So later in the day I got on Mum’s scales and I was 170.1, then two days later on my sister’s and yep, you guessed it, 171!!  So that was like a kick in the teeth and I have to admit to feeling pretty down about it.  I haven’t bothered with exercising and have been slack with everything else.  Its nearly the end of Jan and I have done sweet FA.  I’m booking in for another fill.

Sorry for the short entries – using my tablet to update… I love this thing! Lol

Last night I got on the treadmill for ten mins at 4km/h.  I know that is slow and not very long, but it nearly killed me!  So I got up this morning and did it again.  I figure the time will increase and its better than doing nothing

On a positive note, while I did have a drink this weekend (well 5 – lol) it was not as much as I would ordinarily drink, so that’s good. I’m pretty much staying off the coke and coffee – maybe one per week. I’m making sure I drink between 8-10 glasses of water each day. I’m not doing much on the step count, and I’m eating too much food, and too much shit food.

Ok, tomorrow is a new day. I’ve bought a couple of boxes of Opti-slim again and I’m going to have those for breakfast AND dinner this week, with something for lunch – like Tuna and salad. And I swear, I’m going to specificially go for a walk at least three times this week. I know I need to have another fill – must need just a small smidge, but that can make a difference. I’m going to make myself a deal that I will go get a fill when I get down to 150kgs – I know I can do that on my own. Need to do some hard yards through the next two weeks so the month is not a total write-off… then kick some ass in February. I figure I can get down to 150 by the end of March.

On another positive note, my knees are improving daily – for the past week the pain has really only gotten up to about 2-3 out of 10, not sure what is making it go away, but damn I’m happy about it! And my back pain is reducing as well, most nights I’m staying in bed until at least 3:30am, sometimes right up to 5am.

Time to get my shit together.

I keep wondering whether I should go get a fill. I really don’t want to – seriously, I feel that at this amount I’m able to eat just about everything without worrying. But it’s freaking hard work because I can’t just eat a ‘bandit’ diet, or I’m starving. I will get through January, see if I can lose 2-5kgs over the month and if I can, just keep on doing this.

I have been doing shakes for breaky all week, nothing for lunch but water, and although I started out with a shake for dinner, I was too starving, so have had a small dinner each night. I’ve not eaten anything outside of those ‘meals’ and have not drunk any coffee or any diet coke. I have been making sure I drink at least 6 glasses of water each day, and I’ve had a couple of cups of tea. All in all, doing well with my plan.

Today is Friday – my usual day to have a wine after work. But no, I’m going to stick to my plan of not drinking. I’ve been invited to a BBQ/Party on 28 Jan – if I can not drink till then I may have a wine then – lets see how I go.

Hubby has given up smoking and is being an absolute arsehole. Praying the nicotine withdrawals will be over soon before he drives us all mental!

Still haven’t done any real exercise – but I’m going to get moving this week. Feeling good again

I’m going to do shakes from Mon – Fri this week – a full week of detoxing and getting myself in the zone to lose some serious kilos.

Then it’s back to basics… the

EIGHT GOLDEN RULES

1. Eat 3 or less small meals per day. If not hungry – don’t eat. Do not eat between meals. Small meals of 1/2 cup and use a small plate (bread and butter) and fork (oyster/fruit/ entree) or spoon (teaspoon).

2. Do NOT eat between meals. 3 meals MAXIMUM. Do not snack between meals. If looking for food, get a fill!

3. Eat slowly. STOP when no longer hungry NOT when you feel full. Chew well and wait for food to go through – 60 seconds. Dont swallow lumps.’ Eat no longer than 20-30 minutes pref 20.

4. Focus on nutritious food. Fish, Chicken, Red Meat, Eggs, Cheese, Yoghurt, Lentils and Chickpeas all good protien. 1/3 to 1/2 of your meal should be protien and fill the rest with vegies or fruit. Avoid or minimize use of white bread, rice, potato, pasta. Take a multi vitamin daily that contains Folic Acid/Folate and Vit B12.

5. Avoid Calorie containing liquids. Suitable liquids – water, mineral water, low cal soft drink, tea, coffee. Ok to drink with meal but not in same mouthful. Food -60-drink-60-food-60. Allowed 500ml skinny milk and one glass of wine (pref red) a day.

6. Exercise at least 30 minutes a day prefer 1 hour (may need to build up to it) Good choices – walking, gym, swimming, bike riding. If your personal trainer tells you to eat 6 meals a day DON’T listen to him. MAXIMUM 3 meals per day.

7. Be active during the day, don’t just sit around, go outside, park further away from the shopping centre, use stairs etc.

8. Keep in contact with your DR !! If you don’t keep in contact and follow up how you are doing then you may as well not get banded.

I’m ready to Rock ‘n’ Roll!

2011 has not been a very productive year in reality. What did I achieve in 2011?

1. Got the ‘all clear’ scan for cancer (fantastic)
2. Got my gallbladder out (less pain!)
3. Got my band back in (not without a few more hiccups)
4. Got a substantive position but at a lower level/salary (ok)
5. A little bit of weight loss after the band back in (finally)
6. 4 years smoke-free (now that’s a good one! lol)
7. Applied for entry into a Masters degree

I have had significant pain continue throughout this year, however overall my back is better than in was earlier in the year. And my knees are currently the best they have been since about June, still painful though. I know as I lose more weight they will improve more.

So my goals for 2012?
1. To weigh 120kgs
2. To stop drinking alcohol every weekend (special occasions only)
3. To get through my first year of a Masters (if I’m actually accepted!)
4. To save $5000 using a regular savings plan

I was going to put that I want to get a higher level position of employment, but you know what? I don’t really care at the moment. What I really want is to get my Masters so that I can expand my employment opportunities and probably go and work at Child and Youth Mental Health. At the moment I am actually enjoying a casework position and to be honest, it’s less stress and responsibility while I continue my studies. Having said that, I would not turn down the opportunity to advance if one presents itself – I’m just not going to actively seek out another position. Well I don’t think I am!

In terms of my weight loss, 2012 is going to bring great things. I’ve been doing a fair bit of thinking over the past few weeks and I’ve decided I’m not going to get more fill at this point. I really think I’m at a good level, I’m just ignoring and / or working around the band at the moment. I plan to get in the swing properly in 2012 and get back to basics – following the “10 Golden Rules” and getting my ass into gear with the exercise. I just bought myself an awesome pair of Puma runners – half price at $70 in the after Christmas sales – so I’m ready to get moving and shift some weight. No holding back. and I figure with giving up the every weekend drinking that I will be much more successful, because I know that holds me back in so many ways.

So they are my goals for 2012. And I’m going to make damned sure I reach them.

Now onto some other things – in 2012 we will be moving back into my Mum’s house again. She has had some pretty poor health in 2011, particularly in the second half, with several hospital admissions for chest pain and / or falling over. She has had vertigo and dizziness to the point of passing out and falling a few times. She has continued to have awful stomach pain that is undiagnosed, with frequent bouts of diarrheoa that leaves her weak and dehydrated, as well as not being able to ‘hang on’ and having accidents. She has spent much of 2011 staying with us anyway, but I still cannot convince her to sell her house and we could all rent something larger and more suitable for all of us. She just doesn’t want to give up her home and I understand that. So we will go back there and take care of her. The lease here is out in March – we will hang in here until that is up. In the interim, my daughter is going to go and stay with Nan during the week (Mon-Fri) and they will both come and stay with us on weekends (Fri-Mon). I’ll also go and stay there on Tues nights. We figure we can all live with that for the next three months. My daughter is going back to school next year (yay!) at the local senior college which is right near Mum’s place, so that will work out good for her as well. We will start slowly taking stuff over there as we go so the job of moving won’t be so large.

Apart from my daughter going back to school, my son is changing schools next year as well. Although he made it through grade 8 without being expelled – he wasn’t far off it, with regular suspensions throughout the year. We have enrolled him in an alternative school for kids with school difficulties / behavioural problems. It’s a much smaller school of only 120 kids where they have between 10-20 kids per class with two teachers, teacher aides and youth worker support. They do lots of ‘hands on’ work, an aim for vocational certificates / school-based apprenticeships throughout the senior years. Other benefits are a huge agriculture focus, music program, footy team, great incentives to good behaviour (trips to local and state attractions etc). My son is in two-minds about going there – some days he likes the idea, others he doesn’t. There are other kids he knows that go there, so he will know people, but it’s still hard changing schools at this age. Hopefully this will be good for him and what he needs. We shall see I guess. Hard to believe he will be 14 years old in a few short days.

Hubby is still struggling to find work. Apart from a few brief weeks he has been unemployed for nearly a year now. It’s so hard for him to find anything and he is going to have to look further afield in 2012. He will try to complete a Cert III in Aged Care or Disabilities as there is plenty of work for support workers in those areas – he was going to do it this year but they cancelled it as they had no trainer. He is also going to look at jobs out west, where several new mines are set to start up – he may just find something out there and have to travel out, as much as he doesn’t want to. It’s a struggle financially without him working and even though I try to be as positive as I can for his sake, I know that I’m getting frustrated with the fact he can’t find a job and I’m letting some resentment creep in that shouldn’t be there. I’ll have to work on that.

Well, I think that’s it for now. Apart from making a commitment to regular blog entries in 2012, I’m all wrapped up. Happy New Year for tomorrow!

So, here goes. Regarding our trip to NSW I’m just going to say that I had a fantastic time. Catching up with family and old friends was great. It is a bit sad that since we live so far away my kids and my other family members kids don’t really know each other very well (not at all in the case of the little ones) and I really do wish that could be different. Unfortunately there is no way to change it give we are around 1300kms away from each other…

The drive down got a bit hairy at one point – there was a lot of roadworks and it was pouring rain – when it got dark around Kempsey and the amount ot trucks on the road seemed to increase, we decided it was time to get off… so we stayed overnight in Port Macquarie. And on the way back we stayed at Grafton.

The car was great on the road – drove like a dream – given it’s weight and how low it is to the road… so that was nice.

Ate pretty badly while I was there – drank a fair bit too… so put on a few kgs… my first day back the scales were saying I had put on 6kgs, but of course, a few days of eating right and drinking water brought that down so by the first Friday after I was back I was about 1kg higher, and last Friday I was 100gms higher.

But then we have Christmas…. went to a Christmas party at my good friend’s house on Saturday… ate a whole load of junk… sweet things mostly. I made some of my own too… felt sick from all the chocolate! I figure I’ll just get through Christmas and make a much more concerted effort in the New Year. My daughter as well – had just about got to 20kgs off – not quite – and keeps going up and down too… we will get back on track in 2012. I’ve decided I’m giving up drinking in 2012 – don’t know whether that is for the whole year or what – maybe excepting special occasions…? I just know that it’s hampering my weight loss and this year I HAVE to get 50kgs off – that is my goal.

We have decided to plan a Gold Coast holiday again in 2012 for Christmas – so I definitely have to be under 120kgs. Most of the rides you have to be under 135kgs – so I don’t want any questions raised… 120kgs is my goal. Going to have to work my ass off, and I intend to!

Bring on Christmas so I can get started! lol