Shh, don't tell anyone...

...I've decided to start doing the Couch to 5K program - henceforth C25K on account of keystroke rationing.

I wasn't going to tell anyone, I was just going to quietly get on that treadmill of mine downstairs and see where it took me (yeah, yeah, I know - not very far. /preemptive parenthetical joke). But Twitter was right there and before I knew it my thoughts had leaped from my fingertips to keyboard, serious contemplation became an actual decision and there were a whole bunch of friends saying "Cool idea, we might do it too!"

You won't read anything about it on the blog here but if you want to see where I'm at/point and laugh/join the fun and do it along with me then pop on over to my newly minted Mim's Muddle Facebook page, that's where I'll be whinging and gloating as I go.

Btw, it's all Liz, Em & Penny's fault.

Making plans

No resolutions, no grand plans for the year, no lists of things to accomplish. Just the intention to plan ahead a little bit at a time and try not to let things get too overwhelming.

By the end of last year I was really not doing too well, I had made too many commitments and left myself stretched way too thin. I kept thinking it should be ok, I wasn't really short of time and other people were managing to do as much and more without crumbling into a heap. But I'm not other people, I'm me and I have limits and when I push myself past those limits it hurts me and my family and things don't get done properly and I end up sobbing violently on the lounge on Christmas Eve and freaking out my 8 year old who gets up to see if I'm ok and has to be bundled back into his bedroom because Santa is all over the lounge room.

I'll be using that little 2 letter word a bit more often this year. I've already said no to Canteen duty at the primary school (though I have signed up for the High School canteen roster). I'll be handing over the job of P&C President when my 2 year term is up in March, and with that my position on School Council. I will be sitting firmly on my hands during the P&C AGM and will not be taking on any role that involves responsibility. I will not say yes to anything without thinking it through properly and double-checking for calendar clashes, I got caught out double booking myself a few times recently, not clever. I will look after myself so that I can be ready and able to look after my family when I need to.

There are a few things I know I need to do by way of the looking after myself thing. The first is to focus on my health. I'm unfit and sleep deprived and have been eating in ways that do not make me feel good and aren't doing much good to our budget either - far too much takeaway and far too many meals at restaurants that aren't even that great. I'd much prefer a once a month visit to somewhere new and fabulous than weekly visits to a place we've been to umpteen times (much as I love our local Chinese restaurant I'm so sick of eating the same dishes all the time because that's what the kids want).

I started writing this post last week just after having written up a meal plan for the week, we pretty much stuck to the plan and ate quite well. Come this week and no plan, the grocery shopping hasn't been done, I haven't had useful food in the house, and we've already had fish and chips at the beach on Saturday because we had nothing suitable to pack for a picnic and takeaway Chinese tonight because my Dad invited himself to dinner and I couldn't very well feed him leftovers scrounged from the fridge and freezer. I absolutely must write a new meal plan every week, the 2 week perpetual plan worked ok for a while but it fell apart whenever there was something unusual happening, and there just don't seem to be that many "usual" weeks in this house! Besides, I got bored.

Meal plan every week, that's the first thing. I also have vague thoughts about making the effort to cook something a bit special, or something new anyway, at least once a fortnight. I might even give myself some blogging material if I get creative, the recipe posts are easily the most visited ones on my blog.

Next up is this sleep thing. I've been struggling with this for years. It doesn't seem to matter that I know exactly what I need to do to fix it - which is get up early each morning come hell or high water so I can't help but want to go to bed earlier. It's not that I can't go to sleep earlier, or that I wake during the night and lie in bed cursing insomnia. I sleep well once I'm there and I don't generally wake till the sun is up (mind you, that can be a little early this time of year). I'm not even sure why I'm sitting here typing this up now instead of going to bed, though I suspect it's something to do with enjoying the solitude of being the only one in the house who's awake.

What I do know is that if I don't sort this out then it won't matter how well I plan, or how good my intentions are, I will simply be unable to follow through on any of it. I'll continue to barely scrape by, always in crisis mode, always feeling like I'm scrambling to catch up and never making any real progress. So despite being in holiday mode I've got my alarm set for rather-earlier-than-I'd-like and I'll keep working on coming up with some way to coerce myself into better sleep patterns. I've got till the end of the month to get the whole family into a good routine before we get hit with the shock of back to school and David having to leave earlier for high school and Tom having band practice at stupid o'clock in the morning before school once a week.

And then last, but by no means least, there's that fitness thing. Damn I hate feeling like there's things I can't do because they're going to make me feel utterly miserable. If I went to Jenolan Caves right now and had to climb all those stairs I'd be a wreck, but it's been 3.5 years since we went and I'd really like to go back now that the kids are older. At Easter we're planning on going back to Cruickshanks for another farmstay holiday and there's a horseriding place nearby which we checked out last time we were there. I was assured that they have horses that would be up to my weight so I've been looking forward to riding for the first time in about 11 years and I'd love to be fit enough to enjoy it properly. Plenty of walking and some weights work would do the trick and I have a treadmill and weights right here at home - not to mention the dog!

So, if I'm no longer snowed under with a multitude of little and not so little commitments, and I sort out the sleep and cooking and eating issues so I actually have a little energy to spare, then getting on the treadmill or taking the dog for a walk at least once a day should become something I look forward to instead of dreading (and yes, I do like the treadmill, especially with a good dvd playing on the TV in front of it). I'll give myself a few days grace to get started on fixing the sleep deprivation and then I'm promising myself 30 minutes walking every day no matter what. That'll do for starters anyway.

There's really no down side here, I'll be healthier, the budget will balance a bit better, the family won't have to deal with me being grumpy mum quite so often, Clara will be happy and the treadmill won't be permanently festooned with laundry. Sounds like a plan to me!

(Wish me luck...)

Splash!

We went to the pool today, it's not our closest public pool, there's one at Hornsby too but this one at West Pymble is in such a lovely setting that it's well worth a few extra minutes drive to go there instead.

You can see what I mean from the Google satellite image

This is the pool I used to come to for swimming lessons in the summer holidays when I was a kid, I have vivid memories of doing water safety and having to jump into the olympic pool fully dressed, tread water for a while and then swim to the side and climb out.

David and Caitlin also had a couple of summer's worth of lessons here when they were first learning. Once, when Dave and Cait were being taught in one half of the pool in the top right corner of that photo and I was watching and dividing my attention between them and Tom who was still in floaties and swimming in the other half of the same pool, I looked back from the lessons to check on Tom and he was no-where to be seen. I found him a couple of minutes later blithely climbing out of the deep end of the olympic pool and jumping back in again - he was 3 years old. I think he discarded the floaties for good the next time we went.

Today when we were almost ready to head for home (Caitlin's lips were blue - this is always our sign that it's time to leave) I was trying to persuade David to come and swim a lap or two with me, I'd done 5 but I thought I had at least 2 more in me. Dave was not showing much enthusiasm but Tom announced he wanted to do it.

Now Tom is a natural floater but hasn't been much for actually moving through the water. He deeply resented having lessons and being made to do what someone told him to and it was no good dragging him away from the side of a pool and using the sink or swim tactic, he'd just do the passive resistance thing and lie back and refuse to move, drove his swimming teachers nuts! We persevered, but when dance and soccer ended up clashing with swimming half-way through last year I gave up and he quit lessons just as he was starting to get the hang of doing the breathing.

When we first got in the pool today I asked if he could show me breathe and bubble and he was all over the place. I gave a demonstration and he did manage to get the arms and breathing co-ordinated but wasn't interested in doing more than a few strokes. So I really didn't think he'd be able to do two 50m laps...but he did. Slowly yes, but with great determination and astonishingly good style (until he was getting tired at which point he was rolling almost all the way over and practically turning into a submarine). I was amazed and very, very proud of him.

He was pretty pleased with himself too, when we got home he was desperate to ring Grandma and tell her all about it. Mum was suitably excited and impressed, she's an awesome grandma :)

We went out for dinner tonight, my mum came too, had a very nice meal at the restaurant that's attached to the Manly Fish Markets Cafe, a seafood platter for two plus a seafood basket main fed all six of us and it's BYO so we took a bottle of Grant Burge 2006 Kraft Sauvignon Blanc which we bought at the cellar door the last time we were in the Barossa Valley (we chose well - it was yum).

Then I took the dog for a walk when we got home, don't know where the energy for that came from.

Interesting

I have not weighed myself for nearly 2 months. I've been eating what I wanted, when I wanted. I've been walking the dog but not doing much else by way of exercise. I haven't been thinking about food all the time.

Last night I was out with friends having an awesome meal at Chinta Ria, followed by a thoroughly decadent chocolate overload at Lindt Cafe and then a quick visit to the Pumphouse pub all accompanied by liberal quantities of wine.

This morning I decided to have a look at the numbers. I was a little apprehensive, surely all this not worrying about food and exercise would have to translate into consequences on the scales?

I weigh exactly what I did last time I stood on the scales.

(Bet my cholesterol levels haven't changed much though :P)

My hands are still cold

I spent nearly half an hour standing outside in the cold from 9pm tonight talking to one of Dave's teachers (who is made of awesome) after the School Council meeting. I was explaining to her why Dave had come home this afternoon from their 2 day excursion to Bathurst, got in the car with me and alternated between telling me how much fun he'd had doing gold-panning and meeting farm animals and fighting back tears as he told me about the bullying that he and his friends had endured at the hands of a certain group of extremely unpleasant children. It never bloody stops.

Then I came home and went for a walk with Bren and the dog, answered emails, wrote a P&C report for the school newsletter and drank two cups of tea. Most of me is warm but my fingers are frozen.

Done with dieting

I'm not doing the Weight Watchers thing any more, haven't been for quite some time now. I was getting nowhere, making myself miserable and ending up binge eating on a fairly regular basis. Since I stopped dieting (and make no mistake about it, Weight Watchers is a diet) my weight has stayed stable, my binging has drastically reduced (I still have the occasional episode if I'm feeling really down) and I'm feeling pretty much OK about myself.

I had blood tests done a few weeks ago and all the numbers came back good except my cholesterol. Which isn't particularly surprising given that my fairly slim mother and average sized sister also have high cholesterol. What really pleased me was that my iron levels were good. I've been pretty anaemic for a long time because of my B12 deficiency problems (pernicious anaemia to be precise) so apparently eating what my body asks for rather than "what I should be eating" is a good thing in that department. The cholesterol issue though, well, when it was measured about a year ago it was significantly lower. And I know why. That was back when I'd been diligently avoiding saturated fats for a fairly long stretch of time. So clearly there is something I can and should do about that.

Here's what I figure I need to do:

1. No takeaway food! - Meal planning is the answer to this one, when I have a plan the groceries get bought and the cooking gets done even when I'm not at my best. There's something about not having to make a decision that makes all the difference. I've been posting my dinner plans here occasionally and I'll do that each week plus I'll make sure I keep the pantry and fridge stocked with a good selection of breakfast and lunch options so I'm not tempted to drop in at Maccas instead of coming home and making something.


2. Make sure I'm getting my 2 fruit and 5 veg a day - This happens best when I track my eating, I won't be counting points, agonising over whether something is core plan or not, or worrying about portion sizes, I'll just be writing it all down at the end of each day as a reminder to myself to fuel my body properly.


3. Avoid saturated fats like the plague - this is mostly addressed by the no takeaway point, apart from that, the main thing is I need to give up butter again (stop pretending I'm buying it for baking and then using it on my toast :P), pretty much everything else I buy is ok already.
   


4. And finally, lots of walking - Clara should be pleased about this :)

For now I don't really care whether or not I end up losing weight, I just want to see that cholesterol reading heading down again. I like the way I feel when I've been eating well and exercising regularly but I don't like the stress and pressure I feel when I'm constantly calculating points and having to assess every bite I put in my mouth, I just can't keep that up for too long and when I cave I binge. And that really sucks. Not going there any more. Just not. Luckily, eating well and exercising don't depend on doing the other!

So far so good

Sink - still shiny.
Laundry - all clean, dry and folded. Still some to be put away and LOTS of ironing to do.
Exercise - weights training on track every second day, need to get moving on the cardio. I should be able to get another swim in tomorrow.

Hey, I know it's early days, but I'm celebrating every little success thankyouverymuch!

My bike hasn't arrived yet, I rang the shop this afternoon and they said Monday hopefully. I was hoping to have my first ride on the weekend but it'll have to wait.

David has written 2 blog posts in the last 2 days and tonight asked me plaintively whether I was going to leave him any comments. "Maybe..." says I. 'Tis done, us bloggers need comment type validation ;-)

I am now going to make myself a mug of chai tea and watch some Stargate Atlantis.

Resolutions

I'm not much of a fan of New Years resolutions normally but I do have a few things in mind this year. I've already made a start on all of them which makes me feel more comfortable talking about it because I figure I've avoided the New Years resolution jinx, you know, the one where anything you resolve to start in the new year is guaranteed to have fallen by the wayside within a week at best.

So, first up is my shiny sink (FlyLady code for a clean and tidy kitchen) . It's been shiny for a week so far and it's such a nice thing to wake up to a pristine kitchen...even if the rest of the house is still in a state of chaos. I'm not going to make grand plans to have everything else under control in some hopelessly optimistic time frame, instead I resolve merely to maintain the shiny sink. If other things start falling into place then well and good, and if not, well, at least the kitchen will be functional.

Next is the "shiny sink" for downstairs - the laundry. I have, at present, no mountain of clean washing waiting to be folded and only 2 (I think) loads of washing waiting to be done, one of which is swimming stuff from today. I have been folding as I go for a change instead of dumping it all in a big pile to do later and then spending the next week or so doing archaeological digs in search of matching socks every morning. I rather like knowing where all my clothes are and the kids are able to dress themselves without me being involved at all - YAY!

Last is my fitness. I'm sick of feeling like I'm encumbered with a body that doesn't really feel like mine. I want to feel at home in my skin, be strong, fit and able. In the past I've fallen into the trap of thinking that if only I lose the weight everything will start to feel right. I'm coming to the realisation that that is nonsense. It's all part of the Fantasy of Being Thin - as Kate Harding puts it - and it makes you put off doing the things you want to "until". Well, bugger that! I'm going to start doing stuff now, what may or may not happen with my weight is another matter entirely. Hence the bike buying. Also, for the last week, I've been getting up and doing weight training every other morning, and I have that lovely "oh yep, those muscles have been working" feeling all over. Today I added my first cardio workout to the mix, I swam pretty much non-stop for just over 30 minutes, I went slow and there was a lot more breaststroke than freestyle but it's a start. Mostly I plan on getting back on the treadmill but while the weather allows I'll get in a pool when I can. So, there you have it, 30 minutes every day minimum, alternating cardio and weights, and we'll see where it goes from there.

On a lighter note, we got fortune cookies at our friends' New Years party last night. I'm rather taken with mine.

"Confucius say: if you think we're going to sum up your whole life on this little bit of paper, you're crazy."

Happy New Year everyone :)

Wheels and worries

Yesterday we did something we'd been planning on for some time now, we went to the local bicycle shop and bought bikes for the whole family. Both Dave and Caitlin had small bikes when they were younger but neither of them ever rode much and they never really got the hang of doing without the training wheels and Tom has only ever had trikes and his scooter. Adam and I had been thinking that going for bike rides as a family would be a great way to get all of us active and this seemed like a good time to start. We were able to bring the kids' bikes home yesterday but mine had to be ordered in so we'll pick up it and Adam's sometime after New Year.

While we were in the shop David was getting very angry with us because he REALLY didn't want to have to learn to ride a bike - he was quite happy with his scooter thankyouverymuch - and when we got home, and Adam persuaded him to have a go, he spiraled straight into a full blown anxiety attack, tears and all. He didn't feel safe and there was no way he was ever going to ride. So we went through the exercises we'd learned at the anxiety clinic and wrote down a plan for getting him on the bike - a baby steps or "stepladder" approach with rewards for each achievement starting with practicing on Tom's slightly smaller, training wheel equipped bike and with the ultimate goal of having him ride his own bike unassisted to be rewarded with a new Nintendo DS game.

Meanwhile Caitlin took herself outside and in mere minutes was peddling around the cul-de-sac looking very pleased with herself indeed. David was feeling much calmer having had his fears taken seriously, and with the prospect of rewards for making progress with his riding coupled with the affront of having his younger sister upstaging him, out he went for another go. He managed a couple of brief wobbly pedals on his own bike and then decided that the cul-de-sac was too small to ride in.

This morning we loaded up the car and headed off to Bicentennial Park with my mum. Caitlin was off round the bike path like a shot, David was more hesitant but with Grandma accompanying him on her own bike he was able to make it around the circuit. And then he went again...and again...and again!

It's so nice to see the work we did at the clinic pay off in such a satisfying way, in the past David's fears would have resulted in a LOT more conflict and distress before arriving at the same result, this way was orders of magnitude better. It seems simply going through the process of planning the stepladder was enough, in the end we didn't do any of the early steps, he chose himself to go straight for the main goal. If only all his issues were so easy to resolve.

He was so pleased with himself and announced that he likes bike riding even better than his scooter. And now I owe him a DS game.

Weigh-in week 11

For the last few days of this week I'd been trying to not get too excited as each morning my wildly inaccurate scales hinted to me that good things were happening. Well, I needn't have worried, I've lost 3.5kg for a total of 10.1kg :D Switching to Core seems to have been a good plan!

My focus for this week is to get some regular exercise happening, I'm aiming for three 30 minute walks in the week and sit-ups every day.

Huntsman season is upon us.

Adam and the kids were in the lounge room watching The Two Towers tonight while I hid in the study. There comes a call summoning me, daddy is no good, this is a job for mum. What job would that be I hear you ask? Huntsman spider removal of course. Adam does cockroaches, I do the spiders in this family. And here comes the good part, I now know I'm a real blogger because I made Adam get the camera and document the event.

First huntsman of the season

Aside from pest control duties, today I have bought birthday presents for Caitlin and Tom, booked Caitlin in to have her ears pierced (much to her surprise, I'd been giving the impression I was going to make her wait till she was 16) and got my hair cut and coloured. It's shorter than it's been in a while, the colour is burgundy with blonde foils.

New Hair

I seem to have broken the kids, David has blisters and Tom was in tears with leg cramps at school yesterday, so I thought better of making them walk to school this morning and it turns out I must have needed a break too because I haven't done the resistance workout or the treadmill walking instead of the walk to school that I intended to do today. Which is fine, I'll get back into it tomorrow.

Wednesday
Breakfast
baked beans with onion and bacon on toast - 5pts
Lunch
Lamb casserole with couscous - 6pts
Dinner
Peppercorn meat company italian sausages, jacket potato with sour cream, corn on the cob, broccoli and carrots - 6.5pts
Strawberries & banana with natural yoghurt & maple syrup - 2.5pts
Snacks
milk for tea - 1pt
low-fat brownie - 2pts
chai tea with honey - 2pts
Water
2.75L
Exercise
60 minutes walk - 5.5 bonus points
Total points for the day: 25

Thursday
Breakfast
weetbix, peaches and milk - 3pts
Lunch
Sushi and rice paper roll - 7pts
Dinner
Lamb mango curry with snow peas, carrots and capsicum, rice and mango chutney - 12pts
Snacks
milk for tea - 0.5pt
pretzels - 0.5pts
miso soup - 0.5pts
lg skim cappuccino - 2pts
Water
2L
Exercise
Nil
Total points for the day: 25.5 (used my saved half point from Tuesday)

My treadmill is trying to escape

As I walk it creeps backwards because the floor is slightly uneven. Tonight it added to its repertoire by taking a turn to the left and attempting to break out through the back door. I'm not sure what to do about this as it's bound to get worse as I start walking faster, using the incline more and who knows maybe even running eventually. Maybe we need to chain it to the wall or something. I have visions of it as a pathetic tormented figure struggling in vain to break free from oppression, either that or it figures as an instrument of torture, take your pick....

Breakfast
egg and bacon muffin - 4.5pts
Lunch
Tom yum soup with tuna, mushrooms and shallots - 4pts
Dinner
Proscuitto wrapped pork fillet baked on a bed of red onion and apples served over baby spinach and accompanied by mashed potato, mashed sweet potato with nutmeg and steamed asparagus. Then banana and papaya with natural yoghurt for dessert - 11.5pts
Snacks
milk for tea - 1pt
water crackers and cheese - 2.5pts
dried cranberries - 1pt
Water
3L
Exercise
30 minutes 2.6km on treadmill, 20 minutes upper body workout - 4 bonus points
Total points for the day: 24.5

First, find the DVD...

It took me nearly 45 minutes to find the bloody DVD for the resistance workout I'd planned to do today, I found several other long-missing objects in the process, and in the end it was Adam who found it - in a pile of stuff I'd only gone through twice. Then I did the workout and some extra sit-ups and reverse crunches too :D Walking the kids to school went well, David and Tom were only pissed off at me for the first 5 or so minutes.

I went out for lunch with Jen today, we were supposed to be going to a Japanese place and having sushi, but when we got there the restaurant was gone! So we went to Blue Water Grill instead. The menu there is a mine-field of deliciously tempting evil food, I went with a grilled barramundi burger and Jen stole half my wedges so it was all good in the end (actually it was pretty good at the time too, seriously yummy food that place has).

Breakfast
weetbix, apricots and milk - 3pts
Lunch
Fish burger and wedges - 12.5pts
Dinner
Spiral pasta bolognese + parmesan; tomato, basil and bocconcini salad; green salad with avocado; olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing - 7.5pts
Snacks
milk for tea - 1pt
1/2 slice of fruit toast - 1.5pts
Water
~2L
Exercise
40 minutes walk, 30 minutes resistance workout - 5.5 bonus points
Total points for the day: 25.5

Exercise Challenge

Ok, here's my version of this coming week's Yodaobi's Whacky Weekly Challenge. I'm not up to doing a virtual climb of the Skytower (don't ask, it's in New Zealand somewhere...) so I'm setting myself the more realistic challenge of coming up with an exercise plan and, you know, actually doing it.

Monday
Walk kids to school in the morning - 40min
WW Move DVD workout plus extra abs in the afternoon - 30min
Tuesday
Upper body weights in the morning - 20min
Walk on treadmill in afternoon/evening - 40min
Wednesday
Walk kids to school in the morning, take long way home - 60min
Thursday
Walk kids to school in the morning - 40min
WW Move DVD workout plus extra abs in the afternoon - 30min
Friday
Lower body weights in the morning - 20min
WW Move DVD workout plus extra abs in the afternoon - 30min
Saturday
Walk with kids to the park and play basketball - 30min + until we get sick of it!
Abs in the evening - 15min
Sunday
Upper and lower body weights in the morning - 60min
Walk on the treadmill in the afternoon/evening - 40min

Alright, it's on the ambitious side, but I figure why aim low? I won't be devastated if I don't manage it all, but you never know till you try! If the weather decides to be unhelpful with all the walks with the kids I'll do my best to replace them with treadmill walks.

WWC Wk3 Day7
2 serve of fruit and 5 of vegetables today.
Breakfast
weetbix, peaches and milk - 3pts
Lunch
Toasted sandwich with tomato and onion flavoured tuna, capers, mushrooms and cheese - 5.5pts
Vegetable and barley soup - 1pt
Dinner
Fillet steak, haloumi cheese and avocado salad - 5.5pts
Snacks
milk for tea - 0.5pts
banana and mountain bread wrap - 2pts
rice paper rolls - 4.5pts
2 Allens snakes - 1.5pts
Water
2.25L
Exercise
Nil
Total points for the day: 23.5

Bit better on the food front today. I had major cravings for double chocolate fudge brownies this afternoon while I was at the shops. I bought rice paper rolls instead, not quite the same I have to say LOL.

Got lurgi, brain not work right

WWC Wk2 Day4, 5, 6 & 7
Let's see, Thursday I walked for 30 minutes on my usual outdoor route, Friday was a disaster points-wise and Saturday was worse, plus no exercise either day, but today I went to the grounds working bee at the school and raked mulch till the world started spinning at which point it became apparent that my slight cold was turning into a full-on lurgi. So I came home and went to bed. Why am I up now blogging I hear you ask? Well, I've snoozed on and off since 4pm, so I'm functioning again, sort of....

I have a sinus headache, sore throat, aches everywhere, the aforementioned world spinningness and I feel queasy. And to cap it all Adam is away for work this week, nice timing hey? There's a conspiracy I tells you!

My mum got back from a 2 week holiday in Queensland on Friday, so she came for lunch on Saturday, will be coming to help with homework on Monday, is attending Grandparents Day at the school on Wednesday AND will be babysitting for us when we go to see the Whitlams at the Opera House on Friday before she heads off to China on Saturday. I think she was suffering grandkid withdrawal...also, she's the best mum ever, I believe I may have mentioned this before.

Caitlin had a friend stay overnight last night. They went to sleep at about 10:30pm, and they were sleeping in a toy tent in the lounge room so I was stuck in the study waiting for them to go quiet and wandering out to be fierce every 20 minutes or so (oh the hardship of being obliged to spend hours surfing the net...). Gotta say this sleep-over thing is not really my idea of fun, 27 hours is way too long to be looking after someone else's kid, bad enough being stuck with my own for that long without a break. All this while Adam was off doing his second 2 day sailing course...no, I'm not bitter, what makes you think that? (Actually I'm not, it's kind of weird, I thought I would mind him buggering off for the weekend but I find it's really not bothering me, perhaps it's the thought of the reciprocal weekends to myself that I'll now be owed!)

Right, stopping now, I'm taking at least twice as long to type this as I usually would, every third word comes out spelled wrong, that'll be the brain not working right.

P.S. Adam wishes me to point out that he is only learning how to sail so he can take me on romantic cruising holidays.

Art Gallery and Botanic Gardens

I went along as a parent helper on a year 3 – Caitlin's year – excursion to the Art Gallery and Botanic gardens today. It was a beautiful day and all-round very pleasant experience. The kids were angelic and I really enjoyed wandering around the Aboriginal collection at the Art Gallery with one of the volunteer guides (who was lovely I must say, and great with the kids). The tour was 1 hour, just right for the attention span of the kids.

Next was an early lunch in the gardens and the all important caffeine hit from a little cafe opposite the gallery. After lunch we were handed over to tour guides in the Botanic Gardens to look at the different ways Aboriginal people used the various plants native to the Sydney region. The tour guides were again really fantastic with the kids, entertaining and interesting and I learned quite a few new things myself. Not least of which was that apparently dried kangaroo dung makes an excellent fire starter should you ever have the need to start a fire with a stick drill. Also wattle seed smells a bit like coffee. The weather was just perfect, sunny and not too warm. And the being in the gardens overlooking the harbour? Good for the soul it is.

Then I came home and Tom was in a foul mood and was rude and difficult all afternoon – not so much fun *sigh*

WWC Wk2 Day3
Exercise today: 30 minutes on the treadmill, 2.8km, 0 incline.
Points tracking and water is still going well too.

Weigh-in week 4

This week I lost 1.1kg bringing my total lost to 5.5kg. Oh yeah, I am so on my way down again :D

WWC Wk2 Day2
Walking today so far consists of 30 minutes on the treadmill, 2.8km, 0 incline, while watching Lost Season 1 Ep 11. I may get back on later tonight to finish the episode!

The Unfinished Spelling Errors of Bolkien

It's stuck in my head and the kids are singing it non-stop, it's clever, it's funny and I can't believe it's been in my house for months without me getting around to so much as unwrapping the plastic on the cd. Tolkien as a musical! Bwahahahahahah :D Many thanks to ZB for such a brilliant gift. Check it out for yourself here.

WWC Wk2 Day1
This week is focused on exercise, I've committed to walking at least 30 minutes every day. I'm off to a good start, went for a 35 minute walk on a route that used to take me nearly 45 minutes.

Owwww, my feet hurt!

I started my "walk the kids to school" campaign this week...again:P It takes about 25mins to get there and just over 15mins for me to get home again and I've decided we'll be walking even if I have somewhere to be first thing. So on Tuesday, instead of dropping the kids off and driving straight the shops with half an hour to spare before Weight Watchers, I did the walk, got home, changed my clothes, did some laundry, packed the dishwasher and made it to the meeting with 30 seconds to spare. I had a loss of 0.3kg which, to be honest, I wasn't expecting (need to get back to tracking).

Today I was rostered on to do reading groups in my youngest's class at 9:30 and then Canteen duty at 11:00 so there was another quick change from trackpants to jeans after the walk and back I went to the school! What with all the walking on concrete paths - particularly the steep downhill bit, my poor knees - and being on my feet most of the day at the school and most of the afternoon cooking up beef goulash and apple crumble for dinner tonight I've got ouchy bits all over. Oh for a bath big enough to be worth getting into!