Charm

Wednesday:

Yesterday my weight finally went down to 78.8 kg! An official 5 kg loss, after eight weeks and one day. I'd bought a celebratory charm a couple of weeks ago when I got close, I put it on the bracelet yesterday.

It is the last all-purple crystally one. Nearly all my charms were "earned" with health and fitness goals accomplished, plus a couple of gifts. It's taken years to get this many charms!

It is now that time of the month and my weight is up again a little bit today... but the achievement still counts.

There's been a tradesman here the past two days, I thought he was putting in the decorative rocks around the pool but no he was just putting up the scaffolding for it, which looks rather imposing. Actual rock won't be until next week or the one after. 

The rewards of virtue: bling!

Friday:

Big news first -- I just completed my 'exercise five days a week for a month' challenge! I have officially earned my first Pandora charm (and of course I will have to buy the chain to put it on). There are still three days to go in October, but I am calling four consecutive weeks a month. I don't really have time to go shopping today -- so tomorrow morning it is. Then start working towards my next one.

I was still feeling all PMSy this morning and it felt like everything was wrong. I got up early to work but the kids got up too (as they have started doing) even though I was as quiet as I could be. I don't need silence to work, but it helps; and if I am going to try to work with the kids playing nearby I might as well just extend my work day into the afternoon after picking them up from school rather than dragging myself out of bed early! One benefit of everyone getting up has been that we've been getting to school on time every day for the first time ever; but getting up an hour early is not worth that. Especially since I don't actually get a whole hour of work done.

Other silly things this morning included not being able to find a shirt in the four baskets of clean clothes that need to be put away, and realised just as we were about to leave the house that I hadn't made the kids lunches yet. So it was a bad start to the day.

When I got home from the kid drop-off I took a while to get to work, but finally got some editing done and then forced myself out for a walk. I drove to the nearby lake (not the one I have mentioned before with all the public buildings, this is a local one mostly surrounded by a thin strip of bushland and parks) and walked for half an hour. When you add walking the kids to and from school (so actually, since I haven't picked them up yet, I haven't finished my exercise for the day) this takes me up to more than an hour walking.

I have complained a bit lately that exercise doesn't make me feel good, but that isn't true of walking. I have very tense muscles with RSI problems, and a brisk walk loosens me up and makes me feel both relaxed and invigorated. So I guess there is an exercise that makes me feel good (still no endorphins, but nice all the same). After the walk, feeling much better and less crampy, I worked out that I have earned my bracelet and felt even better.

I am still not in control of my eating or my weight, but I AM in control of my exercise.

BodyPump and Rosy Glow

Friday:

I was going to go to Zumba this morning, even though I am not that keen on Zumba anymore -- I loved the older style Bollywood and Salsa tracks but now it is a bit of all sorts of things including Swing and HipHop -- but then I discovered that there is a BodyPump class upstairs on Fridays. Yay! I left the kids with mum, took off my heart rate monitor (I haven't worn it for ages; I forget for cardio classes and the wrist band is annoying during Pump) and off I went.

I thought I had a little bit of time so I did 8 minutes on the elliptical machine, but then found the group exercise room was packed! It is a huge room up there in Club Lime, but I ended up right over one edge practically on the carpet of the lounge area. The instructor started while I was still grabbing all my weights and Step pieces and mat, so I guess I didn't have as much time as I thought.

I thought about my bracelet and worked hard, although I didn't do the ab track at the end. When I first started BodyPump I had so little weight on the bar that it wasn't much of a workout for my muscles, but now it sure is! My shoulder has improved enough that I can do 5 kg (total)for a lot of the moves, and that is enough to exhaust me when I have to lift it up and down for a whole hour! I end up as sweaty and red-faced as when I do a cardio class, which is great. I had been staying for the ab track sometimes, but my shoulder was feeling a bit strained so I decided discretion was the better part of valour. It is so not worth the chance of injuring myself again, and ab work is amongst the most difficult moves for me.

My back and thigh muscles are a bit sore, so they definitely did a lot of work this morning. Those squats and lunges! Arg!

I've been drooling some more about my bracelet, I think I will have a look at some when I go shopping this afternoon. When I first looked at them as a birthday present I was attracted to the pink shades (the charm in the picture is called Rosy Glow, apparently) but pink doesn't seem to represent a reward to hard physical and mental labour. I need something stronger looking. Also, although I love pink and wear it a fair bit in summer; I don't wear it much in winter or ever in the evening. I want a bracelet I can wear when I am glammed up! So I am thinking purple. I wear a lot of purple, and it also goes well with black.

From memory, the elaborate crystal charms are over $100, I will use them as rewards for each 5 kg weight loss. But there are also plain silver charms (by "plain" I don't mean boring, I remember a lovely dragon one) which I think were under $50 and look great alternated with the fancier ones. So I am going to set myself fitness goals that are not directly weight-related to earn those. For example, the first one I have though of is achieving a whole month of exercising at least 5 days per week (21 days out of 30 consecutive days).

Motivation

I have wanted a Pandora charm bracelet for some years. Not necessarily that brand -- in fact I rather like the charms for the Amore & Baci version -- but something similar. Tim was going to get me one last birthday and we went and looked at some but I was put off by the price. I can't even remember how much the Pandora one was, I don't think they even had prices on the displays, but the A&B one was something like $400 for the chain and three or four charms. It didn't seem worth the money for not even a full bracelet. It was totally my choice not to get it. But I still see pictures of them and covet.

Today I was reading a Weight Watchers magazine that suggested non-food rewards for weight loss -- like a charm bracelet. Hmm. And later in a different article it suggested wearing a bracelet as a reminder, so you would see it when you reached out for food. I got a bit excited about the whole concept of earning each ridiculously expensive charm. And the Gods know I need some extra motivation. So I discussed it with Tim and I am going to do it.

A bit arbitrarily, I am taking 80 kg as my starting point and getting a charm every 5 kg. I considered my highest ever weight of 83 -- meaning I would only have 1 to go -- and Tim suggested starting with today's weight but I didn't like that idea at all! He did also suggest getting 2 charms each time, so it's not about the money. But 80 is a good round number and it is about what I was when I started the CSIRO diet a few weeks ago. I have 4 more to lose before I get the chain and my first charm. Then every time I look at it I can see how well I am doing.

I will only end up with 4 or 5 charms depending on my final weight loss, but then I can start getting additional ones for special occasions like birthdays, and maybe an extra one every year (or 6 months?) I maintain my goal weight.

It is already working. I was planning to snack on some chocolate this evening but thought about my bracelet and didn't. And then I thought about reheating some soup but thought about my bracelet and didn't. I feel all motivated again. I have mum still here to babysit tomorrow morning while I go to the gym. I can see the silvery sheen draped on my toned and strong wrist now.

photo by cristina photographs