A gain I was expecting ...

As expected ... a gain this week. But not a bad one and I'm pretty happy with the result ... 200g gain. Could have been a lot worse. In some ways I am a lot happier with a gain then if I had of had a loss. Sound weird? Hear me out here. I was getting into a lazy rut mainly with the lack of tracking. But with the losses I was still having there was no need to change. With having a gain this week has got my motivation moving again to do everything right, starting with tracking!

We've had an offer of board for Bill during the week at Waiuku (about half hour drive from Bill's work) Pity it's a bit far travel wise but probably better than him commuting to Hamilton and back each day (1hrs drive). At $50 per week (no food included) it seems a good price. We are currently looking for somewhere a little closer, so if anyone knows of someone that is looking for a boarder for 6mths around the South Auckland area, let me know. He only needs a bed, no meals. He'll be doing long hours at work so be in late (10.30pm) and leaving early (around 7am). And he'll be going to Hamilton on the weekends.

Not much else has been happening. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have up an 'eating for yesterday' record again. I know I've been slack in that area! *slap on the hand* :)

I've just done an update on my measurements (on the 'weights & measurements' page) For the first time ever (well that I know of) my abdomen is smaller than my hips!! Yay!! I have always been plagued with a roll around my lower tummy area. In the last month I have noticed this decreasing incredibly!! To the point that it is now smaller than my butt/hips! Almost flat but not quite :) Now that should definately motivate me!

Wish me luck for my first day back at tracking.
Till later!
Lyn :)

Sticking in there :)

I got my butt out the door last night and actually went to the gym. Been threatening to do that for a long time and never actually making it there. But pleased to say it actually happened last night! Yay!

Did well with my eating yesterday. But think it's a little late in the week for any recovery to show on the scales with weigh in tonight. Oh well just have to grin and bear it. Hopefully under a 500g gain.

Thanks for your words Lynda ... so true!! Sometimes I set too higher expectations for myself and when I don't keep going at that level I get down on myself. I know I did it too hard a few months back with the exercise. Even tho I lost weight my body has taken a beating for it. I am really run down at the moment, fighting off infections everywhere! Both ears have been infected for a while now, getting boils (always a sign I am run down), niggling cough that just won't go away, and my ecxsma/dermatitis (sp) is playing up again.

But all in all ... feeling more motivated today.

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 85.1kg
GW 65kg

Stress!!

I didn't really want to update today, but I know I must be true to myself and true to you guys out there.

Not that I did anything real bad yesterday but I just can't get myself motivated to be excited about my weightloss journey. I have this half marathon on this weekend and I don't feel like I have done enough training for it. I'm probably up for a gain at weighin tomorrow and I still can't make myself track. As much as I tell myself to, when the end of the day arrives I haven't done it!! Grrrrr... what is wrong with me? I need a good kick up the pants!!

Read through everyones journals yesterday hoping to get some inspiration and it looks like everyone is finding the same thing as me at the moment. Must be the cold weather ... I really don't know! Our ww meeting attendance has dropped way off too. My leader said that it usually does when it gets cold.

One thing I know for sure ... I'm not giving up!! I'm not going back to where I started. I just have to get through this!

Bill and I went around to look at our section yesterday and there is another house in the same street that has just had the bricks put in the same as the ones we have chosen... And I hated it!!! It looked terrible!! They were a lot patchier than the sample bricks we viewed and chose from. That sent us into a panic! So we drove straight away to the builders and asked them if it was too late to change. Lucky for us we can still change... phew! Our next problem tho ... which ones now?? We then drove to Monier to have a look at their showroom so at least we could view the bricks made up in a wall. The one we chose from there was a terracotta coloured one, but this put the colours out for the harditex we had chosen. Still matches with the tile and joinery colours but will have to revisit what we have decided. It's put me all in a fluster!! The lady at Monier gave us an address of a house that had been done in the same terracotta brick with the same roof colour as ours. When we got there I liked what I saw but the brick was a lot blander than I had expected. I really don't know what to do! We probably will go for the terracotta brick, it's far nicer than the first one we chose. Guess I'm just nervous now that it will look different when it goes up and I won't like it.

As you can probably tell I'm rather stressed at the moment. I have a set of stationery due out in the next few days and I just can't get enthused about that either!!

I'll be fine, don't worry about me lol... just got to get it all down on paper to feel better about it.

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 85.1kg
GW 65kg

Guilty!!

I'm counting yesterday as a rightoff eating wise. I really didn't do too well. Only had the two pieces of pizza at the birthday lunch but ended up eating a whole bag of rice chips (6pts) and two rum and cokes (4pts) ... then sweetcorn and cheese on toast, in itself isnt bad but along with everything else in the day put me way over my points.

Feeling a bit out of control at the moment with both my eating and with the amount of money we spent on Laurens birthday yesterday ... tooooo much!!

Also have a job to have out in the next few days so busy doing that. Don't know where I'm going to fit in packing.

Jordan's 3rd birthday today and Bill left for work early forgetting it. Infact everyone forgot until I got out of bed and wished him a happy birthday. Not much planned other than a few pressies tonight. We just do special birthdays for their 6th and 13th birthdays. Had planned to go to mum and dads for his birthday (his favourite people) but with Bill doing so many hours at the moment can't see when we will have the time. Poor little man, I feel bad today isn't something extra special for him.

So much guilty feelings at the moment! :(

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
GW 85.1kg
GW 65kg

Kids parties ... dontcha lovem?

I'm in the midst of birthday party mode with 20 kids running around my feet!! Arrrrrggghh!!!

Survived a meal out at pizza hut at lunchtime and think I did pretty well. They didnt have any vegetarian pizza but had a huge plate of salad first, then 2 pieces of pizza, a small taste of pasta and tomato pasta sauce and of course had some dairy whip icecream to finish off. All up (although difficult to really know) around 18pts. Not too bad

Just waiting for time to pass so all these kids can take their hyperactive, sugar riden bodies home again :)

Been on par with points the last couple of days ... just!

Not much else to write about.
Back to normal life tomorrow ... yay! :)

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 85.1kg
GW 65kg

Don't buy seafood subways! Bad!!

Our colours are all chosen... I'm really happy :) I've put up a new photo album on my site, with the house illustration and floorplans for anyone interested. We took photos of the section yesterday, but didn't get any of me yet. I really wasn't feeling well yesterday. I ate a seafood subway on Wednesday night and obviously it wasn't the freshest because I had painful stomach cramps all night last night and had a headache all day yesterday. So wasn't in the mood for smiling to a camera :) I'll get some taken when I feel back ontop of things again.

From my eating yesterday you wouldn't tell that I was unwell lol. I kept eating hoping that food in my stomach would make me feel better... now I know! lol

Eating for yesterday ...

BREAKFAST - banana 1pt
SNACK - wildberry top 1.5pt
LUNCH - cup-o-soup 1.5pts, bread 3pts
SNACK - Nectarine 0.5pt
DINNER - Potato 2pts, smoked fish 2pts, lite sour cream 0.5pt, creamed sweetcorn 1pt, butter 0.5pt, trim milk 0.5pt, seafood soup sachet 0.5pt, veges 0pts
SNACK - lite icecream 2pts, lite cream 1pt, banana 1pt
DRINKS - 2.5 rum and cokes 5pts

Total ...23.5pts/22pts
Saved ...-1.5pts
Water ...3 glasses
Exercise ... none
Total bonus points ... none

Bill finished his challenge week of trying to lose 5kg ... and of course (we all knew it) He couldn't do it. He did really well by losing 2kg but we all know it's physically impossible (unless you have surgery or severe water retention) to lose 5kgs in one week. Good try anyway Bill :)

Not much else going on here today. Gotta catch up on some business work and tidy the house AGAIN lol

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 85.1kg
GW 65kg

Don't ask me how ... but I lost! :)

I really don't know how I did it! I had an 800g loss!! I certainly don't feel I deserve such a loss and infact felt guilty about it last night ... almost like I had cheated in an exam. TOM turned up yesterday too ... all the more reason for a gain. Today I feel a whole lot happier about it... not so guilty.

I'm presuming a couple of things happened ...

1. The huge 18km walk we did last Tuesday finally showed up on the scales.

2. The month I spent building muscle where my losses slowed right down has paid off meaning I am burning up more kj just sitting still (I still get out for at least 3 walks a week)

3. Even tho I consumed over 20 chocolates last week and didn't track I actually think I probably went under points a few days.

4. My overeating on chocolates might show up next week.

Anyway that's enough analysing. I'm going to feel happy about this result and not deprive myself of that feel good feeling.

Great idea Nicole! I will post up some photos of our house as we go, on my site ... not sure exactly where yet but I'll let you know where, when I get them up. I'm taking photos of the scraped section today. I have plans and an illustration of our house in the meantime that I will put up for you to see.

We go to choose our colours today for the bricks, tiles, harditex, windows, walls, kitchen, carpets ... everything. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. We have to live in this house for a long time so I want to get it right.

Only 2 weekends to go before our half marathon. Wow time has sped by. I'll make sure I get some pics of us at the finishline to prove I actually made it lol. Talking about pics ... I'm getting Bill to take some update photos today but may be a little while before I get them up as I need to use up the whole film first.

Well I'm excited about my weightloss journey again. Been a little while since I felt so motivated. I'm ready to kick butt!!

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 85.1kg
GW 65kg

They've started on our house :)

Yesterday was a blur ... I spent the whole day finishing off a set of wedding stationery due out by the end of the day. (That's what I do for a business for anyone who doesn't know) Got that done at 4pm then out the door with the kids to go for a walk. Came home at 5.30pm threw on some dinner, ran around the house to tidy up for client calling by to pick up her stationery, ate dinner, put younger kids off ot bed, then designed and printed Birthday invites for Lauren's birthday this weekend, put older kids to bed and finally sat down to relax by 8.45pm... exhausted!!

Went past our section on our walk and got the shock of my life to see they had scraped our section ... it's all on baby!!! They have started on our house!!! Such a huge excitement! I had plans of taking photos before they started but obviously I've missed out on that opportunity lol. Bill reckons I should just take a photo of some grass and superimpose it onto our section ... hehe ... I'm going down again today now that I finally have a film in my camera. And hopefully get Bill to take some update pics of me for this site.

Since we are paying off all our small debt on settlement date we decided to do an official 'cutting of the credit cards' last night. I have a big butch guillotine for my business work so we got some photos of them lined up under the blade and a sign infront saying '$17,000 saved in 5 mths starts here' and of course some actions ones with the blade coming down. Was a very cool experience!

And talking about settlement date ... this has been put back to 29 August ... 3 weeks later. The purchaser really mucked us around and wouldn't give us a date (even a week after going unconditional). Her final answer was 42 days unless a tenant for the property can be found earlier. As you all know we wanted 21 days but what's that? We can't work with that type of deal... that means that if she found a tenant tomorrow she could say she wants us out next week!! So I had strong words (which I won't repeat here) with the agent explaining that we are paying her $8,775 to sell our house .. NOT GET A TENANT FOR THE PURCHASER and that we can't work with anything that is this ambigious!! So we have gone with the 42 days (and too bad if she had a tenant to move in)

Mum and dad are okay about leaving the house empty another couple of weeks (luckily) and the builder has accepted to receive his deposit in 6wks time (luckily again) so everything has worked out (luckily for the third time). It means we are not in such a rush to pack up and I can get all the business ends tidied up before the move.

Weigh in tonight ... I'm really not looking forward to this one, but making myself face the music. Every other time I have had a blow out I have always worked it back with my points and extra exercise over the remainder of the week. But that just hasn't happened this week. I have been 1 or 2pts over every day, although I have managed to get out for 3 big walks this week. TOM didnt turn up as expected either so might mean it's coming this next week which will have an effect on the scales. Whatever happens I'll accept it.

My biggest problem is not having grocery shopping done. I'm going today, meaning I can start off this next week prepared!!!

As always I'll let you know how I get on.
Lyn :)

SW 107.4kg
CW 85.9kg (enjoying this figure while it lasts lol)
GW 65kg

End of an era

Firstly lets get my eating out of the way ... lol

BREAKFAST - Apple 0.5pt, chocolate 2pts
SNACK - frozen fruit juice 2pts
LUNCH - bread roll 4pts, tomato 0pt, bbq sauce 1pt
SNACK - bread roll 2pts, ww jam 0.5pt
DINNER - steak 4pts, potato 3pts, kumera 1pt, pumpkin 0pt, olive oil 1.5pts, tomato sauce 1pt

Total ... 22.5pts/22pts
Saved -.5pt
Total saved -2pts
Water 3 glasses
Exercise 1hr walk 4pts
Total bonus points 8pts

Phew ... glad that's out of the way! Actually it's not as bad as I thought after writing it all down. Think I did pretty well with my water and exercise yesterday.

Bill pushed me out of bed at 5am this morning to go to the gym and I got in such a bad mood with him :) I refused to go and crawled back into bed lol.

I have booked the kids into their new school in Hamilton... get this ... there are only 11 kids in the whole school!! And only 2 girls!! Their current school here has over 300 pupils so I think it will be a great life experience for them. The school is actually closing down at the end of the year ... quite sad, given that it was the same primary school I attended as a child and has been running for over 100yrs! Infact my great grandmother was one of the first members to go to the school when it was opened in 1902. Quite ironic to think that her great, great grandchildren will be one of the last members to go there... what an era :)

Rang mum again this morning for a chat and to tell her the updates with the house and shifting (and to hopefully break the ice) and she seemed okay after a bit of talking. I think that will be the secret, just keep plugging away and she will get over it.

Kids went back to school this morning and Lauren is all excited about telling everyone her news. Great to see!

Well better go, got lots to do today.
Lyn :)

SW 107.4kg
CW 85.9kg
GW 65kg

Nothing happening here today

Not much to talk about today. My eating still wasn't good yesterday. Those chocolates are still hanging around calling out to me.

Got lots of packing done yesterday, 20 boxes infact. More packing to do today. Not much else planned, hopefully a walk later in the day when it warms up a little. Bill is working till 1pm.

The plan was to win a Holden Minaro last night in the lotto draw. We don't actually buy lotto tickets (I personally believe you spend far more on those than what you could ever get out of it) But the friends of ours that shifted back to Sydney last week gave us the voucher they had for the draw lotto was holding to win 1 of 10 Holdens. Unfortunately my plan didn't work ... we didn't win ... lol. It could have come in quite handy :)

I am really expecting a gain this week. I just can't seem to get control on my eating again. Doesn't help when I haven't done the shopping in 10 days. Trying to hold out as long as possible to save some money.

That's about all the news for today. They still haven't started on our section yet... no hurry tho. The longer they take to start, the longer we have to save :)

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 85.9kg
GW 65kg

dreamt I was fat again!!

ut oh ... I stuffed up with the chocolates yesterday .. my count at the end of the day was 10!!! omg!! lol ... I'm not usually a 'sugar' person, normally craving fatty savouries, but I just couldnt help myself yesterday (possibly due to TOM arriving soon). After counting my points up (although I didnt actually track yesterday) I still came out just over points at 23.5pts. I must have felt guilty about it because I dreamt all night how I had gained all 20kg back and I was fat again. Was a relief to wake up and find it wasn't actually as bad as I had dreamt about. So that has put me in a possitive frame of mind today ... back to tracking again!!

Here's my eating for yesterday ... (as much as I can remember)

BREAKFAST - cereal 1.5pts, milk 0.5pt
LUNCH - pumpkin soup 2pts, bread 3pts
SNACK - 5 chocolates 5pts
DINNER - pasta 2.5pts, veges 0pt, canned tomatos 0pts, lite coconut milk 1pt
SNACK - 5 chocolates 5pts, wine 3pts

Total ... 23.5pts/22pts
Saved ... -1.5pts
Total saved ... -1.5pts
exercise ... ut oh nothing
Water ... ut oh nothing

We packed 15 boxes yesterday (sounds alot but can hardly tell where they came from) Bill is bringing another 15 home at lunchtime today, so that's my plan ... 15 per day. I have come to the conclusion I actually love packing. There's a real sense of achievement and cleansing that comes from sorting things into boxes, labelling them and stacking them one on top of the other in the garage.

Washing is also starting to pile up on me ... gotta get into that today ... busy day ahead... better get into it!

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 85.9kg
GW 65kg

We've signed up for our house ... almost!! lol

Wow what a busy day!! We have just come back from the solicitors to sign up for our house. When we got there we found that the papers from the purchaser of our house hadnt been sent through ... so there was no written confirmation that our current house had indeed gone unconditional!! Which meant that we couldnt sign up unconditional to our new house. And we only have until Monday on the contract before the builders are allowed to put their prices up!! We also asked for a 21 day settlement date rather than the original 42 days. Given that we don't get paid for our house until settlement date, we needed to know today if that had been accepted by the purchaser, so that the builders could have a date that we would be paying them by. Confused yet?? Tell me about it!! lol Anyway, when we got there, because the papers had not been faxed to them yet (over 2 days late!!) we couldnt give a date to the builders when they would get their deposit by... hence the builder was a little stressed by this. So to cut a long story short and after a lot of assertive phone calls to different people we got a fax confirmation of our house being unconditional to our solicitor but still waiting on a settlement date!! How crazy is that??? We've told the builder we will pass on the info as soon as we hear anything but yet again ... it's a waiting game!! Geez... I'm getting sick of this game lol.

Good news it's taken my mind off my mother's silly games. Thankyou to those of you who gave me great advice!! Everything that was said is so helpful and has kept me focused on what's important. What Leigh said really summed it up for me "Lyn do not stress about your mother - you have your own family and things going on to worry about - if she doesn't talk to you - that is her loss!!!" SO TRUE!!! Thankyou!!

My eating hasnt been very good today... we got given a box of Cadbury's Favourites ... bad bad bad!! They sat ontop of the fridge for two days and because they were sealed shut it wasn't a problem leaving them there. But Bill opened them up this morning and that's it ... I can't stop myself now! lol ... Ive had ... hmmm ... think I've lost count ... about 6 or 7 so far ... bad, bad, bad! lol

My goal for the rest of the day ... to only have 1 more chocolate ... that's it ... that's all I'm allowed!!

Bill's gone in to get some boxes from work so we can start packing. It's quite exciting actually getting to do something instead of just waiting. So that's what I'll be doing for the rest of the day... yay!!

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 85.9kg
GW 65kg

Good and bad news

Sorry I haven't updated earlier ... my site was down for a bit this morning for some reason.

But I'm hear now, that's the main thing ...

Now for the news you are all waiting to hear lol ... I had a loss!!! yay!!! 500g infact bringing me to my official halfway mark with 21.5kg lost and 20.9kg to go. Another mini goal I can cross off my list! yay!!!

That's the good news (and the most important) now for the bad news (and should be least important)... you know how I said my mother was okay to speak to the other night ... no grudges ... well I was wrong!!! When I rang to tell her the good news about our house going unconditional her words were ... "oh ... it's gone unconditional? oh ok" all in a monotone. I know she is doing it to "teach me a lesson for Bill speaking to her and dad like that" but it really gets to me. She is forever making me feel guilty for something, forever in a mood about something with someone, just so happens it's me now and at a time when my stress levels are through the roof anyhow. I just don't need this from her! Last time she was in a major mood with me she didnt speak to me for 4mths!!! And I lived next door to her at the time, so it's not like she didnt have the opportunity!

I should have been celebrating last night ... instead I was bawling my eyes out because yet again my mother has a noose around my neck, by not speaking to me. Normally I wouldnt care given the 1.5hr distance between us but with moving in next door I will be leaving all my friends behind in Auckland and I just don't need the control/manipulation she tries to get over me!! Feel like telling her to GROW UP and lose the attitude but I know that will only make things worse.

Ironic thing is ... this has all blown up because of them finding out about my smoking and the reason I smoke in the first place is probably because it's my way of breaking out of the hold they have over me. Neverending circle. This certainly doesnt help my desire to give up!! lol

Enough talk about her ... it's pack, pack, pack now ... wow just 3 weeks to get it all done... busy, busy, busy

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 85.9kg
GW 65kg

Our time spent on a volcano

********UPDATE********

Our house has officially gone unconditional!! We sign the papers at the solicitors for our new home on Friday :)

**********************


Straight after I finished writing my entry for yesterday Bill walked in the door, after finishing his niteshift, and decided we were going for a walk UP MT RANGATOTO!!! There was a special advertised on the radio offering a family pass on Fullers ferry for $25 so we threw everything in a bag, grabbed jackets and snack food and headed into the city as fast as we could. We are 25mins from the city on a good travel day. We had left home at 8.40am and the ferry left at 9.15am. At any other time of the day we would have got there in no time but at peak hour traffic it was going to be tight. We found parking 2 blocks away and ran!!! We got there 5mins too late lol! The ferry had already left!!!

So we settled for the next ferry leaving at 12.15pm. With a few hours to kill we wandered up Queen Street for some window shopping, grabbed a bite to eat for lunch and got back in time to hop on the ferry for our adventure. We set off for the 1.5hr walk up the volcano to the summit. We made it to the top in just under 1hr. The amazing thing about that ... we had a pushchair to push as well!! (Well Bill pushed the pushchair) Navigating the steps, roots and rocks. We had all worked up a good sweat by the time we arrived at the top. Our plan was to head down the otherside which involved a longer walk around the island. But we had to take the right turns or we would end up on the otherside of the island to the ferry pickup. The last ferry for the day left at 3.45pm so we knew it would we didn't have any time to spare. The problem was we didnt have a map on us (we had tried to memorise the sign at the start of the walk) And the signage during the walk was terrible. We got to a few junctions and without any signs weren't sure which way to go. Of course Bill thought we should go one way and I thought the other! lol... So I was a good wife and went with Bill's instincts... of course a wrong decision would then be Bill's problem and I wouldn't let him forget it if we had to spend the night on the island!! 1.5hrs later we hadn't reached our destination and we knew we only had 40mins left before the last ferry left!! This would be fine if we knew we were heading in the right direction!! If we popped out on the otherside of the island, we would be in trouble!!! It was suspence to the very end but yes we had gone the right way!! LUCKY!!! Big sighs of relief!! lol

The weather had been good to us all day, threatening to rain and finally downpoured once we were on the ferry back to the car! It was a fantastic day!! I went over a couple of points for the day but worked out that we had walked/run around 18kms!!! Lauren did fantastically too!! At only 8yrs old she kept up with us the whole way, not complaining once!! And Jese sat happily in his mountain buggy the whole day!!

Weigh in tonight and don't think it's going to be a good result. I did really well with exercise this week but had those few blow outs with my eating at the start of the week and it's TOM time due the next day or so and I can feel my body bloating up today. I'm not going to get too down if it is a gain because it will be a good result next week with TOM finishing and my exercise efforts showing up on the scales by then.

Eating for yesterday ...

BREAKFAST - cereal 3pts, milk 0.5pt
SNACK - cereal bar 1.5pts
LUNCH - seafood subway 5pts
SNACK - cereal bar 1.5pts, half banana 0.5pt, half caramel kitkat 3pts (yum!!)
DINNER - chicken 3pts, pasta sauce 1pt, veges 0pt, pasta 5pts
SNACK - custard 3pts

Total ... 27pts/22pts
Saved ... -5pts
Total saved ... -10.5pts
Water ... 6 glasses
Exercise ... 4hrs walking 18pts
Total bonus points ... 34pts :)

When we got home last night there was a message on the answerphone to call the builders. After contacting Michelle from the building company she informed us that her boss had accepted our $17,000 deposit no problems!! YAY!!!! That makes life so much easier, meaning we can pay off all our debt when we sell this house and truelly start saving. The next 6 months will be one of the few times we are actually debt free with savings in the bank!! Homeless ... but debt free lol :)

So now all we are waiting for is this place to go unconditional. Which is supposed to happen today. I'm hoping we will hear this morning sometime so we can go to the solicitors this afternoon and sign up to our new home "unconditional" YAY!!!!

I'll let you know as soon as I hear anything! :)
Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 86.4kg
GW 65kg

5kg's in one week?? I don't think so :)

Went way under my points yesterday... but probably not a bad thing considering my excess points at the start of the week.

Eating for yesterday ...

BREAKFAST - cereal 1.5pts, milk 0.5pt
SNACK - 3 rice cakes 2pts
LUNCH - toast 3pts, left over vege stew 2pts
DINNER - chicken 3pts, veges 0pts, butter 1pt, pasta sauce 1pt, milk 0.5pt, rice 3pts

Total ... 17.5pts/22pts
Saved ... 4pts
Total saved ... -5.5pts
Water ... 2 glasses
Exercise ... nothing
Total bonus points saved ... 16pts

We got the valuation back from the house we are building yesterday... $345,000 ... $3,000 above what we are paying so good news :)

Now we are just waiting on this house to go unconditional and for the builders to accept our $17,000 deposit and we will be all go!

Had planned to go for a walk yesterday afternoon ... that was until Bill rang to say he was coming home early from work so we could go to friend's house to help pack and clean. They came over here from Sydney 3mths ago for an adventure. They've spent the last 3mths setting up their home and settling into the kiwi way of life (which they were loving). Then his mum had a stroke back in Sydney so they have had to sell eveything up and go back. And because they had to sell in such a hurry they didn't get very good prices for anything and had to pay more for their tickets being bought at short notice. Poor things! Hope his mum is okay.

Bill's doing niteshift all this week. Will be nice to have him round the house during the days but he gets so grumpy when he's on nites.

Talking of Bill ... he has set up this crazy bet with my brother that he can lose 5kg in ONE WEEK!! Yeah right!! We all know he won't do it. But no one could say otherwise. I'll let you know how he goes.

Not sure if I told you this, but, I AM OFFICIALLY LIGHTER THAN BILL!! I haven't been lighter than him since before we were married 8.5yrs ago. He's put on 4kg in the last few weeks putting him at 90kg exactly... while I am down to 86.4kg. He always said that when I get under his weight he would get into action with losing weight, but somehow I can't see it happening lol. I love him no matter what size he is, but of course he doesnt believe me lol. The competition might be on :)

That's about it for today.
Lyn :)

SW 107.4kg
CW 86.4kg
GW 65kg

It will all be okay :)

I rang mum last night to check the kids were all okay and see she wasn't getting too stressed out. And she was fine, even laughed on the phone, so looks like I was worried for nothing. Apparently according to my brother she is a little worried about this friction with us moving next door, but she was fine to me on the phone, so I'm not going to worry about it anymore. It will all be fine.

My plans went pretty good yesterday. I managed to drink my 3 glasses of water, go for an hours walk and almost stick to my 18pts.

Eating for yesterday ...

BREAKFAST - cereal 1.5pts, milk 0.5pt
SNACK - rice chips 1pt, chocolate 1pt
LUNCH - soup 1pt, bread 4pts, salad veges 0pt
SNACK - pulp fruision icecream 1pt, banana 1pt
DINNER - potato 2pts, meat 1.5pts, veges 0pts, kumera 1pt
SNACK - custard 1.5pts, icecream 2pts, banana 1pt

Total ... 20pts/22pts
Saved ... 2pts
Total saved ... -9.5pts
Water ... 3 glasses
Exercise ... 1hr walk 4pts
Total bonus points ... 16pts

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 86.4kg
GW 65kg

I blew it again yesterday .. what's wrong with me?

Yesterday didnt go very well eating wise at all! I just couldnt stop myself from eating. Almost as if TOM was about to arrive but it's not due for another week.

I don't know what's happening to me this last week, I just can't seem to do everything right.

Here's my eating ...

BREAKFAST - cereal 3pts, milk 0.5pt
SNACK - banana 1pt, cereal bar 1.5pts, rice chips 3pts
LUNCH - soup 1pt, bread 2pts, mushrooms 0pts
SNACK - 3 chocolates 3pts, rice chips 5pts
DINNER - pasta 5pts, pasta sauce 1pt, veges 0pts
SNACK - custard 3pts, icecream 2pts, banana 1pt

Total ... 32pts!!! omg lol
Saved ... -10pts
Total saved -11.5pts
Water ... none
Exercise ... none
Total bonus points saved ... 12pts

Hmmm ... didn't realise it was as bad as this till I wrote it down lol. Goal for today ... want to go for an hours walk, drink at least 3 glasses of water ... and only have 18pts! Hmmm big call but I'll see if I can do it.

Mum didnt ring yesterday, just as well. So for now it's peaceful among the family. Infact mum's probably not talking to me, hence the lack of phone calls, but for now I don't mind. One less thing I have to worry about.

Didn't hear anything more about the house yesterday. At this stage we are waiting for this house to go unconditional which should happen on Wednesday. And for the valuation to come back on our new property, hopefully will hear that on Monday or Tuesday. Then it's into the lawyers on Wednesday to sign the sale and purchase agreement. If we hear back about the valuation and this place going unconditional before we go to the lawyers on wednesday we can sign up straight away as unconditional.

Boring day again for me here. Bill is at work till 1.30pm then we have planned our walk together with the kids, and nothing planned for the rest of the day.

News back from the family member with meningitis ... she is still in ICU and will be for another 3 or 4 weeks but she is gradually getting better. She is over the meningitis now but is still fighting the effects of it... ie. the damage it has done to her organs. She is still on dialosis and will have to have 5 tips of her fingers removed. Good news at this stage it looks like she will only have a tiny slice from the bridge of her nose removed, and this can be tidied up at a later stage with plastic surgery. Aparently the nurses there can't believe she has pulled through, they were sure we would lose her in the first night, but she's a fighter!!! Go Barbara!!

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 86.4kg
GW 65kg

ut oh!!!

The mud is about to hit the fan!!

Apparently my parents hit up my sister about my smoking, wanting to know all the details... how long? why? how long did she know? etc etc ... to which she told them to ask me not her. They then went on about how disappointed they were blah blah blah.

After finding out this yesterday, of course I was grumpy. Bill was trying to work out the reason for my bad mood and eventually after putting the details together, worked it out. Then without me knowing (I was out of the room) he rang dad and told him to stop going to everyone else in the family to talk about me, that if he had something to say it should be directed straight to Bill not anyone else! And that as much as they have concern as a parent for me, I am not their responsibility anymore, the responsibility lies with Bill, as I am married with 4 children and 29 yrs old!!

I came into the room to hear the tail end of the conversation and couldnt believe he was actually confronting my parents! Chit scared ... I freaked!! (thoughts of packing my bags to leave the country entered my head) No one EVER confronts my parents!! or tells them what to do!! And pity on anyone who tries.

After I calmed down I realised how proud I was of Bill for sticking up for me... but at the same time I am waiting for the repocusions, after all we are about to live with these people. With all the stresses at the moment I don't need an added one, especially a political family one.

So I'm expecting a call from mum today. She will wait till Bill has gone to work and dad is out of the house then let fire ... I'm sure of it. Lucky I have caller ID on my phone so if I'm not up to answering her calls ... I just wont! But I realise I have to deal with it sometime. I don't want to be the one holding any grudge. I don't have any bad feelings towards them just expecting a big blowup and trying to prepare myself for that.

Consequently with all this drama, my points for the day didn't end up too good. Started out well but got into a few too many rum and cokes late evening.

Here's the gory details lol

BREAKFAST - cereal bar 1.5pts
SNACK - 3/4 pixie caramel 4pts (first one I've had in 6mths)
LUNCH - soup 1pt, bread 3pts
SNACK - banana 1pt, Apple 0.5pt
DINNER - potato 2pts, lite sourcream 0.5pt, veges 0pts, creamed sweetcorn 2pts
DRINKS - rum and diet cokes 8pts

Total ... 23.5pts/22pts
Saved ... -1.5pts
Total saved ... -1.5pts
Water ... 2 glasses
Exercise ... 1hr walk 4pts
Total bonus points 12pts

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 86.4kg
GW 65kg

Thankyou guys so much!!!

Nicole ... yes we do get to choose colour schemes ... yay! Because we got in early enough before the building has started.

The builder rang yesterday to say that the value has gone up on our house already (we don't have to pay anymore tho)... but if someone was to sign up today to build the same home as us it would cost them $358,000 instead of the $342,000 we pay. That's $16,000 in just one month!!!

Aparently it's going to take a little longer than expected to get things started. They scrape the section in 2wks time, 1 wk to lay the concrete slab then they let it dry for 4wks then start building (18wks) but add another 2wks onto that for Christmas/New Year ... so all up 27wks (beginning Feb)... good news really because it gives us that extra time to save. As long as we are back in Auckland for kids going back to school in the new year. Should work out perfectly!

One small hitch so far, the builders want 12.5% deposit to start building ... thats $42,750!!! We don't have that kind of money now... even after 6mths of saving we will only have 10% ($34,000). There should be a way around it tho, we have heard of others having just $10,000 deposit, so we are going to offer them $17,000 (what we have once this house has sold and paid all our small debt off) and see what they say, if that's not enough then we will offer to pay them $17,000 initially plus $2,500 per month for 6mths (total $32,000) and worse case sinario we will give them $30,000 now and spend the next 6mths paying off our small debt with the $2500 per mth we can save. I'm sure we can work something out. It's all just a matter of cashflow.

My tracking has gone out the door the last couple of days. I haven't overeaten at all but just don't know the points I have had. So I have printed out a new tracker sheet today and starting now so I don't slip out of my good habits I have learnt.

Went to the gym last night for a step class. I managed to do high impact for the whole class ... that's a first for me! If the rain stops I'll get out for a walk today.

Thankyou so much to all the people who have sent their congratulations to us!! Fantastic! You guys are pretty high on my priority list! I updated my journal here even before I rang some of our family.. lol.

Now I guess this journal might take on a different slant for the next 6 or 7 mths. My weightloss journey will always be the ultimate reason for writing but there will be a big focus on house building stuff :)

Jordan and Malachi are staying down at mum's for the holidays so the house is nice and quiet. Guess I'll appreciate the silence while it lasts lol.

Well that's about all for today.
Lyn :)

ohhhh my friggin goodness!!!!! :))))

WE GOT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I CANT BELIEVE WE ACTUALLY HAVE THE FINAL GOOD NEWS ... ITS ALL GO!!!! THEY HAVE SAID YES!!!!!!!!!

And the cool thing is ... they actually approved it on our finances alone... without the use of mum and dads guantor agreement!!

My stress hit an all time high tonight!! I have not ever been that stressed out in my whole life!!! (even more stressed than on my wedding day!!) When the bank manager said yes BUT he needed to see copies of our bank statements I thought our dreams were going down the gurgler. We went about $500 over our overdraft in April of this year because of GST that was due ... and I was sure they would see that and disapprove the loan. I didnt know whether to get excited or cry. I was sure it was going to fall flat. But the worry was for NOTHING!! I made Bill ring him (at home lol) to see if he got our copies of the faxed statements and to explain why we went over our overdraft. The guy couldnt believe we were ringing to explain ... he said "Nah... that's fine... no problem at all ... its just a formality" So here I was beside myself for nothing!! At least I found that out tonight and didnt have to sleep on it all night!

So now we can TRULY CELEBRATE!!! It's a definate yes! They start scraping the section next week!

YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

btw - I lost 1kg tonight at weigh in lol ... 200g off halfway!! :)

Lyn :)
SW 107.4kg
CW 86.4kg
GW 65kg