Folks, our renovations are complete. We had a few hiccups, but that is to be expected with a high end kitchen/ bathroom renovation. I look forward to showing you the results of the kitchen really soon, once I upload all the details and design choices to the computer (as they are on my phone at the moment and I just cannot).

In new information, last year in late September I suffered a L4/L5 disc bulge and was in terrible pain. As a result, the last year has seen a number of personal frustrations and I took time out of work in late November to concentrate on my recovery and do some travel. It’s amazing how debilitating a minor back injury can be!

I don’t know if I mentioned this, but in 2021 I was at my physically largest I had ever been, to the point at which my doctor, who had only met me a few months prior, thought I was normally that size. I was 90kg, felt terribly unfit and my boobs were strangling me! I went on a very expensive weight loss regime through an accredited service that included a dietician, exercise physiologist, psychologist, DEXA scans and weekly pep meetings. I was on a strict diet of only about 1200kcal per day for 9 months. Guys, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It was not fun, my metabolism dropped from a regular resting rate of 1580 to about 1250 and I was HUNGRY ALL THE TIME. Now, I’ve never before needed to diet, and I love my food, and I don’t have an eating disorder. But I tell you, counting calories and being permanently hungry is a sure fire way to develop an ED! Sure, I dropped from 90kg to 63kg, and I looked amazing. But I was always tired, sore, cold, and frustrated by such a rigid diet. Over time my weight has crept back up to about 73kg, which is 10kg higher than my lowest weight. I’m not sure I need to be 63kgs again when it mucked around with my metabolism so much, but I DO want to fit into my size 9 /10 clothes that I’ve been waiting to wear. One of the issues I’ve encountered has been physical incapacity, and this has meant a loss of momentum. We’ve travelled a lot this last year, and each time we do I don’t exercise, although I do walk heaps! Being on holiday also means lots of alcohol, eating lots of yummy food, and basically losing all the good habits I spent a year building. So it’s back to the drawing board for me.

It’s a September reset. It’s 16 weeks until December 25, and I’ve realised a lot of old habits have crept back in. I’m healthy now, so here are some things I’ve decided to do to lose about 7kgs and fit into my old togs for summer.

1. No alcohol for September, probably the rest of the year, unless it’s a very big celebration (birthday or Xmas). I’m perimenopausal anyway, and alcohol leaves me feeling a bit depleted. It doesn’t affect my mood, but does affect my health. I don’t need the bloating.
2. Back to a calorie deficit diet, focussing on lots of protein (>100g per day), fibre (>25g per day), decent carbs (~70-100g per day) and low in fat (<50g per day). I use an Australian calorie tracker and it works pretty well. I aim to stay below 1500kcal every day, which seems perfect for me especially if my protein and fibre goals are so high. I don’t get wildly hungry with this amount of food either.
3. Cutting out added sugar. I actually hate this, because desserts and sweet treats are life, but my sugar intake has risen a bit. I’m not a huge sugar eater, but it all adds up over a day. I refuse to eat fake sugar, so I have to work on this. No more tim tams, chocolate bullets or violet crumble with my morning coffee.
4. Supplements to aid health. As a perimenopausal person, my oestrogen is depleting rapidly, and while I am on a hormone treatment plan, I have been advised to add the following: Vit D, magnesium glycinate, iron, creatine, collagen, calcium, plus anti-oxidants in pill or plant form. All of these aid in bone density, heart health, and things that menopause removes from the system, including all the f**ks.
5. Upping my exercise regime. When I injured my back, I was unable to get to the gym, so I stopped going consistently. I actually love exercise classes such as yoga, Pilates and body balance. So the aim is to get to 3 group classes a week, strength training 3x per week including with my personal trainer, 2x elliptical sessions per week at home, and walking the dogs every day, trying to get my steps above 7500 per day. Living in a hot climate, getting my steps up is quite hard, so building good habits is crucial for this step.

Another thing I did was to buy a set of bathroom scales. I’ve not owned a set for 30 years but the time has come to be accountable to the figures on the scale. When I weighed myself yesterday I included all the other stats: height, weight, sex. The scales also measure fat percentage, BMI, visceral fat, water percentage and metabolic age, which was a bit of a shock. I need to get my metabolic age back to my actual age as it’s sitting at 66! Now, weight loss will support this metabolic movement down. So losing 7kgs will bring my BMI down to 24, my fat percentage down as well, and my muscle weight should increase. As a perimenopausal woman it’s really hard to manage body changes, so I also need to be kind to myself if my goals aren’t met at the timeline I’ve set.

Men don’t have the same issues as testosterone improves muscle growth much faster, and metabolic function loves high testosterone I believe, so I have to work within the parameters of my own imperfect ageing female physiology. Yay. 😬

Anyway, that’s my life right now. I’ll talk about my latest pottery-making craze in a future post. 😜