Sober October

Well . . . yes, I finally lost that 100g!! Bye, bye 30 kilos. Then the very next thing I did was go and stay with a friend and drink buckets of champagne and gained it back again--plus a little extra!! I am having a lovely holiday and thanks to some serious dog-walking I re-lost the weight I've gained, so back at 82.5 again. However, I have been going out for lunch heaps and still drinking too much wine, so I haven't lost anymore. I hope to get my husband to show me how to put a picture of my graph in here . . . it looks pretty impressive, but it is obvious that the weight loss has slowed down massively. It took me 15 weeks to lose the last 5 kg. Better than not losing at all of course, but I can do better. I have posted before that I really seem to be slipping back into the habit of drinking more often, usually only a glass or two, and usually "pointed", but a glass or two more days than not and sometimes more on the weekend. So that's like 15 or maybe even 18 points extra a week. Perusing the weight watchers boards tonight I found a thread called "Sober October" so I signed up!! Just what I need. I'm actually quite excited!!

Just so I remember how I far I've come and how I never, ever want to go back, here's a picture of me pre-weight watchers, taken in 2005. My daughter and her lovely pony, Lyall (whose gone to God, now) are in the background.

Have a few other things to post about, but I'm soooooo tired, I'm planning on catching up tomorrow.

Anniversary eve

Well tomorrow is my one year Weight Watcher's Anniversary. I am still hoping to achieve my goal of an even 30 kg lost . . . I am 100 g away! My effort with "operation anniversary" was only so, so. I did okay with my resolve to cut down on my alcohol--but did have some wine on Saturday night too. I have exercised 5 out of 7 days . . . but yes I did eat my exercise points, so averaged 24.5 points again rather than 22 points. Will really have to work on this in future as when I get closer to my goal weight of 65kg, I will have fewer points to play with.

On Saturday I ended up going out for lunch AND dinner! At lunch with a dear friend who I did my teaching course with, I had smoked salmon open sandwich which had spinach and mushrooms on toasted sourdough--should have asked for no butter though. Wasn't all that fussed about going out for dinner, actually, but my husband wanted to take me, so I thought I better not say no, lest it puts him off asking me another day! We had a very pleasant evening after all. I had half a dozen oysters then an entree of grilled squid with soba noodle salad which all was quite legal. I did, however, manage to consume 3 skim milk lattes in the course of the day, and three glasses of wine, so I needed to use my exercise points to cover that. Luckily I did have a few points up my sleeve because I took Charlie for a massive walk earlier that day.

All up we walked about 8km according to Mapmyrun (thanks, Alison!)--and Melbourne's spring weather lived up to it's reputation of four seasons in one day. I thought it was quite chilly when I set out so wore my japara and beanie. By the time I got to the beach, it was hot and sunny so I left my shoes and coat by the steps. I walked a km or so down the beach further, then noticed the sky was getting quite black . . . what seemed like second later the heavens opened and there was thunder and lightning! Charlie was not impressed and I was a bit paranoid because a few years ago someone was killed by lightning on this same beach. The lightning was quite close and there weren't many other things that were sticking "up" except for Charlie and me! When I got back to where I left my shoes, they had inches of water in them! We made it back to the bridge and sheltered there a while, but the rain didn't seem to let up, so we just kept heading home. As you can see from our photos we were quite miserable when we got home!






Regardless of whether I lose a measly 100g overnight, or not, I think it's worth reflecting on how I got here and how different this year is from last year. At the end of term 3 2008, I found that I had a headache for about 3 weeks, I put it down to exhaustion. When school holidays came, I said to Mark that I just had to stay in bed and rest up so that I could beat the headaches. Well, it made no difference, so I went to see the Dr. The Dr could see nothing wrong with me (except for obesity, of course) but booked me in for tests just in case. The test results could have been worse, but basically my cholesterol, sugar levels, and liver function were all borderline, particularly for my age. What the Dr says was "a wake up call" . . . I told a friend I had to do something about my health and she suggested that I join Curves, which I did. I was thrilled to find something that I could do without feeling half dead afterwards and everyone was just so friendly. (I went on to be their "Biggest Loser" two months in a row!) At around about the same time, I checked out Weight Watchers . . . finding that the only meeting in my area was at a time when I really couldn't attend, so in desperation I joined Weight Watchers' Online. I did not expect to get very much out of it, to be honest. I found the tracker quite good but the real surprise was the support and inspiration I got from the Message boards and then the blogging community. I never did find out what was the cause of those headaches, but indirectly those headaches led to me where I am now . . . 29.9kg lighter! And do you know what? 30kg is REALLY heavy!! I know this sounds stupid, but last week I bought 30kg of horse feed and do you know what, I couldn't lift it. Yet this is what I was carrying around with me all the time.

I must apologise for the negativity of my last post. Although I'm still new, I usually do find being a teacher rewarding and worthwhile. However this year has been really tough. The mix of personalities and abilities and behaviours in my grade just make it really challenging at all times. I'm toying with the idea of applying for a new job. There is one advertised . . . but I feel so disloyal, loyalty being one of my better characteristics generally and something that I'm proud of. The school I am at has invested a lot in me . . . but I've certainly given it my all as well . And there are some things about how our school works, that I really don't like. But what if I move and it's the same or worse? Plus the other school is a private school, so that's like crossing over to the dark side. But my children go to the high school part of it and it's really, really close to where I live. And what makes me think I would get the other job, anyway?? I'm in quite a quandary and this is what Mark and I mainly talked about at dinner last night . More on this next time . . .

Hanging in there

Well I just returned from the school camp from hell and am relieved to see that I still weigh 82.9kg. I tried to do right thing foodwise, but it wasn't easy with fried chicken schnitzel, cauliflower and cheese, pies and sausages on the menu. Basically, I didn't eat the icecream, cake, hot chocolate etc on offer, tried to have plenty of water and fruit, but several of the meals were not kj friendly. Also because we were working so damn hard I did do things like have cereal AND three slices of toast for breakfast--which I would never, never do at home. Anyway, due to the fact that I was basically on my feet from 6.00 am til 11.00 pm and walking, walking, walking including two hikes inspite of all the cauliflower and cheese I ate AND the pizza and champagne I indulged in when I got home, I still remain 82.9kg.

It really was a difficult camp. We went to a education department owned school camp which is very affordable--because the teachers are basically SLAVES! This meant that we were responsible for all the serving of meals, washing of dishes, as well as running the activities. On Wednesday night we even had to cook dinner on the BBQ as well! I have been to this camp before with a smaller group but with 58 kids and 7 adults it was constantly hard yakka. We also had some real behaviour issues from 7 or 8 children who really should not have been allowed to go. Inspite of breaking their behaviour contracts in the time leading up to camp, these children were allowed to attend because it would be socially a good experience for them. Unfortunately they did not rise to the occasion and as usual spoilt things for everyone else. I really am over it, to be honest. And then to top it all off, two girls came down with gastro on the last night and were so sick, I felt so sorry for them and for me--having to stay up all night looking after them. There were some highlights watching some children show leadership skills you wouldn't normally see at school. Seeing children rise to challenges they didn't expect they would be able to achieve . . . but unfortunately the experience was quite clouded for me by some of the behaviour issues we had to deal with.

Anyway, I didn't gain weight, so that's all good. To my surprise one of the dads at our school came up to me when I was waiting for the children to be collected after camp and said "Can I just say something?" I thought here we go . . . what's he going to be complaining about when he said to my absolute surprise "You look amazing"--I thought he meant the bags under my eyes, the coldsore on my lip, the wild woman hair, the muddy clothes, but no he continued "You've done such a great job, you look fantastic, well done, keep it up" and I realised he was talking about my weight loss and we both got a little embarrassed. Anyway, it was good to hear when I felt like I had rarely looked LESS fantastic so I thanked him and muttered something about feeling better etc. I think it was really very kind of him to say anything as many blokes are afraid to bring it up or are worried about offending. Many of the guys at work have not ever said anything to me at all about it, which is fine of course.

Only one week left of term. I'm fairly crawling to the end. Honestly I know the understanding in the community is that teachers have jam on it with all the holidays they get, but I truly don't think I could do this job without the holidays. It's just too all consuming and stressful. Thank heavens I get two weeks to recharge and reassess.

Okay, things are getting serious in the weightloss stakes. This is my 52nd week on the weight watchers program. I ABSOLUTELY MUST lose 400g by 21 September. This will bring me to a nice round 30kg lost in a year. So I'm going into action--because I usually eat my exercise points my stats say that I have on average of 24.5 points a day . . . well this week I'm only going to have my allowed 22. I have been creeping back into my old wine drinking habit recently too, having a glass of wine most nights. While this is WAYYYY less than I used to consume, and I always count the points, I don't want to slip back into the "habit" of drinking alcohol just whenever. So this week, I'm only going to have 2 glasses of Jewel champagne (low joule, reduced alchohol) on Tuesday night when we have dinner with my parents and two drinks at the pub on Friday to celebrate the end of term. That's it. I'm also going to exercise everyday--3 visits to Curves and the rest dogwalking, at least my 4km route, if not the 5.5 km if it's not too dark. Here go--0peration Anniversary is on!

I'm looking forward to picking up my new glasses tommorrow, but won't post pictures yet as I have a MASSIVE cold sore on my lip due to the stress and exhaustion of the last week. All being well there will be -30kg/1 year anniversary/new glasses pictures posted Monday 21st!
Cheers, all