Psychic party

Tomorrow I am having a psychic party at my house. I have several friends coming over for a reading with a psychic. This lady is supposed to be very good and one of the few found to be authentic.

I have never had a reading before and am also slightly nervous having it at my house but I am sure it will all be good fun.

Actually a slightly spooky event was when I was telling some friends about it, I got a text message from the church confirming my son in holiday club. Spooked me for a while but I got over it.

How to explain to children

I am struggling to explain the concept of tomorrow to my youngest daughter. She thinks that tomorrow is another day of the week.

We had just argued that yesterday was yesterday, she said that yesterday was tomorrow because on (my words) Thursday, Friday is tomorrow, today it is yesterday.


Another difficulty is my son's school report. It was fantastic and we are very proud of him. One comment from is teacher was

"... always participates well during writing sessions, he is however yest to see a clear difference between spoken and written language. This means at times his writing can sound very colloquial."


I said that it is because he writes as he speaks and that that is not always proper English. He said but I speak very good English - and he is right.

I am struggling to explain without examples of his work so I told him to ask his teacher to explain. It was her comment after all.

My MP3 is not working

My MP3 player has decided to no longer work. I am devastated. I loved it. It was small, cute and hot pink and black.

Now I have to search for another. Do I go MP3 or ipod. MP3 much more versatile, ipod more accessories available.

Smell 2

I was so excited yesterday, being able to smell stuff was huge.

A brief history, I suffer sinusitis and nasal polyps. I have had several operations to improve/remove, however on a daily basis, I am still very blocked, it has improved heaps over the last 2 years or so but is still quite bad. Sometime during the last (I don't know) 15-20 years, I realised that I had lost my sense of smell. I didn't think too much about it just accepted that it was just the way it it.

I am also highly allergic to many things, too many to mention or even really test for. Bizarrely though not pollen, or not many of them.

Well, yesterday as I was filling up my car at the petrol station, I thought I could smell petrol and petrol happened to be one of my favourite smells, together with brand new catalogues. Anyway, I dismissed it and decided that I only thought I could smell it, a memory rather than an actual smell.

Later in the day, I was aware of a smell, I think it may have been my perfume (I don't know because I have never smelt it, I have to rely on Jon to choose nice perfume) so decided to investigate further.

What is the strongest smelling thing I have in the house? I know my Eucalyptus essential oil. Off I went. I could smell it. Only a little, and I had to put it about 2mm from my nose and snort, about 3 seconds later, I smelt it for a split second. I am sure most people would be flat on their backs from that but not me.

What next, I went mad, my nose was snorting almost everything (well nice things). I smelt garlic bread, apple, tomato, tried my perfumes, but not really, I think I may have burnt the lining of my nose from the eucalyptus.

My daughter thought I was crazy - again. Why are you smelling everything? Because I can.

This has happened in the past on occasion and then stopped again. Today, I don't think I can smell anything, maybe later I will. I really hope so.

One day maybe I will be able to walk into a room and smell cooking, or a perfume or flowers, that would be nice.

Smell

OK guys, you won't believe me after what I just wrote this week, but I have just smelt garlic bread for the first time in years. I am in the middle of preparing dinner so can't write any more now........ I'll be back soon.

I am so excited. By the way, you are the first people I have told.

The Sprinkles Diet

The Sprinkles diet as mentioned on Diet Blog and The Fit Shack is being billed as the latest fad diet and when I first read this this morning I tended to agree.

However due to an appointment yesterday I then researched lack of sense of smell and overeating. I found a condition called Ansomia, which I have self diagnosed.

I wasn't going to write about this here but as this diet has appeared today, it seemed like a sign. Below is a copy of the comment I left on The Fit Shack site.

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Yesterday was at my first appointment with an eating disorder psychologist (for overeating/binge eating).

After many questions and answers delving into my past, I mentioned that I considered a while ago that maybe my lack of sense of smell (of at least 15 years) might be the reason I overeat, you know, always searching for a smell or taste to satisfy my hunger. I told the psychologist that I had dismissed it because I didn't want to look for an excuse for my inability to control my food intake.

The psychologist said that it may well be a contributing factor, among others and shouldn't be dismissed.

So yesterday, I would have totally dismissed this as a fad diet, today I am thinking this may be worth exploring, along with (now that I understand it may be an issue) stimulating other senses, ie making my meals as colourful as possible, adding more spices to my foods, eating it even more slowly and appreciating the texture and what little taste I have.

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It was a big step for me to go and see a psychologist for overeating. I am managing to maintain my weight (a little higher than I would like it to be, but still a huge improvement on where I was) by eating well for a few weeks and then then totally blowing it with a binge which could last a couple of weeks, so I am fluctuating on an almost monthly basis by about 3kg.

I had decided that enough was enough, I don't want to live like this anymore. I have tried so hard to do this myself and got totally frustrated that I didn't think it could hurt to see if there might be a reason that I can't figure out myself.

I am hoping that this is the start of the end and that I can move on healthily.

Wake me up

I am in desperate need of something to wake me up. I am almost falling asleep here, I can't stop yawning and I still have to cook dinner and prepare for and train clients this evening. I really need to curl up and sleep but as one of my fave bands said, "I'll sleep when I'm dead," I guess.

I think though it was referring to living and not working, but never mind.

Guess what?

Do you ever have a conversation that starts with guess what, but before the other person has time to answer you have told them. (does that make sense?)

Well my daughter has started saying this, but she really means it. The latest was, guess what is in this box? I replied, I don't know. She said I know, you have to guess. This time I decided to play along and give totally ridiculous guesses to what might fit in a 5cm2 box and wondered how long it would take for her to tell me I was stupid or give in. Guess what - I was stupid, she didn't give in and I should have known that she wouldn't. She is the stubborn one, even more stubborn than me.

Do you want to know what was in the box?

.............string - not a dinosaur, or her dad, or a car, or plate, or watermelon, or picture, or bed or sister or dog, or muesli or the postman or a tv or anything else that I mentioned - it was string and she did actually give in but it took a very very long time.

Very poor effort

I put in a very poor effort at the gym this morning. I saw a friend I had not seen for a while and as both of us like to talk, that's what we did. In the back of my mind I kept thinking I will go now but the conversation just rolled. I ended up doing a slow 30 minutes on the bike (as instructed by physio) but missed my weights. I chose the bike over the weights so we could carry on chatting.

Not good I know, and this is happening more and more often, even on the weekend when I went earlier than my usual time, I still saw people I don't see very often any more. Head down and run in future I think.

I also got a call from the receptionist at my physio saying that my physio was sick and could I reschedule. I really needed that appt today, my shoulder is giving me some grief this week. Also another reason I chose the bike over weights.

Never mind, I will just have to train my clients hard this evening to make up for my lack of effort.

We're not lazy.............

I think I need to go back and re-study for my PT qualification. I obviously missed or misunderstood the part that taught me how to teach children about the importance of health and fitness.

I was chopping apples (trying to do the right thing!) for my daughter this morning and I asked her to get a bowl out - she said but I want you to get it. I said that they were being a bit lazy this morning.

They asked what lazy meant. The eldest thought it was like Mr Clumsy, I explained that lazy is where you don't do anything.

My eldest replied, "We're not lazy, we did something, we watched the TV."

Oh that's ok then, the answer to childhood obesity, have mum chop apple, get the plate, turn the TV on. Do you think I need to eat it for them??

A little in their defence, they have been sick and are having a rest day and they are devestated about missing out on playgroup. But still.......

Checking in

I know I've not updated in a while and thought I really should. I have been around, I have just been reading heaps. I am exploring new blogs and new sites that I have found, also been reading a book, that I can't put down.

I will try and keep it brief.

Our interview was on A Current Affair a couple of weeks ago - Tuesday 27 May. It was very short but the kids loved seeing themselves on TV. What was quite amusing was that I went to Coles the following morning complaining that the yoghurt I had bought the day before was already out of date. I felt like a proper whinger, but I just hate it when that happens. Actually, I don't know how it did because I spent ages checking the use by dates and then discussing with 3 children which brand and flavours they wanted and then checking the dates again, but somehow I messed up. Coles did refund me with no argument though.

My dad and June got married last month. I am very pleased that my dad is happy again, however when I saw the DVD of the wedding, all I could see/feel was the pain that my mam is still feeling. Their marriage was over a long time ago and she is now settled in her own home but she still feels embarrassed or ashamed that she is divorced. It is really hard being away from her, but even if I was there, I couldn't live her life for her. She needs to find the strength to do that herself.

I had a very nice long weekend with my family. Due to the rain here, all sports were cancelled for the whole weekend so we spent some nice time together. That is a luxury these days.

Jon surprised me with tickets to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show in Star City. I loved it. It was also scary to realise the the last time I saw the show live was in 1993 or 1994 in Manchester. Have watched the DVD many times since though.

Gobsmacked

I just read this post on diet blog.

I am totally gobsmacked, I very very rarely eat/drink this type of thing, but might occasionally treat myself to something like it (or more likely have a bit of my kids) but I could never have imagined the calorie content. Even though it would be my choice to consume this, I would feel really cheated if I found out later the nutritional content (if it can be called that)

It has 166% of the % Daily Value of fat and that is based on a 2000 kcal a day diet. How can that be.

There is more but I can't speak right now.

Edit: I probably should point out (now that I have calmed down a little) that when I say I have this or my kids do, it would be a milkshake or a fruit smoothie, and I am praying right now that they are no where near as bad as this shake. - But I should probably check.

Any item with grossly excessive fat, sugar and calories should come with warning, like the annoying windows boxes - are you sure you want to consume this ridiculous amount of junk?