Thirty three and thirty four: The Entrance

Saturday:

We spent the weekend at The Entrance with Nick, Ping and little Emma. It's a town on the beach a couple of hours North of home. It didn't start auspiciously at all. We booked our accomodation more than a week ago, and as we got closer to the time we found that the forcast was for rain all weekend! Nick and Ping were staying in a cabin at a campground, we had a serviced apartment. We didn't want to be confined inside the whole time.

There was a lot of traffic getting out of the city and we didn't get here until 1pm - Nick and Ping came earlier and already had lunch before we got here so we didn't meet up yet. We didn't know where to go to eat. We were on what we thought was the shopping strip on the Main Street, but there wasn't much open. Seemed odd for a Saturday. We eventually went to a crowded cafe, it turned out to serve what I would call hippy food. All organic bean sprouts and macrobiotic chicken. Tim and Aiden both loved their lunch, mine was partly to my taste and partly not (and I gave a lot of the nice bit to the kids so I ended up a bit hungry), Jasmine couldn't find anything she was willing to eat. So after a while I walked with her up to the local pie shop. It had literally four pies left sitting in the warmer, and all stuff Jasmine didn't like, like curry beef. We walked a bit more and I bought her an American muffin. It was raining and a rather gloomy.

Time to check into our accomodation. But there is no reception desk!?? We reread the confirmation email and it turns out we have to pick up the key elsewhere, from a locked box in town, for which they had sent us the passcode. Bugger. But the benefit was that at least we then found the true heart of town, down by the beach of course! We got our key and came back to find it didn't work. Couldn't get it to turn. So there followed an hour and a half of trying to call people, leaving messages, waiting for someone to call back, waiting for the guy to get here, and of course messages back and forth with Nick and Ping as to why we still couldn't meet them yet. The guy's master key wouldn't work either! But luckily he was able to give us another room and finally we got to go down to the shore. I was a bit annoyed that it was 4pm already! But at least it wasn't raining any more.

The Entrance is where the sea meets Tuggerah Lake over big sand flats that you can walk on at low tide. Lots of pelicans! We just missed the pelican feeding time.

The shore front is pretty, with playgrounds for children, grass, palm trees, benches, and lots of restaurants. Ping and I sat and had a snack and a chat while the menfolk looked after the kids, then walked a little before going to an Italian restaurant for dinner. The food was very nice (I had pasta with a spicy tomato, olive and bacon sauce). We came back to our room and the kids ignored the cold to have a quick swim in the pool before bed. So the last few hours of the day were pretty good.

Until Tim's allergies attacked, obviously something in the room, maybe the ancient sofa. He spent the rest of the night sneezing and blowing his nose.

Sunday:

We woke to the sound of heavy rain and thunder. But by the time we'd packed up and gone back to the seafront to find breakfast, it was merely drizzling. I had a lovely brunch of bacon and eggs. Then Nick and Ping wanted to go fishing, they had brought their rods with them. I found the rest of the morning boring and cold (I gave Aiden my jumper to wear over the top of his own so he wouldn't freeze, he has no body fat for insulation) but on the up side the kids got to try fishing with little hassle or expense. And Aiden caught a tiny fish.

At noon we decided we'd had enough fishing and left them to it. The drive home was a bit nasty, I was driving and missed a turnoff when we got to Sydney and was forced into the complicated city streets. Tim took over and we managed to navigate back home, the trip taking about half an hour longer than it should have.

The weather and the hotel debacle made it not an ideal weekend, but still better than camping! And I think it was a nice area.

I didn't focus on my diet over the weekend, but neither did I binge like Friday. I just ate normally. My tongue is a bit sore though, too much sugar (three cups of tea with brunch!). We have family coming over for dinner tonight. I'm making roast lemon chicken, yummy, dessert doesn't really appeal to me right now.

Thirty two: carb binge

Friday:

Total carb binge today. Toast, cheezles, cheesecake, more bread, whatever I could get my hands on. I've had terrible sleep for several nights plus hormones and I guess I just couldn't cope. My mouth feels like I've been eating sandpaper all day and my weight (this taken following morning, writing this on Sat) has gone up a whole kg in two days. I told you I could never lose more than 5 kg without blowing it.

Eating events on this weekend, not sure how I'm going to negotiate them.

Thirty one: sugar

Thursday:

Look, my having sugar in my tea again this week has Nothing to do with the return of other sugary items to my diet, ok? The chocolate every day, the cheesecake this afternoon, they are just because it is a hard time of the month. Not because sugar has a hold on me in any shape or form. Ok? Ok? A little bit of sugar in my tea does not mean the cravings are suddenly back and I want to eat lollies. At all.

I took one car to the inspection people today, it only had one broken tail-light which they fixed on the spot, not bad for a fourteen year old car. While they were doing that I went to the Bunnings Warehouse (hardware and garden stuff) across the road and bought a long pot and some herbs to go next to my kitchen window. I haven't planted them in properly yet as Bunnings only sold huge bags of potting mix which I couldn't carry, but I think it looks nice.

Oregano, sage, chives, mint and thyme. I also like to use rosemary but that is a huge plant. It's quite a sunny spot so I hope they will do ok. They will certainly be handy for cooking.

B: bacon, cucumber, tea.
L: satay chicken and vegetables, chocolate, cheese, tea.
S: cheesecake.
D: spicy chicken, cauliflower, cucumber, tomato.

Thirty: TMI

Wednesday:

Day thirty and I'm still going! Not perfect, but much better than my first 8 week try after Christmas.

I spent the morning trying to sort out our cars, we haven't transferred the registration over to this state as we were supposed to do within three months of moving. I've booked them in for their inspections and filled out the forms ready to stand in line at the government office. It seems I have to unscrew the number plates and take them in! Whichever car I drive there, I'll have to do that in the car park so I hope it isn't difficult.

Tim and Jasmine both needed to have their phones looked at and Tim said last time he just walked in to the Apple store and they fixed it on the spot, so even though last time I went in I did need an appointment, I tried driving over there without one. Silly me. Five hour wait they said! So I made an appointment for Monday. And came home again. Rest of my morning gone.

This para will contain TMI about lady business, you are warned. All this year I've had extremely heavy periods, and the last one lasted three weeks instead of five days. I'd assumed it was related to my approaching menopause (although getting heavier seemed the wrong way round). Then on the forums for my diet, some other women brought up the subject, and it turns out it's really common when you are losing weight rapidly! There is a lot of oestrogen contained in fat, and when you lose weight quickly a lot of that oestrogen is dumped back into the body causing an imbalance for a while. As far as I could find out, there are no long term dangers in this. But I now remember that when I was pregnant being told not to lose a lot of weight because of this issue, the extra oestrogen might not have been good for the developing baby. Anyway, it's something I'm prepared to put up with.

Big cravings today, and I ate more chocolate than is good for me.

I didn't get any writing done today, but at least I did start guitar practise again. I don't seem to have lost what I've learned, I just went over some of the easier stuff. Ten minutes before my fingers started to hurt. I didn't make the same mistake as last time and keep pushing on, then be unable to play again for days.

B: yoghurt and raspberries, tea.
L: calamari, tomato soup.
S: chocolate, tea.
D: beef fajitas in lettuce leaf wraps, milk.

Twenty nine: serves me right

Tuesday:

It was just Jasmine and me today. We went shopping in the morning for more clothes for her - she is growing out of them very quickly these days - and then had lunch. Jasmine had chicken and chips, I just ordered chicken... then saw they had chilli cheese chips... and I was weak and asked for them. Who can resist chilli and cheese on chips? Well they were disgusting! I mean really disgusting, inedible. Serves me right for trying to stray so far from my diet. The cheese was runny tasteless stuff and the "chilli" sauce? I don't even know what that was. I stole a couple of Jasmine's plain chips but otherwise stuck to my chicken.

In the afternoon I had my first book club meeting. Jasmine sat in another section on the library with her iPad (in future she should be at school at that time of day). Of course as I kind of expected the rest of the group was considerably older than me. Only seniors have free time in the middle of the day, everyone else is at work or looking after young children. They all seemed nice, I wasn't shy at all, I quite enjoyed it. I'll go back again. It's an hour of chatting to adults about something I feel qualified to talk about. I particularly liked Maureen, probably the oldest lady there and I think she's the convener of the group although not the biggest talker. Old but sharp.

Then grocery shopping, all healthy food, and home in time for Aiden getting home from his first day back at school in term two. And we watched episode one of Australia's Next Top Model on Foxtel.

Tomorrow I really need to get back to my writing, with both kids back at school. And guitar. I haven't practiced for two weeks! I've lost my calluses and it will be back to five minutes at a time to build up again. Silly me.

B: cheese, cucumber, tea.
L: chicken, a few chips, tea.
S: apple.
D: satay chicken, stir fry vegetables.

Twenty eight: weigh in

Monday:

Official weekly weigh in. Weight up a tiny bit from yesterday but still under 80 kg which is what I care about at the moment. I always seem to go up after Sunday night dinner with family, but only by a couple of hundred grams, and if I only weighed weekly all I'd see is the steady loss.

Starting weight (Just after Christmas): 84.5 kg
Starting weight round two: 83.0 kg
Day 7: 81.4 kg
Day 14: 81.5 kg
Day 21: 80.5 kg
Day 28: 79.7 kg.
Loss this week: 0.8 kg

Still steadily going down.

It is a public holiday today (ANZAC day, to thank soldiers) and also the last day of school holidays for Aiden, Jas gets an extra day. In the afternoon Tim and his brother went to help their dad work on his house while I babysat my three year old niece Emma (Ping was working). I say "I" babysat, actually Jasmine entertains her with a bit of help from Aiden. I'm just the token adult in case of emergencies.

On the weekend we signed up for a free month of Netflix, we hadn't got it before because Tim rarely watches TV and I already watch too much with our plethora of free channels, and then also signed up for Foxtel. For Game of Thrones obviously, which I watched today - it's broadcast at the same time as the US which means Sunday night there is Monday 11am here. We got Foxtel for three months last year for the same reason, it was such a hassle to cancel again and they kept billing for months and it took endless phone calls to sort out so that Tim vowed never to get it again. But, well. I also like some of the Lifestyle stuff; Next Top Model, RuPaul's Drag Race, cooking and renovation shows that we don't get here on free TV.

I am definitely hungrier at this time of the month, actual hunger as well as cravings. I've been eating a bit more. Hopefully I will feel back to normal tomorrow, because generally on this diet I haven't been hungry despite restricted calories.

B: raspberries and yoghurt, tea.
L: steak sandwich (without the bread).
S: Apple, tea.
D: roast pork, potato, broccoli, cucumber, gravy.
S: dark chocolate.

Twenty seven: danger zone

Sunday:

Despite chocolate and "that time of the month" I continue to lose weight on this awesome diet eating plan. (Really it is a diet in every sense, but people don't like that word. You have to make a lifestyle change. And I am, but this is a kickstarter phase before you go into lifetime phase.)

I have now lost 5 kg since Christmas. And that is a danger zone for me. I've lost that much two or three times in the past 15 years only to put it straight back on. I've never ever lost more than that. It seems to be the point where I have some kind of panic and give up, or get complacent and get slack, or bored and give up, or something. I don't really know why. Of course many times I've given up before that point! But I've never got past it. This time I will, and I'll keep going. 5 kg really isn't a huge amount of weight, I need to lose another 20 at least, but it is a milestone for me.

Dinner was at my brother-in-law's tonight. I did have one piece of garlic bread, but no dessert except fruit.

B: bacon, cucumber, tea.
L: taco salad, tea.
S: cashews, tea.
D: roast lamb, potato, salad, garlic bread, strawberries and grapes.