Decisions

I’d planned ages ago that I’d train for the City to Surf then after that for the half marathon of the Melbourne Marathon – now I’m having second thoughts. I hadn’t counted on being sick for so long. It’s over 3 months now, which can’t be normal. I swear, if I had sick leave and could take a week off to recouperate, I’d have been over all this ages ago, but since that isn’t a possiblity, I think I want to cut back on stuff for a while instead of increasing it. There’ll be other runs. I’m thinking if I don’t do it, then I’ll do the Burnie Ten and go visit my mum for the weekend.

Weigh In – 71.8 kgs

I actually weighed myself yesterday but didn’t get a chance to update. Arrrggh! I’ve been eating far too much. I don’t know what it is but I’m in love with food at the moment. Even when I’m not eating, I’m ogling fattening foods at the supermarket or on cafe menus.

One of my problems is that I start havng treats but then I do it so often it becomes a habit so then I have that and more treats on top. I started having an ocassional mini muffin at the coffee shop near work and now i have a mini muffin every day. I’ve got to cut all that out.

The other thing I’m cutting out is BAD food. I know some people say there is no bad food – just everyday food and treat food, but seriously some food is just plain bad – not because of the calories but there is no reason for eating it other than it’s there. The other night, my sister and I went out for coffee and the cafe had the most fab looking cupcakes. How could we resist? But when I started eating mine, it was stale and not at all enjoyable. Still I ate the whole damn thing. What I *should* have done was send it back. Why the hell should I pay for (and eat) something that is substandard? That’s what I’m going to do next time.

Yesterday I did a 14 km run. Well I ran a lot of it, probably walked about a third. Every single step was an effort and I had to push myself but I’m glad I did it. I was very sore last night but instead of staying home and resting, I went out to see some bands.

Cupcakes

Cupcakes are my new obsession – I’ve even been dreaming about them. At around 150 calories a pop, they aren’t too damaging (compared to say a slice of mud cake from your average cafe) and you get a whole cake! My sister calls them little magical cakes of completeness, or something like that. Check out 52 Cupcakes for some excellent food porn.

I’ve been thinking of buying a fabbo cupcake stand but fear the temptation to fill it (and then empty it).

***

The other night my sister and I were arguing, as you do, about which one of us our Nan hates the most. She told me that I was the favourite grandchild now because I’ve lost so much weight.

We tend to think that with age comes wisdom and maturity but there you have it – you can reach 90+ years of age and still think like a high school girl. My nan is like if Barbie grew up into a grandmother – she’s all about the thinness and how you look. Academic or professional success mean nothing to her. To get in her good books all you need to do is be thin.

I think I’m growing up because hearing that I’m in Nan’s good books doesn’t make me want to go out and wolf down a pavola just to pack the weight back on in a fit of defiance. It’s sad and scary but it’s also so remote from me that it means nothing.

***

I’m thinking late August for the clothes swap (see previous post). More details to follow.

Party Time!

Do you:

• have heaps of clothes that no longer fit you cos you’ve lost weight?
• need new clothes because none of your clothes fit you any more?
• living in or around Melbourne?
• love free stuff?

Yes. Well how does this sound? A gigantic, fun-a-rama bloggers clothes swap party. Bring along the clothes you no longer wear and pick up some spangly new threads. Stick around for dinner and drinks and fun.

Probable location: Fitzroy

Probable date: TBA

Any thoughts, suggestions, etc welcome.

WTF

I’m sick – yet again. It’s not faaaaaaair! Every time I start feeling well, I seem to overdo things and relapse. It’s a viscious cycle. The worst bit is that I get so frustrated with not being able to exercise and not being able to go out. I can’t just sit in my room staring at the walls until I’m 100% better. That would kill me.

I woke up this morning with zero energy and thought about going to work. I thought and I thought then I went back to bed. I woke up again at 11.00 am and decided I would go but first I had an errand to run. Since my sister moved here from Tassie she’s not had a bed. She has a couch that she sleeps on but no bed. She expected to be working and being able to buy a bed long before now but then she got sick so has had no income for the past 2 months. She finally got some sickness benefits payment from Centrelink on Friday.

On the weekend we went to Ikea and she looked at bed (I curled up on one and napped while she did that). We went to the cafe and she debated buying a cheap bed vs waiting to get the one she wants when I remembered I had a mattress in my storage space. Der! It’s not a big mattress – I used to have a day bed in my old sunroom which was one of those old cast iron beds. It’s narrower than a regular single bed and had a base and mattress made to fit it. Still a narrow mattress beats no mattress.

So anyway we went to my storage space today to get it. First off I’d lost the key to the padlock on my storage space so I had to get it cut off and buy a new one ($12) then we had to try to get the mattress into my car but still be able to use the rear view mirror and the gear stick. We managed all that and I finally got to work.

My poor storage space is looking very empty – next month I’m moving out. It costs me a fortune (more than the furniture in it would cost to buy new over the period I’ve had it) and it’s too far away. I can get something much cheaper close to home.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention this before – with all the flatmate debacle last week, I started looking on realestate.com.au for a new place then decided I want to buy not rent but I can’t afford to buy at the moment so I’m going to stick it out here with my cheap as chips rent for about a year until I can buy a little place of my own.

Anyway I had to go to the gym after work because I had a session booked with my personal trainer. I’d been planning to do cycle class straight after but felt like shit. I couldn’t cancel the PT session without giving 24 hours notice so I went along and did that then came home. Grrrr! I hate not being able to exercise when I plan to.

Warning!

If you live in Melbourne and you want to go to the Jam Factory, they now charge a $15 flat rate for parking over an hour. If you purchase something over $5 and have a receipt (note: you get no receipt for food purchases) you get it half price but that’s still $7.50. I’m so very mad.

Gorgeous

I can’t believe it – I’ve been bitching about how cold it is for months then today – slap bang in the middle of winter – I went for a run and actually worried that I should have put on sunscreen. Admittedly, I am very sun conscious but this gorgeous weather for winter.

I ran 12 km today, I think. The signs around here are so dodgy – I ran to Royal Park with a lap around Princes Park in the middle. One sign said it was 4 km to Royal Park then you go along a bit further and it says 4.3 km to Royal Park? Weird stuff.

I had a lazy day of shopping and massage and eggy brunch yesterday followed by a night of Australian music legend, Don Walker, at a country pub. Today I cleaned and dusted then ran. Tonight I’m cooking my favourite Coriander and Lemon Chicken for dinner then chilling out.

Weigh In 71.5 kg

Yeah, I’m up again this week. I’m not too fussed about it because I had poo issues again this morning. Also I’ve been back to the gym this week and it always takes at least a week for cardio to show up on the scales for me.

Andrew came over to watch the football with my sister the other day and so I went into spend some quality time with him (okay, I went in to scab his chocolatey football treats). We were talking about something, I can’t remember what, and he said if I’d be the type of footy coach who, if my team were on a winning streak, I’d change the lineup just for the sake of it. And it’s true. That’s what I did.

Before I would average 1,500 calories a day and I’d do around 500 calories worth of cardio a day. Doing that, I averaged around a 1 kg loss a week. Then I read stuff about as you get closer to goal, the less you should eat. So I cut back on my daily calories.

Suddenly everything became a stress: I’d debate over my morning coffee or a piece of fruit. I couldn’t eat the food I needed because I didn’t have the calories. I felt like I could *never* have any kind of treat. So, in the end, I’d think stuff this, and threw the plan out the window.
I haven’t counted calories or tracked my food in weeks.

I’m going to be at goal before I go to Sydney. That’s 3 weeks to lose 1.5 kgs. I know I can do that. I’m going back to the winning formula.

The Sweetest Words…

I picked my new top up off layby tonight and had a look in shop for a skirt to go with it. They’d had it on a mannequin with a red pencil skirt but I couldn’t find any in the shop so I asked the girl about them. She pulled out the last one in stock and said the most magical words I’ve ever heard:

“You’d be a size 10, wouldn’t you?”

Yeah, that’s right. She thought I was a size 10. I love her. She is my angel. No one’s ever thought I was a size 10 before, except for maybe when I was about 4 years old. The skirt was a bit on the tight side but it fitted! She trying to get me in a size 12 tomorrow.

Kathryn’s Guide To Eating Apples

Since I’m such an expert at consuming large quantities of apples, I thought I’d share some handy tips:

1. Only buy Pink Ladies. They are the superior apples by far. I cry if they don’t have them at the fruit place.
2. Grate apple over your breakfast cereal. I started doing this with my bircher muesli and now I do it with all cereals. Yummy.
3. Take an apple in your bag for morning tea and another one for after the gym.
4. Cut up apple slices and put some yoghurt into a bowl to use as a dip.
5. Have a bowl of apples handy and all other snacks not handy. If I have the choice of grabbing an apple from beside or walking to the kitchen to make a snack, no way will I move. I’m far too lazy for that.
6. If they have apples and other fruit in the cheap sell-out bags at the fruit place, buy up and make stewed fruit for topping your cereal and making easy, peasy desserts.
7. Eat an apple to stay your stomach while waiting for dinner to cook.

See it’s simple to eat 4 kgs of apples a week. The hard bit is carrying them home from the market!