I've lost Max!!

Not really of course ~ that would be carelessness in the extreme. No, Max was playing around on the scales yesterday and I realised that he weighs 24kg................wait a minute, that's how much weight I've lost so far!! I'm astonished because I can barely pick Max up anymore. He's just too heavy. I can pick him up for a cuddle, but I can't carry him in from the car if he's asleep or stagger around for long with him in my arms before I need to collapse into a chair. How on earth did I carry that weight around when it was attached to me? My back is sore from carrying little Froglet around for the past 3 weeks and he only weighs 3.5kg. Stupid back should think itself lucky that I wasn't placed with a 24kg infant! That'd teach it to whinge. I can't wait to see what it feels like to get rid of the next 16 or so kgs. I'll need someone to hold my hand so that I don't float off into the clouds.

Cruising!

I seem to be cruising along here in 'Where's Bron' land ~ weight-loss is going well, little Froglet is thriving (gaining 165g in 6 days and earning himself 'legend' status with the MACH nurse!) and Max is managing the enormous changes in his life with his customary aplomb. We're going well.

I will get the lime and yellow garb on soon, because I'm sure there'll be a change to be seen, but there's the small matter of finding the time. It won't be long, but at the moment if there are 5 more minutes to be sleeping, I'm there. Sleep is a precious comodity with the little Froglet around, and I'm sure he'll get the hang of 'day' and 'night' soon, but for now he's got them arse about. He's swinging from the chandelier during the night, often managing to round out the wee small hours with a spectacular bowel motion. During the day he's a chilled little dude who eats and sleeps with regular monotony. He's not due to be born till the end of next week, so we'll cut him some slack until his official due date, and I'm sure his circadian rhythm will kick in soon enough the RIGHT way around.

An Addition

Last week on Tuesday, there was a surprise addition to the 'Where's Bron' household. A beautiful baby boy came to us via foster care, and is living with us for as long as he needs to. He's 4 weeks old now, very gorgeous, and has turned our routine upside-down! I'm loving having him here, and making sure that he has the very best start possible, and Max is managing well, although his new computer game is far more interesting most of the time. An unexpected but very welcome consequence is that while I'm busy and tired, I'm not thinking about food, and the weightloss is powering ahead. I'm being careful to eat enough, and taking my mulit-vitamin, but not wondering about what the next meal is going to be at all. I did indeed reach the goal of getting into the 70's before Coffs Harbour, although our holiday bit the dust when news of the little Froglet hit so we didn't actually make it to Coffs at all (sob!!). Max was disappointed about missing out on the holiday, and so we'll probably have to go camping some time in the near future.............................I've got to do something with all the camping stuff that I've bought and never used!!!! The timing has been good because it's school holidays so Max is at home and can be part of it all rather than feeling excluded at school. So as little Froglet is drinking away and getting weighed to ensure that he's gaining enough weight, I'm shrinking more and more. I'm happy with the fill I've got so far, and so won't make an appointment to see the doc for a while yet. We'll see how long the 'babymoon' lasts!

The 70's Show!

I'm in the 70's! Not the psychedelic ones, but the 'scale' ones. Yee-hah!

79.6

And The 'Half-Way-Mark' Whizzes Past!

OMG! I've been a bit stressed over the last week or so (due to the whole 'will I get a baby soon' debacle) and consequently I've had difficulty eating much, particularly at breakfast time. Betty Band just seems to feel my pain, and if the nasty stress monster attacks, Betty gets narky too, and refuses food before about 11ish in the morning. This morning I jumped onto the scales to find that I've just shot past the 'half-way-mark'. There's more behind me than there is ahead of me at last!!!!!!!!!!!! I've only got to lose 0.2kg to get into the 70's so I just might make it before the school holidays after all.

(and just quietly, there's still a fair bit 'behind me' IFKWIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

What a crap blogger!

Where is Bron indeed! I appologise profusely for being such a lazy, and absent blogger but there's been a lot going on!!

On the weight front, there hasn't been outrageous action. I've dropped another clothes size, but the scales are only moving slowly. I really wanted to get into the 70's before we got to Coffs Harbour, but since that's exactly a week away and I've got 1.3kg to go, I might not make it. I have less than a kilo to go before I've lost 20kg, and that might be achievable if I put my mind to it. I've had a huge 'clothes sorting frenzy' again, and gladly dropped 8 bags into the Salvos bins and bestowed another mountain of things on various friends. I've retreived many more 'didn't used to fit' clothes from different hidey-holes in the house and some of them have made their way back into circulation. It's certainly fun, there's no doubt about it. I love pulling the belt in another notch on some jeans that threatened to cut off my circulation only a few short months ago. Unfortunately my status as a single, part-time working parent means that there aren't spare funds lying around for a big shopping spree, but Dad usually gives me money for Christmas, so some of that might boost the economy in the fashion sector over December! I seem to be changing shape much faster than the scales would indicate, and so I don't want to go overboard and buy many things that I'll grow out of. Did I tell you it's fun??????

My biggest time-consumer over the past months has been the big Foster Care Quest. I've been on the road since the middle of last year when I made the first phone-call, and did training over March and April this year and millions and millions of hours of interviews in July and August. I finally went to the panel on September 1st, answered any questions they had left after they'd read the report that detailed my ENTIRE life, and was approved for long term care of a child or children 0-3 years of age. I'm really hoping for a young baby that stays with us till he-she ages out of the foster care system at 18 (and then still stays voluntarily after that), but I'm prepared that I'll probably care for some kids who'll return home after a period of time. It was a big decision to make, and I do think I'm ready for the challenge, but there have been some emotional hurdles to jump along the way, including last week when I was offered an 8 week old baby to care for 'indefinately', only to find later on that afternoon that she'd been placed with someone else. It wasn't a nice day, and I realised that my heart is more battered and bruised than I thought, but I stepped over it and moved on. Once the prospect of a baby coming to stay became a likely reality, the next obsession was sorting out the house in readiness. I really have been treading water at home for a few years, with 'sorting out and organising stuff' sitting way down on the list below 'just keeping it all together' and 'managing to remain sane'. There's been a lot to do, but I'm making good progress now and will have an organised and sorted house at some point in the future.

Sorry again for the crappy blog presence of late. I'll be good again now, I promise!!

After Dinner............................?

I've identified my most dangerous time. The time when resolve fails and all manner of foods beckon and call and seduce and lure. It's after dinner when Max has gone to bed and I've tidied up the kitchen and I sit down. THAT'S when I want something to eat. Not a nice healthy morsel, but something big and bad. It's not hunger at all, it's a whole other................................'thing'. It's not 'boredom' exactly and it's not 'reward' eating..........................it's just 'I want something to eat'. The last few days I've been lying in wait for it to hit, and have had some things ready to satisfy it before it takes advantage of me and wins. I've set up a mug ready for low-cal hot chocolate, a little bowl of nuts and some fruit. That's been a moderately successful strategy. I've never been a girl scout (can you even imagine me wearing THAT uniform? Puulleeaase!) but the idea of 'being prepared' works pretty well. I've seen the monster, and I've got the weapons ready even before he rears his ugly head. My question, dear readers, is can you think of other satisfying, reasonably low-cal snacks that I might enjoy in the evening. I'm eating really well through the day at the moment with my 10.5ml onboard Betty Band, and so I've got the space to pop a few calories into the diet at that point, but they need to be things that will stop the monster dead. I'm ashamed to admit that there have been nights where the monster got me by the throat and I picked at this and that and the other until I felt sick. I've forbidden 'standing in front of the fridge' eating or 'standing in front of the pantry' eating, so now the snacks have to be planned and on a plate. Sometimes I don't need them, but I like to know I CAN have them if I want to.

.........and the results of my savage resistance of the snacking monster can be seen on my carrot ticker. I'm getting closer and closer to the half-way mark. I think my interim goal is to get into the '70's' before we go to Emerald Beach at the end of September. Let's see how well I kick the snack monster's butt!!