Monday, January 30, 2006

First Day Back

First day back at work today and really feeling it. Legs are really sore from I dont know what (couldnt be pilates - I think they were starting to be sore before that). Have developed a limp even though foot isnt really sore which has thrown my back out. Finally gave in around lunchtime and took some digestics which has helped the pain somewhat.

Am giving the gym a miss today and will see how I feel tomorrow.

DH keeps saying "dont overdo it" but it is so nice to have some independence back again.

Work is chaos due to offices being refurbished. Of course the electricians didnt turn up today as requested. Cant find anything and really was feeling stressed and out of control on the inside although I dont think I showed it on the outside.

Found a sort of 12 week plan from Discovery Health (Dr Peeke).

Week One is:
1. Get 200-300 calories of physical activity each day.
2. Write progress down in food journal and physical activity journal.
3. Choose one thing to change this week.
4. Take action today.
5. Dont rely on scales. Use your clothes to monitor body shape changes.
6. Try not to leave more than 3 to 4 hours between eating.
7. Change unhealthy habits gradually.
8. Take it easy on the exercise to start with.
9. Watch out for perfectionism.
10. Set up a support system.

I really wish there was a patch for my problem but I bet, so do a lot of other people. It would make it so easy.

Really hot today but now I am home there is a nice breeze blowing from the east. Children are all going away this week. DD to Byron Bay for 10 days and DS to Canada/Alaska for 3 weeks. This means that DH and I will have a minimum of 9 days child-free. Something that we havent experienced for a long long time. Yahoo.
Off to have a swim and start dinner.

No matter how hot it is the baked dinner still happens every Monday night. I think I am turning into my mother-in-law! I wish.

For anyone interested - I have seen promos that the West Wing is coming to the ABC. Bliss. Hope that they show it at a normal time, no commercials (of course) and I dont even mind if they start at the beginning (although I have Series One on DVD) again. Channel 9 just didnt care when they showed it and even when I tried to tape it because it was on so late the program before usually was late finishing so I always missed the end.

Just one more observation - I went for a limp (I mean walk) on Saturday afternoon with Lucy and DH decided to come with me. Guess who had to hold the leash? which left me with the plastic bag. It got me thinking that it is a male thing or maybe just my males' thing - when the children were little DH had to push the stroller/pram or even now when we are shopping he pushes the trolley. I have started to notice that my DH is not the only male who does this.
:o)

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Food Addiction

No, I really think I am a food addict. I love junk food, alcohol, pies, nibblies etc etc etc.

Ive just done it again. Was good for two days and then have just blown it at Sunday night drinks. No alcohol mind you, but lots of nibblies. The positive side is no alcohol.

Another positive is I havent eaten any of the peanut brittle that DH has left on the kitchen bench for two days. Ive wanted to but havent as yet.

I'm sure that there is a 12 point plan but until I find it I will stick with WW. It may be better now that I am able to go to the meetings again as from this Thursday.

Oh well back to work tomorrow after all this time off.

Gotta go. DH has been to Sunday night drinks and is driving me mad.
:o)

Friday, January 27, 2006

Confession

Oh dear, confession time. I really fell off the wagon yesterday. Friend from Queensland came down and came for lunch and dinner. Copious quantities of wine later plus the antipasto plate etc etc I realised that once again I had failed. I think that I am a food addict. I dont seem to be able to say no. The scorched almonds with the coffee were the final nail in the coffin. Damn, bugger, damn, bugger.

Oh well, I know today is another day and I will start again. I dont have to weigh in until next Thursday so hopefully I will be able to control myself until then.

Hope everyone had a great Australia Day.

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

These feet were made for walking

Well have been to the Xray place and the surgeon and everything is okay. Am supposed to gradually wean myself off the crutches - first two crutches but weight bearing on both feet and then just one crutch - he said over two weeks plus I have to do physio on my foot (can apparently do this myself) twice a day until I see him again in two months time. I dont think I am going to put up with crutches for two weeks and as soon as I remember how to walk without them I'm off.

Ive done a bit of exploratory walking around the house just now and there isnt any pain at all so that is good. Rest assured that I am not going to overdo it and try to do too much too soon.

Looks like you dont have to drag me to lunch Margaret! LOL.

Hope everyone has a great Australia Day.

Yahoo, I'm mobile again.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Starting Again ...... again

Well we are home again finally after travelling a couple of thousand kilometres over the last 10 days.

As I couldnt drive I just sat back and enjoyed the scenery. We went up Bucketts Way via Gloucester and Stroud (stayed at Gloucester the first night) stopped at Walcha for morning tea Day 2 and stayed the night at Grafton. Day 3 up the summerland way to Casino, Lismore and then on the Nimbin for lunch (that was a real experience). We then took the Hinterland Highway (not really a highway) to Bangalow, nearly got all the way there but found a bridge was closed and had to turn back and find a different way. It must only usually be used by locals as there was not detour signs but somehow we found our way to Bangalow easily and had a drink in the lovely pub there. Drove on to Queensland and picked up girlfriends husband from Gold Coast airport at 5 and all arrived back to Main Beach in time for dinner.

Up until this point I had tried really hard to make good food choices relating to the "No Count" system but I am sad to say that I fell off track again after this. We were eating out at least once sometimes twice a day and it all got just too hard. I know, I know, poor excuse.

Before we left I had reserved A.J. Rochesters book at the library and it had come in so I sent Jess in to get it for me. Turned out to be the audio copy which worked out really well when travelling. I loved listening to it and hearing about her struggles. She sounds like she has a great group of friends to support her although some members of her family leave something to be desired.

Came home via the coast just in front of the floods. They closed the road at Ballina so we were lucky to get through when we did. Stayed the night at South West Rocks and then home via Gloucester (to pick up my pillow which I left there) and arrived home at about 3 pm on Friday.

We travelled to lots of places we had never been before. Because of all the rain everything was really lush and green just about everywhere we went. Caught up with lots of people we knew and met some new ones.

I was very limited in what I could do. Had two scary falls on my crutches (crutches and wet floors do not mix) and hopefully didnt do any great damage.

Worked out how to get in and out of the pool with the minimum of help although I prefer to have my poolboy (DH) with me when I do go swimming. My friend in Queensland has found out she needs a hip replacement scheduled for March so DH was left looking after two cripples (her husband had gone back to Sydney to work).

Okay, am back on my diet again or should I say "the alfalfa zone". I am feeling really hungry and headachey. Have started to keep a written food diary with me at all times so that I can see how I am doing. Dont have to weigh in until first Thursday in February unless I go on a different day next week. I may if I have been able to throw the crutches away.

I am trying to catch up on everyones blogs. Gosh you guys write lots. Will email Margaret about lunch. Hopefully I will be mobile enough to attend.

Looking forward to spending 2006 with you all.
:o)

Monday, January 09, 2006

We are going on a summer holiday.....

Well this will be my last post for a while. We are off tomorrow, heading towards the Gold Coast and my best friends place so probably wont have time to do anything although I am planning on taking my laptop with me and see if I can connect. Sad isnt it. At least I think we are leaving tomorrow. DH is so hard to get to make concrete plans it drives me (the control freak) batty.

Friends came down for drinks last night and it was really funny. They were both on diets and didnt want any nibblies. Mark brought the nibblies out but he was the only one who ate them. I drank diet lemon, lime and bitters, Deb drank water (she is detoxing) and her hubby is allowing himself to drink beer on only one night a week - Sunday.

My foot is becoming really itchy under the bandages so just rang the surgeon to make sure it was okay to take the bandages off and it is. Another step closer. This Thursday it will be 4 weeks since I had the op so I can start putting my foot down and 50% weight bearing on it. Havent quite worked out what that means yet but I know it still means using the hated crutches.

DD started her new job today. We just kept out of her way as she is not a morning person and a 7.30 am start is definitely not the norm for her. Hope everything is going well for her. Unfortunately it is raining so unless this new centre has undercover play areas the children will be inside and she will come home suffering from cabin fever.

This holiday is the first really big outing for the new car. It has been to Canberra to pick up DS when he dislocated his shoulder snowboarding and to the Hunter a few times but it is the first time we have taken it so far from home for so long. We usually fly to Gold Coast because I am such a horrendous traveller (even without a sore foot) but DH wanted to drive so here we go. Am taking pillows, etc with me so that I can get comfortable. Sleeping pills probably wouldnt go astray either.

I will miss you all and I know it will take me forever to catch up with you but I will. Take care and I'll be back in about 12 days.
:o)

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Day One Completed

I completed the first day of No Count and dont think I went too badly. There are some questions I have to ask like do the WW frozen meals still fit into the guidelines for the No Count plan? Might email them and see if I can get an answer as wont be back at meeting for a while due to holidays.

Tonight will be a test as a girl friend and her hubby are coming up for dinner and bringing it with them. So I will just have to be really careful about what I eat but it shouldnt be too hard as I know she is very careful too most of the time.

I actually drank more than the 6 glasses of water yesterday which was quite an achievement for me because waterdrinking at home is not my strong point. I'm much better at work.

Feel my foot is getting better daily although I have done a few stupid things which I hope wont impact on its healing. I've forgotten three times and stood up and put weight on it, I fell off a chair the other night over-reaching for something (much hiliarity as Mark tried to help me up) and because when Im hot in bed I dangle my feet out the side, Gareth came into the bedroom the other morning and walked straight into it. I think that produced the most pain yet but I really don't think any of those things have caused any damage. Time will tell.

I must be off, have to work out how to get the dirty clothes from the bedroom to the laundry and washed. More logistics to plan. Then have to co-erce daughter into hanging it out. Now that will be the hard part.

Friday, January 06, 2006

Starting again

The good news is that I havent put on as much weight as I thought I had. It took forever to get me to the meeting and it was raining lightly as well so there was the worry that the crutches would slip but we made it. You should have seen the look on the leaders face as she saw me hobble in. The weigh-in was achieved although I could not keep still while balancing so the scales did not lock in the weight.

Anyway I really enjoyed the meeting. The leader is really nice and friendly - probably the nicest one I have ever met and I have met a few over the years. Received my first handbook, passport and leaflet and stayed for the meeting. It was really friendly and they have a lot of fun. Even ran into an old friend from Jess's primary school days who was looking great. All in all the hour (actually over an hour as we were there 10 mins early) just flew and left feeling quietly confident that I can do it this time.

After reading the books have decided to try the "No Count" this week as I think that would be easiest for me until I'm up and around. I dont mind eliminating foods completely and if I do I can always taste them in the 21 extra points I get a week. Seems too easy for me so Im a bit cautious.

Have reset my ticker and my stats. This is probably cheating a bit but have decided to have a completely new start. Unfortunately we are going away next week to Main Beach so wont be able to weigh in again until beginning February unless I can find a meeting up there and Mark doesn't mind taking me - no probably too hard.

Managed to change the font size in the sidebar (may have made it too small). Its a start. Am trying something in this post so we will see if it works.

Oh joined e-tools too. Havent had time to explore it but will over the next two weeks during the 14 day free trial period. Didnt realise that I needed an access code to log on (wondered how it happened) and was supposed to get that off my Leader so I rang WW and explained that I was going on holidays and wouldnt see my leader for a couple of weeks and wanted to use it while I was away and they were very helpful.

Have made a new email address for bloggers and weight watchers so if anyone wants to email me, feel free. Its in my profile.

In reply to some comments - Yes Lucy knows she is gorgeous and runs the family accordingly and
Sue, will look forward to sharing the rugby with you this year. Hope the Hurricanes have a good year but not too good. I agree that both our teams have disappointed us in the past although we nearly got there last year. I was so cross with them after a game a couple of years ago that they had led by over 20 and still managed to lose, that when I got home I emailed them and using Mark's words told them "to go and have a good look in the room of mirrors". LOL.

In my links (in the sidebar) a new blog has been set up that could be useful - its www.thepointscafe.blogspot.com. Thanks Mary for this info.

Hope everyone has a great day!
:o)

Thursday, January 05, 2006

Another achievement

Great excitement yesterday. Finally figured out how to insert the weather pixie. It was touch and go for a while with just gobbleygook on my blog but eventually got there. Yay for me the computer illiterate.

Now to try to learn how to insert photos in post:



Well that wasnt too hard. This is my beloved LUCY. She is my third child (please dont be too harsh on me for saying that but she is such good company and rarely leaves my side when I am at home).

In US WW there was an article about 12 ways to be healthier by This Time Next Year. So I thought I would address these things now.

1. Get your cholesterol tested - Do that every month when I have to have blood tests done to make sure that my arthritis medication isnt attacking my liver. So far so good.
2. Power up the diet with produce - Something to concentrate on more this year.
3. If you smoke, quit - Dont do this anymore but it has only been 12 years since I did. Hope I stopped soon enough.
4. Take aim at breast cancer - Remember to peform a monthly breast self examination.
5. Go with whole grains - explore new ways to incorporate whole grains in my diet.
6. Seek out soy foods - Not too sure about this one. Dont mind tofu but dont really like soy milk but may revisit it again to see if anything has changed since I last tasted it.
7. Limit drinking - Now this will be a hard one. I would like to eliminate it altogether but unfortunately I think I like it too much. What the Journal of American Medical Association says - women who consume two to five drinks a day increased their risk of breast cancer by 41 percent. Excessive alcohol may also increase your risk of colon and rectal cancer as well as stroke, osteoporosis, liver damage and creeping blood pressure. Now if that doesnt scare me nothing will.
8. Talk to your doctor about getting tested for type 2 diabetes - I have been as Mum is a Type 2 diabetic (and this has been caused by purely lifestyle i.e. overweight) but I wonder how often you should have this checked.
9. Boost your brain power. If you work with numbers at your job spend your spare time doing something completely different, such as reading, writing or painting - Have found that the crosswords I started doing this time last year have seemed to help me with the vagueness and loss of memory that started a couple of years ago. Plan to attempt (attempt being the operative word) to learn french beginning Term 2.
10. Right-size your portion sizes - Once a week I will get out measuring cups and scales to make sure that my portion sizes are not creeping up. Plus if I use the same bowls etc that would probably help me gauge these things.
11. Take a calcium supplement - I do this now.
12. Keep stress at bay - Will try to schedule 20 mins a day down time (dont quite know how but will try).

Okay that's it. I'm off to try and work out how to change the font size and maybe the colour of this blogsite but dont hold your breath this could take a while. Also may begin my exploration of digital scrapbooking.
:o)

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Plotting and Planning

Well, I am getting excited. Planning to return to WW tomorrow night and believe me it is like planning a military maneouvre. Am going to get Jess to drop me as new as possible to meeting which is unfortunately in the middle of a shopping centre. Will wait, sitting somewhere, for her to park the car and come back to get me and then onwards to WW. Getting on the scales will be tricky but with a little help I should be able to manage it if someone will hold my crutches while I balance.

A few peoples posts have mentioned books by A.J. Rochester and I looked up her web site and they do look interesting if a slightly scarey account of her life. Found that the local library has a copy of two of her books and have reserved them. Really appreciate alll the new things I find out in everyones posts.

(Black cockatoos are flying over at the moment - isnt that a mournfal cry.)

Jess and I have decided to learn French in Term 2. We cant do it in Term 1 as she will be away on holidays for 2 weeks and didnt want to pay for lessons she couldnt use so looks like Term 2. If it eventuates, it will be good to have someone to practise with.

Have been busy lately getting everything organised for this year. Our rugby tickets for the Waratahs have arrived and the dates have been duly entered in my diary. I have booked my tickets for the Bell Shakespeare's two performances this year - Romeo and Juliet in June/July and The Tempest in September/October. Because I go by myself (took Mark once - never again) am going to a matinee and for the first time am going to go on a Wednesday rather than my usual Saturday as I can go in the school holidays. Will book myself in for Tai Chi tomorrow, lessons start on 11 February.

Have decided that when I am up and around again and return to the gym, I will probably hire a personal trainer to get me going again. Have to ring the gym today and find out what costs are involved and minimum time I can do this. One of Jess's friends is a PT at my gym so I will probably ask for her. It depends on the cost though.

Today is cool and lovely (except the cricket is late again starting). Have just about finished January BIG crosswords and puzzles that have to be posted. My sister who has just given up work doesnt have the internet at home so I have been able to supply her with some answers that she couldnt find in her reference books. I love google.

Im home alone today - Mark has gone to work, Gareth's shoulder is better and he too has returned to work and Jess and her friends have driven to Anna Bay for the day to visit another friend who is on holidays there.

Hope everyone is looking forward to 2006 as much as I am.
:o)

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Confession of an Oprah addict

I am going to confess my dark secret - I simply adore watching Oprah - not all her shows (I find some silly especially when she interviews "stars") but I love the fact that she gives so much joy (as well as material possessions) to ordinary people.

And I'm not the only one - I've seen the other woman at the gym when one of her programs is being shown. Their eyes are rivetted as they are exercising and at various times we make eye contact with each other and go aha.

Unfortunately I usually have to go to work when her show is on. Believe me I have tried taping it but just dont have time of an evening to watch it, along with all the other shows that I tape because I cant watch them when they are actually screening.

Sometimes I actually look forward to be ill so that I can catch up with her. She is an intelligent interview showing compassion and sympathy or asking the hard or awkward question in such a way that it doesn't seem offensive or sensational. She doesn't judge and she doesnt get her jollies by putting people down (wish my son would learn that lesson).

Her charity, the Angel Network, has raised an incredible amount for charity.

I love her friendship with Gail (did I spell that right). Those two are not afraid to tell each other exactly like it is and that's how friends should be - as she said today on her show, someone has to feel comfortable enough to tell you your hairdo is bad, you need to lose weight etc. (Stedman actually told her that the Tina Turner wig she was sporting at one time may not be a good idea.)

I subscribe to her magazine and I always find it interesting. It is something I look forward to every month (along with WW mag and Notebook).

She is an ordinary person who has risen to an extraordinary position in the public arena. I am continually inspired by her. I love her warmth and kindness. There are a lot of people who dont have time for her but I'm not one. I feel blessed that there are people like Oprah in this sometimes sad, tired world. She uses the power she has gained for good and her fame to highlight the problems are others who are not so lucky.

There endth todays rant.
Back to normal tomorrow.
:o)