Now that it is finally here...

...summer just seems to be flying by!

It's really noticeable how much darker it is in the morning now - especially if you're a sad-arse like me who gets up around 5!

As always at this time of year, the weekends are really busy. We were actually home last weekend, which makes a change, but still didn't seem to have any spare time. The Petone Fair was on Saturday (300+ stalls). They close off the main street, which is just around the corner from us. We went nice and early, before it too manic - and then got the hell out of Petone for the rest of the day! Nothing interesting, just got all the shopping done, picked more building supplies and then had a slow leisurely lunch at the pub in Eastbourne.

Stopped to get fish at Lowry Bay on the way back - one of the fishing boats sells straight off the boat there on Saturdays. It's great value for whole fish (like butterfish at $12 a kilo) and they only charge $3 a fish if you want it filleted. It's worth the money just to watch them do it! They just chat away, hardly even looking at what they're doing with those incredibly sharp knives.

Sunday we had (almost) all the kids round for BBQ brunch to celebrate Craig's birthday. Not as big a crowd as usual - none of Craig's kids' partners came, and neither did Jake. He was too busy warming up for the big afternoon at the stadium (the Phoenix in the A-league playoffs).

I'm already feeling a lot fitter after my first two weeks with Hamish - and more than a couple of kilos have disappeared as well.

Mind you, it is quite appealing

Could I just have a few days of living in a vacuum please - just a few days without work, plane flights, phone calls, emails and needy people? Oh, and stupid people.

But apart from that, life is great!

Living in a vacuum

In chatting with the nutritionist and my new trainer, I have come up a few realisations.

In the last couple of years, whenever I have tried to lose weight I don't seem to be able to get any momentum. This has been frustrating for me, particularly as in one year when I was 40 I managed to lose 46kg.

What I have realised is that then I made weight loss very much the main focus of my life.

I really was living in a vacuum. Very little else got my attention. I managed my food, exercised, spent lots of time with my son and worked pretty damn hard too. Not a very well rounded life.

One of the main things missing from that list is putting any effort into my relationship with Mark. Now whether our relationship was in trouble before I started to lose weight, or whether my single-minded focus on weight loss started the trouble - well I guess the answer to that depends which side you look at the question from! The truth probably lies somewhere in between the two.

Anyway, our relationship only last two years from when I started losing weight.

Now, I am in a very happy and fulfilling relationship. Craig makes me feel loved and valued as I never have in my life before.

And I am not going to jeopardise that by living in the weight loss vacuum again.

Oweeee!

Well, I knew a new trainer would push me! Very impressed with his techniques, although my quads might not agree with me.

Had a great chat with the nutritionist - she has a very sensible, straightforward approach. Didn't set my bullshit alarm off once!

I am heavier than I thought, but at least now I know and can start working on my long term health strategy. 93kg just doesn't work for me - I want a 7 at the front, not a 9!

I've spent most of the last three years in the low 80s, but that extra 10kg has managed to wrap itself around me in the last 9 to 12 months. Looking back, I can recognise now the destructive cycle of short periods of severely limiting my food intake followed by the inevitable bounce back to really poor eating habits.

What I need now is to find a practical, sustainable way to manage my food. I recognise this may always be a struggle for me - that's just the way I'm made - but I need to work around this.

In talking with the nutritionist yesterday, I was reminded of some of the things I used to do. Some can work for me again, some just won't fit any more, some new ones may need to be thought up.

For instance...one of my real danger times for mindless snacking is when I get home from work. It's almost a Pavlovian response for me - walk in door, put food in mouth. So I need a strategy to avoid that. What I used to do was get changed into training gear straight away and then head out for a walk or ride. So I'm going to start doing that again - but that won't work for me every day. So I need another distraction - and this time it's going to be the garden. I have some very sadly neglected tomatoes and chilli plants, and it's time to start getting ready to put the winter garden in. And if the weather is bad (good chance of that here), I have a pile of mending to get to!

I know from past experience this sort of thing can help - I just need to plan and put things into action.

Refresher course in healthy living

There seem to be lots of bloggers finding their focus again in the last couple of weeks - hope it goes well for all of you.

Had an interesting session with Hamish this morning. It's amazing that just talking about all this stuff (most of which I know so well) makes you realise how much you've let it slip...

Did lots of measurements, which I've never really done before. Came up with a physical age of 58 - which is a bit shocking for a 44 year old. A lot of that was about body fat and not being well-hydrated, so I hope to see some fairly quick progress there. Always thought I was pretty good at the water thing, but there you go.

I've got a bit of homework to do tonight before I see him for the first PT session tomorrow. It's mostly about goal-setting - but he has a very well structured approach to this, so it feels less airy-fairy to me than it has in the past. Again, quite sensible stuff - like no point in setting the goal if you don't work out some steps to get there.

Seeing the nutritionist tomorrow as well. Really looking forward to that, and looking forward to stitching all this info together.

Oh, official time on the triathlon was 1 hour and 6 minutes.

And I must get Craig to take a photo of me tonight so I can do the progress thing.

One off, one on

I've ticked the triathlon off the list for this year, but the new item on the list is swimming lessons. I want to be able to freestyle properly, not have to resort to breast-stroke.

The triathlon went pretty well - around 1 hour and 5 minutes (haven't seen the official times yet). I didn't even try to run the 3km - I'm a pretty fast walker anyway. I think the best place for me to get time off is in the swim - a few minutes there would make a huge difference.

I was hit by a bladder infection last week - actually had to resort to antibiotics, which I don't do very often.

The diagnosis on Craig's shoulder is some deep bruising in the bone, with some possible tendon damage. Might have something to do with using your shoulder to brace the nail gun when nailing into 100 year old heart rimu! The biggest problem is he keeps re-injuring, so he might get it strapped for the next couple of weeks, as well as continuing with the physio.

Starting my new exercise and nutrition stuff with Hamish tomorrow - quite excited, really. Want to see this as real commitment to 12 weeks of learning and looking after myself.