There are so many things I’d like to do, and yet I want to also do nothing….does that even make sense?

I’d love to do some stuff around my apartment but when actually faced with doing it, I suddenly catch a bout of the Lazies. Silly, isnt it.

I did manage, however, to tidy up my bookshelf, and the best part is, its stayed tidy for almost three weeks now! Yes, I can hear that derisive snort from some of you, but depsite the Virgo inside me, I’m a messy person at heart. Combined with the Lazies, thats a deadly combination for any apartment. Anyway, so I hauled everything out the bookshelf, threw away some rubbish, piled some stuff in a bag which I will be donating to our local animal shelter to sell, and then reorganised the books neatly on the shelves.

Its amazing the difference it makes, when I’m walking in and out of the room I cant help but look over and notice how neat and tidy it looks. Cue the warm fuzzies. Although, I do wish I had taken a Before photo. I did take an After photo with my phone though!

Voila! (Please excuse the blegh whitebalance…:*))

I still want to reorganise the linen cupboard, finish sealing the wooden slats of our braai shelves, and sort out my computer desk! I’m spending less and less time here because, well, it just annoys me to see all the crap I have sitting around. And I want to put up some more of my photography around the house, as well as find and photograph something awesome for our lounge wall canvases I want to print.

So much to do, so little time to do it in….

Although I’m excited at having climbed on the scale and seen that I was down by exactly one kilogram, I still realise a few factors could have contributed to make it inaccurate, so I’ll only truly get excited when I’m closer to 53 or 52kgs.

The diet thus far hasnt been very difficult to stick to, and I was a little worried because not much of my eating habits had changed, mainly the portion sizes. I even managed to remove sugar from my coffee without much fuss (I thought I’d hate it more than I did, but it’s actually not bad).

But this just goes to show how important portion sizes are! And in case anyone is wondering, no I didnt go on a diet of just carrots and lettuce or something extreme. In fact, I managed to fit in calamari, a cocktail, a hot cross bun, and even pizza into this week.

For those who are interested, I’ll list my week’s intake here:

Day One:
Breakfast: Nothing
Lunch: White bread x 3, margerine x 3, turkey slices x 6, lettuce and tomato (basically, one closed and one open sandwich): 9pts
Dinner: Chicken leg (medium sized), chicken wing, 1/2 cup of rice, peas and corn (just less than a cup): 7pts
Snacks: Coffee, full cream milk, 2 x sugar, 1 x apple: 3 pts
Total: 19/18 pts

Day Two:
Breakfast: Oasto Easy (Strawberry & Yoghurt flavour): 3.5 pts
Lunch: Nothing.
Dinner: Chicken thigh (with skin), gem squash, 1/2 cup of rice: 6 pts
Snacks: Coffee, full cream milk, 2 x sugar: 2 pts
Total: 11.5/18 pts

Day Three:
Breakfast: 45g All Bran Flakes, 1 cup of full cream milk: 6 pts
Lunch: White bread x 2, ham slice, lettuce and tomato: 3 pts
Dinner: I & J Chunky (crumbed fish), 1/2 cup of rice, peas and corn (about 1 cup): 6 pts
Snacks: Coffee, full cream milk, 2 x sugar: 2 pts
Total: 17/18 pts

Day Four:)
Breakfast: Oasto Easy (Strawberry & Yoghurt flavour): 3.5 pts
Lunch: Hot dog bun, mayo (approx 1.5 tsp), 2 tsp tomato sauce, vienna: 4.5 pts
Dinner: Pizza slice (Roman’s margerita with extra tomato, medium) x 3: 7.5 pts
Snacks: Just Juice can, 100ml wine, Coffee, full cream milk, 2 x sugar: 4 pts
Total: 19.5/18 pts

Day Five:
Breakfast: coffee, 2% milk: 1 pt
Lunch: Burger bun, chicken fillets, sauce (basically a chicken prego roll): 5.5 pts
Dinner: 80g cooked calamari, 1/2 cup of rice, gem squash, 1 tsp Grape Seed Oil (chilli flavour!): 3.5 pts
Snacks: Wine, cocktail, oils and bread pieces: 6 pts
Total: 16/18 pts

Day Six:
Breakfast: coffee, 2% milk, extra milk: 1.5 pts
Lunch: Burger bun, ham, 1tsp Dijonnaise, tomato and lettuce: 4 pts
Dinner: 350g cooked pasta, tomatos, 3 olives, herbs and spices, 1 tsp Grape Seed Oil (chilli flavour!): 5 pts
Snacks: None.
Total: 10.5/18 pts

Day Seven:
Breakfast: Oasto Easy (Strawberry & Yoghurt flavour): 3.5 pts
Lunch: Hot cross bun: 3 pts
Dinner: 125g cooked spaghetti, 100g bolognaise, 2 tsp Grape Seed Oil (chilli flavour!): 7 pts
Snacks: 100ml wine: 1.5 pts
Total: 15/18 pts

I dont reach my 18 points every day, but the times where I normally would take a huge portion (*cough*spaghetti bolognaise*cough*), I’ve cut back which is a big thing. Plus the decrease in sugar intake (eg no sugar on All Bran breakfast or Oasto Easy) is clearing working. Also if you’re more aware at how much a teaspoon of margerine is, you tend not to waste points on it. 1 teaspoon of marg is worth 1 whole point! Eek!

Yay! Here’s to the next kilogram!

“So what is your plan,” you ask, eyes semi-closed in suspicion.

My reply is simple: WeightWatchers.

Yes yes, sounds like something for the morbidly obese. And to an extent, I guess it is. I went in today with a friend, and to be honest, neither of us is overweight. I can speak for both of us when we say we felt a little like scammers, going in and asking to join up, when before us stood various women that were at least 20-40kgs over their ideal weight, if not more. I still asked to join up, because no matter the weight, one has to feel comfortable. Those women probably dont feel comfortable at 80kgs. I dont feel comfortable at 55kgs. It’s all relative. And I took it as a sign that within the past month, at least three people have told me they’ve lost weight and that its easily implemented into everyday life (this was very important to me! It has to be realistic. Weighing food at a braai or opting for a side salad while out at a restaurant are deal breakers for me. It’s not practical.).

Anyway, so my friend decided to join up with her husband next week, as he is keen to join as well, so while I didnt have a buddy to join with for an extra two weeks free of charge bonus (running until end of March), I still signed up. Better start now or I risk losing interest. So I did. I paid my R480 for 12 weeks and got my stuff: a ‘Passport to Success’ booklet, ‘Time for Success’ booklet #1, a ‘Time for Success’ Tracker page, a handy slider to calculate points on items that dont appear in the books, and a ‘Time for Success’ zip pouch to keep everything in. I then paid a further R70 for a WeightWatchers ‘South African Food List’ booklet, which for me, is indispensable.

Let me elaborate a little on some of those items. The ‘Passport to Success’ booklet is my booklet for my weight loss results. This records my attendance and my weight per week for up to week 24. It also has helpful tips on how to plan your weightloss, stick to your ‘diet’ (read: new healthy way of eating), as well as ideal weights for different heights. The ‘Time for Success’ Book #1 is a book that explains everything and how the programme works. Amongst explaining everything, it also has 7 days worth of awesome meal plans for breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as snacks. Each day works out to 18 points, which is the point system I’m on (so ideally, if I stick to that eating plan, I’ll start losing weight). It also has a basic list of popular foods and their corresponding points. The ‘Time for Success’ Tracker is a sheet of paper which I record my days meals and points. You get a new sheet each week at the weigh in. And finally, the South African Food List booklet is a super handy book, with a more detailed point system than found in booklet #1. More on this later.

The basic idea behind WeightWatchers is eating correctly. There is no limit to what you can or cannot eat, nor are they telling you to ‘not mix carbs and proteins’, nor telling you to ‘eat before 7pm’, nor even not to go out to eat. You can eat anything you wish, so long as you stick to your daily point limit. That’s the clincher. And I’ll be 100% honest, it sounds easier than it is, and I only started this evening! While calculating my days intake of points, I quickly found myself on 10 points by lunch, leaving a mere 8 points for dinner. This meant no coffee with milk and sugar, or even orange juice, otherwise I go over my daily limit of 18 points. Already it’s opened my eyes to the amount I used to eat, and I havent even really started. How quickly I would make a cup of coffee, or drink a glass of seemingly healthy fruit juice. Almost everything counts for at least half a point.

While on the subject of points, let me take you through a few common foods and their points. 250ml milk, full cream: 4 1/2 (I divided this by three for use in coffee); tea/coffee, black: 0 (yes, no points used in black tea or coffee); 2 level teaspoons of sugar: 1/2; apple: 1; 100ml wine, semi-sweet: 1 1/2 (light wine: 1/2); 100g raw/approx 80g cooked beef mince: 3; chocolate spread, per tablespoon: 1 1/2; Bar-One chocolate (not the largest size, mind you!): a whopping 7 points!; approx 50g tofu: 1/2; and so on. Various, or should I say most, vegetables and salad items count for 0 points, as well as (oddly enough) diet sodas. 6 olives are 1/2 point, yay!

Other things count towards your point count, such as exercise, and unused points can be carried over to the next day or two in that week. It’s not recommended to add on exercise bonus points, as you might find yourself staying the same weight rather than losing as much as you might have had you not added those extra points. Things like walking briskly for 15 min earns you 1 1/2 points, while kickboxing for the same amount of time earns you 3 points. I had to giggle though, because they list three paces of horseriding (points per 15min): walking: 1; trotting: 1 1/2; and…wait for it, galloping: 2. Uh, when your horse is galloping, you as a rider are doing little to nothing in that time. They would have been better off saying cantering, which is what I presume they meant.

There are so many nice things that are lined up to help you stay on track and motivate you to lose weight, that it seems like a nice and personal experience. I know people who have joined places like Curves, but to be honest, have you ever seen a thin person come out of Curves? I havent. Plus, it’s all old people. And while station circuit can work, unless you have a personal trainer pushing you to do your best, you can work out for an hour and do diddly-squat. Also, you can work out as much as you like, but the bottom line is if you go home afterwards and eat a huge plate of spaghetti bolognaise, you’re completely negating the exercise you just did. And I tell you, the point system appears wonderful. Everything is worked out, you dont have to weigh anything (though I’m using actual measurements to get an eyeball-idea on portions until I get used to things), and you start to realise just how unnecessarily large your portions actually were. Seriously. Making dinner this eve, this was an eye opener for me.

To end off, as I’m sure you’re all bored of me rambling on about all of this, my day’s food consumption was (and may I point out I wasnt planning my meals around the point system until dinner):

Breakfast
Coffee: 0
2 tsp sugar: 1/2
Full cream milk: 1 1/2

Lunch
3 slices of white bread: 3
Medium spread margerine: 3 (yes, three points!)
6 extra thin slices of turkey: 3
1 apple: 1

Dinner
Chicken Leg: 2 (less points if skinless, but I like the skin)
Chicken Wing: 2 1/2 (this is the fattiest piece on the chicken)
1/2 cup of rice: 2 (they give the points for 3/4 cup of rice, but surprisingly 1/2 cup is more than enough!)
Frozen peas & corn: 1/2 (I’m uncertain, but it appears fresh corn is worth 0 points, frozen veg is worth 1/2 per portion)

Totalling: 19 points. Yes yes, one point over, but I dont think I did too badly since I wasnt planning any meals around the point system except dinner.

Alas, now I want some coffee….with milk and sugar. I wont though, because I will do this thing! And by next Tues I hope to have lost something. Or I will cry. Ok, ok, I probably wont cry. I am prepared not to lose weight as quickly as I might hope, because the last few kilos are the most difficult to shed. And I consider my 5 kilos my “last few kilos”.

Check the website for meetings in your area, but as far as I know, they’re always on Tuesdays in the mornings and/or evenings.

I was sad to total up the amount of points I would need for an All You Can Eat Sushi evening…even starving myself for a week wouldnt help. Oh well…that’s the way the 1-point-per-cookie crumbles.

For so many years I’ve been wanting to write a novel….or at least half a novel! Coming this November, I’m going to do just that! I’m participating in NaNoWriMo!

To elaborate, the website explains it best, so I’m just going to copy and paste what they say:

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

I’m looking for people to do it with me, so we can cheer each other on and bring on a little competitiveness which is always healthy (“omw so-n-so is on 3000 words, and I’m only on 1000! i gotta get moving!”). If you’re participating, drop me a comment with a link to your blog so we can keep up to date on each others progress.

I have no idea what my story will be about, so any ideas n such are very, very welcome! Apparently not knowing is part of the rush of NaNoWriMo haha. Time to start stocking up on late night snacks!

To those not participating, ah well, maybe next year. But please do wish me good luck!

Its basically a list of 101 goals to complete in 1001 days. Apparently its a more achievable date than 365 days like in typical New Years Resolutions, so I think I’m going to try it. It’ll be added and updated from the side bar of my blog.

Originally I wasnt going to catagorize it, but after picking 101 things, I thought it made more sense to group it, so things were easier to find and cross off.

I need help with #21-23, so if you’re one of those people, let me know so I can tick off some items, and thanks in advance!

Right, enough banter. Items completed will be crossed out (duh). I’ll link to posts where applicable. If you have any questions or suggestions or whatevers, drop me a comment. I’d love to hear from you! And if I helped you with your list, let me know so I can check it out.

My list is as follows. Let the challenge begin!

Personal Growth:
1. Go to a movie alone
2. Do volunteer work
3. Get published (letter/story/photograph)
4. Plant a tree
5. Buy a worm farm (or shares in a worm farm)
6. Try a new restaurant
7. Take each member of my immediate family out to lunch (0/3)
8. Read a biography
9. Write a short story
10. Finish a YOU magazine crossword
11. Frame & hang 10 photos I’ve shot (0/10)
12. Get MagMark bookmarks made
13. Get professional photos taken of myself
14. Make my bed every day for the next 2 weeks (0/14)
15. Train myself to do the splits
16. Go shopping alone 5 times (0/5)
17. Get Gizmo’s lumps removed
18. Travel out of South Africa
19. Get car bonnet fixed/replaced

Online:
20. Go one day a week without Facebook for 3 months (0/12)
21. Get 10 new blog followers (let me know if you’re following my blog so I can count you) (0/10)
22. Get three people to start a blog (0/3)
23. Sort my blog links in catagories
24. Re-evaluate bracketed items in this list when individually completed
25. Get 10 other people to do a 101 in 1001 list. (0/10)

Health/Diet:
26. Go to the dentist
27. Go to gym regularly for at least three months (0/3)
28. Donate blood (this is a scary one for me!)
29. Get two other people to donate blood (0/2)
30. Incorporate three new meals into my diet
31. Make an emergency kit
32. Learn CPR
33. Stretch every day (0/1001)
34. Take my pill every day for 60 days (0/60)
35. Try a new food (ie snails)
36. Stop drinking fizzy drinks for 30 days (0/30)
37. Go to the gynecologist once a year (0/2)
38. Try the fruit of a Delicious Monster
39. Stretch every day (0/1001)
40. Find out my blood type

Hobbies:
41. Get my Sexpo photo printed on canvas
42. Do some fabric painting
43. Take three images in a series (0/3)
44. Get three images printed on canvas for my lounge (0/3)
45. Bring my bonsai back to life
46. Buy a bigger pot for my Delicious Monster
47. Get fish tank looking and running great
48. Shoot a sunrise
49. Keep my bedroom floor tidy for 2 whole weeks! (0/14)
50. Complete a scrapbook

Random/Fun:
51. Ride a luge pipe
52. Watch Forest Gump
53. Fly in a helicopter
54. Ride in a hot air balloon
55. Write to a celeb (and try get an autographed photo)
56. Walk into an elevator and don’t turn around, just face the other people.
57. Win a competition
58. Get birds to visit the garden regularly
59. Build a puzzle
60. Take my dogs to the beach (and take pics)
61. Get a professional massage
62. Get canvases and do rat painting art
63. Go to Build-A-Bear and build a bear.

Financial:
64. Keep a list of expenses for 30 days (0/30)
65. Save R3000 (R0)

Social:
66. Go to a strip club
67. Throw a party for someone
68. Go wine tasting
69. Go grape stomping
70. Do a Township Tour
71. Go camping
72. Host a board game night
73. Go cherry picking
74. Go to a Kirstenbosch Concert
75. Throw another cocktail party
76. Do a girl’s night out with cocktails
77. Go gambling
78. Go to a Lesbian Bar/Club

Learning:
79. Learn to shoot a gun
80. Learn to pole dance
81. Learn to belly dance
82. Learn to make three new dishes (0/3)
83. Learn the harmonica
84. Learn how to change a tire

Work:
85. Shoot 5 weddings (0/5)
86. Get business cards printed
87. Get portfolio book printed
88. Photograph at an animal shelter
89. Take a photography course
90. Shoot a wedding for free
91. Redo my dad’s website
92. Buy new camara equipment (lens/body/memory card/etc)
93. Advertise my business (paid advertising)
94. Host a stand at a wedding expo
95. Backup my computer data
96. Get to work on time every day for a week (0/5)

Love:
97. Initiate romance once for every 3
98. Make love 5 times a week for 1 month (0/4)
99. Have sex blindfolded
100. Snoo-snoo in a public place
101. Get engaged