A Firefly Christmas

With apologies to Clement C. Moore

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the boat
Not a person was stirring, not even a 'coat
The stockings were hung by the engine with care
In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there

The Tams were tucked up asleep in their beds
While visions of hodgeberries danced in their heads
And Mal in his bonnet and Jayne in his hat
Had just settled down for a long winter's nap

When up on the bridge there arose such a clatter
That Wash lept from his bed to see what was the matter
He ran to his chair and flicked all three switches
Checked out the cortex and did up his britches.

The stars were obscured but the engine did glow
And lit up the scene both above and below
There, what to his wondering eyes should appear
But a fleet of guild shuttles, all drifting quite near.

With eyes wide in wonder and grabbing the stick,
Wash called up the cap’n and Zoe real quick,
Serenity slowed and crew to the bridge came,
Jayne whistled, Kaylee grinned, ‘Nara called them by name!

Ooo! Rachel, and Tina, and Cory and Stephen!
There’s Rowan and Tara, Joe, Amy and Karen!
To the airlocks! To the cargo bay! Open the door!
Now wake up the preacher! We need victuals and more!

With the grace of companions the shuttles drew nigh,
And the crew with great care brought the travellers inside,
So up to the dinning-room the revellers all went,
With strawberries and rosemary the guild-house had sent.

And then, in a twinkling, they heard down the hall,
A prancing and dancing of someone not tall,
As they came to the table and gathered around,
In danced River, hair flying, with a skip and a bound.

Simon came next, shirtless and barefoot,
And his hair was all tousled, though not bad as Book’s,
The preacher had whipped up a veritable feast,
Mystery soup, protein cake and something from yeast.

Their eyes – how they twinkled! Their tummies did rumble!
They fell to their feasting while Book prayed a mumble.
Jokes flew, stories shared, eyes beckoned, hands wandered,
Where would this all end, in whose bed!? Kaylee pondered.

Zoe reclined, wrapped in Wash’s strong arm,
The warrior woman in a place safe from harm.
Mal quizzed Tina on bibles and broke out the best booze,
He drank to his memories, then accidentally snoozed

Jayne poured out the Blue Sun and passed to the left,
Leaving Mal, on his right, feeling somewhat bereft,
Simon swigged from the bottle and fell to the ground,
River stood on the railing, while Kaylee spun round,

In a dress all of ruffles, she knelt by Simon’s side,
And whispered suggestions of where they could hide.
The guild members smiled secrets, and elegant pleasures,
The crew chose companions after taking their measure.

Inara stood up with a glass in her hand,
And called upon all of the company to stand.
“A toast!” She proclaimed, “To the Browncoat’s great might,
Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!”

'Tis the season :D

Weeee heeee! It's December! I can wear my Christmas t-shirts, I can turn on the lights we strung up all over the garden last weekend, I can get out all my tacky Christmas stuff and I can go Christmas shopping with the kids at lunchtime on a Saturday in December....Oh my, yesterday was an epic effort :-o We made jewelry for the grandmas, finished the kids', and nearly all of my, present shopping and bought a new tree. We were at the shops from midday till 5:30pm - we were all very tired little vegemites.

Today I spent fine tuning the tree decorating (the kids got there first) and tidying up the hideous bombsite that was my loungeroom, I even vacuumed under the lounge cushions. I also repaired a broken singing animated stuffed reindeer - I'm a bit proud of that achievement, it involved unpicking stiches, unscrewing mechanism, working out what was wrong, finding one, but not the other, tiny broken bit rattling around loose inside the mechanism, almost glueing my fingers to each other and to said tiny broken bit with the superglue, panicking that the superglue was getting into the mechanism and gumming up the works (it didn't - phew!), glueing the right bits together (compensating for missing broken bit with generous application of glue) and then putting it all back the way it was to begin with, and it worked! :D Now I can sit in my clean, tidy and very Christmassy loungeroom and pretend the rest of the house looks as good as this - I wish!

Plan for the week - one room per day to be spring cleaned (OK, I'm running a little late :P)
Monday - Tom's bedroom
Tuesday - Kitchen
Wednesday - Caitlin's bedroom
Thursday - Bathroom
Friday - David's bedroom
Saturday - My bedroom
Sunday - Laundry & 2nd bathroom
If that all works out then Adam should be coming home from a week in the US to order instead of chaos - first time for everything! Wish me luck - and reasonably mild weather 'cause housework, heat and me just don't mix :-S

Going nowhere fast :P

Gain of 0.4kg this week. Time to stop fooling myself that I can get away with 'sort of' following the program, 'cause that just leads to 'sort of' losing weight and - newsflash boys and girls - that don't get you nowhere! Back to points it is. This week I commit to tracking everything - points, water, food groups, exercise and mood. I know I can do this, I was doing it very successfully for several months. I need to remind myself that it's about my health, my enjoyment of life, and about being around to enjoy life for a very long time to come and there's no sacrifice of momentary sensation that's not worth making to achieve those goals.

Birthday fallout

What with drinkies with Weight Watchers forum folks on Saturday afternoon, seafood platter dinner at Manly on Saturday night, birthday lunch at my mum's complete with black forest cake on Sunday, and a total absence of exercise in my week I think I should count myself lucky to have come away with a mere 0.3kg gain this week :P

Now, must convince myself...the treadmill is my friend, the treadmill is my friend, the treadmill is my friend....LOL.

3 hours sleep is not enough

Ow. My head hurts :P Due to various acts of stupidity I went to bed at 2:00am last night and got up at 5:00am to finish some work for the school P&C - bad idea.

On the upside I lost 0.5kg this week which is my first loss in nearly a month I think. This is going to be the begining of good things, the kids are back at school and I'm feeling really motivated again.

A Fresh Start

Winter is long gone, warmer weather has hit with a vengeance, the new plants in the garden nearly expired over the weekend with the 30 degree heat :P Time to get things moving again.

I've decided to switch from Points to No Count, I'm fed up with counting and calculating all the time and I think the No Count rule of fruit and veg only for snacks will work really well for me. Also I've been thinking a lot about the kids' eating habits and how best to fix some of their bad habits and I reckon the whole family will benefit from me shopping and cooking no count.

I don't weigh-in next week as we'll be away on holidays so it will be interesting to see how I go after 2 weeks.

Yesterday I walked the kids to school for the first time ever, takes just over half an hour to get there and then 20 minutes for me to walk back home on my own. Tom complained of sore legs this morning as we set off walking again but he managed just fine, it would be quite a nice start to the day if we didn't have to walk along Pennant Hills Rd. My plan is to walk with the kids 3-4 times a week, might have to do some walking to parks or shops in the holidays.

I suppose I'd better stop pretending I don't have parental responsibilities and get the aforementioned kids into bed!

Week 24 weigh-in

Down another 0.9kg :D I wasn't expecting to have lost much at all so that was a nice surprise. God I'm tired, hope I'm not coming down with the lurgi that hubby's had, I don't have TIME to be sick!

Back in the teens...

...again :P Week 23 saw a loss of 0.5kg and this week (week 24) I managed a 0.9kg loss which has me passing my 15kg mini-goal for the 3rd time. Somehow it's just not as exciting as the first time LOL. My very wonderful hubby has ordered me a laptop and I've told him he can hold it hostage till I hit my 20kg mini-goal, 4.4kg to go :)

I went to a fancy dress karaoke party on Saturday night, the theme was Rock! so this seemed the appropriate costume choice.

Hubby went with a Spinal Tap look.

And much fun was had with my corset :P

There was singing, loud, drunken and everything from amazingly good to truly terrible singing and I think I was responsible for rather more than my fair share of the latter. Among the songs I murdered (with help from friends, no solo performances for me!) were Khe Sanh, Jack & Diane, Paradise by the Dashboard Light, Just the Way You Are, American Pie, One Way Or Another, Summer of 69...I have a horrible feeling there were more but there were also many black russians so the memory is a little fuzzy!

Tomorrow night is bowling with the Browncoats, wOOt! Life is good:D

Clear sailing ahead

Hmmm, I ran into a bit of foul weather for a while...I'm back where I was 6 weeks ago...bugger.

However, there's been a lot of fun had and life's like that, stuff happens, you deal, and then get on with it.

So, since I last posted here's what I've been up to:

Sat 24th June

• Equality Now/Serenity Now charity screening of Serenity at George St cinemas, we raised over $2000 for Equality Now :DMe making silly faces as I encourage people to buy raffle tickets

• After screening Yum Cha shindig - tea and dumplings!

• We then spent the afternoon lounging around waiting till it was time to head off for the Tripod gig, which was great fun - note to self: Attend more comedy gigs, laughter is good for the soul. And then got home at 2:00am, OMG my poor mother-in-law, I don't think she'll ever want to babysit again. My mum had the kids during the day.
  

Tuesday 27th June - Week 19 weigh-in - lost 0.6kg and exercised only on the Monday.

Friday 30th June

• Dinner at a Thai restaurant with the mums and teachers from Tom's pre-school - so YUMMMY! (My mum babysitting again - the woman deserves a medal)
  

Tuesday 4th July - Week 20 weigh-in - gained 1.9kg, exercise for the week consisted of one bout of abs work and a walk with my 4 year old.

Thursday 6th July - Dave, Jacq and Looie, fellow browncoats, came for dinner (except Looie, he was running late :P) and then slept overnight in preparation for an early start for the Brisvegas Shindig. (This time it was hubby babysitting - oh boy do I OWE!)

Friday 7th July - 5:00am we were in the car waiting for the windows to de-mist so we could see to drive. Stopped for breakfast and desperately needed coffee at Taree. Lots of driving and a couple of stops later we arrived in Brisbane at 4:30pm. Shopped for booze - very important! The evening's entertainment consisted of a gathering of 20 or so people at the apartments us out-of-towners were staying at, we chose the guys' apartment to trash :P We ate drank and were very merry, tequila was involved if I remember correctly. Another highlight of the evening was hubby ringing to ask what he should do for dinner :D

Joss joined us for the weekend, I managed to persuade him to dance :)

Saturday 8th July - Those of us who could headed off to the markets for brunch, I bought, among other yummies, BANANAS OMG!!! (A mere $6 a kilo :P) We all bought badges, lots of them, think we made the badge selling lady's day if not week. The afternoon was spent wandering the mall in the city in search of toy shops, coffee and comic shops. Then we returned to the apartments to prepare for the main event of the weekend - 10 PIN BOWLING, during which I bowled abysmally but we won't talk about that. Then it was back to the apartments for party MkII which started off a little more sedate than the night before but apparently continued on till dawn ( I didn't make it past 1:00am)

Sunday 9th July - Morning arrived and we DIDN'T got to the museum, or anywhere else :P We were doing well to get ourselves out to lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant near chinatown, not the greatest food ever but it was cheap and the company was awesome :) After lunch we tracked down coffee in Brunswick St and eventually made our way back to the apartments for Party MkIII, there was coffee and DVD watching and going to bed "early" (it was still after midnight) on account of having to drive back to Sydney the next day.

Monday 10th July - Roadtrip home, we started a little later than planned but we made up for it by having very quick stops, grab and run at the golden arches for each toilet & food break. I got home at 10:00pm to discover all the kids were still up having baths and bedtime stories! But it was kind of nice to see them all after being away for so long :)

Tuesday 11th July - Week 21 weigh-in - OMG soooo tired, had to go to my meeting though, I'm helping with the weighing now so I've got no choice! Truly astonishing loss of 1.2kg, must have been all the walking all over Brisbane that we did. Took the kids to see Pirates of the Carribean 2 in the afternoon, not as good as the first one, the kids complained that it didn't make sense, they were right.

Wednesday 12th July - Headed off to Jenolan caves, met my mum at Mt Victoria (she came on holiday with us). Arrived at the caves at 10:30ish and booked in to do the Lucas cave (1.5 hours, 910 steps) at 12:30am and the Orient cave (1.5 hours 358 steps) at 3:15pm. I was a little concerned that it would be too much for the kids but they managed just fine and were very well behaved (but very tired by the end of the day). As for me, I had planned to avoid the Lucas cave 'cause it was rated as "harder" for fitness level so I was very pleased to discover that I didn't have any trouble getting through the tours. I'm quite sure 6 months ago I simply couldn't have done it. But oh the pain! afterwards, it was agony walking downhill for several days! We stayed overnight at Caves House in "The Cottage" which has two 3 bedroom self-contained units, and is located at the very highest point in the complex which meant we got to walk up and down a bloody great hill several times during the day as well as all that stair climbing LOL. Dinner was delish and dessert was a free buffet - oh dear :P

Thursday 13th July - Back to Mt Victoria for morning tea at Pulpit Rock, very short bushwalk to magnificent lookout, pretty view but we all ended up with frozen bums from sitting on the rock. Mum headed off to meet up with friends for lunch and we went to Katoomba with plans for an easy bushwalk and picnic lunch. The kids rebelled, too tired, so no bushwalk, just a picnic at Echo Point and then in the car for the trip home.

Sunday 16th July - Brunch at a cafe in Enmore with a few browncoat buddies and then off to do some fancy dress shopping at Gallery Serpentine. Why? I hear you ask, well the others are going to a fancy dress ball at the end of the month and I just thought it would be fun:)

And fun it was - "Wow, I have a waist!" :D

I bought the corset, don't know how long it'll fit me for, it's a size 18 though so I should get quite a few dress-up-for-parties wears out of it before I shrink so much that I need a new one. Hubby was quite taken with it....

All of which pretty much brings us to today and Week 22 weigh in - My indulgences of the past week or so caught up with me with a vengeance, 2.2kg gain. But I'm looking ahead, not behind, and I can see good things on the horizon!

Joss Whedon's Equality Now Speech

Equality Now has made available a download of Joss' speech at an event during which the organisation honored him "for his outstanding contribution to gender equality in film and television." The link leads to a YouTube upload to save EN's bandwidth.

Click here

I came across this on Whedonesque, thanks to Equality Now for making the footage available and to those who have been posting about it.

Week 18 weigh-in.

I don't wanna talk about it :P

1.3kg gain *sigh*

Exercise this week:
Tues: 45min treadmill 3.7k@7inc
Wed: nil
Thurs: nil
Fri: nil
Sat: nil
Sun: nil
Mon: nil

Week 17 weigh-in

I've had an awesomely good long weekend. Saturday we did a big cleaning blitz on the house and I can now walk into my kids' rooms without falling over things. Went bowling with the Browncoats on Sunday night and I even won one game (just :P) and yesterday I cooked a birthday dinner for my mum - vegetable and barley soup, spaghetti marinara and gelato to finish.

The sun is shining, life is good and I just recorded a loss of 3.5kg for the week.

OMG!!! Doing the happy dance am I :D Guess that's what happens when you do things right for a change LOL.

Exercise this week:
Tues: nil
Wed: WW Move DVD workout twice
Thurs: nil
Fri: nil
Sat: 50min treadmill 4.8km, 45min treadmill 3.9km
Sun: nil
Mon: nil

Serenity Now / Equality Now

Squeeee! And WOOT! And WAHOOOO! Through the herculean efforts of Leishkin and nixygirl on Serenity Oz, and the deeply appreciated help of Jon Anderson from UIP, Sydney now has a Serenity screening organised as part of the world-wide charity event that has fans organising fund-raiser screenings of our Big Damn Movie on (or near) Joss Whedon's birthday to benefit Joss' favourite charity Equality Now. Looks like I get to stand up in front of theatre full of Browncoats and make a spectacle of myself one more time - if there's one thing that must happen when a bunch of Browncoats gather together it's SINGING and I shall make it my mission to ensure it does happen :D

Tickets available through Dramatix

Week 16 weigh-in.

Heading back in the right direction, 0.3kg loss.

I don't have time just now for a long post, I'm on canteen duty at the school in a little while, so I'll save the "what I've been up to" bit for later tonight.

Exercise this week:
Tues: nil
Wed: nil
Thurs: nil
Fri: nil
Sat: WW Move DVD workout
Sun: nil
Mon: nil

Feeling much better today - week 15 weigh-in

I had some degree of reluctance to go to my meeting this morning, but I'd promised myself when I started that hell or high water I would not miss meetings, so off I went and copped the 1kg gain on the chin. Strangely, I now feel quite calm and in control again, I must have done all the agonising over my erring ways beforehand, weighing-in seems to have pushed some kind of re-set button in my brain so all that matters is what comes next, not what happened last week.

Exercise this week:
Tues: 45 min treadmill 4km
Wed: nil
Thurs: nil
Fri: nil
Sat: nil
Sun: 45 min treadmill 3.6km, WW Move DVD workout
Mon: nil

Ahhh...crap

Turns out being sick makes my brain fall out. What the hell was I thinking? Friday, Saturday and Sunday were total disasters as far as eating goes and the only part I really enjoyed was the scones with jam and King Island cream on Saturday, mmmmm... What was I saying? Oh yes - food, too much and bad choices all round :( I forced myself to walk on Sunday morning in the hope that it would give me a bit of a boost out of the slump, I'm glad I did it but it doesn't seem to have helped much.

I guess I'll just have to take the time to get well, do my best to minimise the damage and be ready to get back into things properly when I'm over the lurgi.

Soup is good

I've managed to make up yesterday's debt through the judicious use of points free soup for dinner, I'd pantry picked my way through my points during the afternoon on account of feeling miserable but still having to do the parenting thing. The vegetable and barley soup did duty as lunch AND afternoon tea and was delish! And now I am going to bed with tea and a good book and dumping the parenting duties on my long suffering and most wonderful husband (he says I've forgotten handsome, he's reading over my shoulder as I type). Life ain't so bad really :)

Why is it kids won't share toys...

...but are more than happy to share their lurgies? I had David (aged 9) home from school Monday and Tuesday with a horribubble cold and this afternoon it became apparent that he has generously shared it with me :( My head is thumping, my throat is sore, and my sinuses are nicely blocked. No walkies for me today, I'm going to bed with some lemon tea.

Went a little over on points today, using up yesterday's saved point and going into debt 1 1/2 for tomorrow, that should be easy enough to make up. I've cooked a huge batch of the Vegetable and Barley soup from The Really Contented Tummy Cookbook - 16 serves! My serving size seems to be smaller than the book's so it works out at 1 point per serve, I've only had cooking tastes so far but it promises to be scrumptious!

I had a small FLYing triumph today. Usually when I'm in and out of the house all day I tend to look on the 20 - 30 minute blocks of time when I'm home as not long enough to do anything. Today I had a little voice saying "15 minutes" in my head, so I decided to see what I could do. In two 20 minute sessions I transformed my hideously messy kitchen into a merely slightly untidy but clean kitchen. I'm so glad I did it early in the day 'cause there's no way I could have faced it after the lurgi hit this afternoon.

And at the end of the day...

I've saved 1 point, done some walking and when the urge to raid the pantry reared its ugly head while I was cooking dinner and then again just after the kids had gone to bed I clobbered it on the nut with my will of iron and consequently am feeling slightly smug about the whole deal. I shall report in again tomorrow :)

Week 14 weigh-in.

Ahhhh, crap :P Guess what happens when you eat large quantities of chips and cheese and salami and chocolate and...(you get the idea)? Got myself a gain of 0.6kg this week, I am consoled by the fact that I know I am wearing 0.5kg extra in shoes today than I was last week, so not nearly as bad as it could have been. Back on the program today, I might try daily blogging to keep myself honest in the coming week.

Exercise this week:
Tues: nil
Wed: nil
Thurs: 90 min treadmill 8km
Fri: nil
Sat: nil
Sun: WW Move DVD workout
Mon: nil

*grimace* and there was the notable lack of exercise too...

Picnic at Bicentennial Park

Had lunch today with a lovely bunch of women, and a couple of brave blokes ;-), it was great to meet up with everyone! Many thanks to my darling man for amusing the kids while I sat and chatted.

In the pic, from the left, are Lorries, me, Jessmac, Aempson, Kerryh and Blownupdoll. Jessmac's and my other halves were doing the photo taking :)

Milestone pics

Here I am! :D The size 22 pants I'm wearing (down from size 26 when I started WW) were skin tight around the bum not all that long ago, now there's discernable bagginess and no doubt there will shortly be a need for a belt!

Week 13 weigh-in

Well folks, today I have to report the somewhat unexpected result of a 2.8kg loss!!!!

That's my 10% reached and powering on through I've also passed my 15kg mini-goal bringing me to a total of 15.6kg lost.

Yep, life is good :)
I have my new shoes and I will be getting my Angel Season 5 DVDs as soon as I figure out where the money is going to come from :P

Exercise this week:
Tues: nil
Wed: 50min treadmill 4.7km, 40 min WW Exercise Sucess DVD (warm up, tummy time, fit strip workout and cool down) 50 min treadmill 4.2km
Thurs: 45min treadmill 4.1km
Fri: nil
Sat: nil
Sun: nil
Mon: 45 min treadmill 4.2km, Move DVD Total body workout, 15 min abs, 50 min treadmill 4.6km

So far so good

Yep, all is going according to plan! Tuesday and Wednesday were spot on for points and on Wednesday I embarked on a mighty struggle with myself to actually get up off my bum and exercise. I got dressed in my walking clothes before taking the kids to school with the intention of coming home and walking straight away...3 hours later I was finally on the treadmill :P It was a tough battle but I WON! :) I then surprised myself later in the day by doing about 40 minutes of the Weight Watchers Exercise Success DVD and a second walking session - it never rains but it pours.

I also had the rather wonderful experience yesterday afternoon of having David take it upon himself to help his sister with her maths homework while I was doing the exercise DVD. The really cool bit was that he was doing a fantastic job of explaining it to her and was actually helping her work things out for herself rather than just telling her the answer :D Sometimes I quite like my kids!

Today I have shined my sink and dealt with Mt Washmore so all round I'm feeling pretty good about life (thanks are due to my mum who helped out with the housework - best mum ever).

Week 12 weigh-in

Erm...I, uh, gained 0.2kg this week. Which would be because I didn't exercise, didn't track and did eat all sorts of things I really shouldn't have. And I knew I was doing it and I felt really crappy and now I have to lose 0.7kg to get to my 10% and the new shoes that I actually really NEED! All I have for winter is my sneakers. So I shall be working my butt off this week, no excuses!

Exercise this week:
Tues: nil
Wed: 45 min treadmill 4km
Thurs: nil
Fri: nil
Sat: nil
Sun: 45min (6min @ 10 incline) treadmill 4km
Mon: nil

Wonder why this isn't really bothering me? Must be because I know exactly what went wrong and therefore what I need to do to fix it. I was saying to one of the ladies at my meeting this morning that there's really only one decision that needs to be made, and that's to get back to tracking, everything else follows on from that.

Jewel and Jonathon!!!

I went to The Hub Convention on Saturday, I hadn't planned to go as I'd decided I couldn't afford the time or the money but when last minute $20 tickets for the Saturday went on sale I gave in to temptation :) I was pretty broke though so I couldn't fork out for photos with the guests or autographs...ah well, you can't have everything.

Here's the schedule from the day:

9.30am Registration
10.00am Welcome
10.15am Nicola Scott - comic book artist for Angel comic "Spotlight on Illyria"
11.00am RD Price - Director on Angel
12.00 Photo's/Lunch
1.00pm Jonathan Woodward - guest star in Buffy, Angel and Firefly
2.00pm Auction
2.30pm Jewel Staite - Kaylee from Firefly
3.30pm Screenings/Autographs
4.30pm Workshop - Writing/directing workshop with R.D. Price

Nicola was lovely and I found her really interesting, her story of how she managed to break into the comic book industry was quite inspiring. I haven't bought comics in years but I'm starting to think I might explore some of the current crop.

R.D. had some good behind the scenes stories to tell, sadly his workshop was cut short as we were out of time - so he came and had coffee in the restaurant across the road in order to continue talking to people - SUCH a nice bloke!

Jonathon was hysterical, and cute! He's such a clown and had us all in tears of laughter. I didn't take many photos myself but of the few I took here is my favourite - Jonathon responding to a request for a contribution to the "Tightpants" thread on Serenity Oz.

And here is the pic that was being taken OMG!!!!

For more photos and generalised fan-type squeeing go here :)

This evening a number of my friends wound up going to the pub with RD and Jonathon once the convention schedule for the day was done - woe is me with the no money and the family responsibilities :( For the next one I will make the time and save the money - I've got till October I believe!

Mini Goals for the Merry Month of May

For this month I want to:

1) Get to my 10% - only 0.5kg to go!
2) Leave the 120's behind forever
3) Do 3 weights/resistance training sessions per week
4) Go to bed earlier! No more 2:00am bedtimes :P

That last one comes about because last month I joined Flylady and I really like the idea of focusing on one new habit a month. April's new habit was making the bed, May's is to move for 15 minutes a day. Well, I think I've already got that one well in hand so I decided to pick another one to work on and bedtime it is! On which note I will take myself off to snoozeland, 11:00pm is my new curfew :)

Week 11 weigh-in

Said goodbye to another 0.9kg this morning, only 0.5kg to go till my 10% now! I had lots of people saying nice things about how I'm looking when I dropped the kids off at school this morning - they'd been 2 weeks without seeing me and they all said they could really see a difference, I'm loving it :)

Exercise this week:
Tues: 50min (30@7inc) treadmill 4.7km, 50min treadmill 4km
Wed: nil
Thurs: 50min (30@7inc) treadmill 4.6km, 30 min weights upper body, 15min abs, WW Move DVD workout
Fri: 60 min treadmill 5.3km, Special K pilates DVD
Sat: 30min treadmill 2.8km, 15mins abs
Sun: 90min treadmill 8.2km, WW Move DVD workout
Mon: 45 min treadmill 3.9km, 40 min walk with Mum and kids

I really want to get more weight training into my exercise, must come up with plan to motivate myself hmmm....

Busy weekend!

Let's see, what have I been up to lately....

Oh yes! Shindiging with the Browncoats of course :D

Saturday was lunch at the Lowenbrau, here's a pic of the meal hubby and I did NOT order! (I had the salmon :P)
After lunch we wandered around the markets at the Rocks for a while then I drove hubby and the kids home to a chorus of snores from Adam and Tom and constant bickering from David and Caitlin *grrrrr* We had dinner and then I went back to the city to re-join the Browncoats at the Orient. Where silly faces were the order of the day...

From the Orient we continued on to the Paragon for the playing of pool where we did our best to distract the boys :)

On Sunday we met up for Yum Cha at Pitt St Vegetarian, the yin to Lowenbrau's yang.

We parted company after Yum Cha, the Browncoats went on to join the Zombie Lurch and we went off to meet up with some of my extended family for afternoon tea - where I drank tea and did not partake in cake or gelato!

I wish we'd taken the time to see the start of the Zombie Lurch, the pics look great! Have a look at these :)

Today Tom was back at pre-school and I had a quiet day at home with the other two. We went to my Mum's place for afternoon tea and a went for a walk, showed the kids where I went to primary school. After which I was feeling a bit worse for wear and decided to get KFC for the kids intending to have soup for myself...15.5 points later I'm feeling a bit queasy, oh well, never mind :P I'll walk it off tomorrow!

Week 10 weigh-in.

Right, that's it, I'm officially over school holidays. Took the kids with me to the WW meeting this morning and they were angelic, then we went clothes and grocery shopping and they were hideous. They're now playing in a perfectly normal and happy fashion and it's driving me demented - I just don't cope with the noise level :( And Tom wants me to get off my PC so he can play on the ABC for Kids website because David won't let him use his PC, even though Dave's not using it himself.

*deep breath*

*count to 10*

I only lost 0.2kg this week, which is OK...no, really, it's good...oh bugger it, I confess, there's all sorts of rationalisation going on for me to get to the "that's OK" position :P

• made the switch to winter shoes (am tempted to compare their weight with that of the shoes I wore last week).
• drank a cup of tea with breakfast which I don't usually do on weigh-in day.
• drank less water all week because of the cooler weather, my rings seem tighter so I think there's a bit of fluid hanging about.

If I'm being really honest though I know it's because I ate a bit more and exercised a bit less and it serves me right, I'm just grateful it wasn't a gain!

Exercise this week:
Tues: nil
Wed: 50min (20min @ 7 incline) treadmill 4.6km, 15min abs
Thurs: 50min treadmill 4.7km
Fri: 97min treadmill 8.5km
Sat: nil
Sun: 50min (20@7inc) treadmill 4.8km, 30min weights upper body, 15min abs
Mon: nil

Week 9 weigh-in.

Well, I seem to have survived Easter rather well indeed! I've lost 1.6kg in the last week leaving me with 1.6kg to go till my 10% and 3.1kg away from my 15kg goal. I'll be weighing on Wednesday morning next week because of Anzac Day *pouts* I don't want to have to wait an extra day to see how I'm going *LOL*

Farscape fest

Exercise this week:
Tues: 50min treadmill 4.3km
Wed: 4km walk with Mum ~50 min
Thurs: 60min (15min @ 7 incline) treadmill 5.4km
Fri: 60min (30min @10 incline) treadmill 5.2km, 45min treadmill 4km
Sat: 40 min weights whole body, 15 min abs
Sun: 50min (15min @ 10 incline) treadmill 4.6km, 50min treadmill 4.4km
Mon: 30min weights upper body, 10min abs, 50min (20min @ 10 incline) treadmill 4.5km

LOL, look at all that time I'm spending walking! That, dear friends, is because I have a portable DVD player set up in front of the treadmill and I have made a rule for myself that the only place I can watch DVDs is there. This week I have watched episodes 8 through 14 of Farscape season 1 and if my legs had been willing I'd have watched more!

Here's what I posted as my plan for the past week:

My plan for the next week: Track religiously, 3L of water per day, cardio 6 days and do my level best to ignore easter!

I managed 2 out of 4 :P I drank so much water my tonsils were floating and I walked my butt off - literally I hope! The tracking went out the window and although I ate only 2 mini easter eggs and was reasonably controlled with the hot cross buns my eating otherwise was consistently over points and included a couple of lolly binges and a meal with friends complete with vast quantities of wine and cheese. Ah well, live and learn! (The cheese was YUM! but I wish I'd thrown the lollies out at the begining of the week)

Week 8 weigh-in.

I so don't deserve this this week but I'm going to grab it with both hands and be gleefull all the same :)

I made it to my 10kg mini-goal!!!!!

I was down 0.8kg this morning despite the straying from the path mentioned in my previous post. That brings me to a total loss of 10.3kg so far and means I can get my hair cut and coloured next week - now I just have to figure out how to manage that when it's school holidays and I have 3 kids underfoot.

Confessions

Oh my goodness, the last 2 days have been not the best as far as food goes. Big time blowout all round really. I actually felt ill after Dave's party on Sunday, it would seem my tummy is out of practice when it comes to chips, dips, lollies and cake - I guess I should see that as a good thing though :) Then today I kept finding myself back at the fridge and slipping back into a pattern of eating that I haven't experienced for nearly 8 weeks. I suppose it takes rather longer than that to really unlearn the habits of years. Ah well, put it down as a learning experience and I'm back on track from tomorrow!

Exercise this week:
Tues: nil
Wed: nil
Thurs: 60min treadmill, 30min weights upper body, 15min abs
Fri: nil
Sat: 30 mins treadmill
Sun: nil
Mon: 105 min (45min @ 7 incline) treadmill 9.4km

Hmmm, that could have been better too....

My plan for the next week: Track religiously, 3L of water per day, cardio 6 days and do my level best to ignore easter!

The hazards of cake decorating

It turns out not to be possible to create a birthday cake for one of my kids without lots of tasting and nibbling. Never mind, I only do it 3 times a year, besides it was yummy! Here's the finished product - a Bug Garden cake for David's 9th birthday party tomorrow.

Went a bit snap happy this morning

I decided I wanted some "revealing all" pics to serve as benchmarks for future comparison. I think I'm kind of glad there aren't any like this with the extra 9.5kg still on!

I'd just done 45 mins of weights and abs when I got hubby to take these, it's a testament to my improving fitness and the cooler weather that I'm not dripping with sweat :P I can assure everyone there will be no photos of me after a cardio session!

And here I am, fit to be seen in public again :)

I seem to be unusually happy today, the sun is shining, I feel like I'm in control, life is good!

Week 7 weigh-in

I managed a 0.9kg loss this week, only 0.5kg off the 10kg loss goal and my hair cut and colour reward - good thing too, my hair is driving me nuts!

Exercise this week was as follows:

Tues: nil
Wed: 50 min treadmill (4km, flat)
Thurs: nil
Fri: 45 min treadmill, 15 min abs, 30 min weights (upper body)
Sat: 30 min treadmill
Sun: walked all over Taronga Zoo
Mon: 60 min treadmill (5.2km, flat)

I really struggled to do my exercise this week, which I attributed to needing the B12 injection, but my GP rang me yesterday with blood test results from Saturday and it turns out I'm very low on iron too so I'm on iron tablets for the next 3 months - bleh! Anyway that would certainly account for the "death-warmed-up" feeling I've been stuck with lately.

Today I put a pair of Colorado shoes on lay-by, I'm going to make them my 10% loss reward.

Party, Pub and Peregrine Falcon...

...or "My Weekend" :D

Took myself off to the GP to get my vitamin B12 injection on Saturday morning, as usual I'd left it about a week too late and had spent the last half of the week feeling like death warmed up ( I have pernicious anemia and can't absorb B12 from food). I was still fairly out of it through Saturday but by Sunday all was back to normal. Saturday afternoon we went to my nephew's 4th birthday - he had a Star Wars party, my sister had sewed him a Luke Skywalker costume and made an R2D2 cake, very shiny! I managed to limit myself to 2 slices of watermelon and a small handful of mini pretzels.

My brother and I at the Starwars party, slack buggers - we aren't even in costume :P

After the party we headed out to Penrith to meet up with the Browncoats at iceskating, I didn't skate but hubby and the kids had a good time.

My daughter Caitlin being indulged by a fellow Browncoat - many thanks Dana!

David, Adam and Tom - Adam reckons his arm was significantly longer after skating :)

From skating we went on to dinner at the pub where I endured much torture as those around me ate fish and chips followed by sticky date pudding while I determinedly stuck to salad and an entree sized napolitana pasta. Unfortunately by the time we got home and got the kids to bed I was so worn out and feeling sorry for myself that I totally gave in and reheated the left over Thai food from Thursday night...but was stopped from eating it by my very wonderful hubby who caught me in the act and persuaded me to let him bin the disaster waiting to happen and have something healthy instead, so chicken noodle cup-a-soup it was :)

At the pub with the Browncoats

This morning found me feeling sooo much better, thank goodness, we spent the day at Taronga Zoo for my mother-in-law's birthday (she wanted to do something the kids would enjoy). At the end of the day as we were heading back up the hill to the car I had the rather gratifying experience of feeling inspired to say to the kids "race you up the hill" and then actually running up the hill! (And I must point out that Taronga Zoo has some serious hills :P) In the past when we have spent the day at the zoo I have been left feeling positively ill with exhaustion, I can't get over what a huge difference the exercise I have been doing made to how I felt today.

Peregrine falcon - gorgeous creature, I'm a sucker for a bird of prey.

And now I think I'd better go to bed!

Week 6 weigh-in

Another 0.8kg gone :) I love seeing my little sailing boat jump a little further down the beach each time I update my ticker - very gratifying!

Exercise Diary and Trivial Pursuits

Over the last week, in response to a challenge posted on the WW boards by Lesley aka Dim, I had planned to increase my exercise from 3 x 30 min of walking to 3 x 40 min of walking. As it happens my ambitions were too modest, here's what I actually managed:

Tues: nil
Wed: nil
Thurs: 60 min treadmill (5km, flat)
Fri: 40 min bushwalk with Mum and Tom (at 4 year-old's pace :P)
Sat: 60 min treadmill (5km, flat), 60 min weights and abs
Sun: 30 min treadmill (2.5km, incline 4), 15 min abs
Mon: 45 min walk with Mum (moderate/active), 40 min weights and abs

I was, in part, spurred on by having indulged in salt and pepper calamari and chips and a couple of beers at the pub after the Buffy trivia night at Sydney Uni. Trivia was fun, we came 3rd, we laughed a lot, and took cleavage photos, and almost but not quite sang the Fruity Oaty Bar jingle for everyone :)

Week 5 weigh-in

Holy mother of God and all her whacky nephews! 2.6kg down this week :D Feeling pretty good today I have to admit, looks like I'll be getting that haircut somewhat sooner than I first expected.

I have been looked after by my darling hubby this week in a fashion far above and beyond the call of duty. I'm finding that I've been putting all my emotional and physical effort into the WW thing and as a result only the very minimum of other "stuff" is getting done. By Friday last week the house was a disaster, nearly every item of clothing we owned was in a pile on the rumpus room floor (at least it was all clean), there was no carpet visible in any of the kids' rooms and the kitchen was chaotic. Over the weekend Adam spent something like 10 hours just doing housework while I did things like sleep in for several hours on Saturday and take my daughter shopping for new dance clothes, I even sat and read a book for a while as he slaved away (I did do SOME housework too). Oh boy, do I owe him big time ;-) The good thing is that what I am doing now addresses the root cause of my lack of energy and as I get fitter and healthier I'll be able to do more and not collapse in a heap after having achieved hardly anything at all.

Mini Goals and Rewards

Goal - Date achieved - Weight - Reward

Join Weight Watchers - 14/2/06 - 135.1kg
5kg Bookmark (130.1kg) - 14/3/06 - 129.9kg - Deadwood Season 2 DVD for watching while on treadmill
10kg lost (125.1kg) - 11/4/06 - 124.8kg - Get hair cut and coloured
10% lost (121.6kg) - 16/5/06 - 119.5kg - new shoes
15kg lost (120.1kg) - 16/5/06 - 119.5kg - Angel Season 5 DVDs
20kg lost (115.1kg) - Big Damn Brisbane Winter Meetup 7-9 July for all OzCoats - this is the only one with a time-frame attached, I hope it's not too ambitious EDIT: Ok well, that didn't work out, I guess I don't respond well to deadlines, better think of something else...
20kg lost (115.1kg) revised reward :P - New laptop
25kg lost (110.1kg) - Infinitas shopping spree
30kg lost (105.1kg) - Buy a bike
32.5kg lost (102.6kg) HALF-WAY!!!! -
35kg lost (100.1kg) - Start horse riding again
40kg lost (95.1kg) -
45kg lost (90.1kg) -
50kg lost (85.1kg) -
55kg lost (80.1kg) -
60kg lost (75.1kg) -
Top of healthy weight range (71kg) -
Personal Goal Weight (?) -

This is obviously a work in progress - I can't decide what to reward myself with! You wouldn't think it would be that hard, would you?

Week 4 weigh-in

WoooHooo! I lost another 0.8kg! That brings me to 5.2kg lost so far and if they hadn't run out I'd have got my bookmark too :P (I'll get it next week) I was so not expecting to have lost anything this week given the way the weekend went and having completely lost the plot yesterday and eating lamingtons, buttered crispbread and half a pack of rice crackers and dip (tzatziki so not as bad as it could have been) - it's a good thing I've been shopping healthy for the last few weeks, there was hardly anything binge-worthy in the house.

For the next week I'll have to really push the exercise and be very careful with my points, I don't want to have the legacy of last weekend showing up on the scales next week.

I had planned to go walking with my mum at 6:00am this morning but we both wimped out of that so I'll be on the treadmill tonight when I get back from the P&C Executive meeting.

I am wiped out.

Ye gods, what a weekend. Shall I lay it out in all its glory? Yes, I think so, here goes:

Friday night - apparently I'm not very good at saying no to something if I'm already paying for it, which meant that I ended up splurging my 4 saved points and going into debt another 8 points on pizza and pasta. I did restrain myself to one glass of champagne though. This would have been OK if it was not for....

Saturday - I survived the afternoon tea part of Chocky's Shindig with my points count unscathed but my emotional equilibrium took a bit of a beating so by the time we got to the eating part of Saturday evening my resolve had wavered quite a bit, I managed to stay away from the chips and biscuits but there were all these yummy meats and salads :( and then there was the booze :P I did my best to remember everything and track it this morning and I think I came out about 18 points in debt and we won't even talk about my sugar and alcohol tally, oh well, fun was had. It was a really great time of sharing and catharsis, followed by a really great time of shindig shenanigans, Chocky mate, you'd have been proud of us :) I got home about 3:00am and decided I needed to drink water before going to bed, it seemed perfectly logical to come on-line for a bit while I did so, which of course led to going to bed at 4:00am and being unable to function properly on ....

Sunday - My sister-in-law's 30th birthday party. I grabbed a vegemite bread roll as we dashed out the door running late as usual (we're ALWAYS late to my brother's place) and was feeling very hungry once we got to the party to be confronted with: chips, cashews, prawns, bread, oil-dressed salad and the most evil yabbie tart imaginable - YUM!, but EVIL - peaches , kiwi fruit and chocolate cake. I ate little bits of everything and came home STARVING :( Final tally for tonight has me managing to save a couple of points, for what little good it'll do. I'll have a low point day tomorrow and make sure I get my exercise in, Tuesday morning will tell me what damage has been done.

All in all I'm feeling OK about it though, I tracked and I made good food choices when possible, and I didn't at any point have that stuffed to bursting feel so I know I did the best I could under difficult circumstances. And Saturday night ROCKED - I LOVE MY BROWNCOATS!!!!!

Thank you to everyone who commented on my previous post, it has been very difficult to stay motivated this week and it really helps to have your support. Oh, and Tina, of course you may link to my blog :)

The Deadwood ploy seems to be working, yesterday despite my motivational slump, I was up at 6:00am on the treadmill and then went for a 40 minute bush-walk with Tom (my 4 year old) and my mum. Thank god we were going at Tom's pace, I was totally knackered by the end - it's completely unreasonable having all those hills and steps in the bush :P So I treated myself to both halves of the first double episode story - and went to bed way too late!

Today I went to both the funeral services for Chocky, a Catholic one at 10:30am and an Anglican one at 12:00pm at the crematorium. Tomorrow we will be celebrating his life at Chocky's Shindig by spending time together sharing all our special memories, planting a tree and then burning dead animal and getting pissed - he wouldn't want it any other way ;-) Except I don't plan on the getting pissed part myself, I don't have enough points left to do the job properly :(

Tonight I am going out to a farewell dinner for one of Tom's pre-school teachers. I believe we will be having a set menu of pizza and pasta - here's hoping for marinara and salad - wish me luck!

Week 3 weigh-in

Well, I've lost another 0.8kg, which brings me to 4.4kg lost so far. I did have vague hopes of getting my 5 kg lost bookmark this week but given the way the week turned out I think I'm content with what I've done - I managed my three 30 minute exercise sessions for the week and I weathered an entire day of sitting in restaurants and a pub on Saturday without blowing out on points. Not to mention the dire need for comfort.

I picked up my copy of Deadwood, there are 12 episodes so there's 6 hours of exercise just waiting to happen, wonder how many sessions I'll manage this week ;)

Rest in peace my friend

I was woken today with the news that a very dear friend had passed away early this morning.

I first met Than, better known as Chocolate, in August last year when he was persuaded through the underhanded use of subliminal messages to come along to a Browncoats Shindig. In the short time since then he had become a good friend to me and to many of the Serenity Oz forum community.

Chocky was admitted to hospital only a couple of weeks ago and was diagnosed with lung cancer a week later, the doctors telling him he had a matter of months left. This was the last in a series of serious health problems for him. Most of the people on the forum were not aware of Chocky's illness, he was a very private person and didn't want any fuss made over him. His death this morning was totally unexpected, a number of us had spoken to him the day before and had arranged to go and visit him today.

I have spent the day with fellow forum members as we had pre-existing plans to meet for yum cha and a visit to The Rocks. We went ahead with those plans and it was good to have the time together to share our grief and remember Chocky. We raised our glasses to him at The Orient, the same pub in which we had all had the privilege to meet with Joss Whedon at an informal beer drinking session.

Tonight there have been many tributes to Chocky posted on the forum, our hearts are bruised and the loss is great. Chocky brought something special to our community and he will be sorely missed. There are not all that many photos of Chocky around, he wasn't fond of looking at himself, but a few have surfaced and are all the more precious for being rare.

Chocky speaking to Joss

Myself, Chocky and Dave

At the Browncoats Serenity Opening Weekend Picnic Shindig in Hyde Park

Dearest Chocky, thank you for being part of my life, I only wish we had had longer....

Planning ahead

On Saturday I'm going out with the Browncoats for yum cha at Pitt St Vegetarian and then we are heading down to The Rocks with the intention of setting up base camp in the beer garden at The Orient and sending out small parties on forays around the shops and markets.

I anticipate some no small challenge to my points allowance! I have perused the Eating Out guide but am none the wiser on the subject of points values for vegetarian yum cha - I shall simply have to take my best guess. I'll avoid anything fried or with excessive sauce, eat slowly and drink lots of chinese tea.

I am saving my points so I'll have 12 extra to play with on the day and I've allowed 8 of my 14 sugar and alcohol points for the day too. If the munchies strike while I'm at the Orient I'll take myself off to the stall that sells corn-on-the-cob (without butter of course!), mmm, points free and very filling :)

I'm feeling rather pleased with myself tonight, I did my 30 minutes on the treadmill, just as planned - apparently posting my intentions on the WW message boards is enough to keep me honest! I have a deal with cadillac to lose 1.5kg this week and get ourselves a 5kg loss bookmark each so I'd better not stuff things up on Saturday!

Inspiration

Here's me , about 17 years ago and weighing aproximately goal weight. I'm looking forward to finding out what this girl looks like at age 36 (or thereabouts). She's in here somewhere, just got to let her out for the world to see :)

Weigh in day again

I've lost another 1.5kg which for some absurd reason I am not that excited about. Maybe it's lack of sleep. I *know* I shouldn't even try for more than the recommended 0.5 - 1kg loss each week but I guess I'm a little impatient :P

I gave the credit card a beating this morning and bought a new pair of walking shoes, that puts paid to the "my sneakers are disintegrating" excuse. I'll have to justify the expense by carrying through with my walking plan now, won't I? I hearby promise that I will do 30 minutes on the treadmill tonight come hell or high water.

I've asked for a copy of Deadwood season 2 to be put aside for me when it comes out on Thursday. I'm going to make that my reward to myself for exercising at least 3 times this week and then only let myself watch an episode each night if I've done my planned exercise for that day.

P.S. Not only have I done my bit on the treadmill but the whole family went for a walk after dinner so two lots of exercise in one day, WOOT!

Arrrgh, the garage has flooded!

Take one steep driveway, add a blocked drain and a thundery downpour. What do you get? A river running through your garage, that's what. Bugger, bugger, bugger. Looks like we'll have to unpack half the camping equipment and put it out to dry and no doubt there's other stuff a bit worse for wear as well. Plus half the carpet in hubby's study is soaked - not quite sure what to do about that one. Ah well, such is life....

Didn't manage to get any walking done this weekend but we did go to the pool this afternoon and for the first time in many moons I swam actual 50m laps - 10 of them. It was a bit of a shock to the system! I took nearly 45 minutes to do it on account of having to stop and catch my breath fairly often. Once upon a time I was able to swim a leisurely 20 laps in just under 30 minutes, I wonder how long it will take me to get back to that point.

Laughter is good for the soul...

...and last night was full of it. Hubby and I went to see Billy Connolly at the Horden Pavilion, we laughed till tears ran down our cheeks - for just over three and a half hours! The man has incredible energy, I thought he was never going to stop, every time he sounded as though he was going to wrap it up off he'd go on another tangent. The finale was a guide to the Opera complete with examples - just hysterical :D I hope the cameras that were there were filming for a DVD as well as for the big screen on the night - I want more! The show finished at 11:45pm, we went for coffee afterwards but we still had a quite a long wait to get out of the carpark, unfortunately we'd parked on the top level. It was well after 1:00am by the time we got home, my mum was asleep on the lounge, she's off to Shakespeare at the Beach tonight, hope she can stay awake ;-)

The last few days I was so busy that by late afternoon I found that I'd eaten less than half my points for the day and as I've been planning relatively low point meals I was still way behind even after generous serves of dinner. Not good - I don't want my body doing the "My god, you're trying to starve me to death!" thing and having the whole metabolism slowdown issue to deal with. The upside is I have plenty of points saved for the weekend :) there'd be even more if it wasn't for that can't save more than 4 a day rule :P Today I've made sure brekky and lunch were a little more substantial.

S'pose I'd better go clean the house up now, I've got visitors coming in a few hours for a book party. I'm going to cook the goat's cheese and red onion tarts from the WW 2006 "everyday cookbook" and make mini fruit kebabs - YUM!

There's this thing called execise...

Week 2 and time to get moving. Now this hasn't been one of my favourite concepts in the past but that is going to change.

Tonight I took the kids to mum's place and we went for a 2k walk together before dinner. It was enough of a work-out for me even though we were restricted to Tom's pace, except for the last little bit when the (very unfit) 4 year old legs had given notice to quit and I had to spend the rest of the time cajoling, coercing and dragging Tom the rest of the way home - more exhausting than the actual walking :p

I have myself a plan (not a way, but a plan, which is, in fact, better than a way) for how to get enough moving happening not just for myself but for Tom, Dave and hubby as well (stick insect Caitlin can come along too I guess). My Mum has offered to walk with me in the mornings whenever possible, once or twice a week seems likely. We will walk together as a family at least twice a week, probably on weekends. We will go swimming once a week as a family and hubby and I can take turns looking after the kids while the other swims some laps.

I've been looking through the photo albums to try and track down a few "before" photos, here's what I've dug up:

What the hell possessed me to embark on an obstacle course?!
July 2005 ~133kg

"Aaaargh, don't make me laugh, I'll fall off!"

A quiet moment in Hyde Park
Sept 2005 ~ 133kg



"Mmmmm...strawberries" - fans of Joss Whedon's TV show Firefly will get the reference :)
Dec 2005 ~133kg

How to put your own needs first

Congratulations are in order - to me :-) Tonight I did not take on the job of P&C President! It was a close call though, everyone sat staring at the floor while the outgoing president and the school principal explained at length that if there was no P&C president there could be no P&C and therefore no canteen, uniform pool, concert band etc, etc.

Not that long ago I would have blithely said "Sure, I can do that!", but not tonight! After sitting through the discussion at my WW meeting this morning on the importance of putting your own needs first at least some of the time I was well fortified - at one point I even said that I had promised myself to look after myself this year and that being president would be waaay too much to take on. I know I need to devote as much physical and emotional energy as possible to my health gain journey (I like that phrase better than weight loss) and I am not going to let anything get in the way!

Luckily someone else caved in under the pressure :P I'm still Uniform Pool treasurer though, and I did take on P&C Second Vice-President but all that should do is add a couple more meetings to my schedule each term.

Week 1 weigh-in.

Well, I lost 2.1kg in the last week. I'm pretty happy with that, now I just have to do the same again, and again, and again...LOL better not think about that too much. My dad came along to Weight Watchers with me this morning and joined up too, then we ended up spending a couple of hours wandering around the shops together and having lunch. In an act of optimism I bought myself a pair of pants the same as a pair I already own but a size smaller, they were on special and they are one of my favourites and it always pays to plan ahead, doesn't it?

I have the P&C AGM to go to at the school tonight, hope hubby gets home from Melbourne in time to look after the kids. Note to self - get Uniform Pool financial report done before dinner thus avoiding last minute panic :P

My new toy

All the cool people are doing it so I thought I'd give it a shot. So here I am...blogging...and I can't really think of anything particularly clever to say....

Right, forget the being clever, lets just go with taking about what I've been doing with myself lately.

I've joined Weight Watchers, again :P Tomorrow is my first weekly weigh-in and I'm expecting to have good news to share. When you have 60+ kilos to lose the first few come off pretty easily.

Here's me as I am now. Well, me and a lot of cat :) Jack is the ginger and Samantha is the grey, they're brother and sister. I need to find a photo that actually shows more of me to use as my "before" shot - easier said than done as I tend to avoid such shots!

Well, I've managed to fritter away most of my kid free time today mucking around on the PC and now I have to think about going to pick them up from school - reality strikes again.