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Archives for January 2011

The Goal

January 30, 2011 by Susanne 4 Comments

So after trying a multitude of things to change my life and me for the better I’m trying to stick to one goal again. The Goal. I don’t do all that well with goals. While deadlines usually help me a lot (if they aren’t too tight.) In my experience I just state goals, get all enthusiastic about them, and then wander off. At the end of the year I often don’t even remember what I started out to do. Goals like: get to bed on time, lose weight, exercise more, become a tidy person get stated on a daily or weekly basis, and then abandoned.

But this year I thought I’d give it a try again. My one (not only but most important) goal for this year is:

Lose 10 kilos of weight or more.

I know. Pathetic, boring, and unexciting goal.

I thought I’d do it properly this time, think about my goal in advance, make it public, hold myself accountable, and such. Well, I did state it in December, I told my husband that this time I was adamant about losing weight, and that I would start January 1st. And I did. I made a few rules for myself because this time I am actually going on a kind of “diet”, and I did pretty well for about, um, two weeks. I will keep on trying, though, because defeat is not an option.

Now you might think why is my weight such a big deal? Well, for one I am heavier than I have ever been in my life. That would be quite okay if I hadn’t gained weight steadily for the past three years. While I might resign myself to be a somewhat overweight person, I can’t resign myself to be a really fat person in the near future.

I did lose weight between 2005 and 2007. My lowest weight in the past years has been about 70 kilos in the summer of 2007. this year on January first I weighed 89.9 kilos. And there were days when my weight was even higher. I could just see myself go over 100 in a few years. (And just for comparison that means that I went from a BMI of 23.1 to one of 29.7 which is quite overweight.)

Of course I had thought that if I just lived a bit better – getting enough sleep, exercise, and eat real food – that my weight might just drop by itself but it didn’t. Even adding running to the mix didn’t do it.

So after a year where I focused on becoming a happier person, I know want to focus mainly on becoming a slimmer person. My rules are:

  1. No alcohol but on special occasions. (Like my husband’s birthday and such. I found throughout this month that there were quite a few special occasions which meant an average of 1 1/1 beers per week.)
  2. No sweets but an occasional piece of dark chocolate.
  3. No crackers.
  4. No potato chips.
  5. No grazing all afternoon or evening.

At the moment I just don’t buy any foods that I tend to binge on. After almost a month of this I did buy some gummy bears for my son again but I don’t get to eat any of them. I used to store some snack foods in my studio for afternoon snacks but I cleared them all out. Now I have to go to the kitchen, get myself an afternoon snack, and that’s it.

And yes, I feel a bit defeated because I need to do this, and when I succeed I want to do it for yet another year so that in the end I might just feel like myself again. Also I want to be able to wear dresses in the summer without my thighs rubbing against each other, and I want to be able to run without my knees hurting. I’m fine so far but of course all this extra weight strains my joints.

I’ll be using this blog to hold myself accountable but I won’t turn this into a diet blog. Just know that as of today I’m weighing 88.9 kilos, on kilo down. When I started this I had told myself that if I didn’t lose at least a kilo by mid-February I would have to join Weight Watchers.

While I’m happy to have lost any weight at all, I also found myself getting lax with my rules after about three weeks. One reason was that in the beginning my husband also didn’t drink any alcohol. But then he went back to his glass of wine in the evening. One reason is that I am obviously not able to stick to any rules for any amount of time. Well, that means I have to forgive myself and do better today. And tomorrow. And the day after that. For the next few years.

I just have to be all “only today” about it, otherwise I’ll be driving myself crazy.

I still long to be a person who just eats, and that’s it but so far it hasn’t worked.

Filed Under: changing habits, health, weight loss

Random Monday

January 24, 2011 by Susanne 6 Comments

  1. I have a kind of blogger’s block because I still think I should have started the year with a “How my year of happiness went”-post, and a “My big goal for 2011”-post. I will do those some time before 2011 ends, but it is starting to get ridiculous.
  2. I also promised to make an English podcast episode, and I will, as soon as I find some space in my head.
  3. We had a very nice weekend, and went to some family brunch thing where we met other gifted families, and it was a lot of fun. But, very pricey, and no housework got done for the weekend.
  4. Which is why my husband have spent the day so far, furiously cleaning all the things. Floors where mopped. With water. Laundry got washed. There is still one load in the washer which I will have to hang up in the next 25 minutes.
  5. I’m typing as fast as I can.
  6. I got a new spindle, and I love, love, love it. Still, to show it I would have to take a picture, and it’s started to snow again which means – no light outside.
  7. I am also a bit grumpy because so far I’ve had my period not once but twice this month. In fact since the beginning of the year I’ve only had a week off.
  8. I went to see a specialist on menopause, and she thought it might be early-onset menopause. Then she asked me if I were okay with that. And what about if I couldn’t have any more children.
  9. I would be totally okay with that if I could please reach some hormonal equilibrum in the near future. Interestingly I’m totally done with having babies, and I don’t think it would make me feel old, and undesirable.
  10. I am quite sure that I have asthma after all. In addition to being triggered by allergies it might be triggered by exercise as well. Fun times! I already have a doctor’s appointment for that the week after next.
  11. I haven’t managed to write much this month either, and that makes me grumpy as well.
  12. It’s snowing like crazy, and I should be shoveling right now on top of everything else.
  13. It was my husband’s birthday last week, and we had a fabulous day, having lunch at an Indian restaurant not far from us, and in the evening we went and had some beer, just him and me. We almost never do this because whenever we go to Munich we think we should be doing something really special, like seeing a concert. But this very low-key celebration was exactly the right thing to do.
  14. I’ll leave you with a bad picture of the spindle. One day, when the sun will come back I’ll take a better one:

threadsthrutime

Filed Under: life, lists

Monday blather

January 17, 2011 by Susanne 1 Comment

Interesting day so far. I had a bout of “doing all the things I had meant to do weeks ago”, resulting in a hung calendar (pretty if it weren’t for the nail I had to rip out three times … now there are a few “interesting” holes in the walls at eye height), an almost fixed wash basin (well, one can use it, it only drops a little, ahem), and me ordering yet more ebooks, and updating my librarything. Then I went to check my bank account, and after that I’m far more motivated to stop buying ebooks for now.

Three of my students didn’t show up, one re-schedule. My son is completely over-tired because he spent Saturday night at a friend’s house, and so he had had three tantrums already. He found a carnival costume he likes, and that I don’t have to sew, and had to buy it now, this minute. I made him do his homework first, cruel me.

Yesterday I spent five hours watching “How I Met Your Mother” while knitting my husband’s Lotus Leaf Mittens. I start loathing them but with the one hour I knit on them today they might get finished until his birthday on Thursday.

And I made an appointment to talk to someone about my peri-menopausal problems.

I think tonight I should go to bed early; this sounds suspiciously like overdrive.

Filed Under: life

Handgemacht – Folge 9: Gute Vorsätze

January 12, 2011 by Susanne 2 Comments

http://creativemother.de/audio/Handgemacht9.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Ein gutes neues Jahr wünsche ich allen und nun zu den guten Vorsätzen:

http://creativemother.de/audio/Handgemacht9.mp3

Gute Vorsätze allgemein:

  • flylady
  • word of the year (Das ist ein Link zu einem Post von mir, in dem ich über meine Wahl eines “Wort des Jahres” für 2009 schreibe und der Post enthält auch Links zu dem Blog von dem ich die Idee habe.)

Terminplanung:

  • 3. deutsches Raveler-Treffen (15./16. Oktober 2011 in Frechen)
  • großes Spinntreffen der Handspinngilde
  • Backnanger Wollfest

Die nächste Folge wird eine Spezialfolge auf Englisch sein, aber keine Angst, das wird “Best of”, diejenigen, die nicht so gut Englisch können, verpassen nichts wesentliches.

Was ich gerade stricke und spinne:

  • Cool Leave Mittens
  • Sheldon
  • Maplewings
  • Ebony Turtleneck
  • Schnappdrachenhandschuhe
  • Vincent
  • Second pair of handspun socks in perfect colors
  • melierte Merino-Seide
  • handgefärbte Merino

weiter wurden erwähnt:

  • Tudora
  • Threadsthrutime
  • IST-Crafts
  • Ouroboros Jacket aus dem Buch Unexpected Knitting
  • Baby Surprise Jacket
  • Enchanted Sole
  • Frida Kahlo-Buch: “Self Portrait in a Velvet Dress: The Fashion of Frida Kahlo” und auf Deutsch gibt es das auch: “Fridas Kleider” (Schirmer/Mosel)
  • Go WIP Go!-Gruppe auf Ravelry (deutsche Gruppe trotz des englischen Namens)

Filed Under: crafts, knitting, Podcast, spinning

Pictures from the State Museum of Ethnology in Munich

January 8, 2011 by Susanne 1 Comment

Yes, I will write a real blog post at some time in the future, but this week I’m still in holiday mood. Yesterday I went to the Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde in Munich and took a gazillion pictures. Mostly of textiles since I was there to look at their Mayan textiles exhibition. Since that only filled one room I went and saw a bunch of other stuff as well. Most of the brightly colored stuff is woven on a backstrap loom, something I’m a bit fascinated with at the moment. In fact I’, thinking about making one for myself. Then there are African things as well, made from tree bark, and something called Raffia (I had never heard about that before but I bet it’s some sort of bast fiber. (And I looked it up, yes, it’s some kind of palm.))

And I haven’t forgotten the blog or my readers or listeners, and I will wish you a happy new year properly next week.

Filed Under: crafts, pictures

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Subscribe to Handgemacht » Podcast

Handgemacht mit iTunes abonnieren

Subscribe to know when Susanne’s next book comes out

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Manic Writing & Such

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Archives

Categories

  • birthday letter (3)
  • blogging about blogging (21)
  • blogher (1)
  • changing habits (53)
  • crafts (55)
  • creativity (37)
  • daily journal (1,045)
  • family (20)
  • fashion (15)
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  • green living (8)
  • happiness (5)
  • health (20)
  • hear me sing (7)
  • just post (28)
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  • knitting patterns (2)
  • life (212)
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  • mindfulness (1)
  • music (34)
  • NaNoWriMo (12)
  • parenting (39)
  • pictures (33)
  • Podcast (162)
  • procrastination (2)
  • project 365 (14)
  • projects (35)
  • Projekt "Farbe bekennen" (14)
  • reading (9)
  • Rhiannon (5)
  • script frenzy (2)
  • self-help (40)
  • sewing (7)
  • spinning (31)
  • story of the month (13)
  • travel (12)
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