Day 9: One moment please

Day 9, Thursday: A moment in your day (this can be just a photo or both a photo and words)

5.37am Friday 10 May 2013

I took this photo this morning at 5.37. I woke up at five needing to go to the loo. Rather than climb back up into bed I figured I should probably get the day started. Day 8's post for the #blogeverdayinmay challenge was half written and seeing that today is day 10 I thought I better get a move on with it!

Yesterday I discovered this blog post by a blogger I hadn't heard of until this week. Jojo from iCurvy recommended a couple of iPhone apps she uses to take and process photos for her blog.

Noo and I are app addicts. I just counted 307 in my iTunes! About 30 of them are photographic apps. I always have my iPhone on me and at the ready to take a picture. I literally take thousands of iPhone photos a year. Thousands! I love capturing the everyday moments of life.

I often think about all those moments from the past that haven't been recorded because the iPhone hadn't been invented yet. It makes me a bit sad to think I just don't have that many photos of me or my family from before I got my first digital camera in 2003. Photos were taken of course but so many have either been lost or damaged or are bundled up and stored somewhere out of easy reach.

This photo I took this morning is rather mundane but it is me: sitting in front of my laptop in my lounge room, coffee in hand, writing my blog. This is my favourite place to be. It is so early that the sun hasn't come up yet. My mum and Noo are both sound asleep in their beds. There is that blissful silence that parents don't get to enjoy enough. No one is asking me anything, telling me anything, shouting, singing, demanding, requesting. Out of shot I can see the traffic start to build as workers head north onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge from Kent Street or off the Bridge heading south. I feel grateful, as I do everyday, that I'm not one of 180,000 cars that cross the Bridge everyday.

I took this picture with the usual camera app that comes with the iPhone but edited it with Tadaa as recommended by Jojo. This app is awesome. It has selective editing which none of my other photographic apps have as far as I know.

The app allowed me to select an area (in this case my arm and coffee cup) and exclude it from the filtering process. I think it looks pretty cool, if I do say so myself. There are some pretty interesting filters on there too. I'm really excited about having a decent play with it over the weekend.

So, there's my moment for day 9. A babbling one at that!

Happy Friday everyone! Here's to a great weekend wherever you are and whatever you do.


V.


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Day5/10 of "Getting Serious" diet

Struggling today. Despite the fact that I have pretty good restriction, I'm hungry all the time. I have to eat really consciously and only the friendliest of band foods. I even have trouble having large gulps of water. Its been really strange actually. I am literally thinking about food all day! This definitely isn't how I imagine the band should be working.


As I type this I am sitting down attempting to eat dinner. I made a delicious salad with a lovely fillet of sea bream that has been lightly sautéed in lemon juice, olive oil, garlic and dill. One mouthful in and I'm stuck. I'm typing this as I wait for it to pass through the band, as my fish gets cold, before I can move on to the next bite.

Dinner: Fish, green beans and salad

It is not that bad all the time, but quite frequently. Anybody else experience this? Its driving me crazy. Hunger coupled with blocking up. Maybe I'm not chewing enough? But what's with the hunger all the time? Why isn't my Vegas nerve doing what it is suppose to do by telling my brain I'm full when I'm not really?


I'm loving being more conscious about what I eat, making sure I only eat unprocessed whole foods - lots of vegies and lots of fruit. Heaps of fruit! I love it. But I'm sick of this hunger business. I caved today and had some dairy. So, I couldn't even manage 10 days without some yogurt! God, I was missing it so much. Yogurt is so delicious. Fresh unsweetened plain yogurt with fresh sliced rockmelon and a squeeze of honey. How fucking yummy does that sound? Divine!


I feel like a bit of a failure, but hell, I'm still eating amazingly well. I said yesterday that I wouldn't weigh on Monday but I think I will. I'm going to stay strict with the diet though until the ten days are up but I'm putting dairy back in my diet. Oh, and red meat. Not that I have had any yet but I had a stack of blood tests done during the week and my iron stores are still really low (this has been since having a baby) so my doctor said I should be eating at least three serves of lean red meat a week. 


So, still only eating unprocessed, non-sugary food, and very little complex carbs. There's no way bread, rice or pasta would get through my band at the moment anyway, but I've been eating these delicious rye crackers with avocado and smoked salmon. Yum! To die for. 


I'll finish off today with a few cute pictures I took of Noo today with my iPhone's Hipstamatic app. I've started yet another new blog for uni. This one is much better than my study blog, which I've now abandoned because it is just too boring. The new blog is at tumblr. which has some fab templates. I'm still getting the hang of how it all works but if you want to check it out click here. The theme of the blog is mine and Noo's life through the lens of the Hipstamatic and these are some pics from that:

At the fruit and vegie shop

Checking out the nuts

Waiting in line

Eftpos me baby!

Hope all is well in blogland.


V.

That's what friends are for...

Had my first appointment with the dietitian this morning. Its all starting feel more real with every day that passes. I'm getting my band done at the OClinic in Sydney.  The staff are all really nice which is important seeing I'll be going over the Bridge (Sydney Harbour) every month for check ups for the foreseeable future.  I was weighed on arrival today and surprisingly have lost 1.2 kgs.  Amazing!  I think I'm psychologically preparing for next week without even knowing it.

At my appointment the dietitian explained to me the liquid diet and then the mushies phase.  Its going to be a very interesting month as my diet will be changing dramatically.  Its gonna be like going to sugar and fat rehab.  I'm a little anxious about it actually.  I had to fast this morning before having a blood test (the cause of the weightloss?) and I felt so sick and had a terrible headache because I was so hungry.  Does anyone else get this?  I literally feel really, really nauseated if I don't eat regularly.  I just hope that the band sends the right messages to my brain otherwise I will struggle with the half a cup of food per meal.

I got a starter pack from the clinic which included a cook book, some sachets of Optifast, and a shake shaker, Benefibre, a pedometer, measuring tape and a plate that shows exactly how much food you can eat and what types of food should eat.  It also has a circle printed on it which shows you the diametre of hole into the stomach once banded.  An excellent pack of goodies I thought.

After my appointment I went to visit a very good old friend of mine who runs a cafe in the inner city.  We only catch up every couple of months but its always like no time has passed.  I have loads of really good friends like this.  Friends where the passage of time does not put distance in the friendship.  

On Monday night I also caught up with old friends.  These were two girls I worked with back in 2001.  One I hadn't seen since then, the other I had only caught up a couple of times over the last decade.   All three of us had gone through so many changes over that time including getting married, having kids, etc, but there was no awkwardness as we laughed while reminiscing about old times. It was such a great night.  I'm so lucky to have so many great friends. 

One of the big things that I'm worried about post surgery is giving up Diet Coke.  It has been one of my addictions for so long.  I love it.  Truly love the taste of an icy cold can of Diet Coke.  Since getting sober it has been even more my drink of choice.  I only have two cans a day but if I have a bad day I might have a third and a fourth can, just like I would have beer back in the old days.  After the op I will just have to let my Coke go flat so I can drink it because I don't think I can give it up entirely.

Another thing that I love, that's not something I put in my gob, is my iPhone.  I love technology and gadgets.  I always have.  I've been able to hook up a home entertainment system with stereos, tvs and videos since I was about 10 years old.  My iPhone fulfills so many of my needs, both practical and emotional.  I've gone through 4 iPods all of which I've loved and carried with me all the time.  

Music is also another love of mine, although I don't dedicate the same amount of time I use to pre parenthood.  The only gigs I've been to since Noo was born are Fleetwood Mac (excellent) late last year and LCD Soundsystem (awesome) and Hot Chip (also fantastic) a couple of weeks ago.  Since putting on this much weight I can't stand up for long periods of time so thankfully those concerts were seated.  I couldn't go to venues where there isn't seating as I'd wake up the next morning with swollen knees.  

I have a terrible skeletal structure - my legs are hypermobile and my knees knock (what an attractive picture I must be painting!).  I also badly injured my left knee about five years ago which causes me a lot of trouble trying to carry around 98 kegs on.  This injury has also now caused problems with my left hip and ankle.  I've had so many physiotherapy sessions for it and bought expensive orthotic inner soles but really nothing will help until I get the weight down.  This is one of my prime motivations for losing the weight.  I really don't want to be having knee reconstructions any time soon!

Back to the iPhone, I've found a couple of apps that are to help bandsters track weightloss and fills.  They are Barimate and My Band Fill.  Does anyone have experience with these?  Was hoping to get some user experience before deciding which one to purchase.

Well that's all from me today.  I hope anyone reading this is well.

V.

PS. This is a picture of me before I started stacking it on in 2007.  I was about 75kgs in this pic...

I want to look like this again! (Including being 3 years younger.)