You should meet my exercise buddy

I have this lovely dog called Moose. He's a sort of English Bull Terrier mixed with a few somethings, one of which might be pit bull. He's actually quite small and doesn't have a vicious bone in his body.
He's probably one of the stupidest dogs I've ever had!
That's a bit mean, because he's actually pretty easy to train. But he's very scatty and a bit nervous - we still had our big dog when he was a puppy and she was very dominant, which probably explains it.
But if you're nice to him, he sneezes! Seriously.
He has absolutely no idea what a ball is. If you throw one for him, he looks at you like 'What did you throw that away for? Don't you want it?' Won't even go and sniff it. Sticks get the same response.
But I love him and he's my exercise buddy.
As soon as I get home for work at night, I get into my gear and off we go. Anywhere between 4km and 5km, depending how much time I've got and which route I take. A couple of reasonable size hills to get the heart rate up, and the hills are getting easier all the time.
Moose has a lovely time and is very good - sits down before we cross the road, doesn't pull on the leash (unless he sees a cat) and gives me the occasional adoring look.
But I don't like it when people want to pat him as we walk by. I just can't handle the look on their face when he sneezes on them.

I've found a happy place!

Feeling great after a lovely weekend. Revved up for a busy week at work and enjoying my current space in the world.
Quick weekend run-down:
Saturday
Sold lots of my big girl clothes and feel very 'cleansed' by the process of letting them go.
Walked to Jake's rugby - 3 bonus points (I never spend my bonus points)
Drove from Jake's rugby to the ER at Wellington Hospital after Jake fell in a tackle and looked like he had a broken left humerus. It's awful to see your great hulking teenager lying on the field crying. But all is (fairly) well, just some strained ligaments.
Took the dog for an extra-long walk - 5 bonus points.
In case you missed it, the All Blacks kicked some serious arse against a very average Lions team.
Ate less than my points for the day, despite a couple of lovely glasses of red while watching the rugby.
Sunday
Did my 1 hour kickboxing workout - 6 bonus points.
Took early coffee to my sister who had 9 13-year-old girls in her house for a slumber party. Really enjoyed being in a girly house for a change.
Decided not to do my usual 3 or 4 hours work on a Sunday afternoon, so feel much more rested than usual.
Watched the Warriors win, which we haven't seen much of in the last couple of years.
Took the dog for a walk - 4 bonus points.
Had roast lamb for dinner (yummy), but still stayed within my points for the day.
Saw lots of my lovely man, because he wasn't out riding.

So, nothing very exciting, but feeling rested and refreshed. I hope you all have a lovely week!

Rrrrrrrugby!

I'm so excited. I can't believe I have to wait till tonight for the first All Blacks vs Lions test. Bring it on!
Filling my day with some of the usual Saturday busywork - tidying up, washing, filling water bottles for rugby etc. Went and picked up some cheap carpet I bought off TradeMe - it's for the garage! My man spends a lot of time in there working on his project bike, drinking coffee, smoking and reading about motorbikes. So it might as well be a bit more comfortable for him. And then I can use it to work out if the weather is too icky for walking - no ulterior motive there!
I'll be off to watch Jake play rugby soon - they're playing at home, so he's taken the car down with all the gear in it, and I'll walk. It's 25 minutes each way, and it's nice to walk without the dog occasionally. Jake having his licence has made it much easier to fit things like this in.
The other thing I've been doing is packing up some clothes to post - the ones I've sold on TradeMe. I've made more on selling clothes than I've spent on new clothes for me so far, which is a great feeling.
I thought I would be sad, selling some of my beautiful clothes, but it is actually quite therapeutic. I think it's all part of saying goodbye to the old me, and reinforcing that I'm not going to be that size again.

GO THE ALL BLACKS! KIA KAHA!

Steady as she goes

Not a spectacular loss this week, but my weight continues its steady decline and I continue to feel motivated. 800g is still good, and as my weight drops further the losses will get smaller.
I haven't exercised as much this week, as my knees are playing up. I think they're protesting at so much use after years of neglect! I have still walked at least 40 minutes everyday, with less hill work than usual, but haven't done any workouts. Will try to slowly bring these back in the next week.
Jake has an early appointment at the spinal surgeon today, so I will try to pop back in and write more later.

Later update: the surgeon has decided on no surgical intervention on the stress fracture in Jake's spine at this stage. Instead he will spend a few months in a specialised physio and exercise programme to strengthen the muscles that support his lower back. So - no surgery, no 3 weeks off school, no 3 to 5 months off sport. I'm feeling very relieved - it was really preying on my mind.

I've got nothing to wear!

I've reached a stage that I knew would come. Knowing it's just a stage doesn't make it any easier.
Almost NONE of my clothes fit me.
I can't wear any of my good trousers; they're so baggy the crotch is halfway down my thighs. All my lovely skirts just hang on me. Many of them are too long, because the waist sits on my hips; I keep tripping over the hems. And most of my tops just look sloppy now. And I can't wear my 'new' size 20 jeans to work every day - besides, even they're starting to get loose.
Even my workout pants are a bit unwilling to stay where they should be when I'm leaping around the room doing aerobics!
Wearing clothes that are too big is very unflattering. It's a great way to measure my progress, but wearing them doesn't make me feel good any more.
Now, I really love my clothes, and have always spent lots of money on them - way more than my man realises. But, I'm not going to fork out hundreds of dollars on 'interim' clothes. They won't fit me for long enough to get any wear out of them.
So, I've come to a huge decision - I'm going to buy some secondhand clothes! I went on TradeMe yesterday, and there's a good selection in size 20, lots of it in the labels I love, all at a fraction of the new price. I'm just going to get a few pieces to start with, and see what the quality is like. And I'm going to sell some of my too-big clothes to help finance the venture.
But I draw the line at buying second-hand trousers!

Matariki

It's the shortest day today - marked in NZ as Matariki - the Maori New Year - a time for celebration of the start of the new life cycle. Matariki (also known as Pleiades) is the constellation that appears in our skies at this time of year.
I've always particularly liked the idea of the shortest day being the symbol of a fresh start. As the days get longer new life will start to appear around us and this alone will cause our spirits to rise.
I look forward to the days getting longer for lots of reasons. Soon it will be light when I leave for work and still light when I get home. Not long after that it will still be light when I take the dog for a walk in the evening. Our social life will pick up again when the evenings are warm enough to light the barbecue and have friends drop in for a meal. Oh, okay, this is Wellington, that doesn't really happen till about December!
I've had fresh starts in lots of things this year - new house in January, new decade (my 40s) in March, new lifestyle (weight loss) also in March. So here is another fresh start in this great year I'm having.
Bring on the lambs and daffodils!


Afternoon update - the weather here is completely vile. The daffodils seem a very long way away!

It's getting busy

I've had a relatively quiet few months at work. I'm in the printing industry, but I haven't done much actual print for a while. I've been tucked away in our Wellington office, writing reports and designing workflows for the new corporate contract we've been working on. I haven't even had to travel to Auckland much - last year I spent 3 days a week there for 3 months.
That will all change at the end of next week when we start implementing the new contract. I'll move on site at their head office and I'll have print work coming out my ears!
If it's like the other implementations I've done, I'll go from quite busy to absolutely flat out in a matter of days.
And, yes, I do love it.
But I'm interested to see how well my new eating habits will fit with the change in pace. Typically when I'm busy, the eating day would go like this:
Breakfast (maybe) around 6am, before running out the door for work (my only exercise).
Several coffees through the morning, with possibly a brownie or muffin to supposedly keep my energy levels up.
Some time after 2pm, realise I haven't had lunch yet. End up getting something really bad for lunch (like fast food) because all the good stuff is either sold or curling up at the corners by that time of day.
Often another high fat snack around 5pm.
Get home around 7pm and cook dinner - usually something fast and fried because it's getting late. A few glasses of wine while cooking and eating dinner - to help me relax.
Or the alternative dinner would be more takeaways on the way to whichever sports/school meeting I've got that evening.
Ice cream for dessert.
I'm glad I've had a few months of WW before this implementation so I have developed good habits for planning and eating.
I'm confident I can keep to the good eating - I just need to make sure I always make time to plan, and pack my lunch and snacks each morning. There is a Subway and a Wholly Bagels within a block of the new site, so I will have some healthy eating alternatives as well.
It's the exercise I'm more concerned about, because that requires more of a time commitment. At the moment I often do a half hour work-out in the morning, as well as taking the dog for a 5km walk at night. So long as I can keep at least one of those going every day, I should be fine. I can always walk around the block a few times during the day to 'clear my head'.
The main difference is - I know I can do this. A few years ago, I would have seen it as just another excuse to fail.
I'm not going to lose my way.

Somebody's been cooking in MY kitchen

I was making a beef goulash for dinner last night - beef strips, lots of onions, carrots and mushrooms, vege stock and some red wine and garlic. Only 4 points per serve and lovely on a winter night. It needed to be thickened up a bit - the man likes to eat his on toast. So, I grabbed the cornflour from the pantry, and was about to stir a bit into some vege stock. Hmmm, something's not quite right here. There's something about this cornflour that doesn't look or smell right. Taste a bit - icing sugar! Lucky I checked. Might have brought an unusual taste to the goulash!
So, who put icing sugar in the cornflour jar? It can only have been my mother (from Kerikeri) or the sister from Adelaide, who were both cooking up a storm in my kitchen making desserts for my 40th party.
But that was in March! Which made me realise my patient men have been putting up with just ice cream for dessert since I started WW. I haven't made them a pavlova for nearly 4 months. What a cruel woman. I'll make them one tomorrow, and will not be tempted to have some myself. It can be a thank-you for how supportive they've been.
In case you were wondering what the girls made for dessert....
Mum's famous chocolate whiskey cake - to die for.
A meringue and champagne raspberry ice cream castle.
Chocolate mousse cake.
Enough to feed 50 people.
Drooling now, have to go.

A fine week of planning

Well, I got through my week of temptations - the baby shower (and lemon meringue pie!) on Sunday, the Lions vs Lions rugby (it was a pretty shite game but the atmosphere was great) in the corporate box on Wednesday, the breakfast meeting (ham and tomato omelette) on Thursday and the unexpected client dinner (even had apple tart for dessert) on Thursday night.
I had really planned for this week, varying my points for each day so I could 'spend' more on the big days.
I lost 1.5kg.
So, all that planning worked, and I learned a great lesson.
I can cope with what life throws at me - including lemon meringue pie. If I know I've got days like that coming up, I can plan in advance. But if it happens unexpectedly, I can make good choices and if I go over on my points, make it up over the next few days.
I am in control of my eating, it isn't controlling me.

Later that day...
Got bored, changed the colours!

STRRRRREEEEEEETCH those muscles

There are lots of different ways by which we measure our success in weight loss. There are the obvious ones like what the scales and tape measure say, and how we look and feel. But there are often other changes that we haven't thought of, which suddenly hit us like the coyote's anvil.
For me it's stretching after exercise. Now stretching is one of those new-fangled things that didn't exist when I was a teenager playing sport. A quick jog before netball for a warm-up was about it - no stretching or cooling down.
My son was in the lounge the other day when I was stretching after my walk. I have to say this isn't a glamorous look for me. And my quad stretch is somewhat unusual. I cannot stand on one leg and hold the other foot up by my bum - my lack of suppleness and ungainly shape have prevented this pose for years. Instead I sort of reverse up to the side of the sofa and hook my foot over the arm of said sofa.
Anyway, Jake said to me 'Why don't you do it like this?' and executed a perfect quad stretch.
Time for a small digression. Some of you may have gathered from my earlier posts that Jake is quite sporty. WRONG! He is a complete jock. He is 16, six foot one and about 85kg. His main sports are rugby, underwater hockey, waterpolo, touch rugby and lawn bowls (spot the odd one out!). His secondary sports are cricket, dragon boating, middle distance running, cross country and anything else where they need him to make up the team and he gets time off school. Digression ends.
So, after he asked me why I stretched that way, I explained it very politely (!). That's cool, he gets it. And he came up with an alternative stretch for me that worked better than my bodgy method.
This morning, after my home circuit workout, I thought I'd try the traditional one-legged stance quad stretch. AND I DID IT! How's that for progress? Can't wait to show Jake - he'll probably laugh his arse off. The supportive teenager thing only goes so far.
What a great new way to measure my progress. I feel very sporty. Now, if I could just get this damn anvil off my head...

A week on Temptation Island

A couple of days into my WW week - Friday is weigh-in day for me, so that's the 'first' day of my week.
A fair bit of planning has gone into this week, as there are plenty of temptations coming my way.
Yesterday we had my friend Fiona's baby shower. I love baby showers - they're just so girly. I took a fruit and cheese platter, and managed to resist most of the fatty or sweet temptations. Until, as I knew would happen, Fiona's lemon meringue pie came out. Believe me, that is a completely irresistible 5 point temptation!
But it's okay - I'd planned for it!
There are more temptations to come. For those of you who haven't worked it out, I LOVE RUGBY! And on Wednesday the Wellington Lions are playing the British and Irish Lions. YEEHAA!
Now usually, going to rugby at The Stadium isn't too bad. I don't have any alcohol, and there's a spud stall that does very nice baked potatoes. But this week will be different - we're taking clients to the corporate box. So, all the food and alcohol is laid on, and the buffet will be a little Temptation Island all on its own.
And then, on Thursday, we have a breakfast recovery meeting at the Intercontinental. More temptation.
But it's okay - I've planned for all of it!
Usually I get 24 points a day. So, this week, I'm doing 22 points per day, with 26 points yesterday and 30 planned for Wednesday. I haven't allowed any extra for Thursday - I can just have a couple of poached eggs on toast for breakfast and easily do 22 points for the day.
So, there's the plan. Yesterday worked out okay. Let's just see about the rest of the week. Can I enjoy the sun and palm trees on Temptation Island, without succumbing to the food and drink?


And now they've just added to my week. No temptations, just more to do - just called a rugby meeting for tomorrow night. We need to organise a Club Day this weekend, as all our teams are playing at home. That means two of us will organise it, and spend all day Saturday at school cooking sausages, running the after-match functions and organising POD prizes. Oh well - hopefully I'll be too busy to eat!

Take my weight - please!

You know all those cute things we do to remind ourselves just how much we've lost? Like stacking up packs of butter or cartons of milk?
Well, my thing is to pick up bags of potatoes at the supermarket and feel how much 10kg really is.
Now I'm going to take things a step further. When I've lost 20kg, I'm going to give 20kg of potatoes to the City Mission or Women's Refuge. And I'll repeat that at each 10kg milestone.
I'm thinking of it as 'giving my weight away'. And I certainly don't want it back!
By the way, I lost 700g this week. I'm pleased with that, even though it's the smallest loss I've had so far. It proves I can recover from a couple of bad days, like the ones I had at the start of this week.

Those were the days!

I've just had coffee with a friend, and it got me thinking about how dieting worked when we were teenagers.

It was a simple, four-step process:

1. I'm hungry
2. Have a black coffee and a cigarette
3. I'm not hungry anymore
4. Repeat steps 1-3 as often as required

The pounds would just fall off (kilos weren't invented then). Hmmm, I wonder where all my bad eating habits came from...

Stop being a glum bum!

Well, I've been moping around for a couple of days. Time to stop that. Okay, so I had a couple of bad food days. Okay, so I feel like I'm not going to lose weight this week.
GET OVER IT!
Have I learned nothing in the last 11 weeks? I can deal with this. I haven't even weighed in this week, so I don't actually know if I've gained. And if I have, I'll just use it help me sharpen my focus.
So, I'm going to pull myself up by my bootstraps - at least they're easier to reach now that I've lost over 16kg.
As a lover of lists, I should use one to remind me of how great I am! Here's my list:
I made the decision to change my lifestyle
My lovely man and son are right behind me on this
One of my fabulous sisters has joined me (and doing great, too)
I've lost 16kg
I've lost 10% of my start weight
I've lost 25% of my planned weight loss
My jeans are two sizes smaller
So are my bras and undies
I feel great
I'm much fitter than I was 3 months ago (and so is my dog)
I drink WAY less alcohol than I used to
I already look better than I did before

Just writing that list has made me smile again.

When good habits go bad!

Well, it's the Monday of Queen's Birthday weekend, and it feels like I barely survived a weekend of sport. The sport itself was fine, the eating wasn't quite so good.
Jake (16 year old son) had a 3 day underwater hockey tournament. I really enjoy these tournaments; love to see all the kids competing and having fun.
Friday night was okay. They just had one game, so we had dinner before we went. No problems with points or being tempted with fast food.
Saturday started out pretty good, too. Being seniors, they had no games until the evening, so it was a fairly normal Saturday for us. 'Normal' means Jake has a game of rugby at 1pm, then we watch the 1st XV play. So far, so good.
Then it was out to the pools for the two evening games. Didn't quite get around to dinner before we left. And who forgot to pack any snacks? D'oh!
By the time they'd had 2 games and I'd dropped everyone off, we got home about 11pm. And I was absolutely ravenous! It took a lot of self control not to inhale everything in the fridge. But I still managed to stay within my points. So far, not so bad!
Sunday, it all came undone. Left home at 7.15am. Had breakfast first, packed some snacks. Then we spent all day at the pools. Watched some great games. Our boys didn't get a medal, but they got 4th, so they still qualify for the national tournament. And I completely stuffed up my eating!
I didn't get around to eating my snacks when I should have and was absolutely STARVING by 2pm. Dropped the boys at the mall so they could chill out and feed themselves.
I then went to McDs to get one of their Deli Choice sandwiches. The points on those are okay, and I ordered a diet coke as well. When I drove away, I discovered they'd also put medium fries in my bag. I was so hungry, my self control completely disappeared and I ate the lot.
So, by the time we got home last night, it was time for dinner and I only had two points left. I made chicken soup and ended the day 1 point over.
Lessons learnt:

1. Don't let myself get to that level of extreme hunger. Temptations are easier to resist when you aren't so hungry you could eat the crutch out of a low-flying duck!
2. I can recover from bad days. I went off the rails during the day, but a good dinner choice helped me back on track (almost).
3. Planning makes all the difference. Good planning would have made this weekend much easier to handle. I'm a control freak - it shouldn't be hard to control this.
4. One day does not a diet make. Even if I have a bad day, it doesn't mean the week is shot.

So, all in all, it was probably a good thing to go through, to remind me of the good habits that I've learned. Let's see what the scales say on Friday...

Being particular about points

I spent all week making sure I wrote down absolutely everything I ate and drank. No surprise to learn this, but it actually does stop you picking at things or stealing 1 or 2 of the man's 'car lollies'. If you know you HAVE to write it down, it's often easier to just not have it.
So, not only did I stick to my points more easily, it made me plan my treats so I wouldn't give in on the spur of the moment.
I lost 1.7kg this week, so now I've lost 16.3kg in 11 weeks. Now I'm halfway between my start weight of 132.5kg and becoming someone who weighs less than 100kg. It's amazing how we can find these little milestones - and what a buzz they are!
I've had lots of comments this week about how much weight I've lost - quite a few from people who don't know I'm a WW girl. This is a great feeling.
It is particularly noticeable in my face, especially as I got a new haircut this week. So, I promise, I'll get a photo up on my profile this weekend.

Cruel and unusual punishment

Continuing with the fundraising theme, we have 2000 boxes of chocolates to sell. You may need to read that again. 2000 boxes of chocolates.
You can rest assured they won't be storing them at MY house.
I have brought 1 carton in to work to sell. They are displayed somewhere that is not visible from my desk.
Enough said.