Sorry for the silence

There's been a bit going on. That's an understatement really. I'm currently enjoying a couple of quieter weeks on the work front so that is good. I even managed to take myself off for a lovely pot of tea in a cafe this morning. All by myself. Sitting in the front window seat gazing out at the beautiful river flowing past. No one else in the cafe except the two women who run it. Bliss.

I did get a call from my Uni teaching colleague while I was there. But somehow, even talking about work seems like fun when you are in such a peaceful environment.

I should have resisted the call of the cake cabinet though. I haven't been eating much sweet stuff lately, so the coconut lemon meringue slice (I did have it without cream and ice cream) tasted a bit too sugary for my liking.  Had a tiny lunch to make up for it.

Teaching has been going okay this year. My tutorial group is much smaller and most of them seem reasonably switched on. Although teaching them from four until six p.m. can be a bit of a challenge when they've all been there since the eight a.m. lecture in the morning.

I'm thankful to God for providing me with some more work for the next couple of months. I didn't get the permanent position I applied for but there is a short term job I can do at the local hospital until the next student education contract comes up. This also solves a transport problem. We are still without a second car but for the next little while I can go to work with my husband and we actually don't need the second car as desperately as we did a few weeks ago. Of course, Murphy's law (or God's sovereign plan) says that this is probably when we will find another one. Chris is off to check one out tomorrow afternoon. I hope it's good. It's a blue one, my favourite colour, so I'd be happy to take it on that basis alone. But I suppose the mechanical condition is also important.

And somehow in the middle of all the craziness, being sick, being buried under a rather large workload and dealing with all the usual family dramas, I've managed to continue my morning walks. Not every day, but at least three times a week. I'm even doing a bit of jogging for part of the way sometimes. And I have lost five kilos in the process. And about five centimetres off my waist measurement. My original aim was to lose five kilos but I'm feeling so good, I'm going to try and lose a few more.

The C.B.R.P. went off track for a little while. Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy were hard going. I just started Joshua last week. But I'm still trying to read along as much as I can before I forget what I've read before.

So that's me for the past few months. Just popping up for some air before it all starts again next week. Hopefully the blog will get a bit more attention now that I'm back into the groove of going to work.

Diet and exercise progress

I've found a lovely steep hill to climb that is just around the corner from our house. A handy discovery.

I've walked up it nearly every day now. One day there was a large dog sitting halfway up so I didn't go up that day. I wasn't going to put in all that effort getting there only to have a dog jump on me and knock me back down. Yesterday, I took a different walking route but it didn't have a hill so I didn't feel like it needed as much effort to do. So this morning I went back to the hill again.

I was really excited because today I made it up without stopping (all the other times I've had to stop at least twice).

And I can now hold the plank position for 30 seconds. I'm trying to get up to a minute.

This afternoon, we are going to take the dogs for a walk. The park at the bottom of the big hill is an off leash dog exercise area. So after we walk the dogs, Chris will pack them and the two little kids (the two big kids are visiting grandparents this week) into the car and drive home.

And I will tackle walking up the hill for a second time today.

The diet is going okay. I'm trying to concentrate on eating more low GI foods so I feel fuller for longer. And reducing my portion sizes. This is where my struggle lies. I may have to do a bit less baking for a while. Today I made some sugarless chocolate blueberry muffins. They weren't bad. But you could tell they were sugarless. Without the blueberries they would have been very dull indeed.

I've noticed I'm feeling more energetic since the morning walks started. And eating the right kind of food always helps me to feel better too. My goal is to get into a good routine now so it doesn't all fall into a big heap when I go back to work in a couple of weeks.

The "E" word

Exercise, that is.

Last week, I was forced to confront my need to get back to some sort of exercise and healthy eating plan. I went to buy petrol one evening and as I was paying for it, the two women behind the till started chatting to me about how awful it was to be pregnant in the summer heat. One of them was pregnant, although not obviously so (she showed me her little bump). I've been pregnant over summer previously, so I expressed some sort of agreement with what they were saying. Then the other woman asked me when I was due.

I now know that it is only nice being asked when you're due when you are actually pregnant.

I then had to confess that what (apparently) looked like a pregnant tummy was actually just what was left over from when Rowan was born. It was kind of funny seeing them back pedal. I tried to be civil rather than look too offended. As I was walking out, I heard them start talking to each other about how embarrassing that was.

Yes, indeed it was. And not just for you two. The only good thing was that no one else was in the petrol station paying at the time so at least there wasn't anyone else around to hear that little exchange.

So, having just finished breastfeeding (a time when historically my weight has tended to balloon out a bit) I have now decided that it's about time to lose those four or five kilos that need to go. I tend to carry weight around my tummy, which is bad from a health perspective. With my history of gestational diabetes I am going to need to start eating properly to minimise my risk of developing full blown diabetes later on.

In the five days since that sad evening, I have been out for an early morning walk four times. Each time I've walked I've included at least one steep hill climb. I am trying to work out when I can fit in a swim as well. I don't think the swim will be too helpful for weight loss since I'm a pretty lazy swimmer, but I enjoy the coolness of the water and the fact that I can shut just about everything else out when I am swimming. And it makes me feel like I am doing something.

It's also time to rediscover all the low GI foods I learned to embrace when I was pregnant. Yesterday I bought a calorie counter book (this one) and a guide to low GI food shopping (this one).

And a set of scales. We've never had one in our house until now. But it's time to get serious. I needed to know what I was dealing with. My starting weight wasn't as bad as I expected. I said to myself I'd be happy with anything under 70kg. I was 69.5kg. Just within the healthy weight range. But only just. It's the waist circumference that's the big problem though. I'm sitting at around 95cm with that one. Anything over 88cm indicates a greatly increased risk of health problems.

Time to get moving. And to reduce portion sizes and yummy desserts.

I am also going to master planking to work on those tummy muscles (if you're unfamiliar with the exercise version of planking, check out the above image). I think I managed to hold it for about three seconds today.

Sorry to subject you all to this kind of detail. This won't be turning into Karen's Weight Loss Blog or anything like that. But I thought it might help me to be accountable....

Ahead of the pack

Since I posted on the double-up on "Losing the last 5 kilos" a few days ago, there has been an article in the Sydney Daily Telegraph about it and I also saw a short spot on Today Tonight about it last night.

I wouldn't call either of these cutting edge or high quality current affairs journalism, but I would like to say here that I beat both of them to it. Please no one point out that it wasn't that difficult, let me enjoy that winning feeling for a brief moment.

Fallen off the wagon already

After I posted last night's entry on losing those last 5 kilos I went upstairs and ate a Tim Tam. Only one though. And I didn't eat any gelato.

I hope that's not oversharing.

Current project

I am following Susie's version. I got it from the library today. Among her nuggets of good advice is "no eating after 8pm" so I am sitting here trying hard not to think about the Tim-Tams in the fridge and the gelato in the freezer.

What I don't get though is why two people would put out books with almost exactly the same title at the same time?? Susie's was published December 2010, Michelle's January 2011. I guess they are both with different publishers, but this is guaranteed to cause confusion. I have only discovered while writing this post that there are two books with different authors.

Hopefully Susie's suggestions will work but if not, I guess it's good to know I can turn to someone else for managing the same issue....