently read this quote which I think fits perfectly to my fitness journey


"It does not matter how slow you go as long as you do not stop." - Confucius. 

Kathy  <>< 

A confession and an achievement.

First off I must confess, yesterday I succumbed to temptation and ate 2 chocolate Easter bunnies. I know it’s early to even have Easter stuff in the house but post take FOREVER to reach Mexico and they were for a care package to my friend there. Now I have to go buy more. I’ve been craving chocolate since last Wednesday and TOM still hasn’t arrived, probably going to have to make a trip to my gyni Dr. I think my hormones are all messed up. Ho hum.

Now for my achievement, I’ve just completed a 30 min cardio workout!!! Yeah :o) as I mentioned yesterday, doing the same workout day in day out can get boring so I downloaded The Biggest Loser Workout 1 and tried it today. Wow, I stayed with the easier options but was still huffing and buffing like crazy. Feel great now though.

Keep springing girls!

Blessings

Kathy <><

Lighten up your mundane Monday

I don’t know about you but doing the same exercise routine everyday gets a little boring so how about adding in a little “wacky” sport? Or maybe not, these definitely come into the don’t try this at home category

Trust the Australians to come up with Watermelon Skiing

Next up a team sport for the marrieds, the yearly Wife Carrying Championships in Finland. Brings a whole new meaning to - to have and to hold!

There are many odd things to come out of Britain (I speak from personal experience HeeHee!) and this one is NOT for the faint hearted. Cheese Rolling – chasing a cheese down a very steep and muddy hill.

Keep Springing

Blessings

Kathy <><

Weigh in Wednesday

Morning Ladies!

Well I didn’t weigh and measure the last couple of weeks so it’s lovely to discover I lost a total of 11cm. 4 of which is from my hips J and am now in double figures instead of triple figures on the Kg weight (2 x J) I’m hoping that next week I’ll really drop a few Kgs as the dreaded TOM is poised to arrive – I’m craving chocolate like Bridget Jones LOL

I’ve had my niece Julia staying with me the last couple of days, which has been lovely. She lived with us for 3 years and is like a daughter/little-sister to me. Ice-cream season has arrived here in Germany and on Monday Jules and I went a little walk and ended up at an ice-cream parlour. For me it was such a success, I sat sipping tea and happily watched Jules tuck into her ice-cream. Even though it was almost supper time and I was starting to get hungry I still resisted the temptation!

Keep Springing!

Blessings

Kathy <><

Monday Funnies

I don't know about you, but I struggle with Mondays especially when, like this morning, they are grey and wet. So here's a little humour to give you a giggle.

"I've reached the age where it's hard to believe that my body is a temple ...... it rather looks like a building project that went out of control."

There's a GREAT new lip gloss that helps you lose weight... it's called SUPERGLUE :o {|)

Chinese Lesson 11: I thought you were on a diet - Wai Yu Mun Ching?

and lastly a blast from the past. 1980's face workout........ that leotard! that hair!!!!!!!!

Honey and Lime Salmon

This is a really simple recipe but soo tasty and low fat:

Frozen salmon steaks, 1 per person

Lime juice (fresh or squeezy)

Honey

Ground pepper

Place the salmon in an oven-proof dish, squeeze some lime juice and drizzle honey over each piece. (I used about ½ a teaspoon for 2 pieces). Grind a little pepper over the salmon and cover the dish with foil.

Bake at 180 – 190°C

40 mins if the fish is frozen

20 mins if already de-frosted.

Serve with salad or veggies. Add more lime juice if desired. Enjoy

I only took 1/2 a portion, saving the other 1/2 til tomorrow. I'm not really a fish fan but my doctor wants me to eat fish at least once a week and what I really like about this is there is no over-powering "fishy" taste.

Sunny Saturday blog-in

Hey Girls! It’s taken me a few days to get back into the swing of things since returning home. Eating all those carbohydrates last weekend meant I was back to really craving them again :o(

Exhaustion hit me on Tuesday and I didn’t have any energy to exercise Tues or Wednesday (oddly enough I was bouncing like Tigger on Monday) but started again Thursday with 20 mins of Leslie Sansone walking. Yesterday I was walking around the town doing lots of messages and really hustled between bank, post office etc etc, I was out and about for over an hour though I’m only counting it as 1 point. I did get on the scales Monday morning to discover that I’d manage to re-gain the kilo I’d lost but now I’m back down again which pleases me.

Today is a beautiful sunny spring day here and I’m hoping to get Mr H to go a walk in the park this afternoon, it's a 6K walk if we do the longest route.

Keep springing!

Blessings

Kathy <><

AWOL in Lithuania

So I back from our little trip into the wilds of Eastern Europe LOL hope I don't lose points for going awol.

Mr H and I flew to Lithuania to spend some time with our church missionaries there and quite an adventure it was too I can tell you. Among other things we met a man who had been one of the clean-up workers at Chernobyl. The Russians just came in to town and collected the men, taking them off to Chernobyl, you had no choice. Well you could refuse but you would be taken anyway, just further east to a Siberian gulag!!!

This tiny church of approx. 20 people is less than 4 years old and although they are laboring away in a land with the communist legacy, starvation level wages, massive alcohol abuse and occult practices they are already mission orientated. Being a mission plant they took the step of faith last year to support other missionaries. How fabulous it that!

Even though it was March, winter still has a firm grip. We were bundled up under layers of clothes to cope with the temperatures of -7°C to -2°C God was really looking after me because, as you know I don’t cope with the cold, and only 2 days before our arrival it was -21°C . Honestly, I have no idea how Tami copes.

I hadn’t been able to do much exercise in the week running up to our trip as I fell and also came down with a cold, thankfully that cleared up but of course when you’re in someone else’s house food choices and exercise opportunities are limited. With food prices only 20% lower than Germany yet the average wage is less than 1/5 carbohydrates are the big plate filler. And of course nothing is wasted, day old bread is deep fried and sprinkled with cheese and garlic as a snack. It tastes great but the calories, oy oy oy!

We did manage an hour walk on Saturday plus about 2 hours bowling on Sunday and I can’t forget playing with the kiddies, that’s really tiring – phew!

But now I need to knuckle down and get back into my routine, Looking a the pointers I’ve got some catching up to do hee hee.

Blessings

Kathy <><

Quick post!

It's been a tough week, after doing well during wk1 I managed to fall whilst out walking on Thursday and hurt myself and to top that off I picked up Mr H's cold. My doctor gets very mad with me if I exercise when I'm ill so I stayed home and kept bundled up in the hope of recovering quickly.

Food wise I've done well only succoming to chocolate one time. Decided to go for an easy walk with 2 girl friends yesterday, along the river in the sunshine, it was lovely but last evening and this morning I realised it was to soon. Ho hum.

Anyhow, I need your prayers girls. I'm due to fly to Lithuania on Thursday evening to visit our church missionaires. We'll only be there 3 days but it's currently -20°C (-4°F) though could warm up to a balmy -7°C (19.5°F) on Saturday.

My body doesn't cope with cold but Matt and I are going to encourage the family and also plan a teaching missions trip with them for September. As some of you know, it's kind of lonely on the mission field so I need to be healthy and go along.

Blessings

Kathy <><

Still craving carbs? Try the Pasta Diet.

So, read this in your best Marlon Brando voice.

1) You walka pasta da bakery!

2) You walka pasta da candy store!

3) You walka pasta da ice-cream shop!

4) You walka pasta da table and da fridge!

Happy Friday girls, keep springing!