Up and Down

Today I am both up and down.

Up- because I have been officially ticked off... well sort of.

On Saturday I made a presentation to my home Presbytery in Hobart, whose task it was to discern whether they consider me ready to move on from my current core training at college to an intern placement in the new year. After my presentation, and some deep questions from the floor, I left the room whilst the Presbytery deliberated and made their decision. When I returned to the room, I was told that the Presbytery "unanimously, enthusiastically, and with great excitement" approved my readiness to move into an intern placement next year... so since then I have been feeling pretty excited and very UP!

Down- because there is less of me than there was a month ago

After 4 weeks on the diet that I mentioned a while ago, I have now lost 7.2kg (which in Imperial is a pound or two over a stone). So, my weight is going DOWN, and I am feeling GOOD! :-)

Dummy spit

Whilst it may be true that Jesus said it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles (according to Matt 15:11, in the prologue to this week's Gospel reading), but what goes into the mouth certainly does have an impact on one's weight.

A month or two ago, after struggling with painful knees and other side-effects of the fact that I was then heavier than I have ever been, I had a dummy spit about my weight. Those of you who have known me for a long time will realise that this is a good thing, because no matter how much people (eg mother, doctors etc) nag me about my weight, or patiently cajole or explain why it's not good to be carrying so much excess baggage, it is not until I have my own personal dummy spit that I will actually take serious action to do anything about it.

So, the dummy spit happened, and I decided that I needed to take things in hand and actually lose weight. I had joined the local gym a year ago, but due to problems with my knees, busy-ness, and various other excuses (some valid, and some a tad thin) it's been a while since I last went to the gym. So, I decided I need to do something about my diet.

I had been eyeing off the Tony Ferguson program for some time (as it's advertised to death on TV), and after checking out the details of the science of what this involves, I took the plunge and ordered the meal replacement shakes, vitamin supplements and other things required to start on the program, with the intention of starting on it when I returned home from my sojourn in WA.

So, a fortnight ago, I started, and said goodbye to my erstwhile staples of caffeine, pasta, rice, caffeine, potatoes, noodles and caffeine. I have been drinking lots of water (which made me realise how little water I had been in the habit of drinking in the past), herbal teas, and the occasional decaf coffee (although I did get a response of, "why bother?" from a waitress the first time I ordered a 'decaf latte with skinny milk')

However, after a fortnight, the news is good. The caffeine withdrawals were mercifully (and surprisingly) brief and mild, I have not been at all hungry on the program, and as of today, I have lost a total of 4.2kg, which is pretty good for my first two weeks.

I have also developed quite a taste for kangaroo meat, after trying some after chancing upon it in the 'gourmet' meat section of the supermarket a few weeks ago. It is quite tasty (almost sweet) and very tender and lean, which is good for the diet.

So, with such an auspicious start, I am hoping to lose around 25-30kg by the end of the year, and will undoubtedly make various references to my progress in this esteemed blog (although I don't really want to turn the blog into a "diet diary", so will spare you most of the gory details).

It's all about ME! :-)

Well, maybe not, but sometimes it feels like it- check out this picture!

It was taken on my recent visit to the West, as my friend Adrienne and I were travelling from Perth to New Norcia. She wanted to show me a bit of the countryside, and so after a bit of an exploration of some of the small towns up the coast, we pulled into the Roadhouse at Cattaby for a coffee, and this sign caught my eye.

I must be famous; I have my own road! :-)