Caramel pie and napping

Wednesday:

I'm going to put a positive spin on a negative action. Yesterday at the usual games night I had carefully planned what I was going to eat for my extra 200 calorie treat but then someone brought a caramel pie. I knew it would be super sweet and not really my kind of thing, not on my plan and not special enough to make an exception for, and probably a million calories (I had no way of knowing) so I declined. But then a slice was cut and put in front of me and I decided to try it. It was very sweet but pretty nice, so over the next couple of hours I slowly nibbled at the whole slice.

I am not justifying this decision, it was a bad one. But here is the good bit. I haven't done a diabetes test for a while, the doctor said I didn't need the official one yet and I don't test myself at home regularly. I thought all that sugar would sent my glucose levels sky high. But I tested myself and it was 6.9 mmol/L, completely normal! It's not a definitive test under controlled conditions, but it is a pretty good indicator that my pre-diabetes is under control. As long as I keep eating healthily most of the time, I think I'll continue to improve and who knows, maybe next year the test will show I'm back to normal.

The other bad bit is increased cravings this morning. Bitterly cold day doesn't help.

I read and commented on a couple of short stories this morning and did a little bit of my own writing, then could hear that the women's gymnastics was showing on TV as part of the Commonwealth Games, one of my favourite sports to watch. My son used to do gymnastics until they tried to push him from three afternoons a week up to four. Too much for a then-six year old. Maybe he was showing promise but he got sick of the whole thing. His Russian coach was pretty shouty, too.

I get confused between artistic gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics because they both sound dance-y, but this was the athletic one with beam and swinging around bars and all that (artistic gymnastics, I think), not the slightly less athletic-looking one with ribbons and balls. But that one is still pretty athletic. Anyway, they said that Australia had hopes of a gold medal in the team event. So I sat down to watch with the puppy on my lap. And went to sleep for 40 mins. It was still going when I woke up but we had dropped to a probably-silver (which we got). I watched the end while I had lunch. I was a bit cranky I had slept through most of it.

Unless it is actually raining, Thor's lunch is a chicken neck or two (depending on size) which he eats outside. He's mostly given up trying to bring them inside, banging on the back door with a bone in his mouth. I don't stay out with him, but he finishes so fast that I was getting worried the bones were being stolen by the local currawongs (bird similar to a crow), Aiden did see it happen one time out the window. Today I started to walk away and heard currawong calls so went back. Thor was standing guard and two birds were watching from out roof. I stood over him while he ate, but he crunched them down unbelievably fast - without even seeming to chew half of it - so I still don't know if they have been stolen in the past or if he just inhales them.

My tiredness isn't just making me miss TV. My husband is taking a week off work soon and I can't think of anything I want to do other than stay home. Jasmine has frequent rehearsals for an upcoming dance concert, but we could take a few days. Of course having a young puppy makes going away difficult, and we'd have to go a long way to get away from the cold, but I think problems wouldn't seem so insurmountable if I had some energy. Travelling, and uncomfortable beds, and deciding what to do with Thor, and being away from home, it all just seems too difficult and unappealing.

I often write these posts in stages throughout the day as inspiration hits or to avoid working. During that last paragraph I guess I was feeling a bit down, and that the morning had been very unproductive. But after that I put my head down and got a decent session of writing done and then I took Thor out for a good brisk walk - my leg hurt again but not as much - and now I feel a lot better. Writing and exercise are my two big priorities each day and if I get them done I feel good about myself. If I don't I feel guilty. I love ticking off the boxes on my to do list.

Thursday weigh in - a sixth of the way there

Thursday:

Starting weight: 85.3 kg
Last week: 81.8
This week: 81.2
Loss: 0.6
Total loss: 4.1 kg

Yay, I am finally back below my pre-birthday weight! It's taken a lot longer than I thought to lose that extra kilo, but a small loss each week finally did the trick. Even after a binge weekend! It's very motivating to keep going.

And my online tracker told me I had met an intermediate goal (I didn't even know I had one) and set the next goal to 77.1 kg so it seems to be using steps of 4.1 kg. My target divided by six maybe? Just think, I'm a sixth of the way there! Not bad.

I got my exercise in again with two walks, short and long, and today I even got some writing done! It had been a few weeks so I had to read over the last few thousand words. Then I wrote one sentence. Then I mucked around with computer settings for a while. Then finally I got started and wrote for an hour. I'm happy with that for today.

The Commonwealth Games starts tonight (like the Olympics, but only with countries conquered by England) so that is exciting. I watch almost no sport, but I love the Olympics and Commonwealth Games.