Day 8 of 100 day challenge - 92 days to go

Well I'm on the board but only just - a loss of 300g this week. Quite disappointing considering I've drunk my water every day, AND had no alcohol whatsoever in the last 7 days. Must admit though that I only managed proper formal exercise on one day last week but did have two where I had lots of incidental exercise - one day where I had to walk all over the site at work and one where I applied some serious elbow grease to our stainless BBQ which was much in need of a clean. But I am pleased to say that I am feeling much more focussed so here's to this week and a bigger loss. Have to say that it was almost a kilo off the other morning so maybe a bit of a fluid thing happening plus the 'girls' are kind of tender the last two days. Haven't had TOM since last November so who knows just quite what's going on in that department!

Last week I was given a lovely award from the delightful Lyn. Thank you Lyn you've made me feel very special. As Lyn said - our blogger community is a bit quiet at the moment - I used to have 12 and 13 updates a day to read and these days it's more like 3 or 4. So like Lyn I'm going to share mine with a couple of bloggers who can always be relied on for a regular update Chris and Anne but I also want to give it to another couple of special people who are having some real struggles within their lives but still manage to blog when they can and leave supportive comments - Em and Julie. Thank you all for the constant support you give me and for your great blogs.

Here's a pic of me showing how the hair growing is progressing - it still looks best behind my ears - but should get better as some of the layers grow out. We had a lovely long weekend - caught up on a few yard jobs, made some progress with the insurance claim for the carpet in the downstairs room - the insurance company will replace the carpet as far as the first join - I ask you how bloody silly is that going to look considering the carpet is about 10 years old and unable to be matched!! Will have to do some straight talking and see what I can arrange! Also put in a couple of hours on my first assignment so can see it beginning to take a bit of shape. This Thursday I have to go up to Rockhampton for a scan of my leg - no facility to get it done locally - and then only two weeks till I go for my op. That's about it for this week - but I should just let you know that the new week is off to a good start - Zanna and I have been for a walk tonight. I feel sooo good when I've done that - heaven only knows why I don't do it more often!

Take care my lovelies
Love Z xx

Counting down - Day 1 of 100

Yes good people I'm shamelessly copying Anne and have embarked on a 100 day challenge. I'm still faffing around losing 200g one week and gaining 300g the next! Well not exactly but 'broad brushstrokes' I'm not doing anything clever or going anywhere fast. So I was lying in bed the other night - lamenting my lack of focus and I was thinking about Anne's self imposed challenge and the more I thought about it the better the idea seemed. So.... it started today. Not too many rules - just the usual - drink 2l water daily, abstain from alcohol, stay on 18 points or less daily and endeavour to exercise daily. Some of you may remember I did the big abstinence thing at the beginning of last year and I felt great and lost mucho kilos. So we're off - hang on it might be bumpy ride. Not much else to report this week - Bloss got back from NZ last night. I had a really quiet week at home - didn't end up doing the girly night out - just couldn't be arsed. Have watched so far 11 movies in 8 days! Picks for this week - School for Seduction (so funny), Sleepless in Seattle (had never managed to see that) Dreamer (an absolutely delightful family move guaranteed to have you in tears). Went to the docs tonight - bloody blood pressure has been steadily rising so have ended up having to have some medication. A review again in about 6 weeks to see what's happening then. That's it from me this week - need to go and cook tea - got a team day to run tomorrow so need to do some final prep but just wanted to pop in and say g'day to everyone. Have a great week everyone and I'll report on the challenge next week. Love Z xx

Is that the time - is that the day?

So sorry everyone for not being around and thanks to those kind people who left a comment checking up on me and making sure I was OK. I'm fine .... just frantic. Although having said that the next week promises the opportunity to get a few breaths back. Anyway here goes -

Menopause - a bit better now seem to be over that dreadful emotional seesaw I was on a couple of weeks ago. From memory I think I ended the day of that last post with a complete melt down - not like me at all. But cleared the air with Bloss and I and he's been a bit more attentive since!

Started the Frontline Management course - think I told you that it leads of a Diploma in Business - done over the rest of this year. Dealing with Operational Planning first up - had a two day workshop last week and first assignment due in 6 weeks - roughly 60 pages comprising a full operational plan to be included for my team - including mission statement, objectives, resource plans, budget, KPIs, training and skills matrix with gap analysis, risk analysis, SWOT and PESTO analysis and so on - so I'm going to be pretty full on with that.

Went down to Brisbane week before last and visited the Vascular Surgeon re my varicose vein. Really liked him - took plenty of time to explain all the ins and out and I'm scheduled for surgery on 15 May. Before that I have to go to Rockhampton for a scan - his gadget had broken down when I was there and since I was only there for the day I couldn't get in with any of the labs down there. Anyway head off for the scan on 1 May. Re. the surgery I'm going down the day before, will stay in a motel that night, then be admitted at 6am the next morning, have the op, stay in hospital that night then be released on the following morning (Friday). I'm not allowed to fly back till Monday. At this stage not sure whether Bloss will come down for the weekend and we'll stay in a hotel or otherwise one of my friends has offered for me to stay the weekend with them - thinking that might be the best option since I'll not be able to get up to very much if Bloss comes down. I'll be off work for two weeks and have to wear a full length elastic stocking - complete with waist belt for that time. (At least that will give me time to work on my assignment at home!)

Bloss left yesterday afternoon for Brisbane and then heading off to Invercargill in New Zealand for a week with work. We have a sister smelter there. So I must confess I'm looking forward to a week of no cooking. Plan to make up my big bowl of salad for work, my little jellies with fruit are already in the fridge, and I'm going to live on WW meals and steamed frozen vegies for a week!! As I told you last time, No 2 son is back but I've warned him that there will be no cooking happening. He'll probably be out a fair bit which I don't mind at all as this week is really quite precious to me - I really do need some time on my own now and again - just to chill out and regroup!

Eating and exercise - not bad but not that good either - basically just marking time in maintenance mode which is not where I need to be. But hopefully this coming week will give me a bit of a kick start and I can make a bit of progress. However I will confess that yesterday I decided that before starting on this regime of WW meals etc. I would have one afternoon/evening of luxurious wickedness. So I had my usual toast for breakfast, met S for lunch in town and had a vegetarian omelette (which was overcooked and tasted like cardboard) then did the food shopping stocking up on all those WW meals. Then..... went to the video shop and got out 7 chick flicks, came home and enjoyed a 50g bar of chocolate, followed later in the night with a frozen fragmented Crunchie (one of my all time favourites and I think it might be years since I last had one), shared some Cheese and Onion chips with No 2 son, watched 3 movies and enjoyed a bottle of chardonnay. Damage probably wasn't actually that bad as after consuming all of the above I wasn't hungry so didn't have any tea. Today is a new day and I've had cereal and skim milk for brekky and some fruit.

Last Friday morning came down stairs to find that the hot water system had shit itself and leaked all over the floor and into the downstairs room soaking the carpet. So we've had to replace the hot water system and now negotiating with the insurance company re the carpet - it's been dried but being wool is badly stained. We were planning on renovating that room later this year and thinking of lifting the carpet and tiling that area so depending on how things go with the insurance we might hopefully get the money diverted towards doing the tiling. Just to make life even more interesting the carpet man unplugged the beer fridge downstairs to power the drier and dehumidifier. So there's a full ham which was in the freezer compartment which will have to be ditched. Och well - that's life as they say.

At work I'm now settled in to my new office - I might post a picture next time if I remember. I'm noted for having a beautiful work area - lots of plants - one of which is a particularly large Happy Plan which has been all round site with me during the last 10 years and lots of pictures of all the places we've travelled to. We kick off the new training structure and programme officially tomorrow so some very busy times ahead.

Haven't been walking at all recently - seem to have had so many things on my plate that I just couldn't fit it in. Poor Zanna (that's the dog not me!!). So that's on my plan for this week too - along with a dental check up and a visit to the hairdresser and probably a night out to the theatre with S next weekend. Bloss gets back to Brisbane on Friday night but is staying Friday and Saturday nights with his No 1 son then flying back on Sunday.

Moves watched so far - Tara Road (had read the book at Christmas - Maeve Binchy - fantastic read) and thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Then Driving Lessons - feel good and funny, and Waking Ned Divine - actually not quite finished - fell asleep in the chair (would have been all that wine!) Still to go - Saving Grace, Little Fish, One True Thing and Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood.

Well sorry for the long rambling post but at least you're all up to date with life Chez Zanna. Again I apologise for not commenting very much - but I have been popping in to have a read if I get a minute. The other thing I'm doing - which I'm quite addicted to - is playing scrabble, scramble and wordtwist on Facebook - been enjoying some great games with Canadian Christine - who many of you know and now into it with Lyn from Waihi too.

Have a great week everyone - I'm certainly planning to.
Love Z xx

ps - just thought I'd add a couple of photos - just for a bit of colour

This is my huge bowl of salad I make up twice a week - lasts easily for 3/4 days in the fridge and I just fill up my smaller container each day, add tuna, salmon, ham, prawns etc and I have fat free balsamic dressing in the fridge at work which I add just as I eat. Todays 'brew' contains mixed mesculin and some iceberg lettuce, celery, red, green, yellow capsicum, sugar snap peas, roma and grape tomatoes, lebanese cucumber, avocado, chopped water cress, black and green grapes, kiwi fruit, basil, feijoa (don't know how that will go but saw them in the supermarket and the description said they were good in green salads). Missing from todays brew since I can't be bothered going to the fruit and vegie chop are mint, mushrooms, mung beans and pea and lentil sprouts

S had got this from work as it was being replaced but she didn't want it any more now so it's hiding behind the photo screen in the corner of the dining room - and gives me so much more room in the fridge now that I don't have to keep water in there.