Diet Blog Post 2

74kg yesterday! Nooooooo!

My own fault - I was so "carbo-loading" for my "run" that I ate everything in sight. Then after the um, "walk", I ate everything in sight again because I had been "exercising". Yeah right.

Today I'm 73.5 so some of that was water retention, but I am determined to get below 73 this week, if only by a few grams. We are away this weekend and I want it to be guilt-free.

No booze before Friday unless I get below 73kg. None. Nada. That's my incentive - how sad am I?!

I. Can. Do. This.

Australia - Impressions

These are my impressions, formed when I stepped off the plane in Sydney after 7 years in England after growing up in South Africa

1. So where are the good looking people then? Gee the British heritage shows strongly, I was expecting tall and gorgeous, and they're the same weedy chinless bunch I just left behind.

2. Blue sky, wide streets, clean and shiney. Nice city.

3. What the hell are those girls wearing? Ew. They must all get dressed in the dark every day. I don't care if it's in fashion, no one in their right mind dresses that unflatteringly. It's called a mirror, darling.

4. Why is everybody overweight? I thought this place was sporty and outdoorsy, but anyone over 30 has really let themselves go. Where is the eye-candy? Wah!

5. Gosh that's a lot of Asians. Where am I? I feel confused. And very tall. At least they're not overweight...

6. Argh look out! My god don't you people understand following distances?! And how about indicating when you're changing lanes? And what's with hogging the fast lane while doing the speed limit? Move over dammit, I'll get a ticket if I want one!

7. That lady in the shop just spoke to me. And she made eye contact. She actually sounded like she cared how I was... that's nice. Not very efficient, but nice.

8. How much for a bottle of wine? I can get it for less in London! Yes, the exact same bottle of wine. That's silly. What do you mean you don't stock anything except Aussie and NZ wine? I want a nice dry soave, or a light French sav, I'm tired of the fruity local stuff... No I am not paying that much for an imported bottle of champagne!

9. My god this seafood is amazing!

10. These suburbs are wierd. Pokey old terraces you couldn't swing a cat in... I came here to get away from this! Damn they're cold in winter, where's my coat? And scarf. And gloves. Didn't think I'd be needing them again.

11. It's lovely and safe here. In my suburb anyway ;-). No bars on the windows, people leave their front doors wide open when expecting friends. Fab.

12. Another barbeque? We had one yesterday and the day before. And the day before that. Yes it is nicer than being inside, you're right.

13. I still think a gas barbeque is cheating. And you only use the hotplate side - isn't that frying rather than barbequeing? Where's the skill in that? Sure is quick and easy though. Just as well considering we barbeque every night!

14. Let's go to the beach! There aren't any nearby? Oh because we're in a harbour, ok. So let's drive an hour to get to one... orange sand? Interesting.

15. Fancy a swim in the sea? Only between the flags because of the rip tide, I see. With the other thousand people just there. And look out for sharks... maybe I'll just lie here.

15. What do you mean I can't lie in the sun?! Skin cancer. hmm. You may have a point. Gee I've never been so pale.

16. Driving over the harbour bridge gives me such a thrill! Look look look there's the Opera House. Isn't it pretty?

17. You people are too laid back for your own good. Give me a deadline dammit! And how do you expect me to meet it if you don't do your work? Hmmm?

18. Wow that's a lot of road tunnels.

...more to come

City2Surf 2007

Yesterday Gillian and I did the City2Surf from the centre of Sydney to Bondi beach. Sadly I can't say that we "ran" it, because my ankle was giving me grief so after about half an hour we walked. Our time was 2h21 over 14km (that's 141 minutes, just over 10 minutes per km

It was a lot of fun in spite of my ankle, people really get into the spirit of the fun run. There were 64000+ runners and walkers and pram-pushers, a lot of folk in costumes, and loads of spectators and encouragement. It was extremely well organised too - plenty of porta-loos and water tables and ambulances and marshals.

The weather was stunning, up to 20 C with a cool breeze. Once you leave the city the route goes through some lovely expensive suburbs and follows the coast along Rose Bay, then up a hill and down again with views of the sea into Bondi. When we got to Bondi we bought a bottle of wine and a hot dog and sat on the sand enjoying the atmosphere. Then jumped on one of the myriad free busses back to the city, grabbed cheese and biscuits and went back to my house for a shower, wine and nibbles...

I'm a little stiff today, and my ankle is a bit sore but not nearly as bad as I was expecting. After all the food and drink yesterday the scale was pretty mean to me this morning, and I am now determined to get back into my diet and gym routine, although I'll be doing the bike not the treadmill until I stop hurting.

Gillian is now trying to talk me into the 9km Harbour Bridge run in 5 weeks time. I'll see how my ankle shapes up by the end of the month ;-)

Diet Blog Post 1

This blog sort of started as a "this is where I've been lately if my email was too long to read" sort of a travel blog thing.

Then it began to get a bit of personality... not too much because I don't find myself that interesting yet, but I'm guessing that will come with time if anyone starts commenting ;-). I don't know how folk manage to post daily - I'm trying hard to post weekly, but I think it may be weakly instead. I read a fair number of blogs, and in dull moments I hit the "random blog" link at the top of this page and I've stumbled across some interesting stuff.

I've been reading travel blogs, mommy blogs, diet blogs, and medical blogs. So the way I see it, my travelling has mostly stopped since moving to Oz so I can't have a travel blog. I'm not a mommy yet so it's not a mommy blog. I know nothing about medicine so duh. Something I do know a fair bit about however, is dieting, so I may as well add diet blog stuff to this blog.

I found a fab diet blog at 101 Reasons I hate being fat. I also regularly check up on The Grumpy Chair Dieter (she's also a mommy blogger, but swears enough to be interesting). There are more, but these ladies are inspirational. They're lots bigger than me (they're also American so measure in pounds which I can't do... I guesstimate 2lb = 1kg) but they stick to their guns in spite of past failure and are generally upbeat. You go girls!

Ok, my diet history first I suppose... I was always a plump kid. I "blossomed" a whole lot later than my peers so I was a puppy-fat flat-chested freak for a few years when everyone else hit their growth spurts. This self image hung on long after I finally caught up with everyone, and when I was at my willowy-est I still felt short and podgy. When I look at the pictures of that skinny little teenager who hated her body I could cry!

In my late teens and early twenties I started to like myself, although I always hated my tummy and would wear the biggest, baggiest tops I could find. I did a lot of waitressing around that time while I was studying at college, and it was probably good exercise because I could eat anything and stay thin, and I joined a gym and toned up for the first time ever. Then I got a desk job and stopped waitressing, and then I moved out of home and started cooking for myself, and then I couldn't afford the gym and stopped going, and then I got myself a party-animal boyfriend and discovered booze.

Since then it has been a constant struggle.

A few years ago in London I was pretty miserable. My job sucked and my party-animal boyfriend left me and I piled on the weight suddenly enough to get stretch marks. Gross. I realised I had to get a grip, so I joined Weight Watchers and I bought an elliptical trainer and made a real effort. My weight then was 69kg, and over a year I brought it down to my goal of 63kg and a bit below. I learned a lot about what I should and shouldn't be eating to stay satisfied and healthy and still be losing. I stopped eating meat pies, and cheese, and loaves of bread with real butter. I discovered zero-point soups and salads and the joys of butternut squash (no points - fab!).

When I stick to my points I lose weight. When I drift over my points a little I stay the same. When I am a completely self-indulgent pig I gain weight. Simple really. After reaching my goal I relaxed and generally hovered around 65kg.

When I moved to Australia 18 months ago I was heavier than I wanted to be at 67kg, but it was mid-winter and post Christmas and I wasn't too hard on myself. Sadly Milord and I live extremely well, and I have watched my weight gently creep up to 73kg and my bra size go up a cup. We made a big effort at the start of this year and both lost a few kilos, but they're back again.

So now I am going to blog about it in the hope that public humiliation will help! My starting weight today is 73kg. My goal weight is 65kg (more than last time, but I have a boyfriend now). I want to fit back into the cute dresses I was wearing when I moved here, I want to drink less alcohol, and I want to help my lovely man to trim down a bit too. We have a bad habit of leading each other astray!

8kg to lose. How hard can it be?!

Thursday Blues

Nearly the end of a very long, frustrating and boring week.

I have injured my ankle over the last couple of weeks. I think that with a combination of running training, personal training, and a weekly physio session to correct a misalignment in my right leg that my pt noticed, I have seriously overworked my right ankle and it is on strike. I have tendonitis, which is simply inflamation of the tendons running around the right-hand bump of my ankle towards my toes. So walking is painful, running is impossible, and getting down a flight of stairs is ridiculous.

I am not impressed.

This actually started nearly two weeks ago, when I ran a double Bay and knocked 4 minutes off my time, getting it down to 108 minutes. I was so chuffed with myself, and took the slight ache in my right ankle the next day in my stride (pun intended)! Then at the physio on Monday he got me onto one-(right)legged leg presses, which are a lot harder than they sound, and my ache got worse. Tuesday I had my personal training session, and the ache got worse. On Wednesday I ran speed intervals on the treadmill for half an hour, then went off to do squats and leg presses, and by Thursday I had a bit of a hobble!

I nursed it through the weekend we spent in Brisbane with Milord's mum, and by Monday it was mostly ok and I went to the physio again and he had me doing one-legged things again... and then of course I went for a run! Gillian and I ran for half an hour at lunchtime (she is now fitter and faster than me!), stopped, stretched, and as we began to walk back to the office I almost fell over because my ankle had siezed up. It was agonising!

Since then I have stopped physio, personal trainer and gym altogether. I have 9 days to go before the city2surf and I am determined to do it so I have to get my inflammation cured by then.

But it's so frustrating when you are used to at least four exercise sessions a week to have none! And when I am bored or frustrated, I eat. Comfort food. So now I am sore, fat and annoyed. Normally when I feel fat or annoyed I exercise... this is a vicious circle! Grumble grumble rhubarb...

I feel really really blue and blah.

On the bright side I have m'Lord home now for the first weekend in a while. He has a horrible cold that is driving me into the spare room at night, but that should be gone by the weekend. Ideally I'd go running on the weekend, but snuggling up to my honey is a good alternative!

Facebook

I read a statistic in the paper this weekend that the usage of Facebook in Australia has jumped from 2500 to 250000 since the beginning of the year (or something like that, don't quote me). It certainly seems like about once a week I get an invitation from someone to "become their friend" on Facebook.

So yeah, I signed up, linked to some friends and family, and have rather been enjoying it. I have a lot of cousins who are quite a bit younger than me and I didn't spend much time with them as they were growing up because I was studying and stuff, and then they were teenagers who never came to family gatherings, and then I left the country. They're mostly on Facebook now and it is great to be connected. I even found out one of them is pregnant today via Facebook - it's takes years for the family grapevine to pass that info along sometimes! Louise, if you find my blog - congrats!

Another funny thing about Facebook is how you can sometimes find folk from your past. The article I read referred to Facebook as "Stalkbook" because people were looking up old flames. I had to laugh aloud yesterday when I received a message from my first ever serious boyfriend when I was 17. If you read my 100 Things you may find a reference to him ;-). Wierd.

Milord is not interested in Facebook or blogging or any of the new open communication on the internet stuff. He's a bit older than me and I think the whole instant-messaging thing just passes him by. I guess I'm lucky he managed to write me all those emails that made me fall in love with him 2 and a half years ago! It's certainly not his usual style.

Evil Cat

Milord has a cat from his previous life. Her name is Portia and his friends call her Satan. She's a russian blue (probably), and is the unfriendliest animal I have ever met. Unless she's hungry, of course.

People who haven't met her, and who hear me talk about her, accuse me of hating cats. I don't hate cats. I'm not wild about them, and I have to be careful after petting them to wash my hands quickly because I am slightly allergic, but I don't mind them at all. In fact I can play with a kitten for hours, and have been known to pet a cat for ages if it sits in my lap while I'm watching TV.

This one is different. I once asked m'Lord if he got her from a rescue shelter for abused cats because she dislikes being stroked so much, especially near her hindquarters, but he says no. Apparently many years ago a child knocked on his door with a tiny kitten, saying it had been found and had he lost one. An hour or so later the same child knocked again saying did he want it as they couldn't find it a home and m'Lord and his then Lady had cat already. So they took it in.

12 years later he still has an aloof, grumpy, fussy, unfriendly parasite in the house. Not the ex, the cat. She won't eat the same food two days running, she won't let herself be brushed, she doesn't play and she growls at our friends. I don't see the point.

Recently she developed an overactive thyroid or something, which has made her even more grouchy and she can't stand to be touched. She wind around my legs vocalising while I'm cooking, begging for attention, but the moment I bend down to stroke her she acts completely offended.

When my friends say they'd love to get a cat I offer them Portia, but they always say "Not yours, it's horrible".

Old News - Newsletter July 2007

Well here we are at the middle of July, and I don’t think I have much news, but I’ll have a go anyway!

Milord’s mum is really ill. Her lung cancer is growing in spite of the chemotherapy now, and it has come to the point where the treatment would probably kill her sooner than the disease so they’ve stopped it. She’s been given a few months to live and Milord and his sister are taking turns in being with her 24 hours a day at her home in Brisbane. She wants to stay at home for as long as possible before going into a hospice, but someone has to be there all the time. Milord’s sister has suspended her job to be there during the week, and Milord is flying up most weekends to take over and let his sister go home to her family. It is very hard on them all.

So I’ve had the house to myself rather a lot recently. At first it was rather nice to have some space, but I’m over it now and miss him terribly. That is, until he comes home and grumps around the place like a bear with a sore head. I know it’s my job to absorb it and be cheerful, but I’m kind of over that too! Some days I feel like moving in with a mate and letting him and his horrible cat grump at each other instead. Bad girlfriend.

The househunting has been pretty awful. We’ve decided that it is one stress we can do without at this time and are taking a break from it. I don’t know when we’ll start again, but hopefully at the end of the year. I really miss my little house in England sometimes, and I’ve been ever so homesick lately. Probably because I just don’t like the house we are in now, and being in it alone really brings home what I am missing.

Anyway, enough moaning.

As you know, my permanent visa came through the other day (yay yay yay!) and I have to go out of the country to get it. We have booked to go to New Zealand in September, for a few days of skiing in Queenstown and a hop to Auckland to get my visa and visit H. I’m a bit nervous about skiing as it’s been about 5 years, and Milord and I have started exercising to build up our thighs. Hopefully it will all come back once I’m up the lift looking down the mountain!

Speaking of exercising, I have signed up for a Sydney fun run called the City to Surf, which is a 14km run from the centre of the city to Bondi beach. The main reason I signed up was to have an incentive to get running to hopefully shake off some weight. Sadly I’m doing something wrong, because although I am fitter and faster I am actually gaining weight! Running isn’t supposed to build muscle, is it? I have also started using a personal trainer once a week, and she’s killing me. Lunges, squats, press-ups, all the things I really don’t like! Hmmm, maybe that’s where the “muscle” is coming from… On the positive side I have beaten my personal best around the Bay, at last! Tomorrow I intend to try to run the Bay twice, as that is pretty much the same distance as the City to Surf. I imagine I’ll be walking most of the second circuit!

That’s about it, not very interesting… We’re trying to pay off our credit cards so aren’t getting out much, it’s quite cold and surprisingly wet.

Mid July

Well here we are at the middle of July, and I don’t think I have much news, but I’ll have a go anyway!

Milord’s mum is really ill. Her lung cancer is growing in spite of the chemotherapy now, and it has come to the point where the treatment would probably kill her sooner than the disease so they’ve stopped it. She’s been given a few months to live and Milord and his sister are taking turns in being with her 24 hours a day at her home in Brisbane. She wants to stay at home for as long as possible before going into a hospice, but someone has to be there all the time. Milord's sister has suspended her job to be there during the week, and m'Lord is flying up most weekends to take over and let his sister go home to her family. It is very hard on them all.

So I’ve had the house to myself rather a lot recently. At first it was rather nice to have some space, but I’m over it now and miss him terribly. That is, until he comes home and grumps around the place like a bear with a sore head. I know it’s my job to absorb it and be cheerful, but I’m kind of over that too! Some days I feel like moving in with a mate and letting him and his horrible cat grump at each other instead. Bad girlfriend.

The househunting has been pretty awful. We’ve decided that it is one stress we can do without at this time and are taking a break from it. I don’t know when we’ll start again, but hopefully at the end of the year. I really miss my little house in England sometimes, and I’ve been ever so homesick lately. Probably because I just don’t like the house we are in now, and being in it alone really brings home what I am missing.

Anyway, enough moaning.

As you know, my permanent visa came through the other day (yay yay yay!) and I have to go out of the country to get it. We have booked to go to New Zealand in September, for a few days of skiing in Queenstown and a hop to Auckland to get my visa and visit Heidi. I’m a bit nervous about skiing as it’s been about 5 years, and Milord and I have started exercising to build up our thighs. Hopefully it will all come back once I’m up the lift looking down the mountain!

Speaking of exercising, I have signed up for a Sydney fun run called the City to Surf, which is a 14km run from the centre of the city to Bondi beach. The main reason I signed up was to have an incentive to get running to hopefully shake off some weight. Sadly I’m doing something wrong, because although I am fitter and faster I am actually gaining weight! Running isn’t supposed to build muscle, is it? I have also started using a personal trainer once a week, and she’s killing me. Lunges, squats, press-ups, all the things I really don’t like! Hmmm, maybe that’s where the “muscle” is coming from… On the positive side I have beaten my personal best around the Bay, at last! Tomorrow I intend to try to run the Bay twice, as that is pretty much the same distance as the City to Surf. I imagine I’ll be walking most of the second circuit!

That’s about it, not very interesting… We’re trying to pay off our credit cards so aren’t getting out much, it’s quite cold and surprisingly wet.

Personal Torturer

The gym I belong to gives you a free personal training session every month as part of the membership deal. Initially I thought this was rather cool, and I used my sessions to ask the trainer about specific exercises to firm my butt or how to use the weights or whatever. Then the trainer I had been seeing left the gym, and I was assigned a new one called Rene.

And Rene is out to hurt people! I had one session with her and several days later when I was walking normally again I determined to never go back, and I didn't for over a year. I don't like pain.

Now, it seems the gym has become techo-savvy and they have discovered that I have a backlog of a year's worth of PT sessions owed to me. Rene rang me up a couple of weeks back to arrange a session, and I was such a wuss that I went along last Monday. She hasn't eased up at all! On Tuesday I could barely make it down a flight of stairs, and on Wednesday night I was on painkillers and Milord was heating up wheat bags to put on my back because it was in spasm...

And guess what? I've booked in for sessions with Rene every Monday midday until the City2Surf run! That's 5 weeks of torture every Monday - and my next one is in an hours time... oh why do I let these things happen to me!? Today I will ask her to skip the exercise for the back and core muscles as my back is still not quite right - of course that means that she will be able to make me do something else instead.

On the positive side though, I broke 50 minutes for the first time around the Bay yesterday! 48:48 - fantastic.