Losing Weight in the Land of Chocolate and Cheese!

decisionmaker said:
:D Hi Italian Girl! A newcomer! Welcome! I kind of forgot that anyone besides Amy and Ruth would be reading, haha.

Thanks so much for that lovely compliment. :blush5: I really love the last one I put up because it has my great grandmother's picture in the back. I look a LOT like her, and the realllllly old wedding photos of her look so similar to me. Everyone says so. And I'm named after her too... So I really like that one.

I'll have to go check out your diary too, now! :) Thanks so much.
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I can really understand it.
I really look similar to my grandma too.
We are also born in the same day :D
She was such a strange woman. strange in a beautiful way, i mean.
she was incredibly "cold" outside, a strong and proud widow, a tireless worker and a severe woman. But she had a heart of caramel. she completely opened her heart only for few elects. Her sons and me.
When she died, i felt lost. But when i see my eyes, my nose and my lips in the mirror, i could also see her face.

*sigh*
 
You've bounced right back, and I'm so pleased. I've been trying to think about how to put it into words, and for once I'm stuck on ideas. Just so glad you've recovered so quickly from that funk, are looking for inspiration, are seeing the overall downward trend, and are getting back on track.
 
SO MANY VISITORS!! YAY! :)

Caffeine - Thanks, lovely! I know - the one of me in the same outfit, right??? I could just sit here and flick between those all day... makes me really happy. Which is why I decided I needed to go find these pictures to pick me out of my funk. It reminds me of how crazily motivated and dedicated I was to get to that point, and how I've got it in me still, somewhere in there :)

Italian Girl - you have such a beautiful way with words: 'A heart of caramel' - I love this. Might have to use it in my book! :) And the way that seeing yourself in the mirror reminds you of her... it's so beautiful. I'm sure she'd be so proud of you.

Amy - I think having a huge bunch of compliments thrown my way on here has definitely gone a long way to helping me out. I'm still feeling not totally awesome, but definitely better. Everyone has been telling me how well I've been doing (including my preggers friends and my man), so I'm starting to believe it.

Tetemcg - THANKS! :D I really love it to. It's my mum's old veil too, and my grandmother's pearls, so kind of feels like a family shot, in a weird way. I hope my grandkids will look at it one day and say 'woah! That was you?' :)
 
So WOAH I am totally totally stuffed.

So I planned a long swim with my friend who lives 28km away down the lake. She is currently swimming everyday for her fitness, so she's awesome to swim with. It's not all chat chat chat - it's more like chat before, swim swim swim, chat after. And I'm totally down with that.

So I decided to cycle there, seeing as I can't do any running or impact with my foot. I wasn't sure how it would go, but I'd follow the train line all the way down the side of the lake and could just jump on a train if it bothered me. But I hadn't had a huge breakfast, so I had a mini yoghurt and two wholeweat crackers before I left.

At about 15km of really pushing it (it seems impossible for me to ride slowly anymore... I just absolutely go bananas, chasing the professional groups, trying to overtake the really athletic looking guys with there fancy expensive everything...) I was totally stuffed. And then came all the hills... But I made it, with an average of a tiny bit under 30km/hr (I was averaging 32.1 before the bloody hills came!)

But then I had to swim too... so I met my friend and off we went, but I told her I was pretty tired and might need to only do half of what she did. It was gorgeous... an incredible day with the mountains so clear. I spent half of the time just floating on my back and turning in circles - so relaxing. I had a little dried fruit and some pistachios afterwards.

I ended up taking the train back. but I felt completely exhausted. I think I didn't drink enough water either.. I started to feel really ill on the train (cold sweat, gross stomach) and had to sit down (I was standing with my bike)... I don't know what's up with that. I've definitely pushed myself MUCH more than that in the past! Perhaps because I have had to take it really easy for a while? Dunno.

Will post some pics soon of the lake today - stunnnnnnning!
(sorry this turned out to be so long!)
 
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:D That is such a completely gorgeous photo. I wish I had some pictures of my nan when she was young.

And ohmygod, you have got great at chess! That is some comeback!
 
:) thanks lovely. And I know, right? What a comeback! Plus, I keep telling myself that I am beating the man that GOOGLE hired for his problem solving expertise! Hahaha. :)

p.s. posted some pics of the lake on the last post. You'll like 'em. :waving:
 
Just got back from a quiz night! :) It was awesome. Reminded me of home, and it was at the Irish pub close by, so everything was in English. A nice nostalgia hit. Again managed not to drink anything :) Just had a bitter lemon. I ordered some 'chicken tikka fingers with salad', but the chicken was like fried crumbed things. Bugger. Yum though....

Still buggerrrrrred. Food didn't really lift my energy levels as much as I was hoping. I think perhaps I got some sun-stroke? I'm not really burnt though... a teeny bit pink on my arms and shoulders... but I was in the sun for hours.

FOOD: (1163 Cal without the chicken fingers... probably somewhere between 1583 and 1663 Cal)
- 2 slices french toast with sliced tomato: 280
- milk coffee with 1 sugar: 160
- 10g dried fruit and about 15 pistachios: 70
- 1 piece dark chocolate: 70
- leftover pasta with a little chicken cacciatore and steamed zucchini: 300
- 1 schweppes bitter lemon - 163
- Chicken tikka fingers (420 - 600???), Green salad with italian dressing - 120

EXERCISE: 1096Cal
50 minutes hard cycling (810Cal)
45 minutes swimming - 20min fast, 25 min slow and relaxed. (286)
 
At least you'll sleep well tonight?

And look at you- injured and still able to do a massive amount of exercise. I'm not sure if that's insane or fantastic. Possibly both.
 
Yes, definitely both. :)

Things that shit me

When you look at the nutrional information of things you consume, and only realise afterwards that the calories of this lovely new drink you are trying are actually only written per 100ml, not for the whole 600ml bottle.

They do that with everything here! Only for 100ml/g, never for a serving size. Shits me!
 
Some things do that here, too. Or they vary massively in serving sizes. It's bloody annoying. (Tesco's pasta recommends a serving size of 75g. Sainsbury's? 90. What?) Actually, the worst ones are import products. You know damn well when you pick up a bottle of Bundaberg ginger beer (thank you, Waitrose, thank you from the bottom of my Australian heart) that you're going to drink the whole 340ml. So they give it to you per 100ml. (And kilojoules before calories, unlike most products here, which is an awesome way to freak out if you're not paying attention. 34x3.4= I do not want to be drinking that much! Oh, kilojoules, kilojoules. It's less than 34 calories a bottle- the diet stuff, of course)
 
1096 cals exercising, blooming heck!!!!!!! :iagree: with Amy!

Thats one of my pet hates as well. Also the suggested serving sizes of EVERYTHING is too small. It bugs me.

I had a similar thing eating out (on my birthday last month), I ordered chicken with herbed potatoes with spinach thinking it would be normal chicken with new potatoes, but the chicken was deep fried in breadcrumbs, and the herbed potatoes were fried as well.

Hows your German coming along? I still remember "rrrrrrrrRumbaba", I wanna become a german vegetable market stall person, just so I can shout that out all day :)

Auf weidersehen!
 
AMY - Mmmmmmm Bundaberg ginger beer......... mm.... it's 32 degrees here today (and my body has lost its ability to deal with heat, it seems) and I'd KILL for one of those...

RUTH: Ach! Vielen dank fuer deine Deutsch schreiben! Es ist sehr schwerig und ich habe ein bisschen zeit am moment...

Yeah, it's going ok. I think it was the right thing to stop the intensive course when I did, because now I am actually starting to use all that massssssive new knowledge in my day to day life, and starting to think in German - and in grammatically correct German too! So that's great. I'm just doing three hours a week at the moment, and that is perfect to keep the German brain ticking over. Thanks for asking!

______

So my ankle is a liiiiittle bit swollen after yesterday (ew - visions of my bone marrow oozing out now, thanks mister radiologist) so I won't push it that hard on the bike again soon.

That being said, I've been invited to a free one-off attempt at Bikram Yoga tonight, and I think I'm going to go. I've done some research, and it might be the best thing for my ankle - balance and proprioception, but also the heat will allow the ligaments to stretch and hopefully bring some mobility back. Not sure about the bone... will need to look into that before I go.
 
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So I decided to change my ticker. I mean... I started losing weight two years ago, and despite the 9 months of travel in the middle, it has been the same journey. Yes, I started using the Cohen's method, and now I'm just trying to be healthy using my own common sense...

I think that it will help me stay positive :) I hope no one thinks it's cheating!
 
I presume it's probably too much to ask to get it in Switzerland...

Ich habe Deutsch in der Schule gestudiert, aber ich habe ganz alles vergessen. Leider, es gibt viele Referate und Bueche auf Deutsch in meiner Gebieter.

I'm not surprised your ankle's swollen! Take it easy, or stick to the swimming.

I don't think anyone would think that's cheating, and if they do, let me know who they are so I can shake my fist at them. Or something.
 
:D Awesome. Future readers, beware. Amy will be shaking fists if you don't agree! Hehe.

Your German is bloody great! I've only been learning for 2 months... so I know I make a billion mistakes... but I'm able to communicate at the moment, so I'm happy with that.

____________
TODAY
Trying to figure out if I can have dessert... I really want some! So I'm going to check out my calories now...


FOOD: 1173
-plain pancake with onion and spinach (240) and milk coffee (150)
- 8 chilli cashews (72) and 5 strawberries (10)
- herbal soft drink (76) and pasta salad (210)
- yoghurt (165)
- 100g salmon (140), 50g sweet potato (50) roasted in honey, rosemary and olive oil (30), 1 cup fresh spinach, 15g feta cheese (30)

okay... 1173 calories... I reckon I can have some dessert :)

Edit: Dessert: 60g lemon sorbet (60cal) and 2 strawberries (4) = TOTAL 1237Cal

P.S. Opted out of Bikram. Giving my ankle a break, and going to run it past the physio later this week before I do it.
 
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I studied what's known as Extension German in NSW- by all rights I should be fluent in German now... but I stopped practicing and have forgotten heaps. My almost impromptu oral presentations for my final exams were on indigenous rights and gender equality- had to come up with something to say in 5 min, if I recall correctly. No freaking way I could do that now :( And academic German is another kettle of fish altogether!
 
The one thing I've seen suggested around here- and I suggested it to someone here (as a "don't quote me on this, but other people have tried it/ are suggesting it" sort of thing- it seems to be working for her)- is to eat at maintenance for a week, and then drop your calories down to a no more than 500 calorie deficit. The losses will be modest at that kind of deficit (although you could do what I do and not count exercise calories), and there'll be a week where you lose nothing and maybe gain a little, but it's something to try.
 
Thanks for the suggestion, Amy. I'll think I'll stick with what I'm doing for one more week and see if anything happens, and then do what you suggest. I'm scared of increasing my calories by that much though - the Maya clinic (?I think that's what it was called?) calculator thing says that someone my height needs 2200Cal to maintain, so that is A LOT. I'm worried about increasing to that much... I stopped counting my exercise calories about a month ago. On sunday I had those bloody chicken finger things, which pushed me up to (I estimate) 1663 Cal, though I burnt 1000 cal that day so it shouldn't theoretically matter. That's kind of the only way I'm counting my exercise cals lately!

Thanks for the help
 
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