Am I putting on weight?

The gym that I go to only weighs you every ten weeks so I am not sure on how much I have lost/put on or how my cms are going. I don’t weigh myself at home so I can only use my clothes as a guide. I have been concerned with a part of my body because it just seems to be getting bigger and bigger. I know that when you lose weight or exercise your skin loses its elasticity and tightens so everything “moves up” but I wasn’t sure if I was just getting bigger or if it was the elasticity thing. I have a picture that will help me explain what I am talking about.



So the green line is my boobs, nice aren’t they? Lol.. Blue is my stomach ( I think) and purple is my stomach? What? I have no idea about human biology. Give me Business Stats or Marketing anyday. Anyway so the Blue bit has just started to be really prominent. I always knew that it was there but now it is just really there! I was asking my friends to look at me and tell me if they honestly think that I have actually put on weight and if that bit was bigger. They would tell me straight so I knew asking them I was onto a sure thing. Problem is that they said they couldn’t tell. I worked it out for myself though. The reason the blue part is so prominent now is because everything else is changing moving etc. The bits around it probably aren’t as big anymore so the blue bit is more exposed. My boobs have lifted a bit as well so the blue bit is able to "come out".

As I said I have no idea about human biology and all of this makes sense to me – my blue bit looks bigger and I think I know why… ha ha!

Party at my house.

OK so this not an open invite to you all. :) Pooks’ best friend (the best man at our wedding) is coming to stay with us on Friday for 4 or so days so the boys can go motorbike riding all weekend – how exciting. NOT. We have a public holiday here in te ACT on Tuesday and Pooks has Monday off as an RDO. We are going to be having people around for dinner every night that he is here. Mum and Dad are going to come on Sunday night so I think that I might try the mini chicken roasts meal on them. It just looked so dang fancy and it didn't take long to cook! Will probably just be BBQ's the other nights. You can make a really healthly meal out of a BBQ.

Last weekend however we went to a wedding for one of my school friends. It was so lovely. The food wasn’t really all that bad for you either. The pre dinner drinks food (does that make sense) was nice and fresh. Sushi rolls, prawns with something, smoked salmon wrapped around asparagus, few other things.. I just ate the sushi and prawns and something. Lovely. Entrée was more prawns or a small anti-pasto plate, Main was alternate of slow cooked lamb with mash and like a red wine sauce or a chicken and chilli dish. I had the chicken, Pooks had the lamb. It was lovely! The champagne wasn’t bad either. I could lie and say I didn’t have any but I did – and it was nice. With my exams coming up I wont be having fun for the next 5 or so weeks so thought that I should make the most of it!

Just a normal girl

You know the whole Team Shell motto is no excuses right? Well I still believe that but at the same time I never thought that I would be the kind of girl that uses “not feeling well” as a reason to not go to the gym as it never stopped me in the past. Last week I was pretty ill and I said to Pooks that I was either pregnant or that it was going to be a killer of a period. Unfortunately I wasn’t pregnant and I experienced a killer menstruation cycle (sorry to gross you out). I recall my Mum telling me a few years ago that it is actually hereditary. A lot of girls inherit long legs or even a fast metabolism. Not me. I inherited killer period pain. Lucky me! I also inherited Carney hair. Some may not believe this but for the first 20 or so years of my life I had really blonde hair. Every other Carney had dark wavy hair. I stood out like a sore thumb with the cousins and even my brother. As I have gotten older however my hair as gotten darker and now I look like the rest of them.

Back to the exercising. So I was really unwell last week and going against everything that I stood for. Pooks was on my case too but I just couldn’t do it. Anyway this week I have returned to the gym all normal again.

Cooking healthily for myself is easy peasy it is when I have to try and find things that Pooks will eat that is the problem. I have slowly been introducing “foreign” things into his diet and now he eats garlic and chilli with the best of them. Tonight though was an awesome achievement if I do say so myself. We had Chicken mini roasts (skin removed on mine) with sweet potato mash, mashed with nothing other than a little bit of marg, green beans with oyster sauce and a sprinkle of feta over the top! It was worthy of a table at a restaurant. It looked and tasted sensational and Pooks is now coming around to sweet potato! For lunch he has been taking chicken drumsticks that I have cooked the night before with a bit of spices on them.. Can’t quite get him to take a salad yet but all in good time!

Don’t know about anyone else but daylight savings has really stuffed me up. Getting up at 5:00am I like to go to bed early but I am ready now and it is still daylight! Need to push through for another hour or two!

Where is BOG?

I haven’t spoken about BOG for awhile but since she is the epitome of fine health to me I will give you an update. She went overseas with her boyfriend for 6 weeks not so long ago as I have mentioned. When she returned the first thing I made sure of was that she had put on weight. I was happy to hear that even though it was a little bit it was still a bit. Now that may seem vindictive to you but come on people she is hot! I apologise if I have said this previously.

I no longer work with her but I do speak to her regularly (everyday) and we are having lunch together soon (on the 30th I think).

My new work companion has recently lost 55kgs. To look at him you would never think that he was once a big guy. It is fabulous having someone like to work side by side with as well. While BOG could help with the eating side of things I can now share the emotional side of things with someone which as you know is where I have really struggled. I think that what he has done is amazing and really hope to follow in his footsteps.

Between you and me I have been really missing the weekly weigh in’s. You just have no idea of your progress and while you can weigh yourself at home it doesn’t seem as exciting (or disappointing) when there is a change albeit negative or positive. I have been toying with the idea of weight watchers but am still toying with it.

My whole work is really into the 10,000 steps program and since we have been split into teams we have a responsibility to our team mates to accrue (insert accounting term – see I did learn something) a decent amount of steps each day. It officially starts on Tuesday but Pooks has already shown me how to use the pedometer so I am all ready to go! Do you think females get extra points for walking in high heels that we aren’t supposed to wear?

Brad Pitt naked to lose weight?

Ok so anonymous has asked for me to write something on my blog so here I am! I must admit that I have actually been waiting until I had something really fantastic to say. Waiting, waiting!

Still going to the gym but have been chopping and changing days so there hasn’t been a consistent pattern for awhile. 3 days one week, 4 days the next etc. I tell you what though the beautiful days are making me wish that I wasn’t stuck inside the gym and knew someone who could write me a program for outdoors and around the home. Oh wait I do know someone and they read my blog and can do it, so get to it! You know who you are.

Anyway I found an article in the Australian Healthy Food guide that caught my eye. I think that it may be a monthly publication but I am not sure as I don’t recall buying it before. Have you ever been to a shop and thought “well I will buy flavoured milk because it is milk and that is good for you and I am an athlete so it is ok to drink” Well I have…. Ice Coffee is my flavoured milk of choice. So this article says that:

“Flavour milk drinks can be high in sugar and artificial additives” and here I was thinking that it just came from a different kind of cows. That is only slightly tongue in cheek because with a lot of foods and drinks we don’t really know what is in them until we read the labels properly.

The best piece advice in the magazine was written by Frank Varano who is a guitarist (apparently). He said:

A great way to lose weight is to eat naked in front of a mirror. Restaurants will almost always throw you out before you can eat too much!

Oh the mind boggles doesn’t it? Brad Pitt doesn’t need to lose weight but I can’t help thinking what he would look like trying!

How you start is how you will finish

Do you ever associate places with food? I don’t man restaurants or take away because that would be obvious wouldn’t it? No I mean places like your Nanna’s because she always has the best home made cakes, or your Mum’s because the Roasts are just fantastic. What about places that you have to go to all day, 5 days a week? I used to work in this place that had a fantastic social atmosphere. We had morning teas left right and centre and always went out for lunches. We had a social club that had a lolly bar that turned over so much profit most of our Christmas parties were subsidised. This place of work was my first real job. I worked there for over 4 years. Maybe even 5 I am not sure. While I was there I put on a lot of weight. Sure you can’t blame the actual workplace but there were so many opportunities and temptations to ensure that when I left there my butt would be a butt that Sir Mix a Lot would be proud of (insert daggy 90’s reference).

Well as it turns out after 14 months I am returning there to work tomorrow and granted it will be a different place as many of the people have left but it is the place where I went from a size something to a size even more something. So what can I do? What should I do? I have really started to believe that how you start something is how you will finish it. I could just go to work after the gym and then buy a sandwich or a chicken foccacia from the across the road (that mind you I fell in love with and ate way too many in the old days) or I could get things off to a positive start and make a great colourful lunch and start new memories there. So that is what I did. I have included a picture for you and because I know that one of my trainers reads this (Hi Latoya)!

If you are still waiting for your Monday to come it is now Wednesday and time to get off your butts. Who is Sir Mix a Lot anyway? He doesn’t really like big butts!

I met someone famous!

Went to the gym as promised this morning. I’ll be honest in saying that I looked at myself in the mirror a bit. What did I see? A stain on my shirt! A shirt from the clean clothes pile. How rude!

Anyway so went to the gym. There were a few people there but it was a little later than I usually go. It was day 1 of my program (I have a 3 day program). I have to sit on the fitball and do side arm raises with one foot in the air. It looks ridiculous. When we were working out my program I did say that I find it hard to concentrate on things sometimes so that has been included to either make me concentrate or for a physical purpose. I will have to find out for you.

Pooks and I went to a BBQ Sunday evening for the grandfinal and I was so pleased. It was lovely. Had lovely chicken and salads. Had a piece of garlic bread that was cooked on the bbq as well. Had my two little drinks as I said I would.

I must apologise because I forgot to tell you all that I met someone famous in Melbourne last week and I have attached picture evidence. I met Andrew G from Idol and yes I was excited! Luckily our plane was about 45 minutes late so I got to talk to him heaps. The guys I was with sat there and asked him really intelligent questions but I kept giggling like a 14 year old! Everything I said was things that I knew about him and I probably just sounded like a stalker. You will have to excuse my gummy look in the photo. I was probably giggling as they took it!!!!!!!!

I bought a magazine the other day with some really good advice in it so I will make sure that I include it in my next post. Most of it is common sense but it is still good to remind ourselves sometimes.