and so the days go on

Well another day over and another day of ups and downs ... my nutrition intake was good but no excersise! I also had a great facebook message from a woman who lost a lot of weight and had her diabetes symptons disappear.

Maybe I can do double excersise tomorrow?

Anyone would think I was made of sugar and spice and all things nice and would have melted if I'd gone out in the rain. I know that's not true  -  more rain predicted for tomorrow.

Today has been spent on the couch, laptop on my lap and sorting out the story and photos about Kaikoura Wilderness Walks and talking to an editor about it.  I think I have sold it overseas but will wait for absolute comfirmation before I tell you where. As my dad told me "there's many a slip betweeet the cup and the lip"

Tommorrow I'm off out with a  local award winning Christchurch company  HassleFree Tours .. I have done their LotR tour ( see my blog on it here) and tommorrow I'm taking the Discover Christchurch tour.. so more to follow.

health issues continued

(Scroll down to read previous posts re the kiwitravelwriter and diabetes)

Well, here is is the end of another day and I'm not grumpy. YAY!

I sprung out of bed after a good nights sleep, had my fav breakfast ( avocado and tomato on wholegrain toast) along with my usual black coffee ... made in a French press ... and was soon out for a morning walk. I  walked, half city streets and half Hagley Park, alongside the the Avon river for 35 mins. i will do the same route each day for a week and hope to reduce the time - I'll then add more distance then repeat the procedure.

Then, oxygyn and endorphins coursing through my body, I wrote a book review that's been siting in my 'to do list' for a month or two, attended to some Soc of Authors business, visited my mother, picked broad beans and silver beet from my little, but productive and organic, garden. And now, its time to get a meal ready - not bad for day five of my diagnosis and determination to get healthy at last.

Hanmer Springs NZ

 Its been very easy to fool myself. for years i have reamined the same weight, do lots of walking ( and I live in on the thrid floor of an appartment block with  no lift/elevator) and walk around my city a lot - howver to be healthy it seems I need to do extra, actual excersise.  So that's todays check in - thanks for the support you have been sending via facebook, and twitter - and a few on this blog. kia ora to you all!

kiwitravelwriter and diabetes day 4

(Scroll down to see previous posts on this topic)

Well I was wrong when I said summer had arrived in my city a couple of days ago. This morming, with my new walking shoes at the ready for an early start, I woke to light rain and low temps.

I dont know if that's the reason for my mood but I have been a bit grumpy today: it started when I heard a couple of men telling porkies and I decided not to go out for my usual Saturday lunch with a group of friends - and have spent the afternoon snoozing and watching some unwatched, recorded TV shows.

Two good things though: I have eaten as I should, drunk water (which is like medicine to me) and this morning , before the black dog appeared, I nearly completed the story about Kaikoura Wilderness Walks -  a 2 day hike (6hrs the first day) I did last week. Check it out.

Now I am going to be un-ecofriendly and have a relaxing bath, do my nails, and go to bed  with a book (I''m reading a great book by a fellow member of NZ Society of Authors called  Under the Huang Jiao Tree by Jane Carswell ) for an early night - ready to start tomorrow, with a  new attitude!

As an old song says, "pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again." or something like that - and I  will. Things that were on todays list will be done tommorrow - including a longer walk in my new sneakers, with my pedometer which I now see doesn't count steps - just kilometres, miles and calories! (see how I just rushed onto TradeMe - the kiwi version of E-bay - and bought the cheap one ... assuming all pedometers caount steps.)

Oh well, will just do the kms .. but the smaller numbers will not look nearly as impressive as  those for 'steps'

Tomorrows post will be brighter - I promise - I'm not promising you, but myself, I dont like me like this.

Diabetes day three and Doctors are throwing water balloons!

(Scroll down to see previous posts re this topic)

Well its a wild and windy day here in Christchurch - one of our east coast's nor'wester - when the wind rushes over the Southern Alps, drops it's rain on the West Coast to allow the rain forrest to grow, then sweeps  dryly and warmly over the Canterbury Plains and drives many people mad. As someone who is often mad anyway, I actually  love this signature wind for us Cantabrians.

Whats this got to do with me and my health issues? well nothing really, except as part of a battery of tests I have been having over the past few months, I had to go to the hospital for an abominal scan - not easy with a full bladder - and I can confirm I am not pregnant. Whew. That's a relief.

But back to the Drs and their water balloons. As I left, a bevy of Drs and Nurses in various outfits, tinsel, cowboy hats, white over-alls, brightly coloured tights also left, heading over the bridge and heading towards 'the boatsheds' obviously something was about to happen, so I waited on the bridge. Also waiting there - and along the bank - were some child patients.

Soon,  along came the flotilla of colourful canoes, and those waiting on the bridge threw water balloons ... the paddlers were throwing them at their collegues too. It seems this was a charity event to raise funds for the childrens wards.

Before I continue, may I have a curmudgeonly moment. As someone who always picks up plastic on the beach, it concerns me that these broken balloons are now heading seaward and one at least will not doubt contribute to a mammals death.

So, diabetes day 3 has gone well. My pedometer has arrived so I can now tell how far I walk (despite being a writer, I do have a high incidental level of movement) and will set it up tonight ready to be attached to this obese body in the morning - well not to my body per se, but to the waist band of whatever I wear tommorrow.

Food wise I've done well, not hungry, and have eaten well - i'm looking forward to the chicken and kumera ( sweet pototo) and salad meal I plan on havong soon.

Thanks to the people who have supported and encouraged me via Twitter, Facebook, and this blog ... knowing you are on the sidelines cheering me on is really great. You are stars :)

A distinctly kiwi sign - at the Wellngton Zoo

Day two on the 'get healthy - loose weight' track

Ok, its day two  (Scroll down to see previous post) and lots of progress - amazing what a  metaphorical gun to the head in the form of a health scare does.

Well progress is not REALLY what it is my mind: I am the I-want-it-NOW type of person and the progress I secretly expected hasn't happened.

I'm told  normal,sane thinkers do not expect to have lost 10 kg in 24hrs - and I havent -  but, I have moved along the continuim towards that healthy, insulin producing body I need if I am to enjoy the more mature ( age-wise) years of my life.

• I have 'sort of ' eaten well today (actually I'm hungry as I havent eaten well so far today, just eaten less.)
• I have signed up for four months of weight-watchers (a miracle MUST happen in that length of time .. surely?)
• I have bought new Adidas (20% off) cross trainers
• I have had a 30-min walk
• I've now confessed to you ( I've been told I'm sick as my secrets, so this blog will be my 'dear diary' that keeps my sick-as secrets public) 
• And now, I''m off to the supermarket to stock up on tinned fish for lunchtime protien.

Being a writer is a problem - I sit and write too much and will have to get out and do more rather than write about what I do.  Actually, all  I  really have to do is eat a healthy diet, drink more water and walk more, and just for today I can do that!

Ciao, see you back here tommorrow,

kiwitravelwriter, diabetes, and a walk in the park

Well it's confession time . . . but first, my morning, this morning.

I have checked - and responded to some emails, Twitter conversations, (I havent checked my Facebook fan pages yet) and checked which of my wordpress blog posts people liked yesterday, then started an article about the Kaikoura Wilderness Walks which I did last week.

Then  I took a phone call from my Drs practice nurse.

After some weeks of various tests, it seems one thing has become clear - my 'pancreas is not working as well as it should' says nurse Shirley.

Oh dear - years of being a carbo-queen have come home to roost, and now, overweight, I have sucumbed to a disease that my family is riddled with - that's why this is shameful to confess: I have known the consequences of over-eating and under-excerising and, ignoring that knowledge has caught up with me.

So this will be my public humilitation page, where I will record my attempts to recover that old svelte body and hopefully a fully- functioning pancreas.

How have I started?

• 2 hours ago I bought a pedometer on trade-me
• I have been for a 30 min walk in the fabulous Hagley Park (the biggest city park in NZ) while listening to Radio NZ - I can tell my MP3 player/radio will be used even more now 
• I have picked an organic lettuce (& mint, parsley) from my garden
• Filled a jug of water and dropped a frozen lemon quarter in it in the hope it will make me drink more
• Examined my Adidas walking shoes and realise I need a new pair and maybe even a sports bra (an item I have never owned!)

So, now home again, it's time to make a salad for lunch and think about the things I saw in 'my' park ... people getting ready for the annual 'Christmas in the park' event this weekend; a mum and dad paradise shelduck with their long legged, still fuzzy-crewcut-haired ducklings, and the people who said 'Hi' to me and the many other walkers  - what an asset Hagley Park is to my city.

(see more here on Christchurchs' official website - I am just an enthusiastic promoter of my city - and check out my 'other blog' http://kiwitravelwriter.wordpress.com/ for lots of blogs and photos about this, the biggest city in the South Island of New Zealand and stories from all over the world.)

This is what paradise ducklings look like when they are only days old .. here with mum!

I  hope my public record will motivate me, and  that some of you will help keep me on the straight and narrow as I attempt to become healthier.