This is the time

Hi felici, I've just been having a look at your diary and wanted to say thank you for sharing your thoughts, your difficulties and your happy moments with us. I'm going through a rough couple of days, so it's certainly a help to see that others in a similar situation (work, kids...) find it tough-going at times, but continue on-track.

Well done for your success so far :party:
 
Oh thanks, Auburn!

Unfortunately, I don't always stay 100% on track! I usually do try fairly hard to get my food about right, because it has been such a big problem for me in the past whenever I haven't kept a fairly tight rein on it. I am only 5 foot too, so the amount I think might be right for me (and I'm not sure about it!), may well be a bit light on for someone taller. Right now it's not all that difficult for me to eat the way I am.

I think the thing that's suffered the most when I've become busy has been my exercise. I'm hoping the greater flexibility I should gain from joining a health club this week, will make a difference this year.
 
I forgot to:nopity: about my food today.

I have been counting fresh dates as an amazing food that tastes like cake but has only 20 calories. This is the figure I saw on several on-line sites when I first checked them. Mind you, the number of 20 calories I thought I was getting sometimes, was excessive, and just from the way I responded to them, I had consequently already cut them back a lot during the last week or two.

Anyway, today, while looking for something else, in my little paper book, I accidentally saw that they reckon dates are about 60-65 calories each!!! And I saw that when I had just eaten 3 View attachment 5396 . So I looked online again and did the convert oz to grams thing and found that some sites say 20 cals each and others are agreeing with the paper book. This is all for fresh dates btw. So bummer!!! They have to go back in the special treat category. Or else one date = one apple/pear etc. But a date is so small!!! :D Oh well.

The other thing that I noticed tonight was not new to me, but was clear in a stunning way. For some reason, I was tired by the end of the day, enough that I thought I might have a 5-10 minute nap, while I was waiting for my son to ring and say it was time to collect him from work. Only his work finished later than expected, so I had a much longer nap - 30 minutes or so. Anyway, during the day I had really not been that bothered about food. I ate during the afternoon, but mainly because I thought it was the best thing to do. Then I ate dinner because it had been prepared for me. I still felt fine.

After the nap though, I woke up feeling like a zombie and ready to eat heaps and preferably something high in simple carbs! (A family sized block of chocolate would have been appealing....) Luckily my experience and awareness of this state has grown somewhat from the bad times when I would have acted on the impulse. I just looked around the fridge and pantry and decided to eat the extra crackers I hadn't had before. The long drink helped, and I told myself that I would get a cappuccino when I got the boy. I was really unsure what my day's calories were though and demoralized about the dates!! So by the time I had driven to the shops I was over the whole thing. That was the best bit of all. I found out it passes!! So fast. Maybe that little bit of carbs and a drink was needed or helpfully a part of it's passing.
 
15 December 2007 - Friday 21 December 2007

Exercise:

Saturday – None
Sunday – 1 hr + walking.
Monday – 15 minutes walking dog
Tuesday – 20 min swim
Wednesday – 30 min swim
Thursday – 35 min walk
Friday – None
Saturday – 1 hour swim

Well I'm at least managing something on more days than I was – clearly a lot of room for increasing the amount of time I put in to this.

Calories from food.

Saturday – 1481
Sunday – 1824
Monday - 1640
Tuesday - 1395
Wednesday – 1352
Thursday - 1574
Friday - 1587
Saturday – 1384

I suppose that's ok. I will just wait and see how things are panning out over the next 2-3 weeks I guess.

Start Weight Saturday : Broken scales at shops. Think it's 70.0 kg. Scales at home: 69.5+ (not recorded on the day)

Finish weight Saturday: Scales at shops are not working at all again! so 3 Saturdays in a row I don't have a number. And I'm not sure I will be able to ever count on them again after the silly result last week!!

My scales at home show me as 68.5 kg today. So maybe I've lost a kilo this week.

Then again I can't count on those scales to give me good info. Also, in the past they have given results 0.5 – 1.5 kg lighter than the results I actually record in this diary from the shopping centre scales. Which would have meant maybe I would still be at 70 kg there.

With no good record, I thought I would take measurements today, though my weight is probably close to the weight I was at last time I took them. However, the measurements are pretty much the same – and if I take them repeatedly they all fluctuate in and out around the old numbers. So I'm guessing that means that if they have changed it's not by much. Ditto for my weight.

Anyway, it looks like I may end up never quite knowing how much I lose from day 1 to day whenever I stop losing. I guess I should start telling the constant stream of people who ask me how much it is, that it's approximately whatever, or plus or minus a kilo the way we learned to measure things in high school. Maybe that's how all my weight measures should have been anyway.

However, I think I have found some new scales that will let me track week to week. The health club has some that look like they would be accurate – with bars and little sliders to move along them. In common with all the other scales I've ever used, they weigh me much lighter than the number I have been using here. (Though these look like the lightest of all ~ 66.5 kg today). So finally I should be able to trust my weekly loss by next week – except – Christmas is in the way!! And my birthday as well ... Will there be a loss? As I'm more confident of recovering now, I am not planning a hardline approach to Christmas eating like I did last year, so probably I will still be hanging around with this same old weight that I first reached in September. I guess that's the choice I'm making.
 
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Sunday 23nd December

Breakfast: 9:30 Toast (70-80) with plum and cinnamon jam.(15) A boiled egg.(70) Weetbix (107) with soy milk (122) and tinned peaches (50). C coffee with a little hilo milk. (5)
Breakfast - 449 calories.

Lunch: 1:30 pm 4 Vive crackers (105). 85 gm low fat cottage cheese (77). 7 snow peas (7). 1 carrot (40). 2 mushrooms (4).
Lunch - 233 calories.

3:00 2 Vive crackers (53).
5:30 1 Vive crackers (27). 35 gm low fat cottage cheese (32).
8:00 ½ (140 gm) large orange (48)

Dinner: 9:15pm Thai green chicken. 170 gm lean thighs (212), ½ zucchini (15), 115 gm bamboo shoots (18), 1/2 tbspn EVO oil (60) coconut milk (30?) max. 60 – cooked in it - but I don't actually put the liquid on my plate. ½ C basmati rice(85). Diet apricot yoghurt (84)
Dinner – 504 calories

Total for the day – 1319

Two days in a row of lowish calories but I'm sure I will need the credit on Tuesday!

Exercise: ~ 4:00pm 20 minute swim at the beach. I estimate this is the amount I was fairly active for.
8:20pm 40 min local walk. Fairly brisk I think when I was walking, but I did stop a few times.

The poor dog. After the swim I didn't think she'd want a walk, but later on she came to me with her ears pricked up as I left the house. She faded badly though!! I stopped and squirted water in her mouth out of my bottle, but she still wanted to take the direct route home and I had to put her on her lead to get her to go with me. Now I think about it, she must have been a lot more tired out by the beach than me , because when I got there I spent a while taking photos, and being coy about how cold the water was and so on, where as she just started running madly back and forth barking at the foam, and swimming, and didn't stop till we left!

She was excited the moment we left the house. I reckon she knew where we were going. She does always like to be in the car though. When I drove to York the other day she sat up on the front seat looking out for the whole way, with a big grin on her face. :D

I had a few pleased thoughts today. One was that my beach baggies are much baggier than they were when I started swimming. They were too tight then, but now they have gone past snug to being comfy. Another was when we walked back up from the beach to the car park. How many times getting back up there has seemed like a massive struggle to me, and today despite carrying a boogey board awkwardly under one arm, I just slightly noticed my knees getting tight by the end of it. :D

My home scales are being kind too and I felt slimmer today. I think swimming automatically makes me do a lot of stretching and also improves my posture. I am tired now though - but in a good way with a few muscles feeling nicely exercised.

This is the beach we went to – the dog beach – which is a bit seaweedy and rocky and not my first choice for exercise, but good because we can take the dog there. I should remember to bring goggles another time, because there wasn't much turbulence today and the little reefs are worth a look.

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hey hey, just poking my nose in and catching up on what you've been up too :)

Have a nice BBQ summery Xmas (im off away for a few days).
 
Thanks wishes! We're looking at 39 degrees for our Christmas lunch outside tomorrow. Not a BBQ unfortunately. Some version of hot roast meat and veges!! And it's at the home of someone newly linked to that side of the family too!

C'est la vie!! I do anticipate good company!!

The evening will be at my sister's - held indoors in air conditioning and and complete with cold food and a pool handy!! :D

I have just that part of contributing to the food for both houses, which I can do the night before. It's 1:30. Yet another tradition.

I ate ok today. I just don't have time to list everything and count it all up. A big gap before I ate any lunch, then a bit high on protein. Plus I ate bits of the custard I was making tonight. Not recommended ... but it tasted great!! I made heaps too, so most of that trifle will probably end up back here later ... Oh well. Last year I ate it on the day and left the leftovers for my husband. I might do that.

I so loved the feeling I had yesterday of being slimmer and fitter once more. I really don't want Christmas to push me back the other way. I will have to start a new tradition for myself of limiting the decadent day, to just one day. :)
 
oye !! that's so unfair to have a double holiday !! what a challenge !! I'll bet you wowed everyone with your new figure *winks*
 
hehe hope you had as good an xmas as i did. diet out the window, 3 days of solid eating :p
I think its time for some cycling to burn it off now.
 
I'm so jealous of that BBQ and cold food and hot weather :)
Happy Holidays Felici :)
Lena
Christmas Day was actually a bit hotter than we like at 40.4 degrees c which is 104.7 degrees F. Still it was fun. The "Christmas under the gum trees" we were invited to, was pleasant despite the heat, with the maximum temperature happening later in the day. There were little kids unwrapping presents, and yummy food ... well too much of that trifle for me, and too many sweet choices in the evening, but a lot of good company. Thank goodness for those giant SuperSoaker water cannon fights!
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oye !! that's so unfair to have a double holiday !! what a challenge !! I'll bet you wowed everyone with your new figure *winks*
Well I did start out Christmas Day feeling good. I wore 2 new sets of clothes and I was pretty happy with them. And I did start out Boxing Day (26th December) swimming ... I'm afraid Christmas week has turned into a challenge for me now and one I did an atrocious job on today. I still have an afternoon tea and restaurant dinner tomorrow, then that should bring the external challenges to an end.

We didn't get the traditional Christmas "jokes" in our crackers at my sister's this week. She made us a selection of Christmas cartoon placemats. We did get quotes in the crackers. Mine has turned out to be more pertinent than I wanted:
This thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down. Mary Pickford.

hehe hope you had as good an xmas as i did. diet out the window, 3 days of solid eating :p
I think its time for some cycling to burn it off now.
Diet out the window was me. I absolutely need to burn off calories now.

I'm not quite sure what exercise I'll be up for. The temperature is more like a normal Perth summer now, but still hot. Boxing Day was even worse than Christmas Day with a maximum of 44.4 degrees C (112 degrees F). I have retreated away from the computer room here, which is not air conditioned, as even the nights have been really hot.

Today, instead of swimming I was back at the physio. After swimming to exercise on Boxing Day, I took my girl to the beach and stupidly dove my face into a sandbank. The physio helped a lot, and I have a lot more movement in my neck tonight than I did this morning. However, this leaves me with only backstroke and walking that I can do in the pool. I guess that leaves a bunch of machines at the gym!! I may go in there tomorrow morning.

I had expected two bad days and even those ones I hoped would be not too bad. Actually yesterday and today were worse. With hindsight I see this as linked to choosing to read the novel I was given for Christmas. I have a long history of eating badly while I read novels. After many years of devouring treats along with books, these last 18 months I have barely read any. The exception would be my time on holiday in New Zealand when I read novels (good novels!) but ate badly. The book's engrossing, but almost finished, so hopefully the sane felici is about to resurface.

I'm not sure about listing the food and calories I've consumed these past days. Thousands. I probably should estimate them as a kind of penance. Though I think that as far as avoiding this another time goes, perhaps just remembering the novel thing and having an eating plan (ie non-eating plan), worked out before ever starting to read another one, would be the most helpful technique. I have been reading a book these past few months, but it is a book of essays - that doesn't impact in the same way.
 
Well I don't 'diet' but I can relate to pushing past my acceptable limit on Xmas day - even though I did a double walk that day, too. I doubt it was much in the way of collateral damage. I'm sure I was in the 7000+ cal range, including a handful of cookies and other sinful options. It is what it is. I'm not bothered about it much.

I have a specific agenda for '08. Consider this the calm before the storm ;)

112 degrees !! ffs.
 
aqua jogging! running/jogging whilst in the pool! great way to burn up a bit.
Yeah its pretty hot over here too, not as hot as over there though.

Jeez T2, you really did kill it with 7000 - how did ya do that? I thought i was bad for hitting the 3000-4000ish (hey i had 3 helpings of pudding! i was great for the rest of the day!)
 
7 beers (at least) and too many handful of almonds and cashews. Let's at least feel good about passing on the 6 Pizza Hut pizzas that were delivered and I had zero slices of.

My Mom's cooking is so strong, I don't get the pizza thing at all - a sign of the pitiful times, I guess.

Beer over pizza is an easy choice for me :) I had seconds on the spaghetti and meatballs just so you know :drool5:
 
Hey girlfriend,
I'm OH SO JEALOUS of your weather right now, man send some of that sunshine over my way PRETTY PLEASE!!!!!!

This has been a tough December eating wise for me, and it's just been a strange one all together with all the crazy stuff that has happend, but I'm ready to kick it back in shape next month with just about everyone else. Do you think you'll join a challenge next month?? Have you done one of those yet?? I can't wait to do another one, since i did so badly on Decembers challenge.

Well, I better get going, I have a lot do get done today. But I wanted to be sure to tell you HAPPY NEW YEAR and have a great weekend!!

loved the picture, thanks for sharing it with us!
Kim
 
7 beers (at least) and too many handful of almonds and cashews. Let's at least feel good about passing on the 6 Pizza Hut pizzas that were delivered and I had zero slices of.

My Mom's cooking is so strong, I don't get the pizza thing at all - a sign of the pitiful times, I guess.

Beer over pizza is an easy choice for me :) I had seconds on the spaghetti and meatballs just so you know :drool5:

Oh beer and cashews, fair call, i could do 7000 alone on cashews myself :O

And if anyone wants to swap a little cool for a little hot feel free to swap with me! :O
 
Hi Felici

Just calling in to say that I hope that you had a happy birthday. You mentioned that you had the same birthday as Frankie in her diary.

Take care
Love
Margaret
 
And if anyone wants to swap a little cool for a little hot feel free to swap with me! :O


Gawd, I'd smack ya with a snowball in a New York second for one day of warmth. This deck walking is just not getting it done. I really lost my zest for it this year for some reason :banghead:

I wanna ride !!


A late Happy Birthday wish to you Kerry A !!
 
Well I don't 'diet' but I can relate to pushing past my acceptable limit on Xmas day - even though I did a double walk that day, too. I doubt it was much in the way of collateral damage. I'm sure I was in the 7000+ cal range, including a handful of cookies and other sinful options. It is what it is. I'm not bothered about it much.

I have a specific agenda for '08. Consider this the calm before the storm ;)

112 degrees !! ffs.
Well one crap day wouldn't have bothered me either, but my lack of posting here is directly related to the fact that I had a bunch of really terrible binges.

It was doubly good for me (in my more lucid moments), so see that there was still some positivity (like yours), happening in my vicinity here.
aqua jogging! running/jogging whilst in the pool! great way to burn up a bit.
Yeah its pretty hot over here too, not as hot as over there though.

Jeez T2, you really did kill it with 7000 - how did ya do that? I thought i was bad for hitting the 3000-4000ish (hey i had 3 helpings of pudding! i was great for the rest of the day!)
Yep! There's almost always a way to keep going with a decent program. I've let myself be constantly balked these last few days, yet there was no physical need for that.

As for the multithousands of calories, well I doubt Randy beat me ...

7 beers (at least) and too many handful of almonds and cashews. Let's at least feel good about passing on the 6 Pizza Hut pizzas that were delivered and I had zero slices of.

My Mom's cooking is so strong, I don't get the pizza thing at all - a sign of the pitiful times, I guess.

Beer over pizza is an easy choice for me :) I had seconds on the spaghetti and meatballs just so you know :drool5:
It was the trifle that started my slide, and then chocolates and icecreams. I do have an intention of calculating a couple of binge days worth of calories, but have only just brought myself around to feeling sure I'm past it.

Hey girlfriend,
I'm OH SO JEALOUS of your weather right now, man send some of that sunshine over my way PRETTY PLEASE!!!!!!

This has been a tough December eating wise for me, and it's just been a strange one all together with all the crazy stuff that has happend, but I'm ready to kick it back in shape next month with just about everyone else. Do you think you'll join a challenge next month?? Have you done one of those yet?? I can't wait to do another one, since i did so badly on Decembers challenge.

Well, I better get going, I have a lot do get done today. But I wanted to be sure to tell you HAPPY NEW YEAR and have a great weekend!!

loved the picture, thanks for sharing it with us!
Kim
You are welcome to an extra 20-30 degrees F daily!! When you feel a warm south wind - that's from us. I hope the arrival is timely!

Thanks for the New Year wishes and for the visit, Kim. At least you had hard and uncontrollable circumstances to blame for the disruption to your hard work. I can't claim anything like that.

I have never joined a challenge here. Perhaps therefore I don't know as much about how they work as I could. I see they appear to be really helpful for some other people. I've never been sure they would be the best way for me personally - but perhaps that's because I've misapprehended them as requiring the achievement of weight targets rather than activity targets.

Oh beer and cashews, fair call, i could do 7000 alone on cashews myself :O

And if anyone wants to swap a little cool for a little hot feel free to swap with me! :O
I expect there is enough icky cold up there for us both to share if we only could!!!

We're in a weather lull just now. I reckon I could have walked during the daytime today if I hadn't been badly shanghaied on my way out the door. At least the weather was nice enough.

I noticed the other day that on the first page of my diary I was hurdling motherhood barriers to get started with my exercise and it seems that's a constant. I see that I need both more confidence and a stronger habit, to make it happen, and that both will come from just doing it, and then doing it again ...

Hi Felici

Just calling in to say that I hope that you had a happy birthday. You mentioned that you had the same birthday as Frankie in her diary.

Take care
Love
Margaret
Thank you Margaret. That's exceptionally thoughtful! I hope my birthday mate will have time to get back here soon too!!

I got a pedometer for Christmas!! I'm not sure if it works properly though. I finally put it on my waistband late this afternoon, and it seems to have registered 2000 or so steps already. That seems a bit high for someone who has basically just walked back and forwards between the computer, the kettle and the loo!! At least it's nice and tight though. I haven't dropped it on the floor yet. :D

Gawd, I'd smack ya with a snowball in a New York second for one day of warmth. This deck walking is just not getting it done. I really lost my zest for it this year for some reason :banghead:

I wanna ride !!


A late Happy Birthday wish to you Kerry A !!
Well at least one of your snowy months is nearly done with! New music on the ipod!!

Ta for the happy birthday! I did have a lovely day. I got lots of appearance related gifts- jewellery and a special dress.

Now I need to use the extra holiday time I have, to deal with all the extra thousands of calories I've eaten and get myself, yet again, into a new space on my scales, so that I feel like I have a reason to celebrate the dress. I want to go back to feeling as though my tummy is where it wants to be when it's tucked in a bit, instead of feeling fraudulent!!



Thanks to everyone who posted here when I didn't. I did keep reading here, and I feel guilty about not replying sooner. I guess while I was constantly saying to myself that I was almost done with overeating, I was also telling myself that I was almost ready to post here.

I want to write a bit more about this, but not now. I'm going to try and get some sleep first.
 
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