Pool party

Sunday:

We had beautiful weather for our pool-warming party. Sunny and hot, but not too hot. But exhausting. Such a busy weekend! I am resting my tired feet now as I watch Love Actually.

After a morning at a four-year-old’s birthday, we spent Saturday afternoon in and around the pool. We enjoyed a swim but Tim and I were also trying to get the backyard perfect. Mowing the lawn, trimming the edges, weeding, finishing the mulching, cleaning the pool. Then Sunday morning we concentrated on the inside of the house.

People were slow to arrive but by lunchtime we had more than 30 people here, including quite a few kids. Some were in the pool while Tim manned the BBQ and I prepared the other stuff. Then we had a huge spread for lunch, and then Tim and I got to enjoy time in the pool with more people than we’ve had in there before. Other people sat in the shade in our lovely new garden and talked. There was also interest in our VR (virtual reality) headset back inside. Most of the non-family left around 4 (which was the official end time) and the remainder tucked into afternoon tea. As usual I over-catered  and we’re left with a fridge and pantry full. And everyone brought drinks so we’re left with more than we started with!

Everyone agreed that we have a beautiful pool and provided a lovely lunch, but then they would say that anyway wouldn’t they!

I didn’t get sunburned (a first!) but Jasmine was out in the pool all day and is very fair so she’s rather pink tonight, despite frequent applications of sunscreen. And Tim burned his nose yesterday. One of our guests spent a lot of time floating around on a blow-up pineapple and I think she was turning pink too. I hope no one suffers too much.

Turns out most of the part of my side of the family that lives in Sydney is going down the coast this year to spend Christmas with my cousin Lara, who married this year (or was it last year? Not that long ago, anyway). They are taking Poppa, my 99 year old grandfather, with them. So I won’t be seeing them for Christmas. That is two years in a row. Since my mother and my aunt died it seems the family has drifted apart. I no longer have a conduit for gossip or family news, I have to chase it. I thought I’d see them more often since moving to Sydney, but without mum I actually see and hear from them less. To be fair, I didn’t invite any of them to the pool party! I’ve arranged with a cousin that we’ll go out and Poppa at the same time so at least I’ll see a few people then. I’ll invite my brother here on Christmas Day as usual.

So, after today, do I dread weigh-in tomorrow? No, not really. I don’t generally overeat when with a group, I’m more a secret-eater type. So I didn’t eat more (or not much more) today despite all the piles of food. The left-overs are more of a danger.

Good news and bad news

Monday:

It was another day of sun in the morning then cloudy and grey in the afternoon. The kids and I did the grocery shopping in the morning (yes we did get a treat from the patisserie but we also bought a lot of fresh fruit and made a lovely fruit salad in the afternoon) but by the time we got around to wanting to get out in the sunshine, it was gone. We'll have to make sure we snatch the sunshine tomorrow, if there is any.

Two kookaburras are now visiting several times a day hoping to be fed. And I saw three little skink lizards basking in the sun outside near our bathroom, and have decided to believe one of them is Skinky with his new girlfriend.

The good news today is that we have word we are allowed to remove the problem tree that would otherwise block our pool, so that is moving forward. Yay! We'll still have plenty of native plants around the house.

The bad news is that when my father died last year he left a bit of money to my children. Since they are not yet 18, the executor is in charge of what happens to it until then. There are ongoing issues of organising that which I find very frustrating. Endless emails back and forth. There is goodwill on all sides, it is just normal bureaucracy I guess. I've hated the whole process of dealing with both my parents' estates.

It was nice having the kids home today. House full of giggles.

Back to the park

Monday:

Today I weigh 83.5 kg, up from last week! My weight went down during the week then rapidly up, including half a kg overnight. My food wasn't perfect but it wasn't that bad, I don't think it was my diet that caused the gain of 1.3 kg in a few days. With my blood sugar up all weekend, I think it's infection and/or hormones or something. I'll just be extra careful with my food and avoid too many carbs.

Last week was all cold and rain but this week is forecast for sun. I went back to "my" park to do some writing. The prime benches (with tables, in full winter sun, right next to the river) were both taken (how dare they?) but I walked around for a while first and by then one of the tables was free and I got some good writing and thinking done.

A quasi-artistic view from the footbridge.

At the next table was a man with two black miniature poodles, just sitting. He was there when I got there and still there when I left. One poodle was well behaved, the other spent a lot of time yapping piercingly - the sound echoed around the hills in a rather interesting way - and chasing people and dogs who walked past. Her name was apparently "Becky Come Here". At least her owner thought that was her name, she didn't respond to it in any way! Nothing wrong with letting a dog run around in a park but owners of other dogs sometimes had a hard time controlling their leashed animals with Becky jumping in their face barking and ignoring calls to come away.

Tim finished reading my book today and seemed to like it. He's given me some feedback and written notes on the manuscript which I will go through tomorrow.

Thirty eight: sunshine

Thursday:

Tim was away last night on a work trip to a different city and still isn't back. The house is very lonely without him in it. I am feeling better today but Jasmine had a sore throat in the morning and got home from school with a bad headache. I hope she shakes it off. She is worried because she has a test tomorrow and can't concentrate. Unlike some kids she doesn't like missing school. Aiden would jump at the chance of a day off school!

I got out for a walk to the library, lovely autumn day. It was nice to get out into the sunshine, I don't do that often enough these days. My foot has been giving me trouble, yesterday was horrible, today it stayed in the realm of discomfort rather than pain. I also picked up a couple of things at the shops, and was too weak to resist some junk food. I knew I should have stayed away. I'm sick of having so many days when give in to cravings. But I'll keep slogging on.

I had a long list of other things to do today and I got quite a lot of them done. My herbs are now properly potted in, for one.

B: bacon, cucumber, tomato, tea.
L: leftover Pad Thai, Wagon Wheel (chocolate biscuit), cheezles (I threw some away), tea.
D: beef stir fry with wom bok.

Chipmunks

Thursday:

Woke up to a world that was not raining! Cloudy and windy with the occasional hint of sun. Lovely.

My weight was slightly UP this morning! Aaaaaahhhhh! How can 1204 calories yesterday do that? Now I am pinning all my hopes on my monthly cycle. Sorry for TMI but I am hoping that is having an effect and I will suddenly lose weight when that is over. Might help with the attraction to chocolate too!

Yoghurt sprinkled with nutty muesli for breakfast. I took the kids to the new Chipmunks movie, I am at the age now where I empathise with the adults not the chipmunks but it wasn't too annoying. We had lunch at a café, I chose carefully and had some lemon pepper calamari with a bit of salad and a few hot chips. Had to guesstimate calories but shouldn't be too bad. We ate quite early but were still lucky to get a table, the café had a queue to get in the whole time we were there. Sign of a good eatery! We were certainly happy with our food. Chicken and vegetable stir fry for dinner (the rest of the family had chicken with pasta). And in the movie instead of the usual treat foods I had a couple of peppermint Tic Tacs - 2 calories each.

But in the evening I had more chocolate.

I'm experiencing a couple of benefits that probably stem from all this (mostly) healthy eating. I'm sleeping so much better! I sleep to a normal hour and don't need an afternoon nap most days. And secondly my ankles aren't swollen in the morning. That only started a month or so ago, but persisted until about the time I started this diet plan. It improved after a couple of bad days when wearing shoes was uncomfortable, but still troubled me for weeks. That has completely gone. So even if the weight loss is slow, there are improvements in other areas.

The big down side is trying to fit in all the bathroom breaks around normal life - like seeing a movie! I won't make my water goal today, I didn't dare drink much while out and about. And I refuse to scull another four glasses just before bed!

Floriade

Wednesday:

Today we went to Floriade, Canberra's annual spring flower/bulb festival. It seemed to be mainly tulips this year with pansies underneath, I don't think I saw any iris or hyacinths. Maybe those are already over as we are in the third week. It was pretty, if a little dull after the ninety-third field. Maybe I've been going too many years.

They had a huge mirror set up so that when the kids lay on the painting of a building, it looked like they were climbing up a vertical wall (here you can see both the reality and the reflection).

The baby animal petting zoo had already left this year as they are only there the first two weeks, but we went through the reptile petting zoo that replaced it and patted some lizards. One handler was holding a big lace monitor (very large lizard that likes to steal eggs from farmers, and probably the chickens too if it can catch them) and his arms were all scratched and bleeding from its claws as it climbed him like a tree.

Floriade also has an area with lots of stalls selling garden tools, mugs with pictures of tulips, floral scented soaps, lunch items, and bottles of water for $4.50. We always go around and taste test whatever food is on offer - some Indian butter chicken, chocolate fudge, herbal teas (Jasmine loves those for some reason), hot chilli sauces (Aiden's favourite), sugar-crusted almonds etc. I generally buy something each visit to justify all the free tasting, this time some mint rocky road.

We walked around slowly for about two hours.

We've been having more problems with our old car (which the kids decided to name "Nugget" because it is a gold colour and the word sounds funny when you say it, the new red car is called "Titan") and I took it back to the people that fixed it last week. I haven't driven it since then except to get it home and to move it a couple of times out of the way of Titan, but it was already making horrible noises again.

Getting home from the repair shop after dropping the car off this afternoon meant more walking (kids with their scooters) so I am feeling pretty tired. Lots of exercise today, but also too much sugar. It was a really warm sunny day, nice to get out in the spring sunshine. We put sunscreen on our faces and had long sleeves on, but I am feeling suspiciously warm around the back of the neck. I'll have to start being vigilant about that now that the weather has turned.

I've been having weird anxiety dreams, like I'd lost the new car, or when I couldn't remember if Tim and I were divorced or not! Everything with the new house is going smoothly - contracts exchanged, finance arranged etc, but we still have to sell this house. The auction is next week. If it doesn't sell straight away we'll be carrying a big debt until it does. The market has suddenly gone a bit quiet, in Sydney at least don't know about here. You'll remember we had to chose between three houses we liked, well the other two are still on the market. One is asking for offers, the other was up for auction last Saturday but didn't sell. So I hope the market is still strong here in Canberra!

I said a couple of weeks ago that Australia's version of Biggest Loser was pretty benign, well I have to take that back. They have temptation again (10 out 14 contestants ate junk), lots of drama between family members, and the show seems to be doing its best to create more conflict by making all the rewards controversial; for example instead of winning a 2 kg benefit for your team at the weigh-in you have to give a 2 kg penalty to another team. Of course this creates bad feeling. Clearly the producers think that seeing success stories of people conquering their demons and losing weight isn't enough. It is disappointing. I'm still watching it though.

Trumpets in the sun

Saturday:

I had many plans for Friday but I ended up doing none of them. I've been battling a headcold all week (caught from my niece in Sydney on the weekend, I presume, my daughter Jasmine has it too) and I was feeling a bit run down and headachy. And my RSI flared up quite badly. So I did a bit more writing, at home, and then when my shoulder and arm got too sore to continue I just sat around. It was bad enough that I had a glass of Cointreau as muscle relaxant - it works better than all the anti-inflammatory medication I used to take (and with less side effects) but it's not something I do often. Alcohol generally tastes like medicine anyway.

Today our school had a picnic day with some entertainment, including my daughter and the Year 5 band.

She is second from the left. The band is all brass instruments plus a couple of drums (Jasmine plays the trumpet) but every so often they get together with other schools who are all string instruments - it seems to be planned that way with the district.

It was a lovely sunny day, we've only had a few of those so far with our nights still dropping to around freezing, so it was nice to get out. I forgot to turn on RunKeeper for the walk there but remembered for the way home, a bit over a kilometre. I need every step if I'm going to get to 50! I had a nap when we got home then Tim made his beautiful risotto. Very nice day.

Thursday weigh in

Thursday:

Back up to 81.8 kg today. 0.5 gain. Completely reasonable since I haven't been sticking to my diet at all, not even a little bit. I've lost all momentum.

On the upside, I fell much better today, over the tummy bug. I didn't go for a long walk, but at least went up to the school twice today so that was two little walks.

And my husband is better too, back at work today.

And I did some good writing, and got a couple of other things done.

And standing in our backyard in the middle of the day was nice, the sun warm through several dark layers of clothing. Only my bare hands were cold.

There are good things every day, even if I don't have my weight under control.

Out in the sun again

Wednesday:

I went to the lake today. I was planning to write in the library and then walk, but I couldn't get parking at the library, Questacon (science museum) or the art gallery. I parked on the other side of the lake and had my 5k walk, but since I wasn't near any public building to write in I then just came home.

Beautiful weather today, warm and sunny. There were swans on the lake and lots of people out walking and jogging and cycling.

You will remember that last year I tried to train myself to run, using (on about my third training attempt) the "Zombies, Run!" couch to 5k app. I loved the app but was never able to run more than 90 seconds, very frustrating when my friends and bloggers I followed seemed to easily get to 5k and then 10k distances. I just don't have the shins for it. Just before I gave up, I bought the other "Zombies, Run!" app which is not a C25K. You get a storyline, with excellent voice acting, in segments between your own music.

I played it today and really enjoyed listening. I had random zombies enabled, you have to speed up or they catch you so I did lurch into a jog twice during my circuit. I would love to be able to run but it doesn't look like that is going to happen, so I'll just be content with long walks and the occasional short jog.

Food intake is really really bad at the moment. Don't really want to talk about it.

More sunshine

Sunday:

I am determined that this is the week I am going to start losing weight. It is clear that even lots of exercise isn't enough. Over the past 6 weeks, since I returned to the gym, my weight has fluctuated between 79.2 kg and 80.9 kg; which could be explained just by daily fluctuations. Today I weighed-in at 79.9 kg -- one kilo less than last week but exactly the same as two weeks ago. Obviously I need to rein in my eating if I want to actually lose some fat.

I did formal exercise on five days last week, which I think is pretty great. On Friday I had a rest day, and yesterday I didn't go to the gym but I spent about three hours house-cleaning, which I think was a pretty good work-out. I needed that rest, my body was getting very fatigued. I have my mojo back today.

Today I had a health check, which actually just involved weighing and measuring me. I didn't write it all down (it's all on file at the gym) but I was 79.9 kg and my waist measures 102.5 cm. My BMI is now 34.58, which I am actually happy with -- I am "overweight" not "obese"! [Edit: according to the Wikipedia article on BMI, between 30-35 is still obese, just obese category I not II, also known as seriously obese, which I used to be. Obese III, above 40, would be morbidly obese.]

I got on the treadmill for 10 mins: 92% zone 0, 8% zone 1, 20 calories; and then did a BodyAttack class, which I haven't done before. Some of it was the same as the first half of the 50/50 class that I missed due to my health check. Bascially aerobics, with lots of running and jumping which I had to modify a bit. Stats: 45 mins (I didn't do the last track which was floor work I can't do), 38% zone 0, 45% zone 1, 17% zone 2, 147 calories, 111 average HR, 136 peak HR.

After what seemed like a long time, I checked the clock to see if the class was nearly finished -- I was drenched in sweat and exhausted. The clock said 10.30. What? Only half over? That couldn't be right. I was half convinced that the clock had stopped on 10.30 days ago. But I looked at my HR monitor, and it also said that it had been tracking me for 30 mins. Arg! I dragged myself through the last 20 mins.

A food-related victory -- my husband suggested Kingsley (fried chicken) for our picnic lunch and I said no! Go me. He rarely suggests fast food, it is usually me, and I don't think I have ever resisted before.

We went to the lake and walked for about 20 mins from our parking spot to the Carillon (bell tower) to listen to the recital while we ate our sandwiches and salad. The kids were riding their bikes so it was a fairly brisk walk. Then Tim and I lay on the picnic blanket in the lovely late-winter sun while the kids played around us a bit before we walked back to the car to dump the picnic paraphernalia and the bikes. We walked through the park to the kids playground where I read for a while before we headed home. In all, about an hour walking and lots of much-needed sunlight.

I feel like I've done lots of exercise today and eaten quite healthily (only one cupcake!), and also spent time with family and replenished my vitamin D stores. A lovely day. Now I get to play computer games until it's time to cook roast lamb... mmm...