Just4Jo - A fat chick trying not to be...

WEDNESDAY:
Breakfast:  Trim Latte - Ooops!!!
Lunch:  Fresh fruit salad with peach, plum, banana & apple
Dinner:  Hawaiian burger from the local chippie!!!

I just wasn't hungry yesterday for some reason...... but I'm not worrying about it too much, cos it wont hurt me that's for sure!!!
The burgers from the local burger bar here are just divine!!
Loads of fresh salad, home made patties, and when you say NO DRESSING, they give you NO dressing!!!
FANTASTIC :)

I have steak out of the freezer for dinner tonight, so I plan an making a huge fresh salad and having a couple of boiled new potatoes with it.

Tomorrow will be a challenge, but it's one that I am ready to face head on!

Not only am I going to have to make healthy choices throughout the afternoon and evening in regard to the food that I eat, but I'm also going to have to be very careful with the amount of alcohol that I drink!!!
I thought about going to the 7's and not drinking at all............ but hey............... it's the 7's for goodness sakes!!!!!!!!!!!!  *giggles*

The next challenge for me, is the fact that I am not going to know ANYONE in the group that I am going with!!!
Oh hang on, I know the client that is taking me, but I have only met him for about 10 minutes about 4 months ago when a major problem came up with a shipment of ours and we had to be face to face to sort it out.
Apart from that (and a 2 minute phone conversation today) I haven't had a lot to do with him.....
I'm nervous!!!!!!!
I'm nervous cos I fret about what I look like and how others will judge me....
I'm nervous cos I'm so blimmen deaf I struggle in social situations cos I can't hear a lot of what is being said.
And I'm nervous cos it is a long long day, and I don't wanna be drunk and making a dick of myself too early!!!  

Ah well........ I'll get over it huh??

BRING IT ON!!!!!

Been a busy old day today....
But it's been an ON TRACK day too!  YAY ME!!
Yesterday was brilliant as well!
YAY ME AGAIN!!!
I jumped on the scales this morning, but didn't write it down, and can't for the life of me remember what the number was!!!
It was either 121.2kg  or  121.7kg  (last week I was 122.7kg - I'll NEVER forget that number!!!!!)
Either way it is a loss, but it's either a loss of 1kg or 1.5kg!
Stupid foggy morning brain!!!
Never mind, I KNOW that the numbers will be lower again next Wednesday, and since I'm trying not to focus so much on the numbers, it is probably a good thing that I have a pathetic memory!!  hehehe...

TUESDAY:
Breakfast:  Cereal & Yoghurt & Trim Latte
Morning Tea:  Plum & Peach
Lunch:  Coleslaw & Tuna
Dinner:  Cold Chicken, cheese and salad sandwich, small pasta salad, 2 x small pieces of garlic bread.


I'm off to get my hair done after work, and wasn't organised enough this morning to plan dinner, so lord only knows what it will be!
J is picking Rhian up from daycare, so hopefully he will sort something and I wont have to think about it at all....

Righto - better get the last of my work done, then I can get outta here!  YAY!!!!

Feeling Good GREAT today....

Yesterday my food was exceptional, water intake was pretty blimmen good too!

Breakfast:  Cereal & Yoghurt
Lunch:  Tuna Subway
Dinner:  Apricot Chicken on Rice
Desert:  Pinky Bar

Didn't get any exercise in - that is my biggest downfall at the moment!
Well, exercise and BOOZE of course!!  hahaha...

Today will be another good day........ I just know it!!!!!

Only down side is I am still having problems with constipation.....
I've had to resort to oral laxatives again, and I hate doing that, so I'm off to see the Dr again on Thursday - maybe she will have some miracle cure that has just been discovered??  Here's hoping, for my bowels sake!  *giggles*

Righto - Back to work for me.......

Don't the weekends just go by so blimmen fast???

I didn't end up going to the races on Saturday at all.
Instead, J and I stayed home and had a quiet day cleaning the house, spending time together and then in the afternoon I went and got Rhian from Chris, as I had missed her too much, so he was good enough to hand her over to me two days early!

We took her out for dinner on Saturday night to a Japanese place that cook the food in front of you on a huge grill thing..... she LOVED IT!!!
Of course they make a big drama out of it all and had things flying around, so she thought it was such a crack up!!
I must admit I had visions of her going home and throwing the salt and sauce around the kitchen, but thankfully, she hasn't tried that yet!!!

Sunday we all headed off for the park, but decided to get lunch first, and when we asked her what she wanted, she replied "Yum Cha"!
I'm thinking that she must have heard me and J talking about having Yum Cha earlier in the morning, but since she reckoned she wanted it, we had it anyway.
I've never seen a 3 year old eat steamed seafood dumplings the way my daughter does!!  she Loves them!  She peels off the "skin" as she calls it, eats the filling, then shoves the whole "skin" in her mouth and gobbles that up too!
She obviously gets her love of seafood from her father though, cos my limit is fresh fish and maybe calamari.
After lunch we headed off to the park by the beach, and had a run around there, and J took her for a ride on the miniature train, so that was pretty cool.
Home time again, and she had J's niece around to play, so they entertained each other for a bit, then we made some chocolate crackles and they got to mix it all up and spoon the mixture into cupcake liners, so  you can imagine the state of my kitchen after that!!
It's amazing how much mess two 3 year olds can make in such a short time frame!  

Anyway, that pretty much sums up my weekend, pretty quiet and "kid" orientated - just the way I like them!!!

Eating has been pretty good, and I think I made the right choices at Yum Cha!  Not too many fried things - mostly just steamed, so that has to be better right??

Righto - I'm all on my own today, so best I get back to work..... so much to do and the day is already half gone  :)

Yesterday's eating was good.

Cereal & Yoghurt for breakfast, Trim latte for morning tea, Kapai Salad for lunch, then fish & salad and boiled new potato for dinner, followed by a little "lite" ice cream for desert.
Water intake was about 2 litres, so all in all it was a good day!

I'm going out for lunch today with a colleague, so I'm gonna make wise choices, and stick with something pretty light.
Not sure what yet, but I'm confident I can do this!

Dinner tonight will be salad and chicken I'm thinking, but since I was running late this morning, I forgot to take the chicken out of the freezer, I might change it to be TUNA and salad for dinner!  hehe.

Got the Wellington Cup Races this weekend, and supposed to be going with a group through J's work.  Of course it is all paid for, and means that the alcohol and food will flow freely all day....  not too sure how I feel about that at this stage.  Might just not go at all.

Then next weekend I'm being taken to the Wellington Seven's by one of my customers!
Again, the food and alcohol will flow very freely for the TWO DAYS, and again, I'm not sure how I feel about that either!!!
Why all the social things now I say???

I'm really "BLAH" today, took me ages to finally stop hitting the snooze button on my alarm this morning and drag my butt out of bed.
I'm just tired.......
Oh yeah, and don't forget GRUMPY too!!!!

But........... the sun is shining, the birds are singing and it's a glorious day out there!
And, it's only 28 minutes before I can get out there and enjoy it in my lunch break.
YAY ME!!!

I'm back from Melbourne, back to work, back in the land of the living, and back to reality - and I hate it!!  *giggles*
Nah, not really......... but I hate where I am with my so called "weight loss" efforts!!!

OK - Holiday first.......
Melbourne is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!
Well, what we saw of it anyway!
4 days flew by in a flurry of restaurants, shops, bars, and trams......
Literally, all we did while we were there, was eat, drink, watch tennis, shop and sleep.
Friday was a long long day starting at 2.30am and we finally fell in to bed at 1am Saturday morning!!!!
The flight over was non-eventful, but no sleep was to be had, as we had a Japanese chick sitting next to us, and all she wanted to do was talk talk talk.....
Hard work when there is an accent to decipher and a brain foggy from just 3 hours sleep.....
We started the day in Melbourne by dropping our bags at the hotel (on Lonsdale St in the city) and hitting the Victoria Market for a couple of hours, then finding a bar down in Southbank to relax in for the afternoon.
Too much wine was consumed, and we ended up laughing our way back to the hotel at about 5pm where we could officially check in.
That was followed by dinner at a Seafood restaurant at the Crown Casino complex and then a brief visit to the casino itself, but we were all so buggered that we were back at the hotel by about 12.30am.
Which means that we had been up for 24 hours including the time difference - no wonder I was knackered!!  
Saturday was the day that the guys were going to the tennis and the girls got to go shopping, so I teamed up with Mrs Customer and we headed off for the DFO centre by the station....   Of course we also hit Myers, David Jones & Target on Bourke St.  
Shopping, shopping and more shopping was done, and when we couldn't carry any more bags, we headed back to the hotel.
The guys had tickets for an outside arena at the tennis, and unfortunately it had been raining most of the day, so they didn't actually get to see any tennis live.  Instead, they sat at a bar and watched a couple of games on TV, plus some cricket, and they watched the world go by....
You can imagine the state of Mr Boss, Mr Customer and J by the time they got back to the hotel!!  
There was a lot of giggling like school girls, and plenty of swaggering and swaying...
But they'd had a great day, and were amazed that none of the girls had blown our budgets!!
A few bottle of wine were opened, combined with some takeaways from nearby Chinatown, and it was a relaxing evening of fun and laughter at the hotel.
We headed off to the Casino again at about 11pm, because it seemed like a good idea at the time....
4 hours later we tried to head back to the hotel, but the queue for a taxi was about a mile long, so we started walking, all the time trying to flag down a taxi.
It must have taken a good half an hour to finally get a cab to stop, and luckily for us we did, cos it turns out we were walking in the wrong blimmen direction!!!
That'll teach us for drinking and walking!  *giggles*
Got back to the hotel at 4.45am and had to be up and ready to go to the tennis at 11am.
6am I was still wide awake, I think I must have dozed between then and about 9am, and that was it for sleeping.....
Off we went to the tennis and it was fantastic!!!
We had seats in the main arena for Sunday, so it didn't matter if it was raining or not, as it has a roof that opens and closes.
We got to see Juan Carlos Ferrero play David Nalbandian.  Then Richard Gasquet play Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and then totally cool to see Nicole Vaidisova play Serena Williams.
The atmosphere was awesome, the matches were great and the day was brilliant, but to be honest, if I don't see another game of tennis in the next year, I'll be happy!  hehehehehe.....
After the tennis, we had came back to the hotel to get changed, then headed out down Lygon St to find somewhere to eat...
I dunno the name of the restaurant, but it was bloody beautiful!!!!!
It was an Italian place and the food was just divine!!
Of course the wine was lovely too, and it didn't take much to top up from the night before and we were all giggling like schoolgirls again!!!
It was a relatively early night, and we were back in our rooms by about midnight, although neither me nor J could sleep and we were both still wide awake at 3am!!!  NOT GOOD!!!  hehe...
We had to be out of the rooms by 10am on Monday morning, so we were up and about at around 8.30am getting our stuff packed and sorted....
I was amazed that we managed to get all my shopping in to our suitcases, and at one stage, when the zip started to split, I didn't think we were going to, but my expert packing style meant that everything found its place and was safely stowed away.
We had a couple of hours free, as the taxi was booked for 3pm, so J and I headed off to explore some more shopping sights, including Bridge Road and Smith Street.  After that we found a gorgeous little Sushi bar and had lunch, then met up with Mr & Mrs Customer and had a quiet coffee before heading off to the airport.
The flight was again non-eventful, and this time we managed to spread out a little but still didn't get any sleep....... and we finally got home to our own bed at about 1am on Tuesday morning.
Luckily I had yesterday off work, cos with an average of about 4 hours sleep per night while we were away, I NEEDED to have a few hours yesterday to catch up......
Anyway, all in all it was a bloody brilliant long weekend away, and I can't wait to get back to Melbourne at some stage and explore it better.... there seems to be so much to do and see, and 4 days was just not long enough for this chick!!!
Oooooooo......... before I forget........... I found the most amazing biscuits while we were over there, and I can't remember the name of them and it is bugging the heck out of me.....
They were in a dark blue packet, and had a crunchy biscuit base, then topped with caramel and peanuts, and then the whole things was coated in chocolate.
I keep thinking that they were called "Quattro" but J reckons they weren't......  Any of you Aussie chicks out there know what I am talking about???  CHEERS!!!!

Random stuff:
A few months ago I had some photos taken of Rhian.
We are talking maybe the middle of last year?  
It was so long ago that I can't actually remember when it was!!!
The lady that bought the house off Chris and I is a photographer, and she said that she needed practice with children, and would I mind her using Rhian.  The deal was, that I wouldn't have to pay a "sitting fee" and then I could buy any prints I wanted at a reduced rate.
Well, I took her up on the offer and we went out and did the photos in our old garden, and then took some down by the river as well.
Like I said, it was months and months ago, and I never heard from her.  I've since found out that since taking the photos then she got really busy with her photography, her and her husband had a new house built, they moved, basically life got in the way.
Well, while I was in Melbourne on the weekend, I got a phone call from her, to say that she has just opened a photography shop in Upper Hutt and that I should cruise by and take a look in the window........
Well, I texted Chris, and he took a look, and there, in all her cheeky smiled glory - is my Princess:



I LOVE the photo, and now can't wait to see the rest of them!!!
Of course, the deal has now changed though, and the prices have gone up, so I probably wont be able to afford to actually buy any of them, but hey, I'm gonna take a look anyway!!!!!!!

Righto............
On to other crap now..........
The whole purpose of this blog when I started it was for ME to track my weightloss journey.  The highs and the lows and everything in between......
Somewhere along the line it turned in to the daily ramblings of Jo, and I lost the weight loss focus.....
My trip away made me realise that this needs to go back to being a WEIGHT LOSS blog, and that I need to get my focus right again.
Sure, I'm lighter than I was when I first started this journey - BIG DEAL!!
Sure, the seatbelt on the plane fitted fine and no extension was needed.
BUT....... I'm still heavier than I SHOULD be.
I'm heavier than I was this time last last year.
I've gone past the point that I said I would NEVER get back to in a million years.
It's almost like I gave up on me.......
Actually - I DID give up on me.
And that scares me.
I have had a hell of a lot of fun gaining this weight back, but how much fun is it to head to the wardrobe and reach for a pair of pants, knowing full well that they are gonna be too tight?!?!?!?!
It's been a blast eating and drinking my way through the past year, but it's a cold blast of reality when I struggle for breath after climbing the 51 steps to my office.
So, today I started again.
The scales taunted me with a number that I haven't seen in years, and that was enough to shock me into action.
122.7kgs.
You wanna know how hard it was to just type that number?
I toyed with the idea of NOT putting it down.
Of hiding it in my head and not admitting it to the world.
But I need to see it there, in all it's ugly blubberly glory.
It is a number that I never imagined I would see again.
I vowed and declared that I would NEVER EVER get to 120kgs again.
And whaddaya know - here I am again.
And now, it's time to kick that number to the curb once and for all......
It's time to go back to ordering a Trim Latte for morning tea, instead of the full milk moccacinos that I have grown to love over the past weeks.
Salad's and vegetables are back on the menu, replacing the fried crap that I have been stuffing in my mouth......
Breads and pastas also have to be a thing of the past for me, OK, so maybe not entirely, but certainly a hell of a lot less than what they have been over recent months.
My walking shoes that made a brief appearance at the end of last year are once again going to see the light of day.
I'm tired, I'm bloated, I'm constipated, I'm fat and I hate it.
Time to do something about it, and that time is NOW!

Holy heck - I just realised that I am gonna get bugger all next to NO sleep tonight!!!
Our flight is at 6am tomorrow morning.
We have to check in 2 hours before this = 4am
We have to pick up another couple on our way to the airport at 3.30am
It takes half an hour to get to their place from ours = 3am
That means that we are gonna have to get up at some crazy bloody time like 2.30am!!!!
Hardly worth going to bed at all me thinks :)

It's bloody painful.......... but totally worth it!!!!!!!!
I was still awake with throbbing eyebrows at midnight and ended up having to take some panadol to help the pain subside and enable me to get some well needed sleep!!!!
I've been told that it does get less painful the more times you have it done, so I guess I just have to tough it out and keep going back.
About once a month apparently.....
Anyway........ threading is done by using a length of string twisted in a certain way and wrapped around the fingers.
It is then manoeuvred over the offending hairs and rips them out.
Hahahaha..... that's my explanation, here is what I found on Google:
"Threading is a hair removal technique that uses a cotton thread. The 100% cotton thread is twisted and rolled along the surface of the skin entwining the hairs in the thread, which are then lifted out from the follicle. It is said to be more precise than waxing."
And if you are really interested, here is a clip I found of it on You Tube:

I had my eyebrows threaded tonight - at 6pm.

Well, it's Tuesday today, and I'm feeling a 100 times better than I did yesterday, and yesterday, I was feeling a 100 times better than I was the day before, so I guess you could say that I am getting well!
YAY!!!!!!!
Thank goodness for that I say!!!
I'm still not right, and I'm still feeling REALLY REALLY tired all the time, but my neck and glands are nowhere near as sore as what they were over the weekend, so that in itself is a Godsend!!!
I came back to work yesterday, even though the Dr put me off until today, cos I couldn't bear the thought of having to spend another day at home looking at the same 4 walls.
I'm the world's most terrible patient........ I hate Hate HATE being sick!!  hehehe...
The bad thing with being sick with a sore throat is the fact that ice cream soothed it, so I have gone through a tonne of that over the past few days - BAD BAD BAD!!!
Ah well, never mind.....  I'm on the mend now so it's gotta be good!

Counting down to Melbourne....... 3 more sleeps!!!!!
YAY!!!

We are only going to be there for 4 days, we get to Melbourne at 8am on Friday morning, and leave at 6.30 on Monday night.
Thanks to all you lovely gals that suggested a meet up, but I'm afraid I wont be able to.....
The days are all planned out apparently, and I literally wont have time to do anything.
The reason for us going, is that one of J's biggest customers mentioned to J that he loved tennis.
J mentioned this to his boss, and a plan was hatched to take said customer to the Tennis Open in Melbourne.
Of course the wives got in on the act, and now instead of it being a "Boys" weekend, it is a "Couples" weekend!  *giggles*
It will be Mr & Mrs Customer, Mr & Mrs J's Boss, and J & me, a cosy party of 6....
The the upshot of it is this.........
Mr Customer spends BIG $$'s with J's company every year.
So they are taking him away for the weekend to keep him happy with the company and hopefully ensure that he will continue to spend big $$'s with them.
Mr Customer is happy cos he gets a free trip away for him and his wife, the company is happy, cos the price of the trip is a teeny tiny fraction of what Mr Customer spends in a year, and I am happy cos I get a weekend away living it up and all I have to pay for is my flight!
GO ME!!  
Of course I have NO interest in the tennis whatsoever, but we have been told that the "ladies" only have to spend one day there, and the other day we are apparently going on a shopping expedition.  Bigger YAY!!!!!!
Pity I have bugger all money to take with me huh?  hahahaha
Anyway - enough of that.........

Work is frantic at present - keeping me busy which is brilliant.
Eating hasn't been all that bad this week, except of course the ice cream............
Still haven't got off my big fat butt to do any exercise yet, but good things take time........... *rolls eyes*

And for now, I'm out of here and off to get some lunch.

Went to the Dr's yesterday, turns out I have an infection of some kind, and am now on some kick ass strong antibiotics and painkillers
Suits me fine......
Although this morning i thought I was dying - I woke up and my throat/neck was killing me (from the swollen glands) and I couldn't turn my neck much at all!
Freaked me out a bit, but after a wee cry and a bit of a lie down, combined with my first dose of painkillers for the day, I was up and about half an hour later without too much trouble.
My head is still pounding and it is still agony to swallow, but I can tell that things are starting to get better already........... YAY!!!
Every bone in my body aches, and it hurts to do simple things like take a shower or even stand for too long, but these things are sent to try us, and it'll be fine in a couple of days.
Positive thinking!!!!!!!!!!!
There is NO WAY that I want to still be sick this time next week, as we will be in MELBOURNE!!!!!
I can't wait!
I just have to get better...
So plenty of fluids, plenty of rest and lots of TLC.
I'm getting all three - so it's all good!

I didn't last the day at work yesterday, I bailed by midday and came home and slept most of the afternoon away...
Of course I rang the Dr, and mine is away til Monday and the surgery only had one other Dr on who was fully booked....... so the result is that I have an appointment today at 2.30pm.
I've woken up this morning with earache as well, so now not only do I feel like I have been hit by a double decker bus, but my throat is swollen and sore and my ears are aching which in turn is making my head pound...
Oh yeah, and just to add to the mix, I was getting blimmen heart palpitations for most of the evening last night, and although they never freak me out, I must admit that I was getting mighty pissed off with them!!!!
Ah well, let's hope the good ole Doc can sort me out with some primo drugs later on today...
That means though, since it's only 8.30am, that I have 7 hours to fill in between now and then, and I am bored already!!!
I'm not a good patient that's for sure!!!!!
Sitting here flicking through the channels, and although we have more than anyone would ever need, there's still NOTHING ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Maybe I'll go have a bath!
Oooooo, have a to make a phone call to a friend today, and I'm dreading it!
It was her birthday yesterday and I didn't ring her............ PLUS we are supposed to be going out tonight for a few drinks to celebrate, but with me feeling like this, there ain't no way I am going ANYWHERE!!!!
I just KNOW that she is gonna pack a shit about it........ and i just can't be bothered with it to be honest.....
Maybe if I just bury my head in the sand then she'll forget about me? hahahaha.....

I'M SO DAMN SICK OF BEING SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just feel like screaming at the world that it is not bloody fair!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've woken up this morning with really sore neck glands and my cough (that I have had for the past two weeks) is getting worse again!

NOT BLOODY FAIR I TELL YA!!!!!!!!!

Yes Mum - I've given up smoking AGAIN, so you don't need to nag me about that one!!!!!!!!  hehehehe....
I'm on day 5 of being smoke free actually *grins*

I'm at work today, but so far 4 people have told me that basically I look and sound like shit, and I that I should go home.

In other words, what they are really trying to say, is that they will be mega pissed off at me if I stay here at work and infect them with my coughy sniffly sneezy germs, and that I better bugger off home before they give me a good old bitch slapping!!!!

Yeah yeah yeah, I get the hint, but blimmen crikey I'm so damn sick of being sick!!!!

Back to work today - BLAH!!!!
Back to weighing today - ARGH!!!!
Back to eating DECENT HEALTHY food - Bah humbug!!!

Hahahahahahaha......

Yep - the holiday is over!
Time to get bloody serious about this whole thing again!
Everyone in my office is revved up and motivated.
J is raring to go as well.
I weighed this morning, and have managed to successfully GAIN 3.2kg in the 2 weeks that I have been off work!!!!!!!
HOW THE HECK DID THAT HAPPEN?????
Ummmmmmmm, something to do with the alcohol, food, and no exercise I'm thinking!!!!

So, my "official" start weight for 2008 is.......

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Dare I say it.......


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118 kg !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


BUGGER!


And here I go again.......