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Not doing so incredibly well at the moment, but that’s primarily because I’m in a fair amount of physical pain. Of course this colours my view of the world, which I currently hate. 😉
I was walking through a carpark the other day after a meeting and tripped. Well, tripped doesn’t really sound adequate to describe exactly what happened. It was more like, I threw myself onto a hard gravelled surface, with nothing breaking my fall, except for both knees, and my right forearm. Luckily, nothing serious happened – no sprains or breaks. However, I am covered in bruises, I hurt all over, and tomorrow will be my third day off work and on painkillers. Who would’a thunk a relatively minor thing could cause so many problems?! Bizarre. And embarrassing. Great combination. C couldn’t believe his eyes when he picked me up from work and saw me. I’m personally just glad I didn’t land on my face, or rip any clothing (both my knees were bleeding through my pants, but my pants didn’t actually tear).
Otherwise all is good. Heaps going on with the properties at the moment – we have bought a new one, plus doing fairly major works to an existing one, and turning over a third this weekend. The major works on the existing property includes painting throughout – including skirts and architraves – how I hate enamel paint!! plus we are replacing the cracked shower screen and horrible old leaky toilet. Fortunately I’m nearly finished with the enamel paint, which I hate more than almost anything – the fumes, the mess, the turps cleanup, you name it. Acrylic paint is completely different, so easy to use and clean up, and I don’t mind the smell.
In some good news, I have actually finished our tax for 2010-11 and got it to our accountant. It’s such a relief, I loathe doing it, it’s a huge time suck, plus I find it stressful. It was a particularly nasty year as well, as we bought two properties and sold one, so there were lots of additional bits over and above the usual that I had to make sure I included. We’re hoping for some money back, we need it for our latest purchase.
Work was going well, at least until early afternoon Tuesday when I tried to leave the entirety of my skin behind on the bitumenised carpark. I’ve been off ever since and I don’t think I’ll be in tomorrow either – the bruising is so extensive that I can’t really manage without substantial painkillers every four hours. Have I mentioned lately how much I love the pharmaceutical industry? I know that Big Pharma is the devil, but to be honest it beats the crap out of pain.
Today, for the first time since before Christmas, I actually feel like I have time to breathe. Things have been just so frantic, both with work and the properties, and today was the first time in months that I could actually properly relax. So I did! I did the food shopping, then went to my usual Saturday morning zumba class (so much love for zumba 😀 ) which I’d only returned to last week. I’m happy with how I went over my extended break – I weighed myself this morning and came in at exactly 75kgs. Considering I haven’t been exercising, and not really watching what I eat, that’s a great outcome. Plus, I didn’t hurt after my zumba class – I must be getting my fitness back reasonably quickly, which is a great thing.
After zumba, I came home and had a nap – then got up for lunch – then had another nap. Just about the best way to spend the day possible 🙂 C was helping his dad so he was out of the house and kept busy while I imitated Rip van Winkle. Other than that, I haven’t done anything, and that’s just fine too. I think I needed a day off from life, to be honest, and I feel like I got it.
It’s hard to believe it’s Sunday evening already. And mid-December, no less. WTF has happened to the year?
I’ve had a pretty good week and weekend. Work was satisfying this week – for one of the few times this year I actually felt like I was working on something important. I had to write up a document for the Premier’s chief of staff, in a very short time frame and with little direction, and it went through without any amendments. This made me happy 😀
The diet and exercise etc is still going well. I’ve now lost 4.6kgs, which means I’m about half-way to being a size 12. I’m starting to get a lot of comments about it too, mostly from various people at work. I just have to stick with it, I guess. Zumba is having a two-week break over Christmas, so I’ll have to see what I do about that. In theory I’ll go running instead. In reality, I loathe running with a passion, so we will have to see. Maybe I’ll just limit my eating to 1000 calories a day, who knows.
Also, we’ve bought another property!! This was the truly exciting news of the week. It’s a 3×1 villa, and we got it for $322K. This is a BARGAIN, and it has really made my month. It needs a bit of work in the outside areas (new paving, and a garden needs to be established) but inside it’s relatively okay. The really exciting thing is we’ve also negotiated access to the property after finance approval, but before settlement. This means we can start doing stuff to it, before we have to pay the mortgage on it. First time we’ve managed to negotiate this so I’m really stoked!
I saw my mum today, who was in good form. We spent two hours together gasbagging, and it went really well. I don’t always get along fantastically with my mother, so today was really nice for a change. I even got my act together and bought a secret santa gift for this coming Friday’s work Christmas party – a calendar with smartarse sayings. The recipient will love it, she’s got a similar sense of humour to me, so that was a win.
I’m in the process of cooking a lamb roast for dinner. It’s got to the point where the lamb-roast odours are wafting around the house, and driving me nuts. I’m so hungry, I’ve only had 900 calories today – I thought I’d save up and splash out for dinner 😀 Plus, I may even have a chocolate mousse for dessert. I’ve found these great Aero chocolate mousses which are only 69 calories, with pretty much no fat, so they’re an allowable indulgence.
Four kilos in four weeks, that is. I couldn’t hold off this morning, and jumped on the scales – my normal weigh-in day is Sunday, but I figured, what’s one day early? And sure enough, the scales reported 76.8kgs, down from 80.8kgs four weeks ago.
I guess you could say this little experiment has been a success, so far at least… I’ll be interested to see how much more I drop. I’m not planning on doing any exercise over and above what I’m doing now (which consists solely of zumba 3-4 times a week), but Christmas is just around the corner. I’m not planning on angsting over it by any means but by the same token it’ll be interesting to see what the scales say in another four weeks.
My work has been offering a few ‘extras’ lately to employees – fasting blood tests and mole checks, to name two. I actually went along and utilised both, as part of my new ‘self care’ regime. Bloodwork came back pretty good – everything’s looking okay, apart from my iron saturation levels – no surprise there. The mole scan went well too, everything all looks fine. I’m very fair, and I do have a few moles on my body, so I thought it worthwhile to get it checked out. I’ll be seeing the doctor next Saturday about the iron levels, and hopefully he’ll have a suggestion or two as to how to remedy it. I’ve been on iron tabs for years, I take them with vitamin C, I don’t drink, and I’m not vegetarian – I just absorb iron incredibly poorly.
Otherwise all is smooth sailing. I’m sticking to the exercise and ‘eating plan’ regime fine. I’d love to say I was feeling better for it, but to be honest I’m so tired I’m not feeling hugely different. I know this is because of my iron issues though, so I’m powering through. I’ve managed to not blow off any zumba sessions due to tiredness, and I haven’t eaten naughty food in desperation, so I’m pretty happy with myself overall.
In terms of my mental health, that’s also ticking along okay. If my work life settles down a bit next year, and my iron level picks up, I’ll be looking to (very slowly) reduce my daily dosage of prozac. I’m on 40mg at the moment but would love to just see how I go if I do decrease my dose. Of course I’ll be very careful doing it, the last thing I want is to end up in a hole again. But I do feel like my lifestyle changes are setting me up well to give it a go, at least.
Had my second weigh-in today. Only lost 0.4kg, but hey it’s better than nothing I guess. I’ve already checked out my eating plan and have worked out where I can reduce my breakfast a bit to cut back, so that’s a good thing. If I tend to overeat at any meal it’s breakfast – I wake up STARVING and so I eat as much as I can stuff into my little mouth. However I’m working out that if I cut back on my muesli/no fat milk/yoghurt combo a bit, it reduces the calorie intake and still leaves me feeling full. Anyhow, we’ll see what the coming seven days brings.
I’m hoping to get to four zumba classes again this week. I just feel so good when I’m in a class (and afterwards as well of course). I was telling C yesterday that I’ve started deliberately upping my energy level in the class – I’ve always been a high energy participant, but I’m trying to deliberately remember to lift my knees higher, etc. Again, mindfulness is a key part of this.
We went to Mum & J’s last night for dinner. Poor C, he spent just about the entire four hours we were there sorting out their laptops. I finally had to put my foot down at 10pm and drag him home – he was too polite to say he’d had enough. However the dinner was lovely and Mum was in good form, so that was nice.
We spent a good two hours this afternoon weeding the back paving area. The cat hung around the entire time, ‘supervising’ as C says. She just really likes hanging out with us when we’re outside. I think she enjoys the company. Every so often she’d walk over to one of us for a pat, then walk back to her spot to lie down again. So cute.
Five years ago today, C and I got married. I didn’t know it at the time but I was about to be diagnosed with clinical depression, which would follow my life for at least the next half-decade. That said, I can honestly say that the day we got married was definitely one of the best days of my life.
We don’t do anything special for our wedding anniversaries; all we’ll do tonight is kick back and have some takeaway squid with salad for dinner. Then we’ll probably cuddle on the couch and watch some episodes of True Blood. Simple, but perfect 🙂
I’m nearly at the end of week two of my new exercise/eating plan regime. It’s been pretty easy, to be honest. I love my zumba classes and never need to motivate myself to go to them, so that aspect is so simple. The food part is a bit harder, and takes a bit more effort, just in terms of recording it all, and being mindful of what I eat. I’m also premenstrual so have had some significant sugar cravings for the last day or so. I’ve bought some diet desserts (creme caramel and chocolate mousse) so that if I do break down, there’s something ‘permissible’ but still naughty that I can indulge in. So far I’m holding out though, which is good.
I had a meeting with my old boss yesterday. Basically she wants to lure me to work with her. The description of the job sounds fantastic, and she’s the best boss I’ve ever had, so I told her that if she could arrange it, I’d love to work with her. Plus it would effectively get me out of my substantive role, which I’m well and truly looking to do.
And what a week it was. I decided last Saturday that on top of going to zumba 3-4 times a week, it would be helpful if I also started watching what I eat. Basically the ‘rules’ of my new ‘eating plan’ are as follows: 2,000 calories or less per day, less than 50g fat per day, eat 5-6 times a day (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, optional snack), and at least one piece of fruit and/or veg per day. All in all, it sounds pretty prescriptive, but I’ve found it relatively easy to fit it into my lifestyle. This of course means it’s sustainable, which is important for the medium to long term with anything like this.
Anyhow, I hopped on the scales this morning. What with going to 4x zumba classes and my new ‘eating plan’, I lost two kilos exactly in the first week. This amazed me. I’m only a touch overweight for my height (BMI of 26.6) so it’s not like I had a huge amount to drop off or anything. And yet, I lost 2kgs. This makes me a happy girl! Plus, it’s on top of a blowout last night – we went to our friends’ place (G and V) for dinner, where I ate three pieces of brie with biscuits, just to start with, and had three (alcoholic) drinks. Needless to say, this great result has only encouraged me to stick with it.
In other ‘friends’ news, we caught up with my friend L and her hubby M today for brunch. They brought along their little cutie pie of a daughter, A, who is five months and just completely adorable. She’s obviously a very placid baby and is good as gold. L and M are loving parenthood and are completely enraptured with A. So cute 😀
We had a new tenant move in to one of the properties today. Fortunately the previous tenants moved out on Thursday, which gave me a chance to get it all ready, despite our busy social weekend. He seems very nice and appreciative, which is lovely. Now all he needs to do is pay the rent on time and leave the property neat at the end of the tenancy, and he’ll be a perfect tenant. Fingers crossed 😉
Aloha faithful readers! Sorry for the protracted absence, but C and I went away for a week, down south to Margaret River. We did have (some) internet access, but we were too busy stuffing our faces and having afternoon naps to really do much, like post to blogs. Short story – had a great time, ate too much, had a nap every day, glad to be back home.
I really missed the cat, and ever since we’ve been home she’s been following us both around like our shadow. I spent about three hours in the front garden this afternoon, and she was there the whole time. She’s a sweetheart and we both missed her so much. I said at one point to C while we were away, ‘You do realise, if anything happens to her, we’re going to have to get another one’. He resignedly said, ‘I know’.
C’s dad and stepmum were wonderful, they came over twice every day and fed her, so she didn’t go without while we were gone. She just didn’t get her usual pats from Mummy or game playing with Daddy that she’s used to.
As soon as we got back from our holiday, I started zumba again – I even went to a class that’s not very close to home on Thursday (we got back Thursday midday), to get back into it. It nearly killed me but it set me up nicely for today’s usual Saturday class. I outdid myself today – straight after zumba (yes, track pants, purple sweaty face and all) I went to Bunnings and bought about $100 worth of plants to put in the front garden. Came home, did some laundry, had a snooze, then got up and planted almost all of them. I even went around and put Miracle Gro on everything. I’m exhausted now, but it was worth it.
It’s paying off, too. The garden is starting to look really nice, and it’s actually going to be sorted out for Perth’s long, hot summer. We do still have a few things to finish off, but it’s looking respectable for the first time since we bought it, really. And I’m getting pleasure out of doing stuff in it as well, which is a nice bonus.
We had C’s dad and stepmum over to dinner last night. Roast lamb with vegies, and gluten free apple crumble to finish. Fortunately it all turned out well, and tasted fantastic. They were most appreciative too, which is always nice.
Not a huge amount going on to report here. Still keeping up with the zumba classes, still doing the usual – work, sleep, properties, etc.
I’m going to visit my mum this morning. She and J got back from their European trip last weekend but we couldn’t organise a time to meet before now, so today it is. She managed to hurt her ankle – not quite sure what she’s done to it at this stage, but 1) it isn’t broken, and 2) it seems worse than a sprain. She has to have a CT scan on it, her physio thinks she may have pulled some tendon away from the bone. YOUCH.
I caught up with a girlfriend from my previous workplace last week, and I’m doing the same with a couple more in the next two weeks. I used to try to get them all to the same lunch but found it didn’t really work – we all like talking, but an hour with three other people isn’t really quality time, so I’ve started organising to see them all separately. I loved seeing A and I know seeing T and G will be just as good.
a life half lived 