OzzieMoz's Upside Down Diary!

[OzzieMoz]

Hello! I'm cheating a bit and copying and pasting part of a thread I put in the Introduction and welcome part of the site.... I've done a bit of reading round the site, lurking quietly for a couple of weeks or so and have been very impressed by the friendly and supportive nature of the members!

I'm English but emigrated to Australia, living in Far North Queensland now, I married an aussie wildman! I've been far too happy the last 3 years and have been overindulging and am now suffering the consequences. It's been a very gradual weightgain but enough is enough! No more lovely aussie pies for me! I'm now the heaviest I have ever been and not too impressed with myself that I have let it pile on and with it being so hot here all year round, there's no hiding my wobbles under big jumpers anymore!

I'm in my mid 40s (omg that made me feel old ) and have been on various diets over the years... Scarsdale, Cambridge, F-Plan (oh dear! ), Weightwatchers and Slimming World, all have worked for me, but after a couple of years or so, it always starts to creep back on again.

I've decided to go back on the Slimming World plan as that is the one that suited me best in the past, I found it quite easy to stick to and I just consider it healthy eating rather than a diet.

I'm determined to get this weight off, my husband is totally supportive bless him, he has never once commented on the fact that I have piled on the poundage and says it's up to me what I do, but he supports me either way.

One downside to being in Australia, is that I am having to do this weight loss thing by internet as there are no Slimming World classes here so I'm hoping that other members here will help me out with the image therapy type support that you get at the meetings. No-one else here understands me when I babble on about Green Days and Red Days never mind Extra Easy, I think they just think when I have an EE day that I'm just being particularly lazy

I've noticed that several people have said that it helps motivation and keeping on track to record your thoughts in a diary, so that's why I thought I would give this a whirl!

I am inclined to witter on, so beware this thread comes with an Australian Government Witter Warning If you want to read my thoughts you are as well to make yourself a lovely cuppa and make yourself comfy before you start reading!

Anyway, that's my first post in the Slimming World section done, onwards and upwards .... or downwards should that be as it's weightloss that I'm hoping for!

PS. I've been doing the SW thing for 4 weeks now and have lost 5 lbs so far and my weigh in day is Sunday.

 

[OzzieMoz]

Yesterday was quite a good day. Managed to keep on track and had an Extra Easy day, sometimes I'm not sure what my day is going to end up being as it depends on who is cooking. More often than not they are EE though. When I did SW about 10 years ago, I mainly did green days, but I'm struggling to do many of those as I used to use Quorn a lot and you can't get that here. How sad is that, I miss Quorn sausages! The other thing I miss is MullerLight yoghurts, I'm muddling along with the fat-free ones here, but I'm not sure if they are syn-free. I rarely use my full quota of syns anyway, so there is plenty of capacity for them to have a syn value if I have one a day, which I usually do.

I'm half-way through my week and had a sneaky peek on the scales this morning and I'm the same weight as on Sunday (my WI day) so nothing appears to be moving - dammit! Still have 3 full days to go so fingers crossed I have time to lose something, other than my sanity of course!

Nearly time to go and wake my husband and little girl - looks like another scorcher today!

 

[Claire1981]

Good Luck!? Rub it in about the weather eh! Its sodding windy and FREEZING here!!

Dont peek, you will not see full effect til sunday anyhoo so remain positive!

Maybe eat more ss foods? Can you not check if they are syn free the yogs? xx

 

[OzzieMoz]

Good Luck!? Rub it in about the weather eh! Its sodding windy and FREEZING here!!

Dont peek, you will not see full effect til sunday anyhoo so remain positive!

Maybe eat more ss foods? Can you not check if they are syn free the yogs? xx

I was just thinking this morning that it would be nice to be cold .... just for a few minutes anyway Believe me I won't be rubbing it in about the weather soon, in a few weeks the wet season will start and man does it rain then ... non-stop big fat rain pelting down for days/weeks on end, on the plus side though, it's warm rain and doesn't have that icy sting that proper UK rain has!

I'll try not to be a sneakypeeker at the scales mid-week anymore, I know it's not a good habit, I just can't help it!

Trouble with looking up syn values is that a lot of the brands are different and don't appear on the lists, so I'm having to do some educated guessing which is another reason why I try not to use up my syns deliberately as I suspect that there are some sneaky hidden syns lurking in some products. I've lost 5lbs in 4 weeks and whenever I have dieted in the past I've always been a 1lb a week loser (that sounds a bit off doesn't it ) so I'm not too concerned, I don't mind the weight going relatively slowly as long as it goes!

Thanks for the suggestions Claire, much appreciated!

 

[weemo]

Just thought I would pop by and say hello

Lucky you having hot weather, it's blowing a gale here at the moment! Well done on your loss so far and good luck for Sunday ~ 3 days will make all the difference! xx

 

[OzzieMoz]

Thanks weemo

Your user name always makes me smile, as my parents always used to call me wee Mo or little Mo, brings back happy memories!

Good luck to you too with your weightloss, I see you don't have far to go now!

 

[soccermom]

Hi ozziemoz, cairns is my home to unfortunately im in the UK at the min,

Just wanted to say hi and I MISS CAIRNS I am also doind SW and hope to lose plenty of weight before I return

 

[OzzieMoz]

Hi ozziemoz, cairns is my home to unfortunately im in the UK at the min,

Just wanted to say hi and I MISS CAIRNS I am also doind SW and hope to lose plenty of weight before I return

ha! small world! I miss London, although I do love it here! I'm absolutely melting today, it's 30C and as humid as anything and we are the poor people and don't have aircon lol - just keep using a water squirter and stand under the fan Actually it makes going to the gym an appealing prospect, in theory at least, as it's air-conditioned!

Good luck with the weightloss and hope you get back to Cairns before too long!

 

[OzzieMoz]

Yesterday was an ok sort of day SW-wise that is. I had lots of running around to do in ever decreasing circles so I didn't really think too much about what I was eating. Thinking about it, I did stick to the plan probably, just not sure how bad the sausage I had with dinner was, that would have been just about my only syns though, well that and my one digestive biscuit which is my happy time in the day! simple pleasures!

Got to try and focus today as I'm feeling a bit grim and tired. My 7 yo daughter was up in the middle of the night throwing up everywhere, and I mean everywhere! Because she has never been a puker, she hasn't learned that tactically it's better to stay in one place if you can't make it to the loo, she just left a trail everywhere, so at 3.30 this morning I was on my hands and knees following the yellow-puke road round the house... I suppose I am in Oz so it is appropriate!

Not sure I should be sharing this detail... apologies to those with sensitive stomachs

I was bad again and had a sneakypeek on the scales and wish I hadn't because I appear to have put a pound on :cry: but hopefully that will disappear again for Sunday morning WI - but a loss this week doesn't look too promising now and I have been good - waaahhhhhh!

 

[soccermom]

soundslike a great night hopefuly you had tiled floors.

I did find something amazing in your post though, you said you had a sausage could not find a decent sausage anywhere in Cairns lol, I even went to the butchers in edge hill for an award winning sausage, but even they weren't up to much, so gave up in the end.

Did get used to T bone though, but only when on special offer, coming back here and having shoped at rusty's for my fruit and veg over there, the stuff here is awful compared to that.

Where abouts in cairns do you live, we were in Redlynch and kids went to cairns high, miss it so much even the humidity, but we did have aircon

 

[OzzieMoz]

We're in rented accommodation and there are no tiled floors, no aircon - wahhhhh! But it's cheap-ish comparatively so till I get work here, it suits us. Unemployment rate is approaching 14% here in Cairns apparently, so I've picked the worst time to start job hunting!

As to sausages, I've still to find a decent one, I was explaining to my husband that ozzie snags aren't a patch on English ones and I would seriously consider selling my soul to get a Lincolnshire sausage ... lol

Fruit and veg here are great, aren't they! prices fluctuate hugely though, so have to keep an eye on that! We're in Westcourt, not so posh, but a nice street. I've heard good things about Cairns High, my girly is just 7 so a few years off that yet.

 

[OzzieMoz]

Yesterday I was as good as gold, although I perhaps didn't really eat enough. Littlun was still being sick and threw up just as I sat down to eat my dinner and it put me off a bit! Just had a sneaky peek at the scales this morning and it still looks like I'll have put a pound on this week (WI tomorrow morning) - snot fair! *stamps foot*

Going to keep on keeping on with it though as I know it should work, maybe it's with being older that this time it seems so much slower coming off! I used to mainly do green days and relied quite heavily on quorn products which I can't get here. Now because my husband and step-son look appalled at the idea of meat-free dinners, I'm mainly doing Extra Easy. My husband does most of the cooking, and although I did volunteer to just cook for myself, he doesn't like it when I do, makes him feel guilty apparently. I don't know what to do, think I'll just keep on trying with the EE for a bit longer and if that doesn't start being a tad more effective, then I'll have to switch to green days.

I should probably do some exercise, I have a gym membership that I haven't been using It's a really nice gym too, not at all intimidating. That's my challenge for the week, to go back there and shake these wobbles away!

 

[soccermom]

Hi ozzie hope your little one is feeling much better today, hows the diet going??

Did you go back to the gym I will join when I lose a bit of weight far to embarrassed at the minute, we can get a great deal through my sons football club 66 pound for the year (sorry only a dollar sign on computer)

Cairns high is a great school we were lucky to get the kids in, but as soon as they found out they were footballers they snapped us up so quick, it has a football development scheme so was ideal for the boys.

Westcourt is a great area to live, at least you are central for town thats a plus, we have friends who live behind cairns central they are very happy there, they let out the bottom of their massive queenslander house, and have a house at clifton they let out, they must be living mortgage free lucky things.

 

[OzzieMoz]

Well I actually did lose weight for my WI day yesterday, 2.5lbs but that was only because I caught the tummy bug from my daughter! ewwwww it was nasty! She's fine now though which is great, I'm on the mend, stopped being sick, but just have that wobbly feeling from not having eaten for a day and a half and having totally emptied my system! I reckon that all of that weightloss will reappear over the coming week, as i regain fluids and stuff. Just glad that it's over and done with, truly a 24 hour bug!

Will try to stick to plan today, but am going to be careful, because I'm not sure what I can face eating!

Ooopsy, got to go, time to get youngun ready for school. Hope everyone else is doing well, I'll be back to read diaries soon!

When is your WI day, soccermom? Hope things are going well for you!

 

[Plumnic]

Hi OzzieMoz, I'm a fellow expat on the other coast from you in Perth, also just started on Slimming World (again!). Just wanted to let you know that the Nestle Diet yogurts and Yoplait "No fat" yogurts are both free foods on the plan, got my mate to check online calculator. Couldn't do it without the yoplait ones - they are fab!

 

[OzzieMoz]

Hi OzzieMoz, I'm a fellow expat on the other coast from you in Perth, also just started on Slimming World (again!). Just wanted to let you know that the Nestle Diet yogurts and Yoplait "No fat" yogurts are both free foods on the plan, got my mate to check online calculator. Couldn't do it without the yoplait ones - they are fab!

yayyy! thanks for that - they're what I've been eating with my fingers crossed! It will be so much easier manoeuvering the spoon now that they are uncrossed!

Nice to know there is another ExPat trying to get familiar with which products fit in with the SW plan. I still miss Quorn - and don't you think the Sanitarium products sounds like female errrm sanitary items lol - puts me off buying them!

Are you going it alone with SW, albeit with the support you get here, or are you doing it online?

 

[Plumnic]

Doing it with a friend over here, relying on some old sw books and the magazines. Miss quorn too, know what you means about the Sanitarium stuff, have tried a few things but they weren't very nice! Still manage to get beanfeast spag bol/savoury mince/chilli in the local british shop, spag bol is free for red/green, savoury mince is 2.5 syns and chilli is 3.5 syns. Don't know if you get them but they are ok.

 

[weemo]

Well done on your loss hun and hope you are feeling better xx

 

[OzzieMoz]

Thank you weemo

I'm feeling a lot better, but stomach is still a bit unsettled and is making me apprehensive about eating. I probably didn't eat enough yesterday as a result of that, and am struggling to eat today, but I'm determined to eat properly because although losing weight was the silver lining from being sick, I don't want to let my system go into starvation mode! it's sluggish enough at the best of times lol ! Late evening out watching my husband play indoor cricket meant a trip to Maccas afterwards for a takeaway, I was as good as I could be and just had a chicken salad, used my own fat free dressing and didn't eat the cheese on it. I need to make sure that next week I plan ahead for Monday nights so that I have a quick dinner I can zap in the microwave when I get home.

Just off out now to watch my daughter in a play at her school. She's got quite a big speech to read for the first time, and I'm just so proud of her. She's grown so confident over the last year and her reading has gone from below average at the start of the school year to way above average at the end of it (school year here runs end Jan/Early dec). I'm as proud as a peacock!

Better run! Hope everyone has a good day and keeps focussed! I know I'm going to!

 

[OzzieMoz]

Ha! My avatar worked! That's my boy, Nitro!