Going Down (HJ)

I made it to just under the horrible number I don't want to think about, much less talk about. (Like 0.1kg under, but hey...)

I've increased my rowing to 15 minutes about 4 times a week because I think it's time for a challenge.

I'm not having to put my bike down to first gear for the long slog up the hill from town anymore, and I've been doing about three trips into town each week. I'm not up to much more distance than that (2km) or for that matter riding to two things in the one day. But it's a start.

But last week my challenge was to go up and down the stairs 5 times 3-4 times a week. Different muscle set and for me going up has always been really hard work. It occurs to me that if I want to get to the monastery at Meteora or to the top of Mt Nebo to see where Moses got to watch the Israelites cross the Jordan in June/July this year I will need to improve my ability to go up. Or at least, I will enjoy the trip more if I do.

So, the plan is to be able to go up & down the internal stairs 20 times in a row. This week I've increased it to 6 times and I'm surprised I'm not dead. Or having weird heart-y things.

So I must be getting fitter, right?

Give or Take (HJ)

I haven't been really keen to post.

This might be because as of the end of semester I'd almost beaten my best weight ever (if I was a cow heading for the sale yards, that is). I didn't want to talk about it.

But it does give one a certain amount of motivation when they look in the mirror in some of their clothes and realise that the pregnancy rumours are going to be up and running again (if they aren't already) if one doesn't DO SOMETHING.

So I'm trying to get more active. I like food. I like lots of it, and some of the lots I like is not necessarily healthy.

So I will begrudgingly exercise in order to be able to eat moderate amounts of whatever the heck I want. Yes, I will continue to have healthy breakfast. No, I don't need a huge amount of lunch. Yes, I will try to have fruit and/or yoghurt for dessert.

But there will be occasional cakey-things. Or hot chips. or ice-cream. Or cheesecake.

I've been doing 10 mins rowing most mornings (oh, how the mighty have fallen), and I rode my bike three times this week to things I would normally take the car for.

I have been Zumba DVDing a couple of times when I have time, too.

I was walking the LBD a few times a week, but the bike riding is leaving me pretty worn out, so I've been slack this week.

Anyway, apart from the fact that I didn't write down the number representing the zenith of my weight-gain, it appears that in the last two weeks I've lost a kilo. Give or Take. Possibly as much as 1.3.

But then, one of the nannas at mainly music asked me if I'd lost some weight. I didn't really think one kg would make that much difference.

Maybe I'm building muscle!

My body can do stuff (ES)

So I've been pretty consistent with exercising every morning. I miss a few days here and there but I'd say I average at least 5 days per week (at the unholy time of about 5.45am). I don't appear to have lost any weight although I'm not 100% sure my scales are accurate. Yesterday I did the get-off-get-on-again thing and somehow gained a whole kilo. Did it again and gained another 500g. Kept doing it out of curiosity and managed to lose all that "weight" again in small increments over 5 minutes or so. Very strange, and it's the only time the scales have ever done that. I tested it again this morning and it was completely consistent, but of course now I don't know if the consistent weight it showed me is my ACTUAL weight. I think I might go with measurements instead.

A few months ago I finally got my act together and saw a podiatrist, who expressed great horror at a number of problems with my feet and ankles. She prescribed orthotics, which I have been wearing and noticing the difference. The pain in the side of my knee, which had been waking me up at night, has pretty much gone. I thought this all boded well, so a few weeks ago when on the treadmill I increased the speed to a jog. Not a good idea, as it turns out - I was limping within five steps because I had shooting pain in my knee, in a different spot from the previous pain. This is not unexpected because my knees and ankles are still getting used to behaving like normal knees and ankles instead of wobbling all over the place. Still, disappointing.

Earlier this week I decided to give jogging a go again, to see if the knee has improved. To my delight, I managed half a minute of jogging without pain. I've been testing it out each day, doing bursts of 1-2 minutes of jogging. And it's been fine, but the really great thing is that I am able to jog at a much higher speed than I've ever been able to do previously. When I was doing C25K before I usually jogged at a very shuffly and slow 6.5kmh, reducing to 6kmh when I got tired. I walked at 5-5.5kmh. Now I am walking at 6-6.5kmh and jogging at 7.5-8kmh. This is HUGE for me. I think I have jogged at 7.5kmh just once before, and I managed maybe 30 seconds. Now I'm doing 2 minutes at 8kmh and I'm still feeling okay when I finish. I cannot tell you how thrilled I am about this. I said in a previous blog entry that I'm concentrating on health and strength... and I think it's working. I am actually feeling fitter and stronger. How great is that??

Prepare to be amazed ...

Today I did it! I swam 50 laps, that is 2.5km!!! The first 10 laps were killers as usual, laps 22-24 were depressing because it was still hard going and I knew I wasn't halfway yet, but sometime in the late 20s I settled into my strokes and breathing and it became easier.

I have added two more laps into the set that I repeat. They are non-flippers laps, the trickiest for me due to my tiny inadequate feet. My set of eight now looks like
1. Kickboard & flippers, tread water for a minute at the deep end
2. Kickboard & flippers
3. Freestyle, girlpower only
4. Breaststroke, girlpower only
5. Freestyle, flippers
6. Breaststroke, flippers
7. Freestyle, hand paddles & flippers
8. Breaststroke, hand paddles & flippers.

So you see, my swimming is greatly flipper-assisted. But I like it that way.

Today after four sets (32 laps) I just kept powering up and down with my flippers. I took them off for a few laps but by then the exhaustion was showing and it was a bit too much. I needed two kickboard laps to rest a bit.

I powered past 40 laps and began to marvel at how I was now swimming personal bests - every lap was the furthest I'd ever swum! I was so relieved when laps 46-49 were done. And can you imagine how I felt on Lap 50? Woo hoo! It was exhilarating!

I guess now I need to find time to go and buy my reward!

By the way... (ES)

Lest you think I've become a spinach-smoothie swilling exercise freak, I thought you'd like to know I just had a packet of Zig Zag Twisties. The big packet. 376 calories.

They were good.
.

Health and Strength (Emily Sue)

I have no idea what I weighed last time, but today I weigh 72.8kg, which is down a bit. And that's good, but I've had a bit of a brain-shift about how I'm handling this.

I have spent most of my life with body image issues and related disordered eating. I feel like I've been following diets and food rules my whole life, and I'm always feeling guilty about eating 'bad' foods or not exercising enough. (How much is "enough" anyway?) So I must ask myself... is that any way to live? I'm thinking NO.

It occurred to me recently that having a weight loss goal is not helping me. By that I mean, having weight loss as my ENTIRE goal. It means that every time I exercise, I see it as a means to lose weight. When I eat something 'healthy', it's to lose weight. When I deny myself something 'bad', it's to lose weight. This is probably not news to anyone, but that is not actually enjoyable. Further, once I lose weight I know I will stop exercising, stop eating healthy food and go back to the 'bad' foods. Even calling them BAD foods is so unhelpful. Food is not good or bad; it's just food.

So my goal has changed. I'm still counting calories and staying within a specified amount that will help me lose weight sensibly, but weight loss is not my ultimate goal. I am aiming to be healthy and strong. God gave me a body that works well (knees and eyesight not withstanding) and it is a JOY to be strong enough to do things like walk to the shops instead of drive, or walk up a big hill because there's a fantastic view at the top. It's a joy to be able to pick up my podgy cats (they're pretty heavy). It's a joy to know my body is capable of doing 50 minutes on the treadmill - I certainly wasn't capable of that a year ago, and now I feel strong when I finish.

Having this little mind-shift has been incredibly helpful. I've just discovered green smoothies (basically it's a mix of 60% fruit - whatever you like - and 40% green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale or chard, plus a cup or two of water, blend until smooth and drink) and I'm loving them - not because they are a 'weight loss' food, but because they taste great and I honestly feel fantastic when I start the day with one. I know they sound horrible, but they are soooo good. And you can't taste the spinach. This morning's smoothie had apple, orange, pineapple, banana, almond meal (for protein) and spinach. It was delicious.

I've had the same mind shift with exercise. So this morning when I was doing a workout from a DVD I wasn't thinking, "Keep going, you need to lose weight"; I was thinking, "Hey, I can do this one a bit more easily now. I must be getting stronger. Awesome!"

This doesn't mean I leap out of bed every morning all excited about exercise and healthy eating. I still have to employ the 'don't negotiate with terrorists' method to get me out of bed. I still eat chocolate and chips and other things, and sometimes I still have a total calorie blowout. But I am no longer punishing myself, and I'm no longer obsessed with the NEED to lose weight. I'm concentrating on health and strength and if it leads to weight loss, that's great. If it doesn't, I'm still going to rejoice in the things my body can do, and in how healthy I feel.
.

I'm back LLL

Hi All,

I have been doing other things and forgetting to post. My weight dropped below the magic 60kg and that was my next target. So to celebrate I had cheesecake, would you believe 3 times in one week. That didn't have the desired effect.

I have also had 2 trips away the first in a caring role was ok, but the Sunshine Coast for 2 days wasn't and they have a gelati shop which needed visiting, twice. Then we added a church fete and the baking and eating involved there. Add to that lot a lack of motivation and guess what you have?

Fortunately, well there has to be an upside for the last 6 days I have had a tummy upset that was persistent to say the least, and that lost me 900g. Even though I haven't walked for a week.

So I have had ups and downs and today on a bounce I weigh 59.8kg. I have really settled on the target weight now and that is between 56 - 57kg so that means another 3 kg to go. I really feel like forgetting the whole thing, but if I don't keep going now I fear the starting again won't happen, so onwards.

How much can I lose before Christmas? That's me for now.

Swimming with and without terrorists

I'm back into swimming, praise be given the long cold winter is over!  Yeah yeah, I could have used the little indoor pool with its lanes of unspecified length, but seriously?  Winter, swimming, me?  Don't want to not going to do it.

Now that the 50 metre pool is open again, I've been going every Monday with a "Don't negotiate with terrorists" attitude.  After my first aborted attempt at going, that is.  On that first day, it was cold and drizzly, and there were no parks in front of the pool, beside the pool, over the road in the carpark designated as overflow parking for the pool, the council carpark adjacent to that, or up the street.  I could have parked in the shopping centre or library carpark and walked to the pool, but the fact that all the carparks were full indicated that perhaps the pool was packed too.  So I let the terrorist beat me that day.

I've been surprised to see that I've picked up where I left off before winter.  30 laps, which is 1.5km, and completing it in nearly 30 minutes.  This is 30 minutes on The P'ool Clock, which I spell with an apostrophe in my mind because it is about as accurate and keeps time as well as The Playschool Clock, necessitating the apostrophe.

My Personal Trainer, okay, my good friend who is really knowledgeable about nutrition and fitness who is studying to be a Personal Trainer, said that to build up fitness and go further, going 10% further each week is a good rule of thumb.  I don't see this as an infinite possibility, but today I decided to try 33 laps, just to see if I survived.

A funny thing happens as I swim.  The first lap nearly kills me.  It's my freestyle lap and I tend to go a bit hard first up, because I'm cold in the water and want to get warm.  (I also wear flippers to give extra resistance - excessive cardio kills me and I like to mix a good amount of strength training into anything I do.  The flippers work lots of muscle groups in my legs, and help me actually move forward in the pool, unlike my tiny size 6 feet - about as effective as paddling a canoe using butter knives.)  The second lap is breaststroke, and it's my favourite in the set of 6 laps I repeat, but the third is where I put on my hand paddles for extra resistance and go hard at freestyle again. The third lap is usually when I start questioning whether I'll make it to 10 laps, let alone 30.

By laps 12, 13 and 14, I'm a bit depressed I'm not half-way yet, and wonder if I should stop at 20.  But by 18, I know that I'll make the distance.

Today though, but the time I got to 26, I knew I had more than 4 more laps in me, and I also knew I'd make it to 33 easily.

Better make it 34, I thought.  Don't want to get out at the deep end, and walk in the wind down to where my towel is.

But then after 34, I knew I would make it to 40.  By that stage I'd abandoned my usual set of 6 laps and ditched the hand paddles and kickboard laps.  I was just doing freestyle and breaststroke, and I noticed that as I did my freestyle laps (35, 37, 39) I started wondering if I'd do 40 laps.  I was getting pretty exhausted by this time.  But the breaststroke laps encouraged me - during 34, 36 and 38 I knew I could make it.

And I did!  I swam 40 laps, 2km!

How about after I do 50 laps (2.5km) I treat myself to a pair of swim fins?

Exercise Terrorism (Emily Sue)

I can't even remember when I last posted... I know it was after a brief burst of enthusiasm. :) I think I'm about 300g lighter than then. But that's not what I want to share today.

I read a lot of blogs, and today there was a great post on Mia Freedman's blog about exercise. The link is here but I'll quote my favourite part for you. It's longish, but worth reading. (She's quoting a conversation with Michelle Bridges, one of the Biggest Loser trainers.) 

Like the rest of us, Michelle doesn’t adore exercise when she’s doing it and she doesn’t particularly look forward to it. And it’s this myth – that we should LOVE exercise and be inspired to do it – that so many of us use as an excuse not to.

Michelle says she’s asked about motivation all the time because people assume she is a motivation machine. But she’s not. “I don’t wake up, pump my fist in the air and go ‘YES! I’M GOING RUNNING! RUNNING! YESSSSSSS!’” she insists. Just like she doesn’t wake up and go “YES! I’M HAVING A SHOWER AND BRUSHING MY TEETH.”  Or “YES! I HAVE A DENTIST APPOINTMENT!” It’s just what she does.

If you wait for motivation to magically appear? You’ll still be sprawled on your couch watching The Real Housewives in a decade. The clouds do not part. Inspiration does not strike. You will probably never be overcome by the urge to exercise. You. Just. Do. It.

Accidentally, I’ve taken this approach to exercise for a long time. It’s also known as the Don’t-Negotiate-With-Terrorists method if by ‘terrorists’ you mean the self-sabotaging parts of yourself that would prefer to sleep-in or go for drinks after work instead of moving vigorously until parts of your body hurt and get sweaty.

I don’t negotiate with myself about exercise. Ever. I’ve done the same thing for years. And years and years. Exercise is one of the most boring and predictable things in my life but also one of the most important. Without it, I’m Moody McBitchface. The way I sidestep the need for motivation is to remove as many variables as possible – I exercise indoors so weather doesn’t matter. I exercise alone so I’m not relying on anyone. I don’t have a trainer or do classes so it’s not budget dependent. I always exercise in the morning and always on cardio machines. The morning part is crucial. It means I don’t spend the day having those exhausting debates in my head about whether I will or won’t do it after work. Exercising in the morning is as much a part of my routine as getting dressed.

I just love the "Don't Negotiate With Terrorists" method. It's my new mantra... because those 'terrorist' thoughts get me all the time. "Oh, I can't be bothered. I have insomnia so I should sleep when I can. I will do it tonight. I'll be late for work. I'll go for a walk at lunchtime. I don't have any sports bras clean." You name the excuse, I've probably made it.

This afternoon I desperately wanted a nap. Daylight saving started this morning so I lost an hour of sleep and my body was protesting. I was on my computer and I was almost nodding off as I typed. I was soooo tempted to sleep... but I thought, "No. Don't negotiate with terrorists." I pulled on some exercise gear, put in a workout DVD and did that for 40 minutes. Then, feeling still inspired, I put on a Star Trek DVD and walked on the treadmill for an hour while it played. ONE HOUR. I walked 5.5km and I felt great at the end. Of course, I don't expect to do that amount of exercise every day but I hope to do SOME.

Don't Negotiate With Terrorists.

I love it.
.

Progressing (HJ)

Mum indicated that she hasn't been progressing at all, so this is the perfect opportunity to say that I HAVE progressed!

I have put on more weight. Aren't you proud of me?

Medicinal chocolate is to blame, but I'm hoping that now I'm on holidays I have a little more time to make some better choices. So I started with 5mins rowing again and did 20 mins Zumba and avoided the last slice of cheesecake.... and finished my assignment entirely (unless I get keen enough to kill the remaining 400 words over limit. If I don't get keen, it's going in un-culled, because I have no idea what more I can take out).

PS. For the record, when I made a crack about LLL always being at the top, it was more to stimulate others to post, not to stop you-know-who.

Not Progressing LLL

Hi All,

After a comment made by a certain person who blogged rubbish, I have been scared to blog. But here goes, I will take my courage and give it a go.

Yes, I have been absent for some weeks and my progress is nil. When my weight settled after holidays I was about what I am now. Today I weigh 60.5kg, I have been doing all the right things and nothing is happening, so tomorrow I go away for a week and that will give me further time to think things through.

In the last week I have heard a few times about diets that have only protein for 2 weeks, and they lose between a kg a day and 5 kg in 2 weeks, so I will continue to think about doing that drastic bit to remove the last 4kg.

At least I haven't gone up in weight. So I will see you all in a couple of weeks, and may you all be more successful than I am at present.

I am officially a LOSER. (GdeE)

I bet you thought I'd died.  I haven't.  I just left to focus on doing what I'd been trying to do for so long - losing some damn weight.


On the Scales:

• Starting Weight: 67.0kg.
• Current Weight: 60.3kg
• Loss: 6.7kg, or 10% of my starting weight.

 
NSVs (Non-Scale Victories)

• BMI (not perfect, but a decent enough indicator for me): Previously: 24.9.  Wear a cardigan, and I'd be "overweight."  Now: 22.4 - just shy of the halfway point in the normal range.
• Currently wearing my GOAL JEANS!  My what?  MY GOAL JEANS!!
• Everyone is noticing that I'm looking trimmer, even my old Dad.
• Can now sustain weight loss without logging food every day: have a bit of an instinct for what I will and won't eat in order to keep losing.
• Am much fitter and can wear workout clothes without laughing at self.
• Took a ridiculous picture of self in goal jeans.  Laughed at self then.

What's worked for me?

(1) I always ate "fairly healthy," but it wasn't until I started counting calories on My Fitness Pal that I had any success at all.  After all, what's a diet without a treat?  And how big is a treat?  And how many treats?  I never knew the answers to these questions until I had a set number of calories to eat each day, and wrote down every single thing I actually ate.  The answers to the above questions weren't what I'd previously thought.

Along with counting calories, I have spent time focussing on carbs/proteins/fats, saturated fat content, sugar content, and sodium content.  All these things are quite important, and you'd go mad trying to track it all without My Fitness Pal.

Those six weeks of hard-line rules late last year were great, and I've mostly kept them up and included some more, like no rice crackers, ever!  Ever, ever, ever!  I'll tell you why one day.  Evil things.

(2) I always stayed "fairly active," but it wasn't until I started "working out" that I had any success either.  I had previously read research indicating that pure cardio was the way to go if you want to burn fat, but the reality is that strength training is pretty effective especially when it's coupled with cardio.  It was all more effective when my exercise routine was mixed up so my body didn't get used to my workout routine and go into a plateau.

So I completed Jillian Michaels' 23-day Shred program ... I beg your pardon ... I nearly completed Jillian Michaels' 30-Day Shred program in the comfort of my living room with the aid of a set of dumbbells and my three small children.  I saw results, oh boy did I see them!  And although I should have been measuring results with a tape measure as well, I mainly saw them in my ability to go from being able to do zero pushups to 15 in a row, and to crunch my abs until Jillian said to stop, and to star-jump and jump-rope and butt-kick until I lost continence.  This last is not a joke.  I didn't let it stop me - I bought a pack of maternity pads and kept going.

Going to the pool lost its appeal when the big pool was shut down for winter, so I did as much walking while pushing the pram/stroller as I could.  To and from school is ideal (Hills! Resistance training!) when the weather is nice, so I've been trying to do that whenever I can.  It's funny when you are sad when the kids hop out and walk, or when you're pushing a nice easy pram ... simply because you know you're burning fewer calories!


What now?

The picture above doesn't show it, but I haven't lost much weight from my tummy.  I have a little bit left to lose if I'm going to get rid of this fat over my internal organs (doctors don't mind all that much if your fat is on your thighs, but they don't like seeing it closer to your heart and other organs.)  The weather will get warmer and I'll be back out there walking to and from school whenever I can, and the pool will re-open and I'll start carving up the water again.  I will buy new clothes and lo, there will be less fabric in them.  I will look nicer in my clothes too, so perhaps I should decide to care just a little bit about how I look.

I'm going to learn how to get my scales to tell me [their opinion of] my body fat percentage (again, imperfect, but decent enough as an indicator) and I'll let that be a rough guide to how much more to lose, as well as how my body feels.  I can feel many inches of fat over the top of my recently-toned muscle right now, and I plan to keep some of it but lose some of it too.  Not all of it is necessary.

Hey - wanna check out My Fitness Pal?  I am eternally grateful to Emily Sue for sending me in that direction!  I recently asked a friend's husband who has lost 25kg on MFP how awesome is My Fitness Pal?

His answer: "Really awesome.  Actually ... A Hundred-Awesome."

He's right! 

Blobbity blobs of blobbiness (Emily Sue)

I have been absent. I have been stressed. I have been depressed. I have been eating.

And to my surprise (NOT) I have put on weight. I hoped it was just a kilo or two... well, technically it was. Plus another four. I think since my best Weight Watchers day I have put on about 6kg. CRIKEY. So now I'm up to 74kg and not loving that at all.

So... I'm back to logging my calories on My Fitness Pal. I also did 30 minutes of step the other night on my Wii Fit, and now my calves are sore. Man, could I really be that unfit?? Guess so.

Sigh. Here we go again.

And this is just so that LLL doesn't get in my reader all the time. (HJ)

Nothing to report. Just sick of LLL always being in the title of the post of OSC in my reader. Thought someone else should have a turn, so I'm posting nonsense. I ought to weigh in tomorrow. I wish studying Greek would burn calories. I know for a fact that it doesn't.

Jen.

Back Again LLL

Hi All,

I am still around, round being the thing. I was happy to be home and wanted to get going again, but when the point came to start, I didn't.

I have now put back a little weight and decided to start again this week, well that hasn't happened again yet. I did have family a few weeks back and that started me cooking naughty things that tasted yummy and added weight and then this last week end I was away in a hotel for a few days, great time, but ate the wrong things.

I will get going again, I have decided that another 5 kg needs to go, I am presently 61.7kg. Maybe next week will be the right time.

Is this going the wrong way called unprogress?

I eat chocolate every day so I'm going to die anyway.

So I might need to get back into Skinny Cow.

I've put on a little weight again. Too much on, and not pleasant walking weather. I was up early enough today to do 5 mins rowing (I'd not start with any more than that - asking to be stiff and sore), so I was in a pretty good mood, although on dressing in my Hospital Pastoral Care shirt I realised that the bottom button was... snug.

So I was visiting through the wards when one little old lady (who may have some dementia, given later conversation), asked me an an oddly childlike tone, "Is there a little baby in your tummy?".

I narrowly avoided Givinya's best back answer ever, "No, I'm just fat", tossing it off with the phrase, "No, I might have had a bit much chocolate".

Then I got the following warning, "Too much chocolate is not good for you. My friend had diabetes... and she's no longer with us."

So there you are. I'm fat AND going to die.

Good times!

Back Again LLL

Hi All,

I am back from my wonderful holiday. We saw some amazing places, some man made and some God made, guess which were the best?

We ate and ate, I had decided to forget about diet and enjoy everything including food. I ate far too much breakfast but surely yoghurt and fruit can't hurt too much. For lunch we had crackers and fruit and for dinner whatever the restaurant we chose had on offer. Often the offer was pork and potatoes, this is usual in some countries. Added to that each day we had an ice cream or usually gelati and if we missed a day we had 2 the next day to make up for it. You see what I mean when I say I forgot about the diet.

We also walked and walked and when it wasn't on the flat or hill, it was up or down steps and steps and steps. Each day we walked miles and miles. I made it up the tower I was practising for 241 steps. That afternoon we found a tower and it had 103 steps, I made that too. Another day a tower had 306 steps, I made that too. Then the Ice Cave, what I didn't know was that it had 700 steps after 40 mins uphill walking. All of those are only the up so the same down.

Coming home I put on a long sleeved blouse and the bottom button didn't do up. What I had forgotten was the pouch around my neck hanging to my waist with passport and credit cards etc in it. That had me a tad worried.

My weight when I got home was about 62 1/2 kg. Not bad about what it had been the week we left, now after everything has settled down I am 61.2kg, I think that is 100g more than the week before we went.

So I am happy that input equalled output, but that required a LOT of walking and I won't be doing that now.

All that is a good outcome from a wonderful holiday. Now I have to get the right mind set to continue here. My next goal is 60kg, after that I will consider how much more.

Strange lessons learned from being sick (Manda)

So, an update: I've lost a few kilos!

Unfortunately, I lost them after being really quite sick. I had a fun intestinal bug that went on and on. So before I go into the lessons I've learned, let me say: intestinal bugs are not at all a good strategy for losing weight. In addition to the fact that no weight loss or "ideal body" is worth getting sick for, I actually gained weight over the first few weeks of being sick (not just because I was unable to exercise: pre-diagnosis, I somehow managed to think I was just hungry, so ate more than usual! What a silly brain I have.)

But I did eventually lose weight. Here is what I learned:

1) It is easy to eat small portions when your food choices are mind-numbingly monotonous.
My doctor said I'd get better faster if I avoided wheat, dairy, fruit, most meat, most vegetables, caffeine and alcahol. So for the last three weeks, I've been eating rice and friends. Rice and rice cereal, rice milk, rice crackers, unflavored chicken and fish, plain pumpkin, some soy milk, spinach, rice, lactose-free yoghurt, eggs, gluten-free bread, and rice. Oh, yeah, and rice.

Before I got sick, my dinner portions were about double what they needed to be. I just kept feeling hungry! But now I'm not eating as much, I don't feel like I need to eat as much. (And when I prepare another bowl of rice cereal, I don't feel like I need to eat at all. But I do). Hooray!

2) When the consequence of deviating from what you plan to eat is a terribly ill feeling for the entire next day, you are quite likely to stick to your plan.
I guess this is obvious. So, why can't I remember this when the consequence is only slightly delayed: the emotional pain of not being able to fit into any of my pants?

So, in summary: was sick, getting better, eating more healthily, thankful. Hopefully I will remember these things when I can eat freely again!

Steady as she goes (HJ)

Knowing that no-one's around to check on my progress (or lack thereof) I thought I'd post just to let nobody at all know that I've bounced up to 76kg again, but I've held it steady for a couple of weeks now.

I think I need to do some exercise.

Or maybe eat better choices...

or less of it.

The problem being, I like food.

And I bought marinated pork spare ribs for dinner tonight.

HOW did that get past the "I'm going to start eating healthy choices" censor?

But I'm not getting heavier.

AND My Beloved, the LBD and I all went for a walk last night after work.

THEN I walked to the post box to post some letters today.

Rays of hope, maybe?

Another weigh in LLL

Hi All,

Another week and I haven't been particularly careful of what I have eaten, what with helping clean a house and pack up for removal and getting around to thinking about a holiday, who cares. Well actually I do but at times I don't get sweets made in time to set for dinner, so we have ice cream. I can't make anything today as we will be away for the next 2 days, and that is how things are going just now.

My weight is up as if you didn't guess, today 62.1kg a bounce that doesn't worry me. I will see what happens in the next week.

Thanks for checking up on me.