The answer is: alfredo sauce

I've discovered the solution to eating too much pizza: alfredo sauce.

I've really made a conscious effort to improve my eating habits this month, which must be working as I had to convince my father I was still actually eating after he greeted me with "how much weight have you bloody lost?"

But I digress. Everyone knows theres no such thing as too much pizza, which is problematic when you're trying to a) watch your portion sizes, and b) share pizza with four over excited children.

I've recently discovered spinach and feta pizza. Not because I've been living under a rock for the past decade, but because I have coeliacs disease and the pizza franchises are only just starting to discover the wonders of gluten free catering. Sometimes I'll have it with bacon, sometimes prawns, but this weekend I thought I'd go chicken and just for something different thought I'd forgego the usual tomato base and try alfredo.

Worked a treat!

I've also been making an effort to eat more slowly during lunch and dinner which is supposed to help my stomach realise it's full. The problem is I'm also one of those people who eat when they're bored and eating slowly makes me bored so....notice the problem??

I wonder if there's a sauce that'll fix that??

Of diets and daisy chains

I turn 30 in a little over a month and instead of meeting the end of my 20's with trepidation, I'm celebrating by embracing all that it means to be young, and attempting to leave some old habits behind.

Giving-up: Bad eating habits

It's taken me a few days to figure out exactly what I wanted to give up this month, but looking at my 'Vices' list I realised I never really 'gave up' dessert and 'soft-drink' was still hanging out there unchecked so I thought I could combine the two and make this the month I finally give-up all those bad eating habits I've picked up over the years.

What habits are those you may ask?

Well, let's start with the fact I can generally finish any size meal in less that ten minutes. Yep, whether it's a small salad, a king size meal from the local cafe or even a home-cooked curry, chances are my plate will be empty in 10-15 minutes. It's something I've only started to become conscious of since I've started going to business dinners. I justified it early on by telling myself that "of course I eat faster than the other attendees because they're the ones doing all of the talking" but slowly I've realised that no, I just eat fast.

I don't eat so fast that I get indigestion, but I'm still the one twiddling their thumbs at the table while others continue devouring their delicacies.

Then, there's portion size. It's not uncommon for me to cook something at home to the specifications of a recipe designed to serve 4 people, and for hubby and I to eat it all. True, he eats more of the dish than I do, but I think the time has come for me to either learn how to adjust recipes, or learn to love leftovers.

I also eat far too much sugar, have butter or margarine on breads and will usually reach for a bikkie or chocolate instead of fruit for my 3pm sugar hit.

So for the next four weeks I'm going to:

1) Take at least 20 minutes to eat my lunch & dinner

2) Stick to recommended portion sizes

3) Limit my 'desserts' (ice-cream, cake, biscuits and chocolate) to three serves per week

4) Throw out the butter and marg

5) Eat 3 serves of fruit per day

As it is now the 4th of July, I've already used my dessert quote for the week - eek!

Taking-up: Being a kid

Remember when you were little and you'd walk through a crowded shopping centre practicing your arabesques without  care in the world? or how you'd practice your bowling technique in full view of the Friday night raffle patrons?

No? Just me and my brother then.

Kids really do have it good. Some people spend so much time wanting to grow up they don't fully appreciate the care free nature of childhood. I mean, surely I'm not the only one who gets jealous when they see kids running butt-naked under a sprinkler or wearing  Cinderella costume to do the groceries.

I am? Really?

My mission this month is to re-embrace childhood, whether that be through throwing handstands against a wall, or learning something I never got to do as a kid.

I think I'll draw the line at the sprinkler though.....

Not that I'd go back to a brick, but I could survive

This has been one of the more boring months of challenges I've undertaken, mostly because it didn't give me too many insightful things to comment and reflect on. Sure I couldn't use "Sound Hound" when I got a tune stuck in my head and I couldn't figure it out, I had to rely on the street directory to get around unfamiliar parts of town and I had to wait patiently for hubby to make his way out of work instead of flicking through the news headlines but at the end of the day going without a "smart" phone really didn't impact greatly on my life.

And as for a "Photo a Day" I really wanted to try taking a different a photo a day but life just got in the way so I relied on existing piccies I'd taken instead. It was interesting going through a list compiled by a total stranger and discovering what I had actually taken photos of over time. The final examples are below.

Day 18 - Something we don't know about you.

Even though I own them on DVD, I will watch any of the 'Lethal Weapon' or 'Die Hard' 

movies if they're on television

Day 19 - Imperfect

Marriage isn't about finding that perfect person, it's about loving an imperfect

person perfectly

Day 20 - Favourite Photo You've Ever Taken

Paris 2006, trying to work out what all the functions of my new camera did

Day 21 - Where you slept

Well I don't sleep here, but hubby has been known to take a nap on our hard, concrete

floor and I simply don't know how he does it

Day 22 - From a high angle

I've started to get into candles

Day 23 - Movement

Here comes the bride...walking down the aisle on my Daddy's arm

Day 24 - On your mind

I'm not worried about turning 30, rather how I'm going to celebrate

Day 25 - Something cute

Two of my nieces, Allyra & Chelsey

Day 26 - Where you shop

Far too convenient for my liking sometimes

Day 27 - Bathroom

The cleanest section I could find

Day 28 - On the shelf

The gluten-free pasta front and centre

Day 29 - Soft

Something appreciated after days of blowing your runny nose

Day 30 - A friend

I couldn't pick just one, so decided to show many!!

Photographic fail

So it turns out my life isn't exciting enough to warrant taking a photo day...or is it that I'm simply too busy to stop and smell the photographic roses??

I think it's 3/4 cup of column A and 1/4 cup of column B.

Still, pathetic as they are, my recent efforts are below

Day 7 - Drink

I wasn't drinking anything exciting this day so my niece's sippy cup did the trick :-)

Day 8 - Six O'Clock

So remembering to actually take a photo at 6 o'clock was problematic, so instead I took a shot of the one thing that permanently show's 6 o'clock: my damn alarm!

Day 9 - Your view today

No matter where I looked on Saturday, the view that greeted me was my beautiful niece Marli sneaking chippies :-)

Day 10 - The best bit of your weekend

 I had an issue with this day's assignment, because what if the best part of my weekend happened on the Saturday instead of the Sunday?? I didn't take a photo out of principal

Day 11 - Door

My messy bedroom door where my evening dresses - including a bridesmaid dress from my own wedding! - hang in the out of the way

Day 12 - From a low angle

As my husband, mother and best friend could tell you, I have a thing for shoes, and these are my newest acquisitions: pearl Tony Bianco's with diamante bows!

Day 13 - Art

The 'masterpiece' that hangs in our living room, procured from my cousin-in-law

Day 14 - Time

I can't go anywhere without this little baby

Day 15 - Yellow

The coconut cup that adorns my kitchen, left over from my father's surprise 50th luau

Day 16 - Out and About

Yeah, I play netball on Saturdays and it's a bit hard to take a photo of myself while I'm playing so I'll leave this up to your imagination

Day 17 - In your bag

Ummm this doesn't look great does it? A purse, make-up purse, a slither of a hair brush, ankle stockings, shopping bag and - sadly - a box of Voltaren!

5 things you can't do without a smart phone

1. Be mesmerised by the rain images on the BoM radar: while driving through the middle of a downpour
2. Enter your footy tips just before cut-off time when you're out of the house
3. Find out the ACTUAL lyrics to the J-Lo song on the radio so you can stop singing your husband's version (in case you're wondering she doesn't sing "...find a man and squeeze his balls...")
4. Find the closest loo to your current location - the F3 freeway - when you're busting for a pee and it's bucketing down with rain
5. Take your required "Photo a Day" when you forget your camera

Six snazzy snaphots

Day 1 - Morning 
From my office window

Day 2 - Empty 
Gotta love a glass of bubbly!

Day 3 - On your plate 
In the metaphoric sense: I didn't eat anything exciting!

Day 4 - Close up
Flowers seemed a bit cliche but it was the best I could do

Day 5 - Sign 
This sign sits on my desk at work - is it wrong my boss thinks it's appropriate?

Day 6 - Hat
You shouldn't be surprised that I have a fancy dress cupboard at work for just such a photo op!

Like phones and photographs, these are the next 30 days of my life

So I made it through a month of no gossip mags by using knitting to entertain myself and have discovered two things:

1) I've no idea why I cherish knowing about celebrities lives, I think I just like knowing there's someone out there far, far crazier than me
2) My mother lied...I'm not a total failure when it comes to creative pursuits.

This month I've decided to take the "smart" out of "smart phone" and go back to using it for essentially what it is: a phone to call and talk to the people I love / miss / need to yell at.

To make it a teensy bit more tricky, I've decided to take on the "Photo A Day" challenge which will rely on me remembering to have my handy camera at the ready.

Giving-up: Texting / Smart Phone applications
Yep, you heard correctly, unless it's work and/or sporting related (not that it matters since I'm the coach of a team whose game got washed out on Saturday and I had no-one's numbers to tell them it was off!) I shall avoid using text messages to communicate with my nearest and dearest.

Not only that, I've also decided to give up all those other applications that apparently make my phone "smart:" calendar, camera, news feeds, email, Facebook, music player, C25K app...the list goes on.

I spent part of yesterday preparing myself for this one, digging out my old iPod shuffle and updating the music list so that when I go for my exercise session tomorrow I take it and not my phone. This also means I'm going to have to use my own willpower to actually jog for some part of said session, instead of relying on the faithful 'beep' C25K gives me remidning me to get my butt in gear.

The only thing I'm not sure on giving up completely is the alarm function: I don't trust hubby to keep his alarm set to the time I need, and yes I could go out a buy a cheapo alarm clock but I simply don't trust them either.... perhaps I should take up "trusting" next month??

Taking-up: A Photo a Day
This is a concept that has been doing the rounds of my Facebook friends for the last 12  months or so now and there has been some pretty remarkable piccies taken it must be said, so I've decided to jump on the bandwagon and document the next 30 days of my life photographically.

Courtesy of one Emunchkin, I don't have to look for inspiration myself as I will be following this handy guide below and uploading my efforts so far each Wednesday: feel free to join in and compare!