Week 16 & 17

Right.... so it's been a little while since I've posted. Sorry about that! Things got a little crazy in my world for a bit there, but I'm back to reality again.

Last Sunday night I got a call from my Dad to let me know that my Papa (grandfather) wasn't doing too well. He'd had a planned surgery to replace a heart valve, and, despite being pretty well after the operation (awake, talking a little, eating), he took a real dive the following afternoon. They had to sedate him and put him on a breathing tube. We were all really worried.

I asked my Dad if I should fly to Melbourne to see him, because it might be the last time. He said that maybe I'd better. So, I did. I took the "Red-Eye" that night at 11.30pm and landed at 6am Melbourne time. We went straight to the hospital.

In short, it was a week long emotional rollercoaster of tests for various organs that seemed to not be doing very well (kidneys, bowels, liver, brain), and slight improvements here and there. It seemed like a constant 1.01 steps forward, 1 step back kind of thing. Stressful, in a word. All of my family were stressed, so that made it tough. I was biting a few heads off by the end of it.

I'm back home now. He is on the improve, it seems, but we can't be too optimistic. He's still critical. He's still in the ICU. But, he is off the breathing tube as of this morning. And, the official stance from the doctors is that "we may never know what happened to make him go downhill".

So, diet/exercise-wise, last week was tough. I spent 80% of my days sitting around the hospital and the other 20% at the mercy of whatever food people made me or bought me. I chose veggies and protein wherever I could, and ate small meals. I had my Optifast bars the rest of the time. I think I averaged about one bar a day and two meals of veggies and meat. There were times when I bought a soup that tasted like it had half a cup of butter/oil in it. There were times I had to eat my chicken wrapped in pastry. There were times I had full cream milk or yoghurt to get a dairy serve. I was very conscious of trying to get my nutrients more than I was that things were higher calorie than I was used to. I managed.

I think I did really well, actually. I made the best choices available to me at all times. And, if the choice was still not very good, I just ate small amounts. I didn't go hungry though. I don't think that would have been good.

I weighed in yesterday (Monday). Since I didn't get to weigh in last Monday (as I flew out the night before), my loss is for 2 weeks...

I lost 3.4kgs! I am down to 87.8kgs. I am in the 80s! I have lost a total of 32.2kgs and so have hit my next big goal of losing 30kgs! My BMI is 30.4 - just above the "Overweight" range. I am thrilled. Thrilled. I proved to myself that I can do this under stress and out of my comfort zone. There are no excuses for me anymore. I can do this. I will do this.

The only thing I didn't do so well on was the exercise. It was pretty impossible. I did bring my jogging gear and my best intentions to keep it up, but it never happened. I guess I could have found ways to cut into my restless sleep even more and get up even earlier to run. It might have helped a bit with the stress. But, at the time, I was exhausted. And by the time we got home from the hospital of an evening, it was dark. I was a little hesitant to run alone at night in a suburb I'm not used to. I might have been fine, but I probably would have stressed out my Nana even more by doing that. So, I'll forgive myself a week off, I think.

We were back into it yesterday. It was a public holiday and a scorcher heatwise. We didn't get up early enough to run in the morning before the heat hit, so had to run at about 4pm. It was still pretty warm, but my best friend was coming over at about 5pm, so we just had to brave it.

It felt a little weird at first. My legs wanted it, but were just a little wobbly. We soon got into it, though. The program was 3 x 5min runs, with a 3min walk in between. The first 5mins felt like a breeze. But the last one was really tough to complete. It felt like the heat was what made it so hard. I was still really proud that we averaged over 8km/h on each of the running legs. Especially since we'd had a week off.

This week is going to be all about getting organised again. Getting the running happening, and seeing about the gym. Maybe just a couple of classes so I don't hurt myself. And, the food. Getting back into 2 Optifast meals and one regular meal again. I'm sure I'll be my old self by next Monday!


WIL: Any doubts I could do this for life. 3.4kgs!!
WIG: Confidence and pride.