We arrived in Australia at 9am and were stuck in Sydney for 8 hours before our next flight to Albury. What does anyone do when they’re stuck in a city for 8 hours? We went to a movie of course! We got back to the airport in plenty of time for the short flight to Albury and then to our house in Wodonga.

This is the first time my husband has been to the house in over 2 years. We had fun reminiscing about the good old days. Once our friends knew we were back we “just had” to stop by for a drink (and always a snack). How does anyone stay on their eating plan at a time like this??

My lapband keeps me from eating like a pig because I just can’t hold as much as I could before but it does nothing for poor food choices. I’m going out tonight with 3 couples that we’ve been friends with for a long time. I say right now that I’m going to be really good but in the back of my mind that little voice is saying, “when will you see them again? Enjoy!!” Hopefully I can listen to the smart voice.

Going through everything we’ve accumulated over the past 13 years is a chore. Thankfully we’re not true packrats so it shouldn’t take much time at all. This is a photo of my kitchen. I’m imagining how it will be when it’s all empty. What was I thinking when I built a kitchen this big and why did I buy so much crap to put in it?

Only a few more days.

Wish me luck!

I told you that I’d started a yoga class trying to get more flexibility into these old bones and muscles and the first thing I did was to practice at home and I did it wrong and tore the cartilege off one of my ribs. I went back to class and told my instructor what I’d done and she said, “You didn’t do that stretch and THEN inhale, did you???”

Well, of course I did. If I’d done it properly all my cartilege would be in one piece.

The stretch I was doing was to put my arms out to the side, bend at the elbows and try to make my shoulderblades touch each other. I have learned that you inhale and then as you exhale you do the stretch.

I didn’t know you could tear cartilege off a rib but it’s a common rugby injury and takes 4 to 6 weeks to heal. I must be a super healer because it’s not been that long and I’m just fine. Back to yoga class this week.

I’m off to Australia today to get everything in our house packed up and put in storage. We’ve got a company showing up on the 13th to start packing and the 16th is when they’ll move everything. I’m really dreading all the work that it will be to go through all the things we’ve accumulated over the past 13 years and decide what must be kept and what should go into the skip to be tossed out. We’ll only be gone a week but it will be full-on while we’re there.

Everyone knows that taking or keeping weight off is not easy. If it were easy, we’d all be thin. We’re used to our McSized or restaurant sized portions. Often I think some people feel they aren’t getting enough nutrition if they eat smaller portions. Honestly, just a few blueberries will give you the nutrients your body can use and you’ll store fat or poo the rest. Meat portions should be about the size of your palm (without the fingers). More than that and you’re just packing on the pounds.

But, there’s a delicious but here – if you exercise and get your heart rate up for 20 minutes every other day, you can eat more. Regular exercise seems to teach your body to burn fuel more efficiently by boosting your metabolism. Want to lose weight? Small portions and exercise.

I’ve also started yoga to help with my balance. I’ve always had less than perfect feet and as I get older I notice I’m not as sure-footed as I once was. I’m giving yoga a try to help feel more stable. My yoga teacher is phenomenal. The poses she can do on one foot bring tears to my eyes. I can stand on one foot as long as I’m holding on to a chair or the wall. No way could I stand on one foot without looking like a Weeble who could fall over.

Doing different kinds of exercise during the week seems to help with boredom and motivation.  I get to see my friends at yoga class.  I get to spend time with Charlie the Wonder Dog when we take long walks.  I see a different set of friends at the gym.  None of it is easy and there are days when my get up and go got up and went.  I want to reach my goal weight so no more procrastinating.   Reaching my goal weight in 2010 is what I want more than anything.  I know I’ll feel better and look better.

Getting a lapband put on really WAS the best thing I’ve done for myself ever.

In spite of the torn cartilege on my rib, I’m doing well with limiting my portion sizes because I KNOW this is the secret to taking weight off. I’m still doing yoga and I’ve started back at the gym. Charlie and I went for a nice walk yesterday too. He’s missed our daily walks because he must have sniffed every blade of grass on the side of the road.

I got on the scales this morning only to get the dreaded Lo battery sign. Not to worry I thought, I’ll just go to the hall bathroom and weigh on those scales. You’re ready for it, right? It said, “Lo” when I kicked the button. Do we have any 9v batteries in the house? No. I’ve never been one who needed to weigh every day (obviously or I’d have noticed it said Lo) but regular weigh-ins do help me realize when I’ve started to eat more than the small portions required to lose weight reliably.

News! We’re headed to Australia to pack up everything in our house and get it all moved into storage. Nah, we’re not doing it ourselves, we’ve got a moving company coming on the 13th to start packing and they’ll move it all on the 16th and then the house will change hands on the 19th. I thought I’d be really sad to let the house we designed and built go but every year I get older and I want to spend time having fun, not looking after a huge house and garden. What was I thinking when we built a house with 7,000 sq. ft. and 5 acres of landscaped gardens? We probably need about 3,000 sq. ft. and a small ‘lock up and leave’ type garden.

Fingers crossed that I won’t catch up with friends and start overeating. I’ve heard from several who are hoping to be invited to the “last supper”. I’m a better than average cook and folks like to come for dinner. I can’t deny that I love to cook and I love to entertain. This time I will hold my enthusiasm in check and stick with my eating plan.

Now we just have to decide where to build our next home. I’m thinking maybe the northern part of Australia near the coast. Then I think.. “will global warming get everything wet?” It will be fun trying to decide what to build. I’d like something eco friendly with solar panels and a grey water system. I liked designing and building so I’m really looking forward to our next adventure.

I have to admit that on a couple of these my heart gave a bit of a flutter. What I REALLY want to know is who the heck was taking these photos instead of helping them out? The guy in the tent with the lion wouldn’t be happy if someone was taking his photo instead of shooing the lion away.

It’s a good thing I saw the doctor about the pulled muscle because I needed to be fit for my new hobby. It’s not really MY hobby but I have to be a part of it. Charlie Brown the wonder dog has started agility classes and he needs someone to run along beside him and yell “Tunnel!” “Weave, Charlie!” and “Over!” as he runs through his paces.

We’ve only been to a few classes but he’s doing really well. Really well until today that is. Ever see a dog that you know is really well trained and he turns up to school so full of dumb you could swat him? No, I’d never swat my best friend but all the other kids in school were doing their bit like the well trained dogs that they are. Even Angel the dog that runs off every time her owner takes the leash off. MY genius stopped in the middle of a run because there was a new smell in the grass. Then he decided that maybe after going through the tunnel he could go and have a drink. Then he thought visiting Ted would be a good thing instead of going over the A-frame.

“Charlie, GO GO GO,” I yelled. Nothing doing.

He might as well have looked at me and said, “When I have this smell investigated, the water drunk and my friend visited I will attend to your wishes.”

Charlie is half King Charles Cavalier Spaniel and half Poodle. The other dogs in school are cattle type working dogs. It’s amazing to see the dogs anticipate their next obstacle. Today we learned the collapsed tunnel. Charlie was a star in this one! I was quite proud of him because the other dogs had trouble going into a closed tunnel. I didn’t say a word when Charlie dashed through and wanted to do it again. I didn’t admit that he does it every night when he goes under the covers!

So we left training with a bit of self respect. He’s on the floor now sound asleep but I can tell he’s dreaming about what he did in school because every once in a while his tail wags and he makes little tiny barking noises.

Starting next week, Charlie’s going to learn Flygility. Here’s a video of Charlie’s friend Ted competing in flygility. Ted’s mom Rebecca is training Charlie and I so it’s no wonder he’s pretty good. As I was previewing this video Charlie woke up and wondered where his teacher was because he could hear “GO GO GO!”

In Flygility, two dogs do a timed race going over jumps and through tunnels or through tires and they get to a flybox where the dog steps on a trigger board and a ball shoots out and he has to catch it and then take the ball back to his handler. The new box cost $145 and we get it next week.

When he can do it we’ll put up a video of Charlie my wonder dog.

I got sick of feeling like I had to lift my right breast up every time I moved. It’s embarrassing to do that at the grocery store. So I made an appointment with the doctor and off I went.

You know how it is, you put off going for something like this because you know you have to get naked and point to your breast and say, “look under here, this is where it hurts.” He was kind, he always is and said that I have torn some cartilege at the end of one of my ribs. At my age it could be calcified and broken but 6 weeks and taking it easy will fix me. He asked if I played rugby because this is a common injury for rugby players. In case you were wondering.. the answer is no.

I can still move a certain way and feel some discomfort but the good news is, both breasts will one day look and weigh the same! It was much easier to find a photo with symmetrical breasts. I’m not the greatest photoshopper around.

Who knew you could do this?  I have no idea how I did it but probably overstretching doing yoga.  At first I thought I was having a heart attack and when I didn’t die I figured I must have broken a rib.  That fizzled when it didn’t hurt all the time.  I can move a certain way and I feel like I’d have to die to feel better.

Thankfully sitting and typing doesn’t hurt a bit.

Ok, I admit it. I doctored that photo to make her right breast look twice as big as her left one. It’s how I feel today.

I had all sorts of plans today but who can think of doing anything when it seems that your right breast is being yanked off every time you move?  I swear my breasts are pretty much the same size but today one feels like it weighs 27 1/2 pounds. (give or take a pound or two)

So, I’ll take a little walk, I’ll sit in the sun and I’ll think about you all getting everything on your to-do list done today.  Good luck!

Okay here’s a brain teaser for you.

I’m assuming you’r3 seated.

Take a sheet of paper and get a pen.

Now, raise your right foot and make clockwise circles with your foot. While you’re doing that, write the number 6 on that piece of paper.

Could you do it?

Nobody can! When your foot is going clockwise – everything’s gotta go clockwise.

It’s the weirdest feeling isn’t it. You’re telling the pen to write a 6 and how freakin difficult is that?

Anyway, that’s my fun for today.

We’ve been living in New Zealand for a couple of years and all that time our house in Australia has been on the market.  The financial stress of paying the mortgage and paying a full time caretaker has really been tough for me.

Well, we have a contract for sale on the house.  We should know in a few days if their financing has been approved and then we just have to wait for the settlement.  I can’t tell you how much pressure this takes off both of us.  This is a photo of our house and it sits on 5 acres overlooking the city.

The house is beautiful and we built it together. At 7,000 sq. ft. it’s really too big for the two of us now that we’re getting older.  I want to travel.  I want to spend more time with my kids in the states.

So now we have to think about where we’d like to live.  Because we work on the net we can live anywhere where there’s a fast internet connection.  I’m really looking forward to exploring all our options.  I’m also thinking about building an eco friendly home.

I feel like going outside and yelling, “YAY!!!”