Back to losing weight finally. 99.8 kgs instead of 101.9 kgs (219.56 lb not 223.52 lb) 8/12/14

For so long I have stayed near 101- 102 kgs that I thought that was the end of my weight loss journey but recently I have been heading down again and I am so happy about that.

Possible factors for the weight loss

• Longer days with more sunlight lessens the desire for Carbohydrates and comfort foods.
• Walking as a form of exercise for an hour a day.
• Finding something that gives me joy to do
• Eating more salads and coleslaw, less puddings
• Trialing the herbal extract Garcinia to see if it lessens my desire to eat (YES)
• Distracting myself with things I enjoy (writing, crochet, reading)
• Being busy doing things to get ready for Xmas (wrapping and sending parcels - a walk to do that), putting up Xmas tree and lights, baking)
• Washing walls and ceilings throughout the apartment (next; scrub carpets)
• Engrossing books to read that so involve you in the story that external things disappear

These are some of the things that brought me joy recently:

1. Finishing a fourth knee rug for Hospice -  made out of mohair so it is soft, light and warm. This one was larger so that a man with longer legs or wider body could use it and in darker colours so it wasn't too girly.
2. Growing beautiful scented flowers, and nice vegetables to pick and eat from the containers on our front patio (purple flower is heliotrope, with a beautiful vanilla scent).
3. Having unexpected visitors from overseas that you loved catching up with.
4. Muscle cars, muscle cars for you to see at the carols in the square.
5. Singing along with the singers at Carols in the Square last Thursday

My Goals for December:

1. Lose 3 kilos
2. Eat a beautiful and healthy Xmas dinner
3. Enjoy my family over the holiday season
4. Enjoy having my eldest daughter back with us from the 12th December
5. Talking to my younger daughter as she gets to grips with her 3rd child born recently, as the others are so much older
   
6. Be thankful for my family and friends
7. Edit my Nanowrimo words into something much better, print and bind it for my daughter and her family.

101 kgs so slowly going down again 1/12/14

I have news. I am a grandmother again for the 3rd time. Cooper Stephen Schweitzer was born at 8.02 pm last night NSW, Australia time at Tweed Hospital, Tweed Heads. He was 4.4 kgs (9.68 lb) and 59 cms long so a large baby. He faced posterior so labour was on and off since last Friday and in the end his heart started to slow so they did an emergency caesarian operation to get him out. He, of course, is gorgeous. My congratulations to my daughter and her family. She is a bit sore but it sounds like the drugs are still helping.

I was concerned about her over the weekend but distracted myself by completing Nanowrimo. In the last 24 hours I wrote over 11,000 words to complete the 50,000 word target to become a WINNER. I am a WINNER, yay. 3rd time to do it, first time to complete it. I still have more writing to do on the story then a lot of editing and insertion of photos etc but will take a few days break first to give my hands a rest.

Weight wise I can't do a lot of my exercises in the gym for a while as had my hand operated on for RSI last Thursday. Yes, it is letting me know as I used it too much yesterday. I kept forgetting and used it to type. I can do long walks and I have been doing daily walks so that is my exercise style for the next couple of weeks. Every bit helps. I may try garcinia herbal supplement as well and see if that makes any difference. I still crave sweets and Xmas is coming so I shall see if it does take away that craving and help with fat removal. Watch this space to see the result. Trying MyFitnessPal but Nanowrimo took up my time so must get back to using it. It helped me track food, exercise and breakdown of food properties.

Congratulations on high points in your life too.

Almost Guy Fawkes night. 101.6 kgs still

I am stable in weight at the moment . I managed to get myself to the gym three times last week but did do some very long walks during most days. I stopped taking my vitamins as now my body is back in balance I react strongly to pyridoxine. That B Vitamin makes me feel very hungry when I take it. I am slowly feeling less hungry and am taking back the snacking I was doing, a lot. I can take a longer time before the desire to eat distracts me. I actually use distraction also.

Nanowrimo has restarted and I am already over 5000 words done towards the 50,000 endpoint word count to be a winner. If I included journal writing and blogging I would probably be closer to the 10,000 mark in the last few days. I am writing what I remember (and my mum) of my younger daughter's life. She does not remember a lot of her childhood and I want to jog her memory. I will put photos in it later and print it out/ bind it and give it to her. She can keep it for herself only or let her children have a look also. I might leave some lined pages for her to put in things she remembers.

If my fingers are on the keyboard they can't be buttering crackers and putting toppings on, then heading towards my mouth then hips. I HAVE MORE WEIGHT I WANT TO LOSE YET. I want to get down to between 75-80 kgs at least. 65 kgs may be too ambitious but you never know.

I have also been crocheting more lap rugs for Hospice. They are done in mohair so are light and warm, soft to the touch and should not irritate fragile skin. I am doing a couple of ones in darker colours that guys may find easier to use.

Today I was at gym before 9 a.m. It was probably the best place to be other than tucked in your bed, which is not productive weight-loss wise, as the rain was coming down torrential and sideways at times. I was glad I had not decided to go for a long walk as I would have looked like a drowned rat.I did my walking at 5 km/hr on a treadmill; made 1.73 km distance at a 1.0 incline for 104 calories. I did some leg and arms weight work also. I could have stayed longer as when I got back Mum decided to stay in bed a little longer. The rain had made her joints very achy. Tonight not a cloud in the sky and it is getting very chilly outside. Occasionally you hear fireworks popping and sometimes, if they let off a fewm you can get to see them.

I am having an egg on gluten free bread for a number of my breakfasts. I want to have a protein drink more often at lunch as I don't feel hungry for a longer time. No nibbling, regular exercise = weight loss starting up again. I wish the pool on the property was heated and under cover. If it was I would be exercising in it year round. We just need a run of warm,fine days and it might get usable. Yesterday I spent the afternoon out in our patio garden re-potting plants, uplifting some bulbs, planting others and re-arranging where the pots were sitting. I also watered the plants earlier in the day and sprayed fish emulsion over all the plants to feed them and get rid of some bug pests. I also rescued and re-used a planter and freesia bulbs that some-one had dumped in the rubbish bin. I don't mind people seeing me retrieve items from the rubbish if they are palnts. I Australia I once retrieved 50 Amaryllis bulbs of all different shadings. we had a beautiful garden after that.

Tomorrow is KIP day so I may or may not get to the gym. If I do my Nanowrimo writing as soon as I finish this blog I may get to bed before 2 a.m. tonight. Take care of yourselves as I take care of me. You never know till you try whether you can do. Whether you believe you can or whether you believe you can't you are right. BELIEVE YOU CAN.

7th October 2014 101.9 kgs today, was 1.3 kgs lighter yesterday

That increase in weight has to mainly be fluid as you don't gain that much that quickly. I expect it to be down again tomorrow. Gym work has been a bit nicer recently as have managed to go at times a lot of other aren't. I actually go into a meditative state usually in the gym as I count my repetitions. I do a lower weight but more repetitions as I am trying to pull my skin back onto my body. Some of the young guys use large weights but less reps. They grunt and groan their way through their program but I find that very distracting to me. The gym is a small one on the housing estate grounds. I miss that meditative state when I can't reach it. I still enjoy the feeling of less fat over my bones and more taut muscle under the fat layer that is still there. 

Summer is coming to New Zealand though and I am looking forward to the times we can go into our pool. At the moment winter is trying to do a late blast and parts of our two largest islands had snow over the weekend. The skiers will love that as they had 45 cms (18 inches) more cover laid down (longer before end of season now). The equinoctial winds we get in October are having fun knocking down power poles in some areas to the dismay of some parents as it is school holidays here (2 weeks). Out of the wind when we sit on our front patio we can get the first start to our new summer tan. The bones and muscles post-gym like the relaxing qualities of the deep warmth too.

I have had fun buying Xmas presents at low prices in the sales most stores have on at the moment while they try to grab the money from the parents through their children's "I want, I need, But everyone else has one" whines. I like to get books and homeware presents for a lot of people but I also like to make some gifts. Initials embroidered for a bookmark seem to be my thing this year. I have done most of one for my mother; need to do outline around it then make up the rest of the bookmark part. I'd like to do one for my brothers as well. We shall see how we go. 

Recently I finished a crocheted blanket for the top of my bed. It is made from mohair or mohair/wool blends. It is warm, light and colourful. I have also done one to give to a friend for Hospice Care and am in the middle of the second one. She gave me a box of mohair wool when she saw I was happy working with it and just asked for "Knee rugs, Please." The lightness and warmth would be perfect for cancer patients as it would not irritate their skin but keep them much warmer. Another of the ladies at KIP (Knitting In Public, held at our local library) offered me 2 cones of mohair she has at home so she  will bring that next fortnight. I don't go to the alternate week at Howick as I now have a writing critique group on the alternate weeks. 5th Tuesday, nothing on. 

I usually enjoy the feeling of being lazy but this time I spring-cleaned my mother's room and our small hallway. I like to thoroughly clean twice a year (Spring and Autumn). The place feels and smells so much better afterwards and it helps me lose weight. I can't eat and clean at the same time and all that cleaning counts as exercise. A double whammy to my body. A good decrease in weight usually too. I love the look of the flat afterwards. Shiny windows, white net curtains, lemon smell of the polish, and if I put the mattress, etc out in the sunshine to sunbathe it comes back in much better. The mattress gets lighter as it gets rid of any moisture  absorbed from drying clothes inside the flat  on very wet days. There is a smell to things that have been in sunshine that I really enjoy.

Do you like the picture above? The photograph is of Piha Beach- a west coast of Auckland surf beach with iron sands as well) that my brother, Dave, took and and got printed in A2 size for my brother, Geoff, as a birthday present. Geoffrey then spent quite a bit of money getting it framed but it is now up on his walls where he can see it everyday. The rock in the center of the bay is called Lion Rock and if you look closely you can see why. It almost looks like a painting but it is definitely an untouched photo. Dave tried many times to get it as good as this and one day the lighting, tide, etc all came together as he wanted. 

Aim before next post:

• lose a kilo a week at least 
• finish spring cleaning of the rest of the flat
• plant out all the bulbs my brother brought for us  the other day
• finish 2 knee rugs before next KIP session (2 weeks away)
• enjoy writing group next week

I'm Back 100.9 kgs and going back to the gym 13/09/14

I did not realize how long it had been since my last post. I had an operation on my right hand for RSI and I have been caught up in that and other things. I am going to get back to writing at least once a week again. My hand has settled and I am awaiting the operation on the second one but that isn't so advanced so I am not worried if it takes another few months before it gets done. I still have to massage over the scar with hand cream regularly to help lessen internal scarring and keep it moving freely, also have to tap it to help in that release.

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It did slow me down in going to the gym as a lot of the work I did there involved weights. Even if I used the treadmill or cycle it involved having your hand on the handles etc. I did go but only occasionally. What I did do was try to go for a decent walk most days. I have yo-yoed between 99 -101 kgs recently. I have eaten more. I decided in the end that I was stressed, as all the doctors keep telling you, and I was stress eating. I decided on distraction as a way of not eating in the afternoon which is my worst time. I also need to add more protein at lunch time I think. I am eating too many carbs and it is not satisfying me for any length of time.

My distraction is threefold: 1. crocheting a blanket for me out of all the fluffy wool I have in my stash that will be light and warm for next winter, 2. writing a novel or 2 ( one middle grade age group and the other one I'd like to submit to Ellora's Cave) 3. preparing for the 2 writer's groups I am involved in. I go to a Saturday writer's group that I have been part of for a year and a half. Our next project is to have a novel, or some other writing task we want to do, outlined and organized to go for Nanowrimo in November. That is next weekend so I will spend some time over this coming week organizing for that. I want to complete my goal of writing 50,000+ words this time during Nanowrimo. I feel less guilty about going into my room now for an hour or two in the afternoon and leaving mum in the sitting room. If I go to the gym around 7 am in the morning I will have 60-90 minutes when I get back before I wake mum up at her usual time so will have extra writing time then also.

Our local librarian, who likes to encourage community use of the library facilities, asked if I could start a weekday writers group as well and that has been going for a few months now. We try to discuss an aspect of writing each fortnight and also critique a sample of each other's work. Even now there has been improvement showing. I use iMindMap 7 to do a mindmap of the topic which I hand out. It gives a visual and written summary of the topic. It can be written on too if they want. We discussed plot arcs this week and their use in keeping the story interesting. I learn as I prepare and we try to put into practice in our writing that fortnight what we have learnt. I hope it continues for a long time.

I have more confidence now I am not as large which is funny because I thought I was always confident. Maybe the negative comments I got from random strange people every so often had zapped my confidence. Why people think they have a right to make those nasty comments I don't know. What used to annoy me was the people making them had their own problems that I didn't call them on.

I will also be doing more exercise in the house as I like to do a good spring clean before Xmas and summer so I have started on the sorting out and tossing of old things I no longer need or use. I also wash the walls,floors and ceilings, wash the outside walls and windows, get the garden up to scratch, look through paperwork; sort, tidy, file or dispose of it. I check what Xmas presents I have already brought and see what else I need to get. I start making some Xmas presents to as I like to give a few hand made projects each year to some-one I love. The house cleaning is exercise and the crafting is distraction so I end up losing more weight,Yay.

14th July 2014 Going back down 99,7 kgs (219.34 lbs)

I have had an operation on my wrist for OOS last Friday so have not been to the gym. It has a few good points beyond having a more comfortable wrist when it is healed; it is difficult to get some food one handed so I am eating better and less again, also regular panadol means I am drinking more which is also good for my body. I was often forgetting to drink enough so am now getting back into that habit again. I had a bad habit of not drinking enough earlier in the day (it goes back to when I was doing morning shifts as a nurse) and that has a flow on effect down the other end of the body. Much better now.

They usually do both wrists at the same time but as Mum's carer I refused that. As it is she has to do some of the things I can't do. I take them to her mostly: vegetables that I can't prepare, pillows that need covers on, washing to fold etc. She helps me wrap my hand in a plastic bag and tapes it so I can shower and does my bra up for me. Together we are muddling through. My eldest younger brother came over the day of the op and looked after Mum. He cooked a lovely beef roast for tea and cut my food up for me. My middle younger brother took me to and from the hospital. Family there when you need them, brilliant.

I think the weight loss has come from the difficulty in getting the food so I am eating less (e.g. not nibbling) and also with only using one hand you have to do more walking to put things away etc. I want to be back to the gym on Wednesday on the treadmill and/or Exercycle at least, maybe some ball squats and abdominal exercises too. The weather has finally improved a little; no gale force winds and only the occasional shower instead of torrential rain. We did wake up to the thickest fog for many years though. I have done a lot of reading over the weekend so might go for a walk to the library today to get some extra exercise in. That is something I can do if the gym doesn't work for me; long regular walks around our area.

Here are some good reasons to get fit and reduce your size if you are too big. These are all things I find are coming back into my life. I had the first weekday writer's group last week and there were 12 of us altogether which is a good size for a group that wants to write and grow by being critiqued by others also hoping to write better. We all come to the group with different skills so it can hopefully be a growth experience. I would love it if we all get published at some stage. I am learning a lot already as I do preparation for each group session so that can only be helpful. We are going to try fortnightly at first and see how that goes. Building my confidence with the lessening of my weight has helped immensely.

6th July 2014 Yo yo weight at the moment

Winter has struck in New Zealand and the temperatures are heading downwards. Lower down the North Island and parts of the South Island have had snow in the last week. In fact I have just put my fingerless gloves on and the fan heater going to warm up my room. I was chilling down. At least the shortest day (or longest night depending on the way you look at it ) is over. We are on the upward rise to more sunlight. I find in winter that I want to eat more and exercise less so it can be an uphill battle even now. I don't get SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) syndrome but I have family and friends who show it more .

I find that getting up at the same time and going to the gym, as I am this year, is helping me though. Saying that; our upstairs neighbours (young) were disrupting our sleep and I found that for a couple of weeks I only made it to the gym about 3 times a week and I ate more to get some energy. This of course showed up in a weight gain of 1.5 kg. I have lost most of that again but it annoys me that it occurred. I have only one week to my 1st year post-op anniversary and I wanted to be lighter than 97 kgs. Today is a new day though and I had 90 minutes at the gym this morning and got the endorphin buzz so must have worked hard enough. I'll be there tomorrow. I might even start getting up at 7 a.m., going to the gym a bit earlier and coming home to do some writing on my children's novel each day. I find I seem to write at 1000 words per hour. I would love to get published when it is finished so here's hoping.

Doctors, dietitians and new age gurus all emphasize that a regular life is best for you. It is called a circadian rhythm that our body works to and some times are better than others to do things. They have found that even the time you take medication or chemo can make a major difference in how it effects your body. One of the people I read said that your day should start at 6.30 am and you should be in bed trying to sleep at 10.30 pm every day including the weekend. If I find that recommendation, in full, again I shall post it on this blog.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm

My friendly librarian wondered if I would be interested in starting a weekday writer's group at the library. i was already attending one there once a month on the 3rd Saturday but she thought that a weekday one might be good for those who are unable to attend a weekend one. She put up a poster in the library I put a notice in the local free paper and it looks like we shall have people on seats this coming Tuesday. I have taken a number of phone calls from interested people. I want to use the first day to set up what we want to happen within the group for us as writers. This blog is one of my forms of writing. I have entered into The BNZ Literary Awards in the Short, Short category and the Novice Awards this year again. It's practice if nothing else. I also put 2 poems into Poems4Peace but didn't get chosen. A person I know did though so good on them. Last year I would probably not had the confidence to start up a writing group so my weight loss so far is creating all sorts of changes in my life.

Winter garb makes you look bigger with the layers you have on. By summer I will be smaller yet again and might shock you with a swimsuit picture if I look good then.I got my hair cut short in an urchin cut last week. I have a home color pack in my bathroom cupboard to take my hair back to brown when I get time to do it properly. The last color was too blond and it looks a bit coppery still from the color before that. I scored 1 jumper, one top and one flash singlet top for $15 altogether the other day so I am happy.