Hello, this is jen
I think my fiance is trying to trick me into posting something on the internet. My new favourite word (with thanks to Bron who introduced me to it) is 'affianced'. It sounds like quite a nice way to be.
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June 29, 2009
It's crazy pants at the moment.
It's just been crazy pants at the moment. I'm about as tired as I've ever been. And work all of a sudden just doesn't seem as important anymore for some reason. Sorry clients, I really want to do your work, but compared to hanging out with Jen you're just going to have to take a back seat!
Heaps of our lovely friends have been in touch to wish us well and I think I've realised how lovely people are in the world. So that's just lovely - thankyou everyone because it's a really nice reminder about the cool folks we know and have become friends with over the years. Especially the Melbourne folks who we miss heaps.
I have setup an account for jen to post to this and we'll have a go at blogging together to share our experiences over the next few months and to see if I can trick Jen into playing on the internet.
June 28, 2009
how it happened
With a sideways thankyou to pip stafford who jen and I think probably coined the best ever way to say yes (please).
she said yes!
Yes please actually.
:D
June 18, 2009
Days 44, 45 & 46: Hey what's with the lack of blogging?
Nothing exciting, just really really busy and literally haven't had a spare moment - I got a new computer also which means my recreational nerding time has been mostly taken up with getting it up and running. It ate my internet last night.
Rest assured I've been behaving myself and have much to blog about, but will have to probably wait till Friday night or maybe even Saturday. I know like two people read this, but just wanted to say what's been going on!
Sleep tight folks and don't work too much! ;)
June 15, 2009
Day 43: quickie post & weigh in
I'm gunna be brief, lots to do tonight folks.
I did have monday weigh in though, and i'm happy to say that I've lost another 1.5kg so that brings the total lost so far to 7.5kg. Starting weight 82.5kg current weight 75kg.
Stuff I did:
Walked to and from Work 3.4km
Gym: Cardio Session 35mins
Stuff I ate:
Breakfast: 2 slices of home made raisin toast with leatherwood honey 2200kj
Morning Tea: 1 Carmens Red Muesli Bar 764kj
Lunch: Italian Bean Salad (white bean, runner bean, red onion, semi dried tomato) + 1 Smoked Chicken Drumstick 1600kj?
Afternoon Tea: 1 Pear 200kj
Afternoon Tea: 2 hard boiled eggs 800kj?
Dinner: Bowl of home made leek and potato soup + 2 crumpets with vegemite (2500kj?)
Mood: Speedy
June 14, 2009
Days 40, 41 & 42 - Weekend Edition
This is like the bumper weekend edition of the paper. Except it's my blog and I don't have a job section. Sorry victims of the GFC I can't help.
Been flat out all weekend doing bits and bobs and now it's 11 on Sunday night and I need to catch up on my bloggin' (that's how they say it in the country).
Didn't do gym on Sunday which I am leaning towards as a good policy. Having a day off for recovery and just chilling out is really nice.
Friday:
What I did:
Walked to and from work 3.4km
Gym Cardio 35mins
What I ate:
Long time ago now so it's pretty patchy. Will do my best to recall.
Morning Tea: 1 carmens red museli bar 764kj
Lunch: Maharajah's Choice Jaipur Vegetables 1424kj
Afternoon Tea: 1 Carrot 300kj
Afternoon Tea 2 / After work knock off drinks: Carrot dipped in hummus, a few rice crackers. 2 glasses of champagne which went straight to my head (1500kj all up?)
Dinner: Stirfry Chicken Breast, Steamed Veggies 2000kj
Mood: Cheap Champagne'd
Saturday:
What I did:
Walked to and from gym 3.2km
Gym: RPM Class 50mins
What I ate:
Breakfast: 2 slices homemade raisin toast with honey 2200kj
Lunch: 2 toasted ham, pesto sauce, parmesan sandwiches 2500kj?
Dinner: 15 rice crackers with hummus and basil pesto 1300kj? + Cabbage Roll stuffed with Rice 1500kj?
Mood: Saddle Sore. Again.
Sunday:
Breakfast: 2 slices homemade raisin toast with honey 2200kj
Lunch: 1 toasted ham, pesto sauce, parmesan sandwich 1250kj?
Afternoon Tea Extravaganza: Went down to gf's parents. Ate a bunch of stuff, I had, biscuits with dip, smoked salmon, a chocolate eclair, half a scone with jam & cream - I don't know final food value, but lets just say 3500kj to be safe. Wasn't a huge lash out, but by my standards of the last little while, was pretty extravagant treat wise.
Dinner: Stirfry Chicken (very tiny fillet in the end) lots of veggies, mushrooms, bok choy, capsicum, carrot. 1800kj?
Mood: Snoozy.
June 11, 2009
Day 39: Shuffle damn you!
The gym stuff passed today without even much thinking. I went in, did my stuff and left. About the only thought I had was that "I'd really bloody like to spend more time on my workout each day" and secondly "why is there so much Little Britain coming on my ipod shuffle, when it should, in fact, be shuffling. I'm on to you Apple, I can tell you're up to something.
I did notice some changes on the scales at the gym today, but formal reporting of that department happens on Monday so you'll have to stay in suspense. Woo. Mysterious.
Oh and I didn't eat very much today. Not by design, but just because I wasn't really that hungry. I thought better to eat when I'm hungry and lay off when I'm not.
I'm really focussed on hitting the goal now as we get down the pointy end of this challenge I've set for myself. How well it goes is anyone's guess. I had kinda hoped that by the time I lost 10kg I'd have no flabby gut but even knowing I've lost a decent amount, loosing the flab is a much much longer term project than 8 weeks. But I'm also okay with that.
What I did today:
Walked to and from work 3.4km
Gym: Weights Session
What I ate:
Breakfast: 2 slices home made toast with strawberry jam (shop bought jam sucks I've discovered after having nice home made stuff) 2000kj
Morning Tea: 1 small carrot 250kj
Lunch: 1 red carmens museli bar 764kj + 1 banana 500kj
Afternoon Tea: Tin of Tuna in Spingwater 330kj
Afternoon Tea 2: 1 medium carrot 350kj
Dinner: Steak with piles of Steamed Carrot & Broccoli 1800kj.
Mood: Bit bleary eyed. Is this week over yet?
June 10, 2009
Day 38: Off Kilter
Goddamn it's cold here. I know I've been talking about that a bit recently, but goddamn. Cold.
Had a bit of a funny day, work was a bit off kilter all day, and by the time the day finished i didn't feel like I had a very constructive day. Sorry co-workers. Mind you it's been like this all week, short weeks kind of suck in a lot of ways.
Heavy duty cardio session at the gym today was really good. Worked really hard and pushed to try and really work into intervals on the bike. Forgetting your music player is enough to make you slit your wrists though. Sitting in silence huffing away looking at a wall of tv's playing informercials is not my ideal way to spend a lunchbreak. In fact, and this is a re-occuring thought, exactly how shit is what's put on telly during the day. I've seen some stuff at the gym (all set to a soundtrack of my own music thank the flying spaghetti monster) which is just appallingly stupid. And two channels worth of Guther Renker infomercials is just disgusting. I feel for housewives and the unemployed without fast internet and library cards.
Saw a good decrease on scales in last two days... but then kind of fell apart after work today diet wise, I had a meeting so I put on dip and biscuits and had some of that, and then went out for a gourmet tandoori chicken pizza with a couple of glasses of red so not really my best effort at the end of the day. Still not terrible stuff, and normally I would have eaten at least twice the amount i did, but hey! Still not great.
What I did:
Walked to work: 1.7km
Gym Cardio: 35mins
What I ate:
Breakfast: 2 slices homemade bread with quince jam (2000kj)
Morning tea: 1 hardboiled egg 372kj
Lunch: Leftover gnocci, smoked salmon and steamed veggies (1800kj)
Afternoon tea: 1 hardboiled egg 372kj
Afternoon tea 2: Biscuits Hummus, and Smoked Cheddar Cheese (1500kj?)
Dinner: 3 slices of tandoori chicken pizza (1800kj?) 2 glasses of red wine (550kj?)
Mood: Bloated
June 9, 2009
Day 37: Homebrew protein bars
Okay I will save you the suspense. Home brew protein bars = hard boiled eggs. Mixing up my protein so it's not just tuna is something I've been thinking about. I've just been eating shitload of tuna and salmon and I'm looking for an alternative or at the very least a brief change in scenery. Plus eggs are awesome tasty. My nan does these amazing curried eggs, I wonder how they fit into diet land? I reckon the keen's curry paste is alright, the half a kilo of butter, probably not so much.
I'm totally food obsessed at the moment - not because I'm hungry, I find my appetite is very much manageable - it's more about what i can eat. I eat a greater variety of food as a result of this thing, and I'm keen to do different things with food. I'm finding the idea of big bowls of steamed veggies much more appealing than I would have ever done in the past. Tomorrow I want to hit the supermarket and get some more veggies as we basically ate everything tonight.
The weather is abysmal again today, but once again the gym comes to the rescue and stops me from hitting the cold weather comfort food like normal.
What I did today:
Walked to and from work: 3.4km
Gym Weights Session: 35mins
What I ate:
Breakfast: 2 Slices of Homemade bread with Quince Jam (2000kj?)
Morning Tea: Hardboiled Egg 372kj
Lunch: 1 cup of Pea & Ham Soup (no ham, I was ripped off) 900kj? + Hardboiled Egg 372kj
Afternoon Tea: Carrot 350kj
Afternoon Tea 2: Small-Medium Banana 400kj
Dinner: 3/4 serve of gnocci, smoked salmon + steamed carrot and broccoli (2500kj?) + 1 1/2 pieces of lindt chocolate (400kj?)
Mood: Eggy
June 8, 2009
Day 36: Weigh In & a small setback
Lets get down to brass tacks peoples. I had my weekly weigh in this week, and my weight stayed exactly the same as last week. A co-worker mentioned that this could be a good thing, but I would have liked to see at least a little bit of progression from last week. I was pretty bummed out on the way home, but I think I did some good work at the gym last week and I should chill out a bit. I reckon I just ate a wee bit too much and there wasn't the same dramatic kilojoule deficit which produces the weight loss.
I still have a pretty flabby gut, so I know I've got plenty of room for improvement here so the plan for this week is go pretty hardcore and see if I can get a bit of a loss for this week. Starting weight 82.5kg current weight 76.5kg total loss so far 6kg.
I'm not gutted, but a little bit miffed really. That said, to get to my target weight that's only another 4kg and really, once I get there I don't think it's going to matter. As I said in a previous post, this whole thing is a bit of a cover story to get motivated to give a shit about my health and physical wellbeing. So even if I get down to my goal weight (or don't) I think I'm committed to working on it each day more so than ever. I will get down there I reckon anyway but it might be a longer term thing than just doing it in 8 weeks (9 weeks maybe ;) ). I'm 5 weeks in and I think I should still challenge myself to get down to 72.5 kilos because that's what the goal is.
Once I'm 8 weeks in, I will have been living much healthier for 2 months and maybe I can at the very least come out from winter healthy and happy if nothing else. I'm totally enjoying the change and I don't see any reason to stop once I get to the end of 8 weeks. Even daily blogging isn't too bad, although kilojoule estimates don't hold much love for me at the moment.
In non kilogram obsessed ranting news, taking the day off yesterday seems like it was a good idea. I was still a bit sore but not nearly as sore as I have been recently. Staying injury free is probably by biggest concern right now.
What I did:
Walked to and from gym 3.2km
Gym Cardio Session 50 mins
What I ate:
Breakfast: 2 Slices Home Made Bread with Quince Jam (brilliant stuff) (2000kj?)
Lunch: 1 tin of Minestrone soup (1100kj?)
Afternoon Tea: 10 Lavosh Crackers with Hummus (~800kj?)
Dinner: Chicken Breast with Sweet Chilli, Soy and Bok Choy & Carrot, Mushroom & Broccoli (~2200kj)
Mood: Pudgy but determined.
June 7, 2009
Day 35: A moment's silence please.
The burritos are gone. Let's take a moment to honour their passing.
Okay that should cover it.
Decided to take the day off from the gym as I suggested in yesterday's post. Feeling pretty good about that as an idea. Tomorrow is a public holiday but will head down to the gym for a cardio session at some point.
Some Sundays we do a anti-pasto style platter which is always awesome. Haven't done it since I started this though so I was a bit worried about eating unhealthily. I think the quality of the food was great and so apart from perhaps overeating a tiny bit it's not a bad option at all I reckon. I ate a bit more than usual today, but I don't feel at all bad about it - in the last month when I've overeaten I've really felt bloated and gross, and today I feel just fine, so maybe I ate quite a bit but mixture of foods and quality of food made it okay. Or I could have just pigged out. Line ball I reckon.
Still raining. Un. Bloody. Believable.
What I did today:
Walked to and from catching up with friends (just near work) so I know that means 3.4km.
What I ate:
Breakfast: 2 slices home made bread with strawberry jam. (2100kj?)
Lunch: Thai Rare Beef Salad (I know twice in a week - but from different places) + 1 slice of my gf's Margarita Pizza (2500kj?)
Afternoon Tea: Sunday Antipasto platter (Dolmades, Bread with Sundried Tomato Dip, Hummus, French Stick, Quince Paste, Lavosh Crackers) (~3000kj)
Dinner: 2 1/2 glasses of red wine (700kj) 1 Stuffed Cabbage Roll (~1800kj?)
Mood: Ready to head to bed and read a book.
June 6, 2009
Day 34: Still raining, still eating burritos.
Still raining in Hobart town. It's bloody unbelievable.
Had a good spin session at the gym today, and really pushed out some hard cardio. I need to decided if gym tomorrow is a good idea - I've been feeling a bit sore and twingy the last few days and I don't want to injure myself. I would like to go to the gym, but haven't made a firm decision about whether I will go or not.
What I did today:
Walked to and from gym 3.2km
Gym Spin Class 50 mins
What I ate today:
Skipped breakfast (not intentionally I just left it too late and then couldn't eat before spin class and then ended up getting home at lunchtime.)
Lunch: 2 Leftover Burritos (See yesterday for details) (~1800kj?) + some burrito filling leftovers :D
Afternoon Tea: 3 Cups of Earl Grey Tea (~450kj) 15 Water Crackers with Capsicum Dip (~1200kj?)
Dinner: 2 Stuffed Cabbage Rolls (~2500kj? maybe)
Mood: A bit confused.
June 5, 2009
It appears sit-ups aren't a great idea...
This Newsweek article explains why...
"We stopped teaching people to do crunches a long, long time ago," says Dr. Richard Guyer, president of the Texas Back Institute. That's because the "full flex" movement--the actual "crunch" part of crunches - puts an unhealthy strain on your back at its weakest point. The section with the most nerves (and most potential for nerve damage) is in the back of the spine, which is the very part that bends and strains during a sit-up.
My observation on this is I bloody knew it. I'd started doing crunches at the gym again and it's been hurting my back but I thought that was just being out of shape. I have a scoliosis (a curvature of the spine - it's relatively common) and my back is particularly sensitive. I had thought by working that area I would be helping my back.
As a historical side note, I used to 300 crunches each night when I was in my teens and I don't think it did my back any favours.
The link suggests other exercises to target that area to build up abdominal support, including planks, and pushups. I reckon yoga is probably a great solution for building core strength in a non-damaging way.
Anyway, well worth a quick read: Newsweek article - Stop Doing Sit-Ups: Why Crunches Don't Work.
Days 32 & 33: Raindrops keep fallin' on my head...
Hey I know skipping a day is normally reserved for events such as the walk of shame after a big night, but this time it's simply because I've got heaps on and I didn't get a moment.
One thing which is troubling, today at the gym I was doing my strength program, and I was holding a slow pushup and I felt a shooting pain in my shoulder - I waited a minute and tried a more gentle pushup and it came back again. Feeling a bit sore and sorry for myself this week. I ended up finishing the weights at that point and got on the bike instead for cardio as it seemed a safer option. I will have to be super careful as being too gung-ho will result in injury and then I will end up behind the 8 ball.
Also of note this week is that my weight has been rock steady all week, not going up or down be interested to see what happens on Monday's weigh in. Had a couple of heavier meals this week at dinnertime and that could have something to do with it. Definitely seeing improvements at the waistline, but dunno what's going on with the scales.
Weather still miserable, and going to the gym is still a really nice thing to do when the weather is shitty.
Day 32:
What I did:
Walked to and from work 3.4km
Gym: Cardio 35 mins
What I ate:
Breakfast: 2 crumpets with Vegemite (1500kj?)
Morning Tea: Handful of Carrots, Capsicum and Chilli Hummus (Bosses Birthday morning tea at work - coworker put on healthy food which was awesome) 800kj?
Lunch: Small Serve Roast Carrot Salad with Rocket and Nuts (super super tasty) + 1 smoked chicken drumstick (1500kj?)
Afternoon Tea: Carrot 300kj
Dinner: Roast Salmon, Steamed Broccoli and Carrot + a little sweet chilli sauce. (1800kj?)
Mood: Tired
Day 33:
What I did:
Partial Weight Session @ gym + a bit of extra cardio 35mins
What I ate:
Breakfast: 2 slices of home made toast with leatherwood honey (2000kj?)
Morning Tea: 1 Red Carmens Bar 764kj
Lunch: Medium Thai Rare Beef Salad, with tomatoes, rocket and nuts (~2500kj?)
Afternoon Tea: Carrot dipped in Hummus 1000kj
Afternoon Tea 2: 15 rice crackers (500kj?)
Dinner: 3 Chicken Burritos (Made of Chicken thigh fillet, kidney beans, onion, tomato and home grown lettuce - no cheese) (2500kj?)
Mood: Still Sore. Now also with more tired & damp!(tm)
June 3, 2009
Day 31: Wet & Cold in Hobart
Bloody miserable afternoon, cold and wet. Walked up to yoga in rain and wasn't really in the mood for it. For the first 20 minutes I kept getting my right from my left confused and that's embarrassing when everyone else has figured that out, say at age 6. Double yoga again this week was good and totally worth the effort.
Looks like the winter weather is starting to arrive finally and we'll get some genuinely cold days maybe. It's been very mild up until now. Nothing like going to the gym, getting on gym clothes and hitting the rowing machine looking at people rugged up in the freezing cold outside the windows...
Bit achey in the wrists though, which means that I might have to skip weights tomorrow and push it back to friday and do cardio instead. Rather err of the side of caution instead of hurting myself.
What I did:
Walked to work and and about half the distance home 2.5km (Cabbed it home after dinner out, as it was wet and crap outside)
Gym: Cardio Session 35 mins
Ashtanga Yoga 1h 30mins
What i ate.
Breakfast: 2 slices home made toast with Vegemite (1800kj?) + 1 Cup Earl Gray Tea (150kj)
Morning Tea: Very small handful of raw nuts (400kj?) - Need to get a new packet. Each time i've mentioned eating that it's all been from the same packet so it's been pretty good value.
Lunch: Tin of Tuna in Springwater 330kj, Penne Pasta 1200kj, Lots of Tabasco Sauce (Don't know how many kj's are in Tabasco, but I assume you'd have to have a pretty high pain barrier to get down anything significant.)
Afternoon Tea: Tub of Strawberry Fruche 550kj
Dinner: (We went out after yoga to dinner so a bit more extravagant than usual) 6 pappadums, 1 cheese pakora, 3 small (finger sized) pieces of tandoori chicken, 1/2 bowl of Saag Paneer (hand made cheese in spinach curry) + 1/2 bowl of Dahl Makahni (black lentil curry). All up? Probably as much as 3000kj. I left plenty of food, but still felt like I overate.
Mood: What to do next?
June 2, 2009
Day 30: Bread smells awesome.
Hectic day, even though on paper it really shouldn't of been. But it was.
I just cooked a loaf of bread, and the smell coming up the stairs is bloody amazing. Not struggling too much diet wise with temptation, but that smell is just unbelievable! I will have toast for brekky tomorrow I reckon. I can't think of anything but the bread, it smells so good.
Bought some new clothes, which should provide some extra motivation to keep off the pork. My pants are starting to gather a bit and I reckon if/when I get down to my target weight I might need to look at that situation as I don't want to look like a little kid with a bit of string tied around my waist. Mind you, I have some clothes I haven't worn for a while so I might be able to recover some lost wardrobe. Provided they haven't gone out of fashion!
Gym wasn't fantastic today, did weight session, but wasn't feeling it much and I'm looking forward to cardio tomorrow. Planning to follow that up with Yoga after work, we'll see how that goes.
What I did:
Walked to and from work 3.4km
Gym Weights Session
What I ate:
Breakfast: 1 C of Sultana Bran, 1 med banana, 100ml skim milk (1500kj?)
Morning Tea: Carmens Red Muesli Bar 764kj
Lunch: Zucchini Slice with Lean Bacon + A pear (2000kj?)
Afternoon Tea: Carrot (300kj)
Dinner: Small Bowl of Linguine Sausage and Pea Pasta (2500kj?)
Mood: Achey. Don't break my heart my achy breaky heart... My wrists are sore.
June 1, 2009
Day 29: Feelin' Fine & Weigh In
Nah not really. I'm buggered. The double hit of gym and yoga have broken my will to live.
I must add that we got new yoga mats and I felt like a few dollars on a good yoga mat is money well spent. Especially in the standing on your hands pose, having a better quality, thicker and more dense mat is grouse.
Back at work today and liking being able to eat food at designated times. It helps get your brain in the right space for some general purpose eatin' healthy and trying to get fit.
Had my weekly weigh in, and I was momentarily a bit annoyed as I thought I had only lost another half kilo, but then my brain kicked in and I decided to get out the old calculator. And I'd lost 1.5 kilo which is good news. Starting weight 82.5kg current weight 76.5kg total loss so far 6kg. So I'm really happy with that as a result so far and am also seeing some good improvements in my fitness as well.
I think this is all a bit of a con by the way. I think the objective is not so much to loose a certain amount of kilos (as nice as that is) but it's to give yourself a sufficient kick up the arse and force me to look after my on health and wellbeing. My hope (and our front desk lady at work has repeatedly told me that I'll give up) is that I can really make these sorts of changes long term. I feel better than I've felt for a long time, and I reckon I look at least a few years younger which is an awesome side effect and will allow me to get carded, and most likely smashed by a bogan next time I head out for a glass of wine.
Food wise there's more effort in organising food, but it's not like I go hungry at all. All I ever seem to do on this diet is eat. I do sometimes get hungry when I have to hold off eating so I can go to the gym and not feel crook, but when I get to eat afterwards I feel like I've earnt it so that's a nicer way to look at it.
What I did today:
Walked to and from work 3.4km
Gym Cardio Session: 35 mins
Ashtanga Yoga: 1h 30mins
What I ate:
Breakfast: 1C Sultana Bran, 4 Spoons Apple and Rhubarb + 100ml skim milk (2000kj?)
Morning Tea: Red Carmen's Muesli Bar 764kj
Lunch: 2 Slices Home Made Bread, Ham, Home Made Lettuce (Okay it came from gf's parents, but that's basically home made), 3 slices of tomato, 1 tablespoon of Jonnos Tomato Sauce. I toasted that mother f in the work toasty iron, and it was rad. (~2500kj?)
Afternoon Tea: Med-Small Banana (400kj?)
Afternoon Tea 2: A pear (Carrot o clock didn't happen as the pear was there. And people with games... and stories to tell... - sorry.) 185kj.
Dinner: Bowl of Minestrone Soup 1050kj
Mood: Keep on Keepin' On.