Moggie Madness

Once the challenge starts, I will try to update this page once a week with what I’m doing to try and beat Leigh at her own challenge.

7-12 July 2008

Thank goodness this week is a bit of a warm up week. I had intended on making some reforms to my diet in the form of reducing sugar but I’ve decided I am completely rubbish at sticking to a disciplined diet. So my only choice is to increase my exercise dramatically if I’m to beat Leigh at her own game. But I’ve not really done much at all, apart from trying to make sure I have at least 30 minutes of fairly rigorous activity in each day. I’ve rediscovered the art of cleaning as a form of exercise - fancy that, being able to combine the two things I loathe the most in one convenient package. LOL I’ve also done one session of interval training on the treadmill - you know that torturous program that all treadmill manufacturers put in where you do 45 minutes of slow walking interspersed with moderately fast running. I’m still alive, so I plan on doing that again Monday.

Total weight loss: 0.2kg

14-20 July 2008

I didn’t end up doing my interval training on Monday - I know I’m slack, slack, slack! But I more than made up for it yesterday when I was running late for a conference…..and I was literally running to try and make it before they officially started the session. I’m sure many people were confused by my red-faced, sweaty and blustered appearance given that it is still winter and not exactly hot outside. I did contemplate leaving my car at home entirely yesterday and walking to the bus station but by the time I got back to the station, I was really glad I had been slack and driven the car there. There was a dark rain cloud rapidly approaching and it started coming down heavy not long after I’d gotten home. I am trying to concentrate of including more activity in my daily routine - like taking the stairs all the time instead of the lift and walking the long way to get places rather than taking a shortcut. I figure it all adds up and the more “incidental” activity I have like that in my day, the less structured exercise I need to do. Well that’s the plan anyway.

Total weight loss: 0.6kg

21-27 July 2008

As of yesterday, I’m not sure whether or not I am cheating in this little challenge. I had a follow-up visit with my doctor about an un-related matter and the subject of my current weight came up. I know I’m a big girl so I’m not exactly surprised when she brought it up. However, I was astonished when I learned what my BMI is at the moment. I had worked it out for myself, although I was under the mistaken impression that I was 3cm taller than I actually am. Since I was going by my height on my drivers licence, I can only put it down to the fact that my shoes add 3cm to my height. Those extra 3cm make a hell of a difference - it brings my BMI up from what I consider “sad” territory to “just plain scary”. After having a chat about the causes of my weight gain and my current diet, she has started me on some medication that is supposed to help me lose weight.

A lot of the time, I eat according to my emotions, the negative ones that is. If I’m stressed, lonely, scared, angry, upset or frustrated, I will generally head for the fridge or the pantry. Mind you, it’s not always a cookie or a chocolate I’m after - sometimes it will be just too much of a good thing. I have eaten whole bags of nuts or entire packets of dried fruit when I get in one of those moods. And too much of a good thing can amount to as much damage as a whole bag of cookies. Doing shift work definitely doesn’t help, particularly after hours when the only thing to eat comes out of a vending machine and has as many calories in just that one thing as I should be eating in a whole day. So I think it’s time that I address some of the psychological issues surrounding the way I approach food, diet and eating. I’m good most of the time….but when those moods come calling, they call in a major way.

I’m going to start keeping a food diary from today - fortunately I got a lovely notebook in the mail today from Tina which is just perfect for that purpose. I won’t be putting it on this page, it’s more just for me IYKWIM. Hopefully it will show the trends in my eating habits that I don’t normally remember by the end of the day.

Total weight loss: 2.8kg

28 July - 3 August 2008

I’ve decided to give the food diary the flick because it’s not really demonstrating anything in particular. I’m almost at the end of my second week taking Reductil and I’ve found that I’m not eating as much as I would do normally. I’m not even snacking because I don’t feel hungry between meals but even more disturbing is that I don’t feel thirsty. I was astonished the other day to realise that I had gone around 16 hours without having anything to drink - no wonder I was starting to feel light-headed and headachy. So I’ll have to be more concious of that in future.

I’ve got a lot more energy at work which has been great because this week has been fairly busy and I’ve needed to be constantly on the go all week. No time for slacking off! I haven’t done a weigh in for the end of the week yet - will save that for tomorrow so I don’t have to do it again. Hopefully I’ll see another downward trend.

Total weight loss: 3.2kg

4 August - 17 August 2008

I forgot to do an update last week so I figure I’ll just do one for the fortnight instead. It’s been really hectic at work the last fortnight and after running around doing my thing, I’ve been getting home feeling fairly exhausted and sore. I think it’s partly because I have more energy so I’m doing more than I usually would….in terms of keeping my work place neat and tidy. Who would have thought that shedding a few pounds would improve my work ethic in terms of tidying up after the people I work with?

I had my follow-up with my GP today and she is very pleased with the progress I’ve been making. She says I seem brighter, healthier and above all, my pants were loose! WOOHOO! I’ve decided to ditch them as well as my other pants in the same size so I’m not tempted to fit back into them. I’m really noticing the difference that the weight loss is making when it comes to my clothes. My work pants aren’t super snug anymore and I have to wear them lower on my waist so that they stay in place properly. Fortunately they are bengaline pants so I can get away with doing that for now. My work shirt doesn’t gape at the front anymore and I actually feel comfortable wearing it because it doesn’t fit so tightly across my bum anymore.

I can only hope that it continues in this vein. I’ve been tracking my weight loss on Gyminee and it’s good to see the downward trend on the graph. I had started counting calories on there but ditched it because I found that converting kJs to cals a bit tiresome.

Total weight loss: 4.3kg