Sunday before Christmas !

Well - for the first time in I don't know how many years - I am totally organised. It is 20th December and all my Christmas shopping is done and wrapped and under the tree. My grocery shopping is done - bar some fresh veggies to be bought from the farmers market on Wednesday morning. I have NEVER been this organised before - it probably has heaps to do with the fact that I am on a forced holiday and have so much more time to get things done. This week I just need my house cleaned and I will be A for away !

In the latest Women's Weekly they have the South Beach Diet. K and I are thinking of trying it after Christmas - not sure I could do it for any length of time but they claim you can lose 4.5kgs in two weeks. Now if I could just kick start my weight loss regime with that, I would be extremely happy. I am seriously thinking of going back to WW in the new year - provided I can fit it in between work (because I KNOW I am going to find a job in the new year), lectures (which start again on 5th January) and clients (who I am hoping will be phoning up to make appointments to come and see me) !!

I joined the 10,000 steps challenge - well actually I didn't join any challenge - I just registered with them and have been logging my steps on their website daily - these are my steps for the past week :
Sunday 5 759
Monday 4 062
Tuesday 9 613
Wednesday 9 967
Thursday 12 787
Friday 10 570
Saturday 9 897
Total 62 655
This is slightly down from my total for last week which was 65 949 but then we didn't do any mail drops (although I still have about 70 Christmas brochures to drop off - must get to those tomorrow). Having the pedometer has certainly made me more aware of how much (or not) I exercise. I am more likely to go for a walk at 4pm if my steps for the day are really low than I would otherwise. K has been really good about walking with me which has been great - it is good to have company even if she does go a little too fast for me sometimes !!!

In case I don't get back - I would like to wish anyone reading this a Very MERRY CHRISTMAS and EVERYTHING you wish for yourself in 2009 !

Take care and go safely if you are travelling over the holiday season - there are so many silly people out on the roads - more so than normal !!!

Thought for the day : Climb that mountain, follow your star, achieve your dream. If you can dream it, you can be it.

Happy Anniversary A !!

Yes - it is our anniversary today. 21 years ago we walked down the aisle, promised to love and honour through sickness and health and we have done all of that and more. 21 years ago A was my bestest friend, today he is still my bestest friend.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY A !

I love you more now than I did 21 years ago ! Here's to at least another 21 years together.

"This day I will marry my friend, the one I laugh with, live for, dream with and love."

A good day

Today was a good day for me. I didn't go for a walk but that is OK - I have my pedometer and so far have just over 6600 steps which isn't too bad given that the first time I went out of the house was a 8.40pm when I got K to drive around to my folks to drop off some banana bread that we had made during the day. She has to do 10 hrs of night driving in her 100 hrs of logged driving - slowly we are getting there. She has completed just over 34 hours (which is great because up until about 3 weeks ago - she had completed a total of about 5 hrs !!!!) Thank goodness for being unemployed - I knew there was a reason why I wasn't working !!

Since I have gone back to my 3 / 4 nights per week work at Coles I have been battling to sleep. Last night I didn't work because I had fallen over a pallet on Monday night and when I went to work on Wednesday night my back really gave me uphill. So said I wasn't available last night which would mean it would have a rest until Monday night as we are rostered off this Saturday. Anyway, I was still awake when A got home as I had been working on my paperwork and trying to get MYOB loaded so that I could process The Body and Feet Retreat stuff so that when it comes to tax time it is all done - got into bed and lay there. So then got up and took a sleeping tablet and had a great nights sleep. I vaguely heard him get up, cook himself some breakfast and then he kissed me goodbye and went to work and I must have fallen asleep again as the next thing I knew it was 8.45am !!!

K had just woken up and was watching TV so I got up and made some blueberry muffins for breakfast. We sat outside on the swing chair watching the rain coming down and ate our breakfast - it was lovely.

Then I got stuck into the kitchen drawers - who would have thought that so much stuff could be stuffed into four little drawers !!! Apart from the top drawer which has our everyday cutlery in - the other drawers had such an accumulation of unnecessary items - it just wasn't funny. But I had great fun matching up measuring cup sets, and measuring spoon sets - and figured that I don't really need 5 sets of measuring cups do I ????? Nor do I need 6 sets of measuring spoons !!! I didn't get rid of any of the bottle openers - that is A's domain and I knew I would be touching a nerve if I had any of his bottle openers on the St Vinnie's pile so put them all back in the drawer - but there is now so much room, they can fit without having to try to jiggle the drawer to get it open or closed !! I also got rid of 4 pairs of salad servers - and I still kept 4 pairs (not counting the two wooden sets I have just remembered we bought a little while ago when Target were having a sale and we bought a whole bunch of wooden things because we love wood so much !!!) Maybe I should have another look tomorrow and get rid of another set of salad servers !!

Then came the bottom drawer with every possible handout from WW - fat lot of good they did me - so kept the recipes I think I may ACTUALLY make and tossed the rest out. I believe they are bringing out a new programme in the new year anyway (they always do every 2 years) so figure there really isn't much point in keeping the old stuff. While I haven't been doing WW for a very long time now, in the back of my mind I think that I am going to have to go back to them because, honestly, it seems to be the only way I can lose any weight. This past week my steps have been really good, my eating has been a lot less than it used to be but my weight isn't moving at all - I know that I need that discipline of having to face someone at the scales each week to keep me on the straight and narrow. URRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHH when I find work in the new year I'll have the money but battle to find the time to go to WW class because of my diploma lectures and if I don't find work, I'll have the time but not the money to attend !!! Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Never mind - it will all sort itself out and what will be will be.

After that K and I made some banana bread with the vrot bananas that we had. When the banana bread was in the over we tackled the pantry cupboard - gosh, I can't tell you how many items we found in there that had expired - and I can only think that at some point in time I actually thought I would make something with them !!!! At least that has been done and I feel so much better now - next is working my way through the rest of the kitchen cupboards and getting rid of kitchen clutter that hasn't been used for the past 12 months. I know that at the bottom of my pot cupboard there is a roasting pan which we got as a wedding present 21 years ago which has never been used - I don't do roasts in the oven, Al always does them on the Weber. I am sure that St Vinnie's will be able to find someone who can make better use of it than what I have !!!

Then K went off for a parking lesson - her driving is coming along really nicely but her parking is giving me grey hairs. After the two lessons this week, she is a lot more confident and I am not so paranoid that she is going to hit the cars on either side of us when she is going into or out of a parking - having said that, we still look for parkings with no cars around !!!!!!

This afternoon I finished getting MYOB loaded and all my processing done - another job that makes me feel good. And then it was time to get ready for my hot stone client. She really enjoyed the treatment - hope she passes my details onto anyone she hears who is interested in taking some time out for themselves.

We don't have anything exciting planned for the weekend - maybe try to get to see Quotum of Solace as both A & K want to see it - I don't mind either way. Thank goodness all my Christmas shopping is finished - maybe I will spend some time wrapping the presents and not leaving them until we get home after work on Christmas Eve !!!

Take care and have a fantastic weekend !

Thought for the day : If you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.

When is enough enough ?????

While the title sounds like it may be weight related - this post isn't !!!

I treated a client while working in the clinic attached to the school where I was studying. This client really enjoyed the treatment I gave her and asked for my details so she could contact me for a treatment once I was no longer working at the clinic. I gave her my card.

She called once during the day when I was still working full time saying that she was off sick and could she come over for a treatment. I called her when I got home saying that I was sorry I hadn't got back to her sooner and that if she wanted to come over then I would give her a treatment (approx 5pm) - she said that it was too late but thank you for returning her call.

Last week on Sunday she called wanting to make an appointment. We made the appointment for Monday night approx 5.30pm. She sent an sms at about 4pm to say she had to work late could she come on Tuesday night. I replied saying that would be fine. I got an sms the next morning (7am) saying that she couldn't make it could she please come on Wednesday night. I replied saying that I already had clients booked for Wednesday night but could see her either Thursday night last week or Monday or Thursday night this week. She replied asking me to book her in for Thursday this week.

I sent a confirmation of appointment e-mail to her yesterday - didn't hear anything back from her so presumed she was going to be here. At 6pm tonight I sent an sms asking if she was still coming for her treatment - she replied that she had to work and wouldn't be able to make it - she was very apologetic and said maybe she could make an appointment for the weekend. I replied saying when she was free to get in touch with me and I would see if I had any appointments available.

Now my question is - do I continue to make appointments for her and she doesn't pitch ? At the moment, I am not that busy so it isn't as though I had to turn someone else away because she had an appointment and then didn't pitch. Or do I just say I don't think this is going to work and leave it at that ? A seems to think that it has something to do with the cost because I charge more than the clinic but I keep saying I told her that up front - this is the cost of the treatment and she was happy with that.

Any ideas on what to do ?????

Too busy

I have to be honest, when my contract finished 3 1/2 weeks ago, I thought it would be the ideal time for me to get back into blogging and get in touch with those friends that I have neglected for too long - how wrong was I ??????

Having said that, the reason I haven't blogged this week is because I got my new pedometer and I am out getting my steps up so that I don't have to post some piss willy number onto the 10,000 steps site. So, my options have been - blog or walk - walking won. And blog or swim - swimming won. I am sure that the novelty of the pedometer will wear off eventually but while it is here, I am going to make the most of it. K said on Tuesday night that she wanted to walk every day so I told her I could wake her up when we got up in the morning for A to go to work and I would go walking with her - big mistake - she is far fitter than I am and I spent the whole of the walk yesterday morning saying "Sorry Luv - either go on ahead or slow down a little - I can't keep up with you" !!! She was apologetic and said for me not to worry about slowing her down - just now I would be fitter and we could walk at that pace (until she forgot and sped up again and I had to ask her to slow down a little !!!!) I think she may be back at school before I am fit enough to keep up with her.

I started reading Dr Phil's Ultimate Weight Loss book but it obvioulsy didn't grab me the way that I thought it would because I keep putting off picking it up again. At the moment I am reading "Does this clutter make my butt look fat" - I think that the universe is trying to tell me something because it was only a week or two ago that I was put in touch with the FLY webpage which is all about whizz cleaning through your home and, you guessed it, decluttering. While on my forced holiday, I have made a concerted effort to declutter those areas / cupboards that collect the things that are too hard to decide what to do with - and I am being ruthless in getting rid of stuff (I am sure that this will come back to bite me on my butt when A says "Where is XYZ" and I will have to say - I got rid of it because we haven't used it for the past 12 months). Either tomorrow or Friday the plan is to tackle the pantry - I was going to do that today but with K at a driving lesson learning how to park (I haven't been able to explain that clearly enough to her and I get another couple of grey hairs every time she drives into a car park and has to park the car) and such a beautiful day outside, I put my togs on, got onto my little floaty thing and spent the hour in the pool - it was gorgeous.

Tomorrow I am off to enrol for the diploma next year - all very exciting although I will have some work to do these holidays going over, and ensuring that I know, all the origins, insertions and actions of all major muscles - four pages worth actually. Think I should tackle a couple every day and just keep adding to what I have learnt.

My eating has been quite good - I have been so busy that I really haven't eaten as many wrong foods as I could have. Also with K at home I tend not to snack like I do when I am by myself - definitely has something to do with not wanting her to see just how much I can eat when I put my mind to it - actually even when I don't put my mind to it I can eat heaps !!!!! I have been cooking good wholesome dinners every night - plus cooking extra to freeze so that when lectures start again on 5th January, A doesn't have to cook on the nights I have lectures - he can just heat up and maybe do some veggies.

We are having a very quiet Christmas this year - mainly because with me not working financially that is all we can afford. I went onto the recipe site that I use quite often and found a couple of interesting takes on potato salad (my contribution towards Christmas lunch) along with the turkey and a dessert. Haven't finalised a dessert recipe but the Bailey's cheesecake is looking good at this stage.

This whole not sleeping thing is starting up again - I was doing really well with my sleeping while I was a lectures but now that I am back working the 8-midnight shift, we get home, get into bed and A is snoring within minutes - it is now 2.34am and I am still as wide awake as a 'nag apie' (or night monkey for those who can't read Afrikaans !!!) To make it worse my hayfever is driving me absolutely nuts - I hate taking anti-histamines but have resorted to them to try to get some relief from the itchy eyes, throat and ears but I am not having much success - does anyone have anything else they can recommend ?

My business is coming along nicely. I have had a couple of paying clients (which is great as up until the end of November, everyone I treated was for free but now that I am qualified I can start to charge for the services I provide - YAY !!!) and I have also sold a number of gift certificates which is great. One downside of doing all the marketing / set up etc by yourself is that sometimes you take things for granted - my Dad designed the front of my gift certificate and I told him what information I wanted included - unfortunately I didn't include any contact details of how to get hold of me when they want to book their appointment !!!!!! Luckily it is all friends who have bought them so I have delivered business cards to them to be included in the envelope with the gift certificate and Dad is going to change the info on the next batch that he prints - he said to scrap the ones that I haven't used yet but I said that was a waste of the good paper and all the ink that we have already used so will just remember to pop a couple of business cards in when I sell them. I have ordered my next lot of flyers to be delivered at the end of December as they have the specials for January and February - I have 1500 of those arriving in the next week or so. I am undecided on whether to try to build the business as quickly as I can or wait until I have finished the diploma. With me having lectures on two nights per week and all day Sunday, plus working at Coles one or two nights per week I don't really have a lot of time to see clients - provided I find a full time job in the new year - and I don't want to have clients having to wait a week or two before I can see them - URRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHH stuck between a rock and a hard place at the moment on this one. I think I am going to have to sit down and seriously think about how to do this - does anyone know anyone who is looking for an accountant to work 2-3 days per week - that would be the ideal solution because then I would have 2-3 days to see clients at home and 2-3 days of using my grey matter. This is my want / need for the new year - I will sit down tomorrow and construct it exactly how I want it and then put it out to the universe. I did a hot stone treatment last week and have another one booked for Friday - I really enjoy doing that treatment although not as much as I enjoy doing reflexology - next flyer drop I must wish for more reflexology clients !!!!

OK - it is now 2.48am and I am going to get into bed and try to get some sleep - with all that I have on I can't even have a nana nap during the afternoon !!!!! Take care and look after yourselves.

Thought for the day : We are all like one-winged angels - it is only when we help each other that we can fly.

Time ???

Where has the time gone to ? I can't believe that it is nearly a week since I posted - I really thought I would be posting a lot more regularly than a week between posts !!!!

But, how did I ever manage to hold down a full time job - I just seem to be on the go the whole time - am not sure how I will cope when I go back to work !!!!!

I didn't have much in the way of planned exercise last week - apart from my walk on Monday. The weather for most of the week was cr*p - and, while I realise I could walk in the rain, I wear glasses and CANNOT stand them having any sort of mark on them never mind them getting wet in the rain while I am walking. If we are going to work at Coles and it is raining A drops me under the shelter and then goes to park because I cannot do ANYTHING once they have a little splatter / mark / smudge on them.

I did make better food choices during the week. I haven't got as far as the eating plan in Dr Phil but what I am doing is cutting down on portion sizes and trying to make the best choices possible. While I didn't actually plan all our dinners for the week in advance - by the end of breakfast each day I knew what I was going to cook and made sure that it was all ready for A & K before I went to lectures or my clients arrived - a HUGE improvement on my culinary efforts over the past couple of months. Having said that, it is a little easier when I can shoot off to the shops if I need something rather than having to try to get out at lunch time and pick up what I need.

This morning I woke up quite early - got up and read for a while - then went back to bed and waited for A to wake up as he was the only one going to work - K has finished school and after a late night baby sitting session last night, she was sleeping in this morning. I ate breakfast and then tidied the kitchen and had a shiny, sparkly sink. Got dressed in my walking clothes, picked up as many flyers as I could fit in my hand, and set off. 1 hr 50 mins later I was home again - having had to walk home the last 30 mins with no flyers to drop off as I had run out. I have marked a map of where I went today and will continue to do mail drops (with lots of positive energy) until all my flyers are finished. I got home, put my togs on and was in the pool in a flash. Note to self : Next time I go walking and don't know how long I am going to be, block out or a hat would be a good idea and a bottle of water would be a fantastic idea. Just not sure how I can hold the water in one hand, the flyers in my other hand and then what to use to put the flyer in the post box !!!

Had a great time with all that walking - the amazing thing was apart from my feet burning a bit, I felt fine - no aches in my legs or butt like I had last week when I walked.

Tomorrow I have another full day - will probably not be at home much at all. A's Christmas party is a dress up theme thing (geez I hate those) so we are going to try to meet in between appointments and lunch dates to see what we can find. We were told to go as Bonnie and Clyde but (a) I'm not wearing a dress and (b) those outfits have to be dry cleaned and so are more expensive than some others - sooooooo we will be seeing what we can find and going as that.

I also need to find something to use for my hot stone equipment as the picnic table which I was using is just too big and gets in the way when I am massaging. I was going to buy a little table but then A suggested getting a chest of drawers type of thing instead as then I would be able to use the drawers for storage - great idea Luv !!!!! So we are off to the place where we just had our bookshelf made to see what they have in stock and what they would charge to make something that is suitable if they don't have anything in stock.

I thought I would be working tonight and Wednesday night as well as my normal Thursday night but when I rang today to confirm I was told I was down for Thursday and Saturday so I get to stay at home with K tonight !!! We are about to watch Bones so will be saying goodbye for now but, I'll be back - hopefully sooner than next Monday night !!!

Take care everyone and go safely !

Pork(y) pies

OK - so I told a porky yesterday - I didn't sit down with Dr Phil - instead I sat down with a packet of Hobnobs and managed to polish a fair number of them off in one sitting. My intentions of having a breakfast this morning which would see me through to lunch time was blown out of the water by the self same packet of Hobnobs (which fortunately - or unfortunately - depending on how you look at it) are still not finished.

Yesterday there was a drama in the family - nothing much - but a drama none the less and so lots of tears (both mine and K's) which did lead to me giving her a hot stone treatment last night. I don't know how much she enjoyed the actual treatment (although how anyone could not enjoy a hot stone massage is really beyond me !!!) - but at the end she said her favourite parts were the hand and foot massage that I gave her !!!!!!

Today I woke up really wanting to get my walking shoes on and get out there - it hasn't stopped raining since before midnight - except for one or two short spells of about 10-15 mins. I am in a bad mood. I want to walk. I want to exercise. I want to get out there. Instead I am stuck in the house. Not really wanting to do anything but feeling guilty because I am not doing anything. I did join FLYLady - my kitchen sink is shiny and sparkly and my kitchen is neat and tidy. This is not too unusual because with clients in and out I always try to make sure that that area of the house is reasonably respectable so they don't think I am a complete and utter slob. But I was glad of the prompting that came from reading Bri and M's blogs that got me into the kitchen this morning.

I did get changed out of my PJ's and 'fix my hair' - I draw the line at wearing make-up when I am at home - it is enough of a hassle to put it on if I am going out - never going to happen if I am just fluffing around at home !!!!

I really wanted to walk today because today was the day I was going to start delivering my advertising brochures - I need the business - I need paying clients - I need to generate some income now that I don't have a day job. As it is I am going to have to try to jiggle appointments so that I can get more packing time at Coles. How come I was so positive about not working last week and earlier this week and today it's like "What the hell have I done?" Can I blame the weather ? I am sure that if it was sunny and I was out in the garden doing the weeding I wouldn't feel like this at all - even though I hate weeding !!!!!

OK - I am off with Dr Phil (for real this time) - I will be back later to tell you how I went.

A new beginning

As the title says - this is a new beginning - for me, my weight loss journey and my endeavour to get healthy.

It has been a hectic year this year - we have had lots on the go and needless to say, my health and weight have taken a back seat - totally my own fault but now I have to make a decision on what I am going to do - am I going to continue on the path that I am on - the road to self destruction or am I going to do something positive about it and LOSE THIS WEIGHT AND GET HEALTHY !

I have decided to go with the second option - at this stage I am going to try to do it with the help of Dr Phil (the source of my blog title). I have bought his weight loss book off e-bay and I have a slightly used journal which I am going to use and I am going to give this a go.

I thought that seeing as I was no longer working I would be eating more but I have hardly had a chance to sit down in the week that I have been off (who said Mom's who don't work sit around all day doing nothing ??????). Which leads me to the first problem I have come across - when I don't plan any meals during the day at all - it is too easy to buy something quickly on the run and generally, those are not good options. While I am trying to do this a bit at a time, I think that if I can get through this week without doing too much more damage to myself, I can try to plan next week a little better. It should be easier - no school and K at home to help motivate me.

On that note I am off to do some work with Dr Phil and see what he has to say to me.

Thought for the Day : Most people are as happy as they make their minds up to be