Healthy May

So a great Kiwi blog I have been following for a couple of years now - Here Comes the Sun - did a post today about living a healthy lifestyle, and reminded me of the fact that we're more likely to succeed in things if we're held accountable - ie, if we blog about doing it, we must do it.
So she's doing this thing called Healthy May, where bloggers support each other in their healthy eating/weight loss/fitness goals by blogging at the end of each week about what they have done during the week.
Since I started on a health kick a couple of weeks ago anyway, I thought, why not join in? So every Monday I will be telling you all about my healthy week. Stay tuned!
I decided to go on a major health kick because my life has been very unsettled over the last 18 months and I slipped into bad habits like big bowls of pasta with creamy cheese sauce for dinner, chocolate as a snack, missing breakfast, lots of takeaways, and pretty much no exercise.
And although my weight isn't a problem (I know, people hate me... I'm one of those girls), my skin, which has always been problematic (it hasn't quite grown out of teenagehood yet even though I'm 24 next month) started to suffer for it. So I gave myself a kick up the bum, joined a gym, bought a book on Amazon called The Healthy Skin Diet by Karen Fischer, and started googling healthy recipes. Now I have stacks of healthy recipes that aren't just good for you, but delicious and cheap too! And I've got into some good habits which I'm hoping to stick to.
So if you want to join us, head over to Amanda's blog (linked above) and share your experience with us!

My Goals:

•Get to the gym at least twice a week
•Walk at least 30mins a day
•Limit chocolate/sugar intake
•Eat healthy meals

Simple, general goals I know, but this whole thing isn't about going on a fad diet for a month, it's about a lifestyle change, which is so much better because you're more likely to stick to it.

Language of love

Some say that food is the language of love, and I for one believe that it is in many ways. Cooking is one of the most relaxing things to do for those who are "active relaxers" like myself. They also say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, and I think this is true too. Cook him a good steak and he's yours. Although, men also take a lot of pride in cooking a good manly steak themselves, and those who love to cook (like my partner, lucky me!) can also reach a woman's heart through their stomach.

While reading Recipe for Life by Nicki Pellegrino, one of the few things I got out of it (wasn't the greatest book in the world) was something that one of the Italian men said. I can't remember the quote exactly, but it was something like, "the best way to show someone you love them is to cook for them. I'm making something with my own hands and putting it inside you, what could say love better than that?"

After reading, my second love is cooking, and since we're a very multi-cultural society here in New Zealand and don't really have a lot of national dishes, many of us like cooking different kinds of international food. I love Italian food with a passion - wood fired pizza, pasta, breads, herbs, yuuum! And my partner is a quarter Italian so he's got the natural flair for cooking, especially Italian food.

So a couple of weekends ago, my mum cam to visit me and we had a girly weekend watching movies and pigging out of icecream and pasta, staying in our pyjamas until midday. We watched Julie and Julia, a movie we've both wanted to watch since it came out, but there's always been others around (like men) who moan about it so we've never gotten round to it. After watching it, we now both want to try French cooking - my mum's a great cook and taught me everything I know - so I've put Mastering the Art of French Cooking on my Wishlist on Amazon.

So what are your favourite cookbooks?

Notice there's been a couple of food posts lately? Yeah, I'm having a dinner party on Saturday night so I've been stealing mum's cook books and googling recipes, so cooking is very much on my mind right now - little bit nervous actually. Was thinking about making these Red Velvet Whoopie Pies for desert, which I found on a great blog, Here Comes the Sun.