It's Good Friday. We are pretty religious in this country. I consider myself spiritual though I have restarted attending mass on Sundays this year. One of the rules of the house is no meat is eaten on Good Friday. So instead today we had delicious snails baked in the oven. Snails apparently classify as vegetable not meat. I'm not sure there was any sacrifice involved as I much rather eat snails than meat and we hadn't had it for ages.
Two days without chocolate. However, today I got given a HUGE box of BACI. This is the biggest box you can get on the market. And here I was thinking I was safe cause I had gotten rid of the Ferrero Rocher by eating them!!! Still I'm less a Bace enthusiast than a Ferrero Rocher and I think I'll take it Monday to work and offer it to students as they leave their exams.
Tomorrow I shall try and walk some good distance. I will wear my knee support since I'm trying for a long distane walk . We'll see how it feels. Now I'm off to play soccer on the playstation with my nephew. A cool Aunt's job is never done!! I have added a picture of one of my nephews and my niece. The other nephew was unavailable yesterday morning.
Well today I had to log in my 1kg gain. So now I'm up to 73kg. Was expecting it as I've been eating chocolate like there is no tomorrow.
My blog title is 'Change of plans' because before this knee crisis I had planned to be 69kg by the end of the month. Now that obviously has changed. I honestly have no idea where I'll be by the end of the month. For now I think I'll take it week by week. By Wednesday next week I want to be 72kg again. Seeing the way I'm eating and my self-discipline re: food right now I think it will be a miracle if I'm 71kg by the end of the month. At least my chocolate mania has gotten rid of the ferrero rocher. They have disappeared now because I have eaten them. Hopefully, no-one will buy me another one.
I have included my full length photo in my blog - taken yesterday by my wonderful nephew Karl. He's like a son to me as are my other nephew and niece - I love them to bits and am forever taken them out to films, pizzas, playmobil, etc... I even took this particular nephew, Karl, to EuroDisney as a present for his Confirmation. Very expensive gift but we had so much fun!!! Once the other two are older, God willing, I will treat them to a trip abroad as well. I firmly belief we should broaden our horizons as much as possible especially seeing that we, in particular, live on a small island. I admit, EuroDisney is not the most cultural place to start my nephew off with, but did I mention it was REALLY FUN?
Am on holidays right now but still have exam invigilation from 3 to 8:30pm nearly daily with just fri,Sat and Sun off then same hours MOn, Tue, Wed. It's a loooooong time and I have to be careful. In a week I have bought 11 items on e-bay and while they turned out really cheap, the postage puts the cost up. It is still worth the purchase but it is very easy to pay with paypal and then get the shock when looking at the VISA account. So I have banned myself from buying more things on ebay until my next pay-cheque which is in 2 weeks time!!!!! Well let me tell you having 5.5 hours computer exam invigilation infront of a computer looking at ebay without being able to buy is just like having tons of ferrero rocher in front of you and not being able to eat them!!!
Well that's all from me now. Have a good day to everyone.
for being so supportive in my Monday post. My knee is as it is - after 4 operations I know I cannot even run. Most of the time I accept it and am Ok with it in the knowledge that it could be worse. I also find myself accepting that there will be days when it will feel worse. But on other days like Monday I don't accept it at all and find myself yearning to run and jump and do all the things I did before. I also find myself angry at all those people who abuse their body and do not take care of it and yet they have perfect knees and they can run (although they don't) and jump. Well, I want to do an MRI to know exactly what is wrong on the inside. I am aware that this might be all I can do in the sense that my knee has already undergone 4 operations and a 5th one might be too traumatic for my knee and for myself.
On the 6th may there is a 10km walk and I want to do it so much it's unreasonable. I think it's not so much the walk per se that I want to do but I want to know if i'm still able to train for something and do it. It's a stupid walk and an even more stupid and stubborn thing for me to decide to do but it's like I NEED to do this for myself. I'm probably not making any sense, sorry.
I have been reading some of your blogs and it seems I'm on the same wavelength like some of you in that I'm finding it incredibly hard to stick to the 'good' food and stay away from the 'bad'. It's just that the 'bad' is so damn delicious (excuse the term)
Btw I have gained 1 kg this week - 2 lbs - expected. But my heart is so much not into it at the moment. Still for next week at least I'll try maintaining. We'll see - Have a good mid-week everyone and thanks again.
thank you all for your super encouragement about my mere 1.3km fun run. That is so kind of you. I had really had fun yesterday and, as I wrote, I was contemplating doing the 10km walk in May.
Well, now I feel like crying. My knee today has started to play up and even walking is bringing discomfort. I feel upset and angry. Upset because I was Malta's national team volleyball captain for years, training every day, running, jumping, doing everything, always active and now today, when I start seeing some light of some sort of activity, my knee starts playing up again. Angry cause I really took good care of it. I did everything the doctors said to do. This last operation was a major mess for which I paid around 2000 dollars. And 2years on I'm still struggling as ever. I'll be phoning to have an appointment with my surgeon once I post this - I just want an MRI - I want to know what's inside that is making it so bad. I guess it could be worse and some people do have it worse - at least I'm walking, till now. I dread to think about the future. And all this does not compare with deeper sorrows that other people are facing. In that way I feel selfish in feeling so sad about this thing. But these last two years, since I have lost the joy of at least running and living in fear of waking up and not being able to walk on my leg, well, it's as if it's been the death of the active me who used to run 10k like it was nothing and used to train from 9-11pm like there was no tomorrow. Well tomorrow apparently is here and it's not fun.
Sorry about being such a downer for this post. But I need so much to get this off my chest and I feel guilty in troubling my immediate family with it. I'll just give up my walking for a few days and see how my knee feels. Take care.
Got an early call this morning from my brother, asking me if I'd be willing to take my niece to a fun run as he couldn't take her. I'm a kind person so I complied. My niece is 7 years old and she had this 1.3km fun run. We went, we didn't meet her friend with whom she was supposed to run and so I ran with her. Thank God I wore my jogging shoes though I was in jeans!!!! As those who take the pains of reading my blog know I cannot run because of my knee but I managed to jog this little distance. It was actually fun,w hich makes sense seeing it was a FUN run.
There is now another fun run on the 6th May. I might try the 10Km walk actually cause if you do that you get a t-shirt apart from the medal and goodies bag. The fun run (1km this time) only get teh medal and goodies bag. Well, that is not really the reason. It would be just good exercise as well. We'll see.
For those who, in reading my morning Saturday post, wondered at my ferrero rocher a day discipline, stop wondering. I got an 'I must eat' craze around 5pm. I recognize these craves where my body just needs to eat for some time although I am in control enough to decide what while recognizing my body's immediate need. Well, yesterday it was the turn of 6 ferrero rochers (=450 cals) in a row. They were delicious. I refuse to feel guilty about it since it can't be taken back and the last such craze was 2 weeks ago. Still if I'm to see that under 70kg result by the end of April, I MUST make sacrifices. However, yesterday I felt like an alcoholic who takes one drink thinking it will be the only one and then just continues to down one after the other. Well, there is still half a box left which means I did not go for it all. It also means that the continuous temptation is still there - I just wish the others would just eat them. Some might tell me I could throw them away but for the life of me I would NEVER be able to throw away something so deliciously good. It would go against my very own nature.
everyone, still Saturday morning here in Malta - today is a public holiday since we celebrate Freedom Day. We don't really like it when it falls on a Saturday since we loose an extra free day during the weekend. Still it's the weekend so we rejoice.
Yesterday was supposed to go to walk but did not manage to. However this morning, met with my friend David and walked a nice 1hr 15mins on the beach. I do feel this walking is paying off so I try to keep it up. Work does not allow me to do so very often but tomorrow I'll go again and next week we start a week long Easter break from Wednesday to Wednesday and I'll try to make it every day. I will still have to work in the afternoons til 8pm since we have computer exams but I will be able to manage it first thing in the morning. Getting less that 70kg (153lbs) is really looking like an achievable task now and I'm looking forward to see a 6 as one of the figures on my scales!!Right now I'm at 72kg (158lbs).
Thanks all for posting - have kept my water challenge this week and the system I have devised is working well for me in getting 2 glasses before work, 2 glasses at work, 2 glasses before afternoon work if i have it and then 2 glasses again dinner time. It doesn't feel like so much an effort.
Nothing much planned for the weekend. Still don't know what we're doing this evening. I need to get a little bit more into socialising but that means clubs and bars and not drinking as much alcohol as before and watching theappetizers I eat limit the fun so to speak. It is amazing how drinking and eating forms part of our social life. Might go watch a film and then go for a glass of wine later. Well, I've been really good food wise this week so I'm not ruining it these two days though I will make way for my one single Ferrero Rocher a day.
Yes you can. Shelley brought it up in her comment and it's true. You have to be careful although the incidence of water overdose are not common. Here is what I found:
Overhydration occurs when the body takes in more water than it loses. The result is too much water and not enough sodium. Thus, overhydration generally results in low sodium levels in the blood (hyponatremia. Usually, drinking large amounts of water does not cause overhydration if the pituitary gland, kidneys, liver, and heart are functioning normally. To exceed the body's ability to excrete water, an adult with normal kidney function would have to drink more than 2 gallons of water a day on a regular basis.
A few months back I had read about a 30 guy who was really fit and had been running. He drank too much water at one go his sodium levels went down suddently. Long story short - he died. In upping our water intake please make sure you spread the water throughout the day and not drink a litre of water at one go at 8:30pm to make sure you get what you intended to get.
Yesterday started experimenting with E-bay. I know it has been around for a loooooooooong time and actually i have bought from it through a friend but it was only this week that I actually tried my hand at it. So I bought an MP4/MP3 8GB thing which I 'm looking forward to receive and use as my current MP3 is lost. Must say e-bay is very addictive and one has to be careful as it's easy to bid and go overboard.
no more 74kg on my scales. This morning, my official weighin (sound of drums).....72kg. That is a 2kg loss (4.409lbs). Very very happy about that. I hadnt' posted a loss in 3 weeks!!!! I know I have not lost 4lbs in a week and it must be an accumulation of the weight loss over the 3 weeks. And I'm really happy with that (have I said this already?) If I manage to keep up an average of 1lb a week I can see the sixties by end of April which is my next goal.
I bought a book from a floating bookshop (the ship Logos II) which comes to Malta every 2 years or so. It's about Nutrition and one of the motto that it makes is - If at first I fail at succeess, I will try, try and try. Now I don't go round saying that to myself as I would feel like an idiot but it comes to mind at times. I do feel I have been rewarded for my persistance and patience so far.
It is funny that I'm so thrilled about the 72kg mark. When I was actively playing volleyball I was always hovering between 69-71kg - always the heaviest in the team by far but still healthy. Then when I was 30 I settled at 72kg, at 31 I settled at 75kg - I would always go down a couple of kilos but settle back up again - now at 32 I realized I was settling at 77kg. It was like every year I was putting on 2kg and they were staying. And that is the trend I am looking at breaking. 72kg was my settling weight 2 years ago. Well I'm not settling anymore.
This morning one of the items onthe news was that Donatella Versace's daughter is suffering from anorexia. It must have been a known secret as these last few years every photo of the poor girl showed her to be a skeleton. How tough it must be to grow up in such an image obsessed world where you're surrounded by skin thin models as your mother designs for them, being always in the limelight and under scrutiny, having to live up to the expectations of being a fashion icon's daughter. Poor girl. My heart goes out to her and her family. And it should emphasize the problem of how youths and young adults are trying to emulate the models of the fashion industry in such a way as to get them to practically kill themselves through lack of nutrition. Other shows should follow the example of Madrid in banning models with a BMI of less than 18. Some complained that these young girls can be naturally thin - but I fail to see how a young girl in development can naturally be under 18 BMI unless she is consciously making a great effort to be a living skeleton walking.
Sorry for going on like this on this particular issue but it is something I feel very strongly about. We so need healthier role models like the present Tyra Banks figure and the lovely talented Jennifer Hudson.
The water challenge is in day 3 and it's not so tough to keep though the loo and myself have been meeting more often these last two days. Yesterday I did not go for a walk as my knees were bothering me and I try to listen to my body that way. Today I will try and fit in some walking in the afternoon. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays are my crazy days as I work mornings and evenings.
Well, thank you for your comments. I really appreciate your input and look forward to what you have to say both in my blog and in yours.
yesterday I started my 2 litres water 7 day challenge. So far so good. Pretty busy but managed to start walking again from Saturday. Yesterday I managed a good hour of sand walking - today I have to try and find the time as my day is pretty filled up again.
Looking foward to my Easter holidays that start tomorrow week. Will still have work in the afternoon but will have mornings free and will beable to catch up with some friends for lunch.
Seems you are all doing pretty much well. Tomorrow is weigh-in and I'm confident I'll post something, ANYTHING as long as it's not a gain. You have all been wonderful with your support and comments. Not much else to report. There is something I'm thinking about but will probably share it later on.
Those are the kind of keywords I'm searching on google these days. I am a firm supporter of the calories in calories out method. I got this Ferrero Rocher box and found that each one has 75 calories. Which is not as bad as I thought it would be actually. So I'll try and sneak in one every 3 or 4 days into my diet.
So, it's Sunday. Yesterday went for 1 hour sand walking and today I walked another hour cause I needed to return a dvd at a nearby village and walked instead of going by car. Have upped my intake of water this weekend and as from tomorrow I'm starting a water challenge - 2litres each day of pure water. I'll drink .5ltr before work, .5lt while at work, .5ltr after work and another .5lt after 6pm and I should be covered. And we'll see if the water miracle will happen.
Yesterday saw a film at the cinema Music & Lyrics - it has been out a while. Such a sweet film. Now my relationships history has made me romantically cynical. And when I see a happy ending I go - blaaaaahhhhhhh. But this one has a happy ending and I guess I need a film like that once in a while. Thoroughly enjoyed it and it's funny too. Seeing Hugh Grant in an 80s style pop song video is hilarious.
Now I'll check some of your lovely blogs, give my tuppence worth of advice and what I hope is encouragement and then will go to visit the Logos II ship - a ship which is a floating bookshop and is here in Malta for a month. Have a good sunday.
At least my chocolate mania has gotten rid of the ferrero rocher. They have disappeared now because I have eaten them. Hopefully, no-one will buy me another one.