Milestones (Amy's diary)

Thanks everyone! How lovely you all are! :grouphug: I'm just skipping in and out this morning - I'll catch up on the "what's New" later! Right now, out for a long weekend walk - with an eye to possible hula hoop supplies!
 
Hope you enjoyed your walk - I´ll be going for one as well as soon as I finish forum-ing :)
 
Thanks, LaMa - here it is! Thanks, Petal - I hope so! Thanks, liza - I'm a bit excited, and a bit scared! :)
(And I hope this whopping long post won't be too much to read! )

So.. the new plan, the new milestones - but no new timeline!
Well, there wasn't an old timeline either - it takes as long as it takes. The overall aim is to lose another half-dozen kilos or so - more exactly, one stone. This will still leave me overweight, with a BMI of 27.5 :rolleyes:, but it will take me down to eleven and a half stone, and, importantly, it's an aim which feels both significant and achievable.
I'm also aiming to get my waist under the magic 35 inches, and to improve my balance, in both tai chi and the simple balancing exercises I've mentioned before.

Tactics!
In terms of food:
  • Intermittently to cut out all sugars (including added sugars) completely, as I did for a month last year. It worked well then, but I don't think I could give up sugars forever.
  • To have only two “serves” of processed starchy carb a day – ie one serve of bread at breakfast, one serve of stir-fry with noodles at lunch would mean no crackers or rice at any other time during the day.
  • To stick with my current limitation of 100 grams of butter a week.
  • To eat simple fruit and vegies ad lib, but going easy on potatoes. To eat nuts more as a food than as a snack.
  • To always have carrots on hand for snacking.
In terms of exercise:
  • To continue my current morning exercise group.
  • To continue to take walks where and when possible.
  • To try out hula-hooping? (Thinking of the waist measure here, not the weight. Just got the idea today, from @Trusylver .)
  • To continue with balance exercises.
Motivation:
  • I have made up a cheerful new chart for myself, showing three major goals along the way, with rewards (!!) like, "170 pounds - weekend away with bushwalk and swimming pool." I might add mini-goals (but those don't get rewards) if I think I need them for motivation.
  • I'll be reading here on WLF to be inspired by all your stories and insights!
  • I'll look around to see if there's any new diet show - but not one which gawks at or humiliates fat people. (I hate those!)
  • I'll be checking in particularly to the 170s Club, and I hope slowly making my way through the Clubrooms to the 160s Club.
  • And of course I'll be posting here in this diary!
  • Oh, and I'll be remembering kindness to myself along the way!
Thank you for reading this far! :D
Hey Amy! Good luck with your new plan! :)
Morning exercises and walks sounds amazing! I can't wait to start regulary doing them again myself!

And I really like this rewards concept! That's something I should think about as well!

Do you think cutting sugar will be hard? I'm also thinking about that in some time so that's why I'm asking


About reading and posting here - I was just thinking about that topic! It also gives me some kind of security knowing that whenever I'm tempted to fail or feel bad - I can come here and read TON of beautiful stories. These days I'm unable to do that whenever I want but it's nice to know place like this exist! :) It's like some kind of saefty net. You are people are so amazing!
 
Hey Amy, just have a few minutes to spare this morning, but wanted to check in.

Hope you had a good walk.

Maybe I am missing something, but what do you need the hula hoop supplies for? Not that I am anti-hula hoop or anything, but it's been a long time since I have seen one.
 
Hope you got a nice walk in, Amy. I'm skipping the weighted hoola hoop, after mentions of bruising :eek:
 
I did enjoy the walk, thanks, @LaMaria ! It involved a busride (I enjoy exploring new bus-routes, and the monthly ticket means it's free, more or less) but then a lake, and trees and swans, black and white, so I can't do them in colour... and rather more breakfast than usual - but still within self-prescribed bounds. :)
Great to see you, @KittyKat! Yes, reading other people's stories here is really inspiring. :beating:
It wasn't hard at all to cut out sugar - but I think it would have been harder if I hadn't had good access via a nearby market to fresh fruit and veg. Once a person needs to turn to premade foods, for reasons of geography and/or transport and/or what shops are nearby, there's so much added sugar that I think it would be hard. :(
Great to see you, too, @alligatorob ! I've made the jump from maintenance to the Next Big Push while your back was turned. There's a determined new plan in progress - and the hula hoop might be part of that, if I can find one. :)
Walking round the table might be all that's possible, in the storm weather in your part of the world right now, @Petal001 ! Stay warm and stay safe! :hug2:
I think the bruising is more from little nubs on the inside of the hoop, than from the weighting of it, @Cate - what a meanly flagellatory thing to do to the innocent hula-hoops of yore! Mine will be nub-free, definitely!

In other news:
I had a bit of a struggle this morning, not to finish up the leftover curry and rice as breakfast. The struggle wasn't because I wanted to eat it, but because I didn't want to see it wasted.
What a perfidious frame of mind! I am so glad that I've identified it, that frame of mind, and that I can try to side-step it - as I've managed so far today. (Nobody wants food waste. On the other hand, ceci n'est pas une garbage bin. The answer is better planning - yet to be implemented.)

Falafel was, as predicted,a good deal messier:D in lettuce leaves than in lovely absorbent bread - but it still tasted excellent.

Unexpected side-benefit of my decision to have only two sources of grain-sourced carbs (rice, bread, crackers...) per day: my weekly 100-gram butter allowance isn't even half-used up! Interesting as a clue to how I've been using it, too.
 
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Your walk sounds lovely--with the trees and lake and swans :) And always fun to explore new areas!

Good for you not eating the curry and rice for the wrong reason. Yes i too don't like to see food wasted, but yes better to not overeat. Better planning so there's nothing to waste sounds like a wonderful idea.

That's great about the butter easily lasting longer with less carbs. That's a good point---i've actually noticed my butter lasting way longer now as I'm eating far less bread on this diet.
 
Cheers for you not being a garbage bin and the butter lasting longer! And I 100% agree about fresh fruit&veg making things much easier.
 
Amy I love buses and trains too!! Glad you got some exploring in and enjoyed your walk :) makes me crave going out and enjoying nature but this weather in Ireland is awful. We have a storm! Have a great day lady!
 
In other news:
I had a bit of a struggle this morning, not to finish up the leftover curry and rice as breakfast. The struggle wasn't because I wanted to eat it, but because I didn't want to see it wasted.
What a perfidious frame of mind! I am so glad that I've identified it, that frame of mind, and that I can try to side-step it - as I've managed so far today. (Nobody wants food waste. On the other hand, ceci n'est pas une garbage bin. The answer is better planning - yet to be implemented.)

I do this sometimes. I am especially bad about it when it comes to meat. An animal died to feed me and I'd hate to diminish that by just throwing the leftovers of something in the trash. It can be an unproductive mindset.
 
Brilliant that you know that now about the food waste thing. It’s great to challenge that thinking. Well done.
 
I think we are all ok at deciding not to use our bodies as a garbage bin . I often throw something away although mainly if it’s really danger area for me . The curry and rice though would definitely be used as a lunch or dinner here . Could you not freeze it .
 
Your weekend sounds lovely, Amy, especially your bus ride & walk. Adelaide is a great city for getting around. I also love the fruit & veg market. I think G & I will be in Adelaide March next year for golf. I love Adelaide.
 
Well... long walks! I think I rather overdid it on Sunday - a busride to a semi-ruralish area and then a long walk... a bit longer than expected, and Monday was rather wiped out in consequence. (sigh)
Never mind - it was a very good walk, in terms of things to see and think about and enjoy - oh, and trees! :)

And now to catch up on things here - in this diary and across the site generally. I started to do it yesterday, but as I said - Monday was pretty well wiped!
...always fun to explore new areas!
Yes! I love it! A good bus system, and good walking shoes, and... the world's my oyster! - though maybe taking a little more effort to open than expected, sometimes!
What a joke on us both, @liza , the way the butter lasts when it's not slipping onto a bit of toast here, a cracker there... :D
I've heard about the storms, @Sunflower - they'll have been hitting you, Emily and Petal, too :( - that story of the ghost ship being washed up on the Cork coast was wild! How strange, a huge whole ship, just drifting, drifting for years, alone on the vast oceans... wow!
The foodwaste question - that's a sobering take on it, @Cory , I'd have to agree. :( Thanks for the support in this, @LaMaria, @Emilyrose and @Petal001 - about the thinking as well as the food. (The curry was on its last legs, Petal - it was okay for me, with my "can digest anything" constitution, but I wouldn't have wanted to serve it up to anyone more delicate - which is another whole aspect of food thinking that I ponder over.)
March next year, @Cate??? You are amazing! :D I barely know - I don't exactly know - what's happening next month, let alone next year! But I agree heartily, about the Central Adelaide markets - and the Melbourne markets are pretty good, too ("dollarabox, dollarabox..." :) ) In Tasmania, all I've seen is the Salamanca Market, which is quite a different kettle of fish!
 
I actually didn’t hear about that ghost shop at all Amy, just read up about it there. Very weird.

Well done on the long walk. I really enjoy your posts and general attitude Amy. :)
 
a bit longer than expected, and Monday was rather wiped out in consequence. (sigh)
Never mind - it was a very good walk, in terms of things to see and think about and enjoy - oh, and trees!
Glad you had a nice walk at least--It's sometimes hard to time things just right so it's a nice long walk without over-doing it. Hope you recovered well.
 
Thanks, friends! :)

I'm a bit zonked right now as well - spent a good chunk of the day visiting an old woman who had a stroke some time back. A bit draining, because most of the time the energy was running from me to her, though there was a great boost when she joined in singing - just a few croaked words, but still, joining in, and using words - a very loved old song. I sang a fair bit of the time, because conversation doesn't work well (she can't speak clearly at all, there's a language barrier, she hardly tries to speak anyway, she's depressed). She only joined in that one song, I think, but she was very attentive to all of them, and certainly knew them. Or maybe not certainly - I thought she did.
 
Music can be wonderful when spoken language fails. I know how exhausting it can be to try and communicate with someone and you feel like nothing's happening.
 
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