The Optimistic Diet

...Yea that's pretty much what my jiggly belly was saying! I gained .6 of a kilo [1.3lbs] at this weeks weigh in. That's not tooooooo bad i spose. Any gain is "bad" but the weekend gone was pretty much one big, long party. So i'm grateful for .6.
My friend Glenda took me out to a Chinese restaurant today for my birthday [we were going to go on Friday but didn't] So that isn't going to help much either!

My booze ticker fell off the sidebar [I must have accidentally deleted it when moving stuff around over there] but i was doing pretty good till my birthday. So i'll add a new one, dating to the day after my birthday.

I'm up for a new challenge for the next few weeks. We are financially a bit in the crapper. We have ridiculously large bills coming out of our ears and seen as my seasonal work at Chrisco dried up way sooner than expected, we are back to one income. If we are not very careful, Christmas dinner will be hotdogs!
We can do it [i think], but here is the challenge:
I buy stuff for the rest of the family, and separate stuff for me. IE: they like white bread and refuse to eat anything slightly brown, and i need grainy [and much more expensive] bread in order to eat healthily & lose weight. So i have to basically buy two separate lots of foods. That = extra money.
I like to add lots of extra veges where i can [the rest of the family can't stand that, so it's only for me], but extra veges = extra money.
My family eat reasonably healthy, for their weight and exercise level [except John who's just in denial] but i have to eat differently to lose weight.
One can only eat so much rice, so I'm going to have to get VERY clever if I'm going to eat right and lose weight AND still pay the bills!
Stay tuned for a progress report on that.....

I CAN'T WAIT till this opens at midnight tomorrow!!!! Rose and i are going to the showing of Twilight at 9:30pm before seeing New Moon. Coz we didn't see it at the pictures when it first came out [Wasn't even interested then]. I bought the tickets weeks ago and i'm so glad i did, coz Glenda bought tickets for her daughters birthday for this Saturday, and whole sessions were sold out! I just can't wait..CANT WAIT!

Happy Birthday To Me....

I'm 39 today. Yaaay nearly naughty 40! I got a little spoilt and it was great :o)
We get to pick what we want cooked/bought for our birthday dinner. And this year i opted for pancakes. I planned on pigging out but i could only actually eat 3 pancakes [as opposed to usually eating much more]. I made an awesome [ginger cream] Birthday cake, but i didn't even eat a bit. It's funny that on the one day i permit myself to eat whatever i darn well please without feeling guilty, i don't really want it. How interesting.

I've had to make my comments word verification because of spammers :o(

.5 Of A Recipe

This week has been good. I've rediscovered my friendship with veges and come across a great idea.

Each time i try to get healthy, i get creative and make up meals by throwing various healthy ingredients together that i think might taste good together. Some of the meals come out fantastic! [and with healthy stuff, I'm hard to please!] I then make a whole batch and freeze meal size portions.

But when i fall off the wagon for a 1/2/3/4+ week bender, i forget these concoctions.

So I've decided that each time i make one of these awesome meals, I'll write it down.

Seen as i like scrapbooking, I'll make scrap recipe pages and eventually make a recipe book. I won't forget the recipes then. There'll always be good food on hand! And one day, my kids can have the book. Good idea huh?

Here's an example...

I'm veeeery lazy so good food, fast is the best it gets! lol

Tonight our slimmers group went for their Christmas dinner [I know. could it be any earlier?!?] and i sat next to a woman who i've decided to worry about. his woman has been coming for a few years and lost her desired amount. But i think she may have developed a problem along the way. I watched her eat her chicken breast with salad, making it into a thousand tiny "mouthfuls", and i realised that she's gotten beyond skinny. She looks really frail. It's sad.

On a positive note, i lost .5 of a kilo [1.1lb]. I'm on a roll [excuse the pun] WOOT WOOT!

Stashing Fat

This week has been interesting on the diet front. Some of those boxes of fund raising chocolates made their way into our house. When we first got them, i swore i wouldn't touch them. That lasted all of about 2 hours! But in saying that, i did manage to lose .9 of a kilo [1.9lbs] this week.

My lovely dog, Princess [Pictured on the right] has a case of Kennel cough. No-one in the house slept last night. I've never even heard of it before, and it's horrible. No walkies for Princess :o/

I'll have to take Buddy, who takes US for walkies, not the other way around. And he's not even 6 months old yet!

I've been working on clutter. I'm shocked at how much crap I've buried away over the years, in every nook & cranny. When i pull it out, it's like a mountain that fit in the space of a hill.

Today my job is to go through a stash of "Better Homes & Gardens" magazines. Why not just throw them out, you say? Coz i cut out the bits i want and put them in a folder. Cactus gardening ideas especially :o)

Rose took some photos of me the other day. I'd just come home from work, and i plonked myself onto a seat out the back in the shade. I didn't have time to "pose" for these pics [as we do to get the most flattering angles] and they were fatty shockers! One of the pics in particular, i just stared at for ages, thinking, "Is that really me?" I was going to post it here, but i think I'll wait a while coz I'm too embarrassed, and i don't get embarrassed easily at all! I'll put it on the fridge though, and on the pantry door, and in the car :o)

It definitely motivated me to cut some BS, that's for sure!!

Do The Do

I ended up going back to work for the last 2 days for some last minute stuff [lots of minutes].
I weighed in on Monday but i REALLY shouldn't have! We started work late and my lunch time was 3pm. Then i went home and had a cuppa with the sitter before she went home. I wasn't going to weigh in because of all that, but i ended up going anyway.
Today really was the last day of work, so i'll be able to get some kind of routine happening again with my life. Being tired & worn out all the time isn't too good for the body.

A friend of mine wrote on FaceBook about how he swam for half an hour, played squash for 2 1/2 hours and is hoping to squeeze a jog in before the end of the day.
I don't get where someone gets all that energy.

My MP3 player died. I can't walk without that! Anyone got an iPod they don't want?

Work Seasons & Tents

This is me at my last day of work for the year, yesterday. It was a great day too! There wasn't much left to do so we all mucked around all day.
Things have been going ok. Steadily plodding along.

My daughter, Rose, turned 13 today. We took a mini bus full of kids to the movies to see "UP". It looked silly on the adds, but i'm glad we went, as it was different.

I need to ask you guys for some "outsider" advise.
Rose is a trustworthy, honest and reliable kid who hasn't been into boys at all until this year. She's had a boyfriend for a few weeks, and she's really quite into him. She won't kiss him or even let him kiss her on the cheek, but they hold hands. It's really quite sweet.
My little dilemma is this: Rose wants to have a sleepover where her, her boyfriend, his best friend, and Roses best friend all sleep in the same tent. I said defiantly not. So she asked if the boys and girls could sleep in separate tents. I still said no. When she asked why not, i explained that her and her boyfriend [Jacob] are quite smitten with each other, and even though Rose has a level head on her shoulders and i trust her judgement, It's not a good idea to throw them in the line of temptation. Visions of "spin the bottle" and "Dare, truth or command" spring to mind. She thinks I'm just assuming she'll do the wrong thing and wont accept my reasoning.
I can not allow them the freedom of sleeping in a tent together, but i don't know how i can't tell her that without insulting her.
Tell me oh wise bloggers, what is a mother to say?

As Promised....

Plodding along just doing the do. Still being squashed by the black dog, but doing the do none the less. The reasons for it are still there and they aren't going away anytime soon. But i can only work on fixing me, instead of succumbing to the feelings of defeat in regards to outside issues and/or other people
I weighed in today with a loss of .8 of a kilo [1.7lb] and that's great. The booze has been mostly good. I have information in regards to getting a spot in a rehab clinic. I don't know much about those places but i think i'd be better off staying in one for a week or two. Having someone there to teach me HOW to use self discipline at those moments when i don't want to would make such a big difference to me!

Other than that, the eating has been ok. Not great but ok.
I've been keeping busy [when i'm not at work], Still sorting out clutter. That'll defiantly be a long road! Probably doing too much scrapbooking. I love doing it so much, but it requires waaaay too much sitting time!

That's about it. Bit boring but y'know lol