Super exciting today ... I weighed in to find I'd managed to lose 1.2 kgs. That's even better than I was expecting.
It's amazing how motivating it is when the scales go the right way. I found it much easier to resist temptation today.
Another $2/kg sponsored today, bringing the total to $46/kg. Go team!
Today's success: The weigh in!
Today's challenge: I was hungry when I arrived home from work. Overcame it by preparing dinner, discovering there was no broccoli, and taking the dog for a walk to the shop.
Tomorrow's challenge: Not resting on my laurels.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Weekend struggle
The weekend is the hardest part! Well, it certainly seems to be this weekend. I'm glad I got myself off to a good start during the week. Funnily enough though, even though it seems to be a struggle, I've managed to keep myself on track. Hooray me.
First of all, Friday was a great day. It started off early, with breakfast before I went running with Krissi. I never used to be able to eat before running, but I had to learn how when I was training for the half. As we were going to be out for an hour, I knew I'd better fuel up. It was a really enjoyable run. Hard work, as I've only been running once a week for a while and I didn't run the last two weeks. I was surprised to discover that we ran 7.37 kms in the hour. I think I made about 6.5 the last time I was out with Krissi, so it was quite an improvement. It also explained why it felt harder.
I knew I'd be hungry, so I planned ahead. I packed a protein drink so that I wouldn't be tempted by a muffin or sausage roll at work. I'm glad I did, as I'd forgotten it was the monthly morning tea. Cakes galore. I held strong and stuck to my eating plan. I managed to negotiate the temptation of fish and chips at lunchtime, choosing a chicken salad instead and then Graham and I swapped the traditional beer and pizza night for tacos, using chicken mince. They were delicious.
I woke up hungry on Saturday. Weetbix for breakfast sounds so healthy but I was surprised to find it's about 100 calories less than my usual toast and cheese. We went shopping so it was late before we got home for lunch. I'd planned a standard lunch but Graham had other plans in mind. We ended up having chicken schnitzel and bacon on a bread roll. It was delicious. I had to stay strong and cut my schnitzel in half, as well as trim all the fat from my bacon. Graham cooked chicken wings as well, as a snack. I did my calorie counting, worked out a sensible dinner, and decided that I could have two wings without doing much damage. I ended up having three as they were so tasty. Fortunately, even with the yummy lunch and snack, it ended up being a weight loss day. It took some doing though.
This morning I had breakfast then Graham cooked the super duper breakfast/lunch combination that is a routine weekend treat here. Fortunately, I have that loaded in calorie king, so I'm able to keep track of that one. Tonight we're having roast chicken. The challenge there will be to take the skin off. If I do that today will end up being a good weight loss day.
I think if I wasn't keeping track in calorie king I'd be completely undoing all the good work I've done all week.
Tomorrow is weigh in day. I'm looking forward to seeing the results for the first week.
First of all, Friday was a great day. It started off early, with breakfast before I went running with Krissi. I never used to be able to eat before running, but I had to learn how when I was training for the half. As we were going to be out for an hour, I knew I'd better fuel up. It was a really enjoyable run. Hard work, as I've only been running once a week for a while and I didn't run the last two weeks. I was surprised to discover that we ran 7.37 kms in the hour. I think I made about 6.5 the last time I was out with Krissi, so it was quite an improvement. It also explained why it felt harder.
I knew I'd be hungry, so I planned ahead. I packed a protein drink so that I wouldn't be tempted by a muffin or sausage roll at work. I'm glad I did, as I'd forgotten it was the monthly morning tea. Cakes galore. I held strong and stuck to my eating plan. I managed to negotiate the temptation of fish and chips at lunchtime, choosing a chicken salad instead and then Graham and I swapped the traditional beer and pizza night for tacos, using chicken mince. They were delicious.
I woke up hungry on Saturday. Weetbix for breakfast sounds so healthy but I was surprised to find it's about 100 calories less than my usual toast and cheese. We went shopping so it was late before we got home for lunch. I'd planned a standard lunch but Graham had other plans in mind. We ended up having chicken schnitzel and bacon on a bread roll. It was delicious. I had to stay strong and cut my schnitzel in half, as well as trim all the fat from my bacon. Graham cooked chicken wings as well, as a snack. I did my calorie counting, worked out a sensible dinner, and decided that I could have two wings without doing much damage. I ended up having three as they were so tasty. Fortunately, even with the yummy lunch and snack, it ended up being a weight loss day. It took some doing though.
This morning I had breakfast then Graham cooked the super duper breakfast/lunch combination that is a routine weekend treat here. Fortunately, I have that loaded in calorie king, so I'm able to keep track of that one. Tonight we're having roast chicken. The challenge there will be to take the skin off. If I do that today will end up being a good weight loss day.
I think if I wasn't keeping track in calorie king I'd be completely undoing all the good work I've done all week.
Tomorrow is weigh in day. I'm looking forward to seeing the results for the first week.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Joined by Kelly
It's exciting. Kelly has joined the cause! Now there are two of us raising money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation through "The Last Twenty". Kel's email is going out this week and she will soon be adding her stories to the blog.
On the progress front, I've made it through day 4 eating healthily. It looks like my first half kilogram is safely in the bag! To date, I've been sponsored $44/kg. It makes it easier to resist the afternoon munchies when you know that there's more at stake than temporary satisfaction.
Working out how to collect the money is today's challenge. With Kelly coming on board I've had to think a bit more about this.
My original idea was that I'd collect the money at the time of the MDC, but some people have offered immediate donations. To cater for this I investigated whether or not people would be able to donate the money directly to the MDC. Unfortunately they aren't set up to take donations for 2010 yet. I've considered options such as banking the money, but that adds in an administration overhead that could get messy. One option that doesn't look too bad is the "Everyday Hero" website. The drawback is that there's a 6.5% admin fee, plus a $1.10 credit card fee and a 30c transaction fee, not to mention a monthly fee of $30 for the charity to be a member. I'm tossing up whether or not I should rethink how much work there is in the admin overhead so that the money goes directly to the charity. In the meantime, I'm looking into setting up a fundraising page on the National Breast Cancer Foundation's website. It's a bit clumsy looking, but I might be able to make it work. I'll spend some time on that over the weekend.
Today's success story: I bought a sensible healthy lunch today and wasn't even tempted by the hot food in the cafeteria at work.
Tomorrow's challenge: I'm running in the morning, which means I'll be hungry. I've been eating a sausage roll on days I run, on the grounds that I've already run it off. Not tomorrow! I'll take a healthy snack to work instead. That's the plan!
On the progress front, I've made it through day 4 eating healthily. It looks like my first half kilogram is safely in the bag! To date, I've been sponsored $44/kg. It makes it easier to resist the afternoon munchies when you know that there's more at stake than temporary satisfaction.
Working out how to collect the money is today's challenge. With Kelly coming on board I've had to think a bit more about this.
My original idea was that I'd collect the money at the time of the MDC, but some people have offered immediate donations. To cater for this I investigated whether or not people would be able to donate the money directly to the MDC. Unfortunately they aren't set up to take donations for 2010 yet. I've considered options such as banking the money, but that adds in an administration overhead that could get messy. One option that doesn't look too bad is the "Everyday Hero" website. The drawback is that there's a 6.5% admin fee, plus a $1.10 credit card fee and a 30c transaction fee, not to mention a monthly fee of $30 for the charity to be a member. I'm tossing up whether or not I should rethink how much work there is in the admin overhead so that the money goes directly to the charity. In the meantime, I'm looking into setting up a fundraising page on the National Breast Cancer Foundation's website. It's a bit clumsy looking, but I might be able to make it work. I'll spend some time on that over the weekend.
Today's success story: I bought a sensible healthy lunch today and wasn't even tempted by the hot food in the cafeteria at work.
Tomorrow's challenge: I'm running in the morning, which means I'll be hungry. I've been eating a sausage roll on days I run, on the grounds that I've already run it off. Not tomorrow! I'll take a healthy snack to work instead. That's the plan!
A busy day
I'm glad I planned what I was going to eat yesterday as it would have been really easy to go astry ... and it's only day three! The day was complicated by the fact that I was getting up at 5 am to fly to Melbourne for work, then heading out to see Alice Cooper that evening.
Qantas has changed the breakfast menu recently so I plugged it into Calorie King before I left. I also added a healthy sandwich option. I knew the Qantas muffin was around 200 cal, so I replaced that as a snack with some biscuits from home. Fortunately, there was a group of people travelling and I was the only one with Qantas Club membership, so I didn't go in. That solved the temptation problem associated with the "free" food and drinks. On the plane back, when I was hungry, the afternoon snack was carrot cake. How good was that? I don't like carrot cake. I had the apple option instead. The only bad thing about the flight was the turbulence on the way back into Canberra. I didn't hear anyone scream but I was hanging on to the seat in front of me, as were the passengers on either side of me. Thank goodness all flights aren't like that.
Another win for the day was that we were on an earlier flight, which meant that I had time to have dinner at home before going to the concert. Graham cooked, which was fantastic, except that chops were on the menu. I plugged the chop into Calorie King and thought philosopically, oh well, as long as I keep the average down I'll hit my target weight loss for the week. Then my brain kicked into gear. I cut all the visible fat off the chop, enjoyed my dinner as I felt virtuous, and made my calorie count target for the day.
Yesterday's success story: The apple. I'm not all that fond of apples and the carrot cake icing did look delicious.
Today's challenge: Nothing comes to mind. I'll have to watch the afternoon munchies.
PS: The Alice Cooper concert was terrific!
Qantas has changed the breakfast menu recently so I plugged it into Calorie King before I left. I also added a healthy sandwich option. I knew the Qantas muffin was around 200 cal, so I replaced that as a snack with some biscuits from home. Fortunately, there was a group of people travelling and I was the only one with Qantas Club membership, so I didn't go in. That solved the temptation problem associated with the "free" food and drinks. On the plane back, when I was hungry, the afternoon snack was carrot cake. How good was that? I don't like carrot cake. I had the apple option instead. The only bad thing about the flight was the turbulence on the way back into Canberra. I didn't hear anyone scream but I was hanging on to the seat in front of me, as were the passengers on either side of me. Thank goodness all flights aren't like that.
Another win for the day was that we were on an earlier flight, which meant that I had time to have dinner at home before going to the concert. Graham cooked, which was fantastic, except that chops were on the menu. I plugged the chop into Calorie King and thought philosopically, oh well, as long as I keep the average down I'll hit my target weight loss for the week. Then my brain kicked into gear. I cut all the visible fat off the chop, enjoyed my dinner as I felt virtuous, and made my calorie count target for the day.
Yesterday's success story: The apple. I'm not all that fond of apples and the carrot cake icing did look delicious.
Today's challenge: Nothing comes to mind. I'll have to watch the afternoon munchies.
PS: The Alice Cooper concert was terrific!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Day 2 - on my way
I'm logging my calories, in and out, online at Calorie King. To get to my goal I have to lose between 0.5 and 1 kg per week. I just did some counting. There are 37 weeks between now and Mother's Day, so I should manage that quite comfortably.
When I successfully lost 43 kilos, I kept a food and exercise diary. It made all the difference. Recently (over the past 12 months) I've had a stop start relationship with keeping my diary. I've managed to keep records for a few days and then I "skip" the weekend.
That's this week's goal: Keep the food diary every day for the next week.
Two days down and five to go!
On the exercise front, I had PT this morning. 20 mins running on the treadmill, followed by 40 mins of gym work. My abs certainly got a good workout this morning.
Yesterday's struggle: Hitting the send button on the first email that I sent out. Would you believe that I have been thinking this through for a few weeks. I nearly didn't do it. Fortunately, I have a few good friends who encouraged me through the doubts.
Yesterday's second struggle: Hitting the send button on the email to my workmates. I knew the running girls would support me but I felt like I was going out on quite a limb by putting this challenge out there at work.
Yesterday's success story: The fantastic support from everyone! I'm so glad I managed to hit that button.
Today's struggle: I've felt hungry all day. I don't know how much it's psychological. I've been using exercise as a reason to eat what I like. Today, I kept an eye on it.
Today's success story: My calorie count is right on target. I use a guide that I read in Jillian Michael's Biggest Loser book to let me know how I'm going, as Calorie King's targets don't really suit me. It does all the arithmetic though, so I work with it. :-)
Tomorrow's challenge (apart from the food diary): I'm travelling to Melbourne for meetings (stupid o'clock start but getting back to Canberra around 5:30 pm) then going to an Alice Cooper concert at 7 pm. I have to manage the food choices (plane and cafeteria) then do something sensible for dinner. It can be done! It will be done!
When I successfully lost 43 kilos, I kept a food and exercise diary. It made all the difference. Recently (over the past 12 months) I've had a stop start relationship with keeping my diary. I've managed to keep records for a few days and then I "skip" the weekend.
That's this week's goal: Keep the food diary every day for the next week.
Two days down and five to go!
On the exercise front, I had PT this morning. 20 mins running on the treadmill, followed by 40 mins of gym work. My abs certainly got a good workout this morning.
Yesterday's struggle: Hitting the send button on the first email that I sent out. Would you believe that I have been thinking this through for a few weeks. I nearly didn't do it. Fortunately, I have a few good friends who encouraged me through the doubts.
Yesterday's second struggle: Hitting the send button on the email to my workmates. I knew the running girls would support me but I felt like I was going out on quite a limb by putting this challenge out there at work.
Yesterday's success story: The fantastic support from everyone! I'm so glad I managed to hit that button.
Today's struggle: I've felt hungry all day. I don't know how much it's psychological. I've been using exercise as a reason to eat what I like. Today, I kept an eye on it.
Today's success story: My calorie count is right on target. I use a guide that I read in Jillian Michael's Biggest Loser book to let me know how I'm going, as Calorie King's targets don't really suit me. It does all the arithmetic though, so I work with it. :-)
Tomorrow's challenge (apart from the food diary): I'm travelling to Melbourne for meetings (stupid o'clock start but getting back to Canberra around 5:30 pm) then going to an Alice Cooper concert at 7 pm. I have to manage the food choices (plane and cafeteria) then do something sensible for dinner. It can be done! It will be done!
Monday, August 24, 2009
The Last Twenty
I'm after your help. I've decided that I'm going to lose "The Last Twenty" kgs by May next year. I've been going to do this for some time and I just haven't been able to get motivated. I've done some thinking about why this is happening and that's when I realised that I needed help to get there.
What sort of help am I after?
Sponsorship - Please sponsor me to lose weight. My target date is Mother's Day next year. In Australia that's the second Sunday in May. All the money raised will go to the National Breast Cancer Foundation via the Mother's Day Classic. I'll keep track of all pledges, bank the money, and make sure you get tax receipts if you want one. (The MDC has a way for me to do that provided that you get your money to me by the end of May 2010.) My thinking is that having sponsorship will help keep me motivated and I'll enjoy trying to raise as much money as I can for the cause. Hey, you can even ask your friends to sponsor me!
Encouragement - Encouraging comments, anecdotes about what's worked for you, interesting recipes, tips and tricks, motivational stories. It's all good. Give me a call, drop me a line via email, chat to me on Facebook or text me to ask how it's going. I'm going to post updates here about my progress - weight loss and money raised.
Supervision - For those of you who see me in person on a regular basis, if you see me reaching for that second chocolate biscuit, feel free to ask me how I'm going with "The Last Twenty". Keeping me on the straight and narrow will help me immensely.
Join me - If you have a weight loss or fitness goal and would like to join me with the MDC sponsorship / target date idea, feel free to sign up. I'm going to lean heavily on friends and family who are also looking after their health.
Run or Walk the MDC with me - As this is my goal date for the weight loss target, I'd love it if you were able to come along and participate, even if it's in a different city . I'm even thinking of organising t-shirts!
Looking forward to hearing from you.
What sort of help am I after?
Sponsorship - Please sponsor me to lose weight. My target date is Mother's Day next year. In Australia that's the second Sunday in May. All the money raised will go to the National Breast Cancer Foundation via the Mother's Day Classic. I'll keep track of all pledges, bank the money, and make sure you get tax receipts if you want one. (The MDC has a way for me to do that provided that you get your money to me by the end of May 2010.) My thinking is that having sponsorship will help keep me motivated and I'll enjoy trying to raise as much money as I can for the cause. Hey, you can even ask your friends to sponsor me!
Encouragement - Encouraging comments, anecdotes about what's worked for you, interesting recipes, tips and tricks, motivational stories. It's all good. Give me a call, drop me a line via email, chat to me on Facebook or text me to ask how it's going. I'm going to post updates here about my progress - weight loss and money raised.
Supervision - For those of you who see me in person on a regular basis, if you see me reaching for that second chocolate biscuit, feel free to ask me how I'm going with "The Last Twenty". Keeping me on the straight and narrow will help me immensely.
Join me - If you have a weight loss or fitness goal and would like to join me with the MDC sponsorship / target date idea, feel free to sign up. I'm going to lean heavily on friends and family who are also looking after their health.
Run or Walk the MDC with me - As this is my goal date for the weight loss target, I'd love it if you were able to come along and participate, even if it's in a different city . I'm even thinking of organising t-shirts!
Looking forward to hearing from you.
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