Thankyou Bill!!!

Thankyou all so much for your words of encouragement!! Posting my weightloss on here is one of the exciting parts of my weightloss journey. In reality there are very few people/places that you can skite about weightloss to. That's the cool thing about blogging, we can be honest and tell of the good times and bad without fear of being shot down.

Bill did a lovely thing yesterday. When he got home in the afternoon he handed me an envelope. Inside was a congratulations card, telling me how proud he was of me losing my first 10kgs. And of course he had a little skite to the lady in the stationery shop about the hard work his wife had been doing. Awww! :)

I had a little story I forgot to post about yesterday. Bill was out on his new toy, a 12ft tinny boat ... fishing. He's been bringing home a lot of fish lately and I'm not a huge fish fan but was proud of him for 'bringing home the bacon'. Anyway I needed to call him on his mobile about something for the shop. As I was speaking, he interupted me with "FFaaaaaaaark!!!" And the line went dead. I tried ringing him back but he didn't answer. I was in panic stations for the next 10mins wandering what had happened, hoping he was ok. He eventually rang me back and said that when I rang he put his rod down to answer the phone. While we were talking a fish had gotten his line and run with it ... taking his whole rod!!! He lost it all!

His friend who was going out diving the next day went to the spot he was fishing to look for it. The water was crystal clear but nothing! So somewhere out there in the deep blue sea is a fish swimming round towing a fishing rod! I told him it will be one of those legends ... see who can catch the fish with Bill's rod attached!

Bugger!!!

I'm on ambulance all day today. It was certainly cold getting up this morning!! Hope it warms up soon when the sun gets up. I hate winter!! Roll on summer I say!!!

Ohhhh yeeeaaah!!!

Whooop!! Whooop!! I did it!! Yayya!! And did it with a bang!! Lost 2.1kgs this week, now dats what I'm talkin bout!! I knew I was headed for a loss but was hoping like heck it would be at least 600g ... but 2.1kgs??? wahoooooo!!!

So as my reward I've added my update photo and another 5kg lost star to my side panel. I was really nervous uploading my photo from the camera this morning. It's been the first photo I've seen of myself since my first pic and I was really hoping I'd see a difference. I'm happy with the results :)

My evaluation for the week ...

Week ending 30 May, 2007

+/- this week: - 2.1kg
total points used: 174/168
bonus exercise points earnt: 22.5pts
total steps for the week (exercise + work): 35,900
number of days exercise: 3
tracked: 7/7 days
water consumed: 12 litres/14 litres
sugar points: 22pts

Reflections ...

• YEEEEEEHAWWWW BABY!!!!

Scales be nice to me ...

I had a friend come into the shop yesterday afternoon that has also broken her ankle with a plate and she made a comment that made me think.

She mentioned that the cold weather plays up with her ankle and yes I suddenly realised that was why I found my walk so hard yesterday morning... the cold!!

There's not much I can do about it but makes me much happier knowing why.

My coldsore/pimple thingee is much better today. It came to a head yesterday and I was able to get most of it out (oops sorry TMI??). Now there's just a small scab (which I promise to leave alone) and the swelling has gone down to make it almost unnoticeable.

I am trying so hard to get to my 10kg lost mark this weighin (tomorrow). A 600g loss will get me there ... please scales be nice to me!!

I'm trying to eat relatively lightly today, still of course eating all my points, but avoiding anything stodgy and heavy. So I had a salad for lunch and boy was it YUCK!!! lol Normally I'm a bit of a salad fan but this one just didn't work. Alfalfa, bean sprouts, cherry tomatoes, 1/2 avocado, 1 mandarin, grated carrot, lite tuna and a bit of dressing. I had to force it down!! The things we do for those scales huh? lol

I have my walk on with the girls tonight. It's getting really cold and dark early in the evenings now which makes it very hard getting out there. But I do find once I'm there and walking I really enjoy it and the time goes really quickly. Before I know it I've done 50mins and over 5kms.

Bill's going out of town tomorrow so I'll try and get my weighin done early then if I do meet my 10kg lost mark I'll get him to take an update photo.

All fingers and toes crossed!!!

Watch out ... it's gonna blow!!!

I woke up this morning with the biggest-as mother f****er coldsore/pimple thing on the side of my nose. It is HIIUUUUUUGGE!!!! I noticed it a few days ago as just a tender spot and did well to leave it alone and not squeeze the heck out of it.

Then when I looked in the mirror this morning my eye's couldn't believe the sight!! It's affecting all my sinuses and making me feel kinda yucky. Infact don't know what's up with me today. I walked the boys to school (40min round trip) and it felt like I was dragging concrete blocks from my feet.

I'm not sick but feel like maybe I'm a bit run down, with this coldsore and psoriasis (which plays up when I get under pressure).

It's ok, I'll bounce back again. I'm downing the vitamin B & C to help. I wonder if it has anything to do with the weather. It was absolutely freezing this morning. Turned out to be a nice day now that the sun has come out. My eating has been blah, not bad as I'm making ok choices, but just in that 'picky' mood. I need to watch it closely as I tend to blow out on days I graze and don't eat proper meals.

For the first time in a very long time I didn't blow out over the weekend. My normal routine is to go over points (by 4 or 5 each day) and have to save them back over Mon, Tues & Wed. I managed not to do that this weekend so I guess that's something.

Sorry no amazing inspiration news today. But who knows what tomorrow will hold.

Wipe off the dust ... and keep going!!

There seems to be a similar vein running through some blogs today about people who have lost the plot and updated to confess their transgressions.

So my theme to my post today is to congratulate these people. I say this from a point of view that I am not high and mighty saying "thou shalt and shalt not" but in a way that I have so been there and done exactly that. I am still at the start of my journey this time and have a long way to go. But ...

When I lost my weight last time and was at goal or very near to it there became a complacency that I could eat what I wanted and not have it affect me. But it does!! I learnt when I put my weight back on that I was a comfort eater. I never thought that I was before this. I am one of those people that when stress happens I put my head in the sand and pretend stress not there. But because I couldn't let it out I began to try and find some way of making myself happy. Gradually over time my brain triggered that when I ate I felt good. I remember thinking one day "Man I feel like crap, I just need 'something' to make me feel better"

I've had some people comment both to me and via others that how could I have done so much hard work to lose my weight and let it all go just like that? Well I can say it didn't happen over night. It started with that complacency and then as a few kilos came back on I got down about it, ate to make myself feel better and then as it got to around 15kgs I'd put back on I stopped caring. Deep down I hated that I was putting on weight but I hated so much more about my life that my appearance was almost a cry for help. Like I was saying "can someone notice how much pain I am in? See? I don't care about myself". I was waiting for someone to come and say "hey, you're not looking after yourself ... why? What's going on?"

But sadly no one did that. Now I don't say that with a 'woe is me' attitude. Everyone has their own lives to live and their own problems to deal with, so I totally understand that there wasn't a 'rescuer' for me. Ultimately it is up to ourselves to help ourselves. And it wasn't until I got to the day that I thought to myself "Well this isn't working is it? Eating like this is not making my life any better" that I was able to turn my eating around and start again.

Someone once said to me "Success is picking yourself up one more time than falling down". I have never forgotten this and I believe with my whole heart that this statement is the key to losing weight. None of us are perfect 100% of the time. We ALL have times when we stuff up. Look at me I stuffed up for 18mths!! But the journey isn't over ... we ALL have the opportunity to pick ourselves back up again, regardless of the length of time ... and carry on!!!

So I commend those people who have made that decision after a bad period to get back on track. THAT in itself is what makes you a success!!!

The burning celebration

LOL Rachel ... yes I guess I must be addicted if on my day off I choose to do ambo. I just love it so much!!

And for those of you who said you like my evaluations idea ... ehem ... I actually stole it off Zanna lol ... thanks Zanna!

I have been missing my walks. The last one I did was on Tuesday night with the girls. Then Wednesday and Thursday I did ambo all day so no walks. By this morning I was itching to get my feet out there.

As I put my exercise clothes on Bill remarked to me ...

Bill: "What do you mean you haven't lost much weight?"

(I'd been moaning to him about my weekly average weightloss not being much)

Bill: "You can really tell that you're toning up when you put those clothes on. Much better than that UGLY skirt you wore the other day!"

(WTF?!!)

Me: "You don't like my skirt? You've never told me that!!"

Bill: "I know"

Me: "And you wait till now to tell me??"

Bill: "It's just that it makes you look worse than you are"

Me: "What do you mean 'worse than I am'?!?!"

Bill: "you know what I mean."

Me: "No!"
(had to make him dig the whole deeper!!)

Bill: "Yeah, infact I hate that skirt so much I'm going to burn it!!"

Me: "What?? You can't BURN my skirt!! It's mine!"

Bill: "Yep, that's what I'm going to do"

So there you have it ... a skirt burning celebration has been born!! I didn't know whether to hit him or hug him!!

I walked for 1hr 30mins today, stopping off at the coffee house on the way. Then went into Waihi to do the banking, calling into the ambo station on the way back for another coffee ... whooops, overloaded a little on the caffeine! (for someone who's not used to drinking much coffee). Hence now I'm bouncing off the walls. Well I guess at least while I'm at work I'll get lots of things done! lol

For those of you who have asked about an update photo ... I'm waiting till I hit the 10kg lost mark, so "hopefully" that will be in the next couple of weeks (only 600g to go).

Well I better get onto that stuff to do, getting ants in my pants ... gotta go!!

Tired little tottie!!

I'm a bit late in updating today. With Bill being hungover on Monday I worked for him all day and in return he gave me today off. So I put myself down for doing ambulance all day.

I got my first call out at 5.45am then before we even got back to the station we got our next job. I've just got back now at 12.30pm.

I weighed in this morning with a 400g loss. I was secretly hoping for a HUGE loss this week given I undeservedly put on 200g last week. But ultimately I have to realise I am still lighter than last week.

On looking over my stats I have lost 500g total in the last 3 weeks, pretty pathetic. I know Jules I AM happy with that, it's still going downwards but just have to push through this exercise muscle building stage. I can actually start to feel my leg muscles contracting when I flex them now, unlike a month ago.

Here's my evaluation for the week ...

Week ending 23 May, 2007

+/- this week: - 400g
total points used: 180/168
bonus exercise points earnt: 25pts
total steps for the week (exercise + work): 42,000
number of days exercise: 4
tracked: 7/7 days
water consumed: 12 litres/14 litres
sugar points: 20pts

Reflection ...

• I overused my points this week. Remembering I dropped down from 182 total allowed points last week to 168 points this week. Still trying to get myself used to that. Might take a couple of weeks.


• Bonus points earnt went from 16pts last week to 25pts this week, so very happy with that and of course went with that weekly steps from 29,000 last week to 42,000 this week.
• Sugar points down - 22pts to 20pts.

Ok ... I just got back again, boy it's been a busy day on ambo. I'm in brain drain mode so I'll finish this post here.

Chow!

Jese's off to school :(

My baby started school today! Very sad but exciting day. He doesn't start properly till he turns five on the 5 June, but has school visits for a couple of hours each Monday until then.

He wasn't nervous at all. I was pleased to say tho that he didn't do what his dad was trying to get him to memorise and introduce himself as ... "Who da man!!" He was repeating it all afternoon yesterday but instead of saying man he'd say 'Who da mam!!' ... lol not a good look for a first impression.




He was disappointed to come home at 10.30am and asked if he could go back after lunch. That's a good sign. But I'm very sad too. My baby is all growing up :((

...

I went to the local cafe last night to catch up with a friend for what was supposed to be a couple of drinks ... Ehem ... it ended up being one of those "invite everyone left at the pub home because the pubs closing!!" nights .... hmmmm ... woopsie.

At our house we all played playstation eye toy games ... what a hoot!!

I was very good and counted EVERY drink and worked out my points without going over for the day. Helps by the fact that I didn't get to eat dinner ... hmmm, yeah I know! lol. And I stopped drinking at about 11.30pm and drank water. I also earnt a couple of bonus points jumping round the lounge with the eye toy games. The last few left at 3am!!

This morning I'm very glad I stopped drinking when I did and drank water giving me no hangover (just a little tired)... hmmm, everyone else on the other hand are all very ill this morning.

No time for stress

A nice healthy portion of steamed veges, 2 cobs of corn (I love corn) and 5pt cottage pie was on the menu for dinner.

Friday night is takeaway night for the rest of the family so they had pizza. I wasn't too worried as my meal would have been just as yummy. I say "would have" because I didn't end up eating it. I was about quarter of the way through when the pager went off. My first ever night code 1 (lights and sirens).

I can't go into the details of the job (because of patient confidentiality) but I can tell you that it was one of those jobs where I came home feeling very proud of myself knowing I saved someone's life. I got commended by the Advanced Paramedic who met us on the way for backup. I have always been third man up, meaning one person drove, one person was in the back with the patient and the third person (me) was doing goafa jobs and learning.

Last night was my first night with just two people, the driver and me. So I was it in the back, doing vitals, keeping her alert, putting oxygen, doing blood sugar level tests, taking blood pressure, monitoring her heart, writing patient report form, giving TLC. It was touch and go but we got her there and boy was I pumped by the time my partner and I got back into the ambulance.

There is absolutely NOTHING that compares to saving someones life and it certainly puts ANY stress into perspective!!

"Life stuff"

Hit a stress hurdle today of which I won't go into detail on here. Felt myself nearly hitting breaking point and thinking "stuff it, what can I eat!!". Managed to calm myself, well not really calm but go into a 'numb' state of mind, and just robotically work and eat meals. That seems to work for me when I can't cope with 'life' stuff.

Went out for a short walk this morning but my muscles were a bit sore doing anything longer than half an hour. I had spent yesterday stocking up the ambulance for a couple of hours, going in and out of the ambulance, up and down big steps. Each time I got back into the ambulance I'd have to hold onto the railing and pull myself up. Hence today my right shoulder/boob and left thigh is pretty tight.

Stocked up on some low point snacks at the supermarket, that always helps.

Short and sweet today.

P.S. Thankyou for all your feedback, there's so much knowledge on here, it's great!

One step further ...

Thankyou all for your encouragement! It really makes a huge difference. Once upon a time I would have done like you Jen and thrown my scales out the window. Infact I have broken 2 sets of scales in the past because I got mad and jumped on them, like a 2yr old throwing a tantrum!! lol

I knew when that gain showed up yesterday that I didn't deserve it, therefore I needed to be the bigger person and 'get over it'. Alot of you provided great info that I have taken on board. And wow 4kgs of poo ... that IS a lot of poo!! lol

My pounding of the pavements yesterday morning paid off with setting a personal record ... 11,000 steps achieved in one day!! and 8.23kms!!!

It really wasn't that long ago (back in February of this year) when I started weight watchers again that I struggled to get to the front of our section, both with my ankle and having to heave around my lard. I have really started to notice little things now making a difference. I remember sitting on the public seat outside our shop and feeling the rolls above the waistline on my back touching my hips. Ewww that sounds yuck when I describe it. And it felt yuck at the time. It was one of those things that motivated me to start ww again. I haven't totally lost the upper spare tyre (as I call it) but I don't feel the friction of skin like I used to.

Another thing that motivated me to start again was my heavy breathing when I had to do anything. Even walking up the 5 steps into our house I would put my foot on the step and kind of use momentum to haul my body up to that step. Now I go up and down those steps without a second thought.

Remembering back when one step made me puff and to think I did over 11,000 of them yesterday ... and felt great!!

I've made a small change in my ww plan. Up until now I've been on 26pts per day. With the questionaire they ask you at the start (to work out your points) they ask -

In your main occupation are you:

• Sitting down most of the time


• Occasionally sitting, but mainly standing


• Occasionally standing, but mostly walking


• Doing physically hard work most of the time

Up until now I have always put that I am 'occasionally sitting but mainly standing', which in effect gives me an extra 2pts per day (24 up to 26). When counting bonus points I never count incidental steps, only planned exercise. The problem being with these 2 extra points is that some days I don't work and some days I do alot of sitting while others I walk kilometers in the shop.

So I figure this may have something to do with my problem. I know it's only 2pts but this adds up to 14pts over the whole week. So I have re worked out my points as if I am sitting most of the time (24pts) and will wear my pedometer each day and add my bonus points at the end of each day according to the number of steps I do. I have worked out that 1,500 steps = 1pt, so yesterday would work out to 7pts (11,000 steps). I realise I can only use 4 of these for food and infact I only sometimes use my bonus points. But I still like to record all of them to keep a measure on how much I am doing. Does this all make sense??

Basically it means I am cutting my points back to 24pts. And I know the negatives of cutting back points and slowing motabolism etc but I don't truelly believe I should have been having those extra 2pts in the first place.

Anyway I'll give it a try this week and see what happens.

Power on!!

NOT FAIR!!!

I have my bottom lip hanging on the ground this morning. It's so unfair and I'm so mad!! ...

I gained 200g this week!!!!!!

Not going to say much else about it other than I soooo didn't deserve this gain!

My evaluation for the week ...

Week ending 16 May, 2007

+/- this week: + 200g
total points used: 180.5/182
bonus exercise points earnt: 16pts
total steps for the week (exercise + work): 29,000
number of days exercise: 4
tracked: 7/7 days
water consumed: 13 litres/14 litres
sugar points: 22pts

Reflection ...

• really can't see where I went wrong this week ... full stop!!
  
  
• Exercise has increased over the last three weeks with 6.5pts two weeks ago, then 11pts last week, then 16pts this week.
  
  
• And my incidental steps up again on last week by 3,000
  
  
• Exercised 4 days this week instead of 3 last week
  
  
• water has been fantastic
  
  
• sugar points ... I'm really impressed with on 22, last week was 29 ... big improvement
  
  
• The only thing I can suggest is that my exercise is up and I had a high sugar point week last week (even tho I wasn't over in points) so maybe my pathetic little insignificant failing last week has come to bite me in the bum this week.
  

Where to from here? ...

• I'm bloody pissed off!!! Dammit I DESERVED A LOSS THIS WEEK!!
  
  
• I know all the theory about building muscle and shit but doesn't make it any easier to deal with
  
  
• I seem to be taking one step forward one step back and that would be fine if I deserved it. But in having perfect weeks, trying my heart out and not seeing the results is heart breaking
  
  
• It's ok I'm not giving up ... I'm just upset at those bloody scales

I'm off for a walk, hopefully that will make me feel better, either that or make me build more muscle and put on even more weight next week!!!

UPDATE ...

I went for my walk, put on my pumping music and stomped out that anger into the sand saying to myself "I will lose weight, I will lose weight!!!". Walked for over an hour and just under 8000 steps/5.7kms and now I have blisters to show for it!! lol That'll teach me!

I'm doing this!! I'm not going to let a little gain get to me ... power on!!

Don't want my dinner? Then ...

Kiss My Ass!!

Spent a couple more hours putting up old entries yesterday afternoon. That was until Blogger started putting a spam protector on every entry I tried to publish. You know those silly word pictures you have to retype the letters of, normally seen on comments. Obviously because I was publishing so many posts they thought I was spam!! lol

They said it would clear in 24hrs so I'll try again this afternoon. It's quite fascinating going through old journal entries, reliving your excitement/failures. I recommend any blogger who's finding motivation difficult to go back and reread your journal from the start.

I was the queen of multitasking yesterday. I decided early on in the day that I felt like lamb shanks for dinner. Knowing they needed to be cooked long and slow I got onto it early. Problem was Bill had gone to Tauranga for stock so I was in the shop alone. I ducked over to the butchers real quick (2 doors down) in between customers. Then grabbed carrots, parsnip and kumera off the shelf. Ran upstairs got the peeler, sharp knife, chopping board, bowl and brought them down (in between customers). Secretly peeled the veges (not supposed to prepare any food in the shop), ran upstairs for the crockpot which I noticed was still dirty from last nights dinner, washed that (in between customers) brought it down, put everything together, ran upstairs and put it on (of course all in between customers).

When Bill got back I skited about my multitasking and how I already had dinner on cooking at 12.00pm. To which he replied "Ohh nooo, I had a roast I bought yesterday I wanted cooked!!" Grrrr!! Men!!! lol Can't please em!!

Not much happening today ... work, then my night walk tonight with the girls (hopefully they turn up this time), and weighin tomorrow morning.

I love those kids!!!

I was informed by my 11yr old daughter on Saturday evening that I had to leave the room for 5mins while she brought my surprise into the house and hid it, then was banned from her room.

Something was up ...

Sunday morning I was wide awake at 7.30am, woken by the commotion in the lounge. I stayed in my room as long as I could. Suspecting my breakfast in bed was on it's way. Thoughts of burnt toast with a sceric of jam and dry weetbix didn't really excite me much, but I knew their hearts were in the right place so I patiently waited.

I got up and snuck into the toilet at 7.45am but couldn't see any evidence of a breakfast being made so presumed my suspicions of breakfast were wrong. As I went back to my room I could hear giggling going on outside my door. Jese (4) poked his head around the corner and burst into laughter when he saw me looking at him. Next minute all four of them came in with these lovely flowers



and a tray with 1 banana, a pot of yoghurt and a cereal bar with a little tag laid down next to them saying ... "happy mothers day, 4pts"

Absolutely perfect!!!

The lady (a friend of ours) from the florist across the road had come into the shop first thing to kindly reprimand Bill for making his daughter pay for my flowers out of her own pocket money. He was taken by surprise as he didn't know anything about any flowers. She had done it without him knowing.

Then when they wanted to do breakfast for me Bill kindly pointed them in the right direction as to what to get me and told them the points. It was very cute!!

I set off for my day out. My sister and I had a great catchup. We both decided we'd pop in to see mum for dinner and then Dad rang. "Quick, mum's having her afternoon nap, are you coming round to see her for mother's day, I think it would be nice if you did" Grrrr, lol ... we'd already planned that.

Lunch was low point at my sister's because she's a ww connoisseur. So by dinnertime at mum's I'd done quite well. Mum on the other hand is a ww rebel! She believes nothing tastes very good unless it has half a pound of butter melted through it!

My sister and I offered to help her with dinner ... omelets with fried mushrooms and courgettes. We prepared the veges and while she ducked out to see if there was any bacon in the freezer I tipped all the melted butter out of the pan and quickly threw the veges into the nonstick frypan before she got back. She was none the wiser!! lol Sneeeaky!!

Finished the day exactly on target with points (thanks to getting rid of the butter) and drank all my water. Had a great day out and heard all the exciting developments with my sisters pregnancy.

Overall a wonderful mothers day, especially arriving back to a spring cleaned house thanks to hubby and chillins!! ;)

Got up and went for a lovely 40min walk before sunrise ... another beautiful day!!

on the up

This little guy actually has nothing to do with my post today but couldn't resist putting him there :) He's so cuuuwte

I'm feeling a whole lot better today. Thankyou everyone for your encouragement. Jules ... I took your advice and went to the health shop across the road and got some stuff ... but couldn't face the thought of having anything called "Ferr Phos Biochemic Cell Salt" ... lol!! I'm sure it works fantastically but Biochemic Salt??? hmmm lol sorry couldn't do it!

Also ate mandarins like they were going out of fashion.

Something must have worked because I woke up this morning feeling quite good considering. I still wouldn't be able to run a marathon (and don't worry Jules I wouldn't be running one on a good day either, walking maybe?? :p ... juuuuust kidding) Ok so I must be feeling better if my sense of humour has returned.

I'm on call for ambo from 7am this morning till 7am Sunday morning, from home. Which means I can stay here but have to be in uniform and when the pager goes off I drop everything and go.

I'm going to my sister's for the day on Sunday as my mother's day treat. I'll spend the morning with the kids and then a kid free day, my sister and I. Don't get me wrong I love my kids to bits but don't get many days to myself where I'm not working. This is the sister that is pregnant with twins. She's 15wks and her bump is apparently exploding already. It's been 2mths since I last saw her so looking forward to that.

Ummm not too much else to report, food has been good. Can't do any exercise today with being on call, but that's ok.

I feel blahhhhh

Woke up this morning with what feels like a horrible hangover, but without any alcohol last night. Thought maybe a walk in the fresh air might help but after half an hour came home and lay on the couch and blobbed. Now just trying to get through work till 4pm and think I'll make it an early night.

Sorry not much else to say, looks like I've succuumed to the nasty bugs flying around I was trying to avoid.

I'll be back on a happier note next time.

staring at the face of temptation

No Wanna and Rachel I didn't end up going walking that Tuesday night. Mostly because it was dark and didn't feel comfortable walking in the dark alone.

But ... I did go last night instead. A little earlier this time just as the sun was setting. I actually feel very proud of myself last night. It had the potential to all turn to custard, but I was focused to keeping myself ontrack.

I asked a friend in the late afternoon if she wanted to go for a walk with me. She was unsure if she'd get her work done in time. By 5pm I'd walk just over 3kms in the shop and was pretty 'ankle' sore. Bill and I had a little 'debate' as to who was going out, me for my walk, or him fishing. In the end he decided the sea was a little rough to be taking the boat out, so that left me to organise my walk. An hour would do it because I had to be back to finish dinner before a friend came over for a few drinks. I calculated my alcohol points out and tracked them for later.

I went and saw her at 5.10pm and she said her work wasn't finished yet. Contemplating relaxing in for the night, I checked up on my blog and saw your comments Wanna and Rachel. Well that did it, I was going for my walk anyway. Before I left I put the rice cooker on with our brown rice and got the ingredients out for dinner, gave instructions to Bill on how to cook it and said I would finish it off when I got back in an hour.

Lauren (11yrs), Malachi (9yrs) and I set off. We got talking and before I realised we were well down the beach and it was getting pretty dark. We turned around to come home, but man was I sore. My foot was giving out on me and wasn't being helped by uneven ground with no torch! We were walking so fast in the end, I just wanted to be home!

As I limped in the door I was told the gas had run out, therefore no stirfry. Dinner would have to be microwaved or takeaways. At 6.30pm and as tired as I was ... takeaways it was! But the chinese place I normally get my low point takeaways from is closed for a month. Damn it! Bill and the kids got pizza and the smell of it almost tempted me... well it damn near swallowed me up! I sooo wanted pizza *Homer voice ... "mmmmm, want pizzzzzzaaaaa"*

Stood myself up, told myself off and marched to the freezer to fetch my handy, dandy ww microwave meal and put a cup of rice under it to fill me up. "Tick" ... another box checked.

By this stage I was so pumped by all the obstacles being thrown my way that I dodged, when it came to my allotted drink allowance I looked in the face of temptation and told it to go jump. I decided to be the sober driver ... hmmm we weren't driving lol ... but the sober socialiser, hey someone had to make sure no one made a fool of themselves.

So I went to bed very proud of all that was put in my way yet overcome! And that was all started off by your comments to inspire me to go for my walk. See you just never know the power of your words!! Thankyou!

Hey I'll take that!

I'm happy to report another 300g loss this week. I really wasn't sure I'd have a loss given my big loss last week. So a tiny one is fine with me!

Week ending 9 May, 2007

+/- this week: -300g
total points used: 191/182
bonus exercise points earnt: 11pts
total steps for the week (exercise + work): 25,200
number of days exercise: 3
tracked: 7/7 days
water consumed: 10 litres/14 litres
sugar points: 39pts

Reflection ...

• total points were over for the week. Lucky for me I had bonus points to dip into
  
• exercise was well up on last week with 11pts earnt with only 6.5pts last week. This is weird because it didn't feel like I was doing heaps of exercise. I think with doing my morning walks has taken the focus off "must do exercise" and put it on just enjoying the scenery and starting the day off to a good start.
  
• And my incidental steps were up on slightly on last week, that's a good sign
  
• water has gone down the gurgler this week, well actually no it hasn't that's my problem. Cold weather's not helping, I'm drinking more coffee (1 cup per day) which makes it more difficult getting in the water. I'm not a hot water drinker either ... yucky!!
  
• sugar points ... hmmm well not going to talk much about that ... PMS need I say more?

Where to from here? ...

• Not worried that I went over points, infact I always think it's a good thing to dip into bonus points every now
• and then keep up with the morning walks, that seems to be working
• keep trying with the water ... again!
• I don't think sugar points will be such a problem next week

With only 800g to go ... my next goal to head for is 10kg lost ... wahooo!!

Last night I had 6pts to spare after dinner so thought I would take the luxury of having a Choc Moritz. I knew they were high in points and therefore have avoided them while being on ww. I couldn't be bothered going down to the computer to work out the points but thought I'd be fine with a 6pt allowance. Then this morning I worked out the points ... and wowsers!!! 7.5pts!!! For one icecream??? But I enjoyed every bite of it :) Lucky for me I had earnt 3.5 extra bonus points for the day.

I was supposed to have gone for my night walk with the girls last night and was a little annoyed when I got a phone call 5mins beforehand to say 3 of the five of us couldn't make it. So I went to meet the final girl so the two of us could still go. I sat around and waited for 10mins and she never turned up either!! Damn it! I guess I got annoyed because if I commit to something I do it, especially when others are involved. I really didn't feel like going being so cold outside, but organised everything (dinner early, kids in bed etc) so that I wouldn't let anyone else down... bugger!!

It's a beautiful sunny day here in Waihi Beach, always puts me in a great mood when the sun is out!

Enjoy your day everyone!

Lamb moussaka

Came across this yummy ww recipe last night while trying to find something to use an eggplant in. It came out really good.

Lamb moussaka

POINTS® Value: 5
Servings: 4
Preparation Time: 15 min
Cooking Time: 40 min
Level of Difficulty: Moderate

Choose lean lamb mince and lots of vegies to get maximum satisfaction from this Greek-style moussaka.

Ingredients

• 1 medium
• onion, finely chopped
• 2 clove garlic, crushed
• 350 g lean lamb mince
• 175 g mushroom, finely sliced
• 400 g canned tomatoes, chopped
• 1 whole stock cube, (vegetable), dissolved in 2/3 cup (150ml) hot water
• 1 tsp fresh thyme, (or oregano), chopped
• 1 whole eggplant, thinly sliced
• 400 g potato, parboiled, sliced
• 1 whole whole egg, lightly beaten
• 100 g low fat cottage cheese, (or low-fat ricotta)
• 150 g skim plain yoghurt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 190°C.

Heat a large saucepan over high heat. Add onion, garlic and mince and cook for 5-6 minutes or until brown.

Add mushrooms, tomatoes, stock and herbs. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered, stirring for 10 minutes or until mixture thickens.

Spoon half mince mixture into a large ovenproof baking dish. Cover with eggplant slices. Spoon over remaining mince. Arrange the sliced potatoes on top in an overlapping layer.

Beat egg, cottage cheese and yoghurt in a bowl until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Spread over potatoes and bake in oven for 45 minutes or until topping is set and golden brown.

Notes

Try serving this with a Greek salad. Try combining tomato wedges, sliced cucumbers, sliced capsicum, some cubes of reduced-fat feta cheese, some olives, then toss with a fat-free Greek salad dressing. Don't forget to add any additional POINTS values however.

...

Went for another early walk this morning. Given I'm not a morning person this is quite an achievement. I'm loving watching the sun rise over the sea.

Pretty boring day ahead... just work.

Is it my imagination is does is seem quiet around here without Chris?? lol

Anyway Bill wants the computer so I better get off here.

Stand the test of time

I went well over my points yesterday ... 34.5pts used!! Only supposed to be on 26, 8.5pts over!! So bad! I woke up this morning feeling quite guilty about it, so got up and went for a walk. That always makes me feel better.

I decided to walk a different direction this time and was amazed at how the beach had changed. It's been probably over a year since I'd walked down that part of the beach. Half an hour later I came across something that hadn't changed ...

It was still there, exactly the same as the last time I saw it a year ago. Now this isn't just a dead tree, it was a log that had been washed up by the sea and someone decided to dig a big hole and stand the log up. That was over 2yrs ago and it's still there strong and firm.

Where am I going with this? This log has great significance for me. It was the prop the photographer for Woman's Day used to take my magazine article photos. You can't see the log very much in the shot ... but it's there.

And this morning it came as a well timed reminder that it doesn't matter that I went well over points, I can get there again not through being a 'super dieter'... but by being strong and standing the test of time ... just sticking it out!! There's no tricks, just persistence ... like that tree stump, through all the storms and hard times.

For those of you who hadn't read the article I've put a permanent link on the right hand side. For a long time (after I put on weight again) I didn't want anyone to see the article and when others mentioned it I cringed. But I think I'm getting over that now and choosing to use it as a focus to help me get back there again, one day.

Do you recognise this lady??

She's the wacky clean freak from 'How Clean is your House?' ... Carolyn Jones

A few years back I was sitting outside the shop having my break when this lady sidled up beside me, sat down and started talking. This outspoken lady was telling me about herself and I'm thinking "ok? do I know you?"

Two weeks later it was valentines day and Bill announced he had gotten me a present this year. Very out of character for him. I was so excited, trying to imagine what it could be. Jewellery? Roses? Chocolates? Nite out? who knows...

"I've gotten you a cleaner" A CLEANER??? WTF??? What sort of valentines present is that??? Don't I clean my house good enough? Aren't I a good enough wife for you?? The questions were endless!!

After 3hrs cleaning my house from top to bottom in preparation, the cleaner arrived. I wasn't going to have my house messy for a cleaner!!! And who should walk in but the lady who had sat next to me and claimed me as her friend. I really wasn't happy about the whole thing. She fluffed around the house making comments about how it must have been a while since we had a cleaner. I was getting madder by the second!!

Although our first couple of meetings were very standoffish (from my side anyway) over the next few months we got to know eachother bit by bit. This dear lady came sometimes up to 3 times a week to clean our house and she worked hard and I learned to relax and let her help. Our friendship grew and we had many a good night out together (her and her partner and Bill and I).

I remember one day she came to me and said she was applying for a job in Auckland. But that there were hundreds applying for the job so she thought it was probably a long shot. I didn't really take alot of notice, just wished her well. She came back a few weeks later excited that she had gotten past stage 1. "What actually is the job?" I asked. "A cleaning program" I didn't really understand the concept and the thought that she, my friend and weirdo lady who sat down and became my friend that day, could be a tv presenter ... yeah right!! Pffft! I still wished her well and hoped for her that she got the job (but deep down didn't hold out much hope)... a week later, next stage passed! And another ... until it was down to 4 people. Then she came to me one day excited "I got the job!". "What's the job again? What's the program about?" Came my questions. Over the next few months she was commuting a lot to Auckland and we didn't see alot of her with the busy schedule.

Then the night of the first episode ... Carolyn and her partner, Bill, myself and the kids sitting around the telly all excited! I've never laughed so hard watching her strut around in her feathered rubber gloves and leopard patterned broom.


The end of the first season ended and she came to me excited that a second season had been confirmed. She got herself an agent (to give her more negotiating power) and now the second season starts airing next Wednesday.

The takeaway/drinks night I mentioned yesterday was at Carolyn's and she made me laugh when she gave me a copy of the photo shoot they did for the show. I gave it back to her and said "well the least you can do is autograph it for me" lol, so she did. Ohhhh wonder how much that would fetch on trademe?? lmao!

She has since told me that day she sat down beside me, she was so lonely and depressed and saw me and thought I might make a good friend. Now look at her! I'm very proud of her and what she has done for herself.

I promised her I would do a plug for the show on my blog, letting everyone know it starts again this Wednesday.

And for those of you who are wondering?? No she doesn't clean my house anymore... she's far too busy cleaning infested bombsites on telly!!

Today ... Bill's gone off to Auckland this morning to pick up his brother who has just split up from his wife last week to bring him down for a days fishing. Then I'm taking Lauren down to Tauranga to get her keyboard she bought off Trademe with her pocket money. Then hopefully get time to get a walk in.

Ohhh and I did really well with dinner last night ... vege chop suey with a bit of rice (4pts) and my allotted baby bottle.

Remember ... TV one, Wednesday night 7.30pm!!

6000 maker shooter laser!!

Wannabe had a cute 'game' on her blog the other day where you put your name and the words 'needs to' into google and see what comes up. This is what came up for me ...

"Lynette needs a Knight of the Round Table (preferably Lancelot) to rescue her sister"

This one is weird because my sister is married to Lance of whom her pet name for him is Lancelot!

"Lynette needs a quick and easy 'glam' make over."

Hey I'm in for that!

"Lynette needs to have her balls removed so Tom can have them"

Gee thanks!!

"Lynette needs to get a grip on her vanity."

This one cracks me up! Especially for the fact that I had a lovely customer say to me yesterday "The weather's looking good" to which I said "yeah!!", then she blankly looked at me in stunned silence! It got to the awkward moment where no one was saying anything to which I asked to her what she said. She repeated "You're looking good" ... Ahhhh, I now understood why she was looking at me so shocked! She must have thought I was the vainest person out there!!! "yeah of course I look good!!!" LMAO!!

Jese (4yrs) gave me the cutest present last night ...


It's a (and I quote) "6000 maker shooter laser" ... he had it all worked out and explained to me in great detail how it works. He was very excited when I took a photo of it and told him I would show it to all my blogger friends.

This morning I woke up nice and early and thought I would take a morning walk along the beach to watch the sunrise. It took me a bit too long to get my act together and missed the actual sunrise but was beautiful time of day anyway. I took my pocket camera and snapped some pics for you to see.

Bill liked this last one. I wasn't sure how the camera would react to the sun being so bright and it chose to make the sun black, quite cool!

Today ... Malachi (9yrs) has his soccer game, then I'm working for 2hrs (hard life I know) and then out to friends for dinner. Need to plan this one as it's a takeaway/drinks night ... might make it chinese chop suey and take my baby bottle with me. I use an old baby bottle to measure out exact amount of alcohol and give myself an allowance for the night, rather than counting as I go.

Well I better go get Mal ready for his game.

Chow!

Can ya blame me? it's TTOM

PMT hit with a vengeance this morning with 3 teary-eyed episodes already!! I hate hormones!!

I felt it coming on yesterday when I just couldn't get enough to eat. I ate a ft long subway and was still hungry!!! Normally a 6inch one does me fine. I always recognise when TTOM is on it's way, firstly by the continual unsatisfied hunger and then never ending tears for pathetic reasons. But you'd think after 12yrs of marriage the men would work it out tho huh? Got home last night after ambulance sooo hungry I could have bitten the balls off a horse! Ewww, no maybe not quite :)

I walked into the house and saw left over dinner. Even tho I'd told Bill I'd get my own dinner and to go ahead and eat without me, the sight of stir fried mince was too much to resist. So I started digging my fingers into the food. "What the hell are you doing? Don't eat my dinner" came Bill's rebuke ... well that just set me off!! I was a blubbering mess. Like a volcano that had been bubbling all day and finally blew it's top. Revenge ... I had to EAT something NOW!!! So I chose a can of mushrooms. It was quite a sight ... stuffing these mushrooms into my mouth 2 at a time. By the time the can was finished I'd managed to calm down a little and cooked myself a proper meal.

This morning I wasn't much better, crying at silly things. So at 8.30am I decided to go back to bed and hopefully wake up a little happier and it seemed to work.

10.30am I had my appointment with the specialist to see if/what they were going to do about my ankle and I'm pleased to say he has agreed to operate again to take the pin out. He's putting me through privately so will only be waiting 2-3mths. The only little bugger is that he wants to have a good look at the tendons and joint while he's there to check there isn't another reason for the ankle locking up. So that means a bigger scar (the current one is about 10cm long) but I don't care about that.

And I can't remember who was asking about how to change the line spacing ... I'm not an expert in HTML coding but have self taught myself through doing tutorials and trial and error.
I worked out that if you put the following code ...

{ font-size: 10pt; line-height: 5 };

in your template after the "BODY { blah, blah ... " keeping it within the brackets, that should work. Just play around with where you put it in your HTML coding. But beware!! Make sure you copy and paste your template onto a word document and save it BEFORE you start playing around with it, that way you can always go back to your old one if you stuff it up.

Onto my evaluation for last week ...

Week ending 2 May, 2007

+/- this week: -2.4kg
total points used: 177/182
bonus exercise points earnt: 6.5pts
total steps for the week (exercise + work): 23,500
number of days exercise: 2
tracked: 7/7 days
water consumed: 12 litres/14 litres
sugar points: 21pts

Where did I go wrong? ...

• over all points were closer to where they should be... 99% there on that one
• my exercise was down a little this week but not too worried about that as last week I did it a little hard
• water ... almost there, just another two litres to get it perfect
• sugar points ... still on the high side but lower than last week and not a major

Things to work on for this week ...

• don't have anything major to improve ... just need to keep up the mojo and that may be trickier this week being TTOM. Time to get down and focus!!!

Third hole

Thankyou all soooo much for your comments, it has encouraged me no end!!!

I'm here at the station and it's 6.30am. My brain hasn't really woken up yet so excuse me if I waffle!! :)

Put my ambulance belt on this morning and I've gone down another hole ... wahoo! When I got my uniform a little over 2mths ago I had to get Bill to hammer another hole on the very tip as that was the largest they had and it just didn't quite fit. Two weeks ago I could go to a 'proper' hole but was pretty tight. Infact when I got home that night I had to 'let it all hang out'!! lol and now today I've gone down to hole #3 :)

When I was getting fitted for my ambulance uniform the lady was trying to gauge my size. And I really didn't know (or want to tell her) my size (somewhere round the 24-26 mark). She held up a pair of trousers in the air, looking between me and the trousers. "Nah, those will be way to big for you. They're HUGE!!" she said. I was too embarrassed to say anything. She held up another pair, me knowing they would be way to small. "Here try these on" she said. Well, I only got them no higher than my thighs and whipped them off before she looked. While she was fumbling round in the cupboard I snuck the 'huge' pair from among the pile and slipped them on and you guessed it ... they fitted. "These'll do" I told her. "ohh, where did they come from?" she asked. I just gave her a blank look and changed the subject onto shirts. I was so embarrassed that day, but as I always say "It's only downhill from here"

So you may notice I have a goal on the right column "get new ambulance uniform". You can now understand the significance of this. Given I only wear my uniform once a week it's a great gauge to feel them getting looser each week.

I have my specialist appointment tomorrow for my ankle. Every now and then I start to wonder if I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. I very seldom limp now and it only aches when I've over done the exercise for the day. But the other day I walked down the beach and as I turned around to come back I could see my foot prints in the sand. They looked like penguin footprints. I never realised but I was overcompensating for the slope and turning my plated ankle outwards. It was something my brain automatically did and as the slope changed so did the angle of the foot print. It amazed me that my brain would automatically judge the angle and change how I walked without a thought. This I know is bad in the long run and can cause hip and back problems if it continues. Hence why I need to go to this specialist appointment and stop telling myself I'm overreacting.

It's great to see some new people commenting, thankyou and a big hi!

Chris ... duathlon AND bikini?? Sheesh woman you don't expect much do ya?

Lynise ... I got what you meant first time ... lmao!!

Jules ... yeah I know the importance of exercises. I got told the same thing after I had my plate put in and the cast came off. I'm so glad now I spent the money, went to physio and did my exercises. Oh and as for another update pic ... you gotta wait till I get to 10kgs lost first! :p

Livy ... thankyou for the compliments on my layout. I've always found it hard to read some blogs and eventually either delete them or skim read if the words are too hard to read (especially if I'm tired). So I make it a point to have an increased line space (almost double spacing) for us 'oldies' who struggle with our eyesight.

Well I have a vehicle check to do on my ambulance so better get that underway before the boss arrives.

Cya

P.S. I'll have my weekly analysis up tomorrow when I'm back at home.

Call the fire brigade ... I'M ON FIRE!!

I had a friend of mine tell me yesterday (she knows I'm trying to lose weight) that I have a glow about me at the moment. Wow hope she doesn't think I'm pregnant! lol It's so nice to be receiving compliments on my weightloss, certainly helps keep the motivation going.

Talking about motivation ... man I am on fire!!!! Small note here: I have changed my weighin day from Thursday to Wednesday because I was sick of having to weigh myself at what seemed like the middle of the night (5am) before I went to ambulance.

So this morning I weighed in at 113.7kgs ... that's a 2.4kg loss!! yayya!!!! My biggest loss so far! I had a feeling that my 700g gain last week might disappear this week ... but 2.4kgs!! That's far more than I expected... very, very happy here.

I was really really disappointed last week that I was trying my hardest and was putting on weight. I had that fleeting thought that we all get ... "stuff it, what's the point?" but lucky my common sence kicked in and I 'kept my foot on the gas' as Helena puts it :) Glad I did now!

I went for my night walk with the girls last night. 50mins all up and was feeling it by the time I got home. We made a pact that we are all going to set ourselves a goal to achieve and will tell eachother on our Tuesday night walk how we are going towards our goal. Of course mine was weightloss, but I also got challenged to enter the Thames duathlon (walk and cycle) in February. That scares the shit outta me but then that's me talking at 113kgs. I'm waiting to find a little more info on it yet, but a small inner part of me was spurred on ... maybe I could do it.

Well I'm off to make some breakie, cya!