Wednesday, November 26, 2008

I'm done..

I am so over Anonymous and his/her comments... I don't know how many times I have asked you NOT to post any comments on my blog, but you still do it. They're not helpful, they're horrible.

The last comment Anonymous wrote was this: 20kg in 2 years, you could have gone to Jenny Craig. At least you would have learnt to eat properly.

Fuck off, just fuck off

I'm not going to post my story on here only to be insulted and berrated by some fuckwit who doesn't know me, my life or what I am going through.

I haven't been publishing Anonymous' comments, because they're negative, nasty and make me feel bad about myself and that isn't what this blog is about...

So I'm ending this blog.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Issue..

As you know, I have kept very private about the fact that I have a lapband.. and now I'm in a situation where one of my family members may actually find out about it. I can't go into it too much as I don't know who reads this blog, but there is a small chance that my secret could be revealed.

I won't be too upset if this family member does find out, what I will be upset with is if she tells other family members.
1. Because it's a breach of my privacy (to do with accessing medical records)
2. I'd want to hope that this family member would come to me first and talk to me about it, rather than just going straight to other family members and telling them what she has found out about me.

Still not ready to let my secret go... not sure why. I'm not ashamed of it. I think I'm ashamed of the fact that in the almost 2 years that I've had the band I've only lost 20kg. Yeah, I know... ONLY. How silly is that thinking!! Considering so many good things have happened to me since my operation, my health, my weight, my fitness, my self-esteem, my relationships have ALL improved... why should I be ashamed of that?

That's all from me today. Thanks for reading!

LBG xx

Monday, November 24, 2008

Learning how to eat again

I think I've forgetten how to eat with a band. I was eating lunch today, which wasn't all that exciting. I had a small portion of baked salmon (maybe 50-75g), 4 x 1cm sized cubes of baked pumpkin and about 2 tablespoons of zucchini and broccoli. This was left overs from dinner. I started with the salmon as I always try and get the protein in first. I then started on the pumpkin because it was easy to eat. I got to the last piece of pumpkin and really slowed down. I managed to eat the last piece and by then I'd been eating for 20 mins. I was full... and I really didn't want my veges.. So I'd effectively eaten only half of what I had allocated for myself for lunch... I am sitting here now, just a little more than comfortably full, but not ready to PB.

My stomach is saying "Thanks! I'm nicely full", and my brain is saying... "Surely there isn't something else you want to eat? You've hardly touched your lunch!!". I realise that my brain shouldn't be asking these questions, but it does!! I don't understand why I feel so uncomfortable with the fact that I've had so little food for lunch and this is something I'm going to have to deal with (again).

I notice it with dinner as well. I dish myself up in a small bowl how much I "think" I will be able to eat. I get through half and am full (yes, my band is working... the way it should be), yet I sit there and pick at it and eat it until it's finished... which can be sometimes over 1 hour after I first started eating!! That is crazy right? I've got to stop doing that!!!

Have a good day!

LBG xx

Friday, November 21, 2008

Thursday 20th November 2008 - Food and Exercise Diary

Yesterday was pretty much a write off with food and exercise! It started off well, and went down hill from there...

6:30am - Berocca Performance
9:00am - 1 bowl porridge, made on skim milk with fresh blueberries (150cal)
11:00am - 1 cup popcorn, 1 coffee (150 cals)
1:00pm - 1/2 Avocado, 1 packet vita wheat grain snacks (200cals)
3:00pm - 10 crackers, 30g Labne Dip, 15 lollies (400cal)
5:00pm - 10:00pm - 3 risotto balls, 2 feta triangles, crackers with dip, 1 bottle champagne... (can't even begin to work out the damage done!!)

No exercise :(

Absolutely crap all fruit and vegetables... just terrible! So today I'm having yoghurt, fruit salad, coleslaw, raw nuts and wholewheat crackers. Last night I was having bubbles with some girlfriends... bubbles make food go down a whole lot easier! We ended up polishing off a whole bottle of champers each!!! I must admit, I had a great time... and didn't give a crap about what I was eating... I really enjoyed myself.

Thank goodness it's friday! It's been another mad week..

Love to all

LBG xx

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Wednesday 19th November 2008 - Food and Exercise Diary

I am really stoked by my fitness improvement over the past few months. My weight has not budged, not a single kilo.. but people are telling me that I look like I've lost weight. I did a great exercise session yesterday - 30 mins on the cross trainer and then 10 minutes jogging at 8km/hour non stop. When I first started jogging I could barely do 1 minute at 7.2km/hour before stopping and so I can definitely see the difference. I'd like to be able to jog for 20mins non stop and then do 4km jogging non stop, but that's something I'm going to have to build up towards. Exercise for me isn't a chore anymore. I enjoy it. I get on a machine and let my body just work hard. It definitely does help having some dance tunes on your i-pod and having HR monitor so you can track your progress. Anything that can help you get motivated. I would just die if I lost my i-pod. I've had it for over 3 years and it is my best friend when it comes to exercise. I just work that much harder when I've got good music to listen to. I can still exercise without the i-pod, but it's just not the same.. I work out for less, at less intensity.

Anyhoo, back to food and exercise for yesterday. My food intake wasn't too bad:

6:00am - Berocca Performance
7:30am - 40mins exercise (450 cals burnt)
9:00am - 2 cups of tea made on skim milk, 1 cup of watermelon (150 cals)
11:00am - 40g mixed raw nuts (200 cals)
1:00pm - 1 can baked beans (the small one) and 1 slice of cheese (250 cals)
4:00pm - 1 tea & 1 cream filled biscuit (100 cals)
7:00pm - 1/2 chicken schnitzel (150cal), baked pumpkin (50cal), 10 small wedges (200cal)
9:00pm - Skim Strawberry Milkshake (150 cal)

I didn't drink much water today, so will be changing that today. Now that I've stopped having the protein shakes in the morning I've found that I'm less hungry in the morning if I have fruit. The mixed raw nuts I usually eat over the space of around 30mins. And I wasn't really that hungry for lunch so I left some of my beans.

OK, that's all from me. 1 more day to go until the weekend!

LBG xx

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Tuesday 18th November 2008 - Food and Exercise Diary

Today was another good day with food and exercise:

6:15am - Spin Class (burnt 550cal)
9:00am - Hazelnut Latte with Skim Milk (150cal)
10:30am - 30g mixed raw nuts (150cal)
12:30am - 2 rice cakes with avocado, turkey, sliced tomato and feta (200 cal)
3:00pm - 1 tea with skim milk (20 cal)
4:00pm - 1 cup popcorn (100 cal)
6:00pm - 1 tea with skim milk (20 cal), 10 chewy soft lollies (100cal)
7:00pm - 1.5 cups Potato and Leek soup (300 cal)
9:00pm - 200mL freshly squeezed Watermelon Juice (100cal)

Total Cals Consumed: 1140cals
Total Cals Burnt: 550cals

Not a bad effort yesterday eh? The watermelon juice I had just before bed was sooooooooo good. So refreshing. I made it with heaps of ice and it was just gorgeous. My new favourite drink I think!! Didn't really feel like breakky yesterday - never do after a spin session, yet today after my workout I was really hungry. Tucking into some fresh watermelon as I type this.

Nothing much else to report at the moment. The weather in Sydney is pretty crap at the moment. With only 11 days until summer it's wet and cold at only 21 degrees today.. Like what the?

Have a good hump day!

LBG xx

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Monday 17th November - Food and Exercise Diary

A pretty good day for food and exercise yesterday. Here's how it panned out:

6:00am - Berocca Performance
7:30am - 40 min on Cross Trainer (450 cals burnt)
9:00am - Yoghurt - 150cal
11:00am - Pepitas/brazil nuts 20g - 150cal
12:30pm - avocado, feta, pine nut, turkey breast, cucumber and tomato salad (1 cup no dressing) - 200 cal
4:00pm - 1/2 cut fruit Salad (watermelon, peaches, strawberry, blueberry) - 100 cal
7:00pm - Home Made Potato and Leek soup - 300 cal
9:00pm - 2 fun size milky way 100 cal

Total cals consumed: 1000 cal
Total cals burnt: 450 cal

This morning I did a spin class and burnt 520 cals. My max HR was up at 165bpm and my average was 145bpm... I wore my new size 14 short shorts to spin. I must admit, this was a pretty big deal for me as I don't do shorts.. especially the ones that show pretty much most of my leg. Luckily I don't have alot of loose skin around my thighs. My constant efforts at Spin Classes have made sure that my legs are relatively toned compared to the amount of weight I have lost. As soon as the lights went out and the music started, I forgot I was wearing them and was able to move more freely... it was also a heap cooler than the longer bike pants! Bit of a NSV there! Especially because the size 14 shorts aren't tight around my waist and feel great on (i.e. They don't feel like I am squeezing into them and should really be wearing a size 16 but I'm just kidding myself... they feel like I am meant to wear them.. which is still really foreign to me).


Tonight is Left over Potato and leek soup... so freaking delish. Here's my recipe:

Serves 4:

3 large potatos peeled and chopped
1 leek chopped
1 onion chopped
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp lite sour cream
2 cups chicken stock
chives to garnish

Butter in pan, add onions and leeks and cook until soft but not quite brown. Mix in potatoes until covered in onion/leek mixture and cook for around 2 mins. Add chicken stock and simmer on a relatively low heat for around 20mins. Once potato is soft, take off heat and blend until smooth. Stir in sour cream. Serve and garnish with Chives. Salt and Pepper to taste.

Over and out from me!

LBG xx

Monday, November 17, 2008

Another week down...

I went AWOL towards the end of the week... life gets in the way and blogging goes out the window for a while. But I'm back.... for now!

So, you want to know how to cook beetroot? It's ever so easy! Top and tail the beetroot, wrap it in foil and bake in the oven for 40mins until tender... once cooled, peel off the skin with a peeler or with your fingers, it usually slips right off! Season with salt and pepper and voila... oven roasted beetroot!

Last week I went to the gym 5 times, exercised for 3.5 hours in total and burnt over 2500 calories. Go me! I'm really loving the exercise at the moment... it's really helping me balance my hectic work life out a bit and give me a bit of time out.

Can you believe there are only 5 weeks til christmas? WooHoo! How exciting. Today we were talking about decorating the office for Christmas. Last year, our department won the best decorated so we're trying to retain the crown. last year we all bought $5 santa suits and wore them and did a dance for the judges when they came round to judge... this year we're going to all wear brown track pants and jumper, black gloves and shoes, a red nose and reindeer horns and have a token Santa as well... some of us will be elves too...

This year will be my first Christmas with my family, with the band... we're going out for lunch and it's one of my favourite restaurants, so no doubt eyebrows will rise when I don't finish most of my meal. And then boxing day is a BBQ at my parents house... so can kinda get away with not eating as much cos it's a buffet. Good news is that the gym will be open most of the christmas period - with only Christmas and New Years Day closed, so I can still exercise. But even if it's not open, I've become partial to a bit of out door walking these days so can just do that instead!

Have a great Monday!

LBG xx

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Wednesday 12th November - Food and Exercise Diary

Morning everyone!

The day started off well, and went down hill in the afternoon. Here's my food diary for yesterday:

6:00am - Berocca Performance
9:00am - Choc Mint Celebrity Slim Shake (200cal)
11:00am - 40g nuts, 1 mini scone with jam and cream (200 cal)
12:30pm - 2 baby potatoes, 1/2 beetroot (100 cal)
3:00pm - 1 yoghurt, 1 summer roll, 1 coffee (300 cal)
6:30pm - 1/2 cup brown rice, 1/2 cup vege korma (400 cal)
9:00pm - 1 cream filled lamington (150 cal)

Total Cals Consumed: 1350cal
Total Cals Burnt: 0 cal

No exercise yesterday, but that's OK... I'm planning on doing a 45min walk this afternoon. Nola asked about my beetroot salad... very very tasty. Ingredients are as follows:
  • 1 Beetroot (baked and then cut into chunks)
  • 1/2 tomato (cut into wedges)
  • Cucumber (cut into chunks)
  • 50g Turkey Breast
  • 20g pine nuts (not toasted, just raw)
  • 1 spring onion (cut up)
  • 1 tsp ranch dressing

Noice!! I baked more beetroot last night, but made it into a beetroot dip. So today for lunch I've got beetroot and Hummus dip (both home made) and 2 rice cakes. Great cos you can control the amount of fat that goes into the dips - I made the dips with olive oil, great for monosat fats!! :)

Anyhoo, that's all from me today. Have a good one!

LBG xx

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Tuesday 11th November - Food and Exercise Diary

Morning Peeps!

Yesterday was a funny day for food. I didn't do well with lunch, so ended up just having a couple of biscuits as my lovely Beetroot salad didn't like my band. I was also rushed for lunch, so maybe the fact that I was eating quickly and not chewing properly could have been the reason. Such a shame because I was looking forward to that lunch! Luckily, I have most of it saved from yesterday, so I'm going to have it today for lunch!

So here's my diary for yesterday:

6:15am: Spin Class 45 mins (550cal burnt)
7:15am: Berocca Performance
8:30am: Celebrity Slim Chocolate Shake (200 cal)
10:15am: 40g peanuts, 1 coffee (150 cal)
1:00pm: 2 biscuits (200 cal)
3:00pm: 2 biscuits, 1 tea (200 cal)
5:30pm: 3 marshmallow things covered in chocolate (300 cal)
7:30pm: 1/2 cup brown rice, 1/2 cup vegetable Korma (400 cal)
9:00pm: 1 icey pole (40cal)

Calories Consumed: 1640
Calories Burnt: 550
Total Calories: 1090

Not too bad.. but not good either. Thanks for your comments so far! I was asked why I have a liquid breakfast and not something like cereal or a cereal bar. I've never been a big breakfast person, and I don't feel like breakky straight after I exercise in the morning. I'm a big fan of Brunch however! I know that with the shakes I'm getting a great injection of proteins, carbs and fats in a shake option, but it definitely doesn't fill me up like cereal does! On the weekends I do have things like eggs, baked beans and toast (1/2 a piece!). The shakes are convenient and tasty during the week when I'm at work, but I think I might try the cereal option next week. Truth be told, I actually haven't found a healthy cereal that I like.. I love Crunchy Nut! But that's totally not an option cos it's so full of sugar! Dammit!! :)

Another question was, do I drink before or after meal - definitely before! I usually have a drink handy with me the whole day and I'm constantly filling up my water bottle.

And Bridget, you are right, we shouldn't really be counting the calories when we're banded, as the band should take all that guess work away from us, but when you're stuck on a plateau, desparate times call for desparate measures eh?

Peace Out!

LBG xx

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Monday 10th November - Food and Exercise Diary

Yesterday was a day I just couldn't get full! Those differences in days are totally crazy. The night before I had the same meal and puked it up after 2 mouthfuls, yet yesterday I ate it no problems. Anyhoo, here we go:

6:00 - Berocca Performance
7:30 - 45 mins treadmill (455 cals burnt) - Water 500mL
10:00 - Celebrity Slim Shake and 5 shapes (250 cal), Water 200mL
11:00 - Coffee, 5 brazil nuts and 20g pepitas (250cal), Water 200mL
12:45 - 2 rice cakes, 2 slices turkey breast, 1 tbsp cottage cheese, 1 tbsp Hummus (200 cal)
3:00 - 40g peanuts, 1 tub yoghurt, 2 strawberries, Coffee (370 cal), Water 300mL
7:30 - 2 tbsp Kumera and Chive Mash, 1/2 cup mince, 30g grated cheese (300 cal), Water 500mL
8:30 - 1 icey pole (40 cal)

Total Cals consumed - 1410
Total Cals burnt - 450
Total Cals - 960

I ate so often yesterday, it was nuts! I couldn't get full... today has been better.. I had my shake 1.5 hours ago and I'm only now starting to get a little hungry. A coffee will settle that. I've made myself a lovely salad with baked beetroot for lunch today, and I did a fab spin class this morning, so feeling pretty good!

Tell me what you think of my food diary... I look forward to your comments on that.. be BRUTALLY honest!

Thanks all for your wonderful comments on my blog! It's so great to have my cheer squad... Even though I haven't lost weight in the past few months, I haven't felt better!

LBG xx

Monday, November 10, 2008

Weight not budging

So I had my re-fill around 2 weeks ago now. I've definitely been able to feel the difference, and my portions are so much smaller than before the fill. My weight has pretty much stayed the same in the last 5 months. I'm on this massive mother of a plateau... I hate it, but I'm riding the wave anyway... maybe I'm content being this weight at the moment? Maybe I'm comfortable with the way I'm looking in clothes? I feel good about my weight, not great.. I think that's due to the fact that the more weight I loose, the saggier I feel. I'm wearting those sucky-in pants more and more as I am wearing more fitted stuff. Size 16 clothes feel amazing on me.. Like today, I'm wearing a top from Jacquie E, a fitted short sleeved work shirt and it's a size 16. It fits like a dream. I like wearing size 16s... Yeah, it's not a 14.. but it's "normal". Should I settle for "normal" at size 16?
Another thing I've noticed since being on my plateau, is that my fitness levels have really improved. When I first started jogging on the treadmill I could just do 1 minute at 7.2km/hour and then I would have to have 2 mins just to get my HR back to a normal level!! Now I'm able to jog at around 5 minutes at 8.0km/hour, break for a minute and then do it again. Today I cranked up the last minute of my workout and RAN at 10km/hour! MASSIVE! My heart rate levels have improved so much that I'm having to work alot harder to maintain the calories burnt. When I first got my Heart Rate Monitor I would burn around 650 cals in one spin session (45 mins biking). Now the same class only sees me burn 450 cals.

I am loving the fact that my fitness levels are improving and that I can see it improve. People tell me that I'm building muscle and that muscle weighs heavier than fat (etc etc etc). But from what I've read, it takes months to build any type of substantial muscle and I'm not weight training.. so I'm not sure I can blame muscle building for my plateau.

So, this week I'm going to make myself completely accountable on my blog for everything I eat. I want to you to scrutinize and comment and tell me where I'm going wrong! I will post up today's consumption tomorrow.

Thanks for reading! Happy Monday everyone!

LBG xx

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Sunday Chillout

Just had breakky, which consisted of a small tin of baked beans (you know, the really tiny ones?) and 1 egg scrambled. Gotta get a good balance of protein and carbs right? Full full full after that, and that meal will tie me over until lunch (4 hours or so).

Having a lazy day today. Was going to go to the gym this morning, but it's 10:15am and I'm still in my PJs. Love it! Today my husband and I are going to clean up the apartment a little, get some groceries and go shopping at Jacquie E so I can go and spend my $50 gift voucher! YAY! Hubby said he has also seen a nice summer dress in target that he wants me to try on... considering he got paid yesterday, I'm not going to say no!!!

Last night we went to the theatre to see My Fair Lady. Brilliant. We stopped at sushi train for dinner. I chose two plates, ate maybe 3/4 of one plate and 1/4 of another plate, and had to puke it up 5 minutes later.. Disappointing as I love sushi, but it's really not the best meal choice for me, especially when we have to rush through our meal to make the theatre booking. The malteasers went down fine though... funny that..

Liz wanted to know about excess skin. Well, my experience has been pretty standard. The more weight I loose, the more excess skin I have. I exercise between 4-5 per week and I don't see it getting all that much tighter. So I pretty much have resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to need surgery at some point. But I want to have kids first, so will wait until after that's all been done and dusted before I start looking into Plastic Surgery.

Tonight I'm making Baked Salmon and salad and I'm now going to plan some healthy dinners for this week before we go grocery shopping.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend peeps!

LBG xx

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Thank God that bloody election is over!!

Farking hell... how many people are totally sick to death of the bloody American Election? Fuck me, I don't even live in the country and I'm totally over it. Thank God they made a decision and picked a new president. Now the rest of the world can stop rotating around America and America can get off it's pedistal and actually start dealing with the issues that are consequently affecting the rest of the world i.e. the massive fuck-ups on Wall Street and the war in Iraq.

I just wonder how long it's going to take before someone tries to pull a gun and make more history by killing off our first Black American Mr President!!

Enough Ranting! I don't want to dedicate any more of my blog to that stupid country!

I was in Adelaide yesterday and the day before. Eating was OK.. I ordered a Wonton Soup for dinner, and didn't get much down. It was delicious though. Lunch was snacky type things - yoghurt, fruit salad and a chocolate bar. The only hot food being served at the cafeteria were pies, sausage roles and pasties... no good for bandits... !

Exercise has been excellent this week. Monday was a gym sesssion, Tuesday I went for a run/walk on the treadmill at the hotel gym, Wednesday I was travelling and busy for most of the day so had a rest day, and Today I was at the gym in the morning for 45 mins.

Not sure how my weight loss is going, as I haven't weighed myself in a while (I'm boycotting the scales at the moment!!).. but clothes are feeling good , I feel good! :)

Much love xxx

LBG x

P.S. no offence to my American readers! But imagine if you had the majority of your TV channels covering an election that isn't even about your own country! We didn't have this much coverage when we changed over prime minister last year!!!

Monday, November 3, 2008

Heart Rate - to the extreme!

Today I hit the gym for my usual Monday morning work-out. I've been loving my cardio workouts, getting on the treadmill or cross trainer and cranking up my tunes so that I can exercise my little heart out. Even though my weight loss has stopped since around June, I have certainly felt the improvement in my fitness levels.

After feeling sufficiently pumped on 20mins on the cross trainer, I hopped on the treadmill and found there was an option that I had never seen before... "Extreme Heart Rate". Sounds interesting I thought to myself, plugged in all my options and then off I went. The aim was to get my HR to 163bpm (or around 85%). The first task was a hill and when the incline was sufficent for my heart to be absolutely pounding, the machine told me I needed to get my HR back down to 126bpm. Once it was down there the treadmill got me jogging until my HR reached 163bpm. And once it was there, I slowed right back down to get my HR back to normal (smart little treadmill!). This kept going for the 20mins I was on there...

I think they call this interval training, and it's supposed to strengthen your cardio fitness. I really loved it. It made the time go quickly, I wasn't busting my gut the whole time but I felt fitter every time the treadmill made my heart rate go up... It was weird, but awesome...

... to the extreme!!

LBG xx