I've Come a LOOOONG Way..... Counting Steps

I recently purchased  this lovely new pedometer watch. I was sick of my regular pedometer making suicidal leaps towards the toilet or unclipping itself and swinging crazily from my waist band.  I also wear dresses on a semi regular basis and you can't wear a pedometer at your waist with a dress.  So far I'm really happy with how this nifty little device is performing. It's easy to use, never attempts to swim in the loo, never falls off, gets knocked etc.  My particular pedometer watch is a Techo40 Accelerometer purchased at the wonderful Walking With Attitude.

At the height of my illness 1000 steps was an absolute push for me and would result in heart palpitations, exhaustion and sometimes would see me semi-bed ridden for days on end.  When I recall that, I realise just how far I've come, and my frustration with what I still can't do fades.  This week I am averaging 11 500 steps a day with the need for only one afternoon sleep. Generally I feel quite well so that is BRILLIANT.  My steps consist of incidental movement throughout the day and an intentional walk each afternoon. Due to the smelly demise, (gag) of a poor carpet snake on my usual walk I've discovered, with the help of a dear neighbour (thanks Di), a lovely new and longer walk.  I head in the opposite direction to the gag inducing carpet snake, past the very vocal 'guard dogs' down the road and cut through a little easement into a new estate where once grew macadamias and pineapples.  It's a lovely walk away from cars, in semi bushland yet with enough houses and activity for personal safety. Yesterday I passed kangaroos feeding in the lovely shade of a park and regretted not bringing my camera.  This is the little easement into the new estate.  I love it through here, it's always so cool and quiet.

My goal for the next week is to keep tracking my steps and work towards consistently achieving 10 000 steps per day.  My long term goal is to work up to 15 000 steps per day and I think that will be achievable for me.  My biggest goal is to NOT get overexcited by my progress and overdo it  - who me? Never!!

I'll let you know how I go!  If anyone does use walking as their main form of exercise and is looking for ways to keep it interesting I can highly recommend Walking With Attitude as a source to investigate. They have fun virtual walking programmes including programmes for increasing your fitness etc.  I get no kickbacks from them, I've just used their site in the past and quite enjoyed it for a change.

More later...

Riding along...

We've had very little sunshine and few days without rain of late, it's made exercising out and about more difficult and far less appealing. Suffering from a bad case of cabin fever we headed out between showers recently to enjoy a companionable cycle together along the coast.  Our sea and sky is usually clear and wonderful shades of blues and greens but we are becoming more used to gray skies and darker gray waters.  Rather like those I've often seen in the UK and Pacific North-West of the US. Anyhooo, we rode up and over the headland along a cycle track and although I puffed and wheezed I made it without stopping and getting off which is great. Jeff of course was very at ease on the bike and struggled not  a bit.  We rode down the other side of the headland - weeeeeee - and came to the Mooloolaba rock wall. It was very busy with people taking advantage of the dry spells between showers. Halfway back along the wall we came across the fellow in the photo at bottom right. A carpet python.  I was surprised to see him there as I don't equate carpet snakes and the beach. There was heavy bush on the other side of the path so he was probably just out for a spot of warmth after all the cool rain. That or he'd taken up fishing.

Starting Over

I've been sitting here trying to work out where to start.... Do I start with the breast cancer scare? The bacterial infection in my lymph sytem? The rain and flooding? The weight loss? The weight gain? The happy days? The sad days? The crazy thyroid that is staring termination by radiotherapy in the face? Trying to sort all of that out in my head I've decided that I don't really want to talk about any of it and think I'll just start over, fresh today.  Starting over feels so liberating. I'll let some of the past few months wash away like the flood waters we experienced.  This was our street corner during the floods. It was over 5 feet deep.

I've maintained my 10kg (22pound)  weight loss so far (although I've been up and down a couple of kilos continually).  My health at present is pretty good for me - I still need to manage my days and myself pretty closely in order to maintain this state but it is working so far. My long term goals remain the same - to continue to lose weight and to continue to take action to improve my health. For the next month I'm going to focus on regaining my balance, letting life settle back into some kind of sane and soothing routine. I'll work on moving more, and take some time to go over my food intake to see where I can make little improvements. Mainly I just want to catch my breath and get back into it. 

Hope all is well in your part of the world.

Update

Being a lover of blog posts with pictures I keep putting off posting until I can locate the cable thingy that attaches my camera and computer. Problem is I keep forgetting to look for it and then don't post. Grrr. Need to get my act together. Anyway, had a loss of 0.3kgs this week and 0.7kg the week before. Over the past four weeks I've lost 1.5kg so I'm losing slowly. VERY SLOWLY. I'm getting a bit frustrated by how slowly I am losing but hey, a little loss is better than nothing. This week is week two on the new Weight Watchers ProPoints system and I am still finding it to be easier and more natural to use than the old system. Really not sure why as previously I was feeling very rebellious and angst ridden towards the whole idea of counting points and now suddenly it doesn't worry me. In fact I positively scurry to the computer to track and I love seeing the numbers and statistics all change. Go figure.

I've finally done a quick measure to see what progress I've made there.

Chest
Week 1 113.5cm
Current 103cm
Loss of 10.5cm (woohoo)

Waist
Week 1 101.5cm
Current 94cm (was 93 in July, what's up with that?)
Loss of 7.5cm

Hips
Week 1 119cm
Current 106cm
Loss of 13cm (double woohoo)

Seeing these results has inspired me to dig out my more complete measurement list and do a little comparison. I know I've lost a lot in the upper chest, just at the bottom of my bra under my boobs and just above the knee. Will be interesting to see the difference.

Exercise
I've built up my exercise to 30 minute walks most days (this includes some hills). Two days per week I do a longer walk of between 45 mins to an hour over the same undulating terrain. I haven't been great with the resistance work or yoga as I've been focussing on creating consistency. This is the longest I've been able to maintain these longer walks (as in how many consecutive days I can do them for) in years. Since I first got sick really.

Health
Although I've needed a few afternoon sleeps of late I'm not too worried. I am feeling better than I have in years and I think the sleeps were a response to all the hard decluttering work that I've been doing. I carried and emptied boxes etc and filled a giant pink skip bag (3m cubed) that was collected last week. I have my blood work done next week in preparation for a return visit to the endocrinologist in just over 2 weeks time. We'll see where my thyroid is at (hopefully euthyroid and no longer underactive). If my thyroid is still underactive I think the plan was for me to go back onto thyroxine. As I have active Grave's Disease (overactive) as well as Hashimotos (underactive), it can be somewhat challenging to medicate me properly. I am hoping that surgery to remove thyroid (and the impact of Grave's Disease) is NOT on the cards. As troublesome as it is, I'd prefer to keep my body intact if at all possible. My friend has had her thyroid removed as has not had an easy time since.

Sorry I've been so slow and hit and miss with my posts.

Ooh, I am having a girls weekend here at my place next weekend and I'm feeling quite excited about it. After years of being so isolated and unable to do anything of much at all due to ill health it feels a terribly normal and healthy thing to do. So far there will be 5 of us with possibly two more. Lucky I have a big house and lots of beds!

Drop in and leave a comment if you haven't given up on me. I'd love to hear how you are all doing.

Here's to seeing less of me next week but hearing more....

Terrible blogger

Well I've rediscovered my weight loss mojo but not my motivation to blog. I've had a loss this week at weigh in. 0.7kgs which brings my total loss up to 6.3kg since May when I first began this journey. Weight Watchers has just rolled out their new ProPoints plan here so I've been on this for 2 days now. It still uses points but these have been redefined and encourage healthier food choices which is great. I've not done my measurements but will do so over the coming weeks in order to have a peek at my progress.

As you know I've really struggled with motivation for awhile and I think even though I stopped tracking for awhile, continuing to attend meetings has been extremely valuable. I think taking pressure off myself and allowing myself to not track has helped me to find my motivation again. I did concentrate on eating only when hungry, eating until satisfied, choosing healthy options instead of tracking points so I didn't just go crazy. I also kept thinking about why I wanted to lose weight and how my life will be different when I do. I have no illusions that life will suddenly be perfect upon reaching my goal weight. I will still lack confidence in some situations. I'll still have to interact with difficult people and circumstances. I will still have the same health history and conditions BUT I won't have the constant nagging presence of extra weight. I won't feel so physically uncomfortable and inhibited. I will have improved my health and decreased my chances of developing new diseases. Keeping my eye on this goal has helped me through this time as has reading blogs of lovely ladies out there in blogland who are maintaining successful losses. Speaking of which, congratulations to Shelley who is celebrating a year of maintenance. Superb effort!

My next goal is to achieve my 10% loss by Christmas. It's only 2.8kg away. So very close. I feel really awkward posting photos of myself but think reaching 10% will be worthy of a progress photo!

Hope you are all well and making little positive changes to your life.

Until next time.....

Perception is a funny thing.

Thanks for checking up on me while I've been missing in action. Very sweet of you and perks me up immensely. I've been struggling a bit since my return from holiday. My weight was down when we got home then has gone up, down and all over the place (in only very small amounts) over the past 5 weeks. My attitude has been the main problem along with a few hormonal spanners thrown in the works. I've really been struggling to follow the Weight Watchers Point System. I've felt really rebellious, burnt out and fed up with the whole thing. So....I've spent the past couple of weeks mulling this over in my personal journal, while taking walks through the trees, while digging in the garden or washing my hair. You know how it is.

I realised that I am a bit burnt out. When I first fell ill in 2000 I started educating myself about nutrition as medicine. First for general health and enhancing immune function and then after I developed cancer I focussed on foods that help with this disease. I made big changes and little changes, tried this and that but was always thinking about food and nutrition and all the while during this time my weight was going up. So I joined Weight Watchers and started learning again, having to change things again and I think I was just over it. I've been sick and tired of having to think about what I eat. I also had a bit of an attitude problem with Weight Watchers focus predominantly on points rather than the nutritional value of food. I think the points should be weighted in a way that encourages people to eat for nutrition first and all of the highly processed, sugary bars and the like should have higher points. They might be really seen as treats then as opposed to a viable daily food option. Off high horse now.

So what have I done about it? Interestingly, just realising why I was struggling took the pressure off and refocussed me. I just needed to suck it up and do what needs doing in this next stage of getting healthy. I dug out some information on the old core plan (which is closer to my natural way of eating) and have monitored my eating by eating to my appetite, eating mindfully and eating good, unprocessed nutritious foods. As a result I feel better, eating feels less of a chore and more natural and I've lost weight consistently. I'm also back on my supplements (which I went off as they made up 1/4 of my daily points allowance) and feel better for it. Since I'm still losing weight I'll continue to take them. Even though I've struggled mentally, I kept going to meetings and weighing in. I quite like it actually. Meetings are a little outing for me during the week and the group is really great. Combine that with a lovely leader and things are still good on that front.

Another thing I've noticed during this time away, is how our perception of our bodies changes. As I went up the scale 84kgs was huge and I felt dreadfully bloated and uncomfortable. Coming back down the scale 84kgs feels light, movement feels easier and I feel 'slim' at times. I'm sure that I look different to myself as well. On the way up the scale I would have been noticing where fat had suddenly appeared, where I looked puffier and more pudgy. Now I notice how slim I look just above my waist and how I can see more of my collar bones. Perception is a funny thing.

How do you see yourself? Does it change in unexpected ways?

Home

We are home safely from the States and Canada and I must say that we rather enjoyed ourselves and didn't fall prey to large wildlife! :) I'll post the holiday report and pictures over at Heart's Landscapes and try to keep this blog related to health and weight loss. After all of my stressing about managing my weight while on holiday I managed to lose 0.2kg (massive amount that it is!). By my following week I'd managed to gain 0.6kgs thanks mostly I think to a particularly ghastly couple of weeks in the Red Tent. That's 'that time of the month' for those who aren't in the know.

So how did I manage to lose weight while on holiday? Basically I chose the best foods that were available to me whenever we ate. Most of the time anyway. I did have to have a couple of 'local meals' as you do when you travel. So I had a burger, fries and coke (yes people I. drank. coke.). I also indulged in this.........
Well, about a 1/4 of this. Too huge to eat but surprisingly tasty. We don't eat a lot of turkey here in Australia and I've never had it smoked on a barbie before. This photo was taken at the Evergreen State Fair near Seattle and for me it was all part of the experience.

Mostly I ordered meals with salads or vegetables and ate those first before the protein. We had fruit and almonds on hand in the car and drank heaps of water. We bought large bottles at the supermarket and topped up our smaller bottles from these. I also confess to drinking a disgusting amount of Starbucks coffee as we found tea very hard to come by. Starbucks has espresso coffee (like we have here), the main other option is that ghastly percolated stuff which the Americans seem to drink by the gallon.

I also wore my pedometer and tried to keep my steps up by taking the long way to a destination, choosing the stairs over the lift etc. I don't remember doing any exercise purely for the sake of exercise, I included it in my day as incidental movement. In Canada my daily steps were at least double what I would normally do here (up to 16000 some days). In the States, they dropped to 4000-6000 most days which is less than my usual 8000. So I must have made good food choices and had a bit of a handle on portion size.

I am still struggling with motivation and focus so am setting aside some time today to journal, go over my Weight Watchers bits and pieces and read some more of "Women, Food and God" by Geneen Roth. Must say ladies it is a BRILLIANT book. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I'm reading it slowly because it's sending me off onto great journal writing and reflective tangents. If you can get hold of a copy I highly recommend it - well the bit I've read anyway.

What do you do when you lose focus and motivation? I know that I have to and importantly I know that I want to, so why am I dragging the chain and resisting really doing something about it? Life would be so easy if our heads stopped getting in the way. Back to the journal.

Hope you are all well and happy.