Rainy Rain

Hi there! 
I've been away the last few days for a conference, so good eating and exercise have completely left me for the time being.

So, back in town today and working on getting the eating back together - very busy time at work at the moment, certainly until the end of next week.  So crazy times, and the thing that is sliding at the moment is proper food prep!  Urgh! :(  I'm finding I just don't get enough time in my lunchtime to sit and eat, so I am eating more in the evening.  And because I'm tired and hungry, I am trying to get food into me quickly - so it's not the most nutritionally balanced food.  One more week, and then I'm on holidays - yeah!  Time to clear out space in the freezer and cook foods for the next couple of months! :) 

So, eating hasn't been great.  But, I'm happy to keep up the exercising.  I didn't get a chance to much this past week, unless it's been walking from the building where we stayed, up the hill to the dining hall, down the hill to the 'outdoor teamwork' area, and so on. 

After work today, I was so keen to head out for a walk, clear my head, stretch my legs...  except it's raining.  And not a light drizzle, but a steady downpouring of rain that could turn into flash flooding.  If it were a drizzle or shower of rain, I'd take my brolly and just go.  But this is the sort of rain that no matter how much you wrap up, dress up, you are going to get wet. 

So no.

Instead, I decided I needed to move regardless, so I thought I'd see what YouTube could offer me.  I wasn't really feeling a 'bodyweight' workout or anything yoga like.  So I did a Leslie Sansone 'Walk At Home' video I found. 

WOW!  What a workout!!  I picked the '1 Mile' walk just to see what it was like.  I can't believe walking in place can get you so sweaty and raise your heart rate so much!  Whew!  According to Nike+ Fitness app, I burnt 321 Calories. 

Niiiiiice.

Am I making any progress? Part 2

And we're back for another round.  This is a continuation of this post

Four - somewhat counter-acts what I just said in my previous post, but oh well.

I've been weighing myself everyday, since the start of the year. 

It's been absolutely FASCINATING!!!
I have always been against daily weighings.   I've always been told that it's not accurate because you always have daily fluctuations due to water retention, muscle, etc, so it's normal to see -0.5, +1, +2, -.3 in your day to day and then you start to lose sight of what's happening!  So a weekly weigh-in works best.  
Two things made me change my mind. 

One, a colleague of mine who is also trying to lose weight - not very successfully at the moment mind you - is very much for daily weighings.  She likes to keep track of what's happening and likes the collection of all the data.  Additionally, she feels it keeps her accountable.  She sees that if she goes off-plan with her eating, then it reflects the next morning on the scale.  So she has an app that she enters her daily weight into and she can see what's happening.  She feels if she goes out and has Hungry Jack's for dinner, it is evident the next morning on the scale.  So she uses it as motivation for herself.

Two. I found a really groovy website to put my weight into.  I originally tried it for weekly weighings, but it just wasn’t working, so I decided this year I would give it a go for daily weighings.  

weightgrapher.com is a website where you enter your daily weight, but it then will average out your past 10 (by default, but adjustable) weights and give you a trend line of how your weightloss is going and even gives you a prediction of when you’ll achieve your goal weight.  I think it’s pretty cool!  Here’s what mine looks like for the past month.  The upper blue line is the trend line of where my weight was one month ago.  The blue line connected to the red tags (which are my actual weight) is my trending weight.

And from the start of the year – this one’s a bit messy because it has my attempt of weekly weighings still in there.  The blue are predicted weigh-ins, because I was at mum’s (or wasn’t weighing in yet).  The green are for when I’ve added any notes – for example, ate takeaway burgers, or was sick so I didn’t eat properly.

What do you think?  Pretty cool huh?  And… well… this graph doesn’t lie.  I’ve lost some weight and am currently hovering around 100kg (220lbs).  As you can see from the graph, I’ve been there for about two weeks now, so I think it’s time to readjust my goals on MFP to reflect the fact that I’ve now lost… 7kg since the start of the year. :D  Yay! Go me! 

Am I making any progress? Part 1

Hi there!

I pointed out, mmm... two three weeks ago that I was working on updating my weightloss table in the other tab? And yet I never got round to it.

But I want to assure you all that I have been working hard at losing weight.  It's been a long slow process, but I think I might be finally getting somewhere.

I made the decision at the start of the year that I was going to try (once again) to lose weight.  I reset my goals in MFP and used the opportunity of being on summer break to re-evaluate my lifestyle and get myself in order. 

I decided to do a few things differently.  One I've already talked about is going for a walk much more frequently.  I worked out that I should have at any time, at least 30 min to go for a walk, everyday.  I haven't been perfect, but there hasn't been a week that's gone by where I haven't been for a walk.  There have been days where I'm tired, and I don't wanna, but! I've laced up my shoes, and I've gone.  Go me.

I've even now worked out 4 definite routes of 3km (1.8mi).  Because they loop, I can instantly double it by switching directions - huzzah!  The reason I've chosen 3km is because my average walking pace is 10:25min/km, or just under 6km/hr -> googling a conversion calculator tells me this is... 16.76 min/mi and 3.58mph.  So therefore, I can 'spare' the half hour necessary to get a decent walk in, no matter how I'm feeling, or what the time of day is.

So that's One.

Two - I have stopped buying foods that I know I binge on.  Ice cream for example is a food that I can't keep in the house.  No matter how I buy it - 1L tubs, 250mL tubs, individual cornettos or magnums, I can't seem to pace it out.  I buy ice cream with the intention of eeking it out over weeks, and I end up consuming all I bought in 3 days.  That's not cool.  The same goes for some other foods too, like chicken kebab skewers.  I bake 8 at a time, with the intention of taking all the cubed meat and freezing it for lunches or salads... Nope.  They barely made it to the next morning.  

So... I can't have those foods right now.  But what I can have, I'm happy with.  Cake & donuts freeze really well.  I was surprised!  But they do.  I bought a little 'party cake' - along the size of a Madeira cake - that was to for 6 portions.  So I cut it up into 6 portions and wrapped it in alfoil and stuck it in the freezer.  If I want something sweet, I know it's there.
So that's an ongoing thing I'm learning and dealing with.

Three - I decided that if I don't lose weight and that this is it?  Oh well.  Too bad.  If I stay at this size forever, well, that's not something I'm overly happy about, but right now, it might have to do.  But there's certainly nothing stopping me from being healthy at this size.  I'm not really a proponent of HAES, but I do feel that I can make myself healthier - heart-wise and diet-wise.  So, that's what I'm concentrating on right now.  If I lose weight along the way, so much the better.

So that's progress, doncha think?  I hope it's progress.  It feels like progress in any case.

My first 5K!

I left this in drafts because I wanted to add pictures! So here's the post now! :)

I got back about an hour ago from completing my first ever 5K race.  Woo!  It was part of a fundraiser for breast cancer research and support in coincidence with International Women's Day.

I say race, although I wasn't in either of the running categories.  There was a <30min runners category and a 30-35 min category and then lastly a general runners-walkers-and-those-with-strollers category.

I decided that I was going to aim to complete the race in <1 hour.

I based that off the fact that all I've really been walking lately is 3km (1.8mi) distances, and when I'm pushing myself thats an average 9'48" min/km pace (6.1km/hr; 3.8mph). If I could keep that pace up the whole race, then I should have made it around the 50 minute mark.  I gave myself more time because of the longer distance (in case of fatigue) and crowding (being a crowd event after all).  But I decided I would still try to push myself nevertheless to definitely finish under 1 hour.

I finished in 48'34".



I AM SO DAMN PROUD OF MYSELF!!! :D



I seriously felt soooo good when I saw that on my nano!  Because I was not a serious running competitor, I didn't get a timing chip, but that's okay.  I used my nano (as I just pointed out) to take my time and distance. And after all, this was my first 5K.  It didn't need to be serious.

But now I'm looking up what other events and 5kms races are on that I can sign up for.  The Brisbane Marathon runs a 5K race.  There's the always popular "Bridge to Brisbane" 5k/10k race that cross over the huge Gateway Motorway toll bridge.  Hmm... Off to do some investigating!

(You can click on the photos to make them bigger)

In the morning, ready to go! 

The results! And yes, that's my food diary behind it.

Chicks in Pink

Hi All
I just wanted to quickly drop a line here, to prove that I'm still active!  I'm reading, I'm working and I'm thinking... I just don't seem to have the time to actually sit and type!

I have a few posts in draft mode, so stick around and I'll post them soon (again with the soon, I know!)

I'm about to go to bed, but before I do, I just wanted to share this photo with you:

I've got everything packed and ready to take on a 5km (3.2mi) fun run tomorrow as part of a fundraiser!!
The Mater Women's hospital Chicks in Pink fundraiser as part of International Women's Day.  And of course, it's no coincidence it's pink.  The funds raised go towards breast cancer research and treatment.

I'm only going to be walking the distance, so I don't get a timing chip, but I'm going to take along my nano and clip it to my bra to take my time.  I'm trying for <1hour, so that'll need to be a pretty significant cracking pace.

And I better get off to bed, because my alarm's going to ring at 4:45am so I can get there on time!

Night!!