DietBlog

I’m doin’ the dance of joy! I lost another 400g to take me back down to 78.1kg. That means I’ve fully recovered from the setbacks of the past month and I’m once again within my healthy BMI range. (And I successfully made up for the burrito!) My official total loss now stands at 22kg. (I’m only about 1.5lb shy of 50lbs lost, which is going to be a big milestone.) I’d still ultimately like to get down to about 75kg, and I think I’d also like to get into a size 12. As it is the 14 is a little roomy, so I’d rather not end up stuck in between. And since it surprised my sister the other day, I’ll just add that Australian sizes seem to run bigger than American ones, and I’m pretty sure I’m a 12 already in the U.S. At any rate, the size 14 jeans my Mom brought me from Old Navy are wicked loose on me. So yay! (Okay, I’ll stop bragging.)

Our meeting tonight was a lot of fun, mostly because I sat next to an awesome new girl named Roberta. She lost 2kg in her first week! Her enthusiasm and excitement just took me back to my first week, and it really fired me up to see this journey right through to the end. It’s also funny to see how nothing has really changed since that first week for me. I’m still talking up a storm in the meeting and happily collecting my Bravo Stars for my accomplishments. (Tonight’s was for the Race. My little Star Corral is getting full!) Only two more weeks til I get the “Key” charm for my keychain and get to become a Lifetime Member. I’m nearly there…

Race Results

The Race results are now available! Snookums and I finished 916th and 917th out of 1060 runners. In my gender/age group I was 139th out of 161, and he was 60th out of 62. Amongst all females, I was 592nd out of 711 and he was 325th out of 348. You know, that makes our performance sound a lot crappier than it was. I’m going to chalk it up to the fact that the 8K run is pretty self-selecting, and most of the people who go for it are the “serious” runners. Everybody who was really unfit or just out for a laugh did one of the 4K events. So I refuse to let my feelings of accomplishment be diminished!

Addendum: The Snook would like it to be known if the race had taken place two months later (i.e. after his 30th birthday), his standing within his age group would have been much better.

Mothers Day Classic

Happy Mothers Day!
Yes, today was the day of our big race. It really crept up on us! The Snook and I got up at the butt-crack of dawn so we could be down in the Domain in time for the 7:30am start of the 8K run event. It was cold but the sun was shining and I felt cautiously optimistic for our performance. I haven’t been able to do much training in the past few weeks – what with my Mom’s visit and my hamstring injury – so I told the Snook my only goal was to finish in under an hour. We strapped on our ankle timers and, after a fair amount of warming up and stretching, we joined a thousand or so other people at the starting line. Soon we were off. To my delight, my legs felt great. People were passing us, of course, but I think we did a pretty good job of running at our own pace. (The only person to lap us was the race leader, who was clearly a running cyborg from the future.) The clock was ticking past 25:00 as we started our second and final lap. We actually made it to the 5K mark before needing a walk break. That’s when I started to hurt. It wasn’t my leg; it was my lungs. I was gasping for breath and I had a stitch threatening the whole time. We shuffled onwards and with every step my body felt heavier and heavier. My brain was saying “I can’t do this” and I had to fight to keep from walking. I can honestly say that it was only Snookums that got me through the last two kilometers. If I’d been on my own, I’d have walked that whole way. As it was, I just tried to ignore all the pain and focus on keeping up with him for a few more feet. Soon the Finish Line was in sight and getting over that mat and STOPPING became the one and only objective in my life. And then it was over. The final times are yet to be released, but it was roughly around the 53:00 mark. Success! I was never so glad to be done with a run in my life. Here are a few pics:

Me, pre-race Snook, pre-race Us, pre-race Us, post-race

The first three are us before the race. Yeah, I’m rockin’ the terry wristband again. Good grief, I look skinny. Compare with me four years ago. I can’t get over that. Snookums still can’t get over the fact that I talked him into running a race. And he hadn’t had any coffee, which is why he looks cranky in all the pictures. The last one is us after the race, which is why I look so dazed and vacant. My only thought was to force down a Powerbar before I yuked. Fun times! Hopefully the official race photographs will be up in a few days. I think they got at least a few good ones of us.

The aftermath: Yeah, we’re both wicked sore. The hamstring’s good though. I guess the time off really helped with the injury, but at the same time I took a real hit in terms of overall fitness. I’m looking forward to getting back into shape. Only a few months til the City 2 Surf!

Long-Sleeved Cotton Polo

Long-Sleeved Cotton PoloAt last, a Finished Object to report! I’ve been working on this jumper for the Snook for well over six months. It’s based on a Wendy pattern (#5101) which I converted to be knit in the round. To tell you the truth, it was pretty boring through most of the body and the sleeves and only really got exciting once I finally got everything together on one needle. The raglan shaping and vee neck took a little brainpower; I ended up using an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of all the decreases. The collar was supposed to be knitted separately and sewn on. As if. I just picked up around the neck and knitted it on. I have to say, I’m really, really pleased with how this turned out. The yarn (Jo Sharp’s Soho Summer DK Cotton) was an absolute beeyotch to knit with, but the finished garment is so soft and warm that I’m already planning one for myself. All that’s left is to get some appropriate buttons for the placket neck and she’s finished!

More Knitting with Nuala

Knitting with NualaAs I mentioned the other day, I ended up telly again Thursday night. (Yeah, I was knitting. I’m like the knitting equivalent of a talking head. Whenever a Sydney PR person needs somebody cranking away on a sweater in the background, I’m the one they call.) So this time we were promoting this weekend’s Knitting for the Homeless event down in Darling Harbour. Once again I found myself at Channel 7 waiting for my annual audience with Nuala, the weather girl. Above you see a screengrab from the footage. Isn’t that nice? Doesn’t the Neopolitan look great on TV? Oh, what’s that? You want to know where I am? I’m right there, right behind Nuala’s head. *sigh* At least you can see a split-second of me in there.

I did go to the knitting event on Saturday though. I’d planned to hit the trifecta – Inner City Knitter’s Guild meeting, Homeless event, and then over to SSK – but I didn’t make it back over to Newtown. There just weren’t many people at the event, and I felt like I ought to stay and at least crank out whatever squares I could. I ended up having a really nice time, and it was a beautiful day to be out along the Harbour. I should do more charity knitting.

Me and the ladies