2011

Happy new year!

Happy New Year!

I don't make new year's resolutions, they mean no more than any of my other goals, and get forgotten as easily as my other wishes and plans.  Do you make them? What are yours?

However... I have decided to turn over a new leaf. New year, fresh start.

I have joined the gym.

I have written a meal plan.

I have washed all my gym gear and packed my gym bag.

I have written my exercise plan and worked out my routine for gymming.

I have ignored the banoffee pie and triple chocolate cheesecake in the fridge {in the last 30 minutes anyway}.

It's all a good start and I am going to keep it up.

In 4 weeks I am going to the Gold Coast with some beautiful girls, and I am setting a mini goal to lose weight before then.  I don't want to be embarrassed by how I look, and I have started working on getting to that point. 

It has been such a busy break, I can't believe how quickly it has flown by.  I go back to work on Wednesday, so am heading off now to enjoy the time I have left.

x

False Start

Why is that when you decide "Today is The Day", something pops up to knock you back on your booty and muck up all your plans?!

I am sick! I have a horrible cold, complete with all the bonuses of Killer sore throat, alternating blocked / runny nose, terrible cough, all-over-yucky-feeling, and poor-me self-sympathising to complete the collection.

So the plan of amping up the exercise, sorting out my food plan and being generally healthy and hearty has had a False Start, and I have done no exercise, have eaten whatever is closest to hand (when I actually feel like eating) and have just felt generally blah.

BUT... in other news, I ordered new sneakers from the US on Monday and they arrived on Friday. Who knew postage could be that quick, especially at this time of year?!

They tick all the boxes. Nike. Tick! Black but not masculine. Tick! Comfy. Tick! Sparkly. Tick! (Ok so sparkly wasn't on my list of must-haves for sneakers, but it is always a bonus.)

So once I shake this cold, I am lacing my new shoes up and hitting the gym! In the meantime I am sitting on the couch, watching hubby vacuum and watching The Hills re-runs. ;)

New House: Lounge Room

When we came through the house at the first open home, we were a bit umm... "stunned" at the owner's choice of colours. Firstly, they had exactly the same 2 colours on the lounge room walls as us - dark chocolate and creamy latte, which was surprisingly lucky. Secondly, they had decided that blue was the best choice of furnishing to go with these colours. That I found to be stunning (shocking?) in itself, however they had gone on to accessorise with white, yellow, and a range of other inappropriate shades.

The "before" (real estate) photo:

Lovely...!?!

And the "after":

We are currently in the process of deciding on new couching options. The one that I have my heart set on is a ridiculous price and will involve years of favours and bribes being paid to my husband if we do buy it. This is it:

It is the most comfortable lounge that I have ever sat on, and it is enormous. The 4 seater is just SO big, the picture doesn't show its size but my husband and I sat at each end and it felt like there was about 2 metres between us! This is the gorgeously comfortable and prohibitively expensive matching ottoman:

Sigh! I am in love. I think we need to go for a drive tomorrow to look at our options and have some serious couching discussions... and maybe begin negotiations.

Going down

My weightloss journey has hit a few speedbumps lately.  Things have slowed down, reversed, kept going, reversed a bit more, come to a complete halt, then reversed a little more.

Lots of the above in NZ didn't help my cause

 

Motivation has come and gone. I find myself, shortly after committing to a diet, munching on chocolate and chips.  I know that my health is at it's best when I follow a low GI, lower carb diet, so why do I put my body through the trauma of ingesting high amounts of sugar and other rubbish and feeling awful both physically and mentally afterwards...?  I tell myself "I don't care", "I have lost this much, I can do it again", "I will start again tomorrow"... But I do care.

So I have put on a few kilos.  

I am so far out of my healthy weight range that my mini goal weights don't even start with the same number as that of my (maximum) goal weight.  I have a few goals in mind.  People constantly tell me that I don't look like I weigh as much as I do, and I don't want to become a skeleton (yeah, 'cause THAT'S gonna happen!), so I plan to reassess as I reach my goal weight, then possibly set another goal.

The yo-yoing ends HERE. <- at that full stop 

I am going to the gym this morning to re-instate my membership and get back into daily exercise.

No more self sabotage.

I am going to make good choices that reflect my healthy lifestyle.

I actually feel really excited about getting back into the gym classes that I love, like BodyPump, BodyCombat and RPM.  I know once I get into a routine again, I can stick to it like I did before and love it.

My bathroom scales tell me all kinds of awful things, like how much I weigh, my body fat percentage, BMI and bone density. I am going to start recording the stats here as a bit of accountability / motivation.

SO here goes...

04/12/2010

Weight: x7.8 (ok maybe I am not brave enough to post that first number yet ;) )

Body fat %: 35.3

H20: 47.2

Bone density: 7.0

BMI: 31.3

*Gulp*

November

I have been completely slack, yet again, and neglected my poor sad little blog. Hopefully now that the year is coming to an end I have some more time to devote to keeping it updated.

What a year it has been, these last few months have been draining. Uni ended well with good results, we went to NZ for two weeks in November and had a fantastic time, my big brother told us he is coming home for a visit from the UK with his wife and little boy on New Years Day, we started on the courtyard and garden makeover.

There has been so much happening but one major event in my life actually happened this week.


My wonderful kind intelligent charming witty Grandpa passed away on Monday, 29 November 2010 after a very quick decline in health. In August, Grandpa was living alone, managing independently, driving himself around, visiting his wife of 62 years in her nursing home every day. His health started to decline very quickly during August and he decided to put his house on the market and move in with his son and daughter-in-law as he was unable to care for himself any more.


Shortly after, he became quite sick with pneumonia and was admitted to hospital. We didn't know then that he wouldn't return to live at home. Grandpa's health continued to decline further and further until he was finding it hard to complete sentences and to even stay awake while he was speaking. It was heartbreaking to watch our eloquent story-telling grandfather turn into an old man so quickly.

We returned from NZ on Thursday 25 November, Grandpa's 87th birthday. I had contracted a throat infection while we were away so the doctor told me to hold off a week before going to visit Grandpa. Unfortunately this meant that I didn't get to see Grandpa alive again or tell him about our trip and show him our holiday photos.


He showed such an interest in not only his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but everyone who he came in contact with in his daily activities, and was very much loved by everyone who knew him. He knew all the names and stories of the carers at Granny's nursing home, the chemist where he picked up his medication, the newsagent where he bought the paper, the supermarket where he bought his groceries. When he was moved into hospital he got to know all of the people who cared for him, from the doctors and nurses to the tea ladies and orderlies. By showing a genuine interest in people and remembering their names, he formed immediate friendships and gained great respect wherever he went.


I miss my Grandpa so much already. His funeral was held yesterday, Thursday 2 December. My father did a beautiful talk which perfectly honoured Grandpa, and a bagpiper played his favourite piece of Scottish music then walked away into the distance, so we could hear the music fade away as Grandpa's coffin was lowered out of sight.


I came home last night and just wanted to go and see Grandpa, I just can't believe he isn't there.

Rest in peace Mr MacGregor, my amazing strong inspiring grandfather. No more pain. You live and are loved in the memories of your family.

Ian Murray MacGregor

25-11-1923 ~ 29-11-2010

"Tata sweetie"

Highland Cathedral

Courtyard progress

It's been a while since I've updated - Uni studies have been in the way but now exams are over, study is done and gardening begins.

Over the weekend we started pulling out the rubbish in the side garden and around the courtyard. It has become quite overgrown and the area is full of plants we don't want, so we've cutting, pruning, pulling, destroying!

The courtyard is currently a warzone of branches, ferns, whole bushes and plants, and the mulcher is making an appearance this weekend to help get rid of it all. The trashpack people are dropping one off for us to fill, and I am unreasonably excited about this.

I have made a few decisions about the courtyard area now, and my plan is:

- Remove the ferns

- Plant the San Jose magnolia where ferns are currently living

- Plant calla lillies along base of magnolia

- Buy a large round pot for water lilies to live in

- Decide on the rest of the plants to fill the courtyard area

- Kill the weeds / moss growing through pavers and on fence

- Cover unsightly fence with lattice

- Install lighting

- Maybe install decking over current pavers (maybe...)

With the ultimate goal of:

- Build (or buy!) gazebo/ pergola structure to cover the paved area

We have a lot to do...! Will update with some pics shortly. :)

20kg Down :)

Hit a milestone this morning in my weightloss journey - 20kg lost since I started this gymming and dieting business. It has been a lot of hard work but I am feeling really proud of myself today.

I had carpal tunnel release surgery on the 23rd of July and since then have been unable to go to the gym. Not only do I not have any strength in my wrist, but any sort of exercise of course makes my blood pump a lot faster, which in turn makes my wrist throb with pain after about hmm 3 minutes?! The osteopath I see and the occupational therapist who has been helping me get back in to working safely have both told me to not go to the gym yet. I should be able to ease back into aerobic activity soon but weights have been ruled out for a long time. The only muscle exercise I am allowed to do at the moment is squeezing a stress ball. :|

I have been going through some old photos this morning and I am shocked at my size in some of them, I really don't know how I let myself get so big and am embarrassed that I didn't do something about it sooner.

I'm currently trying to work up the guts to post a photo... eek!

Deep breath... here goes:

Before:
This photo was taken last year, before I started actually using my gym membership (I know, I thought you signed up and lost weight/got fitter automatically). I was unhappy, hated the way I looked in everything I wore, hated having to buy bigger clothes, hated bawling my eyes out in fitting rooms, or even worse getting STUCK in clothes in fitting rooms, and eventually realised I could do something about it.

So I did. I started going to the gym and realised I loved it. I loved the classes, the instructors, the music, the feeling afterwards of I'm-going-to-die-but-that-was-awesome! All of it. Then I started looking at what I was eating, cutting out the junk food and thinking before I put food in my mouth.

And here I am, 20kg later:

This was taken this morning before I went out shopping with my sister (AND BOUGHT NEW JEANS THAT FIT!) (oops caps unintentional but I'm leaving them as I feel like shouting it out!!). I obviously still have a long way to go. I'd like to lose another 15-20kg but will re-assess that as I lose the weight.

Feeling very scared to click "publish post" and put this out there, but I'll just have to be brave and do it!