livingforrecovery

My apologies for the delay in getting this 2nd set of photos published for you guys, but I've been a bit tired. We had daylight savings over the weekend and I had to work yesterday! Of course I am off work today and first thing I find is that blogger is on a hiatus for a few hours. This will be even later in getting to the masses, but at least I have it. Plans are to do the final one before the day is up. Here is our first stop of the morning on the 2nd day, Maxwell Wine and Mead. Mr. ralph loved this place so much when we visited last year we had to come back just to buy a few bottles of mead. Yes it is the real thing, and it is made with honey so it is really sweet, which of course is the reason he likes it. You can also see how they process the grapes inside this winery from a huge open window into the processing area. This is the only winery we've been to that gives you that much of an up-close viewing. I also bought a bottle of some sweet white wine here that I lo

I am going to post this in a series, one post for each day of our stay in the McLaren Vale. We tried to take lots of photos of each place we visited. The very first stop we made was The Olive Grove where we made a few purchases and had a great time looking at the alpaca's and beautiful peacocks they had. The day started a bit on the cloudy and chilly side, but we were blessed as it never fully rained, a few droplets fell while we were talking to the birds, but we weren't miffed. I bought my new favorite snack called duckah which is an aussie blend of bush spices and nuts that you eat with a bread and olive oil. I have to say it is sooo yummy, and we bought some olive oil based foot cream and some almond nugget for mr. ralph's mum as an Easter present. The next stop was The Woodstock Winery. It was beautiful, but I can't say we visited a place that wasn't. At this winery they have a contraption that was used to hold prisoners by the feet of course the main crime was

I had the best piece of cake yesterday. I know, I know. This is a diet journal, but I couldn't resist. I usually decline cake on Birthday's at work, I even didn't have one on my own Birthday (at work that is), and the moment I saw it, I knew it was love at first sight. It was called a called a coffee cake, but it wasn't coffee cake exactly. It was more like a normal sponge cake with coffee flavored cream. It was heaven. It really was. Lets hope for my sake that I don't have too many more weak moments because if I can help it, I want to lose weight this week. The weekend is going to be so hard with the wine and the cheese and all the eating out. But if I gain I promise I am not going to be hard on myself, it is Easter, and my Anniversary, and I will still reach my goal by the end of April. At the moment the scale is up again, but as I've noticed in past weeks this is nothing to get to worked up about, not yet anyway. Come Friday morning if it is up I

You wouldn't think that dropping from an average of 20 points a day (140 weekly) to 18 (126 weekly) would be that difficult, but it is. I've not been that successful so far, but I will keep trying. Soon I won't have a choice in the matter. I am really looking forward to this weekend away. Although I won't have an official weigh-in this Saturday because I will not be going to my Weight Watcher's meeting, I still plan to weigh myself Friday morning and record that weight as my weekly weigh-in. I still can't believe I am within 4.2 kilos from my goal weight. This is amazing. I had a Postie Fashions party at my mum-in-law's house on the weekend and I was the model for the clothes. When the hostess asked me to do the modelling she said, "Okay so what size do you wear, a 10?" Will I ever get used to that question? I told her 10's and 12's, and unbelievablly I fit into almost a size 10 in everything except certain skirts. There were a few

I borrowed these questions from a site I was at today for the first time, so because I am bored and do not have a lot to say today, I thought I'd use it here: 1. If you could build a second house anywhere, where would it be? I haven't built the first one yet, but I'd like it to be close to my parents, possibly somewhere in Baton Rouge, LA. 2. What are your favorite articles of clothing? I love to wear a lot of things, but I really love jeans and cute jackets. 3. The last CD you bought? mr. ralph bought it for me, the new Sarah McLachlan CD. 4. What time do you wake up in the morning? Around 5:00 am on most mornings, if it is just to make a pitt stop and lock my cat out of my room so I can sleep for 30 more minutes. 5. What is your favorite kitchen appliance? Our kitchen is pretty boring and basic, I like my microwave. 6. If you could play an instrument, what would it be? hmmm. I have no idea on this one. Probably the guitar. 7. What's your favorite color? Teal 8

Today I weighed-in at 67.2 kilos. That makes another remarkable loss of 600 grams. I have not had this many steady weight losses until I started my version of the Wendie Plan. Although they're not huge numbers, I can get used to this. After the unusual weightgain on Thursday morning I stopped taking Voltaren and drank like 4 litres of water on Thursday and then again on Friday. This I think helped flush all the drug out of my system, allowing the water retention to stop as well. On the Au Weight Watchers plan I am meant to be eating 20 points a day up until I weigh 65 kilos, but being just above that I have decided to try to go down to 18 points a day this week. This will make the Wendie Plan a lot harder because on the superlow point day I will only be allowed 12 points, but I think if I try it, these last 4.2 kilos will go a lot quicker. A man reached his goal weight today at my Weight Watchers meeting and I vowed (to myself of course) to be the next one at my meeting to d

I really freaked right out yesterday. I decided to do my Thursday morning at home weigh-in because I like to know how things are going 2 days before the official one and low and behold the scale said an enormous 68.8. Yes, you are not seeing things and neither was I. I got on and off of it a few times and it never changed. It actually once went on up to 69 kilos. But how could that be I wondered? I have been so good! Then it dawned on me. This crap medicine I'm on had to be the culprit. So I went online and looked up Voltaren and guess what one of the side effects of taking this shit is? Unusual weight gain due to water retention. I already have enough problems with that on my own without this medicine. I kept telling myself all day that it is not a true reflection of my weight but it still kept nagging at me. I drank around 9 water bottles yesterday (around 4 and a half litres) and was in the bathroom so much people at work probably thought I was ill. I also only took m

I know that blogger has been having its problems lately, but so far so good today. It took me forever to publish yesterday's entry. This one wont be that long actually. I just wanted to check in to say I received a compliment from someone yesterday (well they didn't know it was one). The physio who has never met me before made a comment about my new chair saying that the seat is adjustable (it pulls outwards in front) for *whisper* "larger people". But, she said, "You do not have that problem." I've not stopped thinking about what she said since then. I know it probably would have rolled off the back of some skinny person who has never had a weight problem, but it truly meant something to me to hear someone else referring to me as a skinny person. Does anyone else know what I mean? It was like, "Wow. She doesn't think I have a weight problem!" What a huge thing. I can't believe that I still feel like this enourmous person, but on

Yesterday was going very well. I had a great meeting with the physio who has ordered me a new chair, new footrest, and something to raise my monitor. She told me lots of tips about how to keep myself fresh and prevent back aches. Then we went for a walk in the afternoon. I was so proud of myself! But then when we got home I noticed something very strange about or kid, buckley. One of his eyes was very dialated and the other pupil was quite constricted and they weren't returning to normal. I of course totally freaked out. We drove him straight to the Animal hospial that is near us and I cried the whole time. I just knew they were going to tell me it was fatal, I couldn't get a hold of myself. After we finally got seen after waiting in for 45 minutes with a bunch of dogs scaring my baby, the doctor checked him out and said that there weren't any signs of anything major or fatal, but he also couldn't figure out why his eye was like that. In the end he gave him some

I weighed in at 67.8 kilos. That is a small but still substantial loss of 300 grams. I really was only expecting to maintain this week, so I am quite pleased with the outcome. I have come to terms with not reaching my goal by March 29th, my anniversary, but I have readjusted and desire to reach my goal by the end of April instead. If I keep losing around a kilo every two weeks this should not be a problem. Today I went to the acute medical centre of the hospital where I had my surgery a few months ago because over the past few days I have been experiencing tingling and partial numbness in my fingers. They sent me home after speaking with my surgeon who recommended I up my intake of anti-inflammatories and had them prescribe me a strong one. He thinks it is a mild case of inflammation around the same nerve root near the area where I had my surgery. This didn't make me feel incredible, but it did ease my mind. I am supposed to call my doctor's rooms on Monday to report how

I am seriously starting to think that my luck is running low with the consecutive weight losses. I weighed myself yesterday and today and I am up 600 grams. My weight didn't fluctuate from yesterday morning to today. I know I still have 3 days in which to take that off, but something tells me I probably shouldn't get my hopes up. The thing is, if this week I don't lose, or I actually gain (I am trying to prepare myself for that possibility) I won't completely freak out. These things happen. I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and I actually fear it. I have to deal with my fear of reaching my goal. It is a bit strange to fear something I have wanted for so long, but in the same instance very normal. I know that when the scale hits 63 kilos I will not be magically cured of my love of food, or suddenly be a different person. But somehow even though I know these things, I still want that. I want the fantasy that one day I won't have to th

I weighed in at 68.1, and was amazed to discover that I lost 800 grams this week. I've only got just over 5 kilos left to lose before I reach my goal. Like WOW. I mean wow. I am pinching myself. Can you believe this? A weight loss 2 weeks in a row?!?! I mean jeez, imagine what I could do if I got my butt up off the couch and started exercising. I think I owe it all to the Wendie Plan, which by the way I told all my fellow weight watcher' members about today. I tried to tell them anyway, but I couldn't say a whole lot because our leader likes to hog all the air time. It is weird. I've never felt so shut down in a place where we should all be sharing our ideas with each other. Isn't it a support group, not a one-woman-show? Plus she is boring and only talks about the same thing over and over again. I've heard enough about low GI foods, exercising, how her daughter is a dancer, and how good it is to eat protein for breakfast. I would try out a different

I'm honored that all of you have come by to visit and wish me a Happy Birthday. In the end I didn't cry about turning 30, that is if you don't count the pre-mental beakdown of last Friday night. But that was more about weight frustrations than anything. Do I have any wisdom to offer the world? Of course! That is why I'm here blogging away my secrets of weight loss success. Because the truth is I have succeeded. I have lost an enormous amount of weight. So last Saturday night was a celebration of turning 30, but also a celebration of me. It was good. This week has been hectic and painful. Work is causing me to have back spasms. The good news is they are now going to have a physio come look at my work station to make sure that I have a good chair, desk height, computer height etc. Why they didn't think of this before, well... they are a corporation. They only do what they have to do. I think since I keep complaining they are afraid they will be liable for