When did it become OK? Just when?

So, I ask again, when did it become OK? Just exactly when?

Just what am I on about now?

Yesterday, we spent several hours at CT International airport. On the Saturday before Christmas it’s not a good place to be. The place was heaving with people who were heaving themselves along….. as in lumbering along with their obese bodies no doubt protesting quite strongly.

Of course, there were many folk of healthy weight among the masses but, it seemed to me, that every second person I saw was obese to morbidly obese. Lumbering along with that peculiar rocking gate of protesting bones and muscles slack with lack of exercise….. Or traipsing along with muffin tops offending my eyes. (Maybe I’m just prudish and old fashioned with that one!)

I will refrain from including myself in any pics at this time, but my family companions looked pretty good!

Sitting in the Spur, watching the planes come and go (I love doing that), I also observed people come and go from the various tables in the restaurant. One family in particular came directly into my line of vision and I covertly observed them for quite a while. Grandparents, morbidly obese, trying to squeeze into the benches at their big table. The granny, I wondered about her. What did she look like when she married the old man? Slim? trim? Or already plump on her wedding day?  The oupa; I imagined him just eating whatever was put on the table in front of him at home. The children, ‘30/40-somethings’, severely overweight. The son; maybe it was rugby muscle now overtaken by fat. The DIL; very plump indeed. Maybe she was trying to control her weight? Who knows? Lastly, the grandchildren. Not yet in High School. Seriously podgy and pasty looking from lack of sun & exercise. Perhaps that was the saddest part of the picture in front of me. The grandchildren.

Why do I keep thinking about the grandmother? Should she have informed herself and controlled the diet & habits of herself and her spouse? Which, in turn, could have inculcated better eating habits in her son? Maybe she is in fact informed but just could not get control? You know, somehow, I don’t think so. I think she just gave up on the calories, the ‘low fat everything’ that was supposed to help her slim down, the never-ending diets, the never-ending failures.

The food choices that family of six South Africans made yesterday were ill-advised to say the very least. And I, for one, will never give up on myself and my quest for permanent, sustainable healthy weight. I will never give up on my Odyssey.

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BMI – not a perfect measure but …

BMI (Body Mass Index) is by no means a perfect measurement of obesity. It does, however, give those of us who are not gym bunnies or heavily muscled body builders some good idea of where we stand in the obesity stakes.

As part of my personal preparation for 2015, I am documenting exactly where I stand on all levels. BMI being only one of the measures I will be tracking. Per BMI, I am classified as “Severely Obese” or “Obese Class II”. So not good; so not good.

The formula to determine your BMI is

English BMI Formula
BMI = ( Weight in Pounds / ( Height in inches x Height in inches ) ) x 703
Metric BMI Formula
BMI = ( Weight in Kilograms / ( Height in Meters x Height in Meters ) )

Check these out! Where do you stand?

ODYSSEY : Turbulence

Morning all

In all the turbulence I am experiencing at this time, I am trying to regain some semblance of control by sorting out files, papers, making copious To-Do lists and just generally getting on everyone’s case!

I came across this quotation (you know how I love them) that resonates with me:

“Patience – it is the ability to idle your motor when you actually feel like stripping your gears…”
– Anonymous – 

I will talk to you all again soon but in the meantime – What do you know about HAES? Have I got your attention? I hope so. I will fill you in on this lifestyle/health approach soon!

Have great day

 

Quotations : George Eliot

“ It’s never too late to be who you might have been.”

George Eliot

Mary Anne Evans was a Victorian novelist who used the pen name George Eliot. According to Wiki, the masculine name was chosen to partly distance herself from the lady writers of silly novels but it also quietly hid the tricky subject of her marital status.

She lived with the married George Henry Lewes for over 20 years. Mr Lewes apparently had an open marriage; one can imagine how well that played in the Victorian era! Nonetheless, the Evans/Lewes ‘marriage’  was by all accounts a loving and stable relationship.  

After Lewes died, George Eliot later legally married American banker John Cross – a man 20 years her junior. A Victorian Demi Moore?! 🙂

I seem to gravitate towards women who buck the system, don’t I?!

Now from George Eliot to Tom Venuto. Wow! Now that’s a jump! You can’t say my interests are not eclectic!

Tom Venuto, of www.burnthefatblog.com and www.tomvenuto.com fame, writes about his sadness when people think that it is “ too late” for them to do anything about fitness and overweight. You may like to read his 2 latest blog posts dated 25th and 29th June. Don’t be put off by the pictures of his body-builder torso! He is anything but a steroid laden exercise junkie. The man has much to say that  may resonate with you!

Have a great Friday.

I am really upset … 3 Poor self care and diabetes complications

Those of you following this blog will know the story about my friend T who works for a friend/client of mine. At Christmas time he scraped his foot while swimming and by March his foot had been amputated.  He is still getting around on crutches while he awaits a prosthetic foot.

I was upset once again yesterday when I was told that T was admitted to hospital last Thursday with deep vein thrombosis in the remaining ‘good’ leg. He remains hospitalised at this time and I will contact his son later this morning to get the latest update. The grave danger and possible consequences in this situation do not have to be spelled out.

What really, really gets to me is that this whole unfolding crisis could quite probably have been avoided completely. It need never have happened.

T really needs to supplement his pension income, his employer wants to accommodate this but also has to deal with T’s lengthy  absences from work. It has placed my client in a  difficult situation which will have to resolved one way or another.

When we blithely ignore the warning signs that our lifestyle is causing our bodies to deteriorate, we are literally toying with our  lives. There are thousands of medical conditions that can befall us over which we have no control whatsoever. Surely it makes sense to take charge of what we can control and influence? But we just don’t do it.

I am relentlessly driven by a number of things to continue on my odyssey back to optimal (optimum?!) wellness. I cannot just let it go. I cannot just let things slide – much as I am so often tempted to do. I deviate from the path – badly sometimes – and yet I cannot throw in the towel.

• I value my financial independence and the lifestyle that this affords me.
• I dread the day my children have to step up to the plate and provide for me financially.
• I fear being dependant on others to care for me physically. I cared for my dying mom-in-law for over a year before she died and it was a harrowing experience for both of us. Well do I remember the two of us crying bitterly in each other’s arms as I changed her filthy disposable nappy yet again. The anguish she suffered from the pain and loss of dignity is something that still lives with me  26 years later.
• I am angry at myself for the stupidity I exhibited over many years in not looking after my health and lifestyle.  I still exhibit this same stupidity ; work and stressful deadlines still predominate in my life.

One small consolation is that sanity has now prevailed long enough for me to appoint a temporary office assistant. After only 3 mornings with us, the ‘advent of Nicky’ is changing my office landscape and I will talk more about this in a later post.

Fitness: best stretches for office workers

Following on from yesterday’s post about fitness, I offer herewith the following URL to assist you in compiling a simple, quick daily stretch routine for yourselves. The link provided will take you to a 2 and a half page doc you can print out and use.

http://exercise.about.com/od/flexibilityworkouts/tp/officestretches.htm?p=1

Everything you will ever need to know about exercise is to be found at:

http://exercise.about.com

C’mon! If an old lady can try to get something together you can too!  🙂

For those of you in RSA, hope you have a happy Freedom Day.

Quite active but not too disciplined with eating…!

Just a few of many pics – what a pleasure to be away from our computers!  

Part of the very steep boardwalk down the cliff

 

Starting back up the cliff

 

W & I clowning around on reaching the top again..

 

Note the beach in the background. We walked there – really inaccessible. The irrigation sprayers just visible at the top of the photo use re-cycled effluent water.  

We went into Mossel Bay town for the first time since we left here in 2005; brought back lots of super memories. Quite a historic town with wonderful OLD stone buildings in town, down by the harbour and up on the steep slopes above the town. We went to the lighthouse  – those who have seen my Cape Agulhas post will know I have a thing about lighthouses – and found to our delight that we could pay R16 each and climb to the top. W and little A stayed safely on the ground while M, J & I clambered up the narrow, VERY steep ladders that take one up to the top. These ladders are constructed of the original wood (circa 1864) – no safety rails or balustrades at all. The final flight was just wood steps bolted together with original, ornate wrought iron brackets linking them.  

We had to crawl through a hip height steel door out onto the final balcony which surrounds the light. The Cape St Blaize lighthouse as it is called was built in 1864 and is kept in pristine condition.  Immaculate white paintwork and cared for original wood floors and doors.  As we did at L’Agulhas, we stood shrieking with delight and shouting hello to all and sundry on the ground. W was a bit more courageous this time and looked up at us far above. Little A  was very excited to see us way up in the air!  

We have some lovely pics – J can always be relied upon to snap hundreds of shots wherever we go so hopefully will upload some later today.  

Although the weather has cooled down a lot and we have had some desperately needed rain, we are having a great break and will reluctantly return to CT tomorrow.  

I dread to think what the scale will show after a week of not adhering too well to my low GI regimen but I feel that the activity out in the fresh air will make up for the dietary shortcomings! I will just re-focus and do what I have to do to get back on track.

This is the life people!…

A quick post from our holiday home at Pinnacle Point Golf & Beach Resort, Mossel Bay.

How lucky we are to have a freebie stay in this playground of the rich and famous. One person who has played golf here is Ronan Keeting; amongst many other celebrities. It is dead quiet here at this time; only the permanent residents – often Europeans who spend half of their year here and the other half back home in Europe. Ah, the lives of the wealthy!

What a place! Truly beautiful amidst carefully preserved wild fynbos and a stone’s throw from where we used to live at Dana Bay – the next delightful little bay just around the point. (Pinnacle Point – geddit?!!) We are slumming it in a 4-bed, 4-bath split level home overlooking the 16th hole. Cruising around the estate on our own golfcart is a huge fun activity; everybody from the gardeners, other residents and security staff gives a friendly wave and smile as we pass each other on the bricked roads and golfcart lanes. The rim flow pool on the big patio is icy cold and I doubt that we will spend much time in it.

What a privilege to share these happy times with our children and experience the easy camaraderie that exists in our family. A pity our eldest and his family cannot be with us as well; the last time the whole gang was together was in Mauritius in December 2007. Too long ago!

Keeping a level head regards eating choices when away on holiday is surely one of the most difficult things we have to contend with when on a weight loss, wellness journey. I think the best we can do is to try hard to curb over eating and UP the exercise!

I will post some pics later today that show the really serious exercise we embarked upon yesterday! Luckily the broadband in the quite remote estate is 3G/HSDPA – not surprising I suppose in this rich man’s playground!

So, how did it go?

As we reluctantly ease back into work mode after a lazy Easter weekend, W & I are pleased to note that we both lost a little weight over the weekend. We did indulge in a few, small easter eggs and sundry other foods such as a lovely bacon/egg breakfast and a couple of takeaways and visits to food outlets in CW (Canal Walk Shopping Centre, Century City)

We realise that it’s not about ‘dieting’. It’s about consciously making choices (indulging our love of chocolate which we seldom do) and then simply re-focussing on what we know is the right eating regime for us.

In past years, I – for one – would have polished off lots  of marshmallow eggs and any/all hollow eggs that came my way! The huge Easter egg market set up in CW was a sight to behold and I did buy a box of Lindor 60% balls. I dished them out very quickly! I could have polished off the lot by myself without much trouble but in truth I had no real desire to do that.

My glucose levels did not go haywire and we will soon see if there were any real spikes this week. I was due to go for my bi-annual fasting HbA1c test this morning but am fighting a cold that I picked up yesterday. Got up at 2am and swallowed a mega dose of Vit C so have had to postpone the test until tomorrow morning.

I will also make sure we both have our bottles of ice water on our desks – something that we tend to forget. So vitally important!

I have not posted about what I drink – I will try to do that this evening. At boarding school in the village made world famous by Alan Paton, Ixopo, a huge treat was to be ‘let out of’ hostel on a Saturday morning. We girls would all troop down to the village and settle in the ‘tea room’ and check out the boys while consuming large helpings of slap chips, hamburgers and Coca Cola!

Old habits die hard and if I was unwise I would still happily consume greasy burgers, fries and coke all these years later. Such is the influence of childhood habits!

Would love to hear how your Easter weekend went?

Jottings … 1

Cannot believe it is 10 days since I have had a mo’ to write anything here! Sorry about that!

WHAT a week it has been so far. Several 18 hour working days and one truly memorable one of 25 hours straight. I kid you not. The good thing – if there could ever be a good thing about working those hours – is that I have cleared some really horrible  sludge from the pipes. I feel rejuvenated and ready to tackle the rest of my workload!

Just some thoughts I have been having in planning my weekend. I am, for a change, taking some me time chilling and doing nothing at all to save the world for a few days!

I want to play a bit with some of my badly neglected hobbies – maybe do a scrapbook page or some nice beadwork. I’ll see. It feels good to have decided to park off with nothing allowed on the schedule! Great fun will be an Easter egg hunt with our granddaughter on Sunday morning! Just how I will resist eating up the whole lot is another story!

A big grocery shop is also on the cards and, as always, I will be on the lookout for ‘weight-loss friendly’ items. My choices are always the ‘lite’ versions; chutney, tomato sauce and especially mayonnaise are examples. Nutritional information on food lables is very enlightening – I recommend it! One ‘rule’ I have is never to buy cheese that has more than 24g fat to 100g of product.

Try these small innovations – it all helps on your journey weight loss and a healthy lifestyle!