Opinion Australia

As many of you will have been bored to tears hearing… I’m on yet another diet. Doing ok so far… but with a long way to go.

One of my problems has been getting an attack of the munchies around the 5:00 p.m. or so… partly because it’s around then I’m getting dinner ready so have food all round me. Trouble is then I eat whatever *is* round me which does the diet no good at all.

However… I remembered a diet someone was raving about a while back called ‘The Kickstart Diet’. Basically it is similar to the ‘cabbage soup’ diet which simply told you to drink a soup made out of low calorie, low carb, low GI vegetables… and little else.

One of my online friends found the recipe for me (it’s two years old now) and off I went.

The basis is chicken stock… but where they reccomend using stock cubes I went the whole hog so to speak and made my own. Having made both the stock and the soup twice so far… I understand why they say use cubes. Ok it isn’t exactly 100% healthy… but you eat so much of the damn soup you could be spending all week doing nothing but making the basic stock. Cubes would be a lot faster. Not used them yet but I *am* considering it to see what it tastes like.

Does it work? Well yes and no. My diet is straightforward enough. Two meal replacements and a mostly veggie meal but with 250 gms or protein in the evening. The idea of the soup was to provide a ‘filler’ to stop me gobbling everything in sight when I get peckish. The soup contains so much water and so little carbs that it *can* be drunk in any amount. However, on Friday night I not only had my meal… I also had 2 li res of soup!!

Now in anyones book that’s a lot of soup. But even so I lost a half kilo that day. One� downside is that I was up twice in the night with a bursting bladder! so sleep and the soup don’t go together either.

The other downside is that Iwhile I *am* losing weight faster… I’m not shrinking my stomach, so last night… after running out of soup… I ate almost an entire head of celery to try to fill me. I also ended up drinking a cup of the mushroom soup I made the folks. Actually that soup was quite nice… I shredded the remains of some cooked chicken and added it in with some fresh lemon juice. Mmmm…

Errr… getting back on track here… I spent last night knocking up another batch of stock and soup using a slight variation on the theme so other people can have some if they want. It’s actually *very* tasty.

So… that’s what the soup is about… that’s where I am with the diet… and this is me off to get the kids away to school. More later?? Who knows… shopping day today!

Wandered around today carrying a 5 kilo bag of spuds in the backpack… not a good idea… walked several kilometres in 30 degree temperatures… and now my legs are so stiff I can’t type!

Bearing in mind I’ve lost almost 20 kilos you’d think it might have been fairly easy putting 5 back on… but there ya go…. nearly killed me. Still… tomorrow is another day… and more walking… or swimming… once we get back from the medicals the oldies will be having tomorrow. Yes… they *are* extending their stay if they can.

Of course… mowing the front lawns when I came back probably didn’t help too much either!

In the meantime… remind me to tell you about the soup!!

One of the youngsters pulled a box out from under the bed over the weekend. In it she found a pile of old photos we’d kept… as you do.

A couple of them provoked some interest because they were of me around 15 years ago. Dunno about the kids, but I could hardly recognise myself. Confident smile, snazzy dress… and oh so thin and fit looking!! Was that *really* me?? Gawd I’ve changed since being in Oz… and not for the better!!

In fact most of the deterioration seems to have taken place over the past few years. Only 7 years ago or so I was still able to walk all round Kings Canyon carrying the daughter *on my back* in a carry chair!! I don’t think I’d make it up the first of the slopes by myself now without assistance.

The cause? Well clearly overeating… but more to the point… I think it’s the computer!! I was still reasonably fit up until the time I did my Masters… but the rot set in when I had to spend 3 months in front of my computer (the old Amstrad ) writing my thesis. Since then I’ve taken to spending more and more time online and less and less time in ‘real life’ doing real stuff… and getting some exercise at the same time!

While I was in the Polytechnic of Central London, better known and loved as PCL but renamed rather pomously “The University of Westminster”, I was actually quite fit. Each day, come rain or shine, I walked back and fore to college… some 40 – 50 mins *fast paced* striding and carrying my books and files along with me. Now… if I walk to the shops I feel as if I’ve done a 20 kilometre yomp!!

The answer to the weight problem is clearly *not* just dieting… I need to actually *get out there* so to this end… I’m off For starters I’ll walk to the local shops, buy dinner, then walk back (of course)… then maybe go for a swim. Anything to just start moving again.

Will I stop all this online activity?? Probably not… but it *will* have to be curtailed severely. What I’m going to do though will have to wait for another post… the dogs and I are off… again

The pedometer says I’ve done around 3,500 steps so far… I think anything less than 15,000 a day isn’t going to be enough to help get me fit, or lose weight… so let’s go!! Tra

Doesn’t it *always* happen? I ring the ISP to complain… they say try to downloading a file… and down it comes at 126 kbps… which ain’t too shabby. Ok says they… can’t see any problems… and off they go.

Then it takes ten minutes to load another web page. I still think the wireless ISP is the way to go until this is sorted out.

Wow. There’s a new version of WordPress available. I suppose I’ll have to upgrade eventually, but the process seems really tortuous and filled with uncertainty… well that’s how it seems to me anyway.

Pro tem I’ll stick with the version I have (v.2.02) for now. it works, and the new issue might have problems… so don’t expect any major changes in the near future!