A Good Week

This past week has been a good week for me, not a great week, but a good week nonetheless.

I changed my eating plan and, for the next 30 days, am following the LEANing Challenge with We Are Slimming.  This first week I lost 1.8kg which I am really happy with.  The few kgs that I picked up while on holiday in NZ in August seem to be stuck with glue and I have been really battling to get them off.  It looks like they might be coming off now.

This eating plan is very much like the 500cal/day that I did a few months ago except that you can have more than 500cal a day !  No dairy, no sugar, no carbs, no wheat, no soft drinks (which is killing me I have to be honest !!) BUT I am enjoying the food.  It just means that I need to be more organised and better prepared as it isn't that easy to grab food on the fly. (Bugger, just remembered I left the avo to go with my lunch at home !!!)  Oh well, at $2.50 per avo, it just means I can save a bit of money as I won't have to buy avos as soon as I thought I would !

The one downside of my week has been very little exercise - mainly because last week the weather was really cr*ppy and then on Friday when A and I were taking the dogs for a walk, I hurt my knee.  Iced it Friday night and spent a lot of Saturday on the couch icing it.  The good thing is that on Sunday it felt so much better that last night we went for a 45 min walk without it twingeing at all.

I am hoping to go for a short run tonight (weather permitting) before we fetch my folks to take them out to dinner for my Mom's 75th birthday tonight.

I would like to put a call out to whoever swopped my child, can you please not swop her back - ever - and I really do mean - ever !!!!  This child (young adult ?) that I have that is helpful, considerate, patient and  understanding is so different from the grumpy, cranky pants wearing child that normally resides in our home, and I would dearly love her to stay forever (or am I just living in cloud cuckoo land ?)  I guess I will just be grateful for however long she stays !

I have committed to a new challenge with Tracey from Bliss Amongst Chaos for the month of November - 30 mins exercise per day.  I know that all the people I have spoken to about training etc have advised me about how rest days are just as important as training days but I have figured that, if on a rest day I only just go for a walk with A and the dogs, it really isn't training, it is just getting out there and moving my legs and surely it won't hurt ?  So if you are up for it - join it - the more the merrier !

Linking in with the lovely Jess from dairyofasahm for #IBOT for the very last time on this blog - good luck with your rebrand Jess - I am sure that your readers will follow you !

TFTD : The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss and have found their way out of the depths.  These people have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness and a deep loving concern.  Beautiful people do not just happen.

Man I Hate Detoxing !

On Tuesday I posted about making decisions.  Last night I made one of them - to join the LEANing Challenge with We Are Slimming.  I had already paid my money but then, after getting the manual and menu plan, went all sooki and didn't know if I would do it.

I had three days of L&E this week anyway, so thought I would give myself a couple of days to look at the manual and decide.  Well, I didn't so much read the manual and skim through it, mainly because I find manuals boring to read and picked up bits and pieces about what I could and couldn't eat.

So, last night being the last day of L&E, I figure I am going to either have to go and do some serious food shopping or else it was going to be another day that I fluffed around eating whatever I could lay my hands on.    It was K's turn to make dinner so as soon as I got home from work we made a shopping list (for me and for her because heaven forbid she should actually have got all the ingredients for dinner before 6pm on the night she is going to cook !!!) and off we went.  Well $140 and 4 grocery packets later we were home.  She asked a gazillion questions about how to make the chicken with mushroom and asparagus sauce that she had chosen to make inbetween us getting home and me dashing off to get de-haired !

Her recipe says 20 mins prep and 25 mins cooking time.  I get home just over an hour later and she is still getting it together to go into the oven !!!!  But, once it was done and we ate, it was actually bloody nice - probably her best effort so far.

I had a quick look at the menu plan for today - some mexican taco for breakfast - well that ain't going to happen now is it ?  No way I am getting up earlier than 6am to bloody cook breakfast.  So I made do with a glass of OJ and a handful of nuts !

I was a little better prepared (although not by much) for lunch and had prawns and avo/tomatoe.  I nearly had a heart attack - $2,50 for an avo - and they recommend an avo / nuts every day (for the good fats of course !!!)  Anyway, it was actually quite tasty although I only ate half of it - thought that at that price I had better ration myself with how much avo I eat - I can quite easily sit down and eat a whole avo with a little bit of salt and a sprinkling of pepper !

For dinner we had a really nice dish called paleo pancit - (have no idea what the name means except that a paleo diet is one using raw food - I think - don't quote me on it in case you get sued for wrong information !!!).  I changed it slightly as it should have had chicken, pork loin and shrimps - but we only used chicken as the others were too expensive !!!  With grated carrot, cabbage and onion.  Throw in some crushed garlic, soy sauce, chicken stock and fish sauce - bloody nice it was and it made an absolute mountain of food.  So I have frozen it for another 3 meals each for K and I - gotta love things you can take out the freezer and don't have to cook from scratch every night !!!  Oh yes, and start it all off with some coconut oil !

This eating plan is pretty much -  protein, non-starchy veg, some fruit and fats - no dairy and no wheat / carbs.  Drinking is water - tea - coffee - with almond / coconut milk if you want.  Well I don't drink tea or coffee and while I try to drink at least 1L of water a day (Mon-Fri anyway) my drink of choice is Pepsi Max - well not for the next 30 days it isn't.  My drink of choice is now WATER !!!!!!  I know I can do it because I have done it before but man it is so bloody hard.

I started with a headache at about 11.30 this morning and it has gotten progressively worse over the course of the rest of the day.  Detox - I HATE YOU !!!!  Of course, if I didn't feed my body with all the cr*p that I have done in the past, I wouldn't have picked up the weight and I wouldn't be trying to lean my body down so I do realise that I am totally responsible for having to do the detox - it just doesn't make it easier.

I was all set to run this evening after work but by the time I got home there was no ways I could manage to get out there and run - not feeling the way I did.  So instead I got started on dinner because the plan was to make the breakfast muffins tonight and, as they freeze well, just heat them up tomorrow morning.  Well after doing dinner there was no way I was going to start all over again making egg and bacon muffin thingies so change of menu and we are having coconut smoothies for breakfast instead.  On Saturday I will make the muffins and freeze them to be used during the week.  I will also  be making some frittatas to freeze and use during the week.  I just need to be organised and I can do this provided I can get rid of this bloody headache before then otherwise I am going to be swanning around on the couch feeling very sorry for myself and watching the World Series games that we will have taped during this week !!

And, because detoxing isn't bad enough, I have a dentist appointment tomorrow morning !  I HATE the dentist (probably more than the detox !!!) and have put off going for more years than I care to think about but, given this is the year I am taking myself out of my comfort zones and starting to take care of me, I thought a check-up was in order.

Linking in with Grace from With Some Grace for FYBF and Stacey-Lee from Get On With It Already for Team Friday.  Wishing you all the best weekend possible !!

TFTD : There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond your control.

Thankful Thursday

Linking in for the last time with Kate from katesaysstuff - I have had a great time linking up for TT with you - thank you so much for the time that you spent on this !

Today I am thankful for the CPAP machine that A hired for the past month.  Tomorrow he has to give it back and we have an appointment with the thoracic surgeon on Monday to find out whether :
(a) we need to purchase our own machine
(b) there is another option that may be less expensive and still do the same job

The same job would be - NO SNORING !!!!  It has been a month of bliss (mostly) during the night because even though I haven't been sleeping very well, while I am awake tossing and turning, I haven't had to listen to him snoring - SHEER BLISS I tell you !  Yes, sometimes the nose thingy-ma-jig is not in correctly and I can hear all this hissing but a small (well small compared to what I used to do !!) nudge is enough to get him to turn over and realign it to where it should be.  Occasionally I have had bursts of air on me - which during summer might not really be a downside !!

Have the best Thursday ever and take care !

TFTD :  There are seven billion people in the world.  Don't waste your time by letting one of them ruin your happiness.

Decisions Need To Be Made

Things have been going along fairly much unaided by myself recently.  Life happens.  Exercise happens.  Eating happens.  Relaxing happens.  But I feel like I have had very little control over it - mainly because I chose to step back and just let it happen.  And I have enjoyed it.  I have enjoyed the pressure that I have taken off myself to always be doing / organising / accomplishing and just let myself be.

But now the time has come to stop and make some decisions for what I want to do moving forward.  What path do I want to follow ?  What do I want to achieve ?  How am I going to get there ?  How am I going to make sure that I keep a good balance in my life ?  (None of these are work related questions - they are all ME questions about my health and fitness.)

These are questions that I am contemplating this week because I now feel motivated enough to tackle them and I want to get on the path that is right for me.

{Insert photo of pathway in here if I had one and wasn't too scared to pick one off Google images !!}

So, as soon as I have made the decisions that I need to make, and once I have heard back on some challenges I have been looking into, I'll be ready to go.  Until then I will continue to run and exercise and eat the best that I can !!

Have the best Tuesday ever !

Linking in with Jess from Dairy of a SAHM for #IBOT

TFTD : Don't cry over the past it is gone. Don't stress about the future it hasn't arrived.  Just live in the present and make it beautiful.

Team Friday

Linking in with the lovely Stacey-Lee from Get On With It Already for Team Friday because it has been a while since I blogged on a Friday (in fact it's been a while since I blogged three times in one week !!!!!) but work is a little less frantic and so I have found I have a little more time to breathe !

My exercise is starting to get back to where I want it to be - it isn't quite there just yet but I am working on it.  Thanks to Kate from katesaysstuff and #operationMOVE - I have been moving more than I would have had I not joined in which is fantastic !  It was just the motivation that I needed to get moving.

Some nights I go for a run and then when I get home  go for a walk with A and the two dogs.  I have learned that I can't go for a run then hang around waiting to go for a walk - my legs don't like that and neither do my knees - they battle to get moving for the walk after a break like that.  But it is all good !

Last week I did a couple of runs - one was just over 5kms - no walking - which I was really happy about.  Another run was only 3.7km but my pace was 6:36/km which I was EXTREMELY happy with - now to build up my distance and my pace.

What I plan to do is some nights run for distance and other nights run for pace - at some point it has to all come together, doesn't it ????  And, if it doesn't, I guess it isn't all bad - at least I have been exercising in the meantime.

Last night I joined the LEANing Challenge which starts on Monday (but it may be Tuesday or Wednesday before I get started on it) so will keep you all informed on how I am going with that.

Right now - LIFE IS GREAT - things are going well at home, with my family, with work, with my life and I am all sorts of grateful for that !!!!

Have the best weekend you possibly can.  I am looking forward to a picnic with K and the two little girls that she babysits on a Saturday down at Burleigh - after an appointment with the osteo who I know is going to rouse on me because I haven't been kind to my body !!!  Sometimes it just won't listen to me !!!!!!

TFTD : Regularly having fun is a key factor in having a happy life, people who have fun are twenty times more likely to feel happy.
{I wonder if that is why we were so happy at the 7's rugby on Saturday - it was so much fun ?????}

Thankful Thursday

I didn't have a post planned for today - in fact, I never have a post planned.  In just about every instance, I sit down when I have a few minutes and think "What can I bang out today ?" and that is what I blog.

I haven't had much to blog about lately.  My exercise is coming along, albeit slower than I would have liked BUT I am OK with that - now - I have realised that something is better than nothing and if that something is not as fast as a previous something, that is OK too.

What I have figured out is that I need to have a goal - I need to have an event that I am training for because running 3 or 4 times a week with no goal to aim for, is starting to suck big time.  So, that is one thing that I do need to look into.  The fact that we have entered Warrior Dash in November sometime doesn't count as A and I will do that together and I will be way fitter than him and so will have slow down to his pace which is totally fine because for too many years he slowed himself down to my pace when it came to anything exercise related.

Last week ProBlogger Training was on and at one point I went all "Oh no - why am I not going to that" and then I took a step back and realised that I didn't really want to go anyway.  Firstly, I don't do social events well - in fact, I am pretty hopeless at them.  Secondly, my blog is just that - mine.  I don't have to compare myself or my stats (whatever they may be) to anyone else in the blog-a-sphere.  Yes there are blogs that are WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY more successful than mine - good for them - may they continue to grow and prosper.

This blog was never about becoming famous / well known / or anything else - it is merely a place where I can ramble on about what has been happening in my life.  Sometimes it connects with someone who can relate to it and they feel "Geez, thank goodness I am not the only one that feels like that / has done that / has had that done to them" and that is GREAT.  I am happy if something that I say on here can help someone else in some small way.  Would I like more followers ?  Yes I would if it meant that what I was saying was helpful to more people.  But, at the end of the day, I realise that I don't have many pearls of wisdom to throw out there so if people read and comment - great, if people read and don't comment - great too and if nobody reads, that is also fine.  This is more of a record for myself of where I have been and what I have achieved and if I can help someone alone the way, all the better.

So, for today, I am thankful for my little space in the blog-a-sphere.  I am thankful that I am running my own race (literally and figuratively).  I am thankful that I am not getting my knickers in a twist over the race that other people are running because it is their race to run.

What I am not thankful about is the fact that the lovely Kate from katesaysstuff is passing the Thankful Thursday baton to someone else.  It has been wonderful linking up for TT when I have but there are new adventures for her to tackle and someone new will be at the helm for TT from next week.  The good thing is that she will still be around and isn't leaving altogether !!!

TFTD : Don't be scared to walk alone, and don't be scared to like it.

Bed Etiquette

For those of you who have been following my blog for a while, you will know the issues that I have with sleep (or lack of sleep) depending on how A's snoring is going (or not going) !  Now I have a new dilemma and I am hoping that someone out there will be able to help me with this - how do you know when you have taken up too much of the bed ?

For 24.75 yrs we had two single beds pushed together to make a king size bed (I like my space especially in the summer when it is just too hot to be lying skin to skin).  This meant that I always knew where my bed stopped and his bed started so when I was being greedy, I knew because clearly I was 'over the line' !  We would often play the 'cutting off body parts' game i.e. any bodyparts over 'the line' were fair game to the other person to cut off using their hand as an imaginary saw.

We have always had two doonas because I CANNOT stand the gap that resulted when we tried to use one doona/blanket.  A few years ago we bought two double doonas to replace the single doonas we had always had and they are even better - some nights we use one doona for both of us and some nights we each use our own depending on how hot or cold I am feeling.

When we were in NZ on holiday recently we stayed at Radfords Motel in Te Anau and the bed was one of the best we have ever slept in outside of our own.  I meant to ask the owner what type of bed it was before we left but I completely forgot so had to email her.  It was a Sleepyhead bed so we went and had a look at them over here.  We couldn't find the specific one that we had slept on as it was a commercial model but we did find one that we both liked that had separate pockets (can't remember the technical name they used) but basically when I move A doesn't feel it and when he moves I don't feel it which is great because I have often wondered about my tossing and turning being disruptive for him (stupidly given he continues to snore anyway so clearly it doesn't keep him awake when I toss and turn !!!)

This is the mattress we bought

Our new mattress was delivered a couple of weeks ago and it really is very comfy BUT the predicament I find myself in now is that I don't know where the middle of the bed is - so where does my half finish and his half start.  Now I am sure I take up more than half the bed even though he is bigger than me.  I even find that I move my pillow over and we land up both sleeping on the same side of the bed with my legs stretched out to the end of my side of the bed (sort of right angles to my body).

Does anyone else do this ?  Or am I the only one who worries about how much of the bed I am taking up ?  I guess it isn't an issue for him because he hasn't complained about it.  When we had the two single mattresses there were a few occasions when I lay so far across on his bed he got up, walked around the beds and went and slept on my bed but he hasn't done that as yet with the new mattress.

Do you share your bed equally or does one of you hog the bulk of the bed ?

TFTD : When you begin to value yourself, others will also.  How you treat yourself teaches others how to treat you.

Quick Hullo

I just had a look at my blog and see that I haven't posted since 28th September - how did that happen ?  How did two weeks go by without a post ?  How did I not realise that it was two weeks ?

Quite easily I guess given that is what happened !!!!

Bottom line - work has been chaotic.  Accounts lady at our plant in Inala went on leave - over month end - nice one GM of that plant for authorising that without checking who would do her work when she was away.  So I went up three of the five days the first week - only to get there and find that the receptionist's Mom had had a stroke the day before and so she was off as well.  So between trying to do the accounts and cash sales and cover reception and get home at a reasonable time to be able to exercise, I felt a bit like a headless chook.

The second week was even worse because it was my month end and I have 6 companies to close - all the while trying to get up to Inala to get that work finished so that I could finish my work.  Our management meeting is on Monday morning and luckily I have managed to get those financials all finished - just the last of the tax accounts to balance, 2 BAS statements to be reconciled and I am done for another month - YAY !!!

In the meantime one of the guys who works with us got a phone call to say that his brother had just committed suicide so he took off to go and help his family.  The funeral is tomorrow so will be going up to Toowoomba for that.

Months ago my folks were out and about on their travels and saw some chenille yarn and called me and I got them to buy me 30 balls - I have started making blankets with this yarn and it is soooooooooooooooooo beautiful to crochet.  Last night I stayed up until about 12.45 because I wanted to keep crocheting !!!!!!!  I have asked them to keep an eye out for more when they are out and about - it is so soft.  I know that some baby somewhere is going to be happy to have that keeping them warm.

Today K got an sms to go out on an SES call - she is very excited about going to look for a 57yo in the rain - please let her be safe wherever she is and whatever they are doing to find this poor person who is missing.  I am very proud of her decision to join the SES and help others in times of need / trouble.

We did get a new mattress but that is a whole other post !

To all those bloggers at the ProBlogger Training Event - have the BEST time ever !

TFTD : You were given this life because you are strong enough to live it.