Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Shanghai...in all it's glory!



Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Busy little bumble bee...

No time to write today as I'm madly packing for my China trip. I weighed in this morning and had lost 1.6kg (probably from nerves about the flight!). That brings me down to 70.8kg which is a total loss of 6.8kg. I feel much better and it's definitely beginning to show in my clothes.

Will update again when I get back. Wish me luck!

Monday, November 07, 2005

Up, up and away!!

Thankfully I'm not referring to my weight!

In just under 60 hours I'll be on a plane bound for Hong Kong once again and on my way to China. How do I know that it's 60 hours? When you're as afraid of flying as I am, you can hear every minute tick by, dragging you ever closer to your greatest fear. Tick, tock, tick, tock...

You may have noticed the free Fear of Flying course link on my blog page. This course is invaluable and I would highly recommend it to anyone afraid of flying. Not that I think I'm cured by any means, but at least now I understand that many of my fears about planes are simply unfounded. I'm hoping that once I'm on the plane, I can read the cheat sheet provided and feel at least a little more comfortable than I usually do. Here's hoping anyway!

On a lighter note (literally), I've officially lost 5.2kg and I have in my possession a 5kg bookmark. I've started to get a few comments about looking slimmer, which is certainly a boost to the ego. I have arranged for a low calorie meal on the plane (travelling business class so hopefully should still taste okay) and I'm determined to stick to healthy meals whilst I'm in China. I'm all set with some Weight Watchers Crisp Bars and some Fruities for snacking, and I will not let the buffet breakfast get the better of me. My sneakers and tracksuit pants are packed and I fully intend to use the hotel gym. The irony of course is that I can't make it 5 minutes down the road to my own gym, but I can travel to another country and walk on their treadmill. We humans are funny creatures...or is that just me?

Photos from my last trip:



Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Oh Toto...I wish we were in Kansas!

Have you ever had one of those days when you wish you could click your heels and magically be somewhere else? Well, let me tell you, Dorothy had nothing on me today! I swear I even thought about running away to join the circus until I remembered that I don't particularly like clowns and I'm afraid of heights. Somehow scooping up elephant poop just didn't really appeal either...at least not in this heat.

I wonder sometimes how many people are truly happy in their jobs? Not happy in the "I make good money" or "It's a fairly easy job" sense, but really, truly happy? Happy to be getting out of bed to spend their time doing something that they love. Happy to be going about their day feeling good about themselves and about the path that they have chosen.

Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike my job. I work with great people who all pitch in to help one another when it all gets a bit too much. But I think it's true that it often only takes one apple to upset the apple cart. One apple who doesn't want to be a team player. One apple that wants to make fruit salad when everyone else is happily making fruit juice. Well this little apple thought about finding a whole other fruit bowl to play in today (mmm, food analogies...must be hungry...) The problem is that I have no idea what else I would do if I wasn't doing this.

On the upside, I was way too busy and stressed out to even think about food today, which means I have some points to spare for a treat tonight. I'm finding it much easier to eat within my points without feeling like I'm starving. I feel full on less food now, and I've discovered that a carefully measured portion of peanut butter on multigrain toast is a really filling breakfast. There must be something to this low GI theory that I keep hearing about after all.

Tomorrow night is official weigh in night and I'm really hoping to get my 5kg bookmark. Funny how a little piece of cardboard can mean so much. That bookmark will mean 5kg of unhealthy fat gone. I'll probably never use it as a placeholder for anything other than my "brag" book, but I really want that bookmark!! I started my program a few days before my first weigh in, so I also keep an unofficial weight loss tally. This morning it was sitting at 5.4kg - bookmark or no bookmark, this bookworm has chewed through some serious fat in the last 6 weeks!