bloglovin email twitter instagram youtube
  • Home
  • Travel
  • Disney
  • About
  • Disclaimer
  • YouTube
Blog by Ali. Powered by Blogger.

Ali



August 2018 I ventured off to Papua New Guinea on P&O Australia's Pacific Eden. A short 7 night cruise with four stops - Alotau, Kiriwina Island, Kitava and the Conflict Islands. Unfortunately due to wind we didn't get to stop at Kiriwina Island however we got to explore the three other beautiful locations.

I didn't expect Papua New Guinea to have much but a beach, but I was shocked. It wasn't only a beach, it was beautiful beaches with some of the bluest waters. It was the perfect escape for a week off to relax and do nothing.

I plan to do a more in depth blog of the actual ship and the cruise as a whole, but this is a quick post to put together some of my favourite shots from the week.

Also, if you're interested, I did vlog the trip and a video will be going up on my YouTube channel soon - so make sure you subscribe so you don't miss out!

Photos were all taken with my Canon G7X Mark II - enjoy!



















Love, Ali
8:23 AM No comments

Week one is done and dusted. So I thought I'd write a quick recap of the week that was.

Workouts
I made five sessions this week! So for week one I've smashed my goal of attending at least four sessions in the week. I trained Monday - Friday, giving myself the weekend off to rest.

On our first day we did fitness testing, and my fitness is absolutely appalling now. Below is what I achieved:

Plank - Held for 50 seconds.
Crunches in 1 min - 33
Push Ups in 1 min - 15

I didn't even attempt burpees as I hate them, I'm completely unfit and going up & down so much can give me head spins. So for week one I didn't attempt them. Fingers crossed by week 12 I can look back on these numbers and hopefully there will be a noticeable difference. 

Food
For the first time ever I stuck to the diet and surprisingly it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Sure it was a lot of lean meat and salad but I didn't want to kill people at work like I thought I would. 

It was so difficult when others at work had the nicest looking lunches or my family had yummy dinners and here I was stuck eating lean meat and salad, but hopefully in 12 weeks time I see a physical difference.

Did I crave chocolate etc? Sort of. Not as much as I thought I would but definitely when I saw my family members eating it, all I wanted was a piece. I was also surprised that all week I didn't have full strength Coke or Pepsi. I'm terrible and would normally have a can a day, sometimes two, and I know soft drink (or soda) is one of the worst things to be putting into your body. I had 2 cups of Pepsi Max throughout the week, so the low calorie soft drink, and I sort of feel bad for it but oh well I did it.


Overall week one I felt sore, I hated waking up early for morning sessions but then by the time I got there I loved it, I didn't like not eating anything I wanted but didn't hate what I was eating and I lost weight - thank god!

I've put together a weight tracker below and every week I'll update it so you can see how much I've lost. Now, onto Week 2!


Love, Ali
10:03 AM No comments

2018 hasn't been a great year for me fitness wise. I started off the year 'injured', I put it in inverted commas like that because my doctor couldn't actually find anything wrong. After months of X-Rays, CT Scans, Ultrasounds, trying different drugs and physiotherapy the only thing they found was a benign enlarged lymph-node in my breast that eventually went down and nothing else. It was terrifying being a female and having chest pain and obviously like anyone else I thought the worst, but thankfully all seems to be great in my body, I just had random pain in my chest.

So for 6 months I got told no physical exercise, but walking, while they tried to figure this out. Cut to September 2018, now - I've barely worked out all year and I got in the wrong frame of mind. I thought well screw it, can't exercise might as well eat what I want. This is NOT the right way to think people! I've now gained so much weight and it's all entirely my own fault.

What have I done about it? Well I joined a 12 week bootcamp. Back to a group that helped me years ago lose weight and get fit. I enjoyed the sessions, I loved working with the trainers and everyone there was so lovely. 

My goals for the next 12 weeks:
  • STICK TO THE MEAL PLAN! I put this in capitols as I'm mainly yelling at myself. So many times before I wouldn't stick to it and then I'd get upset when I wasn't losing the weight I wanted and people around me lost 10kgs by week 6. Something that isn't in the meal plan but I know it will motivate me is a cheat meal. I've told myself if I lose weight at weigh in, on Saturday night I'll allow myself to have a cheat meal as a treat.
  • Attend at least 4 sessions a week. I know only attending 3 will barely move any weight, so I'm aiming for at least 4 but most weeks I intend to do 5 sessions.
  • Lose weight. This might seem obvious but I have some numbers in mind. By 6 weeks I want to have lost 5kg and by week 12 I want to have lost 10kg. I didn't want to give myself a big number, I knew if I did and I didn't get there I'd just quit. So I'm starting small and if I lose more weight than that's excellent.
  • Improve my fitness. I want to walk upstairs without feeling out of breath, be able to run a lap around the court without dying and be able to not take breaks during a session. 
Every week I'm going to write quick updates on here about how I feel, how much weight I lost (or gained...I hope not), what food I've been eating and the workouts. People might not event read this but it's here to help me and hopefully keep me on track.

So here we go, I'm ready to start my weight-loss journey.

Love, Ali
7:17 AM No comments


Have I eaten everywhere on Disney property? No. But I have eaten at enough restaurants to create my top 5 Table Service locations at Disney World. In case you're confused by Disney terms, Table Service is a full sit down restaurant where you are served by a waiter and your food is bought out to you - so basically a proper restaurant, I just thought I'd clarify before going any further.

So, here are my top 5 Table Service locations at Disney World.

Honourable Mention
Afternoon Tea at Garden View Tea Room - Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

So this is sort of speciality dining as it is just afternoon tea, but it's amazing afternoon tea! Beautiful tea, cute little sandwiches and sweets and an amazing experience. It's so nice to take time out from the parks, visit Disney World's most fancy resort and sit down and relax.

So I added this as an honourable mention because it's sort of a restaurant but sort of not, I don't know it deserved to be here in my opinion. 
Note: This can not be used as a table service credit.


Image credit


#5
Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria - EPCOT, World Showcase

I'm not a big fan of Italian food but I loved this place and I can easily see how it would appeal to families. The meals are massive and filling, service was great and I really enjoyed the atmosphere - some people might think it's a bit noisy but I didn't find this an issue.

Food was very well priced for what you get and I'd definitely eat there again - the pizza and sorbet was so good!
Note: You can eat here for 1x table service credit.

Image credit

#4
Sanaa - Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas, Kidani Village

Firstly this restaurant is located in such a beautiful resort, get there early and walk around. Go see the animals on the savannah, explore the lobby and just sit in the rocking chairs outside taking it all in.

Now, onto the food. Sanaa is African cooking with Indian flavours - the bread service = AMAZING, the Butter Chicken (my favourite Indian dish) = AMAZING, the whole restaurant is just amazing, even the theme of the restaurant is amazing. 

Okay I know I need a better word than amazing but it just was okay guys and I 100% recommend, especially if you love Indian food - it's a must! TIP: Maybe go here for lunch and get a table by the window, you can watch the animals while you eat.
Note: You can eat here for 1x table service credit.

Image credit

#3
Teppan Edo - EPCOT, World Showcase

Japanese food with a show, that's what Teppan Edo is. I'd never been to a Teppan-yaki-style restaurant before so I didn't know what to expect but I was pleasantly blown away.

Our chef who cooked right in front of us on the grill was hilarious and kept us entertained the entire time. I loved watching the food be cooked right in front of me and then I could eat it straight away, no sitting in the kitchen and waiting for the waiter to pick it up, it comes straight to your plate. 

I ordered Nihonbashi, which was steak and chicken and both meats were so good! The noodles he cooked as well were extremely tasty. You don't feel like you over eat at this restaurant, which can easily happen at many other restaurants on Disney property, so you walk away feeling content and pleased.
Note: You can eat here for 1x table service credit.

Image credit


#2

Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue - The Campsites at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort

Now this isn't something you'd do every trip, but it's great to do it at least once, or for a special occasion. Hoop-Dee-Doo is dinner served family style and a show. The menu is set, you get served everything on the menu and you can ask them to keep bringing as much as you want.

The food is southern American comfort food, corn bread (which we don't get in Australia and I'm obsessed with!), salad, ribs, fried chicken, corn, beans, strawberry shortcake and more - just good hearty food. Also, drinks are included! Yep draft beer, wine and sangria are all included in the price - of course you can get soda/soft drinks, water or juice too.

The show alone is worth the money in my opinion. I've seen it twice now and both times I was in stitches of laughter, I laughed so much my mouth hurt and my stomach hurt. It's rowdy, it's fun and it's great for a sing along.

In case you're wondering, there is audience participation but I honestly believe if you didn't look like you wanted to be part of the show they probably would pick you.  
Note: You can eat here for 2x table service credit.

Image credit

#1

'Ohana - Disney's Polynesian Village Resort

Well, I used to think why do people talk about this restaurant so much and last year (2017) I finally decided to book it for dinner - and I have no regrets! How had I not eaten here earlier? Why don't I eat here every night? They were the thoughts going through my mind while eating here. 

Firstly, it's located at my favourite resort, Disney's Polynesian Village Resort. Secondly, it's my favourite style of food, Asian inspired. And thirdly, if you book at the right time of night you can watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks while you eat - yes, they pipe the music through the restaurant.

Much like Hoop-Dee-Doo the food is served family style. It's a set menu and you can ask for as much as you like. You get pineapple coconut bread, salad with passion-fruit dressing (amazing!), dumplings, chicken wings, sweet and sour chicken, shrimp, steak, noodles and for dessert bread and butter pudding! The meat was also served on massive skewers which was cool as well. I couldn't fault any of the food, it had so much flavour, the meat was tender and everything was perfection.

We loved it so much, we booked it twice for dinner for our upcoming trip this year. Yes, you need a reservation! This restaurant gets booked out so make sure you are onto your 180 day mark to book advanced dining reservations.
Note: You can eat here for 1x table service credit.


Image credit

What are your favourite table service restaurants at Walt Disney World? I'd love to know!




Love, Ali
10:43 AM No comments


So I've been MIA and I don't really have a good reason. To be honest it came down to poor planning. At the beginning of the year I literally wrote down months worth of content and for the first half of the year I just followed that schedule. Then I became lazy, couldn't be bothered to plan and decided my vlogs were more important so let my blog fall by the wayside.

I enjoy blogging and have plenty of ideas but when it comes down to it I'm very lazy. But I'm back, I planned my posts till the end of the year and changed the day I'll be posting. I used to always schedule a new blog post to go live on a Saturday night and then the very next morning my vlog post would go live on my YouTube channel - this was not a smart idea. I put so much pressure on myself to get them both live within 24 hours of eachother I realised there would be a far better way.

So my new blogging day will be Wednesday! Expect to see new blog posts every Wednesday at 7am AEST. There will be plenty of Disney blogs, life blogs in general, reviews and fitness blogs - because yes I'm finally feeling motivated enough to get my butt of the couch and lose some weight.

It's good to be back.

Love, Ali
7:00 AM No comments
Newer Posts
Older Posts

Welcome


I'm Ali - twenty seven years young from Australia. This blog is a place where I want to share all my thoughts & the things I love with you!

Follow Me

Labels

Beauty Books Cruising Disney Fashion Fitness Food Haul Life Monthly Favourites Review Thoughts Travel Weightloss

recent posts

Blog Archive

  • ▼  2019 (10)
    • ▼  August (1)
      • D23 Expo Disney+ Announcements
    • ►  April (1)
    • ►  March (3)
    • ►  February (2)
    • ►  January (3)
  • ►  2018 (36)
    • ►  October (3)
    • ►  September (6)
    • ►  August (2)
    • ►  July (1)
    • ►  June (4)
    • ►  May (5)
    • ►  April (4)
    • ►  March (5)
    • ►  February (4)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2017 (21)
    • ►  November (1)
    • ►  October (2)
    • ►  July (2)
    • ►  June (2)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (3)
    • ►  March (2)
    • ►  February (4)
    • ►  January (3)
  • ►  2016 (3)
    • ►  December (3)
FOLLOW ME @mcali187

Created with by ThemeXpose