A very Coco Christmas

Merry Christmas! :)

I hope you had a happy day and were able to spend it with those you love, or at least doing what you love.

I'm lying in bed, exhausted but compelled to blog before I go to sleep. I have nothing dramatic to share, I just feel like writing so I thought I'd report in on Christmas Day.

Firstly can I just say that it sux that Christmas Day and my birthday (and almost NYE) all fall on Tuesdays this round, the day before weigh in day? Not fair ;)

Christmas pudding

From a nutrition/exercise point of view, I went ok today. Christmas Day is a day that I decided a while back that would be a 'non calorie counting day'. That has the potential to get out of hand but I'm proud to say that I'm happy with how I did.

My Christmas Day involved getting up at 3am, 15 hours of travel, being paged over a loudspeaker for the first time ever this morning, and for the second time ever, again tonight, causing a security breach, traditions, time constrained running visits to hug family at their front door then run away again just so I could see them, little babies, heavy rain, meeting Santa, and most importantly, being where I wanted to be, amongst family.

When you get to hug Santa on Christmas Day, you know it's been a good one.  And the random guy who took this photo asked me out ;)

It wasn't a perfect day by any means. I wasn't able to share the day with my adored brothers, their partners and brand new baby girls on their first Christmas and other rellies and I missed them.  I had an ankle induced visit to the chemist. When I got to Christmas lunch I felt dizzy for a while and almost fainted. I was speaking to my Uncle and the room started spinning, I held the wall to stabilise myself and went for a search for sugar which came in the form of a Jaffa. Not the most nutritious thing but I needed something. I realised later that at that point I hadn't eaten one thing for 7-8 hours because of traveling - that could do it!  And just other funny little things that weren't great - family things, personal things etc.

But the best thing ever was that I was ok with it. Firstly I just felt so blessed that I have a family to share the day with and who love me. My heart ached all day for those people feeling sad or alone. But secondly I was so proud of myself, because I was ok. This year has taught me that life isn't perfect, things don't go to plan, I can't control other people, I can only control my actions and reactions and that you just have to live in the moment and do your best. In the past little things would have upset me- I usually secretly break down in tears each Christmas Day because its such an emotional day and I get overwhelmed - in a good way or in a bad way. But yesterday I just lived in the moment, accepted how things were, and smiled all day.  This was a huge step for me, personally.

No stress.  Accepting.

The only time I almost broke into tears was when one of my Aunts gave me a Swarovski crystal heart necklace as a present. This part of my family usually do Secret Santa and because my plans to join them were very last minute (as in two days ago!) I wasn't on the list this year. So I wasn't expecting anything but everyone gave me something and then this particular gift was so incredible and I was overwhelmed by it. It took all my strength not to cry when she told me why she gave it to me. I was just happy to be amongst my family - so the thought behind this was just so special- it's like a reminder that I'm so lucky to have my family. I really relished and noticed each moment yesterday- all of the little traditions - whether they be happy, funny or annoying - I just loved them all because they're familiar, I'm alive and well to enjoy them and they make up this big crazy family that I'm a part of. We are certainly NOT the Brady Bunch, but I feel so blessed and I wouldn't have it, or them, any other way.

Anyway I actually came here to talk about food and exercise haha - a little off track there. As I said, I had decided that Christmas Day is for me a day where I won't count calories. This is just a personal decision that suits me. The back up rules to that plan were that I would relax, not indulge/binge - and that I would jump straight back onto it the next day. So, rating my Christmas Day:

My grandparents' punch

• The 100g yoghurt breakfast I had before I left home: Good. But I could have had something more filling, or something more full stop.
• No alcohol: Good. This was easy though- I rarely drink- I only have a big drinking session a few times a year so this wasn't an issue for me. The no alcohol was more of a habit rather than a choice.
• The small glass of non-alcoholic punch my grandparents encouraged me to have: Good. I have no idea what was in it, it was high sugar juices etc. but the point is both of my elderly grandparents were so proud of it and wanted me to try it. This was one of those rare times where calorie counting isn't the most important thing in the world.
• The Jaffa I had when I was feeling dizzy: So-so. Maybe I could have chosen something better but I just felt like a sugar hit would keep me upright and it did.
• Christmas lunch: Good. I put onto my plate what I wanted. Ham, chicken, turkey, multiple salads, prawns, ciabatta, salmon etc. I didn't pile my plate up either, I just had a bit of what I wanted. I relaxed and enjoyed my Christmas lunch with no guilts. And I didn't go for a second round, because I had had enough.
• The extra few pieces of ham I had after lunch: So-so. Christmas ham is my favourite thing. I didn't need more ham but, I wanted it. It's ok. I'm glad I did that rather than a second highly stacked plate of seconds which I usually would have done.
• Dessert: So-so. I had a small piece of pudding and custard. I didn't need it- it's not my favourite dessert and I could have gotten away with declining it without offending anyone. However it's one of my favourite traditions of my family Christmas and I chose to partake in a small part of it. And that's ok.
• The chocolates I snacked on after dessert: So-so. To be honest this was because I was still feeling a bit dizzy and I felt like I needed more sugar, it wasn't about the chocolate. Again, I'm sure I could have found something better, but I gave my body the immediate hit it needed.
• The pre-weighed rice crackers I had in my bag as an emergency snack that I had instead of a high calorie laden dinner that was available: Win :)
• The chocolates I mindlessly snacked on on my way home "because it was still Christmas Day and I decided I'm not calorie counting today": Hmmm wrong. No win here! This wasn't cool. No dwelling on it though.
• No bingeing all day even though I 'could have because there was no calorie counting': Win :)
• The 4L of water I didn't drink: Not cool
• The 1.5km walk I did early in the morning: Good.



Christmas Day lunch

• The 1.5km walk I didn't do late at night because I chose to get a lift from my cousin because the area was unsafe to walk in: Good. Safety is more important than exercise. I did all of the exercise I had time for yesterday. It may have been 20 minutes but it was something.

So all in all I'm happy with how I went. There was no perfection and some not so great choices made, but I'm happy because it showed me that I can have a non perfect day - I can have a break and relax without going silly. Christmas Day is my favourite day of the year and I spent it - physically and with food and exercise, how I chose to. 

Pre-packed emergency snacks came in handy

I fell asleep last night so I'm finishing writing this today, on Weigh In Wednesday Boxing Day. I lost exactly 2kg this week at weigh in. I'm having a rest day today because I haven't had a total exercise break in 1-2 weeks. I have boot camp / PT every day for about a week and a half aside from public holidays, and with some other things I'm working on I will see if I can start to crank out the kg's lost from here on in. But today I'm having off. I slept in, am being lazy, am going to get myself organised and then go and watch A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas movie with my brother this afternoon. 

Merry Christmas to you all, I hope you were able to find some happiness, love, balance, peace or at least a little bit of magic in your day.

Lots of love, Coco xo  


P.S. Thank you so much to Mish who writes the fantastic blog: http://mishsmash.wordpress.com/  She nominated Coco Butter for a Versatile Blogger nomination - thank you so much!  I love Mish's blog and many others, so I will spread the love and jot some of these blogs down now.  I highly recommend them.  Apparently these are the rules with accepting this nomination:

• Display the award certificate on your website.
• Announce your win with a post and include a link to whoever presented your award.
• Present 15 awards to deserving bloggers. 
• Create a post linking to them and drop them a comment to tip them off.
• Post 7 interesting facts about yourself

So here are 15 of my awards to deserving bloggers, and below are 7 interesting facts on myself :)

15 BLOGS I RECOMMEND READING: (These are only 15 of many blogs that I love!)

1. Mindless Natter
2. Chronicles of a Gingerbread Man
3. angelbabee1971
4. Julie's Journey from Fat to Fab....
5. Unleashing My Inner Awesome
6. 20 Years of Living in the Dark
7. You got to move it, move it!!!
8. Rayon Dreams in a Cheesecake World
9. Coming out of the fat closet
10. Diary of a Dieting Diva
11. Finding Carol
12. From F**ked to Fab
13. Diary of an Ex-Fattie
14. Sporadic Buckets
15. I am enough

7 FACTS ABOUT MYSELF:

1. I am half Australian, half British and a 32nd Spanish Princess.  But I consider myself all-Aussie with a bit of an American heart.
2. I was fluent in 3 languages at the age of 9.
3. I began school at the age of 4.  I was in Year 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 4, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 due to changing schools and European scholastic spies.  I finished Year 12 when I was 16, with the same year level I started with.
4. I got conned by Philippino shooting alley scam artists and taken to an ATM on a horse to withdraw my $ for them on my 24th birthday.
5. I got fired from KFC when I was 17 because I refused to dye my hair back to a natural colour (it was bright fluoro pink).  #defiantteenagermuch
6. I've lived with 45 people.
7. I have bluey green eyes with a red streak.  I call it my 'love streak'. ;)