Mothers say the nicest things

This is a long one...sorry! Have caught up on a few Christmas day posts and you all look like you did so well 'food wise'. Yay! I didn't do too bad but I certainly wasn't in diet mode. We don't do the big meal with all the trimmings. Our tradition is to have friends (and my Mum) over for brunch that we cook on the BBQ. The weather is good here and we crowd around the table on the deck and fight over the last of the roasted tomatoes while drinking bubbles in the sun at 10am. It's awesome! We then have nibbles at some point in the afternoon and then I make a salad that my Croatian grandpop used to make followed by pavlova with strawberries and kiwifruit. All in all pretty good and my 1kg gain is not a surprise given the salty chips and alcohol I've consumed since Christmas Eve.

My (skinny) mother said the darndest thing to me on Christmas morning. "Nice dress" she says, followed by "you've lost weight around your chest but not around your hips of course. You'll never be normal around there." Yea awesome. She doesn't know I'm trying and would have no idea how to be supportive if I told her so I just let it go. At least she noticed I was wearing a dress (a Christmas miracle). Her comment didn't hurt but it reminded me of a few ingrained memories I have of growing up. My Dad used to call me tubby - 'Tubs' for short. He even wrote it on my birthday cards...Dear Tubs. No wonder I didn't keep all that stuff when he died.

Lastly, I feel completely deserted by D today. He's gone off to work a music festival for a few days and I was initially supposed to go with him but things changed and he has to take another guy down, things might get complicated blah blah blah. I'm pissed for multiple reasons. I had been looking forward to camping at the festival since the weather is so great. I was also looking forward to seeing some of the bands that are playing. And finally - I have to take this time off work so why the hell would I want to stay at home alone? And my period's due. 'Nuff said I guess. Off to eat fresh cherries. And track them :)

Resetting goals and Merry Christmas possums!

Late post (and a lack of pre tracking) this week due to Christmas crazyness. Lost 400grams on my normal weigh in day (Monday) and did a quick weigh in this morning to see if that was still true and yep – hadn’t busted it! I usually pre track and plan my food a day in advance and this spontaneous guestimating of calories at functions is a challenge but bring it on!

Have reset my mini goal to lose another 2kg by 22 January – D’s brother is getting married and I already have a dress that I need to look hot in, not to mention can’t afford to buy another so it had better fit :-/.

High humidity and soaring temperatures are putting the stinkers on exercise. My office doesn't have air conditioning and all I can manage at the end of the day is to water the garden, make dinner and collapse. But at least it looks like there will be gorgeous weather on Christmas Day for brunch on the deck and a picnic in the afternoon.

Lastly – welcome back to The Shrinking Violet – looking forward to reading your unctuous updates again :-).

Merry Christmas everyone!

Tracking the evidence and planning for success

We are having a stinking hot, early summer down here and that means lots of BBQs with friends accompanied by glasses of bubbly that mount up all too quickly. Calorie wise that means I need to plan, pre-plan and plan some more (followed by lots of exercise).  Gained 200grams this week which is pretty bang on given I was about 3,000 calories over my target intake this week.

What went wrong

• Fish n chips on the beach to celebrate a friends birthday - not my idea, I didn’t need to eat any chips...but did
• BBQ dinner with friends – drank a whole bottle of bubbly on my own, well it was 2 bottles between me and a friend but you get the point
• Christmas lunch with Marketing at a Thai place – I said yes to the mixed entree
• Team Christmas morning tea – I made Christmas cupcakes and ate the 2 that were left over instead of leaving them at work
• Sunday afternoon, home alone - I broke into the scorched almonds. Thankfully they were half melted and common sense kicked in after I'd stuffed 6 down. I wasn't even enjoying them. What a waste!

What went right

• Farewell lunch for a colleague at a brewery bar – I stuck with the fish, salad and water
• BBQ dinner with friends – went easy on the nibbles and said no to the carbs with the main meal
• Christmas lunch with Marketing at a Thai place – I felt guilty after the entrée and just had Tom Yum soup for my main (+ water)
• Free supplier BBQ at work – single pattie on wholemeal bread with veges, no cheese, no chips, no potato salad
• Went for a long walk and a long bike ride on my own (‘tis the season of D working late nights and weekends).
• Everything was tracked, no matter how shameful!

So what about this week? I have 3 half day workshops, 2 of which are catered and an afternoon Christmas party. Easy peasy lemon squeezie. See you at 87kg next week :).

Weekend wrap up – down 10%!

It was one of those weekends where D worked so I was home alone for much of it and what usually happens when I’m home alone? I snack. I graze. I open the fridge repeatedly and start thinking about what I could bake using those boring pantry items that would turn into something calorific and yummy!

But this weekend was  different. I had chores to do outside and even when I was catching up on blog posts I didn’t have the urge to munch. Maybe it’s the spring weather. I went into town and kept D company at a Christmas Carols gig last night and took an ice cream in for dinner. All within my calorie budget for the day so no guilt attached (although after reading everyone’s posts on the new Weight Watchers programme I did have a momentary thought about fibre and protein…oops). 

The scale loved me this morning and the feeling was mutual. 88kg on the button. 10kg down, 10.2% off, that's 22 pounds! Any way I say it I’m pretty happy :). Can’t remember the last time I’ve been so consistent with downward progress – I’ll take it! Going off to book the reward massage now!