Chicken schnitzel

Today’s daily food intake…

Weigh in day

Previous weight: 106.9kg.
Today’s weight: 104.6kg.
2.3kg loss

YAY, great weigh in today made me very happy that finally my weight had stabilised and all that extra weight I put on last week came off, plus a wee little bit more 🙂 I was concerned after weighing in on Saturday and being up to 107.3kg that I’d done something wrong, but it seems all is good.

Having said that, tomorrow I am going to have to do some extra training that’s for sure. We went to the pub for dinner tonight and I had a chicken schnitzel. Oh god, it was fantastic! I enjoyed every single mouthful. Won’t be doing that again in a hurry I can assure you. But on the other hand, a nice meal out occasionally is going to happen, I’m not a hermit. So I’ll enjoy it when I do it, and work a bit harder the next day to make up for it.

Started with a loss, ended with an aha moment

Today’s daily food intake…

Weigh in day
Previous weight: 111.1kg.
Today’s weight: 109.1kg.
2.0kg loss

I’ve learned a few of things today.

The first is that even though you might be hungry at breakfast time, don’t go overboard. Perhaps the cheese and Vegemite and butter was overdoing it. A little.

The second is that I need to learn to eat slower. I noticed while I was eating my lunch that I was eating as if there were a hundred hungry people behind me just waiting for me to put my fork down so they could grab it out of my hands and finish my lunch off. I don’t know why I eat so fast, but if I ate slower, I think I may actually eat less, because I’d give my body a chance to actually realise it’s full, before it gets over-full.

The third is that I can’t rely on Softball training on Wednesday afternoons to give me any kind of a work-out. Especially when only four people turn up and you don’t actually get to train. There is another day of exercise wasted – v. unimpressed about this too. I was planning on giving myself one day of rest over the weekend, but now I will have to make up the time that I missed out on today.

Last, but not least. When we go out for dinner I need to make smarter choices. Either that, or not go to pubs for dinner.

Tomorrow is going to be a very clean eating day for me I think. Might try and stay off the carbs (after breakfast, I need my carbs at breakfast), and stick to some lean protein and veg. Lot less calories tomorrow is a must.

Oh and one more thing that I just thought of – just because it’s weigh day and I lost weight, does not mean I should reward myself with food. (Let’s revisit that cheese and Vegemite thing…)

Yesterday bad – today better

Yesterday wasn’t one of my best days. To an outsider it would have been like any normal day – I looked the same, I acted the same, hell I even smelt the same. But on the inside I was just a jumble.

I’ve been working on rebuilding one of our websites at work and it’s been going good, but yesterday it seemed like it was one hurdle after another with this stupid site. In particular yesterday, I was working on the menu structure and a search function and for the life of me, I couldn’t get either of them working. What is normally something so simple for me turned into what felt like a complete waste of a day’s work. It was just doing my head in. Combine that with some extreme tiredness and it just put me right on edge all day. By lunch time I had finally gotten my menu sorted and working, but the search function – well that’s still an issue today, but today it doesn’t seem like the end of the world. To top it off, I got called into a meeting – that was already half finished – and told that I was being given extra duties – completely different to my current job role. Duties, I’m not so sure I want, because it means being taken away from the web and design end on a more regular basis, leaving me only a little time to get all of that seen to (the part of my job I really love). At the moment, being new and on probation until February, I’m only employed on a casual basis, and now I’m not sure what I want. I have conundrums. And I don’t do well with conundrums.

Then, to really make the day complete and utter crap, I was hungry. Not just “hmm I feel like a nibble” kind of hungry, but that “if I don’t eat now, I’m going to murder someone” hungry. That kind of hungry that just comes from deep down within. Which is stupid, because I’d eaten well the day before, I’d had normal breakfast and was filling myself up with water. I’m going to put it down to me being stressed at work. When I’m stressed, I usually eat. Except now that I’m really trying to count my calories and take a bit more notice of the food I put in my mouth, I can’t just eat whatever is in sight (which isn’t actually very much, because I don’t keep food at work – just in case). I still managed to keep to my 1200 calorie intake, but God it was hard. I just didn’t need things to be hard yesterday.

Last, but by no means least, I feel like I wasted my exercise opportunities yesterday. I walked to the pool after work to have my first buddy exercise time with Miss A and it was just great to catch up with her again, and have someone to physically “talk” to about 12WBT and how I was feeling – not that talking to everyone on here isn’t great, but you know, sometimes it’s nice to have that face to face contact thing happening – that when we were at the pool, there wasn’t a whole lot of swimming actually going on. I think all up I managed to do about 300 metres, which is crap, when you think about the fact that I normally do 1km when I’m there. So on the one hand it was great to catch up, but on the other hand I did crap exercise. But we have plans to do the swimming thing on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so tomorrow I’m just going to DO IT! There will be no chatting – well okay, lots of chatting before and after – but maximum exercise. I have to do this otherwise where am I going to be when 12WBT is over? With another wasted couple hundred dollars and weighing even more?

So that folks, is why I didn’t post last night. I knew what I wanted to say, but I just didn’t know how to put it all into words and there was that overwhelming tiredness that was creeping up on me. An early night, and back at work and suddenly things are looking better and brighter again. Today I can look at my work and realise that while my search function might not be working right now, if I leave it for a while and stop obsessing over it I will sort it out. I might not want the extra duties, but it’s a new challenge for me, and if I don’t like it, I can always look for another job. The hunger? Well that’s still here, but it’s not going to make me fall into a dribbling mess today.

And woohoo – weigh day today and I am happy to report that all my good eating and (excessive for me) exercise has paid off in the form of a 2kg loss. That certainly made the day a little brighter.

This That quilt

Well I have officially named the quilt that I am working on now. Introducing the DisDat quilt – because it’s a little bit of This and a little bit of That. I’m still working on getting all the block patterns drawn up – I’ve been quite slack lately, just chilling and trying to get back into going to the gym, and weirdly having a bit of a spring clean at home. I’ve been obsessing more about my cleaning lately than ever before. Ack!!!

In between drawing up all the patterns I’ve been making selected ones out of some nice material I found at Spotlight, and left over white cotton from Tomahawks quilt. I’ve no idea what I’m going to do with all these blocks when they’re finished, but I’m supposing I will put them all together and quilt it up, otherwise, I’m going to have 30 blocks doing nothing. So I suppose I should really look for some co-ordinating fabrics so I can make all these blocks; I’ve made 5 of them up so far, only 25 more to make to ensure I’m working my measurements out correctly.

Block one

Block seven

Block fifteen

Block eighteen

Block thirty

And on super fantastic news. Today was weigh in day and I lost 1.5kg, so I’m pretty much back to the weight I was at the wedding. Should have been about 5kg less, but at least I’m losing weight again, rather than watching the numbers on the scales go up again. Now I just need to really push myself to get back to the gym on a regular basis. But YAY ME, weight loss again.

Adieu 12wbt, it was fun while it lasted

So long since I’ve posted and so much has been going on.

The most significant thing that has happened is that Round 2 of 12WBT has officially ended. My goal going into the 12wbt was to lose 10kg and get down to 100kg even. Well I am very proud to say that I did it!!! And beat my goal by a whole 200gm. Officially over the course of the program I lost 10.7kg which equates to 9.7% of my body weight, which is a fair effort. I suppose in the back of my mind I know that I could have done better, had I been more diligent with my exercise, but for me, just sticking to the 12 weeks was a feat in itself. So I am very proud of what I have accomplished. I dropped down to a size 16 in most clothes and have organised to get rid of all my old big clothes.

The thing that really inspired me to join up the 12wbt in the first place was for a wedding that we had to attend. A wedding where my partner was best man, and where I would meet a lot of his friends for the first time. Mick used to live in a small town, about 6 1/2 hours from Adelaide, where we are now, and as you can imagine, everyone knows everyone there. Including Mick’s ex-wife. So for me, this wedding was more than just a wedding, it was an occasion where I would be meeting a lot of Mick’s good friends for the first time, friends who know his ex, and yes, I wanted to make the best impression of myself that I could (and I think I did that. I’m quite happy with how I looked at the wedding, and that in itself is a big deal for me). I felt that at the size I was, it just wasn’t going to happen, so this bit of vanity is what spurred me on in the first place. Vanity is a bad thing, but in this instance, it got me going and gave me the best version of myself that I could be at the wedding. And you know what, it was a great wedding. Even better, I now know that even if I had gone to the wedding at the size I had been, it still would have been great, and everyone would have accepted me just the way I was and been as lovely as they were. I still don’t regret doing 12wbt though.

Mick and I at the wedding
Mick and I at the wedding
Mick and I pulling a face
Mick and I pulling a face
I caught the bouquet!
I caught the bouquet and don't think I don't mention it to Mick every chance I get.

So now that Round 2 has ended, I’m going to be unofficially doing Round 3. Because I joined up at the gym, I can’t really afford to do another round, so I have decided to put to good use all the information I got through Round 2 and also through the Michelle Bridges CrunchTime book. I was supposed to start today, but at the moment I’m fighting a chest infection and bronchitis, so I’m giving myself a bit of a break for a week and will officially start next Monday. This doesn’t mean that I intend to eat crap, just that I’m not going to stress myself out about it. Weigh days will still be on a Wednesday and I will still put diet info up on here. But now it’s time to start expanding the blog a little.

So, in other news. I am very soon to become an auntie again. My little sister is about to have her first baby, and as I mentioned earlier I have been making her a quilt for the baby. Because I’ve been off work all week sick, I’ve actually had a chance to work on the quilt and it is nearing completion. So tomorrow I will get my photos off the digital camera and put up a little bit of a blog about the quilt. Till then, adieu to you and you and you and also adieu to 12wbt round 2 and let round 3 begin!

12WBT days forty three & forty four – Nothing new to report

Well as the title suggests there is nothing new to report. I’ve been a bit slack on the upkeep of my food journal, but rest assured I have been making good food choices, with nothing bad thrown in the way. In fact Nat’s lasagna has been a real hit at home and we have it at least once a week now, and I’m making up an extra dish of it this weekend so that I can freeze it for ease when I have nights at the gym.

Speaking of the gym. I went in last night for my official induction and to get my personal weights plan worked out – don’t get me wrong, I love that we get it supplied with the 12WBT program, but I’m looking for something specifically for me. I have my own problem areas that I want to target, so I feel that this is the best way for me to go. I got set up with all the weights I’m going to be doing, we went through them all to work out what each individual machine should be set to, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that I haven’t lost all my strength – lower body strength anyway. My weights were only a little lower than when I was previously going to the gym, so I’m pretty sure that in no time I will be surpassing my old weights. I’m so enthusiastic to get back into it again, I realised last night just how much I missed working out with weights. I was never much into the cardio side of things – always pretty much detested the treadmill, still don’t like it much, but I always loved jumping on and doing some weight work. So I’m pretty enthused about heading back to the gym tonight. I just wish my wrist would allow me to do a bit more of the upper body weights to really target my flabby yucky tuckshop arms. But I’ll work on that, and do the weights that I can for now.

So tonight, I promise I will put up my daily stats. Oh and yesterday was weigh in. I lost 900gm which I’m happy with. It’s not the bigger numbers I was getting when I first started, but I was pretty slack last week and only exercised twice, so I can’t be too surprised at smaller numbers. 900gm is still impressive for me. All up, 13.3kg lost now, so I’m pretty chuffed with myself.

12WBT day thirty – Back into food swing

So today was weigh day. I actually managed to lose 600gm this week, which was a complete and utter surprise to me and I have to say I was pretty thrilled that I lost that, as I was pretty sure that I was going to gain. However, I’m certainly not going to let myself slip up quite like I did last week, it really was a disaster. No more take away food, no more nights with meals unplanned. Now I really need to work on ramping up the exercise and I will be completely back on track. The exercise however, might be waiting a couple of days until I get better, but tomorrow, some light exercise should find its way into my day I believe. So how did everyone else go on weigh day today? But for me, it’s adios (time for some Big Bang Theory I think) so here are my daily stats:

FoodCalories in
B2 crumpets with 2 slices crafty light and tasty302
LChicken and corn soup316
S500gm fresh pineapple215
DFish with salad and Forme satisfy vanilla yoghurt300
Total1133

ExerciseCalories out

No exercise0
BMR1811
Total1811
Calories surplus/defecit-678

12WBT days nineteen to twenty four – Hard times

Well how is everyone, I feel as if a part of my life has been missing over the last few days without my daily blogging and my daily intakes being written down. I’ve been off having a lovely time camping and spending time with my family during the school holidays. I would like to say that I have been eating fantastically and exercising like a mad woman, because for once I have so much time. But alas, neither of those things is true. I had everything planned out really well for camping, took my food with me, but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to eat my own food. We went to stay with my in-laws who are living in their caravan while waiting for their house to be built, and I just assumed that they would have their microwave set up and that I would be able to reheat all my lovely “here’s one I prepared earlier food”, but nope, it wasn’t to be. So while I had fairly good choices for breakfast and lunch, my dinners were whatever anyone else had. Which, unfortunately, consisted of a lot of fried food. I was pretty upset with myself. So you would think I’d have been making some better choices now that we are back home, but I haven’t been making fantastic choices. I need to get myself organised again, before I stuff up all the good work that I have done so far. But I have to admit, that this week, I’m losing my motivation. I don’t want to stop the program, I don’t want to stop the change to my life, but this week is really testing me I have to admit 🙁

So weigh day was yesterday. I lost 1.3kg which I was extremely chuffed about. I haven’t done my measurements yet, I will be doing them tomorrow or Saturday, and as soon as I have done them, I will put them up here for the world to see. I also plan on getting back to my daily blog with my daily stats. As of tomorrow!!! It’s so great to be back, so how did you all do?

Happy weigh day

Booyah!!! Okay I woke up in a good mood this morning even after having a crappy sleep last night, and got back on those scales full of pessimism (because that’s what I do, I always think the glass is half empty, never half full), stood there naked, on the scales in front of the mirror thinking *YUCK* and looked down. Woohoo 1.5kg gone. So I’ve gone from being in a good mood to a fantastic mood. I’ve hit the 10kg weight loss mark and I’m super thrilled, I can’t wait to lose the next 10kg and that starts right now. Thank you Michelle Bridges for giving me the tools and knowledge on how to lose these 10kg and thank you to Nicole for training with me and helping to keep me motivated, Kathy to being very motivational and helping to keep the spirits up and reading my gazillion emails every day complaining about how I don’t want to exercise. Most importantly thank you to Mick for being the most supportive partner and eating (nearly) everything I serve him from the menu without question – though he flatly refused to eat the chickpea rissoles lol. Thanks also to Belinda and to the people in the 12WBT forums. Geez it sounds like a bloody award acceptance speech, but you know what, I don’t care, cos it feels like I have won an award right now. I could almost do a 10kg lighter dance woot woot……..

12WBT day nine – Weigh in!!

Well today was weigh in day. I was ultra nervous because even though on a mental level I know that I have eaten well all week and that I have exercised (not as much as I should have, I KNOW that) there is still the horrible fear in the back of the mind that says “what if”. What if I didn’t eat well enough, what if I didn’t count my calories correctly, what if I just didn’t exercise enough, what if, what if, what if? So I jumped on the scales this morning full of trepidation, closed my eyes and realised that I just couldn’t stand there wondering, I had to look. I opened up my eyes and was so damn happy when I saw that I had lost 1.4kg. I suppose that there in the back of my head was the hope that I had lost a lot more, but I am happy with that loss, I think it’s a realistic loss that I can keep up for a while. I’ve never been that keen on the way that shows like The Biggest Loser have people dropping drastic amounts of weight in such a short time. The way I see it is, it took me a long time to put this weight on, it’s going to take me a while to shift it. Plus there is that horrible thought about saggy skin, and if losing weight a bit slower, means that my skin gets a chance to catch up and shrink then that’s all good too.

So how did everyone else do on weigh day?

And now for my stats of the day:

FoodCalories in
B2 Wholemeal muffins with 2t WW margarine & 2t Vegemite344
S1 small apple68
LThai beef salad310
S1 berry cheesecake Forme satisfy yoghurt90
DMeg’s Mediterranean Chicken & 1/2 Cup rice371
Total1183

ExerciseCalories out

23:17 lunchtime walk. Avg HR 135 (73%), Max HR 146 (78%)210
46:13 Zumba Cardio Party. Avg HR 135 (73%), Max HR 153 (82%)419
BMR1837
Total2466
Calories surplus/defecit-1283