Sugar High, Sugar Low, Sugar very very low

So as it happened, the other night we got the invite for dinner from my sister and BIL.

My BIL was a chef in a past life.  This sort of invitation is not something one passes up lightly.

Given that his facebook post of the morning mentioned his visit to the Asian grocery store in town for the purchase of some essential 'Thai' ingredients, our invitation acceptance was forwarded mighty fast.

It was a feast.  Table groaning with a selection of curries and stirfries and rices and condiments....I think I may have eaten too much.  I certainly didn't have the mind to remember to take piccies but trust me, it was good!

And then dessert came out.  The most delicious baked sticky rice pudding (not authentic Thai I'm sure, but very Thai-esque), served warm with a generous helping of creamy icecream.  

And I thought I was full before dessert!!

Amazing!!!  I only wish I had remembered my camera!

Unfortunately for me, well unfortunately for the LOML, my comedown off that much sugar in one hit wasn't pretty.  Nor was it funny.  The LOML was very wise not to laugh at me until well after the sugar-low had subsided and I was able to laugh too.  About 24 hours in all.  For-ev-er.

Clearly my sugar-free life is well and truly entrenched now.  

But that sticky rice pudding was worth it.  Oh my, it was worth it!

Operation Matron Dress: The Plan

So I have about 12 weeks to get myself toned up, trimmed down and able to fit into this dress.....

Plenty of time you say?  Well for me, most likely just enough.  

Not that I have that much weight I need to lose but 12 weeks allows for one false start, a few slip-ups, a whole lot of potential disaster in the form of Christmas and New Years, as well as 6 weeks of hard-core work hours which will seriously test my commitment to regular, heart-beat raising exercise (gift shop + Christmas + boxing day sales = long days + hard work + minimal free time).

With that in mind, I have a Plan.  A Plan that I will now share with the world because once shared it remains in the social consciousness and I am honour-bound to uphold it.  I'm like that. A healthy dose of guilt does marvels for commitment to a cause.

So here goes....my Plan of action in order to reach a successful outcome for Operation Matron Dress.....

• No added sugar.  That means no honey on toast for brekky, no mid-afternoon bikkie snack, no chocolate after dinner and definitely no ice-cream.  Oh, and no soft drink.  Not even the diet ones.
• More water.  I figure that without the soft-drinks this will be easy.  I just need to make sure my water bottle is always full.  And with me.  That helps.
• Make my own lunch to take to work.  I know, terrible that I don't do this already.  The carvery in the food court will see a significant decrease in their sales with this one but packing my own lunch will mean I can load up on healthier snacks to get me through the day.  Also, I'll be saving myself $5.20 by making my own egg and lettuce sandwich.  Yes that's right.  I am being extorted each day for two slices of bread, some (not a lot by any stretch of the imagination) mashed egg, and a sprinkling of 'passed it's prime' lettuce.  Time to change that.
• Cardio at least 3 afternoons a week.  I will pilfer my niece's skipping rope, I will somehow permanently plug the treadmill in (not as easy as it sounds - power was cut to the shed where it lives so plugging it in involves a whole lot of extension cord to reach the nearest power outlet), I will walk the block during a lunch break.  I will ride my bike to the shop.  Or I'll walk.  Basically I will move.  As opposed to the sitting that currently goes on.
• I will do some form of resistance work.  Squats behind the counter.  Lunges across the yard.  Step-ups on the back stairs.  If I can wrangle it I will get the weights gym out of the shed on our investment property and into our shed up here sooner rather than later.  And I will set it up and use it (the most important part).  
• And most importantly, I will report to the world my Operation status.  Nothing like an obligation to fess up and share my progress to motivate me to achieve.  Once a week I plan.  Shouldn't be able to hide anything that way.

Here goes..... 

Och. Mein. Gott.

Earlier in the year a lady I met through our shop who told me she was getting married in the new year.  She's 75 and getting married for the second time (her first husband passed away a number of years ago) to a lovely man she met through her volunteer work selling raffle tickets for the Mater Children's Hospital.  She was wanting to know if I knew a cake decorator who could make her cake.  I put up my hand and offered my services.  She was stoked. 

Fast forward a couple of months and I'd managed to narrow her down on style, size, shape and colours etc for the cake - everything was going to plan.

Then it sort of went pear shaped for her.  Her fiance's family, for one reason or another, have all pulled out of the wedding leaving the bridal party one matron short (can't call them bridesmaids when they're all married now can you).  So the hunt was on for a replacement.

I was nominated, asked and added to the bridal party in quick succession.  Happy days.

Today I received the dress.  

Made to fit the redundant family member who is clearly not as hippy nor as busty as I am, I have my work cut out for me in order for it to fit.  I do have the option (which will be happening regardless) of letting out a few seams but they are not that generous to start with so the only other option remaining for me is some serious exercise and some really serious watching what I'm eating until the wedding.  That and some hardcore body slimming underwear as well.

So there you have it.  I have been looking for something to motivate me to stick to an exercise plan and to encourage me to eat better for longer than a couple of weeks (my won't-power is seriously weak) and the potential to be immortalised for all time in someone's wedding photos wearing a dress that clings in the most unflattering way around my thighs (shiny tafetta no less!!!) is enough to scare the bejeezus out of me and get me on that wagon as quick as I can!

I'm hoping the approaching silly season and its myriad of temptations won't destroy my plans too much (my family are notorious for putting on the most sugar-laden, high-fat spreads known to man so I'm scared.  Very scared.)

Anyone have any suggestions for exercises to tone up and trim down the maximus gluteous?  

28 days

They say it takes 28 days for an action or a behaviour to become a habit.  

I'm gonna give it a go.

I'm challenging myself to create a whole heap of new habits by replacing the ones that need replacing.  Namely the eating of crap food, the lack of exercise and the favouring wine over water.  The winter coat that has joined last year's winter coat has me a little worried. It snuck up on me and given I can't afford a new wardrobe (and the thought of trying on clothes with the ugly lights and fat mirrors in the fitting rooms is not something my mental health can deal with right now), it is now time to take decisive action.

Technically I have chosen the first of September as the start of my 28 day new-habit-creation but unofficially I have started today.  You know, because Monday is the start of the week and my anal-obsessive tendencies see me struggle with the concept of starting something - anything - on a Thursday even if it is the first of the month.  Tough gig.  Also, with a couple of practice days up my sleeve, I won't feel so bad on Wednesday morning if I were to hit the snooze button instead of turning the alarm off - unlike how I would feel if I did it on Thursday, say.  Kind of a warm-up practice go before the real thing starts.

So today I did well. I was up and about early for the exercising, I ate very well today (as opposed to the not so well eating of yesterday) and....well, I didn't do so well with the water thing today.  I left my water bottle at home - it's a stainless steel bottle that I fill with rain water from our tank.  I struggle to drink bottled water at the best of times (it tastes so plastic, not to mention the major attacks of the guilts I get when I actually pay for water in a bottle) and drinking tap (town) water around these parts is akin to drinking the water in the public pool.  I can't do it.  So right now I am knocking back water like it's going out of fashion.

The end-goal I'm hoping for at the end of the 28 day challenge is to feel fitter, more toned and less wobbly, and to feel better about myself which I always seem to do when I lay off the chocolates and lollies and actually get active.  With the weather warming up by the day (YAY!!!!!) soon it will be singlet and shorts weather and there is no way I'm wearing either given the tuckshop arm scenario I have happening at the moment and as for the tautness of the shorts across my rear end - well, I'm not ready to go there!

So here goes - 28 days it is....eat better, move more, drink more water.  Easy right?

Buzzzzzziiiiiiinnnnnngggggg!

The time is 7:26am.

OMG imagine the buzz
if I'd had 2 full-sugar Vs!!!!

I have been awake (up and about) since 2:30am.

In that time I have consumed two sugar-free Vs and two pieces of toast with syrup, and driven 300km.

I give it two more hours before I crash and burn in a completely un-pretty way.

Sugar high (well actually, sugar-free-high), you have worked, and are still working, your magic just fine and dandy!!!  Thank you for keeping me alert on my drive home.

****

This morning the LOML had to be at the airport at 5am for a flight to Melbourne.  So it was a 3 hour round trip to drop him at the Brisbane airport and come home again.  He's away for only the one night, down and back for a big gift fair (wholesale delights for retailers around the country) and a look/see around Melbourne's Lebanese area (he's on the hunt for an Agileh - can't wait to pick up one when we're in Lebanon again next year - must have one NOW!).  Meanwhile, I'm holding the fort at this end (not today though - Miss K will work today for me at the shop).  

It was a great drive - no traffic on the road at all, not even any trucks which was surprising (maybe we were too early even for them).  Coming back through the city at 5:30am though was a different story.  I can't believe how quickly it built up and cars were lined up and travelling slowly through all the hot spots.  I mean, we did live there only 4 years ago so in my head I know what it's like but how quickly we forget.  Made me glad I was going the other way.

I was also reminded this morning of how beautiful the world is just before the sun comes up.  All mist and fog and soft light.  Made me wish I was a passenger with a camera in my hand just so I could share it with the world.

Once upon a time it was usual for me to be awake and functioning at this time of day.  But then I met the LOML, the biggest night owl ever, and changed my hours of operation.  These days bed time is somewhere between 11pm-1am (a really early night is classified as 10pm) and the alarm doesn't go off before 7:30am.  

We get quite a bit of ribbing from our friend Mr Paddy for that fact - our late starts.  A number of times he has rung at 6:30am and given us stick for not being up.  He somehow doesn't seem to realise that the opposite is true also - when he is heading for the sheets at 8:30pm, we are just getting started.  I wonder what he would say to a 10pm phone call....!

But anyway, today day shall be long and I daresay I shall accomplish a lot, what with all this ENERGY ripping through my system.  I think I might start with the washing, then the floors, then the garden, and then I might make a start on painting the house.....!!!!!

Hope your day is as buzzing as mine!!!!

Pooh understands

I'm a honey freak.

I love me some honey.

I love it on my toast for brekky.  I love it on my sandwiches for lunch.  I love it straight from the jar on the biggest spoon I can fit through that opening.  I love it when I have a sore throat and it soothes the pain.  I love it on my skin at night when I use my home-made face cleanser.

I love runny honey.  I love thick, hard honey.  I love honey flavoured things and I love flavoured honey.  But most of all I love candied honey.  Not that creamed honey you can buy some places, but honey that has crystalised and gone really thick (most people would most likely sit a jar of crystalised honey in some hot water or on a sunny windowsill to return to runny but they are MISSING OUT!!!).

Crystalised honey was a favourite of my nana and she always had a big jar full of it to smear over a thick slice of wholemeal bread for me to devour.  

My family and friends know of my love of honey and over the years I have received an assortment of honeys - dandelion flavoured honey from a hive on my Aunt and Uncle's farm surrounded by fields of dandelions, thick dark ironbark honey from an ironbark tree on a friend of a friend's farm, a 2kg pail of pure honey from our bee-man neighbour - and just recently this delicious jar of honey from Coffs Harbour from my sister and her family who picked it up for me while on holidays down south.

Sweet, divine honey.  What would I do without you?

It's just not fair

Why oh why can the LOML eat a whole family block of fruit and nut chocolate, washed down with at least a litre of full-strength Coke (no diet stuff here), without putting on weight? 

Why can he do no exercise at all (not counting walking the bins out to the kerb) and still maintain his weight?

Me, I so much as breathe in the aroma of a freshly baked choc-chip muffin and my bum is suddenly stretching the seams of my jeans in an alarming fashion.  Looking at pictures of cakes and slices in a magazine can make the scales climb higher.

It's just not fair.

Not fair at all.

And if the LOML does notice a little paunch suddenly encroaching over the top of his belt, well, he just stops the chocolate and the coke for a week and it's gone!  Gone!  Just like that!  No need for hour long runs on the treadmill five times a stupid week, no need for counting calories and sugar and fat for weeks on end, no need for removing all food containing said calories and sugar and fat from the fridge because you have no willpower to resist....nope, he just eases up on the crap and problem solved.  Totally not fair.

I keep telling him that one day his technique won't work and then he'll actually have to start eating a little better (ie no more coke and chocolate) and engaging in regular exercise in order to shift excess kilos (welcome to my world!).  Poetic justice that day will be.  I shall not be gracious in his defeat!

In the mean-time, I'll be the one hitting the pavement come rain, hail or shine* in an attempt to limit the addition to last year's winter coat and trying to contain my sweet-tooth so I don't resort to inhaling the entire contents of the sugar jar just to get a hit.

I'll also be the one in the corner crying 'it's not fair' over and over while rocking back and forth holding an empty box of fruit loops. 

* who am I trying to kid?  I won't be out walking in the rain or the hail but that's what I have a treadmill for....truly, it's not just for hanging clothes on!

Sweet, sweet poison

These two books have changed my life.

Towards the end of last year, as I was downing my third V for the day (I know, terrible), I came to the realisation that something had to change.  I wasn't sleeping properly so was always tired, I was moody, I was eating the world and I was having three V's a day (!!!) - the first by 9am (and no amount of justification that I don't drink tea or coffee can remove the terrible-ness of that!).  I was also spending a stupid amount of money on these sugary/caffiene/guarana drinks (and that's with buying them at the supermarket in 4-packs, as opposed to individual cold cans from the cafe) and they didn't seem to be having the same kick they did when I first started drinking them.....someone had themself a habit!

Not long after this light-bulb moment, I was wandering around the bookshop (my favourite all-time pasttime) and David Gillespie's book Sweet Poison jumped out at me from the shelf.  Well, it didn't actually jump out but it certainly caught my attention.  I read the intro (always a good indication as to whether I will like the book) and couldn't stop reading.  At least 40 minutes later I'm sure the sales girl was seconds away from doing an Apu "Ahhh, Mr Homer, this is not a public library.  Please get out."  So I bought the book.

I think I read it from front to back in two days (while at work - shhhhh, don't tell!) and it really struck a chord.  Without going into to too much detail, David's book is about his experience eliminating sugar from his diet, losing weight in the process.  He has done a lot of research into sugar in our diets (from a 'everyday' person point - he is not a scientist/ nutritionist/ dietician/ medical practitioner etc - he's a normal person) and some of the things he found out were enough to put the heebeejeebees in me and make me want to change my way of eating.

Then I found his second book, the Quit Plan, which made it so much easier to put into practice.  So into practice I did put it.  Five rules - easy to understand, easy to implement - that made all the difference.  It was coming up to Christmas and New Years so I struggled a little with all the temptations on offer around that time of year but was able to get right back on track after a few little binges (normally after a binge I would give up but not this time).

I kept at it and on top of it for about 5 months and felt the best I ever have in all my life.  As a bonus to feeling great (fitter, firmer, not as hungry, better skin, sleeping through the night) I lost a little weight.  Not my original intention, to lose weight, but it was a bonus.  I just wanted to kick the sugar cravings throughout the day and be able to go to a restaurant without looking at the dessert menu first!

The last couple of weeks have seen me start to waiver in my sugar-free-stance.  I'm consuming softdrinks and sweet cakes again, not in the quantities that I was but I seem to be unable to resist the temptation.  I find I'm craving something sweet to eat at odd hours of the day and have a headache most afternoons.  And my pants are getting tight.  Time to take action. 

So these are the five easy rules that are guiding my life again, effective today:

1. I will change my attitude: I am being beating my addiction, not depriving myself of sugar. 
2. I will not snack on sugar.  End of story.  (I now know how much sugar is in a can of V and it is SCARY!).
3. Once a sugarholic, always a sugarholic: I can't afford to have even a little.  (This is the big one for me - honey on toast in the morning is not an option).
4. I won't concern myself with fat content other than to steer away from low-fat foods. (Low-fat = high sugar).
5. Party food is for parties.  (Parties don't happen every day, so NO).

I can do this. 



I will do this. 

Do I have to?

So I'm feeling a bit un-motivated at the moment.  Not the best thing to be when the house needs cleaning and we're running out of clean clothes....perhaps if I sit here long enough someone else will do it for me though I'm really not liking my chances on that one!!!  Maybe what I need is a little motivation - maybe of the liquid kind (it's 5 o'clock somewhere!).  Seriously though, if I started on the liquid motivation now NOTHING will get done!  What I need to do is just get off my butt and DO it rather than just think/ talk about it! 

I do love a bit of self-diagnosis and medicating.  I seem to do it a lot.  Solve all the world's problems without having to pay to see a doctor!  The LOML (love of my life) is the king of self-diagnosis (and self-medicating).  Strange how all his ailments are miraculously cured with the consumption of scotch.  Or beer.  Or chocolate.

Myself, I reckon sugar would solve all of my problems (not really, but an intensive trial could certainly find out for sure!).  I say that because I have currently been sugar-free (no added sugar) for about 5 months now.  There have been a few blowouts (Christmas with the rumballs, and new years with the lack of availabilty of sugar-free drinks) which I have dealt with quite admirably if I do say so myself.  The day after those sugar binges are HARD.  Major sugar low.  I find it very hard not to go out and inhale anything I can put my hands on (sweet stuff that is.  The thought of inhaling the 1kg bag of carrots in the bottom of the fridge at a time like this just doesn't cut it!).

Hopefully tomorrow I will wake up with more energy and get-up-and-go.  I do know that once I get started on whatever it is I need to do I'm fine....it's just STARTING that I have trouble with!  Here goes....

Right, okay, let's go, one foot in front of the other.....ooh look, the tv's on!  (aaahhhh, distraction - just one more way not to do what I need to do!!!)