Friday, March 31, 2006

Still going

In many ways I am like my Father. I like to solve problems on my own and when I am faced with something that either confuses me, or upsets me, or needs me to work though a problem, I keep very quiet and try to work things through rather than open up and let people know how I am feeling. It is a strange paradox because when I do articulate my problems I find that the very act of getting them out of my head usually presents me with the answer. And if I can't solve it, then those that are around me usually can. It is a strange little thing. And it doesn't mean that I am necessarily upset or confused in all facets of my life. But what it does do is makes me not want to write. I want to talk, but not to write.

This week has been a very good one for me in relation to exercise. I have been excited about it. I have wanted to do it each and every day. On Monday I went on a walk around the park with the 'fast ladies' and am happy to say that I am now able to keep up with them, and talk, and we have cut the walk down from a 45 minute round trip to just over 35. On this walk I got a small blister on my left foot.

On Tuesday I went for a walk to the Opera House. Just so I could run up the stairs and back down again. When I got to the top of the stairs I held my arms up in a little victory salute then dropped them quickly when I realised the pleasant walk down Macquarie Street I had just taken was all down hill. What the!! So the walk back to the office was a little tougher. It was a long walk so I won't do that during lunch again but will have to find some closer stairs. On this walk I got a small blister on my right foot.

On Wednesday I went for a swim at lunch and really concentrated on my form making sure I used my legs when I did freestyle. I am quite lazy in this regard and would be happy just using my arms but when I use my legs I go faster and I can feel it in my chest as my breathing becomes a little more difficult. Its a good feeling and alternating this with laps of using the kickboard was a lot of fun. As DH picked up the boys in the afternoon I decided I would walk home as well. We have worked out it is roughly just shy of 7kms. As I walked down George Street my feet really started to hurt - even though I had strapped both my heels and the inside of my shoes. When I turned left on Grosvener I had to walk up the hill on my tip toes so my heels would not rub too hard. After I had climbed up the steps leading to the Bridge I realised I was being ridiculous. I was only going to do myself a real injury. So I stopped. And took my shoes off. I contemplated throwing them off the bridge but sanity prevailed and I tied them to my backpack and walked the rest of the way home in my socks. I took an hour and 15 minutes which is 15 minutes longer than last time but all things considered I think I still did good. A foot rub and spray later in the night removed most of the pain and I am happy to report my feet are back in working order now. Still sporting massive blisters so no closed shoes for a while though.

On Thursday I swam at lunch. And every night this week I have done my evening exercise routine. I am feeling pretty good about the whole moving thing.

Eating is another story but after speaking with Philippa yesterday I am going to change a few things and see if it improves. I have not been tracking but keeping an eye on what I eat. I find that I am eating so much better during the day as I am not thinking "oh I have spare points I better eat some chocolate LOL". I am having fruit, dairy, vegetables. All the good stuff - just smaller portions and only eating when and if I am hungry. However the nights are still a problem. It is my problem and I need to work out a solution that allows me to eat, feel satiated, and not crave sweet stuff - which is what is happening.

My weight is great. Not gaining, definitely still toning, down a little from the last weigh in. So I am not upset about this.

This weekend I am going to catch up with Jodie and I am taking my boys with me whilst DH goes into work for a few hours. I am looking forward to it and hopefully having 2 cyclones in her house won't scare her too much and she will still enjoy the rest of her pregnancy LOL. I promise to leave her house in nearly as good condition as when we arrive ;D And Mary has found a couple of great activities/events to go to in Sydney so I am looking forward to catching up with her and trying my hand as some new exercises.

Now just a little on The Biggest Loser. During this series I have fluctuated between enjoying the show and absolutely cringing everytime they acted like children, but the last few shows have been excellent. I have picked up some really good tips re training and exercising ideas, especially the show when they trained at the beach. I was reminded once again that it does not have to cost money to get a really good workout. Just go to the beach with a couple of empty bags (to fill up with sand) some containers to use as markers and crawl, carry and run yourself into a sweat. I will be using some of these ideas. And I have been reading a non-official site which reports on the previous days shows and I absolutely cracked up when reading about the brick episode. Warning could make you laugh out loud.

So I still have some work to do but I can't beat myself up too badly about it as I am feeling quite insignificant in light of the tragedies people are facing every day. In the news. In my Country. In my State. I feel very lucky that I have the ability to whinge about blisters because it means I can afford shoes. I am grateful that I can complain about overeating as it means I have food on my plate. I know that I am still important - to me especially - and that is why I am not going off the rails. I am still treating my self well. It's just when it comes time to sitting in front of the PC I have usually watched the news by then or heard of some new disaster and have lost all inclination to write. This is just a 'patch' I am going through and I am very grateful to the support you guys have showed in showing your concern. Don't worry you will be the first to know if I decide to do something crazy. Like shave all my hair off for charity........

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Little Scalliwag

When I bought the biscuits last week I was sure they were called Golliwog but after doing some searching I think they were called Scalliwag and I just didn't notice. Shows how much attention I was paying at the time. LOL

I had a great day today. I met Linda this evening as she is in town tomorrow for her work. Just getting out of the house and heading into the City on a 'school' night was a real buzz for me. As she was landing late I thought there would be the possibility of going out to eat so I made sure to snack lightly all day and save up points for the evening. And I am so glad I did. We ended up at Bar 333 where I had the most delicious Vege Burger where the patty was made from Spinach and Ricotta. Yummmmm. Served on crispy Turkish bread with lettuce, grilled beetroot, and mayo it was sensational. I only ate about a third of the chips that came with it as we were talking so much they went cold and I lost interest. See there are very good side effects to talking ;D Then it was a walk back to the hotel so say our farewells and a quick stroll back to the train station. It was a great way to spend a Tuesday night.

I also did a little shopping today. After 2.5 years of use and with the battery now having to be sticky-taped to the phone I thought it time to replace my gorgeous little Samsumg T500. It was a really girly phone with lots of flashing diamonds and girly features I am sure I used very little after the fun of it wore off. So. I decided that I didnt't want to spend a fortune and even though I love some of the phones with a camera and an MP3 player I really only use the phone to talk and to text. So I bought the Sony Ericsson Z300i. It was cheap and it has some great features I really love. Like the little crystals you can stick on the phone to make it personal and sparkly LOL. And that you can change the back and front covers. It came with a purple and a blue, I have the blue on, but you can order Style-Up kits to change the look if you want. At approx USD24.00 for each one I can see that you can quickly spend more than the cost of the phone so I will wait till the Dodgy Brothers stalls bring out the after market ones. Though I am very tempted to use the service where you upload your own photos and design your own covers, then they manufacture them and send them out to you. Will have to put some thought into that I think. Perhaps a before and after photo??

Tomorrow is Wednesday - my early day and I am crossing my fingers that it won't be raining in the afternoon because I am really looking forward to walking home again. Maybe I should do it anyway :D

Monday, March 20, 2006

Weigh in - 2006/09

The scales showed a number of 77.9 this morning which is a 1.6kg gain since last weigh in. This gain can be attributed solely to last week with the bulk of the damage done on the weekend. Whilst this is not a confessional I am going to list what I ate this weekend. And I am sure that I will add to the list as I remember different things. This is not being done as a punishment or as an attack on my self worth, but merely as a reminder that if I eat like this on a regular basis I will put on all the weight I have lost so far. As a side note I have to confess to thinking about food a lot lately. Every trip into the supermarket, the petrol station, the newsagent, is an assault on the senses and I am afraid that this weekend I gave in big time.

In no particular order:
1 whole block of snack chocolate (the smaller one)
apple scroll from Bakers Delight
grilled ham and cheese sandwiches (nothing low fat - lots of butter)
bourbon
meat pie with sauce
chips
chicken nuggets
bourbon
wedges
crisps
lollies
bourbon
golliwog biscuits
choc covered mother earth fruit bars (several)
custard
ww caramel sponge pudding (both)
ww irish cream mousse (both)
cheese
lemon macadamia shortbread biscuit (cafe size - HUGE)
part of McDonalds happy meal
bourbon

that was just the weekend on top of which I had chinese twice last week, and champagne (which was consumed during a fanstastic get together with JayKay - I had so much fun. It was like we were old comfortable friends. Well maybe not so old LOL), oh and a bag of milk bottles. And heaps of good healthy food too.

BUT

It is not all bad.

My exercise was exempilary which I think went a long way in keeping the numbers down.
I bought clothes on the weekend - all size 12 or medium. All will fit a little less snug with 2-3 kgs off my body but all fit.
My fitness has improved with my ability to last a whole weekend with very little sleep, 2 active hurricanes who have social lives to rival Queen Elizabeth, and a husband who spent the weekend more drunk or hungover than not.

BUT

It can be a hell of a lot better.

And it will be.

Starting now. (written at 8.05am and still going well at 8.14pm)


***


Stuff.
I have booked my appointment with the accountant to do my tax. Work was very good at sending copies of 9 years of group certificates to me quickly so I can do this and get it finished.
I have received new birth certificates and have found my passport (I have a Dutch one so need to show this for most Government related things) so as soon as the tax is done I can go to Centrelink and sort out the Child Care Benefit stuff. And anything else that comes up during that discussion.
I have done a major junk clearout and hard waste has removed that this weekend.
I have received my Harvey Norman Vouchers so I can buy a digital camera so I can take photos of the excess furniture and other things to put on Ebay.
I have booked DS1 into school for next year.
I have booked DS1 into before and after school care for next year. (I still haven't quite worked out how to work enough hours and pick up both children from different schools before they close for the day. I am sure it will come to me)
I have finished the laundry (yaaaaaaay - pity it all starts again today)
I have forgiven myself for my eating transgression and will aim to be more consistently good.

Monday, March 13, 2006

No Weigh - again

But it is not because things have fallen off the rails and my life is a pile of poo poo. Nope. It is because it is going really well in lots of areas and I aim to keep the ball rolling from last week and finish off the jobs I started.

It didn't take me long (about 5 minutes) to realise that even remotely blaming blogging for my lack of results at work lately was just a cop out. I still managed to fluff and fart about for a couple of days before I really got back into the swing of working for my pay. But like I did with chocolate and junk food, I needed to move blogging out of my scope in order to focus on other areas. And I did. I am happy to say that the horrid wretched project that I am working on is so much closer to completion and I know if I can get rid of it this week, then work will become a much nicer place for me to be at again.

Other tasks that I had been putting off (for 9 and 4 years respectively) got a great push along this week with me speaking to both the Australian Tax Office and Family Assistance Office to start on the long road to catching up in both of these areas. It looks like I can stave off jail time at this stage but need to keep my focus on so that I can minimise any fines that I am likely to incur. Even though I am but at the beginning of this task I feel so much better for finally just doing it!

Exercise has been fantastic last week. I changed a few things around that were not working and the result has been that I feel great and energised in relation to moving my butt. The main thing I changed was boxing on Tuesday. I realised that for the two weeks prior I did no exercise on Wed, Thu or Fri because I was so sore from boxing. So this week I moved it to Thursday and the result was that I gymed Mon & Tue, walked home from the city on Wed (whoo hooo - great walk. Took me an hour and I am so pleased with that), boxed on Thu, then had a free day on Friday. Sat and Sun there were loads of incidental but no planned exercise. This week I will continue on this plan but on Wednesday I will be catching up with Jay Kay on Wed night so will work in an extra long walk on another day.

It's funny though. I changed the boxing because I needed to in order to ensure I got in enough exercise for the week. But I fell out with a friend because of it. She felt that I was ruining her gym fun because she only wants to go on Mon, Tue, Wed and does not want to do the boxing on Thu. She won't go alone as she doesn't want to box with someone she doesn't know. I am happy that I stuck to what I needed to do and accepted that she will do whatever she wants and it is not my fault. We have recovered a bit but still have some work to do.

Eating has been excellent and bad. Excellent from the minute I wake up till the minute I get home and then it takes a dive. Each day I make improvements and I know that I am reacting to stresses that are currently centred around the home, and I know that eating fixes those problems as much as it fixes my weight problems - it doesn't!! But I am working on those as well.

So, this week will continue the momentum I started last week in regards to the focus on catching up, and finishing unfinished business. But this week I will start to build back in some more time for me. I like blogging and I miss it. And I need to work out a balance in everything, but I can manage another week to really get myself going then look out - two weeks of mindless drivel is going to have to find its way out somehow LOL.

Oh and to finish off, a big thanks to Philippa and Linda who put up with me for some rather mammoth phone calls last week. It was brilliant and kept me sane at a time when I really needed someone to talk to. *mwah* to both of you. And for all the rest of you buggers who keep me honest too :D

Right. I am going to have a great week. And as we inch closer and closer to the one year anniversary I am going to continue to inch closer and closer to goal. And I hope you do too...

Monday, March 06, 2006

No Weigh

I have used a no-weigh pass today. Will be back next Monday with a proper weigh in.

I will be using my time this week catching up on a lot of areas that have slipped over the last few months. Work for one. I seem to be using blogging as an excuse not to find time to work and I need to stop that before I find that leaving work is not my choice anymore. Therefore this is the last time this week that blogger or the internet with be open to non-work related functions at work.

The house also needs a lot of work. Since cleaning out the study I have not progressed to sorting out the boxes and time spent at home needs to be spent catching up the house, and exercising, rather than sitting in front of the pc talking about exercising.

So I wish everyone in blog-world a successful, happy week this week and look forward to catching up on all the news next week. And hopefully my weigh in news will reflect a successful, happy week too :D

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Meaning of Life


Courtesy of www.hetemeel.com. Thanks to Mary for the link.

*****

Daily wrap-up (Wednesday 1st Mar)

Follow Exercise Plan - Morning (half) Lunch (yes) Evening (will do)
Stick to 20 points - Looking like it so far :)
Track all food - Yes
Drink 3L of water - Yes
Blog my daily results - Yes
Do something just for fun - Doing my Dictionary picture


Daily wrap-up (Tuesday 28th Feb)

Follow Exercise Plan - Morning (no) Lunch (yes) Evening (yes)
Stick to 20 points - Yes (19.5pts)
Track all food - Yes
Drink 3L of water - Yes
Blog my daily results - Yes
Do something just for fun - Went to boxing (exercise is allowed to count as fun!!)

About me

  • I'm Margaret
  • From Sydney, Australia
  • Hi. I am Margaret. Or M. I talk a lot, get distracted even more, but am putting things in place to focus on my goals. But those have been put on hold whilst I focus on crochet. Lovely crochet. :) (see - distracted!)
My profile

Letters of our Lives

    A B C D E F G H K L M N O P R T W

Stats

  • Height: 175cms/5'9"
  • SW: 83.4kgs
  • CW: 80.9kgs
  • GW: 68.0kgs
  • Total Lost: 2.7kgs
  • Started: 9th October 2006

Monthly Progress

  • Oct 06: -2.7 kg
  • Nov 06:
  • Dec 06:
  • Jan 07:
  • Feb 07:
  • Mar 07:
  • Apr 07:

Sydney Weather

    The WeatherPixie

Links

  • Hmmmm what can I use this space for??