It starts now!

I often find myself obsessing so much over all the details of how to lose weight that I don't achieve what I ultimately want - to get fitter, healthier and slimmer.

I spend far too long researching my ideal weight, BMI, BMR, eating plans, exercise strategies etc etc etc that I never have time to implement any of it. Or it all just seems to hard and I am paralysed by information overload.

But now I say no more..
No more getting bogged down in the details.
No more excuses about not having enough time to exercise or eat right.
No more relying on others for motivation.

Why?
Because I already know plenty about losing weight but I still haven't managed to put it into action.
So now I'm just going to start. Could it be that easy?

Starting Weight: 85.8kg

Our first visitors

Before we even moved up from Melbourne my sister was planning a trip to come and visit :-)

The Brisbane Festival was on so we headed to Southbank on Saturday for a look around then went up to the lookout at Mt Coot-tha.

Brisbane Festival - Southbank - Liquid Interactive Light Scope

 The Wheel of Brisbane - Southbank

Water feature at Southbank

Brisbane Festival - Southbank - Golden Casket Light Sphere

Southbank Lifestyle Market - street performer

On Sunday we went for a drive through Gallipoli Barracks and then back to Mt Coot-tha to check out J.C Slaughter Falls. After wandering the paths for quite some time we finally found the "falls"...hmmm, I'm sure it's seen better days..

Mt Coot-tha - J.C. Slaughter Falls - Smallest waterfall ever

Meeting the in-laws

After many many months we finally managed to get up to Townsville so that I could meet my future in-laws. We had a fantastic weekend and came home with plans to add a new puppy to our household..

On Saturday we went down to The Strand and discovered some very odd public art. On Sunday we walked down to the markets then along the river and back home for an early BBQ dinner before heading back to the airport.

Yatala at home

It was finally time to test out my mushy pea making abilities and cook up our family size Yatala Pie..

As any home cook does these days I trawled the internet looking for a good recipe and finally decided on  a quick and easy Jamie Oliver recipe:

Jamie's Minty Mushy Peas
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 bunch spring onions, chopped
1 handful fresh mint, leaves picked
1 pound (500 grams) frozen peas
2 large knobs butter
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a pan and add the chopped onions, mint, and peas. Cover and leave for a few minutes to steam. Mash with a potato masher. You can do this with a food processor as well, just pulse it until smooth. Whether mashing or pulsing, when it's done add the butter and season very carefully, to taste.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/jamie-oliver/minty-mushy-peas-recipe/index.html

I think next time I wish mash up the peas a bit more but it was still delicious. Here is the final product:

Yatala Steak and Mushroom pie with home made mash, mushy peas & gravy

Aria

Our friend Carol gave us a very generous engagement/farewell present before we moved - a gift voucher for Aria Restaurant. Having just been to The Press Club we were excited about trying out another fine dining restaurant owned by another of our Masterchef favourites, Matt Moran.

We had booked a table for 6pm and this early seating time came with an offer of a complimentary glass of 2007 Stonier sparkling wine (Mornington Peninsula, Victoria) on arrival. The meals were absolutely divine and the service was attentive without being intrusive. Pair that with a view of the Brisbane River and you have the making for a wonderful evening.

ARIA Restaurant Brisbane • 1 Eagle Street, Eagle Street Pier, Brisbane QLD • Ph: +61 7 3233 2555

Oysters - freshly shucked and served with a selection of dressings: cocktail sauce, red wine vinaigrette and ginger and shallot

Salmon - seared fillet with a crab and kipfler potato salad, broccoli, almonds and quail egg

 Duck - roast breast with duck pastilla, parsnip purée, caramelised witlof and a muscatel jus

Banoffee - banana brûlée with caramel, almond praline and toasted almond milk ice cream

Ekka

Being a newly minted local I thought I'd better check out the highly publicised Ekka - "Queensland's biggest and most iconic event - the Royal Queensland Show (Ekka) - is a 10-day celebration of life in the sunshine state. Each year, Ekka attracts about 400,000 visitors who can enjoy more than 3000 free things to see and do."

It was very similar to the Melbourne show with lots of cute baby animals, fatty foods, rides and showbags. Although it was a bit cheesy we had a good night embracing the festivities.

Back to Yatala

I've been craving Yatala Pies ever since our first visit in July and now that we are living in Brisbane I can cruise down there as often as my waistline allows... Today we opted for a chicken and mushroom pie to share with and apple pie for dessert. We also grabbed a family size pie to take home so I'll have to try to make mushy peas on my own for that one...stay tuned!

Yatala Pies

Today we headed down to Yatala Pies. H has been talking them up quite a bit so I was expecting something pretty good...and they certainly didn't disappoint! We shared a steak and mushroom with mash and mushy peas and the special of the day - Lamb coconut curry. Then for dessert, we couldn't resist the custard tart with apple- yummo!

A snowpea isn't a course...but one scallop is

Sunkee BBQ Seafood House
352-354 Chapel Street
South Yarra

We bought the infamous 10 course banquet voucher from Deals.com.au and booked a Friday night dinner at Sunkee hoping to have a lovely banquet. Before heading to the restaurant I read some reviews on Urbanspoon and was a bit disappointed to find out that our ten courses would simply be ten pieces of food.

Upon arriving we ordered some wine and waited for the first course...and kept waiting for 35 minutes before asking the waiter why other diners who had arrived after us were being served the first course of their banquet while we went hungry. It turned out that they had been served our first course by mistake by a waitress who had just started work at Sunkee that day. Not happy..

When our first plate finally arrived after 40 minutes it was good, but we were so hungry that two courses were devoured in two seconds.

First up was a pork dumpling and ginger scallop (that's 2 courses).

Next was the Lobster San Choi Bow that we'd missed out on initially (3 courses). The lobster was lovely but the lettuce cup had been trimmed so much that you couldn't roll it at all and the filling kept falling out.

Then the chicken and sweet corn soup (4). Nice but such a small bowl :-(

Next was a wasabi prawn, some kind of battered and deep-fried white fish and a snowpea. I was debating whether this brought us up to 6 or 7 courses...surely a snowpea can't count as a course...

Next up was a Peking duck pancake - it was lovely but we were preoccupied with whether we were up to 7 or 8??)

Then came some Szechuan chicken and a broccoli floret (will this be 8 or 9?? Please let it be 8, I'm still starving!!)

Then the waiter advised us that next would come some special fried rice (I guess that's 9) then dessert. Thank God the snowpea wasn't going to be counted as a course.

Dessert was a deliciously sweet toffee apple fritter and ice cream (that's 10..)

All in all the meal was nice but nowhere near enough to claim that it's a 10 course banquet worth $120.

The staff were friendly but many mistakes were made. After having our san choi bow served to another table we almost got served the soup twice (and three other tables also had plates delivered only to turn the waitress away because they had already had that course..)

Goat Shank Tagine

Figments: FROM THE MENU: Goat Shank Tagine: "Goat Tagine with Fennel and Olives"

I tried this on Saturday night with two Goat leg roasts and it was delicious.. The meat falls off the bone and it is so simple to prepare and walk away.