Plant attack

Monday:

After Easter Show and Easter eggs, and it being that time of the month, I am up 0.2 kg this week. Never fear, it will go again quickly. As long as I manage a moderate chocolate intake! So much Easter stuff in the house.

A couple of garden-related things happened today. I went outside for about two minutes, and reached over some bushes to move a pot. Half an hour later I had a stinging rash up the inside of both arms. It only lasted an hour or two, but it was weird because I’ve dealt with those plants many times over the past two years and not had a reaction. It was a fern, I think, that got me; with little bronze hairs on the stems. When my arms started to hurt, I realised I had the hairs stuck all over my shirt. Maybe they only attack at a certain time of year.

Then Tim was out the front mowing the lawn when our neighbour came out with a chainsaw and asked if we’d like him to trim the tree between out properties (but on our land). It definitely needed a trim, branches were trying to take over our driveway and some were too heavy for the tree and collapsed on the ground. And it was blocking the water meter. So we said yes, but of course Tim had to stay and help drag the branches around and we had visitors arriving so he was all filthy and sweaty while they waited. And the tree has gone from full and bushy to rather bare at the bottom. I don't think Tim is entirely happy, but I am satisfied with the result and we didn't have to pay anyone to do it.

We had family over in the afternoon for Dungeons and Dragons, and then friends over in the evening so it was a busy day. I ate a lot less 'junk' (some Doritos and a chocolate marshmallow bunny) than I used to, but more than I should have. As usual these days, the bunny (sugar!) made me feel a bit sick. I never learn. Or maybe I do. A couple of times in the past few days I've taken only one or two bites of something sweet then decided I didn't want it so didn't eat it.

I haven't done any gardening (or any other exercise other than unavoidable walking) for two weeks while I had the flu, need to get started again tomorrow as I no longer have that excuse. The weather will be cooling again which makes it easier. I don't deal well with the heat.

It is my Poppa's 100th birthday coming up in May. My mother's father. 100! Still living in his own home without any assistance. Getting pretty deaf now and rather hunched, but otherwise fine. He's amazing.

Easter

Sunday:

We went to the Royal Easter Show yesterday. Tiring, but fun. We looked at some farm animals first: sheep, chickens, cows, alpacas, and horses. We skipped the pig pavilion! What a smell. Then we watched the lunch-time entertainment of working dogs rounding up cattle, precision car driving, and arial motorbike tricks. We had picked the coolest forecast day to go, but it was still very hot sitting in the sun so we went into the art and craft pavilion and then the food pavilion where we taste tested nougat, rocky road, jerky and chilli sauces. The kids got a show bag of lollies each, I bought one of chips but shared it around. I’d decided I wasn’t ‘on a diet’ for Saturday and Sunday but still took my Duromine so I wouldn’t go overboard. It worked well, I had bits of this and that but wasn’t interested in stuffing myself. We went to see the wood chopping, one of our favourites, and saw three events but it was stinking hot in the concrete stands with no shade. It’s like that every year - they really need to put a roof on! I started to feel really ill from the heat so we left and sat in the shade watching dog judging and then went home.

Today is Easter! We are not religious so for us it’s about family and chocolate. The Easter bunny had visited during the night so we had a hunt around the house, plus Tim and I gave each other and the kids bigger eggs. I had some chocolate after breakfast and more after lunch, but felt a bit sick from too much. I’m used to eating healthier these days. I still like chocolate and some other treats (not too sweet) but in much smaller quantities. My Easter stash should last me a long time this year!

Very hot autumn day, 32C in the afternoon, so we played board games inside then went for a swim in the pool and then family came over for dinner. Martha organised some Easter craft (painting eggs) and a hunt, she doesn’t believe in sugar for children so the kids found plastic eggs with blueberries, protein balls, or something that looked like rabbit droppings (?) inside and wooden painted egg decorations. My kids had enough chocolate already to not care, and would always be polite in any case, but weren’t impressed. We played board games after dinner.

Ping’s parents are here from China, they visit for months at a time but speak very little English (hello and thank you is about the extent) but this year her dad has an electronic translator. It’s the size of a mobile phone, you speak into it and it says it in the other language. Pretty cool. But some funny mistranslations that made no sense. Ping speaks both languages perfectly and was usually on hand to clear things up. Little Emma was having a tantrum about nothing when her grandad said something in Chinese that was translated into something in English I didn’t hear clearly but turned the normal tantrum into a full scale epic meltdown. Ping told Emma that the translator made a mistake but I’m not so sure...

Happy Easter

Monday:

We had a nice Easter weekend, family over for dinner yesterday. We managed ok without the oven.

One of our traditions is to create our own little Easter baskets for the egg hunt, usually out of cardboard but this year I bought bags with a bunny silhouette that we then decorated with various craft supplies.

Mine (it had a lot more 'hair' on the back):

Tim's:

Aiden's (that is a moustache drawn on, he tried a pipe-cleaner but it wouldn't stick):

Jasmine's (she spent ages gluing all the sequins onto the dress): 

We had our own Easter egg hunt at home in the morning, but when family came over my cousin-in-law Martha also arranged a hunt in our garden for the four children.

Eliza (Martha's daughter, in pink) isn't allowed much junk food so the hunt was mostly little toys and things like sultanas in plastic egg shapes, plus a few very small chocolate bunnies. The rest of us waited until Eliza was taken home to the babysitter before we got stuck into the chocolate!

Broken oven

Saturday:

My oven seemed to be working ok, a bit hotter than usual maybe, since the repair man came and did nothing. Until this morning, when Tim noticed the oven clock wasn't lit up. So we tried the oven, the grill, checked the powerboard outside, checked other appliances -- just the oven unit (including grill) not working. Completely dead. With Easter dinner for 14 (not including babies) to cook tomorrow and no chance of getting a repair man before then.

My menu included roast lamb with roast vegetables, garlic bread cooked in the oven, roast tomato soup, lemon tart (cooked in the oven)... I went into a bit of a panic. I knew the shops were open today so I could buy all new stuff, but catering for 14 isn't easy with just frying pans. Luckily Tim remembered we have an outdoor BBQ! We only use it a couple of times a year, but tomorrow will be one of those days! It's not one I can do a lamb roast on, unfortunately.

So I'll be off to the shops soon to stock up on meat and a pre-made dessert.

We decided not to go to the Royal Easter Show this year. It started life as an agricultural show but it's huge now; show animals, rides, sideshows, showbags, show jumping, pig races, best fruitcake, best quilt, dress made entirely of rose petals, petting zoo, alpaca wool fashion show, motorbike trick riding, giant robot dinosaur that eats cars, fireworks, more rides, food pavilion with lots of tastings, cooking demonstrations, shearing demonstrations... it's fun but exhausting. I now understand why my mum would only take us every second year - and it was a lot smaller then! Anyway, instead last weekend we went to a little "family show" with my brother-in-law's family, it's in competition with the Easter Show and apparently isn't allowed to use "Easter" in the title after a fight with the big Show; it was tiny and mostly sideshows unfortunately but there was a petting zoo and a Lego exhibition and a little circus so it was an ok day. I'm kind of wavering a bit about still going to the real Show, no one else cares but I still have happy memories of it.

It is school holidays, I took the kids to see Beauty and the Beast last week, it was pretty good. We've been having lots of treats, I think I've put on a kilogram and it's not even Easter yet. The Easter bunny is usually pretty generous in this house!

Happy Easter

Sunday:

We started the day with an Easter Egg hunt, inside because the Easter Bunny knows there are too many creatures outside that would be very attracted to shiny foil and the smell of chocolate. This is my personal haul - big egg and bunny from Tim, little eggs from the hunt:

My plan is to eat some today and tomorrow, then put the rest away for occasional treats. I'm starting my healthy lifestyle change on Tuesday. How odd not starting on a Monday!

Actually I didn't feel much like eating chocolate today, and hardly had any. Aiden has had a cold for a couple of days and now Tim and I have it. At least Aiden was better today! Tim took the kids to see Kung Fu Panda 3 while I had a nap in the afternoon and then I felt a lot better, and Tim seemed ok in the early evening.

Ping was celebrating her birthday with dinner in a Japanese restaurant tonight. The company was good and we had a nice chat, but I was grumpy about the food. First they brought a little complimentary miso soup for everyone - except me. I was invisible. Then my main didn't quite look like what I thought I ordered. I queried it but was told it was right. I didn't like it at all and only picked at it. Then we worked out at the end that my main had got switched with someone else and they had eaten it all. I survived by stealing food off Aiden's plate.

Worse, though, was that Tim was rapidly going downhill throughout the evening. He was starting to look really sick. He realised eventually that as well as the cold, he was reacting to someone's perfume. We left as soon as we'd finished eating. Or in my case, not eating!

All those little temporary problems, however, are so fleeting. One family member didn't come to dinner because her father died today. Getting the wrong food, or having a cold, are nothing compared to something like that.

Cupcake

Tuesday:

Jasmine got an A for her cake decorating! I think practicing at home helped. She also got 89% in a maths test this week so she is doing very well. Maths isn't usually her strongest subject. But she is very diligent with homework and I think her Primary School gave her a very good grounding. They have started writing essays in English and they are completely new to a lot of the class, but Jas has done them before in Primary - called "information reports" but basically the same thing. She has settled into High School (Yr 7-12) without a hitch.

She brought home most of the lolly cake decorating toppings, and the cupcakes. I had a cake (the pawprint one) and quite a lot of m&ms. Urg.

I really need to get back on track with my eating, I know I do, but in the next two weeks I have three birthday celebrations and EASTER and the Royal Easter Show which I love. So I should eat healthy at least on the in between days but there don't seem to be any in between days with no good excuse to eat junk.

The Sydney Royal Easter Show is ten times the size of the little Canberra one. My mum used to take us every second year, she said that was all she could stand. I made a special trip to Sydney a few years ago to go to this one, stayed at an old school friend's house and went with her. We got there and I said "Let's go see the animals!" and she said "Actually I seem to be allergic so I can't go near the animals. Let's go on some rides." and I said "Actually I'm scared of heights and hate going fast." We ended up stuck with the displays of fruit and quilting! It was still a fun day. At least we both liked the woodchopping. We did go on one ride in the kid's area that I remembered enjoying as a child, you sit in a thing like a swing or a chair lift, lots of them all hanging off a big ring, you get lifted up and spun around and up and down. I was terrified. All these 8-14 year olds were loving it, and I had my eyes closed the whole time. Every so often I would open them for a second, squeal in fear at the nightmare combination of height AND speed, and squeeze them closed again.

Daddy can take the kids on rides this year. I'll pat the cute lambs.

Happy Easter

Sunday:

The kids woke us when it was still a bit dark, ready to hunt for Easter Eggs. Sure enough, the Easter Bunny had left plenty of chocolate plus some Easter-themed lollies because my son doesn't like chocolate much. I collected a few, but let the kids get most of it. We also give each other a big egg or bunny (or both). Here is my Easter loot:

The kids had some straight away but I couldn't face chocolate first thing in the morning. Tim and I went back to bed for a while. Meals have been fairly normal today except for dinner, but with lots of nibbles of chocolate between meals instead of my usual fruit. I ended up eating about 50g of chocolate (250 calories), which isn't all that much. And roast pork with crackling. Plus the dessert which had about a million calories (croissants soaked in mainly cream, with raspberries and Toblerone chocolate, then baked. I suppose it's a fancy bread-and-butter pudding). It was tricky moderating the kids' intake, not because I'm mean but because I know what happens! Aiden had a bit of a meltdown just before lunch. His little body just can't handle that much sugar with impunity. I'm making sure they eat real food as well, and after today they will only be having very limited amounts of treats each day.

Daylight Savings ended here last night so everything is a bit out today. It will take a few days to get used to. We will get to sleep in, though, and it will go back to being light when we get up - at least for a while. The weather has turned towards winter.

Straight after breakfast I started Fantasia. In the 45 minutes I finished the storyline and saved the universe from the evil noise pollution! I still have plenty to do, songs I haven't conquered and some I have only just unlocked and haven't even tried yet. But I've finished the plot of the game, which involves being apprenticed to a wizard and clearing each realm of "the noise" by mastering various songs. I would have kept playing but we'd arranged to meet some friends at the playground at the Arboretum.

The playground was pretty crowded but included more friends who happened to be there at the same time. I started by going for a walk while Tim supervised Jasmine on the equipment. Not that either child really needs supervision at their age. Aiden came with me, he had noticed the steep hill cut into big steps (each about 2 metres high) and wanted to climb on it. So we walked all the way down the hill, me on the path and him scrambling down the grass "steps" and then we went back up, both on the steps. Each one was taller than I am and at a very steep incline. I don't think they are actually there to be climbed on! But very tempting. I only touched down with a hand once, but jogged up each one leaning right forward and with my arms spread wide for balance. I threw myself into it each time, bounding up with a little run-up. Then a short rest walking on the flat area before the next one. I'm not sure how many steps, 15-20. My fitbit counted 14 flights of stairs from the bottom to the top. My heart rate got up to 143 and I was gasping for air! I probably looked like a tomato too, I go very red in the face. Near the top I didn't think I could finish but made myself go on. Never give up, never surrender! Aiden ran up each one, hardly noticing. The stamina of the young! It took about 25 minutes down and back. It was fun. And exhausting. And sweaty. And then I sat and talked to my friends until it was time to go home and have lunch.

After lunch I spent a long time catching up on reading blogs and dietbet forums, but then got up and did some more Fantasia. I selected some songs that had been unlocked but weren't part of the storyline so I hadn't done them; like David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust and Lady Gaga's Applause. Another hour! That is over two hours of exercise today! I think I have well and truly earned my chocolate.

In the late afternoon (pre-evening or prevening as Sheldon would say) Tim took the kids to see the SpongeBob movie. I had to stay home to start dinner, but didn't mind at all. A nice bit of quiet at home! It's not one of the movies I want to see. It's school holidays in a week and I'll take them to see a couple, probably Home and Cinderella. Tim was not at all impressed with SpongeBob but the kids loved it. They are the target demographic, after all.

I only kept the CPAP on for four hours last night. My nostrils got very sore. It's like getting used to new shoes, it gets worse before it gets better. Still keeping to that four hour minimum. And, as you can tell by my increase in exercise, I have more energy already. Love that restful sleep!

I haven't been tracking my food for a few weeks, I plan to start doing that again tomorrow. Keep a handle on my chocolate intake!

Report card:
Diet: Poor. Celebration day.
Exercise: Excellent!
Water: Excellent! More than eight glasses.
Sleep: Good.
Mental health: Great.

Easter bunny

Monday:

Happy Easter everyone. We don't eat anything special on Easter other than chocolate eggs so it wasn't a particularly bad day diet-wise. And despite the chocolate I've lost half of that horrible holiday "salt" weight, down to 83.9kg. Still not great. Back to working on it today.

Nothing exciting happening here to talk about. Oh, except my husband and I got to level 90 (the maximum) in World of Warcraft. We hadn't played for ages (defected to Rift) but started again recently and I've really enjoyed it. We play as a team. Jasmine gave us both hand-made certificates which was very cute.

One of her teeth fell out last night so the tooth fairy came. She still believes in the tooth fairy. And the Easter bunny. And Santa Claus. She is ten. Aiden, who is seven, is starting to question. It's probably time to have the talk. But I thought it would happen naturally before now. At this age, keeping up the pretence is starting to feel more like lying. With all of these, we have tended to lump them in with God and aliens - we say that some people believe in them and some people don't and you get to make up your own mind and it can be hard to know one way or the other. Yet then we leave Easter eggs around the house which is "proof" that the bunny exists!

I've heard the story that Spike Milligan used to write notes to his children from the fairies at the bottom of the garden in teeny tiny script, and so they believed in fairies well into their teens. Is this making their childhood magical, or just really weird and wrong to let it go on so long? Has anyone else had to have this talk with their kids because they seemed too old for it?

Scale says holidays are fattening

Saturday:

I thought I did pretty well on our little holiday - sure we ate out every meal but we only had dessert once the whole time and didn't eat much between meals, and we did lots more exercise than I am used to with walking everywhere. But my scale says no. Restaurant food (and some fast food) all full of fat and salt and probably sugar.

It's Easter tomorrow which for us generally means a lot of chocolate. I tried to keep it a bit smaller this year but I don't think I succeeded, in the end. My son doesn't like chocolate much so I had to get him something else, and then his sister's treat looked too small in comparison so I got a bit more, plus the Easter bunny will leave more chocolate and non-chocolate treats around... I found out only a couple of years ago that it is an Easter tradition in this city to get kids new winter pyjamas for Easter, haven't started that one yet. We had some fun this morning making cardboard Easter baskets to collect eggs in - I enjoy that as much as the kids. My daughter's is just as neat as mine, Aiden's has a bit of extra glue and sticky tape.

I wish all of you the best of Easters in whatever way you celebrate and whatever that holiday means to you.

Nibbles

Tuesday:

I felt pretty unwell Sunday and Monday, whether from a virus or just PMS or a combination of both I don't know and does it really matter? Miserable too, I was thinking about how I don't really like who I am but don't know who I want to be or what I want to do with my life. I tried to imagine what my perfect life would be if I could have/do anything -- and I just didn't know. No wonder I'm going around in circles, I have no idea where I want to go.

But some of that could have been the PMS talking.

Feeling much better today. A new job came in but I haven't had a chance to start it yet. After I'd done the shopping this morning (groceries plus some winter clothes for the kids) the school called for me to pick up Aiden after a minor accident. Everyone is fine, but having him home this afternoon threw out my schedule a bit. He played quietly for a while then we tidied the kitchen together.

I started low carb again yesterday, except for some nibbles at my chocolate Easter Bunny. It's a limited edition boutique chocolate shop one my husband bought me so there is no way I am throwing any of it away, but it is a big temptation! I'll just have a bit each day until it's gone, and avoid the cheaper stuff the other bunny left around our house.

Easter

Sunday:

Happy Easter!

When we got to my mum's house late on Thursday and decided to stay even though she was sick, I was only worried about inconveniencing her and the difficulties of finding a motel. Not germs. When I told her not to get up and cook us breakfast, but she did anyway, I was only thinking about how she wasn't feeling well. Not germs. Now my eyes have been watering for two days and are sore and burning, my body aches a bit, I'm so tired I fell asleep slumped in my armchair this afternoon, and my throat is starting to hurt. Maybe I should have thought about the germs a bit more.

We had a nice Easter egg hunt around the house this morning and as we don't allow the children to eat much at a time their stash will probably last them months. Even though we made them eat breakfast before any chocolate, and then moderated their intake, by late morning they were both in tears and fighting. Usually they play beautifully together. Much better after a blood-sugar-moderating lunch.

We had pancakes for afternoon tea; Jasmine & I had nutella on ours (chocolate spread, very Eastery), Aiden had plain, Tim had honey. About 30 grams of carbohydrate each for the pancakes, plus toppings -- so at the most 45g which is not excessive even for a diabetic but the problem is the form it came in. I just thought to test our blood sugar. It's been about a hour and a half since, so not an official time for testing blood sugar but still indicative of issues. Mine was 7.8 which is the top of the normal range and quite satisfactory -- I haven't had any really bad numbers for a while. I feel that I am gradually getting better. Tim's was 12.5. Terrible. In actual diabetic (not just pre-diabetic) range. I will test him again at the two hour point, but that is a bad number, worse than either of us have ever had.

He went to the doctor recently but she only sent him for a fasting blood test (results not back yet) which probably won't tell him anything as I think he has impaired glucose tolerance, not necessarily imparied fasting glucose. He needs a proper test. That will be next.

The fact that our children had an obvious behavioural change after a relatively small amount of sugar worries me too. It was probably exacerbated by a couple of days of junk food and poor sleep, but still. Or are they coming down sick too? I've actually noticed this change in my daughter before specifically at Easter.

I'm going back on low carb tomorrow. My huge chocolate bunny will have to be spread out over a long time.

Royal Easter Show

Saturday:

We drove to Sydney on Thursday after school/work (McDonald's on the way, yuck) and stayed at my mum's house. She greeted us at the door by pointing to a sticker on her shirt that read "I have laryngitis"! She'd come down sick since I last spoke to her. We stayed anyway because we weren't planning to be much trouble.

In the morning we went to the Royal Easter Show and ended up being there for ten hours, which was tiring but fun. It included rides (a kid-sized roller coaster and a little plane that you could make go up and down as it went round); then seeing various animals and feeding the baby ones (I loved the fawn best); fairy floss for the children; the flower arrangement, pumpkin and bonzai exhibition; trick horse-riding, motorcar driving, and motorbike jumps; woodchopping (the World Treefelling final); flyball (a dog sport involving a tennis ball and hurdles); a jazz band; and lots of free food tasting. Got the tired little kidlets back to mum's house in time for bed.

The only problem really with staying at my mum's is that Tim & I have to share a narrow hard fold-down futon couch. It is so uncomfortable! And I'm always worried about rolling off when I turn over. Two nights in a row of not enough sleep.

Then today we went to my sister-in-law's house to see the new baby -- we'd seen her still in hospital but now she was two weeks old. So cute. Jasmine was very excited to hold her. I got to talk to the new mum about lots of baby stuff.

I refused to go to McD again on the long drive home so we went to a proper restaurant before we left Sydney. Much better choice.

Tonight the Easter Bunny will visit and leave numerous little gifts of chocolate all over the house. Excellent.

Or not

Wednesday:

I can't get a refund on that race without a medical certificate and going back in time a week. So now I don't know. I could just walk it. I like walking. But if I'm going to be in a race with people running all around me, I am going to want to run a bit. And if I'm going to run (on and off) then I should probably train for that.

It's only two and a half weeks away. Maybe six training sessions. I guess I'd rather do six unpleasant training sessions so that I can run a little better in the actual race, and not be disappointed in myself like I was last weekend. So I'm taking back the quit until after the 5K.

My thinking was also influenced by Biggest Loser (Australia) last night. We're only two weeks in and they had to do a half-marathon! Well, in relay. Tied together in their parent/child pairs, everyone had to run one 3K lap and then the team could decide who did the extras -- some pairs ended up doing 9K. Generally there was one person in each pair (sometimes the parent, sometimes the child [over 15 yrs old]) who was a lot fitter and/or more determined, and one who lagged back on the tether. One young man got really frustrated with his dad who wouldn't jog much. It made me think about how much I would like to be able to run. To start and be able to just keep going.

Week 2 of the C25K training involves running for 90 seconds. I can barely do 60. I've already done week 1 twice. Do I just keep doing week 1 over and over? Push myself into week 2 and do what I can? Forget the C25K and just do my own long walks with a few bits of jogging thrown in?

We are going to the Royal Easter Show this weekend. Yes that will involve fast food and maybe one showbag (the kids are allowed one each) but also lots and lots of walking. And watching burley men chop down trees. And seeing dogs herding sheep. And petting baby chickens. And seeing giant murals made out of fruit and vegetables. And cheering on the girl trick-riding. And criticizing the judges for not picking the prettiest goat. And maybe the kids getting to milk a cow. I love the Show!

Easter

Sunday:

I decided not to track over Easter. I have not been absolutely stuffing myself, but I've been a lot more relaxed about food. Chocolate eggs, pork crackling, and French toast. I also haven't really done any exercise, though that was more to do with my sore sunburnt shoulders. I'm taking a little break from being healthy.

It's been a nice three days. Lots of relaxing at home, an afternoon Easter Egg hunt with friends, an evening bonfire and Easter Egg hunt with other friends. We cleaned the fish tank and bought some little neon tetras to brighten it up, and rearranged the furniture in the lounge room. I've played computer games quite a bit. I've eaten plenty of chocolate and other nice things, and read books I've wanted to read for a while. Today in particular I've felt very relaxed. So I don't regret this time away from weight loss, I'll return refreshed on Tuesday after I've eaten some more chocolate tomorrow.

Easter is OVER

Yesterday evening I finished off my huge chocolate bunny. It should have lasted me a few more days but in a way I'm glad I scoffed it all down - now Easter is officially over and I can get back to dieting properly without chocolate nearly every day. It was a huge amount of chocolate though - 500g in 8 days. While supposedly on a strict diet!

On the down side, I lay awake for ages with a caffine buzz and feel tired and yuck this morning; and my weight is back up a bit to 81.3kg.

Nevertheless, finally back on track.

I watched the finale of Biggest Loser Australia last night, I love seeing the transformations. They all look so puffy and bloated in the "before" scenes and so healthy and happy in the "now". Emma won, our second female winner. And Charlene won the eliminated contestants section. She was the oldest, I think, at 50. The biggest contestant ever, Damien, started at 234kg (514 pounds). He was down to about 150kg - still obese but so so much better than he was.

Now we get MasterChef - kind of the opposite to a weight-loss show! But still good.

-photo by kenjonbro

Morning after

It's the morning after my Easter binge and I feel awful. Hard to get out of bed, tired and lurgy and sad. Feel heavy and like my face is trying to slide off. Mild headache. Couldn't get going without a cup of tea. So different from the past week. The scary thing is, I used to feel like this all the time. It was just normal. Amazing how looking after your body makes a difference...

I weighed myself several times this morning and as usual got widely divergent answers - more than a kilo apart - but I am going with 81.2 as I got that three times out of six. Means another 300g loss since yesterday and a total of 1.6kg in my first week which is excellent. If I wasn't feeling so tired and grumpy I would be very happy with that. I certainly worked hard for it most of the week.

I still have a huge amount of chocolate sitting above the TV. I will share the little eggs with whatever visitors pop in over the next week or so, and plan to eat the bunny slowly over a long period - having a little bit each night only if I have calories left. The kids have lots left too, they will be allowed to eat chocolate at afternoon tea time each day after eating healthy food throughout the morning.

My exercise plan is going to the gym 4 days per week (every day that I am kid free) and including some kind of physical activity other days. I am still focussing more on my diet, but exercise is important too. My shoulder is a lot better, and this week I plan to try a group class - carefully.

Easter

Today was Easter Sunday, which was always going to be a challenge.

I have read, with some perplexity, reports of Americans colouring and eating hard boiled eggs for Easter. Boring! In Australia, Easter Sunday means CHOCOLATE. Chocolate eggs and bunnies wrapped in shiny foil. We had a hunt for mini eggs that the Easter Bunny left around the house, plus we also gave each other much larger eggs. My husband gave me a Lindt bunny weighing 500g (more than a pound).

I ended up eating a total of 1625 calories today, a lot more than my alottment of 1000, but Easter only comes once a year and I still ate less than other years. And did a bit of exercise too - we went for a long family walk and bopped along to a kids' exercise video. So over all, I think I did pretty well considering.

My calorie average for the week is 938.9 per day net (after exercise if factored in). Tomorrow morning is the official one week weigh-in - wish me luck!