Mothers say the nicest things

This is a long one...sorry! Have caught up on a few Christmas day posts and you all look like you did so well 'food wise'. Yay! I didn't do too bad but I certainly wasn't in diet mode. We don't do the big meal with all the trimmings. Our tradition is to have friends (and my Mum) over for brunch that we cook on the BBQ. The weather is good here and we crowd around the table on the deck and fight over the last of the roasted tomatoes while drinking bubbles in the sun at 10am. It's awesome! We then have nibbles at some point in the afternoon and then I make a salad that my Croatian grandpop used to make followed by pavlova with strawberries and kiwifruit. All in all pretty good and my 1kg gain is not a surprise given the salty chips and alcohol I've consumed since Christmas Eve.

My (skinny) mother said the darndest thing to me on Christmas morning. "Nice dress" she says, followed by "you've lost weight around your chest but not around your hips of course. You'll never be normal around there." Yea awesome. She doesn't know I'm trying and would have no idea how to be supportive if I told her so I just let it go. At least she noticed I was wearing a dress (a Christmas miracle). Her comment didn't hurt but it reminded me of a few ingrained memories I have of growing up. My Dad used to call me tubby - 'Tubs' for short. He even wrote it on my birthday cards...Dear Tubs. No wonder I didn't keep all that stuff when he died.

Lastly, I feel completely deserted by D today. He's gone off to work a music festival for a few days and I was initially supposed to go with him but things changed and he has to take another guy down, things might get complicated blah blah blah. I'm pissed for multiple reasons. I had been looking forward to camping at the festival since the weather is so great. I was also looking forward to seeing some of the bands that are playing. And finally - I have to take this time off work so why the hell would I want to stay at home alone? And my period's due. 'Nuff said I guess. Off to eat fresh cherries. And track them :)

Resetting goals and Merry Christmas possums!

Late post (and a lack of pre tracking) this week due to Christmas crazyness. Lost 400grams on my normal weigh in day (Monday) and did a quick weigh in this morning to see if that was still true and yep – hadn’t busted it! I usually pre track and plan my food a day in advance and this spontaneous guestimating of calories at functions is a challenge but bring it on!

Have reset my mini goal to lose another 2kg by 22 January – D’s brother is getting married and I already have a dress that I need to look hot in, not to mention can’t afford to buy another so it had better fit :-/.

High humidity and soaring temperatures are putting the stinkers on exercise. My office doesn't have air conditioning and all I can manage at the end of the day is to water the garden, make dinner and collapse. But at least it looks like there will be gorgeous weather on Christmas Day for brunch on the deck and a picnic in the afternoon.

Lastly – welcome back to The Shrinking Violet – looking forward to reading your unctuous updates again :-).

Merry Christmas everyone!

Tracking the evidence and planning for success

We are having a stinking hot, early summer down here and that means lots of BBQs with friends accompanied by glasses of bubbly that mount up all too quickly. Calorie wise that means I need to plan, pre-plan and plan some more (followed by lots of exercise).  Gained 200grams this week which is pretty bang on given I was about 3,000 calories over my target intake this week.

What went wrong

• Fish n chips on the beach to celebrate a friends birthday - not my idea, I didn’t need to eat any chips...but did
• BBQ dinner with friends – drank a whole bottle of bubbly on my own, well it was 2 bottles between me and a friend but you get the point
• Christmas lunch with Marketing at a Thai place – I said yes to the mixed entree
• Team Christmas morning tea – I made Christmas cupcakes and ate the 2 that were left over instead of leaving them at work
• Sunday afternoon, home alone - I broke into the scorched almonds. Thankfully they were half melted and common sense kicked in after I'd stuffed 6 down. I wasn't even enjoying them. What a waste!

What went right

• Farewell lunch for a colleague at a brewery bar – I stuck with the fish, salad and water
• BBQ dinner with friends – went easy on the nibbles and said no to the carbs with the main meal
• Christmas lunch with Marketing at a Thai place – I felt guilty after the entrée and just had Tom Yum soup for my main (+ water)
• Free supplier BBQ at work – single pattie on wholemeal bread with veges, no cheese, no chips, no potato salad
• Went for a long walk and a long bike ride on my own (‘tis the season of D working late nights and weekends).
• Everything was tracked, no matter how shameful!

So what about this week? I have 3 half day workshops, 2 of which are catered and an afternoon Christmas party. Easy peasy lemon squeezie. See you at 87kg next week :).

Weekend wrap up – down 10%!

It was one of those weekends where D worked so I was home alone for much of it and what usually happens when I’m home alone? I snack. I graze. I open the fridge repeatedly and start thinking about what I could bake using those boring pantry items that would turn into something calorific and yummy!

But this weekend was  different. I had chores to do outside and even when I was catching up on blog posts I didn’t have the urge to munch. Maybe it’s the spring weather. I went into town and kept D company at a Christmas Carols gig last night and took an ice cream in for dinner. All within my calorie budget for the day so no guilt attached (although after reading everyone’s posts on the new Weight Watchers programme I did have a momentary thought about fibre and protein…oops). 

The scale loved me this morning and the feeling was mutual. 88kg on the button. 10kg down, 10.2% off, that's 22 pounds! Any way I say it I’m pretty happy :). Can’t remember the last time I’ve been so consistent with downward progress – I’ll take it! Going off to book the reward massage now!

Lack of H2O + sleep = no movement on the scales

I wasn't surprised when I jumped on the scales this morning and saw the same number as last week. Have been super busy every night after work so haven't managed as much planned activity as I would like, but have managed quite a lot 'incidental' activity along the way. We went to see U2 in concert on Friday night which meant a hefty walk to and from the stadium (bonus!) but I stopped drinking water at about 4pm so I didn't have to pee all night (booo!). I'm not a U2 fan but their 360 set up was amazing and they did a nice tribute to the 27 miners who were lost in the Pike River Mining disaster last week (such a sad week for New Zealand).

Courtesy of u2.com

The weather turned into a scorcher over the weekend and I worked a lot in the garden on Saturday and wandered around the zoo on Sunday (bonus!) but once again, didn't keep my fluids up and had a major headache last night. That time of the month now but I'm still aiming to get below 89kg this week! Have a good one :)

So good I want to slap myself

Holy cow I’ve become one of those people that seems to have developed self control. D and I had a ‘date day’ yesterday. It started with brunch at the café where we had our first meal together.  I ordered poached eggs on 5 grain toast, no butter please. Would you like bacon or hollandaise with that? Yes please No thanks. I started to feel full and didn’t even eat all my toast. Then we had Turkish for dinner. Medium Chicken and salad on rice please. What sauces would you like? Sweet chilli and garlic mayo. Just the hummus thankyou. And I left about a third of it behind (including some chicken).

This is a completely foreign concept to me. I wasn’t hungry and I didn’t have food envy. It was all about spending time with D and not what I was ordering. Amazing. I can’t even call it an NSV as the scales rewarded me with a 1.7 pound loss this morning. Not bad baby puppy, not bad.

Finally someone noticed

I caught up with an out of town friend last night for the first time since February and (drum roll please) she noticed that I’d lost weight! Apparently she thought something was amiss when she saw me cross the road towards her and suspicions were confirmed when we hugged. Wohoo! Finally someone noticed.

Like so many of you out there I haven’t been advertising the fact that I’m trying to lose weight and as a result no one’s bloody noticed! Mum has praised D for looking like he’s lost weight (less than me but yes, very happy for ya) but nothing for her daughter. I guess it’s hard to notice when you see someone every couple of weeks. Thank goodness for folk you don’t see very often!

Who knew I was capable!

Scales show me pretty much back to pre holiday weight this morning – 90.5kg. So I just lost the same 2.5 pounds that I lost back in September for the 3rd time lol. Anyway, had an awesome Sunday with D – gardening followed by a 10km bike ride around the waterfront (I know!) topped off with my Mum visiting for dinner.

Salad, Chicken, Hummus, Yum!

Desert was the last bag of FLIPZ that we had brought back from holiday. If it was up to me we wouldn’t have come home with any but D was hooked. He’s still carrying an extra 6 pounds from our holiday so just as well that was the last of the FLIPZ. Anyway, sorted through the snaps on Friday night and came across this lunch pic from Wholefoods. Wholefoods would do a roaring trade here in New Zealand…and I’d be poor. Can see some bloggers having some great successes – keep it up girls!

Pop Tarts in da house!

I got home last night to a very excited D. He had found a store that sells American food here in New Zealand and bought some Chocolate Fudge Pop Tarts. After dinner he rushed into the kitchen and said ‘You’ll have 2 won’t you?’,  ‘How many calories?’ I asked. ‘…umm…I dunno if it says…oh shit…200…each…I didn’t even think’.

The poor guy looked so disappointed.  I’m not sure if it was in me because my calorie counting took the shine off his excitement or himself because he’s tried to be so supportive and thinks he messed up. It’s OK. Saying no to food doesn’t mean I’m saying no to him – hopefully he realises that :).

Holiday over – back to reality

Our holiday was awesome. Far too short (12 days all up) and yet I was ecstatic to be on our way home at the end. I tried on (and bought) more clothes while we were away that I have in the last 5 years combined. I came home with jeans, work tops, some singlets and most importantly shoes. It’s so hard finding decent and affordable size 11 shoes here! And yes, I did buy a few items that are too tight to be worn straight away.

Holiday food was interesting. Eating out for every single meal quickly took its toll on my system and … I’ll spare you the details. Yes I ate FLIPZ and burgers and fries and even a bit of ice cream but I also ate a lot of fruit, and hi fibre granola bars. I’m struggling to recall a meal that I completely finished – portion sizes live up to their reputation. Thankfully D never complained at sharing a meal between the 2 of us and is the best plate cleaner.

Overall the scales are up to 91.7 this morning which I’m OK with.  I’ve tried to get back into the tracking and walking routine straight away – I don’t want to get ‘post holiday complacent’ this time. So happy to be back and looking forward to catching up on some blog reading this week - hope you've all been well!

300 grams and 3 sleeps to go

Weighed in this morning at 90.3kg. 90 bloody point 3! So close to my goal of 90 but more importantly under 200 pounds. Yay for me and yay for my car as it gets a clean courtesy of D.

I think I handled Sunday quite well - I popped out into the garden for a few hours before and after lunch and managed to resist shoving my face into the bowl of onion dip. It helped that I had / have a throbbing tooth ache. Going to the murder house this afternoon to see if anything can be done before we go on holiday.

Only 3 sleeps to go until we fly out. Am really looking forward to it and am even looking forward to doing a bit of clothes shopping in Vegas (which I normally hate). The range is far greater in the States compared to here in New Zealand and the exchange rate is pretty good at the moment so I'm planning to make the effort to try stuff on that I wouldn't normally think would suit me...just in case it does!

That wasn't exercise, it was fun!

Been a while since I had a moment to sit and actually type a decent post but I've been saving mental notes along the way.

Work has been hectic. I was babysitting some consultants for a week which meant I didn’t get much of my own work done and certainly didn’t have time to track, let along blog. And we all know what happens when you don’t track! I didn’t go nuts but I know I consumed too much salt and I certainly drank too much wine over the weekend that followed. Gained a pound and I’m bloody grateful it wasn’t more.

So this week has been better and as King Julian would say my mantra has been “I like to move it, move it”...

• Sunday – 6km hard bike ride along a rough trail
• Monday – 3km walk
• Tuesday – 3 km fast walk (trying to keep up with 9 y/o on a bike!)
• Wednesday – 3km easy bike ride + an hour in the garden at night The ride was especially cool because this was the same route of my first few rides that I had huffed and puffed around and yet this time it was EASY!
• Thursday – 4.5km walk
• Friday - 4.5km walk
• Today – housework, housework, housework

Tomorrow our house will be full of boys men watching Bathurst (V8 endurance race) all day with junk food spread across the coffee table. While I enjoy the racing I don't plan on sitting around stuffing my face and undoing all this hard work in a single day. Monday is my last weigh in before our holiday. Gonna make it count :).

Stage 2 of the nominees for the Versatile Blogger Award are...

I warned you that these would be coming in stages :)

• Weigh Down
  Debbie has received oodles of awards already (and rightly so). She works super hard, posts her food journal regularly and moves her arse – a great inspiration!
• Smaller Fun Pants
  I’ll admit that it was the name of the blog that initially drew me in but it’s the light bulb moments that keep me going back :)
• Real Fat
  Keelie is the same height as me (which helps me relate to the weight goals) and is absolutely gorgeous – just like her blog!

Check out my earlier post for details on what the Versatile Blogger Award means (thanks again Diane!).

Epiphany while rolling rubbish bins

We have a lovely Pacific Island family living in front of us and tonight as I rolled the rubbish bins to the road I noticed they were having a bit of a 'par-tay' out the back. All I could focus on was the huge bottles of coke and fanta on the table and packets of potato chips spread from one end of their deck to the other. And an amazing thing happened...I didn't think "invite me over, invite me over, invite me over" - my first thought was "oh my gawd - you (as in my neighbours) are a prime target for diabetes and this isn't helping".

This thought (while judgemental) is a significant step forward for me. To not view junk food and immediately want it is one of those NSV things! I'll take it :)

Versatile Blogger Award...who...me?

Diane over at Big Beautiful Me has tagged me for a Versatlile Bogger Award – OMG! Chuffed is the understatement of the year so thank you Diane!

Award etiquette is:

1. Thank the person who gave me the award (That’s you Diane – thank you!)
2. Share 7 things about myself.
3. Nominate 15 newly discovered blogs
4. Let my nominees know about their award.

Number 3 and 4 will have to happen in stages...some research and time required!

7 things you don't know about me yet...

1. I am Giant Panda crazy (another reason we travel a lot - none in New Zealand)
2. I got married (to my ex husband) in Vegas
3. I love my job 
4. Purple is my favourite colour
5. 'Hold Please Caller’ is my favourite saying (and no, I don't work in a call centre)
6. I have a fungal infection on my left foot that refuses to go away (TMI – I know!)
7. (ducking for cover) I really don’t like children

Stage 1 of the nominees for the Versatile Blogger Award are...(in no particular order)

• A Packable Feast
  Check out the photos of LikeyLou’s lunch box….yummo!
• Losing Weight After 45 is a Bitch
  I’m not 45 yet! But this provides some great inspiration and a good ‘reality check’ for me.
• So Over fat
  Tell it like it is Sista! I feel myself nodding repeatedly…wanna snack…YES!

Thanks again Diane - you made my day!

Winning weekend

Looks like water was the thing holding me back on weekends!  I chugged down glasses of the stuff at every opportunity I had and this mornings weigh in showed a (drum roll please) 3.5 pound loss. Wohoo! We’ve had a storm here so not much exercise over the past week – only physical activity has been cleaning up fallen branches and mulching trees for the garden.

Dying to get out on the bike again - pic of my purple baby below. I need to keep desensitising my butt so I can ride along Santa Monica beach during our holiday next month.

Been thinking about the holiday a lot (I'm an anally retentive planner / researcher when it comes to vacations) - dreamt about food 2 nights in a row. Although last nights dream about a cheesecake made from plain flour and dried potato flakes was more like a nightmare...hope everyone has a great week!

Saying goodbye to a best friend

I just tweeted that I wasn’t going to blog until I had something nice to say. Liar liar pants on fire.

I am pissed off.  Over the past week I have measured and tracked every single thing that’s gone in my mouth, ridden my new bike like a demon twice and walked for at least 30 minutes each day (an hour on Sunday). And I’m doing this all at pace. It’s not a half arsed dawdle around the carpark. This is leg stretching, arm waving lunacy. All I’m missing is the head band.  Thursday’s ‘unofficial’ mid week weigh in showed at least a kilo loss. And yet when it comes to Monday, it turns out I’ve managed to gain back the 200 grams I lost last week. What am I doing over the weekend that makes everything turn to custard? The only thing I can think of is that I’m not drinking as much water on the weekend. Some serious soul searching required.

Lucy on dribble duty

Aside from that, I joined my ex husband at the vets on Saturday to put our 18 year old furbaby to sleep. She had recently been diagnosed with a cancerous tongue lesion and had started having seizures so it was time to say goodbye. Bloody sad time but she had a great life. D and I still share our house with her brother Chester and needless to say he’s been smothered with cuddles over the past couple of days. See you in the next life Muffin.

Post from the shaky isles

Photo courtesy of Andrew Drake on Flickr

We had a pretty big earthquake down here in little old New Zealand on Saturday morning and while it wasn’t near where I live, one of our main offices is located there and it’s been chaos trying to get things up and running ever since. Hence a late post…but it sure puts things in perspective!

I spent some time last night catching up on the blogging world, in particular Melting Candy (thanks for the follow!). One thing that struck me about this blog (and why I kept reading, and reading, and reading) was the photos. I haven’t loaded photos of either myself or my food (mainly because I only recently got a home laptop) but that is about to change. This weeks personal challenge is to get a ‘before’ photo of me up…and maybe one of my bike.

200gram loss this week – that time of the month so AOK by me :).

Man my butt hurts!

Have been crazy at work so not able to sneak a blog post in until now. Lost 300 grams this week (half a pound) but that’s not the exciting thing…I bought a bike! D has had one for a while and encouraged me to get a cheap second hand one to ‘give it a go’. I figured that so many of the ladies I follow have bikes so there must be something to it and picked up my new purple friend on Sunday.

Well I went for my first proper ride last night – sweet jebuz it was hard. I used muscles that have been napping for a 2 decades but had heaps of fun and D was super encouraging and kept saying how proud he was of me. Feeling pretty lucky this morning…and a little tender in the rear!

Choosing my weight loss journey

I came across a blog today that made me really sad and also super determined at the same time. It’s not one I follow, and I won’t name it here but it was about a wonderful woman and her weight loss journey over the past 10 years. There were methodically captioned photos for this entire journey which detailed her weight going from 285 pounds to 165 pounds to 235, to 156, to 250 and so on. She was smiling in every photo and I can only commend her determination to lose that weight again and again and again without giving up (she’s currently in what she calls a ‘skinny’ phase). Wow.  I so don’t want to be that person.

It made me realise that I am not losing weight this time for a particular event and then letting go again. I’m doing this to be the healthiest I can be. Full stop. Yes, I’ll have small targets to get me motivated but like so many of you out there I’m not restricting the types of foods I eat – just the amount of calories. I need to be able to live this life for a long time yet. There will still be many chocolate covered pretzels in my future – I just won’t use them as an excuse to stop caring about myself next time.

Yes we can!

This morning the scales showed 92.9kg – 204.8 pounds. Which is still too much but what is cool about that number is that it means I’ve lost 5% and met my initial October holiday goal. Freakin’ awesome!

So let’s up the stakes a bit – October holiday goal now set to 90kg - 198.4 pounds. 7 weeks to do it. Can we do it? YES WE CAN!

Whatever I'm doing is working

Super quick post before I host an all day workshop for out of towners today…another 1.5 pounds down this week – yay! Had an awesome walk around the waterfront yesterday while there was a break in the weather. Really feeling strong in my legs now.

Bit the bullet and bought a laptop yesterday so won’t have to start work early / stay late to keep up with the online world…good stuff, hope everyone had a great weekend like me!

Support of a partner

This week was a great one. I got 3 walks in and a long session in the garden (man my hamstrings are sore today!), and while it may not be burning calories at a high rate it sure stops me from eating the junk food. Why the hell would I want to have to walk even further to burn it off? I also realised that I should have taken some measurements – jeans are feeling loose and I’d like to know what the changes are.

I need to give a shout out to D – he’s kicked the fizzy habit over the past 6 weeks, is trying to eat breakfast and has already lost 5.5kg (12 pounds). Not mention he's coming for walks with me and generally continuing his habit of being super encouraging and affirming. I have never had someone tell me I'm beautiful in my life. He rocks.

I’ve caught up on blog reading and feel totally humbled by the stories of determination and ultimate success. It’s reassuring that there are others out there having the same dumb feelings and thoughts as me. Nearly 2 pounds down this week – wohoo!

Computer says no and congrats Bitch Cakes!

I really thought I'd be in for at least a 500gram loss this week and then I went to a Romanian friend's birthday lunch on Saturday. Big mistake. Romanian birthday celebration = 6 hours of eating and I'm not exaggerating. I tried to use all the tactics in the book - talked non stop to strangers, kept salad on my plate, must have said I was full half a dozen times and claimed a headache every time there was wine offered. Yet still I know it was horrendous calorie wise. D and I had been for an hour walk in the morning in partial preparation but nothing could have offset that carnage.

Yesterday was a lot better - bush walk in the morning and 2 hours strolling around the museum in the afternoon. This morning the scales said no change from last week and I'm ok with that. My exercise is up and I'm tracking foods every day - the weight will follow.

And before I go, huge congrats to Sheryl aka *Bitch Cakes* on reaching her goal weight this past week. I haven’t mentioned her before but I follow her religiously and she’s a huge inspiration to so many of us, not to mention witty and gorgeous!

mmm....lemon cake

I kicked myself in the arse last week and cut my calories a notch and it's worked! I also went nuts with the coffee and water one day and solved my *ahem* constipation issue. So the scales showed a 1.5kg (3 pound loss) this week. Although I'm mentally averaging that over a two period due to the aforementioned situation.

Fell off the wagon in terms of a formal food diary over the weekend but was adding stuff up in my head. Said a big fat NO to nibbles on Saturday night and then a resounding YES to the lemon cake that our guest bought over for desert. It was delicious. And I'm becoming really good at piling up the veges on the plate to make it look like I'm eating as much as everyone else (and enjoying it)...sneaky sneaky! Finding it much easier to cope when I pre plan meals for a couple of days in advance. Suits my anally retentive, obsessive compulsive personality quite nicely. Enjoy your respective summers....can't wait for mine!

Taking it on the chin

Scales showed a 300 gram (just over half a pound) gain this morning. Not happy. But at the risk of overshare, I’m constipated and feeling pretty yuck in general so I’m not planning a revenge binge just yet. Who the hell would I be getting back at anyway? The scales? Like they care! D is also trying to drop some weight before our holiday and also gained this week – sympathy pounds?

On the positive side, I did a crap load of gardening over the weekend – cut 2 trees down that had been bothering me since we moved in and started pruning the feijoa tree. Arms are hella sore this morning! Have also been super vigilant at tracking my calories and the snacking seems to be under control. Back to the water bottle!

Flip it's cold

Weigh in yesterday morning delivered a 600 gram (1.3 pound) loss so thank you jebuz for the willpower to not snack. Tummy rumbles are under control but this is ‘that time of the month’ and I’m craving carbs and comfort food something awful.

D is being wonderful again and just keeps saying FLIPZ if I look like waivering. A gentle reminder that this ‘season’ is all so I can feel more comfortable making the 12 hour flight to the States where I’ll be able to get these wonderful chocolate covered goodies again. In a totally sensible portion size of course. Freezing cold here but still managed 2 walks last week - aiming for another tonight!

Tummy rumbling

First week down of being back on track and I must say it was harder than I remembered. I must have been really twisting the rules last time! I realise that my portion sizes had crept up and up and up over the past 6 months - measuring stuff again has been a good reality check.

Only managed 1 proper exercise session and not sure how this week will go given the heavy rain warning that's just been issued.

Anyways...tracked my food every day and the scales were good to me - 700 grams (1.5 pounds) gone. Wohoo!

No excuses, not even reasons

I have been in a happy place of denial for the last 5 months. My divorce is nearly ‘done’ and D and I have bought a house together. This warm fuzzy nesting phase plus a drop in the temperature has meant yummy sausages with cheesy mashed potato and gravy followed up with cuddling on the couch with ice cream (and D). And I don’t even like ice cream! And check out the stats baby – managed to put on 4kg (nearly 9 pounds)!

I still don’t have a computer at home so borrowed a laptop from work for this past weekend. It took me 24 hours to surf all the travel websites, scout out any good deals and convince D (and myself) that we really can afford another trip to the States this year. So, we leave New Zealand late on October 15 and arrive in Los Angeles early on October 15. Love those time zones! But hate how uncomfortable the seats are.

Hence, I’m back tracking calories again. Aim is to lose the 4kg I’ve put on + 1 more for luck, actually, not even an ‘aim’…let’s make it a ‘fact’.

Week 20 weigh in - Same ole, same ole

A week of no loss despite D encouraging me to *gasp* jog for part of our walks. I like to pretend that there could be actual muscle forming somewhere.

It's my birthday tomorrow (Friday), my project finally goes live in the morning and I'm taking the day off to walk around an island watching birds. Weather forecast is good, should be fun!

Ketchup

I've got 2 posts sitting in drafts that have just been abandoned. One was re weight 2 weeks ago and another bestowing the virtues of all the walking I'd been doing. All still true but the moment has gone.

This post is to congratulate myself for not binging while D has been away. We're in the middle of a long weekend (which pretty much guarantees he'll be away for work) and I've been out walking for 2 hours, eaten relatively healthy (oats, salmon, rice crackers and lots of water) and didn't go overboard at a friends engagement party last night. Haven't even been tempted to hunt through the cupboards for the pineapple lumps that I know have been hidden by D.  Today hasn't been that active but am catching up on my blog reading - some of you are absolutely rocking!

Hoping my project goes live at work this week - I may even start getting some time back to blog during the day again.

Week 17 weigh in

Almost forgot to post! Thought I'd better get one in before I leave work and it's associated Interweb connection.

Scales were very generous and allowed a .8 pound (400 gram) loss this week.  Not bad for a week of back-at-work-need-wine-non-counting-but-trying. Anyway that was 2 days ago - aiming for a super active weekend and an even better result next week.

I have a time machine!

Yes, after piling on the pudge I'm up to where I was mid November. But I'm back at work after a couple of weeks off to recharge (read: gorge) and all is in balance with the world again. Relationship is still on track to be great again, the weather is stinking hot (which reminds me how icky it is to be a lard arse in summer) and I'm putting all the crap that happened around me at the end of 2009 behind me.

My laptop died the week before Christmas so my end goal of treating myself to a new one is now even more inspiring. Been for 2 walks already this week and am loading up on grilled chicken and spinach salads - bring on next Wednesday's weigh in!