What a buzz to be more than halfway through this twelve-week program and well on the way to meeting my health goals! From this morning’s weigh-in I have dropped almost 10 kg in weight and my waist measurement has reduced by 8 cm. My clothes are all quite loose on me. Still enjoying the meals and not really missing the snacks. Still doing the exercise workouts each weekday evening (I give myself the weekends off). Last week I ramped up my workouts from Beginner to Intermediate level, for more of a challenge. It has been hard and my muscles have ached, but very rewarding to get through the sessions. Not only mentally, but my body is strengthening (notably my creaky knees) and fitness improving. Hubby even commented yesterday he is proud of how well I have stuck to the program. This has been absolutely the right program for me, at the right time.

Work with the nursing agency is finally winding down this week. From next week, others are taking over the day-to-day stuff, I will just help out if they get stuck. I’m glad. I have wanted to help, but it has been an imposition, and I have probably been a headache to deal with at times due to the niggling annoyance I have felt about it pulling me away from what I wanted to be my major focus this year, education. I despise that side of myself, and I wish I could accept these things with more grace. Nonetheless, my bad mood has never harmed the quality of my work, and I am (hopefully) overestimating its effect.

I am halfway through my last two subjects for this year (leaving a final seven subjects to finish the degree), and have three assessment tasks due this Sunday night. One of the assessments is a group presentation, our task to analyse the human resource development initiatives of a listed company (we chose Qantas) and present our findings as a live recording on Zoom. We are meeting this evening for our first rehearsal. This group has been quite easy to work with and we’ve all pulled our weight and completed the individual tasks set before us. I’m confident we’ll have no trouble getting a pass mark for our submission.

The remaining two tasks are for my Enterpreneurship class, and required some creative thinking since we get to choose our own projects. I am getting Jo’s help with one of the tasks, where I have to produce a ‘customer empathy map’ for someone dealing with some problem or challenge. Jo has agreed to let me interview her about her cooking experiences, it is something we have been doing together on Sundays. Jo always manages the challenge of limited mobility and fine motor control surprisingly well, so this task also answers some personal curiousity into Jo’s approach with cooking.

In the second task I have to record myself on video outlining a ‘problem pitch’. I have to identify a problem which ‘real’ potential customers have, and which potentially could be worth exploring as a business opportunity. I am looking at the problem of noisy neighbours – although our particular problem (loud parties until early morning hours) moved away some months ago. I don’t have to present one for this task, however the solutions for this problem could be intriguing. I’m envisioning thugs for hire as an effective response to the late night parties! My actual solution is geared toward tech – a noise cancelling app which creates a sound barrier.

Other applications of this solution are coming to mind, it is currently very noisy here at home because of a thunderstorm, which is drowing out the sound of my music. Not that it is a nice thought to block nature in any of its forms, but I was enjoying the gentle sways of the modern-classical sounds I’d tuned to on Spotify. Oh well. I may as well go and immerse myself more and go outside onto the veranda to smell the wonderful scents that come with a good rainstorm.

Photo by Jess Bailey on Unsplash

The old septic tank system has been making itself known in recent months. Even after a clean out, we’d occasionally catch an unpleasant whiff because of the leak. We had investigated options for replacement and decided to go with a Super-Treat System. This was back in June and although we’d accepted the quote, the work would only happen when the contractors, the weather, and everything else was in alignment. Last week we got the call that the contractors would be on site on Thursday, to get our place done before the next big lot of rain.

The cars and the earth moving machines arrived early in the day and set straight to work, digging a huge hole for the tank, and trenches for the power supply, inlet and outlet pipes. About halfway through the afternoon it was all done. The coordination of different trades and services went like clockwork – plumbers, electrician, earthmovers and diggers, council inspector. They filled in our old septic and greywater tanks and left the yard looking tidy. Herm is going to distribute the big pile of dirt where its needed to level out parts of the yard.

Super-Treat Systems process all the waste water from the house in a three-chambered tank allowing re-use of the water for the irrigation of your garden. The outgoing water from the treatment system has no odour and is harmless to vegetation. The process in the first chamber is anaerobic treatment. The water then passes on to the second chamber where it is aerated and then on to the clarification chamber for disinfection prior to being released into the garden. The system requires quarterly replacement of chlorine tablet and maintenance checks.

It has been a couple of weeks since I’ve given a Fast800 update. I’m happy to say I’ve been sticking to the plan, and I am seeing results. Not only in terms of weight loss but also with my general health and wellbeing. I seem to have more energy and focus.

The biggest surprise is that I’ve been fairly faithful with doing the exercise each day and even quite enjoy it! I follow a recorded video session out on our back deck each evening, with the yoga mat in my bike pants and trainers. I am feeling the benefit, especially my knee joints which seem a bit stronger.

The food is still quite good. I’ve settled into a routine with fruit and yoghurt for breakfast, usually. There are a few favourite dishes we have, and we try some new ones each week. I try to batch cook where possible to cut down on some of the meal preparation. We might have the same meal a couple of nights, or for lunch.

So far I have lost nearly 5.5 kg and shed 5 cm around the waist. With eight weeks left of the program I may perhaps lose another 10 kg, so long as I don’t plateau at some point. The dreaded plateau occurs when you are sticking to the diet and exercise, but your weight isn’t shifting. You just have to stick with it and eventually it will move again in the desired direction.

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash