what a dish...

As most of you know I am living solo currently. An ocean is currently between me and Mr C while our tectonic plates merge together. This is an actual ocean, I'm not being metaphoric :) There are many many downsides to this state of affairs but there is an upside that I experience pretty regularly, and that is my indulgence is eggs.

Mr C will eat eggs, he enjoys them in fact, but he is not an eggmanic like me. I will gladly and greedily eat them with almost every meal. I discovered the most amazing little device that helps one cook the perfect boiled egg. I ranted about it so much at work one day someone thought I was selling them as some kind of side business. I would you know, I love this device so much I would gladly encourage anyone to buy it.  But I'm not selling them. Actually, they are such a wonder they should be free, like fresh air, sunshine and education. I imagine its some kind of faux paus to show it on here. But none the less, if you have come to the blog today on a mission to find the perfect egg boiling device then look no further. Ta-Da.

taken by moi at breakfast with my family on easter saturday - I had scrambled eggs with truffle oil and chorizo

Many of you know my home town of Adelaide and you know it is a place that abounds with cafes like no other. You won't be surprised to know I love to meet for breakfast as this combines all the fabulousness of Adelaide, cafes, eggs and good company. My favourite places understand my love of the egg; you'll have me "one good egg dish" but you'll never get rid of me with "how would you like your eggs cooked".

I have taken to recreate a dish I had with the BFF recently. Grainy toast with avocado on ricotta with mint and chilli, and I added a poached egg on the side. The waiter was clearly impressed with my choice and told me what a divine dish I'd just created and it did not disappoint; my stomach told my brain it was very happy and would like more of the same, please.

In my home edition I boil the eggs - learning to make poached eggs is something I'm saving for retirement, along with growing roses and origami (yes, my retirement years are going to be a hoot) - and forgo the ricotta for good old butter and a decent squeeze of lemon. It isn't so much becoming a staple meal but becoming the only thing I eat.

I hope you're all well out there,
R xx

a lesson...

I work in a job with constant education, I kind of love it and feel pretty lucky that teaching and learning is part of my everyday. Sometimes we have teaching sessions where we create mock situations or use each other to demonstrate how to perform certain activities, like lion-taming or boxing, for example :)

So the other day I got to work and ran head first into a teaching session. I was running late though and the only seat available was right next to the teacher. I was wearing an "i love teach" t-shirt and had a gift apple with me, so it was all very seemly.

Until I realised the session was about how to examine a knee. While a knee is not as personal as some other parts of our bodies it is most definitely not a joint I wish to flaunt or, indeed, have examined with twenty of my colleagues looking on.

Naturally teach could not see past my t-shirt and was so enamoured with the apple that my attempts to squirm away did not register. My knee was examined. In. Front. Of. Everyone. And I was wearing new jeans that I had not entirely convinced myself covered my entire butt appropriately.

The session was taking forever. I was so aware of The Knee, which was exposed in all its glory and had taken on a life and personality all of its own. The Knee was clearly unrefined, class-less and dare I say, rather unattractive. I am ashamed to say I shunned The Knee, like a geeky neighbourhood friend you only play with out of school.

To be fair, I was also quite concerned how much of The Butt was covered with denim. But, it was mostly The Knee. And it was clear to everyone The Knee belonged to me. It began to feel like my life was trickling by and I would forever be in this session having my damn knee examined with my butt hanging out and my colleagues looking on and, no doubt, thinking this was a terrible state of affairs.

I couldn't even make eye contact with anyone in the room. I knew I'd see scorn of The Knee. I knew they'd judge The Knee. And you know, that poor knee needed someone to love it. What did The Knee ever do to deserve this? The Knee needed a body that was proud of it. Even the uglist knee needs love. And who the heck was I to not oblige. The Knee actually did alot for me. It deserved my love and gratitude.

The class ended. I gave The Knee a rub, told it what a good job it had done and stood proudly with it, ready to bear the taunts and ridicule. Me and The Knee. The Knee and Me. We made quite a pair. We could conquer the world together.

Teach was chatting away, telling us that we would be unlikely to examine many young, fit knees like this one. This One? This Knee? Young? Fit? Well, rhhhheaallyy, I scanned the crowd and thought "you bunch of judgy judgers, this is a young fit knee, and you were all poo-pooing it, shame on you".


And, so you see, a moral is discovered on LandSoftly.

Hope you're all well out there.
R xx

i'm here...

I am here, lurking and listening...

My quest to find the balance between total type-A-anal-ism and total throw-out-the-window-ism continues. Its tough not go all food-exercise-nazi and its equally difficult not to go all airy-fairy-it'll-all-work-out. 

I am about 6 kilos off my goal weight at the moment. A very big part of me is thinking "Go crazy. Drop your calories. Up your exercise. Lose it all pronto. And then you can go scoff a pack of Tim Tams". I realise, though, this is that damn food-exercise-nazi talking, with a little bit of airy-fairy-it'll-all-work-out bribery to entice me in to this crooked scheme.

But, as I've said before, Aesop told me I was tortoise not a hare in this race of Rachel vs BigButt and that kind of approach would never work for me. Aesop is extremely wise, he would kick food-exercise-nazi's butt; he would absolutely write a fable about my plight and tell me ever so eloquently what the best course of action would be. So I channel Aesop, take one Tim Tam now, enjoy it, move on and tell myself "Keep going just like this and one day, you'll get there".

from cuehappiness

I hope you're all well out there.

R xx

suddenly 40...

I sound like broken record but my day job has completely overtaken my life recently. I'm sure it'll get better but right now I'm not sure how I manage to fit in showering let alone eating well and exercising. And my poor landsoftly compendium is surely suffering. I do love you, blog, you're never far from my thoughts :)

from here

You might recall last year I had oodles of free time. I spent a good part of my free time focussing on cultivating healthy habits and watching more than my fair share of bravo tv :) The Kardashians and Real Housewives quite rightly feel out in the cold (despite my deep love for them). And I do miss them.

But I'm so happy to say that the healthy habits seem to be withstanding the storm of neglect. I'm not able to exercise everyday at the moment but I am on my feet all day and running around like a fool. I'm not sure that that combined with stress hormone induced heart rate elevation really equates to proper exercise but I'm taking whatever I can get. And, when I have the time, Jillian and I are still rock solid :)

Food wise, I am making the effort to pack healthy food to take with me and avoiding the easier options. I realise I used to reward myself with unhealthy food and, while it's sometimes tempting, I've managed to keep that bad habit at bay.

I hopped on the scales the other morning and realised I am now down 40kilos, how and when did that happen? A horrible little voice said to me it was probably muscle loss and not real weight, so I kick-boxed that demon in the ass and celebrated the new milestone with a gorgeous new dress that looks like it belongs on a much smaller person than me.

I hope you are all well out there.

xx

a map to land softly ville...

My posts have been so scarce lately, I apologise. You see my life has taken a turn down Busy Street and its been hard to stop in at Blogspot. You all know I love hanging out at Blogspot but Busy Street is clear on the other side of town and traffic is a nightmare at the moment.

My life has also relocated me Down Under for the year. Fortunately there is a Blogspot here too, but just like in every town, Busy Street is the furthest possible distance from it.

It is super lovely to be in my home town again. I am actually living on the same street as The BFF. We like to call it BFF Street, but no-one else seems to think thats a cool name. We don't get to see each other much, she hangs out on Mum Street alot, which is practically the same as, but also across town from, Busy Street.

It is not so lovely to be so far away from Mr C. He remains in The Great NorthWest living on CoolestJobEver Street. Our story is truly an epic one, of love and woe and having jobs that are on opposite sides of the world, that rightfully deserves a nightly timeslot for the telling of.

Mr C and I will be united sporadically during the year. In the mean time, we have exclusive access to Love Street which connects our homes through cyberspace and heart strings ;)

do what makes you you

Fortunately, Busy Street does insect with Healthy Street. That intersection tends to get particularly congested but I make there pretty much every day. Sometimes I only get down the EatingWell Strip but I've making an effort to get the Exercise Mall too. My daily stop in at WeighIn has been going well too.

Hope you are all well out there xx

One Day...

So One day this One girl got on the scale and to her amazement the scale said "girl, you are Onederful".

from cuehappiness

taking a moment...

Life has been spectacularly busy these past few weeks. My glute challenge has continued and, indeed, has even finished but more on that later - this here is a christmas special post to get you all gooey inside.

Mr C and I have a much beloved family member in hospital at the moment. The hours spent searching our loved ones faces for comfort and attempting to offer some in return has had me placing my life priorities firmly in place. And has me realising how unbelievably blessed I am.

I have alot to reflect on and thank my lucky stars for but above and beyond it all is that I am here at all; that I am healthy, have love in my life in all its various shades and forms and walk through my days in the company of some of the greatest minds and hearts there are.

Can I take a moment to send out my love to my lovely friends who read this - The BFF, SuperJhy, BB (aka Mrs Canuck), Mr Canuck, EOL, KayTee and MammaT; my lovely friends who don't know this even exists including the DragonLady; my cyber crushes - DietGirl, SkinnyLatte, Mizfit, MerryLife; and my partner Mr C. You are some special people.

I'll also take this chance to share that I somehow reached my end of year goal early - I'm a whopping 36kilos down.

from here

I will write again soon, but until then, I'm wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and love-filled life.

xx