Omega's journey

Hi Margaret,

Thank You for your congratulations on the exam results and 4.5 stone award!
The flat is great and my flatmates are all nice. I will carry on working at the hospital - I need the money plus I work very flexible hours so it shouldn't be a problem.

Im so pleased you had a good time on holiday - the stories about your friends not recognising you made me laugh, I am not surprised at all though =D

Do not worry about the gain you have had - you tell me all the time how 'splurge pounds' always come off so quickly and you are always right! The fact that you went dancing in Greece shows how far you have come, and gaining a bit of weight back temporarily won't change that.

Good luck with this weeks weight loss, I know you can lose what you have gained in no time at all. Talk to you soon!

Becky X
 
Thanks for popping by Becky. The weight does indeed appear to be coming off - ably assisted by both Rod and I being under the weather and me therefore being off my food in so many ways. On Sunday I had weetabix for my main meal.

Rod has a lot of very itchy insect bites and keeps going hot and cold. I also keep going hot and cold and although I have no itchy insect bites - have the red marks that show that I have been bitten too. I wouldnt mind but I always use jungle formula (or the Greek equivalent which also contains deet) at night when in Greece.

I did all my walking on Sunday - although it was split over 4 sessions instead of the normal two. The food that I did eat was all healthy stuff. I also got 2.5 litres of water in on Sunday. I checked the scales first thing this morning in my knickers and it was down to 9st12.4.

I would have preferred to be feeling normal and not going hot and cold - but if being off my food helps my get my weight back down then it will be a welcome side-effect.

It all kind of means that I have spent much of the day when not on the treadmill sitting watching Australian soaps and not catching up on forum friends like I intended.
 
Yeah!!!
Your back!
Glad to hear that you had such a lovely time in Greece. What a way to celebrate your weight-loss success' by joining in on the dancing.
I can only imagine the shock that was on the faces of your friends when they finally figured out it was you! And poor Rod..........how many of them thought he was cheating on you at first.
Thanks so much for the post card. I showed it around to quite a few people telling them that it was from "my friend who lives in England".
Don't worry about the weight gain. You are such a determined person that I know it will come back off in no time flat.
Glad to have you back.
 
I am pleased that you got the postcard. Sometimes the post can take a while from the Greek villages. The village post office is very old fashioned. There are three men who have worked there for many years (such things are always classed as a great job because you get paid all through winter and get to retire at a young age) and at least two of them are called Tsambiko. I know Greek people who live in the village who simply call them all Tsambiko - although some think that the third is called something else!!!!

Mail is not delivered to the houses - so people have to go to the post office to collect their mail. The same address therefore works for the entire village - only the name changes. I always feel a bit stupid when I post my christmas cards because I send tons of cards to the same address.

Some of the men called Tsambiko anglocise their name to Sam or Sammy. The female form of the name is Tsambika and for some very strange reason that I have never fathomed it seems to often get anglocised to Betty.
 
Sounds like you had an excellent time! And that's very interesting that some people made cross gestures at your miracle weight loss! How do Greeks view obesity and fitness down there, just curious?
 
Omega said:
My weight has shot up - which is no surprise. I normally weigh wearing shorts and a t-shirt after my long walk. I gave up early and have eaten and drank so I will not get a comparible weighing. I did a weighing in just my knickers first thing and it was not pretty - 10st3.2 - so basically a whole stone (14 pounds) up on my ticker weight which was my weight on 24th August - exactly three weeks ago today. I was last 10st3 on 20th May!!!!

If that was a practice for maintenance - I guess that I failed with a vengeance.

I am hoping that some of it will be water retention as I know that people were using salt everywhere. Also - I kept drinking diet coke and not water. I am just going to follow my normal eating / drinking pattern when at home and hope for the best.
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I would hardly say that you failed at maintenance when you really weren't shooting for it anyway. You said before you left that you would most likely put on weight. Since you have already dropped about 5lbs, I would guess that a good portion of that was water. If nothing else, you've revved up your metabolism and the rest of the lbs will melt off fairly quickly. I would not feel bad if I were you. You had a great time on holiday, and were able to enjoy foods you cannot eat as easily back home. :)

I'm glad your days of emptying the toilet paper bin are over. :D
 
Isa really enjoyed the post card as well.
She was quite taken by the "fish stamp"
Children are so easily entertained. Or at least mine are.

I imagine the post man must think you are a serial card sender thinking you are stalking some poor household in Greece. :smilielol5:
 
Thanks for visiting.

Valerie

I cannot comment on Greece as a whole as I am sure that there would be a world of difference between views on many things between such as Athens or any of the big cities and the little villages where my friends live. My friends live in a village which forty years ago was as in another era for many of us. I know people in their mid forties who remember back to how nice the village was when they were at school and there was no electricity in the village. Apparently you could really appreciate the beauty of the night sky. There are nicely decorated taps on a number of corners in the village where people used to collect their water and the old people tell of when everyone went to one spring for water for the whole village. The water still runs there today and it is quite pretty.

Some of my friends have a bar/appartments/internet cafe right next to the spring. There is a photo of the spring on their website in the first photo in the block of six photos.



Now these same people have beautiful fitted kitchens - much like you would find anywhere. The infrastructure is not quite up to the summer tourist invasion though - so the wise person half anticipates a power cut or the water going off. As soon as I get to Greece I keep empty bottles and keep about a dozen bottles of water on the balcony for in case the water goes off. You only have to cope without any water to anywhere in the village for 24 hours once in the summer heat to decide that you need to have some stockpiled for toilet flushing and urgent washing. Thankfully there wasnt a water cut this time. There was an electricity cut this time but it didnt last too long.

There is a mixture of thin people and obese people much as you would find everywhere. I think that there is a greater acceptance of the person within than you find many places. When I was very big - I was a lot less self-concious of my size there compared to many places. I was less inclined to think that people were making assumptions about me based on my appearance.

When I was big I used to swim there - but tended to stick to places which were quieter. It wasnt so much to avoid locals - but you never know what tourists may come to an obvious beach.

As far as fitness goes - the daughter of one of my good friends won the gold medal in the 100m hurdles in the island games last year.


Kimberly

I certainly did enjoy some food that I would not normally eat. I could have been a whole lot naughtier with my food - but was no saint. I love something called saganaki cheese which is basically a slice of hard cheese about the size of a thick slice of bread so I would guess about 6 ounces - covered in batter and fried. I had that twice as a snack. I shouldnt have had it at all with the way that cheese affects me - but if I hadnt been trying to be good I could have had it a whole lot more often than twice across 18 days.

My weight is thankfully continuing to come down further. It got down to 9st10.0 this morning (136 pounds) so it is looking a whole lot better than Sunday morning already. I am hopeful that it will come down a bit more from water weight before I see the real damage done.

I still really like the notion that my holiday will have perked up my metabolism. It sounds like a good excuse for us all to go on another holiday when weightloss slows down.

Dawn

I am pleased that Isa is entertained.

I think that I would make a great stalker. With my sneaky ways and ability to do a google search I think that I could find out lots about my victim.

Take care
Love
Margaret
 
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How beautiful! I was actually admiring the TREE in the first block of 4 blocks! Makes me want another holiday! Boo! :(

I gained weight on MY vacation as well--then I came back down, then shot back up a few pounds, and am now coming down again. Pre-vacation was 143 lbs, today I was 144 (but I was 142 on Saturday I think) but basically, WE SHALL BOTH see a new low soon--your vacation was longer so you need a little more time. And you know very well that while you weren't "a saint", you definitely didn't consume thousands and thousands of surplus calories! let us know how it goes......

That's nice that the place you stayed has an open view on people--maybe it's because they're not AS bombarded by the media......??? I wouldn't know for sure.

And WOW I am impressed with Maria--I have a soft spot in my heart for hurdles....I secretly want to learn them because I fancy myself a bunny, of sorts.......;)
 
Effie's Dreams is in a nice location and the tree is really old. It used to be even nicer there before the bar was built and you had to share it with others. Effie is one of my friends. Her name is actually Elefteria which is the Greek for "freedom". She would have a much tougher life in a lot of different places (towns / cities). She has been in a wheelchair since she was a girl and has very weak arms too. Not every society deals well with people with disability. I think that quite a few disabled people have a better quality of life in the villages than they do in places like London.

I am sure that with a little of our normal focus - those holiday pounds will go for both of us. The main thing is not to worry about them too much - but be aware that we cannot have the holiday lifestyle at home.

Maria's mother Poppy is a great friend of mine - and is very proud of her athletic accomplishments. Maria is at university in Athens studyings a sports subject combined with nutrition for sports. She is hoping to qualify for the next olympics. I have promised Poppy that if Maria gets to the olympics I will want her to win ahead of England.

It seems reasonable enough to me that bunnies would like jumping. The hurdles being a combination of running and jumping sounds made for you.

Talking about fit young people (being a proud auntie - I just have to brag) - my nephew Luke May has signed a two year professional contract with Harlequins rugby league team and is now officially part of their first team for the next season. He has been playing in the reserves for the past year.
 
Margaret
Your package came in the mail today for Isa. She was very, very excited :willy_nilly: about it. I wouldn't let her open it in the car so she had to wait until we got home. I thought she would pop for sure. LOL
She was very generous and shared her treats with her 2 brothers. Her favorite treat was the baklava. As she says "the cinnamon roll one". She refuses to throw away the tissue paper that everything came wrapped in.
Below you will find a Thank You letter from her.
I typed it but those are her words.
Also Thank You for thinking of Trevor as well. He was very excited to see the sponge letters. Though at first we did not realize they were Greek letters. So when Trevor asked me "what letter is this" I was pretty much stumped. LOL Thanks for being so thoughtful.
Dawn

Sept 17, 2008

Dear Margaret,
Thank you for the gifts. I love the doll you gave me. I like it because it hangs. And I like pink which is the closest color to my favorite color red. She is beautiful. I was excited when I got that big present. I was in the car and I was going crazy about it. Because I had never gotten something from the mail that big. I have not got anything from half way around the world. We went to our globe and saw how far this came from. For Trevor's letters I was going to translate them with a book that I have. I got the book from a magazine called Highlights. Every month I get a book that tells me about a different country. But not anymore Mom quit it. I love the treats! They are so good. :drool5: I love the rock. It is so pretty. Trevor likes his rock too. I gave him the green one. He likes green. The bookmark. I just love it. I am going to be using it all the time.
Isabel A.
 
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How NICE of you to give gifts to B's kiddies, awwwwwww :beating: they look deliriously happy about them, too :D

Thanks for the pictures, Bell!

Margaret, congrats to your nephew on the Rugbee team-making :D

I do hope your holiday weight is slowly coming off--today I JUST got back to my pre-vacation weight again, although last Saturday I was down a pound from that (last weekend I ate too much). This 6 am yoga routine I have and exercise from 6-8:45pm for the past 2 days really makes little time to overeat! Only issue is late dinners. I don't like eating dinner at 9pm but whatever!

For some reason I can't imagine your voice being English although I know it must sound that way--do you hear our "voices" on here as American (when we are that is?)
 
Thanks for visiting.

Dawn
Thanks for the photos of the kids with the little gifts. I am so pleased that they liked them. Your kids are just so very sweet - they are adorable!

The letter from Isa was lovely too.

I am pleased that the Greek postal service got round to doing it's stuff. Sometimes things take a while to get delivered.

Valerie
I am very proud of my nephew. He has supported Harlequins for a long time and was overjoyed just to be associated with the club via the academy and then as a reserve team player. It is amazing that he has achieved at age 19 what was until then his life's ambition to be listed as part of their first team.

Harlequins Rugby League - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It is very difficult to break into a worthwhile career in a sport - but wonderful if he can work doing something that he has always loved.

My holiday gain is slowly coming down. I weighed in at 9st9.6 (135.6 pounds) in shorts after my long walk and pilates class this morning. It is great that you have got rid of your holiday gain entirely - even eroding beyond that at times. The evening exercise will have a definite impact as I think that 6-8.45pm is a key time for nibbling. I have been eating later too - but am trying to bring that forward again. The fact is that when we were in Greece we were often eating about 10pm and it has been a bit of a struggle getting round to eating the meal before 9pm this week since we got back.

It is funny that you mention accents. You may be amused to learn that to me pretty much everyone on the forum has acquired a mild north-east of England accent - very similar to my own.
 
Omega said:
It is funny that you mention accents. You may be amused to learn that to me pretty much everyone on the forum has acquired a mild north-east of England accent - very similar to my own.
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LOL! Even me, when you've heard my nasally Midwestern accent many times? :D

That's great news about Luke. I told David and he was pleased for him and said, "good effort." Becoming a sports pro is no easy feet, so well done! :hurray:

That was so cute with Dawn's kids. Mmm...baklava!! :drool5: I might have to run down to the Greek deli and get me some. :D

Glad to hear the weight is coming back down. I think you'll find it comes off pretty well. I doubt it'll take long before you reach your goal weight. If you want to take another holiday, you can come here in late November for a Thanksgiving feast at our condo. I know you'd definitely gain some weight back then..lol. But we could walk it off (in the cold and possibly snow). :D
 
WELCOME BACK MARGARET! It sounds like your holiday was simply splendid. How exciting and strange to have close friends fail to recognize you since your weight loss. That must really drive home the point that you have lost SO incredibly much weight. i loved your story about leading the dance...I can picture it like a scene from a movie!

No worries about your holiday weight gain - likely sodium had lots to do with it. i think it would be crazy to expect to maintain on such a wonderful holiday! I am sure you'll knock those extra pounds off in no time.:smash:

Cheers my friend
Janice:Angel_anim:
 
Hi!
It looks like you have been away, and so was I. It's great to be back. I haven't read all your old posts, but I hope everything continued to go well, like it was before I left.
 
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