Back again

Well thanks to a lovely little virus issue with my computer I've fallen a little off track lately.

No computer meant no online calorie counter, no blog entries and no motivation. It wasn't too bad at first but as the weeks went by I got more and more sidetracked and before I knew it I had gone and bought chocolate.

Well, the puter is back and working and for the last week I've been gyming or hiking everyday and have been keeping within my allocated calories. The scales this morning had me at 81.9kgs and so since I started I've lost 3.3kgs which for those of you still using antiquated forms of measurements is just over 7 pounds. The goal the dietician gave me was to lose 2kgs a month so I've kept up with that :)

My hours have changed at work this week and I've really been looking forward to the opportunites that presents. I only work three half days a week, Mon to Wed and so this week I headed to the gym before work which has been handy because I found after a busy day at work my motivation for gyming was quite low. It was so easy to just head straight home after work and so now this gets it out of the way beforehand.

Last time when I lost quite a bit of weight I was walking rather a lot. I would walk the dogs and also head out for walks on the weekend down by the river. As summer got progressively hotter I stopped going for those walks but kept going to the gym. Now I know I wasn't eating as healthily as I should have been but I noticed a huge difference in the amount of weight I lost when gyming and walking as opposed to gyming alone. Just gyming didn't shed anywhere near as many kilos as the walking did.
The experts always say that walking is one of the best fat burning exercises and so I've made a commitment to myself to get out there and walk more.

The fact of the matter is that I absolutely love hiking and so I've been skipping the river more and more and heading out bush for some lovely bush walks. The hikes I've been going on include lots of climbing up rocks and down rocks and up hills and down hills and so they're doing a heck of a lot more for me than just walking around the river which is relatively flat.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that I'm really enjoying the hikes and wish I'd gotten back into it sooner. I don't know what it is - I've always loved exploring and so maybe heading out into the middle of nowhere inspires a kind of wanderlust in me. But it's just nice to do something you enjoy and to know that it's really good for you.

On a final note in case no one was aware, a few of us girls from the forum have gotten together and started a joint blog to help keep us motivated in our individual health challenges.
The Shrinking Violets
Check it out sometime.

Blurgh

This week hasn't been the best for me I must admit. Work has been a bit hectic and I've worked back quite a bit and I've just been feeling really blurgh. On Tuesday I felt quite nauseous and by Wednesday I was getting home from work and only managing to stay awake for an hour or two before I fell asleep. In all in apart from squash on Monday night I haven't actually gone to the gym this week. I've just not felt up to it.

Having said that I've still lost a little weight. At my weigh in today I was 82.3kgs so I was pretty happy. I've not been as religious this week with my food, I think I've had chocolate every day! Damn chocolate addiction...but I'm working on that. I actually feel more motivated to watch what shit I'm cramming into my mouth when I'm exercising lots so hopefully next week I'll be feeling better and will be going to the gym every day.

I've only got three more weeks of full time work now and I'm really looking forward to being able to go to the gym during the day. The hardest part about it at the moment it going after work, especially if that work day has been crappy. I'll be starting late on the days I am working so I can go to the gym in the morning beforehand and then on the other days that I have off I can go whenever. I'm also looking forward to not having to cram everything into one weekend so I should have more time to go when the opening hours are shorter on the Sat and Sun.

Anyway, I'll leave it at that for now guys. See you next week :)

Nettie is a good girl

So I've gotten through the first week (well, five days but you know, who's counting) and I'm very proud of myself so far. I've been such a good girl! Apart from a cupcake at morning tea on Friday at work, I've only eaten nice healthy food and I've gone to the gym everyday. I've even forced myself to start eating a wider range of vegies and that's a huge challenge for me. The only vegies that I've ever really enjoyed are potato, carrot, peas and corn and really, that's not a huge selection. The last time I did this whole eating healthier thing I forced myself to start eating salad (I used to be of the opinion that salad belonged in a sandwich) and now I quite enjoy eating 'rabbit' food on a regular basis. So I figured that it was time again to expand my horizons.

On Thursday we had steak and vegies for dinner. On my plate were 8 kinds of vegies and I made sure I ate them all. I had a mix of mashed potato and sweet potato (I'm trying to ween myself off normal spuds), my regular carrot, peas and corn and I also had beans and broccoli. The broccoli was the hardest of all to finish since I've always hated it. The taste is ok but the texture makes me want to vomit. But I forced myself on and dinner turned out to be a spew-free affair. Lastly I had four pieces of garlic (yum!) plus an argument with Christian as to whether or not garlic is a vegetable. I say it is, he insists it's a herb and in the end I put my foot down and said who cares if it's a herb or vegie, it's healthy and I ate it.

So that has made me rather proud of myself but the other thing that I'm really proud of it the fact that at work I'm being really good. Fridays are always the hardest at work because it's morning tea day but there's so much food that it should be called 'graze for 9 hours on junk' day. If it's right in front of me I just shovel it in like everyone else and then find it hard to stop. I knew it would be hard so I allowed myself the treat and had a cupcake and then made myself stop after that. So that felt really good that I managed that!
Also I've really cut back on the amount of coke zero I've been drinking. It might not have any calories in it but something that colour really can't be good for you and I've been having at least a can a day, sometimes more. I've gone all week and only had one can and since I'm sure I'm actually addicted to the stuff that was a huge accomplishment.

I decided to make Saturday my weigh in day since that's the day I used before for that purpose and it fit in really well. I was actually really looking forward to weighing myself this morning because I know I've been so good and wanted to see the results. So I jumped on the scales and almost died when it showed 82.9kgs. Since I was 85.2 on Monday I was a bit worried that I had lost too much in the first week. I know it can't be fluid because I've been having at least two litres of water a day, usually more. The only thing I can think of is that because my period started during the week, when I weighed myself on Monday I may have been a bit bloated and weighed more than I actually did. Did that make sense? I'm sure to the girls it does. I know I usually weigh a kilo or more heavier when Aunt Irma's about. So hopefully that's just the reason.

I'm sure it'll be clear next Saturday when I jump on the scales again. If I've lost more then I'm sure it was the whole time of the month thing but if I'm just as good as last week but haven't lost any then I guess I'll have to put it down to having lost fluid. But we'll wait and see.
All in all I'm feeling rather motivated now and just hope I can keep it up in the following weeks. I know the first couple of weeks are always the easiest and it will get harder but I'm positive I'm going to stick to it!