Julia - I am glad you took some time out for yourself... every step you take is moving forward, it is hard wearing on your shoes sometimes though... glad you are also back at boot camp... it sounds tough!

Gen - hope the new place turns out better than what the doc said... have you noticed the noise? Yeah on the size 6 jeans!!!

Ani - my thoughts are with you when you are with your mum, it is a hard time, one of my friends had to fly to VIC last year to move her mum into a nursing home, it is very hard, but at least your mum decided and you didnt have to make that decision.

I am back from a fantastic week. Club Med was so very relaxing, it is a 3 star resort and does need an upgrade but I loved not having to spend a cent whilst there, all meals, cocktails, snacks and activities were included. It rained the first two days, but was lovely the rest. After breakfast every day, Liam and I would go play tennis, and then I would take him to archery. After that we would go down to the pool and he would swim and I did some aquarobics. After this lunch session started but Liam loved playing water sports with the teenagers... so I sat on the sunlounge and read my book... After lunch, it would be more swimming and at 3pm, I would have a cocktail. I loved not having to do a thing... Some afternoons they had activities played for the kids to do, Liam did tie dyeing one day and made pizza from scratch with the chef's another day... I took myself off to the day spa one afternoon when he was entertained, and a had a facial. Yesterday we spent the day on Hamilton Is, and we loved the golf buggy we drove all of the island and had lunch down on the marina before flying home. The Whitsundays were lovely. Didnt get to go out to the reef, it was windy and the sea was choppy. A bit disappointed but a great excuse to go back again...

I have weighin tomorrow and I am dreading it, My portion size was completely wrong after I came home last night and started weighing everything and I wasnt feeling full after my meal... ARGHH! I have the tools to get back up again... so today I am back to tracking and planning...

hi everyone. i only posted briefly back last october when i started on south beach, and then three weeks in we moved house and i just gave up for my own sanity. i gained back the 8kg i had lost and then kept on gaining another 8kg.
anyway, im working my way through this amazing low-fat wholefoods vegan cookbook written by a girl with PCOS (like me) and so far im just really enjoying expanding my food horizons. i dont want to focus too much on the scales at this point, but i do want to shed a few kilos before our family holiday to fiji in two months.

Wow Vanessa your holiday sounds awesome! Glad to hear that you had a great time.

Welcome back again Lauren, it's gotten pretty quiet around here but hopefully it will pick up again.

Gen you are doing amazinly well with your weight loss. It must be an amazing feeling

Things have been up and down with me. First there was the news of possible redundancies at work then the stuff with my ex and then last week my dad got rushed into hospital. He's very sick anyway and is in hospital grade care as it is but he got a UTI which got really bad, the infection spread to his kidneys and blood and I really thought he was about to die he looked so sick. He's recovering well though and seems to be okay now.

On Monday I moved into a place that I'm housesitting until the end of June and with that I now have a dog to look after and that means exercise EVERY day without fail. I did a 4km run on Monday night, same last night and will try for 5km tonight. Keeping in mind that my half marathon is now only a month away!

Doing better with my diet too and hoping to keep it that way.

Hi Lauren! Welcome back!

Julia - you sound in better spirits. The house sitting has come at a great time - a good motivator, and a change is as good as a holiday. That's not good about your dad! I hope he is on the way to a full recovery.

I gained 1.5kg whilst away and I am feeling completely low at the moment - I am severely missing my son. He is at his dad's for the week. I am bored and eating because of it... I feel lost without him. I rang my sister just a moment ago and tried to make plans for tomorrow so I can stop moping around the house. I would go out by myself but I know that I will replace eating with spending and I dont want to spend money I dont have.

I went to PT last night but my heart wasnt in it, I'll go back again tomorrow night, just cause it is routine. I need to get out of this funk!

Looking forward to the Easter long weekend, especially with the extra day off for Anzac Day. Mum is coming to visit from Adelaide and bringing her two dogs so perhaps I can burn off some of the hot cross buns I am bound to consume by taking the dogs for a walk!
I am having so much fun cooking from this new cookbooks. I got through it on the weekend and choose a few meals that I plan on making during the week, then shop for only those ingredients, which is cutting down on all the fruit/veg i buy without a specific idea in mind that ends of going bad in the fridge. Plus I am expanding my cooking repertoire and enjoying trying new tastes - like last night I had angel hair pasta with black beans, spinach, jalapeno, lime juice, scallions and roma tomatoes. A lesson for the future to wash my spinach properly (ew, grit) but so tasty!

I ended up losing the 1.5 kg gained on holidays... my poor sister has seen my nearly everyday. I just hung around at her house. Did grocery shopping with her, but I am glad I had the company. I took my nephews to the park, local art gallery and to the movies one afternoon so that she could get her shopping and hair cut. It was nice spending it with her.

I love cooking too. I got the new WW Basics cookbook last month, and this week I have cooked Chunky Vegetable and Bean soup, Beef Pie but I didnt put the meat in the pastry... I wanted to freeze some, and filo pastry doesnt do too good when reheating - goes soggy. I managed to freeze 6 meals in the last three nights, and tonight we are having a pork, mushroom and tomato pasta thingy... opps which reminds me I forgot the parmesan cheese so I will be heading out later to pick that up.

I am a lot happier this week. Liam is home again. I was determined to take him bike riding everyday. He was still on training wheels, and as of Sunday afternoon he is no longer. Every day I have taken him down to the park to ride, today we did the Nepean River cycleway... I dont know how many km, but he rode and I walked for over 1 and 1/2 hours.

Last night my PT group was cancelled - well I was the only one who turned up, so I came home and did a new WW DVD I bought Monday night PUNCH!. It came with weighted hand gloves. It was a good low impact workout. I just did the beginner's session. It has three other sessions on it.

I feel like I am having a better week, BUT I havent tracked what I have eaten and two milky bar snack size chocs have snuck in... LOL I will start tracking again tomorrow...

My dad died on Saturday evening. The infection got worse and he was too weak to fight anymore. The funeral was yesterday and we all got through it ok, it's been good to have all of the family around.

I'm exhausted. This year has been so hard. I just want life to get back to some sort of normality but I don't think that'll happen any time soon.

I'm so sorry to hear that. I hope you and your family are coping alright.

I'm so sorry for your loss... This year has been very difficult for you and I'm here if you need me to support you.

Big hugs to you Julia xox Never easy when your parent passes away.

Sorry I havent been on guys, big turmoil happening here when i got back from melbourne, will go into more detail later, but lets at least say one good thing came of it and I got to meet Daves parents and they are lovely. I have read everyones posts and we all seem like we r having ups n downs.

Welcome back Lauren.

And now I am fluctuating between 66.2 and 65.6 kilos WOOHOO. Since June last year I have lost between 12 / 14 kilos. I still feel bloated and frumpy most days, but felt really awesome when i went back to work yesterday after 8 weeks off and several staff memebers commented on my weight loss in shock. So I guess I have lost a bit the past few weeks. They said what are u doing to lose it.... answer NOTHING. cause I havent.

WIll post more later and read a bit more later.

Hope everyone has a hoppy easter xox

Day one of getting my mojo back. Went for a gorgeous walk around the river with my youngest daughter and a good friend. She is tiny, but was huffing and puffing by the end of it. So while i may be overweight, I am fitter than her lol.

Doing it again sunday (tomorrow i sleep after night shift) and on monday going to take a walk around waterfall mountain

Oh no Julia! My jaw dropped when I read that after your last post when it seemed like he was getting better. What a shock for you. I am so sorry for your loss. I don't know how close you were, but it's a terrible thing regardless to lose a parent. I'm so sorry. Hugs.

Moved into the new place.. L-O-V-E it!! It's so gorgeous. I have lots of boxes and crap around, and may not love it as much when rent is due, but so far so good. The train is pretty fricking loud, but luckily I sleep like the dead so it hasn't woken me so far. And having my own laundry in the apartment is bliss after 3.5yrs of going down 3 stories to the basement 3 different times for each bloody load!

woo on the new place Gen.

Julia how are you faring? big hugs to you xox

Where is Ani?

Vanessa hope you have a good Easter day and Liam doesnt get to hyper from the choc.

Lauren I just re-read yr post. LOL about the spinach. I hate spinach for that reason, and I still say that no matter how well it is washed it still somehow manages to taste "dirty"to me.

Anyone have plans for Easter? I only just woke up before 9am (woohoo) and feel good, but my back is killing me this morning. I only have my youngest with me today so we are off to teach a friend (who is 46) how to drive. Then going to anothers for coffee this arvo. No choc for me. Unless whoever is with me wants to pick me up off the floor and call an ambulance. My tolerance to chocolate is getting lower and lower.

Well even though I have told myself over and over again that for every 100g of milk chocolate consumed I need to do 7 hours of walking at 5kmph... I ate 200g! Yikes!!! It was Cadbury's though so it was worth it. I havent exercised yet, so we will see what it looks like on the scales next week... no weigh in tomorrow night due to Public Holiday.

Liam brought home two ridiculous sized baskets of chocolate - with over 3kg worth of Cadbury's chocolate - I told him to take it back to dad's tomorrow... He has had one egg so far... that is just over board! Then Liam tells me he went and watched Thor in 3D. I got given a lecture by my ex last year when I went and took him to see Hannah Montana rated PG! He is home tonight but back there again tomorrow just for the day. I had Liam for Easter Sunday because we had Easter lunch at my cousin's house. He has just moved into a new place and done it up... Looks good, totally repainted inside, recarpeted, new blinds... I am so happy for him, he split up from his partner last year and they have a 21 month old son. It was a great day with my nephews and his son playing with the ball, riding their bikes. My grandparents and aunts and uncles were there too. I love catching up with the family.

Tomorrow I am having the girls over for lunch, my sister joined Nutrimetics and I am also having a skin care party relunctantly... anyway off to get Liam something to eat... it will be a great weekend!