A special effort this week, as not only did I have my usual 30 minute dietician appointment, but then my first exercise pyhsioligist appointment. The latter would include a walk and a couple of blood tests, and take about 60 minutes.
Met with ANOTHER different dietician this time - Ben. Did manage to see Tim before the appointment when he was out in the waiting room and we had a brief chat. He was his usual upbeat, smiley self. Ben was also pretty good, but struck me as a little more pragmatic. They all start with the same question... "How did you go this week". Of course I start to blab and I'm not yet sure if I am giving them too much info, but they are at least polite enough to smile and engage in the conversation with me. Must be saying the right things because I am not getting any of the normal cues you'd expect if you were way off track.
Spoke a little this week about how I am finding that, occasionally, I am craving the stupidest foods. Like this week, Michelle and Luke had some plain pasta with dinner, and while they were sitting eating their dinner I was making mine. It took every ounce within me to not have one bit of pasta. Not even one. Now, normally, having one bit of pasta in itself wouldn't be a problem. One bit of pasta? Big deal! Right now for me in "no carbs" land, it would be tantamount to me (mentally) throwing the towel in. So... no pasta was had. But gee it smelled good. So did the sausages they had, but it was the pasta that was right in front of me.
[Just looking back at the above paragraph, could I say the word "pasta" any more?!]
Time for the cuff - my blood pressure was down - 120/70 - not that it was a problem before, but it's good that it's still looking good and that all this walking isn't going to cause my heart to explode or something. You know what I mean. Then... time for the weekly inevitable and inescapable...
Scale time:
Previous week's weight - 166.8kg
Weight - 164.0kg
Result for the week - 2.8kg loss
Total loss to date - 8.6kg
Pretty happy with that, but it only delays by another week when I start to see the taper and have the weight loss slow down. Ben thought it should stay "up", considering my starting weight (and that they generally expect a 1-2% weight loss per week on their program - which sits me at 1.7 - 3.4kg a week!). Cynical me, I put the fact that it is bigger than I expected down to that I wasn't wearing jeans or long pants for this weigh in - all dressed for my walk, so shorts and t-shirt only. I guess we'll find out next week if that was indeed a contributing factor. We then talked briefly about the intensity of my exercise, but he didn't want to steal the thunder of the Exercise Physioligist, so only talked a little about the ideal heart rate range to exercise in to burn the ideal amount of fat (as opposed to burning carbs or lean weight).
After I finished with Ben, I then met with Ben (a new one - the exercise guy). We talked more about the ideal heart rate thing, then he whacked a heart rate monitor on me and off we went for a walk along the Brisbane River. I learnt on the way that he's been with the Clinic for 3 years now, and has just cut back to go part time so that he can focus on getting his music sorted to start playing pub gigs. So, you might imagine, we had a great discussion! Guitars, music styles and influences, etc.
Walk for about 20 minutes, and we stopped so that Ben could take a blood sugar reading to calculate the amount of lactic acid in my blood so that he could more accurately calculate if the heart rate range they'd worked out matched with what my body was doing. It was at that point that I worked out that he was monitoring my heart from the sensor on me from the watch-like device on his arm. Duh! Here was I thinking we'd download it when we got back or something... oh well. Talk about over-geeking it! Off we went again, and from that reading he said that my walking pace was actually 'sub-optimal' - it would burn fat, but not as much as if I kicked it up a small notch. So, on the flat, I need to walk a little faster. Might need to get a heart monitor myself (more $$$) just to keep an eye on things.
The walk back wasn't so nice - Ben took us up a hill that I swear to you was at least a 50 degree incline. NASTY. "It's OK," he said, "Everyone gets it on that hill, that's why we take them this way". Thanks for that. From that, more heart rate checks, and he said that too many of those hills at my pace wouldn't be a good idea. Hills/steps OK, just don't do them as fast (like I'm supposed to work that out myself).
That was it for the visits this week. Booked a bunch more appointments into August, and in parting Ben reminded me that at any time I could swap a dietician appointment with an exercise physiologist one - an offer I might take him up on (provided it's him). My next appointment with him as a standard is a few months away, but when we do that, it's resistance stuff (looking to do some stuff that will not so much build my muscle mass, but keep it active so that it doesn't 'accidentally' get burnt in the process.
Self-control is going OK at the moment. Distractions are the key I am finding at the moment - finding it tough; go do something else. This can be particularly tough on Luke or Lily, so it hasn't happened too much of late but I am still hanging tough (sorry, poor NKOTB reference for all you 80's kids). I somehow need to find this balance so that I am still connecting with them, but removing/distracting myself from the temptation at hand so as to not kick in those wonderful emotional/situational food responses. More on that next week.
The guys at work are starting to pay a little bit of attention to me when they are eating crap now - it's not happening in the office as much as it used to (they're still doing it, just not near me). They are also more conscious of me not being able to come out or eat crap with them - they get it, but usually forget until after they've asked me and then they apologise. I just keep telling them they don't have to apologise... this is my deal, not theirs. It's not like they shoved rubbish food in my gob for 20-odd years, is it?
So, my biggest challenge this week coming now is to ensure I have something decent/witty/interesting/disarming/engaging to say in this week's vLog! Keep an eye out for it, due up in the next couple of days (YouTube conversion pending).
