No place like home

Well, we've been home for a few days now. I didn't manage to blog as much as I thought I would while I was away, and also haven't managed to catch up on what everyone else is doing. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas.

Jake and I came home on Tuesday. We'd intended to make it a two-day journey, but just wanted to get home and into our own beds. So we did the 12-hour drive in one go - much easier now he can share the driving.

In the three weeks since my last weigh-in, I've put on 1.1kg. I'm fairly happy with that, considering all the eating, drinking and being merry that's been going on. I know my exercise helped counter many of my excesses, so thank goodness for that. As a sample of the temptations that came my way, here is the dessert spread one of my sisters prepared for the anniversary party:

YUMMY!

It was lovely to been surrounded by family, and for a good length of time, instead of a rushed weekend. For my two nieces from Adelaide (born in Nova Scotia), this was the first Christmas they've had with their cuzzies.

We had a tree at the camping ground, and the tents were decorated for the occasion. Everyone gathered for present-opening in the morning, then we had Xmas dinner at Mum and Dad's - very traditional, with ham, turkey, roast lamb on the spit and all the trimmings. Another magical array of desserts, including pumpkin pie and, of course, more pavlova.

Here are the two youngest nieces, being shooed back to their tent with their stockings, under strict instructions not to emerge until 7.30am:

A wonderful holiday, with some wonderful memories. But wonderful to be home!

Best Xmas pressie ever!

This morning my lovely son (that's right, the big, tough Kiwi bloke) gave me:
a trophy engraved 'Congratulations on losing'.

Yes, I did have a jolly good cry.

A quick summary

Hi all, just a quick summary of the events of the last week:

1. Found the best scales in the world in a motel in Rotorua - lost 16kg overnight! Of course half an hour later I'd only lost 8kg and in another half hour I'd lost 23kg. May not trust that weight...
2. It's been lovely to see all the family. There's just nothing like it.
3. The 50th anniversary was fabulous. We had a lovely Northland day and the setting at the Kerikeri yacht club was magical - blue sky, blue sea and green hills. Lots of old friends and other relatives to catch up with, a lovely speech from one of Mum's bridesmaids and another one from Dad.
4. Giving Mum and Dad their present involved much planning and sneaking. We had got them a sculpture for the garden, so Jake and two of his uncles snuck up under the cover of night, climbed the fence and put it in the garden. Carried it off without being sprung, despite being questioned by a local police officer. The text from Mum the next morning was priceless: 'Just looked out the window. First tears of the day'.
5. Last night the local Farmers' Market had an extra market so everyone could stock up for Christmas. Lots of gorgeous local produce, as well of a selection of locally made sausages, mussel fritters etc to eat.
6. More planning afoot for Christmas Day. We'll do present-opening at the camp with a champagne and chicken brunch, then mid-afternoon dinner at Mum and Dad's - the full works: turkey, ham, lamb, pumpkin pie, you name it!
7. My eating has been okay most days, but several nights with plenty of alcohol! I have been getting lots of exercise, though, and sticking to my training regime, so hopefully maintenance is still on the cards.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Still blogging

To confirm my status as an uber-geek, I will (of course) be taking my laptop on holiday with me - complete with 3G card. So I can blog anywhere. Oh, and probably slip in a bit of work as well. Pathetic.

I will sporadically post about my holiday and visit your blogs when I can. Photos might have to wait till I get back.

I have to admit to briefly considering taking my scales with me. Pathetic again - at least I only considered it for about a second. My normal weigh-in day is Friday. I'm not going to weigh early this week and won't do another official weigh until the Friday after I get back, so next time I post a weight will be 30 December. I think you can guarantee I will be keeping a wee eye on it though, on my mother's scales.

The car is all packed, complete with tents, sleeping mats, Christmas presents and my bike helmet. A few of the bare essentials are there too - gin, Jake's golf clubs, the coffee plunger (never travel without one) and the salt and pepper grinders. I just need to pick up the pram and portacot for my great-niece. Yes, it's a pretty big car.

I had one of those perplexing conversations with my boys while I was packing last night. They can't seem to understand why I need three sponge bags. It's all quite obvious to me - one each for: skincare, make-up and the general washing and body stuff. Luckily they didn't spot the fourth bag - the little one I use for my jewelry. I pack lighter when I'm flying, but if you've got the space you might as well use it!

So I'll rush through half a day's work. Then I'm having lunch with a friend. Jake is taking his girl to see King Kong at 10.30am, so the plan is to hit the road as soon as they finish. Traffic in Wellington will be a 'mare today, with the KK premier on tonight.

Next post will be from the winterless North.

2 more sleeps!

It's nearly holiday time. Hooray!

On Wednesday we head for the Bay of Islands for two weeks camping and family frivolity.

You'll see my triathlon schedule in the sidebar is a bit lighter than usual on some days. Wednesday we're driving to Rotorua after work, so I won't fit in any exercise that afternoon. Thursday we drive to Kerikeri - and I figure pitching the tents will be enough extra exercise for that day!

And Saturday is the anniversary party. I'll try to fit in my bike ride early in the morning. We have to be at Mum and Dad's by 9.30am, all flashed up in our glad rags, because they've booked a photographer. Then the do starts at the yacht club at 11am - a lunch there, followed by dessert back at the house.

We haven't really started thinking about Christmas yet!

Prizegiving

Rongotai College had their prizegiving last night. I love going to this event.

Rongotai is a boys' school, years 9-13, with just less than 700 boys. This number is made up of over 30 nationalities and a huge socio-economic range; we have students from some of the richest suburbs in Wellington, some from old-fashioned 'middle-class' families and we also have lots of recently arrived immigrants and refugees.

This diverse group makes up one of the most beautiful families I have ever seen. We may struggle financially as a school, but the heart and soul is immeasurably rich.

Our departing head prefect talked about that in his valedictory speech last night - the love they have for each other, the spirit that runs through the school. His speech brought tears to my eyes; indeed he struggled to deliver it without breaking down himself. And then, as always, I was completely undone when the school rose as one and performed the Rongotai haka for their leader. An awe-inspiring sight.

They all deserve a prize. Even my ragamuffin of a son, whose carefully cultivated mullet and muttonchops had disappeared for last night's prizegiving. And who looked so grown up on stage at the end, leading the school chants as the teachers filed from the room. As one of next year's senior class, he knows it's time for him to step up to the plate.

So, enough ramblings from a proud mum.

I'm very pleased with my half kilo loss this week, which has probably been one of the toughest weeks I've had, with so many functions on.

And, yes, the one day cricket on Wednesday was the most exciting game I've ever seen. A win would have made it perfect!

Moscow Mule

A very refreshing summer drink:
Crush a sprig of mint into a tall glass. Add plenty of ice, some freshly squeezed lime juice and 2 nips of vodka. Fill to the top with ginger beer and enjoy!
To make this a point-friendly drink, make with a single nip of vodka and diet ginger beer.

I'd like to thank all you Aussie girls for pointing out how badly we got our arses kicked in the cricket. I notice not one of you mentioned the rugby league!

Phew, recovery week!

Well, it's been one hell of a few days.

The trip to the Wairarapa on Friday was fabulous. Lovely weather, lovely company, lovely wine, lovely food.

I wore my size 16 jeans and a little knitted top that came to just above my hips - a very daring departure from the old days of mid-thigh loose tops! I was SHOWERED with compliments! Everyone was so nice - there were even a few who had to double-take to work out who I was.

So of course being surrounded by all that love put me in a great mood and I spent that afternoon/evening/night being a complete social butterfly and loving it.

Food-wise I was pretty controlled, but the alcohol was quite a different issue. Plenty of wine and then I hit the Moscow Mules when we got back into the city. I don't think even the wild dancing would have burnt those off.

Also to help keep my steps up (yeah, right) I spent the 1 hour train trip walking up and down, making sure everyone had a drink and that they had all made a new friend on the trip.

Sidenote: don't you hate those guys who used to ignore your very existence and now think it's acceptable to flirt with you because you look better than you did? Luckily most people I know aren't that shallow.

So, a brief recovery time on Saturday morning, then off to the races at Trentham, for the Printing Federation Christmas do. Another great day of catching up with the people I often only get to see once or twice a year.

Mark and I had our usual average day with the betting, but my drinking was a huge success again! Sometimes I think having a non-drinking partner isn't such a great thing - it's never my turn to drive, so I can always drink when we go out.

Didn't fit in any exercise on Saturday. Went to the gym Sunday morning and had to work very hard to do my usual programme.

Then Sunday afternoon I decided I really should get my car from work, where it had been since Friday. So I rode in to pick it up.

This is a 10km ride with practically no hills. Should be quite a pleasant ride. Except for the northerly. In true Wellington style it was blowing forty bastards again. And much of the ride was into the headwind. Several times I had the gears down to 1/1 and was barely moving.

So I've had a great weekend and am looking forward to a couple of more controlled days before the cricket on Wednesday. And it's recovery week in the triathlon schedule, so my training won't interrupt my social life!

Fattening the Christmas turkey?

Oh dear, I'd forgotten just how much we all eat at this time of year.

The social scene for next week has ramped up considerably. In the next seven days I have: wine-tasting and dinner in the Wairarapa, Printers' Federation day at the races, a big barbecue with some printers and friends, a supplier lunch, day in the corporate box at the races, the first of my work Xmas dinners!

And next week is a recovery week in the triathlon training, so I will be doing LESS exercise than usual!

By following my Christmas plan I've shown a very pleasing 1.3kg loss in the last week.

Considerable will-power will be needed to survive the next week unscathed. Note to self: always, always, always drink a big glass of water between glasses of wine.

The next thing to face will be the Xmas gifts. Being in production I get lots of gifts from suppliers and clients. I consider it just reward for the amount of work I do - it's a job no-one else wants for 11 months of the year.

Most of these presents will involve food and alcohol. So, they'll all go in a box to take on the camping trip and contribute to the 'group fund'. I'm sure someone else will sacrifice themselves for me.

I was hoping I might be an 80's girl by the end of next week. Really, I'll just be happy to make it to the end of the week without catching some chef trying to work out how much sausage and apple stuffing to shove up my cavity!

Such a sweet man

Another of those unexpected side effects...

Now, when my darling man goes away on business trips, he can bring me back a tee-shirt! I like tee-shirts from different places (so long as they say where they're from!).

He knew getting one that was too small made me feel like crap, so didn't take the risk at all. Let's face it, most places didn't even sell them in my size!

Now, he can just grab a 16. If it's a bit small, I can say 'Okay, I'll just shrink into it'.

Sometime next year he can start grabbing 14s.

Tonight I'm wearing my new tee shirt from Queenstown. Next week I should get one from New Plymouth.

He won't be able to bring me one from Fiji, though. There's no way he taking that business trip without me!

Triathlon update - end of week 1

So, I had a pretty good week of training. In fact, I only missed one thing all week, and that was the extra walk I had in for Thursday. I went skincare/cosmetics shopping at Kirkaldies instead!

Saturday my bike ride consisted of riding 20 minutes to the gym, working out, then riding home. I know EXACTLY where my quads are after that!

A couple of milestones for me this week - ran a kilometre non-stop for the first time, and made it through the series of small hills at the end of our valley without getting off my bike.

Moments like that make the whole thing seem more possible.

Coping with Christmas

Right, you lot - we need a plan here.

31 sleeps till Santa and you know the food temptations are just going to increase.

So far I've come through the first half dozen or so Christmas functions relatively unscathed. But there are more to come, and then the holiday itself.

The upcoming events most likely to cause me problems:
A golf day in Martinborough. I won't be playing golf, but I will go for the wine-tasting and the dinner.
Taking clients to the corporate box to watch NZ vs Aus in 1 day cricket. Potentially not too bad - the way the Black Caps are playing, Australia should have it all cleaned up in a couple of hours.
Countless lunches with suppliers. I'm usually okay with these - don't drink alcohol at them and eat salad!
Work Christmas dinner.
Mum and Dad's 50th wedding anniversary.
Christmas Day itself.
10 days camping with the whanau.

We all know it is going to be very easy to get derailed by the next few weeks. Socialising and the festive season go hand-in-hand with eating, drinking and general over-indulgence.

So, I need to make a plan now. I need a way to cope with all of this without setting myself back a month or so.

I am currently a 22 point a day person. From now until I go on holiday, all days without an 'event' will be 20 point days.

I will continue to not indulge in wine at lunches.

My calendar is relatively clear for the next week, so I can save lots of points for the golf day next Friday. I'll need them, because the wine in Martinborough is superb!

Save points again for the work Christmas dinner the following Friday. I don't usually enjoy these, but this year I will forgo my usual tactic of polishing off most of a bottle of champagne while getting ready to go!

The day at the cricket - limit my alcohol, drink plenty of water.

And then comes the camping holiday, which also encompasses the anniversary party and Christmas Day. Check out where we stay in Kerikeri here.

Food-wise we're not usually too bad when we're camping - lots of salads and barbecues, that sort of thing. It's the drinking, and the nibbles with drinks, that can cause the problem.

The drinking will often go like this:
A beer with lunch.
A couple of mid-afternoon beers or a bottle of bubbles because it's too hot to do anything but sit under the trees, talking and drinking.
A gin (or two) around 6 o'clock as we start getting dinner ready.
Wine with dinner.
Wine and talking after dinner.

My new camping drinking plan goes like this:
No beer, at all, ever.
No drinking alcohol with lunch.
Only mineral water for the mid-afternoon drink.
One pre-dinner gin (some things I can't give up completely).
One glass of wine with dinner.
Mineral water after dinner.
Drinking rules will be relaxed for the anniversary party and Christmas Day.

My camping eating plan goes like this:
Main meals - watch the portions and the dressings and sauces.
No desserts.
Make sure afternoon nibbles include veggies, rice crackers and salsa for me.
DO NOT visit Makana - the most amazing chocolate factory in the world, just up the road.

I'm not hoping to lose weight while I'm away, but I would like to maintain. I will still be doing my triathlon training, so that will help.

I'm also aware that I probably won't stick to these rules every single day. But going in with a plan will help minimise the damage that I could do if I had no plan at all.

So, come on, have you made your plan?

Triathlon stuff

You can see this week's training programme in the sidebar now. I've added some of my own things to it too (the stuff in brackets). There are some gym sessions to keep up the toning and conditioning, and some extra walks so my poor wee doggy doesn't feel too neglected.

Did the first swim session this morning. The 500m actually consisted of: 50m warmup, 300m continuous swimming (still in my mix of freestyle and breast stroke), 50m back stroke, 50m breast stroke and 50m warmdown. Of course it's hard to tell the difference between the warmup and the rest of it - I only really have one speed!

I have a fabulous training partner - a good friend and work colleague who is doing the triathlon as well. At the moment we are doing our two swims a week together and trying to fit in a bike ride in the weekend. However, anyone from Wellington will be able to tell you there was no bike riding yesterday - northerlies gusting to 80kmh put us right off.

Yesterday Mark and I drove to Porirua and had a look at the triathlon course. The bike ride wasn't as bad as I'd imagined - there is a fairly long uphill, but it's relatively gentle.

The run looks like it might be a bit tougher though! Part of it is through bush on a walking track. It climbs about 75m, then, as described by the course notes 'drops steeply' down again. I'm not keen on running down hill. We'll go out next week and walk it to get the feel of it.

So, the serious training has begun. I'm really looking forward to seeing how my fitness improves through this time. I hope to be able to come on here soon and skite about being able to run for half an hour without stopping!

Do a little dance

Do a little dance,
Make a little lurrrve,
Get down tonight!



So many things to celebrate today. And it's all about numbers. Where shall I start?

Let's start with a big round number. 40kg. That's how much I have lost as of this morning's weigh-in. Yep, you read it right. I HAVE LOST 40KG! That's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ... oh, sod typing all that, you get the picture - heaps and heaps.

How about another number? 30. That's my BMI now, which puts me just out of the obese range and just into the overweight range. My starting BMI was 43!

More numbers? How about 16. That's the size of my new shirts (down from 24/26) and the size of my new jeans (down from 24) - bought from a 'normal' size shop for the first time in 12 years.

Phew!

So, I'm going to use more number to set myself a new goal. My triathlon is in 12 weeks. By then, I want lose another 10kg.

It's been a long time coming!

Compared to (this pic was taken at Week 16, when I'd lost 23kg, so down to 109.5kg)






Added later. Sorry Emily, couldn't load my original profile pic, but here's one from my 40th birthday party! This is a couple of weeks before I started at WW - 132.5kg.

I'm having a passionate affair!

With steamed vegetables.

They are an absolute delight. So easy to make, such beautiful colours, such fabulous flavour.

This is the perfect time of year for steamed vegetables. There is so much choice and everything is so fresh. Today for lunch I will have carrots, beans, asparagus (yummmm) and baby leeks, all sliced and steamed with nine little chicken and corn dim sim, served with a dipping sauce of chilli sauce and balsamic vinegar. An absolute taste sensation for just 4.5 points.

Steamed vegetables are my current top food passion. What is yours?

Glug!

Well, after my rather inauspicious start, I am now swimming twice a week.

I am finding this to be the hardest part of my triathlon training. I am seriously bad at it. Bad enough to have someone snarl at me this morning for being too slow for the slow lane.

I just can't get the hang of freestyle. It's that whole breathing thing, really. Can't get into any sort of rhythm.

I am currently swimming 400m breastroke. So, that's fine, as the triathlon swim is only 300m. If I have to, I can do the whole thing breastroke.

But that doesn't feel right, damnit. I want to do it freestyle. I want to cut through the water like a torpedo.

I've tried alternating lengths between freestyle and breastroke, but still end up going 'Glug' and not being able to finish my freestyle length.

So I hit on a new method this morning. I start each length freestyle and then change to breastroke when it gets too hard. I've counted the strokes I do and will increase it by 2 strokes each week. I'll be swimming the Cook Strait before you know it!

Which is a lovely metaphor for lots of obstacles we meet in life. If you can't beat it all at once, do it a little bit at a time.

Day off

Yesterday I felt incredibly sick of watching my food, counting my points and all the rest of the palaver.

So I gave myself an evening off and Mark and I went out for dinner.

Whitebait entrees of course - fritter for him, flash fried for me.

I then had a rib-eye steak. It came with an ENORMOUS serving of fries, of which I ate less than a dozen. The rest of the plate was occupied by a piece of beef the size of Jerry Collins' bicep. I managed to eat less than half.

We then shared a platter of scrumptious petit fours, of which not a skerrick was left on the plate.

Felt good. No trouble being back on track today.

Jerry Collins is the All Blacks' blindside flanker. The man is pure muscle and the toughest man in world rugby. Bar none.

Whinge, moan, complain - and, furthermore, bleat!

Now I have no issues with being a weekend motorbike widow. In fact, not only do I love the fact that he is so into his hobby, I encourage it.

Quite a few of his mates have been know to comment "Jeez, your missus is bloody good about letting you ride all weekend".

If only they knew the truth. I love having him out of the house in the weekend, because it gives me my own space. In fact, I've been known to wake him before 7am on the weekends with a cheery "It's a beautiful day for riding. Now get up and f**k off".

And there's no problem with him getting things done around the house. Because he's out all day he makes up for it by rushing around in the evenings, doing the washing, hanging pictures, tidying the garage, etc.

So, why the title of this post? What am I complaining about?

Well, he and some of the boys have decided to hire the racetrack at Manfield for the day. They'll tool around on their racebikes, getting in some practice, fiddling with the set-ups and just generally being blokes. Being blokes involves drinking lots of coffee, smoking lots of cigarettes and telling lots of tall tales.

Again, I have no problem with this. Except that today is Friday.

Friday is my no-exercise day. My alarm goes at 6.30am instead of 5.30am. I wander around in a leisurely way, having breakfast and getting ready for work.

But not this Friday. No. His lordship had to get up at 4.30am to get to the racetrack in time. And guess who gets to wake him up, kick him out of bed and then go downstairs to make him a thermos of coffee for the trip?

I've come out!

Everyone in my family now knows about me losing weight. I had deliberately not been telling the ones who don't live locally, as I preferred to keep it to myself for a while.

Over the last few months I've seen my parents and most of my siblings, so they've all caught up with the changes. I realised yesterday that the only one who didn't know was the sister who lives in Adelaide. So I rang her last night and told her. She is very excited about my news.

One of my motivations that I haven't shared with everyone is that we're having one of our family gatherings in December. We like to have these big gatherings for things like decade birthdays - my 40th was the last one, in March. I'm the last one to turn 40 (there are five of us) and the first 50th is a couple of years away.

But this gathering is an extra special one. It is Mum and Dad's golden wedding anniversary - that's right, 50 years married!

We're having the do in Kerikeri on 17 December, which is the actual day of the anniversary (and Mum's 72nd birthday). It is a lunch at the yacht club followed by dessert at Mum and Dad's house.

We're all descending on the place at various times in the previous week, and then most of us will stay for Christmas. We'll basically take over a camping ground - a nice, quiet one just out of town.

My lovely parents will have in attendance: their 5 children, 4 partners of children, 8 of their 10 grandchildren and 1 of their 2 great-grandchildren. As well as lots of other relatives, old friends, new friends and sailing buddies.

Looking forward to a really lovely family time, and to the fact that I will look and feel completely different from last time we all got together.