Happy New Year!!!

Really, really quick update ... I only have a few minutes left before I have to be back at the shop again.

Thanks so much for all your well wishes! I'll do a proper update and let you all in on the christmas goss when I have a chance to catch my breath again.

Just wanted to let you guys know I'm still alive and kicking ... just been absolutely snowballed by customers. We've been running from 7am open till 9.30pm close everyday since Boxing Day!!! Have never been so exhausted in all my life. And don't get your hopes up bout all that running meaning weightloss ... I wish! For some stupid reason my weight is way up!! TOM this week = fluid retention as well as my resistence to sugar and all things bad way down!! BUGGER!!

Eating on the run all day which mostly means having to make the best choice of a bad selection. Doing the best I can but I know I won't be making goal this week. Oh well ... I'll still make it just not this week.

Anyway really gotta run ... back to it!!! (we've had customers queing out the door!!!!)

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 71.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Santa's coming tonight!!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!!! Make wise choices but don't let your eating choices overshadow time spent with friends and family.

Thank you all sooo much for your tags!!! I just love seeing what you guys write. I'll let you in on a secret, I probably log on 10 -15 times a day to check what's been said ... I love it!!!! You guys make this site come alive!!!

It was time for my monthly pampering yesterday ... getting my nails done. Yay!! Decided to get something real Christmassy this time ... green (glow in the dark and changes colour in the sun) and red with a gold diagonal stripe. Hard to explain but maybe I'll take a pic for you when Bill gets home with the phone/camera.

He's off getting stock from the supermarket ... it's currently 6.45am!!!! He made the trip to Thames yesterday (45mins away) and could NOT FIND ONE carpark!! He drove round and round for a whole hour. No carparks in the supermarket carpark, none in the Warehouse carpark, none on the street ... in fact none for a 2km radius of the supermarket!! And he had too much stock to get to walk that distance (he wanted 10+ boxes of drinks) So he came home empty handed and very stressed I might add! lol

So he decided to go to a closer supermarket (New World and more expensive) but only 10mins away and get there as soon as it opened at 7am to hopefully be able to get it this time.

Rang my brother last night for a chat and he told me he got made redundant about 3hrs ago!! What sort of suck company makes some redundant 2 days before Christmas???? I can't believe that!!! He wants to go overseas for a bit but needs to save up some more money yet. So he's going to look for a 6mth job somewhere. He's even considering going to work for mum and dad on the farm. They're selling their farm in 6mths so might be good timing for that. Wait and see what happens but I really feel for him.

I had a some great news from Lynda ... she's going to come by and see me on Boxing Day!! They're driving past this way and going to stop in. I'm so excited!! I haven't seen her in 9 or 10mths! Yay!!!!!

Christmas is pretty uneventful for us this year. Bill's working in the shop from 8am till 2pm. My brother is coming down from Auckland (arives tonight) so that'll be fun for the kids. Then it's a laid back day tomorow, watching the kids get their stockings and play with their toys. Pancakes, banana, 98%ff bacon flavoured chicken, and maple syrup for brunch. Then mum & dad, my sister/brother-in-law, and Aunty are arriving around 6pm for dinner (salad, gourmet potatoes, asparagas, beetroot, gherkins, ham and chicken, then traditional steamed pudding, custard and icecream for dessert) I think I have my eating pretty well planned. I've saved up some points and have lots of low point options for me to have.

Then after dinner we are all sitting round the Christmas tree to open our pressies. Just one day to go!!!!! Yipppeeee!!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 71.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

This is so exciting!!

What a shock!! A happy one tho :) Those sweet little weight watcher scales told me I lost ....

Weighin Result 20th December, 2004 ... 1.4kg Loss!!! Blown away by that one!!!

There's a few exciting things about this weighin ...

1. It takes me down to only 800 pathetic little itty bitty grams to go till goal!!!! That's the most exciting part!!!

2. It brought me to my 35kg lost goal!!!! Do you realise the last time I actually reached a mini goal?? 10th March, 2004 I got to 3/4 way mark @ 75.6kg!!! That's like absolutely ages ago. The last few kilos have been painfully slow and you all know how I have lost motivation many times in that time. But it's soooo true ... never give up and you WILL GET THERE! That's a scientific fact!! I'm testiment to that. I never did anything amazing that made me any different from anyone else. I wasn't a 1kg a week girl ... never have been (don't count this weighin result because that's actually two weeks worth, remember I didn't go to weighin last week?) All I have done is plodded, or "chipped" my way along (as Beck's so wonderfully put it)

3. I have now been doing weight watchers for more than 100 weeks!! If someone had said to me at the start of all this that it's going to take you over a hundred weeks to get to goal I probably would have given up right there and then. Lucky I didn't know then huh? lol ... but I'm glad it's taken that long, because my ways are set in habit concrete now. Bill said to me the other day "I'm so proud of you, the fact that the other day you went out shopping on your own, with all those food temptations and smells around and you still stuck to your healthy choices even tho no one would have known. No one around you knew you, yet you still came under points for the day. That shows this is a lifestyle for you now."

And he was so right. I'd never thought about like that before. And I didn't even have to fight myself that day. I naturally wanted healthy food, the other things never even entered my brain. But in saying that, it's been a gradual thing over the past 2yrs. It really does take time to get to that stage... so I'm glad I gave myself that time.

The other reason I'm glad it's taken this long is that I've enjoyed myself along the way ... I've had my bourbens, my chocolate, my lollies, my McD's ... and I haven't missed out. I haven't suffered ... and I can eat like this now and still have my treats ... when I get to goal nothing is going to change, I can just keep doing what I'm doing and I'm happy with that!

4. Next week my weight watchers meeting is closed for the week giving me two weeks to get to goal. And with just 800g to go I can do this ... and this is the coolest part ... my next weigh in will be the 3rd of January, 2005 ... exactly two years since I started my JOURNEY TO SLIMSVILLE!!!

GOAL HERE I COME!!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 71.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

New Car ... Yay!!

Some bad news, some good news, some great news!

Got a speeding ticket coming back from doing the Christmas shopping on Thursday. My very first ever speeding ticket. I was not happy with that Mr Coppa! But I was speeding so I guess I deserved it.

We bought a new car yesterday ... a 1999 Toyota Prado ... an eight seater! (Hailey don't tell Trish yet!!!) So finally we can fit all the kids in the car again. We lost our Challenger last year when Bill left his job. And in the meantime we've been travelling round in a Go-kart (that's what we call it) 1984 Toyota Sprinter. It's nice to have proper wheels again and to be able talk while driving without the noise of the engine to yell over.

And lastly my weight is down again today ... looking good for weighin on Monday, if I don't stuff it up over the weekend. I worked in the shop all day and not one single lolly I had!!

I had two people comment today that I looked like I had lost weight in the last month which is interesting given my weight hasn't dropped that much in that time. But I have noticed my size 12 pants I bought in Aussie in October and falling down on me all the time, so that's a good feeling. Although I'm not sure if it's me shrinking or my pants stretching! lol

Short update today, just got home from work (12hr day) and I'm dog tired.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 72.3kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Warning!! Rambling below

Thanks guys ... feeling much better today, just a little tightness in the lungs.

Saw a thing on tv last night about a new drug that's coming out that suppossed to speed up your metabolism with absolutely no side effects. Bill and I were glued to the screen to find out what it's name was and where we could get it! lol ... only to find out it won't be on sale in Australia till 2008, so who knows when it will be here in NZ!! Said to Bill I may as well eat like there's no tomorrow until it arrives here!! JUUUUUST KIDDDDDING!! lol

In all honesty I'm not one for taking pills. Ask Bill, even when I'm nearly dieing I still won't take a panadol. Something in me just says your body gives you signs for a reason so if we knock out the signs how do we know what's happening?

But this new metabolism drug did sound great. It speeds up your metabolism to that of a fit person and unlike all the other diet drugs out there it doesn't rebound when stopped. i.e. you don't pile weight back on, you just stop losing. On the tests they did 100% of the people lost weight (over twelve weeks) and most of them lost around 10-12kgs in that time.

I know what alot of you are thinking ... what's she talking about taking that when she's so close to goal? But that's just it ... I'm finding it so hard to lose these last few kilos that something like that would be just the trick to do it.

Anyhow, it's not on sale yet and won't be for quite a few years in which time I WILL BE AT GOAL!! lol ... so all this talk is for nothing ... sheesh I'm rambling today aren't I? lol

Onto another thing I saw on tv ... studies have shown that the average size has gone up now to a size 14-16 in New Zealand ... I'm so glad to see they have finally worked out what we've all been saying for a long time ... that the so called size 8 chick is not the average anymore. And they've also worked out that shops have a big range of fittings for their sizes ... like a size 12 girl can be anything from a size 10 in one shop to a size 16 in another ... well .... HELLLOOOOOOOOO???? We've known THAT for donkeys ages!! Funny how science takes a while to catch on to what women's intuition has known for ages!

Now onto another thing .. now this got me riled up!!! Watched a documentary on the current generation and what they think of the older generation (named generation X, that's my generation ... and baby boomers, that's my parent's generation). They were so arrogant!! and full of themselves ... and ... oooooooohh ... I could go on for hours! lol ... one thing amoung all the insults they said was that woman who have had babies shouldn't wear hipsters!! Because their skin is all saggy!! Bill said I nearly got up and hit the screen!! lol

Ok I've calmed down now and gotten over it ... a little!! But who do they think they are to tell someone who has been through childbirth that they can't dress how they want? Ok, ok, ok ... I'm stopping now, before I explode!

Anyway these were a couple of things I caught on tv (canya see I'm a little tv addict at the moment! lol) that got my attention and thought I'd pass it on for ya!

Weightwise ... I dunno what happened on Monday but suddenly my weight shot right up, didn't do nuthin naughty ... honest!! Really don't know where that one came from ... anyhow today it's come down a little, still not where it should be but heading in the right direction.

Hey and guess what?? (yeah I know I'll end this entry soon) but Bill changed the lollies over to another drawer system on the side counter and it's slightly opaque ... that's done the trick ... I only had two lollies in the last 4 days!! Wahooo me!!!!

Ok I'll sign off now ... promise!! lol Quick before I think of something else to say! lol

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.2kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Feeling like crap today

Nothing new to report ... sorry guys! No weighin for me tonight ... I'm feeling like crap. The kids have been sick over the past week with what seemed like a mild cold/cough but now I'm realising, as I come down with it, that it's a little more than that :)

I'll be fine tho. Nothing that a few days laying low won't fix. Worked both days over the weekend in the shop and I think that may have been what did it ... overdid it a little. So spent today and probably tomorrow dressed in my unflattering but very comfortable tracksuit and no bra, laying around the house doing not much.

Nothing else to tell ... gonna go check out what everyone else has been up to then I think it's an early night for me.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.2kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

In the real world again

Thanks guys for your wonderful words on tagboard and emails you've sent!! :D

I bought myself the Weight Watchers Exercise DVD this week ... great investment if anyones considering it! It's a great workout and you get one of those stretchy bands free. Although I bought an extra Medium intensity band as well because the freebie one was a beginners intensity one and I didn't know if it would be enough. I was right. I used the medium one straight off and had a good workout!

Was quite funny really ... I had a couple of drinks last night (all counted in my points) and decided on the spur of the moment I would do a workout ... Bill and I together ... at 10pm at night ... while quite unsteady on my feet ... heheh!! Very comical trying to stay balanced with tricky manouvers! But earnt myself an extra few bonus points and would have helped get rid of some of that alcohol.

NOTE: I just re-read that last paragraph ... and get your minds out of the gutters ... lol ... I meant a weightwatchers exercise dvd workout ... not the other type!! :p

Woke up this morning rearing to go. Decided we would go for a walk somewhere. Pity the weather man didn't help. Dressed the two youngest up warm with jackets and hats and off we went to Waihi. Got half way round and the wind just got too much. We had to walk on a 45 degree angle to stay upright at times! So decided to head home early. Oh well, not as much bonus points as I had hoped but better than nothing.

Called into the supermarket on the way home and got a salmon steak and mushrooms for the BBQ for lunch. I had imagined it to be sooo yummy but some reason it didn't live up to my expectations so gave half my steak to Bill (saving on 2pts) heheh

Bill's at the shop this afternoon/evening so I've got a weightwatchers dinner planned for dinner. Kids are having homemade fish and chips. Nice and lazy night curled up infront of the TV!!!!! Yes you heard right ... we have TV again!!!! We went one whole month without TV ... OMG I don't know how I survived!! Nearly didn't!! I'm a serious Shortland Street addict and my withdrawel symptoms were in overdrive!! lol ... so we sat down last night and watched it and caught up on a whole month in one night ... it's a bit like that! lol ... we ended up getting sky because to get TV here we would have had to get a new aerial which would cost about the same as a whole years sky sub ... so we went for sky instead.

I've also got Jetstream (broadband) on today ... wow it's so fast!! The telephone lines here suck and the fastest connection I could get was 30kbps ... it was rediculous! I would wait quite a few minutes just to get one page up. Now it comes up in seconds!! We're quite the technology bugs this week huh? lol Feels good to be in the real world again! For those of you who have me in your email address book under the old email ... our email address has changed, so sent me an email via the link on the right and I'll send you our new one.

Eating has been good again today. I'm so pumped being so close to goal now. Bill made a suggestion of eating just lettuce and fruit all week and running around the block at every spare moment ... that way I'd be at goal before Christmas and be able to show off my piercing to everyone on Christmas Day ... lol ... yeah right don't think that's going to happen ... I have 2.2kgs to go and only 2 weighins before Christmas.

But you never know ... miracles have been known to happen! :D

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.2kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Nothings stopping me now!

And I thought I was pumped before?????

NOTHING CAN STOP ME NOW BABY!!!! Wanna hear why??

Bill said I had to work in the shop on Wednesday because he wanted to go buy my Christmas pressie. Of course I said yes!! Who wouldnt?? lol

He rang me from Tauranga to say he had just bought it ... infact two pressies. We had a limit for eachother ... which I'm ashamed to say I went over ... ummm ... by quite a few hundred lol ...whoops ...

Well I didnt feel so bad because he did too :) ... firstly he said "Wanna hear how much I spent on you?" And I immediately said NO!! Then straight after (without me even realising I'd said it ... "Yes" ... "yes, tell me how much you spent"

After he told me how much ... he said "wanna hear what I bought you?" "NO... NO WAY!!!" Bill is shocking at keeping secrets ... he does this every year ... he tells me before my birthday or before christmas what he's bought me, he just gets so excited about it. And he tries to get out of me what I've bought him ... but not this year ... NO WAY I'M NOT TELLING!! lol

Anyway I refused to listen to what he bought. He said he was going to give one of the pressies to me when he got home and the other on Christmas day. I said no but he wouldn't take no for an answer and in hindsight ... I'm kinda glad I got it now ... You'll understand after you see what it is ...

Ready???
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You remember what my final reward for reaching goal is??? The one I wrote in my weightchart page where I've put all my goals/rewards??? The one I've been staring at on the wall for the past two years .. wandering if I'll ever get it???

I wanted to have my bellybutton pierced with a diamond stud ....

well ...

Bill bought me a white gold bent bar chain with a diamond!!! (the main center stone is a daimond) .... ohhhh .... my .... friggen .... goodness!!!! I couldn't believe it ... it was such the coolest pressie!! And he knew how much this pressie really meant to me ... it's more than just a piece of jewellery ... it's a symbol ... it's a statement from Bill that he believes in me ... that he know's I'll make it!! It's like looking up at the end of a marathon, nearly falling over from exhaustion, not knowing if I'll actually be able to get to that finishline ... then looking up to see Bill there cheering me on with an enthusiasm that proclaims I'll do this because he has the finishing medal in his hand ready to give to me!

That's why this is such a cool pressie ... and why I'm glad he gave it to me now ... because he know's now is when I need the encouragement and motivation to finally finish this!

I'm sticking to my goal of not getting my belly button pierced until after I actually reach goal ... then I'm off baby!!! off to get that celebration hole punched!!! Yeeee haaaaa!!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.2kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Healthy body image

Yay another 600g gone!! Bringing me down to 73.2kg :D and just 2.2kg to go to goal!! I really wanted to get to my lowest weight ever lastnight (72.8kg) just 400g off but wasn't meant to be. I'm happy tho, 600g is nothing to scoff at.

After reading someone's journal yesterday about the physical amount of weight we've lost I realised I have lost more than the weight of Jordan and Jese combined!! (34.2kgs) So I did a little experiment to see for myself. I carried round Jordan and Jese on my hips and I only lasted a few minutes before I had to put them down!! Wow they are heavy!! lol and to think I used to carry that much weight around everyday!!! No wonder I used to find it exhausting just to roll over in bed! Sometimes it's so easy to get caught up in the numbers but to actually see something physical that weighs the same as what we've lost really opens our eyes to our great efforts!!

I stayed for the ww meeting last night and they were talking about body image and how our mind takes a while to catch up to our actual image. That's so true for me. It's only been the last month or so that I've started to feel slim and stopped being so critical of myself in the mirror. I'm only just (after nearly 2yrs) starting to see myself as actually slimmer. I knew it in my head because the numbers told me that but it's the instant reaction we have when we catch a reflection of ourselves. For 22mths that reaction for me has still been a yuck feeling ... but now this last month it's become a "wow, look at her" feeling! lol Instead of turning my glance away ashamed to look again I catch myself looking twice or three times and a smirky smile coming over my face ... heheh! That's what weightloss is all about! :)

So my goal for this week is to lose another 500g bringing me lower than my lowest weight (72.7kg)

I'm feeling great!
Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.2kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

What a sweetie!!

So much has happened since my last update and I've been so busy I haven't had a chance to tell you all about it. But I'm here now ...

You know that BBQ meal I had all planned for dinner the other night? Well that all went out the window when Bill walked in the door at 4pm and told me to go put some nice spunky outfit on. All the questions started firing at him as to what he was up to. Of course he wouldn't say anything but to put a nice outfit on and pack an overnight bag.

So a frantic hour later I was showered, dressed with a face put on and smelling oh so nice ... heheh

All packed up in the car off we went. We ended up at Hamilton (an hours drive from here) at a motel. A babysitter turned up, instructions given and a taxi arrived. He took me to a fantastic restaurant in the Main street of Hamilton. Absolutely devine food!!! I was a little worried because I hadn't planned on a night out (points wise) but you'd be proud of me!!

I ordered the salad of the day for starters ... yummy combination of fancy lettuce, cherry tomatos, red onion, seeds, green olives (but I gave these to Bill, to save on points hehehe) and basil leaves coated in a balsamic vinager dressing. Absolutely YUMM!! (I counted it as 2pts given I had a couple of olives and there was a little olive oil in the dressing)

Then for mains I had a salmon fillet on chargrilled veges and placed on rice in a honey sauce and a side plate of steamed veges ... it was soooo devine!! And again really low in points.

I considered having dessert but there was nothing low point on the menu and I was comfortably satisfied, any more would have made me too full.

So off we went for a walk to see what we could find. Went to a couple of bars, had a few drinks and moved on with not much happening.

Then we found a pool club. Bill and I love playing pool. We used to play regularly in our dating years. It's been a while and I was a little out of practice but was very enjoyable. An hour and a half later we decided to move on to see what else we could find to do.

Had a look round at a few more clubs but they were filled with teenyboppers. (shheeesh I must be getting old lol) ... Had a bouncer on that I was offended he never asked ME for ID! lol

Then we found the Outback bar and it was perfect! Not too crowded, lots of space, good music, a couple of pool tables and a dance floor! So we settled ourselves down there. A few drinks later and I was feeling rather ... ummm ... relaxed! lol

A guy came over to ask if Bill wanted to play a game of pool with him with a wager of $5. Sure Bill said. So I sat and watched them play. This guy was good!! But unfortunately he sunk the white ball straight after the black right at the final shot, so lost and Bill won himself $5 bucks! YAY!

Then two guys came up to them and asked if they wanted a doubles game for a wager of $5. Bill and this guy made a great team!! Then we found out that the two guys were All Blacks!! They were big guys!!! But such gentle giants! Wahooo!! And get this he won both games against them!!! Winning himself $15 bucks!!! Yeah baby!!!

I went for a dance on the floor then we decided to head home. (well back to the motel) One taxi ride and we were there ... at 1.30am!!!! Impressive for me ... I'm usually someone who falls asleep infront of the tv at 9.30pm! lol

Flopped into bed and up again at 7am to get back home intime to have the kids at school.

Had an absolute ball!! And get this ...with the restaurant meal and all the drinks ... I kept within my points!!!! Yeah ... now that's a GOOD NIGHT OUT!!

Worked in the shop yesterday morning, then went to a friends for a BBQ lunch, then home for a quick nap and back to the shop for a 5pm-7pm shift. Home again last night, had dinner, chatted to Bill for a bit then off to flop my tired body into bed!

I have today off and it's pretty yucky weather outdoors so might be a lazy day indoors for me!

Ohhh and I have to tell you guys ... I've only had 3 lollies in the last 5 days!!! And I've stuck to points 100%!! Goal is so close for me now ... I have to do this! I'm going to do this!! I am doing this!!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Advice galore! Thanks!!

Wow you guys are full of some great ideas!!! I've actually taken a combination of alot of your suggestions and come up with a plan.

1. I'm going to do up a chart for each kilo I've lost so far and also a star/reward chart for each day I go without lollies and stick it to the lolly counter (customers won't be able to see it). I might also include my fat photo on it. Then for everyday I don't have any lollies I get a star on my chart and will give myself a reward after a certain amount of days. That way everytime I walk past I'll see that instead of the lollies.

2. I'll continue to chew gum when I can.

3. Give myself an allowed amount of lollies every 3 days I go without.

4. I think a big thing is to break the habit. I was talking to Amanda about it via email and worked out it's not actually the lollies/sugar I want because I have chocolate and lollies at home that I never touch and it's not a problem at home. I think that it's become a habit that everytime I walk past I want to duck my hand in the jars. So hopefully by putting the chart up will be enough of an incentive to break the habit.

5. Continue to take rice crackers to work to nibble on all day

6. Bill has also talked about changing the layout of the shop to put the lollies in a pull out drawer under the glass top counter. This will make it a little harder to get to them and not so easy to sneak my hand into a lolly jar. He's doing it for space reasons but it suits my needs too.

7. Jules I did sit down one day and gorge myself ... that's when I had a 2.5kg gain the next day!! lol Don't think I'll be doing that again in a hurry ... hehehe

Wow, Katrina ... I don't know how you can do that (put a lolly in your mouth then spit it out). lol ... I have an instant reflex that swallows ... if something tastes good I just CANNOT spit it out! lol .. I'm impressed!

Lynda ... yes I spent the whole day testing out new tagboards to see if I could find a better one. I tried the one out that Jo uses but on changing the dimensions (making it wider and longer) it skew-wiffed it all so gave up on that one. Also didn't like the unchangeable colours on it.

I tried another one but spent 2 or 3hrs trying to get it looking right (right colours/size etc) and in the end it didn't look as good as this one. And it turned out that to get the 3000 character limit, they advertised, you had to actually pay for it. The freebie only gave 200 characters and it had popup ads (which I really hate) So after all my trialing out I ended up going back to the old one LOL!

I've been to the supermarket this morning to stock up. Always feel pumped after shopping with healthy food in the cupboards. Decided on having a BBQ tonight (hope the weather holds up) and cooking lots of BBQ veges along with our favourite Marinated Sirloin Steak (YUMM!!) ... I've got capsicums, jumbo mushrooms, zuchinis, tomatos, new potatos (with lite sour cream) and I'll do up a jumbo lettuce salad. That's one of the things I love about summer ... bbq food and salads. I figured since it's officially summer now I'm going to start having summer food (even if it's still raining!! lol)

We both have the day off from the shop today so I'm going to see if Bill wants to go for a big long walk this afternoon. I love doing that on our days off. We go find some bushwalk or park we haven't seen. It's so much fun!

BTW - Jules ... I'll tell you all the story sometime about how my cat pissed on my head!! Someday when I don't have so much else to talk about! lol

Well that's about all for me today!
Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Any advice??

I'm proud to say I'm still doing well and sticking to my points. I've had another motivated, eating well, exercising well, drink water well day!!

I usually struggle when I work all day in the shop. On the weekends is fine because it's so busy, but when it's a little quieter on the weekdays I tend to pick.

Take this for a scenario ... If you spent 12hrs in one building and everytime you walked out of one room to another (probably over 100 times a day) someone shoved a jar of chocolates in your face, can you imagine how hard that would be? I'm sure you'd say you'd resist ... yeah, for one day, maybe a week ... but for 4mths?? or longer?? That's what I'm facing at the moment. Everytime I walk out of the back office into the shop I walk straight into the lolly counter (at eye level too). Before I started working in the dairy I never considered myself a sweet tooth. And lollies/chocolates were only a temptation just before TTOM. The lady we bought the shop from said she put on heaps of weight working there as a consequence of those evil lollies.

My first thoughts were that I'd be fine. I was determined not to let them get to me. Anyway, I don't much care for lollies (more of a chips and dip girl) ... but I tell ya, I have to fight every single day I work there. And not just fight every day but fight every minute, everytime I walk out of the back office into the lollies I physically have to make myself turn away to aviod looking at them. I never realised how hard it would be.

I read a journal yesterday of a lady I have a lot of respect for. She's lost over 45kg and is now running marathons. She still plans what she eats and tracks everything even tho she's been at goal for months/years. Some of her words can be in your face and very hard nosed but I respect that because she's done the hard yards and knows what it's like to struggle for years to lose weight. Anyhow ... she spoke yesterday about the pathetic excuses people give for going offtrack. Her advice was if you put yourself in situations where you know you'll be tempted without planning ahead then you're an idiot. Well not those exact words, she put it a little more tactful than that lol. But in essence that's what her post was about.

I whole heartedly agree with her advice. But honestly I have thought and thought about this situation (with the lollies in the shop) and I can't see how I can change my environment with this one. At home I'm fine ... I keep the house point friendly ... at the shop I can't change that.

Now for the past week I've been great ... I haven't gone overboard on any lollies. I've had a couple but counted them in my points. But that's because I'm incredibly motivation now. What happens when I get a weak moment, am I going to cave in? Her advice was to plan now while we are strong for moments we are weak. I'm really stumped on this one. I've tried chewing gum (works for a few hours), I take healthy food with me, I get out for a walk when I can, tried chupa chups (not a good look for the customers). I think the only thing I can do on this one is just stay strong, determined to do this.

One thing I have done is increased my exercise. I walked to work yesterday morning (and we had galeforce winds here), then when staff came in at 12pm I went for an hours walk along the beach, then walked home again after work (carrying Jese on my shoulders, all 15kgs of him!! Pity my bonus buddy didn't register the extra weight I had to carry lol) At the end of the day I had walked 11,726 steps/7.7kms and earnt 5.5 bonus points! And I felt great!!

One thing I noticed last week that I think attibuted to my big loss ... I ate all my bonus points!! Not necesarily on the day that I earnt them but over the whole week I ate every single one of them. For the past 23mths I have never eaten bonus points (unless by accident) choosing to save them to lose more weight. And I wonder (I'm not totally sure on this one) but I had a great loss this last week and I ate them all. So I'm going to try it again this week and see what happens. In theory eating more and exercising more should speed up the motabolism ... we'll see I guess.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Now dat's wot I'm talkin BOUT!!!

I'm absolutely ecstatic to see a 2.1kg loss on the scales tonight!!!! I've managed to save my butt again (well not save but get rid of it lol). I looked back over my records and this is infact second largest loss I have had ever! And get this ... lol ... last week was the biggest gain I've had ever! How's that for two weeks of extremes?? I actually wonder if last weeks gain was a little untrue (fluid retention and the binge i had the night before) But in saying that, it means that this week is not a true 2.1kg loss ... so I'm going to stop in my tracks right there and just celebrate this week for what it is ... A FANTASTIC RESULT AFTER A WEEK OF HARD WORK!!!!!

Yippeeeeeee!!!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Tiny, wee thing???

Here's the pic of my nails ... she put a really funky colour on them that's silver normally and then changes to gold in the sunlight/heat and glows in the dark!! And I got bored on Saturday night and painted the design on top. I stuck silver foil hearts on too. A bit of fun! lol

I overate a little on Saturday with the family all here. Nothing major but went over my points for the day. I used my saved up points but it put my weight up from the day before. The home scales were saying a huge loss this week and now it's only showing a small loss but hey it's still down ... I hope! :)

Worked in the shop all day yesterday from 6.45am till 8pm. Walked 5.5kms behind the counter in one day!!

Hey guess what?? I had the coolest compliment yesterday! Probably the best one yet ...

I was at the bakery getting myself some lunch. I usually get a vegetarian filled roll with no cheese and no butter. But the baker lady said sorry she didn't have any that day. I said ohh it's ok, I can eat meat it's just that the vege ones are lower in points. She said "ohhhh you don't need to lose weight do you?? You're a tiny wee thing!" OH MY GOODNESS!!! Can you believe someone would call me tiny???? lol that is the first, I think in my whole life!! Even as a kid I was always a "big girl" ... and even now a few kilos from goal I still think of myself as big boned ... slim, but big boned ...

wow now I'll have to reassess that image lol ... can you believe it?? "Tiny, wee thing"????? lol

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 75.9kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

So it's a goer then?

Wow yeah looks like everyone is really keen!! I'll have to have a think about logistics of everything. But that's just paperwork ... sounds like a goer!! I'm sure Bill wouldn't mind putting up with a house full of girls for a couple of nights here at the beach!! heheh

Main thing is we would have to give people plenty of time to save up for airfares etc. (no accommodation is needed you can all bunk down here)

Ok sorry to be a party pooper but onto me now! lol

Day 6 and still ontrack!!!! wahoooo!!! I've even managed to save 10points over the week (that includes my bonus points) but a little scared to use them now, don't want them to bung the scales up on Monday. I would absolutely love to lose the whole 2.5kgs in one week that I gained last week but I know this isn't really a reality. Bugger!! Can't complain tho I know it's not a race :)

I have a fun day planned today. I'm having my nails done in the next half hour (the lady is coming to my house how cool is that???). I love the pampering! lol

Then mum and dad and my sister and brother-in-law is coming over around lunchtime for the day. None of them have seen our new house here so that should be fun. I did a massive clean up this morning so the house was immaculate (wasn't too much) but the kids have gone behind me pulling out toys and stuff. Going round in circles trying to keep it tidy. Oh well not be be I guess! lol

Well I'll talk to you guys later after my nails are immaculate again (they're looking a bit tatty at the moment)... might get them painted a funky colour this time and take a pic to show ya's all tomorrow.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 75.9kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Celebrate good times

This is my 4th day ontrack and I feel great!! I've counted everything and come within points each day! Angel you are so right ... I do know what I need to do and I feel so good when I actually do it! It's funny how such a motivational low can bring on such a motivational high!! Weird?! But I'm not questioning it ... Just gonna do it!!

Thanks again guys. The day I considered putting a tagboard on here I really wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do. Putting your life out there for people to read is one thing but to give them permission to comment on it is a whole nother risk. But I'm so pleased I took that risk!! It's the comments from you guys that bring this website to life!! Otherwise it would just be a page of information but now it's become a group of interactive people that support eachother for more than any support group could offer! It's awesome!!!!

Probably by the time you all read this Lynda will be on her plane flying away. I am so jealous!!! Really happy for her but jealous. You see Lynda found me when I first started my website 18mths ago (before tagboard days) and emailed me. We began emailing back and forth, then Leigh joined in too (her and Lynda had been in contact via email for a while). So the three of us decided we would be a support network for eachother. We'd never met in real life yet we all felt like we knew eachother so well from sharing our lives on here.

Then over the months more and more websites and readers have joined in and made our group flourish!! It has grown to far, far more than I ever thought it would. My thinking in starting my website would be to have a space to call my own that I could put all my feelings down in and record my achievements. I never imagined it would become so much to me. The friendships I have made on here with you guys has made this journey so much nicer!!

8mths ago I met Lynda in person for the first time. It was a weird experience, knowing someone via the internet, seeing photos yet it was like another dimension actually meeting. Over the past 18mths all three of us have talked about getting together. When I went to Aussie a few months ago I thought it would happen then but things didn't work out at the time. Leigh happened to be going on holiday at the same time, so we had to wave at eachother through plane windows.

Now Lynda is finally meeting Leigh and Kimba (ohhhh I so want to be there lol) But not to be this time I guess.

One day we will all have a big party and invite everyone from on here and celebrate our achievements and our failures ... but mostly we will celebrate us!!! Yay us!!

Sheesh I've gone on a bit today lol, can ya tell I'm feeling great?? lol

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 75.9kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Potential accidents

As in words of Dr Phil "Weightloss has nothing to do with willpower and everything to do with environment control"

Such wise words!! Let me explain and go back a bit here ...

We all have moments of wonderful motivation and willpower but it never lasts ... everyone always loses their willpower at some stage. It's natural for it to come in waves - extreme highs and lows.

So if we rely on this alone we are setting ourselves up for failure. We have to control our environment, set up habits, routines and plan, plan, plan. It's like a defensive driving course ... your eyes have to be peeled the whole time for potential accidents ... potential weightloss sabotaging accidents.

And why am I rambling about all this you ask?? I had the perfect situation to explain about NOT CONTROLLING MY ENVIRONMENT!

I consider myself a pretty organised weightlosser who controls her environment and is mostly very motivated to lose weight... but ... on Sunday night (the night before weigh-in) I made the stupidest mistake and one that I have to pay for ...

I set myself up in an environment that was destined for disaster. It had nothing to do with willpower and everything to do with lack of planning and controlling my environment.

Let me explain ... Australian Idol was on (starting at 9.30pm) and I had to see the final. Our TV still doesn't work at home so decided to go to the shop to watch it. Which would have been fine if i had planned and thought about what I would be facing.

But I didn't and here's where I went wrong ...

1. I was tired after working a full day till 8pm
2. I had come home first to have dinner (one good thing) but had decided to have a few drinks before I went (bad!!) So my guards were down before I even got there ... you know that "ahhh well who cares?" attitude we get after a couple of drinks
3. I took some drinks with me
4. I was alone (sometimes having someone else there stops us going offtrack)
5. I got the munchies in a MUNCHIE ADDICTS HEAVEN!!! An icecream, lollie, chocolate, pie wonderland!!!
6. I had PMS (and you know how the sugar cravings can come on real strong)
7. It was a long winded program that went on for hours and hours and I got bored


So as you can see no amount of willpower would have got me through this one ... I was stupid not to see it coming ... and I'm ashamed to admit it ... BUT ...

I ate, and ate and ate and ate until I couldn't fit anymore in ... I ate lollies, chocolates, icecream, chicken pies, chips, alcohol and more!!. I remember having the pie and thinking "yuck this pie is half cold" but I still ate it. Like I was determined to eat it no matter what.

I have never ever done this before ... honestly!! Sure I've eaten too much at a dinner out, or realised too late that I shouldn't have had that extra drink ... but I have never eaten just for the sake of eating and felt full and kept eating and eaten like there was no tomorrow and everything sweet and fatty was going to be banished. I consider myself an occasional picker of the wrong foods but never a blubber binger like I was that night.

I came home and bawled my eyes out. I just could not believe what I had done to myself. I felt sick both physically and mentally. (don't worry I didn't purge lol) I started beating myself up, telling myself I was useless ... that I couldn't resist food, that it was the start of the road back to the fatlands.

I confided in Bill the next morning what I had done. He wanted to know what I had eaten so I told him every morsal of food that went in my mouth that night and even he was shocked. He said "that's so not like you, what happened?" And that's when the lightbulb went on. He was right, it wasn't something I have ever done before and there is no reason why it has to ever happen again. I remembered the words Dr Phil had said on tv the day before. This was purely a lack of planning and not controlling my environment. No one is superhuman to resist food being put infront of them all the time especially when their guards are down (from being tired and moderately tiddly lol)

I still could go but I shouldn't have drunk, and I should have taken something healthy (but still nice) with me to snack on ... and I shouldn't have gone alone!!

I felt better after my cry and chat to Bill about it. I realised then and there that I have to forgive myself and go and face the consequences (at weighin that night)

And it was bad, real bad!! But I'm glad I went, now I can put it behind me and carry on. It was also a case of not going the week before meaning my bad habits slipping back and carrying on over another week instead of facing the music the first week and putting it behind me then. I had 2 good days of eating before weighin but the last night ... well that cancelling EVERYTHING out lol.

The result??

Weighin Result 22 November, 2004 ... 2.5 KILO GAIN!!!

Even tho this weeks weighin was a complete shock it has motivated me to get with the program and just do it ... and look around at my environment to see potential accidents and plan, plan, plan ... that's what it's all about!! This chicks not out for the count yet!!!

All Monday and Tuesday I have stuck within points and walked 7kms Monday and 9.8kms yesterday. I've started walking to and from work (just over 3kms both ways).

Yesterday we had a few hours off in the middle of the day so went up to Whangamata (surf beach 45mins north of us). We spent half an hour walking up and back on the beach. Oh and yay I found my bonus buddy again ... I love that thing!!!

Oh and guess what happened last night??? Our shop and the liquor shop next door got hit by lightning!!! It was so loud and the lights all went off then came back on. And the liquor guys tv blew up!! I really feel like I've been given a second chance lol ... wowsers!!! How close is that??? At the time I kept thinking "don't touch any metal, don't touch any metal!!" lol ... the two ladies walking out of the shop screamed and nearly dropped their icecreams. It was the freakiest thing I've been through for a long time!! Lucky for us no damage was done and no one hurt ... just made my heart jump a mile! lol

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 75.9kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Can't keep me down too long

I didn't want to update on here until I had at least 2 good eating days under my belt and it's taken until today to be able to say that. I've stuck to points and drunk my water.

My bonus buddy has gone walkabout so not sure what my walking points are but I have been active.

I did a good grocery shop on Friday so have a nicely stocked pantry. Now there's no excuse!!

We've had a gorgeous day of sunshine here today so have taken the opportunity to catch some rays and lay on the beach for a few hours.

Don't have much more to tell ... I'm finally back on track. Pity the weighin on Monday won't show my few days good efforts but that's not the important thing ... I'm back into it again ... that's what counts :) Certainly helps to keep going with the encouragement I get from you guys ... THANKS, you've bounced me back again :D

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.4kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

I suck!

I didn't make it to weighin last night ... yeah yeah I know I should have gone. 50% of me didn't want to go and 50% because I had to work in the shop till 7pm.

I'll be fine ... i'll get back into it. Just have to wait till I get all this other stuff sorted.

Was talking to Bill about it last night and I struggle when I don't have a good supply of healthy food in the house. And we've just been so busy the last week trying to get everything done that i haven't had the chance the get to the supermarket yet.

Not that that's good enough reason not to eat healthy but it's something to learn from. Not that I think I could have done anything different.

Anyhow there's nothing I can do about it now. I really want to get some home scales again. I find that helps keep me in check throughout the week. I flounder when i don't know where I'm at.

The good news is that I did an update to admit my crappy efforts :) I nearly didn't lol.

Back to it today
Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.4kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Damage control

We have contact and I'm back online again!! An odd experience to not have internet access for 4 days lol ... how did we ever survive before technology huh? lol

We've shifted and all set up in our new home. It's been a busy, tiring ... no exhausting few days.

The staff member we have who works Thursdays and Fridays (giving us our weekend off) rang to say she could only work the morning of Thursday (our shifting day!) ... so I had to work from 12pm onwards, leaving Bill to shift the whole house by himself!!

Mum surprised me by turning up to look after the children, that really helped!!

We started packing 6am Thursday morning and had most of it done by 12pm when I went to the shop.

After I finished work at 7.30pm we did another trailerload of the heavy furniture (with help from another two friends). We had to get our table up to the second floor. But even with the four of us lifting we couldn't get it up there. So it's currently sitting in the garage. We'll have another try today if the weather clears up.

Talking about weather ... it was forcast for rain on Thursday but was so nice to us and the rain held off till Friday.

Now onto the eating front ... have to warn you it's not good. I've eaten takeaways, lollies, chips ... bad, bad, bad!! I really slip up when I'm not in my regular routine. And I have to admit I had a couple of emotional binges too.

With Bill doing the shifting of furniture by himself we was exhausted and crabby the next day. I was tired too so that didn't make for any romantic talk lol. A couple of times I decided that's it, I'll teach him a lesson ... I'll eat this whole bag of chips by myself ... I deserve it after that episode! lol How stupid!! But at the time it was quite a reasonable expectation .... yeah right!!!

I'm so frustrated at myself ... goal is just around the corner and every 100g grams I lose is a hard earned effort ... then in one week I stuff it up and probably gain a kilo (6-10wks of losses gone down the drain!!! ... grrrrr!!!)

Not much I can do about it right now but get back into routine and back ontrack. Really don't want to go to weighin tomorrow but I need to. If I don't go there'll be two weeks worth of damage to fix.

Argggghhhh!!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.4kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

shifting day

A quick update to let you guys know i'll be offline for a couple of days. It's shifting day today .... let's go!!!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.4kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

I'm Lighter!!

Awww shucks ... thanks guys, dunno bout a beach babe (you guys are making me blush lol) but I'm getting there :)

Went to weigh in tonight not really knowing if I'd lost or gained. I felt slim and my jeans kept falling down today but I put that down to them stretching (not wanting to get my hopes up)

Then I went and had a big lunch ... duh!!! I usually eat pretty light on weighin days. So thought I'd blown any loss i would have had.

So was excited to see a 200g loss show up. My leader was waiting for my response and was relieved when I was happy. She said a lot of people complain about a loss like that. I told her I'm so close to goal now that anything is fantastic. I'm plodding my way down there. The exciting thing is I've had 5 losses in 6 weeks (with only a 100g gain one week)

I always look at it this way (and tell myself on my way home from weigh in everyweek I have a loss, especially a small one) That I am lighter right now than I was last week!! I don't care how much by ... I'M LIGHTER!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.4kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

A girls gotta have timeout

I had a wonderful day to myself yesterday. I had to go to Hamilton (1.5hrs drive away) to get my stitches out and needed to stock up on shop stuff while there.

Left at 9am, stitches out at 10.45pm, then I decided to get my nails backfilled and painted. yay pampertime for me!!

The only damper on the day was the stomach cramps I was getting. Although not painful in themselves it was the fear of what it was going to turn into ... (horrid thoughts of rotavirus plagued my brain all day)

Last night I felt pretty yuck ... not nausous just drained and lethargic. But this morning I woke up fine. I was actually surprised when I woke up and it was morning. I had really expected a rough nite. But hey I'm not complaining.

So today I'm bouncing off the walls again! And my bowels got a good emptying out yesterday (ok sorry for the details) but I'm normally a "once a week girl" ,... so 5 times in one day has made me feel SOOOO SLIM today!!!! lol

I even got my bikini out to try it on again. Did I mention I bought myself a bikini in Aussie?? It fits perfectly but there's a few small tweakings I need to do on my body before it's wearable in public.

After this morning's tryon I'm very close to looking good! Yeah baby!!! Once I finally get there, I'll take some pics.

Now I just need the sun to come out!
Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.6kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

cutting tags off

Julie ... I totally know where you come from. Although everything seems to have turned to custard since moving here to Waihi Beach, I choose to see it has a battle before the reward. I'm really pumped at the moment to see what challenges we can overcome. After all ... as they say ... what doesn't kill us can only make us stronger. I really believe this!!

Today is uneventful ... yay what a relief!! lol No kids threw up ... no diareah!!

Day off in the shop ... considered our weekend. We have staff working in the shop Thursdays/Fridays to give us two days off. This week I really needed time off. Most "weekends" I tend to help out in the shop. (yeah I know Im addicted lol!) But not today ... I needed the break. We did not much today! Bill went across to do the banking, then we just blobbed around the house all day. Nice change!

I took a new update photo a few minutes ago to show you guys the new dress I bought in Aussie. Can you believe it ... size 16!!! lol ... I nearly didn't buy it because of the huge sizing but I've always wanted an asian style trim fitting dress. The lady claimed it was small sizing ... yeah whatever!!! lol But it looked good so I bought it anyway. I'll just cut the tags off.

I heard a statistic the other day (can't remember where) that 60% of woman cut the tags off their clothes so they don't have to look at the size!!! What's with that?? Not like anyone else is going to see it and do they think they are going to forget the size they bought it as ... yeah right!!! Any size I bought as a size 24 (the size I used to be) was etched in my memory forever!!!

But the photo says it all ... I don't care it was a size 16 (I'm normally a size 10/12 now). As I was buying it another lady asked me about the sizing. She's normally a size 16/18 and she had to get a size 22 ... see? I'm not pulling your leg! lol

Not much else to tell today ... what a relief! lol

Catcha!
Lyn:)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.6kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Not Again!!!

Firstly, your encouragement is awesome!! It really boosts my day to know people have taken the time to say something so nice. Thankyou bucketloads!!!

I'm handwriting this entry on a scrap of paper while I'm at the shop. I've lived here for the past three days (except for the few hours of sleep). Hence the lack of updates.

The horrid vomiting/diarreah bug (Rotavirus) has hit us again!! When Jordan got sick a couple of weeks ago we waited for the others to get it too... but it didn't seem to happen and just when we breathed a sigh of relief, guessing it was an allergy, Malachi got hit with it on Tuesday. Then this morning Jese threw up everywhere and Bill also woke up feeling nausaus and threw up.

So I've done two 14hr days and a 9hr day today in the shop. We figure the more I stay away from home the more likely at least one of us can stay well.

I'm really feeling drained today, asking myself how much more can our family take??

I'm generally a pretty positive person. I occasionally get down but bounce back pretty quickly. Determination in my theme for the day (no, make that a theme for the year!! lol)

With shifting day looming closer (only 2wks away) hope we can all be well for those few days.

On the eating front I've been a perfect angel. I had a few celebration drinks on Monday night to reward my 200g loss this week and have earnt back the points already.

The lollies haven't overcome me this week. It's helped with having these stitches in my mouth (from having my wisdom tooth out). I get the stitches out on Friday.

As always, I'll keep you posted as to how we get on.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.6kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

whadya know??? wowsas!!

Another 200g lighter ... wahooo!!! Happy camper tonight!

Not much else to say ... I didn't expect any loss let alone a 200g one so yay!!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.6kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

To cut or not to cut?

From to

I was so excited to see a New Zealand version of Extreme Makeover advertised to be on 20/20 (documentary program) last night. I waited with anticipation all day. I absolutely love those makeover shows.

I have considered have cosmetic surgery done on my thunder thighs and flabby tummy. But I always said I would wait till I had been at goal for at least 6mths before I did anything as drastic as that. I didn't want surgery to be a quick fix, a magical way to suddenly be at goal, but a polishing of the gem (if you know what I mean)

Anyway I was utterly discusted with the documentary. The lady had $30,000 worth of surgery done (for free) and I honestly couldn't really tell the difference. I thought Oh my gosh if she had that much done then imagine how pathetic my $8000 worth would do?? If I did ever get it done I would get liposuction on my thighs and a tummy tuck (to remove my excess flabby skin and stretchmarks).

But I am seriously changing my mind after the show last night. I know it's not supposed to be a miracle "suddenly I'm slim" cure... but hello you'd think you could see the difference between the before and after shots ... I couldn't!!

Anyway ... onto today ... I did well with my eating yesterday finishing on 17.5pts. Considered having a second dessert around 10pm but thought better of it, remembering that I was actually full after the first dessert a few hours before. So just saved my 2.5pts instead.

I drank 1.5ltrs of water .... wahoooo!!! Just hope this extra water doesn't show up on the scales tonight. I have found that in some past weeks that if I drink lots of water the night before weighin I have a misterious gain. Oh well it's the big picture I have to think of not one weighin result.

I'm really hoping for a loss tonight. I feel slimmer but I just really don't know without having the home scales working. Made me realise how much I rely on them as a guide (I usually only weigh myself every 2 or 3 days).

No matter what the result is I have to be happy with myself for my good eating/lack of alcohol this week. I'm just hanging out to get below my lowest mark ever again (72.8kg).

I'll update you tonight with weighin results ... as always ... wish me luck!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

I broke them... ut oh!

I set myself a goal of only having 5 lollies in the shop today (counted them in my points of course) and drinking at least 1 litre ... And I did it!! It's only 2pm and I'm onto my 2nd litre bottle of water!

Isn't it funny how when TOM finishes we feel slim? Well I do anyway. I'm not sure if I'm in for a loss or not this week. It's been 2wks since official weighin (given last week was a public holiday) but I feel so slim today. My home scales are broken. I had a moment of frustration a couple of weeks ago where I thought I should have been lighter but my home scales were saying I had gained, and I'm embarrased to say I jumped on them and broke them! lol

Bill fixed them yesterday but I really don't know if they are saying the correct weight or not. So I guess I have to wait till tomorrow's weighin to find out.

I saved up enough points for a "Dream" icecream last night but after dinner my tooth started giving me grief and I ended up going to bed early instead. So saved my points instead.

I realised last night that I've been 8 days without alcohol now. I'm not really trying to stop altogether but with having my tooth done and now being on antibiotics has meant I haven't had a drink in over a week.

I'm feeling pumped today and it's all down to everyone else's journals. When I read journals of inspired people I find myself inspired too. So thanks guys!!

Rock on tomorrow!!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Just do it!

Thanks for all your concern about Jordan. He's doing really well and not in too much pain.

I've had a great day today! My wisdom tooth (or lack of it) only gave me a little grief so after getting my boost of inspiration from all my online buddies I decided to chuck on my walking shoes and get out for a walk. Even tho the weather looked like it was going to pack in I decided to ignore all reasons not to walk and JUST DO IT!!

I originally planned to do a half hour stroll along the beach but reaching my finishline mark I remembered mum wanted me to look at a property for her which happened to be at the complete other end of the beach. So off I went, dodging the rain drops and it felt great! An hour and a quarter later I arrived home.

Made up a low point vege soup for lunch. (I'm on baby food while my mouth heals)

I was starting in the shop at 4pm and decided at 3pm I would take Lauren down to show her the new house (she hadn't seen it yet) and then walk back to the shop. Another 45min walk done ... yay!

Then it all went to custard! I walked into the shop, looked at the jar of chocolates staring at me and caved in. I'd done so well all day and ruined it with one stupid jar of chocs.

Good news is I managed to stop, give myself a shake up and get my act together again. I made the decision to walk home from work (instead of getting Bill to pick me up) ... drank a bottle of water instead of nibbling and ate a low point dinner ... and no dessert!

So all in all it was a positive day. We all stuff up, we're all human but just because we fail at one point doesn't make the whole day a disaster. I'm choosing to focus on all the good things I did today rather than the one failing.

Exercise: 14,500 steps / 7pts
Water: 1 litre (huge amount for me)
Points: Came in at 17pts even with the chocs... helped that I'd had a low point soup for breakfast and lunch.
Alcohol: NONE!! yay me!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

YEEEEOUWCH!!!!

The dentist visit went fine and I'm at home resting up today. Soup for me all day. It's not as painful as my ear infection a few weeks back (that's my benchmark for all pain now). I had two stitches put in but it all went well.

Now if our life was written as a soap opera the viewers would write in and complain that it was too far fetched!!!! Honestly I really wonder at our life sometimes ...

For the last 6 days Jordan (4) has had diareah and vomiting. I've taken him to the doctor to be told he has a viral infection, nothing we can do, just take him home and give him a pat on the back. Then got charged $10 for it!!

So for the last week he has been waking up each night (around 10pm) with a sore tummy and either throwing up or running to the toilet with diareah.

Last night was the same ... right on the dot we heard his cry and went up to help him to the toilet in time. And somehow (I still don't know how it happened) but he missed the toilet seat and fell off onto the floor. After finishing he started crying histerically saying his penis was sore. Bill looked down and yelled to me to CALL AN AMBULANCE!! I raced upstairs to find blood pouring from his penis!! At first I thought it was coming from inside but on a closer look we realised he had torn his penis!!! Yeowch!!!!

When the ambulance turned up it was the same officers as last time (with Malachi). I felt like some hypercondriac, overobsessive mother!! But they were understanding and said we did the right thing. I have only ever called an ambulance 3 times in our lives and the last two have been in the last month!!

They took him and Bill to Tauranga hospital to have it checked out. He ended up having it "glued". He had torn the skin 80% of the way around his penis. To this day I still don't know how. This new way of "glueing" is like stitches but is tidyer and means the stitches don't need to come out. Fantastic idea!

Bill and Jordan arrived home at 4am this morning. He's currently tucked up asleep in our bed now (9.30am). I'm very proud of him ... he was a brave boy. I can only imagine how painful that would have been. Kinda puts it into perspective my pathetic wisdom tooth pain.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

nail biting stuff

I'm so glad you found the link to my site again Amy ... yeah my last webhost deleted my old website!

I had a pretty stressful night the other night when we found out the news about the house. The same day I came down with a throat infection, but over it now thank goodness.

I absolutely lost it foodwise. I ate so many lollies in the dairy that day and finished it off with a "Dream" icecream! I've been horrid ... I guess one good thing tho I haven't had much alcohol this week. Getting sick helped with that.

I'm feeling pretty good about it now (the whole house issue). We've signed up for the new house and have a moving date in 3wks. They've given us the keys already and the house is empty so we can start moving things in straight away. Mum and dad are lending us their trailer so we just have to find someone with a towbar on their car and we'll start taking loads over when we get the chance.

Bit bummed we don't have a sea view. Even tho we are only meters from the beach there is a row of big trees that block the view ... ahhh well can't have everything I guess.

Wish me luck today ... I'm off to the dentist to get my wisdom tooth pulled out and 5 fillings done. I'm getting knocked out this time. Bit nervous about it as I've never been knocked out before. K .. I'm going to stop talking bout this now before I get my stomach in knots!!!

I'm outa here,
Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

NOT AGAIN???

Our life has been pretty ordinary the last few months with not many dramas so I guess the man upstairs thought he would throw another spanner in the works ... only He knows why???

We have to move ... AGAIN!!!

We were given six weeks notice today to get out of our house!

We have found another house but it's tiny ... same number of rooms (4 plus a sleepout) but each room is only a single (if that). Haven't got any choice but to take it as there's absolutely nothing else for rent on the beach.

It's the same distance to the shop as this house but quite away from the school (2 or 3 kms) ... the good point is it is across the road from the beach, so that will be nice.

Kinda in shock at the moment ... I'm certainly SICK OF PACKING AND SHIFTING!!!

That's enough news for one day!
Catcha
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Partytime at the beach

The holiday weekend is over and everyone has gone back home. The town has gone back to it's sleepy self again and today I can finally have my day off.

We had a fantastic weekend in the shop. It was party mode for most of it with market days and holiday shoppers giving off positive vibes at every turn. I ended up doing 3 14hr days because Bill and Jordan got sick. But I really didn't mind ... I loved the atmosphere at the shop. But today I'm tired.

The last two days I couldn't be bothered thinking about my eating and I realised why last night ... TTOM turned up. I always get like that a day or so before.

But I'm not too concerned with my food intake. It wasn't excessive and I made relatively good choices and to be honest I didn't get much time to misbehave. We were running (me and the other staffmember) from 9am till close at 8pm. My bonus buddy told me I walked 5.5kms every day behind that counter!!!

So it's a lazy day off for me today. Have a few erins to run but other than that .. not much.

No weighin last night with the public holiday, probably just as well with being TTOM.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Bad hair day

Roz and Linda you are exactly right!!

I've had a couple of days to mull this over now and I'm feeling a lot better about it. I had a few moments of pity where I declared to Bill I was no longer working in the shop. But we are bigger than this. Bill and I have not been happier in any job we have ever done. I have to focus on the positives, not the small handful of people that want/need to make negative comments.

We've had literally hundreds of comments from customers and suppliers alike about how awesome the shop is looking. As for the counter coming out we're going to keep it like this ... our grocery sales (which is where we make most of our profit) have grown increadably since the removal of the counter that a few till/counter space restrictions over midsummer is worth the risk.

I also went and spoke to the other dairyowner, Zane, in the town (which is where everyone has supposed to be going now that they have stopped shopping with us) and he said he hasn't had any negative comments from customers about us. Now if his story was true the first thing they would do would be complain about us to the other dairy. Which according to Zane hasn't happened.

It would be too good to be true to not have any hurdles in this new venture. So I'll just look on it as something to grow on and get stronger.

This weekend is huge for us. Labour weekend is officially the start of warmer weather in New Zealand and the weekend everyone goes away to their batches ... meaning wahoooo turnovers for us ... heheh!

We had a huge day yesterday and expecting another good one today too.

So I'm outa here ... got a busy day ahead!

Oh ... one other little story before I go ...

I had a guy come in yesterday who asked me if I was having a bad hair day! He said it had looked like I had been out in a storm!! lol He then asked Bill if he wears glasses in the morning, hoping he didn't because he would hate to think what I look like when I got out of bed first thing! LMAO Can you believe this guy???? lol ... Now that's insults for ya and from a complete stranger??? lol what is this world coming to?

But a few customers later I had another male ask me what all my hardware on my belt was. One was my phone and the other my bonus buddy. Asking for an explaination for the bonus buddy, I said it counted my steps to see what weight I could lose. Lose weight? he said ... you don't need to lose weight! You're gorgeous!!! I blushed and told him that was a much nicer comment than the last guy (I repeated to him what the guy had said) and he replied "He's just an asshole! Don't listen to him!" Two extremes in a matter of minutes ... all in a day at the dairy! lol

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

All in a days worries

I'm rather pissed off to say the least ... and yet again I've sucuume to emotional eating! Haven't tracked ... don't give a sh** today!! Okay let me backtrack a little to explain ...

This morning we had the owner of the Katikati Four Square tell us how he had been told how well we were doing and how good our shop looked. He just raved about the changes we had made and how good we were doing.

Then the milk truck told us that we were selling 3 times the amount of milk that the four square across the road was selling. To get this in perspective the four square across the road is 7 times bigger than our shop!!! We're selling around 3 crates a day and he is only getting in one crate a day.

Now I hear you asking ... why are you so pissed off then???

Well ...

We had a visit from the previous owner of the dairy this afternoon. He sat down and said "I hate to say this ... but you're losing customers!!!" Apparently (according to him) people are so annoyed that they are waiting for service that they are going elsewhere. Apparently (according to him) they are shopping at the four square across the road for their milk or the bakery down the street.

At first I was aghasted at this ... I couldn't understand why. We serve people straight away. I can only think of one occasion where people have had to wait inline to be served.

He reckoned he has had 7 people say they don't shop with us anymore because of the lack of service. He also said that we won't cope in the summer with the counter we have taken out.

Now to get the background on this ... when we first took over the shop there was a full length counter running the full length of the shop. Customers had to ask for their products across the counter!!! LIke in the old days or in an Open All Hours episode!! We removed the counter when we first took over and have nothing but positive feedback about how open the shop looks now.

Anyway after a few hours of digesting this gossip we have come to the conclusion that taking the counter out has increased our grocery sales hugely and that maybe we have lost a small handful of customers due to lack of speed of service (although I still find this hard to believe) but these sales would have been for milk only (on which we only make 15c per bottle) but our grocery sales have increased triple fold!

According to him (the previous owner) we won't cope over the summer months without this counter ... but hell ... I'm willing to take the gamble to prove him wrong!! lol

The other point he made was that customers were going across the road to the four square for their milk because they were having to wait too long to be served ... but infact we know from this mornings conversation to the milk man that his sales have gone down in milk!!

We also spoke to our staff member who used to work for the previous owners, who said that it's a load of sh** ... that she can't think of anyone who used to shop here that doesn't shop now.

So I really don't know where that came from or why he would say such a thing ... I'm appauled, dumb founded. I guess that's what happens in such a small community ... people have nothing else to do but to gossip and spread vicious rumours!!

Anyway our figures are increasing and I know we are doing a good job ... so stuff him and his evil rumour throwers!! lol

We're off to dinner now ... to forget the days worries!
Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Makes you think ...

I read something in the latest ww mag that really inspired me. I thought I would put it on here for you guys (hope ww doesn't mind)

"Stop picking and save yourself up to 12.5pts! Yes, all that nibbling at leftovers really ads up. Without even knowing it, you could be eating around an extra two-thirds of your daily intake. We asked a Member, a mum with three kids, to let us take a look at her tracker for one day. This is what we found:

POINTS VALUE TRACKER


8am:

Half slice of toast left by toddler at breakfast, 0.5pt

Corner that fell off a block of cheese while making school lunches, 1pt
10am:

Lick of biscuit mixture from bowl, 1pt
10.30am:

Piece of leftover chocolate biscuit, 0.5pt
12.30pm:

Lick of peanut butter from knife after making sandwiches, 0.5pt

End of iced finger bun left by toddler 1pt

Lick of foil lid from full-fat creamy yoghurt, 0.5pt
3pm:3 broken biscuit peices while unpacking groceries, 1pt
3.30pm:

Handful of potato chips, left in a bowl by son, 1.5pts
5.30pm:

Few crumbs of cheese clinging to the grater, 0.5pt
6pm:

Dollop of leftover macaroni cheese, 1.5pts
6.30pm:

Lick of teaspoon dipped in golden syrup and small spoonful of crumble mixture, 1pt
8pm:

Glass of wine, 1.5pts

Total:

12pts!!

Reading this really hit home to me. I don't think it is exagerated and so often we wonder why we didn't have a loss. I am guilty of a few of the above things almost on a daily basis ... especially the cheese one!

Makes me realise how honest we have to be with ourselves, if we really want to get to goal!

Well that's my inspiration for the day... not much else to tell.

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.8kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Awesome!!

We're back and we had an absolutely wonderful time!!! It was go, go, go, from dawn till we crashed at night! We fitted so much into the five days we were there.

To give a rough guideline of what we did ...

Wednesday morning we arrived at 9am to scorching heat!! I couldn't believe it could be so hot in Sydney in OCTOBER!! 38 degrees!! The highest temp on record in October for Sydney. Even tho it was so hot it was such a nice change from the continuous wet and cold weather we've been having here.

The rest of wednesday we spent catching up with my sister in law ... just chatting and relaxing.

Then Thursday morning the kids woke up rearing to go .... at 3.30am!!!! Poor things, according to their body clocks it was 6.30am, time for breakfast!! At 5am, after 1.5hrs of trying to gety them back to sleep I gave up and took Jese (the noisiest) for a walk in the stroller. An hour and 5pts later I arrived home to the rest of the household getting out of bed. (staying at my brothers house) So that was a good start to the day and a great way to set the tone for the holiday.

I decided when we first arrived that I wasn't going to record my food but I was going to track on my points calculator. And I would wear my bonus buddy everywhere, measure my bonus points and eat them all!!

After breakfast we headed out to Toronga zoo. Chris (sister-in-law) gave us really good train instructions how to get there) But we thought we would short cut and walk from Central station round to the ferry. On the map it only looked a short walk, except we lost our direction at the start and walked the wrong way!! lol ... We ended up at Darling harbour and had to walk all the way round the waterfront, under the bridge to the ferry ... a 1.5hr walk!! lol

We made it to the zoo by midday and the kids just loved it!! I got this really cool close up of the tiger (my favourite animal!)

Isn't he adorable??? (well behind the glass he is lol) And my camera pushes everything back further so you can imagine how close we actually were to him.

By 4pm we were ready to come home (to SIL place that is) so we got on the train and then met up with my brother and his family at Hornsby Mall .. wahooo ... I was in heaven!!! lol ... so we spent the rest of the evening shop, shop, shopping!!!
My new top, hard to see but it has white embroidery and beading all over the front

All up at the end of that very tiring day I had walked 19kms!!! and earnt 15 bonus points! (of course I only ate my 4 bonus points allowed each day) I was tired!!!

Friday morning kids were up bright and early again so we headed off for Paddy's market via the monorail. At 11.30am Chris took our kids home and left Bill and I for a wonderful few hours alone together. We went to Chinatown and we found a Yum Cha restaurant. I'd always wanted to try it ... it's really good too, given almost everything is steamed not fried... but I still ate too much!! lol

Then we finished off our shopping and headed home ...another exhausting day and another 6 or 7 bonus points earnt! That night we went round to friend's for a BBQ. A wonderful night catching up (it had been 8yrs since we'd seen them) and we had yummy salad and steak! But I ate a few too many chips and dip ... oh and the alcohol was a little on the high side but still ok if I caught up a little on the bonus points.

Saturday Bill and I went for another early morning walk before the household got up. Then it was off to Darling Harbour and the Powerhouse (an interactive museum). What an amazing place!! The kids had a blast!! so did us adults too! lol

By the time we got home we were all too tired to cook dinner so we got takeaways. Chinese, the lesser of all evils but I ate a little too much ... oh well I was on holiday

Sunday Bill and I went off to do some final shopping at the mall and I got my nails done! wahoo!!! Also bought myself a gourgeous solid silver bracelet :D

Then we got some groceries for lunch (salad and chicken wraps) fed our faces and then it was off to the airport. We left at 3pm and got there finally at 4.45pm ... wow Sydney is so big!! Checked in, had a quick look through duty free, grabbed a bottle of perfume and couple of bottles of wine and raced through to the boarding lounge. Grabbed some chips on the way through (our flight didn't include meals)... it cost $15 for 3 measly plates of chips. I put them on the table, grabbed the tomato sauce and covered all three plates in sauce. The kids got stuck in and then they all started coughing, complaining they were sour! I tried one and my eyes popped out of my head!! I had just covered all three plates in CHILLI SAUCE!!!! LOL I have to laugh now, at the time I was so stressed I nearly exploded!! Meanwhile they were doing the final call for our flight! So we left the chips and ran. Of course Jese then started to throw a trantrum because he couldn't finish his chips! I tell ya, talk about stress ... if I lost 1gram for every second of stress that night I would be a skinny woman now lol.

We made it on the plane in time (actually we weren't the last, second to last, but not last! lol)

Then it was a 3hr flight home but given the time difference meant it was 1am NZ time. Grabbed our bags, did the 10min journey to mums to pick up our cat, to be told at mum's that Chino (the cat) was stuck in the roof and wouldn't come down. He had been there all 5 days we were away. So at 1.30am we were calling, yelling, coaxing him. Finally he gave in and came down.

Then it was off for the 1.5hr drive home ... home at 3am and finally in bed by 3.30am!! What a day!!! what a week!!! AWESOME!!!

Now for the great news!! I went on holiday, had a blast, ate yummy food, had a few eating splurges ... but watched what I ate, did loads of walking (around 40kms all up) .... and ....

Weighin Result 18th October, 2004 ... 300g LOSS!!! I'm so excited and I just can't hide it (na naa na naa ...)

Couldn't finish off my week any better!!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 73.8kg (finally below 74kg)
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Burying my head in the sand

Sorry Lynda you were wrong ... oh if I wish you were right!!! lol

I had a 100g gain tonight!!! Really wasn't expecting that one! AS in the words of the weigher tonight .. need a pee? maybe it's the time of the month? To which i agreed just to keep her quiet and sneak out of the room without any suspiction.

I don't know why ... well I have some suspicions ... I think I ate too little ... I came under points this week by 13pts and my sugar points were probably too high.

But for tonight I am buring my head in the sand. I'm rather pissed off!! Drank my sorrows away ... had myself a double scoop, chocolate dipped icecream (first in my time in the dairy) to make myself feel better. Haven't counted my points today. Don't really care for now.

I know it was only a 100g gain but as we always say when it's a loss ... a loss is a loss is a loss ... well tonight ... a gain is a gain is a gain!!!

Is okay ... i'll get over it ... I'm just wallowing ... I'm allowed tonight ... I'll get over myself and back onto plan tomorrow.

For now I'm wallowing!!! lol ... I'm allowed a moment to wallow!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 74.1kg
WWGW 71kg
PGW 65kg

Nearly holiday time!!!

Yay only one more day of work before we fly out!!! Yippeeee!! Spent today doing all the washing to get everything ready before we leave tommorow night. I'm finally starting to get excited!

I got so busy in the shop yesterday (yes I'm well enough to get back to work again) that I forgot to eat! whoops lol.

My brother and brother-in-law came over for the day to do some fishing (unlucky not to catch anything tho) and they shouted us dinner. I opted for chinese, the lesser of evils, so lucky I had points saved up to use.

I was showing my brother the gap I talked about yesterday and he laughed that even he doesn't have a gap (he's tall and skinny). He reckoned I was just bow legged ... lol ... I don't mind either way ... I still have a gap!!! lol

Weigh in tonight and I'm hoping for another loss being my third loss in a row! Fingers crossed!

I had a lady in the shop comment today how slim I was getting and that she noticed I had lost more weight since being here at the beach ... big yay there!

The fridge man came to fix up the fridge and we need to totally defrost it (including the freezer part) before he can fix it. So it's a big vege soup/boilup for dinner. Problem being I always eat light before weighin and there's not much points in vege soup so might have to have a splurge out in a fancy dessert!! lol oh well! heheh!

I'll be back later on with weigh in results ... wish me luck!!

Catcha!
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 74.0kg
WWGW 65kg