New Years Eve

Thursday:

I woke this morning feeling rather depressed for no particular reason. Melancholy. I'm glad 2015 is over, I want to move on.

My resolutions are simple. Get healthy, which I've already started, and polish up my book and submit for publication. I can't control what happens to my novel after that but at least I can get it to as good as I am capable of, send it out there, and never regret what could have been.

I went out for a short walk first thing, only 15 minutes around the block but at least it was something! My feet are fine but the back of my legs just below the knee are a bit sunburned, also the backs of my arms, from lying face-down on the beach. Jasmine also got a bit singed here and there. We tried so hard, but we are just so fair-skinned. The boys, with slightly more olive skin, were fine. Later in the morning I did 15 minutes of Dance so that brought up my 30.

I was worried it was going to be a difficult day for food. We had the option of going into the city for a party at Tim's office with a good view of the fireworks over Sydney harbour (they have one session of fireworks at 9:00 for kids then another at 12:00, we would have just stayed for the early one) but decided to spend the evening with family instead, our first year back in Sydney. I wasn't worried about dinner at Nick and Ping's house, I was sure I could negotiate whatever they served, but then there was also all the treats in the evening to moderate! Could I just have a small amount, or would that open the floodgates? At least I could take all the leftover Christmas stuff from here and get it out of my house.

Then Tim arranged for us to pop around to his dad's place at lunchtime. I didn't mind a visit, even though we would be seeing him in the evening anyway, but lunchtime?! Another meal to negotiate. And I thought it would probably be pizza ordered in. Of course I could take along my own prepared lunch, and eat it while smelling delicious pepperoni. I'm really trying not to make things too hard for myself. So I asked Tim to change the time of the visit to make it not during a meal.

For breakfast I had yoghurt with a mango. I'd planned eggs for today but the mango looked and smelled awesome and I wanted something light and fresh. No reason not to shuffle my meals around. I've been doing that a lot already. Lunch was healthy leftovers. In the afternoon we went to Tim's dad's place for a while. I took along some grapes and they had cake and biscuits, I didn't eat anything but had a cup of tea. When we got home I lay on the bed for a while resting then started thinking about how I was going to allow myself to have some treats later in the evening and I was looking forward to it and I remembered I had lots of treats in my Christmas stocking and I got up and did some eating! Three fun-size cheese and bacon flavour Cheetos and a marshmallow Santa. 415 calories in all. Not a win for Natalie vs temptation! But I have the comfort of knowing that all the Cheetos are gone now. I have chocolate left but it is not a trigger food for me, I can choose to have a little bit and stop. Anything chip-like and I eat until it's gone. I'm pretty amazed those Cheetos stayed in the stocking for nearly a week!

One result of my little binge was that I felt a bit sick after. It wasn't even that much food, those fun-size bags are pretty small. Enough to make me feel ill. Oh, but they were so tasty! Salty and crunchy and cheesy. Maybe it was the sickly marshmallow that upset my tummy. It's going to be a while before I have a "take it or leave it" attitude to chips like I do to most sweet foods. I'll get there. Eventually.

We went to dinner at Nick and Pings. We ate roast duck, which is one of my favourites but very fatty. And some garlic bread. I had two bites of chocolate but no other snacks, no dessert and no alcohol. In the end about 700 calories over my normal daily budget. I'm ok with that for NYE.

We all played a dance game, having so many people I was only in every 4th dance, probably another 15-20 mins exercise. We watched the early fireworks on TV then played with sparklers outside.

Then some Guitar Hero, which is a single person game so I didn't think it was very good for a party, boring for the rest of us, then it was 10:00 and I brought the kids home to bed. I'm tired. Tim stayed at his brother's to see in midnight (I'll be asleep by then), he'll get a lift home later.

I'll leave you with a photo I took this afternoon of my bedroom in the late afternoon sunlight. I think it looks pretty.

Happy New Year everyone, and I hope 2016 is wonderful for us all.