Health and weight loss
Healthy, Quick, Easy Lunch Idea for mums!
Hi!!
I am LOVING this lunch lately! I hope you enjoy watching!
Blessings, Peta xo
Things I’m loving/not loving in my life this week.
Hi lovely readers,
I thought it would be fun to write a recap of my week! Here goes!
What I’m Loving this week:
The school holidays. The relaxed mornings are what I love the most about the holidays. Every morning this week after breakfast, we all head out for a morning walk for an hour or so. The house is left, dishes undone, hair unbrushed. All that can wait until we get back. If I got all the stuff done before we left we would never leave! After our walk we have a warm cup of tea and something to eat and I notice the children play really happily for the rest of the morning into the afternoon because they are feeling refreshed from the fresh air and sunshine and relaxed from getting out excess energy.
Today is Willow’s 2nd Birthday! Wow I can’t believe my baby is two! Yesterday we had a fun day out in the city eating lunch and buying presents and celebrating Willow! Of course, everything she wanted was Peppa Pig! We had lunch at the mall and afternoon tea at the botanical gardens.
Botanical gardens vege patch
Listening to a busker while eating lunch
The girls found some friends in Toy World!
Peppa pig birthday girl!
What I’m reading:
Fast Food Genocide by Joel Fuhrman. M.D
A book I borrowed off of my parents. It certainly makes you want to stay away from fast food!! It’s scary to learn about what processed food can do to your brain!
What I’m Watching:
I can’t put down Sarah’s YouTube vidoes from ‘Our Tribe Of Ten.’ Her channel is my absolute favourite! I’m learning so much mum wisdom from her and am enjoying watching her beautiful family.
What I’m Eating:
This week I turned a Dahl soup recipe into a casserole type thing by adding sweet potatoes, white potatoes, broccoli and spinach to the original recipe. It was so yum! I didn’t take any photos though!
I also made my fav sweet potato and apple brownie recipe this week. Most of my children love this too and it didn’t last long.
The recipe for this brownie is in my ebook Yes You Can Lose Your Pregnancy Weight
Challenges I’m facing:
Luke’s back keeps getting hurt at work. Eight years working in Aged care have really taken it’s toll on his body (lots of lifting people and rolling large uncooperative people around in bed). His back is getting worse and it’s looking like a career change will possibly be necessary. He does graphic design and web design on the side but the business is very slow. If you have a website you need designed he has a very unique style CLICK HERE to be taken to his website. CLICK HERE TO GO TO HIS AWESOME FACEBOOK PAGE!!
I have also gained a couple of kilograms slowly over the past month or so. I like food and in general I think I have just been eating too much. It’s enough gain to make my jeans feel really tight, so I will be trying to lose this weight again in the upcoming week.
Coming up…
Term two of the school year is coming up on Monday for us. This term I have Arrow at home homeschooling. I’m very pleased to have him home again. He is studying grade 2 and doing really well. We have a good plan worked out and a gentle approach to home education so not to get overloaded. Francis and Savannah are still in school for a while longer before we work out the right time to begin home educating them again too.
I hope to film a home school day this week and put it up on our YouTube channel.
Thanks for reading!
Leave a comment and don’t forget to like our Facebook page and follow us on Instagram.
Blessings, Peta xo
Mothering with an Anxiety Disorder.
I’ve mentioned in past posts that I suffer from anxiety. There are so many things that I seem to not be able to do because of this illness but how has it affected my mothering? In some ways it has made me a better mother because of how deeply I think about everything. I think deep deep thoughts much of the day and take my role of mothering very seriously. Yet I fall short. As most people do.
There are many illnesses that mothers can go through. Anxiety is just one of the many. Parenting with an illness or handicap is quite common. Life is unpredictable and suffering can be around any corner. We live in a fallen world, tainted by sin and sicknesses. I’ve met mothers with vertigo, some with depression, some in a wheelchair, some with hormonal issues, autoimmune diseases, I even know one young mother with cancer.
So why is it that I feel so ashamed about this anxiety? Maybe because it is a silent illness that from looking at me you cannot tell. Most people who know me closely say I have a calm demeanor, an easy going personality and am bubbly and joyful. Which I am all of those things. The effect of anxiety on me is completely internal and mostly, cannot be seen with your eyes.
A racing, pounding heart, shaking (skin crawling) feeling inside my legs, arms and hands, racing thoughts, panic, painful shoulders when under stress, headaches, a tight chest and feeling like I can’t breathe, picking away at the skin on my thumbs and feet, clenched jaw, fatigue, insomnia, foggy brain, overeating, itchy skin, stomach in knots, nausea, diarrhea, (IBS), stomach aches, OCD compulsions (hand washing, checking things), feelings of guilt, shame and inadequacy usually follow.
Phew…that was a long list of crazy things going on inside my body. I don’t feel all of these things all of the time. They come and go. Some never completely go. And I never can tell when I’m going to have a panic episode but I do know that I when I get overloaded with stress, even just normal everyday stress, this is when the symptoms worsen. I have chosen to live a simple, gentle life with not too many other activities going on besides the primary care of my family.
This was never meant to be a ‘woe is me’ type blog post but I thought that there may be other mothers and fathers out there with anxiety who could benefit from somebody taking about it.
If you are misunderstood I know exactly how you feel. Anxiety has been my ‘Achilles heel’, in which I can only seem to get so far in life before anxiety pulls me back like a chain upon my legs. Impatient people cannot handle me, as I pull out of things at the last minute. All. The. Time. I have been given labels like ‘unreliable’ and ‘full of excuses.’ (mostly by myself).
The Lord may heal and deliver me from this one day and I have grown stronger as I’ve gotten older. I no longer have the phobias and fears as extremely as I did as a child. But until that day I will fight this battle called anxiety.
Of course, there are many things that anxiety has not stopped me from doing and I am determined to keep going, keep trying, keep dreaming big, keep praising my saviour and keep on trying to be the best wife and mother I can be. Thankfully the Lord is full of grace and compassion and my sweet husband is too.
Thankfully the Lord gave me the most gentle and patient man on earth to be my husband!
I always appreciate it when bloggers and YouTubers are honest and share from their hearts so I thought I would be honest with my readers about my struggles as well as the things in my life that I’m super proud of.
Thanks for reading!
Don’t forget to leave a comment, I read each one and reply when I can. Let me know if you would like more blog post chats about anxiety or hear about my current natural remedies to heal my nervous system.
Blessings, Peta xo
Watch us on Youtube HERE
Yes You Can Lose Your Pregnancy Weight!
With each of my five full term pregnancies I gained 25-30 kgs! (55-66 lbs).
With my last pregnancy with Willow I gained just as much even though I was eating reasonably healthy foods. I didn’t gain much in the first and second trimesters but by the third trimester I really stacked on the kilos. I was really hungry and I let myself eat and eat without giving it much thought. I usually lost 5 kilograms by the time I came home for hospital (baby, placenta, fluid) and then a long road was before me as I slowly lost the weight I had gained.
But over the years I have learned some things about weight loss. Sometimes it was really hard. Sometimes I had great successes. Sometimes I couldn’t be bothered and was tired and emotional and gained a few kilos back. Sometimes I just ate too much because…well, I love food!
As I had these experiences I learned what worked. I observed other people who had too, been successful with weight loss. I took note and wrote a lot of information down.
I discovered dessert in a whole new way! I have now learned how to make all my old favorites in a nourishing way using whole food ingredients. As I lost weight I ate pancakes, carrot cake, choc chip cookies and brownies! Making desserts into healthier creations has helped keep me be happy, healthy and satisfied while the kilos came off.
Last year all I had learned about weight loss got written down…
…and became a book!!
And…I am very very excited. The moment I have been waiting for over a year for is here!
My brand new e-book is now online and available for you to download!!!
It is a step by step guide for your own postpartum weight loss journey! And anyone would benefit from this book, not just mothers.
If you are wanting to lose weight but you need a bit of cheering on. I will be your weight loss coach as you read the pages of this book you will be cheered and encouraged along the way!
I share the secrets of people who are successful with losing weight and keeping it off.
I share how to overcome problems people face and how not to regain weight.
Yes You Can Lose Your Pregnancy Weight is not a diet plan but a book to give mothers some encouragement to get healthy and kick out some bad habits.
I also have included 10 of my own recipes which helped me have success in my postpartum weight loss. As well as a full weekly meal plan to help kick start your weight loss.
Click HERE to get my new e-book Yes You Can Lose Your Pregnancy Weight
Merry Christmas 2017 – photo shoot – thoughts – answered prayer…
This year has been loaded with good things and also set backs. At the beginning of this year, instead of writing new years resolutions, I wrote a page of prayers that were on my heart. I cried out my heart to the Lord about these things daily all year long. I am deeply joy-filled to be sharing with you that many of those prayers have been answered.
I asked for someone to help me out with cleaning the house and baby-sitting as I could never seem to catch up on my workload at home and it was getting me down. – The Lord sent a lovely young Christian, home-schooled lady to come weekly and she has helped me clean the house from top to bottom. I feel so encouraged by this and she as become a great friend to me.
I asked for a large kitchen table particularly one painted white with a wooden stained top. And a dishwasher. – The Lord sent to us a local couple who custom built the exact table I was wanting that I saw at Harvey Norman for $3500. We paid only $450 for ours.
Our lease was not renewed at our rental house because the landlord wanted to renovate, which meant we had to move. Suddenly we were homeless. The Lord led us swiftly to a house only a few streets away. We were privileged to be shown through the house by the agent before it was even advertised. The new house has a dining area for our new kitchen table AND we were able to have a dishwasher installed in the laundry (only a few steps away from the kitchen).
I asked for wisdom and insight in dealing with my eldest sons constant aggressive behavior and mood swings. He was upsetting everyone in the house. We tried everything we could think of and were at our whits end (disciplines, spanking, time out, loss of privileges, earlier bed time, long talks, reward systems for good behaviour, more one on one time with him). I cried many tears over this. I was lead to discover he may have ODD (Oppositional Deficiency Disorder) And was reminded of an allergy test he had as a toddler which revealed he is allergic to wheat. I put him on a gluten and sugar free diet and within days he was back to his calm, happy self. The transformation in him has been amazing! I wish I had done this years ago. I might write a whole detailed blog post about this in the future.
I asked the Lord for a holiday. We had to spend our money shifting house and a holiday this year was looking like it wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t stop thinking about my Auntie and Uncles holiday house by the beach. I didn’t even know if they still had it or if someone was now renting it. I asked anyway – and they said yes! We can stay there! We are now getting ready next month to have a relaxing time away by the beach.
I asked for my mums healing for a condition she was suffering with. She told me last week that she feels the best she’s felt in years right now.
I always pray for the Lord to guide and lead me every day of my life in every area. I am completely surrendered to him and his will for my life. I have seen him provide for our family in amazing ways this year. He knows what I need and I have never been lacking anything. My life may not be fancy in any way – but it is certainly not lacking.
Thanks to everyone who supported my blog this year. Whether you liked a post on facebook or left a comment or just read a few articles. I really appreciate your feedback and every little bit counts and is noticed. I hope you are enjoying my new YouTube channel as well. Click here to check it out.
I’m excited for 2018 as I will be releasing my very first e-book. It is called ‘Yes You Can Lose Your Pregnancy Weight.’ And I pray it is a huge encouragement to many people. My goal for this blog from the very beginning when I started blogging back in 2012 is to encourage people, especially mothers, as they press on with the challenging and deeply rewarding task of parenting. I don’t make any money at all from blogging. I do it because I love it and I feel like I can help others with words of encouragement. However it does cost us over $100 a year to keep this sight online and by purchasing my e-book next year (hopefully in January) you will be supporting our family and the continuation of this blog.
Have a blessed 2018!
Blessings, Peta xo
I will leave you with some photos from our 2018 family photo shoot.
One Week Of What I Ate For Lunch Trim Healthy Mama Style.
Lunch for me most days is salad of some sort or leftovers. It’s summer here right now, but in the winter I eat soup, soup and more soup! I eat wheat free because of a food intolerance so these meals reflect that. I also try to avoid refined sugar as much as I can, but I don’t eat perfect all the time at all! These meals are all trim healthy mama friendly, though, I’m not following THM strictly anymore because I’m at a healthy weight and I don’t really keep track of whether my meals are E, S or XO anymore. I just eat what I feel like on the day and what I have on hand in the house. If we go out for the day I usually bring a packed salad with hard boiled eggs. Or a tin of salmon and beans or tuna and beans.
1st picture is of leftover brown rice with leftover roast chicken. I had a large salad of baby cucumbers, capsicum, avocado, sprouts, baby spinach and sprinkled with sunflower and pumpkin seeds. I usually top all my salads with extra virgin olive oil and sometimes lemon juice too. Sometimes I have mayo. I put sea salt and pepper on everything…well not everything.
2nd pic of a quinoa, chickpea and pumpkin salad with some basil and baby spinach leaves. Also some I was trying out my mums pickled beetroot recipe and had a little of that.
3rd pic is of leftover lemon herb drummies (from the THM cookbook) with a salad and some leftover pumpkin and chick pea salad. Looks like I had a few slices of metwurst too.
4th pic is my fav, paleo bread ( this was from one of Lola Berry’s cookbooks) with cabbage, carrot, parsley, red onions and hard boiled eggs. This was my birthday lunch shared with my parents who came to visit that day.
5th pic is zucchini noodles with leftover bolognese sauce. I grated a little goat cheese over the top. I eat completely dairy free apart from a little goat cheese occasionally.
6th pic is a salad with some chickpeas and seeds for protein.
7th pic is pumpkin and chickpea salad with tin salmon and beetroot, red onion and greens.
If I’m still hungry after lunch or feel like something sweet I’ll have a few squares of dark chocolate or some coconut yoghurt and fruit. Sometimes a medjool date or two if I have some.
That’s it! One week view of my lunches. These meals keep me feeling healthy and give me a huge energy burst and are great for digestion. They don’t take me long to prepare either. If you have any questions about any of the lunches or the way I eat leave me a comment.
Blessings, Peta
You may also like to read: One Week Of What I Ate For Breakfast Trim Healthy Mama Style.
Vlog – Day In The Life Of Us and What I Eat In A Day To Maintain My Weight Loss.
In this video:
What I eat in a day to maintain my postpartum weight loss.
Come with me for my bike ride and see a day in the life of us including seeing the aftermath of baby Willow eating her tea. Also see a little of our family devotion time and family worship.
Blessings, Peta
One Week Of What I Ate For Breakfast Trim Healthy Mama Style.
Should I lose another 2 or so kilograms? I’ve reached the point in my postpartum weight loss where I’m happy with my weight. I’m at a healthy weight. I’m fitting into all my size 10 jeans with room to move. But 4 years ago I was even lighter than I am now by around 4kgs. It was after I had removed gluten and dairy from my diet because of a whole heap of digestive issues I was having. My body responded to the diet change with a rapid weight loss. I could even pull on size 8 jeans quite easily which is thinner than I was in high school! My hubby thinks I look great the way I am! Yet sometimes I wish I could just lose a few more kilos and put those size eights back on!
I’m back doing Trim Healthy Mama again for the next month or so to see what happens. If my weight wont budge then I will officially continue maintaining my weight and continue being happy. But if I lose a kilo or two I will also be happy!
Here is what I ate for breakfast over the past week in no particular order:
First image is of an omelette with spinach and a little goat cheese.
Second image is of a smoothie with collagen, banana, coconut oil, almond milk and frozen strawberries.
Third image is of muesli (store bought and not on plan but I hadn’t been shopping yet and was out of most ingredients) Bonus points for making my own almond milk. And a green tea. I have a green tea with breakfast every morning. I’m not a coffee drinker and green tea is great for metabolism and waking me up.
Fourth image is of scrambled eggs with some walnuts and goat cheese.
Fifth image is of pancakes from the Trim Healthy Mama cook book with some nectarine jam and a few slices of rock melon.
Sixth image is of leftover THM pancakes with maple syrup. (Maple syrup is not on plan but sometimes I just have to live a little!! I would have had some banana on top too but was all out)
Last image is two gluten and sugar free boysenberry muffins balancing on my knees in the car on the way to church! And my green tea.
My favorite healthy breakfast is definitely pancakes. Eating pancakes while losing weight and being healthy is my cup if tea!
I created my own nourishing pancakes recipe which will be included in my new ebook ‘Yes You Can Lose Your Pregnancy Weight’ which is being released early next year. Stay tuned for it and keep checking back on the blog for the release date announcement.
What is your favourite healthy breakfast at the moment?
Blessings, Peta
Holiday vlog – farm stay – Colin Buchanan concert – boots full of water – puppies eating my shoes!
I kept the camera handy in the past week and filmed snippets of our school holidays. Follow us in person to see Colin Buchanan live in concert, what I packed for a day out in the city, how we buy all our children an ice cream each at the mall large family on a budget style, see our holiday cottage on my parents farm, picking asparagus, hiking up a hill, catching tadpoles, my sisters puppies eating my shoes, and a running commentary from me of all that’s going on.
CLICK ON THE PHOTO TO WATCH THE VLOG!
Blessings, Peta
Goddard Family 