Spring

Monday:

Yay for Spring! First day of Spring yesterday and it was a lovely warm sunny day. It was also Father's Day, so the family (Tim's side) met in the park for a picnic ... along with about a million other families! It was quite lovely to get out.

Then today, as I had the day off, I spent a couple of hours working in the garden, and I have the blisters on my hands to prove it!

My boss called about the roster this week, I'll be working in the other library (not where I was last week), and she asked if I'd like her to take my milk over since she was going there. Only a couple of us have milk in our tea/coffee so there wouldn't necessarily be any there. I was just going to buy more but I'm getting rather paranoid. Are they all watching me to make sure I don't waste milk? I'm sure they are all just trying to be nice to the new girl! Maybe I should just offer to be a designated person to keep both offices supplied with milk...

I'm trying to get started writing my new novel. I wrote one a couple of years ago but I feel I can do a lot better the second time. I've been thinking about the plot on and off for a year or so, and the past few weeks I've been taking it more seriously and working out names and backstories etc. Time to write the actual words! It is fantasy fiction (again).

Fathers' Day

Sunday:

Tim and I paid for all our hard work and time in the sun yesterday - aching bodies and sunburn today! We took it easier today but still got out in the garden, watering the new grass and tidying up a bit, moving some pots around. My cold seems worse today, and overall I felt quite unwell. I sat outside battling nausea and watching Tim vacuum the pool and wondered if I should cancel Fathers' Day dinner. Luckily by mid-afternoon I was feeling a lot better so it was still on. We had everyone over for a lovely family gathering. My goodness two babies and a toddler can be loud though!

I am proud of my efforts today. I was surrounded by snacks in the afternoon but I weighed out one treat and stuck to that. New-normal size dinner and no dessert. Only water to drink.

I spoke to my Aunty Pat on the phone, she is going to help me organise a headstone for my dad's grave as she lives there and I am 12 hours away. Also it's only a few years since she organised her husband's funeral so she knows what to do. But I have to think of what I want engraved. Dad was definitely in my thoughts today.

Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads out there.

Fathers' Day

Sunday:

It's Fathers' Day here in Australia. The kids gave daddy a Darth Vader BBQ apron and a World of Warcraft theme Trivial Pursuit game. Then we had the whole family over for lunch. Well, we planned to, someone forgot to come, someone was sick, you know how it is. I always prepare too much food anyway, with not everyone here it was just ridiculous! I got everyone to take some home and there is still enough for us to reheat for dinner and also for Tim to take for lunch tomorrow.

As usual it was both fun and exhausting. Lots of preparation with cooking and cleaning, then pleasant company for a few hours (actually until 6pm), then I collapse. Tim mastered the BBQ grill while I made the sides and desserts (a couple of other people contributed too). It was a very nice day, but my knees are aching a bit and I'm glad I can sit and watch TV tonight and not do any more work.

Auctions and Fathers' Day

Sunday:

Well we didn't get either of the houses we wanted :( It was a long, exhausting and exciting - if ultimately a bit disappointing - day.

To start with, on the drive to Sydney I suddenly realised we were nearly out of petrol. I noticed it just before the warning light went on. The problem was we were on the highway in the middle of nowhere. We pushed on and made it to the next petrol station, but the needle was pretty low! That was a bit stressful. Then we looked at one new house, didn't appeal to us, then went to the auction for our favourite house.

We still loved it and I think we nearly got it. Tim went one bid over our maximum, just in case, but the other remaining bidder went higher and we just couldn't. Actually the other guy then tried to bid again, not realising he had it, so I guess he had even more to spend. We were disappointed but know there are more houses coming on the market every week and we'll find one.

We had a quick lunch then saw another new house, nope, then the second auction. This house, we weren't so sure about. We looked around for a long time and only decided to bid at the last minute. But it went way over our limit almost straight away. I'm not upset about that one, it was a lovely house but didn't really suit us perfectly like the other one did.

If we don't find a house to buy very soon, then we'll have to rent for a while in Sydney while we look after Tim starts work there. In some ways that won't be a bad thing, it means we can sell this house first and not have to borrow so much money. But it's tricky not knowing which school to send the kids too. And a pain having to move twice. I guess we'd keep most of our stuff in storage. But it would be so convenient being on the spot to go look at houses, instead of having to drive four hours each way.

One funny thing was that every list of auction hints we saw suggested we dress well, so we did. I think it's supposed to intimidate other bidders into thinking you are rich, so they don't bother to bid against you. But at both houses the winner of the bidding was dressed in ratty dirty clothes. I'm sure it makes no difference at all. It depends on how much money you have to spend on the house, not your clothes!

We dropped in for a quick visit to Tim's brother, then the long drive home. Tim was already exhausted from the stress - he did all the bidding - and I collapsed when we got home. Such a big day. We both still felt pretty tired this morning.

Today was Fathers' Day, but we had a lot to do today as we had a skip bin sitting out the front ready for our final load of rubbish, including the old trampoline that we had to dismantle first! We have to concentrate on getting this house ready for sale.We spent hours clearing all the junk we'd collected. Tim took apart the trampoline and I trudged up and down the driveway with the wheelbarrow full of parts, and other junk from the garage and garden shed. How many plastic pots does one person need? Really physically exhausting.

It turns out that the trampoline, and the posts that held up the safety netting, were a spider condo. Nothing deadly, but none of us are keen on spiders. And this is Australia, so some of them were pretty big!

Tim had mentioned at work that he was throwing away a treadmill on the weekend (they are impossible to sell because so many people buy one and never use it and then try to get rid of it, the world is already full of second hand treadmills for sale) and one woman asked if she could have it. Of course he said yes, so she and her husband came to pick it up today. Hmm, he never mentioned to me he had such an attractive co-worker... She gave us a box of chocolates as thanks which was lovely, but also a bit ironic considering it was a swap for a healthy device! Maybe it should have been a bouquet of kale.

It wasn't a very healthy day food-wise. I made French Toast for breakfast, Jasmine cooked burgers for lunch, and we had roast lamb for dinner followed by lemon meringue pie. All delicious Father's Day fare, but I hope I burned off all the calories with the work I did!

Father's Day

Sunday:

It's Father's Day today. I made bacon and eggs for breakfast. Did I want a plate laden with fat and carbs and too much protein and more fat? Of course I did! But I didn't have it. I had some lean bacon for my protein - just the "short cut" bits, two kiwi fruit for my carbohydrate, and a cucumber and a tomato for my vegetables. I was full and I didn't feel deprived - it was the bacon I really wanted and I had some, albeit a modified healthier version. And a cup of tea.

Once that was fully digested, I did 40 mins of dance with Jasmine. I kept going until I hit the wall of tiredness where you can't pick up new choreography any more. I am still thinking about joining the gym soon, but for the moment I'll enjoy dancing and getting out in the spring weather (it's nice some days, not so nice other days). Only one week until Canberra's flower festival so I am going to spend a lot of time there.

My morning snack was cheese, a carrot and a cucumber. Can you tell cucumbers are one of my favourites? I'm having two or three a day at the moment.

Lunch was a salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, snow peas and grilled capsicum topped with fried onion, cheese, and tender lamb loin slices. The dressing is balsamic vinegar and sesame oil - they are both very strong flavours so only a tiny drizzle of each. Very tasty. It's another one of my "on a diet" favourites, but we also have it when I'm not on a diet. And a cup of tea.

 

In the afternoon, Tim took the kids to Flip Out, a trampoline place. I don't feel quite ready for that yet, and I didn't want to just go along and watch. I'm sure it's really fun and I'll so sometime soon when I'm a little bit fitter. I suppose I could be accused of putting my life on hold waiting to get thin, but in this case I just don't feel physically ready. They had a great time.

 

My afternoon snack was leftover cauliflower cheese. The green bits are broccoli, which I actually much prefer to cauliflower.

 

I didn't photograph dinner, but it was roast beef with onion, broccoli, and my veggie medley. We have a roast every Sunday, but I vary the type of meat. Usually beef or lamb. I didn't eat any potato, and I put away all the leftovers as soon as we were done.

 

While dinner was cooking I had a little pot of vegetable-scrap broth simmering on the stove and I had a mug of it in the evening. And both my kids wanted some. There was basically only one mugful in there, after the mushy vegetables were all strained out, so I didn't get all that much. Sigh. I shouldn't have made it look so nice.

 

I wished my dad Happy Father's Day, he'll visit here in a few of weeks during the school holidays, and I talked to my mum via email (they are divorced). Mum hasn't been feeling well for the last week or so. Not cancer related, but having cancer doesn't exactly boost your immune system. We'll visit her in two weeks. She's recently discovered the Game of Thrones books , and although she criticises everything about them she's clearly hooked! I'm going to lend her my DVDs.



Spring goals and Fathers' Day

Sunday:

It's the second day of September and therefore the second day of Spring here in the southern hemisphere. We've had a really long cold winter (I think the northern hemisphere has had a very hot summer!) and even yesterday was freezing which was disappointing but today it was sunny enough to get out for a Fathers' Day picnic which was lovely.

A new month is always a good time to rethink goals, and a new season -- especially Spring! -- even better. Obviously my prediabetes is a big motivator and my goals certainly revolve around getting healthy and reversing the condition. I rarely think about anything else these days. So:

1) Lose weight. I still need to lose nearly 20 kg. I would love to lose 10 kg in the next three months.
2) Manage my blood glucose levels to avoid doing damage to various parts of my body, and to avoid accelerating a plunge into actual diabetes.

I will do this by:

a) Exercise. This helps with both losing weight and managing blood sugar levels. As well as improving insulin action, exercise uses up glucose stores in the muscles so that later glucose will be stored there first rather than going straight to fat. I have resolved to exercise for at least 30 mins every single day of Spring. These first two days I have been for a brisk walk each day, 5 km/h which is about as fast as I can go without jogging. I listen to music and also have RunKeeper on to tell me how fast and far I am going.
b) Writing down everything I eat. As I said yesterday, this really helps me stay on track. For the moment, I will continue to just count carbs. If I stop losing weight I will obviously have to take more drastic action.

When I saw the doctor the other day we discussed my often-dehydrated state and she sternly abjured me to drink more. I really am trying. And last night I only had to get up twice to pee; better than the night before. I did have a dream, though, where I really needed to urinate so went to the refridgerator in my old childhood home and peed in the vegetable crisper drawer! Four times! I woke really needing to pee. Sometimes I wonder how adults don't (usually) urinate in their sleep when they dream about it. Or fall out of bed when turning over. I guess we never sleep so soundly that we are completely out of control or unaware of our bodies.

Another thing that came up with the doctor was that when she was looking over my lab results she noticed that they had not tested my Vitamin D levels, and I had been deficient two years ago. Oh well, she said, as long as you are still taking your Vitamin D tablets you should be fine. I smiled as agreeably as I could without actually lying. Those tablets used to make me nauseated when I took them with breakfast, I even threw up once or twice, but I could never remember to take them later in the day. But I'm trying with that too -- taking one at lunchtime. I have remembered so far, and they don't seem to make me nauseated except in the morning.

It was Fathers' Day today, a lovely day with my little family. Unfortunately (my husband asks: why unfortunately?) my idea of a lovely day still revolves around food. French toast with raspberries and real maple syrup (I didn't have any of the syrup) and bacon for breakfast, lunch picnic that included fried chicken, lasagne for dinner. And dessert. I felt rather overstuffed all day, but I was careful with the carbs and portion sizes and my blood sugars have been ok. Haven't tested the dinner yet.

When I was making the lasagne I thought it would be ok for me because I was only counting the pasta, since meat* and cheese don't have carbs. But 2/3 of the way through my slice I suddenly went and checked the empty tomato pasta sauce bottle. Lots of carbs there! Probably full of sugar. And some in the bechamel sauce too, white sauce has flour in it. I pushed my plate aside and just finished my salad. It wasn't as though I hadn't had plenty of food already.

* I read today in one of my many library books about diabetes that about 50% of meat is actually converted to glucose too, but not for 4-6 hours. So it seems I can't ignore my meat portion sizes after all.

photo by Reid Kasprowicz