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.

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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?

Chicks rule!!!

Right! Now I’m really getting somewhere!

Broken a plateau which really frustrated me for the much of February and this month to date.
Hovering between 21 and 22kg loss was not a joke and unfortunately my life is so crazy at this time that I had not posted here about it.

Stand by…….. drumroll…… 23.1kg down this morning!!! Whew what a great feeling – I’m on the downward path again. Decisively so.

Let me encourage you not to give up if you also experience no or minimal losses over an extended period – a few weeks in my case. Our bodies are not engines that we fuel and can then expect to perform to specification. Each and every one of us is very, very different and as we pay more attention to our health and bodies, we get to know what works and what does not.

I can honestly state that I did not panic and I did not think even for one split second about throwing in the towel. That option did not cross my mind.

So, what lead to the breakthrough? Two things only – portion control and eating right. In my case, as you know, ‘ eating right’ is a combination of my W-L plan, my plan devised by a dietician well versed in low GI/GL principles, ongoing discussions and shared info with my doctor Anna Hall and last but honestly not least my own research into the kind of nutrition best suited to slay the Metabolic Syndrome dragons.

Very bad grammar in the above paragraph but I am posting this nonetheless!! Or should I say I am nonetheless posting this? Eileen – get back to the subject at hand – you are fiddling again!

Please comment on this post or write to me personally if you are having similiar problems. A problem shared is a problem halved – most of the time anyway.

Chicks rule??
A real biggie is that I now weigh less than my husband – quite something that – as he is also now on his own journey which is a new development which I have yet to write about. That was another huge breakthrough in our little family.

Have a great day and a safe weekend.

The Weigh-Less Option……. 1

Good morning all

Hopefully this quick post finds you all well and chirpy this morning? 🙂
Here in Cape Town the days are slowly but surely closing in and winter is on the way.

One of my biggest resources and something I have not really mentioned much so far on this blog is the “The Weigh-Less Option”. By that I mean that I opted to ‘go back to Weigh-Less’ – as many people do – when I decided to take charge of my health and wellness.

Note please that I said ‘take charge of my health and wellness’. I did not say (or even think) that I decided to go on a diet again! I dislike the word ‘diet’ immensely and the word has not featured in my vocabulary for a very long time.

I returned to the Weigh-Less programme for one reason only – no! – make that two reasons.
Reason 1: The programme works!
Reason 2: Mary opted for GI/GL
Let me explain.

Mary Holroyd is the pint sized dynamo who founded the organisation on 25th February 1975. Today, 35 years down the line and in her early sixties, she shows no signs of slowing down and I am very much looking forward to attending a ‘Mary Event’ in Bellville next week. I last saw her ‘in the flesh’ in the late 1970’s when she addressed an open meeting in a church hall in Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg.

The programme as presented by Weigh-Less has changed and adapted to new nutrition guidelines over the years and the cherry on the top for me was when I noted last year that the eating plan was based on Good, Better, Best options with Best being low GI foods.

Perfect for me with all my lifestyle induced health issues and I hasten to add pretty darn perfect for anyone wanting to reach optimum weight and wellness. The formula allocated to me has been vetted by two dieticians as well as my doctor and very little if any tweaking of the plan was required.

My husband has joined me on my odyssey and is also achieving good results. I have put him on the same eating regime with slightly increased quantities of starchy carbs, fat and protein.

Am I being paid by Weigh-Less to write this piece? 🙂 Hell no! As you may realise by now, I write about what works for me. I get a discounted rate as a member of Discovery Vitality and I pay by monthly debit order so I do not feel the cost at all. The cost is simply factored into my monthly budget and that’s that!

I think they also have a contract type scheme on offer at this time. I will check it out and report back here at the weekend.

Do yourselves a favour, go out and get hold of the latest Weigh Less magazine at your nearest supermarket or bookseller. The 35th anniversary issue is really special and has all the lowdown on the Woman and Man of the Year winners and finalists. Something there too for the men in our lives!

Our precious time .. my way of thinking..1

Where are we now?
Where are we going?
No matter what our personal circumstances are, we all face the challenge (I don’t like the word problem) of deciding what to do with our time. Yes, it is a decision no matter how we might think to the contrary! We ALL think we are forced to do something when, in fact, we have a choice in these matters.

Think on this: We are where we are today as the result of every decision we have ever made in the past.

Hate your job? You decided to work there! Depending on the degree of your dissatisfaction, you will have to decide to stay and make the best of it or look for another job. Either of those decisions will be followed by further decisions!

Hate your relationship? You decided to enter into it! Once again, depending on how bad things are, you will ultimately have to make one of two decisions! Stay or go and you know what will follow-on from there – more decisions!

Catch my drift? You can go on and on – try it and you will see that consequences (where you are now) are the result of decisions you have made. SO hard to accept that sometimes. We always want to say it’s not our fault about this, that we had no control over that.

So, we do decide how to use our precious time.

I am trying to make the best use of my time and to do that I have had to make some quite tough decisions.

I have decided to streamline my business, separate it from my private life (not easy when you work from home.)
I have decided to reverse my slide down the slippery slope to ill-health and incapacity.
I have decided toi make more time for my hobbies and interests. For my home and my family and friends.
I have decided to make a better job of working together with my spouse in our home-based business! That dear readers may be the most difficult decision of all! 24/7/365 is VERY difficult and the words ‘ chalk’ and ‘ cheese’ do come to mind! Nothing much wrong with chalk and nothing much wrong with cheese either but the two commodities do not really go well together do they?!

So, in making your own decisions about how to best make use of your precious time to reach your own goals, the following two quotations may help you get clarity:
“One of the very worst uses of time is to do something very well that need not be done at all.”
Brian Tracy
” Before you begin scrambling up the ladder of success, make sure that it is leaning against the right building.”
Stephen Covey

Have a great day everyone!