Flat flat flat

I am so flat today. I can't get motivated. I am bored at work. I don't know what I feel like eating - I feel like something yummy but I don't know what. Not necessarily something naughty - just something tasty.

Crap crap crap. I wish I could just go outside and go for a walk. That would make me feel better. Just over an hour to go and I shall go out and get some sunshine.

The Weekend

Well I didn't exactly stick to my plan. I almost did, which for a weekend is pretty good I think!

I went for a bit of a walk Saturday, but was so exhausted after I was in bed by 6:45pm! The cold weather didn't help either - I was a bit sniffly after being out in the wind. I woke on Sunday feeling much better and walked to North Syd and back (prob about 6km) but had a rest and a cup of tea with Hannah in between! Felt pretty good after that. So overall a pretty quiet weekend. I have decided not to train Tues night. I might train Thurs night - I'll see how I feel. That will be 2 whole weeks away from the gym - I can't remember the last time I did that. If I lose weight this week it will be a miracle! Tuesday will tell I guess.

So today's menu:

B: porridge with low fat yogurt and berries
S: low fat yogurt with a sprinkle of muesli
L: lamb & salad wrap
S: tropical cranberry crunch (nuts & fruit) yummm!!!
D: pita bread pizza, strawberries

The Weekend

I'm not sure if I will be online over the weekend, so here's my plan...

SATURDAY
B: 2 x poached eggs on turkish bread
S: skim milk with milo
L: ryvitas with ham and low fat cheese
S: low fat frozen yogurt & strawberries
D: salmon and roast vegies

SUNDAY
B: 2 x poached eggs on turkish bread
S: orange
L: ryvitas with ham and low fat cheese
S: pear and maybe a skim milo
D: omlette

Actually now that I have thought about it, I am quite looking forward to the weekend menu! I am finding that getting back into planning is helping me shop economically too - I now know that I need to buy some ryvitas and cheese on my way home tonight.

I had a slight detour with lunch today, as we all decide to go to a Japanese restuarant. I had chicken, egg and vegies with rice. It was yum and I didn't eat much rice - actually I didn't eat enough cause now I am hungry! Oh well, nearly snack time.

Day 3 of the Xmas Countdown Plan!

So far so good. Breakfast wasn't exactly to plan this morning cause I slept in and grabbed something at work, but the rest of the day will be good I promise :)

B: Banana bread, skim hot chocolate
S: strawberries
L: Lamb and salad wrap (possibly my new addiction)
S: skim milk with milo
D: prawns and salad

Feeling a bit better. Might do some walking on the weekend and maybe a yoga class. I'll see how much energy I have. Planning on being back at the gym Tuesday night. That will be nearly 2 weeks off from training. I will ease myself back into it though - not jumping straight back into my 6 days a week this time. And certainly not attempting Tour De Tiny 19 days of RPM like our very energetic Tiny Donna. Go Tour De Tiny!!!

I stuck to the plan!

I did it! I ate what I said I would... and nothing else! So here goes for day 2:

B: porridge, low fat yogurt and berries
S: low fat yogurt and berries
L: wrap with lamb and salad, diet coke
S: strawberries
D: omlette

Running

I have just bought the book "The Complete Book of Running for Women" by Claire Kowalchik - as recommended on Katie P's blog. I just have to share one paragraph with you - cause this is exactly what happened to me....

Many women take up running to lose weight - with good reason, since running is one of the most efficient and best carlorie-burning activities around. What often happens, though, is that once a woman begins running, she discovers many rewards she didn't expect. Running relieves her stress. It gives her more engery, makes her feel good physically. Weight loss becomes secondary. She continues to run and to improve, and she loses a few pounds, even though that's no longer the focus. She feels good about her body and about herself.

I need to start running again! I need to get back to that place. Once I get better of course :)

Focus focus focus

I will be 70kg by Christmas. I will be 70kg by Christmas. I will be 70kg by Christmas. I will be 70kg by Christmas.

I have been so up and down this week. I have been sick since Saturday - same virus as last time (only 3 weeks ago). The doctor basically said it is cause I am run down and doing too much. Sigh! So much has been going on at work, I've been doing some extra work with my old job plus all my training. So I am going to behave myself for the next few weeks and take it easy. I was told I am not even to do housework (sounds like a good excuse to me!) So I have just wasted $50 on registration for the Bridge Run cause I can't do it.

On the up side though, the doctor said that I was fit! She did a heap of tests and said I was FIT!!! Yay me!

I weighed myself this morning at 81.5kg. Not happy. So time to focuse again. Here's the plan for today:

B: porridge, low fat yogurt & berries
S: low fat yogurt with a sprinkle of nuts/muesli
L: wrap with roast lamb and salad, diet coke
S: skim hot chocolate
D: salmon and salad

I'm going to go back onto the Calorieking website and plan the next couple of days food, cause I find that is the best way to keep myself on track.

Back on track

Isn't it funny how one minute you feel out of control and then the next you are totally back on track and focussed? Today I am feeling good. I weighed myself this morning and am back to 80kg... so close to the 70s again! That is all it takes for a little motivation - to know that I can do it! I guess everything goes in cycles - you have good weeks and you have not so good weeks. I'm rambling now so I am going to stop.

Planning

When I look back over the past week and think about where I went wrong, it is in the planning. Over the past 12 months or so i have been really good at planning and sticking to it. I have one "cheat meal" a week where I go out for dinner and eat what I feel like, but apart from that I plan.

This week I have been out of control. I was away for the weekend so didn't do my normal fruit and vegie shopping - I hadn't even bought milk. Monday night I had a work thing and got home at 9pm, Tuesday night I trained and then worked at my old job and finished at 3am, Wednesday night I was buggered and last night I had personal training and got home late. Firstly, no wonder I am tired. Secondly, no wonder I have had no time to shop! It is totally insane. I want to go back to my normal week where I finish work early, go to the gym, swing past the supermarket to get whatever I forgot on the weekend and cook a healthy meal.

I want to go back to planning. Life is so much easier when I am in control!

Thank God It's Friday!!

Bring on the weekend. I need a sleep in! After my massive weekend I have done 3 PT sessions (including a 6am one this morning) so am feeling quite sore and tired. But it is all for a good cause - bring on 70kgs! I haven't weighed myself since Tuesday night so I'm not sure where I'm at. I am back on track with my food so should be heading back into the 70s.

There's a bit of gossip on the work front, but nothing confirmed.

It just gets better and better

Every minute of the day I feel happier that I have resigned! Out of 8 people, 5 have resigned in the last month. No replacements have been made or even thought about. We have 3 directors of the company - one is in Thailand, one is in the Whitsundays and 1 is in Perth (he was supposed to be here this week but went back to Perth early yesterday for a chiro appt). Our full time accountant/pay lady/finance person finishes tomorrow. They are replacing her with someone who is going to come in once a fortnight and who has no access to bank accounts and is not qualified to do BAS statements. What's the point?

As for the 3 remaining staff members - they are feeling very lonely and vulnerable. Nobody has spoken to them about their jobs or our replacements. How can a whole ad agency run with 1 account manager (instead of 3), an audio guy and a film editor? There will be no designer, no admin, no production manager, no general manager - which might not matter because there will be no clients as there will only be 1 account manager! There must be something else going on - there has to be something I don't know about. Surely. I am hearing rumours, but as we have no management team there is nobody to ask!

It is going to be a long 4 weeks.

Hello to my new friends!

Hello to those of you who regularly pop in here who I haven't heard from before!

Now I have news for you all today. I resigned yesterday because I have accepted a new and exciting job in North Sydney. I start in 4 weeks - it is going to be a long 4 weeks! I am glad the decision is made cause now I can stop thinking about it.

I haven't posted my menu as promised because it isn't that pretty. I have struggled to get back on track after my big weekend. But I went to the supermarket yesterday and stocked up on healthy food so today it all starts again. I haven't been exactly impressed with myself the last couple of days, but I haven't beaten myself up over it either which is a big step forwards for me.

So today:
2 x weetbix with skim milk and peaches
1 x pear
1 x wrap with roast lamb and salad
1 x can diet coke
handful of 'low carb mix' nuts and seeds
1 x skim hot chocolate
6 prawns with salad and vegies
1 x frozen yogurt

There it is in black and white. So now I have to stick to it!

How many blog lurkers are out there?

Come on people time to show your face!!! I am interested in who actually reads my daily unloading from my head. Comments please!

My Virtual Model

I am doing some work for my old job tonight, and am just waiting for stuff to print. So I'm bored. I've caught up on everyone's blogs (I read them daily anyway!), and thought I might do a new virtual model to see how different I will look at 70kg. I think I look pretty darn good at 70kg. Bring it on!!!!

Bridge Run

I have finally registered for the bridge run on 23 September. I got back into running last week and feeling fit, so might as well give it a go.

Christmas Goal

I'm joining Donna on her mission to get to 70kgs by Christmas. As of today, I weigh 80.7kg (a little gain over the weekend!), so 10.7kg to go.

And in the spirit of goal setting, here's my progress photos. The photo that prompted me to start this journey, taken in Italy in June 2006. I joined the gym in July 2006 and have never looked back!




I'm going to start posting what I am eating too, as that seems to keep me accountable. So will post back later with my menu.

Birthday Celebrations!

I had the best weekend EVER!! Arrived in Melb Friday morning with Berni and Hannah (my besties from Sydney), caught up with a friend for brunch, shopped, had hot chocolate and all the good stuff! Met up with Mum and Dad for a cup of tea and then checked into our hotel and had more tea. Then there was a knock at the door... I had a surprise! PT Dan Dan the Trainer Man and his girlfriend Nikki were there!!! They had told me they couldn't come - but were lying the whole time. It was so funny! Everyone did very well to keep it a secret. We all went to Lygon St for dinner. It was great for my Mum and Dad to meet all my Sydney friends. We finished up at the Belgian Beer Cafe which was right next to the hotel.

Awoke with slight headache the following morning, but that was fixed with a big breakfast and a diet coke! Headed to St Kilda where we wandered around the shops of Acland St and ended up spending the afternoon in the sun at the Vineyard where the beverages started! Time for a quick shower and then dinner at Southgate before heading to the big celebrations at La La Land. I had such a great night - caught up with lots of people and just had a damn great time!

The weekend finished with breakfast yesterday before jumping into a cab for the airport. We were all tired but happy. Not nearly as hungover as I should have been - which was a good thing when you have to get on a plane!

Tomorrow I Will be 30!!!

1 more sleep til my birthday! 1 more sleep til I go to Melbourne! I am so excited. I am going to try really hard to eat sensibly. Even though I used my "cheat meal" yesterday I am going to have another one tomorrow night. The challenge will be Saturday night trying not to get too drunk cause I have to fly home on Sunday and DO NOT want to try that with a hangover! Vodka and soda will be the drink of choice so hopefully I will be able to slip in a few without the vodka and nobody will notice. We'll see how that goes.

Camera is already packed so there will be lots of photos to post on Monday!

The New Plan Update

I have lost 1/2 of the 2kg I put on on the weekend. 1kg to go and I am back to 79 and back on track! I have modified Shannan's diet advice a bit as it is too low in carbs and dairy. I know from experience that if I drop my carbs too low I don't have the energy to train and I lose concentration very quickly. So this morning I have gone back to my porridge and low fat yogurt for breakfast. I have a yogurt for morning snack with fruit and then the rest of the day will be lean protein and salad/vegies. Running tonight on the tready seeing the weather has turned to crap. Actually the forecast for Melbourne this weekend is much better than Sydney so definitely a good weekend to go away!

The new me

I had a very interesting conversation this morning with Rusty (one of my PTs) - he is someone who didn't know me before I started this journey. I have known him for 12 months, so he has seen my progress, but not right from the start. I have only been training with him for 4 or 5 months. He made a comment that I wasn't shy... at all!

That really surprised me because I have always considered myself shy, except with a few select people. I have moments of very little confidence. I hate going places where I don't know people. I hate going to parties, or arriving to meet friends at the pub by myself. I like to have someone to walk in with in case I can't find my friends! What I realised is that I am actually not that person any more. Sure I still have my moments, but most of the time I am happy and fairly outgoing. That really surprised me because I actually hadn't stopped to think about how weight loss has affected my personality.

I came back from a holiday in Italy at the end of June 2006. I had moved to Sydney from Melbourne in May and knew 1 person. After my holiday I started to settle in and realised I was so unhappy with myself that it was going to affect how I made friends, and therefore how I survived in a new city. My self esteem was very low and because of that I didn't feel like going out and meeting people. I was at an all time low and I had 2 choices. I could go home to Melb, or I could do something about it. I'm not a quitter so I decided to do something about it. I made 2 promises to myself - I would lose weight and I would not turn down any social invitation. I very nervously walked into Fitness First to have a look. I signed up for a membership and a 'triple pack' which is 1.5 hours with a PT. That's when I met Nathan, and that's when my life turned around. He was an awesome PT - he encouraged me, motivated me, taught me to love exercise and introduced me to alot of people. He even took me out with his friends so I could meet them.

That was over a year ago. Nathan has since left FF but I easily slipped into a training regime with Rusty and Dan (I couldn't choose between them!). I have made a nice little circle of friends, mostly from the gym and through people who go to the gym. I am much happier and I am loving life and the challenges it brings. And you know what... the person that Rusty knows is the REAL me. I just hadn't realised it!

The Plan So Far

Well I started my day with egg whites and soy & linseed bread, and I have my orange cut up and ready to go for morning snack, to be followed by lunch of chicken & salad with a piece of bread and a protein shake for afternoon snack. Not sure about dinner yet - prob fish and salad. Have been thinking about it though, and I think that this diet is extremely lacking in dairy. So if I am hungry I will add a low fat yogurt in as well cause I need to make sure I get enough calcium.

I ran at the gym last night and whilst I found it tough (as always) I felt pretty good - I felt light! It was a good feeling! I did intervals at different speeds so was pretty darn sweaty by the end. I have a PT session with Dan tonight (weights) and I think I will run again tomorrow night instead of doing the spin class i had planned - or maybe I will do both! I am on a mission!!!

Shannan's Diet Advice

On Saturday Shannan spent a bit of time going through what to eat if you want to drop weight. As he said, everybody is different, but here's a guideline of what he recommended (from what I can remember anyway)

Breakfast: 1 slice of soy and linseed bread with 3 egg whites
Snack: 1 piece of fruit, not tropical
Lunch: 1 slice of soy and linseed bread with 100-150g lean protein and as much salad or vegies as you want
Snack: tin of tuna or some ham with cottage cheese
Dinner: fish or chicken and as much vegies or salad as you want

I do wonder if this gives you enough energy to train, as it is very low in carbs. However I might give it a go for the next 4 days and see. You probably need to try it for longer, but Friday is my bday so that is NOT going to happen! And I didn't have any eggs this morning so I had weet-bix instead. But it starts from now. Hopefully I can drop the 2kg I gained from yesterday! Whoops!

And the down side to the weekend

I had a bit of a blow out yesteday food wise. I just couldn't get enough! I didn't overeat much - I just made really really bad choices. There was a custard tart, chocolate, bread, hot chocolate, movie popcorn... the list goes on. I was so so so bad. And am now paying for it cause my scales said 81 this morning. Nooooooo I want the 70s back.

So today back to healthy eating and running at the gym tonight. Hopefully it might even be gone by tomorrow - it appeared in a day, so it can go in a day right?

Saturday's PT session

Most of you have already seen these pics from Donna's blog... but here they are again! We had such a great day. It was definitely up there with one of the hardest sessions I have ever done, but it was soooo good. I have pulled up a bit sore as expected but it was all worth it. Somehow having a couple of spunks train with you takes away some of the pain. Especially Ky Hurst - he paid particular attention to Tiny D and I, and it all of a sudden got easier! LOL! I must admit training with a back drop of the Opera House and the bridge is a pretty good place to train as well.

Oh and before our big PT session, we did a cylce class at FF St Leonards. It was like a cycle class in a nightclub! Music pumping and plenty of dance moves from the instructor. Quite amusing!!!