Happy Middle Year!

I have to admit that I am thrilled that we are now in the second half of this year. It feels like a little bit of a fresh start and a good way to put the first half behind me. I have had probably the worst 6 months I can remember and I am just looking forward to making the next 6 months of 2011 better.

Here is an update on how things stand for me on 1 July 2011…

WEIGHT

I don’t weigh myself very often because I hate measuring myself by what the scales say and it tends to make me feel like crap. For the sake of knowing where I am mid-year I did weigh myself this morning and I am currently 77.1 kilos (169.5 lbs). I started the year at 82.5 kilos (181.5 lbs), so that is a loss of 5.4 kilos (12 lbs). Granted, at one point this year my weight got down to 73.2 kilos (161 lbs) due to a crazy low carb diet, but once I looked at chocolate again my weight went back to normal. I am happy enough with how I have done with my weight so far this year. I know I could have done a lot better and I know I could have done a lot worse, so it’s just OK. I would be thrilled if I could get another 7 kilos (15.5 lbs) off by the end of this year and get down to 70 kilos (154 lbs), so I’ll keep plugging away.

HEALTH

My health took quite a beating this year while I continued to fight the virus I got in Bali and then also was diagnosed with a B12 deficiency and anaemia. Worse than all this was my mental health. I suffered from quite severe anxiety this year due to some personal problems I was having. I have always had bad anxiety, but it got to a level that was unmanageable this year. I got very brave and saw a doctor about this and I am now taking some tablets that are taking the edge off. I must admit that I thought they would cure everything, but like the lap band, I have to do a lot of work myself to keep my mental health stable.

EXERCISE

Oh exercise, the bane of my existence… I can’t even say that it is a love/hate relationship because it is mostly just hate. This year I quit my gym membership because I was completely hating it and just didn’t have the energy for it. Once I started taking correct medications I felt I had a bit more energy and re-joined another gym. I still don’t love it, but I am doing it because I value having fitness and mobility. One thing I did start doing this year is Pilates and I am thrilled to say that I am really enjoying it and the class I do is the highlight of my week. So I just need to keep trying different exercises and hope to find others that I love just as much as Pilates.

LAP BAND

I am now over 2 years post lap band surgery and I have lost and kept off over 50 kilos (110 lbs). These days the lap band doesn’t play a major role in my life, it’s still in there and some days it helps me and some days it pisses me off. I currently have 5.9 ml in a 10 ml band and that is the most fluid I have ever had in there. I think I could probably do with at least another .2 ml because I am still constantly hungry and looking for more food. For now I’ll keep using good old willpower because I don’t want the band to be so tight that it makes eating out difficult. I haven’t had anything stuck in the band in at least a month (that I can recall) because I know what I should and shouldn’t be eating and I am trying to work with the band rather than challenging it every step of the way.

FINANCES

Boy oh boy, I got myself in the shit financially last year. It wasn’t even the 3 month trip around North America that screwed me up, it was everything I did when I got back. I made some extremely poor financial decisions, teamed with some expensive health issues, and the worse my finances got… the more I let things spiral out of control. Paying off debt is just no fun at all, but it has to be done. As of next Friday I will have paid off one credit card that at the start of the year owed $6,000. I have another credit card that owes the same amount that I need to work on in the second half of this year. I don’t know that all my debt will get paid off this year because in the next couple of months I need to pay a $1,000 car insurance bill and a $3,500 dental bill. Thinking about it gives me heart palpitations, but I’ll get there eventually.

CAREER

For the first half of this year my career was not going well. I was in a temporary job that bored me to death and paid miserably and I was starting to think I would never move forward. Just last week I was offered a fantastic job that I will start in August and I feel hopeful that my career is on track again. I’m looking forward to having a job that challenges me, where I am treated with more respect and pays me much better than my current job.

So the first half of 2011 has been tough, but I am pleased with the way I managed it and I am excited about the second half of the year and all the good things to come. Happy Middle Year to you!!!