Yay!

Just for once, I'm organised and on top of things in July, and I've lodged my Tax Return only 27 days after lodgements opened, rather than a few days before they close (31st October) like most years! And the fantastic news is that the preliminary calculator on in the lodgement software reckons I'll get just over $4900 back! This is because I switched from casual to full-time work halfway through the financial year, and I also had a lot of tax-deductable expenses like professional association membership and books I've bought for school, et cetera. The calculator is usually pretty accurate and I can bet on getting at least $4000. I'm planning to completely wipe out my highest-interest debt with that, plus get a new printer and a few new pieces of clothing, and buy S's birthday present which will be quite pricey if I can find what I want for him :-D. So, yay! I can expect to have the money within two weeks.

 

Today is Day Six of my attempt to lose 10kg by Christmas. I started back on Weight Watchers last Tuesday, and I'm finally using my online account properly - logging my weight, recording everything that I eat, etc. It's a useful system because it calculates the points for you and has just about every food imaginable (including branded stuff) in a database, so you just type in the food, select the quantity, and voila! Points calculated and added to your daily record. You can also save favourite foods so that you don't have to go searching for them every time. I'm loving it. Sunday is my weigh-in day (I FINALLY found my scales this morning, I was looking in the wrong place lol) so I'm going to be posting every Sunday with a progress report. I'm hoping you guys can be a part of my support team!

 

Today, I weighed in at 83.3 kilos. YUCK. This is pretty much the most I've ever weighed - it's been fluctuating between 80 and 84 since the start of 2006, with no real progress either way. I'm setting myself up to lose 500g each week, which will result in 10kg off by Christmas with a small margin for error. 500g may be an underestimate based on my prior experiences with Weight Watchers - I can lose up to 1kg a week - but I'll keep it like that by now and if I'm losing more it will be a bonus! My long-term goal is to lose the whole 25kg I need to lose by July 2009 -meaning that my weight will be well and truly stable by the time I need to start thinking about thinks like wedding dresses. No, still not engaged. Just promised :-) And if Mum is going to make my wedding dress she will need me to have a stable (and acceptable!) weight at least 4 months before the wedding. So now is the time to get cracking.

 

I'm doing myself up a big wall mural with helpful images, quotes and words on it, and useful strategies that I can remind myself to use when I get stuck. I'll take a picture when it's done.

 

And now for something completely different - pictures of Jemima that I took a few minutes ago. She's in my bedroom curled up in her bed, which is in front of the heater (funny, that). It took ages to get these pictures because she kept starting to clean herself every time I focused! Enjoy :)

"I wuv u"

"Take photos, will you? Then I'll clean my nose"

Do not ask me how her pupils ended up turquoise in this shot!

Looking intently at my fingers, which I was wiggling to get her attention

Pretty fed up and about to start licking herself again lol

And finally, this is a picture of a rainbow that I saw during Perth's major storm the Friday before last. Originally it had been a complete and vivid arc, but I was on the highway when I saw that, and by the time I stopped at an intersection (with plenty of time to take a photo, I didn't hold up traffic!), it had dwindled to this. But still, it looks pretty cool.