Operation Noah - Day 15

And here's my chart for this week. Not quite so good but still OK. I've had the most frantic week one way or another so have only had incidental exercise at work, although I've had a few treks around site so that at least gets some steps up. Alcohol - well that hasn't been so good - only two nights without the regular chardonnay. But I can say hand on heart that I've measured and counted every one that I've had and still stayed within my 18 points daily allowance. Lots of water being drunk which hopefully flushes the alcohol out of my system!!

A little confession - decided, being the control freak that I am that I needed to just make sure that the scales were taking a downturn. So I hopped on this morning - but that's the first for 14 days - normally that would only happen when I'm on holiday and there are no scales available. Anyway I'm not telling but suffice to say that they are moving in the right direction - not terribly fast but then they never do for me - but I'm happy and won't hop on again for at least another couple of weeks. They are safely stowed away under the spare bed!

Taaa Raaaa. Here's the new set up. Got everything delivered on Monday night and yours truly assembled it all. You'd never believe that Bloss 's original trade is actually Radio/TV technician! Anyway it's all working now - took me a couple of days and course I did read the manuals. It looks and sounds fantastic. Of course had to race out and buy another red planter and plant as that far corner just needed something - plus it covers some of the wiring and the sub woofer box which isn't particularly attractive. The planter on the left I already had - it was gracing the stair landing and was commandeered for this spot. Then I had to swap some of our artwork around as the art that was in that spot was too big and was hidden by the screen. So this is a tryptich which we bought from Germany which was on the dining room wall.

No 2 son arrived home safely on Friday - looks great - a bit photo shy but might manage one when he's not looking for my next post! He thinks the TV is awesome - particularly the cricket - reckons it's almost as good as being there.

Bloss bought himself a new laptop last week so right now there are three of us sitting in the lounge room - each with a laptop on their knee surfing and typing away merrily with the cricket on in the background.

Thought I'd just give you all a progress shot of how the hair growing exercise was going. Must say I'm pleased with it and haven't found it all 'painful' so far. I think the fact that I go to my hairdresser every few weeks and she 'nibbles' the ends is encouraging it to grow and avoiding that straggly stage that typically occurs.

Here's the front view!

And here's how the sides are doing.

Other news - our local community here is in a state of shock this week after the discovery of the body of a 21 year old woman in some bushland near the railway track. She'd been at a local nightclub on Sat/Sun then was last seen heading for the local 24 hour service station - where nighttime revellers often head for a feed of 'greasies'. She was reported missing by her family on Sunday and her body found on Monday. We've only had I think two other murders here in the last 20 years and both of them had a domestic background - wife butchered husband and bloke shot his de facto partner in the bar of a local hotel. But so far there's been nothing come out about this young woman's lifestyle to indicate a domestic connection like a disgruntled partner, stalker etc. So it kind of makes you wonder if there's a maniac lurking out there. Aside from being raped, apparently the police have said it's one of the most brutal murders they have ever seen. So needless to say the whole community is decidedly shocked and jittery and I just can't begin to imagine how her parents must be feeling. Hopefully by the time I next post they might have managed to find the person responsible.

Right guys - I'm now off to phone my baby brother in Scotland who turns 40 today. I had no idea what to get him and so went searching on the net and eventually sent him the deeds to an acre of land on the moon! Told him it would be a good weekend escape in the future!

Have a great week everyone

Love Z xx

Operation Noah - Day 8

So 7 days in and how have I gone? Pretty darn good I'd say. I've posted my chart for this week below. As you can see there is room for improvement in the exercise column. You may remember that last week I blamed the heat for me struggling to exercise. Well in true Noah style it actually turned out to be the rain which was the problem. We had heaps of rain here last week (fortunately not like Mackay) but nonetheless we had over 400mm (16inches) in three days. And even yesterday although dry in the morning was raining heavily by the afternoon. So I've managed a few walks but hopefully will get more next week. Now the alcohol - well I made a definite decision that I was going to allow myself a few on the weekend - don't feel quite so deprived then. However I made sure I measured, pointed and tracked. So they're all in there in the 18 points and tracking pictures! And furthermore I still haven't stood on the scales - hid them under the spare room bed so I wouldn't be tempted! Don't think I feel any real difference size wise yet although maybe the'muffin' is softer!

So what else is new chez Zanna? Well Bloss and I have been promising ourselves for a while now that we would upgrade to a jumbo TV - we didn't get each other much for Christmas as we knew this was in the pipeline. So today was the day. I'd done a bit of research yesterday at the shops, then we both popped into good old Harvey Norman yesterday arv, but they were just about to close. Anyway we came home and did some more research and thinking and went back this morning and spent squillions of dollars (at least that's what it seems like).

This is a 50inch plasma TV with built in tuner and 250gb hard drive .....

and below we have a DVD Lifestyle System - with of course DVD, speakers, sub woofer etc including wireless rear speakers (much better than having to worry about all those cables round the place)

It's being delivered tomorrow afternoon so once we have it all set up I'll take a picture off how it looks in our lounge room. As well as the above we also bought a black glass unit to sit it all on.

Other exciting news is that No 2 son, the one who wanders - no seriously the one who seems to have inherited his mother's travel bug, returns to the fold, arriving this Friday. I haven't seen him for 13 months so needless to say overjoyed that he's coming home even although at this stage he only plans to be here for about 3 weeks of which I think one week may be spent in Melbourne. But I'm just so pleased to see him that any time is good time. At this stage I think he's planning to head back to London again but not sure how long for. He's just finished the contract he had in Malaysia on the offshore rig and there's the possibility of an onshore comissioning contract in Brazil but at the moment he's keeping all the options open. Having earned a ridiculous amount of money in Malaysia he's in no hurry to make up his mind.

Visited the doctor a few weeks ago and got a referral to a specialist to get a varicose vein looked at. He asked me who I wanted to go to and since I had no idea he referred me to a local general surgeon. My friend Shaz who is a nurse told me I should see a vascular surgeon and offered to find me details. She's come back with the name of a guy who is highly recommended but who is in Brisbane. Fortunately we have a brilliant medical scheme through work so will get all my fares reimbursed - either driving down and staying overnight, or flying down and back on the same day. I've got it all teed up and will fly down first thing on April 1st to have a consultation and back up again the same night. Might even manage a spot of retaill therapy while I'm in Brisvegas and I've also a few friends in our head office there who I might try and catch up with too. Then of course I"ll have to go back down for the actual surgery depending on what he proposes. I've had this particular vein for close on 30 years but it's definitely getting uglier - bubbles when I've been on my feet for a while and starting to ache a bit so thought I might as well take advantage of our good medical cover and get it fixed.

Okay dokes folks, that my news for the week. I'm still feeling very focussed so here's to another week with pictures in lots of boxes!

Take care possums
Love Z xx

Operation Noah - The Forty Day Fix

Interesting title don't you think! Well here's the story - was lying awake in the wee small hours this morning and berating myself for not getting myself back into weight loss mode rather than maintenance mode. When I thought about what I do historically I realised that I am actually quite good at maintaining while life plods along normally and I'm in my normal environment. But when I go on holidays then I allow myself to slacken off a bit and so gain a couple of kilos. So then I come back from holidays and go back into maintenance mode again. So what's the problem? Well this means that over time my weight just creeps up. If I think about last year - in January I went into weight loss mode and stayed there till we went to Hong Kong - wonderful things achieved. Came back from there with the traveller's diarrhea so that got rid of the couple of kilos gained but then I slipped into maintenance mode and remained there until we went on our big US trip, gained a kilo or two there, came back into maintenance mode again until it was time to head to UK - gained a couple of kilos there and here I am back again once again slipping nicely into maintenance mode. But the problem is that I haven't dealt with those couple of kilos slipped on here and there and so I'm actually just over 5 kilos heavier than my lightest weight last year. So I decided to devise a master plan to get me into weight loss mode again - and it's name is Operation Noah. I worked out that I have 40 days until Easter - the number of days of Noah's floods - so I've built myself a pretty chart - I'm just like so many of us bloggers - love a good chart, graph or recording system.

I've focussed on six key areas which I know work for me - count points, then track them, weigh my food so I don't get too sloppy over estimating - you know the kind of thing - this bunch of grapes looks about 100g = 1 point but is actually about 140g which is closer to 1.5 points. Then toss out the alcohol for a while - it makes a huge difference to my losses - look at what Ails is achieving! Next - drink 2 litres of water every day and finally get some exercise every day. I'm feeling really positive about all of them - the only one I think I'm going to have to really push myself on just for the moment is the exercise. It's stinking hot and steamy here and the thought of getting out there and walking is not an exciting one but I'm going to try and just do it one day at a time.

So as I said I've done a chart - I'll commit to posting each seven days on here and intend to have a little picture in every box. I'm also going to do something else radical. I'm going to promise not to stand on the scales till day 40!!!! This really is very scary for me as I'm a control freak and I'm going to feel I've lost control if I can't stand on the scales every day but I'm thinking that this will mean that I must stick to the above plan as it's the only way I'll know that I'm still in control of my weight. Sounds whacky - well I am!!! My progressive measure will have to be how my clothes are fitting.

But the other good thing I have to report is that this morning as I start Operation Noah I'm another 500g lighter. I'm not going to specify an actual figure I want to lose as since I'm not weighing till the end it's a bit pointless. The aim will be to see how much it's possible for me to lose in 40 days if I stick to the plan and follow those six basic rules. However I will say that I'm not proposing only doing this for 40 days but this gives me a manageable goal with a little break at Easter and then I plan to crank up again till I get closer to that magical goal I set myself. I feel that I've got my determination back so here goes. Bring it on babes!!!

Take care my friends
Love Z xx

Half Assed

Yep that's me - I'm struggling to get back into the right frame of mind. 200g lighter this morning than last Tuesday - quite pathetic really. And I deserve it. As my heading says I've been pretty half assed about getting truly back on track. In my favour I have at least put the brakes on, but the wheels are still spinning a bit! ( I love metaphors - can you tell?). So what was good - my eating was pretty well spot on and while I didn't actually track, I did mentally track every day and I did manage to drink water (but not enough) every day. However I only walked one day and I had alcohol on four days and that wasn't always within my points allowance. I seem to have been quite lethargic since I got back - busy at work but just collapsing in the chair with my library book in the evenings with of course the air conditioning on - it's so bloody hot and tropical here at the moment - another reason why I can't seem to get the exercise programme back on track. Don't anyone give me any sympathy - don't need that - try giving me a virtual kick in the bum! Anyway my plan for the week ahead is to try and improve on last weeks effort and see if I can find some of the 'zing' I had this time last year. Incentives? - they usually work for me. So having a trip up to Cairns for almost a week over Easter to catch up with a cousin of Bloss's - who is fantastic fun. Looking forward to that as I've never been further north than Airlie Beach. They actually live in the Atherton Tablelands and I understand there's some beautiful spots round there. Other news - changes afoot at work - can't remember whether I blogged about this last week (and too lazy to look and see - see what I mean!). Anyway I'll be changing roles shortly - sideways rather than up - which doesn't worry me. Actually it's what I've been wanting for some time now as it will give me a chance to broaden my generalist knowledge of Learning and Development as up to now I've been focussed on one area. So a new role with probably two people reporting to me (had thought I wouldn't have anyone which would have been nice for a change) and the opportunity to set up systems and procedures right across the business unit (1200 people) and generally make a difference. So pretty exciting. Went to the optometrist (can remember that I did tell you that) - eyes haven't deteriorated that much and we've decided to go down the path of contacts for my distance vision and just stick with magnifiers for reading. Not sure how I'm going to manage putting contacts in and out with my false finger nails - according to my optometrist I might have to devise a different strategy! Ails - what do you reckon? Thunderstorms galore here this last week - I was panicking yesterday morning - we had had a night of constant thunder and lightening so had brought Zanna upstairs to our room, but they died down andwe took off to work leaving her as usual but then mid morning they cranked up again with a vengeance. I was interviewing all day but had a window between two of them so raced home and locked her in the shed - felt bad about it but figured it was better than having her take off and roam the streets again and I was worried that she might push over one part of the fence if she decided to bolt. OK that's it from me, have a great week. Love Z xx