Back to reality

Well, the festive season is well and truly over. Another christmas, new year and birthday have come and gone and it's now time for me to get seriously stuck in to getting rid of these last 10kgs.

My birthday was a bit of a disaster in terms of my diet. I ate fried ice cream, on the Saturday out with my friends I had chicken schnitzel and chips, I had 3 krispy kreme donuts, I had macca's (which I've never even liked!), I had a couple of cocktails and god knows how many beers....so for the last week I've been doing the Fast Start program and have given my exercise routine a real shake up.

I tried a class last week at my gym that's only just started - Body Step. It was definitely hard core and a serious cardio workout. The steps were pretty basic so for someone as unco as me, it was good! My heart rate was on average about 155, so I certainly got a good workout. I swam 2km on Sunday which is something I haven't been able to do for a while because of my shoulder problem, and yesterday I walked around the city all day taking in the Australia Day festivities earning 13 bonus points! Surely this combined with my stricter diet this week will result in something good tomorrow at weigh in? I missed last week's weigh in so I don't really know what the damage was from my birthday celebrations (although the scales at home weren't showing much of a change), so whatever happens tomorrow I'll just have to accept and move on. I think the more intense cardio I can do, the better, and doing something different just has to help, right?!

This Saturday will be a bit of test - I have one of my best friends 40th's to go to. It's a fairy themed party so I've just been out and bought my wings and accessories. Traditionally, when we get together it's a pretty messy affair, but I think as long as I take care with my food intake and exercise the rest of the week, I will have a bit to drink and won't feel guilty. I'm so looking forward to it - it's on a boat cruising out from Manly so should be great and I hardly ever get to see my friend anymore as she moved to QLD a couple of years ago - I miss her sooooo much! :( I'll be sure to post some interesting photos up!

It's my party and I'll eat if I want to!!

Yes, another birthday is upon me. And I will eat but I'm going to try and not eat like an absolute horse but I'm also not going to be a food nazi either. So far so good. Went out to lunch with work friends and had steak and chips, but barely ate any of the chips. I did have a beer, but it's to be expected!

Tonight is dinner with the family at the gorgeous chinese restaurant we go to occasionally. I generally get steamed prawn dumplings for an entree cause they're so damn beautiful, so no dramas there. Mains are usually stir fries and hubby usually gets roast duck, so I might have a bit of that. Always with steamed rice though, I hate fried rice. I'm sure a few glasses of wine will be drunk, but everything in moderation!

Tomorrow night hubby is taking me somewhere - no idea where yet! I have tomorrow off so I'm going to get my hair coloured/cut to make myself all bewdiful. Saturday is lunch with friends at The Rocks then off to the NSW v Victoria 20/20 match. I'm sure a LOT of beers will be drunk, but I'm going to the gym tomorrow and Saturday morning so here's hoping I can counter balance! I figure at the moment, something like not being so strict might even help my body to keep moving. It's happened before, so here's hoping it can and will happen again.

As for pressies, well I have definitely been spoilt. My mum gave me a bottle of champagne and $500!!! I nearly died! Hubby gave me chanel perfume and apparently there's more to come, and I got the most gorgeous bunch of flowers from my best mate who I also happen to work with. Haven't even seen most of my family yet, so I've definitely been well looked after this birthday.

Well, I'm off to continue doing what I was doing before this...not much! Even though I'm in air conditioning, it's still hot inside (it's a tick over 40 degrees outside my work and we're on the water!) so not much is getting done by anyone at all today. Oh well, as I said it's my party and I'll cry if I want to!!

So close...

Yet so far. I seem to be stuck 10kg from goal. For about a month, if not more, I've hovered around the same weight and it's slowly getting me down.

We were introduced to the new plan at my meeting last Wednesday. I am keen to give Fast Start a go to see if that shakes things up a bit, but as it's my birthday on Thursday and I have 3 separate family/friend things to do, I figured last or this week wouldn't be the best time to try it! So as soon as the weekend is over, I'm going to give it a go. I'm really interested to see if it makes a difference, because I have a feeling that once I get past this plateau, it won't necessarily be smooth sailing, but I can't see anything slowing me down from there.

On a brighter note, hubby and I had a bit (understatement!!) of a shopping spree on Sunday. We lay buyed heaps of stuff and also bought some stuff home - all up will end up spending about a grand!!! I bought some really nice things, in sizes that I am very happy with from shops I would never have been able to shop in before WW. It was so much fun taking things into the dressing room knowing they'd either fit, or possibly even be too big, and then coming out and showing my hubby. I have NEVER shopped like that and never thought I would, but my god it was fun! I just can't wait to pick up all my laybuys now! I made sure I bought home a really cute top I'm going to wear for birthday drinks on Saturday though - I'll try and post some pics if I remember!

Another photo

Yes, I actually remembered to take a full length photo on NYE. I know I don't look particularly impressed as we were kinda running late at this stage, but here it is nonetheless!

It's not an overly flattering shot for some reason, but you get the idea!

I know, I've been slack...

As Tegan pointed out to me, it probably is time for a christmas/new year update!

Not much has really happened since I last posted which is a bit tragic! I survived the 4 family lunches/dinners that we had to attend (just!), and have since had the best new years ever on a harbour cruise out on Sydney harbour right underneath the fireworks.

My food intake has probably been far from ideal (especially the last couple of days, I seem to have had an insatiable appetite), but according to the scales at home I've managed to balance that out with exercise and as of this morning, I actually weigh less than I did before christmas. Whether that remains the same at my official weigh in on Wednesday, who knows, but at least I gave it my best shot right?!

So here are a couple of pics from new years. I wore an entirely new outfit including the most gorgeous pair of shoes (which were surprisinly comfortable and I didn't end up walking from the wharf to the train station in bare feet, so that's gotta be good right?!). I am slowly becoming more comfortable in my own skin - I don't feel ridiculous when I wear a dress now so that's definitely a start. I also don't always feel the need to wear a jacket or cardi to cover my arms so I'm really pleased about that as well.

I'll add a couple more later on, including a full length one which I managed to remember to take somehow and a few from chrissy (I also wore a dress christmas day much to the shock of my family!). I hadn't seen some of my hubby's family since last christmas so they were a bit shocked by what I look like now (in a good way I hope!) so it was quite nice to not only shock them with that, but I figured I'd wear a dress and really surprise them!

So I hope everyone had a great christmas and here's to a happy new year!