Hi

I'm back!!!

End of blog

Hi, dear friends, I have decided not to blog anymore so I've just come in to say goodbye.  Thankyou all for your support and good luck. May you achieve all that you have set your heart on to achieve.  And happy new year. 

XXXX

Carmen

Day 8

Day 8 was bad bad bad. At around 5:30pm I was (and still am) with what I consider a big problem (and probably very expensive as well) and I got so frustrated I went for the chocolate knowing fully well that it would not solve the problem (it is still there to solve in fact) .  But, what can I say, chocolate is my alcohol. Now we'll see how it goes.  I'm pissed off at this problem happening and it makes me think about other issues and I get even more pissed off. I really need to go away somewhere for a month.  Anyway, did 1 hr walk yesterday and abs.  During my relapse at least I did not take bread and butter which I was raring to do. 

Today will try to contact someone about the problem.  Should be meeting someone to go shopping but I'm not in the mood.  I don't know what I'll do.  Maybe I'll go, maybe I won't. Will see later.  This evening I have a wine-bar party for a friend who is changing jobs and today is his last day. I so hope he'll be happy in his new post as he has been trying to leave his present post for so long.  It is a wine bar - it will be full of wine (of course) and platters with cheeses and meats - will be hard to resist. Will try and get my walk in the afternoon.  So far I've been pretty good with the walk - but it's only been 8 days.  Anyway, I'm starting not to make sense so I'll stop there.

Shelley (I think) asked me how we went through 5 hours without internet at work - we just went crazy, trying to do work that does not require internet, every 5 mins, clicking on the internet explorer icon hoping to see some action and having our hopes quashed (you could here someone moaning every 3 mins or so as this happened). Then as we were contemplating the best way to end our meaningless internet-less lifes, service was restored and a tragedy was averted.  And that means, you'll be reading (if you care enough) more s*** on this page.

Day 7

Not too bad although I have to be careful I don't undo everything in the evening when the urge to snack is very big. I was very proud of myself during lunch as I ate meat and potatoes and usually I take a good portion of Maltese bread and butter with it which I refrained from doing. Did my exercise.  Still feel fat probably cause I let myself gain so much before I started taking care what I was eating again so I'll just have to stick to it for a while until I see results.

Today, it's already 12:48pm and we spent the whole morning without internet at work. We were going plain crazy. Now it seems that we have regained our contact with the outside world.  Did not go to walk this morning but did abs and stretching.  Will go walking later on like I did yesterday.  Just like the previous post, not much else to report except that the weather is just beautiful although there was rain threat earlier on.  Today not much to do as I don't have any lessons. Tuesdays and Wednesdays are my sort of 'off' days as I do not have any lessons where I learn or teach.  Good day my dear friends. Be strong.

Day 6

Most of you here comment that weekends are more difficult and yesterday I took 2 servings of dessert - I actually told myself it was Sunday and so it was allowed sort of thing.  Not good.  The fact that I spent nearly the whole weekend working on my JAVA Assignment (which I finished!!!! hip hip hurray) did not help.  I then skipped dinner to compensate, not wise I know but given the dessert thing I felt I shouldn't eat more.  To my credit I did 1 hour of walk (i/o the daily 30 mins), 150 abs (i/o the daily 100abs) and a couple of more exercises.  Today I woke up feeling fat in my clothes.  How can I explain myself better?  I guess you know what I mean.  Well, my weigh in is on Friday after Day 10 which is Thursday.  My aim is 1 kg meaning going to 75.5kg, maybe 75kg since there is bound to be the initial weight loss, no?  Did not eat Maltese bread, butter, chocolate bars or had any alcohol.

Back to work today.  I caught up with all the blog comments I wanted to leave and am now posting this. I have not walked yet today - will have to go between work and my JAVA class as all my classes start today as well. Not too crazy about that to be honest.  Not much else to report from here so I'm off to do some actual work, lol.

Day 5

Day 5 was a weightloss day.  No Maltese bread, no butter, no alcohol, no dessert, no chocolate bars - all very goods on the food front.  Drank my water.  Did abs.  Did no stretching, I have to be more committed to that as I really do want to be more flexible. Walked for about 40 mins.  Very good day. 

Yesterday I bought my new walking slippers.  I would have like a better fit but it's so difficult with the insoles I have. The old pair still work fine, their only problem is that they look so old!!! So I have decided to keep my old pair for when I go walking in the fields like I usually do and my new pair for when I want to wear slippers but to go shopping or visiting someone. They are a cool pair I tell you, love the design. About an hour ago we had a tremor here, probably we felt an earthquake in the sea, or is that a seaquake?  It actually woke me up.  It wasn't horrifying and it happens once or twice a year.  It woke me up from a great dream I was having about going for a holiday to Australia with an ex colleague whom I have no idea how he got into the story. It was for just one week which I would never do as Australia is so far away, anything less than a month would not be feasible although I might do 3 weeks next year (2009). It's very difficult for me to get  a lot of leave at one go.  Did not go out yesterday, stayed put working on my assignment and I did make some very good progress on it but still have to finish it today. But I'm happy with the work I put in.

Yesterday, I did something I had not done for a while.  After joining here way back, I think , in February last year, I used to comment on the newcomer's blogs quite often, but lately I barely did mine, let alone newcomers.  Infact I was commenting back on those who commented on mine - in my defense, I was quite limited by time.  Yesterday, I did the newcomers tour - three of them commented back - when someone new comments on my blog I always feel like my life has been enriched by the possibility of a new friendship.  Because I do feel that with people like Angela and Tracy (whom I have never met other than online and will never probably meet) I have formed a friendship in here.  Something else I did was buy green tea because I read that it improves one's memory and has quite a lot of benefits if one drinks 2 glasses a day. 

That's all for today. I'm off for my walk soon. Have a good Sunday everyone.

Day 4!!!!!!

Why the exclamation marks???? Cause I'm so stupid I need them. I have just deleted my blog post before submitting it so bear with my frustration as I try to recall all the elegant prose I had dished out.  It was Pulitzer material, the kind that only comes out of a person once in a lifetime, and you, my audience, now will never read it!!!! Well, you'll just have to read the following instead.

So, day 4 was a great weight loss day until 8pm and then all went horribly wrong when my brother took out a bottle of wine he got as a present and opened it up and the rest, as they say, is history.  So I broke the wine comandment which limits me to 1 glass but I took 3 glasses and I also snacked on crisps and salted nuts.  That took the day from a weight loss day to a maintenance day, I don't think it was so bad as to make it a weight gain day. This is the evaluation terminology that I'm going to use from now on:
weight loss day - a day when I have taken in less calories than my body needs and so, I hope, my body fed off some of the fat to survive.
maintenance day -  a day when, given all I've eaten and the exercise I did, it sort of all balanced out to my body's needs.
weight gain day - a day when all caution has been thrown out - I have eaten everything in sight, probably characterized by a full-blown binge or I've eaten out and taken in all the bread and butter on the table, a lot of wine, dessert (and probably tasted/finished  someone elses as well) and finished off with cheese and liquers.  See, even the text is longer in a weight gain day.

I did all the exercise though no stretching cause I was going to do that after that I had returned from my brother's but stretching was the last thing I wanted to do when I got home.  Had no maltese bread, butter, chocolate bars or desserts, unless you count to crisps and peanuts thing as dessert.  Did the walking and sit-ups. Today, I'm determined to make it a weight loss day. I'm off to my walk in about 15 minutes if I manage not to be doubly stupid and delete this post too before submitting it.  Then I should be going to buy walking sports shoes as the place I want to buy them from has 50% sale and I really do need a new shiny pair.  I have to finish my JAVA Assignment today so that will probably see me at the computer for 3-4 hours. I have to hand it in next week.  Otherwise not much else on the agenda. Still debating whether to go out or not this evening. I have decided to go out more often but a night in maybe would not be a bad idea today. We'll see.

Here is something I want to share with you called How Fast Will You Lose? as read on Prevention magazine.  It shows how much you will lose per week if you eat 1,800 calories according to your weight.  It also tells you  how many calories you need to maintain. So if you eat 1,800 calories and you weigh: 

400lbs, you will lose 7lbs a week and you need 5,200 calories to maintain.
350lbs, you will lose 5.5lbs a week and you need 4,550 cals to maintain.
300lbs, you will lose 4.25lbs a week and you need 3,900 cals to maintain.
250lbs, you will lose 3lbs a week and you need 3,250 cals to maintain.
200lbs, you will lose 1.5lbs a week and you need 2,600 cals to maintain.
180lbs, you will lose 1 lb a week and you need 2,340 cals to maintain.
155lbs, you will lose 0.5lbs a week and you need 2,015 cals to maintain.
145lbs, you will lose less than 0.25lbs a week and you need 1,885cals

To be honest at first I thought they were too generous but as it goes down you see how drastically the rate diminishes so I think it does make a lot of sense.  And the ppl from The Biggest Loser put this on so I guess it does have validity.

Well, see you all tomorrow and have a great weekend.

Tattoos and Day 3

Wow, Angela and Brandi - hello tattoo sisters and Tracy, go for it, join the bad girls club. LOL.  I plan to put in a nice tattoo picture of my butterfly on my tummy to celebrate going under 70kg (about 10lbs away). 

Well, day 3 not so hot.  After that I had logged off to go to the walk I was cornered first by my sister-in-law as she wanted to leave my niece here to run an errand but I figured I could still make it if I left as soon as mum took over baby-sitting duties. Then my father came in asking me to go buy a washingmachine part for him and I did, so I missed the walk.  In the evening then it was too late to do any walking. I did manage to swim for quite a while, let's put it at 15 mins. So today I'll try to do 45 mins to compensate. Did only 50 situps - will try 150 today again to compensate and drank only 4 glasses of water.  I had only drunk 2 until 7pm, then drunk another 2glasses  and after the pee call of those, I didn't want to drink another two just before bed as I would have had to get up to pee during the night and it's too cold to do that. Too much information?  Maybe but that's the reason I did only four.  No Maltese bread, no butter, no chocolate, no dessert, no alcohol so great on that front and I have given up for now the push-ups comandments - tomorrow I should get some dumbbells. Did some stretching though. So although I did not do much exercise I'd rather lag on that than report breaking the food comandments as the implications would be worse on my body.

Well, should be going to play table-tennis with my nephew today. Actually went to see how much a table-tennis costs to get one home but until I settle two very hefty bills until end of February it's something which will have to be shelved for now.  However, if nothing bad happens, I might be able to get a good one end of February.  It would be great as we are enjoying playing.  That will be good exercise as well. Then I have work and then we should be going to watch some table-tennis to meet a coach who might take on my nephew . I would love it if he starts taking it a bit seriously and trains at it but he's 13 and I have to be careful as it  is very easy to start something and discontinue it.  Still, it would still be a learning experience.  We'll see.

Will try to get some exercise in.  Take care and stay strong.   

Day 2

I know the titles of my blog are going to be extra boring but it will help me keep count. Did well yesterday. Went out with my girlfriends.  Did not have any bread rolls during lunch, opted for jacket potato without anything on it and boiled veg as side plates and spare ribs.  I figured spare ribs were better than a whole pizza or pasta with rich sauce.  No dessert. Only water with my lunch.  Very good choices if you tell me.  And it was very yummy.  Incidentally, just before that, I went to donate blood and they declined cause the blood levels (iron) was too low at 10. something.  The doctor said that it could be that I have assymia (don't know about the spelling) which means low blood but it's unlikely since although I had been refused before on those ground, at other times it was high enough for me to donate.  I'll go again in 2 months time to try and donate again.  If it's still low, my blood will be all mine. I did donate a coupleof times in the past.  Last time I went I was refused cause I had had a tattoo 4 months before and apparently 6 months need to pass since the event.  I was quite surprised but he said that in the past it used to be 2 years andbefore that they just didn't accept people with tattoos. The doctor had been really surprised to hear me say I have a tattoo - I guess I just don't look the type.  Although I'm not sure what the tattoo type looks like unless it's the bike girls which I 'm not. 

Backto the comandments - did the walk, the situps, very little stretching but it qualifies, drank my water, said no to butter and wine and beer and bread, no chocolate bars, no dessert. I did not do the pushups - my arms were just too sore and with the first five just cracked scaringly all over the place. So I have decided to invest in some dumbells and do my arm weight training that way, give my arms a little less than 76kg to lift poor things.  Today I have a nice back massage booked with my friend.  And then just lie around by the hotel's pool. What's better is that this is a package I had purchased a couple of months ago on the spur of the moment impulse so even though I have paid for it really, today it's as if it's free. I know, it's stupid but it does feel that way.

Mum update.  She is her usual cheerful self going around as if she has not pissed me off.  I'm not letting it go however. She cannot pretend things are ok when she is still coughing. She did go to the doctor this week after that I took her of course, who said that everything is fine and he gave her some medicine which she is taking.  Still, things are not right and she can't act as if they are.  At times she'll go 'I don't know how this cough got me this year' and I'll go 'I think 40 years of smoking might have something to do with it'.  Thanks for your support. We'll see how it goes.  Dad also has this lingering sort of cough.  But that is another maddening story which I won't bore you with, just yet, LOL .  It's 8:10am here and I have to leave home at 10am for my massage reality escapism.  I'm hoping to fit in the walk before then. I don't really feel like it to be honest but at the same time I'll feel better having that out of the way as one of my comandments, LOL.  What can I say? Being religious, is at times very tough. LOL. Good day.