Duyvken checks in

Slow progress here chez Duyvken has me feeling a little low about this weight loss caper. I know it's the things I do every day that make the difference but I still find myself indulging in Tour de France junk food more than I should. I'm not even staying up to watch the Tour but Mr Duyvken and his cycling pals are often here into the wee hours of the morning and they've been enjoying home-made pizzas, pikelets with caramel sauce and ice-cream, deep fried chicken and plenty of chips, tim tams and OJ. It's the leftover tim tams and chocolates that are bringing me down!
I'm still losing weight but nowhere near as quickly as I would have liked. Of course, the irritating thing about this is that I know it is entirely within my control. I just need to do more sustained exercise - longer walks, cycling, running, etc but it is too easy to take the slacker option.
I don't want to be a slacker so I'd better start making some better decisions and I'd better do it quickly!
I hope all my fellow boombalardians are well and heading in the right direction,
Duyvken.

Current weight: 57.5

Vices

...and I have not had a turkish delight all week.
I miss my sweet little foil wrapped friend.

Update

I hate my double stroller. It's got tiny hard rubber wheels that refuse to all go in the same direction at once, the frame is getting rickety and I need to give it a good shove every time I want to start moving.
We got it 2nd hand from friends when C was born in exchange for Mr Duyvken fixing their riddling rack. The price was right so we took it and although it's been great for getting around the shops it is hopeless on footpaths, nature strips, etc. It stops every time it encounters a small bump in it's path and I end up nearly breaking my neck when I try to jog. I even tipped it forward one day trying to get across the street. C and JW were well strapped in and were fine, thank goodness but it cemented my dislike for the 12 wheeled beast.
Despite keeping an eye on sales, ebay, the trading post, etc I haven't been able to find a double stroller with pneumatic tyres at a price that meets my budget, As C gets older I get closer to only needing the single stroller again so spending money on a decent double wouldn't be sensible and I am trying to be patient with it.
I took it for a walk again this morning, fighting with it up all the hills, battling with it around corners and trying hard not to let it run away from me when descending all the while being breezed past by women pushing jogger strollers who seemed immune to the evil lasers I was shooting at their fast retreating backs. I am hoping that all the wrestling the stroller requires means I am getting a reasonable upper body workout and I will soon have the biceps to roll one of those mums for their stroller. They'd never catch up with me once I took off on those inflated tyres!

This week -
Monday - swim, crunches
Tuesday - 5km walk
Wedsnesay - crunches
Thursday - 8km walk with stroller wrestling, crunches

Exercise Continuers

J had a swimming lesson this morning and my mum kindly looked after the younger two so I was able to swim some laps while J was having his lesson instead of standing by the pool watching him and entertaining C and JW. The lesson goes for half an hour so I only swam for 20 mins but it was great. It's such a lovely way to exercise. I am particularly pleased to have done it because the forecast is for rain all week which means I probably won't be able to do the long walks I started last week. At least, not with the double stroller. It looks like I'll be going out for a run when Mr Duyvken gets home from work or waking early and exercising before he needs to leave in the mornings. I hate getting up early but I'll set the alarm anyway, apparently I am an optimist!
Mr Duyvken also taught me a way to do crunches that I am finding much easier and much more effective than the other ways I've been doing them. I'll share that with you next time, OK?

Adventure Racing and Long Walks

The walk that I've been doing is 8km long and hilly. I did it 3 times this week (the 3 days my 4yo is at pre-school) and that is what I am going to do each week between now and the adventure race I mentioned yesterday.
We're doing one of the sprint races in the Kathmandu Adventure series. You don't know exactly what you'll be doing until you get there and get your course map for the day. The teams who really know what they're doing then spend some time plotting the fastest course, Mr Duyvken and I look at the topography lines and hope for the best. It's a combination of trail running, mountain biking and kayaking, the running and kayaking should be fine but I really need to spend more time biking than I did in 2007. I really wasn't confident on the bike and it cost us a lot of time. I blogged about it (albeitly briefly) here. That was way back in 2007. We were the 3rd or 4th last team to finish so it shouldn't be too difficult to improve on that!
I haven't been doing the crunches, why do I hate them so much?

The Fast Track

Enough messing around.

I want my clothes to fit.

Not a snug fit either, I want them to be comfortable.

And I want to enjoy running again.

I would like that to happen soon.

So, in the spirit of making some of this stuff happen quickly, and being very impressed by all the walking Kim has been doing, I went on a long walk today and yesterday pushing the youngest two in the double stroller. I'll figure out distance, etc tomorrow, but it takes just under 2hrs and is hilly. (Why don't I live somewhere flat?)

And Mr Duyvken and I have signed for an adventure race.

We did it 2 years ago when C was a baby and I adored it.

It was wet, it was freezing, it was hard but it was amazing and I am excited about doing it again. I really need to kick my fitness up a few notches to be able to do it though so that means no more whining and complaining, it is time for action! Who's with me?

Now, if they would just stop making Fry's turkish delight bars this would be a whole lot easier.

Do not Google Fry's turkish delight because you will find the chocablog website.
You have been warned.

Motivation

Mary asked me how I stayed motivated and I had to think about it to figure it out. I am interested to hear how everyone else motivates themselves so I thought I would post about it and ask for responses.
Losing weight is something that is very easy theoretically. Calorific expenditure simply needs to be greater than calorific intake over a period of time. Easy!
So why is it actually quite difficult? Why do we have so much other 'stuff' to wade through? When did I start eating when I am bored/tired/sad/stressed? And why did I start using food this way?
I don't have all those answers yet but I have clarified my 4 main motivators; health, memory, vanityand boredom.
Health - I love feeling healthy and fit. I want to live a long life, I want to have a strong immune system so that I don't catch every little bug that's going around and so that I can fight off the illnesses and infections that I do catch. I want my heart, lungs, kidneys, liver and brain to be functioning well. I don't want to be old before my time. I need to take care of myself. Maintaining a healthy weight, eating well and exercising are going to keep me healthy.
Memory - I remember what it feels like to be healthy and fit. To run, jump, cycle, swim, hike, etc. I long to feel that way away again.
Vanity - This is also a strong motivation for me. I have a closet full of clothes that are too tight and I hate that. I don't like the way I look right now. I looked better 6mths ago than I do right now (!) and I really want to get back to feeling and looking like myself and not this person who looks back at me when I look in the mirror.
This is a tricky one though because although it motivates me, it also wears me down. I feel bad about how I look and about how my clothes don't fit and if I am not careful I feel hopeless and miserable and weary of it all. I constantly have to remind myself to pay less attention to this or I will shun exercise in favour of slothing on the couch, and I will start eating to improve my mood. And that won't get me closer to where I want to be.
Boredom - This is a big one. I've had weight to lose since C was born almost 2 1/2 years ago and I am so over it. It is dull, dull, dull. I just want to be done with the bit where I 'lose weight' and I want to get on with the bit where I 'maintain my weight' and can live without thinking about it. Being bored with it all motivates me to get on with it and just get it done.

What motivates you?

Early morning starts

Turns out that early morning starts just aren't my thing.
They used to be, when I was at school.
And at uni.
And working.
But now.... not so much.
That is has been pouring with rain every morning hasn't helped either. I'd rather stay in bed than go for a walk in the pouring rain.
Turns out I'm not as adventurous as I like to think I am either.
So, to make up for not getting out of bed I went for a swim last night when Mr Duyvken got home. I am very lucky to have an outdoor 50m metre pool in my neighbourhood and you know what?
I really enjoyed myself.
I thought it was going to be such hard work but I surprised myself.
I swam 800m and then felt so dizzy I had to get out of the water.
I was aiming for a kilometre but that might have been a little optimistic.
I'll try for 1km next time.
It makes me think that the local tri clubs meets might be do-able. The swim leg is the bit I have been worried about but it's only 500m and, after last night, I feel like I could do it.
Exercise and fresh air are also so good for my state of mind.
I feel revived and better able the deal with the cabin fever that is setting in after 4 days of solid rain.
I'll let you know if it also makes doing those dreaded crunches any easier.
Somehow I doubt it.

Weigh-in

Hm, 60.5kgs, a half kilo loss.
I really need to motivate myself to get more exercise. I know it will make a big difference but I am finding it very hard to get myself moving.
I am so impressed with Kim walking to and from school. She's doing so well! I've set my alarm for 5:15am and I will get out of bed and go for a run.
Did you hear that?
I will go for a run.
I will go for a run.
I will go for a run.
And, I will report back.
If I am quiet over the next few days, you will know why.
Wish me luck!

Crunches

One of my goals was to do crunches every day because (after 4 pregnancies) my poor old tummy is not what it used to be but this has been such a difficult thing for me.

Why?

Because it is deathly boring.

Dull, dull dull.

I am not kidding.

I have persisted with it but not really seeing any results yet is wearying. Hopefully, another month or two will change that. Although contemplating another month or two of crunches is doing my head in.

However, I have lost 2kgs so I am heading in the right direction.

******
I am so impressed by Kim's daily walks I might even be able to drag myself out of bed early next week to get a run in before my husband needs to leave for work. I'll let you know how I go!

Wake up call

We went to day 2 of the Australia v South Africa test at the SCG yesterday with my husband's work. We were sitting in the hospitalilty suites and therefore had to comply wth a pretty stringent dress code. Ladies are required to wear a blouse with slacks or a skirt or a dress, no shorts or thongs and nothing too revealing. That doesn't sound too difficult but I haven't lost all the weight from my last pregnancy yet and I was already carrying a few extra kgs so, while my wardrobe has lot's of lovely tops, skirts, dresses and pants there are very few things that actually fit. I have a pair of jeans, a pair of shorts and a dress on rotation at the moment. I was able to find a pair of pants (bought the morning of my grandmother's funeral 7 weeks after my daughter's birth) and a top that didn't match the pants but did kind of fit the dress code. I was in tears trying to find something to wear as I realised that I don't just have a little weight to lose but quite a significant amount of work to do before I can get back into most of the things in my closet. My fitness is pretty woeful and my face looks very different to how it did a couple of years ago. Generally I am not happy about how I look and how I feel in my body and it's time to take some serious steps. So here I am, joining Boombalardy to share my weight loss and fitness journey, to lean on the bare-faced accountability of weighing in publicly week after week and to support the other bloggers who also carry more into 2009 than they really want to.
This is where I start - current weight 63kgs, goal weight 50 - 52kgs.
Weekly aim - to exercise 3-4 times a week and to do sit-ups every day.