Jese don't tell anyone

After we got home yesterday I decided to do a hair treatment on my hair, which meant leaving some stuff in my hair for 15mins. While I was sitting in the lounge at 2pm, in my bathrobe and hair looking crazy-like, there was a knock at the door. Our front door opens into our lounge and I could see a man's figure through the frosted glass. I ran outa there so fast and into the bathroom/toilet, interrupting Jese (4yrs) on the toilet. He asked me what I was doing and I held up my finger to my mouth to signal him to be quiet. He said with the loudest voice (so anyone in the house could hear) "Mum, are you hiding from someone??" ... hmmm ... don't you just love their discretion at that age??

This morning I got up and rang a friend to see if she wanted to come for a walk. So off we went, rain and all, down along the beach and to the coffee house, had a coffee and lovely chat and back again... 4,200 steps done and all before the weather went to the pack.

Oooooh ... And I got a compliment from a customer this morning, asking me if I had lost weight. I smiled and said yes I had, thankyou. She said she could really tell around my face ... yayya!!

Then gst day ... gst done ... yay ... and now work till 4pm, while Bill goes off to Tauranga. He's going down to look at a shop down there. They are basically giving the business away. The guy went through road works last year (which have now finished) and made an $80,000.00 loss and then got himself in too much debt to keep going.

If we decide to buy it we will just have to pay for stock. The guy also made the mistake of stopping all hot food, pies etc. and then put gaming machines in. Given that it is right next to a girls high school that was a mistake because with the gaming machines came a bad sort of boy crowd which scared the girls away. Sounds a bit like Georgy Porgy huh?

If we do take it on it's going to mean a huge commitment for the both of us. I will take on the running of this shop while Bill will run the other one (with staff giving us time off). Financially it's a huge gain, family wise ... hmmm ... not sure. I mean there's pros and cons ... Bill works best at his limit and doesn't get itchy feet syndrome when he has a new set of goals to achieve. I'm relatively comfortable running this shop on my own with staff and we're commuting to Tauranga almost daily now for stock anyway. We would line up the staffs hours together so we both have the same day off. And some days I find it's hard with us both working together so much of the day, we often get on better when we work separately and only see eachother in the evenings. The Tauranga shop will only open 7am-5.30pm because it's main target is school girls and people going to and from work.

But then is it going to be too much stress having two shops?? I know it's something only we can decide. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Beach hoppin to Whangamata

Yesterday afternoon I was so hungry. I was in the mode of 'I don't care about points, I want food ... NOW!'

I had 10.5pts left for afternoon snack and dinner. Deciding on a low fat potato and leek cup-a-soup at 1.5pts. Had that and I still felt hungry so had another serving ... 3pts gone. Then I turned around to see Bill had a bag full of leftover filled rolls from the deli. All the sensible thinking went out of my head and thought I had to have one ... another 5.5pts gone! I'd be ok, I still had 1.5pts left which narrowed my dinner options but with a little creative thinking I'm sure I could come up with something.

Sitting watching telly on a cold and boring afternoon the danish custard roll sitting on the table kept steering at me. I could resist it, I know I could ... hmmm ... nup!! Another 2.5pts gone!!

That's it, my points all gone for the day at only 5.30pm. By this stage I was turning septic, annoyed at myself and subconsiously taking it out on my pour family members.

I decided on a 5.5pt tv dinner for tea. Put it in the microwave and 7mins later it was ready. I heard the finishing beep and as I stepped up to get it, I realised I wasn't hungry anymore. There was no need to eat it, but my scroodge mentality snuck in ... "I paid good money for that dinner, I need to eat it! No I don't ... I don't need the points"

So I went to bed not eating it and this morning, so glad I didn't! Although I had nightmares about eating lots of takeaways... heheh

We decided this morning to go have a look at the beach hop in Whangamata. I packed some snacks and water and off we went. While the kids pigged out on sausages and bread I had my healthy snack bar and banana. We saw some really cool cars, was certainly worth making the trip up there.

Here's my favourite car ...

Then we called in for a family game of mini golf. Gutted to lose but was a heap of fun! Jese (4yrs) thought he was just the coolest playing golf just like dad!

Bill and the kids called in for KFC on the way home, while I had my subway.

This afternoon it's house tidy time and hopefully get a walk in.

mmmmm ... breakfast!

Wow I can't believe that ww no longer count sugar points!! lol When I joined up online back in February I just presumed everything was the same and carried on my merry way. I'm still going to count them because I think for me it's wise to keep a tab on them.

I knew about no count and did that for a couple of weeks. And while I enjoyed no count I didn't feel I had enough control as to how much I was consuming. I'm the type of person who is an all or nothing personality. When I decide to do something I do it with a passion and have to work out every minor detail. So with points I track everything, weigh everything, check everything off. When I walk I count my steps, my time, my calories burnt. With 'no count' it felt too ambiguous and at the end of the week I wouldn't know if I ate too much or too little.

My tendency when trying to lose weight is to eat too little and not often enough. So 'no count' also didn't help with this.

I had the yummiest breakfast this morning ...

• 3 rashers of grilled chicken bacon - 1pt
• 1 slice wholemeal bread toasted - 1pt
• 1 medium banana - 1.5pts
• 25g lite cheese - 2pts

Mush the banana on the toast, top with grilled bacon and cheese and microwave till cheese has melted.

Yum, yum, yum!! and totaling only 5.5pts!

Didn't do any walking yesterday. I'd done it quite hard on my ankle the day before with ambulance duty so gave myself a day off. And then today I'm on call for ambulance from home so have to stay here. Probably quite nice considering it's pouring with rain out there. Waihi Beach is like a ghost town today, we joked about closing the doors on the shop for the day. The beach hop is on in Whangamata this weekend so most of the town has gone up to that.

Not much else happening today. Nice day to take it easy.

I was good or so I thought

Week ending 26 April, 2007

+/- this week: +700g
total points used: 171/182
bonus exercise points earnt: 12pts
total steps for the week (exercise + work): 35,600
number of days exercise: 3
tracked: yes
water consumed: 10 litres/14 litres
sugar points: 23.5pts

Where did I go wrong? ...

• My overall points were definately down on what they should be... bad, bad, bad
• water was a little down too
• and sugar points ... wow!! didn't think I was much of a sugar person but that was way up

Things to work on for this week ...

• Eat bigger breakfasts so I don't have problems eating too little points overall. And I think I'm having too many points for dinner and not spreading it more throughout the day. By doing this I should be able to keep my motabolism burning faster.
• Drink more water!!!
• And keep the sugar points down. My alcohol intake this week didn't help with this. Didn't drink heaps but it soon adds up!

How am I going to achieve these things? ...

• I did a grocery shop last night and stocked up on breakfast stuff, good snacks and canola spray! I've been out of canola spray for the last week and I realised how much I rely on it.
• Hound myself on the water thing. Never been a big water drinker so this is something I just need to do. No easy tips or tricks ... JUST DO IT!!
• Most of my sugar points this week were alcohol points. I started to kid myself that if I only had a couple of drinks on a couple of nights, instead of just one night (like I originally planned), and kept under my daily points then I would be ok. Hmmm ... I'm thinking now maybe not. Going to go back to my original idea ... one night only ... that's it!

So there ya go, I thought I'd been a perfect girl all week but when you REALLY analyse it and look at the nitty gritty there are ways I let myself down.

If I really want to do this then I have to do it and do it properly!!! If I hide stuff then the only person I'm fooling is myself. I know each of these things are minor but obviously if they add up, it may count for my gain.

More compact

I feel very cheated this morning!! I was perfect all week! Stayed within my points, weighed all my food, drank all bar half a litre of my water, exercised 4 days ... and I think that is my downfall ...

Yep I gained!! And gained by 700g!!! Not a measly 100g or 200g but a whopping 700g!!! Damn it!! 116.1kg the scales said this morning, so not fair!!!!

I feel mad about this, but not guilty. I know I did everything right and the scales didn't show this ...BUT

... I will NOT GIVE UP!

I'm going to prove to those bloody scales that I AM LOSING WEIGHT, even if the head matron scales won't believe me!

Why am I not giving up?

• my hard work will EVENTUALLY show up on the scales
• I remember having gains last time I lost weight, yet I still got to goal
• when I get to goal I won't even remember this gain
• I know it's not about the numbers and all about size/measurements
• my normally tight ambulance pants were not tight this morning even after being in the dryer
• I know with the heavily increased exercise I did this week I would have built muscle and we all know that "muscle weighs more than fat"

or does it???

Not according to this article ...

Muscles are not Heavier than Fat

I would like to ask if muscles are heavier than fat. Why is that so?

And is it possible that if I get more muscles, I will also gain weight or maintain my present weight even if I am controlling what I am eating?

Muscles are not heavier than fat. One kilo of muscle weighs exactly the same as one kilo of fat. A kilo is a kilo. However, since muscle is denser, it looks smaller than fat.

If you asked a butcher to put a kilo of pure muscle on one scale and a kilo of pure fat on another scale, you would see that the fat looks bigger than the muscle. Another way to visualize this is to imagine a kilo of cotton and a kilo of steel. The cotton occupies a much bigger space or volume than the same weight of steel.

When people say that "muscles are heavier than fat", they actually mean that muscles are more compact than fat.

So I change that last point ...

• Because muscles are more compact than fat!!

Here's the rest of the article if anyone is interested ...

Muscles are not Heavier than Fat

Thanks for all the breakfast suggestions. I've taken note of them all and will put them to use. Jen you must have known something. I read your comment about pikelets this morning as I was munching on 2 banana topped pikelets ... lol!

As gutted as I was with those scales this morning I have a busy days work ahead of me and I'm not going to let this get me down.

Hit the 10,000 mark

I had a full on evening last night ...

• 6.30pm made dinner


• 7.30pm met friends for our night walk


• 8.30pm got home and ate dinner


• 9.30pm was in bed

I'm not normally in bed by 9.30pm but was so tired after all the days walking. I made it to over 10,000 steps yesterday ... infact 10,258 to be exact! and 7.7kms!! yayya!

I was happy with the amount of exercise I achieved but not so happy with my water and eating, with only 1.5ltrs of water and 5.5pts under for the day. I really don't like going under the 4pts maximum to save. I have to come up with some better breakfast ideas. I don't like cereal, more of a savoury gal. And while I've been having things like baked beans on toast, poached eggs or grilled veges for breakie (not all in one day!!) Some days I'm either too busy or too lazy to cook something so I end up just having a banana or apple. It's on these days that I go way under points for the day. If anyone has any brainwaves on breakfast ideas that doesn't include yoghurt, fruit or cereal ... let me know.

Today is looking like a pretty uneventful day ... working in the shop and then ambulance training tonight.

Weighin tomorrow morning. I'm feeling ok about it. I haven't weighed myself all week, I don't do that anymore. I did last time I lost weight and it got ridiculous as I was getting paranoid about any little gram I was putting on during the week. So this time I made a vow once a week weighing and that's it! I've done a fair amount of exercise again this week so don't know if that will show up as a gain. Shall have to wait and see.

Thanks for all the wonderful suggestions regarding breakfasts. Looks like I'm going to have to get myself organised and do some freezer meals. I didn't think you could freeze egg based things but looks like I'm wrong.

I did well for breakfast this morning and made myself some poached eggs on toast with 2 hash browns and mushrooms. But then I got too busy for lunch (did an 11am-5pm shift). Argghhh!! can't win! lol

So with too many points to spare I decided to indulge in some burger rings.

I haven't had any chips since I started ww a few months ago. My favourite is Krispa's Sweet & Tangy Chips but at 5.5pts that was just too much to spend for a snack. The burger rings at 3pts was just right. I enjoyed them chip by chip but they gave me horrible heartburn afterwards. Serves me right.

Bad day over, onto a good one

Feeling much better today. Thankyou for letting me vent off, it always helps :)

I was so glad I got my walk in the morning because the weather totally packed in for the day after I got back. It rain continuesly ALL day.

Even tho I had a bad day I didn't blow out on food like I would have done in the past so I seems I am changing.

My pedometer at the end of the day told me I had walked 7437 steps!! Which equates to just over 5 1/2 kms!! wahooo!! 4000 of those steps were done in my morning walk and the other 3000 during work ... yayya :)

Foot's a bit sore this morning but I'm leaving my walk for tonight. A few of us girls are getting together to go for a night walk (rain, hail or darkness). We're meeting at 7.30pm so that should be a bit of fun and something different.

Ahhh I just had a customer pop in the shop to tell me about a homeopathic remedy for muscle, joint and ligament recovery. It's called "Recovery Power". Has anyone heard about this? Jules? Does it work? Might go get some when I finish work and give it a try, unless I get any really bad feedback before then :)

UPDATE ...

That girl (who put something on tick yesterday) came in this morning and gave me a fob story about forgetting her eftpos card and said she'd be back after she got paid from work at 3.30pm. Then her boss came to tell me an hour later that she left work early and went home!!

Just by chance her flatmate came in to get some milk so I told her to give the girl a message for me. "That I knew she left work early and to get her butt down here and pay her bill by the end of the day!!" By the look on her flatmates face I managed to give her the shits (very proud of myself on that one, heheh). It wasn't half an hour later and she was down here to pay her bill - HAHA!!

Bill just brought some yummy sushi for me for lunch so I'm pigging out on that. I love that you can have a HUGE plateful, feel like an absolute pig and only consume 6pts!!

Then I'm off to take Jese (4yrs) to the dentist for his checkup, then I can finally put my feet up before making dinner.

Day's turned out pretty good in the end.

Jules & Anne ... thanks for that feedback. Just been over to the health shop and the first ingredient in 'Recovery Power' is Arnica followed by Symphytum, Ruta Grav, Bellis Perennis, Ledum, Hamamelis, and Calendula (all foreign words to me). It comes as a spray that you put under your tongue. This is all new to me but I'm willing to try anything to be able to keep exercising.

This man stopped me

Grrrrrr ... I so wanted to go for my walk yesterday and this man stopped me!!!

Straight after I finished my update yesterday, being a beautiful sunny day I thought I take the opportunity to stroll down the beach. As I walked out the front of the shop I saw friends of mine and asked them if they wanted to come.

"sure" they said, but they needed to get a bit of stuff done first so would meet me back here in a few hours then we'd all go. "ok" I agreed and went to fill in a couple of hours first.

My cousin popped in for a brief visit not long after, grabbed an icecream and left. Then a few minutes later he came up to the house (where both Bill and I were, with staff in the shop) and said he just saw a guy stuffing some things in his pocket and walk out of the shop. So Bill set off to get him. After my cousin identified the guy across the road Bill went straight up to him and told him he was seen stealing something, to come back to the shop. The guy refused, denying it (as expected) so Bill said "well, we can either call the cops here, or come back to the shop and call the cops there" to which the guy calmly followed Bill back to the shop. As Bill was coming around the counter to get the phone book the guy took off to the back of the shop, stashing his stolen goods. What he didn't realise is we have cameras in the shop and one of them happened to be right above him when he stole what he did, so there was no denying it.

Anyway Bill stood guard over him, while I served over the counter (staff were finishing then) until the cops came. So we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited!! We made phone call after phone call asking how long they would be. Each time they said they'd be 20mins, 5mins, 15mins, 30mins ... and so on. And this guy just stood there staring at the wall, in one spot, just stood there .... for 3 hours!!!! All 3 of us just waited. The guy never spoke, never moved, just stood there staring at the wall for 3 bloody hours!!! lol

He refused to give his name or ID. It got to the stage we were ready to close the shop and the cops still weren't here. So we gave up, took a photo of him (I've blurred it for my blog as I didn't know how I stood legally to put his photo on here) and sent him away.

I was so annoyed at the police for not turning up. I know it was only Petty theft but by stopping theft at this stage may mean stopping it before it turns to bigger stuff. And it's not the first time I've heard of police not turning up. I know they're under staffed and all that shit ... but please ... over 3hrs???

So after locking and alarming the shop we sat down to dinner and half way through dinner ..... werrrowerrrowerrro!!!! The alarm went off .... I shit myself! (well not literally) The guys back to get revenge, I thought! Bill cautiously went down to check the shop, opened the door to see the stupid CAT run through the door .... DAMN CAT!!! What a night to choose to be stuck in the shop!!! lol

So I wasted my whole afternoon off and never got my walk in. Hence why I have my walking shoes on now ... I'm off before any more shoplifters can stop me ... see ya!!!

LATER ...

Man, I am soooo ANGRY!!!!

Just had a girl put some smokes on 'tick', promising she'd be back at 9am tomorrow morning to pay for them. Normally we don't have 'tick', but somehow she got to me and I gave in. Given that I knew she worked just down the road and she gave me a big sob story how her pay didn't go through till tonight.

Then not 2mins after she left her boss came to see me, worried that I had given her something on 'tick'. I told her regretably that I had. And she she "ohh nooo, you may not ever see your money. She has things on tick all over town and no one sees their money. We've been trying to get rid of her for ages, she's real bad news."

Why do I give in to people?? We have a policy no 'tick' to general public and I'm scared to tell Bill what I did. Man today is just NOT MY DAY!!! I feel like I have a banner on my forehead "RIP ME OFF"

On a slightly more positive note ... I did get out for my walk today, 45mins. And half an hour after I got back the weather packed in. So I guess that's something. Sheesh I hope the day gets better.

I was the sex bomb, until ...

I woke up this morning feeling like a "sexy wee thing"... know the feeling? Like you could strut down the main street, swingin ya butt and not caring if the world stares at ya. Infact if they do you secretly say in your mind "yeah.. look a bit longer, great huh??"

That all went to pieces when I got a reminder of a goodbye lunch thingie for a friend flying out overseas for a year. Now I have no problems with her, but the cafe where it's being held has someone working there that hasn't seen me in over a year. Last time I saw her I was slim... now I'm fat!! No matter how slim and sexy I feel today (given that I've lost 7kgs) I am a hell of a lot heavier than when she last saw me.

Now I know I shouldn't care what she thinks and need to just put my shoulders back and walk in proud of who I am. In theory that's right, in reality ... hmmm ... we'll see.

I'm taking a big step by forcing myself to go. Normally I just wouldn't go, I'd sit at home in my little cave and hide. So step one ... done. As to how it goes ... I'll let ya know.

I opened the shop this morning at 7am and my shift finishes at 11am. In that short 4hrs I have walked 2kms in the shop!!! I don't count my shop walking as bonus points but it's still fascinating to work out that I'm walking that far when working.

Well it's 11am and the "do" is starting so better get going. (take a nervous deep breath)

Wish me luck ...

I'm back and the girl wasn't even working today, so all was about nothing. I had a good time. When ordering my brunch I looked at the options on the menu and went for a pasta quiche thing because in the cabinet it looked quite low fat. So I got that with a side salad. The salad was 0pts but after they heated the quiche up all the greasy ooze showed itself up! Damn it! It was far oilier than I had thought. I had no idea how to point it. I figured 5pts for the pasta (about a cup), 1pt for the chicken in it and 4pts for the egg/butter holding it together (all up 10pts). Lucky by the time we ate it was after 11.30am so it can be my breakfast and lunch.

Not much else happening for the rest of the day. It's a beautiful sunny day here so might go for another walk along the beach, now that my working shift is over.

Enjoy the weekend!

Nearly done ... honest! one more minute ...

I've been on this computer for the last 3hrs and just finished putting in another year of old blog entries (ones that I had saved on hard drive from my last diary) so that people who wanted to read about the first time I lost weight could.

So that's 2003 done and started 2004. Just have 2005 to go after that. Most of my actual weightloss story happened in 2003 for those of you who care :p

It's been really interesting going back over my journal for that time. Makes me realise how chaotic things were in 2003/2004. I started ww, got to goal, sold a house, built a house, moved to Hamilton, moved into new house, Bill got amazing job, Bill lost amazing job, sold our new house, moved to Waihi Beach, bought dairy. Wow I'm exhausted just reading about it. That's a heck of a lot to do in 2yrs!

I remember Mandy saying when we met up last month that blogs are like books for her, that she wants to get to the end of the story. And she's so right. It's weird because you get to know someone so well by reading their blog yet you don't really know them at all. And sometimes you know things about their lives that even their closest friends/family don't know, yet you don't know them. It's quite paradoxical really.

Anyway I'm confusing myself with that chitchat ... onto my book ... uh, I mean blog! heheh ...

We got an invite out last night at the last minute, to go to hear a band at the cafe across the road, with some friends. So with a mad dash panic, finding babysitter, putting makeup on and nice clothes off we went. Band wasn't that good but the company was, so we had a good time. Lucky I had eaten light through the day and only had a 4pt dinner so the extra drinks I had didn't put me over in points for the day.

This morning my dad woke us up bright and early at 8am (I know that's not early to some but this is our only sleepin day of the week when staff open the shop, so we try to sleep) Once I was up and out of bed I was fine, not even hung over so that was a nice bonus.

Then the postie man dropped off my new pedometer ... yay!! Bill said I was like a little kid at christmas. I got it all set up and went off for a walk on the beach. But bummer I got the tides wrong and ended up having to walk barefoot through the water. This is fine normally but when it's high tide there's more of a slope and my ankle didn't handle the slop (and lack of support without shoes) too well. So I'm a bit sore now.

I was still happy with my 4257 steps. Except I lost track of time and have no idea how long I walked for. Does anyone know how to convert steps into bonus points earnt? (I was walking at low intensity pace)

Here's the stats if anyone can work out how many points that would be??

• 4257 steps
• 3.2kms
• It says 334kcal burnt off but I find that a little hard to believe, does that sound right??
• And was "around" 50mins ish in time

If no one knows how to work this out in bonus points I'll just use the 50mins time, but it could have been anywhere from 35mins - 1hr.

Had a yummy homemade egg, avocado, portabello mushroom sandwich for lunch while everyone else hooked into burgers. I'm sure mine was just as nice, and a quarter the points!

Anyway think I'm all computered out for today with adding those archives.

not like all the others

Thanks for the encouragement guys! :)

I've decided to do an evaluation at the end of each week. Partly so I can see where I went wrong if I had a gain and also to record it so I can look back later if I need to.

So here's how this week went ...

Week ending 19 April, 2007

+/- this week: -500g
total points used: 182/182
bonus exercise points earnt: 20pts
number of days exercise: 4
tracked: yes
water consumed: 11 litres/14 litres
sugar points: little on the high side

What I could do better next week ...

• My water intake was a little on the low side. I should be consuming 14ltrs per week and only drank 11. It's only a minor point but something I can work on.
• I currently don't count sugar points. I've always had the attitude that if I start to plateau or don't have the weightloss results I want/expect then I'll start looking at sugar. I know over this past week I had a few more than I should have but I'm not really going to worry about it for now

Ultimately I'm pleased with my 500g loss because ...

• I did 4 days of quite intense exercise, therefore some of that has to result in muscle building
• I had a 10.5pt meal of KFC, counted the points and put it into my total. I had points saved to allow for this so it wasn't such a catastrophe.
• I tracked 100% all week

...

I was reading some blogs yesterday morning at the station and said to the other lady on with me to have a look at someone's before/after pics of a girl who had lost a lot of weight. She snapped back at me that it's pointless losing weight because you will only gain it all back and more. I had nothing to say back at the time because alas I am one of those statistics.

But this got me thinking during the day. Let's face it alot of people do gain all their weight back ... and more! And I heard someone saying a little while ago that they have even proven it scientifically now that the body has an inbuilt measure of how much we used to weigh and does everything in it's power to get us back there. So it is/will be a continual fight to get to goal and then to stay there.

The question is ... do I have the willpower and strength to stick it out ... for life??

Yes, this time I think I do. As long as I stick to a few rules along the way ...

• Enjoy the ride there - I'm not going to cut my own throat just to lose weight. I'm going to make sure I have my treats, my occasional icecreams, bourbens and takeouts (but they won't be yucky kfc tho). I think the key to this rule is tracking, accounting for the points used. When I get to goal, theoretically I should be able to just keep doing what I'm doing now and I won't be worried because I don't miss out on anything now. (well other than cheesie-weezies)
• Set some new goals at goal - from the people I have seen who have successfully lost weight and kept it off for years afterwards, they all have one thing in common ... they became passionate about something that involved fitness once they got to goal. One is a marathon runner, another is doing body building, another a triathlete. Now I'm not saying I need to become a fitness freak but I need to continue to set goals to strive towards to keep myself focused.
• Keep the blinkers off - when I started to put weight on again I didn't want to know my weight. Because if I knew about it that meant I had to do something about it. Throughout all my overweight years I have never known what I weighed until I started a weightloss routine. So I need to weigh myself at regular intervals, maybe weekly, maybe monthly. I'll decide that nearer to goal.
• Keep like minded people around me - People inspire other people and the negative side to this is also true. After that lady said what she did to me in the morning I found myself questioning my ability. Negativity brings on negativity. I have found blogging my most successful way of getting on track and staying on track. When I'm around others that are blogging and weightloss focused, I too stay focused.
  

This isn't a guarantee I know but it's a start in changing who I am and who I want to stay as ... "I can lose weight AND keep it off!!"

What is this????

It is 1lb of pure "lard" straight from the back of a pigs arse!! And what did I lose? 500g (1lb) of this stuff straight of the back of MY arse!! Wahooooo!!!

Yep I think I have my excitement for weightloss back!!

Ok so I know you're all surprised that I actually have an update with weighin this morning. Well I worked out I'm allowed to use the computer at the ambulance station (as long as the pager doesn't go off) ... woopsie ... see ya later ...

... heheh ... just kidding!!

Anyway not much else to update about yet. Who cares what else happens I lost 500g of pure and raw lard!!

K...Friggin ...C???

Don't you hate it when you have it all planned out, everything ... you do your homework, cross all the 't's and then it all turns to shit on ya???

What the hell am I on about??

Dinner ... dinner that was absolute crap!! and so expensive in points it would send the queen into bankrupsy!

As Bill was bringing the kids home from grandma's he rang to ask me what I wanted for dinner. Of course I instinctively replied 'Subway' knowing that no matter how much he got my order wrong it wouldn't be too bad in points.

"I'm not going to Subway, that means I have to get out of the car. KFC sounds better... what do you want?"

Well my head went into a spin. KFC is so bad, I know how many piles of deepfried crap comes out of that place. So I told him I would look up their website find out the best choice and ring him back.

After much deliberation and working out the points on every item they produce, I had worked out exactly what I wanted according to the points I had left.

1 x Honey Roast Burger (2.5pts)
1 x small coleslaw (1.5pts)
1 x small potato & gravy (1pt)

Total = 5pts

Not too bad I thought. I repeated the items 3 times to Bill to make sure he ordered the right thing.

On arrival home Malachi brought my dinner to me in the shop ... hang on, wait a minute!! There's two burgers in here and no potato & gravy?? "ohh that's right. They didn't have your burger, so dad got 2 zinger burgers instead and they got the order wrong and didn't give us a potato and gravy" Malachi informed me.

"What??" So instead of 1 healthy burger I had 2 bad ones?? And do you think I could throw one away, nah ah! After all the effort one underpaid, overworked student had put into that burger, the least I could do was consume it.

So down they went, 2 yucky, dry, crusty burgers that I didn't even really want. And the total points I consumed in that discusting meal???

10.5pts!!!

Now if I had wanted to consume 10.5pts I could think of much better ways to do it, not on dry and crusty kfc!! I must have known something when I felt inspired to wake up and do 20mins on the cross trainer this morning. Next time I'll jump in the car myself and drive to Subway, at least then I know I'll get the right thing.

and the award goes to ...

I am in major pain here!!! Silly me got so excited about doing exercise I chose to ignore the pain in my ankle and just 'get over it'!! Stupid mistake!!

After my hour long walk yesterday I thought I was going fine. Lunchtime I was fine, 2pm I was fine, 4pm I felt like a bowling ball had run into my foot. And I still had till 7pm to work. I was so buggered last night I couldn't even bring myself to do the cashup.

Went to bed early to a restless nights sleep with my ankle playing up all night. Then this morning I woke up, head inspired to do more exercise. I gingerly put my foot on the ground on getting outa bed. It was a little stiff but not to sore, so what do I do??? No I didn't go for a walk, but spent 20mins on my cross trainer. The ankle seemed to be holding out and by the end was a little sore but ok. Now at 3pm I am in pain again... do I ever learn??? ummm nope! lol

I guess I got a little frustrated with being held back and chose to ignore it. Ok I've learnt my lesson now, take it a litle slower. Maybe cut my walks back to every other day rather than every day.

My boys come home today and I'm so looking forward to it. Not looking forward to my tidy house becoming messy again ... but looking forward to seeing their cheeky, smiley faces!!

I was very priveleged to get given the thinking bloggers award



by the lovely Chris today. Thankyou so much Chris!! I believe honesty is always the best policy and that's what I base my website on. No matter how silly I feel for posting something I'm sure there are others out there who can relate to whatever I'm writing about. And as a reader I know it's always nice to read of someone else who has gone through the same thing.

So thankyou again Chris :)

The Rules:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.

2. Link to this post (www.thethinkingblog.com) so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme.


And here are my 5 fellow blogger awards ...

Emily for showing that you can lose weight, keep it off, go through hard times and come out the other side a success!

KiwiJo who proves that persistance pays off. Jo was the very first blog I ever read back in 2003 I think it was and she's still blogging... Go Jo!!

Karen, another longtime stick it out blogger who has gone through good times and bad and shines with her continual encouragement of others - Thankyou Karen!!!

Mandy, she is a doll!! Always bubbly and possitive towards others, a real sweetie!

And last but definately not least ... Ms Teecher !!! This lady has lost a HUGE amount of weight, kept it off and now runs marathons!!! Anytime I don't feel like exercising, I go read her blog and it totally inspires me!!!

There are alot of you amazing bloggers out there who inspire me and aren't ashamed to put yourself out there and if I could I would give every one on my bloglist an award!!

Ok I'm gonna sign off now before I start crying!!

baby steps work

I woke up yesterday inspired to do some exercise. It was our day off so when Bill said he wanted to go for a kayak I suggested we go hire another 2 kayaks (we own one kayak ourselves), one for me and one for Lauren, 11yrs (the 3 boys are still with their grandparents). So after getting ourselves sorted. Snacks and sweatshirt, shoes, car keys and money, breakfast eaten ... 40mins later we were ready to head out the door. Bill kayaked down to the hire place and we were to meet him there. But as we walked in the shop I noticed there were no kayaks out on display. After asking the lady she snapped back that yes they do still hire out kayaks but not today. Aye?? "we're going out for the day and we don't hire them out when staff are here" I really didn't understand her reasoning, I mean she was there right then and we could bring them back when she returned but nope she was dead set ... no kayaks today! Damn!!

So Lauren and I set off walking down the beach to meet Bill. As we were walking I noticed she was counting. "What are you counting?" I asked her. "my steps". So we set out to count our steps together, me counting 1-100 while she counted the 100's and then 1000's. We made a goal together of getting to 10,000. I really didn't think about how many that was and how long it would take us!! lol ... 5,400 steps and 1hr20mins later!!! We had to stop before my ankle gave out on me.

I got back home, worked out my bonus points and was very happy to record 6.5pts earnt. (of course only saving 4 of them).

Bill's brother, his wife and kids arrived just before lunch for a visit. The guys went out fishing while the girls sat down to watch girly movies. A great day! Everyone voted on takeaways for dinner so I opted for prawn chow mein. I knew I had 17pts spare for dinner so wasn't worried. I looked up the points for it after dinner and to my shock ww reckons it's 15pts (2cups worth). There's no way it would be 15pts!! Chop suey (veges with no meat, no noodles) is 2pts, so I figured 1 serving of prawns is 1 extra point and 2 cups of pasta (over estimating) is 7pts bringing the total to 10pts. I know our chinese takeaways use boiled pasta not fried so I really can't see where the extra 5pts comes from. I made the decision to only count it as 10 not 15pts. Does anyone else know why the huge difference between chop suey (2pts) and chow mein (15pts)??

I decided since I don't have a walking buddy I'd like to get myself a pocket radio and a pedometer. I found one on trademe that has both together (yeah I know I gotta stay off that site! lol) and bid $10 bux on it ... and got it!!






So that should be on it's way to me very shortly... bargain!!

I felt so inspired by my walk yesterday (longest I've done yet) that I got up this morning and did it again! It shows how much my ankle is healing being able to walk on the beach again. I had a stiff leg today but it was the other leg not my 'bung' one. So that was a good sign I had done some 'fat damage'.

My immediate plan was to walk on the beach to the cafe, grab a coffee and walk back. But by the time I got there I'd only walked 15mins and I know it's better to walk 20mins at a time for weightloss, so continued along the beach for another 5mins, then noticed I wasn't far from the end of the beach, so continued walking. It ended up being a little further than I thought to the end so by the time I got home, my planned 'half hour walk' ended up being 65mins.

Well whataya know huh? 3mths ago the thought of walking out to the letterbox and back was too much for me to even consider doing, with being overweight and a 'bung' leg. I remember reading of people who couldn't walk to the letterbox and back when I was losing weight last time and not being able to believe that. But I was in that exact position only a few months back. My first "walk" only last 10mins and I was haddit... now I'm walking for 1hr, who would have guessed? Shows that by making one small change at a time, even if it doesn't feel like you've done anything decent enough (like 10 pathetic mins) is a small step to doing more next time.

Duh!!! It's not a race

Thankyou all for your encouragement in regards to my loss and not feeling excited yet. I've had a further think about it over the last few days and worked out a strategy to overcome this.

I need to stop thinking of my weightloss as a race. There is no start line and no finish line. We all know it needs to be a lifestyle change rather than something we start and stop. Mandy asked me when we had our coffee last weekend how it felt to get to goal and be on maintenance. I think she was a little surprised when I told her it was horrible!! Sure it was great being at goal but I found I had nothing to go onto from there. I had used the excitement of losing each week to keep me motivated and when there was nothing left to lose I found it hard to keep the motivation up.

So I figure I need to change my mindset on this "race" mentality. And rather than focusing on getting to the "end of the race" focus on the enjoyment along the way. And to help me with this I've done up a list of achievements. These are listed down the right hand side and as I achieve each milestone I'll cross it out. So far I have 50 or so things to achieve and want to add to these as I think of them.

Already this has helped in my day to day motivation. Rather than thinking 'I haven't started yet', I'm thinking 'I'm so close to my next goal'

And then when I get to goal I can do up another set of achievements and keep going again. Things like 'half marathon' or 'running 4kms' etc.

Some people are motivated by negatives while others are motivated by positives. I'm definately a positives person. If someone says something negative to get my arse moving I generally stick my toes in, but if something happens (be it however small) I think 'yeah, I can do this'.

So hopefully this will do the trick to keep my foot on the gas.

Speaking of 'foot' ... I finally got the referal appointment from my orthapedic surgeon yesterday to see what they're going to do about my ankle. I'm not getting as much pain in it now, especailly at night when it used to ache, but I still don't have any sideways movement. I'm hoping they take me seriously, look into the problem and don't just fob me off. My appointment isn't for another few weeks yet, so I'll let you know what happens.

Jules ... you asked 'How did you get involved in the ambulance duty?'... When Bill and I split up 18mths ago and I went to live with my sister, to get my mind off things, she suggested I do ambulance duty with her (she is a paramedic in Ngaruawahia). And I loved it! When Bill and I got back together I then joined up again. And yes I did have to do a physical exam involving press-ups, sit-ups and running around the block with 30kgs on my back under a certain time (along with other things). I was a lot slimmer then (only 5kgs above goal) and it nearly killed me!! But I passed. I don't think I would pass the exam now lol! Lucky for me once you're in, you're in. So it's nothing to do with weight but on physical fitness and being able to lift heavy weights. Hope that answers your question :)

Wow so much for doing a short update! lol

I am happy with that ... I think

LOL Linda ... sorry you missed my "wed" update. On Thursdays (your Wednesday) I do ambulance duty all day and don't get back till late, so here I am and no I didn't go off track.

I planned a lot better today by having my food on me all day. I took a lot more snacks and ate when I had the chance rather than waiting for 'meal times'. Just as well because the pager went off before I even got to the station and then again before I could even make myself a coffee. So at 2pm I finally sat down for my 'breakfast' coffee. But had eaten my cereal bars and fruit in the ambulance returning back each time.

Now for the proper news of this update ...

I lost 1.1kgs this week!! Very happy with that result, given it was over easter. I think I worked out why I haven't been jumping with glee at each loss so far. I think it's because in the back of my mind I still don't see myself at the start line yet. When I start ww last time my first weighin was 107.4kgs and even tho I have lost 6.7kgs so far I am still 115.9kgs. It's silly I know, I should be proud of myself after all 6.7kgs is over a stone in weight but it's head excitement and not heart excitement yet, if that makes sense??

So I'm telling myself I am proud of my achievement so far but I don't think I will truelly feel 'excited' about each loss until I get below that 107.4kgs.

On with another day ...

Aww one more won't hurt ...

I took the opportunity of a beautiful sunny day and a few hours off work to go for a lovely walk. I've changed the route I take now to include a rather steep hill, that way I get the ol' ticker tickin without the foot doing any extra work.

25 mins later and home again, I jumped on the cross trainer for 13mins this time, beating my other workouts by an extra 3 mins. Well the truth is I wanted to see the end of the last song on Juice TV so kept working out till it finished.

The bad thing was when I'd finished I really didn't feel hungry but knew I had to eat something for brekkie. I downed a cereal bar but with only using 2pts it kinda put me under for the day. Bill brought me home some yummy sushi. Given the nearest sushi shop is 45mins drive away I don't get it very often. But that was only 3pts. I had fruit and other snacks during the day, but was left with having far too many points left over at the end of the day. I don't like to gorge myself too late in the day (having a personal rule of no food after 7pm) and I'm trying to keep my sugar points to a minimum.

Some of you are thinking to yourself right now ... "what a girlie swat!! who cares if you don't eat enough??" And trust me I've had my days where all my points are gone by 10am and had to live on point free stuff for the rest of the day. But this other side is something I've been thinking about for a while and never knew how to tackle it. Is it better to not eat enough or gorge yourself late at night with 18-20pts??

I know it's only a pathetic itty bitty problem and could be solved by eating a damn bag of chips. But I don't want to go there. Potato chips are a 'no go' for me, as is pizza and 'cheesy-weezies'... you don't know what cheesy-weezies are??? Trust me ... never, ever eat them or you won't look at regular chips the same. They will be naked unless they are covered in fat laden dripping, like cheesy-weezies. Dictionary meaning "deep fried chips covered with a marriage of tartare sauce and melted cheese" .... damn it! I'm salivating just typing this!!

I made the dreaded mistake of having just ONE of these chips, last week, when my daughter had them. Don't get me wrong I don't let her have them very often but this day she had worked really hard all day and as a treat got to choose her dinner. She has her mother's taste buds and immediately went for the biggest of all sinful dinners.

Now this night I had already eaten, was quite satisfied with my low fat, low point dinner. I could tolerate the smell wafting over from her plate because I had my eyes steadfast on Shortland Street. But then she said she was full and put the plate on the coffee table ... 1 foot away from me!!!! Before I knew it I had bargained with myself that one would truly be ok. And it probably would have ... but I don't know what came over me ... like a hand possessed that I had no control over it was feeding this devine tasting poison into my mouth. And do you think my mouth protested?? NUP!! I was ashamed to admit that in a matter of 30seconds I had inhaled 15 calorie soaked chips. The stupid thing was ... I WAS COUNTING THEM!!! Why for goodness sake was I counting the chips??? If I cared enough to think about the amount of calories I was consuming then why eat them??? In the end I told Lauren to take them away QUICK!!! Away from my evil hand!! Pour water on them, petrol, anything!!!

Then I burst out laughing at the battle that had gone on between my hand and my brain.

So now the only one and true concrete way of not letting this happen again is to ban it as a NO GO food ... just don't go there!!!

Free woman for the weekend

Thankyou for saying Hi Tania! It's always nice to hear from readers. And don't be scared to comment (any of you lurkers out there) I don't bite honest! (well not hard anyway)

As I said in the last post I have been work, work, working hard all this weekend. It's not often we have this many people in town, so have to make hay while the sun shines.

Have sent the kids off to the grandparents for the weekend so they don't get neglected with us working so much. Got a call from mum this morning to say Jese (4yrs) was homesick so dad was bringing him home. Then got another call an hour later to say "oh no he's not coming home anymore, he decided he'd much rather stay at grandmas a little longer" lol talk about changing his mind. Was sweet that he misses us tho. The house is very quiet without 4 kids. I am enjoying the sleepins.

Met up with Mandy for a coffee yesterday. We talked non-stop for 1 1/2 hrs! And even then we could have kept going. She's really lovely!!

I've been pretty good with my eating. Went over in points a little on Friday night because we decided with no kids we'd go catchup with friends of ours who own a cafe across the road. One quick 15min visit ended up being 4 or 5 hrs and 5 bourbens later ... whoopsie!

But that aside I have been really good honest ... lol. No easter eggs or hot cross buns for me, haven't really missed them either.

Bit of a boring post today, not much happening. Depending on how my ankle holds out might get out for a walk ... yeah might do that now, why not?

good girl? what good girl?

I have just finished another mad Easter shift in the shop. There are so many people here ... IT'S CRAZY!! lol and my feet are killing me. Sitting down to do a quick update before the icecream session starts!

This is the scene all around me while I work at the moment ...

... and ...




... and ...

chocolate galore!! And I've been a good girl and only had one marshmellow easter egg (and that was a week ago). It's bizarre, last time I did ww I just couldn't get my eyes off the lollies and chips (some of you may remember that). I had to come up with a whole lot of strategies to stop myself from eating them.

This time I'm really not tempted. It's like they're not even there.

But I'm not all 'the perfect food goddess' ...

We went out for dinner last night. I really 'should' have chosen the vege wrap that Bill got ... but no ... the little bad girl on my shoulder told me to get the Green Thai Curry. While the other shoulder was screaming at me "no! no! no!" But I pretended like she didn't even exist. Like a stubborn child I went ahead and ordered. It was devine, but don't know if it was worth all the bad dreams I had about gaining more weight!! The 'good girl' got through to me in the end even if I ignored her when I shouldn't have.

As bad as I felt this morning, the 'bad girl' told me to forget yesterday, start with a clean slate, don't worry bout it. But this time I listened to 'good girl' and looked up those points for Thai Green Curry ... 12pts! My only saving grace was that I got too full to finish the plate, but still counted the full points as I really don't know the recipe they used.

So for today I've knocked off the 'bad girl' from my shoulder and only listening to 'good girl' ... she's much more sensible!!

P.S. thankyou for your sweet comment Debbie :)

Tiring but fun day

Just a short update tonight ... I'm absolutely shattered! Spent my first full day on ambulance (day shift of 12hrs), but loved it!

Weighin result this morning of a 400g loss. I'm happy with that. I didn't expect too bigger loss given my sugar points were right up there this week. Overall I stayed within points for the week but slipped up on the sugars. Not surprising as TTOM is expected anyday.

I thought I had the day's eating planned, took a packed lunch with lots of snacks and water ... but just as I was about to sit down for lunch at 12.30pm, the pager went off and we were out for 3 and a half hours, while my packed lunch was sitting safely in the FRIDGE at the station!! Didn't see that one coming! So by 3pm I'd only consumed 4pts! Was so hungry I had the starting of a headache. Next time note to oneself "put lunch in bag, NOT fridge!!" lol.

I'm off to put my feet up and grab a bite to eat.
Nite!

P.S. Thanks on the tips of ww treats. Will have to try that berry mudslide ... sounds yummy!!

I'm in ww heaven

I've been doing a little tidying up with my website and adding all the old entries from my last blog (when I lost weight the first time) for anyone who was interested.

Trouble is there are so many entries!! I've completed six months worth (which took me 2hrs) and I still have 2 more years to go!! lol, bear with me, it might take a while.

...

Went for a 20min walk up some pretty steep hills and then did 10mins on my new cross trainer. I have her set up in the bedroom infront of the tv so I can workout to the music channels. Earned myself 4.5 bonus points.

...

You may raise your eyebrows at this, but I don't go grocery shopping. Infact it's been many months since I showed my face inside a supermarket. I have no need to. We own a superette and everything I need for the house we either get delivered to us or Bill gets it for me when he gets stock. Anyway, yesterday Bill wanted me to go to the supermarket to get a couple of red cabbages to put in a produce order for a customer ... well let me tell you ... I was in heaven!!!

There were so many new ww and low fat products out that I never knew about. I felt a little like someone who had stepped forward in time. "Wow look at this", "Ahhhh, cool! I haven't seen that before!". Instead of just walking out with the two cabbages, my trolley was full! And all for me of course .... heheh! My first treat to try was the ww cookies and cream icecream. Absolute YUM!!! I love cookies and cream and to have it in a low fat version ... yay!!

I've put lots of stuff in the freezer for those tempting moments when I need something special without the points.

...

I'm on ambulance all day tomorrow so you all won't be able to hear my weighin result till after 6pm when I get home ... hope it will be a good one. But I'm a little uncertain this week.

My baby she's coming home

It started by looking at Bill's stupid exercise thing, that I'd tried to use but without much success... "the body coach". I was supposed to lie on it with my feet in the air and pull on the cords to lift myself up and down kinda like a cockeye rowing machine. I never did get any sort of puffing or sweat happening.



So I jumped online to see if I could get any instructions on how to use this silly contraption but without much success. But what I did find was plenty of sites offering to sell or hire elliptical trainers. Ahhhh ... now that's what I call an exercise machine. In the past years when I have joined gyms I spent most of my time on these machines and loved them! They gave me a great workout without the jarring on my joints and without the puffing. I would finish my workout with a lovely red glow and sweat pouring off my brow. A real sense of achievement!



I wanted one of these babies! Always have ... but they were just so expensive! Starting at $500.00 and going up to beyond the $1500.00 mark!! But by this stage it was too late, I had fallen in looooooooove!! Maybe I could hire one, but with a $25 a week fee and not to mention bond and frieght, that didn't really seem ideal.



Trade me .... lovely trade me might be my option. After squizzing around for ummm about a couple of hours I set my eyes on her! An imported American pearler with the whole shabang and gadgets .... mmmm .... gadgets .... loooove gadgets!



Problem was I'd fallen for her and the auction wasn't to close for another 8hrs. I put in a small bid bringing the total asking price tooooo .... $48!! Alas someone jumped straight after me with a higher bid. So I played hard to get, snobbing her (as hard as it was) until the time was right. The longest 8hr wait in a very long time!! I nervously brought the subject up with Bill, that I had been bad, very bad! Taking a deep breath and eyes to the ground, I admitted I had bid on the auction. To my surprise he was all for it! He even did a bit more research with me to find out the RRP's. I asked him what price he thought I should go up to. $500 or $600 ... ohhh noo I didn't want to pay that much! I settled on $200 - $250.



9pm was the closing time so at 8pm on the dot I was back on the computer to see how the auction was going. It was up to $145 and a whole new set of bidders had entered the auction. How dare they? She's mine!! Didn't they realise that? I still continued to bite my lip until the last moment ... 5 mins to go ... I suddenly had a spur of emotions and entered in an auto bid of $210. If it went beyond that then she wasn't to be mine and I had to accept the fact of letting her go. 4 mins to go ... bidding was up to $180 .... 3 mins ... $190 .... 2 mins ... $200 .... 1 min $205 ... still in the lead ... one more bid from "them" and I would lose her.... 30 secs to go ... no more bids ... 10 secs ... still in the lead ... then ... "closing" ... I let out a scream ... "yes!!!", then I realised about the "auto extend" ... I'd have to wait another 2 minutes ... hadn't I waited for her for long enough??? Countdown to the final 2 minutes and then I could relax ... she was mine!!!



I ran upstairs to share my excitement with Bill. He too was excited for me. "I'll tell ya what" he said "I'll go up to Auckland tomorrow and pick it up for you" ... "would you do that?? for me??" ... "yes of course, you deserve it with the hard work you have put in with your weightloss"



So here I am awaiting her arrival ... here's a photo of her ...







Isn't she beautiful??? ....


oops wrong pic sorry ... here she is ...





I'll update you tomorrow on how she settles in when she gets here ..... oooooooo, I'm so excited!!

Kids ... ya gotta love em!

It's really neat to see people pop their heads up to say hi that followed my first journal! Thankyou for all your kind comments. A friend suggested a whileback that I make my journal private and by invite only this time, after I told her I got burnt a little by being so public last time. I seriously contemplated this but decided that the few bad comments I got last time were far outweighed by the support I got from everyone else. Thankyou to you guys :)

I ended up going over my points last night, first time ever since I started back doing points. I knew my total was heading up there by mid afternoon so did a rescue remedy and got out my handy, dandy point free soup for dinner. But of course had to add some bacon to it to please the man.

I woke up so disappointed in myself this morning. Went to the computer first thing, entered my points for yesterday and realised in having the low point dinner I was only over by 3pts. Pffffft!! What was I complaining about?? I'd get rid of that in one walk.

To give you a bit of background about my walking ... I can't! Well I can but only in very short doses, due to the ankle. I tell ya, there is nothing as frustrating as wanting to get out in the sunshine for a good hardworking walk and not being able to. As yesterday was my day off from work I'd rested my ankle all day and it felt pretty good this morning (no limp) so I took my chances and went! The last exercise walk I'd been on was a week or so ago, I made it to 20mins.

So today determination kick in to beat the record. And on arrival back at depo .... 35mins!!!! Wahooo! Aaaand ... bonus points of ... yep you guessed it ... 3pts!! So I'm all square :)

The sugar points still might get me in the bum on the scales this week but it's all good, I've done everything I can.

Malachi (9yrs) made me smile yesterday when I asked him to get me a can of baked beans from the shop he came up with Oak ones rather than the Watties ones I normally use. Before I could say anything he proudly announced that the Oak ones had lower saturated fat than the Watties so that's why he chose them. How cool is that? I'd never told him to look at the nutritional label, nor have I ever explained to him that I am cutting back in saturated fat. He must have just over heard me talking about it. I gave him a big hug and said Thanks!